Sunday, October 5, 2008

Secret Passageway...

before it fades away...

mickey world was a famous games cum hangout parlor in Navi Mumbai. The place we reached out to escape. The place the fun meant that the only competition is the virtual demon controlling those games. It was (and may be still is) over the Gupta sandwich waalah (vashi sector 17). The place is not great 50x50x50 meters area, but suitable for a 20-30 teens or a preteens to keep their heads busy in.

I had been to this place (not many times but yeah have had fun) and had my earnest fun (sounds ironical.. well yeah fun sometimes for me is this way). So I am here after 5 years of gap and 2+3 years of college and job. I await the chaos and thrill .. the exulted expressions and few proud guardians watching over. I guess, the time must be evening 4pm when i reach the place. The regular watchman and the hustle, both are absent. May be the time is 4 and day of the week is 4(Wednesday). I ignore, the expectation still doesn't fade away until i reach the place and open the door!!!

The place has turned into a ghost room. Neither are those machines blinking neither are there any joyous faces. There is no one. There is no one stamping there foot (either in joy or anger). There is no one queuing up for the those tokens to play again. Strangely, the machines and the counter still present. I couldn't be mistaken to have come to wrong place at wrong time. This definitely is the place and there is definitely something wrong. What's wrong? The place simply was shutdown with low turnout and revenue and consequently niggling between the brothers. (yeah i found this out when i did find the watchman downstairs).

Now, the time was to redo the place. Redo the stroll and redo the experience. It all has to be in mind but with the memories and experiences as sharp then, nothing dies down so easily. So I walk in again only to find the the superheroes dashing machines on my right and cop acting upon the bank robber on my left. Further walk down, it was the place for popcorn and soda. Yeah of course, the steering wheels with which I vroomed virtual cities. Oh come on, how come kids don't enjoy this anymore??

The place is deserted but the items and brink surrounding them still in place. The partition always use to halt my way but could only manage to wiggle my whim by 1 mm, next moment i had my friend calling on to buy more coupons before he runs out of time 6....5..4.3!!!

But this time i was alone and i could see through the partition and the back door. I chose to take step forward rather than sway right. I creaked in and kept moving in. The passage is lit but dim lit. This is inviting to those who take on invitation for anything but the weddings and engagements. Walking in, there is no thought but to keep walking and of course keep that fist geared up in case someone tries to act smart. Well in dark corners anything could take place and anything could go wrong, why take chances (at least my fist will be safe). The passage leads to another door which swayed open just like that (no it wasn't the wonderland, nor was i Alice to keep toggling to get the key and open the door.)

The room next was again lightly lit but awesomely bright. The place is justly embellished between the like a chandelier gushing out to all corners and candles filling in bare necessities. The place has cubicles but of the size of rooms. I rolled my eyes to disbelief of the architecture. The columns were no where!! Just that one large space with nothing holding it. If only they had managed to keep the boundaries out of sight, the room would have been such that trees and birds could live in harmony. The decor was of course amazing with the fine cubes partitioning the place into many rooms. Those partitions were wood and carved with "i don't know wat!!". Know what, it still felt amazing and beautiful. Colors and carvings were not following a definite pattern but they were symbolizing anything or may be something. The symbols were of sunflowers, crayons, footballs, fishing nets, sunset. None of these were actually there to be interpreted as mentioned. I guess i assumed them this way.

Now, now what ... I had to enter one of those rooms and check out "whats going on???". Another thing.. footsteps never seemed to have no sounds. I wonder, was it just by chance or were there sensors nullifying any sound. It accompanied, those computer beeps and peeps. I wasn't thinking about this when i entered the the room. I was wondering who is this playing games here!!

As soon as i enter the room i find things which i haven't seen ever before. Not unless you have seen the 42" sized PC monitor with its keyboard (cordlessly attached)and huh?? third component missing (CPU). Amazingly, the ubiquitous wirejams were huh MISSING! not even to the power plug. The eyes went past that and the guy(whom i did notice before but can take a back seat now) was playing the intense graphics game. He lets me play that and i realize no way this could be played on my PC. So what is this guy running here...

Well the guy briefs me (well this happens only after he himself gets over initial shock of "who is this?") .. briefs me about the the high end stuff he has procured for in-house testing for the processor giants. They give away a complete assembly to test those quadras and tetras here. I actually didn't ask further, except for the controls to the game...

When i was leaving from the place, I met up with few more who carry out there secret operations in secret community and have fun with those thunderous counter strikes!!!... yeah so while i was leaving the place i realize that i have never felt this good since the time we (I and Tanbir) bumped our bicycles into heavy stream near Nazira(Assam).

Those were the days when the we looked out for the secret passages everywhere. The places hidden to our horizons, places beyond our imaginations, places closest to us. So where are those places, or where are the new kids going to look out for new dreams and new friends and new ghosts. Where will these guys find their caspers?

2 comments:

Sandy said...

phew!!!....i mean...PHHHEWW!!!!!!!......u get to have such joyrides man!!!

Saurabh Gupta said...

yes... in my dreams!!!