Tomorrow has come, Today

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

My Movie Man(ia)

When it came to schools, I was all about ready to live and let live, that is until I created a facebook account!


High school..... Seems like yesterday I was begging my Mom not to go with her chosen form of punishment- NOT to send me to school that day! Yeah, I loved going to my school THAT much! It was so much of fun, the activities, the funny teachers and the siiiigh boyzzzzz.


For some inane reason, I never admitted my crushes to even my 'best' friends. Sure I was a part of a group call PSMS (yeah just one s long of PMS!) I listened to the 3 of em gushing about Jason and how cute his haircut was... or Deepak and how he looked at P this morning. Oh and the endless teasing of M with Saj, which we still do today. S used to blush when ever Tarun passed by her.


But me? I always said I didnt have a crush on anyone.... ever. I wonder if they really believed me? Well I guess they might have, as they seemed pretty awestruck that a gal could be immune to a guy's cuteness. (There's a different term for that these days, but we wont go there!)


Then there was the 'number'. "How many guys have asked you out?"-number. I think I averaged about 1 a year until the 12th grade. Not too bad, but only I didnt admit to this either to my friends! They knew about some of these guys since well, a guy drooling over a gal during gym period was very obvious. And then came the incessant teasing, the 'oh shes blushing' (which was probably the effect of 100F heat in the middle-eastern summers!)


This brings me to K. He was the kind of guy you'd call a 'loser'. In all the bad books of the teachers, always late to class, wrinkled shirt not tucked in, messy hair ... you get the picture. Oh and he used a lot of then termed 'bad' words. And as far as I remember, no girl was really 'into' him. He wasnt one of the 'cool' boys.


So when K casually asked me out one day, I shuddered and quickly looked around to see if anyone had noticed. No one had and by the time I'd turned back to K, he'd already moved onto the next gal with a shrug, anticipating my reply no doubt.


I would have been embarassed to bring this up at all, if I didnt find out recently (this is where facebook comes into the picture) that K is now a star in Bollywood!


Graduating high school was fun- the parties, the farewells. By the end of it, I was so eager to get on with college, I catapulted my way out of a 'relationship'. (Oh, what were they thinking? That'd we'd get married after high-school? This isnt Beverly 90201 you know!)

Ah college in Madras, not too bad I'd say. The music, the movies, the food... good times!


Racing home one day on my scooter (had to get home before aunt did), I cut across a back-alley and found myself in the middle of a street cricket game. The guys playing glared at me, challenging me to try to get through their pitch. Well, I did. (Getting on bad books of aunt equals doing my laundry myself)


The next day, I was home alone and sitting on the balcony, when this guy, V starts yelling at me. I told him I no understand Tamil and he says something like, "Well, why are you in Madras then?". One retort led to another and the last thing I remember him saying is, "I can teach you Tamil, lets go out to coffee". Thats when I went inside laughing and shaking my head.


A year or so later my cousin tells me about this new star in Tollywood who's from his school and is a huuuge deal right now. And he's excited since this star lives right around the corner from aunt's place...

Maybe I should start taking more of an interest in Bollywood and Tollywood.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Me, M(a)y(a) and Thomas

Every Thanksgiving for 6 years now, (a few of) my thoughts find its way to Maya ...


I was lucky to go to college and find friends who I shared more in common with than an addiction to chocolate and good food around the city. :-) (Yeah, I wasnt the 'girly-college-gal') Being plopped into a new country wasnt as mind boggling as you'd think- I realised I was really malleable when it came to new cultures... and that brings me to Thomas.


St Thomas to be exact. One of the first Christians to have set foot in India. But I'm no historian, so if you want more of the good Saint- read it here... or see it here.


After a few semesters of clubbing, watching friends get high on dope and well numerous other entertaining facets of hostel life, we got bored. (Its probably A.D.D, someone once told me...!) We'd been to the St Thomas Mount before, actually we happened to stumble upon the place one day while talking to a group of cute army-men. (If you read the wiki entry, the Church was right next to an army camp)


November is one of the best months to do any walking or hiking around Madras, its the only time when you wont break out into a sweat while putting your shoes on! Anyways... before A.D.D hits again let me get back on track.


