Messenger of Peace

I hate the Newark weather! Its like this indecisive kid who does not know what he wants and so, gets a bit of each? It was perspiring hot when I started, and all of a sudden, it was drizzling when I finished! Really? Everyday when I don't have an umbrella? On top of that, the perfectly fine Campus Center is being renovated, and all the food shops are closed. Do you know how much will power it takes to convince yourself to have a healthy, tasteless, salad, that makes your teeth ache with all the crunching? Then you walk all the way in the rain to find the shops unavailable and you realize the universe wants you to eat junk! So be it!

But then, Durga Pujo is just around the corner. And everybody has their own agenda :) Sugata da wants an excuse to take more photos, Atreyee wants everything, IB wants bhog, I, want to look thin in the pictures :) or, well, as thin as I can look, okay? Junk the, is out of the plate. Bacha kya? Subway.

Now, if you have ever been to subway, you will know what a pain in the wrong place it is! I have found a solution to the extreme choices laid out there. Just fixate on one sandwich, order it whenever you are there. A time will come when you will be a known face, and all you have to really do, is smile and say "Oh hello Jim, how are you today? I want the usual, thank you!" Heeehaaa!!! Anyway, I notice this hijab clad, beautiful, a little subdued girl standing right behind me. As she fumbled with Italian and Honey Grain and Oats and Wheat and Garlic Bread, I was sure this was her first trip to Subway!

A queue can be a great conversation spot. A little over three minutes, and I knew she is a freshman, here with her brother, who has a class later in the day, and hence she is all by herself, hunting for food before class. She likes a lot of mayo and a little oil in her sub, and has a strong weakness for tuna! I forget her name, but it was beautiful, starting with a Z, with a R and a B thrown in! I asked her what it meant, and she said "living together in peace". Kudos to the parents! I even cracked a little joke saying how she should be the brand ambassador for world peace.

And then she asked me where I was from.

Me: "India"

Z : "You like it there better? Or here?"

Me: "There, of course there"

Z : " I know the feeling! Ghar aakhir ghar hota hai!"

Me: "Oh damn, you speak Hindi! Are you from India too? "

Z :"Oh I am from Pakistan."

All I remember is how her eyes lit up when she mentioned home, how scared and lost she looked in that unknown Subway line, how she is also majoring in Biology, how i had a wonderful conversation with a total stranger, and how i felt she should promote world peace.

Trust me, that's all I am going to remember!

Love, Actually!

News today, has become a misnomer really. And what with facebook giving us the daily quota on what the world is up to, i guess "not now honey, i am watching the news", has long lost its credibility. However, you do get snippets of interesting news, now and then, that make going back to apna desi news channels quite worth it.

This was what I came across in IBN. Needless to say, FB had it too.

What really struck me was it was a guy playing the care giver! As a society of teenage/single girls will tell you, a guy is this and that and that and this! Not this guy, apparently! Holding it through, when he has every chance to back out. Fifteen months? What are fifteen months really? Are they really worth a lifetime of love the other person will not even reciprocate? Or express, for that matter! How long can you go without seeing the light in your eyes not reflected in the other?

Well, may be if you love, you can...but, I repeat, maybe...

What is this Love? Actually? Is it just one heightened feeling, or a culmination of too many varied, contradicting feelings? Is it the crazy, insatiable, drunk passion or the soothing melody of calm? Does it strike you once and leave you begging for more the rest of your life, or does it weave its magic, differently, numerous times? Is it the blinding of reason or the strength of acceptance? Is it the only reality, or the only folly?

I don't really want to know. Some mysteries are better left unsolved!

Couple Korcha

"we are the perfect couple...we are just not in the perfect situation"

Sokal sokal Fb te amar ek bohuu aager bandhobi-r status message e poRlam. prothome mone holo, "Aha re", tarpor mone holo,"What rubbish!"

Jodio initially amar raag hoyechilo tar nijeder perfect bolay. I mean, ek dike ami eboNg i am sure, amar moton hajaar gobechara, bhola bhala manush ache, insecurity aar inferiority complex jader chhayasongi, aar eder dyakho, nijeder perfect bolte ekbaar badheo na bapu! kii demak! jai hok, ashol byapar ta onnojaygay.

What the hell is a perfect situation?

Amar Maa-r biye hoyechilo 21 bochor e. Joint family. Tay baRir boRo bou. Tay bor er mejaj Hitler ke o haar manay majhe majhei. Hyan, ekhon amar mone hoy tara shottyi perfect, kintu situation to kono din i create hoyni tader...tobe?

PaRa e pasher baRite Bubun da thakto. Majhe majhei o bhishon jor e gaan chalato. "Yeh teri aankhe jhuki jhuki, ye tera chehra khila khila..". Amra bhabtam etto jore bajano r ki dorkar baba? pore bujhechilam, gaan ta Pinki di-r baRi obdhi pNouchote hobe to? :) Bubun da ra baRi bodle onyo kothao chole gechilo. School koreche Dehradun e, College Bangalore e. Pinki di sei Rothtola te i theke gechilo. Around 15 bochor pore tader biye hoy. Perfect couple. No situation.

Amader school e poRaten Ajanta di. tar career ke tar in laws ra konodin i support koreni. sudhu onar husband chaRa. tar kotha te i Ajanta di baper baRi te thakto. school er kachei. or bor protidin oke bike e kore namiye diye jeto, aar chuti-r somoy niyom kore niye jeto. BaRi, na Nicco Park, ta janina :)

Aro erokom hoyto lakh lakh mohila-purush ache. keu baire chakri kore, keu judhdhe jay, keu hoyto fire i ashe na. keu hoyto kono din i fire asbe na. so what??

eder sudhu bhalobasha ta i ache. hoyto setar perfection er jor ei tara bochor er por bochor, nirbhigne, nirdwidhay, bina kono update e sudhui bhalobeshe gyache. kono tuchcho situation er poroya na kore.

Imperfection er joy houk !!!