32000 ft above the Caucasus - 19th Oct

Am back to tripping on the wonders of flying...all brought on by the seat-back screen in front of me, which shows a continuous downward view. Imagine looking down at the earth as you fly over it, seeing it as though there were nothing between it and you. And I like the idea that it does not make me gibber with terror, considering how high up in the air I am, at the moment!

We are currently flying over some part of the Caucasus mountains, and I can see every fold, every pleat in the land. Though it is a little disturbing to see these folds interspersed with the neath patchwork of fields and homes that indicate the steady march of civilizations.

Wisps of clouds pass between the land below, and the airplane's camera above; cloud shadow dots the landscape. It's exciting to see this from a completely different perspective. I've said it before, and I'll say it again...there's nothing like flying and nothing like being suspended miles above the earth, in the atmosphere, to put an entirely objective cast to Life as you know it!

Oh wow...snow-covered heights...there's just one word that can do this view justice...breathtaking!

Travel bug...once bitten...!

Well, I’ve gone and got my visa done, and bought my tickets. All that remains is to pack my bags, and go bring Faz back home. 2 months of his being away and I am ready to climb walls....so, before I start showing some serious withdrawal symptoms, it’s time to take action. And while I’m at it, to take a nice 2 weeks off to bum around the US, meet folks and get in some serious shopping. Neatly packaged, what!

Apart from the slow derangement, thanks to the lack of my daily comic relief (kidding…I really am nuts about this guy…but there is only so much redecorating my house can tolerate!), I am looking forward to this trip as the first long break I will have had in a long time (2 weeks flat on my back, with my jaw wired, don’t count!)…no work, no work, no work. Can’t get much better than that! I am a firm believer in working so you HAVE a life, not making work your life. So weekends are normally a total detox (if you can call total system shutdown a detox!), and most Monday mornings I actually have to take the time to stop and try to remember what I was working on the week before…suits me! :o)

Yenivays, coming back to the trip. Apart from a rather adventurous trip to Dubai a few years back (another story for another time), this will be the first solo trip, overseas, I will have made since I was 5 yrs old and come to think of it, that wasn’t really solo either! So, yeah, my first ever solo overseas trip. At least until I reach Faz, and then woe betide him if he leaves me to wander on my own.

It’s exciting to visit new places and experience new things…am looking forward to bumming around San Jose and San Francisco for a while before heading east to do the rounds. I can barely sit still, while waiting for this month to pass…waiting is such squirmy torture, for me. Good thing Faz & I both love to travel, so he understands when I get this way! Well, I get this way a lot, because the best part of looking forward to something is not being able to wait for it. Did that make any sense?!

Yenivays, I remember visiting a lot of the US with my parents, when I was a kid. Actually I remember visiting a lot of most countries with my parents! And they used to travel with 2 kids in tow! Yesiree, every year, we would travel during the summer hols, and come back to visit family in India. And every year my folks took my brother and me to tons of new places, and few of the old ones. Growing up, it felt like my parents went just about everywhere…Europe, UK, the US, Egypt, the Far East and of course India. And everywhere that Mary went, the lambs were sure to go….we had traveled so much by the time I was 12, I had gotten used to having a birthday in a different country, each year. Which was a real peeve for some kids, I knew, who were sure my folks were taking us traveling just to celebrate the fact that I was born! Ah, their parents had a tough time for a while :o) (For the record, my birthday had nothing to do with the trips…it just happened to come by at the same time…!)

Growing up outside India, 6 years of traveling to different places, seeing different cultures, kind of changes the way in which you see the world. Coming back to live in India, permanently, was a tough change for Hem and me, and it took quite some getting used to! But the experiences of an entire childhood have totaled to making us what we are today. And I hope Faz and I are able to do the same for our family going forward….those will really be trips to look forward to. I can only hope we will be able to make them as exciting & wonderful, for our kids, as my parents did for Hem and me. And still remain sane, the way they did!

