You’ll say we got nothing in common, no common ground to start from and we’re falling apart. Then I said what about Breakfast at Tiffanys...

Gee whiz… when things happen, they happen all at once. And sometimes nothing happens at all… like I think I was bemoaning nothing happening in like Feb and then suddenly life became hectic in March and we’re already at the end of April? Did time fly so when I was a child? I don’t think so really… what was life after all but a school timetable and weekends… so now its work and weekends but somehow it flies… I guess, cos there is no timetable. Well whatever, I have lots of updating to do on this blog. The real reason I continue to maintain this blog at all (with everyone on the blogroll being so slack at updating) is so I have a record of my life to look back on in one, two, five, ten, thirty years… it’s amazing the little things one forgets that one never expected to forget but forgot anyway, so the blog helps greatly. I wish I’d had a blog before I left India… I mean, I used to write stuff in a journal before I left India but it’s not the same as recording life events on a blog because a blog is public and a journal is private and I got over ‘Dear Diary, I did this and this and that between 3:00 and 5:00 pm today’ by age 12. So this blog is more like a dear diary in the sense of ‘Dear Diary, I went to x parties this weekend and got wasted at x of them…’ and then I can read these entries at some later point in my life when my life isn’t all that happening and then I can feel nostalgic for the good times and may want to kill myself at being reminded of a better time, but who knows… it may indeed only ever get better (but I doubt it).

So if you’re still reading, I left off at the long weekend holiday? The weekend that followed was meant to be really quiet because of the wild holiday weekend but it ended up that a friend and I met for a quiet drink or two at 5:30 pm on a Friday evening at this delightful bar along my one-and-only-close-to-my-heart Yarra river… by 8:00 pm, we had grown to 12 people and maybe 5 rounds down. And of course, that’s when we should’ve stopped and just GONE HOME. But of course we didn’t and of course we partied on and eventually I think we got home at 3:00 am. This is the trouble with Fridays – you always start off so early because it’s straight after work and sometimes it gets out of freaking control. It was an awesome night though – lots of laughs and tram and China Bar incidents! China Bar deserves a post of its own – it’s a mildly dodgy Chinese fast food place that doesn’t have a liquor licence but serves you Victoria Bitter beer anyway and I’m not a fan of Asian food but I don’t mind going to China Bar once in a while and eating the roti channai, which is like roti and chicken curry but I really couldn’t handle the place in my soberness and so most times we go there when we’re smashed and do crazy things like sing the Indian National Anthem. The rest of the weekend should’ve been quiet, but again, it wasn’t! I think I ate off our friend’s bbq for all meals beginning on Sat afternoon until Sun evening because Sat night he brought it over to our place and I actually spent a pleasant quiet evening by myself watching a Poirot whodunit on TV and then Sun afternoon, we had a tiny bbq partaay to watch the Australian Grand Prix on TV. The race was great, except for Ferrari winning of course. But how awesome is that young little Lewis Hamilton??!! So sweetly and talentedly he’s made it to the podium also every race since.

Then there was a week of work as usual but I do believe a few of us went out to dinner to a fancy schmancy Sri Lankan place that Thursday night and I finished almost an entire bottle of wine so was decidedly seedy the next morning at work. I was meant to go lawn bowling that evening with work but decided to give it a miss and went home to rest and I think slept for 12 hours+ that night. The next day I woke up well refreshed to find out India was pretty much out of the World Cup… Mr. Moonlight had stayed up most of the night to watch the match so was decidedly seedy that day and I convinced him to have an afternoon nap since we were going out that evening although at the time I was clueless about the things in store for me later that night. So then I did many household chores being in a domestic mood and expecting houseguests on the Monday and so forgot to wake him up and he was fully panicked about being late to this thing we were going to which was apparently some work friend of his party type thing. I of course never panic because I am never on time to anything ever! So I was done with my shower and hanging out in the bedroom and cutting my nails I think when I hear him on the phone outside trying to make a dinner reservation??!! So when he comes in I’m like, what’s the deal with the dinner reservation, I thought we were going to a party and he’s all, oh what are you talking about… very lame attempt at covering. But so anyway, I sorta fully guessed then that he was going to propose to me that night because well, I don’t know, I just knew. And then we sat in the car and he played a CD he’d burnt that day and the first song was Penny Lane and that was sooo funny and sweet and typical of him and just confirmed it. The rest of the songs were all the other songs we’ve considered our own over the years… there was Sweet Child of Mine, Can’t Help Falling in Love, She, Annie’s Song, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Strangers in the Night, and then he drove us to this stretch of road along the Williamstown beach where the waves dash against the embankment and there’s a lighthouse and everything and then on the way he pretended he was making up this poem and would give me two new lines every two minutes but really he’d composed it earlier and had to improvise anyway since he forgot half of it and it was just really funny and sweet because by now I was fully certain of what was coming. The reason for the beach was because we first met at the beach all those years ago (7 years and some months to be precise) at that wonderful rendezvous of our youth, EC-41… Then once we’d parked he proposed and got out of the car and got down on his knees and put the ring on my finger! Ah, the ring… the most fabulous exciting bit to any engagement and mine is absofuckinglutely stunning… I love it… it’s a half carat diamond in a platinum setting and it’s from Tiffanys cos Audrey Hepburn style, I’m just craaaazay about Tiffanaaays! Tiffanys has a special significance in our relationship because right from the beginning we never had anything in common except partying and drinking and smoking, and then we had a fight in the early days and I think this song just happened to play and it made us smile so since then he only has to play this song when we’re fighting and it makes us laugh. So when we discussed getting married and stuff in recent years, my only wish (well, by only wish, I don’t really mean only wish – I’m a woman, I’m allowed to have million wishes and dreams for my engagement and wedding) was that the ring be from Tiffanys! Here’s a picture for you but it really needs to be seen in the flesh.

So there we were, engaged after all this time and it was a wonderful exciting feeling. We went to dinner and called all our friends in Melbourne and met a few of them after dinner and I finished a whole bottle of wine in excitement/celebration. The next morning we called up our families and spoke to a few friends in India and basked in the glow of moving on to the next step, scary as it may be. We also had shitloads of cleaning to do that day because the next day a friend from Brisbane and a few members of his family arrived in Melbourne to stay with us and there was barely any time to think for all the people around us and overseas phone calls to make and receive! That week was a total blur with friend getting wasted every night and me having to work so only got wasted one night mid-week. Laughed a lot that week but I think one of my favourite nights that week was just a random week night… I wasn’t drinking, friend was already down something like 6 beers, haha, we went to dinner and it was pouring that night and freezing cold but still lovely because it was raining because as you may or may not know, I love a rainy night. Then we took a drive and picked up a couple of other friends and there were 5 of us in this car on this rainy night with nowhere to go but aimlessly drive and it was just a total Madras flashback! So we ended up in some random outer suburb and parked in some random shopping centre parking lot to have a smoke and a spliff in the freezing cold (cos we do not smoke in the car, some things have changed from when we were juvenile, mildly delinquent teenagers) and then drove back into the city :-) Was so simple and fun and non-alcoholic and reminiscent of MADras!

