Memories of Teachers from School

I was lucky enough to have studied in the same school from Kindergarten to tenth standard. One of the advantages of studying in the same school during the formative years is the deep connection you have with the teachers.

I had teachers whom I knew right from my kindergarten. There was this particular teacher, Ms. Sigappi, who taught us English in tenth standard whom I remember from an incident in my UKG. She had pinched my cheeks hard on my birthday and I used to hate it. I went on to tell her boldly that I do not like it and she had asked sorry then. I was astonished when she asked me teasingly in my tenth standard if I still hated it. Such was her memory power. She was a constant source of support in my tenth standard. Her subject, English used to be my favorite and I had great expectation to score in it. Sadly, my score was lowest in English. I was devastated and could barely face her. But then, she was the one who reached out to me and encouraged me. When I secured state first in English in my board exams, I was elated. But more than that, I was happy that I had proved that her faith in me was well placed. She is one teacher whom I will always remember.

If Ms. Sigappi was my academic mentor in school, Ms. Sheeja was my personality guru. She was a vivacious young teacher who came to my school when I was in Standard VI. She majored in Chemistry. She was a malayalee who was brought up in Bhopal and recently moved to Karur. She was a great teacher who always answered all our questions unrelentingly, no matter to which subject it related to. She was the one who always encouraged me to participate in all types of events. I will say it were these events that gave me the confidence that I possess today. All my inhibitions slowly deserted me and I was able to grow into a confident girl.

Another remarkable teacher was my second school principal, Mr. Ramasubramaniam. He always had inspiring words to say to students, no matter how dire the situation may be. I still remember his motivating sessions with the twelfth standard students before exams. I can say that he was one of the reasons why I scored good marks in my board exams. 

On this day, I thank God for having given me the opportunity to study under such good teachers and to all the teachers who had molded me in to what I am now, I wish 'Happy Teacher's Day'.

My Laptop and Me...

My laptop and I share a special relationship. Considering the fact that i spend almost more than half of my time with it, I would not find fault with my friends who dubbed it as 'my boyfriend'!

If there's any problem that one can encounter with a laptop, I would say, I have seen it all. But, still I love my laptop. It has been one thing I turn to, when I get moody, almost similar to a book. In fact, I got into the habit of reading e books which had had my laptop running for days together.

I got my beloved laptop during the second semester, the first day of Techofes '09, where actor Vijay was the chief guest. I remember rushing to receive it from my uncle and hurrying back to the gallery promising him to take good care of it, half hearing his instructions. Well, I can say I have tried to keep the promise. My laptop is still up and running. So far, so good.

But now, I would say it requires serious help. Its chaise is scratched, its battery is fired and I often get displays like we get in TV when the cable power is gone. Looks like its time to remodel it. I guess it will be on its way to service shop anytime soon.

P.S. : This post was written seeing the plight of my poor laptop. Bear with my whims.

Rains!!!

Having been away from my dear for long, I am back in the circuit!!! So what caused me to be away??? Well, I am a final year engineering student. So it is a kind of obvious. I was confused. Constant thoughts of options available and torrential inputs of advices from various sources dominated my brain, thus forming a big block which prevented me from writing anything at all.
Now, with all that thoughts away, I have finally found something to write about. The Rains.
Here, in Chennai, rain seems to have comfortably settled in its routine. It seems to have found a easy solution to save the city from its woes by raining in night without disturbing any of the daytime works.It stalrts raining at around 7 pm sometimes else 10 pm in the night, thus presenting an awesome climate to sleep on. If only I had time to sleep! It is quite pleasant to go to sleep with the rhythmic sound of rain. Pit-Pat, Pit-Pat, Pit-Pat. It is even more pleasant to wake up and find puddles of water to navigate through on the roads! (not said sarcastically!) I am simply loving it!!! (as in McD's)
Speaking of rains, I remember a friend of mine asking me a weird question at 3 in the dawn when I was all set to go to sleep in the pleasant company of the breezy rain. Here goes the question: "We normally say 'it is raining'. So what does 'it' refers to?" I tried answering and got examples quoted to prove I might be wrong. I finally gave up and went to sleep. So the question is still open. Anyone with a right answer, feel free to comment.

