The friends you make when you're twelve

I've spent today doing absolutely nothing but sit and read ebooks on my computer. Not very productive, I know. What can I say? I'm a nerd sometimes. But never fear, I won't waste away and become vamp pale from sitting in front of a screen all day. I do have a life. A relatively boring one for the most part for which I have no compunction in blaming my college. But then I blame my college for everything so never mind.

Anyway, all the fun I've ever had was outside hell. Like when my friends and I get together for lunch, dinner, movies, random trips to anywhere with food, birthday parties, end-of-exam parties, I-feel-like-crap-and-I'm coming-to-your-place get-togethers, marking our territory in the city's few malls, morning walks, shopping, renting out movies and pizza, the occasional spot of trouble which we inevitably get into and simply, simply for spending time together for the heck of it.

Having best friends who have been with you for years is great. The good thing is that you're incredibly lucky to have actually found these people. There was this old movie I watched once which said something to the effect of 'no one makes friends in their life like the ones they had when they were twelve.' So true.

The bad thing is that you're utterly spoilt with the kind of friendship you share with these people that you just can't settle for anything less. It took me two years to make real friends in college. And even then, this comes nowhere near the kind of relationship I have with my school friends who are all, incidentally, surprisingly amazing. We're just so diverse and yet completely in sync with each other.
Numbered among our ranks are three future engineers, a future doctor, a future media person, a future psychologist and a future chartered accountant. Really, how cool is that?
I can totally see the lot of us sitting in a coffee shop when we're middle-aged. We'd most probably be pulling each other's legs, laughing too loud, complaining about the younger generation and how we can't fit into any of our old jeans anymore and being nauseatingly nostalgic.
Trust me, this kind of thing is way too special to fade with time, distance, adulthood and other annoying details.

Blue devilled

My semester practical exam has been postponed to May 2nd because the government has announced a bandh in protest of the Sri Lankan issue. Again.
I fail to see what good a strike in this country is going to do the thousands of refugees fleeing the war zone. Yesterday was the Earth day and I watched this documentary called 'The Eleventh Hour' which depressed me some more. Call me cynical but I don't have faith in the collective billions living on the planet. Show me a crowd and I'll show you one person who controls that crowd. I'm also feeling generally crappy because of a lot of other things which aren't worth getting into right now.

The elections are coming up and I can't vote because apparently, I missed the 'eligible' time to be born by two days. I don't get this. I've completed nineteen years of age and the legal age for voting is eighteen.Hello? Do the math. Anyway, I don't know whom I'd vote for even if I had a voter's ID so I suppose the point is moot. If you could vote, who would you vote for? The DMK? The AIADMK? Vijayakanth? Heaven forbid. Whomever we vote for we're still stuck between a rock and a hard place. It's become a matter of choosing the lesser of two evils. It's easy to say the situation sucks. It's harder to do something about it. That's where that one person comes into the picture. And I'm at least glad to say that that doesn't seem like it's impossible anymore.

Meanderings of an idle mind - not all who wander are lost

I am so jobless and yet, so busy. Anyway, I'm jobless enough to write another blog entry so bear with me.

Okay, first things first. Creamy Inn is really good. I went there with a friend a couple of days ago. That's my pista delight and her strawberry crush up there. Looks good eh? The prices are quite reasonable too. As a college kid who is almost always broke I feel this is a very important requirement. Then we went to Sree Mithai right after that and had Dahi Vada. The place is really crowded in the evenings. We had to wait for about fifteen minutes before they got us what we wanted. I felt the wait was worth it though.


I went to my college yesterday to get my records signed by the HOD but since she derives great pleasure from being such a pain in the wrong place (as a friend of mine puts it), we were unceremoniously kicked out of college with nothing to show for it. What a total waste of four perfectly good hours. Anyway I made up for all that lost time by watching two movies (which I've already watched more than once) back to back after I got back home.

