Of Wines and Hope.

It's like this.Imagine you have been drinking cheap wines all your life, some better than others but none anything great. Then, one fine morning, life surprises you with this fantastic wine, this deep, red, rich wine. You didn't like the taste at first as it wasn't the familiar fruity ,sweet flavour you were used to, but it sort of grew on you.You begin to savour every sip, you relish the burst of uncommon flavours in your mouth which you now find very compelling. Then, when you are almost half way through the glass, it suddenly disappears. Poof! just like that. After which you're served again with the cheap ones; some occasional good ones but none like the one you had then. And you have to decide which one you want for the rest of your life. Do you settle for one of the lesser wines - you know, select the one which tastes the best among them....Or, do you wait, hoping that someday the rest of that premium wine will be served again?

I'm an optimist,sorta. and to me, after all's said and done, that wine glass is still half full.

*Mute*

Ok, fiiiine, i give it to you Oh Mighty Nature. Only you can render me speechless. Literally. Blasted sore throat.

Rant #1

* It's reallly reallly hot...ugghh, and sticky and humid. Im tired...like all the time.I walk to class and i feel like i've just crossed the Arabian Desert. My room feels like a sauna. The stuffy weather makes me feel drugged and sedated in class. like i needed any help there.

* All the bugs in the world seemed to have decided to live on the tree outside my room and use my room as a summer resort.

*I started twittering the day my exams started. I stopped twittering the day it got over.

* Everyday the kind chechis (and often M) deliver the newspaper to my room. I used to return the favour by giving it back to the chechis untouched for recycling. But I decided that enough is enough, and i gotta start reading the paper again. So, Neethi is now seen with her nose buried in the paper as she breakfasts and lunches. She ignores the rolling of eyes by other people in the mess.

*I found a new way to not fall asleep in class. (Attempt to) Make rhymes about all my batchmates.Here's a few..ahem..ahem:

I know a certain M,
She tops every sem,
But beneath her quiet smile,
there's much wit and wile.

I know a K,
who loves to play,
pranks on people everyday,
She says "I'm so pretty,
So smart and so witty",
It's just such a shame,
Others don't think the same.

I know a P,
whose fond of the sea,
It gives her great kicks,
To take many pics.

Planning to make for my entire floormates and a few others. Plenty of boring classes to spare.:)

Ragam '09 and all that jazz- Part 1

Ragam '09 was as promised bigger, better and all that, inspite of the Salsa Workshop getting canceled coz of some silly prank by some of the students( they put up a notice stating they are the Shiv Sena and if we're going to have a salsa workshop, we're all gonna be in 'Big Trouble'. The Director and faculty took it pretty seriously). Goes on to prove my theory(Chennai Chronicles 2, pt 9) about the curse.

So here's like a Ragam '09 in a Nutshell (albeit a big one, considering it's me who's making it) :

For starters all the proshows were awesome. Packed crowds, no glitches, security was pretty good and was very well-organized. Everyone danced their heart out and there were no incidents as far as I know.

I had heard Shanker Mahadevan was a great 'performer' and 'knew how to entertain the crowd' but never quite got what that meant. I mean, I knew that not all singers were good Live on stage, they don't quite have Ze Charisma and all that, but wasn't until Shanker M performed that I fully grasped what it implied.And I found myself telling people after the show 'Shanker M , yeah, he really knows how to entertain the crowd.',lol.



Benny Dayal although proving to have a slightly eccentric wardrobe(a checked pyjama with a shirt , a tie and pullover. no kidding. and yeah, with every song,he kept changing his headgear...which ranged from skull caps to rainbow coloured hats.)packed in quite a few songs in 2 hours time.Was great fun.



Breathe Floyd was super cool too. And especially enjoyed it coz...umm..well, I kinda have never attended a Rock show before. Yeah, well, in my defense, I do not like heavy metal/metal rock and most of the bands which played during the past ragams belonged to that category. Of course, I do enjoy the occasional growling when I'm in one of those moods(which frankly are quite rare), but listening to over two hours of metal, growling and screaming - not my idea of a good time.


Anyhoo, a tribute Pink Floyd band, was something i was willing to try. I haven't listened to too many but the ones I have, me likey.So off I went. and am sooo glad I did. The sound system, more than anything else, floored me.Was like I had my headphones on. And from as far as I could make out it was pretty much Pink Floyd ( and if u want a more expert opinion, bro, who had come down for this show, said most of them save for 2 sounded like the original). The stage lights were awesome too..all bathed in pink light (the lighting guy sure had a sense of humour ).


