1/1/'11

exactly my plan for coming year. NO!! it's not any obvious hint towards running away or something as idiotic. 
What am I? 15??
I just want to travel more! See more places, find the peace, bring in more creativity and joy.

1/1/'11 is here finally!

 As for new year wishes,

Not much to say, 'cept wish everyone a happy, happy, REALLY happy year ahead.I never was much into ceremonies. I'm unceremonious even in the required times.
Which is why new years do't mean much, neither do resolutions.But sometimes you totally have to promise yourself some stuff.

My resolution #1 [and the only one really] as regards my blog: Less comebacks and more posts. 

Yes! Cheer for me so that I don't end up breaking this word!

***
What was 2010 for me?
Apart from being extremely busy, over-straining myself and breaking down in the process;
I went places,
Learnt more stuff,
Have gotten much more patient [or so methinks]
and watched tonnes of Korean stuff.

The good:

1. Samsung died on me and I switched to Nokia ExpressMusic.
2. Had several meetups with the Girlfriends-of-the-{add several, several} millenia. Last one was yesterday. Awesome!
3. Uncle's housewarming.
4. Subscribed to the awesomest Indian magazine out there-The Tehelka.
5. Almost forgot- lots happening for The Downtroddence [will post on them soon. real soon!]!!

Sad things?

1. More people got married and drifting away
2. Friends and friends' family getting abused, cheated upon and divorced. =(
3. Read lesser books cos of lack of time SLASH lack of time management.
4. And another favorite girlfriend moves out o town. =( But she's doing really fine, so- w00t!
5. .Deaths, suicides.
6. Most of my Eids and my Christmas this year were ruined thanks to effing-aptly timed exams. Dang!
7. The kitten I saw getting killed by some stray dog. Could do absolutely nothing to save it. Had to watch it die.

Another to-do for 2011-
Meet at least ONE blogger buddy. We'll see how that turns out. =/




PS- and don't forget! 2010 was The year of Rajni! ynna rascala...! ;) I don't know about you, but I think he's one of the humblest actors out there in all of Indian tinseltown

When I was at my geek-awesome mode [yes, there IS such a mode]

Apologies for taking soooooo long in a blog update. Was away from internet, was away from home. Spent a week in a new city [specifically speaking, 12 hours or so away by train] as part of field trip, spent most of that time visiting libraries. Yeah well, you thought library and information science courses would be tedious and geeky. But you didn't realize there were so many uber cool and rad libraries in one city itself right?

BUTTING IN BETWEEN: Lordy, if I say I got a tan from there, that'd be an understatement. I got practically sun-burnt! No gorgeous bronzed look for me. I just look like my favorite comic-cameo star at the moment.

 ok... maybe I was exaggerating a leeeetle bit. = p

AND BACK TO WHAT I'M SAYING: Trivandrum rocks for all the right reasons for me honey.

The cleanliness of the city, the i-don't-give-a-damn-about-you-even-if-you-are-weird attitude of the people; parks; fantastic architecture of most of the buildings and structures I came across; finally being able to visit one of my favorite family friends after years; and of course- at the expense of a remark that will make me look absurdly like a geek- I loved most of the libraries I visited while I was there.

*********

But the best were- in order of their awesomeness for me-

Numero uno is IIITMK. Freakin' awesome! While we were there, listening to everything the head told us on the library, the trainee blogged about it right then and there. Talk about live blogging!

Kerala Legislative Library. Probably the library which really makes you strain your brain cells a lot. The legislators call you up for data that will help back up their arguments in the legislative assembly all the time. Which means you gotta find both pros and cons of same topic for both the opposition and ruling party. You gotta feed them with the right kind of info if you don't want to face upset legislators- which I'm pretty sure can be scary.

CDS library which specializes in research of Economics. And man, do they have the best landscape and architecture or what?!! Laurie Baker is the coolest architect when it comes to economizing resources. Way cool.

University of Kerala Library is hot property too. Though it ain't looking so very hot at the moment thanks to the huge scale renovation going on. And that's where my mom's best friend works. =)

*******

I loved staying with my batch mates and friends at a hostel for a week. Yelling at each other while taking showers over the cubicles, moaning about the food, doing some reckless, idiotic shopping for pipes and blowing them in the middle of the town and being pleased [and a tad sad] that no one gives a hoot that you and your girlfriend are over 20 and blowing pipes.

I loved the last night of the trip where we stayed up all night playing antakshari and the afternoon I spent shopping with my partner-in-craziness Shesly in Kanyakumari. Like any trip, there were fun parts and lousy parts. And some fun-cum-lousy parts. Like the Kovalam beach thing we did in the middle of a drizzle. Gah. Would've been fun if I hadn't been wearing one of my favorite clothes and my favorite footwear-that-shouldn't-be-wet-too-much.  In the end of all the sand and sea, I emerge from the beach complete with very black-looking bare feet- courtesy the sand. Urgh. Definitely not my idea of fun.

Anyways, to cut all of it short, I'm off for internship, which means- more of less online presence. Which is exactly why I'm planning some posts to be published while I'm away so you guys won't totally forget me. =|

Love,

Raphael.

PS- which reminds me, I'm giving out my real name from now on since too many rellys read my blog anyway. No privacy people. :\ damn. But I'd prefer if you just call me Raphael, since that's the name I had name myself had I had the opportunity. Yes, that's the cue to say "weeeeeeiiiiiiiird" and close this page. Ciao for now everyone!

PPS- Or shouldn't I?

Weird=Beautiful

Especially when the people who are being so outrageously weird like you happen to be best friends. Ha! This monday yours truly and friends Vinaya, Vaikhari, Namitha and Prajisha strutted around our old college as part of a tiny meet-up. Was worth the wacked-out lie I had to dish out to my teacher. Totally worth it. =)
Juniors were real sweet on seeing us back, with our ice lollies in hand. And when you are crazy, and a guy you know from old times comments that you lot haven't matured EVEN after graduating [points at the ice lollies] - you smile and nod approvingly- "Yeah! we are immature, weird and we love the fact!"

