Esses

Suddenly Goa happened- out of nowhere.

While talking to a friend, I told him that staying in Bombay is best because we can go to Goa anytime!

Goa's always good. There are so many beautiful memories associated with it.
Palolem was beautiful just like last time.
This Goa visit was a mix bag.

Sun, sand, sea, sound of waves, serenity-- s's make me happy.
It was short- well too short I think. I was in Goa for only 36 hours and it was the first time in Goa without Anish.

I realised I am allergic to sea water, wth :-/
I ate uncle chips at Palolem! 
I rode the bike- don't know what speed I touched but it was said that I am a fast learner :)
I did a wheelie too- not intentional ofcourse :D

I always wanted to do an early morning walk along the beach. It never happened for only one reason that we always slept late and got up late. This time we stayed on the beach and luckily I got up early, everyone else was fast asleep.

I stepped out and walked. There were hardly 5-10 people. I picked up sea shells. I played touch and run with this very adorable little firang baby girl but she fell down and started crying. She and I then started making sand castle (high hopes!) and ended up making a sand hut.

Dwarka was a good find. Wouldn't really want to stay there though but yes a couple of hours at really really quiet beach is not a bad idea afterall.

And then the train ride back home!

Back to life, back to city, back to work. Wake up :-/

Reformatted

My pen drive wasn't working properly and I knew I had to reformat it to use it again. I was trying to put that off for a long time- I guess I was hoping it'll fix itself somehow. So I reformatted it today. I was sad I lost all the data I had on it but it was only movies so it’s ok.

It got me thinking that we store incredibly large amounts of data in our memories. Family, friends, things, incidents. It's all in there, jammed together, in a big mess- my mess- and I know where what is. I do not delete it because it’s like deleting a part of my life, those experiences- admitting that they’re gone forever. Even the bad ones are never deleted. Because no matter how much I try to forget that it happened, it will have never-not-happened.

And then there are the tiny moments. Moments one can refer to as 'pen-drive memories'. I have a little pen-drive meant for storing only the most special of my memories.

These moments are really tiny, and they don't take up too much space. And to another person, they may not even appear significant. They are inaccessible to others, including the ones who are part of those moments. I can't copy them to any hard disk. I can’t show them to anyone. I can't share them on a network. I can't store them anywhere else. I can't back them up. I can't recover them if my pen-drive crashes. That’s the way it works.


And if I ever lose it- by choice or otherwise, I will have no regrets coz if I lose those moments, I was meant to lose them.

Item number

While running walking, I decided to notice the time I take to finish each round.

It took me 12 minutes to finish round one. I was listening to ajeeb dastaan hai ye...

It took me 6 minutes to finish round two. I was listening to munni badnaam hui...


:)

Point

I was outside my building and there were a few kids playing in the garden.

Right next to me was a girl of about 5 years and a boy of about 7 years maybe.

Someone stepped out of the lobby with a pet dog.

Girl (looks up and excitedly points at the puppy)- "Look, look! A puppy."

Boy (glares at the girl)- "Don't point. Its rude to point."

Hah!

Well said Bhai!

Bhai was over at my place last night.
I told him about this blog and he opened the link and sat down to read it.

This was the first post he read. He read the first four words aloud.

And pat came the comment. "Well said, didi!"

Khamoshi

I am a sucker for old hindi songs.
I find them meaningful and sometimes I connect to these old melodies more than anything/anyone else :D

Heard this song as soon as I came back from work and the feeling cannot be put down in words!


Sirf ehsaas hai yeh, rooh se mehsoos karo...
Pyar ko pyar hi rehne do, koi naam na do...

Beautiful!

High maintenance

Yesterday three of us were having lunch in office canteen- A, L and I.

Somehow we started discussing about shampoos and conditioners. And A asks- “Yaar conditioner vohi hota hai na jo shampoo ke pehle lagate hai?”

Before I could hold-my-head-in-disbelief and scream at him, L from the other side of the table adds- “Dude, aren’t they both same?!?”

Shoot me!!  

Thank goodness it wasn't cleanser, toner and moisturizer that we were talking about.  

Need a match

Sometime ago, I bought a pair of shoes from a roadside stall in Bandra. I really adored them, they were very cute but they didn't match with any of my clothes. Finally, I gave up and convinced myself I needed to buy a dress that matched those shoes.

