26 Things, For the 26 years of my life

1. Current mood: Black
2. Current food craving(s): Warm gooey chocolate; Pasta with pesto, asparagus and pine nuts; Aloo chaat
3. I am searching for: a direction in my professional life
4. I wish I didn’t feel: so restless
5. An observation about me: My mother telling me yesterday that I am too much of a free spirit to do a job
6. Right now: I would rather be sitting in a coffee shop - reading or writing
7. A dream: To be a published author; Have a job which entails adventure, challenge, travelling and happiness
8. In my previous life: I am sure I was a boho living by the Mediterranean sea in an artists’ quarter
9. I can be happy: sitting under a tree on a summer day and observing butterflies chase each other
10. An oxymoronic thing I want: A slow and meaningful life in a fast paced city
11. I end up usually: contradicting myself
12. I am fascinated by: people – everyone is a mystery to be unraveled
13. A hidden ability: making cartoon sketches of myself and people around me
14. I want to learn: contemporary dance, tai chi and a foreign language
15. My favourite radio stations: Hit 95 FM (in India), Classic FM (in UK)
16. My favourite part of the day: Late night
17. My favourite colours: Purple, Shades of aquamarine, Black, Grey and Brown
18. A thing I could change about myself: My constant chronic-worrier-thinker syndrome
19. My favourite artists: Vincent Van Gogh, Banksy
20. My favourite poison(s): Red wine (Merlot), Morgan’s spiced with coke and a sliver of lime, G&T
21. I listen to: all kinds of music except metal, heavy metal and electronica
22. I read: everything except science fiction
23. I watch: almost everything except horror films
24. A gadget I want: A digital SLR camera
25. A gadget I want to replace: My big laptop with a smaller, lighter one
26. Current desire: To own a Hervé Léger bandage dress and a pair of Christian Louboutin pumps

Anyone wants to take up the tag? TD, Sindhu, Vrij, Pras... c'mon guys!

Birthday and Anniversary

I just realized it was my blog's third birthday on 11th. And with each passing year I wonder how long will I last. Will I get bored and pack up and leave? As of now.. it hasn't happened.

On Friday, I will complete my one month anniversary of coming to the University. I have not only survived but have graduated to kneading dough and making pananthas to making paneer ki subzi. And I have started calling my apartment (notice the my) my home. Someone calls and I go like, "Oh! I am walking to my home" or "I'll be home this evening" or something like that. You get the point....

It seems a lot of things happen in October for me... I wonder why!

Girl Bonding, Brollies, Jane Austen, Sabzis and Studies

Amidst classes, presentations, seminars, books, cooking and socializing, I bring the latest updates...

Having flatmates from different countries means, we have interesting cultural exchanges, different eating habits and different languages. Over the last few weeks we have gone from saying polite Hellos and Goodbyes in the hallways to mid night chats, cute men-boys spotting at the uni to making plans for travelling in the Christmas break! I, for one, have had problems with catty women, bimbos etc. and for the first time I have actually bonded with women.

And I have also found that when it rains and the shoes and jeans get wet, never keep down the umbrella to the side and roll up the jeans. Because gales in this part of the world with take away your beloved umbrella and you will be running half a kilometer to catch it, wearing a coat and carrying a huge rucksack and generally making a fool of yourself. Eventually the wind will put down the brolly in the middle of a traffic intersection, bringing the traffic to a halt and you will then retrive the offending object while mumbling sorry.

Another day when I can hear the chilly wind beating the windows, happy that I am inside the warm apartment, I will envision myself to be a chef. And will makes aloo-beans, mixed vegetable, dal, rice and whip up a yummy raita. I will eat like a glutton and then proceed to fall asleep!

While we are at the topic of chilly winds and gales, I always get reminded to English classics whenever I think of gales, moors, rolling green fields, rain and elegant ladies. I have got hooked onto this Drama called 'Lost in Austen'. Its about a young Londoner swapping places with Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice. The purists would probably baulk at it but I find the series very creative, witty and funny. Its interesting how you anticipate something and the complete opposite happens and all the characters in the book are doing what they are not supposed to do! In case you can access it online, do watch it here.

