Run Run Run away
The cards arrived and I had a semi heart attack. I mean who would have thought one day I would be the lead actor on those golden maroon cards (thank god at least the Ganesh is missing). I have pretty much breezed through all the preps till now - mostly thanks to the BIG distraction called PRETEND PHD. I had thought I am way too cool for an anxiety attack but...then the cards arrived.
Baba laughed, Ma wanted me to take some calmpose (a sleeping pill!), I resorted to taking a long jog to calm my nerves. Now here was the dilemma, I always call A whenevwr I have any emotional misadventure (whether frantic nerves or retarded ecstacy and with me those extremes happen very often) but this time how was I to call him and say "Hey, guess what, I am freaking out about my marriage to you?"!! That's not done, right? (Well, the bitch that I am, I ultimately did do that)
Here is what the Man-who-should-not-have-been-told said when I did tell him "You don't have a problem marrying me. It's the institution of marriage which is making you freak out!" Ahem. Who is the sociologist in the relationship? But, like a good pativrata nari (husband worshipping woman!) I believed him and calmed down. But I confess I am staying very far away from the cards. Don't want another attack. Especially since I don't even have a Julia Robertsian style white horse to Runaway (oops, never realized that he does!)
Well, that was just background justification as to why i am indulging in time wasting tactics when I should be transcribing interviews. Because... the runaway bride-to-be is allowed some therapeutic blog writing. And...what can be more therapeutic than food and travel.
So this is what I came up with in lieu of a calmpose.
Memories attached to certain Food types (!!)
Hot chicken curry = the little broken-down shed -cum-restaurant in Sonmarg, Kashmir. This was the Summer of 1988 and we were rather poor travellers then. Sonmarg was freezing and rainy and miraculously we found this shelter from the storm that also provided steaming hot chicken curry and rotis. The roof was leaking and dripping rain into the table and our food, the green meadows and snow capped mountains were sending in thick fog through the windows and there we were stuffing plates of chicken down our throats...CC has never tasted that good again.
Thukpa Soup = Kaza, Spiti Valley, July 2000. We were four starving and poor travellers again. Kaza is an unwanted break forced onto bus travellers in Spiti valley, Himachal Pradesh. It's a strangley ugly town (an aberration amidst the unreal beauty of the rest of Spiti), full of trucks, barking dogs and ofcourse the restaurant that sells Thukpa (Tibetan soup) that smells exactly like dity socks! When our gang visited Kaza three years later we dared to revist the restaurant and while the adventurer inside us wanted us to reorder the Socks Soup, we chickened out at the end and settled for some Lemon Tea instead.
Farmer's Breakfast, Lemon Tea with Honey and Cigarettes = Green Hotel, Mcleodganj, Himachal Pradesh: This was our favorite breakfast haunt and we spent a large part of our mornings debating on the most perfect combination of pastry, farmer's breakfast (a horribly heavy mix of potatoes, cheese, onions and eggs) and beverage. This HUGE meal at 8 in the morning was inevitably followed by groans of regret "why did we eat so much, now we can't go on a hike" and of course the tummy-ache curer cigarette, Gold flakes!
Half cooked Chick peas and mouldy chutney = El Yunque Rain forest, Puerto Rico: This time we were a fully starved though not-so-poor couple stuck in a half built hut in the rainforests. We had been promised a fully furnished kitchen so all we had taken with us from civilization were a few tins of emergency food. The kitchen turned out to be a room which looked like it had been hit by World War II, all the equipments looked like they were purchased (and last washed) in 1952. So all we managed to eat in the first 24 hours of our stay were some half cooked chickpeas (half cooked becauase there were no micro wavable dishes and the stove looked like it would burst on us any minute) and some mouldy chutney from the mouldier fridge...