Remembering Her...

Its been two years since she left us. Time heals all wounds it is said. Well, it is partially true. Time does heal wounds. But it leaves scars. I can still see the scars. Every time I look at my college ground, I remember the day I sat with her under the trees talking nonsense.

I would not say I remember her everyday. But I get reminded of her in flashes. Sometimes, I feel she is still around me somewhere looking over me. Every time I face problems and it gets solved quite unexpectedly, I like to imagine that it is her doing, my guardian angel.

She was an angel in real life. Ever so patient, ever so smiling, there wasn't a soul brighter than her. Perhaps, that is why she left so soon. She was too noble to be among the humans. Whatever it is, she was my confidante in college. She has left a space in my heart that would always remind me of her.

We miss you a lot, Pavithra. You will remain in our hearts forever.

Memoirs from Deutschland V

I met a person from Iran on the third day of my stay at Iran. He was a friend of my buddy. After everyone left the restaurant, he accompanied me until the station. While walking, he asked me my age. He was pretty much astonished when I said I was nineteen.

Then, he went on to tell me how much he wanted to come to Europe when he was eighteen. He had even got the admission. But his mother was adamant and did not leave him to come to Europe. He later came when he was 24 years old.

He told me his life would have been on different level if his mom had been different at that time and told me how lucky I was. I realized on my journey back to my room that he was indeed right. I was contemplating on what he said. My parents were always supportive of me. After my board exams, I said I wanted to take some off the track course and my parents readily agreed. They never insisted that I must do this course or that course. It was always my choice. Same story goes for the internship as well. I told my parents that I am applying for the internship and all they asked me was to be safe when I go there. Nothing else. Thinking about it, I realized I have been blessed with such parents. That night, I sent a silent thank you prayer to God before I went to bed.

Memoirs from Deutschland IV

Even before I left for the internship, I heard from so many people that Germans are workaholics. So my thoughts were prejudiced in that area. And what I saw there in the firs two days, them silence convinced me that my prejudices were well placed. But on the third day of my stay, my friend invited me for an outing in the evening and all my delusions about them were cleared.

My buddies took me to a Mexican restaurant. We would have reached there by six in the evening. Then, their group of friends joined us. I literally did not know anyone there. I was appalled by this thought at the beginning. But the thought lasted only for few minutes. After the introductions, it was fun through and through. They never let me feel like an outsider. I had my first cocktail that day. My buddy asked me hundreds of confirmations before he actually ordered for me one. The most remarkable of the questions was "Will you be able to look at the mirror after you have this?" I have always been up for adventures. So it was easy to decide. I was going to try it and I boldly said yes. I just had one cocktail that day while my friends had lots of them. The most astonishing thing was their steadiness. It is often depicted in Indian movies how people go flat after they drink. My buddy had three glasses of beer n a tequila shot. But he was sane still. His manners did not become burly as shown in the movies. As for myself, I did not feel any change at all. We left the restaurant at 1 in the night. The day became engraved in my memories as it was the day I had my first drink.

My prejudices about the Germans being workaholics also got cleared. Germans do work hard five days a week, but they party hard in the weekends. Weekends for Germans are very important and they really go out and enjoy life during the weekends, thus making up for the weekdays.

Memoirs from Deutschland III

If there was one thing I was uncomfortable with while in Germany, it was the silence. The silence that people maintained in trains, in offices. It was a bit unnerving.

The first night I slept in my own apartment there, I must confess I was a bit terrified. I felt the silence very unnatural. I guess I had never ever been in complete silence until then. In India, when we sleep, there is at least a fan running. There is some noise. Back in Germany, in my room, there was no fan. Well, fan did not seem necessary. The nights were chilly enough. So once things got settled down, there was complete silence. Except for the music which I used to play, there was no external noise. There were occasional sounds of footsteps outside the door in the hallway of the flat and sometimes, there might be voices. Other wise, it was dead silent.

