Life comes at you fast

When I am with my friends, my age group of buddies or colleagues... it does not hit me with an impact. Life seems to have transitioned slowly, college, marriage, kids... the normal placent course for everyone around. Mid life crisis seems miles away. Growing old is a reality now but nothing to get worked up about.

But every time I meet an elderly or a senior colleague, I cannot but feel I have hit a panic button... that makes me wonder just a couple of years and i will be there. The mad rush of ensuring all smooth ends before you hit the 40s.

I met up with a colleague for lunch today. Married, 2 kids, a manager, running a side business of his own, mentoring freshmen, and he was in a rush to wind up a lot to settle into a comfortable 40. Made me panic. A realisation .... Life comes at you fast.

An interesting piece I overheard

But the gist is what surprised me.

I was at my usual haunt when I realised there were no tables to park my bum. So quite uncomfortable, I sat in the middle table, surrounded by people around me at arm's length literally. Normally I would prefer a corner seat, next to a window or the wall. Sitting in the centre of the hall, is all privacy invaded when your only intention to come in the first place was a place for yourself for a while.

So now I can look at what someone is writing, reading, typing. And in the table right in front of me, are two guys and a girl. The only reason i got listening to them because the girl just wouldn't stop drooling over her recently acquired boyfriend.

S: You know what I have been thinking the whole evening ?

H: I have no idea ( I felt like giving him one punch, such a weirdo!!)

S: I have been thinking how much I like your nose. ( Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeks! She is the one who deserves a punch. A weirdo for a weirdo. I was not in a mood for this mush mush overhearing. I took a closer look at the guy, to give the girl the benefit of... but I swear he was very funny. Makes me wonder why girls cannot be more selective about the guys they drool over. Trust me there are better ones out there).

Anyway, so their conversation continues. I wanted to turn my ears away from them and get back to what i was doing, when she said:

S: You know I am a Jew right. But I am quite unorthodox.

Now the other guy on the table speaks up for the first time: Me too. I am pretty flexible and not so staunch in my ideas as a Jew.

Suddenly, as if the 3 tables around me tuned in, the guy on my right, suddenly looked up from his book and said:

H: I believe in all the concepts that they talk about but I rather not be staunch.

The girl on his right, now looks up and nods and I realise I am the centre, of the cris cross communication and actually surrounded by all these young Jewish men and women, who are trying to cut out their identity as a race that is not inflexible or staunch in ideas. They believe in their religion but leave it to being a matter of religious believes and not interfere in making them different from the society they live in, or staunch in a discerning manner. Made me look up and realise that isn't that how every young generation feels when just left to themselves to interpret religion, society, harmony and progressiveness. No one wants to be caught up in a divide, or segregate themselves or reason orthodoxy anymore.

Hey Baby!

Yesterday as i was out on my usual night out, I couldn't spot parking. Rush Street, a martini lounge bar, had live music and partying teeny boppers thronged the road sides to make parking more difficult. Finally, I spotted a metered parking empty. Swearved the car in, only to be stopped by a damn hot looking dude.

I : ( rolled down my window) Are you taking this parking lot ?

H: No, I am the valet ?

I was about to swerve my car out, when he and 4 of his other damn hot looking friends, peeped into the car, and

one said: If i give you fifty dollars, will you drive us around ?

I: No

Another guy : Ok hundred dollars

Another: You can lock our hands, we are good guys.

I: Sorry NO.

H: Why!!!!

I: Because I have work here and I am not driving you. Sorrrrrrrrrrrrrry!

And I coolly ignored them, parked my car, walked to my cafe and pretended I wasn't suprised at their audacity.

And then it suddenly struck me. I have grown up, haven't I ! It just struck me, ten years back I would have been scared of being approached like this. Maybe I still would be if it was Delhi. I would really be. Delhi has become so unsafe. Eveteasing is every guys right and the girls, even though they are bolder and more confident than they ever were, can't do much approaching passers nearby, corrupt policemen and raging lecherous guys. So i guess, maybe its just easier to say No and do as you please in the US> a small incident but a big reflection on the society and the prevailing law and order.

Tomatoes from their backyard

Precisely that... is what I have been tasting since morning, drowning in work. My colleagues from work came by to hand me tit-bit snacks at work.. so the first one has red, ripe oval tomatoes from his backyard, the second brought in red and orange pepper from their backyard and now the third drop in to my seat, " Deepti, would u like to try tomatoes from my backyard?" And there I go, 6 round tiny orange salad tomatoes on my table. " Do they taste nice?", she said.

And I was like, "Really nice, thanks. Very fresh indeed."

Struck me to record this in my blog. So i dropped all work to write this one para in, because I just realised back home in India, how would it have sounded to go around the office taking pride in home grown tomatoes in my backyard!

The most well dressed couple in the cafe tonight

Happens to be the oldest as well. Swinging it up in their 80s for sure...!

So the old lady is dressed up in a red mini, red jacket, scarf, red lipstick, make up touched up perfect ( as in caked up completely with eyebrow pencil and stuff, shee how i hate it). She is reading an old bound edition , since the binding is done in dark blue and the alphabets engraved in golden, sorry would not be able to update you with the title, the lights are reflecting at a weird angle. The old man is sitting on another table, next to mine, reading Life of Pie. Ok this one I know. He is dressed like a thorough gentleman, trouser and a jersey. Did I mention it is starting to get chilly here, with the rains.

