Reflections...

They met at coffee day and got talking. At the end of the day, she smsed him that she wore thick glasses when she was not wearing contact lenses". He shot back "Yeah well and I wear braces". She thought he was weird, but he did interesting things in life. And he went back trying to see how he can get out of the mess. They met again after a few days and talked some more. She did not know what she was looking for. He did not know either. But they saw that there wasn't anything significant enough not to like about the other and got along. They watched plays, went for movies, they liked similar food, both loved to read, he was an avid naturalist and loved mountains and wildlife, she was content watching such shows on Nat Geo, but did not mind accompanying him to his trips, she loved listening to old Hindi classics and he could not tell between Kishore Kumar and Mohd Rafi. He taught her about Drongos, sunbirds and Signature spiders and she made him listen to Hemant Kumar and Talat Mahmood. He was reasonably romantic and she was too lost in her world to notice or be one. He was even tempered, cool-headed and she had a fiesty temper that could make any self-loving individual run for cover. They fought, they patched up, they ignored, they confronted, they drove each other up the wall, and they made each other laugh. And today, they successfully complete one year of marital bliss, wondering what a whirlwind trip it has been.

Bad and good hair days...

Oh.. My work life sucks! I know its just been a week here. But there has to be something more meaningful to do than just stare at a machine all day, pretending to be working when there is no work at all. I am either found playing sudoku or solving crossword or reading blogs with a wary lookout for anyone walking past my desk and catching me doing any of the said activities. I am tired of checking emails every 5 minutes and I am tired of writing emails too (not that I have written too many lately, simply out of boredom).

This place, like any other city in the south, wakes rather early. Folks start pouring in to work at 8AM beating the famous Bangalore traffic. I don’t even want to know what time they leave from their homes. 8AM - Outrageous! That’s the time I am usually sleeping or debating whether I should snooze my alarm time by another half hour. And this would continue until the maid deftly rang the bell at about 9AM or so. Early morning was a forgotten, dark past during school and the memories only bring back ghastly images of my bro and I, waiting for the school-bus at 6:00AM on a chilly Delhi morning amidst all that smog in layers of sweaters and blazer. And here, the maid promptly rings the bell at 6:30AM. I am roused from a nice, warm, cozy bed into a cold morning with chilly breeze hitting my face when I open the door for her. Its different that I try to sleep until 8-830 after the maid leaves. But it’s not the same. Early morning sleep is such an essentiality of life. Now, I am forever sleepy and cranky and crash by 11PM.

I used to go to work whenever I felt like it - Thanks to flexi timings. But more often than not, I used to get to work by 10:30-11AM and I used to work until 8:30-9 on a lean day and well into midnight on a fire-day. And here, I see headless desks by 5PM. I have adopted the most effective work schedule for now. I go to work by Mumbai timings and get back by the rule of this land. And on whining, to the boss about my unemployed state of affairs, he tells me to take it easy since I have just joined and stuff. I mean, hello...! I am not a newcomer here. If you don’t have work for me, then I’ll stay put and beautify my new home. And since, it’s an unsolicited situation; I don’t want you to cut my leave reserves either. I wish employers were listening..!!

Oh and I love my new look. Got a new hairdo at one of these hep looking salons yesterday to spruce up my mundane look and pamper my senses. At least, I have a new pet pursuit to divert my attention to. It’s short and uneven and unkempt but looks cool. The few people, that I know here and saw me yesterday, think it looks good and I am thrilled to bits. Talk about letting the hair loose literally and metaphorically..!!! :-)

Of migration and nostalgia

Looks like I have been away for way too long. Well! I have been up with things significant and trivial, interesting and painstaking, disgusting and thought-provoking. There was migration to a new city and the associated troubles, change of work place, anxious wait for the same to happen, too much of travel and religious activities for the immune system of my body to handle, joys of reuniting with parents, fighting a viral fever and cold.

Feels weird leaving Mumbai though. I wouldn’t say it is the best city. But its the place I have always felt close to. It’s been home for almost 20 years (of course, with breaks in between). Lived through the toddler years in a small 1 bedroom railway-compartment-like flat far into the suburbs of Mumbai with memories of dad traveling 120 km everyday in a mad rush to get the 7:37 AM local to Bombay VT. I also remember this bunch of Marathi kids with whom I used to run about in the locality speaking like them, trying to be one of them and succeeding too to a large extent. The walks to a nearby school which used to seem like a long distance trek with our kid strides. The primary school was spent in better parts of the city with a more posh and multicultural setup. That was a great childhood period when concepts like best friend and extra curricular were prime focus in life. Right from playing gully cricket to violin, swimming and all such recreational classes, there was not a minute to lose in the day. Then came the last 4 years of my life. The best 4 years which shaped my ideals, my thoughts, my personality in general and it’s this period that I owe the most - the joys of singledom and independence, the professional life. Discovered so many facets of me which I never knew existed. I was completely kicked by the living-life-on-your-principles thing. And then, of course came a year of marital bliss. Life was definitely not quite a bed of roses but it wasn't bad either. Old movie halls, packed locals at 1 AM, the squabbling women in the ladies compartment, railway stations with sea of heads, multiplexes, roadside vadapao, swanky bistros and eateries, friendly neighborhood Pandu hawaldar always on prowl to extract money from unassuming drivers, buggy rides on marine drive at 2AM, bandstand and juhu beaches, Shanmukhananda hall and my violin classes, monsoons, potholes on western express highway, plays at TATA theatre and Prithvi, irish coffee at Prithvi cafe, Phoenix mills, endless waits outside SRK's bungalow, the panipoori-wallah down the street, Okra manchurian outside Cinemagic, pesto at Pop tates, yummy butter sauce at Restaurant 5... I am going to miss them all.. *sigh sigh*..:-(

And now, Bangalore is full of surprises. It’s nice in a lot of ways and equally painful too. Weather is great though it caused me to fall ill and I am still recovering. It can look like a laidback town with shanties and mud houses and, a few yards ahead, look extremely cosmopolitan with hi-tech, state-of-the-art buildings. Driving around the city gives me immense misery as of now because I end up getting lost 99.993% of the times. The only route I manage, so far, without any problem is to my work place because it’s a straightforward route and there are no one-way-two-way networks whatsoever. I detest the autowallahs here. They are not much of a mafia-variety like that of Chennai but lets just say, I have been spoilt by the honest and just autowallahs in Mumbai who never cribbed to take you to any place in the city. I love the houses here and specially the one where I stay. A well-lit, sprawling house with a lot of windows overlooking greenery, away from all dust and grime and vehicle noises, it almost seems like I live in a farmhouse. I haven't really seen the worst of traffic jams that everyone talks about in the city. But I definitely managed to get a taste of eateries and pubs of the city. Though the cannelloni tastes different here and day ends rather early in the evening, I like it as of now as long as there is someone giving me precise directions to get to anywhere and for that I have to master Kannada real fast. .:-)