tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-325695132024-03-13T17:48:25.693-04:00Meandering thoughts...A chronicle of the universe's conspiracies against me.
Frequent rants. Some nostalgia. The occasional gushing.a travellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02559346755503817562noreply@blogger.comBlogger386125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32569513.post-29798390124429883122022-01-31T23:03:00.001-05:002022-02-02T10:20:04.697-05:00The year that was, 2021 edition<p>I've hem'd and haw'd over writing this post for a month now. The first half of the month was convincing myself I should write this even though I was rolling my eyes at most of the "Best of 2021" sprawling my feeds, and the second half was just pure procrastination. But here I am, sitting on the floor (because the laptop battery is dead and I have reasons for not wanting to move the charger for this specific spot), trying to hammer this out before it turns midnight in my time zone so that all two of you remaining readers (because I think feedburner did something which means the 3 people who read this blog only because they got email updates no longer get email updates?) can read this. So ANYWAY, here we go, drumroll...</p><br /><br /><b>1. What did you do in 2021 that you’d never done before?</b><br /><br />Got three vaccination shots for the same damn thing, y'all. And took a selfie while getting a vaccination shot.<br /><br /><br /><br /><b>2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?</b><br /><br />One of my favourite writers says this on her blog every year, and I've adopted it as a mantra since I first read it back in 2015 - I do not make resolutions. I make plans, and I have intentions. Because the beauty of plans and intentions is that they can evolve.<div><br /></div><div>So my plans are what they are every year - try and start some sort of workout regimen, make Bengali food (actually did that this year!), write more, yadda yadda yadda. We'll see what happens.<br /><br /><br /><b>3. Did anyone close to you give birth?</b><br /><br />YOU GUYS. I became a PISHI to the CUTEST niece in the world (not that I'm biased at all of course). Several other friends also had babies this year, and I'm excited about them too obvs, but they were all a little overshadowed in my brain by THE CUTEST NIECE IN THE WORLD.</div><div><br /><br /><b>4. Did anyone close to you die?</b><br /><br />Miraculously, despite the <a href="http://dustyrain.blogspot.com/2021/08/of-meltdowns-that-come-without-warning.html" target="_blank">trauma of the summer</a>, I somehow made it through without losing any close loved ones to Covid. In the middle of the worst peak in India though, and a year after we lost my grandmother, her last surviving sibling left us (for unrelated reasons).<br /><br /><br /><b>5. What places did you visit?</b><br /><br />Other than going back to India for a month over Diwali, I managed to fit in a trip to NJ (to visit a friend) and Rhode Island in August<br /><br /><br /><br /><b>6. What would you like to have in 2022 that you lacked in 2021?</b><br /><br />I'd like to bring back my annual wish for teleportation. Also the end of this damn pandemic would be nice, but I have even less hope for that one than the teleportation at this point.<br /><br /><br /><b>7. What date from 2021 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?</b><br /><br />August 7 (it was already the 8th in India, but not where I was), because SEE #3 ABOVE.<br /><br /><br /><br /><b>8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?</b><br /><br />You guys. Not to brag (but I maybe I will sprinkle a bit through this post), but I kind of kicked ass at work last year. And I say this as someone who usually has the worst imposter syndrome at any given time. <br /><br /><br /><br /><b>9. What was your biggest failure?</b><br /><br />I really am the worst couch potato in the world. Should that be best? That seems weird. You guys know what I mean.<br /><br /><br /><b>10. Did you suffer illness or injury?</b><br /><br />The weight and sugar levels reached all time highs (lows? again, you know what I mean) this year, which was a direct result of #9.<br /><br /><br /><b>11. What was the best thing you bought?</b><br /><br />I gave in and bought a mini air fryer, and I have zero regrets. Also that flight ticket to go see my niece and take as much as I possibly could with me.<br /><br /><br /><br /><b>12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?</b><br /><br />My SIL and baby brother make pretty awesome parents, y'all. <br /><br /><br /><br /><b>13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and/or depressed?</b><br /><br />I would refer you back to my response from <a href="http://dustyrain.blogspot.com/2021/01/if-ever-there-was-year-to-review.html" target="_blank">last year</a>, please and thank you.<br /><br /><br /><br /><b>14. Where did most of your money go?</b><br /><br />You know, I really wish I knew the answer to that question.<br /><br /><br /><br /><b>15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?</b><br /><br />MY NIECE HOW IS THIS NOT OBVIOUS BY NOW<br /><br /><br /><br /><b>16. What song will always remind you of 2021?</b><br /><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wsk1ezSbmxw" target="_blank">Madhubala</a>, because I sang it to my niece every chance I got.<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Wsk1ezSbmxw" width="320" youtube-src-id="Wsk1ezSbmxw"></iframe><br /><br /><b>17. Compared to this time last year, are you happier or sadder?</b><br /><br />Happier.<br /><br /><br /><br /><b>18. Thinner or fatter?</b><br /><br />Fatter.<br /><br /><br /><br /><b>19. What do you wish you’d done more of?</b><br /><br />Healthy... stuff? <br /><br /><br /><br /><b>20. What do you wish you’d done less of?</b><br /><br />Spent money<br /><br /><br /><br /><b>21. How will you be spending Christmas?</b><br /><br />Went over to spend it with family friends, and had a lovely home-y family Christmas<br /><br /><br /><br /><b>22. Did you fall in love in 2021?</b><br /><br />My niece counts, right?<br /><br /><br /><br /><b>23. How many one-night stands?</b><br /><br />Meh<br /><br /><br /><br /><b>24. What was your favourite TV programme?</b><br /><br />Ted Lasso. Hacks. Mare of Eastown. Also Miracle Workers season 2 - I'm always a year behind on this show because I refuse to get whatever premium channel it's actually on, but man that's a weird and beautiful show. Oh and Staged, which just reaffirmed my love for David Tennant (and his wife).<br /><br /><br /><br /><b>25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?</b><br /><br />One particular coworker, yes.<br /><br /><br /><br /><b>26. What was the best book you read?</b><br /><br />The thing that I did in 2021 was I read a lot more romance authors than just Nora Roberts and Lucy Parker. Still read a lot of those two, but I ended up discovering Beth O'Leary and a few others who I love. And Olivia Dade's Spoiler Alert (plus its sequel All the Feels, although it's not <i>as </i>great) is the <i>funniest </i>steamy romance in ages, especially if you're a GoT fan (that makes sense when you read the book, I promise).</div><div><br /></div><div>And then, I watched Shadow and Bone in April (which we'll get into a LOT more in #35 below), and it got me interested in the Grishaverse. And since the fandom was generally agreed that the originally book trilogy is not that great compared to the subsequent two duologies, I went with those. Read Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom during my August vacation, and King of Scars/Rule of Wolves while in India. So much fun.<br /><br /><br /><br /><b>27. What was your greatest musical discovery?</b><br /><br />Two pieces of music got me through this year, and one wasn't really a discovery. At the height of India's peak last summer, I had turned to the <a href="https://youtu.be/WD6lK4ioJN0" target="_blank">sarod theme from Piku</a> to calm me down (which is weird because instrumentals usually aren't my thing). A friend who had seen my tweet about this very helpfully found and shared the <a href="https://youtu.be/LknyChMkj3g">28-minute looped version</a> of this, and I'm not kidding when I say that piece got me through the summer. </div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LknyChMkj3g" width="320" youtube-src-id="LknyChMkj3g"></iframe></div><br /><div><br /></div><div>And then some time in July friend of the blog <a href="https://twitter.com/IreneIdler" target="_blank">@IreneIdler</a> sent the <a href="https://youtu.be/SoxBneiuwZk">Taish soundtrack</a> my way which I promptly got obsessed with too, and spent the rest of the year alternating with the Piku instrumental. </div><div><br /><br /><br /><b>28. What did you want and get?</b><br /><br />A niece. Vaccinations. A promotion. Time with family and friends. Two fantastic credit card sign up bonuses. The thing about 2021 is that if you take away the pandemic of it all, it really was a fabulous year for me personally.<br /><br /><br /><br /><b>29. What did you want and not get?</b><br /><br />Other than the teleportation deal? Will power maybe.<br /><br /><br /><br /><b>30. What was your favourite film of this year?</b><br /><br />I finally saw (was forced into watching) Gully Boy on Diwali, and yes it is excellent. I quite loved both Shang Chi and Eternals, but haters gonna hate. Oh and The Farewell was gorgeously and funnily heartbreaking. Don't Look Up was fun too.<br /><br /><br /><br /><b>31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?</b><br /><br />Other than a breakfast video call with the parents and a lunchtime video call with the gal pals, I interviewed for the promotion I knew I was going to get. *insert sunglass wearing emoji here*<br /><br /><br /><br /><b>32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?</b><br /><br />This pandemic going away and letting me actually make some plans.<br /><br /><br /><br /><b>33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2021?</b><br /><br />I have decided joggers might be my thing more than leggings - at least for home and travel. Leggings will definitely be replacing trousers if I ever go back into the office.<br /><br /><br /><br /><b>34. What kept you sane?</b><br /><br />Whatsapp calls<br /><br /><br /><br /><b>35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?</b><br /><br />Hee. Aforementioned friend of the blog can commence the eye rolling now. HUGE crush was developed on Ben Barnes while watching Shadow and Bone, and since I went into that show not knowing anything about it, I was <i>devastated</i> by his character's arc. </div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://c.tenor.com/RCnBDBr73OoAAAAd/ben-barnes-leigh-bardugo.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="640" height="267" src="https://c.tenor.com/RCnBDBr73OoAAAAd/ben-barnes-leigh-bardugo.gif" width="475" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div>But oof, that man. This scene.</div><div><br /><br /><br /><br /><b>36. What political issue stirred you the most?</b><br /><br />The lack of oxygen in India, maybe? Frankly, I switched off a bit this year. Awful of me, but once Biden won in Amreeka and Didi won in Bengal, I needed the break. So I skimmed headlines, and got a bit mad from time to time, but didn't go deep into anything. UP elections are coming up, followed by the midterms, so I guess it's time to wake up a bit again.<br /><br /><br /><br /><b>37. Who did you miss?</b><br /><br />Family and friends, always. Leaving is never easy, because all the time in the world is never enough time, and it feels like it gets harder every time.<br /><br /><br /><br /><b>38. Who was the best new person you met?</b><br /><br />MY NIECE.<br /><br /><br /><br /><b>39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2021.</b><br /><br />I am really, <i>really</i> dependent on the Metaverse to keep in touch with loved ones. That one day without whatsapp and instagram drove me absolutely insane.<br /><br /><br /><br /><b>40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.</b><br /><br />Why is this always the question I get stumped by every single year?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />a travellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02559346755503817562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32569513.post-57452421006659137962021-08-20T16:09:00.001-04:002021-08-20T16:09:13.830-04:00Of meltdowns that come without warning<div>I wrote this post back in May, towards the end of one of the most terrifying periods of my life. I wrote it, decided not to post it, and life went on.</div><div><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: center;">***************</div><br /></div><div>In my last year of college, there was this day I was supposed to present to the class on something. I can't remember what the topic was, but I remember the room, and the visual of my classmates sitting in one row, my favourite professor in her wheelchair, and me standing off on the side, holding my notes in my hand. For some reason, before I was to begin, the professor had started talking about the day her father died. And as she spoke, in her trademark matter of fact way, every single girl in the room started sobbing, except me. I stood there, wondering I wasn't crying like everyone else.</div><div><br /></div><div>She finally turned to me, rolled her eyes, and complimented me for not crying like everyone else. And indicated I should begin. I started speaking, stopped, took a deep breath, started again, and then turned around, faced the wall, and sobbed my heart out, while my professor clucked exasperatedly behind me.</div><div><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: center;">***************</div><br /></div><div>Four years ago, the day after the <a href="https://dustyrain.blogspot.com/2018/02/if.html" target="_blank">garage incident</a>, I walked into work, and went straight to a conference room to join my work BFF for our weekly call with our counterparts from a partner organization. The call had already started when I entered, so I gave a cheery "Hi!" as I sat down. Someone asked me a question, I started speaking, stopped, took a deep breath, started again, and somehow kept going. The call ended, and as I started gathering my things, my BFF looked at me and said, "ok, what's wrong?"</div><div><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: center;">***************</div><br /></div><div>That morning in May, a few months ago, we had a call with a team I hadn't spoken with in a few weeks. I listed out my agenda, and then before we could dive into the first issue, one of my coworkers piped up saying - before we start, just one other thing. Is your family okay? </div><div><br /></div><div>I'd been living a nightmare for close to a month at that point, waking up every morning in terror, wondering what new names I'd hear that day. The weekends were the hardest, because there wasn't even work to distract me from my constant doomscrolling.</div><div><br /></div><div>And at some point in the previous two weeks, a memo had gone out across America - check in on your Indian friends and coworkers. But somehow, this was the first time someone had done it on a public forum like this. So far, I'd gotten texts or messages, or been asked during one-on-one calls, all of which was appreciated and relatively easier to handle. But being asked on a call like this, while still appreciated, was just a bit startling. But I gave what had become my standard response to all of these inquiries, and kept going.</div><div><br /></div><div>And then that afternoon, I had about ten minutes between calls, and decided to use it to glance at twitter a bit. I had consciously not looked at worldometers all day, due to some Big. Meetings. in the morning. But since I had ten minutes, I opened twitter, and this was the first tweet I saw.</div><div><br /></div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">BREAKING: India has reported over 414,433 new coronavirus cases, the highest of any country since the pandemic began, and 3,920 new deaths.</p>— The Spectator Index (@spectatorindex) <a href="https://twitter.com/spectatorindex/status/1390392384261742593?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 6, 2021</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
