You know those dark clouds that you know you cannot escape? Except that they keep dodging you and you cannot tell when they will get you. I started 2012 with a terrible intuition. But it was less of intuition and more the anticipation for the dark clouds. Dad's high BP and unacknowledgment of the issue always scared the life out of all of us. But none of us ever had the courage to even discuss it. All we could do was keep telling him to take his medication. And all he ever did was ignore us.
And then it happened. It had to happen. It was nothing less than a nightmare. I was suddenly facing the deepest fear in the middle of a night, seeking reassurance in unscientific words. But we were lucky. There was some loss; it was bound to be. It will be difficult for him to change and adapt now. But I think that's the easiest way out of what we experienced.
Last I visited Mysore was when I was one year old. I obviously had no memories of the place, but for a few pictures in the family album. And then came the news of a wedding there. Everybody was going. You know, my big fat extended Punjabi family? Everybody.
Three of us female cousins are the same age, born on the 3rd of a different month of the same year. Stuthi, the bride in question here, is the middle one. This was big news! Me and the other one, Nidhi were excited. But ultimately Nidhi couldn't make it and I travelled alone.
I missed an exciting function, had a delayed flight from Delhi, the night in Bangalore was unexpectedly cold, the train to Mysore was obnoxiously delayed, and I dragged myself all the way with fever and cold.
But to cut the long story short, the bride looked gorgeous, all of us ate a lot and obsessively clicked pictures of ourselves, we went on a long drive towards Coorg the following day, and like at all typical family gatherings, laughed a lot.
Watching her walk towards her fiance, I figured a lot of things that I would and would not want at my wedding. I cannot bear to have lights flashing in my face and hundreds of people staring at me. I don't think I will let that happen. If and when time comes to it.
Stuffed kachodi!
I saw, I climbed, and I conquered.
Add-ons: Got to meet and spend time with Saikat and Rohini. And tasted authentic Mysore pak.
While a lot of weddings keep flashing on Facebook, I think this is going to be the year of weddings in my immediate circle. Next up, Mangalore!
You know how people can be different in the way they look, think, act, talk, etc. My sister-in-law and I too are different in almost all respects. Especially as far as taste in shoes, clothes and bags is considered. If I drool over those big leather bags, she likes them shiny. If I like plain, cotton tees, she likes dresses that are shiny. And if I pick floaters, she picks red stilettos.
While this brings good variety to the family's look, it is rather funny when we go shopping together. Brother along! It happened today. At 44 degree celsius.
At one shoe store: I was looking at the classic black pair of heels that goes with everything. She, on the other hand, to kill time, picked a silver shoe that had a big shiny silver flower on it. I put on the right shoe, she put on the left shoe. The same guy was attending to us both. I asked for a smaller heel in that design. She asked for more colours in her design. And then we both looked up from our feet, in the direction where Bhaiya was sitting, seeking opinion. Oh man! Poor man!
At least the other man was getting paid to see two opposite customer-types together.
And I am getting training on cosmetics too. I will soon be able to tell a lip pencil from an eye pencil. Wait and watch.
Relatives from outside of Delhi came over about a week in advance. A lot of chai happened even though the temperature was going through the roof. People noticed every single thing that the groom's immediate family wore at every function. People checked me for not wearing make-up. Everyone danced like crrrrrazy. Danced to the beat of the dhol, live music, a DJ, the baraat band, and to whatever else you can imagine. In spite of a lot of planning and colour-coded Excel sheets, there still were things that we forgot at the last minute and had to run about for! Chikan and daaru happened!! Jealous relatives made their presence felt too. The groom's cousins & friends did compete with the bride's cousins & friends over dance/joote/sarcasm and all things mindless.
