Trapped

"Help me! Help me!" she cried through the chink.

Nobody heard her.

They couldn't. The green walls that had entrapped her were too thick. The chink through which sound could have travelled was too small.

She peeped out of the chink. Sunlight. Hundreds of people were walking in and out of the subway. A mutt was ambling across the zebra crossing. And all this while she was entrapped within a green apple on a bus-stop bench! How her friends would laugh!

People do get stuck in elevators. One could get stuck trying to take something out from under the bed. One could even get one's head stuck between the bars of a gate. But to get stuck inside an apple? (And not even a red one!) How dumb was that!??

Ant Attack!

I hate ants. Change that. I hate red ants. The black ones are quite okay.

The point is: I hate red ants. And they have taken over my bed. Why? Because the other night I was having chocolate and I forgot (read: felt too lazy) to chuck the wrapper into the bin. And the ants came marching in, treasure-hunting (that rhymes!). Since then, ants have been taken over my territory, and have been attacking like nobody's business!
:(

Moral of the story: Use dustbins. Stay ant-free.

No More Rain?

The sun came out after three days. Everybody smiled. Finally no more rain. The sun will take all the dirty puddles away. The roads will be dry and dusty soon. Maybe Ma Durga won't have to travel by boat. The lorry should manage to bring her and all her children and sidekicks without any glitches. The stray dogs won't have to swim around. The crows will finally fly into a blue sky. The stars shall no longer have to be on house arrest. They will be able to take a peek at this wonderful Kolkata of ours. Windows will no longer have to remain shut. The nip in the air shall take a morning walk into our homes. The smell of wet clothes shall be farewell-ed away. That pair of jeans will finally dry itself.

No more puddles to splash around in. No more paper boats to sail away into sewers on the other side of town. No more fumbling with the folding umbrella. No more romantic walks down people-free roads. No more cursing at the Scorpio for splashing water on already drenched bus-stop people. No more shivering in AC rooms. No more grumbling about the weather. No more complaining about the lack of transport. A handful of fewer complaints about the municipality and the drains from pre-Partition days. No more predictions about how much longer it will keep on raining. No more chips and chai. No more bunking school. No more half-days at work.

The sun came out today. After three days. Everyone smiled.

I wouldn't mind a little more rain. But then, that's just me.
***

PS: I loved how the rain stopped for a little while after Team India's win yesterday. Just enough time for some serious bomb-bursting and midnight processions through flooded streets.

Rain on a Lazy Sunday

It has been a lazy, rainy Sunday. It started raining last night and continued through the morning, afternoon, evening, and it looks like the raindrops will be falling all night.

I love it.

There is nothing like not having to go out on a rainy Kolkata day. Just veg out at home and think and read and have highly mustard-oily jhaal muri and a handful of microwave popcorn and act the clown and sing stupid songs opera-style and play cards after ages.

This is the life.

If only tomorrow wasn't Monday, life would really be perfect. :P
***

Am loving Pamuk's The White Castle. He shoots out all these deep philosophical thoughts seemingly without batting an eyelid. Its an easy read that is based in historic times, in an exotic locale, and is full of sultans and pashas and people who look alike enough to be twins. (That's actually a pretty bad way to sum it up. I'll try doing a better job when I finish reading it. Am already more than half-way through. Should manage by tomorrow.)

P.S.: Couldn't go clothes shopping today. Too much rain. And too few Sundays are as lazy as this one to get wasted doing anything other than lazy-fying. I wish I could wrangle a few more hours to today.

Saturday Miscellany

Most exciting thing today? Stopped a dog fight at home. A common feature of life with three female dogs -- the rise of bitchiness!
***

Started reading Orhan Pamuk's The White Castle. It's short, quick reading, child-like, dreamy, and amusing-without-trying-at-all-hard. Very Charles Lamb-ish actually. Someday I will go to Istanbul and meet Pamuk. Someday. (I really need to get my passport done ASAP!)
***

Made a lot of progress with the chapter I've been trying to complete. Will definitely be done by tomorrow. 2 pages now. 2 pages tomorrow morning. And ta-dah! Also getting the hang of dialogue-baaji now.
***

I don't like shopping for clothes anymore. I don't even see the point in looking at them. They just don't seem cost-effective enough. (Am I turning into a guy??) Facing a serious shortage of clothes now. Great abundance of books -- That's what I mostly end up buying when I find no appropriate clothes. Need to reverse the trend for at least a while.

