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)

   

The post about the fact that I've put a ring on it. Metaphorically =)

Yes ladies and gentlemen and the wookies all over who bother to check up on my blog. Back with apologies for not blogging so long and happy news!

I'm engaged.
Cue squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee and in case of friends you-gotto-be-kidding-me. (which i can totally understand considering what kind of weird nut I are.)


No seriously. I'm engaged. No longer single (that was awesome while it lasted =) ). Will be married next year and then moving to Mohali to boot. Lol.

Quite a huge much to take in i guess. Anyway, he's from the same profession as me (Libraries you nerds!), which means we've loads of common ground in between. But no, it's actually an old fashioned arranged marriage, even though everyone's second guessing considering we're both librarians. Gah. Doncha know I never was a romantic? Well, ok, sure that's going to change now though. *Giggles!

Righto then all. I'll be back with a more proper blog post later down the week.Otherwise I'll be getting killed by a dear friend who has promised to do the deed if I ever stop blogging. Where'd I be if not for such awesome friends?? And now, signing off. and taking my fiance with me. neener!

Annyeong! 

Be sad and rich or be happy and footloose?

The things people do and seek out, try out.. all the sake for that very elusive drug called happiness. Really, in the end, when you're asked, "why do you study?"
-"to get a job."
"why do you need a job?"
-"to earn money and fend for myself, stand up on my own feet."
"and after that, what?"

Well what follows is that either you haven't planned that far out into the future, and you're not that into philosophy and the baggage it comes with.

I was just doing a bit of introspection [which really means lotsa thinking when you're bored with nothing better to do, really!] and how I'm faring- now that I'm settled down as a trainee/intern/whateveryouwannacallem- and very happy too-- but with the meagre stipend only. And since I'm lucky enough not to be worried about matters of more gravity like having to substantially provide for family etc, I have the freedom to live off on my own.

And I wondered.

If I were offered a well-paid job as guest lecturer at my former college under that very scary boss. Would I pick that up stat? Or would I rather live light-hearted on a measly stipend off on my own?

Funnily enough, as much as I'd like all the extra moolah I could possibly earn- I would choose the second option. I get the experience of working under one of the awesomest, known-across-library scenario-in the world, nicest boss/Chief at one of the awesomest campus around India. Hey, it's not every day you get to work for a whole year at a campus that resembles a hill station dammit!

YOU check the previous post and THEN you check out the campus I'm at. AND you decide.

Happiness? Or money?

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

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?

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!

A "waah-some"/awesome week

Waah! Kya Birthday Thi!, Waah! Kya Birthday Thi!!
October 1- Dozens of text messages, even more phone calls,cards, tearful- "I miss you" letter from a friend, hugs in person, one mom-made chocolate cake, add an almost surprise landing from Daddy, meet-up with old school friends.. Everything about the day was fantastic! In fact it was birthday celebratory mood for 3 days straight!
Thank y'all!

Waah! Kya Eid Thi!, Waah! Kya Eid Thi!!
I'd an extra speshul day 'cos Eid was on the same day as my Birthday. Mehndi on hands, family and friends all day, I loved it!
The hand with blue bracelet is mine. The one to my right is Barjis'. Below that is Shamnas'. AND the hand remaining is Thanzeela's!

Waah! Kya post-Eid/Birthday meet up thi!
Waah Kya post-Eid/Birthday meet up thi!!
Ah yes, high school best friends get together for some ice creams and catching up on each others' lives. We got to talk on phone to the love interests of 2 friends as well. Yup, except for me,MC and BS, everyone's been thru relationships.

And a 'not-so-waah Union Day' and a "Waah-Kya-Belated-Birthday-Celebration-Thi!"
Union Day was pretty boring. Thanks to DJ, we had fun grooving to good music. BUT there were dumbass pseudo-singers who spoilt the mood with stupid songs. AND Gymnast is having separation agonies. BF going away for a year.
Who cares? Definitely not me!
BUT, on the other side, we celebrated my birthday and I got 10 cute dolls, representing us 10 girls. Sothatslikecementinghefactthatwearenolongerlessthaneight. Anyways, I had a lovely gift to show off. That's fun!

Waah Kya Niqah Thi! Waah Kya Niqah Thi!!
My cousin gets married. And his wife is a perfect darling! I was part of the official Cousins-Photographers crew. Me, plus four or five or more cousins were like taking shots of celebs at the Cannes or something of the sort. So, we were confident that we hadn't missed out a single moment of the special day.

