S, my driving instructor

... the second one, to be precise for the left hand drive here...the first one being the inconsequential guy who taught me how to drive a manual car, in the last century, but who did not almost hit me as S... thus his inconsequentiality...
and believe me, i remember S every single day when i negotiate bad traffic with a cool head, when i switch lanes effortlessly, when i drive confidently on a Round About, when i can manage a sharp turn with the least amount of jerk, all i do is to thank him silently for those loud hours of teaching, for those merciless evenings when i used to almost cry before leaving for the driving class...
i now know the benefits of a tough driving instructor...
my unfazed driving is solely his credit, rather the credit of his vocal chords...
and once i had the Licence in hand but still had not bought the car, thankfully B took me around... oops i took around B in his car and he was S's replacement, shouting and whipping (only with words, mind you) me to enable me to get over my road fear, all this after having given S a fat reward, since in his own words, "S has done what i have not -- shouted at you, without you retorting."
i just pretended not to hear... at times, i too know to keep quiet...

Made in India

this has nothing to do with Republic Day...
but recently while lolling around at an upmarket shopping mall here in Doha, R wanted to look for some nail enamel... little did i know that the colours she would want would be least what i would approve... she chose BLACK... and of a renowned and costly US brand...
following her to the same store, i started to shop for some lip pencils... the colours i liked were available from two brands, but i, unknowingly opted for an Indian brand...
the counter lady who had to prove her superior selling ability, was happy with what R had chosen, but as soon as she saw what i wanted, she blurted out, "Madam, this is made in India... so would you want it?"
i felt like k**king her... but with a straight face said, "I am also made in India and would want only what i chose."
she smiled with a hurt look... i had achieved a little bit of what i would have with the k**k...

12+ things that bowl me over

there are many such, but will note down what i can tell you...
please note that the order does not indicate the degree of importance or the extent to which each can bowl me over... it is the order in which those came to my mind while i started this post... so here i go:

Public Library: where i could spend my lifetime... where i can go with B and get lost in-between stacks... where i have spent time romancing both with books and B...


Muscat: where i stayed less than two years, but a place which is BEAUTIFUL, to say the least... more importantly, this is where i started working for a publishing house and am still with them till date, Insha Allah


Barack Obama:... no need of restating...

Lipsticks and glosses: fascinates me, sends me into fits of feel good...


Diamonds: am i different in this, nope, but i still have felt the urge to splurge to you


Souq: to pick up material for my everyday office wear... and then one trip to my tailor and am done...


Yum food: need i say more? any country, any cuisine, any taste... i am up for it...

Sports cars: for a swing and a zing in life, what better than a low, two-seater sports car....


R...


writing, writing, writing, writing...


Home...

Walking alone


Sleeping, sleeping, sleeping, sleeping...


anyone who reads this is tagged...

i assume there is something called 'i-etiquette'...

... but i think, as countless other times, i am wrong...
i have a strange habit of getting rid of things i do not need which i have, of late, finetuned to extremities... just as i write this, B calls to ask about a Gift Voucher that he had got and given me for 'safekeeping'... nowhere is that found and his doubt is that i MUST have junked it, in the belief that we wil not need it... that is not the point of this post though...
i erase people's numbers i no longer call, i erase people's ids (mail) from my IM, in the foolish belief that if i do not see them, they will also not see me... clear instance of a tunnel vision...
but just a while back, someone with whom i have not communicated for quite sometime, pops out of nowhere on my monitor and hugs me...
she was a baby when i first saw her, but that was 31 years back...
this lady, all of a sudden comes like a gust of wind, and after the cursory exchanges of how we are, how the weather is (typical example of more important things coming), she pops her real question... about character certificate in some other country...
i am quite irritated with her sudden appearance, since when she changes countries and cities, she gets so busy that she misses even telling me, over the same chat site...
and on top of that, she reveals her purpose in the third sentence...
i brush it aside like a speck of dust and tell her, "have no idea"...
the next sentence is, "ok, bye, take care, catch you soon" and runs off...
what does one do with such idiots? can you tell me?????

