Fridge er dorja ghenshe holud ek kon
maggir packet e shajano shukhi grihokon


Dhulo makha boi gulo dichhe haathchhani
mone pore dhulo balir  boimelar... shei onekgulo praani


Mobile r headphone aaj boshe royeche shaantoh
Shoptaher dourjhape tara je boroi klaanto


er majhete dutoh chokh onichha prokash kore
aaj toh rob baar, eto aalo dhukbe kyano ghor e?

Clean and Clear.

"This is not what a 20-something's room looks like."   I agree with my mom on this, but the problem is that we both have a slightly  different idea about how it should look like. I believe I need one of those Joey-Chandler type chairs , if you are not a F.R.I.E.N.D.S person then you can imagine the chair at your dentist's place...one like that...( the dentist's chair is the perfect honey-trap, you are comfortably seated before the torcher begins.)..

yes so I need a chair like that, a HUGE bookshelf which is HUGE breadth-wise, at 4 feet 8 inches ..thinking high or reaching high is out of the question and i do not fancy climbing up a ladder to get a book. I should have a laptop (yes I DO NOT have one...I am stuck with my desktop..I love it though !), with a hard drive of some zillion TB's....yes the TV and AC should stay intact and I should have a knocking system..so that I don't have one parental invasion every half an hour to ask about my dinner/career choices. I would also like a walk-in closet but it's okay, I won't stretch it too far. I have also fancied having blank walls where i can throw tubs of Asian Paint (Wake Up Sid style) while decorating it......sigh..

The sad thing is...mom's idea of what my room should look like differs from mine...it can be summed up in one line...everything in it's place. What is the big deal about keeping everything in it's place? Isn't it a projection of a hidden desire to conform to caste and class hierarchy....? I have never tried putting this across to her ...I don't like the blank, Are-you-really-my-child?...kind of a look that she gives me sometimes.

 There are days when I ultimately decide to clean up a corner...and I take the entire day to do just that - clean up a corner...then i move to another corner only to realize that the first corner has things piling up again ! Why take so long to clean a corner? well there are so many distractions ! Something or the other just tumbles out and you waste minutes thinking about it...farewell diaries  remind you about friends....an old dress reminds you about a waistline issue...cassettes remind you about cassettes.... a dozen of glittering hurts-my-eye jewellery reminds you about the terrible style-sense time when you thought they looked good ... and Arabian Nights reminds you about goromer chuti .........how on earth can some people take less than a day to clean up a corner? how?

Okay , perhaps the fact that I do not allow my maid to touch my stuff has something to do with it. I also do not like guests pacing up and down my room touching my dust-covered stuff.....excuse me? Go home...get touchy-feely with your own stuff... the dust serves a dual purpose...it is a good canvas on which one can draw stick figures and it prevents stupid "emma-ki-dhulo" type of people from touching your stuff...... no I do not have the kohinoor diamond on display on my study table...all the same , even if it is last year's xerox notes, or a photo frame with no photo...I want you to stay away from it....but there is a unique specie called "grandparents"...my grandmother never fails to remind me how so much of dust can cause lung  problems and breathing trouble....

Of course my tiktikis (lizards) pay no heed to my desires and move about freely among my stuff...that's okay...I like them...It's just that I hate their overactive metabolic system....

Tataz........ much cleaning awaits.

Aborjona

hotam jodi kono barir posha meni biral

char pa tule ghumer belay bhultam shob kheyal

hotam jodi rastar dhare khyank khyakane kukur

nijer lejer pechon doure katiye ditam dupur

hotam jodi kono tarokar aquarium er imported mach

rupoli pordar mohomaya just beyond the kaanch

hotam jodi rajabajarer igol bongsher ongsho

moner shukhe khetam chhire kancha kancha mangsho

hoi ni toh er ektao, ki r kora jabe?

khukumuni ghorar dim er omlette banabe.

Another Day Goes By.........................and I stare. yes. STARE.only.

