A Nature’al Love Story

Iris is synonymous with beauty. Her beauty has earned her numerous admirers including poets and writers, who have contributed significant amount of literature dedicated to her. Observers of her beauty can easily notice that her face reveals multiple colors, each depicting different layers of her persona. Loneness and never ending travel characterizes her life. Confined within the impenetrable hideout of her powerful father, the only prospect that keeps Iris alive is Helius.

Word goes around in the neighborhood that any person who dares to look Helius in his eyes, will die of burns. Helius appears very tough from the outside; the entire country fears him, few worship him as God. However, his unseen inside has a sad story to reveal. Legend states that Helius and Iris were in deep love very long back. An ego clash with Zeus, Iris’s father, had brought the love to an end. Repenting for the mistake he made, Helius to this day roams throughout the country, trying to find out the hideout of Zeus and to take Iris with him, before his life comes to an end (and that would be in about 5 billion years).

Zeus literally storms his way through the country and brings relief, in some cases, devastation to the people. The only time when Zeus powers were challenged was many years ago; Helius was in his prime youth at that time. Helius’s newly attained power prompted him to challenge the entire country including Zeus. Although Zeus succeeded in the challenge, the incident created a rift in the relationship between the two. However, the person most affected due to this incident was Iris. Since then, Zeus has been protecting his daughter from Helius – he keeps her hidden from the world in an untraceable hideout.

There are occasions, when Zeus and Helius have to confront each other. Zeus, knowing that Helius is desperate to meet Iris, decides to play a cruel game. He brings Iris out of his hideout for a small fraction of time - a brief moment, so that Helius can have a look at her. Helius would locate Iris, but is helpless in front of Zeus. He will only be able to view her from a distance. Notwithstanding the agony, Helius tries hard to keep up his courage in front of Zeus, however tear drops trickling from the eyes reveals his fragility. Zeus continues his game till he witnesses Helius’s annihilation, after which he moves Iris back to the hideout.

As usual, the moment that Iris had waited passes away with nothing significant happening. Torn between the egos of her lover and her father, Iris appears always sad. The inverted curve adorning her lips can be seen clearly. People of the country, who get the chance to see Iris during this short time interval wonder - why Iris is sad. Despite the gloomy look, Iris looks ravishing and the people witnessing Iris would shout in happiness – “Wow, look at the RAINBOW!!”

Drunken encounters !!

Friday night it was. I was pushed into solitude by my room-mates Rajiv and Laiju chetan who had decided to travel south earlier this week to assign the task of clothes-washing to their parents back home.

I was at home, glued to the Bangladesh England encounter not because it was highly entertaining, (Bangladesh were cruising to the finish easily, the match became tight later on) because I had no better choice. My uninteresting engagement was shattered by a phone call from Faisal chetan who asked me to come to Purple Haze.

I am not an alcoholic, and not a rock music fan either (not that I am proud of it) and I have no purpose whatsoever in a pub. But, I don't have anything to do at home either. So, I started walking toward Purple Haze accompanied by Edwin, my temporary room-mate. The first thing you notice about Edwin is his incredible height (around 6 and a half feet) and his semblance to the wrestler “Kali” (that’s one among his many nicknames).

Minutes later we were inside the pub. Me, Edwin, Faisal Chetan and his friends -Sandeep, Kozhi (don't know his real name) and Vishnu chetan. Beer-pitchers, 90s and 60s of signature were ordered along with a glass of water. Ear-deafening rock music all around. Everyone seemed to enjoy it, and I was like a wheel that has come out of a wagon (blame Siddhu for that metaphor), terribly out of place.

After an Empire-dinner, the plan was to spend the night at Sandeep/Kozhi chetan's house. I have heard that some bar-girls stay in the apartment above theirs, but they were constantly surrounded by gun-wielding body guards. I readily agreed, hoping I would get a chance to see these very beautiful (obviously, with all the guns for their protection – should be some beautiful chicks) girls.

After all the time that was spent at the pub, to my surprise everyone appeared sober except Edwin. A brandy bottle in hand, we reached their home. It was close to 12 and there was no sign of the bar-girls. When enquired, the chetans told me that I can go to the 4^th floor to fulfill my wish, but they won’t be responsible for any gun-fare that might ensue. The brave person that I am, I didn’t want to leave the chetans alone at their home and hence sacrificed my plans.

