So Much To Say

You know how too many cooks spoil the broth? Yeah. Too many things to talk about ruin your blog.  I have so much to say and so many things to vent/opine about that i can't decide what to write about and then end up just cussing under my breath and glaring at everyone, whilst playing Bejewelled on my phone. What? It's addictive. And really brainless. 

So let's get chronological. 

Holiday

Week-long holiday happened in Singapore with the Fellow. Stayed with the sister and brotherinlaw and fed them aloo parathas. Yes, i did the whole big sister thing. I'm nice like that. Also, brought in the 28th birthday there, spending the entire day at Universal Studios, screaming my way through roller-coasters (which i was dragged onto by the unfeeling husband and unconcerned sister). But i got some brilliant strawberry pannacotta for lunch, so yay! Apart from that, lots of walking around Singapore happened - allowing me guilt-free hogging at every meal (a good thing considering how awesome the food was). Shopping happened too - bulk of it at Ikea (duh) and we were probably the only people to enter Mustafa and not walk out with a TV. No really. 2 golf sets, yes. But no TV. 

All in all, a good vacation. I would put up photos, but those have been jinxed. Ever since we've come back, the computer has been giving up on me, resulting in a motherboard and a harddisk replacement. Thankfully, in an act of supreme inefficiency, i didn't delete the photos from the camera after transfer and so i'm not too worried about losing them. 

Good News (the really good types)

So, the last few months of my life had been totally preoccupied with the one question that plagues a fauji wife - Where are we moving to next. Yes. Even though we'd been in Pune only a few months, another move was on the horizon. Unfair? Tell me about it. Anyhoo. To cut a long story short, after months of stress, uncertainty and new ulcers, just as we returned home from Singapore, we were informed that we get to stay in Pune. Yipeeeee! The perfect ending to a fantastic holiday the Fellow says. 

Caterpillar 

The Fellow found a fat caterpillar on the ground and i brought it home. Why? Because it was the kind that would become a butterfly some day. I put it in a jar and made holes for air. I also put leaves in it and checked up on it every 15 mins to check whether it was alive. It was. And totally hyperactive. Or it was just looking for an escape route. Why do i say that? Because 2 days later, the Fellow found it in the computer room, a whole house away from where i'd left the jar in the kitchen. Here's what i think happened - the jar was on the window sill and the lid (kept loosely on) blew off in the strong winds that were happening. And the wiley caterpillar ran for it. Sadly, his sad story touched something in the Fellow's heart and he decided to let it go in the wilderness that is our neighbour's garden. Sigh. The End.

Bombay

Since i'm trying to become a *young entrepreneur*, trips to Bombay have to be oft made. Not that i'm complaining. But what was to be a couple of days has become a week and a half. Thankfully, this time round, i got work done. Also suleimani chai happened at Prithvi with two boys and a girl (and a really photogenic old man with a flute). Movie also happened with a friend i've known since we were 12 and i think he called me stubborn and impossible more than once during the evening. We also got wet in the unannounced and torrential rain that happened in Bombay on Wednesday evening. Haan, and the sister arrived on her way to Jaipur for her first karva chauth, but that's another story all together. 

Moving Houses

I'm writing about this primarily because i'm not doing it. Heeheehee. Yes ladies and gentlemen. The Fellow, in an act worthy of Superman, has shifted houses in 3 hours, trunks and potted plants included. All i have to do now is locate my stuff under all the mess that is bound to be the new place (you think he'll take the hint  and clean up? Or too much to ask?) Anyway. Whatever it might be, i was spared the supreme torture of moving and i'll be eternally (read: a couple of days) grateful to him for that. 

Shimla

Next week we leave for Shimla where home and the inlaws (mine) await us. We haven't been there in the longest time and i'm totally looking forward to piping hot tomato soup and fresh french fries on Mall road. What? So i like food. Not like the Fellow isnt waiting to get his teeth into his favourite momos and chocolate pastries there. So, family time awaits us, and like i promised a pint sized genius yesterday, i'm going to try blog more while there, so maybe some productivity shall happen too. 

Phew. That was a long and totally random post. If you're reading this, remind me to send you a thank you note :) 

Tomorrow It Ends

Since June I’ve been living out of a suitcase, going from one city to the other all over the country. Tomorrow my nearly 6-month long vacation comes to an end. No more late mornings (ok, maybe those are still possible). But definitely no more tension-free days for me now. Come Monday and I have to begin the whole dealing with the maid (damn, I need to look for a new one!) thing, get the new house all cleaned and set up (at present it’s worse than a dump), try and see if I can make the garden resemble something green and living, get a hundred thousand things in order again, make social calls, smile at stupid people and mentally conjure images of shooting them, so on and so forth. Aaaaggghhh!!!

