Fire scare and the usual jhik jhik

Dear folks, it is here. The wedding. Since the past few days, we have been swamped. And we don't know in what. There is just a gazillion things to do. And several disasters to take care of.

The latest arrival is that of mine बापू. He is Junior Dadi's absolute favourite. This video will prove that.



Look at that smile! In fact अन्खुं calls his wife the दरोगा and my Dad the D.I.G. And like all सरकारी अफसर, mine बापू also has all of us running around to ensure he has nothing to complain about. चाची tends to not talk quite a lot in the presence of बापू.

Now let me tell you a little bit about our living arrangements. The first floor of the house has two rooms- the left room, which is where I have spent the 13 years of mine life since we moved into this house and the right room, which has the TV and the dressing table and where Dad stays when he is here. Like I have shared earlier, my original room (the left room) had been converted into the D-room since August this year. The D-room is the दाज room and this is where all the gifts, clothes and other things belonging to the bride have been stored. Upon mine eviction to convert the left room to the D-room, I shifted to the right room. I had a pleasant stay there for a few months. When Dad was to arrive, Junior Dadi became increasingly agitated and anxious over her apple's (i.e. my Dad's) living arrangements and comfort. So she kicked me out of the right room. Because "गजेन्दर आँ जाई पसंद ऐ" (Gajender- my father- likes his space). Thankfully, चाची took pity on me and gave me half of the bed-space in the left room (that is now the D room until the wedding, remember?). I was grateful.

Then the next night, the room began to smell funny. And there was a power cut. Only in our house. So we called our trusted electrician काका मामा, who like us and everybody else we deal with, is quite careless in his work. Now when you are selling बाल्टी मग्गे like चाचा does, this attitude is still acceptable. But when you are an electrician like काका मामा, it is bad news. Also, the reason that काका मामा is काका मामा-he calls चाची, दीदी and चाचा, जीजाजी. ऐसे ही. No reason. And Dear God, काका मामा has the stinkiest pair of feet ever.

So when the room began to smell funny and the power cut happened to be in our house only, we called for काका मामा. But काका मामा was not in town so Chacha's trusted aid, गुरमीत भैया (more about the trusted aid may be found here found a nice गोरखी electrician, Bahadur ji. Bahadur ji fixed stuff to the extent that nothing would catch fire but said that since he really could not figure out काका मामा's चालू (and not in a good way) wiring in the house, he would not be able to totally fix it.

So until the D room becomes the left room again and we have kicked Monu out of here legally, I am out in the balcony. Like this:



If you think about it, my temporary room is pretty neat. It has a great view and an even better audio-field, by which I mean I can be privy to all gossip and bitching without the folks below knowing I am around. Here is how great the view is:



The thing that bothers me though is that when the family came to know that the room almost burnt, the first reaction was "हाय शुक्कर है सामान बच गया". Even when I reminded them that I was in the room too, they gave the uncomfortable laugh and said "ओहो, चलो बच के रहा करो".

Sigh!