Download PDF (Patriotism, Dreams and Fun)

Hi!

Friday’s here, sweethearts. And this is a long weekend in India, courtesy our Republic Day. (Indians rejoice not coz of the significance of the day, but coz it’s a public holiday.)

I have written about patriotism twice I think (it was the review of Aamir one of those two times, and a general rant the other time.) I don’t know if I have shared this with you before, but I feel proud and amazing when I see everyone standing up for the national anthem before a movie starts in the cinema hall. Something tingles inside to see the community respecting the national symbol as one!

I dreamt about animals last night. (Don’t get startled; I’ve had dreams wilder and more bizarre than this!) What kicked off the dream were two mighty elephants, grey-white, with long legs and massive ears. They were slipping backwards over a slight incline, and a rider on one was sliding down as well. (Slowly, fortunately for him.) But the situation wasn’t fatal; they all seemed in control of themselves.

I saw this as I was riding pillion with an old dame in a saree. (I don’t know who she was and what business of mine it was to sit behind her!) As we hit a dirt track, a lion started its hot pursuit of us. As the creature chased us at breakneck speed, I screeched to the grandma to go fast fast fast! And fast, she went. (Don’t know how she did it at her age!)

As I looked back, I saw a man wildly signaling to us to slow down and stop, but we thought he was out of his mind to give sucha foolish suggestion. When the lion was almost at our tail, I realized we had no scope of outrunning the beast, and so we might as well do the man’s bidding. Grandma hit the brakes, and wonder of wonders! The lion dashed past us. Seems like he just wanted a good race!!

(Hehe. Tells us we should think outside the box, and if we cannot, then we ought to give others’ ideas a chance.)

My dreams are as unusual as they are amusing. I once dreamt that I was sitting with Sunny Deol watching television, and I also dreamt that my school was inundated with snow!

I often see my school and schoolmates in my dreams. (Had anyone else said the same to me, I’d have expressed that there could be some psychological or unresolved issues during the said period. But, that ain’t true for me as far as I know.) I have seen Radhika and Neha a million times, as I have Kunal and a few others. It’s true I was very attached to all these people, but by no means do I have anything to share with them that I haven’t already.

I just wish my schooldays had been more cheerful and memorable. Didn’t enjoy being teased about my skin color and specs... Now, of course, when they look at me, I see the appreciation and admiration in their eyes about the person I‘ve become. The perfect story of the ugly duckling becomes pretty swan. (I said pretty, NOT beautiful!)

Well, that’s that about dreams. In real life, I’m currently struggling with “Organizational Restructuring”. Some client request. Hope it doesn’t turn out like the Performance Appraisal Review Meeting, where all my mammoth research and effort appears to have gone waste as the client absconded after hearing the commercials.

Come to think of it, Indians want the best stuff at paltry prices. Alchemy is by no means low-priced, and neither was inlingua, one of the most expensive language institutes in the city, where I worked as a language trainer for 2 years. Independent of the fact that I have been a loyal employee who enjoys her work, the truth is both deliver quality. And quality comes at a cost.

(Not like a few other language coaching schools I know that charge half as much and teach the beginner and advanced levels simultaneously! I mean what da #^$% ??!!! How can you learn the vowels and perfect tenses at the same time?!!)

I keep getting the news from inlingua that a lot of instructors keep coming and going. (Tough to last when one surrounded by politics.) But what’s in the news, the papers I mean, is the adverts of some training firms that have adopted inlingua’s yellow-black scheme – like Seed Infotech, and another one, I think it was Yellowbox. I still tend to think of my last workplace as my own... The ironies of life!!

Apart from work, what’s happening in my life at the moment, is dealing with the electronics in my home. Gifted my parents a Philips juicer-mixer-grinder (as I’d told you) for their anniversary, and bro gifted them cell-phones. Dad bought a new bread toaster recently, and we’ve been planning to get a plasma TV for ages.

Hey, have you been watching Roadies? The one episode I’ve seen since they started their journey was where Rannvijay (whatta dude, man!) poses Hindi mindbenders, and the ladies have to answer, failing which the guys get whacked on their balls. Uh uh. “Immunity” in the game at what cost?!! Oh, and the money task was to collect shit from all across the desert. The Roadies managed to gather cartloads of excreta – animal, and even human. With their bare hands. Ughhh...

I must say I’m disappointed with the lot. None of the contendors seems to have the “zing” factor that makes a Roadie a Roadie – Polomi, Varisha, Palak, Devarshi, Suzzana, Pradeep, Kiri, and other punters whose names I don’t even recall... All duds. No winning streak unlike Prabhjyot and others in the previous seasons.

Talking about TV shows, did you know about this cartoon character called “Hagemaru”? He looks Japanese, and I’m so sure they did not consider the Hindi translation of the name... (For the uninitiated, it means something on the lines of “shit and hit”. Gross, I know. I remember chatting with my friends when Skoda Laura was launched. How Indians wouldn’t buy that car coz it sounds like the male organ in Hindi...)

Enough chat for the day... Time to sign out! Have a great weekend! See ya Tuesday!

Bharat Mata Ki... Jai!
Princess