Nailed it!

I recently started growing my nails. I have always kept them short. The last time I grew them was almost 10 years ago. It was around the time I went from a Rs.4000 a month job to a Rs.9000 a month one. I had joined a call center. From the horse-cart and rickshaw town of Kalyan I landed in the taxi-filled mill area of Lower Parel.
There were jeans clad teenagers everywhere. People were "hanging out" more than working, at a place that reminded me of "FRIENDS"... I was working at a "Call Center". It was new and it was hip AND it had a "Cafeteria"!
I bought my first pair of jeans (size 24-SIGH!). Nail polish went from being a "luxury" to a necessity. When I heard some people discussing manicures and nail art, I decided to grow my nails. It was tough coz I used to bite them when I was tensed ... and I was always tensed. The famous "Minty ki mummy" (a punjabi lady in our building) lent me a pale pink nail polish (even after my "big-household-depression" ended, I was stingy). I applied it carefully, capping the bottle with a peice of paper when the brush was taken out for fear of drying out the liquid in it. I waited a full hour watching it dry and did nothing with my hands while it did that. I know, I know... it doesn't take that long, but just to be safe I gave it an hour.
I was so proud of my nails, I kept admiring them when I typed out a call record or stirred my coffee or ate my sandwich or just held them up in the air while speaking to a caller. I even have a picture, taken during the bus ride home, where I am holding my arms in an extended "Balle Balle" pose showing off my pink nails.
I also remember digging them into my palms in the 1.5 hours it took me to travel from work to my home on the day my dad died. The next day my nails were gone, I don't remember if I chewed them off or whether I sat down and cut them... most probably the former.

After that I have preferred keeping my nails short and colourless. But my recent sedentary lifestyle needed some diversion in the form of nail-filing. So I have decided to give it another shot. Chrys loves it, he says it makes me look feminine. Those 24 inch jeans will never fit me again, but a pale pink nail-polish might still become me :)