The Post-Box and Nair

It is hanging there on the electric pole near to the bus stand on 80 feet road withstanding all weather - summer or monsoon - or anything in-between which is more common these days. There are shades of red paint here and there on its body which reminded me of its past glory. “Next clearance 09:45”was the only visible thing on its body, yes I am talking about the post-box which is anxiously looking for any other customer other than the postman who might probably open it at 09:45!

I am sure this post-box will survive for some more days, as its body is rugged and meant to last long even in extreme conditions. Even now it is definitely used by a few – thanks to some section of people who still believe that the invitation to a marriage or any other function to outstation guests would be complete if and only if a printed copy of the invitation is sent by post. Thanks to many government agencies who still insist that any written communication to be sent to them only by ordinary post just to help their big brother. Even if these beliefs and conditions fade away, the post-box would continue to hang around there for some more time until the new-gen kids, who are unaware of old postal systems, who suddenly become aware of the cleanliness drive, start using these boxes mistaken as dustbins to dump the chocolate wrappers and chewed gums!

Last year I inserted as many as two envelops into a post-box. One instance was to send the signed copy of my Income-tax returns to the IT department (I hear this might not be required this year since I am proud owner of an Aadhar card ). The second instance was when my wife wanted to participate in a competition appeared in a women’s monthly magazine. She had meticulously collected pages from six consecutive issues to answer some questions such as “who built Taj Mahal?” only to find the challenge in the last issue which asked her to respond to the question “what is the main reason you find it interesting to read our magazine?”. I had to use all my brains to help her to come up with a statement giving all non-existing reasons in as many as fifteen words. And I had to walk to the nearest post-office to put that envelope containing all the answers into a post-box. She didn’t win any prize as she religiously bought the next 6 issues to find the results. I hope that would be a good enough reason for me not to go any way near a post-box this year!

I had approached Nair once. This was long time back- when my uncle and his family landed up in the city with a wait-listed return train ticket - when I was new to the city and wanted to prove my uncle that I was already well-established - when online train reservations were unheard of. Uncle wanted me to find ways to get the tickets confirmed – obviously less by hook and more by crook. Somebody told me to meet Nair at the railway station. I had to hang around for an hour or so to get the “darshan” of Nair, hefty fellow with a thick, long mush. He heard my story as he was adjusting his mush with his left thumb and index finger. “Come to the platform fifteen minutes prior to the departure of the train” that’s all he said while collecting a huge “service fee” from me. As promised, Nair was prompt with the confirmed tickets at the platform. I saw many others thanking him profusely; he was majestically accepting every bit of it while nurturing his mush continuously.

Years passed by, computerization of train reservations happened. Luckily no other uncle came home with wait-listed return ticket and I didn’t have any reason to approach Nair again. A few of them had already started trying and struggling to book the tickets online from home using internet. I didn’t want to be a guinea pig by testing those initial systems. I had opted to go to a local reservation centre near my house. During one of those trips to the centre, I found a familiar face – found a familiar mush would be more appropriate to say. Same old Nair but reduced in weight and height (he stooped a lot)  by a good margin, only his mush remained as heavy as it was, though it turned grey. More of computerization and less of manual intervention made Nair’s service obsolete, now he was cleaning the computer terminals and bringing coffee/tea to the young smart clerks at the computer desks as and when they demanded. My one hour stay at the centre, even after reaching there one hour prior to its opening time made it possible for me to witness Nair's new end-to-end services! Just like the post-box, Nair was also somehow trying to survive while counting days (do keep it in mind, post-box service was all legitimate while Nair was full of fraud and malpractice– but it didn’t matter!)

Survival is important and it would somehow happen. The smarter thing to do is to be a bit pro-active so that one does not feel the pains of getting through it. And not to end up in the same fate as that of a post-box or Nair with the mush.

Scary Manjunath

Manjunath, that was the name of that lorry. I saw it approaching at considerable speed this morning. I could barely read its number plate which clearly indicated that it was first introduced on road while I was still wearing half trousers and no moustache. Dents and bruises all over its body, not inch of it could be identified as valid part of a lorry. Thick, black smoke was emanating from its side quite similar to the steam locomotive engines which I would like to see with admiration only in archaeological museums, that too in a defunct condition. This was one vehicle I thought which did not need an explicit horn, its engine made enough noise to scare and drive away other vehicles and jay walkers like me.

I had an opportunity to look at the driver. He was trying to hold the steering wheel tight and steady. Either the hangover from his previous night’s activities made his hands tremble along with the steering wheel. Or the sheer vibration of the whole vehicle made the steering wheel dance and his hands just joined that art. In either case, it was pretty clear that he was struggling hard to keep the vehicle straight, while all its tyres were trying to go in all four different directions! It was also clear that I needed to jump onto the footpath and stand in an angle with least risk of hitting me in the likelihood of Manjunath runs into the footpath. And I just did that.

