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BTM Layout may have become a nightmare for the people who settled down here, early in the nineties. BTM Layout was then a tangible part of that cliched ‘pensioner’s paradise’ called Bangalore. When my MIL bought this house, I remember visiting it with my mother, and MIL, and Shazu and others, three or four years before I got married. At that time, there was a school here. There was space for a small shop below, and my father in law opened a small store here.
In the early days of my marriage, we lived in BTM Ist stage in a rented house. Life seemed so blissful then. Although there were financial problems(we were living in a rented house because the school owner refused to vacate our building, and we had filed a case against him), and hence there were a lot of problems at home, but I remember distinctly that I had been content.
In the evenings, Mansoor, me, my mil, and Shazu(Saboor wasnt even born then) would walk slowly from 1st Stage to 2nd Stage where our building was. We passed a pani-puri fellow on the way, and we would stop, eat masala puri, sev puri and top it with tangy pani puri, and then we would proceed to my father in law’s shop. There he would let us have Pepsi from his shop, and sitting on the edge of the shop, we would sip, and listen to Mansoor regale us with stories from his life in Japan.
We moved to this house in 1999, about 9 months after Saboor was born, and then, slowly, the road that had seemed so quaint to me, began to change. The houses here were laidback, and most didnt have a luxurious look or feel to them. But imperceptibly, we saw people building first floors and second floors, and moving there, letting out the ground floor to shops.
The road which we used to traverse so many years ago in the quest for pani puri, is now so full of traffic, vehciles, and people, that I cannot visualise this road to be that same one.
With Electronic City nearby, techies seem to just overflow from every house, PG or living space here. And the shops and restaurants!! On our road alone, there must be atleast 8 restaurants. Chinese, Punjabi, Bengali, Mallu…you name it, we have it. The tranquil road is no more. In its place is a living monster that keeps spewing shops and complexes every other month. The last I heard, we were going to have a Coffee Day outlet too.
Thats why, I started off thinking that the sedate people who must have bought houses here in BTM Layout, had no idea what they were getting into.
Yet…..
The other day, in the evening, Saboor and I walked down to the new pani puri fellow who holds his stall outside the Sweet Chariot shop. I watched Sab try to force the puri inside his mouth, crush it by mistake, and all the water fell out into the plate in his hands. Pani puri still makes it worthwhile.
It’s strange, but Sowm’s blog this morning was something I was thinking of writing last night myself. After reading her entry, I really hope everything is fine, and theres no reason for her and us to worry.
(Makes me feel foolish about writing this, but since I had already thought about it, i’m just going ahead. )
Whenever Mansoor goes on his trips to China, or Hong Kong, Sab and I stay upstairs only, although my mother in law had asked us once to come and sleep in her room. But I prefer staying in my room, Mansoor or no Mansoor.
Our room upstairs is actually two rooms that have been made into one. We broke a section of the common wall between the rooms and made it into a sort of passage. I usually sit up till 12.30 am , working or reading or writing something, and until then, its all right. I can hear my family downstairs, watching TV, talking etc. I just have to lean back from this room, and I can spot Saboor and now, even Azhaan sleeping peacefully in the other room.
But once I shut down the comp, and then switch off the lights in this room, and move to that room, I start getting a little prickly. When I lie down, I feel that I may not have locked the gate to the terrace and so I get up again, grope my way to the light switch and then, venture out of my room to just see the lock on the gate once again. When I’m finally in my bed, and I’ve shut my eyes, thats when it starts. The branches of the tree outside my room start creaking. Its amazing how this sound never registers when Mansoor is here! But without him, my senses are so attuned that I can pick up the creaking of the tree, the rustling of some plastic cover on the floor, the groaning of the bathroom window as it swings open in the night air. I quickly squeeze my eyes tightly, hoping that I can get sleep soon.
Last night however, I felt like I’d stopped breathing. I got up in the middle of the night as usual to feed Az. He was on my lap and then, there was the beeping of a strange mobile. Not my mobile. Fear clutched my heart and I peered out of this room, in the light of the zero bulb, imagining lurking and leering figures sitting on the sofa in the other room. The beep was so loud, it had to come from this room.
Ten minutes later, I was still not sure what it could be, when it beeped again. This time, I realised what it was. It was Mansoor’s extra cell phone that he’d given to me before leaving for Hong Kong, which I’d kept in my cupboard. Stupid, Stupid airtel was sending messages to that phone, and hence the beeping. Whew!
Mansoor is going to be back in a couple of days inshallah. Till then, every night is filled with these croaks and groans and other imaginary horrors.
I’ve decided that I’m simply going to go ahead and finish with my MA this year. Although I missed the exams in May, I’m going to try and attempt them in December this year inshallah. But, theres no time to read up, or go through the so-called notes given by the university.
I hit upon this fantastic idea. I’ve been reading a lot of books on my mobile these days…I thought I could look up for info on the net abt the topics, and simply transfer it to my phone and read it whenever i have the time! Its amazing what technology will do for you today! And I love it!! When I started my MA in 2003, I hadnt even dreamed that I wouldnt finish it in 2005, and by 2007, I’d be reading for my exam on my phone!!
Yes, I find it hard to believe..but its true! I’ve been married for ten years now. (touchwood!)
On Friday, we celebrated my tenth wedding anniversary. Mansoor as usual hadnt thought of buying anything for me, and after living ten years with him, I knew that for a fact. Anyhow, I had bought him a nice shirt, and a pretty red salwar suit for myself. Shazu and mil teamed together and made yummy haleem, and I insisted that Mansoor take ALL of us out to dinner that night. We went to dinner and then had ice cream at Corner House. It was great fun!
And although I feel quite old, being married for ten years while I’m only 29…I do console myself thinking that I have got a head start in life, and I can focus on looking ahead at whats there to come…on increasing the quality of our life, and not on some intangible idea of ’settling down’ as it were.
