Thursday, May 18, 2006

The friend and the taxi ride

I finally made a friend I thought. This woman, who comes to my yoga class. I have been very impressed with her because she can not only touch her toes but actually hold them at the same time touching her nose to her knees.

I have been told by the teacher that I am not making an effort. I want to tell her that my stomach of concrete comes in the way of me touching my nose to the knees.

There is a big shop called Choithram's, close to where my new friend stays. I decided to walk with her to this shop whose name honestly sounds like a hardcore hindi cuss word. She invited me to her place and have something. I saw a lot of things in the shop but the new friend did not stop at any of the aisles and then breezed out of the shop with me following sullenly behind. I think may be she was in a hurry to be with her young son and daughter.

I met her daughter who is all of one n a half years old. My favourite kind of child. She easily came to me and according to her mum never cries even when she's hungry. I used to bring the house down as a baby I'm told. What a pain it must have been for my mother.

We sat down and chatted about stuff like husbands and our identical lamps from IKEA. After a while she asked me what I wanted to have and as usual I said, 'Nothing'. I thought she would insist in the truly bhartiya tradition but we moved onto some other topic. She asked me again and I realised it was my cue to get going. I waved bye bye to the little girl and the mom with a cheery' See you sunday!' Going down the lift I wondered if she counts as a friend, rather what counts as a friend?

And then the killer traffic wiped my mind's slate clean. I got into a taxi which takes me 5 to 7 minutes to get me home.
The Arab taxidriver asked me, “No Arabi?”
"No Arabi” I said
"Arabi la, no arabi.” He said
”No Arabi, Arabi la.” I mimicked
”Yamin left. Yamin?” He asked
”Left.” I replied
”Left?” He asked
'Yamin.' I replied
'Yasar right. Yasar?' He continued my education
'Right' I said
'Right?' He asked
'Yasar' I said
'I love you - Habibi' And then he laughed like the idiot that he obviously was.
'Now where?' he asked
'Yamin' I said
' Shukran' I said as I got off and didn't look back.

Got home and had four slices of toast with heavenly peach preserve and a cup of tea. There is something so divine about that last sentence.

Saturday, May 06, 2006

Small tiny little things

Hot water serene in the tub
Blue fluffy bath mat
Blue fluffy towel
Uncombed wet cold hair

Creamy fluffy omelette
Crispy dry toast
Thumping the sauce bottle
Tea in new green cups

Quiet mild morning
of the married kind

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Dear blog

Ever since I got here I have been shopping incessently. I have been to at least four shopping malls. All sorts of brands are available. I have no fear of escalators anymore. I saw Syriana( Understood very little of it), Darna Zaroori hai( 1st 15 mins as Anshuman and I didn't like the film) Mistress of Spices ( Aishwarya Rai looks like a zombie in another bad film) Ice Age 2 ( Loved it, must see, only two other people were in the theatre) It seems there are more seats in the theatres here as compared to the number people. I wouldn't be surprised if it's true.
I went to this lovely place called Irish Village in Dubai. Very nice. It has life size sculptures of three men sitting with various musical instruments. A firang boy sings live every evening. The songs are familiar and enjoyable.
I have met more new people in a span of two weeks than I did in the last couple of months. Most of them are in advertising alongwith Anshuman. My yoga classes are going well. I still can't touch my toes. The deep relaxation exercise is very relaxing. Lie on your back in shavasana and close your eyes....Relaaax...Observe your toes...relaaax, observe your ankles...relaaax, observe your calves....relaaax...so on and so forth!