The year that was mine.

Entirely mine.

So here's what was going on while I went on blog-hiatus. Gak, these days (months, more like), everytime I blog, the post is by default a comeback post.

• My IIMK life has come to an end. (Tragic sigh follows)
• Which also means that my hostel life is over. Phew!
• Niqah over (I know I make it sound like an army commander reporting about a completed mission. That's how I felt once the hullabaloo had died down.)
• My heart wants a sabbatical, my brain wants other stuff.

Yeah, I wanted to do this post couple of weeks back, but like everything else I plan, this one got pushed down the procrastinated-pipeline-of-things-I-totally-have-to-be-doing-already.

Living Alone
Fending for myself in a new city was daunting, sometimes even aggravating in the start. Especially when you are a lazy bum and a geographically retarded bum at that, like me. Fun nevertheless. I could make impulsive decisions and just go buy stuff when I fancied so. I could do crazy stuff and just be me, and not worry, since hey- no one cares! And the beauty of earning and spending it on my family and myself. I still remember receiving my first paycheck. Great day!

And haunting the second hand book store. It became my favorite haunt in all of Calicut after IIMK. Thanks to Rahul!

Roomie love
Sure this life came with its baggage. My colleague and I had joined together, and lived together. Boy was that mad. We're as unlike each other as possible. To the point where if I like something, I know she'll hate it, and vice versa. We couldn't stand each other's lifestyle. So when she moved out after getting a new job- the move practically saved our friendship. Ridunkulus as that may sound. See, some relationships are like that. It's better not to spend too much time together in such cases cos that will just ruin things.

Anyway, I made a truckload of friends at my hostel. A motley crowd in fact. They came and they went. Some stayed longer thanks to their respective exams or courses, some lasted only weeks before they ran from the crap food and kleptomaniacs that infest the hostel. But despite the number of days they spent there, I fell in love with all the girls who were unlucky/lucky? enough to be my roommates. Some were strong, intelligent and outspoken and awesome like my first roomie Amu. Some were whimsical like Luna Lovegood (Leah!). Some were mature and sametime crazy like Christie. Whichever way, all beautiful, all amazing.

Coming back, main point of the whole crazy hostel life:
I lasted a whole year!
It's definitely something to be proud of, kid. I survived bad food, consequent sicknesses, forthmentioned creepy kleptomaniacs and more.

Niqah-
ok, I'mma be brief about this cos ceremonies and social functions ain't my thing. And the Niqah just emphasised that fact. I love being around my family. Extended family included. I unconditionally love them all no matter how weird or flawed they may be. They're family. Everything's forgiven.
Anyway, my Niqah event was crazy fun thanks to this extended family. We came together as one single unit, had fun, goofed around and in general- had a great time. What I didn't love was the dress-up part. SO not me.

And the wedding songs that I usually am ok with when singing for someone else getting married. But when it's me they are singing to, I'm actually yawning! I can't stand the cheesier than cheesy lyrics (try this: "the girl blushed as they made her wear the pretty flowers". Gaaaaah. Seriously? Seriously? I'm supposed to not laugh at that??!)They're fun as long as you don't sing em to me!

 But it was fun watching my cousins and mom and dad and the photographer who came plead and beg me to Smile like a girl would smile dammit! All I could muster was my half-smile/smirk.
And here's proof that I've had the same smile ever since I was a wee bratty kid. (I was a brat. A spoilt one at that)

Le smirky face

They wanted something else. I tried a grin, but that was ruled out as unwholesome. How? Was it an alligator laugh? Or you find the girl seeming like she's on dope? Maybe it's the second. Or maybe it's just me. Siiiiiigh.

IIM aka Heaven aka Para-para-paradise

Saving the bias for last.
Like I mentioned, my IIM phase is over. And that's a huge void that will never get filled up. Ever. This is where I need a melodramatic emoticon to express all my melancholy and pain at departure from said heaven.
 
    This is where I got over the trauma I had received from my dept head from post grad years. ok, I really want to say awful things about him, but I realize I'll just be damaging myself, so I refrain.
     This is where I grew into a confident, self-assured, strong person. Most of that had gotten wiped off the slate from the above mentioned miserable black hole of a human.
     This is where I lived in an awesomely happy environment, great colleagues and superiors and had the luck to work under the Most Amazing, The Person I Respect Most, Perfection Personified, Frikkin' Amazing Guru - aka, my Boss. Or in simpler terms, the Chief Librarian & Information Officer plus a million other titles he works by. I'm still awed by his humility despite how genius he is. He could have been a mean pig, but he chose to be awesome. Respect.
    This is where I perfected my work ethic and realized I'm a quick learner and pretty sharp at my job. Yay! Major ego boost.
    And how can I forget! This is where I got the chance to meet greats like RBI Governor, ministers of Kerala Cabinet and all. 
    This is where I fell in love with the awesomeness of Tumblr too. And also found and fell irretrievably in love with The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

    This is where I fell in love over and over AND over again with a place. I don't think words can do justice to how unbelievably heavenly my work place is.

See what I'm going on an on about?
The clean, clean, cold air. The long walks downhill, the adorable workplace friends (I love you allllllll!), the everyday joy of going to work here!, and the fact that we get to work in a place where the work ethic mostly consists of 'do your work. no need to stress out. is all.'/ I'm pretty sure I'm forgetting the finer points.
But oh well, one can never explain beauty. Only attempt and fail.

I just made a point to take a mental snapshot of my paradise before I left. (cries into pillow)

   

Birthdays and things giving me warm fuzzies lately: Pt I

 It's my birthday

I'll get high if I want to

Can't deny that I want to

But I'll lie if I have to

(Florence + The Machine cover)

Nothing like a bit of Florence to liven up, angst up things.

