Yamraaj With A Pony Tail & A Challenge!!!

Last month I had shared the sad news of the departure of my regular aerobics trainer and a road block in my fitness regime. My attempts to join a gym never materialized for the simple reason of my laziness. To be honest I have always hated gym because it is more of an individual activity &; I hate working out alone. However before the guilt of not working out could kill me God decided to intervene and a mail landed in my mail box.

“Dear All Members,

This is to inform you that we will be starting the Aerobics morning batch (9am) from Thursday 29th Oct.”

All my laziness disappeared and Thursday saw me getting down the train right in time for the class. As I moved towards the bus I saw a guy in white track suit entering an auto. My 6th sense said that this guy was my new trainer. Ah! By the way, did I tell you guys that the new instructor was a guy? I must have missed the fact :D

Anyways, as I was saying I reached my aerobics floor before time & waited for the new trainer. I wasn’t surprised when the guy in white track suit entered a while later. One look and I realised that my dreams of having a cool new guy aerobics trainer went for a toss because this new guy is wafer thin sports semi-blonde long hair ties in a pony tail and hardly smiles.

The class started and I realised am in for tough times as this trainer is a tough task master, it was his first day and he made us work out as if he has been training us for ages, guess he wasn’t aware of the phrase ‘go slow on first day’. My so called famous stamina went for a toss in front of his regime and 30 mins down the line we gave up. Luckily for us he decided to have mercy and said

“Hands behind your back arch your back & push your shoulders backwards & stretch.” Stretch for us meant the end of class :-)

A relieved look passed between me & the other guy in the class and when the trainer came behind me I passed a sweet thankful smile to him as well. There was no smile in reciprocation but what he did was something more horrible. He got hold of my elbows pulled them together and what you could hear next were two sounds

First came “khatak” the sound which my muscles made followed by a “Oh My God!” yelp from me!! Both my elbows were kissing each other for few more seconds before he let them go & moved on to the other guy. I could only pass a sympathetic good luck smile to him!!!

Things got worst better with each class. My stamina increased & so did the number of members, which meant the collective torture increased and I was relieved I wasn’t the only one going through this.

I wouldn’t even want to repeat the lie-on-your-stomach-hold-your-ankle-with-your-hands-stretch. The guy just came from my behind took hold of my ankles (along with my hands) and pulled me backwards, all I could feel then was that my spinal cord has given away. Though I must say post the stretch you feel relieved, light & stress free.

But nothing had prepared me for what was about to happen on Saturday. He had decided to up his torture & forewarned us, “Saturday will be a special class, circuit training.” 

What happened in the class is something that I don’t want to repeat in words but I will only say that we did aerobics with dumbles and the effect was such that my legs are in doldrums. In fact in between the class I felt I was about to collapse & at that time the idea sounded appealing over being in the class :D

The exercise was so good that my legs are paining, I have a difficulty in dragging them and I limped my way through Sunday & even today am no better.

Despite all the torture this guy is making us go through I know he knows his job well. So immaterial to the fact that he is no eye candy I look forward to his class as I know am gonna lose weight very soon.

This also reminds me of the interesting conversation that I had with a colleague.

He said, ‘there is a reason for your not losing weight.’

Me: What?

He:You are basically a happy person & it is difficult for you to lose weight.

Me: What? This is the 1^st time that I am hearing this logic.

He: It is true, see people who bitch around, crib, cry and are sad, burn themselves out with such hyper emotions but you are basically balanced & happy with life. You keep yourself busy with something or the other & don’t take tension so you are not burning out.

I was shocked because going by that logic, though we hate to be sad but it is our sadness which can make us happy, so happily be sad and lose some weight!!!

Confused you too?? Lol!! Read on…

He:You should also stop eating with a group because then you tend to it more.

Me:Oh! I agree with you on that. Around a month back I had started putting my foot down and stopped eating anything extra. In fact I was rude & was labeled stubborn for not eating but I stuck to my resolve and lost weight. I think I need to go back to that rude self.

Him: That’s the point am trying to make. You can not be rude, you are basically happy.

Me: No, I can be. If it has to be for losing weight I am sure I can do it.

Him:OK, Lets have a bet.

Me: What?

Him: You lose 3 kgs by 1^st January and you win the bet.

Me: Oh am game for it.

Him: And if you win the bet I will give you one big bar of chocolate.

Honestly speaking I am not interested in the winning item but am very happily taking up the challenge because if that is what it will take to control my foodie instinct then be it. I hate losing challenges. So am in it and all you guys just wish me luck.  

Tomorrow am going to the The Yamraaj with the Pony Tail my aerobics trainer & will tell him my target. If anyone can make achieve that target besides me i.e. then it is him!!!

