Tuesday Night
The B block party was supposed to start at 8 and i was in page 287 of Cold Steel. I hurriedly closed the book and rushed to the block to find, no one was there for the mandatory party. I went to my room and checked the mails and wasted time on net. Around 8:45, I saw the dress code and changed the costume. Put the dupatta around like the kalaskethra gals do - to dress up as maids. PB as usual was stunning. 4 pgp1s danced for hip hopper around M. It was a fun thing. I was mildly shocked by the way one pgp2 felt all over PB, which PB related to us later while we were waiting to ramp walk with adequate KnowWhat posted on her face. After dinner and after having posed a wheat mustache in Gentleman style, i came back to my room and got into dancing mood. Picked up "hips don't lie" in youtube and aped the non robotic moves till my hips hurt with all those twisting and turning. It was close to 12 and i switched off the mobile after keeping the alarm at 6:30.
Frightening fits
At 6:30, jes b4 the alarm went off, i woke up and jes as i was about fold the bed sheet, dad started calling. I vividly remembered my dream, i had to walk under a high tension transformer, which was going to burst any second. Then i had to climb down the stairs in front of a temple. what a dream. And there was this security check in front of TN secretariat, by a person called Mazumdar. crazy dream. Please i thought, let me brush and do first things first. When i came back, dad had called 9 times. I called him back, he told that thaatha had passed away. I felt no shock, no tears. Just that it was summon to run home. I took bath, composed a mail to pgp office and told my team mates that i am bunking classes. At 7:30, i missed my pranayam and asanas and rushed to the gate. I saw AA on the way with a glass of milk, so i grabbed a tumbler of milk as well and asked the short cut from mess uncles. At the gate, i asked the security as well. Got conflicting answers. So i took the auto outside the gate and alighted in Diary circle, near Christ college. Within few seconds, there was a bus to Hosur. I was sitting in the first row in the left. In the right, one row behind me, while i was watching some tam movie, there was commotion. When I turned, i saw a lady twitching with fits with froth in her mouth that slowly mixed with blood. The conductor was making her hold the steel bar and the first thing i said was jes Shiva Shiva continuously. The woman who was accompanying the lady ran else where and the conductor was asking someone to hold the lady. I then got up and went near the lady and held her. It was stinking. I was reluctant to use my stole to wipe her mouth. I was so afraid and shocked. The conductor said, use her pallu itself. So i took her pallu and kept wiping her mouth, while praying and willing electric violet light to pass on to her body and heal her. I was praying to all the masters and found that i could not concentrate. Slowly her convulsions subsided and i sat next to her holding her head and making her sleep on my lap. She was supposed to alight at Dillikottai and I had to alight in Hosur. I didn't want to miss thaatha as i had missed my ammayi. So i decided to pray and leave her at Hosur. She got ok, half way through, and used the water i offered, inspite of the conductor asking me not to give her water. I continued to pray, but it was not sincere. I got distracted now n then.
Rest of the journey
I alighted at Hosur. Hopped on to Salem bus. I was trying to pray for that lady out there, reading about "Skeletal and Muscular Disorders" and impatiently, i jes went to elilepsy part. I read and tried to practice word by word, but i got distracted by Yaradi Nee Mohini movie and palakaatu parkathile song. I thought, anyway, i have told guru sir, he would take care. Then to a Namakkal bus, then to a thuraiyur bus which deposited me at Mahadevi entrance around 4:30 p.m, a total of 9 hours without proper food and sitting on gearbox and anything available. My chithappa was there and shortly my cousin came to pick me up in his rattling 2 wheeler. The first sight that caught me was dad n sugi, thoroughly soaked, holding a kudam with garland around their necks. Anna dropped me near the house and I touched my thaatha's feet. He was placed on the main door for wooden plank. Even then, i didn't feel like crying. My appayi, held on to me and cried asking for my brother in Indore. I told her that i didn't tell him. Then after those rites n rituals, i managed to see my thaatha's palms. He had the main lines, but there were no fine lines, it was all plain and yellowish. So in a way, it is true - what he had written in Cheiro's book. Now after bathing him, they kept him again, in specific directions and i touched his feet one last time. It was now, that my cousins and aunts started crying and i could not help crying as well. I don't know why tears came down my cheeks.
Back to B
I caught up with all my cousins and aunts and relations, who had been waiting all this long, just to see me. Around 6:30, I had sambhar, rasam n buttermilk on banana leaf in some neighbour's house, coz my aunts wud not leave me otherwise. I waited till dad came back tonsured; told him that i have classes at 10:15 am. It was 8 when i started from there. I was glad Swami was there as well. When i told him, i am going to go alone as i had come, he asked, r u really going alone? He related an anecdote and i was no longer worrying about travelling in the late hours. Again back to Namakkal. Around 10:30, i boarded a direct bus to blore from Salem. From Hosur, i slept on the front seat behind the driver, till they woke me up at Diary circle. It was some college. The security the other side was throwing bits of cut paper on the road and 2 dogs barked out aloud. As i went near the auto stand, 3 autos started all at once as if they were going to run over me. I told him b and he asked for 150. I told him, i would give double and ended up paying 100 for a 48 fare trip. Around 3:30, i was near SBM, where bats or some creature screeched and i reached my room. The most difficult decision was to take bath in cold water at that time. I thought, if i slept like that, then i would have wash the bedsheet, which was washed only yes'day. I took the bucket and found to my pleasant surprise that hot water came. Then i brushed my teeth and switched off my mobile and kept the alarm at 9:30 am. Back to the mundane life out here.
