Grey

There is no morning. There is no evening. Only grey.
No sunrise, no sunset.
Shades of grey.
Time doesn't make sense any more, everything looks the same.

Breeze.
"It's so lovely."
"Let's drink some chai."
"Old Monk and Coke!"
What wonderful weather. Make excuses for the lack of blue. No colour. No...light.
Cross your fingers and hope the sky doesn't fall on your head.

It rains.
For hours. Days. Weeks. The calendar is drenched. The clock has stopped. There's water in the gears.
Wake up arbitrarily. Go out. Work. Come back. Drenched. Like a wet cat. Have you ever seen a happy cat in the rain?
No.

The day the blue skies and the breeze are back is the day we'll stop shaking our fists at the universe.

Travelogues, vignettes, I love airports.

Right now, I'm sitting in Kay's hostel room, listening to thunder, shuddering, watching her pack, so that she doesn't have to do it later in the week. Our plans to go rollerblading on the beach have been foiled, at least put off by a couple of hours by the thunder and the rain. Hmf, this is like being in my room in Bombay, disgruntled with the downpour.

Snippets from the past three days...I wrote mostly at the airport. I like airports, you see?

Written 7th may, 7.00am local time, Abu Dhabi Intl airport.

Airports are wonderful, I've always loved them, if for nothing else then the sheer people-watching potential. Look at people, burly sporty types with backpacks and tattoos, a mother with her young son who insists on eating pizza at 7am, bored-looking woman at the table next to me, interesting couple with backpacks playing UNO. Accents and languages blend in a murmur with the sound of cash registers and clinking coins, people come in, walk through, walk out. What I really want to do is pull out my camera and capture.

Written 9.15 am, Abu dhabi intl Airport.

After a 40min phone call to Chikki, and about ten minutes at a free wifi terminal (I think these are very cool) I'm sitting at gate 33, with an 8-hour flight ahead.
My vacation is nearly over! I'll have only 2 weeks once I get back, there better be a lot of fun nights!

Written 10.15pm local time, Changi Intl Airport Singapore

Flight landed 20 minutes ahead of schedule, so no Kay yet. She left after I called her. I'm people watching, looking at many pretty girls in TINY shorts and long tops. I think i'm going to like it here.


I could swear a man just JOGGED past me, in running shorts and a vest :|

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That was when Kay arrived, looking very Singaporean indeed, with a denim skirt, black top, pin-straight hair and a huge smile. I'm happily shocked at how well she blends in. We cabbed it to the hotel, where Bhaiyya was waiting. Happy times with good food and stuff. We got BACK to the hotel at...what, 3?

Ah yes I DO like it here.

Yesterday, I shopped. Girls, read on. Guys, go away if you wish.
I didn't buy much, but I did squee a lot in the 4-storeied Forever 21 (I shall never stop calling it that) where I bought a skirt and some tank tops. I don't have the courage for the uber-sex lace skirt yet, I'll buy stockings first. Orchard Road, you see huge signs for Prada, Louis Vuitton, all the usual suspects. I grinned at the thought that  was just the WRONG person to be here, Ankiet, SNam and Chinmoi would KILL to be here, and have the cash for it (ofcourse I don't have the cash for hardcore designerwear, but I don't want it either). I did go to Charles & Keith, and got a beautiful bag, and shoes. For the interested, black peep-toes with crossover straps. Ankiet, are you listening? Be proud.

Quote of the YEAR: Arvind - Is that Britney Spears being sung by a man?
                                  Kay - That's Savage Garden :|

The rain has stopped, so I'm off to the beach. Later, peeps.

November Rain

For the past two days we've had terrible unwinterly humidity. Expecting the same today, I stepped out in shorts.

But what a surprise! The air was dry and blissfully chilly, with a breeze against my face. And a light drizzle.

So very blissful.

Lectures we had two. And after that I just HAD to go to Marine Drive to revel in the weather.

After prancing around, back to the Lit room to sit in on the reading of The Night of January 16th. It's a great play, really gripping. In the two hours it took to finish the reading, the drizzle had opened up into a full fledged shower.

I sat in the balcony wearing shorts and a hoodie, writing. It's PERFECT weather for scotch and smokes, but I have no scotch, and I don't smoke.

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Very excited for tomorrow. Why? Eve Ensler (THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES!) is coming to Bombay. And she's gonna be talking at our college! Thus begins my frantic search to find, download and RE-read the Monologues.

:)

Grey days

It's rained for the past two days. Perfect hoodie weather. I decided to actually DO something instead of sleeping away my Sunday, and that's where the necklace came from. Moonstone and silver. I'm especially happy with the earrings.

I'm even happier with the haircut. I love it so much, I'm still so infatuated with the way I look....everything I do and wear seems so much racier.

For now, i have nothing more to say. The winds are changing...and I'm catching a cold.

8 am rant about the rain

Yes, I know everyone's been on about late monsoons and all. I know people who're nauseating in their love for the rain.

Not me.

I can manage a drizzle, yes. Those ten minutes between drizzle and I-need-shelter-now rain, I can manage.
What I detest is the kind of rain that gets EVERYWHERE. In your shoes and in your clothes. Through windows and doors. Into your very being.

I do enjoy this rain, when I'm indoors. When I can cuddle up with a mocha and a blanket and rum. And a movie.

But that's when I genuinely have nothing to do.

This rain is crippling me. It's crippling everyone on the Western Line (I take the train from Dadar) It started the minute I woke up. I had to brush my teeth to the sounds of my aunt making frantic phone calls to see if trains were running.

"Won't be on till evening, you have to stay here"

My house, everyone has disaster mentality, I tell you.

So here I am, my first lecture starts in 5 minutes (didn't want to attend that one anyway) and I'm stuck in a home that is not my own. With no mocha and definitely no rum. And no good company (or a means of gathering good company).

