and we're back.

4 days.
5 states.
1 road trip.
lunching with one of my favoritest couples in the whole wide world.
meeting rels you used to like, after a long long time. realizing they're still as nice as you remembered them.
falling in love with the niece you haven't spent any time with before.
some godawesome food.
decent weather. *read, no snow!*
good walks.
good music.
better conversations.
one playful kitty.
happy times.

this is, for me, how a good vacation ought to be.

would have been purrfect if i could've managed to stay with G.. but well, next time. also, it made me realize why i love G so much. i called... the morng of when i was supposed to land at her place, and told her i couldn't make it, as we'd had a sudden change of plans and had to head back directly... and all she said was "no worries. cool." that, to me, is what great friendship is. no explanations, no whining, no making me feel guilty. no sulking. pure understanding. and confidence, that if i could.. i definitely would.

touchwood!

what's in your courier?

i know... i've been MIA for a while.
my net's been awry. not that it's working or anything now... but regular programming shall resume soon as it behaves. pucca.
don't give up on me just yet!

am attempting to blog today - on an almost defunct connection - coz i'm just SO habby.

got my first personal courier today. yeah, i know. life sucks, eh?! over 2 years here and my first personal courier. i also psyched the courier guy. coz after i'd grinned from ear-to-ear and jumped up & down a couple of times and confirmed that "YAYY!! my package's here!!!!" he wanted to take it back *he needed to scan off the barcode apparently* and i refused to give it back to him!! he DID manage to explain to me that he would return it to me soon as he scanned it. and then, of course, i felt like an idiot! but well, i also grinned at him?

coming back to the point... the package - it had KITES!!! nice, pretty, bright... and beeeyyooootiphulll KITES! and really pretty-colored post-its! :D
AND, the reason for the courier - my speshul new year gift! from suruchi!

i've loved kites since i was 17, i think. my room always had kites on one wall. and i used to change the kites every year. even my hostel room had kites on the wall. i can't put into words HOW much it meant to find kites in that package! i guess i DO love being surprised!
and well...most of u know i love post-its! :D

thanks, suruchi... i laauuvvee u!! u made my day!
i don't know what i'd do without you!

of course, now the MIL is convinced that i have absolutely insane friends! who send kites via international courier. she gave me an extremely puzzled look! she also asked if suruchi had sent kites coz it was sankraant!!! hehehee... and then, seeing how happy i was... and HOW lost at her question, she decided to practice womanly restraint. like the time she realized that the tattoo was there. for good! :D
also, when i called suruchi and shrieked into the phone, she promptly left the house to go for a walk! i DO love her as well!

i will be at ur spaces soon to figure out what you guys have been upto!

what did u say again...?

it has been proven. my friends are mad. all of them. also, they're REALLY entertaining. so reproducing chats - mostly with permission. suruchi/vibs... i don't need ur permission :P

me: how old is she?
X: 24
me: child marriage!! heyy bhagwaan!!!!
X: arre no, i am actually one year younger
me: what? as compared to...???
X: than my official age.
eh? ever heard of anyone like this?

suruchi: are u allowed to legally keep pubs at home there?
me: PUBS? u mean CUBS, right? well...
typos are an interesting way of life now... :)

A: when're u having kittens, catty?
me: not yet. but will let u know. y the sudden concern?
A: then i'll gift them a yarn of wool.
dewdrop's addition to this conversation:
when they're kittens, they can play with it. once they grow up, u can knit mittens for ur kittens.
conveniently forgetting that I can really not knit. and my kittens will be human!

me: main tumpar book likhungi
J: likho. it will be a bestseller. loyalty mujhe dena
me: ???
uncertain pause.
me: loyalty u have. Royalty, i'll pay u.
hmm.. forgetting R is just not done, is it?

me: arre the n'bours cat - chocolate - stalks me, u know.
A: he must be discussing with his friends over a pint of milk at the cat-bar later... of how there's this hot indian cat who's shifted into the building.
me: yeah right! arre he's scary.
A: poor chocolate. you'd make a great couple, u know... chocolate and rayshma.
me: hahaa... u've lost it!
A: purrfect pair. it'll make a great movie also.
me: ???
A: presenting... a love story of 2 cats, in a world that's gone to the dogs.
me: hahaa! u're gonna make it?
A: yeah. and i'll get pussycat dolls and snoop dogg for the soundtrack.
i should've pitched for digital rights! ;)

i get a mail from J saying "am online, login?" so i do.
me: am so happy u're online! :)
J: 4 minutes.
me: what?
J: i'm online for 4 mins.
WTF!!!

me: i was watching chocolate *refer above* attempt to stalk a bird today.
dewdrop: then what happened?
me: by the time he could move, the bird had flown off. going by his size, he should hunt deer.
dewdrop: hehe... what would u do if he'd caught the bird?
me: well, nothing. what did u think?
dewdrop: you could have snatched the bird from him actually.
okkk....

