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June 26, 2007

Story time!

Silambattam, as in this, not this :p

Kept thinking of KamalHassan in Thevar Magan as I wrote this story :)

June 19, 2007

Over the hill?


So, k turned thirty and unlike me, my husband loves to celebrate his birthday with a bunch of people, so, we rented disco lights and amplifier from Doo Wop (our local music store), ordered cake from Maggi's bakery, pizzas from Joe Bolognas and we were all set. We had a blast! But, what made the party more energetic were the group of 20-somethings from the University (Yes, I get to say that although am still in my 20s - not for long though :p) - ready to dance into the night and linger over silly conversations, which was such a rare treat for me...

Anyway, seeing them reminded me of my own early 20s and I was pretty much like them - wanting to try new things out, always ready for a road trip, talking to friends late into the night...not that am very different from that now. I still do like talking to friends late into the night, I still like going on road trips, but now everything has a clearly defined boundary. The friends that visit have a set time allotted for the visit (the concept of "lingering" long forgotten...or what we call "Daira podardu" in Tamizh :), the road trips that we plan are anything but impromptu and people have their own preferences, some of which they would rather not sacrifice even for a day. So, everything has to be planned - where we eat, when we eat, where we visit, even a visit to a coffee/ice-cream shop has to be co-ordinated prior to the trip...

Sooo, where does that leave 25-30 somethings like us? The 9-5 people who look forward to weekends to relax because their weekdays are monotonous and in the process of relaxing creating yet another monotonous-routine for weekends...?

I don't know. I guess in a way, this is the life that we worked hard for but we had just pictured it differently...

All I know is that I am grateful to the unexpected visits, the long conversations, the late-night parties and the "lingerings" that still manage to occur in my life :)

June 10, 2007

Someone's got a make-over!

Our friend insisted on a complete make-over and I though I ought to indulge her whim, after all she is close to my heart :)

I experimented with the most web-readable color-combination and it didn't look that interesting, so switched to a rather dramatic color scheme. Please bear with yours truly while the experiment with the costumes continues; the perfect shade lurks nearby, just around the corner :p

Also, not that I am being a show off but "Did you check out the cool tag cloud?"

*RS stops gushing and signs off before further damage*

June 06, 2007

Lost dreams.

Is there anyone out there who is doing exactly what he wants to do? Getting up in the morning with a thrill that he is going to spend the day doing exactly what he likes doing. He is not doing it for money - although that is a great side-benefit - he is doing it for the one reason that he would rather not be doing anything else.

Anyone out there who hasn't claimed, "If I had the time, I would rather do this all day long!" Substitute photography, dancing, writing, being-with-the-kids for "this". And several years down the lane, does it matter that we worked so hard doing something else because we thought we had to - to make money for the bigger house, to save for retirement, for the kids' college education?

Or would we just look back as we are wont to do and say to ourselves, "I wish I had...", repenting for what we had not done?

I knew these 9 AM meetings at work were not good for me, especially since they are M,W,F meetings and for 2 consecutive weeks :(

June 01, 2007

Doing the dishes.

Ask me to name one thing that has been around ever since k & I got married, always there to remind us of what life can offer, that "if we dish 'em out, we better be able to take it",always full, always loud and always demanding our attention, and I would reply instantly (like those annoying first-bench students in school who would raise their hands even before the teacher asked the question - I, on the other hand, was cool, I sat on the second bench, NOT the first! Ok, aside over, back to topic now->)...where was I? You know what? I am not very fond of asides, as my Professor once said, "If you think something's important enough to put in parenthesis, you might as well make it part of the original sentence". Anyway, back to our constant companion:

"The Sink!" (accompanied with drumroll)

You are now going to ask me if I have had too much of coffee or javascript for the day and perhaps, I should blog at a time when my brain decides to construct relatively saner thoughts? And I would say, "Ah ha!".

Actually, I would say, "Let me explain why" but I would probably throw in the "Ah ha" too - it make such an impression in a conversation, don't you think?

Where was I? The sink. Yes, our long association (especially k's looong association) with the sink began during our marriage - nalangu (the fun and games part of a TamBram wedding). I had a small container of dal and k had to convince me to give him the dal and this is what followed:

"Please give me the dal"

Lol (like that would work!)

"I will buy you a saree/piece of jewellery/something cute if you give me the dal"

"Gee, thanks! But, no thanks!"

"Ok, tell me what you want..."

(Now we are talking!) "Promise to do the dishes the first three months after our wedding"

And things were going pretty much according to plan (mine) when k's mom, who until then was busy chatting with her sisters, suddenly turned to k and asked, "So, what did she ask" and after being informed of my demand, she said, "Whaaa? My son is not going to do the dishes! Poooor Kamal" etc. k, predictably, beamed.

I, being the docile, shy bahu etc smiled and looked down and gave k the dal.

Scene change. Fast-forward a year into our marriage and you will see "beaming k" loading the dishes carefully into the dishwasher (hey! don't give me that look, I cook and unload the dishwasher!)

Scene change. We are at B&P's place and have just had tea. I rinse my mug at the sink and k follows. But we notice that he spends an extra long time at the sink. Apparently, their sink (like ours) is unhappy with k and wishes to gush out in anger at him.

Scene change. We are at work and I walk into the break area at around 10 AM and whom do I see there but my dear husband, staring morosely at the office sink. It clogged too!

And that's when k made peace with his constant companion, the kitchen sink. They clog less when he's around now and he in turn, treats them with the TLC that a faithful companion deserves!
© Ramya Sethuraman, All Rights Reserved.