TA-DAA !!!

OK...so like I promised, here come the updates!

--> I finally got all my papers and made it to USA in one piece. USA, baby! :)

--> Had an amazing 10 days with my sister and mom...dad's the only one missing :(

--> Have you ever felt like a star for one day? As in celeb wise? I did! I got a hair-cut and everyone at the salon stood around me and just looked at my hair all the while going "OMG...I'm so jealous, you have such beautiful hair!" Hee hee...but yeah, I chopped some off and got bangs. The last time I remember having bangs was in 5th grade. LOL

--> Major shopping spree...mostly for college and we tried to hit as much of the clearence sales as possible. What? I'm a student...need to watch my budget now!

--> Went on my first road trip and crossed 4 states to finally reach SC. Columbia, baby! :P

--> Horrible apartment hunting expedition...literally killed all of us. I meant the heat, not the apartment search.

--> Went through a bad bout of home-sickness. Nearly recovered now.

--> Settled finally in my new apt.

--> Had my first official "accident" in campus. Fell down during games and hurt my knees badly. On rest for like 10 days now. Superstitious idiot that I am, I'm kinda relieved that I've gotten over the impending "bad" thing. But couldn't make it to the Community Service Projects today :(

--> Almost done with the first week of orientation. Classes start after the 4th of July long weekend. All geared up and ready to go! :)




P.S.: I miss you all @ Blore... :(


P.S.S.: Pics to follow soon! :)

Hmmm... :)

No...I'm not dead.

Yes...I'm very much alive.

It's just that there are way too many things changing around me way too fast! And I'm kinda superstitious about NOT talking about certain things unless and until they finish happening. So I'm gonna keep mum for...ummm... lets say another month....until I deem it safe to say anything?


Oooh...but there's a hint in the pic... :P


I hope I din't jinx anything... :)

On a bored Sunday evening...

I am a woman who makes mistakes, someone who cries on a Monday morning or at night alone in bed, I am a woman who often becomes bored with my life and find it hard to get up for work in the morning. I am a woman who more often than not has a bad hair day, who looks in the mirror and wonders why I can’t just drag myself to the gym more often; I am a woman who sometimes questions what reason I have to live on this planet. I am a woman who sometimes just gets things wrong.

On the other hand, I am a woman with a million happy memories, who knows what it is like to experience true love and who is ready to experience more life, more love and make new memories. Whatever lays ahead, I know I will open my heart and follow where it leads me.

In the meantime, I will just live.

DISCLAIMER:
All the content in this post are the sole copyright of Harper Collins Publishers and Cecilia Ahern. No plagiarism intended.

Greed

What happens when you get something that you desperately wanted?

You are greedy and indulge in wishful thinking of the unattainable option that you dream of everyday before you fall asleep.

Sometimes I love him, sometimes I hate him…but mostly I just miss him a lot!

I never thought I would say this, but yeah, I miss him. Like crazy. I mean I don’t get it. It was never supposed to be this way. I was always adamant in going away as far as possible from him. Still, here I am, missing him like crazy.

And to make matters worse, astrologically speaking too, he is supposedly the ruling kingpin in my karmic universe. But I always hated him and wanted to get away.

But now that I am really away, I’ve realized how much I miss him. How much I literally crave to catch a glimpse of him and feel him and sense him and just know that he’s around.

When did I become like this? Gawd…I dunno!

But like a fairy story ending…one fine evening, he found me and I found him. He came up to my desk quietly and when I looked up, there he was, in his usual brilliance with the 100 watt smile and a small H'lo... :)

It’s so difficult to get some good SUN in namma Bengalooru. I am sooooo looking forward to this summer. Welcome back Sunny Boy… :P

The One With The Pineapple Wine

"A...."

I woke up groggily and reached out for my cellphone as a reflex reaction. The tiny time stamp at the top right corner blinked at 12:34...so early? Who's waking me up so bloody early on a Sunday? I managed to kick the rajai out of my face and peeped out to see Mai towering over me...

"Hmmm...huh...yaaru...yenu...Mai...how was your class?"

"You haven't cooked yet?!?!?!?!?!?"

