tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12901464920125115202024-03-05T17:24:49.569+05:30THE DIARY OF AN ANGELDiary of An Angelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15285038146993570425noreply@blogger.comBlogger30125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1290146492012511520.post-9020223918102114732014-12-19T21:15:00.001+05:302014-12-19T23:35:53.982+05:30A calm Sunday morning<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
A calm Sunday morning. I wake up knowing how my day will be.
There is a knot in my stomach thinking of what could have been- a day filled
with a child’s laughter and screams around the house, a day of games and stories,
a day of hugs and fights- definitely a day that I would trade everything in my
life for. <i>My dreams were other people’s
lives</i>. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I finish up my daily chores and look forward to the happiest
and saddest part of the day. It is these 2 hours a week that drives my life and
living. I grab my purse and keys and rush out the door. In my hurry, I almost forget
the toys and chocolates that I’d carefully chosen over the past couple of
months. After all, it is not every day that I am allowed to present the child
with gifts. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I drive the 40 miles thinking of how the next couple of
hours would be. Was it going to be one of those days when I drive back crying
or was I going to leave the place with a smile on my face? Who am I kidding? However
the day went, I would eventually cry myself to sleep. <i>Every day of my life</i>. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I finally reach my destination. My heart wanted to jump out
of the car and go inside but I was very apprehensive and unable to move a
muscle. A million thoughts went through my head. Finally I gathered my guts and
entered the building. Very quaint and tranquil from outside, the building
housed a lot of emotions- feelings of happiness, anger, sadness, despair, and
of <i>hope</i> to a few people like me.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I approach the reception and the woman immediately recognizes
me. She escorts me down a long corridor and up a flight of stairs. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Room 209, the door plate read. Behind that door was my life,
my greatest little treasure. I turn the door knob and open. I had meticulously
planned the decorations for this day. After all, birthdays occur only once a
year. The room was decked with colourful balloons, streamers, bells and on one
side of the wall was a gigantic painting. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And there in the middle of it was <b><i>my baby,</i></b> lying in a
cradle, oblivious to her surroundings. To the 3 year old, the day meant
nothing. Her life was as inconsequential and delicate as the balloons around
her. A sharp event is all it took. I carefully picked up my baby from the
cradle. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sucking her little thumb and sleeping over my shoulder,
there she was. That was the closest I would ever get to play <b><i>Amma.
</i></b>That word. Never been uttered at me. A kiss is all I sought for at this
moment. A smile is all I cared for. A hug was all I wanted. But a tear down my
cheeks was all I got. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Like always, that fateful day still haunts me. My child was
born prematurely. For 3 days, she was placed in an incubator. My heart skipped
a beat when I could not find my child in the closed incubator section. A nurse
promptly informed me that my child had been transferred to the open incubator
section and had been taken off the ventilator. I was asked to meet the doctor.
That must be good news, I thought. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I remember sitting across the table from the doctor and listening
to his explanation of how my child was suffering from a rare disease. My child
was not only <i>special but also had a
congenital heart ailment. </i>Of course, she was special to me but not in the
ways the doctor explained. My world went blank. I walked out of the room as if
in a trance. I stood with my palms on the glass walls of the incubator room. The
room was getting misty as my eyes welled up and tears rolled down my cheeks.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
From the beginning, I knew it was not going to be easy. But
I was determined to make this work, to give my child a life, even if it meant
not being at her side during her primitive years. It was the doctor who
suggested this place, a place that was run by an experienced retired medical
couple who have nothing but joy and hope to fill the place with. There were
quite some kids here with the same condition and they were slowly but steadily
improving. Joy and hope is what I got at seeing this. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Soon it was 4 pm. It was time for me to leave. The day was
over before I knew it, even before I could utter a word. I carefully placed her
back on the cradle and tucked her in. I slowly lifted out the stuffed animal
toys I had got for her and placed them right next to her. She instantly opened
her eyes. In that fleeting moment <b><i>I became a mother</i></b> for I saw in her
eyes a hint of recognition. She hugged her new toy friends and went back to her
dreams. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This day was different. I knew I would be smiling and crying
thinking about this day for many months to come. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As I walked out of the room, I stole one final glance at
her. And then I looked up at the wall, the gigantic painting - her baby laughing
while they played swing in their backyard- a perfect calm Sunday morning.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>
Diary of An Angelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15285038146993570425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1290146492012511520.post-70751309700270739332014-06-09T00:10:00.001+05:302014-06-09T00:10:45.994+05:30My dream wedding<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
You were there holding my hands for the one last time, the
only guy I have known in my life, handing your little princess over to her
Prince Charming. Happiness and sadness, your eyes showed me. I looked over at
my man at the other end of the aisle and there he was standing with all the confidence in the world. Apprehensive
as I was, I squeezed your hand. Here I was, walking towards a new world. I was
unsure of what it held for me. But I always knew that when I turn around, you
would always be there supporting me. I gave you one last look and you let go of
my hand…<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
… And I started walking. The happiness on your face was
unfathomable. Here was your little girl who was still on her fours a couple of
months ago but now had learnt to take her tiny steps in this world. Still
fumbling and falling but surely making her way. You had already started dreaming.
Though I was a little under one year, you were already thinking about how I
would grow up to be a strong independent girl. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A strong independent girl did I grow up to be, and what an
inspiration I had in front of me. Travelling to places where my passion took me,
doing performances and giving recitals all over the country. It was your
confidence that gave me the courage to opt for the less-acclaimed Arts course
and with you advising and supporting me at every corner; it was as if a big
burden was off my shoulders when I topped the university with my Masters in
Music. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I always knew the trouble I was causing you, destroying your
weekends with chores of dropping me and picking me up from music and dance
classes. But then again, I was too little to venture out alone. And those
practices during weekdays! There were times when I almost dropped off these
classes but it was that pride in your face every time you saw me perform that
kept me going. It was as if I was living your dream…<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
… Your dream of always providing the very best for me, your
little princess. These past few days were a manifestation of nothing but that.
Your dedication in putting together my dream wedding! From booking the best venue to organizing
every tiny detail, I could just not wait for the day to arrive. And when it did…<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
… I saw my mother sitting there with tears in her eyes as I
walked down the aisle. I knew what was going through her mind and through the
minds of people here. I could see and feel the sympathy around me. But I told
myself, even if no one could see; you are always there, holding my hands for
all of eternity.<br /><br /><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>But why? Why did you let go of me ten days earlier? I
thought we had a pact- a pact to live, to cherish and to bask in each one’s
happiness. Though you did not keep up your side of the promise, here I was,
living the dream you had put together for me, because I know this is what you
would have wanted me to do.</i> <br /><br /><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
… And as I walk down this aisle with tears flowing down my
cheeks, I just look up and say ‘<i>I love you <b>Daddy</b> and I miss you</i>!’ <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p>(My prayers are always there with you.) </o:p></div>
</div>
Diary of An Angelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15285038146993570425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1290146492012511520.post-57476012777869512442014-04-13T20:31:00.001+05:302014-04-13T20:31:39.385+05:30Memories<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>‘Who are you?’<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A pang of pain ran through her. She shivered at this very
instant. This has been her most dreaded moment: a moment no woman would ever
want to live through, a moment she wishes happened far far far away from her. She stood there as if in a
trance. A sudden cry brought her back to this world. She looked at the person in front of her and
thought to herself, ‘Well, I knew this was bound to happen.’ <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The person was none other than her 57 year old <i>mother</i>.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Life had always thrown difficult situations at her but she
had managed to overcome each and every one of them. She had always understood
that she had been one of the lucky ones to have escaped life’s terrible tragedies
and she had been forever indebted to her mother for that. However, this was one
of those times she wished she did not lose her cool. It is not often that your
own mother cannot recognize you. However
prepared she was some things were still beyond her control. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It was not in her control when her father died before her
fifth birthday. It was not in her control when she grew up watching her mother
work hard to make both ends meet. It was not in her control when her mother
forgot to board the correct bus to attend her convocation. It was not in her
control when her mother forgot to come back home one night. It was not in her
control when her mother was diagnosed with d<i>ementia</i>.