I bought one.

I think it was pretty crazy to buy a dress that cost Rs. 5200 to match shoes that cost Rs.120.

Fast forward...tonight..

I was cleaning out my closet when I found this really cute and b-(ea)-chy shorts that I had bought from New York. I had completely forgotten about it. I tried it on- loved it. I want to wear it but it does not go with the *place*

Now I've got to buy a holiday that matches it :D

Maybe this or this

Choice

No matter how strong or independent we think we are, people we choose to include in our lives can make or break us.

Small talk

It's always a problem to find auto-rickshaw in my area. Sometimes I have to share a cab/auto and today I shared the auto with this girl who talked a lot. Let me call her talkative girl- TG.

After exchanging names and addresses I realized that we had a common friend from IIT...irrelevant piece of information!

So she asked me what I did and I asked her the same. Interestingly she was a writer/journalist.

Here's a small portion of conversation from 15 minute auto ride-

Me- So, what do you do?

TG- I am a freelance writer. I've had a few articles published in XYZ paper.

ME- Oh, that nice.

TG- I also write books for kindies.

ME- Interesting! In my mind, I was like :o What the hell is kindies. For all I knew kindies could’ve been a new genre! I didn’t ask.

After a few minutes...

TG- I love writing books for kindies. It’s so much fun.

I had to ask!

Me- I'm sorry, but what is kindies?

TG- Oh, it's a short form we use for kindergarten.

Me- Aaah.. (Voice in my head... Too bad you don't write books for undergraduates ;) Lol)

Blue and Pink

You know you’re one of the guys when they ask you to come along for a trek on a Saturday.

You know you’re not one of the guys when you agree and get up at 5 am on a Saturday and take a local train.

You know you’re one of the guys when they say all of us are going to the top.

You know you’re not one of the guys when you have to search for some thick bushes so that you can have some privacy while peeing.

You know you’re one of the guys when you do manage to reach the top.

You know you’re not one of the guys when you wake up the next morning with excruciating body ache, especially in your butt, thighs and calves.

You know you're one of the guys when you commit to going for a trek again whenever they plan, notwithstanding the body pain.

You know you're not one of the guys when you spend the whole of Sunday wondering whether your aching legs will allow you to wear your heels to work on Monday morning.

You know you’re one of the guys when you beat them at bowling.

You know you’re not one of the guys when you’re sad that your nail broke while bowling.

You know you’re one of the guys when you decide to go down the red slide in Essel World.

You know you’re not one of the guys when you have to hold your bag against yourself coz you were wearing a white t shirt which got wet.

You know you’re one of the guys when you do a ‘bottoms-up’ on a beer mug.

You know you’re not one of the guys when you have to run to the rest room after the ‘bottoms-up’ and they send a girl friend after you to check if you're ok.

You know you’re one of the guys when you scream ‘that was an offside, you jackass’ (at the referee in a football match).

You know you’re not one of the guys when you don’t like a player because he does not look cute.

You know you’re one of the guys when you decide to register for half marathon.

You know you’re not one of the guys when you have to look at a calendar to see if the date is good.

You know you’re one of the guys when you discuss Fight Club at 4 in the morning and argue that it’s one of the best Hollywood movies.

You know you’re not one of the guys when you end the conversation by saying ‘And Brad Pitt was so hot!’

You know you’re one of the guys when you can watch Die Hard again and again.

You know you’re not one of the guys when you secretly cry in Die Hard.

You know you’re one of the guys when you stare at you-know-what in this picture.

You know you’re not one of the guys when you think what if I had the same.

Best thing...

These days a friend of mine’s been asking me almost everyday- what’s the best thing that has happened to you today? And almost everytime my answer would be- I got an auto at the doorstep today or it didn’t rain while I was coming back from home.Those were actually the best things *sad sad*

So the best thing that happened to me today- Got to know GG season 4, episode 1 is coming on september 13!!

Something else to look forward to on a Monday :) Yeyy yeyy …

These parents

My dad sent me a joke in the morning. I replied LOL- out of habit and/or laziness.

He wrote back: Btw, what’s LOL? I explained.

I emailed mom her tickets in the evening. Since it was last minute booking, the tickets were expensive.

My mom replies- Omg!

English manners

English people are very well polished and their manners and etiquettes are well known. A few of those unusual manners I observed while I was in London....