Mansfield Park:

This is one of the few movies which I enjoyed better than the book. It's got all the usual elements which make Jane Austen so popular and I believe it's one of the best love stories I've ever read.
The story is about Fanny Price who goes through everything impoverished relatives living with their more affluent relations as little more than domestic help go through and yet has the strength of character to refuse an apparently reformed rake in favour of her less charming and less wealthy cousin who has an infinitely better character. I love the way that the movie manages to avoid making Fanny look strait-laced and how Edmund isn't portrayed as boring and prosy just because he wants to be a clergyman.

Moral: Beware of reformed rakes. Regency authors tend to romanticize the spoiled rich guy who falls in love and changes his lifestyle for his true love. So not happening in real life. That's why it's called romantic fiction people.
Now that we've cleared up that little misconception, I must admit I have a thing going for the rakes…but strictly within the covers of Georgette Heyer's brilliantly witty novels.

The Patriot:

It's set in the period of the civil war in America. Mel Gibson and Heath Ledger are two of the main reasons this movie is so amazing. The little things like the Cherokee tomahawk and the Great Danes just add character to an already excellent story. Some say it's too violent (yeah, if you're still into PG movies) and it's definitely too dramatic. What else do you need when you're watching a movie? It makes you laugh, cry, think and love Mel Gibson. Perfect.

Moral: Er...freedom? Passion? Sacrifice? The indomitable spirit of freedom fighters? Take your pick.

My dad's on the road to recovery. If you call recovery walking around and telling people he's perfectly alright with my mom cutting in and saying he's not.
I haven't had time to touch my books yet. It's funny how that happens when you have time for everything else right?
I have a line up of movies I need to watch, books I simply must read, stuff I have to put down on paper and a room which is begging to be cleaned. And I love doing all this stuff. Yes, even cleaning my room because it gives me great job satisfaction. There’s this feeling of accomplishment when it is devoid of junk (stuff I throw out) and when I know exactly where all my stuff (junk I keep) is, a happy state of affairs which will last for a week at the most.

I tell you, this is the life. If you’re one of those busy, dynamic types take a minute to stop and ponder.
No, I don’t care what you ponder. Ponder the origin of mankind, ponder about God, ponder yesterday’s episode of ‘The big bang theory’, ponder why the lady next to you seems to have marinated herself in cheap perfume, ponder the uselessness of it all, ponder if your great grand daddy is still inhabiting the hallway on the second floor. By the end of it, I swear, the world will never seem the same again. And you might actually like it.

The flipside of the coin

Okay, I'm sitting in front of the computer wondering what I should write about. Should I write about all the things which went wrong in the past two days? Or should I write about everything that went right?
On one hand, I've almost constantly been away from home. Not something I enjoy. The heat has been almost intolerable. I had to attend a family thing which I was not keen on at all. My niece slipped and fell when she was playing with me and cut her upper lip. My dad was in an accident and the skin on his knee has been scraped off. He had to get a TT shot. And there was a huge cockroach in my room last night.


On the other hand, I was in an air-conditioned car while we did all the travelling. When my niece fell down and I noticed there was blood in her mouth, my first thought was 'Oh God, she's broken a tooth.' A cut upper lip is better than a broken tooth.(Sounds like something you'd find in a fortune cookie right? Life's like that.)

My dad could have gotten seriously hurt but he didn't. In fact, he was acting like it was nothing and kept walking around while the rest of us, my mom especially, kept urging him not to act like an early Christian martyr and sit down. About that family thing? Well, the good thing is that it ended with no problems. For me, the good thing is that it ended, period. I had to beg and plead with my mother to kill the roach. But it is a mark of the extent of maternal love that she got up at midnight and actually did it.

And I'm still alive. Yeah, I'd say things went right.

I am the soul that lives within!

This song by India Arie is on top of my list right now. The lyrics are so cool.
'I am not my hair, I am not this skin, I am not your expectations....I am the soul that lives within.' It totally blew me away when I heard it for the first time. Now I can't stop listening to it. Right after that is 'Hey there Delilah' by Plain White T's. Been humming that for a few days now. I'm also listening to Tokio Hotel which is totally different (very emo) but some of their stuff like 'Monsoon', 'Don't jump' and '1000 oceans' are very listenable. Anyway, as usual Linkin Park basically beats everything else at every conceivable level.


