of absences

It’s finally time for the next round of revelations. Actually it’s been that time for a while. I have been busy packing for my Bangalore trip to be with Mister, so haven’t been very present in the blogging world.

So where were we? You know that the obsession with shoes and the date rape threat are real. So is the fear of all flying insects, including butterflies.

That leaves us with two possible lies: (a) Giggles and I not being in touch for a while, and (b) the tattoos.

You know what happened once upon a time with PepTalk – and how she thought Giggles and I were ganging up against her and how I stupidly sent a text about PepTalk to PepTalk.

After that, things kinda went south. Giggles focused all her energies on making PepTalk feel loved – because that’s who she is; she can’t see her friends in pain.

And you know me; even in my closest friendships I have always maintained a safe distance, and what PepTalk did completely drove me away. PepTalk and I had ostensibly sorted things out, but for me these things leave a bad taste in the mouth and things can never go back to being hunky dory again. She was being kinda territorial, so I backed off from Giggles. Aside from a customary lunch break, which the entire group took together, I took most of my breaks at my desk on the second floor. Mister would come up once in a while to say hello refill his coffee mug.

Things were ok until I broke my foot and had to shift to the ground floor. Since people knew I was pally with Giggles and PepTalk I was given a seat between them. That made things super uncomfortable. These two ladies would talk incessantly – and I often felt like I was getting in the way. One day, I offered to exchange seats with Giggles so they could sit together. They jumped at the opportunity and talked even more. I couldn’t understand how two people could discuss everything – from makeup to clothes to work. They ran all their decisions by each other, and that drove me away further. To be honest, we never had another fight again purely because I wasn’t interested.

All this while I knew Giggles and I would get along really well – and I was right. When I finally switched offices, Giggles and I stayed in touch. And then we became closer than ever before. ❤

So there – that’s the truth about Giggles and me.

The whole tattoos thing has to be a lie!

Or does it? Could I not have lied at all?

of revelations: the shoes and the potential rapist

Nobody thought I could be lying about being obsessed about shoes, or about a blogger who wanted to date rape me? You were right. I don’t make jokes about rape. Or shoes.

So here’s the truth, and nothing but the truth.

The shoes

In 1999, just before I started college, my cousins decided to take me out shoe shopping. I had saved exactly 1500 bucks (that’s roughly $24) and I specifically told them this was my shoe and clothes budget. They were a bunch of brand conscious kids so they didn’t care about my budget and took took me to a Nike factory outlet anyway.

The moment I entered, I saw a wall full of white and blue, white and yellow sneakers. My head reeled. All I owned at home was a pair of dirty blue-grey hawaii chappals, a pair of white canvas shoes (the school uniform ones) and a pair of black ballerinas (again, school uniform shoes), and a pair of red sandals for parties, etc.

So I inched closer and closer, when one of the bros stopped me and said – this is the men’s section, and dragged me to a scantier wall, where I saw pink and blue shoes. One pair clearly stood out – black canvas with red laces – and I fell in love. I paid 750 for it, and on my way home I was wondering if I should’ve bought another pair, just in case. I never stopped buying them.

This was 1999, people. I think I may have started the canvas shoe fetish.

Do you wear canvas shoes too? Ever realize you have a similar obsession about something?

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The date rape

This is a story from two or three months ago. I was new to IndiBlogger, and was done lurking in the shadows, so I gingerly entered the group chat. I made “friends” with a blogger, who then proceeded to chat me up via IndiMail, the personal messaging system on IndiBlogger. To be honest, I knew that if I were a man, he wouldn’t have done that, but you know how I am about wanting to fit in, so I responded to him once in a while.

Soon he started following this blog, and left random comments that reeked of I know you so well. I do not like people who try to act over-familiar, so my responses to him became delayed and scanty and mostly contained smileys and thank yous.

On IndiBlogger, it was difficult to ignore him. He kept talking about the fact that he used to write soft porn, to which I never responded. Then he asked me if I wanted to be interviewed on his blog – I didn’t really want to, but politely said sure. He sent me some grammatically incorrect questions, very badly framed, and I asked if he wanted me to correct the English for him, and he didn’t say anything about it, so I was pretty relieved.

Two months ago, he realized that I had said nothing about the interview. So he sent me this:

Of course I already knew he was saying this in jest, but I just couldn’t let it slide. So I confronted him, saying I didn’t appreciate jokes about rape, and he said he only meant it as a joke.

I blocked him. Then I thought some more, and reported him to the IndiBlogger team. Not because I felt threatened by him. I’m sure he didn’t even mean it, but it angered me. What kind of insensitive person jokes about rape?

What would you have done? If you could address this guy directly, what would you say?