Today I got a blessing from my housemate's mother. I heard that I am a wonderful person from someone (other than my family ofcourse) after a very long time.
A year filled with dissapointments, neck breaking work, throbbing headaches, nightmares and yearning for dear ones, almost convinced me of my existence being worthless.
Yesterday, my housemate fell from the stairs. I just did what is expected of a human being staying with another one(trust me I am not trying to be modest). Today her mother called up to say "I dont know what would have happened, had you not been there."
Thank god, in today's world of profits,savinngs, recession, dollar value dips and job security, some one thinks that one human being needs to exist just to be around the other.
2008-09-27
2008-08-31
Sunshine on a cloudy day
I remember a similar scene in some movie, but cant remember which one.
Today was a very cloudy and grey day.And it very much reflected my mood. Was walking through a lane, when a man got out of his car. As is the custom here, I smiled at him when our eyes met. He said 'Cheer up lady !'. I gave a wide smile and walked away. Suddenly, I realized I was really smiling, I walked back to him and said .. "You know that really helped.Thanks.". He replied.."Really? I am glad it did."
I guess, despite what mom says, sometimes talking to strangers is not that bad :)
Today was a very cloudy and grey day.And it very much reflected my mood. Was walking through a lane, when a man got out of his car. As is the custom here, I smiled at him when our eyes met. He said 'Cheer up lady !'. I gave a wide smile and walked away. Suddenly, I realized I was really smiling, I walked back to him and said .. "You know that really helped.Thanks.". He replied.."Really? I am glad it did."
I guess, despite what mom says, sometimes talking to strangers is not that bad :)
2008-02-24
Pacing up
Yawning away, while reading a document, i realised that i have ignored this space for quite sometime now.
I am now located at a place which was in one of my "places visited" list,till about a few months back.This place held me in awe. The buildings,the crowd, the people, the ladies with with their tick-tocking stilettoes,the gentlemen in their thick rimmed glasses and dark suits and the colors everywhere.This seemed to be the dream workplace for those looking for a different experience altogether as far as "work - environment" is concerned.
In my last two tenures in this country I enjoyed the sleepy relaxed country-side,travelling to office in a snail-paced bus, reading some book with a plot in 1900 AD and listening to good ol' Bob Dylan numbers as the bus moved through different landscapes of greens and browns. Now I travel to office in a rushing train with buildings outside moving past even before i can catch the color of the paint used.The beats of the songs from the 60's completely out of sync with the clattering wheels of the train.The book replaced by the latest daily handed over at stations.The skyline showing big brands jutting into the sky from amongst buildings of various sizes and shapes.Walking through a sea of humans,everyone moves at a pace, where if i stop for 2 seconds to receive a call, I end up blocking the way of a big group.This is a new experience altogether and am trying to match steps :).
I am now located at a place which was in one of my "places visited" list,till about a few months back.This place held me in awe. The buildings,the crowd, the people, the ladies with with their tick-tocking stilettoes,the gentlemen in their thick rimmed glasses and dark suits and the colors everywhere.This seemed to be the dream workplace for those looking for a different experience altogether as far as "work - environment" is concerned.
In my last two tenures in this country I enjoyed the sleepy relaxed country-side,travelling to office in a snail-paced bus, reading some book with a plot in 1900 AD and listening to good ol' Bob Dylan numbers as the bus moved through different landscapes of greens and browns. Now I travel to office in a rushing train with buildings outside moving past even before i can catch the color of the paint used.The beats of the songs from the 60's completely out of sync with the clattering wheels of the train.The book replaced by the latest daily handed over at stations.The skyline showing big brands jutting into the sky from amongst buildings of various sizes and shapes.Walking through a sea of humans,everyone moves at a pace, where if i stop for 2 seconds to receive a call, I end up blocking the way of a big group.This is a new experience altogether and am trying to match steps :).
Child in Red
A poem by Rilke
A very beautiful poem in a friends blog space led me to this one. I almost could imagine the real life version of this poem. .... beautiful..
Child in Red
Sometimes she walks through the village in her
little red dress
all absorbed in restraining herself,
and yet, despite herself, she seems to move
according to the rhythm of her life to come.
She runs a bit, hesitates, stops,
half-turns around...
and, all while dreaming, shakes her head
for or against.
Then she dances a few steps
that she invents and forgets,
no doubt finding out that life
moves on too fast.
It's not so much that she steps out
of the small body enclosing her,
but that all she carries in herself
frolics and ferments.
It's this dress that she'll remember
later in a sweet surrender;
when her whole life is full of risks,
the little red dress will always seem right.
- Rilke
ps:- the color in it is not the only reason i love the poem.
