Thursday, July 25, 2013

Change...again!

I always have mixed thoughts about change...any kind of change for that matter...
I still remember when I touched and felt every fiber of my old home in Bangalore 10 years ago, before i had to move to a hostel...for the very first time in my life. I was excited till the day before. But when the time came to leave, I had no idea why the hell I was going through this seemingly ultra stupid adventure! I mean....who was I kidding? I was totally gonna miss my Mom's food and my brother's banging my head with a bat and my Father's heavenly voice waltzing through the living room. But then, that didn't change the fact that I ended up in a totally new place with new faces the next day.


Not that this has anything to do with anything - I just really liked it!























When I moved from India to China, the last few days in India, every day saw visitors streaming into my house saying "good bye"! Every time I heard new footsteps at home, I thought I was making the biggest mistake of my life by moving to Shanghai - I mean, for heaven's sake, they eat snakes there! How can it be possibly be a good place? But that didn't stop me from catching my final view of India from the flight and marveling at the jewelled beauty that my country was,before beginning to pray that Shanghai didn't turn out to be the gargantuan devilish destination I had convinced myself that it would be.....
So the common thread in each of these "change" related situations is that no matter how bad I felt about it, I DID it.It didn't have the power to stop me on my tracks and turn back. It just made me cherish my previous memories with a vengeance!
Now, in the same strain, Iam moving houses in Shanghai....and I am feeling really really wistful....If only..


Its the usual question - WHY? God! Why??
My 2 roomies (a German guy and a German girl ) are really awesome. Really. They know when to talk and when to give u space. They don't care about a dirty kitchen and ALWAYS LOVE my cooking....they are constantly surprised by how awesome Indian food is, and fill up the larder with fruits whenever it gets close to empty. And they dont mind being a little late to office to accommodate my errant bathroom schedules...And best of all, we all LOVE the same TV Series so weekends are sometimes a lazy haze with beer, bagels, cream cheese and a sitcom of choice....(the current 'house fav' is Boardwalk Empire....I am not in awe of it, but they both love it,and I don't have the heart to tell them that its not all that awesome:-))...and now, after all that, this weekend we part. Its not like we will never meet each other. we have the same social circles so we will still bump into each other...but it just wont be the same....
I can only hope my new home is a 'homey' as this one....Miss u Isabelle and Rapheal....thanks for making this house a home for me!
They Did all this and more!!!

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Dads Girl

I was blog hopping....something I have taken to lately...and I found this
http://www.usmc81.com/2011/12/rules-dating-marines-daughter/

While it was hilarious, I wistfully wish that my country had a similiar cultural structure where the guy-date of the day wears a tux and nervously waits at the door to pick up his girl-date for the day.

As he does so, he is subjected to the merciless inspection of the girl's parents (read above link to know how nerve wracking it can get). This is a cliched scene from every hollywood rom-com, but Iam sure it would be something if it happened to oneself - whether a boy or a girl...what say?!!


Of course, you can have the Indian version, where the boy can come cycling around the house of his sweetheart, trying to catch a glimpse of that beloved face, exchange a look, a smile and that would be his date of the day!! And if the father perchance happened to see this exchange, of course, all hell would break lose!!! There is no question of the boy saying "I will surely bring back your girl before midnight!!"!!!! I can only imagine an Indian father's reaction if any guy said that to the father and requested to take her out for the night!!


Of course times have changed and the Indian Dads have become more relaxed! The next gen girls probably have a chance of experiencing the scenario stated above....But I do wish, that that girl could have been me......maybe my daughter, if I have one, would see that day, and I would pat her head with a mysteriuous smile that she curiously tries to decipher.....well, YOU would know what that smile was about wouldn't you :-)!!

At Cross Roads...

Should I or shouldnt I?

My head's gonna explode trying to answer this question...A thought just streaks across my mind that we are fried and tossed most times not with the complex questions but with the simplest of em! Some example are  - "Why me, God!? Why me?!", "What am I DOING?", How did I get here?, What am I going to do now? and blah blah blah..if you get my drift.....
Well...who said having 9 lives was an advantage?!!

But I digress....fortunately, at this point, Iam only concerned with ONE of these seemingly easy puzzlers. I think, for those of us who take life as it comes to us, the worst thing that can happen to us is to have to make a CHOICE! Ughhh! Hell, I have trouble trying to choose between 2 pairs of shoes with same color and pattern but just different Heel lengths! (to myself - "Hmmm, maybe the higher heel looks sexier, but the shorter one sure is  more comfortable....should I be sexy (Not that I can, even if I try, ....but then, a girl can hope!)  or comfortable?"). Now thats a lifestyle choice....and THATS gonna take a much longer time.....so basically, as the smaller choices are imperatively linked to some bigger choices, I end up dreading the whole experience of making a choice in its totality!
Now, given that (PSYCHO)logical background, you can imagine my Horror of having to make a choice, now, when I have reached a cross roads in Life! 


Getting to the point....
Now here's a precurser to those who are not familiar with the (ancient) Indian way of doing things. In the west, before you hear any wedding bells or the "Dam Dam da dam", the fates would have to carefully and strategically arrange the schedules of 2 totally random people to clash and meet and fall in love! Now thats some serious work for the mother of destiny, mind you. On the other hand, Indians dont believe in giving anyone too much work. If you have the inclination, getting married in India is relatively simple. Just match your birth stars with those of a prospective partner. if they match - Boom! You have a wedding date! ( I have a HUGE grudge against the damn stars for precluding so many nice young men from making it into my prospective partner list!).
but then, yes, you must have caught the glitch by now....the issue is that the girl has to make a CHOICE between prospective partners!! Now if I cant choose between heels, How the &^%%$* am I gonna choose a life partner??!  You know, they are all nice, (well not All, but Iam  not about to abuse them all on social media, Am I?)....One has an awesome education, another looks great, another can sing like a bird, another lives in an exotic European country....well, you get the drift....
And the worst part is that most of them have unbelievably short deadlines! Today you see the guy's pic and tomorrow, you gotta write down your vows! COME ON!
Phew! All I can do is send a silent prayer to my god (Most Indian gods are couples as well, but conviniently most of them married for Love! Wonder where the arranged marriage concept came from then....anyway, coming back to the point) to miraculously make my mind when the time and the "right guy" comes along.....after all....the stars can only take up so much blame right?!!