Even the dogs seemed to know how to remain silent. My friend used to complain about this: "Here, dogs dont bark, mosquitoes dont bite and children dont cry..." Yeah, quite true. I think it was nearly a month after my stay that I heard a dog bark. I guess the dog was in a ecstatic mood as it was putting its head out of a big speeding truck. The simple sight made me happier.

I used to travel in train daily to reach my university office. I was completely offed by the silence I saw in the train. I guess perhaps they should take out a leaf or two from the Indian Transportation systems on human behaviour in trains. The kind of interaction that people have in any given transportation system in India was missing there.

All my observations in the first two days about the silence and germans were proved wrong in the subsequent days. I am saving it for the next post.

Memoirs from Deutschland II

One thing that I admire the most in Germans is their sense of respect for the rules and regulations. On my first day, my buddy took me around for administrative works to be completed before I could join as an intern. I was totally awed by their administrative process. They had loads of paperwork to do before an international student joins. But still, there was one thing that impressed me. It was their efficiency. Paper works, loads of them were completed in a matter of minutes.

Another impressive train is that people rarely jump traffic signals and they never do in the presence of small kids. When asked why, my buddy told me that he did not want to set a bad example for the kid.

Unlike in India, no matter what the social status of a person be, when it comes to queues, he has to stand in line. There is no quicker way. But, normally one doesn't need to wait for more than fifteen minutes to get something done in public offices. This is unheard of in Indian government offices.

In Mensa(canteen), professors stand in the same queue as the students and get their food billed. There is no show of power or any such thing. There is no show of influence nor money. They seem to follow one very simple rule "Respect: Give it to get it". Quite true.

So coming to the reason for writing this post, today I had one awful day with someone trying to use the influence for self, which might lead to complications to others. I had a hard time convincing the person not to do so and to make the person think of the greater good for God's sake. My evening was totally spoiled and I was reminded of Germany where I never encountered such a problem, where rules were followed to the last dot and where the quickest way to get things done is to follow the rules.

Memoirs from Deutschland I

In one of my earlier posts, I had written about my encounter with the legendary German kindness. So let me continue from where I let off.

From Frankfurt airport, I had to take a train to Stuttgart. Quite unwittingly, I had booked a train with a transit at Mainz Station. I had not foreseen the enormous luggage that I would have. The transit seemed tedious.

There is one more thing very famous about Germans. Its their punctuality. Even trains are mostly punctual. But, as my luck would have it, the train I was waiting for, was late. I arrived at Mainz station only to see the my connecting train ready to start. Though it was just a platform away, I was not going to be able to make it in time. I had nearly 30 kgs of luggage to drag with me. It was a hit and miss case. I somehow dragged myself onto the platform only to see the train start off. There, I was, at a small station stranded. I went to the service point of DB there only to find out that the service people knew very little English. In few simple words, I explained my situation and managed to make them understand. I soon found out that I was stranded at the station for two long hours.

My buddy, Andy who was to pick me up at the Stuttgart Station had already foreseen the possibility and had given me his number to call in case of delays. Now, there began my first experience with the German Public Telephones. After some initial hiccups, I finally managed to call and inform him that I am going to be two hours late.

Finally, the train arrived and I got into it. I had to shell out forty five euros for the journey (when converted into Indian Rupees, it is too high). Finally, I arrived at Stuttgart at around 10 30 in the night.

My buddies were waiting for me. Normally, an international student is always assigned a German Student who would help in all possible ways to make your stay comfortable. I was extra lucky in this regard. I had two buddies, Andy and Veronica. I would say, they are the sweetest persons I met in Germany. The first time they saw me at the station, I was quite a mess. I had a trolley bag with broken arm which I was dragging in one hand, another air bag tightly packed to the last inch on the other hand, a big shoulder bag and then, the one sided laptop bag on my shoulder with puffy eyes and cocooned in jerkin. They offered to carry my luggages which I relinquished quite happily.

