Confused Soul

The perfect moment!

2011-10-04T21:04:00.006+05:30

This picture was taken from my office a few days ago. What a beautiful view of the sun setting.. I went back a couple of minutes later and this perfect view was gone. It was still very beautiful, but just not as awesome. Even earlier today, I happened to catch glimpse of the sun just before it set, bright reddish-orange in colour.. glowing! A second later, it was gone!

It just made me think, how important timing is, in our lives. One moment early, or a moment late, and that moment has passed. The effect is just not the same. A word of encouragement said at the right moment is worth more than a few hours' of motivational lectures when it's not needed. A smile or hug from a friend when you're feeling blue, will offer more solace than a river of comforting words later.

Just a thought. :)

Tucked in! :)

2011-10-02T13:32:00.002+05:30

The best feeling in the world - being tucked in bed with a rajai early in the morning, not wanting to move at all - even to reach out to the AC remote to switch it off, listening to the rain outside.. The loud thunder, the gentle pitter patter of rain drops.. and the feeling that the weather outside is much better than it actually is, 'cos your room's cold :D Feels like heaven, doesn't it?

Just when you feel like you're in dream land, reality strikes - your alarm rings and you have to wake up and get ready for work. You'd rather go outside and get drenched in the rain!! It's high time the work from home option got introduced! Aah well. At least you had a beautiful start to the day! :)

Interesting phenomenon! :)

2011-10-01T12:11:00.001+05:30

You learnt a new word while reading a book. Now, that word seems to appear everywhere!

You randomly read about a certain event last week. Yesterday that very event was the topic of discussion at your team lunch. And today, you've received an email about it from some random source!

You heard about this company that your friend works for, which you had never heard of before. Suddenly, the name of the company seems to be in every article or magazine you read! And to top it all, you realise that you actually cross this company on your way home everyday, but never noticed!

Do these instances sound familiar? Atleast to me, they do! And it's actually a widely discussed phenomenon. (I can't recall the name though!)

Anything new you come across, starts crossing your path again and again! I used to wonder why this happens, and how it's possible! It then struck me, that it's no big deal, it's just got to do with how the human brain works. It's not like you wouldn't have come across the new term earlier, but now that it has come to your notice, you pay attention to it every time you hear or read about it. You would not have spotted it or realised that you had seen it earlier, 'cos you didn't know about it!

The best part about this phenomenon - now that you've read about it, be sure that you'll come across it somewhere else, very soon! ;)

It happens only in India :)

2010-03-22T19:07:00.001+05:30

We often complain about a lot of things that aren't alright in India. Sometimes we wish that India was more developed and that things were better or more organised. But behind all the imperfections lie certain experiences that we all truly cherish... some of which make life a little more exciting!

We complain about the bad roads and water logging in the rainy season... but don't we have memories of paper boats, playing in the water and taking a ride on the road just to see the water splish-splash? We complain about not having electricity at times... but do we not have memories of having unexpected candle light dinners with family, making shapes with our hands and projecting them on the wall? Where else can you make a local call for as low as 10p/min? Where else can you still buy a toffee for 50p? Where else can you play cricket on the street and get away with situps for breaking your neighbour's window? We complain about infrastructure... but where else can you find a handy cobbler or tailor right across your house on the street, in every locality? Where else can you say that the yummiest chaat is the roadside chaat? :D And on a lighter note, even if you are late anywhere, you can always blame it on the traffic ;)

We might have a lot of things that need improvement... but there are certain other things that we cannot find anywhere else in the world :) I love my India :)

Names changed on request!

2009-09-10T11:22:00.004+05:30

You must've have come across this phrase while reading articles in a magazine or newspaper. Usually, when it is a real life story with certain personal or embarrassing details, the actual name of the person isn't divulged and another random name is used. At the bottom of the article there is one single note for all the changed names as the newspapers have to mention it to ascertain it's genuineness. Hence, when you read the article, you go with the flow and you don't care about the names used, 'cos even if the names are common, in all likelihood you wouldn't know the person mentioned in the article. And you don't care.

That makes sense.

But many a time I come across articles where the sentence goes like this.

"Ramya, an electrical engineering student from BITS (name changed on request), was walking back to her hostel after class when..." This would probably be followed by a few other people whose names had been changed and this would be mentioned in brackets for every name changed, all in the same article.

I find this a little stupid, and frankly I don't understand the purpose of mentioning it every time, instead of just writing it once in small print at the end of the article. Somehow I find myself concentrating more on the names of the people than the incident itself while reading the article. And then I start commenting on why they had to use such a weird name, with a pseudo initial as well! There are so many nice and pleasant names, but no, they find the most obscure names on the planet and print it.

Just a random post - I'm just amused that at times, I concentrate more on the names than the actual important content in the article. ;)

Sorry? Ejjjaaaaclty! :P

2009-06-16T13:53:00.000+05:30

For those who don't know, this is a famous dialogue from the movie Salaam Namaste. The context isn't important, and it's not like it made much sense in the movie anyway, hehe. What I'm going to write about is completely unrelated to the above, however, this is the best title I could think of for my post.

These days all of us use earphones a lot, though we know that they damage our ear drums and our hearing abilities will deteriorate over time. I've also read that the usage of ear phones increases the bacteria in our ears 700-fold! I even see young children aged 7-8 using earphones.

I was wondering... since this trend has begun only with our generation, no one has really seen what earphone usage will do to us when we get old. Or may be we won't have to wait to grow that old to find out. But we still use it anyway. (I do too. Not so much these days but I used to.)

I guess it won't be long before our hearing will become such that if anyone said anything to us, we would say, "Sorry?" And then...The little earphone devil would say "Ejjjaaaactly.. what I was hoping would happen to you!!"

:P

Dear Sir or Madman...

2009-06-03T15:24:00.000+05:30

I came across some actual blunders made by job seekers in Reader's Digest.. they're hilarious!

- I am sure you have looked through several resumes with the same information about work experience, education, and references. I am not going to give you any of that stuff.

- My mother delivered me without anaesthesia, so I have an IQ of 146 and can therefore learn anything.

- I realize that my total lack of appropriate experience may concern those considering me for employment.

- I have integrity, so I will not steal office supplies and take them home.

- Please don't regard my 14 positions as job-hopping. I never once quit a job.

- I'm attacking my CV for your review.

- I realized that my resume is no longer exemplary thanks to my family destroying the computer file.

- Here are my qualifications for you to overlook.

- Thank you for your consideration. Hope to hear from you shorty!

Happy Birthday Soleil :D

2009-04-10T12:27:00.000+05:30

Soleil realised in semester x that Confused Soul and Cookie Monster were cousins.

Clue 4: In RVR, go to level x and find dudette x.

=)

Do these questions have answers?

2008-09-10T08:57:00.000+05:30

I read this poem somewhere:

If I knew it would be the last time that I'd see you fall asleep,
I would tuck you in more tightly, and pray the Lord your soul to keep.
If I knew it would be the last time that I'd see you walk out the door,
I would give you a hug and kiss, and call you back for just one more.

If I knew it would be the last time I'd hear your voice lifted up in praise,
I would tape each word and action, and play them back throughout my days
If I knew it would be the last time, I would spare an extra minute or two,
To stop and say "I love you," instead of assuming you know I do.

So just in case tomorrow never comes, and today is all I get,
I'd like to say how much I love you, and I hope we never will forget.
Tomorrow is not promised to anyone, young or old alike,
And today may be the last chance you get to hold your loved one tight.

So if you're waiting for tomorrow, why not do it today?
For if tomorrow never comes, you'll surely regret the day
That you didn't take that extra time for a smile, a hug, or a kiss,
And you were too busy to grant someone, what turned out
to be their one last wish.

So hold your loved ones close today, and whisper in their ear,
That you love them very much, and you'll always hold them dear.
Take time to say "I'm sorry," "Please forgive me," "Thank you" or "It's okay",
And if tomorrow never comes, you'll have no regrets about today.

They say you should always leave loved ones with loving words, 'coz you never know.. it may be the last time you see them. But is that how life works? Every day of your life when you talk to your family, friends, etc., is this what you think about? If you have an argument with someone and you decide to give the other person time to cool down before you talk again, is that not contradictory to what I first said? Or do these feelings come in only when you do lose someone and then fade away? Do we actually have the time these days to think about all this? Should we even think about all this? Should we not live life to fullest?

They say life is short.. is it really? If you've lived 20 years, isn't that a long long time? They say you shouldn't let little things bother you.. they say you must forgive and forget.. If you're upset because of someone or something for one day, is that bad? If 20 years is a long time, how small is one day? How can you live everyday just being happy? They say you should everyday as if it was your last.. Can you do that? If people say things to you and don't behave well, should you let that go? What happens to your feelings? You give someone time to get alright, but even during that time, doesn't it matter to you how that person behaves? Isn't life made up of little things anyway? And if they say life is short, then every little thing should count, right?

What is life really all about?

Don't worry, be happy!

2008-09-06T11:54:00.001+05:30

Sometimes I wonder why things that happen in our lives, happen at all. 'Coz some of these things change your life entirely - may be forever. You wish that some things never happened, or certain other things happened - but what we always forget is that if everything happened our way, wouldn't life become too predictable and boring? You would just say "I want it that way" and it would happen - no, that's not what life is all about. You need to experience unexpected things and derive excitement and happiness from those things, cos if there are no chanllenges, there's no excitement. Challenges come in 3 categories - easy, difficult, impossible. Those who take on the easy alone have a boring and staright forward life. Those who take on the difficult have a tough but satisfying life. Those who take on the impossible are remembered forever! (I read this quote somewhere) Always remember - all that happens, happens for good. If God does not give you everything you want, it is because there is a reason behind it - and it is for your good. Time will teach you everything, even if you don't understand it at the moment. 'Coz time is the greatest healer..

The return of Confused Soul.. :P

2008-07-28T13:55:00.000+05:30

It's been exactly a year since my last post. I don't really know why - I guess I just lost interest in blogging, or 'cos there were other things happening in my life, or as always, I didn't know what to blog about :) But now I'm back, and I hope to continue blogging the way I used to!

What really inspired this post was my trip to Banaras (also known as Varanasi), in UP. I went there with my mom and her mom - my granny, cos my granny wanted to take me to a few temples in and around Banaras. And I must say it was an eye-opening experience. I don't have any pictures with me unfortunately, I wish I had taken some.

