I was angry, frustrated and confused when I arrived in the small town of Silvassa, in Dadra and Nager Haveli lying on the foothills of the majestic Western Ghats. I couldn't tolerate the delay in the grant of autonomy, and was only awaiting mom's departure back to Chennai, until which I hardly lived a peaceful moment.
I wished mommy 'adieu' early on mother's day and took the time I had to vacate the room and the horrors I did to myself in trying to resist the idea of being a pampered child. Packing my belongings, I cursed my rudeness and wondered if I could have averted or, at least, expressed my displeasure politely. I felt sorry for mom for having pampered me enough that rendered me wholly insensitive to the worries of an over-protective mom.
Akhil opened the door, probably cursing me for disturbing his Sunday's sleep, after I knocked the door twice, pressed the calling bell and finally rang him up when nothing worked as I moved into the apartment that will be my residence for a little over a month. His sleep was disturbed forever. I unpacked my stuff, wondering where I should empty my luggage. Unwilling to use the cupboard in the master bedroom, I decided to use my suitcase as the makeshift wardrobe.
I felt a sense of relief after tucking the money bag in the clandestine cupboard next to the one heavily guarded by rats. It was oblivion that gave me the courage to handle the cupboard on the wall in the second bedroom.
Akhil, then took me for a walk to his Sunday break-fast and on our way back introduced me to some of his friends, who would eventually be my colleagues. I wondered how to spend the remainder of the day and without much thought gave up to settling in the new household. Following a tiresome morning was a festive evening with the kids in the apartment, who offered me to join them in their game, cricket ,and as a price made me their laughing stock owing to my misgivings of their local cricketing rules and foreigner-like-familiarity with Hindi, the language of the boys on the field. This is the most diverse group I've ever been; there were kids of all age between 7 and 15 and grownups like myself and Akhil. Ujjwal, my other roomy will not join the match this evening, but is usually a part of this troupe. I watched my first, and only, IPL match of the season in the restaurant Akhil to us for alfresco dinning. The kids didn't seem to like the place and so we drove to a smaller regular resto-bar. for Akhil's farewell treat close to midnight and separated from it by only a little over an hour.
I rushed to sleep after getting back late and tired from the party. Akhil, Ujjwal and myself drove to the plant after I got Yogesh sir's consent to join a day earlier. Yogesh, I learned from Akhil was a Captain and was referred as Capt.Yogesh by Akhil. I too chose to address him that way, hoping to flatter him to have him trust some meaningful job to me. But, it turned out that flattery was unnecessary as Capt. had already decided the job for me. I waited in the lobby where I was asked to sit by the cheeky receptionist and wait for Capt. who would come by 9a.m. Capt. did not come even as the clock passed the 9:30 mark and I decided to give him a call to inquire his whereabouts as I was concerned that he could have forgotten about my joining today. Capt. answered my call and informed he was coordinating an external training program and would reach plant very soon, and hung up the call.
There began my guessing game to identify Capt., as men walked to the biometric to enter login details. He couldn't be loosely shaved, too lean or too fat given his association with the army. I also thought he must be a handsome middle-aged man after judging his tone and tenor as pleasant; I'd no resistance to prejudice and bias and was as vulnerable as any victim to such prejudice. However, it turned out that my prejudice was right as Capt. Yogesh was more like what I thought him to be. I introduced myself with words I could find at that time and earned the introduction of Capt.Yogesh Kumar Gaur in return.
My first assignment was to draft a policy on metro-allowance for employees moving in and out of metro locations of the company. Captain seemed impressed with my first job and was more confident of assigning me the second task which will be my job for the remaining duration of the internship. I was simply told that I will be joined by another intern, a girl, from a local college with whom I will team up to complete the assignment.
