One, two, three, four…well it’s not that I am learning counting; it’s just that how we four moved into the flat before two years. I still remember the day when I moved into the new flat; it was the house-warming ceremony. I shifted there from the company guest-house. It was a pleasant evening and I had a nice time with the flat owner and then of course a good dinner with them. I stayed alone in the three storied building alone as my land-lady had to leave for her home-town that night. I stayed there for almost fifteen days when another girl Chhotelal (Tejal) moved in. She’s a sweet girl, not very talkative and had newly joined work. I was thankful that I would have someone to talk to other than the four walls when I came back from office. We became good friends and later she became more like a younger sister to me rather than just a flat-mate. Few more days and another girl, Motu (Jyoti) came in. The first time I saw her, I found her very good-looking with beautiful hair. That day I didn’t have much time to talk to her since I had another place to go. The next day when I saw her she was looking sad with her ugly hair. She said that she had gone to some beauty parlor and the lady cut her hair very short. I felt bad for her. Then we’re three girls from east, west and north part of India and we wished no south-indian girl to come in. But finally a south-indian girl Motu (Meena) came to stay with us in the flat and we were little confused if the girl would get along well with us or not.
It took us not more than a week to become good friends and in another week we knew that we’re gonna be the best friends. And we were right. We became very good friends, in fact we became the part of each other’s life. I was so happy to move into this flat after staying alone for so long in a studio apartment. Food, music, movies and books were the things that helped in making the bond stronger and stronger between us.
Slowly night-outs became common. In the late evenings, we would have the insatiable urge to have the almond fudge, chocolate-walnut muffin, masala chai and hot chocolate and the Barista in Leela palace became our favorite adda where we used to sit till the midnight. We have had loads of fun in the first one year of our stay. After that we heard that Chhotu might get transferred to Pune. That was the first shock b’coz we were afraid that our group would break up. I started praying for Chhotu’s transfer not to happen and my prayer was granted, though for a short span of time and Chhotu stayed with us for the next six months. Then Motu applied for her H1B and we knew that she would stay with us for not more than six months, yet we were happy.
Finally Chhotu n Motu left for Pune and USA respectively. Now we are waiting for Motu’s wedding. We have decided that she’s to get married in the winter b’coz that’s the only time when Chennai’s not very hot. We are happy b’coz now Meenu’s wedding is fixed with the one,she likes. We are happy b’coz our Chhotu is going to be with her for sometime in the USA.
However with all these Jyoti and I have become tired. We are tired of seeing friends going away, we are tired of missing these two sweethearts. Life looks slow and of course different without all the night-outs, movies and never-ending conversations. I have stopped blogging, Jyoti has almost stopped watching movies; we are bored of reading and we are afraid of leaving each other and going away considering the fact that if one of us goes out then the other one will be left with nobody else but loneliness. To avoid this boredom now we have extended our interests and sometimes spend time in cooking other than shopping and eating. We are so habituated talking about We Four that we feel sad talking about We Two. With this seclusion, we both try to become each other’s world so we have decided that even anyone of us is getting married, the other one’s gonna stay with her, keeping the Godrej ad in mind- Godrej refriegerator ke saath Godrej cordless phone muuft… ab dekhna ye hai ke hum dono main se refrigeratpor kaun hai aur cordless kaun!!!.
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Spices of the Midnight
Well...old days are never back...Tejal's absence can be felt everywhere every moment since then she has left our house and moved to Pune. No wonder we have never watched a movie since last December..have never gone out for ice-cream together..never have dropped into the Taj's midnight buffet or Leela's 24 hrs coffee shop. It was a normal Friday evening like any other day. I was back by nine, Jyoti came around eleven. I had some chocolates for Jyoti. As soon as Chudail came I handed the chocolates over to her else its risky to stay in the house. I was not feeling well that evening. Somehow something was missing. But as and when we sit together normally all these ideas about movies and food keep coming to our mind. Out taste-buds were normal that day (they were excited at the midnight) and Jyoti n I started searching some sweets in the. Nothing was looking very yummy on the shelves. When there is a way there is a way- this seems most appropriates when our taste-buds are exciting. immediately w called up Motu and she said that she would take care. She was half the way and immediately she turned to the airport to get something good from the airport cafeteria. Finally she got some chips, popcorns, cakes,sandwiches and of course those were enough to make us satisfied that time. All of us were happy to sit together and continue the midnight masala. The discussion was as usual diversified starting from bringing up babies in today's scenario to the natural sceneries of Karnataka. It was related to lots of matters starting from our marriages to our jobs, starting from books to the movies that we need to watch..a widely diversified discussion.