~The roads, if I could call them that, were just pure mud. Stones and puddles all over, it was a complete mess. And such narrow streets! I wonder how people manage to drive there! And I am surprised people there haven't turned deaf - every single vehicle on the streets honks continuously.

~Traffic - my definition of it in Banaras: It's an ocean full of fish swimming in all directions - you find your way through and try not to get hit. Lol.. It was pretty hilarious.

~Temples. People go there with so much devotion, but the way everything has become so commercial, it is really sad. You can't visit any temple in peace. Right from the time you are half a km away from the temple, pandits come to you from nowhere and follow you till you reach the temple, offering you a good darshan in a short time, buying all the necessary items for the pooja, etc. There are a million shops selling things that are offered to God - prasad, flowers, milk, coconut, etc. and all the vendors call out to you to go and buy from their shop. You just cannot enter the temple in peace. As if this is not bad enough, you have beggars before you enter the temple, inside the temple, and when you are out, asking you for money. There are some who say they sweep the temple and so ask for money. Don't we put enough in hundis for the management of the temple? Then they say things like you will get a good spouse, make good money in business if you give them money. The problem is also that if you give any one needy person a few coins, the rest will come crowd around you. Everything has become so commercialized - it was a sad sight.

~Tourists. All the Indians treat tourists like they are Gods or some aliens from outer space. I wonder what impression they get of India. All the Indians try to make as much money from the tourists and I wonder if they resort to cheating them in doing so, by giving them false information or charging them exorbitant amounts. At the station, this foreigner was taking snaps of a little girl cleaning the railway tracks.

~Train arrival announcements. My train was late by a couple of hours. While we were waiting at the station, each train's arrival brought with it - *Ting ting ting*, then the announcement in Hindi, then in English, repeated atleast twelve times each! When the current went off a couple of times, I was so happy! Lol.. But it came back in a minute each time.. The announcements were really very annoying.. they were too loud, and were made too many times. And there was absolutely no mention about my train being late for the two hours that we waited. We were wondering if we had missed the train or something.

India is such a beautiful place. It has so much to offer in terms of culture and traditions, monuments, temples, etc. It has already become such a popular tourist destination. Rajasthan was full of tourists when I went there. I hope the government takes steps to put some systems into place, and to make potential tourist spots clean and organized, with good systems into place for tourists to get reliable information and to get bookings done. And when it comes to Indian devotees visiting temples and the like, I hope something is done so that we can have hassle-free and peaceful visits to religious places.

Mummy... it's over!

2007-07-29T00:32:00.000+05:30

Yesterday was the last day of my two-month long internship at IBN. In a way, I was really happy that I wouldn't have to go to work anymore, but another part of me knew I would miss the place terribly.. and the fun I had during my internship.. both at IBN and at NUS..

I'm going to miss sleeping after midnight, most often at 1-2 and then snoozing the alarm a hundred times in the morning! Taking the NUS shuttle bus and then waiting for the Biopolis one next to NUH.. Waking up late on weekends and having lots of fun! Coming back from work and going swimming, playing cards, going out for dinner or for a movie, or simply watching movies on the comp.. [I've lost count of how many I've watched this summer!]

I'll miss the fun times at IBN.. the friends I made there over the course of two months.. a couple of whom I got really close to.. I wonder if I'll ever see them again, coz one of them lives in the US. It's a strange feeling, when you see someone everyday for 2 months, discuss your everyday events with them.. only to realize that you might never see that person again.. :( The messages that I would get the moment the clock struck 12.. saying "Lunch!! I'm hungry!".. getting my non-Indian friends to eat at Annalakshmi with me.. explaining to them what each dish was.. deciding how much to pay! Frequent visits to the IBN pantry to make milo or just to have cold water and read the newspapers.. waiting for the blessed 6 o clock.. having one hour breaks while doing an experiment [You get loads of these in research :P].. wearing my lab-coat and gloves and getting the feeling of being a dentist or something.. getting irritated when I had to do certain irritating and repetitive procedures.. getting instructions from my mentor.. talking about general stuff with her [She's only 5 years older], cracking jokes with people around..

It was a truly memorable experience.. I learnt a lot, and had fun all the same. At IBN, they don't call it 'internship'.. they call it 'attachment'.. Need I say more?

The worth of weekends!

2007-07-15T07:50:00.000+05:30

Ever since I've started interning, I've really looked forward to the weekend. I'm not implying that I get bored at work or I'm not liking it, it's just that after a 9-6 week, you look forward to: the Friday evening when you can go out, have fun and get back however late you want.. the Saturday and Sunday mornings when you can get up at noon if you wish.. the movies you can watch at the theater and not just on the comp.. the book you were half way through, you can now complete.. meet all your friends who are working too and whom you don't get to meet during the week..

I had this feeling after the very first week of work! And I know many of my friends felt the same way too.. Even during the week, I used to have fun after work - we would go swimming, have dinner and then play cards or watch a movie. It had become a sort of a routine. But still, weekends have their own charm.. During the semester whenever my dad used to ask me "So, what plans for the weekend? Or simply "What plans for Sunday?", I would go like "Nothing much, just usual, might go out for lunch or dinner".. and most often, since it would be mid-term time or exam time.. "What else but study?". I never realized the worth of weekends then. But now, after working 5 days I week, I really look forward to Friday evenings.. sometimes, I start longing for it from Wednesday itself, especially if plans had been made for the weekend in advance.

Somehow, even when I was in school, I never felt weekends were so very special. May be because school just wasn't as taxing in the lower classes, nor as long as an entire day or work at office.. And after Std.10, the weekend just meant more time to study! I can't believe it now! So I would actually look forward to the weekends in this case, but for a different reason! After having experienced a tiny bit of how work life is going to be, now I realize why my dad loves to laze around on Sundays at home. He really relaxes, in the true sense of the word. He doesn't mind if we don't go out or do anything special on Sundays, but the very fact that he gets and entire day to relax is enough. Sometimes, my mom tells me, we should go on a holiday soon, your dad hasn't had one in a while. I never realized how much my dad needed it, or the value of it, until I started working myself. The value of getting a day/week off. Of getting time alone, of getting time to relax, to spend with your family.

A short internship has taught me so much! And it's just an internship. What it is going to be like when I start working? I will just have to wait and watch! :)

Change.. finally!

2007-07-14T12:25:00.000+05:30

The much needed change in my template! :)
And so far, my shortest post :P

Whatever! :(

2007-07-10T09:50:00.000+05:30

~ Three of my sandals/slippers have snapped in the last four days. Coincidence? Just plain bad luck? The first, while I was walking towards the library. I had no choice but to carry it in my hand and walk into the library. After borrowing the book I wanted to, I asked the librarian for some tape. My sandals were fine after that, for exactly ten seconds. So I walked from the library to the bus stop holding the sandals in my hand again! About 15 people stared at me, some of them more than once (!), and one old uncle walking towards me looked at me and started laughing! I joined him! The whole thing was pretty hilarious. I was as amused at their reactions as they were about me walking barefoot, sandals in hand. I was wondering why they were so amused.. When their slippers snap, is this not what they do? I feel it is better to walk barefoot with a pair of broken slippers in your hand, than just walking barefoot on the pavement!

Coming to the second pair of sandals, one of them snapped when I was crossing the road in Holland Village, and the other, half an hour later in Clarke Quay! But this time, they had snapped such that a little bit of tape kept the sandals in walkable condition till I got back to campus.

The third - well, my bathroom slippers. All three pairs are lying in some garbage can somewhere! I guess it's high time I went footwear shopping!

~ I've been swimming at SRC for the past few days.I meet Macho Girl at the bus stop outside MPSH and we go to the pool together. I usually take the A1 from PGP, but today I decided to take the A2 since I had to return the book I borrowed the other day from Hon Sui Sen Library. Since I didn't want to keep Macho Girl waiting, I decided to do this: Get off at the biz2 stop, run quickly to the lib, put the book into the 'book drop' machine, run to the Tamasek bus stop and catch the same A2, which would take time to get there coz it would have to go through the business loop, plus I saw it caught in some kind of a mini traffic jam opposite KR. It went off as I had planned, just that I reached the Tamasek stop huffing and puffing. Finally reached the pool, only to realize that I had forgotten my costume!! Everything else was there - goggles, cap, towel, sarong, only my costume was missing. Wonderful. So much for getting almost breathless to catch that A2 and not keep MG waiting! Going to keep her waiting for a day now!

~ We booked seats for HP5 online, and then site then directed us to the online payment section. But somehow, the transaction got cancelled. So we decided to start over. But to our dismay, the seats that we had planned to book (they were good seats) now showed the status 'blocked'!! Blocked by us! But we had received no confirmation ID or anything for us to go claim it again! We felt like such fools. But luckily for us, the site said that seats get blocked if a transaction stops midway, but after 15 minutes if it is still not completed, the seats become available again. Thank God! We finally got our seats back a little later!

~ This post seriously proves the fact that I am a confused soul, doesn't it? :P And when one is talking about me, how can lame jokes not come into the picture? Cookie Monster and me had gone to Macho girl's place for dinner on Sunday. But it started raining really heavily and we were kind of stranded at her place! Haha.. So Macho suggested we stay over at her place.. but both cookie monster and me had the same problem - both of us didn't have our lens solution and couldn't sleep with it on. Macho asked if water would do. We said yes. So she said, 'There you go! We found the solution to our problem!' And immediately I pointed out the lame joke in it, and so did cookie monster.. I guess I'm getting everyone around me to think just like me! :P

07.07.07

2007-07-08T00:12:00.000+05:30

Back in school, I used to love writing such dates in my note books. I think the first one was 9.9.99 and then it came every year with 01.01.01, 02.02.02 and so on. It just looks so nice.. you can't tell the difference between the day, month or year, and it's like you're in a totally different world and time seems to have no bounds!

Anyway, this year there is something very special about this day. The new seven wonders of the world are going to be announced today - on 07.07.07 @ Lisbon, Portugal. After 2200 years of having had seven wonders of the 'ancient world', today we will have seven new wonders of the world! People from all over the world have voted for their favourite seven wonders. It has been unanimously decided that the Pyramids require no voting, and it is already one of the new seven wonders. So that leaves six more. You can see the nominees here. I voted too!There is a grand presentation ceremony which is going to happen tonight, and our very own Bipasha Basu is one of the few people presenting the awards! I so wish the Taj Mahal retains its place as a Wonder of the World! But only time will tell.. I can't wait to see the results! Well, I'll just have to keep my fingers crossed.. :)

**********************************************************************************
The resutls are out, the Taj Mahal is in! Yipee :D Congrats to India, thanks to all the people who voted for it! The Great Wall of China, Jordan's Petra, Brazil's statue of Christ the Redeemer, Peru's Machu Picchu, Rome's Colosseum and Mexico's Chichen Itza pyramid and of course, the Pyramids of Giza are the other new wonders of the world.

