The Game of Tagging

Last movie seen in a theatre?
Juno.

What book are you reading?
Madam Bovarys Ovaries. Its brilliant. And I take my time with each chapter.
Also Atwoods Blurbeard’s Eggs – I am getting increasingly fond of short stories.

Favourite board game?
Scrabble. Addicted to ps2 lately so havent seen the face of boardgames in the looongest time.
also used to enjoy Chess.

Favorite Magazine:
Cosmo. RD.

Favorite Smells:
First rain of the season. Turpentine. Petrol. Heh.
Also, Hugo red and Davidoff coolwater.
Johnson baby lotion.
And the typical smell of my house in Simla.

Favorite Sound:
The sea. My brothers voice. My grandma’s knitting – kat tik kat tik!

Worst Feeling In The World:
Failure.

What Is The First Thing You Think Of When You Wake?
I’m late!

Favorite Fast Food Place:
Kailash Colony market

Future Child’s Name:
I refuse to think about such a question.

Finish This Statement. “If I Had A Lot Of Money I’d…”
Do my MA, start my café, buy a lot of perfumes, save the rest in my kid brother’s account.

Do You Drive Fast?
No. I feel scared. I also tend to hit the sides of people walking on the road and the abusive drivers who zip past me.

Do You Sleep With A Stuffed Animal?
err. Does an extra pillow qualify?

Storms-Cool Or Scary?
Cool. I feel like a heroine out of a gothic novel. Catherine Earnshaw maybe.

Do You Eat The Stems On Broccoli?
yea. Also the tails of prawns and everything crunchy and fun. I hate wastage.

If You Could Dye Your Hair Any Color, What Would Be Your Choice?
I can dye it any colour. I don’t want to.

Name All The Different Cities/Towns You Have Lived In.
Kinnaur, Nahan, Rampur, Nalagarh – these are the obscure little places in Himachal.
As a kid, with minimal memories of it – Dhanbad.
Out of the known cities - Shimla, Delhi, Pune, Currently Mumbai.

Favorite Sports To Watch:No time. No inclination. Used to watch the football league matches once upon a time. Not anymore.

One Nice Thing About The Person Who Sent This To You:
Two people sent this to me – fellow blog sisters, friends, writers, talkers, thinkers! – I cant restrict myself to one nice thing.

What’s Under Your Bed?
Bed box – journals, old cards, letters, other tit-bits.
Monsters too?

Would You Like To Be Born As Yourself Again?
Yes. Thinner though – and less self obsessed.

Morning Person Or Night Owl?
Night Owl. Hate early mornings.

Over Easy Or Sunny Side Up?
Sunny side up – and the yolk needs to be liquidy! Yumm!

Favorite Place To Relax
Mondys. With friends, music, beer.

Favorite Pie:
Apple Pie. I bake!
And shepherds pie that my aunt makes.

Favorite Ice Cream Flavor:
Strictly chocolate. The darker the better. And of late, I’m getting used to the sugar-free, fat-free gelato – that I know isn’t all that it promises to be – but it takes off the guilt pretty well.

You pass this tag to –
Is there anyone left? I think I am one of last ones to even understand this tag business!
Well...whoever is reading this.

Of All The People You Tagged This To, Who’s Most Likely To Respond First?
Uh. G'bye.

So when are we doing Shaadi?

I am in simla – basking in the glory of utter laziness and getting pampered like a spoilt little princess – but I do deserve all of that and more after surviving Mumbai for so long. Surviving Mumbai is a task, yes it is. Not for people who come to visit and fall in love with the sea, or who come for a few months and start liking the space the city gives a person to just be. But for people like me, who are at the verge of completing a year in the city, it is nothing less than surviving. And no, I wouldn’t be stationed at Crib Central right now, if I hadn’t spent a glorious week at Delhi and then made my way to the hills, the homefood, the electric blanket I sleep in, the colourful socks I wear and the absolutely-no-care-in-the-world-sleeps I get. Well, yes parents always bring with them, a dose of nagging, bugging, poking – but that is permissible and ignorable for all the luxuries I get to dip myself into.

Delhi was expectedly a lot and a LOT of fun. Pix took 4 days off – we slept, talked, smoked, shopped, drove, sang, ate and did all things fine and dandy. Janpath and Le Café, hilarious drive to JNU, more Le café with Bangers and Mash, Café Turtle, face packs and exchanging the latest books and films, sleeping at 4 after sooo many games on PS2, meeting my kid brother, and my adopted brother and Ktik and the Petite one, surprise morning visit from Pinks, having isabgol to clear the confused tummy, meeting Adi, Deb and You-de, making ever failing plans with the infamous painter, soaking in every bit of Delhi that I love and crave for when I’m away! Ah, it was all glorious, so glorious!

