Tales of the rain..

A mumbaikar would have the best of the stories to offer to you about rains. And here is one from me.

As litres of water poured over us with raindrops the size of bucketful of water it rained. It was like the monsoon had just begun at the end of the official end of rains. Overjoyed people danced and wet themselves in this blessed shower. All where smiles until the waterfall from above continued and people’s smile wrinkles shifted to the temples to worry wrinkles.
 But we college folks live in our own world. As the lecturer chattered on people had him on mute and stared out of the window to the rain. After an hour of watching this usual silent movie we all rushed out  of the class to hear the inevitable news that trains are late or blocked or stuck and so on. Immediately there were plans of staying at friends place or round about ways of reaching home. So anyways all anyone needed was an excuse to bunk. A mass bunk declared all set off for the mission “reach home”. With some fortune we got a train bound home.
Picking up a friend on way, off  we went braving the rains. After a struggle which equals to like getting water in desert we managed an auto from station. Some  higher power thought it was too good to be true and our auto got stuck in calf deep water somewhere in the colony no nearer to our home. So descending down the muddy water(thanks to the hills all around) we trudged through the water. And the thrill! It looked like hot chocolate oozing from all around!(reminded me of willy wonka’s chocolate factory!) Sloshing through the gutters into the sidewalk and road.. seemed like river flowing  all around. With heavy rains pouring all over us and cat wet  to the skin atlast reached home like a soldier returning from the battle.. my sweet ma is just too sweet to greet me with pleasantries. She was  suspicious of me jumping through all the rain water and river lutes (i am not denying i didn’t!) But i had this smirk of victory which was probably the reason for all the steam off. Cons of all this was my bag had become a water storing camel hump wetting everything inside. And its a pain to dry it all. But hey! It was a hell of an experience!

PS: always follow your instincts if it says wear sandals and not shoes. Do so! Cause its going to rain on that god damn day and soak everything!

that my dear friends, is how it rains! 

The Moment

 Click clack click clack. Oh! I got to finish off with the story! Ding dong.. ding dong.. “for heaven’s sake NITA! open the door!” Great! Nita has gone off to aunty’s place... clambering off the bed spewing off packets of chewing gum and biscuits. i glanced at the messy bed ,ma’s gonna kill me for this! “coming!” opening the door i find nita glaring at me like i made her watch the rerun of twilight!

“You lazy creeeature! Why haven’t you got ready?!” Whaat? Ready for what?
Dang! I had forgotten about something important again! So i put up a brave act..
“Of course i know!The very very important day! just a minute i will get ready”
I put up a apologetic grin the hurried off into my room before nita starts off with her chaw-chaw again...

Staring out of the taxi window clueless about the current situation.I look around to find ways of finding out about this “day of extreme importance”. So I played around with things like so how is the plan coming.. She answered  monosyllabically .So instead i ask her about ma and baba.. She gives me the “hopeless for eternity look” tilting her head to one side and says “shouldn’t you be knowing that?!”  so i shut up and waited for the journey to the unknown to end..

“Bhainji,  80 rupees hua hai”..
I could say Nita was going to wage the battle of waterloo with the taxivala for the absurd meter. So i swiftly paid the man now cowering under Nita’s glare and dragged her out before she would blast into a volley of complaints. So, we were standing in front of a party hall.. looking side ways i saw her grinning.. with dread i concluded may be its one of those far off weddings of unknown people with plastered smile (they have my deepest sympathies)..  man! I was so much better off at home! “Are you taking revenge for that twilight rerun?” she just laughs and drags me in.. “die you bitch!”

So i put on the most blank expression altering with utter pain and disgust.. (yeah may be i should try acting) anyways being dragged in by Nita i hear a blast of noise and screams and pats and smiles and balloons and streamers... and then taking off my mobile i notice the date.. “oh its my bday”  it was a surprise party! I blinked SYSTEM OVERLOAD!Relatives I have never seen come and hug me so does ma and baba. And Nita kept hitting me for no reason.. probably because she pulled out a trick on me flawlessly..  food ,cake, music ,all was a party and i was surprised that my family was so sanguine that i did forget my bday..!

After all ended and people couldn’t move anymore either from too much dancing or too much food there were goodbyes and hugs.. As we all slopped home and i lay on bed amongst all the rubbish and the incomplete story which is possibly going to stay that way, dad comes in for the usual father-daughter banter sessions. Suddenly he asks me “so, mini... what is life?”  This is “THE MOMENT” .I am suppose to come up with real philosophical lines putting up metaphors and quotes of famous , to look like i have really grown up vision of what all it is. Alas! i fail.. i end up with  couple of uhmms and you knows, disappointed baba left .Lieing  back, recapping  today’s frenzy, seeing happy faces enjoying ,uncles stuffing  up as much food they can while it lasts i concluded .....
life is living...   (if only baba heard me then i am sure it’s the most impressive answer i have ever come up with, pitiable i know! :D)

nannis will remain nannis!!!!

Through all the millions of years of human evolution i am pretty much sure that the relationship between nanny and grandchild has never changed... since a kid nanny is one of the “bestest” person on a child’s favorite person list... a general image of nanny being of a basic potato shaped cuddly warm thing with chubby fingers and a warm smile...

My dimu is no different! She practically full-fills all the categories.. a brilliant cook, a good story teller (especially herar deem).. i used to make her read out from an old torn Sarat Chandra book... and sit and bounce on her tummy... broken innumerable specs.. but she has always been a darling...i still wait for the chops and cutlets which she sends occasionally whenever baba goes to Kolkata.. she brings in the aura of kol with her which is somehow warm and cosy... and every time she comes the squabbles ensues, fights over carrom and ridiculing her for the inability to play cards.. all the fun till she stays.. but when she prepares to leave each time there are tears in her eyes, a uncertainty in her otherwise generous smile... and when i bend down to touch her feet suddenly i don’t want her to go.. don’t want her to stay alone with arthritis-fested wobbly knees... so i hug her tight and brush of her tears, wave a sad good-bye and promise to shout out “DEEMS” (egg in Bengali) the next time i see her!! :D

killer sounds!!!

Indian culture does portray a lively and colourful way of life but does it really mean at the cost of others peace?? I thank saridon and earplugs to keep me sane enough to lock myself at home and abstain myself from the sin of being a party spoiler by tearing away the cables to the sound system and put a full stop to the insanely djed songs and the potential of the music bringing spasms of pain to all the auditory sensory organs...if anyone reads a report of a mass murder of “party maker jerky pigs” i take full responsibility of it... let the heavens decide my punishment.. but for the time being, i shall be the Hercules of the new age, who kills the sonic monsters... GOD! Make them stop before i commit an unpardonable sin!!

What happens when your mom goes into battling-the-dust mode (dust terminator)?????

And you are made the lieutenant in the army of two who have waged a war against million dust devils.. some might call foolish but i call it “THE HOME WAR”....

Tools for the battle are brooms, dusters, vacuum cleaners.. and the armoury being scarves and duppatas wrapped around in dacoit style.. i even took the liberty of sporting a pair of goggles(looking fashionable during war doesn’t harm,does it? )  

And the great war ensues...Grim situation... and i crumble into the the self-destructive mode due to the "achooo viruses" which the dust devils have cleverly targeted, causing explosive noises which in no way scares away the inanimate things and i am send off to do less life threatening jobs as my mom fights the war bravely proving that she is an one man army against the millions...   

Moments like these make me so proud of her..(tears) :’)