An exciting new acquisition!

I haven't been this excited and this obsessed about an electronic gadget for as long as I can remember. By the time I got my first computer, I was already introduced to the concept of internet cafes and ICQ chatrooms. A dumb terminal didn't add any more zing to my life. My first cellphone was one of the basic Nokia models that I had no role in choosing and communication costs were far too prohibitive for my meager college sustenance allowance to serve any purpose other than receive the 'where-are-you-what-are-you-doing' calls from my mom.

But this one is different. I'm smitten! I've never had e-books, never liked them. May be the closest I've come so far is proof reading for Gutenberg. After a brief brush with e-books in college, I had made up my mind that however advanced the world gets I'm always always going to yearn and love the feel of paper and the sheer joy of holding a book in my hands. Less than 7 years later I can't believe I have today actually fallen in love with an e-reader. Beautifully mimicking the feel of a book and yet offering all the conveniences of the electronic medium is the 'Kindle'!!

It actually feels like you're holding a medium-sized paperback and the print/e-ink with the off-white/ivory background is awesome... just like the books - only more sharp and readable. It's remarkably simple... no jazz. Read, flip, read again. No camera, no videos, no instant messaging and no stock quotes. Pressing the 'next page' button weirdly feels like turning the page. Especially if you're one of those people (like me like me) who like to look up a lot while reading - I'm telling you, your search ends here... Oxford English Dictionary, Wikipedia and even Google for simple browsing all through this invisible network called Whispernet. Here's a picture of my Kindle and in it the first book I bought at the Kindle Store.

Two Questions

Amongst all the other important things such as height, weight, grammar quotient, IQ, rock music quotient, taxable income, etc. there are two other things that you shouldn’t forget to check before getting married, especially if it’s an arranged marriage situation. Dogs! Seriously, it’s a simple question. Do you like dogs? But don’t forget it. Imagine being a crazy dog lover and living with someone who jumps at the mention of the word puppy! Or worse still – vice versa! Imagine freezing in your tracks on seeing a dog and seeing him smiling, trying to draw it closer and patting it with the same hand that he's going to wrap around you in a minute.

Talking of dogs and puppies, a Chihuahua that looked much smaller than my sister’s bedside stuffed dog once barked and jumped at me. The audacity, I tell you! What was it thinking? One push with my right foot and I could have subdued it like Vamana’s foot on King Bali! Well, that’s how angry I get thinking about the incident. Of course, it didn’t help that I jumped and screamed and almost knocked down an elderly couple and amused many more including M. Oh, he’s not very enterprising either. That’s for another day.

Coming back, fortunately we didn’t forget that question and it helped. The second one is equally important. What kind of TV series do you watch? Are you the 500+ mega-episode-saas-bahu-ghar-ghar-ki-kahani types, the bitchy gossipy splitsvilla-roadies reality show junkie types or the ever knowledge-craving vicariously living through animal planet-national geographic-discovery channel type? Or like we discovered - the crazy about detective stories types. Our latest obsession is 'Castle'. We are soooo over Bones and 'shake things up'. Monk and his obsessiveness still hovers in the background. And it's so comforting that we don't have to fight over the remote after a long day's work. Nonetheless, the ad-breaks still leave enough room for the 'you are so selfish', 'fine, do whatever you want' arguments usually culminating in 'change now!'

My first post this year!

A long time again… and what better way to start again than an update post. It's unbelievable that it's been more than 3 months and everyday I've been thinking - Oh, it's been sometime -I shall write soon! Till this morning P came around and reminded me that the last time I wrote something here was 'December 10'! I mean seriously, so many many things have happened since then.

Late December we took this wonderful trip to Goa for M's birthday. Absolutely amazing! Have I mentioned before that I have this childhood morbid vision of Goa being a horrible, drug-laced and alcoholic capital of India. I resisted all attempts to plan a vacation there and that's where we ended up… and had loads and loads of fun.

New Year's Eve took off with a quiet celebration at a friend's place amid a game of Taboo and some wine. And on the contrary since then it's been one bumpy ride. Work took off at breakneck speed and is only now starting to show some signs of subsiding to normality.

On those numerous work trips to Delhi, I managed to catch a late-evening glimpse of the India Gate. Yes I have never seen India Gate before and work did not offer any solace to take sight-seeing trips around the capital. But coming back to India Gate - Do you remember that feeling of being confronted with an absolutely stunning sight when you're alone, not being able to scream or tell someone about it, not even a camera at hand to capture the marvel and you're just stunned and all you can do is try not to blink? It reminds me of the scene in the movie 'The Namesake' with Ashoke Ganguli (Irfan Khan) and his little son Gogul at the seaside and the father suggesting the son capture the scene in his head since the camera was missing. One moment I was sleepy eyed inside the cab after a long day and the next moment I'm greeted with this marvel all lit up and standing majestic.

In other news, I have added some pounds to my already not-so-burly, slightly heavy but ok for my height and curvy image… yeah ok I've put on some weight. And I'm in no hurry to lose them yet.

Airport-isms

Do you remember the sparrow and the hay story? A sparrow at the Bangalore International Airport is going to need some. I settled down with a plate of idli and a bowl of spicy chutney and a book on the other hand and when I turned to dip a slice of the idli into the chutney… guess what? There was a sparrow feeding on it. A handful of sparrows have made the airport their home and they are unmindful of the people around as they fly and feed unperturbedly.