Now, excuse me while I go squirm some more…! :o)

"Oh, and World Peace..definitely"

If I were a beauty-queen, that is what I would have to want. At least to have a good shot at the title, that is! Well, apart from the impossibly proportioned body and impeccable makeup, of course. And the clothes. And shoes. And all that jazz....

But since I am a Rockin' Girl Blogger, thanks to Vee, I am going to want a whole different bunch of croissants (Hey, my acceptance speech, my blog, my choice of nouns!). Some of these will be actual croissants...the chocolate-filled variety (what, haven't you been reading this blog?!)...and others will be more non-food in nature. Like stopping female foetocide, more literacy for the girl child, more takers for orphan adoption, stronger law enforcement and weaker social prejudices. And this is just to start with....!











Now it's time to wear the sash, pop on the tiara and scoop up the bouquet. And hand the baton over to these other rockin' women....:

Sujata over at blogpourri
DiTty over in the fishbowl
Namrata over in Boston

I love reading their blogs, and hope you do too... Rock on, Ladies.

"..not called Power Moo-Cow"

It's been a while, and I can once again feel the urge to crack 'em knuckles and pound out a post...just wish I had more time in which to do that!

Work has been...interesting, and certainly keeping me on my toes. Travel has been picking up, for certain. Off late it has been more small-town India and not so much of the Metros. Which is fine, except morning-evening dashes into and out of a place are best not considered. Most places are connected only by the budget airlines or by road (so my tail is protesting a whole lot more these days!) and the whole trip just takes that much longer. Still, am getting to see a whole bunch of places I may not have visited otherwise...

The rains are back and this burg is starting to strangle itself all over again. One evening burst of rain and a 20 minute run demonically transforms into a 90 minute one. Probably the worst part of the those 90 minutes is having to keep switching radio stations because you can find no good music...where have all the good songs gone?! Oh, and my knee will soon need surgery from all the stress of constant pedal-stomping...clutch-brake-clutch-brake-clutch-BREAK!

The upside is that 'rents are coming back after a loooooooooooong trip overseas...it's been 4 months since I saw Mom! So, tomorrow night shall be a stake-out at the airport waiting for them to arrive.

Oh, frig...I had almost managed to forgot the smegging rain. You know...I love a good downpour with the whole drama of lightning flashes and thunder drumrolls...that is good macho weather flexing it's muscles for you. What I hate is whiner weather....drip drip drip and constant drizzle. Oh, go find your spine why don't you! Sheesh!

Upside again...am hoping Pops will be packing pain-au-chocolate...Oh yum! If anything can banish the rainy-day blues, it's the prospect of biting into a warm roll with a gooey chocolate center.....**sigh** :o)

Happy 60th...

...Jai Hind

Day One & Counting

The Faz is off again, for a 3-month stint, this time. Talk about withdrawal symptoms....(sort of like having PMS, only, without the M...!)

Yenivays, am sure once the initial blues wear off, I will slip right back into bachelorette mode and make the most of all this ME time :oD

Which same will mean lots of movies (good thing the mux is right next door!), music, cooking experiments (Katz, Polz, Anj, your gift shall finally get used), tons of reading...oh, and lots of messing about with the decor in the house.

Sheeeeesh....how domestic does all that sound!!

Photo Blog : STOP or my mom will shoot!

One week down, many to go

What do you do when you can't sleep and you're missing someone who won't be home for weeks? Read till the lines blur? Lay in front of the TV, flipping channels till you realize today turned into tomorrow? Make popcorn in the middle of the night? All of the above?

*sigh*

Water, water, everywhere...will someone please get me a mop?!

I have discovered a profundity. The more things change, the more they remain the same. Or words to that effect. Said profundity was discovered soon after my installation into my new home with Faz (I know that sounds like I am a washing machine, or an Aquaguard wall unit, but please, quell that thought).

What brought this on was the quiet, incessant and horribly familiar plopping. Of Water. Through the Ceiling. Water woes and me...there is some elemental magnetism at work here for, everywhere I go, water seems to just follow me around, waiting for a chance to Murphy me. (When? Where?! There, there, there and there!)

