You can't always get what you Want (But if you try sometimes, you get what you Need): August 2008

Ok now this event occurred close to ten months back. I had just joined this place called Mphasis. Here I met this guy who was named "Shrikanth" by his parents. Now I didn't know much about him(Still don't), only the fact that he stayed near my place. One day after our shift we were leavin' home and he said he'll give me a drop on his bike since we stay close by. But he said he had to go to his previous workplace for his last cheque which he had to receive.

Now this place was Siemens, which ironically I had worked for three days exact. Left because it didn't suit me hehe. Now the trip how i got into Siemens was quite funny.I was waiting in the lobby to be interviewd. Now being a clever observer, I had noticed glass door with Siemens written on it.I noticed that when the door was opened Siemens appeared in mirror script spelling "snemeis". I quickly unscrambled it to spell "Nemesis" simply by shifting the letter 's' in between 'e' and 'i' in the mirror script. Nemesis was my nickname or alias from my gaming days. I'm still known and called by that name by many people I know!

During the interview I was asked by the recruiter to give him one good reason why I should be hired there.I explained this crazy scrambling of the mirror script of the company name and how my nickname fit in there. I was hired immediately. I left as soon as I was hired which is a different story in itself LOL!

Now getting back to the main story. So me and 'Shrikanth' reached the Siemens office. I had to wait outside till he went and got his cheque. He was back in 20 mins quite happy he had received his cheque (Money has this knack of playing with people's emotions and controlling and manipulating them very well...Damn Gandhis!!)

Now we were set to leave. In the parking lot he spotted a brand new bike with obviously a brand new helmet unlocked! by the careless owner. Now he schemed to seize the opportunity and wangle the helmet. Now the reason for his decision was since those days the Helmet rule was in place and the government servants(cops as I lovingly call them) were checking and fining people for not adhering to the rule.

This was all fine and dandy but now he realised he didn't wanna wangle the helmet himself...scared of doing wrong maybe though the intention was very prominent! So he asked me to wangle the helmet. I agreed! :) So I told him to start the bike, cooly walked up to the bike took the unlocked helmet and came and sat pillion on his bike. He started the bike and we scooted from the place. Now all happy since everything had come his way he stopped a little further and put on the helmet and gave his precious Ray Ban sunglasses to me for safekeeping.

He rode homewards, I suddenly sensed something bad gonna happen immediately. We went down a One Way the wrong side and almost got caught but escaped the cop with the aide of the psyched traffic. Now as we were traveling I suddenly felt a motion near my chest, I suddenly realized that his precious Ray Ban which he had given to me for "safekeeping" had fallen onto the road. I had been resting on my collar. I immediately stopped him and went to fetch it. As I reached close a car went boom! over it!! The sunglass was in three pieces. I collected the remains and brought it back to him to display. He was heartbroken!

I recollected this incident at home and realized how Karma had worked using me as a medium! I committed the bad deed( Wangling the helmet). But it wasn't my intention and I didn't gain anything from this. In turn I dropped his precious sunglasses which cost much more than the helmet we had wangled in the first place. Karma balanced his bad deed using my hands. The very hands which caused the bad deed in the first place. It was revenge! A lesson taught! A balance restored! Retribution!

Funny how even such a small example can teach you Karma! The Law of Cause and Effect! Happening right in front of your eyes! Using you as a medium itself for the bad deed and the retribution. Apply this to bigger things in life and imagine the results!! Another lesson life taught me in the simplest of formats! Ahh Karma :)

Here I document my trip to Coonoor to rendezvous with a dear friend and also break away from the usual drudgery of city life, the rat race, that eternal struggle for material pursuits...I can go on...but I'm a hypocrite myself so nevermind. Well firstly I decided to travel alone to his place.Kinda wanted some solitude at that moment.I could find my way around South India hence I decided on this. I had never gone on a vacation alone. Guess there's a first time for everything.Anyways I never told many people about this obviously because they may wanna join and secondly and most importantly they may give their unwanted opinion on the dangers and stuff.Things seemed to go my way also... My salary was credited 3 days earlier than

usual! Which was kinda like a green signal to me. Even if I was gonna die. It was still a green signal. Now financially secure, I was ever so confident. I knew money can get me anything...Yea I exploit them Gandhis and am proud to do so!

