३३४थ मर्त्यर्दोम ऑफ़ गुरु तेग बहादुरजी ,,

24th November 2009 marked the martyrdom day of the ninth great sikh Guru, Guru Teg Bahadurji. For me, the day started bleary-eyed, as usual. Woken up by some odd calls, i finally decided to step out at noon before going insane being homebound. One of the calls was about an NRE account, which despite my repeated requests, they refused to close. Instead, they kept penalising me for not maintaining a minimum balance. This was not the idea i had in mind when i opened it! So i finally arranged to have all the money withdrawn in rupees and decided to let them chase me instead! Someone rightly said, if you think no one cares, try missing a payment ; )

Picked up some post on the way out, did some paperwork and legwork. A new communal washing machine had been installed and i was grateful because the last one left all my clothes and smallies shrunk by at least 15%. My hair had been bothering me for a while and fast approaching the point of intolerable irritation. So i decided to go for a haircut - an impromptu decision on the way out. They have a £10 flat rate, which i always consider a rip-off, though the guy is good with his hands. NPI.



Baljit paaji was tired this evening and we decided to try some Samosa chaat at Shahenshah. I drove there, filling up some petrol on the way. Enjoying every mouthful, paaji suddenly hit across something hard and unlike potato. It turned out to be a piece of plastic, which we immediately bought to the shopkeeper's attention. The guy disappeared in the kitchen to investigate how the unlikely condiment ended up in paaji's bhaaji. We thought it must be a piece of X'mas puzzle and hoped for nothing less than a plate of complimentary samosa chaat for the gaffe. (As at the arse end of the day we were both hungry) As fate would have it, the guy was profusely apologetic and refunded the money. And we blessed his cotton socks.

Then we decided to go to the Gurudwara, though paaji had half a mind to go back home and down a pizza. However, upon reaching the Gurudwara, it was unusally full-up and we could'nt find a parking space. We realized it was Guru Teg Bahadur's day. Paying our respects to the holy scripture Guru Granth Sahib we sat down to listen to Guruji's life, times and message. I could just about manage to make the jist of what was being said in Punjabi, but enjoyed being absorbed in the message. Then we headed down for the langar, which was of course special today: Two sabzis, daal, sweet rice, chapatti, achar and chai. While there, paaji kindly pointed out some prospective brides for me too. I told paaji that i had started writing a blog and he burst out laughing. He asked me what I would write besides sleeping, sleeping and more sleeping ?! We did take a foto with his mobile cam to upload later though.

Nothing special planned for tomorrow, Paaji has some insurance policies to sell and i have some paperwork to do to ensure i am warm and fed this winter...