Jagah Dil Mein Honi Chahiye

Yes, that is what I am doing right now, having a cup of steaming hot tea(with extra milk & sugar, North Indian style), while it is raining outside. Monsoons have finally arrived here in Bombay, it's been raining heavily(though intermittently) for the last two days now. While we all will start cursing these rains pretty soon, right now it is a welcome break from the unbearably humid heat of Bombay over the last couple of weeks.

When it started raining on Saturday evening, I decided to take some affirmative action of my own. My bai was supposed to come in by 9 to make dinner. Seeing the weather, I felt a deep craving for pakoras. So I called up my friendly neighbourhood grocer and ordered for the following:
1. 1/2 Kilo Besan
2. 1/2 Kg bottle of Kissan Tomato Ketchup
3. Bread

I'd already checked and found that I already had onions in my kitchen. Preparations complete, I picked up a book and started waiting for my bai, while watching TV simultaenously. 9PM- No sign of her; 9.15PM, still no sign...9.30PM- Where the hell is she??? Finally, at 10, I get a call from her,"Aap ghar pe hain???"(are you at home???) "Of course I am, you ass, what do you think???". "Baarish bahut ho rahi hai aur merre paas chhata nahi hai, to main agar nahi aaoon to chalega kya?"(It's raining heavily and I don't have an umbrella, so is it OK if I don't come?). As if I had a choice...So, my pakora dreams went bust and I turned to the saviour of all bachelors across the world- Domino's! Having ordered my stuff, I turned back to the TV, continuing with the World Cup match. After some time, the hunger pangs in my stomach indicated that it was 'slightly' more than the promised half-hour now... checked the watch to find that 45 minutes had passed since I ordered. Finally, the bell rang and I welcomed the pizza delivery guy with open arms and an empty stomach! "Won't I get the pizza for free now?", I asked the guy mildly. The man made a rondu face and said that since it was raining heavily, he could not drive fast without risking his life and limb. So, he would be grateful if I didn't press for the free-bit. I relented, gave hima 500/- Rupee note and asked for the change(which incidentally I had instructed while placing the order). Surprise no. 3(No. 1 being the bai ditching me, and No. 2 being the pizza guy being 15 min late)- No change! Promising to be back with the change in some time, he went away(thankfully without taking the 500/- ka note, the significance of which you will soon find out)! I sat down again, to savour my pizza, but fate had something else in store for me. I had barely taken two bites when I discovered a long thread of hair inside the pizza... a woman's hair definitely, unless it was a guy with REALLY long hair!

Called up Domino's immediately and blasted the girl who took my call. She offered me a free pizza, but I insisted on her connecting me to their manager. She asks me to hold, and asks someone,"Kya karoon, yeh customer bahut barh-barh kar raha hai!"(What do I do, the customer is blabbering unnecessarily)! I lost it then, didn't say anything to her, made her connect me to the guy in-charge and scared the daylights out of him, including threats of calling up their Delhi HO and e-mailing to their corporate HO! Don't know whether it will make any difference to them though, it's an issue of attitude, an issue of treating customers like sh#$ while proclaiming that they are kings, an issue of not giving a damn about the basic precepts of service industry! Still, maybe I should write to them...

Sunday morning arrived with a fresh blessing- I finally got to have my pakoras, fresh from the kadhai! Mmmmmm... heavenly!!! Went to watch Krrish in the afternoon. I really don't know what to say about the movie. All I will say is that special effects do not a movie make! A good movie needs a story, and the art of story-telling, combined with good acting and a great music score! Unfortunately, none of these factors are prtesent in Krrish! It's looooong, it's ohhh-so-boring, Hrithik looks good but hams throughout the movie, Priyanka is irritatingly bad(you can compare her to Kareena in Khushi... yes, that bad), and Rekha... ohhhhhhh, what has happened to you??? The less said about the boring songs, the better! And how can I forget the horribly obscene product placement of Bournvita, Tide and Lay's!!!

The length of this post would have told you that the hot tea is long since over, and it is time I got a refill. It's the weather, can't help it! Let's enjoy the rains before they make our lives messy again!!!

May the Force be with you!