As R would say...Lecture baby strikes again!!

My first boss back in Delhi was this really cool chick who I knew very briefly before she left the country to work in the Middle East. I remember little of her, except that she taught me a very valuable lesson.
The small guys are the big guys. More important than treating seniors with respect, is to treat juniors with respect.
And, always be in the good books of the sys admin, the security and the pantry guys.

Assinine lesson learnt

My heroes are those who can keep their insanity intact in a world full of sane people

The typical sunday

Time : A Sunday in May 2006 (it's peak summer and very humid)

Place : Home... an apt on a mid-level floor in a high-rise very close to the Arabian sea

People : Parents, bro, sis, cousin Pin, dog and me

8 am :
Everyone's up and about (me just about)... bro and the dog bounding up and down the house chasing each other - him yelling and screaming unintelligibly and the dog barking excitedly like a maniac; dad having a loud and animated phone conversation with some long-lost uncle who's called long distance (dad still has the 80s hangover when long distance calls were 'trunk calls' and necessitated high-decibel bellowing into the mouth-piece); mom loudly arguing with the maid about the quality of her floor-cleaning techniques; sis reading the newspaper and calling out to Pin to come and look at pictures of Ash at the Cannes over the years... Pin trying to get the Dog's attention by making baby sounds and holding out half a banana as bait (yup, the Dog loooooooooooves banana. Also papaya, melon, mango and tomatoes)
And I, groggy eyed, looking furtively in the kitchen trying to see if there's any tea left for me. Finding none, trying to get mom to quit arguing and make me some.

9.30 am :
Sis, Pin, I - reading the papers, occasionally finding some article of common interest and therefore huddling over it together in order to not be the last to know about it
Mom - Making dog's food, having already fed the other hungry pigs with some yum yum upma
Dad - The only one who's not had breakfast, meditating
Bro - At the comp, playing some shit PC game
Dog - running round and round around mom's feet in anticipation of the meal

2-3 pm :
Sis, Pin, I - Sitting in front of the TV with our plates of lunch on the center table, fighting for the remote with bro. We want to watch the Apprentice and he wants to watch some silly Harry Potter nonsense. We're getting very annoyed, and he's acting like a total jerk
Mom & dad - exhausted from trying to make peace between the warring parties, quietly eating their lunch
Dog - jumping up and down near the dining table making puppy dog (?) faces, begging dad for a little treat

4.30 pm :
The house is so quiet you could hear a pin drop... each room has the fans running, curtains drawn, and people prostrated in deep slumber

5 pm :
My fav time of the day. Making chai for all the sleepyheads, in the kitchen which is hyper-clean thanks to mom, quiet and peaceful with the only sound that of a koel cooing somewhere down, and super-bright with sunlight pouring in from the balcony door.

5.30 pm :
Everyone's up again and fresh
Me - on the phone with R :)
Sis - on the phone with some chick friend exchanging notes about this guy she has a crush on
Pin - on the phone with some friend, telling him/ her excitedly about the previous day's shopping spree
Mom - on the phone (dad's cell... so must be a long distance call. Probably some sister of hers)
Bro - on the phone (probably that chick he 'kinda' likes)

8 pm :
Pin, Sis, I - out shopping (window shopping actually)
Bro - walking the dog
Mom, Dad - out visiting someone

11.30 pm :
Pin's left since the evening
Sis and i - in the room, ignoring bro who's been a total jerk not allowing us to watch Desperate Housewives since he relented in the afternoon
Sis - preparing to go to sleep
I - thinking of what to write on my blog. In the back of the head a tiny voice urging some forethought to the monday that's fast approaching. Things to do, people to call, clothes to wear, and smart answers to the catty remarks that are sure to pour in for the disaster hair-cut!! Successfully ignoring the little voice, proceeding to blog a boring sunday diary...

Mom and Dad - in their room busy talking (probably about my disaster hair cut and how it would ruin my chances in the marriage market)

Dog - sleeping (some watchdog that!) in her favorite spot - outside the bathroom, below the wash basin

And slowly as the minutes tick away and Firehouse croons Love of a Lifetime in my ears, the day draws to an end and we move into Monday that promises to be hectic and trying.

And suddenly the Sunday that was so far in my mind the most boring, uneventful day ever ceases to be so, and becomes a super fun day that's unfortunately, over! :(

den richtigen augenblick abawarten

Sis can be sweet when she wants to (like when she writes nice stuff about me on her blog, or when she buys me a cheap t-shirt from westside), but she can be a real bitch too. Like when she refuses to do what i ask her to, or to get me food and drink when i come home tired, or to iron my clothes.

But most of all, she's the supreme pain when she tells me to shut up when i'm singing along while listening to my music on headphones.

Now, I don't (ahem!!) sing badly at all, and neither do i blare music so loud that i don't know how loudly i'm singing. So there's every reason for her to enjoy the free entertainment I provide. But does she? Oh no, of course not. What she does is, tells me to shut up.

Not a thought for my feelings or the fact that considering I'm hardly ever home anyway she should just indulge me in my little pleasures.

Like a few minutes ago, i was listening to Wish you were here from Pink Floyd, and i'm sure u'd agree that it is just not possible to not hum that song along. And so here i was, singing along.

Alright, so there were all these guitar sounds that you could say i could have avoided.. and I would buy it. So she could ask me only to stop making those twing-twang-a-twang sounds and concentrate only on the lyrics, and I would've gladly done so. But I told you, she's to be a bitch.