We were not surprised when it was four in the morning. The moment we saw the time on the wall-clock, suddenly were hungry. These days I was just trying to cook( at least trying to learn cooking ) few simple things. Fortunately things like aloo-jeera, bheendi n parval bhaji have come up well so I got the kick to learn cooking..I at least gained the confidence that I could something else other than Maggi in life. Then finally we entered the kitchen thinking to make Maggi..Maggi with tea have been giving us reasons to celebrate the midnight suppers..sometimes in the early mornings too.
We entered the kitchen and were disappointed not to find the Maggi. finally we thought of experimenting something new and saw the rawa dabba-onion-tomato- thats was good enough clue for us to understand that we would make upma-chutney. Immediately I started heating the pan to fry the rawa. The pan was overheated and the rawa was half-burnt while I was frying it. Then Jyoti chopped the tomato. I took the pain to chop the onion though Meenu was all set to do that. Jyoti took care to chop the ginger n green chillies and Meenu was arranging things in the kitchen. We didn't forget to capture all those sweet moments in our cameras. After the two tastiest things- upma n tomato chutney was cooked by the two greatest chefs , we saw the papad so roasted it immediately. our maid had kept the milk near the gas stove, so immediately coffee was made by the best coffee-maker Meenu. That was the icing on the cake. We served everything in one plate ..strongly believe the concept that ek plate main khana khanese pyaar badhta hai :) We have had lots of fun after a long time. Suddenly the midnight freaks were up that night after three months. Morning we selpt at three and up by nine. The fun that we had had that night didn't make us tired rather rejuvenated us well. Cheers to you all :)
We were not surprised when it was four in the morning. The moment we saw the time on the wall-clock, suddenly were hungry. These days I was just trying to cook( at least trying to learn cooking ) few simple things. Fortunately things like aloo-jeera, bheendi n parval bhaji have come up well so I got the kick to learn cooking..I at least gained the confidence that I could something else other than Maggi in life. Then finally we entered the kitchen thinking to make Maggi..Maggi with tea have been giving us reasons to celebrate the midnight suppers..sometimes in the early mornings too.
We entered the kitchen and were disappointed not to find the Maggi. finally we thought of experimenting something new and saw the rawa dabba-onion-tomato- thats was good enough clue for us to understand that we would make upma-chutney. Immediately I started heating the pan to fry the rawa. The pan was overheated and the rawa was half-burnt while I was frying it. Then Jyoti chopped the tomato. I took the pain to chop the onion though Meenu was all set to do that. Jyoti took care to chop the ginger n green chillies and Meenu was arranging things in the kitchen. We didn't forget to capture all those sweet moments in our cameras. After the two tastiest things- upma n tomato chutney was cooked by the two greatest chefs , we saw the papad so roasted it immediately. our maid had kept the milk near the gas stove, so immediately coffee was made by the best coffee-maker Meenu. That was the icing on the cake. We served everything in one plate ..strongly believe the concept that ek plate main khana khanese pyaar badhta hai :) We have had lots of fun after a long time. Suddenly the midnight freaks were up that night after three months. Morning we selpt at three and up by nine. The fun that we had had that night didn't make us tired rather rejuvenated us well. Cheers to you all :)
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Adventure or Nightmare...
