Amid

I am standing on top of a divider. I feel a little... Ummm... uplifted... a strange thing to feel when what you are really feeling is down. To reach to the divider, I had to cross a road, which took me fifteen minutes. Or so. This time the culprit was not the non stop traffic. Quite the opposite. It was a standstill show, where cars are placed bumper to bumper, inter-meshed with cycles, two wheelers and an occasional bus. They will move unexpectedly, like random hiccups. Now, I have to cross another road to get home. I would much rather prefer walking on roads than crossing them, but do I have a choice? Some people are too brave to care about the trivial pursuit that life is. They will squeeze between cars or run past the speeding truck. Not me. I am content standing. Not because I have a soft corner for life or anything. It is just because I don't want death to be the center of that very thing that life avoided - Attention.

Escapade*

Apparently, it is a crime to be twenty-five, an Indian woman and not willing to get married. People (read parents, friends, relatives, colleagues, neighbors and all the other completely unrelated sets of homo sapiens) can't understand 'why?' Because you know, getting married is the second most sacred thing to do in this world, the first being putting your head in the oven and setting the temperature to hundred degrees. Or maybe it is not. I am not averse to the institution as such, because I simply CAN'T BE. There is a whole matrimonial melodramatic battle out there, which is pretty inescapable, and sometimes I feel I am the ONLY one in the opposition. Parents go from threatening to cajoling, aunts from philosophizing to petitioning and neighbors from wondering to bewildering... And I ... I had to make such great efforts in keeping my sanity intact during a recent trip home that I almost died from mental exhaustion. You don't believe me? Then consider this.

Situation 1: In which your parents provide you with a list of online matrimonial sites you need to visit during your stay home.

The escape: Tell them you are undergoing internet detoxification. You can't even touch the computer... after having stared into it for hours and hours at work.

The side effect: Refrain from internet for full seven days… I mean no mails or chats or facebook or blogs ... do you get the idea? DO YOU? I almost achieved nirvana during those seven days... and I am NOT kidding!

Situation 2: In which your relatives call you for lunch, feed you well, make you sit on a comfortable couch, corner you, and start an avalanche of naming random prospective matches.

The escape: You tell them you will make a list of the traits you want in a guy, and distribute it to them, so that they can look accordingly.

The side effect: How do you start making such a list? And once the list is done, how will you explain the word 'straight' to your grandma?

Situation 3: In which your sister conspires against you, teams up with your parents and adds spice in the already simmering wedding discussions. Just for the sake of getting new dresses made.

The escape: You ask your sister is she interested in weddings? Is she? Because you can easily tell parents about her boy friend and then voila! She can get married herself! With lots of dresses!

The side effect: A tea-spoonful of guilt because you never wanted to be a mean big sister.

Situation 4: In which neighborhood aunties, who have some age deadlines in their minds, want to know the reasons behind matrimonial delay.

The escape: You are focusing on your career right now. You don't want the hard earned money that your parents spent on your education go waste. You want to first serve your parents for some time.

The side effect: You are basking in the good daughter glow till your mother asks when you will start serving your parents. And exactly how. In front of four aunties. So that your parents can have enough eye witnesses in case you did not serve them and they sue you.

Situation 5: In which every topic of discussion, and by every I mean every single one (including global warming, and don't ask me 'how on earth'), will lead to only this one- "Ten reasons to get married in the next four months"

The escape: You can't escape water in an ocean.

The side effect: You get wet.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The bottomline: Do you know what exactly are you escaping from?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

* For Prachi, my runaway partner

Skeptical

Fifty five words. Only. What can fit in this? Fiction? You must be kidding me! Even reality demands more space, even if it has a shorter shelf life. But then, if you really, really want, I can break up the made up truth, garnish it with homemade lies and serve you piping hot...Will that do?

Spring Cleaning

Some contacts, like hope
Are spent, and can’t cope
With the idea of revival
Because those days stacked up
When egos have spoken for all
Become a formidable wall
With shards of cut glass on top
Familiar strangeness descends
As if we were never friends
Or maybe we have so much to say
That we keep words away
Still, after hordes of mum days
I am still there, and so are they
Online, but not wanting to be
The first one to say hi
We keep hanging on trees
Dead flowers amid new leaves
None of us wants to let go
So naïve, don’t we know
That autumn will soon arrive
And blow us away
It is just a matter of time…