A Trip To Remember

Hello there everyone :) finally! Done with all pending tags! I had gone to Kerala last week for a marriage… yeah, Kerala is an amazingly beautiful place with amazingly beautiful people (hint hint ;) ). But my post is not about the beauty of Kerala, I’ll prolly come up with that later (btw, apologies to all those people who think prolly is wannabe. I use it cuz I think its easier to pronounce than its root word). I had gone to Kerala by train this time, don’t you just love train journeys? I’d say especially if it’s the Konkan rails. Seriously, you’re missing out on a lot if you’re amongst the ‘frequent flyer’ category.

So anyway, let me get to the point, this time the train journey was quite uneventful; just me, my iPod and a book. But I was reminded of this train journey from 4 years back when I was traveling from Mumbai to Coimbatore for the TNPCEE exam (ugh! Those terrible terrible days!) It was quite an amusing experience. I met a few people who were so typical in their mannerisms yet struck me as oddballs :P anyway, I can’t reproduce verbatim, the conversations etc, but I’ll try to give you an account of all that I remember.

Yeah so well it was sometime in April 2004. I remember it was one of the first train journeys with which I was extremely satisfied. A/C coach, nice new broad switches, all lights in working condition, clean white sheets, spic and span coach- all in all pretty neat! I had thought the place was fine for me to go about my last minute revision. Or so I thought. When my father and I boarded the train, there was this lady already occupying the berth opposite to ours. She looked the pucca tam-brahm kinds and had a nice friendly face (trap #1). No sooner had we locked our luggage in place and settled down did she start her rapid fire session (hello… father daughter eh? Where are you going? Enge poreenga? Mother didn’t come? Whyyyy?? Blah blah blah) courtesy sakes, my dad answered and asked her where she was heading to. Bus! Shuroo ho gayi... “Oh I’m going to Bangalore”. You’d think she’d stop with that but oh no she goes on, “it’s my daughter’s house warming ceremony you see. She’s working with so and so. Her husband is working with so and so. Nice boy. Romba nalla payyan. My son is not coming though. He’s in Hyderabad working for so and so. He gets a very good pay there. Used to be good at studies and blah blah blah blah blah…..” GAWD!!! And I always thought I was talkative! More than half of what I’d say in a day was covered by her in 15 minutes and the train had not even started to move!

There were still 5 minutes left for the train to leave when another lady barged in with her mother (or mother in law). I thought now that all berths were occupied and the place looked full lady1 would quieten a little, but boy was I in for a treat! Lady 2 turned out to be a Marathi- nice looking, sweet face, et al(trap #2) but when it came to the gift of the gab- she could beat lady1!

Now lady2 settles down and starts off with her story of her whereabouts. “I’m settled in Bangalore. I have a daughter. She has gone to America. Nice place it seems…’ at this lady1 interrupts (in an all too audible voice) “my daughter has also been to America” and ignoring lady 2’s slightly offended face continued, “she works with so and so you know, so she has to keep traveling abroad all the time. She finds it so difficult…’ and so it went on and on and on until both our ladies managed (or not) to convince the other that their daughter was superior to the counterpart. Lady2 then turned to dad, “so where are you going sir?’ before my dad could say anything lady1 spoke up, ‘Divya and uncle here are going to Coimbatore for her exam’. My dad looked at me, stunned, “UNCLE???!!’ he mouthed. I tried my best not to laugh and choked on my biscuit instead. Aunty ji 1 was evidently at least 5 years elder to dad. Poor him! Oh well! Their conversation didn’t seem to be getting over anytime soon then so dad finally asked if we could all sleep. Lady2’s mom seemed to be eager to… poor lady knew only Marathi so couldn’t join in the conversations (thank god!).

Next day subah utkar socha ki bhai kuch studies ho jaye… aakhir exam likhne ja rahi hoon, koi pinic manane nahi. But studies seemed out of scope. After tea, I was trying to squeeze some chemistry into my head when lady 2 asked me, ‘you stay in Colaba, nai?’ ‘yes’, I obliged and returned to reading my big fat chemistry book. Any sensible person would take the hint and shut up but sensible people are such a rarity!

Lady 2 – I used to live there. Do they still have strand cinema?

Me- err…

Lady 2 – aapko strand cinema nai pata? Oohhhh you have regal and movie time no?