While I entertain myself watching the above, I notice a whole stack of books and notes in front of me but I am uninspired to read until the deadline looms in front of me. In which case, I will be up the whole night trying to study. Looking at other students in the class who have come fresh from under graduate studies and who take copious notes in the class, I wonder if I have missed out on some important bits. It would be also interesting to note how they would behave like scared lambs, quite unsure of themselves. And it reminds me of how I was at that age. And that's when I begin to feel old!

More updates will happen as days go by.... Till then... Cheers!!

Endings and New Beginings

So, today was my last day of work. It feels like a chapter which has been closed.

It's weird to say your goodbyes, put your stuff in a box (that's three years of your life) and walk out of the office teary-eyed. I can't imagine myself getting emotional and crying because I always prided myself to be one of those people who think with their head and not their heart.

The last few days have been like this - close a bank account here, a phone connection there...

Then sign the lease contract for the apartment at the University, send some documents for my course work etc.

So there are endings and new beginings and life continues...

P.S: For the first time in this season the monsoon has shown its full glory in Delhi. I am loving it.... :)

Delhi - A Page From My Diary

In a state of disrupted, chaotic order I am still living out of a suitcase. As I travel from the western part of city to my office in the shiny new metro for a couple of days, I thought of writing this ode for a bustling, throbbing, eclectic city I love.
“

From a height I observe the city, abrupt lines and jagged edges flouting the
symmetry associated with a city seen from the top - rooftops of congested micro
cities, homes and offices, slums and villages - decaying, putrefying structures
and people in lifeless motion, almost cataleptic. And then suddenly, the vision
gets broken by shiny new malls and movie halls in unexpected places. The pattern
repeats for a while as the train jerks to a stop at each station, a mass of
people moving in and out. The uneven rooftops give way to green foliage, a
labyrinth of flyovers, roads, traffic signals and car crawling to their
destination.

And in that closed box, I notice furtive glances
until there is nothing left to look at as eyes move from random images –
advertisements, maps, the LED board displaying station names, people, coming
back to staring vacantly in space.

I hear voices murmuring,
inaudible collective sounds at first and then singling out. There are strains -
of languages Punjabi, Bhojpuri, Hindi and English, old Hindi film songs, stock
prices, exam results, sweet nothings.

Dampness hangs in the air, fragrance of flowery perfumes mixing with the sweat, a potent mixture pervades as empty spaces fill with people until there is nothing left to fill, nothing left to pervade. ”

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Updated: I love the song 'Dilli Bas' sung by Rabbi Shergill and dedicated to my city Delhi. Check out the lyrics here. I don't know where can I listen to it online :

India Travel Diaries: Random Travel Tales

After the previous post, I have been meaning to give an update of the latest travel tales but the grueling schedule has kept me from doing so. Travelling from MP-Delhi-Bihar-Delhi-AP-Delhi-Mumbai-Delhi (excluding all the towns and the villages I went to) for 45 days makes you realize how much you can really miss home. And it’s still not over!

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Because when you bump into walls, tables and beds in different hotel rooms, purple bruises pop up. And then you fall down the stairs and you knee gets injured and you hobble around with purple bruise and a swollen knee.

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And then you come home to sleep in your own bed, wake up in the middle of the night and see the door is open and think someone has entered your hotel room and you need to scream and call the reception. Then realization strikes you that you are in your own home.
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And then you ask to eat karela, tinda, lauki, tori and salivate at the thought of eating kichdi. Since you are home for a day or two, you can’t eat it all. So when you go to your next destination and stay in a fancy hotel and your colleagues go out to eat super specialty Far East Asian cuisine, you politely refuse and order kichdi for room service and it tastes like heaven.

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In the middle of it all, in an obscure village in Bihar, the drunk ex-sarpanch and his cronies will threaten you and the current sarpanch will jump to help you and tell you to register a police case. So yeah, you start getting visions of you getting killed in a local village-politics war and the fact no one will come to know about it. And before that happens, you will have to think quickly on your feet, diffuse the situation, work quickly and get out of there alive!

