Serendipity

Overheard:

Dudette saunters into the supermarket. Browses the electronics section.

Sales guy at the counter: You looking for something, madam?

Dudette: Yes..er…are rechargeable batteries available?

Sales guy: Yeah, of course…

Dudette: Alrite. *long pause* Okay…so…do you have a six-pack?

Sales guy: What???

Dudette: Arre…a six-pack..I want a pack of six batteries.

Sales guy: Oh, okay. I would consider it an amusing life if I came across such characters several times during a day at work.
Seriously, such people! I mean, that guy would really have been amused at some girl asking him if he had a six-pack…and the best part is, the dudette never had a clue what she had apparently spoken.

And there are other reasons why supermarket staffers lead interesting lives. There used to be these two young sales people at the Jaipur Shopper’s Stop…the girl was usually on her shift in the ethnic wear section and whenever any of the people shopping wanted to see how a particular saree looked when worn, the girl would willingly oblige, call up the guy and then stand and twirl in front of the mirror while the guy tied the saree around her waist over her uniform, both of them exchanging coy glances in between.

There are several reasons that make shopping amusing. Got something to share?

A very happy, happy new year. I know I could have been more creative about it, but sometimes simple is the best way to be; and could-have-beens are some of the most futile words on earth, perhaps.

Okay, that was totally random.

No resolutions really for me this year. I’ve always been a failure at keeping resolutions unable to really stick to any…so I decided to give it a break this time. The last year was pretty good, so much more than all I dared to hope for, though towards the end it brought me the deep forever loss of no less than three people very dear to me.

Maybe I should just try to sum up all that I learnt this year. In no particular order:

• It’s good to stand up for something you believe in, and the world (or the part of it that you are trying to convince) will eventually see your point if it is right.
• “Getting lost doesn’t always happen by accident.”
• Always remember to back up your data before getting a hard-disk formatted. :/
• People forget your talents/traits unless you keep reminding them. By acts, not just words.
• When mom tells you to do something about some hideous pimples, better do it.
• Falling into reveries before an important exam isn’t a very smart thing to do.
• It might be just a little seemingly casual thing/ word that might erode your trust in somebody, or somebody’s in you.
• “Each day is the first day of the rest of your life.” But you just can’t keep starting afresh each day…u gotta begin, then proceed. You get nowhere by just beginning.
• It’s easier to not make/ not keep promises. But in the long run, it’s better to know in your heart that you made, and kept.
• Nothing is absolute. It’s all relative.
• “Be anything but obvious”, if you like. But then don’t blame people if they interpret you some other way.
• However you keep claiming that “The sky is under my feet…”, most of the people would still say you are upside down.
• Calling a person’s demise “their birthday in heaven” lessens the poignance, but only just a tiny little bit.
• No matter how much you keep saying you don’t want any; it’s always a great feeling to have somebody genuinely care for you.

I have so much to do, prove in this year. To myself, to parents, to other people who matter…And this year I’ll be turning 18, like BestFriend reminded me during our conversation last night. Finally, being an adult officially. (Though, for him, “getting entry in clubs” is the most looked-forward-to part of the deal )

Anyways, I have tremendous expectations and apprehension-mixed hopefulness this year. May The Great Being Up There grant all of us peace, love, happiness, prosperity, strength to pursue our goals. Shalom Aleichem. Have a great new year and thereafter.

——————————————————————————————

Some of the best moments in life…

(feel free to add to the list :D)

“Be careful when you give your heart to someone, because when you are giving your heart, you are not only giving that person the right to love you, but also the power to hurt you. “

Quote  courtesy   BestFriend.   Hmm…the guy speaks utter truth these days … 

So, I think I should finally introduce you to someone very interesting, intelligent, and at the same time extremely exasperationg.

Meet my IVAN– Inner Voice that Annoys and Nags.
Rather a loose description, but then, Ivan IS loose. Always present at the back of my mind, this being has a tendency to pop up at the most unexpected moments, and is powerful enough to ruin my mood completely.

For example, a few days back I was kinda feeling glad about having assigned the color blue to love, in the series of haiku poems I’ve been writing in which I gave a color to each emotion. I started to think about a drink to associate love and the color blue with, like hope-yellow-lemonade-sweet, and happiness-pink-zinfandel-intoxicating. And suddenly Ivan shrieked happily : “Copper sulphate solution!”
So, right now, he’s doing an excited tribal dance, celebrating the beautiful (*rolls eyes*) way in which he has bonded together me, love, and—you guessed it—CuSO4.

Now you see why I hate this Ivan sometimes?

Have you ever noticed how sometimes some things just happen, or not happen. The same goes for me and blogging. All day long words, phrases, topics keep floating in my head, about people, situations, anything that can make a good something to write about…but then it just doesn’t happen.

Guess I’m having a writer’s block right now. It’s good, in a way, Now all those huge, thick, hit-on-your-head-see-stars chem and physics books don’t gather layers of dust like they used to. Having nothing better to do, I apply my precious creative imaginative mind inside my pretty head to actually think about how infinitely large charged metal plates with a dielectric between them behave and how are the properties of diamminechloridomethylamine platinum chloride different from those of tetraamminechloridonitrito-N cobalt chloride. (Yeah, don’t you just love scientific jargon? )

Four long hours, actually six from tomorrow, of coaching classes in our supposed-to-be-summer-holidays doesn’t really make a good background for being able to write happy-happy, non-crabby blog posts.

