"You won't be the 'runaway bride', no?"

A random conversation, with an ex-classmate-cum-ex-colleague-cum'to-date-good-friend, is never as random and inane as one usually makes it look like.

Most of the things these people say, if you are in the habit of reading between the letters, say a lot about you. Each comment, each opinion, each gesture, each expression carries with it an entire baggage of all the time spent together, of all the lessons learnt the hard way, of all the caveats rendered subtlely .

So when one such friend, rather carefully asked, "D, you won't be a runaway bride, no?", I was slightly taken aback. I smiled, ia half-hearted manner, spoke about the weather, the new pain-in-the-wrong-place colleague and tehn when I thought enough time had passed by to make it look like just another casual question, I asked, "Oye, how come you said that?"

T: said what?

D (also, me): …that thing about not beinga runaway bride…

T: Oh that….well, it's nothing…

I didn't insist. But I'm sure she must have just thought that how come a wayward brat, (pampered goose is one of the many endearements showered on me by T) like D, somebody so to the point, somebody so reckless, so crass, settle down? Let's say this is one of D's hasty decisions, still what when she finally realises the baggage that she's agreed to be a aprt of is just more messy than her messed up self? MAybe she'll be the runaway bride.

Maybe not!!

What ifs and what if nots...

So what will happen to the backpacking to China and Ladakh and Leh and Italy and Andaman and Lakshadweep and some island or the other…?

What about learning Spanish and Italian?

What about learning Salsa?

What about learning to drive a four-wheel (OK, now that might be possible…)?

What about traveling far and wide… writing for Outlook-Traveller / India Today –Travel Plus?

What about making some exotic dishes from the exotic locales visited?

What about watching all those foreign films… trying to make sense of it…appreciating good sense / taste…swearing at the bad ones?

What about just staring into the oblivion without a possible purpose and not being labeled a 'pseudo' like some of those modern artistes?

What about waking up in the middle of the night just to make a cup of ginger tea, pick up a book, watch a movie and just not worry about who will think what?

What about just falling sick on a Friday / Monday and just going for a small trek to some obscure village in Maharshtra?

What about going to work in my pyjamas?

What about being at home in my pyjamas?

What about just chopping off the chopped of tresses?

What about not getting hurt when someone else gets hurt?

What about staying unaffected?

What about not affecting any one else?

What about not being responsible for anything?

What about late night conversations?

What about falling asleep during the late night conversations?

What about deep, profound discussions on threading being good for the skin as compared to waxing ( I still am not sure what's better…waxing for sure is less painful, relatively speaking) ?

What about all the 'What about's'?

P says it's not the end of life; it is just another life.

And I nodded, like I always do… almost always…!

About not having a Moturam

…and probably never having a Moturam.

And probably always wanting to have one

And probably never having the nerves to do a Gucci-bucci

Considering how I refused to step down from the case swing chair, since the chotu Moturam, yet, couldn’t jump as high up, considering how I shrieked in fear when the li’l bndle of mischief and cheekiness came bouncing towards me, considering how my best friend’s boy friend got The glare and much more, there might be a reason I don’t have a Moturam.

That’s why I keep saying give me a Moturam just as it is born, just before it opens it’s eyes, so the first thing he lays his eyes on is me. And then he’ll thin k I’m his mum. Any which ways I’m called ‘bitch’ more often than Divya. So…

The truth about sparrows and dogs!

Finally the sparrow got engaged to be married to the dog. And before they could live happily ever after, they fought like cats and dogs sparrows and dogs. After every fight the dog would say, “I promise not to repeat THIS mistake again.” As if that was supposed to make the fidgety, restless, nervous, flighty, perpetually flustered sparrow feel l better…but again, like a nice, peace loving sparrow, she would give in every time….let him do something stupid again, just so she can chirp non-stop and drive him mad! Fortunately fro the sparrow, this dog wasn’t the barking types…he would just sit there like a nice, well-behaved, dog, wagging his tail at regular intervals, just to divert the sparrows fleeting attention. And dumb, that the sparrow is, she would invariably fall for the wagging and the yelping. Tch tch tch….the sparrows of the world need to grow up!

The other day, sparrow and dog were to meet up and do some shopping together. It was the sparrow’s best friend’s birthday. The dog didn’t mind tagging along, dog that he is. After a quick shopping session (sparrow is infamous for her aversion towards shopping), the dog insisted that she travel back home with him. Sparrow chirped and pleaded and chirped some more, but alas. She fell for the way the little dog yelped …! BIG MISTAKE! She got into a gents compartment with the dog she got engaged to…and suddenly the dog decides to get as insensitive and as mean as stupid as possible. He actually says, “J You have a lot of guts, eh? You actually got into a gents compartment. All I had to do was ask once!” now this hypersensitive sparrow started fuming. Nobody had ever accused of being a fickle minded ‘pinky’. And him, of all the people, tells her that she has ‘guts’??? A zillion thoughts went through her mind. She was too hurt and humiliated to move. Just then he says, “I think you should get into a ladies compartment…” She promptly got up….and like a man who doesn’t know what chivalry is all about, he just rests his butt more comfortably on the seat as she walks away into the crowd of a zillion staring eyes.

It is a different issue that the sparrow refuses to entertain his calls and messages till the dog felt sufficiently guilty. It’s also a totally different issue that the sparrow will keep reminding him of this incidence till her last breath. And it’s an entirely different story that no vivid truth about the sparrow and dog species was mentioned anywhere in the post.