As the sun sets on the western horizon of 2008, and a new day of 2009 beckons , as memories fade away and come back in a harmonic motion, time calls for a farewell post.
No obviously I'm not going to talk about Chidambaram, Bush and Harman Baweja. There are qualified people to tell you about them.

January was the month when this blog thing happened to me. For the past couple of years all I knew was blog comes from weblog. Then unfortunately came across some blogs which was reluctant to talk about anything other than PM's actions and Cm's inactions. So while I was ready to shed the wish of having a blog, there popped up certain blogs which had the 'why so serious?' message on them.And thank God for that.

I have realised that I am at my best behaviour with my parents during exams. Thats the time when I don't have the leisure to fight over whats in breakfast or lunch, why does the paneer curry taste like horlicks, and why does she have to give away all my coloured chalks to the maid's son.

Something needs to be done with these so-concerned mobile service providers.Vodafone has this message on the backside of its recharge card which says Register your number at xxxx.com to get rid of telemarketers. But what about the nuisance they themselves create? Its quite a confident shaker when run around your room trying to find your phone or jostle to open your bag in crowded bus only to find that the caller asking to set Himesh Reshammiya's croonings as your caller tunes.

Kyunki .. has ended and and with it has ended people's favourite game of guessing Ba's age. Big Boss was about watching people holidaying after being released from jail and now we have Big Brother too.My cable wala released back zee cafe and studio after hijacking them for over 6 months.

To my bro: Though we have scratched and kicked each other lesser this year, it does not give you the liberty to torture me with your guitar practice and exhausting our download limit with your games and other similar useless stuff.

Rediff predicts that the tech industry will the fastest one to recover from recession.

Harman and Emraan will be back with their new movies, Rakhi Sawant and Chunky Pandey will continue to be judges, Mtv will continue to be crappier, the likes of Mayawati and mulayam will continue to rule , Ram gopal verma must be thinking about his next venture.
So, as you can foresee, there are enough things to be afraid of the coming year.
The Loksabha elections are coming . And if I don't manage to lose my voter's Id card, and if my booth is not rigged, I might be debuting as a voter!

To anyone who's wasting time reading this, have a happy and prosperous year new year !

Enough of my croonings about no-net show. I'm kind of assured that whatever education I have received till date has not gone waste, completely.
So, in between cursing my service provider and tossing coin to decide whether to go to a cyber cafe or not, I decided to check whether the connections in modem were fine or not. Obviously the connections were fine. I'm not that dumb that it will strike after 3 damn weeks. But what went wrong was the copper oxides deposits which were blocking the contact between the phone line and the modem port. A few rubbings with a brush , insertion of the wire and there glows the link in the modem !

Inbox full of 'How will be 2009 for you? Dial 12345 @ Rs 9/min to know' messages tells you that new year is round the corner. New year means getting a year older, one more semester less for college to end.
While flipping through the pages of a magazine , I came across this astrology section , which says 'Know what 2009 has in store for you'. Its no wonder that in times of recession temples are doing better business than before. So here's what is in store for me:

1)Get married this year because your spouse will bring you loads of good luck and happiness-
Anyone , with similar predictions?

2)Students will have a bad time as they might have to discontinue their studies-
I mean why? I do pay my college fees, don't see chances of expulsion, will not be entering Miss India contest or Roadies or Indian Idol.
Ah well, if I may comply with the first option , get married in a family which doesn't allow girls to study after marriage like in those daily soaps, then its quite possible. Duh, I should stop uttering crap.

3)Your friends of foreign origin will do you good in times of need-
I do have friends in foreign lands but of Indian origin. So extending the definition of foreign origin , should I expect the likes of ET or Jadoo to help me out?
2009 seems to an exciting year !

Currently, sitting in this very small cubicle,surrounded by people who remind you of green goblins, I feel like cursing a lot of things in this world.
BSNL, my maid, this cyber cafe, the chair here, the keyboard which has lost its sensing power and hence misses out every alternate word, the internet service provider here (whatever it is).
Its been 5 minutes since I last hit the 'Post a comment' button in some blog.
Cyber cafes should stick a notice outside to let people know what exactly they want as identity proof , to save people from embarrassment.
Some say any id card would do, some want ration card, some ask for voter id card.
Then they scan your id card. Make you fill up a form ....ohh a long one. Anyway, I'm too tired after these form fill up and argument sessions. And yes, this cyber cafe doesn't allow you to log in to social networking sites.
God, please ask Bsnl to mend my net.

This is a very boring execution of the tag :(

Hometown: Calcutta.
Hair Colour: Black.
Shoe Size: Varies. I mean, from shop to shop.
Righty or Lefty: Righty
Sex: Female

Siblings: younger brother.

Hair colour: Black.

Height: 5'6", I think.

Have you ever:

Given anyone a bath? Ahh yes, I once thought I'll make my cats as smart as their western counterparts by cleaning them and tying laces around her neck..( you know, those stories where people buy and sell kittens from stores )But my catty didn't quite like the idea.

Smoked?No

Bungee-jumped? No.

Made yourself throw up? No.

Gone skinny dipping? No.

Eaten a hot dog? Yes.

Put your tongue on a frozen pole? No.

Loved someone so much it made you cry? Yes.

Broken a bone? No. But I really fancy that I'll break my left hand someday, and people will write get well soon on the pluster.

Played truth-or-dare? Yes

Been in a police car? Not yet.

Been on a plane? Yes.

Been in a sauna? No.

Been in a hot tub? No.

Gone swimming in the ocean? No. ( Now , this reminds me of the scene from the film Kidnap , where Imran Khan takes the girl for a guided bath in the ocean).

Fallen asleep in school?umm...no I think.

Ran away? Yes.

Broken someone's heart? No I think.

Cried when someone died? Yes.

Cried in school? Yes.

Fallen off your chair? Yes, yes. Off chair, off stairs.

Sat by the phone all night waiting for someone to call? No.

Saved e-mails? Yes.

Fallen for one of your best friends?No, it didn't seem to be a comfortable idea.

Used someone? No.

Have you had...

Chicken pox? Yes. A decade ago, I think.

A sore throat? Of course.

Stitches? No.

Do you...

Believe in love at first sight? :O

Like picnics? Yes!

Like school? Yes

Would you eat a live hamster for $1,000,000? Naah, they look too cute.

