What a year it has been…2005!
All the World is a Stage…and my world was no different. This was the year when I was playing one role in its beginning and a completely different one in its end.
There are some similarities as well as differences, as is true just like the two faces of the same coin in every issue, in the two roles.
A student in one end (or beginning) of the year and a software professional at the other.
In Jan, 2005- My friend and I were worried about our final year project and even now I am anxious about my project (not of the final yr.).
I celebrated the New Year in Chennai then and now gonna celebrate in Bangalore.
I met so many new people in the past 365 days. Had new experiences, some good and some bad.
Traveled to some beautiful places.
Learnt many lessons of life.
Started blogging.
Got new friends…missed some … lost some....had a reunion with some old ones.
Realized that people who talk non-stop (like VA, PV and MM) do exist on this planet.
Cried sometimes and laughed at other times.
My experiences reinforced some of my beliefs and shattered some.
Got back to my hobby of reading books and bought some really good ones.
Joined MENSA.
Yeah…how could I forget? Met with an accident too… and broke my tooth.
Did some serious thinking about my future….and later realized that whatever has to happen will happen and nothing can stop it.
Everything that happens around me echoes the same thing- Everything happens for a reason and happens for the good….that one thing leads to another like a chain reaction, like dominoes.
Well, another year coming to an end. Another word or a line or a page or a chapter or sometimes even a book, as the case may be, in the life of every person.
And I don’t believe in “New Year Resolutions”. ‘Coz there’s no wrong time to do the right thing.
Hope at least the year 2006 is more peaceful without the cyclones, earthquakes, heavy rains and the wrath of Mother Nature in any form.
Wishing every one of you a very Happy New Year 2006!!!
Friday, December 30, 2005
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
The Night Market
Last Friday evening(Nov. 25), I went to the Night Market at Karunashraya.
This was the first time I was attending such an event and it turned out to be a good experience. I went there with some of my colleagues , in our office cab. We took, with us, a box full of old clothes, books and toys, all contributed to the Night Market by our colleagues.
The Night Market had several stalls selling old books, Chat items, ice-creams, cakes, noodles, clay pots, bags, cards and bead neacklaces made by the terminally ill cancer patients there.
There were also some stalls which had games like throwing darts, rings, bouncing bouncing-balls into a bucket, fishing beer bottles, horse-racing and also some card games. All the money collected by the stalls would go as contribution to their fund for taking care of the cancer patients.
While there was a game of housie going on in one place, people were busy eating their choice of food in another. Also, there was a magic show and ventriloquism by a lady.
I went on a shopping spree in the stall where old books were being sold for Rs.30 each. I bought 4 books. I hunted for thicker books and got hold of The Seventh Scroll and Monsoon, both by Wilbur Smith. I found another medium-sized book Angel by Barbara Taylor Bradford. The fourth book is a suspense thriller.
Of late, I have been buying books like crazy and now, I have more books than I can manage to read.
At another stall, I got a nice Mehendi design done on my palm. By then it was 8.00 p.m. and was drizzling already. I had to keep my mehendi designed hand safe from the rain drops.
I played some more games- tried fishing a beer bottle but just missed it at the last moment( we were given 2 minutes to try taking the bottle by its lid with the help of a long thin bamboo stick and a ring tied to its other end with a string).
8.30 p.m. and it was time to leave.
The return journey was not as smooth as I had thought it to be. We had to wait for our cab for 30-40 minutes, in the heavy rain. At last, when the cab arrived, we set out for our destination( our office) in the traffic jam-packed road. We were not even half-way to our place when the cab stopped all of a sudden. The driver said that there was a brake failure and that we couldn't go any further. So all of us got down and caught autos and the auto-drivers asked prices triple the usual fare.
It was 10 by the time I returned home, almost wet in the rain, after a small quarrel with the auto-driver regarding the fare and heavily laden with my file in one hand and my new collection of books in the other.
I went into the safe and cozy arms of my hard bed and soft quilt to spend a night full of sweet dreams( of my Prince Charming ) and the fact that it was a Friday night made my sleep more peaceful.
This was the first time I was attending such an event and it turned out to be a good experience. I went there with some of my colleagues , in our office cab. We took, with us, a box full of old clothes, books and toys, all contributed to the Night Market by our colleagues.
The Night Market had several stalls selling old books, Chat items, ice-creams, cakes, noodles, clay pots, bags, cards and bead neacklaces made by the terminally ill cancer patients there.
There were also some stalls which had games like throwing darts, rings, bouncing bouncing-balls into a bucket, fishing beer bottles, horse-racing and also some card games. All the money collected by the stalls would go as contribution to their fund for taking care of the cancer patients.
While there was a game of housie going on in one place, people were busy eating their choice of food in another. Also, there was a magic show and ventriloquism by a lady.
I went on a shopping spree in the stall where old books were being sold for Rs.30 each. I bought 4 books. I hunted for thicker books and got hold of The Seventh Scroll and Monsoon, both by Wilbur Smith. I found another medium-sized book Angel by Barbara Taylor Bradford. The fourth book is a suspense thriller.
Of late, I have been buying books like crazy and now, I have more books than I can manage to read.
At another stall, I got a nice Mehendi design done on my palm. By then it was 8.00 p.m. and was drizzling already. I had to keep my mehendi designed hand safe from the rain drops.
I played some more games- tried fishing a beer bottle but just missed it at the last moment( we were given 2 minutes to try taking the bottle by its lid with the help of a long thin bamboo stick and a ring tied to its other end with a string).
8.30 p.m. and it was time to leave.
The return journey was not as smooth as I had thought it to be. We had to wait for our cab for 30-40 minutes, in the heavy rain. At last, when the cab arrived, we set out for our destination( our office) in the traffic jam-packed road. We were not even half-way to our place when the cab stopped all of a sudden. The driver said that there was a brake failure and that we couldn't go any further. So all of us got down and caught autos and the auto-drivers asked prices triple the usual fare.
It was 10 by the time I returned home, almost wet in the rain, after a small quarrel with the auto-driver regarding the fare and heavily laden with my file in one hand and my new collection of books in the other.
I went into the safe and cozy arms of my hard bed and soft quilt to spend a night full of sweet dreams( of my Prince Charming ) and the fact that it was a Friday night made my sleep more peaceful.
Thursday, November 24, 2005
Monday morning blues
It's another one of the "blue-blue-God-bless-you" Mondays. I switch on my computer and thoughtlessly browse My Documents folder and my eyes which were aimlessly wandering on the computer screen catch the name Paulo Coelho under a wordpad file icon. I think it would be another of Paulo Coelho's spirit lifting work. I open it out of curiosity. And the saying Curiosity kills the cat almost comes true 'coz that story's title is ' Veronika decides to die ',which was translated from Portuguese to English by Margaret Jull Costa.
The story is about Veronika, a 24 year old woman, who is tired of her boring and monotonous life and decides to kill herself by taking 4 packs of sleeping pills. But she is saved. After this it is natural to expect that she would find a new zest for life and start all over again to live the rest of her boring life to the fullest. I am disappointed by the way the story turns( well, the story isn't too long to have a turn), only leading her to strongly stick to her decision to die now rather than later in her life when she is older and has lived a tragic life.
What could be more depressing than reading this story on a Monday morning brightly lit with dullness?
Well, I do understand her boredom. But, killing yourself just because you can't find a way to kill time without you knowing that you are actually killing it is too dumb even to be categorized as dumb.
After a "spirit"-lifting read as this, I went about searching for online practice tests for GRE and universities which offer Computer Graphics and Games Technology courses.
Let's come to lighter things in life...
We all could successfully watch Lost on Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately, power went out just when it was only 15 minutes to end(after 2 hrs 45 min. of interrupted show ). Now we would have to wait till 1.45 a.m on this Friday night( early Saturday morning) to see what happened in the last 15 minutes.
I stumbled across two feel-good movies on the Hallmark channel-
' A boyfriend for Christmas ' - this movie is about a young girl who wishes for a boyfriend on a Christmas day and the Santa Claus promises her that her wish would come true when she is ready for one. Obviously, after some years, she meets her soulmate on a Christmas.
' Short Circuit II '- this movie is about a robot created by an Indian toy designer . The robot wants to be a part of the human society and has to face a lot of trouble to prove to people that it is indeed 'alive' like any other human being, complete with emotions.
My friend and roomie got 2 books with each having 4 different novels(condensed into one book) i.e., 8 novels in 2 books. This will keep my otherwise ' devil's workshop ' occupied for the next couple of months.I started with John Grisham's ' The Rainmaker ' in one of the books and could easily identify myself with the lead character Rudy Baylor. And I'm loving it!
Sometimes, I wish these fiction writers could try writing the boring text books we read during our college days in their style. Maybe then, the students need not struggle and the university results would be much better than now. Hmmm...wishful thinking!
The story is about Veronika, a 24 year old woman, who is tired of her boring and monotonous life and decides to kill herself by taking 4 packs of sleeping pills. But she is saved. After this it is natural to expect that she would find a new zest for life and start all over again to live the rest of her boring life to the fullest. I am disappointed by the way the story turns( well, the story isn't too long to have a turn), only leading her to strongly stick to her decision to die now rather than later in her life when she is older and has lived a tragic life.
What could be more depressing than reading this story on a Monday morning brightly lit with dullness?
Well, I do understand her boredom. But, killing yourself just because you can't find a way to kill time without you knowing that you are actually killing it is too dumb even to be categorized as dumb.
After a "spirit"-lifting read as this, I went about searching for online practice tests for GRE and universities which offer Computer Graphics and Games Technology courses.
Let's come to lighter things in life...
We all could successfully watch Lost on Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately, power went out just when it was only 15 minutes to end(after 2 hrs 45 min. of interrupted show ). Now we would have to wait till 1.45 a.m on this Friday night( early Saturday morning) to see what happened in the last 15 minutes.
I stumbled across two feel-good movies on the Hallmark channel-
' A boyfriend for Christmas ' - this movie is about a young girl who wishes for a boyfriend on a Christmas day and the Santa Claus promises her that her wish would come true when she is ready for one. Obviously, after some years, she meets her soulmate on a Christmas.
' Short Circuit II '- this movie is about a robot created by an Indian toy designer . The robot wants to be a part of the human society and has to face a lot of trouble to prove to people that it is indeed 'alive' like any other human being, complete with emotions.
My friend and roomie got 2 books with each having 4 different novels(condensed into one book) i.e., 8 novels in 2 books. This will keep my otherwise ' devil's workshop ' occupied for the next couple of months.I started with John Grisham's ' The Rainmaker ' in one of the books and could easily identify myself with the lead character Rudy Baylor. And I'm loving it!
Sometimes, I wish these fiction writers could try writing the boring text books we read during our college days in their style. Maybe then, the students need not struggle and the university results would be much better than now. Hmmm...wishful thinking!
Sunday, November 13, 2005
To be or not to be a Single
We have formed a "Singles Club"...and its members are 2 of my roomies and me. Obviously, the sole criteria for being a member of this club is not having any boyfriend or even a crush( sounds very stringent ?).
* Sigh! *
And we lead a very miserable and tragic life...the misery being watching the lovebirds tweeting sweetly and flying around together in bliss, oblivious of the world where lonely creatures like us dwell and the tragedy being the fact that our romance ends with the romantic stories that we read or movies that we watch or the songs that we hear/sing or even for that matter those rarest of the rare dreams that we have once in a bluemoon.
We are left to wait for our Prince Charming, who will come on a white horse, draped fully in a white dress with only his eyes uncovered...and we are here waiting eternally with nothing visible to our eyes but thick, white fog. Of course, it is impractical even to wait for him in today's world of traffic jams. Who knows, may be his horse broke down due to suffocation caused by pollution or he and his horse were covered with black vehicle smoke which led to his fear of not being accepted as the charming one.
Once, when I said that I had written down those lines which made me think about life, in Paulo Coelho's "The Alchemist", AC was shocked and commented,"Deepa! You seriously need a boyfriend! Get a life,girl!".
Sometimes, I feel that having a boyfriend has become a status symbol. If you don't have one, you are looked down upon as a loser and are not good or worthy enough to deserve the love of another person.Sounds so stupid!
For us, the word "boyfriend" has become nothing but a big fat joke. If we want to leave early from work, we are asked " Oh! So you are going out with your boyfriend?". Or if we come late back home from work, this question pops up "You are so late today .Where did you go out with your boyfriend?".
We find ourselves so romantic that we give bright ideas which change people's( Romeo's or Juliet's) life. I have even named my heart-shaped pendant watch( the dial is the pendant of a long chain) which has the design of two flames and another small heart as "Do badan, Ek Jaan", which in English means ' Two bodies, One Soul'.
At times I feel that life would be as beautiful as a Spring morning if there was someone to talk sweet nothings, to have small fights or quarrels and then later make up with him with a cute little sorry, to give gifts on a Valentine's day, to hear him say" I love you" for the umpteenth time and each time those three words sound very new and give you the same thrill as it did for the first time...too good to be true? Yes!
Coming back to reality,I strongly feel that there is nothing more peaceful than being a single. You stay more focussed in life without unnecessary tensions. And for a daydreamer like me, a small distraction lays a firm,earthquake-proof foundation of a huge castle.
There are so many things I want to do in my life that there's no time for things like "boyfriend" or love. I have to build my career and/or pave my way for higher studies and finally settle into a job that I love.
I am reminded of Robert Frost's famous poem "Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening"...
* Sigh! *
And we lead a very miserable and tragic life...the misery being watching the lovebirds tweeting sweetly and flying around together in bliss, oblivious of the world where lonely creatures like us dwell and the tragedy being the fact that our romance ends with the romantic stories that we read or movies that we watch or the songs that we hear/sing or even for that matter those rarest of the rare dreams that we have once in a bluemoon.
