I watched "3 Idiots" today - for the second time - with Amma...
It was a particulary emotional cinematic moment and there was not a dry eye in the packed hall - when this little girl sitting next to me, munching on popcorn, whilst seated on her dad's lap, suddenly turned her head and watched me wiping my streaming eyes...
In an instant, before a frank, appraising 'infant' gaze, my 'adult' guard went up and I pulled myself together. I looked around to see who else was watching.
Afraid to wear my emotions and vulnerability on my sleeve - something I discovered about 'me' today.

New Year Resolution

Now that I have been well and truly been bitten by Reality, I have made peace with my ho-hum, high-paying but zero satisfaction job which spells Daily Drudgery with a Capital D
Anyway, I will keep the crib-chorus down to the minimum, since DD pays my bills and EMI - this is the only cheer I can honestly ascribe to DD, which is quite pathetic, since I spend an astounding 2880 hours per annum on it!
I therefore, intend to spend whatever precious time remains this year on the things that will give me unadulterated pleasure - such as learning to play the violin, watching a Kathakali performance live, travelling to Madhya Pradesh and Tamilnadu, knitting a woolly dove-grey scarf, learning to cook a full-course appetising Mallu meal, begin research on Indian History....Whew! that's quite a list.
I am waiting to take stock of how far I get with it!

Of Train Journeys

Faster than fairies, faster than witches,Bridges and houses, hedges and ditches;And charging along like troops in a battle/ All through the meadows the horses and cattle:All of the sights of the hill and the plain/ Fly as thick as driving rain;And ever again, in the wink of an eye,Painted stations whistle by. Here is a child who clambers and scrambles, All by himself and gathering brambles; Here is a tramp who stands and gazes; And here is the green for stringing the daisies!Here is a cart runaway in the road / Lumping along with man and load; And here is a mill, and there is a river:Each a glimpse and gone forever! - Robert Louis Stevenson
There was a time when every yearly vacation involved a long and winding train ride, with the wind whipping my hair into a messy muddle. B and me were always fighting for the 'window-seat' and never tired of training our eyes into the distance, watching the landscape flit by. Squinting into the changing vistas, eyes smarting and streaming, I enjoyed every waking moment. The night was fun too...clambering into my bunk bed (sometimes the middle, oftentimes the upper), the train morphed into a cradle, rocking me to sleep with a rumbling lullaby. In between waking and sleeping, there was eating - vadas, bread-omelette, cutlet, idly, dosa, masala chai - it was a veritable cornucopia of gastronomic delights - dispensed by vendors with colourful personalities to match the wares they hawked...Those are some of my most pleasant memories, especially since the number of train journeys have drastically reduced, of late.
Avion travel is so clinical - there is no interaction with your co-passengers; no eye-contact, shared food, story-swapping, steely machine smell of a second-class cabin...
I wish I could take a break - a nice, long train-break...chug away on my steel steed Faster than fairies, faster than witches,Bridges and houses, hedges and ditches