Similarly, it was not in her control to hold back her tears <i>now</i>.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As the tears trickled down her cheeks, she remembers the
good old days she had as a kid. Her mother never bothered her with any
difficulties. In spite of holding a job and running the family, her mother
always made it a point to spend time with her. Starting with waking her in the
morning, putting up with her tantrums of not waking up in time, helping her get
ready for school, spoon-feeding her breakfast, packing her lunch, kissing her
good-bye, oh… the list is so endless! Those late night movies her mother
watched with her just because she said the reviews were good, those weekend
lunches and dinners they had in front of the TV, the time when her mother
learnt to make pizza because she used to love it, those dreams they saw
together of her growing up into a well-educated and independent girl… <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Memories, these are all she has, the ones she is living with
every day.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Memories, these are all that her mother doesn't have, the
ones that leave her with each passing day.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Suddenly, a 4 year old runs into the room and holds her
mother’s fingers. But her mother retracts her hand as if in fear. The kid runs
and holds her sari pallu and says, ‘<i>Amma,
why is daadi not holding my hands?</i>’ Silence. He looks up. All that he could
see were her tears and a different sort of fear. He could not understand all
this at once. He backs away two steps but his mother was still looking at his daadi.
He turns back and runs out of the room crying. She just looks at him running
away.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Memories, these are all he needs, the ones that he will
store in a corner of his mind, to travel back and to remember this <i>day</i>.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Diary of An Angelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15285038146993570425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1290146492012511520.post-27888626429603803702013-09-09T00:58:00.002+05:302013-09-09T00:58:20.095+05:30To hold hands...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Her eyes were drooping. People around her were telling things to her but she could barely comprehend what they were. All she realized was that this was another one of her worse days, hopefully not the worst. She would be nauseated for the rest of the day, also vomitting and having a splitting headache. I am only 5 years old, she wondered. Kids her age would still be basking in the summer sun, after all it was their school break. The closest she had gotten to a vacation were through the pictures of her brother when he was her age. The intensity of her sickness increased with each of her visits to this place. She dreaded the room she was about to enter. She was on her way to <em>chemotherapy</em>.<br />
<br />
From the time she could remember she had been a patient at this child cancer hospital. She liked the people here. They were nice and always treated her with chocolates. But there was something daunting about the place. For one, she did not like the smell of the place. There were too many kids being carried on wheelchairs and almost all these kids were bald. She wondered why this was so. Every month her parents used to bring her here. She always thought that it was a family ritual just like ordering pizzas on Friday. And yet, this was somehow painful. She had been told that she had leukemia. She had yet to learn the spelling. <br />
<br />
Most of these visits resulted in some syringe incident. It was her brother who had stood by her through all these tests and syringes. Though he was just 3 years elder to her, she had never seen a more courageous person. He would salways be there and hold her hands while the nurse took her blood. It is he who held her tighlty when she had nightmares. He completed her school work when she was too tired and ill to finish it herself. He always knew what to get her for her birthdays, Winnie the Pooh being her latest addiction. He was more than a brother to her.<br />
<br />
But there had been something bothering everyone at home after a particular hospital visit. She could sense it. As naive as she could be, she posed the question to her brother. This was the first time he was groping for an answer. Somehow his better judgement told him to be honest with her. He told her how the doctor had said that her condition was becoming worse with every passing day and that they should go in for chemotherapy. This meant that she would miss school more often, find herself spending more time in the hospital and feeling eternally tired. But this might prove better for her in the long run. She did not understand much of any of this. All she asked him was, '<em>Will you still be there holding my hand?</em>' <br />
<br />
She reached the radiation room. He let go of her hand. This is where they separated, she knew. After all, this might eventually give her the childhood she had always dreamt about.<br />
<br />
She held her Winnie the Pooh tightly and let out a huge sigh. Yes, she was ready for it.</div>
Diary of An Angelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15285038146993570425noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1290146492012511520.post-23073215805164934742013-04-10T23:22:00.000+05:302013-04-10T23:37:36.215+05:30Through the window<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
From the dorm window, they saw. A final glimpse of their friend- those little fingers holding onto the stranger's hand tightly, those little eyes gleaming with happiness and those little laughs still bringing smiles to the people around. She was more than their friend- a gift from God, a little sister. This was her best hope to a new life, they knew. She was always a bundle of joy, even more when she knew that she was being taken out of the four walls that surrounded her home. This was one such time for her, she was too little to understand it all.<br />
<br />
Amidst all this, there was one girl who was sitting by the stairs, not wanting this moment to pass. She had gone through days like these, seeing her friends saying good-bye but never ever did she think that her best buddy would be one among those. It was this little kid that had made her life wonderful. Though she was just 3 years older, she was almost like a mother. That was the bond they both shared. Ananya was her baby.<br />
<br />
Last day morning, Ananya ran into her room saying that she would be going away for a couple of days. Yes, that lady who had come to their home a couple of days back had promised to take her out. Ananya was elated but this girl knew that this was the longest journey Ananya was about to take. She put on her bravest face and continued to feel happy. Indeed, this was a joyous moment for she realized that it was the best opportunity for her Ananya. But this also meant an end of an era, 3 years of life as she knew it.<br />
<br />
She clearly remembered the day Ananya came into her life. She was just two and a half years old when her home was this <i>orphanage</i>. She had been living there all her life and never wondered why kids came and went. It was at this point that Ananya became a part of their family. Nothing short of a doll, she was. When she took Ananya in her arms, the little giggle that passed through Ananya's lips was the most magical thing she had seen. And at that very second, their journey started. Every moment of their waking day, they spent together. And since all her friends were elder to her, she was happy to finally have a younger sister to look after. They had nothing that they didn't share with each other.<br />
<br />
But the most intimate thoughts she had shared with Ananya were her dreams, dreams of going to a school like any normal child, of having a play ground, of having birthday parties and cakes, but most of all, dreams of having a parent or a family to love. She couldn't even start to imagine what having a mother would be like. Those good morning kisses that could take you through an entire day, then dressing her up as a princess for school, dropping her off and reminding her to have her lunch (her favourites), waiting for her after school, playing with her in the evening and finally kissing her good night. The closest she had gotten to these were in movies. And yet in all these dreams, she still held Ananya's hands.<br />
<br />
The children by the window said their final goodbyes and continued on with their playing. Yet, at this very moment she felt lost. Happy at Ananya having found a new home and dejected at not having been the one holding Ananya's hand. She felt guilty at not having participated in Ananya's happiness whole-heartedly. A tear rolled down her cheek. The next instant, Ananya was right there wiping that tear. Yes, she had come back to give her sister a good bye kiss, to promise to get her a gift from where ever the stranger was taking her and to be back soon so as not miss too much around her sister's life. At this point, all she could do was hug her Ananya and pray for her future.<br />
<br />
She will miss her little angel, much beyond words could express. And there was something else words can't express, when would she be the <i>chosen one</i>?</div>
Diary of An Angelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15285038146993570425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1290146492012511520.post-17688243931294651782013-01-16T10:25:00.002+05:302013-01-16T10:25:48.047+05:30Of grit, guts and gumption...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yes, finally, she thought. This vacation was her much-needed
break from her hectic life. Even then she was considering working from home
while she looked around in her compartment. She wouldn’t call it empty, yes,
there were people around her. She found these journeys boring, always alone,
looking out of the train but seeing nothing but thick mists of darkness and
waiting for the last stop. Tonight was no different.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
She sat there flipping through the pages of Femina. One by one, the passengers got out and soon
she was left all alone. She never gave it a second thought, after all this
generally happened. An hour from her place, a couple of boys, not even adults, boarded
the train. Finding the girl alone, they thought of having some fun. Passing
lewd remarks and making obscene gestures, they tried to frighten her. She
ignored them until they started taunting her by asking her to move to another
compartment. She refused to budge. The verbal attacks became more personal by
the minute. She held her seat and as calmly as she could, she took her mobile
phone and dialled the Railway helpline number. Soon, she was talking to an
operator and was starting to explain the incident. Realizing where this was
heading, the boys silently retreated and moved to the next compartment. She
hung up the cleverly-played never-dialled number. This is my <i>right</i>, she thought</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
*Grit?*</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
An awesome night, she thought. She was riding through the
city with the wind blowing through her hair, the rain lashing down on her face
and the chillness creeping up her spine. It had been four months since she last
did something like this and hence was enjoying this delightful night ride. She
had had her dinner at home and kissed her parents good night. A note,
mentioning that she was just taking a breath of fresh air and that she would be
back before midnight, was all that she had left at home in case someone did
search for her. It is not as if her parents wouldn’t allow her this indulgence
as long as she promised herself to be safe. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Her watch showed 11.40 p.m.
