CHALO BETA PADO META

Govinda...Govinda...

Scene 1:


'In God we trust'

                           - Anonymous

'Chalo Tirupathi'

                          - Mafia


Thus the idea originated. As you all know, mafia never does things unplanned. Since most people of the mafia were rich by that time, by means Indian Govt.Charity of 8000 INR for everybody else, and hard-earned money of an analyst in a private firm for Baille, mafia decided to make the trip a luxurious one.


Mafia decided to entrust the responsibility of planning on the heavy shoulders of Muski, for he has already proved to the world by then his organisational skills - which involved ensuring safety to one and all during Shaastra, getting huge military tankers into the campus for demonstration, with minimal destruction  of the campus property, kicking off the Indian lunar mission etc.


'Come what might, we will all stay together'. Thus issuing a formal statement, the man took up yet another responsibility, a tiny one compared to all the previous ones!

'Gudi ni mingina vaadiki gudi lingam mingadam enta pani?' (transliterates to- for a person who swallowed the temple, swallowing one stone inside the temple is a cake-walk), so expressed the gults in the mafia- their faith in the little man with a burning passion to take up heavy responsibilities. 'We are in safe hands'- agreed the rest.


'Alright people, everybody gives me 800 bucks each today- consider your trip successful' - emailed Muski with humility. The plan was, 800 bucks and we'll have an air-conditioned mini-bus just for ourselves for travel- that picks us up from our hostels and drops us back, free accommodation in a five star hotel down hill, and a free and effortless darshan up hill.



Scene 2:

Somewhere in Benguluru


 Babe bitchy boss (BBB): Are you sure, you want to take half a day off? This will amount to two more sleepless nights of work during the weekend

Baille: I am positive. And ya, people sleep at nights right!This thought completely escaped my mind.


BBB: Alright then, at your own risk! But complete this project before leaving

Baille: Sure mam!

(to himself): Huh, two days of freedom and luxury, away from daily labor. God, here I am coming.


He worked until 1.30 pm- enjoying rather forcing himself to enjoy the last few moments of hard-work , and then set out well in advance making sure he didnot miss the train that leads to freedom- the Brindavan express.  He was optimistic that upon his arrival back, Govinda is going to take away some of his hardships, if not all.


The thought of meeting the rest of the mafia directly at Tirupathi instead of taking a round-trip from Chennai occurred to him. But then why should he be the one missing out on the AC vehicle? Though under-paid, yet he's paid. And moreover, the master said, 'come what might, we will all be together'. Amalgamating all these thoughts he justified this decision to his inner conscience, which might have recognised the omens of things to come.


Scene 3:



'People, due to some technical problems, the bus will not be able to collect us from IIT. We need to go to Egmore, and they'll reimburse us the auto charges,' announced the Fuhrer. The mafia has always been considerate for technical problems. Being technicians, sorry - technical people, apologies again, people involved with technical people, ourselves for so long, this didnot qualify as an organisational error in mafias dictionary. So the mafia set out to egmore, all by itself- with a delay of just 1 hr from the planned schedule. We were supposed to start at 2200 hours, while we took off at 2300 hours, which is 1 in 22 error, completely agreeable for engineers like us.


Finally, the mafia broken an year ago is all set to reunite. Sayan proposed to celebrate the reunion with silence. Mafia's ways of celebration are different. The rest agreed. Nobody says a word when they see Baille. However badly they might want to talk to him, they should control that desire. Practising Bhagawad Gita, it sounded like! The auto stopped infront of hot-chips. Baille, after an hour of breathing fresh air from Adayar river and feeling all nostalgic about the place, was all excited to see the rest. 'Waddap guys?' he shouted. 'Waddap, darling', replied Parida- watering all plans of silent celebrations.



The rest followed, and then Sayan followed.


Scene 4:
The mafia reached the pick-up point at 2340 hours, and was happy that they made it 20 min before the scheduled departure time of the bus. The fuhrer promptly collected the reimbursement from the travel agents. Some hungry people set out to eat at a near by shop, which was almost about to close. The rest had a cold drink, very much aware and excited at the fact that this waiting in hot weather for 10 more minutes would lead us to AC travel for the rest of the trip.


10 minutes, 20 minutes, 40 minutes... no sign of any pick up vehicle. The fuhrer sought to clarify things with the travel agents. This delay is intolerable according to the mafia standards. I mean, just look at the error. 30 min delay for something that's supposed to start at 0000 hrs. That is 0.5 in 0, ridiculously high. Not just the mafia, no engineer is going to tolerate that.

