Largely immersed in work for the last few days, I’ve been neglecting the Diaries. So, woke up early today to make up for it. The morning ocean looks calm and easy, as if it has had a good night’s rest. BBC informs that Nawaz Sharif has been bundled off to Jeddah from Islamabad airport. That nation will always be in a state of chaos, I guess…pretty bad for the common citizens!A week before coming to the Isle, I quit smoking…something which I’ve never attempted in the last 15 years of my smoking career. And, barring two occasions of temptations, I’ve been easily successful from staying away from the stick. One of them was the evening at Anuradhapura, mentioned in previous post. The next one happened at one of the restaurants of Taj Samudra.
I usually take my evening meals inside the comfort and convenience of my room, but this particular evening I decided to step out and check the eateries of the hotel. ‘Navaratna’, the popular Indian restaurant looked awfully crowded, driving me to the place next door, The Steak & Grill House. In a dramatic contrast, the place had nobody inside except a lady sitting on the pianoforte and softly playing ‘Lara’s theme’ while a couple of waiters watched her. The lady was playing quiet well. I had found my place!
In the course of the evening, she played a lot of my requests, and except for the extremely difficult ‘Moonlight Sonata’ they were all rendered very well, the best one being the peaceful ‘Air on the G String’ by Bach with its intertwining harmony and melody. Bordeux was great, as usual and the food perfectly went along with it. I text messaged to my friend in India,
“She has music in her fingers
While, I have a fork in mine.”
And suddenly, the evening felt incomplete without the white stick between my fingers. I asked the waiter for one and he replied that I will have to pick up a complete pack.
So, I remain a non-smoker. And you know what…it feels nice and healthy.
I left the pleasure-filled evening by thanking the lady who had made it so. I was humming the difficult sonata in my mind, trying to get it right.
With tomorrows dawn, I shall be headed towards the ancient port city of Galle in the southern part of the Isle. Its famous for its time-warped streets lined with historic Dutch villas. More on that in the next page of the Diaries.
11 comments:
shoms , congrats on the non-smoking - well done - and now give me tips how !!!! its really the wrost thing one can get started on
yeah it's quite inspiring that you managed to quit smoking... you could be the guru of all those who want to quit smoking but find it impossible...
HAIL BABA HAIL...PLEASE TEACH US AND SHOW US THE WAY AND BRING US OUT OF THIS SMOKE...CHEERS!!!!
he he hee ............. we always prefer the empty spaces :) was the place empty all night (except for you) ........... I sure hope not ........... I can't figure out why most people can't cherish such simple pleasures in life ............
congrats on the smoking ......... I sure hope the resolve continues whenever you do return ......... can't hope to find such simple antidotes to temptation out here :(
me down with fever ........ did enough of sleeping for the day ....... now gotta lift my spirits a bit .......
by the way, heard this piece of trivia about alice in wonderland (which I am re-reading currently) ........ after the author presented it to the queen, she loved it so much that she insisted on being the first person to see the next thing he wrote ........... when he complied with her wish, she threw it in her face ............. because it was something like "notes on matrices and determinants", yeah he was a maths professor :)
thanks, Bublu!
woke up with a foul taste of tobacco in my mouth, after one of those late nighters and thats that.
ghazaman, fever season is a good time to revisit favorites. funny anecdote there.
cheers!
It's all good now. Full of determination and self-content. But the relapse happens after 2-3 months when the white sticks flashes its fury from a distance. It beckons ya. Then ya shall be in a fix whether to grab it one more time, the last time. The better part will say why do ya wanna spoil all these efforts? ya have made it so far ...so let it be like this.
Now, here, it depends whether ya r the devil's son or a saint's....!!!
Good stuff sir, the evening and quitting smoking. Keep up the good work.
God, you are making me jealous!
time spent with ex-smokers in delhi rubbed off.
hmmm there could be some naked truth in it.
why would you want to do that? anyways, i shall only encourage you to keep it up. i lack will power. i also enjoy smoking tremendously.
sorry.
i am back by the way.
good have you back mr phish!
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