Memories of Mysore - Day Zero

Every new year I feel like I'm getting this nice, new page to write on. There are also more and more pages of memories added to my repertoire. We're all just living, breathing books waiting to be written and read, after all.

The past four months have gone by in a blur. I have too many memories of my training at Infosys, Mysore and I can't put it all in one post, so i'm going to split it into significant bits and pieces which have stuck in my mind.

Beginning at day one or rather Day Zero, my first glimpse of the campus wasn't too clear. I was too anxious about the joining formalities, my luggage and my mind was mostly occupied with whether I had remembered to bring all my certificates. All I knew was that it was clean, ostentatiously large and did not at all look formidable. Before I knew it, I had collected an ID card on a yellow tag, the introduction kit, and my room keys and I was dropped off with my hideously large suitcase and one travel bag in front of my hostel block.

My first thought as I looked at the hostel from outside was that I had somehow amazingly landed somewhere I could fit into with no trouble. Not a common feeling with me, trust me. The hostel had large lawns, interconnecting stone pathways, a canopy of trees filtering rays of sunlight from a enamel blue sky, and no hostel warden types hanging around. Perfect.

I left my bags in my room (007!) and helped another girl lug her enormous suitcase up two flights of stairs. When I came back, I took in the room and was pretty happy about it. It had everything a hotel room usually provides you with + a stunningly gorgeous view through large glass windows.

And don't even get me started on the bathroom. All I was thinking was, 'Wow. Pinch me.' A good bathroom is vital to happiness. Where else will you day dream?

Some of the first things I learnt was that taking a bicycle on some paths was not advisable because they were all uphill. All the guards are multi-lingual and very helpful. Standing in queue at the food courts was a way of life. You could use the electric kettle in your room to boil water for your bath if the hot water's late in coming...one mug at a time. Walking was inevitable.

Also, you can see 21 year olds from the length and breadth of India. The atmosphere's young, happening and totally awesome.You can walk through the campus at 3 a.m without a care in the world and encounter couples taking walks or groups of guys sitting in the smoking zones and laughing.

Of course, this was later. I got lost on my first day. Everything looked the same and I had to get instructions from every security guard I passed. Dinner with my college mates and friends at a food court called 'Oasis' was the final act for the day.

Relatively speaking, this was one of my better first days. I didn't cry, get depressed or fake a stomach ache. All of which I did during my other memorable first days involving academia. There is hope for me after all.

Superstitions

Training's over. This seems significant now, but so did the end of school and college. I'm guessing that's kind of how life goes. An end, a beginning and a lot of crazy things in between. Then it happens again. And again. And then I blog about it.

In the past few months, I think one of the major adjustments I've had to make was interacting with people. It isn't always easy to find people you can connect with and I was never good at adapting myself to opinions and habits I don't hold with. In the process of trying to get along with people and trying to change myself, I've made a discovery. A lot of people who are clever and educated and intelligent are still superstitious.

The most prominent one I've seen is the refusal to eat meat on certain days. I've asked some of my closer friends and acquaintances why they do that, and mostly the answer is that their family has always followed it and they're used to it. One of my friends even believes that washing her hair on certain days could affect her siblings.

This is one of those situations which is like walking on thin ice for me. I'm fairly straightforward which means that I've trodden on a few toes and in a professional environment, I can't really afford to do that, can I? Of course, these people are still my peers and friends so it's alright for now, but what if I snort at the wrong moment when my manager's talking to me? (Disclaimer : still haven't got a manager, by the way. So, purely hypothetical situation.However, knowing me it's entirely plausible.)

So yeah, next time someone tells me that writing the alphabet on rice is going to make them smarter or that crows are the reincarnation of our dead grandparents, I'm going to smile and say, 'Oh?' Then I will try hard to stop myself from making a sarcastic rejoinder. And I will not snort into my milkshake.

But if you're a friend, prepare yourself for a long conversation, buddy. What else will we talk about during lunch? 

A woman like Bathsheba.

For a long time, I didn't read Thomas Hardy even though there was always a book or two lying around at home out of pure contrariness. It seemed to me that my mother only recommended books to me so that I'd get a moral out of them. The same went for Pearl S.Buck. (The reason for this wasn't just my cussedness, but also an unfounded conviction that Pearl S.Buck only wrote about poverty and other somewhat dreary topics.)

So imagine my surprise when I read a couple of  books written by these authors and really liked them. I genuinely thought that both 'Far from the Madding Crowd' and 'The Good Earth' were excellent reads.

