mood for the day:

Sometimes whenyou are not aroundpeople you want to be and everyone seems to be waiting to misconstrue what you are saying, music is the best companion. Havent left my ipod for a minute for the past couple of days! Never had more fun being by myself!

Ayubowan ppl.... Thatz me with Anish in Colombo. Flicked it from Anish's orkut Album.

Mood for the day:

Think...rather know that the original(featuring me !) looks better..will post that from India!!

Song in head :

Dum tara dum tara mast mast....dum tara dum tara jhashn jhashn!

Have fallen in love completely with Srilanka- the beaches, the people(The men esp;))! the accent, the warmth, the hospitality. Have been talking in typical sing song manner for a while now much to a lot of people's annoy!

Have loads of thoughts. Will compile them when I get back home. Tired myself out completely by posing for pictures.

My phone hasnt rung in a while now. Shows how much people back home(except for appa and amma) miss me!!!

Ceylon!

Thoughts from Ceylon:

While shopping at Odel-the mini version of our malls

I walked into a section having natural soaps. My eyes fell on this package which was called the Desperate Housewives special. I asked the lady at the counter what the package contained. When I noticed there was nothing much different in it, I asked her then why it was called

the Desperate housewives collection. " It is good for housewives Madam".

Display pic for the day:

tell me what you think

Thought I will start this new format on my blog. Am not sure if there are other similar blogs/ people using this form of expression(Am sure there are!!)

I shall post a photo a day.I may use my own pics or I might google for it. This image will be a reflection of my mood for that day. I may or may not explain why I feel so. Feel free to interpret and leave your comments.

There is Hope!

As I waited for my turn in the lunch queue, I got a call from a Mumbai number.

I smiled.

" Akila, Its me"

"Yes Sir"

" You are okie?"

"Yes sir"

" What happened after I called last night?"

" Cant tell you right now sir, but am okie"

"if you are not just tell me, I will fly down"


A few hours later, I met this mad woman called arpita joshi online.

As we ended our conversation, which was filled with my cribbings, she bade me farewell.

"Tell my Hi to the ocean" , she said.

Those words of hers brought back memories of our mad times at TISS. Hour long discussions on music, books, people, arguments, movies, my disgusting alarm clock, her weird sleeping postures, our common lifeline-Payal.

I leaned back and told myself "RELAX, there is still some goodness left in the world"

Worried!

I have not been at peace for the past couple of days.

I have been in a mood to whine.


I worry that there isnt much kindness left in people. So much so we might run out of it completely one day. Friends say I am the eternal pessimist-not without enough reason.

Some say I am over reacting. I think am just worried.


I am just worried, that I see so much insensitivity, rudeness and loathing everyday that I might forget to count my blessings and be happy.

Some stare at me quizzically, as though I am on the look out for something Utopian when all I am asking for is just a tad bit of extra kindness in all of us.

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight

For the ends of being and ideal grace.

I love thee to the level of every day's

Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.

I love thee freely, as men strive for right.

I love thee purely, as they turn from praise. I love thee with the passion put to use

In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.

I love thee with a love I seemed to lose

With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,

Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,

I shall but love thee better after death.


-- Elizabeth Barrett Browning


I sometimes wonder if it is ever possible to love any as much. To love someone as much would be love yourself lesser or maybe not.

Do they even make people who love as much and who can be loved as much anymore?

Have you ever been to a wedding which is as beautiful as the bride and the groom? Well I have.

I am personally not a big fan of weddings. I often wonder why we manage to complicate things so much. A houseful of relatives and a hall full of strangers isn’t surely my idea of fun. Before I left for the wedding, I found myself confessing to a friend regarding the same and he termed it” cognitive dissonance” as to why I was attending the wedding, in spite of loathing the whole of routine. I just had one reason- “Because, I love her and him.”

It was my friend Anu’s wedding. The words Anu’s wedding seem to have been around forever. We spoke about while in college, after we left college and didn’t stop talking about when we started working. Someone enquired to me “ Oh Anu’s wedding? With that guy whom she has been going with forever”. Ya sounds long doesn’t it.

Anu and Jaikantan met while they were at work and Jai asked her out for a cuppa on Nov 3rd 2002. Nov 3rd 2006 I found myself attending their wedding!!

When I and Anu spoke over the phone, I had this feeling around me as though nothing had changed about us and probably never will. We still had our hour long bitching sessions over phone. We cribbed about life and felt happy at the end of the conversation.

Anu’s wedding reiterated those feelings. Nothing had changed. I arrived first among her TISS friends and she was there to pick me up at the airport with her mehendi on! Just like a zillion times I and sangha were there at the airport in Mumbai and shouting Anu macchannnnnnnnnn and totally embarrassing her.

I was there in Chennai when she bought her wedding saree and went shopping for her jewels. Just like a zillion times we had gone shopping in Mumbai. Just that she picked up one of the most beautiful sarees for her wedding this time!

We got dressed for the engagement party and as usual I hung around and admired her and gave her my two pence when she asked me about how she looked. What can you tell someone who looks gorgeous? I just said ” gorgeous”!

As she wore here anklets, I felt no different from the umpteen times I hung around her room as she dressed for her dance performances in TISS!

She drove herself to her engagement! What a woman!

At the party, a lot of TISS friends trooped in. The screams and the hugs the nods the oh so business like how are you to some. Nothing had changed.

The marriage hall was not the typical claustrophobic tam brahm halls. It was quite breezy with a lot of sunshine and Anu looked ravishing.

And…and… Jaikantan our man! How could I forget him.

Jaikantan is the sort of person who will make you feel comfortable even if you are meeting him for the first time. He will make you feel as though you have known him for ages. And he is the kinds who you have to, have to hug everytime you meet. He is like any typical man who watches cricket while making conversation, but unlike lot of others he can charm his way through anybody’s heart!

Just before the swing ceremony started, the groom and the bride play with the garlands and I sang in my head “ Malai mathinal, kodhai malai mathinal”. This song never fails to choke me up everytime I hear it.

The thali was tied(which none of us could see as all the family members had surrounded them). Afterwards, I maddy and sangha sat there and discussed arbit stuff, just like in one of yet another night out sessions. One of us remarked” So there goes one from the gang of four making it gang of three”, another immediately retorted, “or there grows our gang from a gang of four to a gang of five”. Then there was VK sir from TISS, with whom discussions continued. Just as though we had left it after class and we just seamlessly picked it up at Anu’s wedding.


We clicked a millions snaps with the bride and the groom and clicked a few with ourselves. Just like we did that- from meghmudra to our stress buster parties to our night outs to our graduations and now the weddings.

As we parted ways, we made our plans to meet for Asweni’s wedding at Chennai. Just like our plans to go to Goa, our plans to eat out in a fancy place.


As I parted with Sangha at the airport, and kissed her good bye I felt less panicky. I thanked my stars for meeting the few good men and women in my life who don’t change.

Thanks Anu, Sangha, Maddy, VK sir, and now Jai!!!!!!

And herez wishing Anu and Jai many more Nov 3rds together!