So that weekend was my “fiancé’s” pre-birthday bash… it was at the rooftop bar I mentioned a couple of posts ago and was another crazy, drunken night that ended at 4:00 in the morning. That Saturday night was someone else’s birthday party so couldn’t recover from hangover and went out that night too but didn’t drink on this occasion so got home fairly early. Sunday was a day of relative rest I think but don’t fully remember and then Monday night we had to stay up till midnight to bring in his birthday and give him presents although there was nothing major cos he only wanted cash and then the next day was a stressful day at work and that evening went to Guitarman’s house to celebrate Mr. Moonlight’s birthday and also Big City Dude’s birthday the day after so quiet bbq and drinks AND a boob cake :-) I will have to find and post the pictures of that cake… was unbelievably delicious even! The next day, had another stressful work day and hurriedly packed and flew to Fiji that night, but that’s a whole other tale!

There’s something wrong with the world today, I don’t know what it is. Something’s wrong with our eyes. We’re seeing things in a different light, and

Bushfires are a way of life in Australia particularly in the dry summer months. So normally you hear about it in the news and you feel sorry for the loss of wildlife and property and sometimes human life but mostly it’s as remote as the monsoon floods in Bombay or the hurricanes in the US. But not this year… this year is looking to be the biggest bushfire season in I’m not sure how many years and they are predicting these fires will go on for the next three months and a few millions of hectares of lands will be destroyed in the process. But what is really really frightening is how the smoke from these fires burning a couple of hundred of kilometres away has been consistently making it to the city at least once a week until the wind changes again. I am looking out my window and literally not able to see beyond a couple of blocks... the smoke has been getting into the ventilation systems of all the buildings and there’s this constant burning smell in the air and sometimes our eyes water… and this is us, sitting here safe and sound in the urban jungle… I can’t even begin to imagine what the fire fighters and other rescue workers are going through on the front lines and all the other affected communities and towns. And everything goes back to climate change and global warming… I remember in class 8 or 9 I wrote a critical composition on global warming and my teacher said it was damn good… I don’t think I chose that topic, it was just given to us but I can’t even remember what I wrote. What on earth could I have known about global warming then? I vaguely remember something about the ozone layer and now at 25, that’s still all I know. And that the big giant hole in it is right above Australia! So as distant as the effects of global warming and climate change are predicted to be, they’re already here. And let me tell you, walking on the streets when its 35 degrees, with the sun being blocked by a grey ash smelling canopy of haze is incredibly eerie. Almost like a ghost town…

But on to cheerier topics… like Christmas… what an incredibly cheery time it is… they call it the silly season and we have been having the silliest times with Christmas and birthday parties galore. At my work one which was an all day thing at the Yarra Valley which is a premier wine district close to Melbourne, we had like a mini Olympics thing all afternoon and me, little ol’ unfit me, managed to scale a 12 metre rock climbing wall. It was insane… like getting off the ground was hard and then I just kept going and suddenly I’d get stuck not knowing where to move my hands or legs next and I’d just hug that freaking wall and say, fuck, what now??!! But eventually I made it to the top and abseiled down and it was just awesome. So…never say never! Then they tried to convince me to join the company’s girl’s team for a triathlon next year which includes a 400m swim, 4km run and 10km bike ride and in the rush of all that adrenalin I said yes. But having had time to reflect and return to my lazy unfit lifestyle, I have completely changed my mind. But anyway, my team which was Team White won pretty much all the activities and so we won the whole thing and we all got little Christmas hamper thingies as presents… they have some awesome presents/events at this new workplace of mine. We got overnight type bags as our Christmas presents and had like two Christmas parties and then we’re constantly being invited to smaller team bbq’s, coffees and lunches. Like today, we had a coffee catch up as part of one team and then I went to a team lunch as part of another team. Good fun it is and tomorrow is my last day before heading off to Christmas break so even better.

Outside of work, attended various other sessions… went to a Christmas party like no other complete with Bad Santa and dirty as Christmas carols… was so funny. I got a lovely Santa hat with lights all around it so with batteries, I was lit up like a Christmas tree. Oh my god, I have so had it with shopping… shopping for people, shopping for the house, even grocery freaking shopping, when will it all end? I have been to the stupid shops pretty much every day in the last two weeks and I am so over it. I hope I don’t have to shop until June next year at least (although we all know I’ll be back at it long before then…)

So aunt and uncle have made it to New Zealand and will be arriving here tomorrow evening. Tomorrow is my last day of work before 10 sweet days of unbridled relaxation and entertainment. The four of us are heading up to Port Douglas on Dec 26 for some sun and sand and a long awaited glimpse of the Great Barrier Reef – so I can cross at least one of the natural wonders of the world off my list then. And then we’ll be back here for New Years… last year Goa, this year Melbourne. Different, but should be good still.

Last year this time I was in Madras and fully revelling in all the food, fun and attention. This year, I feel more remote from Madras than I’ve felt in a long time. There are always periods where I lose complete touch with what’s happening and feel disinclined to make an effort to find out because it’s nice for someone else to make the effort for a change.

The thing is though that home is where the heart is and my heart is still firmly ensconced in the house I grew up in and the room my sister now inhabits, with my parents and my baby sister and the can’t-live-without-‘em four legged friends. I posted a Christmas card to my parents today and when I was picking it, this one said something about thanking them for making Christmas so magical when I was a child and it’s amazing how thoughtful they continue to be even now and oh my god, it was all I could do to fight the tears back being in the crowded store and all (well, a few escaped) because every word was true and I feel guilty sometimes that I just don’t let them know how much they mean to me and take them for granted and even get really annoyed with them when spending long periods of time with them in the same house. So if they read this blog, they would know but of course they don’t so I hope the card will suffice.

Merry Merry Christmas and see you on the other side of 2007.