Here it goes….the most unforgettable incident. It was 20th Dec evening and all of us reached home by ten- as per our plan to go to corner house, our favorite place to have ice-cream. Doston ko bichhadte waqt meetha khaake bichhadna chahiye...yaaden meethi rehti hain...that’s what all of us believe though we are not hesitant to accept the reality- khanewalon ko khaane ka bahaana chahiye.. The whole day was tiring, Meenu had to finish the work of the whole quarter in last ten days, Chhotu had to complete all her packing and I also had to do the packing to start for home the next day. The day was tiring and I had not had lunch that day so was very hungry by evening ten. All of us dressed well and started for the ice-cream parlor, after that we also had plans to go for a long-drive- probably the last night-out when all of us were together. But I suddenly wanted to go to Ice&Spice, another restaurant on the other side of the city as the Chocolate truffle there, was the best in Bangalore.
We were late when we started from home, though was not an unusual thing for us. But things took a different turn altogether when we were almost lost on St-Marks road searching the café and ended up somewhere near Commercial street. The story didn’t end there, rather that was the starting. Our Merc was not used to regular washing affairs- Meenu used to give it for servicing only once in a year, its early if I say once in every six months. Long time back we had met an accident where the car got a dent on its left and also the number plate got tilted. But we were never bothered, for anything Lenin mama hain naa…But every dog has a day and that was definitely not our day. Near Commercial Street there was a police patrolling van and it stopped us where we showed the Driver’s license and came off, thought of going to Taj to have something. We were near MG road when that van came and stopped us as the number plate was tilted both at the front and back side of the car. The dent on the left as icing on the cake for the police when they held us responsible for an accident. All of us were blank. For a moment we tried convincing them but it was of no use. The next thing to do was call of our home. Unfortunately the mobiles were switched off by 11:30 and Lenin mama’s number was missing from this new mobile I had bought. We were scarred to call up on the landline; everyone at home would get disturbed by this incident. Finally got Lenin mama’s residence number. But the problem didn’t end there; my mamaji was not there at home. After calling one number, we got another number, after three or four trials we could reach him. He was initially tensed to hear my voice at 12 midnight. Somehow we explained him the whole situation and he asked me to hand over my mobile to the police so that he could talk to him. We felt a little relieved and got back all our guts to teach a lesson to the policeman for stopping us in the middle of the night for no fault of ours. That’s when we started scolding the police man- how dare you stop us in the midnight- morons- at least should have listen to us once – and then our regular line- go to hell..dont have any etiquettes….the policeman started complaining that we didn’t respect him and my mama told us to leave the place without getting messed up with the police. We left the place and all of were trying to make the situation normal to get rid of that tension. We thought of dropping down the plan of going to Taj. We were just at the next signal when another patrolling van stopped us to ensure that we were not drunk.
Oh God…that was the end of it, Meenu was almost into tears this time , our mood was spoilt again. Finally we reached home and entered the house and Meenu started scolding all three of us. I still remember how angry she was. Tejal and me were fine or at least trying to neutralize the tension by calling this an adventure. We decided to say good-bye to night-outs. All of slept around morning three. Everything was fine when we got up in the morning; we were kinda out of the nightmare. We knew that Arians and Taurians would forget the last night’s anger by the next morning, so there was nothing to worry. Next morning we clicked lots of our pictures and went for desserts. All of us were laughing ha ha ha ha ha ha… remembering the last night’s nightmare as an adventure.
