Prayers from a Mallu

Mallu:- Proper noun. Slightly derogatory term used for Malayalis aka Keralites who display behavior said to be characteristic of their community. A typical Mallu will

• be very laidback, and thus peace-loving and detests violence most of the time. Being lazy, we will-
• jump in at every opportunity which claims to make big money easily,
• have an opinion about everything- about that girl next door who flirts too much, that auto driver who charges more and more every next time, about social media, USA's foreign policy, Manmohan Singh, in short- EVERYTHING. Hell, even that unemployed bum has an opinion about why no one's doing anything about global climate change.

• We Mallus are worldly, well-read (at least 95% are), intellectuals, or pretend-intellectuals (but even they will know all the facts and are updated on the news and goings-around) and sometimes even other-worldly (might as well make some money off other-worldliness while we are at it!) 
• There's a running joke about how there will be a Mallu in every nook and corner of the Earth. (You've definitely heard the joke of how when Neil Armstrong landed on Moon and saw that there was this Mallu running a tea-shop there,right?)
• We LOVE hartals. Whether we support the cause or not is an entirely different thing. Which is why, come every other unknown political party who claims to have been offended by so-and-so or such-and-such situation and declares strike or hartal- we CELEBRATE them. We cheer each other with "Happy Hartal!/ Hartal days are back again!" texts. No, I swear this is true. I can personally vouch for this being 100% reality, cos I celebrate along too!        Back in school days, we'd students strikes practically every other day. Ergo, we'd go to school, get taught for a period or so before the school gave in to the student-strike that came strutting in from the other school next door. Then us girls would all hang around our empty classrooms, schoolground, munching away happily on snacks and yummy lunches, before finally going home in the best of happy  moods. Tee hee! So you understand that protests are pretty much in-built into the Mallu system.
         Upset about the grades? Protest march. Teacher being partial to some student. Gherao him. Exam papers may have been leaked? Boycott college for days. You want an upgrade on paycheck? Strike! Pissy with the govt? Strike! Hartal!

This poster is pro-hartal and reads "Yay Hartal! Hartal wishes to all". I know, we're a crazy fun lot

And this last characteristic brings me to the topic. By now you've a fair idea of what to expect from a Mallu and the fact that I'm a Mallu too. =D

And like at least some of my readers know by now, I'm working at IIM-Kozhikode currently. Yes yes, thanks for the congrats and thumps on my back and everything. It's amazing and lotsa fun working there too. But! The one drawback of it all is that I have to work 9-5.30 Monday through Saturday. Which means I get just one measly holiday a week. Barely, hardly, not at all enough.

So?

I'm reduced to waiting for general holidays which don't happen much. The only other alternative where we get holidays would be when there're vehicle strikes, hartals or the sort happening and you can't make it to work.

And me being me, always ends my prayers these days like this,
"God, please let a hartal happen on Saturday or Monday so I can have that extra day off."

Absurd you thinketh? Well, God sure did answer my prayers last week. Only that it was limited to that particular municipal corporation my hostel is in and which meant, yeah I got my day off thank-you-so-much, but that the IIM administration marked it as leave taken by me since there was no hartal as such where IIM was. Dang!

So this week around, I prayed more specifically.
"Dear God, please give me a hartal more than six hours".This time around too God was gracious enough to answer my prayer. Only, I got a Hartal in my district alone. IIM will be able to function anyways and everyone else will turn up for work. All but me. =( Which obviously means they'll once again mark me down as on-leave.

But on the bright side, I already was home all of yday since it was a general holiday. And I got to stay back today too. So it's Sunday,Monday and this Tuesday. Chock-fulla holidays! Though I'll be paying the price for today. Hmph.

Next time around I'mma pray with the wording so correct, connotation and implication so accurate that I'll land myself an awesome hartal-holiday. Just you wait and watch!

• 
  

The Post where i avoid the fluff and talk serious things that have been niggling me for some time

I usually don't blog about issues that leave people with sadness as to where the whole world is headed. Not this time though. Last week there was a horrible incident in Kerala that jolted us all.

On one hand you have the namesake teacher who deliberately and viciously insulted the Prophet in a question paper with words like "dog" etc.
On the other hand you have the worthy of emulation Prophet himself who never raised violence against his enemies even after they threw animal intestines on him while he was prostrating in prayer; toasted death threats his way all the time and even tried to work them out on a daily basis.
And you have some crazies who don't know the first thing about Islam and chop off this teacher's right hand as if they are doing the right thing in the name of Islam. You idiots! You are the reason why Islam has a bad name all across the world.

But thankfully, there are sane Muslim out there too. This teacher T J Joseph's sister called upon Solidarity; [a group of sane moderate Muslims,as i like to call 'em] for blood for her brother. And they did. =) They were at the hospital donating blood when required. While the crazies helped give Islam a bad name, these dudes were the saving grace. Phew!

This is what I had to pour out. Thanks for listening me out. Love ye all!

PS- working on a poem. But i just can't finish it!

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.

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!
--------------------------------------------------------
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/

Escaping the gloom

Things are getting very depressing down here. Political revenge murders seem unending. Hartals have been going on for 4 days. So,I can't go to college!!! That's the worst part of it. What do these political parties think by declaring hartals at the drop of a hat as protest? It's becoming so anti-people! Instead of standing united and fighting back at the anti-social elements, we find parties declaring hartals which are more or less just as much anti-social.

So to cheer myself and the readers, I have put in a zany photo I snapped of my friend Vinaya. The writings are mine too. Though I didn't write the "babe" part. I wrote "baby" for fun. She wipes that out and made it "babe". Uh, whatever! I went even madder and wrote "The rock" on her one foot, and in malayalam the direct translation of it on the other foot. (It's just as if I'd written "patthar"!) I took snaps of all that in our classroom; teacher was still in the class while we were busy with our graffiti(if you please) ; camera was EG's. She was nice to mail the madness to me so that I could blog it, much to Vinaya's joy. I'm not posting my graffiti on her feet, 'cos her feet sucks in the photos!

Edit,edit!
Vinaya wants me to tell you that her feet ain't sucking! They are just un-good!

Missed a wedding, so I'm blogging instead

I'm not supposed to be here blogging now.
I was supposed to be at a wedding having fun.
Remember Sporty's sister's wedding?Its today.
But because of a strike;which included vehicles too;I couldn't move outside my home.Mph!
I'm burning with jealousy..
Oh, this place will never improve unless people become pro-active and take measures against these violent elements in the state.Some party people killed their rival party's member.As a sign of protest,the slain's party has called total strike.People don't seem too bothered either, that political murders are happening all the time in this country.They have just grown hard-hearted.
"Another person murdered?Then there won't be any vehicles out today,huh?Bother,I'd thought of doing some shopping today in town".

That's the way they think now.Not something like,
"Another murder?Where is humanity gone to?So sad for that family"

No way!
It's more in this way-
If a party stabs one person,
their rival makes sure to stab at least two.

Disgusting!So pathetic!

And once when my friends were discussing of a particularly brutal murder(the murdered was a school bus driver, a masked gang made all the kids in the bus run away and ran after the distraught driver and stabbed him to death.He is survived by a wife and two very young children.),one said that her acquaintance remarked "very good".

You ask why so?
Because this murder was in retaliation to another murder.And in the latter's case too a small child was left orphaned.

But still,that's no reason to react so coldly.

No wonder we have the highest record of crime committed,when compared to the rest of India.