Haye bappi, Hayyeee Papiha!!

Hey!!!! I am such a disgrace to the blogger inside me. Don’t even give her enough time to continue her passion. Anyways, despite the-groggy feeling and the odd hours, I thought it would be unfair not to let her use and utilize this anyways-going-to-be-wasted hour. And actually I do like our shared blog. Feels so much me! She is too good in expressing what I am, aint she?!?!?! But sometimes she does get influenced by other blogs and unknowingly gets to write in other style of writing, like she would in this post too, making several short points rather than her usual essay-type posts, as soon as I let her take over. Alrgiht, she doesn’t like me writing but I had made it a condition to her for letting me write for a while before she proceeds. But cant continue anymore, her constant ranting from ‘within’ being one of the reason. So here on it is SHE who is writing.
UMMPH…….. Hiiiiii hiiii hiiiii… been so wanting to update my blog but didn’t get enough time. Cant help it though. There are many many things going in my mind which I want to write before I forget. So here I go….
• I have (already) started the countdown for my birthday. Yes! It is hardly 5weeks away. But this birthday countdown gives me creeps also each year. I feel terrible, awful and dreadful when I get reminded that I am that many years old. It happens each year. Each year I would exclaim “OMG! I am __ years old. Look at myself. This __ sound soooooo old and mature. __ minus 1 was a perfect age for me. Why one more to it? AHHHHH…… and another worry roots in. what if my birthday is not celebrated as I wanted it. Would I be disappointed on my birthday (which is almost inevitable as I expect higher than reality) which would be the worst thing to happen. This time, I found festoons in the house and am planning to take it to Manipal to spare my friends of its expense for my birthday. But it would look so haughty to offer it to them myself. How will I manage that?
• Here is an extremely good example of being committed to your community no-matter-what. My grandmom, eighty plus who has been living with us for at least ten years now and cannot hear, still prefers to see tamil channels during day-time. It is not as if she would not see dishum-dishum hindi movies but still in the end would invariably see at least 15 minutes of tamil shows as a compulsion. Not because she would understand it better than she would hindi movies (provided she cant hear)and neither because it would keep her in touch with what is happening there as a pretext to gossip among her friends as living here for many years she must have lost touch with them. It is only I feel because it makes her feel as a part of that particular community and feel attached to it despite the distances. :)
• My mom is obsessed with water. Strange obsessions she has in life, keeping in mind her obsession for socks, mobile games, participating in any sort of event, visioning her future in “mother ka aashram”, TUPPERWARE and many other things. Even when she is in office her mind would throughout be in whether there is water in the house or not. MAMMA! And my dad is a smartie. He has brilliant ways of pending away work. What he does is, drink half-way through a water bottle kept in the fridge and then begin with a new bottle (resulting in half-drunk bottles in the fridge, yes he still drinks cold water in this unbearable winter) so that he wouldn’t have to fill the bottles until all the bottles are empty.
• I think I should put my (or other’s) problem of the increasing layers of fat in my tummy (and also other places) in the backseat because I have been devouring excessively on yummy but fatty food in Indore which I cannot resist. Gone are the brutal days of Manipal with frugal meals. But the thing is, why do people have sooo much of problem in seeing me fat? And even if it is a pain to their eyes, why do they transfer their pain to their tongues and express it so blatantly? One of the least soothing words I came across recently were “Aree!!! Your one thigh is equivalent to mine and simran’s put together” so casually said by Shivani. Thanks so much.
• I love Indore. It is only after going to Manipal have I realized that is really strange in many ways. Families roaming late in the city just to have chaat in Sarafa. For non-indoris, sarafa actually opens after 11!!! And there are discotheques where families go for dancing. I got to know that discos are mostly attached to a pub only after going to Manipal. Or was I reluctant to know that basic knowledge? I have never seen Indore roads deserted even when we used to reach Indore as late as 2 in the night and it would not be as if I would see tapporis, but the whole family happy and carefree, going god knows where.
And yes, remembering Vineeth’s statement, I so want my mom and dad to be disco-queen and king! They so much love dancing!
• There have been so many times when I have suffered ego-punctures. That means, I would be more than confidently stating something as if it were true only to know minutes later that I have been quite wrong. Here are two instances. On our fresher’s party last year, I joined Ruhi for dinner and noticed that she hadn’t taken my assumed ‘panner’ ki sabzi and asked her had she not noticed it and proudly adding that it was so hard not to have noticed it. She said nothing but she already knew what I got to know minutes later after putting several chunks of that sabzi in my mouth that it was actually chicken-something and the reason why she hadn’t taken it. Proved that she was more well-aware than what I claimed I was in her comparison. Another such incident happened with Sreya. We like usual were discussing about eyes and lips and ears and cheeks and hair and all of that. It was then I felt amused to see that she had to bring her lower jaw forward whenever she opened her mouth for smiling. I like all other times confidently commented that her jaw is placed unusually and it is quite abnormal for it to go behind the upper one whenever she closed her mouth and said as a matter of fact that the jaws are supposed to stay as they are even when the mouth is closed. And later when I was talking about it with Ruhi, I realized that her perfectly aligned teeth of the lower jaw also go beind when she closed her mouth. I asked her two other room-mates whether it was the same for them and they nodded in agreement, silly me, then got to know, that it was not sreya’s but my jaws that were abnormally placed. Again proved that I was sillier, less perfect than Sreya, contrary to what I had so confidently stated to her. I should seriously give up on mocking. God severely punishes me for that. AHHHHHHH….
• What else?!?!?! Wanted to write so much more… hmmm… hmm… and YES YES YES…. It gives me creeps to think about a multiple identity disorder. My worst fear. I am not such a case. So please ignore what __ told in the beginning. She is MAD. I get utterly scared to think that she isn’t real and she constantly thinks of ways of making me feel so. AHHHH… I hate her…. AHHH…. Hayyeee baapiii haye papiha,… Haye bappi haye papiha… why are you so confused??? It is my way of dealing with fear-singing songs. STOP making Fun of me. Now browse some other blog, I have nothing more to write. Hayye bappi, Haaayee papihaaa….

