3 weeks in Bangalore and counting

Nothing can be more exciting than moving to a new city. The 3 S's (sights, sounds and smells) have to be imbibed all over again. I set off on my new city mission just a couple of days into the new year so moving into a new city was doubly exciting. Too much new stuff.
As I journeyed from Bangalore City Railway Station to Shrirampur I was thrilled by the bustling in the city. I was eager to dump all my luggage and jump off and go exploring. All the new routes to be learnt, quaint shops to be chanced upon, favourite places to be discovered. Aaah each thought set me up on a high.
My weekdays are very busy here. Every morning my roomie and me set off at 9.00 am to catch our shuttle bus for work. It makes us feel very important because we both are playing adults now. From buying our groceries, cooking, going for work and all in all we are carrying an important air about us. Smug really. I too have gotten more responsible. I can't seem to find trace of the lazy bum that I left home. I get up early, prepare my breakfast, clean my room and am always ready on time. My mum's efficiency has left it's mark on me. Thanks mum.
The weekends are a different story all together. The days are spent roaming the length and breadth of some place till my legs give way. The first weekend my friend and me had a leisurely brunch at the IISc Prakurthi Canteen and watched some monkeys play haovoc with food. Later we ambled all over Malleshwaram. We found a second hand bookstore and I bought a Wodehouse and English, August for myself-something that I had been waiting to read since a very long time. We ate yummy apple cakes and bought Moong Dal Halwa from Asha Sweets (Yum Yum!).  And later we rested in Sankey Tank looking at the water and the birds and gossiping after a very long time. My day was made.
The next weekend my roomie and I set off to Shivajinagar. Here too we roamed all over Commercial Street, Brigade Road and Chuch Road in search of the elusive Blossoms Bookstore. We tired out eventually with no luck and then we chanced upon Russel Market. I couldn't resist and plunged inside. And we again out on our adult demeanours to shop and bargain for some veggies. The day was awesome all in all.
And yesterday I finally met my sister. Co-incidentally we both got to work in the same city for the same time period. Real Sisters ??? :) She took care of me like always and I became her baby sister again. Now once again I'm off to be wrapped up under her wing again. Sisters are the best darlings in the world. Nothing comes close.

Over and out!

Will write in disjointed words. No time to frame sentences.

Train journeys-"The Blue Mountains"- The Nilgiris-Annamalai-Mudumalai-Cold chills-hot, steaming coffee-rich tropical forest-nature trails-night walks-leeches and ticks!-Teak, rosewood and of course sandalwood!-Inevitably Veerappan!!-Trumpeting elephants, Gaurs and Sambars-some photographs-late night nostalgia with friends-gossip and gupshup-moments-the last tour-the last time as a class-the last time with friends...

The light shines...and all that.

The fact that University days are over for good is hitting hard these days. Undoubtedly this were one of the most memorable journeys that I have had until now. So many new vistas opened and every day was like a new discovery of the self. Ambitions long forgotten started being realized and the good-kind-of-feeling started rubbing in real hard. University does grow on you.
Now if I'm asked to pinpoint any particular memory that stands out everything just seems like a blurred film in fast forward mode. Rush rush rush. A curious mixture of 1 and a half years packaged into a 30 seconds. We entered, made the best possible friends and now we are on are way out all too soon.
Being out is strangely exciting, so many magical stories, worlds and people to explore and so many chances to imbibe their experiences and learn. Again the feeling of being a small fish in a big, big pond.
But this small fish will grow- That I promise you :)

Tamhini and D :)

Off tomorrow to Tamhini once again. From being one of the places high on my mother's list of forbidden places, now she surprisingly approves of me travelling there. I have no idea why the sudden change. It has nothing to do with me. Now I wangled it out of here. She trusts one among my friends-a super duper lovable bully who also screams like a cantankerous fisherman when she is 'teaching me the right way' to drive :)

D is pretty cool, she sometimes lets me be sarcastic, lets me wield her camera, lets me exasperate her as much as I can-but oh yes..she does exact her revenge in no uncertain terms. However, now I can't help bursting out with laughter when she is scolding at me for my idiotic driving. Her expressions are priceless at those moments, she doesn't know what to make of me at those moments and there I am doubled up in full glory. D looks comical then, her hair looking like a mop on her head.

