Hören sie musik?

Now that winter has kicked in and Christmas around the corner, more often I see dense, obtuse smoke out of the chimneys of many Homes. I reckon they are from the Fireplaces. I love to capture these magic moments but my camera is too good for such shots at night. Time to await my bonus to blow it up on a Nikon SLR.

The impact is seen almost everywhere, less folks in restaurants, office, streets and even swimming pools. Thanks to winter, I now have fewer accidents in the pool (But I used to rule in India, I remember days in December when there were only two - A Doctor who was a religious swimmer and I). Now, if you're guessing that I might have just missed Gold in Olympics....I wish you could be right:-( I am a humble, slow, lazy shark in water. Mine are 40-50 mins crawling with 2 breaks of 3 mins each (I shouldn't miss other colorful stuff you know). I know most of the staff and occasionally keep having a word with them.

It was on a Sunday that I saw this new lady staff who was starring at me every now and then. She bore an amalgamation of expressions - curiosity, perplexity, bewilderment, and what not. I had to ascertain the obvious. It was time soon and I cautiously got out of water when she was not around and headed towards the shower in swift pace - only to meet her right in front of the shower door. I smiled and said "hallo" and so did she. The immediate question she had was "hören sie musik warend schwimmen?"(close to this) which translates into "do you listen to music while swimming?" I took some seconds to let the question sink in and hesitantly said "Nein" (No). Next, she pointed to the thread across my chest and asked what it was. Well, it was the Janai that I put around my neck (while in action) which seemed to her as cords of a new swim slim, ultra light model of iPod which plays in water as well!!

With all the words I knew, I explained her what it means to me - the cords of general merit in India.