I knew I was in heaven then. I knew I was going to have a great time with them at that moment. And indeed, it was quite true.

My 30 day challenge

I was lazing around today, thinking how useless this weekend has been. It is my strongest opinion that weekends are meant to be lazy. Yet, seeing people around me busy made me a bit guilty about being lazy. So as I was brooding over the wasted weekend, I came across a Google Buzz post by a friend. It was about a TED talk by Matt Cutts. He spoke about the 30 day challenge, about how 30 days is just enough to form a habit or to get away from a habit. This talk inspired me to take up a 30 day challenge. At last, something fruitful has come out of the weekend.
So here is my 30 day challenge. I have just returned from a wonderful internship from Germany with lots of memories. I never took care to catalog them properly when I was there in Deutschland. My 30 day challenge would be to pen down a memory each for 30 days. Let me warn all the readers before I begin. The posts might be mundane, stupid or interesting.
Happy reading :)

My last post as Teenager!

As the title suggests, I am writing this post in the few final moments left of my so-called teenage. I am far away from my family and friends. Of course, I have made the new friends here. But, still old is gold.
I would say I have spent my final few hours of teenage in a wonderful way. I watched "The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch. It was shared in facebook. I have taken to watching every video shared by friends since coming to Germany. So, I started watching it and I could not just stop in the middle though the lecture was one hour and fifteen minutes long. Boy oh Boy, I could not just stop. It was just so absorbing. The topic of the lecture was Achieving your childhood dreams. One must really watch it to feel the difference. For a man who knows his own death, he was very positive and inspiring.
There was this one sentence which I liked the most. "When you hit a brick wall, remember they are there to show you how badly you want it. They are there to stop those who do not want it as badly as you want it. They are there for others." These sentences made me think about my own life until now. I remembered the brick walls I had faced, the brick walls that had defeated me and brick walls I had scaled over successfully. Yeah, indeed these brick walls show us our dedication.
This summer in Europe is a classic example. After facing brick walls one after the other, I am having the time of my life in Germany now. It was all worth facing the brick walls. I have admired and learnt so many things from people and their culture here. This might be one of the most beautiful memories of my life.
When I look back, I am very happy at the way things have turned up for me until now. The future looks promising enough. With the teenage officially over, I am going to try and grow up a little bit, be a little more responsible and act a little more mature.
This reminds me of another sentence from Randy's lecture. "Never lose the child like wonder. Its just too important. It is what that drives us." This lecture has really inspired me. I cannot stop thinking about his words and contemplating about it.

About Randy Pausch:
Randolph Frederick "Randy" Pausch(October 23, 1960 – July 25, 2008) was an American professor of computer science and human computer interaction at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Pausch learned that he had pancreatic cancer in September 2006, and in August 2007 he was given a terminal diagnosis: 3 to 6 months of good health left. He gave an upbeat lecture titled "The Last Lecture: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams" on September 18, 2007, at Carnegie Mellon. He, then co-authored a book called The Last Lecture on the same theme. Pausch died of complications from pancreatic cancer on July 25, 2008.
Click Here to watch The Last Lecture.

Kindness Unexpected !

