A Tale Of Tall Tales.......

Some twelve-thirteen years ago I used to be known for my extremely tall and convincing tales. Yarns, that I'd spin out in such a fashion that the listener was always left convinced that I couldn't possibly be lying!!!

Back then there used to be a very popular cartoon at that point of time named 'Centurions'. In this cartoon, the main characters used to wear specialised suits which allowed them to be teleported to any place, with a very extensive arsenal of weapons to call upon, that became a part of their special suits to turn them into living machines of intense power. Now, when some of my cousins decided to drop in to visit me from Kolkata, we went to visit the Prince of Wales Museum(Mumbai of course), I decided to make the trip a little interesting by cooking up a story about how these characters from this series were real. And, how while visiting the museum once, I'd come across this huge whale made from concrete hanging in one of the main halls there and had discovered the characters from the cartoon series fighting some battle inside this sculpture. I decided to make it a little more interesting by providing various facts and figures about the incident.

These cousins of mine who normally never believed my stories really freaked out at discovering that the various facts and figures I'd given in support almost all came out to be true, and were hence coaxed into believing me.... Soon after this incident they went back to Kolkata. When I next met them they'd still not been able to see through my hoax as I kept adding credibility to it. It was almost after a full two years that the truth was finally revealed to them.

Over the past decade, I've slowly and steadily lost my grasp of this 'Art'. Wish I was still as proficient. These days I've begun practicing it again though I am no longer as good as I used to be. Wish those olden times could reign again at times. These days I've started mixing them up a little, both fiction and reality. See if you can differentiate between the facts and fiction of my life...........

A Thought..........

Today, while watching a documentary on Shahrukh Khan, I recalled a thought train, that I had lost some time back........ I've always wondered why people get snaps or autographs from celebrities they meet...... Why do people place values in these trinkets??? I'd rather cherish the experience........

In Mumbai, I used to live in an area called Oshiwara. A name which was quite unknown when I lived there, and a place that I believe has since become The place to live in. At the point of time when I lived there, I had celebrities all around me............ I mean old-time cricketer Mohinder Amarnath used to live right above my house, then we had the Roy brothers.... i.e. Rohit and Ronit Roy living across from my place, I even had Juhi Chawla living 5 minutes down the road. The area should very well have been turned into a Film City, since we used to see the shooting for one movie or the other every day...... I mean living there I met most of the big names in Bollywood. For the shoot of the movie 'One 2 Ka 4', the production team had constructed the house where Jackie Shroff lived in the movie just outside Juhi Chawla's house...... Everyday after school, my friends and me, we used to get together at the build for Bike rides with Shahrukh Khan, or we used to play around with him and Jackie Shroff, what we used to do was run around while the two of them used to try and hose us all down....... Used to be loads of fun.........

Time passes and people change............ sometimes there are new additions, while at others there are subtractions................. But its our memories that remain, and it is these that provide the basis for our identity............ Why trust them to paper and plastic that are lost in the mists of time, are over time tucked away under piles of rubbish to lose their importance............. To lose the value that we allocate to them in our life..........

Life : A Journey (Part 2)

It's now close to a decade since I moved from Mumbai....... The City of Dreams. To me, it truly seemed to have been a dream.............. a dream with a rather harsh ending but a dream none the less........... The experiences from this phase of my life have taught me to live each day as it comes. To revel in life while I can, cause tomorrow might not be as rosy as today was.......... What I miss, perhaps miss more than anything else in my life is the quality of life that I had lead then. By quality I mean not the standard of living that I enjoyed, but rather the general environment. It was a period of my life when everything seemed to be going just right (except perhaps my Hindi and Marathi classes in School, but then, I never was any good at these languages).......... My friends from this time have been my most cherished, they have been the pillars of support in my life, the people with whom I shared more of my life, than with anyone, at any other time.

If you have been to Mahabaleshwar or Ratnagiri during the monsoons, you will have encountered the misty rains that we have there............ Instead of pouring, the rain there seems to fall like a curtain swaying lightly in a breeze. This rain, so gentle, that it totally and comletely energises a person, one seems to be in a constant state of euphoria, caused not due to the intake of some drug, but due to the caress of mother natures fleeting tickles............... This is how my time in Mumbai seemed like. I won't say that this period of my life wasn't materialistically enjoyable, 'cause it definitely was! But, I would definitely lay more stress on those moments spent in the company of my friends and family, and on those moments where the bond with nature took precedence over all others.

It was during my stay in this region that I first encountered my love for, or rather my fascination with nature, while still living in Vashi I once went on a trip to the neighbouring countryside with my best friend and his father. The trip was for us to explore the empty expanses near Belapur, at a time when Belapur had barely grown to more than a small village, quite unlike the city-styled subarb that it is today. We left our scooter at a safe spot near the road behind a couple of bushes and decided to venture out into the undergrowth on foot. This short trek left us exhilarated and me in love with the idea of going on treks. An idea that I was able to realise a little later along my life.

And here ends another installment of this really long post. Hope to venture a little further into my life on a later date.

Life : A Journey (Part 1)

It seems to me that I have led a nomadic lifestyle, since even before I gained control over my senses....... My earliest memories seem to belong to places in the eastern part of the country, namely Danapur, Jamshedpur and Mugalsarai. My memories from these places are mainly fragments, you-know a peek here, a peek there........ There doesn't seem to be any sort of definite timeline to the events that I recall from this period of my life................ A major portion of these memories are centered around my Doberman named Toffee........ A name I had the credit of bestowing on him.......... A name that stuck with him throughout the fourteen long years of his life.

A little further along my life, my memories gain a little order, though still as fragmented as ever. These new memories are from the time spent in Goa. My Goan memories are centered, more or less around the Miramar beach there............. I have memories of strolls along the beach, fo swimming right throught the rainy season, of the the preparations for my Birthday Party being blown away by a sudden storm, of going to a school which also just happened to have been on the beach!! My life there seems to have been centered around my swimming classes, my cycling on the beach and my school................ Goa is one of the more treasured places on my list of places where I've lived..................

Next up is Vashi in Navi Mumbai, a place where I spent 4 long years of my life........... the memories from this period onwards seem more or less organised............ One could say, the Period when I finally got a hold on my "senses". The memories from this period of my life seem to have been my most satisfied ones.............. Life seems to have been a breeze, with sudden trips to the interior, or rather coastal reaches of Maharashtra, my drawing classes, karate classes etc. taking the lead..........

After this period was a minor shift in life, which left some major impact............. This shift was our shift to the subarbs, with us now living in Andheri(W)........... This is the period, when my life first started becoming a chain of coincidences. It so happened, that our shift to this new area, led to me changing my school............... This new school my parents wanted me to join required me to give an entrance exam. While giving the exam, I got 'round to talking to the the girl sitting across from me for the exam and we became friends, soon after, when we got back to the Principal's Office, we learnt that our parents just happened to be old friends!! When I finally joined school, and was travelling by the school bus, I learnt that she was there in my bus as well!!! Talking about coincidences, when I finally got to class came the biggest shock of all!!!! She was there tooo!!!!!............ It was during this phase of my life that I developed some of my most cherished friendships as well................. My experience during this stay is such as I had, perhaps, never had before (except maybe in Goa), and which I believe has left me forever prejudiced in its favour!!!

More soon......................................