The Last Message...

**A short story**

July 14, 2013

I spent last night tossing and turning, making Shobha get up twice and bring me some water to deal with my dry throat. And when finally I felt the sun rays sifting through the small square window over my tired face, I got up, dressed for work, hurriedly gulped down breakfast Shobha prepared and left home before any of my sons had woken up. 

The outside looked just like it always did: the familiar smell of old brick and cement coming from age old houses on both sides of the narrow lane. Ours was right in the center of the gali so that it did not matter where you entered from. The distance would be the same. It had rained last night, just like it had been raining the past few nights. The ground had a musty smell about it, and as I carefully stepped over the puddles and muck, dawn gave in to a brighter day. I always believed people gave a lot of importance to everything at face value. It's wrong. If any of the regular folks would see me right now, they would see a 65 year old Badri in his regular white kurta pajama and brown Bata sandals, walking towards the closed down church (now kabootarkhana), to feed the birds and then going towards his shop in Kashmere Gate, working well past retirement. I wonder if they know. I wish they did, but on second thoughts, how does it matter to them? This day is different from the rest and probably for the first time in my life, I feel nervous about going to work. 

I pick up some flowers and agarbatti and reach my shop. I'm in a mixed state of mind when I see I'm not the first one there. I pass a smile at Madia. "I should be surprised to know you feel sentimental about today, but I'm not" I sigh as I add, "It's been a long time". The clerk's eyes displayed the kind of sadness that makes you wish like you never saw it. The kind that sucks out all hope. I did not want to see it. I looked around. Madia had already made the place look clean. A lot cleaner than before, in fact. "Sit down Badri sahib, I'll get tea for you," he said.

I saw the middle aged man disappear from the workroom. Turning to the small mandir, I lighted up the agarbatti and prayed. A little longer today. Lord Krishna's face stared back at me as I reminisced about the past, remembering all these years I sat here, in this office, knowing about lives and families of the people who came to me. I didn't know what my life would be when the day ended, I just knew it would be very different from how it has been in the last 50 years. I had been putting up a brave face all this time, but I always felt too exposed to God when I prayed, like He knew and it did not matter if tears rolled down while praying, because He understood. 

I shuffled across the room and sat down at my old desk. I opened the drawers, unlocked the machine, put my hands together on the worn out table, interlocking my fingers together, looking out the open door towards the morning street activity. I glanced at the round wall clock above my head. 9 a.m. Gautamaditya would be on his way, just like every second Sunday of the month. I breathed out and sat down to wait. 

***

Sept. 27, 1963

"Babaaaa!! Where are you going Baba? It is a Sunday! Won't you be home? Are you going out to eat? Will you please take me along?" Aadi fired these questions in his high pitched eight year old voice, running out barefoot in the verandah of their home. Jagmohan Lal smiled at the dancing boy and said, "Get your chappals and come along." A few minutes later they were walking down the tiny streets shaded with three storey houses in Daryaganj. Walking 4 kilometers with Aadi made him revisit history, for he felt happily obligated to answer the curious kid's curious questions about everything that came their way. It was 9.30 in the morning by the time they reached Somlal's office. They went in through the open door, straight up to the man behind a wooden desk and a machine on top.

"Ah, Jagmohan! Kya sandesa laaye ho?" Somlal started gathering up long thin strips of paper. He looked at Aadi through his wire rimmed glasses as Jagmohan pulled out his folder to take out a piece of paper. Aadi held on to a piece of his Baba's kurta, for he found this place very different, and he could barely contain his questions. Somehow he knew this was Baba's work and so he simply looked at the table and the machine on it. It was rectangular, almost a square, but not quite. Aadi did his maths well. He saw his Baba handing over a paper to the bespectacled man, who started pasting small strips of paper with funny dots and dashes on those long strips. Once done, he carefully inserted those into the machine, which beeped once, twice, thrice as they went in and out. "Do you like it, my first customer of the day?" 