Vibs: WHERE are the skimpy clothes u are giving me?
me: arre i have to die for u to get them.
Vibs: oh. i thought because u're in london u're giving them away.
me: no no... later. there'll be more till then.
vibs: i'll wait, then.
silence...
me: :(
vibs: not for u to die, idiot!!!
well, anyone who thought otherwise here???

humor in daily life...

we had friends staying with us. they were sitting in the living room watching animal planet. some show abt saving some snow fox or some such cute looking animal. i still don't know which animal. i waltzed in mid-way while an australian wild-life enthusiast played with the creature.
me: awww... SO cute!!! what IS he??
H (friend): *giving me a rather surprised, confused look* umm... u think he's cute?
me: of course!! who wouldn't. i've never seen that before though. WHAT is he?
H: they're referred to as "homo sapiens". this one is a white male. australian, to be precise. there are lots of these around, actually. your neighbor? the one you turned up your nose at last evening? he's also the same specie. though not australian. i'm surprised you hadn't 'noticed' one before. esp since i'm one too.

and that was the joke of the weekend. hmph!
and YES, i can identify humans. it was the fox i was asking about.

devils, y'all...!

over the years *don't ask how many. that is not d point of this post*, i have realized that there IS a pattern in the people i really really like. there are some basic characteristics which HAVE to be there. spoke to four of them today... and suddenly noticed the pattern. so thought would chronicle it. what else is this blog for! tags?! :P

:: they're intelligent. not the bookish sorts. street smartness, wit, the ability to analyze situations & people... perpetual intelligence? that types.
:: they are possessive. not obsessive. but for instance, if they were bloggers and found out that i read someone else's blog more frequently than their blog, they would be genuinely offended. and would hate the other blogger. and tell me that to my face. *psycho? yeah... a bit!*
:: they realize that being called "pretty" or "nice" is not a compliment.
:: they read. hi-fi literature, dictionaries and comics. and are not ashamed to be seen with chick-lit/comics publicly.
:: they have the ability to constantly surprise me. yeah, unpredictable, it's called i think.
:: they believe, no... they KNOW, that if people get to know them better, they won't like them. *it's usually true unless it's someone like me who gets to know them better*
:: they can laugh through absolutely trashy bollywood flicks. and watch them repeatedly.
:: they are not ashamed to admit they like a couple of himesh-composed *not sung* songs. *oh c'mon... it's not all crap!*
:: marital status is not a life/lifestyle-changing scenario for them. it doesn't change the way they look at u or the way you should look at them. they will still call u at 3.30 in the morning if they need to talk to u. and u have to answer.
:: they have an astonishingly sound sense of humor. despite the trashy bollywood flicks. i think it comes with the intelligence.
:: they're VERY confident. to the point of being perceived as arrogant. they're not arrogant, tho. it's just that being aggressively, assertively confident is sometimes perceived as arrogance.
:: they're extremely social. just selective about whom to be social with.
:: a lot of people find them intimidating.
:: they know when to be mature and when to behave like their own 3-year old selves.
:: they all sympathize/empathize with Vin.

and how many of these specimen exist? on last count, there were nine of them. nine devils of the same type. but unique in their own, weird way. nine devils who can kill me or kill for me. whom i can count on to be there for me at ANY odd hour. not bad, i think.

it's raining F.R.I.E.N.D.S.

trish was here today. and she is now officially the first blog-pal i've met! :) YAY!

and it was amazing. not for a minute did it feel like we hadn't met before... that it was the first time we were meeting. right from being SO thoughtful and remembering that i like cheesecake AND getting one for me *with Vin outta the way, i'm digging into it as i type*, to us laughing inanely and completing each other's sentences, to me feeling really informal... and presuming they'd be at home! now, normally, i'm really nervous when someone's gonna come home. more so, for the first time. i scrub & clean & i fret about it all morning. and even when they're there... it's like i'm at a class or something. trying to be really attentive & formal & stuff. but this just felt like a GOOD friend was dropping in and i didn't need to be anything but myself! in fact, i was so relaxed that it was a little INTO lunch that i realized that i had forgotten to tell them that there was something like raita and they shud try it! :D *i don't generally insist people eat more coz i'm not too sure they like what i've made! :D*

really... was SO nice to have them here. even our hubbies. honestly, now.. vin is quite shy. takes him some time *read, a coupla drinks* to open up to people. but he and S bonded pretty well. also turned out that S has "interacted" a bit with my first and fave boss! :) small world, it is!

