About Me

Today I come across “About me” tab almost everywhere – orkut, facebook, blog, twitter etc. And everytime I see it , I pause for a moment..( well the moment is big enough!)and think of what could I write in there. I am too aggressive about it probably…coz I always want to write something that aptly suits me in that limited space… something that defines me crisply!

I did think of few things!

   Maybe I could write something about Gemini – my sunsign But honestly I don’t know whether I am a true Gemini or not. I still need to research a lot on “geminis” and can think of writing about it only after that.

I thought of my hobbies… Hmm maybe “I am too passionate about sketching/painting, yoga , reading, etc” Coming to think of it- yes I like sketching a lot but I can actually get time for it once in a blue moon.Literally.Like once in 3-4 years.And yoga? I do propagate yoga, and am an ardent follower of but that’s not something that I do religiously though I want to. Anyway!

And if you see, all those social websites already have a “Hobbies” section so anyway it would be redundant.

   Borrowing some great person’s words sounded a good idea. After googling a lot about some perfect quote that could suit me , my temperament, my existence or whatever was a tough job. From then, I discarded the idea .Hoping to find some appropriate quote one day, I started considering the idea of writing my professional vitals!

Wow…that sounded glamorous but when I actually started writing , I felt like I am applying for some job !! no way could I keep it. Scratched !

   Why is it that I find it so tough to write “About Me” ? I am with me since forever , I know how I react to things , how my approach towards things and people is, my likes , dislikes.Everything. Like I know I can remember every crap thing of who wore what shirt when (yes :( ) , all the insignificant details back in school too and don’t remember what I learnt in class last semester. That I have weird habbits - I always take off my glasses while eating-I feel they are too heavy for my nose only then( ?), I almost doze off in every class, I use a stop-watch while taking a shower(hooked to this one lately) , I observe the lines on my palm changing daily, I can spend hours curling my hair, Green tea soothes me instantly, I am paranoid about my waist line, I hate shopping for clothes coz I cant choose, I am very bad at remembering roads, I have midnight hunger pangs etc. But I still cannot write that simple “About Me”. I started writing this blog with the intention of knowing myself better, to understand how I think and until today I could not write anything “About Me”.

I still have to explore, analyse, achieve more… to be able to become a person whom I always wanted to be… and maybe then I could proudly write about me - effortlessly.

In the mean time , I am going to fill in that space with something!!!!!!!

Rewind

And then there comes a point in your life when you want to become a child again!!
Childhood memories always take me back to Summer holidays in Secundrapur – the place where my Grandparents stay. The 2 months vacation always flew in the flick of a moment…

It is basically a small village in Bidar district (Karnataka).

Our mornings were always spent in watching Gangappa milk the cows.We all cousins are closely bound…and maybe that’s why we chose to brush our teeth together and wait for kallamma to give us the washed cups and saucers . The historic toilet was in the terrace… we all went there together too …well for two reasons …first to fetch water as and when needed and then to help lock the door from outside (with a big stone) …counting the hens and chickens in the backyard waiting for our turns :D to use it.

We used to have a small Rangoli session thereafter … we draw them at 7 different places daily after Sharnamma sprinkled the cowdung water over the entire front yard…

Our afternoons usually were spent in inventing some or the other new game and spending our entire summer playing it… Like for instance – swim-swam (we used to swim actually on the cemented floor of a room which was very smooth and shiny– just giving a push to ourselves against the walls thus sliding away from it..), Poo-Ri (where we are poor in the first half and survive on leaves of trees and suddenly become this ultra rich in the second half when Amma used to call us for sumptuous lunch J then fouji (yes…ofcourse enacting as if we are soldiers and do a dhishum-dhishum-dham for the rest of the day..) ..We also used to play boating…..again in that special swimming pool room …a very big cooking vessel served as our boat… with 2 of us sitting in it and the rest helping it revolve J over the entire room.

We used to arrange the wedding of our dolls with Amma actually cooking special delicacies on that day….. We had this one day(our Grand parent’s wedding anniversary) of cultural event when we performed either skit or a dance for which we practiced our entire summers secretly…Bhasmasur and Mohini, Rikki-chikki-ghost, kiti sangu me sangu konala (marathi song) were few of them.

We usually spent our early evenings with some outdoor and well some sensible games like Gilli-danda , 4-corners, Dabba-fekam-fek - funny name which meant catching a box (since balls weren’t available) across a rope ..we actually created whole new rules for it and used to play doubles J too. At times we used to take a stroll to the fields accompanying our Grandpa….Now the interesting part was the way we used to walk …we had this imaginary ponies with us and we used to supposedly ride them …Now imagine we hopping like ponies with hands holding imaginary ropes and mumbling “tugudak-tugudak” till we reached our destinations..Now I wonder what passersby would be thinking seeing us like this… we were crazy!!!

