Spellbound

Often I stand dumbfounded, looking at a black overcoat with a scrunched collar extending over the shoulders or or a red silk tube dress with perfect grecian drapes, wondering if these had been divinely blessed.

... it may best be described as a state of trance where a piece of clothing captivates you.- What helps is, perfectly lighted sparkling mirrors, floaty..dreamy music, dilated pupils which make you look cuter and see better, the sheer necessity for a funky teal muffler because you don't have that colour even though it does'nt go with most of the stuff you own and what elevates you and makes you hit the climax is the scramble for the last piece in a particular size- here you reach the 'what the heck state'... 2 pairs of socks to fill up shoes which are a size bigger, a white satin belt with a bow to hold up that dress closer to your waist, breathing in spurts to fit into that stunning purple chiffon skirt...

My visits to the mall (I say mall because large retail spaces with variants in different colours, fits and textures is the epitome of confusion ) almost always leave me enamoured; my impulse then leaves no room for brain. My sense of sight completely takes over and plastic reigns supreme again.

Then on one such day in quest of a smart pair of socks in black, I chanced upon a red coat dress. In my dictionary this would be classified under a 'must-have'. After the first trial I realized how irresistibly hot it looked. I played it up till the seventh trial when my adjectives stopped working, La Vie En Rose  was now devoid of any tints, I could see clearly why the last piece in size S was still there- it looked shabby with jeans and was too long to look chic with tights.  I broke the spell that held me long. Enough to prevent me from spelling broke.

The Yes, the No and the Can't Say

If you observe people and patterns you will take note that some people are always OK with things- available for a quick drink, up for an unplanned road trip and have no strict preferences on cuisines. Some others are wet blankets, resistant to change or a new hangout, at their hang-uppy best all the time, always ready with an instinctive 'no'. There is a third compartment of people too, those who have a problem committing to just about anything-the kinds who need a minute to decide whether they want their burger with or without cheese, the kinds who'd give out a 'hmm' when you're looking for a definitive yes or no, a typical trait of theirs is heavy usage of words like 6ish, brownish, inappropriate, kind-of, we'll see.. and the likes.

While the buddy who's always game is your caffeine on a bad winter's morning, dig a little deeper and you'd be entertained by the fact that her most oft-used means to get out of relationships, a casual social gathering which intercepts her shopping plans, a birthday lunch which coincides with a day at the spa or a friend's bachelorette because she is too lazy to wax, so far has been to stop taking phonecalls, hand over her phone for other people to answer or even change her number, each time assuming that the person on the other end would get the hint :). In their defense, we have phenomenal writers like J.R.R Tolkien who believed that escapism had an element of emancipation in its attempt to figure a different reality. 

A killjoy may be driven by logic in the parallel world which exists in his mind but to you he may seem to be possessed by the spirit of a miffed 5 year old. He just might avoid a European jaunt because weather.com predicts mild rainfall, a stick jaw at night because he'd have to brush his teeth again or wash his hands off a fabulous deal because minor issues like utility and frequency of use begin to do the shimmy in his mind. Infact they are on such a trip of their own that they refuse even to consider that a Valentino dress or a louis vuitton bag would be an investment passed on from one generation to another. What saves them is the commonsensical, down-to-earth and seasoned projection of a pragmatic thinker. The left side of their brain is embedded with tenets and precepts while the right side is wired to choose the strangest combination out of these for them to creatively state reasons for not doing something and baffle people they know, yet again.


Type 3 delude themselves into believing that the world will wait on them. The kind who always want to have the option of curling back into bed, putting on their dancing shoes or throwing on a snug stole and walking out to watch a play. They hoodwink you into thinking that they are the ones who stand strong on their word, however in reality its nothing but a disclaimer absolving them of any responsibility. I wonder what will become of their modus operandi when find their cosmos shrinking with age and the constraints which come with it as an appendage. Loneliness they say does'nt leave you many options... 


Given the number of people who fall in the above three leagues whats off-colour here is balance. Balance is placid. But I'd rather have the waves crash into rocks or feel them pull the sand from under my feet.


P.S:People who are always game, keep their word and show up on time are the ones who don't really have a life ;)

On the face of it

What happens when a gawky 25 year old South Indian-nurse looking-curly haired woman suddenly realizes that looks don't really matter at her workplace and her head reeking of Coconut oil is the key to the treasure trunk - She goes on a vindictive power trip! She shuns away all chiffon skirt swaying, jimmy choo wearing variants with a stiff hairy upper lip.

Then again there is the blue eyed, golden haired and milky white stunning statuesque who came out of the chasm and  instantaneously learned how benevolent it was of her to agree to be born, and that their single-most insignificant gift to mankind is the enthralling beauty for which they themselves cannot take any credit. Too bad that the makings of a strong persona with habits that a dignified human being must possess take a backseat. For a good pedicure can always make up for appalling behaviour or bad breath.

Most fascinating are people who constantly work on different versions of themselves. They hit puberty at 28 when they land up with pink tresses and have a parallel personality on Facebook. You can't really blame them, they've always been on the line which spells mediocrity, always just short of a strike out. So when most people their age get over all that jazz, these aspirants start to paint the town..

All three above know not the art of cutting the Gordian knot. If you can't get what you want by being smart just play dumb or dewy eyed. Beauty in flesh will continue to rule the world.. but you wont want a fifty dollar haircut on a fifty cent head. Normal is good. Symmetrical is uncommon. Too quirky kills it. But before trying to pull of any of my priceless pointers remember beauty is skin deep but ugly cuts to the bone

Going Solo

Have you been privy to those few performances on a karaoke night which would've sounded great with one powerful voice but be equivalent to cacophony with two three people going ga-ga (literally) on it. Why would a musician take the pains to create a choir with the Altos-Sopranos-Bass combo (technically of course with a lot of sub-categories within each) if all she needed was 10 people singing 'father figure' in nursery rhyme fashion.


