The third in two

Seeing as I have many friends who are currently in a relationship there have been many times (too many ,actually) when circumstances have forced me to be the only other person with the “couple” which has lead to my existence as the qutessential “kabab mein haddi”. These instances have actually taught me so much that I would like to share it with the 3 (to liberal an estimate????) people who must be reading this.
1) 5 minutes of complete pindrop silence does not qualify as an awkward silence, even though it must be feeling like some one literally making the seconds hand on your wristwatch go slower than 7p.m. traffic at iit powai. And it is eventually YOUR responsibility as the third person to find something which all three of you’ll can talk about not the friend you have in common as I have found out to my own chagrin more times than I would like it. This has however improved my conversational skills.
2) You know that about 4-5 feet is the right amount of distance to keep between yourself and the “in love twosome”,ILT, shall we call them. If due to various reasons that is not possible 2 do so ,there is always the option of walking behind them ,try to avoid walking in front of them , cause I have found it to be difficult to ward off the impulse to look back at the most inopportune time.
3) When you are with ILT’s ,take the time to find out what your school friend is upto, if your niece has started talking, take the time ,burn a hole in your pocket or more appropriately your parents pocket if they are paying your mobile bill, n call everyone you know, cause its an incredible polite excuse to politely give them some alone time and something, for you to do rather than sit throuh another awkward silence.
4) You tend to develop invisible blinders which prevent you from seeing anything going on, on any side but the front.
5) You will probably go to hell for lying so much for your friend, or will cause your friend’s mother to wonder a lot what their child is doing meeting you so mannnny times.
6) You will learn how to not interfere and at the same time take your friend’s side
7) You will feel happy for your friend who gets the only jacket in the rains, even though you are soaked to the skin, cause ,she gets to share it with him.
8) You will reject every invitation of prolonging your stay, even before the menacing glances from your friend make an appearance.
And finally even though the situation will only reaffirm your single status, you will keep aside that thought and bear another awkward silence with a smile on your face

Beginning of the end???

I know that everything in life is supposed to end. I’m not a naïve little girl who thinks that things are gonna remain the same way they currently are. But still that doesn’t anyhow lessen the intensity of my desire for them remaining the same way they are!!
I am a person who is generally averse to change (I can admit that) so when a friend is gonna leave my group of friends, who have been a source of humour, understanding and general comfort (the kind you get when you sleep with your blanket on your own bed after along time) in the toughest of times, no one can blame you for getting a bit sentimental and wishing for things to just stay the way they are. Because you just know at the back of your mind, it is the beginning of the end. The end you dread, the end which signals the heralding of words you were shielded from for so many years ; Responsibility, Job, Independence etc etc and a general upheaval from your current life. I know that’s life, but still that doesn’t lessen my need for things to stay the way they are!!!
Sometimes and just some times you manage to find a bunch who can laugh at Mithun the way you do or be as laidback as you would be on a lazy Sunday afternoon or be as shameless as you are when you are bargaining or actually sing along your stupid songs or actually notice something really small and insignificant which no one else can, and when you do you don’t wanna let go. I know that only once I let go of this bunch of people will I get to meet another bunch of people just like them or even better, but still that doesn’t make the letting go any easier!!!
I know that in life, hard times come and bad days just seem to pile on at the most inopportune of times but just knowing that doesn’t make it easier to get though those alone. I look for them,I seek them when I need them and more often than not I can effectively rely on them to cheer me up. Just knowing that that’s not gonna happen my entire life doesn’t make me seek them less often!
Its like a chapter of my life is slowly coming to an end , and the only way to go is ahead, so I am eager ,I am excited to see what lies ahead , but still I cant get this feeling out of my head ,this feeling that things will never be this good agin. So the optimist in me says that maybe, just maybe they might be better.
So here’s to those memories, of those fantastic times we shared (trying hard not to make it sound like an obituary, but I know it kinda is). Cause even though things will change the memories wont.

Why I love movies!