Weirdness part II:
I think I'm the only person who has "Pray for me brother" of A R Rahman as ringtone. I think I'm the only one who's noticed that it's prelude makes for "The Perfect Ringtone Ever". [sure, i was awfully arrogant]. But all these notions got drowned when I heard my cousin's phone ring. Yeah, you already guessed it- he's got "Pray for me brother" as ringtone too! freaky-freaky ditto!

Must say- it is such a gorgeous song guys. Try using it as ringtone and I'm pretty sure you won't want to change it-ever. I tried, but here I am, still using the same ringtone as 8 months back. { with minor exceptions of "pichle saat dino mein" from "Rock On!!" for the Brennen buddies and a brother and "That's not my Name!" from Ting Tings for the best friends}

Weirdness Part III:
Listened to classmate J relate her love story.Strong ol' Raphael turned into a nonsensical mess of mush and goo. I usually am pretty cold and detached and even downright insulting to love stories, but this one was so sweet and true.... Youch!
I thought she had managed to melt the ice in me with that story of hers. Which was really impressive by the way.
But-
The sugar-effect clung to me for just 2 hours. Phew! I'm back to being happily single and anti-love and all that jazz people! Doncha guys love me for that?

right, ciao for now.

PS- Uber huge hugs and kisses to Vaika for adding one more reader to my blog. Love ye sweet Vaiks! and warm welcome to you too- silent-reader-from-MGU. Thanks for the silent support. Much appreciate it.

=)
cheers!!

Randomness

Last year, when I was livin' it up as an Under-Grad, Life Was Beautiful, amazing, and most importantly; IRRESPONSIBLE.

not anymore. I don't think I'm being able to get away with any of my normal goofy-ness or lousy behavior thanks to the in-house dictator at my new place. Yep everyone, I'm doing my Masters currently, as y'all might have already noticed. And unfortunately for me, I spend my time under an uber-strict disciplinarian. Ouch. That hurts essentially. Even more when you remember that I'm too much a bohemian to put up with demands for perfection. Anyways, enuf!
Let's talk about nicer stuff.

*Previous years' regulars on my blog; my beautiful girlfriends are all scattered around the state, away from me. [*one long sigh, and then getting back my act together] Missing them all!
The coolest thing though? NONE of us chose our direct Master's course. As in, apart from Vaika[who's an Economics grad], everyone of my gang is a Functional English grad [DYSfunctional if you please].

1. I chose Master in Library and Information Science [doesn't sound posh or swanky, but is quite a good choice] {MLISc}
   
2. Namitha chose Masters in Journalism. {MCJ}
   
3. Vinaya chose PG in Social Work.{MSW}
4. Vaikhari dahling is doing Master in International Relations. [DEFINITELY swanky!]
5. Ragitha is doing her MBA
6. Oh! Prajisha got married! Might take up Bachelor in Edu next year,hopefully.
7. Nimisha is in her Master of Hospital Administration, and loving it. [actually, everyone's loving what they chose!]
8. And our very sporty Vrindha is ready for some literal jet-settin' with her IATA studies.

See? I absolutely LOVE how different we are from the normal lot. =)


*Next bit of randomness is something quite big.
MY COUSIN BRO'S WIFE DEAR HAS BAGGED THE SECOND RANK IN HER UNIVERSITY FOR PG STATISTICS!! yippeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!

*I'm soooo proud of the people I love!
Another of the people I really really adore and love is gearing up for her UGC NET exam in English Literature. Aw, I love her sooo much! =)

*I've officially fallen in love with my all-new,shorter hair. I don't exactly flaunt it at college, but I do at home, much to mom dear's chagrin. ;)

*Waiting for December to come save me, 'cos by end of first week of December my semester exams will be O.V.E.R. Then I can go and kill myself over the amazing books at my University library, plus watch the tonnes of good movies in my system.

*Again waiting for the time of December, to have a real, looooooong chat with my wonderful online neighbours. Plus do some quality blogging.

*I would soooooo love to drive up and down to college on my own. But then, I would miss out on the daily chaos I get from public transport!

*I'm working on this imaginary script where I'm settled in Delhi as a librarian with a BIG salary. Single, and friends strewn all over the metro. Niiiiice. I grab an occassional pani-puri once in a while during the story [somethin I don't get here in South India much]

*Probably forgotten the better bits of randomness. But hell, I'm late for college! Byyyyye!!

What I REALLY wanted to say

It was farewell time at college [finally! them juniors took looooooong enuf to throw us a farewel party.] In fact, they have taken so long that we kind of feel emotionally drained now. No tears, choked up voices or anything. Not even too many teary hugs. [In fact, I gave out the only hug that happened today. And it wasn't even teary. Damn conventional behaviours! The farewell seems so incomplete since no one really cried. Nimisha and Vrinda did. They got all teary watching our PG final year crying.
Myself, Vinaya and Namitha are like laughing, getting bored, sweating [it's summer!], slinking down our seats hiding from view whenever it seemed like we might be called up to give a nostalgia-induced teary speech...and doing literally EVERYTHING we normally do. NO TEARS. In fact, watching the other 2 tear up, we were more like, "what the....!?"

Which is why, when I was called up to talk, I couldn't say all the things I'd wanted to say. Instead, I ranted about random stuff.

