Conversations

Me: Mum, I miss baking very much! Please buy me an oven.
Mum: What is it with you and buying things? Who will take care of it, clean it etc? And anyway, I know you won't use it often enough at all once the novelty wears off.
Me: Mum!!! Baking urge!! Please be reasonable!
Mum: *Sigh* Okay. I've got some sand from Rajasthan.
Me: *waiting for explanation*
Mum: *None forthcoming*
Me: *cautiously* Sand?
Mum: Yea. You can bake with it. It comes out just fine. That's how they do it there. *March off*

Bottom line: Baking urge still not satisfied and growing stronger. *frustration*

*****************************************

Mungi (my awesomeosome friend from college): So, how did your teacher training course go? Did you make new friends and all?
Me: Yea, it was good! And I did make a few really good friends! :D I also flirted a lot with this one girl! :D
Mungi: WHAT?
Me: *giggle, giggle*
Mungi: *guffaw* I mean, I flirted, gooooood. A lot, very gooood. One, very very good. GIRL?!! It seems leaving England has affected you in a much deeper way than I thought. :P

blah, blah, blah...

Talking about smoking et al...
Mungi: What is post-k...komint...
Me: Post-coital cigarette? *explanation*
Mungi: Ah, ok. Why do people go so gaga over it?
Me: Because it feels awesome?
Mungi: *shocked look*
Me: *realising the implication* ... is what I've heard...
Mungi: *shocked AND unconvinced look*
Me: *suddenly enjoying this* No, really. That's what I've heard. I've not had sex ever since I started smoking.
Mungi: *shocked look back*
Me: *making weird faces trying not to laugh*
Mungi: *uncertain laugh* Let's go to college.

Bottom Line: I love scandalizing people. :D But also, I love Mungi to bits. :D

On why anyone, anywhere can identify with Bridget Jones

"Bridget! Happy New Year!" said Geoffrey Alconbury (uncle Geoff, Bridget's parents' friend), clad in a yello diamond-patterned sweater. He did a jokey Bruce Forsythe step and then gave me the sort of hug which Boots would send straight to the police station.


"Hahumph," he said, going red in the face and pulling his trousers up by the waistband.


(blah blah blah)


"Come on, let's get you a drink. How's your love-life anyway?"


Oh God. Why can't married people understand that this is no longer a polite question to ask? We wouldn't rush up to them and roar, "How's your marriage going? Still having sex?"

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So, I went on a trip with my family yet again. And yet again, I found myself facing annoying uncle # 483 and # 484 - the first one, the pervert of the family, who this time pulled my three-fourths upto my thighs "just as a joke". And the second one, the one who has taken it over himself to hammer good sense into me and make me understand that I have to get married right away if I want to live happily ever after. And he ensures that he fulfills his duty as the elder of the family by bringing this subject up every time he sees me - 5 times a day if we are always together and also by telling everyone around us to start looking for boys for me. Bastard and Pompous Ass. I wonder how do I always get trapped into going to these family trips when I know fully well what is going to happen. :/

But, I also had fun with my cousins, who were thankfully not those holier-than-thou types. Phew. And also, because this time, we had gone to Girnar in Gujrat and the main objective was to go on the Lion Safari. :D And I saw real lions and some other awesome animals and birds! :D Woohoo!! :D Will put up pictures soon as I get them from my cousins. :) Trips, even the crappy ones, make me happy. :)

Hoppy-isms

Hoppy, my 10 year old cousin. (See, I'm so intelligent, no?!! Happy + hopping all over the place = Hoppy! :D No? You don't think so...? :( Ah, well, I think it's an intelligent name! So, there! :P)

As children are, he is often the source of entertainment in my drab, drab life! :P 

Being the youngest in the family, he is often called "baby" by everyone. Once, when he was about 6 and we had gone to Rajasthan for a holiday, he had just woken up from an afternoon nap and I said something to the effect of "My baby has woken up!" And he just started screaming, "What baby, baby, baby?! All the time baby, baby, baby! I'm not your baby, ok?!!" causing all of us to burst into peels of laughter. On the same trip, whenever he was tired, he would say, "Uncle, my tyre has gone flat." And my dad would have to "fill air in his tyre" by basically going back to the hotel/ car if we were too far away and letting him go to sleep. Once he rested properly, he would wake up and say, "Uncle, my batteries have been re-charged. Let's go somewhere!" 

Recently, after I came back, my mum made pani-puris (golgappa, puchka, whatever you call it! ;)) and the mint pani was a bit spicier than it usually is. And he couldn't have it with as much relish as he would have like to. But of course, he can't say that my mum made a mistake in cooking. It's an ultimate insult to her! :P (Now that I think of it, it's awesome that he's learning that so soon, when he's only 10. I think there are some thing boys must learn from their mothers' wombs and come. And not criticizing women in something that they are good at is one of them. It's the recipe to a healthy life. :P) Anyway, since he couldn't say anything to her, he turned on my dad and screamed, "Uncle, if you want everything spicy, why don't you keep some chillies separate for yourself? Why do you make aunty put them in food for everyone? Now, no one except for you can eat this!" And boy, did we all laugh! 

