The Auto Man

Similar to the Umbrella Man (Roald Dahl), the auto-man is also a con man. Even today he pulls off cheap tricks to pocket money that is not rightfully his. He is a common species and overshadows the honest auto drivers to such an extent that it makes me swear off auto rickshaws for the lifetime.

Now that’s a formal introduction. What I’m exactly trying to say is auto-drivers especially in Bangalore….. Huff!! I swear I'm never going to travel by an auto Ever EVER again!!

Today I thought I was lucky to find one who actually turned the meter down and drove without a word. I asked him direction to get to this place and he even offered to drive me closer to there. Lost in the delight I handed him a crisp Rs.100 note a minute before getting down. He happily pocketed it.  Being a wretched decent human being I expected him to hand me the change when we stopped. To my surprise the fellow claims I never gave him any money!! If he has so much of a financial crisis I don't mind helping him out.. But not when he thinks he can take me for a ride!  

I have come across drivers who demand three times the normal amount for short distances just because they “it’s an interior area” or “a one way” and “they don’t get anybody to drive back”. I have come across those who tamper with the meter so that it innocently clicks away to twice the normal amount because everybody believes the meter. I have even seen the egoistic type who simply shake their heads and drive off(that really gets onto my nerves! . But this, I think, crossed all limits. And we, the commuters, are helpless. We need them, and they know it. Which is why, on a rainy day the fare is higher. In terms of economics it works perfectly. Someone really needs to get these geniuses out of economics class and teach them moral science.

This time, again, I decided to forgive the auto-man. I hope there will not be a next time. i hope we all can start using bicycles instead of autos :) 

“EXAMS!!!”

Yesterday when I remembered about my blog my little voice was dancing inside my head saying “I told you so I told you so I told you so”. So here I am today………. J

Anyway I can’t believe tomorrow is my EXAM!! What I find even hard to believe is I don’t feel worried at all!! Before you jump into ghastly conclusions that I have studied everything let me clarify, I have not studied ANYTHING! So it is definitely not confidence. All I have done is staring at a few important pages in my book really hard. If there is a camera in my brain with enough resolution and all I might have captured some images which will help me pass.  Or else………. L

“You have a huge syllabus and you don’t even have enough notes!”

There it is… hello little voice. It yells at me so much but can’t make me study. I wish I could get that tension everyone gets the day before the exam. I even sat down and watched two movies in one go and called up some friends to rant about how terribly I’m preparing, hoping that in the last minute I might get tense and actually concentrate on studying. Unfortunately right now I suddenly love music, can’t live without my phone, feel like sketching something and get ideas for my blog post. L

When mom called up asking me what I’m doing, very seriously I said “yeah I’m studying for tomorrow” hoping that would set me off. But I STILL CAN’T CONCENTRATE!!!

So this is the last thing I’m going to try. If I still can’t concentrate I’m going to stop being a nerd and go attend that exam without studying a word. Let’s see what happens J

Stop dayy-drrrrreaamingggg.........and get to work!

“For heaven’s sake STOP DAY-DREAMING! I can’t take it anymore.. All you do is dream and dream all day long! You always want to be in someone else’s shoes and just keep forgetting that you have your own pair of shoes. Including the high heeled ones you can barely stand in... You still have it! Now again.. AGAIN! You’re thinking about blogging about this and I’m pretty sure you won’t.. STOP..!”

Sorry.. That was my little voice yelling at me. Sometimes it tells me what to do and and sometimes yells at me like that. I wonder why I call it ‘little’…..

OK. So finally I am so fed up of myself day dreaming about meaningless stuff, that I have even changed the name of my blog. Don’t ask how much of dreaming is behind this very post!

It came up when I was studying about feature writing. Not writing a feature, not reading it, but studying about it. I was reading something like... “Feature writing is creativity within limits….” And I’m already at this antique rosewood desk writing away to glory; then I’m in the editor’s office where the editor is very happy with my feature and my colleagues are all jealous Blah Blah Blah…

It’s a blur from there because my little voice started yelling again. “YOUR EXAMS ARE THREE DAYS AWAY! SIT AND STUDY! YOU NEVER COMPLETE ANY WORK! YOU DON’T EVEN POST ON YOU BLOG! “

Now that was something I did not want to hear. But some great soul has quoted that we must try to turn our weaknesses into strengths. Who said it?

I can’t remember. If you remember tell me. Although I prefer you don’t tell me so I can pass it off as my own ;)

So if all I know to do is day-dream, that’s what I will do. ON MY BLOG. J

“You won’t last a week”

We will see.

But you know what...

After travelling for nearly 6 hours in a government bus, now I say real beauty is the auto which carried me and my luggage safely home. and my messy room where i can finally dump those bags and stretch my hands. sitting on a vibrating seat for six hours with a fat guy next to me taking up three fourth of the seat is not easy. next time, i'm taking the train. uff.................

where to find beauty....