Stand in a line- they stand in line EVERYWHERE. Even when you are in a store during sale and you are holding a t-shirt or trying on a pair of shoes, they won’t rush you, they’ll patiently wait for their turn. And I read somewhere- In England, a queue is one place where you can start a conversation with a stranger without being introduced.

Keep the door open- be it a tiny gate outside your building, lift door, bar door, shop door, restroom door- essentially any kind of door that is not automatic- when you open a door and before you leave it, you look back and in case you see anyone within hundred miles who might walk through that door, you hold it open, or keep a restraining palm on the door showing how much you want to keep the door open. It is polite. Everyone does it there and no matter how useless the whole practice might be, very soon you will find yourself doing the same.

Pehle aap- this happens in the tube when two people move towards the lone empty seat. Both will use their hands and expressions to say, “Ma’am/ Sir please go ahead and take the seat. Kind Regards XYZ”. This will go on for a few seconds until someone takes the seat. If it’s a man and a woman, the woman will ultimately take the seat, if they are people of the same gender, the older one will take the seat. Put this in contrast to the way we rush to take seats and giving it up is something we cannot even consider. In the defense of desis, the Brits here are not travelling in a thakela, jam packed bus with the outside temperature of fifty degrees C only and no AC in the bus! If that were the case, British politeness may have been different.

Love, darling, doll, sweetheart- the older lot will often refer to you as ‘love’. For example you are standing in the middle of a narrow aisle and trying to figure out which way do you have to turn or in a store where you are lost in the bakery section- suddenly you hear a soft, “excuse me, love”. You turn around wondering who the hell that is and come face to face with a white haired lady in a skirt and cardigans. You smile and give her way.

The greetings- the way someone here will greet you will be more affectionate than how your mommy will greet you when you go back home after one year. The receptionist at the office door will sound more excited about talking to you at eight in the morning than you will ever be to talk to the love of your life!

Thanks, sorry, excuse me, do you mind- for a day, if they were to put a pound in a jar everytime they said one of these words and gave those jars to me, I’ll fall short of space for my lvs, chanels, guccis and pradas. In the bus- driver will thank the passengers and passengers will thank driver. On the cash counter- customer will thank the cashier, cashier will thank customer. On a tube- anyone will thank anyone even if anyone steps aside by inches. Excuse me, I’m sorry comes together a lot of times. A slight touch when someone moves past you, miles before you pass each other in a narrow lane, or five minutes before anyone can have any physical contact in a tube they’ll tell you sorry or excuse me. Imagine one of those at dadar station!!

Sometimes it gets on your nerves but still it’s nice to see all the politeness.

Giving and receiving

I am becoming increasingly convinced that shopping for and giving a gift to someone special- special enough to stand out in a crowd, then seeing the happiness on the person's face, is way more precious and fulfilling than buying something for yourself or receiving gifts.

Self-centered as I may be, I think I'm still a *giving* person, more than a *receiving* person. It truly gives me great joy to know that I've given someone some joy :)

Just a thought

A person of many colors need not be a chameleon, always,...he/she could be a rainbow...

BBPPLG

This time when I went home I did some talking with my 9 year old cousin- Chunnu, who’s in third standard. I was talking to him about his school, his friends, his teachers and he was telling me all kinds of stories very enthusiastically. He told me how they play football in break time, how their class teacher keeps changing the seating arrangement and how they avoid sitting next to girls (!!! :-|), how they sing prayer before lunch, how they have to clean the school ground if their shoes are not polished, how they have to share their lunch boxes on fridays, and how he wants to sit next to this one boy in his class whose mom cooks wonderful maggi and lots more.

He asked if I could help him in his homework and I gladly agreed to do so. He took out his hindi notebook. Damn, it’s been ages since I wrote anything in hindi!! He had to finish two ‘paath’ (lessons). While he was finishing up his hindi homework I took his book, *saras bharti* and read a few chapters. He was amazed at how fast I could read. He declared that I wasn’t reading anything, according to him, I was only turning pages. He was paying more attention to when I was turning a page than his homework. Man, I remember how I used to feel the exact same way when I was his age... =))

After hindi he took out mathematics. His homework was 15 sums on dividing a 4-digit number by a 2-digit number. Very proudly he told me he could also do the division for 5-digit numbers and then asked me how many digit numbers I can divide :)

I was flipping through his notebook when I found a piece of paper on which there were some acronyms. He picked it up real fast and when I asked what that was, came an answer “didi yeh kuch nahi hai, mere friend ki hai.” He was visibly embarrassed. His mom started laughing and told me that they do this timepass in their free period.

