Am I back? Or is this born out of boredom?

 How does one go about with restarting a love/a hobby/a passion?

I used to LOVE coming here with a jumble of excited ideas and thought-trains all clashing into one another, impatient to just get out and get typed out.

Somewhere along the way, when I moved out of my hometown, I started losing the habit. 

It kept dying with every other week and month.

But eventually it was my PhD that killed it for sure.

Academic writing dulled my wit and humor and overall love of composing notes and blogging.

Every two years I had resolve that yes, I'm going to write. I'm not going to surrender my joys and interests for my academic degree. Unfortunately that was about it. I'd made a comeback post resolving with renewed determination and grit, and then I had be back to square one. 

The obsession with social media meant I wasted every free moment looking at content instead of creating my own stories or poems or anything/

I came to the sad conclusion that I would only be able to regain my own life once my PhD was over. And now it is over and I'm confused and getting cold feet. I couldnt help wondering -

- What if I've probably lost my own style of writing after so many years of disuse? What if I'm no longer good at writing. What if even if i do manage to write one good post, I'd still be undisciplined and not write frequently enough to keep the passion alive? What do I write about? 

and on and on and on my head goes.

Anyway, if you like stream of consciousness, anxiety-infused irregular blog posts, maybe stay?

I'll share all about the niche things/situations I love, and you could read and tell me how I can dust off my dormant writing skills and get better.

Look what my mad love for K dramas/tv made me do

I have been making more comebacks to blogging than kpop bands do. Been a long, long, while since I did any blogging now though. 3 years gap? Longest so far. This Ph.D. has been sucking out all my joys and hobbies slowly but surely. None of my old blogger circle seems active anymore either. So this blogging exercise is mostly a testament to my love for blogging, South Korean entertainment scene, and was actually supposed to be just a lengthy note to my Internet bebe/daughter Rashmi.

So here goes,

Dearest Rashmi,
Thank you for being the reason I've reopened this dusty ol' blog of mine. True, I'm embarrassed by most of my old posts now, but I love this blog all the same. xoxoxo

If anyone is looking for an intro into K dramas, I'll always recommend the series installments Reply Me 1997/ 1994/1988. My personal favorite from these is the 1988 series which had the most perfect depictions of good ol friendships amongst neighbors. The first installment went immensely popular in South Korea and made nostalgia and retro trendy. But mostly all these three shows became popular for bringing back the good old times where people talked more and were less distracted by internet. At the root of all these shows were human stories. The characters won your heart and then went ahead and broke your hearts with every other moment. The writer-director duo behind the shows are Lee Woo Jung and Shin Won Ho.
After these three shows and their success, they created Prison Playbook and Hospital Playlist (both also must-watch K dramas). As with the Reply Me shows, these stories were also heavy on human nature and how even the person you least expected was actually driven with goodness at their core.
Some have compared the Shin-Lee team to the Mike Schur and Dan Goor shows. But that would be taking away all the uniqueness and beauty that these too give us through their series. However, I agree that the heart warming and the feel-goodness is common among the two teams. But as K dramas are always shorter and end in a season (mostly 16 episodes), the feelings they cause last longer, and ache sweeter.

BUT!~
This post was mainly to talk about the writer and director behind these amazing shows.They both had their starting with a Korean reality show called "One Night Two Days". And boyoyoyoyoyyyyyy that used to be one epic programme. The two worked under Na Young Suk PD for the show. (Still running, but it got diluted after Na PD left, most of the main cast left, and the show hasnt been the same since).

