Human life is a wondrous maelstrom of almost infinite number of events that shape and nurtures a person. They inspire us, bring us to our knees and then help us to keep going on with our lives. Most of the time we don’t care to give a damn for the minute details, just floating over the big and blunt ones. For me, it is sometimes a confusing mess of intertwined time and space, flowing on a single direction and unlikely to be discovered completely if ever. Even though, some events never forget to leave a mark on memory and touches life.

The place where I come from is deep inside landmass and just on the feet of Himalaya. Obviously, sea is not one of the things I usually jostle with. Arriving at Pondicherry two and half years back changed all that, for good till 30^th December, 2011. I actually got sick of sea a year back after my daily experiences, it became dull and just a huge amount of water hanging in there. So when I got the news of supposedly approaching cyclone Thane amassing in the Bay of Bengal on 28^th December, I couldn’t care less. Being a geek, the first place I checked was the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD from here onwards) website and it gave a rough idea that a severe cyclone was approaching the coast of Tamilnadu and south Andhra Pradesh. While the primary point of attraction was Chennai in the whole saga (and it was horribly wrong for a prediction all along), news outlets started showing Pondicherry as a possible landfall destination. As a self-aware and confident idiot, I didn’t mind at all for the next day, 29^th December. I even went as far as tweeting about Thane’s being late to arrive at the scene. But when it started to rain slowly but confidently with determined continuation on the same day, I thought it was better to be prepared for anything that was to come. Eventually the thought of stocking necessary items in case of an impending disaster pervaded and I approached my nearby bakery to buy enough amount of stuff to get going for at least two days. Drinking water was already aplenty in the room so that was least of my concerns. Some candles and fresh batteries for the torch joined the buying list and soon it was complete. I was ready for the war or so I thought.

My inherent infatuation with daytime sleeping like an owl meant I already slept enough on the day and was definitely awake at night, constantly tweeting and following the IMD website for their often late bulletins from my phone¹. Around 11 PM at that night, power went away for the first time but only to be restored within a few moments. It just gave away the forthcoming power outage and I was prepared, with all my phones charged to full of their capacities. It was not until 12 AM when wind started to howl and coconut trees became harmonized with one another in oscillating. Anyone who has the experience of late March – starting of April winds at afternoon can easily speculate about my point. Slowly the howling turned into stifled roaring and at around 2 AM it was just not safe to go outside. The last IMD bulletin talked about projected landfall at around 5.30 AM and I thought perhaps it would touch landmass at least 50 km away from Pondicherry and that was the best it could do. It’s enjoyable when nature just loves to toy with your expectations and throws them at sea. Power cut ensued again and this time for long. Without anything specific to do I decided to take a nap till landfall, only to be woken up by the sounds of roaring wind and violent shaking of the windowpanes. The darkness gloomed everything and I braved for a quick view of outside through my window. Just lightened by a diminishing pale moon, it was hell of a scene out in the shadows. Leaving the fresh spell of water that instantly wet my face, I had never seen a tree branch flying before in my life. It took me quite some effort to close the window again and wasn’t completely sure if it would hold up through the night. Sound of a tree being uprooted soon followed, accompanied by the distinct noise made by a removed corrugated tin roof as it hit the ground from third floor. Just when I was wondering about the well-being of people who used to live there on the other side of road, window glasses got shattered with a high pitched sound that came from my left. That newly completed house didn’t get through a whole year before getting scratches. Wind was blowing at approximately 60~70 kmph by then, with gusts reaching 100 kmph at ease. With all my network connections dwindling, I barely managed to check IMD website for any updates but there was none. With another thatched roof gone, I heard people panicking and crying out loud below. It was pretty sure that cyclone Thane had already made landfall and that was somewhere very near to Pondicherry. At this moment, the makeshift cardboard blockade that I made for my room’s ventilator just blew inside. For a split second, I couldn’t think of any possible movement from my side before springing out of my bed. I had to plug it and obviously the cardboard was not a wise choice anymore. Without any other viable options, my beloved whiteboard came handy in this occasion although it took me quite some time to stabilize the whiteboard against gusting winds. Thane had no reasons and intensions to stop at that point, roaring and rolling over Pondicherry like an alien warlord. Thankfully, the winds couldn’t find any more ways to enter my room afterwards as I waited patiently for Thane to slow down or move away. After terrorizing the whole city and neighbourhoods for nearly five hours, Thane finally started to move over westwards from Pondicherry at 8 AM in the morning. It was still not possible to open a window without letting the rainwater come inside. I opened the door to corridor to see the conditions outside and it was filled with tree branch, leaves and gravels but the wind was manageable and most of its roaring properties had diminished. Within two more hours, wind was back to being normal with continued rainfall – for the heck of it, cyclone Thane had finally moved away from Pondicherry.

