Chapter 2: An outsider (Part 2)
The first month and half in NIMHANS were the most lonely and boring time of my stay here. As I said in the previous chapter, most of the friendships have already taken roots with people mostly moving around with those posted in their own unit. Also I was a bit recluse at that time.
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| With co-residents (who later became good friends) of my first posting Sridevi and Sisira |
During the working hours Sissira, Sridevi and Vinay, my co-JR's and my SR Rishikesh sir made me feel comfortable. They were helping me out in my routine work, giving me "logistics consultancy" and were the first source of bonding that I developed in my first month here. I still remember our unit's first lunch to Krishi. Only thing I remember doing was trying to taste as much as possible as it was a buffet. Hardly spoke anything with anyone except for enquiring about the food stuff that I haven't seen before or tasted before. May be that was the last lunch/dinner when my mouth confined itself to its gastronomic functions !
I remember the day when I bumped into Mahavir and Kapil in Lakkasandra where I went to buy some articles for use in my room. When I was accompanying them on the way back to hostel from Lakkasandra to staff hostel I was beside them passively listening to what they were spattering in Hindi albiet without any iota of what was it all about. From couple of words that I could comprehend like "non-veg" , "hotel", "chicken", " cheap/expensive" I assumed that they were discussing about the outside eating options around our campus (which served us well in the subsequently in the next 6 months..!).
After couple of weeks finally I decided to venture out of the campus on a Sunday. Without laptop, friends, work to do, patients to see, Sunday was so boring that I thought why can't go for a movie. Only theater I knew at that point of time was Poornima in double road since I remember passing by it when it was playing "Vinnai Thandi Varuvaya" on my way to the center for NIMHANS entrance exam. So I took a bus to the theater but to my dismay that time they were not playing any Tamil movie which is a very rare instance, may be for a week or so in a year that may happen only when they don't have any Tamil movie to play.
Since I have already done my homework with the help of "Deccan Chronicle" and "Times of India", I took an auto to Ajantha Theater not knowing which area it was situated fully at the mercy of the auto driver. Auto guy as one would expect charged me double after taking me to Ulsoor in as much roundabout route he could possibly take which I was not knowing at that time. May be the fact that he was communicating with me in good Tamil made me believe that in him.
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| Ajantha Theater, my first movie watching experience in Bangalore (sadly it is no more..:() |
Returning was a big challenge. Only route I knew was Majestic to NIMHANS. But I was in Ulsoor and didn't know how to get back to Majestic. As anyone who is in a place where they don't have much knowledge of the local language, he/she would feel apprehensive to enquire anything with the local people. Hence I was hesitant in asking people for direction as by that time my knowledge of Kannada was almost nil. The funny part was I was in the area which is a majority Tamil speaking area and later I got to know that it would be difficult only for other language people not Tamils there.
So I still remember I kept walking hoping to find a bus with Majestic / NIMHANS / Lakkasandra on it's board. I walked passed Chinnaswamy stadium, Indian express, MG road, Cunningham road and finally I reached Vidhan Chowda hoping that I may get a bus to Majestic from there. To make matters worse as I was waiting for bus in Vidhan Chowda it started to rain and there was no shelter. Finally I got a bus to Majestic and from there to NIMHANS. That was an adventurous first day out in Bangalore on my own.
Within the batch I knew very less people those days and hardly spoken with one or two outside my unit. In those numerous modules I would hope like many others to be placed in the groups which had one or the other female colleague of our batch so that I can introduce my self and start interacting with them. But as luck would have it, invariably I would get myself placed in the all male groups every single time with whom I would have already interacted with.There was hardly any batch activity.
The lonely outsider part of my time in NIMHANS soon began to change after a significant event that took place after a month of my stay. The change which I initially didn't like that much but without which I wonder whether I would have enjoyed the rest of my stay there as much I did. For believers in Chaos theory the gentle flutter of a butterfly's wings has just started....!!!
...... To be continued