To my surprise, Manjunath just stopped, not sure it stopped exactly where the driver intended, but it did. Then I heard a cracking sound as if something broken inside, just to know later that it was the result of a herculean effort by the driver with both his hands to put the vehicle in reverse gear. The driver suddenly made a decision that he had to go exactly in opposite direction, he wanted to change direction by reversing and getting into one of the side lanes.

Those few seconds of its reverse were the most pleasant ones for me. The deafening noise it had been making so far died off followed by a lovely background score of movie song from “Mungaru Male”,( Pre-monsoon rain in English)  a major hit in Kannada. The best romantic Kannada song I had ever heard and seen, that too in a movie theatre, that too on prime time show, that too when there was no compulsion on watching only local language movies during prime time! Apt song to cool me further in a summer morning after good pre-monsoon showers overnight.

So even rough and tough, scary Manjunath who always drives forward with its noise threatening all on the way, can also present some pleasant moments. Though only when he decides to reverse a bit, though it is only for a short span of time.

We too have a long journey of life like Manjunath. Sadly that journey cannot be a pleasant one throughout with melodious background scores. There are going to be bumpy, smoky rides with scratches and bruises. Many a times we will be stressed out more while stressing others out. The art lies in stopping and reflecting once in a while and try to create “Mungaru male” environment. It would definitely help self or at the least bring in relief to others around. 

However I still wish Manjunath had that lovely music with less noise all times, which is definitely possible – whether it moves forward or back! Which would indicate that our country moved in the right direction. And we could start anticipating fewer bruises on the way. I am sure it would.

Movie-Sickness

Today, finally I managed to watch a Hindi movie completely. After a long, long time.  One of the TV channels had put up many of the movies on their website for which they have satellite rights. While watching movie on TV channels, those ad breaks always made me switch that channel making those breaks permanent ones from the movie. This time I took a resolution that come what may I would watch this movie fully. After all I also need to go through this fitness test once in a while. So even though there were self-initiated breaks and pauses I could finish watching the 2.5 hour movie by 6+ hours. Yes, I succeeded but that left me with a movie sickness. I needed something challenging to rejuvenate myself.

This is not the first time I had this sort of sickness, there were many occasions in the past. Luckily I had some after-movie-opportunities to get over with this terrible hang-over.

We had gone for a movie in one of the multiplexes in the city. While searching for a car parking slot I started climbing one level after another. Though it was just 3 PM, since it was a bit dark on the ramp way, I decided to switch on the headlights of the car. The additional light helped me also reading better the display “parking full” in each level. At last I reached at the roof top, with no option to go up further. And I managed to park the car in some space available there. As we got out we could not do anything else but just enjoy the panoramic view of the city around us. The enjoyment for me in that reasonably broader sunlight was such that I failed to hear the warning beep came from my car as I locked it, to alert me that headlights were still on !

The movie was with the same old formula, hero-heroin-villain combination. The hero looked determined to catch hold of the villain and finish him from the very beginning of the movie. He looked stiff and no emotions what so ever on his face. Heroin didn’t have much role in the movie except to dream of singing and dancing around the hero once in a while till the villain arrived. Finally the villain did arrive towards the interval time, good enough time for my half dead battery in the car to breathe its last, though I was not at all aware of that development. 

Though the hero was in a hurry to kill the villain before the cops arrived, it took almost another hour for him to end that mission. He had to kill the villain inch by inch, right?  Needless to say, once I got out of the hall I had a severe head ache, I was feverish – and all other symptoms that could have easily pointed towards a potential attack by modern day H1N1 virus. 

Once we were back on the rooftop, I didn’t have energy to look around the beauty of the city again. I just got into the car and tried to start the car. Then only I realised that the battery was fully drained out and no life was left in it for ignition to work. All my movie-sickness disappeared, adrenalin pumped in, I had to act on something challenging. I knew the trick of starting the car, me on the wheel while others pushing the car, there were enough people on rooftop to push the car but I felt that would be too risky. If pushing becomes a little harder (there was every chance that those guys would push in an uncontrolled manner – they were also likely to be in a bad mood like me after the movie, more over it was not their car) , the car would plunge in to the ground, several floors below – adding one more dead item in the car – myself fully dead with no hope of getting recharged unlike the battery. In the absence of availability of jump start cables, I was on a challenging mission. To locate the service guys who would come with a spare battery and rekindle my dead battery. It took several hours for me to use my persuasion skills before I could hit the road, but at least it helped me to recover from the movie-sickness.

Coming back to my today’s sick situation, it was no different. I needed to do something adventurous to get over with the hang-over. It is not going to happen by accident, I need to create one. Going out in the car could be a good option; of course definitely not for a movie after parking on the rooftop, I don’t have courage to watch another movie. But I can just drive around with no purpose, my old battery and even much older car can definitely pose one or two challenges on the way. But the car was not there, taken by my son for his adventurous weekend outing. Another option could be to discuss plans for the coming week with my wife, but that would be too risky. So I decided to settle down in front of the laptop computer and do a bit less adventurous but equally challenging task – blog! Let me confess, I am much relieved now. No traces of the after-movie sickness in me.

Have a good weekend. Do remember to watch only a good movie, in case!