Nowadays I have been spending very less time at home. Usually hang around in the office until late, and go home at about 12, have my dinner ( we get our dinner ordered from this catering service, the guy who cooks the food happens to be an Oriya chap – delivers dinner personally, and he cooks a mean chicken-masala, let me tell you ) and fall asleep to the strains of whatever particular form of music strikes my fancy for that night. ( High on the list, the last couple of days, has been Godsmack, Steve Vai, The Doors, and AR Rahman’s Ratchagan. ) Reading of course takes up some time, but post OotP, I have been trying hard to come back to normalcy through King’s Dreamcatcher, but I’m going slow.
Last night, I happened to go inside the kitchen and there, I had a near-death experience.
Close your eyes, breathe in deep. Try to imagine how this mish-mash would smell when put together: – four-day-old Maggi Noodles. Curdled milk. God-knows-how-ancient Chicken Curry. Tomato sauce and mouldy bread.
Now open your eyes. And try to imagine how all of this would look when put together, layered over utensils of various shapes, sizes and denominations.
Our maid has been A.W.O.L since Saturday, and well, apparently my room-mates kind of neglected to wash up after their breakfast.
I didn’t exactly lose my temper, but ok, I was mighty annoyed. No one bothers to wash up!!! Aaargh!!!! Tried asking Abhishek if he would do anything about it, he says “No maid, and no water.” and goes off to sleep.
The result:- I spent two hours cleaning up the sink and the dishes, ALL of them, even though the stink was awful – worse than smelling vials of Polyjuice potion, I bet. Had to get water from the bathroom to actually get the cleaning done, most of the time, the sink refused to clear, because of the noodles that got stuck in the pipes, cleaned that up too. Sometime ( after half an hour or so ), Rishi comes to investigate and boils some water to help unclog the pipes. It works!
That’s it. This happens one more time, and I bundle all the dirty dishes and hide them in one of Abhishek’s cupboards. Ha!