P.S. Saw Dil Bole Hadippa on DVD yesterday and I was cursing the Indian Selection team for not selecting Rani Mukherjee for Indian side. May be she would have won the match & series for us :D What? 

Part II of My story.....

With As it Blooms over the books I had made my first attempt at fiction. The attempt however needed a part II and here I am with it. I hope you like it...

For those who have not read the Part I, I request you to click on the link above or here

********

The evening saw me going home in a somber mood. In a matter of days had I not only lost a place of my refuge for a lonely Sunday afternoon but I had also lost a bunch of true to hearted simple friends. Life continued and settled into a pattern. A pattern which saw me checking out the place in every few days with a hope that may be they are back.

My vigil paid off after a month. It was around 8:30 pm and as I neared the usual spot I could see that it was in fact bustling with activity and then I saw the lady.

I hurried towards her and could see that she was happy to see me. We chatted for some 20 mins. Their stuff was still stuck with the Municipality people. So, they had now taken some loan got some new stock and restarted the shop because they badly needed some steady income. I asked her ‘what is the guarantee that these people won’t come back again.’ She said that fear would always be there and that’s why they had decided to start a permanent shop just half a kilometer away.

Needless to say the news & meeting made me happier and I went back with a spring in my feet. Though I was yet to meet Deepak but I knew that these people are back and eventually things will be ok.

A month later the new store was launched. Unfortunately I couldn’t attend the main ceremony as I had my office but I was there in the evening. The store was huge and as I entered the main area all I could see was spans & spans of books. I was happy and felt like a kid in a candy store and then I heard some voice and followed it and then I saw him. There he was standing with his dad. I passed my wishes to his Dad grinned towards Deepak. I could see it that he was as happy to see me as I was. He was excited because his dad had entrusted him with the responsibility of the new store. He was to handle the place solely, I was happy for him because I knew this would make him responsible.

And thereon life settled into a pattern, I became a member of this new place and my visits became more frequent. Some 15 days later Deepak’s father requested me for a favor.

The loan he had taken was from market and was on a very high ROI. He now wanted to switch over to a bank loan against his stock. The only problem was there was no catalogue of the stock and he wanted me to help him.

I had no shortage of time after office and I readily agreed and thus began a daily ritual. After office I would go to the store directly and there I would find Deepak waiting for me. I would start cataloging the books and he would always be somewhere around me talking about his day, asking about my day & his passion i.e. Cricket.

Sometimes we would even go to eat gol gappa’s together and race as to who can have more of them. Life was happy & good. One day I got stuck in a meeting and realized that it was way past my visiting time to the shop. When I fished put my mobile I saw 7 missed calls from Deepak. I called him back immediately and all I could hear was a sulking voice. He was angry with me for not coming & not telling him either. It took me 15 mins to patao him and the phone was kept with a promise to be there the next day.

Next day things were back on track & life moved on. The catalogue was finished in a month. In the meanwhile I had made few friends and my social life was also improving thus reducing my visits to the place.

Though Deepak & I would still talk on phone but the frequency had reduced and whenever I would visit the shop he would sulk for my irregular visits. Eventually I changed my mobile number but didn’t share it with him because his knack of giving missed calls was irritating. What irritated me more was he never really wanted to achieve anything in life. He was content handling the shop and never really tried for better things. His directionless stance was unacceptable to me.I had also seen him treating some of the customers with disrespect and that irked me big time. My attempts to bring sense to him failed. Once his father suffered a minor financial setback and I decided that I had had enough of him. I stopped going to his shop.

Eventually I moved on but then one day I got a call from a friend of mine who used to visit the same place. Deepak had been asking for my number for past many days, he used to tell her that he has something very urgent to tell me. I thanked for the message and decided to call him.

We were talking after more than 6 months but I just had to say a hello and he knew it was me.

Him: Where have you been?

Me: Been Busy!!!

Him: Why don’t you come to the shop anymore?

Me: I don’t get time to read these days. Why were you irritating my friend for my number?

Him: Why did you changed your number and never gave me the new one?

Me: I had lost your number. Anyways tell me what you wanted to say.

Him: I knew you would be happiest to hear this. I cleared my exams!!! You were angry that I failed in semi’s so I worked really hard and you won’t believe what I am about to tell you.

All I could say was WHAT??

Him: I stood 2nd in the class didi!! I came second in my class Xth board exams!!! And it is all because of you!!! Now are you happy didi? Will you start coming back to the shop??

I was so happy for him. I always knew that all this kid needed was direction & a strong hand. I also knew that he respected me a lot and thus I had decided to stay away from him and my ploy had worked. My walking off on the day he had told me that he had failed had worked.He had studied and made his parents proud.

