spooked

i'm usually quite fearless, even when alone. i remember poking fun at my friend reshma, who apparently gets scared to enter one bedroom of her own house when the lights are out.

today was different though.

i was alone at home, sitting in the dark at my pc. a few minutes earlier, i had just made tea hot for myself (and also added a bit of vanilla essence in a random kitchen experiment, but that's another story), and placed the empty milk vessel and my mug in the sink before going back to my pc.

after a few minutes, i heard the sound of water coming from the kitchen. went there, and found the tap around half open, water flowing out of it. i knew it couldn't have been me, as i'm quite particular about these things. still, i closed it and went back.

few seconds later, i could hear water flowing again.

went to the kitchen, and the tap was wide open.

closed the tap again, this time being a little extra careful to make sure it's completely closed, and went back to my pc.

and then a few seconds later... i heard it again.

closed the tap, waited in the kitchen for a few seconds, and it held.

went back to my pc. sat there. and heard the sound of water again!

this time, i tweeted about it. and frankly, i was finally slightly spooked.

so i went to the kitchen, closed the tap as far as it would go, and not knowing what to do next, went back and tweeted some more.

this time, i was relieved. no sound of water. i was going to tweet that all's well at last (a couple of people responded to my tweet saying that it's probably nothing, etc), but decided to check again first.

and guess what. the tap was open, water flowing, but i somehow couldn't hear it from the hall. this time, a chill literally ran up my spine.

scared as i was, i decided to open the tap and keep staring at it.

turns out, the tap was rotating backwards and opening by itself. it rotated quite slowly and had to turn quite a bit before water started dripping, which kinda explains all the earlier occurrences.

relieved, i fished out my camera, and tried taking a few 30-second exposures of the tap... for science.

nothing on camera, other than motion blur on the knob of the tap, while everything else is completely sharp and still.



guess this is the first time i've ever been creeped out in my own house. just had to get it out there.

ps: i also recorded a video on my phone (probably the fist video recorded on this phone, possibly due to its embarrassingly bad quality :D) and uploaded it, making it my first ever youtube upload! ah, well. small joys.

motor(bike+boat)ing

i had a few dreams last night. most seem to have disintegrated into images/short scenes that flashback into my head, but with no interconnection. i can only distinctly remember one.

it was early evening. i was biking around the colony on my karizma. except that my colony was in the state it was around 20 years ago. a lot less buildings, and a lot more plots overgrown with mango trees. while i was riding down one street, a young lad (must be 15 or so) waved me to stop, and told me he's late, and would be grateful if i could give him a lift. since i was just riding aimlessly, i obliged. he wanted to go to borivli east, but for some reason i rode down link road. we reached this one junction, which doesn't look familiar to me now. the sky was painted with the hues of a vivid sunset (although the sun was nowhere to be seen). i took a right turn off link road, and went the wrong way down a one way street. i then took a u-turn,stopped next to a bus that was waiting at that signal, and told him i've changed my mind, and that he should take that bus instead. he thanked me, and took that bus.

and then suddenly, it was late morning (yeah, some sort of time hop in the dream, i guess). i was riding again, this time with my brother pillion. he had to reach some college in SoBo for an interview. and had exactly an hour to get there.

on the way, i told him it's very irritating that he delayed and then forced me to reach him because he was late. we were figuring the way to south bombay while riding. apparently, there were only two ways across: the sea link, or a ferry across. we decided to take the ferry. it was a really short distance of sea that had to be covered, barely 500 metres from the looks of it. the pier at the end we were at looked like the one at gorai creek (only, a lot narrower and shorter). also, both sides were overgrown with mangroves, with a small clearing near the jetty on either side. the water right next to the pier was more like sludge (i guess everything about the jetty was exactly like the one at gorai creek).

except for two differences:

the boat was *tiny*. and by tiny, i mean enough for maybe 10 people to sit, or two bikes (as opposed to the regular gorai ferry, which carries around 100 people, and sometimes even 20 bikes!).

and to get to the boat, we had to cross through floating rickshaws, bobbing in the water. seriously.