Aadi was brought out of his reverie when he realized the man was looking at him, expecting an answer. "Yes! What happened? What is this?" He was now right next to Somlal, hand hovering over the machine, not sure whether to touch it or not. Somlal gently placed the boy's hand on top of the machine, a little warm from the effort. "This is a telegraph machine. Your Baba just sent a message to your eldest brother in Ranchi, asking him to come home for Diwali." Inspired by Aadi's awestruck expression and glancing towards the door in case he missed any customer, Somlal explained how telegrams were sent. 

***

Sept. 24, 1974

Aadi walked past the Red Fort in a hurry. His heart was thumping loudly, hammering across his chest as he skipped a few paces in the early dawn light. It is too early in the morning, he thought. He stood outside Somlal & Sons. Telegraph Office, the closed shutter making him want to tear up. He paced forward and back on the street, and then sat hunched in front of the office, waiting for someone to show up. 

It was 8.30 a.m. when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Badri, Somlal ji's son in his late twenties was standing there, looking at him worriedly. He got up. "Please Badri, I have to call bhaiya home. Ma is not well and I... she.. she's not well." Aadi handed him a paper with his short and to-the-point message. Badri hurriedly opened the office, made Aadi sit with a cup of tea ordered from the neighbouring dhaba and set to work. He loved the job, but the only thing that kept him from being happy while working was the fact that he would be the first to know bad news. Worse, the one to send the news to people who'd probably tear up just knowing they had a telegram. 

'Come home soon STOP Ma unwell END'

***

Jan 9, 1986

A 31 year old Aadi in an unwashed kurta looked way too enthusiastic than his appearance allowed. But he did not care. Entering the telegraph office, he opened his box of meethai and took out a barfi. "Muh meetha karo Badri! Aaj khushi ka dinn hai" he sang as a delighted Badri filled his mouth with barfi. "What's the good news?" 

"My wife brought a little Laxmi in our home! I have a daughter too now! She gave birth to the baby this morning! I have to send a telegram to bhaiya!"

'God blessed us with a baby girl STOP Come see her STOP We miss you END'

***

Mar 18, 1998

Aadi stood in a queue in Badri's office, the overhead fan not doing much to dry out his sweat. He regretted not going his Baba's way and sending telegrams in the morning. It became crowded at this time. Too many people with too many messages. I wonder how many of these people are sending threats to government officials, how many sending orders. Is there someone like me, waiting to send in a telegram saying I won't be here for a few years? That I'm being transferred and I'll live without my family all these years? I hope not, he thought.

He transcribed his message, sending it across to bhaiya and said a temporary, heart-felt goodbye to Badri. "I'll see you soon, friend. Take care." Badri smiled as he watched Aadi's familiar gait disappear around the corner.

'Transferred to Lucknow for three years STOP Keep checking on family END'

***

June 24, 2004

Walking through the quiet morning streets, Badri felt that familiar feeling of liberation, of being the only survivor in this brutal age when funny (but really not so funny) new developments in the field of technology were keeping people more inside their homes than ever. He did feel sad about a lot of things, his gradually declining number of customers for one. He was pleasantly surprised to see a well dressed Aadi standing outside his unopened office, a big box of sweets in his hand. 

"Good morning Aadi. It's so good to see you! What's the happy occasion?" Badri asked.

Aadi was beaming. "My daughter is a grown up girl now. Uske byah ka sandes bhejna hai. Here, this is an invitation for you" Aadi handed over the box and a card. "Mubarak ho Aadi ji! Half-century ke sath sath beti ka byah!"

'Sudha getting married next month STOP Sent invitation by post STOP Everyone happy END'

***

August 19, 2008

When Badri, in the middle of the process of encoding a message addressed to a government official, looked up and saw Aadi hobbling towards the office in the late monsoon evening, he sensed something was out of place. Aadi was usually the one for morning messages and only came in the afternoons or evenings when it was to send an urgent message. This time however, it didn't seem like he was in any hurry. By the time Badri finished writing and sending the message, Aadi had entered and taken a chair to wait for his turn. He looked absolutely and positively depressed and didn't seem to be in any hurry at all. Badri speedily worked on encoding, decoding messages, the poor machine sputtering as fast as it could. It was getting dark. He walked over to Aadi when the last customer exited, only to shake him and looking at a wrecked man. His face was caked with paths made of dried tears that kept on mixing with fresh ones. 