Most cousins did not sleep before 6:00 am on any of the days and I hated sleeping earlier than the rest but the day-time responsibilities did not leave me with a choice. The baraat was not on time. As our guests increased during the pre-wedding days, the cooks shifted their set-up to our backyard and played punjabi music through the day too. Bahut saara meetha tha!!! :D But almost as expected, my parents and I hardly ate at any of the functions or even otherwise. So while people came and told us how the food was, we did not quite taste most of it. A female cousin of the bride stared at my un-waxed arms at the wedding. a) I did not have time for that stuff. b) I had (and still have) sunburns all over both my arms because of all the running around in the heat. :-| The groom was the calmest person in the house on the day of the wedding. The whole house was nothing better than a railways platform. Things we managed to keep away before people came, lived. The rest - left shoe of a pair, right shoe of another pair, that watch, those papers, those clips, that charger, and a whole lot of other stuff - is yet to be found.
Power cuts did not cause the kind of problems voltage fluctuations did. Paisa paisa paisa... so much frikkin' paisa got spent that I killed my age-old fancy for a fancy wedding for myself. AND the maintenance of a double chin-less face is going down the drain as I am putting ALL the left-over juices/carbonated drinks/mithai/chocolates in my system!
It is a little funny, but almost irritating to count the number of functions in a punju family wedding and figure each time that you're still short on clothes even after having shopped like crazy! When the wedding was scheduled for April and was going to clash with my end sem exams, I had done my share of shopping when I had come home in winters, having only accessories left to be done later. When I came home this time, we figured there were a few other occasions for which I need more clothes. So I shopped more. And today, when one of my excited-for-the-wedding aunts was over to talk about all the preparation, we figured that I am still short of one suit. Reaching the point of being slightly irritated with the whole jazz, I thought I'd just stroll into Dilli Haat and see if I can find something there so that I could get done with it asap! The first stall I stopped at had a gorgeous gold coloured suit. It was all gold, and yet very sophisticated. But I decided to walk around a little more to see the available options. And I landed at another store which had authentic punjabi phulkari dupattas. Now let me tell you that even though phulkari is supposed to be only thread work, these artisans can make such incredibly pretty clothes out of it that you won't believe your eyes. And you know I have always been the more silk/threadwork kinda person as against shiny sequins stuff. But sometimes (when it is your own brother getting married) you are compelled to buy the brighter stuff because you cannot afford to look under-dressed. Bleh. So I got so confused between the two that I came home empty-handed. [New feat achieved in my shopping history - coming home without anything in spite of it being a need-based shopping outing AND me finding more than one thing worth my money!!]
"Kisi friend ki shaadi pe kaam aa jayega."
Now quickly tell me which one of you is getting married soon enough for me to go back and buy that gold thing so that I can wear it to your wedding!!
# A two-day trip turned into a two-week long trip. # Chandni Chowk, Rajouri Garden, Kotla, Punjabi Bagh, Chawri Bazaar - the wedding cards, dhol, band, ghodi, d-day ensemble for the groom, et al - complete utilisation of my presence at home! # I had an impossible amount of chaat on this trip! # Did not miss the penne with vodka at Big Chill! :D # Played a nice, colourful Holi! # Met Saumya after about a year and a half, and it was obviously lotsa fun! # Met Prashant after even longer, managed to check out his latest exhibition too, and it was plain, simple, nice to see him! # Watched two not-so-good movies in one week. Still quite like Morgan Freeman and Abhay Deol though. # Managed to get back a bit of control over my mind. # Still haven't managed a frikkin' job. # Clicked lotsa flowers blooming in my backyard. # Stopped haggling with auto guys. Every journey does cost Rs 50. Period! # Felt inflation! Silver which used to cost anywhere between Rs 350-500 has shot up to Rs 1300 and more! And this was before the announcement made in the Budget.
Had home food, slept well, and now heading back. I hope it is the last time I have to board a Pune-bound train. Never felt worse about getting onto one of those!
The luxury of tears that flow, the luxury of people who notice, the luxury of family that books tickets for home, and the luxury of little, material love over and above the unspoken.
The activity (or the lack of it) on this page over the last two months is making me feel like I have aged a little too much for the kind of time span we are talking about. Things might change once I get back to Pune, I don't know. Let's wait for that - just another three days. Maybe it's just this overwhelming pace of life that has kept me away from updating.
As of now, the latest and most interesting update is that my brother is now engaged. I have waited for this occasion for the longest time. I think I was 14 years old ever since I have been planning to look pretty on his wedding. Of course, the marriage changes the family's dynamics too, but that is still a couple of months away.