I suppose I should be thanking my lucky stars that, this time, the plops avoided our bed and headed for the bathroom. The downstairs bathroom, below ours, that is. And as luck, or physics, or laws of something-else-or-the-other would have it, this meant ripping out the flooring of our bathroom to get to the problem, which seemed to be the pipes running between the 2 floors.

So, after a week of clearing out our bedroom, and dust-covering anything that could not be cleared out, I watched on as the plumber, and his minions, tore things apart in the attached bathroom.

Plumber, looking down his nose : Yeh bahut kharab kam kiya hai, madam (This is very shoddy work, madam)

Moi, holding my nose: Err...problem kya hai? (Asking for it, by asking what the problem seems to be)

Him: Yeh slope something, woh pipe something else, aur phir yeh trap yet another something. (go figure...I don't speak plumber)

Moi: Theek kar sakthe ho? Kitna time lagega? (Get to the point...can you fix it? And how long will it take?!)

Him: Teen - chaar din (3-4 days...subliminal translation to a week, 10 days...!)

Some days later, triumphant yell from the barely recognizable bathroom. I ran up the stairs hoping it meant things are just about fixed. (Yeah right. See that chap waving cheerfully? That's Murphy)

Him: Problem pipe ka nahin tha, shower ka tha! (the problem was not the pipes, but your shower unit).

Moi: Theek kar sakthe ho? Kitna time lagega? (Get to the point...can you fix it? And how long will it take?!)

Him: Teen - chaar din (3-4 days...Yeesh!)

Later that day, grinning plumber and minions get ready to leave the apartment.

Him: Madam, humne something kiya, phir woh kiya, ab kal aake yeh karenge (more plumber-speak)

Moi: Tho, kab ready hoga? (So, when can I move back into my room??!! )

Him: Teen - chaara din :o)

I gave up. I am now resigned to sleeping in the living room, while the bathtub and flush tank occupy place of pride in what used to be our bedroom. Someday, thing shall be as they were meant to be. Someday.

Poofs

It's funny how some people think they can get away with anything. In my book, you can only throw around as much weight as your are willing to pull. However, delusions often run deeper than intelligence ever did. Which same means I am often surrounded by feather-poofs under the gross misconception that one of them is current heavy-weight champion of the world. That went out with Rocky Balboa!

Yet, feather-poofs, the world over, strut and stride and splutter and titter without really realizing why they are so easily blown away. The catch is in knowing the difference between the poofer, and the true punter. Take on the wrong one, and....

Occurs to me that this train of thought left the station, apparently, well before I got on. So, shall stop and hope to flag the next one!

The Content Gardener (!)

I've recently up gardening, after a fashion! Which is not to say that I'm attempting to turn patches of bare land into flora filled bouquets...nothing of the sort.

I'm happy to just set out a variety of potted plants, on the balcony, and hope to keep them alive through the summer! The main effort, on my part, is watering the plants, smiling at them, and wafting love and fresh air at them :o)

Now, watering...a finely tuned activity that involves a judicious mix of sprinkling (to clean the leaves) and pouring (to keep the soil nice and wet). Drown the plant, or not, it is certainly soothing to stand out, every morning, pottering around with a mug of water. Maybe I imagine it, but the Wind always seems to blow cooler after I water the plants. And in this summer, that's saying something!

The smell of wet earth always reminds me of home. And Pops. and his gardens of profusion. Not that I aspire to tend such gardens. I am content with my pots of miscellaneous green fuzz, cacti, oddly bunched leaves and unknown, multi-coloured flowers. No names, no botany. Just the plants, their water, and me.

V for Violence

Violence in Bangalore. 3 buses torched. 2 shops destroyed. Angry Mobs. Tear-gas shells. 400 people detained by the police. 'Breaking News' for the day....rather the past few days. When folks took a break from Shilpa Shetty, and the Racism furore, that is.

Take a bunch of hot-headed, cocky, foolish young 'guns', who decide to wake up one day and protest the manner in which Saddam Hussein was treated. Rather late in the day, and all that, but what the hey. So what they do is slap a 'This is Bush' label on an effigy and have themselves a little bonfire party. Add to this a passing rally by a religious group. Laws of Nature: a bonfire...flags...*whoooooosh*.

