Children of The Sea 4: The Longest Journey

Things seldom happen the way we think. We thought that all of us would be making this tour, and we also thought that we'd keep awake, share stories and chit chat the journey away. When the train crossed Gulshan station, a tall, bearded guy emerged from the door. He was dressed in a dull white attire, and didn't look any different than the average joe. Oh well, I do wonder whether any "Joe" ever dressed up like that, but I am not supposed to complain about the weakness of English language here.

He was looking around confusedly, and after a while he made a surprising move. He approached Afzal's seat and asked the guy sitting beside whether anyone was travelling there. He said "Maybe this seat belongs to someone, but he hasn't arrived yet. The bearded guy in a very innocent manner commented that he can't find his seat, and will it be okay if he sat there (until the owner arrives). Although the guy seating besides Afzal's seat had no right, he gladly agreed to make Captain White Beard his journey companion. It all happened so fast that we couldn't react. After all, who were we kidding? Afzal isn't coming, and the seat is of no use. So all of us in a silent, brilliant way, agreed to keep shut about that seat.

I am quite sure Capt. White Beard had no tickets with him!

Anyways, I had no intention to fall asleep, and nor did I want to sore my eyes by constantly looking at the small Gameboy screen. The games were fun, but the gadget is in no way properly lit. As if people are not supposed to play this thing after the sun sets. The lack of any cell-phone-monitor like light was disgustingly annoying, and for that reason I will never buy a gameboy advance.

Suddently Ashique suggested that we take a walk through the compartments. I didn't know that we were allowed to go from one compartment to another. I was especially interested about seeing the Air Conditioned places, to see what we missed by saving Tk 450 each. So we started going forward.

Now the train was moving, and each compartment was losely connected via a dangerously shaky extension. Apparently, these extensions are not part of any of the two connected compartments, in a complete manner. Walking through the compartment itself was difficult, as I had to be ever-conscious about not losing balance and falling over some semi-awake random stranger. Despite of being extra conscious, I almost fell over a sleeping couple. Thanks to God, I was saved from extreme embarrassment at the last second. My feet somehow found the floor in time.

Passing the first connecting area was scary. I thought I'd fall anytime. However, strolling through a couple of compartments made me confident, and I kind of ran through the rest of the journey. It took us more than 15 minutes to walk through the whole train and reach the compartment adjacant to the engine. I saw a person sleeping just beside the engine. Both the engine and the sleeping place was separated from outside by a steel cage, and the sleeping place was also separated sideways via another cage. The person was sleeping a peaceful and sound sleep. I felt like joining him. You know, that'd be an experience of a lifetime! I could tell all my grandchildren, friends and colleagues (oh well, the latter two groups would never believe) that I slept with a train engine. Lol....a long long time ago, when I was looking for the meaning of the word "Euphemism" (yeah yeah IBA admission test preparation), the example was like this: "Sleeping with someone is an euphemism for having sexual intercourse". It seemed extremely funny to me, as intercourse itself seemed an euphemistic word to me!

We came back, and at the end of the journey, all of us agreed that we've managed to make this somewhat boring and eventless train journey worth while by spotting three eye candies. There was one group of two girls and two guys, whom seemed like English medium people. Now I don't have any prejudice against people who study in that medium, but I hate it when they pretend to be someone or something(!) which they are not, and will never be unless they get as rich as Michael Jackson and reverse-tan themselves.

After reaching our own compartment, we went up to the next few compartments, too. These were the economy compartments, and the place looked really pathetic. Once we reached the rear end, I felt really happy, and I announced that me, Tushar and Ashique has just conquered the train.

We got back to our seats, and sold our conquering story pretty well to the others. They regretted that they didn't accompany at the beginning. Oh well, the conquering bit didn't make the thing attractive, but the chick observation did. Typical bachelors!

Hearing the details, everyone else wanted to take the tour, too. We said that we could do it when it's a bit more late. Eventually we did make another trip, but the people standing in front of the AC compartment stopped us this time. I was leading the procession and I had to make up some crap and went through, but they said "please get back early or we'll close the door". The AC compartment is actually a number of rooms locked from inside, about which we didn't get to know anything apart from the fact that even if you accidently brush your hand against one door, the people inside would respond instantly.