Almost forgot!!
Waah Kya Movie Thi! Waah Kya Movie Thi!!
Rock On rocks to the core. A really good movie sans the usual rona dhona and melodrama and item numbers and yet superb. The kind of movie Farhan himself makes. I wanted to write more on this movie, but that'd make this post longer than it already is.

Ciao for now!

The last 3 weeks and y'day when we became angry young ladies

Starting from yesterday and moving backwards, I got a lot to blog.
Y'day was our Onam celebration. Floral carpeting, tug-of-war, musical chairs and lounging (well, the last one was what we were doing primarily. It isn't a game). Who would have thought it had end like this? Vri always has had fights with the U. She mostly voices her disagreements. Which was why, though we were damned shocked, we knew why her tyres had been flattened. So pathetic, ugly, disgusting of them! Though I'm prone to cussing, it has never been too sharp. This time, I couldn't stop the downpour of expletives and curses. "How dare they?" Is this the way you had react to criticism?
So we wrote down a complaint to the Principal and went to the nearest police station and filed a complaint against the people Vri suspected.
Let's see what happens next. Too bad it's a 10 day hols now. Slows down the action a lot.
***
On the lighter side, everyone except me were dressed in traditional saris and looking pretty. And ZC was being close and chatty. Plus a lot of photos happened.
*******************Before that day
*Vi has bought a camera!
*Inspirational speech from our district collector. Makes me wanna take an IAS!
*Making paper rockets with Sanjoop. The cool dude definitely knows how to make 'em fly. I don't. =(
* We'd sat around the Grand Stairs and having fun when... Ragitha spotted a creepy black caterpillar on Nimisha's lap. That has everyone screaming like scaredy cats. Aaaaaaargh!!!!
*We have maxo fun at Ragitha's place. Even though I was running a slight fever and kept hush and Vinaya was the only one to find out. She's got an uncannily good observation.
All dance and jive. Arm wrestling after lunch. Namitha was beating everyone by cheating. She scratched and used the other arm as well to beat Vaikhari and Sajla. So when she tried to beat me up, I cheated for a change and tickled her. Yeah! I won!
Moral of story: Cheating is what cheating gets. Vaikhari's and Namitha's arms. Vinaya made them pose for my blog! The silly pair was smiling and Vinaya had to remind them that only their arms would be appearing.

*Freshers' Party cold have been more fun. sigh On the other side of the Abandoned Building, the Business Administration dept gets together and enjoy a traditional Onam luncheon. Forget a luncheon, we Functional English people don't even seem to have the unity to come up with a decent Freshers' party. BUT. the party WE threw last year for our direst juniors had been fantastic. This year, we let our juniors do the work, and it is disastrous. ugh.
*That Korean drama "Sassy Girl" which I talked about in my tag? It ended last week. And I'm literally crawling the web for more on them. And Nishi, i don't know Korean language except for a "yes", "what" and "why" in Korean. The dramas have English subtitles. That's how!
*We trudged up our college's own Forbidden Forest. Yeah!
*Namitha's birthday was celebrated on the college election day. Clinking glasses of water and raising toast for the girl and kissing her till she got tired. Phew!
*Got shortlisted in our very first campus recruitment interview.
*AND memory games where I lost out after Namitha,Vrinda and Vinaya. Vaikhari,Sajla and Ragitha survived.


Have I forgotten to write out anything? My girls had better tell me.

Wedding season

It's the wedding season at college.
A lot of weddings coming one after the other.
This sunday is Sporty's sister's wedding.And she has invited half the college for it.So its sure that we'll have a ball this Sunday!!
On February 3rd,we'll be witnessing the wedding of a classmate.Yipes!
Atleast 4 girls are engaged, and getting married this year itself.
And amidst all this hullabaloo some of my friends are getting dreamy-eyed wondering what their wedding day will be like.
Don't dare ask me!
I'm not into weddings at all.If anything I'm the one who was shell shocked, when one classmate whom I didn't expect to get married so soon,online declared that she's engaged.
And I was like--NO WAY!
LIAR!
TRYING TO FOOL ME!
And such other thoughts buzzing in my head.

So what's my plan to do after college?
Study some more years,get a good job,save money,go globe trotting,then live single!!!!

That's it!

I know it mightn't work out the way I want it,but still..who's gonna stop me from dreaming?
================================================================
That's the original post.Mom was troubled by my declaration to be a single.
SO I TAKE IT BACK.
Just for a peaceful life.I'd rather stay away from getting mommy tensed.;)