i

You always loved music. You found great joy. You believed there was only one who made music. You thought there was only one worthy of acting in a movie. You felt some faces were just put on screen for cosmetic reasons. You thought certain movies did not ring true, you believed certain songs were not done justice to. You made fun of certain accents. You believed the music you liked required a presentation; a 5.1 and with great fidelity. You thought the videos were inconsistent, inconsequential. You wondered why the movie had so many songs… why?? Really … why?? Why can’t we make movies tighter, more meaningful? You felt helpless, suffered great agony. Why have two songs for the pair? Why the hero introduction song? you were angry  at times. You wondered who watched certain movies that were made. You had great many prejudices. You were so judgmental. You were so naïve…

You still like music. You still revel in its beauty. You listen to almost anything now. You don’t mind the fat guy on screen neither do you mind the thin guy. You are perfectly ok with the car’s 1.85 speakers that seem to play through only one and a half speaker at a time. You are ok with listening to even faint strains of a known song as long as it continues to play. You watch TV almost mechanically, for company. You have found new love for ‘trashy’ music channels. You are ok with the anchors too. You allow yourself to like one or two of them. A CRT screen seems more than enough and the songs don’t matter, really, as long as you are listening to something, something familiar, and something you can understand. You realize, it doesn’t matter who is singing the song as long as it is not ganaa bala, you are ok with that too, sometimes. You don’t care even if an alien voice emanates from a plastic looking face. And, sometimes, after all these years, you are still not able to forgive certain people for certain songs and the old anger sparks a fleeting smile of kinship with your old self. You listen, you nod your head, you watch, you miss the tongue, you miss the people, you miss your friends, you miss your home or what will always be your home regardless of where you go. You understand,  you stop judging...

You smile, slip on your watch, turn off your TV, take your keys and leave… 

Good morning Saab…

Sir nice shirt... you look taller than usual in this... How did you become so tall? I’m so short. Tell me your secret, Sir…how?  hehehe...

Boy, don’t laugh! There is one. A secret, I mean. You know I am a man of science, correct?  In fact, we all are, especially us engineers are all men of science. For every question in the universe, or prapancham, there is a logical answer. You must find the answer. Understand? Personally, I believe there is a scientific explanation for each and  everything. You know how our forefathers have explored vistas that are still pretty new to us now?. Vedas puranas, Ayurveda, pushpaka vimana…

Sir, vistas?what do you mean vistas... it doesn't make sense here...  Ok sir, leave that, how does it relate to your height…

You know the essence of the learning process?

Sir?...

What “sir?” The essence of learning is respecting the teacher. First do that, Knowledge will automatically follow. Do you know this?

oh…

You are still a kid here, you have to grow; you have to find the sun and grow towards the sun; like plants.Yes?

Yes sir,

There is also another quality that is important. Do you know what it is?

Sir, for what sir… I am very sorry sir… are you talking about the plants sir? Is it water, nutrients, nitrogen bacteria, sir, sorry sir, I'm not able to understand...

Useless fellow, No, not that, I'm talking about the learning process.

Sorry Sir… Sincerity… the will to learn… basic intelligence…

Yes. All of that. But above all, you must possess patience. Without patience there is no point. Understand?

Hmmm.

So wait till I come to the point.

Sorry sir.

Don’t worry. You should know all this. These are cultural etiquettes. Unfortunately, they don’t teach these things in school. So, what were we discussing?

Your height, Sir?

Oh! yes… so tell me, Chotu, how do I look?

U look good sir,

Yes, don’t I? Found a good barber, finally!! But that is not the point, how do I look physically?

Umm… uh… tall sir?

Yes.. I look tall and?....

Sir….

Tell me ya…

You look smart…

Forget that I outrank you and I can finish your career, delay your promotions or banish you to the Chinese border for a minute and answer my question. How is my physical appearance?

Sir, you are tall, lean… and… have a moustache…

Hahaha… moustache is it?... haha… Anyway, coming to the point, you said lean, correct? Now think scientifically…

Sir?..

Arrey, how have you passed your 10^th and 12^th ? on top of this you are an IIT grad too… what is the use?

Sir….

See that is why I told you, you have a lot to learn, now listen… if I’m lean, my cross sectional area is less?

Ummm… yes... I don’t understand…

Pch! look here… assume my body is a rod. Now if I’m lean, I’m a thin rod… correct?

Yes…

Good. You know where I was born?

Yes sir, somewhere near Amlapuram no?

Ante… now what is the average temperature of the place?

Around 35, Sir?

Annually yes, in summers around 45. Ok?

Ok sir.

So, while growing up, I had to bear a lot of stress, both physically and mentally.

Oh…

Yes… I will tell you about that later. Basically, for now, know that, to study, I had to travel in packed busses to Kakinada daily. That is about 90 kms hanging on to the bars…

Oh…

You city people probably won’t understand even if I explain. But see, my basic concepts are clearer. Anyway, coming back to the point, there was a lot of stress on me? Correct?  So, accordingly, being a slender member, by basic elementary physics, my linear expansion was more than others...

Sir? What??...

Ok look... Let me make it easier for you. There were forces acting on me, right?... Both physical and mental, right?... Now, my cross section is less. So by F/A, the stresses are more? Correct or not?

Sir? But….