A song for no one's in my hand A song they'll never understand Till I have gone And tomorrow brings the sun

From night skies dressed in clouds
Morning came, your taste in my mouth
I like the way that your hair falls down in your eyes
And you blush when you smile
When sleep combs your side then far away flies

I love the way that you stare when the sleep fills your eyes
So yesterday has gone
Who knows, tomorrow may bring all we'll desire
Tomorrow brings the sun

Kiss the world with fingers crossed
I've kissed the world with fingers crossed
I've been praised
I've been cursed
I've been blamed
And I've won
And I've lost

On waves that fill your heart
The future glides
I hope the serpents in the tide
Are all gone
What's done is done

A song for no one's in my hand
A song they'll never understand
Til I have gone
And tomorrow brings the sun

I’ve had this list of songs my whole life (well, it keeps getting added to) that I’ve always fantasised my loved one would serenade me with. Well, if not serenade per se, think of me whenever it plays and dedicate to me by explaining why it reminds him of me. I would feel strange to publish this list to him (cos that would be crass) because it happens that I listen to a song and think he should somehow read my mind and know too that that song was written for me and tell me so… . The list is long and varied… most of them are vague like this one… a song for no one… and then are the ones about women and relationships like Woman by John Lennon and She by Elvis Costello and then there’s Always A Woman by Billy Joel. I remember we were listening to it on shared earphones on our way to work one morning when we still had to travel 45 mins by tram and I explained how I wanted him to sing it to me because couldn’t he see, it was completely about me (it’s ok to be crass once in a while). So he said, not to worry, Billy Joel himself would sing it for me. This is true. I watched Billy Joel live in concert on Friday night. I’d like to tell you about my terribly exciting gig calendar but I am strangely not in a mood to crow about my love for U2 (although, believe me, I do love them)… I’m in a very vague mood… this could be because I’m finally moving on to bigger and better things. The risk with bigger and better things though is you just never know how really bigger and better they can be. And sometimes they’re neither.

Wow, Shakin’ Stevens and Give Me Your Heart Tonight just started playing. That’s another one. And I Love You by Saigon Kick. And The Way You Look Tonight by Frank Sinatra. And then there’s that other completely random Jesus of Suburbia by Green Day. You know, I was thinking about the bands I still have to watch live and I’m only missing Paul McCartney, R.E.M. and I realised that I would very much love to watch Green Day. And my aunt and uncle insist Beck is a must see but I don’t think I’ve heard any of their music in ages. Not that any of these people are coming over but they might. Modest Mouse who I really really liked for a while is playing on Dec 29 but I won’t be in Melbourne. The Killers wouldn’t be bad either.

Alright then… since I started talking about music I might as well talk about the concerts I’m going to watch/have watched in these two weeks… Billy Joel last Friday night, Pearl Jam this Thursday night and the grandest finale of them all, U2, baby this Saturday night. Oh, and I might as well throw in Roger Waters on Feb 1, 2007. Of these, I am more excited by U2 than I thought possible because I hadn’t even listened to my How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb LP that I received as a going away present from work in MARCH until one drunken Thursday night two weeks ago. And on that same night, I listened to the whole album once and then I listened to City of Blinding Lights for three hours perhaps… and believe you me, with an LP this is no easy task… one has to manually go over and position the needle every fucking time! But so seriously, until last Thursday all I wanted to watch U2 for was One and possibly With Or Without You and all the other randoms like Streets Have No Name and Sunday Bloody Sunday and everything but I really only cared about One. This is of course until I heard City of Blinding Lights and I will throw a severe tantrum and go into a dark depression if I do not hear them play this live after all that. I mean, them playing One is a given… it’s going to be a total final encore type song with the lighters in the air and everything. So yeah, we’ll see… either way, it’s going to be an awesome week.

Actually, it’s been pretty good for the last two weeks too. I heard some great news the previous Thursday and in preparation/anticipation/celebration had many drinks on Wednesday and Thursday night (the same U2 marathon Thursday). Then I took an extended break from work from Friday until Tuesday and luxuriated on the couch on Friday and accessory shopped for the house on Saturday and Sunday and did many household things on Monday and then Monday night arrived. Two legendary progressive DJs named Sasha & Digweed graced these shores… in fact, they graced the club right outside my house which was just an added bonus… I went for Sasha last year but apparently Sasha & Digweed together is an unbeatable combination and so went fully prepared for the time of my life and I have to say, I think I had it. I think there are some experiences better left unsaid because it is impossible to try and express with words how one really feels. I have had many such moments where there is always an overwhelming factor like the music or the lights or the people or the emotion and with one big whammy, I’m left speechless and either want to laugh or cry and sometimes do both. That Goa one on New Years Day 2002 and Roger Waters singing Comfortably Numb in Bangalore and some rainy and non-rainy moments heavily intoxicated and dancing under the moonlight with Mr. Moonlight and Mark Knopler playing Brothers in Arms in Melbourne and well, you get the idea…

Billy Joel was great. I never even fully appreciated how freaking brilliant he is on the piano. And when he sang Uptown Girl, I was so very very happy :-) That song, goes back so many fucking years, it's crazy. Of course the second encore finale was Piano Man and I have it entirely recorded on video on my phone… only, my voice singing along is seemingly louder than his… haha…

So, the days are blurring from one to the next as I wake up late and choose whether or not to come into the office… most mornings in the last two weeks, my head has had a light drum and bass band playing a welcome for the first two hours of the day and my throat has cried out in pain until I satisfied its demands for the elixir of life… The nights have been flying by with the aid of all manner of intoxicants and then there has been U2 and Pink Floyd at the crack of dawn.

Funny thing about U2… I've been an unconscious fan my whole life… When I listen to their Best of 1980 to 1990 CD, I can't help but associate memories with the entire CD… cos it would play in my car, over and over and over… as I drove through the hot, humid, dusty, streets… to college, to entertainment, to shop… the scorching sunlight abated somewhat by the air conditioning and the sunglasses…

Sometimes, as I drove home at evening or night, still humid and dusty but allowing a faintly cool breeze to come in by rolling the windows down a crack, belting out… walk on by, walk on through, walk till you run and don’t look back, for here I am… and at a lot of these times, I was hurrying home because I had the munchies and needed a food fix ASAP and all the frying smells in the air on the way home would drive me insane cos have you noticed that Madras (and quite possibly, India) smells of food everywhere you go… sure, there’s pollution and cow dung but heading home on the main streets, passing by the tea kadais and the street vendors, its impossible for that smell of something deep frying in oil to not come wafting across the cars and pedestrians and cows and noise…

And then a lot of the times, as I sat there stuck in traffic, outside the back entrance of my alma mater Good Shepherd and inching forwards towards Sangeetha’s and I’d be singing out loud as I tend to do in the car and people around me would sometimes give me amused glances and sometimes I’d be amused too and smile back but mostly I just tuned out and lost myself completely in whatever was playing… and then before I’d know it, I’d be over the Chetpet bridge and into the relatively sweet release of Poonamallee High Road… once I got to Annanagar, I always had this thing about the home stretch… it was my own special route from just before the infamous Annanagar Roundturner (which is pronounced by all and sundry as “roundtana”) to home a couple of blocks away… it was a major timesaving escape from the traffic at the Roundturner and it was down some peaceful streets with lots of trees and beautiful houses… and then this time I visited, they had concreted the main road so you couldn’t turn into the street anymore… the home stretch has never felt the same since.