This Week's Resolution: Will go clothes shopping! And buy clothes!
***

Long Time No See

This 40th post has been a long time coming. I guess I've been a little busy of late. The week before last, Ma was very worried that my comp and I were turning into Siamese twins. To prove her wrong, I did all kinds of out-of-the-house stuff starting last Saturday.

Saturday: Went to meet Dadi. Met her. Met pistuto didi. TV conked. Cause? Yoke (I think that's the spelling) got burnt out.

Sunday: Watched Chak De. A little late. But kya kare -- aadat se majboor.

Monday: Went to get my new supergeek specs and lenses. Now that I have specs that match my eye power, the world looks a lot clearer. It had begun to take on a rather foggy look for a while now. I'm glad to see that pollution has not done such great harm yet.

Tuesday: Sat at home. Wished we could watch TV. Read something.

Wednesday: Foreign movie with Kohinoor. Walked down Park Street to Music World. Did that after ages. Picked up Kohi. Took metro (again after ages -- 2 years maybe?). Watched "I Offer My Hand and Heart" -- Russian film. Political. Conspiracy. Revolutionaries taking to terrorism to win their independence. Interesting. Liked it. But took a lot outta me in terms of attention. The others in the auditorium did not like it too much. One man was sleeping when the movie got over. I think even Kohi got bored. There were 2 almost-soft-porn scenes though.

Thursday: Met Madz. Watched Dhamaal. Highly brainless comedy. Loved it. Lotsa heehee haha. Ate popcorn. Came home. Walked home from 40 minutes away. Legs are still aching from 2 days of walking. This sedentary lifestyle is bad for the leg muscles. Need to work some kind of a walking routine into it.

Friday: Stayed home. :D Finished reading Rohinton Mistry's Such a Long Journey. Loved most of the book. Felt that the last 50-odd pages dragged. Ending was somewhat disappointing. I think my expectations were a little too great. But it did provide a very vivid portrait of Bombay around the time of Indira Gandhi's PM-ship. Good, intelligent reading. But it doesn't quite touch the heart. I'm still not sure whether I liked it or not.
Just spoke on the phone for one and a half hours. My left arm and ear are aching now!

(Attribute this "exciting" new lifestyle to revamped work routine -- 6:00 to 2:00... And it has been working! Less unhappy with life! A lot more sleepy though...)

Sunday Entertainment

Life is getting better again. (Though I'm going to be loaded with work starting tomorrow.)

Watched Serendipity today. First time. Liked it quite a bit. Wish John Cusack was a little cuter though.

Went to buy clothes. Came back with music (bought a set of 3 CDs for 399/-). And a book (Arundhati Roy's essays). Don't know when I'll start reading it though.

Currently trying to read Joyce's Ulysses. It's proving to be quite an effort. Can't manage over 20 pages at a time! And the whole thing is 733 pages on Microsoft Word!

Also reading Rohinton Mistry's Such a Long Journey. Not necessarily a light read, but a good read, and 50 pages at a time is not terribly difficult. Moreover, it's inspired me to start writing dialogue. (I had some earlier... but it looked amateurish. Now, having taken notes, and looked up writing tips on the web, I am doing a better job. I discovered what was missing all this time. Lots of rewriting going on now.)

Wrestled with my dog today. After ages. She isn't the young pup she used to be. Neither am I. But today, both of us had high energy levels. So we had ten minutes of uninterrupted mixed-species wrestling. No winners or losers were declared.

These days Shugz (the other dog) comes to wake me up every morning, then gets under my sheet, curls up, and goes to sleep. There's such joy in that!

The dachshund is sleeping like a log now. She has become really fat. Waddles everywhere. Looks a little like a seal. Love her loads.

Higher Than Thou

This week has really been a rollercoaster. And now at its fag end, I'm feeling superior to most of the people around me. It isn't that I'm surrounded by stupidity (actually that's debatable). It's just that I can't help feeling that I'm above all the rest of those humans somehow. Maybe I'm some super-mortal or supra-mortal or ultra-mortal or some other such fancy-sounding thing. I'm feeling a little like bubble boy -- misunderstood constantly. That in itself can cause a decent amount of misery, but right now, I'm just feeling like a misunderstood inventor whose way ahead of her time.

Oh... but I did get some good news today.

