Memoirs India!!

28th Jan 2010 - 15th Feb 2010

19 Days

The first thing that I remember distinctly is " wondering How clean Delhi is, on my trip from airport to home". For those of you who still live in that fantasy world, I was very much being sarcastic above. It still hurts knowing that such a thought even came to my mind, but it is what it is. I am extremely glad that it never recurred during rest of my stay and hopefully it stays that way for eternity.

Anyways, one thought could dampen your spirit only so much. Spirit, which was higher than the highest peaks of the world, I was back in the place I love the most, amongst people I love and care about the most, saw me chatting up with all the friends and family that I could find and making get together plans with anyone whom I could get hold of. But again, that is just the thing. You can make all the plans you want, in fact I am quite decent at making them, but probability of those plans materializing is a whole another story. O'course you cannot expect people to drop everything when you are in town, so you just ditch the old plan, and make a new one [:)]. And in between all that planning, lot of relatives showed up at my home. There is thing with Indian culture, it doesn't matter if you yourself are coming home after 6 months of "exile", if one of 'them' shows up at your doorstep, you still remain 'the host' and they 'the guest'. I did enjoy seeing a couple of faces for sure, but on the whole, this business wasn't too much to my liking. 19 days are too few for such commitments.

Regardless of all the juggling, planning an un-planning, I still had ample opportunity for meet ups, and it did happen frequently. One of those was on the occasion of Mani Singh's B'day. Now those of you who attended college with me know of this character, and for those who haven't had the pleasure to know him, I'd say you are just unlucky. GO FIGURE !! I would also have like to call out stuff about his "partner i crime" but alas, why shift the spotlight ;) And what can you expect when a company like ours (with chintae, mani, chats) get together, goof ups. Reaching City walk was a piece of cake, but after that finding Mocha was not. And since none of us had been there before, we ended up 6 people driving in a measly Maruti 800 around most of GK, Saket, Vasant Kunj, all kinds of Sarai's, finally landing Def Col, and all for what. One measly Mocha cafe when Hard Rock Cafe was sitting just a block away all the while. But who am I to say. Then there was that chocolate something flavoured hookah. I cant say that I have had worse. All considered, it was fun. And thanks for the treats Mani Singh. (How could I forgot to mention that some of these people thought that I have gotten mellow, thanks guys :P)

Chef turned Publisher? Vice-versa? Actor? Oh forget it. I have always been left confounded when it comes to defining what is he doing exactly. This guy, Saransh, was always there whenever beckoned, probably not because he was free (2 companies registered on his name, perhaps the busiest of us all lot), but because I used to tag along him for his work forays. I have no clue if I was helping him in any way but it was an interesting enough experience for me. The international book fair was great, perhaps we'll have a stall of Huma Books in their next edition. But the best was the treat at Big Chillz is Khan Market.
It cannot get any better than dining with a chef for a foodie. Thanks.

At other times, meeting up with other friends, long chats, television, pool, shopping, sleeping, family, and all the other shit that goes around took up my time. 19 days breezed by in a blink of an eye.

Coming close to a week now since I came back from my "holiday" at home.

I had no idea that a trip to India would work on my psyche the way it did. Its almost as if I have been rejuvenated. 
Happy, Chirpy and Eager to work :P


Chao.