Two Happening Weeks

In the past few years, Jun-Jul have typically been languid or filled with nostalgia. (2004 and 2005 posts) for me. This year is proving to be an exception though. Had many more things to talk/write about but wasn't getting time in last few days. Domino Effect is what we probably could call these chain of events. It all started on evening of Fri, July 7. Now, there are 3 threads which I would like to talk about. Other two would deserve separate posts :)

Okay so coming back to Fri eve, I was doing tp in Navlur office canteen where one event called "IME idol" was going on. One guy was singing "breathless" and he breathed so many times that Shankar Mahadevan would have committed suicide after seeing that ;) Okay, Fri eve part is purely eventual, tp is what I'd been doing in Chennai in last so many months. Either there was some IME icon going on or me and Prasad (my buddy in Navlur who's from Latur :) ) were relishing cup-corn and gossiping about his latest crush ;) . At 5.45 the asst. of our delivery manager called on my cell. She, obviously, talks in typical tambi (tamil) accent.
She: "Raamanaa... where are you maa ? This is Harini here"
Me: "Tell me Harini, I'm here at the IME icon."
She: " Listen ma, Prasad wants you to see him imm. He is going to schedule an interview at 6 and you may need to travel immediately."
Me: "(silent) 6 is 15 mins from now! what interview, which technology, which project, ...location???"
Me: "Okay Harini, I'll be there in 5 mins."

At 6.30 after a brief discussion about skills and tech, we were talking about my possible travel date to the onsite manager. Since he wanted me there ASAP, I gave my consent to the plan of travelling on Tue, 11th jul. Next 2 days was the weekend and nothing was going to happen on that front. So, after making a few calls to home, I was ready with my itinerary (Wasn't that quick? :) ) I would travel to Mumbai on Tue, meet the parents there at sister's place and board the Lufthansa flight from Mumbai. (And pack my bags in between!) I wanted to have my 4th visit in last 10 months to Tirupati on sat. (This was the earlier trip) And this one was going to be different!

I had 6.25 AM train for Chennai and barely managed to reach the station at 6.20. The time I could have printed on my ticket was 6.27. Now, generally this train does not leave on time, but the that day it did! A coolie suggested that I should board the Mumbai bound train, get down at Renigunta and take a bus tirupati. I jumped into the train, and started finding place in the general bogie. The journey was dull; I finally got down at Renigunta at 10 AM. Now, after getting down, a TC asked me for ticket. Thinking that I've done no wrong this time and have travelled in general bogie, I showed the ticket to him.

He: "This is a super fast train, sir. You will have to pay a fine of Rs 260."
Me: (silent) "What the heck!"
Me: "Boss, I have the ticket and have travelled in general bogie only."

It turned out that this train was a super fast and I should have bought an additional Rs 10 ticket for that. These guys seemed to have some collection target to be met and had stopped many passengers like me. Having got used to plastic money, I was only carrying Rs 250 hard cash with me. Damn! This 5 ft 2 inch middle aged creature was staring at me demanding with his button like eyes. His shining bald head made me think of my dreaded future ;) And that made me dislike this guy much more perhaps.
Me: "Boss, can't we settle this between us? I don't have enough money with me, you keep this 100."
He: "No, you have to pay Rs 260. (250 fine for the 10 bucks additional tickets that I din't know to buy!) and I'll give you the receipt."
This guy seemed hell bent on putting Rs 260 in Lalu's rail dept instead of 200 in his pocket :(.
Me: "Okay, I'm ready to pay the fine, but I'm 10 bucks short of 260!"
He: "I don't know that. You tell this in court then"
(Utter crap... %#%*%$)
Me: "Okay, do we have an ATM at this station."
He: "Yes, it's there at the gate."
I searched for some change in the bag and counted the total money I had. Rs 262! I paid 260 bucks and got the reciept. Done, now I looked around and came to know that there's no ATM here and nearest one is at Tirupati. Ticket to Tirupati? Only Rs 5. Total amount of cash with me - One Re 1 coin and two 50 paise coins :(
For a few moments, I was clueless as to what would I do. I was already at railway platform and din't have enough money to get to ATM or have breakfast (It was 10.30 and I was really getting hungry) I remembered giving away 2 bucks to the beggar in train and thought I could have had that money to reach Rs 5 target needed to get to Tirupati and ATM. One weird thought brushed through my mind. If I have been giving away 1,2,5 bucks to beggars, I might as well sit here and beg for ;) And I started to think of the competition. I mean, there were already many beggars on the platform and my ipod and pepe jeans would have done anything but make me strong contender in the competition ;) So, I went back to that tc fellow.
Me: "You told that there's an ATM here but it's not."
He: "Oh yes, I was wrong, you will have to go to Tirupati. Rs 5 is the bus ticket. Bus stand is nearby"
Me: (silent) "@#$$#$#$" "I dont even have that. what do I do now?
This guy suspected that I was lying. What the heck..why I would I lie for Rs 5 after paying 260 in fine! The guy then took out a Rs 5 coin out of his pocket and said "For sympathy sake I have to pay Rs 5 from my pocket" I grabbed that and thanked him. Reached Tirupati, took out the money from SBI ATM and vowed to keep some extra cash with me in future ;) On the way up to the Tirumala hills, one bus broke down in middle of the road. We had this big queue of vehicles behind it and people trying to get that bus off the road. Somehow, the bus had jammed and would not move an inch however the people pushed. At times, people would be pushing in opp. directions from front and back ;) Total chaos! It was fun watching it. I then got a lift from a guy who was able to get his bike through.
On my way back, the Tirupati-Chennai train stopped at Renigunta. There was very little chance of finding the same tc on the station. I had a Rs 5 coin with me. Just went to that cabin and checked if the tc fellow was still there. He was there indeed and recognized my face in the crowd. It was only in the morning that he had met me, after all. Now, I thought I will be embarrassed to have borrowed 5 bucks and returning it. But actually, the fellow was embarrassed when I took out the coin.
He: "No no you need not to do that. Don't think bad of me, I was just doing my duty."
I put the coin in his hand and thanked him again.

