Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Student hostel was...

bullet-proof chappatis, bread and jam
the local bakery, a luxury.

5 girls in an auto to the nearest cinema hall
popcorn, coke and the total divided by 5 to the last 50 paise.

waiting for calls from home between 7 to 9.30 pm
and for money every month with a short note from dad to study well and to use money prudently.

girls on the steps
applying henna on each other and all kinds of face packs.

burning the midnight oil and feeling hungry
dinner being served too early.

sneaking into friends’ rooms with a torch after the curfew hours
searching for food.

trying to bring everything from home during vacations,
needle to pen and a lot of eatables.

attacking the supply of foods of friends
who visit home frequently.

counting the days to go home
only 74 days left to go home

washing clothes every weekend on the stone slabs
singing the latest hits at the top of our voices.

perfecting the art of mango plucking and
the escape from the warden

stealing vegetables from the garden
and cooking it using candles.

maggie, soaked it hot water
wai-wai straight from the pack.

christmas secret friends and
small notes to her with the left hand.

sharing a room with two more people
yet respecting their space.

accepting people from different places,
languages and habits.

going to barista and coffee day outlets once in a blue moon
and feeling cool.

walkman and audio cassettes
rewind and forward with a reynolds pen to save battery.

circulating novels
reading MBs in candlelight
sleeping off while waiting for the love scene
waking up to see my bed on fire
going panicky and waking up roomie in the lower bunk
pouring water, dipping the pillow in the sink to put the fire off
calling friends from other rooms and sharing the tragedy
laughing out loud on seeing the thrid room mate blissfully asleep amidst all the commotion.

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Ankita bole toh...

My niece got the 8th rank in her play school, among 9 kids who passed. The family is celebrating. :-)

Friday, December 15, 2006

The pulse and push of normal life that kept me away from blogging

Thought I should write a few lines at least lest people think I went to Pune, got caught in a lift and died without even telling the world whether I had bakarwadi or not.

The pulse and push of normal life I say!
Had a wonderful time at Pune. R received me with a hug after waiting for one and a half hours in the place we had decided to meet after my work. The first comment was that I have lost a lot of weight, which I have been hearing from all school mates who haven’t seen me for a couple of years. ‘Chubby’ is a much better word (betterest) to disguise the fat ass that I was in school.

Caught up with the lost years. We had changed so much yet we were the same old buddies who had spent 12 years together in school and many hours over the phone discussing what we did at school after coming home. When time and space has moulded us to be the persons that we are today, realizing that we are still the same was a pleasure and so much of pride for me. I had started feeling terribly lonely in Bangalore with most of my female friends here, married and busy with their lives. All my roommates have gone too (another post) that I wondered if I have a problem bonding with females.

Me and R went on yapping through the night and did not forget to bitch about some girls in school. Sometimes, being a bitch is a good thing for a woman to hold on to. Now, this is a copied sentence and being at it, let me talk about the movie, Dolores Claiborne. It is based on the book with the same title by Stephen King and hence, has lovely dialogues.

The story goes by this line,”Sometimes an accident can be an unhappy woman’s best friend.” It is about a woman’s determination and endurance to save her child and live life according to her terms. Jennifer, a successful reporter comes home to meet her mother after 15 years when her mother gets convicted for murdering her employer. This brings back many memories that she had shut herself from.

Very good acting by Kathy Bates and Jennifer Jason Leigh though I call it a Kathy Bates’ movie. (I don’t know the other actors).

Some dialogues:

[Vera, her employer is not letting Dolores change her soiled sheets]
Dolores: Vera, are ya gonna sit there and marinade in it? Come on!

Vera: [Vera is ringing a bell] Doloooress!...
Dolores: Hells bells. Look who's up.

Vera: I am going to die.
Dolores: That will make this world less of one stinky woman.

Vera: We live in a depressingly masculine world. Everyday, husbands die - rich husbands; while they were coming back home to their wives after being with their mistresses. Sometimes Delores, an accident can be an unhappy womans best friend. Sometimes you have to be a high-riding bitch to survive.

Sometimes being a bitch is all a woman has to hold onto.

The last line was aptly used three times in the movie.