Murphy's Law Multiplied

PROLOGUE: It all started on the lunch table. Heads came together to hatch a plan. You free…me free…Sunday..bikes...

So off we are…5.30 becomes 7…the sky shows us a beautiful painting of the sunrise..what a beginning. Chai and some jabs at Cummins later, we head off to Lavaasa. Every now and then, nature just forces us to brake. Out of the world scenes..making one feel like this is it..this is all I want…  Reaching a lake, we ‘brake’ for lunch. ‘Ramu kaka’ cooking some pohe and pitla-bhakri gives us time for some mud packs, observe insects walking on water, stone bounces,  ‘tab se mai hi baat karri hoon’, and ‘arrey, yeh toh hum se jyaada animals se baat karta hai’!

Now heading to our final destination…Madeghat…Stony road…Sharp turns…can my Access take it? Besides, the fuel gauge is threatening me!  I am just getting the feel of the bike (and too much of the road) when suddenly..eek…my bike rams into a friend’s car! I try to remove it..its stuck..A friend comes out and hauls the bike out. An apologetic smile is given and observations of a dangerously hanging mud guard and safety measures are made (something I would have failed to notice had it not been for mechanical engineers around)..my confidence slightly punctured..we reach a village..Huddled under a tree, a blessing is the last thing we want..It turns out that we thought of too less. Almost on to a shoulder drops a chicken’s foot!! Somebody casually comments on it being a sign of challenge. Leaving my bike to recoup and conserve its energy, I get into the car. Reaching Madeghat, after a tiny climb, everyone gets into snooze mode.

Heading back, with friends acting as moral police to rest of the visitors, the skilled car owner uses his ‘to’ experience and dodges stones. Until the point where a stony patch looks unvisited. Oops!! We did not come this way. Enquiries and reverses bring us back on the right track. Nearing the village, we are welcomed by worried friends and ‘awesome’ news..the bull’s tire is punctured.  Wow!! Just when we think that it can only get better, it turns out that the mechanic can’t perform the surgery. The bike is ambulanced to a nearby village in a pick-up where friends are swaying along with the bike to keep it level across gradients. The other bike obediently follows. As security measures, redistribution of passengers causes the car-owner to give up his rightful ‘drivership’ to another friend. My statements of ‘we should start’ fall on deaf ears of the one whose eyes/ears and if possible, the nose, is also directed to his car. Manouvering buses on the narrow paths makes my pillion want to take on the wheels of his car almost as fast as the rate his BP is growing! All this when the only light there is, is from stars and headlamps.

Finally reaching the village, we come to know that the bike is already being repaired. Long explanations of the mechanics behind it makes for educational entertainment to some friends while the rest of us are busy enjoying a ‘bonfire’. Two errors in fixing the bike, costing us almost two hours at the village, we finally head back. Not just head back..ride on good road..through teeth chattering chills..pep ourselves up with some tea..and reach Chandni Chowk at 12! Hunger calls..but all responders asleep..finally, one is discovered. A good meal..after sudden realizations of how late it is and how one cannot miss office the next day, we head to our respective homes.     

EPILOGUE: The door opens and I expect to see only dad awake. No, every single resident is. I tell them what I learnt today..I won’t take the access on a road trip again. The expected “I told you so” follows (ofcourse the comment is from a sibling!) but there’s more…daddy quips, “Next time…what next time..” I decide to put next times to the back of my head and go to bed after a long, eventful and extremely contented day!

Somebody feels extremely happy as this was something he was really looking forward to. And with its little misadventures, it couldn’t get better!!

Somebody(tedi :p :)) gets to ride the FZ and gets to shift in and out of this universe and a parallel one :p.

Somebody becomes an expert at car reverses.

One learnt few more words in Hindi and felt that taking self-pics is way more entertaining than climbing up rest of the hill :p.

One learnt more about the different screws/pins(forgive the plane jane words instead of mechanical jargon) that go in a puncture.

And the other story, well…it starts like this..tumne suna kya… or just an “ahem ahem”  should be good enough!

Beeeeeeeeeeeppppp!! you landed on the wrong page!

:p :p :p

Express not at all like an Express!!

I never did express…rather, never expressed completely…Maybe our ways didn’t match…Never knew that at the end of it, this is how it would be…on paper…without it meaning anything to you…and me making an effort for it not to mean anything to me…

Real real liking…I dare not use the word ‘love’…what would an amateur like me know…you made me dream…you made me think , analyze piece by piece, of life together…and slowly steadily..I was getting there..the bond growing stronger..who knew that the playful flirting would turn serious some day…that you’d turn so special that a single minute without your thought would be like not breathing…a single day without your messages would feel like colour being drained out of vibrance…a friendship so strong that I didn’t want to lose it ever…but then..pardon the first timer…never got things in time…any meaningful ‘event’ of my life, I had to tell you first…any meaningless cheery event, I still had to tell you first…just talking to you was enough to mark the day remarkable…Your pain was my pain, more so when I understood it…perhaps, that’s why I never told you many things…my feelings never gave in to expressions…never wanted to add to it...nor did I want them to creep out until I could sense entire sincerity…but what did I know…was it a meager extension of general friendship? Days filled with moments spent wishing that I were with you then…excitement and joy on meeting you, be it for 5min or 5hours…hoping that our conversations would never end…why did I let you in?!! Me, who has this big egoistic heart well fortified with deadly crocodile-moats..Why?! And now the moat has run dry…the crocs are gone...I have no idea why it took so long…Now I understand what you meant when you said, “I miss you” or “I am lonely”…I don’t know where it went later…you said nice things…you did nice things…maybe you meant them with all your heart..or maybe it never mattered…but now it shouldn’t matter! It feels like there are soooooooo many things I have to say!! Soo many things to ask!! This expression does not seem to do enough justice!! Soooo many things I have to stop associating with you!! Stop getting disappointed about the fact that when my phone beeps, it’s not you. Stop feeling bad when you do! Stop thinking about you! About what it was!