I’m generally an outgoing girl,but the fear of public speaking has been pretty ingrained in me since I made this stupid mistake in 1 school play(I was this Shatrugan sinha look alike thingy n I had 2 say “Abey Khamosssshhh” but I messed it up somehow). So when my friends were organizing this personality contest in our college, I in my “overcome my fears” mode signed up for it. (I also killed a rat in that mode, but that’s another story). Now this thing had a talent round,and I am the self professed “non talent”person (if there’s such a thing) . I cant dance (except 5 steps in cyclic pattern),I can’t sing(people would run away ,and on occasion actually have), I cant draw (my sister finished all my drawing books) and nor am I good at any martial art or anything like that. So ,just as I was contemplating backing out I decided to write something. And so I decided to write about something that I love: movies. And I just read out what I had written. it turned out pretty great, with unknown people coming up and telling that they liked it, and that was pretty great. so here it is;
I love it when the hero always gets the heroine in the end
I love it when in a horror movie,the damsel in distress always runs inside the house to a dead end instead of running outside.
I love it when a hero on getting thrown out of the house can earn a living only by doing construction work when he might as well have been graduated form Harvard
I love it when blood can defy all elemental laws of physics and actually go up a tube from three different t ubes during blood transfusion
I love it when Dev Anand tilts his head and raises his hand
I love it when Jeetendra and Dharmendra cn come running into a room wearing a white shirt and white pants so tight you’d think they were stitched by placing the cloth on them, and say “Maa main BA pass ho gaya”
I love it when a heroine sings a song her voice gains sterosonic abilities enabling it to travel miles to reach the hero’s ears
I love silly giggling in the ackground in the weddings of Barjatiya movies.
I love the fact that Nirupa Roy can bring up her family by stitching clothes on a rickety old Singer sewing machine
I lobe SRK and Kajol in those sarson ke keht
I love the fact that even though I’ve seen Lagaan more then 25 times I still cheer fro each ball and wait with abated breath if Bhuvan hits a six on the last ball. Ditto fro Aamir in JJWS.
I love the moment in which Raju guide tells Rosy against that heavenly sunset
“Mere sukh ab tere,tere dukh ab mere”.
I love it when Hrithik practices sword fighting in his dhoti
I love it when Aamir says “Aap to antaryami ho,gyaani ho,balki aap to purush hi nahi…..mahapurush ho”.
I love it when SRK says Kkkkkiran
I love it when Salman and Madhuri do that ridiculous dance and manage not wake up anyone in HAHK, something which seems so impossible for someone like me who lives in mumbai
I love the fact that even Himesh reshammiya can have a hit movieI love the scene in which Preity Zinta asks Aamir Khan what he saw when he closed his eyes during the opera in DCH

But most of all I love movies cause in those 3 hrs you get to escape your world and get into this colourful fantastic one with happy endings.

Religious tolerance

You know your room is dirty when the wet towel has made your entire bed,pillow and bedsheet wet,when you have more clothes outside your cupboard than inside and only you can find what you want,at this stage your probably 2 steps away form your room being declared a toxic dump.I always start cleaning my room only when there is a danger of fungus taking shelter in my cupboards and i'm down to the last pair of jeans.Also by this time mom's tired of telling me to clean my room and refuses to give me any clean clothes till i have these ones sorted out. I know it sounds like i'm lazy (and i know i am) but once i start cleaning my room all nooks and corners are raided with the same ferocity as that when my friends are presented with some food(actually any food would do for this lot). This time i dared to venture where no human being had dared venture for over three years.The part where i keep all my books and notes and certificates.Dont you just love looking at your certificates from school.For me it's like a reminder of the time when i didnt do anythng worthwhile but still maanged to scrape some, like when i won in the subjuniors relay mainly coz ther were hardly 20 people in the subjunior level or when i lost out on the A+ grade in sr.kg. cause i thought 17 came after 61 and no i'm not dyslexic . So as i was sifting through this storehouse of memories and i came across this essay i had written in 6th standard for my moral science class. I still remember it was for one of my favourite teachers Ms. Pramila. I vaguely remembered writing it but i so did not expect it to be sooooo bad. i probably got an A and i have no idea how but anyway this is for the amusement of the brave who'd dare read it(mind you its still in top condition in a plastic folder with pictures from those themed charts you got for 2 bucks ,god i miss school).The below content has no resemblance to anyone living or dead.It was written more than 9 years ago so plz not to be taken seriously.For reproducing the below piece of art a copyright can be arranged.Price on request.
"Religious tolerance is a value in which we know about religions and tolerance.God created everyman equal but it is man who made sections in which other people too will be included.Before religions(sections)were depended on the occupations.Now religions are a dangerous play.Almost everything depends on religion.A Muslim businessmann would a Muslim staff only.A Hindu businessman would have Hindu staff only.As a result countries like India have riots.The people arent the only cause but also the religion values saying thata particular God is greater than the other.Religions liek Hinduism and Islam fight the most.Religions are not useless but are instruments which make them different but not from humanity.There is one god with different names but is only one,.......only one.
Prayer: O God help us to live in brotherhood in this unfair world .Help us to forgive the people of other religion who offend us.Help us to bring a feeling of pride as we are all equal."

