A RAINY EVENING...

As DB likes to do normally, he came to pick me up from office last evening. WHY???? Well...he wants me to have a lesson or two with my driving skills on the busy roads to my office. All seemed well when I started, but suddenly it started raining midway. We got down to wear the jackets, Db placed both his mobile in my hand bag and we shoved the bag into the helmet storage under my seat. I realized that my mobile (which is hardly 4-5 months old) is still in my jeans side pockets. But somehow it didn't bother me since I thought this rain would not last longer and wouldn't get any heavier. Well, mutually we agreed on Db taking over the bike.

And then we started, and midway it started raining cats and dogs. The rain droplets were fast and big and they hit me, it felt like these droplets whipping me across my face. Like a tamed tiger, given up to the whip, I sat quietly at the back, my face down to avoid the water and eyes tightly closed. I asked Db his state and he said he was fine with the helmet on, and asked me to keep my eyes closed. I obeyed since I had couldn't find a better option.

As we closed towards AUDOGODI, I realized that the jackets had already given up (no wonder) and both of us were skin wet. And as I open my eyes to the world, I saw my bike cutting through knee height of water. I screamed MERI NAYI GADDI KHARAB HO JAYEGI, to which Db calmly replied “Don’t even think about it now!!!”. Well he had a point. We need to reach home ASAP, since my SIL would also be waiting, worried. Suddenly I though of my mobile in my pocket. My jeans was all wet and I could already feel the water seeping into my skin. I somehow got scared to check the status of my mobile, didn't even dare to tell Db about it. I sat there giving a silent appreciation to Db, as in how smart he was to have shoved up his mobiles to a safe place and I was the dumbo of the first order.

We reached Kormangala and the downpour ebbed, but I could see leaves and braches all over the road. Quite obviously, the rain and the wind had been quite worse there and the water was skill knee deep. But the worse awaited us. As we started heading towards our home, as we normally avoid the sony world signal because of the huge traffic, we took our usual alternate way only to find a huge tree blocking the road. Db took a U turn and took another alternate route to find another trunk at the middle of the road. Oh Bad!!! A U turn again and the next alternate, another trunk. He got back to the main road, but there is no right turn from the Sony world, you need to go to the kormangala main road again which is another 2 kms and the traffic was getting worse now. Damn!!! “What do we do now?”. But Db is not the one to give up. He found another alternate route to find that a trunk had fallen there also. I never knew there were so many routes to my home. There was no light anywhere, and strings of vehicles lined up, trying to find there way home...so were we. I suddenly had an crazy feeling. A ANACONDA or may be a KING KONG has attacked the city and the city is all in chaos. And Db is my only savior trying to take me home to safety, lets say the TERMINATOR. I told him my crazy idea and poor thing couldn't even bang his head anywhere. Of course at times like this, you don't expect people to (try to ) be funny.

And a few more alternate routes and finally we managed to reached home.
As we entered the parking to the apartment, Db was as excited as he had won a new video game to the last level in the first attempt. He entered the parking lot shouting FU** F**K **CK.

As we got down, we looked like warriors, who won the battle against nature, traffic and time, all tired and spent, wet to the last layer of the skin, my feet swollen to the cold water. But we were winners at last.

I checked my mobile, its still running steady, GOD BLESS the Nokia guys, I am sure no other brand of phone could have survived this.

As we reached and dried and helped our self to a cup of ADRAK WAALI CHAI, the lights had already gone out. Thanks to the generator of the building which helped us with light and a few rushes of TASHAN. JHEL as the movie was and we couldn't find the courage to watch the entire movie, but we could catch KAREENA with her green bikini. Donno what people find so hot in her, she looks starved to me, ANOREXIC as many people said on the web.

This morning I read all over the newspaper the chaos over the city, thanks to the rain last night.
I wanted to post this article right away but the net isn't working here, thanks to the rain last night again.
I cant do it from office as well...WHY???
My client was not satisfied after blocking the chat windows, social networking sites, even web mails and the company’s internal sites...so they have blocked the blogspot also…sob sob sob!!!

So I need to wait till things are up that have been brought down by the rain last night, to post this

WEEKEND ACTIVITY...

Oh it’s been such a painful summer in Bangalore this time, also for the fact that the summers have just started, and it’s already got humiliating. And how much I hate working in the kitchen, it leaves you so tired and drained out. Much as I wonder why they don’t invent helmets with an inbuilt AC, I do wonder as well, why they can’t invent cooler kitchens and some arrangement which would let you cook being seated all the time. That would be such a relief to people like us, these exhaust fans and chimneys are good for nothing, utter hopeless.

