Call from Sister - part 2

Yesterday evening, I got a call from my sister. It was the usual customary ‘How’s everything?’ call. She was getting back home from work. She was returning my call to her earlier asking if she could help me/us by getting us contacts of some college festival organizers and stuff. What I thought was a regular conversation suddenly changed course.

I don’t exactly know what the trigger was. But it just sounded the same bullshit to me. She thought that my life has lost its direction. She thought that I was not sure about what I wanted to do. Citing these examples, she tried to drive home the point.

• When you fell in love with Vinokur, you wanted to go over to New York.
  
• After that, you decided that it was better for Vinokur to come here.
  
• Once Vinokur came here, thing’s weren’t all the ‘rosy’. He went back.
  
• Then you say, he would come back.
  
• Now you say, you want to go visit him.
  
• You often get crushes on ‘other’ men.
  
• You aren’t sure as to what to do – either music or medicine.
  
• You aren’t happy now. That’s because of all these problems that you have.

She thinks that I should simply push back all the other things in my life and concentrate on my exams; Vinokur, Music and all of that. How easy is it for someone to say that huh? But then, there are weird things happening in my life. I’m going through bankruptcy; I’m worrying about Vinokur’s health; I’ve failed in my exams. The truth is that with all the things that I’m doing right now, I’m trying to forget all these negativities. And I think I’m doing a good job keeping myself upbeat and spirited.

She went on to tell me various other things like – Look, you aren’t giving your parents a priority in your life. You are just thinking about yourself. You aren’t thinking about some people who are suffering more as compared to you – you should try to help them and thus feel better! I told her that I would love to take care of my parents. But I didn’t want to compromise my life, my love and my happiness for anyone. We all need to be selfish, shouldn’t we?

I know that I’m not making a great job of studying right now and I’m ashamed that I can’t concentrate that hard. But then, I don’t want people to tell me be that I’m all fucked up – especially from my sister.

I told her that I thought that she was simply not seeing my side of things. I also explained to her that it was hard for either of us to comment on the other’s life as we live in totally different worlds. And I finally told her that, whatever her intentions are, she’s not helping me at all – instead she had just made me feel bad. I know that it was harsh on my part too.

Despite disagreements, she called me today morning to ask me if I was doing okay? I accepted her apology and returned the apology for being rather brash to her. :)

Dating troubles *updated

I have been gearing up to post about relationships for a while. But I needed something juicy to write about. At the same time, I didn’t want to be mean or intrusive to anyone else’s life. Then, I had a talk to one of my friends. He is going to the worst time of his life in his dating life. I honestly wanted to help him and to cheer him up.

I asked if I could blog about it and get some advice from the most brilliant minds (of course, I’m kidding) on the blogosphere. Surprisingly, he said yes. He in fact wanted his name and his blog to be mentioned so that those people who felt sympathetic towards him could mush about in his own blog. But that aside, I suspect that he’s conjuring up devious thoughts and intends to translate the traffic that he would get to become a micro-celebrity like how everyone else (losers like me) is becoming these days. Confused? Check this space tomorrow.

Back to him - Let’s get the facts on the table here. He is a 32 31 year old, sweet looking guy with a trim, but not lithe, body. He’s got a gorgeous smile, wicked sense of humor and a plethora of pop-knowledge to charm anyone in a conversation; someone who would steal the show in a dinner-table conversation. He’s intelligent, educated (ex-Harvard Virginia), successful (believe me honey, all of you must have seen his ideas in the media) and rich (as compared to other losers, again like me). He’s a confident, out of the closet, a celebrity blogger and has readership from at lest 78 countries spread across the globe. All the women who have just woken up the realization of the warm sensation of wetness in their panties, can go to the rest room and change into a fresh one. Sorry gals, this one’s queer.

Amazing resume, is it not? Who wouldn’t want to date this guy? Let me see, women who are into women (Why am I into lesbian bashing these days?) and losers like me who aren’t exactly into young bubbly buns. Even those who have come back to join us after their panties-change, would realize that they can harbor this vulgar desire despite a null chance to consummate their relationship.

