Crossing Paths

'Buddy, hey Buddy, you alive?' Joe whispered under his breath.
'Not for long', Buddy replied slowly. His voice was low, his breathing heavy. 
'You gotta listen to me man, make a run for it'. Joe kicked Buddy with his short fat legs.
Buddy winced under the pain. 'Don't be stupid. I can't even see. I only hear the rhythm of the death machine, coming closer and closer'. 
His voice was resigned. He had accepted his faith. Joe was annoyed.
'Don't chicken out, man. All you need to do is to hop over and cross the road. And you'll be free'.
As his buddy let out a sigh, Joe realised it was a gasp. The indifferent machine had routinely sliced through Buddy's heart and trimmed him into neatly-cut nuggets.
Just like that, his life was over.
It was Joe's turn now.

Butter

He longed for the thin-legged, slim-waisted lasses, and lusted for their beautiful sweet mouths. The only ones who ever had him however, were the fat, unattractive girls. Butter was forever unsatiated.

Balanced Diet

"I need to have a balanced diet", I thought, morosely munching on Hyderabadi Biriyani last night. "Something healthy, that helps to lose weight, be fit...", I pondered today, dreamily eating the Chicken Rice Bowl I so dearly love. "May be tomorrow", I wondered as I walked alone with my Hot Chocolate towards the office.

Monkeying Around

Emergency has been declared in my PG. The doors and windows have been tightly shut; the valuables safely tucked away. Solemn Nepali faces stand huddled together outside, determined to protect the building and its inhabitants. As the impending doom draws near, everyone waits with bated breath.

It's time. The monkeys have arrived.

Running Rat

Eventually, the rat got tired of running. Panting, he sat down and began wiping his face with a moist cloth.

'So, you got something for me yet, lady?' The poor rodent squeaked at me.

Looking up from the Book of Idioms, I replied quietly, 'Rug rat, rat race...rats abandoning a sinking ship....nah..nothing, sorry'. 

'Your fault. Why is it that 'rats running in a stomach' sounds perfectly fine in the vernaculars but so odd in English?'

'Why indeed?' I thought to myself.

'And you...you agreed to write it in English..why couldn't you put up the status in some vernacular language, where it is perfectly fine to have innocent rats run up and down the length of your stomach?'

'Umm... My readers are from an extensive language base...' I said importantly.

'Why should us rats suffer for the limitations of English'? He squealed.

'You are right....' I was hungry and Mr. Rat was tired of running in my stomach. We shared nibbles of my last cream biscuits and quietly wondered on the dilemma of transcreating idioms in a foreign language.

Sunny Side

As her sizzling aroma danced on my tongue, I got transported to seventh heaven. That coy diva, in white with pale yellow lace, playing cello on my heartstrings! So deliciously petite yet flagrantly elusive, you could not have enough of her. As I looked into the omelette, charmed by her beauty and fragrance, she smiled back saying, 'Eat me, eat me!'. 

Enraptured I stared, as suddenly a burlesque hand turned the end of her lacy yellow to one side. 'No, no', I screamed, but the sooty palm turned her on her back once again. It felt deep within its pockets and brought out a sad 10-rupee note. After that exchanged hands, the greasy devil began the task of defiling the gentle queen once again. The steel plate hissed, as her cries of help turned hoarse. Ordeal over, her voice gone, the brute then cut her to tiny pieces and held them out on a plate saying, ‘20 Rupees, please'. My melancholy picked up her pieces and set adrift, munching morosely.

5:30 am

5:30 am- That unearthly hour that marks the short interval between the dying echoes of night and the first whispers of dawn.

5:30 am- That whimsical muse who whistles away at the last few hours of a person's sleep; him desperate to finish the dream before reality faces him, once again.

On such a 5:30 am today morning, I decided to go for a walk.

Yes, me. The nightcrawler, the sun-hater.

I can't remember waking up so early except while catching trains.

And that one time, I climbed a mountain (or was it a hill?) in Rajasthan. I was very small, so even a hill seemed Mt. Everest to me. And how proud I was when I climbed it before the elders, right at the speck of dawn. I got a pack of Uncle Chips as reward. Something about the chips tasted even finer, I tell you. 

