Today i was hungry for my lunch, but due to some 'unforeseen-eventualities' which i knew gonna hit at the lunch time, landed in such a way that i almost lost a huge calories of my body and , obviously, missed my lunch. But technically i did not miss the lunch , i just had to postpone it a couple of hours. As the saying goes, its the "burning desire which actually burns you" accurately fitted in my case and the thing which got burnt was my intestines. I waited for the so called eventuallity to end and kept alive my desire which brought back a bunch of memories which i'd archived in my personal folder under the name "missed lunch".
The last time i missed a lunch with a great "burning desire" happened a very long time back. It was in the month of August 2003 (not a 'very long time' though) when i was attending an Urban Sensitization Camp in the village of Kumbalanghi, in the outskirts of my city, Kochi, Ernakulam. It was the part of our course curriculum of MBA & MHRM of Rajagiri School of Management, Kochi.
Basically it was an OJT (on job training) sort of arrangement we had there. The entire team consisted of 100 students , boys & girls, and been allotted a particular ward/ area of the village and carry out a proper cleanship and maintenance of their roads and surroundings. Which, i must say with great pride, was completed in a pretty satisfactory way.
The camp was planned for 7 days and we actually repaired around 10 kms ( citation ? r u kidding?) of roads in that village . Our stay was arranged in a satisfactory way and the mess was rigged up in a nearby building, looked after by the whole-n-soul ,Master Chef named George. ( I still remember him for his devotion to the duty, carrying a rosary always in his right hand).
So, on the last day of our camp there was a lunch arranged for the entire team and a few invited guests of the village, arranged alongside a beautiful river which bisected the village. All the food items were ready to be shipped to the location. I stayed along with the mess secretary Sony Varghese, a great guy with lots of charisma and concern for the team, helping in the transporting of the food items to the venue. By the time every thing got transferred from the kitchen to the location , it was way too late. And both of us started from there hitchiking an auto rickshaw.
Now, one should understand that i pointed out about the event for 'the team mates and a few invited guests', which in most of the case is impossible to adhere. And in this scenario it happened in the exact way i explained. Me and Sony landed at the place, by the time the food had evaporated into the crowd, including the team mates, invited guests and many more uninvited ones. I could see the short tempered Sony's skin colour was becoming red ( a clear indication that he has reached the flash point). I could not make out the exact situation which was happening in my body as i was dark skinned and it is difficult to make out.
Sony, turned to me with his hands on the hips, speechless. I could read the message from his body language "yaar rathu...what the F**K?". It took me a couple of minutes to cope up with the situation and to completely agree with the reality that "i missed my lunch". Luckily, our Chef George gave us two spoons of Soya bean curry, which was perfectly divided between us. And what else should I say, i fell in love with the Soya Bean curry then.
The camp got over, its been years now, i left the course, joined Navy, all the others finished their course too and got their dream jobs. But one skipped lunch brought me back to those good memories ( yeah ..i said it , good memories) whether its about a missed lunch, or pain and agony. I may not say with surety that these things might not have been recorded or staying in any ones' memory. But i do remember it....and i do cherish it, each and every bit ! There aint any time machine in this world which could take us to the times where we lived, only the memories can bridge this time frame within a split second.
So, that brings to the end of this story, where i missed a lunch and remembered another one. Thanks to the uunforeseen eventuality of "breaking the rope in heavy winds" which made me remember my times.
