IRAC is not a country...

There are few things in life that I pride myself on....one of which is the fact that I can read and write english well...I got more than 90% for english in school...and I even passed the highly suspect but mandatory Regional Institute of English exam when I entered law school... it is another matter that the exam only involved you looking at the pictures of animals and writing the names down in english....(Ofcourse one could always be imaginative and name them fluffy or spotty as well-but then when was such wit appreciated in the contest of an exam)....

So imagine my surprise when for the past 5 days the one thing that has been dominating my time in the firm is lessons on english language and its various nuances..the generous teacher being the newly returned american partner of my firm....."Alice, dont use the parenthesis..just use a bracket" ...paren..what? before I could even figure out that it is a word belonging to the english language he is on to the next language correction...."Always write in active voice. Do you know the meaning of active voice?"...Ahem, no...but does it help that my mind was suddenly active?......"Did they teach you IRAQ in school?" Ah! finally a question I knew the answer to-which school doesnt teach kids about the middle east?..Right? Wrong!!! IRAC (not Q) is a style of writing which is used in America which is slowly creeping into India.....thank god I dont speak that quickly....And ofcourse then there are the comas and the full stops ....a coma here, a full stop there, prevents my document from being dull ...

so there I was..cooped up with my secretary adding a coma here, using a bracket there, removing a parenthesis, putting a full stop in..ohhh Gosh did I miss one parenthesis on page 243?? Ahhhhh ... the attack of the comas, full stops and the parenthesis is here...run for your lives!!

Well all I am grateful for now is that he cannot see my blog....imagine!

P.S. for the uninitiated..parenthesis is our normal bracket...yes (-), the simple down to earth bracket...who would have thot this simple utilitarian tool of the english language would have such a fancy name to it...

Are you the monster from the phone??

No...this is not me asking a tele marketing executive who is trying to sell me the latest "0% interest credit card" ...... or me asking my boss who calls me at 8 in the morning on a saturday asking me to give him a document in the next 1 minute....

it was christy asking me over the phone when I called his mother on the mobile.....well I dont blame the poor kid...my sisters phone is quite frankly a scary phone....for starters whenever the phone rings its almost as if the entire orchestra has suddenly come to your room...startling you from whatever you are doing.....and that too bad hindi music playing orchestra...and then there is the screen which has a disco theme going for it ...so there are neon, blue and white lights blinking through the conversation....whoever designed the phone must have had a whacky sense of asthetics or what constituted a "peaceful conversation"...

Anyways enough of phone talk....last weekend was family time for me.......My sister, christy and I went to see Sanjay Gandhi National Park ...this was christy's first trip to a national park...and throughout he kept saying "I am going to the Notional park"....now usually the mention of a national park would evoke images of lush green surroundings with quiet pathways crowded by trees......with tiny deers running past you giving you ample opportunity to click one of those priceless (in your opinion) pictures of wild life....and you come away feeling as if the nature is still in good hands.....

ofcourse this national park was different......instead of quiet pathways crowded by trees there were noisy roads crowded by people...and instead of tiny deers running past you there were ferocious monkeys who pratically chased you down the road .... hmm...

Ofcourse the best part was the tiger safari ..... we were all cuddled up in a caged bus and taken to the tiger and lion den....and as soon as we entered we caught sight of a white tiger .....it was quite frankly the most beautiful looking animal I had seen (ofcourse excluding the good looking human animals like John Abraham :))......... Christy was so scared that the tiger would come and bite him that he kept holding on to his mom.....it was very cute I must say....after that it was a long drive without any sight of even a peaceful animal... and just when we were giving up hope we caught sight of two lionesses resting on the side of the road.....they didnt even bate an eyelid with the approaching vehicle... infact I believe one was even yawning ....

and then there were the kanheri caves......now these are buddhist caves built by monks some centuries back....it really boggles my mind as to how the monks found their way through the jungles and then patiently carved out these artistic caves out of stone....well no wonder they achieved a high state of nirvana...with such backbreaking work in the middle of the jungle you just had to develop a sense of detachment and believe in something bigger.....