, now, and as if by instinct she felt a sudden fear which she soon
overcame as being silly. She drove around all those familiar places from her
childhood, renewing every single memory that lay deep down within her. Nothing under the sun (moon, in this case)
could stop her from living the moment. After all, it is not every other day in
any place that it is possible for a 21 year old <i>girl </i>to venture out alone at night. This is my <i>right</i>, she thought. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
*Guts?*</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
She hurried her way home through the deserted streets along
with her friend. It was past midnight and both of them would have rather
preferred to have been in the comforts of their homes. Today was one of those
days- work started at 7 in the morning, attending meetings and calls for more
than 15 hours, one leading to the other. Since both of them were neighbours
they always took the same bus home. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The bus was empty save for the conductor and the driver. At
least I have company, she thought. They spent their time discussing anything
and everything including office gossip. There wasn’t anything much to do at
this point of time. At the next stop, a bunch of teenage guys entered the bus
looking totally drunk and verbally abusing each other. They took a good look at
her and settled in the seats all around her. Perspiration beads started forming
on her forehead. She squirmed about in
her seat worrying about <i>where</i> this
bus journey would take her. And to top
all of that, the conductor was also sneering at them. She took out her cell and
sent the bus registration number to a colleague’s number. She did not know what
prompted her to do that, but she did it. The journey seemed shorter, probably
because of her nervousness. They got down and started walking in silence. She
suddenly took a deviation and walked on. He called behind her, but she was very
determined. He ran behind her and kept asking her about where she was headed.
She turned and said “Police Station”. The look on her face said it all. This is
my <i>right,</i> she thought</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
*Gumption?*</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yes, she knows she could have been the <i>unfortunate one</i>. And yet, by some <i>miracle</i> it had not been so. It could be today or tomorrow. But till
then she continues to live in the cocoon called her life with a silent prayer
on her lips thanking God for the <i>miracle</i>. </div>
</div>
Diary of An Angelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15285038146993570425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1290146492012511520.post-32037054410158112342012-04-25T11:05:00.000+05:302012-04-25T17:35:09.148+05:30If only...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
XYZ Corp:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
"Chief Business Analyst”, the name-board said. Humming a
tune to herself and fiddling through the magazines on the table, she waited
there impatiently, often stealing a nervous glance to the clock on the wall. She
was dressed impeccably with not even a strand out-of-place. In a chic
black formal shirt, white corduroy trousers and hair tied up in a bun, this
tall lean figure was nowhere close to being tired after a day of hectic work. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
An hour back, she had been busy observing her friends
suppress giggles and squeals of joy as they moved about their work, the
surprise birthday party that they were going to throw for her that night was on
everyone’s mind, including hers. As she sat there thinking of what the year
might offer for her, the phone on her desk rang. To her surprise, it was
the secretary of her big boss telling her that he wanted to have a
word with her in an hour or so. Well, there goes my year, she thought. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The clock struck 8.30 and she was ushered into his office.
This was her first time in his office and all that she could think of was the
pride on the faces of her parents if they saw her in such an office. After all,
that is exactly why she had been given all sorts of training and education. A
topper from school, she had never really learnt the meaning of failure till
now. A graduate of BITS- Pilani and an MBA holder from IIM-A, she has never had
to look back and have much regrets in her life. The voice of her parents brimming with joy was all that she remembered of that day when she got her first fat-salaried job.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As she sat down on the chair opposite her boss, she was
still in her own world. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Boss: Do you have any idea why I’ve called you?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
She: Frankly sir, no.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Boss: I’ve been hearing a lot of good things about you and
have been observing your performance from then on and I must say that I’m
impressed. And so, when a matter of promotion was brought to my notice, I put forth your name. Congratulations on this <i>promotion</i>. Keep up this good work and it will only be a couple of
years before you find yourself in this chair.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A pre-birthday gift that she will remember for years to
come. She wanted to jump with joy and scream her happiness to the world but all
that came out of her mouth was a mild “Thanks."</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
XYZ Hotel:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As if in a dream from another era, she woke up and thought
about her own life as she waited in the corridor.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Wearing a faded blouse and a tattered old sari tucked up at
her waist, hair held together with the help of lot of pins, balancing 4 glasses of water on one hand and four thalis on the
other, she manoeuvred her way through the crowded restaurant. From the other side she could hear the
chatter of the young professionals who often visited this place for a quick
dinner. Amidst all this, she finally reached her destination and served her
customers with a warm smile. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As she turned around, another table called out to her;
their request was a birthday special. With a warm and innocent smile she wished
the girl and proceeded with the order.
All she could think of was her birthday, just another normal day.
No special orders, wishes, cakes or candles. Not even a hug or kiss from her
parents for she did not know who they were. And yet, all that she could think of was
the next day when she would be celebrating her birthday alone. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The clock on the coal-stained wall showed 8.30. She heard a familiar call from somewhere nearby and she
turned to see the hotel’s owner gesturing her to a corner of the restaurant with
a fake smile and a packet in his hand. Her heart gave a leap. A birthday present? But all of a sudden, emptiness was all that she could feel.
She did not know what she wanted or was it because all that she wanted was much
above her?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The three basic luxuries- food, shelter and clothing was
allowed to her in meagre measures; a decent education and employment denied to
her by the forces of the world; the love and care of parents and loved ones
denied to her from birth. What did she want?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Owner: So how has been the work today?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
She: Nothing out of the ordinary.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Owner: I’ve been impressed by your dedication and so have
been a lot of others but none worthy of you.
