Jaipur Diaries

A recent trip to Jaipur. 3 school friends with not a care in the world. Tried to capture a smidgen of what can hardly be captured in words or photographs.

Anisha: I don't share my problems, I just sort them out on my own.

Anshuma: I sort out my problems and then share them.

Sankalp: I share all my problems, and none of them gets solved!

Saree Shop Guy: Bataiye madam.... kya dikhaoon?

Anshuma to the Saree Shop Guy: Mujhe Shaadee Chahiye! (talk about Freudian slips:p)

Anisha to Sankalp: You should adopt a chinese kid. They have so many kids I'm sure they can spare one.

Anshuma: Well, ahem, thanks for introducing the lesser known Spare-a-Kid Foundation...!

(pointed out by Ujwal Batra while I was typing this: China has a one child per family policy :))

Sharmaji: Madira-paan sirf do logon ke saath karna chahiye - ek woh dost jo tumhare liye goli bhi kha le, aur ek biwi ke saath! (Tada!)

Anshuma: It helps if they are good looking, but if they are unfortunate looking I can still make it work.

Anisha (pointing at a giant wheel in Chokhi-Dhaani): Oh, lets go to the Windmill :D

Anisha to Anshuma (Sankalp has locked them outside the hotel room): Why is he taking so much time? Maybe he is jerking off...

Anshuma: Oh well, we came, and then he came, and then there was light!

Anisha: Sankalp, you give me a complex.

Sankalp: Really?

Anshuma: er, yeah, of the superiority kind.

Anisha: It's like... Santa's given you a mystery present and you wanna know what it is. Unwrap it! Unwrap it!

Sankalp: Yeah.... i guess. (Suddenly brightening up) Hey! nice work pinkies! :D

Anshuma: It's because I cant get over it and hence I try to replicate it and end up making people hate me.

Sankalp: Wow! That's like the epitome of psychoanalysis.

Anisha: Ghanta!

Sankalp: Do I have fever?

Anshuma (checking S' pulse): I can't feel your pulse.

Sankalp: I knew that I was dead inside.

Anisha to Anshuma: It's so rare to find someone who loves you unconditionally like your boyfriend does. Only dogs can love like that.

Not Even Close

Ok… this one is for all the girls out there. Actually, even for the guys. I was just wondering, what’s the big deal behind most of the beauty procedures that all we girls go through? The monthly hassles of excruciating pain to look like porcelain dolls. Polished like diamonds to sparkle for the next 4 weeks. What if I want to be the diamond in the rough? Most of you would say… who wants that?

Every time I was letting out a muffled yelp when that barbarous woman was coating me with hot wax and religiously pulling out hair right from its roots giving a deaf ear to each scream I let out, I doubted the humane side of this parlour lady. You cannot imagine the ruthlessness that hides behind the warm smile that greets you. I already know that my mom doesn’t have one for making me go through this hell. Especially, when she coolly reads a magazine while I scream in pain. Just to make you guys aware about my threshold of pain, I have two tattoos on my body and I can swear on all that is good in this world that I can get a thousand more of these and not feel as much pain as waxing does!

When I looked up on this, I was shocked that women have been tolerating this ordeal even before the Egyptian Civilizations. Women have not been comfortable with their body for so long! The depiction of female beauty in sculptures, paintings and photographs have falsely led the entire womankind into believing something that doesn’t even exist. The funny part being that most of these sculptures and paintings were the creations of men. And, funny as it may sound, men know only what the women show them. So the vicious circle started by us comes bites us in the ass in the end. Just to clarify, I’m not taking sides here nor am I blaming anyone for what has become. But I’m truly saddened by the current state of affairs and how none of us have tried to break free from the vicious circle.

For the very few who will actually read this post, I’m not telling you to instantly stop all your monthly procedures and start looking like primates who’ve just escaped the prehistoric times. The idea is to just make you aware of how we lie to ourselves every time we look at ourselves in the mirror and prep up those eyes, with false eyelashes, pull and curl our hair so that it listens to you for the rest of the day, punish ourselves for every calorie intake and scorn at ourselves for the flab that stares back at us through those tight fitting clothes. Every time we proceed towards the XXL section with a promise to never visit it again. Every time we browse through the fairness creams and lotions to make us look instantaneously beautiful (like we aren’t already!). Every time we make ourselves go through the pain instead of pampering ourselves to look beautiful inside out.

Even the rose never complained about its thorns. I hope we start appreciating ourselves and the people around us for what is inside than what meets the eye. And in this blog I declare that I will make an honest attempt at breaking out of this vicious circle and doing justice to the real beauty in me.

Cache

Choose what you want to believe

Reality will kiss its lips.

Your love will test your belief

And madness will follow.

Your challenge will be accepted

And the war you will have to fight.

