Wednesday, December 21, 2005

the end, almost

sorry the blog has been quiet--i've been desperately trying to finish up work, pack up my apartment and say all of my goodbyes. tomorrow i say goodbye to bangalore and head to goa for the holidays. if i return here at all, it will be as a tourist.

3 weeks ago i was lamenting my departure. my circle of friends was at its peak, after successfully ejecting the losers that B and V and the others seem to allow into the group occasionally. i'd tried to encourage quality over quantity, and it finally seemed to be sinking in. bangalore itself seemed "nicer". after 5 months of overcast skies and rain, the sun finally began to shine unemcumbered. i hadn't realized how much i'd missed it. my routine was good. my maid would wake me up every morning with a friendly smile and would clean around me as i groggily watched the bbc news. on the way to the office, the familiar street urchins shouted their "hello uncle"s. i'd watch the latest episode of "family guy" at the office, and go to lunch with my office friends. i'd go to my usual evening haunts with the non-work gang where we'd be treated like vips, no longer paying the cover charges other people would. my girlfriend was even starting to behave semi-reasonably. i liked my routine and my friends.

i should have left on that high.

after returning from sri lanka, it all went to hell. this week has been weird, in an ugly way. i'm not a violent person, and i can generally tolerate a lot of poor behavior and still keep my cool. but this week i came close to punching people in the face out of sheer rage. on more than one occasion. and that doesn't even include the drunk guy in my apartment who repeatedly challenged me to fight until the floor finally punched him in the head when he passed out. when i get some time in goa, i'll elaborate.

the upside to all of this is that suddenly i'm looking forward to hitting the road again, though i need to get through this goa thing first. i'm giving goa an 80% chance of achieving fiasco status. we have an apartment for 8 days with beds/matresses for 10 people, yet for some reason B has allowed 23 people to stay for the last 3 days heading into the new year. i don't know if they know they will be sleeping on the floor, assuming there's even floor space for them. maybe i'll just get on my motorbike (i'll rent one in goa) and disappear...

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I would be interested in your motorcycle stories if you happen to rent one in Goa :)

Anonymous said...

i would be interested in your fighting stories if you happen to fight someone in Goa :)

Anonymous said...

Thank god you took those karate lessons . . . You could be like Chuck Norris. (Or Chuck Norris' long-haired, weaker, gastro-intestinally-challenged younger brother.)

Anonymous said...

Merry Christmas steyock.