Life from the balcony

I am a balcony watcher. It means I love to stand in the terrace and while away my time. Besides the fresh air, i get a perspective on life around me (snooping down on other people did you say?) Well, I like to think i get to zoom in on the myriad eccentricities of life and living. It begins at dawn when the rotund businessman and his equally hippopotamusy wife waddle down to the neighbourhood temple to bathe the shivling. The milk sloshes about in the glass because it has been diluted with fifty percent water (to save costs i presume). I wonder how does he hope to bargain for favours when he is cheating God at the outset? Does he realise he is being dishonest or is he just fooling himself by believing that God has better things to do than check if the milk used is pure or adulterated?
Mornings are a busy time for school kids and office goers. Almost everybody is in a hurry and swearing. The air wafting up to me is often reeking with expletives because someone's car is dirty, the bus just left, you left your phone at home or stepped on dog poo. Yesterday our maid came screaming in, her hair all dishevelled. Apparently a crow had sat on her head while she was hanging the clothes. She said it was a bad omen because crows are 'evil spirits'. I told her the crow probably found a soul mate and was checking her out by sitting on her head. She didnt get my joke but spend the entire day blaming the crow for everything that went wrong- the glass she chipped, the burnt curry she cooked and the chores she happily forgot to do. Lucky woman. I am wishing i could find some excuse for things that went wrong in my day- the story i left unfinished, the workout i missed, the delay at the dentist and the idiot driver who refused to give me way on the road...