Funny Thing

I went to buy vegetables just now. Godrej Nature's Basket is just across the road. Personally, I'm a little scared+embarrassed to buy veggies, as I can identify only a handful of them, and I have no idea how much a kilo would weigh really, and I'm a little un-prone to asking for assistance. The last is a little similar to the way in which most males are unwilling to ask for directions unless they are hopelessly lost. Anyway, I bought tondli (they look kinda like potol) and I bought cabbage (very easy to buy) and I bought mushrooms.

There was another lady doing grocery shopping with her seven year old daughter. The little girl picked out the tiniest Dairy Milk sitting at the counter eyeing the world.
Mother [making big eyes at the girl]: No. We have at home.
Girl [making puppy eyes]: Please. The smallest one.
Mother [still making big eyes]: No. It gets wasted. Keep it back.
Girl, puppy-eyed still, puts the chocolate away.

Just one observation: THE CHOCOLATE GETS WASTED??? What house is this??

Btw... I have a fridge full of Czech chocolates :D Just taking sadistic pleasure out of imagining the greed on most of your faces. As for anyone whose mouth doesn't water at the thought of European chocolates, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU BUSTER??

Okay. None of these is the funny thing actually. Let me give you a background.

We have two flats on the same floor. 903 and 901. The former has been there for a while. The latter is a recent acquisition. And my room happens to be in 901. So there is a lot of moving in and out from house to house, especially coz all the food remains in 903. Plus, the TV is also housed there. 901 is meant for sleeping, reading, and having top-secret conversations.

Now there is a trick to moving from 903 to 901 and vice versa. The shoe cupboards near the doors of both houses are topped with a tray each. Each tray holds the key to the other house. So, you open the door of 903, take the 901 key, walk out, unlock 901, come back and put the key in the tray on the 903 shoe cupboard, shut 903, and go into 901. Reads more complicated than it is. To go from 901 to 903, the same procedure is followed, except that you start from 901.

Uff! How confusing I made it all.

The point is that I took the 903 key from 901 to go buy veggies. I bought the veggies (great accomplishment) and came home. I unlocked the door to 903, took the key to 901 (so that I could put the 903 key in its right place). And very smartly I placed the 901 key on the 901 tray on the 901 shoe cupboard in the 901 flat and shut the door. Luckily, the 903 flat door was open. So I took the 903 key and rushed into 903 house and shut 903 door.

Now I have to rot in 903 till the father comes home and 901 can be unlocked again.

But look on the bright side. My comp and its charger are in this house. The TV is in this house. The food is in this house.

And.. and.. and.. the Czech chocolates are in this house :D

Heeheehahaha [evil laughter]
[crows caw in the background]

My Latest Addiction

Check out this link. The monkeying around is super-addictive!

Why I Read My Daily Horoscope and Other Miscellany

"A lot of changes are coming to your life very soon, so this is a day to take another long look at what you've got going on now -- and appreciate it! Living in the moment is a difficult thing to do in this age of fast-moving information and future plans. But you'd be cheating yourself big time if you didn't at least take an hour out of your day to reflect on your life and thank yourself for making the choices and efforts it took to get you where you are."

That was my horoscope for the day courtesy Yahoo Astrology. Given the way in which my life has been progressing, the horoscope seems bang on target. It is because of days like this that I read my horoscope for at least 90% of the days of the year. They match sometimes, and then I'm hooked for a week. Then they stop matching. But I still read on, looking for some coincidence, some sign that the stars do foretell the future, or at least the present.

Went for Diwali dinner with the folks at office last night, and we got fortune cookies at the end of the meal. My fortune said: "Expect the best, and life takes on new meaning." Motivating, n'est-ce pas?