 Birthday!!!

Ok, first off I'll calm down. Next, I'll tell you all how I'm not exactly pro-ceremonies. I'm the kind who skips all sorts of ceremonies That includes birthdays. I don't really care about birthdays any more.

ONLY, I have an amazing set of friends and family, {and since recently, one adorable fiance}who have been showering me with birthday wishes, lots of amazing surprise gifts and hugs. Maybe that's why we should get into the birthday spirit. It reminds us of all the people who take the time out for us, spend days thinking what would be the awesomest gift to give us, and in the end? I'm a radiant being, happy and once again reminded of how blessed I am.

Le blessings =)

• I'm thinking I must be a known, certified, chocolate-addict; considering all the chocolate gifts I received. And all I have in reply is, "Yessir!".
• One buddy sprang a surprise on me, giving me an IIMK souvenir coffee mug. Hurray!
• But I must say the awesomest of all the awesome gifts I got was definitely what my techie-minded platonic got me. An app! Designed especially for me! Of my blog!! That's like awesome of epic proportions! You're perfect bro!
• God Almighty was super considerate and for my birthday I had lovely, dark climate, no heat, mild showers. Love.Love.Love. =)
• I've been listing my gifts (aka additional blessings) and I'm STILL going to do this one tiny gripe here, IN SPITE of everything. Beloved everyone in my life, for my next birthday or anything important in my life:
  Gift me books. Books and more books. I can NEVER have enough of books. So.. in case of you find this annoying, you can instead just take me out on a platonic book shopping date. I'm super-easy to please! You don't even have to spend a dime on me! 

Platonic book dates
 And that last thing about platonic book dates reminded me. I just went for one two weeks back with an equally book-crazed soul. That was so much of amazing. We scouted out this second-hand book store. And ohmygoodness. They had piles and piles of great books, popular books, unheard-but-sounds-thoroughly-interesting books all stacked up in rows and rows. The pair of us spent a good part of an hour digging into the mounds of paperbacks and by the end of it, I had decided on 3, he had decided on 2.

• AND I was acknowledged for my talent/knack at finding the better books.

But seriously, it's more of a thing like how desert animals can sense water from anywhere. It's a sense thing. And I'm so not showing off that I have a talent at these things. ;) *wink-wink-nudge-nudge
Haha. Jokes apart, thanks Rahul dude. You're a friend indeed. You got me to overcome my inertia about exploring the better parts of the city where I've spent a whole year doing nothing much but just work.

Anyways, presenting to you, my haul from the adventure. May such fun repeat themselves ever and ever on.

My year at IIM is almost over, so I'mma be returning home. Take at the least a short sabbatical, read, read, read, watch movies, do stuff with friends.
And erm, will be getting legally married by the end of this month.
Hahaha! Was that a total mindf**k hiding subtly in between the lines for you?

My Niqah
But yeah, true. Technically I'll be married on October 31st of 2012 since we're doing the Niqah on that day. But no major change really. No moving-in, no nothing of the sort for now. The wedding will be only next year. So yeah, I'm getting married, but mostly it will be like an engagement period. Even though Niqah is what's important in our faith. Wish me luck for that day though! I'm totally socially awkward, tend to be foot-in-mouth most of the times and occasionally publicly weird as well.

City tripping
Went a bit footloose all over Calicut city (mall hopping mainly), and guess what I found and bought at the mall this weekend?
Jenga!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, for those of you who don't know;

Check from 6.49 mark of the video. This clip is from my ALL TIME favorite reality program "One Night Two Days", a South Korean chunk of awesomeness where 6 celebs go tripping, solving missions, just being them dorky selves and in between- like here: Playing StarCraft like nerds and then, Jenga!!
That's how I wanted to play Jenga and ended up buying a pack for myself.
I know most of the world knows S.Korean pop culture only as Gangnam Style. But seriously, there's a whole alternaverse of friggin' awesomeness in South Korean pop culture.And this clip is one of them being much tamer than they usually are. And they usually are dorks.

-Spoken like a true, devoted fan of 4 years and counting.
Take care!

PS- I definitely need a tag for pop culture.

The Happy Drug =)

Aloha!

Back after lightyears and I'mma jump straight to the point. This post is poetry; inspired by a sweetheart buddy. So I take this occasion to dedicate this poem to her as a belated engagement gift. Congrats love! On the other side, this post inadvertently also works for me in the anti-drugs cause angle of things.

So here's the deal: It's part love, light, joy, friendship AND it's partly say-no-to-drugs-and-get-high-on-healthy-things.

Off you go!

***

Drug me out of my depression,

Sing me out from my frustrations,

Hug out the tears I've been fighting back,

and hit me if I ever switch to drama queen mode.

Like this and more,

be my drug,

my song,

teddy bear,

bitch for life.

Love you!

***

-and smiles, and support, and music, and books, and maybe a happy dance =)

Mascot of the anti-drug cause =P

Get the drift? Love and support are the best drugs. Oh, and music, books, wacky friends (but that comes under the "love" dept already) and all other good things that don't require you to stick needles down your flesh and  snort artificial stuff. Keep it real people.

Keep it really real. You don't need to get high on chemicals to be happy. Get yourself some proper friends and work on building up joy. Stat.

Good things ALWAYS follow up when bad things happen

Wheee!! *Does the happy dance*

Was kinda out of alignment from bloggerhood for a while, and now? It feels sooooooo good to be back! Gak, I'd really wanted the entire world to love the song I posted in my last post. Well, doesn't matter since I got two lovely ladies to fall in love with the craziness. Mission 2% success!