414,000 new cases. Almost 4,000 new deaths. And you know those numbers were woefully, and criminally, undercounted and underreported.<div><br /></div><div>I saw this tweet, and dialed into my call, which was going to be my boss, her peers, and their boss. Started saying I was going to share my screen for the discussion, at which point it was helpfully pointed out I was on mute. I managed to unmute, share my screen, and started laying out what we needed to accomplish. And then it happened.</div><div><br /></div><div>I started speaking, stopped, took a deep breath, started again, and the tears came gushing out. I kept presenting, speaking over everyone who was trying to say something, pretending like there's nothing strange whatsoever about a woman talking about aligning on a baseline forecast while she has tears streaming down her face. My coworkers on the call, bless them, realised I wanted to just get through it, and let me. I got IMs, some during, some after the call. Every single one of them telling to stop apologising for my meltdown.</div><div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div></div><div style="text-align: left;">I stopped apologising, but I really wished my brain would give me some indication of a forthcoming meltdown going forward.</div><div><div><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: center;">***************</div><br /></div><div>Things got better after that. They got much worse first, but they got better. The one person I was most terrified for during that period thankfully got through the summer, and is now mom to the cutest baby in the world. We all know there's another wave coming, but no one knows when. </div><div><br /></div><div>I don't know why I'm finally posting this now, but for whoever is reading this, I do hope you and your loved ones are safe, and getting through this crazy time in history as best as you can.</div><div><br /></div></div>a travellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02559346755503817562noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32569513.post-18328045576377543062021-06-15T23:23:00.006-04:002021-06-16T15:21:01.257-04:00On a show I really wanted to like, but couldn't<p></p><div>For a while now, I've been wanting to watch more Indian TV, but it felt like everything that was being recommended to be was too gory for my tastes. I mean, I'm just never going to watch Mirzapur, y'all. Even if it has both Ali Fazal* and Vikrant Massey**. </div><div><br /></div><div>But I did watch Made in Heaven last year, and thought it was fantastic. And then after being beaten over the head about Family Man, especially after the new season dropped, I decided to give it a go.</div><div><br /></div><div>I really liked the first season, even though I thought it could have done more to be a little more balanced in how the grievances of a community can lead to certain decisions. But it was well written, well acted, gripping, and ended on a cliffhanger that meant I had to keep going into Season 2.</div><div><br /></div><div>And boy, was I irritated by Season 2. So here, for your reading pleasure (all three of you) is everything I didn't like, plus some stuff I did.</div><div><br /></div><div>{{Mandatory spoiler alert for those who haven't watched the show yet, and intend to at some point}}</div><div><br /></div><div>Let's start with the good stuff, actually.</div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>The aerial shots of Delhi! Absolutely gorgeous. Almost all the shots throughout the show were gorgeous in general, but obvs my heart lies with Delhi the mostest. There were two in particular - one of all of Connaught Place, and another of the buildings around Raj Path - that if anyone can get hold of for me, I will be eternally grateful.</li><li>Dhriti and Atharv. Specifically, the actors who played those two. Pitch perfect, and so very delightful. Every scene with them, especially Atharv, was just a joy to watch.</li><li>JK. I started out disliking him right off the bat, because if you're a guy who tries to flirt with the new recruit on her first day because she's female, you get a huge black mark in my book. However, his character arc was probably one of the best on the show.</li><li>The most randomly delightful*** thing about Season 2, however, had to be Sambit's relationship with tea. The scene where he's pouring tea for everyone and it runs out by the time he's able to pour for himself, the scene where he pours it and then has to take a call, and then ruins it by soaking his Parle G for too long, and the scene where he turns down the offer of tea altogether because he's so stressed. *chef's kiss*</li></ul><div><br /></div><div>But then.</div><div><br /></div><div>I went into the show knowing the two things that a lot of people were upset about. And both of them were a doozy.</div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>When you've studied psychology, and half your closest friends work in mental health, you can't not find the therapist they showed to be utterly terrible. For a show that depicted Suchi to be a psychology professional, who worked on an app for mental health, you'd think they would have at least bothered to get the actual showcasing of therapy to be a little better.</li><li>And then there was the brownface. Look, I can be superficial in my media consumption. I don't always get upset by things like brownface. I should, but I don't. But this time. It wasn't just that they did it, when they didn't need to, it was also that they did so obviously and badly. Every frikkin' scene with Raji had her skin practically shining because the makeup was so very over the top. </li><li>And I have to admit, I also found Raji's character pretty annoying. How much of that was caused by the colouring, versus the other way around, I'm not sure. But it was like they couldn't decide if her facial expressions were supposed to be constantly worried and nervous, or steel-faced and resolved. Her expressions kept flip-flopping between the two, often in the same scene, and ended up distracting me way too much. </li></ul><div><br /></div><div>Sundry other thoughts:</div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Why, oh why, is there a rule that there can be only one competent woman per season of a show? Zoya was one the best parts of the first season, because it was quite refreshing to see a woman come into a job and just get the job done. Also I was coming close to shipping her and Milind. But then she's gone from Season 2 (and eventually so was Milind, which was just gutting), and while Umayal was just as delightful, it's just so frustrating to watch shows do this all the time.</li><li>I have to admit, I came close to shipping Raji and Shahid a bit. Very Romeo and Juliet, that relationship seemed.</li><li>Do rebels make a lot of money somehow? Those homes in London and Normandy were fan-CY.</li><li>It was very unclear for most of the show, to me at least, what exactly Sri's family knew about his job. By the end, it seemed like Suchi did know the truth, but that made her reactions even more bizarre. Yes, you can be upset about how much time he gives to the job, and how it takes away from family life, but not once in the entire show did she seem to express any concern or curiosity about his safety. He constantly made reference to paperwork, even when he was travelling to other cities, but she clearly seemed to know more towards the end, and it was just all very disorienting.</li><li>Also, Sri was just an ass in the second season. Yes, I get that Indian men must never express feelings or show emotions or talk to therapists about their private life, and all that jazz. I didn't have a problem with any of that being depicted, I got the character. But the man's daughter was kidnapped, almost killed, and covered in blood. He hands her off to a co-worker to go after a terrorist - said coworker, by the way, was right next to him in the next scene, so who on earth took Dhriti to the hospital I don't know - and was far more concerned about the terrorist's death impacting the mission than what he had tried to do to this daughter. Maybe I'm just not patriotic enough, but that's just a level of assholery I can't deal with. The man showed more concern and actually asked more questions about JK's condition than he did about his daughter.</li><li>And finally, I'm sure this show was very realistic and all. In which case, maybe our country needs to invest in some bulletproof outfits for its investigative agencies? It kind of seemed like these people landed in shootouts fairly routinely; some sort of protective gear might help? Just a thought.</li></ul><div><br /></div><div>I think the reason I'm irritated enough to type out a whole post about this show is that it had so much potential. The cast was mostly excellent, the storylines were gripping, and the writing was close to being really, really good. But I got too irritated by the little things, which ended up adding up to getting in the way of a lot of the positives.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>*who apparently doesn't show up in the search results if you search for "mirzapur cast"?</div><div>**who was conspicuously missing from the season 2 trailers I saw, which led to text a friend asking - "look I'm never going to watch this show, tell me if he's gone." Her non-answer was answer enough.</div><div>*** delight/delightful is my word of the day, apparently.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><p></p>a travellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02559346755503817562noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32569513.post-18414926204689338192021-05-07T14:07:00.003-04:002021-05-07T14:19:16.110-04:00On a temperamental music player<p>Like a billion other people on this planet, I've been living a nightmare for close to a month now, waking up every morning in terror, wondering what new names I'll hear today. The weekends have been the hardest, because all I have then is my constant doomscrolling. For the most part, workdays have been easier, because work is a distraction. But yesterday was tougher than usual, and I wrote a whole depressing post about it, and then decided I'm not ready to send it out into the world yet. So it's sitting in my drafts, hoping to see the light of day some months down the line.</p><p>So let's talk about something a little more cheerful, 'kay?</p><p>We gifted Baba a Bose radio/CD player for his 50th birthday. Well, I say we, but it was Mamma really. And at some point during the past decade that I've been gone, that went kaput, and they bought a new one. Except, as I discovered during my sojourn last year, this new one has a bit of a personality. </p><p>It took me a while to realise that it wasn't my parents turning it on everyday at a very high volume, to a radio channel none of us listen to. It came on randomly everyday at the same time, all by itself, blaring loudly. If the radio happened to be on, and you were listening to a different channel, it would actually <i>switch</i> to whatever that infernal preset channel was. So I decided* to fix it. Since no one knew where the user manual was, I turned to Joi Baba Googlenath, and figured out how to change the alarm settings.</p><p>My parents like listening to the English music shows that still come on AIR FM Rainbow** at 12 pm and 6pm, so I went in and set alarms for it to come on everyday at those times, at a far more reasonable volume. Everyone was happy, and I actually won*** Daughter of the Year for a change.</p><p>Cut to six months later.</p><div>One of my coping mechanisms for the past month has been to have a daily call with the parents, instead of our usual 2-3 times a week. Depending on my meeting schedule (and the father's bridge calendar obvs), I call them either at 8am while making my chai, or at lunch time. And for a few days running, I was getting irritated at how rude they were being, turning on the TV at abnormally loud levels while I'm on the phone with them. </div><div><br /></div><div>As it turns out, they were doing no such thing. Their temperamental Bose system took advantage of my departure to change the alarm settings all by itself, and has gone back to turning on at a strange time at a strange volume on a strange channel. And since I'm not there to fix it again, my parents' new approach is to wait till a minute before it comes on, and call out to each other - "the radio's about to come on! go stand near it so you can turn it off!"</div><div><br /></div><div>Be amused by the little things you guys, because the next time I'm home, I'm going to have to Google how to fix the damn alarm settings all over again.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>* Mayyyyyybe less "decided to", and more "was prodded into"</div><div>** No, YOU try typing, saying or <i>thinking</i> AIR FM Rainbow without <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuitkqrXaN0" target="_blank">that blessed jingle</a> playing in your head</div><div>*** versus just running unopposed</div>a travellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02559346755503817562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32569513.post-15642721040744713152021-04-11T13:33:00.002-04:002021-04-13T20:00:45.074-04:00On lockdown rituals<p> A year ago, the world went into lockdown. I was in India, on what was supposed to be a ten day vacation, and what had turned into a two-week quarantine. My flights back had been cancelled, my work had gone remote, and so I had decided to stay back - for what I thought at the time would be a few weeks. </p><p>That first month, all of us started doing all these zoom calls, with different groups of friends. We caught up with more people in that one month than we had in a year. Those fizzled out after a while, when we realised this wasn't ending any time soon.</p><p>But one sustained, and has continued.</p><p>My father used to play bridge with his friends when he was in college. Over the years, he didn't keep up with the game, save during the occasional getaway they did once every few years. A couple of his friends have stayed connected to the game, at varying levels of interest. So at some point during those early zoom calls, someone suggested hey, why don't we all start playing bridge online?</p><p>So this group of 60-something men, all with varying levels of comfort with technology, sitting in different countries and continents, started playing bridge online. Four times a week, without fail. </p><p>My mother and I watched, first with amusement, then with some consternation, as our daily schedules began to revolve around his bridge calendar. Meals, shows being binged, evening walks or drives, calls with the brother and SIL - they were all planned so that the bridge was not impacted.</p><p>A few months later, he discovered that another friend has a whole other group of online bridge players, and he asked to get in on that. So suddenly, he was playing every day, and was beginning to juggle these two groups of fellow players. The mother meanwhile started texting with the wives of his college gang, with debate over whether an intervention was required as yet.</p><p>It got to the point where we ended up creating a shared Google calendar, the parents and I. He faithfully goes in every week and enters his upcoming games, and we have continued planning everything else around them. Even now, being back in the US for three months, while my parents and I do try and do a call a few times a week while I'm having breakfast and they're having dinner, I check the calendar before calling him, because God forbid I call in the middle of a game.</p><p>With his college gang, a fair amount of drama has taken place of the past year of bridge. They started by having video chat on at the same time, which <i>some</i> people found very distracting, tried doing just audio calls for a while (<i>some</i> people didn't like that either), and now just do text chat apparently. <i>Some </i>people in his college gang seem to be a problem child, and are a source of great personal amusement to me, because they very much remind me of certain problem children <a href="https://dustyrain.blogspot.com/search/label/gal%20pals" target="_blank">the gal pals</a> and I have had to deal with in our own time.</p><p>The father, being a diplomatic sort of chap, will never overtly bad mouth this person, even to me. But he lets drop enough hints for us to catch on when things are more cray cray than usual. I understand there was a huge brouhaha between this problem child and another friend a few weeks ago, bigger and more dramatic than usual, leading to friend leaving the group I think? And said friend has refused to play with problem child anymore, so I think they have now split into two groups, and alternate between the two who had a fight?</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://media1.tenor.com/images/688dde6843bea3b5375615fc875824ab/tenor.gif?itemid=16508960" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="280" data-original-width="498" src="https://media1.tenor.com/images/688dde6843bea3b5375615fc875824ab/tenor.gif?itemid=16508960" /></a></div><br /><p>This morning, they called me while I was making my chai and toast, and they were prepping dinner. And the conversation began like this:</p><p></p><blockquote><p>"Your gift arrived! Trust you to think of this!"</p><p>"Hain? I haven't ordered my gift yet?"</p><p>"Then who sent him this book on Bridge?"</p></blockquote><p></p><p>Apparently someone has sent him a gift for his upcoming birthday, but we don't know who. So that's a puzzle we have to solve. </p><p>For the next hour, we ate, we chatted, I rolled my eyes only a couple of times. After a while, I started hinting that we should end the call. </p><p></p><blockquote><p>"Why, are we boring you? Do you have things to do? What time is it? Oh GOSH, it's 8.30! I have bridge in half an hour! Ok bye!"</p><p></p></blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://media1.tenor.com/images/9c264d69be34f859f56b1283d39c2e79/tenor.gif?itemid=13489724" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="132" data-original-width="300" src="https://media1.tenor.com/images/9c264d69be34f859f56b1283d39c2e79/tenor.gif?itemid=13489724" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>a travellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02559346755503817562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32569513.post-68948395429624944302021-01-04T11:37:00.005-05:002021-01-06T12:04:17.911-05:00If ever there was a year to review...<p><span style="font-family: times;">The <a href="https://dustyrain.blogspot.com/2019/01/on-2018-year-in-review.html" target="_blank">last time</a> I did my annual flashback post, it was because Friend of the Blog Who Now Goes By a New Name I Cannot Remember had texted me on Jan 2 to ask me about it. 2020 was the kind of year where she texted me about it on December 12. </span></p><p>In hindsight, not doing this post for 2019, which by my standards, was a <i>very</i> eventful year, but doing it for the batshit craziness that was 2020 seems in keeping with both the batshit craziness of 2020 and the complete erraticness of this blog in general. <span style="font-family: times;">Ergo, drumroll...</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times;"><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">1. What did you do in 2020 that you’d never done before?</b><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br />I mean, where does one begin? Attended weddings and funerals virtually? Collected unemployment? <i>Lived through a pandemic</i>? Did not see anyone other than my parents for nearly two months (or was it three)? Made apple cider from scratch?<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for
next year?</b><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
I honestly don't remember if I made any last year. Of the ones I make almost every year - I did cook more, and I actually did cook more Bengali food this year. Which is to say I made four Bengali dishes, one of which I was asked to make a few more times.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times;">Technically I wrote about the same amount I did in 2019, but most of it was on yet another blog I started, meant to be more journal-ly, and which (shocker) I didn't follow through with after less then two months.<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">3. Did anyone close to you give birth?</b><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
Nope.<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">4. Did anyone close to you die?</b><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<a href="https://dustyrain.blogspot.com/2020/05/what-do-you-say-part-2.html" target="_blank">Yes</a>. <br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" /><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">5. What places did you visit?</b><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
LOL. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times;">An overnight work trip to NYC. Then in March, the Doha and Delhi airports, two days in Kolkata, and then ten months in Gurugram.<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">6. What would you like to have in 2021 that you lacked in 2020?</b><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
Umm. <br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">7. What date from 2020 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?</b><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
