For a beautiful tomorrow

As the sun of yesterday sinks 

Painting the sky purple and pure, 

The moon rises to reflect hope 

While seas billow and roar. 

  See the divine motif- In this unrivaled creativity, 

'tis an endless wheel of fortune- Not the drums of destiny. 

Why only dream to be free? 

And dwell in antiquity? 

When night's only the beginning 

Of the promise of possibility? 

Let past be - "Just that something we know" 

Dream new dreams- 'tis today when you knead the dough... 

 For a beautiful tomorrow! 

* * *

With these thoughts and wishes for a bright, fun-filled and Happy New Year! 

- Yours truly 

(ps: This picture was taken by me recently at Miami Beach, Florida)

Conversations: The lavender story

F and I visited a friend A's place (in a different city) recently. They were there for about 3-4 days and had a great time. Due to some work, F planned to leave early while I stayed on for a couple of days more.

One of the evenings (after F left) A and I were having a great one on one conversation. While they chatted along about different things, the lavender comb on the dressing table caught their attention and was blissfully included in the talk. This is how the conversation went.

A: This is such a nice comb, na?
I: Yeah, and the color is really beautiful. Lavender in fact is my favorite color.
A: Hmm.. and it's especially a good idea to carry a small comb like this. More so when you are traveling.
I: Yes. You know although I always use a hair brush for combing my hair, it generally takes a lot of space. And..
A: And you can easily carry this along anywhere you go..

They both nodded, happily agreeing to each other while they admired the comb. And then the topic of conversation gradually shifted to something else and time moved on.
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A couple of days after I was back home, A called. After a quick exchange of greetings A mentioned something that triggered a whole new conversation. This is how it went.

A: By the way, you forgot your comb.
I: What comb?
A: The purple comb?
I: Oh no. I just got a hair brush with me.
A: No but remember we talked about it that evening? You were saying how it is easy to carry the comb etc?
I: Exactly because I thought it was your comb and it was a good idea to use for next time!
A: And I thought it was yours!
I: He he ... Then it must belong to F.

And they both had a good laugh.
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Recently at home after a few days I and F had the third and final conversation.

I: Hey F, did you forget something at A's place?
F: No I don't think so.
I: Come on try to remember. Din't you forget your comb?
F: Comb? Which comb?
I: A lavender colored comb. (With details)
F: No, I did not. I've never had a lavender colored comb in the first place!
I: @#$%%^$^&*&^**(!!!!!!!!!!

(ps: This article is two quarts truth and one quart imagination)

Multiplicity

I had got this comment some time ago from an aquaintence in Orkut that I looked really different in the current picture and the previous one posted there. Incidentally the two pictures are only 2 months apart from each other. But you bet, I look different. And that reminded me of an incident a while ago.

It was summer time last year. One fine day, I decided to clean the tiles of my verandah. The main door of the house was open and as I almost finished, I saw my neighbour passing by. I nodded in acknowledgement. Later when the chore was done, I walked out of my house, to get something from my car which was parked right in front and I bumped into the same neighbour again. I nodded and smiled again. The day just passed.

The next afternoon, when I was walking around my apartment area, I met that neighbour again. We just got into some conversation and in the middle of it, he rushed into his apartment and returned with a diary to learn the exact spelling of my name. He is a Mexican. I appreciated his effort. To tell you frankly, I really get this esteemed feeling, here in US, when someone pronounces or spells my name correctly. Otherwise, it feels like I am some software product that comes in versions - Archana 1.0, Airkaana bis 1.1, Urchchaana bis 1.2. And you never know there could be more coming. Sometimes, it seems like these are my mutated variants. I fear the next could be an Arachnuha. Or even Unicorn. Who knows. It is at least going in that direction. But I am sure learning to be at peace with it. Like when they call out these names (of these weird creatures, if they exist), I simply nod in acknowledgement. It's like my consciousness has expanded to accomodate something more than just the mere me.

Anyways, that is besides the point. So, as we were talking, our conversation turned into something like this. (Just to give you a small background, the only conversations I have had previously with this neighbour are of the kinds of Hello, how are you doing? I am studying this. What do you do? or It is really getting humid these days.. Just greetings or extended greetings. Now that you have the context, please read ahead.)