And here I am, chappals, shorts, ragged top and my fav cotton jacket, with my hair plaited like a school girl. LOL.

Anyway. did i mention the lady also has black stockings and black medium heeled sandals. And it is 11:30 pm sunday night in a cafe flocked with college crowd with nothing better to do on a monday morning except attend a boring lecture.

I am having fun. So the lady walks up to her old man,

She: I am sneezing

He: Freezing

She: No, sneezing

He: Uh! ( And back to his book)

( She has gone back to her chair on a separate table, quite disappointed with the old mans preoccupation)

With all due respect , they actually look so adorable and fun to be doing this on a sunday night together, but i my idiotic side ticks off...

Buddeh uncle ka abhi yeh haal hai

toh jawani mein kya karteh hongeh

Bechari aunty itna tyar hokeh sath mein hain

lekin alag table pe behteh hain

Aunty baat karne ki koshish kar rahi hain

woh toh apni hee dunhki mein hain

Kya yaar, yeh ladhkeh weird hee cheez hain

Age no bar, caste no bar !

For a moment when you are out of normal schedule

It was a hilarious experience. I was walking from the parking lot towards my office when i decided to take the elevator instead of the staircase. I opted for the quicker mode of transport for reasons that i was running late for work. Some people have all the time and luxury to use the staircase to walk at 9:10 am, for health reasons. Its past 9 damn it. So i rush into the elevator on the 4th floor.

The door opens, there is no space to take in more people. Yet the insiders adjust. I walk in. Another lady behind me. And then a huge burly man. The elevator door closes. And that is the beginning of the episode that lasted 50 minutes. The elevator refused to budge.

Are we overloaded ? No, it says 21 people. We were barely 12. And definitely not 2100 pounds.

Ok, so the thing jammed by itself between the 4th and 3rd floor.

Frantic, pressing the buttons. The Alarms. And finally a lady , sounding cool as a cucumber , answers the frantic alarmed voices on this side of the microphone. " We will be getting in touch with OTIS. Give us a while".

Hello, excuse me. The office has 30 odd elevators and are you saying you have no one on-site to attend to this.

In the meantime, the elevator starts to get stuffy. And the conversations take off. And i swear it was hilarious.

" I know of this one case who was locked inside the lifts for 4 hours and later became incapable of working". Uhh????

"Hi, cheryl, thanks for the Verizon connectivity. Could you proceed without me in the meeting. I am stuck in the lift and don't know when will they be able to open it." Encouraging?

"I don't like the sound of the wires tugging on the elevator. It makes me feel we are in real trouble".

"Does anyone know how is the weather outside?"

"Is anyone a Harry Potter fan ?"

"I have an interview at 10. My hair will be all messy by the time we get out from all the sweat. I think I will need to shower in the gym before i can proceed for the interview."

"Oh, they rather give us a free buffet at MGM. These MGM parking people."

And it was endless for 50 minutes non stop. And most of the time we were laughing away. Hilarious. All the absurd comments that people pass to uplift themselves, others, take out their fears or frustrations. I was only hoping the air keeps circulating!!!

Bechare ladhkeh !

A friend at work stopped by. He has 2 kids, the elder one is a boy and the younger one , a girl. Sue happens to listen into the conversation.


F: My lil' girl is all over the place. There could be 500 toys in the room, but she wants the one, her brother is playing with. My son is forever having to give in. He thinks it is unfair.

S: She is on the right track early in life. After marriage, that is precisely how it works. ' What you have is mine. And what is mine, is mine. '

I: Poor guys, honestly. You hit it bang on target.

How do you write person in Chinese ?

No doubt the Chinese calligraphy is a work of art. I was with Leigh, as usual. And we decided the next fun thing to do, would be to start learning Chinese. So here goes, he showed me how to write his name in Chinese. The next sentence he wrote was, I am a Chinese person. The word person was depicted by an inverted Y, written in a cursive hand. That made me very curious.

I: If Y is a person, how do you write girl and boy.

L: Well, that is simple.

He wrote the inverted Y, and then drew out a slanting stick from the intersection point on the letter. We both flushed pink and laughed till we literally rolled off our chairs. So much for expressiveness in calligraphy. We never got around to learning how to write the other sex in Chinese.

Millionaire is my man !

A friend and I were laughing about how our assets equal our liabilities with no scope for owner's equity. I for sure have a zero balance every month end. I am not saying this as a proud woman. But it sure is hilarious when it happens to you month after month, and you are not shopping extravagant or travelling much or doing anything that can qualify you as a spend thrift.The friend of mine is just braving a divorce and has to re-evaluate her income statement daily. So with such a background, it's not unfair for a pretty lass to regretfully say that she shouldn't have thought, for once, that she wanted to build everything apni mehnat ka,

I: I should have married a millionaire (sigh)

F: I am still looking for mine

The impact of the truthful loathing was so much that we burst out into a rhetoric, dil se laugh.