Something is bothering me for a long time from the time I had been commuting to MEPZ office. It’s the not the treacherous bus and tiring train journey that I’ve newly acquainted with, but the untiring, determined men who stand outside the MEPZ gate and tirelessly thrust those sheets of paper on you in an anticipation to get over with those pamphlets for which there must be some daily limit set by their bosses.

How rude to ignore them and walk away!

But the point is not yanking our hand, stuff those sheets into our backpack and create a small dumping ground in there, but the real botheration is all about facing them every f* morning when we hurry into the entrance, well barbequed by the scorching sun in this mid may of summer, walking all the way like a wet dog from the railway station to the MEPZ gate, desperately craving to get into those blessed cab and reach the SDB entrance, to gulp in conditioned air, flowing out from the façade, which sends some cooling beatitude to the epidermis bringing all our senses to tranquility.

When the weather is subjecting us to such a torture in the late morning of around 9.00 am, adding those pamphlet distributors to our rage and annoyance, I sincerely pity those men who indefatigably face our dismissal to their interest in handing us the blessed sheets. More than the weather which is molesting us with its intense Celsius and Candlas, I get highly cantankerous inside me, surrounded by 3 or 4 men preying with those arrays of papers. I seriously want to collar the bosses of those men and tell, ‘Dude, you seriously need to revamp your marketing strategy’. Come on guys, intruding the way of some hundred odd men and women and shoving the brochures on their face and expecting them to accept with interest is not going to work. Anyway, those papers will find their way to those sweepers again. Even if few accept and walk away, I promise within some 10 to 15 steps, it gets crushed and finds its way to the soil. Then, why distributing it at the first place?

They can very well set up a stall for such banking offers instead of tugging along each of the employees passing the gates. I feel bad to get back to a person who says no to my plea. I was contemplating on what stress those people would undergo when subjected to such denial on a daily basis.

***

This summer season has pretentiously affected a positive increase in my expenditure towards keeping my body cool and protecting me from the photons that’s being expectorated by the sun.

• First, with the ever increase in the intensity of the sunlight; it has become more difficult to walk on the roads without squinting my eyes which in turn strains my contractile aperture in the center of the iris muscles in the eyes. Thanks to Fastrack shades which is been a source of eye protection for me for the past one and a half month in the morning glaring sun.
• I am indeed grateful to the roadside tender coconut vendor opposite to the sanatorium flyover on the way from railway station. I’ve been regular customer to him demanding ‘Neraya thanni irukkura Elaneer’ (Tender coconut with more water!) whenever I cross the signal to reach MEPZ gate. He is now well known to me as he started giving me coconuts in a subsidized rate of 30 rupees unlike a normal cost of 35. He says, the ‘kaai’ (the coconut in a generic term) is not fresh as in containing more water than usual, so he is selling in a discounted price of Rs.5 less. But then, it’s not just some stale one. It’s just that the size is little small. Well he starts giving some gyaan when I start sipping, about the logistics and quality of the coconut which is been delivered to him and some general merchandising policies and stuffs. Inspired by his speech, I become inclined to give some of my IT gyaans about off-shoring software projects and US clients, but considering the writhing heat that sautés my face and other internal organs, I prefer keeping my mouth shut and quickly finish off the water and walk away with some great relief to my internal mucous membranes being wetted with the tender coconut water. *Aah watte bliss*
• I would be failing in my duties if I don’t extend my thanks to the CCD vendor whose mini shop sits right in between in the SDB1 backyard and Cafeteria block. The daily afternoon post lunch dose of transparent orange-colored-crushed-iced ‘Orangillo’, the reddish glassy crushed ice ‘Guava Splash’ or the golden ‘Lemon Ice Tea’ drinks which he has been showering on me and on some of my friends, who under the garb of taking a sip from mine, finish off half the plastic glass, serves an afternoon quota of summer antibiotic against heating up of my body. I basically being a hot guy (*ahem ahem* *cough cough*), need such extra cooling reagents to keep my body under normal state and to prevent getting dehydrated with frequent visits to loo and exposure to sunlight.
• I’ve started wearing caps from Railway station to MEPZ entrance till I get into the shuttle. I feel like a clown wearing a full formals plus a cap amidst the skinny women covered fully in face with the stole and a butterfly shades covering their eyes with a pink umbrella giving a shade to them! Watte fashion faux pas I am being subjected to in this summer! I seriously wanted to wear that fedora hats adorned by men in pubs and night clubs but I don’t wanna look like a mockery item that can be laughed and grimaced at. I know I am not in England, I am in Singara Chennai!
• I’ve started developing dark patches in my forehead due to exposure to sunlight. I am bit photo-allergic. Guess the sun burns specific areas of my skin. I also started worrying about getting bi-colored. My hands and face have become little dark than those unexposed parts of my body (FYI. areas covered by shirt and pant – arms and torso in specific. Not get persuaded by other thoughts! :P). Now some ointment is doing its job to heal those patches in my forehead as prescribed by a skin specialist. I had to wear full sleeves though I have a couple of half sleeve shirts. I sometime feel like a vampire (read Twilight Cullen types) who is afraid of getting exposed to sunlight and prefer dark and air conditioned rooms! This is the problem of being a fair complexioned guy! *sigh*

With such extra expenses, I have ended up with a low balance in my bank balance. Hopefully this trend will change with the end of May and I end up with more leftovers which can be used along with the next month salary.

One good thing is I’ve started drinking more and more of water in a day – almost the full and a half of that Cognizant flask like metal water bottle which I got some time back.

Well, waiting for this may to get over and have some or little easiness in June. With the hikes being announces officially, let’s see if it does some good to my wallet and pockets (Uff pockets reminds of something else! Let’s discuss that separately!)

Alright folks, lets catch-up again with some other topic in my next post, until then Ciao!