Get out of here you single person!

Ouch that hurt. I am sitting here in the food court of the mall where I try to show up at every weekend with my laptop or a book. Normally I get a Subway sandwich but since I had a late lunch today, I didn't get anything else. Suddenly this gentleman walks up to me, leans in and asks me, "Sir did you order anything?" I reply, "No." He then says, "Then I will have to ask you to sit properly (This one is my fault, I was sitting with my feet up on another chair.) Also, could you go sit in the other part of the mall? People are coming to my food court here and want to use the tables for their families."

Man, I knew being single sucked but this is just terrible. I don't think a couple, or a big family for that matter, would have been asked to move if they weren't eating. As the single guy here, I am the designated destitute?

I told him that if that was the case I'd get something to eat from one of the stalls here. He was immediately contrite, "It's not like that sir, you can sit in those tables over there." "No no" I told him, "I don't want to move from here, and if I need to get something to eat in order to sit here, then I'll do so."

Well I purchased a Coke can for Rs. 25 that I have no intention of drinking since it's past 9pm. I think I'll just leave it there and show it to him the next time he comes my way.

I guess this only became an issue this week because Ghajini (Hindi) is out this weekend and the multiplex is totally packed with crowds. But hey, I came here first and if these couples and "families" want to sit at these table, they should have shown up first. Isn't it that simple?

That's one area in which India really sucks. You don't get half the respect when you're single as you get when you get married, like you're not really a person till you have a woman on your arm. I say woman since it's the males who are shown such utter disrespect. A single female is treated as an oddity but I don't think she's get disrespected the way single guys do. The funny thing is, I thought my gigantic laptop and my UT t-shirt that I'm wearing would have been an indication that I am not a hobo. Maybe I should be carrying my IIT degree around my neck? Wear a ton of cologne? What can a brother do to get some R-E-S-P-E-C-T?

It takes a very secure man

Last week I went shopping to buy a chudidaar for Preethi. I asked my colleague DB to help me with the selection and also because she would know a few good stores to shop at. The whole process was very quick, I made my selection after just one store. At this store, a young boy of about 14 or 15 was showing us the dresses. He was very eager to make the sale. For example, after realizing that the chudidaar wasn't for DB, he tried to get her to buy one for herself as well.
Anyway, midway through the selection process I was trying decide about one of the dresses and I asked the boy to hold it up so I could see it better. Instead of just holding it away from himself like any normal homophobic person (like me) would, he held it up against his own torso to model it! This was either a strong display by the guy of his security in his sexuality, or maybe give his young age, the absence of it. Either way, I was taken aback by that gesture and could barely look at the dress. But I couldn't stop smiling about that all evening long.

Thoughts on the Mumbai blasts

I didn't want to write about this because I didn't think I would have anything to add. The incidents didn't take place in Pune after all. But after a little prompting, I thought I should atleast note what happened here.

• To give you a glimpse into life here - my parents didn't call me up as soon as they heard that the blasts occurred. It's either because they've become so common, or because of Pune's distance from Mumbai. They were fractionally more concerned when the Raj Thackeray arrest and the subsequent riots happened. Same goes for office safety meetings. We didn't have one. But we did when the Raj Thackeray incident happened.
  
• But most importantly, death and destruction doesn't shock Indians as much as it does the West. The Tsunami shocked all of us when we were in the US, but within an year or so, the word "Tsunami" was being used as a punchline or for fun reasons in song lyrics. I don't think the Mumbai blasts will be used in the same way, but you get the picture.
• The biggest sentiment at work the morning after the attacks was "Oh crap! We'll have to hear more nonsense about the so-called Mumbai spirit. Enough already!" Not fear, or anger but a loathing of the anticipated nuisance.
• I knew it wasn't 9/11 because people at work were working, instead of just sitting in shock or staring at the TV/Internet feeds. Not to imply that no one was watching the news but work didn't come to a standstill.
  
• The big news item a lot of people were watching was the call by one of the terrorists to one of the Indian channels. Again, they were amused by the fact that we had a "call-in" from a terrorist, rather than any negative feelings like anger or sadness.
  
• Personally my first concern was for my manager who was to leave Pune (for good) the very next day and go to New Mexico. (We found out a few days ago that he made it back fine.)
• Politicians are falling down like dominoes. First Shivraj Patil, the extremely incompetent Home Minister who only survived so far because of the blessing of some Italian chick. Then the deputy CM of Maharashtra for saying that "these things happen in big cities". Then the CM of Maharashtra, although I don't know why that one had to go down.
• There's a Muslim guy at work. He's part of a group of about 10 people that go to lunch together every day. He's a good worker, he was a team leader and recently he was even made manager. On the day of the attacks though, at lunch, the tension was palpable. No one was speaking to him and even he was very subdued. Things are better now.

Atidhi devo bhava

One of my monthly payments, like rent and elec bill, is the "society charges". These are for maintenance work like painting the walls etc I suppose. The payments are made to a representative who lives in the complex itself, a certain Mr. Mehta. Mr. Mehta is an Marathi gentleman, who lives with this wife and two young kids, a daughter and a son.

Last month when I went to pay the charges, he wasn't home, but the rest of his family was. So I mentioned I was there to pay the charges and I could come back later. His wife was used to taking payments and giving out receipts, so she said she could do that for me. As this conversation was going on, I was standing at the door, I didn't step in yet. So she offered me a seat in the living room, where her kids were doing their homeworks. As she was preparing the receipt books, she asked me if I wanted coffee or tea or something. I politely refused. Then she asked if I wanted water. I refused again. Right then, her boy (who had to be about 5) jumped out of his seat and ran inside. I paid no attention to it. As she made small talk while writing up the receipt, the kid walked back into the living room with a glass of water! I was amazed at that kid's gesture. Regardless of whether he heard me right or not, for him to perform him host duties. And he's 5!

The next time I went to their home, Mr. Mehta himself was there and again, he did all the host duties in spite of the fact that basically I was there for a business transaction and not a social visit. It was nice.

Paid my first internet bill

I got a huge bill. But it's not usage related, I had just forgotten
about a lot of "hidden" costs like tax and installation fees. The bill
arrived 20 days after the due date!! I would have raised a stench
about it at the office but I am not charged any late fees, so it's not
a big deal.

Sweet sweet irony - when you can't use the internet to pay the
internet bill. You can pay your landline and cellphone bills for BSNL
online, but not the internet bill because the website hasn't been set
up.