Me- well... no… err…

Lady 2 - We used to stay behind a tall building in 3 pasta lane. The building’s name was …. Is it still there?

Me- err…

Lady2- nahi hoga, after all it was 37 years back (!!!!).

I didn’t know what to say to that. I was tired of starting and ending sentences in err... so I chose to remain silent. Tab tak lunch aa gaya so escape!

Lunch was quite ok. I mean, it was the Indian railways lunch so standards are pretty low but still, it was decent. Hmmm… or so I thought.

‘Cheeee' - lady1. ‘what rubbish is this? Rice is not hot, sambhar is just dal and salt, sabji has no salt. Is this jail food?? How are you eating it? We need to lodge a complaint. This is atrocious. Kadavule, after all they take so much money!’ and as always… ‘blah blah blah’.

My dad looked like he had had enough of the whole journey and would’ve loved to get off at the next station.

And so the train crawled on and on and so did the cascade of ever replenishing topics. Although the two ladies now seemed to be getting along better, so they kept to themselves most of the time apart from occasionally asking our views on some topic (but their alarmingly loud voices were hard to ignore)

One conversation that I remember:

Lady2 (to lady1)– Nice bangle. Were did you buy it from?

Lady1- It’s pure gold. Bought it from this shop in Matunga.

Lady2 (with that unmistakable smirk in her tone) - pure gold? But stones don’t stay on pure gold.

Lady1- yes yes… little bit of copper is there. But otherwise pure gold. And these are real rubies.

Lady2- ohhh.. must be expensive.

Lady1- of course. Very expensive. But we south Indians love gold. Uncle here is a Malayalee. He knows.

On being addressed as ‘uncle’ again, I could see his ears redden but he obliged with a smile.

And then several hours later, it was night and along came Bangalore (phew!!). Nearly everyone got off there. Our lovely ladies wished me all the best.

(lady2 – hope we didn’t disturb you much.)

(lady1- study well. You’ll also go abroad like my daughter)

(lady2- yes, to America like my daughter)

(me- (sigh) yes. thank you aunty!)

And with a final good bye (and all the best uncle! :P) they left. For once, I appreciated the peace and quiet around me.

Dad turned to me and said – “very silenntt nooooo?” (in that Tamil drawl)

But then all said and done, those ladies were sweet. Made our journey a little too noisy but interesting all the same!

When I become Nature

I've been tagged yet again by Vinay! This one is very creative and something I loved writing. Thank you Vinay; with every tag I'm glad I met you on blogger.

The tag requires me to write a poetry/short prose on what sort of a day I would want to be. I'd say I would want to be a bright spring day in its prime; in all its glory, beauty and 

exuberance. 

In fact, I would love to be a beautiful spring day, enlivening the tranquil terrain of a lovely hill station, where the weather is almost always pleasant- where a plethora of flowers bloom, their colours as though carelessly splashed across the green of the landscape. 

I would want to be the rising spring day sun; its early red rays cracking through the black sky like a volcano ready to burst and then slowly turning to golden streaks, bejeweling the darkness. With a warm glow, I’d smile over the mist-clad mystique-mountains; where clouds envelope the lush green mountain tops reminding people of whipped cream on pista ice cream with me, the red sun, like a cherry on top!!

And then I’d slowly fade into the night, enrobing myself in the surreal darkness. Then I’d become the pitch black night sky, embedded with countless twinkling stars and the mysteriously glowing moon; my reflection floating merrily on the sea waves going from places to places, engulfing everything that it comes across- happy or sad, good or bad. While all along, people would look at me and feel the bliss of the blessing that nature is- all through me.

Yep, that would be lovely indeed!

And now i tag:

sameera, vinz   

photo courtesy: sarastra 

Thank you!!!

Yay! Blogging friends forever award came knocking at my blog :) Thank you Vinay :) am honoured!

Here are the rules for the Blogging Friends Forever Award:
1. The winner may put the logo on his/her blog.2. Put a link to the person you received the award from.
3. Nominate 5 blogs.
4. Put links to the blogs.
5. Leave a message for your nominees.

THE AWARD! 

and now i nominte these people who i've met through the blogger... thank you for your support and encouragement too folks :)

Arvind : my first regular blog reader and now a good friend :)

Scribblers inc : his is one of the best blogs i've come across... a simply fabulous writer

River soul : one of my first blog readers who has always commented on my posts and helped me                               improve

Rajesh :  as i introspect, he is a good blogger friend who keeps his word especially when it                                   comes to duly taking up tags :)

Bhai with Chai : apan ka bindaas blogger dost!