SO TO ALL MY WONDERFULLY UNIQUE GURUS AND MY JUNIORS AND MY SENIORS,
THIS IS WHAT I REALLY, REALLY WANTED TO SAY-

"First off, I want to tell everyone that I know I haven't been a perfect, ideal student. If anything, I was less-than-perfect. I got into dumb fights with my teachers, I bunked classes and would jump in front of them with the least sense of shame and what not..
I'm really really heartfelt sorry for all the wrong things I did and sorry for the things I didn't do.
I'm lucky that I got a family here who still loves me completely-with my flaws, with my imperfection. Brennen is a home I never thought I could find here, and you people have been like the best family I could ever hope for. Thank you all for taking me in.

Like Supriya said, even I feel sort of orphaned just by thinking that, "hey, there's no more Brennen in your life. No more hanging around, hiding from teachers when you ought to have sat for their hours in class, falling in and out of crushes, finding happiness in the simplest things of life. There's no more of this world for you from now on. Gosh! And now I suddenly feel all small and abandoned. No more of Brennen. But that seems the same as saying "I'm homeless!"

And there were so many beautiful moments from my life here. it's been beautiful living here, and it's come to a beautiful end. Ya sure, there are regrets, there's still a long list of things I wanted to do from here. I found a totally unlikely friendship with Leena ma'am and Sarita ma'am, thanks to the debate fever last year. I got a brother from my very first year. I had a kind of "discovered-then-lost-then-found" friendship with Supri. Seriously yaar, how come we lost that great relationship last year and thankfully found it back this year?! and i learnt so much about things I never knew existed.

Thanks to Brennen and all of you, I can say that, "yes, I had a beautiful life treasured away in a beautiful world called Brennen."

you can't ever take that away from me!
[hand on heart] I loved it here,
but that doesn't mean I'm returning here!!

Paper Planes in the time of Intonation

This is a li'l post about ''Pen Planes''[not to be confused with the "Paper Planes" track from the SDM soundtrack, which, btw, was a really nice piece] that got transfigured into Fighter Planes when things got unbearably monotonous and dragging in the class. 5 straight hours of accent classes. Come on now! Human mind cannot concentrate for more than 45 minutes at a length, how are we poor souls supposed to keep our minds on intonation, rhythm, stress, supra segmental features and all that jazz for FIVE STRAIGHT HOURS???

Namitha and Vrinda had opted to stay away from class all morning, while me [usually superbly lazy to get my ass off the Main Entrance stone benches and walk up for classes] donned on the "studious" attitude for a change and stepped into class, along with the always-in-class darlings Vinaya, Ragitha and Prajisha.

One hour went along with Vinaya sneakily taking pictures of the class without the sir knowing. And by the third hour our back bench was behaving like a bunch of elementary brats.
Y'know that noise kids make while driving an imaginary car? With the lips they go all
BRRRRR-RR-RRR!
Well, apart from me the other 3 could make the noise puhfectly well. I couldn't admit that I wasn't good at stuff, could I?
So, here I was saying, yeah, you people drive cars and all, but I'm used to flying planes, which is why I made the noise "BWWWWW-WW-WWW!!!"

What followed later was put into a short "war report" by me in the next hour of mundane accenting.
Here it is! Along with the pictures we sneakily snapped when the sir wasn't watching.
*Chuckle!
************************************
PLANES IN THE TIME OF INTONATION
Lieutenant Raphael's missile

that's my missile (Vinaya argued logically that a refill was a missile, it couldn't be a fighter plane)
Lieutenant Raphael's missile has been hijacked by Flight Commander Vinaya. Captain Prajisha has provided Lt. Raphael with a passenger plane to take revenge on Ft Comm Vinaya. The fighter plane pilot Raphael is using the passenger plane at supersonic speed to bombard Ft Commando Ragitha's unsuspecting jet. I had forgotten that my original motive was to attack Vinaya's pen, oooops- fighter plane! All the while Flight Commander Vinaya is texting to Trainee pilot Namitha not to enter war zone III year Functional English. Namitha probably had second thoughts and wanted to attend class. but me and Vinaya felt that it was better to stay away from this mundane and advised her so thru text messages. span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_28">M>Trainee pilot Vrindha is accompanying her.
Content of the message; "Terrorist English attacking us. Do not approach".

But Trainee Pilot Namitha seems eager to approach despite warnings.
The war seems near an end, but the enemy was holding us hostage. Ft Lt Raphael grew impatient and, as Ft Commander Vinaya reports,
"there is lack of ammunition and the enemy is holding us prisoners."
We pleaded and begged with sir to let us go with all sorts of reasons and excuses, but our teacher is way
smarter than us, sigh!

After an hour more of weary fighting, the soldiers got a brief respite. After consuming their rations [read, food] the attack resumes. After an initial "rat-a-tat-a-tat!!" soldiers settled into routine fighting. The trainee pilots who hadn't been at the war zone all morning, along with a relative newcomer Faheem have also entered the fight. Though our army is stronger in number, the enemy has the final authority. Which makes a potential rebellion near at hand.


my passenger plane-cum-fighter plane.
or was it Vinaya's?

Random scrawls from memory

Thanks to the bloggerhood for telling me that I'm not horrible at all! And if I still think I'm horrible, there are several others as horrible as me, as testified in the comments to my last post!
And Bobby, I've bushy eyebrows too! =(

Eid-
Unlike usual Eids where I go wild with friends all day along, this time around I wasn't with them. Unlike earlier Eids, I spent the better part of Eid with cousins. And was it fun!
************
With luck, me or Vinaya will get first prize for film review in English, 'cos we 2 were the only participants!!
************
Fine Arts Day 1-
Ragitha's birthday!!!

Fine Arts Day 2-
I lost my poetry collections book. Strangely enough, I'm not too angry or depressed. I'm more worried that someone will read it and think, "this is poetry??? you call this poetry???"

