Chicken soup for the lost soul...

What is this life if full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare..

  by WH Davis

A whole day at home working on things i get my self tangled into and then  complain about having no time what - so - ever for any of the things i would love to actually get myself tangled into.
It was a  lazy sunday evening when my  family was debating bout the best way to spend it. We crossed out the local markets and malls.. I was just in no mood to get myself back into closed air-conditioned rooms (even though they literally spell heaven in summers)It just gets really suffocating sometimes. My mom practically had a huge list ready that she absolutely had to get .. but there was no way she could blackmail me into tagging along today so i decided to blackmail them into coming tagging along with me instead.
Now I am going to be 'leaving on a jet plane' in a few month's time and hence my parents are in a very easily blackmail-able stage. So we three musketeers me, mom and dad decided we need to get some fresh air flowing through our veins and headed out to Bandra Bandstand.
We were just about to park when a blue exotic car (Since i don't speak car i don't know the make or the company  and plus it din't have a name behind in case your thinking i am blind not to read it). I am totally sure it belonged to some highty flighty celeb as so many people thronged bout to get a look at who ever that was there in that blue mystery car. The car turned into a nearby building and well the people just being curious about who's following , never know who we mite see attitude were all staring right into my car and at the back seat where i was sitting extremely confused and wondering which celeb did i just missed seeing. So well the people saw me in all my messed up glorry ,got disappointed and finally made way for our ordinary car to pass and park somewhere on the side. I stepped out of the car and the wind just hits you. The air faintly smells of fish and wet sea rocks. I realize that because thats where most of the small fishing boats were parked and where there are fishing boats there ought to be fishes ..dead alive dried something atleast. So we jump over the barrier and almost pull my mom on the other side even though its just barely 2 feet tall.. the Road is filled with families, dogs and their owners, lovers, friends and loads of frolicking children. I thought 'All these people just knew how best to spend a perfect sunday evening ..with people they love' We walked along the cost filled with ragged rocks.. the tide was low but the sea still looked beautiful. The lovers and the adventurous mavricks had made their way right down to the rocks that touched the waves and sat there either locked in each others arms or challenging their friends to stand on this rock or jump from that one. 

Celebrity houses lined up on the other side of the road which my dad kept wondering aloud and guessing which one belonged to whom.
We finally found a nice spot with loads of wind and no extra snugly couples in our direct line of sight..(Watching that, with your parents watching you is so devastatingly embarrassing even though you aren't doin a thing..:Strange but true..)
The sun set at almost the same time as we settled down ..It kinda dissolved into mist that settles just above the surface of the see and far away at the horizon ..So it appears that the sun just vanished mid air befor it could actually touch the sea and be like extinguished..poof..but being summer there was enough light to see clearly all around..The lights started coming on at the far corners of the coast.. Roads lit up. Who said the sunsets in a busy city with blinding lights aren't as beautiful as seen from some precarious cliff or a point 5000ft high and surrounded by the jungle.. I saw one just as beautiful at half an hour drive from home..

We sat there dangling our feet above the rocks , our shoes kept safely behind us and feeling the cool wind run between our toes talking bout things that somehow don't seem to creep up in normal conversations at home. Dad talking bout nostalgic moments can be weired at times.. Well we sat that way till it got too dark to tell if our chappals were still in place and not stolen .. .and walked back to car.. Naturally we forgot how the place where we parked the car at looked like.. And plus being dark was all the more distracting.. Just as we thought it was towed away and would need a search mission we found it phew parked a few meters ahead of our wandering point...
That wasn't the end of our adventures though, We  couldn't even find the road that connects bandra to the highway.. i cant believe after living 20 years in the same city this would be possible.. but yeah so we ended up driving the longer route home .. and just as if preplanned our favorite Chinese place shows up.. and we decide to take a break and complete our journey with some chicken soup for the soul.. In our case for the lost souls.. Yummiest soup ever..

Footnote: Pic Taken at Bandra bandstand inspired by 'wake up Sid' and yes those are my dear feet.