The train journey was going smoothly. After the 2nd conquering, I dragged my exhausted self in to a seat, and asked Murshid to hand me over the bananas. That was when our last supply of anything edible got depleted. Not finding anything else to do, I tried procrastinating, which too, got boring after a while. That was when I realized that it's quite hard procrastinating on a shaky and bumpy vehicle.

In half slumber half consciousness, I heard the train getting stopped. I thought someone had pulled the lever. I remembered how we shared some jokes about pulling the lever, previously. There was a sign stating that if someone pulls the lever without a justifiable reason, he or she will be fined tk 150. We figured out that if we put in some of our travel budget, we could do a series of pranks on the travellers by pulling the lever every now and then. However, we also agreed that there was a high chance that the lever won't work at all.

It took me a while to get up from the dazed state I was in. It was around 5 AM, and the sun was already up. From people's conversation, we came to know that there has been an accident somewhere front, and for the reason the whole route got jumbled up, and our train will wait untill all the forward routes get cleared. It was a place near Comilla district, called Hasanpur. As April is the only person we knew from Comilla, she got blamed for all our misery--"She and her stupid district". We dismounted the train, and tried looking for a shop where we could get something to eat. All of us were hungry, due to keeping ourselves awake.

It was Hasanpur junction, and there were only two shabby hotels there. We entered one and had tea. The tea tasted really awkward, and we were cursing our luck. We even tried looking for a bus to get through with the rest of the journey. But the query results weren't satisfactory--bus ride would take 4 and half hours.

We felt devastated, and hopeless. The delay was killing us. Every second lost meant that we'd get to spend some less time in the sea. After roaming around aimlessly for a while, we got back in to the train. In disarray, I tried to get some sleep, and I guess I managed to fall asleep.

It was indeed one of the longest journeys of my life....and it wasn't over yet.

To be continued....

Children of The Sea 3: Flashback and The Training

Murshid told me that he'd come to my home if Afzal can't make it. Afzal and Murshid lives in almost facing homes, in Rampura Mohanagar project. Me and Pintu went out at 10:15 PM, and Murshid didn't reach my home till then. So I was quite sure that Afzal is also coming. However, I still had my doubts. From the very beginning of the planning; Afzal, Pintu and Tushar were expressing their doubts. Only me, Murshid, Ashique and Sujit gave almost 100% confirmation. When we restarted planning, we didn't even involve Afzal, knowing that his chances of going would be thin. Just 3 days before our planned departure, he was informed. Many of us plead him for joining us, but he kept on saying "I'll try", and nothing more. Tushar had an exam on Thursday... a mid term. So he counted himself out quite early. However, he was saying that he can only change his decision and bunk the exam if we go to St. Martin island. So we tried to get some info regarding the level of safety of the journey. Disappointingly, most feedbacks were bad. No one recommended a journey to St. Martin at this time of the year.

After Afzal agreed to go, Tushar followed suit, and we thought all 7 of us were going. But unfortunately, Afzal's parents were very adamant in their standing, and Afzal couldn't ignore the emotional blackmailing. His mother said "You can go if you want, but neither me nor your father will like it". Maybe many of us can ignore such a statement, but I do agree, things like these can't be dealt with rational view...it's rather an emotional issue.

Me, Pintu and Tushar spent almost the entire day before the journey, shopping. We went to the market opposite to Dhaka College, which was being referred as ODC (Opposite Dhaka College) by my pals. We bought a football from the market, as well as different types of wearables. Finally I came to know what a "Three Quarter Pant" is. Okay, call me a newbie, but I neveer claimed to be a dressy person. We were in a shop where Tushar chose a pant. However, the trouser was a bit crippled. The shop owner said that it'll be fine after washing and ironing. Tushar was saying that we didn't have time for that. Instantly, I felt like passing a cheap joke. I asked Pintu, when's our flight, again? We were going to Norwayfor no apparent reason, and we needed the stuff urgently!

The football was bought because Pintu wanted to play football on the beach. It was an appealing idea, and all of agreed to put in our funds for that ball. Whilst buying the ball, we had mango juice, but none of the ball-sponsors excluding the 3 of us agreed to include that cost in to the total purchasing cost of the ball :@

I called Afzal while reaching the station. He sounded sad, and I didn't want to lengthen the conversation due to its depressing nature.

