I am alive !!!

Yeah, I know, so cliché!! These days, every blogger uses the same words when they resume blogging after a looong gap; either as the title of their post or as the opening line!

Well, in my case, I didn’t take a break from blogging because I didn’t have anything to write. Infact, I had a few posts lined up and had also written and saved them. But then, one fine morning, actually evening, after getting back from school, my laptop refused to switch on. After repeated attempts of trying to make it work (I even tried the traditional banging-the-laptop technique), I took it to its authorized service center. The guy over there mumbled something in ‘technology’ and all I understood was ‘corrupted OS’. I begged, pleaded and must have also shed some tears asking him to save all my data – I had two photo albums, a couple of videos which I was working on, those blog entries, and a couple of my recordings which were left to edit, all in my desktop and with no backup ! But the bugger said ‘no’ with a sadistic smile! On the same day my bike, for some reason, didn’t want to take me along with it and I had to leave that also for service.

I still had my wifi connection at home though and kept accessing the net through my mobile; that’s when I was active in FB. Something happened to our phone lines and two days later, I lost that luxury too. For almost a week, it remained that way, with absolutely no sign of getting fixed. There was just two more weeks for me to shift to Kochi (yeah, even that happened!) and I decided to cancel the connection, rather than calling the customer service as an everyday routine. My bike was still in the service center and didn’t hear from those laptop guys too (couldn’t call them and enquire the status because the number in the bill was incorrect). No bike, no laptop, no internet; totally stuck ! The day I received my bike, I went straightaway to check the status of my laptop and those idiots, apparently, had fixed it long ago and forgot to call me. The laptop was more like a vegetable, it just had a trial version of the OS and it required an online connection to get activated and not to forget, I also had to download the drivers. The relocation to Kochi was to happen anyway in a few days, so didn’t bother to get a data card for internet.

My adventure with the service centers continued in Kochi as well. A week after reaching Kochi, my phone was the first to give me trouble. The moment I switch it on, the stupid thing gets stuck with no display or sound. According to the mobile service fellas, the one of the board’s parent, mother or father, passed away and I would have to pay 75% of the mobile’s cost to get bring that parent back to life; yeah, like I am crazy to pay that much!! Next in line was the bike – oh yeah, again. Those TVS guys in Trivandrum totally destroyed my bike which was once upon a time happily riding in Chennai. After receiving my bike, it was my laptop’s turn to drive me nuts. It crashed once again and carried it once again to an authorized service center. And, it was only then I realized that those Trivandrum HP guys had replaced my monitor; I used to have a monitor with a built in webcam and now I don’t!! Yeah, so much for authorized service centers!! Anyway, the day I brought the laptop back home, my external hard disk crashed!  The hard disk was the only source of backup I ever had. I would’ve gone to depression if anything happened to all those data and so was ready to go any extent to get it fixed.  After a three week long struggle with the service center, I got my external hard disk and just when I thought that the good days were about to return, my bike came up with a new problem. Petrol was leaking from the tank like water pouring out of an overflowing tank; again, something which the Trivandrum TVS guys were responsible for. I just left it at a nearby workshop this morning and I am expecting to receive it sometime this week.

Exciting, isn’t it? If reading the above two paragraphs was confusing enough, just imagine what I would’ve gone through. There were times when I had this strange feeling that somebody, somewhere is playing that supposedly funny game ‘Axe your Ex’ with me 😀 😀 😀 😀  Sigh! I am eagerly looking forward to the next stuff that is going to enter the ‘give-poor-vimal-a-headache’ bandwagon!

Ok now, to answer the question, what am I doing in Kochi ? Nobody asked, eh? But you know what, I don’t care. This is my blog and I will write whatever I want; so there !!!

What attitude, no? Blame it on my school, folks!! Attitude – the trait that I hate the most in people, and a subject which my school is interested in teaching me these days. The other important subject is politics. There is something about keralites and politics, guess it runs in our blood; we can see our people playing ‘political’ games in school, college, office and at times, even in our house. Honestly, I am least interested in it because I don’t understand these subjects and try my best to stay away from all such classes. I am not kidding, but the students in my school are also graded based on their attitude and performance in politics. Obviously, my grades are low because of the poor attendance and the ever increasing arrears in both  the subjects! Oh, forgot to mention, I am still in the same school with the same students and teachers around; just that I got a voluntary transfer to another branch.

Kochi , as they say, is a happening place and a lot better than Trivandrum in terms of the amenities, but certainly, way behind Trivandrum in terms of the roads and cleanliness.  And oh, atlast, I got to see a shopping mall that is not Big Bazaar! The most important aspect for me in a city is its people and I must say I have had some real bad experiences with the people in Trivandrum; I am glad that people are a lot lot civil here. A Trivandrum fanatic would disagree, but having stayed in various parts of Kerala, I can easily make out the difference. Probably, I am wrong, but that is how I feel. Kochi is overcrowded, I agree, and the traffic, sometimes, gets onto my nerves. And guess what, the city is blessed with a lot of swimming pools which we need to dodge and drive while we are on the roads. Not that I love this place so much, but Kochi happens to be just three hours from where my parents live. Moreover, this is also the Missus’ native, and now that she has friends and relatives around, I don’t have to give her all my attention and time. As it is, I had only a few hours left in my life after my hectic school schedules and so, you can imagine!! Speaking of friends, remember this ?

“It was my first day in Trivandrum. Srijith had come to pick me up at the station. After helping me with the luggage, and before even getting into the car, he said, “Daaa, theres a bad news, I am moving out of Trivandrum in 15 days. I got a good offer in Cochin” !!! The weather was already so damn gloomy and it was like a perfect movie situation; I could actually feel a cool breeze of air caressing my skin and touching my scalp. In a few hours, it started raining cats and dogs which continued for days, flooding certain areas of Trivandrum for the first time.”

And so, my best friend is also here. The poor guy has been a helping hand ever since I arrived and is literally trapped !!! Buhahahahaha ! On a different note, it rained like crazy for almost a week when I reached Kochi too and like always when I reach a new city, people said “ooohhh, you know, it hasn’t rained like this ever !”. Don’t know why it happens all the time, but the moment I relocate to a new city, it pours and pours and pours and…. The same happened when I first set my foot in Chennai, way back in 2001, that too during the month of June !!

Anyway, if you think any of the ‘aforementioned’ are the only reasons that made me move to Kochi, then, naaaahhh! The missus’ parents have a house here that’s been unoccupied for a while, and when you get a rent free accommodation in the city’s prime location, isn’t that deal a steal or what!! I have been receiving comments on this decision of mine, but I really don’t care because I still haven’t given those people the mantle of my life.

And guess what, these days, I am very careful with my anti-marriage comments because all it requires for her to shut my mouth is a “Get outta my house”!!! Who am I kidding, eh? Will a lion ever stop roaring just because it caught cold once? Buhahahhahaha!!  Oh wait, IHM, you should mention about this in one of your ‘Joru ka Ghulam’ posts and ensure that V-Lokam get some extra hits ! 😀 😀 😀 😀

That’s it from me; let me go and reply to the comments for my previous post; the one I published 3 months ago 😛 😛