When mind wonders

My boss: “Deepali, please complete the PPT before leaving for the day”

My mind: “Sure sir.

PPT is no big deal, I have made a million of them during my MBA days.

Ah! MBA days. Those late night movies and sleeping throughout the lectures.

No wonder, the teachers didn’t like me much.

School was better. I was a “Teachers’ pet”. They all loved me.

I loved going to school. I had 100% attendance in school. (Or was it because I preferred it to staying at home and listening to a yelling mom)

C’mon, at that age, everybody tends to think that their parents scold them coz they are just too boring. Somehow we always think that our parents were never kids and didn’t have a life.

Its only when we go through their photo album and old accessories (By that I mean bikes, huge driving glasses, funky bell bottoms, polka dots T-shirts, embroidery sweaters, etc.) and when we meet their old pals, who often tell us how fun our parents were, that we realize, all the scolding is out of sheer jealousy since they aren’t kids anymore.

By the time we realize, that our parents actually had good intentions behind their behavior and didn’t want us to make the same mistakes they have, we have grown up and are already away from them.

Now we miss them so much. We miss the, once upon a time, hated food. We miss being pampered and fed by mom. We miss being forced to drink milk early morning. We miss being called up a million times, while we were away for only an hour, to ask “when are you coming home?” We miss those nagging “Please clean up you room” (Why is it necessary to clean your room? Why should you keep your clothes in your cupboard, when you know you are gonna wear it the next day? So wouldn’t it be better to keep it lying on the floor. )

We miss those waiting-for-parents-to-sleep-so-we-can-talk-over-the-phone days.

I wonder how could I possibly talk to Sanam over the phone for hours together. When now, I don’t remember making a telephonic conversation with anybody for more than 30 minutes… okay 1 hour…. C’mon not more than 2 hours.

But there are surely times when I prefer not to carry my phone with me, or I rather switch it off. Though I sometimes wonder what life would be without a phone. How the hell will I keep in touch with my friends?

Ohhh… that’s why they had letters…

That’s why they made us write and practice writing letters in school. But why on earth would you follow a format while writing a letter to your friends. Who writes:

To

Abhishek Gupta

Andheri

From

Deepali Jamwal

Colaba

Date: March 31, 2009

Dear Friend,

……..

Yours truly

Deepali

There were many subjects in school which were pointless. Like …… *My Boss Interrupts* “Aren’t you going for lunch?”

My mind: “Oops!!! Its already half day. I must come back and finish my work if I want to leave on time. If I don’t leave on time, I wont be able to make it on time for my dance class…..”

And it goes on….

I am not ME anymore

My mother always said that I had a million dollar look. I doubted her till I was tall enough to see in the small mirror mounted on our bathroom's wall. After I saw myself in the mirror, my trust in my mother increased a million times. "She has taste", I told myself.

It has been many years since I was born.... and I still look like a million dollars. Just that the million dollars seem a little over-used and ragged.

Some of the major growing issues that I have been facing are:


My hair is no longer mine

My hair, for some reason, have matured (even before me) and now wants to lead a life of its own. I find it in every corner of my room trying to build a family of its own. Where ever I go, I leave a trail of my hair.

Fed- up of my hair's revolt, I have been cutting it regularly... But none of the beauticians I have come across know how to cut it properly. It always grows back. I want to remove the root cause... but nobody seems to know how.


I Own my set of Teeth

I have always had good teeth. At least that's what everybody is made to believe, as a part of my first impression. Thanks to those miraculous hands of all the dentists I have ever been to. Nobody could ever figure out which ones are my own and which ones did I pay for.

I bet none of you own your set of teeth. The first set (the milk teeth) that fell off in the early days itself and then the tooth fairy gave me another set. That fell one by one - during those bi- cycle falls, chocolate eating days, and those arguments with parents (Don't ask, whats the connection?). Unlike you all, who thrive on a gifted set, I have now paid for and own a set of my own.


My face is losing its Glow

You wouldn't believe me, but there was a time when I had a pretty face. So much so, that in 9th standard while playing Meerabai, my teacher (lady) actually winked at me. Back then, I was too young to understand this.

It is said that a beautiful face is a passport. It opens the doors of nations. Alas! the passport has expired now and the authorities have ruled out a second issue.


I can't remember names

I am sure, it happens to everybody at some point, that we see a person... we know that we know that person... we know that we were good friends at some point... we know we used to share Tiffin... we know, back then, we couldn't stay without each other.... but sadly, we can't remember their names.

In my case, it was worse. I remembered the name, forgot the face. Despite of my FRIEND telling me repeatedly that she wasn't Shalini, I refused to believe. I continued telling her, how much she has changed and how much do I love her new hairstyle, untill she gave me that "Leave- or - I'll - cry" look. It pained me to see that look on a FRIEND's face. So I left.

Rain Rain!!! Please come soon

When you are sitting in air conditioned office, sipping coffee and complaining the control room to increase the temperature, one hardly realizes the heat outside. Since yesterday was an off and I was out of places to visit, I stayed at home just to figure out how hot it was in Mumbai. It was so hot that I actually wished it was a working day. Damn! What was I thinking? It’s a sin to even think of working on a holiday.