All in all it was a good trip....and on the journey back I dont think Christy, me and my sister were thinking of anything bigger than just reaching home and crashing....

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....

Awesome!!.... the word is spreading...

The latest entrants to join the bandwagon of "I am awesome" gang (comprising of me and Christy and a few people on the fence at the moment) are my parents ....at first my dad was sceptical about the meaning of the word....and since he is such an english enthusiast he actually checked up 2 dictionaries to understand the actual meaning of the word...it apparently means "frightening" and also "excellent"....well no need to clarify which meaning I intended to use....it would be a rather funny sight if I go around (and also make Christy go around) proclaiming that I am frightening....well after all the investigation my parents have finally decided to join the awesome gang....so now in between all her exercise my mom keeps saying " I am awesome"... our gang is slowly swelling up.....Christy and me are going to celebrate ...all are invited....

the other awesome thing today was that I actually got to go to the river side...ofcourse under the responsible chaperone of my aunt.....and the scenery was made for a postcard...the setting sun was in its full glory ...its orange hues reflecting on the river....surrounded by green paddy fields with white birds pecking at the grazing cows....my aunt and I sat down quietly appreciating the view to undertake what I called the "yoga of the mind"....ofcourse our reverie was shortlived as someone promptly came and asked us who we were and where we are from.... I quitely gave up all hopes of continuing with my yoga uninterrupted .....

Well cant blame them also ....the only activity this town affords is a walk to the river side.....to chat up with strangers and hear about the world outside.....other than this the other activity is shopping........so you have the choice of picking up "egg puffs" (yummmy) from Annes Bakery, Best Bakery, New Best Bakery, New Better Best Bakery and so on and so forth....we are obviously not well known for our ingenuity in shop names....and then there are the gold shops!!!... my mom I think is a major patron of gold in this town...and her major disappointment is that her second daughter is not that keen on going shopping for gold....well I keep telling her that if they served me better drinks in these shops I would happily accompany her....by better drinks I mean a pinacolada or a caffe frappe....hahah...

Tomm I hope to wake up early and go to the church......

One more tea coming up...

Now ordinarily I am actually good hostess...but my speciality is to open up a tetra pack of Real Guava juice and serve it...and since most of my guests are the "new generation" I usually have appreciative glances....ofcourse that doesnot work in Kerala ..... unless you serve coffee or tea with special Anne's bakery marble cake people would consider it totally improper...so here I am mixing tea leaves to ensure that the guests who come to visit my mom dont leave the house feeling bad about not having been treated properly.....hmmm.....

Today mom was also feeling better...she was laughing more....and today I also got mom's side of the story...she actually feels happy that there are so many people visiting her....as all her children are away she feels very lonely...well I totally understand that....and I wish she would not feel so lonely ....but I also wish people would understand on their own and not talk too long to my mom....some are understanding...like today a lady asked my mother whether the doctor had told her not to talk too much etc..ofcourse she asked this after a marathon 2 hours session on the local gossip....but there are others who still call her on the phone and ask her for recipes!!!

winter is coming down to Kerala as well...and this morning it was really misty...I can only imagine how it must be down by the river....I say imagine cos that is all I can do at the moment...tomm I am going to try and sneak by and sit by the river on my own...my mom will anyways be too busy giving recipes on the phone.....

"You have a second daughter?"

My mom just underwent a angioplasty to remove 3 blocks from her heart...and I remember being stuck in a meeting the whole time in Mumbai...and finally I was able to get out of my work schedule and come down to be with mom....after all what is the point of working if you just cant make time for family....

and I am so glad I did....my mom was weak as expected ....and she was happy to see me...but she has not changed a little bit...she stills wants to get up and run around the house doing chores...the only leeway is that now she supervises....no amount of threats work on her .....she still has to get up and run...I used to always wonder why people think staying at home was easier....ofcourse you dont have a crabby boss (ofcourse diff if you have a crabby hubby/wife) but there is still so much to do ....and every vacation I would come home and expect to sit by my mom's side just reading or watching TV...but as soon as you are slowly receding into the laziness of your own home my mom would remember an unfinished business and run to do that....and she seems to be continuing that even now...which is not good at all for her condition.....

