The Wind on my Face

The dark circles under my eyes, the stress lines on my forehead and a few dozen grey strands in the midst of my already thinning hairline were telltale signs that I had to exhibit  show that I was in a high pressure job. Having taken up my first job immediately after a grueling 4 years of an undergraduate engineering degree from a stellar university and doing absolutely nothing related to what my undergraduate program taught me in terms of work I did seemed like a compromise in the beginning but the money more than compensated for it.

Fed up with the mundane grind of daily life, a dozen different failed attempts at a relationship and almost becoming an alcoholic cum drug addict; I found that loneliness and frustration were my sole companions through the journey thus far and most things had not exactly turned out as per plan. People and their opinions nauseate me; for it is the only thing they share for free and merely because it is of no use to them.When asked on how to end life, people will give you a million and more reasons to live without respect for personal choice. I was an über frustrated soul and it was Time.

Destiny had sucked away all the excitement from life and I wasn't going to go out without reclaiming some back. So, I chose to do the act from a very high bridge figuring that it would give me the high of an adrenaline rush; second only to a shot of morphine which I had generously injected into myself in the past but resolved again not to in therapy. Taking initiative has always been my forte and I marched on to the edge of the bridge and leaped off it before my mind could process another thought and talk me out of it.

Within the first second of my free fall, the mind bombed itself with a countless thoughts as it was kick started by the inflow of adrenaline and I could finally feel the healthy breeze plough through my hairline. It is said that when one falls from a large height with the eyes closed, the subconscious shows you images of your loved one's, dreams and passions among other things. True to the word, I could picture the smiling faces of my parents; their hopes, dreams, wishes and prayers for me. Visibly scared at the thought of how they might react to this act of mine; I opened my eyes to witness the serene canyon and the thin stream of water between the mountains as I descended downward rapidly.

As I shut my eyes again for the next few milliseconds of my fall, I could picture my numerous ex-girlfriends, most of them opportunists who utilized my thick wallet to their advantage save one who helped me come out of Drug Addiction and vowed to wait for me as she knew my decisiveness when I said a firm no to her. Her smile had lit up many a day in that dark passage of time but being the clown that I was; I put her on the back burner and was paying for it now as I missed her company, her smile and her warmth terribly. All I wanted was to envelope her into a hug and never let go. 

In real time, one and half seconds had passed since the instant I jumped off the edge and I was regretting it already, I was too chicken for the fall but it was too late now that I was midway and being continually pulled down swiftly by the forces of gravity. I hoped and prayed from the deepest trenches of my heart that I could undo what I had just done and start afresh again but alas it wasn't to be. Pulling myself together in what were my last few seconds on planet earth, I looked skyward to see a beautiful sunrise from the crevices of the mountain tops and smiled because I wanted to go out on gratefulness.

As if on cue and much to my amazement, I felt an aggressive tug on my ankles and partially stopped mid air only to realize that I had bungee jumped off a bridge and was oscillating like a pendulum from end to end. I continued swaying in mid air till all the potential energy from the jump was dissipated and was hauled up to the bridge from where I had jumped off.

Turns out Life does give you second chances.       

                 
PS: My first attempt at fiction. Comments, rotten tomatoes, eggs and brickbats - Welcome.
               



          

The Cappadocian Roller Coaster - Turkish Sojourn - Part 3

If you are as clueless as to what's going on, I'd say- get your hind here , here and come back to this one.

After literally treading the streets and squares of Istanbul, a pleasant change of scene awaited us at Cappadocia which was a good 800 kms and a 10 hour drive from Istanbul. The road trip by itself was memorable for more reasons than I can count on my fingers and deserves a post by itself but since that is not the focus of this post, I will give you a shorthand lowdown on the (mis)happenings of our road trip.

We left Istanbul at 3.00 AM to learn that our GPS system was not functioning and went around in circles till we tanked up at a bunk and also asked the tanking guy for directions. Filled with the enthusiasm of doing a road trip, we had conveniently forgotten that most tanking assistants in Turkey still spoke only Turkish and not      a word of English. Half an hour of failed sign language gesturing later someone realized that they had a map of highway network on their I-Pad and we were promptly directions to the highway.

