"After all this time?" - "Always"

21/7/07

5.00am - I'm wide awake. A fleeting feeling inside my head that i haven't slept all night. For the first time in my life, i'm thankful for mosquitoes, and the shallow, almost-non-existent sleep i fell into for around 6 hours. I look up at the owner of the voice that pulled me out of my midway trnasition between the two worlds so different, yet so real in their own ways.Her face didn't look so sleepy, but the madness in her eyes was obvious, and i thought they reflected the same madness in mine. The day would be marked in the calendars of history of our home...The day Divya woke up before sunrise all by herself, without anyone having to shout, nudge, call names, or switch off fans!

5.45am - A crowd of teenagers huddled in small groups outside a small bookstore, chattering, excited, waiting. A truck pulls into the gates, loaded with cardboard boxes, concealing the contents, but not really! All eyes follow the cartons into the shop. The cartons are unpacked. Faces are stuck to the glass door, staring at the stack. How much longer? The queue has gone to the road. The excitement is mounting. Before they realise what just happened, the door swings open, and the person who fate favoured to be the one to lay her hands on the first copy is pulled inside by some force. The same force that has kept millions waiting for this moment. The shop opens, they scream. The owner of the first book comes out and waves her book-holding hand to the crowd, they scream harder.

6.10am - I was running my fingers over the writing of the first page of this book...this book that had infested my dreams for days preceeding its arrival, this book that had taught me what it felt like to wait for something so much, that you can't sleep when you know its nearing. And what a moment it was! I screamed!

18 hours later.

I sat there staring at the white wall infront of me...was this what had kept me waiting? Was it worth the wait? YES. What satisfaction. It was like eating a sumptuous feast, but having too much to eat. But i still think that if JKR had not intoduced the concept of the 'deathly hallows' into the plot, the book would have been immensely predictable, thanks to sites like mugglenet, which got atleast one theory in each subject of discussion right on target. Bull's eye. One does wonder how jkr would have felt when she read a theory that got her story right! Was it that easy? The book had her style, totally. Except the ending. The ending didn't seem like it would belong in a jkr novel. On the whole, i got what i wanted. I wanted to feel like i was racing against time, running running running...i wanted to feel that chill down my spine, the adrenalin rush in, that tear that almost fell, that smile on comprehending things atlast, blurry eyed.

And what a phenomenon she created. Making people wait outside shops irrespective of time and space...my own realisation of craze, madness, euphoria, perseverence, WAIT.

Some stories, never really end.






Yours "Dumbledore's man, through and through"ly
Signing off...

The Prejudice

I might just have been walking out of a room, but i was Heidi running down the hill screaming peterrrrrr or running up the hill screaming grandpaaaa. My every step was like the fastest run i ever ran, and coming into the tubelight light was like greeting the morning sun, from darkness to light! I hoped that every centimetre i moved was equivalent to miles away from where i was. Miles away from the briefcases. Miles away from the pass books and cheque books and money talks. Such is my aversion towards bank business! I dont exactly know WHEN those briefcases started imparting this unpleasant feeling resembling biting-one's-lower-lip-in-rage, but it doesn't matter anymore, for its been long since the unpleasant feeling turned to torment, and torment to resigning one's fate to the necessities with no other way out!

I havent been able to explain my dislike for banks! I think its quite a compliment that my grandfather considers me old enough to discuss bank matters with me, but i sit through those sessions hoping they'd end the next minute! No offence to dearest thatha, he just wants me to learn. But the minute he calls me to his room, i dread pulling out those briefcases and listening to him murmur to himself, break his head, and finally decide which bill gets which cheque, from which account! Even though i do love looking at his face in that moment of victory when the big decision has been made! *sigh* Banks, are crowded, have long queues, people at the banks dont smile, they dont help, they dont care, and are far from how they're portrayed in advertisements, the "hum hain na - ICICI" types! Maybe i still dont understand the whole system, and that may be partly because i dont want to understand them! Do you know what you're doing divya? You're running away from one of the biggest responsibilities of life! How will you manage your money in the future? I do ask myself all that once in a while...but a smiling banker has to come by for that miracle to happen, and i do, with all my heart, await the day when i wouldn't have to sulk at the prospect of visiting a bank. After all, i do believe in miracles. :)

But having said all this...i'd also like to add...that signing cheques feels pretty cool ;-) Thats about the only thing i like about the whole business! No offence to any banker, its just a personal opinion, and more correctly stated - a Prejudice! Thus, a few months back, i came to the decision that the man who decides to endanger everything in his life by marrying me, fatefully or otherwise, will have to take care of all the bank deeds ;-) That, will be a criterion for the screening test, which has a few more criteria :D Its definitely not as bad as IITJEE :D

Anyone up to an argument? Or, anyone ready to convince me to change my mind? Try me!

Yours "The SBI couches are better than Indian bank ones, but the latter has better air conditioning!" ly
Signing off.....