The next day a bright young lady sat dressed smartly in full professional gear in the waiting lobby with her farther. Something about this girl told me that she should be the other intern Capt. referred to yesterday and inquired with her to establish the veracity of my prediction. To say that I was stunned by her confident introduction is an understatement. I had not expected a local girl raised completely in the neighborhood to speak English so well and so correct.That's only the beginning of my prejudices. I soon discovered a good friend and welcome companion in her. Though I had difficulties with Nishita, she made me realize the trivialities of my difficulties by making me aware of my disabilities. But all that happened during the far end of my stay.
That evening Akhil was to throw one more party, his last one in Silvassa. This was to his colleagues and adult friends and I was invited to this one too. I saw more of Srinath and Anbu at the party who insisted I give alcohol a try by starting with beer. Though I politely refused I began to entertain the thought of first drink. There was everything, music, dance, hugs, gifts and photographs that were needed to make it complete.
We returned to our tenement and everything all of a sudden became gloomy as I realized Akhil will not be around from the next dawn. Never did I dislike him for attempting to influence my choices in beverage or trying to teach me how to get along with new people. But, all of a sudden the thought of missing a person who took interest in my social learning, struck me like a current shock. I was too tired and didn't speak much except handing him a little card on which I scrambled something I came up with a little earlier.
After 1p.m. a cab drove by the apartment we lived to take Akhil to the airport. That was the last time I saw Akhil.
The next morning I woke up prepared to face the task of living in an unknown town whose people spoke an unknown language, without the support of my friend (Akhil) who was my mediator until then in social interactions. The first challenge was to befriend Ujjwal my lone roomy now. Ujjwal was an easy-going fun loving sporty personality and it was too easy to get along with him. While I hoped to learn Hindi from him he desired to know more about the origins of my English accent. We liked the deal.
I didn't want to spend the rest of my spare time in the evenings in the attic of the apartment. So I decided to take walks. I explored the market street, bazaar road, churches and temples alone in a cheerful town. Having not made any far in making anymore friends in the town, I pushed my Hindi more and more with shopkeepers and kids in the building. Important among my ventures on foot were the ones along the highway.
The roads led to eerie villages through curvy roads across the unassuming brook; beside which I sat every evening wondering what drew me towards it every time I crossed it, and many more posers in the realm of philosophy. I grew such intimacy with the brook that many a times the destination of my walks have been its bank. I walked all the way up to the stream just to have a seat on its bank. I discovered few more places, beyond the brook, that were guarded by dogs and song birds. When I got tired I made calls to home and friends away in other places for internships. Sometimes I plugged the headphones in to revive myself. But it was on another occasion without the headphones that I first heard the distant music that filled the air and followed me all the way up to the brook.
No matter what time of the night it was, it was always heard and I never missed it once unless I was not paying attention to it. The music was tribal recreation coming from areas inhabited by the tribal clans. What a wonderful social life must these people be enjoying spending the entire evening with their family and friends singing songs and tapping to them. All of it appeared farfetched when I thought about it from where I sat beside the brook. We are never going to socialize the simple-minded way like the tribals. As I spent my evenings drenching in thoughts, walking and listening to folk tunes and watch the brook dry I never longed to be logged in on facebook or any other social media.
My work at the time-being was not demanding, in fact it hadn't actually begun and we had already lost a week in preparations and presentations before the plant heads and chiefs of the company, giving Nishita and myself to plan our work and clarify our roles clearly. Bright Gomez, the new man on Aparajita's roles joined on Captain's recommendation. Bright too was a Tamil. I was a little skeptical about Bright in the beginning but eventually made good friends with him. We had lunch together with Nishita, Anuraj and many other new buddies who were all fascinated by my accent, despite being disturbed marginally.
On evenings Gomez would team with me for dinner and casual walks to nearby places. We discussed about girls, the plant, Captain and his life and home in Tuticorin. On a weekend we visited Daman beach with Akash (Sowmya's brother). Gomez opened up, on our journey back to Silvassa, his grief about his girl friend being married off to another man today. He delighted in recalling memories of them together as he narrated me the whole episode of his love with the girl from his hamlet. That night we dinned at Maruthi dosa center on Captain's advice, only to discover they offer nearly 80 different kinds of dosas on their menu; that's much higher than any restaurant in Chennai that I've known. We regularly met to eat outside and sometimes I invited him to come over to eat at my apartment. Anuraj and Gomez became friends too and the three of us ate out at times.It soon became the three of us discussing girls, but we could never work a plan to have Anuraj with us in our weekend trips.