You have yourself the beginnings of a 'politically-instigated communal situation'. One in which politics be damned, the innocent bystander be attacked, the media has a field day and everyone with an axe to grind 'speaks for the people'.

As if there weren't enough people, out there, with debatably real reasons for protests, strikes, violence and assault. Now we are chasing after will o' the wisps with burning brands and hateful slogans.

*sigh* ... wake me up after the Apocalypse.

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P.S: In case you're worrying, said violence has been restricted to sections of Ulsoor and Shivajinagar. The rest of Bangalore, thankfully, remains sane.

Taz the Weird

See, this is what happens when love-lorn gorilla tags you, and then forgets to tell you about it....it's left to your random browsing to unearth the tag...sheesh! Axe...sloppy!

Yenivays, gorillas notwithstanding, it looks like her Tazness is about to join the ranks of the weird (those of you who already know me...can the sniggers!). So, what makes me weird? Let me count the ways...

1. I cannot bear to enter a dark room, or be the last one leave a room after switching off the lights. This primordial urge usually has me hollering, and racing up the stairs, before Faz hits the lights. It also makes sure I leave lots, and lots, of low-watt lights burning all over the place...just in case I get the urge to wake up and wander in the middle of the night.

2. I don't look too closely at dark windows...every horror book I ever read, movie I ever watched, is waiting to jump out at me. **Shudder** ! And, yet, I cannot help but turn on 'Buffy'....sheesh....masochist.

3. You've heard of marching to one's own drummer? Yeah, well, I kind of have my own orchestra...all the time, in my head, music playing, urging me to dance. As a result, you will see me doing a shoulder-shimmy, while waiting at a traffic light, or wiggling in the lift. And yeah, am told that visual is as weird as it sounds...complete with hand movements and all!

4. I tune out of the 'real' world, completely, when reading. Which same means you could be having a life-altering discussion with me, and I would be too far gone to notice. I hear nothing, see nothing apart from what I am reading, and don't feel much pain. Faz is yet to tire of this, but for now he just grins when I surface, some time in the future, with a dazed look going 'huh, did you say something?'. I also have to read before I go to sleep...even if just a paragraph!

5. I can't eat anything sweet without wanting to top it off with something savory...I don't like sweets that taste 'sweet'! Which usually means that I can only eat obbattu with mango pickle, and will always leave a morsel of something spicy for my last bite. This also extends to not eating sweets before drinking tea or coffee.

6. I have to wash my feet in order to feel really fresh and clean...this includes after waking up, coming home after having been out, and just before I climb into bed. Not only do I have to wash 'em, I have to moisturize. Which same leaves me with feet better looked after than most people's faces (hey, not made up, my doc says so!)

Now, having just come off being really sick, am not in the mood to be contagious. So am not tagging onwards. Of course, I won't stop you if you feel like joining the ranks of the Weird....there's more of us than you know ;o)

A brief trip to hell

It was supposed to be a quick zip into the hills and back...sort of a quick-n-dirty 'there, and back again'(though, with no hobbits in tow). It was supposed to be the filler 'twixt an early breakfast and and a late lunch.

A small matter of leaky pipes, up at the cottage, had Faz, Dad and me piling into the car for a quick looksie. A couple hours onwards, a couple back, and a couple in between...like a nice little dance set.

'Twas nothing of the sort....our quick sojourn upto Ooty, and back, turned into a rattling, bone-jarring, dusty crawl up one hill and down another. It is usually a nice, meandering, drive through forest reserve and up winding roads, with the cozy prospect of cool breeze, pines and homemade chocolate awaiting you.

Except, this time around, there were no roads. Literally. Just stones, gravel, sand, ruts and roots. The roads had packed up and gone South for the Winter, it looked like, and had no intention of returning in a hurry. What little was left kept us alert, and cursing, at a steady 15kmph.

As a result, what should have been a six hour trip, turned into an eleven-and-a-half hour trial, with aching muscles and screaming tail bones...no wonder Mom was pissed :o(