Stay Out of Trouble

I like reading, so I often get books as gifts, and some of them come with inscriptions. My all-time favourite inscription is from my college friend Darshana, in a book she gave me after I finished college and just before I left for London.

I like the choice of book too – The Penguin Book of Indian Railway Stories. I love trains, and Darshana and I had a really nice overnight train ride together. But the inscription is just perfect. It's a quote from Stay Out of Trouble by the Kings of Convenience, a band which she introduced me to.

Darshana and I got in trouble a few times. Science City in Kolkata had (perhaps still has?) life-size animatronic dinosaurs. At one point, some of them were discarded and dumped in an off-limits area of the park. I saw them from the highway, on the other side of a fence. In this untended and overgrown corner of the park, they looked much more real and in their element than among the fake trees and landscaping of the Evolution Park.

I asked Darshana if she wanted to scale the fence with me and get up close to the dinosaurs, perhaps even climb on them. She said "Let's do it."

So one day we scaled the fence and entered this off-limits area of Science City. We were making our way through the undergrowth, approaching the dinosaurs, but before we could get too close, a guard saw us. He gave us a firm talking-to, threatened to fine us for trespass, but eventually let us go with a warning.

We didn't get to climb on the dinosaurs, but before the guard appeared, I did get a photo.