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Its 10:30 am and after making a gigantic cup (yellow!) of coffee, I am back under the

covers, coffee on the bedside table. This is me trying to tell myself that I got coffee in

bed. And this is me telling myself that if its chilly and you can hear thunder roll and

the sky is grey and there is that distinct sound of a light drizzle it is ok to have a lazy

Sunday. Its ok to wake up at 8 am but stay in bed till 10 and its ok to be writing first

thing in the morning. In fact I quite like this. Writing first thing in the morning. Itsseems my head had been making sentences and slotting them in an order while I slept

and now all I am doing is tapping along on my keyboard, sipping coffee and soon I

will be saying, viola.

I can see my garden (for some reason it is scary for me only in the dark!) and I am

glad I wont have to water it. It might not look huge but when you get down to

watering it, takes an hour at least. Trust me. For some reason I am looking forward to

ironing my clothes. I have realized that like applying nail polish, ironing clothes has a

strange effect on me. I need to concentrate almost a 100 per cent an that somehow

makes me less stressed. Not that I am stressed right now. Just saying.

And now that I have spent one month in this city, I have started doing what residents

do. Discovering great places for the regular stuff you need to get by. Not just the bestpizza or the nicest gelato or the best pasta etc etc. you get the drift right? So on

Friday, my one month anniversary (using one of the most incorrect phrases we all use

all the time!) in Firenze, I happened to go for dinner with two of my colleagues to this

Chinese restaurant and I am so so so happy I did. I was craving something that was

not a pasta, or salad, or meat with veggies or risotto and there it was. Chicken friend

noodles, prawns, pork with green peppers, steamed rice, vermicelli, and tofu. I also

chanced upon a place that sells incense (really expensive agarbattis if you ask me) and

some really funky travel stuff and toys. And it is right next to the only shop that

stocks English books here (and yes! You find Vikram Seth, Salman Rushdie,

Arundhati Roy, Arvind Adiga and Amitav Ghosh in abundance here. But not Ghoshs

latest book yet.). And both the shops are down the shop that from now on I will call

the best gelato shop in Florence. I do like three other family owned ones a lot, but this

one tops them. Owned by two young Italians who have taken their business global

(shops in NYC, Paris etc) their gelato is more expensive than other places but one lick

and you know why. I read about them when I was trying to google just how many

calories and how much fat am I subjecting myself to through my gelato indulgence.

So my new frequent haunts are all on the same street. Nice.

I think the key to living in different cities is to go beyond discovering food and things

that are typical to the place. You cannot be a tourist if you live someplace for a long

time right. So I think this is a good thing. I now have my own favourite gelato shop

(ok! Thats a typical thing) my own favourite Chinese place, my book shop (I am sureevery English speaking person in Florence calls it the same way!) and my tiny nook to

buy incense. So yesterday madam bought an agarbatti stand, a total of 30 agarbattis

and the total cost was as much as I spend on agarbattis every six months. Made me

laugh. But I like incense and it makes me feel at home at home. Those of you who

have been to my place will remember that I always create an incense corner. And

those of you who plan on visiting remember to call before you take that flight because

I will at every point in time have a small list of things I might need. And yes, I might

just include some really mundane chemist shop items, or even books. They are

frightfully expensive overseas. I spent 20 euros on two books that would have cost be

10 euros back home. Well I know its books and they last forever and no one can

contest my love for books but sometimes I would not mind seeing a few new ones onmy shelves with Indian price tags.

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Oh! And I went shopping too. Yes I did. So I bought myself skinny black work

trousers and a pair of off-white skinny jeans. I was thinking I will wait till next month

but everyone at work advised me not to. Apparently things here get sold out real

fast. And from whatever little I gave seen so far, they really do! I liked a long string

of white porcelain beads and golden coloured wooden squares, and I thought I will

sleep over it before I spend 12 euros on junk jewellery and I did and I still wanted itso I went back to the shop the next evening and it was gone. Every single piece of it.