The guys were actually pretty old, all in their 4o's. Could just picture them in their backyards in their bermudas mowing the lawn, humming a happy tune. :). But man, they sure can play and sing. Must have ben quite a challenge for them to sing in the hot, sultry weather. Poor guys kept drinking bottle after bottle of water and wiping their faces with a towel every now and then.



Liked the decorations along the Rajpath, was simple and somehow interesting.

Hated the monstrosity they made in the Centre Circle, although at night it wasn't so bad.

They were two informal stages this time: The English ('Who needs Idols?') and the Malayalam (' Echusmi edhu collegilla?') which were pretty good. As in the mal one was in the Rajpath and the other a bit further off, so they were more things happening at different places;kinda helped the crowd wander about a bit.

Was even a 'Carnival' Stall this time, like a mini game arcade ( mini golf, darts etc). was new for this ragam, so it had only a few games, but were good fun and did attract the crowds (and from what i heard raked in quite a lot of cash too.) They had the comp flash game called 'helicopter', u know the one where it's all green and black and you have to guide the helicopter dodging all the obstacles and go the max distance. And for the life of me, I can't figure out why I suck at it. I mean, it's just moving your mouse up and down to move that silly helicopter but no matter how early i move the helicopter up when there's an obstacle down, it never goes up in time and manages to crash right into the rock thingy. I once made it to 1000 mts(?) but that's after, I don't know, such intense concentration, it'll put any yoga practioner to shame. Must say something about the state of my limbic system and the prefrontal lobe (things which i didn't know existed in my brain till I read(partly) 'Emotional Intelligence'. got bored one day, went to the bookshop and bought it. Don't ask me. i have no clue either why i thought reading 'emotional intelligence' could alleviate my boredom then.)

And oooh, the food ensemble was definitely better than last time. Cafe Coffee Day, Subway, a My Roll Junction along with the usual Broast, Oasis etc. I had sooo many Cool Blues, that my tongue was perpetually blue during those three days. I never had it from ccd before coz usually it's quite cold inside already, so i end up with a nice Hot choco-latte accompanied by of course, Ze Chocolate Fantasy or the Chicken Tikka Sandwich. But the heat was so bad that the thought of anything hot was enough to get one sunburned. Oh yeah, and there was Baskin Robbins too. All of which were great hits in the hot and humid Calicut weather.

Ok,This post has gotten way too long and I'm feeling way too lazy now:). Ill leave the rest for the next post. Toodles.

Photos Courtesy Bharath N.A and Vineet Sam John

The Day After Ragam

According to Neethorian Calendar, The day after Ragam* is Cleaning Day. Akin to the day after Christmas being known as Boxing Day (which is so called because of this and not because it's the day when you put all the xmas decorations back into their boxes and pack them away for the next year, as yours truly had previously thought and coined the term Cleaning Day. See how blogging(and reading other ppl's blog) helps you increase your knowledge of the world and all that?). Its origin dates back to the time when Neethi was in her first year and was in the Ragam dance team. The practice sessions which usually start around 3 weeks prior to Ragam extends upto midnight everyday (and during the last few days even 2 a.m) as a result of which Neethi could hardly make it to her room after it (she often used to be able to only make it to the third floor, first room(her room was the third), and flop onto the bed perpendicular to the actual sleeping position. The inmates were usually kind enough to turn her around and wake her up in time for a bath in the morning before college.),let alone worry about how clean it is.Of course, she used to (very)occasionally dust it and all to make sure it was fit for human inhabitation, but could not afford a full fledged cleaning. Come Second year, history repeated itself, save for the reason for being unable to clean being that she was part of PC (Program Committee) for Ragam. And Third and fourth year, it was Drama direction.So the day after Ragam always saw Neethi with a broom in her hand, dettol-ed water in her bucket, clothes being folded neatly and kept back in the shelves etc. Whence was born Cleaning Day. And this year, I broke the sacred tradition. got up mid-morning,went out with friends for lunch, came back late and started blogging. Ah well, there's always tomorrow. was time for a new tradition anyway. and for a new post. A ragam '09 post is also under construction. will be putting it up in a day or two.See,I'm a good girl, I am,lol. :D.

*NITC's Cult Fest

Arrghh..Ouch...Grrrr.

