staying.cool

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i eventually did get home that night, with the rain pouring down. quite a few roads were falling prey to a growing film of water. the rain continued. listening to the patter, later that night, i was reminded of bombay. every year, the second week of june was a time when the monsoons would signal their onset with a drizzle, and then the 3-day pour. the first smell of the rain-soaked earth had been something unique to me when i first landed there in 1994. needing umbrellas and raincoats was very different from the desert of dubai. it came to be a permanent part of my psyche. the joy of walking in the rain, the fun of football in the downpour, splashing in the mud, getting drenched, loving it all. i’ve missed it for the last 3 years. last july was good, but the lack of rains did tell.

overnight, i was transported back to a time when we had stood under the barest of shelters in bombay, drinking masala chai. umbrellas were for wimps, after all. someone brought pakodas from the next stall, and that was bliss. then of course, a little further back, and the splashing in puddles. even further back, and remembering myself fall and scrape myself in the mud every day for a week. my mom had not been happy.

the monsoons were this unique phenomenon in bombay. you would await them eagerly in the peak of may, and then curse their existence when they would bring the city to a standstill by pouring down. NJ got a taste of that, with flooding in many parts from sunday’s downpour. the fact that the downpour was barely one-tenth of the average in bombay is something for another discussion. people went crazy, roads closed, college closed.. we all sat down and watched a movie.

and for a minute there, it was the chaos of home.

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ice skating has a deceptive grace to it. having watched/read so much about it.. even watching those on the rink right there in front of you; it seems as though its just a matter of gliding on the damn ice. which should come naturally to you. the minute you step on the ice, you might think you can be off. au contraire, its like learning to walk all over again. only this time in a perfectly rhythmic manner. the first steps on ice are alternately scary and dreamy. on one hand, you have no idea where your legs are going to go. on the other, you’re literally gliding over the ground beneath your feet. the barrier becomes the be-all, and end-all of existence… at least it was for me. it took me nearly 3 hours to be able to move in a pseudo-graceful manner over ice; with occasional moments where i would be running on the spot, or duplicating the ‘broadway dance’, trying to regain my centre of gravity.
the weirdest concept was getting up. as you do it, you’re pretty convinced there is no way this is going to bring you back to your feet without you slamming into the ice again… until you’re actually standing again. like magic.

the second time, its baby steps, but you start running much faster. and suddenly the citibank caption makes sense - ‘live life as an eight year old.’

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zooming to the top of the empire state, i wondered how it was even possible that this structure was erected in 400 days… in 1930. unbelievable. but then, everything vanishes from your mind when you take your first steps on top of the empire state, and see one of the most famous night views in the world. breathtaking on every degree of the 360 you can make around the platform; there is a glow to it… you can feel the city pulsating around you. i remembered the “flight” of the london eye that i had taken. as you reach the top, the slow unfolding of london envelopes you in its grandeur. so very typical of london, there is haze as well… but the majesty of london can be believed so much better. once again the contrast of the two is very apparent.

for all its hype though, the empire state has nothing on the rockefeller center. from entering it, all the way to the top, i was struck by two things - the friendliness of the staff (maybe due to lower crowds) and the vibe of elegance that it emanates at every point: the lobby, the swarovski shop, the target floor, the crazy show in the lift… and then you step out onto one of the peaks of manhattan, the only thing separating you from the sky being a pane of glass. the panorama that you can see, unbarricaded almost.. is unbelievable. at the final height where even the pane of glass is barely there, the wind threatens to tear you off the top and send you flying into space… you finally understand why new york will always retain that sheen to it. to think this was financed by rockefeller himself at the height of the depression.

majestic.

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5:10 am , the place seems to be getting colder. akshay patters off to the car. and heat. 5:40 am, he’s back, and minutes later, freezing again. the crowd is getting restless. we’ve looked through the leaflet, a $20 altec lansing speaker set looks good. $7 flash drive too. nothing else of too much interest. the guys behind us talk about past thanksgivings. further updates on best buy’s sale - its over. everything’s wiped out… all the good stuff anyway. the line at staples is elongating.. spillovers from best buy probably. 5:45 am, one of the guys behind us decides he wants a mybook too. we can hear talks of external hard drives up front. damn, there’s a lot of competition. akshay sees a friend, and asks him to pick up a couple extra if he can. we mutually decide he goes for the drives, i go for the speakers. 5:55 am, complaints murmured that they can’t even open the store 5 minutes ahead of schedule.

