Falling Leaves

Have you seen them? Lazily falling to the ground, swinging gaily in the wind, and falling with a hush.

I love the seasons that have these falling leaves: autumn and just before spring. In autumn, there is a beautiful tinge to the air, anticipating the winter months. It reminds me of cold, foggy mornings, with the feeble winter sun striving to peep through the still-remaining leaves, trying to warm you up. Somehow it also reminds me of me cycling early in the morning, sweating all over, and feeling the wonderful biting wind on my cheeks.

Before spring, the falling leaves bring with them a hope of the upcoming spring and summer. But it also brings the warning that it's going to be hotter by the day. When I see these leaves falling, I always wonder the change in the temperatures that we always experience. It's pretty amazing that one day in an year we have a temperature of 6 degrees Celsius, while another day in an year after a gap of six months, we have a temperature of 40 degrees Celsius. What a difference!

These falling leaves really leave me nostalgic. They remind me of होळी, गुळपोळ्या, शेकोटी, mangoes, hot coffee, and carom competitions at home when we were kids during summer holidays. And then they make me remind of the amazing power of nature!

What beauty is to be found even in these dying leaves! Can we ever surpass nature in terms of beauty? I think not!

Hazards Of Being Married

• Your status (finally?) changes. You are now supposed to appear in all Haldi-Kumkum functions.
• If your husband works in your office, your colleagues will suddenly be too much interested in him, as if he is an item on display. If he is a calm and quiet guy, your frustration and irritation with your colleagues won't rise to alarming levels.
• Every new relative, neighbour, acquaintance wants to know "Amchya kade kadhi yenaar??" It's as if we have got married to do just that...visit them.
• The time between a Friday and the following Monday contracts drastically. When you do realise it was a weekend, you are practically staring at 11 p.m. in the clock on Sunday.
• You learn all rules of room sharing, right from finding clothes all over the place, to books, papers, and trash too.
• Your relatives are easily ignored. Now your "family" means your in-laws and other relatives on your husband's side.
• You gain new immunity to things. You are now supposed to like things that you might have hated before being married, because your in-laws and husband likes them.
• You suddenly find yourself having no time for yourself. Most of it is gone in office, with your man, or then with the in-laws. Only at 11.30 at night will you then realise that another day is gone again without you even touching your favourite book, forget about reading it.
• TV, TV remote, and your favourite programmes might become alien things for you. You might even forget how to use the TV and its remote.
• You might also forget what hobbies are and what you did in your pastime. Because after all, you won't get time to pursue your hobbies.

The Table Tennis Guy

It is kind of exhilarating to have a star as your husband. Overwhelming too. And you get to share the glory even when you have done nothing yourself. And there's great joy in it.

This time, even after great persistence (read nagging) from me asking SP to participate in the TT competition, he flatly denied to participate. As is always the case, he had to participate because there was no one else to take part. So there he was playing doubles.

I watched him play for the first time. That too, I watched only two of the four matches he played. I think he is really a very good player. Perhaps, I am quite partial here. Probably I think so because he is after all my husband. But then, what really stuck me was the sheer number of people who had come to watch him. And I am not being partial here. I did find people who had come to watch him play. I have also heard him being mentioned as "the table tennis guy."

It was very nice to see him in action. It was wonderful to see him as a team player learning from earlier mistakes, taking quick decisions, co-ordinating with his partner, discussing quickly the strategy to play the next move, and above all, to watch his cool attitude while playing. It was great fun.

SP has forbidden me to consider him as some sports hero. I guess I am guilty of portraying him just that in this post. Forgive me for that. Also, forgive me for sounding too much of a husband's-trumpet-blower. But I did want to write about him this time.

Ohh...and just for the records, he did win the doubles title!

Old Books, Past Times, and Great Friends

I got three big piles of my old study books at my new home and it was time to go down the memory lane. All those old University days came back to my mind with extraordinary ease and quickness.

I remembered how we used to appear for exams, prepare for the exams, read plays together, attend lectures, discuss essays, poems, plays, novels, apply different literary theories to the works of literature that we studied, search through books in the library for some particular essay, get the books photocopied...aaah! What days!

And in all this, two friends were there all the time. They were there as we had fun, studied, and enjoyed being students. Thanks S and R for being there. Remembered our time together when we studied Shakespeare and Satyajit Ray! Cheers to our friendship!