Of black cats and lucky pens!

Whenever someone’s asked me if am superstitious, my instant reply has been “Not in the least!” Imagine walking back 7 steps every time a black cat crossed my path (which was pretty often because there was one in my hostel), or handling a mirror with extra extra care to avoid 7 years of back luck. For that matter if I were superstitious I would have sent at least a thousand forwards to hundreds of friends in bunches of tens or twenties, depending on the requirement! Or if superstitions were true I would have bred grasshoppers at home, worn clothes inside out, and let birds shit on my head back in college.

Some of them are pretty interesting. When the great plague swept Europe, and sufferers began sneezing violently, the Pope ordered people to bless the sneezer. And that’s when the “God Bless You” when someone sneezes began.

It is also surprising to note that a lot of people still follow some of these superstitions. For instance most airlines don’t have a row number 13! The number of serials beginning with ‘K’, the number of people with ‘aa’s and ‘ss’s in their names and ‘H’rithik Roshan’s son ‘H’rehaan, all bear testament to the growing number of believers. I sometimes wonder if I should try something of this sort to boost my chances of atleast winning a lucky draw. I’ve tried a couple of combinations of pens and pencils to score better in my AIMCATs. But no such luck! :(

There’s just one thing that gets me to believe in something superstitious. And that’s when India’s playing cricket. I get the feeling that what I do somehow affects the game. And that varies from game to game. For example, today all was peaceful when I was sitting before the TV in my usual chair, my feet up on a stool. And then whenever I got up for some work, down went the wickets. First it was Sehwag, then Pathan and finally Tendulkar. That’s when I felt really bad for the Indian team because I wasn’t doing enough for them and went back to my corner. It’s a different story that I got bored after a while and got up to write this blog. And now India is 145/5. Not too bad. But maybe not as good as it could have been huh? ;)

Fashion fiasco

I really miss those good old days when I got to wear lovely little frocks and skirts and run around and play. The white frock with red polka dots, the layered denim skirt, the blue frilly frock (my 4th yr b'day dress :) ), ohh and how can I forget, the "Sridevi" style dress (with a sleeve on only one side and the other side had just two thin straps - one blue and the other red) were a few of my favourites. Those were the days when my clothes were very pretty, thanks to my mommy's choice!
Then I grew a little older and began watching TV. Specifically - bollywood movies. Speaking of which the first movie I sat through in the theatre was Mithunda's "Disco dancer" :D As I was saying, those days (by which I mean the 90s) bollywood was my only source of information on style. You can imagine! And with the kind of clothes I bought and the ones I got from my equally (sometimes worse) fashion impaired relatives, I had a collection that you possibly cannot imagine. There were frocks with wierd jackets, with golden buttons; flairy, lacy skirts; tapering, tight jeans; stretchy tights (why?!); bell-bottoms; bell-sleeves; tops with shoulder pads ( :D ) and the works. One thing I was proud of then was that my wardrobe had dresses of all possible colours!!
I remember having always wanted a nice lacy frock (the kind Madhuri Dixit used to wear) then. The only time I got to wear one of those was during a play in which I was a fairy. Even then my school captain refused to let me wear one which looked pretty sexy (with an asymmetric cut and all that), so I had to settle for a pretty boring cream-coloured dress. I also remember having gone out to play on a hot summer afternoon in black tights, black full-sleeved top, and shorts and a sleeveless top over that. I still haven't the faintest idea why!
It wasn't just the clothes, I had a awful lot of awful accessories. Huge earrings and fat chains with beads, and shells, and made of (i think camel) bone, and imitation gold ones. What was worse was that I used to wear some of these with jeans along with a bindi (which my mom used to insist I wear). Ohh I also had a Princess Diana hair-cut once which was a total disaster :) There was also a time when I was crazy about huge black digital watches. Although I don't disapprove of that as much as I do of the others. Thankfully I don't have too much to complain about the footwear I had. But I remember trying to walk in heels (1 inch high) when I was around 6-7, and I twisted my ankle with each step. That was when I decided that heels were going to be a part of my life much much later.
Aaah those days! I don't know if it was me or if it was just a really bad time for fashion. I'd like to believe that it was the latter. But sometimes am glad I did such crazy stuff. It makes a good laugh to look at old photographs now :)

Diwali

It is just past diwali... and the silence in the air seems suddenly unusual. The last few days Hyderabad - and am sure most of India - seemed quite different. The days leading to diwali saw roads lined with rows of makeshift stores for fireworks, pavements piled with heaps of marigolds, storefronts decorated with thermocol diyas, buildings covered in lights, overcrowded shops and packed parking places.

With age old potholes, MCH's regular digging sprees and fly-overs (forever) under-construction, going around the city was already frustrating. Added to that were stores and bandis, and hordes of shoppers cramming the already narrow roads. To get to some place decently close, I preferred walking to inching through the insane traffic. Travelling could also be dangerous. One rocket flew over one lane of traffic to hit the divider and then over the other lane. And since nobody was hurt I must admit the I secretly enjoyed seeing that.

Forget about shopping for pleasure during this time of the year. It could turn out to be a pretty tiresome affair beginning with getting to the shop, finding a space for parking, picking out clothes (which may have to be done from the heap of already rejected clothes), waiting for an empty trial room and finally awaiting your turn to bill your stuff. The last part could be especially painful, when the pretty lady before you is explained (sometimes more than once) all the benefits of the store membership card by the guy behind the counter. It reached heights when the man was teaching the lady the right way to count her change!!!

Apart from the pujas, family get-togethers, and cracker-bursting, most people look forward to this festival for the new clothes, sweets, gifts and ofcourse the holidays. But for me none of this was any cause of excitement. I personally found the loud crackers, far too loud to enjoy and I always dreaded little kids bursting them out on the street along which I had to walk. So I wasn't really expecting to enjoy this day.

Morning went by with the usual formalities of wishing people. The rest of the day, I stayed at home listening to the sounds of crakers bursting. It reminded me of those times when you got to hear crackers bursting in the middle of the night, during the presentation ceremony of a cricket match in which India bagged a major victory. Today it was celebration time once again.

Even the rain in the evening couldn't dampen the spirits of the people. After a ride through the city, with everything decorated with lights and flowers and diyas, I could feel the celebration in the air, though I was not really a part of it. Although am sure most people today hardly follow tradition to celebrate the victory of good over evil, am glad the reason has something to do with happiness. People are willing to spend thousands on fireworks that barely last a few seconds. But to see them shoot up and brighten the night sky is totally worth the money. The light, the colours, the sound, the glitter of jewellery, the good food are all signs of celebration of life. And its amazing! Somehow I feel that its not the celebration of something but the joy of celebration itself that motivates people.

In the end I know all the smoke may not turn out to be too pleasant for the next few days. But lets hope even that works for the best against dengue and chikungunya :)