So I did the whole mehandi, earrings, and pretty clothes jazz over the past few days. I was even forced to buy gold-coloured shoes and wear make-up. Well, what I did to my face apparently does not qualify as make-up, but I think it was just about fine. Especially because it does something to my stomach just the way sequins do. And I swear I have seen enough shiny wedding-y clothes, shoes and bags which look good minus any sequins. Yes, fancy things are made for me too. :D
Apart from all that, I think there is a general issue with some 'nice' men. They don't seem to know how to handle women-related issues in their head. I won't generalise about the type (of men or situations), but everyone has some issue or the other. It's pretty incredible. I think credit also goes to women like me who always seem to attract the wrong kind of men (wrong for us, nice in general - yes, the corporate training also taught me how to be more politically correct).
On a lot more serious note, now I am pretty clear about the kind of job and the kind of organisation I want to join once I finish college. The million dollar question, however, remains that who is willing to hire me!
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Trivia: Audioslave should feel happy to be owning my first ever cellphone ringtone in six years. That does not mean that I have stopped hating the concept of ringtones. Sometimes life's complusions are plain weird.
Trivia 2: 'Weird' and 'stuff' have been the two most controversial words - independently and together - of the past two months. The irony of it has also been factored in.
Trivia 3: Ranbir Kapoor in Rocket Singh is the hottest thing I have seen in the longest time! Totally reminds of the sardar I had a crush on in WWW! Completely adorable and handsome!!! :D
This weekend came and went by in a snap. After ages I felt like my social self again. And it was great because unfortunately, like I've been telling everyone I know, in spite of an entire lifetime in this city, I hardly have any friends left here. So it was great meeting some of my people again.
On Saturday morning, my brother was kind enough to actually ask me to accompany him for some shopping. In the process I got myself the most beautiful pair of earrings I have ever bought. They beat the second most beautiful pair of earrings I own which I had bought just last week. :-)
I met Megha as well, and pleased her by showing interest in shiny clothes because according to her I wear extremely boring clothes.
The evening was spent in shopping with mom at another location. Even though mom paid for herself (obviously! I'm a student. What do you expect?), she was happy that one of her kids was nice to her for a change. Especially because we only shopped for her.
I came back with a brilliantly annoying headache, but Avan tried to meet my demand of wanting to talk to her for two hours on the phone. We didn't meet the two-hour goal, but we came close. We did a lot of pending 'catching up'. Only I know how much I miss our long phone conversations ever since she went to a B school!
Sunday afternoon was something I was looking forward to. I was meeting school friends after a really long gap. So much so that I saw my closest friend from school after about a year today. I was damn excited. Most of the people in that chain mail did turn up. Basketball kept the boys away for longer than expected, but it was still nice to meet the old gang! The old commerce gang (I used to hang out more with the science students in 11th and 12th)! We had a lot more to talk about, but other commitments kept it slightly shorter than we would have liked. Incidentally, we also ran into one of the most dedicated students of our batch from school. The conviction with which he used to say that he wants to be a doctor totally reflected in the fact that today he's at the Safdarjung Hospital. Highly impressive!
Among other fun things, I had a fruit salad sundae from Nirula's after really long. As in manyother places, the quality is nothing like it used to be. Nonetheless, it remains one of my most favourite things ever! This reminds me - last week when I had gone to Chandni Chowk, we'd gone to the parathe wali gali and to my disappointment, the size of the parathas has now been halved. Moreover, there was absolutely no difference between a khurchan and a rabdi paratha. Yes, I have progressed from the apprehensive days of aloo parathas, but let's not digress from the point. So much for a slowdown! :-/
Back to today: From CP I headed to Khan Market with Kulsum's truck driver skills. She turned out to be better than what I was told about her. She left, and I met Udit. We spent some time at Cafe Oz. A place where pasta was not well-cooked, none of the desserts were (thankfully) appealing, and the iced tea was just about ok. I also went through some of his photographs' prints. Quite liked a few!
He was nice enough to drop me home. Post dinner I sat with my family, and we talked for a good two hours. It hardly ever happens. I loved every single moment of it!
