God Plays with Loaded Dice
Post dedicated to Pranab Das and Pavan Chivukula.
***********************************Prologue*************************************
Ever since Sangram and the H5 guys went on a road trip to Konkan up to Gokarna, it was a dream to go on such a trip where one'll find unexploited beaches of white sand where you will be the only people around for miles. Such an opportunity sprung up recently, just day before yesterday for that matter, where we coincidentally ended up saving a life...
**********************************************************************************
It is said that the universe conspires to make things happen. Pavan is a forced bachelor these days with his family in Hyderabad. And when Pavan's a bachelor, weekends are filled with trips, treks and plans. Friday evening was ended by a magnificent waste of money on a 11:15 pm show of Expendables 2 at the pathetic Pimpri-Chinchwad Big Cinemas (though some of the actions scenes were damn realistic.) And Saturday morning began in a slumber with an expendable hangover; all promises of meeting Shripad on the cricket field lay forgotten; when Lalit calls and says in his typical Punjabi accent, "Yaar, kal ka plan batao"
-
Saturday evening, 9 pm. I get a call from Pavan.
Pavan: Ramanath, tum aate kya?
Me: Kidhar
Pavan: Sab log chal rahe hai
Me: Par Kidhar
Pavan: Konkan side. We are leaving in 30 min.
And then began a memorable journey with partners in crime Pavan, Lalit, Naveen, Vivek bhai, Ram and Das. We took 2 cars from Vallabhnagar with the humble intention of having a cool road trip to Kashid beach (though only Naveen and Das knew swimming) with expectations of omlette and pohe on the sweetly swinging hammocks. We set out on a longer route, going via Paud road, but got lost on the way.
Whenever we crossed a motel/guesthouse, we could hear Das grumbling, "Let's sleep tonight. What will we do reaching Kashid at 6 in the morning?" By the time we reached Mulshi complaining about the pathetic condition of the roads, it was almost 2 am in the morning with me just drifting off to sleep. The next I woke up at about 6 am, both the cars were at a halt, apparently all the people were sleeping :P
Anyways, the issue was that we had taken a wrong diversion somewhere around Kolad and had followed the road till Mahad, some 100 odd km from Kashid. On the verge of a ruinous weekend, Pavan calls Shripad asking where we can go so as to enjoy "Konkan". What Shripad said as Diveagar was misinterpreted as Divyaghar and Deogarh and pandemonium reigned. Finally, with the GPS to the rescue, we started moving towards Diveagar.
On reaching Diveagar we checked into a cool MTDC run resort, the drivers (Pavan and Ram) needed all the rest they could get before enjoying the black sandy shore. So just after lunch, Naveen, Lalit, Vivek and I moved to the shore; where I accidentally dropped Lalit's camera in the water (I'm very sorry Lalit, if you're reading this). The beach was fairly empty with about 25 people max.
After about 2 hours at the beach and returning to the cottage, we found a disgruntled Ram abusing Das for having slept in instead of going out in spite of having had a full night's nap. The first batch of beach boys began freshening up while "The Dirty Picture" played on the television. We next watched some hindi dubbed South Indian picture where a hen was killing a gunda with a knife tied to its leg, when the second batch returned with a thralling tale:
Das had saved a life. He saved a young ~ 10 year old boy who was drowning in the sea. He was accompanied by 3 elders and about 9 young kids. When our heroes saw the kid first, he was drowning. His relatives had started praying to their God, hoping for a miracle. Pavan and Ram, tall that they are, were in neck deep water, when Das, without bothering for his own life went ahead and caught hold of the boy, the waves crashing over his head. Even Das had lost hopes, when suddenly, the boy grasped his hand. With a humongous effort, Das dragged the kid to where Pavan was and they then dragged the water laden kid back - unconscious and so heavy with the ingested water that pulling him out to the shore was no little task, even for two people. The kid's family then rushed the kid to the hospital; we didn't follow.
This was truly a chance of fate. We could have gone to Kashid. We could all have gone to the beach first and rested later. We could all have slept in and watched the dirty picture. We could all have stayed at home living our mundane lives. Das could have gone to Nashik on a job assignment which he held back because he had commitments on other projects. Lalit could have never asked for us to go anywhere. We could have gone back to Pune after our disastrous detour. But the young boy was meant to (hopefully) live another day. It is amazing how each and everything falls in place to make the big picture. In moments like these, it is astonishing that humans can fight against their brothers in Mumbai for something that is not related to them that has happened in Assam - while here, we have a living example of a northeasterner saving an innocent life from that very same minority community. All other things are superficial and all life is sacred. I seriously doubt Das would have even wondered about what the religion of the drowning boy was.
The return journey was without much incident unless you count the amazing Kolhapuri Misal Pav at a dhaba at Mangaon. By now, our lives had transformed. We went for a completely GPS/GPRS guided route; straight to Lonavala and then back home via the expressway. By the experience of the weekend, I can sing but one song. A song which has only very recently become one of my favorites. A song, by The Rolling Stones, which graces every season finale of Californication:
You can't always get what you want...