Anyhoo, I was having to rough it out for a while these past few weeks. Favorite cousin gone and settled away in Dilli, favorite torrent site for all my Korean tv-stuff being mean and banning me for God-knows-what-weird-reason. And to top all this? I fell sick thanks to hostel food and had to stay put at home for 8 whole days. On Leave from work. And now thanks to getting sick for so long, I've run out of all my Casual Leaves quote. Daaaaaayum. Worse was that my till-then darling hostel-warden not only doesn't give a care, she doesn't even bother asking where on Earth I was away for one whole week. Reason? She knows and doesn't care that lots of us hostel people have been falling sick and stuff. Duhhhhh.

Then I lose all my weight (as if I had any to start with. mph.) and get back to my workplace to find that the canteen has been relocated to the End of the World. Literally the remotest, further-most corner of the whole, wiiiiiiiiiiiiide campus. And even worse? The food has taken a turn for the worse. How am I supposed to get better when you dish out floopy food and give me hundreds of flights of stairs in between to reach the damned-canteen? It's as if the Universe is against me gaining weight. Thou shalt live stick thin and not ever gain even a gram beyond your 39kg self. Gah!

But since I firmly believed that good things always follow bad stuff (that's a tested-to-be-true Islamic saying). No matter even if they come in truck loads or Titanic loads. Here came the awesome news three days into unconcerned hostel authorities, trashy canteen food and the Flights of Horror and 3 days post-recovering:

Pay raise and new job designation!! 

Which means more yayy and that finally we're elevated off from our lowly trainee situation. Awesomeness! Awesome even if our superiors want us to throw them a party for this good news. Whatev, you need pizza, I'mma get you all a pizzeria! Happy mood reigns supreme,
and there came good news # 3:
I now have 3gb+ data to shell out on this month on my smart-ass phone/ Yippeeeeeeeee!!
and the other important good news:
IT'S FINALLY MY FAVORITE SEASON!! MONSOON is here!!!!

I'm sure I've forgotten some other random good stuff going on in my life, but well- all that matter is that nothing can bring me down/ Not mean people, hostels or 1000 steps to cross and reach lunch. Plus I'm happy my decision to stick on with current job went well.
Stay patient, be positive and good things will definitely come your way. =)

Anyone else got good news to share?

This one goes out to you. And you. And her. And him.

This one's for those friends of mine,

rare finds
who stand out in any crowd.
The ones who've stood up for me,
Held me when I cried,
Hugged me while I died inside.


Made my day 
when it was otherwise so mundane.
Loved me and reminded me
of all the awesomeness I'd forgotten about me.


Yeah,
This post is for those amazing friends
who made my day, week, month and the year.
And off we start 2012.
Belated happy new year fellow-wookies!

Because I love you,

And will stay so,

Things are easy.

Questions are answered to,

Problems solved.

Because I am so,

and can't be helped otherwise,

I'd rather the world understand.

Let me be,

Let me rise.

And now that I know you're hurt the same,

Please don't protest, deny or blame.

Good feelings grow,

They will finally show-

The world's not such a bad place afterall.

Life's worth living,

Hugs happily shared

and smiles easily passed on.

So we'll hold hands,

Roll the roads and rivers

that keep us apart

into nothingness;

and I'll hold your hand tighter-

'cos friends like you

are godsends,

one of a kind,

and were custom-made for me!

1/1/'11

exactly my plan for coming year. NO!! it's not any obvious hint towards running away or something as idiotic. 
What am I? 15??
I just want to travel more! See more places, find the peace, bring in more creativity and joy.

1/1/'11 is here finally!

 As for new year wishes,

Not much to say, 'cept wish everyone a happy, happy, REALLY happy year ahead.I never was much into ceremonies. I'm unceremonious even in the required times.
Which is why new years do't mean much, neither do resolutions.But sometimes you totally have to promise yourself some stuff.

My resolution #1 [and the only one really] as regards my blog: Less comebacks and more posts. 

Yes! Cheer for me so that I don't end up breaking this word!

***
What was 2010 for me?
Apart from being extremely busy, over-straining myself and breaking down in the process;
I went places,
Learnt more stuff,
Have gotten much more patient [or so methinks]
and watched tonnes of Korean stuff.

The good:

1. Samsung died on me and I switched to Nokia ExpressMusic.
2. Had several meetups with the Girlfriends-of-the-{add several, several} millenia. Last one was yesterday. Awesome!
3. Uncle's housewarming.
4. Subscribed to the awesomest Indian magazine out there-The Tehelka.
5. Almost forgot- lots happening for The Downtroddence [will post on them soon. real soon!]!!

Sad things?

1. More people got married and drifting away
2. Friends and friends' family getting abused, cheated upon and divorced. =(
3. Read lesser books cos of lack of time SLASH lack of time management.
4. And another favorite girlfriend moves out o town. =( But she's doing really fine, so- w00t!
5. .Deaths, suicides.
6. Most of my Eids and my Christmas this year were ruined thanks to effing-aptly timed exams. Dang!
7. The kitten I saw getting killed by some stray dog. Could do absolutely nothing to save it. Had to watch it die.

Another to-do for 2011-
Meet at least ONE blogger buddy. We'll see how that turns out. =/




PS- and don't forget! 2010 was The year of Rajni! ynna rascala...! ;) I don't know about you, but I think he's one of the humblest actors out there in all of Indian tinseltown

Where I go blah blah blah

And the quest for the black beaded bracelet thus comes to an end. Yay! I finally found a shop where they sell 'em, so bought 2 while I was at it [what if I lost it again?? *shudder] here to jog your memory.

So I'm pretty much super happy and pleased with myself.

And then I realize that I haven't really blogged what's going on with me for quite a long time. Not that life is dull, but more like too jammed with tests, assignments and the academic damnedness. So much so that I'm almost losing my motivation to blog about myself. Which explains the long gaps between posts.

