Mishu is getting married on 27th April. I am going to Delhi tomorrow. Rajdhani leaves at 4.40pm from Bombay Central. I am planning to take a cab from home, since I have a bag and two large gifts. If I did not have the gifts then I would have preferred to take a train to Bombay Central. Trains being faster, cheaper and more sure. Train also takes me directly inside the station.
I have been preparing my bag for two days now. Got all my Kurtas, Pyjamas and a Dhoti ironed from laundry. I am planning to dress in Indian style for all the occasions. So I will wear Kurtas for all occasions. Shoes are dropped and Sandals are in.
Thankfully the train is in the afternoon. It is good to prepare for the journey. The toiletries can be packed after use and the bag can be kept open to put things and see if everything has gone in. I got four Kurtas now, white, rust, blue and one brown embroidered. Intitially I rejected this Kurta feeling it too dressy. But wedding is 'the occasion' for it, ‘mauka bhi hai, dastoor bhi hai aur... competition bhi hoga.’
There is a ceremony on 25th itself, the day I am reaching. I will reach at 9am and the ceremony is at 12 noon. Satish will pick me and take me to someone’s house for bath and dressing up. I will de-train in track pants and T shirt and they will all be power dressed. May be I should walk separately and meet them later near the car.
Life has been quite dull and eventless for long. What to do? It happens. Sometimes car is carried in a boat and next time you see that a boat is being pulled by the car.
Basically I am in Delhi for less than 5 days, from 25th 9am to 29th 4pm. But I am carrying a lot of clothes, semi formal shirts etc, because there are ceremonies and there are a lot of guests. More over boy’s (Sachin’s) family is new to all of us. So, one can not be entirely casual in front of them.
A little anxiety is there due to my return ticket, which has not been booked as yet. I am going book my Tatkal e-ticket after 12 midnight.
I have to publish this post before that too.
April 21 was the the frist night we stayed at Astrid's. Paul has gone to Kerala for a wedding. he will out for 10 days.i think tonight too we will be there. due to staying there i watch the IPL cricket. at home i do not like to see cricket. i prefer to read or watch something else.
tomorrow i will leave for Delhi by Rajdhani (4.40pm). Sometime I felt a little resistant towards going to Delhi. But i get over it. it has to be done. today i am fine. Pushpa chachi and Buaji are keen to meet me. i also want to see how pretty Mishu looks in all her finery. she looks so nice in her engagement pix. Also i would like see Kishu dressed up and having good time. last i saw her dressed during Cheenu's wedding, which i don't remember. in fact it was the first time that we met as adults.
it will be nice meeting pappu and family too. all of them are coming for this wedding.
i think last Sunday i decided to post some quotes that i read in various papers, mostly TOI. My most favorite one is here. It has really awakened a deep knowledge and a truth. i know that letting everyone know that i love them is important; but this particular twist to a common story is amazing. Following ensemble of words make so much sense.
The hardest of all is learning to be a well of affection and not a fountain; to show others that that we love them not when we feel like it; but when they need it. --Nan Fairbrother
And there are other good ones-
It is always the best policy to speak the truth; but of course unless if you are an exceptionally good liar. -- Jerome K Jerome
(Effective) Advice is like snow, the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon and the deeper it sinks into the mind. --Samuel Taylor Coleridge
We must be willing to let go of life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us. -- E M Forster
Finally I will be so dead mature that I will react to nothing. -- anonymous
Basically I am seeking happiness, but will be satisfied with contentment. -- Arunoday
Went to the club with Indu Murli and Sushila yesterday (Apr 18). indu said they were going for swimming, so i too took my swimming trunk. i told them that i was not a regular swimmer so murli suggested that i don't go in the regular pool; but use the children's pool. i did that. big pool did not have a shallow part. may be this is new funda of pools. both ends of the pool are 7.5ft deep and the middle is even deeper. Murli seemed a little concerned about it. fair enough. any way i did pretty well in the baby pool. later we had some chat and watermelon juice at the pool side.
after a while we went to the Indian restaurant for dinner. Arabia food festival was on there. had good fun over all.
swimming was an out of the way and unusual activity for me.
yesterday (April 16) was a very taxing day for me because i created my own record of watching 2nd and 3rd parts of Godfather trilogy. i had forgotten in which way did the movies began and went ahead. i vaguely remembered the story lines.
