ghar exchange

sometime back there was a programme on sony tv called maa exchange. it was a rehash of some american reality show, only this one was changed according to our indian tastes. it tried to dismiss the myth that every lady of a house has....... " i am irreplacable and the home cannot run as efficiently without me"
i found the show not very appealing and totally forgot about it. in the mean time i got busy with my life in kolkata in a hostel with my hubby and bacchu. staying in a hostel has its charm as well as a whole load of disadvantages too!! but all in all it was quite an eventful journey. ofcourse during our stint in kolkata we gave up our apartment on rent fully furnished and all!! lucky tennants, i said! during the entire year that i was away, i came back to visit our home only once and that too coz it was realy required to go there. i would feel bad a number of times, even sulk, thinking how the other lady must have maintained my home?? i hope she must have kept it as clean as i did. i hope she hasnt spoilt too many things!! i hope all my equipments are still running properly and on and on. then it was time for us to come back and start staying back in our home sweet home!!
should i say i was shocked??? my home was sparkling clean!! not a speck of dust anywhere!! the cupboards, the fans the tubelights were all clean!! too much cleanliness i thought, she must hve done some damage somewhere....... i went aorund the house and tried to find faults....... but i couldnt find any!! infact she had made a few changes in the arrangement of furniture so that it would make my home more spacious...... why didnt i think about it this way?? i was wondering and i praisd her for the way she had kept the home..... she said ... " dont get me wrong but for you, your home was perfect!! you saw no fault with it... but i did!! i just tried to bring in those changes. i hope u are happy with it"
having heard about horror stories of how tennats leave the home in a mess, i must say i was really lucky!! and ya lucky to have to exchange my home with a lovely lady who looked after my home with a lot of genuine care!!

love at first sight

7.40 am…..

She glanced at her watch and thought oh shoot!! I am going to miss my usual train! And now am going to get late for my exams. Nervously she kept on reading from her textbook, trying to cram up whatever she could till she reached the railway station. The old rickety rickshaw that was taking her from her home to the railway station had no intention of catching up any speed… it kept on going phut phut phut. Whenever she glanced up from her book to have a look at the road outside it seemed to her like as if all the other rickshaws, scooters and even school children on their bicycles were going faster than her. All this only added up to her nervousness.

I’ll be there for you- (the title track of FRIENDS) started playing on her mobile phone. Must be Kads she thought. She started searching for her mobile phone from her fake louis vutton tote bag which she and Kads had recently got on their trip to colaba causeway. One advantage of having a tote bag was, you could dump everything in it. But the major disadvantage was not finding the right things at the right time. The phone kept on ringing, but every time she thought she had got the mobile in her hand, it turned out to be either a lipstick, or a hairbrush, or compact powder. The only way to locate her mobile phone was to empty the tote bag on the rickshaw seat, which risked something even falling off the rickshaw. She emptied the entire contents on the seat, trying to be careful to not let anything fall off the seat or even off the rickshaw. And there it was blaring in shrill volume, her Samsung QWERTY.

“Hullo….Kads,……yup am still in rickshaw and the way this rickshaw-walah is driving, I think its gonna take 10 more minutes before I can reach the station yaar……………Ya pure bad luck re. The bus I was traveling in broke down midway and then there was a mad scramble for the rickshaws. I somehow managed to get one yaar………….No no you don’t wait for me re. You go ahead. I think even if I catch the 7.50 train I might be in time for the 8.15 exam. Waise bhi from Thane to Mulund, its just 7 mins by train. Yaar this Chatto must have cursed us for not attending his lectures. That’s why this problem re. …………haan phone was ringing for some time na……ya I couldn’t locate the phone in my purse. arrey these coll authorities are so stuck up on nonsensical rules yaar, only salwar kameez during exams…..if I would have been wearing jeans, then there would be no problem to find it na………. Oh cool u got pockets in ur kurtis!! Nice yaar. Chalo I will hang up now and pester this rickshaw-walah to go a bit faster.”

Saying so she turned her attention at the rickshaw-walah. “bhaiyya zara jaldi chalao. Exam ke liye late ho raha hai.”

He said “madam hamari gaadi ekdum tej hai. Ekdum full espeed main chalti hai. Aur ek baar chalti hai toh bas…..ekdum smooth hai….kitnon ne kaha hai humko hehehe!” saying so he adjusted the side mirror such that he would get a good view of her. In a place like Mumbai, a comment like this always had a double meaning. On any other day she would have given an earful to the driver and even changed the rickshaw, but today she just wanted to reach as soon as possible. She just adjusted her dupatta so that he wouldn’t see anything to ogle at her. Men….. she sighed…. I could be wearing a burkha and still they will try to ogle, wondering what lies beneath!!! She turned her attention at the book once again.