But today, you have landed yourself a mighty shark. Consider this as a <i>promotion</i> in your profession. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
She wanted to say a lot of things, at least to protest, but
her voice got stuck at her throat. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Owner: Here is a new sari for you. You know what is to be
done.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He handed over the packet to her. Her mind fought
desperately as she numbly received it. A pre-birthday gift that she will
remember for years to come.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A bolt of lightning outside bought her back to the corridor. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Room 210”, she read and that was all she could read before
her eyes welled up. She knocked on the door and entered. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If only her existence was a dream. </div>
</div>Diary of An Angelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15285038146993570425noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1290146492012511520.post-60180507740165674262012-04-15T16:03:00.000+05:302012-04-15T16:03:38.487+05:30To be born...To be blessed with His precious gift- Life,<br />
To dream of a light in the dark,<br />
To have a haven so warm and safe,<br />
To have the chance of leaving my mark.<br />
Being the delicate one was not an easy task,<br />
To live with perils all day long.<br />
But in your love and care did I bask,<br />
Taking in the world as it came along.<br />
<br />
All the sights were but a blur<br />
But through your eyes you showed me all.<br />
My words were not even a slur<br />
But you alone did hear my call.<br />
Deaf to the outside world was I<br />
But your voice was my lullaby.<br />
<br />
With each passing day I grew more<br />
Apprehension too coming to the fore...<br />
Before the long wait could make me sore,<br />
The day arrived for me to soar!<br />
<br />
Ay me, I was born a GIRL.<br />
I was too little to understand!<br />
<br />
My cry was all that was heard<br />
A fresh breath, all I could take,<br />
Before my existence was stilled.<br />
Life as I knew it, ended there!<br />
<br />
Fate played the cruelest game ever.<br />
I could have been my brothers' little sister<br />
And my parents' loving daughter but here I lay,<br />
Denied of all that Life could offer me.<br />
To be burnt as a sacrifice and thrown away.<br />
Was it for God or was it for society?<br />
<br />
To my parents, bound and helpless as you were:<br />
I pray that I live eternally through you.<br />
To my brothers, for the silly quarrels we never had:<br />
May you receive a sister's love through your daughters.<br />
To God: as I accept my fate with sorrow:<br />
I hope I am destined for a better future,<br />
For I have always heard my mother say,<br />
'All that happens, happens for a reason.'<br />
<br />
I hope my life's purpose justifies this.<br />
In spite of these comforting thoughts<br />
The reason still eludes my comprehension.<br />
I guess I was too little to understand!<br />
<br />
(My first ever poem- Titled Destiny's Child)Diary of An Angelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15285038146993570425noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1290146492012511520.post-63734680882862414912011-04-22T11:15:00.010+05:302011-04-22T16:29:26.015+05:30The Curious Case of the Malnourished ChickenIt may sound weird coming from a vegetarian who eats only things 'green' or rather to quote my friends 'pullum vaikolum'. Coming to a semi-closure of exams and with the smell of holidays already in the air, all of us friends took an evening out to have a birthday treat. This treat was apparently for the 'trouble' we went into to organize a birthday celebration for one of our friends midway through the exams. It all started this weekend when we realized that the birthday was up in two days. Immediately we started chalking down plans and got ourselves ready for the big night! We had to wake our dear 'padipist' from sleep and had to make her cut the cake and invite her for her very own 'theppu' festival! And all that she could think of saying was, 'Thanks guys for the trouble you have been up to'. Telling this to a jobless Compsci, you are sure to get some witty remark and all I could think of in the middle of the night was, 'Ya. Huge trouble. We had to bring the cake all the way from Uganda!'(This is the abridged version and my friends know very well how far I can go with a chali and hence am not posting it here!) And thus came about a treat for the birthday and the auspicious day did come...<br />With other important matters to take care of, I ended up late for the treat and made my friends wait. It was when I reached there that I realized that the 'Soda lime salt' that had been ordered around half an hour back had not yet arrived. We kept on reminding them about this order and finally it came. This was the huge drink that MG had ordered and after taking a sip of it her expression said it all. Then all of us took a sip of it to understand what the issue was and it was the 'pinch' of salt they had put. The only plausible reasoning for it was that they must have put a 'pinch' of salt for every reminder we had given them. Finally all of us helped in finishing off the drink and had a supplementary drink after that to get our taste buds into action again. This was not the first time this was happening. The 'heartthrob' she had asked for (in another place) was also unavailable. The poor kid was subjected to a lot of 'theppu' that day for the same reason!<br />Next up was the Canteen (mainly because all the chicken items in the earlier place was over by the time we went). We went there to have an early dinner and had to wait for 5 minutes to get the non-vegetarians to decide what they were having. The ruckus, I must say, was for deciding whether they wanted a Chicken Fried Rice or Chicken Noodles. I mean, what difference is it going to make?! Chicken was anyway THE menu! Finally the decision was to go with both and the vegetarians went with dosa. So as we cleaned our plates with the last remnants of food, the non-vegetarians were still gorging on the chicken items.<br />We came back to the hostel and that is when one of my dear friends ( referred to as X from now) remembers about the chicken in the mess. All that I could do then was stare at her and wonder about her craze for chicken. Now to talk about X for a while. She is a true mallu at heart or rather stomach. She claims to eat anything and everything that will not bite her back (another mallu trait) which I find very silly because obviously you are not going to eat anything while its alive, or will you? With mallus you never know. The craze for non-veg food is so rampant that I sometimes wonder what I am doing in its midst. I keep on telling X that she is the biggest chicken lover I have ever met. But its just not chicken. The way my friends here wait for the mess to open just to get some non-veg food is unbelievable. While the vegetarians here start countdowns for holidays the non-vegetarians on the other hand have various countdowns in a week, one for chicken fry, one for chicken curry, one for fish curry, one for chicken fried rice and so on... And there are many more such items but am not mentioning them for fear of getting beaten up by any mallu for making him/her drool. All my friends wake up in the morning wondering what would be there for breakfast and on hearing 'dosa' all they have to say is 'Chicken dosa? :D'. Yes people, I get the point. Anything vegetarian can be converted to a non-veg. The first thing that any of them do on entering a restaurant is count the number of non-veg items in the menu and just like in any cartoon series I can see eyes popping out here and there. Any restaurant is rated on the quantity of non-veg food it offers more than the quality. Especially if the restaurant's name has anything to do with non-veg then extra points. Whenever all of us go out together, the vegetarians make do with whatever veg that is available and the non-vegs will still be deciding whether a shawarma or a bucket of chicken or anything else is better. Just tease them about this and immediately the retort comes, ' Its after all pullu and vaikol. Just choose whether you want it fresh or dry :P' After years of studying girl psychology my tip to any guy is get a girl a plate of great non-veg food and half the battle is won!<br />So as I was saying, X enters our Lionel 'MESS-I' and gets her share of chicken fry and comes out. Though I'm not great at judging such food, I could realize something immediately. I am aware that a chicken leg has a bone in it but at the same time that is not all it has! But the fry that came out of the mess was something like this:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPccMbZUujXzdILeH1IFIFttAvWPRUW_hFyXh-N8G-6cPNsjFrYqiiewxo59Xx8gjrfjtEzLs8VLl5mljbd7FHn9LTpKagACJ0WNOi57BWfw1vZRvkXab7_oGOaUxPssKsZNesI6TnRF0/s1600/DSC01345.JPG"><img style="float:centre; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPccMbZUujXzdILeH1IFIFttAvWPRUW_hFyXh-N8G-6cPNsjFrYqiiewxo59Xx8gjrfjtEzLs8VLl5mljbd7FHn9LTpKagACJ0WNOi57BWfw1vZRvkXab7_oGOaUxPssKsZNesI6TnRF0/s320/DSC01345.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5598280663140849330" /></a><br /><br />I, myself, felt bad for X, though she did not have much of a reaction, which I assume is because she gets such chicken every other day. And yet the countdown for chicken fried rice that will be made available on Sundays continue! Mallus, true loyalty, it is...<br /><br />(Dedicated to all my dear friends [:P])Diary of An Angelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15285038146993570425noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1290146492012511520.post-86874872789405890912011-04-21T01:43:00.004+05:302011-04-21T09:20:16.209+05:30Exams = CreativityExam time calls for creativity and that is exactly what has been happening around here. This time around there were a lot of creatures who were as jobless as me.<br />To start with...Creature Number 2 ( had a terrible Maths paper that I'm going to forgo all my love for the number game), my sweet big bro. At a safe distance greater than 20 kms away from me where only my voice reaches he found his so-called haven. With his internship supposed to be at full swing all he finds time for is to message and call me for all the affairs concerned with this world. For once, all those trivial things in my life caught his fascination or rather his imagination. All my naïve [;)] one-liners and messages were subjected to much speculation that I actually realized that the guy has not listened to even one interesting word I'd said in the last two years. Calls every now and then, confessing that the sole reason for the call was to bug me and leave me irritated for the next hour and a half, followed by messages was the usual routine. Essence of the blah I've written – Interns are jobless!