The Rookie

He threw up in the trash can. The stink in the dark bathroom did not help him either. Years of training had not helped him. Down on his knees, facing the can, he threw up again. He looked to his right. His revolver was on the floor. He picked it up. It was still warm. He had been holding it tight for the last two minutes. Right from the time it was in his pocket close to his crotch,

till now. He saw his watch. "So much in two minutes!", he thought to himself...

It was all over in thirty seconds. There was a loud gunshot and blood sprayed all over the walls of the dimly lit room. He had just managed to shoot the 'bastard' in the head. He had starred in

the climax of the encounter.

The situation was surreal. Every second seemed to fill his mind with many thoughts and many images. The demons in his mind took the shape of the 'bastard' whose picture he saw during the

mission briefing. The demons taunted him and so did the bastard. He could not take it. He tried very hard to keep his eyes open, and stop biting his own teeth but could not. Finally, he pulled the trigger.

He could hear his own heart beat. It was racing as he climbed the stairs. The team consisted of four members and there was a backup team too. He was the rookie, freshly drafted into the team. He could remember every word his team mates had spoken at every step he took.

'The bastard is sleeping in the fourth floor of an old building in sixth street', one of them walked into the office.

'Hope the intelligence hasn't fucked it up this time', the other one had asked.

'The intelligence does not know about this. It is my man who gave it to me.'

'Are we doing it?', the rookie had asked.

'This motherfucker is responsible for half of the trafficking that takes place. Sells children like he sells fucking peanuts. Shot one of our men point blank and skinned another undercover agent. You ask me if we're doing it?'

The rookie had no answers.

The next thing he could remember was the conversation he had with another senior member.

'It will be bad at the first time. You'll hear screams, see a lot of blood and also some brain if you shoot him in the head point blank'

'Shoot him in the head', the other senior added.

'You'll even throw up. But don't worry even I did it in my first encounter', he was told.

They had reached the fourth floor now, a hundred and fourty one beats and ninety seconds later.

'You do it', one of the seniors told him.

He looked at his bulletproof vest. Tightening his grip on his revolver, he broke the door open.

Autograph

TRRRRING!!! My mobile rang on a friday noon ( Actually I have the default Nokia tone so it wasnt trrring exactly). It was turning out to be another boring day of the most boring vacations in my engineering life so far. I was banking on the evening's football session to provide some relief. Back to the phone, it was US, my brother( I have deleted the 'in law' part)

Me: Hi!!

US: Hey Handsome!

Me: Temme.

US: I ve got passes to raghu dixit's concert today eve at JP Nagar.

Me: I'll be there.

US: Cool!

Me: Cool! C u there.

I had mixed emotions. No football, but I was going to Raghu's concert. Wasn't expecting any action at Raghu's concert compared to football. (I atleast run around while playing football if not play!) So I made it to the concert. US had VVIP passes so me and me friends Shaggy, Kat, Shaw and my bro Aditya made it inside. We sat in the penultimate row of chairs like obedient last benchers. One of the leading music directors in the kannada industry, Mr. Gurukiran was giving the mic, the sound system and us a real hard time. We were there for Raghu Dixit only. This was obviously testing our tolerance levels. There were times when we felt Raghu won't make it and I would get my butt kicked for calling my friends.

We were hungry and we had to eat. But with a crowd like that there was confusion whether we could leave the premises and come back. So, to clarify, me and Kat went towards the gate... We passed the stage, and at the backstage I saw a couple of people in dhothis. One of them holding the base guitar (Gaurav Vaz, I came to know his name after I came back home). There was a chance of us meeting Raghu. I looked at Kat. Kat surprisingly took out a small notebook. I was as amazed as a little child watching a majic show for the first time. He asked for a pen. I ran back to US and took a pen. I came back. And there he was, Raghu Dixit, washing his face. There was

nobody around to stop us. Me and Kat planned an ambush. We went around backstage walking among debris at the place and finally I was face to face with the man himself...