Before the exams one must not blog and one must not go out for movies and follow it up with some uhhh well not-hen-tail session..... Someone-I-know defied all these rules. ******evil grin*********


 It was a movie about kids and food. The kid was actually cute (when I call a "kid" .."cute"...he or she IS cute).  It was hilarious when that someone, whom I know, screamed "palak paneer !!" in the midst of the show because  there was mouth watering palak paneer being focussed on-screen.

not-hen-tail session.attended by X,Y, Z, A, B :
X: wow this place is good!
Y: its smelling weird, excuse me do you have a room freshener.
Z: there is a pool table! (none of the infamous five knew how to play pool)
A (to X): Pa uthiye bosh na.....
X: uhhh ya okay but boshle my feet keep hanging...let me remove my shoes. (wish god had granted her a fair share of inches in height or heels)
B: kono photo uthbe na.  Ki ondhokar!
X: wow I love these pebbles...stones....
Z: ishhh these pebbles are dirty! .................(clean it up !)
Y: the pebbles are cold! .....................(err the ac was on !)

a few minutes/sips later.

Z: let's go the pool table.
X: parchi na,
Z and B head towards the table.
X: what is B doing?
Z: she thinks she can play pool
X : hehe okay let me poke around the balls too....wow ! this is fun (yes pool balls cried out in silent moans)

from the stairs descends a couple ...

A: wow..yaar people come with their families out here....ma aar chele
B: dhyat....shut up
Y: o god but seriously that is not ma and her chele (a fact confirmed by then thanks to observed glances and general behaviour).....

.......................................................



exams . ahead. porte bosho dushtu meye.







There is really a hell lot stuff riding on  these dominoes fed shoulders. **sob sob**

bye.

The Darling Buds of May : Where? Where? Where?

I had promised myself that I wouldn't blog till my exams were over but then it's too hot to study. Winter makes me sleep, rains make me grumble and summer....oh summer ..... it makes me slightly crazy.

Dad at office meant ac at 12 pm... retired dad means ac not before 2pm...and loads of nagging about "you-don't-know-how-much-it-costs" if switched on a minute earlier. I restrain myself from replying "there is no way i wouldn't know because after the bill comes, every single relative knows about the electricity bill that you had to pay thanks to your daughter. In fact, the whole month is about THE bill." ....is it my problem that we do not stay in Canada ...okay Himachal....?

I read somewhere that you lose weight in summer...uuhhh okay....provided you are on fluids....fiiine ! I was taking plenty of fluids....pepsi, thums up, limca, orange squash, lassi till i realised the sugar in them was enough to keep me obese till eternity.

The biggest disaster of all- my fast-approaching exams..... well I made grand plans of going to the national lib but then I did not. One should visit it once during his or her graduate/post-graduate study....people will throw scrambled eggs at me if they come to know I have NEVER been there! My first question regarding the place was "ac ache?" ....an answer in the affirmative was of no use . In fact my darling friend very generously sms'd me...after many such cancelled plans to go "there"...------" don't worry  you will have a long holiday after your exams, you can go anytime after that." .... hopeless? I agree.

I wanted to study yesterday instead i thought it would be "kewl" (yes yes yes hamburger-hiphop style-kewl) to compose an inspiring rap song......don't make faces...of course I will write it here.... it's MY blog !! ok so here it goes ...   "let us do the study thing...or we'll both go ding ding ding...ding ding is no good ya...so sit down with your books ya...sit down NOW -say bow -vow .....gili gili chhhoooo yaa"    (I am great I know...no need for applause ....) of course you get a better feel when i sing it in my unique style....anyways not everyone is lucky.....

and and and there are red ants everywhere......first of all unfortunately they do not eat babies and their organization skills mock the hell out me...... recently I also realized that my entire family is crazy when I found my dad exploring the walls of his room with a torch...... hidden treasure?? trap door?? Well I asked him "What are you doing???"  ...reply: " look at these ants...ki shundor line kore jay na...shei ranna ghor theke line kore ashche"........errrr okay.... I have a love-hate relationship with ants...at times I squash them mercilessly under my hawaii choti ....now upgraded to aerosoft stylish chappals....and sometimes when the sensitive me awakens I try and imagine how would I feel if the ceiling crashed on me in a second.....well then I let it go...

and these ants make my mother crazy as well....once i returned home from college to find weird light green lines all over my bed ..."MAAAAA" .....she entered and solemnly declared that : "Laxman rekha na dile moteo jaabe na"......that continues....red ants= laxman rekha everywhere.....If my mother had her way she would draw those lines on my limbs as well. Me and dad tried to explain "You Know this is toxic, we could die"....but even the brand ambassador of laxman rekha wouldn't have defended the product so well...so hail laxman rekha ! one remedy I like  is sprinkling kerosene...i adore that divine smell...

anyways enough time wasted...Time to get back to les livres.