and ofcourse there are tons of people visiting her everyday...my mom is obviously popular....and most of them come to the house and ask who I am ...apparently they never knew that my mom had a second daughter...well obviously I was not climbing the popularity charts in Kottayam...and I just dont get this at all...they all come to visit a person who has just undergone a heart procedure and still insist on having coffee and talking to you about their sister's husband's cousin's son's friend's dog!!....I just could not believe people would just sit and talk for so long when they clearly know that my mom is supposed to relax.....but everytime I open my mouth it is shot down as being of the "new generation"...implying that I have no idea of what is good social behaviour.....well I dont know about good social behaviour I just know that I dont like seeing my mom getting tired from all that talking and sitting up....why do that to her people?? anybody supporting me on this?

other than that being in kottayam is both refreshing and stifling at the same time....it is nice to wake up without tension...and it is nice to see green out of the window and even when you walk outside....and it is nice to have family around to relax with ..... but there is always some lurking fear in me that I am crossing some kind of invisible boundary whenever i venture to do something...its almost like the plants in my neighbours house have eyes ....when you step out there is someone watching you and commenting on your latest pimple to the next door neighbour.....and there is always the liberty to question as much as you want about whatever you want......so I am always asked how I cope with a "lonely" house....welllll if only they come to Mumbai and see the size of our apartments they will realise that sometimes you need space from the house itself cos it is breathing down your neck......and I am always asked what I do for food...and the amazing thing is that when I tell them that I actually try to cook over weekends (and quite sucessfully I must add) they actually laugh about.....its almost like they were waiting to hear that joke from me....and they never let up till I actually change the story and tell them that I order from outside.....and once I do that, that gives them the perfect window to pounce on me yet again about how it must be so lonely to stay and eat all by myself...well obviously they have not watched "101 Juiciest hook ups" at 11 in the night with a plate of lucky briyani...it is divine.......

I miss the freedom that I have in mumbai the most when I am in Kerala...there is actually a beautiful river that flows near my house....and my mom gets paranoid everytime I tell her that I would like to go and sit there and have a solitary moment to myself...."what will people think?" is what she constantly asks me....I almost feel like blurting out "Ma the people who are watching probably dont think too much anyways"...but that is not the ideal answer to such a screwed up system....I patiently wait till I get company and then go over and sit there ...forget solitude...you would be happy if you get 5 mins without somebody's eyes glaring at you....Hmmm.....not surprisingly that when I come to Kerala I become a total recluse and refuse to say any words beyond "hello" ....and if that can be achieved with a nod then I just happily nod away....

dont get me wrong...I love many things about home....I love my family, i love the green, I love the food, I love the hassle free existence of small towns ....but most often than not I am dying to get back to the dirty city of Mumbai and breathe free...ironic isnt it? to just stroll out at 7 in the night and go to bandstand and have a cup of coffee....trust me....I appreciate my job, my life, my mumbai so much more when I see what it is like to constantly worry about someone else's opinion.....am I weird? well at least now you guys know where that comes from.....

My parents constantly warn me that I will slowly lose touch with my family after they are gone...I kinda see their point of view also...afterall when you have family you really have a sense of security..and as the famous sunscreen song said "the more you grow older the more you need people you grew up with"....now that is a puzzle that I have still not been able to solve....if anybody knows better please do enlighten me........

anyways seems like I get more philosophical also when I am in Kerala...must be the rice in Kerala....

In the land of Sambar and Idli…..

Now it is no secret that I would go anywhere for a plate of hot idli with sambar….so when I landed in Chennai this weekend, amongst other things, my top priority was to have authentic idli sambar….and that was the one thing I DIDNT do in Chennai ….well…someone should add that to Murphy’s law….when you crave for something you usually keep craving....