So U2 were there and you were there too, and us, and them, and now U2 will be here again this weekend and I’m gearing up to bawl my eyes out because the beauty of it all will just kill me. And no one has put it better than I believe the Grateful Dead when they said…

What a long strange trip it’s been!

I like to party... Everybody does...

I can't believe Christmas has come and gone... with everything else that was going on, I had absolutely no time to do Christmassy things like sing carols and since I finished all my bloody shopping in Australia, there was no real urgency except of course to wrap all my presents at the last bloody minute as usual. Anyway, I got to sing carols in church and went home and had cake and wine and then went off party hopping at some 3 in the morning to go wish all my friends who were partying the night away!! There was also annual drinks and dinner bash at my house on Christmas night and much wine was drunk by all and much fun was had by all...



I can't believe Madras... It's like I never left. Last year when I visited, I knew no one whenever I went out except for the people I was with... This year, I'm amazed at all the old faces I'm seeing again... the same old faces who used to be at every party and every disco on every Friday and Saturday night when I lived and partied in Madras. Friday night was a very random getting wasted night where I met like some 100 people I hadn't met in years in the one crowded pub and the next day I was still remembering more and more people I'd met or seen... Madras is quite uncanny!

I can't believe I've been functioning on less than 10 hours of sleep every night in spite of being out until all hours every night. Tonight has been the first night I forced myself to stay home so I could recuperate slightly before leaving to Goa tomorrow. Last night was a very wild bachelorette party for a friend and it was a full on 70s theme and her sister and Rat's sister just did a very brilliant job with the decorations... Just like the brilliant job Rat's sister did for Sista T's baby shower... Good job good job ;) And please don't miss my cool pink 70s sunnies on the bar table...





I can't believe how much fun I'm having... I really don't want it to end...

Hey, who's this handsome motherfucker... I just love him to death!



And here's my dear little Chocolate... so old and tired and slow... I really fear she's going to drop dead any second...



So hope you all had a Merry Christmas and I'll see you all in 2006... I could reflect on the year that's been and what not, but fuck that... Happy New Year!!

I'm so love in love with you...whatever you want to do is alright with me...Coz you make me feel so brand new...And I want to spend my life with you

So after all that anticipation, I’m finally here and haven’t had even a single moment to really take it all in with everything going in. It’s been brilliant so far. We started partying as soon as we got off the plane and I think I must’ve slept for about 15 hours in total from the night before I left until Sunday night. Of course now I am making up for many months of insufficient slumber and it’s incredibly peaceful.

What have I done in five days and six nights apart from drink and smoke… I’ve hung out with all my favourite girls and boys and I’ve just laughed and laughed. Some things will never change… (and thank god for those people). I’ve bonded with parents and sister and dog Chocolate met the new dog in my family Rusty… he is sooooo handsome… and such a sweetie… when we first met, he went a bit psycho, but now he’s used to me and is such a darling…



Madras is the same and so different at the same time. So many new places and buildings but instinctively I still know my way around and if I were to close my eyes on a drive and open them five minutes later, I’d still know where I was… She has taken me back so willingly in spite of me ditching her all these years…

Driving here again has been a real trip as always… the way even the slowest autorickshaw will refuse to move out of the right lane and you have no choice but to overtake rather recklessly from the left… Love it… And the noise and the traffic and the potholes and the smells… it’s just all so very real… so very home…

The rain of course has been crazy. I love it and all but it was promising to be a real dampener on the trip. Now I understand all those depressive Bay of Bengal statements… she’s been good today though so there’s hope yet.

And the absolute best part is that S is here with me and its been three years since we’ve been back together… back to where we started and where we had the absolute best time of our lives… Since we've been together, loving you forever is what I need... let me, be the one you come running to... I'll never be untrue

Anyhoo, don’t know when and where I’ll have the time to blog again. But the thing is I want to write as much as I can so I can read it three months from now and remember how awesome it was. So we’ll see…

Cheers to Rat, Sista T, Lavi, Snoop and all my other non-blogger buddies like N, S and all the boys… please continue to entertain me in the same fashion for the next four weeks… Woohoo!

Life I love you… all is groovy…

But I Still (haven't) Found What I Was Looking For…

If you're reading this, then Rat has very kindly put up the post for me. I'm trying not to publish anything to the web at the moment from work and so that's why I haven't been commenting either, but I have been doing my regular reading rounds. Anyway, this is only for another week and then I go home so I can pick up from where I left off.

Right, so the biggest news on my horizon is that I managed to buy tickets to watch U2 live in March after continuously clicking my mouse button for an hour. It was an incredibly nail biting experience… finally I managed it and of course it was sold out soon after, but I think they're doing an additional show now. Anyway, I'm really quite excited because there are such few people I really would like to watch live in concert and U2 is one such band. Now just four months of waiting to go…

Everything is just flashing by damn fast and I don't have even a single moment to just sit back and relax until I get to Madras and even then its going to be Party Central. Friday night was my work Christmas party and it was crazy fun. Every single one of us got unbelievably wasted and kept getting told off for smoking indoors or taking our glasses outside when smoking outdoors. We had a small after-party at our house and I think I managed to sleep about five hours that night before I was rudely woken up on Saturday morning by friends trying to pick up their cars from my basement.

I spent the entire weekend shopping. My room is like a disaster zone with the number of bags lying around. I have NO CLUE how I'm going to fit everything very neatly into one little suitcase that should only weigh 20 kilos. And speaking of gifts, its just getting harder and harder each year. I've bought my parents some real nonsense because I've totally run out of ideas. I'm hoping to finish my shopping inMadras only.

Oh, and apparently Goa for New Years is definitely on so this holiday is really set. Time in Madras and a mad trip to Goa.

Yuletide Tales Episode 2

I read something on JR's blog about how she didn't know that Christmas trees in India were all fake!! Well yes, they were (mostly) and feeling similarly excited at the thought of being able to buy a real tree, two Christmases ago, I decided to get a real tree. First off, it was a real bitch fitting it into the car and I'm not really sure how we managed to carry it up from the basement to the apartment. All I know is, there was a nice trail of pine needles the whole way and we cleaned it all up out of consideration for everyone else in the building. I don't know why we bothered… a few days later someone else brought a real tree home and didn't bother cleaning up.

But anyway, the tree refused to stand up straight. It had a very stubborn list no matter what we tried. Once the decorations were up, they kept slipping off… every day I'd have to rearrange the ones that had fallen off and vacuum the area around the tree because of the constant pine needle debris. But still, we put our many gifts under the tree and went to Midnight Mass (this time I was dead sober) and opened all our presents and had a small party beside the tree on Christmas Day.