Exams-
Freakiest exams ever. Totally dumbstruck at the number of classmates involved in "group activity" [as Prof Prathiba call it!]. Me and Namitha were like, what were we working hard
and preparing for, then? if it's so easy to copy in exams, doesn't that make all our hard work go down the drain?
Almost all the exams were tough stuff, with the exception of Conversational Skills. It's a bit like the exam Prof RJ Lupin would have formatted had he been our professor. It wasn't all about throwing up what you mugged up from your notes earlier onto the papers. It was more about examining how good your communication skills were. We had an awesome time especially when sir made each of us to do a self intro. Me, Namitha and Vinaya especially went wild and imaginative. Me was the French famous blogger on her second trip to India which she thought was exotic. Namitha was the famous fashion designer who designed for Parvati Omanakkuttan and of course "you've probably seen my designs on TV and at the Lakme fashion week" she added quite haughtily. Vinaya was the supermodel who turned down an earnest Aamir Khan's acting offer in Gajini 'cos she was "just not interested" and oh yes, "I came here because my dear designer friend Namitha asked me to". and all that! Akhil posed as this famous singer and hoped for our prayers for him. Sir made him sing a song as well!
Uber cool examination hall, if anything, I say!

Goodbyes-
Last exam done with. A pervading sense of satisfaction affects me and Namitha since we got through with our hard work and didn't cheat. We couldn't ask the rest of the team how they felt to have completed the exams sans any cheating since everyone was enjoying the last day before Christmas vacation began. Nami and I watched this totally funny handmade videos the boys had made of an "action comedy enactment". Everyone was rolling all over the place laughing.

Oh yes! We went up the stairs for lunchtime to our classroom walking backwards. Nimisha totally cheated by blatantly looking backwards.

Then it was time for Vinaya&Vaikhari to leave. They're going to Kottayam, lucky people. I'll probably stuck in the same place I am for the whole vacation mostly. When I hugged our adorable Vaika, she's like crying! That made Nami ask, "hey, are you being wedded off or something? what's with the tears??" Lols.
But she made me sliiightly emo too. =(
They took such a long time in actually leaving that it made Vinaya quip, "guess we should say "get lost!" instead of "goodbyes" from now on!
N and I were having a small chat together when she got a msg from Vrinda&Nimisha, [it was in romanized malayalam, but for your sake I'm translating it]
" your boyfriend is in our custody, if you want him back come with a crore. don't try to act smart and call the cops. in that case, we will have to finish this guy off..."
Totally crazy! she happily texts back,
"I know you girls will never do a good thing even by accident. i'm sure you won't finish him off, even if that'd make me happy."
Went back to the department where Vri&Nimisha were holding him hostage. He had probably reached the department searching for N. Thankfully N didn't have to fight to get her hostage boyfriend back. Vri had probably gotten bored by him!

Thursday was the final episode of "Hong Gildong". heartbreaking ending. =(

Vignettes of the tour

Day 1:Crossing the Kabani river, leaving the idyllic Kuruva Island behind. Scaredy cat Nauman watches from distance, all the while smoking his hundredth cigarette.

The Kabani River. Fantastic clicking from Prof Efthikar.

Pretending to call evil spirits in the candle light. Ouija Board thing. [Power cut follows us all the way to a small tea shop in Wyanad, Sulthan Bathery]

On the left side you see the street-fast-food-joint. It's not everyday that we girls get to eat off from a street food joint at night!

Day 2:At the Wildlife Sanctuary at Wyanad, Kerala, India. Beautiful. Us Offbeats were like ready to give up everything and live somewhere like here.


Heading for the Edakkal caves. The caves were worth all that huffing and trudging we had to do to climb up there.

Feet lapping in the Kara River, watching the sunset with best friends. Only thing that pissed me off? The jeans I wore got wet and thus muddy after all that wading in the water.

Prof Babu [left] and Prof Efthikar returning to bus after some cigarettes. Shot is foggy 'cos we took it through the rear window of the bus.

Suicide Point, Ooty. [Only thing I can't undertsand is, why'd anyone trudge all the way up here just to die??? It's a sin in itself to die from such a gorgeous, breathtaking place. Moodspoiling!]
ps- the wind was so strong that everyone was worried that I might get blown off! point to be noted since I'm the skinniest. :\

The last flames of the camp fire. Kind of symbolic even. Shucks, things are getting too sad!

The tour that felt like a lifetime

Sun burnt, freckled, a 9000 times more happier than before...
That's me, post the MUCH awaited trip!
Though it lasted a 3 days, the tour sure felt like a lifetime in itself. An experience! Adventure!
And might not happen ever again... :(
Unless the promise of our cool professors happens, that is! They loved the time spent with us sooo helluva much, that they want another one with us! Wow!!
17 students and 3 uber cool professors.
Day 1:
We just made it to one place. But, as we always say-
it's the people and the time we spent together that matters in the end. Not the destination.
Same here. We just grooved to a lot of music and screamed our throats out for the most part.
Went to Kuruva Island in Wyanad. Mother Nature never fails to blow my mind! Crossing the river in old fashioned boats (with boatmen!) and bravely waded halfway across a fiercely flowing Kabani river. Thanks to our heroes of the day, the boys, we made it through without too many mishaps. Especially Prajeesh. So so so strongg!
erm... I slipped and fell quite a few times. Sheesh!
Came across elephant footprints and a monkey. Prof. Efthikar tried scaring it, but our simian dude wasn't impressed at all by sir's antics! ha ha!!
Night we reached our dorms where we had be staying the night. The person who organised our accommodation in Wyanad was Prof Babu's friend Eldo. Namitha and Vrinda had an instant crush on him. (Which lasted the evening only. Both were disillusioned after seeing him in broad daylight the next day.)
Dinner was street food. Everyone was actually demanding that the dinner be from some street food joint. Finger-lickin' gooood... Welcome to the original fast food makers! They whipped us up our dinner so cracking fast!

