Well, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome me once again to the blog which you visit more often than me! And you know very well how deeply obliged I am for your continued efforts to keep the traffic on this blog going. Hai na? So accept my deepest thanks for visiting with anticipation to find a new post and then cursing me royally after not finding one! Let’s keep this love-hate relationship going…
I have religiously followed one blog per month rule till now for this year and I am just in time this month. I have been thinking of my next blog topic for quite sometime now. But nothing clicked. Nothing made the writer in me sit straight up on my new revolving chair or my new sofa in front of the new TV that I recently purchased, spread my legs on the cute new side table and write my heart out. (All the little tidbits of my life covered in one line! Howzzat!! )
I have been going through all sorts of emotions over the last few days. I was really raged, furious, tentative, angered, frustrated about so many things about life in US - for example, excessive use of dim yellow lights to light up rooms. I mean, the only place apt for yellow lights back in mere apne des are the bathrooms, garages and such nooks and spooky corners. There has been another post here which elucidates the readers here about the effects dimly lit rooms have on me. My photon-deprived brain cells lose all ability to function the small little they are capable of doing and I become very much like "jadoo" of Koi Mil Gaya fame crying dhoop dhoop around.
Another thing which really gets on me is the affinity Americans have with sweet. Man, chocolates, ice-creams, doughnuts and what not! Hell, even breakfasts have sweet syrups topped on lavish layers of butter! As if my already spherical shape was not enough to put the footballs, cricket balls and tennis balls of this world to shame! Now my room mate is an Indian who eats lunch like Americans. She is really well versed with the American dietary habits. I get bugged real long and hard by the various cuisines that she prepares. Why the concept of dal chawal never occurred to Americans who invent so many things, I really wonder. Most of these delicacies have names which twist my tongue so much that I find myself unable to enjoy the taste ! So most of the times, I hardly know what I am eating and I wish there was a way to get back to the dal-chawal-sabzi-roti-rasam-dahi diet.
Desis in US develop many new habits. Online shopping is one of them. You never realize when it becomes a compulsive, impulsive disorder and you want to buy everything online – from kindle to card reader – you want them all in your bag! And if you have crossed all the limits on your credit card, you end up doing window shopping on internet day in and day out! And the result is, your friends (whoever has remained of them now) and family start thinking of you as a shopping catalog – iphone kitne ka hai, yaar do you know anything of external hard disks, Anusha didi, aate time mere liye ek 10000 megapixel ka digicam le aana.. :-| These are all real life examples and you can sulk in peace if you have been quoted!
And then all sorts of questions you have of life. Times when you are totally confused about yourself, your life, your significance in the grand scheme of things and what to make of it take most of your thinking time. And you demand answers. It probably is the last remnant of the mid-20s syndrome in me. I think I will be better after this birthday.. ;-) I was having a very good chat with a friend the other day about all these things. And we agreed that life is not all about knowing. Life is about living which we keep on forgetting every now and then.
Khair, life moves on with the calendar. Mine moves on again and it is about time to add another month to my life. This time I am happier and a little more aware of things around me. Maybe I have changed. Maybe I have grown up a bit. Maybe I just do not care enough. Whatever be the case I am still going to continue whining and complaining about things on this blog.
Atleast till this year end!
Next year, no promises! :-)
