Tea & Dark Chocolate

When you are young, and are looking for a partner to share your life with, you think of that person to be the one you'll grow old with. No? At least, I did. I was consciously looking out for the person with whom I could grow old. The one with whom I could talk about anything under the world, share minute details about how I have umpteen crushes in a day or detail every single feeling I felt when I was waiting for the signal to turn green or the one who knows how spiteful I can be if I want to. The one with whom I would not need to speak to without actually talking. The one around whom am not worried if am farting and can in fact, take pride in talking about our crap routines. The one who would be your family, your steady date, your everything. You know what am talking about now, don't you? The one person who will be your partner in everything. Call this person a soulmate, if you will. But I've grown to realize that unless you are friends first, you cannot be great par...

[Continued from Part 1 ] Yes, I felt like this till I saw the house of our dreams. (There were quite a few of 'my dream house' over the years we spent real-estate window shopping, which was soon becoming into a bad hobby we had to get rid of, but this place was from both our dreams. Till then, the husband and I hadn't agreed upon a single house/apartment. We both never liked the same stuff). This house was perfect - it was a cozy little place with 3 bedrooms, a balcony that overlooked greenery and nothingness, a kitchen large enough to actually have a small kitchen table for the husband to sit on and eat the Dosas I so enjoyed making, rooms big enough to enable us to have separate work areas... you know, everything a newly married couple looked for, in a house and it was our own. (except that we weren't newly married anymore by then, though life hadnt really changed in that department, but more on that later). We suddenly accumulated a lot more stuff than we imagined...

I tend to do this, associate the phases of life with where I stayed then. That also helps me remember where I met a specific person in my life, and how the phase I was in has impacted my friendship with that person. It also helps me remember how I was doing career-wise back then. As a 19 year old when I came to Hyderabad the first time and saw the city, I knew this was going to be home. It was love at first sight - the broad beautiful roads, the still-upcoming flyovers, the language spoken in the city, and not to forget, the beautiful view of Charminar I had at 5 AM in the morning among floodlights. I knew I was going to move here and this was where home would be. I didn't bother to think about marriage, career, education or anything at all. Hyderabad was home, that's all.

Roots... this is something that has always had my interest. No, not the kind that trees/plants have. Or the kind that grow out of your head and show your age. The kind which makes you feel like you belong to something - a place, a human being, a time period , a culture group or anything at all. Of all these categories, I feel I've had the most trouble being at peace with 'the place'. The question - "Where are you from?" always catches me off guard. Anywhere abroad, I can get away with "Am from India" and most people wouldn't ask me another question. But anything more granular than this, and I stumble... I have trouble telling where I am from . [ Image Courtesy - Google Maps ]

As I was making my bed a while ago, wondering whether the blankie was worth it at all, couldn't help but think of the comment a friend made about the short Hyderabad winters. A pencil and paper and this is my heart's anguish pouring out. ☺ You were here and Then you were not. Raising hopes and dreams Of together evenings and nights, Cosy, wrapped up like a breeze A cup of chocolate and the knight! You were here and Then you were not! Gorgeous sunsets, long evenings, shorter days Barbeques, bakes, soups and may be, a truffle, With friends, whiskey and laughter a gay All of it, gone in a trifle! You were here and Then you were not!! Oh, you wretched winter Lasting only 48 hours, Not a minute yonder Making me love my city lesser by the hour!!!

As usual, this was a good year too! I had loads of fun doing everything I did – work, friends, travel, photography, reading etc. Yes, absolutely no complaints at all. Travel - This was a great year for  me. We kicked off the year with a trip to Puri in February which turned out to be a trip for just shooting pics. I got to shoot such brilliant photos of the 12th, 13th and 14th century temples. There was a 10-day Vipasana trip I did in June to Dharamshala. Stayed there for 13 days, including the time spent in Vipasana course. Loved the course duration, but was disappointed by Dharamshala as a place in itself. There was this short trip to Maldives in July , and all the husband and I did here was laze out in our cottage in the resort during the day and walk by the clear waters in the evenings. And then there was this Europe trip with a girl-friend. A short trip to Goa in October proved to us that no matter what we did, we’d always make at least one trip to Goa eve...

Oh, this was a GOOD year for books, I must say! I got to read a variety of books in various genres this year, and explore new mediums too. And as the year ends, there is faint chance that I might be stocking up on paper books too. Am still in love with my Kindle and ebooks will still be my most favorite method to read, but the allure of leafing through the books (which I rediscovered as I saw a friend’s drawing room full of books. She made the drawing room into a library and I loved the time I spent in that room!) is catching on again and am starting by stocking up on graphic novels. I still read more than one book at a time, one by the bed side, one at the dining table. And I have started the non-fiction and books for work genres this year, and to my surprise, quite liking them too.   Here’s what GoodReads has to say about my year in books :-) Yes, 90 books, with an average of 293 pages per book! [That’s not bad, right? Well, I’ve also had a busy life this year...