Tales from the Valley

I'll post all my Rishi Valley posts under this heading, and give a brief background before I start. The background will be common for all posts.

Background- Rishi Valley is a place in the middle of southern rural India surrounded by farms, orchards, rocky hills and more farms. It also happens to be the place where I am working currently.

The following is one of the numerous incidents that has defined the whole Rishi-Valley-experience for me. Hopefully, more will follow.

It was an unusually hot day. I was on my way from Rishi Valley to Bangalore.To make this journey you have to hop onto a number of rickety buses and autorickshaws- that are more like a random assemblage of nuts and bolts that may all disassemble with the next road bump. As I said, it was an unusually hot day and my backpack with my laptop, clothes and an assortment of things I always carry but never use was not making things any easier. So as I stood in the bus’s aisle I cursed pretty much everything around me.

The bus made yet another halt and a hoard of people got in. Great, I thought. Just what I need. As the throng of people pushed inside, I suddenly found myself at the receiving end of a stampede in the narrow aisle. There is no way these guys can move in, I thought. There simply isn’t any space! A man tried to get past me. The grey hair on his beard were covered with dust, and yet stood out on his wrinkled, dark face. He was wearing what once must have been a white shirt and a white lungi. They looked more like brown than white now, just like his hair. He tried to motion to me to move so he could get past me. At that moment I don’t know how or why, I happened to look into his eyes. And as I saw the eyes of that farmer, I mused- ‘The tomatoes I had in my rassam today might have been from his farm’. I have no idea where this thought came from. It just appeared there in my head, out of nowhere. I imagined a single tomato making its journey from that man’s hand to my mouth.

I smiled, and let him through.

A Refreshing Scene!

Gargi is a friend I know from college. She landed up with a job recently. So we decided to meet up on Sunday at Dadar and celebrate. But sadly, at the last minute everyone cancelled, except Gargi and me.

Well we didn’t complain much, for when two girls get together after a long time, boy can they talk! So for about 5 hours the gappas continued. We talked about many things, her new job, updates on our lives, updates on other people’s lives (read gossip). Later the talks took some serious turns and we both shared our doubts that bog us down. We sighed often and the conversation ebbed as both of us lost ourselves in our thoughts.

We strolled around Narali Baug, a relatively new garden developed on what was once the famous dadar beach. (Well, at least they didn’t build a mall there, thank god!). So there we were two 23 year olds sharing common childhood memories of making sand castles on the very ground we were walking on and loosing countless slippers while having a dip in the salty water, while the Bandra-Worli Sea link curved gracefully across the horizon. Even though I hate the sea-link, I must admit it made for a very beautiful sight that day. It was near sunset and the faint rays peeped through the rain clouds. Those rays fell on the buildings at Bandra Reclamation making them radiant gold. Suddenly, the distant rain clouds gave way and sheets of water fell through the sky. We could actually see the rain move from the sea to land towards Bandra Reclamation. It poured over the skyscrapers that were golden with the sunset.

Refreshing!

After all that serious talk, the rain, the sea and the sun conspired to lift our spirits!

Mumbai can offer beautiful sights sometimes. Pity I didn’t have a camera, could have been able to show you how beautiful the sight was.

Well alright, time's up

So I'm back after a hiatus of 3 days.

There have been so many things I have been wanting to blog, that I have no clue where to start. So here is a bulleted update of what is happening in my life in no particular order:

• I have gained weight. Now wait a second, hear me out. Let me be more precise, I gained 3 kilograms. For many that is close to nothing, it may perhaps be negligible. But for me, well, who knew 3 kilograms was all I needed to look better. The number of complements I receive after the weigh gain have been on the rise. But I also hear this from all the aunties and grandmas- that this is enough. "Yashada, put a full stop to it now, don't you gain more weight. This is perfect, not an inch more, not an inch less." So basically, for the first time in my life, I have to pay attention to what I eat and how much I eat. And I never knew it was so difficult!! Man, you need a strong will to say no to that yummy slice of pizza! Not that I am on a strict diet or anything, and I don't intend to either. But I am merely avoiding junk food as much as I can and trying to eat healthy. But this has happened only for the past week or so, mind you.
• Visited Bangalore a couple of weeks ago. Its a fairly nice city. Pleasant weather, simple people, not as fussy as Mumbaikars. Why I went there and what I learnt there will be a separate post in itself, or better yet, a series of posts! :)
  
• I am hating what Ganpati today has turned into. It's no longer a festival I look forward to. The noise, the pollution and the vulgarity make me want to either slap all those people or turn my back to them and walk away. I want to do the former, but do the latter.