My pulse was racing. I was actually rehearsing in the noon the whole situation in front of the mirror. Now that i was in front of him I was short of words. I started.

"Sir, I am a huge fan!!" like everyone else does.

He acknowledged it with a smile. A man cannot do anything more in such situations especially when he is washing his face.

Kat: "Autograph please"

Raghu:"Thadkolappa, mukha tholkotheeni" ( He has a great sense of humour)

Me: "I am a guitarist and I never thought I would be singing a kannada song in my life till I heard munjaane manjalli. Now, I m famous for singing that among my friends. It is a beautiful song".

Again no response. He finished washing his face

Me: "Sir which scale do u play that in?"

Raghu: "I think A. I actually used a capo for that song"

Me: "Beautiful song sir, amazing"

He went inside the changing room. For a second i thought he wont come back. If it was a dream, he wouldn have. Instead it would be mom, screaming at me, waking me up saying i don keep my room clean.

He did come back, the sound of anklets signalling it. He took the pen and the small notebook that Kat had and started signing.

I gathered courage and told him

"Sir, I will share the stage with you someday. I will make the stage mine and perform with you. I will be there with you". I seriously dunno if any of that makes sense. But I made my point. I ll make some music and will perform

on the big stage someday.

Raghu: "Make sure you do it before I grow old"

Me: "Sure sir"

Then we posed for the photograph.

Raghu (if at all you're reading this), you have no idea what you've inspired. And it was an awesome show. We were right in front of you. Never had the chance to watch you perform from such close distance before.

To the band:(again, if at all you're reading this): I din know any of your names, so it wouldnt have been a gr8 idea to blindly take autographs. I did not mean any disrespect Gaurav, Wilfred, Vijay, Jathin. You guys rocked! Will queue up only for your autographs next time.

Kat: Hadn't it been for you, I wouldn have had the guts to even go backstage! Love you man! And thanx for the photo. you still gotta give that autograph :P

Umashankar (US): You're a real gem who truly appreciates me for what I am. Thank you so much for the passes and everything else.

Shaggy, Shaw, Adi: Thanx for the awesome company!

Abstract Engineering

Drowning amidst equations like a lost knight,

Counting stars in broad daylight,

Tuning our minds to an unknown frequency,

Want to break free, we want to feel valency.

Every brain is an auditorium,

Where amnesia and insomnia freelance,

Hoping to break free from this pandemonium,

Can't see Einstein perform the devil's dance.

Feeling dyslexic every time we write,

As we jumble the greek alphabet,

Diagnosed with examination fright,

We feel we're better off writing a sonnet.

The artists in us always rebel,

So that we can use our right brains,

And still we are the envy of many people,

Who cannot see us trapped in these chains.

Last Comic Standing

His sense of humour ceased to be,

As he could only stand and see,

He had delivered his last punchline,

He wished everything would be fine.

He was the last comic standing,

His dry sarcasm had dried up,

His wit no more commanding,

He felt like a lost little pup.

Laughter was his only business,

That would always feed him,

Robbing people would've been a mess,

Since he could never stop talking.

Laughter dies a slow death,

It was dying in front of him,

He stood there catching his breath,

His supper was at the audience's whim.

Looked like he had to be hungry,

The audience showed no mercy,

Some of them bored, some angry,

Some begged them to stop.

Laughter died, chaos took over,

As everybody went out,

The lights went out but he stayed,

Wondering what he'd eat tonight

Dial A for Adventure(also Abhi :P): The Monsoon Assignment 3:

All of us finally breathed relief that we had reached our destination for the day and almost threw our bags. Our bags were all wet and so were all the clothes and bed sheets inside them. Brrr.. It was cold and I was sleeping. I was hating it everytime the door opened. Cursing my wit and luck for the bag and its wet contents, I was lying down. Most of the others went to take a shower under one of the waterfalls nearby. I couldn't even manage to get up. The whole idea of sitting

wearing wet clothes after a cold shower sent a chill down my spine.

