Dennis

Dennis turns 10 this week. It’s a time to celebrate. But I’m a little worried too. At the back of my mind, there is this voice which keeps saying a dog lives for around ten years. Which is not a nice thing. Around ten?! Is that more than ten or less? I know people whose dogs died before reaching the age of ten...

What a morbid thing to talk about on someone’s b’day though! Lemme tell you about Dennis! Funnily, I’ve never written about him before. Not even passing mention. Strange! Considering the fact that he’s a part of everything I do.

So this dude, Dennis, he’s a fine brown Labrador. The prettiest and nicest and the cutest and the smartest, in my fair opinion. I got him as a present when I was 12. Actually, I have been accused of emotionally blackmailing Girish kaka into getting him. But that’s so not true! ;) I’ve always wanted a dog. And I’d thought up all sortsa names for when I actually got one. And Dennis wasn’t one of them (Mad would remember…hehe). But when we got him home n someone suggested this name, it totally fit. Now I don’t even remember who gave him his name. [Btw, I get bugged when people go like ‘Dennis as in Dennis-the-menace?’. Ugghh no! No relation! But now I’m bored of explaining.]

Dennis. He’s all that I ever wanted my dog to be. And much more. Over the years, he’s ceased to be ‘my dog’. He’s family. He’s not a friend, he’s my baby. I love him more than anyone else. There is so much about Dennis. His eccentricities, his wild days as a pup (okay wild years…he was a pup till a couple of yrs ago..hehe), his nautanki, his adorable eyes…the way he seeks attention, the way he makes me feel loved…I don’t know what to write that’d fit a blog post!

He’s been with me for ten long years now. For me, he is unconditional love personified. Or dogified if you please : ) He is my Hachiko. Whenever I get back home, he’s always as happy to see me. We should learn a thing or two from him about expressing ourselves. He makes me feel wanted. It’s always great to come back home to Dennis. Right now, everyone at home is asleep in their rooms. Dennis is sleeping too, but in the hall, next to me. He won’t go inside till I do. These days I study in the hall, and no matter how late I stay up, he accompanies me till I’m done. He just won't leave. Not even if I try to get him to go in! He would come right back and sit with me till I switch off all lights and declare that I’m gonna sleep and that he should too. It’s really nice to have someone dote on you like that. Maybe he doesn’t really dote on me. Maybe I’m just projecting stuff that I want on him. It’s still as sweet of him. More about him later. I hate to wake him up in the middle of the night! God bless all dogs of the world.

Weekend

Such amazing weather...a brilliant weekend...so many things to write about... Where do I start? How about the "Earth Hour"!

Honestly, I don't know much about it. I'd read at a couple of places that on Saturday, everyone should switch off all unnecessary lights/electric stuff for an hour 'if you love your planet'. Oh well, that I do, but it seemed like such a fun thing too! And since my cousins were coming over, an hour in 'darkness' seemed like a supercool idea, love for planet or not! I loved power cuts as a kid. All the shadow games. And antakshari! And the whole time it was raining, with lightning and thunder n wind! It was one hour well spent.

It was so nice to know that a lotta other people observed it too :) I like the concept of many people coming together. Or rather, doing the same thing 'coz they believe in it. Damn cool. So all those of you who switched off all lights and enjoyed the darkness, way to go! Maybe we should get together to do more such stuff. Like pledging a day to be absolutely non-corrupt or something. For instance, on that day everyone follows the traffic rules and all, and if they are caught for speeding or anything, they get a chalaan rather than paying the cop for 'settlement'. How about a day for being kind? A week of honest effort (and no procrastrination!)? Hmm...we could if we wanted to you know! This is that power-of-youth they keep harping about na? And while we're at it, let's not forget the causes that got us all excited a few months ago and are now lying under a layer of fine dust. I'm talking about the terror attacks. Wassup on that front? We still remember all our angry outbursts, don't we?

Coming back to the cause at hand, this sitting in the darkness thing is cooler on another level. I was just thinking...there's so much light around us. As in, the artificial one - bulbs, tubelights, halogen, flourescent, neon, CFL. But what about light within? In these times of super brightness, are the people as enlightened? Or is the outside light taken as a substitute for the inner one? Maybe we need to sit in the dark once in a while to peep in. To find that light that lies within each one of us. Earth hour-like things could be a good way to connect with yourself. It's not a vague airy-fairy concept. A lot of us are in-the-dark about quite a few things. I, for one, keep putting off 'figuring out' stuff for myself. If only I would sit back and introspect...maybe I'd outshine all the streetlights! hehe. I'm not saying all of us become the Buddha or anything like that. But just that, if we make an effort to get to know ourselves better, we'd be more at peace with ourself and with others. That couldn't possibly be a bad thing, eh?

So, earth hour was cool because, a. it gave me a chance to enjoy antakshari n twenty questions, b. a lotta electricity was saved, and c. I got to glimpse my inner light ;) and jhaado some more gyan :D

ooh n lest I forget! I saw ducklings at the Hauz Khas lake! Real yellow ones. And a few green-black ones too. They were adorable!! And the place is damn cool! The fort/madarsa is an amazing structure too. With eerie steps and all that! All those who are in Delhi, must visit!

