About Me

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Currently work in advertising. Wannabe potter & Baileys brewer. Trying hard to figure out my new SLR, old guitar and how Raja lost his 4th leg.

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Don't worry about change

Beggars are common sight in our city. Infact, these days they operate in gangs. So its typical to find atleast half a dozen of them hounding you at signals.

When I was a child it was simple. Dad kept change handy and every time a beggar approached a small coin was put their palm. "We are blessed with so much, God has not given them so we must share whatever little we can" was told to us. And I unflinchingly followed this till a few years ago when papers started this whole brouhaha about how beggars are actually not deprived and are actually quite well off and organised and blah blah. This was promptly followed with a film that went on to detail their life. All this played on my mind and I decided not to dole out alms. This was with a caveat. Basically no alms to the able bodied, but I'd make exceptions for the old, disabled and kids.

This seemed to work fine. Till today. This woman in tattered clothes pressed her palms against the window and refused to budge. She looked really frail and wore tattered clothes. And somehow I didn't have the heart to drive ahead or shoo her off. The signal seemed long so I offered her a croissant I had in the car. It look a lot for me to do this (I am ashamed of myself). To my surprise she asked me "non veg hai toh keep it madam" I was stunned and went "sorry, nonie hai, kuch paise leejiye" By the time the signal started and I was to take a u-turn so i asked her to quickly come across the road and I'd stop for her. She took the change from my hands, thanked me and went "mera bhi chota ghar parivaar tha madam, i have seen very bad days, ab better hai...bhagwaan aapko hamesha khush rakkhe" and she went her way.

She's seen days worse than this! And she blessed me! I stayed parked there for a bit. I cannot be more grateful for everything I have. And I'm sure it dosent make a damn difference to my life and lifestyle if I give alms to each and any beggar. It doesn't matter what he does with it. Point is that I have much more than he will ever have and just because I am parting with some change doesn't make him accountable to me for what he does with it.

So I refilled my change kitty in the car...after 4 years...bring it on ...

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Trivial craving of the denied mind

Well its been over 3 weeks that this cold has percolated my system and refuses to leave. I mean it started off being the occasional sneeze to the runny nose and now its a full blown bout of cough, sore throat and a point blank denial of all the lovely things in life.

The doc couldn't figure out why I was not healing despite a good 10 days on his prescriptions. So when stethoscope & tonic didn't work he recommended some detailed tests. Now even those were normal (much to my happiness & his dismay) so he had to find out something else to stick the blame on. While i was expecting him to sign me up for more tests all he did was start off on a list of 'Dos' & 'Don't Dos' (sic).

So it basically was another kind of test. A test of my patience and resilience! I'm to be off soft drinks, salads, ice creams, cheese, chocolates, oil, nuts and basically all the things good for the palate but apparently bad for the throat! And yes, I'm also supposed to drink only hot water!

Today was day one and a half! And by lunch the only thing on his list that I had stuck to was the hot water. Virtually all of the contra-banned was consumed! And now I am craving a glass of cold water.

Oops.

Thursday, September 1, 2011

In my shoes


I really love shoes. And bags. And perfumes. And stationery. And despite the fact that I don’t own a walk-in closet I have managed a reasonably huge collection of all. Like each shopping spree will certainly lead to the acquisition of one of the three if not all!

But of the lot, shoes have a very special place in my life. I have about 30 odd pairs. May be 40 odd. :-) And they’re certainly not the cheap and cheerful variety, so yeah they can cause quite a dent in my pocket.

I love each pair and I would like to think that on any given day you’d hardly find anyone with the same pair. And that is simply because the pair that is different or radicle usually calls out to me. Charmaine comes along a lot when I do my shopping. And sometimes it is pretty evident she doesn’t like my choice. But in her usual non-committal way she’ll go “hahaha, you’ll be wearing it. Buy it if you like it”. And if I ask “but is it nice?. Will you buy it?” …the reply usually is a smart one “looks good on your feet. Will not suit mine. If I were you, id’ve bought it!”

Sweet. That’s exactly the sort of encouragement you need from friends. They don’t exactly approve what you do, but tell you what you want to hear. Especially since the situation here is not grave at all. And will however lead to a lot of happiness. For me.

Like on my recent trip to Goa, we drove all over Panaji trying to find this shop called – Janota. Started by an artist called – Edwin Pinto. The boutique has special hand crafted leather shoes. Each of them very colourful. Each very unique. I picked up two pairs right away. One, a green flip-flop pair and the other an orange pair of slippers. And I placed an order for the third – a red pair of elf type pumps. Thrilled I was.

I’ve always tried to understand what is it exactly with me and shoes that I cannot resist buying every pair that calls out to me. And no matter how many I own I can still go for more. Anyways, it’s not affecting more than making me broke and my mom exasperated as to how someone can want so many shoes.

More recently I saw this rather oldish movie – In her shoes. Very ok types. Certainly not something you’d recommend people to watch. But one dialogue here caught my fancy. It just hit me. I’ll sign off with that -

When I feel bad I like to treat myself.

Clothes never look any good.

Food just makes me fatter.

Shoes always fit