A Worderful day

Sunday morning 9 am, I found myself sitting in a car. Not mine of course. It was raining. All around me were lush green fields, tall trees swaying in the wind and not so far away were beautiful hills with low clouds rolling between them. If you looked carefully, the hillside was interspersed with waterfalls inviting you come and take a dip. Sigh. Quoting Bono, “It’s a beautiful day”. Sounds like a perfect day for trekking right? And that exactly what I was NOT doing! I was heading to a writing workshop. Yes you heard it right. Why? Well you asked for it!

Here I go again. Remember I told you about Caferati? Like I had said don’t confuse them with Illuminati, though both are equally fanatical. So this month Caferati finished 4 years of their highly secret, underground existence and still hadn’t come under the government scanner. So it was a reason to celebrate with an all day long workshop. It was going to involve mini workshops, writing exercises and readings. Great! But where? Karjat. I don’t think I heard it right. Its in Karjat. Okaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay.

My first impulse was, fuck it, no fucking way am I going that far! But then I found to it was being organized by my colleague Ozzy (Ozymnadias) and another caferati member Suniti so I change my impulse to maybe, since I still had to figure out how to get there and what not. But Suniti was kind enough to get me in touch with Rochelle, another Caferatian, who agreed to give me a ride. I found that I had some poems I was itching to unleash upon them world, so I changed my impulse to Yes I am going there!

Another colleague Yo decided he also wanted a piece of it. So we got him to sign up for Caferati through the cryptic, sacred ritual which involves logging in to a weird site and filling out a form and then waking up next day to find a gazillion messages in your inbox.
Then weekend struck and I almost forgot to mail my art for approval. I managed to email them 3 poems on Saturday night, which meant I would probably end up at the bottom of the list in the oh-shit-we-still-have-time-left section.

So Sunday morning I found myself awake at 6 am wondering WTF as usual. It took 15 minutes but I finally realized why I was up. The Caferati Meet! Gah! So I showered, had breakfast, got ready and left. Met Yo on the way and we reached the meeting point where Rochelle was waiting for us. We picked up another Caferatian on the way, Bhaskar.

One the way I discovered that Rochelle is a scriptwriter and Bhaskar work as a BD in another AD agency. I had burnt a music CD for the way so we went through that. By the time CD got over I was almost in the “Are we there yet?” mode. Sitting in car is as interesting as sitting in office. But in office you have internet!

Somewhere between Karjat and Neral we realized we were lost. Not a surprise. None of us had bothered to look at the map they had painstakingly put up. We called and got some more cryptic directions from the owner of the farmhouse. Took us a bit to decode them but we were finally on the right track till some decided to tell us the wrong direction and we found ourselves in the middle of nowhere. So we headed back. Apparently we had missed the famous landmark, the bore well.

Now when you see a 4 feet high iron pipe with a lever to pump water, do you think bore well or do you think hand pump? Unfortunately we were one of those morons who think hand pump. We finally realized our folly and took what they claimed to be a road till it ended in a pile of cars in the middle of fields. Hmm now what, we wondered. So we stepped out in the rain to find another gentleman who also had the misfortune of being both a Caferatian and of being there at the same time. He found a trail through the fields that we waded through till we were at the farm house!

And that too just in the nick of time! They were just about shutting the kitchen down post breakfast. So we managed to grab a vada-pav and a cup of piping tea. Soon after, we were all ushered in to a room where we started off with the workshops.

John kicked it off with a presentation on Content Writing but got caught in the long tail of questions and couldn’t finish it within stipulated time. This was followed by Ozzy’s highly entertaining workshop on writing nonsense, no wait Nonsense. Yes there is a difference! Then Suniti took the centerstage and taught us how to perform our poems, which Bhaskar duly did. This was followed by Batul’s session on script writing which quickly degraded in to a debate and nothing much came out of it. Thankfully we broke up for lunch. The best thing I learnt in this workshop is that I can throw my voice and make it reach furthest place! So cool! So next time when I am reading a poem and I see someone running away Ill just throw it at them, there is no escape now muhahahahhaa!

Post lunch we were asked to do a writing exercise by Manisha which was interesting and fun. This was followed by the reading session where some brave and some mean souls read their work out to us and were attacked with feedback in return. Soon we were out of time and we broke up for tea. My evil plans to attack them with poetry will have to be executed some other day.

