What a wonderful world!

People are so interesting. And so thoroughly dis-likable.

But amusing. Since we are seeing things in a positive light.

A friend on Facebook quoted Veda who had tweeted, “Chetan Bhagat’s readership consists almost entirely of people who failed grammar in high school. And IQ tests in real life. #truestory” also, people who called books, ‘story books’ because their height of literary stimulation was amar chitra katha..so if you’re a Chetan Bhaghat fan, feel free to un-friend me…if i find out, i might be tempted to do so anyway…”

Showing no doubt you will agree great sense of sarcasm and taste.

But oh ho there was such an onslaught – totally outraged. I thought Grammar Nazis like some of us are bad. But this was the junta talking – clearly a junta who revered Chetan Bhagat and hailed him as India’s Shakespeare. I do not say that lightly. They actually made Shylock’s speech on his (Chetan Bhagat’s) behalf. If you prick us do we not bleed and all that. But I doubt they would get that reference.

I don’t know these people so it’s fun to just quote them. Like it would have mattered had I known them! LOL. I’m damn funny, that way.

LS: It is a bit patronising….don’t you think?

ADB: This is not directed at you, but the post 🙂 — What’s wrong with failing grammar in high school? Impeccable grammar is not an indicator of intelligence, success or holistic development. We don’t judge people who fail science and math so why should we judge those who fail grammar? Everyone is born with certain gifts and to make friends on the basis of their syntax capabilities is incredibly shallow according to me. I happen to be a Chetan Bhagat reader…with a 98th percentile verbal score in the GRE. So go figure… :))

Wow. After that, what was I to do but mentally salute this half-wit who remembers her sterling GRE score but has such appalling taste in books and is proud of it. So I promptly decided to blog about this.

Friend who’d posted said: Umm..nothing wrong with flunking grammar or being a chetan bhagat reader..I just don’t think much of the latter & aired my opinion sarcastically..don’t know about you, but ‘m not on fb to be politically correct…

And I thought she had the last word. But you know how half-wits are.

ADB struck again: Sure… each to his own right? 🙂 Like I said earlier — My response is directed at the contents of the post since it’s a public forum and it spoke to me — not at you, your personal opinions or reasons for being on fb.

Not just a scorer but a score! Wah! Wah! How open-minded!

Anyway I laughed my head off as is appropriate and congratulated friend who ended the debate with ‘Cool.’

In other news, my childhood BF put up a silly joke about how the married women are more beautiful than the unmarried ones. And it lead us to discuss my multiple marriages. And BF said that he takes inspiration from me as we are both Geminis (we, in fact, have the same birthday) so we regularly play the field. Or think that we do.

And another half-wit actually thought my best buddy from childhood was taking potshots at me being muchly married. And congratulated him for being sarcastic because he said all that about inspiration.

Anyway so here’s this low-life who has no idea what I am about or anything and acting all virtuous and bitchy. For no reason. So I told childhood BFF that he should be concerned about the brains of the women on his FB list and not their beauty. And left it at that. So like that. Such things are a bit harsh when you haven’t slept in three days/nights. But we keep the bounce on.

Because yesterday I also met a beautiful woman – who showed me a curious mix of her vulnerabilities and strength. It was a friendly but very intimate discussion about her life in Germany and moving here as an expat wife with nothing but time on your hands to visit spas. Which sounds like a perfect life for lazy old me.

But then of course, Husband 2 doesn’t approve of many of the single expats we know. And very rightly because they live here and hate it. And mock it. So yes, that ain’t definitely happening although it would be perfect. But believe me, loving foreigners is difficult. And it cuts both ways.

Of course, now my friend is more confident being in India and actually likes it here. So there we were sitting in the hall looking out to the balcony and a sunset in Bangalore. She’d just finished telling me how Bangalore had been a nightmare when she’d first moved here without knowing enough English, having to look for, furnish, and keep house. And be entirely dependent on her husband – something she hated. And she told me how all she did was cry for three whole months. And she and her husband decided to try a long-distance marriage because clearly she was so miserable here. It couldn’t have been easy. I could see the strain of it on her face. And then she was telling me about how the death of her dad shook her so thoroughly. It was sad. It was clear that she really missed him still. She had tears in her eyes.  So it was all intense and sad. And suddenly, she clutched my hand and said – Oh Bhumika, look at the sunset, it’s so beautiful! The world we live in is so beautiful. We are so lucky to live here.

And I was like, Wow! What a woman. And just when I was falling in love with her – she got a mail. And she laughed like a child.

A client of hers on having learnt that she was in Bangalore on holiday and not in Germany had wished her a happy holiday. Just that.

And she laughed like a child. And then turned pink with embarrassment and told me – I’m so sorry, but I like these exchanges with people. It feels so nice. This guy just said happy holidays to me. Isn’t that so sweet? And pleasant? I don’t know, I feel very happy. I know it’s ordinary, but I feel so happy with such little things.

And when I walked out of her house, I was smiling too. So beautiful really the world we live in is.