Roof is falling

Imagine your phone rings on a regular weekday, around 6 in the evening. You look at the screen and thanks to something called CLIP (Caller Line Identity Presentation) I knew its my neighbour. Now, I’d called my neighbour, Aunty T earlier in the day to ask her to pass on a message to my help at home, and well assumed this call would be some clarification on our dinner (that was my message).

I put on my most cheerful voice, answer the phone and the conversation goes something like this:

Me: Hi Aunty T (from hereon referred to as AT)
AT: Snehaaaa ( her was quivering..I assumed it was age..she must be atleast 90) … there’s been a huge mishap...in your house
(Me Thinking: Oh no! Maybe Tripps (my help) had made peeli dal instead of kaali)
Me Speaking now: Yes Aunty, what happened? Has Tripps not turned up? Or is she asking for something..
AT: No Snehaaaa…your roof has collapsed!!

The rest of the conversation is all a haze, mainly because it happened about 1.25 years ago and I have now forgotten.

Going back to the roof. My immediate thoughts were not of horror or dismay or consternation (and just incase you’re wondering, no I did not use the thesaurus). My brain just pictured the damn thing. A gaping hole in our roof (given that we live on the top most floor). Allowing the starts & moonlight (and god knows what else) to flood our living room, where the roof had collapsed.

I zoomed the fastest our car could zoom (the Alto starts trembling once you hit the 60 kmph mark).

Well what troubled me more was that T & I were to leave for Chennai (where my parents live) the next day. Whatta pain! The thought that this trip might get cancelled troubled me all the way to Bandra.

And thanks to Cool & his cooler N76, I am saved the task of describing the condition of the roof & living room.

Our house that evening became a mini tourist attraction in Bandra(W) with more than half the building visiting to see the fiasco. Most of them appeared more shocked than T and me, some egging us on to sue the Society/Land lord etc. etc.

Anyway,..our trip happened, the roof got repaired (thanks to the landlords daughter partly moving to our house in our absence) and finally cracks have started reappearing.

They say "Alls well that ends well" – well, we are waiting & watching.

Flights of Fantasy

For all those from the ICSE Board, no am not referring to the poetry book which formed part of our English curriculum. This is an effort to recap all the bizarre incidents that I can recall at airports/ on aircrafts.


- Your name being called out in an aircraft full of passengers, with the steward announcing – “Will the woman carrying this bottle of alchohol please identify herself”

- The Captain announcing “We are having some problem landing, there is a dog on the runway – our ground staff is working at its level best at chasing it”

- Flight not taking off due to a “tachnical wather problem” (refer earlier blog)

- The seat indicated on my boarding card being allotted to 3 other people. I completed the journey sitting on one of those collapsible seats on which the airhostesses sit. (They have a name, which I am unable to recollect)

- On landing in Heathrow, in the city of my dreams, the first sentence I hear on entering the airport.” In saare gore logo ko danda maar kar line mein khade karvana hai (I apologise for my Hindi here)

An old granny flying for the first time insisted on opening the window saying “khidki kholni hai” (and I am not making this up)

Ok I can't think of anymore, and I guess have overblogged. So adios for now.