I love Lucy

I have always been extremely fond of dogs and have always wanted to have one as a pet.But it just so happens that neither were my parents too keen on the prospect of having a dog running loose in their house nor is M.

I was around 5 years old when my parents and I moved to this small but cozy rented house in Basaveshwaranagar.The owners of the house lived right next door and were really nice folks who happened to be quite fond of me.I vividly remember that back then,I used to love watching the "I love Lucy" show and was a huge fan of Lucille Ball.One afternoon,there was lot of commotion at our owner's house and surprisingly the entire family of 4 were home and seemed to be very excited about something.After a while,their son Balu called out to me from their living room window(which was almost adjacent to our verandah) and said that he had a surprise for me.That was enough for me to dash out and run over to their house and what I saw there brought a huge smile on my face!

That was the very first time I laid my eyes on this cutest little ball of brown fur!They had actually brought home this adorable little Alsatian puppy and Balu wanted me to name her.Now,as far as the trend in naming dogs goes,you hear of names like
"Timmy" , "Piinky", "Fluffy" or "Tommy".Even as a 5 year old child,I knew that these names were as clichéd as can be!So I named her "Lucy" after my favorite TV personality and at that very moment I fell in love with my new friend.

Lucy soon grew into this humongous creature with a thick bushy tail.I would help Balu give her a nice bath and would be so amused when Lucy would promptly go over the rose bushes in the garden, the very next instant and roll around in the mud!And this would annoy Balu every single time!I also loved to feed Lucy and see her lap up her food in no time.For us,Lucy was a member of our family and we spoke to her in Kannada and addressed her as "Hoge" "Baare".Uncle wanted her to be a typical watch-dog so they trained her to be ferocious and unfriendly to strangers.If some one would as much as even look in the direction of our houses, that was enough to set her off.She would bark and growl and gnaw her big scary teeth until the poor soul ran for cover!Lucy was very fond of coming over to our house for "breakfast" at sharp 8.30 am almost every morning!That was when I would leave for school and the rascal knew that my mother would be laying out the table for breakfast for my father!So she would come to our doorstep and her tail would go thump thump thump against the door and as soon as I opened the door,she would run (most of the times,over me) into our house and go looking for my mother and coax my mother to feed her!

We moved to BSK to our own house after a few years and it became increasingly difficult to go visit the owner-family and Lucy.And then the inevitable happened.About 8 years ago,Balu called us and informed us of Lucy's passing away.I was so heartbroken that day.She was buried in the very same rose garden in that house.I miss you friend and I will always love you.

Someday if I ever get to own a pet dog,I already know what I am going to call her...

Aaah Bach!

So I was having this conversation with someone I know that went something like this:

Her:We just got back from Napa Valley.It was heaven!We did the wine tasting bit and toured the wineries and drank some more way-too-expensive wine.

Me:Errr....sounds good...The Other Half(M) and I do drink(read consume alcohol) occasionally but its just not wine.We are not "wine people".

Her: GASP....Louder GASP

And this has pretty much been the general reaction when I confess my disregard for wine.In this part of the world,you are branded pariahs/outlaws if you do not:
A]Endorse wine and declare yourself to be a "connoisseur of the spirit"
B]Display at home,at least a couple-a-bottles on those specially made wine stands
C]Know the names of the different varieties of wine and their what characterizes each of them
D]At least pretend to do [C]

So basically, it is blasphemous to express your point of view unless and until it conforms to the general mode of thinking!Pretend to like western classical music and wine and you are in!Much like Radar's predicament in one of the episodes of M*A*S*H,where hes trying to woo this very classy nurse and goes to Hawkeye for help.And Hawk in turn advises Radar to sigh loudly and just say"Aaaaaah Bach" at random, if the nurse brought up topics like classical music and poetry! Classic episode!

Its just so hard to be able to say and do whats exactly on your mind.Everything thats said or done has another dimension to it;like a juxtaposition of opposing points of view.And most of the times,I am the only one who is unable to see or fathom the rationale behind the "other" dimension.I constantly crib to M about how I am forced to do things that I am not inclined towards.So finally M lost it and said to me ,"You know what,everyone goes through this at some point, so toughen up.You either do what you want to or not.Do not claim that you will never do something ever again but then promptly end up doing it because it is expected out of you ".and mind you,it does take a lot to ruffle M's feathers and get him to make such statements and I mean,a lot!

It would probably make more sense if I explained the context.So X is in town on a short vacation and is staying with Y.And not to mention,I am expected to invite X over to our home and entertain her.I do not particularly care about whether she visits us or not but then I do have to send in weekly reports back home.So there,you get the picture now!The thing is every weekend that I invite her over,there seems to be something that comes up at the last moment and she asks us to come over to Y's house instead.So I am fed up of this invitation game and declare every weekend that this is the absolute last time that I ever invite her home.But come Friday evening and I find myself making that call yet again!

So whats with this vicious phenomenon of social obligation?And why does it become all the more vicious when you are married as opposed to when you were single?You are still related to all of them in the same way,and that does not change either ways now,does it?!So what does and why?Someone please enlighten me....

I like my margaritas better so sue me...