As for Bathsheba Everdeen and Gabriel Oak, they stand in danger of becoming my temporary muse. I can't help liking Bathsheba and hoping to meet more men like Gabriel. Bathsheba especially, tells me so much about a woman who is smart, capable and beautiful, and yet innocent and fallible that I'm surprised that her feelings were described by a man putting pen to paper.

Despite all her womanly shortcomings of vanity and impetuosity, she's one of the few characters I began to love only after I read more about her. You see a young girl, confident in her own ability and beauty, thinking that she's too intelligent to make the mistakes commonly plaguing her own sex. Then she becomes a woman who throws reason to the winds, and lets herself be swept away by passion for a man who is as shallow and superficial as she is inexperienced.

After the misery of a dying love, and being wracked by doubts and a broken heart, she finally matures into a woman who has learnt that she is made of sterner stuff. As Thomas Hardy puts it,

 'She was of the stuff of which great men's mothers are made. She was indispensable to high generation, hated at tea parties, feared in shops, and loved at crises.'

My mom just gave me a copy of 'Tess of the D'urbervilles'. I'm totally going to read this one. 

Oops, did I speak too soon?

The going is getting tough. When I say tough, I mean this-is-so-frustrating-why-am-I-not-good-at-this tough. Because I should be. Sigh...nothing left for me to do but to tighten my belt and start burning the midnight oil. On the brighter side, I should lose a few kilos in the process. I take comfort where I can.

My day is mostly spent in front of a computer battling with assignments. I tell you, 24 hours is too short for a day. And since I can't catch up on lost time during weekends now, I'm struggling a bit. I've also been bugging other people...um, one person. I regret my bugginess.  

But enough of that. At this moment I am quite satisfied with life because I'm surrounded by the people and the kids I love the most. And I'm blogging. Oh, and did I mention that there's going to be a bachelorette party for Kay and a christening coming up in December? It is going to be awesome! In the meanwhile, that midnight oil needs some burning.

A Big Change

I am finally leaving. Yep, after months and months of being pretty much jobless, I will now have to get used to a completely different lifestyle. Bugger. Anyway, someone told me that in IT your attitude is all that matters. My attitude right now is one of deep foreboding and a sort of skeptical hopefulness.

So au revoir, Life. When I next post something here, I will either be a minion of the software industry or undergoing a nervous breakdown. Let's keep our fingers crossed for the former, shall we?  

A quick update

I'm at my sister's place right now and I'm having a lot of fun with my niece and nephew. I've been walking for a week now in the hopes of burning some of the fat I've put on in the past few months. It's actually going better than I expected. I quite like it. Apart from that, Infosys has invited all the new recruits for an informal meet at their main office! How cool is that?

My new blog is going on well. By the looks of it, my friends at least seem to like it which I'm pretty happy about. My dentist appointment has been postponed for now and I'm having fun.That's it for now. Hope everyone reading this is having fun too. :) 

Officially a Graduate.

I cleared my final semester of engineering with 84 percent, which means I am finally and irrevocably out of college!You cannot believe how awesome that is. I've pretty much been waiting for this day for four years. Now all that I have left to do is wait and have a lot of fun before I join Infosys in August. I can totally handle that. Except all the weight gain from eating all the time.

Oh, wait. I have a dentist appointment to remove my wisdom teeth, which I'm dreading. Darn it.  

Train Journey with Bijli Bhai & Co.

I just got back from a short vacation to my native place yesterday.

Are you now consumed with rampant curiosity about what I did there and how much I enjoyed or hated it like all bloggers irrationally expect their readers to be?
I'm guessing no, but bear with me. There might be a couple of laugh worthy incidents in there somewhere.This is a faithful account of the train journey to a certain southern city.


The two day trip started with the train breaking down within ten minutes of starting from the station. However, we were all entertained by the resident comic, Bijli Bhai. He's a somewhat forceful character, but to his credit he kept everyone entertained through the crisis of the 'engine failure'. The Brahmin couple who were sitting with us, immediately took to Bijli Bhai and soon, everyone was happily blaming the government and praising MGR movies, while my parents occasionally added their mite to the conversation by laughing or passing an appropriate comment.


Yours truly sat and observed the proceedings quietly from a corner for future documentation. Also, it's unsafe to venture into conversational waters when everyone involved has children who are as old as you are. Once you do, it is inevitable that you will hear acerbic comments about the 'next generation', and will generally be treated as a naive, but delightful child.
Thanks, but no thanks.


Now, Bijli Bhai has a nephew in the railways and immediately put in a call to tell him to do something about the engine failure. None of us knew what The Nephew could or did do, but everyone was now reassured that the train would not be stranded indefinitely. In the meanwhile, we heard stories of how Bijli Bhai broke down the barriers between vegetarians and non-vegetarians, different religions and caste, MGR lovers and Sivaji lovers, by being universally fair and benevolent.The train started again in an hour and a half.  


