Can't Stop This Thing We Started!!

Ok, almost 30 hours after Sreesanth took the catch and India WON the T20 World Cup, I am still excited. Can't concentrate on work!!

India won and the crackers started and I ran from one room to another unable to contain the excitement. Then alternated between the TV to see the presentation and celebration on screen, doing my crazy jig and the window to take in the scene below ... crackers, music, children dancing, everyone hanging from their windows :D Thought of writing a post and was too excited to sit still so just watched everything on TV concerning our dudes and called people and just shouted my excitement for the longest time. For our team ... Guys, you people rock! You are the coolest!I would name a country after each one of you, if I could! :)

Tuesday, was still unwell and it being the last day of Ganpati Visarjan, decided to work from home. Again - all channels showing re-runs of the fantastic moments, how could I not watch! Towards the evening, some distraction came in the form of drum beats and dancing as Ganpati from my society went for Visarjan. Then S was back home and we spent some more excited time discussing the win.

Wednesday, I woke up to find it pouring, raining really heavily. And the team comes home!I started for office and S gave me live updates for every single minute! As I reached the airport signal there was a jam and I was suddenly joyous!Yes, I will be stuck here till the team bus passes! That was not to be ... only got to see Mr. Pawar in the CRV next to me. Who wants to see him!! I don't know why I didn't just park there and wait. I kept thinking that I will reach office and go to Bandra or Mahim or Worli to be a part of the frenzy. I don't know why I didn't!!And then it was too late, the team had already almost reached Wankhede.

I have read all there is to read on the net, seen all the pictures there are to see and discussed with every willing person. I need to get back to work and stop grinning and ... Somebody ... I need to stop! :D

Manhattan Guy

Being unwell and feeling horrible has some benefits, you can be at home on a Monday evening - sniffing, coughing, stiff AND writing a post and watching the Final :)

Last week I was watching Sex and the City season 2, in one of the episodes Carrie sets up a date for Miranda and this is how the conversation goes:

Guy: I have not been out of Manhattan for 10 years now.

Miranda: Really? And you are proud of that? You never feel like going out?

Guy: No. What is there to see outside Manhattan? Anything you may ever need is right here. (and he goes on to wax lyrical ... I forgot what all he says)

Miranda: I need to go feed my cat (which is a code to slip out of a sad party/bad date)

I bet she would agree to feeding even the neighbor's cat to get out of something like that! :D

The Heart Gives In

Its just easier to love the city/ cities you grow up in. Its just so much easier to accept it and love it with all its shortcomings and faults, and continue loving it. Its different after you grow up (assuming you do) and move to a city, its very different ... you need reasons to like the city. How does it makes you feel? What does it give you? How does it impact your life? What kind of a feel does it have?

For me there are a lot of reasons to not like Bombay, also there are some to like it. But there is one reason which kind of made me give the city a little place in my heart. Its a city which is festive during festivals. Its a city which is out and out festive and vibrant and colorful and noisy and crowded and musical and excited during any festival. Its a festivity you see on every street and road and society and chawl.

It might be Ganpati, Janmashtmi, Diwali, Xmas ... you see lights everywhere, people covered in colors, dancing in the streets to that strange rythmic but hardly musical drumbeat which I've heard in no other part of India. At Diwali there are these big, huge colorful lanterns everywhere - the ones I've called kandeels since childhood, they are everywhere! And then they give was to Xmas and new year decorations.

Its almost like a festival comes and people come out of their tortoise-like hard, unbreakable shells of apathy to celebrate. And though it makes me lonelier at times, I do like that a lot :)

And Just like that ... she's back

Riverbend here has given me many a sleepless nights. After her post in April end where she mentioned that her family had decided to leave Baghdad, I said a quick prayer and hoped that she'll reach her destination safely. And then came the long silence, through May, June I would think about her and wonder if she is OK. Then came July and I was secretly all worried about what is happening and why she hasn't posted. By August I was like ... I don't even know this person, why should I worry about her and for all I know she may have gotten bored of this URL and got another one or something (In my heart I was just sure that something dreadful has happened to her) and then came September ... J called me one day/night at about 2 AM my time and I was awake, working hard and watching Sex and the City and a little sleepy and there's J telling me ... She's back!! She's posted on her blog!I just called to tell you!

And she is. She's safe and she's reached a safer haven, I don't know if ever she can or will be able to go back to her home but I hope she will find a home where she is now. May be the weight of what she's gotten out with and that of what she left behind will always be there. And may be she will find a little bit of life and life will find her. I do hope.

The relief flowing over me after J's call is what made me realise how much I was worrying about her ... checking her blog at least once a day with the hope that she may have written or dreading to check it thinking she may not have. If in this wide world it is possible for a stranger heart to get connected to, grieve with and worry for another faceless stranger, almost anything is possible.

