I have rather become a couch potato. I make elaborate plans, then I pick up the remote, curl up on the sofa and live in my head.

I am not sure it is such a bad thing though. Well, I might be putting on some ungainly inches around my waist, and people might be looking at me like the crazy cat lady at times, but the world in my head is more peaceful and perfect than the real one outside the door.

Sometimes I am perfect.

It is my brother’s opinion that learning Kalarippayattu will not really help in an actual fight. He says, you will be starting with those steps while the other guy (who shouldn’t have gone to a Kalari, by the way) just kicks your butt. Even though I always laughed at it, I had also wondered whether it was true. I know learning any martial arts stuff AND practising it will help and otherwise pitham pidichavan/val be stronger and active(r) and stuff, but will it really help you in an actual fight with an equally strong person who didn’t have technic, but had a will to fight and strength?

Read Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood.

I bought it more than a month ago. It moved around my settee and magazine rack all these days while I read Victorian detective stories that I forgot by the next day. This Sunday I decided it was a good day to start. And once I did start, I couldn’t put it down. Atwood is the best living author, I must say. The words are poetic, and the characters are as weird and normal as always. The times and story telling is Victorian, and so is the ending. Though it is still ambiguous( otherwise it wouldn’t be Atwood), there is the ‘wrapping-up’ with happy(?) endings that I have been seeing in my Victorian romances all these days.

So Dhanya tagged me. Something about sinning. and am like, how can the perfectest human being in this mighty universe have anything to do with Sins? Then realised it is something about what people think that you shouldn’t do because you are a girl/woman etc.. I usually get angry when somebody suggests stuff like driving are not for women, but thought I will try the stuff to bust the myth or whatever.. ;)

If you are a woman,

Religion and God? Pets? Politics? Air planes and cars? Technology? – Who should want them, men or women?
_________________________________________________

1. I live alone. That is very very un-girly where I come from.
2. Reading is manly? I thought that was a very girly thing I did while growing up. People can go play, but I will curl up with a book any time.
3. I drive a car and drool over other people’s cars. And bikes. And planes. And ships.
4. I watch sports on TV. I admit I like it best when I am watching with my brother.
5. I never wanted to be either a doctor or a nurse. Yikes! Dirty patients and having to touch ‘em?!
6. I think Scarlett johansson is way hotttter than George Clooney.
7. I can ride a bike. Not the gearless little things, but my brother’s Hero Honda Splendor.
8. I curse like a man. :) :)
9. I am very unorganised and I clutter my house/office/car/place I am occupying for 5 minutes/xls sheets.
10. My hair is always a mess and I have never plucked my eyebrows and stuff like that. However, I can’t say that is manly or girly because the men AND women around me are much more presentable than me. Maybe the eyebrow thing is manly. Or is it? You never know with all these pretty men around!

Oh! I didn’t know getting 10 things to list will be so difficult. Of course I don’t think these things are manly or un-girly in today’s world. But there are still stuff I wish I would do but scared to even venture because I am the female of the species. Like drive around India without a travel plan. (Also because I am poor, but the real reason is the I-am-a-girl-what-am-i-gonna-do-if-get-stuck/breaksdown/attacked/…).

Last Saturday we went to Devarayanadurga.

It was an unplanned trip. I woke up at 8 ‘O clock on Saturday and decided the day called for a trip. So off we started at 10 , and that poor child had a very interesting time getting outta the city. I was asked to write down the route, so we got lost quite a lot. Not my fault; they should have known better than making me the navigator!

I wrote down the directions from wiki. We went over the flyover when we were supposed to take a right from under the flyover. So on and on we went till Tumkur, and managed to take a right at Kyathsandra. But there are no signboards here, so you will have to ask for directions. Saw the deer park and then went to the hills. Devarayanadurgabetta is beautiful, the weather was good, and I even drove the Scorpio for some time. You have to climb some stairs to get to the Lakshmi Narasimha temple on top. The granite was cold to the touch and we hung around a bit since it was so nice. Did not see the Namada Chilume, so we have to go again I guess.. ;)

Also went to Maidanahalli blackbuck sanctuary on the way back. There were blackbukcks and deer, but it had a dry and deserted look. We saw more goats than deers in the sanctuary. But I loved the day :)

So, today a pretty little journalist took exception to my having overtook her when the bloody beatch was not moving and blocking the bloody traffic. (Yeah, two bloody. Why do people have to go at snail’s pace? If there is a lorry in front, don’t follow it people. Go around it.) So she came honking after me, and I forgot about the minor nuisance after a time, so off she comes after a kilometer, mouthing something. Yelling something. Couldn’t hear the sweet little voice since the window was up.

Well, I am not one to pass up compliments even if I don’t hear it. So I showed her my dainty little middle finger to show I was not spoken for and she should give me a call sometime and we can catch up over coffee. I think I was probably not her type. So she tried to block me.

Well, no one blocks me, blockhead. And I was in a pretty good mood, so I gave her all the attention she needed. I have a feeling my co-passenger might be looking out for alternate modes of transport though. She must have had some scares and she even missed her bus as I was so preoccupied with my new best friend.

Nice start to the day! Maybe I was a bit prejudiced with the PRESS sign, as I think all the journalists are egomaniacs or something. I usually give a wide berth to other women drivers out there. But then she came asking for it.

Read Nine on Nine last night.

Citibank was giving out stuff for my ‘loyalty’ and this was like the only stuff they thought my loyalty earned. However, I loved the book when I got it. The cover page looked good. Promising to be a good read like those old Bengali novels. So I thought. So I hoped.

Turned out the cover page was the only good thing about it. The writer has splashed words across, but let me say the whole thing lacks ‘adakkam’ as we say in Malayalam. It is almost like she just wrote down the gossip as and when she heard it WHILE trying to make it bookish and interesting. Huh?

Went to Kaivara on sunday. It was a very good drive. There is a park near the ashram, and though it is quite beautiful, you can’t help feel bad for the very lonely ducks and peacocks there. The weather was heavenly and the trees and the hills and the farms looked their best. Beautiful place to visit.

I made cream of mushroom soup. The first time ever. Any soup. Though it became mushroom and carrot soup in the end. I decided to use carrot stock as I did not have any chicken broth. It looked more or less like cream of mushroom, but I cannot say it tasted as such.. ;P well, too much butter and a bit too much flour.

Next I am going to bake a cake. ;)

My nephew is going to Sabarimala this year, for the first time. As it is, he is putting his new-found divinity to good use.

A friend of him threatened to rat him out to the teacher about one of those many primary school quarrels, and he told the kid. ” I am a Swamy, I will curse you if you do.”

The other kid thought maybe he will.