Audible thoughts

2008-07-03T21:03:00.001-07:00

For the love of anonymity

I'm back on this blog almost a year after I last wrote in it. Call it a sabbatical or just a reclusive act. But now that most of my blog friends have given up on me I feel I am off the radar and ready to roll again. Little did I know that as a blogger I would really prefer anonymity to anything else. Even when I wrote to earn my living, I'd feel a little uncomfortable about being recognized for my work. I wasn't really ashamed or anything of that sort - at least most of the times - but when someone wanted to talk to me about my story, I'd mentally shy away to a corner.
Perhaps I just feel I suffered from some i-know-you-read-it-or-liked-it-but-lets-just-not-discuss-it syndrome. Makes sense? Most likely not.
That reclusiveness, for the the lack of a better word, travelled across to my blogging. Why don't I just write in a different blog, you ask? Well I just feel so attached to my URL.
Anyway, so here's to the joys of a sabbatical, the comfort of anonymity and my own silent comeback.

2007-07-30T09:39:00.000-07:00

Trekking with Tom
This was a wierd weekend....fortunately not as much for me and rather unfortunately for people I encountered that day. A new friend in the city called me for a trek to Shenendoah Valley (the White Oak trail). "It's going to be a simple one, the trail"...yeah I should have taken that with a sackful of salt.
The trek started a little late in the afternoon so we already knew we'd never reach the top of the mountain in time to return before sunset. While we caught our breath just before we turned back downhil, little did we know that we'd no longer be walking back as the light-hearted bunch of four who started the trek with a blissful lack of awareness of things to come.
We saw a very worried looking trekker coming down the slope above us with two rucksacks. Obviously the owner of the second sack was in trouble. He sure was, considering that he was a hugely overweight fellow in his mid 40's, who had just puked everything in his system out and was obviously in NO shape to stand, leave alone walk. The trail was narrow and rocky so no chance we could carry him without a stretcher. There was no way we could call the forest rangers -- no phone network -- or ask other descending (and indifferent) trekkers to call for a helicopter to pick him up. The only option left was to accompany the sick fellow and the poor coordinator of the hiking group, down the trail, which by the way, was not a smooth one. We came to know later that Tom, the sick man -- was under medication for depression, after having lost his son a few years back and....was HALF BLIND!!!!!!!!!!!!!! By then, our collective sympathy turned into a big wave of disbelief. I mean, HOW can someone with so many health problems have the guts to turn up on this trek.... WITHOUT any emergency savers in place. The coordinator later told us that Tom had enlisted for the trek saying he was under no medication. (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
Anyway, what could have been a 45 minute walk downhill turned into a backward stitch operation, wherein we walked in groups of two and the leading group walked ahead only to walk back towards the sick unit group to see if they are ok and go on again...
Anyway we returned to the parking lot only to meet a big family of 8 locked out of their van...and proceeded to help them find a hanger or something to crook open the lock. In the end, a combination of my comb and a metal rod worked.
On our way back, my friend was informed that her apartment had to be abandoned for a few days because it was suddenly infested with 100s of flies....yes, houseflies. The things that happen to people sometimes! No need to mention what I did on sunday. One positive fallout : discovered that pest bombs are not really like hand grenades. The other positive outcome -- got this pic.

2007-07-11T09:58:00.000-07:00

It's amazing how the concept of romance, love and contentment changes overtime. My idea of a romantic dinner these days is cooking at home with hubby. Not that I mind candlight dinners (only if hubby responded a little better to any mushy, loving, longer-than-5 seconds look than with just a "what?") but there are benefits of having a man assist you while you float around as sous chef. Here's why:
1. Men tend to be at least a wee bit stronger and hence quicker when it comes to activities such as kneading the dough, slicing some fridge-worn meat, cutting onions and sparing you the tears...
2. For some strange reason, men (at least the few I know of) feel happy about not having to cook the meal which in their books is the harder part of cooking and hence are content with helping you with the actual hard part -- which includes cutting, kneading, preparing and then cleaning up. It's a notion I'd never like to change.
3. By the time they start helping you with prepping for phase two of cooking, they start feeling famished with the thought of all the food that awaits them at the end of the ordeal and thus speed up, quite efficiently, in order to help finish the job faster.
4. They look so cute following instructions :-))))

2007-06-16T10:42:00.001-07:00

Ah the joy of coming back to this blog after a much needed break. Like everything else in my life, I needed to get away from it to get back to it again...Anyway, simply said I got a little bored of whispering nothings to particulary noone here.
I have gone completely crazy with my new home. Yes...MY new home...errr our new home, actually. Anyway, the kitchen is going to be a bold grassy green. The hall is split into two colours -- vanilla white and on one wall and brown on the opposite one. And one of the bedroom is a crisp aqua blue....the swimming pool types.
That done, its time for me to get into student life...am not sure if I am fully prepared for it though.

