Popat

Disclaimer: All names and places are real. Nothing has been altered as the target is to make fun of people involved.

How to define Popat? Well its a situation when someone has a bad experience which seems hillarious to others. We call it iska toh popat ho gaya.

Let me relate an incident. A couple of my friends were going to a collegaues wedding. They had a train to cath from mumbai. One of them came from Pune. They were all set to catch train from Mumbai Central.

Their train was at 11:45 in the night and they discussed plans to gulp a beer or two at Marine drive before proceeding to Central which is 10 mins away from there.

The fun was their train was from LTT which is quite far even for late night roads. Had they reached Central and would come to know of the goofup, we could say ki Popat ho gaya.

Hope this makes the meaning and usage clear. Poor chaps would be left licking their wounds, while we audience would be discussing and writing blogs and making fun at their expense.

Unfortunately fate intervened and a third party (me) who shared the wassapp group on which this discussion was going on pointed out the obvious. So popat hone se bach gaya.

Cardinal Sin and The Twisted Ankle

After a tiring day in Kolkata, me and a friend of mine decided to catch the late night show of Once upon a Time in Mumbai Dobara. We enquired about a theatre near our hotel and caught a ride.

I was standing in the ticket queue when something caught my eye. I don’t really know what it was, Was it the Smile, Was it the Innocence, Was it the Eyes, Was it the Dress. I just kept looking unaware of the world. There was this girl in green, with the Smile that puts Mona Lisa to shame, with the Innocence that defies this world, with the Eyes that penetrates the heart. It took me a while to realize she was with a guy and took a while more to realize that she was recently married, given the prominent Mehandi on her hands.

She was ahead of me in the queue, I bought the tickets and went inside. I lined up to buy some popcorn and there she was again, in the same queue. I was struggling hard not to gaze at her, given the consequences that could result in. The movie ended sometime later. I caught a glimpse of her during the interval. She was not just with her husband, but with full family.

Show got over at around 2 in the night. I strolled to the exit. There she was with her family. Perhaps my last chance to look at her. My friend had stopped a taxi and called out to me. I walked towards the taxi but kept looking sideways gazing her.

Just then I felt a jolt and fell down with an excruciating pain. I hadn’t noticed that I was crossing over from high footpath on to a low road. I had mis-stepped and badly twisted my ankle. I saw her getting into a car and fading away. For moment the pain stopped along with the time. As she went away the pain came back and I could see my friend bent over laughing.

If she was Eve, I just paid my dues for the Cardinal sin of Lust.

Shootout in the Rain

First full-fledged down pour of the season and Mumbai was left reeling. My weekend plans stood canceled as they involved a bit of travelling. I decided to cool my heels at home instead.

Late afternoon, a news came trickling in about shootout of a veteran journalist. Given the violent times we live in, I would not have given the story, a second hearing. But few keywords caught my attention. Apparently the shootout took place near to my house; on the road that I take daily. Another of such tragedies that I have come up close. The last being when an air hostess leaped off the building I lived in.

These incidents do leave a sad feeling. However as cold as it may sound, they don’t affect us anymore as far as personal security is concerned. I didn’t leave the building after the said suicide. I will take the same road tomorrow. It becomes just news. And then the calls, “Heard a shootout happened where you live. Were you there? Did you see anything?” and other such queries.

In another hour or so I had almost forgotten what had happened. I was just waiting for the rains to subside to get on with the evening. But they never did. I decided to go for a stroll to the park nearby. No sooner had I stepped out of my building did I see dozens of media satellite vans lined up. I wondered why. Then I remembered the shootout. My building is adjacent to the police station and whole media was there to cover the story.

I abandoned the idea of the walk and came back to the apartment. It was time for my evening snacks.