ah, comedy festival. it's times like these i wish i had a large wad of cash and no other commitments... but hey, who am i kidding? even though i have no large wad of cash (who does, especially around this time of year??), my 'commitments' are negligible at the best of times. saw justin heazlewood's 'in bed with my doona', yianni's 'black and white and 'comedy zone', then proceeded to party on a school night at superstar karaoke. even though we eventually got home at 1.30, i'm surprisingly awake and semi-bushy tailed now. i might fade around 2, i think. though i just remembered that today is 'let's all go to nirankar for lunch and drink beer and eat curry' day, so realistically i will either get my second wind, or fall asleep at three. ah, curry. it really is the food of the gods.
on the tram in to work, i got inspiration for a louis vuitton standup bit, which is good cause i've had half a lv joke in my head since o-week. now it is complete. i really should carry a notebook at all times. however, now that i've left this as a hint, i should be fine. oooh, cryptic. maybe i will write it down... excuse me.
okay, back. but did i actually write it down? i guess you'll never know. until the next gig. which will be in ages, but it will be. oooh, cryptic. one last thing before i go. this chick i saw on the tram with the lv bag - well, she was one of those blonde, designer-clad, doe-eyed, diamond-lips in translucent pink kinda chicks... then her phone rang, and it was salt and peppa's 'push it'. then at the end of her conversation with her (i assume) boyfriend, she guffawed in a honking-snort way and said 'yeah, ya tool'. hmm. i can buy me an extremely expensive, rather ugly bag, but i can't buy me class.

well, the inaugural curry day extravaganza at our place saturday went off without a hitch. so well did it go, that i already started thinking about when the next one would be while i was still in the throes of the first one (or maybe that was just the beer talking). amongst my friends are some pretty nifty curry chefs - not a bad effort for a bunch of white folk, guys! - the indians in attendance were duly impressed. cleaning up the next day wasn't too painful, either - though we have yet to hoover. tiny bits of pappadum are making themselves comfortable in the lounge room carpet - but not for long.
i've been toying with the idea of a site re-design, but i have no idea to what apart from the fact that i want the new look to include sari border.
still haven't heard anything from meanjin - i wonder when their next edition is due out? their website still has their current issue on their 'forthcoming issue' page - if anyone knows when it's to be released, let me know.
i think i need to write something new. it's been a while and it's kinda bothering me. i have two uni assessment tasks waiting for attention, but my head feels all gluggy and i really don't feel like focusing at all - dangerous territory.
hungry. hmmm. what should i have for breakfast?

today, i've been married for four years.
marriage is a weird and wonderful thing. weird, because it interesting how it means so many different things to so many different people; and wonderful, because it means that you're never truly alone for too long. mark and i have the ideal relationship in that we respect each other's need for personal space. however, it is also nice to have someone to talk to, spar with, laugh with, dream and reminisce with.
we're doing okay, we are.
this time four years ago, i was traipsing around melbourne, striking ridiculously bollywood poses for a wedding photographer with a perm reminiscent of michael jackson a la jackson five. in retrospect, i don't know why i didn't just clock him when he said 'give that... cheeky look!' for the fiftieth time. i think the heat, the weight of my outfit and the emotional high i was on at the time rendered me helpless.
watched lost in translation again last night, and got all choked up at the end yet again. we had a friend staying with us who is now living in japan - we were supposed to catch up with her before she left for sydney last night but missed her - so we thought going to watch a film set in japan would be the next best thing.

in a bid to distract myself, i decided to do something i'd heard other people did but never thought i'd be able to manage - read multiple books simultaneously. i decided on three, because two is just not that impressive and anything more than three is just crazy (just for the record, i was impressed when i learned to 'juggle' two balls - just so you appreciate how hard this whole simultaneous reading thing is for me). so i decided i'd pick three totally diffnt books, and designate them to different blocks of the day. here is my timetable -
book 1 - brick lane [monica ali]. read on mondays and thursdays on public transport to and from uni. because reading anything to do with uni on an actual uni day would be a tad square.
book 2 - eats, shoots and leaves [lynne truss]. read on tuesdays and wednesdays on public transport to and from work. because reading something literary reminds me that there is more to my life than re-formatting, printing and filing documents.
book three - a royal duty [paul burrell]. read at home in lounge time and bed time. because though i am quite intrigued by the whole lady di thing, and wish to 'separate the myth from the truth' through reading 'first-hand insights and astounding material', i wouldn't be caught dead with it in public.