Who was the last person that called you? Vodafone customer care official

Who was the last person you slow-danced with? Did I, actually?

What makes you laugh the most? Lots of people, things.

What makes you smile? Many things.

Who is the last person...

You yelled at?May be my bro.

Who broke your heart? None.

Do you...

Like filling these out? Yes, when I have nothing better to do.

Wear glasses or contacts? Well, none.

Like yourself? I think so.

Get along well with your family? Ahh...yes!

Are you...

Obsessive?No

Compulsive? At times.

Anorexic? No.
Suicidal ? No.

This and that:

Coffee or tea: Any other options?

Phone or in person: Depends on the person.

Are you the oldest, middle, youngest or the only child: I'm the older sibling :(

Indoor or outdoor:Outdoor , please.

Final questions:

What are you listening to right now? My mom's yelling to shut down the computer.

What did you do yesterday? Nothing exciting :(

Where do you want to get married? Anywhere pretty.

I would like to be: Just myself.

Are you a good driver? Does driving in NFS count?

Are you a good singer? YES, yes

What do you dream about? Ahh..bizzare stuffs...so much so that I have got oneirophobia.

...I'll talk about the least significant things in these turbulent times.

1) Now if you consider yourself to be a really well informed being, you must be knowing 2 of India's longest running soaps on television viz. Kyunki....and Kahaani..... has finally met with their fate.
Now these 2 serials played a significant roles in my life for some time.
When these actually started, I was in 6th / 7th standard . In (our) those satellite tv less days, I used hear the opening tune of Kahaani ...at 10 p.m, which would signal that yes, your study time is about to terminate and finally at 10:30 the Kyunki.. tune from the neighbour's drawing room would make me and my bro jump to the dining room.

2)Kuch Kuch hota hai has completed a decade of its release.
Now its significant because
i)it gave us an illusion that college life was all about learning Romeo and Juliet and dancing with your principal.
ii)There was this whole lot of craze about Friendship day and friendship bands.
iii)Sony and set max got a movie to air every alternate Sunday. The count must have reached 4561 by now.
iv)That was the only movie in which I found Salman Khan tolerable.
v)All guys with the name Rahul felt as if they are on cloud nine.

3)And I lost my mobile memory card. It had a really short stay with me. After its insertion it was creating whole lot of problems. I extracted it out and on one sleepy night thought it to be piece of paper or whatever , threw it down on the floor maybe and my dear maid sweept it away and dumped it into the waste paper basket. Poor soul, must be having a tough time in some waste renewal plant.

4)My brother had a hall debut today .( means he, went out and watched a movie in the cinema hall for the first time) I had mine at a pretty old age i.e after giving my 12th boards in 'o6. A very strange silly fear used to stop me from going to the theatres and I used to put silly excuses to people who ever coaxed me to watch a movie out with them.

Now, its time to end the post..here's The End

The other day , I was at some relative's house, where in course of some discussion, lady started talking about ,how a man rang her doorbell and on questioning him , she found out that he was asking for some monetary help for the treatment of his daughter battling with terminal illness.
"I'm smart you know, I didn't get down in the ground floor to find out where he has come from, what did those prescriptions say, you know na, there are so many frauds around these days".
Yes, lady, smart you are.
I wonder how fool the man must have been to think that people living in big houses , with big cars, had a big heart too?
And yes, smart you are.
Did you ever try to put yourself in his shoes to feel the plight of the father of a daughter battling in between life and death?
You did n't have the time to talk to the man , to find out whether he was really speaking the truth or not,whether he too was a victim of the global meltdown, coz you had to miss parts of your favourite tv program .
You would let your son gulp 100 Mc Donald's burger, be obese, and then spend thousands of bucks in gym , but when it came to giving out 50 bucks to someone in pain, you have every possible reason up in your sleeves.

"Do not do to others , what you do not wish them to do to you"-- the world would have been a much better place if people had stuck to this saying by Confuscious.

As somebody said, if the world's people are to be divided into 2 classes, one possible pair would be morning person and night owl.
"The morning people feel superior to those who trust the sun to rise on its own,and like to tell them so."
My history of morning walks dates back to my pre teen and early teen days when I used put alarm in the tiny alarm clock , made no fuss about getting up early , and merrily went out for walks with my father , even on chilly winter mornings.
Then alarm clocks replaced mobile phone alarms, morning walks made their way to getting up early and mugging up books or those 5 minutes sleep requests in winter.

So what triggered the second season of my morning walks is
(i) I've been getting bizarre dreams of plane crashing on my roof, anacondas in the nearby pond, lions and tigers roaming in the neighbourhood park and these dreams break exactly around 4:30 am ,thus terminating my sleep.
(ii)my mom's constant hammering on the head with "do some exercise" slogan.
(iii)a love story heard from a friend: "You do jogging really well" -was how the guy first complemented her.
So, I go for morning walks alone, I don't have a doggie in my company.So, obviously all I tend to do is notice people and things around.

People: you have the grandpas talking about freedom struggle, how life without inflation was. You have the ladies , who even in the wee hours, don't forget to discuss the saas-bahu serials , how disobedient their progenies have become and how late they return home.You have the uncles , who have 4km walk daily advice in their prescription charts. Coming down to the younger age bracket, guys and gals are hard to find.All one spot are groups playing cricket in nearby grounds or young lads taking driving lessons in yet-to-be-busy roads.

Nature around is pretty pleasant.Red and yellow flowers dot the trees, bushes.And you get to hear the crow's cry clearly, unburied under the noises of car horns.You have the nascent sun peeping out of the clouds, unperturbed by the presence of the dimmed remnants of last night's moon.Cool breeze, colourful surroundings, interesting people make your walk uncomplaining.

So, no matter how many times I hit the snooze button before getting up, no matter how I complain about having to open all the locks of the house, no matter how often my mom keeps complaining that these walks are not having any effect on my energy level, I've again fallen in love with the walks after years.

Preeti's post excited me to write something about the string of train journeys I had to take off late and have been grumbling about them till date.