We are left to wait for our Prince Charming, who will come on a white horse, draped fully in a white dress with only his eyes uncovered...and we are here waiting eternally with nothing visible to our eyes but thick, white fog. Of course, it is impractical even to wait for him in today's world of traffic jams. Who knows, may be his horse broke down due to suffocation caused by pollution or he and his horse were covered with black vehicle smoke which led to his fear of not being accepted as the charming one.
Once, when I said that I had written down those lines which made me think about life, in Paulo Coelho's "The Alchemist", AC was shocked and commented,"Deepa! You seriously need a boyfriend! Get a life,girl!".
Sometimes, I feel that having a boyfriend has become a status symbol. If you don't have one, you are looked down upon as a loser and are not good or worthy enough to deserve the love of another person.Sounds so stupid!
For us, the word "boyfriend" has become nothing but a big fat joke. If we want to leave early from work, we are asked " Oh! So you are going out with your boyfriend?". Or if we come late back home from work, this question pops up "You are so late today .Where did you go out with your boyfriend?".
We find ourselves so romantic that we give bright ideas which change people's( Romeo's or Juliet's) life. I have even named my heart-shaped pendant watch( the dial is the pendant of a long chain) which has the design of two flames and another small heart as "Do badan, Ek Jaan", which in English means ' Two bodies, One Soul'.
At times I feel that life would be as beautiful as a Spring morning if there was someone to talk sweet nothings, to have small fights or quarrels and then later make up with him with a cute little sorry, to give gifts on a Valentine's day, to hear him say" I love you" for the umpteenth time and each time those three words sound very new and give you the same thrill as it did for the first time...too good to be true? Yes!
Coming back to reality,I strongly feel that there is nothing more peaceful than being a single. You stay more focussed in life without unnecessary tensions. And for a daydreamer like me, a small distraction lays a firm,earthquake-proof foundation of a huge castle.
There are so many things I want to do in my life that there's no time for things like "boyfriend" or love. I have to build my career and/or pave my way for higher studies and finally settle into a job that I love.
I am reminded of Robert Frost's famous poem "Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening"...
The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
Graphology
I recently came across a site where you can know about your character by the analysis of your handwriting.
Out of curiosity( about myself and not about the site), I went through the several steps of the analysis and to my surprise, the result was very accurate. Check out this site by following this link or going to www.handwritingwizard.com or by clicking the title of this post, for a different kind of self-realization.
Out of curiosity( about myself and not about the site), I went through the several steps of the analysis and to my surprise, the result was very accurate. Check out this site by following this link or going to www.handwritingwizard.com or by clicking the title of this post, for a different kind of self-realization.
Monday, November 07, 2005
Ennui
This Diwali was the most boring of all the Diwalis I remember. We had gone to Madurai for the Diwali celebration. My cousins couldn't come and I was all alone with no one around to have fun with. And to make the boredom a bit less boring, I fell ill. Going to the doctor and buying medicines was relatively more entertaining than simply sitting at home and surfing channels.
I was actually waiting for the time when I would leave Madurai.
Well, now that I'm back here, everyday is just another cycle of events that happen during a week day... waiting for Friday evening.On Friday night, forgetting all about work for the next 2 days and waking out of a beautiful dream into another nightmarish Monday morning.
This weekend was a bit different...only a bit. We didn't miss "LOST" series on Star Movies on Saturday. On Sunday, my roomies and me went out to Pizza Hut for Lunch and had a good time there. Then we went out to a nearby park and went on a shooting spree...with a camera(obviously).
I bought another 2 books:-
Yann Martel's Life of Pi( Winner of Man Booker Prize 2002) and Jeffery Archer's Not a penny more, Not a penny less.
I have to start reading some serious stuff. But then, till I feel old enough to read something serious, I am gonna stick to the world of fiction.
And on Sunday night, my roomies celebrated my birthday with the ritual followed on every birthday...chocolate cake, candles , card, flowers and the sweet ' Happy Birthday ' song. It feels really nice that someone thinks about you and considers you special enough to celebrate your birthday.
I am now getting bored with this place and this kind of lifeless life. I think my boredom and loneliness that I thought I had left behind in Chennai is catching up with me. Either I should face it bravely( ...and yea without getting bored) or I should pack my bags and leave for a new place where I find everything so new that I keep myself occupied with exploring them.
I was actually waiting for the time when I would leave Madurai.
Well, now that I'm back here, everyday is just another cycle of events that happen during a week day... waiting for Friday evening.On Friday night, forgetting all about work for the next 2 days and waking out of a beautiful dream into another nightmarish Monday morning.
This weekend was a bit different...only a bit. We didn't miss "LOST" series on Star Movies on Saturday. On Sunday, my roomies and me went out to Pizza Hut for Lunch and had a good time there. Then we went out to a nearby park and went on a shooting spree...with a camera(obviously).
I bought another 2 books:-
Yann Martel's Life of Pi( Winner of Man Booker Prize 2002) and Jeffery Archer's Not a penny more, Not a penny less.
I have to start reading some serious stuff. But then, till I feel old enough to read something serious, I am gonna stick to the world of fiction.
And on Sunday night, my roomies celebrated my birthday with the ritual followed on every birthday...chocolate cake, candles , card, flowers and the sweet ' Happy Birthday ' song. It feels really nice that someone thinks about you and considers you special enough to celebrate your birthday.
I am now getting bored with this place and this kind of lifeless life. I think my boredom and loneliness that I thought I had left behind in Chennai is catching up with me. Either I should face it bravely( ...and yea without getting bored) or I should pack my bags and leave for a new place where I find everything so new that I keep myself occupied with exploring them.
Friday, October 14, 2005
Life was beautiful...
I never thought that the beauty of life would be only skin deep…that the day when all good things pass by us like a breeze only to bring cold winds behind, would come so soon.
It was the day when one of my friends left us all to trudge along the path of life while he took the road to the Almighty.
For the first time in my life I am experiencing the loss of someone so close that all the laws of life and death that we thought were meant for the rest of the world and not for us, seemed to be forced upon us.
I am still not able to accept the fact that I won’t be able see him anymore. I feel as if he has gone to some far off place where he would surely return from at some point in time, may be not soon enough but the hope that he will return is still alive.
He is goodness personified. He is a very quiet boy, not talkative but still is a good company.
I still remember last Friday evening when I took his picture in a camera mobile. There was certain tranquility on his face in the pic and he looked more handsome than ever.
I was reading "The Alchemist" that day. Everything that was mentioned about omens seemed to be very true after I heard the news.
On Friday,something kept repeating in my head to tell them to be careful while driving. Even before I knew about it, the thought of being posted away from my good friends I made here in just 2 months and missing them all, made me cry. Even when I slept that night, there were tears in my eyes. Only then did I come to know about him.
So many things that we brush off from our minds that we think don’t make any sense at all seemed to be so true.8th of October- the fateful number 8- the number that has more disasters and tragedies associated with it than just any other number. Tsunami on 26th Dec., Earthquake on 26th Jan , I met with an accident on 26th March and the earthquake on 8th Oct....
Many people commented that I’ll soon have bad experiences in Bangalore. But, never did I even imagine that it would be this bad.
Anyway, I still believe that "This too shall pass".
It was the day when one of my friends left us all to trudge along the path of life while he took the road to the Almighty.
For the first time in my life I am experiencing the loss of someone so close that all the laws of life and death that we thought were meant for the rest of the world and not for us, seemed to be forced upon us.
I am still not able to accept the fact that I won’t be able see him anymore. I feel as if he has gone to some far off place where he would surely return from at some point in time, may be not soon enough but the hope that he will return is still alive.
He is goodness personified. He is a very quiet boy, not talkative but still is a good company.
I still remember last Friday evening when I took his picture in a camera mobile. There was certain tranquility on his face in the pic and he looked more handsome than ever.
I was reading "The Alchemist" that day. Everything that was mentioned about omens seemed to be very true after I heard the news.
On Friday,something kept repeating in my head to tell them to be careful while driving. Even before I knew about it, the thought of being posted away from my good friends I made here in just 2 months and missing them all, made me cry. Even when I slept that night, there were tears in my eyes. Only then did I come to know about him.
So many things that we brush off from our minds that we think don’t make any sense at all seemed to be so true.8th of October- the fateful number 8- the number that has more disasters and tragedies associated with it than just any other number. Tsunami on 26th Dec., Earthquake on 26th Jan , I met with an accident on 26th March and the earthquake on 8th Oct....
Many people commented that I’ll soon have bad experiences in Bangalore. But, never did I even imagine that it would be this bad.
Anyway, I still believe that "This too shall pass".
Friday, September 30, 2005
Of birthdays, treats and disappointments.
I am writing about September 2005 of my life late in October... too late to remember anything that happened then.
Well, the month flew by... celebrating the birthdays of Y, ND and S.
We celebrated Ganesh Chathurthi here in B'lore. We visited the Adhi Vinayaka Temple that evening and overate the whole day.
I went to Forum for the first time and met my school and college friends there.
I went to the office one weekend...9 to 9 on a Saturday and Sunday...sounds crazy? Yea...if I say that the reason was to complete the assignment and study for Oracle test, then it sure IS crazy. The result (not of the test) was that I had a sleepy week after that.
I bought another book- The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud.
One weekend I went home. I joined my friends SK and S to give a treat to our college friends for getting placed into good companies.Now, this was the disappointing part of the month.
I remember, I couldn't stop smiling at the thought of meeting everyone after 3 long months, talking and laughing about everything we had experienced.I was also eager to tell about my B'lore life, my office and my friends. I was in a very chirpy and bubbly mood when I reached there. I was hoping that everyone would notice this change in me...coz seldom was I this happy when in college.
All these thoughts and my mood popped like a bubble when I saw the relatively cold mood of my friends.
Though all were sitting at the same table, all split into small groups. While some were talking among themselves about the things that happened in their workplace( they worked in the same office) , some others were cracking jokes and laughing about something which I had no clue of and I was sitting there all alone in the crowd like an island. It was as if I had become invisible. I felt very disappointed and felt like crying.
In fact, I had gone there with the hope that I would update myself with what's happening in their lives ...and failed in the effort. I couldn't "talk" to anyone and the usual "how are you? what are doing these days?" doesn't count as talking, in my opinion.
I came back home with a heavy heart. I was really disappointed with what had happened and also with myself. Why did I feel that way? Was I over-reacting? C'mon! I couldn't even talk to my good friend who was sitting right across the table.
On the way back home, in the bus, I was brooding about this...desperately seeking answers to my nagging questions. I was feeling the same way when I was in college. And that had changed completely after I joined work and made friends here. What was the reason? Why did I feel happy and blissful in the company of my friends at work?
I saw a couple sitting on the seat in front of mine in the bus. The girl was resting her head on the guy's shoulder. That was when I realized that I needed a shoulder to cry on. Someone who would listen to what I say, with whom I can really have a "talk" and confide in, someone who had no prejudices and does not jump to conclusions about what I say , someone who would say that it is ok to feel how I feel , accept me as I am and does not tell me to change myself in order to please others. And I had found that someone in all of my friends at work.
I was happy to be back in B'lore. I had really missed them all in those two days. It seems to be a short time, but they were really unbearably long 2 days.
I believe that everything happens for good. And maybe this disappointment was good in a way too. I had this experience and now I treasure their friendship all the more.
Saturday, August 27, 2005
Life is Beautiful!
It has been 4 weeks since I came here and joined work and Life has been surprisingly good to me till now.
It is like I am in a never ending dream ...touch wood!
I feel more confident of myself now than ever. I feel happier and content ... not like i got everything i ever wished for , but that I have nothing to worry about anything that I have got or happened to me .
Life unfolded itself in a new way everyday I was here and brought me very different and new experiences to cherish and treasure for life.
Was it always like this or I am seeing the world through a new pair of eyes ?
Am I seeing only the good side or life is showing me only the good side of itself ?
Is it that I have been able to adapt myself perfectly in this new place or everything was made just for me ?
The PG I landed up in is like a home away from home . My roommates and PG mates are really sweet and considerate people. I made instant friendships with the people at work .... PP, VA, AC,ND ... it was like fate had planned meticulously to bring us all together.
Some of things I have done in the past 4 weeks.......
Bought two books- The Firm by John Grisham
Airframe by Michael Crichton
Visited the ISKCON temple and bought The Bhagwad Gita there , a book that I had always wanted to buy.
Attended the BITSAA Music Nite on the 20th of Aug. This was the first time I have ever attended a music nite in my life, thanks to my roommates from BITS Pilani.
Went to office at 8 a.m. for the first time since I joined and stayed till 8.30 p.m .
Well, for now I feel very much Blessed and I feel I should enjoy whatever life gifts me... but then have this one fact in my mind... " This too shall pass..."
It is like I am in a never ending dream ...touch wood!
I feel more confident of myself now than ever. I feel happier and content ... not like i got everything i ever wished for , but that I have nothing to worry about anything that I have got or happened to me .
Life unfolded itself in a new way everyday I was here and brought me very different and new experiences to cherish and treasure for life.
Was it always like this or I am seeing the world through a new pair of eyes ?
Am I seeing only the good side or life is showing me only the good side of itself ?
Is it that I have been able to adapt myself perfectly in this new place or everything was made just for me ?
The PG I landed up in is like a home away from home . My roommates and PG mates are really sweet and considerate people. I made instant friendships with the people at work .... PP, VA, AC,ND ... it was like fate had planned meticulously to bring us all together.
Some of things I have done in the past 4 weeks.......
Bought two books- The Firm by John Grisham
Airframe by Michael Crichton
Visited the ISKCON temple and bought The Bhagwad Gita there , a book that I had always wanted to buy.
Attended the BITSAA Music Nite on the 20th of Aug. This was the first time I have ever attended a music nite in my life, thanks to my roommates from BITS Pilani.
Went to office at 8 a.m. for the first time since I joined and stayed till 8.30 p.m .
Well, for now I feel very much Blessed and I feel I should enjoy whatever life gifts me... but then have this one fact in my mind... " This too shall pass..."
