This time, starting over.

This time, I hope it sticks.
This time, I want it to stick.
This time, I'm here to stay.
This time, I want to keep at it and not stray.

This blog,
All the words,
Every emotion and anecdote and thought
Scribbled or jotted in
Under my alter ego's name:
Raphael.

This time, I'm back.
And I don't want to ever leave.
This time, it's for real.
I hope my blog forgives me.

This random, lazy poem;
Is only so I can warm into the act.
This is only the launch pad;
Stepping stone;
Before I start to scream, and yell, and tell stories,
Like before.

This time, I'm writing for myself
Hello to any of the old followers who still remember.
Hello to anyone new who might have accidentally tripped over here.

This time,
I want to start with thank you.
Gratitude.
To my beautiful, my own, my own, my own, blog.
To those who read and sent encouraging, cheerful thoughts.
To all the amazing friendships I made because of the blog,
Thank you because all of this has endured.
Love. Joy. Words. Pain. Life in General.
The words seem cliche in the line above.
It doesn't matter.

It matters that I've shared, and it has been a joy to share here.
This time, I'm back in this welcome space,
And I do not intend to leave.

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)

   

That negativity-inspiring-muse

 To you,
With loathing and
Wishful thinking
(Since I'll probably never say this aloud).

Time goes so slowly by
When I'm by your side.
And I just can't wait
for the moments together
to get over.

Every word you say is
-trash
Every thought of yours
-better off unsaid
And every single deed of yours
-makes you more tiresome for me.

Why did you have to happen to me?
Why you in my life?
The questions in my head
Annoy me like you.

Sick and tired of your faking
All I want is to stay away from your crazy.
What's the use of those smiles,
When every next word of yours is guaranteed to be lies.
        And when I see you be fake nice  again,
        I want the world to stop doing anything else...
And throw things at you.

You lie,
Don't even blink an eye,
Twist your words,
And not so much of guilt or regret in anyway.

Nothing about you works
the right way round.
You'd chat, lie, be mean
if that got you a win.

But when I try to bite back,
Not fight back,
Curb the bad feelings towards you?
     There you come shuffling in,
     with all that contagious negative vibes in tow-
              So immense they could ruin a whole continent
              So vile that I'm scared by mere proximity
              So manipulative that I want to scream and
                   want the world to know the truth of you.
              So false, it's bizarre no one notices.

I look at you,
and all I can think is
-bitchface.
Doesn't matter what others think you are,
I know you for what you are-
and that's:
    Awful through-and-through
    Shame to my gender,
    Hypocrite,
    Why, no principles whatsoever.

She thought you're just silly,
He thinks you're not much,
They think you're just a random normal somebody,
But only I can see that you're my personal nightmare-come-to-life.

What've you done to me,
Messing up a good girl's soul
Somehow trying to make me mean like you.
And I never hated on anyone,
Never ever badmouthed even the foulest person I knew.
   But you turned things round,
   Screwed my good life.

All I want is away from your drama
Exit-Stage-Left.

Moi very first blog-award!

This "My Choice Blogger Award" was awarded to me by e.t.
Pass this on to 3 bloggers whom I think deserve this award? now that's kinda difficult because there are more than 3 deserving bloggers I know out there.
[sigh]
And thi award goes tooooooooooooooooo...


Nishi!!!!!!!! just back from a major phase of life, facing it head-on with courage that shines through her blog. And her blogs always are radiant with wisdom, thoughtfulness and beauty of life.

J!!!- for his unique ideas and fantastic writings.

A.R Rahmaniac- because when it comes to music, I'm an AR Rahmaniac first, everything else comes next!

Hey everyone else, this list doesn't mean you people are not good enough according to me. No way! in fact, i had half an idea of squeezing all my favourite bloggers [mohua, thoughtful,blue, matangi,sally,jean,mag as different sets of my choice 3 bloggers along with the first list!] and given the way i am, i almost implemented that idea too!