With very high hopes and faith in the omnipotent God , I brave the unruly mob of people crowded in front of the reservation charts , only to be provided with the fact that people around are m46, f41, m12, m76, f13, watever !
Okay, now lets say the train has started moving, the coolies have said byebye. Here comes the time, when you actually notice the kind of people with whom you are going to spend the next 24 hours of your life.
1. the sleepy kinds-The very first thing they do after boarding the train is to eye the upper berths.Even if they are not allotted the upper berth , they would coax the fellow passengers for an exchange offer and would immediately doze off after getting up.

2.The most noisy group in the train non arguably is the mother-kid combo-This section can be further classified:
i)The mother of an infant- they would run to the loo a billion times, cleaning utensils, washing clothes, to bathe the kid, to wash his face, to brush his teeth , to change his clothes, then would play snakes and ladder and so on!
ii)The mother of kids in the age group of 10-14--"you have an exam na? after the school reopens? wait, let me , take out your books for you to study, i've kept them handy"
"No mommm, please I will look out of the window for now"
"Nooo, you are not a kid anymore, there's nothing to look out of the window, its quite dark"
"yeah, mom, thats what I like, the lights glowing with darkness all around, mom are those will-o-wisp?"
"Shut up, study, here's your book".

3.Then there will be some men who would leave all the places in the train and find the space before the loos the most comfortable. And you would have to say "excuse me" a thousand times to get it registered in them.

4.This kind of people really gets on my nerves-they need to change clothes on the train , that too in full public glare. Men and women, in only a one night journey can't you really sleep in whatever you are?

And from Delhi , we took the Rajdhani. More than anything else its known as the train which serves you food on board.
So, 30 mins into the journey, a kid break the silence "Papa you, told they will serve us chocolates..when?"
I'll hate Rajdhani for serving me apple juice 4 times.

I never knew I would get my my much craved respect for my existence, in land miles away from home.
Once, while getting out of the Rashbehari metro station in Kolkata, a lady had asked me, "Girl, which gate should I take for the way towards Kalighat Temple? "
To which I had replied ,"I don't know, why don't you ask the policeman out there?"
"you don't know? Why ?? Have you not been to that place? you people stay in this city and still don't know??" and blah blah till I escaped from the site of lady yelling and lots of confused onlookers.

But in Delhi things were different. People asked me whether to take blue line or yellow line metro for Chandni Chowk, which way to take for reaching the front gates of Appu Ghar, whether to get down at Mandi house or Brakhamba road for Connaught Place. And a couple of foreigners asked about the Mughal hierarchy while visiting the Humayun's tomb. And thank God, I could answer !

Then there were those security checks . In really long queues
.
My eyes were really moist while going through the Indira Gandhi Memorial museum. Reading her personal notes in difficult times, of what she went through each time while losing elections, while being expelled, about her joy of motherhood, her pains of losing near and dear ones.
At the end of the day, she was a woman afterall.

And then I went to Sarojini to check whether I do possess any bargaining skills or not.

The green and red buses on road were real eyecatchers. The best part was that they have their numbers displayed at the back. If you running after buses , you can be sure about it, in that way.
Here, kids yelled "Ab plane Qutub Minar ke andar ghuss jayegaa"

It began months ago...



Then she set her journey....

Finally , Durga is in town.....

Disclaimer: This is no review.I'm incapable of that.

The movie opens with black and white cartoons depicting tortures in juvenile home and while you are making smart guesses that they are our protagonist's rough 'n' tough past, you are shaken awake to to Minisha Lamba's hip hop dance steps which seem like workout sessions . And Bollywood's fascination with the name Sonia continues and thus she sings 'Say S for Sonia'.
Then viewers are introduced to a whole lot of age related confusions...Minisha Lamba is supposedly 17 and the role of her mom is played by Vidya Malvade who till last year was running around with hockey sticks.
So, after a regular tiff off with her mom, the girl goes swimming to an uninhabited beach and our dear hero kidnaps her underwater.
For the next couple of hours, the hero makes the old father run,fly, jump,swim, ride bikes, steal cars, bluff jailers , visit night clubs , make a list of his enemies and so on.
In the meanwhile , the heroine makes it sure that the audience does nt get bored of her same old look and continues to get into one skimpy attire after another.
There also happened to be a few emotional scenes between the parents where the audience dozed off.
The audience again ot up from their slumber when the heroine urges that she needs a bath and thus goes out on a seaside and fountain bath, under the hero's supervision.
The hero claimed he had known all the hacking and cracking tricks he used in course of his action, while in juvenile home.
And this paid off in the end , with him settling for a software job and the girl as jobless as she was in the beginning.

"Whoever says money can't buy happiness , doesn't know where to go shopping"- read the 'about me' section of the Orkut profile of a friend.
The weekend was spent fiddling with the newly bought Sony Ericsson Cybershot. My dad and bro had gone to buy it, so I wasn't exactly aware of the features it was imparted with.
Zoom is an obvious feature and I used it for the first time, to get the snap of my pet crow.

Any doubts , as to how I get to identify my crow among many, should be ummediately scrapped off.

One of the unique feature available is 'Smile detector'(okay, its a year old technology)
This is the first smile it detected.

Since I decided to declare myself jobless on the Sunday afternoon and devote all my time to the newly added member of our family, thus followed some silly observations.
After a few pathetic search results, Google did deliver some read-worthy stuffs.

1)Smiles may involve up to 7 different pairs of facial muscles.
2)Its mainly the Zygomatic Major which plays the major role in one's smile.
3)The main role in a smile detector is played by the dataset. A huge number of smiling images under different conditions such as variable age, outdoor or indoor etc are loaded in the chips. The system just compares and clicks !
4)But the fallacy with this system lies in the fact that it takes white (or yellow) teeth as the only parameter of smile( thats what my practical handlings have revealed) . So no matter whether you smile or show out your teeth in disgust, with your eyebrows up raised , you will have your photo clicked.

Remember that Parle orange cream ad ? where a lady waits in a queue , and behind her is another young lady with her kid who has this biscuit packet in his hand. The old lady takes out the biscuits , eats off the cream in between and returns back the cream-less biscuits to the kid, and the kid starts crying !
Many a times, I've told myself , that since you've grown up , you must learn to eat a cream biscuit properly, and not like a two year old, who licks off the cream first and then dips the robbed biscuits into milk.
But, as the say, old habits die hard.

