hello

found this in my inbox, today morning. looks almost legit. this is getting freakier and freakier!

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From: "Alicia Mabou" <*************@yahoo.in>
Date: 28 Jan 2012 17:30
Subject: hello
To:

Hello dear,My name is Alicia,I know that you may be surprise how i get your email, i got your email today when i was browsing on Internet looking for honest partner,then i feel to drop this few lines to you. I will be expecting for your response so that i can send you my pictures and also tell you more about myself,my dear,age or color even distance cant deny any relationship. Please lets give our self a trial,Thanks,Awaiting for your mail above Miss Alicia.

what crap men yaar!

(funnily enough, I'm typing this in a farmhouse in goa)

I was walking through a lightly wooded forest with nickolai, one winter evening, enjoying the sunset through the trees. when suddenly, a bird crapped on me. and then another. and another. and another. and so on... 8 times. In quick, rapid-fire succession.

thankfully, we weren't far from nickolai's family farmhouse. we reached there after dark, the pale yellow porch light shining through the woods like a half-hearted beacon. as soon as I got home, I wanted to wash up.

Unfortunately, the house had just two bathrooms, and nickolai's mom was busy washing clothes in one of them, so I had to use the other. so I had to use the other one, which was attached to ninoshka and nickolai's bedroom. but the door of the bathroom was barricaded by a large wash-basin, which I had to remove in order to use.

ninoshka and I couldn't get ourselves to agree about the way to open the bathroom door, but we finally figured the correct way to open it was to lift up the wash-basin to detach it from the door-frame.

and that's when I woke up.

falling anywhere

i woke up with a start in the middle of last night, feeling sickish, with my heart beating wildly.

it was a dream that was to blame.

i don't remember much, but the last thing that happened was, i was walking down this huge long flight of stairs from a church. The stairs somehow seemed similar to the ones outside St. Fancis D'Assissi Church near home, but the view of the road in front of the church reminded me of Our Lady Of Immaculate Conception Church, Panaji.

anyway, while i was near the top of the stairway, far from the side railing, and walking down the stairs, the stairs suddenly became near-vertical while i was in mid-step. and i was holding my foot in mid-air, around 4 storeys above the road.

i woke up in a funk. checked twitter in the hope of calming my nerves down by distracting me, but a few seconds later, i closed my eyes to recall that final scene, and the sick feeling returned.

i could reproduce that feeling of vertigo by just closing my eyes and recalling that scene.

thankfully, i can recall it now without any vertigo. but this was the first time i've got this feeling in a dream.

ps: blog title inspired by one of my favourite tracks, "falling anywhere" by kyau vs albert.

the only rule is: there are no rules!

mumbai traffic is interesting (if you can look at it with detachment from your sense of self-preservation and sanity). it comes with chaos and madness that only years of hard-headed aggression and trust in fate will let you tolerate.

amidst all that, i always ride with one guiding principle: follow the rules, and you'll be safe.

looks like i might have to amend that.

one morning, riding to work along link road, i reached a traffic jam. the cause: a traffic cop had decided to take over a (perfectly working) signal.

i inched my way through, sneaking between cars, nudging bicycles and honking at less-aggressive bikers, until I reached the edge of the traffic jam. after a 5 minute wait, i decided to remind the cop that I was waiting, with a couple of honks.

he turned around and waved me through the intersection.

right into the path of a car he had waved through 2 seconds earlier.

thankfully, our reflexes and brakes worked, and we stopped a few inches short of each other. the cop didn't even bother to look!

a few weeks later, i was riding home along the highway. bumper-to-bumper traffic from jogeshwari to malad, as usual. and me doing my usual "disciplined" lane cutting (checking my rearview, signalling lane changes, the works). till a lane broad enough for a biggish vehicle opened up alongside.

since i was at a standstill, i decided to avoid confusion by staying in my lane until the first vehicle passed, and then tailgating along.

and i was rewarded with a nudge to my bike from behind.

turns out the next driver didn't imagine i would wait and let a vehicle pass, so he just launched his car at where i was standing.

i'm not sure what rules i should follow any more.