The week of March 7-13 March is pretty well etched in my brain, since it's when both the world and things in my life began to explode. As is May 25.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times;">November 7 was pretty memorable too.<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?</b><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />Getting through ten months of living with my parents without them killing me for being a brat.<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">9. What was your biggest failure?</b><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />Turning into a brat once it was clear I was back in my parents' home for the foreseeable future.<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">10. Did you suffer illness or injury?</b><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
Well I had a bad fever as soon as I landed in India which led to me being quarantined for a week just in case it was anything more than just a fever. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times;">And then I burned my arm the day after the US elections, which was fun too.</span><br style="font-family: times;" /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times;">
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">11. What was the best thing you bought?</b><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
Listen, most of my purchases this year have been clothes so that I had things to wear beyond the ten days' worth of clothes I had brought with me.<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?</b><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
Allow me to be cheesy here and say all the frontline workers across the world who are goddamn heroes. And I absolutely include all delivery folks in that category.<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and/or depressed?</b><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
I mean, I'm so sick of the two political parties that are currently governing the two countries I call home that my answer to this question almost never changes.<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">14. Where did most of your money go?</b><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
Well, I was furloughed for six months this year, so it's more a question of not having much money to begin with.<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?</b><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
The original agenda for my March visit was pretty damn exciting, none of which happened obvs.<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">16. What song will always remind you of 2020?</b><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
I can't think of anything.<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">17. Compared to this time last year, are you happier or sadder?</b><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
I honestly don't know. It's been a tough year, but it could have been so much worse. So neither, really, I think.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times;">Whenever I have felt like things are getting too much, I've almost immediately also felt a tremendous amount of guilt. So many others had had it so much worse that whining about the relatively minor annoyances has made me just feel guilty.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times;">
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">18. Thinner or fatter?</b><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
Thinner. Turns out having <i>ghar ka khana </i>regularly, made from scratch instead of from canned or frozen goods, is good for you?<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">19. What do you wish you’d done more of?</b><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
Improved my mind. Written.<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">20. What do you wish you’d done less of?</b><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
Bickered. Been a brat.<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">21. How will you be spending Christmas?</b><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
I spent it wearing red nail polish and my Christmas earrings, sulking because I couldn't do any of my usual Christmas food and drink traditions, and drinking spiced apple cider <i>that I made from scratch</i>.<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">22. Did you fall in love in 2020?</b><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
We were in a freaking pandemic, you guys.<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">23. How many one-night stands?</b><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
See #22 above.<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">24. What was your favourite TV programme?</b><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
Technically I watched most of Schitt's Creek in 2019, but I didn't do this post last year, and I watched Season 6 in 2020, so I'm going to include this. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times;">Both seasons of Dead to Me were <i>fantastic</i>, as was Criminal (UK). I also finally got around to watching Made in Heaven, and absolutely loved it. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times;">Avenue 5 and Season 1 of Miracle Workers were also really funny.<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?</b><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
You know, surprisingly, I don't think so.<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">26. What was the best book you read?</b><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
I think I read, like, <i>five</i> books that weren't Nora Roberts or Lucy Parker or the Bridgerton books which were sent to me the day after Christmas and which I spent the last week of the year going through (and liked more than the show, even though the show was hilariously delicious).</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times;">AnyWAY, among those five books were the <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40072345-she-lies-in-wait" target="_blank">first</a> <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49418492-watching-from-the-dark" target="_blank">two</a> books by Gytha Lodge, which I raced through in less than a week, and ended up pre-ordering the third book due out this year as well.<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">27. What was your greatest musical discovery?</b><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
Somehow, I had only ever seen one video from the A R Rahman concert that Berklee College put on in 2014. The entire <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgjjJOZkXbQ&list=PLG0f76gvWfh810C24WDXBbwITTD4r0nlZ" target="_blank">playlist</a> was discovered somewhere at the beginning of lockdown, and I spent more than a month constantly playing it on loop.<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
</span><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fgjjJOZkXbQ" width="320" youtube-src-id="fgjjJOZkXbQ"></iframe><span style="font-family: times;"><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">28. What did you want and get?</b><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
Usually, my mental answer to #29 is more time in India, more time with family. That certainly happened in 2020!<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">29. What did you want and not get?</b><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
I dunno, freedom of movement?<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">30. What was your favourite film of this year?</b><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
The one good thing about 2020 is that I actually watched movies that weren't MCU releases. And so there were a lot of favourites. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times;">Just Mercy.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times;">Bareilly ki Barfi (I know, I know, but I just hadn't gotten around to it)<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
Chintu ka Birthday. Axone. House Arrest. Choked. Raat Akeli Hain. Gunjan Saxena.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times;">Soul.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times;">But I think Ludo and Cargo were really my top two of the year.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times;"><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?</b><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
I spent it in quarantine, in my old bedroom, getting to see no one other than my poor dad who had to put up with my whininess.<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?</b><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
Not getting furloughed. Being able to drive, even if I wasn't going anywhere.<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2020?</b><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
Go to myntra.com --> find cheapest items that fit my criteria and can be returned if they don't fit --> buy<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">34. What kept you sane?</b><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
Knowing that if anything did happen to my family through this pandemic, I was here, with them.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times;"><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?</b><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
Huge crush was developed on Varun Grover in early 2020. Pretty sure some friends muted my texts because of this.<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">36. What political issue stirred you the most?</b><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
December 2019/Spring of 2020 was spent fuming over the CAA in India. Summer and fall were spent obsessing over the US elections.<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">37. Who did you miss?</b><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
I was with the people I'm usually missing =)<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">38. Who was the best new person you met?</b><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
Did I even meet anyone new?<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2020.</b><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
I think this year really clarified the people who are important to me, and who I'm important to. Keeping in touch during a pandemic does that, I think</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times;">I've really, really gotten used to living alone.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times;">All I really need in life is a couch, Wifi, and an Android device.<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.</b><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" /></span></p><i>Is </i>there a song that can sum up 2020?<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p><p></p><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>a travellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02559346755503817562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32569513.post-26466649817020482042020-05-28T14:18:00.001-04:002020-05-28T14:18:21.824-04:00What do you say? - Part 2<div>Several years ago, I <a href="https://dustyrain.blogspot.com/2013/02/what-do-you-say.html">had written</a> about how uncomfortable I get with having offer condolences to people who have lost someone. My point back then was that me telling someone how sorry I am for their loss is invariably about me, not them.</div><div><br /></div><div>My grandmother died four days ago. We had known this was coming, we're all so relieved her suffering is at an end, and we're all grieving. And in the midst of Lockdown 4.0, we're grieving from a distance, since we can't travel to Kolkata to participate in the rituals that come with the death of a loved one. <br /></div><div><br /></div><div>All week, my mother has been on the phone - informing relatives, talking to her brother and sister-in-law about what rituals we have to carry out, and receiving condolences from sundry friends and family. And invariably, as I hear her have these conversations, it seems to me like she ends up consoling the other person more than the other way around.</div><div><br /></div><div>It's easier for me - my friends all know me well enough not to call. I texted some friends about the news, and they all texted back, asking me to call or tell them if I feel like talking. I haven't, because I don't know what to say, and they get that. But my mother, who is much nicer than me, picks up the phone, or returns calls that she hasn't been able to pick up, and talks to each and every person who wants to tell her how sorry they are for her loss. <br /></div><div><br /></div><div>And I don't know how she does it.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>a travellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02559346755503817562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32569513.post-75132939940020647012020-03-03T14:02:00.001-05:002020-03-03T14:02:34.926-05:00Where I wonder about symbols <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
It's been a very difficult few months, with everything going on in India. Of the nine years since I've moved away, the distance has never felt greater than it has since December. I've started and stopped writing a number of rambling posts since then, and even the ones I've completed are still sitting in my drafts, because it hasn't felt right to publish them. But I overheard a conversation yesterday that intrigued me, and prompted this set of ramblings.<br />
<br />
The first anti-CAA protest I went to was on a freezing morning last December, in front of the Indian Embassy. It had been organized pretty much overnight, in response to the early violence that had taken place in Jamia Milia. Maybe 20-30 people had shown up, heard a few speeches, chanted a few chants, and rolled our eyes at the embassy officials peering at us through the curtains. One of the moments that has stayed with me from that cold (very cold, and I'd forgotten my gloves) was a gentleman who was wearing a black overcoat and a saffron scarf, who spoke of reclaiming the saffron - why should this colour become associated with a movement so filled with hate and bigotry? It's a colour with beauty, with meaning far more than what it has become now, and so he was reclaiming it.<br />
<br />
I was back at the same spot yesterday evening for another protest; fifty or so people had shown up this time. This time, as it happened, I was wearing a saffron-ish scarf, which I realised much later. But there was a conversation that took place that I overheard, and wanted to think through.<br />
<br />
The protest was pretty much over, but most people were still there, and the crowd was trying* to sing <i>Hum kaagaz nahi dikayenge</i> and <i>Hum honge kamyaab</i>. Then someone suggested singing the national anthem. And there was immediate push back - if you sing the national anthem in front of the embassy, it'll seem like we're singing in praise of the government. And the same gentleman from last time asked why that should matter. Why should we, as Indians, give up singing a song that means something to us, because it's been turned into a symbol by those who stand for hate?<br />
<br />
One of the most traumatic videos from the past week - and there have been so many - is the one of a group of boys, beaten, bleeding, being forced to sing the national anthem. By cops. One of them has now died I believe. Unsurprisingly, there has been no action taken against the cops who did this.<br />
<br />
I still stand for the Indian national anthem when I hear it. I stand if I'm in a crowd, in a movie theater**, or if I'm alone in my living room watching a cricket match or the Republic Day parade. One of the most beautiful sounds in the world is 52 seconds*** of listening to a full stadium sing the anthem.<br />
<br />
And just because the notions of what counts for nationalism and anti-nationalism no longer has anything to do with patriotism or actual love for your country shouldn't mean we give up singing this song that still means a lot to many of us.<br />
<br />
A lot of us who have spent the last several months alternating between rage and despair are in those states because of our love for India, and because of what people are doing to India in the name of nationalism. And it's a pity when we have to stop and think about whether singing the national anthem, or showing any symbol of love or pride for our country, our religion, our culture, feels wrong because of what they've been turned into by those we're opposed to.<br />
<br />
I don't know how the conversation yesterday ended, because I left soon after. But I hope they ended up singing the national anthem.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
*I say trying because tbh you guys, these weren't the best renditions I've heard. Points to us for trying though?<br />
<br />
**I stand, but I do absolutely think forcing people to stand for the anthem before a movie, especially when they're navigating holding popcorn and drinks is one of the stupidest ideas in the world.<br />
<br />
***I also just remembered that <a href="https://dustyrain.blogspot.com/2007/08/happy-independence-day.html" target="_blank">I ranted 13 years ago</a> about how they created a much longer version of the anthem and I did not like it at all. I stand by my position.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
a travellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02559346755503817562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32569513.post-30705945415734318902019-11-21T13:53:00.001-05:002023-05-01T00:33:06.563-04:00On the fear of loss<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
If I think about my favourite Bollywood movies from the last several years, there are two that stand out - Piku and Kapoor & Sons.<br />
<br />
I've only watched Kapoor & Sons once, in the theatre, with friends. And I'm fairly certain I sobbed through a good chunk of the second half. I've never gone back to watch it a second time, for some reason, despite loving it so much. I've watched
clips a few times, and it's on my watchlist on Amazon, but I've never
gone back to it. <br />
<br />
Piku, on the other hand, I watch at least twice a year, if not more. Once, when I need
something playing on Netflix as I potter around the apartment, at least
once when my parents come to visit and we can't agree on anything else
to watch together, and potentially again, a day or two later so my
mother can see the second half because she fell asleep halfway through
the previous time.<br />
<br />
There's a scene in Kapoor and Sons where one of the protagonists sulkily tells his brother that their parents have always loved him more, seen him as perfect, while he himself can do ever do anything right in their eyes. His brother tells him not to be silly, all parents love their children equally. This line is followed by a beat of silence where the two look at each other, and both burst out laughing, because you know that's just not true.<br />
<br />