Now , when a public figure , makes some promise, however stupid it may sound, in full media glare , one must take that seriously, else lose some easy route to fortune. So months back, Ram Gopal Verma made a movie Phoonk , on some obscure subject and challenged the masses that whoever could watch it alone in a theatre , would win 5 lakhs for oneself. So while people were busy cracking jokes about the movie, one man in Bangalore booked a whole 247 seater and watched the movie alone and (must have) won 5 lakhs for himself !
Assuming each ticket cost atmost 250 bucks,
and number of seats 247 (given),
the total investment was 247 *250 =61750
and the output was 5,00,000
Therefore, total gain=5,00,000-61,750= 438,250 !

The other day, the back window of a car, before my bus , had these words written :
'Have you been tagged recently?'
Everybody talks in blog lingo, it seems !

This tag is courtsey Amrita

1.What have you realised recently?
that i've many tags pending and they are the only way to keep the blog going


2.Have you given your first kiss away?
yes, to my billi s


3. If you were to be stranded on a deserted island, who are the 11 blog buddies you would take?
I'll go by Rikki Tikki Tavi's moto of "Run out and find out"

4.Where is the place you want to go the most?
English countryside

5.If you have one dream to come true,what would it be?
I once dreamt my maid is cooking some edible finger licking stuff

6.Do you believe in seeing the rainbow after the rain?
whats there in believing? its not "raat ke hi baad hi to savera hota hai" or "good after evil" kind of phenomenon

7.What are you afraid of losing the most now?
on non materialistic front, lots of things

otherwise, everyday i'm afraid of losing impotant papers, my library cards as my maid sweeps away anything that lies on floor without even having the final nod from me

8.If you win $1 million, what would you do?
Puja is coming, so shopping is not a bad option

9.If you met someone that you love, would you confess to him/her?
This sentence is grammatically incorrect


10.List out 3 good points about the person who tagged you?
she tagged me
thus gave an option to update the blog
which made me happy


11.What are the requirements that you wish from your other half?
Wat exactly is the aim of this tag? a guide for the potential boyfriend?

12.What type of people do you hate the most?
umm...people who make me wait n wait

13.What is the one thing you can't live without?
Orkut asks for 5 ...this tag is smarter!

14. If you have faults, would you rather the people around you point out to you or would you rather they keep quiet?
Do as you wish !

15. Amrita's tag shows that this qwestun is missing. What do I do?
Thank God ! 1 question less

16.Are you a shopaholic or not?
not much


17.Find a word to describe the person who tagged you
nice :)

18.If you have a chance, which part of your character you would like to change?
low confidence at times

19.What’s the last shocking thing you've seen or heard?
my billi climbed up the coconut tree to fight with a crow ---believe it or not!

20.Would you rather have love but no money or money but no love?
Yawwn... yay ! the tag is done !

Anybody needs this tag? Take it up .

I’ve been deferring this tag for long, which Matangi tagged me ages ago ,having an illusion in my mind that I’m busy , but since I’ve to write something before this blog goes in to Google’s list of unwritten , unread blogs, I hereby thank her for her 2^nd consecutive tag to me !

This tag asks the concerned person to write 6 quirks about herself.

So here it goes :

1. Whatever exam it is, no matter how easy or tough the paper is, I usually never leave the examination hall before the final bell has rung.

2. I have this habit of feeling bad for anybody and everybody, even if I’m in an equally pitiable condition.

3.Fears: (i) My mobile will be snatched off while on road.

(ii)I’ll fall down while crossing road.

(iii) I’ll fall off the auto front seat due to some counter-centrifugal force while the auto takes a turn.

4. I have more than 2 dozen pairs of shoes which I seldom wear and lots of ear rings which I have bought as a child collects sea shells on the sea shore and later forgets about them.

5. I have a bathroom of my own in the house and that has made up all my pains of having to share my room with my brother. A private loo gives you more me-space, I tell you.

6. My handwriting is still to reach a stable state and still keeps on changing. Somebody had told me it’s a sign of a creative mind (!!) and I find it hard to write with a pen without the cap stuck at its top.

These are the few which could be written on a public forum, and dear reader, I know these are no quirks y worldly standards, so pick up the pen , and do the tag.

On the tagging part, I tag,

Amrita, ad libber, Raka, Tyro, and anybody who wishes to pick it up.

Even after 2 years, the Biology lab keeps haunting me at times.
Initially it did n't seem to be a nightmare, with all those cross sectional views of potatoes and leaves that we had to display in the microscope , but it soon moved into the dangerous territories with the lab assistant piercing our finger tops to get blood( how S cried for the whole day cause we told her mischievously that she shared the same needle as K's), identify the body parts of cockroach, and finally to top it all , the dissection of this chloroformed amphibian ...aargghh !

The first day was filled with shrieks, cries, nausea, repentance and emotions suchlike.
Many plans of becoming doctor died premature death ! An added trouble used to creep in when , this being woke up from its slumber in the middle of the operation!

Who cares if India lost the last test and Sri Lanka won the series by 2-1?

Its somebody else's day and here's congratulations to Abhinav Bindra for winning the first ever gold in an individual event for India

Here's a bit of conversation that was going on in an orkut forum:

X: "Felicitations Abhinav Bindra. I hope we produce many more Bindras "

Y :"Bindras to onek achhey india te...or gota poribar i to bindra...kintu shudhu oi medal peyechhey...
aro onek bhalo shooters toiri hok borong...." (there are so many Bindras in India, his whole family is Bindra !, but its only he who has won the medal, what we need is more competent shooters !)

The tea time and the dinner table in my house has become What-are-you-planning-to-do-with-your-life discussion time. Not that I'm an eager participant. Even if the morning discussion time can be avoided by getting up late, the dinner time discussion is inevitable. So, the result is food tastes bad to worse, even your favourite TV program appears irritating, and in the end all you get is a more confused mind. Lucky are those people who know what exactly they want from life.
The trouble has started with the onset of 3rd year. Why have people around become so serious? Even the girls beside me in auto or the guys in front of me in the bus discuss career nowadays. Which coaching institute assures you entry to the top notch institutions , which teachers have left one coaching centre to join another..blah blah blah
Wish I were in 2nd year, even 1st year. Braving ragging is much better than getting confused about one's future.