It’s no wonder I’m panicking (a little). In almost half a year I haven’t had to bother about anything really, except which city I’m going to next. And even before that, it had taken me 6 months to get used to the idea of keeping house and being all responsible and all that. I had just about set some kind of a routine when the Fellow took off for that course of his. Now, when we finally go back home, I’m going to have to relearn everything and get into the practice of doing it all over again. And since it wasn’t too much fun the first time (being grown up sucks you know), I don’t think it gets any better this time round. To top it all, just then when I’m all nicely settled in again, the Fellow is bound to get posted out to another god forsaken place and we’ll be back to square one.

2 Naps, a Movie and a Book

(Day 76 of 112)

The title of this post basically summarises my day today. It’s some vacation I’m having here I tell you. I mean one would imagine that since I’m at the in-laws’ home, I’d be playing the role of the dutiful daughter-in-law and dazzling the new family with my brilliant cooking skills and social graces.

Alas. It’s not so. Not that I suck at cooking or in company. It’s just that the MIL enjoys being in the kitchen more than I do (and she does everything so much faster). Additionally I’d rather bond with the laptop and practice my social graces on Facebook as opposed to smiling like a slightly crazed chica for half an hour while some aunty or uncle makes mundane aunty-uncle talk, all the time thinking “damn my feet are cold.”

So since I’m not cooking and/or smiling for strangers, I have to keep busy. To start with there are the naps. Since it’s pretty cool (cold for me), naps are made extra fun under a warm, heavy quilt. Bliss. Then there is the DVD collection the FIL has built up, comprising mainly of old Hindi classics. I’m actually enjoying catching up on some brilliant film making belonging to a time before glossy and shiny was in. And then there is always some book I’m reading. There is undeniably relaxing and irresistible in a good book, a table lamp and a comfy blanket.

And so between naps, a movie and a book, only the Fellow is needed to make it a perfect holiday.

Click Happy...Oh So Happy

(Day 68 of 112)

Here are some of my favourite pics that i took the day i wrote this. Trees and fog never looked better (to me at least).

[Note: None of the pictures below have been retouched or edited.]

The photographs are all protected under Copyright law.

City Meets The Mall

(Day 62 of 112)

The word most commonly associated with Shimla (apart from holiday) is the Mall Road. While tourists make it a point to be found on the Mall at some time (or every day) during they stay here, I was surprised that a lot of the locals also go to the Mall every evening. As far as I understand, it’s almost a ritual.

Yesterday I was part of this ritual when I accompanied the in-laws to the Mall. The first thing that struck me was how everyone there (and there were many) was comfortable with walking. Having been witness to women and even young girls who insist their chauffer driven cars drop and pick them up right from the doorstep of whatever shop they want to go to, seeing women and men of all ages comply willingly with the no automobiles rule was…well…confusing!

I mean, I’m a city girl and can’t imagine considering a parking spot, a ten minute uphill walk away from the destination, a very good one. Maybe if I was a tourist, and there was the whole novelty factor involved, I would have enjoyed that uphill trek and even recommended it to everyone I knew in that annoyingly excited manner tourists have. But not if I have to do it everyday for several weeks! I mean by the time I got to the Mall I wanted to go back and rest with my feet in a salt water bath. Ok. That’s an example of gross exaggeration. But you get the idea right?

To add to it all, as if the cardio workout wasn’t stressful enough for my body, there was all the fresh, crisp mountain air, free of car pollutants and other poisons. My lungs almost went into shock I tell you!

And so for the next few days (at least), and at the cost of being an undutiful daughter-in-law, I’m going to work in the evenings, use the cold as an excuse (and sniffle a bit), maybe even offer to make dinner (we have a cook so it’s not like I’m being a bad bahu or anything). Because if I don’t, I know all the greenery, the unpolluted air, the people all smiling and greeting each other at every step and all the walking will traumatise my fat little city soul!

Ps: For all my body feeling like it was going to collapse, I have no stiffness and/or soreness today. I’m physically fit. Yay!

Into The Hills We Go

(Day 60 of 112)

Am clattering this out from Shimla, my home for the next month or so. Will write a detailed decription of my travels as soon as i've caught my breath (the fresh, unpolluted kind!) Cheers.

