Chapter 8: Prepare for Arrival

I thought it looked like she was drawing, earlier. I was not sure, peripheral vision and all that. I can see more clearly now and I see a few block diagrams on the page she is currently writing on. With that, I will settle for studying not creative writing.

A funny thing occurred to me just now. The way I am taking pictures on my mobile every now and then, making notes on a sheet of paper, it might appear as if I am doing a recce of the place. I could be up to something illegal, marking out my route, for a later date when I will need to execute my plan. Luckily for me, I am on an aeroplane, flying miles above the earth. In the air, taking pictures and making notes are allowed. Any idea that I may be charting out the route by doing that is too far-fetched to be realistic. There is not much sense I can make, of the route, with the moving clouds and a beautiful sunset, can I?

I have hit the end of this page and I still have to conclude my writing. I am not done yet. What am I going to do? I really should stop writing and pick up the book I have brought with me, to read. It is called A Walk To Remember, by Nicholas Sparks. I have never read anything by this author before but the book has good reviews at the back. It promises to touch my heart too. 

Let me dig in my handbag and see if I have any scraps of paper I can use, to finish off my ramble-on-paper. 

I've found an email that I had printed off earlier in the day. It is the list of things a girlfriend has asked me to do, while I am in Melbourne. This will have to do.

The clouds outside are all grey now, and below us. The horizon is orange, yellow and a shade of blue or green. There are patches of the dark sky blue colour I saw earlier. 

I am on a ship, cruising along the waters, looking out the window of my cabin on the top floor.

I cannot seem to come up with an appropriate ending. Actually, I need to pee. I have been holding myself for a while now. As I said earlier, I could not find the toilets at the airport, then I could not go because the plane was stationery and then the chick came in and started writing right away and then I waited for her to take a break, which she did not... and there is all that coke I have been drinking. That reminds me. My teachers insisted that I should not use too many 'AND's in a single sentence. They said that made the sentence too long and the reader could lose track of all the things that happened from start to end. My sentences tended to be long, even back then, joined by a whole lot of 'AND's. I may have kicked the habit but it crept in there for a little second, didn't it?

Anyway, I had better go soon. They will turn on the seatbelt signs any minute now and then I will have to wait till we land. I don't know that I can hold for that much longer. There will be a queue of people to get out and sometimes people can be so slow. No. I have to go now. 

My hands are hurting like hell. It is not just my fingers any more. My arms and elbows are hurting too. It has been really long since I last wrote. I have been writing for at least 2 hours. 

Okay. I have just been to the toilet and back. The girl, Elle, is quite pleasant. She was nice about having to get up to let me get out. She had her book, sheets, ipod and a few other things on her lap but she did not seem to mind. Her voice sounds very cheerful. She said something to me when I mumbled an apology about making her get up. She also has common sense. She did not buckle up or pull the tray down till I returned. I think I really like this girl. 

The trip to the toilet was an episode, on its own. A woman entered the loo, just before I reached it. She did not come out for a really long time. I was standing at the front of the plane, where every single person on the plane could possibly see me. After a couple of minutes, I started feeling self-conscious. I could not go back, so I just hid behind the metal wall that separates that part of the plane from the rest of the passenger area. The elderly couple in the front seat could still see me. I saw them looking at me once. Our eyes met and we both did not know whether to smile or not. We settled with a half-smile. That made me even more uncomfortable. 

After 5 long minutes, or more (it definitely felt more), my mind started filling with questions. "Did she die in there?" I thought to myself, willing her to come out. What if she had fainted in the toilet? How long should I wait before I raised an alarm? Do any one of the crew members know there is someone in there?

I heard a little girl's voice from inside the loo. Phew! She had a child with her. It made sense that she was taking her time, if she had a child in there. I had not noticed the child when she entered the loo but then, I was behind her on the narrow corridor between the seats. Another few minutes passed by and I began to wonder if she killed the child. Is that why she had taken the kid into the toilet? I could not hear any sounds inside and there were no signs of anyone getting out of the toilet. I nearly looked down to see if there was blood, flowing out from underneath the door. I kicked myself. I watch too many cop shows! Between the desperate need to pee and the various CSI shows I have been watching lately, my mind had lost the capacity to think straight. 

