Of life and people

"And so they would follow on, one after another, always the same; innumerable days that brought nothing. Other people, however drab their lives, could atleast expect something to happen to them. One little episode would sometimes lead to endless turns of fortune and changes of scene. But for her there was nothing. Such was God’s will. "
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"For his pleasures had so trampled upon his heart, like schoolboys in a playground, that no green thing grew there, and whatever passed that way, being more frivolous than children, left not so much as its name carved on the wall.

After much thought he proceeded: “Be sure I shall never forget you. I shall always be deeply devoted to you. But one day, sooner or later, these ardent feelings of ours would doubtless have cooled. Such is the human lot. We should have grown tired of one another. Who knows but what I might have suffered the agony of witnessing your remorse – of sharing it myself, since I should be the cause of it! The very thought of your suffering is torture to me, Emma. Forget me. Why did we have to meet? Why were you so beautiful? Am I to blame? No, by Heaven. Blame only fate!”

‘Always an effective word,’ He said to himself.

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She knew now the littleness of those passions that art exaggerates. Accordingly, Emma strove to deflect her thought, to see no more in this reproduction of her sorrows than an embodied fantasy, an ornament for the eye. And she was actually smiling to herself, a smile of contemptuous pity.

Madame Bovary - Flaubert
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Generations have passed. Nothing has changed.

The life that used to be

This weekend – I visited my brother.

It was the past revisited – happy, lazy campus moments – with friends, late night ghot, evening tea, idle gossip. The languid pace of life almost overwhelms. Those were the days…


When we looked forward to the jalebis at breakfast, the friend’s birthday treat, the night out to complete syllabus for a mid-term, and celebration after, the uncouth, hairy mess attendant who stroked his belly before he stirred the pot, the brilliant proff who could not teach to save his skin, Students on cycles, the local parlour named weird….

Evening strolls, cribs and games. Friends and banter. A careless life. A carefree world.

When you go out, you start to miss it. More than anything else.

I got tagged!

Arch at Rang Decor tagged me. Its exciting. I have to write down 7 random things about myself. Hmmm...so here goes.

1. I am extremely hyperactive. Sometimes, I wake up in cold sweat - imagining that I was wasting away my life, and I need to do something new and exciting. During holidays, my parents have their hands full, trying to keep me occupied.

2. I plan meticulously. While travelling, I have tickets, papers, creams, clothes all organized day wise. I ensure people tell me when they will reach, how they are arriving, what they are carrying. I like no surprises here.

3. I am a F.R.I.E.N.D.S addict - I watch the same episodes over and over again, sometimes the very same day. Needless to say, I know most of it by rote, and quote it more often than the classics I read.

4. Although I am not frugal, I like moderation. I buy as much as I need, and when I need. Anything in excess, I get rid of.

5. I recognize and relate with smell. A whiff reminds me of a person, a place, an event, a memory.


6. I am a careful decision maker. Any decision is based on a point wise scale, where the positives and negatives are weighed in. I do things on an impulse often too. But my decision making strategies (Often delayed) are legendary within friends and family.

7. When I am nervous or confused, I smile. I have a really wide, toothy smile, and it helps, all the time, anywhere. My mantra is, when in doubt, smile.

Maybe names do have something to do with how people turn out!

I tag Anyesha, Tuhin, Chintu, Dharmabum, Preethi, Shantanu, and Backpakker to write seven random things about themselves. And if you have done it before, seven new things then. Boy! Tags are fun!

Secretly, we like them crazy

When I said I valued it, did I mean it?

Say, I value a gadget I have. I love it very, very much. I carry it all around; flaunt it to anyone who cares to see. Gosh! I love this thing I own!

But tomorrow, I see a more upgraded version. I yearn for it. Night and day! I sell my previous, and buy the new. So, did I value what I had? Maybe when I had it, I loved it. But if I valued it, I wouldn’t let it go, would I?

If you replaced it, you didn’t value it enough. When we say what we think we should, rather than what we feel, then we are being plain phony.

Catcher in the Rye – Just finished this book. Holden is oh so cute! He hates the phonies of the world. Everything of any slight interest ‘kills’ him. He is crazy, but at some points in our young lives, we have thought like him. Before, convention got the better of us.

So, are we normal or is he? Well, the account of his crazy, short life made a bestseller! As did Vernon God Little and A Curious Incident of a Dog. Maybe secretly, we all want to be like them. A little crazy. To hell with conventions. Atleast when I read.

Read about the author J.D.Salinger here. It is true that the most successful authors write characters and plots which match their own lives. Crazy, mal(?)functioning lives.

Some interesting quotes,
"Game, my ass. Some game. If you get on the side where all the hot-shots are, then it's a game, all right - I'll admit that. But if you get on the other side, where there aren't any hot-shots, then what's a game about it? Nothing. No game."