Yesterday was one of the most stressful days ever. To top it all, one of the guys in the drama team chose that exact day to play a prank (with supposedly genuine intentions to lighten my mood). Our main actor got chicken pox, and with just one week to go for the competition, we had to find a substitute or scrap the drama. I was going for the latter coz there's really no point putting up something which is going to flop on stage, but the juniors were so enthu about the whole thing, and they said they'll call up people to come and audition (and they did). So in the middle of all this, i was about to sit down, when the aforementioned guy pulled the chair out from under me.I was pretty preoccupied hence all the reflex actions,subconscious thought processing and other products of human brain evolution were on standby mode. So i just kept going lower and attempted to sit. and of course, i fell. And it hurt. soooo badly. it definitely hit a bone. and the pain kept getting worse. i was past anger at that point, so i just glowered at him and he kept a safe distance from me for the rest of the evening. I got more irritable. esp when i realised i can't climb up and down stairs without getting sharp jolts of pain (Although i finally figured standing on your toes while climbing reduces the pain.).Anyway, finally we did get a substitute, who was actually better than the original guy. So we're going to have the drama after all.After getting back, I discovered that that tiny part of the ass, completely unnoticed by me before, actually plays a big role in human movement (sigh). Like sleeping. I have to lie on my stomach. and turning to the other side, is a three-step process. and sitting down.I can only sit down on chairs with arm rests, coz i need to hold onto them. same goes for standing up.and sigh, Bathing. So much for wanting to Workout this weekend (we got a new gym in the ladies hostel. pretty cool stuff. wanted to workout while the equipments are all brand new - when it's still The Treadmill and not oh,a treadmill ).Today morning,pain's slightly better and im hoping it'll go away by monday. Never thought it'd turn out to be such a pain in the ass.

Sun(through the clouds), (lots of) Sand and Sea.

You know, how some people get really, really excited about a trip to the beach? 'All that sun and sand! Sooo much fun!' they say. Well, yeah, yours truly - Not one of them. I'd go ' Uggh..All that Sun and (shudder) Sand! Sooo not fun!'. But not today. A few of us classmates, decided to go to Kappad beach. We've been talking like forever about going for a trip, but never got around to it. Today being a pseudo-holiday for some of us in the branch, coz our exams finished earlier, we decided to just impulsively go somewhere. Not only was the trip fun, but i feel oddly calm after coming back. Like All warm and fuzzy.I'm actually smiling to myself occasionally too (am soo glad i have a single room now.:)) The weather's beautiful. Moon, wind, rain and all that jazz. Perfect weather to do the whole drink a mug of hot chocolate, curl up and read a book or listen to music thing. Which is what i did, although had to make do with Nescafe strong 3-in-1 coffee satchet instead of the hot chocolate. And all that new-found sense of contentment has made me patient enough to write this post too.

We decided to leave at sharp 11:45 am, go to Zain's ( a restaurant with awesome biryanis) for lunch, then to kapad. So at sharp 1:00 pm the guys arrived at the bus stop, armed with a perfectly valid excuse for being late .That they were "searching" for a volley-ball. I mean,im sure it's not downright impossible that one day all the volley balls in college decide to disappear together (perhaps to a parallel universe even, while we're at the not-impossible things that could happen.). Anyways, after a sumptuous meal at Zain's, we headed to the beach. There i was, on the beach, all jeans rolled up to the knee , trying carefully not to get the rest of me wet when a big wave decided to do me a favour and almost swept me off. Now that i had became fully wet anyway, the rest of the day was a lot less bothersome. We then played football (or some crude version of it.). Was fun, even though the probability of me being picked again by any team next time is kinda close to zero. I'm ,well, not all that good at it. (My team mates kept saying stuff like 'You do realize that the point of the game is to block the other team not your own, rite?' and ' I'm in your same team!' :)). The best part was, after a while, it looked like it was going to rain. The sky got all dark and gloomy. But it didn't rain. It rained in college. and At my friend's place (in calicut itself). But not in kappad. Like as if the Raingodguy, after it was done 'Let there be rain'-ing the other places, turned to kapaad, brought out all the dark clouds and then got bored midway or went to attend a phone call or something. The result of which was that the weather was just Perr-fect. :). If you looked towards the horizon,the landscape was brilliantly divided : A bright white strip of sky sandwiched in between the omnious dark clouds and the grey sea. Plus, one of us had an awesome Sony camera ( ok,9 mp is all the tech info i can give you. and no,i don't know the model number.can never remember them and just can't get how some ppl go 'oh u mean the 1524? its whatchammacalit is good but 123XY5E got way better whatsitsname. but the AC675-XE, now that's got...' .) .You know the sort of camera, which no matter how drab a pic you take, just comes out Wow. ( My 2 mp mob cam on the other hand, manages to make even a dazzling display of fireworks into a weird abstract blob.) So of course, there were a lot of Wonders of Nature Pics and Posed Pics ( Dil Chahta Hai Pose, the Let's all look Serious Pose,Heads In a Circle Pose and of course the most common the Single Photo turned Everyone scrambling in to be in It Pose). Someone kicked the ball a lil far off into the water while playing and while everyone was debating on who should swim to get it, the ball, tired of being kicked around, kept going further away. Unfortunately (for the ball), it was caught before it could make its escape. Then everyone just bobbed up and down in the water,catching the waves for a while. Of course, most of us kept getting swept away, often bouncing backward on and off the ground( ouch, not too gently). After everyone had swallowed enough salt water and ugghh..a bit of sand ( well, yeah, some of us sorta had a sand throwing fight) it was 6:00 and time for us girls to get back (yup, the NITC LH is one of the hostels which still has a 7pm curfew) and one of them gave us a ride back. The return journey was well, besides being a race to get back to the hostel by 7, cold. Had rolled down the windows and the fact that we were all soaked to the bone didn't help.Anyways, reached hostel in record time : at 7:05 pm, had a nice bath and then's when the feeling of calm came over. After which i went on to the whole mug of coffee thing and the rest of the first para.