history in front of the eye

tomorrow Barrack Obama will take oath as the 44th President of the US of A. every eight years, on this day, the 20th of January, a new President takes office... nothing new, so why am i writing about it?
a puny soul, with high human aspirations, i felt euphoric while watching him live on TV for his pre-innaugural speech... he has one thing for sure -- an electrifying capacity to inspire, with a capital I. in this day and time of anti-heros, Obama stands out and the colour of his skin becomes totally incidental... he clearly brings to mind the Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech that King gave on August 28, 1963
what King dreamt, Obama has realised.
at this point, i just want to cherish this feeling, the feeling born out of what King had described as "character"... and America has testified to that choice by voting for Obama...
why am i rejoicing? why am i sounding on top of the moon?
because of the victory of MAN, does not matter that it is not my country, not my continent...
it is still the human being above all else...
and what is the Obama couple doing today? Michelle Obama is spending the day packing bags for the troops in Iraq and her husband celebrated MLK day in various services...
so in spite of the slight pall of gloom of the recession, of the tough job at hand and that the world will scrutinise Obama for every moment, i want him to prove that as the President of USA, he is also a super duper human being...
all the best President Obama!

cheap thrills... why cheap?

we do it on an ongoing basis. and why not? flirting is good for health and great for the mind, as long as it is restricted within sane limits, does not hamper work and adds a little zing to life, it's perferct.
it allows one to stay young and bouncy...
so we at office indulge in it very regularly...
our crush lists get updated, we weed out stale guys (after a point in time, we also get bored, so we move on), and are on top (i mean ONLY figuratively speaking) of the most happening guys in town...
and what a multi-cultural list have we... you name a country, you have some representation in our database.
and what is the husbands' reactions? others i do not know, but mine makes out who my current crush is, going by the hoo-haa that i make over a story i have just done and when i carry the published copy, he immediately latches on to the guy and gives a dirty look at innocent me while i try hard not to break out into a guilty giggle...
that is my way of keeping him on leash... afterall my beau of 23+ years is a man in his 40s... it helps to know that one has a partner who is noticed and this is true for both...
try it and see the difference...

this one's for you, Mom

since we are born of our parents, it's natural that we are a combination of the genes of two people (the first step), our grandparents (the next step) and our fore-parents (not forefathers, please; the next step)... nothing new, you may say...
certainly not in what i have stated, but new is my latest avatar... that of a cook, who is cooking willingly, experimenting recipes and enjoying food after a long while and mind you, i have even cut down on my intake (in both the quantity as well as cutting out certain things totally, like sweets) since i am thoroughly enjoying what i am ruffling up.
what is the secret of this transformation? my erstwhile recruit, G, very very neatly put.
he had been cooking and cleaning since May 2008. initally a very pleasant chap, but suddenly got worldly wise... his speed of work increased, he started calling shots on what was to be cooked (no chana dal since it takes a long time to boil, only masur dal; no non-veg since he is a veg), no interest or time in learning to make any of my recipes since is "buzy".
i was seething inside but tried to make the best of what i had at hand since cooks are not easily available here... so in the meantime, i had started to make the odd dish that i wanted to have cooked. it was only making things more and more convenient for G who cared less and less.
his ways became more and more irritable and his timings more and more eratic; missed calls became common in an effort to intimate me that he would be late by a couple of hours since he was stuck with some odd job (read quick cash) at some odd place. SMSes also became cool with a cryptic note, "Please call me back."
finally it reached a boiling point when citing visa work he pleaded absence for 5 days, mind you through an SMS again...
if i can manage for 5 days, why not longer... so while i thought about it very hard, i replied to his message the next day, asking him to come on Feb 1 to collect his 3 day's salary...
since then (and it is more than a week now), i am the chef at home. it is grand freedom, to say the least. i decide what i want to have; i decide when i want to cook; and i decide at what pace i want things done, not in the pace set by my erstwhile bionic "buzy" cook...
and i have ruffled up kofta, bhape ilish and cholar daal
yesterday and both meals were silent, except for B's and R's clean plates and licking fingers.
while cooking, i was recalling the way Mom used to do when she used to... so all the credit goes to her...
muaaaaah, Ma, this is my way of saying, "I LOVE YOU."