Adding to the fuhrer's fury, the travel agents have silently disappeared. Every thing in and around the locality is locked, leaving just the mafia on the hot Chennai roads. With some hesitation, Parida thought out aloud what every one was thinking silently. Does this mean we lost our 800 bucks?The fuhrer, enraged by this, said 'Don't you worry. I'll chase these people in their dreams too until they take us to Tirupathi'. He vowed to get physical if things go bad. He cooled himself down and inspired others by saying ' we are all together. Thats the bottomline'


These words comforted the mafia. They were especially convinced of the fuhrers ability to get physical with people- considering his build. Slowly, but surely the mafia spotted one more batch waiting just like they are doing. When inquired, it was known that even they were headed to Tirupathi in a similar kind of private arrangement. The mafia was more comforted at the fact that if cheated, it has got more company.


Scene 5:

Finally finally, after a long wait of one full hour a mini van came to pick us up. We were told that due to technical problem again, both our batches- the mafia and the non-mafia should travel in the same van. Sharing with others is considered a privilege by the mafia. Added to the fact that technical problems are the ones which the mafia doesnot consider as a problem at all, we all agreed. Guests first, yet another mafia principle. So we allowed them to occupy seats first. We all arranged and adjusted ourselves inside the bus. Everything seemed so perfect. The AC was working.


The bus started. So started water dripping on the last seaters (3 people from the mafia, including the fuhrer), and on Chaitu sitting somewhere close to the driver. For a moment we thought this is the 4th dimension effect of feel, that they show in 4d movies. The organizers wanted us to 'feel' the AC. But soon enough, we realized that this is yet another technical problem, which requires people like in the mafia to solve. The fuhrer got all busy for some 2 hours along the ride, trying to stuff paper into the holes from which water was leaking. He did that, not just for himself, but for all the 4 people of the mafia experiencing the leak. Fuhrer vs. water leak, was an interesting contest. Both never gave up. While the fuhrer was busy fixing up the problem, the rest of them took it as fate had given them. Infact, Baille dreamt of taking a bath in the holy akash-ganga, in disguise of a technical problem.

Scene 6:
'Get out fast. We have arrived', said the driver barely after the fuhrer won over the leak and every one was having a nice nap. Everyone got down, expecting to find themselves going into a big five star hotel. Instead they found themselves going into a place where tickets are issued. The free-tickets to the darshan, I mean. It was then that the terms of the travel agent, free and comfortable darshan, became clear to the mafia. When cribbed a bit, the organizer promised a hotel stay immediately after getting the ticket. The mafia agreed and went inside the counter where they issue tickets. There was no queue at all. The first great news of the night. Immediately followed the news that, the tickets will be issued from 5 am onwards, whence the time then was 3 30 am.

Drowsily the mafia spent the next 1.5 hrs on the holy floor, infront of the counter. When we closed our eyes we dreamt of sleeping on a five star couch in a five star hotel; when we opened them, we were brought back to the ground reality of sleeping on ground. This cycle continued for sometime, when the fuhrer declared to cheer us up  'People, all eez well,  we are all together. And thats the bottom line'.


Scene 7:

As soon as the mafia collected their free tickets for a darshan at 2pm, they were taken to the hotel as promised. The hotel looked - not upto mafias expectations but ok to get some sleep and proceed for darshan. As and when we stepped inside the hotel, we were given rooms, asked to fresh up and leave within the next 30 min. Too drowsy to protest, the mafia conceded. The fuhrer was sleepy. So were the rest and Sayan and the other batch. While the rest of the people took bath, freshened up and prepared themselves to listen to more terrible things to come, the fuhrer- tired after waging battle against the leak, crashed off.

'Have some 'free' breakfast now, and then we go to visit Alamelumangapuram', announced the organiser, as if a jailer makes his announcements to the prisoners. 'Can we skip that and sleep in the hotel room?' asked one of the mafia members. 'No', was the instantaneous reply. Without any further arguments, the mafia too lazy to protest, proceeded towards the breakfast.

Barring incidents of finding a lot of uncleaned plates, and hand full of what seemed like clean plates, and a few people of the mafia sharing plates due to the same reason, half the mafia not eating breakfast due to unhygienic and the rest half not liking what they've eaten, the breakfast was a huge success.

Undettered by the heavy rain, lazy to protest, the mafia set out in the same vehicle to Alamelumangapuram. Huge stationary queue at 6 in the morning in open space implied Gods were not satisfied with the amount of water we used to cleanse ourself in the form of taking bath. We drenched in rain, enjoyed it for a change, and got a darshan at 9 am.

We quickly ran out of the place with a false hope of going back to the hotel and taking a quick nap. The fuhrer, being the wise man he is, never came inside the temple. Instead on pretext guarding our slippers, wallets and watches inside the bus, he had a two hour nap. Chalo Hotel, was our plan. The organizers , however, had different plans for us. All throughout the trip, our wavelengths never matched. Mafia's wavelength never matched with anyone else', anyway.  They dropped us in a bus stop and said, 'now take an RTC bus, pay 25 bucks and go up hill'. The driver and the organizers needed a nap; hence they went to the hotel.

