December 18, 2007

Decision Paperweight

When I was a kid, I so wanted to be big.

To me, being big was the best thing that could happen. You could eat what ever you wanted, and more importantly NOT eat what you did not like (bye bye beans, bye bye karela!), go wherever you wanted, whenever you wanted, buy all the cool things you saw in the shops and the best thing was that your parents couldn't scold you now that you are an 'adult' (Oh how I wish this part was at least partly true!) In short, you could make all your decisions. Yippee!

But sometimes, making a decision is so hard. I mean, you have to check out all the possibilities, of which not all may be of equal importance and then consider all of them. And at the last minute you find out there was this one more aspect; phew, sometimes its an energy-draining activity...

So when I found this I fell in love with it immediately!

A 'Decision Paperweight'. A paperweight that spins to help you out with your dilemmas. The ideal gift for people who love procrastinating [:P] Coz now the question "Should I do this?" has more choices than just 'yes' or 'no'. No more breaking your head over all those 'what should i do' questions. This is the ultimate answering machine (pun intended).

This definitely has a place in my "Weird Gifts" list.


P.S. For those who believe this will actually work: Please leave me your contact numbers. My psychiatrist will be happy to make your acquaintance.

"No!"

"You should learn to say no, my dear"

Daddy used to give me these nuggets of wisdom from the time i was a kid. But it took me quite a while before I realised what he meant to say. Like: Saying "no" doesn't mean you have to use the word "no"; it means setting priorities, and meeting them, and for the ones you have put in your folder called 'no', just mark some "think time" on the calendar and deal with them when you know you can (or when you can't put them off any longer).

So here are others that I finally understood. And some over which I am still mulling.
  • It is easier to come to a common understanding if both sides understand that either has the power to walk away
  • Sometimes a "wrong" only someone else's definition of what I think is "right"
  • Truth and fact are not the same thing. Truth is whatever people *believe* to be fact, whether or not what they believe in really is a fact or not.
  • Sometimes it is better to tell a person why you think there is a problem, rather than to assume they would understand just because they are older.
(I still have to keep drumming this into my head)

Looks to me like the good ol' pearls of wisdom have to come with their own dictionary.

December 14, 2007

Christmas List















Why CRY? - Last minute attempt to be on Santa's "Good" list ;)
The others - To make all the pretty modifications on the cards.
(edit - gave the cards. the decoration did not happen, but I'm sure the ones I gave the cards to, wil treasure it for what I have written :) )















Coz I am an Angel for helping all those kids, and for spreading love and joy... at least to all the people who get my card :)















Wonder if any of this will happen...
Except of course, getting plum cake for Jal, or she'll kill me!
(edit - Johny boy did not have the wine and instead got a liquer-filled chocolate for me. As usual, I didnt believe him. Til I ate it, that is..
Jal loved the cake from Variar's bakery, which btw has awsome milk biscuits too.. they just melt in you mouth!
I showed Mom the steps, but she recognised it from parts of Nach Baliye, so I did'nt have to go through all the steps. Thank goodness!
However, Murali wasn't that easy to get rid of - I ended up 'teaching' him in our park under the floodlights at 8 pm! And he ended up making me double over in laughter by making it looks like a cross between a hip-wiggle and 'i'm-too-macho-to-dance' lol..
And Dad and I finally spent some quality time: he taught me about stocks, I ended up being the one person at home who actually likes hearing about all that, and we bonded a hell lot.
Christmas is be-yoo-ti-ful!)















Thinking about Mom's cake, cutlets and soups.... yummm....
(edit- I agreed to forgo everything else, if Ma made Buffad.. Her speciality. The last time I described its taste, Jose made me promise to bring some over. Sorry, dearie, the temptation to finish it was too hard to resist!)















Very unlikely that I will manage to stick to this condition :(
(edit - I have just progressed to the stage where my Mom is considering putting me on a diet! )

December 13, 2007

From free tee shirts to nifty ads

I hate cleaning up.
Most of the time at least. And looking at that huge pile of clothes on the bed, all I could think of was "Oh no, not again!"