On another weekend I visited Priya who was interning in Nashik. We visited several places in and around Nashik. She arranged for me to stay at Anurag's house, her colleague from Bosch. Chandini, Priya's roomie accompanied us to all the places we went, adding the zest of a school girl.
Mani came down to visit us on another weekend and along with Gomez we visited a few places around Silvassa. We missed a few items on the itinerary after Mani and Bright had got tired from the walks we undertook in the morning. Earlier the day, Mani was stranded in the bus depot after I dozed on the couch waiting for him till midnight. When I woke up a around 3'o' clock I was shocked to find close to thirty missed calls. I rushed to the bus stand to receive bhai with my hands stretched out.
Our project had progressed a good measure along the plans, however slower than estimated, and I was becoming increasingly busier at work after the safety orientation by Srinath granted us full liberty to walk any where inside the plant with necessary precautions. Nishita and I were constantly encouraged by the staff and Captain disposed every resource to make it working for us. The major stumbling blocks were the department heads lack of time for us to answer a few questions and review our drafts. This resulted in a serious limitation that could not be overcome inspite of me postponing my departure by a week. Against the target of neary 80 JD's we'd made only 20. I was worried that Nishita would be compelled to complete the remaining all by herself, when my absence will have already seriously affected her motivation.
In the meantime I agreed to postpone my stay by a week in return for assistance for accommodation and in booking railway tickets. Captain guaranteed to look after both my concerns and my departure was prolonged.
As days went by I was starting to feel restless and wanted to return home; not because I missed home, but because I came here prepared only for a month's stay and I had bypassed that by a week. The tragic demise of the dad of my friends (brothers) in the apartment struck me like a speeding bullet. Knowing not what to do or how to respond, I went near his apartment and stood there until I could no longer bear the sight of the grieving brothers.
The remaining days were spent in bouts of dejection and rejoice over the progress of our project. I'd my maiden beer on a happy occasion with Captain. The plant was preparing for the Copper committee meeting of the month and for our part I was assigned to present the project to the vice president when called. I had my second beer at the late night dinner, with the Copper committee being unable to refuse Captain before committee members, where I was taken to present the progress.
After the Copper committee meeting Captain offered to lift me to Mumbai the next morning. Even though my train was at 7pm I agreed thinking I could spend the day seeing around Mumbai a bit. I packed up my stuff cautious not to disturb Ujjwal and stepped out of the apartment, that was my home for a month, by 5am. Captain vividly narrated his story from his early college days up till his marriage with Mahima on our journey. Some of it I already knew from Gomez, yet I nodded like I heard it for the first time. I spent the day till evening at Vedanta's corporate house at Solitaire building studying as Captain conducted lateral recruitment for top positions in the company's finance cell. I was dropped somewhere in the middle of the road from where I boarded a taxi to Dadar station. The taxi man like the others, I'd met in Mumbai earlier, was conversant in English and inquisitive. I got off the Dadar station street and after preliminary struggles with the commuters pushing past each other, I found the cloak room where I deposited my luggage and left for shopping. I had the last of my embarrassments in one shop where I had to cut short on my purchases after I couldn't locate my debit card in my wallet at the billing counter. I hurried to the station, as if that will make me out of the incident's reach. I boarded the train and sat silently behind the curtains of my cubicle and away from the noise of the compartment trying to assimilate my experiences of the last one month. I was not fond of going back home either where, upon reaching, I would again be treated like a kid. I knew I was going away from the independence I enjoyed, and yet I'd to go.
