Been a hectic week workwise, so the weekend has been used mostly for sleeping, reading and resting. It's been raining throughout so its harder to want to venture out too (okay i'm just using that as an excuse :D)
Read some great books, Ice Candy Man by Bapsi Sidhwa - One of the best books i ve read about growing pains and the partition. The book starts with Frenny at four, somehow the thoughts are too adult in context and content to be quite convincing as those of a 4 year old. The story carries smoothly till the time that she is 8.
It gives a very good insight into Parsi lifestyle of the 1940's. Sidhwa's comments & observations of life are all so humorous that the book is both funny & tragic at different times. It was so compelling that I finished it in one sitting, wanting to know what happens to all the characters during the uneasy time of partition riots is the prime motivator. The tragedy of women has been portrayed very well with women & girls from both sides becoming victims of brutality. I liked what the author has put across, there were no good or bad guys...everyone was equally brutal. The ones who suffered the most on both sides eventually were innocent victims who had no recourse like women & children. You feel the angst of the people involved in the story...the helplessness that they feel in their situation is felt by you while reading this book.
I haven't seen the movie, but after reading the book I do feel compelled to get the CD if only to compare it with the book. I hope they have stuck to the storyline.
Another nice book which I finished reading this week (achievement of sorts, 2 books in a week) was Mark Haddon's - The curious incident of the dog in the night. A very unusual hero & a very unusual book. A brilliant boy trying to cope with his limited abilities to understand people & the world at large; who overcomes his fears & grows up learning the harsh realities of life & adults.
Been listening to Chris Daughtry's first album Daughtry for the last 2 weeks. Thanks V for the album :) I dont know much about music; but i like what i hear which are most of the songs. He's got a great voice. He may not have won American Idol but he's definitely got talent.
I need to get a cat meow translator (if one exists)...been getting crossed signals. Everytime i hear a meow dont know if jerry is asking for food or wants to go out. Causes great confusion in mind when its the middle of the nite & i have to figure out his needs :D
Poor Jerry has got a very bad cold for last few days & just like for humans there is no medicine. So we just have to wait for the infection to go away. I could give him antibiotics but i hate to overdose them with those. Learnt something funny about jerry today.....he loves plain potato chips...munches them happily with S.
Tangy had sad time today, we had mutton for lunch so he woke up much earlier than usual & was in the kitchen since 10 in the morning. Poor guy.........poor since i'd decided not to give him mutton as it disagrees with him. He sat in kitchen all morning, patiently sitting in the chair.
Waiting for the mutton. So compromise from me was whiska for him, jerry & girlie when we had lunch so that we cld eat in peace (relative term, since he harrassed mom anyway, begging her for a piece of mutton)
Of course he had some grated coconut from mom when he could beg her for it. It is very strange to watch cat eating coconut :D
I've spent the last 2 days sharing bed with 3 cats (Jerry, Tangy and Pinks) it rains a little & they start feeling cold. I just dont get it, whats with the fur coat, doesnt that help. Apparently not, cuddling with me is the excuse for all 3. I'd each of them sitting on my abdomen as I watched Tv or read a book in the afternoons. They are getting heavy to have them sitting for too long...so kept shooing one off to have another take his/her place. They are such experts at giving those needy expressions which had me melting away (must learn to say no to the cats more often)
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Thursday, July 5, 2007
Working from home
Working from home today as mom wasnt feeling well.
Having done this a few times (okay am lying...bit more than a few times) know that there are distinct advantages & disadvantages to the process.
Advantages are of course obvious, you dont have to take day off, you do housework plus office work and end up feeling like (wow i'm doing all that and not complaining to anyone) you feel productive, spend more time on ym updating everyone on whats happening & getting updated in return on office happenings, monsoon advantages are even more...dont get wet, dont have to do harried travel via rickshaw & train (train is actually pretty decent travel, just have worries like hope it doesnt stop midway between stations, I do not want to trudge thru sewage and garbage filled rain water) plus most importantly keep an eye on loved one without being in office & worrying anyway about their condition.