However I did a lot of useful things….for starters I attended my friend Meens wedding….she was marrying her classmate from ISB…. And in true traditional south Indian style had sent me a saree to wear at her wedding…and I ran around the previous two weeks arranging for the blouse which finally thanks to my extremely resourceful secretary I got it just the day before my leaving…so after having made so many people run around for my saree blouse I finally did what I expected to do ….I didn’t wear the saree!!....I ended wearing a black salwar suit for a typical south Indian wedding…where everyone comes decked with so much gold that it almost blinds you…. …well you can add that to Murphy’s law again…when you make too much of an effort you usually end up looking like the odd one out in a south indian wedding….

The other useful thing I did was catch up with my friend Liz and her husband Karthik… there were my life lines when I was in Chennai….almost shamelessly I would go over to their house almost everyday and pile on to them…. I still credit them for not screaming at me ….and now their little daughter Varshini has grown up so much….I tried to teach her to say “I am awesome” but somehow she thot it was bad thing…..and Liz has to actually pay her 2 rupees everytime she wants Varshini to wear “girlie” dresses….well Liz also pays her nephew 2 bucks to make him wear “girlie” dresses….well that’s Liz for you….I had an awesome time catching up on all the old gossip and just generally feeling good to be with familiar people….

The other good thing I did was catch up on my sleep…I slept all the way to Chennai…and then in Chennai wherever possible I slept off…it was quite embarrassing really….i went to Meenu’s place for lunch…and after socializing and eating up the food I excused myself for what I thot was going to be a small break….instead I slept for 2 hours!!...and came down only to realize that I was the last one left ….well I made the most of it and sat with her family and chatted about everything….and then in the evening we went for the movie Garam Masala to catch the really garam John Abraham...but he looked like such a dud in the movie that I fell off to sleep…..and ofcourse on the flight back also I slept off even before the take off….like my grandfather once said of me “she has some kind of sleeping problem”….Actually Papa (that’s what I called him) was right…I do have a problem…its called my Boss ..…

Anyways weekend was hectic …and next weekend I plan to be in Kerala to be with mom after her heart procedure…..now maybe it is time to try out my recipes on her …and show her that her daughter is actually a good cook…..that is ofcourse if I am not sleeping on the stove…eeee! What a thot!..

So...Do you Cook??

You know its actually strange.... couple of years ago when my parents were trying their levelest best to get me married to mallu syrian christian boys I would dread one question the most-"so, do you cook?" AAARGGGGHHHH...it was enough to make me see red and I would retort by asking the already scared boy - "No. Do you?" Needless to say the syrian christian community didnt quite warm up to that question...

Not that my reaction to such a question would change now but the major change is that now I really love cooking.....every weekend is cooking time for me.....the recipes are usually sourced from my sister, aunt, my friend Devika and ofcourse my mom....and till date most of them have been non veg dishes....well not my fault -every syrian christian mallu considers only non veg as the real food, veg food being only for starters...(that might explain the expanding waistline of most mallu syrian christians)....so till date I have cooked fish cutlets, chicken cutlets, mallu chicken curry, chicken briyani, and some other chicken dish which doesnt have a name but still tastes decent when you just dont want to eat outside food.....

ofcourse when I started off it was not all that smooth sailing....Once I even called up Devika in the night just to ask her how to boil rice....and the first time I cooked the briyani I stopped the flame only when the burning smell of rice emanated into the living room...hmmm...in such situations I usually call up my mom or my sister to complain that their recipes were actually defective and that is what led to the disasters in the kitchen....they are usually laughing through the call....shameless people I tell you....

and now I am nursing ambitions of cooking desserts....the only dessert that I have made till date is a biscuit cake which I made for a friend's b'day...the cake was BAD but my friend ate it up happily in appreciation of my efforts...now I want to graduate to making proper cakes, which you take out of the oven with oven mittens...oh wait...I dont have an oven yet....well whenever that happens...

my boasting about my cooking prowess had an unintended effect....Everyone I boasted to has invited themselves over to my place this coming Sat....hmm....please feel free to give me suggestions on what to cook....including desserts that can be cooked without an oven....or maybe I will ask my sister to cook and pass off her cooking ...hahah....not a bad idea huh?

