The Black Mind

This was an incident that happened a month or so ago. First forgive me. This post is sure to grow quite big. So if you don't have the time at your disposal you have the option of either going on to the next post or worse still you can click the next blog link at the top of this page.

I am not sure of the date. It was just after the release of a new Tamil film¹. My memory says that it must have been a Monday. I was particularly bored to hell. We had an unusually long holiday and many of my friends were away at their native places. With my zeroth review over just a week back, I had no mood to sit at my project so soon. I was raring to have an outing with my friends. When you want something to happen, it is the last thing that does. (Ref: Susi's corollary to Moore's law). Proving this the days seemed to drag along at an insanely slow crawling pace. Like every good thing has an end, the bad things have an end too. So the day at last came when enough of my friends returned from their natives. But there was this inevitable pleasure that was compelling me to stay home that day. A regional television channel² was telecasting one of the movies³ that I was so in liking with. So I had my plan chalked out. I was to see the much awaited movie that evening at home and start out on my adventures from the next day. The fact that I was more planned now and that I had a fun filled schedule ahead of me enthused me.

My corollary proved true again. I got a call from one of my friend asking me to join a group of other guys⁴ to go to another guys⁵ home. I was just a bit flustered. I had never gone to this guys place and knew not why at all I had to alter my well planned itinerary. But I learnt from them that this guy had had an operation to his nose (???) and that they were going there to enquire after his wellbeing. The reason seemed good enough to alter my plan a bit. So I gave in and joined them. Got a bus to my college and from there I tagged along with them. Also even if we went there I would still have enough time to come back in time for my movie³. So off we set, not knowing in advance what adventures lay in store for us. I had always believed that all my classmates stayed in Chennai. But then here we were traveling for almost an hour. What all we had to cross? Believe me when I say that the sight included flyovers, mud roads, patch roads, potholes, rivers, hills, cattle, green fields... I had almost seen the spot for the next Barathiraja film. Once we did reach there I reached for my cell phone to know that time. It was more than an hour since I had left home. More importantly, though there were so many things to look around, there was a more important thing that was lacking - my cell phone had no coverage. Happy to see that the guy was in fine shape, we decided to take leave after about twenty minutes. But now his hospitable mother had set about preparing something for us to eat⁶. Since she had already started we had to wait for some more time. But now my time schedule was looking more and more disrupt. When a snicker of a tower did appear, my sister called me to mock and inform that my much awaited film had started. Determined not to miss my film I started watching the film there itself. Once the food came we devoured it at our fastest pace and took leave.

Now things started getting more complex for me to handle. Here I was starting on my way back, sure to miss a large part of the film I had waited three days for. Convincing myself that life had taught me another lesson - Don't over expect anything - I started my journey back. But the fact of disrupting my schedule played heavily on my mind. Thinking of an alternate plan, I came up with the idea of going to the movie that was released just a day back with a few more of my pals. Now there are a few more facts that I have to ascertain. This movie was a Vijay movie. Consider the audience I had to share the day with. Murugappan is a die hard Vijay fan ready to take part in all the roars of the theatre. Then there was Jawahar who was a total Ajith fan and a no-Vijay man. But the Ajith movie released the day before was considered to be his worst of recent times. So he now wanted to see for himself what the other guy had to offer from a critical point of view. Then there Vijay (my friend, not the hero of the film) who like me had a select taste for movies. But both of us were now in a mood to watch a pure-blood commercial and were warming up to the theatre aura. There was Arun Prakash who had his own genre to watch. This was just the second film he was watching with me. I did not even know if he preferred this genre. There was boss⁷ who thought that a movie was good if it was fun. There was Vikram who had already seen the movie in Telugu and was there to weigh how this movie stood up when compared to the Telugu version. (The facts have been presented at last to my satisfaction). With such a wide mixed array of characters began our next phase. As each scene emerged Murugappan was at his roaring best with all the Vijay-fans in the theatre. Vikram was commenting on what a rip-off it was of the Telugu version. Jawahar was prompt in expressing his displeasure of the movie. Boss was having an enjoyable time with the movie. I was exchanging meaningful glances with Vijay to signify that this movie was just the thing we were in the mood to watch. Arun Prakash was most silent giving out no remarks. No appreciative smile. No frown. He was just taking in the things - as I was. When the movie got over it was around one in the night.

Irrespective of what others felt I think my feeling for not having stuck to my original plan was now lightened after the movie. Provided, what more could you do now? Now the next adventure began. There were eight of us on four bikes and I was with Jawahar on his bike. Vijay came out saying that how nice it would be if all four of us drove along at the same pace adjacent to each other. We all thought that it would be a good idea. The plan was executed properly for all of about ten seconds. That was all there was ever to it. After a couple of minutes and five kilometers ahead, ours was the last bike that was going and there was no sight of the others ahead. Also taking into account the fact that ours was the one bike that had the fastest pickup my chauffer thought this to be a great insult both to him and his bike. So he raised the throttle and the machine readily responded. From an average 30kph we rose to around 90kph. Within seconds we were cruising and had reached the third position. It took us may be another minute to catch with the next bike. Then there was a long pause. There was no first bike ahead of us. Feeling offended he raised the throttle in his urge to catch up. Another two minutes and we were there. Now that the three others were behind us and watching us he was ready to show that he was the leader of the band. We were now tearing the air at 120kph. Now for a fleeting second my mind pictured a scene. What would it look like if we were to lose our lead now due to some unforeseen factor? And the inevitable happened.