One Night Two Days is unique and I haven't found anything similar to this show in American or Indian entertainment. Here's a summary on the show:
6 celebrities travel to a remote area of South Korea, show the unique and beautiful landscape, play games to win food/money/lodging/more comforts
Why it is unique:
1) The celebrities are not flops as is normally seen in reguarly reality shows, and included heavy hitting A-grade singers, and some veteran pop stars, and comedians.
2) The Director (Na PD) and the crew makes them complete races/tasks/games and if they lose, they either have to sleep outside, or do something embarrassing in public, or go without dinner/eat without sides/etc.
3) I cannot imagine stars in our country going through the embarrassments and ridicules these guys have been through for the show. And the crew includes the equivalents of whoever's the most adored guy in your country who is known for his sweetness? The most popular guy of them all? See what I mean?
Could you see the most famous celebs in any other reality show having to hitchhike penniless across miles (can you imagine the screams from the travellers who happened to be kind enough to pick up the dude when they realize who it is?)
4) An epic episode was where the cast got pissed that the crew got to enjoy great food while they had to starve after working so much (on the tasks) and challenged them to a game of vollyball (? can't remember for sure). And the cast wonnn!!! Which meant the 70+ crew were then annoyed with Na PD for accepting the bet. The losers had to sleep outside and boy it started raining on top of that. One of the assistant lightmen had reached late at night for his duty and was totally gobsmacked to see his colleagues and bosses all huddled in sleeping bags🤣
5) Or the episode where the director was toootally chill and told the crew to just drive to the destination on their own. That this trip would be zero crew and they just had to make sure to get footage on their own with the cameras provided. All the cameras at the destination home were already set up. That was bizarre and unheard of, but also led to a lot of silly moments.
6) I could go on, but I'm too close to this show, and too in love to be coherent.
And i'm trying to finish this post in one go.
All in all, this show used to be the most watched show with the highest TRPs in South Korea. Unlike egotistic celebrities who wouldn't let an atom of mud touched their holy selves, these guys cooked for themselves, slept under the stars in crappy tents, and instead of being shamed, they won everyone's hearts and became immensely popular.

Na PD is famous for being unpredictable and overall an evil genius. He has the Midas touch and every reality show he created after he left One nIght and Two days have also been mad successes. I wish I could drag everyone I know into watching this show. And also watch all the consequent shows he made.

For example!
The next show he made was Grandpas Over FLowers, then it became successful, he created the spin-offs Sisters Over FLowers, Youth Over Flowers couple of seasons each. The concept for these shows were, he came up with elaborate lies, basically tricked them all and got them to travel to a foreign country and fend for themselves through different tasks and games. They usually got a younger "porter", another celebritiy who also got hoodwinked into the whole shindig and who has to help the older gang.

So Rashmi! (If you haven't left already =P)
Na PD created a Youth Over Flowers show with the cast of Reply Me 1988 and they were basically kidnapped after the show wrap-up party they had in Phuket. The first episode of the show had the setup. Na PD meets with the director of Reply Me 1988/his former colleague and discusses how he has this idea. He then gets the managers of the guys to clear their schedule for two weeks post the Phuket-party (which was also basically a ploy i think) without the actors knowing! Then this evil boi walks up to them in Phuket and says all casual, "Let's go to Africa". I have skipped a lot of hilarious details here, but basically he actually kidnaps his cast for every show. It just gets more and more elaborate with each next season because just the sight of Na PD raises suspicion at this point for most celebrities in S.Korea now.

I wish we had such interesting directors and shows here..

But I'm truly, honestly, deeply grateful for Na PD and his One Night Two Days show on which my sister and I have had a million laughs and rewatch even now.

The saddest part is not having subbed episodes to all his shows at the ready to watch. So if any of you have randomly, accidentally, unexpectedly reached this post- and you are internet savvy plus got mad love for k-dramas and k-variety (both entirely different beasts)- and you have found sources- LET A GIRL LIIIIVE! aside the dramatics, please do share! <3

PS- Here's the list of all Na PD director/producer works worth watching (even though i haven't watched the entirety of his works, i can vouch for them with my favorite pocket-dress at stake).

But honestly, WATCH everything he or his team works on. They are all pure talent and love.

ok byeeeeeeeeee! (sorry for the high-on-teenage-energy sign off, but super excited about blogging after so long =D )

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.

Let's get the Liebster rolling!

I don't usually believe in anything like signs etcetera.

What I'm trying to say is that now I sorta do i guess. Cos an awesome sign just happened to me! I'm actually blogging today and here's why it's incredible:

1.I'm a super-lazy, sporadic blogger nowamonths, and I have checked neither mine nor anyone else's blog in MONTHS.

2.I haven't blogged AT ALL after my last post, which was three or more months back.

3.I have friends (darling ones) who are bugging me to get back to blogging. But that didn't inspire me to actually blog.

and now I'm blogging.

So guess who's the one who's made me actually take the step? Pretty, pretty Garima. After eons (I'm running out of cool long-time phrases, seriously) of not checking my dash, today I check in on a whim, and there's this darling comment from Garima on my dash about nominating me for the *drumrolls please* Liebster Awarddddddd!!!!!!

Wheeeeeeeeee!!

First off,

Dear garima, thank you with all of me for unintentionally getting me back to blogging. and a biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig thanks for taking the time to read my wack posts and feeling that I deserved a prize. I will love you forever (in a platonic, non-creepy, non-obsessive way).

