Hurrah! Blogspot is back!!!

I was sure it would be, soon. How can you keep down something which has so many opinions and feelings behind it?

What is music without anyone to hear it? What is a sunset with no one to look at it? And what is a writer without readers?

I have been writing since childhood, often privately, mostly for myself. If there was no one to read, I might still write. But oh, so much sweeter to have someone read and praise!So this space is dedicated to my (very few) regular readers, without whose encouragement and praise I might have forgotten long ago that I even had a blog!

First, Maitreyee. She reminded me in the very beginning that I had not entered much in my blog. She made me realize she was waiting to read what I wrote – a powerful stimulus for me to write. Since then, she’s always been reading, sometimes silently (this is a hint for Maitreyee to put in more comments), sometimes responding with nice comments. In these busy days, this blog has also served as a way for her to know what’s going on in my life… Maitreyee's interest in my writing is however, not new. I remember her, years ago, encouraging me to keep writing regardless of whether my work gets published.

Second, Masood. I don’t know what I’d have done without him. He reads every entry religiously and rarely fails to comment. He makes me feel I’m not speaking in a void. Thanks, buddy!

Keep reading – I hope I keep writing well enough for you guys to keep wanting to come back!

Of Shopping and Other Things

I haven't entered anything in this log for a long time... There has been so much happening in life that I have been too busy to write any of it down. Thankfully, mostly good things. Life is great just now.

The weekend was awesome. The weather was charming - the sun would peep out from a blanket of clouds and we would hope for a sunny day. Soon however, the rain god would turn on the shower again. The lightest drizzle - heavenly to walk in.

I treated mom to a Chinese lunch on Saturday that turned out to be a total disaster. It was so hot we choked on it - we were too brave to give up, but not brave enough to finish it.

Later, we went shopping . Nice normal event of a girl's life - going shopping with mom. Not that usual for me, though, and I was looking forward to it. Of course, it started to rain as soon as we left home - but we didnt let that dampen our determination.

We had intended for window-shopping. I wanted to check out saris - not having much experience in sari-shopping, I wanted to get an idea of things so that I could imagine what kind of bridal sari I wanted. I had thought of silk, nothing too traditional or elaborate, nothing too expensive.

The first sari store we walked into had a sale. After looking at a few frayed or otherwise blemished pieces, we walked inside for healthier specimens. The poor sales guy unfolded sari after sari in an effort to please me - but nothing seemed good enough. My mom, who liked a few, got quite exasperated with my pickiness and sat at a distance from my choosy self. But - well, after all, a gal only gets married once. With thanks to the shop guy, we departed.

We walked along the street for a while (well, it is a 'walking plaza' on weekend evenings), then caught a rickshaw to a mall, hoping to window shop undisturbed by eager salespeople.

We got our wish. Though we found only a tiny sari counter in the mall (crowded by screaming youngsters cheering on dancers in some kind of competition in the middle of the mall - Have I grown too old? Or was I never young enough for that, I wonder.) the salesperson happily ignored us, believing us to be aimless window-shoppers.

And, wonder of wonders! I found my perfect sari. I had found a similar one on the internet, but had despaired of finding anything like it. This was, if anything, better - and wonderfully inexpensive. I unfolded it and draped it over myself and looked at it carefully, afraid to believe it really was it.

But it was. And we brought it home. I waited to show it to the Guy the next day - he had particularly asked to come with me when I would choose my sari. But he liked it too.

The flipside is - now that I have done the most important thing I needed to do for the wedding, what do I do all these weeks? But then, I guess I'm saved a load of tension and trouble.

Wait - the weekend isn't over yet. The Guy came back on Sunday. We had a nice day at home, mostly watching TV, eating and chatting. There was a scare in the morning, as Shiv Sainiks went on a rampage all over Mumbai, and it spread to Pune and other parts of Maharashtra too. (I really think they should outlaw the organization - they are as bad as terrorists.) We watched a movie on TV in the evening. When the Guy finally went out to go home, there was not an auto to be found. He came back, rather shame-facedly. I gather he and mom had a companionable time watching the World Cup final - I, of course, had turned in to sleep. I lay awake till later than either of them, though - life was too exciting just then to fall asleep easily.