Phloot!!

Click, Clack,
Click, Clack,
Click, Clack...
rings the hall with the on and off of the ballpoint pens on so many hands.
Click, Clack, Click, Clack... one of the refills in one of the pens in the hall is constantly being pushed in and out. The others join in.. Click, Clack, Click, Clack, click, Clack.

The speaker doesn't hear it. He is a thin bespectacled man with neatly combed hair, slightly graying at the corners, speaking in a low soft voice. He holds an old model of a Sheaffer pen - 1960s, the kinds you don't find the in the market these days. This, he points at the last row of kurta clad girls and beckons them to join Rama in the first few empty seats. The girls stick to their chairs at first but slowly bring up their thin bodies in crisp churridars and shuffle to the first row directly under the man's nose.

Silence. Click, Clack. He speaks something, "............................". Silence. Click, Clack.. click, clack.
Phloot!! goes the bubble gum. Silence. Someone has blown out a bubble gum and it makes an unintentional loud Phloot!! And this time he hears it. And the hall goes silent. And the ball pens go silent too. "Who was it?" he questions in a louder voice. Blank faces stare back at him.
After a few awkard moments of silence, he resumes his talk, "............................................" and the ball pens start again, click, clack, click, clack, click, clack ... ...

ors-crash

So, CRASH won the Oscars!
I definitely thought it was a good movie...
but Oscars?

excuse me?

"So, howz office" he asks me...
"ya, so so", i say.
"Enjoying?" he questions in a monotone
"Hmmm... ", I brood, which he takes a yes.

So, after much thought I left the book "A way in the world", quater way through. It was good. But, I had to take too many pauses, which disturbed its flow. I have started a new one by the same author - "A house for Mr. Biswas" and at the same time, out of curiosity I brought home "The Great Gatsby" and am flipping through it. So my reading is at a snail's speed these days - one page a day - that too if i have any energy left at the end of the day.

So, Shristy is the same old Shristy. She gives me the same smile she had three years ago, with the same twinkle in her eyes. And we are comfortable working with each other. It's like, thank god she's there and work's fun. I sure couldn't have handled one more stranger to de-strangify.

Underground

And there was more.

The questions had no sign of finishing up. The exam had started two hours before and the questions kept coming in, one after other. And she kept answering them one after other. She did not have time to think how long it took to answer the questions. All she had in mind was one minute=one complete question - and she did not want any incomplete ones. The black Dell with an slanted 'E' stared back at her with radio buttons all over.

'Continue' she clicked and waited for the page to load. The false ceilings gave the room a claustrophobic feel. The tubelights made it cold. The black monitors seemed professional and the whole atomosphere was serious.

She hardly remembered the farewell party she had a week ago, the glasses of wine she'd drink, the stubs of ciggis she'd put out.

She had forgotton that she would be celebrating her niece's b'day party that evening with a bunch of people she'd hardly met. And she had forgotten that she would be embarrased at her absent mindedness when everyone brought out neat parcels of colored gifts for the girl and she would be empty handed. At the moment all she thought of was the next question and the next minute.

That evening the niece waited for her aunt. The cake waited for the aunt. And the rest of the guests waited for her aunt. Even Tiger, the black Alsatian waited for the aunt. But the aunt was somewhere in the undergrounds, among insulated wires, biting her nails, waiting for the next question and praying for the next minute.

dozed by dose

Life is good :)
Just don't be too sensitive ...
block away the human sorrows of ROW...
and life is good.
Think about urself... just you...
and your goodness, your virtues and your interests...
and life is good.
You are happy.
You are successful and you get all the benefits...
life is good.
You smile and you dance...
you drink and you dine...
life is good.
a blue cruise...
a silver spoon...
an orange moon...
and life is good.
Good food...
Praise and laud...
twist and turn ...
and life is good.
With all the sorrows in the world,
with all the tears and cries,
with the pain and the sighs,
thank god, life is still good.

Mouse-licated

And i sniffed the familiar greenies. They had dried up. I sniffed them - one, two and three on her palms - all dried up from the same pod. I like them fresh and juicy. I ate a dozen the other day, I can still taste the juice. I ate one by one until i could eat no longer. And she game me some milk - it seemed stale, it had already turned into the jelly like thing that makes me sleep. However, I ate it because I liked it - it is my own color. I like all things my own color.

I then thought for a fitful sleep- a nice siesta. So, I started cleaning myself - I had hardly given two licks - and up I was airlifted. I hate it when people do that- all of a sudden. They pick me up by one palm and place me on the other as if I was one of those freaking battery run toys. I hate it when their hands are cold and want to yank off their fingers when they are wet.
She had two guests today and I was turned into a decorative piece - some said my eyes were pink, isn't that cute, and the other liked my tail - because they hadn't any? I could see she was all proud of me- all fattened up after last week's cheese treat on my b'day. Ya, I get a cheese treat on the ninth of each month. I can't tell her I was born on the sixth. She got me a month later on the ninth. So it is, the ninth.

I find it so irritating - it's sixth why should it be the ninth? I tried telling her by several techniques. I squeaked six times everytime she came in the room - she patted me - thought she'd got the message. But the 6th passed off with the normal meal and their comes cheese on the ninth. I came up with different schemes. The green peas she got for me - i arranged them in groups of six and waited for her to come and she and make my point - but i nibbled them at last when she hadn't the eyes to see it. Sometimes I wonder if she actually can see those peas she feeds me because her eyes are twenty times the size of it. Maybe she just feels them and tosses them around.

I did a few more things before i gave up - I jogged to and from the room six times had a long pause and did it again. Once, i circled her six times. I even tried giving her a lite bite six times. But she's as dumb as me. Think, i will have to at last learn the alphabets and the numbers.Oh god!such a dumb thing to do.

I gave up finally - and just wait for the ninth to get my treat. But i still think in my free time, the way to tell her of the sixth. Once, I got a crazy thought to shave my whiskers to leave just six on my cheeks - but on second thought, what if i got a rash? i had no after shaves around.... these days, i just ramble on how to get some after shaves... the father's? the brother's? should i pop-in in one of the stores? which brand again? so complicated... old spice?denim?... uff! why so many brands...