THE TRIP II

TRIP – II

Now, I was tensed a bit, we both were not sure whether they were even coming or not. At least they should have informed us, a call or a text message could have done the job. “Leave it” yelled Surya, “first of all let us cool down a bit” He suggested. I was quite perplexed at his behavior and asked him “How could we but just cool down?” He pointed at a man showing some tricks with a cleaver and a coconut. Now I was a bit frightened, after all why was Surya interested in a “Cleaver”? “Isn’t it a good idea to grab some coconut juice” he mumbled. “Of course why not, it’s a superb idea” I nodded back. Thank god he was intending to grab some fresh coconut juices and I had begun to imagine some weird scenario.

We both grabbed two coconuts and sucked the hell out of it; we were thirsty like never before. Beep beep somebody was calling me, and yeah it was Aman, before I could answer the call, Surya snatched my phone and walked away signaling me to pay for the coconut juice. Without having any choice left I paid and turned towards Surya, it seemed he was giving some sort of advice to Aman. He was a master when it comes to advice after all he was a medical student. Now it so happened that some guests had arrived that morning at Aman’s place and in a hustle he had left his phone in his room and went to pick Charan and to our luck Charan was having some network issues. I mean his phone was having some issues, even after installing the SIM card; it was persistently displaying “Insert SIM”. Now Surya took a single breath to narrate the whole incident. I asked him “But where were they at present?” to my utter surprise Surya had no clue. Amidst all his advice sessions, he had forgotten to ask Aman about their whereabouts.

Now I copied Aman’s number to the dialing screen of my phone…. “Bringg bringg bringg, “Halo, Aman is it you?” “Halo, it’s me Charan, he is driving”. Just as I was about to ask Charan about their current location, He conferred that they were just leaving Cuttack, and were late as both of them went to Aman’s place in order to bring back his phone and were stuck in the city traffic. Without disturbing them any further I disconnected the call, I knew Aman was very rash and impulsive when it comes to riding. So calling him frequently while he was riding was not quite a good idea.

Surya was staring at me in a creepy manner; I sort of convinced him that there was nothing much to worry about, but we have to be with ourselves for the next hour or so as Aman and Charan were still stuck in Cuttack. Now “What to do?” we could have explored more the serene coastline, but we decided to visit The Archaeological Survey of India Museum, Konark. Now both of us were not kind of artefacts lover, but still we preferred the ASI museum over idling away our time in the beach. The Konark Museum is at a distance of 1.5 km from the Konark Bus station and located in the northern part of the Sun temple. The Museum functions as a repository of 13th century India's finest architectural creations and is an ideal place for artefact lovers and folks who adore antique stuffs. A day before ASI Museum was not even in our list of preference but still situation forced us. It was quite unexpected; however after visiting the museum, both of us turned into genuine admirer of antiquity and developed a keen interest for historical relics. The whole saga of the building of the Sun temple and the story of Dharmapada is quite strikingly presented in the museum. It is only after visiting the museum that I came to know a lot more about the majestic sun temple. The large structure we see today is actually the entrance to the main temple; the main temple which enshrined the presiding deity no longer exits. It was traditionally called the deul. The temple was originally a complex consisting of the main shrine, called the “Rekha deul” or bada deul, In front of it was the bhadra deul or the jagamohana which is sometimes referred to as mandap in other parts of India.

At this point we were completely engrossed in the magnificence of the glorious past of The Konark temple. In my imagination I had already started imagining its past grandeur. Although in its present state; it is in ruins, still it holds a deep sublime connection with the visitors and presents a world of artistic magnificence and architectural grandeur. Now I felt a deep urge within me to visit the temple itself, I had visited the temple many times in past but after visiting the ASI museum and knowing more about its past heritage and the story behind its creation, my urge to visit and explore this great Sanctum was even more.

Surya was also lost in his own world, he was gazing at a giant wheel and doing some calculations, I knew he was good in maths, but “what was he calculating....?” now some of the past, kind of “Math” memories were revived, Aman and I happened to visit Prashant sir on a Sunday morning to clear our doubts on Linear Equations. Maths was the subject I feared and hated the most during my school days. I was never in love with numbers; I would rather prefer letters over them. In those days attending a maths class, I remember was nothing less than fighting a war for me. Even now my hatred for maths is quite unscathed.  

Before even we entered Sir’s house, Aman noticed Surya’s cycle. Now we three were from different schools, but our common ground of meeting was Prashant sir, a cool and practical, smiling old but young at heart man. Sir was always witty in his own way and the way he taught had a great impact on us. Aman and I entered into the room quietly, I was taken aback, “What, Surya was crying”, we had never seen him crying before. He left seeing us entering the room, I tried asking him, but he left as if we both were not even present there. Now Arun was also there, Arun was my schoolmate, he told us that Surya had failed in Maths in the Half yearly exams, and that’s why got scolding from sir. We later on came to know that he had got zero in maths. Now that was a day, we genuinely felt pity for Surya, we were in 7^th grade at that time and then I remember the ICSE Board Exams, Aman almost took me that morning to 14 temples and we almost spend a 100 Bucks on Coconuts alone. Now “Don’t think that I am going to disclose our marks”, we managed to get a good percentage, but what astounded us the most was that Surya had scored 93 in maths.

     Time takes its turn; it will for a time might take you to the seventh peak and even at times hit you hard on the face. So wait for your time, and hit the right note at the right time, but it’s not so easy, so is life. But one thing for sure time may not always be in your side, but patience and hard work will certainly pay for in the long run as happened with Surya.

My caller tune busted the silence of the archive, it was an unknown number; now the moment I tried to pick the call, the call got disconnected. “Sorry Sir but you need to switch off your phone or put it in silent mode”, a security personnel approached me. I apologized, and changed my profile settings. Now “where was Surya?” I looked around for him in the atrium, hallway and even the corridor but there was no trace of him..............