Foodie25’s Weblog

Friday, 26 October 2007

Today is a sad day. My partner-in-crime Pradnya is spending her last few hours of her first job here at NS. I am sure it must be tougher for her, considering that she has worked here for real long. It’s not easy for me either. She was the first person at work who allowed me to ‘be myself’. There was no superficiality, no hypocrisy, and no politics in her world. Considering the state of mind I was in (since it was my first job), she simply drew me out of my shell and brought colour into my life.

The first day, the seat to my right was vacant. I wondered who this girl was and what kind of person would she be. I had my immediate instinctive reaction: worry. I worry about every little thing: about the past, the present and the future. That’s me! The third day I saw her and my first reaction was relief. She was probably one of few people who did not fill me with dread or make me jittery with nervousness. I relaxed and our first words of ‘Hi’ culminated into a crazy fun-filled memorable friendship, which has no bounds for MADNESS!!

We live and we let live.

We connect through facebook. (she harasses me actually)

We share our thoughts over wecheeto.

We giggle like hyenas over Omelet Maggie!! Sometimes we eat and drink so much, we cannot keep track of what followed what!

We make bathroom trips together just for the heck of it (don’t find it weird, we girls like company even in the loo)!!

We tempt each other to drink Tropicana! (I will not forget your ‘garam’ Tropicana’)

We ‘net send’ to each other for no apparent reason (just a Hi or wassup)

We get overjoyed just going to the 20-20 shop (now who said girls fancy upscale shopping?)

We blog together.

Sniffles as I fondly call her, laughs like there are no worries in the world and makes you forget yours. Her face lights up when she talks about her beloved Beige. She scrunches up her nose when the food is not upto mark. She layers her curds with sugar and sugar and more sugar (crème de brule!!) She makes puppy faces (taking after Beige I must say!) when I refuse her something. She is crazy over pink, but that simply adds to her personality. She has taught me the tricks of our trade (which I shall refrain from mentioning here). She has simply made my life at work easier.

I don’t think I can write anymore, for fear of letting out any more secrets!! The bottom line remains: she was my guardian angel at NS. And the thought of her big grin not lighting up my face every morning at 11:30 makes me sad. But I know she has many more miles to go and lots of success to achieve. I also know for sure she will shine her way through wherever she goes from now on.

Prads you bring a smile to my lips, a twinkle in my eye, and joy in my heart!

Love you always and keep up the blogging spirit!! We are and will always be bloggers in crime!

You know how the word ‘airhead’ is often associated with girls – mostly dumb blondes?? Well, in my world, I have come to discover that airheads rule the opposite sex…Each time i find myself around a guy whose mind doesnt seem to work as fast as his eyes, i feel myself bursting with laughter. Since most of you may not be familiar with the airhead kind of guys, I will take the liberty to initiate you to this ‘newly found but fast gaining popularity’ word….

Airheads are guys like Joey from Friends or like Moose from Archies’ comics…(read: du-uh!) They have this perpetually ‘i know it all’ look, but one glance at their face and you know for sure they are clueless as hell! They are mostly good looking, sometimes very good looking…the kind of looks that may make you glance back their way…but in a few minutes or days of observing them, you realise their good looks don’t really apply to their brains!They are aware they are good looking and sometimes sport a smug smirk on their face, as though they expect every freaking passer-by to tell them how handsome they are! They thrive on attention; without the spotlight, they are like fish without water…!

Fortunately for me, I have never personally known (read:befriended) any airhead, but yeah i they have been in my vicinity. The number of airheads were more in college, but then again, you do expect a little immaturity and oversmartness from college  guys. But I never thought in my wildest dreams, that I would find a similar sample at work.

They defy all rules, they flit about so that they get noticed, they talk loudly so that they are heard, they do things that would draw the maximum attention! When it comes to talking, they probably make you wanna jump out of the nearest window…when it comes to manners, you wish you had never noticed them in the first place! They are under the huge misconception that we (women) are dying to go out with them! They think they can be our knights in shining armour…but hey i got news for u! we women no longer believe in knights in shining armour! so, no thank you!

Why can’t guys behave normal, just be themselves…it doesnt take much to do that…shed that pseudo image and just be yourself man!

StRanGer iN ThE MirRoR  

What do you do when you are flung out of your comfort zone into the thorny ambush of harsh reality? You cower with fright, you buckle under pressure, you tremble with rage at being abandoned so quickly. You feel betrayed and cheated because you were uprooted from the place to which you had grown attached. You hold tightly onto your memories…there are lots of them, but they slip through your palm like golden sand. Wait… I can barely recollect anything. My mind feels empty like a vast bottomless abyss, and I am afraid if I don’t hold on, I will fall into infinite space.  

People come, people go. They smile at me…I think I sense pity in their smiles…or maybe surprise? Some look at me oddly, like I am some museum piece of art. Others simply pat my hand with an assuring nod of their head. But they are still unrecognizable.  My face scrunched, I try to remember…remember anything inconsequential. Damn! Nothing. I can feel the onset of a headache. I am given advice to ‘rest’ and ‘maybe things will be better when I wake up’. Okay I accept the advice without protests.  

3 hours later. I wake up, groggy from the funny pills I had to take before sleeping. I still feel lost – the same feeling I had earlier in the day.  I stand up on shaky feet. For the first time I see I am dressed in a flimsy pale green nightgown. It feels odd and I get the feeling I have never been a ‘nightgown’ person. Maybe I am a ‘PJs’ person. Why can’t I remember? 