See his naughty smile? Here's what he must be up to: 

Mischievous that he is, he used to always pull my leg. (Ok, you probably will too, if I tell you why but hey, I'm possessive about my things, ok?!! :P) I have a specific plate and a specific spoon that I use in my house. No one else should use it and I definitely don't use anything else. And Hoppy, knowing this, just before I sit for my meal, will grab my plate and spoon and serve himself. And I scream at him and everyone else in the vicinity. :P Then I went away to England and Hoppy was bored. So, he turned on to my father and started doing everything that he does. He would want to sit in the same chair that my dad uses and drink tea from the same cup that he uses. So much so, that once, my mum was scared that both of them will break the chair and ordered two new, exactly same chairs for both of them. :P And if he is ever staying over, as soon as he hears my dad's bike come up inside our building, he'll go and sit next to my mum in front of the TV. Since, my dad always does that when he comes back home from work! 

Sigh. I don't want him to grow up at all! He seems to become taller and older and more mature everytime he comes here. And I wish he would just stay my baby and do silly, stupid things for us to re-capture our innocence for a few moments when we are with him!

This is him doing a silly dance pose for the camera at a cousin's wedding venue, after the ceremony was over. Hee.

Kuch Khatte, Kuch Meethe! :)

Mums are a strange, strange species. Especially mine. She's unique. She deserves the weirdest person on the Earth award really! Sometimes (about 5% of the time she spends with me) she is so loving and at other times (the rest of the 95% time she spends with me,) she is so bitter and snappy and she keeps screaming at me! 

For instance, when I was in England during the summer and didn't get to eat any mangoes this year, she froze a lot of mango pulp for me so that when I come back, I could have that and don't miss out on it. She cooked all my favourite dishes for me as soon as I came back as she hasn't cooked for me since over a year. She offered to buy me a ticket to go back to Leeds for my graduation ceremony as a gift for getting First class in MA. But, on the other hand, she keeps screaming at me for not waking up on time and about how she slaves and slaves for us, cooking things we like and taking care of the house and how nobody cares etc etc etc! 

Life is full of sweet and sour moments. I wonder if we'd appreciate the sweet moments without having experienced and knowing about the sour ones. But, now that I've just come back from England, after a whole year of blissful independence, it is very difficult to control myself when I feel my mum is screaming at me unfairly! I do appreciate all her efforts a lot more now. But I also don't like being screamed at all the time. :/ Wattodo?!!!

Feeling the loue!!!

Hello peoples!!! Guess where I'm writing from? MUMBAI!!!! Home, baby! ;)

It's great to be back home! It does feel a bit surreal, like nothing has changed here but at the same time, nothing's same either. But, it still does feel very nice to be back! :) Do you know how many people came to receive me at the airport? About 12 million! :P Well, ok, this time, my hyperbole is being hyperbolic. But, about 12 people came on the airport! It was like I'm coming back from the Moon or something! Speaking of which, Moon was there and she said some of the sweetest things possible! Like, "My life is 66% perfect now! And the rest 33% is in the New Zealand!" (I'm sure you all know this, but I'd still elaborate. Sun is in New Zealand and very jealous at the moment that Moon and I are together once again and she is still there with no clue as to what's next!) So, anyway, Moon and I hugged for a long long time and we were very happily the happies! :D Of course, my parents were there and 3 of my uncles, 2 aunts and 4 cousins! And then, my grandfather (my mum's father) and my uncle and aunt called me to say that I am to come and meet them on the way back home, even if it's only for 15 minutes. And then, my other grandfather talked to me on the phone and made me promise that I'll come to meet him the first thing in the morning! One of my aunts had made moong daal khichdi (a sort-of lentil and rice porridge) with dahi kadhi: my favourite dish! Yes, she brought that at the airport and fed it to me (ahan, ahan, by fed, I mean, FED) and my mum had made a special mint and peru juice that I really like and everyone was hugging me and giving me cards and everything! I, on the other hand, was so dazed, that I was first just bawling like a baby (omg, all I had to do was hug my mother for one second and off I go, like a shotgun! Uff, these emotional girls! hmph. :/ :P) and then, all I wanted to do was go home and sleep. In my room. My green and yellow room, with the beautifully painted wall done by Udu, my cousin. I know it sounds very ungrateful, but I just wanted everyone except my parents and Moon to go away. But, I did honestly appreciate how much everyone loves me! :)

Even before I left, I was staying with Misty in London for a couple days and on my last evening there, she threw me a surprise farewell party that she had planned along with another mutual friend! I was so touched!  Needless to say, everyone in Leeds came to meet me at my farewell party there and I was all teary-eyed several times during the course of the evening! It's difficult, having two lives, both of which you love equally! But, at the same time, it's good knowing that there are people who love you, no matter where you go! :)