There, my second day of consistent blogging. Tiny pat on back to self. Weather's still nice, btw. Still all Warm and fuzzy :).

I'm Baaaack!

Yup, done away with sessionals. Can finally push that away as an excuse not to blog.Thing is, I get all these fantastic ideas just when i get down to studying.Actually, more than ideas , i come up with these cleverly-phrased sentences (which i mostly forget when i actually get down to writing the post so don't go all one-eyebrow raised and 'Cleverly-phrased? didn't see 'em anywhere.' and all.) It's like my brain, normally lazy and content with generating random, not particularly clever thoughts(not to mention highly repetitive, like on a recursive loop. 'Makes my job easier. smart,huh?' quips brain.), suddenly faced with it's owner's attempts to actually make it work by Gasp! Studying tries to fight back the only way it could think of : Generating a lightning-quick succession of some awesome sentences all tumbling one after the other, while the dazed owner tries to take it all in. This distracts her for a while, and the brain, relieved(and quite smug), returns to it's comfortable RTG (Random/Repetitive Thought Generation) process. Buuut, you say, surely, generating such a quick succession of sentences, must require the brain to work (esp since they gotta be all awesome and stuff too) which umm..kinda u know, defeats the whole purpose? Aaah, You and I would.Not my brain.See, If you actually manage to study,it goes on to explain, I've got to work continuously and for quite long periods of time, while in the above-mentioned case, I just need to work a few microseconds, generate a few sentences and then repeat this process every couple of hours or so, (have put that on a recursive loop too. Highly efficient, i tell you, though it's applicable only to the Cause of Work Avoidance.) when i detect the owner's eye moving back to them blasted textbooks. And come post-sessionals, no longer faced with such a crisis,I switch off the Creativity button (to conserve more energy of course).
and What's the point of this post? I'm not quite sure myself.A simple 'I'm back.shall be posting more soon.' was all i had in mind. Ah, well, I was never known for my brevity anyway.

Chennai Chronicles- Part 2

This post is especially for Anna. She claimed that bloggers ( and I'm using the word quite loosely to include me in it) who usually bravely publish a Part 1 never write the next part. Ha. So there. This is Part TWO . In all fairness though, if she hadn't challenged me I probably wouldn't have written this post. :)

So, where was I? yes, the magical watch.

6. After that , the gang headed to the Marina Beach, and as they were walking back, they saw a Merry-go-round. Most of them ,like excited li'l 6-year olds, wanted to ride it. Most of them, unlike excited li'l 6-year olds, weren't ready to pay Rs.10 per person to get on it. After quite a bit of bargaining, they managed to wear the poor man down, and got it down to 50 for 7 of them or something. The disgruntled, grumpy man brought a few of them stools to get on the horses and then started the thing. Was huge fun, all yelling their hearts out and all. Only soon, it wasn't so much fun. It started going faster and faster. Uncomfortably fast.N starting feeling slightly faint and had to hold on to the nearby horse to keep herself steady. And pretty soon, it got so fast that she started yelling to stop it. and so did a lot of others.But it kept spinning. It finally came to a stop. All of them got out, some looking quite green in the face (some did get sick later in the night). The man, N noticed, didn't look so disgruntled any more. N suspected foul play. She was (and still is) sure that the man was just getting back at them ( or he may have just wanted them to have a little excitement and thought they could handle the speed. but the other sounds more interesting, so let's just agree with N, shall we?)

7. They went on different autos to City Centre after that, and N and a few others popped into the washroom. And as she was leaving, a girl who looked very familiar entered. She just couldn't place her though, and not wanting to be called rude, was about to say hi ( hoping to figure the name out as the convo proceeded, as she sometimes does) when she stopped herself. She had suddenly remembered where she had seen her. but just couldn't believe it. She had seen her, on several occasions - On Orkut. On her friend's friend list and in photo albums. Obviously, she was completely unaware of N's existence.

