Recharge your hair, recharge your life

As I walked into my parent's place, yelling orders to my junior over the phone as to what needed to be done with all those journal and bank vouchers, the family of three sitting on the family couch was completely out of my peripheral vision. I went to the balcony, got rid of my shoes and after hanging up the phone, came back to the living room, demanding a hot cup of filter coffee from Amma while continuously staring at my phone, checking out my messages. Considering the silence that followed, I was made to look up at five pairs of eyes staring at me with an amused expression. Mom, Dad and the aforementioned family of three. Suddenly, the woman in the red saree (not my Amma!) asked me "Do you remember me?" It was then my turn to stare at her blankly with my eyes darting from Amma to Appa to the aunty. Slowly I squeaked a "Umm.. no.. sorry!" And the aunty said "Ohhh!! How come! I came to your naming ceremony!" I kept a straight face with all the effort in the world, my hair coming in handy to an extent at covering my face. "Okayyy" I dragged on, gave a polite smile and tried to get away from the room to avoid the awkward conversation. Dad suddenly spoke up saying "Shreesha, meet the Iyengars, this is A" pointing at the cute guy sitting between his parents. I smiled and we shook hands.

After the predictable questionnaire from the other Mom and Dad Iyengar- Where do you work? (like my dad hasn't already told you!) How much do you earn? (even my parents don't know, why, oh, why would I tell you?) What all can you cook? (Pasta, coffee, sandwich and maggi, a wholesome meal, don't you think?) Why don't you stay with your parents? (Oh, my parents thought the restrictions and curfews were all done with and threw me out) What all shlokas do you know? (the Hanuman Chalisa, but, I'm agnostic) Gasp! (shrug) What all festivals do you like to celebrate? (ogling at fireworks at Diwali and partying and welcoming the new year) Party, gasp! (shrug) *awkward silence* Dad then said "Why don't you and A go out for coffee?" Having no other option about it, we take off to the nearest Cafe Coffee Day (my filter coffee all forgotten about). As we awkwardly made small talk, big talk, debated and agreed, we realized that we actually had a lot in common! Deciding to meet for dinner the next day, we hugged and left, me to my friend's place to gossip and him to my place to join his parents.

Fortunately for me, the next day, my parents decided to go to the Iyengar's place (the other Iyengars), I had the place to my self. By seven, I started to get ready and realized that, being the first date, him living in the States for the past couple of years, me watching too many romantic comedies and my "forward thinking" as Iyengar aunty put it, we might kiss. *Blush* I started to wonder how the kiss might be. Soft? Forceful? The Mills-and-Boons-hunk-kisses-damsel-in-distress type? Damn those romantic comedies! I took a beauty bath, shampooed and conditioned my hair and wore the classy dress I purchased that afternoon (black, slightly low cut, ending just above my knees). Just fyi, I let my hair down, no make up, just moisturizer, lip gloss, my awesome awesome dress and black stilettos.

We went to Pizza by the Bay, enjoyed great pasta, pizza, potato wedges and chocolaty pastry (damn my diet) and we walked down Marine Drive for a few hours. We really enjoyed all that "romance" with constant texts and calls from our Dads as to where we were. He dropped me off home in his car (chauffeur driven :D). He walked me inside the building and came into the elevator with me. As I hit the 14th floor button and the elevator doors closed, he put his hand at the back of my head, his fingers through my hair and kissed me. Oh, the passion. As the elevator pinged on the 14th floor, he released me and gave me a tight hug, wherein I simultaneously felt him take in the fragrance of my hair, letting out a soft moan. I detached from him, smiled, blushed and walked out thinking, had it not been for the Sunsilk recharge, how on Earth would my life (and my love life, if I may) have been recharged with this cute guy and my yummy first elevator kiss . The thought of A struggling to get his fingers out of my all tangled and dry hair is just makes me shudder!! Thank you, Sunsilk! :D

 

Comments are most welcome!!

Expectations

To a new born kid: You are such a beautiful kid, you will grow up to be a doctor/engineer and make us proud

To a school going kid: You need to score so and so marks and I'll buy you whatever you want; if you don't, you won't get anything

To a college going kid: You are in college now, you need to take life seriously, no girlfriends, no parties, no hanging out with friends, no fun, start studying and put in all the efforts

To a college graduate (boy): You have earned your degree, you need to find a well paying job and work hard

To a college graduate (girl): you have earned your degree, if you wish, find a job, earn work experience of a year or two and then we'll get you married; we'll start looking soon

For getting married (arranged): You need to settle down in life now. It is high time you do so.

