And the rest of it

OK Sv here are the rest

7 Things I Plan To Do

1. Lose those two pesky kgs and have my cords hang loosely at my hips again

2. Get a haircut in Mumbai

3. Make my portfolio. And send it to Myriam in the next one week. Oh, and write my SOP...

4. Buy a heater (ha ha ha - how domestic am I - Be glad I'm not including things like make a round chapatti; mine are the very map of Australia now)

5. Stop playing Bookworm (or check into Bookworm Anonyomous - it has taken over my life)

6. Do inhalations daily (no matter how many people think this is their nightly entertainment show)

7. Write those 55,000 words (at some distant point in time)

7 Things I Can't Do

Hmmmm...

1. Have a conversation on the phone with unknowns. Polite conversation is door ki baat

2. Make small talk - missed that gene somewhere

3. Wear lenses continuously - I'm just too lazy. And glasses are so much more comfortable. And clear.

4. Swim. But hope to rectify that soon (well, sometime soon. Maybe in the next couple of years. Or so...)

5. Read depressing/worthy books. Why should I wade through people dying, or losing people they love or basically having this crap life, described in great detail. Bah. Gah!

6. Sleep without my 'shawl'. What to do

7. Care as much for my work as I did in those TOI days - they taught me well, those creeps.

And now to tag people - Deepa, Warya, Kay, if she's still got a blog & Payal if she ever checks hers.

Secret Seven

Ok SV I am doing it

7 Things I'm slightly Obssessive About

1. Dry, clean loos. I hate being the second person to go in for a bath.

2. My books. Not just lending them out (I would need to investigate your reading habits VERY carefully before I could do that) but also reading. If it's a book I've bought, I need to read it before I lend it out - even if I take three months. And once loaned books HAVE to be returned within a decent amount of time or I need to know why

3. Water. (ok people I know which of you are laughing right now) but it deeply disturbs me (and makes me thirsty) if I know there is only half-a-cup of drinking water to last a day. I want it in abundant quantities at all times.

4. Ditto food

5. Ink pens. Have you written with one in the past 2 years - if you haven't please do not attempt to borrow mine.

6. Tea. If it's pot tea - people you need to brew it just right, and pour before it becomes bitter. Also milk isn't to be used to drown taste, it's just something to help with appearance - a drop or dash will do. And show some restraint with the sugar and milk in masala chai too!

7. Shoes - I don't need to expound on this one. Everyone who knows me knows this.

living in a tent

that's what I found myself doing last weekend. In Rajasthan, near a place called Jhalawar. We, I and 70 other people, were guests of the State tourism board, who had to rise to their chief minister's demand to promote Jhalawar as a tourist destination.
So overnight they'd cleared away a field in front of Gagron Fort and pitched 50 tents, a huge marquee to serve as dining-living area. They had also attached special ac bogeys to the two trains that chugged us there (well ours chugged - taking six hours more than the 'VIP' train, which raced), and had two little rats in our compartment. (to liven up things at night, one gathers. I had to think many times and gird the loins before putting on shoes to go to the loo at night.)
Anyway, tents are all well and good, but the presence of loos one cloth away is somewhat disconcerting. Especially at night when the light silhouettes you clearly so that the other person sharing the tent knows whether you're 'The thinker' on the pot, or much more straightbacked. And then there's the shower area - a biggish plastic tray that can only drain away a limited quantity of water, after which it begins a brothy mess.
So no surprises that except for sleeping and necessites mentioned above, I was always to be found in the marquee. Though there wasn't much time for that since buses was where we spent most of our time. We lost our way to a Jain temple and spent 4 hours on the road - a horrific bumpy non-road actually.
Also spent quite a bit of time in the company of this photographer who was EXTREMELY happy to see me use the mens moisturising lotion (part of the men's vanity pack everybody had been provided with) on my feet. According to her that's the correct place for it/them.
Lots of good things too about the trip - the food to begin with. But all that for article if and when it happens.