ummm..err...

Got caught sleeping in class yesterday...it was embaressing to say the least and that too in the accounts class where everyone was fiercely debating on credit and debit. I dont remember the last engineering class I had listened to...I think it would have been one of VK's. Warna...




This was a Distributed computing class and I was on the second seat as usual...thankfully Pramod sir didnt believe in public humiliation. My eyelids fought gravity today and succeeded till the third hour. And for the first time I actually paid attention in the accounts class. Tomorrow-another day,another fight.

because now i know...

On the 10th I laughed and got into the ladies compartment of the slow local towards Mulund. I wanted to sit with Tarun in the general compartment but he said it would be impossible to get down so I made a face and got into the ladies. The time was 6.30pm and we were at Churchgate. I passed Matunga station. Just the day before we had hurried back from Malad because the Shiv Sainiks were on a rampage at Dadar and Vikhroli. We passed the closed Inorbit mall and the relatively empty stations. But yesterday at the same time that I sat in a local and almost in the same stations that I had passed a couple of days ago 8 bombs shattered 190 lives. My first reaction, selfish though it was, was to thank God. Thank Him that it happened a day late. It was soon replaced by fear for Tarun’s safety as he had left for SantaCruz that day to catch a flight back home. The phone lines were jammed. As I sat in the common room pretending everything was fine my heart hammered wildly. Part of me was confident he must have left earlier; part of me was pushing away bad thoughts. I kept surfing for some kind of causality list. I spent a majority of my life in Delhi. One of my classmate had a bomb explosion in her family’s hotel in Paharganj and lost her uncle in it. The Diwali Karol-bagh explosion took place so close to my home. And yet nothing has been as personal as this. Because for the first time I felt the fear those families must be feeling. And believe me there is no worse hell, than not to know. My hell ended at around 11pm when Tarun was finally able to get through to me but for many others it had just begun.

I know that Mumbai has not stopped and life continues. Like the parliament attack and last years Delhi attacks this would become a date. Another date for India with terrorism. The last time I wrote about the Delhi blasts a reader had asked me what I had done and whether empty words are all I had to offer. Unfortunately that remains true to this day. Words are all I have, but those words are of concern and prayer. Because now I know.

The suppressed feminine

No am not talking about THE church suppressing THE feminine. It’s a little more personal. Listing a series of my life s regrets, not all of them unalterable per se but taking into account my hereditary laziness and total lack of will power they may alas turn out to be permanent.

1. bull in a china shop

That’s my condition in the kitchen. If am not spilling things am burning them. My mother has vowed never to let me enter the kitchen ever despite all the continent shaped and smiley faced chappatis I can cook. Generally my family prefers starvation to mere haath ki bani subzi.

2. shall we dance

By not giving me the usual bharatnatyam classes my parents put my social life on hold for very long time. All I can do is vigorously shake myself with limbs jutting out at awkward angles till some one takes me down crying epileptic attack. I mean a guy dancing awkwardly brings aawww cho cute but a girl stomping all over the place can be stuck with a retarded tag.

3. please put your foot in now

That is in my foot in my mouth every time I open the latter. Often damage control results in permanently broken friendships. I also for the love of god cant do the senti stuff. The biggest philosophical outburst attributed to me till date remains jeevan ek bhaag hai. No one seems to understand the depth in those words.

4. the nightingale’s song

I love music, although people may say my kind of music is just a bunch of guys yellling. But my attempts at rabindra sangeet in school used to fetch a C. I had once requested my teacher to give me a C without testing my vocals. She refused and decided not to even use the harmonium and let my taal do the trick.

5. peela dupatta neela suit

If not for Deep and Suni, Govinda may well have been my fashion icon.
I have shamelessly tried to copy them in college and people started treating me as a human again. Alas the damage had been done early on. What will I do now remains a mystery. Don’t be surprised if I follow the same style for the remainder of my life. Also from someone who had to be dragged crying and pleading to shop, I can now shop or rather window shop till the cows come home. (no, the cow wasn’t a pun or a reference to me)

6. ghar ka kaam

I hate it and am as good at it as Tulsi is at cabret. So I just let it pile, dirty clothes, dirty dishes…just generally dirt. Till am left with no option but to either suffocate to death or clean. But the day when you end up washing your entire wardrobe it is THE day, believe me.

A litany of miseries doesn’t do any one any good. So I shall stop now.

Till the next time. Keep your foot in mouth and keep piling!!

first week@NITIE

A week and some days have passed at NITIE. After giving my intro and the reason for the weird spelling of my name umpteenth times (excluding the first few days where I was absent) I can safely say quite some people know my parents were numerologically inclined.
My biggest regret till now inability to sleep through lectures. My engg classmates will vouch that the sight of me sleeping through class was as routine as the dawn of the next day. I still feel my eyelids go heavy each time a prof walks in but to say the truth am too scared to brazenly drool and sleep. The profs do pull you up which can result in entertainment for others but not so much for yours truly.
Apart from that life here isn’t as dull as engg. There are lot of committees and forums to look forward to. Am very excited about something extra curricular for the first time after school. A couple of committees have left me salivating but you have to clear two rounds of interviews before you get into them and seems everyone has applied to all the committees except gain certain smart people who only applied to what ‘interested’ them. So in face of competition I do not know how bright my rather limited ability to sell myself stands.
Also had a taste of Mumbai locals. Now I had no idea what a fast and slow local meant. Now I do and believe me take the words for their face value. A slow not only has a lot more (and I mean that) stops it is actually slow.
It’s a snail, it’s a tortoise…no it’s a local..
You get the drift.(and yes, I watched Superman Returns with a comic book curl of hair in place. Typical superhero-Hollywood fare. Brandon Routh does look good though, even in red you-know-what)
Other than that since its raining 24x7 have been holed up in campus. NITIE looks more like CUSAT than Mumbai. In fact I speak more mallu here than I ever did there. To really remind yourself that you are in Mumbai you need to get into an auto, shell out 30 bucks and eat mall food from hiranandani. After you are done with expensive bad food rest assured you will feel you are in Mumbai.
I had always though the mumbaiyya accent was exaggerated in the movies, after I realized that there was to be no Raj Malhotra singing and dancing in my life, but yes the hindi here is different from the punju hindi am used to. No yaar tu kar liyo,tu dekh liyo..
Well that’s it for now. Have a committee interview at 2220 and one at 0040 as the list said. I usually am very impressive after my rigor mortis time. Incidentally that’s the name of the committee Impress. It handles the media relations.
Wish me luck!!
PS:heard that in IIMA the freshers were made to do 4 case studies in a day. Now I know the divine reason behind my percentile.