Half-heartedly, I began sorting them, all the while thinking about whether this can be put off till the weekend. And that's when I noticed that crumpled white tee shirt peeking from beneath the jeans. My "I survived the Audi 10.42 project" tee shirt. :)

First thought: "Wow, that car sure does look nice. Wonder how the others are like?" Clutching at that 'excuse', and putting 'arrange the clothes' into my ever growing to-do list, and dumping the whole heap into the cupboard, i got online to check out the other hotties from the Audi stable. I am not a huge car person, but someday I am going to have a real classy one. And of course a sports convertible. In red, of course. Jumping from one image to the other, I went on fantasising about when I would get it and where I would go, yada yada...
If wishes were horses...

Anyway, somewhere between all the drooling and wishing, this ad caught my eye.


















"Duh??"
That's the first thing that crossed my mind. What is a bar of soap and screws on it doing in a car ad? Audi is characterized by 4 rings which is represented by the 4 screws. Also the screws prevent the soap from slipping off the basin bed which corresponds to some anti skidding thing in the car. That's the explanation i got. Pretty nifty huh? Hey how come they have such cool ads about ESP (electronic stability program) and not many cool posters about airbags?

I remember seeing lots of cool videos, but catchy posters about airbags? Those were definitely fewer. This one here is one of the ads that i like.

































I can actually feel the grin on my face getting bigger now. Ah! the sublime joy of seeing something you work on , being put in an ad!

Hey now that I think about it, I really wonder if we would ever have zany ones like the Audi ad above... Maybe. But not in the near future. We still feel like a 'serious' being. I wish we would at least make some weird and abstract pictures about it though. Hmmm, wonder if they will let us have a go at it? ;D

P.S. Till then, drive safe. :)

October 18, 2007

Peace, brother

Whatever happened to the values of humanity
Whatever happened to the fairness and equality
Instead of spreading love we're spreading animosity
Lack of understanding leading us away from unity
That's the reason why sometimes I'm feelin' under
That's the reason why sometimes I'm feelin' down
There's no wonder why sometimes I'm feelin' under
Gotta keep my faith alive 'til love is found
And ask yourself

Where Is the Love?
Where Is the Love?
Where Is the Love?
Where Is the Love?
Father, Father, Father help us
Send some guidance from above
'Cuz people got me got me questionin'
Where is the love (where is the love)

-Love, BEP


The song that first brought me closer to BEP. Connected from the first instance. It made sense then, and still does. This is one group that always inspires... Love you guys! Muah!

October 9, 2007

From the Doldrums

The air is too calm. Too still.
I stand an look around.
I can see the horizon
A faint blue line.
I no longer desire. I don't have the will
to be there: to lie on sold ground -
Its been burnt by the sun
I no longer pine.
All around me, people die
Of hunger, of thirst, of heat
And some like me survive
Empty shells long gone.
We don't move, we've stopped to try
Thinking of it is too big a feat.
Listless and still, I no longer strive.
There's something in the sky - a spot.
I watch it grow. And something,
A faint spark - of interest? -
Begins to flicker in me.
There is a breexe now. Or not.
But the feeling pushes me. Quite surprising.
I make myself stand lest
Another such time may never be.
Even now, as I look back
I really don't understand:
Was it hope, interest or madness
That made me to carry on?
What ever it was, I'm glad.
For though then my head was full of sand,
Now I've taken control. And
That's what really matters.

August 20, 2007

Me: A model!

The world of glamour now has even more glitter in it!


How to get to this link: Go to Boschindia.com -> About Bosch in India -> Robert Bosch India Ltd. -> Jobs and Careers at RBIN and there I am! Or just click here.

Now this is one what Bosch makes its employees seriously happy :) We had gone for a corporate photo shoot in May. The sessions were from 9 till whenever the lighting was bad. I went for the shoot right after my German classes. The days were fun! You spend half your morning learning a new language so you can say "ich arbeite bei Bosch" and the rest of the day doing all the girly stuff like dressing up in petty clothes (er.. pretty 'corporate' clothes) and putting on makeup and smiling and getting your pictures clicked... Ahhh.... It’s a girls dream come true!

