Its long since anything's been posted here. A good many things happened in between too. For starters, I finally moved out of my nest. To a bigger city, free of the confines synonymous with small town life. To the state capital. And as evil omens go(READ: rains, rains and more rains. Oh, also an influenza epidemic at cousin's house where we lodged up), life almost began on the wrong foot in the Capital. A PG cum dungeon reminding one of Charles Dickens was in store, along with ace characters as fellow cellmates. A nosey cookwoman and the 9 year old irritating mass of bones whom she acknowledged as her son, who also is the youngest pervert known to my existence. A calculating, cunning, evil giant pretending to be human acted as our warden who was never there in the PG anyway. A ghost fearing recent convert to Brahminism who doesn't believe in Evolution and Darwin, chats with Khuda through meditation and studies law at the University. Huh. The 'Rendezvous With Weirdness' stories'll need a separate volume of their own. The saving graces were the friends one got to make there. F, A, M, T, R, B, V. Those're the faces I'd miss.


                                                             The Dungeon



                                                     The empty left side was my part of the cell

Good news is that the jail was violated mercilessly and yours truely managed to escape, along with two other friends, after much dramebaazi and ado. Now we haunt at a flat with a clean bathroom and ample space and privacy. And good food. And the reason as to why this post seems rushed, well it is rushed. No 24x7 net connectivity like before.


                                                                       The new flat




                                                              View from the terrace




                                                               View from the terrace


Life in the big city is good. No Big City Blues for this staunch supporter of (moderate) materialism. The kishmish on the payesh're the fabulous bookshops, which the mothertown miserably failed to provide. And what I loved even more was my eureka moment of discovery of the secondhand bookshops. Secondhand bookshops exist in reality! And not only that, but a whole locality filled with such shops!
*insert smalltowner gawping emoticon*


                                     Okay, I forgot to photograph all the good books in the excitement






                                The staircase we've to climb to get to our coaching centre 
                                         when the lift refuses to work, which is often


My life completed its first 19th years sometime back too. The first birthday away from the parents. Also the night after was the first time the offerings of the barley and the vineyard were partaken with kinsmen (and a woman), with Nirvana as the background score of choice. Even later at the night, I also discovered that my prejudice against smoking didn't hold true under the effect of sufficient daru.





Am I happy? I don't know for sure. What I know? I miss my parents. My bed. My cancerous computer. The friends, rivals and soulmates. All those people I liked having around. Nahaz and its overpriced fried junk goodness. Jhalupara and its irreplacable momos. The legendary addas. I'm not homesick and dying, but the yearn is still strong. Like they say, all good things come to an end. Must come to an end.






                                                        And the choco-crusher at KFC