5 hours hence

Cruising along the ruggedly beautiful Turkish countryside at a swift 160 clicks an hour, the steering of the car seemed to lock up and the engine shut off magically; fortunately we managed to swerve at the right moment and came to a halt in the service lane. On alighting from the vehicle we were welcomed by a healthy breeze at -7 C and  thick fumes from the exhaust. We had to call the rental company to inform them about the breakdown and asked them for a replacement vehicle since we didn't have the time to waste on repairs. They replied that our breakdown location would take them about 2 hours to reach.

What does any sane person do when he/she is in a breakdown in the middle of nowhere with freezing conditions outside?

Sit in the car and enjoy the magic of the heater, right?

Wrong, we parked ourselves on a floor mat on the service lane in front of the broken down vehicle to play cards in the freezing weather. This in hindsight turned out to be one of the craziest things I have done till date.

One replacement vehicle and 4 hours hence, we reached the scenic town of Göreme which is perched in the valley between the Fairy Chimney mountains in Anatolia, Turkey just in time for dinner that evening. Being lead into our rooms by the hotel staff would certainly figure in some of the tales I have earmarked to tell my grand kids; for it is a sight that will never fade from memory.

Imagine being escorted to a hotel room that is actually carved out from a cave. Simply awed that we were going to be spending a couple of nights here, Food was the first words out of my mouth as we were a group of famished young guns.      

Loaded on a breakfast of fresh toast, cereal and Turkish Coffee, we ventured out to explore the sights and sounds of the valley surrounding us the next morning after a good 9 hours of blissful sleep. The first activity for the day was a bomb, quite literally.

The first thing we did on reaching the take off spot was to ask each other to pinch us to remind ourselves that we were not in a dream and would be taking off on a hot air balloon in minutes. As we took off from the spot and slowly towered above the valleys and the mystic chimney shaped rock formations, the view got dizzier and prettier at the same time, certainly a first for me. Zooming past many such fairy chimneys and valleys in exhilarating fashion ; the ride came to an end in about an hour and a half with the popping and polishing of a bottle of Alcohol Free Champagne.

It was probably the most loaded day of the trip and probably my life as well, as the next task on plan was a Quad Bike ride into the valleys of Cappadocia. For those of you, who don't know what a Quad bike is

Riding through the rough terrain of mud, slush, snow and rock; the drive gave us a ground side view of what we had previously explored perched atop the hot air balloon. The sights of the valley were simply breathtaking in most places and coupled with some monkey like bike stunts(All terrain Vehicle) we did over the slopes, rocky meadows and mountain passes made us realize that we had spent almost 4 enthralling hours with the bikes which seemed to pass off in a matter of minutes, Darn you relativity.

Binging on a meal at a restaurant with a pot of Shisha to go with thereafter, we prepared for the evening to come which if you must know showed absolutely no signs of dying down on the excitement front.

        

The Fire reminded me of Dragon aka DIGS

The evening began with food, drink and more Shisha coupled with exhibition of Turkish cultural dances which included a Priest Dance, A Wedding dance, Acrobatics and a sizzling display of solo Belly dancing by an expert female dancer with 4 inch heels who taught a bunch of foreign volunteers from the crowd a move or two after her performance. As expected they looked pretty ordinary and tired at the end of their 15 minute training session while the lead dancer giggled and gave them each a handshake and a peck on the cheek for trying.

Early next morning we set off to Ankara, the capital of Turkey and were to fly out that night back to our homes in Germany. Ankara reminded me a lot of Delhi's NCR where the government offices, organized traffic and clearly demarcated military only zones. The day saw us visiting a couple of mosques and museums after which it was time for us to check in at the airport to fly back.

A week after getting back, a friend AK mentioned to me that we had almost pulled off a ZNMD type trip with the Ballooning, Quad Biking, Belly dance trial and a crazy Road trip, I had to agree with him. 

We had taken the vacation of a lifetime.    

    

When Humpty Dumpty had a great fall

My time on this planet is much like a Bollywood movie - no less. With copious scoops of adventure, action, drama and some booster packs of  awesomeness, life has and still continues to be a dream that I get to experience day in - day out.

To read about the latest entry in the Atrocious book of adventure, we must rewind to the morning of Saturday the 14th of January. The roomie's girl was coming into town and being the doting boyfriend that he is, he promptly sent me to receive her from the railway station because she was carrying some heavy duty stuff and needed some help lifting.