Happy b'day to christy

30th was Christy's 5th b'day...my sister woke him up in the morning to take my call ....and all I heard was a muffled whine... Christy was apparently angry at being woken up.....well I agree wit the kid...even I get mad....I got to meet him only in the evening .....I had envisaged meeting up with him and going to some fun amusement park like place in Mumbai for his b'day...instead I met him at Pizza Hut...well seems like you like what your parents like till you are 18 :)...my sister and my brother in law are crazy about pizza hut....I walked in holding a huggggggeeee gift for christy...he saw it (as did all the other kids at Pizza hut) and immediately guessed it.. a remote control monster truck!!!!!....at his age I would have been the happiest to get that kind of a gift...infact I would be happy to get that kind of a gift even at this age :)....

I missed him b'day party ofcourse....he was king for a day ....and he apparently made every kid dance....and at the end of the day he hugged my sister and said "thankyou mummy"...my sister says thats when she realised the joys of motherhood...ofcourse after that it was back to screaming and shouting at Christy and her lamenting her motherhood ....hahahah..

the other news is that I have no other news.... quite frankly there is no time for anything else now....and now the best plan is to not make plans...it seems like the partners of the firm know before itself the plan you have made for the day and ensure that you never stick to it....its like the saying 'ssshhhh the fridge is listening' .....the fridge that seems to always know when you are planning to buy something special and it always break down just before the big day....well the thot that the partners of the firm are akin to the fridge is kinda of funny...well the way they are all expanding kinda makes it more believable i must say...

3rd or 4th ...what does it matter?

Ok ok…so I made a small mistake in my last blog…as one friend generously pointed out to me, I am actually starting my 4th decade instead of the 3rd.….but I would rather go with my friend Devika’s observation that I had actually not finished my 3rd decade yet…apparently the 4th decade officially starts when you complete your 31st year…so that leaves me with one whole year….so think I am going to stick with Devika’s interpretation and believe that I am still finishing the last pangs of my third decade…

But moving into the thirties is not that different actually….as someone wisely said - "now you are old enough to take decisions and yet young enough to make mistakes”…and although not related , another wise observation was “growing old is not an option..growing up is”…

Well moving on from such highly profound thots to the other happenings in my life….work has been crazy for me which explains the late blog….and now I have added another activity into my life to pack up my already cramped schedule… the gym!!! Which was a much needed addition considering I didn’t get any exercise other than exercise for my fingers…so now I try to run to the gym to do a quick 30 min workout…...in addition to burining calories time at the gym is also time one gets to spend with oneself....ofcourse today I was sooo engrossed in watching a bond movie that instead of doing introspection I ended up working out for 1.5 hours !!…. well no sweat..there is always time to mull over ones life...

The firm also hosted a Founders day party for all of us and our families today….. As my parents could not come my sister and christy came along as family….For some strange reason Christy announced to his friends that he was going for Vava aunty’s b’day party celebrations…..and for a week I tried to train Christy to say “Good morning” and “Namaste”…. And today at the function he proudly muttered “Good Morning teacher” to everyone… hmm…at least it means that he is learning something at school….but the event was totally fun….we played games….ate a lot….and then finally ran to a theatre to catch the show of Hanuman… where I promptly slept off ….waking up only when Christy started climbing on his chair and jumping off...all in all a good fun day….

Taking about b’days …its Christy’s b’day a week from now….and my sister has been secretly planning his b’day party…..or at least she thot it was secret….imagine her surprise when a lady whom she hardly knew told her that Christy had just invited her for his b’day party!!! Obviously the kid is a great networker….

In other news Bunty, my erstwhile pigeon is back…and this time she has come back with a companion …. That meant double the melting eyes ….but I definitely didn’t bargain for two when I wished for Bunty to come back …..and about wishes coming true how about that sea facing house?

ohh...the 101 biggest celebrity oops has just started (yes people I do watch it).....byeeeee....

Feeling Legal in a Regal way...

Or was it regal in a legal way? well quite frankly I dont really remember how I felt as I was in a daze all along.......