the floating rickshaws were already occupied, and i had to pass by from one side to the other, past people who were sitting inside. my bike wouldn't fit into the rickshaws, so i had to dismantle the bike, and carry it in a black coloured sack, through the rickshaws, into the ferry. i was surprised that the bag was so easy to carry.

my brother and i sat in the boat, and it sped off to the other side. the pier on the other side looked like the one i've seen at rewas (a beach near alibaug). it had a roof, and broad pillars, and the boat had to go under the roof till the actual landing point. the roof and pillars were covered with seaweed, barnacles and dried muck, as if the sea rose to cover them during high tide.

the boat stopped, we alighted, and i opened the sack to reassemble the bike. that's when i realized why it was so light: only the fairing, headlight, and front mudguard were in the sack! also, the parts looked like they were from my previous bike, the black pulsar. since the rest of the bike was forgotten on the other side, i had to make another trip across.

strangely, the boatman refused to take the boat across, claiming he had some urgent work he had to attend to. so despite my protests, he started the engine, and leapt off the boat onto the pier.

that's when i realized the boat had no controls whatsoever, other than an ignition switch. and it was currently pointed the way we came: along the pier, pointing straight at the land a few hundred feet ahead. and heading toward it at full throttle (there was no throttle to speak of, to begin with!)

in my panic, i tried leaning, to see if that affected the boat. and it did. the boat started turning away from the pier. i banked hard, and took the turn, almost like a bike leaning into a curve. and so, i was pointed back to the starting point of the ferry, on a boat that was racing at full throttle.

i leaned around, to get the feel of the boat's handling. leaned backward, and the boat surged forward even faster. it felt exhilarating!

that's when i realized, i was almost where the jetty started, zipping along at an insane speed. and i hadn't figured how to stop.

i did the only thing i hadn't tried yet: held on tight to the bow of the boat, and leaned forward as much as i could without somersaulting the boat over the front.

it worked. the boat slowed down, and it looked like i won't crash into the mangroves looming ahead after all.

that's when i woke up.

the cyclical dream

last night, I had three vaguely connected dreams. The funny thing is, each of the dreams seem to lead into each other. anyway.

part one:

i was dressed in my suit, with my brother, and we were in a train. It was late at night (post-midnight, from the feel of it). We were traveling down central railway to an unnamed distant station. We were going to my friend saket's place. saket was in a different coach in the same train. also, there was another friend of saket, who was traveling in the ladies compartment. my brother and I were near the south end of the train, while saket was near the north end. At every station, my brother and I would get off, run one compartment north, and get back in. until at one point, where we found saket's friend also on the platform, running north. We asked her what she was doing, since she was already in the ladies' compartment to begin with. before she could answer, the train started moving. She ran and jumped into the last coach, while my brother and I missed the train (since the last coach is only for ladies).

part two:

i am at saket's place, which strangely looks like my grandmom's place. my brother doesn't make an appearance in this part of the dream. it's still night. while we're making the bed, his mom (who I've never met in real life) is complaining about the number of empty wine bottles in the house. He sneakily hid an empty wine bottle under the bed when she wasn't looking. we then went to sleep... and woke up in the afternoon. We were supposed to go out somewhere for a function in the evening, and we'd have to get ready and leave quickly for, to make it in time. I decided to have my shower first. since the layout was the same as my grandmom's place, i thought i knew where the bathroom was.

except that when I opened the door, it opened onto a grassy downhill sloping lawn, which ended in a forest. and yet, right next to the door, was a shower. in the open.

There was nobody around, so i turned on the shower and put the upper half of my body under it, with my towel still around my waist.

just as I was about to take off the towel, i saw a few workers at the edge of the forest, within the trees, looking at me.

At that very moment, someone knocked on the door, from inside the house. I hurriedly turned off the shower and opened it.

It was the maid, telling me that the bathroom was next door. When I checked that door, I realized that what used to be my grandmom's toilet, was this house's bathroom-cum-toilet.

part three:

it's evening, around 8pm. i'm at am outdoor lawn, decorated like it's some sort of function. everyone around in suits and gowns. i was seated with saket and his parents, at a table that was much larger than the rest, and heaped with brightly wrapped gifts. at one corner of the table, there was a heap of pastries. saket offered me a chocolate croissant, which i had. He then offered me sugar sprinkled pretzel, which i ate half of, and then decided to walk around.