“It's full of phonies, and all you do is study so that you can learn enough to be smart enough to be able to buy a goddam Cadillac some day, and you have to keep making believe you give a damn if the football team loses, and all you do is talk about girls and liquor and sex all day, and everybody sticks together in these dirty little goddam cliques”

“People always think something's all true.”

“I was half in love with her by the time we sat down. That's the thing about girls. Every time they do something pretty, even if they're not much to look at, or even if they're sort of stupid, you fall half in love with them, and then you never know where the hell you are. Girls. Jesus Christ. They can drive you crazy. They really can.”

“Boy, when you're dead, they really fix you up. I hope to hell when I do die somebody has sense enough to just dump me in the river or something. Anything except sticking me in a goddam cemetery. People coming and putting a bunch of flowers on your stomach on Sunday, and all that crap. Who wants flowers when you're dead? Nobody. “

"I have a feeling that you're riding for some kind of a terrible, terrible fall. But I don't honestly know what kind.... It may be the kind where, at the age of thirty, you sit in some bar hating everybody who comes in looking as if he might have played football in college. Then again, you may pick up just enough education to hate people who say, 'It's a secret between he and I.' Or you may end up in some business office, throwing paper clips at the nearest stenographer. I just don't know."

I could quote the whole book.

Also, watched Detective Story. Did not know who starred before I went to watch it. But one cannot mistake Kirk Douglas, he and his son are just so alike. Amazing movie too – funny, full of many emotions, thrilling. Made in 1951 – but you should see how they act and how the story builds up to believe how well they made their movies – even back then.

“Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.” The Catcher in the Rye.

A land and its many Gods

So, where was I? At Mount Abu. Was it an insane idea to visit in winters? Actually no! The queues are non existent, the hotels empty and everything half its price. We were the only tourists around, so much so that, the shopkeepers recognized us between their retail and wholesale outlets and touts competed to lower their prices. And not the least - a hill station in all its splendour, just for us to explore – those little chills were very worthwhile.

Mount Abu is a quaint little town atop the Aravallis – and the only hill station in Rajasthan. It is an Oasis in the real sense, with palm trees, lakes and greenery. The best sights appear in unexplored corners. Some hidden lake here, unseen ruins on top of the hill.

There are many more temples here per capita than I think anywhere else in India, and that is saying a lot! Most of the sight seeing points had a temple, and nearly all at considerable height. They were not as beautiful as serene and picturesque. Not to mention, tough to climb.


Dilwara Temples – The prettiest of them all. Not spectacular at first sight, but the marble thirteen point mandalas on the ceilings and the intricate idols inside will take your breathe away. This temple took fourteen years to build, and the artists were rewarded with their weight in gold at the end of each day for their efforts. The Jain temple was dedicated to Adinath and built by Bhimasena, thus was narrated by out tiny red dhoti clad guide cum priest, also constantly referring to the idols of Devrani, Jethani – and how their fights never end. He later decided that we seemed rich enough to demand a greater tip and followed us around.

At Achalgarh, we met another very interesting little guide. Parveen Guide.
“Saath mein Parveen Guide na toh Ghoomne ka kya mazaa?”
“Agar chai peene ka mazaa cup mein hai pyali mein nahi, toh ghoomne ghoomane ka mazaa two by two couple mein hai, kisi aur main hani”
“Rahein agar aap aur hum iss duniya mein, toh isi point mein milthe rahenge”
A whole lot of funny couplets. We doubled over laughing.

An interesting deity too. The tip of lord Shiva’s fingers. When he tried to stop the town collapsing into the underworld. Though we had more fun exploring the fort ruins atop the hill, by the Mandakini lake.

Brahmakumari Headquarters

Brahmakumaris everywhere. In white, portly and benign. We found few while coming back on train as well (better than that rowdy gang I said. And hoped fervently they would not travel with us). We visited their Ashram, Om Shanti, and received a ten minute discourse from another fast talking, gesticulating escort. ‘Talk less, talk low and use sweet words’. No donation. Just drop your bad habits written on a paper in one of the drop boxes. Shail dropped his cigarettes.

People and their colours

Nakki Lake is a sparkling beauty, especially with no people around. Boating was a pleasure, sometimes with shivers and squeals when one dipped the hands into the freezing waters. The shops around it are numerous, all with the eclectic wares, but the shopkeepers are a weird lot, none too interested to help you and quite impolite. Good place to eat – Jodhpur Bhojanalaya – typical Rajastahni Dal, Bati, Churma, though our best meal was at Apesar ka dhaba – a roadside, innocuous looking shanty, with great thali, tasty tikkads and chatpati Subji. Good places to shop – Odhani, Chacha museum (expensive and refined), Jalaram for the more wholesale prices.

In the end, we get what we really want. We got to go, despite the many drop outs and sudden changes. I had the Brahmakumaris travel with me, Yogi got the chai in Kulhad, Latto got her matching Rajasthani blankets.

Or maybe, just maybe, it had something to do with Mount Abu, and its many Gods.