Saturday, April 19, 2008

War with the mos

The whole of last week my life has been dominated by of all things mos (microorganisms) of unknown origin. Mos of course play a major part in our lives every time we fall sick; you can bet its one of the little guys I have spent a few hundred hours of my life observing thru a microscope.

This time they have decided to take up temporary residence with me. At least i hope they don't love me so much that it becomes permanent. I am so ready to boot these squatters cause they have played havoc with my system & continue to do so as I write this.

I have been feeling and sounding like one of those characters in movies who has TB. A bad hacking cough that just leaves me tired. Antibiotics and medicines have left me feeling sicker. I was actually nauseous for 2 days and could hardly eat; after effects of the strong antibiotics no doubt.

Bit funny that was; I was taking Mox to get rid of the mos.

Sheece actually suggested it might be TB which of course had me googling away for everything I could find on the disease. Have handled the damn mos ages ago & wondered does it take that long for one to get it...course not that is too long a latent period was my conclusion!

I can actually feel the cough has reduced. Everyone i met in the last week has advised me about umpteen things to try from ayurvedic to allopathic drugs. Me I'm blissfully drug free for the last few days.

Listened to Jay Thakkar playing his flute after what seemed like ages yesterday. I don't understand the ragas which he plays...but sometimes I don't think one has to know the technicalities of what you see or hear to appreciate something. Me I just love the way his flute can actually make you feel the music when he is playing. The passion for music is overwhelming in his performances.
As usual I felt immensely refreshed after attending his performance.

He's planned weekly performances in May. I hope I can attend most of them.

Been thinking that life is indeed too short to keep postponing things one wants to do. A call to action is what is needed. But what to do if one is too lazy to take that call. What is interesting is how we react to different situations, usually for me when it comes to work I prefer to do things now rather than later.

Maybe it is also to do with ones vulnerabilities. Somehow one is always more vulnerable to being hurt when its a personal situation. I think instinctively one protects oneself as much as one can.
When my mom was being operated on in Nov, I remember feeling so scared. Yet being unable to say so to my brother for fear that he was probably just as scared as me of losing her. It was just a cataract operation and yet I could see so many things going wrong.

I do think that I feel I am much tougher than I really am. We are seldom tested and its at precisely those times that one realizes how much it hurts. When you are fighting back the tears, when your voice is not quite as steady as it should be, when someone asks if you're ok and you usually lie & say you're fine.

Those are the times when I usually find myself thinking...I can get through this.

Friday, March 21, 2008

Things I have to do this weekend

I love making lists in my head - all of them are things to do type things. Usually mentally strike off things as they are done.

- Get fresh soil for cats
- Get fresh soil for plants (they need it too...hehehe)
- Replant the Shoeflower in the huge pot i got (cost 100 bucks can u believe that) & its plastic, hate plastic plant pots, but the mitti one was too heavy for me to carry...need a boyfriend with muscles for such jobs (note to myself)
- Make Puran Polis (ahem... am ahead one step...buy items to make puran polis)
- Wash the spider mites off my beautiful crouton (then spray neem oil on leaves) very stinky neem oil is, but c'est la vie. Beggars certainly can't be choosers, its chemicals vs natural. You guessed it, I dont even have a choice. (I refuse to let the spider mites eat up my crouton, hell its over 5 yrs old...this one is a fight to the finish for the mites that is) Every year I have this war on my hands. Hah, i bet they think they've got the plant this year only to be driven off by the stinky neem oil.
- Visit the tailor to give b'day materials to stitch. (Neeta don't kill me that its still not done) I have good intentions (delivering on them is always the problem)

Order is a bit skewed. Thats okay brain is like that only. Very Random my mind is.

Forgot to mention very funnee incident of yday evening (Avinash playing guitar near lake...beautiful it was)

Crows on top of tree were not too amused (probably disturbed by human and guitar noises) or maybe they do this everydy & we just happened to be under the tree yesterday. (I'm giving the crows the benefit of the doubt here)

First they pooped on Harish's shoes, he was not amused. Gave crows gaalis in head am sure, none we heard of course (hehe)

Then second attack on faiz on his right shoulder. All bulls eye by the way. None was wasted on the ground.

