Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Trick or treat

I landed in the US on the 30th of October, 1993, a day before Halloween. I was 10 years old and I believe I spent my first day in the US with a dopey grin permanently plastered on my face. Everything was so different and to a kid from a middle class Tamil family, everything appeared so wonderful. The wooden floors that creaked slightly when I walked, the big beds and the fluffy comforters, the thin sheet of snow on the road- all of it amazed me. As if all this wasn't enough, I was told of another glorious event that was to happen the very next day- Halloween! When visiting some friends of my dad's, their two daughters took me to their room and talked in what seemed like a foreign language. They spoke of wonderful things- of costumes and candy, of beautiful princesses and ugly witches. Though I couldn't understand everything they said, I knew that Halloween would be a wonderful holiday and I was thrilled when they invited me to celebrate it with them. Halloween night came by and the two girls' carefully dressed me as a cat. They each put on their costumes and transformed into a fairy tale princess and a native American girl. They then handed me a basket and took me outside. I watched as they knocked on each door and yelled 'trick or treat'. I also noticed that when they yelled this phrase, the house owners responded by dropping generous amounts of candy into their baskets. So, I followed suit and we walked from house to house doing the same. I returned home with a basket overflowing with candy, some of which I shared with my poor sister. Having been left at home with a severe case of jet lag, she listened as I described Halloween and all its glory. I felt like the entire night had been magical and I thanked profoundly, the genius who had come up with such an incredible holiday.

Every year after that first Halloween, my sister and I waited eagerly for October 31st to come by. We planned our costumes weeks before, we bought and decorated baskets to carry candy in and got a group of friends together to go 'trick of treating'. We spent the night before Halloween unable to sleep because of what we aptly named the 'I-can't-waits'. We used this time to come up with clever strategies of how to visit the generous households more than once without being found out. No matter how cold or dark, we never failed to go trick or treating. After all the rounds, we came back home and spent hours going through the night's collection. I believe both of us learned much about the age-old barter system because of these nights. We spent many hours making offers and trading candy. My sister, being a fan of sour candy always took my sour gum balls and sweet tarts in exchange for coconut and nut filled chocolates. Though I never told her, I always had a sneaking suspicion that I was getting the better end of the deal. I enjoyed the candy for days afterwards, careful to save the best ones for last and making sure not to finish my stock before my sister finished hers.

This continued till I turned the ripe old age of 14- I had officially become too old to go trick or treating. But I refused to let my age come in the way of my fun, so I still put on some gruesome makeup, stuck my vampire teeth in, spread some fake blood around my mouth and walked out the door confidently. I didn't care if I was too old- I was going to rebel. Everything went fine till I knocked on one of my neighbor's doors. A lady walked out, took a look at me and asked casually ' Hey, aren't you too old to be trick or treating?' That was all that I needed- the floodgates opened and I ran home crying. With all my makeup smeared, my teeth hanging out and fake blood all over my face, I gave my mom 'a real Halloween fright' when I walked in the house. That was the last time I ever went trick or treating.

The way I see it, that day marked the end of an era. Yes, I still celebrate Halloween- even for this one, I went to a haunted house and paid good money to get scared out of my wits and to scream my guts out... but its not the same! I hear kids in the US say all the time that they want to be 'grown up' and that they want to be treated like adults. I don't understand why. If you ask me, I would give anything just to be that little kid in the cat costume, running around from house to house, yelling happily- 'trick or treatttttttttttt'!

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

ATTACK!

She couldn't sit straight. Her legs refused to cooperate with her. They were doing their own version of the jive under the table. 'Damn it, Why did I have to wear a skirt today?', she thought.

It didn't feel like the middle of December anymore. She started to feel hot and soon felt like ripping off the sweater she was wearing. Her hands became clammy and droplets of sweat started making their way down her forehead.

Her mouth went dry, her lips felt like they were stuck with super glue. Her heart began to pound... it started slowly at first, but soon she could feel the palpitations occurring more rapidly. She became concerned- she wondered if she should cry out for help.

She started feeling short of breath. Though she tried to breath through her mouth, she couldn't. It almost seemed like she had forgotten how to breath. She felt faint and every breath became more difficult to take. She was sure she was going to fall off her chair any moment. She only hoped that her fall would be dignified. What if her skirt flew up in the air when she fell! The mere thought was mortifying. She felt her eyes glazing over, her vision blurring when...

Suddenly, a thundering roar interrupted her thoughts. She thought it must be a storm outside. But when she looked around, she realized that it was a a big round of applause! She could hear her name being called and looked up to find her professor calling her and announcing to the audience'And now, we have my graduate student who'll be defending her thesis today. She'll be presenting the work she has done for the last two years.' She took a deep breath and walked up on stage. 'Lets do this!, she told herself. 'Its gotta be better than fainting and having my skirt fly up in the air!'.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

SISTERLY ACT

Kalpana and Sangeetha were sisters,just a year apart. Both were tall, had powerful brown eyes and long black hair that curled up into little ringlets at the ends. They were beautiful girls and were mama's pride and joy since the day they were born.