Left Bangalore on Thursday nite, the last day of the horrid month of July with all the riots and bomb blasts and crazy weather. Bid goodbye to my Lover and got my bus as usual late. A passenger pointed out that when you're early the bus is late and when you're late the bus has already left. Happens with everyone... Man's stupid tryst with time...Why did he come up
with the idea in the first place. Well I'm a few centuries late so let's leave it there. Now I had a very interesting co-passenger an 80 year old man who introduced himself as Commander Kendall. Now I was still on the solitary trip and didn't wanna converse with anyone but this man was different. We started talking and he as all old men started off on his past and his endeavours and achievments. He was from the time of the British Raj, an Anglo-Indian I guessed. He told me about his life in the Navy, the wars he fought one prominent one being the 1970s Indo Pak war. About all his other professions since right from an Agriculturalist to Chicken Farming to SilkWorm Cultivation to Real Estate. He was perfect company. I saw my grandfather in him. We got along pretty well. The whole journey was a knowledge oriented trip about the past, the present and the future. He was inspiring this old man...very inspiring.

I finally reached my destination the next morning. Got down at the Coonoor station. Now I was directed to catch a rickshaw at a "Wooden Post Office" by my good friend Jason or N*zi as we all know him. Now I'm looking for this crazy landmark and asking around to no avail. Then I call him and find out it was actually a brick police station and the auto stand which I was looking for, which I had seen as we entered the terminus. Sigh! Anyways I got into a rick which took me to my meeting point - Tiger Hill Cottages. Now this place was called Tiger Hill because of the many tigers which roamed there I think decades back! Now all I see are humans and tea plantations. Anyways he had a nice cozy house there. I met his family after a very long time. These people were my only relatives I can say though they weren't really related to me. I've met them more often than my own relatives who I meet only at weddings and death ceremonies hence the deduction. Now it was trekking time. Me and N*zi had been good friends for what 6 years now. Right from the gaming days to working in numerous call centers which we joined and quit and the drug days. We had been partners in crime. Very interesting stories we old men got to tell but we'll keep that for some other time.

We started off our trek up Tiger Hills to the famed Suicide Point which gives a splendid view of the place. I always visit this place everytime I'm here. Now I'm quite biased about the place being called Suicide point just cos of the many people who decided to rest there in peace. But unfortunately I haven't tried or planned to commit suicide hence I'll stick with the name. On the way we passed the Tiger Hill Graveyard. Now this was a very interesting, trippy, ancient graveyard. I had visited this place everytime I've visited Coonoor without fail and hence was obliged to do so again.All the british war veterans and big wigs of the yesteryears were buried here. This was one classy graveyard I got to say.All the crosses bearing crazy insignia and ancient dates...some goin back to the 1900s and before. The limelight of this place is the life size
statue of an Angel overlooking one of the graves.

A ghostly mist came over us and it was just 2 in the afternoon. It was crazy. We decided to move from there and walk up to the Suicide Point. We had to cut across roads and walk through lush green tea plantations. It was always a trip walking in this terrain. Everything's a trip in this place! Everything!!! Well Suicide point was boring as usual...No one jumping off as I'd always hoped to see...maybe that's why I never liked the name. But there were names of lovers who had supposedly commited suicide there but no proof anyways that's their trip so I'll leave em alone now. First day was quite tiring as I had traveled the previous nite and trekked quite a distance the next day hence turned in early after a visit to the local bar and downing a scotch obviously! :)

Woke up the next day and I had a feeling I had died and gone to Heaven if such a place actually exists! The early morning mountain mist was passing thruout the whole house. It was mist to us but if seen from someplace lower they were clouds!!! I was quite high on the clouds! Remembered Hendrix's line "Scuse me while I kiss the sky" ;). Today's plan was to trek up the Attadi Peak where there was an old Murugan temple built at the very top. Now religion is one very crazy field for me. Think of it a place of worship built high up in the sky. I agree it's closer to God as some religiously blinded person may say but still. Anyways I'm not getting into the "God" debate so let's carry on with it. We went to the only restaurant there for lunch called "The Great Wall of China". After that I decided to meet Commander Kendall who stayed close by since I didn't get an opportunity to say goodbye after that bus trip. We met him at his bungalow aptly named "Kendall's Nook". Now this man I found out was actually a millionaire. A big man in Coonoor, revered and respected. He had been a normal co-passenger and good conversation to me on my journey. Funny how it is when some big shot is actually viewed how he is- a normal living, breathing human being just one of the rest. A straw in the haystack. A pea in the pod but is given such a glorious status by man. Fuck man is the worst animal I've known...the worst. Differentiating between himself. Behind material pursuits. No respect for his fellow creatures and species. FUCK!!! Nevermind!! - needless to say a lovely album by Nirvana ;)

