Serenity

This was one of the most peaceful weekends I've spent in ages (not counting the vacation) or at least it seemed so. Oh, the hecticity of the past week! It was terrible. I'm seriously wondering what kind of a life you have if your brain's completely frozen by the time you get back home. Or maybe it's my timings. Hm.

I was so overjoyed and grateful when I heard that college-best friend is going to have a baybee! Mom and Dad are away at Hajj (please pray that they return safely) so I couldn't tell them and pass on her message that they pray for her. It was night-time for Blister so I couldn't tell her either. But then I remembered telling MImmu about her fears about marriage and how they were completely in vain, so I called up M and told her. Lucky Immu was busy having a fantabulous time at Wonderla. Jealous, jealous.

So yesterday, I first went out with M2 to do some last minute Eid shopping (and maaaaan, the clothes!)and then we had Softy and popcorn (promised to her if she would not use the word 'bezaar' for the whole trip). And in the evening, the going-out craving was back and the kids had been talking about chicken-cheese-burgers the previous night, so five of us set out for Big Byte again (that still left 3 at home and well, I felt a little guilty about that, but I no have a limousine, no?). We walked back home with F1 telling us stories about how they were once at Famous Icecream and they heard a loud THWACK! which turned out to be some girl slapping a guy really hard. Why do boys always have such a collection of stories? No, I should make that my cousins.

Today was fasting day, though only I and mama were fasting. And when all the kids sat down to dinner, I hung about the doorway, finding it difficult to peel my eyes away from what was normal lunch-time food. T'morrow, a lot more of us will be fasting, insha allah.

YMami was telling me embarrassing stories about my childhood, no wait, mine and Blister's. I'm sure there's some conspiracy involved, cause every different set of family friends, uncles and aunts remember different foot-in-mouth stories. Hmph.

Also heard that sis made fantastic Caesar salad after having eaten the same fing at Lina's. I think it proves for the nth time that the first child gets the best genes and the latter ones are left with the oh-you'll-make-dos.

Dayum. My vocabulary's drying up and that's in spite of all the reading I'm doing! I finally finished reading Zadie Smith's 'White Teeth', I love how witty her writing is, very Rushdie-Midnight's-Children-like. She seems to know a lot about Islam and at a lot of places she seemed to be treading really thin ice, but it was a fantastic read overall. The story wasn't too great, but the imagery, the expressions, the humour and the few lines hidden between them all that made you stop and think for a while are enough to make it a great recommended-reading book. It did seem though that she was quite apologetic about those few thought-provoking lines, because just when you're getting really thoughtful and absorbed, there'd be some really absurd twist or situation and you'd forget all the profundity.

Then I read Randa Al-Fattah's 'Does My Head Look Big In This?' which seemed more like an Australian-Muslimized version of 'How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got A Life', only instead of Opal Mehta going from supernerd to Miss Popular, Amal goes from non-Hijabi to Hijabi at an elite school 'walking in naked was easier than walking in with Hijab'. I didn't like it all that much, for one, HOWGAL was quite funny in places (even if those were plagiarized)and this one had a couple of chuckle-worthy lines at most. Second, there was so much Australian slang that it was going more or less above my head, 'whinge, 'dag', 'pom' etc. There were a couple of things that did make me relate to the book, one being how defensive you can get when you know you stand out from the rest, (let's call it paranoia in my case) and another being how once you start using a conspicuous symbol that represents Islam (oh, the connotations), people will come up and tell you, 'Hey, have you seen this documentary about what they teach at Madrasas?', 'Hey, do you guys think Sania Mirza cannot be called a Muslim anymore?', 'Hey, did you hear about that Fatwa where...?' Most of the time, I'm understanding and patient, and I try to explain as well as I can, but sometimes the whole automatically assumed, Islamic-spokesperson status gets tiring. And we're not going to get started on the, 'Doesn't that pin hurt you?', 'Don't you feel uncomfortable and hot wearing that?', 'Do you like wearing it?' The last question was asked by a senior who warned me beforehand that, 'she likes making people feel uncomfortable' (though she said that in a mostly good-natured way) and I replied saying, 'I'm so used to wearing it that I don't think about it. It's like someone coming up to you and asking, 'Do you like wearing shoes?'' So she seemed to get the point. Don't get me wrong here, I'm not rude when I answer questions like this, it's just that it gets tiring to explain yourself all the time. When I was in Dmm, I was feeling grateful for this feeling that I really was part of the crowd (and also the fact that I could eat at any restaurant! ANY!).