I've had quite an unusual weekend. I attended three church services. That's way more than how many I've attended in the past few months. I went to a confirmation service which seems to be an even bigger torture now than when I got confirmed. Honestly, I've got nothing against poeple pledging themselves to the Christian way of life. Only, I don't think boring and/or starving 15 or 16 year olds to death by making them sit in church for more than five hours (I kid you not) and then making off with the cash from your auctioned bouquet(which was given to you in the first place) is a great way to initiate them into the church. The Good Friday sermon was good. The Easter sermon put me to sleep. I will most probably be attending something similar to a service again tomorrow when my cousin's getting engaged.


Really, all this going to church isn't improving my soul at all. I know what Easter is, I can comprehend the enormity and the horror of what happened during the crucifixion, I understand the gravity of commiting yourself to a way of life but none of this really affects me anymore. The church sadly, is riddled with politics and corruption like all other organisations making a considerable profit. To a person who is already trying to come to grips with her own tenuous beliefs, this is just disillusioning.


I'm not very religious. I don't pray much, I don't attend church regularly, the Bible is just another book on my shelf and I don't always do the right thing. I think in scriptural terms that equates to 'Behold, you have sinned.'
These days, the things which really inspire me and make me feel that God exists has nothing to do with the church and everything to do with nature and the inherent goodness in people. I think one small act of unexpected kindness, one sunset, one star-studded sky, one smile even, is worth more than all the best sermons you can subject me to in this lifetime.

Strange cats

I read a quote in the newspaper recently by an anonymous author which said,
'You will always be lucky if you know how to make friends with strange cats'
I don't know why I like it so much. I'm no dab hand at making friends with strange cats myself but it can't be that hard. Because I think all it takes is time and a few saucers of milk.

Maybe it's because strange cats always seem to find their way to me whether I want to befriend them or not. A few of them have already had their bundles of joy within my hallowed gates, at any rate. The latest additions being the three kittens currently sleeping on a bag of sand in the corner of my front porch. I got a bit close once and I swear, it only takes them moments to turn from cute, cuddly looking balls of fur to the tiny, fang baring spawn of the devil. But for all that, they're incredibly adorable. Anyway, I don't count on them reaching adulthood in the proximity of my house because my mother's benevolence only extends to the point of not having to clean up kitten poop (or any poop, for that matter). As soon as they're old enough to really stink up the place, they're getting the boot.

Talking about my mother, I had a nice long conversation with her yesterday. It was fun. Now she's convinced that nothing short of divine intervention will save me from myself. She also narrated the always gripping stories of Marriages Gone Bad. Very entertaining stuff. I suppose the main purpose was to instill in me the enormity of the wedded institution seeing as I'm living in the depraved era of divorce, IT,etc and also because my own mom thinks I'm nuts, but I'm not fooled. Gossip is gossip even if it comes with a moral. And I'd take gossip over advice any day.


I am also badly in need of a trip to an ice cream parlour and I can't wait for my models to end so I can drown my sorrows in a nice cone of vanilla ice cream. Most people can't believe I live close to a Creamy Inn outlet and have not yet tasted their stuff. So next week, I'm going to take a leisurely walk down the Chetpet road, enjoy the view (the Koovam is a knock-out) and get me some iiccce cream!

Why???

My model exams start tomorrow and better still, my first exam is PQT. Oh joy.
I'm trying my best to load something into my atrophied brain but so far I haven't had much success. My classmates (the ones who aren't geeks) will say chuck it and give in a blank paper. Sigh...why, oh why can't I be that brave??

Stupid model exams...stupid PQT which I'm sure I'll never again use in my life as long as I am sane...stupid 2.00PM in the afternoon reminding me that if I don't start now I don't have a chance in hell of even thinking about passing tomorrow.

Do I sound grumpy? Well, I am. As far as I know, there's only one cure: Holidays. Right now, it seems like a faraway, distant dream. Okay, I better get back to pmfs and mgfs and standard deviations and variances...oh God, someone save me before I totally lose it.