040826 - Monsoon in New York

A summer in New York.. turns into a monsoon in New Delhi.. so easy to be in two places at the same time.. or more.. we have had more rain here in a week than Cherapunji probably has had in a decade (just a little exaggeration there). It reminds one of back home.. except that the denizens do not shed their clothes and do a true bollywood song and dance number.. instead they mutter and moan and try to keep their umbrellas afloat in an ever increasing wind (the carcasses of umbrellas on New York City streets has to be counted to be believed.. besides all the others of course)

Spring came and went and no one quite knew whether it ever came,,

..ditto with summer.. we have had pool parties where the pool is an object of nostalgia.. of times when it was full of bodies splashing in wild abandon.. rather than now when a few brave souls step in for the ‘flavour’ of it all.. and have to be cryogenically defreezed after.

It is very quiet in this new home of ours.. which is rare.. not because the City tends to intrude upon it.. but because so many of you fill it with your laughter and your mirth.. I could almost say.. if only these walls could speak.. mostly because I remember in bits and pieces through a haze of great moments.

there was once a boy.. who never quite grew up.. not wantingly.. it just so happened.. but he had to deal with all the world like it was like a cocoon.. he never quite got out of it.. it was a transparent cocoon.. what could he do but delve in the world as he could with this thin film all around him.. never quite touching the other.. but feeling and seeing everything.. and interacting.. giving and taking.. taking and giving.. but always having a dream that one day the cocoon would become larger and larger till it would burst.. but it never did.. at least in his dream..

well.. maybe it is staring to rupture a little bit now.. the world sees Us and we see It.. or are starting to.. a strange and amazing discovery.. maybe it is too late.. maybe it is too soon.. maybe the rupture should never have happened.. maybe it never does.. though from the looks of it, it looks like it is a battlefield of ruptured cocoons.. some faring better than others.. some still flying with the shreds of their cocoons trailing behind.. these are the free or the not so free.. for is not ‘freedom just another word for nothing left to loose’ .. how corny you say.. but one realizes that the things most obvious and most oft said are probably the ones that have been the most tried and tested.

so the new maid was a disaster.. she could cook but could not clean.. I mean come on.. what do you expect for eight dollars an hour?.. she traumatized us with her uncleaning abilities and I guess we traumatized her with our Want.. why do humans disintegrate at the merest notion of multitasking.. it is the future Baby.. wait a minute what am I saying.. I am an Architect.. who was an Architect.. who became a Draftsman.. who became an Interior Designer (New York City you know).. who became a fashion victim (who set it.. I would say.. Fashion I mean).. who became a Furniture Designer.. well the saving grace is that one still has the word ‘designer’ figuring somewhere in it.. or is it really?..

One realizes that there is no true nobility in Living.. it is a grind.. the true nobility is in Enjoyment.. in Labour.. in Thinking.. in Being.. but One cannot be these without Money.. the barter system was so much better and easier.. at least the worth of what one gave was equal to the worth of what one took.. on the surface at least.. this translation into another realm confuses mystifies and demeans the very act Exchange.. however now that it is there One realizes that One most not look down upon it.. but run with it and make it something even greater than the barter ever was.. a system wherein ones very Souls are bartered.. how earth shattering.. and how not New.. it is a tragedy that the very systems we make are the very systems that threaten to become our downfall.

In other Hair-Raising news I was part of the Hood for a almost a week.. but then the pressure became altogether too great.. why is it that our hair (much like our nails) is the only part of our anatomy that is without feeling.. it would have been so much easier for everyone concerned if our hair had feeling.. so we might make it do as we willed (like our limbs for instance).. I can hear the barbers and hair dressers crying out in revolt already..

and two of my friends got struck by lighting in the Grand Canyon.. needless to say they have not been very grounded ever since.

We still have not got around to seeing Shakespeare in the Park this summer.. mostly because he is always rained out.. and I also suspect because of the word on the streets that he was really a woman.

We have discovered this amazing place called Wholefoods in the neighbourhood which has the most mindboglingly fresh vegetables and fruit in the world.. and a new ten dollar wine from Portugal which gives new meaning to under ten dollar wines.

in the meanwhile New York City is everyone’s favourite whore.. the republicans are using it this week to launch another tired agenda.. while the denizens spit and toil.. why is it that even though we are the ones who took the brunt of an attack that launched gazillions of dollars (and more).. the rest of the US takes the emotional credit for it.. and we are left paying ridiculously astronomical bills.. it is everyone’s favourite paradigm.. show it off it so you look great while that which is on display.. bruised and battered.. crumbles beneath its own (and your) weight..

Well c’est la vie..

It is past midnight now.. and I will bid adieu