The firm flew us to the royal city of Udaipur for an offsite - or as understood in ELP temporary shifting of office for a few days......I was left off the previous day at midnight only after i promised to read the documents I had drafted overnight...but considering there was no night left the promise seemed stupid...so I reached home at 1, packed my bags, compressed 8 hrs of sleep into 2, woke up at 4 in the morning and ran to the airport to catch the 6 o clock flight....so in between all the packing and running around I hardly got anything constructive done .... except for noticing the new spanky Jet Airways counter ...making its poor cousin Indian Airlines look even poorer...........am a total Indian Airlines fan....not cos of its public sector status but cos they remind us that service is not about looking good but about being served good....ofcourse when you have someone looking like Aishwarya Rai/John Abraham serving you you are more likely to forgive her/him than anyone else if the soup lands on your head rather than on the tray.....anyways moving on....

and once we landed we were assigned our respective rooms at our very own royal palace overlooking the lake....my room for some strange reason had a chinese theme to it....maybe the hotel's idea was to make me feel chinese in an Indian way...well not that I had any time to feel chinese or anything else for that matter...we were soon caught up in a session of talking about the firm and its values....with just 2 hours of sleep they could have been talking about the latest celebrity gossip and I wouldnt have blinked an eyelid...and at the end of the session we were asked what word comes to our mind .... well no need to scratch your brains for that one... Sleep was the clear winner...

Udaipur trip also coincided with my b'day....I heralded my b'day dancing with my office colleagues at a royal hunting lodge...and woke up in the chinese room facing Udaipur lake next day and tried to contemplate the meaning of being in the right side of 30...well quite frankly I doubt whether there is any meaning ..and I doubt even more whether I would want to know ....so I did the next best thing....went for a full Kerala massage in Udaipur!!!........where I tried to pretend I was not from Kerala in the hope of listening in on what the ladies were saying about me...I mean what better way to hear about yourself than eavesdropping....but my accent gave away my mallu identity the moment I opened my mouth...well after that it was total bonding about Kerala and mallus....

Also went for a stroll around the palace to imbibe the history..and Shiks this palace reminded me so much of the Alhambra in Spain......similar gardens, similar figures of lions-except that the lion here was smiling ..was told that the lion was smiling cos he had seen so many pretty women that day....well ladies that clarifies the question for us...males of any species are the same ..... with a lion at least nobody will rob your house ...

The flight back was a little more exciting than expected...leveraging on my b'day I asked to see the cockpit...which they graciously allowed....much to our surprise we were actually being flown by a Russian Pilot....who seemed totally cut off from all the attention we were giving him..and an Indian pilot who couldnt stop grinning from ear to ear from all the attention....in the five seconds that we were there they told us which lever to pull to get the flight off the ground...I guess in an emergency I can at least take the flight off the ground .....so what if I have to live in an adrift plane for the rest of my life...

Coming back to Mumbai was however the best....especially since my b'day celebrations still continued after I landed.......but regally and legally speaking the trip was all in all a good one.....I lived in a Chinese room in a Rajasthani Palace, ate italian pasta cooked in a royal kitchen, had a Kerala massage and was finally flown back by a Russian pilot!!..totally cosmo experience dont you think? Not a bad way to start your 3rd decade I would say....

what to do ?.....

as my famous professor quipped in NLS ...."just in the sense, what are you doing?" (please add mallu accent for extra effect) .........while he was referring to my sleeping in corporate law class the question he asked is one of the eternal questions dogging everyone with a brain.... what to do with life?

the Indian education system mandates that you should know what to do with your life by the time you are 14/15/16-which is probably the age when you have just realised that Santa Claus is not real and that babies are not delivered by Storks...so at the most confusing stage in your life you end up making a decision about what to do with the rest of your life.... thus begins the saga that is the story of every person ..... poring over textbooks to crack the IIT exams (even NLS exam nowadays :)...) ..after all if you are not an engineer how can you possibly get a good bride/groom? or to crack that all india medical entrance exams to get into that elusive list of top 5% of India's intelligensia....graduation not being enough you end up getting submerged in text books to do your post graduation as well.....all in pursuit of a decision which you took when you were 14/15? ....

which explains the import of the question-what to do with life? Is life about sticking by the decision you made at 14? or is it about acquiring assets-a huge house, a huge car, diamonds? Or is it about showing others how perfect a life you have- a classic Hum Aapke Hain Kaun family who sings and dances to communicate to each other with a house in London and two kids (a boy and a girl of course!) thrown in for good measure ? or all of the above?...........

