Celebrate The Moment

Total Chapter -33


                                                                 

                                                                        Chapter - 1

Sea waves  were  splashing  salty water at their  feet  which   were dangling    down above the  strewn  sea rock , thin rays  of   downing sun   and   evening cold breeze were  oxygenating  mental nerves of Avinash which had been  overly effected  because of   hectic round of visit in offices for  interviews.Tinglling sensation that he felt  before  had   now vanished.

Nisar lifted his legs. turned around ,  released  his wet shoes on  the  surface of  clean wide  lane where people were walking  and jogging. His wishy-washy smile  reflected  from his face perhaps   he didnt  enjoy   monotonous site of  sea waves.

' I am bit. relaxed now.' Avinash broke silenc glaring at Nisar who was  now closlely observing activities of evening walkers.

‘Believe in yourself with a positive look upon your effort, get the  blessings of your parents, you will not get to face much in achieving your target. don’t take today’s exertion seriously, enjoy the moment " Nisar  replied with  smile

Avinash did not reply, put his executive back on surface of fence then turned back, adjusted himself in same  posture Nisar sat, put his executive bag back on his lap.

Nisar was looking at people wierdly who were  walking on clean and spacious lane, his face was glowing as if  he was deriving positive   energy from the place where people were jogging  in order to burn their calories. Persons with different sizes, sturdy, thin, girls and boys  were jogging for maintaining their fitness on the other hand majority were sitting on fence  either clicking  sea view scenes of sunset from their cameras and mobiles, some were whispering with their loved one, noises of chuckling , cry of children  were making place a little noisy.

Conspicuous buttocks of  few middle aged women, covered with skin tight trausers  caused  break of  silence again, both saw each other and  smiled. Avinash nudged Nisar pointed towards  a couple who were sitting beside them laughing on those typical  women.

"why do they put on such skin tight trousers showing  their big buttocks and that too in public place.'   Nisar  said

'I also don’t find any sense in such weight loosing exercises which force others to have ridiculous glimpse at them. At least they should consider their age, or join gymn to reduce their weight.' Avinash said

'See one of them she is not walking but running, how awkward she is looking”.Avinash continued after a pause.

Nisar turned to him,smiled and gave an applaudig look at him

 This is the fashion of middle aged women of high  strata of society. They are fine in their fashion and enjoy. We belong to  conservative socity  that is why it is looking  ridiculous for us ” Nisar said justifying thier attires.

Suddenly a beautiful girl stopped in front of  them, took left turn , put her right foot on the edge of the fence surface  just beside them, bent down, tied their shoe lace, peep at them and moved away Avinash 's  eyes followed her until she got out of his sight.  Beauty of sea site had  brought them at this place, glimpses of beutiful girls, weird actvities of jogger, made their evening pleasant and a good time pass.

‘Is there no any snack shops. here'. Avinash asked

“ Wait, mobile snack  shops will make a round”  Nisar  replied

After a short while a boy wearing old shirt with wrinkled trauser passed by in front of them with wooden basket which was hanging around his neck with  the help of plstic ropes, basket was stuffed with  packets of potato chips, wafers, packets of biscuits, and couple of  water bottles.

Nisar called him lifted two  packets of potato chips . ' How much”

“10 rupees for one packet” Boy replied.

They purchased two  packets of potato chips and a bottle of water. Both were  munching  with taste of salty water which every now and then would get into their mouth when speedy wave crushed the rock beneath the cemented fence and sometimes even crossed over to semi-hot dry lane.

'Avinash  was feeling immense relief, his exahausation  seemed to had gotten away.

" Look at this picture of sunset  i had snaped when I came here one month before  " Nisar showed his mobile from his left,pouring water in his moouth from his right.

" What a beautiful snap”Avinash appreciated nonchallantly.

' We always appreciare inventors  who had invented such machine  to capture such beutiful  sites but have we ever thought of scientist who  created such beautiful sceneries " Nisar  said passing  water bottle to Avinash.

Innocence of evening had been draped by darkness of night, crowd of people increased proportionately as they came here to get refreshed before going to their houses after spending their days in offices,  traffics and honking of vehicles had made the site little noisy. Avinash looked at his wrist watch it was about to 7 oclock.

