Birthday Girl

Happy Holidays

2013

Yet another year to close. Yet another wonderful year to close. Can I say some random year ending stuff? I am presuming you have said, 'Why, yes of course. We are all dying to know how the year was for you personally and the entire world is waiting to hear all your random, weird, almost nauseating thoughts of the year'. 

So there we go. 

I finally fulfilled my wish of visiting London. I loved London. I think I more or less fall in love with almost every place I visit. I felt I matured a lot even as an amateur traveller. I knew exactly what I wanted to do on most days which also included a whole lot of aimless walking around the city.  I remember this one day, I had gone to a small town called Egham, an hour and a half's drive from London, to my friend's university. After she went for her lecture (she is a professor), I ventured forth like a predictably excited migratory bird. So usually my experience has been that if I keep walking and walking, I am bound to discover something really cool, even mindblowing at times. So I kept walking and walking and after about half an hour I realised I have gone completely off track and have come to a highway of sorts. Then I turned back and started walking again. Before I was about to reach my friend Kopal's university, I found a pretty left with pretty houses. I took the left and started walking. I went to this spectacular cemetery as the winter sun grazed my skin and flowers bowed over loved ones' graves. I have been to at least six cemeteries in Europe so far and every time I am inside it, I feel weird. I feel almost scared. But I also feel a deep sense of calm and a sense of being (weirdo). I love the messages on the tombstones. I love the flowers, flower pots. I love the little paraphernalia of each grave. Anyhow, I then walked into a local coffee shop. Sat near a window, had half of a sandwich and coffee. Walked into another right, found a local arts and crafts shop, found some really beautiful houses. Walked ahead and found a huge park. Sat there for hours, finished the leftover sandwich and made a terrible sketch of a house I could see on my left. 

And by the time I was done with all of this, it was just 2 pm. I don't know what I am trying to say. When you are in a wonderfully strange new place, something happens to time. I love big cities but they eat up time. They swallow time and leave no traces of it. But in smaller towns, time walks next to you, tickles you, plays with you. I love that. I love the feeling that it is possible to hold time in your hands. And mix it with all the beautiful things around you and you are bound to be amazed by what you feel. It really does feel something. Trust me.  

London was London. So handsome. And so wonderfully reckless at places. Full of art. Full of passion.

Moving on. I celebrated my 29th birthday with my parents. I was with my parents on my birthday after some eight odd years. There was absolutely no plan except that my parents had booked their train tickets two months in advance to be with me on my birthday this year. They wanted to surprise me but then they gave in. So when they came, we decided on this impromptu, completely impulsive trip to this place called Jadhavgadh Fort, a little outside of Pune, recommended by my friends Urvi and Nikhil. It's a fort turned into a hotel. We stayed there for a night and left the next morning. All we did on day one was to explore the place (My dad makes fun of me for trying to "explore" everything). At the cost of sounding sentimental, the most brilliant part of the entire trip was to look at my mom and dad trying to work out the photos and videos on their mobile cameras. My mom was the last entrant from the family in the cell phones department. You should have seen her working that camera. Focus. Clarity. My god! At the end, she realised most for her pictures never got clicked since there was no memory in the phone. But she was just brilliant any which ways. She quickly hopped onto my camera. My dad was working on his newly acquired video making skills. They were a sight, both of them. Precious. 

Look what my friend Arundhati wrote for me on my birthday. "My beautiful, wish you a fantastic birthday. I wish you a year of travels, stories and poems. A year speckled with bright mornings and dark coffee. White boys and scarlet drinks. Engaging encounters and careless abandon. Lots of love to you."

Lovely right?

And now you wana see something cool (okay my kinda cool), my another soulmate friend (and role model) Anu wrote this message for me: "....Wishing so many things for you on this glorious day sista sparkles...red wine, cake with too many candles, good company, endless abandon, and a lotta love!"

Notice something? Two of my closest friends, who don't really know each other, but know me, wished me careless and endless abandon. How fucking cool is that!!

Oh, I got introduced to Roald Dahl (yes, yes, as usual, I am late to the party but at least the party is still on). I read Kiss Kiss, given to me by my friend Clare. I love the mischievousness. I love the comic darkness. I love the twists, the bends and the spunky knots. 

Also, thanks to the motivation of some of lovely friends, been editing/polishing some of my own short stories written over the years. I want to do something cool and fun with them. Working towards it. 

I want to go to Greece next year. 

I also want my friend Anu to have a boyfriend soon only so she can write a lovely poem and I can read it. 

Thought of the Day

Recommendation of the week: The Ladykillers (1955)

Just two words while recommending this movie should suffice: Peter Sellers.

However, there is much more to the movie than him including a delicious plot, the wonderful ensemble cast, brilliantly timed dark humor and above all a charming 1950s London.

Also, what makes it more special for me personally is that I stumbled upon this movie in London. One of the days of my wonderful wintery London vacation, I decided to go to Southbank Centre for the fifth or sixth time to catch a breath after walking aimlessly for a few hours. At the BFI Centre, they had an ongoing program in their media library where you could get a personal computer, couch and headphones to sift through and watch some 200 hours of original British content. And this is what I chose.

Highly recommended for two hours of clean legal fun.