JLF Day - IV ~ surprizezunltd

This one again should not be titled JLF, since I was absconding from the festival for the most part of it. Though, this time it was for pure emotional reasons. As the routine had become, I woke up and headed for a breakfast. Though on this day I was a little late than the usual. So, I had to request a foreign couple to accommodate me on their table. The lady was so sweet, she was about to leave the entire table for me and was heading to look for another table for herself and her male counterpart. Luckily I stopped her from doing so, and I broke into a conversation with her to break the ice. Just few minutes of usual chi-chat and we both were way ahead on our girly chit-chat highway. The couple happened to be from Brazil and had already spent quite some time in our country. They had visited New Delhi, Agra, Varanasi and Rishikesh before landing in Rajasthan. It also happened to be there third day in Jaipur. The girl's name was Carolina and I forgot the guy's name by now. I was intrigued to ask her if they faced any incident that made them feel insecure or scared while travelling in India. I was happy to know that they faced none, except for the vendors looting them during shopping, nothing much bothered them. I shared with her that probably since she was travelling with a man so she was safe from any leching or assault, which is quite common with the females of foreign origin travelling without men. To this statement of mine Carolina said something that made me puzzled for a long time. She said that India is much better when compared to her country, since there, even when a woman is wandering with her husband, local goons are susceptible to not only rape her, but they would also run away with all her clothes, including the bikini !!!!! I am sure if you are an Indian and reading this, you will also be startled for a second at least.
We both also kept on chatting on how men in each part of this World are the same, they are so boring, do not understand their wives' and are basically so husband, to which her husband (I presume he was, though I did not ask) who was till now hearing our chatter patiently remarked, "Listening to you both, I know women are also the same everywhere." LOL Our chit-chat got interrupted when I got a call from a local number. It was from my husband's ex. I was not sure of calling her up, but since she called and asked me to visit her place, I was like in two minds. That day I was excited to hear Sir Gulzar and my Mohammad Hanif for the third time. But she said something that made me ditch my hunks that day. She told me that last night she went out for some shopping and a tourist who had come to the city to attend the JLF, asked her to help her with an eating joint. Talking to her she wished she could have bumped into me too that time. And that statement melted me. I chucked attending the fest that day and called her back so that she could send her driver to pick me up from my hotel. As a woman I am, I updated Caroline on this, and a woman as Caroline is, she told me to be careful and expect everything. By everything she included getting to know that the kids from my husband's ex could very well be my half kids!!!! I was flabbergasted to hear this, but I think Caroline's husband understood me that time, he told me to stop anticipating on his wife's stories, since she is sharing the Brazilian stories....HAHA

I went to my room to wait for the driver to come before exchanging the email ids, phone numbers and the hotel room numbers with my new friends from Brazil. While waiting for the car to arrive, I spent my time trying to reconcile my option of not attending the sessions of Mr. Hanif and Sir Gulzar for meeting a woman that happens to be my husband's ex. I summarized that I did a good thing for my health, since the previous day I suffered a mild asthma attack due to over-excitement of meeting people on whom I have carried long crushes; also it was definite that the lady would be treating me to some good food. Food has always been important for me but these days it was more so since, the fest occupied so much of importance to me, that I was skipping lunch everyday to grab a seat one hour in advance of every session that I wanted to attend.The driver must have come in half an hour and then he drove me to the lady's house. After meeting her realized that she not only seemed to be a nice and warm person, but indeed was. Her house was also nice and warm with heaters installed in every room, that was required in the sheer cold of Jaipur. I was wondering all the time during my stay in Jaipur that how come the poor people who have made the large footpaths of the city as their abode survive to this chill. I used to witness them during my daily commute to the venue from my hotel. I think the body develops an immune to the situations we are exposed to. Whatever, so it was a wonderful time spent with the lady that day. She not only treated to me awesome food, but also got things packed up for me. I did not accept the expensive blankets that she packed for me, but I did not hesitate to accept the food and sweets that she lavished upon me. More than the fun of meeting your husband's ex and her family and kids, it is more wonderful to bitch about him with her. We must have back bitten about the common man between us for almost an hour. That was a long time considering I spent almost 4 hours with her.

I left from her place to attend one lecture during that day, though it seemed like more of an attendance marking. Any ways, I attended the session on "The Afroplitans", one of the speakers being Ben Okri induced me to attend that one. I was sitting just at the footstepd of ex-chief minister of the state, Ms. Vasundhara Raje. If any news clip has captured her duirng the session, then I surely must have featured in that one. After finishing with that one I attended the one called "Toba Tek Singh, Manto and No-man's Land." Apart from getting a chance to hear Mr. Prasoon Joshi, another association with the session was the story Toba Tek Singh by Manto. It is a simple story of a man gone loony during the India-Pakistan partition. I left the session mid-way cause one of my school friend who stays in the city called up to meet up. I also met one of my friend from MBA days on the 3rd day of the fest, but I did not mention in my blog. I was the one taking him around in the city to food joints that he was not even aware of. Please note that he has been staying in the city for the past 3 years, so you know how bored I must have been, so I did not update on the same. So, with the school friend and I, we both ate at the "Copper Chimney", the place I had visited with my family almost 15 years back. I was happy to re-visit the place and was glad to find the place exactly the way I had left it back then.