Have to get up at 4 tomorrow and I am clueless as to why I signed up for this madness. I absolutely detest waking up at anytime before 8 and this unearthly hour is mighty unsuitable for me. But the trip there holds tantalising promises again-a flaming flash of the Giant Squirrel, the mating song of the cicadas, and Blue Mormons enticing you to follow them before disappearing in the wink of an eye.

The Rajasthan Chronicles-Day 1( The train journey)

Seems just like yesterday that I boarded the Pune-Jodhpur Express. I had marked out the train route and had finished fantasizing about the stations that the train would be halting at. Mum had warned me for what seemed like umpteen times, "Don't you go around doing a Jab We Met on the railway stations." I sulkily gave in and scanned the stations from the window.

The train journey was memorable.We didn't have confirmed seats and so 2/3 people shared 1 seat but we didn't even care. Sleeping was the last thing on our minds. We all were just glad to be together. We jabbered away with our neighbours - one old uncle and aunty with awesome child-like enthusiasm about our trip. They were terribly kind and considerate towards all our noise-making activities and cheering and the drop-ins by our friends who were scattered throughout the train.

We started the card games at 11.30 in the night and continued them well past 1 a.m. Most of the time was spent learning one eff-all game called 'Mendikot'. I couldn't for the life of me remember this game though I was nagged by the feeling that I have played this game before. I had 3 friends all giving me explanations and forcing me to listen to them and not to the other person. Really awful. Somehow after what seemed like ages I got the hang of the game and played it well :)

Then I decided to give my wanderings in the train a rest and found an empty berth to sleep on. And oh yes now I remember the biting cold brrrr. I was chilled to my bones and twisted and turned to find a warm spot on the cold berth. Gloves, socks, sweaters, sweat-shirts notwithstanding, the cold made me shiver all through the night.

At 3 a.m. I went to welcome a friend who was to board the train at Surat. It was jolly well good to see her- She had all the tasty grub with her :)

I then found another empty berth after that because the old one was occupied by one surly chap from Surat who cast an annoyed glance at us as soon as he saw us huddled together on one seat. A couple of my friends stayed awake and kept chattering all through the night. They kept up a non-stop chatter and this made the Surat man even more angry. He kept scolding my friends but they didn't seem to care. At around 5 a.m. I was rudely awakened by my friends with the flash of the camera. I joined in the giggling and by this time each and every member of our group was awake giggling and laughing.

The surly Surat man could take it no more and called us the most uneducated bunch of people and that we have studied just too much and so we were keeping up this noisy racket all through the night. I felt he was right. I wouldn't have liked it if I were disturbed when I wanted to sleep. After the mega-scolding he gave us we all promptly went off to sleep and strangely, it was the best sleep ever. We woke up refreshed and the surly Surat man thankfully left.

The rest of the journey was pleasant and was slightly marred by a classmate who tapped my friend on her head, put his finger into my ear and pulled another friend's nose and hugged him. Decided then and there that we have to stay away from this weirdo.

As we neared Jodhpur, we spotted plenty of doves, flamingoes, peafowl, spotted deer and chinkaras. It was a lovely welcome and so exciting to spot them foraging freely beside the tracks. The peacocks trotted with a charming gait and I was mesmerised. For the first time in my life I was seeing them in such huge numbers!!

We reached Jodhpur in the evening and were put up at Beniwal Palace. Dinner was a seedy restaurant called 'Ghar Angan Bhojnalay'. We were busy posing for photographs outside the restaurant and not so very nice men tried to act smart with us. Even while walking back to the hotel some men on bikes tried to upset us-but on hearing our ma'm scream they escaped. Learned that it's not safe to go wandering at night alone. North is really unsafe for girls-even in groups.

Reached the hotel and slept like a log.

La langue française

Yesterday I got a chance to better my French-speaking skills. 4 students from France have joined my department for 6 months as part of an exchange program. We got talking and I made a pact with Audrey-She would help me practice La langue française if I taught her Hindi.