Truly a wonder of the world.. Forever..

Why?

2007-07-05T00:28:00.000+05:30

I realised only a few days ago that a chinese cluster mate of mine, living two rooms away from mine, is also interning where I am (IBN). I happened to see her in the Biopolis shuttle bus a few times and also in the lift at IBN. I'm pretty sure that by now, even she has realised the same thing. [Unless of course, she is totally oblivious to her surroundings! She actually helped me with a little problem I had with my lens one day just before I was leaving for work, so she's definitely seen me around!But at that time I didn't know she was interning at IBN too.]

We live in the same cluster, go to work at the same place and travel by the same bus everyday. And yet, we haven't said a 'hi' to each other or even smiled at each other! At one of our safety briefings, she was sitting in front of me, and when she turned around a couple of times and saw me, I thought I'd tell her that she was my cluster mate, but her face was totally expressionless and her body language seemed to indicate that she was not interested. So I decided against it. It's been a while now, and we still haven't spoken to each other.. I wonder why..

Is it because we are clannish and don't really like to mingle with other kinds of people?
Or is it because we have too many friends anyway and so we don't need another one?
Or we have our iPod's to keep us company on the way to work..who wants a person to talk to?
Or we just don't care about our neighbours, sometimes we don't even know who they are!
Or may be, we're just not the friendly-and-mingling-type anymore?

Milo protocol!

2007-06-30T09:00:00.000+05:30

Warning:This post will seem hilarious only if you have experienced lab work, and have undergone the various safety briefings!!

I'm currently interning at A-Star IBN (Insitute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology) at Biopolis. Today, a couple of my friends at IBN and me went to the pantry on our floor to make milo. Each floor has a pantry and each pantry has a bottle of coffee powder, milo, tea bags, creamer and sugar, and a small box of biscuits/cookies. We wanted to make the milo and freeze it, and have it later when it became a little solidified. I had tried it before and it tasted really good, so I decided to make it again, for all of us. But there was a small problem. The first time I had tried it was in my first week of internship. Today, after 4 weeks at IBN, this is what was in my mind when I made the milo..

Wear your lab coat and gloves. Spray your gloves with 70% ethanol to keep it germ-free.
Spray the table with ethanol and wipe it with tissue.
Take 4 fresh autoclaved cups from the stack of cups covered by plastic, don't take it from anywhere else! And don't forget to label your cups.
Add 25g of milo reagent to each cup.
Add 10g of creamer to each cup, but make sure you don't touch the spoon to the milo reagent that's already inside the cup. If you do, use a new spoon.
Add 10g of sucrose reagent to each cup if you want to drink hot milo. If not, add 14g, because in conditions below zero degrees, the sucrose is less effective. Make sure you don't touch the spoon around, if not use new ones.
From the water boiler, add MilliQ water to each cup.
Since u have added the same reagent to each cup, u can use the same spatula for all the cups. Vortex. Clean the spatula with the delicate 'KimWipes' and place it back.
Clean your work area with ethanol.
Spray your gloves with ethanol and also the door handle of the freezer.
Put the milo cups inside. Make sure that the pantry door is closed when you open the freezer door.
After you finish drinking the milo, please dispose off the cups in the 'general waste' bin and the gloves in the 'biohazard' bin.

One month of work and this is how I think about non-lab activities!!
And I still have 5 weeks to go..

Status messages.. on your phone?

2007-06-16T00:10:00.000+05:30

If you check my inbox/outbox during term time, most of the messages would be.. "Wru?".. "Give me another ten mins, I'll see you at your residence then.." and most importantly.. "Lunch?".."Dinner?".. Haha.. And especially if ten of you are going out for dinner from one place, like pgp, and you decide to meet at one place at a particular time, you have to message and ask each one why they aren't there yet. Lots of people may end up messaging one person, and on the other hand, someone may be left out! Haha.. haven't we experienced this before?

Given such scenarios, wouldn't it be really wonderful if we could have status messages on our phones just like we have on facebook? You can choose to display your message to one, a few, or your entire contact list if you want. And you can check the latest messages on the "Status updates" section, just like facebook. [Have I been facebooking too much? :)]

Then, in the given example of going out as a gang, you could set your status message to just those ten people as "CS is ready and is waiting at the foyer".. lol.. and if someone is late, they could write "X is almost done, will be there in 5 mins..".. Or if you decide to meet at the back gate instead of the foyer, just display it! :P It seems weird, but it is a great idea! Sometimes everyone is busy and you don't have company for lunch, you could just check your phone and see if someone you know is lunching somwhere and you could join them! But what if that person doesn't wanna have lunch with you? Well, in that case, that person would have selected you to be able to see his/her status message! Even during exam time, if you are studying in the library and you want a break, and you don't know who else is studying in the library [given that it is so huge!], you could easily set your status asking your friends if they are in the library and if they wanna go for a walk! Or if you're going to mustafa, you can tell a select few of your friends and ask them if they want anything!

Enough examples, you get the drift! I don't know if it's stupid, but it's just something I think about in certain situations.. and how helpful it would be.. This reminds me of the !dea tag line.. An idea can change your life!

Early morning blues!

2007-06-11T12:27:00.000+05:30

*Beep beep* *Beep beep*

Aah, there goes the alarm.. It's morning already?

But I'm sooo sleepy.. I wish I could sleep a little more..

Snooze..

10 mins later.. *Beep beep* *Beep beep*

10 mins up already? :O I don't believe it..I just snoozed it..
Just 10 mins more.. I don't need to wash my hair today so I can sleep a little more..
[This happens only on alternate days, since Confused soul washes her hair every second day these days, thanks to the weather.]

Snooze again..

10 mins later.. *Beep beep* *Beep beep*

Okay if I don't get up now, I won't have enough time for breakfast and I'll miss the shuttle bus, and I don't wanna be late for my internship..

The alarm is finally switched off completely and Confused Soul sits up on her bed for a while..and then gets out of bed to get ready..

The 'K' mania..

2007-05-30T02:00:00.000+05:30

Ekta Kapoor.. the lady who created the K serials.. all her serials begin with one, if not two K's [Kkusum..lol]! I stopped watching her serials ages ago.. some of them were interesting initially, but when the bitching and back-biting became unbearable, I stopped. Not only that, all her serials had similar things happening.. people dying [when they were actually alive and their family members find out only later], people losing their memory and so on..

I'm listing out a few characteristic points of her serials..

As I mentioned, the male lead dies, his family members perform all the rites and rituals with some other dead body and plunge into a state of grief. The hero has lost his memory and hence cannot get back to his family. Everybody at home asks the hero's wife to marry someone else and on the wedding day, the hero gets his memory back and behaves like a mad man, cursing everybody at home for playing such a horrible chaal [game/plot] with him.
Talking about losing memory, sometimes the hero loses his memory on purpose, when he actually has not, and he does this to find out who's ruining the family.
Only here can people sign papers without even glancing at them, and they realise it only after the property is gone!
Man1 and woman1 love each other. But man1's mom wants him to marry woman2, else she will starve herself to death. Man1 has no choice but to marry woman2 [who is usually the bitch of the serial :P]. Else man1 and woman1 get married secretly and man1's mother refuses to accept her daughter-in-law. Or even better, she accepts her in front of everyone, but has all her chaals planned out secretly so that her son leaves this woman soon and marries woman2. Lol.
There's a surprising number of children the male and female leads have. A few from one marriage, a few from another. This applies to both the man and the woman, and they get married and the house is full of children. Sometimes, the children are older than the step-mother. Then out of the blue a son crops up from nowhere and he is the illegitimate child. It's just too complicated!
The women have no other job but to bitch about someone in the family and do things to bring that person's name down. Isn't it really funny the way the ladies say 'Humaari pehli chaal kaamyaab hui..hahahahahaha(devilish laughter)'.. Lol!
How much the ladies cry! I'm pretty sure that when they hold auditions to cast the female lead and also the other actresses, they are made to shed some tears to see how well they can cry and how realistic they look! :P
The ladies are always dressed in beautiful sarees full of sequins and wear matching [and really heavy] jewellary and make-up. They go to bed with all this. Lol.
Serials keep leaping 20 years ahead, and the poor young actors get white hair so soon! And the grandma's are always alive.. immortal I think. Some of the serials have been running for 6-7 years now!

There are loads more I know, but I'll just stop my list here. I have nothing against the lady, she's out there to make money.. But I can't believe the people of India. They watch all the crap, but I do hope they don't absorb any of it. Some of the things she shows do exist in families, I agree, but most of the things don't! People actually get to learn so many horrible things by watching all this. Adults are sensible, they will probably not absorb any of this. But children? What if they start following all this nonsense when they grow up?

People actually discuss these serials and guess what's going to happen next. Don't they have anything better to talk about? From 8:30pm to 11 pm people are glued to the television. I know that the channels have to show something, but why extend the serials for years and years? Why show unrealistic things? I loved Neena Gupta's serial Saans. She only showed things that happen in families in India and in everyday life, and even the clothes that actors wore were comparable to those we wear at home. There was hardly any make-up. A few things were exaggerated here and there, but you need that much to keep the viewers' interest and to keep the serial going. Why not make serials like that? As long as people continue watching these serials, and keep the TRP's high, they will continue being aired..What's going to happen to the people who watch all these daily soaps? Are there any answers to these questions? I just wonder..

Sapodilla Allergy!

2007-05-26T00:20:00.000+05:30

Whenever my mom has a bite of sapodilla, she has some sort of an allergic reaction [or thats what we think] and her ears start itching! Lol! A teeny-weeny piece of the fruit is enough to irritate her ears! Have you ever heard of anything like that? If you have, do let me know, coz my mom is really worried that something is wrong with her! :P

I've heard of dust allergy, pollen allergy, nickel allergy, milk allergy, insect-bite allergy and other normal types of allergy.. but I had never heard of an allergy caused by a fruit, leave alone sapodilla!