So, 11 things about me. 

I've done this plenty times on my blog, and if anyone ever actually read all my tag posts, they know pretty much more than enough about me. sigh. So I'll think extra hard and put in newer revelations. Aye mate?

1. I'm a tumblr person now. I had been a devotee since last year, but now I am Tumblr. =P And if you're on Tumblr, do follow me!I want more blogger buddies to follow there =D I'm ergo-i-blog.tumblr =D
   
2. I have these super-vivid daydreams and sometimes I can't help but physically react to them. Like, I see myself in Hogwarts about to be hit by a hex, and in real life, I'm ducking. get what I mean?
3. I think Community is the best tv show of all time. ALL TIME. It ranks higher than F.R.I.E.N.D.S even, for me.
4. In case you didn't know earlier- I'm a leftie.
5. I can cook up a mean curry. If I'm the mood.
6. There's nothing more moving and emotional than kdramas.
7. There's nothing more real, meta and awesomely hilarious than 1n2d, THE Korean reality travel/bromance show to beat out all bromances ever. EVER.
8. I'm married to the above mentioned two, and Tumblr.
9. Love books. Buy me books or even take me to book stores, and I'll be signed-sealed-delivered-yours (whether you want that to happen or not =P )
10. I tend to make every person I love, listen/watch/check out things that I'm in love with. Be it music, shows. books, places. It can be annoying I guess if you're the leave-me-alone type, but it's worked on my friends!
11. Impulsive shopper. Picky shopper. 
12. And here's a bonus I just remembered! After a really good phone call with a favorite person- I like to text them on it. =)
13. AND I can be awfully self-conscious and aware.

Now to answer Garima's questions:

• Define Love
  Love is about caring enough for the other person to not limit them/ control them. Respecting them.
  
• The unforgettable moment of your life
  Er.. plenty? College provided infinite unforgettable moments, so did my alternate life online.
  
• Favorite sport
  Badminton.
  
• Three songs you love to hear
  On top of my mind right now- "Rest"/Standing Egg, "Dancing on my own"/Robyn, "I'll follow you into the dark"/DCFC.
  Mind you, only three were asked of me, and this is NOT a definite list. I love lots of music
  
• One thing that you would like to change about yourself
  Definitely change my tolerance level. I'm impatient and can get angry for the smallest thing sometimes. Just returning after upsetting my mom, so I know for sure that I need to become more patient. =(
  
• Three words to describe me
  Imaginative, Friendly, Studious/hard working-but can be lazy when there's nothing to motivate me.
  
• If you could live anywhere, where would it be?
  South Korea (fastest internet, where all of my favorite actors are), or somewhere quaint and calm like Scotland or New Zealand =D)
  
• Your weakness
  I'm too self-aware and my self-esteem can sink at any given moment.
  
• Health, wealth or fame. why?
  Definitely health. How am I to enjoy being rich if I'm not healthy enough? And not interested in fame, UNLESS it's tumblr fame, or blog fame- in which case my priorities would need rearrangement.
  
• Do you believe in fate or destiny?
  Sure
• If you were granted three wishes, what would it be?
  This is my favourite kind of question!!
  One- Fastest internet speeds,
  Two- Make time an illusion and relative so that I get to watch all seasons of Doctor Who without wasting any time
  Three- Make genie give me a 10 more wishes. =P
  
  
  

Now to explain rules of Liebster and nominate bloggers who deserve the award:

Liebster is a German word for sweet, nice, dearest, beloved, lovely, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing, and welcome, that my blog is ;)
The award was started to bring recognition to new bloggers (or those with fewer than 200-300 followers) and serves as motivation for those nominated to keep blogging.
There are few rules for receiving and passing on this nomination further.
Kindly thank the person who nominated you and acknowledge him/her by mentioning their blog link for the same.
Each person must post 11 things about themselves.
Answer the Questions that the nominator sets for you + create 11 Questions for the people you have nominated.
Choose 11 deserving bloggers and link them in your post.
Go to their blog and inform them about this by commenting on one of their posts.
Don't tag back the person who mentioned you.