Maybe wondering what YOU want to do with life itself is life.....poring over options, talking to friends, scaring your parents about the probability of you joining the PLO, wondering how to ensure your good looks continue till when you are 40...All life..

at the cost of sounding mushy I think life for me is about playing with my nephew and have him recite "vava aunty (that's me) is the best" over and over again (all done voluntary I must add :)..) ....hugging my sister and telling her that she is the best....or feeling happy and celebrating with your loved one on a promotion or acquisition of a house or a car....

and sometimes it's simply about about enjoying hot briyani with your loved one at the end of a famished day...ahhh...

Just in the sense, professor ..are you listening?

tickling ....

The last week was a usual week...12 hour work shifts punctuated by efforts to have a life outside it...needless to say my efforts in the latter direction failed consistently.....and a good sense of humour was the best way to get by ...

ofcourse my profession provides me with good fodder for humour .....noo this is not one of those classic lawyer jokes where all lawyers are made to jump into the sea with an anchor tied to their legs or screw on a light bulb.... this was about definition of the term "force majeure", which technically means "Acts of God" and includes natural calamities like flood, storm or in todays times George Bush. Force majeure was however defined as "an event caused by superior brute force"....Needless to say my colleague who reviewed the document had a lonnnnngggg night...........

Ofcourse my sister and her husband have a good sense of humour........Saturday was the last day of Ganesh utosav...and that is the day the whole of Mumbai goes to the sea....though I have never witnessed it I believe it is quite a traffic stopping event...with loads of people carrying ganeshas and immersing it in the sea......and as always I tried to get out that very day....my sister ofcourse put a spoke to my plans when she remarked casually that people might mistake me for Ganapati if I went out ......hmm..... am trying not to think of it as any kind of reference to my physical appearance, past or future....

Scared by such a possibility I sat at home with my sister and Christy doing what every family would do .....watching TV!!...ofcourse I had to wrest control of the remote from my nephew who insisted on watching a japanese converted into english cartoon....and introduced him to some nice hardcore Arnold SCHWARZENEGGER....It was my brother in law's turn this time as he kept calling the Governor of California "Shivashekaran"....first I thot he was referring to one of the many mallu magazines lying around the place and a Shivashekaran in that ....only to be introduced to his theory that the Governor of California is an exiled Tamilian and that Schwarzenegger was actually the german version of the name Shivashekaran.....am sure my friend Shyam would be happy to endorse that view....considering it is his ardent belief that there is a Tamilian hidden in every human being....

and I think my Boss also had a sense of humour when he msged me last night saying that I would have to take a call at 5 in the evening on Sunday....hahaha...did I hear it right? Sunday??? u mean the day even God relaxed after creating the world?? ....I hope I dont keep laughing through the call.....

anyways gotta to get ready for a biggggg Onam Sadhya at Devika's place......

Feeling of being wanted.....by pigeons!!!

Call it the charm of my house or even me...for the past few weeks I have been fighting a pigeon who has been desperately trying her best to build a nest on my bathroom window...

infact the pigeon, who I shall lovingly call "Bunty"(cos she does look as chalu and round as Rani Mukerjee in Bunty aur Babli), has altered my daily routine ....Now it goes somewhat like this....Get up in the morning, go for a bath, open the bathroom window, throw out the twigs Bunty has flown in to build her nest and go to office...evening come back from office, go for a bath, open the window and throw out the twigs once again and then sleep...and every time I did this Bunty would roll her eyes at me trying to melt me into submission....but like someone told me "all you can or will get at the end of the day for your hospitality is an egg!!"... so with such profound insight nudging me I decided not to invite Bunty into my house and my life....and went about happily with the routine ....

until today......when I saw that there was no Bunty or the twigs to throw out of the window....she had finally got the message and discarded all attempts at building a nest ....the window was like any other window - no life there to interest me now....I miss Bunty.....she had become such a part of my life ....so much so that I had unknowingly started introducing her to my friends...."do you know the pigeon who comes to my bathroom window everyday?" "Do you want to meet the pigeon who lives in my house?".....Not that any of my friends reacted enthusiastically to that suggestion....