I was almost admiring the crows sense of timing by then and aim of course. I am usually the victim of poop attacks. But i escaped unscathed. Which was nice for me & i gave a silent thanks and a flying kiss (both in my head) to the feathery fellows i cld see on the trees when we left the place.

Life Changes

Things are going to be so different at work from next week. Office without Harish and then Sheece at the end of the week. Soon many more will depart. How time flies...

Life moves on even if you don't; sometimes i feel like i am very still and everything is going on around me. We have too much angst in our lives. Work angst, relationship angst, (promise i'm not writing that word again)...but it just goes on & on. Life should be infinitely simpler, but rarely is.

Ayesha was telling me the other day you are so lucky to have such wonderful friends who live every day fully & know how to have fun. I thought about it & realized that it is so true. Life has been much better because of friends; isn't that always so. Family does matter but friends are who you can fall back on every time.

Friendships are so complex yet so easy. You can love ur friends even if you don't always like everything about them. Even the most obnoxious things can be forgiven cause its a friend. Friends can tell you the things you didn't want to hear. Very often they do. Especially if I am that friend, somehow i always end up being very blunt about things. I am so sorry afterwards.

On a funny note find that cats are major bed hoggers. Tangy has been hogging mine so much so that i end up spending the night on the very edge of the bed with him sleeping happily & sighing and stretching away across the whole length of it.
Damn life is unfair!!! Mom says throw him off the bed, but he's usually asleep by the time I decide to sleep & he looks so cute sleeping away. Cute people & animals can both get away with a lot na.

So nowadays i wake up with a furry paw on my face or his furry face happily nestled on my elbow with him fast asleep. He'll open his eyes as he gets disturbed when I wake up. Give me a sleeeeeeeeepy look & go back to sleep again.

I get my revenge when I force feed him his meds just before i leave for work. That is a totally amusing thing. Bechara has no choice. He hears me pounding the tablet in the mortar with the pestle & hustles off the bed as fast as he can. By the time i get the meds ready, he has vanished.
So I keep the syringe aside & wait patiently...usually do other things like wear shoes etc. Appear very nonchalant and disinterested in him. Soon he gets curious (hey she's not chasing me type thoughts run thru his head am so sure) and comes out of his hiding place (under the cupboard or bed usually) and ...WHAM!!! I catch him by his neck (thats the only way to catch a cat & not get scratched) and spray the meds in his mouth which is as tightly closed as he can manage. Some of the medicine gets sprayed on me too (hey one cant get it all after all) but thats easily washed off. I pat him on the head & release his neck for being a good cat. And head for office :)
That is my daily routine now. Every day the poor guy falls for it (hehehe)...and the daily war between man & beast continues...

So far man (woman actually to be very correct) is winning. I often wonder how long this can go on. He has spunk, he does rebel sometimes & refuses to open his mouth. Then I am in a quandary how the hell do i get the medicine in him. But these battles will be won. The war is a longer one.

Sunday, March 9, 2008

Whoa...........too much happening at present

To say life has been hectic would be putting it mildly. This is the first Sunday in ages (i actually can't remember the last one...its that long ago) when I am actually at home & have no plans except movie in evening with friend.

Goa was amazing and I am hooked. Been planning my next trip sometime next month. Let's see how that goes. A longer one this time, some sightseeing (my list of things to see remained in my bag in this trip, that list didn't see the daylight except on one day when i was hopeful) and some things we have to do again like visit stone house.

A holiday is so much better when it is with friends, this time i had old ones & made some new ones. It is so much better, you get to know people better. There are newer facets that one gets to view.

I think people are a bit like diamonds, some are shiny and some are dull. But all have amazing number of facets to them. Some we see at a glance, for others you have to delve deeper.
But the results are always well worth the efforts taken. This may sound silly to some i'm sure but I can relate to this since I love both - diamonds & people.

