My Life, A Cocktail

"A cup of coffee shared with a friend is happiness tasted and time well spent." I have this weird habit of looking at people’s status messages on Gtalk. I kinda like this feature and have been using it ever since I moved from good old Yahoo messenger to the simple and neat Gtalk. The status feature was initially meant to give a hint to friends and family if you are available to chat or busy. And then came the custom status message. I think its really cool and people have been putting it to use for different reasons, sharing a thought or simply expressing their mood. In fact, its amazing to see how many conversations actually start out with these status messages. So that’s how I came across that quote. Coffee. Well, what can I say. My family, being a typical Palghat Iyer family, was brought up to love coffee. The day starts with coffee, and continues with coffee. There are days when there is no salt in the home, but coffee is always stocked up. I have grown up listening to my ...

And so I learnt to eat with chopsticks! I mostly like Chinese food, with the exception of those soaked and drenched in the magical soya sauce. I have been to numerous Chinese food places, and yet, never felt the desire to learn to use the chopsticks. Even in places where they assumed you knew how to use them, I would casually demand for a fork. Until yesterday. I don’t want to discuss the Chinese restaurant of yesterday, but it was bad. Or atleast bad enough to inspire me to learn a new art. Observation is an art too, that can be both dangerous as well as rewarding. For me, this one time, it sure was constructive. Today, when I went in to warm my lunch, the chopsticks in the office kitchen called out to me. It took me a while till I could finish my little bowl of rice, but it was fun. I am getting better at it, slowly though. Here’s to lots more Chinese food and chopstick days!

Just be yourself and let me see What makes you different than me Why you do a particular thing in a particular way Why you like some things I don’t Why is it you don’t care for me in the same way I care for you And yet I know you care so much Why is it that your definitions for the same words are different than mine Although we share a common dictionary Why is it that you interpret situations in a different way When the same things happen to the both of us Why is it that you scream When I would silently cry Just be yourself and let me see What makes you different than me And when I wake up in the middle of the night I know this difference is what keeps us alive.

And there we were, hurrying to get to Mc D’s lest our favorite BIG breakfast time’s up. We made it precisely five minutes before they could roll the menu boards over. Aaah, the satisfaction of a yummy and filling breakfast! With that done, we set out on the ever crazy 101 to San Francisco. I spent most part of the drive on call with a dear friend who cared enough to look up different addresses and give us directions. By the time I hung up, I could see the signs of the San Francisco Industrial Area carved atop a mountain. I clicked pictures, as I gave directions to my hubby through the buzzing downtown roads. Our first destination. The China Town. I had read enough, as I always do before setting out on a trip, and I loved the first sight of it. Exactly what I had imagined. A trailing series of shops with little knick knacks to sell. Set in the background of the bay, with steep roads going up and down, almost sinusoidal, almost like life. My hubby parked the car a couple of blocks away...

Finally, I did it. Today. It was a couple of months ago, when I was still new to work. I had noticed two glass jars with little green leaves of the money plant, that a friendly colleague had at her desk. I had marveled aloud their beauty. The next moment I knew, she walked up to my desk, and placed a glass jar right below the white light. That was when, unwillingly, for a silly comment passed in an attempt to be nice, the responsibility of a living species was thrust on me. No, I did not have the courage to refuse. A week or two passed. A casual glance and I see the water was almost gone, there were more brown leaves than initially green leaves, there were thin slimy roots coiled up. I swore. It was filthy and smelly. I cringed, but cleaned it up. It was almost back to the same dirty state before I left for my vacations. I smirked and escaped, assuming just like my work, someone else would have to take care of it in my absence. I was back, and I met the sight. The sight of the money pl...

This morning, as my hubby drove me to office, I spotted a rainbow. Immediately, my eyes wandered in an attempt to spot the other end. I followed the rainbow that grew from the earth, and soared high up to the sky and then faded till it almost disappeared. I traced a trajectory till I spot the other end buried in lush green fields. Rainbows always make me happy. The colors that coalesce in a such way that each color is distinct and yet blended with the other. Humans were meant to be that way too. I remembered the last time I spot a rainbow, when my hubby was to leave over the seas, and I had come to bid him farewell. It seems like so long ago. It feels dreamy now. There is this exhilaration that rainbows bring. I can’t define, I can’t explain. And when I see them, I devour them with my eyes, with my soul, to last the time until I see them again. And that’s how I live my life.

The wind was fierce, and it blew all the snow accumulated by months of winter. The white of the snow made the dark night seem darker. I stood inside the building of a school I had learnt much from. The outside scared me, I waited. In the distance, I saw hazy lights coming towards me. I knew it was him. I stepped out the warmth of the building, into the raging storm. In a moment, my pants felt drenched, my hands froze numb, as the wind blew snow all over my face. I found it hard to open my eyes. I almost stopped. And that’s when he came, cuddled me with his arms, protecting me from the storm, fighting the wind alone, he lead me towards the car. He seated me and when he was assured I was comfortable, took the driver’s seat and rode away.