2007-01-21T01:03:00.000-08:00

I am back. To blogging. To Bombay. To everything I did not think I was too used to but I am. Unlike what people told me I would feel, I felt good as I inhaled the smell-filled air when I landed. The sight of the unbelievably small roads and crowded slums before the plane landed. I enjoyed it as the humid air hugged me tight. And the honking and sounds of people talking aloud....And I felt my system welcoming all this like it was a part of my system that had gone missing for ages.
It's not like I've been away for too long. In fact I haven't. But there comes a time in your life when you take a barrage of life-changing decisions. In my case, there has been marriage, moving into a new country, life on a dependant visa, deciding to do a MBA instead of taking the comfortable path and do a master's in journalism, a profession that I have grown into over 6 long years. And I did not realise how weary all the changes left me, simply because they all chose to happen at the same time. Marriage I would say has been the easiest choice to transition into and I love it but not life on a dependant visa. I wish I knew it would be so difficult to be completely happy with.
In the beginning, when you leave everything you are so familiar with, you are excited at the prospect of "change" and "newness"... After a while you just want to cosy up with things you find predictable. Like the protective coddling from your parents (however irritating it gets after day 2) or the clutter in your small room which you share with your sibling. My home (I mean, the one I live with the other half) is exactly the way I wanted it but the almost-perfectness also feels wierd.
It's funny how its possible to feel divided too. Between your old life and new. They are two different lives I am leading now. And I have realised that no matter which side I am, I'll keep wanting a bit of the other in the one I am leading at any given time.

2006-09-26T15:09:00.000-07:00

These days I don't blog much because I spend much of my time being as busy as an unemployed person can be. And trust me, that's a lot of work. Because being unemployed-and-about-get-a-new-job means that you are suddenly pushed onto this vast, open (and empty) road with no signboards and lots of bends and twists. Anyway, thats not the point. The point is I've become so busy doing this and many more things that I sleep like a log. And have stopped dreaming, or the dreams have stopped coming, whichever is the right way to say it. Or even talking in my sleep. But a strange, strange thing happened last night. A certain someone I know, who is sure to throw a fit if he knows I spoke of this incident, shocked me with behaviour that I am usually known to exhibit. Somewhere nearing dawn, I was woken up by strange sounds of laughter coming from the only person other than me in the room. I first thought I was dreaming, then I realised that I was not. The more I identified the sounds to be that of laughter, the more worried I got...and I sat up. "I was dreaming and it was so funny that I laughed my head off and woke up laughing," he explained in a sleepy voice. He proceeded to tell me that he dreamt that he was playing cricket with... Rajesh Khanna (err???????) and found the situation so hilarious that he ran through the course of the dream laughing and woke up laughing. I don't know how funny you might find it, but I certainly did not. And fell back on my cushion, fuming. The things people do, at times. Grrr... Especially when you're used to be the only one doing those things!

2006-09-12T18:03:00.000-07:00

Completely Bostoned: Am I so citified? And by that I don't mean landscapes full of glitzy, glass buildings, speedy cars, clean roads yada yada kind of citified... I mean crowded and sometimes dirty streets, noisy traffic and bunched up apartment buildings types. It somehow makes me feel at ease. I spent a long weekend in Boston and that's where this comes from... For some strange reason, I felt at home with the city from the minute I stepped on Bostonian turf to the day I flew out. From my limited-but-growing knowledge of American cities, I can safely conclude it is the city closest to good old Bombay. In fact a little of Pune and Bombay rolled into one... Bombay because of the victorian buildings- some of them are much older than those in Bombay of course, the somewhat disorganised city planning, small and densely populated suburbs. And Pune because of the students who seem to dominate the population of the city. Look anywhere and you see young students... there are there everywhere. Obviously no surprise since the city is home to Harvard, MIT, Boston University among numberous other educational institutions. But I guess it struck me prominently because I landed on the day most students were moving into apartments as the academic year started couple of days later. It was a scene worth capturing but sadly no camera that day... Everywhere you looked -- ALL over the city -- you saw trucks and tempos offloading furniture, families gathered on streets, apartment corridors filled with stuff waiting to be carried inside....Phew! In many places the city is not even as clean as most American cities I've seen so far...But the crowded streets and choas and of course the T (tram) felt oh so like home!! Maybe I am just too Bombay-fied.