Christmas passed and New Years passed. We considered how to get rid of the tree. We couldn't just dump it out front with the garbage cans, we had to go dump it at a garbage tip. We searched and searched online and couldn't find a single tip anywhere even on the Melbourne Council websites – we were quite obviously looking for the wrong thing! Finally one day in early February we decided we absolutely had to get rid of it and planned a dump and run strategy. First we stripped the tree of all its branches and put them into many shopping bags and then S tried cutting the trunk into smaller pieces with our kitchen knife. The knife actually broke or got chipped and poor S got hurt quite badly by a stray branch… he still has the scar. Somehow we managed it and packed it into the car and set off to dump the tree.

The first instalment of bags we dumped near our DVD library because we went there to return DVDs. After we did it though though, we noticed a surveillance camera exactly over thestuff we'd just dumped. Ah well, we didn't get into trouble. The second instalment we dumped near the garbage cans of some apartment building near ours. And the final instalment, wewent to a shopping centre that day and the car park was nearly empty when we left, so we dumped the remaining bags in a shopping trolley and dashed off.

We tried to do the right thing but well, the tip was almost impossible to find. I still don't know where it is. So last year, we went to Kmart and bought a very beautiful faketree that stood straight and didn't leave behind a trail of pine needles and held onto the decorations firmly and very nicely fit into a small box at the end of the season withminimal manual labour. I'm all for real over fake but when it comes to Christmas trees, its definitely more trouble than its worth. And that's all I have to say about that!

Christmas is coming… all the bells are ringing…

Starting December 16, 2005...

...I will sleep for at least ten hours every night
...I will not to do a single household chore
...I will feast on chicken and fish and cutlets and prawns and the best part is, none of it will have to be made by me
...I will enjoy the luxury of actually wearing ironed clothes for a change (I stopped ironing about six months ago… its amazing how you can get by without it)
...I will have dogs in my life again however briefly
...I will get high everyday and get drunk every other day
...I will bring Christmas cheer to all and sundry by singing Christmas carols incessantly (oh boy, are my friends in trouble when I’m drunk)
...I will soak in the heat of my beloved Madras and not worry about how many layers to wear everyday
...I will rest, laze, play, read, blog, catch up with my near and dear ones, exercise a little (maybe), party, talk, dance, laugh, sing…

It’s going to be so good. I’m always worried that a holiday will never turn out as anticipated but this time I just feel its going to be perfect. And its almost like my holiday has started already starting from last Wednesday night… my housemate’s sister is visiting from India and we’ve been smoking like mad and drinking almost every day. This week we did Tuesday night (what a raging wine hangover I had the next morning) and last night and tonight is my work Christmas party so more drinking. And the pace isn’t going to slow down until I leave. If I didn’t have so much to occupy my time, I’d probably be sitting at home and staring at my calendar counting down the days.

Speaking of counting down the days, 24 days till Christmas… I can hardly wait. You saw how excited I was about my birthday… Christmas is that ten times over… the excitement, the anticipation, the homemade wine, the food, the presents, the Christmas tree, the parties, the family, the friends, the shopping, the gift wrapping, the carols, the red and green, the candles, the Mass, the Secret Santas, the red nosed reindeer, the stockings, the holly, the baby Jesus…

So I’m going to start writing a little collection of Christmas memories from now until Christmas in every post. I figure I’ll start with last year since it was most recent…

Yuletide Tales Episode 1

Last Christmas was really quite rocking. It was my second Christmas away from home and depression was bound to set in at some point so I made an effort to party extra hard and not feel too sad. The lead up to Christmas was filled with Christmas parties, boat cruises, lots and lots of Bacardi Limon, lots and lots of carol singing, shopping, Christmas tree decorating, etc. etc. Here’s a picture of my Christmas tree from last year… since we only have each other to buy presents for, we go all out and its not even S and T’s festival but I kinda force them to celebrate it with me… they’re very sweetly adjusting that way… and anyway, who’s not up for presents and parties…

So Christmas Eve dawned bright and clear and we chilled out that day at work and blared carols and Pink Floyd (what a combination) from our speakers and had a couple of drinks when work let off about 2pm. Then I went home and there was a full bottle of Limon to finish and we did just that. By about 6pm I was wasted but it was a very good wasted… People dropped in bearing gifts and drank and smoked with us. In the midst of all this, some random person called me and poor fellow got abused because I thought someone was playing the fool and then I called my Mom a few times… why why do I keep doing this, I don’t know… and all I did was laugh and tell her she sounded different… she thought I was mad… I was just smashed. At about 10pm, I started watching Carols by Candlelight on TV and of course the tears almost came out in my drunkenness and I absolutely insisted we go to church for Midnight Mass because I’ve always gone every year. So I dragged S and my friend from work and three extremely smashed people sat through the whole thing and I even sang along to all the carols very joyfully… I like to think that it wasn’t too sinful what I did… I did sober down during the Mass…

After church we went home and continued drinking and ripped open all our presents… it was such madness and so much fun… I got some cool presents like a mobile phone and an LP player and lots of other random stuff. I don’t even remember when we finally went to bed… but we woke up again on Christmas Day after only a few hours sleep because my friend had invited us to her house for lunch… so we drunkenly drove to her farm about 2 hours away and had a very pleasant time on the farm.

She had cooked up a storm so we ate nicely… she got me a tequila roulette thingie as a present so we all had a few shots of tequila in spite of the hangover and then headed back home. There were phone calls from family the whole day which is always a highlight and when my Mom spoke to me she asked me if she still sounded different… I said No, but I sure sounded different from the night before. We ended the night watching Shrek 2 again which was one of my Christmas presents… god, how I love Donkey and Puss in Boots.

It was a very lovely Christmas in 2004 and I can’t wait to see what happens this year…

The day the music died...

Another weekend gone by and only 10 days left until the big day. The big day refers to my birthday, of course. I’m not one of those people who pretend they don’t care about their birthday and who say things like ‘oh, its no big deal’. I’m one of those people who loves birthdays, especially my own and says things like ‘oh, its my birthday, so drop everything you’re doing and come party with me’. I mean, come on, birthdays are meant to be celebrated and I’ve celebrated every single one of them like they were going out of style. Anyway, we’ll see what happens this year…

On Friday I went to the housewarming party of someone who lives on the ground floor of my apartment building. He had invited everyone in the building and since we’ve never really met any of our neighbours, we dropped in. It was mostly middle-aged to older people and a couple of young people. Shantaram became a topic of conversation as it is prone to become when a white person meets an Indian for the first time and looks for some common ground. I don’t mind… I think its great that so many of them enjoyed the book. They won’t be so biased or culture shocked if they ever visit.

