Dreamer ...Dream On..

Wowo...a mid week blog..now that is a dream come true....anyways the whole day the topic of dreams has been floating in my head.....we all have dreams........some outrageous ones...some really stupid ones....some really "normal" healthy dreams........

well I am no different from the rest of the pack...I have had my own set of dreams and ofcourse they have changed over the years (thank God!!).....but just to clarify at the outset itself -I did not dream of being a lawyer....or maybe I did and my parents in their sweet gentle way sort of distracted me to other suitable professions such as a doctor or an engineer and ofcourse the most suitable of them all the elusive "IAS"....well looks like their dreams were dashed for sure...

The earliest memory I have of a dream is that of owning a horse or an elephant as a pet.....i dreamt of having a horse that I could feed, an elephant that I could ride and scare people....hahah....And I do remember asking my mom for them but the topic was never seriously discussed at the dinner table with my dad....instead I think I got a pet parrot who never really liked me very much from the start.......finally it was let off by my mom ....... and I dont recollect feeling sad at all.........

Needless to say my dreams have come a long way from that of possessing a horse or an elephant.....and my dreams do keep changing every now and then.....some of the things that have found way into my list of dreams (not in any order) are:
a) owning a restaurant
b) joining politics
c) writing a book
d) going on the Inca trail
e) learning to paint or any other art....

at the moment it is stuck on buying property in a tourist hot spot....Imagine you could have a property in a scenic tourist destination, develop the property, mint money and retire !!....... now isnt that a perfect dream? ....hmm....something to think about people (even the sceptical cautious ones).....

Isnt it nice to know that dreams are the one thing that nobody can take away from you...and the one thing that does not come with an age limit or any other limitation........no matter how brow beaten you are you can still dreammm.....and keep holding on to that dream.....

ofcourse for now I would be very happy to forget the dream that I had last night of a huge lion chasing me around ........it was HUGE people....for once I dont ask anyone to share my dream..........

25 and downhill?

Remember your 25th b'day? When you have reached the so called silver jubilee line of your life and you are at the cusp of mind blogging changes in your life? When life was all about grasping those challenges and reaching the pinnacles of success? When happiness would be a constant companion in your life and you were rearing to go?

No?? Ohh...thats probably cos you were a 25 year old single girl in India...

I remember my mother going completely beserk when I turned 25.....she was totallyyy livid at the prospect of having a daughter who was 25 and as yet unmarried....and one who kept refusing to listen to her pleas to marry (literally) the next guy who came along.....and quite frankly it did scare me too....how could it not...at such a young age you are suddenly bombarded with talks about a new "clock" and about how if you dont make that decision NOW you will regret it for the rest of your life .....due to some quirk of fate I just managed to escape marrying the next guy who came along....but not without it stressing me out totally for a couple of years....

And it seems the saga still continues with the present crop of 25 year olds....I was having a conversation with a 25 year old who according to me had a great life...a good job, a good social life, and most importantly she was aspiring for so many wonderful things in her life..... yet, here she was completely stressed out....I heard her say the exact same things that my mom said to me 5 years ago....the same old "clock" story and ofcourse the fact that she was getting "old" ....

And I thot to myself..... if 25 is old then 40 means you are dead? and 30 means you are entering your mid life crisis? and then 15 should be the legal age to get married........

and at 25 eventhough you think you know everything you really havenot seen anything....i mean this is the age when you think life is all about parties, friends and earning money.....The thing that perplexes me the most is what would grip a society to actually stress out a 25 year old...and induce what someone called the "quarter life crisis"....Well all I can say is that now looking back at when I was 25 I really do feel like I was a kid ... going around this city with a bookish knowledge about life and love.....and now I am wise enough to know that you really dont know enough at any stage in your life.....And the one rule that I learned was that there is no one size fits all....whatever works for you- works for you and no one else......

And Dont let anyone fool you on that one....sorry people ....this one was not meant to be light...

Wake Me Up Before YOU run run run...

And as expected waking up on time was the one thing I missed out on the big day of the marathon....so I woke up at 8 and postponed getting out of bed every half hour....And finally at 9:30 almost as if a bomb had been dropped I jumped out of bed and screamed all the way to the venue...ohhh in between the screaming I also managed to pick up my sister and Christy.....Christy actually thot I was "running for the race" from Dadar itself....and in the cutest manner possible ran along with me on the platform....