A very beautiful poem in a friends blog space led me to this one. I almost could imagine the real life version of this poem. .... beautiful..
Child in Red
Sometimes she walks through the village in her
little red dress
all absorbed in restraining herself,
and yet, despite herself, she seems to move
according to the rhythm of her life to come.
She runs a bit, hesitates, stops,
half-turns around...
and, all while dreaming, shakes her head
for or against.
Then she dances a few steps
that she invents and forgets,
no doubt finding out that life
moves on too fast.
It's not so much that she steps out
of the small body enclosing her,
but that all she carries in herself
frolics and ferments.
It's this dress that she'll remember
later in a sweet surrender;
when her whole life is full of risks,
the little red dress will always seem right.
- Rilke
ps:- the color in it is not the only reason i love the poem.
2007-10-06
Color conversion --> Blue to Red
Am feeling Blue.
An uneventful week along with some unpleasant happenings, brought a friday on which I received a message from a friend from the past,to meet up at London.A week consisting of
bad days at office,not feeling well and gloomy weather in a very morose place made the idea of
taking a break for a few hours from the monotony seem like an excellent proposition.
On a not so sunny Saturday, picked up my purse, my mobile and my ipod and started for a
rendezvous with an old friend.Luck favoured me with the train timings followed by a lovely
journey through the English countryside. All in all a great start to the day.
Friend had got stuck somewhere in the London tubes, which gave me enough time to browse the shops at the station.Bought some raisin chocolates at the chocolate shop there.Window shopped some cosmetics.Checked the latest prices of some of my favourite perfumes.[why cant there sometimes be nice surprises]
Friend made it to the station.
Both of us fought the London tube crowd to reach an Indian restaurant at Leicester square called Imli.[very soon London is going to beat Mumbai as far as crowd in trains go].Ended up among a row of Chinese restaurants.Chinese food not ok to my vegeterian friend.Walked half an hour through a series of Chinese,Lebanese and Carribean restaurants,till we finally found 'Imli'.Had a sumptuous meal[though jaws dropped at the quantity served] and shared our
chocolates with the waiter who said "If you are having chocolates in the restaurant, you have to abide by the rule which says that all chocolates to be shared with the waiter ;)".Talked of good ol' times.Laughed like crazy in an otherwise quiet gathering.
Left for Oxford Street.Roamed around the streets looking through shops which were much beyond our pocket limits.[London is one of the most colorful cities, I noticed].
Time up!!.Left for the train station.Sat beside a grumpy auntie with red nail polish and a stiff
upper lip.i-Pod came to rescue.Reached Morose-city.Walked from station to home listening to the following song and imagining Prince Charming singing it for me.
Ended it with the following song. This song somehow has this 'ultimate hapiness and freedom' feel to it.
Back home with the 'Blue' lightened by a great deal and specially replaced by the predominant
'Red' in London[You get to see the color Red in London a lot...the buses..lamp posts etc.].
Switched on laptop to write blogs.:))) while waiting for the dawn to break at some other part
of the world.... to share my experiences.
An uneventful week along with some unpleasant happenings, brought a friday on which I received a message from a friend from the past,to meet up at London.A week consisting of
bad days at office,not feeling well and gloomy weather in a very morose place made the idea of
taking a break for a few hours from the monotony seem like an excellent proposition.
On a not so sunny Saturday, picked up my purse, my mobile and my ipod and started for a
rendezvous with an old friend.Luck favoured me with the train timings followed by a lovely
journey through the English countryside. All in all a great start to the day.
Friend had got stuck somewhere in the London tubes, which gave me enough time to browse the shops at the station.Bought some raisin chocolates at the chocolate shop there.Window shopped some cosmetics.Checked the latest prices of some of my favourite perfumes.[why cant there sometimes be nice surprises]
Friend made it to the station.
Both of us fought the London tube crowd to reach an Indian restaurant at Leicester square called Imli.[very soon London is going to beat Mumbai as far as crowd in trains go].Ended up among a row of Chinese restaurants.Chinese food not ok to my vegeterian friend.Walked half an hour through a series of Chinese,Lebanese and Carribean restaurants,till we finally found 'Imli'.Had a sumptuous meal[though jaws dropped at the quantity served] and shared our
chocolates with the waiter who said "If you are having chocolates in the restaurant, you have to abide by the rule which says that all chocolates to be shared with the waiter ;)".Talked of good ol' times.Laughed like crazy in an otherwise quiet gathering.
Left for Oxford Street.Roamed around the streets looking through shops which were much beyond our pocket limits.[London is one of the most colorful cities, I noticed].
