Ode to the roomie

[ With contributions from Vidy]

Vidya speaks >

It was a typical 9:00pm drive. Its something that both Katrix and I look forward to. Especially after a day filled with nothing but “ G’morning…..O No Ur Fine…That’s ok……..O That’s fine I can come over the weekend and work on it…….Sorry…Please….Excuse Me……..Thank You…..” Phew! What a day. Finally the 9:00pm drive.

Vidy: Tring tring
Katrix: WHAT!
Vidy: Hey u think we can go for the usual chakkar?
K: Hmmm wait 10:00pm is Friends, so if u wanna go we have to go now
V: Ok done can u come and pick me up.
K: Sure.

Ten minutes later both of us are in the Chevy, the car that has been a dear friend, philosopher and guide (believe me when I say guide. I read this book….Why Men Don’t Listen And Why Women Don’t Read maps…..I believed the former….courtesy Dad, but the latter dawned on me only after I came to the US of A.

So we are on our way, I turn the radio on and am thumping my hand on the arm rest. Katrix has her eyes on the road, she has improved tremendously……except for the occasional speeding over a bump or past an amber light that is accompanied by a predicted “What the F%#$!. This place has the worst bloody roads” and a faint heart attack for me. But today I am oblivious. I am absorbed in the world of Squaredance by Eminem…….he is making no bones that he hates the Bush administration. I make the mistake of mentioning that to Katrix.

Katrix: I like Bush! I mean what the hell! He is gonna come to power then all these suckers will keep their mouths shut.
V: Hmmmm. Hey this song is by Nickel Back. I love it!
K: Yeah me too. *grin*
V: Ammam very funny K.

Note: For ppl who don’t know Kartika well enough…which is rare, her sense of music is non-existent, kinda like my knowledge of American Politics.

V: Hey you know what John just said--- he has this awesome LOTR stuff that he wants me to see.
K: U and LOTR. I hate anything that’s fantastical. I think Matrix is awesome. I mean the philosophy applies so much to our lives.
V: WOW! Wait a sec, why would I want to see a movie that tells me something practical and banal! I like my fantasy world, my knight in shining armor…Arag….
K: Who-- the Hidalgo guy!
V: His name is Aragorn not Hidalgo *frown*
K: Whatever! U are such a kid!! Grow up, two year old!
V: Podi! :P
I know what to do to irritate her. She hates the “Homies” lingo. My “yo bro” vocab has improved thanx to my interest in afro-american singers and my passion for Comedy Central! Bring it on Dawg!

V: Yo B%&*#! Whatcha doin goin on at 45mph instead of 30 huh! I gotta tell u gurl I don’t want nobody stopping us and …..
K: SHUTUP!!!!!!!!!!!! My god! How the hell can u talk like that! Chi that’s so unsophisticated.
V: Hey that wasn’t nothing. Don’t front me gurl! U know I am down for u forever
*wink*

That did it! She had had enough! She switched off the Radio. Be fair! Who is the two year old!
Well its moments like these that make my mundane life worth living. So, here we are—two two-year-olds, in a Chevy, with music blaring. We love our small world; it’s our time, our spat, our semicharmed life!

V: Hey u know what, I think I like applied bio, I mean its awesome. Its really not enough to know how things happen, its great when u say “ hey u know we can use that to do this” isn’t that awesome!
K: I hate applied bio! I mean its like, paper publishing science.
V: Hmmmmm
K: Nope, it's like this. I wonder how nature thought of everything. I treat biology as a philosophy --know what I mean?
I dont, but I just nod anyway. After a few months with katrix, you kinda figure you have to let her have her way sometimes. But if she goes on and on about it, she's goin to get it back. She knows that too, I guess, cos she says that and stays quiet.
K: "well, I think jeff has that feeling too ---that I can philosophize about nature, but when it comes to techniques I am out on the running"
Another katrix trivia-- when she starts talkin about jeff, you gotta jus let her ramble.
V: olve is cute too pa! He is good at everything! I think aloud, ‘Are men like that made anymore????’
Double sighs!!!! Hmmmmmmmmmmm
Silence……
V: Hey u know what, we should do a barbecue. I learnt how to cook chicken from Jes. He says hickory wood is the best wood and all. Lets try na!
K: WHAT! NOW???
V: No, no. Some time later.
K: why is it u talk about things that are gonna happen one month from now? U are funny, girl!

That’s one thing I have noticed about myself. The “thinking-ahead” trait isn’t left at the work place. It follows me like a shadow, wherever I go. Sometimes I wonder what its like to live with me. It can be difficult I am sure, but not too bad I HOPE!

V: Omigosh we got to vacuum the house too.
K: Good God! What’s with u! relax. My god u are a Monica alright!
V: Yeah, you and your friends.
K: O bummer I am gonna miss Friends!
Note: Bummer is used when the mistake is self made, “ what the F^&*#?” is when the traffic light turns red, some guy is driving within the speed limit in front of her or any thing that is not her fault. This discrimination is very important for me.
K: HEY! Friends is the only thing that makes me happy, ok?
V: o yeah, that’s not fantastical at all. Am sure there are loads of such jobless friends living in lofty apartments in NY! How real!
K: I love Ross. He is so weird!
V: I like Chandler *grin*

Ok, so I am a hypocrite. I like Friends too, don’t deny it, but not to the same intensity as K. I have learnt that for K, everything is extreme---be it the strength of the coffee, the amount salt in sabzi, the state of her room. She feels everything to the extreme—love, hate--- both with equal intensity. I wish I were like that. To like something as much as she did, to hate something as much as she did. I wish I could crash and burn, not just linger!

