There she (and he) goes...

In Finland now.

It is a desolate place. Lonely, lovely lady. Not much jewellery, but regal in her simplicity.

The houses look alike... and brings back the memory of old USSR picture books where it was a Koshka or an Olya or Misha who had fun in the Birch woods. They evoke the old sense of wonder, of magic in mind. Narnia, here I am. Fairies and Hobbits, I am in your land.

The sun was good to us he stayed longer than usual. The wind was kind - she did not try to freeze us to death. The rain decided to stay away, and so did the snow.

Hanukkah candles and Christmas lights peeped at us from every window.

Met with a friend and his wife yesterday evening. He works in the same company, and they picked me up from my hotel and took me to theirs. Leaving him to scratch his head over work, we left for the nearby shopping mall. The displays, the decorations, the precocious kids.... women can spend time in companionable silence yearning over very many things and light hearted banter over men.

Back to their hotel. My friend is still at work, and later - after some Irish Whiskey and exchanging notes over some authors, we left for dinner.

Surprise, surprise! Finland sleeps very early. At 9 pm, our only option is an Indian restaurant. We get inside, and are greeted with a menu which has a Kashmiri dish with coconut ( err.. hello?? when did they start having coconut trees in Kashmir? ) and a remix video which is more soft porn than anything else.

"Seesh... no wonder the MNCs are coming to India.."

"Yeah, they think this is what they get back there.." my friend snorts, completing his wife's comment. They sit together in a booth, looking more like college kids than married couple.

After a meal which was surprisingly better than what we expected, its a short walk to the taxi stand for my cab.

There they go. Two Geminis, born on the same date; one tall and kiddish, the other petite and mature. Little does they know, but they did make a very convincing case of getting married and waiting for six years to get married to the right guy.