I just want to say...

Let me begin with an apology to all my blogger friends. I haven’t been reading them of late, have been giving delayed replies to their comments and haven’t acknowledged their mails. Couple of my friends messaged me to ensure I was alright, so sweet of them! Am I blessed or what to have such caring friends?? :)

The fact of the matter is that I’m having some problem with my laptop which apparently (and sadly) may take longer. And while I’m dejected beyond consolation for not being able to come online for so long, not able to check mails, chatting with friends, and most of all, blogging, A couldn’t be happier. He says my obsessive blogging fever needed just that, a break! So not fair!

This internet hiatus has been good in a way though. Must agree, I’ve had a lot on my plate to keep me busy throughout. I’ve read at least four books in the last two weeks, celebrated A Jr’s second birthday, did a lot of shopping (again!) and spent some quality time with A. Contradicting my own words, this isn’t so bad. But the blogger in me keeps itching to share all this stuff with you, which cannot be helped.

So I’m hoping my laptop gets fixed soon, how soon this soon will be is a mystery in itself though. Till then, please do keep writing in. I miss you guys a lot and would keep updating as and when possible. Take care.

Positivity with a twist

We’ve heard, seen and read about people who have certain positivity about them. Being with or around them makes us feel immensely blessed and comforted. It seems like they have a bag full of happy sand which they sprinkle on everyone who comes across them. We would never imagine such people in the role of a heart-breaker or someone who’d hurt us on purpose, would we?

I did come across one such person. I was in college then, and the person in question here, J, was one of my closest friend’s love interest (refraining using boyfriend since she hated him being called that). He was a happy-go-lucky person and due to his affable and easy-going nature he soon became an integral part of our close-knit group. All of us grew very fond of him, instantly. I’d warned him to make sure he meets me every day ‘se just being with him made me feel immensely pleased about myself.

My friend loved this guy to the core and used to day-dream about their future married life. They were from completely different cultures but she was more than happy to embrace his life and family. Life couldn’t have been more rewarding and we were all very happy for her.

Destiny had different plans, alas! Even in our wildest dreams we could never have imagined what followed. This person, who we thought as God-sent in her life, broke to her one fine day that what had seemed fun at first had become achingly serious and he wasn’t ready to take the plunge yet. Wooing her and pleasing her were amusing, but after getting her he was bored.

She tried convincing him that she was in no hurry to get married and he can think this through, again. But he was adamant. All her wails fell on deaf ears and he walked out of her life, as easily as he’d walked into it.

He might be the most positive person in the world, but what he did hardly seems pardonable. What can he be called then, a positive person with a confused state of positivity?

The Good and Bad World

My Name Is Khan had put forward a thought about the world consisting of only two types of people: good and bad. Conceptually, and broadly speaking, it might be true, but we’ll all unanimously agree that there are elements of good and bad in all of us. When we are judging a person we do not know anything about, it takes only but one good or bad episode for us to be or not to be impressed by him.

I’m going to write about something on the same lines. It’s not something that’s never happened with anyone, but I’m going to talk about it in the relevance of the essentially good and bad people we come across in our everyday lives, when an assumingly ‘sober’ person displays his dark side and a visibly ‘mawali’ person turns out as the good one.

While travelling long distances in Mumbai me and A prefer to take the ‘conventional’ mode of transport, the local train. The travelling time is reduced to half since traffic is not a problem and baby A too does not seem to mind the ride. In fact he enjoys all the activity around, he even smiles at the hawkers and eunuchs sometimes, much to my annoyance. Anyway, coming back to our topic..

Since we were travelling together and it was a Saturday, A suggested that I enter into the general compartment with him, and I obliged. As luck would have it, the train only got more and more crowded with every passing station. A squeezed his way through the crowd, but petrified with the thought of me brushing against those men stinking of God-knows-what-all; I cornered myself near the door.

An elderly man was standing next to me and was supposedly carrying something in his hands. Gingerly he moved step by step near me and his hand touched me suggestively. I ignored it a couple of times assuming it to be a genuine mistake. However, not the one to give up on it, he was persistent. I decided to take him to task and reprimanded him while all the other stunned men stared at us incredulously. He got the message alright! All this while A didn’t have the slightest idea of what happened.