Since your belief is so real

Your darkness will be the light.

We were born aware

As we aged we lost our ways

This life was meant to shun the obvious

I fear we are far from that.

Go drown yourself in reality

When you chose to deny your belief.

All fallacy that you bundled up

What if only half is real?

Fear Rots!

Why be Happy when you’re going to die anyway? What’s the point? Is it because it’s more convenient to be happy than depressed?

“Happiness” is never enough! Contentment doesn’t exist! The yearning to get comfortable never ceases! How can death be an answer to happiness?

But there is a limit to suffering! One can’t bear more than a specific level. Pain. Sadness. Suffering. It's all limited. Limited to death. Hence, death is the answer.

If suffering justifies death then why keep looking for happiness?

‘Coz it’s EASY! The fear of suffering is the only reason we try to be happy and any person who claims to be happy disgusts me! All you "happy people" are a big blotch on your very existence!

Exotic is the Word

I’m not achieving any great heights in my less than ordinary life when I’m sitting dreaming of greater things in life while the earphones in my ears are playing the Ghostbusters soundtrack when in reality I should be working on some random telecommunication report. However, the mind has the capacity to make you feel like a total incompetent wreck and a rock star at the same time. Here I am sitting imagining great things like learning Spanish and then finding a job in Spain and buying a studio apartment and a dog and a cat and live a comfortable life ogling at the scrumptious Spaniards that trot the exotic land. But as my favourite quote goes “Reality continues to ruin my life!” You are so sure that you deserve peaches and you open your eyes to bloodsucking leeches!

Well just for your mere entertainment let me jot down the leeches ruining my life. First of all, I don’t know Spanish! So I thought I’ll enroll myself for Spanish classes. It’s not that I’m going to turn myself into a hot Spanish woman with a heavy accent and a sensuality that men can barely resist, but I do aspire to achieve those traits. Ha! Isn’t denial the best state of mind? I have already started picturing myself as a hot Spanish seductress oozing sensuality that I myself am finding hard to resist. Hey wait! But I friggin don’t know Spanish! Oh chuck the Spanish… I’m going to turn myself into a seductress anyway. And then ill get a job in Spain and live in a studio apartment with a dog and a cat and ogle at the hot Spanish men all day long! Now, all I need is to find myself a job in Spain. So possibly what could I work as in Spain? I’m thinking. Still thinking. Maybe a waitress. That way I can check out guys all day long. Yes! I’m going to be a waitress in a Spanish restaurant and serve Spanish food. Sounds neat. So that’s set. Now for my studio apartment. I guess that won’t be hard to find. And the dog and cat thing will work out too. So there I have everything in place. A sensuous personality. A Spanish job in Spain. A studio apartment. A dog and a cat.

Nah! Too boring. Maybe I could become one of those Spanish speaking gypsies. Aha! That’s what I need. I’ll join a group of gypsies in Spain and develop my psychic abilities. I don’t know what I’ll do with these abilities but I will develop them just for the heck of it. Because otherwise it’s hard to convince people that you are a gypsy. Maybe I can switch the dog with an exotic parrot and keep a black cat. That will suit my personality real well. So, now I’m a Spanish gypsy with psychic abilities and a parrot and a cat. I don’t see how that cannot be achieved. Finally I have an ambition in life and an aim to work towards. What the hell am I doing creating worthless reports on something as blatant as telecommunications? This is what I was born to do. Become a Spanish gypsy. My goals are set. And now I’ll get back to my work before my boss sees me fooling around. I need the money to at least buy me the tickets to Spain. The rest is figured out. Spain! Here I come.

Janine and Her Bottle of Wine

We all saw the bottle of red wine,

At the top of a mighty rock

It glistened in the rays of the beautiful sun

The bottle, the rock, the wine and everything else.

We were all happy in the blinding light.

Some soothing their skin, some digging the earth.

Hardly did anyone notice Janine

Who was listening to the sun.

She lay there hugging the rock

That stood still holding the wine.

Her cheek grazed the smooth curves

Feeling the rhythm of the rays.

She loved the wine more than anything else

But wouldn’t take a sip ‘coz she loved it too well.

She heard everything in the wait.

She smelt the aroma in the air.

The euphoria that made us dance

Was nothing but the wine in the air.

The sun and the breeze spread the joy

It was nothing. Just the wine in the air.

But Janine did not dance with us.

She lay there tapping her feet.

She was busy listening to the rhythm of the rock

In the shade of which she smelt the wine.

She loved the wine more than anything else

But wouldn’t look at it ‘coz she loved it too well.

And she lay there with closed eyes

Her cheek on the rock , tapping her feet

While we continued soothing our skins

And digging the earth to unveil the deep.

Since it was nothing. Just the wine in the air.