And then I bumped into another friend of mine, myron. he asked me whether I had dinner, and what i thought of the food. I told him I wasn't hungry. He asked if that was because the food was bad. I told him it wasn't, and (jokingly) said he could have my share if he wanted.

and that's my three dreams... in one.

ps: strangely, this blog post was typed over an evening, while traveling by train, wearing my suit, to my friend satej's wedding reception... and on the way back, in a cab, thanks to my friend amit and i missing the last train home :D

my favourite stories

there are some (true) stories that i love to tell everyone i know. some people are (un)lucky enough to even hear them multiple times :D

like once when we were kids. We were playing cricket in the building compound, and our aging neighbour walked by, forcing us to temporarily halt our game.

my friend said to him: "uncle you must die!"

after a long enough pause for everyone to be suitably shocked, he made an action of brushing his hair and continued: "your hair, your hair! you must dye your hair!"

luckily for us, he took it sportingly, smiled and walked on :)

relief

what a relief, to open your eyes, and to see the world exactly as you imagined it!

99 red kites

yesterday was makarsankranti, or as we would call it as kids, "kite flying day"

on my way home from work, near the railway station, i passed a young guy who was standing on the sidewalk and smiling broadly at passers-by on the busy street. he had a red string in his hand. the string let straight upwards, into a tree above him.

i asked him what he's holding.

"patang" (a paper kite), he replied.

i peered upwards and asked him where's the kite.

he peered upwards too.

after a moment of unsuccessfully trying to locate the kite in the foliage, he looked back at me, smiled, and wordlessly let go of the string.

the end of the string that he was holding went straight upwards, and disappeared.

as i walked on towards where i had parked my bike, he went back to smiling at the people on the road, but now empty handed.

it was a strange moment. i still have no idea what to make of it.

20000

my bike completed 20000 km on the odometer, and exactly a year since she rolled out of the showroom, on saturday.

it's been a crazy journey. countless long highway rides (the first time she left the roads of bombay was when she was 3 days old!), all the way from my usual weekend trips to overnight rides to goa (5 goa rides this year, a lifetime record of sorts!) and her longest overnight ride, which was a little over 700km - to bagalpur district in karnataka. most of my rides with her have been solo as well, unlike on my old pulsar.

since the story is too long to tell, a few pictures shall do the talking instead.

13th january: her first 100, little over a day old.

14th january: purushwadi. her first trip outside bombay.

15th january: my first pic with carly :)

22nd january: her first 1000, on our way back from kolad.

25th january: our first goa trip, 13 days old.

31st january: back from goa.

12th february: malshej ghat - exactly one month!

8th march: first overnight ride to goa.

12th march: first overnight ride back from goa - exactly two months!

18th march: dhena trip.

15th april: back from goa, my second overnight (and third, overall) long ride.

19th april: the first (and only, so far) puncture - riding to satara.

28th april: random pic in the colony, early one morning.

10th may: evening ride to and from vaitarna with tushar.

18th may: her first 10000 - riding back from khandala :)

26th may: 11111km somewhere on our way back from mahalingpur in karnataka - my longest overnight ride ever :)

10th june: our first rain ride, on the way to matheran :)

16th june: naneghat. a mad ride, with lots of off-roading on wet, muddy paths.

25th june: 12345km.

29th july: 13333km (riding back from vasai fort)

4th august: the day i sold my pulsar. back to having just one bike!

2nd october: my first accident - hit a horse that ran across the highway in front of me, riding back from goa. and then 420km with a smashed fairing, through pouring rain and eventually darkness, with practically no headlight.

26th october: bike still not fixed yet.

17th november: 16000km. still not completely fixed from the accident.

3rd december: 16666km. bike finally completely fixed from the accident, 2 months later!

16th december: ride to dahanu. first highway ride with both my loves ;)

27th december: my last ride to goa in 2012.

31st december: riding back from goa on the last day of 2012.

12th january: riding back from pune on carly's first birthday!