Neighbour: ".... And so how is your roommate?".

Me: "Roommate? uh, yes, he is fine. He is actually my husband. I told you about him, that day? Inder?"

N: "No. I mean the other girl."

M: "Other girl? Who?"

N: "There is a girl also who stays with you, doesnt she?"

M: "Oh ... no there used to be that girl roommate with me, but that was only till last winters. She left after that." That was Jenny, with whom I shared the apartment for four months while Inder was away on work in India. She moved back to India for good and is a good friend now.

N: "No, no. I just saw her yesterday."

M: A slight shiver went down my spine. Was there a lady ghost living in my house? Eeks. I nervously shoved the thought away, "No there is no other girl. There is a neighbour upstairs who you might have mistaken with. It's just been me and my husband since last year."

N: "No really I just saw her walk out of your house yesterday. The one who has hair till shoulder, she is taller and always ties her hair."

M: The first line made it sound even more eerie but by the second my light bulb started glowing.

N: Continuing uninterrupted, "See yesterday, there was you cleaning the floor in the afternoon. Remember you said Hi to me?" I was nodding. "And then later when I was going out to my office again, I met your roommate. She went to the car and brought back some cans and stuff into the house. She said Hi to me too."

M: "But that was m...".

N: Cutting, "No no ...bla bla bla".

M: $%$%**^%(^.

Err.. yes, that was me both times. First time, I had my hair open and unkempt; second time, they were neatly tied up. Although I could understand that I looked different in tied hair and open hair, but one is taller than the other? that was the weird one. However, understanding that my dear neighbour was so stuck with his theory of "her and I", as well as to save him any embarassment that he got so confused, I decided not to argue further and let it remain a shhh-roud-ed a'myst-ree.

This was of course an extreme case. But, all said and done, I still prefer the multiplicity of looks to the multiplicity of names.

How to avoid studying

Realising that nothing good is going to happen unless I change my ways drastically, I make a time table for myself on Thursday night. Unless I stick to it, I head for doom, I repeat in my mind a number of times. Also, make a couple of desperate prayers to God, who knows he might see some sincerity "of intention" and suddenly open doors.

So, I am supposed to get up at 4:00 am in the morning. Get up at 5:00. Not bad, I think. And then first thing I do is look up the time table (how sincere). Ok, 15 minutes of any crap and then meditate for an hour, it says. Meditation is part of my plan to discipline the wavering mind and increase focus. Well, so meditation it is, I think at 5:15 am and sit till 6:10am in Dhyaan. Alright now, study time according to time table. But then my focussed mind thinks, I can just browse the net for a couple'a minutes, you know. I mean come'on, its not like I have an exam tomorrow. So, I submit to it. Incidently, some fellow bloggers of mine ;-) have some posts ready as food for my mind, and there I go enjoying my early morn reading blog posts. What pleasure ... But again, now it is 7:15 am and I have to study my mind reminds. No excuses any more. So I religiously open my document and start reading. "Yesss! I am doing it", is the happy thought. And just when I get deep into it, my friend throws a toffee, "Want to go for a short walk?". It is 7:30 am ... Walk? No way, I have to study. Or do I? The weather is so beautiful outside. A short 10 minutes walk could n't do much harm? It would perhaps only sharpen the mind. And then, how many times in the last couple of months have I had a morning walk... its worth it. So, there we go for the walk.

After coming back, I suddenly remember that I am hungry and as well have some breakfast and then sit. Otherwise how would I focus? It is already 3 hours since I woke up and my stomach deserves some dose, I think. So, off I go making paranthas for myself (cereal or eggs could have done the work for a sincere student). And after breakfast, anyways having a bath is not a bad idea...tick tick tick... 9:00 am. Alright, "Now I am studying!", I say aloud so that the environment tunes in to my intentions and I get back to my document!

9:30 am ... there come folks from office who want to spray for insects etc. So, we move out all stuff so that they can spray at the corners. I am one enthu person so I take out everything out of my closet, friend's closet etc and everything is strewn around except the corners and boundaries of the house. Their's is a 2 minute job and they leave soon. After that I cannot see the house in all the chaos, so I have to clean up. During clean up (like always) I want to organise the stuff. So, I reorganise my drawers and shelves etc. This is also important, I am also a wife. What about wife's responsibility!@#!@#!?? Ahem...

