Ridicu'loo'sly attracted!

What is that attracts me so much to the Gents toilet that I always tend to walk in to it so casually like I was walking into my own cosy bedroom. This has happened to me like thrice!! There is a saying that goes “Once bitten twice shy”.. Thrice bitten and yet shameless!! That's me for you...

Now the first time it happened to me was when I went to watch Dasavatharam (yawn yawn) … well it must have been the movie that would have put me to sleep and made me sleep walk right into the Gents toilet.. (So don't blame me for that!!) My friends, Neelima and Ram (then-friend) and me walked out of the theatre sleepily when Ram says something which we both don’t comprehend and yet nod our heads sleepily and follow him. In spite of the dirty stares from 30 odd men, Neelima and me still don’t realise the reason for their baffled looks... We were already acting like 'typical feminists' (keeping our chin high) and asking ourselves "Why are we being stared at! Don’t we have the liberty to walk freely in this world? Why God why!!" And at once, we were hit by the words of a man who calmly yet ‘as a matter of fact’ tells us “This is the Men’s toilet, the ladies is on the other side” … We were flabbergasted! We staggered out of the place, leaving behind the 30 men smile at us viciously.

With all the shame surrounding us, we ran and hid ourselves behind some walls till Ram walks out looking out for us. I stood wondering ‘Havent you been to the loo for weeks?' He reads my mind and says 'There was a huge crowd!' *Sometimes I wonder how people feel like peeing at the same time* We give him the most silliest smile of ours and relate the incident to him. He laughs his heart out, quite literally making everyone in the theatre know the reason behind it! Guess what? This piece of valuable information gets passed on to all our common friends and everytime any of them had to go to the restroom in a restaurant, theatre, home or even in the train, my friend and me were given pre-emptive notice as to where they were heading to …

Anyways leaving the past behind, we moved on ;)

The second incident did no major damage as the first though I never learnt my lesson :) .. This happened in a hotel in Kerala when I went to wash my hands and almost stepped into the gents toilet when my mom called out and directed me to the Ladies washroom. I was saved this time with no major embarrassment! No wonder they say – Moms are another Avatar of God :D

The third and final … gulp gulp gulp … the worst of all I would say :( Our visit to Skywalk @ Anna Nagar. After a sumptuous meal and a lot of finger licking, a need to wash hands was not required yet considering the heat of Chennai and my ‘chicken-licked’ hands wiping the sweat off my brows and face made me think otherwise. Overtook an old lady and competed against a 10 yr old boy to the washroom and proudly started washing my hands only to realise 2 men and the 10 yr old staring at me ... I innocently looked at them and the 10 yr old (with every ounce of pride brimming in him) says "You are in the wrong washroom. The ladies room comes just before this one!" I almost collapsed!

In the pursuit to win the first place among the old lady and the 10 yr old, I missed to notice that I had already crossed the ladies washroom and had walked into the men’s washroom… To conceal my embarassment, I instantly I bore all my "chicken-wiped" teeth, apologised and rushed out of the room. The grandmom I overtook had already washed her hands and gave me her look of accomplishment! Feeling like a complete buffoon and not wanting the others who hadnt witnessed the scene to know, I modestly walked out like I was the owner of Skywalk and had the rights to walk anywhere I wanted! I quietly went to the table where Ram (by then my husband) and brother in law were finishing the last of their meal. After stylishly seating myself (and making sure nobody was watching) I started giggling and Ram knowingly asked me ‘Did you do anything wrong?” And without thinking twice he asked "Don't tell me you walked into the Gents washroom again!" I nodded Yes :) *Like I was accepting his proposal again!*

My brother-in-law and Ram bursted out laughing.. What would he have thought of his 29 day old sis-in-law…? God! She is 'Loo’ dicrous!

So folks, this happened almost an year back but I posted this now to let you all know that I am very very careful now :)

Showers of Love...

Amidst the cool dusky night,

Streaked by the silence of blues and blacks...

Stood the cheerful pregnant clouds,

Ready to deliver the showers of life...

Waiting in glorious anticipation...

To admire the beauty she created...

Comes a bolt of lightening...

And she lets out a thunderous cry!

With pride she lets her child,

Descend to the lushy lands,

Bringing down cheer and joy,

To the embracing hands...

As soon as she is rested on earth,

She whimpers and looks up...

At her sparkling mother...

Crying uncontrollably with happy tears...

"I will be up here...

Watching you all day and night...

Sprinkling love and giving life...

And painting this colourful place into heaven..."

I promise to be back again,

Dear infant rain...

With more joy to shower...

Thamasha at the airport=Thamasha Port!

Want to know places where emotions of people are portrayed perfectly in the portrait of expressions/life? Airports, Railway Stations and Bus Stations... and they are the places I love to visit, erm.. once in a while!

Tears of happiness and sadness at the same time, expressions of love and longing, the look of an indefinite wait to the next meeting, holding hands that take an eternity to part... are all witnessed at one glance, especially in Airports. And I must say that I relish such moments.

Now the reason for me to write about this... Recently I went to the airport and I was taken back to those times when I used to stand and notice people welcome and bid farewell to their loved ones. I realised I hadnt done that in a long time. While absorbing each and every moment that was playing at the airport that day, I noticed a pattern...

Statutory Warning - I dont mean to play with emotions here but that was the only way I could keep my eyes wide open (in spite of all tears flowing down like a waterfall with the never ending yawns that kept coming) after having sat up watching movies the previous night till 2 and waking up at 7 to get ready to go to the airport... on a WEEKEND!

So these were my observations -

1) Play Acting - A plethora of emotions exchanged between the receiver and the guest/family/friend who has just landed. I got to witness instances where wet tissues were thrown left, right and centre... (And they continued crying till their tear glands got empty!) A group of 10 hugging 1 - wanting to reach atleast a strand of his hair and on doing so, feeling immensely proud of it... Families reaching out to their loved ones (while the kids reach out for the bags), a mild hand shake, a warm hug, a longing look, a secret smile, grandparents grabbing babies from their parents and the babies at the sight of the excited 'aliens' start howling on the top of their decibels... whoa! All a wonderful sight, however bad I make it sound :) So here, you decide who wins the best expression!

2) Parcing the parcel - Mentioned it earlier but will make it more clear. As soon as the guest arrives, he passes on his bags, mostly the trolley, to the person who has come to receive him. Some whole heartedly take it from them - probably wondering whats in for them and most of them wonder, 'Why me?! Grrr...!'

3) Ramp Show - Out of the 100 people that come out of the airport [presume 50 are men and the other 50 are women], some of them will wear coolers (who the hell ever said or 'felt' that wearing coolers were the coolest things!!), some eye blinding coloured shirts like they have dipped themselves into buckets of paint, while some smell like they bathed themselves in a shower of perfumes and the rest would be a combo of all the 3 mentioned above! And out of those 50 women, the oldies would flaunt the gold bought and the youngees, ie the present generation (unfortunately!) would show off the clothes, shoes or the horrifying lipsticks painted hearltlessly from left to right, handbags and even cell phones bought from there! So thats a ramp show for the receivers waiting outside (endlessly) for these cartoons to come.

/*Though I must say that there are some who are decently dressed, exchange pleasantries and wait to get home to have a shower!*/

4) Match the following - I found this the most interesting of all and my personal favourite! A friend/family comes out of the airport and waves or jumps or smiles or looks around and you match it to the person who has acknowledged it! Most of the time you would be right and the rest of time you would have the same expression as the one who is looking around for his receiver ;)

Well, these are all I could play till my guest arrived. And when he did, I won hands down in Play Acting and Match the Following! :D