Here are the bloggers I want to commend for their wonderful posts:

1.Owais

2.LD

3.Viyoma

4.Jerly

5.I'll try to be truthful-wala Amrita

6.Madhusha

7.Revacious

8.Arjun MS

9.Neha

10.Dr Mandeep Kanuja and

11.Risha kalra

And the 11 questions I want to ask them:

1. {I'm pretty self-concerned at the moment, so here goes:} What do you think of my blog and why do you think it's a mess? {hehe}
2. Are you on Tumblr?
3. Your favourite celeb crush =D
4. The book you're currently reading (What do you mean you don't read?}
5. Your go-to movie. The one you can watch million times, every time you are depressed or feeling down, and which you'll never get bored of
6. Are you a leftie?
7. What's your dream job? Have you ever tried to actually make it a reality?
8. Your favourite tv show!
9. And your favorite tv character!!
10. Road trips or stay-in-front-of-my-computer?
11. Make up a question you WANT to answer =)

Hehe, I know i know. Too many what's your favorite questions. But that's how we gauge and understand more about friends! Plus, how much fun is that last question eh? Hope at least one of you will actually answer to this post of mine. =(

Love y'all!

And God, I sure have missed this blogging thing! =DDDDD

1.  

For a good, clean, new year ahead

Hey all,
I know my posts are getting more and more sporadic patterned and I have only my own lazy ass to blame.

Anyway, like the rest of Indian bloggerverse, I wanted to share my grief on what happened to the girl on that fatal Delhi night. I realize it's a topic talked and talked about to the point of numbness.
So instead, I'm going to share an excerpt of a pdf I'm currently reading. It's about the migration that Prophet Muhammed {Peace be upon Him} and the community made 1434 years ago to escape from the torture and difficulties being meted to them back in their homeland.

Don't worry, it's NOT HISTORICAL, NOT RELIGIOUS. Mostly the following portion is about the importance about goodness of heart, walking the talk, being practical in faith and not just be preachy.

I just felt the need to share something good of heart, what after all that violence, tears and pain. I might do a post ruminating the rampant rape culture in India. But that's for next post.

For now this talks about five important things we should work on:

Faith: A weak faith is the first enemy of a prospect
immigrant. The first immigrants would have never left
all their possessions behind and migrated unless they
had faith as solid as mountains in God’s words and His
prophet’s leadership. Like them, we should work on
strengthening our faith to be able to pull away from
what God has forbidden.


Knowledge: Our second enemy on the path of Hijrah
is ignorance. Only with good knowledge could our faith
see us through the trials and tests of staying on the
straight path. This knowledge should not be limited to
religious information only, but should also include
modern sciences and arts, history, philosophy, world
news, other cultures and other religions. Muslims had a
glorious civilization only when they knew the true
meaning of knowledge.


Acts of worship: While migrating away
from what God has forbidden, we have to have a new
destination to migrate to, and that destination is
determined by the degree of our closeness to Him
through worship.

Desire: The Quran describes eloquently the different
types of human desire “nafs”, and it is the responsibility
of each of us to discover which type they belong to and
follow the Quranic wisdom on how to deal with its tricks.
Controlling one’s urges and desires is detrimental to how
much success in this life one achieves as a migrant to
God.


Ethics : A person who is full of great concepts and no
deeds to prove it is a loser. Unless we can “walk the
talk” there would be no hope for us to strengthen our
will to reach our goals and our resistance to distractions.
And unless our Islamic ethical system is apparent
through our everyday behaviors and manners, there is
no hope for us to be true Muslims either according to the
Prophet’s hadith. For what good is it to veil, www.onislam.net
pray and fast then steal, lie and gossip? When the Prophet begins
by describing a Muslim as someone who is well mannered, he is actually reminding us that Islam is a practical code of ethics not just a set of spiritual
concepts.



That's it. I guess this isn't exactly a fun post to read through, but I just needed to do it. Like a note-to-self.

Hope we get to hear only good things next year. As impossible as it seems, at least we could contribute to lessening the evil, one person at a time.

Here's  to a glowy 2013! 
Aam'een
Amen
Bhagwan meri prarthana sune!

The year that was mine.

Entirely mine.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Le smirky face

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

IIM aka Heaven aka Para-para-paradise

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

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

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

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

   

Birthdays and things giving me warm fuzzies lately: Pt I

 It's my birthday

I'll get high if I want to

Can't deny that I want to

But I'll lie if I have to

(Florence + The Machine cover)

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

 Birthday!!!

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

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

Le blessings =)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

PS- I definitely need a tag for pop culture.

Lyrical videos!! (and then I meander into covers territory)

Aw man,
I've been wanting to talk about them since ages. Ages! I mean, c'mon, what's not to like?