8. It was late , City Centre was closing for the day and after they switched like almost all the lights off, the gang decided it was time to leave. Everyone was in high spirits after a good meal from KFC, and was laughing and talking loudly. And while it was nice singing songs and stuff in the middle of the road which was pretty empty by then, it also meant most buses had stopped running. But that didn't stop them from doing all the aforementioned.So they heartily(well, most anyway) decided to walk to the local train station. which had also shut down for the day. After a few more spontaneous songs , some why don't we spent the night here then! Yes, Let's ! Woohoo!'s and some Oooh, let's walk back to IITM! Yes, Let's! Woohoo! 's later, they started walking again until they met a couple of policemen, who suggested they take autos.Finally,all of them squeezed into two super-huge autos and made it back to iitm.

9. N got to attend the salsa/jive workshop! ( To the uninitiated: The Gods of Thoushaltnotlearnsalsa had cast a terrible curse on N, preventing her from ever attending a salsa workshop however much her heart yearned for it. The scheming gods went so far as to get the salsa workshop for Ragam '08 canceled and extended the duration of the Lindy Hop Swing classes back home to a month just when her winter vacation was cut short to less than 3 weeks. Aye, The Fates play such cruel games.) Anyways, 'twas quite fun, although she did find the whole dancing salsa in a circle quite strange and funny.

10. N fell off the local train, as mentioned before. It was time to leave. One by one, they clambered on to the train to reach Chennai Central Station. When just M, N and S were left to get on, the train started moving. M managed to get on, but as N was attempting to do so, the train picked up more speed and she couldn't hold onto the pole. She remembers hitting something and falling flat on the platform and thinking ' Now S and I will have to come in the next train' while hearing a bloodcurdling scream by M and a tall, lean figure which looked like P jumping off the train onto the platform. And sometime during this incident, S pulled N away from the train. Someone, hearing M's scream pulled the chain and the train came to a stop. Apparently, from where M and P were standing, it looked like N was disappearing into the gap between the train and the platform, although there was really no such gap, because the local train sorta bulges outwards. which explains their action-movie style responses.Once everyone got back on the train, there was lot of sympathetic ruffling of N's hair. Some It's alright,k? Are you okay? Sit down for a while's and a lot of looking at N and shaking of the head's. S after a while, began to demonstrate the entire sequence of events to those who weren't present, though P didn't seem too amused at the idea. P and S still occasionally throws in ' I jumped off a moving train to save you.' and ' I saved your life!'. Note to S and P: See now, unless there's some internet recession, and they delete the Least Read Blogs or something, your acts of heroism are recorded in the WWWeb for posterity. You're Welcome. :)

11. S was mistaken again.for a beggar this time. By one of the our own (nitcians). Before you start wondering about his clothes ( and before he tries to hunt me down), the reason for the misunderstanding was his..ahem...flute playing abilty. Basically, he and M were trying on different tunes on the Rs.10 flute someone purchased on the train journey back. As S was playing , S ( Another Guy.Hmm..Strangely,Gossip girl never had the Two-people-with-the-same-initial issue.) who was in another compartment stuck his head in.
'Oh, it was you! We kept waiting for a beggar playing the flute to come and ask for money. was wondering why he was taking so long to reach.' On the upside, the real beggars do play the flute well.

12. This is an All-things-Animal point. There were deer in iitm. And a whole clan of monkeys well-adapted to their habitat. These wonder monkeys know how to eat from unopened chips packets, shamelessly enter the bathrooms in the Ladies hostels to raid the garbage bins and a few of the gang even spotted a monkey making a hole in an unopened coke bottle and coolly drinking it afterwards.The hostel the girls stayed in had a mascot dog with a blue collar who was always sleeping all stretched out in front of it ( until it seemingly couldn't stand M's repeated, almost envious 'This dog is always sleeping! Doesn't it ever wake up?' anymore and moved to the nearby hostel on the last day).

It's 'That's all, folks!' then from me for now. Whew! Thanks again Anna.:)

Chennai Chronicles - Part 1

WARNING: This post , as well as the previous two, are part of my WUPs ( Warm-Up Posts) to get me to start blogging consistently, which in turn is part of my NLP (Neethi learns to be patient) Program, so my apologies for the possibly ill-attempted humour , lack of originality, creativity etc.