And the new stock had come in just the day I saw that chain. I know that because the

friendly girl at the shop told me that. Wow! So I decided, I will get my pants before

they vanish off the shelves. I have bought more things than I planned to in the last two

weeks. Shoes for Capoeira, two dresses (of which only one is work worthy!), two

pants, three shrugs, incense, books, and before I forget, those, now awesomely

comfortable, Birkenstock sandals. Hummm. Mummy does not approve. But I have

my eyes still set on that Swatch I had seen at Phoenix mills in Bombay and I think I

will get that for my birthday. I also think I need a pair of ballerinas for work. Black or

red. Or maybe both.

Lets see. I do have the flat expense looming over my head. If I convert to rupees theamount all those euros I need to shell come to I will faint. One month rent advance. 2

months rent deposit and one month rent to the agent. Wow! No! dont ask me what

the rent is. Makes me convert and then makes me feel guilty. Humpf!

But the shoes will come. At least one pair. Right now they are on the need list and

not want list, given my brand new solver ballerina with the cute bow broke. Yes

they did. And gave me massive blisters too. I still have the annoying scars.

Anyway, it has stopped raining and I feel like one more cup of coffee. And I want to

read more of this weeks issue of the NewStatesman and be more angry and annoyed

about it. Their cover story is on India and they have been quite predictable. Patrick

Frenchs piece is alright. But profiling Arundhati Roy! Interviewing Arvind Adiga! A

timeline of Indias history that simply reads 1947: Independence from Britain; 1947-

48: First Kashmir War; 1951-52: first General Election; 1971: Indo-Pakistan War;

1974: Nuclear Power; 1984: Indira Gandhi Murdered; 2004: Manmohan Singh

Elected; 2008: Mumbai terror attacks. Yes! As is straight from the magazine. Made

me go like what the fuck! Where is the Indo-China war? The other Indo-Pak war?

Kargil? Parliament attacks? Op Parakram? Gujarat riots? Sikh riots? Opening up of

the Economy? Rajiv Gandi assassination? And for that matter using assassination

and not murder for Indira Gandhi? The NDA coalition government? The Janta

Party coming to power? Anna Hazare (an not Baba Ramdev as they feature!!) and the

reservation protests both in the 1990s and then in 2006? The various serial blasts?

Something about medals in Olympics etc (and not just cricket and Sachin Tendulkar?What about the rise in social entrepreneurship that is changing lives? What about

youth initiatives that have picked up in the past decade? What about a serious piece

on what can be done about the education system rather than yet another commentary

on the contract between Indias silicon Valley and how it has done notheing to

improve the lives of those outside of it. Yes I agree the crowd in Bombay, the sheer

intensity of human proximity and human numbers can be an assault on the senses, but

what about steering away from talking about that city. What about talking about the

cities that are changing the entire game of urbanization. The tier II and tier III cities.

That are giving people opportunities they havent had before? And for crying out

loud, what about a proper piece on the how many poor kids in so called developed

countries suffer quite like the poor kids in any other country. Educationally deprived.Opportunity deprived. And I can go on an on but I think I want that second cup of

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coffee. Also, I am rather miffed at this entire notion of helplessness that women

keep reinforcing around their own gender. Gender stereotyping that is negative

without seeming to. It stems from something I read about how flexi time helps women

and how corporates should support it and governments should too. Blah blah blah. All

I read there is that you are woman, you will have babies, so you need to figure out

how you will manage and we will try to put in place some systems that might makeyour life slightly simpler. My question is, what about policies to establish a strong

caregiver role for the person whose sperm spawned the little crying pooping bundle of

joy? What about paternity leave? What about giving men the policy and corporate

support so they can be hands on daddy and allow the woman the opportunity to ease

back into her career with one parent still around the kid because of flexi time? You

know and the list continues. This is just one of my issues. And everytime I hear

women applaud maternity leave I feel like telling them, get over it. Everyone gets it

now. Time to stop reiterating something that is only reinforcing a stereotype now.

Move on. Your mothers fought for this and now you need to take that a step further.

Ask for the next thing now.

Gosh! I have written way more than I wanted to initially. Anyway, if you dont agreewith anything I have said (especially in the last three paragraphs) please feel free to

correct / comment.

And now I am off. Time really to go get the second cup of coffee. And it has stopped

raining too. Time to go bum about town.

Ciao