What I have done this week

It is finally Friday. Somewhere mid week I had lost hope that this day would ever come. Ever! I have been quite the headless chicken all week, and for once I cannot blame anyone else for my "headlessness". Almost. You will know soon what I mean. What have I been up to-

1. Work. Oh work. Learn, apply, and a couple of times, unlearn and reapply. And an almost oversight. A blunt one at that. It has been crazy. Demands Fragile egos. And my obsessive need to finish everything in 8 hours, not more. I cannot begin to explain how exhausting it has been. And boy am I happy! Like I said, I am weird that way. I am also glad that word documents have taken over a lot of my excel files. I did miss the excel madness after a while, and then EOM happened. And then there was no running away from numbers. Just when words threaten to bore you, numbers come along. And words reappear before you start getting nightmares full of jumbled numbers. Perfect balance I say! Finally, finally I think this is what I was looking for. Finally.

2. Dealing with insecurity.

3. Cooking and cleaning. I always thought I did not believe in inertia. Don't ask me to explain that. But I saw an example this week. After a crazy day, I still went around getting laundry done. And how! And making full meals everyday. Folding clothes, even. It was like I was on fire and refused to stop!

4. Watching Frasier.The adorable pompousness of the Crane brothers has completely replaced the madness of Friends. I think it has something to do with age. For the last 11 years, Friends has been the background music of my life - padhai, party, cleaning, doing nothing were all always accompanied by the American canned laughter. Oh wait. It is not the canned laughter that has disappeared. Only the faces on the screen have changed.

5. Waiting. For the man who has been working late everyday. That explains a lot of the inertia and crankiness this week.

6. Watching Arnab Goswami. Every night. As usual, I am not sure why. From 12 to 1 at night, I have seen boring old men and loud old women scream their lungs out. I have seen my Biharis get kidnapped, and it only felt like the times gone by. I saw Pakistanis foolishly screaming foul. Again. This time about cricket, not terrorism. I will have to say this - with Pakistan, it is now a little difficult to see the difference. I saw Siddhu scream at rotting grains. And Nitish Kumar helpless and hapless just when the world was beginning to think that Bihar was a changed place. At least I was. And I felt sorry for myself and all those people mentioned above. And for the way me and mine entertain ourselves after days full of madness.

6. Dealing with red tape. And overcoming it. A bank locker is like a trophy these days. Banks will quote an obscene figure like Rs 3,00,000 deposit for a tiny locker. Know your rights, ladies and gentlemen, banks cannot put a condition like this to give you a locker. The RBI website clearly mentions this. So you need to know the numbers. And you need to know the branch manager's senior. Nepotism, you say? I say "loha/heera hi lohe/heere ko kaat ta hai".

6. Learning a lot about car windshields. Because ours got devastated. Bangalore rains and Bangalore greenery at their best. A big, strong branch fell on the car while R was in it. He is fine, and I don't like Bangalore again. You will know why, if you do not already.

7. Having street brawls. I have spineless creeps for neighbours. Bloody Bangalorean spineless creeps. I have never seen a bunch of creatures that claim to be alpha males in everyday existence duck, while a woman, an outsider, deals with an auto driver pointing his fist at her. Because she first refused to pay extra and did not have change. For one, I have not seen such rowdy auto drivers. And I have not seen cowards that hit or threaten to hit women, and cowards who hide behind the nearest tree in my oh so green neighbourhood when it comes to dealing with something man-to-man. I say man-to-man because apparently they take a lot of pride in their ability to do it, these bloody spineless Bangaloreans. I was angry with the neighbours for being. With the building watchman for going for an evening stroll. With R for being at work. But most of all, I am angry with myself. I have reported rigged meters, but today, when there was an issue much worse, my brain froze and refused to react constructively. So yes, I hate bloody spineless Bangaloreans. I cannot help it. I have met the worst of the lot I guess - my one time project manager, the auto and cab drivers, 3 other burly bastards who would have been better off being auto drivers, and a bunch of relatives that have made Bangalore their home for generations. All of them bloody spineless creeps. Non Bangaloreans, do not rattle on about how bad your city is. Because I want to wallow in my misery in this post, that is why I am writing it. And Bangaloreans, don't try defending. Apologize, if you just have to say something to this. Except you Chinkurli, I have to tell you that you are the only one that makes me think I have probably only been unlucky until now. So I will listen to whatever you have to say :-) (I cannot wait for my Activa. I know already that I am going to love it like one loves their protector.)

I have been operating like this on very few hours of sleep. Judge me all you want, but 6 hours is just not enough for me. I am fine, in case you are wondering. I have had a rough week, yes. But I did buy a lovely jute bag and 2 books - Shashi Tharoor and PG Wodehouse. And it is finally Friday. And there is chilled beer and rajma and Daily Bread cakes to keep me going. And the aftertaste of a session of stupid accusations that at one point threatened to turn into a full blown fight (which is always good, btw). I need this weekend.

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