Chronicles 1/3

Life deals with you in different ways. Sometimes you love it, sometimes you wonder why it turned out so. But whichever it is, it fills you with wonder.

Many things have happened since the last time I posted here. Days of unbearable expectation, huge disappointment, enormous joy. In no particular order, these are what I remember most of my past few days.

The days before the results were most excruciating. Especially when ‘sources’ said that it would come at evening 5p.m. of xyz day and you ran home from office at 9:45 just to see others like you cursing at the online communities. And exhilarating. Like when you get your first acceptance. And then the second too! The day you resign and finally feel like telling you-know-who to @$^&#&*#. But then you listen to the voic of reason and just put on your best smile and tell them the news. And learn never to raise your voice even though the ones 15 years your senior act unprofessionally. Makes you feel old and irritable. And then you hit yourself on your head when you realise that everyone else can find out how frustrated you are, just by asking you ‘oh so did they agree on the date?’ Ha! All that tact for what now… What seems funnier is when the company puts your picture in two of the four bulletins of the month and people you had just sporadic touch with, call you up soon after that.

It has been a month where some of my beliefs, nay, that’s too strong, some of the thoughts I had, have been turned on the head. Someone I assumed had not much spine, showed that that illusion was created because he just did things civilly. Another who I thought was one of the best, reared his ugly head. People I knew to be always nodding their heads at the management, said enough is enough. Someone I admired, and with whom I disagreed many times, offered me a hand of friendship. I realised the difference between the thin line separating leadership where you let others grow, and the one where you don’t ‘interfere’ at all that everything just isn’t the way you want it. It must be a bit like steering a car. When you see it veering off course, you step in. And when asked for advice, you give it. Just asking the team to come up with a solution after they are really stuck only makes one side feel incompetent and the other side seem so. Hmmm, I will also have to come back and read this when, heavens forbid, I feel I have grown so much that I no longer need a reality check.

There was a day of nothing but fun. The day we met at the Beach to celebrate B’s 23rd birthday. This day was so different from the other times we meet to rejoice over something, because almost all of us had something special to cheer for. A and S’s starting their own venture, B finally joining the world of the salaried and also being a year older (though I doubt she thinks it is something to be told to everyone), N’s going to Sweden and my imminent departure. Oh and the fact that this was the 1st get-together after Lent added nice touch. Of course the dancing was the highlight, though I confess to having two left feet. Ha!

Packing this time, before coming home, was a pain. I never really realised how many books I had. 94! Not a bad number to collect in the past 3 years, huh? Seems like my childhood dream of owning a library may one day be a reality *touchwood* But to pack them up and send them home soon after knowing how many I have, that was real tough! I finally did end up doing it. About 2 hours before leaving the room for the station. Ma was understandably shocked on seeing them. But then she was an absolute sweetheart as usual and repacked them into a nice little box. I don’t think I could have stood that.

Chronicles 2/3

Meeting Murali was like old times. We lose touch ever so often, but the times we meet, it is like we were never apart. No wonder he’s my bro. And he’s probably the only guy my parents enjoy talking to, and the only person I’d be allowed to be with after 7p.m. Even Ma reminisces about the first times she had met him “Oh, how shy he was then to even come from his birthday party… And now look at him acting in the movie and pursuing his dreams!” Dad of course has other thoughts. The moment Murali said that he’s graduate in Finance and marketing, Dad’s eyes lit up. Sometimes I believe that he thinks the best things to be in are IT companies and banks, but oh well I try not to get involved in such discussions with him. We are too alike in our temperament and the situation would easily become combustible. Sometimes I think, oh dear I really must be more ummm.. well maybe ask more advice from him. But then I know deep inside that he loves me so much he’d never let something come up where there is a want of advice from him. Sometimes it is easy to be a rebel when it happens (when does one really stop being an insecure and cocksure teenager in front of one’s parents? I don’t know), but then most times I know it is just love. Ah the wisdom that comes with age! :)

Mrl and I had been to Creamy Inn in front of our school. It used to be the only cool hangout place when we were studying, and the years seem to have treated it well. Hordes of school children and kids with their parents were at the place. I stood outside looking at the school and went back to the happy memories ages ago… Perhaps someday I’ll elaborate on that. As of now, SBOA is completely built up. Loads of new buildings. Classrooms with A/C and lockers! Of course fees have doubled, but that doesn’t seem to surprise me anymore. Mom and I love the concept of cool classrooms, but Dad and Mrl agree that it was better without the a/c. Dad ‘cause children have better immunity when they grow up in rougher environments and Mrl ‘cause he’d have happily slept through the classes and never passed. Though I doubt that.