2006-08-16T15:11:00.000-07:00

What if we can't "google" anymore?
Sigh..this is depressing. I am supposed to be careful with yet another word.
But I don't get this... Shouldn't companies be rejoicing when their brand names slip into colloquil vocabulary? I don't get why they get all stuffy about it. Remember how Xerox protested about the use of the word "xerox" as a verb -- and it did so after having waited till the word almost replaced "photocopy" . http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=18492
And now I hear, it is my very favourite, Google (!!!) who is now objecting to the usage of the word "google" as a verb... It does seem like it will soon go the Xerox way. It was just last month that the word "google" entered the latest edition of Merriam-Webster's dictionary. And in less than a month, the company seems to has gotten edgy about the implications.
Why oh why?! If I had a brand that became so popular that it entered everyday vocabulary, I would be ecstatic! And once the verb becomes part of colloquil and later formal language, should you even bother to monitor the context it is used in? Yes, the hitch would be that even if consumers used other brands, it would be an issue in case of quality. But consumers are not fools. They don't tar the reputation of Brand X if Brand Y proved useless... And no matter what the other brands do, your brand will still be at the top of mind and if you retain the quality, noone can beat the position your brand has earned in consumer mindspace. Do you even think of going to AskJeeves.com anymore?
Anyhoo. After an article appeared in Washington Post referring to Google as having moved beyond a particular product to become a descriptor of an entire sector -- generic trademarks. After the article appeared, apparently Google sent out letters advising journalists, to avoid the "genericide" -- which I gather is a term supposed to mean the murder of the brand equity of first mover brands in a category by using the names to represent or describe the category itself.
Which is still understandable. But Google has laid down certain rules for the context in which it is appropriate to use the verb "google". For instance:
"Appropriate: He ego-surfs on the Google search engine to see if he's listed in the results.

Inappropriate: He googles himself."

"Appropriate: I ran a Google search to check out that guy from the party.

Inappropriate: I googled that hottie."

Does this make sense?

PS: Have you tried googling for google and "miserable failure" and clicked the "I feel lucky" tab?

2006-08-16T12:44:00.000-07:00

Getting nowhere: There have been times when I thought I was getting somewhere and there have been times when I knew I was getting nowhere... And this is surely one. In fact the first two words to check into the empty space of my groggy mind this morning were : getting nowhere. Like the residue of a forgotten dream from the night. Just two words that remained. That was scary. Among my other idiosyncracies is a nagging habit of keeping a watch on the thoughts that the night dreams leave on your mind as they leave you. I rarely remember the dream but I remember the thoughts they leave behind -- like sticking post-its on your pillow before they fly out of the window. Sadly I am not one of those lucky people who while dreaming know they will wake up to reality. Still in typical optimism, I shut my eyes tight waiting to fall asleep again and wake up to some better words. Like I ensure that exactly 1.5 spoonfuls of sugar go into my morning coffee. But any hoo. I failed. And nothing else seems to be working. So here I am listening to backmasked songs and pretending it is helping. I am even laughing like I am off my rocker, listening to what back masking has done to Britney Spears' 'Hit me Baby'. If that does not work, I plan to chuck my new diet. And have cheesecake.