There's a scene in Piku where a get together of family and friends is taking place, to honour a woman who dies before the movie begins. The protagonist places a bottle of ghee on the table, Jharna ghee to be precise. The first time I saw this movie, the week after it released, in a theatre full of Bengalis who had all flocked to take advantage of the 50% discount offered by that theatre for Indian movies on Wednesdays, the lady in front of me and I simultaneously exclaimed out loud during this scene, "Jharna ghee!"<br />
<br />
There's another scene in Kapoor & Sons that is described far more eloquently by <a href="https://rajasen.com/2016/03/18/review-shakun-batras-kapoor-and-sons/" target="_blank">Raja Sen</a> in his review of the movie - the family drama that goes on while in the backdrop a plumber works diligently to try and fix the pipes. [<i><b>UPDATE:</b></i> Shakun Batra, the director of the movie, did this <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLRnamhzY6U&feature=youtu.be" target="_blank">delightful video</a> that was shared with me after I published this post, on how this scene was constructed.]<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/PLRnamhzY6U/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PLRnamhzY6U?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<br />
<br />
Years ago, when my parents were building their first home, they
would... disagree on how certain things should look. It took them a
while to realize that when the contractor would excuse himself for a
cigarette break every few minutes he would time it just when he could
sense a storm brewing, and would step out so my parents could come to a
decision before he returned.<br />
<br />
The protagonist of Piku spends half the movie yelling at her father, out of sheer concern and exasperation at his behaviour. But minutes after squabbling with him, she laughs and starts singing a Bengali song with him.<br />
<br />
A while ago, when my parents were visiting, we were driving home one evening, and my mother was munching on the snacks I keep in the car for my evening commute. I found myself turning to her at one point, and saying exasperatedly, "Will you stop eating so much? You won't be able to eat dinner if you snack so much now."<br />
<br />
After watching Piku, as we walked out of the theatre, I was commenting that almost every character in the movie reminded me of someone I know. There are pieces of people I know and love in almost every character in the movie. A friend, who at the time was months away from his wedding, to a Bengali girl, sheepishly admitted his future father-in-law was quite similar to the father in the movie.<br />
<br />
Both Kapoor & Sons and Piku struck chords with me, more than any other movies in recent years that I can think of. There are daily lives and tiny anecdotes that shine through these movies and remind me of episodes from my family in the past. There are moments that make you smile, then sniffle, and then potentially start sobbing your heart out, but only because you know someone who's gone through something similar.<br />
<br />
And both movies showcase the fear, and the reality, of losing a parent.<br />
<br />
This is one of those posts that has been sitting in my Drafts for a few years now. Every few months, I pull it open, reread it, tweak it a bit, save it, and then close it again.<br />
<br />
When I first started writing this, a couple of articles had gone viral on my timeline. <a href="https://getpocket.com/redirect?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.straitstimes.com%2Fopinion%2Fdealing-with-parents-mortality" target="_blank">Rohit Brijnath</a> had written a heart wrenching piece on parents' mortality, and the constant fear those of us who live a world away from our parents learn to live with. And then <a href="https://getpocket.com/redirect?url=http%3A%2F%2Fjaiarjun.blogspot.com%2F2016%2F05%2Fthe-devilry-of-nearness-thoughts-on.html" target="_blank">Jai Arjun Singh</a> had responded with a piece that reminded me it's not that much easier to watch it happen in front of you, either.<br />
<br />
A few weeks ago, someone shared a website called See Your Folks, that asks you to enter your parents' ages, and how often you see them a year. It then throws up a stark number on just how many times you have left in this lifetime to see them. I may or may not reacted somewhat... emotionally to this site, and ended up doing a bit of a <a href="https://twitter.com/a_traveller/status/1189339254901694464" target="_blank">twitter rant</a> about it.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
<a href="https://t.co/sb0Y8eWU3e">https://t.co/sb0Y8eWU3e</a><br />
<br />
This has got to be the most absurd and depressing site I've come across in a long time.</div>
— a traveller (@a_traveller) <a href="https://twitter.com/a_traveller/status/1189339254901694464?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 30, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script> <br />
<br />
The <a href="https://twitter.com/a_traveller/status/1189395572115038208" target="_blank">last tweet</a> in that rant was posted almost four hours later, after a two hour marathon call with the parents. They weren't told about this site, but given at least one of them stalks me on Twitter <i>and</i> follows this blog, it's possible she knew, or will know when she wakes up in a few hours.<br />
<br />
(Chill, Ma, I'm not stressing. I'm just rambling. And trying to distract myself from these impeachment hearings I've been watching for the past week (and mayyyybe from some of the daughterly stress I've felt after the last couple of This is Us episodes).)<br />
<br />
But to end this post on a sufficiently emotional note, here are two songs I had on loop after I spiraled about that stoopid site, for your listening pleasure.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/nV2mdHczUa4/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nV2mdHczUa4?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/SYU4zsp8_fY/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SYU4zsp8_fY?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<br />
<br /></div>
a travellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02559346755503817562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32569513.post-5763801426661437762019-10-15T15:53:00.001-04:002019-10-16T09:46:11.776-04:00On getting emotionally invested in the job<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I started a new job just over six months ago. And it's a great job - it's still in the space I'm passionate about, adjacent to what I used to do and loved doing, but different enough that I'm learning and getting to do entirely new things, in a new but adjacent industry.<br />
<br />
But when you change jobs after five years, turns out it's a lot weirder than I had expected. By the time I left my previous job, I was pretty much the historian of the team. I knew how everything worked, I knew <i>why </i>things worked the way they did, I knew why certain decisions had been taken, and I knew my products inside out - especially since I launched some of them during my time there. In this job, I had to learn everything from scratch - the products, the company, the industry, the history and context, and even the mundane, like how the blessed printers work*.<br />
<br />
My new coworkers have been incredibly patient though, and I suppose it helped that my boss and my boss's boss both joined within the last year too. I was told early on to be patient with myself, and to expect it to take six months to ramp up. And I had known coming into this role that it was going to be a somewhat ambiguous role, given that it didn't exist before I came in. But even though I was getting positive feedback, I still found myself getting antsy by the three-month mark - that I wasn't doing enough, or that I didn't know enough.<br />
<br />
The other thing that was bothering me was that I didn't feel emotionally invested enough in the job, which is something I've always needed in a job, or even project, to be any good at it. I was still paying more attention to news from my old industry. I was still smiling at call outs to my old products, not my new team's products. And I was having major FOMO when I heard my team mates talk about their projects - because they do what I used to do, and I miss those specific types of projects sometimes.<br />
<br />
But most of all, I was not getting worked up about anything to do with the job. I wasn't rolling my eyes at anything. I wasn't having to grin sheepishly because people could look at my face and know what I was thinking, because I wasn't thinking anything mean about anyone.<br />
<br />
In short, I was stressing about not stressing about my job.<br />
<br />
I whined about this to a couple of people - my father just laughed, and my friend D politely asked if this could be a sign of maturity. I laughed at her question, because really, have you met me?<br />
<br />
And then, about a month ago, I realised I was feeling more confident about what I was doing. I was speaking up more. I was responding to questions more easily. And then came the flipping of the switch - I was on a conference call with someone I have most definitely formed opinions about, and I realised I was rolling my eyes as this person was speaking.<br />
<br />
And let's just say the eye rolling has not stopped since. And I was in a meeting earlier this week, where someone said something, I nodded and said "you bet", and they looked at my face and burst out laughing. So I think the facial expressions have started as well.<br />
<br />
And so, while I'm not entirely sure I'm still fully ramped up or emotionally invested, I know I'm getting there. And I think I'm going to continue to live up to my reputation of being a champion eye roller**.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
*Why I can't get my default setting to be two-sided printing is beyond me, and it is also driving me crazy that I'm the only person here who uses that setting. Stop killing more trees than you have to, people.<br />
<br />
** It continues to both baffle and amuse me that friends from different walks of life, who have never met and possibly don't even know of each other's existence, send me whatever eye-rolling related memes they come across, because apparently anyone who loves associates these memes with me. This is not unwarranted, sure, but it is strange.<br />
<br /></div>
a travellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02559346755503817562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32569513.post-41034210087878609012019-09-22T18:52:00.002-04:002022-09-08T11:39:01.400-04:00On a view of India that seems a little stuck in the past<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div dir="ltr">
I read a lot of Bollywood magazines growing up. Stardust and Filmfare were staples as a teenager, and then there was the magazine that I think Zee came out with for a while? Their whole "stand out from the crowd" feature was they didn't do gossip I think? Which was why Aamir Khan was on the cover of their first issue, and why I decided to "support" them by actually buying their monthly edition when I was in high school. Well, I didn't buy it as much as convinced the parents to subscribe to it via the newspaper-wala.<br />
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
This really wasn't the point of this post.<br />
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
So anyway, I read a lot of these magazines. And a moment that has always stuck with me is reading Filmfare while waiting for a waxing session in the salon I went to pretty much from when I started these things till when I moved away. And in the Readers' letters section, there was a letter from a woman who did not live in India (she may have been based in Singapore) who had written in about her biggest complaint about the movie Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna - that the characters played by Rani Mukherjee and Preity Zinta did not wear <i>sindoor </i>or <i>mangal sutras </i>in the movie, and what kind of world was this that married Indian women did not wear these things.<br />
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
That was her biggest issue about the movie, you guys. That in a movie about two loveless marriages and infidelity, the married women did not wear signs of being married. So what if even 13 years ago, a lot of women in India did not wear these on a daily basis. And having not actually seen the movie, I don't remember what part of India their characters were supposed to be from, but a <i>mangal sutra</i> isn't something every Indian, or even Hindu woman wears.<br />
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
But I remember being amazed that this woman had been so bothered by this fact that she actually sent a letter to Filmfare magazine. And I remember thinking that NRIs probably think of India as just being stuck in the time period that they left, and that nothing could have possibly changed. And it's something I occasionally worry about doing myself, so kindly send a virtual kick if you ever see me saying something about India that may have been true eight years ago, but no longer is.<br />
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
And I thought about this woman again today, when I listened to a podcast interview Seth Meyers did with Lilly Singh. Excited as I am to see a brown woman have a late night show of her own, I've never really watched her stuff on YouTube, and haven't particularly enjoyed whatever snippets or interviews I have seen. But I listened to the interview, and was utterly baffled when she started talking about moving from Canada to LA. Baffled because she talked about how this was unheard of in her family, because Indian women usually leave their parents' home only when they get married, and so for her to move countries for her career was a very big deal.<br />
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
Sigh.<br />
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
Look. I'm not saying it wasn't a big deal. As someone who moved out my parents' home and moved countries to go to grad school, I think it definitely is. And I'm not saying there isn't a huge number of Indian women who don't move out of their parent's home till they get married. I have friends who did that. I also have friends who moved out, either to study or for work. I have friends who moved away for college, and then moved back in when they returned to Delhi for a job. If I hadn't decided to go to grad school, and was still working in the same city, there's a good chance I would have still been living in the same house.<br />
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
But to just categorically say Indian women don't do this seems so absurd and outdated to me that I really am utterly baffled by her world view. Especially since it's not like she grew up in India where she would have seen it happen all the time. She grew up in Canada, and presumably knows other Canadian Indians, and/or has family and friends back in India and/or around the world. To make a sweeping statement like that is to make a generalization that is at least a few decades old, and it bothers me that someone who is being held up as the symbol of brown women* to the US would spout views like this.<br />
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
*Do NOT get me started on that other symbol, Priyanka Chopra. Pfft.</div>
</div>
a travellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02559346755503817562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32569513.post-37735322484985706322019-07-24T12:57:00.000-04:002019-07-24T16:04:49.967-04:00On my ongoing binge watch of Suits<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I restarted watching Suits. I had seen the first 5.5 seasons (or should that be 4.5 seasons? I had stopped after the Season 5 mid-season finale), but stopped for some reason after that. It was a show I used to love, and I had added it to my Amazon watchlist quite a while back. So a few weeks ago, with nothing else to do (well, with lots to do, but I may have been trying to procrastinate), I dove back into the show. I've been doing a couple of episodes a day, and I did take a break to binge watch the new season of Veronica Mars (#stillbitter), so I'm almost done with season 7 at this point - just three episodes left. And the same thoughts keep running through my head as I watch.<br />
<br />
In the years since I last watched the show, Meghan Markle got married to Prince Harry. And it is just <i>weird</i> to watch her on that show now. I don't know why it is, but it is. I know she leaves at the end of this season, but for now, there's just constantly a sense of "huh" as I watch her.<br />
<br />
Also, how do the female characters on the show get through their day dressed the way they dress? I mean, they all look gorgeous, and professional at the same time. But having now worked for several years in workplaces that have gone the "<a href="https://dustyrain.blogspot.com/2015/04/halka-aunty-style.html" target="_blank">dress for your day</a>" way, I would want to punch someone if I had to wear pencil skirts and heels every single day, for what seem to be twelve hour days. The only woman on that show who seems even remotely comfortably dressed is Paula, Harvey's therapist-turned-girlfriend, although I suspect she's about to disappear from the show (and I am not upset about that. We all know what the endgame of this show is, right? RIGHT?). Anyway, my world view of professional wardrobes is already very skewed thanks to the last several years, but I should note that I dressed relatively formally today due to annoying 9 am meeting so I'm not in my usual uniform of jeans, a Ann Taylor or Loft sleeveless top, and a cardigan. But I'm in the most comfortable formal dress I could find at Ann Taylor, and I will not end today by wanting to kill anyone. Well, I might, but it won't be because I was physically uncomfortable all day.<br />
<br />
(I should also note that I am currently watching the live stream of Robert Mueller's testimony to Congress, and how sad is it that even the photographers there have to be in a suit and tie. I would not survive in the world of politics. Or consulting. Or law, apparently.)<br />
<br />
And lastly, I don't know if I just forgot this about Suits, or the show has evolved in seasons 5 to 7, but man, are these characters flakes or what?! <br />
<br />
"I quit!" "Okay I don't!"<br />
"I need you to leave this firm!" "No, please stay!"<br />
"I want to work at a clinic!" "No I want to work at the firm!"<br />
"Let's get married tomorrow!" "Let's wait to plan the wedding we've dreamed of!" "We don't have time to get married!"<br />
<br />
MAKE UP YOUR MINDS, PEOPLE. AND STICK TO IT. <br />
<br />
Have they ever taken a decision that they didn't change their minds about five minutes later? I get whiplash from every single episode I watch on much back and forth they do. They really are the flakiest characters I have ever seen. Makes me feel much better about my constant waffling over things.<br />
<br />
Good show, though. I need to figure out how to watch the new season once I'm done with my catching up.</div>
a travellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02559346755503817562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32569513.post-91440533978264613852019-06-11T14:58:00.001-04:002019-06-11T14:58:18.607-04:00On the little things<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The last few months have seen big changes - a new job, a new city, a
trip home. It sometimes all still feels a little unreal. And while I
could, and should, write an entire post on those changes, it's a little
easier to, right now, write about the little things** - because, let's
face it, the little things is what I spend most of my time choosing to
obsess about anyway.<br />
<br />
I broke my nail last week, while
moving cubes. On the thumb of my right hand, which, as it turns out, I
use a lot more than I had realised. More than anything else, I use it a
gazillion times a day to do a fingerprint unlock of my phone. So on top
of being utterly painful, when I bandaged it for a day to stop the nail
from straight up peeling off, I had to keep remembering to use my left
hand to unlock my phone - always fun when you're carrying half a dozen
things and walking and trying to do everything at the same time.<br />
<br />
Can
I tell you the best thing about the new laptop they gave me at work? It
has this functionality where, if I have it set to mute, it
automatically turns the volume back on if I plug in earphones, or
connect a bluetooth headset. And then when I disconnect or unplug those,
it automatically goes back on mute. As someone who usually has Coke
Studio playing on YouTube, this is amazing. Also as someone who
previously had a work laptop that was possessed by ghosts, and would on
any given day throw a temper tantrum and decide whether or not it wanted
to connect to the Internet while either docked or undocked (but never
both), this is a level of technology at work that is blowing my mind.<br />
<br />
The
new workplace also has a furniture surplus room - you can go look at
what they have, select whatever is unclaimed, and they'll bring it to
your cube. When I was finally given a new cube two weeks ago, I went to
see if they had the same kind of tall cabinet a coworker had, because it
has plenty of drawers, and even a coat hanging cupboard. They did not
have it at the time, so I just picked something else. I went back there
yesterday, accompanying a coworker who needed to go, and as we walked
in, they were unloading a cabinet exactly like the one I wanted. I
claimed it immediately, and they came and swapped out cabinets for me
this morning. <br />
<br />
I'm telling y'all, it's the little things.<br />
<br />
**NOT
the web series that has become a Netflix show, even though I'm told I
should watch it because it's cute, so at some point I probably should,
especially since I am a huge fan of What the Folks, that was made by the
same people.</div>
a travellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02559346755503817562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32569513.post-29036080532771270552019-02-02T23:33:00.001-05:002020-03-03T14:09:11.488-05:00Locked out, Part 2<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div dir="ltr">
Okay, yes, I would like to preface this by saying this time it was absolutely my fault.<br />
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
I <i>could</i> try and explain it away by saying I hadn't been feeling very well all day - a general sluggisness and tiredness had been bothering me. But the truth is, it was just sheer... stupidity.<br />
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
Having decided to stay in town this weekend, the highlight of my weekend was going to be attending the birthday party of the three-year old son of a close friend. I had been charged with picking up the samosas for said party, arriving at 4 pm at their home (as opposed to party start time of 4.30 pm), and potentially carting both people and decorations/food from their home to the party venue. Due to aforementioned sluggishness, I was running late, and eventually left home without even remembering to wear any jewelry. <br />
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
I had to pick up a gift bag for the kid's gift on my way as well, and since there's a Walgreens right across the street from the samosa place, I decided to do that first. I came back to my car, opened the boot where I had kept the kid's gifts, packed it into the gift bag, and shut the boot. Only to realise I had left my car keys inside the boot, and the car was locked.<br />
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
I told my friends what was going on, called AAA, who said someone would arrive in 70 minutes, and fielded calls from the samosa place who wanted to know why I wasn't there yet. I also fielded off some supposedly helpful suggestions about trying to open the car door with a tennis ball - a, how, and b, in what universe does anyone think I just randomly carry tennis balls around with me? I also had to deal with a completely fair, but highly exasperated "Oh God!" from the newest reader of this blog, since she was the only one who knew about the <a href="https://dustyrain.blogspot.com/2019/01/locked-out.html">last incident of being locked out</a>, given that I went to stay with her that night.<br />
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
In any event, AAA showed up within half an hour, proving for the second time in a month that the previous five years of membership with zero usage was completely worth it. My car was unlocked within two minutes, and with a lot less eye rolling than the last time I had to call them in (to be clear, for something completely different, but equally my fault).<br />
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
And I was still the first person to arrive at the party. And the first comment I got was nothing to do with what had happened, but rather: "where are your earrings?!?"<br />
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
So anyway, you guys, 2019 continues to be an excellent year.</div>
</div>
a travellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02559346755503817562noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32569513.post-63728890630841456912019-01-23T23:33:00.002-05:002019-01-23T23:33:51.698-05:00Locked out<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I think it is time to just accept the fact that I am the sort of person things just... happen to. And while very, <i>very</i> often, it is partially, if not completely, my fault, this time it really wasn't. <br />
<br />
I think.<br />
<br />
Maybe?<br />
<br />
I live in a townhome format apartment complex, and each apartment has an attached garage. So I can either enter my home through the front door, or, as I am more likely to do, through the door connecting the garage to the apartment.<br />
<br />
About a month ago, the fob that opens and closes both the garage door and the gate to the apartment complex started acting up - it would open the garage door, but not close it. Initally, I thought it may be a battery issue, so I replaced that, but the issue persisted. So finally, this past Saturday, I went to my leasing office to talk to them about it, and they told me to leave it with them and they'd have it looked at on Monday when the maintenance folks came in. Since I'm never home during their working hours during the week, I told them to just leave it in my garage when they were done, and in the meantime, I'd use the switch on the wall to close my garage door, and enter and exit through the front door.<br />
<br />
When I got home on Monday, there was no sign of the fob. Unsurprised, partially because I have lived here for four years, and partially because it was MLK Day, I figured I'll give them another day before I try to plan my calendar so I can get home early enough to go talk to them.<br />
<br />
Tuesday morning, however, was my cleaning ladies' monthly visit. They usually arrive around 8.30 am, and I leave soon after, and when they're done, they lock the front door, and leave through the garage. I have never given them a spare key, and so far this arrangement has worked.<br />
<br />
Tuesday evening, I went to get my nails done after work. Then, on the way home, I stopped at a Mediterranean restaurant that I have passed several times and been meaning to try, to pick up dinner. So by the time I pulled up outside my apartment, it was 7.39 pm. I remember the time, because I remember seeing it and thinking, great, I have twenty minutes before This is Us begins.<br />
<br />
Except I couldn't get in. In their infinite wisdom, the cleaning ladies had double locked my front door. And I didn't have my fob.<br />
<br />
I tried calling the 24x7 maintenance helpline, who, again unsurprisingly, were of no help whatsoever. First they couldn't figure out why I couldn't get in. Finally, after being transferred to a supervisor, who understood my issue after the thirs explanation, they tried to figure out if they had an emergency key that could open the garage door. Shocker - they didn't. Their bright suggestion was to call a locksmith, and when I asked what a locksmith could do when my door was double locked, they said, "oh yeah, I guess he'll have to break the door down." Which is just a <i>fantastic </i>idea when you live alone, and it's already 8 pm.<br />
<br />
So I called a friend and asked if could crash at her place for the night - something that caused her two year old son to be extremely surprised this morning when he saw me appear out of nowhere at breakfast. I was at my leasing office when they opened at 9 am this morning, and explained the problem. They rummaged through their table, and found my fob - which had been fixed and then <i>dropped back in the leasing office after I had explained I'm never home when they're open.</i><br />
<br />
I got into my apartment, texted confirmation to my friend, showered and changed, and got to work at 10.30 am. Which was a good thing, because I had back to back meetings today from 11 am till 5 pm.<br />
<br />
And then I came home, watched This is Us on Hulu while having chocolate mousse that I had bought on the weekend, and wrote about the last 24 hours of my life.<br />
<br />
<br />
So anyway, you guys, 2019 is off to a rocking start. </div>
a travellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02559346755503817562noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32569513.post-8800880395551835292019-01-08T11:15:00.000-05:002019-10-31T13:58:07.860-04:00On 2018: the year in review<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I woke up on January 2 to a text from Friend of the Blog**, <a href="https://twitter.com/moronmoron" target="_blank">@mayavie</a>, asking if we are doing, and I quote, "the 2018 round up blog post or what?" It's taken me a week, but it looks like we are.<br />
<br />
Let me just begin by saying 2018 was a very strange year, even by strange year standards. It oscillated between being fantastic and awful in ways that truly did make my head spin at times. The highs were among the best times of my life, some of the lows came close to being among the worst.<br />
<br />
I was complaining about the oscillation to my father one day, some months ago, and he laughingly said maybe I needed the lows to balance out the highs. Maybe I did, but not to this extent.<br />
<br />
I didn't write last year. I tried, at least for the first 2-3 months of the year, but after that, just stopped. My drafts section is currently half a dozen barely started ramblings, and for some of them, I can't even remember what the point was supposed to be. And that to me, feels stranger than a lot of other things, because in the past, being upset has usually been a trigger to write. I still think some of my best posts have been when I have been completely worked up and hammered out a furious tirade. But this year, barring one or two occasions, I couldn't find the energy to <i>vent</i> on this blog. Partially because, I think, I wasn't angry as much as just... upset. But still.<br />
<br />
But this annual round up is warranted, I think. If nothing else, it gives me the chance to reflect. So, here we go.<br />
<br />
<br />
1. <b>What did you do in 2018 that you’d never done before?</b><br />
<br />
Visited three new countries.<br />
<br />
Developed allergies to things I have been fine with all my life.<br />
<br />
Oh, and I got my Green Card.<br />
<br />
<br />
2. <b>Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?</b><br />
<br />
I did not keep either of the goals I listed in last year's round up. Ideally, this year, I would like to double down on both of them. I'd also like to start eating healthier, and cook more.<br />
<br />
<br />
3. <b>Did anyone close to you give birth?</b><br />
<br />
I feel like someone did, but for the life of me I can't remember who.<br />
<br />
<br />
4. <b>Did anyone close to you die?</b><br />
<br />
No one close to me, no.<br />
<br />
<br />
5. <b>What places did you visit?</b><br />
<br />
Ah, the fun one, and honestly, what gave me the highs of this year. Let's do this by month, shall we? And let's have a little drumroll first:<br />
<i>January </i>- New York, for work<br />
<i>February </i>- Zilch, because I was ramping up for March<br />
<i>March </i>- Chicago, for work; NEW ZEALAND, very much NOT for work; and then Ohio, but really Kentucky, for work again; and then technically I guess Germany was also in March because I went over Easter weekend<br />
<i>April </i>- Milwaukee and Chicago, this time to prove my love for one of the gal pals given that it was 27 C/80 F where I live, and below freezing where she was visiting family (#notbitteratall); back to school for my five year reunion for B-school<br />
<i>May </i>- Jacksonville, FL, for work; New York, again, for work; Chicago, over Memorial Day weekend, because the mother was visiting me to help with my meltdown over my allergies, and the brother got sent to Chicago for a project, and we ended up having a lovely little weekend despite everything<br />
<i>June </i>- Weekend trip to Bozeman, MT, to drive to Yellowstone and Grand Teton, which means I knocked Wyoming off my list as well; Philadelphia and Wilmington, DE, for work. Which means I knocked FOUR new states in less than a week, which is something that excited me tremendously<br />
<i>July </i>- Prague, Santorini, and Greece - two new countries for me, and a trip that for the second time in the year truly made me feel blessed to have the life I do, if I was the kind of person who ever felt blessed. On my return, Tucson, AZ, for work, but since this was my fifth new state of the year, I went in early and spent the weekend driving around. And then Jacksonville, FL, again, for work.<br />
<i>August </i>- Charleston, SC, for work. But while this wasn't a new state, it was a new city for me, and one that had been on my list for a while, so again, I decided to stay back for the weekend this time, and explore.<br />
<i>September </i>- The brother was sent to Amreeka for another project, this time to the Bay Area. So I went to visit him one weekend, and fitted in a friend's housewarming, and dinner with yet another friend. So much socializing from me - who'da thunk.<br />
<i>October </i>- I had planned a day trip to Houston for a visa interview, but then headed to Charlotte where meetings had got tacked on for the day after, all while a tropical storm and/or hurricane was expected through these places, so that was a fun week. One trip back to New York for work, and then another to LA for work.<br />
<i>November </i>- India, for Diwali, where I went to Kolkata after two years, and then home for the rest of the trip.<br />
<i>December </i>- S came to stay with me for ten days over the holidays, and we did one weekend trip to San Antonio, and a road trip to Louisiana, which included, but is not limited to: a tour of the Tabasco factory, a couple of days in New Orleans, a speeding ticket, running out of gas and having to call AAA in the middle of nowhere, multiple hotel mishaps, and lots of fried chicken and Bloody Maries***.<br />
<br />
<br />
6. <b>What would you like to have in 2019 that you lacked in 2018?</b><br />
<br />
Less oscillation.<br />
<br />
<br />
7. <b>What date from 2018 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?</b><br />
<br />
<a href="https://dustyrain.blogspot.com/2018/02/if.html" target="_blank">February 14</a><br />
March 11 and 12 - my birthday, and the next day; See #31 below<br />
The May trip to New York, while a patch test to detect allergies was all over my back<br />
July 7 - the day I stood in front of the Acropolis in Athens<br />
November 5-9 - the mother's birthday, Chhoti Diwali, Diwali, and Bhai phonta - all spent with my entire family, at home, after seven long years<br />
<br />
<br />
8. <b>What was your biggest achievement of the year?</b><br />
<br />
Other than the amount of travel I got in? The green card, I guess. Only time in my life I've had reason to be grateful to the mother being stubborn and refusing to go back to India to give birth to me.<br />
Professionally, while this year sucked in many, many ways, we also had a biggish product launch in July that I had led, lived and breathed for the previous 18 months. And while I may not feel like I got the credit I deserved for the launch, I was and am incredibly proud of that product.<br />
<br />
<br />
9. <b>What was your biggest failure?</b><br />
<br />
Not finding a new job. I was tempted to say the same as last year, but that's not entirely accurate, since I did get out of my limbo somewhat, albeit not enough.<br />
<br />
<br />
10. <b>Did you suffer illness or injury?</b><br />
<br />
Yes.<br />
Exhibit A: <a href="https://dustyrain.blogspot.com/2018/05/where-we-realise-what-makeup-addict-we.html" target="_blank">May</a><br />
Exhibit B: <a href="https://dustyrain.blogspot.com/2018/07/can-we-just-not.html" target="_blank">July</a><br />
<br />
<br />
11. <b>What was the best thing you bought?</b><br />
<br />
My Instant Pot. Also the Ello camper's mug that I seem to have become an unpaid brand ambassador for over the past week.<br />
<br />
<br />
12. <b>Whose behaviour merited celebration?</b><br />
<br />
My parents, for listening to me whine about the year, rolling their eyes about my whining, but being there through it all.<br />
All the women who have come forward this year, with stories of harassment, abuse, and trauma. The women who have named names, and just been so very brave.<br />
<br />
<br />
13. <b>Whose behaviour made you appalled and/or depressed?</b><br />
<br />
Have you <i>seen</i> the news this year?<br />
<br />
<br />
14. <b>Where did most of your money go?</b><br />
<br />
On travel, which is not a terrible way to spend money, but would have been nice if I had realised just how frickin' expensive New Zealand is. Also on electronics that we shall not talk about.<br />
<br />
<br />
15. <b>What did you get really, really, really excited about?</b><br />
<br />
The three big trips.<br />
<br />
<br />
16. <b>What song will always remind you of 2018?</b><br />
<br />
I don't think there is one, unless I should rattle off a bunch of Coke Studio songs simply by virtue of how many times I listened to them this year.<br />