I had to do something about it. I had to know what was there in that paper. So when he went to sleep, I took out the paper *evil evil* Shalu and I laughed really hard at that and I had to, just had to steal it from him. Ok don’t judge me on that, next day I told him that I am going to keep that paper. He hesitated initially but then said you can’t take it just like that. So we struck a deal. He thought about it for 5 minutes and sheepishly said “aapko do kaam karne padenge. (It was dinner time.) Dal ke saare tamaatar khane padenge. Mere liye uncle chips ka packet laana padega abhi.” Innocence :)

Here’s what it was on that paper, he’s going to go red one day when I’ll show him this-

DON- Danger of Nepal (by danger he meant dangar. Dangar means animal)

JBT- Jama baavli tared

MMH- Mental medical house

BDPKLG- Budha daaru peeke ludak gaya

NCC- National chappal chor

BBPPLG- Budha bagpiper peeke ludak gaya ;))

M- Mota

P- Patla

MH- Mota haathi

If only

Most couples make me uncomfortable and sick with their couply ways, especially when they act all coochie-coo romantic and what not in public. But there are some couples that just give you a very good feeling each time you see them together.

I think Javed Akhtar and Shabana Azmi are one such couple. I caught them on an episode of 'Koffee with Karan' on youtube. Whether it was him teasing her about all her activist stuff, or her teasing him about his bad memory with appointments, it was a pleasure to watch them interact. It's amazing how both of them are extremely serious and witty at the same time.

Javed really stole the show when Karan asked him to say a few lines for Shabana and he said:

Khush shakl bhi hai woh, yeh alag baat hai......

Magar hume zaheen log hamesha aziz the....

vaah vaah! vaah vaah!

He translated it, 'cause Shabana was lost :)) she's good looking, but that is beside the point. The fact is that I have always loved intelligent people.

Man, I was totally bowled over. Now this is the kind of couplet a girl would like to hear. Sigh!

If only Anish wasn't so urdu-challenged :)

To be or not to be

So I was reading this article tonight, in which the writer was talking about good-looking women being ogled at on the roads.

She said, "Do you know what is worse than being ogled at? Not being ogled at."

Funny and unfortunately true at times :)

Being Parents!

Recent conversations that have been taking place between my parents and me.

Me - "The computer crashed?? What did you do???”

Dad/Mom - “I didn’t do anything!!!! Apne aap ho gaya."

Me (on phone with Dad) - "Hello, technical support here. How can I help you today?"

Dad - "Computer is not working. Only a line flashes over and over."

Me - "Okay... describe to me exactly what you see on the screen."

"Now you move the mouse and bring the cursor here in the address field. Okay. Now click here. No. Try again. No. Again. Okay, now type the email id. Very good! Now click on send. See, its not difficul at all."

"No Shalu, don't help them! Let them try to open their inbox themselves."

Before my Mom and Dad headed out for their first international travel:

Me to Dad- "The atm in S'pore will give you S'pore dollars irrespective of what atm machine you go to"

Dad-"XYZ was saying there are SBI atms there, even they won't give Indian rupees?" :-|

Me to Mom- "Always stay with Dad, don't go anywhere without telling him. Anywhere you go, decide a place, you both will come back to, in case you lose each other."

"Wear comfortable shoes all the times. You’ll be doing a lot of walking."

"So did you like the hot air balloon ride?"

"Always have a valid ticket when you travel in bus or train."

"Donot throw any wrappers/waste anywhere except dustbins."

"Mom, always keep some money on you."

"What is my mobile number? Do you remember? You have to put +91 before my mobile number."

"Whenever you go out, carry a piece of paper with your hotel address, okay? Always!"

"If you get lost, ask a passer-by for directions, okay? People there are very helpful."

"Carry a bottle of water along. Don’t buy canned drinks. They are too sweet - bad for your health."

Me to Mom - "You should learn to be independent – learn to take the bus and train by yourself. Look at Aunty X. She saw all of S'pore by herself! Why can’t you do that?"

And finally the most important one, that we could not do without, and they can’t do without either.