Now combine the effect of ambient temperature. What will happen? tell me…

…… uh…

Thermal stresses also come into play? The rod elongates more?

Uh… ummm… oh my god…

Yes… that is the secret.

Sir…

That is why I keep saying: go back to your roots, get down to the basics, both  in life as well as with work. See the simple life I led and the hardships I endured has helped me grow tall, has it not?... Ok yaar, Enough of this discussion, I will not bore you any further; even I’m bored. So, did we get that sanction for 50 lakhs?

……. What Sir??

Sanction yaar, you never pay attention to what I say. You know? At your age I was…..

water water...

A humid afternoon slowly comes to a close. Strands of light start creeping into the coach. Raghu is too lazy to get down. He had the side-upper all to himself. There is some space to sit upright, read a book, stretch your hands a little, but mostly to sit upright and still retain the berth to sleep if bored. He smirked at no one in particular. The tongue was parched dry. He had just woken up. The noise in the coach had increased and he had also been sleeping for the past four hours. he stares at the dancing reflections of the watch dials for sometime, his mind not particularly awake as yet...

“Where am I ?”. He punches in some keys, swipes a few swipes and stares at his mobile; the map shows him he is at Anna nagar. After a few seconds though, the view leaps across and shows him a random hazy location. Yes I’m in the plateau somewhere. Good map, awesome precision. He closes it, turns over on his stomach. 

“Soup soup soup soup”

“water?”

He signals that a guy is coming behind him carrying water. Raghu nods.

“Oh! Nice, my son is preparing for JEE, the elder one is already settled in the US. He is in California.”

These people are new, they must have got in while I was sleeping.

“Hmmm, is it? nice, everybody is doing engineering these days. The elder one is IIT pass out?”

“NO, NO he tried, didn't crack it, then he ended up studying in Nagpur.”

“Oh, where?”

“ABCtech , it is a very good college.”

“Oh. Good good.”

“Are you going to delhi?”

“Yes… family function”.

a kid leans on her mother, gazing through the window, the mother reads a book, sitting cross legged leaving whatever is left of the berth to her husband.

He is pensive for some time before continuing.

“Are you from delhi?”

“Yes yes, I’m from there, my wife is from there. We have been there for over fourty years now.”

“Hey shanthi, where is that addressbook?”

The female briefly lifts her eyes off her book, nudges her daughter aside, who is perceptibly annoyed at this and hands him over a thin black book. She gets back to her book and the kid’s broken from the trance of watching the posts fly by.

She fidgets and peeks into her mother’s book. They are all text. She knows English, all the words are in tamil. Tamil is boring.

“Amma don’t read tamil books, boring.”

“What can I do about that?” She snaps. “They teach tamil in school right? Try reading this…”

“The teacher doesn’t know Tamil, she sleeps in class.”

“Don’t say that. You should respect your teachers”.

“She’s one loosu ma…” she laughs, but stops, noticing her mom glare at her. After having made her point, she goes back to reading.

“Ha! Here It is.. Sir, where is this place?”

“Oh this?.... you have to go to …. Near SBI…. Milk booth… chowk… “

“Arrey there is a metro that goes directly to this place na?”  his wife interrupts.

Till now, She had been hounding the other female for signs of companionship, but, to her chagrin those eyes hardly left the book. ‘How could people read for so long?’ she wondered. After losing her patience fencing for attention, she had turned her focus on the boring conversation between the males. Her husband was gregarious, which was sometimes a great help in her getting rid of her boredom, but on most occasions, he was the cause of boredom. Like today.

The train is already running late, hope it catches up on lost time in the night. The traffic in the morning is horrible and this weather, I should have booked the damned AC ticket. The coach is so stuffy. Some breeze, oh god give me some breeze. What have I done to deserve this?. Chi… what is this… where is this water from? Useless barbarians. I hate this coach. Not even a charger….

“hello? Ya .. ya… I’m coming… I’ll call as soon as I reach tomorrow...” buggers...

This upper berth is so dirty. Indian railways in getting away with everything…. Aaaaaggghhhhhh . *exales.* I will sleep and wait for the pathetic dinner… *switches on walk man* so stuffy… need to take bath, this is so sticky what is this nonsense indian railawwwwzzzzz….

Where is this sound coming from? Is it the fan? No…. but sounds like a fan. Hmmm… that boy is looking at me from side-upper… hehe his hands are dangling down… he looks bored…

Raghu finds the kid looking at her, he smiles. She measures him up in a second; returns his smile… she is distracted again… her eyes are restless, but they keep returning to the fan every now and then. “Hahaha... Now now, I will help you with that”, Raghu waits till he catches her eye again. He then gestures to the upper berth opposite to her, and imitates a person snoring. She laughs, unable to control herself.

She looks up at the sound of familiar laughter, She smiles; affectionately pulls the hair out of the kid’s face. My love. She plants a gentle kiss on her head; follows her gaze. She nods her acknowledgement at the young man who pulls himself to a sitting position. She closes the book. Wonders where the two of them who were seated in the side-lower are.

“Oh yes, the yellow line takes you directly to this place… you can catch it from the station”.

"yes"

“Thank you very much… it makes my job a lot easier…”

Water water water…..

1 bottle water please, 1bottle for us.. 1 for us too… SNOORRREE…. Heheh  :D