Another two minutes of pace and soon the Pulsar started first sputtering then shuddering and then abruptly came to a screeching halt. More concerned now we came to the side of the road, stopped the bike and unmounted. The bike was now behaving more like a non-pollution free motor vehicle. Streams of gas were emanating from the silencer and there was a pungent smell of some organic substance burning in the inside. Add to the salt some Potassium Permanganate (KMnO₄), concentrated Sulphuric Acid (H₂SO₄) and on heating releases a pungent smelling gas providing the confirmation test for Lead (Pb) ⁸. So that had to be it. The bike had taken in more than its share of lead from the petrol that it drunk everyday. As these thoughts were just running in my mind, I looked in the face of my rider and realized that he was even more worried now, than he was after the poor movie. He sensed that there had to be something seriously wrong with his machine. As I voiced my thoughts he face got even sterner. He was now beginning to get genuinely worried. By this time the other three pairs had caught up with us and were slowly beginning to take interest in the developments. But Boss who was more experienced with these sorts of troubles soon found out that the problem was quite simple. There was simply no fuel in the petrol tank to push the vehicle onward. The consternation on Jawahar's face lifted at this more simpler and plausible explanation. He promptly shook the vehicle and heard a faint rumble from the machine suggesting that the fuel was indeed there. Now things were getting more interesting. For the seven of us it was more than fun to watch the cruiser desperately scratching his head over his 150kg metal pile. Now was our turn to torment him. Perplexed though he was, his mind was now reeling in all directions looking for some feasible solutions. Each of his suggestions were looking more and more weirder to our more calm and sane minds. It was two in the morning. We were stranded - eight of us - five kilometers from the Chennai Airport and one kilometer from the main Kathipara junction. There was no soul we could ask help to. Forget about a mechanic. The following were a few of the feasible - though impractical - solutions that were suggested.

"There were a number of buses plying to Koyambedu. Can't we just put our bike in one of them?" - Good one. But Koyambedu was far from our destination than where we were. Besides who is going to lift a 150kg machine atop the bus?

"Why can't we just put the bike in an auto and take it home?" - Better. But where can we search for an auto, at this time, on a national highway?

"Why can’t we just leave the bike here and come back with a mechanic tomorrow?" - Even better. But who is to assure us that it would remain there through the night?

"What about pushing the whole thing for the next six kilometers until we reached home?" - More Practical. But who amongst the eight of us was going to push it? Not Me.

Then came the idea of towing the vehicle. - At last practical. But none of us had towed a vehicle before and besides we absolutely HAD to toe it with two guys on it. Not possible.

While all these theories were being discussed and as each one of these solutions were discarded, we realized that we had been stranded to the spot for more than half an hour and reached no solution. Just when we were getting more desperate things got worse. In the distance we spotted a white car with red lights atop it. This was the last thing that we wanted. There was a cop vehicle coming along at a steady pace. Seven of us wanted to be in some other place, at least ten kilometers from there. Along came the car and stopped beside us. We told the cop the truth and surprisingly he accepted it without receiving a penny from us. Just to confirm things he asked if all was well and if there was any petrol problem. After checking once again we told him that such was not the case and he proceeded with a frown [No penny :( ]. Now that the worst was past, we settled to do the one thing that we had done till now, but more decidedly. We decided to wait until the silencer cooled down completely. With a frown and seven other knowing smiles, we settled for a long wait. As time passed to another fifteen minutes, we thought that it has cooled as cool it is going to get. Now he tried to gun the machine again. There were sputters. Nothing more. Not a hint of life in the machine. It was now irrevocably dead. Only after all this time did it strike us that a bike would behave in this exact way in case of an engine cease too. The moment this word was uttered, Jawahar came to his wits end. His face was now shifting rapidly to an unscrutinizable blankness. What was going behind that head of his now? Fear? He was more concerned now than ever before. If it was indeed an engine cease there was nothing that we could do. Almost every one of us tried kicking the poor kicker in a faint hope that someone among us possessed that coveted golden boot among footballers. None of us seemed to have anything beyond a slipper and a fiercely aggravating groin.

Boss said now that there was only one last choice that he had to offer from his experience. There is a very unlikely chance that something may have stuck up the petrol tube. He suggested plugging out the petrol tube and allowing the petrol to flow for quite some time and then trying to inject life into the now zombie machine. As he plugged the petrol tube out and opened the valve we knew what exactly was wrong.

The valve was giving out what exactly comes out of a metro-water tap. Pure gas. I don't mean gasoline. Clean pure air. There was not a drop of petrol. Was the block that bad? Opening the petrol tank for the first time confirmed it. There absolutely was no petrol in it to spur it onward. Smiles everywhere. Picking up an empty water bottle (which is in plenty on Chennai roadsides) we transferred some petrol from another bike and she came to life like an angel. The trouble was now over. We resumed the journey now at last after an hour and a half but now more sedately at a 30kph and believe me we were the last to reach back.

PS:

Karunakku – Black Tongue
Karumoolai – Black Mind

1 : Pokkiri
2 : Sun TV
3 : Pattiyal
4 : Murugappan, Jawahar and Vikram
5 : Saravanan S(200434133)
6 : Upma
7 : A classmate of mine – Visawnathan actually
8 : Purely a figment of my imagination. I pray that my past Chemistry staffs would bear with me.