Here’s what I’ve been doing over the past fortnight…eating, sleeping, fighting with Ma, eating, cribbing, fighting with Didi, sleeping, reading vague story books (which I swear I did not pack, I packed strictly academic books, The Last Continent must have sneaked into my back-pack on its own), eating some more, calling up Baba long-distance to crib about Didi and Ma and sentimentalize over how I’m missing his daily doses of nagging, cribbing and yelling…..did I mention studying for term papers? hmm…..nope, I seem to have missed mentioning that. Obvious huh – since I didn’t study at all. (All those who believe, alas erroneously, that my blog silence was induced by writing two term papers erm actually I plan to start writing them…..soon…..I hope!!)

And we’ve been shopping. In fact the sum of all the time spent on the above activities is easily expended by the amount of time we have spent shopping. Of course when I say we I actually mean Ma and Didi. I was there of course. Acting as a glorified coolie of sorts. And bursting into fits of manic laughter at regular intervals. Most inappropriate behaviour I realize, in retrospect, it being far from polite to do a credible imitation of a hyena in the face of the shop-keeper who is displaying his best wares. Ideally I should have gone to the corner and snickered quietly. But I ask you, is it possible to keep a straight face in front of an obviously aesthetically deluded shop-keeper who’s idea of a beaootifool sari is a sea of the brightest yellow with splotches of fluoroscent green and pink streaked with electric blue and covered with large dots of vivid maroon. If that’s your idea of the colours of India, I’ll stick to black and white please, thank you verry much!!

Of course Hyderabad has its nice bits too. I was all awestruck admiration for Golconda fort. They have a most admirable light-and-sound show. Unfortunately my enjoyment of the place was greatly undermined by my intense desire to kill someone/anyone. At any given moment I would anyway express a preference for the young of any other animal species but human babies are still most tolerably cute at times. On the other hand parents who think the right age to take their child sight-seeing is when he is two months old should be buried alive in the dark cavernous tombs they drag their howling babies into.

Nothing really exciting happened though. Very pretty land and all that but with a incredible dearth of good-looking men. As it turned out the only one fulfilling any sort of aesthetic demands was a dashing young to-be docterate in chemistry. Most impressive batting style he has, 3 sixes and two boundaries and a score of about 30 in two overs in a five over inter-departmental cricket match as well as one stunning catch. Most talented, intelligent, handsome young man who took me out for Diwali and got me tons of loverly crackers because I was so sad about missing diwali at home. The wedding one is pleased to announce is on January 22, 2006. Very auspicious date and all that but the honeymoon might well be in Hyderabad. He will be a singularly nice addition to the family…..sigh, my sister has such good taste!

I have also had at least one exciting experience I could have done without. Most unintentional it was. It happened in my sister’s hostel. Their campus is practically a jungle ok. I went to take a bath and I was in a state of erm.…well I was in an unpresentable state when I noticed a frog lying in one corner of the bathroom. It being the first time I was in any such situation I threw water on it in an attempt to get rid of it. Since it didn’t move I assumed it was dead. As someone mentioned later throwing water on a frog would have about the same effect as throwing air on a human being. Most astute comment it was as I realized later that the thingy had been alive all the time. Most embarrassing it was.

Yes well, such is life. I am now home and happy. Back to my beloved bloggy-woggy. Back to my beloved-est readers, muuah muaah I love you all….especialy erm…umm....oh never mind…..I’m sure the person I’ve missed the most knows all about it so I shall be silent on that count. Indeed it feels good to be back in my own fish-bowl.