Snippets

My mother's new place has two helpers who are a married couple, Dissamber the Cook and Parvati the Cleaner. Dissamber's real name is Neelambar, but since the K has been calling him Dissamber in all innocence, and I rather fancy it, I too refer to him as such.

Dissamber and Parvati are about to become first-time grandparents and are very nervous and excited about it. Their daughter is at her in-laws and they know it's going to happen sometime soon and are just awating her call.

I asked Dissamber to make me a hard boiled egg earlier this morning and as I sat down at the breakfast table, Parvati was pottering around cleaning.

The K walked in and proudly announced, as a way of making conversation 'Parvati Nani Banega'
I misheard this and was surprised 'Ban gaya? Ho gaya?'
Parvati shook her head saying 'Nahin, nahin...abhi nahin'.
Dissamber heard the confusion and popped his head out of the kitchen and said 'Haan....ban gaya, na'
I swooped to congratulate the hapless Parvati 'Arrey, Waah! Itni Jaldi?' ( For want of anything better to say)
Parvati looked at Dissamber in mute disbelief and confusion. Pandemonium reigned.

It was then clarified that Dissamber was talking about my hard boiled egg. The excitement died down quickly. But it was a fun 30 seconds there.

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Peanut is going nuts with excitement these days. Her Nani and Masi come home late after work and that's the time when she goes wild, lurching here and there between them and playing - so much so that her sleep cycle is all screwed up and last night she slept at 1.30 a.m. Anyway, I was watching in fascination as she threw her own toys away and went instead for things like my mother's necklace, the cover of her cellphone, her watch, her bangles. She dropped them all one by one within around 30 seconds.
'She has such a short attention span' I observed 'The attention span of a ....of a....'
My sister put an end to my struggle and interjected helpfully ' ...of a 7-month old baby?'
Correct. Couldn't have put it any better myself. Pathetic but true.
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Vijay is arriving today, having finally packed up all our stuff in Mumbai, and getting it loaded and Delhi-bound.
He asked me to think of any other pending thing, and after racking my brains, I realized that that idiot Kunal Internet - the guy who took Rs.500 from me for a Reliance Internet connection and never delivered - still had my money! I suggested to Vijay that he beat him up and get the money back.
His eager reply 'Should I hire a few goons? Pay them a few thousand? And do the needful?'
Very funny. And they call me the sarcastic one.
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For some arbitrary reason, Vijay had booked himself on the night flight. But all the work there has been finished in good time, so much so that he doesn't have a TV to watch, or a sofa to sit on, or a bed to sleep on. All empty. All gone.
Me: So why have you booked yourself on the 8 p.m. flight, then? Are you planning to wander around Chowpatti and say goodbye to everyone you meet?
(Ok, so maybe I am unduly sarcastic)
Vijay (after a brief silence, adopts his favourite dialogue): Dekho. Isse naseehat nahin, mashwara samajhna...
(It always gets to me)
Me: Heh, heh. Ok, ok, sorry. But why don't you get on an earlier flight?
Vijay: Honey, I checked and the Jet flight was full - and the others have only limited seats...
Me ( Grabbing the opportunity for a PJ): So tell them you are very thin, a limited seat will do...ha ha ha ha...
(Silence)
Me: Ha ha?
Vijay (Unnatural, forced guffaw) HA HA HA HA HA..... Ha.

And despite that, he has been motivated enough to take an earlier flight and we are all very excited about this. It reminds me of the early days when Peanut was born and I was in Delhi, and Vijay was coming only on weekends from Mumbai to meet us. After today, we're hopefully going to be all together, at least for some time. So yayyyy! And we're going to get busy looking for a house and stuff, so maybe blogging will be a bit sporadic from now on. But yayyyyy!