I like observing people. There are so many different emotions you will come across if you notice properly… here I will be listing some of my favourites. Here it goes:
• The smile on a mother’s face when some other person appreciates her newborn infant. I particularly like it when she feels proud of it and adds from her side that her baby can do many more things and asks the infant to do it at that particular moment. The smile is simply fantastic.
• The glow in a lover’s face when he/she (usually she) tells about her love and explains in detail things like how they met or they started going out.
• The awkwardly happy smile on a person’s face when he is complimented unexpectedly.
• The expression on the face of a person who is trying to avert his eyes from the one he loves to hide the embarrassment, usually when his friends tease him about her. Even the expression of harmless malice on the face of the friends is worth noticing.
• The expression of gratefulness in a person who has been helped out of the blue.
• The immediate tangy sensation you can notice when someone has a mouthful of something sour.
• The alarmed look on a face on the revelation of a secret.
• The look of serenity in wise elderly men.
• The enjoyment on a discovery or seeing a wonder.
• The lost dreamy look in someone who is blushing inside thinking of her lover.
• The winning look on the face of someone who just won an argument.
• The engrossed look on someone looking out for something.
• The guiltily embarrassed look when somebody loses or breaks some other person’s valuable stuff.
• Of a person who is thinking deeply as if analyzing something.
• A hopeful look in a participant anticipating his victory.
• The face of a nervous student before an exam. Quite in contrast you will also find people with confident faces and also those with carefree attitude who don’t bother about the result.
Well that is all I can think of now… suggest me some more na!

Life these days!

