I was on a work trip from Hyderabad (Telangana) to Bhimavaram by train. Unlike other train journeys, which involve travelling overnight and eventually missing the dropping point due to a good nights sleep, this one was plagued with a co-passengers plagued with bed bugs in Indian Railways, Third AC berths. Yes those blood sucking monsters exist and thrive in Indian Railways! No I am not a senior citizen, writing about a train journey to AP in the 80s / 90's. Its 2017 and already December. Co-passengers : Aunty, Uncle and a boy. Aunty and Uncle on Lower berth. Boy on the middle berth. Me on the middle berth too. Sandwiched between aunty and another interesting player on the top berth. Cursing my luck for not getting any other seat, i decided to try sleeping to wake up fresh. The boy falls asleep, peacefully, snoring away to glory! Some very audible talking by Aunty in Telugu, or some south Indian language continues with Uncle. Seems to be they are in a happy mood, cross ...
I was at work, and some colleagues told me of cancer awareness camp clubbed with a Blood donation camp being organised. I thought of what happened the first time, I went to donate, where the doctor allowed me to donate and it led to awesome amount of dizzy feeling and fainting spell. So I walked in with a scarred psyche, prepared to not donate. Then as people started inviting me (more like asking me ) to donate, I felt like a coward and over selfish! I am happy humans cant smell fear, unlike dogs. They would have smelt how anxious I was and thrown me out anyhow. So getting carried away with the fever of the moment, I took the form and filled it up. After that, it dawned on me the worse part of it all - the needle! The consequent pain and the desire to run away from it all. But another tiny voice said, its the least you can do for someone who is affected with cancer. Tolerate some pain and fatigue and some dizziness. Went there and did it and this time, I did not dare to l...