I've got clouds on a sunshine-y day!

The monsoon is here! And this makes it hard for me to be grumpy, because really, everything is wetnewclean and the glorious smell of rain is everywhere and it's cool. Well, while you're indoors anyway. Outdoors is a muddy mess, and I can't find my umbrella, so yesterday I got soaked not once but TWICE with people giving me amused looks as I searched desperately for a rickshaw.

Before the monsoon arrived though, last weekend, on an incredibly muggy evening, was a party thrown by two of my friends at their brand new house. It was one of those insane parties, everyone losing track of time and getting hugely drunk. I stuck to talking to people I knew, although I did have a long intense discussion with someone about how I had been in love with Holden Caulfield when I was twelve and that's even what my laptop's name was and he agreed that Salinger was the best writer ever and we nodded and realised we were the only two sensible people there.

At most parties, my role is to sit by the laptop or iPod or whatever and find music to get people going. Sadly, this is not the case in my own house. JC has very clear ideas about music, as do I, so we wind up alternating between his and mine. But otherwise? I have full control and people like it, people like my music, so that's always awesome. I always wanted to be a DJ, with some kind of jazzy name, headphones to my ear, watching people spiral in front of me to something I choose. One of my secret ambitions (don't laugh!) is to be a radio jockey. My Hindi isn't stellar, I mean, I can speak it, but I can't churn out the patter that you have to to be on radio. I need to stop and think and translate in my head. BUT there are so many, many English shows now, that it should be easier right? I just want to be able to share music and things with people, I like the idea of someone driving to work or sitting in a local train and being bored and tuning in to hear MY voice and my music. Of course, my show would be all about talking less and playing more music and I'd do themes and everything! Young women one week, or classic songs another, or just songs with poetry for lyrics. You know? Clearly, I've given this a lot of thought. Where's my job?

Right before this party, Ira and I went and had our hair cut. Mine reached all the way down my back and I was so bored of it doing nothing except being up and away from the back of my neck all the time that I asked the hairdresser to do something different. And she did. It's now a little longer than chin length, in an "asymmetrical bob" and I can wear it loose and it looks quite good actually, all scrunched up with product (of COURSE I use product, I have Malayali hair, it's thick, it's frizzy, it's totally everywhere.) It's the first time a stylist has been able to do something with my hair, normally people stay away from doing anything too much with curly hair, because it tends to stick out and form an afro if you're not careful. But this stylist was awesome, so yeah, if you have the same problem I do, go to Curl Up And Dye (I KNOW! Isn't it a GREAT name?) on Hill Road and ask for Sugandh.

My hair actually, (and this is gross, so look away if you're squeamish), had started to make little dreadlocks behind my head, underneath another layer of hair. No matter how much I combed it out and braided it, the next time I left it loose the matted clumps would be back. It was awful. Not to mention embarrasing when I got there. She spent about 45 minutes trying to comb it out and then finally I said, "Just cut it off" and then the scissors wouldn't go through it. I wanted the earth to open up and swallow me right there. You think you know thick hair, but you don't until you've seen mine. It's masses of hair, hair that weighs a good amount on its own and now I feel about five kilos lighter AND I can shower and run my fingers all the way through! It's like magic!

But she was very sweet about it and told me other horror stories, so I felt comforted knowing that mine was not the worst case she had ever seen.

In other news, writing a second book is MUCH MUCH MUCH harder than writing the first one. So please send happy thoughts my way so that I can get this over and done with already.