I turned to look at the things around me. There was not much. A little fridge, trash, something behind the curtains and the exit doors on either side of the plane. I peered to read the signs and markings on the doors. There were quite a few symbols marked on each door, indicating the mechanism to release the doors, in the event of an emergency. Mostly, I could not make out much other than turning a lever here and pushing a panel there. I was concentrating so hard I had the urge to try it out, to see if it worked. 

A fleeting thought passed my mind that moment, "What if I opened one of these doors and let a blast of air in, for a brief second?"

As soon as I thought that, I turned back to the toilet door. I really had to pee. I was going crazy here. What was I thinking? I would kill hundreds of people right there, as the aircraft veered out of control and crashed, thanks to one little whim of mine to open an emergency door while we were hundreds of kilometres up in the air. Bizarre things come to mind when the mind is unable to function properly, due to the strong need to expel bodily fluids. That is my defence. Thanks to all those episodes of Air Crash Investigations, at least I know what would happen. That means, I do not have the urge to actually open the door to find out. Hurray!

Does it seem like I watch too much television? 

To cut a long story short, the woman and her child came out of the bathroom, before I did anything that would everyone on the plane. I rushed in and locked myself inside. When the deed was done and I stepped out, someone was waiting at the door. The embarrassment never ends! Why did someone have to be waiting outside? Did I take a long time too?

I am back at my seat now. Elle is back to her writing. I should have been reading but I had to tell the story that I just finished, so here I am, scribbling away some more. I might as well fill up the remaining half of this page before I wind up. 

Elle just spoke to me! She is asking me if I want the lights turned on. I smiled and said no. She said it was nice to see someone other than her writing by hand, she does not see that often. We both agreed that handwriting was a great thing. I really like her. 

That short conversation answers a few questions. She has noticed that I am writing. She did not ask what I was writing about. Either she does not care or she has peeked at my sheets while I was away. No, that can't be. I am sure she is just being polite. It is not as if I asked her what she was writing, even though the question has been eating away at me since I first noticed her writing. 

While I was getting out of the seat, I saw the title of the book she has been referring to. It says something about Melbourne Design and has pictures of what could be the Melbourne CBD. I can't say whether she is from Melbourne or Brisbane or even from other part of the world. She does not have much luggage but I have learned that people check in their bags even on short trips. Maybe her trip is not short. I'll never know.

It is plain grey outside, like a road underneath us. The horizon is orange and gold. I am on a big truck, cruising along the road. Maybe it is a Volvo bus, cool and smooth.

The captain has just asked the cabin crew to "prepare for arrival". I can feel the aircraft lower altitude. My heart is racing. Did I mention how much I love take-off and landing? I am definitely going to stop writing now. I have reached the end of the paper, my arms are hurting, I need to put the tray back on and the flight has nearly ended. All good reasons to stop. 

It has been lovely to write. I enjoyed my flight, thank you very much.

BPS 1996 Re-Union Part 1

The day arrives, finally, with much fanfare. Days of worrying and planning, arranging things, inviting people and going through the rigmarole of organizing an event finally come to an end. The evening before, when Ash dropped me off at the usual place on the main road, we sat for a few minutes discussing the dos and donts of the wardrobe for today. It was a special day, after all. Having been part of the organizing committee, we wanted to make our best appearance on the big day.

My house was a madhouse this morning. I cleaned out the wardrobe, trying to decide what to wear. Nothing seemed good enough, none of my clothes were perfect. They were either too short or too long or too conservative or too tomboyish or too girly or too bold or so many other things but not right for the day! After spending over an hour going nuts, I text a friend of mine in desperation. He replies saying, "Yes, I shall tell you how to lose weight before noon so that you can wear the perfect dress".