<br />Creature Number 3 – My dad! Just like the pranks he has been pulling off from as long as I can remember he found the perfect timing this time around too. From pranks that had made me cry when I was 3 years old to now, that guy has not changed one bit and neither have I! I still fall head over heels for everything he says or does. This time around too the fall was pretty huge, if I can say that. Again at the end of this self-proclaimed belated April Fool's prank all that I have to say is, “ A few more days before you are paying heavily for this mister.”<br />Creature Number 4 – Or rather creatures. It has to be none other than my friends. Starting from the 5 days apparent study leave all of us have become experts at inventing ways of using time productively, as we refer to it. We started the 'study week' royally by going out for lunch to the closest available restaurant and came to the conclusion that we had to do this more often. All thanks to me, I must say! This time our usual antics gave way to new ones. The latest one that we came up was a poster! All of us were done making formal posters and so we just grabbed this golden chance to see each other on a poster. It must have been all the farewell hangovers. This graffiti up on my wall, which we now call the 'Ironing and Postering' wall, has been the interesting poster that we have ever come up with. With special art work from MG, it just showed us that second year wasn't as boring as it seemed to have been. All stories and nightmares have found a special place in this piece of paper so much so that our club juniors would have a terrific day out if they laid their hands on this. Though it just took an hour to do the work, it has been updated time and again with long-forgotten stories. With this up in my room, all of us take a minute or so every day to admire the work that has gone into it and just observe a moment of silence thinking of what all has been etched forever and what have been passing fancies. The DJ and the movie-dialogue sessions in the room has also come under ridicule. It just takes some random music to have me and Anju in splits. Maybe this is what is called exam hysteria or maybe just some not-so-random jokes. Another one of our favourite hobbies has to be posting rubbish on each other's Facebook wall and then deleting it as soon as the thread is over. If people find it weird, I don't disagree. When did I ever say that we all think normal?!<br />And for the grand finale... Creature Number 1 has to be I,Me, Myself! [:D] With just half my exams done and the other half still singing lullabies to me I have been finding time to do every other trivial thing or maybe not-so-trivial after all. Cleaning up the room for the umpteenth time, doing some laundry, chatting nonsense, packing to leave for home (which is sadly a week away still), an unsuccessful attempt at catching forty winks and now this... In the middle of the night with sleep evading me, surprisingly, I sit idly listening to some good music and watching the rain through my window... <sheesh> That sounds too romantic... Oh... Whatever! I guess its time to sleep after all.Diary of An Angelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15285038146993570425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1290146492012511520.post-37803749512259229562010-12-16T22:52:00.002+05:302010-12-17T00:16:38.982+05:30A day to remember<div>Indeed, today was one day I would remember for a very long time to come. Before my friends just go too ahead and think that it was they who made the day special... hmmm... I must be honest here and say that the unforgettable moment occured at sometime between 1 and 1.30 in the afternoon. [:D]</div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" >9.00-10.30 a.m.</span></b> - After a very long night spent on reading a novel and burning the laptop's charge (alright, it was just my weak attempt at a paradox for midnight oil [:P]) I went to sleep very late (by home standards) the previous night and hence woke up at 9! Just as I wake up I receive a message from MG ( as usual, our jokes and 'fun' and all the innocent souls who we planned to annihilate today. I must say that we wake up each day thinking as to who the unlucky martyr for the day would be!) and the reason for that particular message was to check whether her free message offer still existed, considering I am the one who takes note of all this for her [:D]. Unfortuantely not, and I knew that I would have a very dry day today without all our joint expert opinions and polls and what not. I woke up and as I was just getting out of the house, appa calls me and asks me to do some paper work which I promptly finish and leave for a chore that he asked me to do before I left. I come back to realize that he had come back from office and was waiting for me and his little paper work. Then just as appa was getting into his car I ask him for cash for the lunch today and I asked for 100 because I had loads with me anyway. And he gave me 200. LOL... And that is my appa. Then I take my scooty and started leaving right behind him just to see the driver uncle waiting for me and appa calls from inside and says, " Varsha, wear your helmet and drive carefully sweet heart. Or you can come now in the car and have it for the day." for which I go like, " Appa, it is ok (I did not want to trouble the poor driver uncle considering how weird my friends' plans could be) and the helmet is broken. I meant the front glass is and that was the only reason for me to wear the helmet. Get me a shades and I will wear the helmet then [:P]". Appa said, " Next time darling". [:)] .And then I drive all the way to kowdiar and realize that my sweet lil friends had taken a detour and asked me to come to zoo. On calling they said they were just on their way. So i drove half the way back and returned back to museum. After all there is no point in me staying put at the zoo till they come! </div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" >11.00-12.45 p.m.</span> </b>- Even after I did all the driving around town I ended up in museum before them and I had to wait for them though I constantly pestered them with my incessant messaging about making me wait! After all this fighting we entered the zoo and I was not spared or rather the monkeys were not. Poor creatures I must say. Let me just say, we are descendants or rather We are family or in my friends words (who all had serious claims to the title of Mojo Jojo) I was family! I guess my friends were not tired of the zillion photos they had taken of me with the monkeys the last time we went. Not only the monkeys, ranging from the King Cobra to the Painted Stork to the Hippo, no animals were spared. And at the end of the trip all that my friends could say was NIT had made me very logical (it was just a dig at all my jokes or should I say jokes on me?!) From the beginning of the tour till the end, all that VS could say was 'I'm sleepy' or 'I want to eat'. And since we had not yet decided where to have lunch from, we finally decided on Sindoor Palace, our home as usual. And with every passing 15 minutes each and everyone was getting hungry. I finally got fed up of all the grumbling about food and we called it a day at the zoo. Though I must say that I never really wanted to go to the zoo because I had already seen all the animals in front of the zoo as they were entering:my friends! [:D]</div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" >1.00-1.30 p.m.</span></b> - As usual, everyone takes turn on my scooty and this time VS was lucky or rather unlucky to be sitting behind me. I drove from zoo to sindoor and I noticed a police jeep in front of the restaurant. As I was about to take the turn into the restaurant, the police asked me to park and to go along with him. And it was then that I realized that I was being caught for driving without a helmet. LOL. It was a first-time experience and all I wanted to do was burst out laughing. I was struggling to keep a straight face. The police inspector asked me for all the documents and God bless my mom for having kept all that properly in the scooty. And as my other friends came behind me, they got confused; they could see the police and thought it was something serious but on seeing my face they thought I was laughing over some joke! Well, I must say that this police inspector was one big MLA or in other words a despan. After checking all my documents all he had to say was, "First impressionil viduva. Fine onnum adakenda. :)" . I just turned around and did :P and all my friends just burst out laughing. Oh my God, it was very hilarious. Starting from the very first minute till he finished liteally studying the documents I was just hoping that he does not question me as to why I was laughing or rather take a dig at my feeble attempts to control it. And the funniest thing was, I then wore the helmet from the entrance of the restaurant to the parking lot inspite of him saying no need. It was just that I could not help playing a joke on him there and I guess he also did understand this because it was very evident. Anyway, because of all this my friends had a mighty good laugh. And thus today proves to be the first time I was caught driving without a helmet and hence will remain precious for a pretty long time!</div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" >1.30-2.30 p.m.</span></b> - After all that walking in the zoo, sindoor had to feed 7 hungry girls who almost brought the whole place down talking and chattering. </div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" >2.30-4.00 p.m.