Nostalgia @ Rs 5/kg

It can take over 20 years to squirrel away precious memories in the form of notes, letters, photocopied articles, workshop material, photographs...

And less than three hours to sift through cartons and discard most of them.

The cleaning up of painfully collected archives (physical not digital) is a mind-numbing exercise that leaves the shoulders aching. But nothing is as disconcerting as the fact that you can sell all of what you've discarded for just Rs 5 per kg to the loccal raddi-walla.

I may have been richer by Rs 145 on a cold Sunday morning. But what's gone are old remembrances that there is little room for in this weary world of mine.

Christmas is meant to be a season of giving. I just gave most of my memories away. I should be happy, I guess.

Upstairs Folks

A friendly neighbourhood super woman works for India’s largest BPO. Her husband is with the world’s largest software company. Her daughter (not yet a teenager) has, what must be, the largest heart in the condo.

While most of us went back to work after a three-day Christmas weekend, she had a holiday on Boxing Day. Why? Because USA was shut. Her normally hard-pressed husband also came back before sundown – again because his US office was shut.

And that simply drove home the point that there’s a corner in Gurgaon that is, for now at least, American.

But that’s where this family’s affinity with the Bushland ends.

Are they religious? Yes, but not in a mantra-chanting way. They come from two different communities, so that’s a great start anyway.

Do they have good old Indian values? Yes, but not in a prudish way. I mean, he cooks while she drives a mother-of-them-all Scorpio that terrorises most Jats as well as the ubiquitous bulls that are an integral part of Gurgaon’s landscape (must check Google Maps to see if the bovines feature!).

Will the daughter become Americanised as she grows up? Frankly, my dear, I don’t care a d! Chances are, her non-resident cousins in the US of A will become re-Indianised if our population keeps growing the way it is today. Haven’t the Japs displaced American cars? And China-made toys rule the world?

Well, they can keep their cars and toys. We have our people. And these lovely neighbours, to boot.

Cheers!