Disadvantages are there of course ....being at home means answering all phone calls (explaining to ppl calling why you are at home...so repetitive conversations about same thing) answering the door everytime it rings, signing courier receipts, having cats think you are there to spend more time with them (so they dance on lap, on laptop, sit next to laptop, get warmed by battery) in general create chaos where u dont need any....have also found myself working longer from home..dont know why (why do we always feel guilty where there is no need for any guilt, human mind is a strange thing)
Feeling low today........got a bad cold...so getting a cold is a permanent state of affairs for me since moving to new office (am definitely allergic to something there!) Many ppl have tried to make me think its my cats (hah...fat chance of that) I have them for over 6 yrs, I dont have colds for that long :D
Nose is watering so much; its making me wonder where the hell can so much liquid come from, am I getting dehydrated this way. Rhinoviruses are ones i should blame, damn things have been eluding scientists for decades now. It should be easier to cure such a common disease.
Going to drink a glass of water, now i know why they say "keep hydrated, drink lots of fluids" in advisories for a cold.
Having done this a few times (okay am lying...bit more than a few times) know that there are distinct advantages & disadvantages to the process.
Advantages are of course obvious, you dont have to take day off, you do housework plus office work and end up feeling like (wow i'm doing all that and not complaining to anyone) you feel productive, spend more time on ym updating everyone on whats happening & getting updated in return on office happenings, monsoon advantages are even more...dont get wet, dont have to do harried travel via rickshaw & train (train is actually pretty decent travel, just have worries like hope it doesnt stop midway between stations, I do not want to trudge thru sewage and garbage filled rain water) plus most importantly keep an eye on loved one without being in office & worrying anyway about their condition.
Disadvantages are there of course ....being at home means answering all phone calls (explaining to ppl calling why you are at home...so repetitive conversations about same thing) answering the door everytime it rings, signing courier receipts, having cats think you are there to spend more time with them (so they dance on lap, on laptop, sit next to laptop, get warmed by battery) in general create chaos where u dont need any....have also found myself working longer from home..dont know why (why do we always feel guilty where there is no need for any guilt, human mind is a strange thing)
Feeling low today........got a bad cold...so getting a cold is a permanent state of affairs for me since moving to new office (am definitely allergic to something there!) Many ppl have tried to make me think its my cats (hah...fat chance of that) I have them for over 6 yrs, I dont have colds for that long :D
Nose is watering so much; its making me wonder where the hell can so much liquid come from, am I getting dehydrated this way. Rhinoviruses are ones i should blame, damn things have been eluding scientists for decades now. It should be easier to cure such a common disease.
Going to drink a glass of water, now i know why they say "keep hydrated, drink lots of fluids" in advisories for a cold.
Sunday, July 1, 2007
Floods and more...
So it happened once again.....a repeat of July 26, 2005...a date etched in memory...30 June 2007 adds to that long list of days when Mumbai got completely flooded. Luckily it being a saturday I didnt have to worry about making it to office...but i had plans.
Woke up & saw the road outside our building was flooded with water about a foot deep; decided it was gonna be a hopelessly rainy day and abandoned all hope of venturing out! Living room had a mini (or not quite that mini) lake forming away, bro's systems spread across the living room floor were all floating in water. He of course was non-plussed, dont worry they wont get spoiled by the water he said & went right back to sleep. Theek i thought, his systems he ought to know better.
Got a bucket & cloth & went a mopping away. Water was stinky, so loads of dettol was added by me to disinfect it (courtesy of Tangy who thinks water pools means public toilet for cats & happily goes ahead with nary a thought for the poor soul who has to do the clean up job...this is usually the bai...but with the floods I didnt think she'd be coming in) One should have some easier, less back breaking way of mopping up water.......I had thoughts of vaccum cleaners (one of those high-tech ones...I've seen on TV...dont quite know if they're sold here) which suck up liquids......how i wish i had one. Of course I dont, thought of getting a mop with those long handles.....definitely will get me one of those.
The rest of the day was spent watching the news with pictures of various flooded parts of the city, thanked god at least we're not on the ground floor. So many people had water in their houses, washing away their belongings.......that surely makes you wanna kill someone. Imagine their despair, it was so sad.
