Friday, June 29, 2007

Just around the Blog!

Between today and yesterday i spent a lot of time going through other people's blogs. I think there must be a blog for anything and everything imaginable! I was surprised to find myself so terribly hooked.. in the space of a day.

This Blog, will be by far the most touching blog i've come across so far. it was sent to me by The Nomad. and i think i will be hoping and praying that the person is safe and one day puts up another blog post. It just shows how much pent up anger and disbelief people have against the systems, governments, and law and order (or the lack of it). It made me feel small and incosequential, and my life taken for granted.

Speaking of consequential - TIME mag recently announced its list of the most influential people in the world and i found this article about it reeeeeaaallllly interesting. "Nice going you scientologist cradle robbing freak" is what he calls Tom Cruise. Bravo!

Thursday, June 28, 2007

A love affair..

I'm sitting at my desk.. gazing longingly at the rain outside..its playing hide and seek with me.. this rain. This morning i took a cab to work thinking ill have a pleasant ride to work in a car with pouring rain. No sooner did i reach my office building than it started raining. no fair.

One of my fondest memories of the rain is this one time when a couple of my friends J, SK and I decided to walk to Gaylord (Pastry shop) in the pouring rain, to have a chocolate tart. (no thanks to a tart a day, i got fatter by 10 kgs). so the three of us are walkin in the pouring rain. i was of course skipping a step and going "wheee". rain=puddles=must splash. Hence. (just setting the context for what your gonna read next)

Poor me, I was just following the unwritten rule. "see a puddle, splash someone!" so i let out a powerful swing of my leg splashing K with (what i thought was) puddle water. Turns out the puddle had ne tiny coating of water and was mostly mud. so K was naturally furious that his "GAP" jeans now had a nice mud linign all the way down one side. being wet is ok, but being muddy is unacceptbele. (i say pish tosh, get wet get muddy, get downright dirty and stop whining - Its the only way to enjoy 'em rains).

So after spending the appropriate amount of time expressing apologies over the dirty jeans, we moved on. we reach Gaylords, nearly TASTING the tarts just from the smell. we even reached the point of ordering when we all realized that NONE of us had our wallets. (smartypants that we were, we had left our bags with someone coward enough not to venture out in the rains, so that our books, discman etc dont get wet.)

Who would've guessed we would actualy have to PAY for the tart? Such a small slip of mind this.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

sæ.rən.ˈdɪ.pə.ti

"Serendipity. Look for something, find something else, and realize that what you've found is more suited to your needs than what you thought you were looking for." Lawrence Block
"In reality, serendipity accounts for one percent of the blessings we receive in life, work and love. The other 99 percent is due to our efforts." Peter McWilliams
"Serendipity is looking in a haystack for a needle and discovering a farmer's daughter." Julius Comroe Jr.
"Serendipity is putting a quarter in the gumball machine and having three pieces come rattling out instead of one—all red." Peter H. Reynolds
"--- you don't reach Serendib by plotting a course for it. You have to set out in good faith for elsewhere and lose your bearings ... serendipitously." John Barth,
The Last Voyage of Somebody the Sailor
"Serendipity is the art of making an unsought finding." Pek van Andel (1994)

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

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.

Saturday, June 23, 2007

Raindrops keep fallin...

Probably one of the oldest songs i recollect from a lazy sunday afternoon. carpenters/abba/niel diamond were the other artists my dad was..is a huge fan of. those sundays would be great.. my dad would curl up with a book and music while mom would go rest and i would be sleeping with my head on his stomach.

So..where did this song come from? it played in my car while i was drivin home from a nice dinner at Basilico. i obviously took the longer route home - the one that passed marine drive and wasnt even on the route home.

Memories like this are so comforting - at the time, life was mostly shifting houses cos we hadnt been allotted a permanent "A type" {as they call it in the defence} house yet. and i would live for those sundays - when i would curl up with an Enid Blyton and pretend to be a "BIG" girl too. i live for memories - i live for the times i have saved up in my mind- for the moments i remember so distinctly, for the places and sounds that transport me back to that world.

life was simple those days - my most prized possession was my bicycle. i took immense pride in washing it nearly EVERY single day. i would even cart it all the way up in the service elevator to the 7th floor where i was living then cos i dint wanna leave my best friend locked in a dingy garage.my room overlooked the sea - which was where this love affair with the sea began in the first place.

coming back to the rain - it kept drizzling intermittently all evening yesterday and i kept longing for it to rain.. i was yearning for that pitterpatter and the beautiful overcast romance that rain brings with it. there's somethign about sharing an umbrella - somethign about the way the guy tries to fit you in completely while not bothering abut how wet he's getting that makes an ol fool like me love the rains and pretend i dont have my own umbrella in my bag.