Friday, August 05, 2005
Lore of a Bang!
The lazy days are over!
Now is the time when I have to be ready to learn the laws of life.....and I know for sure that they will not be learnt at my liesure but will hit me like gunshots...bang! bang! bang!
And I wonder if I could learn a trick or two from Neo(The Matrix) to dodge the shots,well...not to escape learning the lesson but to learn it the painless way . Hmm...now that needs a lot of practice.
I have joined work in a reputed company at this place( if u had observed the title of this post a bit carefully, u wud have known this place by now) where the climate is cold, guys cool and girls hot .
More about the training life will come soon( I hope!)....keep watching this place!
Now is the time when I have to be ready to learn the laws of life.....and I know for sure that they will not be learnt at my liesure but will hit me like gunshots...bang! bang! bang!
And I wonder if I could learn a trick or two from Neo(The Matrix) to dodge the shots,well...not to escape learning the lesson but to learn it the painless way . Hmm...now that needs a lot of practice.
I have joined work in a reputed company at this place( if u had observed the title of this post a bit carefully, u wud have known this place by now) where the climate is cold, guys cool and girls hot .
More about the training life will come soon( I hope!)....keep watching this place!
Friday, July 22, 2005
The Mourning
Today morning while strolling in my garden, I found a crow lying peacefully dead in a corner. Electricity lines pass over that part of the garden,maybe it met its end while sitting on the line.
I was surprised not to find any other crow around cawing as part of its mourning ritual.Perhaps it was because it was early in the morning and they might not have noticed the absence of their fellow bird.
The sight of that poor bird which had no soul to mourn its passing away was heart-rending and I was in tears. I had heard the painful cries(caws) of that bird the previous night ,but it was too late in the night to go out and see what had happened.
It was not long before a crow spotted the dead bird and started raising an alarm. It looked as if it was telling me to do something about it. I didn't know what to do, and came back inside.Once I was in, the cawing stopped.
Later in the day, I mustered up the courage to take the dead bird and put it somewhere away from my house. When I stepped out of the house, a few crows flew out of nowhere and began cawing again. Some were even following me,screaming ,hopping from one place to another, trying to catch my attention and persuade me to do something....anything at all that would be equivalent to a respectful homage to the bird.
I carefully pushed the bird in a dust pan with the help of a broom and put it in the red-green "Makkum Kuppai ,Makkatha kuppai" bin in our locality. I don't know if that sounds respectful at all but then it was the least I could do instead of letting it rot away in the garden.
Tuesday, July 19, 2005
NE and ME- Part I
On the afternoon of May 23,we packed our bags and set out on the journey to Guwahati, Shillong and Cherrapunjee. This post about the 7 days trip is a very long one and so I am posting it in two parts- the first one about Shillong and Cherrapunjee and the second is about Guwahati and the flight travel.
We left for Shillong on the morning of 28th of May . Shillong is a hill station in the Meghalaya state,100 kms. from Guwahati. It is known as 'the Scotland of the East'. It lies to the south of Guwahati. But the road to Shillong isn’t like the typical route to a hill station…there are not many sharp hairpin bends and the roads don’t wind up on the same mountain with the valley becoming deeper and deeper as we go. There are beautiful plains in between and you seem to forget that your destination is a hill station.
We went in a Maruti Omni with a pan-chewing driver at the steering wheel who thought he was a Formula One racer. Our journey was a roller-coaster ride, thanks to him. We almost crashed into an oil tanker, when our car was speeding down the road and the oil tanker suddenly took a right turn without showing any signal (the truck drivers there have very bad road manners or should I say they didn’t have any).
Well, the rest of the journey was safe enough for us to return home in one piece. About 50 kms. from Guwahati is a place called Nangpoh. We stopped there for our breakfast at a Woodlands hotel. Actually, most of the tourist buses and vehicles stop here for food.
We resumed our trail soon and after winding up for sometime,we could see a reservoir which was shallow due to the summer. I forgot its name but it sure is a very huge one and a source of hydroelectric power. Just some distance away, the road forked with one way leading to Shillong and the other to the Shillong airport some 12 kms. from there.
By around 11 o'clock, we reached the Shillong city. And from there , the search for our hotel where we had booked the room began. After almost one hour of hotel searching and going around on the same road almost thrice, we spotted it. It was a small entrance to the staircase that led to the hotel lobby on the first floor. No wonder we missed it.
Tip : If you book the hotel room before you go to Shillong or any place for that matter, make sure you know the exact location. If not save time, it will surely give you time to see places at your leisure.
In 15 minutes, we were ready to explore Cherrapunji, which is around 60 kms. from Shillong. I think you can hire local taxis,all yellow-black Maruti 800s, for the sight-seeing.The roads to Cherrapunji are surrounded by heavenly beautiful sights. Two eyes are just not enough to feast on the beauty. It looked like one of those race tracks you see in the Need for Speed -Porsche game.
Cherrapunji is locally known as Sohra.I didn't know that and thought we had come the wrong way to some other place because our racer driver too was coming to Cherrapunji for the first time and had no idea where the falls and other places of tourist interest were. We were stopped at a place by two men. We thought it was another toll booth, but on the contrary,the booth turned out to be tourist information center and they were providing the route map with all the tourist destinations in Cherrapunji marked and their details in a brochure. Guess what, we didn't take it and were riding on the road without knowing where it leads to. Thankfully, there was a signboard which mentioned that there were 4 places to be seen there- an ecological park, Mawsmai cave, Mawsmai falls and Noh Kalikai falls.
With no idea which way to go, we thought it was a good idea to follow the taxis or cars before us, so that we can visit at least one tourist spot. One car turned left to the ecological park, but my dad said,"There would be nothing to see there but the same plants.And, who knows,it may be a park employee's car?Let's go to the falls and caves."
And again,we found another taxi to follow. This time we ended up at the right spot, the Mawsmai cave. After paying entrance fees for the people and the camera, and memorising the map of the path inside the cave, we made our way to cover an adventurous 150 metres distance inside . Seeing some people return, giving up on the trip, we had second thoughts. But then,we didn't want to waste the entrance fees. So we mustered our courage and ventured inside the dark cave.
After every step we take, we tell ourselves, "If we cannot go any further, then we shall retreat." And once we had reached almost half way, after squeezing our way through narrow openings, we said,"No matter how the way is further down the cave, we have to move forward.We cannot take that narrow way back...".
The cave was lit with enough light to make our way without stumbling. Water was dripping from the roof and it was like standing in the drizzling rain. There were stalactites above. I could take only two photos there. It was not because there wasn't enough light, but the fear ' what's the use of taking pictures if we don't get out of this cave and are stuck inside here?' nagging us. My parents spent most of the time worrying about this, while my brother went ahead of us checking to see if we can go further safely and also warning of the possible slippery areas.
All of a sudden, some 4 or 5 five-year-old local kids came screaming with joy and ran past us like a superfast train. They could easily pass through the narrow passages and didn't need to bend or push themselves as we grown ups had to. They went some distance and came back with the same speed. I thought,"Oh no! Are they returning because the way was so small that even they were not able to go through?" I was relieved to find them heading again with the same energy and later learnt that they were reliving the same adventure by doing it all over again, going to and fro the passage.
There were 2 exits. One exit needs us to bend to get out in the open, while the other was a bit high above us and requires us to use the monkey skills in us to climb out of the cave using the roots of a tree.
We were happy to be in the open again. Celebrating our victory,we came down the stairs which led to another side of entrance. We heard the voices of some people and thought they were coming from the cave. But there was noone behind us inside the cave. We later found that they belonged to a family that did not want to take the risk and so was retreating from the cave.
Then the most exciting ( and er...embarassing! ) thing happened.....my eyes locked with those of a boy( I think he is a Bengali) in that group of people. It was just for a second ...but felt like a very long time...My brain was belting out this song....
" Nazaren mili dil dhadka
meri dhadkan ne kahaa..."
Even before the line ended , I suddenly felt very cold. I thought may be it was because of getting wet in that drizzle inside the cave. But one glance behind that boy answered my question... His mother( I am damn sure ... ) was shooting ice cold stares at me....C'mon, what did I do? Why are you staring at me like that?
I tried to ignore...but then almost everyone in that family(except that boy) began to stare at me as if I have committed a sin! Well, I tried to focus elsewhere and this signboard on a shop there caught my eyes..it read" Hang ne Die. Sha Bad Ja."
I don't know what that means...the only words that make sense to me are 'hang' ,' die' and 'bad' and surely they are not good words to be understood.
Guess what! Our driver had a chat with that family's taxi driver and in no time, we were following this cool boy and his cold family to our next stop...NohKaliKai Falls.
This is where you will find this signboard...
....and this beautiful falls...
But the fog soon covered the entire view. The best time to visit Cherrapunji is in the mornings because, the fog recedes with time and you will get more spectacular views of this natural beauty.I must say now, we missed a lot many places there...
It was time to leave and head back to Shillong. On the way, there was Elephant falls(which is a part of the local sightseeing). You will know the reason why this falls is called so when you see it. The rocks on which the water cascades down appears to bear the carvings of elephants standing one behind the other. It looks like the elephants are carved out of the rock just like you see in Mahabalipuram. But these are naturally present on the rocks here.
Unforunately, because of less light (it was almost 6p.m.) and no flash , the pictures I took were of no use.
We were back in the hotel. We went out shopping at 8.00 p.m. and to our surprise and disappointment , found all the shops closed .Also the shops remain closed on Sunday.
The next day morning, we went out on the local sight-seeing to Shillong peak, Ward's lake and Lady Hydari park. Nothing very special in the lake and the park.From the Shillong peak, one could see the whole of Shillong city.This point is inside the residential quarters of the Airforce...and so it is well guarded. At the entrance,the driver's driving license is to be submitted which will be returned when leaving the place.
The lake has a cobbled track around it. One end of the lake is filled with dark pink lotuses and the rest of the lake is used for boating. It is a nice place to jog in the mornings but then it is open only after 8 a.m.
The park also has a mini zoo inside. You can find some signboards in this park stating that "the visitor-couples should maintain decent behaviour" . I also saw a couple capturing this signboard on their digicam.
We were back at home in Guwahati by 5 that evening.
If you have reached till here, then keep watching this space for more on my experiences in Guwahati....
Thursday, June 30, 2005
Sourashtra- An introduction
X: So Deepa, what language do you speak at home..English?
Me: No..
X: Hindi?
me: No..
X: Let me guess then...Tamil?
Me: No ...It is Sourashtra ..
X: Isn't that in Gujarat? But you said your native is Madurai..
Me: Yea ..but we are not Gujaratis..we are Sourashtrians....and our mothertongue is Sourashtra.
X: Really? I haven't heard of such a language before. Tell me,what does it sound like?
Me: It is like a mixture of many Indian languages like Hindi ,marathi, Tamil,Sanskrit,Guj, Bengali,etc..
X: Oh, I see! Talk something in your language...What is "What is your name ?" in Sourashtra?
Me: It is " Thorey('th' as in 'thorough') naav kaaya(last 'a' as in 'about')?"
Here X is any person(usually my classmate) I have met till now.
The above conversation has been repeated several times in my 21 years of life. I end up requesting X not to murder the language right before my eyes( or ears).
X bites and chews the sentence and finds it difficult to pronounce the word 'kaaya' properly and makes it 'kaayaa' which in Hindi means 'body'. And if X happens to be a Tamilian, he would find it funny interpreting 'kaaya' as 'kaai',which in Tamil means a raw fruit.At school,usually , the very first words they would like to know are the Sourashtra words for monkey, donkey, fool, idiot, mad etc..which they can use to call their friends. I don't understand what thrill X gets by calling his friend a fool, in an alien language...may be it increases the victim's reaction time by the ' Zor ka jhatka dheeray say lagay' effect allowing X to save his skin.
You can check out www.sourashtra.com or www.palkar.org or simply click on the title for more info about the script or the glorious past of this beautiful language also known as Palkar('kar' rhymes with 'car').
Pronunciation is very important in every language as this is what gives it individuality. With a little different way of tongue movement you can make Tamil sound like English or English like Malayalam. But pronunciation,as I understand and feel, is the backbone of Palkar, because a tiny change can completely change the meaning or even sound disrespectful.
It is hard for me to imagine what it feels like to live in a place where my neighbours, classmates ,friends and every other person around me speaks in my mothertongue i.e., like how a Tamilian would feel in TamilNadu or a Malayali in Kerala and so on. But then, it gives a sense of uniqueness in that I speak a language which very few people know about.
Let me give a sneak peek ...
Here I will represent the 'A' for the 'aa' sound and 'a' for the sound of 'a' as in 'about'.
Take for eg. jAvA... it may be a programming language but in Palkar, it means 'podi'(as in Tamil). When pronounced as java, its meaning changes to 'ponga'(Tamil).
Some who have heard people speak this language may hear many hAi's in their speech...hAi means yes in Palkar . Interestingly, it means yes in Japanese too.
The word kowla ('kow' rhymes with 'cow') means crow(bird), khovla means 'cough' , gowla means 'cheek' and ghovla means 'a recess in a wall'.
Many has two different meanings, one is 'man' and the other is 'appidinnu'(Tamil). When pronounced as Maeni with stress on 'Mae', it means 'tell'.
The beauty and uniqueness of Palkar lies in the pronouncing of two consonants simultaneously. For eg.
Lhovo(red),
rhA(wait),
nhA(no),
Lhekka(account).
Mhotto(big or huge or elder)
Most of you must have watched the Tamil thriller movie "Athey kangal". There is a song in that movie just before the climax where the hero ,heroine and their friends sing this song"Pombalai oruthi irundalam"...which has these lines sung by the heroine and co..." Dhaak kerares, Dhaak kerares,Dhaak kerares" to which the hero and his grp. reply "Dhakkunoko,Dhakkunoko,Dhakkunoko". Well, that was Sourashtra. Dhaak means fear. The girls say that they are scared and the hero tells them not to fear.
