Rules are meant to be....

Ever since I was a kid, a visit to the railway station meant the acquisition of at least ONE new book, if I was just meeting someone, and at least two or three if I was going somewhere, anywhere, on a train.



On a train trip back to the grind at Delhi , ( from a too short weekend at home), around eight at night , I was knee deep into an Agatha Christie, when my peripheral vision and hearing latched on to two young men who boarded the train at a minor station. Apparently they had to travel on extremely short notice to Gwalior ( which was just 4hrs away ),and after much wrangling with the TT for last minute seats in that 3^rd AC compartment, one of them came and sat on my berth.


By this time, due to my trusty peripheral vision and the fact that he was in camos (camouflage uniform and heavy boots) , I had correctly recognised this guy (and his friend) as a Y.O..i.e. Young Officer( in army jargon) or, "hmmmmm...Interesting, I wonder if he's a bachelor" in grown-up-still-single- daughter-of-army-officer parlance ;).However ,in accordance with my self imposed rule of minimum contact with fellow passengers, (applicable to solo train journeys only), I continued to scan the greek book in my hand, pretending that I was the only one sitting there.


After an hour or so, he commented politely-


“Ma’am , whenever you’d like to lie down, please let me know , I’ll go up to the middle berth.”


As I was at an interesting point (in the book;), I told him that he could continue sitting for some time to come, since I had no plans of going to sleep just yet ( I was and still am a late bird and an insomniacal train traveler ).Since the ice had cracked a bit, he asked what I was reading (of course he couldn’t read the inch high title of the book;)…and thus began a conversation ,during the course of which he discovered that I was a card carrying member of S.O.D.A i.e "Senior Officer's Daughters Association" ( an imaginary sorority whose existance I deny ;) and I discovered that other than being a Y.O , he was also a member of S.O.S.A (again ,an imaginary organisation as according to the members;) and many an interesting similarity in the lives that we had led so far.


A few hours later , we had exchanged numbers , and he had left the train at Gwalior. We haven't spoken or met each other since, however the ease with which we could converse, helped me take a decision that I’d been mulling over for a while , namely whether I should marry back into the services or not .


As of now, I haven’t regretted my decision for a single moment.

Eggs And Crumpets...

When I was a kid , any book that I wanted to read ,had to be first read and approved by the MomPop Censor ( atleast the ones that I told them about;) . So it was, that "Archie" and me were not allowed to meet till I was a teenager. Unfortunately for Archie, by the time I was 13, I preferred older men such as a certain mad English gentleman known as Bertie Wooster and a few odd Eggs and Crumpets here and there.....all of whom, resided somewhere on library and book store racks marked Wodehouse, P. G.

Some of the reasons why I am still captivated, may be found in the following quotes-

`She had wanted to borrow my aunt's brooch,' said Ukridge, `but I was firm and wouldn't let her have it - partly on principle and partly because I had pawned it the day before.'

There is only one cure for grey hair. It was invented by a Frenchman. It is called the guillotine.

The Old Reliable (1951)

There is no doubt that Jeeves's pick-me-up will produce immediate results in anything short of an Egyptian mummy.

The Inimitable Jeeves
(1923)

He had the look of one who had drunk the cup of life, and found a dead beetle at the bottom.

I have only two things to say to you, Lord Tilbury. One is that you have ruined a man's life. The other is Pip-pip.

Heavy Weather (1933)

``You can't do shorthand, I suppose?''

``I don't know. I've never tried.''

Eggs, Beans and Crumpets
(1940) ch. 7 ``A Bit of Luck for Mabel''

The only thing that prevented a father's love from faltering was the fact that there was in his possession a photograph of himself at the same early age, in which he, too, looked like a homicidal fried egg.

Eggs, Beans and Crumpets
(1940) ch. 4 ``Sonny Boy''

It was the look which caused her to be known in native bearer and halfcaste circles as 'Mgobi-'Mgumbi, which may be loosely translated as She On Whom It Is Unsafe To Try Any
Oompus-Boompus.

`Any moment now, he may get a vicarage, and then watch his smoke. He'll be a Bishop some day.'

`A fat lot of bishing he's going to do, if he's caught sneaking helmets from members of his flock.'

The Code of the Woosters
(1938)

Mr Waddington's expression was now that of a cowboy who, leaping into bed, discovers too late that a frolicsome friend has placed a cactus between the sheets.

Poets, as a class, are business men. Shakespeare describes the poet's eye as rolling in a fine frenzy from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven, and giving to airy nothing a local
habitation and a name, but in practice you will find that one corner of that eye is generally glued on the royalty returns.

Uncle Fred in the Springtime (1939)

Dual Duel

There's this book called "Why Men Don't Listen and Women Can't Read Maps" written by Allan amd Barbara Pease......(no ,its not like "Men are from Mars..") . Now, I'd normally hate to own up to reading any remotely "relationship" guide type of a book, but this one's a good read.....If you're married/in a relationship/maybe going to be in a relationship/whatever....just because a lot of the stuff in it has actually happened to all of us or a friend-of-a friend, at some time or the other....But the reason why I read it was this line on the first page of the introduction -- "Men and Women are different.Not better or worse-just different."

Provocative?The book is that AND quite humorously written .So, if you're reading this, I'd say go ahead and read that book...it just makes one think again....if only for a moment..

As far as I am concerned, both me and my significant other have read it and had a lot of "AHA!!!" moments reading it...unfortunately though, the "AHA" moments were just that...moments, I still get miffed about my husband's less than sunshiny face over my teeny weeny bit of (a few hours according to him) drooling window shopping at stuff that I am never-going-to-buy-but-always-moon-over-anyway.....and he's still shaking his head wondering whether I will ever learn how to park the car in our shared garage without a minor disaster ;)

What A Feeling!

When the "Ms" in front of my name meant "Miss",

My humble stereo would mainly play the likes of ABBA,Cliff Richards ,Assorted Oldies, some of the latest songs on TV...Oh OK just a teeny weeny bit of Britney Spears;)

Now that "Ms" is "Mrs" (ok ok I am in the "aunty" category...)

Courtesy of my significant other (and his HUMONGOUS CD collection), I've come to think that hard rock, all the 80's pop etc. also have their merits , and well I know about the existence of some one called Judas Priest...Not to mention all the cheesy Hindi movie remixes that I used to wince at......well, I no longer wince at ALL of them...

When the "Ms" in front of my name meant "Miss",

My book shelf and the odd carton or two , mainly had loads of Agatha Christie, Wodehouse, a few Alistair Macleans, some Asterix-Obelix, lots of Erle Stanley Gardner ( remember Perry Mason).....maybe a few Danielle Steele's( c'mon I am a woman after all!)

Guess what -Now that I have a hyphenated sirname,If someone mentioned, "Dirk Pitt"(Clive Cussler) or "Sean Dillon"(Jack Higgins) or "Creasy"(A J Quinnel) I wouldnt look blank.......but what would really make me smile with satisfaction would be any one of Dick Francis's books....the "hero" in all the books that I've read so far...is just my kind of guy....real, sensible,calm, intelligent, loyal....in fact , I married some one who's like that ( He's also a lot of fun:)

So guess why I wrote this one.....ok, I'll give you a hint, have you heard of a song called-"Top of the World".....