This rude question woke me up completely and I realised that we had a pot-luck party for which, of course, I was the one who had to cook. I immediately sat up on my bed, "Aiyyo...haudu kane..."

"What A, I'm so hungry!!!!!"

Well that makes two of us, I thought to myself, as I gingerly groped my way around the room and switched on the light. Next target was to hunt for my clutcher in an attempt to try and clip back my hair that had a tendency to make me look like I was ready to audition for the role of Morticia Addams. I finally managed to find my clutcher lying under the remotest, inaccessible corner of my cot. With this done, I sat down with Mai glowering at me across the room with a puppy-dog face and briefed her on Plan Biryani (veg, of course).

As Mai and Zombie started on the vegetables, I quickly freshened up and washed the cobwebs off my eyes. Breakfast seemed like a good idea, especially considering the fact that I had crashed at 6 AM after a night-out through Saturday. Very soon, I had gobbled down 3 dosas and started getting the rest of the ingredients ready for the Biryani.

After 3 trips by 3 different people to the mulai angadi (to buy a list comprising of 5 ingredients), 2 frantic calls to the main PG for kadai and several trips to Mai's spice shelf; we were finally ready to begin. In between all this commotion, we managed to get our WiFi router installed too...huh, talk about multi-tasking.

Finally, at 3:30 PM we all dug in with relish for a really, really, really late lunch. But then, that's what weekends are about. Breakfast at lunch hours, lunch at the snacks hour, coffee at dinner time, dinner at 10 and soup at 4 AM the next day :D

So in keeping with such a tradition, around 7'ish we were all seated around in my room as usual b****ing about this and that when Mai decided to show RR a sample of the yellow colored concoction that was sitting on our nightstand for the past couple of weeks. She picked up the bottle and started lecturing RR about the weird concoction and its supposed characteristics when all hell broke loose. What happened next was like seeing some scene out of a movie/sitcom in slow-motion mode.

Mai was in the centre of the room with RR close to her left and me on Mai's right. Radz was seated cross-legged on the floor in front of the laptop and typing away furiously in her blog. As Mai started unscrewing the bottle, I warned her that...err...the bottle had a tendency to...ummm...misbehave. But of course, she bore no heed to my warning and with full-on enthu she only concentrated on opening the bottle. A split second later we were all running in different directions from the bitter-sweet concoction that was well behaving like a sprinkler which was turned on.

All that I saw was the fizz building up in the bottle, the cap that flew into Mai's face and knocked her back, the bottle that fell to the ground and the concoction that was spraying its generous self all over me.

Another split second later, the bottle had stopped spinning and all of us were laughing like a pack of hyenas. RR was on Zombie's bed curled up in laughter, I was in the farthest corner of the room still assessing things around me and also laughing hysterically, Radz was literally screaming with laughter (this is the loudest I have heard her laugh) and Mai, well she was a sight to behold: her glasses were off and her eyes wet with one eye twitching like crazy, her face was full PINK and she was drenched in wine that was dripping all over her.

We laughed for a full 10 mins..non-stop. What can I say, we were hysterical and there was no controlling us. And the fact that there was wine splashed on all our walls and the ceiling and the beds and the mirror and the cupboard and Mai and all of us, only made matters worse. Zombie rushed in soon afterwards and looked with dismay at her wine bottle. This only made us howl more.

My room smelled of brandy and pineapple for a full week after this incident. Everytime I walked in, I wrinkled my nose and held my breath for the fraction of the second when the door swung open. No one in our PG believed that we had "accidentally"...err...spilled the wine.

I can't blame them, who will believe a bunch of single gals who were caught drenched in brandy on V Day? It's a cynical world out there, I tell ya!

A Walk To Remember

No, this is not sycophantic re-review of the movie.

But still, have any of you seen this other movie "Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs"??? There's this one freaky invention in that's called a "Monkey Thought Translator" for a monkey called Steve. I sooo wished I had something like that yesterday.

I had too many cobwebs in my head and wanted to get rid of them. So I went for a long walk last night in our very own Korm park. It felt good. I was alone. I had my music. And it was pitch-dark, thanks to BESCOM and their load shedding.