Needless to say I was a regular customer again:-)

********

Of Being called an Aunty by an Uncle & my 1st ever interview!!!

An interesting incident that am sure most of us can relate to!!

We were buying some bed sheets to take home for Diwali and following ensued between me & the shopkeeper (he was in his early 50s with grey hair)

Me: Uncle, can you show us that bed sheet?

He shows us the bed sheet and says “This is for 350/- bucks aunty and we have more colors if you want.” 

Needless to say the word ‘Aunty’ shocked me but I tried to look unfazed and went ahead into seeing the stuff but the guy decided not to let it be and added, "sorry I called you that by mistake & out of habit, ‘aunty’. Ooopss!!! I said it again! Am sorry!"

I knew that the bugger was doing it deliberately so I said...

Well, the fact is you do look like my uncle but I don’t look like your aunty. (As I said this I could see my husband chuckling)

But the smartass uncle again said aunty once or twice and kept saying sorry and every time I kept saying to him, you keep calling me aunty & I will keep calling you uncle and we will be to square one.

After that he didn’t utter the awful word, showed us some more bed sheets and moved to the other customer. To my amazement he called even that lady ‘aunty’.

After we had left the shop I pondered over. Was the guy using that word deliberately? I mean he sits in a shop and I am sure that half the females either call him ‘bhaiya or uncle’ so was this his ploy of deriving sadistic pleasure?

This also made me think that OK may be it isn’t justified to call him bhaiya or uncle but then that leaves me with a question that how should we address him or for that matter any strange shopkeeper. It is our traditions or upbringing which makes us address him politely. I would hate to address shopkeepers with, oye, ai etc.

What do you do in such circumstances? 

That’s however one part of the scenario. Another major angle to the whole situation was that I hated being called an Aunty and here I would be honest; I hate being called an aunty by even kids & insist on being called ‘Didi’ :D

In Ahmedabad a colleague’s 6 year old son knew my hatred towards that word and he used to tease me like anything. He would come near me and say aunty and run away. Then he would come back to the glaring me fall into a heap of naughty giggles, call me didi and run away!

The best part is that I have no issues in disclosing my age to anyone (but that doesn’t mean am entertaining that question in the comment section) so I wouldn’t say I am in any kind of denial but still the word irritates me.

This even reminds me of this incident my Mom had shared with me. It was 3-4 months after our shift to Jamanagar that she had made some friends. They were married ladies with two kids but used to call my Mom aunty. She was shocked because we come from a place where the most obvious thing was to call her ‘Bhabhi’ and to be called Aunty by them irritated her.

To be honest even I use the word Aunty & Uncle very loosely but when it comes to me I cringe and am sure that happens to most of us. But does that mean I will stop calling random people Uncle & aunties? 

Nah! Never….but not everyone should be allowed to do that ;-)

BTW here is a first for me, an interview on a website called Webneetech (though am not sure as to why was i Chosen :D) which I did on the insistence of a friend but was in no mood to post a link here. Posting it finally because I don’t want to be called a chuppa rustam ;-) 

Here is the link do drop in. Click here 

BTW again, saw London Dreams & loved it. What makes the movie worth watching is Salman Khan. He is simply awesome. He usually sleepwalks through his roles but when he acts sab ki dho daalta hai!!! A typical Capricorn he is when he is set to prove something nothing can stop him!!!

P.S. Any bets on who wins the ongoing Match? I say India!!!

As it Blooms over the books - My 1st semi-fictional Attempt!!!

Disclaimer: This is an old post which was published in 2008. This was my first & last attempt at fiction semi-fiction to be precise. I have a reason behind publishing it again and you will also know the reason, all you have to do is to read on...

Give me a book…

Give me a corner & nook…

I can forget the people around me….

Nothing matters beyond the book…. 

But Sometimes it does.....

First job, working on a stipend and habits like book buying don’t gel. Necessity is the mother of invention :D so I decided to find a place where I could either rent a book or get it for cheap. 

And then I discovered the bookstore in front of IIM Ahmedabad whichis a heaven for people like me. A roadside vendor the lady has a collection which can make good stores envious. 

Fiction, non-fiction, course Material for professional courses, magazines, comics, IIM Project all under one umbrella. The fact that you could keep the book against a minimum deposit (in the range of 100-200 Rs) for as many days added a charm to the place. 

My love for books, being new in the city & knowing no one else besides my colleagues made me a regular at this place. I remember spending many a Sundays here. Used to sit on a make shift stool and read, interact with the customers, sometimes even helped them in finding a book. There was fun in it and there was a sense of achievement too. It was a time well spent. 

