The Spect(Deb)acle

I took these pictures on my cell phone cam (very average) on 12th of January in खंडोजीबाबा चौक (the one that leads to Deccan and लकडी पूल from कर्वे road) in Pune. To say it was shocking is a lie because even if it should be, we are conditioned to think this can very well happen. And that is what I found most surprising.... Sad it is... That is for sure....

PS I was on लकडी पूल.

'Officially' Married!

Courtsey my mother-in-law(She did all the running around and getting forms filled and all) we got officially married yesterday!!! ! And just to put it in perspective we are about 2 days away from our fourth wedding anniversary!!!!!!!!!

We didn't do this at the time of our wedding or anytime soon after that. I had neither changed my surname nor did we need a VISA stamping or anything like that so slowly I just stopped seeing why it was necessary to get this marraige registration done... In these four years we faced no technical/legal issues... Neither of us having estate enough for the other to prove he/she is the better(or worse) half and both earning and capable of supporting ourselves!!!! (Sordid, I know... but a lot of people would think so!) And stubborn as I am, I thought why should I get it done at all??? Why does the GoI care if I am legally/according to Hindu Marraige Act married to the guy I am living in with?? When and how might I have to prove that we are married?? We opened this issue for debates a few times in a bunch of friends and relatives and none, mind you none, was able to come up with a suitable answer!! The best that we got really was that we are fooling the census by withholding this information. And then GoI came up with this regulation, I think, about 6 months back that it is mandatory to register marraige! Now, logic or not, argument or not, we had to do it!

Call it being busy (ya right!~) or truly lazy (more like it!~) or just wary of Government offices and procedures (Also has some bits of truth!~), we finally managed to get it done yesterday...well better late than never right?!

However, by far the best explanation I have got came from my boss. Apparently even he has not done his registration and now when the wifey needs to renew her passport they have gotten themselves in a fix! (She, too, uses her maiden name) If she writes her status as married, she has to produce the registration document and if she does not, then she is mis-representing - a crime!!!! Food for thought, eh? But a reason enough to register, all right!!!

Armed with this logic, in we go in that office and to my utter amazement this place was well painted, not as much spitted on as one would expect, well lit - and by natural light and not deadly yellowed lights, the chaps there actually had a sense of humour - a surprise to moi expecting frowning faces!, electronic!!, a super fast computer operator,a web cam to snap a quick pict of bride and groom and print it out on the certificate (albeit the pictures were taken against the light so probably I can substitute many other attractive men for S and no one would as much as wink! (Chuckle) and he too can enjoy a similar benefit!!!). It did not take us more than 30 mins to complete the entire procedure and that IS quite something, isn't it?!

All-n-all people moi married legally now!!!!!!!

Maya

Following is an e-mail a dear sister of mine wrote me. I am just going to cut and paste it as no amount of effort to re-tell what she is trying to tell here will do any justice.... Why I loved this mail certainly is not only the story of the lady called Maya that moi cousin is telling but the way this story's touched her... Love u kiddo! Here's to you!!


" Maya, a lady in her late 20s, probably 27 - 30. She is a 8th standard drop-out from छबिलदास School (Rucha, its a school which was ONLY good during our आजी's schooling years and probably a few years after that!). Her family lives near Curry Road Station, very near to लालबागचा गणपती. Her mother works as a cleaner at Mumbai airport. Her father probably does a similar kind of job somewhere. She looks after patients who have very little hope of survival or extremely old people. She was a so-called nurse for a kid with lukemia. She was jobless after 5 years as the patient was no more. Then she was offered a similar position with a family to look after their very old grandfather. She was and I think still is with the same family.

Do you know where she lives? In the Heart of Central London !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Her second employer was so happy with her work that he sponsered her work permit and since she already had been in the UK for the past 5 years, he even helped her with her residentship.