" Let us move now'. Avinash said

Nisar nodded in agreement.

They headed to cross the main road which got jammed because of vehicles and crowd of people. Some were  crossing the road in hurry without following the rules. Avinash  also wanted to cross the road divider along with others waiting  to pass  the running vehicles. Nisar was wary of not  taking such risk  he stopped him and  moved towards traffic signal. As soon as signal indicated green for pedestrians they hurriedly stepped out and reached other side of the road. By then high rise building around had started to glitter with lights and the wave of people were apparent on the  streets and roads Avinah  glanced all the way and muttered inwardly “ This is true reflection of commercial city he imagined even though he had been in Bangalore for almost five years but never  saw  such crowded street perhaps this surge of people had made the Mumbai unique among other metroes.

‘That is hotel oberoi. You might be aware of the incident which took place in 2008'  Nisar pointed to left upside of the road  through  his fingers.

" I was here that time" he informed after a pause

“ Then You must have seen the commotion of that time” Avinash enquired.

“  I also got trapped badly aftermath of that incident “ Nisar said looking at him

“ you had been trapped?. What had happened ?“ Avinash asked inquisitively

“ Leave it, I don’t want to recall that incident ”

"OK,  but tell me, how will we go now  by bus or train" Avinash enquired taking  long step along him

Nisar said smiling "Now our jogging has begun, don’t worry  within few minutes we will be reaching at our house.

Avinash and Nisar were living  at guest house near Mohd ali road. This had become  like home to Nisar as he spent best part of his Mumbai’s life in this locality

Avinash had  came just here four days back and befriended with him as he was entirely new in mumbai so he needed someone  who was familiar with routes of train and other places to guide him.

"you would like to take some snack"

‘No, i will have  dinner directly now " Avinash replied.

It had been  20 minutes since they left Marine drive. Avinash  was again getting tired so he wanted to reach soon.

"You would not like to have good sleep in night so think it like exercise. I guarantee You would have happy sleep .' Nisar said ,smiling.

Avinash  cursed him inwardly. 'Was spending whole day in search of office and exertion not sufficient to have good sleep in night? I didn’t have experience of walking so much. I never walked on foot  so much in my life that I had to in 3 days. Anyway i will have to bear him until I don’t succeed in my target, after all he was playing a role of  a guide to me and I was also getting vital information about the city.

As soon as they reached in guest house, stinking smell inside and overly humidity made  mood  of Avinash worse again. It was not less than hell. Owner of guest house had arranged 60 cot  in big dingy hall in such a way leaving absolute  narrow passage to move to the bathroom where hardly two persons could move together at a time. Tv was only source of entertainment and that too was being operated by hotel staff who had remote in his hand changing  the channel frequently on the demand of others after all he had to entertain the choices of all. At times room boy would go out with remote, humming started in and some of them shouted at room boy to change the channel. Such environment used to upset Avinash. He sat down and stretched out   himself  on  the cot covered by half cleaned white bed  sheet on faded  mattress for while, put the bag inside the locker, pulled the socks out and moved towards bathroom to get quick bath even though bathing was not allowed in night . Within few minutes he came out from bathroom fearing management would catch him  bathing. Quick bath alleviated his  exhaustion  to an extent.

Nisar instead of taking bath only washed his face, changed the cloth, laid on his bed which was one of the best located beds in entire hall , he had only advantage of being old residee  of guest house.

'What time we will go for dinner '  Avinash asked combing his hair with the help  of his fingers.

" Lets go.' Nisar  left off  his cot and they came out having given fake smile to manager sitting on reception counter.

"How have you been living in such condition. I can never live in such unhygienic condition, i will get sick if I live more than month."

' I was living in other guest house which is in the next street and that is better than this. See, there are all types of guest house good and bad  it is upon us to decide keeping in mind the condition of our pocket " Nisar  replied pointing  him to street

"Working people can not live in such environment as there is no discipline routine here,' Avinash had realized in his three days of stay.

