the maid

has a name that I don't want to divulge as everybody i know knows her too. I shall simply from this point on call her Sanjana. Want to make clear that I was not being sick and classist by referring to her as "the maid". Had to come up for a name for her too. My life depends on her and she knows it. I'm a useless upper-class babe who cannot cook. I just can't. Everything else, but no cooking. I'm BAD at it. I need her to cook, she needs my money. We are in a co-dependent double-bind.

yikes

no one's been reading this blog but they have been checking out my profile...anyway I clicked on some of my favourite movie hyperlinks and yikes guess what. Only some 56 year old guy in the US has "Easy Rider" down and his interests are....EXTREME PATRIOTISM. Only one interest, and that's the one.

How can "Easy Rider" be his favourite movie? Or maybe I'm being narrow minded here. Yes I am. There's no reason why you can't love a deeply anti-establishment movie and also be extremely patriotic. It could be a little blip in the gamma rays of his brain. Or maybe he loves the moment when the hippie fella gets blown off his motorcycle by a redneck with a shotgun. YESS! So dramatic, so fulfilling...

continuing after break for coke...

Just edited my profile. Whew. Sort of slogged through favourite movies, but got really tired on favourite books. I suppose I could have just said nothing, but years of obedience to forms and rules have left their mark. But am absolutely revelling in this untramelled egotism. I mean, catch anyone I know wanting to know anything like this about me, or me even wanting to divulge any of this stuff. I mean, like, I can say anything here and no one I know will ever know, unless I'm really unlucky. The word dyke is a dead give-away though because the dykes in Delhi all know each other. But hey googling dyke pal, if you've come to this post and figured, pl do me a favour and don't tell none of the other community-walis 'cause I'm having fun here don't you know. Just send me a sneaky little post and I'll buy you a cappucino to shut you up.
My life: revolves around my gorgeous girlfriend. She actually makes me happy, unlike the many before her who didn't. So nearly two years later, we're still happy happy. Hurrah. Also hurrah for the beautiful guitar that was hers but is now mine (she never played it, I do).
But the girl is out of town, so I did lots of washing up and tidying up in the morning, and thought about nothing at all. Heard The Rolling Stones do "Satisfaction" about 20 times over, then got a bit worried that the neighbours might complain, so turned it down. But the neighbours here don't complain. I'm a really good, quiet girl, and only girls ever visit me! One beautiful girl in particular.
I hardly know any men any more, except my father and brother-in-law. Don't miss them at all. Can't help seeing them around in the city, but do this curious visual thing in which I don't see them. But I do see all the women. I wonder if straight men do the same thing.

wow ji

Here I am then kicking off years after everyone else - I think having a large flat of my own after years of having but a room has opened up my brain somewhat. So that rather than lurking in a depressed way under the weight of several thousand chattering books, I find myself instead on this warm March day in a large, airy room that overlooks a few freshly planted flower beds. What should I do with myself this Sunday, I wondered. Well here I am then, not being too preoccupied with other things I have to do than blog. At some stage I'll slink off and play my guitar, but till then...
It was torture trying to think of some blog identity for myself. The brain hasn't opened up that much and I've always been terribly un-clever at words. So Cham Cham because it is an amazing mithai - it's pure sugar, more or less, in its pristine form and only dedicated mithai eaters like Bengalis or UP wallahs can eat it without flinching. But if you can get past the first overwhelming punch to the base of the brain as it goes down, it leaves you feeling, how do I put it, tingly and satisfied. A nice substitute for sex, an antidote for anxiety, a soother of mangled nerves after a fraught session with your therapist. Let's say I like Cham Cham and it's also the name given to the ginger tomcat who eats his breakfast here everyday. He was named by the maid, another cham cham addict. Still I must make clear that this name was chosen only because no other name came to my mind at all. While being an admirer of cham cham, I'm not that crazy about it. I have migraine, and more than two cham chams usually bring on an attack.
Ok, why is the blog called aflatoon. Almost the same reason - aflatoon being an interesting sweet you get in Muslim restaurants in Bombay - so while thinking of cham cham, I thought of aflatoon. It also refers to Mr. Plato, and I'm ok with that, but it also sounds a bit like a-flat-of-my-own. So that's how.