Rain also makes chaai taste better - its strange this. i had one of the most expensive chaai's ever - 25 rs at the Sukh Sagar. To be fair, was in the ac section and wonder of wonders they served wine! who would've ever thought. also spent a coupla minutes trying to sort out the red little thingies from the sauf while on a 2 min call with someone who happened to mention to me that i make trivial little things fascinating. how could i not make a mention of it here then.

dreamers like me live for memories - they are a part of me, they define my every action. optimism stems from this very fact - that these pictures in my mind egg me on.. they tell me that life is prettier than it seems, longer than is felt, more painful to go through than can be written about and that it IS actually worth having your heart broken once in your life.

i realize i went from rain to memories to dreams to rain again and then finally this, on this blog. but then thats what it actually is - interlocking things in the mangled mish mash of my mind.

Friday, June 22, 2007

Chocolates and wine and everything nice

I think every blog should have a "favourite things in the whole world" post. so here's mine. in NO order.
  • Brownies
  • walks in the rain
  • Drives in the rain
  • Pigeons on Marine drive
  • Jude Law
  • Talking to street kids - not only do some of them have really nice names, but they have the most innovative things to play with too
  • Music - listening to it on my old discman, jogging at the woods thinking distant thoughts.
  • The sea - think this should've been point 1 - ive grown up beside it, lived beside it. there;s nothign about the sea i dont love - the waves, the spray, the tides, the way the moon reflects. there've been countless times that ive tried to take a picture but failed miserably. its somethign ill have to be content with keeping in my mind.
  • Hugs. think this is the ULTIMATE cure for any kind of feelign sad.
  • Moms. shes not one person shes many.
  • Chick flicks with Pizza and Pepsi in Pyjamas. though ive done it once - 5 movies back to back (Dirty Dancing, Love actually, Meet joe black, Bridget Jones diary 1 & 2 - till 5 a.m.), it was one of the most fun nights ever. we women are so gullible... specially women like me who have stars in their eyes. love shove and prince charming and kisses under the stars and what not.
  • shopping, OMG im so glad i could put it so far down in the order.
  • holding hands. its that feeling of being held and belonging. even if its my dads. men have such nice big comforting hands and shoulders. maybe god took into consideration that we women cry a lot.
  • Compliments
  • Cheesecake. any flavor. though recently its Mango
  • little girls with pigtails playing oranges and lemons.
  • my little brother. someone once asked me why i dont have a pet and mean ol me said "i have my brother" for this im not sorry, but i love him so :)
  • Roald Dahl - Jack and the beanstalk won me a prize in an interschool poetry compettion
  • Horses.
  • lying down face up in my room
  • Finger rings
  • BIRTHDAYS! I adore birthdays especially mine! :) being queen for a day is FUN FUN FUN. I'd mention how much in advance i begin my countdown but im embarassed :)
  • Maroon 5
  • Free stuff/discounts/Sales!! we women LIVE for such stuff.
  • Being told im right. specially by men. which is mostly the case
  • GIFTS!
  • Bullet points
  • Photographs. memories. moments. archiving them in my mind is not always possible.
  • Chaai
  • Bags - Big, Large yummy totes
  • Shoes!
  • Pay day
  • Calvin and Hobbes
  • Talking (no guesses here?)

I feel like im getting out of the mood to be able to do any productive work so i better end this post NOW. more later. im building up for one of my fav topics "the great male female divide".watch this space!

Thank God It's Friday!

Its funny how when you start blogging, every incident, every conversation, every funny sight becomes something you try to sensationalise and put down on your blog!