At one point, the host asks me "How do you take that life-altering decision of leaving family and friends and everything familiar behind and starting out fresh in a whole new country and culture"? Fuck, good question! For me, it was never a conscious decision… it was just an undercurrent in everything I dreamed my life would be when I grew up. And when I did grow up, I couldn’t really take it all back… But when I grew up, I realised that I really loved my life in Madras and didn’t think anything could ever compare with it.

Nothing has, so far.

I remember writing something when I left three years ago, something like:

But this is everything I’ve dreamed of since age 7. So why do I wish I was 7 again and this day was still 14 years away?

So these are the choices that we make and we have to stand behind them or we would be left with nothing, no direction, no mistakes to learn from, no right to say ‘I did it’. And there are still choices, there is hope yet! I didn’t mean to get all melancholy like this. Its not that my life is shit or anything but its soooo very different to my previous life in Madras.

There I was a part of a social fabric… there was always someone to call, someone to visit, someone to smoke a cigarette with, someone to smoke a joint with, someone to have a drink in the afternoon with… there were competing priorities… education, family, partying, dogs… rushing off from a family dinner to the night’s drinking gathering… rushing off from Sunday afternoon smokes (in full stoned glory) to catch at least the latter half of Mass (and more importantly, making sure my parents saw me)… rushing off from college to give my sister a lift home, take the dog to the vet, drop the dog back home (sometimes spastically sedated, poor baby) and rush off for the day’s entertainment. Anyway, my point is, it was really quite a happening, never-a-boring-moment kind of existence and then I played the cruel joke upon myself of leaving all that behind to study here.

Now I’m sure lots of people have some really fun times in university here but it just so happened that mine was the only course on the planet that people actually did for the sake of the course itself and not for the sake of getting a stupid degree. The average age was 35 and the most scintillating conversation was about which website was more usable and which website was more community building oriented. There were some fun moments and a couple of smashed moments but mostly it was coursework, coursework and more coursework.

Work at least has been much better… I’m part of a band of merry boys and girls (average age of 23 which is just right) and we get each other through the monotony and drudgery that is corporate life by talking shit all day. And sometimes we hang out on a Friday evening but it’s pretty much a work life/personal life separation thing!

So outside of these two social avenues, there have been the people you meet somehow or the other and some of them are fun and some of them are not and some of them are fun only when drunk and some of them talk too much or don't talk at all. Well obviously, I am extremely choosy… how can I not be when my friends from school and college and Madras and even Bangalore are just some of the coolest people around! I’ve been spoiled with good company and now no one seems to meet those standards.

And as for family, well really, don’t knock ‘em. Its only when they’re not around, you realise how entertaining even they can be. And as for dogs, well I don’t want to start sobbing my heart out now, so I’ll save my dog tales for another day.

So the best thing out of all this is that S and I are as close as two people can be and have had to entertain each other for three years and we aren’t bored yet.

And I really believe that everything happens for a reason and my happening life will come back to me sometime soon.

It seems I’ve forgotten what I even started writing about. The host also asked if I felt that Australia had accepted me and I think I’ll save that can of worms for another day! Got really wasted that night with some people who came over. It was fun. Had a really lazy Saturday, got a haircut, shopped for miscellaneous items, oooh S bought me a pre-birthday gift – a pair of Levis, watched The Interpreter and Hostage on DVD – the first one was shit and the second one was ok! Yesterday I just slept and slept and slept and read a bit in between. Today I have my first gym session in about an hour and I’m really excited about it – you will be hearing much about my fitness regime in the days to come.

For me, the day I left Madras was like the day the music died. Because like American Pie was a semi-autobiographical journey from innocence to adulthood for Don Mclean, so was my life in Madras my journey from innocence into adulthood and one day it ended as all eras tend to and that was the day the music died.

A long long time ago
I can still remember how that music used to make me smile
And I knew if I had my chance that I could make those people dance
And maybe they’d be happy for a while

Invariably, the music that makes me smile always leads back to Madras. They have that saying ‘All roads lead to Rome’ because in those BC days, all roads did literally lead to Rome since they were the only ones building them. For me, all roads lead to Madras… what a name, what a place, what an era!

Oh excitement... I've just booked my tickets to Madras. I know its five months away but unless you get in early, its extremely hard to get flights around Christmas.

Okay, already the excitement is waning because now I just have to twiddle my thumbs for many months. Also, I have to somehow slip it to my boss that I'm planning *another* four week vacation at the end of the year. To be fair, my last one to the US was three weeks but there was also two weeks to India last October which have mysteriously not been deducted from my accumulation of annual leave. Not that I'm complaining of course... maybe they would've been deducted if I'd *officially* applied for it, but at the time I didn't and nobody else did on my behalf either so my annual leave account is still looking very healthy!

Anyway, now I must get working on this New Years trip to Goa as no one has gotten of their fat ass and done shitole thus far!! First Rat and I must decide what exactly we are going to do... I don't want to spend too many days away from home and now there are some added complications of weddings and all! So come on Rat, make up your bloody mind. Then, I must work the Madras crowd and get them organised into booking tickets, accomodation, etc. The last trip to Goa would sooo not have happened without the brilliant organisational skills of Sista T and me! It's going to be tough... especially since I'm sitting here oceans away. At least the last time I could annoy them about it everyday.

Ah well, if it happens, it happens. If it doesn't happen, all I care about is bringing in the New Years with the same people and it doesn't really matter if that happens in Disco Valley, Goa or some random beach house in Madras.

All my life I've longed for this afternoon

Fuckin’ hell… it’s the last day of June already! Where has the time gone, like seriously? Halfway down 2005… our days are so numbered!

I used to love June… I always wanted to have a June wedding, I don’t even know why! And June always meant the start of school and college and everything else and that wasn’t much to look forward to but after two months of doing absolutely nothing in the heat of a Madras summer, June at least brought with it some kind of change to the regular monotony… even if that meant classes and teachers and books all over again!

Good things have happened in June… my adorable cousin M was born in June and he shared that day with Fudge… that dog of mine was the perfect gentlemen… my little wild thing C was also born in June… I threw her a birthday party once… that catastrophic experience ensured I will never throw a birthday party for a dog again… the poor birthday girl herself had to be tied up because she was extremely unwelcoming to her guests… that’s also when that tiny little terror M scared the hell out of H…

Bad things have happened in June… my mom falling really sick and R dying…

I love that song June Afternoon by Roxette… it always makes me feel high on life…

It’s a bright June afternoon, it never gets dark

That couldn’t be further from the current situation here… its rainy and misty and rapidly getting dark and did I mention, its fucking cold!

Ah well, maybe June hasn’t been all that fun in the last three years, although last year I did manage to spend a few days in sunny Queensland in June!

I wish I could say that my June afternoons in Madras were somehow different to all the other afternoons I spent in Madras… they were not… I spent my June afternoons also getting stoned and drinking coffee at the drive-in… maybe we made an effort to get slightly more stoned than usual because college would be reopening real soon or college had just reopened and Stella Maris being what it was just had the effect of us wanting to forget we ever attended it!