For getting married (love): You know nothing about love and what is good for you. You will get married to the person we choose for you

After getting married: Come on, make us grandparents/uncles/aunties soon. What else do you need? You have a life partner and now children will complete your family.

After children: You never come to meet us, we never get to meet our grandchildren. Why are you doing this?

In case of divorce (arranged marriage): The girl needs to be understanding. Don't think about divorce. Also think about how it will reflect on us. What will the child do?

In case of divorce (love marriage): I TOLD YOU SO!

It's not that a new born kid ever knows it's surroundings or what the hell the parents whisper into it's ears. When a kid enters school, is it so hard to teach kids the meaning of ambition, goals, aims, the good, the bad, the consequences and results beforehand before going around bribing them with so and so goodies in case of a good rank or percentage? Is it so hard to give college children a sit down, discussing their goals in life, how to achieve them and encouraging them to have fun? Is it so hard to give a young adult time and space to make sure their career goals are achieved before stepping into marriage? Is it hard not to understand "I am not ready for marriage yet!"? Is it hard to understand "I am in love!"? Is it hard to understand that once two people get married, it is their job to worry about having kids and raising them and that others are not privy to information about their lives? Is one's social status more important than a happy life of your kith and kin? Is it hard not to make a point of about a zillion "I told you so!" instead of providing comfort, understanding and support?

Expectation costs nothing to the person expecting all the shit in life. It is the person expected to fulfill the other person's fantasies that suffers. Without having much time in hand to fulfill his own wishes, he is running about trying to fulfill the dreams of his parents, partner, children, friends, relatives, bosses and God knows countless others! Poor suckers we all are.

Comments are most welcome!!

Dove guessing game with my friend!

Growing up in a family where the parents were transferred from one place to the other in a couple of years, my friendships lasted good only for those years.  quickly adapted to the changing environment and hopped, skipped and jumped from one friendship to the other like it was no big deal. And it genuinely wasn't a big deal at all. You may think horrible of my parents now since I had no real friends. But, no. They knew, they understood and they managed it well. While it maybe true that we kept relocating to a new place every few years and left something behind everywhere, my parents never made me miss any of that.

My first badminton tryouts and games and scores were kept with my Dad. He also taught me cricket, lagori, kabaddi and kho-kho. He trained me, no matter what time of the day, no matter how tired from work he was, he was there to make up for new friends after we moved. My first make up experience was with my Mum where she let me experiment with all the colours and different items in the make up kit on her and smiling obliged when I asked her not to wash any of it off for quite some time. My sibling was the one I played "ghar-ghar" and "doctor-doctor" with. We used to roam the housing society, hand in hand perfectly comfortable in each other's presence and not really having a complete craving for a "friend". We also stood up for each other when the other was lying through their teeth to get away from trouble from Mum & Dad!

Then again, friendships were forged and broken. One of my friends, let's call her K, used to blackmail me into studying (the below average student that I was). When I had this craze of Daniel Jacob Radcliffe (Harry Potter), she always said "if you get good marks in this exam, I'll give you a printout of his photo." Being from a middle class family and kids of parents working in the service industry, printer was a complete and unnecessary luxury, the printout was a real driving factor. This other friend of mine, let's call her S, used to coach me in high jump at school in order to be able to participate. The never tiring "high!" in a super high girly pitch sure gave me all the more reason to try and jump higher and higher. My friends from college, P & A are the ones I discovered, crushes and lust and teenage love with. The trial room visits to the mall, trying on clothes too expensive to afford and clicking pictures in them, the common Facebook addiction, cyber stalking of our latest crush, bunking classes together and enjoying vada-pav and samosa-pav at the local thela wala were just some of the mischiefs we got into. As I grew up and went to work, my office friends were very kidnly helpful to initiate drinking and all night partying. There also came the time where we fully understood the meaning of meeting deadlines and fun late night work at the office which as ever combined with yummy sandwiches and chai or coffee and bitching right through the night of the boss having an affair with his PA!

Friendships may or may not last. What does last is the memories (and photographs if you clicked them). I personally do not believe in Best-Friends-Forever. I believe friendships come with an expiry tag. As and when a person grows and matures, their needs and wants change accordingly which the "BFF" may or may not provide for rendering the friendship redundant and lack luster. What I can tell you is that relationships will never be as smooth as this. Cheers!