Anyway, getting back to the book, I still find it quite surprising how many of the protagonists in these books, be they American, Australian or even Pakistani are obsessed with make-overs, cosmetics and make-up. It seems such a sin to have gone out with your friends without any lip-gloss, and what, not even lip-balm?! I know people who know me would probably say that I'm on the other extreme when it comes to normal-dressing up (not talking parties), but still, this obsession really makes me wonder if they don't have other things to worry about. (Yes, this is daydreamer, drifter talking).

I'm currently reading, 'Never Let Me Go', which is quite a dark book. For nearly the first quarter of the book, you keep wondering why these people seem abnormal and what these strange terms are, 'carers', 'donors' and why you feel uncomfortable. I was a little irritated with the way the author tries to draw you in though, it's a little like how in Nancy Drews you'd see something like this:
"It was only then that Nancy heard the loud screeching and realized to her horror that the walls on both sides were closing in on her and there was nowhere to run..."
or
"And then Nancy saw that he had pulled out a knife was coming after her..."
or
""George, Bess! Come here!" she screamed but it was too late. The attacker had caught Ned and...""
and then the chapter ends! Those chapter endings used to madden me but who can run from Carolyn Keene's sharp claws?

So this book was a toned down version of the same, and I'm guessing it's supposed to sound like that because the book is supposed to be like a long, (one-sided) conversation the protagonist is having with the reader, so this is how she tries to keep the reader turning pages (made-up):
"And remember, this was a few weeks before the incident with Madame, so when Tommy and I spoke, we didn't realize how things would change in a few days.

So what happened with Madame was that..."
or
"As I walked back to the Cottages, I realized that this was not the first time we went on a trip, the first time was when we went to Norfolk, a trip that changed many things between us.

NEXT CHAPTER

So it was a few weeks after the incident with Madame, that Ruth, Tommy and I decided to go to Norfolk. Now how that came about was..." Get the drift? But yeah, we still drift along.

It's nearly 11 now and a chilly breeze is coming in from the open drawing room door. It was quite cold today, though it was mostly my feet which were freezing, I still had the fan on 4 as usual until Mama came in and said, 'Yeh AC kaun chalaya?'

Tomorrow is office day, but day after is chutti! Then three more days offis, then two days chutti! Yayy! Though I'm sure all the yayyness will disappear once a certain lady gets into office tomorrow. Hmph.

See ya, wouldn't wanna be ya! ;) (Blister loves that yahoo audible).

Bits and pieces

Grateful for a new day and that I'm early in office. I've been writing so many posts in my head, I think it's one of the reasons why I can't fall asleep early enough. And since I definitely don't have the time I'm going to put in a line or two about each

* Quite pained by a rather narrow minded article on my Reader, I was contemplating adding to what I'd written before while I was praying. Then I got locked in the stairwell (where I pray) and feared that the security head who came to unlock the door would tell me that they wouldn't allow me to pray there anymore what with the new security measures. Not only was he extremely polite, when I told him I was scared to pray on the topmost floor, he only said that the next time, I should block the door with something so that people would know someone was in there. So grateful.

* I woke up today morning remembering Ammy... on the day she was to leave, lying awake in bed calling 'Peemmii, Peemmii' and then came over to the other room where I was sleeping and woke me up. Sigh. I miss you so much, my little sunshine. Yest. I was telling Pitti and mami about 'Chepat' :D We'd gone to Lina's that day, and I asked Blister to pass the ketchup and Ammy went, 'Chepat hona'. Oh, the number of times we made her repeat that :D

* Monumental: "You don't go to the Taj Mahal and ask 'Why isn't there a restaurant here, do you?" :D

* Kpuri's been turned upside down thanks to the upcoming wedding. No place to sit with laptop, no hall basically. I hope it'll be done before the 70 odd people descend on the place.

* And this story that I just have to put in here. We were at the airport, Blister and Ammy were leaving and Blister was having a terrible time running around sorting out excess baggage etc. Mom was helping her out and dad was busy elsewhere. So there I was trying to keep Ammy while staying in sight of all the other luggage. But there's no keeping Ammy in one place, the moment I set her down, she'd walk away, very fast and very purposefully... you'd think she'd been born and brought up at that airport. So I finally had to wrap my arms around her and refuse to let her go anywhere. Poor thing, she cried so much. It was the worst see-off ever. Then sis was finally done, so she moved towards immigration with the stroller (and Ammy strapped in and still screaming) and some two handbags and one trolley. I took the trolley and went in with her while she stood in the immigration line (surprisingly, the airport officials weren't too strict about that, even though I told them I had no ticket they said I could go in and help her). Just after we joined a really long line, I saw Baba gesturing wildly that Blister come out again, so I waited in line with stroller, luggage and all while Blister ran outside. She was getting really late and even fifteen minutes later there was no sign of her. (I learned only later that the airport officials had mixed up her luggage tags).

