And all good things...

...must come to an end. In a week's time I'll be off to Pune again. And I've never wanted to not go back more than I have now.

This has probably been the best vacation ever. Or, at least, in the last three years. To start off, I had a really good first month. Lazing around, sleeping late, waking late... the works. Then, my cousin lent me his old bike, which meant freedom! Or as much freedom as you can get on a 9 year old, 100cc bike. A bike that was in a pretty awful state of tune when I first got it.Still, it beats haggling with auto drivers so I'm not complaining.

Then I joined this theatre company. And boy, has it been the ride of a lifetime. The hours are pretty strenuous, and I didn't get to learn too much on the production and tech side of things (which is what I joined them for in the first place). I was working backstage for a few shows they staged in Madras. And let me tell you, when you listen to the applause from the audience at the end of a good show, there's no better feeling. All the running around, things getting lost at the last minute, people yelling, deadlines not being met...none of it matters during that moment. You're exhausted after 3 shows in two days, but you're also elated and the effort seems to be worth it after all. And that high is something you keep working towards, as Flighty told me today. It's very hard to walk away from theatre, no matter in what way you're involved, she said.

The company as such is pretty young. It's only in it's fifth year. And the oldest person who's a regular employee is 31. I didn't have to try very hard to fit in. And most importantly, there's Flighty. I swear, I think we'd have a chance, IF ONLY I DIDN'T HAVE TO GO BACK TO PUNE!!!!

Anyway, the inevitable must be faced. I just booked my return ticket to Pune today. My project this sem will have to be an especially good one to get me out of the deep blue funk that I will be in when I get off that train :(

Sigh. It was a good summer.

The top five useless accessories on public transport...

#5: Chevy, Dodge and Chrysler badges on Bajaj autos (Pune) I'm not kidding

#4: Stickers on autos that say "OK" (Bangalore). OK followed by the owner's name, current year, "good", "Super" whatever.Holographic stickers, at that

#3: Super weird grilles on Premier Padmini taxis (Bombay) I don't think I saw a single taxi with the standard fake-chrome grille the last time I was there.

#2: LEDs and Neon interior lights in taxis (again, Bombay) As a British car magazine spoke of a certain car model. "The lights give it all the subtlety of a Soho sex shop" ;-)

And the most useless accessory seen on public transport in India is...

Fare meters in autos (Madras)
They're never bloody used!

All my bags are packed...

I copied "Leaving on a Jet Plane" from Vod a few days ago, and now I can't get the song out of my head. Hence the lame title. Incidentally, Vod has actually left on a jet plane. And he's actually not sure when he'll be back again. Maybe it's not such a lame title after all then.

Got back from a trip to Bangalore this morning. It's nice to get away from the city for a couple of days. It's even nicer when it's all on the Central government's expense! The catch was that I had to sit in an auditorium and listen to THREE organic chemists speak, interspersed with biopics of two physicists. It's then that you realize what a bum deal biology gets in this country. The only science that gets less focus is Math. But then again, since physics owes a great deal to math, math does get some reflected attention. So it's just bio. And I've had to listen to physicists tell me how confusing bio is and how logical physics is for the last two years. Sigh.
It wasn't half bad, though. Only one of the lectures was really bad. Most people either gave up trying to listen, or fell asleep outright. The highlight must've been the time when the third speaker made a rocket in the auditorium. Using a bubble top water can and methanol. Really.

It was a fun outing otherwise. I met pseudo and Lioness after a whole year.Lioness hasn't actually changed very much. But pseudo has, or seems to have, rather. Maybe it's because I've gotten to know her so much better over the last one year. She doesn't seem like the self-conscious, slightly inhibited girl I met last May. More like one of the select group of people I'd like to have with me in front of my fireplace. If I had a house with a fireplace, that is :)

In other news, the last two weeks have been pretty hectic. I've been volunteering in a theatre company here in Madras. There have been a spate of birthdays. soupy, estarra, pseudo and Chitra, to name a few. Oh, and mine as well. Appropriate changes have been made to the blog since.

That's all about me for now. I'm gonna return to observing and commenting for the next few posts.