</span></b> - We spent the rest of the afternoon in the comfy settings of CCD. All of us just crashed into CCD and chatted and chatted and chatted. After everyone almost came up-to-date with everyone else's lives and after we had one of the best ice creams we have had for a very long time we dispersed the area before anyone could throw us out. [:D]</div><div>Then as usual I dropped one of my friends back home, the person keeps on changing every time though. And then after a very joyous and eventful day I entered home late in the evening much to the annoyance of my grandmom who wanted me to spend the day with her. But as I always say, 'There is nothing that a kiss cant heal' and thus a peck on her cheek was enough for her to forgive me though I had to promise to spend the next day with her much to the delight of both of us. As usual, I ended up chatting with MG (or Anju on other days) till late in the night.Thus as the night dawns and I yawn, I regret that the day has gone. (yes MG, I understand, it is a very poor two-liner [:P] )</div><div>Courtesy for the day- All the places that would have kicked us out if we had not emptied the area in the next 5 minutes, Moni, Pri, Deepz, Achu, Jani, VS, MG (and all the innocent souls who were subjected to our comments today[;)]),Anju and most importantly the anonymous Mr.Police. [:D]</div>Diary of An Angelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15285038146993570425noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1290146492012511520.post-46889573198573470622010-12-03T21:27:00.004+05:302010-12-04T19:04:38.844+05:30Study Time<div>Study time in room 209 was always one to remember. I was presumed to be the acting teacher and then there were my roomies who sat through my hilariously confusing conceptual lectures. Be it mechanics, physics or maths (though in s2 I had one of the most awesome teachers of all times who was confused herself) I slithered my way through all that. </div><div>These sessions were informative like in physics I sat thinking about the various annels of quantum mechanics and finally ended up saying, "Hell, why are we even bothered about the dates. One person ends up finding something and another person comes along half a century later to disprove it and we as engineers are bothered about that. Why cant we just learn the right thing?! And beware you all, if you all grow up and find something that my nieces and nephews have to worry about, I'll come over and kill you all!!!". </div><div>Mechanics, on the other hand, was fun. Let me just say that it was a subject i loved. And I still remember that fateful day before s2 endsem when all of us were huddled together trying to get a grasp of every little concept. By afternoon, when I was mentally tired, of having to use my brains once in a while like this, my caring and loving roomies forbade me from 'taking a nap'. Well, had I been in their spot I would have done the same thing considering the fact that waking me up for studies can be more difficult than studying itself! While my roomies happily took turns taking naps I sat there pleading to the rest of them for a 5 minute siesta, but to no avail. </div><div>There were countless other subjects. Oh I almost forgot electrical. It was funny how in s1 I had electronics and I ended up teaching my roomies all the network theorems in s1 without learning it myself and initially my friends were gulping at how I knew all that and all I had to tell them was 12th standard physics or more specifically AO sir. </div><div>Anyway after s2 when all of us entered our different branches we also put an end to our small but fun-filled study group. And just as I thought that those days wont come back ever again I had a very surprising end sem. Maths still remained to be a common subject and me and anju ended up doing combined studies for that. Statistics and distribution were the topics and I still remember how we studied all that formulae. There was regression with me almost getting aggressive with that topic and finally how aggressively we had to regreesively fit those curves! All those Latin dance forms seemed better than Latin squares. Once we think we are done with two proportions we come across several proportions and in the end i felt like tearing up the notes into several proportions. And now even thinking about all that I am in splits. </div><div>Even during this time we had all the fun possible. This end sem was no different. There have been times when we used to play antakshari 2 hours before the exam or comment on jokes from malayalam movies, the most recent ones involved Punjabi House and Akkare Akkare. And our solution to excessive-studies-boredom was a dj session which ended up in robl (rolling on bed laughing)!</div><div>Now my combined studies involve MG and those sessions last barely 5 minutes before I end up sleeping. MG then packs everything and returns to her room fearing induction of this epidemic of sleeping! I can't blame her seeing how me and anju end up sleeping most of the time. Though we try taking turns sleeping and waking each other up all these efforts turn futile in the end. </div><div>Whatever it is, all that I can say is this combined-study or not-so-combined-study sessions are the only times I enjoy during exam and also my incentive after the exam- sleep...</div>Diary of An Angelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15285038146993570425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1290146492012511520.post-88632215663876752322010-10-26T21:38:00.008+05:302010-10-28T18:56:29.575+05:3019th Birthday Bash<div>15 October, 1991 - the day when this little brat let out its first cry and let the universe know that she had entered this world after all. I must say that I was born on Durgashtami (mallus would definitely know of this auspicious day especially thanks to the movie Manichitratazhu) and that made it all the more special for my family members as I did prove too hot to handle!</div><div>And now 19 years after that, my family has still not found the perfect solution to contain this little devil. This 19th birthday of mine proved pretty good for me, rather I must specify that it was good till 2 pm in the afternoon! Friends and family alike made it all the more special and God alone knows what all preparations went into this birthday bash of mine. First and foremost let me start of by saying a big thanks to all the my near and dear ones for making the day extra special (though I did spoil some of the surprises, sorry [:)]). A big umma to all my roomies, extended roomies and my family!!!</div><div>14 October,2010- I had my LD lab in the afternoon and it ended pretty fast and so me and MG (Marilyn) met in front of the MB and started walking back, describing all our lab events and commenting on it not even sparing a single moment. Then both of us headed straight to our mess (this month MG ending up in the veg mess for a change) for tea or rather some more evening gossip. While we were sitting there and chatting, I see anju and akhi enter the mess with a big bag in their hand. I saw them animatedly talking to the mess chechi and I knew the reason! MG suddenly sees anju.</div><div>MG: "Anju's not in this mess. Is she?"</div><div>Me: "No man. She came to keep the cake in the fridge here [:)]"</div><div>MG: "What caaakkk....... Oh shit... Anju..."</div><div>She ran to anju's side and explained to her that I knew of everything. It was worth seeing anju's face. ROFL. She ignored me and with that million dollar expression of hers, she ran out of the mess. Akhi, in the meantime, tried to change the topic but she herself could not help laughing at how embarrassing a situation they had created for themselves.</div><div>I came back to the room to find anju hiding behind a book and trying really hard to not look at me. And out of nowhere both of us just burst out laughing. MG entered the room and then I was trying to calm anju down saying that the surprise was just broken earlier and when anju left the room, I kept on making fun of them saying that I needed to practice that surprised Miss World expression for that night when I had to cut the cake. " No thanks... If you do something that idiotic, you wait and watch.. ", MG said.</div><div>At around 6 pm, anju gets a call in her mobile. She sees the number and says, "Varsha, Varun achachan is calling". I checked my mobile and seeing no call in mine I told her to answerr her call. She answers it and gives her mobile to me and all I had to say was, "Its for you. You talk to him [;)]". Then it strikes her. She runs out of the room with the mobile. MG, sudhi and nids enter the room then just to see me lying head down on my table and laughing. </div><div>All: "What happened?"</div><div>Me: " Varun is planning a surprise for my birthday with anju and I just got to know of it."</div><div>All: "OMG..."</div><div>MG (running out of the room) : "Anju forget it. She knows it."</div><div>And after all the conversation outside my room, they enter to see me grinning widely.</div><div>MG: "For all the pain and trouble you have caused us, we are surely giving you a special GPL tonight.'" And the expression in everyone's face said that clearly. </div><div>The truth was I was feeling pretty bad that I had poured water over all their plans. But it was so hilarious to see all of their faces when they were caught red-handed.</div><div>At around 7, everyone disappears from the room and I realized that all of them had gone to meet Varun outside the LH gate. I just look out my window and I see two familiar figures on the walkway behind the BB court. And suddenly anju screams, "She saw us." That was it. I had reached the zenith of controlling my laughter and I just burst out laughing. In 5 minutes, the entire 911 gang was in the room. Their vicious expressions said it all. With much venom in their voice they made it clear that the night was one I would never forget thanks to all the kicks I would get!</div><div>I promised myself that I would not spoil any more fun and I swore that I would atleast act as if I knew nothing (though later I realized that I did not know most of the things), after all I was a dancer. I got ready to take a shower and as planned earlier by my friends I was to wear a party top for the celebration. On seeing the top they went like, "ohho.....ooooo." And when I said the 4-digit price tag of the top, all that MG could say was, " For that piece of GLASS??!!!!" </div><div>I took a shower and only later did my friends realize that it was to escape all the cake facials that I otherwise might be subjected to. But my friends have always maintained that there are better uses of the cake for the stomach than for the face! My friends on seeing me in the new and hmm (other adjectives) top, passed various comments the MOST DECENT one being, "Hmmm... This is a Ladies Hostel.. No point!" [:O]</div><div>At 11.30 (after 2 hours of everyone missing from the room) , MG enters the room and closes my eyes and leads me outside for the apparent surprise birthday bash with the <b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">cake</span></b> I had seen earlier in the day. I must say it was a sweet celebration with all my friends there and we did have a lot of fun! </div><div>Returning back to the room, I told anju that I was going to take a power nap for 20 minutes and that I had to wake up and study for my exam scheduled for the next day. MG and anju, meanwhile were perched on anju's bed and gossipping about me and since even after my persistant questioning they had no plans of revealing it to me, I just dozed off. </div><div>In the middle of the night I hear another birthday song and it came from pretty close by. When I opened my eyes, I saw that all of 911 were standing there with a nicely lit <b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">cake</span></b> in the dark room. </div><div>Me: "OMG. You guys are crazy. How many cakes man?!"