Away From The Women's Coach

She was beginning to hate the man because he had been in that seat since she had walked in. The seat she felt illegitimate ownership of. Simply because she hates standing through her journey. Just then he got up. Her day's first analysis didn't go wrong, she thought. She had expected him to get off at Chhatarpur. He got up at the next station. The discount is allowed. A minute or so after settling in, she noticed that the station had passed but the man was still there. And he remained until one station before hers. He made her morning by being so nice without an iota of expression of that favour.

And while he comfortably hung around, she noticed a guy sitting opposite her. Disheveled, unkempt, at least three days of not having shaved, exhausted, barely managing to keep his eyes open. But rather attractive, she thought. The Umbro bag by his feet, the Adidas shoes, a smart fleece, and a pair of jeans that she knew only looked good from a distance, added to the good looks. She did not realise she had been staring at him until his eyes suddenly popped open and looked straight into hers. She looked on for that extra second and then shied away, knowing he was still looking. After glancing through in both directions, conveniently skipping him, she looked back towards him a second time. His eyes closed again. Her now usual morning tiredness made both their body languages fairly similar. She watched on, admiring the perfect nose, the beard that she knew must feel soft, and the sleepy demeanour which looked like it was much deserved. The next thing she knew, he again caught her looking at him. It was funny this time. She thought of passing a faint smile, but could sense that he won't react. He seemed dazed. She looked away. She did not want it to repeat a third time, but noticed from the corner of her eye that he was now looking at her. She also watched him watch her get up, pull on her bags, and walk out. She guessed that his eyes closed immediately after. And perhaps she's the only one still enjoying the moment.

Or maybe he's still thinking how her shirt did not match with her sweater. And she's thinking, "damn, just this one day!".

Cricket, Movies, and More

As most of you know, I am part of a large Punjabi family. Lots of bhaiya-didis, chacha-chachis, and so on. Last weekend we had a lunch at my place. Apart from all the fun talks, the day's IPL match was also being followed. I made a request - please let's all go watch a match at Feroze Shah Kotla. So the boys discussed, one of them made a jugaad, and they decided that they can get hold of some corporate box passes for the match scheduled for 17th May. I repeated, please take us - the girls - along too. "Ok ok, we'll see." And well, whadyaknow -- the pigs didn't want to take us along. 6 of them! Could not take three girls with them. And nobody had the nerve to say no in our face either. Because then we'd obviously have tried to get tickets on our own. Can't blame some of them actually, but certainly the ones arranging stuff!!
So I was cursing left, right and center since Friday morning. Come Saturday morning, and the girls were obviously bummed and bugged because of the whole thing. And oh, they were all going to gather at my place first, and then head off to the stadium. :-| So, we had to do some thing!! The most convenient - lunch and movie. I wonder why it's summer break all over and no good movies around. We finally managed to find a show at Satyam, Patel Nagar for Khuda Ke Liye. And I am glad I went! The movie is almost a must-watch. Except for a couple of people who did not know how to act, and maybe the pace of the movie, everything else was brilliant. The story, the research that must have gone into it, the cinematography, the direction.... everything!! [Aside: I was noticing the lighting too. :P And it was SUPERB!] The bad thing on the part of the theatre though - they had turned off the subtitles. The Urdu was obviously hard to comprehend. One of the actors was super-cute too. :) On a more serious note, I wish more people have the inclination to watch it and to understand the issues that the entire world is faced with because of some loony brains (Yes, can't find a more frivolous adjective to describe them). It's sad.

Coming back to the original story. At 2 in the afternoon, when it was hot like crazy, I made a wish - I hope it rains and pours and pours in the evening. :P And when we stepped out of the theatre at around 7:30 p.m. - muhahaaaa!!! Rain gods were listening. And what good were the six buggers if they couldn't even get the home team to win. Yes, I'm Punjabi, but Delhi's home. So I was supporting the Daredevils, and not Kings XI. Anyway, a highly useless loss. But I am just happy that the Knight Riders also lost their last match. :D

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One more thing that I need to write about is the Metro again. I wrote to them after my last post about them. They took time, but they did respond. And again, very politely and sweetly. I was rather impressed. And the work's finally been done. Thank you very much.

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AND again, my cartoon boyfriend is the best cartoon in the world. The teddy-est person ever!! :D :D :D

The DMRC Bubble

It's time for some DMRC bashing today. In the last five years, I have never heard anything negative about it. In fact, it's always been a lot of praise about their way of functioning. Now my opinion shall differ since I am seeing and experiencing things first hand. The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation is carrying out its construction work not more than 100 metres away from my home. Even though there have been quite a few inconveniences in the past year, I have been patient about them because they are all temporary. I need to walk ten extra minutes to reach the market that was literally two minutes away, I have to sleep on a bed that vibrates through the night (and nothing fun in this vibration, so hold that thought.), and in general, live with a lot of chaos and noise. But it's all fine. What is not fine is this - to carry out their work, they have blocked all drains leading out of this locality. In some parts, they still unblock them once a week/ten days, and let the system clean up. But on my side of the world, they don't believe in taking the trouble. It has been three months. Of course, first we thought that it is something wrong with the drains leading out of our house. So we contacted the concerned authority - CPWD in this case. Turned out that the drain for the entire lane is blocked. So it was now NDMC's work. NDMC is one government organisation that I LOVE. In the last 11 years, they have never given a reason to complain. And mind you, maintenance of houses that were built during the British times is not easy! So, people from NDMC visited the area every single day for about two weeks. Every day they tried their best to clean up the place. Finally they told us to directly get in touch with senior Metro officials. Well, the Metro people have to live by a certain image built over time, so they are polite every time you talk to them. But, they seem to be only talking. Officer 1, officer 2, officer 3 - they are all the same. When no. 3 was approached, no. 1 was sitting with him and recognised us as the ones who came with the same problem earlier too. Some guts I must say! To not do someone's work and still recognise them. Unique they are for sure.
My house has obviously become a shelter for mosquitoes. Air fresheners obviously do not work. Neither do requests. I hope, like a lot of my posts, this reaches the top of Google's results when someone comes looking for DMRC. And in case they come ego-surfing, I live near the under-construction INA station. Thank you very much! Bloody @#$%^&*!!