2nd part was very long. but it was worth it. it took me nearly 7 hours of sitting on my backside. i was changing my sides, my positions, my places. sometimes i was on sofa, next i was on ground, then i lied on my stomach... but now i feel very satisfied with my effort.
i don't feel like writing for a long while now. i wrote a piece for my blog long time ago. i have also learnt not to push myself into something that i am feeling resistant to. i have decided not to punish myself. i am not even feeling bad that i am not writing. have written a lot in the past. sometimes upto 4-6 full artcles a week. so let my average creativity go down a bit. it would not go down too much since i have a lot of body of work.
i have taken up to keep my Nirakar society at a optimum high level. there is no financial discipline. anyone pays anytime since there is no one to question them. Arora and me decided to turn thing around for this CHS. it is going to be good for the health of our building. i worked hard for this writing the letter with Arora's help, printing it and more importantly getting 7 people to sign for the AGM. one last signature will happen in a few days.
about 4 days back i felt concern about my shape and weight. and stepped on the gas, regularising my walks and stopping 'mithai' for 30 days. i also don't take sugar in my tea. today i feel i am back in fine shape and weight too seems back to normal.
Went for a good walk today at 6.45 and was back at nearly 8. pretty good work out, in my opinion. Last night in fact i had a bit disturbed, but not bad sleep. i got up once around 3am to go to loo and realised Kalika was having a bath! Then i went back to bed, got up again around 4.30 and went to loo. i went to sleep soundly all over again. Finally i got up at 6.15 and got ready to go out.
i realised today i was thinking a little differently than other days. i had a lot of will power, as though i am on top of all situations. i did not need to push myself out. i also decided to go to Nana Nani park today. Other days i would be hesitant due to this asshole Kumar too uses it. i was clearly very comfortable with myself. i thought even if he is around, i will not even look at him. From today i am feeling stronger from within.
It is not the troublesome situations in life; but our attitude towards it. i wonder if the times have changed for me. Really if i can change my attitude for good towards my so called problems then all the problems are solved. when the attitude is healthy then, the time does not have to change
Today I saw wedding website of Mishu and Sachin. The link is shrutiandsachinforever. Quiet cool. It is designed in red. I left a small note for them. A kitchen mixer as a gift for the couple is already here.
Kishu has booked her ticket for Delhi in Tatkal today. I am booking on 18th for 24th to reach on 25th.
The net has been very slow for months now. I may change my ISP.
3rd Test match between India and SA is on at Kanpur. It is a weird series. India lost the 2nd test at Chennai, after getting all out on 76 only in 1st innings. Now SA have given us 61 to win on the 3rd day!
My website is under repair. The colors have been finalised. Only some fine tuning is being done with inner pages. I have added a calender, clock and Download CV link. I also have a button called 'I Think This Way', where some of my articles will be uploaded.
Next morning (April 9) i got up at 6am and met Munnu and Bashir in the jogging park. After 30 min walk, i went with them and helped Bashir by setting up a blog for him. He wants to write about his psoriasis problems and how it is being cured. They chose the title as 'mypsoriasiscure'. His url is http://mypsoriasiscure.blogspot.com/ i guided him on some important points on how to go about writing posts and add pictures.
In the afternoon i said 'bye' to all and picked up my bag to meet Hersh near Inox theatre. We drove down to Lonavala later, stayed the night and left for Mumbai at 7am.
Sapna, Sean, Sara and Simon are in India after nearly 2 years. i had planned to meet them in Pune after my Shirota trek. So on 8th it was hard work for me. We had come back from the trek at 11.15am. i had a bath, rested and had lunch. i asked Balu for the local train schedule to Pune and took the 2.55pm train.
In Pune i called up Iris and told her that i was on my way to Munnu's house. As the door opened Anisa and Sameera jumped on me and covered me totally. i let them be. i did not ask them un-hig me. i could not see anything in front. It took nearly 2 min, before i could greet someone else. Munnu, Sapna, Aarti and Iris were all there. Sara and Simon did not recognise me. Understandable, they were very small when they left. i did not push them to talk to me. There was not enough time for this. i thought let them relax. Simon was more free and accepted chips from me.
i announced that i am going to spend all my time with Sapna. So that day where ever she was moving i was tagging along. i went for shopping with them to Life Style. then i stayed the night in James Court.