We were late when we started from home, though was not an unusual thing for us. But things took a different turn altogether when we were almost lost on St-Marks road searching the café and ended up somewhere near Commercial street. The story didn’t end there, rather that was the starting. Our Merc was not used to regular washing affairs- Meenu used to give it for servicing only once in a year, its early if I say once in every six months. Long time back we had met an accident where the car got a dent on its left and also the number plate got tilted. But we were never bothered, for anything Lenin mama hain naa…But every dog has a day and that was definitely not our day. Near Commercial Street there was a police patrolling van and it stopped us where we showed the Driver’s license and came off, thought of going to Taj to have something. We were near MG road when that van came and stopped us as the number plate was tilted both at the front and back side of the car. The dent on the left as icing on the cake for the police when they held us responsible for an accident. All of us were blank. For a moment we tried convincing them but it was of no use. The next thing to do was call of our home. Unfortunately the mobiles were switched off by 11:30 and Lenin mama’s number was missing from this new mobile I had bought. We were scarred to call up on the landline; everyone at home would get disturbed by this incident. Finally got Lenin mama’s residence number. But the problem didn’t end there; my mamaji was not there at home. After calling one number, we got another number, after three or four trials we could reach him. He was initially tensed to hear my voice at 12 midnight. Somehow we explained him the whole situation and he asked me to hand over my mobile to the police so that he could talk to him. We felt a little relieved and got back all our guts to teach a lesson to the policeman for stopping us in the middle of the night for no fault of ours. That’s when we started scolding the police man- how dare you stop us in the midnight- morons- at least should have listen to us once – and then our regular line- go to hell..dont have any etiquettes….the policeman started complaining that we didn’t respect him and my mama told us to leave the place without getting messed up with the police. We left the place and all of were trying to make the situation normal to get rid of that tension. We thought of dropping down the plan of going to Taj. We were just at the next signal when another patrolling van stopped us to ensure that we were not drunk.
Oh God…that was the end of it, Meenu was almost into tears this time , our mood was spoilt again. Finally we reached home and entered the house and Meenu started scolding all three of us. I still remember how angry she was. Tejal and me were fine or at least trying to neutralize the tension by calling this an adventure. We decided to say good-bye to night-outs. All of slept around morning three. Everything was fine when we got up in the morning; we were kinda out of the nightmare. We knew that Arians and Taurians would forget the last night’s anger by the next morning, so there was nothing to worry. Next morning we clicked lots of our pictures and went for desserts. All of us were laughing ha ha ha ha ha ha… remembering the last night’s nightmare as an adventure.
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
It’s Three now…
It’s Three now…it’s no more four- the gang of three girls and Not four. Definitely difficult for Jyoti, Meenu and myself to accept that Tejal is no more staying with us in Bangalore and she has shifted to Pune.
The time we spent before she went to Pune was very good. I remember when Tejal and I started from home towards Leela to have the Barista blast and Almond frappe at 10:30 in the night and caught badly by Meenu. Enough of scolding and then we had to get inside the car and all three of us had gone to the Barista there. I had Meenu’s share of chocolate-walnut muffin. Then we took some pictures and came back home after that.
The treat to Tejal was not over. We thought of buying her something nice and Meenu and I had gone to pick up a smart white winter jacket for her. Jyoti and Chhotu were terribly hungry and kept calling us to go for dinner. We had gone to Tandoor and had awesome Punjabi food. One of the best evenings we four had spent together and then we started discussing about our 1st day experience with each other in the house. Jyoti’s and my part was funny…Jyoti was surprised with the way I used to speak over phone for ours and I was thinking that girl was mad, watching me all the time in my house. Meenu thought that I was a girl with lots of attitude and emailed all her friends explaining the same. Thank God- Chhotu had thought all good about me. Now the first impression does not matter to anyone of us at all, rather it has turned into a laughter bag for all of us.
We had already started missing Tejal though she had not left Bangalore by then. I was afraid of the time when Tejal would not be around and I would have to do lots of things alone. Meenu n Jyoti work till late hours which makes the house even more depressing. When I go back from office, for the next four hours there would be nobody at home, it’s definitely upsetting coz I hate loneliness.
Two more days were there for Tejal to leave Bangalore. Two days prior to that Jyoti had to leave for Goa, and then Meenu, Chhotu and I were there at home. It was 22nd Dec when I was going home and Tejal was supposed to leave on 23rd Dec. On that Thursday night we again dragged Meenu with us to have ice-cream, but unfortunately the plan failed and Meenu sunao me so much. Next day morning everything was fine and three of us had clicked lots of pictures together in out room, with our Merc. Then we had gone together for lunch...our favorite place- Indi Joe. Meenu dedicated our favorite song, Phoolon ka taaron ka sab ka kehna hai…to Chhotu. Again clicked some pictures there and I started for the railway station.