A few days in a little town I never knew existed dramatically turned my outlook of fun, travel and people. It has given me memories to look back, fall on and anchor to in times of need; those that will encourage me to forget, to forgive and carry on with my life.
I wished mommy 'adieu' early on mother's day and took the time I had to vacate the room and the horrors I did to myself in trying to resist the idea of being a pampered child. Packing my belongings, I cursed my rudeness and wondered if I could have averted or, at least, expressed my displeasure politely. I felt sorry for mom for having pampered me enough that rendered me wholly insensitive to the worries of an over-protective mom.
Akhil opened the door, probably cursing me for disturbing his Sunday's sleep, after I knocked the door twice, pressed the calling bell and finally rang him up when nothing worked as I moved into the apartment that will be my residence for a little over a month. His sleep was disturbed forever. I unpacked my stuff, wondering where I should empty my luggage. Unwilling to use the cupboard in the master bedroom, I decided to use my suitcase as the makeshift wardrobe.
I felt a sense of relief after tucking the money bag in the clandestine cupboard next to the one heavily guarded by rats. It was oblivion that gave me the courage to handle the cupboard on the wall in the second bedroom.
Akhil, then took me for a walk to his Sunday break-fast and on our way back introduced me to some of his friends, who would eventually be my colleagues. I wondered how to spend the remainder of the day and without much thought gave up to settling in the new household. Following a tiresome morning was a festive evening with the kids in the apartment, who offered me to join them in their game, cricket ,and as a price made me their laughing stock owing to my misgivings of their local cricketing rules and foreigner-like-familiarity with Hindi, the language of the boys on the field. This is the most diverse group I've ever been; there were kids of all age between 7 and 15 and grownups like myself and Akhil. Ujjwal, my other roomy will not join the match this evening, but is usually a part of this troupe. I watched my first, and only, IPL match of the season in the restaurant Akhil to us for alfresco dinning. The kids didn't seem to like the place and so we drove to a smaller regular resto-bar. for Akhil's farewell treat close to midnight and separated from it by only a little over an hour.
I rushed to sleep after getting back late and tired from the party. Akhil, Ujjwal and myself drove to the plant after I got Yogesh sir's consent to join a day earlier. Yogesh, I learned from Akhil was a Captain and was referred as Capt.Yogesh by Akhil. I too chose to address him that way, hoping to flatter him to have him trust some meaningful job to me. But, it turned out that flattery was unnecessary as Capt. had already decided the job for me. I waited in the lobby where I was asked to sit by the cheeky receptionist and wait for Capt. who would come by 9a.m. Capt. did not come even as the clock passed the 9:30 mark and I decided to give him a call to inquire his whereabouts as I was concerned that he could have forgotten about my joining today. Capt. answered my call and informed he was coordinating an external training program and would reach plant very soon, and hung up the call.
There began my guessing game to identify Capt., as men walked to the biometric to enter login details. He couldn't be loosely shaved, too lean or too fat given his association with the army. I also thought he must be a handsome middle-aged man after judging his tone and tenor as pleasant; I'd no resistance to prejudice and bias and was as vulnerable as any victim to such prejudice. However, it turned out that my prejudice was right as Capt. Yogesh was more like what I thought him to be. I introduced myself with words I could find at that time and earned the introduction of Capt.Yogesh Kumar Gaur in return.
My first assignment was to draft a policy on metro-allowance for employees moving in and out of metro locations of the company. Captain seemed impressed with my first job and was more confident of assigning me the second task which will be my job for the remaining duration of the internship. I was simply told that I will be joined by another intern, a girl, from a local college with whom I will team up to complete the assignment.
The next day a bright young lady sat dressed smartly in full professional gear in the waiting lobby with her farther. Something about this girl told me that she should be the other intern Capt. referred to yesterday and inquired with her to establish the veracity of my prediction. To say that I was stunned by her confident introduction is an understatement. I had not expected a local girl raised completely in the neighborhood to speak English so well and so correct.That's only the beginning of my prejudices. I soon discovered a good friend and welcome companion in her. Though I had difficulties with Nishita, she made me realize the trivialities of my difficulties by making me aware of my disabilities. But all that happened during the far end of my stay.