And as I was cleaning out the cobwebs, I kept thinking like I am writing it...but in my mind. And I wished I had that "Thought Translator" and another recording device of some sort (my cellphone would do, right?) so that I could get it recorded and then play it back and write it down as an amazing blog. Of course, I am no Flint Lockwood so I'm just stuck with these things that I need to write.

I'll try to pen it all down over the weekend. Plus, the wine story too...I know its pending. Patience, people! Patience! :P

How is it, eh ?!?!?

Finally...I managed to get a new template.

I tried working with the old one...but seriously to enable posting comments is no small feat. I went mad trying to de-cipher the XML coding thats so rusty since my college days.

Anyways, I worked a little with this other one.

It's no where near to the other beautiful one *SNIFF* but, its ok...I mean better than the blogger one, right?

You like?

The Big Fat Indian V Day

Another V Day just gone by...not that I'm cribbing or moping around for that special someone. Far from that actually :)

I spent the day, and not to mention the whole preceding week, constantly seeing news updates about the Sena and the Sene and all such groups targeting the lovey-dovey people on the streets with threats from on-the-spot-marriage and what not. For my part, I am blissfully not bothered about all this crap. I seriously don't get whats so big about V Day and also groups who go around with such lame strategies. I care a damn anyways.

However, I woke up today and realised that I did not even get the usual creepy ANON SMSes that usually pop up in my mobile. Dutiful as ever, the only guys who SMSed me today were the Airtel people reminding me about my balance usage. Huh! So much for my female vanity.

I spent a very interesting day with my friends in the PG cooking a sumptuous meal and getting our WIFI router installed and ended it all with a wine bath (Don't ask, long story. Another post. I promise).

My clock shows that its almost 12 : 30 AM on Feb 15th and here I was chatting with a friend. Now he's one guy who sleeps sharp at 10 PM everyday. Of course, the curious imp that I am, I did the usual leg-pulling lines with him about staying late for V Days sake. I then told him about my day and how I dint even get a single creepy message. We finally signed off with our farewells.

*BEEP*BEEP*BEEP*

"Belated happy valentines day :)"

So thanks to AR for sending me the sms, I guess I got my stroke-of-the-midnight-hour wish come true after all. Now I guess my female vanity feels better. What say, huh?

...

1 down...6 to go...

updated on 22 Feb, 2010 at 15:08 PM:

another one bites the dust...5 more to go...

updated on 18 Mar, 2010 at 19:40 PM:

Score!!!! :P

2-1 of 7 :)

updated on 22 Mar, 2010 at 16:03 PM:

One more man aboard! SOS! SOS! :(

3-1 of 7

updated on 25 Mar, 2010 at 12:03 AM:

Aaargh! When God opens one door, he also slams many others on the face.

4-1 of 7

The Road Less Travelled By...

I had a plan. Just like everyone else.

Along the way, my plan changed. I decided to take another road. Maybe the road less travelled by? Or was it the other way around? Did I leave the path less travelled by for another one? Some say yes…some say no….

Now, however I feel lost. I somehow lost track of where I was in my old path. And it was necessary for me to know my way in my old path. Yet, I let go. My new path has not shown me the way yet. I just see a path; but no way. My old path and my old way have gone by me and I am left alone.

Already?!?!?!?!

I just realised that its my second blirthday (blog-birthday)?!?!?!?

Really...I mean is it already two years? I've also completed my 4 years in Bengalooru. My love for this city can never ever go away. I think I'll try to go out and celebrate and feel guilty. Or I may also sit at home, write my essay like a good girl and feel horribly self-pitied! :P

So anyways, 'Appy B'day Bloggy... :D

Wat the...!!!

OK...for some freaking reason, my readers are not able to post comments in my blog. Me thinks it was the new template that I had chosen. Aaargh! And it was such a cute one too!

So, I've been forced to return to my old boring template again.

Sorry dearies, please post your comments again. Please, please, please. :)

Buying Company

I wrote this like in December 09 on a very frustrated Friday evening. I forgot to post this and found it in my drafts. So I thought I'll just complete it and post it today, cause you know, I am still NOT doing much work. Mai, if you're reading this, you know I luv ya! :)

-------------

I always have people around me. All the time. Invariably all the time.

