Study Leave = Leave Study

Study leave is a concept I understood after getting into college. Although the college grants 2 weeks very benevolently in order to get you to study, personally, I think there is an underlying message: study leave is actually meant for one to leave studying. I mean, I can’t think of anyone who would spend every waking hour of those two weeks cramming up notes. But the holidays..I mean…study leave, opens up a plethora of possibilities to understand and contemplate one’s life.

Some of the most fruitful things I’ve been doing this past week include:

i. Teaching my toddler neighbour how to give me a high five. He did give me a high five eventually, after he wet his diaper and my arms that were carrying him.

ii. Reading, re-reading and re-re-reading all my personal diaries since the 8th std. In effect, I managed to re-live my orthodontic trauma. Really, I have to burn those pages in my diary that describe every millisecond of my orthodontic treatment.

iii. Finally cleaning out a mysterious shelf in my desk. But I ended up spending all my time in poring over some frayed pages of the 6th std Social Studies project that eventually, I ended up putting all the junk back inside and rushed off to lunch.

iv. Conscientiously reading my 750 page Psychology textbook. But drifted off to another 750 page book. Harry Potter.

v. Arranging all my pens and pencils in the order of colours found in a rainbow.

vi. Reading Bridget Jones’ Diary and heaving a huge sigh of relief that my life isn’t as messed up as hers.

vii. Watching re-runs of Roadies on MTV. Heaving another sigh of relief that my life isn’t as messed up as theirs either.

viii. Finally sitting myself down in front of my books, forcing them open and reading one chapter….before drifting off to fantasies that included re-runs of Jodhaa Akbar and free pizzas.

Hmm….I wonder if I can classify any of these under the typical characteristics of early adults (a definite question for my exams next week).

The Sem gone by

We bid our fond farewells to Semester 4 on Thursday. As I looked back to catch a quick recap of my life at college so far, everything passed by me like a technicolour blur. It is only when I begin a new semester sans the things I leave behind, will I realize how important they were in my life. Nevertheless, this is my attempt at capturing small moments that may not repeat themselves in the forthcoming year. (Mushy post coming up.)

Mrs.V - It’s hard to believe that we’ll have to tolerate a full year without her. Sure, we cribbed during all the report-writing classes and the project presentations. But we’ve had our fun moments in class. We’ve discussed everything- from Kareena Kapoor’s diet to life during the Emergency. We sometimes forgot she was our teacher. We’ve counted her ‘uuuh’s and laughed at her windshield wiper gestures. I’ll miss those Monday morning quizzes that we never studied for. Those brownies that we were always promised, but finally got on her last day. And now, when she’s off to a different continent, I can almost imagine her trying to tame a class as wild as ours all over again!

Dr.R - Film App. is the first phrase that pops in when I think of him. Thanks to him, I got to watch Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese and Iranian movies. With coffee breaks. Whether it is studying realism through art and films, or even something as mundane as editing symbols, his classes were different. I guess we’ll see him around once a while, but even then I’ll miss those classes where we were allowed to play Dumb Charades instead of studying!

Sanskrit – I leave behind a subject that I’ve studied for almost 8 years now. I don’t exactly miss the subject, but the teacher at college was actually quite nice. She began to grow on us only when we were in our last month of the semester. I’ll miss those classes where we would pretend to read but actually play Bingo. The nicknames we gave almost every other student in class. The imitation of her accent and her funny signature in our test papers.

There are lots of things that are anchored with Semester 4. But I just realized they are more fun to keep in the memory. My writing would never do justice to many more events that shaped this semester. And as I move on to the next sem, I hope that we get to meet people as special and interesting as the ones we bid farewell to.

Only ten days!

Oh, and by the way,

Only Ten More days to go for the Big Twenty!!
Note to self: Considering the fact that you are the only avid reader of this blog, this post seems kinda silly.

Just another day

It’s the 29th of February. And I won’t get to write that for the next three years. This is why I dragged my fingers out of my Journalism report window and into this blog. Much as I hate interrupting my conscientious effort to produce a 2000 word feature on development journalism, I figured it would be fun to have a blogpost dated 29th Feb.

I got up with a bad dream that a Pomeranian dog had bitten my left hand. I was sitting in the Veterinary Hospital on Rose Garden road, waiting to be treated. (For the life of me I cant understand what I was doing in a Veterinary hospital instead of one inhabited by humans.)

And that was the only remotely exciting thing that happened to me today. Unless I get hold of Freud’s dream interpretation book and realize that I’m actually supposed to expect a windfall…or a knight in shining armour, I guess I'll have to stay satisfied with one extremely weird dream.

So there you go. My February 29 flew by before I could say 'Leap Year'. There was nothing extra-special about the day. But still, it’s a whole 24 hours added to this year. And this leap year promises to be significantly better than the last one. (Which was spent in gloating about the fact that I had 1 extra day to prepare for my 10th bored exams)

I’ve done it! I’ve posted something on the 29th, albeit a little nonsensical. (Okay, very nonsensical). I wish on this day, that by the next 29th of Feb, I will have much more depth in my perception of life and mature blogposting skills. Sigh. Leap years don’t make wishes come true, do they?

Two Whole Decades

Twenty days to go before I turn twenty. And here are twenty reasons why I am not old enough to be twenty.


1) I prefer the ‘if you don’t forward this e-mail then bad luck will persist’ mails to ones that I get from the British Council talking about post grad universities.

2) I like the colour pink. And will continue to do so. ‘Nuf said.

3) I like reading Enid Blyton books. I still smack my lips at the descriptions of the midnight feasts Darrell and her friends have at those boarding schools.