So anyways we find out that the tea estates we had to pass through belonged to him and he gave us free access to it, not that we wouldn't have gone through it illegally anyways lol! Well it's just land on this planet called Earth. Man owns the land on paper, that's it. So anyways being educated and polite and respectful, we thanked him and started off on our journey to the
top. We didn't do it for religious inclinations or for some boon to be granted for climbing the peak. We did it just for the sake of trekking lol! So we started off through the tea estates which was fairly easy compared to what lay ahead of us and that not even half the way.Now my good friend is a trek guide who takes tourists on treks but he's not one of the experienced ones which increased the intensity of the trip ten fold, i'll explain how. First he has this bright idea of not taking the usual track which spirals around the hill but go straight up just like how a crow would fly up not realising we are not freakin' crows. Anyways I agree being open for adventure. Now we're walkin up the hill with a 40 degree angle sloping up. His next bright idea would be not to take the manmade path here as well...the natural path where grass and plants dont grow, made
barren by constant walking. So we just walk thru vegetation. We're not prepared with anythin for the wild. Just a phone to take pics and some water! Yea we're pioneer trekkers. We dont need ropes and knives or anything. We're inexperienced city rats taking on the wild. At this point I have to add that N*zi did watch a few episodes of "Man vs Wild" on the Discovery channel and was full josh on fighting the wild!! Yea my friends are as useless as me but that's the best part...THE BEST PART!!

We walk thru thick wooded areas with crazy thorns and plants. Some poisonous....yea we must've been tripping on some poison ivy or somethin for doing somethin like this. But oh well! :) There were parts where we had to crawl through, climb under and climb over! Now my dear friend and guide is frantically looking for that natural man made path again! LOL!! After only seeing birds and domesticated animals everywhere we finally saw...here it comes...Wild Bison!! - Dung!!! Yes smelly stale Wild Bison Dung!! Yea the joy of seeing this animal waste was so tremendous!! Obviously animals being cleverer than man chose to avoid us useless burdens of flesh and bones rather than even think of confronting us. Letting us discover their dung!! Haha!!
Finally we caught sight of some steps cut into the rocks!! The joy it gave us!! Yea man has become too soft...devolved as such!! Anyways we both were glad we were back on the track. The thing was we had no chance of getting lost because the only way we had to go was Up! We finally made the summit. Reached the peak. The view was definitely worth it! We visited the shrine. Which was locked conveniently. Imagine the psyched worshippers who actually climb this hill to visit this deity and yet they say God is everywhere. Isn't that the biggest trip? Haha! Well now that we reached the peak! Attained the summit. Now it was time to Get Back, to where we once belonged!This was even more psyching than the ascent!

Ok now descending at a 40 degree angle is worse than ascending it! We were back lost thruough the forest with one direction! Down! This got over sooner since we just kept slipping and sliding all the way down. But it was more dangerous than ascent for sure. We finally reached the tea plantations which was a sign that we're halfway down. Here we noticed a lone Bison peacefully walking through the plantation. Gawd he was massive. Like one of these tanks. When i saw him i thought bout our docile 'gay' cows. My Gawd what has man done to cows which make em so psyched in the head. Man must have had a tough time taming animals then. Jehzuz!! This bloke of solid muscle and bone. He was majestic(only wild animal I saw the whole trip, apart from human beings but they all come under one species hence this was the other wild species ;)). Well nothin much happened we were half a kilometre away and I was told by my trusty guide and dear friend that these creatures are quite harmful when alone and if provoked can rip us apart. Hence we just watched it peacefully and majestically walk by and disappear into the woods. We quickly traversed the estates and reached the outskirts. Now we had trekked enough and I didn't wanna walk on tar anymore after walking in the trippy woods! Hence we decided to Hitchhike back into town.Managed to hitch a ride on a tempo back to town. Nice experience I gotta say. Must try serious intercity hitchhiking someday!

Back in town we had to fuel up on some alcohol. It had been a long long day of adventure and wearing oneself out in nature now we had to savour the intoxicating liquid which man cleverly over the years distilled from nature ;). We went to the usual bar and had our usual 60s of Scotch on the Rocks.A beautiful combo I must say. Beats all other intoxicants with an overload of class. Now here I suddenly got inspiration to visit the Tiger Hill cemetary at night!! I proposed the crazy idea to my friend and he knowing me well enough knew I was one of the few loonies on this planet who'd come up with such ideas suddenly with no motivation at all. We started to weigh the pros and cons of the trip. Now the Graveyard was situated 3km on the outskirts of the city. The walk was through tea plantations and the woods. Known to be frequented by Bison and the occasional Panther. No tigers for sure! Those animals are clever. Other problem was cops which I said we could handle with money or say we're lost! And now this was just to reach the place. Getting in and out we hadn't even planned what we'd do. Didn't wanna talk bout it too. For some unknown reason I dunno even today! So here goes!