Went for a long-overdue eye test. Those things usually lead to tingles in the spine (indicators of high expectation) because I'm convinced that my power will have increased tremendously. It didn't help that my current specs (and the many disposable lenses that I lost) had not been providing me with a terribly clear view of things. The reason for that was... [Now hold your breath]... that my power has decreased! Whoopie!! :)

So I did a mental hop-skip-and-jump and mooseyed over to Music World and bought me a "Best of Bon Jovi" CD, which I will listen to now! "Blaze of Glory" here comes glorious me!!

P.S.: I called myself Cinderpoojo yesterday. Today my sister and I watched part of The Cinderella Story, and I found myself no longer identifying with high school romance. The years are going by. The grey hair count is rising. But my eye sight certainly ain't failing me yet! Guahahahaha!!

Bad, Long Week

I think I'm just having a bad week. It started this Sunday. The bad luck/vibes/feelings will hopefully disappear by the time the clock strikes 12 on the 9th of September. Then Cinderpooja will get back to normal. Sitting by the cinders and sleeping in the ashes may not be a bad thing. There must be some joy in it. And at least I'll have a fairy godmother help me get dressed for the ball and make the other uncindered dudettes jealous.

I think I need a new lifestyle. And a holiday. I'm not always overworked (that happens a few times each month), but I'm convinced I'm underpaid. Of course, that is completely irrelevant in this context. It's just that whenever I think of a holiday, the thought of work noses its way in.

I think I'm just typing garbage today because none of my regularly nocturnally online friends are around. And Moon promised to meet me today! :(

On a brighter note, I got a more concrete timeline for my book. It's still vague. But, something is always better than nothing. I think I'll go harrass my characters for now. Better than jabbering on and on here.

(I feel flakey today!!!)

Isn't It a Funny Thing?

Isn't it funny how just when you need somebody to talk to, there is nobody waiting on the other side of that chat window?

Isn't it funny how comfort comes from the very song that you were sure would depress you further?

Isn't it funny how you think a million times before you blog about the things that really affect you?

Life sure is a funny thing. And yet, it just takes away the smiles sometimes.

Feeling Frust...

I'm feeling frustrated with life today -- not quite a daily occurence in the life of me. So I have been watching YouTubes of Disney movie songs that I grew up loving. I suppose today's melancholia is a little too extreme to be completely extinguished by even my favorite songs, but it is worth a try.

The main problem is that I don't feel ready to grow up. And I'm not even being given an option here.

I don't like it.

I want to run off to Neverland and never return.

I want to throw a tantrum (but I know I won't).

I want to do things just because. But I'm not sure I can. Or that I will.

I want to eat chips.

(I think that last one can be managed.)

Walking Down Nostalgia Lane

I have been walking down Nostlagia Lane of late. I re-discovered Mr. Big, and now I'm watching "The Bear Necessities" from The Jungle Book. I think all this is part of my current I-don't-wanna-grow-up state of mind.

Anyway, I adore this video. Always have. And I am convinced that the cartoons we grew up watching were so much cooler than the ones we are landed with these days. I did like Ratatouille, but that was not a patch on The Jungle Book or Snow White or Aladdin or The Beauty and the Beast. Or maybe I'm just turning into an old fuddy-duddy thinking of the days gone by, wishing I could live with Peter Pan and his gang on good ol' Neverland.

Somehow, I feel like sitting down with a packet of unbranded chips doused in masala, and reading about the adventures of Mary Poppins. Sigh...

The other day I came across this quotation:
"I was happy but happy is an adult world. You don't have to ask a child about happy, you see it. They are or they are not. Adults talk about being happy because largely they are not. Talking about it is the same as trying to catch the wind. Much easier to let it blow all over you."

How true.

Yesterday and Tomorrow

Was listening to Mr. Big this afternoon. Their lead singer was one of my earliest crushes (back when age was a single digit number) -- and his big hair and pretty smile still bring on those crushy feelings. Maybe that's when I started having this dream of dating a rocker dude someday. I think I did end up dating one briefly. And the dream of how cool that might be cracked. It certainly wasn't like any of the happily-ever-after songs I grew up watching.

Have suddenly realized that I am growing ancient now (I didn't say old, mind you). The songs I listened to as a kid now appear on Vh1 Classic! And my sister (10 years younger) asks me if they are from Ma's time.

Of late, I have been wasting time like nobody's business. Putting off important stuff to an hour later, and eventually to tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow (Ha ha! Now I'm quoting Shakespeare without intending to! How cool is that?!) I think I should make a September resolution. Shall not put off projects/targets as far as possible. Wonder if this resolution is likely to last? If it lasts a month, it would be a good thing.