And maybe I seem a bit confused, Yeah maybe, but I got you pegged!

I just finished ironing a load of laundry with Frasier Crane keeping me company. It is raining outside, and when it rains here, it pours! I live on the 14th floor of a 15 floor condo and usually at this time, I have my chai as the night line of the city and the suburbs come to life. But right now, all I see coming to life is the thunderstorm outside. I had to rush out for a bit to pick up the laundry we left out to dry and I had to struggle to do it and then to get back into the house. I am bang in the middle of clouds making space for the water to pour with such insane fury that it is almost scary. Scary, and yet awesome. 

I am not sure how long this home bird bliss will last but for now, there is nowhere else I'd rather be. This feeling of seeing the clouds break into a mad rush of rains every other evening, of being able to watch the sunset, and the night line coming to life, the solitude that the call bell does not disturb and the peace that comes from being pretty far away from everything familiar - nothing beats it. Definitely not a job. Not right now. Not for a few more weeks. God knows I deserve this easy paced blissful vacation inside the four walls of a place I now call home. I am afraid I could get used to this.

Title courtesy- Frasier soundtrack. Why? Because as you can see, there is an unambitious, solitude loving, peaceful person inside me. And she strives for attention every now and then, when I take the time to see outside the madness with which I let work possess me. Yeah, I do seem a bit confused but I got you pegged :p

What's up?

Here's what's up. Moving homes and being terribly enthused by the idea of good housekeeping can truly take the fun out of discovering a new place. Or it can put the fun in discovering a new place - doing it like the locals sort of thing. It depends on how you look at it. This move to KL is nothing like a travel itinerary and I have still only seen the Twin Towers from my balcony! Instead, I have checked out the Ikeas and Juscos and Tescos of the world, and I have acquired plastic dabbas and rice cookers and glasses, and cereals I remember from my voyages with Dad, when I should ideally be buying shoes and bags and clothes! I am in foreign land, after all. And shopping for clothes and bags and shoes is all I seem to remember from those "foreign holidays" from not so long ago. But after over two years of keeping a house and wondering how I will ever get adept at it without a house help who would cook and clean, and other such pleasures of being in India, I seem to have learned quite a bit. Without really knowing I was! So here we are, a fully set up kitchen and laundry and bathrooms and bedrooms and living room and dining area, with no help whatsoever.

We have started cooking and we even had our first guest at home today. I achieved what I can only imagine my mum do - I fed an outsider on my survival food. R made some aalu bhujiya, I made some rice and palak daal and we had a bloody good meal ready. In a first, we actually fed a guest without having to order anything from outside and that is quite an achievement! In other news, we suddenly find ourselves in the middle of some really, really good company. Over the last couple of years, most of our friends moved out of Bangalore and R and I pretty much only had each other for company. And we loved every bit of it. Now suddenly, there are all these people around us that we actually have things in common with and we are having a bloody good time. Over chai and drinks, Indian restaurants, Malaysian mamaks, shared histories, new associations, pretty random conversations, lots of music, and anda bhurji, I am beginning to connect with normal, flesh and blood human beings apart from the husband and that is a very good sign. I did say that 2012 was going to be a year about people and I am keeping my promise. The warmth won't let me not do it. I hope.

I still haven't started job hunting and I am in no hurry to. I am taking one day at a time and my deadline is the day I see the Twin Towers. It doesn't quite make sense to not see anything travel and holiday worthy before starting a job or the process of looking for one. Yes, I am making excuses but I am loving being a homebird and having a social life and not having to worry about hang overs so much that I am procrastinating. It is not such a bad thing, this unemployment. To think that I couldn't stop worrying about it just a couple of weeks ago!

I am around. Things are happening. Too many. And not everything can be put down in words. But overall, I am loving this starting afresh business - it is highly, highly recommended. I am around. Things are happening. Too many. And not everything can be put down in words. But overall, I am loving this starting afresh business - it is highly, highly recommended.

Homecoming

It rained here yesterday. After 2 days of pining for the famed rains of KL, I saw the clouds break in the distance.A little after rains, the weather got almost Bangalore-ish - cool, breezy, and it spoke of freedom. Here is a moment that I have stored away safely in recesses of my memory for reference when things get more routine and monotonous.

I noticed the vast expanse of green outside the study window..

The gurudwara on one side..

And a train station on another.

Concrete everywhere my eyes could see, and green hills and mint fresh clouds beyond. A contrast that I had only experienced in Bombay before. It was all there - everything that I need to make a life here - some green, some breeze, some "outside", some concrete, some faith. Eagles crooned, very aptly, Peaceful, Easy Feeling (how is that for coincidence?) on the speakers and yet, I could hear the birds chirp, and in that moment, with a song in my heart and some wide eyed wonder, I realized I was happy. And I was home. Already!

Home.. The first look

And these are only the views from all sides, because I have fallen in love again!