Bam! and my head hurt! :(

I think a better title for this post would be "my first REAL injury". Definitely. Yesterday would have been a perfectly normal, even boring day...hadn't it been for that head-wound.

You guys all know that cliche joke? The one that goes like this...
"How did you hurt your head?"
-"you saw that post?"
"yeah."
-"well, i didn't".

That kind of thing! Namitha walks straight in front of me, gets past the broken post that hung perpendicularly right above our heads just fine. I didn't. I was too busy watching the ground so that I didn't fall into one of those slab-broken pavements which are so much characteristic of TLY. I hit the post head-on and it's youch!

I was like, ok, that really hurt. I rub my head, blood oozes out.
"ok, Nami..check this out yaar.."

Some passer-by notices, he tells me to find some water and wash it off. But where the hell is water around that place?? Since I'm practically dripping with blood, I couldn't be particularly helpful. Nami was freaked out too.

I would really like to thank the Helpful-Crowd that formed immediately after they realized what was happening. Those strangers helped tie my scarf round the wound to stop the profuse bleeding, brought me water, helped us catch an auto to the nearest hospital.

And you thought Tellicherry people were narrow minded??!!

Once the first aid at the hospital was over, we were stepping out and some construction dude was throwing his materials down from the terrace.
ALMOST GOT HIT! AGAIN!!

Neither we, nor the nurse could stop laughing.

This whole situation was just so downright ridunculous!!! [yeah, sure, i knowingly mispelled it]

By the time my uncles came rushing all worried to the hospital, my only regret was that I had washed off most of the blood from my clothes,so i wasn't looking exactly tragic. Or like some survivor. Oh well, this is the problem with us. Both me and Nami were being completely weird. I'm supposed to feel shocked, hurt, scared and all.

None of the above feelings within me.

Remember I told you guys once that I was entirely shock-proof? Here's the evidence now!
And seeing all that blood gushing forth didn't daze me either. Good.

I realize that I am indeed really really good at keeping my cool, to the Point of Complete Detachment. Heck, this blood was mine, the wound was mine, all that pain was mine. Why am I being so emotionally cold? I was more like, "Nami, can you hold these specs? My hands are too bloody to hold em. So is my face."

I never was one for melodrama. But it did make me realize that I wasn't immune to injuries after all. I gotta be careful.
Earlier I was only accident-prone-but-safe. Now I'm accident-prone and unsafe!




Things that hit me after the incident:
Learn first-aid.
Be careful.
I'm emotionally cold. More like, I'm all about cold logic.
I know people do care about me after all! Friends all called up worried.
How unexpected life can be. I never thought I'd be bleeding like hell even when I got hit.

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.

Jaane tu...Ya Jaane Na for Z, Vi, Vai and N /WARNING:SPOILERS INCLUDED

Yup. Finally. After having to take refuge with a pirated online version. Z gets to go for the movie as on the Big Screen. She was just so damned obsessed with the movie that she actually didn't care that she had watched the movie already at home! Well, and Vi,Vai and Nare like,the sweetest friends in the whole world. They wouldn't have gone for "Jaane Tu..." if it hadn't been for Z talking about JTYJN from the moment the first promo was out. And Z has never gone for a movie from college. So,why not begin with a cute movie she's so hung up on?

For this reason, Vi and Vai are discussing the idea of calling Z a petty bourgeousie(hope i got the spelling right.) since Z came along for the movie only because of her selfish interest in the movie and not for sport sake.

So off the foursome leave today, freezing from the whipping winds and just begun monsoon that's out-and-about with a vengeance. It was cold! Teeth chattering cold!So cold that Z was hugging Vi for warmth. Bunked classes and a half-reluctant, conscience-pricked Vai was coaxed and it was chalo chalo!!