When you translate the Tamil saying " Kazhudai in male perungayam " literally, it gives a funny phrase...ghedaD holla hingu meaning ' Kazhudai in male aeruvane' or ' I will climb a donkey' :-P...
Me: No..
X: Hindi?
me: No..
X: Let me guess then...Tamil?
Me: No ...It is Sourashtra ..
X: Isn't that in Gujarat? But you said your native is Madurai..
Me: Yea ..but we are not Gujaratis..we are Sourashtrians....and our mothertongue is Sourashtra.
X: Really? I haven't heard of such a language before. Tell me,what does it sound like?
Me: It is like a mixture of many Indian languages like Hindi ,marathi, Tamil,Sanskrit,Guj, Bengali,etc..
X: Oh, I see! Talk something in your language...What is "What is your name ?" in Sourashtra?
Me: It is " Thorey('th' as in 'thorough') naav kaaya(last 'a' as in 'about')?"
Here X is any person(usually my classmate) I have met till now.
The above conversation has been repeated several times in my 21 years of life. I end up requesting X not to murder the language right before my eyes( or ears).
X bites and chews the sentence and finds it difficult to pronounce the word 'kaaya' properly and makes it 'kaayaa' which in Hindi means 'body'. And if X happens to be a Tamilian, he would find it funny interpreting 'kaaya' as 'kaai',which in Tamil means a raw fruit.At school,usually , the very first words they would like to know are the Sourashtra words for monkey, donkey, fool, idiot, mad etc..which they can use to call their friends. I don't understand what thrill X gets by calling his friend a fool, in an alien language...may be it increases the victim's reaction time by the ' Zor ka jhatka dheeray say lagay' effect allowing X to save his skin.
You can check out www.sourashtra.com or www.palkar.org or simply click on the title for more info about the script or the glorious past of this beautiful language also known as Palkar('kar' rhymes with 'car').
Pronunciation is very important in every language as this is what gives it individuality. With a little different way of tongue movement you can make Tamil sound like English or English like Malayalam. But pronunciation,as I understand and feel, is the backbone of Palkar, because a tiny change can completely change the meaning or even sound disrespectful.
It is hard for me to imagine what it feels like to live in a place where my neighbours, classmates ,friends and every other person around me speaks in my mothertongue i.e., like how a Tamilian would feel in TamilNadu or a Malayali in Kerala and so on. But then, it gives a sense of uniqueness in that I speak a language which very few people know about.
Let me give a sneak peek ...
Here I will represent the 'A' for the 'aa' sound and 'a' for the sound of 'a' as in 'about'.
Take for eg. jAvA... it may be a programming language but in Palkar, it means 'podi'(as in Tamil). When pronounced as java, its meaning changes to 'ponga'(Tamil).
Some who have heard people speak this language may hear many hAi's in their speech...hAi means yes in Palkar . Interestingly, it means yes in Japanese too.
The word kowla ('kow' rhymes with 'cow') means crow(bird), khovla means 'cough' , gowla means 'cheek' and ghovla means 'a recess in a wall'.
Many has two different meanings, one is 'man' and the other is 'appidinnu'(Tamil). When pronounced as Maeni with stress on 'Mae', it means 'tell'.
The beauty and uniqueness of Palkar lies in the pronouncing of two consonants simultaneously. For eg.
Lhovo(red),
rhA(wait),
nhA(no),
Lhekka(account).
Mhotto(big or huge or elder)
Most of you must have watched the Tamil thriller movie "Athey kangal". There is a song in that movie just before the climax where the hero ,heroine and their friends sing this song"Pombalai oruthi irundalam"...which has these lines sung by the heroine and co..." Dhaak kerares, Dhaak kerares,Dhaak kerares" to which the hero and his grp. reply "Dhakkunoko,Dhakkunoko,Dhakkunoko". Well, that was Sourashtra. Dhaak means fear. The girls say that they are scared and the hero tells them not to fear.
When you translate the Tamil saying " Kazhudai in male perungayam " literally, it gives a funny phrase...ghedaD holla hingu meaning ' Kazhudai in male aeruvane' or ' I will climb a donkey' :-P...
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
Loneliness
Loneliness… feeling alone even in a crowd… everyone must have felt lonely sometime or the other. Usually, it is due to the mood swings. But in my case, I have realized that I’m happy and cheerful during my mood swings (which occurs very rarely) and somber otherwise.
I have been alone all the time, since the day I remember. When I was very young, I was all alone until my brother was born. But we used to do only one thing together and that was fighting and hitting each other with whatever came into our hands, pulling each other’s hair, which has now thankfully, diminished to only quarreling and hurtling the choicest of words from our little Sourashtra vocabulary that we have.
Even today I feel like an alien among the earthlings. Either I am invisible to the people around me or I feel as if I am an ugly attachment to the group of people I am with, just like the hump on ‘the Hunchback of Notre dame’.
Basically, I am a very detached person… I don’t become friends with people easily and don’t even feel sad when I have to part with my friends. I need to be close to a person, like sit together in the class or something like that, for a very long time before one naturally becomes my friend. And in this instant kaapi world, this is not practical. Is that the reason why I am lonely?
In the 21 years of my life on this planet, I have realized that I unconsciously imbibe the characteristics of the people I am close to… kind of transformation of my personality to become a reflection of another person. Eeeks! Gives me the creeps!
For the above given reason, I have to choose my friends ultra carefully…someone similar to me but different. Is that a reason why I have very few friends?
I once read in a psychology book that in the late teens and early adulthood, people yearn to be accepted by their peers and are in constant search for someone who can listen to them and with whom they can talk to. Now, some very fortunate ones have their parents, usually their mother, as their first best friend. I am not close to my parents either. Our talks are limited to only information sharing and nothing like sharing of each other’s feelings… you know what I mean?
Is that the reason why many youngsters fall in love at this age? Leave the role of the hormones in attracting people of the opposite sex to each other as in the cases of ‘love at first sight’. I mean the love that blooms after the couple understand each other well enough and the umpteen number of times they keep asking themselves and the others around them…”Kya yehi pyaar hai?” only to be answered “Haan, yehi pyaar hai!”
My theory is that, when you are feeling lonely and want a person to open your heart to, the first person (or the only person) who really listens to you and shares your feelings is the person you naturally fall in love with. It’s not that you always fall in love with such a person, but there is higher probability of that understanding turning into true love, especially when the person is of the opposite sex, though it can be true friendship too. Now, it entirely depends on them.
I once read somewhere that it is in the loneliness that you become closer to God. And in my case, I found that it was true. One reason being that I haven’t found the person I talked about in the previous paragraph. So instead of falling in love, my belief in God has become stronger than ever.
I like Lord Ganesha. Whenever I pray to him, he listens to me and also grants my wishes. Well, I’ll give you a small example. This may sound very crazy or even childish, but it will give you an idea of how your true wishes will be granted if you believe in God... One day as I was going to the college, I prayed to him, ”Oh Lord! My life is so boring. Make it exciting, please!”
And that whole day my friend and I were laughing over something very unusual that happened in the morning at college. Even if I do explain what happened, no one would understand or find it funny at all ‘coz it is something that only we two share.
In an interview I saw on Sunday, Kamal Hasan said, ”A person (an artist) is never alone…he may be alone in a crowd, but he is always surrounded by his thoughts.” Now I understand… I have not been alone, after all. My thoughts have given me constant company all through my life.
And that whole day my friend and I were laughing over something very unusual that happened in the morning at college. Even if I do explain what happened, no one would understand or find it funny at all ‘coz it is something that only we two share.
In an interview I saw on Sunday, Kamal Hasan said, ”A person (an artist) is never alone…he may be alone in a crowd, but he is always surrounded by his thoughts.” Now I understand… I have not been alone, after all. My thoughts have given me constant company all through my life.
So the next time you are lonely, be happy that you are going to find light at the end of the tunnel in the form of true love or God... as for the others like me, enjoy hanging around with your thoughts!
Monday, May 02, 2005
Freedom!
Free at last!!!
Yoohooo! All the exams are over. I have completed my Graduation!!! I’m free from the dull, monotonous, lifeless life I’ve been living all these 4 years…
Prem said, ”Now, we are bachelors…Bachelors of Engineering!”
I asked, “Then what are we girls called? Spinsters?”
Both together, “Yea! Spinsters of Engineering!”
I’m quite excited and very happy… not even a teeny-weeny feeling of sadness thinking about the end of college days.
I can now always be with my boyfriend (my blog), transform into Lara Croft and gun down the bad guys, open locked doors with the magic spell ‘AloHomora!’, eat like a pig, sleep like a log…the list is unending…
Now, at this point in my life, my vision is blurred by the cloud of time. Only after this cloud passes will it be clear where I am standing… at the edge of a rocky cliff or at the bottom of the golden staircase to the zenith of my life.
In a few months, everyone would be living a completely different life.
While some would go abroad for their higher studies, others would be busy with their hectic job. Some of the girls would be promoted from the post of a daughter to that of a daughter-in-law… And so, the Life goes on…
Yoohooo! All the exams are over. I have completed my Graduation!!! I’m free from the dull, monotonous, lifeless life I’ve been living all these 4 years…
Prem said, ”Now, we are bachelors…Bachelors of Engineering!”
I asked, “Then what are we girls called? Spinsters?”
Both together, “Yea! Spinsters of Engineering!”
I’m quite excited and very happy… not even a teeny-weeny feeling of sadness thinking about the end of college days.
I can now always be with my boyfriend (my blog), transform into Lara Croft and gun down the bad guys, open locked doors with the magic spell ‘AloHomora!’, eat like a pig, sleep like a log…the list is unending…
Now, at this point in my life, my vision is blurred by the cloud of time. Only after this cloud passes will it be clear where I am standing… at the edge of a rocky cliff or at the bottom of the golden staircase to the zenith of my life.
In a few months, everyone would be living a completely different life.
While some would go abroad for their higher studies, others would be busy with their hectic job. Some of the girls would be promoted from the post of a daughter to that of a daughter-in-law… And so, the Life goes on…
Sunday, April 24, 2005
Addicted!
Yes, I’m addicted…to blogging. I simply cannot take it anymore!
My temptation to blog every time I pass by my computer is killing me.
It happens all the time with me. Whenever I start doing something interesting, which keeps me engaged for a long time, I cannot refrain myself from it. Scientists call this inertia (property of a matter by which it continues in its existing state of rest or motion unless an external force is applied)… and I totally agree!
It happened when I started playing “Minesweeper”, ”Solitaire”,“The age of empires”, “Tomb Raider”, and now, history repeats its histrionics all over again, with blogging.
I am so obsessed with “words” that I pounce upon every crossword or jumbled words game I come across and make it my mission to solve it. I must have turned more pages of my Oxford dictionary than those of the TQM and ST textbooks.
I cannot concentrate on my studies… I take the TQM book and my mind is busy finding out ways to improve the looks of my blog and the quality of my posts, to improve my vocabulary so that I use the right word in the right place. Now the Little Oxford dictionary is replaced by a larger 1092 pages Pocket Oxford dictionary, which will soon be replaced by their momma (the gigantic 1673 pages) The Concise Oxford Dictionary.
I turn to ST and again, the words in the textbook are swept off by the twister of my thoughts of testing the search bar in my blog and removing all the bugs.
Sigh!
Yeah! Yeah! I know … my blog is not going to write the exam for me and I have the whole world’s time after May 2 to do whatever I want. But I am unable to control the reins of my wild-horse mind.
There are only two possible solutions to this problem… either take control of my mind by force (which I failed to) or give in to the temptation (which I successfully have).
Since an excess of something is bad, its goodness or badness is lost once we have tasted the excess and we don’t yearn for it anymore. I’m waiting for the moment when this urge to blog boils down, after it has reached its saturation point…Hope it comes right after I post this. I'm keeping my fingers crossed...
An electron releases its excess energy in the form of light as it jumps back to its original state from its excited one. Likewise, my chaotic mental energy comes out in this form as I struggle to return to my state of normalcy.
My temptation to blog every time I pass by my computer is killing me.
It happens all the time with me. Whenever I start doing something interesting, which keeps me engaged for a long time, I cannot refrain myself from it. Scientists call this inertia (property of a matter by which it continues in its existing state of rest or motion unless an external force is applied)… and I totally agree!
It happened when I started playing “Minesweeper”, ”Solitaire”,“The age of empires”, “Tomb Raider”, and now, history repeats its histrionics all over again, with blogging.
I am so obsessed with “words” that I pounce upon every crossword or jumbled words game I come across and make it my mission to solve it. I must have turned more pages of my Oxford dictionary than those of the TQM and ST textbooks.
I cannot concentrate on my studies… I take the TQM book and my mind is busy finding out ways to improve the looks of my blog and the quality of my posts, to improve my vocabulary so that I use the right word in the right place. Now the Little Oxford dictionary is replaced by a larger 1092 pages Pocket Oxford dictionary, which will soon be replaced by their momma (the gigantic 1673 pages) The Concise Oxford Dictionary.
I turn to ST and again, the words in the textbook are swept off by the twister of my thoughts of testing the search bar in my blog and removing all the bugs.
Sigh!
Yeah! Yeah! I know … my blog is not going to write the exam for me and I have the whole world’s time after May 2 to do whatever I want. But I am unable to control the reins of my wild-horse mind.
There are only two possible solutions to this problem… either take control of my mind by force (which I failed to) or give in to the temptation (which I successfully have).
Since an excess of something is bad, its goodness or badness is lost once we have tasted the excess and we don’t yearn for it anymore. I’m waiting for the moment when this urge to blog boils down, after it has reached its saturation point…Hope it comes right after I post this. I'm keeping my fingers crossed...
An electron releases its excess energy in the form of light as it jumps back to its original state from its excited one. Likewise, my chaotic mental energy comes out in this form as I struggle to return to my state of normalcy.