Those two days were nice and weird in some ways too... We were told which colors to wear by a dark guy who was bald and wore a earring, (not the stud but the ring) which was extremely cool, and getting our pictures taken by a guy named Sheetal (Yes! that's a guy! no other comments on the name :P) who btw “appeared on Page 3 of the Times of India exactly one week after the shoot with Ramya, the actress” ( in the words of one of my friend who was positively gushing! :) )

The down side was that there was so much time when all you had to do was wait and wait while people took their pictures in batches. Fortunately for me I had Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows with me! (the fake version thought I did not know at that point of time) We also made friends there and had a blast. Krithi (the girl in the pic with me) learnt to be a professional make-up artist! And she was pretty darn good too! And I found out that Bosch does have cute guys (thank goodness!!) and that there are a lot of people out there who are as crazy about Harry Potter as I am... Though, after being called a 'kid' for the nth time, I started fooling people into believing that I was reading "War and Peace", which did give me some "Hmm, must be brainy" looks till I met this one guy who had actually read the book and I had to confess.. Darn him!

For all there was, it was a fun time...
And now I’m a model!
Today I’m walking on cloud no. 9!!

P.S. Couldn’t stop grinning while writing all this down. Still cant :D

August 19, 2007

2 a.m., Sunday morning

What do two hungry girls do at 2am on Sunday morning?

------------------------------------------------------------------------

I just lazed around yesterday. Eat, sleep, surf, eat some more and sleep again… And as it happens every other time.. 12 am and eyes wide open. Suddenly..

“Grrrrrumble…”
(laughing) “Hey what was that pathetic sound?”
(embarrassed grin) “Umm..”
“Your stomach just grumbled…”
“Ya da, I’m so hungry. Is there anything to eat?”
“Um, I don’t know. I guess there must be something in the cupboard.”

And we started searching, searching, and searching….

“Great! Everything’s empty!”
“Hey, there’s Maggi in the top shelf!”

Quick scramble to reach for it.

“Just wonderful! Now I’m even more hungry and nothing…”

All the mixture packets and soup sachets and Maggi noodle covers were empty! No restaurants would be open. And here we were, two people with our stomachs on fire.

“Hey didn’t we get those channa packets yesterday?”
“Ya… what you want to make channa??”
“Da, we have tomatoes, right? Onions? All the masalas?”
“Ya…but-”
“ok I’ll bring the stuff, you bring the vessels k”
(muttering) “Stubborn female!”

“Da, you did not finish your milk or what? There’s some left over…”
“Er… I don’t want it da..”
“So what should I do? It will get spoilt.”
“Did you not buy custard powder long time back?”
“Ya, but I never made any. Why you want to make that too??”
“Umhmm… it will be like dessert!”
“But do you know how to make it?”
“Yep, I am an expert! (I pat my back) I made it for T and the others too”
“ok.. but if its bad, you are eating it all… I wont touch it”
“What? (mock horror) you are questioning my cooking skills?”
“That’s not all I’m questioning. (giggling)”
(I just stick my tongue out)


So here we were doing this. Somewhere along the way, we decided that we were going to have not just channa masala, but rice too. Thankfully there was some channa kept for sprouting :) We cleaned rice and cooked both the rice and the channa in one go. Then, while N cleaned up the utensils, I started cleaning and slicing the tomatoes. Next were the onions (hey I chopped them without crying!!) and the chillies.
So here is what it looked like after all the slicing and dicing.

Then we waited for the rice and channa to get cooked. Once that was done, I started mashing some of the channa while she fried the onions. We added the garlic ginger paste, tomato puree, and let it simmer a while with the masalas till the raw smell of the turmeric and the puree went off. Then we added the channa and the chillies and voila.. Our channa masala is ready…

So rice and channa masala. That’s what hungry girls make at 2am. It was yummy! Just spicy enough for me :) But I think N was a little red from all the chillies I put in :D

When we finished gorging, we realized we still hadn’t made the custard. So out came the sugar, the spoons to stir, the milk, and the custard powder and 10-15 minutes of stirring later- Heaven! Sorry, I don’t have a picture of it right now. My sweet tooth did not wait any longer.

5 minutes after we finished our binge fest and keeping the plates for washing (who has the energy to clean them up after all that), we were off to dreamland… right after promising ourselves we’d start our diet plans tomorrow. (Fat chance!)

August 14, 2007

August 11, 2007

Water, water, everywhere

To many of my friends, the monsoon brings to mind the smell of wet earth, playing in the rain, the greenery and all those things that make you go aah, but to so many others it means losing their homes and their means of livelihood. Images I see in the papers about families on rooftops waiting for relief, about farms totally flooded, about people packing all they have and moving somewhere else, some where drier, just like they do almost every other year, disturb me to the core.