Yesterday

(July 30th, Day 49 of 112)

Ok, so first I must apologise to Anonymous for not updating my blog yesterday. Next I have to break into a jig because now I know I have at least one reader who keeps check! Yay.

That done, I now know how jail inmates feel, locked up in a cell with nothing to do all day. No, getting arrested was not why I didn’t update my blog yesterday. I felt this empathy towards jailbirds because I spent the entire day yesterday doing more or less nothing. Since my computer was not hooked to the internet, it was like a living being without a soul. Just an empty shell really (this is the dramatic side of me). I was so bored that I was reduced to reading books on my computer – something I’m principally opposed to. I mean, it’s not a book if you can’t turn pages, insert fun bookmarks or take to the bathroom to read!

Now reading books on the computer wasn’t the worst thing I was doing (!!!). It was what I was reading – the Twilight Series – Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn. I started reading Twilight in Bombay out of sheer curiosity (Robert Pattinson and hot vampires taking up all of Hollywood’s energies made me a teeny bit like George) just to see what the hype was all about. Now as much as vampires fascinate me, the whole god-like description of Edward and the utter bimbo-ish behaviour of Bella was a bit tiring. Also I think Stephanie Meyer has an excellent publicist. It’s also a series designed keeping in mind hormone riddled teenage girls.

Why did I continue reading these books? Well, the option was between watching mind numbingly annoying TV soaps with my grandmother or Bella’s equally annoying whining, I chose lesser of the two evils. Also Edward has some redeeming qualities and there was now a werewolf (!) in the story.

So this is what I did yesterday - fed on a teenage romantic triangle between a vampire, a human and a werewolf. This was followed by an overnight train journey, the most striking bit of which was the smell. But then since my seat was right next to the door (which people insisted on going back and forth through all the time) and the concept of clean toilets is alien in our country it’s hardly surprising right?

This is my excuse for not posting something yesterday – mythical creatures and holding my breath for extended periods of time.

Gujju Land

(Day 48 of 112)

Am in Ahmedabad. Breakfast was dhokla, khandvi and khaman. Lunch was thepla. And now i'm craving buttermilk.

In the meantime i'm reading the 'Twilight' series out of pure and unadulterated curiousity, seeing as thats all Hollywood seems to be gushing about these days - and Robert Pattinson. And i've come to two conclusions. One, that Stephanie Meyer is not paying her publicist enough because the books are just about eh. And second that Robert Pattinson is so not worth all the hype. He's not even good looking really. Although, to be fair to him, the description of the character in the book is so over the top that he would have to be surgically altered to come close to the divinely chiseled features!

Anyway, between dhoklas, my granny, her tv shows, vampires, werewolves and supremely moronic teenage girls who swoon at the sound of a voice, Ahmedabad is turning out to be not bad. Not bad at all.

Ps: oh there is some totally awesome pickle here which has made the trip absolutely worthwhile. So yay.

A Nomadic Existence

(Day 46 of 112)

My Bombay holiday has reached its end and starting tomorrow evening I’m going to be in a new city, and 3 days after that, in yet another city. I’m officially a nomad. And since I packed up my house before I left and put everything under dust covers, I don’t even have the pleasure of returning ‘home’ and hiding in my bedroom with my favourite TV show, book and the laptop.

By the time the Fellow finishes his course, I would have lived this nomadic existence for about a 100 days (the first 10 days or so after he left, I did manage to hide in my bedroom). And after he finishes it, a holiday is planned (for him to recuperate after 4 months of physical and mental torture). This effectively means that I’m going to be living out of a suitcase for another 4 months. Sigh. I never appreciated wardrobes and hangars and my very own shoe rack as much as I do now.

Art. Or is it?

I don’t claim to be a connoisseur of art. I don’t pretend to know the names of all the great masters and all of their works. I don’t even imagine that I get the nuances and details of art. But I do believe that I have some aesthetic sense and can figure out whether I like what I see or not and whether I would hang it in my living room.

This sense of mine was challenged and stretched to its maximum recently. A few weeks ago I visited the MoMA and yesterday I went to the Guggenheim Museum.
Both these places left me slightly confused (and very tired, but that’s another story).

One part of my brain knew that what I was seeing was some of the best of modern art there is. Another part couldn’t help but point out that most of what I was seeing didn’t seem art enough to be where it was.

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not an art philistine. I appreciate a lot of art. I love Monet’s ‘Water Lilies’. I can spend hours looking at Van Gogh’s Sunflowers. I even love Pollock’s huge canvases and the supposedly erratic, albeit, hypnotic mesh of colours and lines.