"It's Sudha," he whispered. "She suffered her third miscarriage. What is she going to do now?" Aadi flopped down on the chair dejectedly. Badri stood with his friend for a long time, just lending him his company. When Aadi got up to leave, he did not stop him. He hated this part of his job. Being the bad-news-breaker. People were scared of Badri's name, for it meant bad news.

'Sad news STOP Sudha miscarried again STOP Your brother Gautamaditya END'

***

July 14, 2013

Madia had brought in tea and for some reason, pakoras for both of us. Like it was supposed to be a party? I bit into the hot stuffed bread-pakora, feeling the heat on my gums, following it with a sip of chai. It was still early morning. Even if it wasn't, it wouldn't have made a difference for I got around 10 customers a day. Gone were the days when Somlal & Sons Telegraph Office was flooded with people of all shapes and sizes, in a hurry to send messages. I had forgotten what it was to be busy, but what would I even do after today? I wouldn't know even this level of busy. It wouldn't be an understatement if I said I was feeling thoroughly angry and equally sad. This wasn't fair, but if I had learned something looking at the thousands of lives I got to know through my messages, it was that life wasn't necessarily fair. And there was little one could do to change it and those who managed to live with that were tagged 'wise men'. 

It was late afternoon when Gautamaditya came in. I tried my usual smile, but all I could manage was a weak imitation. He seemed to understand. There was no paper on him and I wondered if he wished to send a message at all. It was unlike him to come empty handed. "Namaste Badri ji. I just came in to see you. I wondered when I would see you again." He fumbled for words but gave up soon. There was no sense in going circles around the main point. He knew it too, just like I do. Writing telegraphic messages for the past 50 years of my life, I certainly knew what it was to get to the fact of the matter. We were brothers in that same way. Aadi got up and stood over my machine, running his hands over its surface, picking up strips of paper and going through codes. Before I knew it, he started pasting codes on paper, quick and proper. I was shushed down but I was intrigued. Did Aadi know coding? 

After a short while the machine gave a beep. A new kind of a beep, one I rarely heard. An incoming message. Aadi sat down across the desk from me, pulled out enough money for a very long telegraphic message and handed it to me. He then held on to my left hand, just like I did when I delivered news of Sudha's miscarriage. Bewildered, I took out the incoming message. It read:

'I feel sad about telegram vanishing STOP It has been very special and important to me STOP Have shared happiness grief and sadness excitement and news with you and this office STOP You will be missed and I will feel terrible about having to send a message and not coming to you STOP I wanted this message to be the last one STOP Thank you dear friend END'

***

Yes, today marks the last day the telegram survives. 163 years of service and now all thanks to new means of 'faster' and 'effective' communication, it is no more required. I have personally never even seen a telegram. Apologies if there's anything wrong with what I wrote, as far as the technicalities are concerned. I just felt bad about it, not just because I love old stuff, but also because of it's emotional quotient. These things are truly valuable and no technology can make up for it. I guess that's the malady of change.

PS- The telegraph office is actually government owned (BSNL, to be precise), unlike a private office like I made it in the story.

Notebook-ing Memories!

There’s this thing about me: I like notebooks. All kinds of notebooks, especially those which look cute and colorful! As a kid I always loved pretty stationery, I was that one kid in class with, if not fancy, a cute pencil case, different kinds of pencils instead of the standard Nataraj, erasers shaped as fruits, animals or just printed with cartoons, collecting pretty junk for crafts, covering the school diary (which wasn’t standard. We were free to decorate!) with a pink sheet, pasting cut outs of graphic drawings and practicing cursive writing on the cover pages, getting pinkish and cuteish stuff as gifts whenever dad made any trip. Ever since I remember, I’ve always had a personal notebook. The one stacked in between other books and retrieved time and again to jot down anything interesting I came across, or thought of. The name of an interesting movie, quotes from Children’s Digest I liked, books I’ve read and want to read (yeah :P ), anything and everything. I’ve lost most of them, for there was always a new one.