K: He is just a regular guy. Nothing great about him except his good sense of humor.
V: That’s hard to come by now-a-days ok!
K: yeah that’s very true!

Peals of laughter. Finally we agree! Joy!!!! To celebrate we decide to stop at a café and pick up lattes. Back on the road.

Katrix’s mind Speaks >
Let’s move from the tales of Katrix’s adventurous driving to more mundane matters---like say, a typical work-day late evening. Fox news channel, the couch and the potato (no pun intended) are all I need to keep me happy. Vidy comes running out from her now-to-post-midnight-slogging-schedule for a five minute respite to toast a bagel.

"Shut up you guys, you are not making any sense," she says to nobody in particular; it takes me a moment to figure out she's talkin to the reasonably intelligent panel on Hannity and Colmes. I wonder how ANYthing would make any sense when you have just had a fraction of a second of real-world air after getting out of a room floating with protein crystals, much less self-proclaimed liberals and conservatives discussing Dick Clarke's latest book. She’d do more justice saying that to her crystal structures.

"You haven't even heard them for five minutes," I say.

She waits for exactly that amount of time.

“They don’t make any sense."

I feel a little better. At least she has had the chance to give them the benefit of doubt. And hasn't.

"I don’t know how you watch this. They all talk at the same time.” I don’t tell her that one more person only complicates matters further.

Now, from the boring details of a normal week day evening to the boring details of a Friday evening. Sigh! Yet another one.

"Why the hell don’t I have anything to do on a Friday evening?" Now, that could have been me or her---or any of the umpteen 20-somethings who aren't committed yet (Put that way --it sounds much better ---why on earth would I wanna commit to anything? I am a pretty non-committal person, except when you are talking about capitalism, Sampras or philly cheese steak).

Anyway, usually following those fateful 13 words is dining out, a movie or a drive to the mountains.

Let’s deal with each one in its entirety.
Blockbuster movie night! Yaay. It’s not American politics or moral values, so we decide on a movie pretty much without argument. But whether both of us are ultimately satisfied with it is a different question.

“Kate Blanchett is the most under-rated actress,” Vidy says for probably the twenty-fourth time during the course of Missing. There’s no response. She whips around. I don’t blame her. If I have willfully given up a chance to refute a statement (even if it is for the twenty-fourth time) there’s cause for concern. In other words, I am either muted or dead. Quite the opposite, in this case, however. The movie’s put me to sleep.

“She sure is under-rated,” I agree. “Her soporific skills haven’t been discovered yet.”

“It was an awesome movie. Can’t believe you didn’t like it.”

“I just can’t stand slow-moving movies.”

Of course, that’s an adjective no one else would use to describe the film.
And when you hear one of those words, which don’t mean much anywhere except in the katrician lexicon, you have pretty much hit rock bottom. End of argument.

Well, let’s just say Texas Chainsaw massacre is more my kind of movie.

“I hope it’s really scary,” I say from my signature position on the couch.

“Yeah, I hope so too”, Vidy says emphatically. And as if to reinforce her point, she ducks her head under the table at the first hint of a skull like object.

‘Is she just trying to make the movie scarier for me?’ I wonder.

I decide not when after a few minutes, all I see is something akin to the contour of her head under the comforter. I have to admit, the guy did hack through the man’s body with a chainsaw, but doesn’t the title of the movie pretty much spell that to you?

By the next chainsaw incident, Vidy had said, “I am not watching this movie” about five times. In all fairness, at least she’d moved further and further away from the television set. The second half of the movie happened with Vidy yelling, “Hey, what happened?” from the hallway every ten minutes.

Some way to watch a movie, I must say.

Dining out---now, that’s always fun considering our mutually exclusive eating choices. While I inarguably go for the first steak dish on the menu, Vidy is looking for that miracle food which comes without a trace of meat in it. If it’s nearing the end of the month, however, both of us restrict ourselves to the right side of the menu; it could be flavored grass for all we care.

After the usual “You really should start eating meat” from me and her “That thing smells”, and no offence taken by either side, we dig into the heavily decorated food with gusto.

The conversation is as rich as the food, although I make half of it incomprehensible by talking with my mouth full. Vidy hates that but then habits die-hard---I have always put food first.

We drive through downtown and I decide it will be fun to window-shop at The Cupboard—our favorite novelty shop. Both of us spend the time reassuring ourselves that we should be able to afford all that stuff at some point in life. “Wow, look at this cup—its wrought iron,” I say.

Vidy has a startled expression but all she says is “That’s porcelain. That’s how good porcelain looks.”

“Oh, really?” Didn’t know that. That doesn’t take away from my liking, however.

She shows me how to figure out good porcelain by placing the mouth of the goblet near my ear. She’s right. Even to my ears, that sounds musical.

After a Coldstone dessert or equally likely, a novel concoction at Alley Cat, we’re headed home.

A drive to the mountains- wow- or at least, we seem to be going in that general direction. We can’t see them in the night. ‘Somewhat similar to our lives,’ I say. ‘It’s there, yet not there.’

That begins a spate of philosophy-- on our different natures, our social lives—or lack of them, her passion for science and my hatred for it, my plausible writing future, dream men that elude us and family that’s always there for us.

In the distant background, a song plays. Vidy convinces me it’s my favorite song. “Really?” I start tapping my fingers though I could swear to you I have never heard it before. But on music, I think I trust her judgment more than mine.