OF PLANS AND PLATITUDES

This weekend started on a fairly mundane note, we spending Sat morning doing some shopping at Walmart. One of K's colleagues, Kaushik, called up in the afternoon and expressed his desire that we get together for an adda session and he was duly encouraged to come over for the same. The adda was just warming up, with K and the former (both of a similar reserved temperament) just beginning to show signs of relaxing their guard in complex areas such as emotion and experience, when there was a sudden and quite unexpected interruption. Another colleague called, announcing an impromptu plan to set forth about 40 mins later for a spur-of-the-moment group outing to the nearby Laurence Harbour. K and I were in a bit of a fix. For although all of us were quite amenable to the idea, it wasn't good manners to rush a visitor through dinner, especially when he wasn't of the eat-and-go type. Fortunately, however, he seemed totally unperturbed by all the rushing and fussing and managed to enjoy his dinner in the midst of it all. We all assembled at the parking lot of Mayflower Apartments in Piscataway, home to several members of the group, and set off with three cars around 11.30 pm. We reached the projected destination within half-an-hour and that rather too eventfully for my taste : Kaushik taking exits at exactly the same speed that he seemed to be driving on on the highway, which could range anywhere between 80-100 miles/hr, scaring me into donning seatbelts (which I usually hate and prefer to avoid if and whenever possible) even on the backseat of the car. Coupled to that was his preference for really loud music. I'm lucky I still have my hearing intact after the volume at which he seemed to prefer his songs.

Anyway, we were all glad we'd fallen in with the plan, once we'd reached the place and taken a look.


Of course, it was pitch dark at the waterfront and too dimly lit for quality photography, but there was a keen sea breeze with a sharp tang to tantalise our senses and cool us down. Besides, the long boardwalk was interestingly structured, with benches at decent intervals and numerous nooks and corners designed to encourage romantic rendezvous.

In fact, we ourselves stumbled upon a quite classic instance of the latter at one end of the boardwalk, which jutted right into the quietly rippling, ruffling water itself. The couple concerned were unabashed by our rude and often rowdy interruptions and seemed quite lost in their own world, romancing with ruthless abandon throughout the duration of our halt, which might have lasted for half-an-hour, or maybe even longer. Some of us ventured down though the steel fencing and made our way to the rocks, where we sat quietly, watching the blue-black sheets of water slide towards the white sand, stumble and mutter a pained, smothered retreat. There was something immeasurably soothing about those sombre, still moments that we spent there, quite difficult to put into words but certainly offering a pacifying, placating compensation for the immeasurable cruelty and clutter in our everyday lives.

After we made it to the other end of the pier and back, we were both tickled and tantalised by the sight of a couple, who were just settling down on the sands, under the stars, for what seemed like a good night's sleep. "Poor fellows, they don't have the money to buy a fan or AC and decided they'd cool down the natural way", I sympathised. Needless to say, most of the others had considerably more obscene explanations to offer.

The outing ended with dessert at the Gulatis' place on Mercer Street, Somerville, which consisted of the residual tiramisu and cheesecake from Sritama's birthday. We finally ended up in bed at 3 pm, me remembering just in time to call Tua to wish her on her birthday. She was considerably mystified, of course, to find us wide awake at that ungodly hour. It was also Titai's birthday but we had had the good sense to call her up when we were out on the rocks, quite literally.

That reminds me : Titai informed us that Abir had been to his first day's shoot of Anjan Dutt's adaptation of Saradindu's Byomkesh story Adim Ripu (Primal Instinct) that very morning. And I was pleasantly surprised to find it had been covered by today's TOI too. What fun ! And I seriously think Abir's looks in general contribute quite felicitously to the character in question. Am definitely looking forward to the film.

Sunday afternoon was spent scouring shops for a new pair of formal shoes for K. We did the rounds of Walmart, Target, Kohls and Marshall's, quite annoyed at the lamentable dearth of options for men and the exorbitant price tags. We finally found a happy deal at Payless Shoesource, which we therefore judged as thoroughly worthy of its name. So K has gone to office, a happy man today, sporting a new haircut and new shoes. The last time I'd been to Great Clips, I'd spotted an impressive haircut look on one of the 'Inspire' magazines they seem to stock a great deal of. This time though, I had the presence of mind to photograph it on my cellphone, for future reference :

After a very late lunch of bhaat, daal and tandoori butter chicken at 4.30 pm (!), we took a short nap and dropped in at the Maitis' place at Somerset Mews. They've bought a good deal more furniture recently and the apartment looks really pretty now. I took a few photos and Moumita was glad that at least she'd possess a couple of photos to send to her friends, who were bugged with her lethargic inability to share the same with them for a long time now. Well, I'm glad my photographic sorties are proving to be of some use to someone. K doesn't take it seriously most of the time !

Well anyway, after a pleasant adda, we were back home, doing such mundane tasks as cooking. We ate very little dinner and spent a happy pre-bed hour reading and net-surfing respectively (no prizes for guessing who was engaged in the latter). Btw, we've finally discovered the immense difference between the effects of yellow and white light, and are relieved we finally plumped for the latter. Nothing like cool, clear light to encourage one's reading habits, that's for sure.