Delhi - June '07 - July '08

Ramya get my lunchbox ready. Ramya find my watch. Ok ok.. Thanks I got them. Bye then, see you in the evening. And I set off on the jittery cab ride everyday. With a pinch of discontent I try to give it my all to do the daily chores at office. Discontented I may be, but I do not want to even imagine the past year without my 9 hours a day at office.. Phew! Late in the evening, the tired soul gets home to rejuvenate himself to start another intriguing journey late into the night. Well this one may not be as jittery as my cab ride early in the morning, but it has had its own ups and downs, rather only downs! I have been living with my parents for the past year, so my late night adventures for a good part of the year have been with my books. This journey with books is coming to its fag end I guess as I’m more or less on the verge of giving my exam for the second and obviously the last time!

Sometimes I ask myself this, hey chaitanya where has your quite busy social life (if not rock on full time) gone. Well that part of my life is well and truly intact just that it’s at some distance. Oh I missed this point; I have been living in Delhi for the past year (except for December ’07, I was in Pune then.) and my entire social life is well and truly grounded in Chennai and Bangalore. So just to make an analogy, you can quite equate my past year to a lone traveler in the Sahara (Mind you, I’m not lost, at least so far!) in search of the great oasis, but in the process finding a lot of mini oasis’ in the form of trips down south. For example, I’m approaching another mini oasis now, albeit by train, it nevertheless has given me the perfect opportunity to be loyal to my blogspot. Keats had the best of views in Scotland to write his poetry, so what chaitanya has the best views of Andhra’s Greenfield’s to write this Junk! 

There have been quite a few of these pleasure trips, just to list out, September ’07 for Mani’s wedding, just before new years a weekend in Bombay with shiva and gang, the new year bash in Goa, Feb ’08 for Lakku’s Wedding and then there was a small return trip by shiva and sujoy for a wedding in Delhi. The weddings were exciting for their sheer grandeur (weddings gave us an opportunity to dress up like fancy dress contestants!) and a special mention must be made of Goa. I think I can just go on and on and on about Goa. It was the near perfect trip except for a missing few. For the second year running, we set up base in Agonda (must consider applying for local citizenship there!) and the entire new years week just flew past. Though the big guns came blazing from down south on their bullets, I was more than happy with the quality time I spent there in Goa. Now quality time is defined as eat (read as hog), play (mostly pranks on sujoy!), bikes and drink, oh not just drink, binge drinking is the correct phrase! 

Anyway Goa is done and dusted for the moment, but never in my life have I waited for new years so eagerly. I know its crazy, its just July now and I’m dreaming December. This time I’m just hoping to make it with that missing few I was talking about earlier.

Back to Andhra’s green field’s for the moment. The trip I’m making at the moment is by far the most emotionally draining trip. On one hand there is the extreme happiness of Shiva’s engagement. An engagement which I just cant afford to miss, given my attachment to the couple (though I have never really shown it in an outward manner towards Puja, it’s been there nevertheless). On the other hand is the horrible loss of a dear friend. I’m still trying to come to terms with the loss. Swapna died in horrible circumstances on the 8th of July. Yes, people around me can always argue that you have anyway known Swapna for a year, but again I’m definitely not going to write a justification here for my ill-feeling. Just to have a record of events, swapna’s wedding was supposed to happen on the same day shiva’s engagement. R.I.P Swapna.

I have to mention swapna and gang here. Yes there was a small gang as well, which just got even smaller! I met swapna, babu and subbu as colleagues on my first project at accenture. This was in right in the beginning of my tenure at accenture, August-September ’07 types. Frankly, for a couple of months I missed my friends in Chennai and Bangalore a little less. Oh we had a ball back in gurgaon, went on trips together and did a lot of other crazy things, things I wouldn’t dare do unless I have the perfect company. And took some time out to work together at office for a while!  By November we had to part ways and again the lull returned. I pulled time out to meet them all back in February ‘08, though not all seemed fine, even then I least expected her to take such a drastic decision. All I have left today are some good memories, the brightest of them all would be the look on her face when we surprised her and babu in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere on NH1 (we were on our way to Amritsar then). In fact I am still so disturbed that any lesser occasion than shiva’s engagement, I would have cancelled my trip for sure. I am promising myself not to spill my sorrow onto my buddy’s big occasion. Hope I’m able to keep the promise.


The sun has set over the fields outside. I just crossed Nellore, another two hours to set foot in Chennai. And quite literally I can hear clock ticking while I’m in Chennai. And in another four days I’ll be back asking ramya to set up my lunch box and find my watch.