We started playing cards (28 to be precise) and after each round Sandeep chetan took the responsibility of refilling the emptied brandy glasses. The game continued till around 3 AM. After my opposition was ruthlessly defeated ( the game stopped when the opposition had to hold the cards in their mouth, after all 6 ears of the 3 opponents got loaded with cards), they challenged us for a “carrom” match. Sandeep chetan's routine of filling up the emptied glasses continued as we carried on the match till 5 in the morning. Faisal chetan had an appointment the morning at 9 and so we decided to skip sleep and start home in sometime.

Out of the blue, came a suggestion from Sandeep chetan - why don't we start our day with toddy? I was SHOCKED on hearing this, as I was planning to go back home. Faisal chetan was not keen, but the other incredible drunkards seconded the idea and they all started dressing up to go to some place near Hebbal to get toddy. Phew !!

It was a car-ride through the outer ring road. Except for Sandeep chetan, no one had actually gone to this place. It was somewhere near Yelahanka and the name of the place which he was able to figure out after a long search through his memory lanes was something like "Nagawara Palya" or "Nagawara halli". All the pedestrians that we interrogated were pointing towards the opposite direction. We accepted some suggestion, discarded many, took several wrong diversions, made a few calls, still the exact place was not traceable.

Finally, after one such call, the exact place was identified - It was "Naganahalli". As we inched towards the place, Sandeep chetan seemed to identify the landmarks and he was guiding us through to the exact location. We reached a Shoba apartment, the opposite of which there was a rotten-looking piece of land where some creepers were growing. Sandeep chetan confirmed that this was the place and we started looking for the toddy shop around the place. A local informed us that the shop had been closed after an excise raid and there was no other shop in the vicinity.

I cannot express the feelings of Sandeep and Kozhi chetan in words. They were not ready to believe the words of a third person and started walking through the field hoping to find any remnants of the inhuman exercise carried out by the excise department. Luckily, we met a malayali guy who was working in the Shoba apartment and he informed us that toddy MIGHT be available in a place called "Rajan gunda", which is about 6 km from there.

The car started immediately and we sped-off as quickly as we can in search of the toddy shop. En-route we saw a board displaying Welcome to "Rajanagunte". We stopped the car near the first person we saw there. Using our not-so-bad kannada we tried to convey what we were looking for. We used the word "kallu" when the person failed to understand what toddy means. The person was speaking some undecipherable Kannada, however we recognised that he was asking us to go further. Reaching the place, we saw another group of people and checked with them and they pointed us towards a bar. We tried to show them coconut trees, used the term nariyal pani, attempted some old dumb-charades trick, to no avail. Once we felt that the group was getting a bit restless and angry at us, we moved forward and stopped in front of a hotel. The sight of the huge idlis made everyone realize that we were hungry. The idea of toddy was laid-off for the moment and we started devouring the large idlis along with tea.

As we were returning back (no toddy - it was decided), everyone started to fall asleep. Sandeep chetan continued to handle the steering. Slowly, I started to sleep and suddenly I was shaken up from my sleep as my head hit the top of the car. Sandeep chetan seems to have dozed off for a few seconds and the car jumped over a speed breaker in full speed at that instance.

The guys in the back-seat were sleeping soundly, but faisal chetan at front seems to have lost his sleep. I was pretty sure that if I sleep now, then I will be waking up in a hospital chamber.

Sandeep chetan was trying hard to keep his eyes open. Faisal chetan started talking non-stop, cracked some jokes, and played loud music – all this to keep Sandeep chetan interested in driving. I was also wide awake to shake Sandeep chetan awake in case he dozes off again. At Marathahalli, we stopped the car and sipped tea to shed off all our sleepiness. I felt relaxed now, pretty sure that I will make it to home alive.

By this time, Kozhi chetan woke up and he along with Sandeep chetan were planning the day's agenda. MY GODD !! Bacardi with coconut water was finalized, which they would be taking in, while India will be taking on South Africa in the afternoon. They didn't forget to fill the car trunk with tender coconuts (bought wayside). They also stopped at Madhuloka to get the Bacardi, but were disappointed when they were informed that it would open only around 10. (Btw, the time was 8 in the morning)

After all these sleepless hours and drunken encounters, we finally reached home and I finally surrendered myself to bed hoping to get up before the match starts. There were few dangerous moments, but it was a fun ride nevertheless. A night to remember indeed !!

Into the blogland !!

24 years of life on earth and I have not started blogging yet. When am i gonna start it, if not now ? So here I am, creating space in the internet for myself, wherein I would scribbling down whatever I think of, whenever I get time.