Just rescued my phone charger from Pinks, happily chewing away at the ends & playing with the chord (I only have 1 of those......its definitely not a cat toy) She just gave me one of those, what the hell (cat look, only they can manage to look so non-guilty even after being caught red-handed doing something they arent supposed to)
Sorry, back to the floods.....anyway the whole day was spent in reading, sleeping, watching TV. The dull rainy weather didnt raise the spirits any, just felt dull all day long. For all 4 cats it was just another snoozy day, spent sleeping away as usual.
The forecast was for more rain in next 48hrs......how nice...some more mopping up for me to do.
Luckily Sunday hasn't been as rainy; but a dull day nevertheless. Finished reading Kafka on the shore by Murakami; have been reading it for a while now. It has 2 parallel stories of this 15 year old boy who runs away from home to get away from his father and of Nakata this elderly gentleman who had a incident as a child which has left him unable to read, but can converse with cats.
Book started off well enough, I loved the parts where Nakata is finding a missing cat by asking neighborhood cats about the missing one. Kafka's storyline was very interesting too with him travelling to find himself, learning more about himself in the process. Growing up, making new friends. But somewhere the story kind of gets very mixed up with a 15 year old's sexual desires blurring the lines between reality & dreams. I can understand a 15 yr old desiring a girl his own age, but desiring a woman in her 50's no matter how wonderfully young she seems to be was to me a bit too far fetched. And he suspects her to be his mother, yet imagines himself to be her long-lost love and her lover was beyong surreal.
John Updike has called this book a "metaphysical mind-bender" I feel the book just left me confused; Kafka never meets Nakata which I felt was rather disappointing after the whole book seems to have been gearing up for a meeting between the two. I loved Nakata as a character, he is very lovable, very simple and talks about himself in the third person. His conversations with cats are very amusing.
Saw 2 very different but nevertheless nice movies over the weekend; The Inside Man on sat night on HBO. Clive Owen (amazingly handsome as always, what a voice!) Denzil Washington and Jodie Foster. Very interesting movie about a bank robbery which is not quite what it seems. Great storyline & good direction by Spike Lee make for a very entertaining film. Guess what the title track was........ Chaiya Chaiya by Sukhvinder.
Must love Dogs was on HBO on sunday afternoon, just happened to see it while channel surfing. Diane Lane & John Cusack in a very cute, romantic comedy. Not so great a story, typical one of being set up by family/friends, mixed up situations getting resolved in the end in typical filmy fashion. Good acting by all was the saviour, Christopher Plummer as her dad was very charming.
Woke up & saw the road outside our building was flooded with water about a foot deep; decided it was gonna be a hopelessly rainy day and abandoned all hope of venturing out! Living room had a mini (or not quite that mini) lake forming away, bro's systems spread across the living room floor were all floating in water. He of course was non-plussed, dont worry they wont get spoiled by the water he said & went right back to sleep. Theek i thought, his systems he ought to know better.
Got a bucket & cloth & went a mopping away. Water was stinky, so loads of dettol was added by me to disinfect it (courtesy of Tangy who thinks water pools means public toilet for cats & happily goes ahead with nary a thought for the poor soul who has to do the clean up job...this is usually the bai...but with the floods I didnt think she'd be coming in) One should have some easier, less back breaking way of mopping up water.......I had thoughts of vaccum cleaners (one of those high-tech ones...I've seen on TV...dont quite know if they're sold here) which suck up liquids......how i wish i had one. Of course I dont, thought of getting a mop with those long handles.....definitely will get me one of those.
The rest of the day was spent watching the news with pictures of various flooded parts of the city, thanked god at least we're not on the ground floor. So many people had water in their houses, washing away their belongings.......that surely makes you wanna kill someone. Imagine their despair, it was so sad.
Just rescued my phone charger from Pinks, happily chewing away at the ends & playing with the chord (I only have 1 of those......its definitely not a cat toy) She just gave me one of those, what the hell (cat look, only they can manage to look so non-guilty even after being caught red-handed doing something they arent supposed to)
Sorry, back to the floods.....anyway the whole day was spent in reading, sleeping, watching TV. The dull rainy weather didnt raise the spirits any, just felt dull all day long. For all 4 cats it was just another snoozy day, spent sleeping away as usual.