Well, in the last post I had written about my first air trip. Here is an continuation of the things that followed that showed me that all those stories I had heard about the Germans being very kind, were indeed true.
So, we reached Frankfurt at around 2 30 pm on 2nd of May. We had a lot of luggages, I mean, a real lot. I was carrying nearly 30 kgs of luggage myself all stuffed into two bags. So imagine the weight it would have had. One was a suitcase trolley and other a traveller's bag. We actually had all our luggages put in a trolley. But we had to go to Stuttgart from Frankfurt in train. The train station was within the airport, but we had to leave our trolley behind since we did not know how to take them up the escalator.
I was pretty proud of myself until the moment that I had not yet slipped and had any mishaps. Well, normally I have a lot of them. My friends comment that I was not taught to walk properly at all. So one can well imagine how proud I was. Somehow, carrying all the 30 kgs of luggage, I was trudging along. As per the Murphy's law, the moment I thought everything was alright, i slipped on the escalator with my luggage and had a minor mishap. I did not actually fall down, but broke my trolley's arm in the process of balancing myself. So now, I had to carry both the bag and the suitcase. somehow I got off the escalator only to reach the top and realise that we were supposed to go the other way. I was standing there, with all the luggages, talking my friend's ear off about the weight of these luggages and speculating on how i was going to carry all of them without any further mishaps.
There was an airport police who was standing near the escalator. He was watching me struggle with my luggage for quite sometime. He came over himself and suggested that we get a trolley. So my friend went off to search for a trolley while I was left standing with all the luggages around me, actually looking like a girl lost in the festival. The officer, then called someone and told them to bring a trolley and then came with it himself and arranged all our bags on the trolley. After my friend returned with another trolley, he showed us how to take it down the escalator and we bid adieu.
I was so grateful. It is not normal that we would find someone show such kindness without being asked to. And that too, a police, no way! not as far as I have seen. But here was a German officer who helped me with my luggages even though I did not ask him to and even though he did not have to. It was then I realised that I have just had my first brush with the legendary German kindness.
It really touched me. That moment, I knew that the German officer will always remain in my memory as this kind stranger who came forward to help and showed me how a small act of kindness can bring a big smile on someone's face and make them happy.





P.S.: This post is dedicated to that unknown German officer who brought a smile to my face by his unexpected kindness.

My First Take-off

I know I have been away from my dear blog for a while. Well, I cannot say I was lazy this time. I have been busy. Yeah, very busy. I was going to go to a foreign country for the first time and I had to pack for it all alone as I had to leave two days after my final exams. The exams, the shopping, the packing, all kept me very busy. Now, when I think of it, I really wonder how I managed to study anything at all.
I am a Big Dreamer. Yeah, I am. So, I spent my days before the trip dreaming about it and now I am living my dream. I have come to Germany, for my internship. They say, the fruit is even sweeter when you are made to wait. Yeah, it definitely is. I can really write one full very long post about the difficulties I faced for this internship. The days filled with worries, thinking 'will this work out ?' 'will it happen?' But, now that I am here, I can say those days did not go waste. This internship would be one of the best times in my life.
There are many things that I would like to write about. Many things have been my first in this internship. So, here's an account of my first take-off.
My flight was at 4 40 early morning of 2nd May. I was not packed until 8 pm of 1st May. I literally, had my mom screaming at my ears to pack up. I finished it in 3 hours, cramming up all the stuffs that I were to take with me, my mom throwing things at me which i was supposed to pack but have forgotten. It was total chaos. But, since when had I ever not been in a chaos! Then, by 12 I was ready to leave to the airport. I was dead tired. I had roamed the whole evening, the whole stretch of Adyar, looking for a studio to take passport photos without any success. I reached the airport in fifteen minutes. I was early, very much. I could not help but ogle at all those perfectly dressed pilots and air hostesses who were crossing the lobby I waited. Finally, it was time to check in. My parents and my uncle had accompanied me to the airport. I had always thought that I will be in tears when I leave (considering the fact how easily tears come to me). But strangely enough, I did not. My mom was almost close. I consoled her that it is just for two months and that I will be fine. I could not believe I was smiling and consoling. My parents were the first to leave. Two of my friends who were also coming for the internship with me bid goodbye to their families. I can say, I was the chattering box that night. Talked the whole night away waiting for the flight.
Finally, the announcement for the boarding came. I was really excited. Being a bit religious, I made sure that I put my right foot in when I entered the plane. Lol. Our seats were in the last row. Soon, the captain announced the flight was about to take off. I wanted to watch my first take off. I was falling asleep. I really had to fight myself to keep my eyes open to see the take off. Never once did it cross to my mind, that since it is my first flight, I might feel the air sickness during the take off. The flight kept on going in slow pace in the runway. It did so, for a long time, a very long time.
And finally, it did take off. Swoosh, I could feel the take off by the pressure I felt on my ears. But, thank God, I was not air sick. It was then the thought crossed me, "Yay, I did it! I am finally on my way to Germany".