When me and Pintu reached the station at around 10:45 PM, nobody else was there. Shortly, Sujit, Tushar and Ashique arrived. It was discovered that Tushar forgot to bring the camera, and Sujit's one could only take around 60-70 pics, in digital format.

Our compartment was "Tho", the letter used for writing "Thelagari", "Thela (Push)", etc. The compartment was at the rear end of the somewhat huge train; the Turna express. I don't know why, but the name Turna reminds me of Tuna fish, which is a tasty treat when combined with mayonnaise and bread. We jumped inside the compartment. I literally jumped over the steep steps.

The compartment was medium sized. The toilet was at the left of the entrance, and in front of that, there was a small area for the smokers. Keeping that place behind, I had to walk about 5-6 steps to reach our seats. We had 4 "chairs" distributed over two rows in such a way that it forms a square quite nicely. In each chair, there were two seats. We had only one seat in the top right chair, which we bought for Afzal. He didn't come, but we wanted to use that seat for dumping some of our bags and stuff, or at least that's what we thought!

Tushar brought 10 CDs for his diskman, which I had to accomodate in my bag. I also tugged in a copy of "Shesher Kobita" by Rabindranath Tagore, also brought by the same person. Last night I wanted to borrow the book. But out of nowhere, Tushar booked the borrowing! Anyways, soon after the "training" started, we headed off to the smoker's corner.

All these 6 people were heavy smokers, with one being a secondary smoke inhaler. This person has been falling a victim of circumstances for a long, long time. When all your friends smoke, you just can't get away from them. You have to stay there and inhale the secondary smoke. This way you can stay close to your friends. At the beginning, you have a tough time accepting this smoke. But as time goes by, you become immune.

Now I can stand smoke like anything else. It's nothing...just another environmental disaster like the smells that come out off a wrecked toilet or the mass garbage situated in Jatrabari (no, it isn't yaatrabari...go to hell if you thought so!).

Then the caterers came in and showed off some tantalizing specimen of food. Despite of being expensive, I felt hungry. But we had our own food. Bread, Bananas and Boiled eggs--thanks to Murshid and Ashique. Not too surprisingly, we ate up most of our food by 1 AM.

After a while, we settled back to our seats and I started playing NFS: Porsche Unleashed and Super Mario Bros. in the gameboy and Tushar started listening to Chondrobindu. Others were dozing off. Pretty much a boring site, undoubtedly.

Suddenly a brilliant idea struck our minds.....

To be continued..

Children of The Sea 2: The Orangeville

Maybe it was an impulse decision, or maybe it was not--but it was a unanimous decision that we'd avail the train route whilst going to Chittagong from Dhaka. At the beginning, there was minimal opposing, from a few, but soon we all agreed that a train journey would be really interesting and different. I was really excited, as it was going to be my first train journey in almost 10 years. I don't even clearly remember what happened on that journey. I was coming back with my family from a place called "Kaoraid (Cow ra eid)", somewhere near Gazipur. My mother's father's brother (mother's chacha) lived there with his family.

Anyways, me, Pintu, Tushar and Ashique went to the Komolapur railstation on 19th July, 2005 to buy the tickets. We couldn't decide what type of tickets to buy. There are several categories of tickets available, ranging from first class to berths and chairs and some other stuff. We were attending an extended adda and planning session in Murshid's home, before leaving for the ticket buying adventure. He was hospitable, and we had a great adda at his place, after a long, long time! Actually we haven't quite addafied in his place for a long time due to lack of space.

Well, that day was a house full day. All 7 of us were there. Even Afzal was there. There was a time when he was the most regular attendee of these sessions. But in recent times, due to his busyness in job, and probable change in priorities, he's become quite irregular. It was good to have him there with us. The adda was lively, and we were making all kinds of plans. Finally, at around 9, we packed our bags and four of us went for buying the tickets. Sujit said he was too tired to go anywhere, and headed off towards home. Mursh

The late night journey was pleasant, and the traffic density was low. After pondering for about 30 minutes or so, we finally bought 7 tickets for the Turna express, each costing 150 Taka. The train would start at 11 PM the next day. We did get adjacant seats, but not the facing ones. In every compartment, there are two facing rows of seats in the middle. Those are the most sought after seats. But we couldn't find any such vacant rows, in any of the 10 something compartments of the only train destined for Chittagong at 11 PM that day.