<br />
<br />
17. <b>Compared to this time last year, are you happier or sadder?</b><br />
<br />
Neither, honestly. Just... low. Which I suppose means sadder. But I don't feel that's fair, because there were <i>good</i> things that happened in 2018. So I don't know. I'm just going to stop rambling now, and say... neither.<br />
<br />
<br />
18. <b>Thinner or fatter?</b><br />
<br />
Fatter.<br />
<br />
<br />
19. <b>What do you wish you’d done more of?</b><br />
<br />
Cooked. Said no to people. Looked for a job.<br />
<br />
<br />
20. <b>What do you wish you’d done less of?</b><br />
<br />
Literally the same thing as last year - sat on the couch.<br />
<br />
<br />
21. <b>How will you be spending Christmas?</b><br />
<br />
Spent it exchanging gifts with S, went out to have pani puri so I could inaugurate the gol gappa themed t-shirt she gifted me, and then having chicken pot pie for dinner. Chicken pot pie from a ready-to-eat meals store/restaurant here is my go-to meal for any Thanksgiving and Christmas that I am staying in, and as it now turns out, S's favourite thing for NYE as well.<br />
<br />
<br />
22. <b>Did you fall in love in 2018?</b><br />
<br />
No. Ain't got no time for that.<br />
<br />
<br />
23. <b>How many one-night stands?</b><br />
<br />
My answer hasn't changed from last year.<br />
<br />
<br />
24. <b>What was your favourite TV programme?</b><br />
<br />
I actually stopped watching TV very much this year. I think there was a two month period when I didn't switch on my TV at all, which by my standards is just strange on another level altogether. But I finally watched all two seasons of The Crown, finished the last season of Broadchurch, and thoroughly enjoyed the second season of What the Folks, which is a web series on YouTube all of you should be watching.<br />
<br />
<br />
25. <b>Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?</b><br />
<br />
No one <i>new</i> that I can think of. My hatred for a specific coworker may have intensified further, due to said coworker being a complete and utter douchebag.<br />
<br />
<br />
26. <b>What was the best book you read?</b><br />
<br />
I read literally nothing other than Nora Roberts this year, and I have decided to stop feeling guilty about this. I don't like it, but I think it's time to stop pretending I am a reader, and accept the fact that I suffer from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsundoku" target="_blank">Tsundoku</a>, which is a word I learned recently from the <a href="https://mavericksmusing2.wordpress.com/2019/01/05/words-2/" target="_blank">blog</a> of someone I am very glad has started blogging more regularly off late.<br />
<br />
<br />
27. <b>What was your greatest musical discovery?</b><br />
<br />
I really didn't listen to anything other than Coke Studio Pakistan this year.<br />
<br />
<br />
28. <b>What did you want and get?</b><br />
<br />
Travel.<br />
<br />
<br />
29. <b>What did you want and not get?</b><br />
<br />
A new job. An allergy that wouldn't have impacted my life the way this one did. Couldn't I have been allergic to, I dunno, alligator meat instead of shellfish?<br />
<br />
<br />
30. <b>What was your favourite film of this year?</b><br />
<br />
I enjoyed all the MCU movies this year, although I need April 2019 to get here fast. I also thoroughly enjoyed Netflix's two romcoms - To All The Boys I've loved Before, and Set it Up.<br />
Also, from Bollywood, Raazi, Stree and Andhadhun were all fantastic.<br />
I had complicated thoughts about Crazy Rich Asians and Veere di Wedding, but got around to writing about only one of them.<br />
<br />
<br />
31. <b>What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?</b><br />
<br />
First of all, I declared two days of it-is-my-birthday this year, because we were in New Zealand, and let's face it, the next day was when most of my friends were wishing me anyway.<br />
The day itself was spent winery hopping, and the next day was spent in Hobbiton. And it was FABULOUS.<br />
I turned a year older than last year, thank you for asking.<br />
<br />
<br />
32. <b>What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?</b><br />
<br />
It's hard to name one thing this year, you guys, it really is.<br />
<br />
<br />
33. <b>How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2018?</b><br />
<br />
I doubled down on the notion that if something I found is working for me, I will buy it in every colour available. This is especially true of, but not limited to, shoes and tops.<br />
<br />
<br />
34. <b>What kept you sane?</b><br />
<br />
My family and friends. One of the best things about this year was that way more loved ones from back home came to visit Amreeka. One of the gal pals visited her family, the brother got sent on projects twice, S came to stay with me, and of course, the mother, when I needed her. And the reunion this year also gave a lot of feels.<br />
Given how worked up I also was about politics this year, all the podcasts I listen to also helped.<br />
<br />
<br />
35. <b>Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?</b><br />
<br />
This answer has also not changed from last year. Seth Meyers is one of two men in American television I still hold out hope for, and will be <i>crushed</i> if this has to change.<br />
But I will add to it by saying, I started following a lot of desi comedians who I actually enjoy and don't just follow for twitter jokes, both in India and the US - Kunal Kamra, Hari Kondabolu, Hasan Minhaj, and Kiran Deol - who admittedly I know of only via the Hysteria podcast, which is <i>fantastic</i> and something I did not realise I needed before it started.<br />
<br />
<br />
36. <b>What political issue stirred you the most?</b><br />
<br />
What didn't?<br />
The Parkland shooting happened on <a href="https://dustyrain.blogspot.com/2018/02/if.html" target="_blank">February 14</a>, and I heard about it after getting home from what was already a very traumatic day for me. But what gave me hope over the months that followed was the way those kids, those survivors, responded. I went to a March for Our Lives march this year, and came away thinking the kids will be alright, because they've got this.<br />
The 2018 mid-term elections were also something that I was following closely. I didn't get involved the way I would have liked, for a variety of reasons, but I was following. And that is something I also need to introspect on at some time.<br />
<br />
<br />
37. <b>Who did you miss?</b><br />
<br />
It's always friends and family, but one of the good things about this year was that I did get more of them than I have in recent years.<br />
<br />
<br />
38. <b>Who was the best new person you met?</b><br />
<br />
I didn't really meet too many new people this year. It's hard enough being social with people I like; I don't expand my social circle very often.<br />
<br />
<br />
39. <b>Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2018.</b><br />
<br />
Reach out.<br />
<br />
<br />
40. <b>Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.</b><br />
<br />
I honestly can't think of anything.<br />
<br />
<br />
** I am doubling down on this phrase as well, yes.<br />
*** What <i>is </i>the plural of Bloody Mary? Bloody Maries? Bloody Marys? I don't like the drink, people, I don't know what the plural is.</div>
a travellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02559346755503817562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32569513.post-89857801592226926362018-12-17T18:23:00.002-05:002018-12-17T18:23:45.267-05:00On the way I speak<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
When the brother moved to Boston for college, now more than a decade ago, it took us a while to realise that he had developed an American accent, because for some reason, his accent appeared only when he spoke with Americans. I think the first time we all collectively realised it was when some of his college friends came to stay with us one summer, and we suddenly realised he sounded very different while speaking to them than when he spoke with us.<br />
<br />
Some months after that, I was on the phone with him after he was back in Boston. A friend asked him something, so he turned to them to respond, and I could hear the accent creep back in. I teased him when he came back on the phone, and I remember him exclaiming, "dammit, I thought I was talking in my Indian voice tonight!"<br />
<br />
When I moved to the US, I would periodically ask folks back at home if I had an accent yet, and was always assured I did not. I knew that even before I moved here I had a more anglicized way of speaking than perhaps the average Indian, so I always hoped that I wouldn't develop much of an accent and just continue to speak the same way.<br />
<br />
My hopes were dashed the week before my graduation. My parents and brother had come to attend my graduation, and a couple of days after they arrived, I was on the phone with a friend. Midway through the call, she suddenly laughed and said, "you sound so much more Indian now that your family's here." When I ended the call, my father suddenly commented, "well, you had a definite twang while talking to her."<br />
<br />
Needless to say, I was very confused.<br />
<br />
I moved to Texas after graduation, and despite my ex-boss's warning to not develop a Texan accent, the word <i>y'all</i> entered my vocabulary very quickly. About a year after I moved here, I was talking about a former coworker, and found myself saying "bless her heart, but..." completely unironically, and knew it was too late.<br />
<br />
My American coworkers now all laugh at how my voice organically becomes "more Indian" when talking to South Asian coworkers (there really are several). One particular coworker, <a href="http://dustyrain.blogspot.com/2016/10/work-conversations.html" target="_blank">who I do not like at all</a>, has always been very blatant about eavesdropping on all conversations that go on around him, and once had the actual audacity to complain that he couldn't understand what me and another coworker were saying whenever we were talking, regardless of whether we spoke in English and Hindi, because our accents became "too Indian" for him to follow from his cube. I of course made sure all subsequent conversations were always in Hindi.<br />
<br />
But just like my brother didn't all those years ago, I don't usually realise whether I'm sounding "more Indian" or "more American". Recently though, that changed.<br />
<br />
I am currently the product owner for the business teams for a large IT project. I've only been trying to get this project funded and kicked off since I joined this team four years ago, and now that it finally seems to be happening, it is consuming all my hours at work. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, a lot of the folks from IT working on this project happen to be Indian. I'm very often in a meeting room full of Indians, with only one or two non-Indians, and sometimes have to pause the conversation to remind people that just because I look like this does not mean I understand any of what they're saying and can they please break it down for me in layman's terms for the love of God.<br />
<br />
Last week, one particular meeting had me, two architects from two different teams, and my lead developer - all of us Indian - in the room with our IT Program Manager, and my teammate from the business, neither of whom are Indian. The latter two were not really speaking much during the discussion, and given the topics of discussion, I was being... animate.<br />
<br />
And suddenly, I could hear myself clearly. During a lull in the conversation, I IM'd my teammate: "I can <i>feel </i>my accent being extra Indian in this meeting."<br />
<br />
I promptly got two IMs in rapid succession:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
HAHAHAHHA<br />yea girl i can hear it</blockquote>
In fairness, the girl is 25.<br />
<br />
But yes, my accent now flips between being <i>Indian</i> and <i>American</i>, and occasionally, depending on how emotional I am about a topic, <i>Southern</i> as well apparently.<br />
<br /></div>
a travellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02559346755503817562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32569513.post-33475245632040586282018-08-16T11:56:00.005-04:002018-08-16T11:56:50.144-04:00Movie watching thoughts: Crazy Rich Asians<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I'm trying to figure out if I'm just being small-minded and inward looking with my mixed feelings about Crazy Rich Asians, or if the fact that I went to see it with some very "woke" people who <em>loved</em> the movie meant I couldn't really articulate my feelings about it at the time.<br />
<br /><br />
I liked the movie. It was fun, the performances were brilliant, and Nick's single minded approach to trying all the food possible on his first night back in Singapore was <em>completely</em> understandable. Also, it was very Bollywood. The basic difference between Crazy Rich Asians and every ridiculous rich people movie I saw growing up in the 90s and early 2000s, was that, unlike Karan Johan and Sooraj Barjatya, Jon Chu made a really good movie. Also the prospective bahu stood up to her prospective mother-in-law a lot more than anyone in K3G ever did. <br />
<br /><br />
Here's what bothered me. Before the movie started, they were doing clips showcasing the actors for the movie, and then did a slidereel of the history of Asian actors in Hollywood. And somewhere in the mix Indian American actors like Kal Penn were shown, as well as clips from The Namesake. And then, at the end of the slide reel, they put up a caption remind us that this is the first movie since 1993 to have movie with a majority Asian cast in a contemporary setting. To which I say, then what was <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2018/08/15/638775885/in-crazy-rich-asians-jon-chu-directs-all-asian-cast" target="_blank">The Namesake</a>? <br />
<br /><br />
And I get it. I get how important this movie is to the Asian American community, and why this matters. But I've always struggled with the fact that India, and the South Asian subcontinent, gets called Asian when it's convenient, and gets tossed to the side when it's not. If we're making the point that this is the first movie in 25 years with an Asian cast, and we're excluding The Namesake from that narrative, then don't toss it into the slide reel either, right?<br />
<br /><br />
And granted, I have only visited Singapore for three days, almost 15 years ago, but I'm very sure there were more South Asians there at the time then movie showed. Which, again, is fine, because maybe they weren't part of the setting this movie showcased. But. BUT. How is it that every guard of a fancy hotel or mansion that the movie showed somehow managed to be a Sardar?<br />
<br /><br />
Look, I loved the movie. There's so much even I could identify with. The guilt tripping laid on kids by their parents. The love for family and food back home. How <em>good</em> it is to go back home every time you do, the catching up with old friends and families. The little throwaway lines that showed that people really are the same, everywhere.<br />
<br /><br />
And a lot of the movie brought back the feelings I've also always had, of being a probashi Bangali, growing up in Delhi, only visiting Kolkata occasionally for a few days during school vacations. My cousins made fun of how terrible my Bengali is, how my accent is "so Delhi". I felt out of place with my Delhi friends at times, but even more out of place with most Bengalis I knew. Those feelings span cultures - anyone who has grown up in a place that is different from the place their parents belong to struggle with that a bit, I think. And watching Rachel's character navigate Singapore, and reading the <a href="https://www.vox.com/first-person/2018/8/8/17662164/crazy-rich-asians-movie-premiere" target="_blank">reactions</a> of Asian Americans to watching that, brought a lot of those feelings back.<br />
<br /><br />
But, let's just decide if Indians count as Asians or not, 'kay?<br />
<br /></div>
a travellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02559346755503817562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32569513.post-18131512639319543772018-07-20T00:16:00.001-04:002018-07-20T00:16:38.979-04:00Can we just not<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
You guys, I would just like to say, enough is enough. I have had periods of nonstop injury and/or illness in the past, documented <a href="http://dustyrain.blogspot.com/2011/08/ow.html" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="http://dustyrain.blogspot.com/2013/04/a-walking-talking-disaster.html" target="_blank">here</a>. But these last few months have really taken it to a whole new level. Because it's really never been so prolonged.<br />
<br />
It started with the <a href="http://dustyrain.blogspot.com/2018/05/where-we-realise-what-makeup-addict-we.html" target="_blank">allergies</a>. Which eventually got so bad that two days after irritatedly telling my mother she shouldn't fuss and there was no need to come to me, I called her and tearfully asked if she could come. Except <i>she</i> hadn't bothered telling me that she was unwell, and as a result, by the time she eventually did come, I was much better, and close to finding out the cause of my allergies.<br />
<br />
Which, as it turned out, were two things. Shellfish. And nickel. SHELLFISH AND NICKEL. Shellfish, which includes every kind of seafood I like. And nickel, which apparently is present in most costume jewelry. SHELLFISH AND NICKEL. What is even the point of life anymore I don't know.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xVMlUzuJno8/WCSRfypNhLI/AAAAAAAAVvk/t_8St2hImU0kSC9MHDUMIMkXVG_qyYJ8gCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/tumblr_inline_ofmc8pRWWj1sgb8a7_500.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="213" data-original-width="500" height="136" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xVMlUzuJno8/WCSRfypNhLI/AAAAAAAAVvk/t_8St2hImU0kSC9MHDUMIMkXVG_qyYJ8gCPcBGAYYCw/s320/tumblr_inline_ofmc8pRWWj1sgb8a7_500.gif" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Look at her earrings, you guys.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<br />
But. Moving on.<br />
<br />
Then, on one of my weekend trips soon after my mother left, I managed to sprain my back, which knocked the wind out of me for almost a week. During said week I was also travelling for work, so of course that was fun.<br />
<br />
The weekend after that, I was at a friend's place and scraped my shin against the steps to her pool, and then ended up with a <a href="https://twitter.com/a_traveller/status/1011701470603948032" target="_blank">cold</a> and cough, that persisted all week till I left for vacation.<br />
<br />
Said vacation, thank the lords, was relatively uneventful. If you discount the teensy weensy car accident we had where we jerked our necks a bit but were fine by the next day. The poor car, of course, wasn't, but we were, so we're ignoring this incident.<br />