Wednesday, April 13, 2005
The Accident
On the fateful day, 26 March 2005, I met with an accident.
When I was riding my bicycle, I found that it moved more effortlessly than the one I rode the previous day. I thought I would have to spend lesser energy this time.
Sigh!
We reached on the other side of the trail from where we started and waited for some other friends to join. There were 10 of us totally-Vijay, Shiva, Sudarsun, Sriram, Gopi, Balaji, Sharmila, Suchitha, Deepika and last but not the least, the most important character in this story…I, me, myself.
We thought why not get adventurous and try going on a different route, whose other end joined the road around the lake. The road we chose was in really bad shape. Not the kind inexperienced riders like me should experiment with. But my friends were used to cycling on such roads, thanks to Nanganallur, where they have spent almost their entire life.
Deepika wasn’t feeling quite well and was riding at a slow pace. Shiva, Sharmila, Balaji and Suchi went ahead leaving us behind.
This place was kind of isolated from the busy, city-like atmosphere just a few meters away. The only sound we could hear was that of our cycles and us.
We reached a junction where we had to turn left. Gopi and Sriram went first. Vijay and I were waiting for Deepika and Sudarsun. I peeped to see where we were to go only to find a sloping, muddy and black stretch of the road, full of big and small stones. I said, ”Oh! My God! We have to cross this?”
I turned back to find Deepika and Sudarsun making their way uphill slowly. I thought ‘Ok ...now, let me try and cross this. I’ll wait at the other end.’
I didn’t want to dirty my new shoes I had bought the previous day, and so told myself to try crossing without placing my foot on the ground. Now, riding on an uneven road without balancing with my foot when needed… that was a complicated task for me. But then I trusted my stars and boldly started to pedal.
I was moving fast… too fast, at which Vijay, amazed by my speed (that’s one adjective no one can associate with me), commented “Hey! Fasta porae?”
The very next moment…the sound of clanging metal and my scream, ”Aaaah!”
I think just then Sudarsun and Deepika reached where Vijay was standing, only to see me flat on the ground.
I had fallen flat on my face. For a minute, I didn’t understand what happened.
The first thought that ran in my head was- I didn’t want to dirty my shoes and now I am completely wet and muddy from top to bottom.
As I tried to get up, something fell out of my mouth, which I managed to catch it at the right time. The one thing I feared…and it turned out to be true…Yes, it was my TOOTH!
‘Good Heavens! What is going on???’
By then, Vijay dropped his cycle and ran towards me. I showed him the white thing on my palm, still unable to believe that it was indeed my tooth, ”Is this a tooth?”
But it slipped off his palm before he could see it.
My thoughts were speeding away as if they were all on a superhighway and running away screaming ‘the –world –is –going -to –end-run-run’
I was horrified when I realized that I had broken my tooth.
I started crying in pain, not the physical pain, but the pain that I had no answer to my questions, especially the last one:
How will I go to college on Monday and meet the placement head?
How will I attend the interview?
Now, who will marry me?
Oh! No! God, Why me?
I was bleeding. Thank God! There was a house nearby and a hand pump behind it. As I cleaned my mouth and spat the water out, I feared some more pieces of my teeth would fall along. I struggled to see some white pieces of teeth on the ground but was relieved to find that only one tooth was broken.
Deepika was trying to console me saying, ”Nothing happened, don’t worry. Everything will be fine,” She was chanting, ”Om Namah Shivaya”. As she said later, that was the only prayer she could remember then.
I could see nothing but darkness lying in my future. My only worry was- how on earth could I attend the interview in this condition?
Even the old lady who was living in that house repeated the same thing that Deepika had said. She suggested that we take a taxi to the Van Allen Hospital in the town.
By the grace of God, some guys who came across that way helped call a taxi and in a few minutes, Sudarsun, Deepika and I were on our way to the hospital.
It was dark by then, and being new to this place we had no idea where the taxi driver was taking us. We reached the hospital after what seemed like a long nightmare of fears.
Sudarsun met a person inside and explained that I had met with an accident and I needed help.
The person asked him, ”Does the patient need a wheelchair?”
I thought ’ What! A wheelchair? Thank God, I didn’t need one.’
Sudarsun replied that wheelchair was not required and asked where the doctor was.
The person said that she was in the ICU.
On hearing the term ICU, Deepika was shocked,” What? The ICU?”
We waited in a room where the nurse there examined my wounds and said that I had cut my lips, but a suture wouldn’t be necessary. I was relieved and thanked God ‘Ahh! No stitches!’
In the mean time, in the place where I fell down, there were only three people and they had to return 6 cycles to the place where we had rented them.
Gopi was the hero, as he could successfully tow two cycles in addition to the one he was riding. Somehow they managed to return all the cycles safely.
After a long time, the doctor was located and was called to where we were waiting.
She examined me again and asked,“ Do you have the broken tooth?”
I shook my head no.
She said,” Ok, you will need just one stitch on the lip.”
I thought’ What!!?’
I asked her,” Is there any way to treat this wound without a suture?”
Doctor: Yes, it is possible, but that will take longer to heal. It is better to go for a suture.
Me: Then will you give me local anesthesia, please…
Doctor: Ok.
And then she turned to the nurse and asked her to prepare for the tiny operation procedure.
As I was made to lie on the bed in the mini operation theatre, I observed a thin white pipeline on the ceiling with the word “Oxygen” painted on it. That rang a bell in my head…Yes, I remember, I have read about such pipelines to the operation theatres in ‘Coma’, the novel by Robin Cook.
Before starting the procedure, the doctor asked me again if really needed anesthesia.
Doctor: If I stitch without anesthesia it will pain only once. But with anesthesia it will pain twice, once for injecting it and next time when I stitch.
I said ok and opted to proceed without the anesthesia. She promised that if the pain were unbearable then she would use it.
She covered my face with a green cloth, which had an opening for my mouth. She explained step by step, what she was doing, to assure me that it would be over soon.
As the needle pierced through my lips for the first time, she told that there was one more left and then it would all be over. I felt like a fish caught by the fishing hook.
I waited for another piercing…and then the operation ended.
I felt like I had won a battle ...really! A stitch without anesthesia …that seemed like an achievement for me! I felt stronger and more confident than ever.
It was a pleasant surprise for me to know that I could bear so much pain with such ease.
One thing I observed all this time was that I was very calm (except for my unanswerable questions) and my thought process was much more clear than the two angels with me. (May be because I believed what Deepika had told me earlier…it’s just a tooth!) They were too confused to do a thing right. Later Deepika told me that they had indeed become so tensed that they didn’t know what to do. Yeah, I understand… had I been in their place, I would have been rooted to the ground like a statue.
As I came out of the hospital to return to the hotel, I saw the view on the left.
The dark blue mountains bathed with the moonlight above. It reminded me of a dream that I had seen a long time ago. In the dream I saw myself on the top of a hill under a very huge statue of Jesus Christ and the full moon above flooded the valley with its light. And just some time ago, Deepika had showed me the picture of a baby with some words in Tamil under it… I don’t remember the words but it roughly meant that Jesus is with you through all your troubles.
I couldn’t hold back my tears…did that dream actually tell me that I was to meet with an accident? I strongly believe that everything happens with a purpose. But I never thought that my belief would prove itself like this.
When I entered the hotel with Deepika holding me tightly in her arms, I saw Meenakshi walking towards us. And as she came closer, her eyes widened in disbelief. Soon she came over it and hurried to get our room key.
Once in the room, I couldn’t wait to change my wet and soaking dress. The bathroom mirror showed me something I should live with forever in my life… the front tooth, shattered and robbed of its existence, screaming out to me that the tooth is a mere mortal but the proof of its mortality is immortal.
Soon m’am and sir were in our room. Both were shocked to see my condition. Deepika told them” Nothing happened, Sir. It’s just a tooth. It can be restored.“
Sir repeated it in a questioning tone ”It’s just a tooth?” Maybe he could foresee my future then… it’s not ‘just’ the tooth, it’s the tooth itself that matters.
I was so overwhelmed to see the way everyone took care of me that it made me cry. I can never be so caring. Later, after the campfire, one by one my classmates came to see me and wish me ‘get well soon’. I could talk with some difficulty. I told what happened and flashed a toothless smile. At one point, we seriously thought of collecting 10 rupees per visitor. We would have been richer by a few hundred rupees. I had a good time being the center of attraction for some time. I took a snap with some of the visitors. I also took a snap with team that rescued me. The photos would be uploaded in a week or two.
Rajesh kept warning me,” There are people around you now to share your sadness. But you won’t have them every time you need them… so don’t get depressed.”
I said, ” Depressed? Not at all!”
But every time I see my teeth in the mirror, I cannot help but get depressed.
They say that some things or turning points in your life completely change your viewpoint and the way you look at life. It has in my case, literally… before, I used to observe other’s eyes, and now I notice their teeth first!
When I was riding my bicycle, I found that it moved more effortlessly than the one I rode the previous day. I thought I would have to spend lesser energy this time.
Sigh!
We reached on the other side of the trail from where we started and waited for some other friends to join. There were 10 of us totally-Vijay, Shiva, Sudarsun, Sriram, Gopi, Balaji, Sharmila, Suchitha, Deepika and last but not the least, the most important character in this story…I, me, myself.
We thought why not get adventurous and try going on a different route, whose other end joined the road around the lake. The road we chose was in really bad shape. Not the kind inexperienced riders like me should experiment with. But my friends were used to cycling on such roads, thanks to Nanganallur, where they have spent almost their entire life.
Deepika wasn’t feeling quite well and was riding at a slow pace. Shiva, Sharmila, Balaji and Suchi went ahead leaving us behind.
This place was kind of isolated from the busy, city-like atmosphere just a few meters away. The only sound we could hear was that of our cycles and us.
We reached a junction where we had to turn left. Gopi and Sriram went first. Vijay and I were waiting for Deepika and Sudarsun. I peeped to see where we were to go only to find a sloping, muddy and black stretch of the road, full of big and small stones. I said, ”Oh! My God! We have to cross this?”
I turned back to find Deepika and Sudarsun making their way uphill slowly. I thought ‘Ok ...now, let me try and cross this. I’ll wait at the other end.’
I didn’t want to dirty my new shoes I had bought the previous day, and so told myself to try crossing without placing my foot on the ground. Now, riding on an uneven road without balancing with my foot when needed… that was a complicated task for me. But then I trusted my stars and boldly started to pedal.
I was moving fast… too fast, at which Vijay, amazed by my speed (that’s one adjective no one can associate with me), commented “Hey! Fasta porae?”
The very next moment…the sound of clanging metal and my scream, ”Aaaah!”
I think just then Sudarsun and Deepika reached where Vijay was standing, only to see me flat on the ground.
I had fallen flat on my face. For a minute, I didn’t understand what happened.
The first thought that ran in my head was- I didn’t want to dirty my shoes and now I am completely wet and muddy from top to bottom.
As I tried to get up, something fell out of my mouth, which I managed to catch it at the right time. The one thing I feared…and it turned out to be true…Yes, it was my TOOTH!
‘Good Heavens! What is going on???’
By then, Vijay dropped his cycle and ran towards me. I showed him the white thing on my palm, still unable to believe that it was indeed my tooth, ”Is this a tooth?”
But it slipped off his palm before he could see it.
My thoughts were speeding away as if they were all on a superhighway and running away screaming ‘the –world –is –going -to –end-run-run’
I was horrified when I realized that I had broken my tooth.
I started crying in pain, not the physical pain, but the pain that I had no answer to my questions, especially the last one:
How will I go to college on Monday and meet the placement head?
How will I attend the interview?
Now, who will marry me?
Oh! No! God, Why me?
I was bleeding. Thank God! There was a house nearby and a hand pump behind it. As I cleaned my mouth and spat the water out, I feared some more pieces of my teeth would fall along. I struggled to see some white pieces of teeth on the ground but was relieved to find that only one tooth was broken.
Deepika was trying to console me saying, ”Nothing happened, don’t worry. Everything will be fine,” She was chanting, ”Om Namah Shivaya”. As she said later, that was the only prayer she could remember then.
I could see nothing but darkness lying in my future. My only worry was- how on earth could I attend the interview in this condition?
Even the old lady who was living in that house repeated the same thing that Deepika had said. She suggested that we take a taxi to the Van Allen Hospital in the town.
By the grace of God, some guys who came across that way helped call a taxi and in a few minutes, Sudarsun, Deepika and I were on our way to the hospital.
It was dark by then, and being new to this place we had no idea where the taxi driver was taking us. We reached the hospital after what seemed like a long nightmare of fears.
Sudarsun met a person inside and explained that I had met with an accident and I needed help.
The person asked him, ”Does the patient need a wheelchair?”
I thought ’ What! A wheelchair? Thank God, I didn’t need one.’
Sudarsun replied that wheelchair was not required and asked where the doctor was.
The person said that she was in the ICU.
On hearing the term ICU, Deepika was shocked,” What? The ICU?”
We waited in a room where the nurse there examined my wounds and said that I had cut my lips, but a suture wouldn’t be necessary. I was relieved and thanked God ‘Ahh! No stitches!’
In the mean time, in the place where I fell down, there were only three people and they had to return 6 cycles to the place where we had rented them.
Gopi was the hero, as he could successfully tow two cycles in addition to the one he was riding. Somehow they managed to return all the cycles safely.
After a long time, the doctor was located and was called to where we were waiting.
She examined me again and asked,“ Do you have the broken tooth?”
I shook my head no.
She said,” Ok, you will need just one stitch on the lip.”
I thought’ What!!?’
I asked her,” Is there any way to treat this wound without a suture?”
Doctor: Yes, it is possible, but that will take longer to heal. It is better to go for a suture.
Me: Then will you give me local anesthesia, please…
Doctor: Ok.
And then she turned to the nurse and asked her to prepare for the tiny operation procedure.