Wuthering Heights

There must definitely be something bout the classics so fondly mentioned by all the ardent readers I have encountered till date.So i thought why not give it a try.Anyways the  books in my house outnumber the furniture items at any given point.Classics would i suppose just add to the beauty.

So i picked the one i thought would be a love story written in english simple enough for me to understand before i go drowning into serious classics.Wuthering Heights - the name itself creates suspense about the contents. As queer the name so is the story. I am an ardent fan of dashing  heroes who have a dark emotional side and looked at Heathclif (the hero of this book) with exactly the same viewpoint when he was 1st introduced. But i was so completely wrong. This book goes far far away from the usual love filled romance stories .Instead it binds a tale of characters with destructive self pride and revenge. It has a love story hidden somewhere in its midst that just raises all the passion when the lovers part. And even though the ending is happy its comes out of mere adjustments than of anyone braving the world to conquer all .. .conquer love..

The haughty and saucy Catherine Earnshaw described like someone with more guts than most guys .. I doubt if she would give up her love cause he doesnt match her standings in the society .. That just doesn't go downwell  with me. Or possibly the fact that i dont come from a society where i believe in such deeply rooted class distinction. That reason just make any sense to me.

Some scenes though are heart wrenching.
like when : catherine is about to die and Heathclif for the 1st time lets his feelings show rather heard.
The scene could bring tears to your eyes.
’May she wake in torment!’ he cried, with frightful vehemence, stamping his foot, and groaning in a sudden paroxysm of ungovernable passion. ‘Why, she’s a liar to the end! Where is she? Not THERE - not in heaven - not perished - where? Oh! you said you cared nothing for my sufferings! And I pray one prayer - I repeat it till my tongue stiffens - Catherine Earnshaw, may you not rest as long as I am living; you said I killed you - haunt me, then! The murdered DO haunt their murderers, I believe. I know that ghosts HAVE wandered on earth. Be with me always - take any form - drive me mad! only DO not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! Oh, God! it is unutterable! I CANNOT live without my life! I CANNOT live without my soul!’



Dont ask me why but i love this scene.. Its when Catherine who is catherines daughter(earlier catherine's) decides to be friends with her cousin Haereton.
"She returned to the hearth, and frankly extended her hand. He blackened and scowled like a thunder-cloud, and kept his fists resolutely clenched, and his gaze fixed on the ground. Catherine, by instinct, must have divined it was obdurate perversity, and not dislike, that prompted this dogged conduct; for, after remaining an instant undecided, she stooped and impressed on his cheek a gentle kiss. The little rogue thought I had not seen her, and, drawing back, she took her former station by the window, quite demurely. I shook my head reprovingly, and then she blushed and whispered - ‘Well! what should I have done, Ellen? He wouldn’t shake hands, and he wouldn’t look: I must show him some way that I like him - that I want to be friends.’
Whether the kiss convinced Hareton, I cannot tell: he was very careful, for some minutes, that his face should not be seen, and when he did raise it, he was sadly puzzled where to turn his eyes."



this book is selfish cruel smeared with ego and pride woven with characters who do not have impeccable caracters ..but alas this book is HUMAN.

FootNote: Thats the pic of my copy of my very 1st classic read.

To do before i die...

I resigned. Wow what a feeling..well but this post aint about how i resigned and how relieved i feel now that i have(It feels awesome) nor am i going to go rambling bout my bosses and their bosses.. Lord knows they all are made of the same gooey stuff.

This is about the point in time when i had to submit my resignation. Just one click on that deadly 'Send' button and a lot of things in life would change. It took me 10 minutes to just get my fingers to move enough to accept that i was ready to close that chapter in my life and start a new one and just 'click'.

I did finally, and  realized that this was one of my 1st of many times that i would resign from a company and just like that a thought crossed over my mind..Gosh one life and its just ticking away... 10 minutes to click a send.. when am i going to do those 100's of things that i  totally absolutely desperately need to do before i die???

So here i go .. i have decided to make a list of things that i  need to and just insanely want to do before i die..
I may cross out things later or add more.. its just my personal compilation so that i am inspired to take that one step when i absolutely need to to change the chapter in my life turn over the page and start a new one.

