'They should be in anytime', Sandy yelled from the living room, dragging herself from the couch.
It was around 5:00 pm and Sandy had returned from her office a while back.
The appartment was real clean as if we had moved in today. I could smell the White Zodiac from Flower Gram, mauve and white flowers over the glass table complemented the black leather couch and the green rug. Sandy was great at mixing colors, an amateur interior decorater at heart. The cream-white glass stools had a lilac touch, matching the strips on the fan.

I and Sandy had stayed together off the Wellington Road, near the Lords Cricket Ground for the last 4 years. Once every month the artist in Sandy expressed. 'Its lovely'.. .while I put my coat and umbrella in the closet, 'why isn't this way every day,' I mumbled.

'Annie, is at the Queen Mary's Garden. Harri, had called from Middlesex Hospital.'

Harry, Harris in its Indian form- is supposed be here, Annie, aka Anita has been invited too by Sandy. Harrie and I have been to the same school, Annie and Sandy were roomates throughout their college days. Sandy and I, were friends, quite good friends sharing perfectly frank, prefectly kindly, perfectly unsexual comradeship.

I was franticly checking the refrigrator and the kitchen, 'Do we have everything ready for dinner,' I asked in genuine wonder, though should have been very much sure ,'they ought to be.'
'Come sit beside me, everything is perfect!, We can watch the movie till they come, ' Sandy signaled with her sweet, soft and shapely hand. The tension of the moment didn't engulf me that much that I couldn't notice how beautiful she was, the oriental tan, straight raven hair slightly curly at the ends, thin "duck like" lips, the unshrinking gaze; the maroon tank and black lower accentuated every bit of the atheletic build she had.

The doorball rang, and as if ...WIP..

Bangalore, India July 2000.
Anjali, her two blue bags, a white 'toy' panda - "Snoopy" on KK express pulled into the tin shed of a dimly lit, shabby station.

The view from the side seat of the AC1 coach looks distantly promising to Anjali, who had heard so much about the town-- it only sleeps before the most happening town of India , Mumbai. The station defintely promised otherwise. The bookstall on the right, few PCO booths on the left just outside the Platform 1 bustled with the frantic excitement of people trying to reach their near and dear ones.

Anjali walked to the book stall, gazing at the myriad of books on the stall. A sudden realisation brought the sweet smile on her face, a dimple on one side -- eyed by everyone whom she had met till date. Sweet enough for her father and mother to believe Aanjali would never take the wrong stand. No one was watching her step, she could pick any magazine.

It need not be under the scrutiny of her sister Sia - don't read this, don't read that. Anjali, was free, free to act in whatever manner she wished. There was nothing to fear; Sia must be sitting and crunching numbers at 20 Cabot Square 2nd Floor, Stanley House, London. She picked the Cosmopolitan, Jennifer Loved Hewitt in a blanched almond cocktail attire donned the cover.

She moved towards the multi arched gate. It was 1:30 in the afternoon. The warmth of the sun reminded her of the spring Sun of Delhi.
Madame ! Madame ..Where you want to go. A short,stout, moustached middle aged man approached Anjali.
"Kormanagla, 5th Block" Anjali retorted. The brown top, golden rod yellow stripped on black three wheeler cranked to the powerful pull of the driver. 395cc engine hummed at slow pace while Anjali pushed her bags in the aisle infront of the back seat of the 'autorickshaw'.

'Hogonwa!,' the driver turned back; Anjali was startled by the quirk, both vocal and physical.
'What ?', She couldn't fathom the happiness with which the driver had asked her. The sound didn't make her feel as if the driver was asking.

'Oh, first time in Bangalore. Interesting city,' he said pulling the vehicle in drive. Anjali turned back to take the view of the station, this was going to be the gate to her long life in Bangalore. 'Bangalore Cantonment' on the medieval architecture, with a gothic touch- slowly disappeared as they turned left.

She started to flip the pages of the magazine she had bought. 'You can go to Lal Bagh, Cubbon Park, Bull Temple, Ulsoor Lake Madame!, ' the driver said driving efforlessly. The jolt of a sudden break to avoid a crash with a black CBZ startled her. Cosmo Fashion had her totally engrossed. 'What went wrong Ahmed,' she had managed to know his name. 'Nothing, see the Vidhana Soudha,' said Ahmed, mumbling about the driver that went past.

The neo-Dravidian granite house, home of the State Legislature and the Secretariat looked splendid. She could get the glimpse of massive sandalwood door. The signal turned green. She was on her way to House #132, 5th Main 4th Cross Vth Block Koramangla.

Date 12 Oct 1990, at one of the suburbs of Southern Calcutta. It should have been a friday, as Praby, Tuhi and Cachee were idling around in the silent ailes of the Study hall.
It was a typical friday room- study time, tomorrow being a holiday.
The like minded had gathered together; Praby - a good cartoonist, with a knack of humor. Tuhi -the guy with inexplicable and inexhaustable enthusiasm. Cachee the one with the good ideas and passable sketching.
The dream was to create a comic book. After due deliberation a character was born, a stupid one-- Dullo was what we called him/her(I don't recall was it a he or she, or was it that we wanted to associate stupidity to it, irrepective of the sex ) .Dullo - A sweet donkey.

