Touching Moments

I was reading a novel, lying down next to my twins. I had placed one of my hands on a twin, who had been difficult a while ago, and had brought the house down with his bawling. As I was lost in the memoirs of Sayuri, the geisha, all of a sudden, I discovered that my index finger was not available for turning the page. A quick look, and I found my twin clutching on to my finger with such intense ferocity. He was fast asleep, the very picture of a divine angel. Extricating my finger would mean waking him up. Quick decision. I decided to leave Sayuri alone for the time being and instead, removed my spectacles and settled for a nice nap next to my twin. When I woke up after half an hour, the little chap was still clutching my finger. :-)

An Incomplete Poem

For an honest smile,
For a happy sigh,
I need but a moment,
A moment that's mine.

For a light step,
And a dance and a skip,
I need but a place,
A place that is mine.

For the moment and the stage,
I search amongst the lanes,
My steps tread towards 'home'
But... nay...this is not the way.

Silent Nights

The nights are dark and long
The bliss of sleep denied
Dawn hearkens with its song
But the silence is not defied.

The only sounds that break
The shrouded silence around
The fan, air conditioner and
The whistles of guards on rounds

Silence gives way to solitude
Solitude to Self
Occupied with its vagaries
Oblivious to the world.

A sudden jingle...
Sounds like somebody's anklets
Inexplicable fear, a sudden dash
Destination - safe in bed.

On Happiness

Found this poem Happiness by Carl Sandburg in my diary.

I asked the professors who teach the meaning of life to tell me what is happiness
And I went to famous executives who boss the work of thousands of men.
They all shook their heads and gave me a smile as though I was trying to fool with them.
And then one Sunday afternoon I wandered along the Desplaines river
And I saw a crowd of Hungarians under the trees with their women and children
and a keg of beer and an accordion.

Our hats off to the silent genius

I am no great fan of cricket, apart from a passing interest generally displayed on lazy afternoons. My insider's dope on the personal lives of the cricketers is next to nil and heck I don't even have a autograph. No cricket bat/ball adorns my room and if someone invites me for a game of cricket, I settle down comfortably into the role of an arm chair critic. But after what I saw yesterday, my admiration for one man has reached the zenith - Sachin Tendulkar. Look at his figures. My eyes were riveted as this man stood his ground and took those amazing shots wherever it was possible and made the impossible seem achievable. His team mates came and went and contributed next to nothing (except for the likes of Sehwag and Raina) while this man chased, ran and exerted himself to every possible extent to show that this was not just a game of cricket. There was lot at stake. Even if he had to go down, he had to make noise and show that the victory would not be easy as long as the likes of him were around. That is why it was such a pleasure to watch him defeat the well-planned strategies of Ricky Ponting. And that is why it was with a sad sigh that I watched him fall down as the exhaustion finally caught up with him. And that is why I watched with anger as the rest of his teammates destroyed what he had so painstakingly built. It was like Taj Mahal being built in a fast forward mode, and then being subjected to brute destruction. While the better known of his teammates hog the headlines with their adverts, their driving Hummers without registration, and their occasional forays into the world of fashion and glamour, this silent genius prefers to rise to the occasion, like a lion. Hats off to Sachin Tendulkar!

Mountains and Minarets

I still remember when me and D walked in My Home Rainbow on one sultry March evening, weighing the possibilities of us moving here. I was not happy with the fact that the apartment was on the sixth floor. But then, here was something about the apartment which we could not quite figure out. At that point of time, it was probably the commuting factor that had clinched the deal. My university and D's office were only twenty minutes away and I can safely forget about shelling out pots of cash for the autos.

The day we moved in, I made my first mug of tea and walked into the balcony. What I saw held my breath. On one side were the Jubilee Hills and of course all those cars on the road. And on the other were those Qutb Shahi tombs. Minarets against the skyscape reminding me of years of legacy that Hyderabad possesses.

Rainbow was fun unlimited. I fondly remember those punctuated occasions when D and I used to give a critical running commentary of the movie shootings that used to take place in Rainbow. Or surprise our neighbours with our blaring rock music and occasional hollering. Weekdays of work and fun and weekends of movies and eating out. It became our agenda to visit every restaurant in the city and try at least a starter if not the whole menu. That was our goal- to be achieved in ten months. But before we could do that, there came the clarion call to move on to the greener pastures of life.

As preparations are afoot for all the festivity that G-607 is gonna witness soon, those lazy movie sessions on the laptop and cooking sessions with D hollering from the kitchen whenever she chooses to experiment over the weekends have suddenly acquired the status of the sunniest days of my life. (of late I am not dreading these sessions because nowadays what D dumps on me to eat is quite edible ;-))

Our policy had been maximum utilisation of the resources, especially with reference to the elevator that had this weird tendency of becoming unoperational. Resources also included the track around the apartments which were used for evening walks. And as we went on walks, it was a standard policy for us to search for all the Honda City's, Civic's and Skoda's. D's dream of clicking a picture near the Honda Civic didn't however materialise. (She can safely forget about it as she is soon gonna have a chauffeur-driven BMW. Hehehehe!)

From mountains and minarets, we moved on to various things that we had come to love in this home. It was a place were D and I could just be ourselves. And more than that, it was, at the end of a hard day's work, a cozy home for us. We will miss you G-607, My Home Rainbow. Bye!

On my sorority life and reality.

With all my pretensions to being a queen, unqueenly is what you would call me on any average day. I'd like my clothes and accessories to be simple and comfortable,
since I have to run around for cabs, autos and of late, public transport. There is no way I can walk around on pencil tip heels (the roads of Hyderabad would not permit me to do that) nor dress in loud colours (by nature I prefer remaining discreet). So when N sent me a Sorority Life invite on Facebook, I dilly - dallied for sometime and then made the plunge.

Hell, I discovered I could make lots of money just by clicking on those buttons called 'organise events.' Great. Soon I had a bank account, and each time I deposited money, I wished it was for real. I could pass various levels and publish my success stories on my wall. (Friends were flummoxed for sometime.) Somebody would pop up on facebook chat and I would ask them to scoot, coz I was busy playing and putting money in bank and acquiring lots of glam. Heck - I wasn't even gonna wear most of those clothes in real life.

I was hooked. Every morning, I would exhaust all my accrued energy on the game and wait for it to replenish so that I could quickly move to next level. Soon, I got a car, two more and then there was no looking back. For someone who gazes at all the audis and mercs in hyd, this was some kind of vicarious satisfaction.

However, something was not altogether right. I discovered I was losing money and confidence. Further investigation showed that I was being attacked by people whom I didnt even know. Worse...I didnt know how to retaliate. I was informed that I was losing because of my limited house (the number of girls on your side and the glam that they have helps you fend off attacks from others.)

But I grew over it in time. What mattered was the money and glam I was acquiring. Soon with the passing levels, I could play some interesting games which now keep me occupied. Consequently my progress on sorority life has become slower. Now I am a Level 41 Diva and the last I checked, I had close to 5 million dollars in my bank account. Only catch is that all of it is not real.

That brings me to the whole point about this - why at all do we have an online life? Why are we more of netizens and less of citizens? Is it the fact that our online alter ego can be all that we are not in reality? Does it offer a medium which remotely approximates to real life? Is that why we dabble in it? Is that the logic behind our addiction to constantly updating our online status? Or is it just our gregarious nature?