My story's up on Pure Slush this fine morning:

http://pureslush.webs.com/arrival.htm

A salute to the Practice group on iWW, this one began there.

Mira

Ok. So DD Urdu shows movies without any ad breaks. So DD Urdu shows stunning movies you won’t find anywhere else amidst the gazillion channels. Last night I watched Umrao Jaan, that first version, that one with the stunning music. And I couldn’t sleep. Without any ad breaks the story hits harder and scrambles your brain.

I awoke grateful for all the mercies I generally scowl at.

I scrounged for time slices on Sunday, scraped out time bits  to read.

--From my newspaper stacks where I got some very interesting stories including the Beatles demo tape, and about ahem difficulties with kindergarten entry in China (though I have no idea what I’ll do with this trivia)

--The Undefeated Mind which I’m perusing page by page, to return with a pen next read.

--Tat tvam Asi.. Satya’s  exposition, which I’m reading respectfully.

--Jagubhai no Punarjanam ( Jagubhai’s rebirth)… a hilarious, mocking tale of a politician on the make. I still don’t know how to translate a single word that means “long-limbed –fortunate-someday possibly-a- ruler”

A day ago, my (very) tiny (very) little apartment turned one.
A year. Already. 
That's a year of fawning over *such nice places* on design sponge and apartment therapy.
A year.
Celebrations~ red fruit on the banyan tree outside.And louder that usual cawing of the neighborly crows
(Newspaper stacks and my unending plastic bag collection are sore points. Aye.)
And right now I got my copy of Real.
Beautiful.

https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/102111611440248729056/albums

Nov 18

Ranjangaon

Morgaon

Ashtavinayak-- this has the awesome mountains and Lenyadri

So ages ago, two some years ago. I had won some prize in some writing contest, ok?

From a government agency in the west. Which of course is the west.

If you’d have told me I could be as persistent in insisting on, following up on my prize—if you’d told me this, I wouldn’t have believed it. Yet.

I am learning new things about money every day. Sobering, eye-opening things. And about the world, and behavior. And I thought the Saturn transit, the one supposed to teach you life lessons, was over. Oh la.

There is a slight nip in the air, even as the evening sky turns mauve before it gives in to creeping purple-black.

How fitting for me to learn the meaning of wealth, and how carefully she has to be prayed to. 

I am also learning with some shock and little surprise how the have-nots try to extract wealth, I tend to be too giving sometimes. The autofellow has been advised to shift to another suburb for a while. My first impression about that woman's good-for- nothing son were not incorrect, a louse.

V says this happened in order to push me towards a more active form of social involvement than writing a cheque. Perhaps an answer to my fervent prayers that my feet stay on the ground, no matter what. To cut a long story short, enroute the suburban station on Tuesday, our new year day, my auto at zero speed but down slope, ran into a Aisamma Besep, 50?, a kachravali heaving an overfull rubbish bin across the road. Remember all those spy torture tales about nails peeled off? Well it is true. Spent most Tues. morn at the hospital ensuring X rays, sticthes, wound dressings, scolding, cajoling and some measure of sanity. The nurse, the girl in the pharmacy, the guard-- all remembered from 2 yrs ago. Anyway... there is a time for all seasons....

I don’t think I’ve seen our colony as beautifully lit as it has been this year.

P and her son surprised me one afternoon with food, flowers and a glass bowl to float diyas in. Now I have to remember a Catholic festival with the same intensity. S, my late friend IE’s hubby called to generously wish..we have been keeping away from wishing Eid so that they have the space to move on… so many life lessons.

The beautiful, perfect puja in the office. The beautifully arranged puja at N’s and the perfect Kashmiri dinner afterwards, (the dum aloo that I did more than justice to) the only aberration being “roadblocks” (as Baba called them) in the vishnu sahatranam where I kept returning to the same point reciting from memory...but our prayers were sincere...next year will be better.

This year I want to do one thing at a time instead of multitasking and keeping too many mailboxes open at the same time. And I must find the time to write more.

One major learning is that my productivity dips and that too badly when I have tons of free time, I work smarter when I'm cramped for time.

And I must learn to respect the time value of money.

Happy Happy Diwali and Saal Mubarak!
( that's the way we say Happy New Year  in Gujarat)
I wish you a diwali filled with lights and rangoli and flowers and floating diyas and torans and surprises and sparklers and laughter and squealing, jumping children... and the blessings of auspicious pujans.
arrey I forgot....And lots of mithai!

So I can be dropped at the corner of a (known) road at midnight. And still find my way home.
Terribly empowering, this.
Yesterday I was just p*ss&d, now I see this upside.

You go home or the place that used to be home and still possibly is, the memory of the place imprinted in your mind like a real thing, and yes, you still know all the roads and shortcuts. Your take home--what the lady on the train, a youthful 61 year old said—anandit raha… stay happy…

The surprise of low fog at an early 4 pm.. no chance of a Lodhi Garden shot this once…

That random choice of the Habitat Center by a friend as a place to meet—and the amazement of walking into a symposia on language…Samanvay.. meeting an editor who’s published my translations ages ago…

the panel debating seven critical centers for Hindi's evolution

Walking around museum-like inspecting the houses in New Fr Col, noticing with amusement the predilection for superbuilt up and minimal gardens.. and making friends with a confident, happy, enthused Mrs. Kocchar, at eighty-two quite in control of her wits--she still drives--and her domain, her joy at the trees that line those avenues and her pride at the lovely park, a word of praise here, a tiny scold there… what super spirit…

the installation above the India Habitat Center arena

the joy in reaching your own home, your own bed, even if its almost midnight.
and your desk the next morning.

From a function at the NCPA last night.
What a beautiful place.
And what an out-of-this-world location...

I want to instill these greens in my soul. i want to wear these shades upon my skin.