Schizophrenia & Football

Okay, Football is a natural topic to choose for a blog post, but what about schizophrenia?? Who cares about natural things, am not writing about natural people anyways ;) .There is football and there are football fans. There still are frenetic football fans & then there are... or probably there IS only ONE schizophrenic football fan. I live with one!. We 5 guys stay together here in Chennai in a big house and one of them is the creature am talking about. I know this guy (we call him "Psycho", the most appropriate pet name ever given :) ) from last 7 yrs as he happens to be a good friend and a classmate from my engineering days.

Night of 25th June 2006. England were playing against Equador in the 2nd round of football world cup 2006. Schizophrenia is a psychotic disorder characterized by distortions of reality and disturbances of thought and language and withdrawal from social contact. Coming back to this perticular match. Now, there are two versions of the match we need to discuss. One that was going on in REAL world where England were struggling to score a goal against Equador in first half and the score was 0-0. All of us other flatmates, who were not at house, got calls from Psycho - "Abe, England ki to lag gayi, 2 goals thok diye Equador ne England ke khilaf first half main!!!". Though I would not call myself a football freak, this news was still able to rouse me a little and I said "Achha!!!".
One by one we all got back to home and told each other about the score report that Psycho gave all of us. We were then baffled to see a 0-0 score on tv where the match was still going on. Psycho was staring at the screen, mouth open & body loose, as if he'd lost all his senses. It was after shaking him for 2-3 minutes that he at least seemed to be talking to me. My obvious question was "Abe, idhar to 0-0 hai score tu to bola ke 2 goal ho gaye England ke khilaf!". Psycho was still mumbling something, that somebody from Equador scored 2 goals and all.
At that split moment I realised the bitter truth. My dear friend has got schizophrenic and the score he was reporting was from the virtual England Vs Equador match that he was imagining. No doubt that England was loosing in HIS version of the match, because I knew how he used to hate England team. This guy had been walking/eating/drinking only football from last few days. Was deprived of sleep for last 8 days as he had to watch each and every match every day which made him stay awake till 3 AM. And then he would be dosing off in the bus at 7.30 AM on his way to office. Office would be the place where he'll keep discussing about football again, thanks to the bulletin boards at office. (I have even heard of the stories of people selling used ball pen refills specifying how much ink was left in it and bids coming in at 25 paise!)
Anyway, all this football mania has taken it's toll. The symptoms he's showing are called positive ones. Then there are negative symptoms of Schizophrenia. I've been doing a lot of R&D over this topic since then and the cause in this case seems to be environmental. Paranoia Network is one of the places where these kind of patients can find community support. Even the great people like John Nash are thought to have been affected by Schizophrenia. This, sometimes, makes me feel that even my dear friend must of that league ;) lol. But, at other times, I'm very much worried about his and his family' future. Just thought of making an appeal through my blog to all of you to be more careful and sympathetic towards such people. Those who want to see a live demo of "A beautiful mind" can visit our house in Chennai and meet Psycho. Psycho is a 26 yr old IT professional and looks a little like Hrithik Roshan. No it's just about his looks, otherwise he has only 10 fingers on his hands ;) lol We are also thinking of hosting charity shows featuring this guy and proceeds from these shows will be channelized towards the self help groups like Paranoia Network. If people can buy tickets to watch John Nash in "A beautiful mind" they sure will love to spend time and money for this one. We guarantee to show you a character worth a study of lifetime! ;)

Disclaimer: Any resemblance to the actual events and persons in this post is coincidental. If I get killed after this post, my flat mates know who is to be jailed or rather to be sent to mental hospital ;-)