My tickets for going back to Pune are booked. A train that takes more than a day, and I don't have a window seat. I know how much sulking these facts involve!
And oh, I got to talk to the 'love of my life' Sahil properly after more than three weeks today. It was nice. :-)
Why peanut butter? Because back in the hostel I developed a liking for untimely slices of bread with peanut butter - something I never really had at home. So to add to my already excessive weight, I got a jar recently and have been having untimely slices of bread with peanut butter again! Who would have thought I would bring stupid habits from hostel to my home! But stupid things are the easiest and quickest to travel, aren't they?
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I could not make a post about the recently-discovered engineer hidden in me. For your reference, I am working with one of the engineering giants right now. Last week I was disappointed because a stupid reason led to me missing a photoshoot of our technology at a substation. On Friday, I highly enjoyed reading about all the physics I missed out on after 10th standard. I also visited our instrumentations factory. It did take all these weeks for me to begin enjoying it, but really, if it wasn't for nauseating chemistry, I would have been in a completely different world today!!
So this is it about my weekend. Now I'll go decide what I have to wear to work tomorrow. Tada!!
Head Girl and Vice Head Girl - Batch 2004
Best buds
Trained at Delhi School of Social Work and National Institute of Fashion Technology respectively - talking about and agreeing upon how to handle rishtedars with shaadi ka rishtas
Kulsum has a 'thing' for getting people's invisible feet in all pictures she clicks
It has been a while since I wrote about how I spent a particular day. For me it is also worth writing about because ever since I have landed in Delhi (been three days), I have done nothing.
I stepped out to get my mehendi routine taken care of. Lajpat Nagar like every year! I always used to pay 50 bucks for both hands. This time I had to bargain to bring them down to Rs 70 for the same. My yellow bag saw light of day after weeks today! We were both happy. :-)
At home, the mithai has found a taker. I am enjoying laddoos, and pethas, and barfis, etc in turns. :D
I also googled for a new rangoli design for tomorrow. I think I have found something, but it might need pre-testing.
In the evening, when Bhai got back home, we fixed the lights. I love the little yellow bulbs. Then, he and I stepped out to buy the diyas. It's this road in Sarojini Nagar where sellers are lined up with the prettiest Diwali stuff made of mud. There was great variety in the style that diyas were made. But we are traditional in thought and taste. We bought the conventional-looking ones. (A handful of white diyas only to satisfy the keeda. :P) We bought more stuff than was needed for home. Such behaviour is one of the few common things (the second mentioned here) between the two of us.
Like I mentioned recently, the P word takes priority. I had been strategically doing all my work since afternoon such that I wouldn't have to wash my hands (in order to allow the mehendi to get darker). Water is known to be a killer in the process. But as the night came, so did my enemy. :-/ So now I am just hoping that the morning does not disappoint me with the colour. Mehendi in bad colour is one of the worst-looking things on earth!
Tomorrow morning also has the annual Diwali havan scheduled. It demands that I sleep early tonight. Have extended family stuff planned for the rest of the day as well. :-)
Aside: This would have been anniversary time.
P.S. - I recently got mom to invest in a green silk saree for me. I can't wait for an occasion to wear it! :D
It were the happiest 24 hours in the longest time I can remember. Family made me happy. And this college's erratic bull shit worked in my favour for the first time ever. Or so it seems for now.
I can't believe a superbly filmy part of my life. I can't believe that I see it and feel as powerless about it as I do. Or maybe it's some sort of a subconscious-related masochistic pleasure.
There is somebody behind perspective. I am guessing it's god.
Whoever comes to my room, does not go without appreciating my wall. Makes me super happy!
I'll come back to loving you another day. I am meeting my mom today.
One radio station or the other plays the masakkali song every morning at 8:40. I remember how they used to play come to me by Abhishek Bachchan every morning at a fixed time too. But it's funny how masakkali tells me how late I am running. Sometimes I am at East of Kailash when it plays, and today I was still at AIIMS when it played. But it was bhaiya who got us late today. No, I'm not complaining.. he drops me to work every morning. :P
I wasn't complaining about the horrible weather during the weekend either 'coz I was having a good time with friends. And shopping too. :P But that thing about variation in pace of life that everyone always talks about when you compare a large metro to a smaller city is true. Things that I used to do before leaving Delhi suddenly seem to suck out a fairly large chunk of energy now. But then working close to nine hours in office and not be tired at all is also because of the pace at which we work in college. Fair tradeoff, I'd say.