1 - .Go dancing in the rain.
2 - Learn to ballroom dancing (i'm deadly bad at that)
3 - Be able to finish marathon in respectable time
4 - Attend a prom night(No prom's in my country :(  )
5 - Sleep on the beach under the sky and where i can hear the waves.
6 - Drive at 100m/h on a straight road with the top down and music turned to full
7 - Fall completely totally insanely madly desperately blindly in love. (the kind where there is no living without)
8 - Learn to surf.
9 - Learn a foreign language and use it with a native.
10 - Kiss someone impulsively.
11 - Go on a blind date.
12  - Sing at a kareoke bar.
13 - Go on a impromptu trip.
14 - Go on a around - the - world tour.
15 - swim in the sea at night.
16 - Dance till i drop.Till i have to take a day off just for me to feel my legs again.
17 - Learn to play the guitar really well.
18 - Learn to play the violin.
19 - Get married on a beach(no guests required).
20 - learn to love myself minus the numbers(weight, age,etc etc..)
21 - Bungee jump.
22 - swim with dolphins.
23 - have a pet dog
24 - spoil someone.
25 - take up photography professionally.
26 - Own a motorbike and learn to drive it really well.
27 - Go on a cruise for a week at least.
28 - Witness a miracle
29 - get a tattoo
30 - sky-dive
31 - go one a dinner and waltz date on a pier



Will keep updating... i have so many more.. just all jumbled up in my mind somewhere right now.

The bus ride home..

Every morning while having my daily bowl of cereal i try to find myself among the 30+ pages of political potpourri delivered at my doorstep. Following which everyday after spending 10 merciless hours spent in front of the computer at about 7 pm in the evening i take my bus home .Everyday i just close my eyes and wish i could fall asleep for those 2 slow hours that i take to get home. Today i decided differently. I opened my window wide open and decided to keep my eyes open the entire journey. Plugged my music on and thus began a different journey.As everyday i passed the place that has this factory that makes spices. tucked into some narrow corner of the road. I have tried this before but never found out where exactly its located but the smell is just so intense..and the crazy tumble began and the questions just randomly popped into my head. Do people who live around that factory smell like these spices all the time. They must be ..they spend their lives surrounded by it.I almost smirked at the thought of entering a conference with 'garam masala ' deodrant on me..
I looked up and saw a high rise that had a certain floor who had its wall removed. It just had a parfait and no walls.. Looked spooky wonder why would anybody need such an apartment. Note to self: A mystery to be solved later.Passed the oh so familiar bridge next and with that came the 1st glimpse of clear sky. With no hoardings to obstruct my view and the summer light still holding up.Something felt so wrong with the sky...So many clouds today on supposedly bright summer evening .My music switched to linking park it went on "and the clouds above moved closer looking so dissatisfied..." .'how did my music player know what happening' was all i wondered. Well scene changed and i passed the IIT's..Do you really think that that's the place where legends are born?? well no mood for debates today.. Next the lake came to my view.. so beautiful with the sunlight just about there..Its changed and i have noticed long after winter.It has its signs to welcome the summer..Weeds and possibly Hyacinth's growing on its surface almost covered all the edges like its drawing up its blanket against the cool night breeze.

Do you know sometimes you listen to a particular song and it just surges through your blood..Makes you want to let down your hair..let the wind blow..go running on a beach.. and feel so surreal..No matter how cheesy corny and stupid it may sound.. i know i do feel like that.. and for today it was 'Crazy by Aerosmith'..That song just gets me high.. Breeze next to the lake..Bus moving without traffic and the song playing so loudly i culdn't hear anything else.. Its was a dream sequence...Only difference i discovered it on a just everyday ordinary evening ..on just another everyday bus ride with just another song playing on my everyday music player.. :)

I reached home fresher than i ever have in the past 18 months of my everyday journey on this very same road for 5 days of every week.

I let my hair down and walked home today..with Crazy on Repeat...

Footnote: Pic taken from my bus window at the risk of being called crazy by all those who were traveling along and staring at me.