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The condition of the roads will be terrible, as if no roads exist in that particular district of Bihar. The potholes are mini craters and travelling for an hour and a half (one side) every day would mean that 1. Your food gets churned (and digested?) really fast 2. You get a full body massage 3. You intestines jump up to meet the brain, the pancreas gets lodged in the liver, the spleen decides to switch over and go to the other side of the body. So for the first time, you take a day’s rest before moving to the next destination.

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In MP, you will go to a village where all the curious kids will surround you. And to beat the heat, you will stand under a mango tree laden with raw, green mangoes. Of course the kids will jump up and pluck the raw mangoes and eat them nonchalantly. Then they will ask you to eat, you will refuse but their bright smiles will melt you. The sour taste will hit you hard, really hard. And they will grin and laugh at you and you will join them and have a good laugh at yourself.
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While in a village in AP, tribal men with spears will surround you and you will think that since you are pint sized and don’t have much meat, you wont make a nice meal for them. Since you can’t speak their language, you will have no way of communicating that thought. They will peak into your car and when you get down, follow you. That’s when you will spot your translator at distance and wave frantically at him. He will then come and tell you that these are village guards and messengers. It’s their job to know about any new ‘happening’ in the village. Then they will pose for your camera, get their pictures taken and you will shyly join them for a photo, inwardly relieved that you are not their dinner for the day.

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Of course you will also get to touch a real tortoise and fishes and goats and cows and new born calves respectively in all the states. By day 40, the smell of cow dung won’t make you crinkle up your nose. In fact you won’t even notice the smell.

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In the midst of this, bird shit will fall on your notebook. Which will be an ice-breaker for village kids in AP. Through sign language, they will produce water and a cloth to wipe it away. And in broken English-Telgu, they’ll tell you it’s a sign of good luck.

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And in all the villages, the village elders will ask your age and wonder why you are not married as yet. Then they will be scandalized that you travel and work with men. And that you belong to a mixed caste. And they will nod wisely and say, “Yeh sab Dilli may hota hai.” It’s a very foreign concept for them.

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You will meet a girl, the first from her village, to go and study MCA and with dreams of working in the IT industry. You will go to another village where a 20 year old girl is a mother of a one year old child. And in another, she is in a ghoonghat which covers her face and neck and she won’t talk to you at all.

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While in Mumbai traveling in front of a slum, a child will suddenly jump in front of your car, the driver will slam the brakes, while the child will grab a pigeon and put it in his shirt. The driver will turn back to you and say, “He will go home and cook this.” you are not sure if you should believe him.

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I still have a few more days of travel. More travel diaries might pop up if something interesting happens. Meanwhile, there has been a development on a personal-professional front. Pray that things fall in place for me while I keep my fingers crossed.

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Madhya Pradesh Diaries - II

One day we ask a villager why he wants to buy a colour television, his first, in the 45 years of his life. He replies with all seriousness, “Because my wife told me too.” All the men – different strata, culture, society, country - errupt into a laughter, their private joke of hen pecked husbands and nagging wives.

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Yet another day, a woman separating chaff from wheat calls a child to sit next to her as we film her activities. The man standing next to me says, “ These women. They have no sense. Uski photo keech rahe hai aur who bacchey ko bula rahi hai….” He suddenly stops as he realizes I am standing next to him.


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Another day. We meet a farmer who earns about $3 a day to feed his family of eight. He rues why he toils so hard to grow wheat if the government is filling its buffer stock, when he has to eat two meals a day because he can’t afford three. His eyes heavy with emotion, helplessness, he turns to ask, “Main yeh dharti kyu cheerta hoon? Sirf isliye ki bebas reh saku?”. At first I am moved and then a thought crosses my mind, if his dialogue is a story set for us journalists. The cynic in me peeps out and I feel ashamed.

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A man in starch white kurta payajama stands in the middle of a field, the hot winds - loo hits us but there is a smile on his face. His 82 acre land produces so much of wheat, gram, pluses and soybean that he will earn millions when he sells his stock. The land, which he stands on, is worth billions.


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While in Bhopal one day, staying in my fancy 5 hotel, travelling in the stuffy official car to all the villages, I desire to break free. As I hop into an auto rickshaw outside the hotel, the manager spots me and asks “Madam why did you walk till the gate? We could have called the auto inside.” He tells me it’s a regular thing. I am amazed they do that here. The fancy hotel in the city is not like the ones in Delhi.