Memorable (2)day!!! Part 2

Day 2 - 23 April 2011

With the previous day already filled with fun, I was looking forward to another round of it. This time, it was the treat for
QQuest 2011.

All were requested to gather at 1 sharp. The seniors (final years) gave us all a pleasant surprise by turning up in the traditional dress, dhoti and shirt. Of course, they were the topic of most of the jokes and teases, targetted at their dhotis especially. In lieu with the famous indian punctuality, we (all the second, third final years of SQC) left the college at 1 20 pm. The treat was arranged at Palmshore Restaurant, Santhome. There were nearly sixty of us. We all got into one single bus. The conductor looked very happy.

It was a buffet with one big hall for ourselves. Everyone formed a beeline for the food soon. Even our director had turned up for the treat. The food was delicious. More than food, it was the atmosphere around. We had a nice time, talking to the seniors, teasing them for the dhotis and a lots more. The atmosphere was so charged that some chose not to settle in one table, kept moving and there was someone who never ate from his own plate :P

With food plundered n tasted thoroughly, it was time for some fun. The gifts session. First the final years gifted a photo frame to the director with the whole QQuest 11 team. The real fun began after he left. We, juniors gifted the seniors. The highlights were the nicknames : 'Complan Boy' Vijay, 'Strict Officer' Mukesh, 'I hate girls' Vinoth, 'Body' Suresh, 'Mandy' Vivek, 'Brainy' Britto n 'Alice in Wonderland' Pooja.

After the gifts, there were some dances and songs and general fun, the highlight being the final years performance (if it could be called so :P ) and the proposal act by Manikandan. Soon, we left the restaurant.

But the day was not over yet. Soon a plan was formulated to go to beach and off we went to the Besse Beach. The Besse Beach personally holds a lot of memories for me, my first year batch outing, day out with friends and lot more. With the cool breeze, not so bright sun, the climate was amiable. We all rushed to the beach to cool our feets. Soon, we were drenched in water. After spending quite a time in water, we came up to sit on the shore. Now, on the shore, as usual, there were vendors.

The beauty of such outings is the sharing. The moment you get something to eat, it disappears regardless of who bought it. It happened with the soan papdi. Then, there was a small boy selling sundal. He was such a quick wit. To sell his merchandise, he made all the dhoti worn seniors 'Mapillais' and 'Machans'. It was so full of life and enjoyment.

Having a thorough round of fun teasing each other, around 6, we decided to leave for college. Again, the sights of small kids skating in the ring caught the eyes and some fifteen minutes were spent watching them skate, fall on their bottom, get up, skate only to fall again! It was a kind of mesmerizing to watch them. One of us took the initiative to awaken everyone from the enchantment and we reach college around 6 40.

Yet again, there was a small gathering at the internet hub, people ragging and nagging each other. I was caught amidst a long list of things to be brought from Germany. All good things come to an end. So did this day. With promises of getting the things in the list, finally I left for my hostel aruond 7.

So ended two days of complete fun n frolic in the middle of semester examinations. I still do not feel like getting back to the boredom and hence the result, this post :)







P.S. This post is dedicated to the 7 seniors of SQC who 'always made hard work look easy'. Kudos to you all :)

Memorable (2)day!!! Part 1

I always seem to have more fun during the semester exams, than the normal days. This time, in the midst of exams, I had the chance of spending two days filled with fun and food :) This is a post about to those two days :)

DAY 1 - 22 April 2011:

I had slept, the previous night, with a terrible headache. So I got up in the morning, feeling groggy and not so fresh. Nevertheless, there were so many things to do. The day started off with me n two of my roommates, filling ourselves at the Canteen and leaving for the famed shopping streets of T Nagar. All I had to buy was a big trolley and some clothes. We spent three hours roaming the streets, ogling at the dresses and ended up buying some too. We returned by 1 to college.