I don’t think I ever finished any one of them. If there was a new one which was cuter than the previous one, I’d shift. Of course, I’d first make promises and classify the notebook for a certain something. ‘This is going to be my quotes book’ or ‘this one will be only about books’, but I’d end up jotting down just whatever I wished. Two days ago a friend told me of a 75% discount on books in those Mediamart kiosks at metro stations. While returning from college, I picked up a book on palmistry for mom (who reads such stuff for time pass) and just then I was drawn to a different shelf with different kinds of notebooks. The plain school kind, the spiral, college kind and then those with Superman, Batman, Barbie on them! I had a two minute mental debate over Superman/Batman for my brother, who isn’t very fond of notebooks as such, but he always appreciates whatever I get for him. And I figured it’d be a nice reminder of the childhood days. As for me, I had been deliberating over the idea of having an ‘idea notebook’ handy, since while travelling when I’m in the ‘relaxed’ mode, I do get a lot of funny, weird but workable ideas for writing. And I tend to forget those very soon. So I picked up a small purple notebook for the purpose and yeah, it’s still unused but looks very cute. ;)

The idea notebook! :D

My property, y'know?

This morning I picked it up to jot down story ideas and as I opened up to the first page, feeling that surge of excitement that comes with something new, already imagining all the spectacular ideas the book would contain, feeling the cardboard and paper beneath my fingers, all smooth and perfect for writing, it simply made me remember all the wonderful similar feelings I’ve always had previously. Thankfully, I still had a few of those notebooks, which I took out and went through again. Ah, the memories! ^_^

Starting with the earliest (among those I’ve got still), this one was gifted to me by an aunt in Ludhiana when we visited their place, once upon a time in 2002 when I was 10 going on 11, and the first entry is a recollection of our trip to Amritsar and how I came upon that diary.

Cute! :D

In case you're wondering, I've deliberately messed up the details!

It’s funny to see my kiddish handwriting, trying to describe everything as it was, crossing out a wrong spelling and following it with the correct one. Here’s a small sample: “When we reached Amritsar and when we were near the hotel, we stopped to see the Jalianwala Bagh. I had never been to Amritsar. This was the first time I went. My father took me (^ inserted: and my family) there. There, we saw many things like the place from where the britishers (small b overlapped with a capital B) fired their guns at innocent people, the place where the britishers (forgetting to overlap this one with a capital B) fired on the walls ie, the spots of guns  bullets on walls and one wall has’nt changed.”

One more: “We went to Golden Temple. There were many people rushing. First, we had to walk a long distance to enter it. It was at in the middle of the Sarovar. It was made of gold. We enjoyed very much. We saw Ber trees also. My father told me a story of that tree and in the last he told me that it was a magical tree. My mother and I washed our hands and faces in the Sarovar under the Ber tree.”

Not to be narcissistic or anything, but I think I was a pretty cute 10 year old. A few pages on, dated August 2005, I’ve written how my brother made a ruckus one evening and how I hate him for it. That was the time when dad had to go on an official trip and he asked me to write down whatever trouble I had and he’d see it when he returned (the awesome days when cell phones weren’t stuck to our ears). It’s heart-warming to just see the change in one notebook. A few years on, in a more controlled and better cursive, I’ve made a list of ‘Books I long to read’, following it with some quotes I made up and the stories behind them. I wonder if kids these days even make any memories this way. I don’t think digital devices can make up for it in any way.

Pink love ^_^

Then there was this pink one featuring Barbie, which did not seem enough and so I pasted more Barbie stickers on the cover. This was when I wondered if I could write a diary entry every day. Turns out I could not, because I skipped a lot of days and then just stopped. But it’s funny and nostalgic to read about high school and homework issues, how my class was suspended for three days for scribbling on our school shirts and I was scared as hell.

