Midnight picnic with Maggi

This is my third trip to Salt Lake City and i am kind of tired of this place. I wasn't really excited about this trip, in fact i had a huge desire to just miss my flight and stay in bangalore, when i was boarding the taxi for the airport on the night of 8th Aug. Little did i know then that this trip is going to be so much of fun.

I always had a lot of fun in SLC, but this trip was special since i wasn't looking forward to it at all.. Number of reasons to it, first of all things in my personal life weren't really moving very smooth and i was wondering if things will just get worse if i am not there at all. And then there were my usual cribs like "Oh god, not the same boring work again !!", "We are not even staying in Chase (thats the name of my fav hotel in SLC)", "I am again going to put on a lot of weight, i guess there are fat molecules in SLC air", "I don't know driving, so i got to depend on others which i hate.. I wish SLC had a good public transport"...

So, with all these cribs i landed in SLC on the afternoon of 9th Aug in a pathetic mood (no TV in a 15 hours flight). Of course, Sonia and Irfan were there to pick me up. And then the journey began..

The very first morning i got up at around 6 am (jet lag effect) and i went for a stroll in the back side of the hotel and i was amazed by the beauty and silence of the place.. Little had i experienced such a quiet in the atmosphere, no sound except for the sound of slow moving stream.. With trees on both sides and benches, i strolled down by the side of the stream enjoying the calmness.. One of my friends had said once, "Flowers are not really beautiful till touched and smelled by a woman, so keep doing the honour to them and take their blessings".. And i really did that honour to them :-)

So my crib about not staying in Chase vanished.. I was happier to try out a different place..

Every morning pack your bags and go to office, run STP's, have lunch at Subway and come back home, go to gym, cook food/eat out, go for a walk, browse internet and sleep.. This used to be all time schedule in SLC. But this time we did something special and that was "Midnight picnic with Maggi"

It was one of the weekdays, when we all went to the gym at 8:30 and dint come out till 9:30. SLC is kind of city where one would find it really difficult to find food after 10 (except for american fast food, which we are never interested in). Plan was to go to Ganesh, but unfortunately it closed by the time we even thought of reaching.. So since, there was nothing to eat and no energy to cook, everybody loved the idea of Maggi dinner. Maggi is one of the things that is pretty much common in all the Indians (particularly our generation)..

Then the idea of having maggi by the side of the stream dawned on us.. We cooked maggi with lots of onions, tomatoes and peas and took our bowls outside by the water stream. And that was a WOW experience. I had always loved Maggi and i had always loved water, moon and open sky and i had also loved company of good friends. I had all of them together after about 11-12 years at a place which was thousands of miles from my home and with the people who are supposed to be my professional friends.

We talked of Maggi Clubbers and the famous goodies. We talked of different ways to cook maggi, sang the famous maggi commercial "Badi gazab ki bhook lagi, maggi chahiye mujhe abhi.. Yummm.. Maggi Noodles", and had an amazing time making fun of each other and pulling each other's leg and knowing more of each other.. It truly was a wow experience..

I slept late that night, not because of jet lag but because i had an irresistable desire to write about my last picnic in a jungle, on the hills, with my childhood buddies, when i was 12 years. We played and laughed together, did most things which are stupid and of course we cooked and ate the best Indian dish -- MAGGI..

It is kind of weird, how memories which were never captured in digital camera and were never blogged comes back striking you, when you are least expecting it. It clouds your brain as if it were yesterday. That is the beauty of life, it gives you the memories and moments too precious, especially when you don't expect them at all...

Out of Body Experience (OBE)

Okie, i know it sounds a lot scary to know that somebody had an OBE. But i am one of the few fortunate ones to have experienced it. (Please don't be scared of me)

I was in final year or my engineering. It was one of the most stressful times of every semester, the end sem exams. I had always been a night owl, so to cover up that, i would sleep in the evening and study the whole night and finally sleep in the morning. This incident happened in the evening when i was sleeping around 6 pm. My room-mate generally used to take a nap along with me in the evening, but she wasn't there that day.

So, i dream that i m lying straight on my bed and there is pitch darkness inside the room and foggy too. For some reason my hand is being pulled by some strange force above, which i simply cannot see because of the darkness. I am deadly scared and don't know what to do. I am trying really hard to get my hand back but no matter how much i try, my hand keeps hanging in the air. Suddenly, i remember that my room-mate is sleeping next to me. So, i try to shake with my other hand so that she wakes up and helps me, but she doesn't get up. She doesn't respond at all. I get totally panicky, not knowing what to do. Then i think of shouting so that my friend in the next room hears me and comes to rescue me, but as a start to shout, my throat gets choked. I can't utter a word or a scream. I try real hard to shout but i simply cannot shout.

Finally, after all these trials of saving my life, at one point i feel totally lost. All this time i was trying to wake up my roomie sleeping next to me, but she doesn't respond. So i finally decide to turn my neck and look at her just to make sure that she is ok. And as soon as i turn my head, i see my own self sleeping there.. And this was the most horrifying experience i ever had. Suddenly i woke up, just to find myself in well lighted room in which i had been living for last one year and both my friends had gathered around me to tell me that i was making funny sounds while sleeping and was also sweating badly.

Now, i don't know whether this is what is called "Out of Body Experience", but that scene was very real. I saw myself lying next to me. I was looking at myself from a side angel, it is impossible to see that angel in a mirror. But every possible feature that i saw on my body in that one second is actual there on me. It makes me feel weird that i was actually outside looking at my own self. But i can never ever forget that image and it is burnt in my memory forever.

I don't know if it is fortunate or unfortunate to have an experience like this. But i consider myself lucky to have such an unique experience. I know it was harmless, but i am not sure how would i react if it happens again and i am still trying to find out what causes it.