Fish, Sol-kadi, Long Drive and Awkwardness

It's official. Anish' mom is THE person to go to for any seafood preparation. Thank you Ashish, wait... don't blast me again, I didn't call you back out of sheer courtesy. :)

Aah, the joy of aunt's in phoren-land, the fish, the prawns and the sol-kadi and the sol-kadi and the sol-kadi to top it off. Bless you Aunty. Pet khush, dil khush, paisa vasool, thank you very much.

So Anish is one of the Ashish, Dennis category friends. One of the main (not proud of it) quality of this category of friends is that we are extremely pathetic at keeping in touch. So much so that I had made plans to come to Richmond more than a month back and I completely forgot that Anish is in Richmond too. Only for our man, Ashish Kulkarni, to remind me the same and that his parents are visiting him. Ata Kay! Aunty cooks, reverential sigh, Ashish is woken up at 8 AM in Pune, he curses, we grin, we eat, I'm sure he will read this post in sometime, he will curse again, everyone happy. Good Night.

Off late a few of my posts have dealt with quirkiness and one more to add to the list. So the situation is that you are trying to lighten the mood with some good (or agreeable) humor and there is this one person (in this case, could be multiple otherwise) who hails from another part of the country who either doesn't get the joke or just doesn't operate at that wavelength or lack of a wavelength (if you know what I mean). Now you are stuck in this situation when the only word that comes to mind is "Awkward!!" You have the entire family, friends, having a good time and this guy is just Awkward!! You don't know if you have pissed him off or he is just the way he is but the situation is mightily awkward. So the next time you crack a joke (or a harmless wise ass remark) you aren't incorporating him in the joke and you are very much aware of his presence or should I say absence in the conversation but then bhaat to do, no? Turns out when I did prod a lil bit with him, he is a proud native of whatever part of the country he comes from, which explains his aloofness ( if you ask me, dim wittedness)

Finally, you are on your way back home, about 2 minutes from home and this song comes on which you hear after ages. You have to complete this song which is why you drive past home and continue driving till you finish it. Happens, no? Or is it just me and my family? MJ, I finally saw "This is It". You were the biggest entertainer/performer of my time. Once again in your tribute and the song for which I don't mind driving past home. Every time.

Cecilia

Woah!Seems like I heard this song in another lifetime. Talk about nostalgia.

I need to revamp my room. One of the lamps is out of place and it's largely to do with one of the electric points not working. I need to put in some thought, maybe I also need a la-Z-boy in my room, although I don't know where that would fit.

Maybe after my Richmond trip. I am really looking forward to chilling with family. Binoy is going to laze around with a vengeance.

The Kulkarnis

The time between 4:30 - 5:30 PM is a very important time of the day. The Kulkarnis know that better than most. A glorious tradition of Puneri siesta is brought to a close and another begins. A vessel is brought out, with some water, adrak (ginger), sugar, boiled, chai pathi (tea leaves) added and a pack of Parle-G and brought out in the living room of this certain house in Sanewadi.

The blissful first sip, the dipped Parle-G in your mouth and the conversation that follows defines the essence of that house in Sanewadi. There is a scientific explanation as to why this tradition is mandatory, the explanation being... because. I have tried a lot to emulate that tradition over here, and I have had good conversations/laughs during my chai-ParleG sessions with Roomie, but it just doesn't come close to that living room in Sanewadi. The reason being, you need the entire family to make up the tradition. The Dad's, the Mom's, the kids, the generation gap, the Dad's opinions (complete naansense), the kid's views about it (absolute ridicule), the Mom's (know it all) smile and the conversation/argument that ensues is very much part of that tradition. Come 5:30 PM, and you have experienced the perfect refresh button to get on to the next activity, i.e. getting your butts to the ground.

The Kulkarnis are missed every time I have chai and Parle-G which is right about now.

I want just the right dance partner, like right now. I so wanna shake off this monotony.

Wow! This place just isn't as spontaneous as my place. I want to dance just because.

Help!

"What would it feel like to cut my own veins?"

Alright, I need to put in a few disclaimers before I start this post. The following theory is respectfully my own. No offense meant; no offense expected. It is a very relative concept, something I have only experienced in the recent past (5 - 6 years), so could be volatile and fleeting. Read it with a pinch of salt.

A "normal" human-being is an extremely rare occurrence. The first 20 odd years of your life (typical stat for an Indian, could vary drastically outside India), you will never notice what I am about to say, you need to step out of the comfort zone of your home and live independently to really notice that a fairly large percentage of the human population is not normal.

Sure enough, each and everyone of us have our own idiosyncrasies, quirks etc. Not everyone is smart, funny, patient, so on and so forth and I ain't talking about any of this. But as you experience the world outside, beyond the usual good and happy times, basically during the "behind the scene" times, you will be astounded to see that a number of people are just plain weird. There is just one word that comes to my mind. "Psychos". I kid you not, I have seen the most entertaining, fun-loving, smart people in good times to be absolute psychos behind the scene. And this is not a one off scenario, a huge percentage of the population fall into that bracket. The Psychosis could vary over a broad spectrum; could be a persistent psycho thought, psycho behavior on telephone, psycho state of being at some point in the day, psycho analysis of non-existent situations or just random psycho attacks. You know the dangerous part is that they are absolutely "normal" people in real life, in fact many of them are brilliant personalities.

You meet one of these kinds after ages, and sure enough, he is those interesting, vibrant kinds and you are tempted to think it's cool only to take a step back and realize "Woah! Well, not really. He did that again."

I have been very generous in my usage of the word "psycho", simply because I can't think of a better word. It's not as bad as to be a physically harmful scenario persay, but I hope you get the drift. There is a big time dearth of normal people in the world.

Another One from the Man!

Saturday Morning

Woke up to this song:



Just about recovering from a cold sweep, perfect feel good song.

Priceless Pics!

Yaar mereko India jaaneka hai.

Grad Life!

We reached Maryland. Housed at Ani's place, the bugger has moved to an apartment complex apparently just across the street to College Park and I am getting to experience the rigors of grad life again. Well, not really but at least virtually. And I am so glad I am done with it. The 2 years of your Master's life is just such a beggar life, teaches you a whole freaking lot but not something I want to experience again. I might get to eat some good crab today, something I haven't found to be well made here in the US.

I like Ani's university though... but only virtually. No more grad life for me again.

The most torrid time for a Liverpudlian. Nothing's going our way.

We need to stick these times out.