More and more artistes are turning to releasing lyrical videos initially and building the hype up thusly, getting viewers wanting more- and bam! comes the real deal. Only, for me, I'm more vested in the lyrical video than the actual music video of songs.

Usually you get so caught up in the video, that you wholly or at least partially get distracted from the music.Seriously, check out most of the m/vs. They spend like pots of gold and churn out the flashiest scenes for the single. Result? Humungous dollops of eye candy (which is always nice!), but makes the music secondary.

Take "Payphone" for example. It's so frikkin' movie-like, that I didn't notice the music,

UNTIL Julia Sheer came up with the loveliest cover of the single. Then I was hooked on to both the cover AND the original for life. Luff.

WHICH is why "Someone Like You" is awesome. Also "Rolling in the Deep". Ok, both are different in tone, but BOTH focus on the singer and the music. (And duh, I'm an Adele fan, which probably became obvious with this one sentence).

Y'anyways, I'll try to stop the veering off the topic, and steer us back in. Lyrical videos. As in, the whole lyrics of the single showing up all over the video instead of sexy, almost-naked ladies and just as nonsensical stuff. So awesome! I mean, this is how music videos should have been since the beginning. Yeah, I know how most videos have chyrons and important words from the lyrics showing up anyway. But lyrical videos are a different planet. Just love! Here are three of the lyrical videos I loved. This one was the first lyrical video I noticed as such. Which isn't ancient and is kinda very recent, in fact.

Katy Perry's "Wide Awake" lyrical video was adorable. For me anyway. I cherished it even more when I realised what crap the real music video was. Duh. Katy Perry, are you pretending to be a witch in that video? Is that a reference to Omen I see in it in between? Is that the Cheshire Cat? Have I gone mad? Way too many questions and swear words rushing all at once within my head. Not good.

Christina Perri's "A Thousand Years": That song was so sweet. Saccharine. I just wish it weren't linked up with THAT dreck movie. If you know what I mean. And then last week or so I met Taylor Swift's "We Are Never Ever Ever Getting Back Together". And again, it was the lyrical video that won me over, more than Taylor in a platinum ponytail and is that a 60s era scene you guys are grooving to?

OoooooooooooOOOOOoooooOOOOOooh, we called it off again last night, But OoooOOOOOOOooooh! I LOVE that Oooooh part SO much!

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! 

The Happy Drug =)

Aloha!

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

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

Off you go!

***

Drug me out of my depression,

Sing me out from my frustrations,

Hug out the tears I've been fighting back,

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

Like this and more,

be my drug,

my song,

teddy bear,

bitch for life.

Love you!

***

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

Mascot of the anti-drug cause =P

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

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

Good things ALWAYS follow up when bad things happen

Wheee!! *Does the happy dance*

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

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

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

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

Pay raise and new job designation!! 

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

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

Anyone else got good news to share?

Of Banana-Potato and consequent ear worminess

Yeehaw!
Introducing the insane "Banana Potato song" by the Minions of Despicable Me:

I've been lazy on the blog-front and mostly busy with work and stuff. This stuff includes browsing le internet and not realizing I've been at it from sunrise to sundown. So yes, I've been reading up fun stuff, and chanced upon this crazy-crazy, REALLY crazy song (but I'd rather just call it my ear-worm-of-the-month). And I insist on the word crazy or even ridiculous 'cos I seriously haven't been singing anything else much ever since this song got stuck in my head, heart and ear. Gah! Insanely addictive for me.

I've been singing this A LOT and ALOUD all the freakin' time so much that I effectively drove my usually-calm roomie up the wall. I'd pick up my banana (le fruit of choice for me most of the time) and start singing like crazy: "bananaaaaaaaaaa-potato-naaaaaaaaaaaa, banaNAAAA,potatOOOOOOOOnaaaaaaa". Now that quite sums up the lyrics portion for ya. tee hee!

Said song is from the trailer of Despicable Me 2 and the reason I even bothered listening to it is because my favorite dorky female celebs (from the other universe of South Korean pop-dom that I so religiously follow) randomly sang it on a radio show. That was so super crazy too! I mean, they were hitting all the high notes and singing with all their heart this song. LOL and ROTFLMAO of humungous proportions for me.

Presenting to you- The Banana-Potato song. The original and the cover by Girls' Generation's Taeyeon, Tiffany and Seohyun.

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.