Poor Ammy was wailing her head off though intermittently she'd get distracted and forget all about her distress. (There were little kids who'd pass by her or a scary looking 'untaal' (uncle)). Soon I moved to the head of the line and with Blister nowhere in sight, I gestured to the person behind me to go ahead and stood slightly away from the line, shushing Ammy (who was now causing many heads to turn with her bawling) and looking desperately for any sign of Blister. It was now another person's line, who was probably Chinky, and who seemed confused whether I'd allow him to go ahead of me or not. So he turned to the guy behind him and said,
'Maybe her husband will come?'

If I wasn't so worried that Blister would miss her flight, I'd have laughed out loud. Mom and dad had a nice laugh when I told them.

Off I is now.

Farewell, K

Post-graduated five days ago. It rained intermittently the whole day, making my wish to see K during the rains true even thought it really screwed up the convocation for everyone's parents. Sigh, K never looked more beautiful. Wore a saree under a convocation gown that would keep slipping, too k batch photos, section photos, hip-hip-hurrayed, assembled in line, received my diploma, forgot to bow to the faculty, hugged friends, climbed up the amphi (which now in my mind seems like an amphi I've never been on) and realized only when one of the people I was congratulating said, 'Okay, bye', that it was probably the last time I'll ever meet/see most of those people. The feeling was pea-sized then. Later, took lots of photos with friends, with MC people or those that worked anyway, with family and Ammy clutching the degree, sorry, diploma with me, meeting people, being exasperated at the terrible dinner arrangements, being extremely exhausted, packing up the last remnants, dealing with Mom's stress at too much luggage, nearly losing my temper a zillion times and then finally, when everyone had left my room and I had to carry the one remaining bag, I mouthed 'Bye room, bye K', with my hands on the switchboard. As I flicked off each of the three switches one by one, something so routine and stared at my now bare room, my eyes smarted and I just couldn't keep away the tears. In order to avoid people, even though, I secretly desperately wanted to meet someone I knew, I didn't take the stairs to the upper floor and walked down my corridor and to the jeep that would take us to the hotel. I met doc on the way, and the tears I had been trying to hide then, just wouldn't stop and I ended up hugging her and crying, and she consoled me in her usual practical istyle. Walked on, deposited single bag in jeep and walked to the canteen for some last minute gifting. Got into the jeep and it started winding down the hill, and racing down the narrow, smooth roads of Calicut and I cried silently. Mom and sis sat quietly opposite me, making no comments. I messaged last goodbyes to people in hope of some consolation, some came, some reached late. But I was fine by then, just needed some hugs from Dad which I got later. I never thought I'd cry, but I did. Love you, K.

* * *

Ammy's the bright spot at home right now. Whenever she's around, the whole place is radiant and happy. Oh and it was so funny when during the Munnar trip, she kept chedofying the driver with her 'Aaanhs' and the driver kept calling her Ammaro instead of Ammaarah :))... made her sound like a car's diesel engine or something. She loves dad clapping and singing 'Yaara dildara meri Ammaarah' and will begin to clap the minute he does so. If he stops singing, she claps her hands as a reminding gesture and says 'Ammama' (her pronunciation of her name) and Baba starts singing again.


These are some photos of her before we left for K.

In the drawing room, looking out.

On all fours :D

Playing peek-a-boo ('Aiiee taa!' in Hyderabadi) with the curtains

The last post was my 300th. The huge delay before that was so that I could have a new template ready before I posted. To those who asked about the header, it was an image I was playing around with, a photo I'd taken of my dress when I accidentally managed to 'invert colors' in Paint... and loved the result!

Have lots to write about, musings over marriage etc. Should be back soon, now that I have a wireless connection at home! Yayy!