Day 2:
Wyanad again.
Morning was real cold. So cold that we breath out and mist comes off!
Wildlife sanctuary visited. Which meant, everyone was staring at the monkeys and calling them by our names. Like, Akhil: "Look, Namitha is up there!!"
See?
Saw monkeys, deers, foxes etc etc. Tall trees. Unpolluted cool climate. Verdant landscape. Streams, rivers...
I am in a happy dream. Friends, myself, great place, cool profs...
Had fun teasing Prof Efthikar about his age which is 38 as per Prof Babu and 33 as per Efthikar Sir.
Edakkal Caves archaeological importance. plus hill climbing. multiply the fun involved!
Vinaya, Nimisha, Praveen made it almost to the topmost. Vrinda,Akhil,Prajeesh made it to the topmost. You can see all 4 states from up there! Kerala,Tamil Nadu,Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh!! ain't that wickedly!
River Kara a bath and a lot of fun. Well, most of us couldn't swim, so we just let our feet lap the water. The rest did swim. Caught a glimpse of Prajeesh's 6pack body. Vinaya&I are so much in awe!
We wanted to do Pookod Lake too. But time restriction.. so had to give up on that idea.
Dinner was excellent. Not street food though. Posh hotel and all.

Day 3 is already here! @%$^%$*&^(!!:
Off to Ooty. Way so cold. Jumped off at tea estates, sang Pehla Nasha, Chale Jaise Hawayein.. Ooh-ed and aah-ed at breathtaking scenes all the way round the scary hair-pin bends. Touched sheep. Off to Botanical Garden and Lake. Vrinda gets instant crush on a cute guy at the Garden. Prof Babu allows her to look back at him. finally we had trouble shaking him off from following her! Arre!! How could I forget those awesome pani puris and good bhel puris we ate at the lake. You don't get them in Kerala, y'see. Vinaya,I,Ragitha loved 'em!
We got on to the mini train and sang "Aditi" and "Kaataadi" a Malayalam song. Cheesy to the core! Shopping session upto night. Camp fire in the freezing cold midnight in Gudallore or somewhere's woods. Pretty emo feeling riding all over. now that the thing is almost over.
Wrapped up the night with a crappy comedy movie before finally falling asleep inside the bus.

Day 4:
Goodbye, Au Revoir, Auf Weidersehen, Alvida etc... Everyone hops off at their places in the morning. Things have changed. We are hell more closer and attached than when we began the tour. The tears aren't rolling yet though. I don't wanna prick the happy bubble in me now.

Photos to follow up soon in next post!
Ciao!

Trains one day. Stranded the other day.Bollywood Hero saves me!

Considering that I had a 5 minute train journey on Thursday (duh!) and got stranded with a broken slipper in town on Friday, this week wasn't uneventful,right?

Thursday and my whining on not being able to get a train journey in ages has gotten so intolerable that Nimisha decides to board one from the stop near our college to the town. I'm as happy as a kid! Wasn't much,since I was more engrossed in filming the whole thing onto my cam and it was over too soon. We stood by the door and I was ooh-aah-ing the picturesque vignettes of greens and rivers.
Loves it! Loves Nimisha even mo' for taking the initiative. She's probably relieved that I won't be nagging her about trains anymore. But I'm still hankering for a full-fledged train trip to somewhere Far Beyond. Guess the craving for trains grew stronger post-Jab We Met!

Friday was a completely mad-mad day.
But first off- Vrinda,Nilla,Vinaya and Vaikhari get selected for university competition in gymnastics!! Congratulations girls!!!
Torrid rains which had us freezing and brrrrr-ing AND walking in hug-mode. It WAS so cold that I felt like I had stepped into a huge freezer that looked like a college. We are already half-frozen when a mega-cold wind blows by, and the 6 of us (rest were absent) go "brrrrrr..." together.
It's cold,wet and quite a happy day.
How was I to know I'd be wrapping up the day with a sorta-adventure??
Nimisha and I are the only ones who have to go to town for our next destination. The others travel the opposite route. BIG TRAFFIC JAM. we two walk miles, making pit stops to let me mend my slipper which keeps breakin' and have to walk carefully on top of a fence through a demolished site, then jump off 'cos the number of people walking by the fence is toooo much too. We take the difficult path [read-mucky path], and by the end of it, we know we have probably waddled our way through all sorts of dirt on our way. I can't muster up courage to even mend my slipper again. So I kind of swagger through the place in broken slippers.
NOT the end of the Sorta Adventure!
Just about to heave a relief that we have finally made it to the town, we are in for a worse shock. No mode of conveyance AT ALL to any place. Nimisha has better luck. One Bus for her place. Me? None.
Totally stranded in town. No one I know. No phone. No vehicle. And it's getting freaking late and daaaark.
It's already dark and my fertile imagination is thinking of all scary possibilities and hoping for the hero to "come and save me!"
The hero does come. Though pretty much a lot late. My brother finally came to pick me up on his motorbike. Just like the typical Bollywood Hero.
God bless the two wheelers! The only vehicle that can evade most traffic jams.
So my Bollywood Hero arrives late on his motorbike and saves me. Phew! Thanks bruv, you are a life-saver!

EndOfStory.

A "waah-some"/awesome week

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ciao for now!

Really back to blog-land this time around!

Eeps. That wasn't a fun way to make a comeback. But the questions were kind of bugging me since yesterday. I deleted that post, cos it went completely against this happy place I'm trying to make up in here.

I'm pretty much really enjoying the Ramzan month. Y'know, all that fasting is actually good for you!Totally detoxifies the bod and soul. Make you come out clean. Mmm..

And at beloved college?
Excellenta!
This week has been especially earthly-heavenly!!