All of us were upset but I was more worried for Meenu. After Tejal and I leaved, she would be all alone for the next couple of days, I was afraid she would be broken when Tejal left coz she had to face the same what I was going to face after a week- Loneliness. Our eyes were full with tears when I hugged Tejal for the last time but I held my tears back till I left home and boarded the train. The same had happened to Meenu, it’s not good to send people off. Meenu was sort of fine- lost a few kilos of weight though- when I was back from home. I have almost stopped staying in my house and most the time I am with my Mama- Mami after I am back from Bhubaneswar coz I hate the loneliness in the house when Tejal is not around.
Nobody is indispensable and it is a universally accepted truth. We’ll start living without Tejal in the same house yet we’ll miss her all the time. Things are still named after her even when she is not around- Tejal’s room, Chhotu’s cup-board, Chhotu’s smiley-ball and the list goes on n on n on…Chhotu just a line for you...the sky is dark when the moon is not there even if there are thousands of stars in it. We miss you…
The time we spent before she went to Pune was very good. I remember when Tejal and I started from home towards Leela to have the Barista blast and Almond frappe at 10:30 in the night and caught badly by Meenu. Enough of scolding and then we had to get inside the car and all three of us had gone to the Barista there. I had Meenu’s share of chocolate-walnut muffin. Then we took some pictures and came back home after that.
The treat to Tejal was not over. We thought of buying her something nice and Meenu and I had gone to pick up a smart white winter jacket for her. Jyoti and Chhotu were terribly hungry and kept calling us to go for dinner. We had gone to Tandoor and had awesome Punjabi food. One of the best evenings we four had spent together and then we started discussing about our 1st day experience with each other in the house. Jyoti’s and my part was funny…Jyoti was surprised with the way I used to speak over phone for ours and I was thinking that girl was mad, watching me all the time in my house. Meenu thought that I was a girl with lots of attitude and emailed all her friends explaining the same. Thank God- Chhotu had thought all good about me. Now the first impression does not matter to anyone of us at all, rather it has turned into a laughter bag for all of us.
We had already started missing Tejal though she had not left Bangalore by then. I was afraid of the time when Tejal would not be around and I would have to do lots of things alone. Meenu n Jyoti work till late hours which makes the house even more depressing. When I go back from office, for the next four hours there would be nobody at home, it’s definitely upsetting coz I hate loneliness.
Two more days were there for Tejal to leave Bangalore. Two days prior to that Jyoti had to leave for Goa, and then Meenu, Chhotu and I were there at home. It was 22nd Dec when I was going home and Tejal was supposed to leave on 23rd Dec. On that Thursday night we again dragged Meenu with us to have ice-cream, but unfortunately the plan failed and Meenu sunao me so much. Next day morning everything was fine and three of us had clicked lots of pictures together in out room, with our Merc. Then we had gone together for lunch...our favorite place- Indi Joe. Meenu dedicated our favorite song, Phoolon ka taaron ka sab ka kehna hai…to Chhotu. Again clicked some pictures there and I started for the railway station.
All of us were upset but I was more worried for Meenu. After Tejal and I leaved, she would be all alone for the next couple of days, I was afraid she would be broken when Tejal left coz she had to face the same what I was going to face after a week- Loneliness. Our eyes were full with tears when I hugged Tejal for the last time but I held my tears back till I left home and boarded the train. The same had happened to Meenu, it’s not good to send people off. Meenu was sort of fine- lost a few kilos of weight though- when I was back from home. I have almost stopped staying in my house and most the time I am with my Mama- Mami after I am back from Bhubaneswar coz I hate the loneliness in the house when Tejal is not around.
Nobody is indispensable and it is a universally accepted truth. We’ll start living without Tejal in the same house yet we’ll miss her all the time. Things are still named after her even when she is not around- Tejal’s room, Chhotu’s cup-board, Chhotu’s smiley-ball and the list goes on n on n on…Chhotu just a line for you...the sky is dark when the moon is not there even if there are thousands of stars in it. We miss you…
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)