Sunday, October 4, 2009

Baarish hai toh cheeta toh padega hi!!!

I was just browsing through the various documents saved under the folder named “Blogs”. There is one that says, “Ode to 2008”, which has been left Ode less….. Along with it comes the realization that 2009 will be over in another three months and all that has transpired in these nine long months is that I have lost a kilogram or two. I still am employed with the same organization and am still in the state of fear inducing, paralyzing inertia that has enabled me to absolutely vegetate in front of the screen. 2009 has brought home the realization that this inertia is definitely not going to get me a promotion in 2010. But 2009 has also got with it the, “Do I really care?” syndrome, which sort of mollifies the fact that my vegetation is a total blasphemy on life itself! I am just four or five blogs older in 2009. I was single in 2008 and still am in 2009. I was beginning to wish to be alone in 2008 and I am alone in 2009. I think I am ridden of my obsession but it still comes back to me in sudden phases. My weakness has not yet become an addiction. Though I still cannot bid it Goodbye. He got married this year. Life for so many around me has taken a 360* turn.

An entire year. An entire year. An entire year……. One millionth of a miniscule part for space….but an entire lifetime for me. All I can come up with is a list of “Did nots”
Did not take FRM.
Did not take that stupid CAIIB.
Did not apply for MA.
Did not travel enough.
Did not write enough.
Did not love enough.
Did not find The Guy.
Did not work enough.
Did not even cry enough.
Did not figure out the Plan.

Back from Ahmedabad, last night, sitting in an auto rickshaw drenched to the skin and taking in huge gulps of the adulterated rain kissed air, I was happy to be back in Bombay. Stuck in traffic for what seemed like eons, I started to think of the numerous “What Ifs” 2009 had shown me, which I have been incompetent enough to give form to.

Jolting me from this reverie was a BMT bus that rushed past drenching me with muck. I screamed.

“Kya Hua Madam?” asked the rickshaw driver.
“Arree who Bus ki wajah se cheeta padh gaya mere pe.”
“Arre madam, Baarish hai toh Cheeta toh padega hi! Humko bhi toh poda! Aap aise chillaye, humko laga kuch ho gaya hai…….”

I think, this is what people have come to call the “Spirit of Bombay,” Plain complacence with everything around you. Quiet resignation to imperfection. Mass impotence to change things around you. A million people who share a communal state of constant melancholy that just accepts traffic jams, road blocks, open gutters, acres of ugly slums, destitution, filthy trains, overcrowded buses, muck and slush, air pollution, water scarcity, corrupt leaders, inept teachers, avaricious bureaucrats as permanent fixtures in their existential existence.

“Haan Ji. Baarish hai toh cheeta toh padega hi.”
See Bombay, after two of years of living with you, even my life has come to imbibe the “Spirit of Bombay”. I no longer live. I exist.

4 comments:

Amrutaa said...

Nice title, i like :) In 2009,
U have lost MORE than just 2 kilos and look fabulous!
U walked upto vaishnodevi on foot and on time with the horseback riders! Thats got to feel good! I don’t think il ever get there!
U moved out and got a much better apartment for urself in prabhadevi.
Ur ma became team leader, ur sis got into nibm- ur sis GRADUATED!!
So some people got married -To the first one they fell for or the first one who fell for them. Dunno how many have fallen for u, wanted to marry you. Ur lucky enough to have had so much choice! Dont pretend dats not flattering and i think its hell important too to know dat ur NOT single cuz nobody wants u. :s Some couples are with each other cuz nobody else wanted them! Sorry!
And ur skin has been better in 2009 no? :s
AAaand through all ur emotional hell as u put it, uve still managed to whip up a good post! If u can express urself so very well, ur far from just existing

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

I like Amruta's saying "Some couples are with each other cuz nobody else wanted them" ..
Amruta how much of life have you seen. How could you come up with such an truth of life ? Serious ?

Kritika , can we change the spelling of Cheeta.. I agree there is no right spelling of a hindi pronunciation in English...
but maybe we could add an n somewhere. Like Cheetan or something. I did not read it write the first time...

:) ok ok about the blog..
hmm well .. now how about counting the things you have done../ managed to do .. I am sure there are quite a few more than what Amruta has pointed out..
Serious.

and of COURSE.. just think to make a blog out of the Auto Drivers comment.. and make it sound real ubercool.. only you could do it..

I am pretty sure you could actually sell this tag line to a movie....if Karan Johar uses it in one of his movies.. it will become a proverb.. hey come to think of it.. it IS / you can term it as a PROVERB..

Amrutaa said...

im sold on the KJ idea!! u shud totally do it! I can imagine the title track also - " Baarish hai toh cheeta toh padega hi,tu ru ru ru tu ru. Zinda hai toh jeena toh padega hi! tu ru ru ru tu ru ..."