The blow

It went well for half a year

Then the careless mistake

All the efforts wasted

Brought back to the knees

Humbled to the core

Now, baby steps again

down to earth

Once upon a time in space

A meteor with a burning passion

That could light up a thousand galaxies

Fell for the green planet

      The End

Am I in your good books?

I thought so;

Thanks!

hide n seek

I know, 

It's somewhere in the corner,

Better times.

how?

 Tell me, how did you become the person you are today?

Not your circus, darling

What if I changed my career? I'm not stuck!

What if  I took big and small career breaks? I'm still working

What if I'm slow? I'm steady!

What if I don't fit your bill? I'm not trying to!

What if I'm not a young thing? I'm not yet dead!

........... not your monkey either, honey.

famous mother-bullies

Content is God. Exaggeration is the key. But why drag your mother to your business? Your jokes about your mommy is funny to some extent. Look at you! You are an Insta Influencer. Because of your mommy content. Your alter ego is your mom. You are sort of famous because of your mother. The irony.

I'm so tired of these influencers. Whom and what are they influencing with constant mom teasing? The Delhi-Malayali comedian, the Delhi-Malayali Insta Influencer, the Canadian-Indian You tuber, the DXB-Malayali CoolAunty, the U.S.-Malayali English teacher.... the list is endless.

Shame on you, li'l brat!

the ship that never sinks. sailed but still in the radar

So, we video talk after eons and, yeah, exchange tons of data, and hmmm, nothing has changed; it's just like the way we talked when we were 17. 

Why would we change?

She lives on another continent, owns a house and a cute dog, and is rich. Also diabetic recently. She can't pretend to be someone else. Neither can I. Won't that be stupid? We go way back and know each other way too well. Such a relief!

I've got a handful of friends with whom I can be myself, and they don't pretend as well.😍

How to change my friends to travel buddies? None of those idiots are into traveling. Ugh!

Frequently Not Answered Questions

1.  If the human body is a super machine, how come we are taught practically nothing much about our bodily functions, like periods, sex, childbirth, and death, in detail?
2. Why is sex education not a priority subject in middle school in India?
3. What could be the root causes of rape?
4. With a population of 1.4 billion, most of them sex-starved, why is prostitution not legalized in India?
5. What could be the real purpose of living and dying on this planet?

lessons learned

1.  Never buy fish from unfamiliar fish vendors. Especially the fish, Mackerel. They may look deceivingly fresh. Check their eyes. Pry open and inspect their gills. Touch their tummy to see whether rotten. Better, don't buy at all from strangers.
2. Always buy meat from the same butcher. Loyalty matters. Who wants to lose a regular customer?
3. People tend to trick, deceive, swindle or cheat money out of women living alone. A sad and bitter truth in this part of the world.
4. Avoid Jack of all trades. Specialty is the key.
5. You should know how to manage your handyman/maid, or employ smart, no nonsensical hustlers.
6. Humans generally walk all over and take kind and generous people for granted.
7. You will suffer greatly if you are hesitant to use 'NO' often. 
8. There's no such thing as 'well-wishers.' Parents exist.
9. People won't change for you; why would they? Choose your people wisely.
10. If you are a private person and hate conversation fillers, ask questions instead. People love answering.
11. No addiction is forever; you'll get tired of it and find a new one, even googling your symptoms- Cyberchondria won't last; I just googled the term!

Don't give me vain hopes, recruiters!

So, I got this job offer email from a big gun company, requesting a zoom meeting for the position I never applied for. It took hours of research to come to the conclusion that it was the work of one of those job recruiters who matched my profile with this job and intimated the company and, thus, the interview. Health and wellness manager! And they would pay $32.75 hourly. What!

The zoom meeting. It was a zoom chat. But why? Who in their right mind would use zoom chat when you can just video call? Anyways, the chat ended pretty fast when the chatter found out my current location. The job is for US citizens only. Great!

Thus, I got a job offer for a job I didn't apply for and got rejected. Thankfully, all on the same day. But who will give me back the time I wasted prying on the darned company and all the job portals I've an active profile? I went through all my applications to figure out the job description: glassdoor, indeed, Naukri, AngelList, monster job, talent.com, JobsForHer, LinkedIn, and even Internshala! I never applied for this job.

What about the dreams and plans I've woven around this job? Money dreams.

There's a saying when translated into English, may sound weird. But let me try. "Give/gift an elephant, but never hope. Does it make sense? To me, today, very much.

sappily forever!

"Two people marry so that they can experience life together."