We had a treat at Zaitoon in the afternoon. A long overdue one, given by one of the best persons I have met in my college life. With a gang of 11, the treat was a memorable one. Our table were the loudest and the weirdest one. The dishes kept disappearing the moment it arrived at the table. Being a pure vegetarian, I had a great difficulty in saving dishes from the non-vegs who indiscriminately ate everything that came. Anyways, it was total fun. With everyone's tummy full, we left the place. Yeah, I almost forgot. There was one photo session in front of the restaurant.

Well, someone started the call for desserts. It was quite impossible to think that there was place left for the desserts, after all that we ate. Still, we proceeded to the Naturals ice cream parlour. It was empty, except for us. Now, ice creams have great power. The moment we stepped into the parlor, seeing all those scoops of ice creams, the temptation was too great to resist. Everyone had their own flavor, along with one of my friends singing one beautiful song.

Then, there was the thrill of catching a bus waiting at the signal with a trolley in hand when there was only 10 seconds left for red to turn green. Somehow, we scurried into the bus. At the college, we had to hear earfuls from the watchmen who advised us about taking Id cards everywhere.

The weather was awesome. It looked like it was about to rain soon. No one wanted the day to end. So we settled under tamarind trees. May be it was the climate, may be it was the atmosphere, or may be it was just pure emotions, no one would know. Everyone started singing aloud. Though there were some very good singers among my friends, there were quite a few like me who were worse bathroom singers. Still everyone joined in and went on singing aloud, causing a few heads to turn and few dogs to run :P :P

I could not stay with them till the end as some work came up. As the evening passed, the skies opened up, making the already perfect day more perfect with beautiful showers, a great respite from the summer heat. Thus ended a day of fun surrounded by friends.







P. S. This post is dedicated to that one friend who gave us the treat :) Thank you anna :) :)

Turning over a new leaf...

Its been days since I put up a decent post. I seem to have had forgotten how to write at all. Yeah, I never thought it would come to this. Things have not gone the way I thought they would. Anyways, here I am turning over a new leaf.

So, with just one more year of college to go, I have already started feeling the apprehensions. But then, instead of worrying, it is always better to enjoy the moment. This semester, a lot of things happened. Many beautiful memories formed: Kurukshetra, Techofes, QQuest, Geohorizon, Sangarsh, IIT Bombay, farewell party, freshers party, UGC Project reviews and a lot more.

I have DAAD internship to Germany to look forward to. Now, this internship is one example of how things can turn out to be. Even, in the application stage, it had problems. One full day of scoldings from the HOD just to get sign in the No Objection Certificate. I thought this has to be the greatest trail. But I was wrong. The problems were yet to begin. Somehow, I got selected. First, I changed the internship dates to May and June. By the time it got confirmed, a new problem cropped up. The election commission went on to announce the dates of the general elections as April 13. After days of keeping the fingers crossed, finally the exam dates came out and miraculously, they seemed okay. I thought that's it. No more problems. But as usual, I was wrong again. Now, there are chances that a particular exam might be kept on the day I am supposed to board the flight to Germany. So, as in my friend's words, is there going to be another twist in the tale??? Don't know.

In the past few days, I have learnt a lot of things which I will never forget again in my life. Things always do not turn out to be as you expect no matter how sure they look at the moment. Surprises always spring up. Disappointments always happen. I read this somewhere: "When you do not get what you want, do not despair. May be, there is something better you deserve." May be, this is true. But all things said and done, it is hard to get over it.