Now a serious question t whoever knows the answer, because even after knowing so much, I’m totally bewildered. We may not be good at predicting the exact day of the onset of the monsoon, but haven’t we found a way to predict whether it is going to be a good or a bad monsoon? Even if we haven’t, don’t we know that every year we have to be prepared for the eventuality of either a drought or a flood? Given the fact that approx 60% of our people engage in agriculture, shouldn’t we take the situation more seriously? Then why aren’t we doing anything to contain the situation?

We, as a nation, have put a lot of emphasis on remedial measures time and again, but are we so short sighted when it comes to planning for all this? Despite monsoon matrices being plotted out, and all the big, big studies being carried out, what has been done? Flood control an Flood management programs were put forward in 1954 and yet in 2007 we still see houses submerged. I read in the TOI that “In a rain year, the average loss of life is 1590 and the collateral damage is Rs.800 crore.” Yet why do we let this happen year after year? Why let so many die? Why throw all that effort, all that we made away? Why?

Current mood: indignant, angry, pained

August 7, 2007

"Maybe if I had plants, I’d still be married"

I’ve been living with a shadow, over head
I’ve been sleeping with a cloud, above my bed
I’ve been lonely for so long
Trapped in the past, I just can’t seem to move on

I’ve been hiding all my hopes and dreams away
Just in case I ever need them again someday
I’ve been setting aside time
To clear a little space in the corners of my mind

-“Way Back into Love”, OST Music & Lyrics

The 1st time I saw Music and Lyrics was sometime in the 1st quarter of this year. And my heart was captured from the moment they sang

“I said I wasn’t gonna lose my head but then POP goes my heart,
I wasn’t gonna fall in love again but then POP goes my heart...
And I just can’t let you go, I can’t lose this feeling!”

It was sooo retro, I jus loved it! The movie can’t really be “classified” as a great movie, nut it has these amazing dialogues and these super retro / popsy songs like “Pop goes my heart” and “Way back into love”. Well, I have watched the movie many many times after that. I was just listening to “POP!” right now, and that’s when I thought, “Hey, lots of people out there haven’t even heard of this movie”. And that’s what brings me to the keyboard today, when actually I should be visiting the doctor like I promised to my family, most of my friends and my colleagues (who actually threatened that I will not be allowed to come for the trip this week if I don’t get better!). ok, first this, then I meet the doc, k?

When the movie started, I was all enthusiastic, but what made me really “fall” for this movie was the dialogue that follows. Its from the scene where Hugh Grant and his manager (Brad Garrett, from the “I love Raymond” show) are talking about why Hugh keeps plants.

HG: Well I had date come over once and she said that she finds plants soothing.
BG: Maybe if I had plants, I’d still be married.
HG: Ya. What broke your marriage was not your wife’s raging nymphomania, but your lack of vegetation.

And I love what Drew says when she gets the lyricist Hugh hired really angry. (lets call him the Indian guy)

Sophie: I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have gotten involved. I have no filtering system.
(hmmm.. I should remember that the next time I put my foot in my mouth)

Or this

Alex: The best time I've had in the last fifteen years was sitting at that piano with you.
Sophie: That's wonderfully sensitive... especially from a man who wears such tight pants.
Alex: It forces all the blood to my heart.

Or when the ‘Indian guy’ acts as if he’s shooting himself in the head in the concert when he realizes that Cora sings the song the ‘correct way’.

Or this, when Sophie’s sister, Rhonda, is cautioning her to be careful and only go on with Alex if she’s sure he’s passionate about her

Sophie: And besides, how do you know he’s passionate?
Rhonda: I think, I think you just see it in their eyes, feel it in their touch, or in Gary’s case (her husband) when h said to his mother “I’m marrying her anyway”.

Or (one of my faves) when Alex and Sophie finish the song and they are trying to catch a cab before Cora leaves.

Alex: [Hails taxi] She's going to have a baby!
Sophie: [Taxi continues driving away] Hey! What if it were true?


These short dialogues and the songs in it are what make this movie so close to my heart! And please, please, please listen to them…



And for those who haven’t seen the movie yet, here’s what the story is.