Then I was woken up when the rope on which all the clothes were put to dry gave way and fell on me. I almost screamed out aggressively, thanks to my dream (never remembered it!) My sleep vanished. Now it was cold again. It was dark already. Thanks to all my wet clothes, I spent most of the night in my underwear... Soon it was dinner time. By now, we had almost become allergic to chapatis. We had some rice. Santosh had a better meal. He cooked the crabs he had caught and ate it. Me, a vegetarian politely turned his offer down. After heating my hands and feet, we sat down for the team meeting. We had to decide on what we would do the next day. We unanimously decided we'd trek furhter instead of boarding a trainto Khaginere. We slept and slept well. You tend to sleep like a baby in such situations. I was occasionally woken up by the fact that I did not have any bedsheet on me.

KHAGINERE:

The plan was to wake up at 7 and leave at 730. We finally left at 830 after waking up late and getting ready and taking a lot more photographs, we finally started from Yedukumari. The fact is that when you are at such places, even an average photographer can look like a genius. Such is the scenic beauty around! We started walikng and were greeted by a train again. We walked past a tunnel and another bridge. The folks prepared rasna only to realise that there was no sugar! They tried to use glucose but that did not help our cause. The orange flavoured rasna tasted like the oranges in most parts of Bengaluru, sour. After walking a little further, we found the route to Khaginere. We were looking at a small but an intense waterfall. That was our way!

It was an overdose of awesomeness. The plan was to walk (climb rather) continuously and not stop since there were a lot of leeches around. We climbed and climbed and climbed. Then we reached a terrain full of grass and what I saw next can best be described as heaven. There was greenery all around. Mountains in different shades of green and a waterfall looking like spilt milk. We were ecstatic. It was time for a leech check. We had them all over our legs. A couple of photographs later, I heard my mobile ring. Finally signs of network after a day. I was tense about my results and that had spoiled most of my mood the previous day. I would lose a year had I not cleard it and this fact compounded my tension. I was in a dilemma whether I should find it out then or later. I kept the mobile in the bag since the caller had hung up. Five minutes later, there was another call. It was the customer care's offers related call. I was furious. But there were 17 unread messages in my inbox. I breathed hard and opened it. The first message read 'Congrats!' I screamed in joy! Everybody had wuestion marks and exclamation marks all over their faces. Then I explained to them the whole situation. This was the best way I'd ever celebrated my result!

We left again and it was a simpler route. Then it started raining heavily again. We made it to the top and walked through wet grass terrain and finally made it to Khaginere. And god!! It was absolutely beautiful! We got rid of our bags. Vasu pointed to a nearby peak and told me "We ll go to the top of that mountain and come back in 10 minutes", I was game for it but wasn't sure about the others. The bus would be there at 1200 and that would be our only bus for the entire day. It was 1135 and we did make it to the top at 1140. After a few photographs, we thought of climbing another one which seemed to be the tallest. We gave up after realizing that we had to go on a different path. Finally Vasu and Santosh did go there. We kept our bags in the premises of a school building and waited for the bus. In the meanwhile, I took some photos including that of a beautiful well. And finally the bus arrived. We ran behind it and hopped into it only to realize that the driver was in no hurry to leave. Sometimes bravery in such situations can turn out to be useless and senseless.. But that is adventure!!

The bus finally left at 1230. We had to reach Vanagooru to catch a bus to Kukke. We reached Vanagooru at around 130 PM. We had a good lunch and were waiting for the bus to come. Kukke was 24 kilometers from there. The bus would come by 230, so i took photographs. Wanted to take a photograph of a girl who seemed very attractive but could not. Finally the bus did come at 230. We hopped into it. Santosh came up with a plan. He told us that we could take a leave on Monday, climb Kumara Parvatha and come back to bengaluru on Tuesday. The prospect itself made me jump with joy. But it was cancelled, Santosh said he would have done it had it been a good three-four months back. What difference does that make, I wondered. Later, I realised he was married. I was wondering to myself "Couldn't he have got married a little later? All of us could've had more adventure!" All folks laughed aloud when I told them the same thing in the evening.

