One More List
This is my premature year end post, because the next post will be the first in a five part story. Atleast, I hope it will be, because one of my best friends (who also happens to be endowed with enough serendipity to be born on the same day as I was) has requested a story as a birthday gift. And I'm short on cash, so. Anyway, let's deal with the year end first.
So I'm sitting in my office in the heart of Bombay, surrounded by the pleasantly dull buzz of conversation between people who are at the fag end of the workday. The only thought that comes to mind is "How on earth?"
So did I really leave everyone I love and everything reassuringly familiar to move to Bombay? Have I actually been here for over five months? *Blink, blink*
No, I'm not being a drama queen. Okay, maybe I am, just a little bit. Indulge me then. Let me make a list of my 2007 moments (Good, Bad and Ugly).
1. The start of the year in Islamabad, with a stolen bottle of Bailey's Irish Cream and some of my favourite people in the world - Good.
2. My birthday, where I actually got flowers (thanks, RK) and slashed three cakes to ribbons - Good (for the flowers) and Ugly (seeing what the cakes were reduced to after my slashing).
3. Fourth semester in JNU which I spent sleeping, eating and going back to sleep - Ugly (my face swelled up with all the extra naps).
4. The bus ride from Bhopal to Pachmarhi in an overcrowded bus, riding through hellfire and amidst increasingly frayed nerves - Hilariously Ugly.
5. Leaving Delhi without really registering that I was leaving - Bad. Would've been worse had I understood the enormity of the move.
6. My first two and a half months in this city, when Monday mornings used to make me happy because I could come back to work - Bad.
7. The leviathan-cum-tyrant of a landlady at my first place and the watery onion curry she fed me for forty bucks - possibly the lowest point of my year.
8. Moving to the Sindhi landlady's place and finding out that her favourite pastime is to loudly repeat any random set of words from songs airing on TV - Hilariously Good. Here's a sampler. You're watching television, when suddenly the 75 year old woman next to you screams 'RAAT GUZAAR!' Go figure.
9. Having a windbag for a roomie - Stinker. Very, very Bad.
10. Meeting Someone after spending a really long lifetime believing that these things only happen to Other People - Surprisingly Good.
11. Feeling belonged - Exhilarating (the labels were not really adequate).
12. Crying my eyes out watching Taare Zameen Par, simply out of surprise at watching people just be, and so beautifully at that - Really Good.
Hmm. Year end messages.
Friends in general - Khush raho, bacchhon. Aur agle saal, sab mujhse milne aao aur mujhe khana khilaao.
Sisters - Khush raho, bacchon. Aur agle saal mujhe zyada pareshaan mat karo.
Bloggers that I read - Khush raho, bacchon. Aur do maheeno mein ek post likhna ek acche blogger ko shobha nahi deta.
Boy - Dukhi ho jayo, bacche. Your life is officially ruined.
Happy New Year, folks. Love, life and general merriment to everyone.
So I'm sitting in my office in the heart of Bombay, surrounded by the pleasantly dull buzz of conversation between people who are at the fag end of the workday. The only thought that comes to mind is "How on earth?"
So did I really leave everyone I love and everything reassuringly familiar to move to Bombay? Have I actually been here for over five months? *Blink, blink*
No, I'm not being a drama queen. Okay, maybe I am, just a little bit. Indulge me then. Let me make a list of my 2007 moments (Good, Bad and Ugly).
1. The start of the year in Islamabad, with a stolen bottle of Bailey's Irish Cream and some of my favourite people in the world - Good.
2. My birthday, where I actually got flowers (thanks, RK) and slashed three cakes to ribbons - Good (for the flowers) and Ugly (seeing what the cakes were reduced to after my slashing).
3. Fourth semester in JNU which I spent sleeping, eating and going back to sleep - Ugly (my face swelled up with all the extra naps).
4. The bus ride from Bhopal to Pachmarhi in an overcrowded bus, riding through hellfire and amidst increasingly frayed nerves - Hilariously Ugly.
5. Leaving Delhi without really registering that I was leaving - Bad. Would've been worse had I understood the enormity of the move.
6. My first two and a half months in this city, when Monday mornings used to make me happy because I could come back to work - Bad.
7. The leviathan-cum-tyrant of a landlady at my first place and the watery onion curry she fed me for forty bucks - possibly the lowest point of my year.
8. Moving to the Sindhi landlady's place and finding out that her favourite pastime is to loudly repeat any random set of words from songs airing on TV - Hilariously Good. Here's a sampler. You're watching television, when suddenly the 75 year old woman next to you screams 'RAAT GUZAAR!' Go figure.
9. Having a windbag for a roomie - Stinker. Very, very Bad.
10. Meeting Someone after spending a really long lifetime believing that these things only happen to Other People - Surprisingly Good.
11. Feeling belonged - Exhilarating (the labels were not really adequate).
12. Crying my eyes out watching Taare Zameen Par, simply out of surprise at watching people just be, and so beautifully at that - Really Good.
Hmm. Year end messages.
Friends in general - Khush raho, bacchhon. Aur agle saal, sab mujhse milne aao aur mujhe khana khilaao.
Sisters - Khush raho, bacchon. Aur agle saal mujhe zyada pareshaan mat karo.
Bloggers that I read - Khush raho, bacchon. Aur do maheeno mein ek post likhna ek acche blogger ko shobha nahi deta.
Boy - Dukhi ho jayo, bacche. Your life is officially ruined.
Happy New Year, folks. Love, life and general merriment to everyone.
Comments
there there...now don't cry....we all love you!
(do you think i have said enough of nice things to justify asking for the story?) ;P
you could say a lot more or a lot less nice things, but i'd still write the story. can't disappoint on your birthday, na?
sab log bacche?
anyway hehe.. feels great to have know ou for an year now..thoda thoda i understand what uve written also :D
Btw did u graduate from JNU this year. Is it possible u know a Devapriya Roy in MA English?
also in a shady way, 75 years old or not.
:D
well, you always were a wise one :)
@ speedpost
i knew precisely 10% of my own class, so my answer is oblivion. heh.
@ crazydiamond
windbag roomie's farting her way into the new year as we speak. and i have a special place in my heart for people who borrow my landlady indefinitely.
@ doubletake, doublethink
shady is right. and kindred maybe, with that part of our souls that reveres mithunda and govinda.
@ akhila
now how do i say that in ze french? :P
@ probe
heh. like you have a choice.
aur ek mahine mein ek post ek achhe blogger ko shobha deta hain na?hopefully?
happy new year to you too, though i'm dying of exams.
madam, you just update. and happy new year :)
happy new year!
:)
thank you and isn't that true of most things in the world?