The sad part is that most people don't know when to kiss the mic and when to give it a pass. Worse is when they forget the life-jacket while braving stormy waters- A slight amount of reverb to soften the edges and add a bit of depth. So when do you stop looking around waiting for someone to join you- for the book reading sessions on a comfy Sunday afternoon or at the buffet table for a second helping of the scrumptious peanut butter pie and then at the gym to burn away that sinful treat?


There are times when even two is a crowd and you just need to "Run, Forest, Run!" Just make sure you have your sipper full and your gear intact.


Those who swear by sidekicks rather than superpowers, might want to examine how the kid in yellow, red and green became an archetype. They might even want to argue how Betty was Riverdale's darling while Archie wed Veronica..cough cough..don't know about that but well Betty was almost short of earning the title of the eternal doormat that day ;)

Shine on you crazy diamond

Just like, when its murky you have to find a bright spot, you have to believe that its your song playing, to be able to sing along. You've got a zillion takes to paint your palette because you have the black, the grey and the white to rescue.

Our life has a drag and drop tool with a fill colour button and a ctrl z which works in certain places but I've seen very few play the game with the same joy like that of a 5 year old. I see some people yearn for happiness like its a drop of rain which on the mercy of the rain Gods is supposed to fall from the sky and into their lap. And then I see some just walk into the starry night with a smile on their face leaving behind- a relationship whose inevitable failure was visible to them long back, a job that made them crib every night before going off to sleep and every morning while driving to work, a plot of barren land the acquisition of which nearly gave them a heart attack, a country which could never be home...

If you think you have to walk your way through a minefield and that every next step that you take or detract from may spell doomsday, you start to tread carefully, measuring the outcome of every move, ironically though if it actually is the eschatological final battle what has one to lose..

Also very few can confront the elephant in the room, the rest just put on a pair of dark glasses and continue with their miseries. So next time you decide to use  · · · — — — · · · send it out to your heart instead of your head.

Once more upon a time

When Douglas Adams said " Is'nt it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too" I am assuming he had forgotten the one thing we also seem not to remember these days- Think what we would have been, if instead of being fed with fables and folklore we had been crammed with todays' news headlines. 

The dissolution of the la-la land comes with a thud. It might be when we realize... in the words of Taylor Swift "that prince charming is not easy to find and that the bad guy is not wearing a black cape, he is not easy to spot, instead he is really funny, will make you laugh and has perfect hair." But then again classic fairy tales do not deny the existence of heartache and sorrow but they do deny universal defeat. 

Age and experience might claim to teach you how to never make the same mistakes twice but they definitely succeed in teaching you how to stop believing in miracles. We lose our appetite to stomach fantasy. The movie ratings are reflective of the same... I see people mock happy endings branding them as unreal even though they'd still read to their kids of the kiss that brought Snow White back to life after she got tricked into eating a poisoned apple...and then I see people who rave and rant about how brutally and bravely honour killings were depicted in LSD and that it was a tragic yet true portrayal of a big social menace, however they do not usually care if reiteration will ever equal resolution. We have become cynical to an extent that we put aside the sprinkling of fairy dust and the sunshine ray and prefer to discuss seemingly sexist statements by the 'Wolf' in The Little Red Riding Hood. 

If fairies and goblins and elves and unicorns make me happy, if the topsy-turvy land atop the Faraway Tree going wisha-wisha makes me want to befriend moon-face and have pop-biscuits and if I feel all will be ok when I think of the heroes, I trust we all need fairy tales to keep the magic alive. We need to float and dream. We all deserve at times- to be rescued like Rapunzel, a house made of cake and gingerbread, a pretty pair of glass slippers which fit perfectly, a fairy godmother, a fistful of magic beans and a flying carpet. 

P.S: We all deserve Neverland :)

Of men and malleability

I would like to believe i have an above average-active social life. Also with the limited number of places to go to in Delhi when your search filters are: South Delhi, Rock music, Conversationable, Relatively cheap, Happy hours, Karaoke nights, Decent people, casual summer dress etc. makes the six degrees of separation shrink to 3 for you. To illustrate with an example: Everyone knows a, a's ex, b's best friend who is now seeing a's ex.. and so on.

Anyway so the above was to prove that my sample size and frequency of exposure can validate and form a basis for my trending.

Lately my faith in God and in Delhi is getting restored. Men have landed from venus or have returned from Warwick or Leeds or Macquarie or wherever in the world they were sponsored for a nifty post grad diploma by their folks after they got off their gifted corollas in college. Well my point is good looks are back in town though the charmers are still missing, the picture in my head when i say charmers are suave smooth seniors in school maybe a generation or two ahead of us. I wish i was born a year or three earlier... the era would've been magical.

Coming back to what compelled me to sit down and write this post is that these seemingly decent men (the ones who are my age usually with a goatee or slick shirt pulled over a lean body) who make spurts of appearances are accompanied by women who are either qualify to be trophy wives without a distinctly identifiable personality or docile coy women who have never heard the yellow submarine or strawberry fields forever while Mr. X happens to worship the Beatles. The point of intersection between both women being that one can usually spot them nodding their heads in an agreeable manner (please take note that i do not think this is bad or being judgemental about it in any way..lol).

This has made me draw an analogy that men look for gold leaves instead of diamond studded tiaras. That is because gold can be hammered or pressed permanently out of shape without breaking or cracking while diamonds are known to hold their shape under temperatures that would melt silicon.

If it is men and their safe options which usually guarantee a 'Happily ever after' life i guess i should be extremely grateful and thank my stars for finding someone who does'nt mind the wild child in me ;)