Second realization is that I never blog about my current classmates or course. Not much anyway. And definitely not much when compared with the frequency and intensity with which I used to blog about MY GIRLS. The ones from my under grad days. Those were great times...

Anyways, snaps myself back to the present and I tell you that these people are fun too. Not like the Offbeat girlfriends of mine, but nice and sweet anyway. Damn, we are like one big family these days ever since living together during the internship. Oh I love 'em. There's this film-crazy duo who keeps spouting apt one-liners from Malayalam movies every five minutes, and another duo that just leave the campus as soon as classes are over. Unfortunately, I've joined them since this semester. So I've pretty much forfeited my rights to criticizing them!

Oh! I'm trying to get my uncle to buy me that new book "Love in a headscarf". The title did sound something like that.. What? It's not every day that you get chick-lit from the Muslim woman's angle. And that too about someone who's educated and independent and NOT oppressed. Quite a refreshing change!

By the by, there were quite a lot of blank stares for my "selective amnesic" post. That post was about a friend who used to be real close, but now we have totally grown apart, thanks to X ignoring me. That ha never happened to be before, so, it pretty much hurt.

Changing topics; I'm about to come out with a secret almost everyone knows by now. I'm addicted to South Korean stuff. Well, except for their diet, I'm fascinated by their culture, the gorgeous celebs, their uber-awesome dramas and music, the hilarious-I-can't-stop-laughing kind of celeb reality shows, the picturesque outdoors and weather. Nowadays, I can understand half of the things they say. Ahhhhhh. Normally, there are two reactions when I start talking on the topic:

1.      everyone rolls their eyes and runs away from me when I come dangerously close to starting to gush;

2.      OR they listen patiently with amusement heavily wrought all over their face.

This girl here is THE bet actress I've ever, ever seen. Love her range!

And there is a third kind- and this angel assured me that I'm not crazy. That, "it's [the obsession] just being you. It's just an Azra thing!" If I hadn't already loved her, I would've started loving her unconditionally for that one sentence. =)

Errr…Has everyone already left the place?

Knock knock??

PS- I'm being reckless with music and been discovering lots of good stuff [and some bad stuff too]. So will probably share that in the next post.

And currently reading "Pride and Prejudice and the Zombies". Delightful!

Karma's a bitch and i should've known

And hey you,

No-

I didn't die.

I didn't disappear either.

I'm just wondering what happened to you-

Selective amnesia?

P.S. - serves me right though. Usually I'm the one pulling disappearing acts on others.

Thanks to you...

Thanks to you,

There is a lot of music I can't

Listen to happily anymore.

Damn.

That was the way it was for quite some time after graduation. I couldn't listen to any of the music we sang and shared during those three years.

So, there was this whole folder worth of music from that period that I couldn't listen to without having to fight the urge to just run away.

Away as in anywhere.

I couldn't move on if I clung to memories.

And I couldn't listen to several of my favorites without getting all whimsical and moony.

So, now there is this new me who's been shaping up over the past year who is always experimenting with the new genres and styles.

And it has done me good. Real good!

I discovered

• Death Cab For Cutie,
• Carolina Liar,
• Sondre Lerche,
• Fray,
• Emma Lee,
• Iron& Wine,
• Sara Bareilles,

• Ryuichi Sakamoto,
• M.I.A [yeah, I know she's been around like for ages, but I had never checked her out earlier. And man, what a costly mistake! She's awesome!]
• Joss Stone [but I haven't gotten the hang of her yet. Any help?]
• Katie Melua
• And I'm very much and sincerely, in love with Malayalam folk songs. I guess the folk-crossover-rock band "Avial" did it for me.
• Kings of Leon
• Elisa
• Azure Ray
• Dixie Chicks had made a great impression on me when they'd come out yelling anti-war and anti-Bush and were boo-ed for that since everyone was pro Bush back then. They are not just any random bimbos. Na ha. And their music? I'd never really cared for country. Until I checked these ladies out. They are sooooooo good at this!

And a helluva lot much more. But the thing is, I'm showing a definite leaning towards mellower stuff. That's because I'm rooting for the Jazz and Indie camp, of course. But can anyone please yank me back to the Rock camp. I'm dying to return to the time when I was all about head bangin'. =)

*Thanks to my beautiful, out-of-this-world amazing 7 friends and all the other great friendships I've been carrying with me since my Brennen days. I love you all soooooo much that my heart breaks. In a good way. =)

When I was at my geek-awesome mode [yes, there IS such a mode]

Apologies for taking soooooo long in a blog update. Was away from internet, was away from home. Spent a week in a new city [specifically speaking, 12 hours or so away by train] as part of field trip, spent most of that time visiting libraries. Yeah well, you thought library and information science courses would be tedious and geeky. But you didn't realize there were so many uber cool and rad libraries in one city itself right?

BUTTING IN BETWEEN: Lordy, if I say I got a tan from there, that'd be an understatement. I got practically sun-burnt! No gorgeous bronzed look for me. I just look like my favorite comic-cameo star at the moment.

 ok... maybe I was exaggerating a leeeetle bit. = p

AND BACK TO WHAT I'M SAYING: Trivandrum rocks for all the right reasons for me honey.

The cleanliness of the city, the i-don't-give-a-damn-about-you-even-if-you-are-weird attitude of the people; parks; fantastic architecture of most of the buildings and structures I came across; finally being able to visit one of my favorite family friends after years; and of course- at the expense of a remark that will make me look absurdly like a geek- I loved most of the libraries I visited while I was there.

*********

But the best were- in order of their awesomeness for me-

Numero uno is IIITMK. Freakin' awesome! While we were there, listening to everything the head told us on the library, the trainee blogged about it right then and there. Talk about live blogging!