Friend since the silly days of eighth, Ank, says one day : “Gawd…life has become so complicated ever since we passed class tenth.. I really wish I could enjoy my present…” (Yeah, she’s the type who would much prefer that to all boring phy, chem and math.)

But then, looks like we only have two choices: chill marofy now and suffer later in some tedious boring underpaying job, or slog, slog, slog through the present and shape out a good life for ourselves.

I much prefer the latter.

That flower hanging beyond the fence
So lovely, so perfect
Just what I need
To enhance my dress
For today’s dance.
But I can’t reach it
Somehow it’s too far away
Over the garden fence
For my hand to get it
And there’s dad waiting in the car
For me to come
There’s not enough time
So I’ve got to go without
The flower I so badly want.

It often happens so in life
There are so many things
You want to get
You think you deserve them
Think you really need them
Things you strive for
Would even die for…
But the time to go always comes
You aren’t ever able to have
What you thought would
Enhance your life
You are never able to reach out
And grasp what is tempting you
Because there is no time left
And because these things are
Beyond fences.

A few days ago, two little kids came to spend the day at my place– children of one of my mum’s friends.
Both of them were watching a kids’ channel on the telly, when there came an advisory warning before a certain PG-rated show.

(am translating in English for the sake of the non-Hindi people, if any, who happen to read this.)

The older kid : “See, what’s written on the TV screen —…’Pogo advises that kids should watch the next program alongwith their parents.’..Do you know what that means?”

The younger kid : “Yeah I do. It means that the next program is so good that the kids’ parents should also watch it.”

He spoke sooo innocently, I couldn’t help but laugh.

Took this quiz and got this result

Your Personality is the Rarest (INFJ)

Your personality type is introspective, principled, self critical, and sensitive. Only about 2% of all people have your personality - including 3% of all women and around 1% of all men. You are Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling, and Judging.

I SO knew it !!

So, after a long, long time, there was a power fault somewhere in the city and our colony was plunged into delicious darkness.

In the days before the pretty low-cost power backup systems, when I was a little kid; small-towners us, I mean the whole neighborhood, used to gather onto lawns/rooftops in the event of a night powercut— kids telling each-other spooky stories, dads together blaming the electricity department for irregular maintainence and picking the faults of the administration in general, and moms all together preparing dinner by candlelight and discussing the latest trends in jewellery to “101 Ways Of Tackling Unruly Children” and everything in between.

It was all interesting, in a way. And doesn’t happen anymore.

But me, I preferred solitude today; and armed with a scarf, went outside on the patio, shut the door of the room to prevent any streaks of light from inside falling on the patio and thus spoiling the effect; and sat down to enjoy the scene.

There was a light mist all around, a nearly-half-moon floating in an ink-blue sky among silvery-gray clouds; and the leaves of the kachnaar tree against it. It was good— the fuzzy, blurred shadows and silhouettes because of the mist, the absolute stillness of the night, the pale moonlight— it was wonderful.

What disappointed me was the limited presence of this ambience around me. Lapsing into an almost-dream, I wished I could have a huge estate in the suburbs of some beautiful place. A stone mansion with long French windows overlooking wide gardens; a cobbled pathway; a panoramic view of the countryside; some old windmill in the distance; bright white fences; flowers; huge oak and maple trees…
Then a succession of images floated across. Rain, thunderstorm, lightning, candlelight reflected on polished wood, a friend, remembrances…

I woke up and smiled at the obsessive charm of such an unreal, idyllic life, something which happens only in novels. No way this was gonna happen to me. Ever. Reality is so completely different. In reality, I’m just this ordinary girl, hoping, studying and struggling to shape a life for herself.
In reality, I would most probably get to have nothing more than a moderately-sized house on a noisy city street.

:/

The mist had drifted away. The moonlight turned from pure clean pale blue to a dull sickly yellow; and the shadows and silhouettes of the tree leaves were starkly outlined, the jagged edges clearly visible.
No softened, blurred edges; no dreaminess.

Slightly disappointed, I came back inside.

So, looks like I’m getting visitors. Feel free to leave comments, everyone.

And by the way, A Happy 2007 to you.

Not necessarily in the same order, I just decided to write down all that I want myself to be this year.
Somebody please remind me about this post if I start to crib about life in general.

So, this year onwards, I want to

wake up each morning, and feel in love with the day.
be able to expect little, and give lots.
maintain connections with all those who matter.
never lose sight of my goals.
do my best to achieve them.
write more, and write better.
learn to play a stringed instrument.
be more informed about the world and its ways.
er…stick to a fitness schedule. (that’s just a better way of saying that I want to slim down)
get unaddicted to Harry Potter stuff.
cut down internet usage.
cut down on my ‘daydreaming time’.
stop thinking a lot about trivial matters.
stop thinking about unpleasant things/prospects.
be a better daughter.
be a better friend.

Guess that’s enough for now. Er..if you are really reading till now…don’t forget the reminder part.

And oh, a happy new year again.