An old mike and the chinese man

Late last night, after the successful removal of the demons from my PC, I was relieved that I could install a software at last.
I gave my attention to a chat program and there sat my bloody old roommate pinging me. He was enjoying a day off in that unbearably cold european city of his.
We haven't spoken in a while and I wasn't feeling that sleepy either.
I tried putting on my headphone - the one that was given its due last, when I had just started earning a few bucks.
I don't know if it held a grudge against me, for the left ear didn't work. I guess the wires were taking it easy. So I was happy that I wasn't half deaf.
I thought my friend was having a hard time finding any one to talk at his place as he went on and on even after I said "Hi da hw u doin".
For an instant I thought that he had gone mad. But it was actually my mike that went dumb.
Sulking, I wanted to disconnect the call. But this guy was keen to talk and I was quite in the mood to let some music hit my ears and so went about my improving my typing skills.

After a few minutes I felt a bit odd. I was typing and typing and he didn't mind to type even a single word.
I felt as if I was trying to woo a girl in a busy chat room, who wasn't paying me any attention. May be my friend was talking to a wall.
But it was fun though to communicate with someone in a different way to what he was trying.
I remember having an experience like this before. There was this sleepy little, no mighty busy airport and I was waiting there for my flight which was due in a quarter of a day.

Left with no earphone or a book, I spent some time looking at girls who were passing by. But soon I got bored (did I ?) and looked around to find someone to catch up on some talk.

There was this Chinese man sitting next to me who was into a yawn as I looked and he smiled at me after he finished his yawn.
I said '"Hello". He just smiled again.
"Is your flight in the morning as well?", I asked.
He just blinked and it took me a while to realise that we both did not have a common language to chat.
He fiddled with the zipper of his bag for some time, put his entire head in the bag, rummaged for some time and finally lifted his head out with a satisfactory grin on his face.
He had something that looked like a calculator which was my saviour many a time during the engineering days.
Before I could think any more, he opened it and I found that it was indeed a digital diary with a miniature qwerty keyboard. He pressed some keys and the screen displayed some dancing characters which were chinese as I deduced and found that the keypad was in fact dual with both chineses and english.
Then he pressed another key and the chinese characters disappeared and recognisable characters appeared as "Hello".
My brain was bit slow, so it was a while before I could realise that it was infact a transliterator. I don't bother to check if such a term exists. May be, may be not.
I typed in English and showed all my teeth when they appeared in chinese. Wang Ling and me continued this for quite some time before he got up, shook my hands and left.
I was left wondering who and what I'd be facing next.

Reminiscing Margazhi

The tamil month of Margazhi made me go full circle to about 15 years back.
My Mom is extremely pious and has been a regular to temples in the mornings during this month. She's been doing this for as long as I can remember. Somehow I picked up her habit and started to go along with her. I kinda liked the early morning air and it was usually a herculean task on her part to get me out of my early morning dreams by 4.30.
During the quarter hour long journey to the first of the temples I'd be half sleeping as I walk.
It is always very cold during that time of the year at my town. But the moment you enter the temple you'll feel the tranquility that is quite unmatched unless there are not religious songs playing in the speakers.
I did not notice then that I was the only 10 year old hanging around. The second temple that we usually go is bit bigger than the others and is much quieter. This was my routine for a few years during these months until I finally gave in to the sleep gods as I grew up.
I did not go another temple until about 5 years back when I had go along with a good friend of mine to the Thirupathi temple.
The chap had been having tough times in his view, as he had flunked a couple of papers in the last semester. I did not think it was that bad since I had a couple of other friends who were cooling their heels over fifteen.
But he had promised to donate his hair just in case the lord stepped in and was elated when he cleared them all next time around. So, we went to this famous temple and if I had any thought of tranquility after all those years, it all got evapourated in that human mass and all that pushing and prodding.
Not to make my day any better, I ended up donating my hair, even if it was not much, just to give company to my dear buddy.
That brought an almighty end to my future visits for quite some time.
Sunrises have been elusive to me for years if not months and can only reminisce of the good old days.