The years, that were…

Long ago and oh so far away
I fell in love with you...before the second show
And your guitar, you sound so sweet and clear
But your not really here, it's just the radio

8 years ago, on a bright sunny Sunday, we got a frantic call from my aunt. Her dog, Lucy, had gone into labor, but due to complications, we were going to have to do a C-section on her. Needless to say, the whole extended dog-loving-crazy-family I proudly call mine, rushed pell-mell over to the vet’s.

And half hour later, one “teensy weensy” golden colored pup was born.

He wasn’t breathing back then, and had to be revived with a drop of brandy, at which he “woke up” gasping and spluttering. And my aunt told “Kishoreda” to place him in my arms straightway. From the day I brought him home, and he tottered around my room, scaring the heebi-jeebis out of Sacha, who couldn’t believe our perfidy, it was the start a wonderful love affair.

That brandy truly defined his personality. We called him Leo, after Leonardo Da Vinci.. Ma, being a physics person, thought that it would beget great brains. Sadly, he was more Leonardo DiCaprio… tall, handsome and really really blonde. J

All of Leo’s swaggering about, though, was at home, with people he was comfortable with. We would call him for ages, but he would deign to come, only if he felt like it. However, all his arrogance disappeared outside the house. At the Vet’s, for example, people would be exclaiming over how pretty he was, and he would keep backing into us, and struggling in vain to fit that huge body under our chairs, with looks of complete disapproval at strangers.

The one “person” he ADORED, was Sacha.. our older dog.. who adored him back in return. They would spend endless hours with each other, doing the doggie equivalent “sitting around and chatting”. Wherever Sacha would go, Leo would faithfully follow. One was a tiny Spitz, the other, a humongous Labrador…David and Goliath…yet, the two dogs never ever hurt each other.

Ma loved him and spoilt him, as she always has and always will, with animals. However, she was always a little grieved that he didn’t ever “behave like a dog”, i.e., he did what he wanted to do, how he wanted to do it. He also behaved like the perennial cat.. would come to hug us if he wanted, and if he didn’t, he would shrug us off, and even lift a lip to show he meant business.

With me, it was unconventional. I didn’t really have a hassle about him shrugging us off when he didn’t feel like being hugged.. I am, in a way, the same type. So we left each other alone when we didn’t want to be bothered, and hugged each other when we did. Mom used to tell me, when she was really upset about my lack of emotion, “Ur just like Leo, ur not like Sacha”… I didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry..

I went by the honorable adage of being the only one, who he would permit a lot of indignity from. My favorite de-stressing technique used to be sitting there on the floor, dragging him close and checking for ticks, cleaning his nails and ears, and generally spending quality time with him. After a while, he would lie there, upturned, legs paddling away happily in the air, a blissful look on his face, while I scratched his stomach or his sides.

He died yesterday morning. Mom drove down with him to our farmhouse, to have him placed among the flowers, so that he will always be with us.

When I write this, I realize that I will never hug him again, or rap him on the nose for “grr-ing” at me, or see that thrilled “I’m a god” expression on his face when he successfully bows for his biscuit. I will never hug him tight, and feel that fur in my hands, and use him for a pillow at night.

And my heart is splintering..

Shifting Sands

April come she will
When streams are ripe and swelled with rain;
May, she will stay,
Resting in my arms again.
--- P. Simon


April and May were the months of shifting.. shifting from one house to another, an office to another. Both new spaces being at Marathahalli, and both old spaces being at opposite end of the world.

Struggled with a mountainous amount of furniture, and thank the Lord that there were friends who helped me pack and unpack, through two weekends. My new flat mates moved in last Friday. We get along great, so I’m very happy with general setup.. fingers crossed. :)

The house still looks like a tornado hit it, tho, with dust huddled together in odd corners, and kitchen utensils and various masalas being dumped randomly on granite shelves. Dust mites roll across the great prairie we call our living room, friends tell us to open the fans, so that the dust will shift away and hide under corners. The same people want to come and play cricket and TT in our living room, so I don’t put too much weight on their words of wisdom.

But it’s been worth it. The house is white and light and spacious. It is so big that one almost rattles around in it. My furniture, which seemed too much, at my old flat, now seems pathetically less.

Come dawn, and sunlight filters in from all angles, hitting my face across slanted shutters. Stumbling sleepily out to the open kitchen, we throw open both balcony doors, and feel the heat and wind on our faces, as we drink our coffee.

Evening brings with it a cool cool breeze, the curtains dancing in the drafts of air, wind chimes doing their tinkling dances. Flopping down on the bean bags and floor cushions, this feels like home.