My official email address got deleted yesterday. I don't miss it. But I did feel a little sad when the Boss told me that he had just deleted it. I guess it is time to get a new email address. Was a little less mad at the Boss yesterday. I guess all Bosses periodically become painful. Anyway, I ate with chopsticks last night. Picked up the art at the restaurant (All Stir Fry at Gordon House, Colaba, Mumbai). Maybe I was a Chinawoman in my last life. In my next life I have decided to be a dog (not bitch) at my university. The life after that I will be an astronaut. And after that I will be a true blue superhot dumb blonde who wins the Miss USA title. I'd made plans for a few subsequent afterlifes (afterlives?), but I don't remember them now. Maybe later.

Read The Reluctant Fundamentalist till three a.m. this morning. Fumbled with the open ending. I prefer it when the author spells out the ending a little more clearly actually. Does the speaker get killed? Is the guy he's been chatting with all evening going to kill him? What's the case with the waiter? I think a bit of a re-read of the last few pages is necessary. I feel a little stupid as of now. Interpretations regarding the ending are welcome.

Life in Bullet Points: November Chapter

1. I quit. Told the Boss. He was rather bitchy about it. I didn't think the bitchiness was necessary.

2. Father finally knows about boyfriend. Announced it at the dining table. Initial reaction was not good. But 5 minutes later, he managed to get some perspective. I am 23 after all, and going on marriageable age. At least I should have an iota of a boyfriend. Did I mention I am an inch taller than the boy? I feel like Nicole Kidman!

3. Have been working almost non-stop since I came back from Delhi last Monday. Diwali whizzed by in a blur. And then frustration set in. And then I quit. All's well that ends well.

4. The fast-food-wala just brought home wraps (a version of rolls/frankies). The security downstairs called on the intercom to say he had arrived. He said: "Pizzawala aaya hai". Pizza becoming the generic term for all food that gets delivered to the house. Interesting na?

5. Was watching the news about the cyclone hitting Bengal. At the time, the sun was shining brightly and sweetly over all the Mumbaiyya world and the districts that surround it. Grey clouds and thunder in the east with sunshine and blue skies in the west. What a crazy country this is!

6. Watched Sawariya. Such a waste of time. Beautiful, but a waste. Goodlooking people. Good performances. Lovely songs. But halfway through I was feeling as blue as the background for having to waste three precious hours of my life on this. Leela Bhansali's son gone mad!

7. Watched Om Shanti Om. Total timepass. Very heehee-type. Must-watch for King Khan fans. Padukone chick shows off cleavage (wonderbra?) in the first half and long legs in the second half. Quite logical actually.

8. Killed two mosquitoes yesterday.

9. Saw an especially long cockroach last night. Wasn't wearing specs, so zoomed in on it. Wasn't one cockroach. Was two of them. Mating. Told both of them (wasn't sure which one was the woman) not to lay their eggs in my house. Hope they listen.

10. Saw a woman and her dog sit on a bench on the lawn below. Nice picture they made.

I could go on. But my arms are paining. And it is time to devour that curried chicken wrap.

Toodles.

When Joy Is Painted Beige and Gold

There is something very special about buying something that you can't quite afford. You yearn for that little outfit which is tantalizingly beyond your budget. It gapes at you as you avert your eyes. You end up looking at it from the corner of your left eye. The golden work on the beige cotton sparkles like gold jewellery. Nobody else notices it. They are too busy looking at the flashier greens and reds and magentas. Yet, the five-hundred-bucks of beige and gold paint seems to have hypnotized you.

You walk over to the rack. Seven beige and gold kurtas greet you. Medium. Medium. Large. Medium. Small. Large. Large. You wish there had been no Smalls on that rack. Now you feel as though that Small was waiting for you. Just for you. Dare you buy it with the Diwali money your Uncle just gave you? The money that you were saving for a rainy day? The money that could have taken care of your next month's phone bill? You decide "No". You will not spend any money.

You look at it wistfully and console yourself with: "Some other time." And walk away to window shop for something else. You are looking for something that will make you forget about this beige and gold dream. But fifteen minutes later you are back at the same rack.

"Dare I try it on once to see how it looks?"

You ask yourself that question once. And then once more. The next thing you know, you are a beauty in beige and gold as you admire yourself in the trial room mirror. And you know that the price tag does not matter anymore. The Diwali money emerges out of that white envelope. Rainy days can go to hell. Even if it does rain, at least you will be well-dressed. And well, if money can't buy you happiness, what is the point of having it anyway?