It was still not completely safe to take a stroll outside as there were severed wires lying around almost everywhere. Electricity and water supply was out of order, as expected. I didn’t venture in the roads till afternoon, but it was a hell of a mess out there. There were no hoardings left standing and most of the shop signs were either missing or lying scattered on roads. Almost every other tree was uprooted, as confirmed by the news agencies later that nearly 75% of them didn’t leave standing. According to the government estimates yesterday, total damages done by Thane cost roughly around Rs. 1500 crore to 2000 crore. As confirmed by locals around Pondicherry, there is still no power at many parts. People living in the outskirts suffered more heavily as most of the houses featured either thatched or corrugated tin roofs.

As I mentioned before, there are some events that do leave some marks on one’s life. And there is no reason for cyclone Thane for not being in that place, it simply rocked my life. Surely there are people who saw more grievous things in their times and perhaps won’t recognize the severity of this storm as I do but that does not change the fact that cyclone Thane was the most disturbingly powerful storm Pondicherry has ever seen and a sits permanently on a corner of my memory.

P. S. Interested persons can see the aftermaths of cyclone Thane in my University here at this album by Kuppu Samy K S.

¹ A heartfelt thanks to BSNL 3G to work even under the duress. It does not work in normal conditions though, but that’s another story.

SHIT Happens, no wonder, it does happen. There are things in our normal, pretty simplistic lives that just have instantaneous ability to turn the tide of our moods, and sometimes lives towards rather disappointing fringes. One just can’t accept or deny the things that happened within a blink of eye or a continuum, we start blaming our fates and the billions of Gods out there to break our necks. The scene with Atheists is a bit reasonable, they don’t condemn the superficial archetypes but often end up incriminating themselves and others around. Anyway, the fun of seeing others in ‘deep shit’ stems from our very inheritance. Accept it or not, we do enjoy shit happening to people, so here’s one from my life today, enjoy.

Incidentally, at my place in Pondicherry I have a open place just outside the corridor of my room. As my landlord got a water tap installed at that place, I happily perform my ablutions there in a daily basis. Being at second floor, I also have a rather steep shaft just beside the enclosure between my landlord’s house and the neighbour’s. Here’s the deal, I place my shampoo, conditioner and whatnots on the boundary wall while taking my bath and a strong wind did blew the bottle of shampoo away, forcing it to jump in the gorge. Obviously I got freaked out, just a little lower than blowing off my shorts I was wearing at that time. Being disgusted, I peeked towards the chasm, only to be reassured that the bottle got stuck on top of a window at around 2.5 meters below. So this almost naked daredevil with soaked hair and body took charge of the situation, started climbing down the nearest water pipe with caution and reached the place at one piece (with minor bruises) after a minute. Grabbed the bottle and threw it up and suddenly it began to feel like I’m alone in a hole with no one to pull me up. Quite like a mis-adventurous guy, I had a momentarily doubt that it’s not possible to scale that height without help, water on the bruises wasn’t helping either. Well, people do have their own fears that can even make a drowning man doing somersaults like dolphins out of water, there was a huge risk of depleting biryani in my near by shops, a risk not worth taking on a peaceful Sunday. So this jerk pulled himself up, adding some more bruises to legs and wrists. I was feeling quite like Aron Ralston, without the missing arm and all. A huge endeavour, in my terms, felt like celebrating with some novelties. So continuing with the bathing, I came to finish and started drying myself up. Now look at the situation, a lone guy at the place, drying himself up with a little celebration in his mind, what can go wrong? A plenty of things, if you ask me. Does anyone believe what a small, unknowing knock from one’s elbow can do? It can topple things, thing that was rescued from the belly of a beast, towards the darkness again. And this time with enough force so even the interfering window couldn’t stop it. Practically speaking, I certainly came to know how a asshole face looks like, seeing myself in reflection on water. Barely had the intentions to take a gander on the abyss again, and it didn’t help this time. The bottle had gone, quite surely this time as a number of different angles around the place didn’t help me noticing it back.