The forecast was for more rain in next 48hrs......how nice...some more mopping up for me to do.
Luckily Sunday hasn't been as rainy; but a dull day nevertheless. Finished reading Kafka on the shore by Murakami; have been reading it for a while now. It has 2 parallel stories of this 15 year old boy who runs away from home to get away from his father and of Nakata this elderly gentleman who had a incident as a child which has left him unable to read, but can converse with cats.
Book started off well enough, I loved the parts where Nakata is finding a missing cat by asking neighborhood cats about the missing one. Kafka's storyline was very interesting too with him travelling to find himself, learning more about himself in the process. Growing up, making new friends. But somewhere the story kind of gets very mixed up with a 15 year old's sexual desires blurring the lines between reality & dreams. I can understand a 15 yr old desiring a girl his own age, but desiring a woman in her 50's no matter how wonderfully young she seems to be was to me a bit too far fetched. And he suspects her to be his mother, yet imagines himself to be her long-lost love and her lover was beyong surreal.
John Updike has called this book a "metaphysical mind-bender" I feel the book just left me confused; Kafka never meets Nakata which I felt was rather disappointing after the whole book seems to have been gearing up for a meeting between the two. I loved Nakata as a character, he is very lovable, very simple and talks about himself in the third person. His conversations with cats are very amusing.
Saw 2 very different but nevertheless nice movies over the weekend; The Inside Man on sat night on HBO. Clive Owen (amazingly handsome as always, what a voice!) Denzil Washington and Jodie Foster. Very interesting movie about a bank robbery which is not quite what it seems. Great storyline & good direction by Spike Lee make for a very entertaining film. Guess what the title track was........ Chaiya Chaiya by Sukhvinder.
Must love Dogs was on HBO on sunday afternoon, just happened to see it while channel surfing. Diane Lane & John Cusack in a very cute, romantic comedy. Not so great a story, typical one of being set up by family/friends, mixed up situations getting resolved in the end in typical filmy fashion. Good acting by all was the saviour, Christopher Plummer as her dad was very charming.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Rainy Tales...or Tails
Haven't written for some time now, so have lots of small interesting stories to tell :)
Girl Cat Fight this morning, both pinky & girly had their weekly fight in the staircase. Hair standing on ends, growling away...girly in submission...pinks having the upper paw. Phew!
Both the sleepy boys came to investigate who was winning in the fight...of course no fight happened...mom heard the growls & howls & broke up the fight with some well aimed water.
Feeling a bit lost...Thaku (Mom cat) had been waiting for me to come home all of last week; so of course was expecting her to follow norm this week too. Of course not...madam decides to get fed elsewhere.
It was such a nice feeling to see her waiting for me near our building entrance every evening; felt so loved & wanted. Of course her intentions werent so noble ...madam was hungry & knew that i had whiska for her...so every evening she'd get fed by me.
Something funny to share; saw this small ad stuck near the seat on my train whilst going home a couple of weeks ago..."Gigolo for hire"...with a mobile number. Was so amused, wow they actually advertise & what an apt place to put the ad, 1st class women's compartment. Talk abt targetted marketing.
Wanted to take a snap with my cell phone; but then wondered what other women in the compartment with me would think about me. So refrained from doing that. Of course life is such that i havent seen the ad again since then. Such is life!
Since the rains have started (sort of) Jerry has decided to spend his nights inhouse. So now I'm sharing bed with Jerry & Tangy. You wouldnt think 2 cats take up much space, but then you havent seen Jerry.
So I'm getting paws, furry ears, furrier tails etc in my face when i wake up. Of course its never the same every day. If its a furry face on my arm today...guaranteed its gonna be a furry tail tomm. They love to roll around on the bed; some kinda cat-thing i think, every 30 mins or so they get up, streeeeeeeeeetch (very cat way, full body stretch) & shift around on bed. Scratching, cleaning are all parts of this routine...following the stretch of course.