Kerala Legislative Library. Probably the library which really makes you strain your brain cells a lot. The legislators call you up for data that will help back up their arguments in the legislative assembly all the time. Which means you gotta find both pros and cons of same topic for both the opposition and ruling party. You gotta feed them with the right kind of info if you don't want to face upset legislators- which I'm pretty sure can be scary.

CDS library which specializes in research of Economics. And man, do they have the best landscape and architecture or what?!! Laurie Baker is the coolest architect when it comes to economizing resources. Way cool.

University of Kerala Library is hot property too. Though it ain't looking so very hot at the moment thanks to the huge scale renovation going on. And that's where my mom's best friend works. =)

*******

I loved staying with my batch mates and friends at a hostel for a week. Yelling at each other while taking showers over the cubicles, moaning about the food, doing some reckless, idiotic shopping for pipes and blowing them in the middle of the town and being pleased [and a tad sad] that no one gives a hoot that you and your girlfriend are over 20 and blowing pipes.

I loved the last night of the trip where we stayed up all night playing antakshari and the afternoon I spent shopping with my partner-in-craziness Shesly in Kanyakumari. Like any trip, there were fun parts and lousy parts. And some fun-cum-lousy parts. Like the Kovalam beach thing we did in the middle of a drizzle. Gah. Would've been fun if I hadn't been wearing one of my favorite clothes and my favorite footwear-that-shouldn't-be-wet-too-much.  In the end of all the sand and sea, I emerge from the beach complete with very black-looking bare feet- courtesy the sand. Urgh. Definitely not my idea of fun.

Anyways, to cut all of it short, I'm off for internship, which means- more of less online presence. Which is exactly why I'm planning some posts to be published while I'm away so you guys won't totally forget me. =|

Love,

Raphael.

PS- which reminds me, I'm giving out my real name from now on since too many rellys read my blog anyway. No privacy people. :\ damn. But I'd prefer if you just call me Raphael, since that's the name I had name myself had I had the opportunity. Yes, that's the cue to say "weeeeeeiiiiiiiird" and close this page. Ciao for now everyone!

PPS- Or shouldn't I?

Weird=Beautiful

Especially when the people who are being so outrageously weird like you happen to be best friends. Ha! This monday yours truly and friends Vinaya, Vaikhari, Namitha and Prajisha strutted around our old college as part of a tiny meet-up. Was worth the wacked-out lie I had to dish out to my teacher. Totally worth it. =)
Juniors were real sweet on seeing us back, with our ice lollies in hand. And when you are crazy, and a guy you know from old times comments that you lot haven't matured EVEN after graduating [points at the ice lollies] - you smile and nod approvingly- "Yeah! we are immature, weird and we love the fact!"

Weirdness part II:
I think I'm the only person who has "Pray for me brother" of A R Rahman as ringtone. I think I'm the only one who's noticed that it's prelude makes for "The Perfect Ringtone Ever". [sure, i was awfully arrogant]. But all these notions got drowned when I heard my cousin's phone ring. Yeah, you already guessed it- he's got "Pray for me brother" as ringtone too! freaky-freaky ditto!

Must say- it is such a gorgeous song guys. Try using it as ringtone and I'm pretty sure you won't want to change it-ever. I tried, but here I am, still using the same ringtone as 8 months back. { with minor exceptions of "pichle saat dino mein" from "Rock On!!" for the Brennen buddies and a brother and "That's not my Name!" from Ting Tings for the best friends}

Weirdness Part III:
Listened to classmate J relate her love story.Strong ol' Raphael turned into a nonsensical mess of mush and goo. I usually am pretty cold and detached and even downright insulting to love stories, but this one was so sweet and true.... Youch!
I thought she had managed to melt the ice in me with that story of hers. Which was really impressive by the way.
But-
The sugar-effect clung to me for just 2 hours. Phew! I'm back to being happily single and anti-love and all that jazz people! Doncha guys love me for that?

right, ciao for now.

PS- Uber huge hugs and kisses to Vaika for adding one more reader to my blog. Love ye sweet Vaiks! and warm welcome to you too- silent-reader-from-MGU. Thanks for the silent support. Much appreciate it.

=)
cheers!!

Un-straightened

As you can see below, yet another web comic. This idea was just one compartment of the whole train of thought I had on the topic. I even came up with a micro-story concept relating with GLEE [Glee? you know, right?!]
More on that later.

Here though, I was frustrated with the trouble my very pretty best-friend was having, shaking off an irritatingly persistent flirt. Even the mean swear words she used wasn't much. Thus this idea was born. I'm not sure it was helpful in her case, but I'm hoping it will help someone else with a similar situation!

 

 

Concept and words mine,
Graphics as always by Rahul. =)

Randomness

Last year, when I was livin' it up as an Under-Grad, Life Was Beautiful, amazing, and most importantly; IRRESPONSIBLE.

not anymore. I don't think I'm being able to get away with any of my normal goofy-ness or lousy behavior thanks to the in-house dictator at my new place. Yep everyone, I'm doing my Masters currently, as y'all might have already noticed. And unfortunately for me, I spend my time under an uber-strict disciplinarian. Ouch. That hurts essentially. Even more when you remember that I'm too much a bohemian to put up with demands for perfection. Anyways, enuf!
Let's talk about nicer stuff.

*Previous years' regulars on my blog; my beautiful girlfriends are all scattered around the state, away from me. [*one long sigh, and then getting back my act together] Missing them all!
The coolest thing though? NONE of us chose our direct Master's course. As in, apart from Vaika[who's an Economics grad], everyone of my gang is a Functional English grad [DYSfunctional if you please].