Therefore, the bottom line is that life throws a considerable amount of chances and mishaps in disguise at the same time. Losing the bottle again and for all gave me one significant lesson today, never walk away even when you think it is over. It is not over, it never is.

Certainly, the title is quite counterintuitive. It’s like considering both ends of a magnet together, pressing them in tandem to make the things whole while they repel each other with all their physical interactions. Sounds intriguing since the collaboration gives them contrast, the two parts of relativity presented together. Now the case with me in this semester is quite the literally title-wise. The inner tedium keeps me awake while the body refuses to take anymore, to give in and embrace the bed. It is quite unexpected for me the way this whole matter turned up. Is it those quite boring and monotonous classes on the University, lack of interesting projects on hand, meeting pissing people all along the day or is it simply my body clock?

 

I never had a doubt about being introvert. From my early childhood within the range of my remembrance to this day, I never felt like I am the guy who is going to put his shirt off and rock a party. Barring the usual bad culinary and all those stuffs, it was one of the prominent reason not to choose hostel when I got admitted in the University. Now I can't say it is paying me off a great deal, but at least I'm living the life I wanted.

Am I?

There are certain things I need to clear out here first. I do have some plans for my life and I am pretty much resolute on these. I was, I am and I will always be there for my first love Physics. It is something I crave for in my life, it is something that gives me purpose. But putting that aside, am I just a bionic structure which runs a customized program on Physics? I do not think so, I do have feelings like any other human being. I love to talk, to connect with people who think alike and who do not. Getting back to my introversion where I started this piece, I cannot just jumpstart conversing with people. I feel numb at times in gatherings especially for this reason, and just want to run out of the place.

On the other hand, the good part in all these emotional breakdown talks is that I did gain a couple of great friends here. People whom I actually believe to be caring for me, people who do think that I am worthy of their time and companion. Most of the times I do talk a lot just because I can't talk with anyone else when I get back in my room. I can't deny the fact that I feel depressed when I am alone. And the buddy I like most accused me of something I never thought of - obsession of avoiding people!

He thinks I have this obsessive compulsive disorder to avoid people around me, I feel satisfied when I can make people leave me. Now that attracts a really important question before me? Am I hurting myself without knowing it? Am I getting more alone by accepting the fact that I am alone? Is my depression self inflicted?

I do not know, yet.

It’s been an year since I landed on Pondicherry. I clearly remember that lad having some expectations, landing on Pondicherry railway station on August 12th, just an year ago. But there’s nothing to be excited about the proficiency of my memory, to be precise I don’t vaguely remember the year passed by in between. Call it my fault of seeing delusions of grandeur but time has its own way to fly by, especially when you’re active. Several things on my lifestyle got improved on their own ways, I got a lot thinner (which is not always a good thing for health), tried to maintain a goatee, drank a lot of soft drinks (well, alcohol is not my stuff), banished a lone mouse from my room and most probably developed my own theory of nothingness. And about that getting thinner part, people close to me always cried foul on my reckless eating habits. Now, I won’t mind what the world is telling me until it really affected me, both mentally and physically. In this case, it surely did fleshly yet took quite a long time to hit psychologically. And I’m not the only one to blame here.

A man is born in certain place, takes some bits of cultural identity in him from the places of his being and has a complex set of characterizations. Definitely, he is omnivorous but the title does not always help in his well being. A swift change of place is very much possible these days, thanks to the technological wonders, but a instantaneous change of taste? That’s not quite easy as it seems, not for me who is certainly not a fan of acidic sourness. I understand that these guys live in quite searing conditions, but that doesn’t justify adding acerbity to anything and everything eatable. Having a lot of varieties in culinary here is a fool’s paradise no doubt, but being without any diversities is unbearable. Now messiahs of cultural identities can jump into the situation and have the imaginary delight of having my head on their dinner plates. “Either you honour the culture or ‘Eff’ off”. There lie some complications as I can’t leave this place, the only remaining thing is to shut up and have whatever you’re given. It’s an autocratic burden on me but I don’t have much choice. It has undoubtedly taken its toll on me, turning me into my present semi-skeletal physique. Therefore at the end, I’m compromising with the situation. SIGH.

