Home Alone

I stay in Bangalore. Now for non-Bangaloreans, the mental picture is already in place. Some software engineer, in some god forsaken software company that raves about putting India on the map and boasts of cutting edge technology that she has developed. Anyway, I am not going to write about the pros and cons of being a software engineer or being in a software company. God knows there are more than enough blogs and thousands of forwards in your inbox that do ample justice to these topics.

Talking about living conditions here, I feel I am one of the few fortunate ones to have gotten a decent accommodation at a decent rent. If you are staying in Bangalore you would immediately contact me asking for which place this is and how much is the rent. Why? Well, for starters the rent for a 1BHK costs as much as your credit card bill (If you have shopped for Gucci shoes and a Calvin Klein watch. Seriously!). And the room will end even before it has begun. To add to that there will be a house owner so surly he will remind you of Karunanidhi at his best. The rent for a 2BHK: Well!! throw in Marks & Spencer’s outfits and a Jet Airways ticket to Delhi to the card bill & do the math. A 3BHK??? Never heard of such a term. Then there are the individual houses. If you are lucky you might get a decent one here. Since I have already given you a head on with the rent you don’t need to be a genius to figure out how much this is gonna cost. So you end up sharing it with 9 or 10 other species of the same kind. The important thing to remember while getting such a house is to buy curtains and draw them when you are changing your clothes. Coz the guy next door cannot only see the free show right through your window but can also jump in for a balcony view free of cost.

Ok! Enough about this... The reason for this post is revealed now... I arrive at my fifth floor apartment (which I share with 6 others) on Friday expecting it to be filled with lively chatter and tv shows to match the same. To my utter disbelief its deserted. On investigation I learn that 4 of them have gone home. A broad smile... One more has gone to Pune to meet her boyfriend. A broader smile... And finally.. The last one.. Well! She has gone to stay the night with her boyfriend whose roomies must have also gone home. How do I know? Partly the deep blush on her face when she told me she was spending the night at her "friend's" house and partly from experience of having similar such roommates in the past.

Fortunately/Unfortunately I do not fall into any of the above categories so here I was Home Alone! flashing my broadest smile at the thought of an entire weekend with the apartment all to myself (And of course the irritating house owner who comes once in a while to check if everything is ok. Like we are going to burn the house down. Bah!). Anyway, this freedom meant I would not be disturbed in my sleep by people who sleep later than me. I would not be disturbed by people who wake up in the morning earlier than God does and after taking a shower wake him up with their prayers and pooja (And all this on a Sunday!). And I would definitely not be disturbed by people who go to pee in the middle of the night. I mean what’s that all about? It happens to me just once in a blue moon and still I consider it as the most arduous task; getting up to have water in the middle of the night coming in a close second.
This freedom also meant spending one hour plus in the bathroom without the door being banged at 10 times by people who wanna pee (and they are the same people who get up in the night and pee. I swear!).
This freedom also meant I could play loud music on my laptop (which only I appreciated) and could watch a movie peacefully without 10 others coming and peeking into my screen asking what I was watching and demanded to know the storyline and star cast of the movie. That too the movie was in a regional language they did not understand. Believe me it requires all the patience in the world to pause an interesting movie, remove the earphones, 'smilingly' answer those questions, put the earphones again, and play the movie only to have to do it again.

So, this weekend I slept lazily till mid morning, opened my eyes, admired the beautiful day and again slept lazily till mid afternoon. Got up, bathing was out of question. After washing some clothes, folding them and arranging them in the cupboard there was pretty much nothing to do. So took up a broom and cleaned the room as best as possible and did countless other boring chores. That’s when I thought of putting it all down in the post and making you all feel the effects of my utter boredom.

But did not get around to doing it till now. Reason! My favorite, Federer and second favorite, Nadal (must be the same for half the world) were battling each other for nearly five hours in what can be arguably termed as one of the best matches in Wimbledon. So, its not very respectful of me to keep typing away senseless thoughts when two great players are playing some of the finest tennis we can ever see. Besides, the match was so very gripping that I decided to defer my thoughts.

Whilst watching the match, At one point of time (in the 3rd set I believe) when Nadal was literally giving Federer a run for his money I wanted it to rain so that the latter would have some time to reorganize his strategy and better his play. (I recall that this situation was similar to when I wanted an earthquake to happen on the day of the history exam not to reorganize strategy and stuff but to go thourgh the chapters that I had bunked.) Anyway, the rain god did listen to me and play was temporarily suspended. But this championship had belonged to Nadal from the beginning rain or no rain. The discipline and concentration he exhibited on court was awe inspiring. God knows how much practice would have gone to achieve that. I wanted Federer to win it but knew that Nadal was gonna get it and deserved it too.

When the play was suspended they showed a match between Borg and McEnroe and while watching that it struck me how little Wimbledon had changed from then till now. Correct me if I am wrong but this is what I observed. There were the same uniforms on the ball boys and girls, the same method of running and passing the tennis balls, same purple/green towels for the players. And the crowd too! Just a little noisy these days I guess. But there were those similar old English ladies, with elegant, sophisticated dressing, pearl necklaces, large shades and of course the straw hats big enough to cover Connecticut! (Phrase improvised from F.R.I.E.N.D.S. :-)).

Ok I am done! Done with the boredom and done with the weekend. Roommates from home have come back. Roommies from boyfriends' homes have also come back. And tomorrow is Monday morning and I am again gonna be one of those software engineers in one of those software firms and will start my day with about lives of s/w engineers in s/w firms.. :-)
Ciao...