My List

Was leaving office as usual when a pleasant faced Chinese woman calls out to me. Turns out that she is promoting a beauty saloon. She gives me her business card and invites me for a complimentary beauty class. Eager to get out of the freezing cold I nod my head vigorously and tell her that I certainly will contact her for the class. I guess I wasn’t convincing enough coz she went on and on about skin care…or maybe, my skin looked so uncared for that she thought I deserved an earful. Anyway, her parting statement was,”Don’t work too hard, look beautiful and find a man”. That last line really got me thinking…would you really want to look good just to fish for a man? Whatever happened to looking good for yourself? And even if you do find a man, what happens after that?...u get married to him…and soon, in a few years all your expected to do is cook, clean and breed. I know…that is a depressing thought but its true in most cases. Isn’t there more to life than getting married?

Well, I made up a list of stuff I want to do in my life before I die (…apart from getting married that is)

1. Learn to play at least one musical instrument (Already tried my hand on the guitar…but I suck at it)
2. Learn to speak Spanish fluently (ah…such a romantic language)
3. Get over my fear of heights (Jump from over 10,000 ft…with a parachute of course)
4. Visit the seven wonders of the world (well, at least some of them)
5. Try all the cuisines that the world has to offer (at least as many as possible in this lifetime)
6. Run a marathon
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.
…well that’s all I can think of now
.
.
…actually there was one more thing, but I took it off the list after I miserably failed at it…that was to learn the salsa.

Hunting for a House…Again

Somehow this seems to have become a recurring activity in my life. Have hunted for a roof above my head about five times in the past two and half years. And if that wasn’t enough, it has been in a different city each time. I am now going through the whole crazy process once again in a sixth city. And what have I learnt so far?...well nothing much except that…if you are a single female looking for accommodation, the same issues will hound you…no matter what the city.

You living alone is unthinkable for your parents and also for many landlords who will be scared away by the idea of a single woman wanting to rent a house all alone. The only other option is to look for a shared living and that is just the beginning of all the troubles. If the house is good and affordable, the locality is probably seedy. The path to the house is bound to be through alleys dark enough to freak you out of your wits. If the locality is good, the house is probably a dump and you end up paying a premium just for the “posh” locality. If you are lucky enough to find a good house in a good locality, you find that your flat mates are the kind that will drive you nuts.

I once visited this all ladies hostel …a hostel that was ‘recommended’ by someone. It was past 8 PM in the night and I took along a male friend. We finally found it after passing by a series of shanties with people looking at us suspiciously. A depressing place dimly lit by incandescent lamps. At the entrance my friend asked me to go ahead and take a look while he waited outside…the obvious thing to do…after all it’s a ladies hostel. Well, surprise… surprise, he was actually invited in to come along and take a look. Once in, we see another guy loitering about in the area chatting with the girls there. Maybe he worked there…well we didn’t bother to find out…fled the place.

Another time I went to take a look at a flat recommended by a broker. Everything seemed fine until we asked him about the bathroom. Imagine my surprise when he took us to an area that resembled a balcony with a tap on one side. Seeing the incredulous look on my face, he says, “Don’t worry madam, we’ll cover this area using sheets”. Help!!!

Some things never change. Looking for accommodation is the biggest bane of a job that gives you opportunities to travel. Its probably a very pessimistic view but I have come to a conclusion that you can never find a perfect place to live. It is always a compromise of sorts