Hey there… It has been two-three months and I haven’t been updating my blog as regularly as I used to… Cant even think of excuses… But yes, it takes extra efforts to borrow somebody else’s laptop and if the internet is slow, there are no second thoughts of updating my blog. And the major problem is that whenever I get a laptop, I am out of thoughts and when I am full of thoughts I never have a computer. I do write them in my diary, but because I don’t carry it along everywhere with me, the thoughts go nowhere beyond my diary’s reach.
Hmm… ok… Instead of giving pointless explanations, I should better proceed writing about something else… Hmm… NEWS?? What I have been doing all this semester?
• Well to begin with, I recently read Nishaan Prabhakar’s blog and really liked it, especially his way of writing and sense of humour…
• I have realized I have been eating only this in Manipal more than frequently.
- (At Manipal Juice Center): papaya juice.
- (At Anand Bhavan): plain mysore dosa and orange juice.
- (From Nandini Milk Point): packet Nandini toned milk, mentos lime, kachha aam or melody.
- (At Himalaya Mess): veg-thali, curd and lassi.
- (In a shop near KMC):nariyal pani- meetha pani with patli malai- ahaa… this small shop gives the sweetest coconut water. I am now a regular customer in this shop. Even the uncle (I mean, shop keeper) cuts the coconut so skillfully and looks very gentle-gentle. I like the shop.
- (At Vinayaka): Lime juice and mentos lime, kachha aam or Cadbury shots.
- (At Snack Shack): Death By Chocolate.
- (At Campus Summer Park restaurant in Udupi, which is now my new favourite): Palak soup, dal-khichdi or palak khichdi (palak khichdi depend on whether I had palak soup or not)
- (At parota point): methi parota, muli parota.
- (At Tasty Bites): Rajasthani dal-khichdi
- (At any other eatery): Sweet-corn soup and palak paneer sabzi
- (From the paan shop at TC, sometimes): Meetha paan without supari.

• I hate ants and am extremely allergic to them. And they seem have taken over my room. I mean they are everywhere you can see and everywhere you cannot. Because of those tormenting creatures, I cant keep any food in my room. If I do, I suffer tremendously and keep scratching my body and scalp for the next half an hour and also sneezing. I am always looking of ways to get rid of them and one of the successful ways has been spraying dettol hand-wash on them. They die instantly. I know it sounds cruel, but they are 10 times crueler with what they do to me.
• The next irritating creatures royally lazing around in my room are lizards. Not just my room but the whole flat. I am amazed to see the number of lizards in a 3-bedroom flat. I can easily estimate without even counting that there would approximately be 2 lizards per WALL… yes, easily. And half of them are not any bigger than your index finger. They would suddenly creep out from the least expected places. At least spare the small unavoidable places which can not accommodate a person who finds lizards disgusting and wants to stay as far from them as possible. Please lizards, please, spare the toilets and bathrooms.
• And yes, my room is further uncomfortable as it is in the second floor with no proper ventilation making it unbearably hot. Even I, who would sleep under a blanket without a fan in summers, sweat nowadays. At least I am spared from the power-cuts others suffer of, because of the flat being a part of the MIT hostel.
• I get amused by seeing people brush in the morning. I mean, everybody brushes their teeth (including me) but what amuses me is that some, actually many brush for almost half an hour, with so much of strain and a bored expression as if it is a lot of important work. The funniest thing about this is that they would actually be brushing their teeth in absolutely wrong way- as in different from what dentists suggest.
• I have been realizing that my crush’s and my way of living is quite similar. There have been quite a few coincidences which I have noticed which I am sure nobody knows about. Ha!! I absolutely dote upon my crush. :D:D:D
• And people I will actually harm you if you say I sleep a lot. Paavam I don’t. Last week, I might not have slept more than 30-35hours the whole week. Think of it, average of 4-5 sleep-hours per day. Certainly it is not a lot and less than many reading this (are there any, first of all!??!?) it is just that I sleep at untimely hours which makes you think so.

Achha, I have a lot more to write about, actually a lot more to copy from my diary... Will do it soon... :)
Byee for now... Have to start studying for the mangazine journalism exam tomorrow. WISH ME LUCK!

Questions and doubts...

