Please read the chapters in order starting from Drowning — Chapter 0
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I had been clamoring with both these fellows to wake up by eleven and head to Ashwem/morjim. (Ashwem is my favorite beach by the way. I have been to quite a few coastal places in my lifetime, including Thailand, nothing comes close to Ashwem.)
Owing to the consumption from the day before, they could barely move. I prefer hitting the beach early in the day. One of the best things about the daytime is, alternating between hot and cold. A second reason is that I generally venture too deep and sunset darkness looms eerily closer, the deeper I go.
Varun and Suprtaik decided to ignore my braying. So with no other choice, I returned to the working space at my hostel(Jungle by Stumrfrei, Vagator) and resumed working. I had an important deliverable. I put all my energy and focus in, watched a couple of UFC videos, and promptly logged the fuck off within 6 minutes. Fuck work and fuck deadlines. I skive!
Finally, Varun decided to show up at 1. He spent a total of 16 one-and-a-half minutes climbing down from the bunk bed & another 11 minutes going back up for his glasses.
Having consumed my second cup of coffee by then I had become super-impatient, anxious & patently peripatetic. (My health troubles from the previous month meant that I was only going to consume around 40 ml of alcohol in a day).
I gave Varun one final warning to wash his face off, wipe his ass & reach the parking space. That porcupine decided to sequester himself on the shitter and away from any respectable, cogent thought.
I was furious. I waited patiently outside the door for the next few minutes, hearing all kinds of surprising, stomach-riveting, inexplicable things. I felt like David Attenborough narrating “Planet Earth”, describing the vivid colors of a chimpanzee’s bowel moods. It might surprise the average audience to know that Varun has synced his bowels to a YouTube music playlist he curated -& cleverly titled — “ART OF LEAVING”. The included songs in shuffled order are — “Let it Go” from Frozen, “Ramta Jogi”, “Chhayiaan Chhayian” & lastly “Achyutam Keshavam Krishna Damodaram” which I find both hilarious & disturbing at the same time. He has saved, “In the End” by Linkin Park for desperate times. Today of all Godforsaken days, whilst I was stood outside of that creaking, swollen, dilapidated hostel door, I had the immense misfortune of listening to someone elses potty playlist/doo-doo dj/bowel ballads. Varun finally came out with dejected and defeated eyes. He didn’t seem to smile. He didn’t seem to like what happened inside. He looked at me seated on the bunk bed. Sadly, Both he and I knew, his efforts in the bathroom had been futile. How did I know, you might ask?
The playlist had stopped at, “I tried so hard and got so far, but in the end, it doesn’t even matterrrrr”.