What's your Rashee?

Mohan anna was like a big B for me when I joined him in 2003 as a roomie who was/is naïve in everything. So there I was, new to Bangalore, new to people, new to the lingo and literally I waited for his word to do anything or waited for him to guide me through. Would you believe if I say that I was so confused why they placed a finger bowl after taking your food in a decent restaurant? I seriously thought it's for you to make your own lemon juice with salt. But I didn't do anything stupidly as I waited for him to unveil what that was for? I told nobody about this, but this scene came in one of the flop Tamil movies.

Came 2011 New year eve, I told my roomie Biswajit while waiting for the Chennai express that I was not used to traveling by train and somehow I sleep well in jerky bus ride than on a train journey. He said, sooner or later I would resort to train journeys always. As we got on to our berths, I felt like puking and asked him, "Is this how all the trains smell like?" He said, "yeah, may be I am used to this, may be because we are seated 2 cabins away from the toilets, try to get sleep man, you will forget all this." But I was not getting asleep and the nauseating sensation did not wane away.

I was eager to watch the cricket World cup finals with my schoolmates at Chennai. I couldn't get a ticket in Chennai express because it was a long weekend as Ugadi also fell on the following Monday. But luckily I got a ticket in Ksrtc bus. The 10.35PM scheduled bus came at 11.15PM and I rushed onto my aisle seat. The seats were getting occupied slowly and my window seat co-passenger too came, waiting for me to get up from my seat. My general presumption was that anybody going to Chennai from Bangalore during a weekend would know Tamil and with that in my mind, I asked him in Tamil, showing the window seat, "Is this your seat?" That 'clean shaved on a Friday' gentleman, in formal wear and shoes, and with an 'I am the best in this world' attitude, nodded and said "YUP". I did not want to strike a conversation with him as I felt drowsy. After 10 minutes of journey, I felt that unfamiliar nauseating sensation.

I looked around everywhere to see what's causing that stinky smell?

I did not have shoes and took Mohan anna to the shop for getting me a pair. He selected a better model and I took 3 pairs of new socks as well. Mohan anna had a word of advice for me.

She said to me twice, "You are being paranoid", "You are a paranoid, big time". I did not realize then. Now I felt, yeah, the smell may be because of my new sandals. But Woodlands and Jockey have never disappointed me, oh yeah Jockey has socks as well, try it, their quality is good. I tried removing my socks and then smelled my sandals making sure nobody noticed me. It definitely was not from my sandals. Until the bus stopped, near a Motel, I couldn't find the culprit.

"Always go for good branded shoes and at least 6 pairs of socks. DON'T EVER WEAR SOCKS FOR MORE THAN A DAY and wearing so might damage your sole and you would stink very badly." I followed this advice from that day and have never worn a stinking pair of socks.

I would have advised this bloody 'clean shaved on a Friday' gentleman about his socks and shoes, I would have advised this unknown guy sleeping next to my berth on the train about the need to wear clean socks, but common sense prevailed and I just covered my nose with my hankies. Now I shout loudly, "People don't trouble your fellow travelers"

Now Megamind may ask me, bloody why did you waste a post on this stinking chapter and what is it to do with the title, it's because when he came up with this blog idea, we agreed, we may write about anything, absolutely anything, serious, light-hearted, a taboo subject, even about intellectual masturbation (now, what's that? he is having the answer for that). So this is what the result is?

And about the title, I think I'll have a bad company while travelling, it's my rashee.

I'll try to come up with a better topic later :)