13/07/11

It's so much easier to read my friend's blogs and marvel at their work, rather than pen down something in my own. Check out http://rasagya.blogspot.com/ for some insightful experiments with poetry and prose, and http://independentrandomvariables.blogspot.com/ for brilliant photo-stories. Now their blogs are truly windows into their lives. My rather uneventful life, in comparison, could use some sprucing up (be careful what you wish for, says a tiny part of my movie-stuffed-memory). Yesterday was actually rather interesting..

It all began at 2 am where my coffee-stimulated-self could not get herself to sleep. I opened Karmel and Polasek to aid the process, and boy did it work while I held on to the leaves of its sickeningly yellow-green cover (If you're going to write a book on statistics, at least try deceiving the reader into thinking its interesting, with the cover! The only pictures it has are of histograms and bell curves). Anyhow, so once I did get drowsy, I did the whole light-switching-off, dump-the-book-on-the-drum-stool routine, not in that order...but it seemed that my eyelids were inversely correlated with the light switches. Well, that isn't entirely true..because then the solution lay in sleeping with the lights on..which too wasn't working. Do you ever marvel (or curse) at the ability of your mind to switch off while your body's still screaming for action..and vice versa? Lullabies must be invented for both parties...

So I gave up eventually..and decided to sort my cupboard. God alone knows how many clothes I've amassed over the years and hardly, if ever, worn. It's time someone who truly valued them had them. Well, that is the end of my terribly interesting story. Haha..so this post should be an effective cure for your insomnia. :p

No no that isn't the end at all...later in the day..I was all pumped up to go on a date with my newly appropriated old camera (a film-run-canon T50) since my driving test got cancelled. Thought I'd head down to Fort Area and take a couple of peek-chars..possibly eat some Pizza by the Bay. ('eat at' I should say)..maybe I'd even find the much-anticipated mobile for my new room's window. Ah..but all of it went up in the air..when the rain came pouring down with a vengeance. My link to the beautiful paved stones of Kalaghoda has a tendency to go under water when the coast Gods unleash their wrath upon us suburb-ians. So I cursed the elements, while grudgingly giving into the beautiful calm that a hot cup of tea and a book can bring upon one on a rainy day.

Later, in the evening, Ma took me on another driving lesson. I really started enjoying myself...fifth gear on the Palm Beach expressway has the tendency to iron out one's frown and worry etched forehead. However, not all was smooth..as I did the following 'bokami' in the span of the same evening- 1)leave the keys hanging on the door outside, while we got seat-belted and ready to roll (quite deservedly I was at the receiving end of a 'are you feeling stupid yet?'); 2) Almost hit a bike with a sudden leftward swerve just after positioning myself to turn right (Ma: 'But when I said we needed to park somewhere, I didn't mean right now!'); and the worst, 3) Worried by a bullying red bus heading in our direction at rapid pace, I steered leftwards (again) only to realize that I was separated from a parked car, literally, by a hair's breadth...we were close enough to lock in a passionate kiss...get my drift? Goodness...I do tend to lose my head when I'm behind the wheel...well..actually...I do tend to lose my head. period.

Home, we returned, after some gift hunting and bakery swooning...only to be informed that there had been three blasts in the city. Colaba, Zaveri Bazar and Dadar West had been hit during rush hour. Baba had fortuntely returned to Belapur by the time the madness hit...but, man did I retract all my ill-will towards the rain that morning! It reminded me of this story...was it by Nathaniel Hawthorne?..we read in our English class in school..something about chance..and how every second's decision can take one down a different road. It still gives me the heebie jeebies to think about it.

Me aside though...it's insane that Bombay's been hit again. With every passing hour of last night, the home ministry kept revising the casualty figures upwards..the city will get over it. It always does. But it shouldn't. As in it should get up and get moving again, as is characteristic of the average Mumbai-kar who'd brave the flood to get to work...but we shouldn't adopt an attitude of resignation and inevitability towards terrorism. The helpless 'What can we do about the bomb blasts?' is not going to get us places.

Look at urban planning for instance. The terrorists have picked Zaveri Bazaar several times now..it's a soft spot in terms of congestion, chaos and traffic...any novice could target the place and get away with it. The last time they thought of V.T...well of course they'll think of VT- have you seen it at rush hour? Maximum impact with minimal gunpowder and planning.. Our country is chock-a-block with people...I'm not going to get all Malthusian and look at it as purely an evil. We have to deal with the numbers in ways such that the value of human life is elevated and not undermined. The media has got it right this time- human life comes really cheap in our nation. Just this once, I wish the laws of economics (excess supply decreases price) didn't apply..