*Over to Z:
" Just 17 spectators man! This place has never had much taste. Anyway, we occupied the last seats, back-benchers attitude still on! One young couple, one retired-from-military looking dad and his two daughters, one family with a cute baby whom Vai tried to woo, three
vagrant kind of men who made us doubtful if we had reached the correct movie. And some more typical looking people. Well, who's complaining the lack of spectatorship? This meant we could stretch our legs and place them on the seats in front of us. AND we were the most responsive. Well, the ONLY who made any kind of response. The rest of them were sooooooo dead! We cheered, ooooooh-ed, laughed, muttered at the right places.
Too bad none of us knew wolf-whistling. =(
It would have come in handy.
The 2 daughters-duo DID respond too,now I remember. But we drowned out their dignified laughter I guess. And no one turned left,right or backwards. On this N and Vai later remarked, 'they must have said, "don't look behind you. There are some rowdy kind of people sitting there.'" ' (about us)
Some kind of behaviour we are putting up,huh?

The sad parts from the otherwise delightful movie(according to me):
* Vi,Vai and N were not AT ALL impressed by JTYJN. They think it is only a one-time watch. Not much standards either. Just an ok movie. Seeeeee?????? I need to team up with JTYJN fans and defend the movie!
*They don't find Imran Khan cute or even impressive! They didn't think his acting prowess (they don't even think he has a prowess) was much of a big deal.
*They didn't like Genelia much either. Her face ain't much,they say. They also say that no boy would go back for a second watch. Farzad, Nezer,Shabas, and all theguys I know who liked the movie, help me out! I need evidence and witnesses!
*All in all they don't think it's anything as wonderful as I'm making it seem. And that a hit campus movie of Kerala of ages ago ("Niram") was way much awesome.
Excuuuuuuse meh? That movie was just soo materialistic and shallow! Ugh!

The happy parts
*They loved the music. Obvious.
*We all loved and are still singing the old "jaane tu" song. Gala phaad ke. Like we naturally do.
*Everyone loved Shaleen best.
*And Jiggy.
*And the whole group.
*And liked the fact that it was a group movie. Everyone gets equal importance. Not just Jai (sigh!!) and Aditi.
*Vi was just as touched and felt-it-in-her-skin-too in the Kahin to scene where Jai gets shocked and gets the jolt of his life when Sushant kisses Aditi. Youch! Same same here!
*Jai's singing in the climax. W.O.W! So naturally disgustingly bad and shrill and tired out he sounds. Perfect for the scene!
*Vi and I agree that they could have elaborated on the Aditi-Amit relatioship. It had a lot more to it.
*Plus a zillion other cute things.

I personally think this movie is so cute-overload and so polished. But i admit that the movie looks as if it were made for 15 year olds. Where kisses are covered up by the girls' hair. To which Vai wondered out loud, "wonder what they had do if they were bald!"

I lurved the movie. totalllllllllyyyyyyy. completelyyyyy. every bit of it. every scene of it. so much that i know every dialogue by now.
ok.
Over and Out.
Over to Raphael who will probably publish an out and out gushing review on the movie. "

Back to me.
That's all for this post. Z has done almost a lot of gushings herself, so I'm not sure if I need to put in a review.

The year after the Beginning, and before the Ending

This one's a look-back at my past academic year. The fun year! This might be rather long, you are warned!

June- Second year begins, on a rather sullen note for me since I was still melancholic with my cousin's death. But my friends helped me recover soon. Vaikhari moved into Vinaya's home. My favorite surrogate brother calls! Admitted that I have more surrogate relationships than anyone else around me. But he's my blue-eyed boy! The felicitation thingy. Doesn't help much that our dept always bags ranks as a habit. And we have to always do speeches and organise events. Sound of Music rules. I share my S.o.M cd with friends and we're singing High on a hill was a lonely goatherd, Maria, the Farewell Song etc.. Last year's crush still flickerin' from somewhere within. New lecturers, we get prejudices against some, but that changes soon. Begin- the Cognitions workshop. Kinda ok with that since my pack always happen to be together in everything, adventure/misadventure. Got new friends bcos of those Communicative Skills classes. Me and Vinaya get seriously bitching abt irresponsibility of our dept with....our teachers Prof Babu&Efthikar! Actually we bitch abt everything with our teachers, they're all more informal than any other dept. I have the best deptmental family in here!! Books,books and more of 'em. New ma'am for journalism, she roxx! By now we bgin bunking Cognition classes.They were gettin too bawring. Singing songs all over the place, "like the gypsies", Anil sir quips! Some teachers are taking 3month leaves. So thoughtful of them..
27 June- Prajisha's b'day. Gift her bag, bookmark and card.