‘Thousands of people are live in such type of gust houses. You will walk through the street of  south Mumbai you will find two or three such gust houses in every street. Management and the owners of such guest houses are very shrewd,  they don’t want people to sleep in peace so that the people who come here for two or three days  had to spend more days  here. If person can not have good sleep at home how can he face the hussle - busstle of the city ." Nisar told the truth that  Avinash had also felt.

Now they were crossing over bridge which divides this locality  into east and west Nisar  led him  to vegetarian hotel where he had his dinner every night

"Why you escorted me to this area whereas a lot of restaurants and hotels already there near guest house’.

'I know that but if you eat continuously 15 days out there  you will get disease of jaundice" the way Nisar advised him it seemed  he doesnt want  him to get effected.

"Secondly i like chapati made of pure wheat and foremost is fresh fried vegetable which reminds me of home food i have been devoid for years" Nisar said wistfully

They entered into SHEETAL HOTEL,  chose table located just opposite of manager counter and sat on the chair facing each other. There were other people mostly seamen having their dinner too. Just Then waiter appeared.

" Yes Sir kya laoon? He cursorily looked at them and crammed the menu in one breath.

Nisar asked his choice, then ordered one fried mixed vegetable  with a dal fry and chapaties.

 After finishing their meals they paid their bills  individually and  gave 5 rupees tips to waiter who was standing beside them.

" Would you like to smoke.' Nisar asked

" Yes i would, and you"

No, I enjoy it with cup of tea in morning that charged me up and then I start my morning with  new energy.' Nisar winked.

After walking few meters both stopped at store.

Avinash  light up cigarette and  Nisar picked a piece of chocolate  having munched both  moved forward

“No doubt meal is tasty and affordable too but still hotel is far away, by the time i reach at accommodation i will again feel hungry after walking such long distance. I will not be able to sleep properly until i feel my stomach full"

"It seems you are determined to visit doctor.' Nisar said  munching the chocolate.

Nisar continued  “When I first came in this locality I used to eat in those hotels that you have seen on way. later I swore not to eat in such hotel when I  fell prey of jaundice within ten days of eating in such hotels. Since then I stopped eating in such hotels  i was accused of  drunkard by the management of guest house. They told me that I went there to drink on pretext of chapatti and vegetable”

“I also tell you one more truth” Nisar addded laughing  “Since i had become familiar figure in that area because of my long stay, some local also had given suspicious look and one of them even came after me to check if  i really drink or not. How can i stop their mouth for maligning without knowing the truth. In fact they didn’t allow drunkard to  live in guest houses.  But when i asked them to give an evidence they begun to see their armpit. But one day i decided to take the taste of it. I ordered two cane of  bear even after gulping down both cane it didn’t work on me"

" Had you taken wine it would have worked on.' Avinash chuckled

“I would have also tested wine as to know how it subjugate a prrson but i didnt take because it is prohibited in our religion.'

Both  sat on the iron fence  of over bridge to spend some time on their way back, thinking that they will get to face noise of commotion inside the guest house which  they wanted to avoid for now.

" since how long you have been in Mumbai" Avinash  asked him.

"Since 1998-, Nisar replied and stared at him observing his facial expression and expecting some astonishing response.

"which district you belong to ' Avinash asked

“ Azad Nagar”

This is Avinash who first initiated to introduce himsef  to Nisar and asked  about the routs and timing of training, about the places and station otherwise Avinash found him reclusive, saw him hardly mingled with others who were living here over the months . 

"Who had advised you to stay here" Nisar asked him jumping down from the fence.

"I have friend who is in merchant navy he advised me to stay here as from here catching train and buses to  all over city become easy"

" it is to an extent right " Nisar shook his head

Avinash was supposed to come with his  colleagues  he and his friends had decided to take 2 bhk on rent somewhere  in new mumbai . Plans of two of them got cancelled for the  time being  so Avinash  had to came  before them.In fact in his  last semester itself they had decided to come to mumbai. 

Avinash did  mechanical engineering from Bangalore. On the way back to guest house  Nisar  inquiried  about the environment of Bangalore and also about the job marke.

Meanwhile both entered into guest house, it was little cool inside as air condition was on. Normally time of air conditioning of room was from 12 midnight to 5 in morning otherwise warm air of fan was only source of relief in such suffocating place.