I was on leave on 20th July, the day of our departure. Infact I took the rest of the week leave, starting from 20th. The day was spent in excitement. I wanted to take a gameboy advance with me, but I didn't have one. So I requested Tawfiq bhai to lend me his one. He came and gave me the cute lil' thingy at around 11:30 AM, with 4 games. I actually wanted to take my sick monitor to the computer shop that day. But it didn't happen due to a mixture of lazyness, inconvenience and weight! Damn the monitor is the heaviest computer gadget, and the 17 inched ones are literally huge. It's been while since the monitor is producing obnoxious red, horizontal lines every now and then. Amusingly, the lines often disappear if I hit the monitor from the side. I've been hurting my hands quite often in this process!

Pintu came to my home at around 10:10 PM. I was playing Unreal Tournament, for the last time(!) before leaving for Coxsbazar. As soon as he arrived, dad started complaining about my irresponsible behavior and lack of concern for meeting the train deadline. So I had to shut down things and head off towards the door. I bade farewell to the folks, and together we headed towards the station, with a bag full of usables and a heart full of hopes and anticipations.

It wasn't before 10:45 PM that I came to know that Afzal wasn't going with us....

To be continued

Children of The Sea 1: Prelude

The last blog entry of mine is incomplete....but I don't feel like completing it. Infact, I don't want to talk about it again, ever. I'll instead write about the latest happening of my life...yet another tour outside Dhaka, with my friends. This was the 2nd tour with my school and college friends. I've written about my last tour with these people, some time earlier this year.

This time, we went to Coxsbazar, and the journey was really memorable. I don't really think I had more fun in any other tour, and probably this will remain my best tour for a long time. In between these two tours, I've also been to Shillong, India. But that was an official tour, and I didn't even feel like writing about that one.

Anyways, before I get in to the story of Coxsbazar, let me talk about few other things. Today was my 3rd last working day in GP. The release process is going smoothly, and I spent a somewhat nice time talking with people whom I've been working with, for the last 1 years and 8 months. Gave an exit interview to the HR people which went smoothly. It was difficult going to office today, as I was really tired from a day long journey on my way back to Dhaka from Coxsbazar.

It all started soon after our last journey in Netrokona and adjacant places. Soon after getting back from there, we started planning on our next journey together. We were almost ready to go to Rangamati in mid June. But it didn't happen due to a last minute refusal from 2 members of my friend circle. I was really disappointed, and I got so pissed off that I decided that I am not going to take anymore initiative; anytime soon.

However, things started rolling again after all of us became available again. First it was 4 tourists, then eventually it went up to 7, and then stopping at 6. Here we were, 6 old friends, united together for venturing the sea. For 2 of us (not me), it was the first time going near the sea. I am really thankful to Ashique for taking the initiatives again.

So we decided that 20th evening will be the day of our departure. The week before that was spent in excitement. We met almost everyday, making and changing plans.

Oh damn...so much of blabbering, and yet no Coxsbazar story. I actually spent some time updating my 400 plus days old AG blog. Only AG members can view it, so there's no point sharing the link here. If you are already an AG member, you probably know what I'm talking about. I kinda quit writing there, but felt like writing there today...and it sorta happened.

It's 1:22, and I have a driving class in about 5 hours...so I better go get some sleep. I'll definitely write the story.

A Taste of Reality

I think I'm a bit selfish with my blog. It's almost always "me" stuff, instead of "we", "them" or any other thing. But again, I once promised to myself that I'll only be writing for my own pleasure. This means topics that don't interest me, or the things that I don't like writing about will not be covered in my writings. But sometimes I feel like breaking this rule I have set for myself. This is kinda annoying, and freakish to some, but I have been a man of standards. Quite a long time ago, a person very close to me told that I have set some standards or ways of life for myself, from which I never break out. This is not good news, cause I've never wanted to be considered an adamant and bigoted person.

What should a person do at 2 AM, knowing that he has to wake up at 6 AM? He should definitely go to bed. But I don't feel sleepy at all, because I slept up to 2:3o PM in the day.

It was in 2001, right? Yeah, 4 years have passed since the fateful day. Worldly events does affect us, no matter how far we are living and how much different our lives are. September 11 did affect our lives. But it'd be dishonest of me if I say that it changed things totally. I was sad for the people who died, and I felt hatred towards the people whom allegedly took part in the massacre. But that's it. I was anxious to know about my relatives living there, and also about a few irc pals, but that's pretty much it. Maybe I'm being too much pessimistic, or maybe I'm being an ass as well. But yes, it doesn't matter much even if hundreds or thousands of people are dying in US, London, or any other place.

