About new friendships and chinks in my armour

Guess who’s got a nagging headache due to an overdose of wine last night and there was no need to finish that bottle all by myself long after the boys had left. I really don’t require even the semblance of a hangover today when there is so much to strike off my To Do List.

Why is it that people always always find that one chink in your armour or rather why do they look for chinks and cracks in your armour? For instance my house is perfectly clean and everything is in order or so I like to think. I am quite the cleanliness freak but no not in the OCD way but I like my surroundings to be clean and things to be in their rightful place as much as possible considering the fact that I am not at home all day. However I haven’t found the time to clean my fans which frankly look not so clean and I am quite ashamed of it. But this winter has been freezing cold and I work 6 days a week and I manage to do all the dusting on Sundays but the fans seem to be a gargantuan task. Hmmphhhh! I don’t wanna spend the substantial part of the only day of the week that I get to myself ,being all dirty and dusty. So the boys came home last night and trust them to point a finger at the fans saying “ Kya haalat bana key rakha hai pankhon ka!” I was like “Uffff not a word is said about how pretty my living room looks with the pink and purple curtains or the pink and purple rug and the cane chairs and the coffee table. But of course you have to find fault with the fans.“

I actually made a new friend at work and she happens to be 6 years younger to me. Though she is younger to my sister yet in my head I treat her as an almost equal. I guess that has something to do with us working at the same place. NS is one of the prettiest women I have ever known. She looks like a different version of Nargis Fakhri and she is so oblivious of her beauty and that is the most appealing part about it. I guess we are never too late to make new friends however much we believe that our school friends and college friends will be the ones who’d remain by our side forever but somehow along the way you meet like minded people and wooosssh that one connect and you never look back. Like Saggy and Megha for instance. I feel I have known Saggy for decades and with Megha time just comes to a standstill and we are transported back to Bangalore, fooling around at work and gossiping about Walrus. It seems only yesterday we met when it has actually been almost 4 years. Even age isn’t a barrier to friendship and NS makes me realize that every day when we sneak into the cafeteria for coffee breaks or the longer and more delicious and aromatic tomato soup breaks. Those are definitely the best bits of my days this winter.

It reminded me of her

Last morning as I washed my hair amidst the icy chill that has crept in everywhere through every little nook and cranny and is omnipresent and that first moment when I lathered the shampoo on to my hair and that faint whiff of smell that comes from my hair which is effectively just the smell of my hair. All of us have our smells which we are familiar with and however many shampoos, bath gels and lotions you might use and change, each one of us have that one unique smell of human skin and hair which is essentially only you. Well last morning my hair didn’t smell like my hair at all and that first whiff smelt like someone else’s. It wasn’t me. It was the smell of my sister’s hair and my hair smelt exactly how her hair smells like and I know so, what with all the hugging, kissing and fighting we have done over the years, I so know how her thick plait of freshly washed hair smells like as I have tugged it playfully millions of times or and how many times have I kissed that huge careless pile of tresses that she makes when she isn’t in the mood to fuss around.  I was strangely happy because it reminded me of her. It reminded me of her dark flashy eyes. It reminded me of her dimpled smile that both of us share.  How beautifully bizarre is that one frozen nippy winter morning the smell of my hair  reminded me of her !!!!

If you do leave

             Painting-Branches of an Almond Tree in Blossom by Vincent Van Gogh

 I asked myself am I doing all of this just for you. I am doing up my house bit by bit, day by day, weekend by weekend, spending hours conjuring up the exact shade of orangish yellow that the curtains should be and wondering where can I get the best deal with the lamp shades, checking up flee stores for that perfect coffee table and how I wanted only the warmest colours for the rug in the living room. I wanted a mirror too. The prettiest mirror for my mirror less bedroom. Was I about to do all of this just for you? Am I gonna decorate the only two  rooms that I use in my large apartment, in anticipation of your coming visit and if things fall apart am I gonna look around at all these vibrant colours surrounding me and these mint fresh new things that’ll fill up the empty spaces in my house and feel it was all in vain? Can new things fill up the empty spaces in your heart and when people leave do the spaces only become more vast?  Am I gonna land up with a whole new bunch of bric bracs but an even emptier space inside my heart if you do leave?

Bring it on 2012

How do you envisage your 2012 to be? There were these super positive status messages doing rounds on FB those couple of days and most read something like “2011 you were legendary, 2012 you better be fabulous too.” Hahah! What fun as the world seems filled up with such happy people even if it is just for that one measly, paltry day. I had an incredibly sarcastic one put up but anyone who knows me could have probably seen the bubble of happiness waiting to come out, lurking behind the mockery I made of my year gone by. I couldn’t help but end 2011 on an increasingly happier note.

I spent a lovely 3 days at Yercaud with family. It was all sunshine, blue blue skies, the chilly wind of the hills and lots of walking and taking pretty pictures and enjoying that one odd drink every evening with my Uncle and in the company of my Mommy and Aunt. Chennai was stormy, rainy and dark for the better part of my last 4days there. That didn’t deter me from meeting old friends at Chamiers. The city doesn’t seem to change and it somehow manages to retain that charm despite the hustle and the bustle around. Tinni was in town too and we ushered in the New Year’s together with her cousin. We did the usal coffee at Chamiers and Amethyst. I missed Shivi since my fondest memories of the city are attached with her and our madness together. We couldn’t make it to Zara for a drink because it was opening its gates only at 6:30 that day and Tinni and I arrived half an hour early with zero patience in our systems.

I have very little idea on how 2012 is gonna turn out to be. But hope lies eternal and for once I am not gonna talk about goals and milestones to be achieved. As long as the year is interspersed with generous sprinklings of holidays and time spent with my loved ones and favouritest people, we’ll deal with the rest there and then. Bring it on 2012. I am ready.