Alex Fletcher (Hugh Grant) is this old guy who used to be a pop star, of a band named POP! (no less :P ). Well he’s just trying to make a living by doing whatever gigs he can, which by the way are just singing his old songs at reunions and theme-parks. Then he gets this awesome chance to sing with Cora, the latest sensation in the music world. But there’s a catch: he has to compose a song for her in a week. Plus, the song has to be called “Way back into love”. But there’s no pressure of course

He ends up asking Sophie Fisher (Drew Barrymore), the girl who is temporarily taking care of his plants, to help him out, because she has this amazing ability to come up with rhyming lines. (Kind of like Fatty in “The Five Find-outers”). Sophie and Alex stay up for hours and think about lyrics for the song. Some of the best lines come up here. I especially loved this one:

Alex: It doesn't have to be perfect. Just spit it out. They're just lyrics.
Sophie: "Just lyrics"?
Alex: Lyrics are important. They're just not as important as melody.
Sophie: I really don't think you get it.
Alex: Oh. You look angry. Click your pen.
Sophie: A melody is like seeing someone for the first time. The physical attraction. Sex.
Alex: I so get that.
Sophie: But then, as you get to know the person, that's the lyrics. Their story. Who they are underneath. It's the combination of the 2 that makes it magical.

They do write the song in time, but the movie also gives us insights into their lives. Like how Sophie has low self-esteem because her literature teacher broke her heart and then went on to write a book about her being a needy person. Which surprisingly enough won a National book award. And about how Alex is at such a low point in his virtually non-existent career that he even thinks of considering joining “The Battle of the 80s Has-Beens”, where the old singers fight and the winner gets a chance to sing!

Anyways, getting back to the main plot, Cora loves the song, but turns the popsy number into something “steamy and sticky” with Indian sitars in the background! Plus she says she needs one more stanza to the song. Alex and Sophie fight about the portrayal of the song, because Sophie thinks that it spoils the whole mood, but Alex thinks that they should just do whatever Cora wants as long as they get the part. Well this makes them part! Alex goes to make excuses about the last (unwritten) stanza, when Cora says that Sophie had already faxed them over.

The concert starts off with one of the steamy Britney/Christina “oh this skimpy thing IS a dress” kind of songs. Then comes the announcement that there will be a special song by “Alex Fletcher” (no “Sophie Fisher”!!) and Sophie feels betrayed and starts to walk off. And that’s when she realizes that this is a different song! Something touching, called "Don't Write Me Off" (cheesy, but so goes with the mood). Well they end up patching up, Cora sings “Way back into love” they way it was originally composed and everyone lives happily ever after.

(Hey, it’s a feel-good movie, how else do you expect it to end?)

I’d recommend it for the times when you jus want to curl up in your bed, munch some popcorn and have a few laughs and generally feel good :)

P.S. If you do end up watching the movie after reading this, and still dont like it, don't clobber me, coz i just got paid $1000 by Warner Bros. for writing this (just kidding!)

August 4, 2007

The Day I Couldn't Say 'R'

I dislike having a cold. Well who doesn’t? my friend once told me that there was an American (or was it Chinese? I forgot) proverb that said something like “When the heart is at ease, the body is healthy (ok, I confess, I searched for the correct words!) But right now, I truly feel it should be “When the body is healthy, the heart is at ease.” I really couldn’t stop thinking about many, many inane things. In a way, I used the time I was supposed to be convalescing very well. I made a list of the things I totally hate about the times one gets a cold. So…

The reasons I dislike a cold

1) You have to keep blowing your nose.

2) Your throat feels like it has been sandpapered, and the sandpaper is still stuck inside.

3) Your head aches.

4) You cant breathe properly.

5) No appetite, or in my case, less appetite.

6) You do everything slower.

7) The advice : “did you gargle/ take tabs/ meet the doctor/ take cough syrup” yada yada…

And so on.

I always thought there were things I missed out in the list, and my current bout of die Kälte (the cold) convinced me there was one thing that surely must be put up!

First, let me tell you why I came to the rule, and then what it is… So here goes.

11:30 a.m. Saturday. A short while after I finished off the 1st of the innumerable bowls of soup I have when I get a cold.