I walk over to the dresser and peek hesitantly into the mirror. I am scared…scared at what I will see or rather not see. As I stare persistently at the stranger in the mirror, bits and pieces of my memory start dancing in front of my eyes. Some random scenes flash past: a speeding blue Honda City…a chorus of blood-curdling screams…a loud crash…a startling explosion…some heart-wrenching cries…a heap of mangled bodies… 

‘STOP! I cannot anymore…no more please!’ I sob to my reflection. It’s too stressful, my headache is nagging again. They give me some more pills. I take it quietly; I am in no position to revolt. I am in no position to do anything. 

I find myself getting drowsy, being pulled into that cozy darkness again, where I do not have to fight demons, where I do not have to remember anything. Just before reaching that place, I find myself asking one simple question….WHO AM I ?

A constructive creative chat that transpired between Pradnya and moi….during a few hours of very very hard work !!

Pradnya: Ok… so today me and Sneha had a lot to do at work… primarily pretend that we have work, ‘coz we had none. In the evening we ate wecheeto (read veg cheese toast) and while we were voraciously hogging it, we decided to order for another. Then we decided to post a blog entry on what we did during the whole day, but since we had done virtually nothing… we had nothing to write (right now we are thinking what to write further). Sneha loved the wecheeto. I always loved it… What else? Now Sneha’s turn                                                                                        

Sneha: I am wondering how many kilos have I put on thanks to 2 wecheetos! The second one’s on the way, but I have already digested it! I am sure I am gonna get kicked out during my 3^rd week of work, thanks to this laughing hyena next to me!                                                                

Pradnya: Then suddenly someone passed by and we panicked. I taught Sneha alt+tab during this processes. Mmmmmmmmm back to Sneha

Sneha: this is Pradnya: short and sweet! She does not have many words to say…so she goes ‘mmmmmm’ ! That shows her intellect! J But still, she is my partner in crime…now enough of her…where is my s/w???? The pantry guys must be fed up of us hogs…they might have left the job! Or they have planned to go to the Himalayas after we leave, for some calm and peace of mind!

Pradnya: and that was Sneha…. She can blabber over any damn topic in the world, it doesn’t even have to make sense… she can fill the pages in no time… she is threatening me to fill more space now… mmmmmmmm Sneha is cursing the pantry guy for not bringing in her (our) wecheeto. She then suddenly spotted a girl whose dressing sense she found to be weird… now she is regretting opening her mouth at all… now we both are wondering what now… she will be leaving now, but I’ll have to wait till 9 so damn…

Sneha: Pradnya is very confused! She has no work till 9pm…she never had work otherwise, but today is different. We have eaten so much; she may fall asleep before reaching home! While she indulges in criminal activities online (like blogging, networking) and of course keeping me company, I take on the avatar of the writer and write some more and more in this post! However, this post seems to be revolving only around food and madness!! That is indeed a crazy combination. Now over to Pradnya…

Pradnya: Thank you Sneha… as you can see the weather is mad and we have no idea why we are writing this …. Wait a minute… We are writing this to kill time, but I really pity you guys reading this ‘coz damn… what else Sneha? She is her way to kill the pantry guy for not getting her wecheeto… in the meanwhile I did a spelling mistake on which we spent half an hour laughing… Ok the wecheeto is here… Shall be back after we gulp it down… cya

Poor fellas…and we call them eve-teasers! 

Accidental bumping, brushing, elbowing, nudging and groping are very common mistakes among some men. It seems to me that they face a terrible problem while walking; they misjudge the distance between them and the oncoming crowd (read: girls) or between them and the woman beside them. Most are probably cross-eyed, so it’s really sad to watch them dodge women or block their way, after muttering an incorrigible ‘sorry’. It is so pitiful to observe these far-sighted men walk diagonally across an empty footpath and in the way of a woman coming in the opposite direction.  

What about the taxi and rickshaw drivers?  They are so unbelievably careful while driving, that they constantly look into the rear-view mirror, lest there is a speeding car or bike; after all they are ferrying a lone woman passenger. Even when the roads are empty, they just keep sneaking glances through the rear view mirror and these prudent guys are accused of ‘leering’ or ‘staring’ at the woman passenger in the back seat. If only their extreme caution was not mistaken for other bad intentions…!  

What about that poor old uncle who is standing next to you in a jam-packed BEST bus? Although all of you hang on dearly for your lives, grabbing on to the overhead handle or the backrest of a seat, he just cannot seem to reach the handlebar. And so, very unintentionally, his innocent hands reach your side or your behind and you feel nothing but pity for him while he tries to balance himself in the wobbly bus. Wait! There is another man, who cannot seem to keep his hands to himself. Oh dear, it looks like he has some sort of physical retardation…his right shoulder keeps brushing against your left; all the while he looks at you with ‘I cannot help it’ eyes. If only the Government was kind enough to start separate buses exclusively for men, so they do not have to face such terrible discomfort day after day.  

And then there are some more convulsive men at the railway station, who just want to stand near the ladies compartment. How considerate of them to protect us, to save us from the devil of all crimes! They saunter about, whistling to themselves – the self-proclaimed singers that they are! If only I had the opportunity, I would thank them profusely for making our wait for the train extremely peaceful and exciting. I mean how boring would it be without these ‘bodyguards’ at the railway station?

The same goes for the men who consider it their birth right to flank you on both side while climbing the footbridge or walking towards the exit. They believe in ‘more the merrier’ and could not be more concerned whether we are warm enough…hence the ‘stick with em’ motto.  

Wouldn’t our lives be filled with danger if it weren’t for these thoughtful guys? C’mon all you women out there…we gotta hand it over to them. Lets face it – they are present everywhere you go, in all shapes and sizes, of all ages and classes. A volley of shocking accusations are hurled at them, from being nasty with women to dis-respecting their sentiments to stripping them off their dignity to subjecting them to debasement…I say ‘how rude!’  

 Being a woman is a terribly difficult task, since it consists principally in dealing with men.  ~Joseph Conrad 

Cheers!