After eleven, everyone decided that it was time for bed and settled into their respective berths. This is when the snoring started. Optimistically termed as a tiger's roar by Bijli Bhai the next morning, it was less optimistically received by those who couldn't sleep all night because of it. It wasn't my dad and it wasn't Bijli Bhai, so draw your own conclusions. Bijli Bhai also kindly gave the perpetrator advice about visiting an ENT specialist.


A little later, Bijli Bhai had a few old timey songs on his mobile which he played to everyone to show how much he appreciated music. Maami instantly expressed a desire to listen to a few of these songs as she cooked for the family in the morning before rushing off to work. My dad also expressed a similar desire. Now there was a real problem.

How to use bluetooth?

This baffled them for all of five minutes. Then they realised that there was an actual just-out-of-college student in their midst! My help was immediately enlisted and I spent the rest of the morning 'using bluetooth' to spread joy and happiness in the form of old timey songs. Yes, just-out-of-college student saves the day again.

At this point, I-value-friends-more-than-relations camaraderie was firmly established. Maami and my mom now struck up a conversation about what was the appropriate age for girls to get married with meaningful glances in my direction every once in a while.A hotel proprietor had joined the ranks earlier in the morning which led to us (my parents, my relatives and moi) having lunch at said hotel the next day.


Sadly, it is impossible to stretch a train journey from Chennai to my native place for more than half a day unless the engine failure had lasted much, much longer. Everyone exchanged phone numbers and promised to keep in touch. Does this sound like the end of the school year to anyone?


Personally, I enjoyed the trip (mainly because of its blog potential) and was extremely happy to get off the train. Maami and my mom were dangerously close to discussing wedding details.








  

What I would do if I could do anything I wanted to.

Here I am, five days into my new found freedom of not having to get up and go someplace I don't want to go to. I fully understand that this is temporary. I will, within the space of a few weeks or months, have to again get used to getting up and going someplace I might not want to go to.

So, in the meanwhile, I am going to write. I am going a start a new blog in which I will most decidedly not be anonymous. I'm sorry I can't post it here because, you know, this one is. I am also doing a bit of content writing on fascinating subjects like baby products and consumer electronics.

Oh, and my parents celebrated their wedding anniversary! I made this wonderfully gooey chocolate brownie and vanilla ice cream to mark the occasion. I suppose every marriage has its ups and downs. Not that I know much about it, but my parents do and they seem to be pretty  okay with it. That's saying something for the wedded institution, isn't it?

And as always, I am also reading. I've just finished Gone with the Wind. It's a great book, really. I was expecting a mushy romance, but it's nothing of the sort. Very realistic and not really a love story at all, when you consider that most of it was one-sided. I am now halfway into Sons and Lovers, written by D.H. Lawrence. Another good read. I'm really starting to enjoy classics.

I have more time to go out and spend time with my friends now. Even though Chennai is freaking hot, there are always air conditioned malls and theaters. Seriously, It's a sweltering 40 degrees outside. Not ideal for spending the day out, but we manage very nicely.

I tell you, this is the life. Everyone should finish college and be jobless for a while.        

  

The last day of my under graduate education.

At this point in my life, I'm seriously tempted to grin and tell the world that I will no longer have to go to college. The joy of not having to worry about using the boy's staircase to lunch and getting hauled up for it. Priceless. 

To be fair, things weren't that bad all the time. Especially during the last semester, I did enjoy myself comparatively. However, I still thumb my nose at everyone who thought that their idea of discipline was more important than actually learning anything in college. 

Anyway, life beckons and so on and so forth. I'm going to be doing a lot of things which are going to take me out of my comfort zone.I have to stay away from home for the first time in my life. I will either hate that or end up liking it immensely. On one hand, I'll have to do my own laundry and do everything on my own. On the other hand, it means independence and self sufficiency which can be a heady mixture. Maybe the next few years will bring out everything I never had the chance to find out about myself so far. 

And I'm looking forward to that.    

She was just behind me!

Okay, this was something which happened quite a while back, but I was just thinking about it and voila! I present to you yet another pointless blog post featuring my cluelessness.

If you have been diligently following my blog you will know that at one point of time, I used to go walking with a friend in the mornings at a park. If you haven't, you know it now. 

Right at the beginning of this not very successful venture, I had no clue how to get to the park from my place. So my friend used to come to my place on her bike and then, I would follow her to the aforementioned park on mine. And because I'm so freakishly clueless about routes, she had to do this for a few consecutive days so my brain would finally get the idea and remember the way. 