Tring tring, tring tring…

Or in my case, my ring tone: (RHCP “Snow/Hey Oh”) “Come to decide that the things that I tried / Were in my life just to get high on /When I sit alone come get a little known / But I need more than my”

Me: Hallo.

K: Hey, wassup?

Me: Hey da, long dhyme… hows dhings, da? (cough cough)

K: Wow, you sound bad. Cold, huh?

Me: Ya da, 2 days.

K: Ok, ok. Not taking rest huh?

Me: A lidhel bidh. Godh off eahly fhum (cough cough) sohhy wohk yesdhuhday.

K: Take care, girl. You met a doctor?.

Me: No, nod yedh. I dhink dhis will go off soon.

K: Don’t take risk da, if you feel worse, go meet one ok?

Me: Ya suhuh.

K: Hey I heard you got a tattoo??

Me: Ya. On my shoulduh bahcg. It’s a dhybhal desyhn.

K: A what?

Me: A dhy-bhal de-sy-hn.

K: Oh. A tribal design? Cool! Actually I’d called you to ask if you’re coming for the trek tomorrow…

Me: The dhek! I fohgodh! Who all ahh coming?

K: Karthik, Krithi, Arun, Sheela, me and the gang.

Me: Shoodh da, me dhoo sicgh to come. neghsd dhime, maybe ogay? (cough) Sohhy. By dha way, when did Gardhik come bagh fuhm home?

K: He reached day before. And that macchan got a new I-pod too!

Me: Awwsoommee!! How many GB?

K: 30GB. He showed it to me yesterday. Hey my mom’s calling. I’ll catch ya later ok? Take care. Bye.

Me: Ya I will. Bye, dhake cahhe..

You get my point? I sound like a freaking alien creature, or maybe like one of the voices they morph for robots on TV! Ok, a little more emotion, but hell! I absolutely hate it. Or in my present condition “I absoludhly hadhe idh!”

So here’s my other reason to hate colds

8) The difficulty in pronouncing ‘r’, ‘t’, ‘k’ and many other consonants.

Hope dhis pbhase gedhs ov-uhh soon. Idh would be nice dho spbeagh nohmal again.

August 3, 2007

Tattoo at last!

Soon after I started working, I made a list of things I wanted to do before I grow old. And in that list were 2 things - a navel ring and a tattoo. Got the piercing after my 2nd salary, but the tattoo remained elusive. You see, I wanted the perfect design. I searched thru the design books in tattoo parlours, went thru the net, tried creating my own, tried almost everything, n yet it remained outta sight...

One fine day, while looking thru one of the countless car ads we get as forwards (occupational hazard), I spotted IT!! There it was, beside the pic of a merc! And I knew it was what I wanted. I tried to describe it, but the only thing that came to mind was a kid sleeping. (and that's what I told everyone for quite a while). That was many month ago. I still hadn't decided where I wanted the tattoo. I went from lower back (too common), to hip (naah... not "right" place), to arm (no way! mom would freak out!), to ankle (hmm... ok... can show it off whenever...), and finally to the back of my shoulder (cool!).

Now that things were decided upon, I had to "emotionally prepare myself" (recognise this mads? :P ) told M to get my appointment at the tattoo parlour on saturday. We reached there on time. Walked in. a nice lady stood there and asked:

“Can I help you?”

“Ya, I want to get a tattoo.”

She looked up and down the salwar clad female standing in front of her and said:

“I’m sorry, we do only permanent tattoos here.”

“Ya I know. I want one.”

(look of surprise) “Please come in”

She took us to this guy who was checking out some designs on the net and told him that I wanted a tattoo. I said that my bro had made an appointment with them. He then asked me if I had the design. I had a printout, but he wanted the digital copy, if I had one, as the pic was white on black and I wanted black filled in. thankfully the pic was in my mailbox. We downloaded it and I told him that I wanted the dimensions to be “2 by 4”. While he was changing that and taking the printout, I went to talk to M and D who were waiting in the next room and checking out the other designs there. The guy called me back in and asked me if the size on the printout was ok. Holy goodness! I couldn’t even see it! I had asked for “two inches by four inches” and he had taken a print with size “two centimeters by four centimeters”! Got that sorted out soon enough.

Then we asked for the cost of it.

