To the Sundance Musketeers.. reposted!

Another turning point;a fork stuck in the road.
Time grabs you by the wrist;directs you where to go.
So make the best of this test and don't ask why.
It's not a questionbut a lesson learned in time.
It's something unpredictablebut in the end it's right.
I hope you had the time of your life.

So take the photographs and still frames in your mind.
Hang it on a shelf
In good health and good time.
Tattoos of memories and dead skin on trial.
For what it's worth,it was worth all the while.
It's something unpredictable but in the end it's right.
I hope you had the time of your life.

It's something unpredictablebut in the end it's right.
I hope you had the time of your life.
It's something unpredictablebut in the end it's right.
I hope you had the time of your life.

I heard this song after a very long time...it was playing on the radio in the morning while I was on my way to work, before Bank of America had taken over that company and I had reached office...and this has been on my mind since then... 

Okay...cut to sometime in early December...Charni Road, our second abode after Sundance :)

The place where we grew thick, cooked the countless meals, ordered the countless meals, chatted away the night sitting by the window, while all three of us struggle to enqueue our song on "the playlist"...varying from bizarre Punju numbers (i dont know why I insist on listening to Mika when I am drunk...well doesnt that explain the punju in me!!) to Kid Rock, MLTR to the Eagles, the AIESEC jives to anything under the sun cos the married woman insisted that she had the best taste...

It was on one such night after sitting till very long... The gujju was by the laptop... Mallu was by the window stubbing her last and I was somewhere trying to make conversation about how lucky we were to have found with eachother in Bombay (I am guessing thats what we were talking about, cos on such nights the conversation always used to steer in that direction...now alcohol does that to you :P) and then Gujju caught us unaware...

"Guys I dedicate this to you"

And yes we were an eclectic bunch :) ...a punju, a Mallu and the Gujju (i can almost hear the Gujju screaming...aye I was only brought up there, I ama full on Maharashtrian!!) okay okay we give it to you...Maharshtrian Gujju...

So what do you expect...three girls, spending girlie time together, sappy lyrics, high on life, high on alcohol, looking at eachother, giving the "awww" look and the reactions

Gujju was still by her seat..looking at our faces, waiting for our reactions
Mallu got up to get her next smoke and fix our round of drinks (she was a pro at it)
and I was sitting there wondering what happened to the conversation!!!

So the song ended, we hugged and we were back to being our ususal selves...That was a moment :)


Cut to the present..
Mallu is happily married and in the States
Gujju is in Mumbai, not in Charni Road but :(
And I am back to Punju land and loving it :)

This was long overdue...had been wanting to capture it for my own self and for the greater good for a long time :)

Cheers to the Sundance musketeers :)

Back to fog!

Garbled language, fragrance of chameli, more garbled language, the stench of iodex, some more garbled language, scroungy hairy legs being showed off in capris, yet more garbled language, appams and still more garbled language..

My first day in a land without fog (the fog in my mind having cluttered every space in my brain) I politely nod and excuse myself from a group of 11 men from Chennai and go to my room thinking all the time.. NO! DO NOT BE RACIST! This is just day 1, wait for things to work, things to settle down - trying to force myself to pass no judgments on Day 1 (but in my head I also somewhere knew that I already had ;) )

I had a Thai couple sitting behind me - laughing away and this group of eleven.. happily making conversation.. laughing at me - the North Indian ;)

I donot understand a single word of what is being exchanged in the room and the garbled language is just making me feel super dyslexic!! On an impulse.. I just felt like standing up on my chair and singing some cheap ass Hindi song! But all I am doing is sitting there, smiling at the irony of the situation - I AM SILENT!

I COULDN'T EVEN THROW A TANTRUM!

Here is to spending thirteen more such days and the hope in my heart to reach my foggy home town soon enough!

Memories: Defogged!

Which is the oldest memory that you can remember being a part of with your father? your mother? your sibling? The OLDEST memory, the one memory that you can close your eyes and think back to and realise that yes that was the moment I smiled, I laughed, I cried, I grew up, I belonged, I understood, I learned..

There are moments in all of our lives that we have not photographed but are etched in our hearts, memories that make us all smile when we remember them, moments that touch a chord, moments that want to make us look back, moments that just want to make us thank God for blessing us, moments that have been life changers, milestones..

We often get too engrossed in our daily routines that we rarely look back and smile, that we forget we are blessed, that there are so many people in our lives who love us and care for us - each one of these people, every one of these memories, each of those memories, these instances are God's blessings - ways, hints and means for all of us to realise that we are blessed, we are special and that all of us are God's own children!

Don't let fog blind these memories!

WTF!

Ever since the inception of this thought and finally putting it all together which took almost two weeks to do - as my mind was seldom defogged to think in this direction.. When I would be en route to work (and not on the phone), when I would be sitting idle, when I would be in a flight (I am quite the jet setter :P) .. I would find my mind wandering towards the thought, obsessing over the idea and always remembering to close the thought with a pat on my back to have come up with such a mind blowing analogy (Self motivation).. so basically the drift being the obsession with the fog (Be it literal - which caused a delay in my flight or the fog on my blog - wow that rhymed! another pat on my back ;) )

Then I thought .. how about replacing the F in WTF with u guessed it - FOG!

What the Fog.. The traffic!
What the Fog.. The crowd!
What the Fog.. Super meal!
What the Fog.. You have to be kidding me!
What the Fog.. They actually won the match!
What the Fog.. You really did have a bath!
What the Fog.. Does this mean?!
What the Fog..This is beautiful!

Hmmm.. It does not sound quiet right!

With due regard to my fog.. I would consider the replacement to be an absolutely trashy idea and would restore all respect for WTF!

P.S. - I read this again and the only thought that came to my mind was WTF!

Happy Defogging!

The fog in our lives!

The blinding winter fog, the mist, the loss of clarity, the usual start to a grumpy winter morning, an eternal hope that the fog will clear and there will be crystal clear vision, a sense of direction and knowledge about where you are..

You can either drive through the fog, wait for it to clear, use your fog lights, curse the fog and let it go or you can just take stock of the fog and assess how you want to go ahead.. These are some of the options all drivers have on a cold brutally foggy morning!

The fog through the eyes of an onlooker is mystical, magical and mysterious - conveying a hidden beauty which is captured in all our minds.. but if you sit in the drivers seat - you realise how tough it is to drive through this mysterious beauty..

There is fog in all our lives.. and NO its not a winter characteristic!

Take a deep breath, close your eyes - the skeletons in your closet, the secrets pushed under the carpet, the vices hidden somewhere, delaying plans - waiting for the bridge to come to cross it.. All this is the fog that we choose to drive our lives with..

And because we get so used to driving our lives with the fog.. we just get accustomed to driving with a blurred vision.. we begin to make the fog in our lives sound beautiful and magical.. something that just becomes intrinsic..

But hey think again!!

Fog lights DO help!