Messing in the kitchen and garden

Grounded for 4 days now,along with a sunday. Makes it 5 days straight at home. Lousy week! Mother's trying to make the most out of it by (trying) to teach me cooking dishes. That went on smoothly with some spats and all. Trouble is,once I have prepared a curry or whateva, mom will shoot questions about how it was made and blah blah. Wacky time I'm having! But I hadn't burnt anything until last night. Yesternight I burnt the special sea food dinner and my left wrist. Hey! You're not supposed to sit mum now. You're supposed to say,"Oh my darling, poor you. Does it hurt?" That's much better! I love being pampered and spoilt! Anyway,just a black scar left now.

Apart from messing in the kitchen, I water mom's beloved plants and trees. See? I'm very caring and mature! But I'll leave that to you to decide. I'm not at all patient and thus not at all a garden person. But being a day dreamer helps! It means I spend quality time with the plants! Oh, and music is very important. Raphael functions on music!
In between, I so hate the summer locusts. They make me jump outta my skin. Creepy! And once this chamaleon darts at me at an alarming speed. I almost screamed. Phew! Think its funny? ITS NOT!!!
But I love the cute black butterfly that persisted flitting near me when I was out and about in the garden.

Tug wars, tributes, Z's crush

Y'day was the death anniversary of a comrade who got killed at our college 34 years ago. So as tribute to the martyr, the Union organised tug-war games and a quiz competition. So instead of a sombre event in remembrance of the guy, we had fun cheering on the tug warriors! O.k, so just in case everyone got carried away, they had a very sombre lengthy speech( of which you can guess we heard nothing) and they lowered the Union flag, had a procession blah blah.

The tug war was damn fun. We supported our 2nd years in the 2nd years Vs. hostelites match. 2nd years won easy peasy! Then there was the 1st years Vs hostelites or some other team. ist years lost! Losers were having as much fun too. though!

Anyway, all this fun made us wonder;"what will it be like if we die when still studying here?"
"What had the tribute be like?" If it was N, everyone would have an all-out flirting throughout that day in her memory! If it was Vaikhari, people would run around speaking like wizards from Harry Potter's world! If it were Ni, the mobile phone company would sponsor the programme in her memory,they'd say;" without her, now who will buy recharge coupons?"
And if it's me---;You shoulda seen my friends getting excited as they thought of that; "All the chocolate companies will sponsor the tribute for you saying,'oh, Raphe is gone! Now we won't have any business at all! Alas!'

In between all this, there were some problems too. Vinaya sprained her foot. Though intially we made fun of her calling her 'langda',later when she cried in pain,um..we felt real bad.
Crow shits in N's hair! Yuck..

Beyond all this, my day had a different feel. After so many months, Z calls me up. It isn't like we forgot the other one. Rather Z is always with me all the time,on my mind. She's in a mess. She's gotten this immensely huge (unbearable,she tells me) crush on a guy in her college. Doesn't help much that he's got all the girls mad abt him and Z's friends give her a harder time. They tease her and sing mushy songs whenever he passes by and now-her crush is getting all-consuming addiction for her! And the worst part for her was that....
"you blushed????" I gasped! Because for one thing, Z isn't the kind of girl who blushes even when the going gets embarrasing. Now she tells me she can't concentrate on anything either! My poor darling Z. She added ruefully that if it hadn't been for her friends she hadn't have done so badly. Sigh....Guess she's burning herself up in this addiction.

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!

About my brand new hag-voice & Chilling out with tutors

I really wanna scream everyone's ears off! Like-
AAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!

Oh, you wouldn't understand. I've got throat infection or whatever the docs call it.. Thing is now I have a voice thats S.T.U.P.I.D! Totally! Day-before-yesterday, the voice was all husky and manly. I was actually feeling happy and adapting myself with my "cool" voice. Why, a buddy even told me this voice sounds better than your original one. So I take it that my real voice is boring.

As I was telling you, just when I was beginning to feel happy that finally I sounded something like my celebrity crush Atif Aslam, yesterday morn everything changes. Now I sound like a hag.
A lot natural too. Hacking all the time as if I had just begun smoking..
Vaikhari wasn't sure how nicely to make out of my bad (bad? worst!) voice. She looks at me, and says, "you know what you sound like now?" I queried,"wicked?"(rather hopefully)
She:"No, you sound like what-they-call-it, a hoarse whisper."

Yesterday afternoon, me,Vinaya,Namitha and Ragitha went to our department staff room. Ended up chilling out with the most unlikely people, our tutors. They are so warm and nice, contrary to our ideas! Especially Saritha ma'am,lots of effervescence, and she has played all the pranks we play now! And turns out she is my brother's friend's mom!