Ahhh. now I feel much better! The Horse can wait a few more days :)
Baba laughed, Ma wanted me to take some calmpose (a sleeping pill!), I resorted to taking a long jog to calm my nerves. Now here was the dilemma, I always call A whenevwr I have any emotional misadventure (whether frantic nerves or retarded ecstacy and with me those extremes happen very often) but this time how was I to call him and say "Hey, guess what, I am freaking out about my marriage to you?"!! That's not done, right? (Well, the bitch that I am, I ultimately did do that)
Here is what the Man-who-should-not-have-been-told said when I did tell him "You don't have a problem marrying me. It's the institution of marriage which is making you freak out!" Ahem. Who is the sociologist in the relationship? But, like a good pativrata nari (husband worshipping woman!) I believed him and calmed down. But I confess I am staying very far away from the cards. Don't want another attack. Especially since I don't even have a Julia Robertsian style white horse to Runaway (oops, never realized that he does!)
Well, that was just background justification as to why i am indulging in time wasting tactics when I should be transcribing interviews. Because... the runaway bride-to-be is allowed some therapeutic blog writing. And...what can be more therapeutic than food and travel.
So this is what I came up with in lieu of a calmpose.
Memories attached to certain Food types (!!)
Hot chicken curry = the little broken-down shed -cum-restaurant in Sonmarg, Kashmir. This was the Summer of 1988 and we were rather poor travellers then. Sonmarg was freezing and rainy and miraculously we found this shelter from the storm that also provided steaming hot chicken curry and rotis. The roof was leaking and dripping rain into the table and our food, the green meadows and snow capped mountains were sending in thick fog through the windows and there we were stuffing plates of chicken down our throats...CC has never tasted that good again.
Thukpa Soup = Kaza, Spiti Valley, July 2000. We were four starving and poor travellers again. Kaza is an unwanted break forced onto bus travellers in Spiti valley, Himachal Pradesh. It's a strangley ugly town (an aberration amidst the unreal beauty of the rest of Spiti), full of trucks, barking dogs and ofcourse the restaurant that sells Thukpa (Tibetan soup) that smells exactly like dity socks! When our gang visited Kaza three years later we dared to revist the restaurant and while the adventurer inside us wanted us to reorder the Socks Soup, we chickened out at the end and settled for some Lemon Tea instead.
Farmer's Breakfast, Lemon Tea with Honey and Cigarettes = Green Hotel, Mcleodganj, Himachal Pradesh: This was our favorite breakfast haunt and we spent a large part of our mornings debating on the most perfect combination of pastry, farmer's breakfast (a horribly heavy mix of potatoes, cheese, onions and eggs) and beverage. This HUGE meal at 8 in the morning was inevitably followed by groans of regret "why did we eat so much, now we can't go on a hike" and of course the tummy-ache curer cigarette, Gold flakes!
Half cooked Chick peas and mouldy chutney = El Yunque Rain forest, Puerto Rico: This time we were a fully starved though not-so-poor couple stuck in a half built hut in the rainforests. We had been promised a fully furnished kitchen so all we had taken with us from civilization were a few tins of emergency food. The kitchen turned out to be a room which looked like it had been hit by World War II, all the equipments looked like they were purchased (and last washed) in 1952. So all we managed to eat in the first 24 hours of our stay were some half cooked chickpeas (half cooked becauase there were no micro wavable dishes and the stove looked like it would burst on us any minute) and some mouldy chutney from the mouldier fridge...
Ahhh. now I feel much better! The Horse can wait a few more days :)
posted by Amrita Pande at 8:35 PM
4 Comments:
One suggestion: look at the bright side and list all the things that are great about the wedding day such as FOOD, PRESENTS, being with family and friends, declaring your love for each other and ultimately wearing THE RING! If that does not help think of the honeymood to follow :)
Yes, I would focus on the Day and the husband worshipping :)
Thanks for the note, my dear. I'm around - I've just been very busy (dh in the throes of finals and baby sick).
I am sure now you look to the occasion with an angelic smile on your lips!!! And convinced enough by now that the life that follows , particulaly the frequent outings, makes the whole trouble-
Try and convince people around you-thats your moral duty!!! Ha Ha Ha!!!!
I really love the second part of the blog -its sooo interestingly written ! No wonder I admire your writing skill soooo much ! And I am sure you will give all Jhumpas and Arundhatis a run for their money!! I am not sure of Ghosh(Amitav) of course, I will still keep him a few rungs higher in my esteem, ha ha ha!!!
Post a Comment
<< Home