I am sure there will be countless people who’ll hurl stones at me for saying this but I am loving the weather! Although it should technically be spring it feels like early summer and the first few days of any new season is exciting. Any change of weather is novel for that matter, the air feels different and even light changes its color. I often notice how sunlight changes from one season to another such that the there is something different in the quality of light. May be the summer heat makes air lighter so that things look different or may be it is all in my head. Anyway, to return to what I was saying the weather has been wonderful, the evenings seem magical this time of the year. So I have been haunting the little grassy patch beside the jhil enjoying the evening breeze till the mosquitoes drove me out. And there have been no other side effects to my guilty pleasure apart from a runny nose and severe lack of concentration in face of the enemy (I’m talking about the consecutive tests).

It was on one such wonderful evening this week that I was walking home exasperated at the idea that the road next to the 8B bus stand had not only been turned into auto/cab/rickshaw stand all at once, but it had also become a place to hold political rallies and pandals and that on that particular day the platform erected to celebrate Shiv Ratri was blocking more than half of the road. Whoever cared for normal working individuals who risk hand and foot everyday while trying to cross the road here? Now, I will accept that I am one of those people who are particularly bad at crossing busy roads but on that day I wasn’t so much as trying. I was simply standing on one side watching all the commotion around me when suddenly out of nowhere this auto dashes past and misses me by the fraction of a second during which I had managed to literally jump back. I knew then that this was not the first and most definitely not the last encounter I was going to have with autos. And I was right. I saw an auto overturn today morning. Among the injured was an elderly woman whose leg had been completely squashed. Needless to say I was horrified and especially because I had an exam to write afterwards. A few months earlier my cousin sister had been injured in a similar accident that grounded her for eight weeks. I seriously hope the woman I saw today recovers fast. At this rate I am amazed that we have all not managed to get ourselves run over by now.

Ahhhh!!!!

I have a lovely kat ful gach next to my window. It is one of those prolific varieties that yield hundreds of red flowers all spring and summer. Winter chills all its leaves and flowers away. But today this skeleton tree bore its first blossom. I was kind of surprised cause its still too early but then the I thought that it probably wanted to dress up too. You can’t blame the poor tree with all the Valentine’s Day propaganda everywhere. The “day of love” becomes an excuse and a convenient one too, to sell cards, chocolates, bouquets and jewellery. No wonder my little tree was getting insecure.
I remember when I was in school. There was this girl I loved like a sister till our suburban hearts drifted in the city crowds and was lost forever. She always made it a point to gather as many wild flowers as she could on her way to school every Valentine’s Day so that we could spend the rest of the day finding names for them. I’m sure the flowers had their names listed in botany books but those were really unromantic scientific names not befitting any object of beauty. She always asserted that it was a shame that no one cared for these pretty objects just because they abounded by themselves. We named them and pretended that this made them less neglected. I know now how ridiculous the ritual was but we didn’t care. We cared for a stupid flower limping beside some dirty drain and that must have meant something. At least we hoped it did.
But as I grow older I find myself less inclined to leave things to hope. A friend told me the other day that I am too emotional and trusting. She was angry that I had managed to break my heart again. She said she didn’t trust anyone and that atleast saved the tears from executing their office at such alarming regularity. I try not to care about the little starved pup huddled against the cold wall of an air-conditioned restaurant. Does that mean something? Anything? I suppose dogs are better. They don’t break your trust. But my bokha kukur who thinks of himself as the master of the house and refuses to go to bed without comfortable pillow and a soft blanket, in a sudden display of animal instincts bit my brother. But then he treated it as a breach of trust and has not left Roni’s side since. Further more as an act of penitence he’s foregoing the pillow and sleeping curled up in one corner of Roni’s bed. Like a dog!!
That I’m sure means something.
But its Valentine’s Day and a bloke just passed my window howling a Fossils song at the top of his lungs. See if you can’t beat them then stop seeing them. So just when I realized that this Valentine’s Day frenzy was getting to my head, I switched myself off. That wasn’t difficult. Meanwhile, my darling boyfriend has overslept again. I’m glad some things remain the same even if this is “a day you show the people you love just how much you love them”.
Kancha thank you!