She just callously told me shut up...

Then the unplugged version of Heaven (BA) started. Now, you could say my taste is so popish and i'm such a silly romantic to like such weepy songs, but the fact reamins that I just love bryan adams (i think many more people than will admit, do). This song inparticular sounds damn good unplugged, and i just couldn't help singing along (rather well too).

Guess who was lying on the bed behind me reading a book. Yup, the demon woman herself. And trust me, I could FEEEEEEEL her stare peircing into my back, daring me to sing one more line. Unable to contain myself out of fear for my life, i turned around to see her whether it was my imagination or if she was really reacting like that... and sure enough, there she was with a book in her hands and eyes looking up at me, giving me the death stare.

I mean, I don't get it u know. I'd be happy to hear someone sing me a sweet lullaby. Not like her... bloody wierdo.

Grrr... very cheesed off!! >:-(

Anyway, the point is, that JUST for this ONE reason, i'll be happy when she goes away to her college in July. I'll miss her for somethings, but this one thing i'll be happy to have her away :)

Hahaha...the comp (and the headphones) will be ALL mine. No one could stop me then...

I can, and i will wait (rubbing hands, eyes narrowing and gleaming in wicked delight)...

I will bide my time!

Escapism

Bro's rendition of my state of being at different times, depending on work

What a jerk!!
Btw, right now i'm lookin like the picture on top. Presentation in the morning, and i'm only 50% finished. And instead of working, the escapist in me is making me write blog entries...

Seasons in the sun

"I don't remember the last time I saw flowers on the road..."

Said D last evening while I drove through a quite and shaded road that leads to the seaside golf club near my home.

Laburnum trees lining either side of the road were in full bloom and a slow gentle drizzle of petals had collected into a carpet of yellow on the ground...

The afternoon was really, really hot and humid, and nothing stirred. Every living thing seemed to have retired into their cool nests to enjoy a blissful Sunday siesta.

There's never any traffic on that road anyway, and yesterday it was even more deserted than it is usually. R sat next to me with his seatbelt secured (he doesn't trust my driving a bit!!) as he looked out of the window and said nothing.

Perhaps it was the heat, perhaps it was D's comment that made us silentlly reflect on the truth if it... but whatever it was, it made the three of us unusually quiet.

I don't know what went on in their minds, but I felt saddened that such simple joys should be vanishing from our lives without us even realizing it.

If you read some of my earlier posts you'd know that R & D live in the queen of the suburbs, Bandra. It's the hippest junction in town where all the action and the hottest parties are...

And yet, it's not a pretty place...

Like most of this city, it's a place not many would find sight for sore eyes...

Bandra, just like the rest of Bombay, has no parks for the kids to play in, nor benches for moms and dads to sit on...

It's a place, where not even a handful have known the experience of watering a lawn or pruning rose bushes...

A place where the streets and beaches are safe but dirty...

A place with no place for lovers to go to for a few moments of privacy...

A place with a golden heart, but degenrating body

And so, much as I love Bombay, its vibrant energy, its never-say-die and devil may care attitude, its mish-mash street lingo and raste-ka-khana, its bars full (in fact, too full) of familiar faces, noisy convesations, loud laughter, good music and chilled beer, and it's eccentric foreigners at Colaba Causeway buying worthless dholkis for a small fortune, it pains me to realize everyday that this is not where I want to spend my life...

D's comment, just made me re-realize all of it in the flash of a moment...

This is not where i want to belong...

Yes sadly, but very surely... not here. This place where I spent so many years, where I grew up and went to college, where i went away from and returned to, where i fell in (and later out of) love...is not the place for me...

The afternoon was beautiful, and for some reason that bend in the road with D's comment in the background got imprinted on my mind, perhaps forever.

But the picture is a melancholy one, and will always remind me that sometimes all it takes to carve out a life you want, is to cut off the ties that bind you to your past...

And so I know i must leave this place...

...this place where flowers on the road are a rare sight...

Horcrux

JD has a theory. He says he knows what's gonna happen in the next Harry Potter book.

He is confident that Harry is a horcrux. When Voldy was killing Harry's folks, his spell backfired and he ended up becoming a near-non-existent entity. But in the process something happened and part of his soul went into Harry.

Now, JD feels this is IT....becuase

- This explains the similarities between Harry and Voldy. Remember, the sorting hat saying Harry could be the ideal Slytherin, him understanding parsalmouth, the wand having the same Phoenix's feather, Harry's dreams abour Voldy's movements, his scar hurting each time Voldy's nearby... so on and so forth.

- This also adds that extra dash of punch to the next story. Harry (perhaps with his flunkies) will be looking for all horcruxes and will find all but one. Until he finds out that its none other than the scarboy himself. Can you imagine what a mother of all fuck-ups that'll be.

- It'll explain the prophecy that said that only one of the two can survive... either Harry or Voldy. If Voldy lives, he will extract his part soul from Harry and then kill him. If Harry lives, he will have to kill Voldy and the other horcruxes to ensure that Voldy doesn't keep going at his neck till the end of eternity, and the evil truly dies.

- However, in true Omen style, the true evil will never truly die. Becuase Harry being our hero-boy, will not die despite all odds. He'll come within inches of dying, will perhaps even be comatose for months, but will not die. And as long he lives, so will a teeny part of Voldy, in him.
That'll be the parting shot before the series winds up.

:)

I think u gotta give it to JD...he seems to have something there.
Whaddya think?