Yummy Yum Cha

Chinese cuisine to me has always meant spicy ChowMein, Manchurian and Fried rice. Last week however, I was introduced to the concept of Yum Cha, a Chinese custom of eating small servings of different foods in a tea bowl with…chopsticks…help!!! Unfortunately it happened to be at a team lunch with a group of Australian team mates who could dexterously work magic with their chopsticks and tiny tea bowls. The food to me was incomprehensible. The dishes looked like nothing I had ever seen before. Everything looked revoltingly raw or undercooked. Urged by my team mates I proceeded to try a dish that looked like bacon. Using one my chopsticks I tipped a few pieces of the bacon into my tea bowl. Using a fork (that a waiter kindly brought) I proceeded with first bite…surprisingly it was quite good. Encouraged by the good start I looked towards the table that was already laden with an assortment of unusual dishes. Slowly I started working my way through a few equally gross looking dishes that turned actually out to be quite nice. Somewhere along, came a plate of dimsums and for some godforsaken reason still unknown to me, I decided to pick up a dimsum using my chopsticks (which I had abandoned, thanks to the fork). I jammed the chopsticks between my fingers and heroically proceeded to pick up the pale dimsum which turned out to be a lot more slippery than it looked. Imagine my horror when one of the chopsticks swooped out of my hand, narrowly missed hitting the guy sitting next to me and fell onto the floor. All I wanted at that awfully embarrassing moment was to disappear into the bowels of the earth. Any way, that ended my vain attempt to show off my non existent skills with chopsticks. I went back to work with my good ol’ fork and thankfully the rest of the meal passed on quite uneventfully. As it turns out my first experience with Yum Cha was pretty good. Discovered that there’s more to Chinese cuisine than Chilli Gobhi and Chicken Manchurian. Although the food may not look too appetizing, it’s all about gritting your teeth and taking that plunge…the first bite. And yes, chopsticks are a lot more trickier than they look. If your not sure of using them, you'll be better off using a fork.

KANK

Finally caught Karan Johar’s last release – the so called bohemian Kabhie Alvida Na Kehna. The movie is definitely a move away from his excessively traditionalistic plots rooted deep in time honored idealism (read K3G). Kudos to Johar for bringing through an unorthodox theme without the moralistic hypocrisy that Indian movies are typically subject to. Sadly the movie lacks the trademarked Karan Johar class. Everything right from the half-baked, sometimes corny sub plots to the ill-sketched characters brings down the movie. The worst of the lot is the eccentric character Dev (Shah Rukh) who is ridiculously over the top and at times borders on lunacy. But I feel the actual bane of the movie is the complete lack of chemistry between the lead actors. The music is a respite but everything else is in dire want of substance.

Deepawali Blues

Yet another sizzling, crackling diwali come to an end and yet again I heave a sigh of relief. The festival of lights has always been a cacophony of sound and fumes to me. Now, I have nothing against the festival as such. In fact, being born on a deepavali day and also being named after it does give it a special place in my heart. But the manner in which the firecracker revelry is carried on does drive me up the wall. Sadly enough Diwali always leaves me with reminiscences of loud crackers splitting my ears. As a rule I choose to shut myself up during this gala ruckus. This time though I dared to venture out with an assortment of crackers and a couple of restless cousins. The half hour I spent amongst the festivities was enough to make me affirm that I will never again dare to leave the safe confines of my house during this season. Being in such close proximity to all those little kids going crazy with their horde of hydrogen bombs, atom bombs and god knows what else, made me truly comprehend the actual hazard that the revelers, onlookers and passers by are subject to. The numerous social messages on safe celebrations seem to be falling on deaf ears. Makes me wonder if the government should step in and bring about some regularization. Some nations do have strict rules that prohibit purchase and bursting of fireworks without the supervision of adults. This thought passed my mind as I stood watching my cousins. But taking a good look around made me realize that such a regulation in our country it would never serve the purpose. Its not just teenagers but also many adults who behave like absolutely ignorant imbeciles. My heart lurched on seeing a little kid, not older than a year, running around barefooted with sparklers in both hands, apparently under the supervision of so called adults. One little slip would have injured the child badly.

I have lost count of the number of rockets that skewed dangerously close to onlookers. Needless to say the manner in which crackers were continuously being burst on the road even when there were people and vehicles passing through. Yeah sure, so what if there is biker coming through. There’s no need to warn him about the lighted cracker lying a few feet ahead, is there? Whatever happened to responsibility and accountability? The statistics on accidents during the diwali season no longer surprises me. Makes you wonder, have we become so mesmerized by the brilliance on display to care about human lives. The pyrotechnics get wackier each year, enough to make up my mind to stay within the precincts of my home every diwali

A Few Moments More...

The fragility of life is rarely realized till death rears its ugly head and snatches it away from you. It leaves you with the bitter comprehension that nothing lasts for ever. Time spent with a loved one will never come back. Leaves you with nothing but long lost memories of warm scented summers spent together. Grief alone sinks in the harsh realization that its now too late…too late to say the things that were left unsaid…to late for the moments of togetherness that were so yearned for …too late to give back even a bit of what was received. All that is left now is the agonizing image of a pale figure between hospital tubes…an image that will be imprinted onto my heart for ever

life is like an ice-cream...slurrrppp it up before it goes splat in your face!!!