The cab routing is so f*cked right now. They making us wait for ages. Wtf. Vignesh aka Machaa loses his cool and go gives the cab routing guy a piece of his mind. Mukhi chooses to sleep. Lets skip these details.

The cab moves. We head to Masab Tank.

We are at the Machaa’s place right now. Mukhi cuts the onion and tomatoes. Vignesh breaks the eggs. I beat it up. Vignesh uses his skills and scrables the egg. It now acts as our starter.

Bottles come out. Finlandia. Blenders Pride. Malibu. Cheers! We start watching The Pursuit of Happiness. Machaa says he’l get senti and maybe start crying. Fat-ass Joshua enters, now we can crack some Joshua jokes :P

Everyone starts watching the movie as the drinks get consumed and eggs get eaten. Will Smith is doing a good job. And, Machaa looks at the screen like he could cry any moment. Haha. Josh says that tall guys are very senti. Well will come to know soon :D

At the Machaa’s!!! :P

I enter the station. Kacheguda it’s named. Like, who the hell names places with such strange names. Yeah, and don’t forget I’m on my way to BengaLOOru. I notice some colleagues at the station. Wanna be metal heads for sure. I nod my head and walk past them. I’m on the hunt for a public urinal, coz my manhood ain’t got no strength to hold in the liter of water that I just consumed a while back. Finally, I find it. I pay the guy a buck. That’s the price you pay to mark your territory on public property in this country.

All at ease now, I spot a clan of metal fans. All in their black Tshirts, long hair and beards. Few metal headed chicks also are spotted. All these people swarming towards the calling. Like insects to the light. I being one of them. I walk past all and locate my boogie and find my seat. Luckily I get an emergency window. I open the grill and lean on the window. Screw the rules.

There is this old hag who is yapping nonstop in her native tongue. Screw her. I put my earphones on and listen to a mixture of Slayer, Obituary and Megadeth. I buy an egg biryani from one of the guys running up and down, selling food in the train. I eat. I throw the box out of the window. Just doing my duty as an Indian. You can’t blame me. I would use the dustbin, but I did not spot one, and besides, did you ever notice a dustbin in a train?

The old hag goes off to sleep. And so does the rest of the folks in d boogie. I’m awake.

We make a halt at a place called Mahaboobnagar. Let me break that down for readers who are not accustomed to this vernacular crap. Maha = Big, Boob = Boob, Nagar = Place. Well I don’t see any big boobs anywhere. Utter dissapointment for a place with such a fancy name.

The train moves on. I’m the only soul awake. I’m not one of those early sleepers. Besides, its only 2130 hrs and I’m in no mood to sleep. I look out of the window. Its all darkness. I realize Hangar 18 is playing. I was a huge Megadeth fan when I was in the 12th. Then it just got heavier and Megadeth had to step aside.

Metal fans are moving up and down the boogie. You can always know, from the signature black tshirt and dirty/torn jeans.

My thumbs are starting to hurt, typing all this on my phone. I’ll rest now, and watch the darkness pass by the window.

I sleep around 2330 hrs. Thats a bit early for me.

I wake up to sound of those guys selling coffee and tea in the train. It’s 0530 hrs. I buy a cup of tea. Talk about bad tea. This tasted like sugar mixed in water with added brown color. I consume it anyway. I let Les (aka Lesley, Minority, Asshole, Azzyole, MH, etc) know that I am somewhere in B’lore. We decide to meet at the bus depot opposite the railway station.

The train passes through the city. On the way I notice a college. And across its compound wall there was a huge “Librarian = Prostitute” sign painted. The librarian must have either pleased a lot of people or really pissed someone off :) . I have a good laugh.

All along the way I notice these men pissing on the wall. Like as though they are marking their territory. What is the problem with Indian men I really do not understand. I never associate myself to being one of then. Not even over my dead body. Don’t ever associate me to Indian men. They disgust me.

At last the train halts at Bangalore Central. I let Les know that I’ve made it alive sans any incident. He tells me to meet him at this place called ‘Majestic’. It happens to be a huge bus stand right opposite the station. I figure out my way to the place and wait for Les to bring his sorry ass there.

I go take a seat and observe the early morning chaos that people go through. After a while and walking around searching for each other Les turns up. We greet each other our style aka hug and abuse and head off towards the bus to take us to his place.

We land at his place after quite a while. We update each other about all the crap that has been going on and that went on. The show starts at 1400 hrs and the gates are open at 1230 hrs. We leave around 1200 hrs and head off towards the the venue. We stop at Shivajinagar and find a place to eat.

The restaurant looked really shady. Amazing! Just some place that we would visit. We enter. We get ourselves some real tasty biryani and feel stuffed. We leave and catch a bus towards Palace Grounds. Unfortunately, we get off at the opposite end on the ground. What we did not realize was that the so called Palace Ground was in fact a real huge place. We catch an auto finally reach the entrance.

