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.