A summer evening walk…

Girls wearing pretty summer skirts and dresses…I wonder where each of them shop.

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Cute guys on their evening run…a big sigh.

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Babies / Kids all around…I wonder what goes on in the minds of those sweet little babies. Why is it that sometimes smile at a stranger waving at them while crying out loud at other times? Is it because they see a loved one’s face in some people and not others? I try to recall anything from my childhood…say when I was four or five years old. Nothing comes to mind. Was I the naughty kind or the silent kind? I am inclined towards the latter, but maybe I should ask Amma tomorrow, just to make sure.

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A couple fighting in the public – the guy uses foul language, is very loud, and he refuses to let go of the grip he has on the girl. A car stops in the light and the driver yells out at the guy to let go of her; he shouts out that he’ll make a call to the police if he doesn’t do so. The guy lets go of the girl and starts shouting at the driver and asks him to mind his own business. They go back and forth and by that time the girls starts walking away. The signal turns green and the driver leaves, knowing that the girl is not looking back. The guy catches up with her and now he seems calms, at least acts as if he is. We wait for a couple of minutes to make sure he isn’t starting the drama all over again. Others start staring also. When we are sure that someone or the other will call for help in case things are to get out of control again (given that it was a busy intersection), we resume our walk…I wonder what their problem is. I hope the girl is brave enough to walk away…if he is this abusive in public, who knows what happens behind closed doors.

During our return along the same route after a couple of hours, we notice that the girl is sitting on one of the park benches. She is alone…I wonder how things ended. For a second there, I am sad to see her alone. But then, I am glad. I hope she called it off. I hope that the moonlight calms her heart and mind, and that she finds herself in a better place as the sun rises tomorrow morning.

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An Indian aunty with her Henna Tattoo stall set up in the corner of a busy street – her eyes gleam and her lips widen to a happy smile as she spots a familiar face in S, and she welcomes her with a cheery “Hello beta.” “Why are you set up here? What happened to your store down the street?” S inquires. “Oh, the streets gets busy during summer time; which means I can attract more customers here compared to sitting in the store waiting for someone to stop by” she tells us. Her smile starts to disappear slowly as we bid goodbyes. She requests for referrals in case anyone is looking to get Henna Tattoos…I wonder what it is that makes her sit here in the corner of the street under the scorching sun this late in the evening. I hope she has a loving family that she goes back to after this long tiring day. I wonder if she does this out of necessity or passion. I hope that it’s the latter.

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Two girls strolling the streets of Boston for more than two hours. They discuss about life, relationships, kids, adoption, family and friends, future plans, dreams and desires, etc. as they walk from the Park to a salon to a jewelery shop to a store called ‘Condom World’ (curiosity!) to an ice cream parlor, to the Park again, and then finally to the place they call home…I wonder what people thought of them us; if at all anyone noticed us.

Scary Nights

It’s nighttime, and just the thought that roommate isn’t at home bothers me. Yes, darkness scares me a little.

I had dinner, cleaned the dishes, filled my water bottle and locked myself in my room hours ago…that way I don’t have to go out to the living room or kitchen until the morning hits and there’s plenty of light. I read, watch a few episodes of FRIENDS, read some more, when I get this craving for milk. I tell myself that it will go away, I continue entertaining myself, I do this and that to get my mind off it. But that stubborn craving doesn’t want to leave me alone, so I cave in.

I gather enough courage and open the door. I see the living room lights on; my hearts starts racing.

“What’s going on? Roommate isn’t supposed to be back for another day. And even if she did come back early, I must have heard something – which I definitely didn’t. Why / how are the lights on? What should I do? Call security? Get out of the apartment first?…………………”

Million questions. Ten million answers. All in a matter of fraction of seconds.

I walk out of the room. Two steps into the living room, I realize that I left the lights on before going in. Just in case I had to step out of the room at night.

Phew! Relax! I tell myself. But, I can still hear my own heart beating like crazy…until I come back with the milk and close the door to my room. It’s all good now…heart is calm, mind is quiet.

I read, watch a few episodes of FRIENDS, read some more, when I get this craving…this time for ice-cream.