Don't think i'm so noble...my patience will end & both the boys will be spending nights on dining table chairs in kitchen rather than my bed, hasnt happened yet...but will soon, there's only so many nights that i can spend sleeping on one side of the bed while they share the whole bed between themselves.
Had an amazing rickshaw driver yesterday evening, was driving like a participant in the 2007 Rickshaw Grand Prix...actually had me thinking abt my insurance coverage. Thoughts like is my coverage enough...flashed through my head.
Why is it that when you think ok if this guy crashes you are dead for sure, instead of your whole life flashing before your eyes (as said in most books) your head is filled with random useless thoughts like insurance coverage & incredibly dirty roads filled with garbage.., shouldnt they be more profound!
I guess it depends on the person; maybe some people actually have their life flash before their eyes (how does that work i wonder) Mine were just ugh very dirty garbage riddled roads, dead dog too (whom i'm trying to avoid seeing everytime i pass that way; but somehow there he is...looking worse every day) Why doesnt someone clean up the road near Kailash industrial estate sometime in this century.
Girl Cat Fight this morning, both pinky & girly had their weekly fight in the staircase. Hair standing on ends, growling away...girly in submission...pinks having the upper paw. Phew!
Both the sleepy boys came to investigate who was winning in the fight...of course no fight happened...mom heard the growls & howls & broke up the fight with some well aimed water.
Feeling a bit lost...Thaku (Mom cat) had been waiting for me to come home all of last week; so of course was expecting her to follow norm this week too. Of course not...madam decides to get fed elsewhere.
It was such a nice feeling to see her waiting for me near our building entrance every evening; felt so loved & wanted. Of course her intentions werent so noble ...madam was hungry & knew that i had whiska for her...so every evening she'd get fed by me.
Something funny to share; saw this small ad stuck near the seat on my train whilst going home a couple of weeks ago..."Gigolo for hire"...with a mobile number. Was so amused, wow they actually advertise & what an apt place to put the ad, 1st class women's compartment. Talk abt targetted marketing.
Wanted to take a snap with my cell phone; but then wondered what other women in the compartment with me would think about me. So refrained from doing that. Of course life is such that i havent seen the ad again since then. Such is life!
Since the rains have started (sort of) Jerry has decided to spend his nights inhouse. So now I'm sharing bed with Jerry & Tangy. You wouldnt think 2 cats take up much space, but then you havent seen Jerry.
So I'm getting paws, furry ears, furrier tails etc in my face when i wake up. Of course its never the same every day. If its a furry face on my arm today...guaranteed its gonna be a furry tail tomm. They love to roll around on the bed; some kinda cat-thing i think, every 30 mins or so they get up, streeeeeeeeeetch (very cat way, full body stretch) & shift around on bed. Scratching, cleaning are all parts of this routine...following the stretch of course.
Don't think i'm so noble...my patience will end & both the boys will be spending nights on dining table chairs in kitchen rather than my bed, hasnt happened yet...but will soon, there's only so many nights that i can spend sleeping on one side of the bed while they share the whole bed between themselves.
Had an amazing rickshaw driver yesterday evening, was driving like a participant in the 2007 Rickshaw Grand Prix...actually had me thinking abt my insurance coverage. Thoughts like is my coverage enough...flashed through my head.
Why is it that when you think ok if this guy crashes you are dead for sure, instead of your whole life flashing before your eyes (as said in most books) your head is filled with random useless thoughts like insurance coverage & incredibly dirty roads filled with garbage.., shouldnt they be more profound!
I guess it depends on the person; maybe some people actually have their life flash before their eyes (how does that work i wonder) Mine were just ugh very dirty garbage riddled roads, dead dog too (whom i'm trying to avoid seeing everytime i pass that way; but somehow there he is...looking worse every day) Why doesnt someone clean up the road near Kailash industrial estate sometime in this century.
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Much Needed Mini Vacation
Been home for the last 3 days on a much needed mini break. I had made lots of plans & even a list of things to do around the house that simply never get done. I'm glad to say that the things to do list has got lots of things ticked off but my plans have mostly stayed on paper.
All I've done is rest & sleep........lots of it, every afternoon infact. Can't say I managed to stay away from the laptop (hasnt happened) but I've resisted opening my emails.
