My Vacation So Far

I'm up in the mountains in Kasauli with my family, which used to be a really fun thing because it usually meant hanging out with my cousins for extended periods of time and not really having to give a rat's hairy ass about what the adults say/said. But so far, only Niamat, Fateh, Gurbani and Jagat (who is 1) are here. And we're staying in a house full of 12 people. Which means that I'm always getting told about what I should and shouldn't do, and I swear to God I am going to hit someone if they don't stop.

There are so many things I want to say (mostly hatin' but whatever), and I can only formulate the thoughts if I make a list. So here we go.

Things That Have Been Annoying Me Since My Return To India Two Weeks Ago

1. The lack of rain. On Wednesday, I got excited because it began to pour. Which (I thought) would mean that the Monsoon had arrived in Delhi. Unfortunately, it rained heavily for about 15 minutes and then stopped. Which means that Gurgaon witnessed a passing cloud. Which means that I wanted to scream and curse at the sky. On Thursday, it began to rain when we were at Harshyla's in Defence Colony. This time, it went for a whole 10 minutes before it stopped. Yesterday, after I came up to Kasauli, the clouds burst above this mountain. It rained for 20 minutes. Needless to say, I want Pooja to do her rain dance again, because I want some rain goddamit!


2. Trains (and my family when they talk about trains). Train bookings are a bitch here. I can't get a train reservation for the days that I want to be in South India. Which is just great because that means that I have to fly. Which means that I have to spend more money. Fucking hell. Ordinarily, I wouldn't get worked up about this, but of course, my family is looming over me and bombarding me with all sorts of advice, left, right and center. I know they think they're being helpful, but they're only giving me a headache.


3. This burn on the inside of my lip. We went to the market here yesterday. Inevitably, we came across a man selling bhutta. I paid my Rs. 12 (rip off) and waited for him to find a good cob of corn to put on his small coal fire, and ended up waiting for a full 10 minutes because everyone else was trying to be smart with him and tell him how to do his job. Anyway. He eventually took the roasted cob off the fire, put some salt and lemon on it and handed it to me. I was completely famished, so I took at bite at it. Unfortunately for me, there was a small, tiny piece of BURNING HOT COAL lodged in between two kernels. That hit my lip and burned the inside of my mouth. I now have an ulcer on the inside of my lower lip. It's swollen and I look like an idiot.


4. The lack of good options at Sarojini Nagar. Harshyla, Pooja and I went to Sarojini Nagar on Thursday. And I was looking forward to it because who doesn't like good, wholesale clothes for cheap? It was evening time (around 6ish) so I expected the bazaar to be crowded, but we walked into a never ending throng of human flesh, bones and mal-odour that pressed onto us like mould. Which was also fine, because hey, that's just the nature of thing. But as we cruised through the market, and looked through all our options, it turned out that there was nothing worth our time and Rs.150 in the market. We came away with one to two things each. And the one thing that I took away with me, well, Harshyla and Pooja bought that shirt for themselves too.


5. Pushiness. Why the fuck does everyone have to be so pushy. Why the hell can't we discuss our plans and come to a consensus about our proposed plan of action together? People here keep trying to make everything play out their way. Including my aunt, including my cousins, including some of my friends, including those stupid people who were waiting behind (but pushed in front of) me in the line for bhutta yesterday. Next time someone is being pushy, I am going to push their heads up their asses so that the only thing they can be pushy about is figuring out how to get their stupid noggins out.

Eh. I know I'm complaining a lot, but to be honest, there have been some good things too. The food and mangoes are amazing, I've already read 6 books for fun in these past two weeks, I've (re)watched most of House seasons 1 and 2, I've already found so many leads for stuff that I can use in my History thesis (thank you Di Drumond!) and I have pretty much been eating an orange bar a day. Which definitely brightens my day, even if it is only for a minute. At least for now, there's nothing that an orange bar (or two or three) cannot cure. Even if it is only for a few minutes.

Welcome Home

Yesterday, a bird crapped on me.

It's a slightly (only slightly) exciting story; one that involves me sitting in an open topped jeep (my cousin's friends) holding an Orange Bar (sidenote: I LOVE Orange Bars with a fiery passion that rivals their colour) with the wind making my hair fly around. But the point of it all really is that I hope that the bird shit hitting me at 60 kms/hr makes my luck change.

So far, Delhi has only been ok. I enjoy being home to the extent that I enjoy meeting my friends and enjoy meeting my family and enjoy eating the best food that the planet has to offer. But I can't handle living at home with my family anymore. I fight with my sister and mother on a daily basis (oddly, I haven't fought with my father yet but that might be because he understands what it's like to go to college far away and return home only sporadically) and it's getting to the point of excrutiation.

