Friday 30 October 2009

What is love?

What is Love? The eternal question, I'm no great philosopher and I'm not here to bore anybody with my perspective of it. Its about sharing.....
Today as I finished buying the bare necessities with the bare minimum I had left, and as I crossed the steep Abbey Bridge I saw the bus stop that was at the end of the bridge. On the cold and chilly night and bogged by at least 6 kilos of weight on me, I remembered how nice and warm the bus stop feels. The light in the bus stop that makes you feel you have superior vision than the people walking past you as you feel your cones(for the people who are ignorant, the cells in your eye sensitive to light) working excessively in the strong white light. I could feel how much comfortable the chairs inside the waiting area was, as its a thermally controlled area which in turn makes the seats go warm. When you are cold from walking to the bus stop the immediate sense of relief that brings to you as soon as you step into the bus stop. Ah!....

Anyhow, my eyes wandered onto the lady sitting in the bus stop. She was of Mongolian origin as her facial features hinted. She was wearing a black coat,skirt and knee high boots. Her jet black hair softly framed her face. As each car that passed by, her hair swayed and danced a bit to the music and rhythm of the whooshing air as the hair finally settled on her face. She would push it back with her fingers ever so softly and tenderly that would perhaps hint at her timid and soft nature. She waited impatiently for the bus and she kept peering at the street earnestly wanting just to see the headlights of the bus and she would be at ease. She would force herself on her toes and tilt forward and see, and sigh every time she realised that the bus ain't there. Of course her sighing would not get the bus to the stop faster, but if the bus driver had seen how impatiently she waited for the bus; I bet she would have stepped on the gas to make this lady all smiles.

As I walked past the bus stop, I realised why am I observing this lady so intently? Am I so weird? Is it our nature to observe so much?....? While a quarter of a million questions passed my mind i realised and settled with the solution that most suited and appeased my thinking. Yes. I am in love. Not in love with the lady. Not in love with her impatient wait for the bus (No am not that sadistic, yet! ). Not in love with her beauty. It was the whole picture that I am in love with.
The grace with which the lady carries herself off, waiting at the bus stop, her elegant features that made me notice her from across the street but intently, the sense of unease that prevailed for her bus which I guess all of us share...everything. Its a matter of correlation I guess. On a normal day you fall for a person when you think, "Oh! His ideologies are just like mine. I think I'm in love". That much is usually all the tempo that is required for one to fall in love, or at least to get the ball rolling. Here, similarly I could relate so much with the lady at the bus stop that it was love at first sight..of the entire picture.
For me I guess that's as close to loving at it gets. Love the picture. Love the game. :)

Tuesday 27 October 2009

A thousand glimpses

It really is a rather rare emotion that a grandchild and her grandparents share. The abundance by which one gets pampered, the various perks that one receives, the amount of attention and love that's sought out for them and last but not the least..the home made goodness bound to perfection that are made, especially for them! Ah! Priceless is an understatement.
I have not had the good fortune of meeting my grandfather(s), but whenever I think about my good old childhood days, I see many a memories I shared with Dida (maternal grandmother)- be it in the form of the piece of brownie she saved that my mum got for her in the first place, be it how she used to make the ice cream vendor stop every time it used to cross the house and how our entire family including Pacco (the golden retriever dog I had as a child) would cool off with some treats, how she used to get me to post a million mails to mama (maternal uncle) and other gazillion things.
My favourite memory associated with her has to be that, as a child whenever I used to get tired of studying I used to sneak away from my mum's eagle eye vision and go and crash on her belly; while she swayed me from side to side. Although when ma used to realise that I have sneaked out (yet again!), it used to fetch me quite a long lecture which was worth every syllable of scolding which was (then) being efficiently rendered! :)
I lost my grandmother to cancer and she finally expired suffering an agonising death in the year 1998. All I really felt bad was that she couldn't live to see the next millennium (Remember the Y2K hype?) but I was glad that at long last she rested in peace. I guess so was my family.
Last month, it was 11 years since she had passed away; but I couldn't bereave her death as it also clashed with my Visa interview date. Its funny how a woman gets all caught up with life and its mortal issues.
Today in a land far far away from home I pay my respects to her. While I remember the awesome-est moments that I have shared with her it doesn't make one immune to quiver and turn misty eyed to go through the memories borne for a long lost and mostly, beloved family member. But what I do know, is that while I post my emotions on the WWW she's out there with a smile on her face, a smile that bears warmth like rays of Sun on a chilly Monday morning. If she saw me right now her chest would swell with pride with the fact that I know alphabets enough to write an article. She would then mollify me and say,
"Do not stand at my grave and weep,
I am not there, I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glint on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you wake in the morning hush,
I am the swift, uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circling flight.
I am the soft starlight at night.