As I was made to lie on the bed in the mini operation theatre, I observed a thin white pipeline on the ceiling with the word “Oxygen” painted on it. That rang a bell in my head…Yes, I remember, I have read about such pipelines to the operation theatres in ‘Coma’, the novel by Robin Cook.
Before starting the procedure, the doctor asked me again if really needed anesthesia.
Doctor: If I stitch without anesthesia it will pain only once. But with anesthesia it will pain twice, once for injecting it and next time when I stitch.
I said ok and opted to proceed without the anesthesia. She promised that if the pain were unbearable then she would use it.
She covered my face with a green cloth, which had an opening for my mouth. She explained step by step, what she was doing, to assure me that it would be over soon.
As the needle pierced through my lips for the first time, she told that there was one more left and then it would all be over. I felt like a fish caught by the fishing hook.
I waited for another piercing…and then the operation ended.
I felt like I had won a battle ...really! A stitch without anesthesia …that seemed like an achievement for me! I felt stronger and more confident than ever.
It was a pleasant surprise for me to know that I could bear so much pain with such ease.
One thing I observed all this time was that I was very calm (except for my unanswerable questions) and my thought process was much more clear than the two angels with me. (May be because I believed what Deepika had told me earlier…it’s just a tooth!) They were too confused to do a thing right. Later Deepika told me that they had indeed become so tensed that they didn’t know what to do. Yeah, I understand… had I been in their place, I would have been rooted to the ground like a statue.
As I came out of the hospital to return to the hotel, I saw the view on the left.
The dark blue mountains bathed with the moonlight above. It reminded me of a dream that I had seen a long time ago. In the dream I saw myself on the top of a hill under a very huge statue of Jesus Christ and the full moon above flooded the valley with its light. And just some time ago, Deepika had showed me the picture of a baby with some words in Tamil under it… I don’t remember the words but it roughly meant that Jesus is with you through all your troubles.
I couldn’t hold back my tears…did that dream actually tell me that I was to meet with an accident? I strongly believe that everything happens with a purpose. But I never thought that my belief would prove itself like this.
When I entered the hotel with Deepika holding me tightly in her arms, I saw Meenakshi walking towards us. And as she came closer, her eyes widened in disbelief. Soon she came over it and hurried to get our room key.
Once in the room, I couldn’t wait to change my wet and soaking dress. The bathroom mirror showed me something I should live with forever in my life… the front tooth, shattered and robbed of its existence, screaming out to me that the tooth is a mere mortal but the proof of its mortality is immortal.
Soon m’am and sir were in our room. Both were shocked to see my condition. Deepika told them” Nothing happened, Sir. It’s just a tooth. It can be restored.“
Sir repeated it in a questioning tone ”It’s just a tooth?” Maybe he could foresee my future then… it’s not ‘just’ the tooth, it’s the tooth itself that matters.
I was so overwhelmed to see the way everyone took care of me that it made me cry. I can never be so caring. Later, after the campfire, one by one my classmates came to see me and wish me ‘get well soon’. I could talk with some difficulty. I told what happened and flashed a toothless smile. At one point, we seriously thought of collecting 10 rupees per visitor. We would have been richer by a few hundred rupees. I had a good time being the center of attraction for some time. I took a snap with some of the visitors. I also took a snap with team that rescued me. The photos would be uploaded in a week or two.
Rajesh kept warning me,” There are people around you now to share your sadness. But you won’t have them every time you need them… so don’t get depressed.”
I said, ” Depressed? Not at all!”
But every time I see my teeth in the mirror, I cannot help but get depressed.
They say that some things or turning points in your life completely change your viewpoint and the way you look at life. It has in my case, literally… before, I used to observe other’s eyes, and now I notice their teeth first!
Tuesday, April 05, 2005
Kodaikanal-An unforgettable trip!
When I heard about the tour plans to visit Kodaikanal, I was eager to be a part of the excursion. The reason - I wanted to relive my 12th std. tour. The memories of that tour are still fresh in my mind. All the 26 students of our class went and enjoyed every moment of the 3 days journey and sightseeing in Thekkady and Kodaikanal.
I thought this time too we all would have a blast and cherish those moments for life.
Now, I think I have had a bigger blast than I had ever imagined…and thus made it the most memorable of all the excursions I have ever been on with my friends.
I will come to the “memorable” part later.
On the D-day, 24 March 2005, everyone was ready with packed bags and full of energy to dance and scream during the 12-hour travel in the bus.
And here, Meenakshi and I were waiting for our technical interview at AU.
Meens was sure not to miss out on the fun even if it meant traveling with her friend and joining
the others at Kodaikanal the next day. But I had left it to my fate to decide if I am going or not. If I do get to join the party, well and good. If not, then I will spend the 3 days blogging. Anything was fine with me.
Everyone was waiting for our arrival at Tambaram right from 2.30 p.m.
We had our interviews scheduled for 4.00 p.m. and 4.30 p.m.
Every now and then we got a phone call asking if our interview was over and if not when would it start, how long it will take, and ‘all-the-best’ wishes.
As usual there was a delay of one hour before our turn came, and as I came down the stairs after my interview at around 6.15 p.m. I saw Meens talking to Rajesh over the mobile. The expression on her face screamed out that all had lost their patience waiting for us and we had to hurry…I mean HURRY!
We ran for our lives towards the exit gate in AU, wondering how everyone would react when they see us…we could imagine all shouting at the top of their voices, but we didn’t really know ‘what’ they would say…a joyous welcome like “Yayyyy! They have come!” or “Hmph! They have come!”, mumbling curses under their breath.
After a long time, bargaining with the auto driver, we were on our way to Tambaram. We swept our purses clean, fishing out every rupee note and coin to pay the auto fare.
As we reached our destination, we were relieved to hear the former welcome statement accompanied by a good applause by our friends. We felt like heroes…to be precise, heroines.
By 7.30.pm., we were on our way to Kodaikanal, leaving all the tensions behind us.
I found that everyone in the bus was more exhausted than us. Obviously, waiting under the hot sun for 5 hours would drain anybody’s enthusiasm.
As we all were settling in the tour mood, a group of friends started chatting with our M’am about our dreams, ambitions and how the past 4 years at college has ruined us intellectually.
That was when I was surprised to find that Rajesh, the most popular guy in our department, and I think alike. And that too just 5 days before the last day at college! Sigh!
Later, at around 9 or 10 p.m., we heard from the AU volunteer that I was ‘almost’ selected at TI. Now, I didn’t know what that ‘almost’ meant…was it like I almost got the job and there is still another interview to attend, or that I almost got selected but didn’t make it. Neither did he.
Pushing that thought into ‘I-will-think-about-it-later’ box in my head, I was looking forward to seeing Kodai.
25,March 2005.
Early morning the next day, there was a feast waiting for my eyes. As I woke from my slumber, I saw we were going uphill, leaving the hot and steaming terra firma behind us into the land of icy-cold-minus-the-ice, 2030 meters above the sea level.
We checked into the hotel, which was the very next door to where I had stayed with my school friends during the trip here 4 years ago.
By around 11 a.m., all were ready to go sightseeing.
The first spot we stopped at was what they called a “waterfall”.
Well, just because water falls and cascades down the rocks, it cannot be termed as a waterfall. It was nothing but gutter water making its way down to some river. Since the slippery rocks gave one the ‘adventure factor’, many were trying to get to the top most point possible and take snaps.
The next stop was at Dolphin Nose. The road to reach this place gives you a tummy rolling drive in your vehicle. But we were in the safe hands of a seasoned driver with 15 years of experience driving on such roads…so no worries. The Dolphin Nose is the edge of a cliff, which has a few rocks jutting out resembling a dolphin’s nose.
The view was breathtaking…literally. By the time you reach down to see the Dolphin Nose, you are out of breath. I hope I got some really good snaps of that view. I’ll post them all when they are ready.
Beyond this point there is another place called Echo Rock. I didn’t go there.
It took half an hour or more and an Amul Badam milk and a coconut water to reach back to the top. The amazing thing I noticed was that the roots of the trees lining the path down to that point posed as a flight of stairs…and a very strong one at that! Mother Nature!
After an adventurous trekking, we made our way back to the town, had lunch and got ready for the next thing to do- boating and cycling.
We went on boating first…in a boat that wouldn’t move how much ever force Vijay and Sudarsun applied on the pedals. I was the navigator. Deepika was the passenger.
We couldn’t go far enough in the lake…our time was up by then and the rescue boat and other staffs of the boating club were calling us again and again, distracting Vijay’s and Sudarsun’s attention from their concentrated efforts to pedal.
Then we went to get our cycles for rent and go on a 5 kms. trail around the lake. It was dark by the time we returned, so we decided to come again the next day… Now I feel that it was not a good decision. You’ll know why.
Later in the evening, on calling our placement head, I learnt that I had been called for the HR interview at 7.30 p.m. the previous day but I had already left by then. This meant I had to meet her at college on Monday and know the details about when and where I have to attend the interview. God! Help me!
26,March 2005
The next day again we left the hotel at 11 a.m. for this place called Silent Valley.
This place was really beautiful. From the edge of the rock we were standing on, we could see the colorful flora down below, which looked like the florets of a cauliflower.
Also the face of the rock is so steep that the clouds hitting the rock are pushed upwards like the smoke of a chugging train. It looks like a chimney and someone is cooking such a big feast down there that the smoke never stops coming.
I was trying out my photographic skills to capture the sheer beauty of the valley, which I really hope comes out well.
The next place we visited was the ‘Thoppi Thooki Paarai’. Given the right pressure and temperature, the cap thrown from this point will come back like a boomerang. I thought there would be vendors, selling caps for 5 or 10 rupees and refunding us if we succeeded in our attempt to bring out the aborigine in us. But surprisingly, there were none. Maybe this was not the season for throwing caps.
I witnessed another of Nature’s innumerable miracles! From a particular position there, one can see the profiles of 3 human faces etched out on the steep face of the rock. The topmost one being that of a child’s, below that of an old man with a crooked nose and further below a middle-aged man’s profile. It was as if someone had actually climbed down there and carved out those figures on the hard rock. Unfortunately I couldn’t capture it on my camera as the sturdy rock shied away behind the curtains of the cottony white clouds.
Further down the road there was Berinjam Lake. This place is a real beauty with the mountains bordering the lake. The banks of the lake make a typical background for a romantic Hindi song where the hero and the heroine run around the trees and slide down the slopy bank covered with dry but soft leaves. But the presence of the pitch-black ravens was an eyesore… or was it a sign of something bad waiting for me..?
A few hours later, we were back in the town with our cycles. Then the dreadful happened … I met with an accident. But I won’t go into the details now else I’ll spoil the image of the ethereal beauty I created before your eyes.
I couldn’t attend the campfire due to the accident. Deepika and Sudarsun reached late only to find the others boarding the bus to come back to the hotel. That was like splashing a bucket of freezing cold water on Deepika ‘coz she had planned long before what dress and accessories to wear for the campfire.
At midnight, we celebrated the birthdays of two friends- Kanchana and Anitha Jasmine. We created so much noise that we had to be warned by the hotel staff to close the door before screaming.
27,March 2005:
We checked out of our rooms by 10 in the morning. We were to go shopping at the local market and visit Pillar rock and suicide point before leaving for Madurai.
There was nothing to see at Pillar rock as the rock itself was covered with clouds.
The same was the case with the suicide point. But I did notice some difference from the last time I saw this place, 4 years ago.
Then: There were banners here and there to make the people coming here with the intention of suicide, change their minds .For e.g. Just before you reach the suicide point, there was a huge board, which said, ”Jesus loves you”.
Now: There is a huge hoarding of a jeans brand with the words …believe it or not…”No Escape”.
Then: The end of the flight of stairs led to a space with just a small wall with no other barrier.
Now: The suicide point has lost its meaning ‘coz it no longer seems to be a place where one can suicide without being distracted from the home made chocolates or the wooden showpieces. So
Many tiny shops have mushroomed up that the authorities would have to consider extending the ‘suicide point’ to accommodate them to prevent any accidents due to overcrowding in the shops.
Then: I remember a group of people cheering a couple of very ‘busy’ monkeys who were used to the humans peeping into the privacy of their open bedroom.
Now: I saw a monkey and its young one, symbolizing the universal bond of a mother and a child. This time I photographed it. Hmmm…I wonder if it is the same monkey I mentioned above.
Time to come down the slopes of everlasting beauty…
We stopped at this place with a funny name, Batlagunda, I suppose, for lunch. That was when the driver of our bus started bickering about going to Madurai Meenakshi temple, as that would delay our journey back to Chennai. At last, we decided to go to the Samayapuram temple near Trichy. We had a good darshan of the Lordess and I reached home contented that the trip was “fine” and I managed to be back in ‘one piece’.
I thought this time too we all would have a blast and cherish those moments for life.
Now, I think I have had a bigger blast than I had ever imagined…and thus made it the most memorable of all the excursions I have ever been on with my friends.
I will come to the “memorable” part later.
On the D-day, 24 March 2005, everyone was ready with packed bags and full of energy to dance and scream during the 12-hour travel in the bus.
And here, Meenakshi and I were waiting for our technical interview at AU.
Meens was sure not to miss out on the fun even if it meant traveling with her friend and joining
the others at Kodaikanal the next day. But I had left it to my fate to decide if I am going or not. If I do get to join the party, well and good. If not, then I will spend the 3 days blogging. Anything was fine with me.
Everyone was waiting for our arrival at Tambaram right from 2.30 p.m.
We had our interviews scheduled for 4.00 p.m. and 4.30 p.m.
Every now and then we got a phone call asking if our interview was over and if not when would it start, how long it will take, and ‘all-the-best’ wishes.
As usual there was a delay of one hour before our turn came, and as I came down the stairs after my interview at around 6.15 p.m. I saw Meens talking to Rajesh over the mobile. The expression on her face screamed out that all had lost their patience waiting for us and we had to hurry…I mean HURRY!