While in college, I got this one with a Hannah Montana pop-up on the cover. And yeah, a heart-shaped mirror too. I used to be a huge HM fan while in school, never missing those episodes. HM was the reason I was glued to Disney channel. This one contains self-motivating stuff. Lists of things I can do, those I’m proud of, those I wish to do. The first cover is full of HM stickers too and the first line reads, “If life is a journey, then your vision is a picture of your destination”, dunno where I sourced it from.

Hannah Montana :D

Inside first page!

Apart from these, there have always been notebooks for other stuff, like I mentioned earlier. I was gifted this pink one by my dad when he went abroad and got it for me! I admit, I am a miser when it comes to using it, considering how it’s so cute and all and I don’t want to finish it soon. This one is mostly bookish and the first thing I did with this was to do a mind-map for ideas for my book blog (back when I just had to start Journal ofa Bookworm). The red one is my present, favourite notebook. I’ve covered the first page text leaving only my name, because it’s got all sorts of dreams and secrets. ;)

As I’m writing, I’m remembering others I’m missing, those I haven’t located today, but I know they’re somewhere near, just out of sight. I love all of them to bits. I can be weird in a lot of ways, but who cares? This weirdness defines me. Do you have any such fetish?  

Transition Mode: ON.

I'm not a fan of the phenomenon of change, as you might know if you've been reading what I've been blabbering since I started this blog. I know it's important and all, for all that diversity and learning through change and that cliched, 'change is the only constant' thing, but still. I'm all for gradual change, it's sometimes perfect and magical, like the way I find myself getting mature and err.... a better, calmer person? Something like that. However, I get all anxious and feel like I'm on a completely different plane when the change is sudden. Sometimes it's pleasant, other times it's not. In both cases, I feel uncomfortable, slightly less when it's something good, but the feeling's there nevertheless.

This change thingy seems to have suddenly found my life the most interesting, out of the billions of people on the planet, it seems. Alright, that's hugely exaggerated, but you get the picture, right? One thing after another and right now, it's so different that it's hard to believe I actually had a vacation. No more sleeping in, roaming around in PJs, reading whenever I felt like it, watching random flicks and shifting channels restlessly, no more going out to the park for a walk (aiming to be 'fit'), no more time-on-my-hands for blogging, even! Which is something that sucks the most for me, right now. I mean, I need it so bad! College's started once again and there are so many new things it's hard to handle. Although, so far how I've managed and behaved, I deserve a pat on the back!

1. I'm in second year! Which is like, the final year for us poor souls dragged into this MBA thingy, and now there are around 40 new people! Which is quite a lot, especially for someone like me, who takes a lot of time to adjust and talk easily. But it's okay. I had this new zest for 'being myself' which has been working so far. I have my doubts, as it was the orientation week and everyone was having fun and the real thing starts tomorrow, but still I hope the new me would hold on for longer. I don't want to care what people think about me, I don't want to be too attached or emotional with anyone, rather friendly and open, which by the way, I find really hard in this place. No, I didn't find anyone new too, with whom I could have that comfortable 'connectedness'. I remember writing a post titled, 'Thought Mismatch' in the beginning of my first year, describing how I feel like I don't belong here and it's still there. *sigh* God knows when I'll find my true place. Till then, I need to hold on and focus on:

- What is important to me

- Ensuring all the over practical people don't get to me

- Ensuring I don't become a carpet being walked on, like last year

- Smiling. A lot. It helps. :D (And it makes me look far better than I actually am :P )

2. New campus! Our University is essentially located in Old Delhi and our course was in West Delhi, but not anymore! It's shifted to its mother campus which is a historical building with that old Delhi feeling. The only thing I like about it. Actually, I think I'll enjoy this new campus once the other course kids start pouring in from August. I don't know. I like the ambience, even though it's marred by the presence of dogs-that-chase-you and families of monkeys in banyan trees and on tops of the roofs, so that when you have to reach your classroom you've got to keep praying you don't get attacked. And those guys even have green-apple ice cream from the ice cream vendor in the campus. Every afternoon post lunch. o.O Still, discovering a half buried skeleton (preserved with P.O.P.), a 300 year old library-sans the books- and having Old Delhi right outside the gates is not so bad.