“Don’t worry, I'm here.”

First your parents bring you up. And then it's time for you to bring them up.

They say- life runs a full circle. So true!

Freedom

When I get older, I will be stronger..They’ll call me freedom, just like a Waving Flag!

Is waving flag a symbol of freedom?

Not really. I don't think so.

It's freedom in confined space. Flag can flutter but it will always be tied to a post.

Our lives are just like waving flags. We're free but within certain boundaries which brings another question in my head- what is freedom?

So while searching (googling, okay!) I came across this which explains the meaning of the song Waving Flag.

One year

29th June2009, it was a important day for me- I started working.

One year later, I am thinking how my life has changed in this one year.

While international community broke away from financial crisis, I got a nice place for myself in Mumbai (ok, rented!). I got my first credit card. I lived in Manhattan for a month. I bought a Blackberry. I went to London and Scotland. I paid taxes. I started writing this blog. I got a LV and Jimmy Choos. I met many new people and left a few friends behind. I was engaged. Anish moved to Delhi which meant long distance relationship for the first time in seven years. AND my neighbor's 4 year old daughter called me Aunty :((

Dad got a little sentimental, he said there are three big days that come in every parent's lives- first, when their babies arrive, second when their kids leave home for first time. We encourage them knowing that its only a beginning, and then the day comes when the kids become independent and it dawns upon us that our little babies no longer need us.

Then he said- "meri life mein aisa din kab aayega, ab to poora saal ho gaya Sonia tujhe kaam karte, fir bhi mera hee khoon choosti hai!"

One word answer to this question my daddy-dearest- never.

You're not so lucky after all ;)

Silence

Sometimes when we are away from the hustle and bustle of life, we get a moment to hear our own heartbeat and breathing.

Up in the hills, as clouds descended upon the peaks (or so they say!) and drifted towards no man's land, I could hear my own breathing.
And nothing else.

Sound of silence, is it?!

Far away some bird was whistling and Sahil was impressed :)
Nothing was moving, nothing dared to make any sound.

I thought about many people, I thought about many places, I thought about many questions, I thought about many answers...

What is it about silence that invokes thoughts?

Swim

I decided to go for a swim in the evening.

I felt very sleepy through the course of the day.

I thought of canceling the swimming plans and heading back home and going to bed early.

I told myself, "Yeah right! As if I will sleep early".

I overcame laziness and decided to stick to my swimming plans.

I called my friend and went for a swin at the club house.

I swam (read played around in the water!) for about 45 mins.

I was really tired and very thirsty.

I was happy with the workout and all the extra-calories I burned.

I decided to treat myself to a nice and healthy dinner at Subway.

I went to Hiranandani.

I got distracted by all the restaurants.

I almost walked into Papa Jones, but then decided against it when I remembered I was there to eat at Subway.

I decided to (only) check out south Indian restaurant Sankalp.

I was amazed at the variety of things on menu and wondered why didn't I come there.

I spotted garlic butter idli and masala medu vada and thought of trying it once.

I was all excited and placed an order for it.

I waited eagerly for the dish to arrive. Gossiping with my friend kept me busy.

I was very impressed with the way food looked.

I loved the taste.

I managed to finish the dish and called for one more serving.

I realized that I just undid the effects of my evening swim.

I felt bloated and fat.

I thunked my head against the table.

I resolved to head straight to home after swim from next time.

Pure-Vanilla

A few days ago my sister sent me a blonde joke. It is the best joke I have ever heard. It goes like this..

One day a high class blonde girl was walking by the river side with her friend when she spotted a crocodile.She turned to her friend and screamed, "Look! Lacoste!" =))

The other day I had gone to Haiko for some weekend shopping when I picked up a new nail paint. Very nice soothing beige color. I came home, kept everything down, switched on the tv, got comfortable and painted my nails. I was doing this girly-girl-blow-on-the-fingernails and admiring my nails when I saw that nailpaint was called "pure vanilla."

I wondered, so they've started making scented nail paints now. Nice!

Surprised that I was, I brought the little bottle close to my nose and sniffed it.

No! It was the same old acetonish smell. It wasn't anything like vanilla!

I saw another nail paint bottle sitting pretty on my dressing table, it was called berry-licious. I never tried to taste it.