The bus started. We were finally moving to the last stage of the whole journey. The bus journey was an adventure in itself!! The route seemed no different than the one we were trekking on. Since we were sitting in the last row of seats, every time the bus encountered a speed breaker, we were almost hitting the roof of the bus! We saw Kumara Parvatha in all its glory. That is next on my mind. There were waterfalls everywhere, even on the road as we crossed one. It was one awesome journey. We stopped at one temple. There was a waterfall there. The water was so sweet. After a small break, we were back on the road again. And we finally made it to Kukke at 430!

Pre dinner session (From left: Vasu, Shashi(sleeping), Nandeesh, Karthik, A part of prasanna)

First photos of the morning.

Me trying some spook effects

Adi trying some more. Who looks scarier? Let s have a vote!!

Santosh's meal!! (The crab :P)

Dial A for Adventure(also Abhi :P): The Monsoon Assignment 2:

Some of us were whistling and to our surprise somebody was whistling back. We looked around hoping to find some people. Then, US pointed out that it was a bird! I stood there thinking for a second in astonishment, appreciating god's creation. We finally started at 715 at the 49th kilometer milestone. We walked, talked and more often than not stopped for photo sessions.

A result of which was the fact that we did not have any momentum. After almost 6 kilometers on the railway track where we walked, talked, sang and slipped, we took a detour to have breakfast. This was where we first saw leeches sucking our blood. US was the first one, followed by me and the rest. There were all sort of jokes on the same topic. In the meanwhile, we drank some instant coffee and ate 'Figure rice'(Chitranna!) on disposable paper plates which we did not dispose. Instead we washed them and kept them safe for further use. I saw a mini landslide in the meantime. The water at the Kempu Hole was at its furious best. Imagining the same on a large scale I couldn't help but cross my fingers. I think it was a warning for all us greedy human beings screwing around cutting trees and causing harm to nature.

We left again at 11 AM, lacking momentum, stamina and agility. The water from the rain had entered our shoes and soaked our socks. The rashes on my sole hurt me for every step I took. We stopped at another station called Kadagaravalli. We finished some of the food we had and got rid of some more leeches. US and Karthik interviewed some more locals and we were off again.

The best thing about walking on railway tracks is that you get to walk over the bridges and under the tunnels. Walking over the bridges was like watching a 3D movie for me coz there I was, between the clouds and i could see waterfalls below my feet. Felt like I was walking over them. Gosh! I can still remember the sound of the waterfall. It still haunts me.

Walking through tunnels can be a lot more awesome. It is usually pitch black till the end of the tunnel. We had our torches in full glow. Watching every step to make sure we did not slip. I actually freaked out when Vasu pointed out that there were heavy chances that we would encounter snakes. I would frantically look around! Some of the tunnels had inhabitants. There were a couple of tarpaulin sheets lying around and also some cooking vessels. Somebody had cooked chicken apparently. There was fire too. If I were to walk alone through these tunnels, and come across such a thing, I would ve tried to run away as fast as possible.

In the meanwhile Santosh was hunting crabs down for dinner and Karthik was the brain behind four of the preys. Karthik would locate them and Santosh armed with his killer knife would do the rest. Santosh later announced that he had the confidence that he will survive in the forest for 3 months easily!

We planned to take a break at 230 near one of the tunnels and decided to have lunch. All of us got rid of our bags on the track and started taking the food packets out. We had chapatis in our hand and were waiting to get some pickle, and suddenly we heard a train honking! We waited for the train to cross and got down at the sides without thinking much, since it was a goods train, we did not panic. The train did come, but a little later than we expected. Now this was another moment! Here we were, watching a train whizz past right in front of us and eating. Just like watching a 3D movie! After eating, we packed our bags again and were leaving and we heard a

train honk again. For a second we thought it was the same train but doppler effect was indicating otherwise. It was another train! We jumped to the sides of the tracks again. We finally left after that train whizzed past in front of us.