Do not stand at my grave and weep.
I am not there, I do not sleep.
Do not stand at my grave and cry.
I am not there, I did not die."

Courtsey:Mary Elizabeth Frye

R.I.P. Dida. 

Wednesday 21 October 2009

Missing Pieces

After going abroad for studies I have realized something. It ain't a cake walk..rather there's no cake at all..more like an uphill task. Pardon me if my ideas come off as a bit hazy,blurry or tired, but sleep deprivation gets to you after a while. You know its time to score yourself a good 6 hour sleep when you keep hitting your head at various random places and you know they exist but somehow manage to hit yourself. Ex-banging your head against the cabinet above your table that you know exists, for sure! So even though I feel kinda lame writing this I guess the adrenaline sources are dry off pumping energy or sense into me so....

10 random things I miss about India:
1. Fire while cooking
When you turn your gas on and it goes "click" and it gives out those warm copper blue flames that cooks your food day in an day out. You never realized you can miss it,did you?
2. Radio
When you switch on the radio you expect a communion of languages will greet you, followed by a mixture of Hindi and English songs that you have already heard a thousand times..well maximally that's why we do turn on the radio so that we get to listen to songs we already know.
3. Discipline
Never thought this would make the chart but it does. As students we have never really been allowed freedom... freedom to eat, drink, talk loudly in the class while the teacher is leaving...things like that.
4. Straight
Needless to say, India is very orthodox in its manner and fashion in which lives are required to be led to live in a society, peacefully. Gays and bisexuals maintain a low profile. I might be a girl of the 21st century and blah! but I'm yet to break the barrier where I get comfortable.
5. Advertisements
Never in a million years can I dream of Playboy party advertisements being distributed by cheerleaders along with pink bunny ears at the entrance of the main building. Everything has a place and a time for everything.
6. Grocery Stores
You step into a really small grocery store yet you will find more types, varieties and kinds of beer rather than vegetables or any household item.
7. Fresh Vegetables
Heralding from India, I fail to understand how "Peeled, Sliced tomatoes" tinned, cost more than fresh tomatoes. I just don't!
8. Classes
My 1st day of UG classes was like a blur didn't get anything what was being talked about rather taught and I didn't give a tiny rats ass about it. Here I got all worked up, even though I did join after 2 weeks,but still...
As a UG student the days you felt something really screwed up was taught in class and the rarer days that you actually bothered to go back and look it up it was all clear as a picture, here everything that you read is a bit turmoiling and yeah! 1 hour literally gets you nowhere!
9. Sun
The feeling of the soothing warm rays that you can see gleaming outside from your cold room, and just to bask yourself in that warmth on a cold chilly day is a wonderful feeling :) .
10. Closing time
All shops including clothing shops are closed by 6 p.m. and at most its 7 p.m. after that all you get are the fast food joints, pubs and hyper marts.