After our lectures got over we spent time in the canteen where a couple of them were treated with idli-sambhar. They ate it with quite some relish and le fil kept wanting to talk about cars. On returning back to our department, ma classe de française started in earnest. Audrey kept throwing les questions at me. It took me a very very long time to get used to her accent and her speed. The French are known to speak rapidly and I had to keep begging her to speak lentement. I was listening and speaking French after nearly 3 months and all les conjugaisons des verbes had taken leave from my mind and for my life I couldn't remember le mot pour 'forget'.
Later I redeemed myself by impressing Audrey by with my knowledge about l'histoire et la geographie de la France.

When it came my turn to teach Audrey Hindi, she proved quite adept at picking it up. I taught her numbers, how to bargain by saying 'Kya bhaiya, kitna mehenga hai!'. And in the meanwhile Tomas was conducting his French lesson for the boys of our class. It was a sight to watch the boys learn how to say 'Au Revoir'. He was teaching them how to pronounce 'Revoir' and in the end all the managed to say is 'Oh Rava'.

And this is what I said when Eric and Americk asked me whether I prefer German or French.
"Je pense que la launge est trés romantique et belle. Je l'aime beaucoup." They were delighted and Tomas started at the word 'romantique'. Bien sûr, il est un fil méchant!!!

The key event

It was the 19th of July, a day before my birthday. It was a Sunday and the reason for dressing up and going out was my teacher's wedding who is now going to the US of A for her doctoral studies. Anyways, the point is that me and 3 friends were dressed up in all our finery and after the wedding I had the brilliant plan of spending some time at Sarasbaug.

While on the overbridge

We had to cross an overbridge to go to the park and I was clicking some shots of the park and the distant hill. All this while I was holding my big, huge bunch of keys in the forefinger of my left hand. While getting down the steps I took a couple of close up shots of my keys and now too I am at a loss as to what prompted this strange behaviour from me. I had no inkling about what was to shortly follow.

 The 2nd shot

When we reached the park, Patra dragged us off to see the 'big' and 'huge' fishes in the stinky, dirty and muddy pond. We oohed and aahed at the site of the tadpoles, baby fish and the 'huge' fish in the pond and then marveled at the pitiable state of the pond.

I was in my element and was madly trying to capture the films on my camera and I shifted to another spot to get a better angle-right at the water's edge. Patra came next to me and at that exact moment I was trying to click 3 fishes swimming backward. She showed me something in the pond and what happened next was a nightmare. The instant I clicked the fishes, my keys just left my forefinger and splashed into the pond in front of my stunned eyes. I was speechless and I was for a minute oblivious to my friends exclaiming around me. After I found my voice I just kept muttering 'Oh Shoot!', 'I'm so dumb!', Oh crap!'. What a fix I had landed myself into! I just kept staring tat the spot hoping that somehow magically the keys would emerge out.

The fishes, my downfall

We ran to the watchman's cabin and narrated our plight to them. Those idjits turned out to be the most unhelpful bunch of slobs that I had the misfortune to meet. One had the audacity to suggest that I forget about the keys and go home, one asked me to come the next day because the person who could get down in the water hadn't come that day. One idjit, curling his lip at us, asked us to enter the water. He very well knew that doing that would be impossible given our attire. I could have clawed him. And then they asked us to ask any balloon-seller to help us with our predicament.

I found one seller who asked his friend, who just asked us about the spot where the keys fell and got into the water. The water was knee length and boy was it sickeningly dirty! His legs turned with the cake of slush. He dipped his hand into water and got out a variety of trinkets-a hair band, a bracelet, wrappers and black coloured mud. So many things but not the keys. He delved his hand again but was yet again unsuccessful. He did a third time, fourth time, fifth time and still no luck. Now I was panicking and was all set to enter the water. Patra kept telling me to shut up and to behave myself.

A big crowd had gathered by now to watch the proceedings and one man came up and told me superiorly that the minute he saw my keys fall into the water, he kept his in his pocket. He too had been dangling his keys dangerously close to the water. One little boy asked me, “ Khup bhari model cha phone hota ka?” I was aghast and I just shook my head wildly at him.

All this while the man kept hunting for the keys haplessly. Patra then said something that drove my heart stone cold and which I think will make me shudder for a long time to come- “Pranietha, just thank God that it was your keys and not the camera that slipped out of your hand.” I could do nothing but just curse at my foolish, awful habit of holding the keys in my forefinger.

The man then sent his two brothers to the watchman's cabin asking them for a metal trough to sift through the water and mud. But those idjits were reluctant to help and to our chagrin they presented the boys with a bamboo 'tokri'. The man clenched his teeth at the apathetic attitude of the watchmen.

