Bhai

So we went on a trip to an excruciatingly beautiful place called Interlaken, Switzerland.
We travelled across the length and breath of the country in the Swiss rail and this little incident that I am now talking about happened while we were in the train.

So Sid stood near the loo waiting for the lady inside to come out. There was an empty near by and he sat down there and from what I gather started talking to the Sri Lankan guy sitting next to him.

After some time, when he came out of the loo, I had also found my way there. Once Sid came out, we started talking and in the mean time, another lady went in.

Sid left and I too after standing for some time sat on the same seat Sid had found sometime back.

And like him I also struck up a conversation with the Sri Lankan.

After talking about this and that, the Sri Lankan guy said, “ So which country are you from”
“India, that’s your neighbour!”
“Yes, my family is still in Sri Lanka”
“That’s very nice. Most of my family is with me in this train”, I said smiling.
“Oh..yes yes talking about your family, I must say that your brother is a very very friendly man”, he said talking about my husband of 10 months.
Hmm… I thought.
“Does he look like my elder brother or younger?”, I asked with my fingers crossed.
“Elder”, he thankfully replied.

I breathed easy again. Unknown to himself, the Sri Lankan had just redeemed himself.

Hi,

My folks have gone back now and my tiny one bed apartment seems too big for two people.

While it was very difficult to see them go last evening, the worst bit was when I came back to a quiet house, with no extra suitcases lying around.

There was still a lot of food in the kitchen which mum had made for me. That made me cry harder.

I was actually surprised at how bad I felt coming back home from the airport last night.

However, my consolation was the fact that folks had a nice trip which hopefully they will think of smiling for a long time.

We went for a lovely 4 day trip to Switzerland which my folks enjoyed to the hilt. We went atop breathtakingly beautiful snow covered mountains, inside mountains with fountains, saw a number of beautiful swiss villages, travelled across the length and breath of Switzerland covering Lucerne, Interlaken and Zurich.

Another thing I am very glad about was the fact that this was the first trip I took my husband and parents for. And I am glad it could be Switzerland. I always knew I wanted my parents to visit me soon after I came to London. While job hunting I used to so desparately wish that I earn when they come and take them on a holiday myself.

Also, a lot of gifts to Sid were pending. I hope this trip makes up for atleast some of them!

And yes, London seems positively ugly after Switzerland.

Love
RP

Day 7

The Pleasures of Not Having a Blender.

Case 1:
Sid: How about Rajma?
Me: No baby! How can we make Rajma, we need blender na…..
Sid: yeah ofcourse

Case 2:
Sid: Should we try making Chhole?
Me: Baby, we don’t have a blender naaa…..
Sid: Ohhhh, ofcourse!

Case 3:
Sid: How about Luaki ki sabzi?
Me: We don’t have a blender na…
Sid: Are you sure we need one for sabzi also?
Me: Ofcourse! Do you know how to make lauki ki sabzi without a blender?
Sid*downcast*: No

Case 4:
Sid: How about a glass of milk?
Me: Baby, we don’t have a blen……..yeah babby, ofcourse, hot or cold?

:P


RP

Heathrow visit:)

So Sid came back yesterday. Finally after 16 days. Stupid vocanic ash!

It took me some 2 hours to get there. After figuring my way in, I suddenly felt ravenous and hence headed to a coffee shop hunted for something veg and handed it to the guy at the till.

“Toasted?”, the desi guy asked me.

“Yes, please”,I said. Here in London you need to thankyou and please more often than you breathe in and out.

“Can I get you a coffee as well, please?”, he asked.

“Naah”, I said.

“Tea, then?” he persisted.

“No”, I persisted as well.

“Why?”, he questioned.

“because I do not drink tea/ coffee”, said I

“You must be very health conscious then”, he observed.

So we got chatting as he toasted my sandwich. By way of conversation I told him that I was there to pick up my husband who had been stranded because of volcanic ash and was coming home 2 weeks later had been planned.

“I think I can help you, he said.

“How?”, I questioned.

With a flourish he took out a banner and a pen.
“Write him a message!”, he said.

“No…I don’t think so”, I said.

“Come on! Why?” he said.

“Because I would not want to embarrass my husband”

“Trust me! He will love it !” he said.

Slightly doubtful, I took it from him. I hunted for a place for myself and carefully balancing a sandwich in one hand, the phone between my ear and shoulders I wrote my patis name on the banner.

Then did a little it of calligraphy as well. Then underlined it. Then made flowers. Then added leaves.

