"You call someplace paradise...
Kiss it goodbye ."

Labels: Music

I am in love with you stranger...

The bleary eyed mornings of dream filled nights.
My closed eyes and you in retina color.
In the green fields, in the blue rain.

In the whirl of the night,
Laughing loudly, smiling softly.
On your lips. In your kohl lined eyes.
I think…
I think…I am in love with you stranger.

Waiting for a beep on the cell phone all day.
Running home to write shards of life in an email.
I think…I am in love with you stranger.

Blue China plates and lovers kissing on a bench,
Whiff of perfume, headlamps on a dark winding road.
An old song on the radio, jogging into a new day.
I think…I am in love with you stranger.

Colored curtains on suburban windows,
Unlocking the front door at day’s death.
Walking gingerly on wooden footboards,
Car spotting on lonely intersections.
I think…I am in love with you stranger.

Driving past beautiful cottages, with quaint names
Promising to knock on the doors, with you by my side.
I am in love with you stranger.

Labels: Fiction

Me been tagged...!

I have the distinction of having been 'tagged' by Ani. Yes there are some Questions which need answering, and I will do so posthaste.

Number of Books I own...
Gees, never really counted.
My mom studied literature so she had tons, then every birthday and anniversary, dad gave mom books. And they have all now been handed over to me. Every year since class three, I was taken by the folks to the book fair, till I think class seven, after which I went solo.
Generally, buy a book every few months.
So ballpark, it would be a thousand plus books maybe?

Last Book I Bought...

The Plague, Albert Camus.
Hmm, well to use a cliché it’s a multi threaded experience. It’s the personal story of men and woman intertwined with the story of Oran, the town they inhabit. Its subtle, strong, passionate, weak, it’s like life itself.

Last Book I Read...

‘The Waiting’, Ha Jin.
It’s about an affair between a middle aged doctor (well married with a child) and a young nurse, set against the backdrop of Red china. Communism and above all Destiny dictates their rites of passage. It also highlights the fact - that when we do find love, it’s often at a significant cost. Tragic, hopeful and touching.

Five Books that mean a lot to me...

Love in the Times of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
I for one feel that Florentino Ariza deserved way better than he got, and yes the
Smell of bitter almonds is almost a mental map. Finished the book in Koln, sitting on the banks of the Rhine. Watching steam ships trundle across.
'And how long do you think we can keep up this coming and going?'
Florentino Ariza had kept his answer ready for fifty- three years, seven months and eleven days and nights.
'Forever', he said.

Great Expectations
Was my class XII text, loved it! I have this pet theory, that Estella is in fact all that we know is wrong to desire, but surprisingly can’t help ourselves.

Of Human Bondage
Yeah, we are bound to each other in strange and inexplicable ways.

And bringing up the rear are Catcher in the Rye and English August. Catcher in the Rye cause it is cult book, and there is tons of dope I dug up about this book. English August, well it’s the first book by an Indian author in English, which is about us, our generation. Yeah I know we are getting old.

Labels: Revolving Doors

Last evening...

"You are in my system Roh, sometimes you are me. Like a mark that fades and then darkens, and fades and darkens..."

Labels: Fiction

"It is better to feel bad, than feel nothing...".

Labels: Ear to the door

My new house, the neighbor’s cat and wishing you were here…

Saturday I moved into my house, my own house.
No.2 Drum Avenue, Glastonbury.

My own house … with tenancy papers. The electricity, gas and water connections in my name. Yeah, I am feeling pretty self important at the moment!

Did shopping to set my place up. It’s a furnished house, so really don’t need to/have to do much. But I bought cream bed sheets, a gray quilt and black towels. Yeah, black Turkish towels… neat and chic.

I made friends with the neighbor’s cat. It’s got a coat of uneven black and white, and it just waddled over the gravel strip which separates the neighbor’s front yard from mine. It isn’t a fat cat, what’s the word…yeah…its "tubby", you know what I mean?

I cooked my first meal in the house, mixed vegetables, rice and an omelet.

And now, after washing the dishes, latching the front door and flicking off the lights. I am in my room, listening to "Wish you were here". Watching the candle burn on the ledge, the flame flicker and the crazy shadow dance...

Yeah I am thinking of you, the girl who makes me feel like a schoolboy. A schoolboy in love for all heaven and hell. All the dreams and none of the fears.

How I Wish you were here…

Labels: Moments and Memories, Travel

About Him...

Today morning seems another life.

Woke up in a hotel whose name I didn’t know. The two hour jeep ride into Bangalore, we didn’t exchange a word. No, there was one line. Sam pointing to the mineral water had said "Give me the bottle".

The plane was now hovering over Calcutta. She must be home from work. It must have been odd for her to be back to work after the weekend? As it will be for me, tomorrow.

Last night, we listened to music and got drunk. I felt glad, I wasn’t alone. The play list was hers, Joshua Tree and other stuff I didn’t even recognize. Very Sam. Eclectic and pretentious at times…but yet nice. Very Sam. I think I miss her.

We made love last night. Sam reached out to hold my hand, she didn’t say a word. She didn’t smoke cigarettes and didn’t ask me questions. Not like Sam. In the morning, there was no cloud of regret, no sense of an ending, just the underlying discomfort of a manic Monday and the realization that the spoken word was limited in expression.

It was November, the air was cool. But on the drive home from the airport it felt nice to have the window rolled down. The last few years were spent on the cusp of change. The ever present feeling that places, people and life are slowly metamorphosing into something. But many of those wheels have now done their revolutions. Life has changed.

U’s husband Indro has a website, its tacky with neon banners and unaligned text. But yet, it’s nice - in a fuzzy way. Over the last few years I have kept in touch with U, through Indro’s website. Pictures of them at a b-school party - clinking glasses and her lovely smile. A close up, a ring on her finger. Their wedding pics. She in a saree by the wall unit. Their first house. Their new car. Her cubicle in the bank. Yeah I have kept in touch with her. Its eight years since we last met.

They like two goldfish in a fishbowl. And I like an eye in the sky.

I bumped into Megs at a conference a couple of years back. She looked more wonderful, than when we dated. I invited her husband and her for a drink that evening. I got pretty drunk and got into a fracas with the waiter. The husband, an accountant didn’t drink. I like to believe that she might have thought about me, when she lay in her bed that night. Or maybe after screwing like rabbits, the couple bitched about me.

Ori and Mallika are expecting their first child early next year. Doktor is lecturing dumb first world kids at the University of – Rapid Springs or Clear Water or something. I have lost touch with Rahul, but half an hour on Yahoo or MSN, and I am sure I can scrounge a contact number.

And that leaves me, a bumpy Indian road, a German car and my own wedding to attend, about this time, this day next month.

Labels: Fiction

Betty Davis Eyes. 

Labels: Cinema