Mumbai, 1987: Kamalakara Rao was my much senior colleague at Cyanamid, Mumbai. One evening, as he was heading out of the office on his trusted Vespa scooter, he spied another colleague Shamkant Damle walking towards the bus-stop. KR offered SD a 'lift' to his home in Dadar, SD politely refused, but KR insisted. So SD, who suffered from a groin strain, tried to get on to the scooter the usual way, failed, and so flipped the foot rest open so that he could stand on it and get astride. No sooner did SD open the footrest, KR raced away, completely oblivious to the fact that SD was not aboard. This happened on a Friday evening. Those were times when mobile phones were not around, and landlines were rare. So, after spending a torrid weekend, KR heaved a huge sigh of relief Monday morning, upon seeing SD. Rao had worried that Damle had fallen off the scooter midway. Or that he had gotten off ahead of his usual destination and not informed him. And when it dawned on him that SD had never actually boarded the scooter, he was first incredulous, then pained. He said in his heavily accented Hindi "Arrey Damle. Mein socha tum baat kyon nahin kar rahe ho? Kitna time mein bol raha hoon aur tum jawaab nahin de rahe ho. Woh baat chodo. Ek aadmi lift poocha ek bus stop mein. Mein bola - paagal ho gaya kya? Peechey aadmi baitha hai, nahin dikta kya?".
KR of course is quite used to running off in his scooter, with our without people in tow. His wife once got off their stationary scooter at a busy intersection to adjust her sari. When she felt pretty enough, she looked up to find herself stranded, with hundreds of vehicles zooming past her. Her dear hubby had predictably taken off already, once again missing his passenger. She then had to find a friendly auto to take her to her destination. Apparently, on the way, she found her hubby racing back looking for his lost wife!
Alibaug, 1986: One Friday evening, as we sat, drink in hand and bored as hell, in our wonderful bachelor pad in Juhu, someone got the bright idea of a trip to Alibag. As is our habit, we packed in 10 mins, and jumped into Ramesh's old Premier Padmini. We reached Alibag by 11pm only to find every hotel room taken. Not having a place to sleep, we decided to generally drive around a bit in the sleepy neighbourhood. At some point we got tired, parked by a bench and went off to sleep. Dinesh, Ramesh & I slept in the car, while Surdy & Mathew used the park bench nearby. It was not fitful sleep at all, what with mosquitos all around. Sometime in the middle of the night, I woke up to a gentle swish sound around me. Not knowing what the cause was, I opened the door....and stepped into a pool of water, ankle deep. Alarmed but watchful, I slowly waded around the car to see Surdy & Mathew sleeping blissfully on the bench; Mathew was oblivious to the fact that his hand was hanging off the bench and into the pool of water. I immediately woke everyone up. The car seemed like it would float away pretty soon. Quickly, we got into the car, and somehow managed to drive away from the waterbody. Once on high ground, we turned the car around and let the headlights show us where exactly we had parked - it was the beach! We had parked on a small pathway along the beach, and the tide had come in! Feeling stupid but lucky, we drove off till we found a nice open space. We promptly parked there and went off to sleep.
The harsh rays of the sun made me suddenly blink. Almost simultaneously the other four also woke up. What we saw outside astounded us. It was 7.30am, we were parked in the midst of a large farmers market, and there were shops and shoppers all around us. Almost everyone was making a beeline to this weird car and its crazy occupants, who were sleeping in the midst of a sunday bazaar. Sheepishly, we rubbed our eyes awake, and slowly managed to wend our way out the crazily cramped market. We brushed by the roadside, had a cup of tea and a plate of missal for breakfast, and went off to enjoy the sights and sounds of Alibag. Oh! Did that adventure not start the night before itself?
KR of course is quite used to running off in his scooter, with our without people in tow. His wife once got off their stationary scooter at a busy intersection to adjust her sari. When she felt pretty enough, she looked up to find herself stranded, with hundreds of vehicles zooming past her. Her dear hubby had predictably taken off already, once again missing his passenger. She then had to find a friendly auto to take her to her destination. Apparently, on the way, she found her hubby racing back looking for his lost wife!
Alibaug, 1986: One Friday evening, as we sat, drink in hand and bored as hell, in our wonderful bachelor pad in Juhu, someone got the bright idea of a trip to Alibag. As is our habit, we packed in 10 mins, and jumped into Ramesh's old Premier Padmini. We reached Alibag by 11pm only to find every hotel room taken. Not having a place to sleep, we decided to generally drive around a bit in the sleepy neighbourhood. At some point we got tired, parked by a bench and went off to sleep. Dinesh, Ramesh & I slept in the car, while Surdy & Mathew used the park bench nearby. It was not fitful sleep at all, what with mosquitos all around. Sometime in the middle of the night, I woke up to a gentle swish sound around me. Not knowing what the cause was, I opened the door....and stepped into a pool of water, ankle deep. Alarmed but watchful, I slowly waded around the car to see Surdy & Mathew sleeping blissfully on the bench; Mathew was oblivious to the fact that his hand was hanging off the bench and into the pool of water. I immediately woke everyone up. The car seemed like it would float away pretty soon. Quickly, we got into the car, and somehow managed to drive away from the waterbody. Once on high ground, we turned the car around and let the headlights show us where exactly we had parked - it was the beach! We had parked on a small pathway along the beach, and the tide had come in! Feeling stupid but lucky, we drove off till we found a nice open space. We promptly parked there and went off to sleep.
The harsh rays of the sun made me suddenly blink. Almost simultaneously the other four also woke up. What we saw outside astounded us. It was 7.30am, we were parked in the midst of a large farmers market, and there were shops and shoppers all around us. Almost everyone was making a beeline to this weird car and its crazy occupants, who were sleeping in the midst of a sunday bazaar. Sheepishly, we rubbed our eyes awake, and slowly managed to wend our way out the crazily cramped market. We brushed by the roadside, had a cup of tea and a plate of missal for breakfast, and went off to enjoy the sights and sounds of Alibag. Oh! Did that adventure not start the night before itself?
Comments
You really should seriously take up writing....
Or maybe I should say .....irreverently,take it up....
Thanks for the laugh....