2006-08-14T11:52:00.000-07:00

V for Vendetta and other thoughts...
I must say that watching "V for Vendetta"this weekend turned my initial apprehension about the movie on its head. The movie is a great watch for those who have at some time spared a thought about governments and the power they have to effect our lives as individuals... If you've ever wondered what role they would play 50 years later, do watch this movie... Set in the late 2000's, the movie has a good script, and the characters make some simple but solid statements.. and they do make you think. After long comes a movie which uses an imagined and far-fetched plot set in the future to make its point. Interestingly, one of the dialogues in the movie encapsulates the style of the movie itself : "Artists use lies to tell the truth... Politicians use lies to cover up the truth."
But the one that made me run this course of thoughts was : "People should not be scared of Governments. Governments should be scared of its people." This is what V, the risen-from-the-ashes protagonist says...
Currently it is happening in the US in some ways...In the US, people do have the ****s to question the government and the police. We still hear of the public demanding enquiries into the 9/11 attacks and the government's role in them. We hear of suits being filed against the government and its policies. And it reflects in some itty bitty everyday incidents too. For example, someone was telling me about this girl who was caught speeding above the limit in the US, while she was busy yakking on the cellphone. Now hear this objectively without letting the do's and don'ts of safe driving come into your mind. The policeman while issuing her ticket, told her to stop talking on the cellphone. She put the phone on hold and replied, "Does the law say talking on the cellphone is a crime?". No, m'am. "Then why don't you just issue me the ticket and be done with it, please?" was her cool response. And the policeman did just that and went away.
But such instances notwithstanding, it won't be an exaggeration to say that perhaps the developed societies we see stand the risk of going the way V feels. It's like this. While complete obedience and respect for the law does lead to safer and better society, adherence without thinking may slowly lead to lack of questioning and ignorance and then apathy. It is at such times that governments will piggyback on the apathy and ignorance to exercise their vested interests. And it is in such societies so used to and pampered by security and discipline and convenience that governments can easily create fear -- of potential, possible or suspected disruption of the life the citizens are so used to -- to justify its own actions. This "disruption" is mostly in the form of "terrorist attacks" or "threats to national security". Paranoia is not just fearing the un-happened and unforeseen. Paranoia is also fearing the present to change. Create paranoia and the people will believe. Simply because it is common knowledge that on an average, pampered and spoilt kids grow up to have a low tolerance level for things that put their cosy lives and routines in disarray.
And it is perhaps already beginning to happen in developed societies, where the law is above all individuals. A friend of mine suggested a simple exercise to do to find out how you, as an individual, don't matter in a society of law-abiding and unquestioning citizens. He suggests that you drive on a highway in the US with no particular destination in mind. Just keep driving aimlessly and then when you find a good location to park on one of the shoulders and watch the sunset, just sit there watching the sunset. In no time, a police car will stop beside you to enquire if "everything is okay". Yes, you say. The police officer waves and drives away. Stay there for more than half an hour and you will be asked again, this time the question will be tinged with suspicion. Stay longer and eventually you stand a big chance of landing in the police station for questioning. They know you might not be a terrorist after they check your records. They know you appear harmless and were not being an inconvenience to passing cars. But that you just wanted to chill out on a highway doing nothing but watching the sunset is not acceptable to them. YOU as an individual, don't matter.
If this strikes a chord, the movie will too.

2006-08-10T09:29:00.000-07:00

Always thought dogs have distinct expressions and looks too and this confirms it! Happened to chance upon this really funny site by some called Gabriel on googlepages now I lost the link so here are some pics -- all it has is pictures of dogs wearing wigs...And some of the wigs really suit some dogs I mean their expressions. It's like the owners looked at their dogs and said "Hmmm, this one looks like Napolean Dynamite.. lemme complete the look!" Can't imagine people have the time. But since they do might as well acknowledge their efforts and have a good laugh. Wonder what the dogs feel about it, though...

2006-07-28T13:17:00.000-07:00

There comes a time in the day
when the ball of fire stops sinking
and decides to let go
and while it does, it grabs the ocean around
and melts it with a glare
to form a moment they both will share
for that moment there's no sky and no sun
Just a little of both
and the moment spun...

The beauty of a sunset is in the way it makes you stop and just look. And that's the best part about sunset shots. They are just there -- all you need to do is see, marvel and capture them... and when you get such easy shots without doing more than just glancing on the horizon, most often than not they leave you with that warm feeling in your heart and a silly, happy smile on your face...

2006-07-28T12:41:00.000-07:00

Bold and Beautiful

It's never boring to watch squirrels go about their day... I know, I know, they are nothing but tree rats, on many levels. But still find them adorable. I think my eyes were playing tricks on me but I thought I saw a black squirrel behind my apartment... but whatever it was it was too quick for me to observe it carefully... Has anyone seen black squirrels really??