I remember this one particular reopening day, I think my third year… oh yeah, we were finally allowed to leave the bloody prison for half an hour every day during our break… that morning, I dropped my sister at school and got the shock of my life when I saw this half-smoked joint sticking out of my ashtray… someone had left it there the previous evening and my sister being as out of it as I am in the mornings thankfully didn’t notice it… so that break, the first time we were ever allowed out during working hours, we went to the drive-in and S and I smoked it (the others smoked cigarettes)! It was barely two drags each but it got us pretty stoned… I think that was more because of the illicit nature of what we were doing over anything else. Thus fortified, we returned to our esteemed place of education to finish what was left of our first day (but our final year thankfully)! That was a real fun June afternoon…

Look at all the people, happy faces all around
Smiling, throwing kisses, busy making lazy sounds
Cos life's so very simple just like la-la-la
All my life I've longed for this afternoon

These afternoons will come again... I know they will!

My sweet home Madras...

Why are you so special to me? Why can't I ever get you out of my mind? Unconsciencly I compare everything I do here with the way I did things with you.... Some times you come up a bit short but mostly you win hands down and I seriously wonder why I even left you to begin with... Tonight I watched a video of how you looked in 1990... it was incredibly different and yet, fundamentally, you haven't changed at all... Still the same old Mount Road, same old Cathedral Road, same old Chola Sheraton, same old Stella Maris, same old Woodlands drive-in, same old Anna Flyover... same old Madras!

I just have so many memories of you - every story of mine might begin with 'Oh yeah, when I was so smashed...', but what I don't always mention is 'Oh yeah, when I was so smashed in Madras...'! You were my world, the centre of my everything - my life, my love, my home, my very existence... No one will ever be able to take you away from me... your roads and beaches, restaurants and nightclubs, my house and all my friends' houses, even your stinking river and buffaloes and mosquitoes, they will be a part of me until the day I die...

A lot of people ask me, 'So what's up with Penny Lane?' and I say, 'Well, it's a really cool song by The Beatles', but why I really love the song is because it reminds me of you...
Very strange...
Penny Lane is in my ear and in my eyes
There beneath the blue suburban skies

We didn't have no banker with no mac and no fireman with no truck, but we had blue suburban skies and I still have you in my ears and eyes... I can even smell you still... I remember the chill of dawn as I step off the train from yet another trip, dirty and disheveled, inhaling the filth of Central Station and thinking, 'Man, it's good to be back'... I remember the sand trickling through my toes, tasting the salty wind as I walk towards the waves, menacing and inviting at the same time... I remember days spent blissfully doing nothing... I think about how lucky I am to have experienced such decadence and freedom... a life so simple and uncomplicated that I could celebrate such events as Pot Smoking Day (20 April for the un-enlightened), and Gandhi's birthday and Republic Day were just really good excuses to get drunk!!

And as crazy as it sounds, it wasn't all about the alcohol and the drugs... it's about the people and the darndest things they say... good company, a smoke (or even better, a spliff), and a coffee... life's simple pleasures! And so, most of all, I remember the nights spent rolling and smoking and drinking and laughing... I love the life I led with you... everything I am today is such a result of everything I did when I lived with you... you are a mix of everyone I've ever known... you are me when I was five, twelve, sixteen and twenty... So, all it takes is a word, an image, a song, a photograph... and the memories come crashing back... a stoned, smashed journey on the East Coast Road with the music pounding in my head as I stare mesmerised at the shadows on the road... I won't ever forget you, my sweet home Madras!

Have You Ever Seen The Rain

Yesterday and days before
Sun is cold and rain is hard
I know
Its been that way for all my time
Till forever on it goes
Through the circle fast and slow
I know
And it can't stop I wonder

I wanna know
Have you ever seen the rain
Coming down on a sunny day

Rain… isn’t it meant to bring people down… How come I feel so good when it rains… Is that not normal… Does it have something to do with what my name means… I love the sun and everything about it but a rainy day is always a special day… everything always seems more fun in the rain… when I was very young, it meant the lawn would get flooded and my father and I would make paper boats and sail them in our makeshift lake… the boats never lasted long but I have never forgotten them… and going to school on a rainy day and playing in all the puddles… there was no thought given to the diseases we might’ve caught from doing that… that was the all part of the joy of being a child… and I’d go home and get on my bicycle and do it all over again on the streets of Annanagar…

I didn’t outgrow my love of the rain even after I outgrew puddles… I still enjoyed walking outside my house under my umbrella and I can still remember the concern of my poor dogs as I did that… they hated the thought of getting wet themselves but they were still kinda worried to let me go out into the garden by myself what with all the thunder and the lightening so they’d follow me into the rain and whine worriedly until I went back in… that’s loyalty for you…

And then there were those rainy days when we’d have to hotbox the car because we didn’t want to stand outside and get wet… and wasn’t it just the most awesome fun to go swimming in the rain... And there were those nights where we’d hide out in someone’s apartment car park and drink ourselves silly… or we’d sit in the gazebo and watch the rain falling in the pool… and then there was R’s backyard and all those beach house parties that got washed out but were still fun somehow… and who can forget the EC-41 rain dances… sometimes it was real rain and sometimes it wasn’t, but it was always fun…

And is there anything quite like waking up on a Sunday morning with nothing to do and hearing the rain pattering on the window sill outside and all you want to do is pick up your book from last night and curl up under your quilt again and get lost in someone else’s life… and you could do just that because life was easy and if you didn’t want to get out of bed you didn’t have to…

Ah rain… what a wonderful smell it has.

I guess you don’t always remember the fun you had on days on which the sun shone brightly… because the sun shone brightly almost always… and then there were those rainy days and nights that stand out in your mind because they were just special somehow… and so I sit here at my workstation and watch the rain streaming down the window… and it takes me back to those rainy days eons ago in Madras when life was all about sailing a paper boat on a lake that was really a lawn…

Ah rain... don't go away... little me wants to dream...

The Story of You Me and You (ten years and counting...)

Where do I begin? To tell the story of You Me and You... I suppose I could begin with Love Story and that ever familiar Theme from Love Story but that episode (can we ever forget the cardamom milk) doesn't include you me and you... it was more you me and my childhood best friend. So instead, lets fast forward a couple of years to grade 5 when you me and you got into major trouble with Mrs Mary Carmel for looking after some other class in the sports field because we thought we couldn't get into trouble because we were all powerful captains. How wrong she proved we were... And that was our very first crime!