I didn't experience a death before year 2000. Not that of anyone I knew well. Till then, each and every death news would make me sad, and depressed. I'd spend some of my time mourning, and sometimes even praying for the departed souls of the people who were dying every day, in different parts of the world and for those who were lucky(!) enough to make it to the papers.

But I didn't really know how death looked like until my grandmother died. She was an old woman, but she was in full wit and sense, even on the day before her death. She had to be hospitalized due to physical ailments, but it never looked like a life-taking illness. I won't get in to the details as it'd make me all emotional and ruin this writing, but the experience was bitter, and the incident left its marks in to me.

That was the first turning point. The rosy picture of life started to get substituted by the dark and frozen images of death.

It got even worse when my maternal uncle died in 2003. 2 years, and it still feels like a few days ago. By then, I've become totally indifferent towards death. If a full-of-life 39 year old person can die so easily, anyone can die anytime. This is the truth. This doesn't mean that I am always thinking about death, but I know that it can happen anytime. So there's two perspectives operating here. As I can die anytime, I should not put in much effort in to this life. Well why should I?

But the other perspective is more appealing. As time is short, I should try and get the most out of it. Always taking things to the next level--hell yeah! That's the thing to do. But I can't say that I don't hold myself back at times when the thought strikes me--"What's the point of all this rushing and panicking? Isn't life too short to go that fast?".

I am indeed a loser. Trying to bury the inner lackings under the guise of frickle arguments like "life is too short".

Oh God...I talk too much.

Honestly speaking, I didn't read through the whole news regarding the bomb blasts in UK. I didn't read the Tsunami news either. Why? Cause death is natural. One way or other, it is going to happen. Not even the strongest forces of this material world can delay a death. This is all old information, nothing new or revolutionary. I do agree to the fact that one has no right in accelerating the inevitable process by getting himself involved in to it. That is, the guys who were flying the planes over Japan had no right to drop the nukes on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Similarly, the hijackers had no right in crashing the plane in to the World Trade Center.

But it happened. Maybe it was meant to happen in this fashion. I once read about an interesting movement by a renowned actor of this country. The main theme of the movement was "I want to die a natural death, not one through a road accident". Isn't this a bit too much dramatic? I agree and admit, it'd be all too good if there were no road accidents. But does it really make any difference? A crippled corpse and a hospital-bed-dead corpse is all the same--both are corpse. My mama died off a road accident, and part of his body was seriously crippled during the process. It took me a lot of toughness and perhaps idiocy also to refrain myself from crying; after seeing the dead body. But would it make any freaking difference if he died in a hospital, out of ailment? The fact is, he is no more there to talk about leadership skills, the voice of Pail McCartney, how his baby child is not growing up as a smart kid, how he loved Romel's voice and how much he liked Bangladeshi food.

My mother would cry a lot after his death. She'd say all the time "My brother must have gone through a lot of pain". Sigh...pain or no pain, it's a death. It doesn't make any difference.

I am being a very unpleasant and rude person, but please don't ask me if I'm sad because some bomb blast in some prosperous capital of some ex-collonial power had killed a lot of apparently innocent people. I have my own deaths to mourn about.

Worshipping the Shoeshopping

Today I went to shoe-shopping. I am not a very dressup savvy person, but times come when one needs to purchase the bare necessities in order to get rid of embarrassment. I've been going to office in GP with a very miserable pair of shoes for the last 6 months or so. Well the shoe was not miserable when I first bought it just a few days before my final interview. But the shoe has worn out due to the heavy usage it had to undertake.

Now I am a very lazy person. My friends, family, and lately my colleagues have also found that out. I've always been an 11th hour guy. Things just don't get exciting unless they're done at the eleventh hour. Don't you get double pleasure out of doing something when it's done in a very stressful condition? Now that I've just written this, I think it's like a death wish. Kinda like walking down to a rival gangs territory, bare handed and barefooted, only to be hopeful enough to pick up an SMG residing on the roof of a house, very much near a hood of rival gangsters. Thanks for ignoring the gangster bit and getting the true essence of the story! Recently I've been playing a game involving gangsters, a lot. The game's so enchanting!