We went to Coffee Day, but the new one at Anna Nagar West. Seems so different from the days when CCD usually meant the one near Round Tana. A boisterous group at the next table reminded us of how we used to act during our teens. Talk revolved around many of our old classmates. Sweet ol’ Mangal and how he was mistaken for a fresher in his new company. Now I realise why guys place as much importance on facial hair as girls place on the lack of it. Why I ‘must’ come for the trip to Mumbai so that there’d be one more to bear one among us. How I always used to coerce a classmate into buying ice-creams for the whole gang. Which, frankly speaking, wasn’t that difficult since I was probably the only female who was really nice to him. PK, the other Murali and me, and our constant struggle for the top 3 spots. Hmmm… maybe I should correct that. No one ever did beat Murali!

Chronicles 3/3

It is funny how most of my closest friends are also the ones I have known the longest. Navin’s been my buddy since 6th when I used to sit next to him and jabber away non-stop. And finish all his water too. Some say I used up everything I wanted to talk about when I was young itself, and that’s how I turned out to be a quiet one in the years later. Lol! PK, who has been my friend and rival over the years; Kiran who knows my deepest darkest secrets; mad, mad Madhu; Murali, who will always have a special place; dearest H, my only constant from a place that hurt me the most and made me tougher too; Elz dear; Stabby a.k.a. Sapota my alternative for a wisdom tooth; Butter, the exasperating cheer-me-up factor; Chimpf and Kaka, the ones who give me splits every lunch hour; and all the others I haven’t mentioned here, oh I love you all! Muah! Consider this a warning to anyone who tries to come between us… That includes all prospective life-time cooks my mom is going to set me up with 2 years down the line, ‘cause I’m definitely going to make you read all of this. Why ‘cook’? Cause I sure can’t, so you better know how to. :P

Most of all I think I realised why I love home. Even though I love staying away from it. Having someone who cares for you like no other, it is awesome. Ya it always was like that, but when I was a kid I took it for granted, and as a teenager I found it stifling. At least now, I have learnt to appreciate it. Especially at moments like this, when the scary thoughts of not having this forever creep in. Now that so many of my college classmates and cousins are either getting married or engaged, it is becoming tougher to keep Mom and Dad from the topic. I can’t believe I’m admitting this, but yes I am becoming open to the idea of an arranged marriage. (!!!) I know I want it someday, but even 28 seems too early! And the idea to have to cope with someone new, and his family to boot, whoa it seems too huge! Add to this, the constraints that society put in w.r.t. religion and region, it seems too huge. And then comes the question, would I go with someone I love more, or someone who loves me more, or rather adjust with someone I know I can live with, regardless of the ‘love’ factor. Tough decisions.

Beyond this, other pressing things demand my attention. Let me start at the beginning. Working at Ditzingen made me hope that one day I could have that work culture for longer. The absolute demarcation of professional and personal time, and how somehow more work just seemed to get done in the same time, it was incredible. And the sheer absence of politics was like a breath of fresh air. But of course, now I realise it was just beneath the surface. So when the dual-degree course came along, I yearned for it. What made my expectations grow was when I thought I’d make it. But the waiting list number disheartened me. It took me till I met my future classmates of the other offer I’d accepted for me to accept reality. This is where I am going and it seems like a nice place. With people I know. And today’s loan discussions just confirmed what I’d known deep down, but had just refused to acknowledge: We wouldn’t have been able to afford the other one. The One above truly makes things work out for the best, though then I did not know so.

There will be times over the next few months that I will celebrate, or curse, the occasion. And through them, I hope I never lose hope, and that I remain steadfast in the belief that it will all work out for the best. Peace!

Why I Hate Pepsi/Coke

Source: here

Children, carbonated drinks make you fat! Have juice instead!