Cut to now:
The beige and gold kurta is sitting pretty on top of the clothes heap in my cupboard. I just went and stole a loving glance at it. Perhaps the buy was a bit of an over-indulgence. But it made me happy. I have already begun making plans for the inauguration of my new beige and gold acquisition.

Diwali Dynamics 2

This is about the life-changing move. I'm quitting my job. And I don't have a job to fall back on right away. Am toying with the idea of taking a three-month break. But three months seems like a rather long time. It is a quarter of a year after all. 25 percent.

I was scared that I would chicken out when the Boss called. But the words were on the tip of my tongue. After exchanging a few words about the last project that I sent him 12 hours late (I was feeling frustrated, rebellious, and for the first time in two-and-a-half years did not take a call from the office.), and how he gave me my first chastisement (the word was used by the Boss) in two-and-a-half years, I figured it was time to drop the bomb. But the Boss talks fast. I talk slow.
So he cut in first: Happy Diwali
Me: Happy Diwali Sir. [pause before blurting out] I'm planning to quit.
Boss: [shock reverberating in his voice] Whaaa?

There was more after that. The Boss gaily refused to finalize my quitting decision. He said we would talk about it on Monday. I bet he is planning to tempt me with some difficult-to-refuse offer -- more cash, better projects, more flexibility. But I have had enough this time.

I'm tired of writing dumbass unresearched articles that don't have my byline and which people won't even read. Ever.
I'm tired of having to type out 500-word articles in less than 25 minutes.
I'm tired of constantly racing against time for no fault of my own.
I'm tired of not being able to produce brilliant quality because I don't have the luxury of time.
I'm tired of not feeling like I've done a fun project.
It has been months since I completed a project that I really enjoyed.
This post perfectly sums up how I have been feeling since Monday.
Guess the quitting has been coming for a long time.

But it felt a lot more life-changing this morning. And here are the reactions of some of the people I spoke to about my decision:

• Ma thinks I should do nothing for three months and behave like a spoilt rich brat.
• Moolah agrees with Ma.
• My best friend thinks I've gone mad.
• Madz thinks this is the best choice that I have ever made. (She does not like my Boss)
• Baba is being supportive and did not use his frown-face when I told him about my decision.
• My boyfriend did not say anything incriminating. He nodded into the phone.

But I haven't told Baba about the new boyfriend yet. Hopefully, someone else in the family will tell him. The new boyfriend has a very clean room for a guy. I'm not sure if he was trying to impress me or if he really is clean. He is sweet though, and very funny and intelligent. Incidentally, now that all is official, the posts on 6th August and 21st October were about him. It is long distance, but it isn't too horrible just yet. But then, we haven't even completed a month of dating. He doesn't usually read my blog, so I don't mind blabbering on about him here. If he did read this paragraph of this post, however, I would blush beetroot red. As long as he doesn't know, it's cool.

This Bong New Year I had sworn to remain single for the rest of the year. Obviously, it didn't work out, and I couldn't be happier. :D

Oh, and I'm currently only 1 kilogram underweight. Hopefully, I'll stay this way, and not start tilting over to the overweight side. But I still keep referring to myself as a reed-thin girl which I am not any more. Years of habit of being called a coconut tree by everyone you see.

A weird-looking cockroach was roaming around the floor just now. It had very long legs and seemed to be walking on stilts. It could have been a circus performer entertaining the Diwali insects that have been biting like nobody's business. But I think the show is over, for Mr. Roach is nowhere to be seen.

I thought I heard thunder in the sky a while ago. Was expecting rain. But I guess it was just some Diwali firecrackers. This has been a long, emotional-upheaval-filled day. I think I should go grab some shut-eye.

Diwali Dynamics 1

Planning to make a life-changing move today -- the culmination of months of frustration and disillusionment. Will post later today provided I don't chicken out.

I don't think I will chicken out. Not this time.