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/gta4/review.html

So me being the lazy guy, I kept on pushing the shoeshopping date for quite some time. But today I went there. So how it happened? My choto mama appeared as a catalyst. He came here yesterday night, and stayed over. I think I have written this before. Me and this mama of mine (who's getting married next mama) are really close. Although he's 3 years older than me, we were really close. Together we share a lot of sweet memories. Today morning my mom (his elder sister) was complaining that I don't go shopping and buy the things that I should. So he momentarily proposed to take me out shopping.

Yeah, shopping alone is definitely a boring thing to do. No matter how confident one is, it's always good to have a companion to verify the justification of a decision to be made. We first went to Rifles Square, only to know that it's closed on Saturdays. And then we had to experience an unbelievable rickshaw ride from rifles square to Elephant road! Due to the dumb rickshaw rout limitation program of Dhaka Municipal Corporation, we had to take an alternate route around Dhanmondi, Kolabagan and Greenroad, which eventually brought us near the Bata Signal. This is crazy, insane, and extremely inconvenient. Neither there's a good bus link for this route, nor there are any other convenient vehicle to avail. The CNGs and Taxi Cabs will never go such a short distance, and walking is not a feasible option with scorching heat and "not-unlimited time" on hand.

So after 20 mins or so, we arrived near the shoe market in Elephant road. I am not a fussy shopper. I made up my mind after visiting 5 shops. Lol...I applied a process of elimination thingy with a shop, where someguy from the shop was loudly saying "Noakhalir manush bhalo na". There wasn't many good shoes in that shop, nor which could appeal to me, but this was a big blog (lol). Well, I am not a pure Noakhali soul...my family comes from Feni, part of the greater Noakhali district, and hence I always feel a nearness to the infamous Noakhali clan. Hehe, I passed the joke to my mama and we shared a good laugh.

My pre-IBA days taught me the thing called process of elimination. A good tool, that can be used for almost any cases with multiple options. Some of the more useful things that I've learnt from the whole IBA phase of my life.

The guy who sold shoes to me had a George Harrison like moustache. Kinda like the moustache George has in this pic:

The right most guy is George. From left to right:

Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, John Lennon and George Harrison--The Beatles.

I was planning to buy one pair, but I ended up exceeding my 3500 Taka budget by a hundred and getting back home with two pairs. One is a casual wear, while the other looks fully official. Anyways, after getting done with the shoes, we went to the ancient Elephant Road computer market from where mama bought a box of blank CDs and I pried my eyes on a gamepad and a joystick. I was broke, and it started raining heavily.

We took a rickshaw and went to Eastern Plaza, without using the cover that was offered to us by the rickshawpuller. Hey am I using too much passive voice today?

Eastern Plaza looked and felt crowded. Especially the mobile plus cd market was flowing with people of all ages and sizes. It shows how mobile savvy the people of Bangladesh has become. But we were discussing that it's all about showing off. People are ready to spend a lot on a nice handset, but they are not willing to spend money for making calls. Complains aside, there are more expensive call rates in other places, but they are smart enough to depict a rosy picture which we can't (or maybe BD people are too smart for these deceptions).

I grabbed an x-box CD for my Australia living cousin, and got back home safely. Stayed home up to 6:45 PM. During this period, I had lunch, and played GTA: SA. This happened after msn acted weirdly with me! Later on, I had a nice and interesting conversation with a rare-to-get-hold-of person :-) and then I headed off to a friends home, along with another friend who joined me soon after I got out. This rendezvous was not pre-planned, but I loved it.

Three of us went to a driving school, for taking the first driving lesson of our lives. All of us were excited, but we didn't express the excitement directly. The instructor was funny, and whimsical. But as we three were the only learners today, we had a good time. Today was a theoretical class day, where we learnt the usage of gear, the different tools that are available to a driver, the clutch, the break, the handbreak, the ignition button, etc. I am really looking forward to driving the real thing! I only have 1 hours kart racing and hundred or more hours of NFS and other car racing game's driving experience, but not the real thing!

I am so friggin' excited! Not much less excited than joining Banglalink. By the way, I'll be joining there on 27th, and hence I found this idle time for utilization. The other pals had this venture pre-planned, and I just decided to join in.

Life's looking good at this moment...hope this phase lasts.