</div><div>All: "Its from Varun achachan."</div><div>After the song, I blew off the candles and cut the cake. This cake was exclusively for the 10 of us! And while all this was going on, anju hands me another big bag and I open that to realize that there were two <b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">BIG packs of Celebrations</span></b> and some comparatively smaller <b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Temptations</span></b> packs inside it. That was my birthday present from Varun. That made up for lunch and dinner for 2 days for the 10 of us!</div><div>Then came the funnier parts. My birthday presents from my friends.</div><div>1) <b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Prank message</span></b>- I get a message from one of my friends and apart from the birthday wishes there was something pretty weird to the entire message and later I realized that it was a prank from MG and anju! The video they took of this entire exchange was pretty hilarious and there are time even now that me and anju sit and laugh over it!</div><div>2) <b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Bag</span></b> - My college bag tore on my way to college and I had to make do with the new bag that my parents got me as a gift and I did not want to spoil it by taking it to college. My friends knew of that and they got me a sweet bag as my present. And till today I have been flaunting that bag of mine!</div><div>3) <b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Card</span></b> - This was the most enjoyable gift of all and I keep on telling them that. My friends were keeping on pestering me to open the bag and finally when I did, I found this huge card in it. I take it out to the incessant coughing from all my friends. I see the cover of the card filled entirely with one alphabet (an alphabet that comes in the first 13 alphabets of the English language, and nothing more will come out of this mouth of mine) and I just kept my mouth shut. </div><div>MG: "Hows the design? [;)]"</div><div>Me: " Thank you my dear. I can see your art work clearly in here especially the alphabet. I refuse to comment on the design of the card. *weird smile*"</div><div>MG: " That is not fair! We would not have done that to you had you not spoiled all our surprises. This is our sweet revenge. Hey, did you see all that little hearts next to the alphabet and to some 'key phrases?*wicked smile*."</div><div>Me: " I did see all the hearts and alphabets and all the coded things in there. And I am just going to keep my mouth shut." I knew that they were waiting for me to comment on all that and I was not going to play into their trap!</div><div>Anju: " Now that is how we add some 'personal' touch to the entire thing. [;)] " *hi5 between anju and MG*</div><div>Me: " I see all the 'personal' touch that you people have given it. Do you realize that I can't take it back home and show it to amma?! (But now considering the fact that even amma pulls my leg quite often taking it back home is not going to be an issue as I have already told amma the entire story) .The only person I can show it to is to Varun thanks to all your artwork with that one alphabet and the code-name in that!!! I made up the code-name, how can I not recognize it, you fool?!!!"</div><div>Anju: " Didn't we just make your day thanks to the card? [;)]"</div><div>Me: "No comments. All that I can say is that this definitely was 'one hard kick'!"</div><div>Apart from all that there were personal little mails from all of them behind the card and each and every letter was so cute that I actually could not stop laughing. Anju made sure that even that letter from her was not spared of the alphabet! After all this is the opportunity she got to make up for the earlier embarrassing moments!</div><div>After all the fun we could possibly have, mostly fun at making fun of me and more leg-pulling, all of us dispersed at 2 in the night and somehow me and MG could not even think of our supposed exam the next day!</div><div>The day went off well and then came the dreaded afternoon when I sat down to write my exams. The exams went so terribly bad that I came back and cried for the first time in my life over an exam. And all that Varun had to say was, " Ok. Maybe you won't get a 30 on 30. Please for God's sakes be satisfied with a 29 [:P] and stop worrying the rest of us. This is the problem when you get so used to extremely good marks. Welcome to engineering, my little sister!"</div><div>Apart from that exam of mine, it was an awesome day, well spent with friends and family and I must say that the 'surprises' were indeed amazing. Though the card caught me unawares (as I was pretty sure that my friends would not pull my leg on my birthday card) they made sure that I was embarrassed like anything on that card, the birthday was one Great Day!!!</div><div><br /></div>Diary of An Angelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15285038146993570425noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1290146492012511520.post-71772955082738208642010-10-07T21:13:00.010+05:302010-10-08T11:29:34.561+05:30Life in a Girls' SchoolI have done my schooling in Holy Angels' ISC School which is a girls-only school, the main reason for this post of mine. Well let me make this very clear, this post is not meant as a chauvinistic one or some sort of girl-power post but instead a frank account of a free spirit who enjoyed life within the four walls of that prestigious institution.<div>First of all the reason why I am writing this post is, in the last month or so when we friends chatted about our school, my roomie also being from a girls-only, I realized that the fun I had in my school knew no bounds, partly because of the above-mentioned reason. For everyone it was a different emotion, a different recollection-of-sorts, a different reminiscence, a different environment, a different life all together. After everyone had dispersed, I still sat in thoughts of my school and that is when i made a mental note that one day, some day, I would write on it.</div><div>I seriously have no clue where to start. I still remember the first day when amma left me at my school, my first ever assembly, my first ever teacher, my first ever friends, my uniform. Now that was something I was very proud of, our uniforms. It was a checkered knee-length skirt and a white shirt with a tie and thus we got ourselves a chic look. If I start talking about all that then I would just never stop. But I will never forget these special things in my life. What brought out the naughty people in all of us would be our 11th and 12th standards and everyone in my batch would agree to that. I mean the levels of insanity that our classrooms have seen in our year are inexplicable. Coming to the 11th, the penultimate senior year and the year when all the chains are broken loose and hell is released, when all the quiet, sweet and innocent awaken the devils and monsters lurking within them. Don't get me wrong here. It is just that the freedom one enjoys on reaching that year is quite enigmatic as it is that one year when you get to enjoy after your 10th boards and before 12th boards. So the students just utilize it to their advantage.</div><div>We had a rousing reception into our 11th and some Fresher's Day fun (organized by our seniors to just get some practice of ragging) we all settled into our classrooms knowing very well that come June, July and August we had be lined up with events after events. Our very first one was school elections. One fine recess our new Principal enters our classroom followed by some of our senior teachers and announce that we had to vote for our school representatives. Well it was all a joke then! Finally the results and posts of the elections were out (after meetings with seniors and juniors and teachers and God knows who all, the results were finally decided) and I was the Assistant Head Girl. Thus started my tenure as the AHG and as the Head Girl, the next year. And then in between all that started practice for the famous LaFest. Well let me just put it this way- it was just pure hysteria as far as some of the people were considered , after all this is the most prestigious inter-school event in Trivandrum. Well there were others but LaFest always enjoyed that supreme spot. All inter-school fests were enjoyable in its own sense and was different in some way when you were the team captain. I must say that the nervousness does get onto me during results time but after a few results we become pretty sure of our standings and I must say that we sweept LaFest in our 12th and lifted the trophy for one last time! And thus the rumors started- the all boys school would definitely have a soft spot for us and it was a known thing that we would finally win LaFest. But all that I had to say was, " Guys please check out the points table! The huge gap would in itself answer all that!". In school though, none of us thought twice before speaking. The endless conversations and teasing our corridors had been a witness to with bf's names being called and what not! Even our teachers did not stay back, "How are your guys in other schools? You would have seen them in tuitions yesterday right? So what are they saying?", and then would start a lively discussion on some of the tuition classes with expert opinions from our teachers too.</div><div>In between all this I was busy concentrating on my coaching classes. There were 7 of us who used to attend MathIIT from our school and that in itself earned us a lot of names like 'zombies', 'bujis' and much more (refer <a href="http://jani91.blogspot.com/2009/08/life-of-iit-aspirant.html">http://jani91.blogspot.com/2009/08/life-of-iit-aspirant.html</a> for more details) and when ever we heard that we used to just fume thinking of our performances there and if at anytime one of us voiced it out and i seconded that opinion I would dig my own grave and the pastor leading the entire group would be VS starting off with, "Varsaji, you shut up. You don't have any right to speak about performances." But in between all this we used to have a lot of fun staying back in the school so as to attend the class and the ride from school to MathIIT and all the mimics that VS did the next day.