20 minutes had elapsed since the man had got down into the pond. The water had also become turbid and we now feared that the keys might have moved away from it's original spot. My heart was clenched like a fist. The man was all set to come out but my friends begged him one last time to check near the railings. The man complied with our request and put his hand once in the water once again. Heart-throbbing we waited and then he got his hand triumphantly out of the water. The shine of the silver was unmistakable. My keys were back from the depths of murky and dark waters and the entire crowd heaved a collective sigh of relief.

The man rinsed the keys and returned them to me. After he came out of the water, I gave him a 50 rupee note and he refused to accept it. Relief mixed with exasperation, my friends were all set to knock him down. But the man turned us down and finally I told him that it was to be my birthday tomorrow and he had to accept it. He just wished me a 'Happy Birthday' and was ready to go. The crowd instead of dispersing were now looking at us with amusement. Then we tried to give the money to his brothers who also refused and they kept looking at their brother for cues. Finally the little boys could no longer contain themselves and we gave the money to them.

My mood did take an upward swing after this but I could still feel a tight fist clenched across my stomach. The loosening up took a long time and my friends helped me cheer up by pretending that we were part of some loony show. Nevertheless, the thought of the pond with those 'big' and 'huge' fishes gives me the jitters and makes me want to go hide my face into the ground like an ostrich.

A Tribute to my friends

Had such a wonderful time today. Met all my friends from the bachelor days and it now seems such a long time since we sat together in class, talked crap while much more crappy lectures were going on, got the tag of permanently being engulfed by laughing gas, being scolded by teachers for not answering questions in class, sitting together for lunch, running up and down the corridors holding our flasks and petri-plates...all seems such a long time ago.

But frankly I was standing on one leg to be done with college and at that time I never thought that I would miss my friends so much. I don't miss college because it was a sad place but my friends made each and every minute I spent there seem worth-while.

One friend would just come to college to sleep, one friend had made it her life's ambition to dress to college everyday in pink, one friend would to college just to discuss how boring it is to come to college, one friend would come just to dance and the other one would just come to fill in her daily dose of movie gossip. Fascinating people all of them-really..

And the best part is now that I realised that I can have the same kind of fun with them anywhere and anytime. Nothing has changed.

Today we 5 of us met at SGS Mall at Camp and we all just burst out talking like just as if we had never parted. Each one had such fascinating incidents to relate-talking about cute and crush worthy professors at their new colleges, weird teachers who somehow manage to forget what they are teaching and some teachers who refuse to even come for the lectures. All this talk has got me eagerly waiting for my department to begin so that even I can join in with regards to this topic.

And then inevitably whenever we meet, out topic of discussion always turns to biotechnology. Now we are all biotechnology graduates and I found the course a nonsensical farce. My friends too found it a farce but they all stand by their decision to do their masters in Biotechnology whereas I was so disillusioned by the course that I had decided a year ago to fly the coop.

I found the course a mish-mash of all tid-bits from botany, zoology, microbiology, biochemistry and molecular biology and all this was just given a fancy name of Biotechnology. I would keep questioning that if one doesn't know the basic sciences how does one propose o do Biotechnology. Because Biotechnology, ultimately is an applied field which teaches you how to extract DNA but it doesn't teach you an iota about DNA. It's truly a sad state of affairs in most of the colleges in Pune. Students are all being taken in by the glamorous sounding word and colleges are wooing them by hundreds.

And the proposal put forth by Kapil Sibal to scrap specialised courses like this for the undergraduate level really vindicated what I felt about the course. So a yay! for that.
Well I have drifted off to somewhere else from what I had begun to write about. Just had to get these things out of my system.

Guru Purnima and Dance

Today I danced after 5 long and painful months. It was Guru Purnima and me and my friends had gone to meet our Guru. The surprise on ma'm was evident as she was not expecting us to come to class in the pouring rain but her face just lit up like a bulb.

Ma'm is a wonderful teacher and a friend. She laughs with us, keeps us in splits with her comical stories and she always has a ready ear to listen to all the woes of our life. She is a true epitome of patience. During our dance exams she works harder than anyone else to ensure that we do a good job. She has had a very calming and soothing effect on me and I'm truly grateful to her for that.

