Monday, April 28, 2008

Saunters

I just finished reading a book. On the earliest memories remembered and what they mean. I thought long and hard. And my earliest memory is of a kitchen that smelled of… well it smelled tangy and mysterious and not like detergent or food or spices or anything else you’d expect a kitchen to smell like. In fact, now that I come to think of it, it smells like my mother. Sort of. It has grey tiles. Not those dainty, polished ones but the big grainy sorts one finds in government bungalows. The sort that make you want to rub your heel against the floor to feel the slight grate. And I remember there is a shelf… quite low… stone. I firmly believe I don’t remember anything other than the floor or that shelf because I was short. Kids are, you know. So anyway.
This shelf must have had stuff… obviously… mom would consider it criminal to waste space. It’s strange but I don’t remember what she kept on, or rather in this shelf, for at my height then it was more of an alcove. Except for a pink plastic… I guess you could call it a basket for lack of a better word. And she stocked onions in it.
And I remember it so well because the earliest memory of my life is of dawdling in to that kitchen, up to that shelf, painstakingly upending the basket so that the onions tumbled out one by one and rolled into the remotest corners possible, then taking that basket outside and gathering those pink-paper-flowers-whose-name-I-never-knew and putting them in the pink basket. Dark pink against pale pink. And I remember being delighted and happy and pretending I was grown-up and that this plucking of flowers and putting them in the basket had a purpose crucial to the scheme of the world.


What is really strange is that this memory is complete in itself. I don’t remember whether I got scolded for throwing the onions, or for sneaking out without telling anyone or for bringing flowers into the drawing room and messing the place up. I don’t remember being praised for it either or being told that I had amazing resourcefulness for a child who had just learned to walk. It’s just this snatch of memory… on its own… alone.


According to the book, this means I am creative, aloof, sociable, impetuous, fixated-with-family, rootless, calculating, and either good with children or extremely daft with technology… I’ll get back to y’all on the last bit soon as I figure out what page 72 really means.

P.S. Strange how I got the tenses mixed up while reminiscing… and grammar has always been my strong suit. Damn.

Monday, April 21, 2008

Breaking Even

So what, if someone is a stubborn, wilful, misbegotten and childish person who can't see the wood for the trees when his/her temper is up and would seriously consider causing harm to him/herself just to prove a point? As long as he/she has great hair.

And A... you are still a prick... and all those other things as well. I like you regardless.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Job's Comfort

Not counting this post, 'I', 'me' and 'my' occur 79 times on this page. It would appear that everything is always about me. When did I get so self-obsessed?

Ironic. Because this is about me too, isn't it? For today, this makes me a little uncomfortable. Maybe tomorrow I'll love me again. Until then, I'll wish I was home so P could give me a hug.

Until then, I'll dive into chocolates like they are the goddamned Pacific... to hell with Atkins.

P.S. Maybe I am getting maudlin in my old age.

Monday, April 14, 2008

Random Pink Highlights

It pleases me to be writing so prolifically again. It’s not cathartic anymore… it’s a celebration.


After ages, I danced in front of the mirror and made pouty faces. Without music. Just because. And laughed.


I haven’t slept a wink for the past 75 hours… and am still as full of beans as the coffee can in the larder. I have no idea why.


I go out at 5.30 each morning and sit on the steps drinking coffee till the sun comes up.


I have three assignments and one exam due next week. I haven’t even thought about beginning. And I’m not feeling guilty or panicked. Frankly, I don’t give a damn.


I’m having shopping-cravings. I used to hate shopping.


My room is a mess. And it doesn’t disturb me at all.


I heard the Sutta song and remembered that class trip to some random centennial-lecture-nonsense, when the guys sitting at the back in the bus sang the song at the top of their lungs but dropped their voices and merely hummed the good bits while passing conspiratorial glances at each other. It was only when I heard the song later that I realized they were being gentlemen. And I remember being surprised at the revelation. Also the college concert where the crowd conned the lead singer into taking up requests and how everyone insisted on singing Sutta and he turned the mike towards us because he was ignorant of the lyrics. When we hit the chorus, he spluttered… I swear. And when we didn’t stop, he tried to compensate by turning the mike towards the guys and away from the girls. Sexist bastard. The guitarist was cute though.


I have moved on and am now officially over dragons. It’s now witches.


I love being 21. I love feeling alive. It’s exciting. It’s intoxicating. It’s fun.


While I’ve been writing this, I’ve been grinning. Not smiling – grinning. Something has changed. And I haven’t a clue. But I wish stuff just stays this way. As long as I don’t flunk.

Update: I also just won Spider Solitaire with four suits. I am good.

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Nicknaming the Rose

Alternatively titled: Why I think Shakespeare knew jack about mothers.

Each time I leave home for a substantial amount of time, dad gives me a hug while my sister stands around shuffling her feet looking uncomfortable. Within a few days, mom calls to tell me my new name. The name she calls me by till I make her angry at me and she forgets. So far I have had seven names. Hand-picked, personalized, delicious monikers. One almost lasted two whole days.

So you see I'm not just a bitch. I'm a lucky bitch.

And if you ever read this mom, then please note that the human brain is not fully developed till the subject in question has attained a reasonably mature age... which is usually pegged to be somewhere around the early 20s. Till then we are all just half-brain-retard-type people. And that mom, is my excuse.

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Serendipity

Less than five days back, the fire alarm woke me up at 6... yes, in the morning. Fire drill.

Less then three days back, the flat downstairs forgot to turn the furnace fan on while deep-frying... the smoke tripped the fire alarm again... redundant, but not afraid to make itself heard. Aside. I know quite a few people like that too. Aside over.

Today, there was an actual fire.

I was in class at the time.

My life gains meaning. Again.

Fun facts: Since baring the wailings of my romance-starved soul to the world as of last post, the traffic on inst. site has gone up from 4 visits a day to 17. You, my dear readers, will rot in hell.

Monday, April 7, 2008

Nothing, and I repeat nothing, could make me want to watch a chick-flick that ends on a happily-ever-after so that I could spend the night downing coffee and rewriting the ending to kill the hero or watch a grand war movie where a lot of hunky-male-type-men end up dead. Other than the horrible feeling of being in... well... liking someone.


Just a thought in passing you know. Only in passing. Which is why I don't have a title for this.