That evening Akhil was to throw one more party, his last one in Silvassa. This was to his colleagues and adult friends and I was invited to this one too. I saw more of Srinath and Anbu at the party who insisted I give alcohol a try by starting with beer. Though I politely refused I began to entertain the thought of first drink. There was everything, music, dance, hugs, gifts and photographs that were needed to make it complete.
We returned to our tenement and everything all of a sudden became gloomy as I realized Akhil will not be around from the next dawn. Never did I dislike him for attempting to influence my choices in beverage or trying to teach me how to get along with new people. But, all of a sudden the thought of missing a person who took interest in my social learning, struck me like a current shock. I was too tired and didn't speak much except handing him a little card on which I scrambled something I came up with a little earlier.
After 1p.m. a cab drove by the apartment we lived to take Akhil to the airport. That was the last time I saw Akhil.
The next morning I woke up prepared to face the task of living in an unknown town whose people spoke an unknown language, without the support of my friend (Akhil) who was my mediator until then in social interactions. The first challenge was to befriend Ujjwal my lone roomy now. Ujjwal was an easy-going fun loving sporty personality and it was too easy to get along with him. While I hoped to learn Hindi from him he desired to know more about the origins of my English accent. We liked the deal.
I didn't want to spend the rest of my spare time in the evenings in the attic of the apartment. So I decided to take walks. I explored the market street, bazaar road, churches and temples alone in a cheerful town. Having not made any far in making anymore friends in the town, I pushed my Hindi more and more with shopkeepers and kids in the building. Important among my ventures on foot were the ones along the highway.
The roads led to eerie villages through curvy roads across the unassuming brook; beside which I sat every evening wondering what drew me towards it every time I crossed it, and many more posers in the realm of philosophy. I grew such intimacy with the brook that many a times the destination of my walks have been its bank. I walked all the way up to the stream just to have a seat on its bank. I discovered few more places, beyond the brook, that were guarded by dogs and song birds. When I got tired I made calls to home and friends away in other places for internships. Sometimes I plugged the headphones in to revive myself. But it was on another occasion without the headphones that I first heard the distant music that filled the air and followed me all the way up to the brook.
No matter what time of the night it was, it was always heard and I never missed it once unless I was not paying attention to it. The music was tribal recreation coming from areas inhabited by the tribal clans. What a wonderful social life must these people be enjoying spending the entire evening with their family and friends singing songs and tapping to them. All of it appeared farfetched when I thought about it from where I sat beside the brook. We are never going to socialize the simple-minded way like the tribals. As I spent my evenings drenching in thoughts, walking and listening to folk tunes and watch the brook dry I never longed to be logged in on facebook or any other social media.
My work at the time-being was not demanding, in fact it hadn't actually begun and we had already lost a week in preparations and presentations before the plant heads and chiefs of the company, giving Nishita and myself to plan our work and clarify our roles clearly. Bright Gomez, the new man on Aparajita's roles joined on Captain's recommendation. Bright too was a Tamil. I was a little skeptical about Bright in the beginning but eventually made good friends with him. We had lunch together with Nishita, Anuraj and many other new buddies who were all fascinated by my accent, despite being disturbed marginally.
On evenings Gomez would team with me for dinner and casual walks to nearby places. We discussed about girls, the plant, Captain and his life and home in Tuticorin. On a weekend we visited Daman beach with Akash (Sowmya's brother). Gomez opened up, on our journey back to Silvassa, his grief about his girl friend being married off to another man today. He delighted in recalling memories of them together as he narrated me the whole episode of his love with the girl from his hamlet. That night we dinned at Maruthi dosa center on Captain's advice, only to discover they offer nearly 80 different kinds of dosas on their menu; that's much higher than any restaurant in Chennai that I've known. We regularly met to eat outside and sometimes I invited him to come over to eat at my apartment. Anuraj and Gomez became friends too and the three of us ate out at times.It soon became the three of us discussing girls, but we could never work a plan to have Anuraj with us in our weekend trips.