I live in a PG and so the concept of home is a little skewed when you to apply it to me. And the reason I live here away from beautiful, beautiful, beautiful Pondichéry (read as : my flat, amma, appa, my room...everything MINE) is for my work. I guess you would know that by now IF you have read my first post.

And it was my call. No one had any say in it.

Inspite of all this I always have people around me.

At office...hell, yeah!

In my PG...yup, mostly!

See, the last sentence that ended with "mostly" is the issue at hand now.I have this whole lonely-but-fighting-it-like-a-martyr attitude that pretty much drives everyone up the wall. Sometimes I end up irritating myself! Is that even possible? With me…Yeah!

So, this evening is one such day I guess. Just ordered for home-delivery from Mast Kalandar and waiting. It's just ironic that its a Friday and to top that, we have our year-end-bash at office which I ditched for certain "noble" reasons.

I’m trying to make plans with Mai for the weekend but she is incognito. Somewhere with KB I guess. She’s lucky she has KB. That too in Bangalore. That too in her office. That too in her team. I know I shouldn’t put kannu on my own friend, but I just cant help it. With VJ being so far away, life is very unfair.

And I am also particularly irritated with her cause she does this disappearing act pretty often nowadays. About the weekends, oh don’t get me started. I can go on and on and on. But I know, again, that I shouldn’t do that. I mean I have no legitimate claim on her. But still, it feels lonely and I feel blue and when I am like this I only think of myself. Everyone else be dammed! I mean, unless they are going to give me company and cheer me up.

That brings me to the title, can you buy company? I ask this cause you know if I want to meet any of my friends, I have to call and make plans and fix the date and the time and the place and decide on every other bloody thing. What happened to just calling them and telling them to meet you. And Mai also clearly told me to inform her “in advance” cause well she has KB, S1, S2…and a whole bunch of other people who keep vying for her company. Aaargh! I met her first! Hence I have more right on her! To hell with the others. :(

There is this one sane part in me (Shocked? Yeah, I know. It happens.) that keeps telling me I shudn’t think like that. But no use, my insane part is bigger in size and influence so this possessive streak in me is incurable. Deal with it. Cause I am trying to deal with it myself. So you get no exception either. I wonder if I will ever find a person whom I can be as possessive as I want to and still not get lectured about and not feel guilty about and well just be the possessive me and still feel liked and wanted and all that. Pathetic huh? Go take a hike you bozo!

Why should I buy the company of my friends? Why cant I just want it and they grant it for me? I mean I do it for them. Is it so selfish to expect it from others when you do it for them? I know its not selfish! But still, is it? And whats with all the guilt people try to inflict on you when you want something? I hate such puritan preaching idiots. I could just punch them in their face. I do not think that suffering is a way to attain salvation. Ugh!

So do you have to buy company too? Let me know…I may feel a little kindred…instead of like the odd one...

I wonder when this guy from Mast Kalandar is gonna come? No, no, I dint mean it like that. I mean to deliver my dinner, you know.

----------

Zing!!!

You know how my office has these cool coffee corners, that I insist on calling coffee bars (cause that’s where I get to gossip with my friends), where we have two different coffee machines, one vending machine, biscuits, instant soups and a cola machine. You don’t? Ok, now you know. However, the tea and coffee there don’t have the same “zing” feeling. You know, the “zing” feeling? The one you get when you take your first sip of the first coffee/tea of the day? Well, its kinda like the tea/coffee goes to your head instead of down your throat and to your tummy. The coffee bar ones don’t have the “zing” and well, I guess I came to terms with that considering everything was oasey (free).

Yesterday I came in early and then realized the meeting at 10 AM was cancelled. I was sooooo mad! I had to run out of my house without time to pack my breakfast for my 7:20 AM shuttle, which by the way has been moved to 7:30 AM. And did I mention without packing my breakfast? Anyways, I went to the canteen and ordered a plain cheese sandwish (I know!) and then saw this other guy order masala chai and I errr immediately changed my order also to include a masala chai.

There is no describing the “zing” I got when I took that divine first sip. Aaaah! It was more like “ZING” in WORD 72 Font Size, bold, underlined, italicised and in RED. Wow! I fell in love with it! It was sooooo amazing.