11:30 am... I have to wash some bedsheets, towels etc that have shown themselves during the clean up operation and its been pending for long. So, there I trod along with my coins and detergent and basket. 11:45 am ... Ok, I sit down to do some work .. 12:30 pm, friend reminds me , we need to go for groceries and stuff. We are completely out of it. So, I get up (one part of my mind really likes being distracted, in fact it loves it!) and change and there we go.

Outside, we have lunch and then do the groceries ... come back ... its 4:15 pm. Then I just sit with all high concentration and serious and angry-with-myself face, no more kidding with yourself, just get back to work, I say to myself. 4:30 and the friend drops another bombshell ... "Rang De Basanti dekhni hai?" My heart drops a beat ... its a movie I have been waiting for almost a year ... maybe it has the inspiration I am lacking in my life ;-) ;-) ... And there I am checking online at Galaxy cinemas for the showtimes ... It is at 6:15pm. So 6:15 pm it is and we are going. Which means we have to leave around 5:45pm, which means I have only like less than an hour ... nothing constructive can be done in an hour, so anyways why not blog and make it an interesting day.

According to plan, I am supposed to sleep at 7:30pm, now I will at 10:00pm .. all for "Rang de basanti".

Eiffel Tower

We recently saw the Eiffel Tower at NYC. It was a wonderful sight. We even went to the observatory on the 86th floor. The elevator was super-fast. The view from the top was really amazing. Actually this was not my first time at the Eiffel Tower. I have been there once before a couple of years back. That was in fact in the winters, at night, close to Christmas. The wind was really hard and chilly and we had a tough time keeping our camera stable. But the view was just breathtaking. Have you seen the Eiffel tower?

OK. I can understand the torment you guys must be going through. You think it has a different name isn't it? Empire State building? Damn right you are! Rested and in peace. I am sorry but I have some thing with this name. I get stuck with using "Eiffel Tower" instead of "Empire State Building" often in conversations. Thankfully my audience has never been American or French. I also do this with Julia Roberts. I never remember her name.

If that was not enough, there is this new habit I have been picking up lately- of forgetting names immediately after getting introduced. I'm definitely trying to get a hold of this syndrome because it does not make me look good. Today, I went to a birthday party and met someone whom I had met once before, in some kind of a get-together. Obviously I did not remember her name :). To my beautiful surprise she did not as well. I can't tell you how much this added to my comfort when she started with, "Sorry I don't remember your name, can you say it once again please?". It gave me the wonderful opportunity to ask her name again. Only that it was an opportunity lost "immediately". During the whole party after that, she was referring to me with my name (she had done her homework) and trying so hard to pronounce it correctly while my mind was wreaking havoc on the possibility of having to address her by any chance.

(ps: Things went well and I dint have to do that. I still don't recollect her name and thankfully it doesn't matter much. But the story goes on.)

My little cousin

Last year I took one of the "Thomas the tank engine" toys - train, engine driver, rail-tracks, station and passengers-all in a box, for my 4 year old cousin, A. His face beamed when I gave it to him and before we settled down at mama-mami's place, he had the whole package unpacked. Incidently, the train I took was mechanical and had to be pushed by hand at least onto the flyover after which it went on by itself due to inertia. I had not realised that during the buy. After playing with it for a while, his interest began to dampen. He probably would have liked it more if the toy did everything by itself and he only had to watch it like a spectator. This was work! Seeing his spirits dampened, I thought I would pep him up a bit. So I went up to him and said, "Arj.., next time I'll get you one with batteries, ok? What say?". He looked at me and then thought a little and said, "Tab toh remote wali laana" (In that case, get one with remote).

Nostalgia as sisters

I was just thinking how simple life used to be when we were kids. Fun had a completely different definition all together! My sister is four years elder to me but I never really felt much age difference and would almost treat her as my equal ;-). There were times when she was bossy and protective though but mostly she was very friendly and fun. The age gap almost disappeared by the time I became a teenager.