On another weekend I visited Priya who was interning in Nashik. We visited several places in and around Nashik. She arranged for me to stay at Anurag's house, her colleague from Bosch. Chandini, Priya's roomie accompanied us to all the places we went, adding the zest of a school girl.
Mani came down to visit us on another weekend and along with Gomez we visited a few places around Silvassa. We missed a few items on the itinerary after Mani and Bright had got tired from the walks we undertook in the morning. Earlier the day, Mani was stranded in the bus depot after I dozed on the couch waiting for him till midnight. When I woke up a around 3'o' clock I was shocked to find close to thirty missed calls. I rushed to the bus stand to receive bhai with my hands stretched out.
Our project had progressed a good measure along the plans, however slower than estimated, and I was becoming increasingly busier at work after the safety orientation by Srinath granted us full liberty to walk any where inside the plant with necessary precautions. Nishita and I were constantly encouraged by the staff and Captain disposed every resource to make it working for us. The major stumbling blocks were the department heads lack of time for us to answer a few questions and review our drafts. This resulted in a serious limitation that could not be overcome inspite of me postponing my departure by a week. Against the target of neary 80 JD's we'd made only 20. I was worried that Nishita would be compelled to complete the remaining all by herself, when my absence will have already seriously affected her motivation.
In the meantime I agreed to postpone my stay by a week in return for assistance for accommodation and in booking railway tickets. Captain guaranteed to look after both my concerns and my departure was prolonged.
As days went by I was starting to feel restless and wanted to return home; not because I missed home, but because I came here prepared only for a month's stay and I had bypassed that by a week. The tragic demise of the dad of my friends (brothers) in the apartment struck me like a speeding bullet. Knowing not what to do or how to respond, I went near his apartment and stood there until I could no longer bear the sight of the grieving brothers.
The remaining days were spent in bouts of dejection and rejoice over the progress of our project. I'd my maiden beer on a happy occasion with Captain. The plant was preparing for the Copper committee meeting of the month and for our part I was assigned to present the project to the vice president when called. I had my second beer at the late night dinner, with the Copper committee being unable to refuse Captain before committee members, where I was taken to present the progress.
After the Copper committee meeting Captain offered to lift me to Mumbai the next morning. Even though my train was at 7pm I agreed thinking I could spend the day seeing around Mumbai a bit. I packed up my stuff cautious not to disturb Ujjwal and stepped out of the apartment, that was my home for a month, by 5am. Captain vividly narrated his story from his early college days up till his marriage with Mahima on our journey. Some of it I already knew from Gomez, yet I nodded like I heard it for the first time. I spent the day till evening at Vedanta's corporate house at Solitaire building studying as Captain conducted lateral recruitment for top positions in the company's finance cell. I was dropped somewhere in the middle of the road from where I boarded a taxi to Dadar station. The taxi man like the others, I'd met in Mumbai earlier, was conversant in English and inquisitive. I got off the Dadar station street and after preliminary struggles with the commuters pushing past each other, I found the cloak room where I deposited my luggage and left for shopping. I had the last of my embarrassments in one shop where I had to cut short on my purchases after I couldn't locate my debit card in my wallet at the billing counter. I hurried to the station, as if that will make me out of the incident's reach. I boarded the train and sat silently behind the curtains of my cubicle and away from the noise of the compartment trying to assimilate my experiences of the last one month. I was not fond of going back home either where, upon reaching, I would again be treated like a kid. I knew I was going away from the independence I enjoyed, and yet I'd to go.
A few days in a little town I never knew existed dramatically turned my outlook of fun, travel and people. It has given me memories to look back, fall on and anchor to in times of need; those that will encourage me to forget, to forgive and carry on with my life.