4) I run down half the flight of stairs and slide on the banister for the remaining half. And I get yelled at for almost breaking my bones. For the 1,56,734th time.

5) I still jump into a muddy puddle on a rainy day just to get my friend’s oh-so-pretty pair of shoes wet.

6) I watch Disney Channel incessantly. If Alladin’s Genie granted me three wishes, I would want Lizzie Mcguire’s mind, Hannah Montana’s voice and Raven’s psychic powers.

7) High School Musical is one of my favoritest movies. And I know most of the songs in the movie by heart.

8) I drink Bournvita whenever I’m in a bad mood. I live in the blind belief that it will make me grow taller and thus elevate my mood in the process.

9) I eat a bar of Cadbury’s chocolate before every big exam I write. Almost as if I’m swallowing the answers to the next day’s paper.

10) I have a lucky Parker Pen. I hyperventilate if I lose it. My pencil box (yes, I still keep one) is decorated with pictures of the Powerpuff girls.

11) I only read the horoscope and cartoons in the newspaper everyday. It’s a disgrace for a journalism student, and an even bigger one for someone who will be twenty.

12) At Shivajinagar, if I see my bus coming, I give a whoop of joy, push everyone out of the way and grab my favorite seat. (as opposed to a mature way of getting inside)

13) I believe that 13 is an unlucky number and I don’t like black cats. And no amount of growing up will change that attitude of mine.

14) I still shriek and run away if I see a lizard anywhere in the vicinity. (Vicinity meaning a radius of 2 kms)

15) Everytime I hear the song ‘Pehla Nasha’ or ‘Animal Song’ I smile widely and start singing along. Loudly and out of tune.

16) I can’t keep secrets. This is probably why I’m blurting out all this on worldwide web.

17) I live in my sandals and sneakers. Any pair of heels or girly chappals I’ve tried on have torn within 3 weeks of wearing them.

18) I don’t know the meaning of sesquipedalian words. I just pretend I know and smile very benignly at the speaker.

19) I giggle every time I hear Piddle, Poop or their synonyms.

20) My English literature book is filled with clouds and mountains instead of footnotes about the authors.

I want to go back in time and wake up to yesterday until I reach 1988.

Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

-Robert Frost.

(I'm not a connoisseur of poetry. Except a dash of Odgen Nash, I've never really delved into the more profound verses of poets. But I stumbled upon this one when I was casually flipping through an old school poetry book. For the first time, I could relate to this poem. There is some connection, almost as if Mr. Frost is telling me these words personally. Call me cliched, but the hint of any connection with Literature whatsoever has now raised my hopes of perhaps getting some inspiration to perform better in my OE paper!)

Cul-ah '08

This is my second Cul-ah at college….and I can safely say that this was miles better than the last one. Agreed, our college now looks like Pompeii after Vesuvius erupted, the Union managed to pull off a fest that was spectacular….all the renovation ruins were nicely camouflaged in the theme Mardi Gras, the Spanish Carnival.

Some of the highlights of Cul-ah ‘08

1. The Bingo stall, which was hosted by a man wearing a pink shirt, a hand bag and shiny white shoes that were at least 2 feet long and pointy at the end. I’m not kidding, I almost got caught into playing one of the Bingo games because I was ogling at his shoes!
2. 
   The Pastry shop, which none of us could pass by without drooling. But none of us were willing to spend 70 bucks for a chocolate mousse either!
   
3. Speaking of chocolate, we did spend 15 bucks on a sinful Chocolate Honey cake drizzled with fudge sauce….aah…the best 15 bucks I’ve spent!
   
4. The Nescafe stall. If we happened to be wearing the official Cul-ah volunteer badge, we were given free cold coffees. I flicked a badge from my friend, but the Coffee wasn’t worth it.
   
5. The main stage events. All of them. We managed to get the worst places to see the events from. Every second was a taunt on how short I really am.
   
6. Indian Music, one college actually played Om Jai Jagdish with an electric guitar and drums! Amazing!
   
7. The dazed looks on fellow college girls. I was told that this dazed look was brought about by the countless number of guys suddenly invading our college.
   
8. Most of the girls had suddenly decided to dress up like Christmas trees or somewhat similar.
   
9. The boys were no less. Agreed that the sun was a little too bright. But that doesn’t justify the sunglasses being worn in the Basement for some Graphic Designing event!
   
10. Listening to snatches of conversation here and there…..we heard some stuff like:
    “Oh wow!! That sweater boy is just soooooo cute!!!”
    “Hey! That cotton candy you are eating totally matches your earrings!”
    
11. Watching the banana-eating competition. Urgh….one guy managed to eat 17 bananas in 2 minutes. Needless to say, we couldn’t find him when his name was announced as the winner!
    
12. The Big Fight. As a volunteer, I got to rule the microphone, even if it was for making mundane announcements. People looked at us volunteers as if we had discovered some rare element!
    
13. The dances! Both onstage as well as offstage. While the contemporary dance was un-comprehensive onstage, one group of boys danced to the same tunes with all porki steps offstage. In the end, no one bothered looking at the on stage event!
    
14. The cacophony of music blaring from all sides. While on one stage there was Rihanna's Umbrella being played, from another place came ‘Raa raa (remixed version!)’ and from some auditorium upstairs came a Carnatic music raga. Everything melted into one another and the results were actually pretty upbeat as well as melodius!
    
15. The bright splash of colors and music everywhere….not to forget the loud voices of everyone and the constant announcements being made…..everything was such a chaos….a rather elegant chaos, if I may say so!
    
    You know, I’ve always seen movies where college fests are shown. I thought these movies overrated the fests. But Cul-ah lived up to every one of my star-studded fest expectations!