[Edit, after the first few comments]: More info :) Reproduced from here

• In The First 10 minutes: 10 teaspoons of sugar hit your system. (100% of your recommended daily intake.) You don’t immediately vomit from the overwhelming sweetness because phosphoric acid cuts the flavor allowing you to keep it down.
• 20 minutes: Your blood suar spikes, causing an insulin burst. Your liver responds to this by turning any sugar it can get its hands on into fat. (There’s plenty of that at this particular moment)
• 40 minutes: Caffeine absorption is complete. Your pupils dilate, your blood pressure rises, as a response your livers dumps more sugar into your bloodstream. The adenosine receptors in your brain are now blocked preventing drowsiness.
• 45 minutes: Your body ups your dopamine production stimulating the pleasure centers of your brain . This is physically the same way heroin works, by the way.
• >60 minutes: The phosphoric acid binds calcium, magnesium and zinc in your lower intestine, providing a further boost in metabolism. This is compounded by high doses of sugar and artificial sweeteners also increasing the urinary excretion of calcium.
• >60 Minutes: The caffeine’s diuretic properties come into play. (It makes you have to pee.) It is now assured that you’ll evacuate the bonded calcium, magnesium and zinc that was headed to your bones as well as sodium, electrolyte and water.
• >60 minutes: As the rave inside of you dies down you’ll start to have a sugar crash. You may become irritable and/or sluggish. (Edit: Well I don't know about this as I don't have Coke. But what say B? )You’ve also now, literally, pissed away all the water that was in the Coke. But not before infusing it with valuable nutrients your body could have used for things like even having the ability to hydrate your system or build strong bones and teeth.

This will all be followed by a caffeine crash in the next few hours. (As little as two if you’re a smoker.) But, hey, have another Coke, it’ll make you feel better.

[end] (Thanks to Liz Lewis)

Forbidden love and my love

I was a bookworm.

I used to devour books like a shark on a feeding-frenzy. I'd come home from school, take the book I had stopped 'cause Mom asked me to get ready in the morning, and start. From 4 to 6:30, when she'd get back from work, I'd be lost. Take shoes off before jumping on the couch? Remember to ask M where he was going? Close the door? I had a tough time remembering to do them before I went with Nancy to solve the next mystery or empathised with Tracy while she plotted her next move or got wild at Nanethal when he broke Samantha's heart. I had to get off this addiction for 3 years though. For my board exams. It was do that or else...

It was when I went to T that books became my solace again. Stuck in a place where I was an anomaly, where hardly anyone communicated in the language I knew, was a bit of a culture shock. (A huge learning experience too, but well sometimes tough lessons last longer) Anyway, my years in T passed smoother thanks to the library there. Bless you! The journey continued.

However, this love affair was headed for something I'd not expected. The move to B. Work. And the non-availability of a library within easily commutable distance. Which here must be less than 2 kms on weekdays, since my 4km journey from work takes half an hour to 45 mins depending on the traffic. (Some things you live with in this cosmo world!) Now reading books depended on the e-books which so totally took away the feel of a book, or buying the ones, which meant I'd so often pick up an author I know or based on the excerpt I read. Where's the joy then of discovering so many others?

Then came the second hand bookstore 5 mins down the road! Nice! I am building my collection solely from that store. Blossom on Church St. is closing down and this is nearer anyway. But the craze had gone. It was spurts of enthusiasm which lasted till the final page of the book. Something like what happened with my TV addiction. Now I can’t watch it for more than an hour!

So it was with no special expectation that I picked out Twilight. Actually, it was with slight trepidation that this book would bomb. 'Cause I hate horror! Ugh! And here I was picking a book about a girl falling in love with a vampire! Woohoo... The only reason I did end up getting it was because of the lines on the back cover and the fact that the name Stephenie Meyer sounded vaguely familiar. And boy, was I blown away! I read half the book till my eyes wouldn’t stay open any longer. I read it on the way to work. I read it while my computer booted up. I read it during my coffee breaks. Hell, I went to the rest room and took long breaks because I was hooked! It was on that day that I came back and logged on to Shelfari and actually took the 50 books a year challenge seriously!

I downloaded the movie immediately, and watched it the next day. Frankly, it was sort of an anti-climax because all the subtle nuances that are in a book cant always be shown in movie. I felt the same way about Harry Potter. Well, happens. So why am I writing about this book today? Two reasons. This was one book that made me beg for more and made to look out for it at the shops. I bought New Moon today *cheer* And the second is this: I was just about to start reading new Moon after dinner since I did not want to spill anything on it, when I stumbled on this: a blog about twilight! It was like a sign. And this is the result.

Thank you Stephenie!

So off I go to find out more about Isabella and Edward… And if you want to try out a new book, this is one you must read!

The highwayman

The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees,
The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas...

Listening to this reminded me of my English class when I first read it :) It still is one of my faves!

A toast to remember...

I am a sucker for weddings, songs, toasts, bride's maids and the whole concept of happily ever after... But most of all, what touches me is having friends together for the special events of our lives. This video below (from here) is the ultimate expression of what a wedding toast could be! It was pulled off by the Man of Honour and all of the bride's friends and family, spread over so many states.. Such an awesome expression of love!



Amy and Brad, Thanks so much for sharing this with us. Wish you the very best! Muah!
xox