The minute she reached Thane railways station, she jumped out of the rickshaw and ran towards the platform. She had kept the fare on the seat, so that she wouldn’t get more late.

Aah!! Thank God the 7.50 local hadn’t arrived yet. Thinking so she smiled at herself. Maybe Chatto isn’t so angry with me after all!! The minute she saw the train approaching the platform, she tied her dupatta in Jhansi ki Rani style so that it wouldn’t get in the way when she got into the train, clutched her tote bag really tight, so that nobody could snatch it from her and finally made a place for herself in the middle of the crowd so that she would be automatically pushed into the ladies compartment by all the other ladies surrounding her.

Making her way through the crowd she finally reached the compartment. Hardly had she got into the train when it started to make its way out of Thane. She tried to push her way to other side of the compartment, coz that was where she would have to stand to get down at Mulund. A few more seconds and almost all the ladies had made a place for themselves, sticking into each other.

The lady in front of her was shorter than her, and had pinned up her hair in a roll which kept on grazing her nose……damn she thought, this is the problem when u get late by 10 minutes. You get peak hour rush. She sighed and looked at her watch. 7.54…. another 3 minutes and she would be in Mulund. It was at that time that she thought somebody was staring at her. She could feel it. The back of her neck started feeling hot. She realized it must be some guy who was staring at her. It always happened to her if a hot-blooded male gave her looks. So she scanned across the wired mesh that separated the ladies compartment from the gents. And there he was. A tall, well built, decent looking guy. He had an open book in his hand, but clearly he wasn’t reading it. And yes, he was staring at her. She decided to look him in his face and give him one of her ‘how dare you look at me’ looks. But he still looked at her, in fact even gave her a half smile. Look at his nerves she thought!!!! She turned the other way round, so that he wouldn’t be able to see her. But she could still sense him staring at her. She turned a bit irritated to glance at him, and there he was again, smiling at her.

Oh God….no!!!!!!!! Not today….urrrgh I have to concentrate on my exams and here these lecherous guys are staring at me even when am wearing two sizes too big for me salwar kameez!! She stole a glance at him to see what book it was that he was supposed to be reading…. Guys could be so horrible that they wouldn’t mind ogling even at a porn magazine in a crowded train. She saw it was Managerial something. A few seconds later she could read the whole title …. Managerial Communication for MBA Part- I. Thank God atleast he is not some sadak chaap romeo ogling at girls. Just then a few ladies started gathering their purses, tying up their dupattas or hiking up their sarees. That’s when she realized that she must be nearing Mulund station and thanked God that this ordeal would finally end.

He had been engrossed in his book when he was disturbed by the jostle of his fellow passengers. Since he had not got a seat today, any push made him loose his balance. Aah it was such an ordeal to stand. How did people do it everyday?? He was not in his usual train which was 10 minutes later than this one. But as he had reached early on the station he decided to get into the train, a grave mistake which he realized only after entering the train. Only a single seat available!! He had got a chance to sit when he got into the train at Kalyan station but voluntarily gave up the lone seat available to an elderly looking man. But now when his feet were being trampled upon he cursed his kindness thinking, why hadn’t anyone else offered a seat. He vowed that he would never again give up a seat, however old and needy anyone looked. He peeped through the window and saw that they had arrived at Thane station. Oh no…. another station that had a peak time crowd coming in. He straightened up and braced himself for the sea of crowd that was about to enter.

After the crowd had come in and settled down all in a matter of a few seconds he decided to get back to reading his book. With one hand holding the handle to avoid him from falling onto the very gentleman to whom he offered his seat, and the other hand holding his book, he decided to start reading.

Just then he caught sight of a tall lissome girl from across the wire mesh in the ladies compartment. At the time he could only see her head, and that too from behind. But there was something that made him look at her again. All of a sudden she had turned and was now facing him. And that’s when he thought…. I don’t know what it is about her, but I can’t stop myself from staring at her. She was tall, about 5”6 he guessed, had a lovely honey coloured skin, flawless complexion, sharp features, an athletic built. Not to thin like the size zero that was in fashion, nor too fat. Just perfect! And her hair…..aah they were henna coloured wavy hair, a welcome change from the poker straight hair that all his female friends had nowadays. And her lovely dove shaped black eyes seemed to be searching for something. She was almost model like. Or was she a model?? That he didn’t know. But he was just mesmerized by her beauty. He would enjoy looking at some good looking girls, but he never ever stared hard at anyone. It was then that he realized that she too was staring back at him. He didn’t know but something prompted him to smile at her. The moment he had done that, he thought gosh what is she going to think of me?? That I am one of those lecherous guys who sizes up a girl from head to toe!!! Inspite of that he couldn’t stop himself from staring at her again. She turned again to look at him and he could make out that she was terribly irritated with him. But something forced him to smile back at her again!!! Just like an idiot who has seen his dream girl right in front of him, and couldn’t stop grinning from ear to ear. But he was not like that!! He never believed in love at first sight……wait was he thinking love??? Something was surely wrong with him and the pretty girl, no his dream girl, must have surely understood that by now. But come to think of it, why had he given up his seat? Why was he standing today? And why had he boarded a train 10 minutes earlier than his usual time? Destiny had planned it that way. Just the way Anandita, his best friend in his MBA college had told him two days ago about her love at first sight. He had laughed and scoffed at her. He had even gone on to say it was infatuation.