Some random day of this week:
We meet up with Gymnast's boyfriend. And he looks utterly toy-boy despite his almost brutal looking, breath taking muscles.

Y'day:
Lots of free hours. Had hard time convincing everyone that we weren't bunking at all. In fact, we haven't bunked at ALL for a long-long time. AND there was a sorta-spat between Phon.E and Frizz. It ended with Phon.E crying and Vinaya had to console her.
Post everyone else's lunch, we goof around the grand stairs, finally settling down for a game of reverse-quizzing. Un-understandable??? You think of someone we all know, I shoot max 21 questions at you to try to find out who it is. We split into pairs. Me and My-Girl weren't scoring at all, so finally when we DID manage to come up with a person the others couldn't guess, we were so happy. Hugh and Mad tried to madden us by saying we cheated, blah-blah. In the end, MG cried and I was almost out of breath with anger. The fire-coming-from-nose type anger.
One among the many things i can't, simply can't bear?
-False accusations. Even though they were just joking, we got all too messed up.
Anyways, Vinaya consoled MG. The Agony-Aunt back in action.

That done with. We realise that Namitha and Yours Truly are the only ones who haven't cried in college. Yet. The others have cried in random places within the campus. Dusk tops the list.

Got hold of K gang's shades. Very cool and Armani and all. We all take turns wearing it and taking photos in it, mimicking K gang's style. [=P]

To top it all, Hugh, Mad and me were sitting on the steps of the Grand Stairs as well. Quite unashamed, of course!
***********************
Today:
Free hours all morn. So we pack off to town to shop for my dress. Cool Uncle gave me money for that! Then zipping back to college on Singer's bike. Post everyone else's lunch, I slouch with loosened wild,untamed hair.
i love my hair. totally. truly. deeply. madly.
And then, Mad, Z and Frizz bunketh class and sit outside, listening to songs on CJ's phone.
Hey! Mad and Dusk are already crushed on him, proposing him back and forth. Now, it seems Z is a big fan of his as well!
Mad and Z lean on to each others' back. Then both mistake 2 strangers to be our professors and scramble for cover. Dumbo!
Ah well,
Lip-Syncing to "My LOve"-Westlife with Vinaya. Loved it sooo much! Both were squealing with delight, we couldn't really sing along since we wanted to enjoy Westlife's angelic voices.
Where the skies are blue, see you once again my love.
==========================
So addicted to college now, that we fantasise of setting up a tree-top house on the tree over Main Entrance and staying there for.ever.
***
Music-wise
*Namitha and I listen to "Where Did You Sleep Last Night"-Nirvana
I'm awestruck. So much passion and so intense. I could almost feel it in me.
*They try in vain to make me like some Malayalam romantic song. Un-impressive.
*Rock On is so wow.
*Everyone, everywhere is everytime listening to a new Tamil song "Kankal Irundaay" from movie "Santhosh Puram". Or something like that. I like it too!
* Jal new song "Ye Mera Pakistan" [at least, new to me] sounds good. real good. I sing with corrected lyrics "Ye mera Hindustan", :)
*Someone's got hair all Bob-Marley-in-the-making this monday! Turns out the yaar was pretty sick then. Dishevelled hair thus explained.



Dusk is missing out on a Lot. A helluva lot.



And Raphael's birthday is coming up!! Only 4 days to go!! Yeah!!

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.

Where we draw funny dumb faces on each others' hands. I think Vinaya began. Then everyone was going freakin' mad and ended up with silly cartoon faces on the wrists. I ended up with two faces, one on each wrist. One by Vinaya, and the other by Namitha. Pictures given. So you can pronounce your verdict.
The topmost hand is Ragitha's;done by me. And the dud is wearing a cap, in case you didn't understand!
Second one is my hand. This one was done by Namitha. Face with a stitched mouth. Dunno what she intended. But I named it 'Stitcheroo'. My left hand(not in the scene) had a more respectable face drawn by Vinaya. Which I named Tom Cruise,only to have a PG senior scream, "whaaaaaaaat??????"
Third one is Namitha's arm. Done by Vinaya. With horns and a sprout of hair in the middle of its pate. *chuckle!
The hand lying beneath all the other three is Vinaya's. Done by me. She hated it and wiped it out after this shot was taken. =(
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So, as to console her I drew a haughty-hottee guy on her left hand. She's still not impressed. hmph! What does she want? Ranbir Kapoor? The girl on her right hand was done by Sanjoop. Hidden talents on the surface! Though he's a bit of shy around girls, that day he was really on roll, what with all of us girls hounding him for pretty pictures for our arms!
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That's the cool one Sanjoop did for Vrinda.
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Finally he got bored and drew a pathetic devil on Nimisha's hand!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kabhi Kabhi Phon.E... & Trailor Review II & yak-yak

First off, I want to sing and cheer up my very heart-broken friend Phone.E who's having a rough time,thanks to her oppressive,suspicious boyfriend. All we have to do is to look at her,and we find ALL the reasons as to why-one-should-NOT-fall-in-love.
So,
"Kabhi kabhi Phon.E, zindagi mein yunhi koi apna lagta hain.
Kabhi kabhi Phon.E woh bichad jaye to ek sapna lagta hain.
aise mein koi kaise apna aansuon ko behna se roke,
aur kaise koi sochde, everything's gonna be ok?"
-And the rest of the wondehful song.

