INDIRA LAISRAM

I can never get lucky on a Wednesday night. First I write a selection of 182 words on a book called Me Inc, it falls short by 120 words. And just when I think I have wound up for the day, comes the spanner. The strip ad at the end of the three-page story I am handling has to be removed and an element added to fill up the space. I call the weary reporter in Bangalore, who is already deep asleep into the night, and ask him for more information. How he must hate me at this point of time as much as I hate the ad-men in my department.

The selection I have taken care of, thanks to some of the tricks in the trade I have picked up. But the poor design guy is slogging his ass off. That gives me the time to air my frustrations. “Wake up the reporter,” one editor says. “I have,” I reply and wait for design to roll off. That will involve some more time as it means dealing with a few who can’t ascertain the difference between begetable and vegetable. Minute corrections and more time to waste.

Meanwh…

This is one of the best SMSes I have received in recent times:

Celebration means
A winter evening
Four Friends
One Rain
Four glasses of Tea

Celebration means
Hundred bucks of petrol
A rusty old bike
And an open road

Celebration means
Maggi noodles
A hostel room
4:25 am

Celebration means
3 old friends
3 separate cities
1 internet messenger

Celebration means
Rain on a hot tin roof
Pakoras deep frying
Neighbours dropping in
A Party

Celebration means
2 friends
1 SOUL Cheerzzz!!

The past week has been one helluva week. Hectic, emotional and stressful. Hectic because of so much work that I have to finish at my end, emotional because I was missing Dylan. It's not funny how badly I suffered the pangs of separation. Amid all that I had a friend from Australia, Laurie, visiting India after a tour of Tibet and Nepal, and I was playing the perfect host taking him round Delhi. But it has been a pleasant change having Laurie around -- he's matured and old, gentle and reserved and he was getting away from a troubled relationship. If not common, we shared a common frame of mind!

Now I am looking forward to going home this Friday. For one, I will be with my baby Dylan. I love him so much. I will also be meeting my entire clan who will be congregating at my place for the first death anniversary of my mother. It's going to be one big occasion. I wish I was visiting home for a different reason. And this is where the guilt, regrets and sadness creep in... I just w…

After two trips to the airport, Dylan finally made it home to Guwahati. In the first instance, the guy missed his flight. We got to the airport just 20 minutes before the flight was to take off (blame it on Delhi's chaotic traffic that day), so my sister, who Dylan was travelling with, had to leave him behind. It wasn't a very pleasant experience for two things: the poor chap was only half sedated, and he had too much motion sickness. By the time he got back home, well, Dylan actually jumped out of the window of the Maruti van which he was in. Thank God, he didn't try the stunt on a busy road.

So, his next chosen date was yesterday by the 10 am Jet Airways flight. I had gone the previous evening to a vet in Hauz Khas to arrange for his anaesthesia but, unfortunately, the doctor and his team were leaving town for some conference. But he gave me an alternative, 'cos it was unlikely that I would find any doctor opened at 7:30 am on a Sunday. So he demonstrated and taught m…

Ei Brindabon chatladi nang kapkadra? Will you ever cry if I go to Vrindavan, she once asked me. Vrindavan means heaven to her, it's the place her favourite Lord Krishna wooed his gopis and lived in. She loved him so much that I often teased she would give Mirabai, Krishna's other lover, a complex. And every trip to Delhi was incomplete without a visit to Vrindavan, near Mathura, where the Iskcon (international community for consciousness of Krishna) community have built their base and thrive in. To the question, I remember giving her an miffed look. And that was some months before she passed away, uncanny as it may sound.

Today, one year exactly after her death, I visited the Iskcon temple in East of Kailash, where I last visited with her and papa. I refrain myself from visiting all temples or observing religious rituals because I am still searching for the Godly or (un)Godly truth about religion. But today I just wanted to do the things that made my mother happy. The temple ha…

The countdown begins. Not to the Miss Universe contest, but of Dylan leaving Delhi. My sister and I have decided that the next best home for him is our very own hearth in Guwahati or Shillong –- among the company of my niece, nephew and all our family members. This decision to shift Dylan came after much thought. We are on the move, so we needed to find a permanent home for him. And what better than our very own back in the north-east.

We had initially mulled putting him in one of the shelter houses for dogs, but didn't have the heart to do it. The thought of dumping him off with a bunch of unknown group and people was unbearable. Some people even offered to buy him but we kept thinking whether the new family would genuinely take care of him. Dylan is a spoilt brat and the family would have lost patience by day two, we realised.

A few days back, our immediate neighbours volunteered to adopt him. "We will keep him free and secure in the backyard," was what they told us. We …

Today is Janmashtami. Back home, we call it Krishna Jarma, actually janma or birth as I understand it now, but it's jarma for us and won't change, of course. Every Krishna Jarma, the women in the house fast. They perform pujas and play a game called 'likon' (don't know how to explain this game but it's quite like ludo), and when the clock strikes 12 am, the fast is broken. It is a strict vegetarian day.

Knowing I won't give in to the call for fasts, my mom's advice to me during these pujas were always, "Please be a vegetarian today." It's tough to remember and pay heed to the advice. Like today, I stepped out of office for a while and bit into steamy hot chicken momos only to realise much later,"Oh, its Krishna Jarma". And I forgot to be good!

I have never fasted in my life except partially when I am on detox. I remember a friend who kept fast for 14 Mondays to fulfil a wish. Another fasted on all Fridays for Goddess Santoshi Ma. A…