So then we moved to high school and it still wasn't you me and you... it was more you and me and me and you and dear diary entries on who was whose best friend and physics class text book changes from a magnet's N and S poles to N and J poles. And then suddenly all the old familiar cliques went through a major reshuffle and we were left with you me and you and Ayesha. And even though we hung out with her for four years and tried to be as close to her as we were to each other, it just didn't work out in the end because she was never like you me and you.

So what were you me and you like? We were three teenagers who spent every breaktime talking and laughing about everything under the sun... we spent birthdays and special occasions with a larger group and still managed to have our private moments of laughter at something silly someone else said and that no one else would have ever found funny... like the day when we started our morning at 6 am in pouring rain on our way to some singing comp and on the way there, my driver (was it Murugan) suddenly stopped the car and began running backwards after a wiper that had fallen off... run Forrest run... and who can forget Vegetable Toppings... we also spent hours on the phone obsessing about boys and Sweet Valley and sent out annonymous cards to our crushes on Valentine's Day and on the eve of Michaelmas holidays (wasn't there something about Michael and a cycle?)... and we also just hung out and went for plays and rock concerts and ate at Wimpy's and cruised Alsa Mall (yeah, we were that cool ;)) and recorded tapes like March Madness and Come September...

I walked across an empty land
I knew the pathway like the back of my hand
Oh simple thing, where have you gone
I'm getting old and I need something to rely on

It was simple and those were some of the happiest days of our lives. And we did know our school like the back of our hands... the Kuns tree and the stadium and the jungle gym and the auditorium and our classrooms and our spots under the trees... And then you went to another school and you stayed behind and me, well I found myself in another school too. And we were still you me and you only now we didn't see each other every day and we had the added complication of boyfriends in our lives... so there was lots of lying and covering up with our parents and there were good times and tears and there was heartache and heartbreak and at the end of it all we were left with you me and you. I still remember the night in Dec 1998 before New Years Eve... we stayed up all night and dressed up and experimented with Kahlua and took drunk photographs and went to the beach in the morning and had a swim in the pool and that was the day we came up with you me and you... December 31st 1998... I don't recall how or why.


And so we reached 1999... that year is an epic by itself... we finished school... we had our first jobs... we went on dates with boys... sometimes we went on many dates with many boys on the same day... we got shockingly drunk and sang Christmas Carols on rides home and had to be carried up stairs much to the shock of my grandmom's elderly watchman... we woke up early every morning and spent hours trying to get fit and experienced the simple pleasure of rowing on a river... we watched movies and ate at the Food Court... we went for parties and met hundreds of new people... we played pool and made another best friend who is still the only one who can come close to understanding you me and you... we wrote letters and received letters and said tearful goodbyes as you and lots of others left Madras for greener pastures... and we spent nights drinking Citroen vodka and Kahlua and Cointreau and sneaking out and sharing things we'd never shared before... Ah, the summer of 1999... will there ever be another time quite like it?

A long time ago, we used to be friends
But I haven't thought of you lately at all

Yes... there were so many people that summer that I don't even remember half their names... But you me and you didn't end with that summer even though you weren't there... there was the horrible time you and me got caught sneaking out and the awesome party you and me threw on our birthdays at EC-41... and there were plenty of fun weekends with you me and you and our various beaux... And so it passed... 1999, and 2000 much like each other and I guess 2001 as well... there were trips to Bangalore and trips to Goa and trips to Pondicherry and Kodaikanal... there was Deep Purple and Bryan Adams and Roger Waters... there was always the East Coast Road and beach houses and house parties and night clubs and pub hopping... And just as emotionally as it had begun, it was over... three years had passed and you me and you found ourselves at the beginning of another summer... the summer of 2002...

We get high in backseats of cars
We go out in stormy weather
And that's the way we get by

You bought a new bag of pot
So lets make a new start
And that's the way to my heart to
Way to my heart

That's all we did I think for 3 years... get high... and that summer of 2002 was no different... except at the end of this summer you me and you would live in different cities... again... And so we spent that summer living like there was no tomorrow... we met up every day... we met up every night... R's backyard and W&W were our playgrounds... every afternoon we'd drift from W&W to the cigarette shop opposite the ice-cream place, and then back to W&W and sometimes we'd go to Barista and Rat's terrace and C's terrace and sometimes we'd venture as far as the drive-in but we always returned to W&W... and in the nights we'd go drinking at the beach or the beachhouse or G2 or Geoffreys but mostly we sat around in R's backyard and laughed and talked and got stoned and drunk... at least one night a week was you me and you night at my house towards the end of that summer... so you me and you would drink till we were blind and smoke till our throats hurt and talk about how it had been and how it all might be... and sometimes we'd sing the songs of our youth that always made us smile...

Time, don't let it slip away
Raise your drinking glass, here's to yesterday
And time, we're all going to trip away
Don't piss heaven off, or there'll be hell to pay
Come full circle


It's been three years since that memorable summer... sometimes I can hardly believe it's been so long because whenever I want to remember something good, I always think back to that summer and it seems like just yesterday... sure, you me and you are still best friends... and you me and you have been together since... you and me even watched you get married just the other day... but that summer was the last time that you me and you lived in Madras at the same time...

I sit here miles away and say I miss my home Madras but what I really miss is you me and you... because what is home if not the people (and dogs) that make it the most wonderful place on earth...

So when I should return to Madras, if you and you don't live there anymore, I will still go out and get drunk and stoned with all the random people we've gotten close to over the years and I will still visit the same old places we once visited together, and I will laugh and sing and reminisce about days gone by... but as I do all these things, at the back of my mind, I will be remembering you me and you and the amazing time you me and you had growing up in a little city called Madras...

So when I should return to Madras, if you me and you are together again... well... it will be the best time of my life again...

I move on to another day
To a whole new town with a whole new way
You don't know where and you don't know when
But you still got your words and you got your friends

That's right... I've got my friends... I don't need much else... And in all my travels I've never quite got the same feeling I get from Madras and I've never quite met anyone who is as special to me as you me and you...

What's in a name...

Madras... Chennai? What's the difference people ask? I suppose there is none to most... But to me, the name Madras evokes so much... it was the birthplace of my everything... I suppose it still is...

How did such a backward little fishing village become so much more? People from Delhi, Bombay, even Bangalore look down upon us... What do they know? Have they been witness to our secret smoking spots, carefully selected after days of trial and error, and then us having to move on again once the residents became edgy... Have they spent night after night hanging out at Marina beach and Elliots beach and numerous other nameless beaches on the East Coast Road... Have they known the simple pleasure of eating sensational bread omelette outside of IIT and making fun of the cows... Do they know the relief of not having to worry about any crime more serious than an auto driver trying to rip you off... And have they known the people that made every night more fun that the last...

I suppose Delhi and Bombay and Bangalore have their own versions of all these things but for me Madras is where it's at and where it always will be...

And Chennai is just wrong!!