I decided to talk a bit about the trip I'm taking next week. I will be travelling for pleasure after ten years and I'll be going to Bangalore (Bengaluru?). I'm sitting in a boiling hot room, listening to the fan struggle to keep it cool and sweating as I write this post about how I feel about all this. This is a trip of many firsts.
This is the first trip without my father for example as he passed away. I should say this is the first trip without my parents for more accuracy. This is also an impulse trip. I planned it over a WhatsApp conversation in exactly five hours. I want to give a huge shoutout to my friend Megs for the discount coupon she shared that allowed me to slash the flight fare by 15%. This is also the first trip where I'm not going to Bangalore for work or for a doctor's consult or for a stopover. This is going to be a trip about hanging out, food and books. The trip will also see me take buses as opposed to cabs in Bangalore because this time the company is not footing my travel bill.
I pause here to take a sip of litchi juice and check the text that just came in. The packet of glassware I had sent down for my friends who live there has reached and that's a really good thing. I crane my neck back and remind myself for the umpteenth time that I need to get the CDs that I dug up packed up as Rico wants them. I cannot speak more of them as they're a surprise for her. As for Puro, I'm looking forward to where he takes me for breakfast.
I'm told that Bangalore apparently has great coffee places and I have not been able to see those ever so when I meet with the members of Chuck and Berty's Song a Day, the coffee place will see itself nicely photographed. I will also be on the lookout for a bag of coffee in Malleshwaram which is close to where I am staying anyway. This of course gets me thinking about the giant book list I have made and how a conversation with my younger brother Rahul last night led us both to conclude the clear and present danger of me loose in a book store. Rahul also pointed out that there would be a high possibility that I tell the list to go fuck itself and actually pick whatever strikes my fancy when I am exploring the mile high shelves and narrow gullies of Blossoms or wandering around Bookworm.
The last first I can think of is the meetup with all these wonderful people whom I've only known in WhatsApp groups and over discussions on Google Meet and I want to give a huge shout out to my dear friend, Gayathri without whom none of this would have happened to begin with. Gayathri blew into my life in 2021 and in exactly a few months she became a very important part of my life. I'm now going to meet the others she calls friends, my friends by induction and I am very overwhelmed.
I am not someone who is used to kindness being shown to him. When Megs heard that I would be coming, the sheer happiness of her texts and calls, her taking the initiative to create a WhatsApp group for better coordination and her sheer bubbly enthusiasm or Puro's silent presence and his whole entire - "Macha, what about grabbing some dosa?" and of course Rico quietly lurking in the group chats and saying, "Come on down. I met you in a book club so naturally I know that you're gonna lose it in a bookstore". It is these little gestures that tell me that this trip will be one for the books indeed.
And bang on cue, here comes a text from someone in Bangalore. I guess I'll shut up and get in the car now!
The Bilge Master
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