The problem with being a romantic is that you start believing in the fairy tales... Start hoping that the frog is actually a prince. And not just one frog, but all the frogs that you come across. I think that's my problem. I have seen too much mush, read too much mush...and now, willingly or unwillingly, I look for the same in real life. And well, no surprises for guessing, it ain't actually there... Or maybe I'm looking at the wrong places? Maybe the fairy tales didn't get it all wrong. Maybe there are happy endings, just that something about getting there has changed? I can't really figure out what though! Any suggestions?

I'm done with my dissertation...it's come out nice (could've been better, but hey! it's my first). And I had this sorta 'hangover' once it was done! Like, I felt sleepy n half-dizzy for almost three days...much better now ;) Though I can't get myself back into 'work mode' no matter how hard I try. Not that I've tried too hard! hehe
And on top of that, my mind's in a whirl right now...ugghhh!

I got a personal farewell yesterday. The first ever! As in, the farewell in 12th and grad were for the whole class...This one was for ME :) Oh wait...I hadn't attended my grad farewell. Anyway!

It was my last day of training yesterday. Kinda. It's more like a two month break. But I dunno yet. So anyway! It was a little weird being the focus-person. I was all squirmy n broad-smileyed...

But all the akwardness apart...I loooooove the people at work. How very sweet of them. I'm gonna miss training. But later. Right now I have too much trauma-n-coping on my mind! Oh n the terrible part is, whenever I tell anyone about my diss topic...they get all uncomfy n sad type. Oho!! :( I know it's not something to be happy about...but...oho!

Rehna tu, hai jaise tu/thoda sa dard tu…thodaa…sukoon!

Dilli 6. Great movie. An out-n-out entertainer. The kind you can call typical-Bollywood-masala. But it’s meaningful masala. And it deals with something that’s close to my heart – communal harmony and communal discord.
Amidst all the Indian madness (what else do you call breaking-news-crazy-baba/gau mata-following-kaala-bandar-smitten people!?), the movie succinctly shows how fickle we are. How we are moist-eyed at the Ram-Lila, but blatantly flout what we praise. Despite all our breast-beating ‘bout Dilli-walon ka ‘bada dil’ and ‘mehmaano ki khatirdari’, we are in fact, very shallow people. I soooooo agree! We are wonderful, we are full of eccentricities…and we love ourselves for that. We should. But we should also take responsibility for our flaws…for being hypocrites, for being champions of mediocrity and bhed-chaal. Why are people so enraged at seeing the ‘poor depiction’ of India in Slumdog (which btw, is a fab movie)? Is it that we can’t really take the truth? Are we so infatuated with our self-professed image of people-loving -people, that we will disregard any evidence to the contrary? Yes, there are a million good things about India. Many which each Indian should be proud of. But parents don’t disown their dud-offspring while celebrating the genius, do they? At least the sensible ones don’t ;) The apnapan of Delhi, or even India, to me, is an over-hyped concept. It’s a façade. Or maybe it isn’t…it really is up to us, isn’t it??
Anyway, more about the movie. Abhishek Bachchan has re-clinched his position as my personal favorite. Yes AB, you can heave that sigh-of-relief now…lol. He’s back…and how! He is good. Realy really good. And pretty convincing at what he does. Sonam Kapoor doesn’t have much to do. Neither does the much hyped ‘masakalli’! The songs are mostly out-of-nowhere। But the direction/editing or whatever the on-screen presentation is called is neat. In a different sorta way. This movie is no RDB. It’s not the kind that would inspire a cult movement. But how I wish it makes all of us see how meaningless the Hindu-Muslim debate is. And how tiny things are blown scarily outta proportion… I wish its viewers take home “the moral of the story”. I soooooo wish they do.

ज़र्रे ज़र्रे में उसका नूर है
झाँक ख़ुद में वो ना तुझ से दूर है।
इश्क है उस से तो सब से इश्क कर
इस इबादत का येही दस्तूर है।

Amidst all the bickering and politicking and complaining, I had forgotten that having cousins over is the most FUN thing ever!! Even if it's just one of them, it makes things so much brighter! Last night, we had the most mundane conversation ever, where my contribution was negligible... but my super cool bhai-behen were discussing rough columns and margins (on exam papers) so as to decide who should get how much space on the bed on each side. It was veryyyyy entertaining!
And then we went to see Billu Barber yesterday, despite knowing that it's not going to be anything great! I looooove doing that! hehe..n there was no convincing, managing to do! wow! :) And the movie was pretty nothing...What is wrong with the word barber now?? Or with any word for that matter? Ughh!!
Anyway, the bottom line is, having cousins over rocks! And we're planning to see Dilli6 too!...how cool is that? ;)
P.S. Shaadis are fun if you know just a handful of people present and there's good food!