Early to bed....

There was once a girl, a girl who slept as little as the city she lived in... who called up gangs of friends to go and get their ear-drums banged out at noisy places that played 80s-90s rock... who then woke up and went to work the next day and lived her days like this.

Then she got married (whoa! surprise!) and the gangs of friends refused to believe she was going to settle down to domestic bliss. Well... she did! And she moved to a city that wakes up early - an unknown concept to one who had not seen a sunrise in a long time! Yes, you know her as Calamity!! In the initial days, Calamity was dismayed to know that a) the concept of nightlife as she knew it was redundant now and that b) Serenity was NOT inclined to bust his eardrums!

So then, one night (right in the beginning!), as hard-working Serenity prepared to go to bed (early to bed, early to rise etc etc) (yes, he goes to work in the morning!), his resident brat, Calamity, refused to let him sleep! (**starts whining**) "But its Friday night.... dont sleep! .... What can we do? Let's go somewhere... Let's...." .... After 5 minutes of this, Serenity snaps "There's nothing to do, alright? Just go to sleep!!!" (Calamity stops whining and starts sulking)

And now, I get the feeling age is catching up! Calamity still loves to party, but starts yawning at 2 am.... she can still work late, but the lure of the bed often makes her set (unrealistic) alarms for unearthly hours of the morning, so she can meet her deadlines... Serenity is still the one who actually WAKES up when the alarms go off... and prod Calamity to either "turn the damn thing off, or wake up"..... to which Calamity promptly obeys, only to wake up about 3 hours after the (unrealistic) alarm time, jump out of bed a la Hugh Grant in Four Weddings and a Funeral, spewing expletives at the late hour!! sighhhhhh...... I hate clocks.

And yes, this post was prompted by the eerily real cartoon I found today. Good morning! (Irony - this mail was posted a half hour before noon!!)

Up or Down ?!!

There's a lot of fuss in the world about the Up Or Down Dilemma.... Up or Down - what? Dow Jones? Price of basic commodities? Nike Deodorant? Stock Index????

I refer to the toilet seat, amigos!

Much has been said about women who get cheesed about the toilet seat up when they want it down and men who say it needs to be up, because its easier (and cleaner! thank god!!). This is not a situation with any grey areas... there is NO middle ground. Its always one way or the other! More has been said about when people get married and have to share their "space" with another diametrically opposite individual and how the Up / Down Dilemma comes into play.

I've never really known it to be a problem and I cannot understand why such a big deal is made of it.

Woman: If its up, put it down.

Man: If its down, put it up.

End of problem. :)

I just found this comic strip on this awesomely sarky comic site - yes, sarcastic little me giggled lots and is now waiting for her equally (if not more!) sarcastic S.O (significant other!) to come home so she can show this to him!

That was my very lame explanation for this rather lame post - or to put it more precisely "Why I wasted 10 minutes of work time to think about toilet seats"! Thank you for listening!

(picture credit - awesome site called www.thedoghousediaries.com )

Time flies...

Time flies like an arrow... fruit flies like a banana....

ha ha and all that...

To get back to the point, time has been flying... faster than I've realised. I find myself longing for weekends on Monday mornings - and before I know it, its the middle of the week! That's the power of work, when you have enough to keep your mind occupied, that is.

Its been 2 years since I moved to the city-that-wakes-up-early, and as much as my initial posts bear testament to the fact that I hated it here, I've begun to call this house Home. Its this home that I think of when I'm away, this place that I'm constantly thinking up improvements for, this house that I find myself looking at curtains, lamps and cushions for. Strange feeling, this. But a good one, nonetheless. I still miss my bustling Maximum City (I think I always will!) and its incredible speed and the freedom that I feel in the air there... but here, this, doesnt feel as bad. The heat saps me, and I scurry to switch on my blast of coolth! (yes, COOLTH - I like that word... if there's WARMTH, then there's COOLTH... why? cos I sez so!).

I find myself taking powercuts in my stride, calling the Electricity Department and in terrible, awful, hideous local lingo asking a man (who's trying to contain his laughter!) why I'm being deprived of electricity when the sun is at its hottest. And then having the man, (still reining in his laughter!) tell me that there was a notice in the paper about a 9 am to 5 pm powercut - to which all that sheepish me could say was "Oh!"... I'm dealing with the heat, my being language impaired, autorickshaw men who see me and hear the "KACHING!" of cash registers... I'm dealing. And what's sweeter than knowing that I'm dealing remarkably well! (Aye, its very satisfying!)

Its a good feeling to walk down my road, having a flower seller smile and wave at me (I buy a bunch of yellow roses from her once in a while), having street people like vegetable vendors and shopkeepers that know you.... its like home, just like home. And it makes me smile. Its taken two years and lots of tears, but now, whenever I come back from whereever, I know I'm coming home. Home is where Serenity is, in more ways than one (and yes, serenity - the noun, does vanish from our home periodically too, when a hot-headed Gemini and a mule-headed Libran clash swords!) and I find myself wanting to be back here, though I know that he's the only one for whom I'll say this or be here for. Its a good feeling, and that makes me smile.