The 10 AM meeting I told you about? It got moved to today. I came in early again but this time got my breakfast packed. I was sitting here a few minutes ago arguing with myself whether I should go “buy” the tea or make do with the oasey tea/coffee. But, the greedy-foodie (cool word na?) that I am, the next minute I was in a lift that was taking me to the 6th floor. Since I dint have change (which is always) I had a Rs.10 note with me and then an idea struck. I ordered two teas and asked the guy to pour it in a juice glass. He gave me a weird look. And two guys and one lady next to me in the line gave me even super weirder looks. It was so hilarious! Of course, I have no qualms when it comes to food and proudly carried (yes, not hold; it was huge so I had to carry it) my juice glass filled with tea. When I turned to move out of the queue, everyone took a step backwards like I was Godzilla or something. Cha…people are so weird na? I know!

So my next task was to safely make it back to my desk, with the juice glass full of tea that had every danger of spilling with even the slightest hint of a jolt. And if Kupy is reading this, she would definitely and literally be rolling-on-the-floor-with-laughter. It’s a well known fact in my family that I am the most clumsy grandchild that the entire clan has seen. Some people have even enquired to my mom whether I was dropped on my head or had some such accident that had rendered me totally off-balance. With such genes against me, it was a great feat in itself to reach my desk without getting any tea on me or the floor or the carpet or someone else! I managed very well; through the door and through the lift. When I reached my floor, I gave a happy sigh and was just about to come out of the lift when this @#$%$%&$@!# guy comes rushing in…aaargh! But…nothing was lost! My spidey peripheral vision had somehow made me involuntarily side step and hence the tea and I were safe. :P

I just finished my tea and truth be told…my tummy feels a little too full. Kupy, stop laughing. I think I’ve learnt my lesson. Or have I? Hmmm…

Excerpts from DEAR DIARY...

I am rudely awakened at 6:33 AM to Mai’s voice shouting “DID YOU SWITCH ON THE WATER????” Apparently, Bangalore had some water problem and our tank had run dry. So there is a mad rush for us girls to get ready for office. I try to go back to sleep again but there is just way too much noise! At one point, I am so frustrated that I felt like crying. I had crashed at 3AM the previous night and wanted to sleep in but I couldn’t. Then RR comes to my room asking if she could take bath in our loo and I very grumpily agree that she can do whatever she wants as long as I can get some sleep! I know, so bad na. If you’re in my place, then you’ll know.

---

Finally managed to get myself out of the house in time for my late shuttle. I am still mostly sleep walking. Anyways, reached office and quickly got to work doing a lot of odd end stuff that needed my attention.

---

I am fasting. The last sensible meal I had was the previous day’s lunch. My mind is playing games with me and my tummy was his co-conspirator. OK, I have no idea why I just referred to my mind as a “HIM”. Weird huh? Maybe I should take some stupid FB quiz about my brain.

---

Oooh…FB! I haven’t logged in for a while. Well, important things shouldn’t be left undone. Hmm…nothing great. No one writes on my wall and I don’t get stupid “fraandship” requests anymore. Should I be happy or sad?

---

OK…my mind and tummy won. I make plans with Mai for dinner after my puja at the temple and her guitar class with her weird-young-teacher.

---

I am blog-hopping. Read a lot of Entha Hotness. No, no, no…it is NOT some porn blog. It’s this really wild and funny dame who writes about such hilarious things that sounds like most of us when we talk to ourselves in our mind. Wat? You don’t do that? Huh! OK…I talk to myself a lot and I feel kindred reading her blog.

---

VJ comes online. He finds our chats very amusing nowadays as I’ve started swearing a lot. Only in special characters though. He keeps encouraging me to swear more and lose the special characters. (Note to self: Beware! Don’t listen to VJ.) Anyways, we had this conversation about how weird our lives are and how I make HIS life weirder. Go to hell, I say! Huh!