But if you try some time...
You just might find...
You get what you need!
***********************************Prologue*************************************
Ever since Sangram and the H5 guys went on a road trip to Konkan up to Gokarna, it was a dream to go on such a trip where one'll find unexploited beaches of white sand where you will be the only people around for miles. Such an opportunity sprung up recently, just day before yesterday for that matter, where we coincidentally ended up saving a life...
**********************************************************************************
It is said that the universe conspires to make things happen. Pavan is a forced bachelor these days with his family in Hyderabad. And when Pavan's a bachelor, weekends are filled with trips, treks and plans. Friday evening was ended by a magnificent waste of money on a 11:15 pm show of Expendables 2 at the pathetic Pimpri-Chinchwad Big Cinemas (though some of the actions scenes were damn realistic.) And Saturday morning began in a slumber with an expendable hangover; all promises of meeting Shripad on the cricket field lay forgotten; when Lalit calls and says in his typical Punjabi accent, "Yaar, kal ka plan batao"
-
Saturday evening, 9 pm. I get a call from Pavan.
Pavan: Ramanath, tum aate kya?
Me: Kidhar
Pavan: Sab log chal rahe hai
Me: Par Kidhar
Pavan: Konkan side. We are leaving in 30 min.
And then began a memorable journey with partners in crime Pavan, Lalit, Naveen, Vivek bhai, Ram and Das. We took 2 cars from Vallabhnagar with the humble intention of having a cool road trip to Kashid beach (though only Naveen and Das knew swimming) with expectations of omlette and pohe on the sweetly swinging hammocks. We set out on a longer route, going via Paud road, but got lost on the way.
Whenever we crossed a motel/guesthouse, we could hear Das grumbling, "Let's sleep tonight. What will we do reaching Kashid at 6 in the morning?" By the time we reached Mulshi complaining about the pathetic condition of the roads, it was almost 2 am in the morning with me just drifting off to sleep. The next I woke up at about 6 am, both the cars were at a halt, apparently all the people were sleeping :P
Anyways, the issue was that we had taken a wrong diversion somewhere around Kolad and had followed the road till Mahad, some 100 odd km from Kashid. On the verge of a ruinous weekend, Pavan calls Shripad asking where we can go so as to enjoy "Konkan". What Shripad said as Diveagar was misinterpreted as Divyaghar and Deogarh and pandemonium reigned. Finally, with the GPS to the rescue, we started moving towards Diveagar.
On reaching Diveagar we checked into a cool MTDC run resort, the drivers (Pavan and Ram) needed all the rest they could get before enjoying the black sandy shore. So just after lunch, Naveen, Lalit, Vivek and I moved to the shore; where I accidentally dropped Lalit's camera in the water (I'm very sorry Lalit, if you're reading this). The beach was fairly empty with about 25 people max.
After about 2 hours at the beach and returning to the cottage, we found a disgruntled Ram abusing Das for having slept in instead of going out in spite of having had a full night's nap. The first batch of beach boys began freshening up while "The Dirty Picture" played on the television. We next watched some hindi dubbed South Indian picture where a hen was killing a gunda with a knife tied to its leg, when the second batch returned with a thralling tale:
Das had saved a life. He saved a young ~ 10 year old boy who was drowning in the sea. He was accompanied by 3 elders and about 9 young kids. When our heroes saw the kid first, he was drowning. His relatives had started praying to their God, hoping for a miracle. Pavan and Ram, tall that they are, were in neck deep water, when Das, without bothering for his own life went ahead and caught hold of the boy, the waves crashing over his head. Even Das had lost hopes, when suddenly, the boy grasped his hand. With a humongous effort, Das dragged the kid to where Pavan was and they then dragged the water laden kid back - unconscious and so heavy with the ingested water that pulling him out to the shore was no little task, even for two people. The kid's family then rushed the kid to the hospital; we didn't follow.
This was truly a chance of fate. We could have gone to Kashid. We could all have gone to the beach first and rested later. We could all have slept in and watched the dirty picture. We could all have stayed at home living our mundane lives. Das could have gone to Nashik on a job assignment which he held back because he had commitments on other projects. Lalit could have never asked for us to go anywhere. We could have gone back to Pune after our disastrous detour. But the young boy was meant to (hopefully) live another day. It is amazing how each and everything falls in place to make the big picture. In moments like these, it is astonishing that humans can fight against their brothers in Mumbai for something that is not related to them that has happened in Assam - while here, we have a living example of a northeasterner saving an innocent life from that very same minority community. All other things are superficial and all life is sacred. I seriously doubt Das would have even wondered about what the religion of the drowning boy was.
You can't always get what you want...
But if you try some time...
You just might find...
You get what you need!
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