Someday!

 

It is always a delight for me to visit a new place, places where I’ve never been before. I love the way it unfolds for me, presenting the bits and pieces of new culture, people and heritages. Even though for academic reasons, when I first came to Pondicherry, my experience was nothing different. I began to appreciate the people, their originality, helpfulness and enjoying the ways of life. But, there’s a certain period when the bubble bursts, hurling people inside to a harsh realistic world. Parents left for home and suddenly it felt like a huge amount of void appeared out of nothing. Responsibilities became clearer than ever, for nothing other than my own survival, alone.

I was never afraid of taking a duty, especially when it’s for my own interests. So, it did not become a pathetic situation for me where I can’t do anything but cry along (it became like that for so many people in university, mostly for girls). Eventually, I decided to kick start things and everything began to roll out finely. Well, ‘almost’ everything. The first and foremost problem I faced which blew my mind away was the language barrier. More than 85% population of Pondicherry are Tamil and frankly speaking I did not have slightest idea of that language apart from a vague image that it was something really hard to learn for non-Tamils.  And that image isn’t changed as of now. Nevertheless, one has to live. I quickly found out that common people have really impromptu concepts of English and it would be a tough job for me to get them and make them understand me. Regularities didn’t pose any problems for me, since even a dumb guy can express if he needs to get a cup of tea standing beside a tea stall. But soon things went beyond being simple and hilarious incidents started taking places. One for example, our University Canteen -2 doesn’t serves meals (it means a plateful of rice, sambar, some vegetables and a cup of butter milk) before 12:30 PM. Unknowingly, I went there and asked for it, only to be refused and advised to come on or after 12:30. Incidentally, the time was 12:15 then and I replied to the counter “OK, so it’s just 15 minutes to go”. Adding to my surprise, the man on the counter promptly retaliated, “NO NO, DON’T go, stay here!” For a while, I was awestruck and couldn’t manage to tell something. That guy really knocked me out. Just picking the last word of my speech and ignoring the whole of it, he thought I needed to go out and quickly asked me not to do so!

I feel these incidents are more on the funnier side than posing serious problems. Those are the little mischiefs which give some comic relief to otherwise hectic and ultra-dull present lifestyle of mine.

 

It’s been 78 days since I landed for the first time on Pondicherry, and that’s quite a few days for me. People who don’t know my profession will most probably like to ask why on earth I’m staying for so many days at one place outside my home town. Well, it’s impossible to attend the classes on university if I don’t stay here and yes, I’m a student of Pondicherry University. There’s a lot to tell on why I approached here to pursue a career but I’m not here to write about those now. Let’s focus on the very ridiculous, super plain-Jane yet sometimes hilarious tale of my life here.

Perhaps, if I was to describe the flow of life here in a single word, I would have said ‘ultra-boring’. Let me elaborate it a bit. What happens if you suddenly take a lad from his own place where he’s laden with his favourite people, friends, relatives; where he’s blessed with almost every kind of entertainment options a middle class family could afford in today’s world to someplace else in between some alien people speaking out-of-the-world languages and nothing but a mobile phone and a 17th century internet connection to keep connection with outer planets? The lad becomes a freak like me (I was a freak even before coming here, just got freakier here!). There’s practically nothing to do for me except attending university business, having some ridiculous foods and sleeping. Talking about food, I am NOT racially abusing someone but Tamil people don’t know how to use spices. It’s really, really hard for us north Indians to cope with the kinds of food they used to have here. Having my lunch and dinner is not an interesting thing now, it’s a kind of forced punishment which I can’t escape for the sake of my health.

Well, I have to assess the experience so far being here on Pondicherry, in fact that is why I started writing ‘Pondicherry Chronicles’, then still there are some little funny interesting things from time to time those bring tiny amounts of enjoyment back on life. I will do my best to bring these twitches down here, as insanely as possible and more than they really are.

P.S. I’m known among the friends and relatives circle for being an insane one with little knowledge of surroundings, be ready to become surprised if you don’t already know me!