New York New York!!!!!

I love to go places and i don't mean far off places ,but just any place .The previous post amply declares my love for wekend trips,so im gonna write about the countless unforgettable day trips i'v made.Surprisingly (or unsurprisingly) all these trips were completely unplanned and were at the behest of every whim and fancy of my trip companion(when there was one) or mine . I guess what makes them special is that they have no restrictions of time or that touristy compulsion of visiting a particular place just because youv'e heard so much about , and you just could'nt go back home without a snap of at that place in the same pose and the same composition as taken by a thousand people before you. So here's describing one of the best daytrips i'v ever made

My sister and i had heard and seen about New York a lot ,and by that i mean we had seen every episode of FRIENDS about half a dozen times, seen Die Hard 3 about a dozen times and read about either Wall street or Times square in the newspaper every 2nd day. So i was pretty much confident that nothing would surprise me and thankfully i was wrong (i'd like to believe that doesnt happen too often).Perhaps the bus ride to NY city was the best idea cause i got to see most of the touristy attractions on the way to Port Authority Bus terminal.I saw the Yankee Stadium (even though i dont know the 'b' of baseball),i passed Times square, Broadway and i think we went over what i was sure at that time was Brooklyn bridge , but later when i saw three other bridges look the same way i was'nt that confident.It took us long enough to get out of the massive building and after that we had to wait at W42nd and 8th avenue for over an hour.This actually turned out to be kinda great cause i came to know ,that be it New York or Mumbai ,cabbies will always get in the wrong lane and then get out and start fighting mindlessly causing stupid jams.The language was different but the gist was pretty much the same.We were standing in front of this multicoloured building when the uncle who we were gonna stay with came and picked us up and we were off to Queens.

After freshening up and a prompt pet puja it was practically afternoon. we were (thankfully) advised to avoid the standard bus tours and just do the exploring part ourselves.So we set out with just a couple of dollars ,two delicious pita bread sandwhiches and a dozen maps.To complete our obviousness as tourists was the humungous borrowed Minolta camera.We gotta try the subway which was great,having already been to Hong Kong for a gizillion times ,prevented us from being wide eyed confused tourists and the whole system was very mangeable and easy.We changed trains and as luck would have it there was some problem in the last few stations but they had arranged for a bus to the last stop which for us was South ferry,yup our first stop was Statue of Liberty.It was a sunday so there was a decent crowd .We took the staten island ferry so we could just see the statue from away,cause anyway we could'nt go to the top.

Maybe the statue was this distinctly american thing ,and that 's why i didnt get it, but i found it dirty, meaning you could see the dust settled on the lime green statue which was kinda overrated according to me .Maybe if your an american you could feel some sense of pride looking at it but all i saw was a disproportionate statue.It was kinda like when i visited agra and ended up liking the Agra fort a tad more than Taj mahal.But anyway when we got back to solid land did i start enjoying Ney York the way i always wanted to enjoy it.We sat at the harbour which was really pretty and had sandwhiches and just saw people pass.