But the two sisters never got along. They fought constantly. When they were little, they fought over toys. When they became a little older, boys replaced toys. They constantly competed with each other. In school, both girls competed to get the better marks; they competed to get more prizes than the other in all the cultural shows. The girls competed for their teachers' praise and for their mother's attention. They were ruthless to each other; friends who knew them wondered how sisters could treat each other this way.

For instance, for Kalpana's sixteenth birthday, she was throwing a huge 'sweet sixteen' bash at home. She had planned for it for months and was very excited about it. But Sangeetha wasn't- she despised the fact that her sister would be the center of attention at the party instead of her. So, the night before, when Kalpana was sleeping, Sangeetha crept into her room with a pair of scissors and got to work. It was a good thing Kalpana was a sound sleeper. The next morning, the entire house was woken up by a piercing scream from Kalpana's room. When her mom ran into the room, she saw Kalpana sobbing on the floor, with hair all around her. Her crowning glory was gone; her beautiful long hair mangled. Instead, she was left with frayed locks of hair, some that reached down to her shoulder, some to her neck and some only to her chin. Kalpana's sixteenth birthday was ruined and there was a pall of gloom all around the house except in one room... where Sangeetha slept peacefully, with a smug sense of satisfaction.

More than 10 years passed like this. Kalpana got married and started teaching at a local arts school. Sangeetha went the scholarly route which meant that after doing her bachelors and masters in Chemistry, she was now pursuing a PhD and doing top-notch research in the same field. What this really meant is that at 28, Sangeetha was still single, still dirt poor, still living in a small apartment with roommates and was spending her 5th year doing research that no one gave a flying rat's ass about. Though both sisters lived in the same city, a huge distance had crept between them. Several bitter fights had completely ruined their relationship. After their mother passed away, the only unifying thread between them was gone. So they never met or spoke to each other again.

One day, Kalpana got a phone call from her sister. She was very surprised and didn't really know what to say. Sangeetha asked if they could meet and they agreed upon a local coffee shop for the meeting. That evening, Kalpana walked into the coffee shop to find Sangeetha sitting quietly at a corner booth. But she was unrecognizable- she looked thin and frail, her face pale and her cheeks hollowed. After greetings were exchanged and coffees were ordered, they began to talk and Sangeetha had some shocking news. She said that she had been diagnosed with Stage II Lymphoma a little over two months ago. She said that the disease was progressing, but that she would be starting chemotherapy from next week to fight it. She said these things in a calm, almost emotionless manner- it terrified Kalpana. They spoke about it for over an hour and at the end of the meeting, Sangeetha asked if Kalpana could come sit with her for some of her chemo sessions; she said that she really needed family now. Kalpana agreed without hesitation.

The next week, Sangeetha started her chemotherapy sessions and Kalpana showed up at the hospital as promised. Sangeetha watched her sister enter her room and thought she looked different somehow. She was wearing a red salwar kameez but she had draped her dupatta over her head- maybe it was sunny outside, Sangeetha thought . But, when Kalpana removed the dupatta, it was Sangeetha's turn to be shocked. All that beautiful black hair was gone- Her sister was completely bald. Kalpana broke the silence and said,

"Once your chemo kicks in, you'll start losing your hair. I've never let you be the first at anything, You didn't expect me to let you be the first in this,did you? So I beat you to it!"

Sangeetha understood and smiled. She reached for her sister's hand, gave it a tight squeeze and smiled.

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Shoe-ing away unhappiness!

Lily pulled out the cream colored stilettos from the shoe box. They had been kept neatly wrapped in tissue, for a deserving occasion. The shoes were almost 5 years old, but the creamy faux animal skin looked brand new. Looking at those shoes brought back a lot of memories - these were shoes she had worn during the good times, for dances and late night parties, for romantic walks in the park and of course when John proposed to her 2 years back. But those good times were over- what she had with John was over, the relationship she had invested several years on was over. She quickly dressed, picking out an outfit to match the shoes and got into the car.

She could feel the butterflies in her stomach as she walked into the restaurant. Her eyes immediately went to the floor- She started to observe people's feet. She saw hardy leather boots and worn out tennis shoes. Open toed heels and even a pair of bedroom slippers - the kind with a big fat loony toons character on top. Her eyes moved quickly from one pair of feet to another until they stopped at a pair of new brown penny loafers! When she looked up, she saw that the owner of the penny loafers was a young man with deep brown hair and gentle eyes- he was also looking at feet. When he saw her stilettos, he looked up and smiled.

She had been hesitant about going on a blind date- she had been even more hesistant when her date suggested they identify each other by their shoes. But now that she was here, she was rather excited. So she took a deep breath and walked over to her date. This was her new beginning and she was starting it with her cream colored stilettos... hoping for more good times and hoping for much happier endings.