Weekend Banter

Weekend's almost over. Good weekend. Very good in fact.

Saturday Banter
11.30 to 12.30 pm - Gym. Good work out. My abs will be non-existent if I continue this way. Can still feel the tightness. And every time I get up on the treadmill I think - just walk... and then I start the run. 15 mins... at an incline and at a decent speed. The first 5 mins. are not bad... then I'm pushing myself... huff, puff, huff, puff, I can't, is this worth it, tomorrow, I can, I should, more will power, imagine a toned body, sinewy legs and not cellulite ridden 'taangs'... I can, I must, ... 2 more mins..., enough!, just a lil more..., tomorrow... chest heaves, stitch in the side, why? God can I die? I will die!....Done! 15 mins at an incline... and I'm feeling good. Another 5 mins of cool down and boy! It's the most wonderful feeling when you push yourself and test your limits of endurance and come out on top.
I'm beginning to like my body - moles, warts, blemishes et al. Yeah! I like what I have. I'm maturing. I like God's gift.

Lunch, browse the net, siesta and time to meet Amit at Sankey. It's a great idea to meet up for fresh air rather than just sit at some 'hip' or 'to be seen at' place ( or not ,as our case always is...:) ) and live on fresh air. Love in both our lives at the moment has decided to take a back-seat.

Sankey - I live so near, and yet haven't been to the tank in all the years I've spent in B'lore - remember boating there when I was a 'visitor' to B'lore from Mumbai during school vacations. Eons ago. Today it's crowded, and the best laid plans gone awry...LOL. Yeah! Some govt. body decides to lay down interlocking tiles. Some other govt. body decides, 'hey, we got to cover this in our budget and AOP, so let's dig the place up and re-lay what's done already'. Mounds of mud, a tractor trying to wedge in where only 2 cyclists can manage and in the bargain chips off a piece of pillar over which a beautiful bougainvillea is growing (or it is jacaranda...bad at botany...who cares, beautiful lilac flowers forming a bough), some uneducated invisible moronic louts (I could call them worse...I'm still seething) flinging 2 plastic bags of unmentionables in the water from the road...and people walking briskly, or at a leisurely pace taking it all in, and even a kingfisher beating its wings looking with puzzlement and then desultorily at man and his madness. Amit and I play frisbee... I get the hang of it and I'm enjoying it. I tried playing it on the beaches of Goa the year before last, but that was then, and Amit is patient. I can get good at it...:)..next is the guitar and TT if I can and of course perfecting swimming. I could swim mmm....what's 22 x 60 or 75 mts...more than 1500 mts for sure...that was in Mumbai...that was then. Today it's a different story.

Beautiful day. Neither of us wanted to drink so went to Cafe Day and talked of ideas, ideation, what makes successful men successful, what would our attitudes be if we ever achieved material success and so on.

Then decided to go on a drive when Amit suggested we go to Pinxx. We did. We were not dressed for a Saturday night out...and weren't in the mood for any snobbery. Sat in the open air lounge outside and were the only ones. Decided not to have anything while watching TV on the watery wall....Comfortable cushions - huge floor cushions set up against the settees... reminded me of my room...:)...then went upstairs and checked out the restaurant and there were some interesting 'isms' on the wall...called Pinxxism - 'One is not born a woman, one becomes one' and "I think therefore I'm single" (I love this one...it reeks of pseudo intellectualism and snobbery....oh I love it!) and so on. Amit captures it on his cell camera for later.

We go back to a beer and shandy of course and then decide to go to the bar as it pours and one isn't keen on being struck by lightning, not this kinds anyways....:) ha ha ha... At the bar, there are interesting coloured liquors inside bottles on the bottoms of which we read , 'green apple' and 'blue wine' and so on. I'm fascinated. I'm always curious. I ask what they are. Am told. I decide to have a 'shooter' as it's called, a vodka based green apple one. Yummmmmm! We're on the bean bag by then...and the place is hardly crowded and we're comfortable. We decide to have a blog of reviews...Amit and I. We're sure we can give a lot of the 'wannabe' reviewers a run for their money - spiced in our inimitable style (ha ha ha..do we have one already?)...and get excited and as a first, I've saved the bill from Pinxx for future references and comparisons. Reviews coming up....:)

Just the mere mention of death gets people psyched up. Amit is totally psyched. And I'm wondering - why does it get people so worked up? I could die tomorrow - I have nothing to live for - my raison d'etre is my mom... every dream I had went up in smoke. Every dream I dare dream comes to naught. I stopped hoping, dreaming, aspiring some time ago - everything I've loved has never been mine ever - even this time I'm setting myself up for heartbreak, but that's not something that I can control...anyway, so it gets him on edge and that's exactly what I tell him - what is there to do in life when one says, there's so much to do? Do I want to change the world? Marriage, children, money, success, travel, food, clothes, symbols of success (definitions are subjective), are all incidental - the moot point is to live life - decently, happily, and spreading love, cheer and happiness and never ever causing anyone any harm intentionally and just being. But that's not how we all think. We're all in our own cages.

Sunday Banter
Set alarm for 6.00 am - going to Lal Bag en famille. Couple of aunts from Sanjay Nagar, ma, Kaushik my cousin and I at the helm. Takes 18 mins. to Lal Bag in the morning. What bliss!
Park at the West Gate and join the eager beavers for a walkabout. It feels good. It's cool. It's green. It's an oxygen chamber. There's a classical 'katcheri' with a smattering of people listening to it. I'm hungry. My body starts rumbling at exact times nowadays telling me that conditioning the body is good and bad...:)...it can be inconvenient at times where hunger pangs are concerned.