It was looking shabby but then that was the best I could manage. All ready I went and stood waiting for him in the arrival area.

There were so many people waiting and I got to see such beautiful things in the half an hour I stood there. There was this pretty dark haired girl standing right next to me and suddenly I heard a weird sound coming from her. I turned to look at her and found her in tears with her hand hiding her mouth as she stared at a girl walking in.
They had such an emotional reunion with both of them in tears. In her place then came a little girl with her Dad. She had made a drawing welcoming her ‘MOMMY’ I saw the Mum walk in, stare at the poster and hug her daughter as the Dad hugged both the women.

Then there was this guy who came dressed up like a bee to welcome a lady. He made her stand in front of him and did some kind of a bee dance. The two of them were laughing hysterically as they walked away hand in hand.

I stood there waiting with my banner and soon I saw Sid walk in as I ran to welcome him. Sid’s poor friend did not where to look as we hugged each other.

Sid was very amused by the banner and he asked me a million questions about it. The silly little banner was quite a hit!

Here is a pic of the banner for you guys!




Love
RP

Pizza!

Sid is one of the many stranded across the world because of the volcanic ash problems. Only thing is that he has now made his way to India. He was going for 5 days and would have been gone for 16 by the time its time for him to come back!

So, I am all alone in London. Though he is the one who is stuck, I am the one in a worse situation!!!

I was initially quite unwelcoming of the idea of staying alone at home, however I am quite cool with it now and have been living on my own for a week now.

Today I had an important telephonic interview. It was supposed to happen at 5 in the evening and since I was preparing for it through the day all I had eaten was a sandwich. I was talking to Sid on the phone telling him about the interview and my lunch when he said that he will order a pizza for me.

I was quite reluctant to do this. The reason is that we have a pizza ritual. He orders his pepperoni pizza and I order my corn and mushroom pizza. We order it together. It just seemed weird to order pizza without him around.

He however insisted and I relented as I was too tired to cook.

The pizza guy came to deliver the pizza. He handed me a huge bag. It not only had a pizza but also potato wedges which I love to munch on and my favourite Ben and Jerry’s ice cream.

I think it is a small gesture. But I was very very touched by it. And I miss him all the more.

Love
RP

I will miss it all…..

By the time I get married I would have been engaged for almost 10 months, that’s like almost an year. So for the longest time ever I have been getting ready for the wedding. There is tonnes of shopping to do, dresses to get stitched, other stuff to look at, a job to go to each day, GMAT to study for give, Toefl to study for and give, Phd application to write, transcripts, recos, essays…..

So obviously more often than not I feel like I have too much on my plate managing everything. But I love it!!. I love the fact that on some days I am so tired that I cannot move a finger. I love the fact that my week ends are busier than week days! I love the fact that there is always so much to do!

Okay, it helps that when I leave home at 9 and come back at 9 Mum opens the door with the nicest, broadest smile that somehow makes all the exhaustion fly away. It really helps when I get up on Monday morning, even before I can open my eyes properly I somehow make my way to wherever Ma is and make her sit down and sit in her lap and pseudo sleep for some 10 minutes before she succeeds in pushing me away. It helps that Dad offers to drive and pick me up from office each day, just like he did when I was in school and in engg college. It helps that when I am really frustrated and uselessly pick up fights with Sid, he has the patience to make it all ok. It helps that I have some really great friends in office with whom I monkey around the whole day!!

I will miss all of this…..I will miss being the bride to be! I have been the bride-to-be for such a long time that it has almost grown on me! Where ever I go some one or the other teases me or pulls my leg about the wedding. Everyone has so many questions to ask. I used to get irritated- I have always been happy to be in the background and I hated it when all the attention was suddenly perpetually directed at me! But now I think when I am married and all this has quietened down, I shall miss it!!

I hate shopping. I just hate it now. Wedding shopping is vicious. It is wicked. I just does not end. It is like this mutant virus that refuses to be tamed. I hate it. The dislike is mutual. It hates me too. It hates me real bad now. It just does not end. Not even after months and months of it- it does not end.

I hate it but I know I will miss it when it ends. I will miss the wedding shopping. Damn it!

I will miss Ma’s constant threats about how like an ugly duckling I am bound to look at my wedding if I do not finish that particular half a glass of milk in the next five minutes!

I will miss the urgency that envelopes my home right now. There are so many things that need to be done, the so many details to be looked into. The so many little things one must not forget.