<br />
Amidst all of this of course is the fact that it is summer and all the insects in the world are heading straight to me, and so I have bites and scabs popping up all over my feet and arms.<br />
<br />
And then, yesterday, in a truly spectacular fashion, I managed to top my entire summer's worth of illness and injury.<br />
<br />
I had an offsite meeting in the morning, and had just about managed to find a parking spot. I was walking into the building with a coworker, carrying, as is usual with me, one bulging purse weighing twenty pounds (or so my coworker later claimed), one tiny suitcase, and a ceramic carry mug with tea in it. And somehow, as we were crossing the street leading to the building, my right foot twisted, I teetered for about 10 seconds trying to regain balance, and eventually just went down FLAT on my face, sprawled in the middle of the road. And of course it was the one day when I had actually checked the weather, seen it was going to be 107F/42C, and decided to wear a dress. So there I was, doing <i>sashtang pranam</i> in the middle of the road, with tea that had splashed all over my face and hair, and two scraped and bloody knees.<br />
<br />
Are scraped knees really supposed to be this painful? Because here I am, 36 hours later, still not being able to sit comfortably, or take the stairs easily, and texting my local friend circle to see who has <i>salwars </i>they can lend me for the next week, because I definitely need the loosest clothing possible till this blessed scab goes away.<br />
<br />
So, all in all, 2018 is not going very well so far (if you discount the fantastic vacations, that is). And if I could just go at least the rest of the month, if not year, without any further ridiculous or traumatic incident, that would be great. Because I'm really tired of walking into places and have people go, "oh yeah, I heard that happened to you... how you doing?"<br />
<br />
</div>
a travellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02559346755503817562noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32569513.post-52529013794927662012018-05-08T18:57:00.002-04:002018-07-18T11:44:56.534-04:00Where we realise what a makeup addict we have become<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
"Is something... going on with your eyes?"<br />
<br />
"Yes. Yes there is."<br />
<br />
This was a conversation I had yesterday with a coworker while heating up my <i>rajma chawal</i> for lunch. And then later in the afternoon, I met a friend who hadn't seen me in a while, who shrieked and said: "What happened to you?!"<br />
<br />
Because, clearly, the people who do see me every day are too nice to tell me how bad I really look. But yes, the area around my eyes currently looks like what the internet tells me is called a sharpei dog.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PMedFH-4ndM/WvCR6j6hxBI/AAAAAAAAhfY/ERXgOPLULDY9_XAzgCDIiL_LQbIRzYBigCLcBGAs/s1600/b4abb8e36f0b8e32e99cf8e898daa2c6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="401" data-original-width="402" height="198" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PMedFH-4ndM/WvCR6j6hxBI/AAAAAAAAhfY/ERXgOPLULDY9_XAzgCDIiL_LQbIRzYBigCLcBGAs/s200/b4abb8e36f0b8e32e99cf8e898daa2c6.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<br />
Which, let's be honest, is a lot better than I did two weeks ago, which was basically exactly how Harry looked after they were captured by the Snatchers and Hermione jinxed him.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-P3HIbyEjwE8/WvCSzkOsCPI/AAAAAAAAhfg/nb25nh6U3MUmv2Qb-uZdGBcGAcWeqSu8wCLcBGAs/s1600/WhatsApp%2BImage%2B2018-04-25%2Bat%2B19.51.24.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="677" data-original-width="1426" height="151" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-P3HIbyEjwE8/WvCSzkOsCPI/AAAAAAAAhfg/nb25nh6U3MUmv2Qb-uZdGBcGAcWeqSu8wCLcBGAs/s320/WhatsApp%2BImage%2B2018-04-25%2Bat%2B19.51.24.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Except I couldn't open either eye at the time.<br />
<br />
We can get into what exactly happened to cause all of this at another time, but right now, can I just say, for someone who used to put no makeup other than eyeliner till about two years ago, when exactly did makeup become so important to me?<br />
<br />
This entire allergy nonsense started over a weekend. The first Monday after it started, I took photos of what I was looking like before and after I put makeup, and man, have I become <i>really good</i> at applying makeup. Of course, by the next day, my face was so swollen that no amount of makeup was going to do any good, but that one day, I was so freakin' proud of my skills.<br />
<br />
For two weeks now, I've been banned from makeup. I get the need to avoid it for now, but when you look the way I currently do, and you're not allowed to put anything that would hide it, it really does do something to your self-esteem.<br />
<br />
I've been rebelling a little - I'm still using mascara and perfume (I'd put eyeliner too, but that's kinda hard to do when you can't find your eyeline). Neither of those things is making me look any better, but they make me <i>feel</i> better.<br />
<br />
The good news is, we seem to be getting closer to figuring out what may have caused this (and I am <i>not</i> happy about the findings, but that's yet another rant for another day). And so when I cautiously asked this afternoon if I can start applying makeup again, I was told I can "start testing it out and see what happens".<br />
<br />
So hopefully, tomorrow when I walk into work, I'll be looking less zombie-like, and see fewer people stop in their tracks when they see me, and then quickly glance away politely.<br />
<br />
Gah.<br />
<br /></div>
a travellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02559346755503817562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32569513.post-8516820211300576502018-03-31T18:02:00.002-04:002018-04-03T12:43:07.939-04:00Of solo trips and chocolate nostalgia<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
At this point, if you're still a reader of this blog, chances are you know me from real life somehow, and therefore have a sense of the amount I travel, as well as a vague sense of the how/why behind it. From 2014 to 2017, according to the site I use to track these things, I have apparently averaged nearly 83,000 miles of flying every year. And have already crossed 25,000 miles in 2018.<br />
<br />
A lot of that flying was for work (I could tell you exactly how much, because that site tracks everything about your flights), but a significant chunk was for personal trips as well. The personal trips probably make up most of those miles, to be honest - work trips might have been more frequent, but the personal trips have been to more distant places.<br />
<br />
I've done all kinds of personal travel in the last four years - solo trips, random day trips, trips with friends, trips with family, 24 hour trips, 48 hours trips. The one thing I hadn't done so far was a solo trip to a place where I don't speak the language.<br />
<br />
Well, that changed this weekend.<br />
<br />
I finally got around to applying for and getting my Schengen visa at the end of last year. They gave it to me for six months, and I knew I had to use it at least twice to make it worthwhile. A longer trip is being planned for this summer, but I wanted to use it over a long weekend as well. We get Good Friday off, and I figured... why not Germany?<br />
<br />
So I flew to Frankfurt Thursday evening, landing Friday morning. I chose a hotel using my usual criteria whenever I travel alone - look at the chain I usually stick to, and pick whatever hotel they have closest to the main area of the city. In this case, Frankfurt's Central Station, because the plan was to to do a day trip to Heidelberg on Saturday, which was today and then fly back Sunday, i.e., tomorrow.<br />
<br />
There is a reason I wanted to go to Heidelberg, and I'll come to that towards the end of this post. But first, a few musings on this trip overall:<br />
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>The kind of a traveler I am makes it easy for me to travel alone. I like seeing historical things, and I like seeing cliched touristy stuff. So it's easy for me to pick up a travel guide, and just hit the road. Every single guide book I own has every place I've seen or visited meticulously ticked off, a fact that makes friends who then borrow said guide books from me roll their eyes.</li>
<li>The kind of introvert I am also makes it easy for me to travel alone, but also has issues. I invariably realise either halfway through a trip, or after the fact, that I know someone in the city I've visited, and it's too late to reach out.</li>
<li>Selfies are <i>hard</i> to take. Thankfully, the world is full of tourists who offer to and/or agree to take a photo of you (and your group, if you're not alone), and then gratefully accept your offer to take a photo of their group. I met a very sweet German couple today who agreed to take a photo of me, and then very shyly agreed to let me take a photo of them. The gentleman asked me very grimly if I was from India, which initially made me wonder if we had done something to offend him. He and his wife respectfully minded the gap and stood three inches apart for their photo, and then he coaxed her to take out her own camera to get me to click some photos on that as well, which she blushingly did. He then proceeded to ask me where in India I was from, and when I asked him in return if he had been, he said no. He's only been to Karachi in Pakistan. Which left me even more confused.</li>
<li>The one thing I am not good at doing is dining alone in restaurants. I invariably grab something to go, or get something back to the hotel room to eat. I need to get better at exploring restaurants and cuisines when I do my solo trips. This trip was relatively easier though: a touristy curry sausage place in the square in Frankfurt yesterday, a crepes stall in the MarktPlatz, and of course, a McDonald's at the train station - none of these needed me to walk into a restaurant and ask for a table for one.</li>
<li>Yes, McDonald's. I have now been to this chain and had their McChicken burger in at least half a dozen countries (except Japan, where I ended up with a Chicken Teriyaki burger). And every single country I've been to does it better than Amreeka. But no one does it better than India. </li>
<li>This trip is my first time to Europe since moving to Amreeka. I've done the UK several times, including a two month "study" abroad stint, but never mainland Europe. Which also means this was the first trip to Europe since <a href="http://dustyrain.blogspot.de/2010/04/travel-notes-story-finally.html" target="_blank">this wonderful trip</a>. And I am pleased to report that I have neither lost anything nor been robbed so far. Of course, we have another twelve hours or so till my flight takes off tomorrow, so who knows what'll happen in the interim.</li>
<li>The big thing I was worried about was the language barrier, because like I said, I've never travelled alone to a place where I don't know the local language. I've always had at least a friend with me who knows the local language enough to get us by. I mean, okay, Chennai a decade ago when I used to go for work might be the exception, and I might still have nightmares about my trips there, but other than that I mean. Surprisingly, it wasn't as much of an issue. Most people knew enough English to understand me, which was great since all I know is Danke, which I realised I'd been saying wrong all along only this evening. What was actually trickier was navigating, because the road signs are all in German, and the walking tour maps I had was using English names for a lot of places.</li>
<li>And lastly, I may need to revise my hotel picking strategy. Years ago, when I would plan trips, tripadvisor was my first stop. In the past five years, my interest in loyalty programs has grown into a full-fledged obsession, so for the most part, I simply use my chain plus location plus price method of choosing where to stay. And so I've stopped looking at reviews as much. Which is why I didn't realise, till I was looking at the Yelp reviews of a very highly rated curry sausage literally right next door to my hotel, that the two streets on either side of my hotel are red light areas. The street in front of my hotel is fine, and two streets over is the main street of the city (complete with Indian restaurants, including a Saravanaa Bhavan, obvs), but those two streets are to be avoided apparently. Which was reiterated by the hotel receptionist when I was asking what to go see in Frankfurt. She point out points of interest, and then drew big crosses on the two streets on either side, telling me to avoid them completely. Oh, well. ¯\(ツ)/¯</li>
</ul>
<div>
So. The reason I wanted to visit Heidelberg. <i>Years</i> ago, when I was still in high school I think (so literally, 15-20 years ago at this point, because I'm old), the father had visited Heidelberg for work a few times, and had always come back with gorgeous photos of the castle. And this one time, he attended some sort of conference, where they gave him a box of chocolates to bring back. Called Heidelstones. They were cubes of chocolate, and inside were layers of jam, nuts, cake, and more chocolate. And they were <i>amazing</i>. And for years I've tried to find them, without success. I once found a website about them, but it was all in German, and it didn't seem like they shipped anyway. That site seems to have now shut down. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
A friend started looking into them a few weeks ago, when I started planning this trip, and didn't have much luck either. The closest thing she could find was <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominostein" target="_blank">dominosteines</a>, which seem to be close, but I'm not entirely sure. You get them only at Christmas though, apparently, so I didn't see any to try either. I went into a couple of chocolate shops today to ask about them; only one person knew what I was talking about (so they do exist!), but had no idea where you actually get them.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
So, while this trip has been fantastic, the main purpose remains unfulfilled. And I'm now sending an appeal into the universe at large - if you know what Heidelstones are, and/or where to get them, let me know please?</div>
</div>
a travellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02559346755503817562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32569513.post-5179786148133274342018-02-14T23:54:00.001-05:002018-02-14T23:54:13.210-05:00If<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
This is not the post I was expecting or planning to write tonight.<br />
<br />
A coworker discovered a new Indian restaurant near work, so after multiple rescheduling, we finally made it there for lunch today. As tends to happen after Indian buffets, I was absolutely stuffed. Having zero plans this Valentine's Day, I was very much looking forward to a quiet evening at home, with a corn and bean salad recipe I've been meaning to try for dinner.<br />
<br />
Till a friend texted "see you at 7", and confused me completely, because I thought we were meeting tomorrow. I scrolled up and realised I was the one who had suggested meeting today, except I know I meant Thursday, but whatevs, not like I had competing plans on either day.<br />
<br />
Normally, when I have plans after work, I just stay at work till it's time to go, because going home and then leaving again just seems like too much effort. Today, however, I really had nothing to do by about 5.30, and didn't feel like sticking around for another hour, so I figured I will go home after all, and chill for about 45 minutes before having to head out, since the restaurant was close to home.<br />
<br />
I was walking to my car in the garage, and realised I'd left my glasses and sunglasses at my desk. My purse was heavy, and I was almost at my car, so I figured I'll drop my bag off and then go back in. And as I got to my car, I happened to glance up at the ramp that goes to the floor above where my car was parked, and noticed a man lying on the ground. I called out tentatively to ask if he was okay, and got no response. I ran up to him, to see what had happened, and realised that he was bleeding profusely from his nose, and not responding at all.<br />
<br />
I'm embarrassed, ashamed, and just plain heartbroken to admit that I have no first aid or CPR knowledge, had no clue what to do, and so did nothing other than dump all my belongings on the floor, and frantically wave down cars of other people who were leaving work. Thankfully, two people stopped, and one of them did know CPR, which she started doing, while we called 911. Others stopped too, and for the next horrible, horrible 15 minutes, a group of four or five people just kept doing CPR on this man, one person kept trying to see if he could find a pulse, and I, along with a growing crowd, just stood there an watched. By the time the police and medics arrived, it was increasingly obvious it was too late to do anything, but they tried too, till even they stopped.<br />
<br />
As the half dozen of us who had been there throughout stood around, waiting for the cops to speak to us as needed, some of them told me I shouldn't feel so bad about knowing what to do, because I saw him and I came to him, and I stopped others who tried to help. My manager later echoed the same thing. But what if someone else had found him? Someone who knew what to do? Maybe those two minutes between me finding him and the CPR starting would have made the difference?<br />
<br />
It was such a weird confluence of events, today. If I hadn't mixed up days for dinner. If I hadn't finished up work early and decided to go home first. If I had turned back to get my glasses instead of wanting to drop off my bag first. If any of those things hadn't happened, I wouldn't have seen him when I did.<br />
<br />
But if I had known what to do, maybe the evening would have ended differently as well.<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
a travellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02559346755503817562noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32569513.post-85290706405926071822018-01-05T14:48:00.001-05:002018-01-05T17:29:00.342-05:00Taking stock of 2017<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I was <i>terrible</i> at writing in 2017. The blog was barely updated, and a lot of it were just cop out posts, and it wasn't updated at all for the past three months. And I largely went off twitter for a larger part of the last few months as well. A lot of it was wanting to shut down and switch off from all the annoying and horrid news that constantly hits you when you're online, and a lot of it was also plain laziness and procrastination. The hope is to be better in 2018, and what better way to kick things off in the new year than my annual taking stock of the previous year?<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>1. What did you do in 2017 that you’d never done before?</b><br />