July-Novel summary assignment. These classes when Leena ma'am make us summarise novels is fun. We get to ask the person questions and make 'em sweat, (obviously they havent read the whole thing yaar!) Windsurfing on the buses to college and from college as always. Wimbledon matches. Federer equals Borg's record of 5 Wimbledon titles!!!!!Love ya Fed! Some Union workshop at college, since me and Vinaya are Joint Convenors we HAD to sit down for the revolutionary speeches(which were kind ok).Vaika joins in later, she too a joint convenor. We bgin talking thru paper chits and gestures.Starved thru the 3 hour long programme. The next week witnessed a fight at college. We watched it all! Rain hols declared. Interviews for admission begin. Lots of rain walks and runs!!! Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.Me and Vaik deathly worried,"will JKR finish off Harry?" J class- me as Pratibha Patil,prez candidate in meet-the-press. Cool me fended off questions thrown esp by Nami and Vinaya.

August- Literary association of department inaugurated in style.And I'm chosen as Secretary!! Reaching college drenched is becoming a habit for us now.And in Kerala it's raining from June to December virtually! Lunch times are mostly turning into Mad-Hatter's tea-parties.Me and Nimisha arguing passionately(with witnesses-mostly threatened into saying so;)that Idiputtu and Idiyappam are 2 different food items. Others argue as heatedly that they 2 are one and the same.Onam. Welcome party for freshers. Soft-core ragging.Just silly kid stuff. Namitha's birthday-Aug15. Gift her watch and card. 18-Thanzeela's b'day. Riph sweet is back home!Both of us spend quality time together going for shopping and eating out.
Nimisha is all sweetness.For she's the only one who wants to listen me sing Avril,Linkin Park, and anything english. I enacted Iago in Shakespeare hour!!

September- Nami n me verbal duel.Well,all of us do! Began Orkut account! Wild singing sessions continue.We were born-entertainers who force our vocal skills on others, *chuckle! Everyone else begin Orkutting as well. Bunkings continue. Strikes n fights. Footloose,settle down near green-house. Vrinda and I race down to Portico.I win! But my footwear wears out=( // Sporty's damn cool-dumps boyfriend and still happy-no heart breaks and tears. Sooraj n Fenrir Greyback distribute toffees to celebrate T20WC Indian win. Bad communications day.Written words hurt deep. Soothing balm from N.But everything's sorta changed.I can forgive,but can't forget. But all's fine now.

October-My big day!!Thanks to Orkut I get my long-lost neighbours and school pals. I invent a story out of Nokia ringtones, Bollywood style!Everyone loved it! Vinaya and Vaikhari get a TV break to dance for their college.EID. Busy times, overloaded with assignments. Jashn-e-Debates season begins.A new dimension of me comes out bcos of this.

November-Debate season begins. finally the impossible has happened.I fall out of luv with the Union's attitude with the rest of my pack.But I still idealise them sort-of.Sajla (popular singer of Kerala, plus our friend,she's my class mate.), Vrinda,Nimisha and me go bag shopping for Sajla after classes.Fun.//22nd is a remarkably awesome day.We all set off for wedding gift shopping for Prajisha's big sis.Vaik was in foul mood from ruck with Achayan.To cheer her we go to a tourist spot near Sports Academy local branch.Vri's friends live there.Me,Nimisha and Namitha ended up fighting over umbrella instead. Off shopping for gift.But all do shopping for themselves, and now we're late.Uff! I bought a cool black bead bracelet.Finally we resolve and buy a pretty dress for her.Vaik-Nimisha fight.Foul moods again.
25th- Prajisha's sister's wedding.What's even more special is that I'm attending my very first Hindu wedding and I'm gonna eat my very first "Sadya" all veg and rice.Fun at wedding,witnessed "thalikkettu" and I made a dumbass of me trying to drink the "rasam" with my hand. Impossible!! After cool wedding, we skip off to Namitha's home.Fun time there too.She's got a parrot couple[Chinnu-Minnu] and a single parrot[Rooney, ya reference to Wayne Rooney!] plus a late dog[Jimmi]. Back home late evening,I'm dead tired. 4th b'day of Harmony!