Every day when I speak to Blister on the phone, I ask her what Ammy's doing and wait with bated breath to hear some new stories about the latest things she's learnt. If all of us learned as quickly as babies, I wonder what depths of wisdom we'd have reached. So yesterday, Blister began telling me how Ammy woke up in the morning to find that she was all alone, so climbed down the bed, crawled to the door of the bedroom, pulled it open by tugging on the latch at the bottom of the door and started crying. She's also learnt how to handle the 'magic pencil' on her 'magic slate', (you know the kind of plastic slate that you can erase whatever you've written in an instant) and so has begun scribbling all over it. Should be fun to give her crayons and see the walls around the house losing their boring colour :D

The other day sis was telling me how Ammy loves feeding everyone in the house with a spoon and imaginary food, and was apparently trying to feed a doll and a girl drawn in one of her books some of her grub! :D And then sis said, 'I can't imagine that this was once a baby who knew nothing but to feed and sleep. Now this little creature who can't even speak, understands how so many things work, communicates her anger, worries and boredom, can make gestures and sounds to get allll of her work done and has even begun manipulating us with her crocodile tears... and I wonder how God gave us this ability to learn and pick up so much from our surroundings, all our necessary life skills...' and I thought for a moment and recalling the verse from the first surah of the Quran that was revealed, said, 'And He taught man what he knew not' (the verses before that are: ''Read! And your Lord is the Most Generous, who taught man the pen and taught man what he knew not') and sis said, 'That's exactly what I was going to say!' Alhamdulillah, our intelligence really amazes me sometimes. Of course, let's not talk about the bushkind type of mankind.

In other news, I'll be accepting my PPO. So in spite of all that cribbing, it's back to Hyd. and D, the cab and old friends, most probably the same lunchmate (noooo!) and a few new people to make friends with. But I have cribbed enough, I could've had it worse and I was being extremely choosy anyway. And like Mom said, no one's to blame for it, it's just how things seem slated to happen and in such a situation, you just make the most of what you've got. In retrospect, it wouldn't have been much fun to spend months again, only hearing Ammy stories over the phone, more so when there are chances that once she goes back to the Emricas, I might not see her again for a long, long time. I haven't spent much time with family for the past 6 years either. Then there's the comfort of home and home-cooked food, your own city, a decent salary that allows for some sinful splurging considering there won't be any living expenses and a cool joining bonus too - enough to buy a decent second-hand car like the HR said :D. Okay, I shan't complain anymore. While I was cribbing on the phone to m&d, crying that I had nothing new to look forward to and dad saying, 'You've never worked! You have so much to learn!' (Leave baba to find the most boring things exciting! The joys of learning and all that. Bwa), Mom managed to convince me that I was being ungrateful considering that things could have gone much worse. So I quietened down and at the end of the call, I piteously said, 'So you'll let me live in a flat next to home, right?' and Mom laughed and said, 'Achcha, ek kaam karenge, tum woh Rainbow apartments mein ek flat le lo, hum log neeche dukaan khol lenge, tumhare flat ko sirf namaz padhne, aur paani peene ke liye aaenge, theek hai?' and I laughed. That's all I wanted really, just some understanding.

So now I have one exam to go and nothing to do after. No placements to prepare for, nothingness looms ahead. I should emulate N and go about collecting movies to watch from everyone, and make two and a half hour workout schedules :D. Ah, well. There are enough producitivity blogs to help me fill up all that time ;)

Leaving you with some hilarious stuff, do check out their other comics at xkcd.com.

Pissed off

I am extremely pissed. And all the noise from a-door-away neighbour is making me even more irritated. She's watching 'Knocked Up' on full volume. I think I can understand what J goes through now. I just watched KU the other day, I don't even know why. It isn't all that bad, but just hearing the dialogues all over again reminded me how much of ranting, screaming and whining it has. Granted that in that particular situation you wouldn't expect any lesser, but please, don't inflict this on your wingmates! It's enough of a pain to attend global ppts. Now fungibility is the new leverage. You need to be an MBA to understand what I mean.

There's a lot of blogging backlog. Two weekends ago, I did something that surprised my parents and kinda surprised myself too. I went home for the weekend without any immediately family knowing about it, primarily to meet Ammy (and of course Blister) and secondly, so that I could spend a few days of Ramadhan at home, and eat nice, soothing ghar ka khana. It all happened but thanks to two parties that had to take place in those three days, I just ended up eating a lot of 'dawat' food. I shall now proceeed to do what I have been planning for quite some time:

Dear, dear Ammy, you were so sweet and predictable. When I reached home and sneaked in behind Y mami, I saw you sitting on the table with your grandmommy holding you. She of course, was quite surprised, but again, she's Muster and is usually extremely composed. (It was so much more fun to see the looks on your mommy's and granddaddy's faces, it was hilarious :)). I, though, was more interested in that little creature sitting on the table. You looked so tiny and then I went up to you and you just smiled, like you do at everyone else. Did, rather. I hear now, that you love some people more than others, those some people being mostly the galli ke bachche and their mom who works in our house. And that when you see them, you stretch out your arms towards them so that they'll pick you up and then you can laugh to your ickle heart's content.

