Shubhra's wishes

This post is not by me.. It's by a dear friend, my mad Shu wishing my dear husband Sudhanshu birthday ... And it stirred up a gazillion beautiful memories of fun, love and friendship... so much that it had to occupy some space forever on my blog.. love u girl!

Dearest Darling Shoe ( and yes, you'll always be 'shoe' cos I beat you to 'shu' ),

Goa. July 09. You walked out of that airport and gave me this big warm hug. It was the first time we'd met. I immediately felt 'welcome'. You see, it's a strange thing with friends - when you've know someone closely for a substantial period of time and have seen them through love, sickness, happiness, break-ups, weepy ex-boyfriends, psycho ex-boyfriends, ex-boyfriends you didn't quite like etc etc, you sort of feel a little protective about them and also a little possessive. So each time someone comes along, you back off a little, give your friend space and try to not get into protective-possessive zone. With you, I felt strangely protected-possessed myself. Almost as if, what you felt for Rach spilled over and extended out to me. It did. And it was this big warm comforter kinda feeling :)

Shu Thinks: I likey.

Mumbai. July 09. You call me to say you've booked a domain name for me. You have no idea how touched I was.

Shu Thinks: I likey very much.

Delhi. Dec 09. By now, I've lived in your face for a month. You're driving me to work. I'm an hour late already. You're driving at 20 kmph. Why? Because you're discussing, in great detail, an issue of great importance to Rach.

Shu Thinks: Even Superman can't multitask.

Shu Also Thinks: I love him.

And since then, Shu has loved him a little more each day... through all the wedding shopping and the cocoberry tubs and those six moths in delhi and the last six months of being underground, Shu has loved him. A little more each day.

Happy Birthday Jizooo. You ARE the best.

Shu

New story

PATIALA, AMRITSAR, CHANDIGARH, PUNE, COVENTRY, LONDON, MUMBAI

October 7, 2007

There was a street I once knew, there are roads I can’t forget… there are riverets I sat by as ducks swam and there are nights I wished I was home. Yet it all, is so finely etched in my crystal memory that the shadows of the yore beckon me… Nomads don’t know where their heart lies, the bustling city or the solemn village.

This city of teeming millions winds you unto its own and you surrender to the pace and sometimes to the sheer lack of it. Every bit of the city screams for attention- for the beauty or the ugliness, you come to love it nonetheless.

Life takes you back to where it started and leaves you stranded at that corner… Not knowing where to turn, just walk to where the rainbow points.

DELHI

June 15, 210

I found this file after over two and a half years and sit here smiling, staring at it. A friend, and he is the only one, claims that I hated Bombay. Well here is my example that I could never bring myself to hate the city that fed me, nurtured me and taught me more about life than any other place ever could.

Now, the Delhi tenure has come to complete a total of two years and life has taken a settling turn. The nomad still hates the permanency and continuity, yet she has learnt a valuable lesson… one that of marriage. A marriage changes your ways, in so many ways... I can’t leave a city on my whims and fancies. I have another life that I am spiritually albeit happily bound to. All that I can hope is that my soul mate finds his own gypsy and we can take another great journey, another move together. My soul has no roots, not the geographical ones… but yet I find myself rooted to him. Eternally.

Clarity through storm

There are very few things in life which make you forget all the miseries in the world. The distant war, the harrowing cries of children, the love of your husband, the lack of direction.... The antidote to everything miserable is this constant, unabashed rain which is lashing out in front of me. Sitting on the floor and typing out, a little mindful of getting my dear lappie wet, I think of myriad things. Suddenly, though the blurry visibility, everything seems to come out clear. The leaves, the roads, the sky and perhaps the people too.