Nimpipi came to meet – warm hug, my attempts to give warmer, tighter hugs and then the laughing fit in her car that went Ghhhhhhhooooooeeeeee at every red light. But the noise and all was totally worth it for the drive with her on that sparkly highway and the kaddu ka bharta at her house (no, I am not being sarcastic – I am a veggie lover – so much so that the thought of bhindi, karela, kaddu, baingan, lettuce and all those greens excite me more than any chicken, crabs, prawns or muttons of the world) – so yes, back to the delicious bharta that bahadur served us with garma-garam phulke and the last bits of which I happily wiped clean from that white china plate that I always have nightmares of dropping and crashing one day – and there was daal too, and 2 more subzis and the dahi she assumed that I would take without being told – it was a yummy meal. Aunty talked in the background – I didn’t get much of the context in which it was being said but I caught on some words enough to know that she had had an eventful day. Nimpipi’s room is lovely – the DLF bitch as I fondly call her – has a spectacular view from her 15th floor apartment – and then she gave me a pair of very sexy beige boots – and my day was almost made perfect. *blows kisses to Nimpipi*

Oh and one pattern that I noticed in all my visits to all my friends homes – the moms always asked me “so when are you doing shaadi”, “beta, koi ladka mila?”, “tumhare parents dhoond rahe hai? Iske liye bhi koi suggest karo”!
Oh my godly god goddd – same story everywhere – just because I hit 24 doesn’t mean that I have to keep telling people that “shaadi toh ho jaayegi aunty!” – How come noone asks about my job, my prospects, what music I listen to, what cuisine I enjoy? Isn’t that more important? And wouldn’t that make me less queasy? But I think I have quite perfected the art of evading the topic, or laughing it off. It’s just amazing how everything suddenly revolves around shaadi-marriage-vivah-mangni-wedding-byah – and all other names they give this relationship!
Maybe my problem is also that for everyone else it seems like such a BIG deal but I view marriage very lightly– it’s not a fairy tale romance or a movie with the sunset ending that signifies a happily ever after– its life – mundane-get-to-know-each-other-learn-to-love-each-other kinda life. Prove me wrong if you must. I will only be too happy.

I sound so pessimistic. This post is depressing me. And I am on vacation. I should have written about something happier – like green-grass-blue-sky kinda happy or the kick I got out of finishing the entire pack of Sour Punk yesterday or the fact that I took a friend out for driving today and she almost died of a heart attack! Heh! The day was good! It's all good. Or we will make it good – wont we friends? Prove me right. I will be most happy.

Later then. I must snuggle back into my toasty electric blanket. Mmm.


P.S.- Looking for a job in writing in Delhi. Comments, suggestions and contacts are needed and most welcome.

Mirror Mirror on the Wall

I realized how much I love a mirror when I climbed 3 floors to take the lift with the mirror as opposed to the one at the ground floor without the mirror the other day. And I realized that I have been doing that often – only now I have graduated from the first to the third floor. I like the lift with the mirror – sometimes I let the one without the mirror come and go – and wait for the other one.

When I moved into a flat, the first thing I looked for was not the western loo, or the big windows, or the yellow lights – but the mirror – was it full length? Was it true? Did it make me look slimmer? Oh then it would have to change – I would rather the mirror would make me put on a kilo or two so I keep myself on a healthy lifestyle!

I don’t like mirrors that are just next to the window – the natural light shows too much – all the pores, all the flaws – and I don’t want to get depressed first thing in the morning.

I also like to sit facing the mirror when I am in a restaurant – so I can glance once in a while to check my hair or any speck of food stuck between my teeth. I like mirrors in stores – and malls – where one can just walk across and slimily look at oneself.

I like clean steel plates and computer screens that are off. I like spoons and the magic mirror room in a fair. I like phone cameras. I like clear water bodies. I like it when I can see myself in the sparkle of my date’s eyes. I like photographs. I like photoshop. I like to talk with someone else while looking in the mirror. I like to talk to myself while looking in the mirror. I like the mirror in the car. I like to carry a small mirror to check my kajal. I like the little mirrors in my Rajasthani dupattas. I like them on sheer curtains. I enjoyed studying how mirrors are made. I like Saint Gobain.

I also like those magical mirrors in fairy tales where one could enter a mirror and go to a different world. I like Through the Looking Glass. And how everything gets reversed in a mirror. I like the fact that a flat mirror won’t lie. I like Snow White. I like the tale of Narcissus and the lake. I like Sylvia Plath’s Poem The Mirror which goes like this-
“I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions….Whatever I see I swallow immediately….Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike…..I am not cruel, only truthful…”

So does that make me vain? All this preening and staring?
Does that make me loony? My liking for distorted images in a spoon?
Does that make me reflective? All these ideas of the mirror showing the truth and yet reversing everything?
Does it make me bookish? These references to Plath and Greek myth?


I don’t know. I like mirrors. For what they are. For their warped identities – to have the painful job of reflecting what’s true and yet inverting everything. To serve a purpose of utter shallowness and yet such immeasurable depth. I like the fact that a mirror has so many meanings. I like it that it’s installed everywhere- in lifts and corridors and bikes and bathrooms. But I like it best that a mirror reminds me of who I am every morning. I really like a mirror. It lets me be me and it makes me like me.