And then we danced. It was magical listening to the beats, trying to keep rhythm, getting the tala right. And even after 2 dances I didn't want to stop. I could feel my legs crying out in protest, I could feel my muscles ache and that awareness was blissful.

For me dancing would mean to push myself beyond my endurance. I would love it when I would get tired, when I would barely be able to walk, to hold myself upright after a hard session of dancing, to feel the sweat trickling off. It would make me feel light as if I were floating. The joy of out dancing the others and to show that my stamina was the best were my highs.

Dancing would make me feel refreshed after a tough and hectic day at college, the exercise would be invigorating, keep my stress levels low, help me concentrate better at studies and give me a good night's sleep.

I miss it so much and I can't wait to go back again now.

The book, the said friend and me!

CAUTION--LONG STORY AHEAD. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.

It all began when my friend asked me to lend him Linda Goodman's Sunsigns. I lent it to him gladly, thinking that he would return it within a week. This was in August 2008. Well things didn't turn out the way they were supposed to and the entire episode culminated with me turning as red as a beetroot right up to my boot!

So I met this said friend of mine at Peppinos-a joint on F.C. Road, a week after I lent him the book. However, my friend's brain is wired to be in a state of permanent absent-mindedness. He is a hopeless case and there is no cure for him. Even he knows that and agrees whole-heartedly with me. Since I expect promtness, I was anticipating the return of my book by him that day. But he plain forgot. I not quite forgave him but the I let the matter at rest and decided to take it from him next time I met him. Like I had a choice.

And so the days just kept passing and the pages flipped till the month of May 2009 and this is where the crux of the story lies. It was time for the said friend to leave Pune for his hometown. I received a number of calls from many of our common friends to meet up before he leaves. But yours truly was stuck in a whirlwind of exams to study for to fulfill the requirements of obtaining admission to a decent post graduate course. And so the ever elusive time was never on hand. I prefered staying at home and directing other friends to collect the book from him. Messages were passed, messages were exchanged and everything was set. Well no, not really.

One fine day the entire group decided to meet and I stayed put at home. The said friend was to deliver my book to another friend (1) who was to meet me the next day. And so next day dawned and my friend like Santa Claus delves into her bag dramaticaly saying, ''I have something for you."

Now I am exceedingly fond of presents and so I clap my hands only to be presented with Linda Goodman's Lovesigns. Alas for my childlike joy!! The said friend's brain didn't work right and thus was presented with the wrong book. I used some choice words on him but had to limit them owing to the fact that my mother was beside me. The day had just got worse. I promptly dialed his number but I was instead told that the subscriber was out of coverage area. What crap!

Called up another friend (2)and after exchanging pleasantries as quickly as I could, I asked her if she could somehow get in touch with the said friend and somehow wangle my book out of him. She said yes but she didn't know how she would do that as the said friend was leaving the next day and she had no means of getting in touch with him a he had very kindly quit using his phone. So the net was the only way of establishing contact with him.

Next day dawned and I met another common friend (3) online and asked her to give me directions to the said friend's accommodation. She tried but I was at a loss because the said friend stayed at a place where I have seldom ventured-Model Colony. And thus so I was armed with crude directions.

I found myself in the whereabouts of Model Colony at 12.30 p.m. No balance in my phone. I reached the BSNL Office and went round and round a couple of times. Couldn't follow the directions my friend had given me. Tried new routes but they were all in vain. Yet I was calm. Tried going in different directions and landed up in the same place thrice! Then I messaged my friend (1) asking her to call me back. I waited and cursed around for some more time. I reached some shops hoping to recharge my phone but none were available of my Service Provider. So I called up friend (3) asking her for directions again but I was successful in getting confounded again and while speaking to her friend (1) called. Friend (1) claimed to know the directions much more clearly than friend (3) as she was fortunate enough to visit the said friend at his accommodation just the day before to collect my book. She gave my a new set of directions. I revved up my bike to retrace this path now and I again landed up at the BSNL Office. Now oh boy was I panicking or not!!