Another few minutes of rummaging through the cupboard, I meet the friend online. "Help me!" I scream. So we start going through my clothes, eliminating one by one. It comes down to "Okay, boring work clothes it is". Shit! This can't be happening to me! I can't wear dull office-wear to my school re-union :-O No! I'm ready to scream now.

"Let's try again", I say and we go one by one. Dresses are out, either too girly or don't fit me. Finally, it's a choice between blue jeans and a brown Tee or black jeans and a white kurta. "Go with black and white", he says. Not the best choice but well... maybe... "It goes with your school uniform", he continues. No!! That does it, I'm not wearing B&W. So, blue jeans and brown Tee it is. My eyes fall on a transparent brown printed top, I like it. If I fit into it, I could wear it with a matching spaghetti and black jeans. Spaghettis flying around, none matching. Back to square one. "Do you have a brown Tee that could go with blue jeans?", he says. No, no, no, I don't want to wear jeans. I want something better.

3 hours since I first started worrying, blue jeans and a light brown blouse is finalized. I rush to shower and when I step out, I'm not happy with the choice of clothes. I try to find a matching top for the brown, printed, transparent top. No luck. Sigh! I try on a couple of other tops, singlets, blouses with my blue jeans, then black jeans. Lohith calls me for pick-up, I don't dare answer! It's 11 and we have to be at the first teacher's place to pick her up, I'm still picking my clothes. I text him that I will meet him in 15 minutes. Then Ash calls and I'm half dressed, still haven't decided on the top. I wore a gown and decided that was it.

Ash says Lohith is going nuts, nobody has arrived at the venue. It's 11.15 and we cannot pick up the teachers without the students at the venue. Shit shit shit! Lohith is on the other line, I hang up with Ash and answer his call. Mohinder cannot come to the venue, Lohith has to stay back. Good God, who will bring the second car to pick up the teachers now? All 3 of us start calling students frantically, trying to get somebody to the venue. At 11.45, Ash calls. Lohith and I have to meet at the C V Raman Nagar junction, she will bring the first teacher there and we proceed to the next pick-up. By then, Ash & I have both had calls from a couple of teachers. Everyone's getting restless! Mad mad rush!

I take a rick to C V Raman Nagar bus stop (bugger loots me, grrr) and walk upto Domino's. Lohith calls to say he's only leaving the venue now, Mohinder has reached. It's noon. I ask him to meet me at Domino's. Ash calls in 5 minutes, she's just passed by Domino's and picks me up. We call Lohith as we proceed to pick up teacher #2. He has still not left the venue. We ask him to come to Thippasandra and call us, we'll tell him where to meet us next. Teacher #2 picked up, I call another teacher who is yet to confirm. She's not coming. I don't know what to say. I thank her and hang up. Ash takes the phone from me and calls back, finds out why the teacher cannot make it (I wish I could talk/socialize like her... damn!). Teacher's mum is ill.

At the third pick-up point, we have 2 teachers but they will not fit into Ash's Santro, so we decide to go to the fourth pick-up point and return to location 3. I call the teacher up and ask her to come down to the gate. Three teachers in tow, we each the next place. Lohith is still not here, the teachers say goodbye to the family and are ready to get into the car. Where is the car? Lohith's still not here! I call him, he's at Poorna Pragna School. I'm ready to faint. "Shishigriha school mate", I nearly yell. "No, poorna pragna", he insists. "Shishugriha, please come to shishugriha", I plead. He sees all of us standing, we were on the next road. Phew! In the meanwhile, the teachers are all excited to see each other. Thank God for that. They seem to have forgotten the delay for a few minutes.

We bundle up all the 5 teachers into Lohith's car. He will take them straight to the venue, where about 7 or 8 students have arrived. Phew! Ash and I have to hunt down one last teacher for Lohith, his favourite teacher. She has been invited but she moved residence in the last couple of weeks and her phone numbers do not work. We do not know how to find her but we have to.