Troubles are relative. Happiness is relative.
Thus, while I spend my time contemplating about all these nonsense, the other day while listening to the FM, I came across a channel where a guy called up to know how colour therapy can help while he is about to tell his mom about his love life.
The sujjestion was that : use a lot of turqoise
How? How?
Paint the room with the colour turqoise, use turqoise coloured curtains, change the cushion covers of that room to turqoise.
Now, a 20 year old guy, is suddenly going to paint his room, change cushion covers,buy new curtains? That itself is enough for the mom to get irritated and the plan to tell about girlfriend , fail miserably.

Meanwhile the bomb hoax is slightly lesser . The sale of metal detectors, hiring of manpower in security agencies are at a high. They kept themselves busy by checking people with all the weirdest ways possible. Hope this concern does not fade off.

After citing stress as reason to opt out of the ongoing series, Dhoni decided to take care of the nation's fashion , help out girls from eve teasers and encourage participants in reality shows ! Finally his efforts paid off and congratulations for the Khel Ratna award.

To my dismay, the bus fare from my stop to the breakstop on way to college is stagnant at 5, inspite of the recent surge in fares.

But the auto fare has increased from 4.5 to 5. And the auto drivers still remember me even after more than 1 month.

Having your fares as 5 bucks is one of the few things that can give a passenger her peace of mind. No moronic conductor clamouring for 50 paisa, no bovine auto driver arguing whether 25 paisa still works or not.

The semester break was mostly spent doing trying-to-be-trendy kind of shopping, running around banks on Mom’s insistence, juggling between mediums of books, net, newspaper and TV, movies, and lots of get-togethers at friend’s place.

My dear friends’ untiring effort to make me watch indecent stuffs remained futile yet again with some divine interventions from the Almighty in the form of ‘disc error’, ‘player not compatible’ etc. What followed was 4 back to back Pie movies, but there also I lived upto my reputation , pretending most of the time of running nose, strong cough and cold and eye irritation and ran away before the 5^th lying about some fictitious birthday party I had to attend.

On the Wednesday morning , just when I was too elated of meeting a friend after 6 months, convincing her to watch Dark Knight over Kismat Konnection and getting tickets for 50, it suddenly might have struck the Fame people that too much happiness is injurious to a young heart and the lady checking my bag suddenly found out a chocolate which even I didn’t know existed, and confiscated it. If that was not enough, a 500ml mineral water bottle cost me 30 bucks. The only solace was that, when the adjacent guys asked for water , we could reply in the affirmative.

Meanwhile my neighbours have acquired yet another puppy. That takes their dog count to 4, all of different breeds. And since I have started believing that I can never possess a dog of my own, and the street pups have betrayed me big time and have shown their liking for the bald uncle over me, I have finally resorted towards my brother, and have started calling him by my dream dog’s name. and it really gives a great sense of accomplishment .

Its fun watching news channels nowadays. You don’t know who’s gonna shake hands with whom admist camera flashes.

Wooing one another, “horse trading”, inviting independents to lunch, kids coaxing with Big Daddies over getting cabinets, people hopping from one party to another,special arrangements being made for those holidaying in the jails, opposition leader claiming that he has members from the rival party in his drawing room, Breaking news such as 'Maya casts Mayajaal', a 95 year old man bothered every now and then, new parties being formed, new principles being brought into light…blah blah

During the Karnataka elections , I came across a channel showing the profile of a local politician, where the verdict of the journalist was that the chances of the man winning dicy since he had oscillated between 2 parties so many times, that a poll showed confusion ruled the minds of the voters about which party he is presently enrolled in.

[As a child , once I asked my cousin that who are elected to the Rajya Sabha? His reply was, "Those who fail to get elected by the people , get elected by their own men"]

The news channels are in one of their busiest phase as ever.

So one local channel wanted to be out of the league by calling a physicist( to explain to the general public what exactly the nuclear deal is), an economist( the impact of the deal on economy), analyst and a filmstar ( you know, that X factor is always needed!) . That left a baffled anchor who usually is seen in a tete-a-tete with filmstars about gossips and stories suchlike.

A nationwide poll says 23% of the respondents are for the nuke deal, 13% are against , that leaves aside a huge 64 % possibly in the ‘can’t say’ option. Maybe they did nt know what IAEA stood for. In a country where people identify the president as some film actress of yester year( if [V] IQ is to be trusted i.e) , this nuke deal is really a non issue in commoner's mind.

Now, how exactly does this Confidence vote take place?

The word confidence stands for the vote showing confidence in the ongoing govt or is it that the vote is going to take place in confidence? Silly ques, still , I was wondering.

Do the MPs have to stand up and tell the Speaker about their choice or do they have the usual ballot box thing?

What if someone who promised to vote for one alliance,voted for another?

[to myself : “Shrug off your Roadies hangover”]

so, it’s a matter of couple of days, to know whose efforts paid off and who has the last laugh !

[to myself : Watch the ever- skipped Loksabha channel at the voting hour ]

Why do I always have to take it seriously when my friends tell me ‘lets meet at 11 a.m” ?

With lots of internel calculations, keeping aside time for jams, bus being held by police for rash driving and things suchlike, I make it a point to reach the meeting point at 10:55 sharp. Ah…what a punctuality!

And the scenes elsewhere, where the other protagonists of this meet-up are present, is wrapped in laziness.

Some has finally woken up from their long slumber after repeatedly hitting the snooze button, some is still coaxing with their Moms with the breakfast, some are still in dilemma over their outfit of the day and some has finally decided which ear ring goes perfect with that-blue-coloured-top.

And the bad thing about waiting alone, apart from lecherous stares is that, people take it for granted that one is waiting for some boy friend. So, rose sellers, approach one as their prospective customer, only to be disappointed.

Why is it that some people remain sad for not doing the right thing at the right age and some people become happy by doing the not-so-right thing for an age?

When one fine evening you meet a girl , beside whom you used to sit in junior classes, cracked jokes about people, shared food, you obviously feel elated. And just when you start talking about the woes and joys of student life, she sprouts out the good news of her getting married. Yes, you hear in news, you see in movies , but when you know someone with so contrasting priorities in life , it takes a little time to sink in. And you wander , whether the all the beings on the surface of the Earth move with the same speed as it. Obviously not.

Since there’s a competition among my cable operator and Sony as to who can air the same film over and over again, I watched Kuch Kuch Hota hai for say 93^rd, K3G for 64^th times. And kept wondering whether this is how , we had imagined our college lives to be , when we watched these movies as school going kids.

