28 Jan 2008

Two weeks later

And two weeks down the line, here we are. Sea view, five minutes from work. And in a city like Bombay (This is so much like in the movies!). I can’t wipe the smug smile that mysteriously creeps into my face when I fling open the curtains of my windows and my friends go ‘oooh’ at the view. Even though I know fully well it was really luck of the draw. In a pathetic twist of the Jack Nicholson line from ‘As good as it gets’, I tell myself ‘this house makes me want to become a saver. So I can afford something like this some day’. Which is a bit unrealistic since real estate around here costs a whopping 55000 per sq ft.

In all this time, I have realised the following

1.Bombay is full of bankers. Bombay:Bankers what Chennai/Bangalore: Software Engineers. And all of them make it a point to frequent Hard Rock CafĂ© having been told that it is a ‘cool’ place. (Very few bankers I know can be credited with original thinking when it comes to entertainment)

2.NCPA is an awesome place to watch plays. I can’t believe a theatre can be so spacious in such an expensive part of town
3.Eating out too much leads to break down in delicate gastro intestinal mechanisms
4.I managed to set up my music system and stopped playing them on the DVD player. Rock goes very well with the sea view.
5.Strangely I don’t particularly miss Tam songs/movies, not having watched too many of them in Chennai. In an effort to dwell in nostalgia, tried watching KTV. Vijaykanth’s shuddering jowls removed any tinge of romance.
6.Townside movie goers are very sad people. They dress up tons to watch movies.
7.Cabs seem to be held together with brown tape. I shudder to think what will happen when it rains and the gum wears off
8.Settling into office takes a long time. You want to kill a lot of people for messing around with which server you are linked to, doing and undoing stuff. But then HR sits right behind me and instead choose to bury my head dramatically in my hands. In case they don’t get the message that employee satisfaction dips on bad infrastructure
9.It is good to have CNBC back in my life
10.Long forgotten cooking skills are being put to use again. Bugged the person sitting closest to me at my housewarming potluck lunch to sample the raita and curd rice I had made. I like it when my friends are polite and don’t point out that it does not take a gourmet chef to make these dishes.

Unanswered questions in life – Do I or do I not subscribe to The Hindu? It comes a day late thus defeating the purpose of a paper. But reading Mumbai Mirror in the mornings somehow does not feel right.

20 Jan 2008

Lessons from Day 1 as single person staying in her own house


1. If you throw a small, intimate housewarming party, remember not to order food for 20. You will spend the next three days eating leftovers. Burnt Chilly Rice tastes very sad after a while.

2. You cannot tell the bai you don’t know where your mom left the garbage bags. Instead you discreetly call up mom while bai is not watching and then pretend that you know exactly what is going on in your house

3.You need to set the rules for the bai. You are no longer bystander who puts her feet up on the sofa when the floor around you needs to be swept

4.You discover how wonderful it is to have a CD collection. And you discover how much you miss the background noise of your parents talking

5.You have the time to read every single page of the newspaper.

6.No one notices if you have not had a bath all day

7.The TV remote is under your sole and eternal control

8.You check your mobile ten times to see if there any SMSes and send up blessings for friends who have sent some. It reminds you that you are not a lonely old maid sitting atop a house in a building wondering if you should get a cat

9.You realise that keeping your fridge stocked involves more than wearing cool clothes and dashing off to grocery stores. Apparently you need to check your fridge to see what is in stock so that you don’t end up with enough tomatoes and cucumbers for a week but fall short on potatoes.

10. You have time to think – good thoughts, bad thoughts, strange thoughts, and clever thoughts.