week-ish note - may 21
more like a day note
In Delhi. It feels like what I imagine the inside of a dryer feels like - getting tumbled around in dry heat. Or like getting warmed up in the microwave. Going round and round under unquavering rays of light, while someone stares at you. I kid.
The food is nice. It's fun to walk around in another city, I don't come to Delhi very often and I keep having deja vu flashbacks whener I'm here - cousins and aunt taking me to shop for sweaters and eat ram laddoo, trying to pass time all day in CP while waiting for an overnight bus, doing the same at Sundar nursery with my comically overstuffed trekking bag, bickering with my mother at Janpath - probably about me wanting to buy some sleeveless piece of clothing and my mother not approving of it (or vice versa - mother wanting to buy me something very ill fitting and trad), (insert illegal activity) near some metro station, cooped up in a little costume shop in what felt like the middle of nowhere waiting around to figure a cop costume rental amidst little fancy dress competitors, drinking with brother from a coke bottle in lodhi gardens, running around Nehru place late at night to do a last minute pick up of an assortment of cables needed for some shoot, playing UNO with my cousins over the summer in... some house in some sector (the concept of sectors was very foreign to me I remember), more running around in amar colony and punjabi bagh for shoot things, showing my tazzos to a group of kids near my mama's house as a child, etc. All these things are mixed up in my head in terms of timeline and space. They're also so spread out. I don't think about these things until I'm back here. A very out of sight, out of mind city for me.
My mother loves coming to Delhi. She spent a good number of early core memory years here. So did my father.
conversation with mother while driving into delhi
m: points at building that's where i met your father for the first time, you know. papa, dada dadi, bua uncle and luvy (my oldest cousin who was just born then) had all come to see me. my friend had an unmarried maasi at the time, and i would stay there occasionally. they came to meet me there.
s: oh. how did that go?
m: they weren't sure immediately if i was the right choice. a few days later i met your father along with bua and uncle again. they said yes after that.
s: and you?
m: oh i took 3 months after that to decide. i wasn't sure, i guess i was afraid of making a decision. everyone told me to just do it, what are you waiting for.
s: did you not speak to each other in that time? like you just met twice?
m: oh yes. we only started talking after we got engaged. we would talk on phone. your father was in bangalore then. he racked up quite a phone bill. which we were later unable to pay. haha.
s: hmmm. i can never understand how one can just marry after meeting twice.
m: it was like that only in that time. you just get on with it. in fact i went to visit him in bangalore once, before we got married, which was extremely scandalous. people were very very shocked. thankfully my parents were nice about it.
s: hmmm
m: in fact, tomorrow (22 may) is the day that we actually met for the first time. though i doubt your father will remember it.
s: why?
m: oh, just. men are like that.
s: hmmmmmmmmmmmmm
m: points somewhere else that's where i used to work, my first job. i would have no work and just walk around CP. it was a nice time.
later, with father in room
m: tomorrow will be the day we met for the first time. at that (insert place) on 22 may. though you won't remember.
p: no, i don't. i do remember the second time.
m: after which you said yes.
p: yes and you took 8 months
m: i took 3
p: haha you were waiting for something better to come along. i was your plan b.
m: no nothing like that.
s: ...
m: your father was so thin then. he was like a stick with a white shirt dangling from it.
p: ...
s: what's the plan? should we get something to eat?
later, at CP
I'm holding hands with my mother trying to cross the road. I do what I usually do, sidle up to someone else trying to cross the road and follow. It's two girls who are dressed in the Janpath garb we've just finished vaguely looking at. I didn't buy anything, mostly because it all felt so - college. They look very college. They're holding hands too.
They find an opening, squeal, and leap forward like squirrels, scurrying across the street. Incoming traffic slows down. We cross hurriedly, looking ahead at them - they're still running, they hit the footpath and don't stop, giggling and weaving through the crowd, round the corner, till they're out of sight. Almost like they might keep running forever. I feel a little giddy suddenly.
~ ~ ~I have 2 days to kill here. I plan on making a stop at Agrasen ki Baoli tomorrow and maybe walking around the area. I need to buy a hard drive connector. And maybe some pants from decathlon. Will figure.