Watched Paris Je T'aime 2 days back. Very interestng idea, having 18 film makers from around the world present their ideas of Paris. The cinematography is beautiful, paris looks stunning...I can easily see why so many people love Paris.
I've actually been to Paris when I was eight, we were flying to New York via Air India & our plane had stopovers in Paris & London. I was travelling with mom & my great grandma (who was in her late 70's at the time) The whole plane had disembarked at CDG airport, we had stayed on board as it was difficult for my great grandma to walk & as is often the case with elders was reluctant to use the wheelchair being offered to her.
I still remember that the captain had offered to show me the cockpit during the stopover and he chatted with mom & grandma while we walked around the tarmac to stretch our legs.. It was so exciting ...there were all these planes taking off & landing.......they were so close. All I have are these fleeting memories of Paris, seeing the movie makes me want to catch the next plane out to Paris & spend a week there.
Couldnt sleep much last night (must have been the afternoon snooze) so decided to watch "Dil Chahta hai". All the songs are nice & good acting all-around. I loved some of the scenes...like Saif getting robbed in Goa by this firangi girl he's going out with. Hated the ending...how does Dimple die? someone pls tell me, there she is suddenly in hospital...did i miss something.
On a lighter note, been playing hide & seek with this cockroach that is residing in our washbasin. Dunno how long it's made its residence in our house, havent actually seen my new tenant, all I see are its antennae everynight when i go to brush my teeth.
First night I almost went to get the spray of Baygon which is permanently kept in the toilet to deal with just such unwanted guests. Then thought its hiding in the small gap in the washbasin, how much of a threat is it to anyone, decided no harm done...let it live.
Been 3 days now, how girlie my super killer has missed this one I dont know, methinks the roach hasnt ventured out of its hole for girlie to spot it. It's probably a pretty shy roach, even I havent seen it completely yet... all it does is waves its antenna's around.
All in all it has been a "be kind to roach" week at our house this week, so roach lives to do what roaches love to do.
All I've done is rest & sleep........lots of it, every afternoon infact. Can't say I managed to stay away from the laptop (hasnt happened) but I've resisted opening my emails.
Watched Paris Je T'aime 2 days back. Very interestng idea, having 18 film makers from around the world present their ideas of Paris. The cinematography is beautiful, paris looks stunning...I can easily see why so many people love Paris.
I've actually been to Paris when I was eight, we were flying to New York via Air India & our plane had stopovers in Paris & London. I was travelling with mom & my great grandma (who was in her late 70's at the time) The whole plane had disembarked at CDG airport, we had stayed on board as it was difficult for my great grandma to walk & as is often the case with elders was reluctant to use the wheelchair being offered to her.
I still remember that the captain had offered to show me the cockpit during the stopover and he chatted with mom & grandma while we walked around the tarmac to stretch our legs.. It was so exciting ...there were all these planes taking off & landing.......they were so close. All I have are these fleeting memories of Paris, seeing the movie makes me want to catch the next plane out to Paris & spend a week there.
Couldnt sleep much last night (must have been the afternoon snooze) so decided to watch "Dil Chahta hai". All the songs are nice & good acting all-around. I loved some of the scenes...like Saif getting robbed in Goa by this firangi girl he's going out with. Hated the ending...how does Dimple die? someone pls tell me, there she is suddenly in hospital...did i miss something.
On a lighter note, been playing hide & seek with this cockroach that is residing in our washbasin. Dunno how long it's made its residence in our house, havent actually seen my new tenant, all I see are its antennae everynight when i go to brush my teeth.
First night I almost went to get the spray of Baygon which is permanently kept in the toilet to deal with just such unwanted guests. Then thought its hiding in the small gap in the washbasin, how much of a threat is it to anyone, decided no harm done...let it live.
Been 3 days now, how girlie my super killer has missed this one I dont know, methinks the roach hasnt ventured out of its hole for girlie to spot it. It's probably a pretty shy roach, even I havent seen it completely yet... all it does is waves its antenna's around.
All in all it has been a "be kind to roach" week at our house this week, so roach lives to do what roaches love to do.
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