(Small) Town girl!

Since the date clearly shows and all, i cant fool y'all. I took this picture two days ago, from a rick at Nashik. I love the picture cos it looks authentically 1970's though im not sure Kodak was in India by then :)

A weekend of firsts..

Three days without a post..feels weird! have gotten so used to ranting here for a good amount of time that suddenly bottling up for 3 days was tough! i thought id end up with an ulcer o something!
Did a few things for the first time this weekend..

• Had Fondue. cheesy fondue with herb and jalapeno something. YUM. my only other memory of Fondue was the Greeks having a fondue at the castle with the cheese in the cauldron and the guy who loses his slice of bread in it gets thrown into the lake with weights tied to his feet.
• Had Ravioli. Nice. second to fondue though. Garfield exaggerates. Lasagna's much better.
• Turned up half an hour earlier for dinner though we had reservation (for half an hr later). i wont elaborate on the look we got from the head waiter who looked at his watch very (un) subtly and said "Ma'am you have a booking for 10.30 right?"
• Travelled a 4 hour train journey travelling in a direction opposite to the direction of motion. someone with as severe motion sickness as me, this was the NASTIEST ride I've been on. plus the AC was ferocious to say the least. mom and i (thought) we were prepared when we carried two shawls with us, which needless to say did not help much. we did try draping them in different ways to see if we could come up with the most thermally effective solution, nothing worked.

Coming to this train journey, I'm amazed at SO many things though. i had a relatively pleasant to-journey as i was in the direction of motion, in a Nice reclining chair car, with the temperature fairly suting me. Ive never travelled in a chair car before so i was surprised how comfortable the seats were. a little too comfortable i'd say. they would recline all the way back, until i reached a point whn i wanted to sit upright ad could'nt. apparently your supposed to be a in reclinign resting position to be comfortable. my back doesnt agree. Next, i could pull down this little board from the seat in front of me and place my food on it! just like in the planes!

Tea and coffee were served to me, by this very polite waiter-looking guy wearing a maroon waistcoat and a black bowtie. very nice. he even prodded me for breakfast till the point i thought maybe it was free with the tickets or somethign cos he hadnt even charged me for the tea i'd had. turns out i had to pay after all. who was i kidding. what i liked most though, were two posters of the Incredible India! campaign.. right up in front. they were even framed! ambience maybe?! i took pictures of both the frame and the fact that i had a mini table in front of me like the plane. i'd put them up if i knew how to. :)

Needless to say the return journey has landed me in a soup. i now have extended nausea a very severe throat infection and resolve that the next time, ill take a bus home.

i also watched "Die Hard" and "The Departed" btwn thursday and friday. Die hard was nice, though i think it should be called "Hardly Die". Jeez. The Departed was GREAT stuff. i was on the edge of my seat throughout the movie. The end kinda killed it for me though, it reminded me of Omkara where everyboyd just "dies" . The following guys really do it for me movie wise - Martin Scorsese (i even liked him as the fish in Shark Tail!!), Brad Pitt, Leonardo Di Cap (i love him in a totally adult, he-acts-well kinda way now :)), Al Pacino, Tom Hanks, Richard Gere and WILL SMITH!. it isnt fair how come guys like Will Smith can rap, dance, sing, act, talk well, look good, mimic etc so well. God should distribute talent a little. i mean c'mon the only thing i can do is talk.

Being sick is no fun. cant go out, cant watch tv, sleep all day = up most of the night. sucks. more later.

Rollercoaster ride

Someone said somethign to me on saturday evening that set my mind on fire.

let me set the context. i was on my way home from the suburbs in a rickshaw.. the weather was just too enticing to spend in a train, or any other form of transportation from which i couldnt feel the spray of rain on my face and see the dull overcast sky.

Due to this decision, i spent close to an hour in the rickshaw and then another 2 hours in a cab, soaked, hungry, tired, thirsty but thoroughly excited, happy, and grinning from end to end. for the once in my life, being stuck in traffic, sprayed by water from cars whizzing by, being fiercely hungry, and what seemed to be a never ending journey dint seem to cloud my mind with irritation and anger like these trivial little inconsistencies in life usualy do. I'm a woman after all. im supposed to be hormonal.

Almost forgot to mention the cabbie was playing "Kaho na pyaar hai" which thrilled me to no end. pouring rain, strong winds, cheesy song, being in a car. P-E-R-F-E-C-T

Somewhere in the midst of this cab ride when i was staring out of the window humming the song and smiling to myself, The person i was travelling says to me "Its so funny, for some people its about the destination, others its about the ride".

for the next sometime i was thinking about this- its so true. "For some people it IS about the destination, others its about the ride".
Its so subjective, how u can interpret the above line. the way i see it is people who have the guts, the tenacity and the confidence to at least be able to take on challenges wont shy away from a long dwindling journey with roadblocks and speedbreakers, while people who are not so aggressive, determined and strong might just want "get-there-faster" (Chandler to Joey).
Too many of us are too afraid - too afraid to jump, to take the risk ,too afraid to discover we're in love, too afraid we might be out-of-love, too afraid to quit our jobs, too afraid to be in touch with what we actually feel, to step outside the mundane regularites that each of our lives demands of us, and take on the herculean tasks.

But thats what life requires us to do - it requires us to JUMP. To throw ourselves into situations we dont know will turn out right or not, to walk in the dark, to do that ONE thing we've always been afraid of, to love crazily foolishly and unconditionally, to trust our instincts, go against convention and make new tread paths. The way i see it - Greater the risk, sweeter the victory.

Another take on the line above - Today - the day of throw away morality, miracle pills, fast food, longer lives, one minute photos, 3 day 5 city vacations, who has time to enjoy the ride? We are too caught up with replacing regular newspapers with mini tabloids, Days of rest with one hour fix it pills, rickshaw rides to superfast locals, home made food with heat-n-eat food, loving handwritten letters with emails, personal diaries with blogs etc.When i can have breakfast in london, lunch in India and dinner in Dubai, would'nt a 3 hour journey within Mumbai bug me?

The point is to enjoy the ride - that garden u drive past today might tomorrow give way to yet another mall, the beautiful mangroves lining the sea might be paved for a parking lot, and the temple you used to secretly pray past might soon be dwarfed by the wall surrounding it.