GOOD THINGS
1. Djokovic won!
Hail all hot Serbian men with unpronounceable names. They make your life and my life a little more scrumptious and livable-worthy.
2. I met Samit Basu. *waits for the applause*
So, he is unlike NewageScheherazade's and Doubletake, Doublethink's GHM,for the uninitiated--a Georgette Heyer Man. And looks like a Software Engineer with a nickname like Bumba. But he is still pretty brilliant. And capable of making women go weak in the knees. And capable of turning normal women into an escort( i.e Double take) or Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction( Naughty Naughty! As Mrs. Sen on Radio Mirchi would tell our Scheherazade)
3. Calcutta is having its first REAL winter in years. And I'm supposed to turn up on my Farewell in a sari, with BBC predicting temperatures to be as low as 8 degrees tomorrow. Spoils the entire purpose of such a season--curling up under my favourite blanket with one of THOSE books--The ones which read like something as delicious as Eatable Marshmallow Pillows from Mr. Wonka's Chocolate Factory.
4. I finally managed to get more in Maths than in Bengali. That makes everyone happy, I guess.
Apart from my Bengali teacher I think
5. A cousin of mine is staying with us. He's come down from New Zealand and speaks with an Australian accent, which makes it nearly impossible for my mum to understand anything he says in English but he is pretty conversant in Bangla( much to the relief of the cow-like herd of relatives he's being exposed to, of late--but he is surprisingly sporting about it)
I, for one, was two when he left for NZ but my other cousins and he pretty much relive old times everyday. Its so much fun to be a Bangali with a hot cup of coffee amidst random recollections of ancient, embarrassing memories . Because surprisingly, those are the memories you'll always remember...
BAD THINGS
Not surprisingly this clearly outnumbers the Good Things. But just for the sake of Doubletake's patience I'm keeping it to five.
1. No Book Fair this year. At least as far as I know.
I'm all for a clean environment but somethings are downright unacceptable. Like no Book Fair in the middle of this fairy-like winter time. And its NOT because of the absence of Georgia Tea and "Cutlet Bhaja" !
2. Chickens, which have taken it upon themselves to behave like Nicole Richie. Pricey, Anorexic. And diseased for the most part. I have also often thought our CM resembles a spectacled one. It makes explanation, of a lot of things in this state much simpler.
3. Wedding Season: It is time for all the Mamunis and Rijus of West Bengal to come out in their best Rainbow-Saris and Dhuti Pajama for Biyebaari and Boubhat(Wedding and Reception, respectively. But they sound so much grander this way, na?) In the absence of our chickens, Bangalis are forced to pledge their allegiance to mutton.
So the menu MUST consist of:
Fried Rice/Pulao: Extremely damp. Reminds me of the In-Laws.
Motton Kosha: Cooked in so much ghee that the Mughals would be put to shame. Resembles the bride-to-be all decked up.
Fish Fry: Is meant ideally to be crispy. And stuffed with all the fish humanly possible. But turns out to neither. If you look close enough, its much like the groom -to-be with a topor on his head much like this...
Papad bhaja/ Chutney: Not really necessary. But have to be there. Much like the five hundred people, including me, who turn up at a wedding for people they don't quite know.
I had three weddings to attend, in case you didn't realise the source of all this frustration. One day of thanda luchi is fine. Three days--not quite...
4. I had my first Board Practical today. Biotechnology--the only subject I am remotely confident at. My examiner, on the other hand, had other plans. He looked conspicuously like Dawood Ibrahim, answered questions he asked us himself, and seemed more interested in his lunch than anything else.
Did I mention he asked questions which even our own teachers didn't have answers to?
5. Heath Ledger died. Now he probably was a little stupid, ODing and all(because I guess you have to be quite a dolt to OD). But he was pretty darn good. As Casanova, as Ennis Del Mar, as Bob Dylan and hopefully, as the Joker. And had one of the nicest smiles. And although sometimes he superceded Marlon Brando in his next-to-impossible to understand dialogue delivery, he more than made up for it in other ways. May the Overdoser's Heaven accept him in all its glory.