3. Dance moves!! I've never danced. I am too much of a klutz for something as graceful as dance. I look like a pathetic zombie when I attempt dancing and just the mention of dancing even in the classroom, with my classmates, on stupid songs where you just have to move your hands and nod your head, gave me the heebie-jeebies! Will you believe it? I danced yesterday, in front of the whole MBA school, juniors and teachers included. Not solo, obviously, but in a group of 5. I don't know what came over me. It was compulsory for all to perform something and considering I suck even more at singing, I thought I'd stay inconspicuous in a group dance. But well.............. I had a lot of fun! While practicing and more so while performing. Some friends were amazed at the change too! :D Although, it doesn't mean I'm going to be available for this thing every time, okay?

4. Reading! We have Saturdays working too and during the past week, I haven't read a word, which is scary considering the piles of books I've got pending for reviews. I hate not reading. I know it might sound pesky every time I mention it, but what can I do? There's little else I like to do.

5. Ensuring fairness. The biggest reason I don't like MBA is when people believe they can 'succeed' by making their thing the best by bringing others down, which is actually a loser's way of doing things. Sadly, that doesn't matter because this is not the time for honesty. It's a virtue which isn't in use these days. Even then, I think it defines a character and absolutely makes you trustworthy, which I think is very important that people see you as. I don't know if I could live with the fact that people don't trust me! At the same time, you don't have to become someone people take for granted. There's all kind of rubbish business that happens and you've got to learn how to make sure you're not a victim, by being polite. It's really hard to manage, but I'll be doing my best. I'm done with doing all the free work and no one even knows whose hands it passed on from!

6. A new day! :D My brother G, who's outside Delhi for studies, gave us a surprise today by coming home!!! Although, I didn't appreciate being woken up all groggy and full of sleep (and I got up at the sound of mom's incredible laughter) at 8.30 a.m on the only day of the week when I wasn't sleeping for just 4 hours. But it's okay, as later both of us had a deep rest for hours! :P Thank you G, you really made us all super happy. Just that right now, sitting beside me pestering me for the laptop is irritating. But whatever, I missed this too. :P

7. No more GFC!! Dear blog followers, Google reader is shutting down from tomorrow, which means that this 'Follow Me' button on the right, where most of you have signed up, would not be of any use. It's so sad! I mean, I don't want to lose all you guys! Who will even read my blog posts? Please please if you're a blogger, follow me on Bloglovin', which is a platform for following blogs, or put me in your feed reader, or subscribe via email. I'm telling you, I'll bring in a troll to hit you if you don't!

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Also, for bloggers, Bloglovin has this amazing feature where you can 'import' all the blogs you follow with just a click of a button, and hence you don't lose out on any blog! I'd hugely recommend that. It's a nice platform! Not a very nice change, but we can't help it! 

A day spent zooing! ;)

Hello awesome people! If you're among those readers I so adore, that is, if you've been here long enough (hey new guys. I like you too :P ), you remember reading two crazy posts about two crazy days with two friends with crazy stuff we did, and the crazy fun we had? My two oh-we-might-meet-twice-a-year-but-we're-awesome friends, Aneesha and Richa? Henceforth, A and R. The point is, I was feeling so cruddy yesterday. I mean, that's not the point, but the beginning of the point. A pinged me on Facebook and then this happened (not exact):

A: Mausam is so cool! Let's go enjoy in some park-kinda place!

Me: Really? I'm in! I'll ask R if she's free to go tomorrow! Decide the place.

A: I'll Google.

Just like the cute friend she is, R agreed, not forgetting to giggle at the random plan. :P

A: Let's go to Indraprastha Millenium Park. Pragati Maidan. Metro+Auto.

Me: (asks parents who say a weary yes. - It's so not easy getting permission.) Yeah sure. :D Whatever it is :P

So then I had this dawn of intuition that my morose mood wouldn't last for long. And jeez, I love the guy who discovered intuition. Thanks dude! (or dudeni. Uh, I should probably curtail the excitement-which-leads-to-weird-lingo-and-unnecessary-length-in-my-anyway-long-blog-posts! :P) This morning the weather turned hot again! That rogue! But A still said we'd go. What a my-kind of friend she is. :D I picked her up on Scoot on our way to the metro station, and as she hopped on pillion, she said, "We're not going to IP park." 