Db loves it, when I sit with him, keep smiling and doing silly things all the time, paint or watch TV in the worst case (given a chance he would throw it out of the balcony someday, or donate it to some orphanage). But as soon as I head to the kitchen, he starts frowning. But cooking on the weekdays is a compulsion, but cooking on weekends is my interest. But when on weekends, as I start surfing the net for new recipes, he gives me looks as if he would tie me down so that I can’t move to the kitchen. Nevertheless, he failed to change my mind with SAAM DAAM DAND BHED as we say. He couldn’t cajole me to his arguments, neither a pizza nor his severe warnings would work. So he finally gave up and had to go through my painful PANEER KOFTA last night. Oh yes!!! They were painful koftas, the yogurt that I used had turned sour and I, the genius, didn’t check it before using. They ruined my koftas which eventually landed up in the dustbin . Boo hoo hoo!!!!

But sometimes he gets lucky to avoid my cooking.
This Saturday we managed to have a lunch outside. It was special since we went out for a lunch after almost 2 months. Have you guys had a chance to visit this place SERENGITI in the Total Mall (Madivala)? Apparently it’s named on some African jungle which is some 3000 kms long, which means “land that doesn’t end” (Db, the more intellient of the two, read it on the menu and told me, I didn’t bother to know what it meant). Loved the ambience. It’s a themed restaurant, which gives the feel of a jungle. It has got those little wooden bridges, water flowing beneath with a string of tortoises lined up. A little waterfall, crocodiles, elephants to give you a real feeling of a jungle. It has got a cave inside with lighted up MASHALs. On what I have seen in Bangalore, I would say this one is the best I have known. The food is essentially Lucknowi and Peshawari, and has exoctic desserts to match the rich food.

And also this needs a special mention this weekend.
I got a new diamond pendant the same day.
While we started looking to mend my broken MANGALSUTRA, I ended up with a diamond in my neck. No, I didn’t ask for it, Db insisted. Now that I have a diamond, the revered MANGALSUTRA can take a back seat…my apologies!!! :)

All these years I believed, I am not fond of jewelries. It made life tougher for Db, since he would not know what else to gift me…jewelries are such an obvious choice for women. But I couldn’t believe my smile with that stone in my neck and the worst of it all, when I look into the mirror, I feel the diamond is quiet small and I could have done with a bigger one. NOT ME, NOT ME at all. Since when have I started loving gold and diamonds, I thought they never mattered to me and all these years I had considered them to be wastage of good hard earned money. So now I know, somewhere at the bottom of our hearts, we all women love jewelries may be a few of us are more passionate about it, but more or less we all love them.

So as they say, in the first year of marriage you would just get to know each other better, I think I am still not done with knowing myself.

U Me Aur Hum...

A long weekend is so welcome after such a hard week. Especially when Db has been working so hard, which also included most of his weekends too, a long weekend came as a welcome puff of fresh air. I somehow wanted a nice movie, may be the new flick “U Me aur Hum”, staring two of my all time favorite actors. But the price of tickets were so disheartening, I couldn’t spend a thousand bucks on a movie.

Early Saturday morning, while I was having a lazy sleep, Db (the more active of the two), suddenly woke me up, and whispered, tickets are available for seventy, shall I book two or three. I couldn’t believe my smile…I said THREEEEEEEEEE.

Well…my SIL thought it was a bad idea. Why do you want to take the KABAAB MEIN HADDI WITH YOU? She said. That reminds me of a little incident. My friend, who had just started off in her affair, was so excited about he first date with her boyfriend. This guy, her boyfriend was a football player by hobby. They went to the theater to watch a movie together. On reaching the theater, he asked her how much cash she had, she said she had enough to buy tickets, almost five hundred. On which he gave a disappointed look,
Oh that won’t be enough for thirteen people.

She got furious,
Who is coming???

He said…
My football team.

Still furious…
How could you do this? I thought it was our date, why did you get your friends???

To which he replied innocently…
Why? What’s wrong? What could we have possibly done in a public theater which we wouldn’t be able to do among my friends? Instead of sitting with some unknown people, we would sit with some known faces.

Bloody Moron!!! You bet!!!

I found it the appropriate time to answer the same to my SIL, and she laughed it off too.