Really?

mother knows best

Why do grown-up children find it extremely challenging to talk to their mothers politely?

I can't stand my mother. I hate her advice. I dislike teaching her to operate her mobile. Her food choices are exasperating. She's snail-paced and takes loo breaks every 10 minutes. She wants me to color my hair which I won't.

I'm being incredibly patient with my mother. I suppress the urge to scream at her. I play her favorite old film songs for her whenever possible. I try to cook the way she wants whenever she visits. I help her cross the road. On top of that, I would never ever even think of straightening my curly hair again because it gives her indescribable pain. 

Sometimes, I forget she knows me better than I know myself. I can never really surprise her, can I? I see that she's very proud of me, not always, but most of the time. I know she counts on me as her firstborn. And I am the nicest. Then, why do I need to make a huge effort to be sweet to her?

My children bark and howl at me. They laugh at my choices. Pepper thinks I have had a boring life and still have one. Mirchi hates to help me figure out how this darned laptop works.

Vicious circle? I know!

green (ugly) fingers

If anything, gardening teaches one to be patient. It demands eternal perseverance and humility. No amount of staring, caring, and loving won't make anything grow and flower within a week. And here, the foolish me planted tiny plantlings, wanting them to grow and be potful before my eyes within a month! They need daily watering, manure, and trimming. More importantly, TIME.

Some classy plants refuse to grow from stem cutting. They are supposedly deep-rooted and propagate via roots only. That calls for nursery visits. Bloody plants can be expensive! 

Plantlings

Pots

Fertilizer

Pesticides

Growth enhancers

Flower enhancers

Tools

No free seeds, darling!

The broken house

How to keep an almost 40-year-old house in one piece and running? Something or the other breaks every other day. What's the point of having your own house if you need to spend endless hours repairing and fixing things. How to keep a tab on the insects, bugs, and snakes who seem to be the real owners of this place!

Beware of snakes; it's their mating season.

Beware of bug infestation; it's raining.

Beware of dogs; they're in heat and also rabid.

Beware of itchy caterpillar invasion; they love wet moss.

Beware of centipede-millipede-endemic; they breed in dampness.

Beware of all kinds of creatures homeless because of heavy rain.

Bats. Cats. Ants. Beetles. Worms. Earth-worms. Crickets. Roaches. Lizards.

Houseful. 

Home less.

Serial-killing-time

Watch what you watch!

What am I watching these days?

Netflix: Gypsy. It's about the pretty shrink who crosses lines and gets involved in patients' lives dangerously close. Messy. Cringy. Loved the concept. Simply hate it. But still watching...

Amazon Prime: The Mentalist. CBI. FBI. The psychic and his team solve a murder in about 30 minutes. Actually, it's a one-man show. Loved it before the inevitable coupling of the psychic and the chief. Yet still enjoying..

Hotstar: Industry. It's about money and power. I greatly appreciate the no discrimination/equal opportunity cast. I don't understand most of the things happening. And still relishing..

What are you watching?

Welcome to the inside

Ignore the titles. It can be something anything  I pick up on the way. So, I'm back and challenging myself to write every day. November Challenge. 

It's been 5 years since I wrote here. How to begin again? They say journaling fires up creativity and is therapeutic. How so? Anyways, tiny steps, I'll start with recording daily events.

• The smart woman. I love my cute little domestic help. A no-nonsense hard worker who sighs every ten minutes. What makes her sigh so much? I wanted to ask. Better sigh than fart. Will she ever be happy?
• Tomorrow being All Soul's Day, I dutifully buy a bouquet and go to the cemetery infested with like-minded middle-aged couples decorating the sleeping place of their dead loved ones. Phew! Obligation or being dutiful? The place is heavenly clean. No weeds, dead garlands, or melted candles. Nope, I'm not going to attend the service tomorrow.
• Apart from sending numerous applications, I completed an editing test, attended a Google interview, and even signed an NDA! I understood every word the talent acquisition manager said- UK English!
• Why did I purchase- one-time payment- Hemingway Editor for Windows? It's not suggesting or editing the way I want. And it is not part of the Word. It works as a separate entity. I hate cutting and pasting content. I detest Doc's suggestion mode as well.
• No gardening today. Hope it rains today, too; no signs so far. Who wears gloves while planting? My hands are ugly now. And I'm doubtful about my plant choices. Why won't they grow fast? Growth potion, anybody? I was horribly tempted to buy more plants but didn't.
• I killed a baby centipede. Inside. In the dining room. And the beetles are back. More killings. What's next?

Umm.. I shall start reading again. Tomorrow. Let's see.