The Impromptu

'Bitch', he called her
and she reeled around in shock.
'You fucking bitch', he shouted
and she kept staring at his hollow soul.

'you don't know anything', he screamed
and she wondered what he meant.
had she not shown enough care?
what bout all convictions she had bent?

she knew he had loved her.
respected him she had too.
but she had warned him it wasn't forever,
he knew it all too well, didn't he?

then why the drama now she wondered
she had made everything clear
she was trying her best to cope with
all the mess created in blithe.

or blithe she thinks it was
and had turned out not too pretty.
but she had not been a fake or phony
for him to be at her mercy.

she had not hid what was true from him.
he had run away from what he knew was true.
and after all they've been through,
he blames her for all his hurt.

true she was confused;
she is all but human
wasn't he confused too when
he said it was all off hand?

but he was in love; never once casual;
and lied to her to pacify her fear
can she call him a liar? she can!
but the world sees her as the whore.

free will she said and she meant the same
free will for him to decide his stance.
he chose to go ahead her way
a no looking back, no strings attached way.

his options were clear, enjoyed every moment
and so did she; he became most important.
but separation, it did beckon as predicted
and he couldn't bear her loss, he was addicted.

can she blame him? no she can't!
he was in love; can that be helped?
who can blame one in love?
the world sees him as a saint.

can he blame her? no he can't!
she warned him of what was to come.
but is that good enough? they ask.
maybe not; after all he was in love!

and so it settles, she, crowned the bitch.
yes she was true but not true enough.
yes she had constraints; not good enough.
and as she cries in haunted disbelief,
'Fucking bitch' he shouts once again.

pic courtesy: picasa web albums-esther

Take It Easy...

aaayeeeee... and i have been tagged yet again! (by vinay.. grr :x ) pls pls.. bus karo... ppl will stop visiting my blog if i keep taking up tags like this... but well.. this tag was interesting.. i liked it!!

The rules:
1. Put Your iTunes/ music player on Shuffle
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG DOWN NO MATTER WHAT!!!
After you've answered all of the questions, tag other people and then let them know they've been tagged to do the meme themselves.

- IF SOMEONE SAYS "IS THIS OKAY" YOU SAY?
Respectable by Don Mclean (aaahaa! Diplomatic don’t you think?)

- WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?
Penny lane by The Beatles (errr…. Does this mean I’m sadak chchaap??!! :( )
- WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL ?
Red light by U2 (oh dear!!!)

- HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?

Phir dhoom by Euphoria (naaa… not really…)
- WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?

Proof by Coldplay ( huh?!! Proof of insanity personified? I hope not!)
- WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?

Ye kahan aa gaye hum from the movie silsila (naheeeee!!!)
- WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR PARENTS?

Kabhi neem neem kabhi shehed shehed from Yuva (lol lol… uh huh ;) )

(I swear to god I’m not manipulating or cheating in any way.Sorry I doubted you Vinay,this tag is nice!)-WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN? WHAT IS 2+2?

Seventh heaven by Deep Purple (indeed!!! Pls God lemme clear CAT and reach there!)
- WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?

Trip through your wires by U2 (mmm…. No I can’t make anything of this… can you?)
- WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?

Surrender by Evanescence (hmmm… cheesy :P )
- WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?

That thing you do by The Wonders ( LINES: you…doing that thing you do… breaking my heart into a million pieces… who?? Me?? Yeah rrrright!!)
- WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
Fire by U2 (uh huh… uh huh… oohhh yeeeaaaah!!!!)

- WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Jiya beqrar hai aayi bahaar hai by Lata Mangeshkar (lol… ahem... yeah… well… *batting eye lids*)

- WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?

Original of the species (wow! Yes yes they think I’m one of a kind… only thing is I wonder which kind)
- WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?

Pretty Woman from Kal Ho Na Ho (aaawww… well I’m not the one who should be singing this ;) or so I hope! :P )
- WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?

Meter Down (remix version) from Taxi No.9211 (Hey Eeeshwar!!! :O )
- WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
High Speed by Coldplay (dead end again)

- WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
Ye nayan dare dare by Hemant Kumar (mere nayan?? Nahi toh!)

- WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
Cluster one by Pink Floyd ( we are all one big buncha masti oriented people alright!)

- WHAT SHOULD YOU POST THIS AS?
Take it easy by Eagles (now THIS I like :) )
-WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THIS TAG?

Big yellow taxi by Joni Mitchell (Oh well… that’s that!)

Aaaaaaand NOW!!!! I tag:

swati (I know you'll like this one)

trinaa

think tank

rajesh

photo courtesy: flickr

tension nai lene ka.. BHAI se poochne ka!

This post was meant to be a Rakshabandhan special. But procrastination and its evil ways have been wrecking my routine life for a long, long, very long time now! Anyway… here’s to my favourite person in the world, Govind or Unni.

I still remember the phone call from dad. I was at Sudhir uncle’s place then.
“Hello???”
“Divya! You have a baby brother now”, my dad had almost shouted into the phone.
And I still remember jumping up and down with the phone in my hand yelling “I have a brother! I have a brother! Yaaaaaay!!”

And then Sudhir uncle and Nani aunty had taken me to the hospital. I had no idea of what it was like to be a sister of course. I was only four years and a few months old then. The excitement I felt then was probably just the excitement of getting something new; someone new to play with; for all I know, I would’ve felt the same excitement had someone told me I was getting a new 3 foot tall teddy bear. Who knew?

But I still remember the first time dad took me to see my baby bro. There were four babies in the hospital nursery. We were allowed to watch from a window. One was Chinese, and the other two probably Canadian or American. He was the only Indian baby, the smallest and hairiest of all, fast asleep, oblivious of his then naughty sister (yeah I’m an angel now ;) ), peering into the glass, trying her best to wake him up. That is, by far, one of the best moments of my life.
“Who do you think he looks like, Acha?” I had asked my dad.
“It’s still too early to tell.”
“No. I think he looks like me.” My dad had just smiled to that.
My mother tells me I was a lovely sister. (Yes-‘was’. Cuz she thinks I’ve worsened over the years :P ) but then she also thinks part of the reason why I volunteered to look after him all the time, particularly when guests were around, was cuz I liked it when people used to say “awww… look at the baby with the big sister. Soooo cute” :D
The first thing I’d do when I got home from school was to check on him. If he was asleep, I’d wait till he got up. (Where do you get such sisters??!) I’d volunteer to feed him cerelac and then run when amma yelled at me for creating a bigger mess than he did eating it. Things changed after Unni was born and it was such a welcome change.
And he is still one of the most important people in my life. I love him like crazy even though I yell at him and hit him and punch him and kick him and try my level best to inflict a little pain on him while all he has to do is give me a small punch to send me howling at the top of my voice. And I still adore him even though I told him I hated him and that he is a horrible brother and that he’d never make it in the AIEEE exam and that he’d never get a girl all his life, the last time we fought (sowwie :( I didn’t mean all that!). Yes I can be the very domineering big sis too. I love bossing him around, telling him off when he watches too much television or fails to get good marks on a test. That’s all part of being the responsible big sis isn’t it? :D
But he is such a darling brother. Sometimes if I have a severe headache, he’d make me a big glass chocolate milkshake or our favourite noodle soup and give me a nice head massage (true... where do you get such brothers??!). As a kid, when dad used to get wild at me for making umpteen calculation mistakes on my math test (of the kind, 3 x 4 = 7), Unni would wag a tiny little finger at him and say, “Achaa… last warning!”. And I vividly remember the time he had cried when I was leaving for the hostel in my second year of college, (I know he will kill me for this). I don’t remember a time I have loved him more :)
Anyway, this Rakshabandhan, I just want him to know that I love him and that I think he is the best, sweetest, smartest, handsome-st (and all other good superlative adjectives) brother ever and that can ever be : ) biiiiiig hug!

Hat-Trick!

the third tag! this one by river soul...

The Rules are as follows:
1) Look at the list and BOLD those you have read.
2) ITALICIZE those you intend to read.
3) UNDERLINE the books you really love (and strike through the ones you hate!).
4) Reprint this list in your own blog.

I just realized.. I'm such a poor reader :(

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling (gazillion times over UNDERLINE UNDERLINE UNDERLINE!!!)
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 William Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams(half way through)
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis

34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell

42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

90 The Famous Five Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas

98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

And this time around, I'm not required to tag anyone.. you lucky fellas you!