Mumbai, while rating on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being the lowest (because it is the lowest), weather wise must be rated 1. It’s never cold here, so you can’t show off your winter wear. It’s too hot and sticky here, so you can’t even stick your head out in the balcony, else you’ll need to take a shower again. It does not rain, but it pours. It pours like a bucket full of water has been off loaded. I hate rains in Mumbai (except for the part that I wait for them eagerly, since the roads get flooded and we get an off).

But last night I was missing rains. I would prefer rains to a hot and sticky day. When it rains in Mumbai, it rains cats and dogs. In fact, in mornings I spend half an hour removing cats and dogs from the clothes I had left outside for drying. It was during this exercise that I also observed that wet clothes are a lot heavier. Perhaps that’s why rescuers find it difficult to lift people who drown in water and get their clothes wet.

Around midnight, the sky starts thundering.

I once had an old uncle who believed that the thundering sky was when God of Gods had a bad stomach. Immediately, we would ask him, “If that was what thunder was, what was lightening?”He never gave us a satisfactory answer to this question.

As the thunder grows louder I can scarcely hear my roommate snoring. I mean, I could still feel the room’s walls shivering…just that her snoring was inaudible. In the initial days of my hostel life I would really sit up in the middle of the night and wonder which one of my roommates is snoring. I didn’t have to wait long, for during one of my “I-am-a-crusader-of-truth” moments, I closed one of my roommate’s mouth and nose for five minutes…and I could still hear the snoring. Finally, I had identified the culprit – it was the other roommate.

Getting back to the rain, I also like to play in the rain, especially when you know that your mom will take care of the dirty clothes. But as I grew and had to live on my own, I preferred not to go in the garden while it rained but to stay in the balcony and enjoy the view (Though I don’t remember when have I ever done that?).

I guess the point I am trying to make here is, even though rains in Mumbai floods the city, ruins your clothes, decays your shoes, brings small- creepy insects with it, spreads infection, and makes life hell, I would still prefer it to hot- sticky- stinky day.

Random Scribbling

This post was written on Friday

I was thinking hard today (though some of you might wonder “With what?”). But couldn’t get a decent topic to write about. Usually this never happens. Usually there are many thoughts running in my mind. Usually I have a hundred topics to discuss and write about. Usually I can never keep quite. But today was unusual. I sat down to write and went blank. My mind was as clear as water from Aquaguard. (Booooooo!!!! Cant even think of a decent comparison). So thought of random scribbling.

1. Right now, the only excitement left in my life is MY NEW PHONE. It’s the sexiest looking thing ever created by mankind (at least out of all the things I can see right now). Till yesterday wherever I went, my phone caught every souls’ eyes. Alas! Now I have to cover it with an ugly looking black colored mobile cover to prevent it from getting scratched. Then why do I need to cover it? Because, it got embarrassing every time I told people, who admired my phone, “not to touch the screen”; wrap it up in a tissue when we sat to have lunch; and cleaning the screen every two minutes to prevent it from dust particles. It’s like Cindrellas’ step mom hiding her beauty from the rest of the world, only difference being I am doing it with good intentions. I hope my phone could understand that.

2. Today I have no work at all. So I decided to collect as many movies as possible and watch them over the weekend. I am sure the divisional head thinks I am the busiest person today, walking from one desk to another with many pen drives in my hand. Little does he know. Now I have enough movies to survive my weekend.

3. “Your future depends on your dreams, so go to sleep” --- by some sleep deprived person

Only if dreams could come true, my name would be on Guineas Book of World Record for being the girl “who saved the world most number of times from disaster”. Every day, I either save the earth from falling into the free space and crashing into another planet, or I eat the huge monster before it could swallow earth, or I am the super girl who kicks a stone into space to fill up the gap which is being created in ozone layer, or I divert the flow of water which is going to submerge the world, by blowing air towards it, etc.

4. 4. Today’s headlines “India tops the huger list”. Man! What is wrong with India. India is failing its rural poor with 230 million people being undernourished — the highest for any country in the world. Malnutrition accounts for nearly 50% of child deaths in India as every third adult. People please, wake up. Please don’t waste food in your plates. That’s the least you can do. Take only as much as you can finish. Next time before you go for a wedding and waste food that could feed 4 children (just because it is for free), think of people who die of hunger (it must be most awful).

5. 5. A lady in the bus was scolding her child for wetting the bed. Reminded me of my childhood. Like you guys never did??? Have you ever dreamt of visiting the loo for taking a leak…and midway through got up and found that you were still in bed and your trousers were wet? I have had many such dreams… Initially, I would sleep through the whole watering exercise. With time, I started getting up as soon as the watering exercise was over. Once up, I would remove the wet trousers and place them deep inside the laundry bag, wear another trouser and be ready for operation salvation. Though not much of rescue was required. Once I came back from school, the bed sheets would change. Probably mom and dad knew about it, but decided to turn the blind eye so as not to break my confidence.

6. Found this quote interesting “Practice makes a man perfect, but no one is perfect, so why practice”… hahaha.

7. Elections in Pakistan. Hmmm, they still have elections in Pakistan? What’s the point of a ruling party there when….. ah! Forget it!