We drove to the teacher's old apartment and I ask the watchman. He says there is no teacher living in the apartment and no one has moved in the last couple of weeks. I report to Ash waiting in the car. She is not ready to take that for an answer. We go back and insist that she lived there and just moved, he must know where she went. After arguing back and forth, he in Tamil and Ash in Kannada, while I'm on phone trying to find out if mum knows, I suddenly hear him say "Madras!". Yes, yes, yes! She just came from Madras, that's the one! I hang up in a hurry and ask him to show us where she moved. He knows exactly where she stays and takes us to her house, just a few buildings away. Bingo!

We ring the bell and she sees us. "Are you ready ma'am, shall we go?", we ask. "Where to?", she says. Silence! Ash and I look at each other. We remind her about the reunion but she says she cannot come because the house owner is fixing up the house for her. Then starts the begging and pleading, explaining how we cannot go without her, Lohith desperately wants to meet her and so do the others, her son could look after the house... Ash talks to the son too.. finally, she agrees. During the loo-o-oo-ng wait for her to get ready, we call up some students. Thirteen at the venue. Rajesh and Sudhakar have gone to get flowers, they call me for the final head-count of the teachers.

Finally, Ash & I leave to the venue. Lohith has given Ash directions and we follow it to the T. Wait! Something went wrong. We went over the hanging bridge and reached ITI. No Bhagini or Fern City in sight. We call him up, he has no clue where we are, neither do we! We ask an auto driver and he sends us right back over & below the bridge. "Vapas jao, bridge ke neeche jao aur flyover chado", he says (Go back over the bridge, take the road under it and go over the flyover). Lohith calls, everyone's here, where are you girls? He can't wait to see his fave 'miss'. I explained to him. "I told you to take the flyover, not the bridge", he screams. We are all laughing. What the fuck is the difference?

Ash and I are tired and starving, both not had breakfast, thanks to wardrobe tension, waxing tension, etc. On the way, Beli calls for directions. Ash & I are laughing so hard, I can't talk. I hang up, clutching my stomach. I can't stop laughing! Beli is at the hanging bridge. LOL. ROTFL. LMFAO. Anyway, all done, we finally reach the place.

The boys look at me and start howling. Martin and Rajesh grab me and want to see my watch. "Hey guys, is it 11 yet?", they say. And there it starts... sigh! Punctuality, 11Am arrival, they can't stop ragging me. It's 1.30PM. Martin is having a party at my expense. "Last year, she didn't turn up, we should be happy that she's finally reached, this year", he says.

Lunch, photographs, chatter, all fun. A quick extempore speech by our ex-headmistress, then Mohinder, some more quick conversations, fun. We give the teachers the 'go-green' calendars that we got them, they are so pleased. They are thrilled that the surprises kept coming. Good good good. Lohith takes all the teachers back home, while Ash and I sit down to have some ice-cream (lots of ice-cream) and start writing little cards for everyone. Sharu and Sri help us put them into envelopes and hand them around. Somewhere in the midst of all this, we have done some calculations and collected money from everyone.

Lohith returns, Ash hastens to explain the accounts to him, the guy wants us to pay for 35 people, we only asked for 30 plates of food, we only ate for 25 people... blah blah
Lohith: Let me just freshen up and come quickly, gimme 2 minutes
Ash: No! Listen to me first. This money, blah blah blah
Lohith: Ok ok, no problem, gimme whatever money you have. I'll pay the rest (he's shaking)
Ash: No! You have to listen to me. This is the account, blah blah blah
Sangeetha: Ash, he needs to pee badly, can't you see him dancing, just let him go
Ash turns red, Lohith runs, we can't stop laughing!

