For your eyes only

Spent the weekend at my cousin's. Their house is immaculately done, the result of a lot of thought and a lot of care.

Evetything always stays in its place. The beautifully designed glass milk bottle will be third on the front row. Behind it will stay the plastic bottles, though sometimes, while taking out the plastic bottles from behind, one has to be careful not to break the ones in front. Of course everything has to be returned to the exact same spot after using.

Nefertiti will stand precariously at the edge of the shelf, so that while taking out the books she will fall and break her head. Well, that has already happened! But she has clearly not learnt her lesson, still balancing on the edge waiting to fall yet again.

The amount of organization that goes into making the house look pretty is quite staggering. And it is scary. One is always afraid of doing the wrong thing, keeping the wrong thing in the wrong order in the wrong place. There is only one way of doing things in the house; every other way is wrong.

Reminds me of what my uncle from New York was telling me, "In a society that is functioning 'well', part of the equation is stress in an individual's life in building and in maintaining the 'well functioning' society, in maintaining the so called 'good life'... When I talk to people in Kolkata, I sometimes get the impression that they would like to say that things just don't work here, whereas things just work in America and it is natural that everything should automatically be perfect in America."

Exactly what is put into practice to make the house look beautiful. Scary no doubt, but beautiful all the same.

And of course I will remember the nice meals she cooked too. It was great catching up with them.