Scene 8:

The mafia reached uphill by around 11. They were asked to come back to the same hotel by 6 in the evening, so that the return journey may start soon. So the mafia decided to explore Thirumala a bit before joining the darshan queue. Exploring included eating samosas, idlis etc.. on the top of the hill. While enjoying the exploration, the fuhrer realised that he left his tickets down hill in the bus. He called the organisers. They picked up the call and summoned him down hill. The fuhrer ordered us to join the queue while he went down and got his ticket. The worst of the fears had come true. The mafia  was broken. We were all no longer together.

Scene 9:
The mafia entered the queue separated from their leader. They felt some force is strongly testing the mafia, like they show in the sati-savitri kind of movies. For the first time in the history of mafia, the mafia began to pray for their victory over the evil forces. The mafia never prayed for its victory. Its victory is sort of a law of nature. Stationary queues again and, the coordinates of the only open space in the entire domain of the free darshan ticket holders was occupied by mafia members. Evil forces at work ; it started raining. Quite heavily again. The mafia prayed harder. God's not listening. The mafia prayed that their leader be not affected by rain. They prayed that he gets his tickets and joins the rest soon. They prayed for the victory of unity of mafia over the evil.

They prayed prayed and prayed, well, that will be an exaggeration! What really happened was, they prayed, some times forgot the fact that their fuhrer went missing, and prayed when they remembered it again, got drenched, explored ways of drenching other people - not being able to digest the fact that the only people being drenched were the mafia, shouted Govinda Govinda, and finally kept moving forward in the queue for the next 4 hours. They prayed, got darshan, came out and found their fuhrer following them.

Victory . God heard the prayers, or evil gave up or whatever. Mafia won, providing no opportunity for the opportunists to disprove the natures law that mafia always wins. As in nature follows it; how can anyone want to change it?

Scene 10:

The fuhrer on the other hand, took a ride down hill; went to the hotel, woke  the driver up, got his tickets from inside the bus, took a bus uphill- realised buses go slower and he should take a ride again; got down the bus and took a ride half way down the up-hill; took shelter in some shady place while it started raining, took the same bus that he left for the want of a faster journey, paid 25 more bucks , came uphill; and joined a moving queue in some shady place again, not wetting a single part of his body.

Well, the rest of the mafias prayers have been answered. The fuhrer won over the evil forces.  As said in a famous movie, 'when a good friend fails it hurts, when he gets the first rank- it hurts more'. The fact that the fuhrer, didnot even experience an iota of our pain, hurt us more.

Anyhow, declared the fuhrer ' we are all together; that is the bottom line'


Scene 11:
With an unfinished agenda which shall be explained in a moment, the mafia rushed back to the hotel well before 6 pm (taking laddus ofcourse). Mafia had boycotted the dinner session at the hotel following the mornings disaster and inspired by the agenda. Sharp at 5.50, mafia occupied all the good seats in the bus, leaving all the dripping ones to the other batch. Well, that was the agenda. Also, the best solution to any  problem is, you not being a part of the problem itself.  That is one more of mafia's principles. So now the technical problem of water dripping has been effectively solved by the mafia, by it not being a part of the problem itself.

Also, the mafia's principle of 'guests first' has not been compromised because after so many interactions, the other batch no longer qualified as guests. Having enjoyed their dinner, the other batch walked into the bus rubbing their tummies, just to find that all good seats have been occupied. They protested. They didnot want to travel anymore. The mafia was adamant too. We were ready to unleash our fuhrers terror on them (by getting physical as he promised on some other occasion). Sensing that the situation might really need him to get physical, the fuhrer proposed a compromise equation, to which the other batch agreed. This involves 2 people from our side and 2 people from their side sharing the bad seats.

Scene 12:

Soon after  the return journey began, the AC in the bus stopped working- no longer qualifying it as an AC bus. On the brighter side, the water also stopped dripping, because there was no AC. Further into the journey, the bus stopped working. 'ENGINE FAIL', announced the driver.

In the forests of Pakala, the mafia thought they'll be spending the rest of their life. Good thing is ' we are all together', announced the fuhrer yet again.

Scene 13:
The engine repair took some 2 hours. The mafia was counting the number of buses on the highway, enjoyed Ghalib singing, and thought it should head out on a forest night out some day in the future. After the repair, the mafia got inside the bus and got to the institute at around 2 in the night, when even Basera closed. They ate the laddus to satisfy their hunger, and the fuhrer closed the trip by remarking, ' God's with us. And we are all together. That is the bottom line'

Scene 14:

A week after that the BBB from scene 2 was fired. So, something good for Baille to take home. But his labor still continued and continues.
Muski was spared from getting bumps, because the rest were afraid of him getting physical. Well, to tell the truth, the rest were afraid that the impact of some ordinary leg on his bum can make him fly away

Scene 15:
Mafia ruled ever after. Fuhrer kept remarking that we are all together and that is the bottom line.

posted by jimmy @ 2:21 PM