It was the shade which they named 'pure vanilla'. Ofcourse! What was I thinking :-/

I guess I had my blonde moment that day. But in my defence I have never seen vanilla :)

T-shirt

So, I am at Palladium and see a pretty girl checking out clothes at Vera Moda. She’s wearing a white t-shirt which had this written across the front:

ALL THIS AND BRAINS TOO!

Lol, interesting isn’t it!

D

The very mention of it makes you roll your tongue. Thirst suddenly hits you.

Tequila was the first alcoholic drink that I ever had. The thrill of breaking the good-girl's-code who doesn't drink was first broken when I had a swig from a 60ml shot glass. It burnt my insides.

We were in college then, and in our innocence, even a single shot of tequila was equivalent to more than just a drink... it was an expression of freedom; of breaking the rules... (something we'd seen our dads do) and that was... to have a drink. That's how you know you're now a grown up... you can drink.

Ever since then, you've had the most amazing of memories associated with that magical drink. Of course, some other friends have joined mid-way; there’s the sophisticated looking wine, there's the rum & coke, there’s the beer, there's the ill-fated too-many-vodkas-in-one-night, there's the whisky which you hated the taste of initially...

Of our most special memories (since we turned 21, that is), quite a few are those when you raised a shiny little glass over the top of your head with some salt on the back of your palm and a lime slice between the fingers.

There was that late friday evening when you wished to greet the beginning of a weekend with a couple of tequila shots at the local adda with your closest friends.

There was that hot thursady afty when you wanted to relax with a chilled pint of beer.

There was that lady’s special wednesday night when you could spill it all out with vodka and the girl gang.

There was that fine silent night when you wished to drown someone else’s existence with a glass of rum and coke.

And then there was that night when you celebrated with ordering for a Antiquity for each of your friends.

We all might have the idea of good or bad, right or wrong, happiness or sadness, celebration or grief, relaxation or anxiety, freedom or constraints. Irrespective of that,what matters to me is the feel, it’s the light-head-feeling that keeps pulling me back to it. I drink to get drunk..

PS: Mummy ko nahi hai pata :D

Snow

I am in London. I have been here for the last 8 days. I had awesome fun with Anish.

Anish lied to his parents and came to London with me so that we could see the place together. He had to lie. These days its jhoothe ka bol bala, sachhe ka muh kala :D

London is a nice place or it was nice ‘cause Anish was there. One fine day when he was walking me to work he asked me “Would you like to stay in London?” I said, “I would, if you’re with me.” Now that he’s gone back and I have one more day here I realized I don’t want to live here. London is lonely and cold, weather-wise and otherwise.

I have never seen snowfall, I was hoping to see some when we went to Edinburgh, which is beautiful, but it was plain cold, chilly, dry but no snow. I was packed- two layers on legs, 3 layers on top, cap, gloves and overcoat, how the women out there roam around in shorts is beyond my understanding :-/

This reminds me of a sweetest little conversation I had with sweetest little girl, Sanjana, about a year ago. So, I used to ask Raju Bhaiya if she remembers me after I came back from Reston. I wanted to speak to Sanjana but she wouldn’t talk on phone. She would put the phone on her ear and listen quietly but wouldn’t utter a word.

That had become the routine. On one such one sided conversations, Sanjana took the phone from Bhaiya and ran away. I could hear her little footsteps on wooden floor. Bhaiya picked up other line and said that she’s taken the phone away and she’s staring out of the window. He said he’ll call me in sometime if it gets disconnected and went after Sanjana. I heard Bhaiya screaming, “Sanju beta bua se baat nahi karni?”

There was complete silence from her side and here I was repeating one line endlessly: “Sanjana baby what happened?”

Then the best thing happened. I heard Sanjana whisper into the phone-loud and clear

“Look Son-bua….it’s snowing….”

Bored!

This time, last year...

I was busy working on my DDP. Well, not really :D let’s be honest, I was trying hard to find time for “Stochastic and Population Balance Model for Bistable Genetic Switch” (Wow I still remember the name of my project, pat on the back!). I was super busy with my friends, going out with them for movies, never ending dinner and drinks sessions, pictionary, bowling, go karting, ccd, coffee shack...

There were so many people in Bombay, in h10, in insti that I was always short of time.