Dont you just love the times when you dont have to care about time.We could have sat over there for more than an hour or just 15 mins but not having any restrictions just felt great. Now we were supposed to go straight home ,but blame it on the fact that it does'nt become dark till 8 in august,we decide to do a little exploring.We just walked and stumbled on Wall street.Now i'm filmy,very filmy and so is my sister ,so there we stood with these humongous chocolate shakes(dirt cheap) in our hands and did this total 360 degree turn just like bruce willis in die hard3 (thinking "what does wall street have that no other street have???",money dude lots of money) and our eyes on the NSE .For me this was just ultracool. We both took photos with the bull ,it being a sunday there were so many people (holding up kids on its back,holding the bull in unmentionable places) and this is where our bambiya mentality came to use ,which is to politely squeeze in and jostle through to get a photo.

Now i'm not an architecture student but the buildings were just beautiful.Being a sunday(have i mentioned that before) the business district was only full of tourists. the immigration building was ugly enough (that awful lime green again) but on due course we stumbled on these art deco type buildings which had so much character(like those in south mumbai).We stumbled on this one building (i bet it had some spooky purpose) around 4th street which just didnt have any windows!I loved this black building near the ferry pier,the chrysler building(this one was my favourite ,even more than the empire state) ,rockfeller centre and even those residential ones(ok i know i,m gonna sound really stupid ,but like the ones in Friends). i loved all of them.

Thats just what we did. We walked and walked and walked alll the way from the ferry pier till practically 14th street.We saw the remains of the World trade centre(i wish they'd get going with the memorial they plan to build there ,its been almost 7 yrs and one would think that a country like usa would'nt take time to build something. That time there was just a big khadda), we saw these big six footers playing basketball in a roadside park,we saw families having dinner in these cute roadside greek restaurants,we saw st.pauls cathedral(but only from the outside,we were late), we saw everything i wanted to see.

And then we saw a station fro the metro and our tired feet forced us to stop.We headed out to 42nd street [Times square woohoo!!!].Ever wondered how every city has a Regal theatre??? Well this one also did.The lights were pretty blinding and so we decided to skip Maddam tussads or any of the other touristy things and headed out to a park(i think it was battery park,but am not 2 sure) and there was a big screen set up. The cutest thing about it was they screened these old classics for free and people could just bring their mats and lie there and enjoy the movie.i found it extremely cute.By then however it was time to head home.

And so the day came to an end.I didnt understand it at that time but now that i look back,i probably loved that day so much a) cause it was New York and b) cause there was total freedom associated with it .i could go wherevr i wanted and lastly c)cause i had good chappals on,and when i have good chappals on i can go walking on and on(much like that duracell rabbit) I love that day and i'm happy that when i'm all grey and old ill be able to say that i saw NY my way.