<br />
Umm, almost drown in the ocean in Hawaii while trying to swim with dolphins?<br />
<br />
<b>2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?</b><br />
<br />
I don't think I ended up making any last year, actually. But for this year, it would be to write more, even if they're cop out posts. Also to find myself a damn job that isn't this one.<br />
<br />
<b>3. Did anyone close to you give birth?</b><br />
<br />
Yes.<br />
<br />
<b>4. Did anyone close to you die?</b><br />
<br />
No.<br />
<br />
<b>5. What places did you visit?</b><br />
<br />
One of the unstated goals of 2017 was to travel every month, and to new places. That did not happen very much, mainly because work travel was <i>crazy</i> in 2017, <i>and</i> all over the dang place. I was in New York for overnight trips every few weeks, it felt like, which usually meant I had no energy to do my usual weekend trips.<br />
Still, a few lovely short vacations did happen, and a fantastic two weeks in India, where I got to spend Durga Pujo back home after six years. So that was nice.<br />
The full list, combining work and leisure:<br />
January - Mexico City, Los Angeles, New York, Boston. The last three were back to back work trips, all while I was battling fever and a cold, but I got to spend time with friends and family on those work trips, so it actually ended up being nice. When your sister in law makes <i>dal chawal</i> for you on a cold and snowy night in Boston, you really can't complain.<br />
February - multiple trips to New York (which included a train trip to Philadelphia because a snowstorm meant flights out of LGA got cancelled)<br />
March - New York, Atlanta, Jacksonville (FL)<br />
April - San Francisco, Kona (HI)<br />
May - New York, Boston, Portland (ME)<br />
June - Cincinnati (OH), Florence & Newport (KY)<br />
July - ZILCH.<br />
August - New York, Sioux Falls (SD), Des Moines (IA). I saw <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LP6j9jSkS1w" target="_blank">the butter cow</a>, y'all!!!<br />
September - India for the last week<br />
October - India for the first week, which included an overnight road trip to Karnal for parathas that we do not regret AT ALL. On the return, work took me to New York, again.<br />
November - New York again, as well as back to school after two years for a recruiting trip.<br />
December - Work travel for the year had finally died down, but the parents showed up, and we ended up in New York (yes, again, dammit, but this time because I wanted to) over Christmas, and then an overnight road trip to Houston so I could get some visa stuff done.<br />
This list has made me feel good about my year, you guys.<br />
<br />
<b>6. What would you like to have in 2018 that you lacked in 2017?</b><br />
<br />
Inner peace.<br />
<br />
<b>7. What date from 2017 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?</b><br />
<br />
I nearly drowned in April. The brother graduated in May. And I was home for Pujo in September.<br />
<br />
<b>8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?</b><br />
<br />
I don't think I have any that come to mind. How sad is that?<br />
<br />
<b>9. What was your biggest failure?</b><br />
<br />
My complete and utter professional limbo.<br />
<br />
<b>10. Did you suffer illness or injury?</b><br />
<br />
Sigh, yes. This was not a good year, healthwise. All minor things that I could have ignored, but chose not to, which in a way is a good thing I suppose.<br />
<br />
<b>11. What was the best thing you bought?</b><br />
<br />
I do love my new roomba, if for no other reason that my parents' whatsapp commentary about it as it runs while they're in my apartment is SO entertaining.<br />
<br />
<b>12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?</b><br />
<br />
Meh. In 2017? I really don't know.<br />
<br />
<b>13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and/or depressed?</b><br />
<br />
Aargh. Men, the world over. Politicians, in India and the US. Having political debates on FB about two countries is exhausting, y'all.<br />
<br />
<b>14. Where did most of your money go?</b><br />
<br />
That roomba wasn't cheap, you guys. And I replaced my laptop of five years with a new one that I have fairly lukewarm feelings about so far.<br />
Also I ended up spending a ridiculous amount of money on visa and immigration related nonsense.<br />
<br />
<b>15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?</b><br />
<br />
Hawaii. Also that butter cow.<br />
Also, the parents and I had planned a two day trip to Lucknow while I was in India that I was really looking forward to, but which had to get cancelled. Bummer.<br />
Is it just me, or is travel playing too large a role in my ruminations this year?<br />
<br />
<b>16. What song will always remind you of 2017?</b><br />
<br />
Not sure if there's a particular song.<br />
<br />
<b>17. Compared to this time last year, are you happier or sadder?</b><br />
<br />
A little sadder, I think. I feel very disappointed in myself about 2017.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<b>18. Thinner or fatter?</b><br />
<br />
On the whole, marginally thinner.<br />
<br />
<b>19. What do you wish you’d done more of?</b><br />
<br />
Travelled for myself. Networked professionally.<br />
<br />
<b>20. What do you wish you’d done less of?</b><br />
<br />
Sat on the couch.<br />
<br />
<b>21. How will you be spending Christmas?</b><br />
<br />
Spent it flying back from New York, and then making shepherd's pie for the parents.<br />
<br />
<b>22. Did you fall in love in 2017?</b><br />
<br />
No.<br />
<br />
<b>23. How many one-night stands?</b><br />
<br />
At the risk of repeating myself, my mother reads this blog, people.<br />
<br />
<b>24. What was your favourite TV programme?</b><br />
<br />
Comedies have been my lifesaver this year - Superstore, Great News, and The Good Place, all on NBC. Brooklyn Nine Nine. Late Night with Seth Meyers too.<br />
<br />
<b>25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?</b><br />
<br />
Certain people at the workplace have been upgraded to worthy of being hated, yes.<br />
<br />
<b>26. What was the best book you read?</b><br />
<br />
I read very, very little (if you exclude all my rereads of Nora Roberts and Mary Balogh, that is), even my woefully pitiful standards. But. I read Hillary Clinton's What Happened, and Alyssa Mastromonaco's Who Thought This Was a Good Idea?<br />
I read the latter in three evenings flat, on my laptop, without getting distracted by other things, and will freely admit that it was my favourite book of the year.<br />
<br />
<b>27. What was your greatest musical discovery?</b><br />
<br />
For a change, I actually paid attention to the new season of Coke Studio (a post about it has been sitting in my drafts for two months, and in my head for even longer), so I guess that might count?<br />
<br />
<b>28. What did you want and get?</b><br />
<br />
I dunno.<br />
<br />
<b>29. What did you want and not get?</b><br />
<br />
A different job. A manager who cares.<br />
<br />
<b>30. What was your favourite film of this year?</b><br />
<br />
Wonder Woman. Hidden Figures.<br />
I saw exactly five Hindi movies, but loved Lipstick under my Burkha and Death in the Gunj.<br />
I'm sensing a theme here.<br />
<br />
<b>31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?</b><br />
<br />
It fell on a Saturday, and everyone was either travelling or busy, so the plan was to celebrate with friends the following weekend. So I planned to treat myself to a pedicure, followed by shopping. But then a friend made me come over to her place for dinner, so I ended up getting cake after all. :)<br />
<br />
<b>32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?</b><br />
<br />
If I'd pushed myself to something about my career.<br />
<br />
<b>33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2017?</b><br />
<br />
Comfortably smart.<br />
<br />
<b>34. What kept you sane?</b><br />
<br />
Podcasts and late night shows.<br />
<br />
<b>35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?</b><br />
<br />
Seth Meyers.<br />
<br />
<b>36. What political issue stirred you the most?</b><br />
<br />
Sigh. Have you seen the news?<br />
<br />
<b>37. Who did you miss?</b><br />
<br />
I stopped keeping up with a lot of friends this year, both locally and otherwise.<br />
<br />
<b>38. Who was the best new person you met?</b><br />
<br />
I didn't really meet any new people this year. How sad is that?<br />
<br />
<b>39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2017.</b><br />
<br />
I'm terrible at pushing myself to do <i><b>anything</b></i>, and that really needs to change.<br />
<br />
<b>40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.</b><br />
<br />
There is a song, This Year from Serendipity, that I had heard back in college, that I used to think was a great way to think about a new year. I don't know if there's a song that sums up 2017 for me, but I'd like to think I should keep it as my mantra, sort of.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/J_z93bpD5uI/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/J_z93bpD5uI?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<br />
<br /></div>
a travellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02559346755503817562noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32569513.post-36680518209792152282017-10-12T18:23:00.000-04:002017-10-12T19:36:45.340-04:00A jeans and t-shirt kind of girl<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I was home for Pujo this year, after six long years. Leaving the pandal after Anandamela, I saw a young girl entering with her family. She must have been 6 or 7 years old, and was wearing one of those really <i>shiny </i>frocks that continue to popular with girls that age. And I couldn't help but exclaim at her:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Such a lovely dress! I always wanted one of those, but was never given one.</blockquote>
She grinned shyly, and the mother just rolled her eyes.<br />
<br />
It's true, I did always want one of those dresses. I don't know why I did - they're nothing like me, or what I usually like (or liked!) to wear. As an adult, I didn't start wearing skirts and dresses regularly till just a couple of years ago. I've always been a jeans and t-shirt kind of girl - except for when I was in a salwar kameez and a fabulous dupatta.<br />
<br />
A large part of it was I very much dislike the idea of giving up comfort for looking good, but some of it was I think because of how the mother dressed me. She tended to dress me in jeans most of the time when I was a kid, because she thought I looked smart, and I had no problem with this state of affairs because it meant I could run around and play Crystal Maze and G.I. Joe to my heart's content.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2017/10/12/church-denies-first-communion-to-fashion-loving-girl-because-she-wanted-to-wear-a-suit/?utm_term=.0403b358f50d&wpisrc=nl_evening&wpmm=1" target="_blank">This article</a> came my way this afternoon, and broke my heart a little. A nine-year-old girl was denied Communion by her school because her fashion-loving sense said she should wear a snazzy suit for the occasion, and the powers that be at the school wanted her to wear a skirt or a dress.<br />
<br />
There are two incidents from my childhood that are seared into my memory. The first, from when I was 7 or 8 years old, was a little more innocent, I think. I was playing with a friend, and I think it was Ghar-Ghar, and we were deciding who would be the wife and who would be the husband. She insisted I should be the husband, because "you always dress in pants anyway." I remember feeling startled and wondering why that mattered.<br />
<br />
The other occasion has bothered me for far longer. I was four or five years old, and it was our school's annual Song Day, or whatever it was called, where we all lined up in rows and made to sing some song. My mother had bought me this lovely woolen jumpsuit for the occasion, which was white with a colourful pattern, and was the most comfortable thing ever. I reached school, and went to the area where my classmates were collecting. The teacher's help for our class looked at me and exclaimed irritatedly, "Uff, why are you wearing this? Couldn't you have worn a dress like a normal girl?"<br />
<br />
I don't think I had even noticed till that moment that I was the only girl who wasn't wearing a dress that day. I do know I hate every single photo of myself in that outfit.<br />
<br />
It's possible that incident is why I always wanted a nice and pretty flowery dress to wear. I do know I hated wearing frocks, so it's entirely possible that if I <i>had</i> been given one of those, I would have worn it exactly once. Kind of like what I do with saris today.<br />
<br />
That incident didn't change how I dressed. It didn't make me care more about clothes, or worry about whether I'm dressed up enough. I continue to be the person who dresses a lot more simply than most people around me - to the point where my outfits for weddings and other social events are almost always criticized for being too simple.<br />
<br />
But that incident did stay with me for far longer than it should have. And I hope that doesn't happen to this girl.<br />
<br /></div>
a travellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02559346755503817562noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32569513.post-49634327877504347202017-09-05T17:33:00.001-04:002017-09-05T17:33:56.713-04:00Dhakkan<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
"Dream you is a dhakkan." ~ supportive <a href="https://twitter.com/levis517">@levis517</a> is supportive. <br />
Update: while typing this tweet, I got upgraded to dodo.</div>
— a traveller (@a_traveller) <a href="https://twitter.com/a_traveller/status/504650410112454656">August 27, 2014</a></blockquote>
<br />
A few weeks ago, I was browsing through old chat histories - I think it started off as looking for something specific, and then dissolved into sheer nostalgia - and came across this old gem between the BFF and me, from a few years ago. It made me giggle endlessly, and I texted her to tell her I might be blogging about it. And then a few days later, FB reminded me that I had in fact also posted on there about being called a dhakkan.<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
And so here, for your reading pleasure, on a day when the news has been even worse than what it's been for the past several months, is that conversation.<br />
<br />
<br />
<i>Wednesday, August 27, 2014 10:16 AM</i><br />
<br />
<b>Me</b>:<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Can I tell you about my dream<br />
<br />
<b>Her</b>:<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>OK<br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Tell<br />
<br />
<b>Me</b>:<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>I come home (not really my home, but in dream my home) to find front door wide open<br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>So I go, dammit I need to get my life together<br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>And I walk in and the place is a mess<br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>So again I go, I need to get my life together<br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>But then I realize I've been robbed<br />
<br />
<b>Her</b>:<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>U say that IRL too<br />
<br />
<b>Me</b>:<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Because laptop is missing<br />
<br />
<b>Her</b>:<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Dream you is a dhakkan<br />
<br />
<b>Me</b>:<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>So I walk into bedroom and it's also been ransacked<br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>So I am freaking out<br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>And then I see that bathroom door is closed<br />
<br />
<b>Her</b>:<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Erkkkk<br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>I scared<br />
<br />
<b>Me</b>:<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>And bathroom for some reason is just outside the apartment front door, which is weird<br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>But anyway, I poke it open<br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>And the thief is there<br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Taking a shower<br />
<br />
<b>Her</b>:<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Um<br />
<br />
<b>Me</b>:<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>And for some reason he has only one arm<br />
<br />
<b>Her</b>:<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Um...<br />
<br />
<b>Me</b>:<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>And he sees me and smirks and next thing I know he's at the end of the corridor (like he apparated there)<br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>And I’m trying to scream and call for help<br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>But my voice is gone<br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Then it's later, and some guys are there helping me or whatever, and I think one of them was A, not sure who the other guy was<br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>And the one-armed man reappears in my living room<br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>And then I woke up<br />
<br />
<b>Her</b>:<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Who is A<br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>I'm not Freud<br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>It's just a dream<br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Dream you is a dodo<br />
<br />
<b>Me</b>:<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>A is colleague-friend who lives down the corridor from me<br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>So makes sense he would be there<br />
<br />
<b>Her</b>:<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>OK that's reasonable<br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Good dream well done<br />
<br />
<b>Me</b>:<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Thank you<br />
<br />
<b>Her</b>:<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>:D<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
***************</div>
<br />
I have to confess, I think I'm a lot braver in my dreams than in IRL. Real me would have run far, far away, not gone <i>looking</i> for the thief. Dream me is is truly a dhakkan.<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
</div>
a travellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02559346755503817562noreply@blogger.com0