We eat at a drive-in and carry on. Home. Read the papers, read the articles in The Hindu, remember that I have to search for the Water Treaty architect on Google yet again (I think I have Alzheimer's, can't seem to remember people's names and things, when at one point I used to be a walking talking 'know 'em all')...and also the name of the absolutely delightful drink that I had for the first and last time at what is now Taj Land's End in Mumbai on some date (it wasn't some date, but the details of that are better left buried six feet under, slightly painful and unnecessary to rake it up at this point), and don't know how I'm going to google it when I can't even vaguely recollect the name. Sigh!

SMS - try the Mind Sport today, it's freaky. It's a nice one. I'm thinking and I'm not sure what the answers could be. I'm thinking he'll like Mister God...:)...I almost crack the Quick Clues crossword...and then by 12.30 am grabbing some shut eye. No lunch. Fruit diet today. Just another 3 kgs lesser and I'll be okay...I'm still okay, but I want to be 'the bod' at least in my mind...:).

3.30 pm - decide to watch 'Shwas', the VCD of which has been lying with me for well over a month given by Sandy(a colleague). My player is a cheap Taiwanese make that Bunty bought me (how can I even fume and crib at a thoughtful present, so will desist from calling it a 'friggin cheap contraption that I'd much rather...never mind!) so decide to see it at aunt's place on her sleek Philips DVD. Thankfully she lives just 2 floors down so making such decisions is relatively easier.

I love the movie. A movie without underlying messages. A movie without melodrama. A movie made from the heart. A movie enacted from the heart. I remember reading the review of Shwas as soon as Sandy told me about it and Shashi Deshpande's I think was the most eloquent and accurate. I loved it. It made me feel the lack of a male presence in my life - I mean my father or even my grandpa. I wish... but ... there's no point in dwelling on chapters of life that are never ever going to magically change the course of narrative and come alive as a 'happy end'.

Kaushik says, 'Let's go somewhere R' and I say 'Done, give me 20 mins'. Thankfully I share a very decent rapport with all my maternal cousins and they've never ever felt awkward to take me out...:)..so cool eh? Even though I'm the eldest. And the brothers I get along with better than the girls, except for Aditi who is my favourite kid sis.

I wear tracks - why am I specially mentioning it? I'm conservative in the way I dress. So wearing these hipsters made me feel cool... I've lost weight...yipppeee (sigh! being so typically female and exulting in matters so banal makes me blush, but hey, I'm female and I've no qualms being typically female sometimes - I'm fed up of being a 'buddy' and on back slapping terms with most of my male friends - maybe I should be 'I'm so helpless, can you drop me home?' types...or eye lash fluttering, 'Oh God! Is my lipstick still on?'....egads! I shouldn't be disparaging about my own sex here, but to be one of those 'chikcy' girls makes me see red. But sometimes I too aspire for flowers and chocolates,...and...well... it's thanks to a staple of Mills & Boon during my adolescent years....but..yes...sometimes!).

Wind in the hair, beautiful weather. Am a pillion after ages. It feels good. We go to Gullu's chat corner at Kumara Park. Woweee! Then Kaushik wants to go to the Windsor. After taking a very convoluted route, we manage to get to Windsor Sheraton. At first we think we'll go to the Raj Pavilion which is their coffee shop kinda place and I've been there before so know it. But the sounds of mirth and merriment from Dublin their pub, draws us in - and we're soon perched atop the bar stools and Kaushik being a teetotaller, we order for a cocktail and mocktail - we get specially concocted ones courtesy Ranjan, a very gracious bartender. Mine is vodka based with sprigs of mint and it tastes heavenly. Mmmmm! Kaushik's concoction is a combination of strawberry and orange and is out of this world. We then sing along with a bunch of raucous Brits and it's great to hear Status Quo or Clapton instead of the usual Bombay Rockers or whatchamacallit.

We check out the different restaurants at the Windsor, as Kaushik wants to see what's on offer. We go to the book shop called East India Company which is really a 'this & that' bookshop and see Crocodile jeans for Rs.875/- which I think is a steal and Kaushik promptly buys one. I purchase an Outlook because it has Aamir Khan on the cover and it says, 'One of the most interesting actors of the decade' and I couldn't agree more. I adore him!

Right! One more mocktail made of musk melon and mango courtesy the smiling Ranjan, some karaoking with the Brits again on Bryan Adams' 'Summer of 69' and we're outta there. Feeling silly, but happy because it's an impulsive breezy evening.

Thoughts

• Speaking of death is a no no. Some don't like it. Respect that.
• Success is an attitude. Need to cultivate it.
• Being with friends and talking of regular things is so refreshing. Does every conversation have to be intellectual? NO!
• I like my body. I like my skin too. It's mine.:) Am I being narcisstic? No!
• It's nice to do things impulsively. (Thankfully I do it all the time!)
• I should re-open my 'book' - the one I lost to my hard disk crash. Damn! Movies move me...
• Reviews of pubs and restaurants even if it's for a few would give me great pleasure. Amit and I should do it. It's something that I've wanted to do for a while....thank you technology. Blogs suddenly seem very welcome.
• Getting up early on Sundays is good. There's more time.
• I have to revive my work with blind children as I did in Mumbai. Must find out about a blind school here where I can devote time - Shwas made my resolve stronger.
• We have such brilliant actors in regional cinema - and directors - and simple yet powerful stories that are well told.
• Friends are important
• Love makes the world go round.