My mom wanted to test if it was something to do with the cheeku, or it was some other sort of reaction. So we went to this place called Delifresh that sells fresh fruit ice creams with no preservatives and all that stuff. She tried out the cheeku ice cream.. and you guessed right, her ear-itching started again!!

She went to the ENT and got herself checked. The doctor said there was nothing to worry about and it was just some sort of a cheeku allergy. But she's not convinced.. coz she has never heard of such an allergy from anybody!

Sapodilla,Cheeku,Sapota,Safeda.. call it what you may, but the fact is this: my mom's ears don't like them! I know it's nothing serious, and so whenever this happens, I can't stop laughing! My dad has a different viewpoint though; he says it's all psychological, just to irritate her.. hehe..Poor mom! :P

First Anniversary :D A double anniversary too!

2007-05-18T22:00:00.000+05:30

I can't believe this.. It's been a year since I first started blogging!I remember how it all started.. My friends Clueless and Macho girl used to blog very often, and whenever I commented on their posts, I used a pseudo name, h2O. [There's a story behind this as well.. the board in my room always had a piece of paper saying "Drink Water" and so they named me h2O! Having said this, I can't help but tell you about another related incident. I realised that I had no pink coloured tee in my wardrobe. (Now I do!) I kept telling my friends that I would get one the next time we went shopping. Once, when all of us had gone shopping together, guess what my friends found? A pink coloured adidas tee with the words 'Drink Water'! (or 'I love water'.. I can't remember which!) What a combination! They decided to buy it for me as an advance birthday gift. But when we checked the price tag, we decided against it! Haha..] I loved their posts, and I wanted to blog too, but never really got down to doing it.

My meeting Sachin a year ago [:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D] gave me a really good reason to start blogging!! The fact that he called me up and fixed an appointment to take a picture with him.. all my friends wanted to know how it happened!! I was too bored telling the same story to every person.. so I decided to write about it and tell everybody to read it.. and that's how my blog came into existence! I've not had too many posts so far, this is only my 24th post, and I guess it's because most often I don't know what to write about!

I'm really happy though, so what if the number of posts is a little less? :P I've loved it so far and I will definitely continue, I hope I haven't bored the readers of my blog too much! Thank you for putting up with my nonsense!! Beware! There's more to come :D

Venmai..

2007-05-17T13:00:00.000+05:30

In one of my previous posts, I had said that I would write about my Venmai experience.. I’m finally going to do it now, after two whole months! What I narrate now will definitely be in some way different from what I would have written in the midst of Venmai practice or just after it got over.. It’s been a while after BC and the excitement I had then is obviously not there anymore.. Anyway, I really don’t know where to begin.. coz planning for Venmai began last semester itself.. atleast for the ex-co.. Being the Hindustani Vocal Co-ordinator, one of the very first things was to find out from the members if they were interested in performing for BC and then to select a few from them, since the number of vocalists we could accommodate on stage was limited and even the Carnatic vocalists would be there. There are so many things to write, that if I wrote it all, it would take you ages to read.. and before that, ages for me to write it! So I’ll just list out some of my memories of Venmai.. It was a wonderful experience over-all, I learnt a lot and enjoyed myself as well; and I’m glad Venmai was a huge success :D

Some of my memories with the ex-co..
• The various meetings we had where we discussed all sorts of options for various things! And me trying to crack lame elephant jokes in the middle of them :P
• Gift shopping with a few members of the ex-co.. unforgettable experience..
• Replying to Kalpana, Anuja and LP’s mails with details about this and details about that.
• Selling tickets at canteens, temples, Kent Vale, etc.. giving out flyers, getting lectures on Gods of other religions in return.. :P
• Our rule that the person who came last for any ex-co meeting would buy everybody drinks. The rule that was never executed.
• The ex-co photoshoot.. where the girls took forever to get dressed..
• The chain of mails we had after Venmai was over.. where we congratulated and thanked each other.. brought out the good and bad points of Venmai.. this chain of mails was the best part coz we really pulled each other’s legs! Someone was called a fatherly guide and someone else was being hooked up with one of the female singers by us.. lol!
• The ex-co outing that we had after Venmai.. was supposed to be a dinner outing, but turned out to be a dinner cum late night movie outing!

Some memories about Venmai in general..
• Collecting and passing on food money to the respective people in PGP.. the biggest headache of all!!
• 4-5 hour long practices and the shifting of instruments before and after practices..
• Photocopying of notes for the performers..
• Messaging/Calling Thyagu Sir before every practice to remind him about it..
• Drinking hot water before Pibare in the initial few practices so that we could reach the high notes properly!
• Messaging/Calling/Missed calling(!) performers of my group when they didn’t turn up on time for practice.
• Managing CAs and practice sessions.. and studies in general..
• Having meal-plan food outside the practice theatre with other performers..
• Starting practice late almost everyday and cribbing about it..
• The bus rides back to PGP practice.. singing songs, cracking lame jokes and getting high on plain air!
• The times we ran to catch the last bus.. the times we stood on the pavement undecided whether to take the a1 or just wait for the a2.
• The times when we walked back to PGP or simply cabbed it or when Raj Sir dropped us in his car coz we missed the last bus!
• My joy when I heard that there would be no practice on my birthday! :P
• During the practice days, singing BC songs or humming BC tunes unintentionally at various times of the day! Just an indication of how much we had praticed!
• On the day of the performance, the excitement we felt on stage 15 mins before the concert began when we heard the voices of people who had come in.
• The empty feeling on 22nd March, and even the next few days.. the feeling that something really big was missing..

Bookmarks!

2007-05-11T07:15:00.000+05:30

I've been tagged again, and this time I have to list out all the links on my bookmarks toolbar. Here goes! I'm going to list them in the order in which they appear on my toolbar.. though I didn't really set them that way.. The newest bookmarks are put at the end, though I reposition a few.. Okay, here goes..

IVLE, where I access my leture notes and everything related to our modules.
CORS, which is used only at the beginning of each semester to bid for the modules I want.
Google, I don't have to say anything about it, do I?
Google Book Search, this is useful when I have to search for information for projects.
NUS, the main page of the National University of Singapore.. when I want to search for any information pertaining to NUS, I use the search option on the site. I also use this site at home to access my NUS e-mail.
Gmail, the most frequently visited site on my list!
Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail, no comments!
MSN News, to keep myself updated on all that's happening around the world. I hardly visit this site though :P
The Hindu, where I update myself on stuff happening in India.
Wikipedia, very useful indeed :)
Oxford English Dictionary, saves me the trouble of having to browse my dictionary to look for the meaning of a word I don't know. Here it's just a click away :P
Confused Soul, my blog page!
Orkut, I was so addicted to this at one point! Luckily for me, there's some problem with my orkut now, and it doesn't open in firefox, and so I use it less often!
You tube, I use it when I am jobless, want to watch a movie or when I want to take a break while studying.
Facebook, my latest addiction :)
I can't tell you the name of this site, because my gang of friends back home and me use it to write coded messages to each other on orkut :P
Mag4u, where I used to download old hindi songs.I haven't visited this site in ages!
Papuyaar[fmw11], where I download all new hindi songs from.. actually I don't download songs these days, coz I get it from friends who've already downloaded them..so it saves me time and trouble :P
DBS internet banking, a boon!
Find Artciles, as the name suggests,but I don't think I've ever used it to find any articles for projects!
Babel Fish Translation, it's a site where you can translate a line from a particluar language to any language in the world! I've used it a couple of times for.. ahem ahem.. if you wanna know, ask me in person, I'm too shy to say it here :P
Hidden Emoticons from Yahoo! Messenger, I had searched for them once, and bookmarked it, but haven't used them ever!
Amazing Photos, this is a link that of my friends once sent me, I loved the photos and so I bookmarked them!
HyderabadiWeb, I watched an online movie here once, and it's on my list for future movie watching :P
Love - Wikiquote, my friend sent me this link, and it's been there ever since.. I wonder why I bookmarked it though.. may be.. ermm.. hmm.. I don't know! :P
AIESEC in Singapore, I don't know why it's on my list..I'm trying to remember why!
Rajshri Movies, where you can watch all their movies online.. never watched any though.
Centris, for all PGP complains,a boon again :)
Buddha Bar, a collection of nice songs..
I have lots of bookmarked sites containing information on stuff that I learn in my modules. If I search for something when I do an assignment or a project and find an interesting site that gives me information related to what I'm learning, I bookmark them for future reference.

That's about it.. Phew! That was a long list! I just realised that I hardly use some of the links on my list. But I guess it's ok.. I'll just let it be there.. you never know when I might need them :)

Me and poetry? May be!

2007-05-01T10:26:00.001+05:30

I don't think I could ever write poetry, and I never will, but here are a couple of attempts at writing poems.. this was mannnnnny years ago, so don't except something that makes a lot of sense or something that was written after hours of thought!! In fact, I find them very stupid, and so I didn't get them published in my school magazine or anything of the sort. I thought I might as well put it here, before I forget that I actually wrote them or forget the lines of the poems altogether :)

I remember it was a day in June,
When it poured and poured and poured;
In fact, to such an extent,
That even the thunder roared!

Haha! This was written after it actually rained so hard one day in June, that the roads got flooded and the water reached the floor inside my house! The next poem I wrote [not exactly wrote, because both the poems were written in my mind.. :P] when I sitting on my dining table, looking at the garden outside.

The grass is so green,

The flowers are so bright,

The place is so clean,

Oh! What a wonderful sight!

I really don't know what to say next! I'll just leave it here for you guys to comment on them! :)

*Me and poetry? May be! Actually, may be not!*

How weird am I?

2007-04-13T12:12:00.000+05:30

I thought I'd complete this tag after my exams, but after reading Macho girl's and Clueless's blogs about their weirdness, I can't really wait anymore! :P For rules about this tag, please read Soleil's blog :)

Here goes..