We first decided to stop off at N*zi's place for a torch since it was no moon and the place was obviously darker than usual and ofcourse we cant expect lamp posts in the forest. We didn't find it and hence ended up buying a few cigarette lighters with a small incandescent lamp at the other end. Yea we're trained profesionals see! Now we began the walk. We were loaded with cigarettes taken to calm us down lol! One hundred meters into the walk and we're having second thoughts. It was the darkest darkness I've ever seen if there is a term like that. Anyways I'm creating it to describe this crazy darkness. But we pressed on. I had to keep talking about how glorious it'd be when we return. This is called being positive in crazy times. LOL! I kept feeding N*zi with enough cigarettes to keep him cool. The scotch we were tripping on had died down and out of our systems. We were dead sober and scared. Yes! Scared! We still pressed on. Now the path to the graveyard had tea plantations sloping down towards the left and dense overgrowth towards the right. The path was just big enough for a car to pass through. The environment was getting to us. Now all the fears in the world came to our minds. Tigers, Leopards, Bison, Wolves, Ghosts,
Zombies, Lung Cancer, Heart Attack, Overdose! We were armed with two useless lighter torches, a camera with flash, cigarettes and our stupidity! Yes we're experienced trekkers and adventurers! ;) Now a kilometer and a half we had covered, we start hearing this crazy drum beat. It was constant. It beat at the same frequency as our HEARTS! or our hearts beat at the same frequency as the drums I dunno! It sounded real tribal! This got to us. I was getting images of human sacrifice, devil worship, satanic psychedelia! It was horrid. My friend went all quiet. To change to mood I told my friend that the drum beats must be some Rave Party goin on in the forest which if we're lucky we may find LOL! He just said he'd rather pretend he never
heard the drum beats lol! We were halfway and there was no turning back! We pressed on. Two kilometers. It's as dark as dark can be! The drum beats getting into more psychedelic rhythms! Our hearts beating even more psychedelic rhythms as the drums. We don't even feel like smoking now! We're still walking! Waiting! Fearing! Loathing! Jehzuz!! Recalling that right now is sending this shiver down my spine. Gawd!! What is wrong with me? Why do I do such things? LOL! Well too late! It's over! Let's carry on with it. We finally reach the graveyard. The site of those two tubelights brought so much joy to us! Ahh Electricity!

Now the beats were real loud!It wasn't from inside the grave. This was from the adjoining areas. Unknown. Unseen. Didn't even wanna know where! Now reaching the graveyard was bittersweet! We had reached our destination. But we didn't wanna end up there if you know what I mean lol! Now we needed proof cos this'll be one hell of a yarn if we had no proof LOL! What will we tell our grandchildren if they asked for proof! LOL! So we climb in. This is the eeriest thing I've scene. I tried my best keeping my mind off anything scary. The Exorcist movie for example lol! We silently made our way inside. Got a couple of shots with that beautiful Angel.

There was legend associated to this Angel. It is said to mysteriously disappear once every year on some particular day. This wasn't that particular day fortunately or unfortunately. We got our pics. We were high. Tripping on the drug our body produces - Adrenaline!! haha! We did it! But the scene was not over yet! We had to make it out alive! I wanted to stay longer but we again came back to our senses. The drum beats brought us back I guess lol or our bodies had run out of adrenaline ;). Any odds we now had to walk back. We got back to the entrance. Bid goodbye to the gate and the tubelights and made our way back to the path. We were much relieved on the way back obviously. Now even if we died it's ok... It wouldn't have mattered :D We did this! It was a crazy task and the fact that it was just two of us was even more crazier anyways it was over! Phew! Gawd! Now we started on ghost stories lol! But I noticed this greatly increased the pace at which we were walking and hence decided to talk about something else. We finally made it back to town. Ahh the relief. The joy! The ecstacy! We didn't need drugs or alcohol! We were HIGH! Looking back that was one of the most craziest, bravest, stupidest, coolest, ridiculous, psychedelic,daring thing I had done( Just one! I've done similar crazy things lol) Remembered Morrison's line “Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free.”We were free that day! Only that day though :P. I'm still scared of graveyards. Well we hadn't experienced anything supernatural that night. Not that we didn't expect to. But we didn't. WE may have lived to tell it or died seeing it. But nothin happened! The drums we heard, we never figured out where they originated from. We never will. Nevermind! That brought us to the end of my second day of my stint in Coonoor. It was my last day in Coonoor too. Ahh what a day! Twenty Four hours!(ok not exactly :P) That was one of the most productive, psychedelic, adventurous days in my life, The 2nd of August 2008! I'll continue with my third and last day of my vacation there some other time! :) Peace!

You can't always get what you Want (But if you try sometimes, you get what you Need)

© Niranjan Noel Joseph

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

THE DAY KARMA WORKED THROUGH ME!!

Friday, August 15, 2008

Adventures of N*zi and Nemesis!

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Hot Air Balloon

Xxxxxtamine

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