through lunch, Vin and i competed for ONE smile from aadya... and heyy... i got one FIRST!! YAY!!! :) it's probably the first time a child smiled at me before vin. he seems to have a way around kids, usually... and they seem to like him a lot too! but aadya likes ME more... :0)

aadya's as adorable as i thought she'd be. she was so wary of us as she entered...after that, she clung to trish and observed us. then, she'd look at vin and frown... and look at me and smile. so i'm happy. VERY! :) her wariness came down notches till the time they left. she didn't let me hug her or anything but i even got a poochie before she drove off! and vin didn't. did i say i really like her! :)

i am so thrilled meeting trish and family, that i can't wait for galadriel to reach tomorrow! if only the woman would hurry! :)

and oh yeah, my nieces were here day before. and in an attempt to create master artwork, they etched some hearts onto my center table. with a permanent marker. which, of course, i did not know we had! well... i still love them! :)

first impressions...?

i've been wondering what it is about a person that makes me like them. there sure is something about some people that makes me get along with them from the word "go".
it's not vibes. coz i've noticed this with some of you blog-pals as well. and i don't know how u can get "virtual vibes"! right from the first comment, i know we'll hit it off. and usually, we do.

if i look back on my current good friends, the ones who've been there thru fog and sunshine; ALL of them, have been the ones i 'knew' i'd get along with.
on campus, i knew i liked minal even though we'd never really spoken to each other. then, when we started speaking, we hit it off really well.

same with suruchi. from the moment, we said hi - i knew i'd like this gurl. and this has been the pattern. ALL my existing good friends - i've known that they would get along with me. and try as i might, i can't put a finger on what it is.

that pattern has carried forth to blog-ville as well. i've never met any of you, but can chat up with some of you like there's no tomorrow. Vin was stunned when i told him i'd had an hour-long conversation with preethi. and it wasn't online. given my sheer hatred of telecons, he was seriously shocked! knowing how possessive i am, he's also surprised that galadriel has my blessings to flirt with him, despite me never having met her. his list of surprises can go on... but then we'll wait till he starts a blog for that!

isn't it amazing how we just 'gel' with some... while the others, we need some time to become friends with? it's not that i don't like them or anything... just takes time to bond that well with them.

but i guess there's no need to figure this out as yet!
afterall, as some wise person somewhere once said: "if it aint broke, don't fix it!"

a friendship gone by...

someone i considered a close friend has disowned me. for real. i know i joked about it earlier saying that my friends were now disowning me and there were a lot of reasons why a lot of my close friends should disown me too.
but it surprises me that he didn't give me any reason for it. one evening, we were discussing life, as usual and said good night on the usual friendly terms... agreeing to meet the next day for lunch. *this was when i'd gone down to india* not only was i stood up for lunch by my very good friend *this has never happened to me before* but we haven't spoken a word to the other since then. and it's been almost six months now. initially, i was worried. thought of all the horrible things that could have happened to him. tried to reach him. but then, eventually, i realized that he just didn't want to keep in touch. why, i have no idea. i'm sure he has his own reasons for any/all of it. just that i don't know them. and now, i don't want to know them.

i'm not hurt by it anymore. it was quite some time back. and i don't really think of it all the time. but i just went thru his testimonial for me on orkut... and felt a little cheated. felt the words were empty, that that friendship probably had no meaning. that he didn't consider me as close a friend as he said. or as i considered him. also, my mom asked me about him when i spoke to her and i said "i don't know. lost touch." and i didn't feel upset about it.

why am i blogging about this so many months after it happened? because it took me so many months to get it out of my system. i tried to blog about it sooner, but couldn't. i didn't have the words. i still don't. but i just wanted to tell everybody else that's close to me... if u want to ever do the disappearing act, please mail me a line saying - "wanna disappear" - i assure u, i ask no questions and need no explanations!

the thing with me is i don't make friends very easily. but once i do, they're mine. and i'm fiercely possessive. of all of them! they can take me for granted, not call me, not mail me... they're forgiven everything. to me, they're the most superior creatures on the planet. they're above the norms of right and wrong. because at the end of the day, i know they understand me. and accept me for who i am. i may not speak to them for months, but a one-liner saying 'need to talk' and they'd be there for me. and vice-versa.