I saw Oceans 13 last night. movies like this make me wish for guys dressed like that to appear in and around my real life as well. i mean is it really that hard? Its such a soothing feeling - to watch such eye candy on the big screen heh heh. V was wondering if he's stupid - taking his girlfriend for a movie with so many hot men. i quickly put his fears to rest - cos these men were so far and unattainable that he had nothign to worry :)

Somethign interesting happened today - As i got off my bus today morning (yep! i took a B.E.S.T - im well on my way to gettin over the "take-a-cab-everywhere-i-go-cos-i-can-afford-it" bit) i noticed this HUGE line. when i say HUGE i mean it started at the bus stop (smack in front of Tea centre) and ended just at the turn at the Indian Mercants chamber. naturally, i was wondering what it was for. turns out it was the line for B.E.S.T Route no 123. A line? in India? with people standing queitly, in LINE? With no fight scenes? in LINE? (it was actually straight!)I was amazed. to say the least.

was walking past with my music playing and thinking these thoughts about the line and grining to myself. Maybe we Indians r actually catching up with the civilized world. Sure,we need people to paint gods idols on walls so people dont desecrate it and we need bribes to get anywhere and anythign. but still. we're learning the art of making lines!

so imagine my state when i walked to the entrance to CCG (right near Satkar) and i see not ONE, but two LINES!! on opposite sides of the roads, segregated as MEN and WOMEN! this one was for the office goer's to Nariman point. By now, my mind was in a tizzy! when did we get so mature?! although i wont make too much of this yet, people have put garishly painted lions and cows around the Indian merchants chamber and Asiatic to spread awareness of some sort. Dont ask me to explain, i dont know either. though i know the lion painted with a white t shirt and blue denim shorts is supposed to say "stop noise pollution". go figure.

obviously this led to some people protesting and taking out morchas and what not. someone should write a book on all the ridiculous PIL's and morchas and protests Indians have undertaken. im wondering if someones gonna fire me for saying "Indian" so many times.

think this post is getting too long. am gonna break them up to avoid reader fatigue haha.

Thursday, June 21, 2007

HELP!

I'm ADDICTED. well and truly hooked. this will be my second post of the day, something i think might not happen too often. lulls like this at work are very rare ;)

so many things are going round in my mind that i think im gonna turn to bullet points. i think bullets are such an indispensable part of my life - i resort to them in times of sheer confusion, as break through clutter techniques and most of the times for sheer neatness, which im a HUGE fan of.
  • I need to read a new book. i get listless if i dont read a nice satisfying book every now and again.
  • I just found out i had been mentioned anonymously on someone's blog. . also, V tagged my house on wikimapia (which i found out later) ! yay im famous.
  • I had a HUGE unnecessary fight with someone last night, for somethign that hilarious now. mabe i was being my creepily emotional self. being a woman sucks sometimes.
  • I also found out that 2 frnds of mine had been meeting secretly since the last one year (nealry 3 times) and i dint get invited cos i dont smoke and (maybe) dint drink. Hence.
  • I went through my old diary (the good ol hard copy types) and found a coupla old poems i loved. shall put one down here when i have some more time and im home.

Gotta leave for a meeting now (oh ya! im at work. these last 20 mins i was so beautifully oblivious to the fact that im afraid of who mustve walked past my desk thinking "shes underemployed") and thats not a good thing, considering my new boss who'll scurry to give me new work which ill go underground with.

The good thing about this meeting is that its 5 mins away from my house. i had nothign to do ith thefact that this meetings at 4 p.m and ill get to go home after that. nope. not a thing. heh heh

Lights out

Turns out we can blog from work. thats brilliant. even more stuff i can pretend to be busy doing! so last night i had to tell my boyfriend about my blog. im not happy about it but men have this way of calmy emotionally blackmailing women without sounding like they're doing it. barely a second after i had uttered my link was he already on my page! it was freaky!! Im considering getting ANOTHER blog :)

Too many changes happenign in life right now. i hate work. everytime i get settled in with what im working on and the people around me, the job is shifted and the people leave. Im not one for complaceny, but a certain degree of comfort is required to get me to go somewhere for a min of 8 hrs a day, nearly 320 days a year. plus im plagued with this notion that wherever i go, my boss quits, which is not unfounded considering my director at my previous job left within 2 months of me being there, and my director at my new job did the same (he was the nicest boss EVER) also, the person i was reporting to, is in office for the next one week only! YIKES.
Next i know people wont hire me cos ill be the "one whose bosses quit".

I'm wondering if my boyfriend (lets call him V) will think theres very little being written about him. I'm thinkin there might be a whole post one day dedicated to him and what hes brought into my life. Maybe.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Trying to keep a secret

My first thoughts were that i wanted this to be extremely anonymous so that i can bitch at all the people in my life without having to worry. Also be able to talk about random stuff and creepy thoughts and favorite things and old crushes and faraway places.. and the likes

The first one

This is it. My very first blog post. Took me nearly a year to get down to it, but i did. Not sure where Im going with this but the sheer anonymity and freedom of this is thrilling to say the least.