A month ago, 2 girls on their way to exam, were talking everything other than the exam some minutes later.
"Have you heard the song Aditi?"
"Yeah, nice na?"
"So are we going to watch the movie?"
"Yes ! Yes! Off course! what yaar! Enough of Race and Dhoom2 ! we're in college and watch something like that "

So there we were , watching the morning show of Jane Tu...Ya Jane na at Fame, South City.

Now, who goes for a morning show at 10 a.m, that too on a Monday morning?

People who are jobless and responsible bachhas of their respective parents, who makes sure that they spend their parent's hard earned money in a sensible way (!).

But this theory did not work as we had a Monday morning Housefull show, with Uncles, Aunties, and even school kids in uniform turning up. Have schools become such boring places that people have to bunk in the wee hours of morning?

Talking of the movie, it made a refreshing watch. Characters looked real college kids and not some 40 something made to wear tight trousers or short skirts.

So what if Nasiruddin shah's act brought memories of Hum Paanch's Priya Tendulkar, what if love and friendship be the 'duniya ki sabse purani kahani', with super cool mom and dads, lively bunch of friends speaking your lingo , sibling love, gripping narration and apt soundtrack, and above all a vibrant lead pair, the film makes it a must watch for the season.

the songs popping up at the right time, binded the storyline aptfully.

And the billi surprise in the song Aditi was really, really sweet :)

[ Kash, somebody sang for me and my billi *sigh*]

FYI , the word Aditi features 15 times in the song.( yeah, i'm jobless, i listened to it 110 times and the thought of counting it cropped up when I was listening to it for the 109th time)

So, enough of film reviewing(!). And since this post has become respectably long, I stop here.

So, for the time being, ciao and Meeow!

Now the thing is that, I’m utterly disgusted with my helpful/merciful/generous/compassionate/sensitive and what not nature. I can’t refuse a beggar on the road and people warn me that I’m encouraging beggary ,I can’t refuse a salesman who comes to my doorstep , churns out stories of unemployment ,his incomplete education because of lack of money and hence asks me to buy some homemade/small scale industries product. People warn me that he may be a fraud, he may have some more severe intentions.

Then I encounter people who show me prescriptions of their children/spouse suffering from some terminal illness. They ask for money so that they can atleast feel , that they had tried their best to save their loved ones. People tell me that they are fake. They are not genuine. They make up such stories and fool everyone.

And I’m tired. So, am I going to question everybody’s genuineness? What if I was in their position? What if , I was in real trouble and ran from door to door and people would dismiss my plea thinking that I’m making up stories?

While my beloved friends are braving the hide and seek of sun and rain to make their way for summer workshops in college, here I’m spending my morning reading blogs started way back in 2002 !

Suddenly, as the clock struck 12 , I vaguely remembered an assurance which I had given to my Mom. My Mom kind of threatened me that if I didn’t get her job done from the bank today, she will be left with no other option but to take leave from office tomorrow to get her job done. And since I didn’t want to lose my freedom of using the TV remote and the phone receiver, on a summer afternoon , that too when your exams are over, I readily agreed.

Since my banking skills are as good as Katrina Kaif’s Hindi, I had reasons to worry and felt as nervous as a goalkeeper before penalty shootout, recollecting previous embarrassing experiences.

And I had a grand entry. Without noticing that the door had PULL, I PUSHed it , a lady got hurt, and serious questions were raised about my literacy level.

The bank was least customer friendly. Every counter read ‘single window counter’ when it should have indicated what job it was actually doing.

I followed a lady with cheque in hand and stood behind her in the queue.And then I noticed , That I was being treated as a non entity. People wanted to go before me citing several odd reasons. Its too hot outside(so? Its AC inside), some said theie amount was lesser than mine (whatever).

Some lazy officers around were dozing off, some giving their opinion from everything under the sun , from oil prices to Ram Gopal Verma...

Finally , when I was about to find some reason to be happy in this territory, thinking that my turn has finally come, a Himesh tune rang in the concerned person’s mobile and merrily left his cabin for some pep talk. Returned 10 minutes later, only to announce in the true spirit of punctuality, that it was Break time .

Okay , finally when my turn came, the lady who was checking the form started frowning. “no please no questions to me “,I said to myself and I started searching my Mom’s number in the mobile.

Finally, without any more hiccups, it was done.

Tag courtesy : Macadamia !

Tag rules:
1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people, and acknowledge the person who tagged you.

Procedure

I can't help but flout one clause of rule 1, which asks me to open the nearest book. All the books nearest to me are my text books and since I’m done with my exams a few hours ago, I’m not at all going to open them now.

So I venture downstairs to the book shelf and get hold of the nearest book. But alas! This book India 2020 by APJ Abdul Kalam , has some charts on page 123. the next nearest book is Ripley’s believe it or not and again disappointment ! this thin book which is not strong enough to kill a mosquito , does not have page 123. it finishes off in 80 pages.

Okay, no more fumbling. Finally I get hold of a book which does have some text on page 123.

The book is Short Stories collection by Oxford University Press.

The story is One Autumn Night by Maxim Gorky.

“In our present state of culture, hunger of mind is more quickly satisfied than hunger of the body. You wander about the streets, you are surrounded by buildings not bad looking from outside and you may safely say it –not so badly furnished inside, and the sight of them may excite within you stimulating ideas about architecture,hygiene and otherwise and high flying subjects.”

Now the tagging part

Amrita

Matangi

Raka

Manorath

Anybody who wishes to take up this tag

Go and open your books !

i just can't seem to have enough of rain !

for the past hour, have been googling all sorts of rainy pictures, thus crossing my internet usage limit at the middle of the month :(

and did i forget, i have exams too?

and then i watched Alibaba and 40ty thieves on tv.


darn me :(

The other day there was this kind of sarcastic awards function telecast on the tv, organized by a popular radio station. In one section , there was an award ‘city’s shaan’ .

When it came to Kolkata, the options were

1. public bus mein chhed –chhad
2. calendar se bhi zyaada chuttiyan
3. the autowallahs and their notoriety

well, the award went to ‘public bus mein ched-chaad.

But it should have gone to the second option – “calendar se bhi zyaada chuttiyan”

Because that is the exact situation today. And may be tomorrow too.

