Random Thoughts ...

Sunday - Nov 6th
12:30 pm

It is a lazy Sunday afternoon and am half sitting and half lying down in the living room sofa of my PG house listening to some Hindi songs.. and day dreaming..There is a chill in the air even though it is in the middle of the afternoon which is a bit strange for me.. & it reminds me that I have not done my Winter shopping yet which people are claiming will almost kill us Southies who are not used to it...

It feels totally relaxing to be like this... a state wherein you are not bothered by anything ... no cases .. no irate PM trying to make your life miserable.. just the radio playing 'khajrare' the nth time.. never liked it that much to begin with .. but out of sheer repetition I have become used to it...

But all cannot be peaceful in this perfect sunday .. I knew ...Yet again two of my PG mates are shouting at the maid & she is shouting back.. am seriously amazed at their lung power... 2 people vs 1 ... still the maid is giving equal competition... in the end she wins the battle.. I want to whistle & clap for her ... but I refrain from it ..because apart from looking strange ...I knew this was just the battle .. the war would begin soon .. this would be escalated ..am sure ...and the maid , the poor soul(when she is not in a shouting match) will have hell to pay for...

Was reading the Delhi Times .. a while back... this sudden interest in newspapers is a direct result of the TV failing on us for the entirety of last week ....Felt good about Team India's performance in the recent Videocon cup,even though I have never been an avid fan of cricket..I think every Indian has cricket in his/her blood to feel atleast something by the mention of an Indian victory which has been eluding us so far...Congrats to the Team !!

By now I was thorough of what was there in the papers.. did not leave even the ads ... some interesting ones ( which I cannot repeat here ;-) ) I shared verbatim with my room mate much later..

There were some other things in the local section of the paper that were very disturbing....about rich senior citizens being attacked by some anti-social elements...and how the crime graph in Gurgaon was in the rise... this I feel is mostly due to a wide disparity in the living conditions of the locals & the new population that has shifted from other places for settling in newly developed places of Gurgaon in their old age or for better job opportunities in the MNCs...Because of dearth of job opportunities for these locals & with the rich/would be rich seemingly flaunting their wealth .. I guess they just try to grab something towards themselves.. thinking that it will last ... little do they realise the path becomes downhill for them from day one...

Then my thoughts turned to my now sleeping room mate... the poor soul had 2 consecutive night shifts & yesterday was her birthday .. Did the customary cake cutting the night before & felt a simple pleasure at her delighted surprise (she even forgot her birthday !!) for the cake & us singing for her ... I realised such simple things are the ones that give you real happiness ... The bigger ones which you think are just around the corner
just may not come ...if you know what I mean...

This time Diwali was away from family & friends .... missed them sorely ..especially my nieces ... I am missing out on their growing up & that sometimes bothers me... That day the only ones in the PG house was our cook & another new PG mate...I had finished my shift & when I reached home saw candles lit in the balcony instead of the 'diyas' .. Then I saw that my PG mate had made little footprints in all our bedrooms with haldi/chandan...She explained that it symbolises 'Goddess Lakshmi's ' feet & it is supposed to bring prosperity...I was surprised & touched by the belief ,which is not followed in South and also her action of including all of us (even the people who were missing) in this blessing .... It gave a sense of belonging in this age of being uprooted all the time.

There is a girl of about 12 years of age who comes in to help her mother (the one with the good lung power) in sweeping & cleaning the place. We knew that she refuses to go to school (atleast thats what she says)and it did not bother me too much apart from a brief thought about how she is wasting some of her most important years.The other day I saw the new PG mate teaching her to write her name & the numerals..From that day the girl has been diligently practising her writing.I do not know till when this will continue or how effective it will be ... but it is her first step to hope for something better.. Maybe she or her Mom might change minds and send her to school....But I was ashamed to think that this never occurred to me or the others before...Most of us contribute something or the other in the form of money for an unknown face somewhere in India but what do we do when such things stare at our faces in our day to day life ...

Well ...this was food to my thoughts ... What do you think ?

Signing off
Sundari