Grumpiness abounds. I need out.

And I say to myself....

What a wonderful world.

It's been raining these past few days. We even had a cyclone warning, it never showed up. Yesterday....Was brilliant, sitting on the balcony wall of a friend, enjoying the smell of freshly rained-on mud and watching the thoughts whizz through my head while everyone else played PS ganes indoors. Splashing around in the pool, trying to remember swimming classes taken aeons ago. Movie marathon and pizza, cuddled up to myself in a sofa.
And I'm contented again. The day before yesterday seems so long ago.

I'm looking out of the window with an irritated expression. Out there, it's raining on my parade. literally. And rather hard, too. Therefore, i cannot go. Even if the rain stops, mom says it'll be all waterlogged. grumble....why me, why do i have to be so far from everything? ugh this is brain-rippingly irritating. welcome to Bombay, huh?

Edit on 2-7-08:

I ended up going after all....the rain eased up, i packed a bag and caught a rickshaw to chimmi's place, an hour away. the roads were beautifully clear, it didn't rain again, and we spent the rest of the day in the pool and then in the sauna at the building complex in kandivili called Oberoi gardens. :) even though I can't really swim, I had a really great day...

Oh..........the heat!!

It's hot. REALLY hot. Like in the 40s. Urgh, this isn't supposed to happen till I leave for holidays....why is this happening......
The heat, it gets into our skin, the sweat it gets through our clothes and our hair and every part of us....the A/C, the fan, all on full blast, yet we are not cooled......
I could do a busy_writer inspired post to tell you exactly HOW very hot and sweaty I am (purely temperature related, mind you)....But I won't. Well not exactly. Although this heat makes me want to claw my skin off. And Wednesday's basketball match, I wouldn't have minded playing shirtless and barefoot..(yeah, I play basketball. to fill the team. VERY badly.)....everytime I stopped running I could just feel the heat radiating off me. I bet if you tied both the teams together and wired us up to something, we'd probably be able to provide central heating for all of Siberia.
And I thought the cold was bad this year.
Meanwhile, the beast...er, sorry, best friend is back. Bloody lucky, I tell ya, him and his ex-12th grade friends haven't been home in three days straight. They're having insane fun. Damn I wish I could do that....sit at the beach all day, all night, go roaming with no boundaries....dayum.

The only thing keeping me alive right now is the thought of the Manali trip in two weeks.
I think I might actually experience my first fainting fit this year.

Judgement Day

Yeah, that was today, the inevitable after exam judgement day.....

Papers. Marks. Urgh.

You saunter into class all carefree and Mystique, exams are over, you don't give a rat's ass what happens now......
Then why're you nervous before they give the papers??
O-kaaaaaaaaaaaay, faker.......

So. Marks.
Ok-ok, I managed above 80 in everything, except Engineering Drawing and Chem. Chem was absolutely abysmal.
Overall percentage? 79.4, which is apparently great for 11th grade science. I think not.
This is probleme. I care too much about my marks. If I didn't care, it would be so much easier......
Anyway, stick with the caring for a year and then I'm free free free.

I did go to the beach, and it was good, the friend I went with was a great person to talk to, and I got a mocha out of it. Mmmmmmm
" You know, you're drinking that like you're having sex with it", he tells me as I look at him over the mug. I always drink mochas like this, letting my lips sink into the cloud of cream, letting the coffee underneath burn my tongue, licking, savouring the taste.
"Closest I'll get to it for a while", I mutter.

Long talks about his relationship, my anger.....
Long taxi ride home....
Long wait for mom to show up (I didn't have the house keys)
yes, I enjoyed.

Now. Since my mahaan friends can't go for a movie with me, I go with Tina. Mom's friend. And kinda mine too.
27 Dresses.
Don't laugh at me for watching chick-flicks, I am a girl after all.

The weather it gets hotter. Shorts and strappies in use. ah, for a cool breeze to caress my face.....

A change of Season

I try to soak in the heat from the deceptive winter sun before a chill wind takes it all away, I'm not too sucessful.
It's colder than ever here, about 11 degrees. I'm an icicle. Visions of grande vanilla mochas float before my eyes. Visions of being wrapped up in never ending hugs to shield me from the cold. Visions of sitting on the bed, wrapped up in a huge blanket, with someone to hold. Someone nice and warm. And my mocha.

Blanket+Mocha+hug= Reasonably tolerable winter. I might even enjoy it.

But alas, the only ones who wish to envelope me in their not-so-warm embraces are the physics, chem and math. Ugh.

I've always been terrible with cold. Maybe it hits me worse coz I'm so thin, the chill goes right through. It's not even like a Delhi winter, those are cold and kinda stationary...(I pity all you Delhiites right now) I've been to Delhi in winter, for about 2-3 days at a time, and the last time I was there I was wearing 3 layers and I was still freezing!
But here, it's windy. You get those precious golden rays at like 10 am, but then this wind comes up and whips it all away. I curl up and shiver. My winter wardrobe is nonexistent. Apart from my fave Puma double-sleevie thing.
I think my mood differs with season.....I love the heat. LOVE summer. Especially here, where I can feel the burn on my face and my arms (Ironically, the only place I got sunburnt was in Himachal Pradesh. Bharmour. And I live in a country where peak summer temperature is 45 degrees) Sadly I never get to enjoy the full summer, when it's hottest here, I'm in Mumbai, on summer vacation, hiding from the rain.
Brrrrrrrr.
I want to hibernate for a week. Muscles all stiff.
Wake me up when this winter ends..........


Anyway, the tuition teachers have got me all freaked out, so for the first time in my life, I'm going to make a study timetable. And stick to it.
Or try.
Wish me luck........