So, we went for Saarang (IIT Madras Cult Fest) as part of the whole we-are-final-years-we-are-gonna-have-some-fun idea(my friend and I also had a secret agenda which cannot be disclosed here for obvious reasons. Suppose the whole 3 people who read my blog came to know about it?). Anyways, so here are some of the interesting (to me) stuff which happened while in Chennai (in chronological order) :

1. On the train: S was mistaken for the ticket collector. S was well, in his words, conned, into taking care of the ticket-booking and stuff and also ended up paying for half the tickets so basically, on the train, he was walking around with a long sheet of paper with everyone's (we were 40 odd people) seat numbers which he carried on a rectangular 2 fold pad-like thingy (whose one hinge I managed to break when I fell off a train, but more about that later). S then had to sit down to settle a li'l tiff with a family with three kids claiming( the dad, not the kids) that these were their seats. After that was resolved, S was still poring over the paper intently when this appoopan( old man) in the corner, who was looking all the while at S, takes out his ticket hesitantly and shows it to S. I can't for the life of me remember how S reacted to that ( or whether he noticed it at all ) but N(yup, that's how I'm going to call myself. been watching way too much Gossip Girl these days, sigh) and a few other alphabets had a good laugh over it.

2. On the 'local' train: A few wanted to have an Alaipayuthe experience ( the tamil movie with madhavan and shalini where he first sees her on a local train moving in the opposite direction as his) and hence decided to take one to iitm. We clambered onto it and grabbed on those hanging handles ( You know ones that remind you of those miniature adventure sports zones in the park where you had many of them in a row. You climb up , grab one of them and swing from one to the next till you reach the other end(not that I was ever able to make it that far). I'd be (and so would the others reading this) really grateful if someone could tell me what they are officially called.) M and N wanted to do some sight-seeing so they grabbed the ones near the exit. After a while, a man standing next to them ( a darkish man with 3 strips of chandan across his forehead with a red mark at the centre) started pointing out places and buildings for us. They nodded politely and tried to follow his hands. That's quite nice of him. Then N noticed another guy (younger, dressed in a loose t-shirt and jeans) across him rolling his eyes from time to time. Guy 1 got off the train after a while after which Guy 2 took a step forward. Woah there, have people here taken it upon themselves to show new people around or something ? ' Excuse me, but just thought ill let you know. That guy had no idea what he was saying. I'm afraid he was randomly pointing at prominent buildings and blurting out random names.'

3. So M and N were the unfortunate ones who couldn't get tickets to the Sonu Nigam Show. While they were dejected ( M not so much. N reportedly made quite 'ridiculous' noises and faces whenever SN's voice reached her ears as they wandered about outside the Open Air Theatre ) , they did get to see Monty Python sketches play put up by evam ( a chennai-based theatre group) , generally had a good time just hanging about and got to spend the night at Nut's ( a colg friend in chennai who took pity on us; one letter alphabets are strictly for the group that came along with us, others will be referred to by nicknames or anything else I feel like using to describe them..Muhahaha). They went yeaarly morning to Besant Nagar beach which was pretty cool. Most of the residents had apparently all risen and shone and were playing badminton, jogging or walking along the beach. After that, they had the most amazing melt-in-the-mouth milk pedas and badam kathali from Grand Sweets which Nut said was the best sweet shop in Chennai ( N could smell the ghee from the end of the street. No kidding.)

4. Jam prelims were fun . After which the group decided to explore Chennai, starting with Adayar Film City which according to A, was right around the corner. After walking for like forever ( the sidewalk was nice though. Neat and a nice row of trees planted along the way with a rail separating the road in places, some interesting mosaic artwork along the walls ) and posing every 30 seconds for a pic , they finally reached around the aforementioned corner to find out that Adayar Film City was closed. For almost a year now. They did meet an interesting off-his-rocker beggar who generously posed for the camera unasked with the rest of them , cursed almost everyone that went by and left his scraps and bottles to be run over by a car. As they were walking back , someone turned around to take one last pic of our beggar when he saw him trying to stop a scooter on the main road. As everyone turned to look , the man (middle-aged, in formal work clothes) stopped the scooter, got down, took a fallen twig ( quite long) , plucked off the leaves and began chasing the beggar managing to hit him often. Which needless to say, left everyone shocked.

5. M, S , P and N were arguing over whether the floor was marble or white granite at the M.G.R Memorial at Marina Beach when P saw a couple of people pressing their ear against the top of a tomb. Curious P followed suit. She heard a soft tapping noise and it took her few seconds to realize that a couple of local guys were tapping on the tomb to fool her. P quickly decided to try the trick on M, N and S. While they were arguing (yeah, they tend to do that a lot) with P whether they really fell for it or not, a couple of others from the crowd who were standing nearby went to the tomb, pressed their ear against it , began tapping on it with their fingers and stood there for sometime as if waiting to hear something back! M, N,P and S were elated !They just managed to start a new tradition ! But the Mystery of the Pressing-ear-sans-knocking still remained. They then reached the tomb of MGR himself where they found people performing the same ritual. N mustered up the courage to ask some of the locals, but all she could pick out from what they said was 'Motor. Sound' which led them nowhere (save for a few wisecracks from S). Now others may give up and decide to leave matters unsolved but not our M, N, S and P. 'Twas hard but they finally uncovered the reason - MGR's watch. It was believed to be still umm..ticking and if one strained one's ears enough one might be fortunate enough to hear it. MGR died in 1987.Wonder what make the watch was.

