So i was in my first year and I had to call T for doing a group assignment in Mechanics. The God of All Things Mechanics (for us) was Irving Shames who wrote the heavy multipurpose (Buy two and Ta da! Exercise weights!) Mechanics Bible. I search for T in my mobile and ring her up.
Me: Hello? Oh hey! Where are you, T? Come fast with your Shames.
Sometime later, T gets a msg from her sis in Dubai.
T, you're soooo screwed. Who is this Shames? Mum's gonna kill you.
* 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 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
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