The communist party of India called for a 12 hour strike in W.B,Kerala and Tripura, in protest of exorbitant rice in fuel price.

And to add 'fuel' to that , the state opposition party called for another 12 bandh on friday. btw, the question is who called first? and the issue being the same, could nt they settle for the same day?

So what follows the ‘bandh ‘ declaration is – news channels calling up a bunch of politicians and economists, people anxiously shopping household stuffs, cars and taxis lining up in petrol pumps to fuel themselves before prices soar up after midnight and universities across the state postponding their ongoing exams…

The morning started with sound of incessant rain instead of the hustles of plying buses.

It rained and rained , the streets wearing a deserted look, in contrast to the usual noise and commotion and high pollution level.

What better way to celebrate Environment day?

Dear Cheeku ( now , don’t kill me for calling you like this),

Congratulations for your result !! you have made all of us proud and happy !

But don’t forget give my share of treat for doing your workbooks, for sacrificing my sleep because of your late night studies, for keeping all your pens at place before your exams and so on (the list is pretty long you see !)

Am i jealous?Not at all, why should I be? its your success that has brought a smile in the face of my loved ones :)

With each day passing by , I realize that I have so much to learn from you. Its you who strive me to do do better (really ! really !), its from you I need to learn how-to-keep-control-over –the-nerves-before-exams,its from you I need to learn how to be organized about every thing in life(be it those WWE stickers you used to collect or your study table or the way you maintain our book shelves), i need to know the secret of your yummy cullinary conquests in the microwave oven, how you win-every-NFS race, how to do soo nice power point and flash stuffs, and off course, guitar ! (see, the list is long here too! )

But, that does not mean that I am going to stop taking your favourite pen and return it only after i.ve finished the ink,I’ll get hold of the remote when you wish to watch your football matches, I’ll get hold of the morning newspaper first..etc etc ..(long list here too !)

Love you loads boy!

As the exam dates come nearer , and the mind becomes already wear out by the complexities posed out by half a dozen of papers, thoughts of spending holidays after semester, meeting up with school friends at our usual hunt KFC, buying Chetan Bhagat’s new book,hopping through the Park street with college friends, finishing off ‘Unaccustomed Earth’ and so on , keep flocking to the crevices of the mind….

This IPL did major damage this sem….people getting over enthusiastic at Shahrukh khan’s buying of Kolkata Knight Riders, speculations and excitements,my bro constantly jumping before the television everyday from 8 pm, friends constantly sms ing from Eden Gardens(“we’ve reached stadium”, “so many people”, “I just now saw SRK”, “lights went off”), and logistics being worked out whether Knight Riders will be able to reach the semi finals or not!(“they have to the all the matches from now”, “Delhi has to lose the next with Punjab”, “If they beat Chennai, they’ll equalize them”…blah blah blah)

The ‘Korbo Lorbo Jitbo ‘ morale booster may not have had major effect on the players concerned , but did manage strike the right chord with the commoners

So, taking that spirit forward and rhyming with that, ‘Likhbo(we’ll write), Porbo(we’ll read) Sikhbo (we’ll learn)…can be adopted as the catchline for the ‘Literacy awareness ‘ programme !!

There happened to be a very sweet boy in my Physics tution who did equally sweet errors in Maths. Like, sin 30+sin 60…..his answer would be a very sweet and simple sin(30+60)=sin 90=1

Then sin 60/sin 30= 2 ( the sine things getting cancelled !)

Geography was a subject I least loved in school , especially the physical section of it , which dealt with some weird landforms like inselbergs, sand dunes. Not that I hated or got poor marks in it, but I was not fond of it. Studying the middle east countries provide an advantage as many of the capital country’s name had just an Al before it. eg Al Kuwait.

I’ve been trying to search for a simpler explanation of the topic in my syllabus, but Google is disappointing me pathetically :(

Since , I’m heading no where in this post , I should immediately stop here and take an oath not to visit this place before my dreaded exams end .

Matangi tagged me and here I go….

10 things I miss in my life

going by the kind of nostalgic person I am, I do miss many a thing in my life….:(

1.first and foremost, like many other people , I do miss my school life.

2.Dear grannie, I miss you a lot

3.The locality, the house where we used to stay few years back.

4.Singing classes at D’s house

5.Chemistry tution classes……the stupid experiments with potassium permanganate, the gossip, the throwing of chalks,everything out there!

6.Morning walks with C in winter…….girl, why are you so lazy nowadays?

7.The pastry shop at the bus stop…..why did you guys change your trade to mobile shop??

8.1^st year in college…esp graphics classes!

9 .Missing friend P…..she’s not in town.

10.okay…finally…I really miss all those silly games we used to play as a child….in the afternoon …right after coming back from school!

10 things I wish to achieve within a decade

hmm….that means 2018…..

1.Learn a few Indian as well as foreign languages and read all classics

2.Write a poem atleast........i'm terribly bad at this :(

3.Buy a car and learn driving

4.Visit Egypt or China or France and Venice

5.Conquer whatever fears I have viz ghostophobia, heightophobia

6.Learn playing guitar fully.

7.Watch a cricket match at Lord’s and Eden Gardens

8.Be successful in professional life

9.Be more confident and shed all sorts of inhibitions.

10.Watch a few good movies

Anybody who has not done this tag, may pick it up !

“Did you hear the ice cream vendor too?”

“Yeah, I did”.

“Arre, then go out in the balcony and stop him”.

“Why should I go out everyday?, you go out and stop him today”.

“ohho , he will pass by, if you waste so much time in shouting at me”

“Okay you get me the money fast, I’m stopping him”

“Wait boy, what flavour today? Budget is 10 bucks per head, you know na?”

“I’ll buy whatever I like”

“Shut up, don’t buy that twister, its horrible, and we have already tried that rainbow and vanilla zap, so anything other than these”

“Okay let me go, else the vendor will think we just stopped him for fun”

“Remember the things I told you about flavours, no Twister”

[this important business is a part of me and my bro’s summer afternoons for the past week]

"The song that I came to sing remains unsung to this day.

I have spent my days in stringing and in unstringing my instrument.

The time has not come true, the words have not been rightly set; only there is the agony of wishing in my heart.

The blossom has not opened; only the wind is sighing by."

