Seems so. Its been ages and ages since I have blogged. Forget blogging, its been ages since I have had the time to even think of blogging. Each night I somehow manage to crawl upstairs and collapse on my bed and spend a night plagued by nightmares of things I haven’t done or that needs to be done.
I wanted a home of my own, where I am free to do as I please. I wanted neighbours I could speak to. Above all, I wanted to be home, in India. I have all of those. Its been three months since I have moved in to a lovely place. All balconies and large airy rooms, a huge terrace to enjoy evenings with friends. How often had I dreamt of my proper drawing room, balconies overflowing with greenery. And yet, my house is still not ‘done’. M-I-l has helped by doing up things in my absence. R who is visiting us, has redone it a bit more…but still its so bare. My balconies lie empty. I managed to get three potted plants and haven’t yet figured out the watering schedule and so they are wilting.
Got a cook and daily help, after a few failed attempts. This one is the third one. I haven’t been able to instruct her properly and so she generally has a ball in my absence. Sunday is the only day we meet and that too if we are staying in!
I had it all planned out ….I would get up in early (I was, till recently, an early bird), sit in my lovely verandah and enjoy my morning cuppa and catch up on the news. I somehow manage to crawl out just an hour before I have to leave for office. Tea is a hurried affair. The morning paper arrives indifferently and the paper man chucks it expertly from three flights below all rolled up tight with a rubber band. Anyone sitting on the verandah risks being hit on the head with a loud thwack!
So, all the while, governments are falling and new ones being made, Tsunamis hitting and all sorts of casting couch scandals breaking, I carry on unawares in the bewildering world of proposals and pitches and review meetings and briefs.
The glass top on our new lovely dining table cracked from side to side. Already. Mosquitos (which were absent) in Jan, when we had moved in, are back with a vengeance. We have managed to get a hammer, nails, mosquito nets….but don’t know when we will be able to string them up!
Neighbours are very nice and friendly. But I have to repeatedly turn down their requests for tea and coffee since I am always meeting them on my way to work. My neigbour downstairs, I have exactly thrice, twice when I was locked out returning very late at night and had to wake them up to remove the padlock on the gate. I did get a chance to meet them at holi. But then it was a very brief civilised sort of a polite meet.
We haven't decided on a car yet. In our brief conversations late at night or in the mornings, before I leave for work, we swap notes. How about this one? No, no not fuel efficient. OK. How about that one? Too expensive. And so on and so forth. Cash or finance? AC or non AC? To have or not? Upshot of all this is, that on good Friday, a holiday, I had to come to office for work while A left for his parents and I found out that there were no cabs available. All drivers had gone on leave on the long holi weekend. So, we, A and I spent our first holi in India, apart.
My days in France seems so idyllic in comparison. I had all the time in the world to cook, paint, blog, walk about, watch movies, do yoga, visit places, museums, parks..
After what seems an eternity, I can leave early for home this evening. Or so I thought. Our electricity got cut off this morning due to some mix up. The landlord had paid the earlier bill and although our electicity has been restored, we need to show the recipt by tomorrow morning. And that bill will be faxed to me (at my office) late tonight. So…I am stuck in office anyhow.