December- I began "Pieces of Me"-my bloggie pet!! 7th-Ragi's b'day. Sajla buys a Scooty Pep. I learnt "Stone-Paper-Scissor" from my young cousin. Association Inauguration and Film Screening. Can you believe it?Instead of watching TZP with my school buddies Baju&Shamnas( yay, the 3Smashers rollicked all over town that day!), we get sorta trapped in the theatre and hadta watch a stupid B grade Malayalam slapstick comedy cos
TZP was over there.=( Nonetheless, enjoyd the time spent togetha and did laff at some one liners.. I did get to watch TZP later on though.

January 2008- . I can actually argue patiently and bring rivals down to their knees (as long as they aren't cheating, that is.) My first year's results came finally after 7 months. I met an Orkut friend. Attended class mate's wedding.A first!

February 2008- In semi-finals of debate, won against the odds, beat the Business dept! Are we dark-horse league or what?! GA fractures leg. Namitha and me are crazy abt debates as a whole now, actually hunted down the whole college for juniors' debate! Our winning streak didnt last long.Lost out in the finals, but we still feel something foul in the air.
College day-mega fun, but it ended with me getting a sore throat which later on developed into a full-fledged bad cold. Z is actually me. i crush'd.

March 2008- Vinaya sprains leg. Bunking spree is very much fun! Friends ho to mere friends jaisa honi chahiye. They motivate crushes and once it is achieved, they will pull u back bfore hings get too complicated!Luv u darlings! Power-packed singing session today.Max fun and croaky throats at the end.Back to back Bolly and spriklings of regional stuff and English.Totally.Rocked.The.Place. Shopping in town,myself bought a cute,chunky bag.=D Tug wars,tributes, crushes-here me and Nami are totally hopeless cases!Happy Feet last edition. Dusk begins blog. Fling and Flirt donno what to do with themselves,can't even call quits, grf!
Official last day of second academic year-Farewell party went smooth,no hitches and much fun. And on a happier note, smoke has died down!
Then the exams.
The End of a very happy year. happys ending!
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Books I read in the second academic year:
English,August-Upamanyu Chatterjee/ Goddess Abides-Pearl S.Buck/Writer's Diary-Virginia Woolf/Villette-Charlotte Bronte/The Bridge Across Forever-Richard Bach/Secret Garden-Frances Hodgson Burnett/Wuthering Heights-Emily Bronte/To Kill A Mocking Bird-Harper Lee/French Lieutenant's Woman-John Fowles/Harry Potter&the Deathly Hallows-JKR/Nanny-Charlotte Bingham/Jonathan Livingston Seagull-Bach/Prophet-Kahlil Gibran/Poems-Matthew Arnold/Rubaiyat-Omar Khaiyyam>Fitzgerald/Disgrace-JM Coetzee/Journey to Ithaca-Anita Desai/Istanbul'Memories of a city-Orhan Pamuk/Unbearable Lightness of Being-Milan Kundera/Clandestine in Chile-Gabriel Garcia Marquez/Persuasion-Jane Austen/Inheritance of Loss-Kiran Desai/Chetan Bhagat/Othello-Shakespeare/Collected Stories-GGM/Hundred Years of Solitude-GGM(man,u need some kind of tough stomach for this book.Weir.D!)/Interpreter of Maladies and other stories-Jhumpa Lahiri/Queen's Confession-Victoria Holt(again and again)

Movies I watched:
Salaam-e-Ishq/Don/Omkara/Khosla ka Ghosla/Bheja Fry/Shrek3/Metro/TaRa RumPum/Chak De!! India/Taare Zameen Par/Dil Hain Ke Maanta Nahi/Music and Lyrics/Pride&Prejudice and In Her Shoes for the Nth time/Om Shanti Om/Race/

Tagged;My first TAG!