We ran for our lives towards the exit gate in AU, wondering how everyone would react when they see us…we could imagine all shouting at the top of their voices, but we didn’t really know ‘what’ they would say…a joyous welcome like “Yayyyy! They have come!” or “Hmph! They have come!”, mumbling curses under their breath.
After a long time, bargaining with the auto driver, we were on our way to Tambaram. We swept our purses clean, fishing out every rupee note and coin to pay the auto fare.
As we reached our destination, we were relieved to hear the former welcome statement accompanied by a good applause by our friends. We felt like heroes…to be precise, heroines.
By 7.30.pm., we were on our way to Kodaikanal, leaving all the tensions behind us.
I found that everyone in the bus was more exhausted than us. Obviously, waiting under the hot sun for 5 hours would drain anybody’s enthusiasm.
As we all were settling in the tour mood, a group of friends started chatting with our M’am about our dreams, ambitions and how the past 4 years at college has ruined us intellectually.
That was when I was surprised to find that Rajesh, the most popular guy in our department, and I think alike. And that too just 5 days before the last day at college! Sigh!
Later, at around 9 or 10 p.m., we heard from the AU volunteer that I was ‘almost’ selected at TI. Now, I didn’t know what that ‘almost’ meant…was it like I almost got the job and there is still another interview to attend, or that I almost got selected but didn’t make it. Neither did he.
Pushing that thought into ‘I-will-think-about-it-later’ box in my head, I was looking forward to seeing Kodai.
25,March 2005.
Early morning the next day, there was a feast waiting for my eyes. As I woke from my slumber, I saw we were going uphill, leaving the hot and steaming terra firma behind us into the land of icy-cold-minus-the-ice, 2030 meters above the sea level.
We checked into the hotel, which was the very next door to where I had stayed with my school friends during the trip here 4 years ago.
By around 11 a.m., all were ready to go sightseeing.
The first spot we stopped at was what they called a “waterfall”.
Well, just because water falls and cascades down the rocks, it cannot be termed as a waterfall. It was nothing but gutter water making its way down to some river. Since the slippery rocks gave one the ‘adventure factor’, many were trying to get to the top most point possible and take snaps.
The next stop was at Dolphin Nose. The road to reach this place gives you a tummy rolling drive in your vehicle. But we were in the safe hands of a seasoned driver with 15 years of experience driving on such roads…so no worries. The Dolphin Nose is the edge of a cliff, which has a few rocks jutting out resembling a dolphin’s nose.
The view was breathtaking…literally. By the time you reach down to see the Dolphin Nose, you are out of breath. I hope I got some really good snaps of that view. I’ll post them all when they are ready.
Beyond this point there is another place called Echo Rock. I didn’t go there.
It took half an hour or more and an Amul Badam milk and a coconut water to reach back to the top. The amazing thing I noticed was that the roots of the trees lining the path down to that point posed as a flight of stairs…and a very strong one at that! Mother Nature!
After an adventurous trekking, we made our way back to the town, had lunch and got ready for the next thing to do- boating and cycling.
We went on boating first…in a boat that wouldn’t move how much ever force Vijay and Sudarsun applied on the pedals. I was the navigator. Deepika was the passenger.
We couldn’t go far enough in the lake…our time was up by then and the rescue boat and other staffs of the boating club were calling us again and again, distracting Vijay’s and Sudarsun’s attention from their concentrated efforts to pedal.
Then we went to get our cycles for rent and go on a 5 kms. trail around the lake. It was dark by the time we returned, so we decided to come again the next day… Now I feel that it was not a good decision. You’ll know why.
Later in the evening, on calling our placement head, I learnt that I had been called for the HR interview at 7.30 p.m. the previous day but I had already left by then. This meant I had to meet her at college on Monday and know the details about when and where I have to attend the interview. God! Help me!
26,March 2005
The next day again we left the hotel at 11 a.m. for this place called Silent Valley.
This place was really beautiful. From the edge of the rock we were standing on, we could see the colorful flora down below, which looked like the florets of a cauliflower.
Also the face of the rock is so steep that the clouds hitting the rock are pushed upwards like the smoke of a chugging train. It looks like a chimney and someone is cooking such a big feast down there that the smoke never stops coming.
I was trying out my photographic skills to capture the sheer beauty of the valley, which I really hope comes out well.
The next place we visited was the ‘Thoppi Thooki Paarai’. Given the right pressure and temperature, the cap thrown from this point will come back like a boomerang. I thought there would be vendors, selling caps for 5 or 10 rupees and refunding us if we succeeded in our attempt to bring out the aborigine in us. But surprisingly, there were none. Maybe this was not the season for throwing caps.
I witnessed another of Nature’s innumerable miracles! From a particular position there, one can see the profiles of 3 human faces etched out on the steep face of the rock. The topmost one being that of a child’s, below that of an old man with a crooked nose and further below a middle-aged man’s profile. It was as if someone had actually climbed down there and carved out those figures on the hard rock. Unfortunately I couldn’t capture it on my camera as the sturdy rock shied away behind the curtains of the cottony white clouds.
Further down the road there was Berinjam Lake. This place is a real beauty with the mountains bordering the lake. The banks of the lake make a typical background for a romantic Hindi song where the hero and the heroine run around the trees and slide down the slopy bank covered with dry but soft leaves. But the presence of the pitch-black ravens was an eyesore… or was it a sign of something bad waiting for me..?
A few hours later, we were back in the town with our cycles. Then the dreadful happened … I met with an accident. But I won’t go into the details now else I’ll spoil the image of the ethereal beauty I created before your eyes.
I couldn’t attend the campfire due to the accident. Deepika and Sudarsun reached late only to find the others boarding the bus to come back to the hotel. That was like splashing a bucket of freezing cold water on Deepika ‘coz she had planned long before what dress and accessories to wear for the campfire.
At midnight, we celebrated the birthdays of two friends- Kanchana and Anitha Jasmine. We created so much noise that we had to be warned by the hotel staff to close the door before screaming.
27,March 2005:
We checked out of our rooms by 10 in the morning. We were to go shopping at the local market and visit Pillar rock and suicide point before leaving for Madurai.
There was nothing to see at Pillar rock as the rock itself was covered with clouds.
The same was the case with the suicide point. But I did notice some difference from the last time I saw this place, 4 years ago.
Then: There were banners here and there to make the people coming here with the intention of suicide, change their minds .For e.g. Just before you reach the suicide point, there was a huge board, which said, ”Jesus loves you”.
Now: There is a huge hoarding of a jeans brand with the words …believe it or not…”No Escape”.
Then: The end of the flight of stairs led to a space with just a small wall with no other barrier.
Now: The suicide point has lost its meaning ‘coz it no longer seems to be a place where one can suicide without being distracted from the home made chocolates or the wooden showpieces. So
Many tiny shops have mushroomed up that the authorities would have to consider extending the ‘suicide point’ to accommodate them to prevent any accidents due to overcrowding in the shops.
Then: I remember a group of people cheering a couple of very ‘busy’ monkeys who were used to the humans peeping into the privacy of their open bedroom.
Now: I saw a monkey and its young one, symbolizing the universal bond of a mother and a child. This time I photographed it. Hmmm…I wonder if it is the same monkey I mentioned above.
Time to come down the slopes of everlasting beauty…
We stopped at this place with a funny name, Batlagunda, I suppose, for lunch. That was when the driver of our bus started bickering about going to Madurai Meenakshi temple, as that would delay our journey back to Chennai. At last, we decided to go to the Samayapuram temple near Trichy. We had a good darshan of the Lordess and I reached home contented that the trip was “fine” and I managed to be back in ‘one piece’.
Saturday, April 02, 2005
I'm Back
Hello! I’m back after a busy and hectic month…. not that it is the end of the financial year. But because it’s the end of our college days (sounds like Arnold’s End of Days? I think it is.).
Last month was very EVENTFUL…Trust me!
Let me give you the chronology of the events: -
Feb end-Mar first week I was suffering from Measles.
Mar 10-11 W -Campus Interview at AU.
Mar 14 Thanksgiving
Mar 19 Project Exhibition
Mar 21 Farewell at Kishkinta
Mar 23-24 TI –Campus Interview at AU
Mar 24-27 Tour
Apr 1-2 Model Exams
Mar 26-Present Recovery from the accident I met with on Mar-26…Oh no! Not that “number-8-and-its-catastrophic –effects” again!
Each event is eventful in itself. I’ll post the stories one by one in random order.
Last month was very EVENTFUL…Trust me!
Let me give you the chronology of the events: -
Feb end-Mar first week I was suffering from Measles.
Mar 10-11 W -Campus Interview at AU.
Mar 14 Thanksgiving
Mar 19 Project Exhibition
Mar 21 Farewell at Kishkinta
Mar 23-24 TI –Campus Interview at AU
Mar 24-27 Tour
Apr 1-2 Model Exams
Mar 26-Present Recovery from the accident I met with on Mar-26…Oh no! Not that “number-8-and-its-catastrophic –effects” again!
Each event is eventful in itself. I’ll post the stories one by one in random order.
Friday, February 25, 2005
Bear with me!
I hate to see that blank expression of boredom on the faces of the people with whom I’m talking. It has always been that way my whole life.
I don’t know if they are unable to understand my words or what I’m talking about….or whether I fail to put my thoughts in proper words …..or what I speak is higher than their level of understanding (please don’t mind this egocentric opinion).
Whatever is the case, I end up promising myself every time that I’ll never open my mouth again. But, promises are made to be broken…and the history repeats itself. Sometimes, I wait till I’m sure the person is capable of listening to me or at least ready to do so.
That’s why I keep quiet….I don’t have the right person to talk to. This creates an illusion in the people’s mind that I’m very calm, patient, studious, blah..blah..blah…
Once Ashutosh Rana (Bollywood actor…he usually plays the villain) was asked why he always speaks in Hindi. He replied that one should speak in the language in which he thinks.
I still can’t figure out in what language I think…coz I don’t think in words …in think in pictures…any experience gets recorded as a video in my head. And actors in that movie clip speak the same language as they do in the real life…e.g., if the incident were at college then they would speak in English or Tamil..it would never get dubbed in my mother tongue (Sourashtra)…also, no subtitles.
That’s why you could hear more of explanation of the background situation than the real incident in my conversation, which transforms it into the ultimate lullaby!
I try to explain or put what I see in my head into words, trying to relive the whole experience as well as trying to paint the whole picture before the other person’s eyes (coz that’s how I listen to and understand others…converting the words into a motion picture) . …and there… I find the person’s eyes watering, putting his best efforts to control his yawn.
The worst situation is when my jokes fall flat on their faces, bouncing off them and hitting me hard! OUCH!!! That really hurts!
My brain is a Theatre…I just sit there munching popcorn, watching the latest releases as well as the classics of my memories on the?? mm. Screen( I don’t know the size of my mind’s display screen) through the projector ( my mind’s eye).
I wish I could invite you all to watch my movies (I play the lead in every movie!!!). But, until someone invents a gadget that can convert the electrical impulses of the neurons into the electrical signals of video…you are destined to bear with my boring stories and me.
I don’t know if they are unable to understand my words or what I’m talking about….or whether I fail to put my thoughts in proper words …..or what I speak is higher than their level of understanding (please don’t mind this egocentric opinion).
Whatever is the case, I end up promising myself every time that I’ll never open my mouth again. But, promises are made to be broken…and the history repeats itself. Sometimes, I wait till I’m sure the person is capable of listening to me or at least ready to do so.
That’s why I keep quiet….I don’t have the right person to talk to. This creates an illusion in the people’s mind that I’m very calm, patient, studious, blah..blah..blah…
Once Ashutosh Rana (Bollywood actor…he usually plays the villain) was asked why he always speaks in Hindi. He replied that one should speak in the language in which he thinks.
I still can’t figure out in what language I think…coz I don’t think in words …in think in pictures…any experience gets recorded as a video in my head. And actors in that movie clip speak the same language as they do in the real life…e.g., if the incident were at college then they would speak in English or Tamil..it would never get dubbed in my mother tongue (Sourashtra)…also, no subtitles.
That’s why you could hear more of explanation of the background situation than the real incident in my conversation, which transforms it into the ultimate lullaby!
I try to explain or put what I see in my head into words, trying to relive the whole experience as well as trying to paint the whole picture before the other person’s eyes (coz that’s how I listen to and understand others…converting the words into a motion picture) . …and there… I find the person’s eyes watering, putting his best efforts to control his yawn.
The worst situation is when my jokes fall flat on their faces, bouncing off them and hitting me hard! OUCH!!! That really hurts!
My brain is a Theatre…I just sit there munching popcorn, watching the latest releases as well as the classics of my memories on the?? mm. Screen( I don’t know the size of my mind’s display screen) through the projector ( my mind’s eye).
I wish I could invite you all to watch my movies (I play the lead in every movie!!!). But, until someone invents a gadget that can convert the electrical impulses of the neurons into the electrical signals of video…you are destined to bear with my boring stories and me.
Boring.
BORING….
We all must have felt bored or at least bored others sometime or the other. I’ve heard it too often lately.
My life is booooorrrrriiiiiiing! I’m bored of getting bored .It seems my cousin too gets bored every time.
I wonder how the word ‘bore’ came to mean dullness…
Maybe because when you are dull, you think of nothing. … nothing at all. Even if you do think of something, you don’t even know you are thinking about it…know what I mean? You enter a state of mind where there is a very thin line between consciousness and unconsciousness…. you easily drift between the two …
You keep looking at something and not see it at all…your eyes open wider, pupils dilate….your vision actually bores into the things that are right before you….there! Got the B-word? That’s the reason why that feeling is called Boredom(as in ‘kingdom’-country where the king or the queen rules), the state of mind ruled by the action of boring your eyes through everything in your field of vision.
A few suggestions to fight boredom ….
Read my blog!!! (Hey…stop rolling your eyes and making faces like that!).
