Postcards From J

From "It's late. I insist on driving you home." to "Is it ok if I drop you halfway?" From "Call/text me as soon as you reach home." to "Do you want to take the train?" From "I've taken down the rickshaw number. Please get home safe." to "How are you going home?" and then not even checking if I boarded some public transport. Should've seen it coming. --- NOTE: Logged in to my Tumblr account after ages and found this post in my Drafts there. No clue when I wrote this. Must have been a really long time ago. And yes, it was titled 'Relationshit' originally.

Hi there! Happy New Year! I know I am three days late with the wishing, but you see I had to travel on an urgent work assignment at very short notice. In fact, I returned on 31st December from a whirlwind 4-day trip of Mangalore - two of which were spent in the train to and fro - and flew out for the assignment on New Year's Day. While I can't disclose where I am at the moment, here's a picture postcard for you. :) This is a little moment I captured for myself today. Hope you had a wonderful Christmas and New Year celebration. December 2012 vanished in a blur for me thanks to all the weddings I had to attend. I am feeling a bit jaded and am currently battling a sore throat. Hope to be alright soon and also to get back to blogging about a couple of exciting experiences.  Catch you later, ~j~ PS: I quite like the place I am staying in right now. More importantly, I am enjoying this living-out-of-a-suitcase business. Let's see for how long though. ...

On a day I'm suffering from a terribly upset stomach (what the hell did I eat?), this Eve Ensler quote cheered me up: "Cherish your solitude. Take trains by yourself to places you have never been. Sleep out alone under the stars. Learn how to drive a stick shift. Go so far away that you stop being afraid of not coming back. Say no when you don't want to do something. Say yes if your instincts are strong, even if everyone around you disagrees. Decide whether you want to be liked or admired. Decide if fitting in is more important than finding out what you're doing here. Believe in kissing."  ... "Go so far away that you stop being afraid of not coming back." Ah! Signs.

The last weekend was super exciting. For one, I signed up for the first ever Bohri Mohalla Food Walk on Saturday, 1st December 2012 organised by prolific food blogger Kalyan Karmakar, a.k.a. @finelychopped on Twitter. Kalyan's blog is a veritable resource of food, glorious food. So, go look it up till I put together my thoughts on the walk itself. The other reason for my joy was a package that arrived from moo.com  - a cool printing service that prints business cards, minicards, postcards and more. I ordered a set of 60 postcards from them which had 60 photographs from my travels printed on them. Cool, na? Here are some pictures of the package and its contents: This is what the package looked like inside the bubble-wrap envelope. "Moo Postcards - helping keep mail alive" - Love the tagline! Slide off the outer cover and there's a plain white box with slits to add your business card. Moo gives you this option in case you're re-selling the car...

Oh, look what arrived in my mailbox yesterday. From one of my favourite-st gals , all the way from Abu Dhabi... (after I pestered her to send me a postcard of course). Thanks, Lo! I hope to see you this December despite our crazy schedules. Ta!

"Kalina?", I yelled as he screeched to a halt.  He nodded while three women and four tiny children kept popping out of his rickshaw. I was too tired to notice the expression on his face. Soon, I was seated inside with my bags - groceries and handbag and laptop bag and lunch bag and office Diwali gift. Phew. "Aap <mumble mumble mumble>?" "Kya kahaa?" ("What did you say?") "Kya aap Hindu ho?" ("Are you a Hindu?") I was a bit zapped at the question. Thinking I had said 'yes', he continued... "Dimaag kharab kar diya. Yeh sab Islam waale... itne saare rickshaa mein baett gaye..." ("They've given me a headache. These Muslims... so many of them occupied my rickshaw...") I cut him short. "Aapka kya matlab hai? Iss mein dharm kahaa se aa gaya?" ("What do you mean? Where did religion creep into this?") Sensing that I was not particularly thrilled...

My family is g ear ing up for my brother's wedding in early December. So you can imagine the chaos that accompanies the phenomenon called the Big Fat Indian Wedding. Invitations, what to wear, arrangements for the reception, caterers, decorators, travel bookings, shopping for a zillion things, and the list goes on and on and on. (Sometimes I wonder who really enjoys these weddings - the people getting married or the ones making a fortune out of it? The latter, I'm sure.) While all this was going on, my parents (who are doing the 'inviting') happened to drop in at a very close relative's home only to find it locked. Even the windows were covered completely and the neighbours didn't know anything. They dropped the invite at the door and left. Soon after, they called the relative to check if they had received the card. No response. The cellular phone company's recorded message said 'switched off' or 'unavailable'. Strange. Then the parent...