The long-overdue post. The brace-yourselves-for-the-next post

Anyaseyo all! (that's hello in Korean, duh. I just wanted to start off on a random and different note)

So! A post has been overdue and I've been frikkin' busy what with having the unique luck of being assigned to two departments in the same month. Which means, I'm working ALL the time since I gotta do the stuff in THIS department, and by the time I'm tired, it's lunch and post-lunch, work for the next department. Yay, life can be exhausting AND fun all at once. So obviously I like it when I'm working, ergo-no complaints. BUT! that also by default means that NO SLACK TIME for poor me. Draw in a sad face of me while you're at it.

Mostly, this post is a filler and to brace you for the next post, which is NOT gonna be an easy read. Why? I'm usually a happy-go-lucky person, never badmouths even the meanest kid 'round the block and generally my posts resonate with the wonderful things I'm going through. You can ignore the "bad day" posts of mine since they're rare and sad. Anyway, the next post is like- whaddayacallems?- urban poetry?
No rhyme to the poem, but lotsa reason.

It's about one of the only two persons I hate loathe on this world. That's intense and I didn't really want to blog about the way I'm feeling (nay,repressing) about the darkness emanated by said person. But then I realized, dayum, if I don't vent about it, I might die suffocated by all the bad thoughts and it's always better to share everything here. Where else could I do that?

To quote a drama,

"Share if it's good news, so that the happiness multiplies.
Share if it's bad news, so that the hurt/pain can be halved/lessened."

True that!


EDIT- I decided after posting this and ruminating quite a bit, that hating on someone no matter how hateful, just brings me down to their level. Not very helpful. So cheer me on about my new decision to just post the next post and I'mma try to get over the bad feelings and stay neutral (like my darling Riff told me to, yday) regarding everything hateful. Not gonna exert myself over something awful anymore people!

All Tagged-y

The good thing about procrastinating when you ought to be doing that tag is that, someone else also tags you and so can just just do 2 tags in one. Haha! or maybe not.

Anyway, I got tagged by the friendly neighborhood bloggies Sujana and Rahul. Thank you for the tag! Mucho gracias really! Cos I sincerely believe that there's nothing like a classy tag to bring lazy bloggers like me back to back. Yo!

Laying out the rules for anyone who still hasn't come across them. Improbable as that sounds though..

Here!

The rules are-

Rule#1: Put the rules on your blog.

Rule#2: Every person tagged should tell 11 things about themselves, answer the 11 questions asked by the one that tagged you, tag 11 other people and ask them 11 different questions.

Rule#3: Let the people whom you tagged know you've done so.

Rule#4: Don't tag anyone who's been tagged before.

Rule#5: Really do tag 11 others, don't go all ''if you want to take this tag''

11 RANDOM THINGS ABOUT ME

Now this is a bit more tough than it seems cos of all the "tell me random things about you" tags I've done in the past. But I guess everyone else has been through that too?

1. I worry that wearing sandals that are larger than my feet will cause em to grow enough to be fit for the sandals. I don't know where I got that idea from, but it sure stuck on. Funnier is that I wear my uncle's old hawaii slippers around my hostel though, which are reaaally too big for me. Why despite the fear of feet growing big? Laziness my love. Too lazy to go out and buy another pair.
2. "Everyone's nice, until proven otherwise". Pretty much what I prefer to think of the rest of the world. That's a more comfortable way to live life cos it means, for me, there are only 2 people in my world that I actually can't stand. Everyone else is really nice, and I'm ok with letting them all have more than ten flaws to them. =)
   Might as well spread the motto to the rest of you all.Try living this way! =)
3. I'm the ultimate book-crazy and book-snob and book-happy person out there, well, at least according to me! Working at a library means I get my hands on all sorts of amazing paperbacks, hardbacks, and all sorts of heavenliness that comes in the shape of books. I LUFF my job!
4. My phone and I don't get along really well. I use it only when the need comes for music or communication. Hate having to hold a phone when I'd rather not. Which also means I've missed out hundreds of important calls and had One Angry Mom call up my colleagues or friends cos she couldn't get through to me, and yell that "just throw the phone away if you won't keep it around!!" In fact, most of my mom calls are fielded by my friends, come to think of it!
5.   I hate having to attend weddings on principle. But recently, I've been to weddings that I really wanted to be at, and loved being there too. =) But still, I hate weddings. So much so that I wish I can just run away with the guy, his immediate family, my family and my friends and have a simple function. I'm the kind who thinks it's a waste of a whole lot of money which could otherwise be spent on getting me a Samsung Galaxy Tab. Just you wait till I actually get married!
6. Might've mentioned this plenty times, but-i LOVE brothers. (Cos I don't have one? Ain't that obvious?)I'm a sucker for brothers. Which means if you came up to me and said "I'm your brother", I'd fall flat, splat and do anything for you even if you broke my heart thrice and some more. True story.
7. And I love my sister to bits. She's my faux-kid to play around with, sneaky-partner-in-crime, best friend and so much more. Everyone says I ruined her for life by making her addicted to South Korean pop culture like me, but really, she fell for the deal all on her own. I swear!
8. Everyone hereabout already know my love and madness and obsessive relationship with South Korean music, dramas, movies and pop culture. This mention was just for the new readers. =)  I can even speak and understand quite a lot of Hangul (Korean) these days. Sashiriya! (It's true!)
9. It wasn't always like this, but nowadays I need to have the right mood to watch movies and eat chocolates. Not happy with this change. =(
10. I'm inherently unceremonious about everything. Almost everything anyway. Must have something to do with my being a leftie.
11. I love checking out couture. Especially Autumn/Winter and Spring/Summer collections. Though I avoid the strictly summer-only collections like the plague. Way too much of skin instead of pretty clothes always annoys me with its absurdity.
12. AN EXTRA- I tend to malapropise and mix up words a lot. One of my friends tell me that she always has to guess out what I mean, cos what I speak usually sounds too post-modern and weird. Lol. But this is only in the case of my mother tongue. I'm smoother when I'm talking in English.
13. And one more- I dress sloppy all the time to the point that mom wonders maybe God had planned me to be a boy but somehow things ended up with me being born a girl.