MUM's the Word. Naaah!

Well I thought i'll bid farewell to blogging till my exams are over, but i am wasting a lot of time as it is , so why not blog? ..I can survive another guilt pang.

well my mother is out of station and here is how things are going.

Some relatives call to console and offer help , acting on the presumption that my life has qualitatively deteriorated due to my mother's absence, but very often they are disappointed...let me give a small example:

aunt: " hiii what are you doing?"

me:  "  eating muri (puffed rice) with chola"

aunt: "see this is what happens when mums go away....."


me: " when mum is here i eat the same thing without the chola...this.. I bought"

aunt:  "O"

(I guess she assumed everyday my mom had no job except cooking for 24 hours and preparing gourmet meals for me)

Shifting to slightly spiritual stuff now.

My mom has this puja corner where she devotes many hours doing things like reading thin books in a sing-song voice once a week (I am stating facts not disrespecting "the" gods.:P). Needless to say before going she instructed her husband, my dear father in an earnest tone "shokale thakur debe"...(hilarious literal translation is "giving god") ...err well that refers to the elaborate ritual of wiping all the photos of the divine beings and showering water over the shiva linga and laying out food (read three tiny cubes of sugar) and water for them.

In my childhood I was very fascinated by this process and took great pleasure in doing all this....not out of any religious feelings but because i saw it as an extension of my "rannabati khela"...or playing "ghar-ghar"....obviously such innocent charming perspectives do not exist now.  My mother laid the important morning divine duties on my father's able shoulders and I was asked  to light the incense sticks in the evening--talk about labour hierarchy. She left on wednesday. Yesterday (saturday)..... Dad and I, in a sublime moment, looked at that corner, ...it was covered in dust. Like remorseless beings we laughed and joked about this great fault. Waiting for retribution (trust me one month before my exam that is a brave act).


Another key area where I will shift my focus now is the kitchen. We have a huge problem there since I am a vegetarian and my parents are not.  So today I made two veg dishes and this is what followed:

me to dad: I cooked....

dad: what?

me: panir and soyabean ka bhurji and baby corn

dad: --------------- (expression was as if I had stabbed him)

me (sheepishly) :  uhhhh mashi (maid) has cooked fish for you

dad: (weak smile, recovering-from-a-near-death-experience type expression)

....

so yaah my dear well-wishers we are managing fine....nutritionally speaking of course...about the Gods..ahh they have a will of their own ...why bother !

tata !







me:

Spare A Thought Please.

I am still debating whether to write on this issue or not, I might come across as preachy and an annoying miss-goody-two-shoes, but, what the hell...!


It is about something that I have felt right from my first day in college and sadly I still feel the same way--- students just do not bother to talk in a respectful manner when they are communicating with teachers.


I remember back in my school days, a teacher's entry would mean that sing-song "goooooooood morrrrrrning ma'm" and a similar ritual when they left. The rule was the same regardless of the fact whether we liked or hated the teacher. Asking questions to a teacher would mean talking in the most respectful way possible. Things changed in college. 


My college was nothing better than a school, it was a virtual prison, yet I noticed from the first day that remarkably different tone which some students used while talking to teachers. What surprised me all the more was the fact that the teachers did not rebuke them, may be that was  the norm. Teachers can be friends, and one need not always be almost sycophantic while talking to them but still the basic tone of respect (god-knows what I mean by that, do not ask me to explain) was lacking in a few people (not all mind you).


But that was almost 5 years back, what prompted me to write this today is something that occurred yesterday. A person (this was not the first time) talked to a teacher in a way that made me feel as if the teacher was a log lost junior buddy, on top that the tone was one of accusation. 


I agree that all teachers are not great at teaching, some of them are lousy persons and go on making our lives miserable in class and they might even be clueless about what they are saying, BUT  at the end of the day, they are teachers, someone next to your parents (please do not make faces, i know it sounds super-idealistic but that is true). 


You do not have to fall in love with the teacher and you can utter curses under your breath when he or she leaves the class, and have a gala time mimicking them but the minimum you can do is show some respect while talking- and THAT  is not buttering, THAT is basic (very basic) courtesy.


I do not know about the teacher-student equation in other countries and I do not want to know. I like the way things were when we were back in school. One can be friendly and close to the students yet there is always a thin line between casual disrespect and warm respect. Am i overrating "respect" ? may be. Don't care. Each to his own, this is my view and I jolly-well stick to it.


Tataz