This time, this year…

Lots of my friends have left Bombay. And on this particular weekend Anish is in Delhi, my room-mates have gone home, Chinky is in Chennai, my brother has quizzes (and he wants to study! What’s with him and quizzes I don’t understand), Shikha is home, Jain’s busy with her *friend*, Dola is in NY, Bhangi is attending some wedding, Gauri’s busy house hunting, Viks, for a change decided to spend the weekend in Bhopal, Chhi and Sahil are traveling. Sobo trip won’t happen this weekend- Uncle Aunty are busy with few things.

So this weekend it’s just me- I was happy. How often do you get such a chance- I thought! Time to tick mark things from my girly-stuff list and indulge. Hair spa. Facepack with cucumber slices. Threading. Manicure. Pedicure. Body massage. Trying out new makeup. Watching SATC.

Done all that and it’s not even 3pm on Saturday. It's annoying how suddenly I have so much time in the weekend, and no idea what to do with it! My usual weekend can be described very well by Circuit’s expression when he saw Munna Bhai’s room “shuru hote he khatam ho gaya.” In a typical weekend if I manage to catch up on my sleep, I consider it achievement.

Which is why this weekend is really weird. Time just wouldn’t pass! I made myself nice healthy dinner- egg bhurjji , bread, and kesar milk (yes, I call it dinner), cleaned my wardrobe, finished two episodes of Gossip Girl went to sleep.

Sunday morning, made myself pyaaz ke parathe, watched a movie on youtube, chaatofied facebook, spoke to family, went to gym, slept for two hours and its 6pm. I could’ve gone out for shopping but didn’t feel like stepping out in the heat. Stared out of the window.

Stared out of the window.

Stared out of the window. And some more staring :-|

I was bored.

I realized that when we say we have no time for something, we're just bullshitting ourselves. If we really want to do something, we'll always have time for it. I guess that holds for boredom too. If you really want to get bored, if getting bored is important to you, if you truly value boredom, you will surely find one way or another to achieve it.

Saw some tv and like a good girl, got into my comforter at 10 in the night to get up fresh and relaxed for Monday morning. Never have I ever looked forward to a Monday morning like this!!

FRIENDS

Ross: What is Chandler Bing's job?
Rachel: Oh! Oh gosh, it has something to do with numbers.
Monica: And processing!
Rachel: Oh, well... and he carries a briefcase!
Ross: Ten seconds. You need this or you lose the game.
Monica: It's, um, it has something to do with transponding.
Rachel: Oh, oh, oh, he's a transpons... transponster!
Monica: That's not even a word!

FRIENDS fans will know this. While watching this episode tonight I was wondering how true this phenomenon is. How many times have you been asked about your work?

I am faced with certain few questions every time I meet my old friends and cousins. My answers are usually less than five words for each question. A sample conversation goes like this:

Someone: “So, how’s your work going?”

Me: “It’s going good. I love it.”

Someone: “I heard you’re in bank?”

Me: “Yeah.”

Someone: “You’re a graduate in chemical engineering, right, what are you doing at the bank?”

Me: “Yes I know, I didn’t want to go in core chemical side.”

Someone: “Are you manager at bank?”

Me: “No, I am analyst, junior most post.”

Someone: “Which bank?”

Me: “Deutsche bank.”

Someone: “What!?!”

Someone: “What is your work about?”

Silence. There’s no way, I know, to answer this question in few lines and explain them what I do. After I say a few things about my work, I’m cut…

Someone: “So MBA over?" (MBA? Who's doing an MBA? If you mean Masters in Chemical Engineering, yeah, that's over.)

And so on…

After one such conversation it struck me - instead of being glad that most of them at least know vaguely that I have abandoned engineering and plunged into banking, I go "What buggers! They're supposed to be my close friends and they don't even know what I do!" without wondering for a moment if I know for sure what the hell they do.

I mean face it, your friends, your cousins... do you really know what they do? I’ll confess- I don't. I mean I know some are in IT, some are in banks, some are doing their MBA degrees, some are doing random things, but if you ask me exactly what they do, which company they are in, what their designation is, what they are studying, I have no clue most of the time!

When you become friends with someone, the first thing you find out is what they do. The closer you get to your friends, the less it matters what they do, and after a while, it stops mattering at all. And it comes naturally.

Conclusion: That’s why Chandler doesn’t bother whether Monica and Rachel knew his occupation, because he knows they are his close FRIENDS. J