Time up!!.Left for the train station.Sat beside a grumpy auntie with red nail polish and a stiff
upper lip.i-Pod came to rescue.Reached Morose-city.Walked from station to home listening to the following song and imagining Prince Charming singing it for me.
|
Ended it with the following song. This song somehow has this 'ultimate hapiness and freedom' feel to it.
|
Back home with the 'Blue' lightened by a great deal and specially replaced by the predominant
'Red' in London[You get to see the color Red in London a lot...the buses..lamp posts etc.].
Switched on laptop to write blogs.:))) while waiting for the dawn to break at some other part
of the world.... to share my experiences.
Friend for a few moments.
Sometimes it does cross my mind how some friends have remained so despite the fact that
I have hardly spent time enough for them to be called 'friends'.I hope I don't sound filmy,
but reminds me of some dialog in a film about how some people leave a mark at the first meeting
itself.I have never been in constant touch with these people but when I meet them, it feels
as if there never was a time lag between us.A farewell message, generally always ends with
'Keep in touch'. These friends never did that. But despite that they have remained good old friends always,without any expectations and without any promises.
I had met K during a very temporary situation in my life.It was a friendship of 3 months where we bunked classes for that ice-cream at Nirulas along with a movie at Chanakya [Delhi].
Once I left for Pune for my graduation, it didn't look like we were ever meeting. I thought like
many of my other friends she would also remain another entry in my scrap book.Initially we
exchanged a few letters and gradually those stopped as well.Then again after a period of
a few years she dropped a 'Howdie' to me and we started conversing again.Since then we have
constantly got into this cycle of silence followed by 'Hows u...dude?' mails.But till date
whenever I meet her its like old times again.Through the years we have come closer,exchanging
notes on the latest happenings and updates.
S was my roommate during my engineering days for a year.Having stayed together for a year, we understood each other very well.Our favourite time of the day was in the evening when we sat with our cup of chai ordered across the hostel fence from the gujrati bhaiyya's chai ki dukaan.We discussed about life,future and all other concerns that crosses the mind of a 20 year old.When I left the hostel after my graduation S said,"One thing is for sure, I am not going to keep in touch. You know very well that I am very averse to writting mails or calling up.But yes, i will still miss you.". And true to her words,we havnt had more than a few phone conversations
since then. But whenever we talk, it feels like the same Pune air and that cup of tea.
Similarly I crossed paths with A, at the introductory training program organised by my company at Chennai for 2 months.We had the same crazy mind,the same idea of 'fun', shying away from studies and the false attempts of excercising to keep 'fit' and of course the same lousy sense of humour.Her company was a constant source of entertainment."Eh yedi, aaj woh item ne joh samjhaya ...tujhe samjha kya? Mere toh bheje me kuch gaya hi nahin." ...in her skewed mumbaiyya hindi was a riot.And specially since she spoke them with utter honesty and genuine intentions, made it sound even funnier, much to her confusion..."Arrey Mumbai me yehich hindi bolte hai"...she used to say with concern, whenever she caught me laughing.Today I met A at London.We spent those 4 hours laughing away to glory while roaming the streets ,speaking of old times during training days.Exchanged info on common friends and how some friends from Delhi have drifted away because we could not keep in touch.Suddenly she remarked ..."Pata hai aisa hi accha hai...yeh woh dilli wali junta bahut zyada senti ho gaye...ab kaisa hai na...tereko koi phona ya mail nahin bhi karo toh itne din se....kuch toh bhi aata jata nahin hai....itne din baad mile bhi..toh majja aaya na?
Buddies, hope to meet you again,some other time in some other way.Keep in touch..just the way
you have till date.
I have hardly spent time enough for them to be called 'friends'.I hope I don't sound filmy,
but reminds me of some dialog in a film about how some people leave a mark at the first meeting
itself.I have never been in constant touch with these people but when I meet them, it feels
as if there never was a time lag between us.A farewell message, generally always ends with
'Keep in touch'. These friends never did that. But despite that they have remained good old friends always,without any expectations and without any promises.
I had met K during a very temporary situation in my life.It was a friendship of 3 months where we bunked classes for that ice-cream at Nirulas along with a movie at Chanakya [Delhi].
Once I left for Pune for my graduation, it didn't look like we were ever meeting. I thought like
many of my other friends she would also remain another entry in my scrap book.Initially we
exchanged a few letters and gradually those stopped as well.Then again after a period of
a few years she dropped a 'Howdie' to me and we started conversing again.Since then we have
constantly got into this cycle of silence followed by 'Hows u...dude?' mails.But till date
whenever I meet her its like old times again.Through the years we have come closer,exchanging
notes on the latest happenings and updates.