The Church maintained a small orphanage where we used to visit. It felt surreal- playing with these kids, watching them live out their childhood happily. All the while thinking of what the nuns just told you, about the horrors most of them went through, so early- before they were brought to the doorstep of the mount. I dont think I'll ever forgot the first time I saw Maya. She was the happiest kid on the playground. Never jostled or shoved for a turn at the swings. Content to watch the other kids playing. I was curious, I beckoned to her and she ran to me almost instantly. She was dressed in white and for some reason that way she looked at me was intimidating.


I asked her, "Whats your favorite color?", thinking that would stump her! Hah! "White, because its so clean", she said.


Over the next coupla weeks I found out more about Maya. She was 3 days old when left at the orphanage, her mom was too poor to take care of her. They hadnt heard from her family since. She was now almost 4 years old- a happy, loving child... with a hole in her heart.


Months later, some 10's of thousands of rupees donated, a surgery was performed at the St Thomas hospital. The Church was at a constant vigil, lit by candles that never seemed to die out. It was heatwarming to say the least when we were finally allowed to see Maya. This time she beckoned and we went to her side, she smiled- her wide engaging smile. But I didnt expect anything less- her heart was now whole again.



A few months later I Maya bid goodbye to the orphanage. It was easier than I expected. She was adopted by a family who worked for the hostel I stayed at. I knew she was going to a better place and hopefully, a better life. Maya thrived in an place filled with a sense of sad finality or hopeful dreams, I guess because she choose the latter.


Over my final year at college, I got to see Maya pretty often. Running the hallways of our hostel, clutching a variety of sweets. We got to spend good times with her, keeping her engaged while her Mom finished up her work. I never really bade her goodbye when I left, and I dont regret that. It would have been pretty hard... on me. After all, how much do we remember of our lives when we're 4? And anyways, Maya never liked seeing someone cry.


Maya, where-ever you are now, I hope you're doing measureably better than that November in 2000. And I think... I have so much to be Thankful for. Here's to the start of a happy holiday season!

Monday, November 19, 2007

Judement day, al(l)-ready?

There's so much of judgement in the air these days, its no wonder there hasnt been a study that tells you to live a certain distance from the judging-broadcast 'stations'. I guess that would be equal to living like a hermit? (I think I see this lifestyle in my future... More on this later)


Take Sam for instance. She's a do-gooder, quick to please, not a mean bone in her body. But there's only so far she will go for herself. Why? She has friends and family who judge her.


When did people become so judgemental? I bet its the dishwashers, washing machines and the frozen dinners of the world that delivered the time- that was meant to be put to better use. Veggies are pre-washed, as notions are pre-concieved. Laundry is automated, rather like courtesies. There are cycles for the dishes- light, heavy, tough-scrub quite synonmous to preset cycles we're expected to follow- marriage, kids and vacations.


Now forget Sam... lets think about Angie; shes a genuine person, down-to-earth- is that why she has many opinions about how the world should be? I guess thats ok, but why does she speak about them as the only way to go?

"Peer pressure", is what I hear when I ask, "Why this now?" Peer pressure? In your adult-life? And here I thought, there were some advantages to being old(er). Naive (old) me. :-)

"You cant be non-judgemental", Rohan tries to tell me. "Its part of the human psyche."

Oh how I wish thats not true! Do we all really have a judicial part in our brain? Certain opinions that become etched in its recesses, unyielding? Werent we built to evolve, adapt to change.

Well I guess we've definitely proved Darwin wrong then!

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Let there be light.

Living in a country where the lights never seem to go completely out even during a blackout puts things in a whole different picture frame ...

I was bringing some tea-lites to life on the front porch a few days ago and had to stop to think whether I should turn off the porch light itself, to bring 'out' the tiny flickering flames of the candles. Is this just another tradition I'm going to cast aside as 'silly' and 'doesnt make sense' now that we have electricity to do the same thing? Wouldnt the Goddess who we are inviting (enticing) into our homes, find her way just the same no matter how the path was lite up?

I guess I've already strayed off the traditional path by not using the clay lamps and oil... but the convinience of a $2.99 bag of 100 tea-lites from Ikea is hard to beat! Though I did make Gulab Jamuns for the first time. (there were many online recipes that gave me useful tips like ricotta instead of khoya) Sigh... I did make cupcakes as a back-up though. Diwali wouldnt be the same without an excuse to cook up a lot of sweet stuff!

And no guesses for which turned out better and made it out of the home to friends' appreciative taste buds. Happy Diwali everyone! c) c) c) c) c)