DesiPundit

Chandni wonders why people expect you to act completely uncharacteristically just because you are married now. I can relate to this, I have always wondered why people in India assume you will suddenly start wearing bangles and huge bindis to work.

As I type this, a dinner plan is being discussed at work…and when I am asked the same, it is suffixed with “talk to your husband and ask him if you can come”. Excuse me? I am not his pet dog you know, nor do I have a leash around my neck. I can very well make plans and decisions for myself and just let him know.

DesiPundit Neha is visited by a rush of desi nostalgia during her mid-morning house-cleaning routine.

Saturday spent watching “regional cinema”, reading the subtitles. Interrupted by news in Sanskrit. Maybe that’s why I alway associate Sanskrit with snacks. Sunday afternoons watching Hindi cinema. I love afternoons. They have none of the pressure that a morning brings. You have to be busy in the morning hours, doing something. At least that’s how it was during the school years. But the afternoon, with the promise of drowsiness and half-empty streets is welcome. Very welcome.

I wonder who thought to shoot the photograph that she has posted at just the right time and whether they had imagined it would become a relic of the past, a few years hence.

DesiPundit Neha has a beautiful poem about the restricted dreams of a vegetarian.

At nine though, she didn’t know
that the world at large eats mostly
meat. That apparently fish
is the same as sea weed for some.

What beautiful images this poem evokes! Beauty does lie in the eye of the beholder and what can be more appealing to a Tamilian than a bowl of curd rice?

Fellow guest-pundit Ideasmith has a comprehensive guide to traveling in Mumbai’s trains. This should be very helpful for anyone who is new to Mumbai. For others, like me, it’s Nostalgia Central.

The worst way to get in is go barging right into the center and getting knocked down by the bar in the middle…or worse still…stuck with limbs of each side getting pulled in either direction. I’m not exaggerating, it is fairly painful, not to mention immensely dangerous if this happens as you run the risk of getting stampeded, fractured or falling off when the train starts moving.

DesiPundit Neha has an amusing anecdote of an ardent lover who waxes a little too eloquent..

It was this strange habit of aspiring lovers in the Hindi Heartland. That of suddenly quoting verses from ghazals. In the first few letters, it was slightly endearing. That a man was so overwhelmed that he turned to his mother tongue. By the third letter…

Not always a universal language, this love thing!

Fellow guest-pundit Lekhni cannot fathom why people don’t use store coupons.

R (Sulking): “Why don’t you keep that coupon in your handbag? You will never forget it then.”

Me: “The Bed Bath and Beyond coupons are too big to fit in my handbag.”

R: “Get a bigger bag then.”

Me: “You are right, maybe I should.” (Dreamily) “You remember that lovely bag I saw in the Coach store? Maybe I should buy that.”