Close your eyes and go down the memory lane (I’m sure we’re experts at doing that even with our eyes wide open).
Warning: Do this at your own risk…coz if you get into your funny experiences of the past and start smiling alone, people’s behavior towards you may change drastically.
Go to sleep and dream. I can say one thing for sure….. Dreams will never bore you.( In the future , you will read a lot about the dreams I have had. In fact, I’m toying with the idea of creating a blog exclusively for posting all my dreams).
Pray to God to make your life exciting…Believe me! It really works!!!
Now, I’m getting bored of all this boring stuff about boring… YAWN!!
We all must have felt bored or at least bored others sometime or the other. I’ve heard it too often lately.
My life is booooorrrrriiiiiiing! I’m bored of getting bored .It seems my cousin too gets bored every time.
I wonder how the word ‘bore’ came to mean dullness…
Maybe because when you are dull, you think of nothing. … nothing at all. Even if you do think of something, you don’t even know you are thinking about it…know what I mean? You enter a state of mind where there is a very thin line between consciousness and unconsciousness…. you easily drift between the two …
You keep looking at something and not see it at all…your eyes open wider, pupils dilate….your vision actually bores into the things that are right before you….there! Got the B-word? That’s the reason why that feeling is called Boredom(as in ‘kingdom’-country where the king or the queen rules), the state of mind ruled by the action of boring your eyes through everything in your field of vision.
A few suggestions to fight boredom ….
Read my blog!!! (Hey…stop rolling your eyes and making faces like that!).
Close your eyes and go down the memory lane (I’m sure we’re experts at doing that even with our eyes wide open).
Warning: Do this at your own risk…coz if you get into your funny experiences of the past and start smiling alone, people’s behavior towards you may change drastically.
Go to sleep and dream. I can say one thing for sure….. Dreams will never bore you.( In the future , you will read a lot about the dreams I have had. In fact, I’m toying with the idea of creating a blog exclusively for posting all my dreams).
Pray to God to make your life exciting…Believe me! It really works!!!
Now, I’m getting bored of all this boring stuff about boring… YAWN!!
Feeling Sick...
I’m feeling sick for the past few days ….I guess that’s because I was struck by the wrath of the Sun God.
I was drying my long, silky hair the natural way…. under the sun (very good for healthy hair), after a long time now (I used to postpone the half-hour, backbreaking ritual for the evenings).
I felt as if I was struck by a lightning ….I was feeling very cold, even in the 1 o’clock afternoon sun.
I don’t know about the others… but there are a few symptoms that I have observed before I usually go down with fever…
My body aches as if I’m suffering Atlas’s pain …
Every joint in my body creaks like the rusted hinges of an old, haunted house…
Burning eyes….
Once I even sensed hot air blowing out of my ears, making me feel like a steam engine (toot-toot!)…
Feeling tired even after a good sleep…
When I was a child, I used to catch cold so often that by now I must be immune to almost every possible form of the common cold virus(touch wood!).
Now, before you start pitying me for my not-so-good health record, let me reveal a fact.
Fever is not a sign of ill health…in fact; it shows how strong your body’s immune system is against the disease causing microorganisms. There is literally a “Clash of the Titans” (of the microbial world, of course) going on inside the body. This is the reason why the temperature gets hotter as the war gets more and more intense.
That means …I’ll just have to wait till my WBCA (White Blood Cells Army) return victorious.
Hey! I think I hear the Trumpets of Triumph…am gonna join the party!!!
I was drying my long, silky hair the natural way…. under the sun (very good for healthy hair), after a long time now (I used to postpone the half-hour, backbreaking ritual for the evenings).
I felt as if I was struck by a lightning ….I was feeling very cold, even in the 1 o’clock afternoon sun.
I don’t know about the others… but there are a few symptoms that I have observed before I usually go down with fever…
My body aches as if I’m suffering Atlas’s pain …
Every joint in my body creaks like the rusted hinges of an old, haunted house…
Burning eyes….
Once I even sensed hot air blowing out of my ears, making me feel like a steam engine (toot-toot!)…
Feeling tired even after a good sleep…
When I was a child, I used to catch cold so often that by now I must be immune to almost every possible form of the common cold virus(touch wood!).
Now, before you start pitying me for my not-so-good health record, let me reveal a fact.
Fever is not a sign of ill health…in fact; it shows how strong your body’s immune system is against the disease causing microorganisms. There is literally a “Clash of the Titans” (of the microbial world, of course) going on inside the body. This is the reason why the temperature gets hotter as the war gets more and more intense.
That means …I’ll just have to wait till my WBCA (White Blood Cells Army) return victorious.
Hey! I think I hear the Trumpets of Triumph…am gonna join the party!!!
Sunday, February 13, 2005
Two of a kind!
Yesterday, when I was surfing the T.V channels I caught a glimpse of this song featuring Sharmila Tagore and Shammi Kapoor. That one scene was enough for me to guess the movie’s name though I had never watched it before----An evening in Paris. The movie was being aired on that channel as part of the Valentine’s Day week celebration.
Now what’s so special about this movie????
Well…. the heroine’s name is Deepa!!!
This is the first movie I have ever seen in my life where the female lead’s name is Deepa. I was thrilled to hear every character in this movie calling out my name…mmmmmm…it was like honey to my ears…..!
The villain (played by Pran) switches the original Sharmila with her twin sis which our ‘ever clever- ever smart’ hero finds out eventually.
Hey!!! That rings a bell in my head…
I always wondered if someone like me was around creating confusion in people’s minds about me…. that she does all the things for which I am blamed. Creepy!
I got into a BIG trouble in my first year at college for doing some imaginary mischief that I wouldn’t even think of in my wildest dreams. My classmates too couldn’t believe me being accused of such a thing. Those who know about it will understand.
For the others, I will tell that story some other time.
A lecturer asked me if I had a sister who had studied here in this college.
A junior of mine said that she knows a girl who looks just like me.
They say there are totally seven people in this world who look like each other…in other words, there are 7 copies of the same object probably in different memory spaces…. and no object knows the existence of its copy elsewhere (refer OOPS to know more about objects).
That makes me think ….. the world’s population is then 7 times of what it actually should be. Genius!!!
O.k. . Till I find a way to find our natural clones keep watching this space to ponder over the mysteries our Universe has to offer us through my blogs...!
Now what’s so special about this movie????
Well…. the heroine’s name is Deepa!!!
This is the first movie I have ever seen in my life where the female lead’s name is Deepa. I was thrilled to hear every character in this movie calling out my name…mmmmmm…it was like honey to my ears…..!
The villain (played by Pran) switches the original Sharmila with her twin sis which our ‘ever clever- ever smart’ hero finds out eventually.
Hey!!! That rings a bell in my head…
I always wondered if someone like me was around creating confusion in people’s minds about me…. that she does all the things for which I am blamed. Creepy!
I got into a BIG trouble in my first year at college for doing some imaginary mischief that I wouldn’t even think of in my wildest dreams. My classmates too couldn’t believe me being accused of such a thing. Those who know about it will understand.
For the others, I will tell that story some other time.
A lecturer asked me if I had a sister who had studied here in this college.
A junior of mine said that she knows a girl who looks just like me.
They say there are totally seven people in this world who look like each other…in other words, there are 7 copies of the same object probably in different memory spaces…. and no object knows the existence of its copy elsewhere (refer OOPS to know more about objects).
That makes me think ….. the world’s population is then 7 times of what it actually should be. Genius!!!
O.k. . Till I find a way to find our natural clones keep watching this space to ponder over the mysteries our Universe has to offer us through my blogs...!
Learning from the Nature
I was reading “The Da Vinci Code”.
There’s this concept of Nature worship.
I’m now slowly realizing why people worship nature…and I fear I may turn into a Nature worshipper in the near future.
We have a small garden in the backyard of our house. The tomato plant has yielded about three small basketsful of tomatoes.
A tomato plant can yield only tomatoes! So …what’s the big deal!?
A rotten tomato has now transformed into a huge tomato manufacturing plant.
Moral of the story…we can use the rotten tomatoes in many ways, for instance,
Shoot a few of them at the people you hate…or
The simplest way… work every muscle in your face to show your disgust at the ‘fragrance’, make some eerie sounds displaying the talents hidden in your voice box and run at your top speed, with the “thing” dangling dangerously between your thumb and index finger, to the nearest garbage bin.
But, squeeze it in a patch of moist ground …. Lo and Behold! A new life creeping out of the Mother Nature’s womb.
Going onto the next level of philosophy..Everything lies in your hands ….you are in total control of your life.
If you feel something is not right then you can MAKE it right ….think positive …see the sunrays peeping out through the clouds, not the black clouds. And who knows. …someday you will become a star shining into other people’s lives.
Another lesson I learnt from my garden is that some big things come in small packages.
There was this plant growing in a corner, its leaves looked like those of a radish but had yellow flowers. It had grown 2-3 feet tall. The beautiful yellow flowers reminded me of the “ sarson ka khet”. Only later I found that it was indeed a mustard plant.
No one would ever believe that one teeny-weeny seed could be hiding a plant as big as this.
We human beings are very similar to this mustard seed. There are so many dreams, ambitions ….one lively spirit inside this physical body that many of us don’t even care to see or listen to. And also it depends on the environment that we live in that decides our fate. …whether it can create an atmosphere where every latent talent( see the wordplay?) is woken from its slumber or dies with the seed, unrecognized.
I once saw a poster at a departmental store…it said to listen ..listen to the world around you…every little thing has something to say…listen to the breeze ..to the silence ..listen to them and you will get answers to all your questions.
Try it!
There’s this concept of Nature worship.
I’m now slowly realizing why people worship nature…and I fear I may turn into a Nature worshipper in the near future.
We have a small garden in the backyard of our house. The tomato plant has yielded about three small basketsful of tomatoes.
A tomato plant can yield only tomatoes! So …what’s the big deal!?
A rotten tomato has now transformed into a huge tomato manufacturing plant.
Moral of the story…we can use the rotten tomatoes in many ways, for instance,
Shoot a few of them at the people you hate…or
The simplest way… work every muscle in your face to show your disgust at the ‘fragrance’, make some eerie sounds displaying the talents hidden in your voice box and run at your top speed, with the “thing” dangling dangerously between your thumb and index finger, to the nearest garbage bin.
But, squeeze it in a patch of moist ground …. Lo and Behold! A new life creeping out of the Mother Nature’s womb.
Going onto the next level of philosophy..Everything lies in your hands ….you are in total control of your life.
If you feel something is not right then you can MAKE it right ….think positive …see the sunrays peeping out through the clouds, not the black clouds. And who knows. …someday you will become a star shining into other people’s lives.
Another lesson I learnt from my garden is that some big things come in small packages.
There was this plant growing in a corner, its leaves looked like those of a radish but had yellow flowers. It had grown 2-3 feet tall. The beautiful yellow flowers reminded me of the “ sarson ka khet”. Only later I found that it was indeed a mustard plant.
No one would ever believe that one teeny-weeny seed could be hiding a plant as big as this.
We human beings are very similar to this mustard seed. There are so many dreams, ambitions ….one lively spirit inside this physical body that many of us don’t even care to see or listen to. And also it depends on the environment that we live in that decides our fate. …whether it can create an atmosphere where every latent talent( see the wordplay?) is woken from its slumber or dies with the seed, unrecognized.
I once saw a poster at a departmental store…it said to listen ..listen to the world around you…every little thing has something to say…listen to the breeze ..to the silence ..listen to them and you will get answers to all your questions.
Try it!
Friday, February 11, 2005
Thank You Mini!
Hello and Welcome to my World!
Well...before I start my sermon I would like to thank Meenakshi for revealing to me the power of the blog world.
Power? If a blog could motivate a lazy person like me to get up and going to express my thoughts and myself the way they are…. then it could be called ‘the divine force’ or ‘the ultimate eye-opener’…
Not that I hadn’t heard of blogs. But it’s not until you see something up close and personal that you realize it’s significance.
I had created a blog long back, but didn’t quite know what to do with it.
I had felt the lack of a person who would listen to my silly, hi-fi and creative ideas and me, be as wacky and out-of-this-world as I am.
Some have their diaries as their confidante. But writing a diary is very boring, you lose out your interest by the time your pen’s nib touches the paper..and for a person like me it is a waste of time.
Also I need to take great care of keeping it safe from the prying eyes of my brother, which is an energy draining exercise in itself.
Now I have regained the motivation I had lost 4 years ago.
THANK YOU Meens!
I wish you had told me about your blog earlier.
Your blog has inspired me to create one of my own .
Even the title of my blog is adapted from yours(“Here I am”)
…remember the Bryan Adams’ song
Here i am
this is me
there’s no where else on earth
i could possibly be….
It truly is a new world and a new start for me!
Well...before I start my sermon I would like to thank Meenakshi for revealing to me the power of the blog world.
Power? If a blog could motivate a lazy person like me to get up and going to express my thoughts and myself the way they are…. then it could be called ‘the divine force’ or ‘the ultimate eye-opener’…
Not that I hadn’t heard of blogs. But it’s not until you see something up close and personal that you realize it’s significance.
I had created a blog long back, but didn’t quite know what to do with it.
I had felt the lack of a person who would listen to my silly, hi-fi and creative ideas and me, be as wacky and out-of-this-world as I am.
Some have their diaries as their confidante. But writing a diary is very boring, you lose out your interest by the time your pen’s nib touches the paper..and for a person like me it is a waste of time.
Also I need to take great care of keeping it safe from the prying eyes of my brother, which is an energy draining exercise in itself.
Now I have regained the motivation I had lost 4 years ago.
THANK YOU Meens!
I wish you had told me about your blog earlier.
Your blog has inspired me to create one of my own .
Even the title of my blog is adapted from yours(“Here I am”)
…remember the Bryan Adams’ song
Here i am
this is me
there’s no where else on earth
i could possibly be….
It truly is a new world and a new start for me!
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