Some day, I might thank you earnestly for all this…even now, I hold on to that thought that things have worked out for the better...But some sunny pleasant day, I may not question the Higher about why it had to happen…why my ripplefree life seems so rippled…why I feel hurt at the thought of a prick…perhaps, it was just the idea was lucrative enough…the novelty of the experience…some day I might know..some day I’d stop wishing that it should have been everything or nothing…

Awesome song

Zara zara phoolon pe jadne laga
Dil mera..
Zara zara kanton se lagne laga
Dil mera..

Don't become so strong that giving up on something becomes so easy that you don't realize..just a little effort and things can work!

more..

Adventitious, advert, advocacy, aegis, aerie, affected/affectation

My adventitious meet with a foreign-returned friend made me realize how one starts putting on an affected manner and starts advocating the positives of studying outside. He adverted to the topic to the effect of making one think that the way the aerie is to the large hawk, the other country becomes to him. And all the listeners wore an aegis so as not to get brainwashed.

Affront, agglomeration, aggrandize, aggregate/aggregation, agog

That anything is an agglomeration of molecules left her agog and she started aggregating more matter on the same. This interest aggrandized her image in her teacher’s eyes and made the teacher forget the incident which was had been taken as a personal affront was forgiven.

Alacrity, alcove, alimentary, alimony, allay, allegory, alloy (v)

Her alacrity at reaching the alcove not only had an alimentary effect on her lazy attitude, but also allayed her fears. Now she didn’t care for any alimony and her thinking was not alloyed by expectation and undue hopes. Her story was an allegory of laziness, fear and positivity.

Altercation, amalgamate, amazon, ambivalence, ambrosia, ambulatory

The amazon though hurt in the war was ambulatory, in spite of her earlier enjoying food equivalent to ambrosia. But the Doctor’s ambivalence regarding whether she should walk or not resulted in an altercation between her and the Doctor. Then she decided that his knowledge was just amalgamated (unite in one body, combine) from book and not experience.

Amenable, ameliorate

The employee was amenable to the manager’s suggestions to ameliorate his career.

List 3:

Amnesty (n), amoral, amok, amulet, anachronism, analgesic, anarchy, anathema(tize), ancillary

The king’s amoral attitude made his countrymen run amok and his laws that were an anachronism felt like anathema. They approached the local Godmother who gave them an amulet which had analgesic qualities. Thankfully, they granted amnesty to the King, otherwise the country would be in anarchy. However, they decided that an ancillary body of Government is required.

Animadversion, animus, anneal, annotate, annuity, annul, anodyne, anoint, antagonism, antecede

The critics’ animadversion to the director’s movies led to animus between the director and critics. However, the way a glass becomes stronger on annealing, they annotating increased his annuity. His strong attitude served as an anodyne the way anointing an ointment would heal a wound. In this way the nasty remarks were annulled. This antagonism that anteceded his success thus proved useful.

Antecedents, antediluvian, anthropoid, anthology, anthropologist, anthropomorphic, antipathy

Seeing the large anthropoid fossil of an ape, the explorer guessed that in antediluvian creature must have been much evolved. He tried to search for more info, but alas, only to realize that he was looking at an anthology. He could not trace the antecedent of the creature and the reason for its anthropomorphic characteristics. Even though he was an anthropologist, he felt an antipathy to the subject suddenly.

Aphasia, aphorism (aphoristic), aplomb, apocalyptic, apocryphal (2), apolitical, apologist, apostate

The wife entered her new home and handled issues with aplomb. She refused to become an apostate by compromising on her religious belief in spite of apocryphal attempts for the apocryphal change thus rebelling the apocalyptic predictions of society. The in-laws remained apolitical and were neither an apologist nor alleged anything. Thus, was born the famous aphorism, ‘to each his own’. She even went out of her way to help another who suffered periods of aphasia due to acute throat infection.

more words..

Abysmal, abyss, acclivity, accord, accost, accoutre, accretion, accede

The abysmal ignorance of driving techniques led Ricky to drive the car on an acclivity and then directly into an abyss. The other passengers acceded that he must be accoutred with driving skills and safety components, lest leave alone the Police, but the guards at heaven accost him due to the accretion of risks to himself and others. Up there, the guards were in complete accord.

Accrue, acerbity, acidulous, acquiesce, acquittal, acrid, actuarial, acrimonious, acuity

The economics man looked at everything in life with actuarial lenses and did allowed insurances to accrue. However, he invited acrimonious opinions and acidulous remarks from others and finally charges. However, his acuity in logic and reasoning led to his acquittal, without any acrid views from the public and everyone acquiesced to this judgment. After days his acerbity (bitterness of temper and speech) was washed away.

Acute..adj..quickly perceptive, keen, brief and severe

The acute young doctor realized immediately that the gradual deterioration of her patient’s once acute hearing was due to a chronic illness, not an acute one.

Addendum, addle, adherent, adjunct, adjuration, admonish, adroit

On the adjuration of Mr.X to youngsters to stay in India saying MS is just an adjunct to work and nothing more, the academic experts admonished him regarding his reasoning. That addled (muddled) even those who had been adherents worse than how an addled (rotten) tomato could addle (drive crazy) a cook. With his ‘adroit’ efforts, he could write not only a book on screwing up but also an addendum of personal experiences as well.