To Phases and Sales and Steam Baths!

A long inexplicable gap has happened in my excursion of nonsensical, inconsequential writing. Meanwhile many things have happened in the life of the not-so-rich and the not-so-ordinary me. I have got engaged. This post announces it formally to my world and the world beyond.

Yes yes the big BIG step has been taken, the promises exchanged and we are halfway there – there where I thought I would never reach – the land of non-singledom and the island of serious commitment. (which by the way does not imply that I will not have my girls nights out and my drinking sessions, so please to be inviting me over as regularly as you always did!). The boy is a family friend’s son and to cut a long story short, it’s been a good journey so far and this has sorted my head the way I never expected it to. (Oh and yes, the mystery behind me staying back in Mumbai and not making that Delhi change is now a mystery no more)…! So with that in order, and the virtual announcement over with, let’s get on to the other exciting things that have happened around me!

Everything went on sale…and I mean everything! Suddenly I transformed from the serious office going woman to a shop hopper getting fantastic deals and burning my bank balance away. With Nike and Reebok also being on sale (apart from that many lovely prêt lines) made me finally join a gym again – and seriously at this time and one that thankfully stays open till late night – its been 15 glorious days and I have gone every single day. But I do think that the steam room is the real motivation behind it all – where I bask in for 15 minutes almost daily and come out feeling like a momo!

It’s a good phase – happy things have been happening around me. Two very dear friends of mine have had some pretty good changes in their lives too. While one has taken a solid friendship of many years and finally turned it into a relationship, another very close friend has found her passion for the subject she will now indulge into with a huge hearty dive! The now-turned-girlfriend is all cheery and happy and I lurve hearing her that way – and her skin is glowing and her voice has that ring to it and I couldn’t be happier or approve more! The other academically inclined one is going to get into heavy time reading and research and interpretations and is actually going to enjoy it and I am already looking forward to hearing all about it and wishing I were there too! My life is all hunky-dory except a little crap and tension at work – but when have I ever taken my work seriously, I ask thee… as long as I get to wear what I like, take my random breaks, listen to music and get paid for some creative input that suddenly struck me one evening, I am fine and dandy!

Monsoon is playing hide and seek with the city these days. One day it decides to drench the suburbs and lets the town go to work only to come back feeling silly about going anyway! Another day it is so hot in the morning that one could die and by afternoon, when the team finally decides to go for the sea-food lunch, its raining so much that the water is upto our knees and we are hoping to wade our way back to office. Also, the wind, the damn wind has done something strange to my retro pink flowery umbrella and now when I try to open it, sometimes it just jumps out of my hand like a ninja with a life of its own and goes and hits the person standing in front! I am fed up… so fed up with this rainy madness that I can’t wait for the non-wintery winter to arrive in this sauna-like-city! Wake me up when September comes?

Now my stomach is growling and I suddenly remember that I have forgotten to have dinner. Woe is me! So I am going to go poke my head in the fridge for some hot milk and you may please continue with the comments.

*Silent prayer sent up so that the phase continues* - To happiness and joy and many more such phases!

Everyday

You know how it is when it rains and you shoot it with macro lenses in high speed – every droplet looks like a shimmery globe that gently crashes onto you and bursts into a million beads. That’s how I see the rain – like bits of diamonds indulgently sprinkling from the skies. My headphones are big and shut out the world – shuts out the noise of the keyboard, shuts out the colleague who munches all day on chips, shuts me out and transports me to a space where nobody can enter. That is why I chose the workstation at the window – I love looking out – when it rains and the whole world is sparkling and the crow is splashing itself, when the sun shines and the warm yellow satin sheet bathes you, when the sky is gray and cold and stunningly menacing.

Today is just another day of the week. Everything will be the same. The way to office. The strangers in the subway. The work routine. The people. The timings. The only thing that changes is the weather. I hardly think we are limited to only the four seasons. I think there are thousands of them. Everyday when I look at the sky, it looks new. Everyday the clouds form new faces. Everyday the sun teases me differently, the rains splash me in a new way, the breeze makes my hair knot itself in assorted ways. Everyday is a new season.

Monsoon Memories and the 2 Ladies

I’ve been accused of not writing of late. It isn’t my fault really – work has been hectic and I have dedicated my free time to the pursuit of film watching. I’ve seen depressing ones, and brainless chick flicks, and nail-biting adventure, and the ones with mind games, and the ones with ‘only’ conversations and the ones you just watch because there is nothing else to watch. I recommend Lemony Snicket's: A Series of Unfortunate Events, that I watched the 2nd time over. The rest of them were crap and mostly not great. Oh and the recent film P.S. I Love You – didn’t impress me expect that one scene where the 2 walk together in Ireland. So yes, that’s why I’ve been busy and also I have got a haircut after weeks of contemplating to get one. Yes I like it, its mad and untidy and I feel a tad younger again. (things people do when they are heading for the big quarter of a century, I say).

Apart from that, I’m looking for a flat. I’m having space issues. I’m feeling unloved. I’m missing my ma. I’m buying too much red. I'm addicted to mint tea. I’m looking to buy flip-flops. And yes, monsoons have returned with all its flourish and nuisance. Though some days I really love the city – the breeze is cool and the leaves are greener – but on other days, I miss my regular bhelpuri wala who seems to have disappeared thanks to the constant pouring and the occasional flooding.

Yesterday, Mumbai was sinking, official holiday was declared after I already landed up in office (this only happens to me), roads were blocked and the news channels took great pleasure in over-hyping the whole situation. And they do that so much – every time the usual clogging, blocking, splashing, showering happens, the aaj taks of the world exaggerate it to “Floods in Mumbai – Daily Routine Stopped” blah blah – and thanks to that my relatives / friends / everyone who hasn’t ever stayed in Mumbai calls and asks me if I am safe and in my 7th floor home, safe from the torrential downpour and the watery menace! And to think today we are ALL back in office again and the sun was out at 10 am – too much fuss over nothing!

But monsoons always makes me nostalgic – last year I shared the season with Miss P who had to brave the Dadar ka keechad daily and who underwent multiple pedicures with me and Nimpipi with her banana chappals walking tall in the mucky Chruchgate station and hollering at me to stop popping open the damn umbrella at every slight drizzle, and many others who are not as significant enough to make me still smile at a year old memory. Sigh. And this monsoon I feel rather lonely – I crave for company to go to Cha Bar (yes Nimps, I finally found where it is and have been haunting it with its 86 flavours of tea ever since), I miss someone to sit at the special table at Mondys and sharing a beer with, I miss just staying in my room with hot tea and endless things to chat about, I miss taking a walk on Marine Drive talking about everything clean and dirty – so yes, I miss my lady friends and they both had to go away to Delhi. Woe is me!

But it’s Mumbai for another 2 years and we shall be brave and we shall send out weepy-needy holiday invitations to them – come back, come for a while, come for ever, come visit, come stay, come and stuff some memories in my box again, come before the monsoon season is gone!