The Night Market

Last Friday evening(Nov. 25), I went to the Night Market at Karunashraya.

This was the first time I was attending such an event and it turned out to be a good experience. I went there with some of my colleagues , in our office cab. We took, with us, a box full of old clothes, books and toys, all contributed to the Night Market by our colleagues.

The Night Market had several stalls selling old books, Chat items, ice-creams, cakes, noodles, clay pots, bags, cards and bead neacklaces made by the terminally ill cancer patients there.
There were also some stalls which had games like throwing darts, rings, bouncing bouncing-balls into a bucket, fishing beer bottles, horse-racing and also some card games. All the money collected by the stalls would go as contribution to their fund for taking care of the cancer patients.

While there was a game of housie going on in one place, people were busy eating their choice of food in another. Also, there was a magic show and ventriloquism by a lady.

I went on a shopping spree in the stall where old books were being sold for Rs.30 each. I bought 4 books. I hunted for thicker books and got hold of The Seventh Scroll and Monsoon, both by Wilbur Smith. I found another medium-sized book Angel by Barbara Taylor Bradford. The fourth book is a suspense thriller.

Of late, I have been buying books like crazy and now, I have more books than I can manage to read.

At another stall, I got a nice Mehendi design done on my palm. By then it was 8.00 p.m. and was drizzling already. I had to keep my mehendi designed hand safe from the rain drops.

I played some more games- tried fishing a beer bottle but just missed it at the last moment( we were given 2 minutes to try taking the bottle by its lid with the help of a long thin bamboo stick and a ring tied to its other end with a string).

8.30 p.m. and it was time to leave.

The return journey was not as smooth as I had thought it to be. We had to wait for our cab for 30-40 minutes, in the heavy rain. At last, when the cab arrived, we set out for our destination( our office) in the traffic jam-packed road. We were not even half-way to our place when the cab stopped all of a sudden. The driver said that there was a brake failure and that we couldn't go any further. So all of us got down and caught autos and the auto-drivers asked prices triple the usual fare.

It was 10 by the time I returned home, almost wet in the rain, after a small quarrel with the auto-driver regarding the fare and heavily laden with my file in one hand and my new collection of books in the other.

I went into the safe and cozy arms of my hard bed and soft quilt to spend a night full of sweet dreams( of my Prince Charming ) and the fact that it was a Friday night made my sleep more peaceful.

Monday morning blues

It's another one of the "blue-blue-God-bless-you" Mondays. I switch on my computer and thoughtlessly browse My Documents folder and my eyes which were aimlessly wandering on the computer screen catch the name Paulo Coelho under a wordpad file icon. I think it would be another of Paulo Coelho's spirit lifting work. I open it out of curiosity. And the saying Curiosity kills the cat almost comes true 'coz that story's title is ' Veronika decides to die ',which was translated from Portuguese to English by Margaret Jull Costa.

The story is about Veronika, a 24 year old woman, who is tired of her boring and monotonous life and decides to kill herself by taking 4 packs of sleeping pills. But she is saved. After this it is natural to expect that she would find a new zest for life and start all over again to live the rest of her boring life to the fullest. I am disappointed by the way the story turns( well, the story isn't too long to have a turn), only leading her to strongly stick to her decision to die now rather than later in her life when she is older and has lived a tragic life.

What could be more depressing than reading this story on a Monday morning brightly lit with dullness?

Well, I do understand her boredom. But, killing yourself just because you can't find a way to kill time without you knowing that you are actually killing it is too dumb even to be categorized as dumb.

After a "spirit"-lifting read as this, I went about searching for online practice tests for GRE and universities which offer Computer Graphics and Games Technology courses.

Let's come to lighter things in life...

We all could successfully watch Lost on Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately, power went out just when it was only 15 minutes to end(after 2 hrs 45 min. of interrupted show ). Now we would have to wait till 1.45 a.m on this Friday night( early Saturday morning) to see what happened in the last 15 minutes.

I stumbled across two feel-good movies on the Hallmark channel-
' A boyfriend for Christmas ' - this movie is about a young girl who wishes for a boyfriend on a Christmas day and the Santa Claus promises her that her wish would come true when she is ready for one. Obviously, after some years, she meets her soulmate on a Christmas.

' Short Circuit II '- this movie is about a robot created by an Indian toy designer . The robot wants to be a part of the human society and has to face a lot of trouble to prove to people that it is indeed 'alive' like any other human being, complete with emotions.

My friend and roomie got 2 books with each having 4 different novels(condensed into one book) i.e., 8 novels in 2 books. This will keep my otherwise ' devil's workshop ' occupied for the next couple of months.I started with John Grisham's ' The Rainmaker ' in one of the books and could easily identify myself with the lead character Rudy Baylor. And I'm loving it!