To be continued….:)

Go play with someone your own size!

Life has got to be kidding me. Everything and i mean, everything in life seems to be playing hard to get. not people though. Things. that i want. It's like this. You know the whole carrot on a stick thing. Imagine Life's the guy (or girl) holding it. and I'm the girl trying to grab the carrot bobbing up and down in front of me, always just out of my reach ( it doesn't help that I'm 5 feet 1 and a half inches.). And just when I reach the point I say 'know what? whatever. You can keep the carrot. I'm going to have this delicious scrunch..scrunch...gulp spinach instead.' Lo and behold! a carrot's lowered and lands right on my lap. Since most of the time, the carrot I get in the end is plumper and juicier than the one i was chasing , I let Life off the hook and don't complain much. But every once in a while, i really wish i could get the carrot right in the beginning itself , u know, and on a silver platter and stuff. It'd be nice.and while you're at it Life , make that a nice slice of chocolate fantasy instead (of the carrot).

Help!....I am stuck..again.

As my Muse showed no signs of returning (for the uninitiated refer: Once upon a Time ) , I thought of resorting to my favorite topic (thus titled coz I never seem to run out of things to write under it) namely, My embarrassing moments. But then I realised that I had already written an article on it in the magazine which wud have been read by my NITC friends and knowing fully well that 99.9% of the people who do visit this blog ( if at all) are my NITC friends ( love u all..hehe) it wudnt be fair on my part , to make them read a repetition of the same ( thus also driving them away forever..:)). I was dejected.I had nothing else to write(curse u,Muse).

And then..out of nowhere, when all seemed lost and I had almost decided to make a quick exit from this cruel(sob..) world of blogging..I heard a voice...no, not from my head this time. It was Dilip's ( the malayalam actor) . from the TV.

'Don't touch me ae'

he said to that girl who was stuck in the lift with him in Mr.Butler ( lovvveee that movie.) I let out a giggle as he proceeded to make that instant biryani on his Wonder Briefcase. Then , memories of all the times I was stuck flooded my mind. Yes! I cud write about all the times I was stuck.


No not like poor old Pumbaa here.
In lifts.in bathrooms.in rooms. Not only have I have been stuck, I have even managed to lock people in too :D.

My earliest experience of being stuck was in the 4th grade. I had just finished Sunday school and decided to make a quick visit to the bathroom. As I was about to close it, I did realise that well..it was one of those doors which drags on the ground ( u know, the kind that is difficult to close or open and leaves marks on the floor. For the readers residing in the lh , like Shane's door!) but then i didn't think twice abt it ( who wud at that time). Afterwards I tried opening it. It wudnt budge. And the door didn't have a handle inside with which you cud pull or exert your strength. Just a small latch. These bathrooms were located at an isolated area. I started knocking on the door.I was kinda hesitant to scream considering it's a church and all and thought I'll wait it out. Somebodys bound to come along.Minutes creeped by slowly.My imagination being as active as ever, thoughts of being stuck here forever quickly overcame any embarrassment I felt ( the not-so-appealing smell helped too ) and I started screaming my lungs out. Soon, I was rescued by a nun, who was passing by. Needless to say , I never went there again( to that bathroom,that is).