On day three or four, I was sufficiently confident that I would not get lost on my way back home. Even then, being my friend and all, Charms decided that I could not be trusted not to get lost. She told me she would come with me for part of the way and we started out as usual. 

Now, right in the middle of the way, I saw an alternative route I knew about and smugly took it. Who said I didn't know my routes? I totally knew this one. I reached home safe and very modestly refrained from boasting about my feat to my parents, partly because I knew that they would laugh their heads off. 

I was happily starting out on a new novel in my bedroom when my doorbell rang. 

I'll spare you the suspense, it was Charms. She looked like she was hyperventilating and let out a huge sigh whilst clutching her heart when she saw me. This seemed unusual. I politely asked her what she was doing at my place.She responded, not so very politely, that she had come to inform my parents that she had lost their daughter somewhere in the city.

Yep. Not being equipped with a cell phone for a mere walk in the park, she had no way of knowing that I had not lost my way/met with an accident/ been abducted by aliens. 

The minute she noticed that I wasn't behind  her, she pulled over and even had a very interesting conversation with a traffic cop in her limited Tamil, most of which consisted of her wailing, 'Uncle, she was right behind me! I lost my friend!' and the traffic cop nodding understandingly, like young women frequently came up to him at seven in the morning and complained that they had lost a friend.

Of course, after I finished laughing she yelled at me some more and finally said that she would never take me anywhere again. According to her, I should have waved goodbye before venturing off on other routes.

 Now why didn't I think of that?   

Project Documentation

I'm done with the documentation for my final year project! Trust me, it was a big headache. And I mean BIG.

First off, it has to follow an exact format which no one knew about. After foraging amongst the discards from our seniors, we finished it and was immediately informed that we'd done everything wrong. I must have taken print outs of the damn thing at least three times and suffered from high blood pressure before getting it verified. And mind you, we couldn't just replace the wrong pages because all the page numbers would change. And we had to scrap an entire chapter about the development tool, because the project-in-charge thought that it would be inappropriate to have a chapter about a development tool we hadn't developed, but it was totally okay to shove all the stuff under that chapter into other chapters unobstrusively. 

And it cost us a small fortune to get four copies of the thing printed out and bound. Made us regret the fact that we hadn't made a much shorter document. Then it was a day or two of unbridled tension over how we would get the thing signed from people who chose that exact moment to be unavailable. 

And all for what? Nothing. Those four beautifully soft-bound copies with color printouts of all the screenshots will never see the light of day again and will most probably spend the rest of their life lying in forgotten corners and hopefully, being recycled. 

On the brighter side, I finish college in three weeks. Woo hoo.

P.S: Anna Karenina and Emma are must-reads. And I've started with Shantaram. I haven't read enough to form a definite opinion about it yet, but I'm waiting to see how it will turn out.  

Why should we argue?

It isn't unusual for me to argue about religion, god or society with my parents, sisters, friends and acquaintances. Their views might be drastically different from mine. There are also some ideas that we agree on and others that we give in to because we realize that the other person has a point.

We do get emotional at times, when we're not just arguing about something abstract and some arguments do not have a clear winner. Despite all that, I enjoy these arguments because they're the best way to reason and to get a fresh perspective on ideas and issues.

However, there are people who cannot (or do not) want to argue reasonably. They have strong convictions but will not suffer anyone else to challenge these convictions, mostly because they know that their arguments stand on weak legs. I've come across quite a few people like that. I'll give you a couple of examples.



1. There was once a debate in class on the issue of vegetarianism. I'm a non-vegetarian myself and there were quite a few people speaking for and against it. The vegetarians emphasized the fact that animals do feel pain. At one point, a girl remarked that life is more important than god because it is tangible and should be respected. She felt that before we respect and worship various gods, we should be able to respect life.

At this point, a girl who was speaking for non vegetarianism immediately stood up, incensed, and began a heated tirade about how animals can never be more important than god. This turned the debate from the actual topic to another one which no one wanted to discuss in the first place.



2. There was pastor in the church I used to go to who was talking during the sermon about a young man who had approached him. He was an atheist and wanted to talk to him about religion and faith. By his own account, the young man had been polite and inoffensive, but after a while when the pastor realized that he could not satisfy the young man's questions, he became angry and told him that he had not come to him to believe but merely to argue.

He was saying this to us to show that faith and belief should not be questioned. I felt that this was wrong, even then. How could the young man believe if his questions weren't answered?