While coming back home the same situation stared at me in the face and A promised that this time round he wouldn’t leave my side even for a second. What followed, ironically, was something I hadn’t expected. A guy who looked like a typical ‘tapori’ saw me struggling for some space to stand, and very courteously indeed, left his place and offered it to me. The smile on my face that time was honest and genuinely thankful.

Eve-teasing is a crime that probably every girl has to bear with, but few have the courage to stand up to it or raise their voice against it. We choose to keep quiet in fear of embarrassment in front of others or scared of what else might follow. This in turn only encourages these perverts to take us for granted and continue their sleazy acts. I’ve always chosen not to take it lying down and would persuade every girl to think and act similarly.

These two episodes forced me to think about how deceptive appearances can be. We classify a person as good or bad based on what we’ve seen or heard about him, but it does not comprise his whole personality. Therefore, I beg to differ from Karan Johar and Shahrukh Khan on this idea. Only good and only bad people can exist only in a perfect world, and ours is what imperfection stands for.

Ye Atithi Kab Jayenge?

I’ve found myself in a real fix right now and I hope that by the time you finish reading this you can suggest some resolution for my predicament.

We’ve all heard about ‘nesting’, and about how would-be mothers of all species strive to create a cosy and comfy environment for their little ones and make sure they’re very well looked after. It sounds very sweet and emotional, but this same thing has become a hindrance for me.

One thing that I got as a house-warming present (unwarned as it was) for our new home was a bunch of pigeons who consider our balcony their permanent residence. We have three balconies and all of them have at least two or more of these creatures hanging around them at all times.

I tried not to obsess or panic and just let them be, but accepting the muck these pigeons spread is a bit too much, especially with a kid in the house. Added to that the constant clamor and that fluttering of feathers is impossible to bear. I’m kind of petrified that some day they might break some window glass with their constant banging against them. Honestly it is sometimes frightening, for my son as well as for me.

As if all this wasn’t enough these pigeons have started laying legs eggs (oops!!) in our balcony and the clutter has increased even more. They’re also destroying my plants, crapping on them and devastating my rose buds. I try to scare them away but they come back in no time since their young ones are still in there.

As a kid I remember being impressed with and marvel at how meticulously and strenously these birds build their nests on tree branches. The guilt of us humans cutting down trees to make way for creating homes for us and robbing all these birds of their own homes took over me and I took it all with a bold demeanor till now. I’m a mother myself and I can understand this motherly concern, even if it is regarding them.

Something however needs to be done about this before these visitors become our permanent non-paying guests and we become unofficial caretakers of their current as well as future generations.

I’m clueless. Can you help me arrive at a proper conclusion?

Matters of the pounds

It has been my constant companion since childhood. Seasons..friends...pimples..came and went but it never left my side. It stuck to me like a loyal( but dreaded) friend. Even if I tried to shake it off it always managed to find its way back to me, like a bad coin.It has given me sleepless nights and tiresome days. Guess who am I talking about? It is one of the most saddening, despicable and worrisome thing for any girl : Weight!!!! (Ouch :( )

Blame it on anything: post-natal weight, holiday weight, weight due to stress, over-eating..the reasons are plenty..but the outcome is the same.The rightward moving arrow on the weighing machine and the instinctive irritation followed by the imperative, ' This can't be possible!

I've always dreaded seeing those blessed girls who hogged like anything and not an ounce of it showed. I had a couple of friends when I was younger who were like walking-talking bamboo sticks. Where I was fighting with cutting down on calories these girls cried 'se they needed to put on a few kgs! God knows how much I wanted to just.....take out my anger on them :P

I've probably been on diet most of my life (although it doesn't show ;) ). How I've missed eating so many of my favourite dishes! But to no avail. My hard work (read forced exercise) and limited intake have got me nowhere.

So now I've decided. Limitations are good but only to a certain limit. My heart's not under serious pressure right now and I'm not exactly fat as Ugly Betty. I can chill out and live and eat heartily and not worry about what all's gonna happen later. I'd like to believe that my 'cute' factor won't get affected by a few kgs here and there :)

Hai na???

Late Late Late :(

Hi All...

I have been keeping very busy of late and have been finding it real tough to keep up with all of you. There's also been some technical problem due to which I'm not able to access any blogs (including mine) on my laptop, and hence the late replies to your comments or sometimes no replies at all :(:(

Please bear with this for some more time and continue writing in...your comments and replies make my day :)