I worked very hard for two things this semester which was almost like my dream right from my first year. But, both ended as a dream, never turned to reality. So, am I disappointed? Yes, I am. But then again the lines I quoted above got to me. May be, this is a chance for me to try out new ventures, a chance to get out of the routine. I intend to.

Here is a poem I came across that seemed so appropriate:

TURN OVER A NEW LEAF

Life would be static, dull and boring without seasons;
So seasons come for varied and outstanding reasons:
The trees at appointed time would shed their leaves
And men would dump their anoraks for shirtsleeves.

The clouds are burdened and blighted now is the sun
Just as the moon slips into her convent and soberly becomes a nun;
Childhood gallops gaily into youth and its thrills
But youth dreads adulthood as they say its end chills.

Dread it or not - an ever open book remains age;
And everyone each year must read that brand new page.

Yes, life's an exciting book which we must turn over a new leaf -
Changes dog our every step every blessed day we live;
But like lizards we must keep sloughing off our old skins,
Aligning ourselves with the ever changing tale that life spins.

P.S.: This is a post dedicated to those who helped, advised and inspired me turn a new leaf over :)

BLEED BLUE!!!

Mere words will never be enough to describe the sensational moment, the roar that went up in the TV Hall as Dhoni lifted the ball for THE INCREDIBLE SIX!!! All I could hear for the next ten minutes was the constant ringing in my ears due to the high decibel level in the TV Hall. There were hugs, cheers, howls, jumps and yeah, even tears, happy ones in some faces.

After 28 years of waiting, India has finally regained the cricket world cup. In a country where cricket is more than a game, more of a religion, this would be one single moment etched in the memories for ever.

Kudos to MS Dhoni fo his able captainship and salutes to the God of cricket, Sachin Tendulkar for he had finally added the only missing feather to his cap.

Team India rocks \m/

YAY, BLEED BLUE :)

All that begins unwell....

Yeah, i believe it now. When you are surrounded by hoards of sadness, you can be sure that happiness is just around the corner. God gives us problems and sadness so that the happiness when it comes, is more sweeter and more satisfying. My day today, is a perfect example for this.
The day started badly. I got feeling awful, still fretful of what had transpired the night before. I wanted to curse the day I was first made the leader, the day I was first asked to hold some responsibility. Recently, a lot, a real lot of problems seemed to occur out of the responsibilities I hold and I just wanted to throw it all away. It just drained me off emotionally and all I could do at the end of the day was to flop down the bed and fall asleep, away from all the thoughts. I just wished I could run away somewhere.
Nothing happened the way I wanted it to happen. Walls kept springing up in whatever I tried doing. I was foul minded the whole day, ready to snap at anyone who dared to cross my path. I was hardly constraining my self. To add to my bad mood, my roommate went on talking in cell phone. The vices of the cell phones are too great to be explained in this post. I will save it for sometime later. So my roommates were not helping. The day wore off with me going around all sulky and haughty.
Then a friend texted me. I know, I shouldn't be putting this up as it is a breach of privacy. But still, its been long since I really wanted to blog so as to capture the essence of the moment to posterity. Wow, that was so cliched. Anyways, this friend of mine is outright innocent and was very bothered about something the others would have found mundane and commonplace. I was having a bad day. Someone else comes to me complaining. I should have felt worse. But the opposite happened. Seeing my friend fret so guileless just relaxed me and by the time i finished convincing that it was really nothing to worry about, I was smiling, I mean, really smiling.
There was no hint of my foul mood or the snappy one. The innocence just went out to my heart. I am sure I will never ever do anything to hurt such a noble heart. Good begets good, they say. So ended my day which started out as a bad one but ended with a smile :)



Note: This post is dedicated to my innocent, guileless friend who unwittingly brightened the end of my day.

Adieu 2010!!!

A year has gone past and here is a post dedicated to 2010 - A year of mixed bags. Here is a memoir of the year 2010, dedicated to all the people who came into my life this year and left their footprints behind, to be cherished as beautiful memories.

Adieu 2010!!!