beach bums

I love weekend trips. Period. I love the fact that they hardly need any planning and give me a break from the regular hum drum. Of late actually just hanging out with a couple of frnds and talking has been gr8 but a change of scenery is always welcome. Actually dhoondnewale ke to hazaron bahaane mil akte hain. My dear frnd of two years (my namesake) was gonna leave us all n so was made the grand (and mind you it was the 1st successful plan) of visiting and surprising her at DahanuDahanu can be described in three words, beach, beach and again the beach. Getting there was easy enuf with the ample Gujarat bound trains, and we chose to start early. Wonder of all wonders every1 was on tym n so we set out,with the weather being all wet n wonderful (haa……….the monsoons),with the six of us on the upper berths hoping our combined weight wudnt displace our faith in the strength of iron benches. Two years of passing vijaynagar in a bus has trained my eye for the occasional bhojpuri poster ,which I promptly spotted pasted outside the station, which quite literally was very unlike anything u wud expect in Mumbai.the poster by the way was of “Pyaasa Bhootraj”(mental note made for future games of dumb charades).After our gift to her was prepared n, we set out to her place ,but as luck wud have it, we bumped into her on the way. Thankfully surprised, she invited us to her place. After which my mango starved hostel frnds got to savour wat was probably the season’s last mangoes. By this tym however we had only one thng on our minds, and that was clean, clear unending sea .we set out to the 2nd beach(described as the beach for “sophisticated ppl only” by my frnd) the minute I laid my eyes on it ,I knew I cud just spend hours doing absolutely nothing other than just stare at the humungous waves beckoning any courageous being to plunge in to them. But then, that cud be done sum other tym. This was the time to completely immerse ourselves into the water and act like a couple of toddlers.Perhaps ,as it was probably the last tym the eight of us wud be together with no restrictions of tym or studies,every1 was in super high spirits. The thing is u can only get wet to a certain degree and then u just dnt care. Those 3 hrs in the water were absolute joy and ecstacy even tho they basically consisted of dropping each other in the salty water ,dancing and making a complete fool of ourselves in front of the locals, singing stupid songs and just sitting in the water under the sky which was completely over cast and grey giving it a completely surreal feeling, the kind u have in one of those moments which seem to just go on and stay with u forever even tho u dnt have any photos or videos to prove tht they happened. Sitting there in tht garbage less beach with 7 of the best of my frnds with the waves cuming and literally moving us was just fantastic.This was not however sufficiently appreciated by my maid who had to remove the kilos of sand which just refused to get out of my pants. The day ended for us at 3 nxt morning.The nxt day just flew by with hot cups of tea and coffee, sum rain (finally!!!!) and loads of idle gossip. And it was tym 2 go.The beach is always fun,but this tym it was extra special.This is especially dedicated to the person who ill miss so much in the cuming year. The person who completely epitomized the word fun,n truly bought a smile on the darkest of days.Mansi.

Summer

Im really lucky,even though im having a pretty crappy time,(academia wise) its d beginning of yet another mumbai summer.ya,i can tell tht by the fact tht my clothes have started to stink after wearing them just once as opposed to the usual 2 or 3 times,myhair needs to be washed at least 3 times a week,and not even my parents can say tht i was fair once upon a time n at this rate im probably gonna look like a genuine dark south indiann finally the there are bouganvillae everywhere(eagerly awaiting the advent of laburnums and sonmohar)
But my summers havent been just bout those thngs. Definetly not.Iv been one of those lucky souls who had the kinda childhood n youth(i cant beleive im getting out of my teens in 11 months n 10 days) whose memories bring a smile on my face.i think u need to have good times in ur life basically for the reason so u can have memories of those good times ,the way it is with me is that when im going through a rough patch,i can think of those memories and hope that such a time can come back and will come back.its the same with people,i know relatives and people who have known of my existence for all my life but i have absolutely no memories of spending tiime with them , let alone a good time.but then there are people ,complete strangers who iv known ,albeit for a short period of time but have made me laugh and i continue to have the most fondest memories of them. and maybe its me being selfish but i am more fond of the latter
i cant forget those times when i'v spent entire summers in just my petticoats , falling countless times ,learning how to cycle,being pampered to the hoot,getting up at 9 to watch duck tales, playing lagori at 10 in the night, going on mini trips,dancing on my cousins feet,spending the evening on an old scooter with the wind blowing my curly hair,eating misal,sev puri and iceream all in 3 hrs n the promptly puking at midnight ,sleepwalking,smelling the first rains,taking long nver ending walks with a close freind,having my first crush, seeing a new country,getting wet on a beach,watching a 4 movies in 2 weeks in the theater at a time when the tickets were for 30 bucks,picnics, mangoes,.the list is too long.
And so as yet another summer begins, i know im gonna dread the sweat,heat, dehydration,travelling,bad hair days,rashes but im also luking froward to the trees in full bloom,playing in the building,beautiful sunsets,holi,n visting if not a new country at least a new place,the feeling of a cool breeze on a hot day.so optimistically enough im hoping for a good time till the rain gods shower their blessings.