The unspectacular quirk tag! tadaaa!!

I've been tagged again. And since I am at a loss of inspiration and cuz I’m busy with CAT preparations and endless mock CATs, to post anything, I thought I might as well complete this task. Yep, some task indeed!

Here is the Unspectacular Quirk tag (copied from my tagger):

1. Link the person who tagged you.
2. Mention the rules on your blog.
3. Tell 6 unspectacular quirks of yours.
4. Tag 6 following bloggers by linking them.
5. Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger's blogs, letting them know that they have been tagged.

1: …have a very annoying habit of saying 'touch wood' every time I say something nice about something or someone. Yes I know, it’s very childish and at my age, people think I’m stupid to use it. I do hope I give it up soon. Touch wood.
2:... scared to go for a haircut. It’s always at least a week after I first decide that it’s time for a haircut that I actually turn up at the parlour. And an hour prior to leaving, I would’ve messaged and called around 3 to 4 friends of mine asking if they thought it was better I got a haircut done then or later. I actually feel my stomach churning when I sit on the chair and the parlour lady goes chop-chop while I think... oh dear god please let her not mess up :(
3: I feel drowsy when someone strokes my hair... and it’s not just mildly drowsy... I sleep off! It’s enough if someone happened to stroke my hair for more than maybe 10 minutes to put me to sleep. Now THIS, my friends, I believe is incredibly strange (like something out of a jataka fable where the mighty and cruel lion is tamed by stroking its mane?). Anyone who shares this weird one?
4: ...scared of crossing roads. Every time I successfully cross a busy road, I say a small thank you to God. Yes very evidently, I don’t know how to drive, trust me, I’ve tried! But I have this mortal fear of roads and moving vehicles; I never showed much progress and then my teacher (my darling brother) gave up on me. After all, who would want the embarrassment of having to teach someone who goes 'oh god oh god oh gaaaawwwwd', every time she started the scooty.
5: ...obsessed with losing weight. That, neither makes me a great looker nor do I have perfect vital statistics (oh... faaar from that!) but yes I’m very finicky about putting on weight. So I’m always trying hard to control my gorging tendencies (trying being the highlighted word here). All this when I simply LOVE food! It’s so cruel and unfair... sob :'( but the problem is I hate doing it and so I crib and cry and piss off everyone around me when I have to refrain from having a pizza slice or a scoop of chocolate ice cream :( and of course, the people who suffer the most by all this are my friends and family, them being at the receiving end of my 'oh no... mein phir se moti ho gayi' rants.
6:... hate taking tablets. Even b-complex capsules for that matter.
Voila! I’ve said it all! And I thought I’d never be able to finish this one…
So well, the honoured tagged list is:
gunj, sameera, riversoul, bhai with chai, vinay, arvind (this time it IS mandatory arvind!)

Tagged!

My first tag so obviously I can’t refuse… then again what good is that blogger who hasn’t been tagged once :P

8 things I am most passionate about:
I am not using passionate in the true sense of the word here, because then I don’t think I’d be able to come up with 8 things. So I’m taking the liberty to use the word in a way that suits me :P
8 things I absolutely LOVE!

1. My cell phone! That’s my most prized possession ;)
2. Music. At least half an hour of music a day is a must. And arbitrarily it always happens. I have an assorted list of favorite tracks; Genre ranging from Carnatic to alt rock.
3. My family: My everything. I am blessed with the best parents a child can ask for and a brother, whose birth is one of the best things that has happened to me.
4. My friends: without them, I am lost; and not to mention in deep shit! (Sometimes that happens BECAUSE of them too :P)
5. Writing… I like to pen down anything and everything that comes to mind. Sometimes I complete the thoughts into a story or poem; sometimes they are left mid way.
6. Chocolate! I LOVE chocolate! (Of course I will have to mention pizza, Frankie, kebabs, tandoori, sambhar, avial, etc etc.. but then the list would never end!)
7. My room. Sounds a bit weird I know but there’s no place in the whole world that I love better than my own room.
8. My hair. Call me self obsessed if you will but that’s the one thing that I LOVE about myself.

8 things I wanna do b4 I die:
I hope I’m allowed to be imaginative here!