I really love smelling erasers. The newer the eraser, the better. I pity my friends who sat next to me in class in school.
My mind can come up with lame jokes that are so lame, that after a point.. you just don't know what to do with me. Lol. And I can laugh over nothing. I'm sure you've seen me 'high'. [And I'm sure you also know what my definition of high is! :)]
This has happened to me twice in NUS - I got up in the middle of the night, opened my fridge, gulped down chilled milo, and went back to sleep. Ok if this is not weird enough, then here's something else that's weird about me.. I have a memory for random details. I can remember birthdays, any kinds of numbers and what people wore when! [Macho girl - you should've included this in your list too! And may be you could have written- what people ate when!]
Whenever I write anything down, I can't stand it if my i's don't have the dot in the right place or if my l's don't have a proper curve. I either erase and write again, or do something so that it looks perfect. Even parentheses, if the open and close bracket are not curved in the same way, I don't like it. Lol. I know this is really weird. But I was a freak about this in school. But that didn't mean I took ages to complete my exam papers or they were untidy or anything. My note books and text books were the neatest in the class! :P One stray line anywhere and I would erase it. I also couldn't stand it if eraser dust got caught in the middle of the pages and went into the binding of the book such that I couldn't take it out. Now in university I don't seem to care much about any of these things.
I can be very organised. I don't find it weird, but my not-organised-at-all-and-would-be-dangerous-if-organised type of friends do! The very fact that I delete my deleted items in my NUS mail everyday seems weird to them! And just like Clueless, all my folders on my comp have to be well marked, and basically, everything has to be prim and proper.
I can't stand random strands of hair lying on the floor or washbasins or on the shower cubicle floor for that matter. I just can't.

How weird are you?

I think the 80 is the right number in my case, isn't it? haha.. that's upto you to decide! :) And about tagging 6 friends, I'd love to see all my friends do this, so if you've read this or you are on my blogroll, go ahead and post - Tag, you're it!

I've been tagged!

2007-03-05T13:10:00.000+05:30

I've been tagged.. here it goes.. :)

Three things that scare me:

Gangsters/Terrorists or people who look like them.
Hacking into other people's computers/mail accounts.
Getting stuck in a lift!

Three people who make me laugh:

Siddharth
Kiki
Myself! [Yes I'm sure you know the story about how I always laugh at my own jokes/laugh at them first even if nobody else does!]

Three things I love :

The feel of warm clothes out of the dryer.
The fragrance of a nice perfume carried by the breeze from someone else's room.
Singing.

Three things I hate:

Spiders.
People who can't keep their promises.
Dirty bathrooms!

Three things I don't understand :

People.
Destiny.
The need to lie for petty things.. why do people do it?

Three things on my desk :

Idols of Gods I believe in.
Photo frames.
Soft toys.

Three things I am doing now :

Right now I am blogging.. so I'd rather write what I did a couple of hours back!

Laundry.
I was listening to music.
Was hanging out with my friends.

Three things I want to do before I die :

Watch a proper sunrise/sunset by the beach or anywhere.
Sit in a hot air balloon and fly over mountains.
Sit in the cockpit as the plane lands and look at the city and the runway, preferrably at night.

Three things I can do :

Make people go crazy with my lame jokes.
Remember birthdays/anniversaries very well.
I have good oratorical skills [only if I've prepared the speech beforehand though!]

Three things you should listen to :

Advice from your parents - they always want the best for you.
Your heart [When you are in a dilemma and don' t know what to do.. listen to everybody, but do what your heart says.]
Good relaxing music.

Three things you should never listen to :

Rumours/gossip if your intention is to tell it to the next person in sight.
Someone scolding you for no fault of yours.
The fire alarm in your block [you'll go deaf :P].

Three things I'd like to learn :

Chinese.
Cook food without having to refer to a cookery book.
To eat with chopsticks! [Accomplished! :D]

Three Favourite Foods:

Paneer.
Khandvi.
The dal made at home.

Three beverages I drink regularly:

Milo.
Ice lemon tea.
Juices.

Three TV shows/books I watched/read as a kid:

Small Wonder/Secret Seven.
Silver Spoons/ Famous five.
I dream of Jeanie/ Tinkle.

Three people I would love to tag:

Sinduri.
Juggy.
Mom/dad.

Yipeee!! :D

Confused me!

2007-03-04T00:30:00.000+05:30

My gang of friends in school and me call ourselves "Masskdvj" [Weird name??].. It started off as - you won't believe it.. Sam, Mask, Maskd, Mask Dj, Maskd Vj, Masskdvj!! With the addition of every new member into the gang, the name would change because we would use the first letter of the person's name to add to the group name. Did you realize that I'm the only vowel in there? :P

The point of telling you about 'Masskdvj' this is because we created a community on orkut and we created topics in our little community - memories of school days, good/bad traits about the person above you, 'What I did today', etc.. - these were some of our topics.

[You are still probably wondering what the title of the post has got to do with what I've written.. Well, just wait n watch! :)]

A few weeks ago, in late January actually, there was this series of posts and replies which we had..I was just going through that today.. and I found it really funny, so I thought I'd share it with you. That's where you'll realize why the post is titled 'Confused me!'

Arushi:
What I did today :)
As titled, just post what you did the entire day today.. Don't give details like I got up, brushed my teeth, etc.. hehe.. If you had an exceptionally good/bad day, post it here..so we can join in your joys/sorrows!!! :)

Jenny:
study , or tried to !

Monisha:
its 4 in the mornin n im sitting n doin record...:(

Arushi:
:(Same here Monisha.. I was doing lab report till until 3 30 ish.. a 15% lab report.. ever heard of one report being 15%?? Anywayz I had a meeting at 10 in the morning.. and my lab report deadline was 12.. so basically, last night I had not finished my lab report, thought I would get up early and finish it, go for my meeting, come back n catch up on sleep since today is a holiday here for Eid.. Put alarm for 7 30.. what finally happened was that I got up at 8 30, finished my report at 10, didn't have a bath, reached my meeting my 10 30, after which I submitted my lab report.. then I got a message that I have another meeting at 1 in the same place.. so I am waiting there only.. and writing this.. :) In the middle my aunt who's come from Calcutta called to come and meet her.. so now the position is this.. I have not had lunch, I have not had a bath, I have not had enough sleep.. and after my meeting gets over here, I will go back, have a bath, eat something, have to pass on some stuff to a friend, after which I will go to meet my aunt, on the way I'll probably try to sleep.. coz the bus takes almost 45 mins to reach that place.. was supposed to have vocal also today..Thank God it's cancelled..I was supposed to study with Neha the entire day today.. my day will begin only when I get back at 5 I guess.. :( Anywayz.. basically, Monisha, you're not alone! :(
Engineering!!!!!!

Arushi:
Oh and I just realised.. I lost my lens!
What a day! :(

Arushi:
And guess what.. I found it!!! :D
What a day!! :D :D

Jenny:
phew !( cool for you about your lens !)
have fun

Monisha:
arushi u havn changed a bit...just the usual blabberer...

Arushi:
:D

Hum Tum

2007-02-17T17:27:00.000+05:30

Yes. You're right. It's the movie Hum Tum starring Rani Mukherjee and Saif Ali Khan that I'm talking about. It might seem stupid but I've watched that movie a zillion times already! And I watched it only in Singapore! Don't ask me why, it just happened. I think I know the dialogues by heart now! Lol!

All my friends find it very weird. Do you? :P

So many times I rememeber a random scene.. I know the scene and what the dialogues are but I don't remember which movie it is from or who the actors are. This has happened to me many times.. and when I asked around and found the answer.. it always was.. hum tum! That's just the effect of watching the movie soooo many times!

Actually the first time I saw the movie, I liked it, but not too much. I found the idea of shuttling between Paris, New york and different cities in India very confusing. Every fifteen minutes it would say "3 months later - Delhi" or "3 years later - Paris".. but when I watched it a few more times, I really enjoyed it!! Especially some of the cartoon scenes with the guy Hum and the girl Tum.This happens to me a lot with songs as well. Very often, when I listen to a song for the first time, I don't quite enjoy it.. but after I listen to it 2-3 times, it becomes one of my favourites! Isn't that weird? Does it happen to you as well?

Okay, this was a pretty random post, but I couldn't think of anything else to write about.. my next post will be on BC [Venmai] and all the things associated with it, I guess. Lets see!
And yes, the next time you want to know anything about Hum Tum, you know who to contact! :)

LOL!

2006-12-27T10:30:00.000+05:30

I received this forward today and I laughed so much that my sides hurt! So I decided to post it here.. you might have heard it before, but if you haven't, have fun reading! :)

Some translations from english to hindi..

* Yo baby! Wassup? - Munni, ye upar kya hai?
* Listen buddy, that chick is mine! - Suno dost, vo murgi ka baccha mera hai.
* Are you nuts? - Kya aap akhrot hain?
* Rock the party! - Pathar maro jashn main!
* Let's hangout.. - Chalo bahar latakte hain..
* How do u do? - Aap kaise karte hain?

Did u have a good laugh? :)

My birthdays in the past years..

2006-12-23T06:22:00.000+05:30

All kids are excited abour their birthdays - your birthday is one day you can do whatever you want, and no one will stop you. You get lottttts of cute gifts from your friends, you are the centre of attraction, and you get to eat looooads of cake and chocolates. [And thanks to your friends, your clothes, face and hair get to taste cake too!]

Being excited about your birthday a few days before it is pretty normal. But in my case, believe it or not, my countdown would start almost 150 days in advance!!
!!!
Yes, it's true.. :D

Now that doesn't mean that I would actually count days to my birthday everyday, starting from 5 months in advance. It's just that I would start thinking about my birthday and my birthday party from October onwards! [My birthday falls in March.. and according to some weird people, in May! Those who don't know the story, ignore the last sentence! :P] Atleast once a fortnight I would remind my parents how many days were left to my birthday.

I was equally excited about my birthday parties and I would invite all my friends to it. We used to have the usual - games, cake cutting, birthday bumps, the khoyi bag and 'return gifts!' when I was small. [In case you don't know what the Khoyi Bag is, it is a nicely wrapped cardboard box filled with goodies and tied high up where the children can't reach it. The birthday girl/boy punctures a hole in the box, and all the goodies fall down. You should see how the children jump over each other to collect the maximum amount of goodies!]

I specifically rememeber the first of March many years ago, when I woke up, screamed "Yay! it's March!!" and hugged my mom!

