home alone

I am such a family man. Yesterday I was to reach home and fend for myself. My wife and kid were at a party where we men weren’t invited. Some kids birthday. So Jasmine offered to cook me dinner. I refused. According to her I just need an excuse to eat out but the truth is that I hate to eat alone. I went to the theatre complex next to home and browsed around Crossword for a good book and ordered a noodle dish at Zenzibu. But I was so depressed and lost, all alone.
I hate it. Even while travelling on work, at the hotels, in the evening it is so boring and alone. Eating dinner alone is a punishment for me. I try and delay it as far as possible. Try and order something in the room itself and eat silently, watching TV. Staying at the five stars adds to the solitude. They are in such sterile environments and there is no one at eth front office that you can really chat up with. In the good old days at Balsara, I had a 30 day travel plan. So I ended up going to the same places over and over again. Those were the really cheap sales hotels. How cheap? The most expensive room was 280 bucks a night and the cheapest was at 80 bucks a night. No I did not miss a zero there. And the most expensive room I ever stayed in, ever. 15,000 a night at Delhi Taj. But hold on, I think the Geneva room I stayed in was even more expensive. But now I am diagressing. What was the point I was making?
Yup, the cheap hotels in Blasara. They were pretty nice places. You sometimes catch TV in the hotel lobby. You meet other sales guys from other companies. There is some action happening. People talking. The owner talking and giving some gyan. Its good fun. Those days in the evening there was a line for people wanting to talk at the STD booth. That was fun. Waiting for 20 minutes to talk for 10.
The five stars have none of this camaraderie. I remember my days at my favourite hotel at Baroda, Junagadh, Ahmedabad. Also these hotels were bang in the heart of the city and I loved going out for a walk around. Getting outside the 5 stars is a walk by itself. The cheap hotels are merely a building that adds to the commotion on the street.
Then also I hated to be alone and I hated having dinner alone. Yesterday somehow I remembered those days. The only small difference was that 12 years back I also had to see my budget and figure what / where to eat. Now I don’t really need to look at the right hand side of the menu anymore.
Luckily half way through my chow mein, jasmine came in and I felt at ease. I think it’s easier to spend the day all alone at home but in the evenings, I so hate it. I can empathise with Jasmine when I am on a travel plan and she has to be home alone. or even when I am working till late. But at least now she has Jispa with her. All alone… I can’t handle it.
Earlier days when we stayed with mom, Jasmine used to go to her mom’s home to stay for a few days in a year. I used to find it impossible to sleep early alone. I would watch TV till my eyes closed and then hit the bed. The house just does not feel nice without people in it. I hate it and hence this time I refused to go home in the evening to get an empty house. Sometimes I feel I am such a baby.

Beaten by the loop, saved by the cream

Sunday was my morning at home all alone. I had the option to either play cricket or do some odd jobs at home. So I figured, let me do a quick job and then I will figure what to do. The errand at hand was tying the nylon ropes for the clothes to dry outside. Hmmmmm. Should be a five minute thing. So I decide to start trying the ropes and hmmmmmm. The rope was freshly bought and looped in a special manner. I had no clue that one has to be very careful while unraveling it, else……yes... they get into a mess very fast. So I spent the next hour trying to unknot the ropes. ONE FREAKING HOUR. And it was a trying experience. After opening a large part of it I realized that the open part needs to be kept properly else that too was getting tied up. So after untying the ‘untied’ part on a ‘belan’ like kite manjha I start working on the other end. Figuring that the other end will meet this one to complete the process. So I put that in a loop and used my watch to secure it and then and then and then….. I gave up. I just took the knife and cut the rope! I gave in and admitted defeat to a humble loop! What a humbling experience. Then I tied the clothes line. Believe me, keeping it tight and tying a 12 feet X 4 line in a space you cant stand properly (4 feet high) was quite a bit. I had no energy to anywhere after that. So that was an hour and a half to do a 15 minute job. Good thing we had chocolate almond fudge ice cream at home. Worth every worth the effort! What say Jasmine?

The attached photo is of me shivering in the Shatabdi form Haridwar to Delhi. The trains are bloody hot or bloody freezing!