The thing called beauty is everywhere. Not only is it in real life that we can see, it is in the virtual reel that keeps playing in our heads, a movie called memories. They are always in the back of the mind, suddenly popping out on unexpected occasions with an awkward chuckle or a lump in the throat. It is not just a picturesque landscape complete with a perfectly still lake reflecting the moon; it is also the memory of looking at such a photograph with a loved one and saying “let’s go there sometime…” “Of course, when we’re married…..”

Beauty is in the undying love between a husband and wife, a promise to be there for one another through thick and thin; and it is also in the silly teenage crush that is remembered while going through old diaries and photographs. It is in the memory of finally having talked to that special someone and coming back home to jump around and call up a dozen friends.

Beauty is in those bestsellers on the stands that amaze readers with pure genius… But it does not stop there. It is also when I’m sitting up late night writing an assignment and doze off for a second, then wake up with a jolt suddenly remembering the time in school I dozed off writing my homework and mom spanked me on the head. The very feel of that little nostalgic smile is beauty.

Beauty somehow gets into everything we love, even dad’s faded grey t shirt that’s two sizes too big. Memories are beautiful; they are a personal marvel when they string themselves together to tell a whole story that is exclusively yours with all those hysterical laughing spells that bring about giggles out of nowhere and those tears that a special someone had always wiped off. Beauty is there.. everywhere.

Difficult day@ Easy Day!!

Yes! Mysore has a new shopping mall and people are sure excited about it. If anyone is not, it has to be the salesmen.

Easy Day, near BMH hospital, is complete with everything from groceries to clothes and accessories, kitchen ware to vegetables, fruits and even liquor, everything at discounts. Every product came with a special offer, even Lays cost 10ps less. I went on a weekday first and was thrilled by it. So I decided to take my friends there for the weekend, unknowing that I would see the whole of Mysore crowded into the ground floor of easy day mall on Sunday evening. Why would it not be? Great clothes at prices starting at Rs.99, it is a loot. Children and adults alike were pushing through the crowd steering huge trolleys and carrying baskets full to the brim, some with goods and some with passengers (kids). Some of us could not even find baskets to carry the stuff, we picked up buckets instead.

A dozen billing counters at the exit counter were swarming with people and their lengthy bills. People pushed around looking for a line at the billing counter that is less crowded and stood at the far ends tapping their feet in impatience, while at the other end a nervous salesman sweated trying to decode the bars on the products and finding small change for big notes. Some others with the big trolleys simply decided they had no patience to stand in the queue for 15 minutes, and threw away hours of shopping time saying “let’s go to More, it is the same stuff here, nothing special”. Sentences like this were punctuated by sudden cut down of lights or A/c, making the impatient shoppers sun out for fresh air and never come back. We might have an easy day here but it is always tough for the salesmen. One of them billing at the fruits section packed a kilo of pears for us and asked innocently “how do these taste madam?”

We did not buy much, so the billing process was quickly over and we walked out, silently wishing a good night’s sleep for all the salesmen so they can wake up tomorrow and be ready for one more day’s marathon run at Easy Day.

Shop-a-therapy………..:)

Cost of living has shot up guys! Laughter is only the second best medicine for everything. The first is the retail therapy- shopping. I have shopped three times in the past one week so trust me, I know. If I had a credit card it would probably be every day. Now I guess I am officially addicted to shopping, labeled a shopaholic. Every day I go back home and call a friend to say “I shopped!!” and I hear an exasperated “oh not again!!” 

If you are not a shopaholic or never met one in your life, you will think I am crazy. I mean, you might say that money does not grow on plants. Clothes are only to cover the skin and seven sets of them is enough, One for each day of the week. And accessories are a waste of money and space in the wardrobe. Yes, I hear it. The rational miss goody-goody part of me nods and turns to walk out of the store. But I have an alter ego, a shopaholic in me always wheels me around.. Closer and closer to the clothes… then the trial room.. The billing counters…. And before I know it I would have swiped a card and walked out with a bag full of guilty-pleasure goodies. 

It is not that a plan to buy when I enter a mall or any stores. Sometimes I go with friends to help them choose, and more often than not the friend is too choosy, too conscious or too stingy. They’re looking for clothes that are

 “…not too flashy..”

“…. Should be very pretty…”

“…should be fitting perfectly……”,

“….not too dull colour, not too short, not too long sleeved….”

 She makes the sales guy pull dress after dress and tries them on one by one. The clothes keep piling up on the counter  and all I can think about is that the poor sales guy has to fold them and put them back in the shelves; and my good friend is not even likely to buy anything. Maybe out of sympathy for the sales guy, or  just sheer addiction, the shopaholic takes over me. she makes me LIKE THEM ALL and then the spell begins.. shelf.. trial room.. billing… swipe… out with a hand full of bags.

 It is irresistible and when I walk out with those bags full of stuff I got at a discount I feel a satisfaction like I just topped the exam, like I graduated from college, like i won the nobel prize for shopping. Shopping heals all my worries, it takes my mind off the serious stuff. It is like my hobby. Now that it has turned into an addiction (and a damn expensive one at that!), I have planned to hide my cash and cards so that the shopaholic me does not find it.  A small part of me hopes she does find it………….

*evil smile*:)