We are taught not to talk back, not to argue with older or wiser people and to take things on faith because 'we won't understand'. I'm not saying that we should be offensive or disrespectful to other beliefs and opinions, but don't we have the right to question?

And about the first example, even though I was on the same side as her, I felt that the second girl had ceded the argument by default to the other side merely because she flew into a passion and chose to avoid the subject at hand by picking at a comment and turning it into something else. Even if the argument had been about god in the first place, I didn't think that she had behaved very well. And that makes a huge difference in arguments.

 Be on your best behaviour, please.  

Birthday party ideas she'll love...

How many times have you been completely stumped about what to do for a friend on her birthday? It's happened to me too but it's easy to plan for girls if you know what they like. So here are a few things which I've known to be huge hits.

1. Sleepover!

If you are best friends and are comfortable with staying over at each other's places, this is both an affordable and fun alternative to going out. Make food together (this will be hilarious if no one knows how to cook), cut the birthday cake, light candles on the terrace after dark and stargaze, watch silly movies together and just talk till you fall asleep. Simple and amazingly awesome.

2. If you can drive, take a small road trip for the day, but plan out the places you'll be visiting in advance.


3. Catch a good movie together with lunch or dinner at a good restaurant.Preferably a comedy or something light, unless your friend is a movie buff.

4. Arrange a themed party or a night out where everyone gets dressed up. And take loads of pictures to commemorate it. :)


5. Go to the beach early in the morning to catch the sunrise.

6. Do fun activities together.

This depends on where you live and the kind of activities which are feasible. If you live in the city, you can go bowling together and play ping pong or pool. If you're also blessed with good weather, do something outdoorsy.

If it's a rainy day, pull out that pack of cards or your old scrabble board and play for small stakes or candy. (Hint: Let the birthday girl win. That will make her enjoy it more. :))


7.Be innovative and try out new things like:

*Painting your own collage on a big sheet or cloth like the one we did here.

* Use all your photos and make a movie or a PowerPoint presentation about all the fun times you've had together. I did this for a friend's birthday recently and everyone loved it!

* Light painting with a good camera and a dark room. I love this and I'm trying it out as soon as I can. :)

* Home videos of the party. You can even plan out a simple script and shoot a small video!

* Arrange a treasure hunt for the birthday girl with all the presents you've got her and leave cryptic hints.


I hope this post gave you a few ideas to get started on arranging your own birthday parties. Good Luck! :)

The things I've learnt in college.

I've been blogging for more than two years now and those of you who have been following it from the beginning or even started much later will know that I haven't exactly been very cheerful or happy about my college life. My college has excellent infrastructure, a lot of qualified professors and good food. On the downside, it's extremely restrictive, almost dictatorial and a pain in the you-know-where.

At the end of it all, I think about what I've gained and I see a couple of job offers and a mentality which can survive bureaucracy. I've been stripped of the naive idealism which characterized my school days. I now know that it is possible to know nothing and still get a masters degree and teach as a professor in a 'good' college like mine.

It is true that sucking up to the 'right' people will give you faster results than being sincere.

I've also realized that some of the worst people to be stuck with on an assignment or project are dominating, selfish or indifferent teammates.

I lost my faith in religion and I've learnt to mistrust people who use religion as a smokescreen.

I learnt the hard way that sometimes you don't get along with someone for a reason, and it's better to cut your losses than to make yourself miserable by holding on.

Also, following the crowd or giving in when your heart's not in it will never turn out to be better than if you'd listened to your own counsel, especially when the crowd isn't too wise to begin with.

I know that real friends and family are the only people who give a damn about you. And real friends are notoriously hard to find. Be friendly with everyone, but choose your friends with a lot of care.

Love isn't corny or lame when you're in love with the right person.

I've also been told by a lot of really smart people not to sweat the small stuff and experience everything I can.

And trust me, there's so much more to be learnt outside the classroom than in it.

My top ten authors

Though all of us pick out titles that we like, there are always a few authors whom we keep going back to. My favourite authors of all time are:

1. Enid Blyton

- Almost every book I've read and enjoyed as a child was written by Enid Blyton. Most notably, the Famous Five series, Mallory Towers and her short stories. I've never enjoyed any other author so much, maybe because the best time to read a book is when you're a child and have a limitless capacity to imagine.

2. J.K Rowling

- With her wildly famous Harry Potter series, she's one of my favourite authors. Enough has been said about this author, so I'll stop here. Her smaller ventures like Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, The Tales of Beedle the Bard and even the short prequel story she wrote for charity have made their mark. If she goes on to write anything else, I'll be one of the first to read it.

3. Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer

- Possibly the best regency romance writers of all time. Extremely witty, humourous and well-informed, both of them recreate an entire era in my mind every time I read one their novels. Austen is higher on my list when it comes to character sketches and language. Heyer ranks higher on humour, wit and a faithful description of the fashions, practices and popular vocabulary of that day and age.

4. P.G.Wodehouse

- The undisputed master of humour. Need I say more? Apart from his series featuring Bertram Wooster and the all-time favourite Jeeves, he's written several other novels which will leave you in stitches like Damsel in Distress, The Politeness of Princes and The Prince and Betty.

5. Ayn Rand

- Probably one of the few authors who have defined an entire philosophy of moral rectitude based on self-interest and rationalism. Her books like The Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged, Anthem and We The living expound her philosophy of objectivism. A definite must-read.

6. Agatha Christie

- My only forays into the world of mystery and murder were because of Agatha Christie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Hercule Poirot is still my favourite detective till date. I simply can't resist French detectives with egg-shaped heads.

7. Douglas Adams

- He writes the funniest and most deviously insightful science fiction novels. Take a trip to places you've never imagined with his hilariously flawed protagonists and discover the meaning of life, the universe and everything.

8. Susan Elizabeth Philips

- Perhaps not a classic, but her books are fun! She's my most favourite modern romance author. Her novels are a breath of fresh air in the world of romance which is dominated by overly simplistic plots, redundancy and an excess of sensibility or the complete lack of it. Rest assured, her novels are never boring or overly sentimental.

9. George Orwell

- Well known for his dystopic novels like 1984 and Animal Farm. Here's an interesting piece of trivia for you: the famous band Pink Floyd based one of their albums, Animals on George Orwell's Animal Farm. If you like George Orwell, also check out Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.

10. Somerset Maugham

- I've only read one of his books, but he's on my list nonetheless. Of Human Bondage was one of the moist poignantly realistic novels I've ever read. We walk through the life of Philip Carey (this book is said to be autobiographical)and watch as he faces being orphaned and ridiculed, dreams about what he wants to be in life, gets trapped in an obsessive passion for a woman and a brief stint of poverty.

Who are your favourite authors? I'd love to know.

Relationships

This is what my new blog is going to be all about. I've been thinking about blog content for quite a while now and I've realized that this might be my best bet. While I'm not exactly an expert on relationships, I do have plenty of ideas. And the best part is that relationships aren't just confined to a single area. Apart from the essentials of actually interacting with people, I could write about my favourite books, movies and even technology and science!How cool is that? :)

You're never too old to scrape your knees and wear dorky jeans.

I scraped my knees. There is, of course, an interesting story behind this but it will most probably make me look klutzy/girly so I will cease and desist. Let's just say that falling down like a five year old kid when you're twenty-one is not a very graceful affair. Now one of my favourite pairs of Levi's jeans has holes on both knees.

What do you think? Urban chic? 80's style diva? Or simply an invitation for my mother to darn the offending holes and make it instantly dorky?

I'm going with mom+instant dorkiness.

Why slam books tell you nothing worth knowing.

When I was in school, just before the end of 10th standard and 12th standard, there will be a sudden increase in slam book circulation. Classmates and juniors will ask you to write stuff in slam books.

Some of these books don't really need you to sit and wonder about what you'd write for a classmate you hardly spoke two words to. Instead, they ask you about important things like your name, contact information, your crush and your past life.
Oh, and your most wished for wish.

Combine this with cute teddy bear and Hello Kitty stickers, glitter pens and heart shaped emoticons and you have your typical high school girl's slam book.
Yes, I understand your pain.

Anyway, you'd think that when people are twenty-one and completing their college courses they'd be a bit more mature about this slam book business. I filled in a slam book for a batch mate today. The only good thing about it was that it was blank. It did not ask me for my most wished for wish. The rest was just pure Hello Kitty goodness.

And most of the entries said this:

"Dear ____, I can never forget that seminar you took in class."

"...I hope you remember me."

"Thanks for being my friend!"

"Keep in touch."

But what they meant was:

"I couldn't sleep and I wish I had."

"You're not exactly my friend or anything and we hardly talk now but hey, it could totally happen ten years down the line."

"Smiling at me during break that day in second year was the friendliest thing ever!"

"We'll gaze at our profile pictures in Facebook for a few moments whenever we happen to pop up on each others' pages."

Really, you don't need their e-mail addresses. That's why we have Facebook. So we can ignore people whilst knowing exactly what they're doing and how they look without having to take the trouble to mail them.

With close friends, I can understand the need to have a memory of what you did together or a simple message for you to remember them by. Do NOT thrust that notebook on every person you've smiled at and expect them to write about how close you weren't.