There’s a nip in the air...

Our lives and loves come back to bite us in the ass.. in my case, almost literally.

Woke up today, all happy and chilled, unaware what was to befall. Pottering around the kitchen, with my cup of coffee, pausing now and then to look, google-eyed, at the strange people parading through the Oprah Show, I stopped, hearing some whining and screeching outside my flat. Opened the door and found 3 humungous (the perfect Bong word would be “humdo”) men, with bamboos, trying to corner a shivering little puppy, who had got in, by mistake, and was now crouched, desperately trying to meld into the foliage.

I saw red..naturally. Ran out, in god-knows-what-I-was-wearing, to fight the puppy’s battles for him, and in very incoherent Hindi, told the guys something to the effect of “Would u like it if you were beaten?” and “God hasn’t sent us here to beat up others” yada yada…

And managed to get puppy out, pick him up, and talk in “baby voice” and get him outside. Which was going FINE..till one idiot man hopped out in front of us, with a damn bamboo. Puppy panicked, and bit the hand that carried it, dropped to the ground, and disappeared somewhere.

Well, called up zillion doctors (there has got to be some advantages of working in a pharma oriented company) got details and got vaccinated, all within the hour. 3 more injections to go, in next 21 days. Slight twinges of pain traveling up and down arm, but otherwise all fine…so, STOP PANICKING, MOM :-D

This had happened to me, 3 yrs ago, when I woke up in my P.G. and found a little squirrel paddling away, half dead, in the pot. Fished it out (as I couldn’t possible flush it away and live with myself) dried it in the sun, with my towel. When it recovered, it bit me on my finger, for all my pains, and ran away.

I seem to see a pattern emerging..

Salaam-e-kick-in-the-butt

As I’m sure you can tell - I’m not impressed with the movie at all. Had to sit through it, late nite show Sunday, and I wept through the disastrous remake of “Love Actually”.

The jist:

1. 3.5 hours and 12 songs
2. 6 couples…each worse than the next. The love stories mostly made no sense whatsoever, and each person was a wasted role
3. Rich and bounteous locales… namely London, upper crust Delhi society, and potshots at Rajasthan, Taj Mahal and rural Haryana (I think)
4. Hopping randomly between couples, and songs breaking whatever story/pace they could have hoped to have had
5. Blonde chicks wearing ghagra choli and dancing at Trafalgar Square, London, while Priyanka Chopra ran amok in between the Baywatch babes, wearing a satin nightgown
6. John Abraham.. all he did was run like crazy trying to find his “beloved” who has amnesia, and howl at the moon
7. Anil Kapoor looked at his watch all the time, throughout the movie and lusted after a cabaret dancer type thing..
8. Govinda saying (this is how you have to pronounce it)...“Mai-dum, I Laaabh Oo” to a foreign chick…

The fun part:

1. In the movie, one Haryanvi couple, who’s primary ambition is to finally consummate their passion after marriage. The groom kept saying “kurr, kurr”. The dialogue was, errr…well, I don’t have words for it actually.. it went something like this..
   “Aag lagg-ing ji.. in the backside”..
   No, that MERELY means that there was a actual fire burning away, behind them, in the “suhhag raat room” or whatever you call it..
2. The red lights in the movie hall flickering on and off, at the very part where they are talking of “Diwali ka raat mein hum dono”
3. The movie reel getting stuck at the point where the doctor explains short term memory loss. So you actually had to hear the same dialogue thrice, almost as if YOU had partial amnesia..
   

Which reminds me.. have to ask my Jatni friend if “kurr, kurr” is a mating call particular to that region…

play me...

read Scout's blog, got all excited, and wanted to see what my own Tarot was..just for kicks really.. and THIS is what it came up with..very nice and flaterring, even though i say so myself :-D

You are The Sun
Happiness, Content, Joy.

The meanings for the Sun are fairly simple and consistent.

Young, healthy, new, fresh. The brain is working, things that were muddled come clear, everything falls into place, and everything seems to go your way.

The Sun is ruled by the Sun, of course. This is the light that comes after the long dark night, Apollo to the Moon's Diana. A positive card, it promises you your day in the sun. Glory, gain, triumph, pleasure, truth, success. As the moon symbolized inspiration from the unconscious, from dreams, this card symbolizes discoveries made fully consciousness and wide awake. You have an understanding and enjoyment of science and math, beautifully constructed music, carefully reasoned philosophy. It is a card of intellect, clarity of mind, and feelings of youthful energy.

You are The Sun

Happiness, Content, Joy.