2006-07-28T12:19:00.000-07:00

A Hole in the Clouds

This was at sunset too... but it was so cloudy and dark except for this one spot where the sunlight tore through the blanket of clouds...

2006-07-26T13:52:00.000-07:00

It's like this... when I see a picture I just have to click it. Am no great photographer but I love to click. And sometimes I see things in frames everywhere I look. So when I went to Union Square, a happening mall in San Fran, the best shot I thought I got was of this streetster sitting on one of the stairs with his back to the mall and playing his guitar, lost in his own world. Yeah, I have a penchant for focusing on the odd man out on the street. And I like the way they like the attention the camera gives them. At least I think so.
But N, who besides thinking that I am an "obessive camera fiend", also thinks it is highly intrusive and a breach of privacy when you randomly click people you find interesting even if you are just a harmless, awestruck tourist...I didn't think he or anyone could think that, I didn't even take the hint when he turned his back on me while I was focusing my lens on this really old but cool, tattoed biker with plaited blonde hair. He stuck out like a sore thumb in a cafe full of old and properly dressed clientele. Then, I was sternly warned not to try clicking those really interesting looking homeless dopers on our walk to Haight Ashbury, the quirky street in San Fran...They were so 70s and so hippy - I really felt like it was a flashback to the flower power era. I clutched at my camera in a daze but soon broke out of it... "You think they are like beggars in India? They can kill you for it or at least flick your camera right under your nose."
As N became more and more vocal about it, I wondered, am I really that insensitive to the feelings of people I click? Did all that cold-calling, training to focus on maximising info from time given in an interview and prodding for and wheedling information turn me into a person interested only in getting the info or photo-ops, no matter what the subject felt?
Perhaps it did... At work we are trained to ask questions, however difficult and sometimes personal. There are so many times when we need info, we have to get it no matter what and from where. The focus is on getting it. We need pictures, we click them. But then, I never gave it a thought till I found my paranoid co-traveller so affected by this... err... camera frenzy.

2006-07-18T12:47:00.000-07:00

Offices have committees to tackle sexual harrasment at work. They even have the mechanism in place to ensure that the basic and even the unwritten rules of code and conduct at work are being implemented. But why doesn't any workplace have a rule book or a code of conduct handbook for bosses -- to lay down some rules or limits when it comes to interacting with their subordinates?
This idea comes in the wake of some stories I have heard in the recent months about a different kind of harrasment at work - which is forcing the subjects, whose examples I am about to bring up shortly, to live perpetually on the brink of a nervous breakdown. No I haven't watched "The Devil wears Prada" yet. It's just that almost everyone I know seems to be driven to plotting evil thanks to the bosses in their lives.
Instead of rambling on with the stories, let me list down the characteristics exhibited by the Devils at work:
1. They position themselves as efficient task masters interested in helping you grow. Everything they do is for your good.
2. This is the worst I've heard of so far: They announce in an email before the annual appraisal results are out that you are due for a promotion this year. When the letter finally arrives there is no trace of that announcement. The excuse given is: "I forgot when I was sending it out." Yes this is true.
3. Their idea of delegating tasks is to sms you during non working hours. Every single day. When you don't reply to their sms-es out of frustration, they sms a few others in your team to inform them about your "irresponsible behaviour".
4. When you want to avail of those 10 days of paid leave for the first time in two years for your sister's wedding, they avoid you whenever they see you and avoid giving you a time to discuss whenever you bring it up. When you finally write in a request after a week of waiting, they completely deny your attempt at trying to give a prior notice
5. Some call up on off days and Sundays to "discuss" ideas and schedules for the following week
6. Some even call when you've left for home to ask where you are and whether you received their sms or email about the next few tasks that they sent out a minute after you left work - almost DAILY.
7. Some firmly believe that it is okay to lose their temper or vent their frustrations on you in front of your subordinates and peers and at the same time thinking it is perfectly okay to be asking you to go out with them for shopping the very same day or accompanying them for a drink when they have no company that day.
8. Some take you out for a monthly official lunch at their "favourite resto", and then bitch to another friend who heads the other department about the abominable pigs her team consists of. The other boss in turn happens to spill that out one day, in perhaps a drunk moment, at another lunch!

2006-06-23T10:51:00.000-07:00

I really think my Mom is God in disguise... a slightly irritating one sometimes.