But look at him today. He was believing in love at first sight! He, the Mr. Practical of his gang of friends. Just when he was thinking about all this, he realized that the girl was readying herself to get down at the next station which was Mulund. Oh no! She would get down there and then how would he find her again? It was too late now to go to the door to try and get down. He was at the other side of the compartment. And even if he tried to he wouldn’t be able to get out. His dream girl was going away from him and he didn’t know how he would find her again. Not unless some miracle happened.

We are pregnant!!!!

Yes we are pregnant!!!!!!!!!

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said a couple i met in a supermarket. caught u on dat one, dint i?? ya ya wot all things u gotto do to catch peole's attention to read ur blog. make eyeball grabbing headlines and all!!! hehehe!!

nyways the point here is .... y did the couple say "we r pregnant"

well when u r shopping in a supermarket with a kid in trolley u r bound to be looked at by many. especially young couples who r expecting their first kid. they will stop by ur trolley, look at the kid, make funny faces and all. and then when ur little one blesses them with a smile....they both will go aaaaaaaaah soooooo cute!!!

so well sometime back i happened to meet this young couple. (yuppies, dinks wotever u can call em) they were being very very sweet to my kiddo. i was a bit surprised to see a young couple being sooo nice to a nasty little one. the lady asked me how old my kiddo was, wat was her name and all. so i was a bit surprised to see them sooo intrested in my kiddo. as they dint hv any kid with them nor they looked in family way..... so before i could ask anything , the hubby said " if u r wondering y we are asking all these questions then lemme tell u that we r pregnant!!!"

he too was visibly excited at the prospect of being a father. the mom was glowing obviously.....

they told me that it was only the third month and so she dint look pregnant.

well anyways.... i congratulated them and told them to enjoy this phase of their life till the baby arrives!!!

the wifey was cool but somehow the hubby was a bit too excited!! he went on to tell me how they had attended couple sessions to discuss about a fathers role in a child's life. and how they were evn going to pregnancy yoga classes. when i asked him, wot he did at those classes?? he said he gv moral support and encouraged wifey to do all exercises!!! he went on to tell me that they were going to go for labour classes too.....and asked if i knew any. well i hadnt attended any, so dint know. he told me that he wanted the best for their baby and wifey. and so he would go to any lengths to do dat!!

i could picturise the hubby abt 6 months down the line in the labour room, trying to help the wifey during labour and encouraging her....... push push push!!! hahahaha!! only i guess by then the wifey would feel suffocated by the love and encouragement of the hubby!!!

wot shocked me even more was dat he was telling all dis earnestly to a complete stranger!!!

i know its a modern thing to be there with ur wife in labour room and actually video shoot the whole thing!!! but lemme tell u all dis is the american thing. and when u talk abt america i will say its kindof a land of eccentrics!! they will laugh and scoff at everyone and anyone except themselves. their sense of faamily values is warped..... and so in a bid to show how caring and family oriented they r, they bring in all these nonsensical ideas to appease the world.

anyways i guess by now that couple must hv already delivered their baby and am quite sure they must be hvng fights too...... (about who will change the babies diaper)!!

I can walk english. i can talk english.

