Let me get the shoulder thingie out of the way ..... it's behaving itself. For now. I'm ignoring it and have altered my laptop posture. That helps. I know it ain't a cure. But the cure can wait. In order to forcibly rest the damn socket, I ran away to Alibag in search of some heavy duty R&R. But guess what? My happiness was ruined on the ferry itself when an out of control man went ballistic because the ticket checker had not shown him sufficient respect!! Such a person had to be a politician, right?? Well... that's exactly who he was. Some petty neta. A local Congressman with a pack of goons, who were egging him on. I asked his name and was told it was Sandesh or Satish Patil. He was threatening the poor twig-like, cowering man... demanding an apology.... or else. I HAD to intervene. My polite, chi chi ferry 'friends' ( very Ferragamo),told me not to get into it. By then Patil was bellowing and boasting he would shut down the boat service by saturday ( I'll be watching!). I told the South Mumbai co-passengers that it is because people like us keep quiet that these monsters get born and grow bigger till they end up as those 'Bhais' we loathe but can't do anything about. We deserve them.The friends looked away and changed the subject. They also changed their seats!
When I switched on the news channel once I reached home, I caught Barkha Dutt in full flow with Sanjay Dutt and his newest bff\ mentor, sorry, 'brother' Amar Singh. Was Barkha really wearing blue contact lenses to match her blue enamel pendant... or was it an optical illusion?? The conversation was bizarre, to say the least. But the winning quote came from Sanjay when he said his wife will stay home where she belongs and make kebabs and biryani for him and his friends.... "Who will campaign for her in that case?" asked Barkha ( this , after a great deal of waffling and evasiveness about whether or not Maanyata will be given the ticket Sanjay didn't get) . " I will," said the Duh Dutt, giving the game away through that one untutored remark!!
I hastily put on an Elvis Presley DVD featuring the King in gospel mode. To say that I adore Elvis would be a gross understatement. I worship him. He is the ONLY human being I 've ever had a gigantic crush on. Seeing him again, crooning with church choirs, I had tears of joy rolling down my cheeks.... and mingling with the Moet. Only a locally caught crab, cooked Malwani style could take away my earlier blues....and did. Thank God the cook hadn't produced kebabs and biryani. I would have puked!
Well, tonight I have invited Meera Sanyal to dinner, along with a few friends. I am very keen to meet the lady who threw up a bank job ( she was heading ABN AMRO), to contest the elections. I heard she had given Karan Thapar a run for his money and handled his provocative questions ( socialism-capitalism debate) very effectively. Her former bank colleagues speak highly of her, though even there I see annoying sexism. One of them commented, " You know how Goras react to women in sarees?? It is the whole exotic package. Sarees certainly worked in Meera's favour." That's what I call taking a cheap shot at a woman's success. Watch this space for the asli assessment.... definitely no kebabs on the menu tonite.... a few haddis, maybe.