- it's been hinted that i will hear back from penguin within the next 2 weeks. yay! (whew?)
- they're interested in some pieces of short fiction to read in addition to my novel manuscript (i sent them a couple today).
- i have no idea when i will hear back from meanjin, but i don't mind. for the moment, it's enough that i got shortlisted.
- it occured to me the other day as i was trying not to fall asleep in my tute that i am currently in the most amazing place to date re my writing - i have never had so much serious interest in it. it's strange and wonderful, and a little scary.
- when i had no interest in it at all from anyone apart from friends and family, i was always stressing about whether anything would come of it eventually. now, i find i don't think about that at all. before i'd finished my novel, i used to think that if it never got published, it'd mean i'm a failure. now that i have finished it, i finally understand what people meant when they said they wrote for the love of it.
- i'm so looking forward to jeez louise, and finally working out the technicalities of putting on a comedy fest or fringe fest show.
- i am so glad i joined the library. i have a shiny new copy of 'brick lane' in my bag. i am going indian-author crazy, and i think i like it!
- that is all.

woohoo! found out today that two of my submissions have been shortlisted for inclusion in the upcoming asian-australian edition of meanjin. fingers crossed! one was an excerpt from my novel manuscript, and another was a short story called 'destiny'. the short story is 'faction', based on one of my standup routines - it's about a little indian girl who wants to grow up to be wonder woman. the excerpt from the novel is the same one i chose for my reading at the melbourne emerging writers festival. it's nice to know the folk at meanjin think my work worthy... anyway, seeing as a decision is imminent, this will give me something else to obsess about!
i'm thinking of re-designing this site. should i?
maybe a direct question will entice you to leave me a little comment at the end of this entry.
though... if past experience is anything to go by, a direct request may not be enticement enough...
oh, go on! leave me a note, dammit! i know you're out there, even if you did accidentally end up at this site by doing a search for nude indian girls!

we've decided we're going to look after the leetle keetys until they're big enough to be adopted. so if you want one, let us know.
i'm finding the older i'm getting, the less tolerant of fools i am. which makes me wonder why i wasted so much time in the past tolerating them. think of all the procrastinating i could have crammed in to those lost hours! i haven't written anything new for a while. actually, i lie - i wrote a piece of 'creative non fiction' for a uni assessment task, but i guess in my mind that doesn't really count. i love keyboards that make noise when you type on them, by the way. like the one i'm using now. anyway, back to the point. i started out writing a short story for an anthology, but i can't bring myself to finish it. i'm stuck in that weird space where i feel like i've spent all my spontaneous creativity on the novel, and now i have to wait for my tank to fill up again. oooh, what a wanker i am sounding like. sad but true!
i had an epiphany the other day. i've realised that if i never make it as a writer, the next best thing to be, and something i think i'd be quite good at, would be editing and/or proofreading. actually, more editing i think. i would relish the nit-picking and thrive on the power. i think i would love-love-loooove it.
those who can get published, will; those who can't, make weird little marks in the margins.
when, will i, will i hear from penguin? i can't answer that! i can't answer that!
i have registered for jeez louise. if you're a funny chick and you can be in melbourne on april 4-5, you should register, too!

flashback - two weeks ago
shalini -"hey mark, i think mommacat's pregnant again.'
mark - "no way."
shalini - "yeah... look at her belly... see how it's rounder toward the bottom?"
mark - [shrugging] i dunno... maybe she's just eaten something big?"
shalini - "..."

flash forward to present time
shalini - "hello mommacat, you're looking sleek and svel... oh, crap."
mommacat - "mmmmprrooaawwrrrr?"
shalini - "alright, alright... i have a can of tuna."
mommacat - "pprrrroaawr!"

in background, five skinny little kittens whinge shrilly, either because they're head butting each other, or because they're burning their tongues as they try to suckle the galvanised iron fence.
end.

first day back at deakin yesterday. editing unit will be a little trickier than i anticipated, but at least all the new things i have to learn will keep my mind off how many days/weeks/months its been since i sent off my manuscript. i'm looking forward to non-fiction on thursday afternoon, and then a day to breathe on friday.
the cat empire last friday night were very good, put on a very energetic show that went for quite a while. though i must admit i was quite deflated when they brought out their female vocalist. she was pretty, slim and had long blonde hair. i had a hard time explaining my disappointment to mark afterwards, but i guess it was because i feel the band in general is so accessible - they could be your mates, people that you hang out with, you know, and you can totally imagine yourself up there on stage with them - but when the blonde singer came out on stage, suddenly i felt the band wasn't accessible anymore. luckily, the feeling didn't last because they brought out a special guest next - the wonderfully curvy and vivacious kate ceberano. once she started doing her thing, my faith in the band was restored. they also had an amazing flamenco dancer guy who had the whole place in the palm of his hand - he did a solo dance under a spotlight and the way he moved, the beats he played with nothing but his feet were absolutely amazing. i actually felt blessed to be there. tonight am going to djembe classes after work, in the rotunda at catarni gardens. have sneaking suspicion i might be a hippie.