ya ya ya!! one of the advantages of being "convent" educated means that u r gonna be fleunt in english. forget the yes man, no man talk. but overall u have an edge over others.....or so u r made to think. i mean see any matrimonial ads, the description goes: wanted bride for US educated and settled boy, v.fair, 22-25 yrs, convent educated........ so on and so forth. (actually i can write aan entire blog on matrimony ads too) So u see the importance of convent educated!!
in my family my mom, brother and I are convent educated. so except for my father (who though has studied in vernacular medium is still more fleunt than us in english) we all belong to the so called fad fad english group. post marriage though my hubby is from english medium school i still make fun of the way pronounces some words coz he isnt convent educated.
now why am i writing about knowing english???? coz recently i bumped into someone who i thought for sure must be knowing english and so i treid to converse in english, only to realise that this person didnt understand a word of what i had said.
so that brings me to this................. is it really necessary to know english???
well, if u want to survive in this cut throat world of competition, then u must know english. but should it be at the cost of ur own mother tongue????
countries like japan and china have prospered without majority of their population knowing english. havent they felt the need to make english compulsary in their schools??
when we were in school we would be punished if we talked in any language other than english during school hours. we could talk in marathi and hindi only during those lectures. else we were compared to the ulti palti (read municipalty) schools. but sometimes i do feel that we have lost on a rich culture which our language "marathi" has. till sometime ago i used to be proud to say that i dont know a single marathi song, nor can i read and write marathi fluently (though i hv studied the language for a good 10 years). but then sometimes i feel bad of the fact that i hvnt read some of the greatest works in marathi literature bcoz i get too bored trying to read marathi.
i would scoff at people who werent fluent in english. consider this, i used to try and correct an uncle's(not my relative) english speaking skills when i was just 10 years old. he would take it in good spirit!!! i was taught in school that people who didnt english are all low class, down market!! and so when i went to college it was a complete shock to me!! being convent educated was considered a handicap here. somehow all the friends i made in college were either from my school or from some other convent. others (who were in majority) ignored us coz they thght we were too snooty.
even my most important criteria while getting married was that the boy should be fluent in english. hehehehe!!
when i was teaching, i always told my students, that to get ahead in life u should be fluent in english. while taking a job nobody asks if u about ur mother tongue. (except if u r going to teach and that too be a language teacher)
my thinking changed drastically after i visited japan. i saw how developed they r, even without having known english for sooooo long.
so did i scoff at the japanese?? nopes. did i think they were down market?? nopes.
thats when i realised that here in india our minds have been conditioned to think that english nahin toh kuch bhi nahin.
dats y even amitabh bacchan says" i can walk english, i can talk english" to prove that he is superior to another guy.

HULLLOOO PEOPLESSSSSSSSSSS

hmmm a long break again b4 i finally get to my blog. but then so much has been happening of lately that i really dint get enough time to come and visit my blog.

btw summer's here and with that there has also been a change in place of residence. yep..... am in the city of joy now. IIM C actually. nice, quiet and peaceful. but at the same time a bit too far away from the city. nyways getting used to place now, or rather getting a hang of it. will keep updating about anything new that does happen.

ALL IZZ WELL!!!!!!!!!!!!

jab life ho out of control,
hothon ko karke gol,
hothon ko karke gol,
seeti bajake bol
All izz well!!!
bacchu kya jaane goli se kya hoga??
cockroach ko mare ya fir diarrhoea hoga??
meetha hoga ya fir ye khatta hoga??
toh hath me lo, use chabao,
use chabake bol......
mummy all izz well..... arrey baba all izz well....doctor uncle all izz well!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ya ya this a just a gist of what has happened...... last week sameeksha scared the daylights out of me. kaise?? she chewed a tablet meant for killing cockroaches. well then the minute i saw that, i had to rush her to the doc in as is where is condition (read bhambad bhoot). tablet was old so luckily she escaped with 2-3 loose motions!! but man was i scared????????

moral of the story:- when ur bachhu is quiet and not troubling or psetering u for a long time, it spells trouble!!!!!

how much can u love someone??

this blog might sound a little philosophical to others and offbeat too......but just had to write this down.

just a few days ago, me n hubby were discussing about how certain people behave. how some people are always good to u, some always bad but some just suddenly change from good to bad.

while discussing this i happened to say "for u this person maybe a bad person, but for someone else he/ she might be the most loved person and may see no wrong in what this person is doing." he said i was talking nonsense. maybe true but i said that everybody has his/her shades of grey. nobody is absolutely evil.

well dat brings me to todays thought:- on sunday i read about the shootout at some housing society in which an innocent girl lost her life because of one man's madness. everybody had a bad word to say about this man. (who too was ultimately killed by the police). but what i read in todays papers intrigued me. it said his daughter has started a blog and dsnt mention anything about her fathers death but goes on to say that he did what he felt was right.

immediately prominent psychiatrists from around mumbai had to say that sometimes it happens that often a kin who is very close to the accused may see no wrong in what the accused has done and instead may look at the accused as a victim.

so true. it happens in so many cases.... take shiney ahujas wife. she was screaming from everywhere that her hubby dearest is being made a scapegoat because he was a celebrity. well i dont know what does she have to say now? and yes i sympathise with her. infact everybody was saying she should have just left him, and got away from his life. well i dont know who is right and who is wrong....... but then many of these high profile (page 3) so called columnists who were pointing fingers at her have also had to forget their husband infidelities and live with it for the rest of their lives. they were lucky their husbands romps remained secrets.

so the question is if u should have unconditional love for ur loved one, no matter wot??

i dont know am still thinking.