On a lighter note: My roomies and me

Ok off late I have been doing just what I promised myself I wont do when I started this blog. I have again ventured into the serious mode and I do tend to write essays. My work makes me involved with these serious issues all day. Once in a while I need a breather hence my dabbling with silly staff.
The other day someone was talking about roommates/flatmates or as I call them roomies. While talking I realised that over the years I have had my share of roomies—good, bad, funny, sweet you name them I have had them.
If I want to talk about my roomies I think I should start with my poor brother. For about 10 years my brother and me, we shared a room. Now let me tell you I talk in my sleep, at times I even used to scream [we meaning my parents, my brother and me, never discovered the reason for my night time aggression] and my poor brother [god bless him] had to go through all that. He had to tolerate the light switched on till very late almost very night since I couldnt put down whichever book I was reading at that point and go to sleep at a decent hour. But if I was sleepy I would never allow him to keep the light switched on. I know big bully sisters. I am sure he must have thanked God when we finally got our own rooms.

I can vouch when I started to share room with others I tried to be a model roomie! When I went to JNU my first allotted roommate turned out to a kleptomaniac. It took me sometime to realise that and by that time she had snipped off some money (one thousand or so, quiet a lot in student days), some pairs of earrings (now who ever knows me knows just how precious ear rings are to me). Matters came to such a crisis that all my stuff was under lock and key and still I used to feel like she was reaping me off. Everytime I returned to my room I used to be in mortal fear that she must have taken something. Ever since I have become rather suspicious by nature. Hostels do teach you a thing or two about life.
Then I moved in with my friend Angira. Friends warned us not to move in together because shared space has resulted in breaking many a strong friendship. But fortunately for us room number 18 of Ganga Hostel in JNU campus was a very happy place where there were more all night chat sessions (adda) than studies. We divided the chores according to our skill areas. I had the heavy duty of decorating out room, cook food (if and when) while she was in charge of cleaning our room, which she did very diligently. Even though there were just two of us in the room, at any given point of time 3 to 4 more friends could be found there. We had our first booze party there and what a drama that was! That was the end of my JNU roomies, after that I was allotted a single room.
Then in Toronto I used to share the apartment with 4 girls-- one French, one Philipina,
one Russian and the last but not the least was a Canadian. Though all the girls were great I struck a great friendship with the Philipina called Beth. She was my guide on how to live and survive in Canada. She taught me how to do grocery shopping in Canada, how not to ram the huge grocery carts into the person standing in front of you (I did quiet a bit of that initially), where to get the best deals, how not to shop from Dominos (because they are expensive), how to pick up shampoos from Shoppers when they have the discount on…I don’t want to go on and on and bore you about the things Beth taught me, but the list is actually numerous. Miss you Beth!
Back in India I lived for sometime with my old JNU friend Anasua. Now both of us are big foodies and at night after going to bed invariably our discussion used to turn to food and alcohol. And then after a full dinner we used to crave for whatever food we would be discussing. Anasua used to crave for alcohol every night but we never managed to have any of it. Miss those night conversations Anasua.
At present I live with two girls one full Maharastrian and the other half. Courtesy the pure Maharastrian I have started to have vegetarian dinners and follow bits and parts of Marathi. Way to go Indian diversity.