Post tea we said good byes and posed to pictures. Soon I found myself in a car again, this time on the way back to civilization. All the way back I said goodbye to nature as I knew soon I would be confined to the concrete jungle for who knows how long. Got off in Borivali and went with Yo to some place called Ustad’s. There we gorged on tasty kebabs and tandoori chicken yum. In a trademark move, I picked up a bottle of Thums Up and found myself in an auto somewhere in Malad.


17 thoughts on “A Worderful day

  • satan' queen

    Heya..I am very much alive! Switched jobs..! so..!

    Interesting read as usual…nothing new there! Hey, even I am a member of this cafferati thingy…though they have ceased to notice my existence now…but then again…even I’m not sure whether I am still alive! And does all librans prefer thumps up over other drinks..including water! FYI- I am the proud brand ambassador for Thums Up. 🙂

    Scribbleeee onnn!

    Reply
  • Che

    @Queen:

    Ah switched jobs eh? Congrats.
    So did I. And now I work at a place where they *allow* pen and paper! woohoo.
    Ah fellow Caferatian. You know just put up something once in a while, a poem, a post or a comment just to let them know that you are alive and they will find you.

    Oh yes Thums Up is awesome. Goes well with Rum.

    @Jhayu:

    Ha. I dont need to unleash my poetry to hurt you. My puns are enough 😉

    BTW as a poet my handle is Vogan Che, i hope you get the mis-spelt reference 😀

    Reply
  • zubinsaxena

    “Now when you see a 4 feet high iron pipe with a lever to pump water, do you think bore well or do you think hand pump? Unfortunately we were one of those morons who think hand pump”

    bahahahaha…count me with u..!lolz..btw..I dint know its with people there as well..the habit of giving the wrong directions..!! :d

    I didn’t really know what it was for half of the time..but still had a few laughs reading it.. 🙂
    What is this caferati…(only tell me if they don’t execute you…for breaching the code..!)

    and hey…check my blog as well..I am new..but still .:)

    Reply
  • Che

    @Zubin:

    Ah you dont know caferati!
    Speak this word to any habitual mis-speller or grammatically incorrect person and you shall see them cower with fear!
    Just google them 😉

    And yes I do read your blog.

    Reply
  • Che

    @Still:

    Dont you worry dear poems will *never* show up on this blog. I put them up somewhere else 😉

    Dont want to scare the few faithful reader do I?

    Work today was usual. Worked for 2 hours. Played cricket and counter strike for rest of it.

    Reply
  • Sree

    A writing workshop…perfect!Now maybbe you can enlighten me with some ‘how to write a poem’?
    I’m still reading your poems one by one.
    Also, just realised I havent blogrolled you yet.Gonna do now 🙂

    Takecare.

    Reply
  • dez

    next time you read your stuff out and you see someone not listenin to you, just throw your voice at him/her 🙂 🙂 too funny dude

    Reply
  • Che

    @Sree: Me telling you how to write poems? Ha! That would be equivalent of telling mommy how to you-know-what. 😉
    Reading them one by one…..yea they are painstaking I know. But I commend your bravery, you havent given up on them yet.
    i got you on my rolls too 🙂

    @Dez:

    Yes thats exactly what I plan to do. watch out 😉

    Its always a pleasure to see you here 🙂

    Reply
  • dez

    quite a few parts in your writings are funny…so if u reduce the overall length of your articles, the funny parts will proportionately increase 🙂 🙂 :), no?; seriously dude

    Reply
  • Sree

    haha..nahee..its just that i keep browsing to other profiles etc.If i could comment right then and there that would have made you believe.I do like adventures.This one is good.The faithful friend in your head is in my head too now :0)

    Reply
  • Che

    @dez:

    Hmm I think i need that editing workshop 😀

    @Sree:

    Well I am glad you are enjoying the misadventure. Its inspiring me to write another one. oh no!

    Reply
  • Neeku

    Thumbs up … Ah! I miss those =(…

    again… can’t sleep … was reading TOI/ndtv/express..and then thought to check out blogs… and read few of your your posts… and I am thinking… Ghosh… things have changed so much …ever since I left India… the places I hear from your blog… and the about the stuff you write…makes me wonder… I really missed out on lot of things =(

    Oh well… I think I should sleep… now… btw.. when is part 3 coming up ?

    Reply
  • Che

    @Neeku:

    No no Thums up. no B in that.
    Everytime i made trip to india i used to take its can back to US 😉

    Froms news sites to my blog….bad to worse eh?

    well whatever you are missing wil be right here waiting for you, *if* you came back 🙂

    part 3 would have come today but there has been a death in family….

    Reply

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