And then when I picked you up, Y mami said, 'Besharam ladki, apne mummy se toh milo', so I went and hugged Muster, so there we were, you in my arms and your grandmommy hugging me, a nice three-way hug. I then took a bath, got all the bus grime off me (I don't know why, butI find those bus rides quite worrying), and since your mommy, was sleeping and so was your grandpa, we, i.e. Y mami, Muster, you and me decided to go up to the first floor room where you spent long moments gazing at each and every pattern you could see. I don't know why they fascinate you so much, during the trip you even stared at the pattern of the allergy on my wrist with such scientific fascination. I played silly games with you and you laughed, such a heartwarming laugh it is. You smiled quite a bit too, specially at your mom. She has these standard phrases that make you go wild with laughter. During those four days, I held you, played with you and rocked you to sleep. It surprised me, how frequently you needed to be fed, how much you slept and that you were so predictable. It's so lovely to hold you, and sometimes when people hold you and you get restless, you rock yourself back and forth to tell us 'Rock me, rock me!', so we do. The whole household has become a slave to your whims. It's funny how excited your grandparents get when they play with you, I've never seen my mother shout at people one second, and then suddenly start smiling and talking gibberish the moment she sees you. Gibberish reminds me, we were coming back from your (paternal) grandmom's place, and you were sitting in my lap, laughing uncontrollably at your purple butterfly toy (whose antennae you love to chew), a complete contrast to your grandfather in the driver's seat, who was cursing the Hbady traffic under his breath. You were giggling away to glory when your mom turned around, speaking to you in utter gibberish, and how you laughed! And of course, when you laugh, everyone starts laughing. Sometimes we're not even speaking to you and you think it's all about you and start smiling or laughing! Your laughter is so, so special, because it seems to come from somewhere deep inside you. I know I sound silly when I say this, but it does, it's like the opposite of a sigh. A deep, pleasure-filled, gurgly laugh.

One of the funniest moments of the whole trip were when I put my head in your lap and you proceeded to pull my hair and then try to lick my scalp! And that became a game with your grandfather too. He'd slowly pull away until you stretched out your little hands and caught hold of his hair again and again and again.

You slept early every night and would wake up just a little after sunrise, when all the rozedaars wanted to sleep and you just wanted to play. If you want to play, you start crying the minute anyone lays you down, even for a second. You love standing up too, someone just needs to extend their fingers to you and you'll use all your wee strength to suddenly stand up. Voila! A vantage point to stare at newer and farther off patterns!

I just spoke to your grandmom who says that you've suddenly developed a personality, and a cranky one at that. You've spent the last two days being irritable and whenever you're given things you don't like, you go 'phrrrrrrrrr'. So your grandpa knows that when you go 'phrrrrr' repeatedly that it's time to take you outside for a chakkar. And then you see all the galli ke bachche and giggle excitedly. A few more years and you'll be running with them around the nal. If you're here, i.e. Fat chance :< style="font-style: italic;">you were comforting me and saying, 'There, there, don't worry. I'm here to take care of you'.

I had a horrible time coming back, having to spend some 18 hours stuck at Chennai airport (never book tickets through makemytrip). But it was all worth it because a) your mommy said, in the auto, while holding my hand, 'Thank you for coming' and b) I love you, you fragile, crushably huggable miracle. You're just bluddy awesome :)


(There, just see how ossum you are, writing about you has cured my headache!)

It's been a while

Previously in Ag’s life:

1. Endterms. Studied hard for FD (Financial Derivatives) and did well, relatively. Professor marks a grade on the paper, there are no tick marks, circles, numbers; just long slanting or horizontal lines. Going to be screwed when StratMgt and ERC grades are out. Ugh.

2. 3-4 days spent idling on Kampus, watching two movies in one night (Shawshank Redemption and Office Space (yes, I know it’s high time I’d watched SR) (loved both)), a trip to the Kadavu resort for breakfast (lauly) and dinner at T with J and Orgy.

3. 1 week’s trip across the ocean to Dmm. Only this time, via Colombo.