And what a movie it was!!! Somehow I like these actors turning directors, they have a very fresh and positive approach, as if they get the creative independence, which they don’t get being actors and being directed otherwise. It started with Amir Khan with TARE ZAMEEN PAR, an awesome effort and now Ajay Devgan with U ME AUR HUM which is quite close to the same.

Needless to say, path breaking performances, a very fresh looking canvas, amazing chemistry among the actors. The characters look truly believable and genuine. The story resembles 51 FIRST DATES and THE NOTEBOOK in some ways, but to sum up all, it’s a nice touching love story, you relate to, more so since it showcases a real life couple.

And I loved the songs on screen, especially the SALSA song JEE LE and the title track. And KAJOL looks so pretty on screen, can’t believe she is the same dark, creepy girl who debuted with BAAZIGAR.

The only thing that goes haywire is the punch line. SOMETIMES THE GREATEST DISTANCE IS THE DISTANCE BETWEEN TWO PEOPLE. I didn’t find it quite relevant to the story.

THINGS THAT MAKE ME HAPPY

I keep finding blogs on the net where in people describe things that make them happy. I don’t want to die without my list. So here I go with my list.

A late night long drive.

A nice, romantic love story (movie).

An unexpected piece of ice cream or a bar of chocolate. (How Girly!!!!)

A bubble bath with warm water.

The smell of soil on the first shower.

Smiling, Laughing toothless kids.

The gentle breeze soothing my body on a lazy summer evening.

A new haircut.

Late night gossips.

Gossip the night off and watch the sun rise in the morning.

Wake up suddenly in the morning and find out that I can sleep for another hour.

To find DB’s old t-shirt tucked away at some well ignored place, which still smells his cologne.

To find money in some abandoned purse or jeans pocket.

To receive a free voucher from some shop you shopped long time back.

An unexpected call from a close friend, you lost track over these years.

I meet Mom and Dad after a long long time, and I find them wearing the shirt/saree I gifted long back with my first salary.

I turn over an old family album and I find the letter I wrote Mom during my college days, neatly kept like a precious memory to be cherished.

I experiment some new recipe and it turns out yummmmmmmm.

When I do something silly and DB actually finds it sweet.

When people say we make a nice couple.

Every time Dad gets an award.

I reach the busiest of the traffic signals and find it green.

Coming across some old Hindi song which I heard as a toddler.

Unexpected good food at office.

I reach office and the find no mails (= no work) from onsite.

I stand on a weighing machine and find that I have lost a kilo.

When I get lucky and the autowallas have descent meters to charge me less than my usual fares.

A LAZY, USELESS DAY

No other day today.

I got of at 8, made tea and then lunch and dinner (both same ;), I am quite good at shortcuts) and soon its time to take bath and then office. Suddenly I start feeling lazy to go into the bathroom. So I sit right there chattofying with my SIL. She keeps reminding me time and again that I am getting late for office, but somehow I don’t care. If I could I would have taken a leave from office today. But I haven’t got any left, all leaves were over with the engagement and wedding. I cant even stay home if I get down with dengue or malaria. I suddenly feel that life is gone so regular and routined. Almost 2 months to my marriage, have I gotten bored already? Man man man!!! It’s sad to be a Gemini at times…it’s not so easy to capture your interest for a longer time.

So here I start almost dragging my legs to the bathroom yawning all the while, somehow manage a real quick bath. Wore a saree (1^st time ever after I set my feet on Bangalore soil, post marriage). I don’t feel like walking to the bus stop and taking the bus. Db has always been furious on me for this. He believes when we can actually afford an easy travel to office by an auto, my painful journey by bus is actually useless. But I can be real stubborn at times, and I am on this PAISE BACHAO mission now. But I can certainly make exceptions, so like an obedient wife, I catch an auto.

I reach office somehow, but I still feel as lazy as ever. To match that I have been made the DPL in this team where in I gotta only fill these excel sheets for effort tracking, defect tracking, billing, invoice and more and more bullshit. I couldn’t have gotten worse. I have to fill in the metrics today and some audit sheets. DAMN. Common guyz, I am a techie, these excel sheets and word docs don’t interest me.

Oh what a boring day. I have yawned countless times since morning. I feel like banging the monitor on the floor and enjoy the sadist pleasure of watching it break into pieces. I feel like going into my manager’s cabin and pull her nose till she howls. I feel like shouting from the rooftop “GIMME A BREAK”.