Life has been full of many firsts this year. My first trip to Goa, my first opera, my first taste of feni, first taste of sand & sea water(bleech was the thought, sand in ur throat actually hurts), my first of many sunsets on the beaches of goa, my first sunrise and sunset on the same day.

I hope there are many more such firsts to come this year :D I am someone who tends to take life as it comes, every morning on my way to work when we are stuck in traffic I look up & see these beautiful hawks circling above in the sky. They look so beautiful and graceful. Some of the rain trees on the Kanjur road are gorgeous too. I see them every day, yet they look slightly different every day. I always think I should take a picture with my camera, but somehow cameras can't capture the essence of trees. Only the human eye & mind can capture those for eternity in your head. Isn't that an amazing gift we have!

Yesterday was women's day. Everyone from Vodafone to newspapers to Tv bombarded us women with special women's day messages & programs. As a woman I have not always felt special. Early teen years were a phase when I fervently wished to be a guy until I realized the advantages of being a woman. Since then there has been no turning back. Today I think is one of the best times to be a woman. I have the advantages which my mom and grandmom struggled to have. But its thanks to all these earlier generations that I have those advantages. They were the pioneers. My mom was the first woman in her family to take up a job, my great grandmom was the first widow to be independent and rely on herself to support her daughter. I sadly don't have any such first to my credit till date. But I do feel that they were incredibly gutsy women to have done those firsts.

There are many such women in this world. Each of them has quietly done some such first in her family. All of them are heroes to someone in their family. I know that I have always been proud of my heroes - the women in my family & life.

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Very Happening Week

Last week was so eventful. 13th of Feb evening was spent hurrying home wondering if the city would erupt into a round of mindless violence. Fear is such a potent thing. So easily spread especially in the current environment. One incident gets magnified into many.

Something similar happened on that day. I don't think a politician's arrest should have been so hyped especially when everyone knew that he'd be out on bail. The arrest was merely a part of the procedure to be followed. Ridiculous was my thought when i saw all the shops closed or being made to close near our office. Everyone's offices closed early & people rushed to the safety of their homes. Its a very strange world we live in when rumors can make us abandon reason. Who decides who lives where? Aren't we all citizens of the same country. But haven't we all seen the same scenario being played out not just in our country but across the world for centuries. Why are humans so insecure? Why is someone who is different from us always considered a danger to us?

My first tv appearance came about rather uneventfully. I was chosen by elimination amongst other colleagues, marathi channel hence knowledge of the language was the only criteria. Mine isn't anything to boast about.

Finally a colleague & me took the trip down to the tv station for the shoot on friday afternoon. I was so expecting a professional set up (studio, make up & all :D ) was in for a major disappointment. I have no idea how things are done at news channels; but this was something else.

The reporter hustled us into her boss's office which was usurped from him. Asked me to sit at his desktop & had the cameraman start filming. I tried to remind her that she'd said we'd do a rehearsal of the questions & answers (which in my mind was sensible since i'd to think the answers in english & translate into marathi)

Course that was not what happened. We discussed all the points she had to cover & what would be the order & thats it (No action, or camera either...just a whisper from the cameraman saying ...ok )

Our PR person & Amit (office colleague - in case some technical questions were directed at us) sat behind the cameraman & gave me encouraging smiles. It was all over in an hour at the end of which i was left wondering did i use the correct marathi words. We left the studios thinking that wasn't so bad. When it was to be aired wasn't very clear at the time.

On sat afternoon our PR person calls up & says ur show is on tonite be sure to watch it. Worse of all I don't have the channel (cursed cable tv) so asked friends & brother to watch it & lemme knw. I will have to wait till the taped version is delivered to us.

Very restful weekend after all of that. Bad cold & cough have kept me confined at home. Resting & watching movies. Had a afternoon nap today after ages :D

4 Days for Goa.................yaaaaaaaay (Hope i can work on Thurs)