this incident just opened my eyes to the fact that nothing and nobody is permanent. that people change. friendships change, too. and the change may be that u're no longer a part of their life. and they, urs. and it's still alright. and if i mean so little to someone, then i'd rather that they not be a part of my life. took time to understand, but understand it i do.

it was, indeed, a pleasure knowing him in one of my lives. i hope he finds what /who he's been looking for.

the inner circle

life has changed a lot for me in the past couple of years. and i seldom analyze how blessed i am to have friends who'd do anything for me. it's so comforting to know that i can count on every one of them to be there for me. to make me feel better when i'm feeling grey... to make me smile when i least feel like it. to point out the silver lining when i look up at dark, stormy skies.

i've always categorized everything. frenz included. so i have acquaintances, colleagues, people, friends, and then close friends. here's to core that form the inner circle!

minal: for knowing exactly when i need her. we may not speak for days... weeks... but somehow, the DAY i'm feeling low, she's there. almost telepathically. she has this uncanny way of just knowing what i'm thinking. i don't have to bother finding d words! i love the fact that nothing has diminished the closeness we feel. if anything, we're closer today than we were when we first met.

suruchi: for being there for me. through-out! on days i desperately need to talk to her & on days when i don't. for opening her heart & home to me at a time when i was a li'l lost! *and even homeless, after the b'bay floods!* she made me realize that i don't detest kids, maybe even like them! she made me understand that marriage doesn't tie you down if you marry the right person. that u don't have to lose your individuality only because you're a wife, a mother. you still ARE you. and above all, she made me realize that i wasn't the idol of perfection! :) she keeps me rooted, no matter what. and i am so honored she thinks of me as a friend!

vibs: she morphed into a friend from a colleague before i could turn & say "i like to dance!" she's stood by me through some real stormy, confused times. she made me fall in love with b'bay. and with life. she was my food guide, my area guide... we've done a lot of crazy things, driven people up d wall... had fun. through tears and smiles. through storms and d calm preceding it. our friendship has been put to test at so many levels... and we're still close. i don't know what i'd do without her in my life. d only person i know who lives life with so much zest & style! she's going through a tuff phase right now and i hope i can be there for her like she has been for me.

mishra: he's allergic to mush. simplifies every issue with a flair that makes me feel silly at times! but he knows how to make me smile. irrespective of how screwed i'm feeling. sometimes, we take people for granted. with him, i know i can... and i do. and he returns the favour. but we both know how much the other means to them! and tho i'll never tell him... it's comforting to have a fren like him.

joy: for being the bozo only he can be! for introducing me to bong rock! and making me procure a legally banned CD. has d most amusing perspective on every situation! thinks i married V so HE can have twins! *complicated, warped logic... don't bother!* but i know that if ever i need to fall back on him, he'll be there.

then, there are my occasional guardian angels who help me cheer up on arbit days when i'm blue for arbit reasons... there's GPS, whom i only grow fonder of with every passing day... there's Poo - she can be annoying as hell at times, but i still love her!

here's hoping all of u who believe in V-Day had a good one... and so did all of u who don't! :)

a ray, to fr'ship...

this piece is about a very dear fren of mine. a very dear, very very modest fren. who gets embarrassed if anyone else knows that he's doing well in life.
- a fren who manages to get ONE part of his body broken after the previous one has barely healed.
- a fren who, in a drunken stupor, managed to get his LIP ripped off by an alsatian. *he'll KILL me if he knows i blogged this!*
- a fren who's seldom answered my calls, never bothered to keep in touch with me despite staying in the same city. but he's always been there for me. i don't know HOW, but whenever i've felt lonely in d big, bad crowded world - he's always been there.
- a fren, i've always ragged for being really primitive when it comes to technology. and yet, he managed to write me one of my sweetest testimonials on orkut!
- a fren who didn't come for my one & only wedding. and didn't make any excuses for not being there.
- a fren, who despite being so close to me, doesn't know V's name. *at times i doubt he knows mine*
- a fren with whom i share emoticons on gtalk! :-/ *yeah, that's the latest one! and we both loved it!*
- a fren i've known for a good 7 years now. and yes, when i look back, it's been ALL good!
- a fren, with whom i can be completely and unreasonably me.
- a fren, who will disown me if he comes across this blog piece and realizes it's about him.

to the world he may be obnoxious, a workaholic, erudite, holier-than-thou... anything. but to me, he'll always be one of my closest frenz. someone i share a lot with. without ever saying the words.

lucky i am. really.

p.s.: u need to know him and me, to comprehend the title of this piece.