In fact once I am with Sid post the wedding there are so many things about Sid and me that I will miss. I will miss talking to him on the phone right before I sleep at night. I will miss staying up late just to speak to him after he finishes office. I will miss looking at the watch and immediately subconsciously deducting 4.5 hours from it. I will miss looking at the watch that says 12:30 and saying to myself, ‘ oh! Its just 8. I will miss waiting for his call. I will miss waiting for him to come to India. I will miss his voice on the phone. I will miss the 2 minute ISD ‘hi’ and’bye’ conversations. I will miss the hour long conversations.

I will miss doing all the nautanki I do with him that can only be done on phone. I will miss sending him good morning messages. I will miss sending him good night messages. I will miss making album of insignificant events in my life and mailing them to him. I will miss working with him on google spread sheets. I will miss sending him mails. Big ones. Small ones. Stupid ones. Angry ones. Mails that just say ‘I love you’.

I will miss this bitter sweet anxiety I feel constantly as the wedding date draws near. Life is about to change forever. And in a big way. And in a nice way. And in a happy way.

In the end I have just one little thing to say. I think if you can love someone with all your heart and more, you are more blessed than you think you are. :)

Good night,

Take care,

RP.

P.S. There is a letter from Sid to all you bloggers. He posted it as a comment on a post on him ½ days back. I am putting it here for all the regular bloggers here :)

Hiya All,

This is 'Sid' here... many thanks for all the kind words and these are much appreciated. Everything the missus has written in her post is true (ahem, ahem)... We are hopelessly in love and are about to tie the knot soon :D

More to follow.

Cheers,Sid.

Introductions : )

Bloggers, meet Sid
Sid, meet the Bloggers
: )

Every couple has a story. I wanted to share ours with you.

When our parents got us talking I was totally not ready for it. When I met him first, I just went there to find reasons I could cite in front of my Mum and Dad and ask them to not bug me about him. However, as luck /destiny would have it I simply could not find one good enough. One meeting is too less a time, I figured, and decided to give him more time :P

But somewhere along the way, I still do not know when or how, I started waiting for his calls which came at odd hours as we live on different continents , I started sneaking out of useless lectures to take his call; he had started becoming important.

I took a lot of time before I said anything simply because I take time to think and decide. I don’t know where he got that patience from. Apart from an occasional sentence, he never forced me to give him an answer. Finally in an overcrowded South Indian restaurant, where there was such a din that Sid could not hear me the first time I said it, I told him indirectly that I believed he was the guy for me.

We got engaged some time back. : )

Sid and I have or rather, had, little in common.

Sid and I come from different states, have never been in the same schools or colleges and are very different temperamentally

Sid spent his childhood and the years after in different parts of the country and the world. I have lived in precisely 2 cities. 23 years in one and the next 2 in another.

Sid has therefore studied in more schools than I have had the occasion to visit.

Sid is what we used call a ‘def kid’, a term we used to refer to those kids in schools whose parents were in the defence services. My exposure to them, before I met Sid, and the defence forces in general has been limited to one girl [ yess, just ONE girl].

Sid loves F1 and the ‘kumbhakaran’ reincarnate that he can be on weekends, he manages to wake up at odd hours to catch a race. For me, uhh..welll…F1 came into existence when I met Sid.

Sid, in his words, ‘runs before he walks’ and I walk an extra 10 miles even when I know fully well that I can run better than others.

I am the biggest maggu on the planet, Sid thankfully is not : )

Sid is my teen age crush, college crush, first love –all that rolled into one and more. Sometimes I wonder what makes Sid and me click despite of our many obvious differences. I think it is just that. The differences are superficial- underneath we are pretty much similar. Both of us are essentially easy going and hard working people.

I love him for so many things: the mole on his chin; the black, honest eyes; the confidence; the love he showers on me. But mostly because he is fast turning out to be my best friend. He has been with me through a lot of things in the little time that we have known each other and I can easily sense a good, strong friendship brewing.

I respect him for so many things. This is very important, I always knew I could not love a man if I could not respect him! In fact with Sid it is so bad that professionally I want to be the female version of Sid! He eh ehe

Sid and I live on different continents and ours has been a long distance relationship since day one. It makes it a little tough knowing that you wont see the other for another 60 odd days but we have learnt to deal with it. It has been beautiful so far inspite of the thousands of miles that generally and obstinately stand between us :)

You guys have been with me through thick and thin and I just could not let all this happen in my life without giving you guys and update on it : )

Love
RP