Me: Why? Where then?

A: I have no idea. Let's just go, then we'll see. :P

R met us at her station and then we decided (when I said like a drooling child, please!) to go to the National Zoological Park, a.k.a, Zoo! I said how I've been crying and dying to visit it since the past two-three years especially, ever since I learned photography and have a camera, and the last (which also happened to be the first) time I visited was when I might have been a ten year old. A and R too, had just been there as kids and I had brought along my camera (supposedly, we wanted to have a nice photo-session) and we were oh-so-excited! Since it was initially my idea, supported by A and an okay-alright-R, they said they were depending on me to get them safely to the zoo. Oh my dear friends have so much faith in me. No wonder I talked to an auto wallah who overcharged. Sorry guys. :P

I'm going to try to make this post short, so I'm just pointing out the highlights. 

# 1: We were just really excited and happy. You know, that forest-y feel, natural environment, okay-type weather, each other's company and an interest in such stuff. You know how it is! After looking at (and I don't need to mention, photographing each of those) a few basic animals and birds, we saw an enclosure with a huge pit, jungle-y kind of a place and just a railing to ward people off. I mean, to keep us out, because like A said, "this is their home and we're the strangers here'. Aww A, sometimes you're just profound. (Okay, sorry. :P). So, I looked at that pit and had a flashback. Ten years old and mom telling me the pit is important so that those animals don't jump out and eat us alive. I said how there might be something big over there, and then read a warning sign, "Dangerous animal: keep off the railing". That got me excited (I'm normal okay? This stuff just excites me! :D) and then we went further ahead when I spotted a sign! Eep! It said, 'White Tiger'. By the time I literally shouted, "Tiger!!!" my eyes adjusted to a great beauty standing right at the edge of the pit, just looking at us all as if we're the novelty around here (which for it, might be true :P ). I mean, it looked so good, so white with black stripes, just standing with an attitude. Really, those beasts have attitude and it shows! I heard small "aaoohhh" and saw R and A looking scared and starting to go back! Getting scared because the tiger was out in the open and it did not occur to them that there's a whole pit to save us and that it's unlikely it'll jump on us. :P

As expected, I took out my camera and clicked! And it posed. And I'm not kidding. I always had this photography dream to photograph wild animals, and today it seemed like they were just waiting for me, saying, "after all this time?" I just had the time of my life. Yeah, so when I had clicked a few pictures and adored the animal, with A and R now looking at it with awe too, it moved and went to hide in those bushes. :P Ha! I was just so happy! (I've said that already how many times?)

Ah this tiger! ^_^
Yeah, I clicked. I'm a good hobbyist photographer! :P

# 2: Wolf enclosure: I had never seen a wolf before, except of course in National Geographic and so I was making my usual huge eyes even huger and searching the compound and the three cave kinda things for any sign of the wolf. After a while, R and A got excited and R pointed towards the caves and said, "There! Something's moving! It's the wolf!" A was nodding her head but then like me, searched even more carefully. Then I saw those tiny irritable mosquitoes (or whatever they are), hovering in front of the cave in two batches and said, "It's not the wolf, those are mosquitoes!" R kept pointing and saying, "No, it's there! Something is moving. Seee!!! It's moving into the third cave!" I thought she might have some special vision powers because I could only see blackness and my eye sight is okay. By that time, a few more people had gathered behind us, trying to peer into the caves for any sign of the wolf. Then I took out my camera and zoomed in (it's awesome with a 24x optical and 48x -or more-digital zoom) and showed her the whole cave from the inside! It was empty. :P I clicked a picture that shows those mosquito-kind of things. Of course, we left the place discreetly, leaving the rest to try and look for the wolf. :P (On a serious note, if there were those mosquitoes, it might have been there, hidden somewhere like a clever......uh, wolf.)