Break-up threatenings apart, everyone of our gang wants to really punch the senses out of her guy. He just blackmails her so much emotionally that it's God's Mercy she hasn't not fallen to pieces. Very strong gurl over there, people. For one thing,none of us would have even let a relationship with that idiot, if we could.
Maybe God knows we would have made messy situations even messier,
maybe that's why things are not in our control. Hm.
-----------------------------------

I'm having a bad time trying to convince Vaikhari that I'm actually very grown-up. Like,
Me:"Hey, I am mature and serious!"
Vaikhari:"Says who?"
Me:"Says me!"
Vaikhari: "Say that again with your green parrot pipe and teddy bears in hand."
Me: (inward groaning,since I know she's right there. changes tactics.) "At least I look serious!!"
Vaikhari: "Not a bit".
Me: "An atom?"
Vaik: "No"
Me: "A nano?"
Vaik: "Not even that much seriousness, you ARE too childish!!!!!!!"
Me: (gives up on pleading with small quantities. changes tactics again) "Says you? You are not childish??"
Vaik: (stumped. cos she didn't expect that.) "Huh?"
She's either worse than me or equal to me or a bit lesser than me when it comes to being immature. We give up on the stoopid fight.
*The olive greenish brownish text is fiction. I made that up. The rest of the conversation happened though.
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Trailer review time!!
And the best trailer award goes to........
ROCK ON!!!!!!- Obviously the best of the whole lot. Awesome rock music from Shanker-Ehsaan-Loy. The guys are looking very chilled and born rockstars. And Farhan actually sings quite well! "Socha Hain" and title track "Rock On" plus some other tracks were sung by himself.
The sepia tones give the movie a very stylish look. I'm soooooo looking forward to this one movie!
Ugly aur Pagli- The second trailor I'm really impressed by. And whatte catchy tagline;
"99 slaps, 1 kiss"
Ha ha!
Though Mallika Sherawat is far from what I like,but I love watching her do comedy. And her wardrobe for this movie is pretty cool. The fringe and casual clothes were stuff you find girls wear,unlike her otherwise gravity defying skimpy clothes. And Ranvir Shorey looks exactly like a frustrated,oppressed boyfriend. Music is extreme party genred. "Talli" is so much w.o.w!
And the funky-romantic "Ye nazar,aur ye adayein" is feet-tapping.
The way she keeps slapping him, had me wishing Phon.E had half the wits around her to slap her boyfriend when he asks for one.
Bachna Ae Haseeno- Good music from Vishal-Shekhar. The 3 chicks and the hunk( the wow hunk) look beautiful, great locales, and designer clothes. The movie has EVERYTHING. But does it have a story? plot?Guess that's not very important nowadays,huh?

Well, the other trailer I noticed but HATED was-God,Tussi Great Ho. If you didn't realise it was the Indian version of Bruce Almighty, buzz off! You've NO brains in you!
I didn't feel that any of the rest of the trailers were worth reviewing.

Ah yes,another movie I noticed was "Hijack". not much.Wannabe Hollywood if anything. Terrorists and all, the hero running,jumping and saving lives. Obviously the terrorists had to be with Muslim names who probably keep on saying Arabi once in a while in between their conversations. Pathetic,really. The fact that the movie industry thinks that all goons, terrorists, extremists and bad people are Muslims. Whereas the truth is violence knows no religion.
That's it. I'm taking off.
Bye for now, and keep coming back and responding. You don't know how much I love you people!
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*Post script- Just returned from a friend's wedding. Good food, but no excitement. ie-no wedding songs or anything of the sort.

bLAH bLAH

*Namitha, Vrinda and myself are the new "gang within gang". In respect of being "amazingly slothy", and um, amazingly slothy again. Not just that though, we three are the ones always ready to be deliberately late for lectures, bunk as well,and the first ones to volunteer in anything "ulti-seedhi".

*Eight girls together on an impromptu hike to a beach is mega fun. Even more so when the beach is kinda like an "undiscovered bit of nature."We could hear the roar of the sea miles before we were anywhere near the woods through which we stepped into the beach. And, the sight blew my mind, took my breath away and... made me cuss[I have this problem I see or sense happiness]. The long strip of sands with the water lapping on the edges... I forgot all my initial protests. I had been a bit too lazy and had wanted to opt out of the plan. Good I didn't! The fun was hindered a bit by the stoopid-stoopid male numbers. But still, it was all-out fun. By the end, when Vinaya asked," who all are ready for such a trip 3/4 years later??" All hands went up. I wished we had a couple of scooters or a Hummer (I know it's macho. So?) Vinaya wanted a Gypsy. Whichever way, we want to go there again.

*After that I hopped on with Vrinda and we zoomed on her scooter at....50s and a bit mo'!!!
Reached home with sandy feet and windswept face.

* We wondered how it would be if we made a film. Or a serial. Vaikhari, Prajisha and Ragitha will act. I will be the script-writer, and everything that need be penned down. Vinaya will be the camera-girl(obviously!). Sajla will sing all the background stuff and tracks. Vrinda will handle the transport section. Nimisha will handle the finance department (she's good at numbers. I know!)
Namitha will be the costume designer. And Nilla will be the stunt-woman! Vinaya suggested.
It fits! So who's all ready for Project Movie Making??
All hands shot up.
But i guess Project Mega Serial will be more beneficial since we all can be together for,like eternity!

*Vrinda wonders how it would be if we all end up at the same work-place?
If it's a call center, in Namitha's opinion, no one would call for a second time.
She thinks a bit more and adds, the office would go out of business within a month!!
Considering the kind of behaviour we all put up together, it's possible.

*Vaikhari has found out a sure-fire way on how-to-shut-Raphe's-mouth. Not that I'm such an irritating chatter box though. She's trying to find love-symptoms in my every action,gesture and everything! Like, I told her I can't sleep well nowadays. She declares that I'm in love.I say I'm not hungry, same respponse from her. The girl is yet to notice that you fall in love when there is someone to be called the "love interest". There are none in my life. Silly lovable goose!

*I have taken 500 odd pictures with my friends already!

*It's difficult to have an online life when your Professor is in the same orbit as well. Especially if you're spending a lot of time online when you could be working on your project.