So, this Mr. Perfect is finding it hard to find his prey in the dating pool in Mumbai. The people he is attracted to get more attracted to someone else. There is this amazing repetitiveness to this fact. The people who hit on him are generally the kind who belong to the broad category called ‘dumb morons’. Hence, there is no luck on that front as well. Believe me, he has done a lot of real-life hitting on (ie. At parties, treks and picnics) and nothing has led to anything yet. It’s ironic to note that when he came from Bangalore to Mumbai, it was mainly because he thought that Bangalore was such a lousy fuck in general. Mumbai seemed greener and it actually is. Hard luck for him as is evident in his last post on his blog.

So, what do y’all suggest? I suggested online personals and dating near strangers until he stumbled on the one that he’s going to be with for the rest of his life. I know I’m projecting my experience to everyone else’s (hopefully). But I thought it is worth a cheap-shot at least. He is so desperate that he’s planning to move back to Boston by the end of this year if he’s not getting lucky here.

Please pour in with your suggestions, tips and advice to Oprah, Oprah Winfrey show, California Chicago, USA. Also copy it on to the comments section and his blog here.

****UPDATED on Aug 26 at 11.00 pm due to popular request****

Our Mr. Perfect is Vikster (Vikram) and you can get in touch with him through his blog or his e-mail. I have corrected a few errors on the post as well.

Narcissism to the fore, once more

The last time I posted something about my looks and stuff, I felt the wrath of criticism stating that I was just too self-indulgent and narcissistic. I was hurt. I went back and asked my mirror the question. But dammit, the mirror refused to answer my question if I was so. I spent a couple of weeks or so in isolation, silently brooding as to how to approach and solve this problem.

Finally I found it. It is a pimple. A small one on my right cheek (bone) really. I still have to pretend to ignore snidely remarks from my friends asking me if I was till puberty. But I have learned from my extensive medical academics that it isn’t always because of hormonal imbalances; diet, hydration, oil control of the skin and emotional state play a part

Since most of you already know that I don’t eat or drink anything worth mentioning and that my emotional state of turbulence will take another 78 years to subside, do you have some advice for taking care of my skin. Someone, from my famous ‘single pictures’ post had suggested moisturizer.

Honestly, every time I visit my supermarket, I walk across the scores of well-lit shelves of skin care products. I don’t have a clue as to what to buy. Could someone, please stand up and give me a tip or two? The more the detail, the more platonic love you can expect from me back.

Hair fall solutions?

I come from a family of men who are bald, obese and generally ugly. The obesity part is manageable with some dietary adjustments, exercise and wisdom. Ugliness is subjective really. I’m not saying that I think I’ll pass of as a model or anything but yeah, I look decent. The only thing that I am scared of is getting bald.

Why, all of a sudden? Well, the story is that in the past few months I have been losing hair. Not in the typical androgenic balding pattern. But I think I’m getting generally thinning. It is evident in my apartment clear white tiles as I broom everyday. It is evident in the bathroom drain sieve as it gets clogged every now and then. A scary thought – my father who’s entirely bald and almost Mr. Weatherbee-esque had hair like the Parachute ad-models until 30. One deluge of hair and he turned bald.

I have reason to believe it is rather wide-spread and not necessarily limited to the scalp as there are much shorter, curlier hairs in my dust pile after brooming. Aaargh? Nope, wrong there. I’m a semi-hirsute and it must be from the pectoral region.

So what do the wise men and women of the blogging world have as suggestions to me?

(Stats: 28 year old, non-vegetarian who hardly has enough money to eat. Don't smoke. Hardly has alcohol. I drink about a litre of water. I sleep irregularly and worry a lot. I prefer coconut oil to anything else for hair. I use conditioner and shampoo (regularly) about twice every week. Pantene and Garnier are my preferred brands. I used to use hair gels when I went to the hospital.)