Finally. Now I'm really gonna get done with this thing.
But tags are so cute that I never feel like finishing them! ;)
Anyways,here goes_Get ready for some madness. I tweaked the original tag,added some more stuff.
Four schools/colleges I studied:
1.Indian School Al Wadi Al Kabir-the beginning of education.So many memories and friends left behind..
2.Indian School Darsait-same goes for this place.
3.Jawaharlal Nehru Higher Secondary School-The place where I found my true rebel nature. I had give anything,ANYTHING to go back there,sit with my batch,be there for eternity. 4.Government Brennen College-this saga will end only next year.But its a beautiful world.A planet by its own right.

Four T.V shows I love:
1.F.R.I.E.N.D.S-Obviously the best show I ever watched.THE BEST AND FUNNIEST!
2.Malcolm in the Middle- Crazy
3.That 70's Show- Damn goofy!
4.Roadies 4.0- The best roadies yet.They had Bani! 5.0 doesn't seem so exciting as rather pretending.

Four movies I would watch on till end of time:(Indian)
1.Rang De Basanti- Awestruck. No words for this fabulous piece of work. I can still feel it in me;the patriotism,the friendship,sacrifice. Wow.
2.Chak de! India- Probably the ONLY Bolly movie that's REALLY about women empowerment. Real good stuff.
3.Taare Zameen Par- Awww..I cried all of me out, felt all the emotions Ishaan felt. Beautiful work Aamir Khan.
4.Iqbal & Monsoon Wedding- Sorry for squeezing in two movies.But kya karti? I just loved 'em all!AND Khosla ka Ghosla.
P.S-There are these two Malayalam movies of great quality that I'd recommend to all:
Kazhcha and Achuvinde Amma.The former one is of a Gujarat earthquake victim who ends up in Kerala. The latter is the beautiful relationship btw a single mom and her daughter.Lovely!

Four foreign movies I loved:
1.Children of Heaven(Irani)- Directed by Majid Majidi, I watched it at my college film fest. A must watch for all. If you don't go watch it,then...Mph!
2.Bend it like Beckham- How come Gurinder Chaddha of the critically acclaimed "Bend it.." went on to make the dismal "Bride and Prejudice", is a riddle that still amazes me! Great movie. I really felt like going out to conquer the world after watching it!
3.Pride and Prejudice- Honest, I have watched this movie(2005 version,directed by Joe Wright,starring my darling Keira Knightley) more than hundred times. Still, I'm never bored of it! The romance just grows! I have the dvd with me!
4.In Her Shoes- All about two sisters' relationship. From hate to deep love. I'm especially moved by the "I carry your heart" part.

Four books I can't get outta my head:
1.Pride and Prejudice- really,really changed my romantic ideas.
2.Queen's Confession- I could remember a lot of it even long after the actual read. Totally changed my perceptions of the French revolution.Mind you, I'm crazy about history, the grand civilisations, the revolutions that changed the world.
3.God of Small Things- Haunting,chilling..Me and my girlfriends couldn't talk about anything else than that for weeks on end.
4.Wuthering Heights- Passionate. I loved Heathcliff. Mindblowing.

