We, the people

Many times in life we come across people - some who end up becoming a significant part of your life and the journey, some others who swoosh past like a fleeting speck of light and yet end up making an indelible impression, somehow. Every now and then, I end up reminiscing about people of the latter kind to make myself realize the need to detach myself from the former kind. I met some of the most interesting people on cab rides and flights.

On my flight to DC, I made one such acquaintance. She was a 25 yr old with 3 kids. Carrying and 5 months far with the last one, 2 yr old boy and another 8 yr old boy. Do the math. She is a high school drop-out. She lost her 2nd boy 4 months ago and I got the impression she was still grieving. The oldest lives with her 'boyfriend'. She showed me pictures of the 2nd boy and kept talking about how much they spent on his grave and what engravings they got and how technology has come so far that they could laminate a photo of his into the stone. I was out of words. Frankly, I was glad she wasn't talking about how much she missed the cute little kid. She deviated from it all the while, I don't think I would've had any consoling words for her. I can't utter a single appropriate word in situations such as this. I didn't even end up saying "I am sure he knows he is missed" or "May he rest in peace". We moved to brighter topics after that, about how her very close friend is Black Eyed Peas' *wait for it* costume stylist! Such awesomeness in the new 'boom boom pow' song. Me like.

Well, I have a long account of at least 5 other such acquaintances. I will save it for another time.

Life is full of you passing judgments on people you don't know, sometimes on meager qualities like accents. I watched this (I have never liked anyone reading 'If' by Rudyard Kipling more than this, not even the very suave english prof from last sem!). I find it especially cute and absolutely adorable. It must be the exotic-ness of a foreign accent, then i thought about how I find it ridiculous when a fellow south-indian says ayrport or em-en-ey for M-N-A, why?! I bet well-accented-english speaking spaniards find Nadal's english accent just as ridiculous. For me, more than the accent its the indifference to learning the right way of pronunciation that's bothersome, so I let people correct me. Anyways, thats my spiel about judgements.

and I forgot to say, yayyyy DC!