Panic A-pack

I love travelling. I hate packing. There're some things you like doing and for everything else, there's no Mastercard! I have been trying to pack for a 4 day trip for the last 13 hours. Yes, I am a retard. I have been doing a zillion things in between, everything but packing. (This includes writing the previous post!)

I tried telling myself, "Just do it! It's half past three. You have a train in less than 4 hours. You can't go to the Goa film festival looking like a dumb ass! Just Pack!" It's not helping. I'm slow, almost dyslexic, when it comes to packing. Waaah!

I am gonna make a list of Things-to-carry, and then just dump them all in my rucksack. OK. Sounds good. I'm gonna just get done with this. I don't have an option. Do I? No. Just pack. Quick. Yes. [Deep Breath]

As I prepare and motivate myself to be mentally tough to complete this Herculean task with proper planning and execution, I read my friend's status message on Gtalk - "Whoever said nothing was impossible never tried slamming a revolving door." SIGH!

Mangalooru Mania

4 days in Manipal before I head to Goa. I went through my 'Places to Visit in Karnataka' list. Kudraimukh? Agumbe? "Mangalore!", she said. "Why don't you all come home?", said my roomie, Agent S cordially. I was more than happy, and with the latest Bond flick, Quantum of Solace playing in the Adlabs there - I couldn't have asked for more! Seven of us decided to descend upon the pleasant town- turning- annoying city, Mangalooru aka Mangalore.

"The movie is at 10:45.", declared Mr.B. It's a 2 hour bus ride, so we decided to leave at 7:30, to be there an hour early. With great difficulty, we woke Mr.K up at 7:15 and we discovered that he takes a longer while in the loo, than 2 girls put together! Finally much past 7:45, we left home and boarded a bus to Udupi. Just when we got off the bus, a nice little hotel called us for breakfast, and our senses obliged. "Ah..there's a lot of time! 10:45 only no." said Ms. K. After the idli-vada indulgence, we took an express bus to Mangalore. On the way, I read 2 issues of 'India Today Woman', and came to the conclusion that it's utter nonsense. Some Home and Decor type magazine came to my rescue. Yes, reading about how to match your couture draperies to your luxury bed linen is less painful than reading about how carrots and bananas could be a secret to increasing a man's sex appeal!

We got to the Adlabs theatre in Bharath Mall, only to find out that the movie started 5 minutes back! It was at 10 am, and all eyes were fixed on Mr. B, who had confidently declared that the show was at 10:45. We hurriedly bought the tickets and ran into the theatre. We were huffing and puffing, though it was Bond who was in action already :P I loved the movie. I could say, it's the same league as... umm... well... Casino Royale! Oh come ooon...Nothing else can get into that league! And I am quite biased when it comes to Bond. Aren't we all, Ladies?

Watching all that action caused tremendous fatigue and we wanted to eat again. Agent S arrived, while we were shopping at Big Bazaar, like we haven't seen a supermarket in ages. We really hadn't! Then we went to this place called 'The Village' in Marathahalli. While the others digged into their sea food platter, I relished my risotto with cheese sauce, with a generous sprinkling of mushrooms.And oh, the mashed potatoes were nice too. I had my first sip of Peach Schnapps from Ms.N's glass... well, it smells great. Others indulged in the regular red wine. After the nice and elaborate lunch, we went to the St. Aloysius chapel. It's fabulous, and the Italian, Bro. Antonio Moscheni who painted it must have been One Patient Man! We walked around the college campus and decided to stop for ice cream at Ideal's, the most popular icecream place there. I had a pretty fancy Choco-nut preparation, loaded with cashew bits! My sweet tooth craved for more and I ended up gobbling some gajar ka halwa as well. The place was easy on the pocket, but not on the waistline.

After spotting a condom-vending machine by the side of the road and a long India-is-becoming-progressive conversation, we canned the plan of going to the helipad and headed to Agent S's abode. A pretty Konkani house, with a Mangalore tile roofing and wooden windows...and an attic! It was so Harry Potter-ish when we all climbed the attic and walked across to the dimly lit terrace. Aapam, fried fish, chicken gravy, spicy veg curry, Old Monk, Sprite & Coke for the not-so-adventurous, lots of interesting stories, and Retro English numbers were the perfect ingredients for the wonderful evening.

Reminded me of those agenda-packed, one-day school excursions. So short, yet soooo much fun :)

Hey Whim, I fancy you!

This noon, I was writing an exam after 30 months! Getting back to books is sometimes crazy. But then, it's fun.

As the answer to a question in the exam today, I was expected to write about the effect of new media on globalization. I was already 2 hours into writing the paper, by then I was already bheja-fried... like 'properly'! I was in nooo mood to write something intellectual. So I just decided to write whatever I felt like!

And I wrote this:

"Vinton Cerf, the Father of the Internet will probably be the next demigod or maybe God himself. He abolished the concept of latitudes and longitudes - there's no distance. Now, it's as though Ambala is next to Alaska. Web Content writing is the new-age freelancing. A person in Mangalore is probably writing the content for a website on wild elephant conservation in Africa."

FYI, this is nothing close to what I should 'technically' have written! God bless the examiner! And me.

Later in the evening, Little-Voice-in-the-head said - Maybe you should go home and study for the next exam! I was walking home and just when I reached the MIT grounds, I decided to take a detour. Before the little voice knew, I comfortably seated myself in one of the passenger gondolas of a Giant Wheel! There I was - feeling light - going up in the air - space-shippy!

Random 'I am doing this, for no particular reason' things - I Like! :)