I am a lover of the ambiguous, the ridiculous, the unintelligible and the awkward...

Just sitting here, wondering if “irreality” should be a word as I sip coffees brought to me on a tray by the office kitchen servant and search for the British spellings of words like “learnt.”

I have always been predisposed to various British conventions. Some will remember my habit of pronouncing “schedule” with a “shh.” I've even got a few foreign peoples convinced that Americans say “gee-tar.” For all I know they do...in the south.

I've always had a perverse fascination with words. I can keep myself entertained with a dictionary for hours. I keep detailed slips of paper covered with strange vocabulary, like “gesticulate” (that one almost sounds a little nasty...). These papers live in a file cabinet at my father's house, in a large file called “miscellaneous,” another useful word, if not a useful file.

Is the Delhi pollution getting to me, you ask? Maybe it's the shock of sitting in front of a computer for six hours straight, editing documents in British English so that they are “Indianised” enough to be understood by an Indian audience. Apparently, as I am not Indian, this is a skill that I will need to develop over time...alas, the difficulty of editing is a challenge I can thoroughly savour (quick learner, no?)...

...and I am lonely, so I send my ramblings into space to feel more connected to my loved ones. My loved ones who are, inshallah, not getting burnt to bits in our annual So Cal firestorm...

the struggle continues,
with love always,
LMA