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Reminsc..(what was that word ? I forgot how to spell it)

I was* so preoccupied with my ever growing to-do list (one of which was to write this ! and this.. was not at the top of the list. Hey, whatever happened to doing priority tasks? ) and this general feeling of “Aw ! I should’ve done this yesterday” , that I couldn’t sit in a place and gather my thoughts, my rainbow butterflies.

Why haven’t I been writing? I guess I haven’t been thinking at all. May be I shouldn’t be staying a hop away from home. And even that hopping distance, may be I shouldn’t be covering in car !

Those days in which I stayed far away from home, when I used to travel by train, those dreaming-thinking-talking**-sleeping-writing-reading-thinking-dreaming travels. Oh ! I wish they were back.

*was? I still am ?
**talking not with self like a madman (used to do that when I was a kid though. I gather I’m more self conscious now!) but with fellow passengers.

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Oh my ding ding, what do I write ?
What did I do last week ?

Friday evening 6 PM – the beginning of a weekend
Imagine your buddy comes from the other end of US(okay, almost the other end), that too for a weekend and comes to meet you and you are in a conference call talking about a production bug which according to someone is the end of the world.
I look at my pal, he looks at me.
I point him to the phone .
He listens to the ‘boom baam boom’ (the phone’s on speaker), nods his head and goes away.
I being me, feel guilty, leave the call there, run behind him and say “Gimme 10 mins. I’ll catch up with you”. I come back, finish the call, sit at my desk, forget everything else and work for another 2 hours.
Then a bulb glows. I was supposed to meet V and R (not a simple R, but Dr.R) at 8 PM. I was meeting Dr.R after 5 years ! He was my classmate who went on to do .. well, let’s say he went to UK to do great deeds.
I call up V and he says – “It’s ok. It’s ok. You finish your work and come”. Ah ! how great it is to have sweet pals. One wouldn’t mind skipping meals and traveling 1000 miles to meet them.
I immediately take a print out of the map, take kittu(my car) and rush. After 30 mins, the address is not accurate and am lost on El Camino Real(means ‘The Royal Road’ if you cared about such trivia). I call up Dr.R, speak to his sis and somehow get there.
We meet, we eat. In between, KP calls. That makes 4 of the classmates talking.
Anyway, let me fast forward.
I almost reach home and suddenly remember that it is too late to call A. it is already Saturday there and what if she wanted to go out somewhere? What if she has already gone out? I sent a mail that I’d be late, but what if she didn’t read it ? I pull the car to the roadside and call her. And there she is. Always just a call away. Whenever I call, she is there. And I’m talking about a landline here. Oh la la ! this is some magic. Ok that’s it. The curtain is drawn. End of day.

Saturday - the day before engagement
I wake up, call up A.
Skip 2 hrs.
AG, my full-of-enthu roomie has started making a full course meal.
Good good good ! let me help him in my minor way.
What do we have here ? Believe it or not. Rasam, Dal fry and Egg curry. With appalams and pickles, the stomach is just jumping with joy.
Then I remember , my pal( and ex-roomie) from the other end of US, yeah, the same chap who’d come to office yesterday.
I go over to apt 52 (that is where K is set up temporarily). And invite him for lunch.
We all have a sumptuous lunch and talk and talk.
Then I call up A.
Skip 2 hrs.
I call up Samson and he says we’ll go out and I go over to Mountain View. A heavy dinner at a Hyderabadi restaurant.
I come back. Meet my pals in the parking lot. They’d seen my car while going out and came back to take me to this bowling place that they were going. I say I wouldn’t be able to go today. I need to talk to A. Afterall our engagement is happening in India without us.
I get home, call up A.
End of day.

Sunday – the day of engagement
4AM – sister calls up telling they’re in A’s house. Everyone’s happy-happy. “Good good good”, I tell her. I call up A and tell that things’re rosy-rosy.
I go to sleep. Wake up and get ready to go to church. Just before going I call up and they say, the engagement is done, parents exchanged (I don’t know what they do in an orthodox engagement) whatever, Priest blessed and the first stone to the rainbow path was laid.
A Syrian priest (am not saying his name, but the credentials that he had, were mind boggling! How could a normal man achieve such heights in a lifetime? He must be a blessed one for sure) and deacon had come to church as guests. The Qurbana was in Syrian. He would say in Syrian and we would respond in Malayalam ! Speaks volumes about the orthodox way of worship. It is the same anywhere in the world. And it has been like this for centuries.
It is Parumala thirumeni’s perunal. So the service is longer than normal. After other activities and lunch, I get to leave only by around 1 – 1.30. Before reaching home, I pull up the car to a cross road and call A.
I reach home and call her again.
Evening.
Night. Offshore call.
End of day.

Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday-Friday
What happened ? In the blink of an eye, they’re gone!
Oh ! forget it ! let me hop on to the weekend train.
Rush. Rush ! it’s too late. Before the doors of the speeding train shut, I have to take a leap. With a backpack full of to-do lists, the chances are 50-50.

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