2006-06-22T13:08:00.000-07:00

THERE'S AUBERGINE IN MY SANDWICH... AND IT STILL TASTES GOOD!
It feels nice to walk into a restaurant not quite expecting a gastronomical delight and yet be rewarded by one. I walked into Bear Rock Cafe (there's a bear pugmark with the name) at Cary, North Carolina with no expectations..What does Bear Rock signify anyway -- I don't know. The name was not remotely interesting -- I am the gullible one who chooses restaurants going by the way the name sounds if the interiors and menu are not clearly visible from the outside. But anyway I stepped into this Cafe and at first glance it looked a wooden cabin. Then I noticed the antelope horn ceiling lamps, animal skin carpets (fake perhaps), fireplaces with hunting traps framed above, paintings of hunters and hunting expeditions and if I am not mistaken there were some hunting rifles framed on the walls too... :-( Not such an appetising thought for me when I eat but well I was hungry!
But surprise surprise!! The menu had a very intriguing vegetarian sandwich section and I felt so compelled to try it. The sandwiches they had on offer were like none I've ever had. The one I had -- just imagine -- had sliced aubergines and bottle gourd -- which tasted like it had been lightly fried in some light oil and probably pepper, along with the cucumber and tomatoes and basil and fennel. I thought that was pretty cool... I mean I have never had a sandwich with AUBERGINES in them! And a considerable amount, that too. Never thought of the possibility, did ya?
To top it, the food is all organic and I do think the ingredients and food really tasted fresher than most places I have eaten at... The soups which come along with sandwiches, are divine.....I still can't get over the taste and smell -- cheese and pumpkin and sundried tomatoes -- what a combo!
I still don't get why they had to have a restaurant positioned as an organic food place but do up the place like a hunter's den... I don't get the connection. But who cares...

2006-06-22T10:28:00.000-07:00

My first visit to the Indian Embassy.. We have a document which needs just a stamp from the Indian Embassy. Not a big deal, me thinks.
The Embassy landline says that the office is open till 6 pm, so at about 1 pm, we find our way to this gorgeous Victorian structure somewhere in the heart of DC...
We run into an absolutely clueless woman at the front desk in a huuuge hall, who is...well, just sitting there.
She informs us that there is another office that attests documents. I shall reserve my comments on the way she was dressed or her level of spoken English -- no matter how important it is when you are at the front desk of an organisation supposed to be the face of the nation to the world -- because I don't want to think and sound like pseudo-elitist.
Behind me, a 50s something man joins the queue -- he's not a desi. "Can you tell me who can help me with information on importing cotton from India?" he asks her. "No sir... I don't know," was the polite but dumb reply... Aren't you supposed to say something more meaningful if you are sitting there to answer questions?
I busy myself looking at my shoes. But anyway, we ask her if the other office is at walkable distance.
Depends on your speed.. Laughs at her own joke.
Then as an afterthought she adds : It closes at 12.30 pm actually.
But your website does not mention the timing, we exclaim.
Of course it must have been on the website.
But where?
It must be somewhere..
Can you show us so that the next time we can check and come?
I don't know where, but it has to be there, no?

We try to make sense of it and then I feel like using their loo. N, on account of habit continues the conversation (which I can overhear from the loo)

Hmmm....This is a nice building (I notice he uses the word building and not structure on purpose). So how long have you been here?
Lady gets defensive suddenly. "A looong time"
Oh so you are a resident maybe?
Yes yes.. I have been here a very long time.. I live here
Oh how long? I have been here 4 years...But I am on a work visa of course...
A long time
Ok, how long (I can sense that he is grinning)
"Two years!"
She didn't actually think we would have boo-booed her if she didn't live in DC for a long time, did she?
Anyway. With new hope we walk to the other office. It is closed officially, like lady no 1 had told us. But the door is open. So as advised, we step in. There is one lady behind the counter, who's just gotten up from her seat. Encouraged by the insistence of the lady no 1, we walk up to the counter.
Hello?
A look of complete and unbridled shock. "Who let you in?"
M'am the door was open and we just wanted to enquire if you could tell us what to do..The lady at the main office told us we could come here and ask you....
But how could you enter?
M'am the door was open... Actually, we needed to know if we can get this document stamped because we are going to be out of state from tomorrow so..
HOW COULD YOU ENTER?
M'am the door was open and we knocked... And we were told to just ask if..
NO!!...a pause... NO, that is not possible! She is flailing her arms around in complete and unexplained disbelief.
But we did enter through the open door m'am... "Do you really think we broke the door open..."(that's me mumbling) Now just a question, can you tell us if this can be stamp...
"No, no!! We are not here to do anything of this sort, she splutters.
Errrrrrr... but just a question m...
HOW CAN you open the door like that?? It is supposed to be locked and noone can open it...(Err, maybe you should lock the door from inside then?)
Walks out of her glass cabin and starts charging on us...Please get out...please, please!
The door in question, incidentally, is right opposite her counter, at a distance of 6-7 feet. Wonder how she never noticed it was open... Err, anyway after that lovely conversation that hinged only on the topic of The Door, I cannot help laughing aloud. Of course we are no doormats so we start turning away.. But lady no 2 is not finished yet so she emits a final shriek, "Please get out of that door"...
[a note: this did happen!]