1. I chose Master in Library and Information Science [doesn't sound posh or swanky, but is quite a good choice] {MLISc}
   
2. Namitha chose Masters in Journalism. {MCJ}
   
3. Vinaya chose PG in Social Work.{MSW}
4. Vaikhari dahling is doing Master in International Relations. [DEFINITELY swanky!]
5. Ragitha is doing her MBA
6. Oh! Prajisha got married! Might take up Bachelor in Edu next year,hopefully.
7. Nimisha is in her Master of Hospital Administration, and loving it. [actually, everyone's loving what they chose!]
8. And our very sporty Vrindha is ready for some literal jet-settin' with her IATA studies.

See? I absolutely LOVE how different we are from the normal lot. =)


*Next bit of randomness is something quite big.
MY COUSIN BRO'S WIFE DEAR HAS BAGGED THE SECOND RANK IN HER UNIVERSITY FOR PG STATISTICS!! yippeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!

*I'm soooo proud of the people I love!
Another of the people I really really adore and love is gearing up for her UGC NET exam in English Literature. Aw, I love her sooo much! =)

*I've officially fallen in love with my all-new,shorter hair. I don't exactly flaunt it at college, but I do at home, much to mom dear's chagrin. ;)

*Waiting for December to come save me, 'cos by end of first week of December my semester exams will be O.V.E.R. Then I can go and kill myself over the amazing books at my University library, plus watch the tonnes of good movies in my system.

*Again waiting for the time of December, to have a real, looooooong chat with my wonderful online neighbours. Plus do some quality blogging.

*I would soooooo love to drive up and down to college on my own. But then, I would miss out on the daily chaos I get from public transport!

*I'm working on this imaginary script where I'm settled in Delhi as a librarian with a BIG salary. Single, and friends strewn all over the metro. Niiiiice. I grab an occassional pani-puri once in a while during the story [somethin I don't get here in South India much]

*Probably forgotten the better bits of randomness. But hell, I'm late for college! Byyyyye!!

Something that smells like sadness

A soul dies,

A happy bubble just burst,

Someone just stepped into the dark.

The rain poured on me.

Which are my tears,
which are the nightmares that slip down my face

and which are the rain drops?

Wrote this ages ago when tragedy struck my friend.

and thus the long awaited brother-sister road trip finally happened

Everything else took a back seat for these past 7 days.

Yes, all you jealous ppl, I had a fantastic brother-sister-road-trip-of-sorts. The destination wasn't fancy by any means, but there was a comfy house tucked away in a suburb of Tamil Nadu. my uncle's place. our favorite vacation retreat.

My favorite parts from the trip?
*EVERYTHING! EVERY SINGLE MOMENT!

*the lure of the train. [you know i love them!There's a gypsy in me that LOVES roads,wheels,winds,traveling and the whole package about road trips]

*my favorite cousin/brother for company.

*sharing the music [Than ta naaaa!!!!!!!!{kaminey} for one]

*Kite Runner. [my choice for on-the-move read. Bro had "The Broker"-John Grisham] i swear i almost cried thru several parts of it.

*making acquaintances on the train. i chose not to ask their names though, what's the fun if you can't add some imagination to all those friendships you made?!

*all those late-night movies and laughing at tacky old Tamil movies. [no offense meant!]and throw in the bits where we fought over the remote like we were kids.[never mind that we are both way past the age to fight like kids!!]

*and add to that the fact that we two bought a whole box of chocolates to go with the tv watching. munch,munch,munch.

*THE Shopping. ohhhhhhhh, the shop-all-day at Coimbatore!

*Uncle lent me a book of his, the one which he hadn't parted with in all of the 20 odd years of owning it, yet. And I'm the lucky girl who gets her hands on it. The book?
Between Ourselves: letters between mothers and daughters.
*Him saying that I was going to be his heiress. No, not money. But to his VAST collection of books. Think of every masterpiece, memorable books and all those good books- he's got 'em all in his shelves.
And I'm going to inherit them all!!!!!!!
-------------
I don't care if I don't actually get those books. Just the idea that he thought me important enough to leave his precious books with... that's the best part of it.

*The food. We dined out virtually every day. Went to many of the well known South Indian restaurants around there.And I have tasted some of the best veg food, plus discovered how spicy the "dragon chicken" dish was. Yum!

And the best-best part of all? That bonding time. With the best uncle in the world and my aunt and,most importantly-
with the best cousin in the whole wide world.

Beyond sharing music,books,movies,chocolates and some sizable portions of good television watching [which would include NDTV, Nat Geo as well-IF you're wondering what i meant by good television watching]
and some dumb fights,
and 'fessing up on past relationships [read-ruined relationships],
our shady records of shady vices,sins and our dealings with:
Stuff-considered-taboo-in-our-family;

i know I have a wonderful brother of a lifetime.
He's always been so good; despite me being one big jerk of a sister to him. :D





The part I didn't like-

*Eating prior to long journeys makes me queasy, for some mysterious reason. On the other hand, when I travel on an almost empty stomach, I'm so good!

Maybe I'm just being psycho.


-this shot taken from Flickr

Uber happyness! [with some streaks of anger]

I'm back, I'm back, I'm soooooooooooo back! And awesomely happy too! :)just got my results out and guess what?
I'm a winner!
a champeen'!!!

First rank of my university!

I'm just so pleased I made it thru,since we had a hard time with this course.So, if that was the best feeling, things get euphoric now,cos my closest friends both bagged the second and third ranks!!

