Sunday, September 26, 2010

The Voices in My Head - 14


I Try to Act All Grown-up

It was difficult to concentrate on work after what had happened on Sunday, especially when work itself was boring. I was distracted and made little progress. Thankfully the project deadline wasn’t for some time, and I was working alone, so I could afford to slack off if I made up for it later.
I kept thinking about that kiss with Raghav, trying to decipher what it meant. Trying to decipher my feelings, and his.
“He seems so infatuated with Sonali,” wailed Mandakini. “Yet right afterwards he says he wants to be with me! What does it mean?”
“What do I feel towards him?” asked Miki. “Why did it feel so nice to kiss him? If I am not in love with him, why am I attracted to him?”
“Maybe you are in love with him,” said Mandakini.
“No, I don’t think that’s true.”
“Come on, Raghav is your best friend, you like him better than anyone in the world. You are attracted to him. What more do you want?”
“I don’t know. But somehow… it doesn’t feel right. And I don’t want to make a move unless I’m absolutely sure… Maybe I’ll just wait and see how it goes.”
“If you wait too long, that girl will take him,” said Mandakini.
“But if he goes to her, that means he never really loved me.”
And sooner than I had expected, Raghav proved Miki right.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Liberation for Men

I have been too busy (read: lazy) to post other than the weekly chapters of Miki's story. However, this is too good to not share with you. 


Newsweek has some really good articles on how feminism benefits both men and women. Of course, feminists have been saying this all along. Gloria Steinem declared back in 1970: "Women's liberation is men's liberation too."


Read "Who Needs Men? We Do." And this is even better, though rather U.S.-centric: Men's Lib.


Also read this on the holes in that last Newsweek article.
My New Macho includes Neil Patrick Harris, thankyouverymuch. And fucking then some. 
Amen.  

Sunday, September 19, 2010

The Voices in My Head - 13


More Confusion

Ragav and I talked all the way home, talked of silly superficial things, of old acquaintances, cricket and hot movie stars. We didn’t talk of that girl at all. 
When we reached my place, Raghav asked if he could come in.
“Of course!” I said.
“I thought you wanted to go to bed early,” he reminded me.
“Come on in.”
He refused my offer of coffee.
“Yeah, I know it’s not your preferred weekend-night beverage,” I drawled.
“We just had coffee,” he retorted. “Do you want to keep me awake all night?”
“What about a glass of warm milk?” I smiled sweetly.
He reached out to grab my hand and pull me down on the mattress beside him. “Let’s talk,” he said.
“What about?”
He touched my hair where it fell about my shoulders in thick waves.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

The Voices in My Head - 12

Raghav – and “That Girl”
  
Raghav arrived on Wednesday night, but I got only a text message. Then I heard nothing from him till Saturday noon, when he called. I put down the Christie I was reading and answered the phone.
“What’s up, babes?”
“Aah, the man has time to talk to me!” I cried.
“Oh, come on, don’t be mad. I was crazy busy. I have been getting home after midnight… I had to go out for dinner with some people from work last night, and I only got home at one-thirty.”
“Tough, huh?”
“Anyway, how have you been?” He ignored my sarcasm. “And when do you wanna meet?”
“Well, I’ve got a lunch date, then a movie, then a dinner date…” I lied.
I’ll take you to a movie. And I’ll pay for dinner. I don’t think I can get there by lunchtime so you can go on that date if you want to, only get rid of him early.”
“Okay, let me cancel all my dates then. I was only going out with them because they were paying.”
I offered to go over to Delhi to see him. I hadn’t been to Delhi in months: I missed hanging out at Priya and shopping at Sarojini Nagar.
“Sure, come over to Priya,” he said. “We’ll hang out, watch a movie. I’ll drop you back home if we’re late, so don’t worry.”

Sunday, September 05, 2010

The Voices in My Head - 11

On Roommates

The next day, Divya and I had lunch together in office, something we rarely did. She had left home early in the morning and wanted an early lunch, and she asked me to join her. She had news.
“I’m going to stay on for another month,” she said. “There’s this project that’s just come in: the boss is very eager for me to handle it. It will only be over in early January, so I’ve agreed to stay on till then.”
“Are you okay with that?” I asked, looking up from the delicious aloo parathas her mom had packed for our lunch.
“Well, I did want to have a few weeks off,” she said. “I was looking forward to spend some time with my parents before I go away. But I’m taking time off anyway, after the wedding. I don’t know when I’ll get a work permit and be able to work in the US. Plus… Samarth’s always been the best of managers, I don’t want to let him down.”
“Well, your wedding’s on 23rd January, right? So you’ll have enough time to prepare… But I think if you want more time, you should get it. Don’t let them wear you down. You’ve given them enough notice anyway.”
“It’s all right,” she shrugged. “I’ve agreed already.”
I was a little annoyed at this way she had of giving in, of changing decisions for no other reason than someone else’s persistence.
But at least the news was good for me. It gave me one extra month to find a new roommate.

Friday, September 03, 2010

Questions on Death

So some questions that people got to my blog through were on death, especially the death of a father. For newer readers, here are the two extremely personal posts about the death of my father some years ago:

  1. http://www.unmana.com/2009/06/how-does-it-feel-when-your-father-dies.html
  2. http://www.unmana.com/2009/06/how-does-it-feel-when-your-father-dies_05.html

Here are some of the questions, and the answers I'd like to give.


What to do when your dad died?