The AP Chronicles

I was reading this post earlier today and got to thinking of my own (solitary) experience of living away from home. Sometimes I really can’t believe I spent almost 2 years there...

After just under a year of working with my first company, I got an opportunity to work with a fairly well-established Pharma OTC company, but the posting was in Vijaywada, HQ of Krishna (a district located on the east coast of Andhra Pradesh).
While I quite liked the setup of my first company not to mention the job itself, I wasn't really rolling in the dough, so I took the new job. The thought of moving out of home, living and working in an alien city was quite intimidating and continued up until the time I boarded my train to Vijaywada from VT station.

The folks had come to see me off and I remember feeling distinctly out of sorts as the train started to pull out of the station. As I numbly waved my goodbyes to them, I had half a mind to just jump off and tell Dad that this was a huge mistake and I didn’t really wanna be away from home. As their shapes started to blur with the distance I lit up a smoke and drew deeply. Gave myself a mental pep talk - "Listen... you're almost 24... There’s tons of people who've left their homes at far far younger ages, traveled greater distances than you for education... work.... This is an experience. You're getting to see a different part of the country... Think of this as an Adventure!!"
And that last line, dear reader, kept me going for the 20 or so months that I was there...

My flat was located kinda on the outskirts of the city. It was a 1 BHK affair... some 600 feet or so. HUGE by Bombay standards and I used to pay a rent of Rs. 1000 (!!). OK let me explain coz there was a tradeoff... One, the location as I've mentioned meant lowish rents anyway. Second and most importantly, I was told I could be shifted to any empty flat as and when the current flat I was currently in, got sold off. Since I really didn’t have much junk of my own and was on the road for like 20 days a month, I figured the deal was a good one and took it.
*Course the deal came back to bite me in the a$$ shortly...

Summers were a bitch in AP. Temperatures used to routinely hit 45 degrees. And when on the odd occasion, the mercury would touch 48, then the locals would go, "Oh today it’s really hot." (?!?!) Never have I so craved the humid heat of Bombay more.
Sometime though, it'd get a little scary. I remember touring a place called Bhadrachalam in the peak of summer in '03. The temperature was a skin melting 51 degrees! I was so dehydrated before my meeting with the local distributor, I decided to stand in the shade of a nearby 'Cool Drinks' stand and have a Goli Soda (btw this is one of things I sorely miss about small town India) to cool off. As I'm replenishing my body with the fluids it so desperately needed, I saw this slightly older chap walking by and after a few feet of passing the shop, dude just collapsed! Several bystanders rushed to guy and carried him off the road into the shade. By then my sales guy called me in to meet the distributor. About an hour later, we got done and stoked by my previous Goli soda, I decided to have one more. The crowd that had gathered before had gone by now, but I asked the vendor if Fainting Dude was ok. He muttered something back, which my colleague turned to me and quietly translated, "Saar, he has expired..."
I decided then that two summers were quite enough for me in this place.

*Shortly after this trip I came back into Vijaywada. It had been a tiring train journey. I had been on the road for about 17 days at a stretch and when I got off the station, I'd made up my mind not to haggle with the rick guy about the usual overcharging they'd do. I just wanted to get home. But no motor ricks so I had to get into one of those cycle ricks which I hate coz I'm a big built guy and I can’t stand the thought of someone peddling my fat ass for a good 5 kilometers. But no choice and at that point I didn’t really care so sat in and headed home. Reach my building and find the elevator is out of order, so I trudge up 3 flights of stairs. I tried to open my door but it wouldn’t open. I hear someone coming up the stairs and its my neighbor who says my stuff has been shifted to another flat in a different building of the complex! So I go to the office and collect the keys to my new flat which is located in the 'A' Wing on... wait for it... the 7th futhermucking floor! So yet again its WALK WALK WALK up 7 flights of stairs!
That was NOT a nice day... no sirree.

I wish there was enthralling stuff to write about my time in AP but being located in Vijaywada meant that the only "exciting" things to do was going for weddings in my distributors' or team members' families (immediate or extended), or some puja associated with Diwali or Pongal or somesuch.
But the standout memories of the entire AP experience were:-
- While traveling upcountry in an area with heavy Naxal presence, our bus was pulled over and a thorough search was carried out of every passenger and their luggage for grenades and firearms.
- Visiting the beached submarine, INS Kursura, at Vishakapatnam's Ramakrishna beach. I now have major respect for the (small built) dudes who'd spend weeks under the waves in these metal tubes. Must've bumped my head like 10 times in those cramped confines.

- Being told my "worth" at one of those afore-mentioned weddings. "Saar... you're very young and holding such a good post in a company like ____. You'll get atleast 50 lacs from girl's side!... Should we find a good Andhra girl for you saar??!"

- Got 'picked' up for a one night stand (yup... first time ever!) in Vizag. Hah! Who knew that an evening, which started out with a innocent drink at the bar, would end the way it did! Oh and she was an older woman too. OK so while not a cougar, she still older than me. Aah so many fantasies fulfilled in one night hehe

By the end of Dec '03 though, I'd had it with the place and the job. So one fine day, I packed my bags, mailed off my resignation to the Hyderabad office and headed back to Bombay. I still think of that time in my life as one big adventure. An experience that came squarely under Life Lessons.

I don’t really miss that place - except that sometimes... I do...

The Big Three Oh

12:17

Another day… another year.

I hit 30. And thus goes a conversation with me and this foo called Life.

B - yo Life! I need to settle some scores with you dawg. About where you and me is at this point. I thought I oughta feel different but I don’t. I thought there be something more by now but there ain't. I thought I would be in another place, but I’m not. Just a feeling of unfinished business y’know.
Why did I think more would come of this day? Of this time?
My life seems the same it was not too many years ago. Why is that? Did I not warrant something special to happen to me by now? Did I not want that enough… whatever that might be or was I not enough of a man to get out there and seize my opportunities?
Am I content with what I am and where I am today? Don’t seem like it, if I’m here questioning you like this…

L – mah man… I am a mystery. Sometimes even to myself. I’ve seen a lotta bodies come and go. Some of them be commonplace… some not so. Some of them be punks… some not so. But some… some… they be the extra-ordinary. They be the unusual… the remarkable… sometimes even the curious. You’ve come across all of these in your short time here on this earth.
What did you do when you came across this myriad of specimens?

B - Some I ignored coz they weren’t worth it. Others I didn’t care for because they weren’t of much use in my life. But that some you mention…. Some…
I call some of those my family… yet a few others my friends… In so many cases I wasn’t sure if I would ever be tight with these people. Yet not a day goes by that I’m not thankful enough for whatever reasons there might be, for these people wanting to be part of my life.

L – There are reasons… eventually you will come across them for what they are. They are in your life because they mirror you in so many ways. Its what brought you close in the first place.
Yet there are still life lessons to learn. What lacks in you is completed by them and in so many ways it goes around the other way too. So you turned 30 today… a lesson in itself. You got yourself this far didn’t you?! There are still some more miles to travel… some more lessons to learn… some you will learn from these you call family and friends. Still more from the people who are yet to come into your life…
It’s a waiting game son… when you reach that light shining at the end of the tunnel, I’ll be waiting there for you. And as you end this journey we shall both look back and then you can ponder on what I was all about.
You might just end up marveling at all the wonders you’ve seen…

Warning – The Author was completely fucked up, drunk out of his damn mind in a seriously inebriated state post his consumption of several vodkas and loud singing. This post shall be treated as a Rambling. No references of the same shall be made in future meetings with said Author. The Author would also like to assign culpability of the occasional use of 'black' language in the above post to the episodes of The Wire that he be watching recently, aight?!