6 am, staples opens its doors, and the line disappears. seems pointless to have had it, if everyone was to rush in anyway. we separate, i frantically glance hither and thither looking for speakers. accessories.. $3 for a 60 pack of DVDs - picked up.. wireless keyboard/mouse combo - naaah… altec lansing boxes.. office speakers… wait. back up, speakers found and picked up. akshay can’t be seen. i vaguely note a major crowd at a service desk - wonder why. i walk around with that gigantic box, trying to find anything else on my list, when akshay meets me. only one mybook in his hand. damn. apparently, only one per customer at the same damned service desk, and he literally elbowed someone else to get his. he got the flash drive as well, cool. expectedly, the hard drives had been taken in about twenty-two seconds flat.. so there was no way i could have gone for them if i hadn’t initially. i show him the speakers. he mosies off to find a trolley.. i browse around. i am to be mybook-less.. oh well. $100 saved, i guess. suddenly mybooks seem to pop out at me from everywhere. i notice the guy who had been standing behind us, glance down, and take in the mybook in his basket. ironic. akshay re-appears with the trolley, with his stuff.. he’s picked up an extra speaker set. oh well, i could do with a decent speaker set too; what the hell.

he joins the line for checkouts, i dump my stuff into the trolley, and continue browsing. hmm.. nothing else of too much note. i need to make up for the mybook, so pick up another pack of DVDs. head back to akshay, nothing else to do anyway. i find him, and throw in the DVDs alongside the 2 mybooks… wait. TWO ? he grins at the surprise on my face, and points to the guy behind us who apparently decided against the purchase. and akshay, bless him, snatched it up before anyone else. talk about luck ! sweeeeeeeet. i chuck out the DVDs, 400 gigs of storage space is going to last a long, long time. my 3 am trip was giving me a great return. yay.

we pay, leave, and pick up a coupla donuts. off to best buy and walmart, in case we find some good DVDs. not too much at either place, but the crowds are crazy. 7 am, and the places is packed. gigantic parking lots jam packed. wow. back home, the gloating, the decision to try and do it next year as well… and sleep.

50 gig of 400 filled with music and backups. pretty decent sound from a $20 2.1 speaker set. sweet.

thank god for consumerist america.

and thanksgiving too, i guess.

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and so, elated, excited, and ecstatic (well, me anyway), we locate the theatre at the back of the complex. we walk in on a scene with a lot of the main characters. gasps from the crowd, we’re just stunned. 30 seconds later, the hall is dead-silent, and we’re looking at each other.. ‘wow ! that was an awesome scene !‘. another scene later, we’re completely floored. a bit more, and i’m wondering just how non-linear the story is.

and then, the words ‘directed by martin scorcese’ flash up. white on black. ‘the titles just got over ? and its already this awesome ? wo..‘
then the people sitting next to me stand up, and look at us expectantly. i look at the rest, really puzzled. what was going on ? the movie had just started, right ? right ?

nothing more for it, we had to get up to make way. watching people exit the theatre. possibilities ranged. obviously, it was the end of the movie. could it be that we were too early for the show ? that we’d ruined one of the best movies of the year by entering too early ? but the ticket dude had said 5 minutes were over, not 5 minutes to go. we’d ruined the best movie of the year. would the next show be starting now ? still standing. the movie is over. we’d watched the climax, the conclusion of one of the best movies of the decade. no movie, just conclusion. thoroughly puzzled.

we went back to the counter. explained it all. different person, we point out the dunderhead who’d sent us to the theatre.
‘Oh, but the 10:30 show is in theatre 3, not theatre 16.’
‘What ?!’
‘The movie is in theatre 3, you want to go watch it there ?’
‘But you said..’
‘Well.. [looking at screen].. its theatre 3.’
‘So you just ruined a really amazing movie for us ?’
‘It started in theatre 3, you can go watch it there.’ [its 11:10 pm, the show was for 10:30; max start 10:40 pm]
‘What, are you kidding me ?’
‘You want your money back ?’ [opens register, counts money.]

she didn’t seem to get it. they’d successfully managed to send us into a movie that was minutes away from the final knockout punch. the orchestrated climax. and we’d watched it. not knowing what was going on. and we knew how it all came down. and she didn’t seem to care.

hell, it was just a movie. but when you muck up, you usually say sorry. it was the rule, right ? apparently not. apparently its ok to completely ruin a weekend night, and ruin one of the best movies to come out in recent times. we’re supposed to take our money, understand that this is how it works here, and walk out. they didn’t even seem to care. and there weren’t 20 people demanding attention at the same time. we were the only people, everyone else was enjoying the movie they came to see. unruined.

she was busy trying to pack up and get out of there. money given, we could go to hell.

[epilogue: we didn't. i fought. and got free tickets. which i would have offered on the spot anyway. but i don't think i'm ever going back there again. i saw 'the departed' last week, and its a tribute to scorcese that the ending lacked none of the killer punch.]

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