Most of the times sunset was spent observing the skies changing colours hogging Amma’s special curd rice on the terrace watching cows coming back home.

Nights were spent in story telling...yours truly was one of the fav story teller.. I remember making up long stories. .Chandralekha, Shaitan Rakshas, Tiger were the favorite characters.. I once cooked up the story of “Vishwamitra” that lasted for three hours…After few days my cousins wanted to hear that story again!!! I had a hard time recollecting it exactly (well they all remembered it quite well) and re-narrating it.

I look back to those days as some story that we listened to …doesn’t feel like we actually lived those moments.. We had a wonderful childhood -touchwood. But I think , for everybody - - it is special !! I remember as a child we all long to grow up –to go to college and then to office and then there comes a point in life when you want to be a child again!!

Places and Spaces

Like I already mentioned in my last post, that recently I moved in to a new place …yet again ..Now that I am arranging my new closet , kitchen , bedroom , livingroom – it just reminded me of all the places that I have stayed in over the past couple of years..

It was after my graduation that I first stepped out of my home and started living in spaces wherein I tried creating my temporary comfort zones – well never comfortable though ! Those were at times the corner of a room , a side of room , the centre of a room ..yes sharing it with others most of the time…
Year 2004 - It was with Maya , Prachiti , Pragati for the first time with whom I was staying with as a Paying Guest.So all of us in one room – the room that always stinked no matter what we did. Where we had these amazing rules …The rules were weird for me as a first timer. I have gone through this list of rules quite a number of times after that from Model Colony to Praire Shores.

Later, I moved in a 2 Bedroom apartment with 6 other girls the – my second time. Neha , Anjali, Kalyani, Jyolsna, Pratibha, Nitu . We had an amazing experience wd guys during our stay here. Yes, since we were a bunch of girls , that’s an obvious tale to follow. Somebody used to ring our bell at 3 AM early mornings, or just switch off the Mains.Two of us together used to take turns, torches and courage to get the keys from the boy's apartment ( we were not given the basement keys) , go to the basement and switch on the light… to resume our studies. Later on we also heard interesting stories of how the place was haunted since a girl who owned it had committed suicide and how it was abandoned forever after that only for us to start living there. One fine day because of some major tiffs between the landlord and university authorities (who had actually helped us find the place) we had to vacate the place on a one day notice and since we did not have any other place we stayed in some God forbade “khandar” types very old university quarters illegally for over a week until we found our next place … It was perfect except that we had to drink the water from the tap in the washroom (the only working tap ) …and shared it with a dog and a cat who used to once in a while pop in through some window which we did not know of.

Thriving on Vada pav , samosas and cut chais , we shifted to yet another place and then to a different place. Well years passed by … but this move continued. Over 12 places in almost 6 years. The only things that changed were the room mates and the cities… from Pune to Chicago and now finally to San Ramon .. yes but this time – theres this one more big difference .. a room mate for life :) .. so I guess I can bear this for a few more times ..

Yes, the nomad’s life is fun , you see so many places , people .. you take something from each of them and give something back ..you fight , you learn , you listen , you laugh , you connect.You explore so many things about yourself. And then the bad part ..the moment you begin to feel the comfort, you have to pack your bags and ready yourself for the next move.

I now long for a place that will be my own , always – a place which wont be yet another space to be filled in , but a home and stop living in the suitcases for once , keeping the fun and the thrill aside !!! I guess that is how you start feeling at 27 …okay almost 28 !! Maybe :)

Check All

Life’s been full of surprises for me over the past year. Series of unexpected things coming in all the unexpected ways..

I have been travelling , packing , unpacking , shifting , jet-lagged-ing, working - all of it for the past couple of months. All of it left me with exhaustion. I have actually become numb – to almost everything. I am not sure of how long this state of “trance” would last ?

It was since this last week that I am unpacking and settling in, in a new place yet again, I flipped through the pages of my diary only to see the “to-dos” for 2009. To my surprise , I could check all of them..mind you they were not all that simple and easy …but things just felt into place quite smoothly …

I mean , can you imagine? So far this has never ever happened to me … I could never even stick to a simple resolution of getting up early :) forget anything else…

Now that all the small and big tasks are done , I am all geared up to make a new list for this year… yes I don’t think you need a new year's eve or a birthday or any special day to make a resolution – you can do it just anytime around the year ….

This stupid but pleasant thing has given me a high for the day :)