New year, old thoughts....

The same old thoughts and nothing new about life at all. Went home over the weekend and the kid and I played a lot. There was some uneasiness in the area thanks to some idiotic procession by the Hindus and some alleged stone-throwing by the Muslims. I think we are becoming a mini-Gujarat now. I haven't yet reached that stage where I have to distrust every Muslim I see but I think soon all of us will be forced to take sides and that will be unpleasant. It's already happening. I realized when I heard it from Auntie - somehow I thought she wouldn't be the one to say, "those guys would not hesitate to do that"...

V is scheduled to go to Uruguay soon and oh, I'm feeling I don't know what. I'm definitely happy that she's going to some unusual place but the duration is too long - 8 months!! We are hoping that we will at least get to watch our most awaited movie Guru together. She's mostly into nightshifts these days and wants that Pappa and Aayi do not know about it. I have a good mind to blackmail her, just like I used to in good old days. I do think I was a devil of a sister! The poor kid would lose some pencil or something like that and I would be the first to know. Having some supplies myself, I would offer to give her one and she wouldn't want Aayi to know about it. Then would start my blackmail - I would ask her to do some petty errands for me I think, don't remember that part well. I don't know how she felt about me those days.

Even better was my 'maya mantra'. She would misplace her dolls etc regularly but in a small house like ours, it could never escape me. She would search here and there and ultimately turn to me, the magician. I would hear her plea, turn my eyes around and spot it. Then I would sit to use my powers - chant some mantra with closed eyes and then announce in all greatness, "you can find your doll under the bed, right hand corner" and can you imagine the happiness in V's eyes when she finds it!! We have had innumerable laughs over it over the years.

We guys in the project had a residential workshop the previous weekend in some corner of Bangalore. The place turned out much better than what it looked outside and everybody had loads of fun. I think ladies remained fitter than the guys by the end of it. Apart from team-games, a lot of things were drilled into our heads about being good human beings etc but I'm not sure if things have changed on that front. One thing is for sure though, people are not averse to smiling at the big boss now.