Tale of Two Cities

This tale is about Melbourne and Melbourne. The former is the one in Fl and the latter is in VIC. I had set foot on the former about 14 years back and I am just back from a vacation from the latter. Fourteen years back I had found myself constantly correcting people about the continent I was visiting. It was indeed surprising to most that there indeed existed a Mel in Fl. It was kind of taken for granted that Mel meant Mel, VIC.

Work had taken me to Mel, Fl, a sleepy town on the Space Coast, almost a Podunk. Mel, Fl boasted of a Hooters on Hwy 192, some of the large chain retailers, the usual BoA branch and a downtown that Shaq could have covered in two strides. Still, it was in the Sunshine State - a mere hour's drive from Orlando, and you could lunch in South Beach starting after a light breakfast in Mel. I was on my first trip to the western hemisphere, and despite staying in one of those nondescript motels run by desis near a freeway exit, I wasn't cribbing. I survived my first night by dining on a microwaved burrito bought from a 7-11 gas station across the road. I managed to stay on for a few more weeks and over the next few years made three more trips to Mel, Fl. The last of these was the longest, almost a year, and R was with me this time. We were young and happy with most things in life - including Mel, Fl. While we weren't sad to leave Mel after a year's stay, we almost immediately started missing Mel and Fl, the beaches, sunshine and parks.

The trip to Mel, VIC was most unexpected. R was there on work and I am glad that she kind of insisted that I take a week off to join her there. Last minute ticketing and a visa ensured that I could spend a week with R in Mel before she got back home. Things were apparently not going well for desis Down Under with quite a few apparently getting bashed up and one was even done in just on the day of my travel. Parents ,friends and TV channles gave grim warnings and on top of that there was sarkari advisory for desi students. Having just finished reading the LOTR, I almost felt like Frodo adventuring into Mordor. I was almost glad when I found that the cab that I got on the taxi rank in Tullamarine was driven by a Sardar. R was smiling from ear to ear when I landed up at her Serviced Apartment on Toorak Road. I survived the first night on Fried Rice and Salmon that R had cooked. We didn't come across any Orcs in Mel VIC and Arnab Goswami's histrionics soon faded from memory. We were older, wiser and much harder to please now than what we were 14 years back. But Mel, VIC did not dissapoint. The city, the weather, food and wine kept me in fine fettle. R used to be in office during the day, but the long summer evenings ensured that we had enough time for leisure after office hours on the banks of Yarra.
Its almost two weeks now that we are back and memories of Mel, VIC still quite fresh. Even as we snacked on dhoklas today evening, R spoke of the cooked Tuna Sushi rolls that she used to buy on Collins. As of now, the score is advantage VIC. Spencer Street has displaced Nasa Blvd , Sushi rolls have moved in and driven out Popeye's biscuits and Southern Fried Chicken.

Borrowed Idea?

Tolkien seems to be inspiring an ever increasing number of people. I am the latest addition to his huge fan following, having spent the first day of this year finishing one of the best books that I have read so far. I recently found out from a cousin that her younger son Bilbo has indeed been named after the venerable ring bearer , my brother-in-law being a huge fan of Tolkien.

While I continue to find books, movies and stuff that definitely seem to be inspired by Tolkien, and that includes books by J. K. Rowling amongst others, the latest entry in that set is the recent Idea Cellular advertisement. I discovered this as I was driving to office this week and as I take the bend in a flyover near my office, the aforementioned ad jumps out in front of me in a huge billboard. Sirji seems to be doing a Treebeard here.

Not very original I would say - but Sirji is possibly the only Entish looking actor in Bollywood - there seems to be an association here. In most Hindi flicks these days, the leading Bollywood ladies look taller the men opposite them.

Twenty Ten

One of my favourite newspaper columnist said that there is a cool ring to it, and I agree with her. It seems we have been talking about this particular year for quite some time now. Targets had been set in companies for achieving some desired objective by 2010. Nifty slogans had been crafted and drilled deep down the heads of employees. It seems that in the last few years we were always trying to reach somewhere by TT. We now have just 364 more days to make it happen!
Also - "Twenty Ten" conjures up vision of Cricket in its new Avataar - "T 20" and along with it images of fast paced , action packed, adrenalin pumping drama. It looks like that the markets also have started warming themselves up in preparation for TT and the indices are resembling Tendulkar' score.

Cool definitely it is - in more ways than one. Today I am reading blog posts about the controversy over our Mantriji's Twitter posts. Boy - have we reached somewhere! BTW - another female columnist recently described the Hon. Mantriji as "dishy". Twenty years back I was lying on my hostel room bed reading a novel written by this guy. By any stretch of imagination I couldn't have imagined this situation.
Ten years back R & I got our first phone connection at home - we paid a huge premium to the sarkari phone company to get something called a Tatkal connection. Before that we had to walk down to the corner kirana to make STD calls home. Today R & I Skyped, SMSed, Facebooked, Instant Messaged and called on each other's cell - all across continents.

Having said all that, certain things are still the same. Mother made "Baigan Bharta" today and it was same as she used to make it when I was a teenager. I didn't reach out to some folks today - not because I couldn't Skype, SMS, Facebook, Instant Message, or call on their cells - but because I couldn't make myself to do so. They are definitely reachable as long as I want to reach out and as long as they want to be reached out to. I haven't changed and so haven't others.

Well - introspection over - now how do I spend the rest of the first evening of the year? R suggested that I get a good bottle of Red. I decided against it. After writing this post, I would rather go back to the big fat Red colored book that I have been reading for the past few weeks. Popularity of that book hasn't waned in over fifty years.

Happy TT to all readers of this post! Hope to write more often this year.