A Day In The Life

One day I am going to record the sounds that start and end my day. Beginning with sometimes birds twittering in the tree next to my bedroom window. The sounds of a radio being tuned by the dhobi who's positioned himself next to our building. People jostling near the water hydrant. The swish-swish of my maid doing a quick sweep and mop. The gentle whizz of the juicer. The sounds of breakfast being cooked. The rustling of the newspaper. The pitter-patter of the shower. The slamming of car doors. The cacophony of traffic. Phonecalls, pagers, intercoms, people, gentle clickety-clack of keyboards (sometimes), droning of voices, hum of airconditioners, the whooshes of coffee machines, punctuated twice or thrice by the azaan. Traffic again but this time a little gentler. The jangling strident calls of my cellphone. Television. Then, silence again.

And through it all, what I long to hear is this - the gentle lapping of tiny waves and the slap-slap of the water in the canals as vaparetto(s?) speed through or gondolas cut through. The sometimes raucous laughs of loud, Italian women, tourists for who this is the vacation of a lifetime (Who am I to say a thing? I keep posting these sorry pics on my blog) and the laughs, the fights and talk of people, who they say contribute in sinking this city a little more each year.

Famous Sights I Have Missed Seeing

I consider myself fairly well-travelled, yet I have missed out seeing the most iconic sights in some of the famous cities I have visited. As all of you, my adoring readers have been deprived of my ramblings and listings for ages, I present before you a list of the iconic sights of the cities I have visited. I keep telling myself thats my reason to return.

1. Paris - Eiffel Tower. Yes. I have been to Paris 5 times, yet I have never been to see the Eiffel tower. I have passed it multiple number of times, but have never been on it. I have explored St. Germain, Les Marais and Montmartre village sufficiently to never get lost. I have seen the Pompidou centre, the Louvre, Musee Orsay, Love the Sainte Chapelle, have marched up and down the Champs-Élysées, etc. etc., yet I have never been up the Eiffel Tower.
2. New York City - The Statue of Liberty. I have gone to New York every year for the last 7 years, and yet, have never seen the statue of liberty.
3. Singapore - Bukit Timah Nature reserve. I have lost count of how many times I have been to Singapore, yet this the one place I have wanted to go since my first trip, yet have not managed to get there.
4. San Francisco - Haight Ashbury, Castro Street. When I visited San francisco, these were the two places I realy, really wanted to go, yet somehow couldnt make the time.
5. Boston - Museum of Fine Arts -I love Boston. I love the fact that one can actually walk around and have also seen a fair amount thanks to generous clients and friends. Yet, everytime I visit, I miss the MFA purely due to idiotic work schedules.
6. Brussels - Palais de Justice - Not seen. Also, word of advice. The Mannekin Pis is SO NOT WORTH IT. It is fucking 6 inches tall. Complete disappointment.
7. Berlin - Jewish Museum -I rank Berlin as one of the must-sees city in the world. I find it interesting and very different from other parts of Germany. Also, the Jewish Museum ranked way high on my list of things to see in Berlin, but never got around to it.
8. Shanghai - Oriental Pearl TV Tower. I feel ashamed of admitting this, but I never got around to seeing this, because I was too busy stuffing my face with soup dumplings.
9. Bangkok - Wat Arun - Again, I get so busy eating, going to galleries and shopping in Bangkok, I never move my ass to go see Wat arun.
10. Chicago - Frank Lloyd Wright Home - I think I've been on every tall building in Chicago, again thanks to people I work for. Also, have eaten at the finest restaurants in the USA in Chicago and am yearning for more, yet, the Frank Lloyd Wright home was top of my list, but never gets done, again mostly because of the magnificient mile and stuffing my face.

This list could continue ad infinitum, but I need to sleep.

Afternoons and Coffeespoons

Afternoons encourage the exchange of confidences. Based on wholly true incidents - WHEN ONE JUST DOES NOT WANT TO BUMP INTO AN EX-BOYFRIEND:
1. On meeting your daughter's in-laws at her wedding, your longtime ago ex from school turns out to be your son-in-law's piano teacher. You think, "God! WTF did I see in this loser?"
2. You wait for an hour at the gynaecologist, only to come face to face with an ex, who grins and says, "So, are we ready to be examined yet?"
3. At an interview you are taking, for personal assistants.
4. While watching the latest action flick, the idiots sitting in the front row keep necking. Lights go on and it is an ex with some 16 year old.
Just for the record, none of the above happened to me.

Mums The Word

Everything tastes better at mom's. EVERYTHING. Even plain roti and dal. Ask my nephew, he'll vouch for it. WHOWOULDVETHUNK? I miss the oldies so much!

Summertime

Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again - II

I used to like the mountains for vacations when I was younger. Now, I want it always to be the ocean. Vacations, hah!

The Great Dipper

Sometimes I think the beautifullest thing is...

• to lie on a charpoy, covered with fine cotton chadars on a full moon summer's night, trying to find the great dipper against the brightness of the moon's halo, wonder at skeins of swans (migratory birds) lazily flying across the sky, listening to the rustle of the ghaghra's cool breeze amongst the ashok trees,
• waking up to the sound of the papeeha and koel,
• bathing in water freshly brought up from the tube well,
• sitting down to a breakfast of mangoes amongst other things, drinking milk in big brass tumblers (or refusing to drink),
• spending the morning chasing sparrows beneath karonda bushes or pretending to help while actually having great fun with glue, mortars and pestles and herbs and other aromatics,
• having lunch of arhar dal cooked on a wood fire, bhindi sabzi, rice, thin rotis, the tastiest pickles and green chutneys ever and mangoes alongwith atleast 12 other people, drinking cold, cold water freshly pumped (I have never drunk such sweet metallic water since),
• having a long siesta in the afternoon while listening to gossip and funny stories, and being cautioned that going out in the back courtyard would mean being chased by monkeys, which was found to be true gradually by all of us pint sized heroes,
• having a long, uncomplicated tea of pakodas and ginger or kangri or cardamom chai and very sometimes spicy chat,
• going for walks on the banks of the ghaghra or scampering up mango trees and plucking and stuffing still hungry mouths with plump, juicy falsas and returning home triumphantly with sweet limes, falsas, figs and baskets of mangoes,
• being scrubbed by mostly our mothers under the cold, cold fresh water again,
• sitting down to a dinner of rotis, different kinds of veggies and curds and mountains of mangoes yet again and still not tiring of mangoes,
• listening to stories of independence, to the point and factual or fanciful and alive with imagination and fervour depending on the story teller,
• squabbling on the best spots to sleep with atleast 8 other people....

And, I get sad because I know my nephew or if I ever have children, will never, ever know this beauty and never know that way of life....