Najibabad. Internet. People.

Today, 4 pm, Bharat Complex Cyber Cafe, Najibabad.

It was not a new thing for me to go to the Bharat Complex. I have been there so many times for internet when I didn't have a broadband connection even though the Rs 30 per hour the guy there takes wasn't right from any standards, I thought.

Still, today I needed to go there as I needed the print out of my Dell Laptop quotation so that I could tell bank how much it cost me.

I went there and told him I needed to get a printout from my mail. After 5 mins he got me a system. I logged in. I got the mail, downloaded the PDF and said, let me check it. By the time I could complete my sentence, he had clicked sign out. Of course, he had no time to check it.

Well, he launched himself into the printer room with the PDF in his hand, in a pen drive. By the time I got in, he told me it was 8 pages long. Pretty fast, considering I'm not slow by any standards. I was sort of shocked and asked him not to print it all and just give one page when he told me he had already given the print command.

I thought it would not be much of a problem as it'd cost me Rs 16 at max and since I hadn't asked him to print, he might consider taking a bit less too.

Guess I was wrong. Not just wrong, but actually shocked when I asked him how much I had to pay and he said Rupees 40!

Rupees 40 for eight, black and white A4 pages' prints which actually I didn't want because I could fetch the price of my commodity on a single page. Seriously speaking, I had to control my anger and I was sort of showing my magnanimity when I handed him the money. The interesting thing is that when I asked him that I and he both knew how much these eight pages really cost, I got an answer that he only knew as he was the one earning. Well, the logic was quite okay but I still wonder how I could justify Rs 5 for a printout.

After half an hour when I was chatting with my dad about the printouts, for the first time it occured to me that buying a printer was a much better option as the guy could buy a printer with the margins he got on every pack of 500 A4 sheets. (500 pages x 5 Rs per page=Rs 2500, almost the cost of a printer) In fact cartridges too could be bought in that much.

I think Najibabad is a pretty self dependent place now, as far as internet is concerned as I can see many people with net connections now, but if you need to go for printouts, and the guy in your mind is the Bharat complex one (as it's one of the best running cyber cafes), consider buying a printer. The same thing as I am doing now.

Fire in the Boiler

"Yaar ye baar baar power cut kyon ho raha hai?" somebody asked. We were all busy discussing movies and music in Abhishek's room, just next to mine. Or we can say my room is next to Abhishek's, as he owns the first room of the Mohalla, the corridor of friends we are proud of.

"It seems Dutta has put on his big boiler again." came a reply from somewhere in the room itself.

We kept up our discussion.

Suddenly power went off again.

This time my mind's power came back and I was running before I could actually think much.

I went into my room and saw fire coming out of my boiler. Mittal, my roommate, was sleeping a few feet away, oblivious of the fire. And my boiler was burning to ashes. Power was not there, of course, and the fire in one corner of the room was making a pretty horrific scene.

It was a small plastic boiler with a capacity of little more than a glass of water. I needed some hot water for a cold n cough medicine so I had poured a glassful of water, switched the power on, and went out of the room for a spoon.

And they were discussing some song, and then some movies, and I forgot I had left the boiler in my room. To burn itself.

I called them as fast as I could. And all of them came in within seconds.

No further questions. They all started trying to put off the fire. Motz was trying his best to put off the fire when suddenly a falling piece of boiler fell down on my hand and fell down to the ground. It had touched my hand for an instant but I felt it was burnt badly. And within seconds I was at the wash basin, with one hand on the tap and the other under water.

Actually it happened so fast that I could not even feel any pain in my hand.

I could now see the while peeled-off skin of my hand.

That was when Amit came in and saw what had happened to my hand.

And before I could think, he decided we were going to the health centre.

It was 12 in the night.

I really could not think. I asked them if I really needed to go to the health centre. I'm sure it was. But I didn't realize it at the time. But that doesn't really matter. Cause when I came back to the room, the centre of attraction had suddenly shifted. The fire was gone, there were only ashes. Pretty hot, of course. Some one of us had switched on the power too. And I do not know how many of my friends were walking with me. One holding a mug of water, in which my hand was immersed.