When I grew older, I started planning my birthday parties.. In one, we had a game in which I showed all my friends a video of 'baby me' and then I had a quiz on it!! In another, we had a vegetable-jewellery competition and it was amazing to see the creativity with which my friends made their jewellery! In one, we had a beauty paegent sort of a thing - we had to walk the way models walk on a ramp, and we had prizes for 'Miss beautiful smile' , 'Miss beautiful hair', etc.. The best part was that my cousin brother Rishub won the prize for the best smile, but all the sashes I had made were titled 'Miss', and you should have seen him blush when I put the 'Miss beautiful smile' sash on him!! :D

When I was in the 11th standard, my friends gave me a surprise birthday party for my 16th birthday.. They had planned the whole thing with my mom days in advance, and I had a feeling something was up. At times I was sure that they were planning something, and sometimes my mom would say something that would indicate that there was nothing special being planned for my birthday! Not until the very day of my birthday did I get to know the truth! My friends got home before me, hid their slippers n stuff and did all they could to prevent me from knowing that they were there.. but they forgot one very important thing - my friend left her scooty outside my house!! But it was great fun all the same, and all of us had a wonderful time.
When I was in the 12th, my boards and going on in March and I had my biology exam on my birthday! And in my first year at NUS, my friends surprised me and we had a cute little celebration in my cluster kitchen!!

Even now I am very excited about my birthdays, but obviously not the kind of excitement when I was a kid. And before you start thinking stuff, no, that's not the reason why I'm blogging about my birthday in december itself :P

My new hair cut!

2006-12-14T23:36:00.000+05:30

I'm blogging after a reallllllly long time, I know, I'm sorry! Now that we have vacations for a month, I'll update my blog more often! :D

Well, guess what?? Ok you don't really have guess - the title says it all! I got a new hair cut!! Yippeeee :D I was so bored of the previous one.. my hair was all the same length and so when I left it loose it didn't look all that nice, or atleast I thought so. I wanted to get my hair cut in layers and that's precisely what I got! After your hair cut the hair dresser at the parlour usually blow dries your hair to enhance the effect of the hair cut.. Well, for me, the hair dresser took more time to blow dry my hair than to cut it!! Haha.. and so, the effect was layers plus a lot of curls!! :D And I loveeeed it :D

By the way, I've always been confused about the use of 'blow dry' in the past tense.. The hair dresser blow dried my hair? Or blew dried my hair.. lol! Guess it should be the former.. But let me know please!

Anyway back to my hair cut, as I said I loved it, and it looked amazing! My mom didn't seem all that excited - or even excited for that matter and I HAD to share my joy and excitement with someone! So I went to my friend's place on the way back home - and she loved it toooo!! And she immediately took a picture.. Just after that the camera switched off coz there was no battery left! :(

So I went back home and took more photos!! :D Posting just one here.. there were many more.. front view, side view.. and I dunno what not :P

[That's a nice way of showing off the glass painting I made a few years ago, isn't it?? :P]

Well, this hair cut was day before yesterday and I told my parents that we should go out for dinner because my hair was all done and looking good! :P We did go! In fact, this is the hair style I wanted for my cousin's wedding a few days ago.. but neither did I have the layered cut, nor did I have the time to get anything done to my hair!

I am going for a shower now - I gotta wash my hair.. and I'm sure the effect of the curls won't remain after that.. :( But I badly want to know how my hair's going to look after the wash.. After all, that's what's going to stay.. But it's ok.. however it looks, I can always come back to this post and look at my amazing hairdo! :D

Happy Diwali!

2006-10-21T05:08:00.000+05:30

Wishing you all a very Happy Diwali and a prosperous new year!

Wisdom tooth!!!

2006-09-27T11:36:00.000+05:30

*Sigh!*
*Aaahh!*
*Ouch!*
*It hurts :( *

That's what happens, when you have a HUGE ulcer on one side of your mouth, and a wisdom tooth trying to pop its head out on the other side. I've been bearing with it for 4 days and I've had enough already :( [The ulcer's been there for a while.. but the wisdom tooth decided to start its trouble-making 4 days ago..] Believe me when I tell you that it's a terrible combo.

I can't even drink water without it hurting, leave alone being able to eat anything without taking atleast an hour for the meal. It hurts when I talk, and most often it hurts for nothing at all, especially during the afternoon, and it continues till I go to bed. And to think I had my vocal class for two whole hours yesterday!! Oh my god, it was bad!

You know, when I wake up and it doesn't really hurt much, I have this faint hope that I'm getting better.. but come afternoon, and I get the feeling that my wisdom tooth's woken up! :(

I went to the doc today, and she gave me an antibiotic to gargle with. She said it would take two days for the medicine to take effect. Well, lets hope I get better soon; in fact, I'd rather not have the wisdom :'(

The pwoer of the hmuan mnid

2006-09-16T01:47:00.000+05:30

You msut have seen tihs vrey otfen, etiher in frowrads, or in nwesppaer actirles, etc. Aoccdring to a recrseah at Cmabgirde Uinervtisy, due to the pehnonemal pwoer of the hmuan mnid, it deos not matetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mess and you can sitll raed it wthiuot a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mind deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wohle. Aazming isn't it?? Wlel, I raelly fuond it aazming, and hncee diedecd to decidate tihs psot to it!!

So you see, I dno't raelly hvae a tpoic, I jsut wnat to wirte in tihs fshioan. So I geuss I wlil jsut hvae to keep balbbernig [ as I uusllay do! ] soemhintg or the ohter.

But typing for a long time with jumled letters can be tedious, and you also risk losing your spelling sense! That's why I am going to take a break. While we take a break, I want to talk about how certain words will make sense to us, even if certain letters are removed or the spellings are changed. As long as the word is pronounced the same way, we won't have a problem recognising it.For example, the fotografer tuk color fotos! So wat if he had no cloo about ausum locashuns? He stil managed to take sum exelent fotos. Some other words like rondaevoo and sycology cud be spelt just the way they are pronounced. [ U kno, I have a feeling, that by the end of dis post, both you and I wud have forgauten tradishinal english, and wud have eyther becum experts at sms-ing or invented a noo langwedge. ] [Hey! I realy lyk dis kynd of riting more dan the jmubled tihng :P ]

Ok that's enuff of a break already, let's get bak to the pwoer of the hmuan mnid! You konw, wehn you go to get yuor eeys tseted, smitoemes tehy ask you to raed from a bookelt, wehre the szie of the wrods is raelly samll. But scine the huamn mind is so pwoerufl, the eeys hvae jsut to galnce at the frist and lsat lteetr, and you'll know the wrod imediamtely. Eevn if you can't see the rset in the mddile porprely, it wno't meattr! Now taht isn't a vrey aruccate mthoed of eye tseting, is it??

Aaaah, I've had enuff of jmubled wrods, cundensed english and sms langwedge. I think I shud stop hear, befour I mayk u guys fourget your english, or make you confused souls instead!!! :)

* Blah *

2006-09-09T22:03:00.000+05:30

I haven't posted for almost a month now!
Sheesh!
Why?
I don't know.. Guess I was not in the mood to.. My only link with the blogging world was commenting on other peoples' posts!! I'll try blogging from now on though!! :P
* Here ends my shortest post! :P *

National Day!

2006-08-13T00:25:00.000+05:30

I just read and commented on Macho girl and Clueless's posts on our national day outing. They've written about our entire experience, complete with pictures and stuff. So I thought, why should I write about the same thing again? So I'm just writing here what I had commented on their posts!

We sure did have an awesome time.. right from showing off to our friends that we were all dressed in red and white [being the patriotic people that we are :P]; to enjoying the food, fireworks, stupid couplets and lame jokes [With CS around, you are bound to have those!], piranhas swimming in the water :P,the beautiful moon, the endless list of places we had to visit in Singapore - including the revolving restaurant,our hunt for handsome hunks :P,imitations of bikes racing with my grunt,lol, wondering how a mermaid actually pees,lol, taking some amazing pictures,and loads of other amazing memories.. :)
We rock! :D :D

Grayscale world

2006-08-11T16:27:00.003+05:30

Just imagine a world without colours.. a world in grayscale.. actually I can't even imagine it!!

All our clothes would be just gray,black and white.. The difference would only be in the print.. how boring!! But come to think of it, we would not have any problem thinking if a shirt matches with a skirt or a dupatta with a kurta!! We would just need black and white accessories! Haha.. I guess shooting for black and white movies was much easier in terms of costumes and stuff..! And even coming to make up; one, or probably two shades of lipstick was all you needed.. one dark and one light!

I wonder what colour the sun or lights would be.. I mean verrrry bright white?? And the sky? Gray? Yeeww! Atleast rain would still be the same colour! Lol..

Flowers would become so boring! Just one type of roses.. Then what would happen to the red-for-love, yellow-for-friendship, and white-for-peace?? Other flowers would also look similar.. there would be no variety left!

If you were given a mixed fruit salad, or a pastry, or some Indian sweet, you would not know what you had in front of you, until you tasted it! For one thing, rabbits and elephants would still look the same!

Well, there are so many things you can think of.. but I just can't imagine a black and white world! So bland.. so lifeless.. so very boring!

I can't imagine this world without colours..!! :D This looks so cooool!!But errm, this post is about a grayscale world, and not about writing each word in a different colour!! So I guess I'll stop here! :D

Summer Vacations :)

2006-07-27T22:00:00.000+05:30

Three longgg months.. with nothing much to do.. that was my summer this year! And I guess it was pretty much the same with most of us.. I just felt like writing about all that I did these vacations, now that I have only one day of it to go.. :(

My vacation started off in Delhi.. My first cousin was getting married.I had a nice time at the wedding, and met most of my relatives there. I spent just a couple of days in Delhi, after which my parents and me went to Vaishnodevi. We took a train to Jammu,then a taxi to Katra and finally went up the mountain on horseback! [We were too lazy to walk up! And even if we did, it would have taken us ages to cover a 14 km trek! :P] After this, we had a relaxing 2 day stay at Patnitop.. which is just a small hill station with a few gardens.We then went back to Jammu and took a train from there to Delhi. At the Jammu station, some cop told my mom that there was a bomb scare at the station.. [Well, we all know about J & K's terrorist attacks and stuff..] Only I know how scared I was!!!Thankfully, it was a hoax, and nothing happened! :)

I got back to Chennai in the second week of May, and initially I was absolutely clueless about how I would spend the rest of the vacation.. but I managed to do quite a lot of things, and so I had a fun time altogether.

Just a week after I got to Chennai,I started driving classes. That kept me busy as I would parctise after my class also. Soon after I started my driving classes, I met Sachin! That was a truly wonderful experience..After this I started blogging, because so many people asked me about my Sachin experience, that I decided to write about it, and told them to read it! Apart from this, I also started orkutting and in a few days I realised that orkut was very addictive indeed!!

