ISM & Lemonade

Shanna goes to International school Manila and fortunately loves his school. He doesnt want to go back to his school in Mumbai since life used to be very hard there. The non-airconditioned bus ride to Podder school in Santacruz from our residence in Andheri(E) used to take about 2 hrs one way and I shudder at the hardship he had gone through commuting everyday.

His teacher, Ms Ginny says that he has really blossomed here. Atleast, e has got lot of exposure and have started communicating in English and his wordbase is quite decent.

He is now aware that there are different countried and people from different country look different. He knows pink is for girls and blue is the colour for him.

Few days back, he brings two cars and wispered in my ear,'baba, this is a girl and thhat is lover'. Then he made a very noise with his toung which meant thhe guy has kissed the girl. I laughed and them remebered to tell him that he shouldnt be talking about these things!

There is lemonade, the chetah in his class who goes to the house of eeveryone of his class by turn and the day he came to our house, shenna was extremely happy and preoccupied with him. We made a jouranl entry in the diary of Lemonade on his experience for the couple of days he spent with Shenna.

Confusion!

Im addicted to the saturday morning flea market in thee Salcedo Vollage park. The plethora of fresh vegatable, fruits, days catch and the pretty girls in many of the home cooked food stall is like my weekly fix I couldnt do without.

Had to go to the BPI teller to get some money in the early moring when Dona and Gulu were still sleeping.

The a/c statment spoiled my mood. I couldnt balance it with my last withdrawal. I thought I should have around 1690 kP and what I had now seemed about 14k less than I expected.

Worried and rotten mind, went and bought some stuff from the market without there being much joy in it.

Came back and contacted the BPI helpline and while talking realised actually I now had 1669 kP
which I had assumed to be 1569kP and was worried. Actually I have got some mooney deposited in my account.

It was good, I was happy, yet I didnt know where from the money has come. Its close to salary time but the amount I hhave got is lot less thhan my salary.

Cannt think of anything other than salary though.

Then I have one more battle in my hand to resolve-the never ending salary issue in Philippines.

Ditcher!

I like Marlo quite a bit. A much younger man, he reminds me of my youth. Unhappy with what he is doing, brutal with hypocrasy, he shows his displasure and disrespect for the job he does for survival. He generally dosent have a smiling and easy disposition and people complai that he is not friednly.

Have gone to factory three hour away from Manila and was coming back with him.
Got taalking to him on many things and asked him how many brothers he haas got. He said he is the single child. After lull of few minutes, he said, ' you want to hear my story? You will not be bored?' I noded.

He said, ' my mother is second wife of my father. She came to know it when his real wife died. She had eight cchildren and there was no one to take care of them. So my mother took them all in. She was allready carrying me. She raised them aall and they now worship her. She used to a teacher. Now retired and she stays in province now. I stay with one of my half sister. I hate my father for what he did to her.'

My self: ' Where is he now?'

Marlo: ' Oh, he died. Lucky that he is dead. If he was alive today, I would have slaped him for what he did'.

Realised that with a burden like that, smile doesn’t come easy for cheap for him. He now wants to go abroad, want to make money so that he can have a beautiful wife. Money is in his mind, so in on my mind. Only a decade separates us.

It seems its common in Philippines for guys to have a mistress. A pity, as the guys are not macho atall and girls are mostly beautiful.

Dont know if the reason is poverty and incecurity of the girls or extreme hidden virility of the piloys.