The last five kilometer stretch was the most strenous part of the entire trek. We were all tired and the rashes on the sole started hurting all over again. I was literally looking at every milestone hoping to find the number marked 67. After a very silent session, we managed to get to Yedukumari. After the eighteen kilometer walk, all of us were tired. We thankfully got a place to stay. Manju, an employee with the railways agreed to let us stay in his place for the night.

Top: Our destination, Yedukumari. Middle and below: Some photos. That is me btw :)

To be continued....

Dial A for Adventure(also Abhi :P): The Monsoon Assignment 1

9 August 2010: 5 AM:

It is very cold. I am walking on an empty road from Kumaraswamy latout to my place which is almost a kilometer. I'd look around carefully after every step making sure no stray dogs attack me. But then I am missing some sounds too, sounds that could only be heared when you are in the middle of a thick forest. Sounds that i could hear 24 hours ago....

DONIGAL:

We were a team of 10. Me, Aditya, Umashankar, Santosh, Vasu, Prasanna, Nandeesh, Darshan, Shashi and Karthik. Our first objective after we all met at the bus stand was to (obviously!) catch a bus to Donigal from Bangalore. The bus was scheduled to leave at 930 and we all made it to the bus stand at 10. The bus had left. I pity the bus, it could ve made it to my blog and history had it waited for us. Finally, after a lot of waiting and roaming around we found our bus, a good one kilometer away from the bus stand. It was a private bus( it is a part of history now!!). We managed to take our seats and were all set only to find that the bus was not ready yet!! After managing to fill it up and sorting issues with a disgruntled passenger who lost his seat to us(mainly due to the number of us), the driver finally started the bus at 11 PM. A Kannada flick was playing on the Television and we had a fun time commenting on it and that acted as an Ice breaker for me and my bro Adi,the youngest in the group, and the rest of the group. US had warned me saying that the rest of the group may rag us but that didn't happen( thankfully). Everybody was very friendly and i shall talk about it later. The journey wasn't the most comfortable thanx to the seating. The legspace was too little but we did fine. The driving was very good though. Vasu joined us a lil later near the outskirts of the city. The bus stopped at 130 in the morning and we stepped out for some fresh air. I looked into the sky and could see it filled with stars. Yes! We had finally crossed Bengaluru!!

Finally, after dealing with some more land turbulence(:P) we reached Donigal at 4 AM. Ah! Nothing smells as good as rain at 4 in the morning! We got down, bid goodbye to the driver,

took our torches out and left for the donigal railway station at 412 AM. It was awesome!! Ten people in the quiet road in the early morning. We took a detour only to find elephant dung on the way(gulp!) Then we found out that it wasn't the way(Thank god!). We got back to the roadand took a detour again. This time we got it right. We reached the train track. It was raining, cold and very slippery. We walked a 100 meters before reaching the station at Donigal. Once at the station, all of us got rid of our bags, placed some newspapers on the floor and slept at 5 AM. As Santosh had previously said, it is a rare privilege we get. So I made the most of it. However, my sleep didn't last long. A cat's shriek and rainwater played spoilport and I woke up. Some of the other team members were already making plans for the next stage. The food packets were redistributed among all of us so that everybody could carry it without any fuss.

615 AM:

"It was raining cats and dogs", that is the standard metaphor. Here it was raining Hippos! It was raining heavily.The beautiful stream we were looking at ten minutes ago was looking like a flood on a miniature scale. We were shivering in the cold. None of us expected heavy rains on this scale. Everyone was looking for the other one's opinion. Finally, we decided "Come what may, We are here for adventure and we shall have it!!" We finally started for Yedukumari at 715 AM

Top: The stream I was talking about, will show the flood part later. Bottom: The track at 412 AM

To Be Continued