*"Hell is empty, all the devils are here"-Shakespeare. Too true.

*Phone.E's heart broken again by her MCP of a boyfriend.

*Me and my pals are supposed to be contributing stuff to the regional webportal. Nothing has churned out so far.

*I have learnt how to ride on a scooter without having to hold onto the shoulders of Vrinda. Just sit with your hands on your laps. Easy! Namitha on the other side isn't too interested in scooter rides anymo'. She gets back aches!! whoa!

*I'm yet to watch JTYJN. And that makes me feel all grouchy.

To my sweet Gryff Vaika, from me-the Ravenclaw

It's too early to get nostalgic.
But what I'm about to post is a fictitious letter I wrote to Vaikhari last summer or so. Based in the wizarding world (oh yes, again) and well...you comment and tell me!

Mount Pleasant June 1,2007
Kent

Dear Vaikhari,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!
How are you? It's been a long vacation, right? Got your Hogwarts letter yet? I got mine. And guess what- Iam the new Hogwarts Head Girl!!! Yippee!!! Such joy! I got to know that you've been made the Gryffindor Quidditch Captain. Congrats!
Remember the last time we met each other on the Hogwarts Quidditch Ground? You were Seeker, and I was Chaser for Ravenclaw. It feels great to be on Roger Davies' team. He's a super captain.

The usual at home. Right now I'm at Hartfordshire at my uncle's place. The Weasleys are neighbours. We play Quidditch in the evenings. Its not the same without the twins. Them pranksters sent me a banging telescope last week. Idiots! Hermione and Harry hang out at the Burrow more often now. Bill and Fleur's wedding coming up. Expect the twins to be back by then. Harry seems more serious now and spends most of his time with Ginny.

Missing you darlings! When are you moving in to Vinaya's?

Know the hottest news around the place right now? Our Prajisha is dating the very dashing Mr Darcy! How lucky can you get?
As for Namitha, she's looking for Mr right in Captain Jack Sparrow. Wild choice Nami!
And know what Ragitha is currently busy with? No, not wizards. But a research paper in Muggle Studies on the use of the word "sorry". Very apt,I say!
Silly girl Nimisha won't take my advice. I told her to zap over to WWN(Wizarding Wireless Network) and dump her flimsy muggle fone. (God knows if the spelling is right!) But no, she won't listen. Mph! What's so cool about muggles? No wands,no fun!

But I won't be too hard on muggles. My dad bought me a cute gadget last week. It's called iPod and it can load a lot of songs. It is muggle,but its mighty cool!

Day before yday, I was strolling down Shire square just to spend some time alone. But the walk wasn't as lonely as I had expected. Most of the HU [Hogwarts Union] was present there. And all of 'em, my Ravenclaw mates!
We made a sudden plan to hike to the falls. Tiring out, but what a view! After a splash, we just dozed off. Mind you, all this happened in the morning. Noon-we went for lunch to the food-joint nearby; a very funky one, "The Opa Court", whatever that means. I sent an owl home telling them my plans for the day. Then everyone swung onto their brooms, since I'd walked to the Shire, I sat behind Anshi's broom. Flew straight to the multiplex, watched "Pirates of Carribean 3". Then Sanil bhaiya dropped me home.

Almost forgot. Got to know from them that Vinaya is at St. Mungo's. We visited her there. She's in the 3rd floor-Potion and Plant Poisoning-ward is Healer Stinko. Nothing too serious. You know what kind of girl she is. She and her Science Forum (I forgot you're a member too!) were poking around some plants. Their professor forgot to mention that the place was full of Mandrakes. They pulled out a young mandrake (as a memento of the trip,I guess) and all of 'em get knocked out of their consciousness by its screams. Now all at St. Mungo's. Not to worry, she's almost fine by now. Her healer is a really cute guy, so she doesn't seem to be in any hurry to leave...

Anyway, what news in your place? As it's your birthday, I'm sending you some gifts. Surprise!Some of them mayn't work because of the non-magical atmosphere you live in.
In that case,wait till you reach Hogwarts!

And that last fight we had as regards which is the better House. I hear that Filch is a Gryffindor too! It fits!!
And us? The whole of HU, Head Girl, Head Boy. Avril Lavigne, Keira Knightley, too were Ravens. All my cousins are Ravenclaw. The entire Philosophy, BBA, all the Science streams, one English student(me) are Ravenclaws too. Anyways, enough fighting. We're still friends, no matter which House you're in.

Won't you come for Quidditch World Cup. Everyone else has agreed.
And then we could meet at the Ministry for our license in Apparition.
We'll celebrate yours and Nimisha's birthdays at Hogsmeade.

Happy birthday again!!!
=============================================================
YOUR GIFT BOX CONTAINS:
a) The Invisible Book of Invisibility, Madcap Magic for Wacky Warlocks
b)Wit Sharpening Potion (Gryffindors need that!)
c)Bouncing Bulbs (for your garden; hold on tight!)
d)2 way mirror so you can talk to me
e)A deluxe box of Honeydukes Toffees: Cockroach Clusters, Bloody Lollipops, Acid Pops, Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans.
f)A cute Hungarian Horntail
g)As a pet I'm sending you, Niffler,Cornish Pixie and a Zombie.
h)A 2 year subscription of the Quibbler
i)Patented Day Dream Charms from Weasley's.

Aaaaaah....The best gift box ANY friend could ever give. Right?
I forgot to tell you,
The Banshee will bring the gifts.
And IF you get angry and try to send naughty things to me, the Banshee is there to scream your head out.
You may keep her.
She's as adorable as Kreacher.

*I deliberately cut out a whole paragraph where I insult Gryffindors. I don't want all Gryff enthusiasts attacking me, do i?
*AND I wiped out the How-to-make a Pepper-Up Potion. Too long I thought.