I do miss my bunch back in Maximum City though... I miss sitting on a sea-facing balcony with just one of them and lots of "talk" with a lot of vices thrown in for good measure. I miss my best boy buddy and I miss the evenings in office. I miss being around those people who know me, know when I want to be asked "whats wrong" and know when to just let me be. I miss conversations with Toe where I can just spill my guts and not have her say "eeugh". That non-judgemental love that some people there have for me, I miss... and I miss them every day. If I could just pull them all here to be with me, I'd be the happiest person in the world... and then the sorriest for all the abuses they would heap on me!!

But for all of that, I'm happy to say that I'm happy in the here and now. I'm happy to be where I am, with different groups of Serenity's friends, who are slowly but surely becoming mine as well. Its a wealthy person, one who can just let the people in their lives grow, connect and form that safety net that I've been yearning for since the day I came here. Some of them amaze me with their ability to assimilate another so seamlessly into a circle that's existed for them since boyhood. I'm a territorial beast, I dont think I could be that way. But the paintball gang shows me how its possible to grow that circle without breaking it.. and whenever we sit around a table and share a meal, I am just really really happy to be counted as one among them.

I'm growing my own safety net now... and this, for me, is the most poignant sign that I've put down roots here. City-that-wakes-up-early, Calamity is here to stay.

Quiche Lorraine!

Q: What to do when one has bacon and eggs lying around begging to be used up?

A: You make a Quiche Lorraine!!!

This is just one post where I put up food cooked Chez Nous! The second is a Stuffed Chicken breast with a vegetable sauce and the third is Pork Chops!

(in reverse order actually - I can just NEVER get this thing to upload in the order I want it.... sigh!)

Yet another hiatus broken by food pictures!!

Bon Appetit!

Randomness for the day....

Calamity is travelling far and wide...

Serenity, I miss you.

Its that time of the year!!

So smile, be nice and get set to begin the new year with a clean slate! (err... I think I'll finish my rant and then get down to the smiling and the being nice!)

Rant #1 : is against that jackass from across the border who thinks we're a nation of idiots to believe the tripe he's talking now.

I mean, seriously!! Everyday, I read the newspaper to know what latest bullshit he's been spewing at the courts and ohhh! it makes me sooooo mad! Refer this to know what I'm talking about. So yeah, the selfsame jackass (for the sake of being civilised I shall desist from all the expletives just itching to break forth!) is now saying 'hey! I dont have a CLUE about Kalashnikovs. Kalashnikovs? what? huh? I dont know how to use one, I never seen one EVER... nyah nyah nyah....I want to see my mother.... nyah nyah...whine whine whine.'

This individual is costing us tons of money to keep alive, tons of angst by keeping such a man alive after what he did and now, he turns around and denies the whole thing!! wah wah!

At first, I could not understand why we bothered with a fair trial, then Serenity (see? that's why I married him!!) made me see why we needed to do that. I turned over to that school of thought that said 'we're a better nation, we dont condemn without a trial' (inspite of eye witnesses etc etc). So then the man (I wouldnt call him that, actually) gets a trial. And now, he's making a joke out of the whole thing??? He should be glad that he's not been turned loose on the Bombay junta, they would make sure he's VERY sorry for what he did. Every single person in this country knows his face. I would probably (yes, I am a horrible person sometimes!) think that more than capital punishment, a far bigger price to pay would be to let him live, let him live HERE, in our country, make sure he NEVER gets away and let the people make his life a living hell. Let him live, but let him remember every minute of that life, the lives he took away.

Rant # 2: is against my newspaper supplement.

When I moved here, to the land-that-wakes-up-early, I hated the main newspaper. Never has a format bored me so much to death and the news been so BLAH! Worst of all, this newspaper did not have a crossword! Oh Calamity, what will you do without a crossword?!!

Then came the launch of India's most read daily and I jumped for joy and immediately took a subscription (their marketing strategy was quite something, I must say!) so that I'd have my OWN newspaper! So a (not-so) typical morning has Serenity with his own paper (yeah, he actually LIKES that daily!) and me with mine! (I said not-so-typical because though Serenity is a morning person, Calamity is an evening person! 7:30 am is the middle of the night, according to me!) Anyways, I read my paper from cover to cover (aah the joys of not having to rush to anywhere in the morning!) and then I do the crossword, read the supplement with all its tinseltown gup (for entertainment!). Aah, but I digress! My rant is against my supplement, which has been consistently putting one (not-so) attractive starlet on their cover far too often for my liking. The woman has had page 1 exposure atleast thrice in the last month and considering she's

a) really not that hot (today's picture shows her posterior - big!)

b) has really nothing either interesting or intelligent to say

makes me really wonder WHY WHY WHY is she even there! Its not the fact that she's there that bothers me, its the monotonous regularity with which she appears that makes me scream. (though I must admit, she's definitely getting her money's worth from her publicist!! That one's a keeper, girl - hold on tight!)

(/end rant)

So NOW smile, spread good cheer, don't forget why Christmas is there to celebrate amidst all your seasonal fun and games!

(btw, please to notice my colours of the season text! :D)

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Fortune Cookie Starved...

In a fortune cookie starved country, we still have things that make us smile. I stumbled this today, and yes, I smiled! :)