Sunday 17 November 2013

The Orange Tiger with a Red Heart

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She had seen that tattoo before! If only she could remember where. There was something very familiar about it and yet every time she thought she'd got it, it escaped out of her clutches. She felt like she was chasing an imp in a gnarled forest filled with hidden places and a drifting mist.

Goddamn Imp! - she thought as he gave her the slip again. Maybe looking at the tattoo more closely might reveal something she thought. Trying to manoeuver crookedly over the basin she tried to get closer to the mirror, peering over her shoulder she squinted at her shoulder in the mirror trying to see something she might have missed before.

Trying to ignore the pain in her neck and strain to her eyes she stared hard at the tattoo. It was a simple tattoo, nothing flashy about it. No intricate designs, symbology or mythological characters. It was just the outline of a tiger filled in orange colour holding out a heart coloured red. Something about the tiger looked familiar, like it was a part of her life, something she saw almost everyday.

'Gawd, first imps, now tigers, all this running around is tiring me out', with that thought she slowly slid to the floor and leaning back on the door she stared at the pot. 'Where did that black spot come from?' she tilted her head puzzled. 'Ah! The goobe had decided to change sides when putting out his cig it seemed'. One mystery solved her mind went back to the tiger while her eyes bored down on the spot willing it to disappear.

Orange tigers, where had she seen that. Tigers were supposed to be yellow, were they also mellow? Her mind went down a tangent, as she contemplated the poetry sprouting from her mind. Where did the mellow come from? Was the bathroom with its colours of orange and ivory that was brought out the word mellow. Was this bathroom mellow. Is this what mellow meant. So many words in her head that was just descriptions from a dictionary, now one had real meaning. But was this really mellow, could orange be mellow.

'Ah, orange.' She was thinking of something orange before going down the mellow road, what was it. Then it came to her, an orange tiger, there was only one orange tiger she knew - Hobbes. But what the hell was Hobbes doing on her back and that too holding a heart. Where was Calvin?

Knock, knock. 'Hey, you been in the loo a while, you alright?'

He he, talk of the devil. 'Yeah baby, all fine, just stoned.'
This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.

Monday 11 November 2013

Back to My Bed and The Masters of the House

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I've been away from the blog for over a month now. Sorry for disappearing without notice. If you missed me, big hugs to you :) If you didn't miss me, then I guess a hug won't matter either :P

Over the last couple of years it's become a ritual that I take a holiday of my own every year. I take time off from the house, dogs and husband. This is my time and my space, completely; I love it and look forward to it.

This year things just fell in and out of place and a plan to see Historic Delhi emerged. Making a plan to travel to Mumbai to meet up with my travel partner and then head out to Delhi I booked tickets and that was that. I then got busy wrapping up everything here before I left. I almost managed all to-do's before I left but missed the blog :P

Cutting it, I made it to the train and was in Mumbai before I knew it. Mumbai is a city close to my heart. It's the city that has most of my family and over the years a lot of friends too. I love the pace, the people, the life, colours and smell of the city. It sets my pulse racing. A week in Mumbai and plans changed. Ms. Partner couldn't join me due to medical crazyness and I headed out alone to Delhi.

I had a blast in Delhi, but that doesn't even start to describe it. I immersed and soaked myself in history and architecture. Spent hours gazing at tomb roofs and running my hands on walls as I imagined the Mughals and Sultans walking these corridors and touching those same walls a couple of hundred years ago. The things the Syaid's, Lodi's and Mughal's built with just mud and stone, blew my mind. The symmetry in their architecture just left me in awe with my jaw dropping. More on it in the travelogues I'm going to write about my Delhi trip. It's been ages since I wrote a travelogue. Kick me if I don't get it done, please. :)

On returning hubby gave me four (yeah 4) hours to unpack and repack before we headed out on a week long road-trip with friends. After rock, mud and white plaster, I now soaked up the green as we wound our way to Chennai via Kovalam, Thenmalai, Kuttralam, Kovilpatti, Dhanushkodi and Pondichery. Oh boy was this trip fun, from F1 driving to beaches galore, it had it all.

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Truthfully I didn't feel like returning, but I think it's the dogs that brought me back to reality. I missed the brats through my trip and couldn't wait to get smothered by them. Back from the trip I promptly fell sick, I guess I should be greatful it didn't happen on holiday. But it did make the settling back in with the dogs also returning a bit difficult.

Present: I'm doing much better now, though got a few more days to go to full power, the dogs are back to being masters of the house and it feels great to sleep in my bed again after all this while.

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So much catching up to do, I don't know where to start. Got a lot of books lined-up to read too while I've been gone. Authors: If I have one of your books on my TBR and I haven't reviewed it yet. Please be patient I'll get to it soon. I promise before the New Year :D

This time off helped me a lot with clearing my mind and giving direction to my thoughts. I now plan to shift this blog of mine to a new domain [expect to get a reminder soon :D ], it's going to get re-done with a better layout, pages, etc. There's also a new series I'm planning. Got a lot planned and fingers crossed :D

If you have any suggestions for my blog, can help me with the gyan on moving my blog, working with wordpress and bloggy stuff please leave me a note in comments. I'd appreciate all the help I can get. These are uncharted waters for me :)

Ok, enough about me and my mysterious disappearance :P, it's going to take me a while to read all your missed blog posts. So, what have you been upto?