And please, for the love of everything good and decent, no Hello Kitty stickers!

L'anonyme

I'm dabbling with the idea of going public with this blog. When I started it two years ago, it was only an outlet for me to vent. A pressure valve, if you will, but things changed slowly. Now I write in this blog because it's my very own piece of the internet.

I've been told that I should start a new one entirely on a better platform (maybe even my own site, if possible) with better content for a long time.

Oh yeah, piece of cake. Not! It's easy to write random stuff and just cruise on the gentle wave of anonymity, but the very act of taking away that anonymity gives me the responsibility to write decent stuff which people will not pelt with eggs or other assorted produce. And about content, don't even ask. I can't think of a damn thing. Suggestions, anyone?

So I've been thinking...again.

It rained in Chennai last night! It's been a long time since that's happened and the weather for some part of today was divine.

Okay now, where do I start? I watched the Tahrir Square protest in Egypt with interest while it lasted and I was pretty surprised and happy when the people actually managed to displace Hosni Mubarak. Today, I hear of Libya protesting against the dictatorial rule of Muammar al-Gaddafi. You have to wonder what gave these normal, peaceful civilians the courage to oppose the government that they've been tolerating for decades.

The hair on the camel's back was apparently inflation. You take away their freedom and impose restrictions, they can live with it. You make their basic needs unaffordable and you have a major uprising on your hands. With India's rising corruption and inflation rates especially when it comes to food and fuel, can we expect drastic changes in the government? With the elections nearing, that's a question which will be answered before too long, I guess.

Coming to my life, quite a bit has been going on. On a lot of days, I merely bug people I know with complaints about how I have nothing to do. Other days, I'm not so jobless. I tried my hand at content writing, but I had to let that go because they offered to pay me peanuts. I'm still open to a part-time job and if any of you know of anything I can do online which involves writing, please do let me know.

Since my eighth semester began, I've been making medhu vadas, brownies, soup and omelettes every time I'm bored and I'm now reaping the benefits of my foolishness. Even my own mom whose aim in life seems to me to be to stuff me with as much food as possible has hinted that I need exercise. The horror!

To fill all the free time in between project work, being jobless, going out on weekends, going to college and eating, I read. I've finished Dracula, The Once and Future King and Thirty-nine Steps.

My favourite among the three would be The Once and Future King which is a novel about King Arthur. It is a bit long and accounts of Arthur's childhood exploits under Merlin's tutelage are fairy talish, but don't let that put you off. It's funny and gripping.

As the story goes on, you'll find an essence of the age that we call the Middle Ages. Arthur's attempts to change the existing system of feudal lords and the law of might at times reminded me of our own sense of futility when we attempt to change things bigger than ourselves, armed only with a dream. And yet, he does make a difference. Maybe not to the extent that he had hoped for, but to a larger extent than he might have actually achieved.

Another major event coming up is the group photo session and the farewell in college. This means that I'll have to wear a saree. Not only do I find them cumbersome and inconvenient, but the last time I'd actually attempted to wear one was four years ago. So it might be a bit of a problem when I try not to look completely awkward in it.

I know women who can pull off the simple matter of wearing a saree with style and elegance, but I'm probably not one of them. And apparently, there are so many other things to think about like the perfect pair of heels, make-up and accessories.
Ah, well...I would have bitterly resented this a year ago. Now, it seems a bit silly. I mean, it is only a saree. How bad can it be?I mean, really. It can't be that bad, right?

Keep your fingers crossed anyway, all ye who read this blog. I have a feeling that I'm going to need all the luck I can get.

Love - part trois

Hello to the sum total of maybe half a dozen people who know that this blog exists.
I am writing to you, clear in the knowledge that this will be the last six months(or maybe a little more than that)when I can blog about completely random things without worrying about time.

Of course, I might still continue with this blog after I start my training and hopefully, work. Before that however, I'm almost completely jobless so this gives me a lot of time to think up random things.

Feb's here and love is being milked for all it's worth, literally. Even though it's completely overrated and a consumerist trap, it is almost impossible not to get sucked in.

The newspapers write articles on relationships, gift ideas and even romantic food. Strawberry cheesecake and chocolates in heart shaped boxes are supposedly the most romantic food to force feed your love. Jewelery shops give out discounts on diamonds and all the movie channels play romantic chick flicks all month long. If you're not one of those people with exquisite sensibilities and the noblest sentiments, you'll have a hard time not pretending to puke.

All I have to say is, do not get sucked in. You don't really need a national day to get your girlfriend/boyfriend stuff and write crappy poetry. In fact, avoid the rush.
Be original. Unless of course, you want that discount on diamond jewelery.