Lohith, Ash and I take a bouquet of flowers and a calendar, meet his uncle and aunt who have helped with the venue and lunch. We all break up and head home, planning to meet at The Beach at around 6.30PM. What a day it has been! So much excitement! I can't wait to go home and get some shut eye. However, that is not to be. Lucky wants to play with me, some quick Facebook updates, an email to my helpful friend from the morning and Ash calls to pick me up again!

Part 2 of the BPS Reunion D-day starts. That's a story for another day...

13 years later...

The D-day is finally here! It's been a wait of nearly 20 years, even though it has been only 13 years since I finished school. During the days that I was still in school, I would sit and day-dream for hours wondering if, when I finished school I would have a re-union with my classmates many years later... just like in the movies. I would try to imagine the feeling and it was never once close to how I feel right now.

The anticipation of the events to unfold has been peaking slowly as the hours tick by. It's on tomorrow but today feels like such a busy day. What am I going to wear? Who will I meet first? What will the teachers say? How many people might have changed from how I knew them? The questions just don't stop. I can't find answers, just too busy wondering about so many things! Trying to make a list of people I should call. I wish I could meet some today, I want to share my excitement, just cannot seem to contain it!

Colours or B&W? Girly dress or tomboy jeans? Should I behave myself or forget myself and squeal when I meet people? Who all will remember me?

I have already met the teachers and it's been a hell of an experience. That doesn't stop me from wondering what tomorrow will be like. It's a whole new feeling given the different circumstances!

Hmmm... Fern City, here I come!

The plan...

Dear All,

Here’s an announcement, based on the request of the teachers for the
change in Venue, we have changed the venue for the reunion. The
address for the venue is below, and the route map is attached.

Ferns City - Club House,,Off Marathahalli Ring Road, Marathahalli,
Bangalore – East.
Land Mark- Near Bagini Hotel (Nakundi- location)
Ferns city is 1 Km before Marathahalli, 1.5km from the Ring Road which
connects Airport Road to Old Madras Road, and is just 5kms from
Indiranagar.

A poolside get-together and lunch has been arranged at the club house
of Ferns City. Please feel free to bring your partners along but
before that do inform us if you will be getting someone as we need to
make arrangements with the caterers.

And there is no need to be disappointed as the beach is still on…
after the teachers are dropped back at their homes we are all heading
to the beach where the party continues. Offcourse we are going to have
lots of fun so don’t miss it.

Cheers,

Ashwini
Rajesh
Saangeetha
Lohith (Ashwin)

The Re-union Teacher Invites & Remembering BPS Days...

I've spent the last week, visiting teachers from my school-days and visiting school, meeting students, listening to current lives of teachers, the current school scenario and re-capturing old memories. It's been such an exhilarating experience! Walking down memory lane has taken a new meaning!

Ashwini and I have been so excited and enjoyed ourselves so much that it never occured us to take pictures. We just lived each second of each meeting like an experience we never want to forget. We never will. Time had no meaning, the minutes just kept ticking and it meant nothing to us. We did not remember to call parents or spouses, did not miss friends... in fact, even cheated a couple of hours out of work and care naught for it. It was simply not worth missing these moments for anything!

Sudha Rao miss, Gopal miss, Chandramohan miss, Hema miss, Mrs. George (madam), Rathi miss, Kanakalatha miss, Rina miss, Manjula miss - what a joy to see them all again. They have hardly changed much since we last remembered them. Whereas we struggled to remember names of about 20-odd teachers that taught us over a dozen years, our teachers remembered us, our full names (including initials), our families, what we looked like back then, little things that we did, our friends.... just about everything. Fourteen years after we passed out with as many years of new students and so many batches, they still have such amazing memories! It is unbelievable!

There are no ways of expressing the feeling. No real words that can describe those hours. I wish I could just contain those minutes in a glass bowl and re-live them whenever I want!

I can't wait for the actual re-union. Students and teachers alike. I know it will be nothing like this. Ash & I feel so honoured and are so glad that we got to invite the teachers, we got to spend quality time with them, we got to see them first and give them the pleasant

surprise.