---

AJ is having a lot of morning sickness. Poor AJ! I wish I could do something for her. So I accompany her to the coffee corner and try to make her eat 3 dosas that her mom had packed for her. I make a bad choice and take some badam milk from the counter. Really bad choice. The milk stinks and the powder makes it stink even more. And it definitely didn’t help that AJ was right next to me downing her yummy home-made lunch of dosas with sambhar and chutney. Aaargh! I wish I could eat. :( I am so very very very sorry Pillaiyarappa. :( I am a very good girl. I dint mean to think like that. :(

---

Hmmm…I just realize I haven’t done any work after 1:00 PM and its almost 3. And I also forgot to log in for an info-session. Rolu is making eyes at me to login before anyone notices. So I dial in like a good team player and put the phone on mute. Entha Hotness and the screen-share of the info-session are vying for space in my chotu monitor :P

---

It’s almost 4 and my mentor calls me for a short sync. I asked for the sync the previous day and remembered that I really had something important to clarify with her.

---

I am back after around 30 mins. Felt nice making my mind work for a change. I guess it’s because my mentor is great. I really like her. Though, I can’t believe she is a Virgo. I’ve never really liked Virgo’s before.

---

It’s almost 4:30 PM. Another 30 mins and I need to run for my bus. I decide to work on two action items from my sync and dutifully shoot out some emails. I’m listening to that song from Omkara. That lori thing that Ajay Devgan sings. It’s kinda cute.

---

YAWN! Almost 5...and A’s voice over the music to ask about some issue is slightly irritating me. Actually, no highly irritating me. I reply as calmly as possible and get back to my mails.

---

I decide to finally pack up. Since AJ took the day off after lunch, there really is no one to say BYE to. I walk by my mentor’s desk with a small bye and amble along to my bus. It’s almost empty and I choose my fav seat and settle down with my radio.

---(PTO)---

I have so many other things to write…but WORD tells me I am in “PAGE: 3 of 3” so I think I should save it for another post. Do come back! The next one is funny, I promise. Really.

Title? Aaargh...I don't know...

So...I just got back from some time off work. Personal reasons. Period.

And I'm finding it really difficult to adjust myself to my work now. I wake up every morning and lie in bed, staring at the ceiling and making a list of "I should not go to work today because...". So anyways, the weekend did its magic as usual and I am a little better this week. I am guessing it's because of the appraisal stuff thats going on and I see everyone in my team being extra-nice to the umm "the important people" and CCing "them" in all the bloody mails they send out. It is so freaking funny.

I, for one, am still a little lost...so I'm just keeping afloat. Yesterday happened to be Sankatahara Chaturthi. And I realised that at like 2 AM the previous night (or early morning that day. Watever). I was up until late Monday with a horrible, horrible headache trying to figure out a way to write two sensible lines in conclusion for my essay and took a break to walk around the room and flipped the calendar to February and saw the fluorescent green highlighted day. I felt so sad. ( I used too many "and" in the last sentence. I know.) Sad? Why? Well, I decided to start my "no food after 7 PM" diet beginning Feb 1. Actually it was supposed to be Jan 1. But New Years is always such a depressing time that I ended up bingeing for a week and then totally gave up during Sankrathi. So Feb 1 was supposed to be my version of errr Jan 1. And I had just had a bowl of Honey Loops and a glass of milk on Monday night. I really felt sad.

So I guess I had a very guilt-ridden day yesterday. I had these odd rumblings in my tummy like that Knorr soup kid and kept daydreaming about masala dosa. I dint dare to go anywhere near the canteen cause seriously, I wouldn’t trust myself when I have such cravings. Believe me, you haven’t seen me when I’m on a binge. In the end, I decided to stop feeling guilty about keeping such a fast and called up Mai for a dinner rendezvous at A2B. The mere prospect of making such a plan made me feel a little better and dulled the tummy rumblings. So the rest of my day went by without much problem.

What with the guilt-trip and the tummy rumblings and the dinner plans…god, I was so busy. I had no time to do anything else. So I did what any good blogger does, I went blog hopping. I read so many blogs and so many posts that I felt so wasted. Overall, it was a good day I guess. Oh, did I mention that I did NO WORK the whole day?

Neuroticism

You feel anxiety, and you worry often. Your anxiety can make you emotionally unstable, and you're more likely to struggle with depression and sadness. You are more likely to interpret ordinary situations as threatening, and minor frustrations as hopelessly difficult. This can lead to physical ill health.

Happy New Year everyone... ;)