A Bad Feeling! Part-II

Therefore, the day at such a heavenly place is a dream of many. I had dreamt for a few years, and thanks to the initiatives of my friends, I could finally be there. I had every reason to be happy and ecstatic about the day and the eventual destination. But I was not! I was disturbed by a thought, which I never intended to think but had to. Every single minute was a mental torture for me! I looked around to see my friends having best of their times, which I totally envied. I wished to be in their shoes but I knew I couldn’t. I was a severely disturbed lad on the block of hundreds of devotees. Hands firmly clasped into a form of lotus flower, I tried visualizing Buddha and Guru Rinpoche in an effort to drive away those bothering thoughts. Although I was surrounded by hundreds of people, I felt so lonely. If it wasn’t for my camera, I would have felt even lonelier; it was the camera that gave me the best of companion on that day. Not that my friends ignored me, I know they would never do that to me, but I felt disconnected myself. I clicked and clicked catching best of their poses. Occasionally, I popped inside the frame and faked a smile. The natural smile, which I wanted to bring it over, didn’t materialize. As the Rinpoche graciously administered the Phupai Wang, I tried visualizing a phurba-spiritual dragger-as instructed. Those were the only moments I was freed of the disturbing thoughts. For a moment, I was lost in a captivation of artistic brilliance that giant and tall pillars wore in the prayer hall. I felt a deep pang of shiver and goose bumps upon seeing the gigantic Statues of Buddha, Guru Rinpoche and Karmapa. While being lost in such thoughts, the Rinpoche had already wrapped up the wang and monks and people alike were queuing towards him to get blessed. As we snaked (or perhaps snail-ed) towards the Rinpoche I scanned around and in return got amazed by every bit of artistic richness of the hall. But all these amazing moments and time came to an abrupt halt by the announcement made by a senior Monk on a microphone. He didn’t offend me, though. In fact, he was making an announcement for the devotees gathered to have lunch at the monastery which was been arranged and sponsored by someone. It was the mention of the ‘food’ that brought me a great tremor. By the each passing minute and by the passage of each moment gearing toward the lunchtime, my heart raced and my adrenaline rose. 

Well, what is with the food that made me so worried about? Okay, this is what actually happened. Earlier, I was tasked to prepare rice while rest of them prepared curry. I agreed and I didn’t foresee anything going wrong with that, particularly so because now rice cooker does the job! Right? Wrong! I had also caught up the World Cup 2014 fever and its inaugural match between home nation Brazil and Croatia was already on air. So, I would be a jerk to not stay up late, right? Wrong! I stationed comfortably in front of the TV and got lost completely in the frenzy of the opening match. By the time I realized it was already 3 AM. That means, I had barely 3 hours to sleep, that too assuming that my tenant/immediate neighbors lower their TV volume and their noise. 9:30 AM was the time set by my friends.

Around 7 AM, my roommate Karma who was leaving for Delhi on the same day was already wide awake. Else he would miss the bus. Since we weren’t going to meet until next semester, I wanted to bide goodbye and see him off. I quickly shook off the sleep and accompanied him to the road point. It was then 8:30 AM, the time at which the bus normally reaches Kanglung. We waited there patiently but as if it was to mess my day up, the bus roared came only at 9 AM! I felt restless because I had yet to cook rice. On an average it takes good 30 minutes or so for rice to be fully cooked and be ready to serve, so, I barely had enough time. I began to really worry, now. I rushed back, kicked open the door and quickly stuffed in 8 cups of rice and kept it on a cook. I was racing against the fleeing time. I murmured prayers and entrusted the rice cooker fully for the task. Fingers crossed. While it was carrying the last minute task, I watched the recap of the inaugural match that handed fan favorite Team Brazil a commending win despite the shaky start conceding its own goal! I almost fainted when my phone ranged. Not a wrong number nor a misdial. It was my friend, yes, calling me to come faster as ‘everybody’ was waiting for me. I nearly broke down then and there. Thankfully, the light on the cooker has shifted from cook to warm. Lil relief, I opened the lid only to be greeted by barely-cooked rice. It looked like they were all angry and yelling at me. I froze, literally. Not knowing what to do next, I put another 5 cups of rice into a pressure cooker thinking that it might not take much time. While it was yet to make a first whistle, I dressed up and made sure camera was working fine. I thought it was the first whistle, so I kept it on till the second whistle to blow. But little did I know that I was waiting for yet another disaster. Since it was not whistling, I gave a quick tap on the handle and instantly it whistled and off came gushing the smell of burnt rice, filled the entire room within no time. Excellent! This was exactly what I wanted to not happen!!!! This was even more worst the uncooked rice, so I tugged in the uncooked rice along with the container to a bag and hurried up to the place where my friends were supposedly thought to be waiting.


....to be cont'd