Congrats Namitha(2nd) and Vinaya(3rd)!!!!!!!!
talk abt keepin' it within the family! *chuckle!

felt better than best with the flood of congratulatory phone calls and gifts- add to that, dad's wish granting,"Ask for whatever you want, thou shalt get it!"[not so Shakespearean when he asked what I wanted, but u get the point!]

so where do the angry streak come in? for one thing-our result has come hell late. plus the last dates for admission to SEVERAL, no, almost ALL possible universities has closed down already. since one needs their mark list for applying for admission to just anywhere, the Big News got dimmed just by some watts or volts (sorry, I loved my Physics classes, but can't remember which is what now). So there's all this frustration and irritation cos they [*gasp] HAVE NOT YET PUBLISHED OUR RESULTS. me and my frnds got prior info abt our results thanks to our ranks.

damn my university for playing with everyone's results.
and all praises and thanks to God for such happy news! :D
even better feeling since it's been raining non-stop here.


ps- anyone got ideas what I should ask dad to get for me? I'm thinking abt a jazz cd. suggest some good artistes. or suggest a nicer gift!

Ain't I awfully happy to be back in bloggersville?
Aye!

Why can't I choose my family!?

this one's my ALL-TIME favourite fridge magnet. totally expresses the way i feel. -almost!




That's the million-dollar question for me right now. Even though I know the answer already. Can't get the bugging thought outta my head.

We can choose who should be our friends. [though i personally believe my friends were not exactly chosen. they were meant to be my friends from the very beginning!]
Then WHY-OH-WHYYYY can't I choose who should be my family and who shouldn't be family? I could have done away with all the pathetic hypocrites infesting my family circle that way.
I wouldn't ever mind trading the whole lot of them for my friends instead. That way, my family would definitely qualify for an ideal-tv-sit.com-material family. Yep. The weirdest and looniest and the funniest in one and the same family. Only if I could get rid of the unwanted elements and put in my friends instead.

But things never were meant to be that easy, were they?
God never wants life to be a drag. He adds just the right amount of drama, tension, happiness and surprises and the end result is-Life. That incongruous mix of Everything.

Life was NEVER meant to be perfect. It needs its balance. And balance doesn't mean perfection! Balance includes all those bad stuff [loss, unexpected unpleasant stuff, not having things your way, well, everything that's not nice], good stuff [unexpected simple joys, chocolate gifts, music, me-time, blah-blah] and the extraordinarily good stuff and really ugly stuff.

Life was never a straight line of moderate good news. It's all about ups and downs, bumps and shocks. Innit?

So, if I were allowed to choose my family as well, I had probably put in the nice people in and keep out the bad 'uns, THUS messing up the Balance of Life.

That means, I'm just stuck in here with the people I'm not exactly enjoying being around. While the people I lurve with my whole heart can't be my blood ties ad the undeserving ones are related to me. Ugh!

Then again, that's how the world works! And I don't think i had EVER be happy with PERFECT HAPPINESS in this life on earth!

Paper Planes in the time of Intonation

This is a li'l post about ''Pen Planes''[not to be confused with the "Paper Planes" track from the SDM soundtrack, which, btw, was a really nice piece] that got transfigured into Fighter Planes when things got unbearably monotonous and dragging in the class. 5 straight hours of accent classes. Come on now! Human mind cannot concentrate for more than 45 minutes at a length, how are we poor souls supposed to keep our minds on intonation, rhythm, stress, supra segmental features and all that jazz for FIVE STRAIGHT HOURS???

Namitha and Vrinda had opted to stay away from class all morning, while me [usually superbly lazy to get my ass off the Main Entrance stone benches and walk up for classes] donned on the "studious" attitude for a change and stepped into class, along with the always-in-class darlings Vinaya, Ragitha and Prajisha.

One hour went along with Vinaya sneakily taking pictures of the class without the sir knowing. And by the third hour our back bench was behaving like a bunch of elementary brats.
Y'know that noise kids make while driving an imaginary car? With the lips they go all
BRRRRR-RR-RRR!
Well, apart from me the other 3 could make the noise puhfectly well. I couldn't admit that I wasn't good at stuff, could I?
So, here I was saying, yeah, you people drive cars and all, but I'm used to flying planes, which is why I made the noise "BWWWWW-WW-WWW!!!"

What followed later was put into a short "war report" by me in the next hour of mundane accenting.
Here it is! Along with the pictures we sneakily snapped when the sir wasn't watching.
*Chuckle!
************************************
PLANES IN THE TIME OF INTONATION
Lieutenant Raphael's missile

that's my missile (Vinaya argued logically that a refill was a missile, it couldn't be a fighter plane)
Lieutenant Raphael's missile has been hijacked by Flight Commander Vinaya. Captain Prajisha has provided Lt. Raphael with a passenger plane to take revenge on Ft Comm Vinaya. The fighter plane pilot Raphael is using the passenger plane at supersonic speed to bombard Ft Commando Ragitha's unsuspecting jet. I had forgotten that my original motive was to attack Vinaya's pen, oooops- fighter plane! All the while Flight Commander Vinaya is texting to Trainee pilot Namitha not to enter war zone III year Functional English. Namitha probably had second thoughts and wanted to attend class. but me and Vinaya felt that it was better to stay away from this mundane and advised her so thru text messages. span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_28">M>Trainee pilot Vrindha is accompanying her.
Content of the message; "Terrorist English attacking us. Do not approach".

But Trainee Pilot Namitha seems eager to approach despite warnings.
The war seems near an end, but the enemy was holding us hostage. Ft Lt Raphael grew impatient and, as Ft Commander Vinaya reports,
"there is lack of ammunition and the enemy is holding us prisoners."
We pleaded and begged with sir to let us go with all sorts of reasons and excuses, but our teacher is way
smarter than us, sigh!