Metal fest it was. All the black T’s, the cigarettes, the weed, the hair, the booze. It was all around. You could smell metal fans. I felt at home. We head off towards the gates, get ourselves frisked and we are in. We were early, so there were a lot of sound checks going on. I meet a goan clan that comprised of Xavier [Fetish Komb], Joe and other known faces. Les and I head off towards the stage where some Machinehead employees were doing a sound check. We sit down and watch.

Nothing fancy. Looked like it was gonna be a while before the show kicked off. Patrao Joaquim (aka Maddogg) gets in touch. Says to headbang on his behalf. We oblige.

After a lot of baking in the hot sun, they finally begin. The Indian bands start to play at the smaller stage. I got to say, Indian bands do kick ass. Prestorika, Millennium and Mother Jane impressed me. Guys in the moshpit were losing it. I had to think twice whether I would enter the pit. Missed my long hair. I did not feel dangerous enough to get in. I did not mosh. No issues though.

We meet one of Les’s friend named Topzor. Topzor, a chinky, is one real animated character. He is there with his chinky clan. They are all funny guys. Lots of abuses are exchanged. Lots of racial remarks shot around. All felt good.

Some guys around were real high. They were abusing all the Indian bands. Telling them to F*ck off and get off the stage. Ah, typical stoned metal fans. It was fun :)

Machinehead finally appear on stage. Fans cheer. We make our way towards the stage. Les departs and moves to a side to join Topzor. I move to the middle. Need to be close to the animals. Making your way to a moshpit is a challange in itself. I gotta squeeze through the million of souls accumilated there.

I make it to the middle. Center stage up front. Amazing place. I join the craze. For all of you who are not metal fans, you all, you won’t understand. I don’t need you to. Either you get it, or you don’t. All that goes on here cannot be documented. :P

Machinehead was done. One amazing performance. I move out of the pit. I take a Sprite and head off to a corner and sit down. A guy comes and sits next to me. He rolls his joint. He smokes it up. He blows out the smoke which comes on my face. I breathe it in and feel happy for no reason. :) Reminds me of something I can’t recollect. But yes, a brain cell was triggered. Ah it must’ve been from all the training I got from my friends during college. If there was and Oscar for the role of most supporting secondary smoker, that award would’ve been mine eyes closed. I know the smell of all kinds of cigarettes. I can tell the difference between a local ‘Beedi’ and a ‘Marlboro’. Thanks to those friends who used to create smoke clouds around me.

Megadeth starts to play. I move towards the middle to have better view. No way was I gonna make it to the center of the stage through 2000 odd guys. Megadeth did not sound that good. I decide to watch them from behind. No chances of a moshpit either. I can’t locate Les. I just and watch them on the big screen. Megadeth sounded really bad. What an anticlimax. But Machinehead nailed it.

The Gods finally feel good and I locate Les and Topzor, all high on entertainment :P . We abuse, shoot out some more racist comments and start heading home. The rain god suddenly decide to send in a slight shower. More of a drizzle. We try and run for cover. But screw that, we decided to get wet anyway. Les, Topzor, his rebel friends and I start walking out. We couldn’t help noticing one woman’s rear stuffed into a pair of jeans 2 sizes smaller than what she would probably require. What the hell is wrong with the women! We tell Les to go tell her to take a pants off so that we could see the size and gift her one that would actually fit her. Well all that nonsense was fun. I let made the long walk back seem really short.

Finally we some night shuttle and somehow manage to reach Les place. It’s way past midnight. We can’t locate a place to eat.

The hunt goes on. Finally we find a shaddy, half shutdown place serving Omlette Dosa’s. We order two. The guy tells us to come inside the shop and eat, else the cops will raid the shop. WTF. Can’t those dam police just let a common man eat his food and another common man serve him without them having to come beg for money! Anyway, screw them. We eat. We feel stuffed and good and head home and call it a night.

Amen to day 1.

Right now I’m at the Machaa’s place. The Moron is trying to convince Machaa about something I don’t wanna know. Oh and yes, Moron’s shit really stinks. Even worse is his shit mixed with the fragrance of sandalwood. Yeah, he just sprayed the toiled with that lousy air-freshener. It’s the penultimate torture. Ultimate being the shit itself. The 3 of us had to run for cover.

Now time for some pizza!! :D

Pizza done. Excellent stuff. Now to making fun of people. Dam, there’s no  booze. If only there was booze, things would have got more animated. Anyway, now back to making fun of more people.

That’s all folks!!!

The old table. The old hall. The massive windows. The damp roof tiles. The generations of relatives sealed in frames, hanging from the walls looking down upon me and thinking “Shame on him. Didn’t make the family name proud.” Hey wait a min, I did. May be they took that back.

