Reality Check 101

The world and its uncles are getting married. Designer weddings. Choreographed sangeets. Fancy Destinations. Pre-wed shoots. Photoshopped memories. Everything made to look glossy, classy and Instagrammed.

The world and its uncles are also building their first homes. Brick by brick. EMI by EMI.  Not a house. A home. Playing hosts. Throwing parties. Cleaning the mess after everyone's left. The first Holi, Diwali, Rangoli. Straight out of an Asian Paints ad.

The world and its uncles are also getting pregnant. And having babies!! Creating actually living beings. Of flesh and blood. Of pee and poop. Gurgling laughter and late-night cries. Something about motherhood and being complete...now that they have delivered out a part of themselves.

And in the meanwhile. Here I am. Fretting about where my career's headed and when will I add more stamps on my passport. Hmm.

So on a day like today, when my life pauses for a tiny little moment, and I finally get some time to  ponder and wonder, all those seldom-pushed-back thoughts run amok.

'Go ahead...take the leap!' the silly heart prods. 

'Wait a minute here...are you sure about this?' the mind double-checks.

They say its the most important decision I would ever make. Then how come no one ever prepared me for this? After pouring over textbooks and truckloads of photocopied notes (Mumbai University style. Oh yeah!) I thought I was ready for the death by power-point. And I endured...hours of excel, jargons and frameworks. Not just endured...survived. I even gave in and made peace with the system! So you see, I spent a majority of my life prepping for the career while no one bothered to inform me that this was only the second most important thing in my life? Hmmph.

So spare me your raised eyebrows while I google for relationship advice or better still...for a crash course on Coursera. Heck, I have even taken to exclusively listening to romantic music, you know...just to get into the groove. Oh! And I am also reading threads on Quora such as this one here, on friend's recommendations. (One a separate note - Don't we love friends like these who help us a day before exam? Stay up all night just so we don't fall asleep? Making us maggi and coffee and bearing all our last-minute hysteria?) 

And so, my dear readership of 23, I hope that in some time from now - I would have done my research, collated enough data points and drawn insights *sniggers* to finally be able to finally take the most important decision of my life. *insert prayers here*

Phew. Getting married seems like a critical life project with a stringent deadline and no scope for mistakes. Unraveling the mysteries of life with a partner after the dating niceties are done and dusted! *shivers*. So on that upbeat note, just one question to all married folks out there. How long into the dating process did you decide to tie the knot? Before or after you got comfortable enough to burp/fart in front of each other? :D

Distracted.

It's foolish the number of times I have begun writing a post, lost the train of thoughts and dumped it into drafts. I love the idea of writing while listening to music. I start with finding the right song for my mood to build up the whole environment (Hindi has a very apt term for it - samaa bandhana. English pales in comparison). Anyway, so one starts with finding the right song for the right mood and hopes to publish a blog-post one is happy with...but things somehow run down-hill after the whole youtubing thing.

Here's what happens with me:

• Create a playlist of similar mood songs on Youtube - say - Romantic
  
• Forget that one song from that really insignificant movie starring Salman Khan & that actress from the South.
• Try recollecting her name for 26 odd seconds. Ditch.
  
• Google for 'Salman Khan + Actress from South' to come up with some ridiculous search results.
• A lil' more head scratching....Ahan!! Her name in the movie was Maggie! (Talk about some food for thought!)
  
• Google for 'Salman + Maggie' - Love it is! All hail IMDb.
• Oh btw, check out this review at the bottom of the page here.
• Haan, so where was I? Yes, "Saathiya...yeh tune kya kiya"
• Buzz on GTalk - ofcourse its an old friend and I am not the one to go invisible after being buzzed, no sire. So one replies, patiently..using very little words just to give the right indication that one might be caught up in something important at the moment or when all fails 'brb' to the rescue.
• Wouldn't it be better to just change the status message to 'Busy' for a while. But no sire no, we are not the ones to simply put up a plain, boring status message are we? We are the creative class (or so we think) so it has to be a creatively borrowed 3rd line of that ghazal one once heard and is not very sure of the meaning. But what if someone pings to ask the meaning and catches one unawares! Imagine the horror! So we google for the meaning and then put up a status msg something like this:
  Kuch to mere pindar-e-mohabbat ka bharam rakh
  Tu bhi to kabhi mujhko manane ke liye aa...Ranjish hi sahi....
  
• Almost 11.5 mins since I last checked FB updates :|
• Yayness! He liked my status msg...need a wittier come-back. Google. (Yes, lame.)
• Hey, new video posted by him..must be something cool...let me check it out!
• Superb video! Like. Comment. Share.
• Hayyee. Relationship status update by Rohan & Pri? kab? kyu? kaise? and most imp. ab kiske saath? ;) (Yes, we are like that only)
• So, where was I? Video..FB...imdb...google...youtube...blogspot!

And so, in this brilliant manner a perfect blogging mood get wasted by yours truly's utter stupidity and one sinks further down the depression of not blogging enough. Does this happen to you? any foolproof solution?

P.S: While I was writing this blog, the following conversation ensued with a friend.

Ashok: abbe

rutuja: hi

Ashok: give me suggestions

rutuja: for?

Ashok: things to do

i got absolutely no work in office today :|

rutuja: haha

i m blogging..abt how i get distracted while blogging

and end up not blogging :P

Ashok: lol

i am guessing you would mention me in the credits section :P

rutuja: brb :D

@ Ashok - There you go...you got a mention on my blog! I used my first 'brb-to-the-rescue' weapon on you and holly mighty did it work!! I am extremely pleased with myself (or as they say in Queen's Land - I am mighty chuffed right now!) for almost having completed this piddly blogpost which may not mean much to the world but is a no small feat for this girl.

Heart-broken

Its official! Google devta is officially miffed at me :'(

First the randomness of gmail - no not in a metaphorical way.
Pings I never received, mails that came in hours later - and no, its not bad internet speed.

Then the blogger.com started playing truant...with the template designer being down for last two days. How is a girl supposed to 'get back' to her blogging? Especially after being told by an ardent follower that the existing template is hideous? Oh, and dont you point finger at me for the font size here. I tried.

I may have worked for Yahoo but I love you, Google. There. I said it.

And I did not cheat on you with this guy here. He was just a minor distraction - nothing more than a rebound relationship. You, on the other hand, are the one forever. The one who stays back even when the party is over. No, not the caterer asking for money. You know what I mean.

Sigh. Just come back.