The unwelcome visitor

It was that time of the year again when I had to pay a visit to Jairam (let's call him J for the rest of this post).

After all it was that time when the weather was oscillating between being warm, being hot, being pleasant and being cold, all at the same time. Plus the fact that J was in Hyderabad (as against Bangalore whose weather and winds he was more used to) made it all the more easier for me to visit him, that too unannounced and when he least expected me.

Although last Thursday was one of the wierdest mornings that J had seen in a while, what with the extremely foggy conditions at around 6 AM in the morning when he had his first smoke, little did he expect that he would be hosting me in a very short while from then.

As usual I didn't make any grand entry, like bursting out into the open in front of everyone else. I made my usual quiet entry, starting off very quietly, before J knew I had arrived. And the best part was that Amma (J's mom) had just left town a few days ago. Had she been there, she would've sensed me coming from a distance. She has this knack of knowing perfectly when I would love to make a unwarranted visit to bug the life out of J.

However, since J has had the opportunity to actually live outside Bangalore for prolonged periods of time (starting with his post-grad days at Indore), he's wisened up to my tricks and antics and almost always has the perfect concoction or formula to drive me out of his life. In spite of all this, J is still a sucker for doing precisely those things that make it inevitable for me to pay him a visit.

In spite of repeated warnings from Amma, J still walks out in the early morning fogs with just a sweat shirt and shorts, he still smokes like a chimney sitting outside in the balcony in the bacteria ridden cold weather of Hyderabad, he still combs his hair when it is wet, he still drinks cold water from the water dispenser at the office, and it is precisely these things that he does which invite me to visit him.

But then, this trip has been good. I've managed to spoil his entire weekend and ensured that J spent a good part of it in bed, or just mindlessly gazing at the idiot-box. J's missus hates me more than she hates anything else, because I ensure that whenever I am with J, almost nobody else gets the attention that I do. But then, it's been around 4-5 days now and I guess it is time to go. So until next time J, have fun, and stay healthy!!!

BTW, they call me "The Common Cold".