1. Meet Norah Jones. I worship her! And I know this sounds far fetched but I do wish I could record a song with her :D
2. Write a book. Of course, a book that people would buy, read and love.
3. Get married. I sure am not going to die before I hear the bells! NO not the ones in my head :|
4. Be able to eat whatever- chocolate, pizza, ice cream and all the lovely delicious things one can think of- without even an ounce of guilt. Of course that’s the catch!
5. Work with an NGO
6. Learn to play the piano.
7. Learn belly dancing :P sexy?? I think so!!
8. Reach that phase of life where I know I’m as happy and content as I can ever be. That is, to be able to say that I’m happy and there is nothing in the whole universe, the attainment of which can possibly make me happier.

8 things I say often:

1. “Git!”: Yep! The days of stupid and idiot are over. My favourite pet name for anyone who acts stupid or anyone who annoys me, in the adorable sense of the word of course!
2.“Bleh”… mostly a filler word that I use when I’m out of adjectives or when I’m unable to make a point or just want to say.. ‘Oh shut up!’ without being too rude
3. “Eh?”…my version of ‘what?’ its beautifully rustic tone irritates the living soul out of most of my friends and my dad. Oh what fun!
4. “Bloody ~ ”… if someone asked me to define bloody, I wouldn’t be able to. I use bloody when I’m angry, sad or happy. As in “bloody! That’s a bloody good movie!” or “bloody what shit yaar! Reservation my ass”, etc etc etc…
5. “Duh!” Homer Simpson is a genius!
6. “Oye!’ – Yo is passé… the new and trendy ‘Oye!’ is in. Oye balle balle!
7. “why am I so stupid/fat/dumb/clumsy/weird/….??” And I wonder why my friends call me a whiny ass.
8. “Oye! Mere baal theek hai kya?” yes yes I can be overly obsessed with my hair.

8 books I last read:

1. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
2. A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini
3. The Monk who sold his Ferrari by Robin sharma
4. Who moved my cheese? Spencer Johnson
5. The Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh
6. To kill a mocking bird by Harper lee
7. Laughing gas by P.G.Wodehouse
8. The entire Calvin and Hobbes collection…I’m running out of books, so!

8 songs I listen to over and over again:
This is the toughest… am just picking 8 songs at random.

1. River by Joni Mitchell
2. Broken by Norah Jones
3. Ksheera Sagara as sung by Padmasree K J Yesudas
4. Amsterdam by Coldplay
5. Those sweet words by Norah Jones
6. Fool on the hill by The Beatles
7. She’s leaving home by the Beatles
8. Everything’s not lost by Coldplay

And now I pass on this tag to:
1.Rohit Ramachandran… The next best thing to chocolate and Harry potter!
2.Swati Saha… Monk-ey >:D< my emoticon twin :P my partner in crime and otherwise. My soul mate, had she been a guy. My best friend.
3.Madhav.. The NCC cadet. A brother to me. Damn, he looks nice :(
4.Arvind.. I know he hates tags but I cant leave him out :D plus its not mandatory anyway :P
5. Riversoul: the beautiful poet.

Victims of an inferno maze

The flowers in the vase were still ruby red;
the leaves and thorns still undead.
A beautiful thing it may have seemed,
if it weren’t for the silence ahead.

Paintings on the wall did, some story, say
of old country sides, cows, fields and plenty hay.
A beautiful thing it may have seemed,
had someone cared to see and stay.

A lovely evening festooned the sky.
Hues unknown streaked up high.
A beautiful thing it may have seemed,
but they, beneath, couldn’t see why.

Busy at plenty them puppets were.
Sad faces, tears and pristine black fur.
A dreadful thing it is, for them.
The loss of someone as pure as her.

She was, but ten, such a young soul!
Still, was death right? Even for one old?
A dreadful thing it is, for them.
Them, standing out in the night so cold.

A fire, a blast, few seconds does it last.
It rips and kills and leaves all aghast.
A dreadful thing it is for them,
who live in the shadows the dead cast.

They, who cried, did they not know?
Who killed her, and what be they sow?
A dreadful thing it is, for them
In a cruel world, how do children grow?

But to do a thing, would they dare?
To stop all terror, did they care?
A dreadful thing it is, for them,
Yet what do they do but to stand and stare.

We cry, we mourn, we grieve, we pain.
We do, not a thing and all is in vain.
A dreadful thing it may have seemed.
But who gave a thought? Who was left so sane?