SUJANA'S 11 QUESTIONS:

1) What's your favorite place?

     Hmm, where I did my undergrad-Brennen college? Or that vacation retreat of my uncle's? oh well, both!

2) If you had to marry a celebrity, who would it be?

   Rahul Bose! or Arundhati Roy. And there's this really cool rocker-celeb Korean out there from

3) Do you want a twin?

   Nooo!!!!!!!! I'm fine by me. I did want one for sometime back when I was a kid though. But I guess i twin brother would have been cool. =)

4) How long is your oldest friendship?

   Since I was a wee-baby? I got all my long-lost neighborhood buddies back, thanks to Orkut and dearest Facebook. Thank ye, lords of Social Media!

5) What's your greatest achievement?

     If I can make a friend/person look up to me, If I can make just anyone happy- I'd take that to be a big achievement. =)

6) If you could only talk to one person for the rest of your life, who would it be?

  There's this whole herd of best friends I'd want to spend my life with. There's Dope, my Rock, Ms Sunshine, Sister, Twin (though we've been really uncommunicative nowadays), Khe, China, my own Sassy Girl, The Good Girl, the Rocker, the BrothersTwo, Peepi, MotorMouth, and a whole lot of others I can't find nicknames for for now. But right now? It's Dope Proper.

But if you asked me the song for life- i have just one answer-

Rest-Standing Egg.

7) Socks and sandals- yes or no?

    Never!

8) Choose your power: Mind reading or invisibility?

    Mind reading a hundred thousand times over!

9) What's your method of transportation?

    Pillion riding on bikes with girlfriends. =)

10) Favorite book?

     Why not just kill me?Say just one???

11) Facebook, twitter or neither? Why?
    Where's the "both" option? But I treat my Fb like my Twitter anyway.

RAHUL'S 11 QUESTIONS:

1. What are you passionate about?
   Words, music and good friends. And fun Korean dramas. =)
   
2. Cinema and politics- what do they mean for you?
   Good cinema can go a long way in strengthening innate goodness in people and I love watching good movies; and politics? I want to find at least ONE politician who has actively worked for the mass before I die.
   
3. One good thing you want to happen in India, for people – Long term?
   I want Indians to stop being hypocrites and do the good things you want to see in the world instead of just talking about change.
   
4. One good thing you want to happen for yourself – Long term?
   I want to feel confident about myself. All the time. Period.
   
5. One good thing you want to happen for yourself – Short term?
   Find a well-earning permanent job stat.
   
6. A frank thing you want to say about one of the bloggers here?
   I want to see Mohua blogging again and my Pretty Wanderer to blog more =)
   
7. Belief in God?
   Yup. Wholeheartedly believes in monotheism.
   
8. One thing you would surely do to uplift this poor country?
   Not splurge on anything. When I hear so-and-so spend more than sane on such-and-such clothes, hair, wedding etc, I feel horrid thinking of the less privileged who could have gained something more important from all that money.
   Plus I had like to make charity every month once I have a job that pays well unlike this intern thing.
   