Oh, did I tell you that I got flowers this weekend? :D And silver jewellery too? :D And new clothes as well? :D Yes, I'm having quite a party thanks to a couple of nice people around. And I'm watching a new season of Grey's Anatomy too. :D
Aaaand my VP told me more than once that he likes the work that I've done so far! :D
If the coming weekend turns out to be the way I want it... life will be even better.
:P Don't look at this thing that I ended up creating. It's about the sentiment.
These two are equivalent of my paternal grandparents. And I think I have inherited my vibe system from them because I don't remember a time when any one of us in the family have been upset and have not received a call from them. Can't be more thankful for their presence in my life. Really.
And the superbly corny title for the city they live in. :P
The schedule for the semester said that September 3rd and 4th will be holidays. Several weeks in advance I started talking about moving out of Pune for the two days. After much contemplation, we decided that it won’t be too good an idea to go because it is festive time here in Maharashtra and the streets are a little crazy with celebrations and frenzy.
So it was decided that 2nd night will be a party. The only condition I laid down was that there has to be dance. The onus of deciding and planning everything else was on friends. Poor things brainstormed on minute details like mad for days. Surprises were also being planned, and I was being made to eat alone at the mess while the secret stuff was on.
What was also happening (of things I knew about) was a wardrobe makeover for yours truly. First she bought a fancy top for which she thought a Mr Chopra will be decent company in helping to decide. But turned out he didn’t know how to help women shop. So the coordinators of the event – Ridhima HI! Mehra and Swetha Bijli came to my rescue and we bought something pretty.
Then a couple of days later Ashraf and Nidhi helped me shop for a skirt which was ‘very-unlike-Richa’. But “cute” (as everything I will ever own or do in this lifetime) it was, and a 40% discount it had, so we merrily bought it.
Here comes the afternoon of 2nd September and the notice board says that Aarbee along with three other party members were required to report in the office at 8:00 pm for an interview. So the cab will come later and we will have lesser time to funjoy. Nonetheless, finally after a LOT of continuous planning we left campus at 9:45 pm. Two cars loaded with 14 people headed to the city which was apparently choked due to rain and traffic. It took us about a very eventful one hour to reach an area called Kalyani Nagar and there we figured that things are going to be shut within minutes and we have no place to eat, drink or DANCE. Happy to me! Not even Comesum at the railway station was an option because there were drunken men all over the place anyway. And there were thullas too who would not have allowed 10 of us to be in one Tavera. Only one place had lights on at 11:30 - McDonald’s. We go and loot all that their kitchen had left in it. Not enough for all of us, but we make do. I started feeling better because I felt I was turning 13 or something, not 22. A yummm chocolate truffle cake arrived and also began a flood of phone calls. There went the routine followed by a wise decision of just coming back to campus because there was NO place to go to in this students’ city. :-/
You know who was torn between feelings of being happy that there are 14 other people trying to make her day exciting and of being sad because of the fact that one of the gods decided to steal her thunder.
So we just played blaring music in the car, sang out loud, stopped over at a dhaba to get some proper food, and were back on campus at 2:00 am. The dance HAD to be there and we were lucky to have Bappi da with us on Ranjan’s phone. So we walk-danced from the academic block to the hostels on the tunes of Yaar bina chein kahan re and so on. Akash, our techie cameraboy was playing Shashi Kapoor for the night and made sure we laughed like crazy.
