Mount Everest and the mole-hill

There are some days when you roll up your sleeves and decide to tackle an issue that has been pending for a long, long time. Something new, unknown and not at all exciting… the typical energy-sapper which is on your mind, maybe for months…

The reasons for getting stuck are all in your mind. It has started for instance, due to wrong directions. There are some really ‘nice & helpful’ sorts in this world… you want to go to a place… no map in hand and you ask one such person how to go let’s say to the 'east'. The dude doesn’t know east from west! No. Let’s say east from north-east. So does he say “I’m not sure…” ?? No way!! Instead he smugly points out to the wrong direction (he means to help you, after all!) And you my friend end up lost, moving in circles.

If you are looking for an address this can be a bit more simple. But in my case this was a
“Semi-legal” activity, if I can term it as such. To have an 'Indemnity bond' made, duely ‘franked'… A method was suggested which was not only tedious but actually incorrect, (as I was to realise later) by this person who had probably meant well.

And what did I do? Nothing about my task. Just stood still and blissfully ignored it while it kept gnawing at me all the time. For three months, nothing… not even any more research!

But this morning I decided to tackle it… get it over with once and for all! Work hard to get lucky, as they say. A strong resolve does a lot. Luckily, a friend had done this not too long ago, and readily helped… and so, some more directions… this time the correct ones and guess what?? I was done in 15 minutes, no exaggeration! Wow!! Wouldn’t have believed it if someone told me this yesterday that the Mount Everest of my mind was nothing more than a mole-hill.

Moral of the story: Sometimes the right people and the right directions appear when you move. Just move… Take action!!

Feels good to be home

It’s a nice feeling to come back to the place you call ‘home’, especially when you’re 'just' back ;-)

One traffic jam and the next one arriving just as I reach the fourth gear… roads in various stages of repair (or is it disrepair?!), the scruffy beggar-girl knocking on my car’s window pane… all these annoying bits, otherwise …but today even these seem so endearing… coz they all belong to my city and they are my very own!!

“Enjoy the euphoria while it lasts, babes, coz you'll go back to swearing tomorrow…”

Back to Bombay

Nine months and nine days, that’s exactly how long I’d made Pune my home… Tomorrow it’s gonna be back ‘home’ to Bombay. I’ve probably waited for this moment ever since I came here, but now that I have to leave my heart is actually feeling heavy. I wonder why?

This is weird, how the mind gets used to things! My lil’ terrace garden, the sparrows, pigeons and mynahs who we used to feed, the neighbors especially their quite, three year old with green-brown eyes, our friends, week-end hang-outs, treats from German Bakery, even the friendly fruit’walah’ (who still owes me twenty-five rupees ;-))… it’s a long list of things that I’ll miss.

Flowers from my garden

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But the point is that when we leave something behind, weather it’s a place or person, irrespective of all the bad and sad things that might have happened, there will always be some things ‘nice’ that the mind will cling to and make ‘good-byes’ difficult!

Is it this or basic human malaise – resistance to change?! Whatever it is, change is the only constant… such is life!!!

On a rainy, saturday afternoon last august: a drive to the outskirts of Pune