4. Back to Koledge. Not gaining any noledge cause just a couple of classes a day.

5. Ramadhan’s here!

6. Ammy turns 6 months old today. She has also become a lover of potato chips. She also has eczema :’( I wonder if she’ll turn out to be a smarter version of me :D 

About the Dmm trip:

1. Muster & Fuster had recently shifted headquarters, so it was like a move from Hyderabad to Secunderabad. New house, new surroundings. We should’ve grown up in a similar place when we were little, at least we’d have had more friends outside school! More commercial locality, but still quiet. Best of all, the chat place we’d been going to (since even before Blister was born) is quite nearby. That meant two trips in one week. Apparently Fuster thought he would take me there every day

2. I don’t think I’ve ever watched one movie a day in my whole life. I don’t think Muster & Fuster ever did too. But this time, that’s what we did. Thanks to the poet’s lovely gift, I was taking home with me Kitaab (an obscure Gulzar movie) and Kora Kagaz, from the LAN - Bawarchi and Choti Si Baat. Also took my Burma Bazar acquisition, Children of Heaven.

3. Then Fuster’s friend had loaned him a case full of Hindi movies, it was a very weird collection – with movies like Uphaar, Traffic, Vivah and Govinda-type movies resting peacefully side by side.

4. So the day I arrived, I made both of them watch Khosla Ka Ghosla. I think it’d been months since I had been trying to get hold of that movie. Both of them laud it. Made me sooo happy.

5. The next day, we were going through the collection and Muster saw the Uphaar CD and said, ‘Oh, this was one of Jaya Bhaduri’s first few movies. It’s a lovely movie’. With some time before her Pakistani tution student to arrive, (and Fuster calls her their ‘teesri beti’, hmmf!) mom and I sat down to watch it. Then student arrived and later in the night, all of us sat down to watch it. Nice it was, but a little slow for yours truly, who fell asleep on the sofa during the second half.

6. The next day we watched Children of Heaven, and parents laud it. Specially Fuster. Once that was done, the two of them decided to watch Omkara from the weird collection. Me having watched the ending of Omkara wonly, decided to skip it and stayed in my room chatting with Blister. Mentioned to her that parents were watching Omkara and would it be okay for me to sit and watch with them? She said ‘Superb movie, but very obscene language. Better stay here and chat’. So I did. Asked her if there were any ‘scenes’ and she said , ‘No, I don’t remember but I don’t think so’. Still I sat. Later sis said something funny, so after carefully checking the TV screen (where Kareena and Ajay seemed to be running around trees innocently) I went and stood there, talking to Muster more than looking at the screen. And suddenly what happens? Out of the blue there’s a marriage bed and hero throwing down heroine on it. Being in mid-sentence, I try focusing complete attention on Muster, stay as long as I can and bolt. Fuster shut it down after sometime remarking the next day ‘Art aur culture ke name pe kya kuch bhi daal denge movie mein?’

7. There was a lot of watching of Peace TV too which I realized, grows on you. But you need to take fixed doses first.

8. Then there was Kitaab, a strange movie, life through the eyes of an 8 year old, but not exactly a children's movie, it was too grown up for that. The song, A aa I II, Master ji ki aagayi chitti was a sudden blast from the past. Kora Kagaz is a very nice movie – gentle humour and deep too. Jaya B’s dad (she's so plain yet so beautiful!) tells her in the movie (after she’s been divorced) dialogues to the effect of ‘Tumne bahut jaldi haar maanli. Shadi mein ek insaan ko doosre insaan ko samajhna padhta hai. Maine tumhari ma ko samajh liya, warna aaj yeh ghar aur tum log nahin hote’. So it’s not always the women who compromise in a marriage. But stories I’ve been hearing recently say otherwise :< Is it just Indian culture?
9. Watched Bawarchi too and totally loved it. No love-angle, no melodrama and
it isn’t even saccharine sweet. ‘Apna kaam toh sabhi karte hain, kabhi doosron ka kaam karke dekhiye kitni khushi milti hai!’

10. Another movie that we watched (Dad had gone off and slept cause of standoff :D) on Dubai One was Path To War on the Vietnam war and the dilemmas facing US Pres. Lyndon Johnson. How many times will they commit such horrendous crimes in the name of democracy and all that crap?! How many times will the world just stand by silently?

The poet who was watching Ghosts of Abu Ghraib said suddenly in the middle of another discussion on gtalk,

Poet: yaar yeh batao kee abu ghraib ka hur ek banda agar fidayeen nahin banega tou kya banega?
me: :)
i dont want to watch all those things… even that parzania thing you said
too many negative feelings will be generated
waise bhi nobody's listening so what's the point of saying anything

11. Parents were watching Al Jazeera for news when they weren’t watching BBC. Mom was saying that they make sure that all their correspondents are locals of whichever place they’re reporting from but speak fluent English. I thought that Al Jazeera being a Middle-Eastern news agency (based out of Qatar), would have local newsreaders with heavy accents, but no, they have really good British newsreaders. Their programs too are quite different from the standard news channel and don’t even think about comparing it to NDTV, Aaj Tak and others of their ilk. We should start watching such channels so that these idiotic entertainment channels in the guise of news providers, learn and innovate!