9. One secret about you?
   Just one? =)
   
10. Do you hold any regrets in your life?
    That I can't sue my bastard of an ex Dept Head . That I couldn't confess a whole lot of things to people that mattered and now it's too late.
    
11.  Adventure if any in life…lets count
    Getting lost in the city all alone
    Girl trips. They always end up becoming adventures =D

MY 11 taggedies (short for tagged buddies- much too corny, and I accept that accusation with bowed head)

1. Blahbaholic!
2. Choco
3. Kajal
4. Gayatri Rao
5. Red Handed
6. Serendipity
7. Neha
8. Diwita
9. Nona
10. Mr Jovita
11. Madhusha
    
    These are some of the blogs I recently started reading and LOVING. And the questions? Here they come!

1. That one song you want to force the whole world to listen if you could, cos you love it so!
2. Are you happy the way you are?
3. You have a whole lot of money and you can buy just one thing-what'd it be?
4. How many of your blogger buddies have you met in real life?
5. What's your idea of a perfect day?
6. Books or their movie versions- which do you prefer?
7. A quote you want to pass around
8. Rock, jazz or pop?
9. I'm a Potterhead, so here goes- Which House is Hogwarts would you want to be sorted to?
10. What habit or deed of others annoys you the most?
11. Make a question YOU want to answer!

*Extremely pleased with myself for having FINALLY done the tag. Yay!!

 

1

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!

• 
  

White, white lie

"Liar".


At first it was just a passing thought. Like a stray hair caught in the wind. Flimsy and with no weight of its own to mean anything huge.


She didn't linger on it. So there she was on the phone, talking about a million different things with Mira, and among them, they eventually ended up talking about her weight.

"Yeah sis, I've heard all this a million times over. You think I don't worry about this? Aren't I freaked about how it might wreck my health?

And J did know how scary things could get. The blackouts for one thing. She was never sure where and when she might fall apart, unconscious. Only to wake up elsewhere with no memory as such of the falling apart or anything.

She could hear her cousin's racked breathing from all the hyper-freaked rant about how J never cared enough about her own health. Mira took a moment to control her feelings; mostly fear and worry; she was close to tears by now. And completely frightened by what thoughts might be going through J's head. With good reason.

J in turn let out an almost ruthless laugh and chuckled the words out, "Hold on didi! I just want to know how much more I weigh these days- is all! God, you sound like mom these days".

Mira calmed down considerably, but she still couldn't tamp down her suspicions.
"It better be so. Or you and I will have words, with a shrink in tow. I'm not even joking anymore."

J dropped the cheery act and snapped back drily,
"Of course. Anyways, class is over for the day. I'm heading home now. Call you later when you're off work."

-"Had lunch?"
-"Yup Mira, with friends from canteen. Bye."
J cut the call with that.

She finally got off the phone and looked around. It was past lunch hour and most of the students were back in their classes. She gathered up her bag to say goodbyes to friends before leaving for home.

And as expected, everyone was lazing around in the computer lab.

"Oi, J! There you are! We already had lunch since you took so long. Wanna go to canteen together?"
"You didn't eat anything na?"
"Where were you anyway?"

Multiple voices yelled at her when she stepped into the lab.

"I'm off to home guys. Mom's expecting me for lunch. So bye!" J replied, collecting the remaining notes and stuff strewn over the place and stuffing them into her bag.

"Girl, you're totally missing out on the fun of eating with friends these days.. In fact, it's been months since we shared lunch together." Runi muttered annoyed.

J gave a taut smile at that and left after a couple more hugs and goodbyes.


...
liar


Liar


LIAR


LIAR

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

This one's for those friends of mine,

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


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


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

Because I love you,

And will stay so,

Things are easy.

Questions are answered to,

Problems solved.

Because I am so,

and can't be helped otherwise,

I'd rather the world understand.

Let me be,

Let me rise.

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

Please don't protest, deny or blame.

Good feelings grow,

They will finally show-

The world's not such a bad place afterall.

Life's worth living,

Hugs happily shared

and smiles easily passed on.

So we'll hold hands,

Roll the roads and rivers

that keep us apart

into nothingness;

and I'll hold your hand tighter-

'cos friends like you

are godsends,

one of a kind,

and were custom-made for me!