My second experience was in 8th grade (I think). My cousin used to live in this old,huge flat in Ajman.( Those were the days. That flat was big, with a long corridor and rooms to the left and right of it and a long balcony connecting the hall, kitchen and the bedroom. We used to play 'vampires of Ajman' and 'ghosts of Ajman flats' there all nite.hehe.more abt that in a later post.) The only problem with old, huge flats is that their lifts ( if they have them) were just as old and creaky.It was in perfect working condition. So, it made a slight creaking noise every time it moved. But it worked.
One day, as my cousins and I were having a great time , having the house all to ourselves ( aunt and uncle both used to go for work.), it was mine and my same aged cousin, Jeethals' turn to go down and replenish our pepsi supplies. She insisted we take the stairs while me, always of the belief that one must conserve one's energy whenever possible, thot we ought to just take the lift inside of going down three flights of stairs. Both of us were in a stubborn mood that day, not ready to give in. So I decided to take the lift and she, the stairs and have a race as to who wud reach the bottom first.
I clambered into the lift hurriedly as the lift opened and pressed level '0' reasoning that that must be the button for the ground floor.I cud hear jeethal's footsteps above. I was smiling smugly to myself as I thot of reaching there first and waiting for her, when the lift suddenly gave a lurch and stopped. I looked at the digital box indicating the level, it showed 1. Wondering what went wrong and irritated at the thought of losing more time, I pressed 0 once more.It didn't move. I pressed again.and again.but in vain. Puzzled,I pressed the open button. Nothing happened.Then with the sudden realisation that the lift was stuck, I started screaming for jeethu. Thankfully, the stairs was near to the lift and she heard my screams. She didn't know what to do either.She tried pressing the button from outside but the lift was stubbornly still.
At last, we thought of calling the watchman. He came out sleepily from his room, calmly listened to my cousin's plea for help, went in, took a bunch of keys,went to the lift and opened it. A breathless, flushed me stumbled out of the lift and looked at the watchman with a new found respect. He gave a smile and said that the 0 level thingy doesn't work anymore. 1 goes to the ground floor. Then why on earth, is it still there??? . The watchman, just shrugged and went back to his room. Of course, after that , the stairs didn't seem all that repulsive to me .

Moving on to being stuck in a room.
Again, I believe this occurred around the same time as the bathroom incident, around 4th-5th grade. I was in another of my cousins' place in balussery for vacation. After spending hours playing hide and seek and other outdoor activities, our parents told us it was time to come in. The guys ( my bro and another cousin) immediately jumped on the comp and started playing dirtbike ( or something like that.) I wasnt interested in computers then and it was a 2 player game anyway. So we girls decided to ahem..choreograph..dance steps for a popular number at the time( cant remember which one). We went into their room and I switched on the music. Before we began, we suddenly came with the idea of locking the room.....to keep away from prying eyes ;). After 45 mins of hard core choreography and practise :), we decided that it was time for a break. I tried unlocking the door. ( again, the structure of the lock becomes important.This time, it was one of those doors with the turning locks. you turn it twice, it gets locked and turn it the other way, it opens). I heard a clicking noise but the door didnt open. I tried again. Then my cousin came and tried. It was no use. This time round, I didnt have to scream, they were all nearby and when we bagan knocking and they came around and started giving instructions on how to open. We tried everything. Atlast they decided to call the carpenter. After two hours of being stuck in the room, he came and said the lock had fallen in or smething and that he wud have to cut out the whole lock area. After what seemed like ages, the door was opened and we came out grinning sheepishly at everyone. That incident didn't stop us from dancing or choreographing anymore, but we were more easy on the privacy thingy :)

And , finally, the time when I locked my mom and my moms friend in their house.
That happened quite recently ( in 11th or 12th). My friend was just explaining to me abt the peculiarity of their front door lock. That it could only be locked from the inside. A half key was stuck inside the outside keyhole. ( This was one of those locks with turning knobs with keyholes). As a result, if the entire family had to go out they had no other choice but to leave the flat unlocked hoping no wud try turning the knob.

Schematic diagram of the kind of lock I was attempting to describe verbally..;).Just remove the head of that key and imagine the rest of the key still stuck in the lock.

So we went out to examine the lock, while our parents were in the living room talking. I looked at the lock and my mind being for quite some time idle, became the legendary devil's workshop and I exclaimed:

" I bet we can lock it with the tip of the pen!" . (Archimedes must felt about the same excitement when he exclaimed Eureka! ).Off I went searching for one and tried locking it. Somewhere in the back of my head , a warning bell resounded indicating this was a bad idea, but I pretended not to hear it and hurriedly tried turning the inside key with the pen. Well, It worked. We could finally lock from the outside. and for a second both of us felt like the Wright brothers and looked on with satisfaction. We then decided to unlock it. I took out The Pen again and tried turning it the other way. It refused to turn. How can that be? This shud work. I tried again. This time the nib of the pen went further into the pen. aaargh! Now what?. By this time, our parents had heard all the noises and asked us what was going on as they tried unlocking from the inside. We looked nervously at each other. I asked to ask the neighbours if they had anything sharp and thin with which we could attempt to turn this lock. Hummphh..Me and my great idea. She brought a compass and I fumbled with it for sometime.Finally I felt the thing turning and then a reassuring click as it unlocked. I never felt so relieved ever. Of course , my relief turned to an embarrassed grin when I saw our parents' face. But then they laughed. Thankfully.

They were more 'I'm stuck' incidents in my life, but they pretty much run along these lines so I shall refrain from writing them down here. Why me? hmm..On the bright side, I guess, I know a lot more about locks now ;).