Status Report

They are still there.

Were there when I reached home yesterday night. Were there in the morning.

Crazy as hell!

Look at them! Sitting there, mocking me, driving me crazy!!

Peepalz, plz to speak up as to :

• what could this be ... ??!! (Have the aliens invaded my home?!)
• what is to be done with these stupid, golden, pointy shoes.

A suitable reward will be given to the best answer. Judge's word will be final. The winner will be allowed to make your thank you speech.

P.S. Whoever claims the shoes will have to come over and do the Cinderella test.

Mysterious mystery

Hullo! I have surfaced from the endless sea of work I have been drowning in to report strange occurrences in my home!

Yesterday after an extra long day at work, the tired me went to S's office to pick him on my way home. We reach and as we walk up we are talking and S has cracked a PJ and I am laughing hysterically and as we reach our landing the neighbor's dog is barking (or was it the other neighbor's parrot? Lets make it dog - what's a mystery without a barking dog!) and then we reach our door. We reach our door and my laughter is frozen in my throat, words dying on my lips ... I am shocked, stumped, surprised. I am met with the sight of a pair of shoes. No ordinary shoes these, a pair of women's shoes - high heel, pointy, golden; are sitting on my doormat. They are sitting there in a manner that someone has taken them off while walking into my home and they lie where they were taken off. So, they are facing the locked door to my home. (As I write this I am cursing myself for not taking pictures. As soon as I reach home, if the scene has not been disturbed I shall take pictures and upload!)

Now lets see,

• They are not mine
• They are definitely not my bai's
• Secretary theory is trashed considering S is with me (!! :D)
• We know no neighbors so can't be neighborly shoes, and I doubt I am meeting my neighbor's behind my back

I skirt around them and inspect them, bewildered, I look around to see if there's any claimant ... no one! I am very excited with this sudden mystery in life! I also want to ring neighbors' doorbells at 11:40 in the night to solve the mystery. It is a mystery after all, it deserves the due any respectable mystery deserves!! S is mighty amused but is not sharing my sleuthing enthusiasm and finally manages to drag me inside before any bells are rung and doors are banged.

What possible explanation could be there? Someone has decided to gift me pointy shoes? They look too big for me (no I did NOT try them on). Someone has forgotten them? But why at my doorstep? And did she then go wherever she went barefoot? What if it was a he wearing she shoes? And decided to abandon them fearing to be found wearing them? Lolll... evil laugh. I even consider the theory of people doing jaadu-tona on us, jaadu tona of the golden pointy shoes!! Ever heard of it? As these mind boggling questions swirl in my head, there's another sensation ... in my tummy, reminding me that I am hungry. As soon as I think of food, I forget all else and concentrate on dinner and then proceed to watch the 20-20 match in which the underdog beats the world champion and then I go on to sleep and rest my tired bones. The pointy shoes are somehow forgotten in all this.

Its morning and I'm ready to run to office and I fling open the door and there they are still! The forgotten, mysterious, dull golden (its not the shiny gold, its the dull one, I notice) shoes. I am excited again and S is too sleepy to participate and I am late for work ... so I leave them there. But those wily shoes, they continue to haunt me!

Now, I have reviewed the list and have decided on Mr. Poirot. It was a close fight between him, Mme Ramotswe and Karamchand, but Mr. Poirot prevailed. I have been in love with that tiny little moustache curling under his nose since I was a kid and watched him on TV. That decided it. He has been commissioned to do the job. While Miss Marple is out shopping for shoes, Miss Lily has agreed to fill in her shoes and be his assistant/side kick detective for this case, Mr. Poirot however, will not have the privilege of calling Miss Lily silly.

Findings of the investigation will be shared tomorrow.

Life on the road

Like everyday, I get ready and rush to the car and start the long, torturous journey to office.Like everyday, I get stuck in traffic and live part of my life everyday on the road. Eat my breakfast, make the phone calls, read, sleep, check mail, blog, listen to music, work, get happy, get sad, get senti.

Today on my way, as I was working/writing emails I suddenly got that sensation you get when you know someone is watching you. I look out the window and there's this cab full of young girls, eight of them in one!No less. All of them were noisily talking, laughing, jostling for space when I last noticed them. I also remember thinking that they had that simple, innocent joy children have, before they get over exposed to the madness around them. Now that they have noticed me, all eight pairs of eyes are on me and there's wonder, curiosity, admiration etc. No no, not at all for me ... but for the laptop!Ok, partly for me BECAUSE I am the one with the laptop.

I give them a smile and a small wave. Now they are suddenly shy at being noticed and whisper in each other's ears, point at me, hide behind each other and laugh some more. Meanwhile the traffic eases and the cab pulls ahead ... I get a full blast of smiles and waves and 'BYEEE's!

Don't think I'm going to crib about the commute today :)