Stuff that wouldn't fit in anywhere else so I made one rather disconnected post about it all before I forget

> People I love now include the little kid at the Khel Gaon-Panscheel red light who wiped my windows for me, all the time doing a little balle-balle type jig. I didn't give him money--coz I don't do that--but I usually keep a supply of toffees and chewing gum in my glove compartment for these kids, so I gave him two airline mints, and he sprung up and did the same ecstatic dance all the way down the road. I love the street kids who smile and wheedle, as opposed to the ones that look at me blankly from mucus crusted eyes. Both get toffees, biscuits when I remember to carry the Parle G, sometimes half a plate of sweet potato chaat, but the jokers with their antics get it with my love and gratitude for brightening up a traffic jam. The ones I hate are the ones who ask questions like, "Didi, cigarette?" when I'm smoking and then crowd around giggling, going, "Cigarette-cigarette." They don't get one little thing. Not even love.




> My all time favourite text message on my phone right now is the one Priya sent me. We were talking about wierd Hindi words, and how no one could possibly be speaking pure non-slang type Hindi all the time without giggling and then I had forgotten about this conversation till two days later I got a message going: "By the way the hindi for sex is yawn sambandh...focus on the sound not the spelling... :-)" I love friends who remember messages in context. This made me giggle for many minutes. My favourite text message exchange on the other hand, happened yesterday when Ananya smsed going, "who is hans raj?!?" "A punjabi singer" I messaged back, a little startled. "Are you dating him???" was the next one and I cracked up for so long, I swear my colleagues thought I was a little bit insane. (I had mentioned to Ananya that I had interviewed Hans Raj Hans the other day, but I have noooooo idea why she thinks we're having a scene. Hmmm. Clearly my friends think my job description involves interviewing people in my underwear) Anyway, so I smsed back, going "Absolutely" and she said "Ooh, my parents are going out for dinner, will call and get all the details then." And now she hasn't called, and I'm getting a little worried. I wish there was a sarcasm indicator for text messages.



> House hunting appears to be harder than I thought it would be and I'm most depressed about that so I'm not going to talk about it.



> I'm also happy today because I found an old pair of jeans that I had been looking for forever, my Levi's 567s which are a super fit and I'm wearing them to work and people said they were nice :) Also I found my Milly-Molly-Mandy book which I hadn't read in centuries, so I read that over breakfast. Actually, in my room, under the windows are two built in cabinets with all my kids books in them, so I've been reading all my Five Find Outers and Dog and Mallory Towers books and having an excellent time regressing into childhood. But isn't Darrell a boy's name?



> Speaking of books, I used to have this book, (which also I rediscovered the other day thanks to my wonderful Magic Cabinet and its Time Travelling Portal) called Minou. It's about this little French girl who loses her white cat called Minou and she walks up and down Paris, going, "Has anyone seen Minou? My little Minou?" and it's really, really sad and I swear I cry every time I think of that poor child. And my mom used to do the voice really well also when she read it aloud to me. Anyway, so at the end of the book, that heartless cat has hopped on to a barge and left poor weeping Nanette waiting for her to come back. This is why I'm a dog person.

> Psst, I'm probably heading this-a-way on Sunday. You should also.