In these sittings I bonded with Deepak, the vendor’s son. We used to talk a lot over books. I was young and so was he, he dreamt of becoming a cricketer and I used to tell him to do something better, to start earning and help his parents. He used to give a deaf to ear to me & would walk away. 

The days spent there are still imprinted in my mind. 

However things can never be the same and one evening changed everything. When I reached at the spot there were no books & not a soul there. 

My heart sank, I asked people around but no body had an idea about them. 

I was sad, I was lost. I started visiting the place again & again in the hope that I might find someone there and then one day I met the lady's father in law. 

He told me that all their stuff was taken away by municipality people and they are asking for a huge sum of money to release the stock. The fact that the amount was beyond their reach didn't help the matters. To add to their woes there was rain God threatening to rot their books at the warehouse.

Needless to say his whole family was distressed & was trying hard to find a solution!!!

What happens next? 

Can they get their stock back? 

How will they arrange the huge sum?

Do they get another chance in life, can they rebuild everything?

What happens to Deepak? 

Do I meet him again???

Wait for Part 2 :-)

Hope to see you in my next post... 

Continuation of the Disclaimer...I had left the post unfinished and never came back to logically end it. But am back and the part 2 will release soon :-)

Secrets & Lies

Secrets & Lies -A Book Review


Author:      Jaishree Misra

Price:       275/-

Publisher: Harper Collins

Two continents, 4 ladies and a letter which beckons them to re trace their childhood, a letter which takes them down to that dark corner of their lives which they wished never existed.

Zeba (reigning bollywood queen), Sam (a housewife in denial that her marriage might be on its last leg), Bubbles (wife of a multi millionaire leading an otherwise empty life) & Anita (a journalist & a single woman who has carved an identity which she had always dreamt of) have spent their growing years together & share a bond unlike others.

The book opens with them receiving a letter from the principle of their school. The letter reminds them of the fateful year when they had passed out. It also brings back the memory of Lily, the new student who without trying had upstaged each of these popular girls in some manner or the other. In no time Lily becomes the most hated student of the class. Things would have been normal & taken as teenage jealousy had Lily been not found dead on a fateful night!

Who killed her?

Did the girls hate her enough to kill her?

Or Was it really a murder?

Was her past catching up on her!!

These questions have been haunting the girls in some form or the other. There is also a guilt which makes them think, could they have reacted differently?

The four friends ultimately decide to go back to their school & burn the ghosts of their past but do they manage to do that? Or will they unravel something which would change their lives forever?

You will have to read the book to know more.

The book traces the journey of each of these women from present to past. I absolutely loved the narration of the book. It takes you into the past and then throws you back in present. When you are in present you would yearn to know about what happened in the past & vice versa.

Each character has been well etched and gives you reason for their respective behavior, the book slowly but steadily traces the growth of each of the characters. But how I wished that Lily’s character was explored a little bit more. She had a past which would explain her present behavior but the past is touched upon very briefly.

However the most frustrating thing about the book is the way the author leaves you with small details & keeps you waiting with baited breath as to what will happen next :D recipe of a true blue page turner I say ;-)

It briefly touches upon so many contemporary issues like being over worked, ignored, ego hassles, child sexual abuse, violence, infidelity, gay issues, and issues with in-laws etc.

My only problem with the book is its end. The way book moves you feel it is coming up for a wonderful climax but it doesn’t happen that ways. What could have been fantastic just fizzles out in the end. In fact the way the book ends it gives me a feeling that a sequel might be coming up. Lets see if that’s the case!!!

If I have to summarize the book I would say a chick-lit cum thriller cum suspense novel cum teenage romance cum bollywood masala cum contemporary issues makes this an immensely readable fare and a gripping page turner. 

3.5 Stars from me, good as a Masala Time Pass read :)

Edited after seeing Sakhis comment because I actually liked the book and would recommend it to all those who love race reads.

Here I must add that Indian Authors specialize in dishing out emotional stuff and rarely do we see them coming up with Page turner thrillers and in this case the author has surely succeeded. Another interesting fact about the book is the way it was publicized. There was a contest going on in Hindustan Times wherein the readers were asked to share the darkest secrets of their lives and the reader with the most daring secret was supposed to win or something like that. Needless to say I was amazed with the way the book was being pushed forward.

Other books that I have read from the author

Accidents Like Love and Marriage (Book based in Delhi a good time pass read with humor are at all the right places)

Afterwards (A sad book of Love & Loss)

P.S. People who are interested in knowing what I am reading or to read quick one liner reviews from me can check this account of mine. I update this place every day and leave a quickie one line about how I am finding a book.