I think the last two or three days have been better than most. But that's mostly because I didn't spend all that much time at home. On Thursday I went to Old Delhi with Prashant, and then we went to Def Col market and had some beers. Harshyla and Pooja joined us, and then after that I spent the night at Harshyla's. I went to sleep early because I had a headache (which was probably the result of walking around the city in the heat), but it was nice to spend the day far away from my house. Yesterday, Harshyla, Pooja and I went to lunch and then I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening with Niamat and Harleen (which is when the pigeon poop fell on me) and only met my parents and sister at about 10 o'clock at night. Which was nice, because I didn't fight with anyone until about 9 pm. 36 hours of quiet.

Anyway. Getting back to the point of the crap story... Over here, people consider a bird crapping on you to be a sign of Good Luck. It probably has something to do with crapping being so bad that nothing worse can happen (thus, a sign of changing luck). But I don't really care. All I know is that I really want this trip to get vastly better because as much as I love my family (fighting and all), I don't think I will be able to handle living like this for another 3 months.

Fateh Can't Dance Saaaala (But Himmat Can)

It's been a full 3 days since I left. Left Delhi, left the wedding celebrations, left my family.

The week before that was a whirlwind. A whirlwind that I have repeatedly tried to explain to outsiders in vain. Because no one truly gets it: my American friends vaguely comprehend the wedding process and my Desi friends (who actually know about about weddings and their various events) don't understand my obsession with certain songs and they just don't get the inside jokes or the endless stories that are playing on repeat in my head.

I think about the wedding at least two times every hour. I incessantly think about Shamsher on auto-pilot or Angad's beard needing cleaning on the night of the youngsters party or Niamat and um, our non-stop jokes about her neck. But these things mean nothing to the people I know here- they don't understand these stories, and the jokes just don't seem funny to them, no matter how well I try to explain. Most people over here just react with a passing laugh or a confused expression (or, in the case of the Angad beard story, they react with a disgusted face). And while I understand why this is so, I really do wish that I could share these memories with the people that I experienced them with.

When I look back at that one week, and especially when I look at the wedding pictures on facebook (repeatedly, of course) and listen to hunta thon mera (also repeatedly, of course), I remember each one of their faces. And I think about how happy I was during the wedding. I know that there were moments of frustration but now that I think about it, I genuinely feel happy that my family is my family. And while it is true that you can't choose your family and that you can choose your friends, I think I'm proud to say that my cousins are my friends, and that no matter how much I want to kill them sometimes, they're friends that I'm happy to be stuck with. No matter how frustrated I get with them, they'll always have my back. And more importantly, they will always make me laugh.

So cheers to Hersi for taking the plunge without crying and without the slightest tinge of fear or nervousness. Cheers to my moronic cousins who will always be Lutzes in my eyes. And cheers to us having many more weeks like this past one together.

I can truly say that when this week ended all I could think was "Hunta thon mera dur jan da ji ni kar da ni". Home is home, Delhi is Delhi, family is family. And my family is crazy. Cheers to nothing ever changing that.

JFK, Heathrow and Indira Gandhi International

I never thought I would be one of those people who went home in the middle of the semester. But here I am, sitting in Terminal 7 in JFK, waiting to get onto my flight to Heathrow (and eventually Indira Gandhi International).

I can't help it. My cousin is getting married, and I can't imagine not being there for the wedding. I can't imagine not going home for a bunch of different reasons: not only will my entire family be present at this (at least for us) momentous occasion, but I also can't believe that this moment has come upon us so soon. I always imagined this happening maybe 2 or 3 years down the line from now, and I can't pretend that it's not going to be really strange next Sunday during the wedding.

But as it stands, it's real and the wedding is happening. So I'm here in in JFK, even though I know I'm missing an assload of work for college (God knows I'm emailing 3 papers in next week) and even though my family is paying a lot of money for me to be in Delhi next Sunday. But honestly, I can't imagine it any other way.

I guess the next time I update, however small the entry may be, it's going to be from my house in India, probably with some sentimental crap about how weird it was to see Hersi get married. But until then, I guess this will have to suffice, because um. They just announced the final boarding call, and I have to run!

Just look at my family

I'm convinced that Gangbad is just bored with life, and he is just jealous.
In short. Gangbad can go suck it.

I also would like to leave you with a little gem of a facebook message/conversation. Perhaps it will only appear funny to those that belong in the larger Dugal/Chopra/Saund family circle. And I understand that this might be for family eyes only, but if that be the case, well, I can just delete this post.

Fateh
Today at 4:38am
you bored sons of bitches..you all need a very VERY strong drink to help you think about how stupid you all look...i..on the other hand..drink a large number of strong drinks so im always in my senses..happy holi btw..haha

Angad
Today at 4:47am
I think sobriety would help perspective better.
Which is why I have none.
Hah.

Fateh
Today at 5:10am
angad my lil friend..you know these big words are of little importance to me..smaller..more efficient words are requested

Niamat
Today at 5:59am
my baby brother, ladies and gentlemen

Jaiveer
Today at 7:08am
watta family...tooo good

Hell yeah. Watta family! Tooooooooooooo good.