Three is clearly company

Carrie Bradshaw said in one of the episodes of Sex and the City (yes, the obsession continues!) that almost every woman, and many times every man, in New York City is always looking for one, two or all three of the following – the perfect apartment, the perfect job and the perfect love. While this must be true for the Big Apple, during a conversation with my friend, she and I came to the conclusion that this, in fact, is a remarkably fitting and accurate observation for anyone living in any big city in the world. For me, that big city is Bombay.

Why is it so difficult to find all three at the same time? Is this God’s insistence or rather obstinacy on not giving us the perfect life, given that there are so many underprivileged people out there in the world? Well, whose fault is that anyway!

Think about it – any one of these three elements is incomplete without the other two, difficult to enjoy and appreciate. If you have the perfect apartment but not the job, you wonder where next month’s rent will come from. And if you live in Bombay, that is a big concern, literally. If you have the apartment and the job, you still have to come home to an empty apartment every night. You may have roommates but never underestimate the power of the cuddle.

If you have the perfect job, but not the apartment, you’ll soon have to give up the job, pack your bags and go home. If you have the perfect job and the love of your life by your side, where will you guys… you know? And if you have none of the three, well, frankly, then you’re screwed.

It is a never-ending, stressful, all-consuming conundrum. That I seem to be in every few years, at best. I have finally returned to my calling and working at a job I love with all the passion I have in me – writing, editing, seeing projects complete from end-to-end – my dream come true. It took me some time and aimless wandering to realise that this indeed is my dream, but hey, at least I’m here.

I’ll spare you the mess of the matters of my heart. Really.

And now, after years of being in Bombay, I finally did find the perfect apartment in Bombay, if such a thing even exists. It’s small but cosy and absolutely perfect to me. But for all practical purposes, I’m going to have to give it up soon. Baggage dictates that this is almost as painful as the break-up itself.

So here I am, back on my search – this time for the perfect apartment and, well, perfect love that I already know.

All you need sometimes…

At the risk of sounding corny or rant-ish, I must say – when you’re going through a break-up, and a hard one at that, sometimes all you need is a hilarious night out with your girls. You may be reaching for the tissues all night, but this time, for the right reasons.

After some retail therapy and a scrumptious dinner at Asia 7, my friend Ashi and I decided to go for a drink to the Comedy Store bar. We were celebrating the Maharashtrian New Year, Gudu Padwa; that we had the next day off.

Midway through our drink, we were joined by our ever-entertaining friend, Asawari, or Gundi, as we lovingly call her. You gotta know her to get it. As good friends always do, we giggled our guts out at all her apprehensions about her impending move to London for her higher studies. Ashi then wanted to go up and check out Canvas.

A backnote here: Both Ashi and I want to join a Salsa class next month. And what do you know! There’s the aftermath of a salsa class going on at Canvas. We entered to pulsating salsa music and a dance floor that was soon teeming with couples, clearly not part of a beginners’ course. The steps, the shoes, the twirls, the coordination – it was all there. And there we three stood, feeling rather inept and inadequate.

Two men, obviously as good as the others, came to us and asked us to dance – which otherwise would have been flattering. Unfortunately we had to politely turn them down in fear of stepping on their toes and making complete fools of ourselves. We decided it was time to go.

Who would have thought getting out of a club would be this amusing (read:difficult)? For the next 15 minutes, or more, we spent prodding doors, pushing them when it clearly said pull, walking into the auditorium, inadvertently of course, lifting curtains, thinking there was a door behind it – and lots more. We finally thought it might be wise to go back through the only way we knew but Ashi vehemently opposed this. Why? Because this would mean walking back through the pool of talented dancers and proving to them that we were not only inept at dancing, but we were inept, period.

We went around all over again, ran through the parking lot and rushed towards the elevator, only to be greeted by a snoozing liftman.

What the hell happened to us that night? I don’t know nor do I want to. It was the most I had laughed in weeks. 

The wonders of the internet!

Bored? Lethargic? Vela? Fret not, the internet is one of the funniest places ever! Check out these websites for a good laugh - and yes, be prepared to get weird looks for coworkers while you sit in your seat, laughing at the screen.

fmylife.com
9gag.com
dearblankpleaseblank.com
theoatmeal.com
geeksaresexy.com

Feel free to add more! I could always use a good laugh!

Well, you gotta start somewhere

For months, ok, for years, I’ve wanted to start ‘blogging’ – whatever that meant. Now I know. But one thing stopped me, held me back, refusing to let me go. I pulled and pried, but it held me at the waist and tugged back with greater force. Procrastination. Yes, I am a procrastinator. My laundry pile will have to spill over into my bedroom before I decide to hook up the machine. The deadline has to loom dangerously close above my head before I can start writing. And true passion fuelled by intense boredom at work, while waiting for pages or inspiration, must occur to result in this blog. Or well, watching reruns of Sex and the City.

We all procrastinate, don’t we? I think it’s one of those traits God created us with. Like curiosity. Remember the Adam and the apple? We begin procrastinating the moment we start our day – by snoozing the alarm. We tell friends we’ll call them when we get free, but wait till the weekend. We tell parents that we will go see the doctor for that nagging pain, but we won’t till we’re doubled over. We tell ourselves that we must talk and iron things out with our significant other, but we’d rather wait till all hell breaks loose and the only thing left to do is to walk out.

What ever happened to acting on instincts? Jumping at opportunities thrown at us? Taking the world by storm? Is it sheer laziness (cos, let’s face it, that’s where the fancy term procrastination stems from)? Or is it a lack of confidence, the fear of failure? Do we not want to get out of bed every morning because we’re afraid of having a bad day at work? Do we not call our friends because we’re too tired to talk about our own problems and not really interested in theirs? Do we not go to the doctor because we fear that we may have cancer (yes, I have some hypochondriac friends who think like this)? Do we not talk to the ones we love about what is bothering us lest they stop loving us, lest they stop caring? Is it worth it, given that sooner or later both of you go your own ways anyway?

I don’t mean to be preachy. This post, I think, is more for me than anything else. It’s time to seize the day. Stop procrastinating – learn how to drive, take a salsa class, meet those friends I haven’t in months, tell the person I love how I feel or, on the other hand, let him go and be happy – for the sake of the both of us. Start a blog. Oh wait, at least one thing on the list is done. I’m now a little less of a procrastinator than I was an hour ago. Amen.