Meet Tommy [the female family feline]. Some say she’s 25+ years old. I’ll keep her at 23, coz from photographic evidence she existed when my sis was a kid, before I was born. I stick my foot out for the usual feline meets master greeting. She rubs her head against my foot. I’m still king of the pride. Tommy acknowledges that. Until my sis drops by and steals me off my throne. How can that kitty leave me and run to my sis!!! Duh!! Whatever pussy cat. Big deal!!

The black t-shirts have turned into makeshift doormats. I’m wondering how could my mom degrade the metal collection!! Aahh.. but I guess thats ok. Even the great Slayer t-shirt was not spared. That one has been torn into bits. The Nirvana collection has survived the onslaught. They lie folded in the cupboard.

The metal cassette collection has survived. The pirated CD’s survived too. The rains kick in. I listen to Alice In Chains for a change. Grunge kicks in. Finding a signal for Airtel in the house is a challenge in itself. The signal boosting ironing board does not help anymore. Last resort is defined by leaving the phone at the window risking it getting robbed.

I walk out. I see fields. I smell fresh air. I see birds. Coconut trees transform the simple village road into an aisle. Feels like a red carpet has been laid out for me. Well all over the place tell me I never have to worry bout taps running dry. Home it is. It’s not necessarily the beaches that everyone thinks about when you mention Goa.

I head out to the Baga creek. I spot the Cross where Ryan [Babushin] and I used to hang out discussing crap. I recognize the spot where Donn, Russell [Yoyo] and I used to come fishing and manage only to catch crabs. The total number of crabs caught till date tallies to 1. I pass by the ground where our U-19 team used to train. The same ground where I learned to dive and catch a football in mid air. The same ground where I once left a lousy goal and our team lost.

I meet my good old friend Srijay aka Byclops aka Peekachooooo. We head of to Lan Lords. We thought the place was shut down. We find it open. Once owned by the fearsome Homo Sapien Maleous clan, now left to rot with some school boys. The gaming place is dying a slow death. Never-the-less we frag against some bots. Get ripped initially. We rip them back after a while. Srij still got the superfast killer reflexes. I still kick bot with moi mag. The clan needs a reunion.

Srij and I drop by Vrundavan. The evening restaurant where a lot of things were always discussed. Most visited by Lesley and me. Often accompanied by Evelyn, Srijay, Suneet and Prashanti. We attack the regular. Chillies, bhel, shev puri, tea and coffee are consumed. We call Les just to let him know we are re-living the moment and he is missing out on a lot of stuff, only to get a barrage of abuses in return. Good ‘ol days. Les, the abuser. Abuses everyone and everything.

We head back home. I’m home…

December 5th 2003, a quiet evening, stars in the sky, Christmas carols echoing throughout the neighborhood. Not always does the day come when metal fans get what they want, when dopers get what they need, when starved unnourished souls get vitamins and syrups, and when people get sacrificed. A weird atmosphere engulfed the surroundings of BTF – 6, Chandranath Apartments, Mapusa.

Not many people were there. Just a few, a few who mattered were present. Just around six people excluding the host. Three rockers and three dopers, of which all were hungry – some for food, others for blood. There was no special Birthday Cake, the only thing that did get cut was the birthday boy, and man he did bleed hard. Blood splattered all around the house, the victim quietly bearing the immense pain. A timely introduction of a waterproof band aid was the savior of the moment.

Initially Sepultura set the ambiance with ‘Roots’. Old friends did some catch up. The script of a movie was reviewed. Then came the dose of Pantera. Rockers head banged and tried to break necks. Though no necks broke, the attempt was worth it. The not so divine intervention of food saved the rockers. Seven people consumed a meal cooked for twenty. With all due respect to the mom who made it possible (Daniel’s mom of course). Those poor chickens who sacrificed their lives for the auspicious day should be now somewhere near the pearly gates of heaven along with the other billions and St. Peter.

Dessert was gobbled down in a matter of seconds. Seven spoons in one single gigantic bowl. The Alphonso mango ice-cream was consumed like a carcass feasted upon by hungry vultures. Then came the period in which all the minds were cooled off and some freaks started to make music videos. A web-cam, a Pentium III, some 256MB RAM made possible some really weird and rather depressing but energetic music videos. Sorry to say that only a limited few will have access to these videos.

What happened next was out of the blues. Four people left. They had had enough. But they went smiling. Left back were three old pals. A rocker, a freak and another rocker. They discussed topics which are too sensitive to be written and tortured and murdered a few mosquitoes. Before long the freak left and one rocker washed dishes, while the other just listen to his shit and offered some shit of his own. The washing of the dishes got over, but the talking went on till around 3:45 am and by 4 am, the two rockers lay dead.