Strange stranger

Strangers behave strange at times. (Is that why they are called strangers??) A few days back as my cab waited at the Oberoi signal for it to turn green, my head was a super chaos with a cacophony of innumerable mindless thoughts... There were so many of them and so senseless, it was as if each one was competing to be more useless than the other and I was sitting back and enjoying them fight :) The strange medley that they were together creating was apparently reflecting as a weird expression on my face! “Why is the red man blinking? He usually doesn’t blink does he?” “and oh, this indicator is so in sync with the blinking man! See.. On.. Off.. On.. Off... totally in sync.. hmm” “What if there was a straight bridge from here across to my hostel rather than this curved one.. would it not have been faster.. but then everybody would want a bridge and then it would have been another classic ruin situation... hmm” (These are some of the mentionable thoughts that were crossing my head at that time.) And then, as if someone suddenly pushed the pause button on a heavy loud rock music, my thoughts were interrupted by a loud “Madam!” I looked around for the source of this interruption. A gentleman in late fifties in a long shiny black car standing next to my cab was calling out to me... Of course I was surprised and thanks to all the thought-music frozen in my mind and on my face, I only stared at him... “Madam, dont think so much and dont think so loud! ” He said, with a smirk on his face... as if he had read my thoughts and was so totally amused... sort of teasing me... for it was obvious I would not have wanted anybody to really know what I was thinking of... but he knew... and as if to confirm what I was thinking, he added “yeah, I can read your mind you know! Dont think so loud..” and before I could gather myself, before I could push the cloud of thoughts hung in mid air in my head aside to take in what he had said, the signal turned green and he sped off. The taxi driver though was furious... (apparently he understood english) “inko kya karna hai koi kitna bhi soche... aap itna andar baithe ho phir bhi aapko bulaya... budhha aadmi tha sharam nahi aati!!” he went on ranting. But I was totally amused. I dont know whether he really read my mind or was the music in my head so loud that it disturbed the music in his head... Or may be he was plain bluffing... but whatever it was, he made me realise that at any time, if I took a cross section of my mind, I will see atleast 20 different thoughts... and thoughts so wierd and so irrelevant, I wonder how much mind space i waste on them and why? But if he was not bluffing, and he was indeed able to read my mind... It amuses me to think how totally crazed he must have been to read behind the wierd expression on my face :)

Pitter patter rain drops...

There is a deafening thunder as I write this post Nasik lately has been witness to floods and heavy rain. Such rain it had not witnessed in the past forty years! The weather outside is beautiful. It has not started pouring yet, but the thunder gives a fore warning of their arrival.. Its dark.. almost as if its late evening.. Nothing sounds more tempting now than a blanket, a cup of hot coffee and a novel... This is the season for the one of my favourite flowers - white butterfly ginger lily... better known as sontakka in marathi. It sits pretty in my living room right now.. spreading a beautiful fragrance which is second only to the scent of wet mud that comes from outside. As I look outside the window at the tiny drops of water that have started to slowly make the garden tiles polka dotted, I wonder whether, away from this peace, I also have a super hectic and run-all-the-time life when I am in Mumbai...? This is so contrast to all that.. so serene.. so calm.. It has started to pour now.. my garden is all wet and the atmosphere chilly. One more loud thunder and the force of the rain increased... I wish I could go out and get drenched... but I cant. I have fever :( The pitter patter on the shed outside reminds me of the poem "I hear thunder... I hear thunder.. oh do u? Pitter patter rain drops..." which my bro used to sing in nursery in a typical sing-song manner of his... I can picture him in his navy blue tiny pants and making cute finger movements while saying "pitter patter rain drops".. :) Oh I so simply love rains... the wet garden... the thunder.. the occasional lightening... the cool breeze... the peace.. the calm and the pitter patter rain drops...

Young @ 80

Its her birthday today and this post is dedicated to her though she will not be reading it ever.
Wish she could. 
I am sure she would have cried. 
The super senti woman that she is.
 She cries the most in my family I think.
She used to cry every time she read the 'hostel' poem I wrote.
  Whenever I go home, she is the person I talk to the most. she goes on and on...

  "So how is Neha? when is raji's shaadi? what does her husband do? what is neha's sister doing now? where is prachi now? how is tarang doing? What do you eat at the hostel? how do you sleep at the hostel? blah..blah..

She has to know everything. and she does know everything. 

I so love yapping my time away with her...and get updates of the whole family from her... We dont argue much... the only few topics (on which too we have agreed to disagree) being my sleeveless dresses and my dirty jeans.

  She loves chocolates, ice-creams, jalebis, moong dal sheera and pav-bhaji... in the same order.. but if you really ask her, she will deny and say she really isnt too much of a foodie..

At home, the most beautiful moments are when I wake up in the morning and go back to sleep with my head in her lap... and she gets sentimental and asks me if I will remember her when she is gone... 

and how much ever you insist that you will, she will not believe you... She celebrates her 80th birthday today...

@ 80 she hardly looks or behaves her age... She works enough to put a 40 year old to shame.

We call her the most reliable reminder...

She can discuss with you about anything and everything under the sun and crack genuinely pathetic jokes with you... some of them are at times straight dirty!

She is a total sweetheart... A lady who has seen and gone through much in life. One of the most sensible and strong people I know.. Happy birthday ajji :)