The poet who gifted India and Bangladesh their National Anthems,been the first Asian Nobel laureate,rejected his Knighthood in protest against the Jalianwalabagh massacre,gave Gandhiji the title of Mahatma,the educationist and reformer in him who established the Vishwabharati University……….

[This portrait of Rabindranath Tagore,is a fabric work of white on black cloth, done seven summers ago, when I used to spend my lazy Sunday mornings at a neighbourhood art school.]

This tag is courtesy Macadamia the nut

As the rule goes, one has to pick up 5 creeds of people they hate and why.

So here it goes , the order not holding any significance though

#Empty vessels

As goes the proverb ‘empty vessels make more sound’, so do these clan.

Being ignorant about certain things in life is not objectionable. But what is absolutely not bearable is when you keep on blurting crap about things you are vaguely aware of.

#Hypocrites

They’ll curse you from inside.

But will put up a wide grin on their face on every encounter and act as if you share the closest relation on this earth.

#Fashionably late

Its not any urgency, its not any work, its not any other unavoidable circumstances.

They will make you wait and wait.

Its like that, being late is in their genes, no matter how many times you plead to them to be on time.

They just want to throw some weight and be ‘fashionably late’.

#Eh..its my place !

These are the ‘class’ of people with minimum sense of public hygiene.

They’ll spit on the roads, smoke in public places in proximity to women and children, and presume ‘all the world’s a loo’.

# Don’t mess with me

Arrogance rules here. These creed believes whatever they think is right, and that they can never be wrong.

Never open to any sort of ideas , they look down upon you, if you don't get along with them.

And I also hate people for whom ‘SORRY’ is a too casual word.

So , I finish off with this tag.

Thanks Mac !

Now I tag

Raka

Amrita

Manorath

Matangi

So this weekend I could finally manage to make a long due telephone conversation with a long ago met not-so-long distanced friend of mine.
Actually , I fear calling her.calling her means for the next 1 hour we would be on our glorious glib talk, shutting ourselves from the ongoings of the rest of the world, only stopping when enough heat is generated between the duplex device and our auditory canal .


Calling up her means first of all mourning about our common plight of single hood. Either she’ll stance instances of how every damn dumb girl of her college is committed or I’ll make her even more sad citing stories of how the girls we found so stupid in school were dangling away with their boyfriends. Then we’ll pass some expert advices on on certain very important social issues like relationship of certain filmstars, etc, relive our old crushes and mourn again on the fact that we did nothing wild at all in all our teenage.

Last weekend , I attended a couple of unwanted weddings. No, unwantedly attended a couple of weddings. Usually in such functions, me and my brother make it a point to either stick to our father or fly to some uninhabited corner of the venue to get least noticed. So there I was, this time too , at a nook of a not so huge venue. Suddenly a huge came running towards us, with a wide grin.i wanted to play a ringtone on my cell and pretend a call has come. It was too late.


Lady:so you are Ponu’s daughter?(more grin)
Me:umm…ahhh
Now another lady comes to the picture.
Lady1 to lady 2: “ arre is not she Ponu’s daughter?”
Now, I know, and as many other known relatives say, that I don’t look like either of my parents. So I resemble this Ponu?
To my utter relief , I could see my mother , on the verge of visiting this territory
And I indeed turned out to be Ponu’s daughter. These people , who happen to be my mom’s cousin , calls her by this weird name.

Then they started talking of how I wetted their clothes when one of them took me in their lap and lo ! they started having a fight to ascertain whom I had wetted .
These conversations with unknown relatives are more tyrannical than the ragging sessions in the first year of college, I tell you.


There’s nothing good on the TV except for the new vodafone advertisement.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lB1UPJ4leqs

I rush down from the terrace, climb up the stairs from ground floor,poke out of the bathroom door to see this ad ,whenever I hear it being played on tv.

and i love its jingle too much:

"Everyday I want to fly stay by my side...
Everyday I want to dream stay by my side...

Every morning I wish I could just play....
Wish the mornings would just stay..."""

"My mind is a garden,
My thoughts are the seeds.
My harvest will be
Either flowers or weeds"

So here goes my first Tag , after actually being tagged , by Raka.
Otherwise, I have been just stealing 1-2 tags from others and doing them!
sorry for being late
blame it on my keyboard malfunctioning.

1.last movie you saw in a theatre?
Race

2.what book are you reading?
The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh

3.favourite board game?
ludo , scrabble

4.favourite magazine?
Reader's Digest, The week, India Today

5.favourite smell?<
smell of new books, wet earth, paint,varnish

6.favourite sound?
wind chimes, guitar,piano being played

7.worst feeling ever?
being misunderstood, not being able to convey oneself

8.what is the first thing you think when you wake up?
"What time is it?"

9.favourite fast food place?
KFC,Pizza Hut

10.future child's name?
something prouncible easily-thats all i can say now

11.finish this sentence " if i had a lot of money i'd..."
buy loads of clothes & books, buy a house only for pets

12.do you drive fast?
i don't drive; rather i can't drive :-([unless driving in NFS or Midtown Madness counts!]

13.do you sleep with a stuffed animal?
no way!

14.storm cool or scary?
cool! no matter whether i'm outside or inside my home.

15.what was you first car?<
well, the GIJOE car which i snatched from my cousin

16.favourite drink?
mango drinks, sprite etc

17.finish this sentence "if i had the time i would?"
go through the pages of the few books i still have , from my nursery classes to std 5, go through the childhood albums

18.do you eat the stems of broccoli?
no

19.if you could dye you hair,which colour would it be?
i'm not quite enthusiastic about colouring my hair

20.name the different cities /town you have lived in?
calcutta, delhi, durgapur, jamshedpur

21.favourite sports to watch?
cricket, tennis


22.one nice thing about the person who sent you this?
She's a fantastic writer.

23.whats under you bed?
dusty floor--my maid is too lazy to reach out to that

24.would you like to be reborn as yourself?
no ! is nt it better to explore different lives!

25.morning person or night owl?
morning person


26.over easy,or sunny side up?
sunny side up!

27.favourite place to relax?
lying down on my bed,taking a stroll on the terrace

28.favourite pie?
nothing as such

29.favourite ice cream flavour?
strawberry,black currant, chocolate

30.of all the people you have tagged who will respond to this first?
i'll tag only Amrita