Grunt..

Its been 10 days now of non stop ridiculous slogging of ass and not doing things that bring people happiness like sleep and eat. But the bad times are scheduled to end. Sometime in the coming lifetime. And so one must look up and tell oneself stuff like this too shall pass.

And so with determined jaw and other body parts clenched tight... I set off to visit the capital. Having resolved to not delight my boss with a hatrick of innovative ways to miss flights.. i got there before time woke up for the day. And I was all geared up. Had everything in place. All my comfort material belongings. Or so I thought. Anyway. Boarding of flight happened and I proceeded to shamelessly chomp on my 'veg burger', giving the Jet Airways guys non-looks... utter indifference and lack of sensitivity to the other million office goers who were dying to dig into the cold breakfast that makes you instantly European and American at the same time - bread with cheese, a non-croissant and plastic cutlery for weapons. After the soul enriching gobbling of the worst things one can eat early in the morning, I felt sufficently deviant and hence, developed a slight teenage nonchalance. That was soon broken, when I realised that excel sheets were awaiting my sensual touch.

After reaching the age of 67, I landed in Delhi. It was a short and rather comfortable trip. Except for constant reminders of Mumbai fragrances 35000 feet high in the sky. Anyway, the real nasty and disgustingly bitchy part comes now.

Landed 2 hours too late, had my boss and other seniors WAITING for me to turn up. Entered the cab and began my ever so long journey to the head office. Work was rather interesting and fun because all I had to do was look like a zombie and people left me alone, except while they were pampering me with yummy homemade 17 varieties of The Roti, 2 varieties of The Bhindi, 4 varieties of The Aloo (inside, on the side, floating in oil, and just generally fried and lying around). And this goes FABULOUSLY with any vegetarian. Cos it largely is our entire menu laid out for us (minus the tamarind of course.. but then again, not everyone is perfect).

The ugly part of the evening happened from 4 until.. well, now. After multiple discussions on whether I needed the "Waingon R" now or later... I decided to go for it NOW. Obviously. I was rather dead and finding myself a comfortable little hole to die in was a good idea. So the NOW happened at around 530 pm along with 2 ladies who needed to be dropped. Fine. No problem. He said its a 15 minute deviation. And so I braced myself.. refused to breathe the dusty heat wave I was being inundated with.. and generally stay put.

There is no city or part of city I have disliked the moment I saw it. It isn't in me to dislike a place on such superficial terms. :D Or so I thought. Huge roads choc-a-bloc with traffic... and man! white Indicas and Ikons all around. White. Ugly. Indica. And. Ikon. Huge walls around. The metro is being built. Direct line to the airport. Wow. Wonderful planning. In fact everything is wonderfully planned. Lovely perfectly laid roads. Dust. No trees. Just mirages of them. And buildings. Tall and beige-d with accents of glass coated with purple metallic sun reflectors. Buildings like the drawings we made in class 3. Multiple rectangles with dark hollows. And hundreds of people living within. Looking out of those dark hollows. They can see us, but we cant see them. Each house reconstructed. One balcony closed up to extend the house. Another covered with potted plants. Another half closed, half open. One with clothes hanging. Another one with expesive hammock. A girl with red and white bangles all the way up to her elbows. Round, fair, hair middle parted.. red salwar kameez and blank stare. More buildings. And more Indicas. Then, houses. Swelling out into the very end of their 60 by 40 pieces of soil. Huge walls all around. Can't see nothing but concrete boundary walls. A peek into the massive thin iron gates with black floral designs. Cars. 3 of them parked one behind the other. Some houses didn't have cars parked. The people inside must be working. Huge beige brown doors. Chemically treated false balsa wood with Victorian carvings. And a brass dip knocker to boot. Every SINGLE house. No trees or even random weeds. But the door is there. Proud and shutting the world out, by mooning them at the same time. Look... and get disgusted. And rows and rows of them. Tall, well built, north Indian women in synthetic salwar kameez and henna-ed hair. And more cars. Dusty, scratched and pan stained. Fine whitish dust. All over. Rows of houses made of white marble tiles. Stuck together al around the edifice. Or a beige version of the same (to not let pollution take its toll).

An entire mega city of people displaying personalised mini taj mahals. Contemporarised too. Modern long lasting non wood. Smooth surfaces reflecting polished perfection via laminate. Laminated wood... with rings for design. Hey... it 'looks' like it came from a tree. And i reconstructed it... the right thickness for easy use. Fevicol-ing oakness on to our skin. The budget aristocrat. See. Me. Bigger. Whiter. Shinier. Deluded obsession with white outside. and only white. Huge white putty coated walls. And barbed wire on top. Guard the jewel. While showing it to everyone. White marble. White marble. White marble.

I'm sorry. I just couldn't take it. I know this isn't important to stuff like Life, The Universe and Everything, but I couldn't unstuck it from my mind.

I should focus on bigger things in life. Hmm...