I still can't see anything except these mosquito-thingies. 

# 3. We reached the water-part (how, I'll explain in point number 5) where there was green, slimy water with a sign that read, "Spectacled caiman crocodile". We peered into the water, into the bushes and whatever part was visible, but could not see it. That was when R said, "it might be hidden because it's wearing specs and looking hideous." Uhh. Okay. :P

# 4: Walking towards some deer and stuff, we stumbled a bit over uneven ground. There were small mud hills and pits big enough for a small animal and a human kid to fall into. R, showing off her genius said, "Do you know why these pits are there?" We shook our heads and she continued, "because in case any animal takes off after someone like us, they'd fall into the pit and we can run away to safety." Just. Hhahahahhaha! :P

# 5. We had been having a great time, what with that White Tiger, and then finding Cheetah and Leopard-in enclosures, unfortunately- and oh, a lion who was just staring at us all the time! I mean, there were more people too, but the lion found us fascinating. No wonder, my dad was worrying that the zoo guys would keep me for show too :P But still, we three together must have been a sight. ;) Yeah, we had been able to look at many animals probably for the first time in years and we were drooling with happiness, if at all this is anything. And we'd clicked a lot of pictures (and yeah, I was thrilled with having had the opportunity to photograph those animals!) and then we saw the time and didn't realize it had only been an hour and a half! Then to add to the awesomeness, we found elephants, all sorts of monkey-ish things: baboons, langurs, chimpanzees, etc, many many kinds of deer! I was seriously crying (not literally) over not having seen the giraffes yet, because I really wanted to have a picture of a giraffe, just to make a lame joke to my brother who is tall and I call him a giraffe too, that I spotted him at his righteous place: in the zoo. But I couldn't make that joke because of course, I didn't find any giraffe. We were near the exit and hungry and tired, but we still hadn't covered one part of the zoo, which forked left from the entrance/exit. 

R didn't want to go, A wanted to eat something and then go and I just forget all kinds of tiredness and hunger when I'm excited! We saw a board with a list of animals and realized we'd seen only half! I had to beg to these guys to just see the left side once :P And R agreed on the condition that we wouldn't go for boating at Purana Qila, which we thought we would do and which was right next to the zoo! Five minutes of decision making and we were off to explore the left. God, it was fun. Mostly water-stuff, so yeah, that croc who was hidden because of his specs, and then a whole lake with water birds! Whoop! We saw storks and ducks and birds whose names I did not care to find out, because they were just so pretty (and so far!) and my camera was literally having a field day. :D Then we found a beautiful cave kinda pathway which was out of the normal path and where R did not allow us, but A and me went there nonetheless. It seemed magical! Then I got to know something about crowd psychology, which I'll explain in my research paper which will fetch me millions of dollars. There isn't enough space here anyway. ;) 

Finally, we had lunch among stupid scary flies-cum-bees who loved our soft drink cups and then left in an auto that charged an amount Rs. 20 less than what we came for. (I said sorry, guys!). We went through the pictures in the Metro, laughing and my constant dialogue of the day, "It was such fun!" :D We were just wishing we could have had a slightly rainy day, so it would have been even better, but nothing beats what did happen and that was a hell lot of fun! As the previous readers already know, and newbies may take note, I always have the time of my life with these two of my friends. They're just awesome! A and R, take a bow! And if I've forgotten anything (I would have! I couldn't possibly explain every single thing we did), you may comment. ;)

Here are some pictures for you to enjoy! ^_^

Note for pic stealers: I didn't have time to watermark them, so please don't steal.

Hi Lion-who-stared-at-us. See how it's looking? :O

One wella baboon who loves to hangofy like this :P

Hi elephant-who-was-jhooming-and-eating :P

These antlers! 

Storks? or cranes? I'm so bad with this stuff. Water birds, it is. ;)

I'm just an awesome photographer. :D
(Yeah it's blurry, but WHO CARES?)

Thanks A and R for just giving me an amazing, to-be-remembered forever kind of a day after so many cruddy days. I love you!!! ^_^