Teta Metit

التيتا ماتت وما في انترنت بالضيعة‬

In other words, 'grandmother died and no internet in the village'. In some other words, sorry I have been out of touch.

I am proud. Of my achievements. By achievements I mean the ability to successfully pick up and reproduce Arabic slangs and proverbs at the right moment. My Lebanese roommate Rantoush is equally proud too. She can now show me off as a perfect student. This would explain why we shout kusummak and uskimaki at each other. You guessed right as they are used between us as the highest form of affection. Also, they mean the same.

This is a strange household. It reminds me of our old place in North Calcutta where people used to leave their front doors open for pretty much anybody to come in while they would be taking their siestas. Here, DV comes and goes as she pleases. Lucie and company come to work in their little kitchen garden and never fail to knock on my window and peek in and say hi. Rantoush takes the last bus from school at one in the morning, enters the house in tiptoes and starts dancing with enthusiasm as soon as she steps in my room, trying to share coherently and incoherently the details of her exciting days. I almost had gotten used to the weird rhythm of this house. Especially I had thought that none of Rantoush's quirks could surprise me anymore. However, I was supposed to stand corrected when the other night she came in, posed as the tickle monster and jumped in the general direction of my body shouting the war cry Katukutu. Yes, Bongs... Katukutu.. and yes she is a full-on Arab who loves the aatar made of belphul or زهرة فل.

I am moving again in a week from now and starting another leg of this journey in another apartment. However I doubt that I will go back to the no-pants-dandy-legs life of a bach as now I seem to have acquired a family here. Edmonton proves to be full of little surprises. Stay tuned for more adventures!

PS: Speaking of adventures, my little Lomo Diana is now starting to deliver. Thought it was time to change the header image :)

The Demise of a Fighter, in other news Jatugriha

So on June 4th, 2011 I receive a call from the foster parents of Gadhesh saying that he has passed away after suffering for a couple days. We discussed the last rites and as I am writing this, he has been put to rest under a maple tree hoping that in the next life he becomes a bird which is one step ahead in the evolution race. Although, given that Gadhesh was my pet and on one occasion had decided to jump out of his bowl to attack a friend of mine, quirkiness can not be discounted and he might end up evolving into a flying fish. That would be pretty neat in my opinion. Looking back, he seemed to have great insights into human characters and I should have taken his hint. I am not saying that I should have bitten the said friend but I am also not not saying that I should have bitten the said friend.

Speaking of friends, this morning Rantoush tried to cheer me up saying that Gadhesh must already have gone to the fish-heaven and either he has found his mate there and is having fun without trying to tear her apart or he has turned into a fish-angel and going around saying sorry to all the orphan little fish whose parents he murdered in his moments of rage.

Given that yesterday we learned that we were living in a house that was an inch away from a huge dryer fire, I really understand being enraged to the max and not being able to do something about it because we have to be nice. I was and am frying inside because people are not only assholes but they believe in it as if it's the standard and I can't go beyond a certain point to indicate that they are being superdicks. Gahh the helplessness of being civil and human!!! Being a fish is sometimes so much easier.