I finally reached some place which I imagined to be a paying guest accommodation. This I assumed is where my said friend stays. And I even spotted a tailor's shop opposite the apartments which curiously shared my name. Taking this as a good omen I thought that I have finally reached my destination. I stopped a passing lady and asked her if this is a PG Accommodation. She said sorry (?) and that these are quarter for LIC employees. She asked me the name of the person I wanted to meet and I gave her the name and she old me that he lived in one of the bungalows on my right but right now he must be in office.(????????)

I backed out from there and started on my search yet again.

Friend (3) called me up again after 15 minutes to find out my progress. None had been made whatsoever. She volunteered to locate him online and convey my dilemma to him. It was a tiny sliver of hope. Meanwhile she sent me packing on a new set of directions. It was 1.45 p.m now. Inching towards clocking 90 minutes since I had first set out on my task. I vroomed up my bike this time with my jaw set. It had to be now or never.

Splutter splutter. To my increasing disbelief, I found myself in some shady place with not so nice looking strange men giving me even stranger looks. Oh Good Mother of God. Why oh why did I ever manage to get myself in this scrape. Really truly, I'm an awful person!

And then my phone sang. It was the said friend. Oh what joy! Rapture! Never had I been ever so glad to hear his voice. He was genuinely concerned about my antics and promptly asked me to meet him. Gladness overtook every feeling I possessed. “Where?” I asked, “do you want to meet?”
“Why the BSNL Office of course” he replied. Well at least that was one place that I knew oh so very well. He said that he would be there in 5 minutes. Swell I said and zoomed off.

Friend (1) called me up then and told me that she was successful in locating the said friend and delivering my message to him. I could have kissed her. She said that it was a stroke of luck that she had found him online. Later the said friend explained that he was helping his friends move to different locations all across Pune. "Social service?", I inquired of him. He said hesitantly," No. Not quite. I'm hoping that if I help them now they'll come and see me off at the station today evening." He he.

I reached BSNL Office and the said friend was already waiting there for me with my book. He had returned another friend's book to me and that other friend thought that the said friend had already returned his book to him. (Confused? So was I). And so I had been stuck with the wrong book and the other friend thought the has his book which he actually doesn't. Like I said my said friend is absent-minded. He had somehow managed to convince his other friend that he had returned the book to him. Story ended? Not quite.

We had a lot to speak about. The usual stuff about admissions, exams, the meanness of professors, the smartness of students et al. And thus we spake for quarter of an hour. And then it happened- A shooting loud noise started emanating from somewhere close by. It was a screeching alarm and a handful of people shot out of the BSNL Office. We thought it was a fire alarm and we looked around interestedly. The sound was deafening to the ears and we could speak no more. One man ran towards his car thinking the burglar alarm must have set off. He checked the horn, under the booth, over the booth, locked the car, unlocked it but still couldn't figure out the source of the alarm. The said friend and I pitied him and resumed our conversation at a slightly higher pitch now so that we could make ourselves be heard. And thus another 15 minutes passed. The mad guy was still going over his car and I thanked my stars that it had nothing to do with me.

Then after much time had passed, some men walking past me told me that I was leaning against my bike's horn and so I was the source of so much shrilling noise and anguish. I had left my keys in the ignition. The mad guy came running towards me and started going over my bike. And then he grinned and said, “ I thought the sound was being made by my car. But now I see that your bike was causing the sound.” I grimaced and felt the blood rush up to my face and the mad guy was so happy at not being thought mad anymore. Oh I could have hid my face anywhere, anywhere but there. And it didn't help when my said friend said that even he didn't realise that the horrible sound was coming from my bike. Soon a crowd gathered and they pointed at my bike and I was utterly shamefaced. My said friend was staring down at me nonchalantly. I wished he would have said something, done something, at least laughed. But he didn't. And after the crowd dispersed he blandly resumed his conversation. Now my heart was not set in talking and I was still mighty embarrassed. After another quarter I hurriedly waved him goodbye and a happy journey and he told me conversationally, “ Don't go leaning on your bike's horn anymore, go home safe.”

Well!

Characters-
Said Friend- Anirudh Venkat who shares my love for books.
Friend (1)- The great Anushree Kogje. I can trust her with absolutely anything in this world.
Friend (2)- Ishani Bose. Sweet and charming-as always.
Friend (3)- Mahalakshmi Ganapathy. Never fails to help and one person whom I know for sure I can rely on.