3-D movies...what the heck??

Lately, it seems like every movie which comes out is a 3D movie.
Say what you will about amazing technology and how realistic you think the experience is, but I liked the good old 2-D movies just fine, thank you.

For one, those glasses are uncomfortable! In one case, it almost gave me a headache and in the middle of the movie, all I want to do is to take them off. It also makes the picture look darker.

They're also expensive. And I don't like them.

Here you are at the movies, and all you want to do is watch a good film and leave. You enter the theater and sit through five minutes of the movie before you realize that everyone else is wearing 3-D glasses. You rush out to buy said glasses and fork over more money to use them for just around 2 hours. And on top of all that, you realize that you might have just watched the whole thing in 2-D and enjoyed it more. Honestly...I want 2-D back.

Is PGD ethical?

This hit the papers a few weeks ago. Thailand is offering Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis to couples. Already couples from Australia, India and China are flocking to these fertility centers to select the gender of their child. While this can also help to make sure that the embryos will not develop with gene disorders or chromosomal abnormalities, it is gaining popularity mainly for the purpose of sex selection.

Naturally, this has sparked off ethical debates all over the world. Will this skew the sex ratio, especially in countries like India where boys are preferred to girls if this technique becomes more viable in the future? Some say that this is only a step away from genetic modification of other characteristics like intelligence, colouring and stature to get 'designer babies'.

Also, the destruction of many fertilized embryos is seen as something akin to murder but there is no unanimous answer for that. As in the case of abortions, circumstances and health play an important part.

Should we ignore natural selection and take it a step further to 'design' our children? This reminds me of the book 'Brave New World' by Aldous Huxley where people are manufactured and conditioned to perform specific tasks and hold specific positions in society. In the end, I believe that this will only lead to the imposition of restrictions on children even before they are born. We are all entitled to our individuality.

I am all in favour of using this technique when there is a strong chance that the child might be born with diseases or disabilities. But the implications of PGD could go deeper than we know. It has a vast scope for healing and for exploitation which is why I believe that there should be laws in place to prevent the misuse of something which could be a boon to medical science.

This is a funny comic I found on the web but you have to admit it strikes a chord.

21

Let’s start at the start. Important things which happened to me before the New Year:

1.I became my nephew’s godmother.

I thought that this meant that I have to start being a good religious role model to a two-year old kid. I tried discussing the ethical wrongness of making me anyone’s godmother based on the idea that I would encourage the kid to grow up with a reasonably religious mindset because I lack said mindset.
But my mother and sister both doubted the contingency that my nephew’s eternal salvation would rest in my hands alone.
So now I’m a godmother.
Ajay’s going to so freak out when he’s old enough to find out.

2.I got a job.

This was a nice surprise. I am now expected to be a productive member of society who will slog for hours every day to bring home the bread and butter. Along with the bills and work and the tension and the ‘big bad world’ as my mother puts it, there’s also independence and new experiences.
And long distance phone calls.
All this will happen provided I clear this monster of a paper called DSP this semester. There’s always a catch, isn’t there?

So now we come to 2011. I made no resolutions because I never keep them anyway but I will tell you that I’m not entirely happy with the way everyone tells me, with more enthusiasm than is called for in this situation, that I’ve put on weight.
A quick check on the scales this morning confirmed that I might have put on a couple of kilos.
This is not good.
I might have to actually (gasp!) exercise. I’ve never dieted in my life so I’m a little skeptical about living on protein.
At any rate, I might have a small non-resolution.


I celebrated one of the best birthdays in my life with my friends. Turning 21 was a blast! You might remember that I was bent on doing crazy things last year before I turned 20. Now I’m bent on not doing anything too crazy but crazy might find me anyway. I got some awesome gifts this time around and here’s what I got:



We had a sleepover where we tried to stick to watching one movie and ate pizza and ice cream with brownie. At midnight, they got me an awesome cake and we had another midnight snack. The next morning, they organized a treasure hunt around the house for me to find all of my 21 gifts! I can’t believe they took so much effort for my birthday. And the rest of the day was hands down amazing. I’m going to miss these guys terribly when I leave Chennai.



And last but not the least, how cute is this stuffed dog they got me? I know it’s girly to like stuffed animals but really, it’s got that puppy dog look, a lopsided nose, makes you go ‘aww’ and squeeze the dog so tight it would have asphyxiated if it was alive.

Happy New Year everyone.

P.S: In case you're wondering, I'm too lazy to set the date in my digital camera. So most of my photos were taken on 01/01/2008.