And now this. 

Another of my attempts at something new and different in the last 4 months.

Being healthy? Nah. The early bird? You're preaching to the owl.

And as the last shadows of night kissed the earth goodbye, we began walking. Talking, laughing, discussing everything and more, this bunch of crazies walked playfully. Shivering in the cold, I followed them first. Then, irritated at the slow walking, I began pacing fast. And faster. The way I usually walk. Like I was in a walk-a-thon. Walking under the sky, amidst the shrubbery, looking at the 18 to 40-year olds who had also gathered. To play, to walk. Who wakes up so early?

The early bird. The milkman. The driver. The working man and woman. The sun, for God's sake.

Certainly not me.

I liked walking with you today, Dawn. I hope to do more. But I am bad with promises. And as long as nothing's defined, it's still full of potential, innit? Pregnant with hope. So let's just keep it that way.

May be we will meet again. May be not.

Curse

Oh Lord of the Land with your arrogant belly
You are no better than the bed bugs silly.
Greedily feeding on my toiling blood
Like a parasite, you suck and suck.

You'll get a taste of your medicine, loon
Justice will be meted to you pretty soon!
You will die a dog's death
Burst by shrapnel, torn to shreds.

Your family will be forced to beg
In hell, you will weep and crave
The same craving that I have now
To get out of the hell you bestow

Mark my words, you filthy little man
My wrath curses you, see what it can!

Puchka

The name is Puchka, just Puchka.... Those of you who have had the pleasure of knowing me, know the extent of my popularity. And those who don't, well get to know me. ;)

I'm the hottie your Mom warned you about but we both know you never listened to her anyway. ;)

I am greater than the God- Rajnikanth himself! Now what does that say about me?

Bite into my deliciously warm soft crust. Hear the light crisp sound. Let it stay in your mouth. Now chew it. A tasty site. Now bite again. This time a little bit into my spicy potato filling along with the top crust. The first taste of spicy potato tingles your tongue. A bit of apprehension, a bit of anticipation. But as it melts into your mouth, you feel the lemony sourness, the hot chilliness and the spicy mixture also containing coriander and chick peas. Close your eyes. Allow the taste to linger. You become comfortable in the ecstasy of the multi-layered tastes that explore your taste buds. If this is your first time, don't fight it. Don't be afraid. Let it explore you. And you in turn savor the delicious soft thickness of the potato mixing with the crispy crust. Let the pleasure hold, for as long as you can...

With me, every time is a first time. Don't be shy. ;)

The third time you bite into me, take the remaining morsel in your mouth. There's something about gulping me down at one go. This goes specially well if you take me with tamarind water. The tangy tamarind water mixes with the cheerful potato filling and the austere crispy crust to provide a taste unparalleled in the world. Together we will be too much for you.Even if you are the most daring person in the world, you won't be able to hold me down much longer. 

Dare to?

Try me. ;)

My First Steam Bath..... and May be the Last One Too!

For those of you who have been to steam baths, don't laugh. I had my first steam bath experience recently. Now I don't really do well with hotness, fire and all of those things. A very timid person by nature, I however also have a taste for the unknown, the adventurous.

Now you can well guess what it comes to when you have such a combination of both extremes in a person. It is always "To be or not to be", that is the eternal question. So after many days of hesitation I finally picked up the courage to take a free steam bath that I had on my gym receipt.

Enter the steam room. Smoke, smoke, smoke everywhere! I was scared it might be a fire! My first instinct was to run. But ah..no, I am brave, Brave girls don't run. Shit. I tried to recollect all the good things told to me about steam. Your face would glow, fat would be shed, blah blah blah! Who cares? How do I breathe? There is no oxygen mask here. Probably they should have kept one here.

So I open the door and peep outside to catch my breath. Again I close the door. Steam is supposed to be good, I tell myself. Therefore suffer in silence. Suddenly there is an abrupt noise. The steam stops completely. I get scared. What now? It resumes again after a short while. Accha ok, so this is how it goes. After three such intervals, I decide I have had enough of "Hotness". So consoling my mind about the few hundred pounds I had shed (:P) and the new "glow" on my face, I come out of the steam room.