Back then we used to play a lot of stupid and funny games. Like, standing in the balcony, watching vehicles on the road and then guessing which one would come next. So if I guessed a bike and a bike appeared I won the game. When I was younger I used to look up to her and would always be completely mesmerized with the forever new games or puzzles she would get home. One such puzzle game was to ask the other person, "What ka matlab kya hota hai?" '(What is the meaning of what?' :)). Silly games like that. At that time I did think of it as a very intelligent game :-). These and many other such fun puzzles and stories would increase my reverence for her by multitudes. I would then replay those with my friends and classmates and bask in the glory.

She would come home from school a an hour or two later than me. Often, she would get candies along. That would be really exciting. Also, sometimes she would be generous in telling me incidents from her day in school. I always found them very fascinating -imagining what life was like when you were a senior.

I also remember my birthdays in school. A birthday used to be a really big day. I would always want it to fall on a school day. We were supposed to carry sweets to class and not be dressed in uniform. Eventually everyone would sing for the birthday kid and then he or she would distribute the sweets in class. In my case, after the celebration in my classroom, I would always go to my sis's class. And then with the usual "Please may I come in ma'am" and the obvious awareness of being the priviledged kid of the day with all eyes on you, I would walk up to her desk and give her the sweets with a sheepish grin on my face.

It just feels so hilarious when I look back at those times now. But I do miss all that simplicity and innocence.

Arjun again

So I finally got a gift for Arjun again before leaving from US. It was Robot Shoes, which looked exactly like the ones the lead protagonist wore in the animation movie "Robots". They looked really cute to me and I thought it was a good buy. Well, a friend  warned me that he had asked for "remote" controllable toys this time and you should not buy this one. I ignored thinking Arjun is too small to remember all that.

Anyways, when we visited their place in Delhi this time, Arjun just ran up to me and took me to some corner and asked promptly without a hi or a greeting, "Mere liye kya laaye ho?" (what have you brought for me). And I eagerly showed him the Robot stuff. Well, thankfully he dint ask whether it was remote controlled or not but he looked a little confused as to what fun they would be. I explained that these are shoes Robots wear and if you also wear them and walk around they will make similar sounds and you will become a Robot too. He was then curious -"Then what about the Cap on the head and the dress the robots wear? Why dint you bring that?"

Today I met him again and just to distract him from the mischives he was upto I asked him what should I bring you next time. He said "Computer or rather laptop".

The Numbershake

In India at home we initially used to have only one landline connection. I remember when we had got that instrument I had very enthusiastically filled in the label stuck on it with the phone number. As if it was a very responsible thing to do. Also, I think it's almost second nature for me to name or number things, specially books and diaries. Any book that I buy will have my signature on the first page. All my diaries would be otherwise empty but will almost religiously have my name, number, emergency contact and other useless stuff on the first page. All my notes on loose sheets will have the page, lecture number and date. The naming tendency is slowly going away though while I am making a deliberate effort not to be such a narcissist. :-)

Anyways, subsequently while I came to US, another connection was added to the house. Now somehow the old instrument got connected to the new number and a new instrument to the old. The twist in the story being that the dutifully written label of the old phone number was still stuck on the instrument with the now new number. And so this time when I went to India, I had a difficult time making my mind adjust to that change. I would invariably pick up the old phone number to dial thinking it to be the new one or vice versa. It was not much of a big deal though for the other party as they would respond as far as they recognized you or your voice. Only that the call rates were a little different and if you wanted to be more conscious about them you would have to give your mind the trouble.

The extreme happened one day when I picked up the old instrument (with the new phone number) to make a call at my Mom Dad's. Somehow absentmindedly (which by now you know comes so natural to me) I dialed the home phone number itself instead of my mom dad's (the one which was written on the phone I was dialing from but was actually that old number now connected to the new instrument lying just next to it). And you can pretty much guess what happened. The scene went like this - I am dialing our old phone number thinking it is my mom dad's number. And the phone next to mine rings. You know why. But nothing occurred to my mind until then. My eyes only saw the bell ringing on the other phone while I was making a call from the first. I decided to cancel my current outgoing call and pick up the incoming call as no one had received the call yet and I could always call my home later. It was just a normal everyday call. But as soon as I put down the receiver the other phone also stopped ringing. You know why again. But it didnt occur to me still. But the knowledge angels did bless me eventually and thankfully I didnt redial.

It dint happen again.