Musings

Smile
"Chilly chicken without the chicken (basically vegetarian)" and "OuryesWeePee" had me in splits today. A forward doing the rounds - a wedding invitation card in the form of a cartoon strip - howlarious. I'd have loved to create something like that. I think we Indians as a race are too friggin' serious and lack a basic sense of humour - we just can't laugh at ourselves. In fact sometimes I wonder if 2 of my friends were to bitch about me, what a picture they'd paint of me...:)) (sounds fun...in fact I think I should do this more often, think about all my weaknesses and laugh out loud - I'd live longer).

Colleagues
A colleague's knock knock jokes yesterday were cute too, especially the one about "I geese not ..." or something to that effect. Coming from this particular colleague was surprising, because he's such a grave character and I wonder if he ever smiles....he's almost like one of those fairy tale princes who forgot to smile - he seems to have it all, but then, how do we know what really goes on behind our facades, we only second guess (why second guess and not first guess?). But he's a wonderfully well-read person and this and that and all that jazz...(and wouldn't want to say more here). I guess he already knows and he's got such an insouciant air about him, an almost arrogant swagger that's "I'm special and you are all such mere moronic hoi polloi"..maybe he isn't like that... but it's about perceptions. Anyways would he give a damn about what I thought? Nah!

2 days ago I heard one of my colleagues had resigned for no apparent reason - on probing one found that he was suffering from cancer of the lymph node and it was the last stage apparently. I felt an insane urge to just sit on the kerb and holler. I'd met this colleague through my association with an employee club and we'd briefly discussed books and I'd mentioned about Strand and he mentioned how he'd come home and raid my books and then wrote a mail saying, "You never told me Strand would be closed on Sunday" and I got riled (it takes very little to rile me nowadays) and I wrote a fairly sarcastic mail (I do have an acerbic tongue and pen bah!). I felt miserable when I thought about it. Of course I wrote to him and all that and we exchanged phone nos. and I wanted to hug him and just share with him - but I barely knew him and he is more than 6' and I a mere pint-sized 'pocket dynamite' as someone once described (ha ha...those were the heady days). Life! oh god life is short. And bitter. Or sweet. Or sour. Or pungent..life is what you make of it - and I'm making it increasingly complicated. I need a goal.

Cell-less
I forgot my cell at home today. Did I miss it? Not really. Can I live without it? Mmm...not sure...might have withdrawal symptoms.

1st cars
While on my way home I saw my cousin Rohan at the kerb near ISRO with a shiny, sleek, spanking new Getz and I hollered and asked him if he was going for a test drive and he said ,"No it's mine"...and then saw my aunt's head peeping out grinning like a Cheshire cat with all the cream saying hey we'll drop you home. So I sat in a shiny, flashy, red, Korean made car and it was a pleasurable experience. My cousin seemed so nonchalant and detached... are men never given to showing their emotions? For God's sakes at 25 to own a 5.5 lakh car is what society would deem as success... after all Little Prince's observations on men (as in all of us) is so astute...we're only obsessed with numbers. More on that another day perhaps. And I though to myself, Jesus, I got my first car 3 years ago and felt so so so good. And I had crossed my 20s by then... and today kids are flying....I'm getting into my dotage.

Play
I'm going to watch this play called "Aap ki Soniya" enacted by Farooque Shaikh and Sonali Bendre. It's supposed to be a sequel to the brilliant "Tumhari Amrita" - wonder if 300 green ones will be worth it and if Sonali will be able to induce the nuances in her tone as the great Shabana..to hear her and Farooque exchanging life as it were through letters...oh dear God. Brings a lump to my throat to even think of it...I even saw the English version directed by Rahul da Cunha and enacted by Shernaaz Patel and Rajat Kapur, both very fine actors, "Love Letters" I think it was called. But the Hindi version moved me more...I wish I could write so, to evoke emotions, to let imagination fly, to change a life.... I should write..."notes to my soul"

Home
Ma seems more amiable now - it's a temporary truce till, I think, the whole subject of marriage is raked up again and voices raised, tempers frayed, emotions bruised we battle on.... the war is not yet over. I don't know if it ever will. Men are truly from Mars and since I'm from Planet Earth, the twain shan't ever meet.