P.S: A word of caution for all of you who have never been inside a steam room: It is literally STEAM! It is hot and it is water. It is not smoke, there is no fire. But don't forget to take oxygen masks while you are inside! :P

The Swine Flu Scare

Yes, I am back again. Very unlikely of me. But I had to write as I am feeling very agitated right now and writing is one of the things that helps me to get a grip on myself. I did not miss my HOD's class today! Yay!! I was only fifteen minutes late as compared to the usual thirty minutes late that I am most of the days.

So then why this post? As the name suggests, the Swine Flu scare has finally got me. And I don't know who to talk to it about because people only seem to make fun or snub me down (specially my elders) when I talk of this scare. Now what started it so suddenly? Swine flu has been around the block for quite some time now. I did not get agitated then. So what scares me now?

Truth of the matter is that when I got fever a few days back, my mother got really worried and kept on asking me to visit the doctor. I graciously refused. But got scared since then. So now thankfully, the fever has subsided. So I went to see my doctor for a regular check up and guess who else was there?

A patient who had fever and who had returned from foreign after staying there for about a month. Ah Lord! I came to know of it only after we had met the doctor. My sister had seen him earlier ofcourse. So had my mother and brother-in-law. Jesus, seemed like the only person not knowing that that man muffled up inside a heavy shawl was a potential threat was me.

And when I came to know about it, I did what I do best. Panicked. I am by nature a very timid person. Having a potential swine flu victim around me was the last thing I needed in my dreary depressive life. And on top of it, my doctor actually went to visit the patient without any protection. His relatives came up to the doctor's chamber when we were meeting him. They said his condition was serious. Our doctor went to see him as soon as he had finished with us.

And I was happy that he had seen us before going to see that patient. Wonder what would happen to the patients after us? Now when I think about it, is there any guarantee that our doctor has not seen potential swine flu patients before us? Aahhh..the futility of my panic. If I have to die, much less than die of swine flu will anybody be able to stop it?

But my attempt to rationalize by means of writing it down should also embody the reactions I received from people when I confided in them. My mother got worried but she consoled me that nothing would be wrong. My very rational brother-in-law who is in Pharma put forth a whole length of logic of how swine flu spreads only through phelgm and the man had been very far from me, to which I replied by saying that the virus can spread upto six feet distance. My sister tried to console me first but I guess my hysteria was too much for her. In the end she gave up and became angry.

In some ways or the other, I think that we all were scared some how or the other otherwise my panic would not have generated so much reaction. May be everyone was thinking about it, I just brought it out to the forefront. Oh where are the exercises for anxiety management when you need them? Oh that's right. I never practise them!

A few moments till now I had been talking with a few of my friends about this latest incident. Their reactions were varied. One of them living in the States told me not to kiss any guy as that is a common way for the virus to spread. She also told me that if any such situation arises, I should ask him before kissing him whether he has swine flu or not. Seems more potent a question than whether or not he is gay.

Two friends with whom I am very pissed off and who have been pains in the wrong place for quite some time really helped me to get out of it. One of them put forth a lot of logic and assured me that we should be careful but not panicky. The other one was empathetic and asked me to be careful in public places. Nice gestures from both of them. Doesn't mean I forgive them though. But all the same nice gestures.

I had this huge aggressive discussion with my brother-in-law about the flu getting to me by which he annoyed me (not irrationally mind you)and then my sister scolded me over the phone. I got so agitated that I cut the line and then contemplated reading a bit of Edward Cullen. May be he would cheer me up.

But this post and my chats have taken up much of my time. And I am HUNGRY!! Thought I would have no more appetite after tonight's incident eh..but what do you know? From 2:00 am I have to watch one of my favorite TV series, Supernatural- can't miss out on the two hot brothers there. Saturday and Sunday are holidays so I will just stay at home and see if there are any signs for concern in me and then react accordingly. I do just hope that I have the courage to face the truth if anything bad happens.

Before that I think I will fight a bit with the pains I have. One of them is already anxious and the other one will be agitated after reading this post, so I better get ready. After all, I may not be able to fight the virus. But no one said anything about friends, right? ;)

Goodie Night