Rant 39: Let’s run away…

Bollywood – in it’s entirety has taught us many things, some worth it and some absolutely ridiculous. Like waiting for the girl to do a palat when you are waiting for her or managing to hit 10 boys when they are teasing your girl or making a 360 with your bike very easily without your hair, your jacket or your goggles falling off! There have also been lessons on how you can enter a junior class and talk to the students in another language and tell them that the girl in first year is your crush and no one should look at her and the teacher bloody doesn’t even get the tone! Arghhh… who made her a professor!

But out of all the phenomena depicted, the most romantic, liberating and power-inducing thought is the thought of running away from home. Such thoughts are usually collaborated by a set of two people, usually of the opposite sex. But there are instances, where at times, a person on herself/himself also thinks of running away. Such running away includes locations which are unfortunately mostly expensive foreign locations or sometimes somewhere in some chawl in Borivali or Malad. However, sometimes medium or average options like Mussoorie or Ooty or maybe Khandala have also been suggested, but the recurrences of such locations has usually been low. Some science freaks have seldom also, suggested the possibility of migrating to the moon with the partner. I really hope the further mission of Chandrayaan makes further foray into this possibility.

Running away is no easy task. From great personalities like Kishore Kumar to Yo Yo Honey Singh (Ain’t doing no comparison, so relax), authors and poets have mentioned at elaborate steps of eloping from house. From Chariots of love to Lamborghini, the modes might have changed. But the intentional pretty much remains the same. From a plate of chapati on the moon to A bottle of liquor some bhindi some chapati’s and some FMCG packed items display the large varieties of culinary support these elopers have suggested. However when it comes to financial support, few have shown the source of travel finance – mostly the travel finance and travel fooding and lodging have not been exhaustively covered. There are some instances, where in an old couple or a blind couple also gives some shelter to the couple in their house, which is seldom found in real life. Such couples usually have dogs at their entrance gates and video recording gate locker outside.

So, all in all, I have really been inspired by these stories of elopement and it’s quite natural that I would have dreamt of something similar too, someday, with a dear one. While most of these elopement models have not underlined the basic financial model and exit strategies, I have a clear cut demarcation where romance dies and hardcore management begins. I expect the outcome in my case to be balanced between romance and management. So, the location for my elopement will probably be somewhere in the Carribean islands. It is easier for me to get mixed with the Caribbean race. I can be there with my loved one and can just wear a cheap shirt with a floral print and a short with a plane on it. I might reconsider my vegetarian stance but yes, I might still chose not to drink and smoke.

For the financial part, I plan to start a food outlet, small initially, where we can serve spicy Indian food and savor and plain foods as well. In my dream story, both of us can cook well and can handle different cuisines on different days. We will have a small seat corner and a take away and there will be books, CD’s, Cassettes and VCR’s on record too. You can come and try for your favorite Bollywood numbers. Life should not be pretty difficult once the immigration issues are dealt with. After that we can certainly contact the embassy and ask for a business visa for some years and then go on to apply for citizennship. Maybe this works maybe not. Noone knows.

And then, at the end of the day, we both sit together facing the North star on the beach, and pointing our right hand towards the East and saying there’s our country. India and then come close, kiss each other and promise that we will soon return and have vada pao and idli-sambaar cooked by someone else finally!

Well all of this could have happened pretty early had I not being busied up in life with these academic tenures worth 5 years and then 2 years of job and then 2 years of Post Graduation again. I mean yeah, we seem to be independent, but the moment you plan a 3 day vacation even to Rishikesh, from some God-for-saken-place, there comes a list of 1000 works to be done immediately without delay on the bloody long weekend.

With such constraints, forget Caribbean Islands, even going for a shopping to the nearest city Delhi is a long dreamt scene. We were long independent as citizens, but as individuals I still await Independence. This long weekend is certainly wasted, I will make sure I dont waste the next one, just like I never wasted the next semester and the next month and the next target and the next submission and the next morning.

Always Ranting, Rantzaada.