Sometimes, I wish these fiction writers could try writing the boring text books we read during our college days in their style. Maybe then, the students need not struggle and the university results would be much better than now. Hmmm...wishful thinking!

To be or not to be a Single

We have formed a "Singles Club"...and its members are 2 of my roomies and me. Obviously, the sole criteria for being a member of this club is not having any boyfriend or even a crush( sounds very stringent ?).

* Sigh! *

And we lead a very miserable and tragic life...the misery being watching the lovebirds tweeting sweetly and flying around together in bliss, oblivious of the world where lonely creatures like us dwell and the tragedy being the fact that our romance ends with the romantic stories that we read or movies that we watch or the songs that we hear/sing or even for that matter those rarest of the rare dreams that we have once in a bluemoon.

We are left to wait for our Prince Charming, who will come on a white horse, draped fully in a white dress with only his eyes uncovered...and we are here waiting eternally with nothing visible to our eyes but thick, white fog. Of course, it is impractical even to wait for him in today's world of traffic jams. Who knows, may be his horse broke down due to suffocation caused by pollution or he and his horse were covered with black vehicle smoke which led to his fear of not being accepted as the charming one.

Once, when I said that I had written down those lines which made me think about life, in Paulo Coelho's "The Alchemist", AC was shocked and commented,"Deepa! You seriously need a boyfriend! Get a life,girl!".

Sometimes, I feel that having a boyfriend has become a status symbol. If you don't have one, you are looked down upon as a loser and are not good or worthy enough to deserve the love of another person.Sounds so stupid!

For us, the word "boyfriend" has become nothing but a big fat joke. If we want to leave early from work, we are asked " Oh! So you are going out with your boyfriend?". Or if we come late back home from work, this question pops up "You are so late today .Where did you go out with your boyfriend?".

We find ourselves so romantic that we give bright ideas which change people's( Romeo's or Juliet's) life. I have even named my heart-shaped pendant watch( the dial is the pendant of a long chain) which has the design of two flames and another small heart as "Do badan, Ek Jaan", which in English means ' Two bodies, One Soul'.

At times I feel that life would be as beautiful as a Spring morning if there was someone to talk sweet nothings, to have small fights or quarrels and then later make up with him with a cute little sorry, to give gifts on a Valentine's day, to hear him say" I love you" for the umpteenth time and each time those three words sound very new and give you the same thrill as it did for the first time...too good to be true? Yes!

Coming back to reality,I strongly feel that there is nothing more peaceful than being a single. You stay more focussed in life without unnecessary tensions. And for a daydreamer like me, a small distraction lays a firm,earthquake-proof foundation of a huge castle.

There are so many things I want to do in my life that there's no time for things like "boyfriend" or love. I have to build my career and/or pave my way for higher studies and finally settle into a job that I love.

I am reminded of Robert Frost's famous poem "Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening"...

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

Graphology

I recently came across a site where you can know about your character by the analysis of your handwriting.

Out of curiosity( about myself and not about the site), I went through the several steps of the analysis and to my surprise, the result was very accurate. Check out this site by following this link or going to www.handwritingwizard.com or by clicking the title of this post, for a different kind of self-realization.

Ennui

This Diwali was the most boring of all the Diwalis I remember. We had gone to Madurai for the Diwali celebration. My cousins couldn't come and I was all alone with no one around to have fun with. And to make the boredom a bit less boring, I fell ill. Going to the doctor and buying medicines was relatively more entertaining than simply sitting at home and surfing channels.

I was actually waiting for the time when I would leave Madurai.

Well, now that I'm back here, everyday is just another cycle of events that happen during a week day... waiting for Friday evening.On Friday night, forgetting all about work for the next 2 days and waking out of a beautiful dream into another nightmarish Monday morning.

This weekend was a bit different...only a bit. We didn't miss "LOST" series on Star Movies on Saturday. On Sunday, my roomies and me went out to Pizza Hut for Lunch and had a good time there. Then we went out to a nearby park and went on a shooting spree...with a camera(obviously).

I bought another 2 books:-
Yann Martel's Life of Pi( Winner of Man Booker Prize 2002) and Jeffery Archer's Not a penny more, Not a penny less.
I have to start reading some serious stuff. But then, till I feel old enough to read something serious, I am gonna stick to the world of fiction.

And on Sunday night, my roomies celebrated my birthday with the ritual followed on every birthday...chocolate cake, candles , card, flowers and the sweet ' Happy Birthday ' song. It feels really nice that someone thinks about you and considers you special enough to celebrate your birthday.

I am now getting bored with this place and this kind of lifeless life. I think my boredom and loneliness that I thought I had left behind in Chennai is catching up with me. Either I should face it bravely( ...and yea without getting bored) or I should pack my bags and leave for a new place where I find everything so new that I keep myself occupied with exploring them.