In the last week of May, my dad's sister [whose daughter got married in May] came over to Chennai for a couple of weeks and I had a great time taking her around.

I watched loads of movies these holidays.. newly released ones as well as older ones I had missed out on. I also read a few books, and these two things kept me busy when I had nothing else to do!

I went to my dad's office for a week, and he taught me a bit about accounts and stuff.. But I only went for a week, and only for half a day each day, so I don't know how much I remember now!! [:P]

I met my close school friends a lot of times, and we re-lived our school days..none of us have changed beyond a teeny-weeny bit, if at all. Since I was very jobless, my friends asked me to organise a re-union of our batch. So I started contacting people and managed to organise one in the last week of June.Not too many people turned up, since exams had just gotten over n stuff, but we had a nice time.

Just before the re-union at school, we got the good news that my second cousin in Bangalore got engaged! So I had a sudden and unexpected trip to bangalore, to attend the engagement. I enjoyed with all my cousins there.I stayed only for 3-4 days as I wanted to be back for the re-union.

After this I was waiting for my parents' wedding anniversary and my mom's birthday, which fall on consecutive days.. We went out for dinner for their anniversary, [during the day Macho girl, Prina and me had had a nice salt-container experience!] and for mom's birthday, my friends came over for lunch. We cut a cake in the evening with my cousins who live in Chennai.

The next day, I left for Calcutta.. I had intended to go to Cal from the beginning and it wasn't a sudden plan or anything. I have my nanibadi [Mom's parents and their family] in Cal.. I ate so much in Cal that everyday I felt I had an upset stomach!! But I didn't really care.. coz Cal is famous for its food.. and I knew I wouldn't get very appetising food in Singapore! I watched a few movies there also. I was there for around 8-9 days.

After I got back to Chennai, I was just busy meeting my friends once again, and doing a bit of last minute shopping.. And today, I can't believe how three months have just flown by. Initially, I really didn't know what I would do in the hols and thought I would be jobless most of the time, but with my parents, and my friends,I didn't realise how time flew!

I had a nice time, and a good break from Singapore! I did miss Singapore and my NUS friends at times, but we kept in touch through orkut, mails, messaging, calls and missed calls! [We would give each other missed calls whenever we missed each other, or generally to imply Hey! Hope u're good.. I'm fine too!! Lol!!]

I have a day of my holidays to go.. and I'm going to spend it packing!! Now I can't wait to get to Singapore.. but I know I will really miss home.. my parents.. but it's ok, coz december isn't far away! :)

Salt container!!

2006-07-04T17:15:00.000+05:30

I was just talking about not being able to find enought topics to blog about.. and here I am, writing a post two days later! Hehe.. Actually, what happened with me today was pretty hilarious and so I thought it would be very nice recalling all that happened.

Macho girl, Prina and me decided to meet up at Spencers plaza today and we met there at around 11. We loafed around a bit, and then Macho girl realised that she wanted to buy a birthday present for a friend and Prina wanted to buy an Indian type of wallet.... basically, a wallet which wasn't the usual leather type.. I was looking for a salt container to keep in my kitchen.. [Not that I cook or for that matter visit my kitchen very often..lol..but right now, we keep salt next to the stove in a plastic box.. the kind they give you at take-away counters[!], and I don't quite like the look of a horrible looking plastic box..Hehe..] So we started looking out for what we wanted to buy, and after a while Macho girl decided that she would buy it later and Prina decided Shoppers Stop had better wallets! So we had just one thing in mind.. a Salt container!!

First of all, Macho and Prina were shocked that we kept salt in the open.. in a container without a lid.. what if it got moist or water dropped into it? So they were hell bent on me buying a conatiner with a lid! I agreed momentarily.. but I knew that we were used to having an open salt conatiner.. and even I bought a typical salt container, either it would be put away.. or the lid would definitely go missing in a day or two..
However, Macho and Prina kept picking up containers with lids whereas I kept looking at ones without lids! Both of them were very irrirated and tried persuading me to buy one with a lid.. and here are some of the things they told me..

Since salt is bad for health, [whenever did that happen by the way??] you better have a lid on.. so you won't use much..
What if the kitchen tap was left open by mistake and the kitchen got flooded?? Then what would happen to the salt?? Oh my god!!
Buy a microvavable salt container so that even if the salt gets moist, the moisture would evaporate when microwaved.
[I kept looking out for lidless ones..] Oh forget it, you're not going to listen.. [And they started picking up water jugs instead.. and then they said...] Why don't you buy this.. and persuade your mom to have a big party.. so she'd need lots of salt...?? And it would flow out of the jug.. What say?

There were so many other things we said and did.. the expressions we gave.. the kind of stuff we tried using as salt containers.. it was just too funny.. I had an awesome time.. no prizes for guessing what I finally bought in the end.. A short and wide mouthed glass, made of glass, with pretty green and yellow stripes.. So what if it wasn't the best one .. or wasn't to Macho or Prina's liking? It would atleast serve as a better salt container than a stupid plastic box!!!

Before.. The stupid plastic box..

After.. A much better choice??

What should I blog about? :|

2006-07-03T01:01:00.000+05:30

I was pretty jobless and I thought I'd better update my blog before people came home and slapped me :P [Look at Macho girl's comment on my first post and you'll know what I'm talking about!!] Okay.. so I had the time.. and I wanted to update my blog.. so what was the problem..??Well... I couldn't find a topic to blog about!
!!!!
Have you ever faced this problem before? Or am I the odd one out..?? It was so weird.. I sat in front of my laptop for almost an hour, not knowing what to blog about, and thinking of what to post! Then an idea suddenly came to my mind, and I started writing.. I wrote a paragraph or two.. and then deleted it.. why?? 'Coz I was getting a bit too philosophical.. and was wondering if it made any sense! I thought of a different topic.. but again.. I thought that my philosophy would make sense only to me, and so I deleted it!

Well, since I took the trouble to think about, and write a couple of paragraphs on these two topics, I think I better tell you something about them :P !! The first one was about what Shahrukh said to Preity in Kal Ho Na Ho.. "When you look at your life.. you might find that it has a lot missing.. but when you look at it from another's perspective, you might see that you actually have a lot.. a lot that you didn't realise you had.. or appreciate.. what's the use of living this life, if you can't appreciate it and be content with what you have..??
Hanso.. Jiyo.. Muskurao.. Kya pata kal ho na ho...
[Laugh.. live life fully.. you never know if there will be a tomorrow]".. Sounds a lot better in the movie though.. cos the lines were written in Hindi.. and a professional writer wrote it! Anyway, this is one of my favourite dialogues from the movie.. and I thought of elaborating on it.. but as I said.. I was getting toooo philosophical.. and.. :|

The second idea was also from a movie.. Bluffmaster.. Where Boman Irani asks Abhishek Bachchan to bring to his mind the most memorable days of his life.. And surprisingly, Abhishek could not recall more than 30 days in the 30 years that he had "lived".. I really wonder if we do cherish all that we should.. even simple moments that we share with the people we love..

Coming back, I was feeling :| again...and as you see, I decided against it..
And hey, what do we have here? I've created a post out of my topiclessness [!] and also managed to give you a gist of what I wanted to convey!![Minus the boring mini-lecture that would have accompanied it if I had decided to write about it..!]
Now that's cool! :P

I can drive!! Yipeeeeeee :D

2006-06-29T00:16:00.000+05:30

One useful thing I've done these holidays is that I've learnt how to drive!! Just a week after I got back to Chennai, I enrolled myself in a driving school and got my LLR [Learner's Licence]. My dad told me to choose the 9 a.m. class so that I would wake up while it was morning during the holidays!! Lol.. otherwise, I'm sure I would have snored away till noon... or may be even later than that..! So I used to wake up with the help of alarm clocks everyday at around 8 30 and go for class.. A maruti 800 was what I learnt in.. It was good fun.. I can never forget the day of my first class.. I was so excited that I drove!! Even though I drove only on the first gear, or occasionally the second!! I was dancing and shouting around the entire house 'coz I drove for the first time!!!

The classes continued for almost a month.. because I used to have classes only 5 days a week.. so 20 classes in all.. But I was obviously practising at home also.. I started taking my car on the main roads and crowded places as well. But I never took the care alone.. either the driver or dad or mom used to sit next to me.

It used to be really very funny when my driver would pull the hand break to avoid a collision, even though I would be 5 feet away! Precaution... Hmmmm... lol..

Soon I was pretty confident of my driving, and started taking my family around.. I would want to go out just because I would get a chance to drive!! My parents kept giving me tips.. though I must say that my mom used to get irriatated [and scared!] very qucikly!! But my dad was very patient with me.. and I owe most of what I've learnt to him..and of course, to my driving school as well..

One month later.. I took my driving test.. but it was a cake walk.. 'coz they hardly asked us to do anything at all!! I just drove around 100 metres! Lol.. Around 8 of us took the test in 10 mins, so what could one expect!! Haha.. So here I am, really excited and happy, that I finally can drive, and for a couple of days now, I've been taking the car alone...and..well,all I can say is... I am reallllllllly happy!!! :D Thank you God! And thanks to everyone else who has been part of my learning process!This post is for you! :D

Lame Jokes :P

2006-06-17T10:00:00.000+05:30

My friend was walking beside me and he kept stamping my foot, by mistake (or so he said!) and after a while I got really annoyed. I told him to walk 5 feet away from me! At this he remarked, "Haha, this is nothing, you don't know what happened when I stamped somebody in Djakarta!".. I coolly replied...”What happened? He got posted?!?"

Scenario 1: You laughed..
Well, I can only say, welcome to the club!! :D
Scenario 2: You smiled...
Hmmm.. a little more effort my child, and you'll be one of us soon!
Scenario 3: You reaction was.."Ohhh myyy godd!!"
Stay as far away from us as possible, cos lame jokes are part of us now!

Cracking lame jokes, and beginning to think lamely..and enhancing our lametivity (In case you are wondering why you haven't ever seen that word before...it's because our Lame king in NUS coined it a few weeks ago!!) has been part and parcel of our hostel life at NUS. We can crack the lamest of jokes, and still laugh at them...atleast at the stupidity of the joke, if not anything else! Most often what happens is that only I laugh at my lame jokes and am at the receiving end of oh-my-god-you-are-so-so-so-lame-god-help-you kind of stares (But that only happens when I'm not in the right company.. when my lame gang gets together, there's no stopping us!!)