I might be wrong in thinking so -- probably it has to do with being miles away from home -- this somehow felt worse than my brushes with the Clerk Mentality back home.. I had a question : Is such behaviour reserved only for Indians... how do they treat the firangs? I did ask around later and was dismayed to learn that they are actually more polite to non-Indians, especially the whites..And everyone who told me that had - stories of their own to share.. perhaps it calls for another post. And then there are a few contrary stories too... Some of us may still not have shaken off the British Raj hangover but now that I have vented, I prefer to seek comfort in knowing that a significant population, me included of course, has indeed gotten over it...

2006-06-14T12:45:00.000-07:00

Ok, I am forgetful... Have been, for as far as I can remember. No wonder my mother always imagined up a horribly turmoiled future for me, in which I forgot to take the right exams for the right subjects on the right days, forgot to turn up at my own wedding, lost my kids in a mall, besides losing all my precious belongings at least once in my lifetime.

Fortunately I grew up to the age of 27, with a somewhat clean-ish record -- So far I have lost only one pair of sunglasses -- I left them in a cab; one wristwatch and one (empty) wallet -- in a local train, though I suspect it got stolen when I was fast asleep almost throughout the journey. Oh ok, and one day I walked out of a restaurant forgetting to pay. Noone stopped me, since it was this huge place and the cash counter was on the opposite end of the entrance, so noone noticed. Of course I went back to pay, an hour later when I realised! Yes it was embarassing but thankfully the staff there knew me very well, since I was a regular. One of their most favourite and trusted regulars, actually. Ook, fine, it was embarassing.

It's not like I don't remember to pick up my stuff, (viz.) my wallet, handbag, a book/magazine or two etc... It's just that I forget to remember quickly, before the others notice. I can say my ex spoilt me in that regard -- by picking up all the stuff I left behind. My father indulged this vice in me a bit too by always telling my best friend to remind me to do the task-in-question that I was supposed to remember to do, when she came to pick me up on her way to school. My mother and sister knew best how to handle this side of me -- they gave me pointed, exasperated looks not more than thrice before I was getting up to go somewhere else. And this knowledge was passed on and enthusiastically picked up by a couple of my friends. So as long as I was in safe company it did not matter...

It's not that I'm glorifying the tendency -- but then noone has hated me for it too... And then it has been a useful excuse to have -- like when the gossipy-grapevine-queen (GGQ) of the office who people were a bit scared to offend, clawed on to me to find out more about what the friend who sat at the next workstation had to say about about something that the friend would never tell the GGQ, I had a ready tool to wriggle out of the situation and shut her up. I just had to say the magic words -- "I forgot," and it was more or less believable. In case it was a query about the exact amount of pay hike someone else got, the response would be, "I forgot to ask." Case file closed in seconds.

Actually, it was a trick I learnt from one of those classmates who I sat next to in school for a couple of months. Somehow she never liked telling me what was written on the note our common friend just scribbled and sent her a few minutes back, or what she and the neighbouring girl were sniggering about. I was far from being a pesky kid but at that time I genuinely believed they were my friends. So whenever I asked her, "What were you two laughing about?," she put on this strangely calm smile, followed by a sincere look on her face when she replied, "I'll tell you later..". Which she never got around to because by the time it was lunch recess, she had conveniently "forgotten" about it. :-D That was my first lesson in how I could use my reputation.

