Doll House

The huge LCD screen is continuously on throughout the day and I feel throughout the night too! Only the people sitting in front of it change- sometimes there is a man, sometimes a woman and sometimes a young girl. All these are conjectures for I can see only the head from my balcony. The screen is so huge that I am able to realize that Simpsons is their favorite show! I call them the Simpson family.

Early in the morning she stands on her balcony in shorts and t shirt and does stretching exercise facing the sun. When I wake up and pull the curtains back I see her on the tenth floor opposite me. I meet her on and off through the day.  During my post bath leisure time when I lounge on the bed with the newspaper, I see her on the stationary cycle working out. (Did I forget to tell that she has a lovely figure?) I can’t make out how old she is but I am sure she is no young girl (they never bother with exercise!). She is the Gym girl.

Sunday mornings, I see this couple have their tea on the narrow balcony with the morning sun playing gently on the ferns that enclose them in their own private space. The lady is obviously house- proud – lots of plants and decorative pottery items with a Bankura horse standing majestically on one side. They actually talk to each other! I have seen couples who go to Café coffee day on Sunday mornings having huge mugs of coffee and talking on their respective cell phones! They are the lovely twosome for me.

He comes out, wearing a towel, to pour water on the tulsi plant and pray to the sun. The apartment is normally shrouded with curtains so I have no idea about the other inmates of the house. I refer to him as the Pujari.

The swinging chair is hardly ever occupied. The house is filled with servants- one comes to dry the clothes, one to polish the balcony railings one to sweep and mop and so one. I have yet to meet the owner who I have christened “The swinger”.

These are my regular “friends”. They are a part of my daily life. I notice them as I go about my daily routine. I do not consciously ogle at them; they are like the birds in the sky, they are there so you see them. I miss them when they do not follow their routine! I  notice them in the morning as I spend most of my time at the back of the house. My evenings are spent in the front and there are no interesting people in the front apartments. Though they are lighted and there are lots of activities – I am too caught up to have the time to notice them.

One evening as I was lying down on the bed and reading, I looked up at the apartments in front of me. Each house was lighted and the curtains were pulled back. I could see the furniture and the people clearly. They looked like dolls in a doll house.

As a child I used to love playing with dolls and make up stories about them,I even made them enact my tales. Here in front of me was a living breathing doll house!

I don’t have the inclination to make up stories any longer but sometimes I do conjecture about them when I talk with Mickey.

I wonder if I am guilty of “invasion of privacy” or even voyeurism. I wonder if God himself entertains himself by sitting and looking at each one of us living life. I wonder if each of the characters in my doll house would resent the fact that I have designated them as doll figures in my sphere of existence.

I know I most probably will never meet them. In fact I do not want to do so, as reality is so very unromantic! But if I ever do so, I will (I know) pretend that I did not know of their existence. Sometimes we get so attached to the portraits that we have created that reality makes the paint crumble and the disappointment becomes unbearable.

Do not believe that I am advocating living in an imaginary world! What I am trying to say that the real world is reality and we have to live it. It is wonderful and stressful at the same time. It is good, once in a while to escape from this dimension and explore another one where life is perfect. This does not hurt another person but helps you to de-stress.

The world is very busy now. It is also a very lonely world. All are busy with their lives and have no time for others. (You hear of people being dead in the next door apartment and no one knows of it till the newspaper and milk packets pile up outside the door!).

These little cameos go a long way in relieving the ennui of modern life and who knows how many lessons we may learn from them.

I wonder if anyone notices my activities through the day………….

Moving Account!

Resettling is sometimes the devil- packing while moving to a new place is great for throwing out unwanted stuff and wallowing in nostalgia! I always go through all our photo albums while packing my favourite books (I don’t let the packers touch them!). The pleasure of looking at the baby books and going down memory lane is a pleasure which I indulge in very rarely and this is one such time.

Coming back and resettling in Mumbai had its sweet and sour moments. It was lovely to walk out and eat all our own kind of food without debating over whether it would be good or not; It was great to be able to speak with everyone and be able to understand them ; it is exciting to walk into a multiplex knowing you can see any movie you want to.

On the flip side – the crowd and the traffic drove me nuts; the garbage littered roads and the pungent smell of wet dung put me off from going for walks; the gastritis that I encountered after eating out!

One great lesson I learnt during this move was the importance of a refrigerator especially in this kind of weather. I was without one for fifteen days and the amount of food stuff I have rejected during this time is colossal! Oh! The relief and pleasure of setting it up the moment it was delivered at home.

This move was a first of its kind in my life. First time Junu and I are living apart! Before moving from Alex we had to set up a small establishment for him. The packing had to be planned properly; some things would stay in Alex, most of it would be shipped to Mumbai. After a brief holiday we went back to Alex to live in “Junu’s House”. When you start living you start missing things! We found the salt cellar but its partner the pepper grinder was missing! The bed sheet was there but its pillow covers were missing!  There were dustbins galore in the tiny house (that meant we would have to go on a dustbin buying spree when we went to Mumbai!) The steel storage bins (the whole set!) had been left behind! All the tea strainers were also residing majestically in the tiny kitchen! (More buying in Mumbai)

Moving to Mumbai we were informed that our shipment was delayed (though the planning had been meticulously done so that it would arrive two days after we arrived!) but the best of plans do go awry and we moved into a partly furnished house and went on a buying spree. And did I indulge! I got colourful plates, dustbins, towels (again colourful!) bed sheets and all the cleaning implements that the maid would need and settled down.

The usual hiccups notwithstanding our roads were not too rough. I did sprain my ankle pretty badly; I did have loose motion and gastritis (after gorging on outside food!). Life goes on with its quota of small pebbles and large stones; flowers and petrichor; light and noise.

I do miss the view of the Mediterranean Sea from my house; I do miss some of the work that I did at Alex but I am more at peace here. The innate restlessness which had engulfed me has been replaced by a certain aim in life. The feeling of ennui and being in a limbo has been taken over by the numerous struggles of everyday existence in this big city. Every day there is a problem to solve and that I suppose is living life.

The newspaper headlines blare out the millions of negativity that surround us- murder, scams, accidents and natural calamities. Like all Indians, we learn to live with it and love it in spite of it. It is as if these snippets give us a sense of security that “the sky is blue and God is in his heaven and all is right with the world!” The main thing is you connect….

Some things never change, particularly the pigeon population that inhabit this city, seem to have multiplied like rabbits. This time around our balcony is netted so they can’t do much except fly against it and leave their feathers floating around! But the sudden flutter never ceases to startle me.

The weather has been kind. It’s been raining since we came, so it’s pleasant and cool. One young lady has settled down in school and another young lady is enjoying her vacation (sleeping late and staying awake late at night!). I have been driving around, each trip sprinkled with abuses at the roads, the auto drivers and the two wheelers who think the road is a race course!

It’s been good to get in touch with old friends and know that they are only a phone call away. It’s nice to get up-to-date with their lives. It’s been great to know that you belong (however flawed the system may be!)

I know that this is not a permanent move and I know we will move again (when and where I do not know) but this interim is a lovely breathing space and I appreciate it more than I ever have.