Today, a very proud Maya is one of the official residents of the Queen's country. In these 11 years, she has travelled to Nigeria, Spain and Italy. She converses very well in English, though not that very fluently, with a bit of an accent !!!! She knows Marathi, Hindi and Gujrathi - reading, writing and speaking. She cooks very good Gujrathi food (it was a part of her second job). And of course English for her daily life.

I met her when she had come to meet माधवी मामी. When she registered with मामी's marriage bureau, मामी told her that she would not accept any registration fees from her as it would be entirely मामी's pleasure. But when she completed the form and left, she had quitely slipped 100 pounds between the pages.

It was संक्रांत and Mami gave her गुळाची पोळी which was generously soaked in ghee (there is no तूप here !!). That was the first time she said she had tasted a real गुळाची पोळी!!

I sent a usual Sunday nite mail to aai and just as I switched off my laptop, I remembered I forgot to mention the most important event of the weekend. I was sleepy and thought I would do that from office tomorrow and with that I turned off the light at midnight. But for the next 40 minutes, I just couldn't concentrate on sleep. Somewhere in my mind a voice was saying, "Send the mail NOW! Tell everyone NOW ! " So now its 1:00 am, Monday morning and as I finish writing this mail, I feel completely relaxed and genuinly happy for Maya. My Sunday evenings are generally spent in thinking about the boring week ahead or which company have I left out for job applications. But I couldn't help feeling absolutely happy for Maya today !!

3 Cheers for her. If I was a Christian, I would probably drink to her health and success !!

ता. क.: Why doesn't someone make a movie on this lady, rather than churning out rubbish like Dhoom 2 and Don.
ताई...a blog for this please.........

And if anyone noticed, I have sent this mail ONLY to the 4 most importent ladies in my life. "

PS Sorry for certain references inscrutable to some.... And Muuuaaaannhhh to you M!

'Quality' Conversation!!

We - me and my better half - rarely manage to find 'quality' time together and whenever we do its usually when either of us is driving from or to home. Here's an interesting sample of the conversations we have - courtsey traffic and lawlessness of drivers in Pune.

Situaiton: A car and two wheeler are having a stand-off in the middle of a quintessential Pune lane (Read: Narrow is an understatement!) The guy driving the car is totally unhappy about the lady driving the two wheeler and the lady in question is quite reciprocative, too!

A: Why is he (car driver) on the wrong side of the road?

S: Why is she (the lady on two-whe) on the wrong side?

A: I guess she is....

S: Even he seems to be...

A: I guess they both are bad drivers...

S: I am the only good driver around here!! (By then he has managed to wriggle through the jam caused!)

A: Ain't you really the best thing under the sun anyways?! (Add nth power of sneer and a truck load of sarcasm)

S: Around! Not under the sun Aditi, around it!!

The traffic has caused not only the sheer deterioration of our intellectual levels but it is also going to be my marraige breaker... Grrr.. Do you think I can take someone to court against such a torture??

Notes

This new year READ all the articles that Google keeps sending to your mail box because YOU in the first place have subscribed to those.

Make sure that the pipeline you have been building over last year pays up.

18th April is approaching and fast. You still are clueless..... Figure out the plan of action.

GYM regularly. (in bold and capital and then again underlined.)

Make a good and long trip.

Change your laptop (sob..sob...I love this one... I think I already know I am not going to heed this note of mine!! Chuckle!)

Wish the person 'appy birday or anniv if you know, your cell phone calender tells you, birthday alarm mails you or Orkut acts diligent.

Try and save the skin of you car better... Its precious... well literally as well!

Study! Oh, chuck that smile.... Don't take this lightly.

Make time for people. You are increasingly getting worse at this. Stop being lazy.

Whats the point of this post?? Well NONE!! These are not even resolutions but a mere wishlist. Terrible as I am, even at remembering my resolutions, I have given up making them long ago. But whenever I was asked in these 5 days of a brand new year, this list above kept popping up in my head! So thought I would post it and then go back to it about a year from now.

And in almost all likelihood, laugh out loud at how different the life's turned out to be!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy New Year to all of you and here's wishing this year turns out to be better than you thought it would!! :)