After our hi's and hello's at the platform, we got on to business end of the morning and started walking homeward with the luggage. Winter mornings here can be tricky, especially the early morning dew on metal staircases. As luck would have it, we were climbing down one such metal staircase with heavy luggage to contend with and as expected I missed one step and went tumbling down face first on 4 other steps below to  come to a halt due to the blessed presence of friction 4 seconds later.

Mentally cursing my male ego, I thrust myself up before the missy could help me up and also looked around to check if any other passer's by had seen my moment of misadventure in real time, thankfully not. I felt no pain but was bleeding from from my chin, lips and my left index finger.

On being forcefully taken to a hospital by the roomie and his missy; I found myself ogling staring listening observantly to a blue eyed angelic looking 20 something brunette German doctor who was obviously impressed by my hold of conversant German. You have to believe me when I tell you she looked smokin hot and just when I was about to mentally drift off to the serene locales of Switzerland and New Zealand to sing duets with her she mercilessly brought me back to reality by poking the affected area on my left index finger and palm with her recently manicured half inch nails to leave me wincing in pain which I obviously could not extrapolate in words to her owing to my male ego; I said it does hurt quite a bit and needs attention. She then promptly proceeded to dress up the wounds and quite literally made a mouse hill look like a mountain covering up my entire left hand and rendering it unusable.

All hope was not lost when she asked me to come the following day to continue the course of treatment. I made double sure that she would be the attending doctor on call on Sunday before bidding her goodbye for the day. As my wretched luck would have it, I went in the following day(Sunday) to find a 50 something male doctor (her senior) with her waiting for me armed with a pair of gloves and a facial expression akin to Satan's with his metal staff. He gave me, what can only be described as the most painful bandage dressing I have ever experienced but as expected I had to underplay the pain to look macho. On leaving the room after their goodbye's, lets just say I vowed to stay away from a hospital for as long as humanly possible.       

             

Darn you - lethal combination of good looking doctor chicks and their merciless aged male seniors. 

            

The Istanbul Diaries - Turkish Sojourn - Part 2

                                          

The story until now - here

We set foot into Turkish soil during prime landing time to be welcomed by a mile and half long queue at Passport Control but that wasn't even the tricky part; our visa's were to be granted on arrival into Turkey and we had no clue as to whom to approach or where to go. Fortunately for us, a Border Patrol official took pity on 10 confused looking Indian boys and whisked us away to the Chief Passport Control Officer's chamber where we were given personal service along with çay. The hospitality was pleasantly surprising to us because no such assistance was offered to the others queuing up at Passport Control counters and we were out of their hair armed with a Turkish Tourist visa in practically no time.

Once past the airport premises, the vibe that Istanbul was radiating at -1C was warm to say the least and interestingly seemed very familiar to the homeland. The familiarity of the vibe seemed very uncanny as we were able to spot open top trucks, roadside vendors selling their goods and the occasional stray dog on the sidewalk after a very very long time while zipping past the heavy evening traffic in the urban jungle that was Istanbul. One might wonder what the big fuss in this familiarity business is; for someone who has stayed in an über organized array of settlements that is Germany; these sights seemed like a breath of fresh air. 

Haunts In Istanbul -

After a good night's sleep and a belly full of breakfast, we set out to explore the sights and sounds of Istanbul's streets the next morning. Our first stop was at the Sultan Ahmed Mosque more famously known as The Blue Mosque, with its intricate architecture and towering presence by the seaside, this 17th century place of worship is a must go just because it is the only mosque in the world to have 6 minarets. 

When in Istanbul one can't help but liken it to a big (approximately 8 times the size of Mumbai, so do the math) bustling Indian metropolis teaming with people who give it its vibrant spirit and perennial hustle bustle; people are always found on the streets busy; with some getting from place to place on the tramway, others selling their goods and wares or some like us who were absorbing the feel of a place so familiar to home that it never made us feel out of place. I was specially impressed by how well lit a city like Istanbul was, the structure and architecture of certain spots seemed to have amplify and assumed a whole new nature in the evenings once the lights came on.   

This feel based roaming around led us to one of Istanbul's most famous market places - Taksim Square; Mecca to thousands and thousands of Istanbul's shoppers. The central shopping street in Taksim square is a pedestrian only stretch with the occasional tram passing through its heart to ferry its passengers to other locales in the city. Armed with a tall and piping hot cup of Starbucks Hot Chocolate in the nearly freezing evening, we traversed the length of the street which seemed to go on and on and on for almost two and half hours while walking at above normal speed.