After further madness and realisation that we did not have alcohol for the girls on one of the floors (automatic, natural dry day for MY floor), we just called it a day and five of us came to my room while the others went to their respective hostels and rooms. My birthday had just begun, so the surprise was waiting for me to change into pyjamas. It was a video full of wishes and love that all these guys had recorded and edited for me. Now that was something I had never been at the receiving end of. So I smiled through the 20 minutes of footage and as usual was left with no words at the end of it. And so I smiled further. =)
At 4:00 am we NEEDED sleep, so everyone went off. I don’t know when I got sleep because I started answering phones again at 7:00 am. The number of embarrassing calls was the highest this time because most people called on my Reliance phone and that phone has no numbers saved apart from those of the Pune people. So a friend calls and plays the guitar, and I am compelled to ask who it is because I had absolutely no clue about who I was talking to. Some sent some profanities free with the wishes, others just didn’t say anything.
For lunch I wanted pizza and my friends wanted embarrassment for me. So they told the Pizza Hut people that it is my happy to you and they made me stand in the centre (thankfully, not on a chair) and sang a strange happy budday song. The cutest thing there though was a small girl coming up to wish me and giving me her FiveStar. And she genuinely wanted me to have it because she barely took a bite of it when I offered it to her. Darn sweet!
Spent the entire day eating, walking and shopping in the city and came back by the 9:00 pm bus. Also, received and bought flowers. One of the bouquets that I received became a little extra special though. It had travelled a couple of kms less than 2,000 if I am not wrong. It was from a Bong in Calcutta. The one who took note of a mad request I had made on the blog last week. Super-duper happy!!!
By the time I reached my room I was too dead! Still sat and organized all the photographs that were clicked over the past 24 hours. And now writing this too.
But before ending I really need to thank the gang here without whom this day would not have been so special.
Please make way…
Aakash
Akshay
Amrah
Bijli
Booty
Debby
KD
Maria
Nidhi
Ranjan
Reitesh
Ridhima
Robin
Ruhi
Sahil
Shagun
Shahwan
Venky
Vrinda
-All sweethearts!! It doesn’t feel like I have known them for only two months. And they don’t behave as if they’ve known me for only two months. Love ‘em all!! =)
Thanking you. :P
All of us, with Priyam behind the camera
On the way back to campus.
On campus :)
During the day
Home was quiet and missed me. Even though I am having a lot of fun here, I hope to go back soon and spend more birthdays there. Love you, Ma, Pa and Bhaiya. Mmuaaah!!
A plan that was being postponed for some time, finally got finalised on Saturday, the 8th. I was gonna board a train the next morning!! So, the next morning, I was on the Kalka Shatabdi to Chandigarh. According to my family, mera 'train mein baithne ka sapna poora ho gaya'. I was recently cribbing about how it had been two years since I last travelled by train. Although, it was not exactly the kind of fun I'd have liked - the one of travelling in a coach where you can open the windows. That's the real fun!! Anyway, I wasn't complaining. We were going to Chandigarh to meet two of my most favourite oldies. We were returning the same evening. But this time by bus since there weren't any train tickets available.
I went to Chandigarh after almost nine years. Clearly, I didn't remember much of the city. But I fell in love with it yesterday. It almost seemed ideal - a lot like Delhi, and minus the chaos and rush of this place. What more can you ask for!
I clicked a lot of random pictures, and was happily stunned to see how clean the railway station and the bus station there were. They mop the floors there! Even though the same places in Delhi are relatively much larger and see much more traffic, they still have no reason to be like the kind of urinals they are!! Ugh.
The return journey was a little towards irritating. What with terrible traffic and a HORRIBLE movie being played in the bus. Why don't people donate money than making such shit movies like Dhol? It was nothing more than 2.5 hours of noise. Bloody! Thank god for AIR FM - it saved me from a lot of that noise. And also gave me a lot of Beatles, Billy Joel and so forth as added bonus. :-)
By the time we reached Delhi, I could not feel my neck. It was unbelievably stiff. But I'm glad we got Volvo tickets, otherwise I would not have been able to feel the rest of my body either. Oh, I could not believe the number of cars parked at Murthal dhabas either. Crazy stuff!
Got home by 10:00 p.m., went through the usual night routine, and crashed soon after.
It was an incredibly beautiful weekend I had. Saturday was very different from Sunday, but it was just as much fun...although, Shady blamed me for having dropped a pastry (MY pastry)...while it was actually an accident. :( Hmph!
But like it's said, mulla ki daud masjid tak. I'm back to solving maths questions today. :D