Soon we were on the ground floor, with Jeet and I-don't-know-exactly-who-all watching every step of mine. My hand was once again under the cold, chilling water tap, while we were waiting for the Ambulance.

I stood outside the block with a half wall beside me, my hand still in the mug of water.

Oh, how good my friends were.. All of them were there with me.. Some 8-10 right in front of me.. These were the thoughts which were crossing my mind when I realized I was fainting. I collected all my strength and called Jeet who was standing nearby and told him I was fainting.

"Don't worry. Ambulance aa rahi hai." He said and sprinkled some water on my face.

I didn't faint. But I was not in my senses either. The ambulance came and they almost lifted me and put me in even though I tried to walk up.

And then we were enjoying in the Ambulance, talking the most senseless things which I do not remember now. Jeet, Ritvik, Motz and don't know if anybody else was there. Probably Apoorv.

Finally I reached the Health centre and was surprised to see Dr Reghuraman there. He had already had an encounter with my fainting problem the last time I was in for a blood test. Well, he simply suggested a silver sulfadiazine and the nurse did the bandage.

Motz had also got slight burnings so he too got the lotion.

We came back in the same ambulance and this time I remember we were talking of movies. Resuming what was going on in Motz's room a few mins earlier.

"Amitabh Bachchan and Mallika Sherawat," I asked my question, lying on the bed in the ambulance.

"What? Any such movie exists??"

"Darna Zaroori hai."

"Chup ho ja yaar! Tere haath mein problem hogi bolne se..." Jeet had no other way out.

versus

I really have no idea why I'm writing what I'm writing in the manner I'm writing. Basically this is a result of the brainwaves that were in my head for a long time.

If u think there is any specific point u didn't get, ask me n I'll try n explain.

If u get nothing n still want to, ask in parts please. :)

Love vs Arrangement vs Force

Personal life vs Family reputation

Personal fears vs Elders' Experience

Personal experience vs Elders' fears

Young vs Old

Children vs Parents

Possibility vs Impossibility

Positive vs Negative

Negative vs Positive

Positive vs Positive

Negative vs Negative

Months of practical vs Ages of theory

Early vs Sudden

Logic vs Emotions

Emotions vs Logic

Pragmatic vs Traditional

the list actually goes on...

Talk Addiction

Well, you must have heard of the cellphone addiction. Cellphone addiction was something that kept people sticked to their cellphones. Be it games, SMS, or calls. But have you heard of people losing some sense because of cellphones, the way people get high on alcohol and drugs. In case you have not, just observe a bit more.

Yes, there is something in talks. When talking on phone, people do things which they generally don't. Some 4-5 days ago, when I was walking with a friend, I saw a girl with a long leaf of the tree she stood under, breaking the leaf into small pieces, in front of the whole lot of people standing there. I asked my friend what that girl was trying to do. And she told me the girl was talking on phone. That was when I noticed the cellphone sticked pressed between her neck and shoulder. 5 minutes later, the girl had two leaves in her hand, and I could hear a friend of hers shouting in front, "Hey X, I'm gonna tell people you're doing deforestation here!"

Today, when I was coming back from food court after having some plain dosas (3 to be precise) and a coffee, sort of a bit high as I could feel I was sleepy and had taken a coffee and had started feeling lonely (a normal effect of having a strong coffee on me), I saw a girl who looked a bit different, to be true, a bit like the crazy girl from the SASTRA's play in Riviera (maybe because I couldn't see the face of either due to their hair falling on face, the striking similarity). I was myself feeling a bit high but the girl was visibly high as I could see her walking on the fine line made near the footpath. The road was of course empty but the way she was walking made me feel something was wrong with her. And once again I noticed a cellphone in her hand she was talking on, walking unconscious of people watching her, at least me, if nobody else.

In fact, I have found even myself doing things which I would not do otherwise, while on phone. I remember walking on a pipe once (one pretty big in size, horizontal, over a big, clean drain inside my hostel area, and of course, not tough or risky to walk on) which I still look upon and think how I did that.

Actually this is pretty interesting. Although it may not be considered good by many people, in the world today where people do not do things they want to do and where everyone is afraid of bringing outside the child sitting inside themselves, this is something that makes people do they really want to do, things they do not even realize they want to do. And the world outside too watches. Amazed.