An Unusual Home-coming

"She told me I was living in the past....
... Drinkin' from a broken glass"


Ah.. so there we be.. sometime back in December last year methinks.. the year of the Gun.

I'm wandering the streets of Hyderabad for the first time since I left the place in '89 or '90, back when I was a pup. I call the old man and get the whereabouts of the old cribb, and head for it after my event is done.

'Blue Moon Hotel??' I'm asking people to get an idea of where I am, as opposed to where I should be. Blank faces are all that hit me. I'm beginning to think this may not be the right name, and then finally an old man's face lights up in recognition of the name, only to tell me the hotel's been taken down long ago. So much for landmarks.

Twenty minutes and more than a few wrong turns later, I reach the lane.

The lane.

New buildings, new shops, fancy cars (and a lot of them!) dot the area, but the lane's just the same.. I spent two years of my life running up and down the blooming thing, and at the time its 100m length seemed much, much longer than it does now. I can see the gate to my old house, right at the end of the lane, on the left side. It too, is new. Much bigger than it used to be. All the better to make friends with.. For that matter most of the gates on the lane are bigger, cutting out the residents and their houses from the prying eyes of passers-by. I suddenly understand why my grandfather gets rather misty-eyed and dazed every time he sees a place he hasn't visited in a couple of decades. It just seems... wrong, somehow. Like a weird dream in which I know where I am, but at the same time it's completely alien. I start walking.

I pass by a couple of houses that I remember from 18 years ago. Houses where I spent a lot of time on weekends, playing with He-Man toys and plastic swords. Not to forget Pomeranians who bit me while wagging their tails. Surprisingly, those two houses look exactly like they used to back then.

My mind goes back to those days, as is inevitable. I see myself getting onto a battered old red Atlas bicycle which belonged to my older sister. It is my first attempt at a 2 wheeler. I'm now a big boy, and can't be seen on a childish tricycle anymore. Uh-huh.. NOT happening! The family cook is with me, supporting the cycle from behind, and walking along with me. Ten minutes later I'm totally feeling it... I want the wind in my hair.. no more of this support nonsense. With a loud whoop, I take off down the lane in Armstrong fashion. The cook gets left far behind, a shouting speck in the distance. The exhilaration drowns everything else out. This is AWESOME! But wait a second..

What ho? A foe? Oh NOOO!!

The enemy is closing in on me. The main road. DAMNIT!! Why, oh why did I not bother to learn how to stop the blooming vehicle??? And why do these things only occur to people when it's too late? I don't know what's going to happen. But I do know what I don't know. And along with the things I don't know is the fact that I DEFINITELY don't know how to stop. Think, boy, think!
Ah.. the brainwave dawns upon me. The mind sends forward the message. The body obeys, and executes. Classic co-ordination. I ride straight into a garbage dump at the end of the lane, not killing myself and cushioning my fall at the same time! Genius I tell you.. if a bit of the smelly sort.

This truly is one of those things that falls under 'Experiential Learning', I'm told.

I snap out of the flashback as I find myself facing the all too familiar plot of land with a new gate. I walk in and am dazed for a second. Maybe more. There's my house, almost the way I left it all those years ago. There's a sudden rush of emotion and memories that drown out everything else. Next thing I know is there's a gardener talking to me in Telugu, probably asking me what I want. I try to tell him I used to live there and would like to meet the owner so I can maybe take a picture or two of the property to show my mum. This proves to be much tougher than it appears.

After twenty minutes of trying I finally get my message across. In this time I've learned that the person who now lives in the house is a doctor of some kind. A Pediatrician.. I'm rather looking forward to this meeting. Should be interesting. Damn, it was!

While the gardener is calling him, I quickly get off a few snaps of the house and the spot where the garden used to be, but what is now the car park. The front door opens just then.

I walk forward with my super polite smile perfectly in place; my face oozing innocence such as only my face can. My hand is outstretched, indicating the desire to make friends and develop a 'Oh-You-Know-I-Lived-Here-Too-So-We-Must-Be-Brothers' bond. Maybe the forces that be have a way with ruining such daydreams. Next thing I know, there's a pistol staring me in the face, about three inches from my forehead.

Err.... I stopped...and realized the world isn't full of 'nice' people.

Its full of doctors who claim to love human life, but that's bullshit.

Go figure.

SUPERMAN!!!!

Holy F*&%^ing Sh%t !!! This is it! God is in the building!
Dwight Howard taking over the NBA Slam Dunk Contest 2008
Beat that!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bivplYX6r5s&feature=bz303