What we will see when we cook and do the laundry and the dishes in the kitchen and the balcony outside. This might just be the start of long days of slow, perfect housekeeping days because boy I can spend hours just looking outside waiting for the clothes to wash themselves and the food to cook itself :p

And what I see from the living room balcony

Here is a bit of trivia. When we were planning to move to KL, all I wanted was a house where I could wake up or read to the sight of the Petronas, also because that is pretty much all I knew about the city. Country, even. But we live in Petaling Jaya, a suburb about 15 minutes from KLCC and the Petronas. So finding a house that overlooks the Twin Towers, even from a distance, was not looking possible. I quickly made peace with it because the things that I could see from the apartments I checked out here did not look too bad. And there is more to life than the balcony and the view. Like budgets, proximity to all things important etc was the faff I was trying to convince myself with. Quietly sad and running out of hope. (KL/ PJ have the potential for pretty sad living conditions no matter how brilliant the condos look from outside - trust me it is not as "awesomely foreign" as the middle class me would have hoped for when I decided to give up everything I thought I stood for and move.) We signed the lease last evening and moved in, and a little after dusk, just as we were doing a final round of check before going grocery shopping, I saw the lights at the Twin Tower turning on in the distance and shrieked :D Because it may be in the distance, and I might see it from the kitchen area, but I COULD SEE IT!

This house is not quite my dream house because I don't believe in tasteful, perfect upholstery and furnishing. In my head, I am still pretty young and I want my cane chairs and oranges and yellows and bamboo lamps. This house on the other hand, is pretty perfect. Straight lines, classy furniture, pretty, pretty lamps, the works. This feels like a house where you would be afraid to walk around in slippers because it is just so perfect in such subtle ways. It will be some time before it becomes a good mix of the super sweet, very sophisticated first generation Indian-Malay family whose house we are renting, and us. But until then, it works. And how! So for now, this is home. And it may not have the orange walls, but it has "aging gracefully" written all over it, and if I remember correctly, I have rambled on quite a bit about 2012 being the year to do just that. We are just getting started!

Now that we have the house, and R is at work already,  I need to be ready to plunge into the reality of everyday survival. Figuring out internet, permanent phone connections, job, utility bills, maid, and mustard oil - that will be the real challenge. Selling stuff, clearing customs, and living in a hotel room was not. What helps is that Chinese New Year celebration starts next week, so there is no point sending out resumes, making appointments, or worrying too much over such non issues. Because it is time for holiday cheer here. My vacation is not over yet. But then again in my head, it seldom does.

Life is good, getting better!

Then, and now

It has been a hectic few days. In the middle of parents coming down, filling up all available luggage in the house and realizing we needed more and then some, panic laden trips to the mall to somehow manage last minute bargain on more suitcases, shuffling, re-shuffling, counting, losing count, flying tempers, some tears, some arguments, some pampering, some control freak-ness, many sorries, goodbyes, excess baggage, a short long flight, I realized that change is not the easiest, most natural thing when you are pushing 30. Just when for the first time in life, I was beginning to feel settled with pretty much everything one needs to feel settled, uprooting came with a lot of excess baggage, quite literally.

But when I got off the flight and smelled the air and the familiar mugginess of Bombay days minus the noise, in the middle of a beatiful KL night, things seemed to fall a little in place. A little. 4 hours of intoxicated sleep later, when I woke up this morning to bright sun outside the hotel window, things seemed to fall more in place. But it was only when I started meeting locals here as a part of the house hunting project, and phone calls started flowing in from new acquaintances and old friends, that it all felt just right. We have not decided on a house yet, but at least there was brilliant biryani for lunch. And good company. And adrak chai at a friend's place, as opposed to the usual "let's meet for drinks" routine. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind the drinks. But there is something very warm and homely and friendly about adrak chai. And then there was the familiarity of Sarvanaa Bhavan and people and the things we spoke of. Familiarity and some wide eyed wonder. When you are pushing 30, change begins to look better if it has familiarity thrown in for good measure. In the end, we all turn to what we know, and when this happens in the middle of what you thought will be a wild adventure in unfamiliar territory and were just beginning to lose sleep over not just that but also the fact that you are not exactly the person you thought you are, it's just the chocolate icing on the rich fudge cake that you are not craving right now because there is so much else to look forward to.

I couldn't have asked for a better start. Really.

One thing sorted, many more to go..

"malaysia wants its people to read. and thats so nice. the library doesn't charge a borrowing fee. just a registration fee that's so low it's pathetic. and then rows and rows and shelves and shelves and trolleys and trolleys of books." Says MiM.

This may be a small thing, but it is huge. Know what I am saying?

Yesterday and now..

A birthday so high on an entire spectrum of emotions has to be awesome. And it was. Young, grown up, wild, calm, a little sad in parts, and "awwwww thank God for you" in many, many parts..

I had a good day :-)

4 days to go, by the way. And not one of my bags are packed yet. I am about to go in panic mode. Don't tell me I didn't warn you. And you. And you. I don't handle panic too well.