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.

And miles to go...

As you probably know by now, trains have a special place with me. Sometimes they infuriate me. Sometimes I get a pleasant surprise. But they will always be there, as unshakable as the main building of Egmore station. And nearly as old :D (Chennai Egmore turned 100 this month)

Railway stations are a different matter, though. I'm always at my most philosophical mood when I'm in a railway station. Think about it. Unless you're in a tearing hurry to do something once you get to your destination, there's no need to worry while you wait for a train. And even if you do worry, there's nothing you can do. The train will arrive when it does. Your luggage is safe with you. And you probably won't fall sick because of that coffee you just bought from the vendor on the platform. So just sit back, relax and watch as the rest of the human race files past.

It's an attitude that helped me a lot when "disaster" struck last June. There was flooding in Bombay then (as there is every summer) and my train to go back home from Pune was held up between VT and Kalyan. There wasn't much news coming from the enquiry counter, it was raining and I had two big suitcases with me. So I couldn't go out, I couldn't move around freely and I had no bloody idea when the train would get there (7 hours later, as it turned out). And that's when a calm, laid back attitude helps.

But I digress. I've always had a special attachment to the station in Udumalaipettai (Udt from here on). Udt is my mum's hometown. The station there is one of those classic small town stations. Two platforms, concrete benches, an inadequate asbestos roof over the platforms.

And a metre gauge track. Yeah. That means trouble for the time being. The railways is on a drive to convert metre gauge tracks to broad gauge, and is going about it piecemeal, at it's own pace. The line on which this station stands used to have trains that went all the way to Rameswaram. Now Coimbatore is completely broad gauge, And I believe there's no metre gauge line between Dindigul and Madurai. So there's a small island of metre gauge track between Dindigul and Palghat. To make sense of what I'm talking about, look here. (the map's a little outdated, I think)

Since it's such a small stretch, there's very little traffic on this line. Only ten trains pass through Udt. Both directions put together. That's really sad. Trains here hardly ever run on time. Since they are so unreliable, most people don't bother taking a train. Why would they? The roads out of Udt are pretty decent. And even State Transport buses here have colour TVs and DVD players (to play cheesy Tamil flicks). There's no reason for anyone to take the train . And that means the railways has even less reason to be punctual or improve services. The only people who take these trains now are the ones who seek nostalgia or have a lot of luggage.

It doesn't even feel like a real railway station anymore. The signalling system is antiquated. People gather there in the evening like it's a park of some sort. And the track is rusting over. Really. There's a fine brown coat on top of the rails. You probably won't find a finer example of a living museum.

Yet, the station lives on. And I'll never forget it. Not least for its ability to throw up some of the most beautiful sunsets. Orange light, sculpted exquisitely,yet softened by layers of clouds. Lush green trees, mostly coconut palms, provide a fitting foreground. It's a sight worth killing for. And something a 2Mpx camera phone can never do justice to.

A small town railway station...

This is a small photo feature. The post will follow.


The signboard that welcomes you to the "poor man's Ooty"


They don't see too much movement of people here


Two platforms for the metre gauge track. No 9 3/4 here!

The Signal operator's post. Wise old men of the town sit outside. Udumalai is a pretty windy place. It's near the Palghat pass, so it gets pretty windy, especially now that the SW monsoon is in. And that makes open spaces like this a great place to spend an evening.

Only 10 trains pass by in one day. Both ways put together.


People board the last but one train of the day. This one's headed to Podanur (a suburb of Coimbatore). Trains on this line go to Podanur or Palakkad/Palghat to the north and Dindigul to the south. That's it. Lines further down in both directions are broad gauge.

This platform stall wasn't here the last time I came by (which was over two years ago). Will it be here the next time around? I guess so. It's more like a pottikadai now. There's rampant tresspassing. People going from one side of town to the other just enter the station and walk across the tracks. Guess there's not much the authorities can do.

This is a nothing post

The title says it all. I know that I've been very lazy updating this blog. Even though I haven't been doing anything that kept me too busy to update. Neither have I done too little, so that there's nothing to talk about. I feel like I ought to be blacklisted for it.

Anyway, this is a nothing post. It's just to tell you that I'm going to my grandmother's place for ten days, and I won't be going online for the aforementioned period of time (I can still do legalese. Sweet!) My gran lives in a small town near Coimbatore, which is rapidly losing it's small town charm. So I want to soak in as much as I can over the next few days. eternal dreamer and firefoxcub, I'm sorry I haven't written anything about Pondicherry. I will once I get back home. And ffc, you can tell your friend that the weather's pretty good, so it's worth a trip now. Just watch out for the occasional spell of rain.

That's all for now. This has been ess.