But what I don’t understand are 2 circles on a blank canvas. Or even just a plain single coloured canvas. How about a single dot on a canvas? I know that the meaning of any art lies in its interpretation. But I don’t get how you can interpret a rectangular pink coloured plastic slab. Of course, there must have been one hell of an interpretation for it to get a place against a wall of the MoMA, but even so.

At the Guggenheim a famous artist was being shown. Her initial works (which made her famous) left me looking to my left and right wondering if everyone else is as confused as me. Apparently they were. I was looking at 2 huge wooden spheres and being told it’s a representation of her father!

So, I may not understand great art. I may not know how old Picasso was when he painted Woman with Guitar (any of the versions). I may not even be able to explain why I like certain paintings more than others. But I do know that pieces of paper coloured single colours using felt pens cannot be considered art. Unless they were done by a toddler.

Note: Bored Mind. Long Rant. Please spare the art interpretations.

Note 2: I love MoMA. Most of the work in there is pretty fabulous. Has to be my favourite museum (even more than dino bones!)

Like a Phoenix

Cambodia. A small country who’s only claim to fame (at least till recently) has been killing fields, landmines, mass genocide and Pol Pot.
Faced with such destruction and loss, it would be easy to forget that it is also home to one of worlds most magnificent and beautiful temple complexes.
Angkor Wat.
A breathtaking witness to time and history, peace and war.
A piece of heritage believed to be the saviour of a country on the brink of collapse.
But this is not about Angkor Wat.
This is about the people I came across while visiting Angkor Wat.
Agreed that the people in one city cannot be equated with people all over the country, but the people in the city of Siem Reap are nothing short of amazing.
They aren’t high level intellectuals, or rock stars, or page 3 socialites.
What they are, are hard working optimists who believe in the future and have learnt from their past and the horrors they have all been part of. They are smiling and welcoming. They love talking and discussing how you and they are alike and different. They are proud and protect their heritage fiercely. They have learnt English with an American accent to work their way around tourists.
They are a lesson for everyone. Instead of depending on the UN for their future, they are making their own. They are making full use of their resources – even if it is the Angkor Wat – to turn their fortunes around.
They are rising from the ashes to turn into a beautiful people full of life, history and a rich culture. Just like a phoenix.

Planning and Preparing for a Vacation

Its that time of the year again.

A time when families sit around the dining table and discuss where to go on vacation this time round, where schedules are checked to see when all the members are free on the same days, quick calls to check for availability of tickets and a final check with every member (to ensure they are of the same mind) before paying up for tickets.

This is just about the least important thing required when planning a vacation.

What is more important is the week before actual time of departure.

Once a place and time has been selected, there comes the all important wardrobe check. This involves placing yourself in clear view of your wardrobe and running an expert eye over all the clothes piled/hanging/artistically draped in it, and then finally claim that there is nothing appropriate to wear on the vacation.

Thus is planned the shopping expedition. This involves pen, paper, and a good grasp of the merchandise sold in various stores in and around your home. Of course, a good pair of legs and the patience to deal with trial rooms is also a must on such expeditions.

So you go shopping for something appropriate to wear on the vacation. Depending on where you're going and what time of the year it is, choices will vary between smart jackets and knit wear and cool summery cottons and pastel prints. But finding the perfect garment requires browsing through a lot of clothes racks, and a lot of trying on clothes in tiny cubicles with what im now sure are the most unflattering mirrors money can buy.

Once shopping is through, you make a list of the accessories and realise that the new clothes dont go with the shoes you have...which means only one thing. More shopping. This time for shoes. Sigh. This takes even more effort than clothes and such is the energy expended in this seemingly trivial task that i expect a standing ovation when i come back after successfully having bought a pair of footwear after an entire days searching!!

Having done clothes and shoes is like winning three-fourths of the battle. The remaining quarter involves putting together the basic essentials - sunscreen lotions, body lotions, hand lotions, moisturisers, perfumes, deos, cleansing milks, etc. Then there are the hats, caps, scarves, bandanas and sunglasses. There are also other essentials but i forget.

One day before the ETD you pile all everything on the bed, and then stack them in the suitcase. Then you take a deep sense of relief and fall back onto the bed and revel in a sense of achievement at completing such a strenous task.

All that is remaining now is making sure that the tickets and passport are in your bag when you leave the house.

But that is another story.

For now, i need a vacation from just planning and preparing for my vacation!