10 random things I love about UK:
1. No pollution
Oh! The dirt free, pollution free environment here is extremely lovable. My eternal cough and cold problem has bid me goodbye at long last!
2. Zero crime rate
There's practically no crime happening at all, you can walk to the local stall near your house at 10:30 p.m. feeling absolutely care free and safe.
3. Road rules
The technology for crossing roads is brilliant. Love it. You press the button on the pavement by the zebra crossing when you need to cross and wait for the signal to change, and then you cross. Simple. No jay walking. If the signal changes while you are still midway the cars actually stop for you and ask you to cross before they speed past you.
4. Bus Stops
At every bus stop there's a layout about the buses covering the main stations that passes via that bus stop. They also have a routine as to which bus comes when and you can see the time ticker change as the buses reach the particular bus stop.
5. Carefree nature
As long as you work right no one cares how you dress to class, work nothing. Do your job rest is your headache!
6. Calling cards 
You want to call overseas (to the few people who don't have access to internet rather Skype) just use the calling cards. It costs you a minimum and you can be talking to anyone you want for...well eternity!
7. Electronics
Not only is the range of electronics as vast as the universe but the affordability of the appliances is astounding. Everything in India and more, and CHEAPER!!!! Oh! Good Lord! :)
8. Approachability
You have a problem in a subject but you can't meet the teacher, no problem, email him! And oh! yes they do reply, more like ASAP.
9. Gizmo friendly teachers
It really gives you a spark when you think the teacher walked in with a sheet of papers or may be a booklet of some sort to realize, "Oh!No, it's an IMac and oh!yes, its thin as a wafer"!
10. Internet Speed
The 1st day I reached my flat, my flat mates told me the speed was good. There was a notice claiming that there's some work going on and the speed will be low till another 3 hours. So I hooked up my laptop to see, that oh!Fish!(yeah you know what i mean! ;) ),it was a whooping 2 MBPS! There are days when I have got speeds of 6MBPS! Believe it! :)

Bittersweet experience ain't it? :)

Friday 16 October 2009

World of "Shopping"craft!

Meera: "Jai yeh dress kaisi lag rahi hai"?
Jai: (already carrying a ton of clothes,tired and bugged replies in an exaggerated tone) "Oh my god Meera! tum bahut achhi lagg rahi ho! Itni achhi dress ho kaise sakti hai?le lo isse,le lo abhi"!!!
Meera (looks in the mirror): "Neck thodi low hai na"?
(Eventually she bought that dress. Well I don't remember the exact dialogues but it was somewhat similar. Courtesy: Love Aaj Kal.)
The reason that the conversation appeals to us (or may be it's just me,anyhow...) is because of the simple fact, it's displayed beautifully. It represents how us women are not satisfied with almost anything and we will not buy till we found that perfect dress which is not perfect cause it looks good but its price makes the purchase feasible and worth it and most importantly something we can easily claim "it" as a "STEAL!" :P.
Whether you've faced the wrath of it when you were out with your aunt while she chose sarees, your friends who forcibly stopped you and made you enter a jewellery shop while you felt your dignity chaffed, your mom who tried to buy you the "cool"est shirt, your sister trying to buy a gift for her fellow friends birthday or worst of them all..your girlfriend trying out clothes when you know that maximum times she has absolutely no inclination on buying it and is just doing to kill time..and yet, every time she does come out of the changing room you are supposed to say the right words even if it looks horrible, you are supposed to put it extremely subtlety and with caution. The words to be uttered are,"This color is not suiting your complexion!"; or something similar cause "Hell hath no fury like a women scorned during dress trials". :P
While few men (sons and fathers form the group "men".) act grudgingly while taken out for shopping, and crib that they are missing the tennis match of a lifetime whereas it could be Sania Mirza & Venus Williams; few others actually have given up their hopes of enjoying a lazy day on the couch flipping through channels with a hand bearing the TV remote just flopped on the sofa, they follow their female counterparts (mothers or daughters alike) to wherever they are asked to.
While they are at the shopping center, they know,"This is it!I'm gonna be here for at least the next three hours! How could I amuse myself? I've already checked out the new XBOX  games, and the lazyboy. What next?" Who so ever said,"An empty mind is a devils workshop", was pretty darned correct cause what entails is a repercussion of what a bored man can do, well..when he is bored!



So next time you go shopping at a place where you have a membership..Leave your male counterpart at home :P