Income Tax, Romance and Star Trek

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After almost 3 weeks of being bed-ridden due to still undiagnosed reasons, I am now slowly, but steadily bouncing back to health.

This week has seen me perform a multitude of tasks.

I don’t know if I share this obsession with anyone – but I thought I was rather gifted with a knack for right documentation. I think it’s an important gift. But apparently not. I have spent a considerable amount of my life with a – wait for it – PAN. The one that all adults suddenly seem to have. I realized with a jerk that my life was sans PAN only a few days ago when my employer sent a letter asking for a copy of it. So today, I found myself in a small little crowded office near Trinity Circle fighting for my rightful Free Application Form for a PAN. The first sentence on the Instructions section said:

Please fill the form with a BLACK coloured pen only.

I realised I had three different kinds with me, but all with Blue ink. So I asked the nearest officer-looking lady.

“Madame”, I hesitated, hoping I wasn’t going to be reprimanded for my lack of civic sense “I don’t have a black pen, can you please give me one?”. As an after thought, I said “See, I actually brought 3 pens, but all Blue. Heh heh.”

“Blue is ok.” (Grump)

“But it says ‘BLACK only’ here”

She looked at me as though noticing my presence for the first time. “I know what it says on the form.” She took a long breath “Just use the Blue pen.”

I love how liberal my country is.

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I recently discovered also, while chatting with S over a coffee that I have a problem meeting people’s eyes. After she pointed out, I tried to recall if I always avoid someone’s eyes while talking to them. I can’t really remember looking into someone’s eyes. You know, am like Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man, except I can’t count the number of tooth picks fallen down in 2 seconds.

I wonder if I have missed much in life because I never looked deep into anyone’s eyes.

***

Have I told you how asocial I am? I just don’t call anyone. I have friends because they have taken the trouble to stay friends. This week, I made a list of people I owe a call to since 2000 AD. I will call them when I feel like. But I at least made a list. Its an improvement.

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Since I have been on bed with burning eyes and head, I couldn’t read anything that needed my brain to process. That’s when I thought of two of my lovely ex-roomies – A & R – who had vaguely encouraged me to read Romance. I thought it was that time of my life where I took a break from Marquezs and Wodehouses etc and read Romantic Fiction.

Also, as fate would have it, some NRI female has donated large quantities of books borrowed-and-not-returned from some American County library to our local public library. A shockingly large proportion of these books are Romantic Fictions. I have been finishing them up at a rate of 1-2 books per day.

So, I have been reading books with names like “In the Duke’s Bed”, “Forever in your Embrace” and “Enchanted”. My brother is continuously smirking at the pile. I have discovered that there is a universality to these stories. Girl hates boy and vice versa. But they are attracted to each other. They kiss, deep and passionately. They loooove the kiss. They get married.

Simple World.

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I chatted with S today reminiscing the times when Star Plus was a channel that non-brain-dead people could watch. We talked about Crystal Maze, Night Rider, Stone Boy and Start Trek, etc.

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Talking of Star Trek, I watched it! And I liked it. A lot. Its a surprisingly good version. Introduces the characters, not heavy on Star Trek jargons, good paced, good casting, nice music, etc. Its only rarely that I get proud to be a Nerd.

The only hitch with the movie was that Bro and me were the only non-romantic, non-making-out couple in the whole cinema hall because we had gone for the 10 AM show to save money.

Other than that, Live Long and Prosper \\ //

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