The next morning was New year's Eve and presented us an opportunity to take a cruise on the Sea of Marmara which separates Istanbul into Asian and European quarters. A point to be noted here is that Turkey and Istanbul lie both in Asia as well as Europe. Sailing past vast bridges, sea side villas and fishing harbors, the seaside view of the much awaited Bosphorous Bridge finally came. The highlight of the day was the time spent atop the completely lit bridges' walking lane watching the sizzling of the fireworks welcome the new year. A monumental moment personally because not only were we on the cusp of the new year but two continents at the same time.

Food - 

It is needless for me to impress on how difficult it is for a vegetarian to survive in Europe, but in Turkey it was a different story altogether. When moving with a large group - 10 in our case, more often than not you tend to find yourself on the minority side but this time around the tables seemed to have turned with an even split in the numbers of meat and non-meat eaters. 

That however was not the best news with respect to food; since taste bud tickling vegetarian food was hard to come by a guy in the group -  AK would actually march into every restaurant kitchen and point out the vegetarian looking ingredients like tomatoes, cabbage, onions, oil and chilly to the chef and ask him in English hints to make a salad which we would devour with oven fresh Turkish bread and down with a famous local yoghurt drink called Ayran. I had resigned to the fact that I was going to have to make do with fresh salads and cold bread until some out of the box thinking like the aforementioned got us some pretty lip smacking food.  AK continued doing that during the other legs of the trip as well and that resulted in us eating something close to Pav Bhaji, Samosa and Mattar Paneer at various eat outs.

The remainder of our time in Istanbul was spent gawking at some very pretty Turkish women (God took his time on them and trust me when I tell you they are hawwwttttt), in seaside cafe's sipping on Turkish Coffee and sampling some authentic Turkish Shisha.

We then bade our goodbye's to Istanbul in the wee hours of next morning to proceed to the next leg of our Turkish Odyssey.

To be Continued...                          

The Curious case of one thing leading to another - Turkish Sojourn - Part 1

One boring and snowy November evening last year, a friend - AR rang me up to find out what I was up to; usual inquiries ranging from what was happening on the daily event front to travel plans to the homeland to elective course selection for the end semester were made. As the cliche goes 'one thing led to another' and we were talking about what we would do for New years in no time since neither of us was going homeward. 

Ideas slowly started flowing with respect to the places we could visit to usher in the New year in an above average fashion. It is a universally known truth that a suburb or a small town in Germany is not the ideal place to be for the New Years and therefore the feasibility of visiting a previously never seen big city in Germany was initially considered and options of visiting Munich, Hamburg or Frankfurt were put forth. Now the problem with visiting such cities was that everything right from travel to food to nightclubs was crazily overpriced. So a Big No to Germany for New year's it was.

Expanding the horizon a tad further, we decided we would haunt some other party hot spots of Europe, that way we would get to explore the country as well. Options in Ibiza, Madrid and Barcelona came forward in this iteration. Yet again, famous for being pricey at the end of the year; these places went off the list as quickly as they came onto it. So a Big No to Ibiza, Madrid and Barcelona it was.

Now since Germany and practically the whole of Spain was off the list, we thought Italy with Rome, Venice and Milan now stood a very good chance but alas it wasn't to be. Inquiries with a friend who had been there last winter revealed that in the off-season, some of the tourist hot spots remained shut and importantly the air fares were anywhere but in range. A Big No to Italy it was.

At this point it struck us that we had crossed out practically the whole of Western Europe from our list. Surely  there could be someplace where we could go about exploring the sights and sounds, culture and tradition and also usher in the New Year while we were at it. 

At this point I had to go the washroom where it struck me (no wonder eh?) that we should look at unconventional locations like Portugal, Greece or Turkey which were equally famous on the tourist and party circuits and were also cost effective. The unrest in Greece was and still is all over the news and hence scared the Be-Jesus out of us. The deteriorating condition of Portugal in the European Union was also something that made us very skeptical about spending our New years there. 

The remainder was Turkey. A few days of diligent and encouraging research indicated that it was the place to be; both for a holiday and for partying as well. The costs worked out to be within limit and our expectations thereby soared; a group of 10 people was assembled quickly and a consensus taken that all of us would be spending New years in Turkey.

Our bags were packed and off we flew to Istanbul, Turkey for the first leg of our Turkish sojourn. 

To Be Continued...