She looked at him across the room. He should have looked away but he held her eyes. There seemed to be instant connection between them. She smiled hesitantly and he smiled back. He held out her drink and mouthed ‘cheers’. She repeated the gesture. They smiled again at each other, with their glasses lifted. He walked up to her then and asked her for a dance. In each other arms, they danced to the music. He breathed in her perfume, intoxicated by its teasing mildness that drifted in and out of his senses.

It was but natural that they ended up at her place. She opened the door as he followed her into her flat, shutting the door behind him. Looking around at the cluttered room, she apologised embarrassed, ‘I am sorry.’ He pulled her close and caressed her cheek. His eyes closed as he breathed in her tantalising perfume. Moving his head closer, he touched her lips in a butterfly kiss and said softly, ‘No, I am sorry.’

A few days later the newspapers reported the body of a girl who was found murdered, fully clothed. There were no injuries except for the one clean bullet wound in her head. There had been no leads found so far. The police never noticed the missing bottle of perfume.

It’s an unlucky coincidence that most of my friends in Bombay have moved out around the same time. So, as a result, I’m completely dependent on my parents for entertainment.

Everyday, after work, I rush back home so I can play scrabble with my parents. Yeah I know, it is not the exciting social life that a young single professional strives for. But at the same time, don’t scoff at it. It is not a game that anyone can play. And the three of us are a competitive lot. We don’t just play to win, we play to defeat. That’s right. We’re mean and dirty when we play. Especially when there’s a ‘triple word score’ at stake. There’s even some sledging that happens. My mother and I gang up against my father and irritate him when he’s trying to think. Papa gets hassled so easily that it is fun teasing him about how slow he is. Hee ha ha! It is good fun.

Sigh! I need to make some new friends.

well oh where oh where can my baby be
the lord took her away from me
shes gone to heaven so i've got to be good
so i can see my baby when i leave this world
~Last Kiss, Ricky Nelson

I have accepted that I am an inherently unhappy person. I can well imagine my body being cremated and my soul that’s drifting out of my body thinking that the logs in the fire could have been chopped more evenly.

The past year has been rather hectic at work. There have been some regular readers on this blog who have been witness to several posts on my being overworked and my incessant complaints about the same. (I apologise for all the grumbling I have done and will continue doing in the future.)

I gave my lifestyle a lot of thought during my month-long trip to Europe and realised that there was much more I wanted to do in my life. I had promised to myself then that there would be changes I would make the moment I got back.

When I got back, things were already a little different. The first quarter of the financial year and the amount of work to be done had automatically reduced. And thus, ever since I have come back I leave for home on time. Basically, I have no work. And I hate it. Hate it, hate it, hate it! It makes me lazier and more lethargic. I have stopped blogging. I have not even blogged about my Europe trip that I was so excited about. Imagine that.

I need something to do. Anything. I need a muse.