Sometimes when I'm sitting alone...or waiting for someone somewhere..I somehow manage to remember past situations where all of us had a rollicking time cracking jokes.. and I cannot suppress my emotions at that moment, no matter where I am! Once, I was in the toilet outside lt 7, and I remembered something funny that had happened sometime ago, and I burst out laughing..There were two other people in the queue there... the one in front of me asked me.."Excuse me miss, are you alright??" Lol!! That was so embarrassing.. Well, that was only a toilet with a couple of people, so it's ok..Once in a Christmas programme, I started laughing on the stage, in the middle of carol singing! I guess that has been one of the most embarrassing moments of my life!!

In fact I was not the PJ queen, but the VPJ (Verrry poor jokes) queen in my class!! But you know, somewhere in the middle of our lame jokes, a good joke comes up, and we actually compliment that person for his or her feat! But that happens very rarely you see....

A few examples of our lame jokes..

Ek gadha ped par chadha.. ped par baithey hathi ne poocha "Tu kyun chadha?" Gadhe ne kaha, "Apple khane.." Hathi ne kaha "Par yeh toh aam ka ped hai.." Gadhe ne jawaab diya - "Toh kya hua, mein apple saath laya hoon!!"

"Hey, from now on call your mom F..".."What!?!!"..."Yeah, coz force F= ma"..

James bond went to a pan shop and had pan. He had to pay four rupees for it, but he paid only 1.50 and said... "Dhai another day!!"

This one's my favourite.. A man was driving his car on a highway when a hare came under his care and died. Being the animal lover that he was, he tried frantically to get it back to life, but in vain. He suddenly remembered something and went to the dikki of his car and came back with a spray can. He sprayed the hare with it. Immediately, the hare came back to life and started waving to the man. The man was surprised!! Then the hare moved away from the man, waved to him..went a little further...waved to him...went further down...waved...
But the man was busy looking at what was written on the spray can...
"Hair spray. Gives life to dead hair. Increases waviness..."

We really have the time of our lives sitting together and laughing over our lame creations...or sometimes over nothing!! Like laughing gas had been sprayed over us! Well, laughter is the best medicine.. and I fully believe in it.. and it doesn’t really matter what makes you laugh, does it? So put on your laughing hats.. and laugh!! Remember, "Life isn't measured by the number of breaths u take..but by the moments that take your breath away.." So enjoy life to the fullest while you can..! And if this reason is not enough, nowadays all Yoga preachers advise you to sit in a group and laugh loudly...laugh over nothing...and laugh so loud that the neighbours hear it..! Well, laughing over lame jokes it better than laughing over nothing, is it not? ;)

And by the way, do you know what Tarzan said when he saw 1000 elephants coming over the hill?
"1000 elephants are coming over the hill!!" :P

Babies... or Stars...

2006-06-15T18:23:00.000+05:30

Kareena

Abhishek

Karishma

Shahrukh

Kajol

Akshay

Rani

Aamir

My first post was exceptionally loooong... so this time, I'll just let the pictures do the talking!! :)

Sachin !!!!

2006-05-18T20:56:00.000+05:30

Sometimes luck reallllllly favours you… and this was one of those situations… this post is all about how I met Sachin Tendulkar when he came down to Chennai.

Already the opportunity to meet such celebrities comes very rarely, and now that I’m studying in Singapore, chances become even more remote… haha..

So when I came to know that Sachin’s in Chennai, I did not want to miss the opportunity.We were going out for dinner on Wednesday (17th May)…to a place close to Hotel Taj, where Sachin was staying.So I told mom that I wanted to try my luck at the hotel.So off we went - my mom, my cousin Radhika and me.We entered the lobby and went to the reception and asked about Sachin.But as expected, the receptionist said that he didn’t know whether Sachin was back or not.We asked him what time Sachin generally returned, to which we didn’t get any satisfactory reply either.I know the hotel people are told to do so for security reasons, but we didn’t look like any terrorists either!!!! Haha.. I don’t know about my mom and cousin, but I was feeling really stupid standing there asking the receptionist about Sachin. No other crazy fans like me seemed to be there. Hehe…

The receptionist however, told us that we could leave him a written message and he would have it delivered to Sachin’s room.I really didn’t feel like writing anything because I didn’t think they would even send it to him.But because we had taken the trouble to go all the way to Taj, I thought I might as well write the message, I didn’t lose anything!!

So I started writing… I said that I was a great fan of his… And that I study in Singapore… So it’s such a coincidence that he’s here in Chennai when I’ve come down too for my hols…And I requested him for a snap with me.I was wondering how he would reply to this message (If at all they sent it to him and he even read it!!!) So I left my name and cell number.

My dad was waiting for us at the club so my mom said let’s go.We asked the watchman though, whether Sachin had returned from practice.And he told us that he had come back forty minutes ago!!! We were all excited all over again… So mom went back to the receptionist… but he said that even if Sachin came back 40 mins ago, he might have gone out again.. So mom just made him send the message to Sachin’s room, which he surprisingly did. I had absolutely NIL hopes… I made up my mind to camp in MRF the next day…(!!!) and do whatever to get Sachin’s autograph…

We went to the club and started having our dinner. However faint my hopes were, I constantly kept looking at my cell…Hoping against hope that a miracle would happen.. Haha..But it seemed very stupid to expect Sachin to even pay any attention to my message, leave alone responding to it!!! He must be getting loads of fan mail.. My dad kept saying that it isn’t possible to go to a hotel and expect to get a famous personality’s autograph… But what kept coming to my mind was that once when the Indian cricket team was saying in the same hotel Taj, my friend Sinduri went with her family and got the entire team’s autograph… I then happened to look up at the sky and I saw one single star up there… just one… So I told mom, dad and Radhika jokingly that that star was a ray of hope… and so something would definitely happen…hehe…

Almost half an hour had passed since we had left Sachin that message.. Then suddenly my phone rang… and it was an unknown number… local Chennai number… and my heart started beating faster… I still didn’t expect it to be him or someone from the hotel, but I still felt..."What if??"

I answered the call and the voice on the other side asked me if I was Arushi. And the next thing he said was “This is Sachin here. You wanted a picture with me right?” I was like ooooooooooh myyyyyy gooooooodddd… I simply couldn’t believe my ears… was it really him? I started jumping with surprise and joy… and all the people around me were wondering what was wrong with me…but I didn’t care !! I was speaking to the master-blaster on my phone!! And he had called me up!! Something truly unbelievable!!! He then went on to say that I could meet him the next morning at 9 a.m., at the lower lobby, Taj, next to the gym. I said “Thank you soooooooooooo much” and then continued jumping around. I’m sure the others must have found an 18 year old jumping around very funny… but I couldn’t help it!!!

Radhika and me just kept saying one thing… “He acccccccccccccccctually called!!!!” I was so excited that I called up my friend Rishabh (my senior at NUS – another of Sachin’s greatest fans) and told him about it. He couldn’t believe my luck!! I told him he could join as well, and he was more than happy. The next thing was to call up Radhika’s younger brother Rishab ( Ooops, same name… haha…well, one difference though – This Rishab doesn’t have an “h” in the end!!) and tell him the good news. He was shocked… and I heard later that he was jumping around the whole house too!!

All of us were only discussing one thing that night… That Sachin was a very sweeeeeeeet and humble person. Truly great – as a cricketer as well as a person. And of course, Radhu and me kept adding our little line “He acccccccccccccccctually called!!!!” Haha… I thought I woudn’t be able to sleep that night… (But I did manage to sleep quite soundly.. hehe..).. I kept thinking about the fact that he actually called me back!! I thought of the various things I could have said to him over the phone…But you know, when you suddenly get a call and the person says, “Hi, this is Sachin”, how well can your brain actually function?? Haha..

Well, so we all got dressed next morning, got our autograph books and cameras ready and set off to Taj to meet the World’s greatest batsman!! RishabH said that his uncle would also be coming along. So the five of us reached Taj way ahead of time and went down to the lower lobby. RishabH had brought a bouquet for Sachin. While we were waiting near the gym, the hotel’s security staff came up to us and told us to wait at the Main lobby and not at the lower lobby. We tried telling him that Sachin himself had asked us to wait there, but he did not listen.So we went up the stairs and waited at the landing. We thought that if we went to the Main lobby, we would definitely miss Sachin. Then at around 9 o clock, we peeped down and saw Sachin standing right there!!! But by the time we went down, he had gone for breakfast. I started to wonder if we would even be able to meet him…We started cooking up filmy dialogues like “Sachin, tumne hamein dhoka diya hai”!!! Lol.. We then went outside the place where he was having breakfast, and his security guards told us that he would be going to the gym after breakfast. And so, once again we were asked to wait at the lower lobby (which faced the gym).Luckily for us, this time nobody told us to clear the place!! So we waited patiently for Sachin to finish his breakfast... we were wondering how much he would actually eat, for he was going gymming after that!! After five mintues, the guards told us that he was coming!!! Oooooooh... As he was walking towards us, wearing a cool red coloured tee shirt and black shorts,carrying a big green plastic ball,all of us gaped with our mouths open, not believing our very eyes.. To say the truth, Sachin was looking really smart – much better than in photos!!

RishabH gave him the bouquet wishing him a speedy recovery, while the rest of us started clicking snaps.All of us wanted a snap with Sachin alone… So poor Sachin posed patiently till all of us finished. He then started signing autographs for us. He was very serious throughout.. and smiled only once for the photo. The only words that came out of my mouth were “Autograph please”!!! For the rest of the time, my mouth was wide open in awe… haha!!It all happened very quickly – we took snaps and autographs and then he took leave. He started walking towards the gym, and I continued watching him till he opened the door and disappeared!!!

It all happened very quickly… but these memories are going to last a lifetime…

The next thing I had to do was to tell all my friends and put up the pictures as my display picture on MSN, orkut, etc… Most of my friends didn’t believe me, especially that fact that Sachin “acccccccccccccccctually called” me up!! But when they heard the excitement in my voice, and saw the snaps, they finally believed me. Throughout the day I kept getting scraps on orkut asking me whether I had used Photoshop or done something fishy with the photo !! Lol…Well, even if I was in their place, I wouldn’t believe it!! And people kept asking me how I got his number… And I had to explain the same thing to each one… that I left my number… and he was the one who called!!!

Well, whether people believe it or not, the fact remains that Sachin did call me up… and we did meet him!!!! Yay!! Oh my god… dreams do come true!!!

The Little Master!