Anyways I miss you Bunty....Have a good home wherever...and may you have a thousand eggs!!...and if you do, keep them away from my nephew... Talking about my nephew ....he is the cutest .... One day I jerked up from my sleep on hearing a loud "Good Bye"....it was Christy saying Good Bye to me in all his school finery-a school bag that was twice his size to carry one book and a lunch box, a blue water bottle and black shoes with white socks...promptly after saying Good bye he pushed my head back into the pillow and said "now you go back to sleep and stay home"....ofcourse going back to sleep is the last thing on your mind after such a warm greeting in the morning...

Okk think I want sleep and sleep wants me.....Heres wishing and hoping everyone feels wanted everyday of their lives.....

Time Management...did I miss a class in law school?

Difficult to answer that question since I missed lots of classes in law school....ostensibly learning life ....

but one of the first lessons you learn on entering the service industry is that ur time is no longer urs....its effectively mortgaged to clients....ofcourse you are getting paid for that ...but for me that is a large part of the change that has come along with my new job....So time managment has become a new buzz word in my head.....and so far it has translated to the following:

a) gulp down the idli/dosa ( a can of coke will help you do that fastest)
b) run instead of stroll from the train station
c) read the newspaper in the train with others
d) most importantly trust the maid who comes to clean your house-so that you dont have to run after her also
e) recognise that you have no time for social niceties- so it is ok to not stay and talk to your nice neighbour

Ofcourse there are times when you wish you could just climb up 15 floors in 5 seconds (yes my office is on the 15th floor!!) and also that you could just jump down 15 floors (and also land safely I must add) instead of waiting for the lift to come up....

Oops time over for blogging.....part of my new "time managed" regime

Good luck to all for all their treks...

Just to set things straight I am just not a trek person....and the reason for this is not cos, as someone once famously said , "what is the point of going up if you are just going to come down"....its more deep than that....and quite frankly it is tooooo deep for me to try and answer that..so moving on....

this blog is about people who actually trek...its about my extremely adventurous friend Shiks going with her dad for a trek to the Mansarover lake (or somewhere in the vicinity)....wherever it is she is going I want to wish her all the best ....Shiks come back with lots of news, views and ofcourse your digital photos.....and in the course of the trek if you find discover the meaning of life please do share with me....


Ofcourse living in Mumbai you trek everyday .... I meant the mandatory trek every day to work on the Mumbai local trains.....first it is the agony of standing at the "right" spot...and if someone has actually found that spot it is all about thinking on your feet ..... or rather thinking where to put your feet so as to ensure that at least some parts of your body get into the compartment...amidst the chaos brought on by the approaching train you grab your bag, your umbrella (in the rains), and your wits and make a lunge for the first class ladies compartment hoping that you have landed somewhere near the intended spot.... the cardinal rule is never to let go....... just grab the pole...or the person nearest to you who was lucky enough to get in....and off you go on your 30 minute "joy ride" hoping along the way that your freshly ironed shirt will have some remnants of it's crispness left when you reach Churchgate........when Dadar station arrives you will see how a safety valve operates....people stream out of the compartment as if a valve has been opened .....suddenly leaving a lot of space relieving you momentary.......but soon the load from Dadar enters shattering the 2 second utopia u lived in..... all is not bad actually.....u get to hear other people's love stories....u read books together (since its in your face anyways)....common fare include the Da Vinci Code , Paulo Coelho, chicken soup for the soul etc etc.....and once you reach Churchgate you feel as if you are part of a community....some things in life are indeed priceless!!!

anyways I better sleep now to get ready for my trek tomm morning..........

Cheers!!!