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.

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.

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

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!

Things that caught my eye-

- while I was trippin' about with classmates in the capital city, when I was doing my internship and bleh.

The tree-top house behind the hostel where we stayed during internship. Wheee! I'm kinda a scaredy kitteh, so I stayed back and snapped pictures of the brave ones instead.

Crow makes for a more picturesque shot-somehow

Kovalam beach- evening- drizzling in the backdrop-and there were ice creams to go with the whole awesomeness.

Say it's pretty!

I wish I had photophopped that guy outta the pic- but too lazy. Anyways, I liked this sculpture like- a lot. Day dreamy,very.

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?

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!!

and thus the long awaited brother-sister road trip finally happened

Everything else took a back seat for these past 7 days.

Yes, all you jealous ppl, I had a fantastic brother-sister-road-trip-of-sorts. The destination wasn't fancy by any means, but there was a comfy house tucked away in a suburb of Tamil Nadu. my uncle's place. our favorite vacation retreat.

My favorite parts from the trip?
*EVERYTHING! EVERY SINGLE MOMENT!

*the lure of the train. [you know i love them!There's a gypsy in me that LOVES roads,wheels,winds,traveling and the whole package about road trips]

*my favorite cousin/brother for company.

*sharing the music [Than ta naaaa!!!!!!!!{kaminey} for one]

*Kite Runner. [my choice for on-the-move read. Bro had "The Broker"-John Grisham] i swear i almost cried thru several parts of it.

*making acquaintances on the train. i chose not to ask their names though, what's the fun if you can't add some imagination to all those friendships you made?!

*all those late-night movies and laughing at tacky old Tamil movies. [no offense meant!]and throw in the bits where we fought over the remote like we were kids.[never mind that we are both way past the age to fight like kids!!]

*and add to that the fact that we two bought a whole box of chocolates to go with the tv watching. munch,munch,munch.

*THE Shopping. ohhhhhhhh, the shop-all-day at Coimbatore!

*Uncle lent me a book of his, the one which he hadn't parted with in all of the 20 odd years of owning it, yet. And I'm the lucky girl who gets her hands on it. The book?
Between Ourselves: letters between mothers and daughters.
*Him saying that I was going to be his heiress. No, not money. But to his VAST collection of books. Think of every masterpiece, memorable books and all those good books- he's got 'em all in his shelves.
And I'm going to inherit them all!!!!!!!
-------------
I don't care if I don't actually get those books. Just the idea that he thought me important enough to leave his precious books with... that's the best part of it.

*The food. We dined out virtually every day. Went to many of the well known South Indian restaurants around there.And I have tasted some of the best veg food, plus discovered how spicy the "dragon chicken" dish was. Yum!

And the best-best part of all? That bonding time. With the best uncle in the world and my aunt and,most importantly-
with the best cousin in the whole wide world.

Beyond sharing music,books,movies,chocolates and some sizable portions of good television watching [which would include NDTV, Nat Geo as well-IF you're wondering what i meant by good television watching]
and some dumb fights,
and 'fessing up on past relationships [read-ruined relationships],
our shady records of shady vices,sins and our dealings with:
Stuff-considered-taboo-in-our-family;

i know I have a wonderful brother of a lifetime.
He's always been so good; despite me being one big jerk of a sister to him. :D





The part I didn't like-

*Eating prior to long journeys makes me queasy, for some mysterious reason. On the other hand, when I travel on an almost empty stomach, I'm so good!

Maybe I'm just being psycho.


-this shot taken from Flickr

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?

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!

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!!