Date 29 Nov 2004,Cachee's vision still exists while sitting in a dimly lit room on the second floor of a semi urban apartment. However, now he wonders will the animation wind blow from India. Praby's wish is now what Paprikaas Animation Studio's mission is. Tuhi is busy giving solace to the unsatisfied souls on the banks of Ganges whereas After Effects and Maya are giving solace to the artistic child that was in Tuhi.
Incredibles release on 17th December in India and the hazy image of Praby, Tuhi and Cachee right acroos the winter frost on the window pane ......makes me wish, there ought to be something like Pixar in India.

Good Lord, not only did I make it to the morning sale! I bought a hefty lot.I was part of one of them, who made the companies bottomline move from red to black. I was part of those who made it for them by being there at 5 am in the approaching zero temp.The companies,none to name specifically had patrons from all grp.

Interesting people abound earth, how could the 'morning spot' be different. People willing to sell - coupons, collected at 3:30 am for 50$; a real old man on the wheel-chair - conspicuous, at number one in queue.

Contrasting warmth of enthusiasm and the chill of wind sparsely inhabited the pictureseque early morning,afterall most of them were veterans at the Queue Company.

The long wait at the Queue served as the beacon to the thought:
Was all this ---- a consumer's paradise or a plummeting economy's veil ..

My exposure to the actual markets of India and US restricts me to compare only the two.
The fall of Sears n DEC, spring act of IBM and dilemma at Xerox (more on this sometime later) are these some way related to the mega SALE.
Indian economic history doesn't have so much of interesting stories to tell. It doesn't have the MEGA sale like this too.

I as a buyer in the line was doing nothing other than letting the white collars at these firms save their payroll. Save the payroll on something which market had seemingly declared as obsolete.

The buying capacity of market had seized for the things on sale, why wasn't an IPOD on sale -- not even a 10% discount. A discount wouldn't harm if it was celebrating season. Indian markets do give discounts on new(might be old as per global market) items.

The pressure of performing ASAP has led to the concept of mega -sale , an easy way to get as much as possible on the non recoverable debts.

After a 6$(40$MIR) wireless card, 31$(45$MIR) SD Card,...et all.
how could I be an Unhappy Customer....
All the thought of an implicit cause zipped past as I drove back to office to work with empty cubicles around.

Others were still out in the pursuit of calling it a real "BLACK FRIDAY"...pumping money to pay people alike them -- employees

Interesting enough, the festive buying season had a new surprise for our home too.

Some one whom we didn't know a flat 15 days ago,was now the person-- who was the centre of enthusiasm -- a reason to drink more, talk more...and make merry. :)...

Why would a guy be the centre for people who were straight...We doubt that too :)

They say u don't marry a person, with him/her comes everything...With the new comer, too, came a lot of things; lot of songs which we had not heard for years, lot of stories of his life which we were not part of till this date.

But above all; came the willingness to let urself loose.

Sure enough, Heine was the first step to it.
Wine Women and Dine is what interests everyone(Don't be offended...if u are not one of them).Wine had to succumb to women.....the mashed potatoes, turkey and ranch salad had to wait...and wait real long...(one of our fellows was really starving)After all women were there in the queue, and can u let a lady wait...I guess not :)(It isn't gentlemen behaviour ). An interest in the hypothetical fairer counterpart, whom we all knew the least consummately disapproved of our 'real interest'. However, the Green bottle had had its effect/affect. And we didn't bother whether we were talking sane..after all none of us wanted a break from that sweet talk..
Sleep, Rest and Rational thinking had to definitely wait...

.

The lure of sale out on the corner for a newbie in USA is pretty enticing. It definitely can keep you waiting for something you want for months..Did we wait that long for the best gal to say yes to our proposal on the annual day...! ..I doubt we didn't ...
But I know I was part of such a long wait...and am still...
A thursday holiday with the lure of a friday sale definitely made us not leave the town; we stayed in for a hope that we might get what we crave for...

A grocery routine without the automotive comfort is always questionable!...But behold a 20 mile stretch without the comfort of a means to bring us back to the comforts of the home should have been OUT AND OUT wrong....! but few of us did take that leap. I skipped out of it.

Later in the evening, I got lucky; got another "alien hopeful" to drive down to Belk, JCPenny, Circuit City , Best Buy.....and planned to go to many others. However, the willingness to part with the Friday Morning sales was absent at all the customer service desks.

With the entire effort we bought two concept
1) Buy the charlotte (that is my town :)) Observer.
2) Come at the store early morning....

We did collect the Charlotte observer; however, nothing as enticing as we had thought ...some 50% off....
Few thought to seek the company of Heine! ...to let the dissapointment dissappear...
It is 10:25 pm ..shouldn't we be off to sleep to get up early tomorrow!...Looks like not..the Heine fan still have a lot to talk....
God ! Hope that we reach the store in the morning!...

3 bottles of Heine each, we got company at 12:16AM. A company to skim through all pamphlets.
A cheap MP3 player(sigh :( not an ipod) a zr 85 camcorder(sigh :( not a sony and not 1 MegaPix still) a SLR cannon rebel(who knows what we are missing) would be --what we might look for tomorrow morning...
If neither the quality nor the brand would keep us awake, .......the % and the green BUCK might !...
Tommorrow Morning would only tell...Let me grab some food....afterall we do need to survive..