Nowadays, it is least astonishing to find an atheist among your friend circle. Roughly ¾ths of this population has lost faith in God. It is one of the latest trends. For many it is considered equivalent to your level of clairvoyance and a proof of how knowledge has widened your wisdom. There are many who chide at the concept of God and bawl heavy dialogues basically mocking the existence of God with no substantial backing.
And the believers on the other hand believe in it, only because they fear it and neither do they have a substantial reason for believing. There are many whom I know who fail to give any explanation and end up answering like, “I know he is there and I believe in him with complete faith. It is upto you now to believe it or not.”
And there are also many who give inane reasons like, “Why else do you think there are happenings around the world whose source no-one knows about? Who else do you think looks after you in your tough times? How is there supernatural stuff in this world noone has an answer to? It is he, god, who supervises all that is happening in this world and guides us. Everything in this world is predecided, we are just puppets to perform the task decided for us.
I know these sound illogical and misguiding, and if it is the only explanation provided by the believers, then there is no surprise to see the increasing number of atheists. And the result is that the upcoming atheists have no proper reasoning to support their atheism and merely opt for it due to lack of proper guidance and valid reasoning.
And in this crowd of growing atheists, I found one undying hope in a believer whose ideas never palpitated even after receiving much criticism about supporting the concept. While talking to her in this context I felt a little inspired. I was impressed by one thing: finally somebody who firmly believed in religion had a reason to believe in it. As we were arguing, she said that it is one of the ways that checks that a person does not cross his limits. A religion gives one a set of rules he must follow to live a decent harmless life. And the rules aren’t set by any common man. They are set by an intellectual keeping in view the psychology of man and the rules best suited for him. They have been followed over generations now and widely accepted because of its feasibility.
It was then a question arose that how can a single person decide what rules should every man and that it should be a decent level of sense everyone should have to not cross limits and be in control. A simple answer to that is “Every man has their own definition of decency and vulgarity. If man is let to abide only to the rules set by himself, why would he make a rule for himself then at the first place. He would do whatever he wishes to with no sense of guilt which would lead to absolute chaos. If man is guided by a set of rules provided by his religion and he agrees to follow it by the fear of the supreme power of almighty, why not? It is only profiting to have such a concept.
As I was writing it down, a question arose in my mind, “Till when can you fool around with humans, creating illusionary characters (lets not debate on this for now) for him to fear and abide by some rules? It is like taming an active kid to sleep by frightening him with tales of ghosts and other scary creatures. After a period, the child will outgrow to such stories and find solid explanations to defy its existence.
“Has the time come in human’s survival to outgrow the subsistence of God???”

MINNIE Mouse Pen-stand

Well!!!! Hiiiiiiiiii………
I recently made a very cute Minnie-mouse pen-stand. Actually that day I had pepsi and cup-o-noodles in the night and was left with the empty cans. Looking at the two pepsi cans and the cup-o-noodles plastic bowl which was of a slightly bigger radius than the pepsi cans I was reminded of the three circles used in a mickey mouse cartoon- two for its ears and one for its face. It was then that an idea struck me to make a Minnie-mouse pen-stand out of it. So I cut the pepsi cans into half and painted them black. The cup-o-noodles cup was painted skin colour. Then I stuck them together with fevicol (the two pepsi cans side by side with a little distance between them) and made holes in the cans and put a satin ribbon through it and tied it like a bow. Then I took a thick sheet of paper, cut in the size of the cup-o-noodles circle and drew the eyes, nose and mouth for the Minnie mouse. Made holes in the cup and the sheet and tied them together so that the sheet covered the mouth of the cup. That is all. A simple and yet extremely cute pen-stand! I love it! Will upload its picture once I take a photo of it. Hmm… The sheet can easily be opened and the cup-o-noodles cup would be used to keep small things like eraser, sharpener, nail-cutter or stapler and the other two cans can be used for keeping the pens.

Pappu CAN dance!

Even when I was nothing else, I was always a dancer. Dancing was always something I cherished since countless time. But there were many cranky depressing times when I did not feel very great about knowing how to dance. I would notice other people dancing and conclude that every second person on earth can dance well. Hmm… I am a little wiser now. I have now realized that what if there are better dancers than me. I feel good not in knowing that I am the best dancer in the world but in ruminating that dancing is the best thing I know.
Some of the very early memories I have of dancing are:

I was in Pune, 42 Rastapeth, visiting my grandparents. I fail to remember any other details of my visit or even the house but I retain that one day I was dancing to my own singing in the hall, when tatha (grandfather) quietly came in and saw my solitary performance. He was quite impressed by it and had persuaded my mother to joining me into a dance class. I think it was how I was made to join the Bharthanatyam classes.
My first stage performance if I am not wrong: “Chane ke kheth mein”. Umakka had taught me the steps for the song and I had danced in my mother’s office programme tapping the same steps as Madhuri Dixit had in the film. I was quite happy after getting my first limelight. There were many dance performances from then on. Some bharthanatyam performances my dance teacher used to arrange and many others where I used to choreograph songs, teach them to my friends and synchronize with them.
Third memory is that of my first day in dance class. Appa had come to me one day when I was five and had asked me whether I would like to learn Bharathnatyam. Unaware of the long strange word I had asked him what it was. He told me it is an excellent dance form and I would definitely like it. Those days I was really fascinated by the colourful green masks people wore for mohiniaatam and kathakali. Excited I laid one condition, I would learn it only if I get to wear such masks for dancing. My father agreed and I registered myself for the dance class. I perfectly remember my first day there. I had thought of it as a summer camp thingy, so I had taken green marbles with me to entertain myself, just in case. I had seen boys playing with it and wanted to play too (still want to, though could never understand the game) and somehow had got hold of a handful of them but had not got any time afterwards to play with it. So I had thought of taking it along to the dance class and finally play with it there. I had hidden it in my dupatta which I was supposed to tie around my waist. I had loosely tied the duppatta around my waist, while careully keeping the marbles there. As I reached the class, the first thing my dance teacher did was untie my duppatta as it was very loose (the dupatta is supposed to be tied extremely tightly) and so went my marbles rolling everywhere on the ground. My teacher certainly had not expected it and eyed me suspiciously and being a shy girl at that time I simply blushed. The rest of the session was very boring for me. All through the hour we had to hit the ground hard first with the right leg and then with the left and with hands folded around the waist. This was clearly nowhere as interesting as I had imagined dancing thin-thak dhin-thak thai in green coloured masks. But several months later, I started enjoying it, when we actually started dancing rather than merely thumping our feet on the ground. Even then, I did not consider Bharathnatyam to be the greatest of things, but now, I know its importance and feel proud to identify myself with.

NAAM KA DAAM!

Names! What is not in a name? Shakespeare made his “name” by saying what is in a name! ahh… there is so much to it. We come to know a lot by just its name. Let us consider people’s names for instance. Here in India, you can know a person’s religion, status, background, the region he belongs to, caste and what not.
There are some legendary names like “Jai Pratap Singh” which in itself denote power! And Kumar’s, Kapoors and Khans are as it is very famous for their connection with the film industry.
While some names picture timid meek fellows like “Kishan Sansarovar” or “Nandan Tomar” or of a south Indian pimp like “ murlidharan muthuswami”, some names make us imagine tappori gundas like “raju misra” or “lakhan yadav”- Waah! Naam mein hi dam hai! Furthermore there are some names which sound of a person highly qualified like “Animesh Mukherjee” or “Deepak Acharya” or “Prajakta Deshmukh” and many sound as a musical tune like “Jignesh Mehra” or “Geetanjali Oberoi”. And not to forget the many Rajs and Rahuls who sound totally filmi in every sense.
Well. There is another category of interesting names- the surname of parsees. They truly represent the occupation and economical status of people. There are railwanis, mathurawalas, tyrewalas, daruwalas, botliwalas and the list goes on. Don’t they sound a little comical?
And yes. Now is the trend of having inimitable extraordinary names. Well the craze for it goes to such an extent that you will come across names like “Labadhi” or even “Vidhdyut” (electricity). There is, many times confusion created by unisex names like “Monu” or “Swapnil”. There are some people in my college who are often regarded as persons of opposite sex because of their names. Naming some of them, I would mention – Roshan, Shakti, Anadi and Yatharth.
Time for secret revelation. Well, I cant help but mention one very personal thing here. Umm… hehehe.. I have in mind already thought of some names for my children. (cheeks red!) well. I have come up with two names for now – Dhwani and Satvika. Dhwani means melody and satvika means pure character. I find both of them very appealing and lovable. Hmm… By the way, I came up with the name Satvika during our history class in the first semester. Our history teacher was once telling us about the schools of thought when he mentioned this name and told its meaning. I instantly made my mind to name my daughter “satvika”! And hey! I have the copyrights of these names so please don’t try copying any of the two names. Haan, you can otherwise copy the other mentioned names similar to Veer Singh Chourasia and all...
So! I end this post here. TATA!!!