*****

Found a man dressed in a Silk Shervani, Jodhpuris and carrying an orange leather briefcase at the airport at five in the morning. He quietly walks and positions himself at the beginning of the airport waiting line. And when I reminded him about the people in the queue… he coolly says ‘I know. I’m standing in the queue too.’ Dude!!

*****

The ladies queue at the security check of BIAL is the best place to spot the branded beauties. Last time around it was a 25-ish something with a LV Speedy and what seemed like the Vaio pink-crocodile skin laptop. This time around another short 25-ish something was dressed obnoxiously in Burberry from head to toe – scarf, shirt, handbag and shoes. Fortunately she stopped short of wearing plaid pants too.

*****

Did Chennai airport get a makeover or what? When I got down from the shuttle I almost thought I had taken the wrong flight. Shiny interiors, no dogs around, and baggage was already there when we arrived! The pre-paid taxi counter is now inside the airport itself… impressive! Two hours later I was back to haggling with the auto-rickshaw driver on prices – not impressive.

District 9

Not having heard of many good movies around the block, M suggested a slightly older one that we had missed during the year and we settled for 'District 9' to watch over a late Sunday evening. You should know that we've been living without a television for the past 6 months. Earlier it was about finding a good house to settle in and then picking up a good TV. But now it's been more than 3 months since we found a beautiful place and we've snugly settled in and a TV is not yet in the horizon. So our daily entertainment is chiefly from books, friends, drives, shopping, eating and movies! Oh well, the whys and the why nots later, back to 'District 9' now.

The movie was supposed to be a disaster right from the story line - Aliens on earth, a UFO, gory scenes, aliens with worm like thingies on their nose, a dumb looking actor. I mean, please, whoever thought this would be as brilliant as it turned out to be. There were a number of times at the beginning of the movie we wanted to turn it off thinking it was too violent for our taste but fortunately we didn't.

District 9 is not just another alien movie – it’s not MIB and it’s not The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It’s actually the most human movie that’s been made in a long time. It shows the truth about how human (or inhuman if it helps you understand better what I mean) we can be. The basic plot is about aliens who find themselves stranded on earth and how as humans we deal with the circumstance. We kick them around, we try to grab their technology, we treat them like unwanted citizens, we conduct medical experiments on them… When we treat our own fellow beings like this why should aliens be expected to be treated differently? As the movie unfolds in Johannesburg, I begin to wonder if the makers really meant it to be an alien race or just another human race.

One scene touched the cord for me. After deciding that the aliens need to be moved to another place away from the city, the protagonist goes around each alien home serving eviction notices and making them sign the notice. The understanding that it’s perfectly okay as long as you just take the legal course – I guess that’s as human as it can get.

Being human... not

We got to the service center to get some repairs done on our car. I chose to remain in the car and M went about all the coordination. You should see this service station... It's small yet completely packed for one thing. During the time we were there at least a hundred cars would have come in and another hundred would have left the place. Cars move in and out of small gaps like they are toys. The washing area rolls out at least six cars every fifteen minutes. All cleaned and polished manually. And during all this time, not a single accident, not a single scratch. The flow, the process seemed incomprehensible to a lay observer's eyes. But there was a pattern, some process - for everyone seemed to know what to do and continuously went about it.

M parked in the middle of two rows of cars and got out to talk to the in-charge at the reception. I stayed behind and started reading a book. A couple of lines later a man with crisp and clean blue and white shirt and trousers and an air about him that indicated that he was the supervisor around stood in front of the car waving his hand clearly displeased at something. He gave a sweeping look inside the car - it felt like he was looking through me than at me. May be the glass was reflective and he couldn't see me. Soon another man wearing overalls opened the car and sat on the driver's seat and pulled the car into a snug parking slot. All the while completely ignoring my presence. It suddenly felt inanimate that i was not acknowledged.

Waking Up

Sorry about the long hiatus. The last six months have been crazy! Moving cities, moving home twice, getting started, getting settled, finding a schedule… well, guess what… it doesn't promise to get better any sooner. We crossed a major milestone last week after finally settling on a couch design that both of us liked and it was available and it was available in the colours we wanted and we didn't have to wait for three months. It's not yet delivered so we're still keeping our fingers crossed before jumping ecstatically. I didn't realize shopping for contemporary furniture in India would be so difficult and trying to stick to a palette theme would be even more difficult.

It's been exactly a year and a half since we moved back from Calif. While M is still finding his footing, I'm absolutely enjoying the move back. It is definitely challenging for someone who has spent almost a decade and especially the early formative adult years abroad. The traffic, the noise, the personal distances, the bureaucracy, the inefficiency and many more - just creeps into your daily life. That apart, there have been so many many changes in the past few years alone that you can no longer complain that you don't get the things you get abroad right here in India. You get everything and some of it is even cheaper. Just like yesterday, I was in the mood for an East Asian dinner. I dropped in at M K Retail for a usual pick up of vegetables and a few other items. I looked around at the sauce section and sceptically asked for Sambal Oelek. Surprise, surprise!! He not only had Sambal Oelek but had it in a couple of brands too. That encouraged me to ask for some more exotic ingredients and I asked the grocery section for Bok Choy. Guess what… he coolly picked it from the refrigerator and handed it to me. Well, all is not well… a pack of Kraft Mac and Cheese dinner was retailing at Rs. 150. When did 99 cents become Rs. 150?