S was my roommate during my engineering days for a year.Having stayed together for a year, we understood each other very well.Our favourite time of the day was in the evening when we sat with our cup of chai ordered across the hostel fence from the gujrati bhaiyya's chai ki dukaan.We discussed about life,future and all other concerns that crosses the mind of a 20 year old.When I left the hostel after my graduation S said,"One thing is for sure, I am not going to keep in touch. You know very well that I am very averse to writting mails or calling up.But yes, i will still miss you.". And true to her words,we havnt had more than a few phone conversations
since then. But whenever we talk, it feels like the same Pune air and that cup of tea.
Similarly I crossed paths with A, at the introductory training program organised by my company at Chennai for 2 months.We had the same crazy mind,the same idea of 'fun', shying away from studies and the false attempts of excercising to keep 'fit' and of course the same lousy sense of humour.Her company was a constant source of entertainment."Eh yedi, aaj woh item ne joh samjhaya ...tujhe samjha kya? Mere toh bheje me kuch gaya hi nahin." ...in her skewed mumbaiyya hindi was a riot.And specially since she spoke them with utter honesty and genuine intentions, made it sound even funnier, much to her confusion..."Arrey Mumbai me yehich hindi bolte hai"...she used to say with concern, whenever she caught me laughing.Today I met A at London.We spent those 4 hours laughing away to glory while roaming the streets ,speaking of old times during training days.Exchanged info on common friends and how some friends from Delhi have drifted away because we could not keep in touch.Suddenly she remarked ..."Pata hai aisa hi accha hai...yeh woh dilli wali junta bahut zyada senti ho gaye...ab kaisa hai na...tereko koi phona ya mail nahin bhi karo toh itne din se....kuch toh bhi aata jata nahin hai....itne din baad mile bhi..toh majja aaya na?
Buddies, hope to meet you again,some other time in some other way.Keep in touch..just the way
you have till date.
2007-07-25
Kashi ahe...maushi?
Recently a friend of mine has left for Pune to start her "hostel life". Brought back vivid memories of my own days in hostel in Pune and also got me wondering what all those people who were a part of my daily life then were doing now.One such person was Maushi.Maushi was a shrivelled emaciated 70 year old who used to wash clothes for those girls who cared to pay some extra money to get their clothes washed by her.Most girls though were in a dilemma whether to get the clothes washed by her or not.She looked too frail to wash clothes and we were filled with guilt to let her wash clothes at her state, but at the same time that was her only source of income.Maushi was an integral part of our lives those four years.We had the language barrier between us, though eventually we did pick up a little bit of marathi. But in the initial days we used to converse with her without either side comprehending anything.The first sentence in marathi, that we hostellers picked up was "Mala marathi yet nahin..", which literally means, I dont understand marathi. Whenever maushi went on with her incomprehensible stories in marathi, we used to say that to her and she would be just too amused to hear us telling her in marathi that we dont understand the language.Mausi frequently blessed us and prayed for "changla nawra" or good husbands for us.One particular day, before the exams,she blessed a girl with changla nawra, when the girl replied indifferently "Mausi pehle exam pass karne ka ashirvad do.Exam pass nahin kiya toh accha nawra kahan se milega?". I dunno what exactly mausi deciphered out of that, but she nodded and went away smiling.One particular winter vacations, we were packing our bags to leave for home, when maushi came to our room and said "Aga, mala sweeeter de na?".She aksed us to get sweaters for her from home for her. The winters in Pune is quite chilly and I did notice that she dint have any woollens,apart from a torn shawl.On returning from home, I gifted a sweater to her.I noticed within a few days that she still did not wear any sweaters.I soon observed that the her grandson was wearing the one I had given. I questioned her why she had given it away to her grandson when she replied very innocently,"Such fancy things dont suit me, I prefer my shawl."[I got that translated by a maharastrian hostel-mate].One day,we in our room were short of cash.We had just a few rupees with us and had decided to go to the bank the next day.Coincidently the same day, maushi came to us in the evening asking for 10 rupees "Mala peesha de na?...daah rupiya ".In a very embarassed tone we replied, that we did not have any. She went away dissapointed and am sure not convinced that we did'nt have money.Next few weeks, I did not catch sight of mausi. I wondered what happened to her, when one fine day I again spotted her in the same corridoors of the hostel,smiling and chattering away.She had gone to her village for a vacation :).
The day I left the hostel, my friends saw me off and it was quite a sentimental moment all of us in tears and hugging each other.But mausi stood at the background waving with the same cheerful guileless smile on her face.I hope you are well mausi, wherever you are.
The day I left the hostel, my friends saw me off and it was quite a sentimental moment all of us in tears and hugging each other.But mausi stood at the background waving with the same cheerful guileless smile on her face.I hope you are well mausi, wherever you are.
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