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I go to the Old Market in the city. It is like walking in the bylanes of Old Delhi, men with skull caps and women in burkha mill around. I am an anomaly there, an outsider. But I enjoy it. And there is a Jama Masjid and a chor bazaar just like Delhi. I am homesick again.

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As the heat rises from the earth, bare trees spead their branches, like arms raised towards the sky, a plea for the sun to stop beating down so mercilessly, for rain gods to pour down.

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After a tiring day, I recline in the seat of my car, I look outside and find electricity transmission lines running along, the cables playing a game, meeting at the poles - coming together, falling apart, almost teasing each other and playing catch. It reminds me of my childhood - watching the electicity poles, the sugar cane fields, sitting in the backseat, staring at the horizon as both merge into one another, while going to visit my grandmother in dusty heartlands of Uttar Pradesh.

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On the highway, I pass by a school building under construction. Th name of the school - Campion School. If the school authorities meant to write 'champion' then I am really worried what the childen will learn in a school whose name is spelt wongly. If it isn't, then I am worried that the name of the school has no meaning. And then I wonder why I worry so much!

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Signs of Times Gone By...

I am an eager beaver when it comes to clicking pictures especially those with atrocious spellings and language. I thought I should share some master pieces with you all :D


Exhibit no. 1











So are you ready to do some 'traking'?




Exhibit no. 2














Go ahead.. buy a 'Freeze' and freeze your brain it. And don't forget to buy the 'Entena' coz how else will you watch TV?


Exhibit no. 3













Kyun bhai.. garam freeze...err...fridge ki bhi chocolates hoti hain kya?



Exhibit no. 4










Saavdhan from what???




Exhibit no. 5
Presenting pièce de résistance














Go ahead... Buy that helicopter you always dreamt of!

Where Are We Heading

Where are we going wrong as a society when 8 year olds plan to stab their teacher without realizing the effects or the enormity of their plan?

In another case, 16 year olds, in a pre meditated plan, attack a fellow school student so that they can upload a video of it on a popular video sharing site. (Video Here)

Instead of bully-like behaviour, these are cases of mob mentality. Earlier, we saw this behaviour during wars, riots, unrest or a similar situation but not where children or youngsters were involved.

Now in a changing world, we are seeing cases, unusual scenarios where slightest of provocation are triggering off events. These are alarming cases of herd mentality, cases of assumed power over the victim and with no signs of remorse.

It’s a very scary place to be right now. As we become developed, are these indicators of eroding human values? Or are these societal issues of the developed world? Or there are deeper reflections of images influenced by the media? Whatever the answer may be, as a society, we need to check such behavioral indicators.

Because, I think, it won’t take long for others to replicate it. Like school shootings in US, incidents like Gurgaon school shoot out have started to haunt India. Is this the future staring at us?

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Cross posted at C-Splash (a citizen journalism initiative)

Reflections

As I was travelling through rural interiors of India in the past few weeks for work, long hours of travel kept me busy with musings and thoughts. Suddenly these words came in my head and kept rolling about.

J'étais enchainée,
Et maintenant je suis libre...

Translation
I was enchained,
And now I am free...

I had written these words some time ago – unfinished thoughts in an unfinished, cryptic poem. Inspired by the vast expanse of green fields of paddy, golden yellow fields of wheat and sunflower, the blue sky turning shades of orange, pink and cobalt I really wondered if I was enchained and whether I am free now.

J'étais enchainée,
Et maintenant je suis libre...
I thought so
As I lay in my bed on a hot summer night

But what are chains
Are they not meant to be broken
If they are
Would I be free

Oh! But what if it’s not a chain
It never crossed my mind
What I thought were shackles
Were maybe meant to liberate me

What if they weren’t
How am I to know
What lies on the other side
Can I find without going too far

What irony awaits me
Is it that what binds me
Tries to set me free
Or what sets me free, brings me back

Another summer is upon me,
And I wonder if
J'étais enchainée,
Et maintenant je suis libre...