Caught with pants down (the conspiracy)

CAT is approaching, yes it is. I can feel it after every spent, rather 'wasted' day. And I do not want this attempt to be like the previous ones after which everyone said "Oh that one section let you down." Feels like I was almost there, but was I? Isnt this the word which we generally use to differentiate success from failures. Anyway, thats not the thing I was going to write about today. So without getting carried away, let me come to the real story.

Ya, to make sure I get myself enough time to prepare for the exam ahead I thought of taking a week leave which was pending in my account since I had worked in the shutdown week of June. But what reason am I supposed to quote? Preparing for CAT, are you kidding? Thats something I am supposed to hide from the people at office. What could be a safe reason. I didnt want to go for a jaundice or some disaster at home. Those sound too fake. What else? Some festival at home, yes Chhath. Its something Biharis observe religiously and exclusively. Everybody knows about it. And there isnt another Bihari in my dept (nor in the division) so no one can say that he is not going why are you? Anyway no one was against my going on a leave. It was just me trying to prepare myselft with answers to all kind of (unlikely) questions and queries which could come my way. Fortunately the planned duration also coincided with a particularly lean period in some recent vehicle trial activities.

So after all the planning I decided to ask for the leave. And then it occurred to me... How about actually going home instead of staying here alone? I could spent 3 days over there and come back still having 4 days with me. Serves all the purposes. I checked for reservations. No doubt seats were full. Even tatkal bookings were in waiting list but they could get confirmed. I decided to get the leave approved before booking them. I could manage to go by air, but checking the available fare levels, I realized I wasnt that eager.

Next day I got the leave approved, no problems there at all. In the evening the extended tatkal waiting list killed my hopes of going home. So the next evening I bid goodbye to my colleagues and left the office for a long time to come. My plan was on track.

(To be continued...)

I am fine(d)

Hasnt it happened to you that while you are travelling in some mode of public transport and you see some people getting fined for not carrying an appropriate / any ticket and you / people start talking about how miserable such people are? Well it has happened to me. No, I didnt say such things about the person as the person was Me!
I love a few things about Delhi, that includes the CNG fleet of DTC. As an environmentally conscious citizen I make it a point to use ecofriendly methods to meet my requirements. Using CNG buses gives me one such high. It was a pleasant evening, I just got relieved from an HR training program I was attending at Radisson, a 5 star btw, and proudly walked out to catch a bus to Gurgaon. I got one and seeing the number of boarders > number of vacant seats inside, I hurried to grab one before I took the ticket. Thought I would keep my cap on my seat and go and get the ticket after the bus moves and the rush settles down. Bus moved and stopped soon at the next stop, not even minute away. It was still some crowd around my seat. Some 5-6 people entered the bus. One of them, a middle aged man had a reciept book in his hand. Spectacled. Safari suit. I felt uncomfortable. He tagged the conductor on his shoulders and exchanged words. Oh shit, I'm dead. I said to myself. Is this really happening to me. He is the, what do we call him, BTE?as in bus ticket examiner. What do i do now. Should i hold on to my seat and pretend to be comfortable, non-chalant? But wouldnt it be worse if he comes and ask me for a ticket and after looking for it in my wallet and all my pockets I say "nahi hai, uncle!". So after going through this thought process in 10milliseconds. I stood up, and placing my cap on the seat walked to the conductor for a ticket. But he refused to give me one! Nothing can save me now. Instead of staying away from the predator I just walked right into him. BTE noticed something going on and aske me 'tikit dikhaiye'. 'lena hai' I said. 'ab to nahi milega, wo aapke seat hai?' he asked, pointing at my cap(which btw, saurav singh, you must get it back from the cricket kit you left it in). It was followed by the regular 'bas lene wale hi the' 'to liya kyu nahi' 'pichhle stop pe hi chadhe the' 'padhe likhe lagte hain, fir bhi baat nahi samajhte?'. I took my seat, he came, I lost a medium size Gandhi chhap note.
After putting my wallet back in pocket when i held my head high, for some unknown reason everyone was staring at me. Ok, the reason is known but I didnt instead of the 'chhi chhi' look, it was the 'oh bechara' look. Anyway I didnt shy away but stared each of them into the eye until they looked away. Some one from behind asked me '1 aadmi ka saw(100) rupaya?'. I nodded in agreement, and I smiled. The reason was that 5 of them were sitting behind my seat, all w/o tickets. yessss! They were coming from the same stop as me. But the BTE wasnt interested. As if he had a ceiling for the number of people to fined in one expedition. 'Come on', I shouted inside myself, 'Fine them!' but he ignored mere andar ki awaaz. I could have straight forward asked him to check everyone else's ticket but in that i ran a risk of getting lynched by the other offenders. Anyway he was not interested and got down at the next stop.
I did all that was in my hands to save myself but the inevitable happened. Now it was my turn to justify myself, with strange logics. But I wasnt getting many. All I came up with were 'Its a lesson learnt, not only for me but also for others present there. Always buy the ticket in a DTC bus before occupying the seat' and 'after all its going to the government!'. But those could not pacify me. Then I recalled the exquisite lunch I had at Radisson + almond chocolate cakes(Kriti's mom style) + (i didnt count) glasses of juice etc. etc. Just Rs.100 for all this, its a steal! No regrets.

(note-I wish I hadnt refused the offer of being dropped at a location not very near to my home by one of the fellow trainees just before I took the bus)

yeah, i am in.
mic testing one to four.