Can a good girl really have a good time?

I just finished reading 'Keep the Change' by Nirupama Subramaniam - about a 26 year old Chartered Accountant from Chennai who moves to Mumbai (for conservative Indian parents it reads 'sin city') with a new job. She shares an apartment with a chic, sophisticated colleague from Delhi.

This is not a review of the bookso i'll get to the point about the post. The novel's not great literature, doesn't even claim to be. But an easy, humourous read that keeps you engrossed.

Some sample lines from the novel:

• A wedding scene: "Vision of myself with a large sticker on my forehead saying 'Bride Available', and a cardboard sheet listing my golden virtues around my neck like those people you see proclaiming The End of the World..."
• About her flatmate: "I live in a den of vice, with a girl whose clothes are tight and morals loose. Despite that, or because of that, she seems to be having a great time. I hate her."
• About today's ideal beauty vis-a-vis 'curvaceous Tamil film heroine' in another era: "The message is clear - if you don't look like a beauty pageant contestant, you should be prepared to live the life of a social outcast with a paper bag (XXL) over your head."

Towards the second half of the book, the protagonist's romance which was starting off in fits and starts...seem to remain at that. Got a little tedious. Her interactions with her flat mate could have been included a bit more instead, they were more interesting than the romance for sure.

The story ends well for the protagnist with her securing her dream job etc etc. I like happy endings, so am good.

Rainy days are here again!

Even as I contemplated moving to the new city, one of the things that had always fazed me about it was the legendary monsoon season. Lasting two to two and a half months, the monsoons here meant heavy rains, all day, all night with breaks so short that if you blinked you would miss it. Its not like I had lived in the desert before, but in all the cities of my past, I considered the rains 'manageable'.

My relationship with the rains has always been a love-hate one. Unlike most people, I love the rains... with conditions attached. If I am indoors, dry and warm, I can watch the rain pour down for hours especially if accompanied by its own sound & light show - thunder and lightning. A hot cuppa tea and snacks would make it even better. I love the smell of mud as the first drops fall on the dry, dusty earth... something I always look forward to. The trees all look clean and greener than they did all year.

But I simply draw the line at having to endure it all day, all night. I have to see the Sun! How can one bear to not feel the warmth for so long...?!! However cliched it might sound, after days of grey, gloomy skies, my mood starts matching it too. So when the sun suddenly breaks through the clouds, it lifts my spirits like nothing else can at that moment.

The only time I can bear to be in the rain outside is if I am wearing the right clothes, rain gear in hand and suitable footwear too. When (in foolish optimism that the rain will hold off for a while) I have stepped out in clothes that would cling to me at the very sight of rain or footwear that would soak in water like sand in the desert, I have obviously got caught in the rain and simply hated it. Not to mention the motorists who think you are fair game to be splashed by puddles or maybe they just couldn't care less. Surprisingly, it has happened more times that I would care to admit. Then there are days I have carried an umbrella and wondrously, almost every time I have come back home without it.

The rains have also brought with it allergies, coughs and colds for me. Small stuff that doesn't affect me for long, but it is there nevertheless waiting to catch hold of me as the first drops hit the ground. And my very curly hair turns frizzy and springs up and about as if with a life of its own.

To go back to the beginning of this post, I moved to this new city and in a couple of months faced its hot, humid summers and almost immediately the rainy season. The start of the monsoon was every bit as real I had heard and I wondered how I would get through the season. Within a fortnight though, the heavy downpours had petered off and it was just a shower now and then, sometimes only a drizzle. Of course, it meant that the rest of the year the city would face a water-crunch and most people I knew were apprehensive. But secretly, I was pleased, as wicked as it might sound.

Into my second year here, the monsoons have arrived. It is the second week and after fits and starts, it seems to have acquired its legendary status. And I am once again left wondering "how...how will I ever get through it?"

"Friends"...

Normally, I am not the overly sentimental type nor do I gush about the good things in life, even if I like them a lot (except bookstores, maybe). And for those who know me, it might seem a little out of character for me to post this piece. But, I shall risk it...

I wonder what it is about the TV series "Friends" which makes it so evergreen? I have been watching it for many, many years (more years than I care to admit) now... rerun after rerun after rerun, but I just don't seem to tire of it.


And I cannot think of any other TV series that I can watch endlessly without getting at least a little bored of it, not even "Malgudi Days" (based on RK Narayan's novel by the same name).

The six friends whose lives revolved around a coffee shop and their New York apartments - Phoebe (eccentric, masseuse, ex-street thug), Rachel (fashionista), Monica (chef with an OCD for cleanliness), Chandler (witty, no one is really sure what his job is), Ross (paleontologist) and Joey (womaniser, out-of-work actor) - have kept me entertained many an evening. Bored or need a break from ploughing through studies/ work or just to pass time, watch "Friends"!

Sometimes even when more than one channel on TV aired the show with episodes which were many years apart (as per storyline), I have happily watched them. If one channel had Monica and Chandler married and living in the same apartment, two hours later on another there would be Monica in a relationship with a man old enough to be her father. But was I disoriented, fazed?...no way...not me! I lapped it all up even if I was watching it for the 'n'th time, even if it was to watch Phoebe sing "smelly cat" again or Joey ham through another audition or Rachel & Ross in their on-off relationship...

Well... yes... I am a die hard fan. Enough said. :)

(pic courtesy: www.amazon.com)