Here is my story

For the purpose of this blog, I go by the persona of Ficali McDelta (nee McPipe). I’m not quite sure why I settled upon using a pseudonym – it’s not like fame (or infamy) compel me to conceal my identity. All the same, over time I have learnt a benefit of this second persona. While Ficali is very much me, she is at the same time also an identity in her own right. By being more detached from the happenings in my life, she is able to see the humour in situations, where I may not. And she has the poetic license (and penchant) for exaggeration, so while everything written here is true-ish, that’s about the best you should be expecting.

I live in New York City, and my rather nuclear life tends to circle around my hubster (Delta), my three close friends (Doobie, Ilajna and Bobbis), and feline compatriot/arch nemesis (Queen Jaffa). As such, intertwined as our lives are, this blog has ended up being as much about them as myself.

I used to live with my three roommates (Ilajna, Doobie and Bobbis) in one of those infamous shoe-box apartments in Manhattan. And then, in July '08, Delta and I made the huge decision that confronts many of us at some point or another, and we decided to get married. In a life fraught with follies and foibles, it was the singularly bestest decision I ever made.

Ficali, and this blog, were born in New York, in July 2005. I, on the other hand, was actually born a considerable 25 years before that, in Mumbai (India). After an early childhood in Mumbai, I proceeded to complete high school in an international boarding school in rural India. I link to it precisely because I want to help raise its profile and publicity – I couldn’t recommend a place more. It was, after all, where learnt useful life skills like Ouija boards, baking cakes in a fire oven, and how to lay on the grass on your back for 4 hrs at a stretch without getting bored.

I moved to London (UK) to spend another 6 years wading through my formational years of college and early career. London itself developed a grip on me I can’t explain or capture adequately in words. It’s difficult to express, other than that the city has a life, vibrancy and personality in it’s own right, it isn’t just a place to live. The one thing I learnt from studying at a top college, and then working in an investment bank, is that competitive environments are just not made for me. I like to work hard, I love to challenge myself, but whoa, nothing turns me off like the stench of self-centricity in an institution all about the money.

From there, having bored myself out of my own life, I needed a change, and it was only a short hop and step to New York, where started the newest (and current) phase of my life. Shortly after moving to New York, I set up abode with my roommates, and then met Delta in our local pub where we used to spend a disproportionate amount of our time. There was no way to know, at the time, that our relationship would grow into the oneness that we have today.

If I had to use one word to describe the sensory overload which is New York, it would be ‘idiosyncratic’. Seriously. Every day, just walking on the streets, there’s a novel adventure and drama to be witnessed if you’re only open to it. ‘New York Moments’, Delta calls them. Sometimes, I catch myself thinking frustratedly, omg this city is full of nutters!! And then I come home, and start thinking through the haps in the day as I write my blog, and more often than not, I realize, gosh, maybe the nutter is me. So that’s what this blog is about – a collection of my very own New York Moments. As as you might have seen in The History Boys, it's "just one fahkin thing after another."