Four non-fiction books:
1.Freedom at Midnight- Must read for every Indian.
2.Clandestine in Chile- Wow, the things one will do for their nation's freedom!
3.(malayalam-forgot the book's name;memoirs of a Regional Cancer Center's oncologist)- Stories of cancer victims. Survivors and the not-so-lucky's. Hurts a lot. you realise how lucky you are.
4.Emotional Intelligence-Changed the way I think for ever

Four places I've been to:
1.Muscat- .The place where my heart is.Where modern blends gracefully with tradition.Not so western and busy as Dubai;not yet. serene,green and urban.
2.Tirupur- In Tamil Nadu, some hours away from Ooty. I've been there a couple of times.
3.Bombay- Once in my childhood.
4.Places my head dreamt up!-

Four places I'd rather be right now:
1.At my college!
2.Muscat
3.Vienna
4.Scotland

Four of my favourite dishes:
1.Parathas and Butter Chicken
2.Chole Bathoore
3.The very yummy Aloo Gobi
4.Shawarma

Four things I can cook:
1.Every kind of veggie salad;I can cook 'em to perfection!
2.Charred chapathis!(but sometimes I can really make 'em tasty!)
3.Uhhh...
4.Uhhh...

Four websites I frequent:
1.Flickr
2.thetoymaker.com
3.orkut and minglebox and librarything and blogger
4.fetchfido.co.uk

Four people I'm tagging:(for not commenting to my posts!)
1.Dad- I know he loves what I do here,but daddykins never comments in here!
2.My offbeat pack-They laugh their heads off after reading my intepretation of our doings,but never puts in comments!
3.Ishamel-Our rival in the debates,but first of all,a good buddy.Not commenting to my scathing report on our debate final!
4.Anyone else who somehow liked my posts but doesn't comment!

Four crushes currently:
1.One-Too brilliant for lesser mortals like me.
2.Sirius Black-Ouch! I cried so much when he died in the book!
3.Johnny Depp-Just one word, W.O.W
4-Atif Aslam-Need I say anything?

Four gifts I'd love to recieve:(sorry that I sound so shallow!)
1.An i Pod
2.Digital camera
3.The books in my personal wish list.
4.A trip around the world!

Post wedding hangover,and I'm tired. AND I have a debate to work on!

Aah, what I need now is to sleep. Wrapped very cozily in a blankie.Fan full on.Windows open. Let the night breeze in!
Or even better, sleep under the dark blue sky,all those cute stars shining down.Can't help but remember the movie "Taare Zameen Par"[ Stars on Earth].
Oh,this dream won't work out. I know!
What with the thieves lurking around,and mosquitos. Oh the mosquitoes!

Mom has a huge suspicion that the watch man who makes the rounds around our place is a thief.
The days when he's on sick leave,are the days when our neighbours' cars' music systems got robbed.8 houses robbed in that one night! Gasp!! ( C'mon,you gasp too! )

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The reason why I really wanna go and sleep is because I'm that tired.
Went for my classmate's wedding.
The first classmate-wedding.Makes it special!
My friends didn't really like it.They were like" nothing's going on!!"
When we finally left the wedding pla
Thats bcos bebe, in my community,weddings aren't simply rituals.They tend to become a mega 7-day celebration!!
Thats why I'm tired.
Where's mah coffee?

Woops! Almost forgot that I'm on a diet!! No caffeine allowed.But tea is ok.
But-I hate tea!!!!!!

And now I'm simply wasting my time!!!
I have to practice for the debate that's on tuesday!
Against the Bachelor of Business Administration department.
Of all the topics to choose from, we end up with "Commercialisation of Cultural Arts"
And I'm left with a face that clearly speaks out "Are you guys seriously mad?"
Anyways we are in favour of this commercialising thing.

If you all have any good ideas,suggestions that could help me,
do drop in and tell me!!
Remember,its on tuesday!
This tuesday!!

Catch you all later.
Wish me all the best!

My first blog post!

Finally!!!
My own blog!!!
o.k,today is the first of December,2007.And my exams begin on the 10th!
So much to work on,and I'm too lazy for anything right now.

My grandmum is feeling a bit off-colour,so I'm thinking of visiting her.Hope the dear thing gets well soon!

Mom liked my poem that was published in our college magazine!
Since I'm so hard and critical about my verses,praise for my work always
feels good!

Gotta go now.
Spread the love,ciao!