12. Another interesting program was ‘Are you smarter than a 5th grader?’ There are 5 5th grade children on the stage (10 year olds) known as the class that stay the same during the entire show. Each contestant faces questions from 1st grade to 5th with the cash prize going up to a million dollars. He can choose a classmate who can help him answer up to three questions through various ‘helps’ like Peek, where you peek into your classmate’s answer, Copy – where you copy your classmate’s answer and Save, where your classmate’s correct answer saves you from losing because of your wrong answer. It’s hilarious, specially cause when there’s a question and the contestant is biting his/her nails and hoping that the classmate has the answer, the anchor says things like ‘Think about it, you’re depending on an answer from someone, who a few years ago, was drinking out of a sipper cup’. I initially thought, ‘Come on, how hard can it be?!’ but there are things you’ve studied and forgotten, like ‘Is it possible to see Saturn with the naked eye?’, ‘How many national holidays are there in the month of October?’ and ‘Which is the second largest state in the USA in terms of land area?’. A couple of the kids usually have these smug grins on their faces! Most contestants can’t go past five questions and when you decide to leave with the money you already have, you ‘Drop out of school’ and can only do it after you declare ‘No, I’m NOT smarter than a 5th grader’. Awesome :D And of course, if you don’t win any money at all, then you ‘flunk out of school’. Someone should start something like that here, Indian kids are way smarter than the US ones!

13. Z mama came by and stayed on the weekend and we played a game of scrabble and where I won by 4 points even though he’d made a Scrabble! Played a couple of games with Mom after that, where I finally made ‘Juniors’ using a blank. Yayy! One game with Dad where he cheated as usual so I cut 20 points. He lost by like 100 :D Serves cheaters right!

14. On the way back, I got bumped up to First class on the flight from Colombo to K. But thanks to the heavy rain, we had to go back all the way… and a 1 hour flight turned into a 5 and a half hour long journey. I was still absolutely delighted to be back, because after the desert that Dmm is, K is delightfully lovely. Plus it was raaaaaaaaaainiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing. Soon Sept will be over and the rains will go away  Also, it was SO irritating that people on the K airport kept asking me, ‘What you are doing here?’, first in Mallu thinking I was Mallu, and then in Hindi accompanied with a disgruntled why-do-they-make-us-demean-ourselves-by-making-us-speak-in-hindi look? And I had to launch into a long explanation of how I was studying here. One even asked ‘Husband here?’ X-( Mom said I should have just flashed my ID card at them. I wanted to make a rude reply once, but restrained myself thinking that I did not want to land up in jail all of a sudden. It’s my country; let me enter it in peace!

Images that are such a treat to the eyes, shot from phone while in auto from the airport:


15. Migad, this is one long post! Finally it's out of my system!

Baby talk

Part 1
This post taken from Dooce's blog:

I have just retrieved a load of kitchen towels from the dryer, and while I'm folding them on the floor in the bedroom Leta collects all the placemats. As she lays each one flat on the carpet she chants, "I have a nap for you," to some imaginary audience. She does this a lot, pretends to have an intense conversation with someone we cannot see, and if we dare interrupt her she will hold up the palm of her hand to hush us up, like, is it not obvious that I'm having a riveting discussion with someone in my head? Do I interrupt your hallucinations?

I wait until she reaches a lull in conversation and then ask, "Did you just call that a nap?"

"Yes," she answers. "These are naps." And then she points to each individual nap and identifies them by color: an orange nap, a green nap, a nap with stripes. Not unlike her mother, she is very good at expounding on the details of that which she knows nothing about.

"Leta, those are called mats," I say. And then I brace for a cannonball of wailing vowels to explode out of her head because, oh, I don't know, I exist? And that bothers her?

Instead, she sits silently for a few seconds and rolls around the suggestion in her mouth. "Maps?" she asks.

"Close," I say, relieved that she is being receptive to this small lesson in language, and then I demonstrate it again, dragging out the T for effect. "Mattttts."

She tries again. "Mappppptttts?"

"There is no P," I explain. "It's mats, M-A-T-S."

"Ohhhhhhh," she sighs, as if it suddenly makes sense, and with her head casually tilted to the side she says matter-of-factly, "Mats."