Guy: “4.5”

Me: “What!??”

M: “We thought it’d be around 2”

Guy: “No. this is a tribal design” (me: hmm so that’s what it’s called) “The lines are too close. It will come to 4.5”

M: “But my friend A got one done here bout 5 months back. It is like this” (draws a rough sketch) “See he had this and he filled this with two colors, shaded it with orange and green and did this and it came only to 3”

Guy: “I don’t remember this one. Are you sure he did it here only”

M: “Ya I’m sure. You can call him and ask.”

Guy: “No that’s ok... “(thinks) “But I’m sorry we can’t do this for any less”

I was tired of the waiting any more (seriously, it’s been months since I decided and I jus wanted to get with it)

Me: “It’s ok M, I’ll get it done.” (To the guy) “Do you accept Credit Cards?”

Guy: “Ya, but its 12% extra”

Me: “Oh 4%... that’s”

M: “No da, he said 12%”

Me: “12! Oh…” (To the guy) “Well how bout you make it 4 and I’ll pay by cash?”

Guy: (To N, that’s the lady who ushered us in) “What say N, is that ok?”

N: “Well. It’s up to you...”

Guy: “No actually you say coz you’ll be doing it”

N: “Well… ok I guess”

Guy: “K. It’s a deal”

They asked us to wait for a while. D said she had to go and that she’ll catch me later. N traced out the design at the back of it. Then she asked me to come to the one of the rooms they have there and sign on the forms they have saying that I’m authorizing so and so to do the tattoo and that they don’t hold responsibility for so and so, you know, all that stuff. I saw the big needle they were going to use and decided against asking how exactly they did it. But then I decided against it. After all, ignorance sometimes is bliss. Newy, N asked me to lie comfortably. I could hear the “krrrrrrr” that I will from now associate with tattoos, coming from the next room. She wiped my skin with tissues sprayed with something, that I later came to know was Savlon. She put something on my back and then pressed the tattoo design on my back. I asked her what that was. “Deo stick.” - “Deo??” – “Ya. It makes the design trace transfer on to the skin” Hmm… I dint know that. She then took a pic to ask me if the position was correct. It was.

Then the tattooing started. It really doesn’t hurt that much. Quite bearable indeed. Girls note, it only hurts as much as waxing. Guys, don’t ask me, I don’t have an analogy. She put on the outline first. The only really painful parts were when she was tattooing near my shoulder blade (oh it hurts near bones! Remember that in case you’re planning to get one and haven’t decided where.) and when it came close to my armpit. It took 30-45 mins to do the outline. I called M as soon as that was done and he said “Whoa! She really does a neat job!” We took pics of jus the outline. N came back and we started with the filling in of the design. This was tougher coz when the outline is being done you can feel where the needle is and go with the design. It’s like, I felt I was creating something there. (though, with all due respect, it was N who did all the work). But the filling-in part, well it’s different. They jus ‘fill-in’ and since after a while my whole shoulder back started paining, I had to engage my mind in other ways. When it hurt real badly, I hummed along with the rock tracks they were playing on World space, or I thought of food, or moved my toes around or something.

We took two breaks in between. One coz N got a call and the other coz... well coz it hurt then... the 1st time, I immediately hollered for M and he came pronto. He was describing how much has been done and whether it was nice or not and stuff like that. I was so curious that I asked him to take a pic and show me. Jus when he was gonna take it, N came in and said something. I don’t catch it, so I told her “Just a min, let him take the pic”. M took it and gave it to me. It was almost half filled. Looked nice, except… “Hey N, why is my tattoo all bumpy bumpy?” – “Umm, that’s blood.” – “Oh…” – “You guys should have waited for me to clean it up 1st” – “Ummm, I guess… (feeling weird now) Hey M, pass me the water na. And could you go get some chocolates for me?” M went to get the chocolates and N started again.2 mins later : “Oww! N, it hurts!! – “That’s coz now you know that there’s blood.”

Much much later.

Me: “Is it done yet?”

N: “Almost. 15 mins more”

10 mins later.

Me: “Now?”

N: “Ya, just some touch-ups left. 5 mins”

N: “Ok it’s done”

Me: “Ah! The words I’ve been waiting for! Can you take a pic??”


So here it is! My first tattoo!