And the above scene recurs; ditto, frame to frame.

I am not too sharp, I tell ya. This repeating one or two times would have been fine. But I’ve been reacting the same way every single time I’ve walked out of my room in the past two nights. While my brain can spill out infinite number of thoughts in unimaginable speed when it senses something wrong, it can’t keep itself from overreacting. I wonder why.

Happiness is…

…when you read that one line email over and over and can’t help but smile. Why? Just because…it makes you beam with joy every single time you read the sweet message for no particular reason at all. Simple pleasures!

…when you turn your closet upside down to find that one favorite top of yours is that’s nowhere to be found for months…the one you fell in love with at first sight; the one that you only wore a couple of times; the one that you didn’t mind paying way over your normal budget; the one that’s now missing. You call your sister and ask her to look all over her house for that top because that’s where you know you wore it last…she loses patience after telling you million times that you didn’t leave it there and hangs up asking you not to call about it again. Tears are at the verge of embracing your cheeks; swear words, which doesn’t come to you very easily, are at the tip of your tongue ready to venture into the world any second; the big smiley on the stress relief ball turns into a frown as it wishes it were never born…you lie down on the floor, turn on one side and curl up when your eyes meet that very missing top resting merrily below the bed. Need I say more?

…when you accidentally, during your turn-the-closet-upside-down spree, find a skirt that you had bought 2 years ago (and never wore because you thought it was too short) and try it on with no hopes of fitting into it only to find that it fits seamlessly. For a minute you are not sure if it should make you sulk in sadness that you haven’t lost all that weight you were planning to or if it should leave you gloating in glory that you haven’t put on any more. You choose the latter, for the time being at least. Can’t wait for summer now, can you!

…when you come across a pretty hat, which doesn’t belong to you, in your closet and take it over to the roommate to ask her if it was one of hers and she says that she had left it in your closet, for you, as a gift. Lovely, she is!

…when you spend your entire day with butterflies fluttering in your stomach and heartbeats getting louder by the minute as if…as if…I don’t know…as if you were excited about something or someone. It feels good!

…when you spot your birthday as the expiry date on the drink that’s on your hand. Nothing grand, sure, but it still puts a grin on your face. Instant gratification!

How would you define happiness today?

Update on the moving / finding-roommate story…

Remember this?

I’ve decided not to move, at least not for couple of months now. Primarily because I couldn’t find anyone to take over my current lease. BAH. Doesn’t matter, everything happens for good, I think…

Also, the lady that ditched me in the last minute emailed me today asking me if my room was still available. She said she didn’t like the apartment she found, so wanted to move in to my room if I was still looking for someone. I wrote a nice reply to her explaining what she did wasn’t considerate and so I wasn’t willing to rent my room to her anymore.

Whatever!!!

A story about the idiot in me…

Wanna know why I’m extremely frustrated today? Well then, read this long rant.

Three weeks ago I decide that I would like to move to a new apartment in July. And in order to do that, I had two things to take care of – find a new apartment for myself and find someone to replace me at my current place. So I promptly put up ads on couple of websites and eagerly wait for responses.

Few days later…A female emails me asking if my room is still available. I get excited and quickly reply back giving her details of my apartment. After a day or so of exchanging emails with me every two hours, asking me all the possible details about the apartment, roommate, area, and such, she tells me she is very interested in this place for her daughter and that she wants to sign the lease ASAP. She gives me her daughter’s phone number and asks me to talk to her that evening. And I do. I call her, roomie and I both talk to the girl and she tells me on phone that she is so glad she found a place so soon and she asks me to send some snaps, to which I tell her that I don’t have a camera as of now and will send pics in a week once I get my camera back. In the meantime, I tell her that she can find the floor plan and few snaps on the apartment complex’s webpage. She says ok and let’s me know that she is willing to send the security deposit to me in a few days.