Leta immediately goes back to her imaginary conversation, and I sit there beaming over the fact that my genius three-year-old has just figured out how to say a word from its spelling. Holy crap! I know thirty-year-olds who can't do this, and with a huge smile on my face I start folding another dishtowel. Suddenly she turns to the wall, holds up a place mat and announces, "I have a NAPS for you, M-A-T-S!"

Part 2

I sent this to blister who replied saying 'Don't you remember H's pyjama?'
(H is the cousin I wrote about here
long ago.)

When H was young-er (and not sending mails to Blister with hearts around their names and saying 'I love you because I'm scared I will lose you. I wish we were sisters/neighbours' (different things at different times, she's around 7 I guess)), someone was trying to teach her the right way of pronouncing the word pyjama and it went something like this:

Someone: H, py bolo
H: py
Someone: H, ja bolo
H: ja
Someone: H, ma bolo
H: ma
Someone: Ab bolo py-ja-ma
H: CHA-MA-DA!
Someone: Arre, PY-JA-MA
H: CHA-MA-DA!

Part 3

A much, much younger (especially now, that the bday's past (still to write about that and the best date ever! ;))) yours truly, rather scared of the stove:

Mom says: garam bolo ma,
Yours truly: PIM-PIM
Mom: GA-RAM
Yours truly: PIM-PIM!

Bloo blaa

I gave my "shadow project's" presentation yesterday and quite surprisingly, it went well! Gah, just got a mail from the manager saying there's a call scheduled from 8 pm to 9 tomorrow. Nooooooo. :( I'll come at 2 then! X-( These timings are terrible, the worst part about this job methinks. In spite of my cab-mates saying they're the best. And they're married that too. Crap.

I quite like my cab-mates even though they can be so belligerent towards new cab-sittees. Must've made bitchy comments about me also when I'd joined! All the guys (or a few of them at least) keep ribbing the others which is quite enjoyable in spite of the fact that they all lerve "The Angrez" and I overheard two of them talking about how there's some sitcom called Friends that their boss is crazy about but they don't enjoy it at all. And how (they think) the roles of the actors change every season. Anyone who knows me would probably make the same comment my cousin made when he heard about this: "You must've found it so hard to not interrupt". Yes!

Just 2 days and a week to go. Whatever is my final placement next year, I just hope that I'll look forward to going to office every morning! I finally finished a book I'd got from kpuri when I landed up there this weekend (thanks to the blasts). It's called 'The Ex-boyfriend's Handbook". Lovely read it is. Simple yet witty. And one character sounds exactly like Barney (from HIMYM) minus the brains. That would make him Joey I suppose :D And did you know that Barney is the grown up Doogie Howser, M.D? God, even the grin hasn't changed a bit.

I get so tired by the time I reach home that I haven't managed a single Prison Break episode since the last time I posted!

I complained so much about my haircut impossibility that Immu was quite grateful about her situation. The book I was reading belongs to M and I found quite an 'ahem' comment in it :D Haha. Lucky girl!

Ammy has now started 'aaaing' to anyone who will care to talk to her and is busy trying to put her fist into her mouth and licking at it. I wonder how long it'll take before she learns that her thumb can move away from her fingers :D

Okay, it's nearly 8. Tis time to go, my friend. Long, rocky cab ride awaits.

I'm an aunt, i'm an aunt!

So she arrived on the ides of March! (that just struck me btw)Awfully cute she is and surprisingly big. Still have to wait till June to see her :(( Ain't I smart, blogging in the middle of my exams?)

PS: people, due to some sad, horrid problem in blogger, I cannot reply to comments :(
Hwaaaaaaaaaa :(

More later!

Don't you just loooove Calvin?

And there's this series that I was reading while I was at home during the winter break. Mom was in the kitchen, baba in the bedroom and I'm in the hall between both and roaring away. :D Made baba call out to ask if I was all right :D I just looove this kind of pretend humour even though I burst out laughing halfway through my poker-face!










Yesterday, when chatting with M&D, mom pressed some button on the laptop that activated all the Arabic keys. And all kinds of Arabic gibberish started coming on my gtalk screen! It was so hilarious! Mom finally had to call me up to finish the conv.
(Like the Friends episode where Marcell turns all the TV programs into Spanish ones and in the end, all of them are speaking Spanish :D)

Reminded me of the newsreader scene in Bruce Almighty where Jim Carrey puts a spell on the newsreader and makes him speak Hebrew sounding gibberish :D When Blister and I'd gone to MPM once, we decided to speak the same way (with lots of guttural khs and aghs :D) and got some weird stares :D Must've thought we were Iranians. M and I also did that on our Anaimudi trip but burst out laughing every few mins. Sigh, I miss that kind of fun :)