Food World

I can't believe that eating is making me so happy. I'm packed off to class with a huge lunch box comprising of 3 tiers + 1 accompaniment tiffin box + 2 more tiffins that make up my short lunch.


The major weight of my bag is now because of these eatables that I carry. My bag became so heavy that finally it started tearing at the shoulder seams (and it being a Reebok bag). I really carry a lot.


I'm usually the 1st one to commence eating in class and the last one to finish -always. During the lecture onslaught, I'm plagued with dreamy thoughts of the yummy goodies packed in my lunch and so usually when it's time for lunch I can't wait to start eating. Since I'm a good eater; meaning I eat slowly to squeeze out all the taste out of the food and to relish it all the better I don't have any option but to be the last one to finish my food.



My love for eating always turns the conversation during lunch to food. It's all about how nice that feeling is when one is full. I, at least derive immense contentment when I realize that I'm finally stuffed with grub. It makes me very happy thanks to the various hormones released because of the chow that I've consumed. I feel at peace with everybody and then the sarcasm thrown at me by my companions seems to bounce off my full belly with relative ease.


It's getting to be very embarrassing now since my friends finish their food way before me and then they wait for me albeit in a very impatient manner clucking their tongues against their teeth indicating their increasing annoyance at my habits. Their actions dilute the happiness a bit but then ultimately who the hell cares. I'm happy and packed.


But now I'm wondering about this sudden craving for food. I've always been a great fan of ingestion but lately I seem to have taken up my standards to new and higher heights. I'm eating like never before. I tried my hand at analyzing this sudden behavioural change in me and could not pin down any good excuse.


Eating is making me very glad- so does this mean that I'm actually sad? Food is what my world seems to revolve around these days. The only good thing I believe is that at least the food doesn't stick to my body. I'm still providentially slim if not thin. But then I really wouldn't care if I add some pounds to my body. I'm eating as long as it makes my happiness more and more fat.

A Letter

One of my best buddies is currently studying engineering in one of the most wretched places (that is what she thinks). Yellow and brown are two colours that she hates with a lot of gusto. It’s no use reasoning with her because she is mental. Period. When she was a little girl she used to abhor the sun because of the above mentioned reason.

A letter I wrote to her in hopes of cheering her up-
“Hi Ducky,
Let’s pretend for some time that everything around you changes to yellow and you are the only brown person with huge chunky Gold ear-rings alive in the universe. The people and animals around you have yellow hair, yellow teeth, yellow saliva, yellow snort, yellow pimples… you get the idea don’t you?
(I hope I have grossed you out, ha)
Ah so, then because you are the only brown person alive, all the people decide to wage a war against you to terminate you, so that no yellow man falls for your brownie charm and then both of you produce yellow brown hybrids(kids). That would be a catastrophe for the yellow people the yellow people don’t want that happening, coz you are somebody who would make their race impure.
But… you are the most slickest brownie alive. (this is because you have survived up till now). You don’t want to die coz it is your duty to populate the yellow earth with yellow brown hybrids coz it is the only way that you can achieve ‘Brown Nirvana’ and the Brown Gods would elevate you to the position of ‘SUPREME BROWNIE OF YELLOW BROWN HYBRID RACE’.
Now power means everything to you and you won’t stop at anything to meet your goals.
So now you have survived so many upheavals, what do you do?
Simple, you do yellow meditation! And by the powers granted to you, you temporarily turn yourself into a yellow being. You embrace the yellow people and tell them that you are actually one of them.( But only I can see through your plans, you slimy brownie).
Anyways, the yellows welcome you top their fold and you become one of them.
AND THEN----------
You start producing yellow brown hybrids.
The yellows now realize that you are actually an imposter, so they all come running behind you with yellow swords. But the Brown Gods realize that you are in danger and at that moment the yellow heavens open up and you rise upwards in a swirl of yellow dust.
And thus, you meet your goals and become
‘SUPREME BROWNIE OF YELLOW BROWN HYBRIDS’
You now achieve ‘Brown Nirvana’ and thus live in a bliss of yellow and brown, governing your yellow brown hybrids.
Thus your ultimate yellow brown fantasy got fulfilled.
OK now you can stop pretending that you are brown and the rest of the world is yellow. Instead you can pretend that sunflowers are growing out of your hair. He, he.”

I think my friend is going to hate me for the rest of my life.