Our big rush came to a screeching halt when we reached the venue.....all that was left of the marathon was a lone runner panting away to the finish....I tried to cheer him but stopped promptly when I realised that I was the only one doing so.......so clutching Christy on one hand and my sister on the other we ran to the finish line of the marathon...en route we saw a crowd that was still finishing the "dream run" and shamelessly joined them....so technically I did take part in the marathon....I even waved into the cameras!! Christy ofcourse kept waiting for the "race" to start...he was too innocent to fathom that this was an adult race where people cut in between and join the race.... .... Ofcourse after our participation in the marathon, my friend Priya, sister and Christy were unbelievably tired and went and rejuvenated ourselves at Cafe Coffee Day....

The Mumbai Marathon is hands down the most exciting event in Mumbai....the best of Mumbai come out in hordes and there is a general festive atmosphere...so last year (where I was a full fledged participant) I had an ostrich running alongside me...and the ostrich actually won for best costume!!! and this year I caught glimses of Kathakali faces....well we mallus are an inspiration to all I see......

in one word the mumbai marathon is just FUN!!! ...notwithstanding the excruciating pain you feel the next day in your legs.....just a little pain people for all the gain....

In Concert ..

This weekend was unusally filled with loads of culture....my friends had come down from London and in their honour I booked tickets to a concert at the Banganga festival (hope i got the name right) in Walkeshwar...in true Mumbaite tradition I only got to see this part of the city cos of my foreign friends...it was a village in the middle of this concrete city...the streets were all so small and narrow that after a point of time you could only walk....and the venue was a big water tank which apparently came into existence when Ram fired an arrow into the ground when he was thirsty.........now who would have known that this financial city also had a brush of mythology to it............and as we walked along we spotted temples after temples..infact I saw so many of them that I thot maybe they are all homes of extremely religious people!!...and apparently there are 15 temples in the vicinity...well who knew that about Mumbai??

and the water tank was modestly decorated with flowers and streaming lights.....and to add a natural touch to the surrounding there were 7 ducks...who for some strange stood still for a good 30 minutes ...prompting all of us to speculate whether they were specifically imported for the concert or whether they were actually statutes....it was not until they swam (for safety?) when the concert started that we realised that the ducks were for real.........

the concert was by Hariprasad Chaurasia and I have to admit that I was really looking forward to it when i booked the tickets....but like my friend Jordi, for the first 15 mins of the concert I thot he was just warming up .....only to realise that, THAT was actually the performance...ofcourse the tempo picked up after a while, especially during the jugalbandi, and I started enjoying it then....unlike me most of my friends were deeply enthralled by the music and the surroundings... most of them closed their eyes to take in the music even better...ofcourse I did the exact same thing too...except it was to sleep...and my sneaky friend Juhi took a picture of me sleeping ...if it werent for the fact that it is a decent picture of mine I would have totally deleted it.... I tried somewhat to salvage my reputation by stating that I liked stringed indian instruments better...but like a friend commented "you are the Jhinktak hindi song girl"...hmmm.....

Well no sweat....music is a very personal choice....and most people go through life not knowing what they like and what they dont like.....at least I know I am not a flute person.....and at least I am trying..the next brand of music that i want to try to get know is sufi music.....dont know enough of that yet but think that is more my style....

so here's to more music in everybody's lives this new year...

Happy new year!!

Hello peoples Happy new year to everyone....2005 was an awesome year for me....and hopefully 2006 will be equally good ..if not better...

So heres wishing everyone a great new year.......

Now to answer the question of what I did for New years...I did what I always wanted to do my whole concious life....just sat at home, played games, watched movies, watched the fireworks, ate good food, drank wine....all in all just a cozy new years......and the next day was with Christy who insisted on going boating..so we went ....and along the way I taught him to scream "Hello World!! I am awesome!!"...which he did with total diligence.....my sister for some strange reason refused to come to our side ....hmmm....she must have issues....:)

Anyways my net is down at home..which makes it very diff to write the blog..am trying my best to get it reconnected....as soon as that is done I shall follow this mail with my take on 2005....things that made me go hmm, things that made me go red, crimson etc etc....