After an hour more of weary fighting, the soldiers got a brief respite. After consuming their rations [read, food] the attack resumes. After an initial "rat-a-tat-a-tat!!" soldiers settled into routine fighting. The trainee pilots who hadn't been at the war zone all morning, along with a relative newcomer Faheem have also entered the fight. Though our army is stronger in number, the enemy has the final authority. Which makes a potential rebellion near at hand.


my passenger plane-cum-fighter plane.
or was it Vinaya's?

Meet The Pets

This one was meant to be posted ages,ages ago. Sorry for the delay--
Hope you enjoy meeting my family!

Meet my pets for today.
I had them all set for a photo session, and by the end of it, a story "happened" quite accidentally!

That's The Family.
The snow white one is my eldest. Snuffles. ain't he like smouldering???

And this would be Darcy, the cutest and my darling! 5 years old, and this will probably be my last one I thought, because dad was growing tired of my obsession with soft toys. And I wasn't showing too many signs of stopping my liking for them.

Then three years ago, this gorgeous strut down all the way from China-via-Muscat down to India!! Lacking a better choice in names, I finally named her "Harajuku". Obviously inspired from Gwen Stefani's single "Rich Girl". Don't remember? Then I shouldn't have reminded you!

Yes! Harajuku and Darcy are very much together and happy too, as you can see. Don't they look adorable?


But look at who is approaching this friendly gathering, will you.

That's Padfoot, Harajuku's jealous ex.

The confrontation scene.
Darcy: Leave my girl aloooooooneeeeee!
Padfoot:(ever the bad boy) She's miiiiiine.......
[lots of tension going on with Harajuku clinging on to Darcy.]
{doubt- she doesn't seem to have any hands, how is she to cling onto him??}

That'd be little Yellow [the youngest member. my kid sis gifted it to me when I wouldn't stop whining] watching the whole drama from his house.

I got bored and left. by the time I returned only Snuffles was there being goofy and rolling on the sofa. Turns out Padfoot made Harajuku cry and stormed out.

p.s- you noticed that I'm a Sirius obsessed person, huh?
Ah well, I'm the person who still cries her eyes out every time she reads about Sirius and his death scene especially.

Random scrawls from memory

Thanks to the bloggerhood for telling me that I'm not horrible at all! And if I still think I'm horrible, there are several others as horrible as me, as testified in the comments to my last post!
And Bobby, I've bushy eyebrows too! =(

Eid-
Unlike usual Eids where I go wild with friends all day along, this time around I wasn't with them. Unlike earlier Eids, I spent the better part of Eid with cousins. And was it fun!
************
With luck, me or Vinaya will get first prize for film review in English, 'cos we 2 were the only participants!!
************
Fine Arts Day 1-
Ragitha's birthday!!!

Fine Arts Day 2-
I lost my poetry collections book. Strangely enough, I'm not too angry or depressed. I'm more worried that someone will read it and think, "this is poetry??? you call this poetry???"

Exams-
Freakiest exams ever. Totally dumbstruck at the number of classmates involved in "group activity" [as Prof Prathiba call it!]. Me and Namitha were like, what were we working hard
and preparing for, then? if it's so easy to copy in exams, doesn't that make all our hard work go down the drain?
Almost all the exams were tough stuff, with the exception of Conversational Skills. It's a bit like the exam Prof RJ Lupin would have formatted had he been our professor. It wasn't all about throwing up what you mugged up from your notes earlier onto the papers. It was more about examining how good your communication skills were. We had an awesome time especially when sir made each of us to do a self intro. Me, Namitha and Vinaya especially went wild and imaginative. Me was the French famous blogger on her second trip to India which she thought was exotic. Namitha was the famous fashion designer who designed for Parvati Omanakkuttan and of course "you've probably seen my designs on TV and at the Lakme fashion week" she added quite haughtily. Vinaya was the supermodel who turned down an earnest Aamir Khan's acting offer in Gajini 'cos she was "just not interested" and oh yes, "I came here because my dear designer friend Namitha asked me to". and all that! Akhil posed as this famous singer and hoped for our prayers for him. Sir made him sing a song as well!
Uber cool examination hall, if anything, I say!

Goodbyes-
Last exam done with. A pervading sense of satisfaction affects me and Namitha since we got through with our hard work and didn't cheat. We couldn't ask the rest of the team how they felt to have completed the exams sans any cheating since everyone was enjoying the last day before Christmas vacation began. Nami and I watched this totally funny handmade videos the boys had made of an "action comedy enactment". Everyone was rolling all over the place laughing.

Oh yes! We went up the stairs for lunchtime to our classroom walking backwards. Nimisha totally cheated by blatantly looking backwards.

Then it was time for Vinaya&Vaikhari to leave. They're going to Kottayam, lucky people. I'll probably stuck in the same place I am for the whole vacation mostly. When I hugged our adorable Vaika, she's like crying! That made Nami ask, "hey, are you being wedded off or something? what's with the tears??" Lols.
But she made me sliiightly emo too. =(
They took such a long time in actually leaving that it made Vinaya quip, "guess we should say "get lost!" instead of "goodbyes" from now on!
N and I were having a small chat together when she got a msg from Vrinda&Nimisha, [it was in romanized malayalam, but for your sake I'm translating it]
" your boyfriend is in our custody, if you want him back come with a crore. don't try to act smart and call the cops. in that case, we will have to finish this guy off..."
Totally crazy! she happily texts back,
"I know you girls will never do a good thing even by accident. i'm sure you won't finish him off, even if that'd make me happy."
Went back to the department where Vri&Nimisha were holding him hostage. He had probably reached the department searching for N. Thankfully N didn't have to fight to get her hostage boyfriend back. Vri had probably gotten bored by him!

Thursday was the final episode of "Hong Gildong". heartbreaking ending. =(