And that is where the idiot in me steps in…Considering her keenness in renting the place and trusting that she will keep her word and such, I tell her that I can wait till she gets here to take care of money matters. I gladly let her know that money wasn’t a big issue, as long as she’s sure she is going to rent the place and take over the lease. She readily agrees and thus, we end our ph conversation. And within seconds after hanging up, I delete all the ads. Because, you see, I felt like that was the right thing to do. I didn’t want to give her the impression that I was still looking for my replacement when I’ve given my word to her. After all, we just made a verbal deal, no? So why should I keep looking when I’ve found someone?

There I was that day…all happy and psyched that at least one of the major items was taken care of. So what if I didn’t have a place to move in by July 1st, at least I had someone who will take over my lease here.

The next week I spend time visiting few apartments that I was interested in. And once I found the one I wanted to move to, I email this girl (and her mother) asking her to give me an exact date as to when she will come over to sign the lease, when she will move in, etc. The female replies (after a day or two and few more emails from me) that she doesn’t know for sure and that she would decide only after seeing snaps. (And I was under the impression that she had already decided to move in, given that that’s exactly what she told in one of her emails and the phone conversation).

Two days later, I send few pictures and ask her to give me an answer ASAP. Again, no reply. I call her in the evening asking her what was going on and she tells me she needs an hour or so, so she can discuss with her mother and let me know. I wait for an hour. Another hour. Still no call from her. So, I call her only to hear her say that she has found another apartment and has decided to go with that.

WTF??????????????? Is this all I get for being nice?

Isn’t it basic courtesy to keep your words or at least keep me (the one who believed you to keep your side of the bargain) informed of whatever is going on in your inconsiderate mind? If you can email me every two hours when you needed info from me, why is it that you couldn’t reply when I wanted some answers? Don’t tell me you were busy, if you have the time to read my emails, then how long is it going to take to hit the reply button and type a few words? More importantly, why the hell did you go looking around for other options when you told me that you were ready to sign the lease? Doesn’t “I am willing to sign the lease right away” imply that you were satisfied with the place and are going to move on to do other things?

Or maybe this is all I get for being idiotic and trusting someone too soon.

So yeah, that’s the story. Since I wasn’t too comfortable letting her know, over phone or via email, how senseless her act was, I’ve to vent it all out here to get over my frustration…Thanks for bearing with me, my dear readers. I know it’s been gloomy around here lately, so will write again when I have something nice to share…Tata!

The cook in me…

…goes through weird phases.

There are times when I totally enjoy cooking, experimenting with different recipes and trying everything from palak paneer to pasta.

And then there are times when I want to keep myself away from the kitchen as much as possible – not go in there even to clean the dishes or grab myself some food.

Today, I chose the latter.

Roomie and I made big plans yesterday to cook an extensive meal for today’s lunch. But as soon as I woke up this morning, I knew I wasn’t going to be of any help. I didn’t feel like entering the kitchen, let alone preparing something decent. So, I had leftovers for lunch. What a disappointment that was !

Anyway, unlike me, my roomie didn’t give up. At least someone lives up to their word around here . She ate the leftovers for lunch, too, poor one. But then, she made awesome cutlets for evening snack. Thanks roomie !

And what did I do while she was baking herself near the stove? Well, I just wanted to laze around all day and that is exactly what I did. I settled down on the couch with my laptop, book and F.R.I.E.N.D.S DVDs, and spent the major part of my Sunday pretty much doing nothing.

Oh yeah, how can I forget…I did gulp down 5 or 6 hot cutlets .

How did you spend your weekend, folks?

Broken beer bottles and cigarette buds…

…pretty much sums up what my roomie and I were up to for a few hours this morning. We volunteered (to be two among the hundreds) to clean the area around Charles river and somehow, most of what we picked up as garbage were either cigarette buds or broken pieces of beer bottle… And that, my dear readers, was our contribution to make a small part of Boston on Mother Earth a cleaner place. Belated Earth Day wishes, everyone !

After working hard(ly) under the hot sun, we went to the mall to treat ourselves for being good citizens… Yes, we did spend a few bucks, thus stimulating the otherwise declining economy. Now, that makes us better citizens, no?

Rest of the day was spent walking around the waterfront enjoying the hot hot hot weather, watching all those adorable kids, lying down on the grass (I slept for a good half hour on the grass, HA!) and taking random pics…