Then of course it comes in handy when my kid sister comes up with things she remembers me saying or doing in childhood. Like when I, then an 8-year-old, high on some crazy imagination fuelled by Enid Blyton books in those days, was convinced that the Britishers might have buried some treasure in the desolate wood area in the colony or else why would we keep finding strange coins when we played hide 'n seek there, and convinced 10 other kids to carry on a 5-day digging up exercise that needed all of our parents to cajole us out of. That the activity extended to my house garden later and that the parents of other kids thought my parents were just trying to make other kids work in our garden for some soil mixing or some such, is something I'm very grudgingly disclosing, seeking comfort in my anonymity...

Anyway to date I have feigned amnesia with expertise when such topics come up. Yeah, there have been cool advantages of having the reputation too. But now is different. Like a couple of days back I opened the main door to my house with my keys and left them in the door lock. They remained there from Saturday noon to Sunday night and were noticed when we got out of the house in a huff after I stopped searching for my key set. And the door, which is passed by at least 6 people in a day, does not even have a deadbolt :-(( N, who usually throws a fit at these mishaps, gave me a cold look and did not even shake his head in disdain that's typical of only him. Me is feeling super bad until now. :-( And me really wants to change... Any memory loss pills to recommend?

2006-06-13T15:30:00.000-07:00

East or West...
A couple of weeks back, I realised that people are still the same, however faraway they are geographically. And this thought struck me when I was watching replays of American Idol - yep, the show that inspired our desi version -- Indian Idol. I, among many others I know of, had reached a conclusion after Indian Idol 1, that the show was less about talent and all about regionalism. What mattered was which state the contestant hailed from -- and the extent of telecom penetration in that state. The more sms-happy the people in the contestant's home state, the better the chances of winning for him or her.

The second time around, Sony Entertainment Television, did manage to salvage things a bit by eliminating people from big metros and avoiding to pitch contestants from the same city in the final rounds but hey, who won? The boy from Mumbai, right? Back home, one of the editors I knew used to be hooked on to American Idol and used to even tune into the live telecasts on Star on late nights. She abhored the desi version of course but did watch enough of it to criticise the regional factor that according to her the show was hinged on. I did not watch enough of American Idol then, to agree or disagree. Then there was a couple I knew who kept pooh-poohing Indian Idol to be such a "vernac" show. Being north Indians, they could not believe that talented singers like Amit Sana got voted out because all the Maharashtrians they knew in Mumbai voted for Mumbaiites like Rahul Vaidya and Abhijeet Sawant. They of course, did not think that the famous crooning milkman -- I forget his name but he was a Jat from Haryana, an average singer but made it to the semi-finals by getting more votes from his home state -- did not deserve to be sailing ahead. Anyway, they even voted for Amit Sana once every day and lamented loudly for days about Shiv Sena being the driving force behind Indian Idol and that fair competition can exist only in a country like America.

Cut to now... This time around when I watched the final shows of American Idol 2006, it all came back to me. I was left shaking my head in disbelief. If we blame Indians to be partial to language and community, don't think Americans are not far behind! American Idol 2006 final generated an unprecedented 63.4 million votes -- more than any Presidential election in American history has -- deciding which of the two finalists Taylor Hicks and Katharine McPhee was to win. While Taylor is a southerner from Birhimgham, Mc Phee comes from Sherman Oaks, California. Both were equally talented but even before the finals were over -- the interviews had made the verdict shine clear and true. Even some of the celebrities, who hail from the South, when asked who their American Idol would be, were blatant about voting for Hicks because he was a southerner too. How's that for the theory of regionalism?

2006-06-13T14:33:00.000-07:00

Yo hoo! I am a blogger now. And that, if you know me is a great achievement... after months of procrastination, egged on by my virtually happening friend jaygee, here I am finally!
SmartCookie, a.k.a Me, is currently balancing new identities and old, having travelled halfway accross the planet, away from the unofficial capital of India (no offense intended, Delhiites) to the offficial capital of the United States.
And this blog is about all the thoughts I don't dare to voice out (being the smart cookie I am)... Partly due to the lack of listeners and partly because I feel too sheepish about writing diaries now, which by the way was an old childhood fetish. Then, thoughts, as many of you would agree, have an uncanny way of acquiring clarity in print (figuratively). So hello one and all, here goes!