How to Amuse Yourself OR How To Prevent Doing Yourself In

This post is not what some of you may think it is about. Heh!

I largely stay alone. I left home at 17 (For college, not booted out or anything, though I feel I had tried my parents' patience enough). Since then I have been handling my own shit. Once I started drawing a substantial paycheck, there was nothing I wanted more than a roof of my own, where I could plonk in a hundred nails or paint the ceilings blue, without an irate landlord pounding on the door. So, I did that. Once the 100 nails were plonked in and the ceiling was painted blue, and the excitement of setting-up home had died down, I was at a loose end. I was bored. The hours sometimes strectched long and lonely after work. I dont like watching too much television and I dont like meeting people, as a hobby. I didnt want to call up friends and family and whine and sob to them periodically (I did do that, I am ashamed to admit).

So, I decided to do everything that amused me. I got involved in art, started travelling, started cooking stuff more complicated than dal-chawal, joined hobby clubs (Very difficult in Calcutta), started reading (this backfired, because now my home is overrun with books, but apart from a niggling annoyance now and then, dont mind it at all), started painting (also challenging wrt space), joined language classes, joined dance classes and keep doing random shit that I find amusing. I do get lonely even now, but I have a million things to do always and when one has a TO DO list that extends to over a million points, one tends to think lesser of poor old me.

The point of this post is that if you stay alone, do stuff that amuses or interests you and keep your brain occupied. Because nothing can kill you as effectively as loneliness and an idle brain can. You dont need megabucks always. So that should not be an excuse. I have seen many friends go down this path, and it saddens me.

The Fortune-Telling Lady Has Even Taken All Her Things Inside

Now the moon is almost hidden
The stars are beginning to hide
The fortune-telling lady
Has even taken all her things inside
All except for Cain and Abel
And the hunchback of Notre Dame
Everybody is making love
Or else expecting rain
And the Good Samaritan, he’s dressing
He’s getting ready for the show
He’s going to the carnival tonight
On Desolation Row
Haven't done a lot of Dylan because my life has been smooth as silk lately. A little bump here and there, every now and then, but silk it is. I have my cocoons, looms and weavers. They may not know it, but everyday I look at them going about their busy business and pray for them.

This post is not as senseless as it looks, atleast to me.

Rehashing Memories

I visited my parents for Diwali this year. Actually one day after Diwali. What made it even better was that both my sister and brother were also able to make it. The 5 of us were under one roof after believe it or not, 11 years. The last time we assembled was during my sister's wedding, and we all know that was the stuff movies are made of, not romantic gooey teary ones, but the slapstick, the world has gone crazy ones. In-laws boycotting. Check. Crazy neighbours tying to gauge groom's age. Check. Father going all pink pagri at the last moment and ordering 50 kgs of Abar Khabo at the last moment (there were about 300 guests). Check. Sister going Bridezilla (This was my first introduction to the species and it was scary). Check. Sarcastic guests (some of who's hearts BIL had broken, no doubt) being nasty. Check. Booze under the Counter. Check. Drunk photographer. Check. Happy times. It was actually side-splittingly funny. Anyway, we were together again after 11 years!

This time it was different and better. There was a new nephew. We were relatively saner. My parents were older and had less energy and if you know my parents, you know in a way, that is good. And what did we do? We talked about old times and we laughed, and laughed and laughed until our bellies ached.