</div><div>Then there were times in my class when our expertise was needed, especially in some of our boring classes. When people have had enough of learning for the day they would just pass a chit to me and request me to disrupt class in some way (Now that is a side of me only my school mates know while others just find it very difficult to accept that). I would usually have my head buried in the assignments or books that I had under my table and pondering over its solutions which unfortunately my school teachers always misjudged to be a contemplation of their questions and remarks. Then feeling pity over my friends who had suffered this lecture for some time now (though i had no clue what was happening) I would raise my head and stare at the board just to know what topic was being taken in class! Then if it was a topic that had already been done in MathIIT then i would ask all the questions that sir asked us, some very technical ones and baffle the teachers which was like 10 minutes of comedy time for all my class mates, seeing the way I put the question so that our teachers could not understand the question for 5 minutes and then when they figure it out they try to present it in the same complicated method that i had asked and finally end up saying, " Hope you all have understood what i said, though that is not there in your syllabus"! English hours were the only hours I listened to because they were interesting, what with Shakespearean plays and readings (in the true Shakespearean style with curtained doors and daggers and great stage settings within the classroom)and poems. Well that was heaven for me! At this special moment I must thank my English teachers for the fact that they were very instrumental in helping me disrupt classes. After all my simple questions were made so complicated just by the use of some English jargon not very commonly used [;)]. Shakespeare also proved instrumental in getting me a new name. 'Beelzebub' was picked up from Macbeth and immediately attached to me. Apparently this ruler of hell is what suited me the best and I always said that I had no problem because after all I was leading some devils and who called themselves Angelites!</div><div>In our 11th we also had to spearhead the Magazine Committee. Running around and going to all the classes individually and asking everyone to submit articles, then screening the bunch of stuffs we got, making soft copies of it, then more running around to do our own articles (thanks to being part of the Literary Club), then doing reports on events in schools, carrying out polls, in short an entertainment in itself.</div><div>There was a reason I mentioned about our uniforms in the beginning. Let me just put it this way, our corridors were pretty airy and even in a slight breeze all our skirts just have minds of their own which wander freely in that breeze. It was such a common phenomenon that most of the times people rarely bothered about it (after all shorts were an integral part of our uniform) and we used to howl from within the classrooms, " If the show is over, let us know, we need to close the windows :P". Eve-teasing was something we indulged in within our own classes thanks to all this skirt-flying and cheesy remarks.</div><div> Another interesting thing that happened was the introduction of a house dress. It was of growing concern for everyone including me and during the speculation period, I was the butt of all jokes with my classmates designing my dress to just irritate me. After all I had to represent all the four houses and hence the weirdest design was of a skirt with stripes of all the four colours. I almost had a temporary black out imagining that thinking that I belonged to some circus troupe. But when the uniforms came I must say that I had the most decent one of all! Mine was a pure white skirt and a white tee with just single thin stripes of all the four colours on one side and the school emblem on the other. It was just cool. My friends on the other hand had a disastrous time what with blue and red and green and yellow skirts and white tees with coloured cuffs. All that we could say was we turned heads in that uniform of ours! It was true because early in the morning when me and my friend went to AO sir's place nobody actually noticed any change in my attire, but when my friend walked in even the buji's (aliens as we called them) who would not take their heads off from the textbooks checked the uniform out and could not suppress a laughter. This was converted into a huge story in class that morning. In the evening when we had to make an entrance in MathIIT, I still remeber VS's plan- go just 5 minutes before the class starts, enter in a single file and that too like a colourful rainbow and from the front entrance (and with me, the least colourful, at the very back). We knew that we would be the laughing stock so we thought of making the most out of it. We entered like that into a classroom full of people and there was silence immediately. And after 2 people had entered the chit chat started and we knew that the topic of discussion was our uniform. The girls realized that it was a planned entry, after all we had to live up to our school's name (all meanings intended)! </div><div>In 11th, the other fun thing we had to do was organizing the farewell for our seniors and I still remember of how we had to meet our teachers with like every small thing and get approvals and sometimes even with the Principal when it came to catering and venue! Well after all the troubles we went through I must say that we did shed a few tears when our seniors bade goodbye to us. </div><div>Talking of farewell, how can i even forget that time of ours?! That was the time of the year when our desks were filled with slam books and memoirs. Well we decided to celebrate ours a bit more differently (apart from the normal sari-clad eventful evening and night we have). We blared music during school hours but trying our level best not to interrupt other classes, that is the least we could do, after all we had to study like that when our seniors had enjoyed. It was January and the boards were just coming up and we were all too busy with our coaching and everything. So as usual the MathIITians were seen sitting and completing assignments when there was music in class. All the MathIItians cuddled around me for copying the solutions while the some of us who had done it continued to think over some of the doubtful questions. With music and dance in class, these people had a very difficult time controlling me. But when 3 songs played there was no stopping me, namely Zara Zara, Desi Girl and Hips Don't Lie. Ok....Stop going by the lyrics of the song. The music is good to dance on. Anyway when these songs played my classmates would arrange 2 tables together and would push me on top of that and I happily danced away to glory not even bothering that I was right under the fan (refer uniform) . It was nothing less than a discotheque in class and since it was just us, all the lyrics of the song were given great importance(and the rest of the description I am censoring)!There were no reservations whatsoever! The dance continued till one of the teachers entered the room to find the Head Girl dancing on top of the table. And being the rep, it was me (along with the rest of the house reps) who finally had to meet all the teachers and ask them permission or rather put on an angel face and request, " Mam, last few days at school. Then we will all leave you. *sob sob* Mam please can you cancel class for today and may we pleeaaase enjoy?" to which we were always met with, " Ok girls for the last time. We will all miss you big time sweet hearts. Don't make too much of noise though". And we never waited to hear the last part. And today all this just seems like distant memories, but memories nonetheless.</div><div>Now living in a college were the female to male ratio is 1:4 , I pity all those people who have never been in such schools. There are always arguments to this saying that co-ed would have been a better option and all that crap but I genuinely feel that any individual would have to go through such an institution at least once in their lives to know what school-life actually means. It is from here that I learnt the meaning of true freedom, the ease with which I can converse with my teachers, the courage to take on anything challenging, those starting lessons of managerial, organisational, leadership, technical and soft skills, the confidence to just get on stage uninformed and give a speech whenever the occasion demanded (and have some fun informal moments on stage) and much more.</div><div> Well this place truly holds a special place in my heart...</div>Diary of An Angelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15285038146993570425noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1290146492012511520.post-24668600076108498302010-10-05T11:23:00.007+05:302010-10-07T20:19:09.712+05:30HOME..."Next week, this time, you would be in college. And i would lose my favourite person in the whole wide world, you know pulling your leg and talking to you or rather listening to you and seeing your drama and special effects for even an ant walking! :P " - Amma. (Let me add, am i the universal victim of leg-pulling?, even Bertie Wooster would not have been subjected to such leg-pulling by Aunt Agatha). Well this is the dialogue i heard when i got up today morning and it somehow unnerved me. It also made me happy because it just reminded me of what i am to my mom (Take that Varun [:P]) and to my family in general. As my grand mom puts it, it just takes me to be in the house to give everyone the feeling of being at home [:)]. It is always a different world when you are with your family and living in that world is just a bliss - a bliss never to be forgotten, a bliss that will always remain etched in the deepest chambers of your heart, living with your loved ones with whom one does not realize the passage of time and who have no problem with any stupidity that you do (in my case that is pretty much the case [:)]) . Having to live in a hostel is a different experience altogether but as I always put it, hostel life combined with living with parents is the best life I could ask for. <div>Yawn...Enough of the serious talk. Being back home after a grinding schedule in college and that too in the middle of the semester has its own perks. Let me just say that getting pampered is not something i would complain of especially when it comes to pleasing my sweet tooth! The only thing that is frustrating me is the rain. Any plans of making amma loosen her purse strings might not work this time. Any of my family members should hear this and i had most probably be grounded for a week for having even thought of something so innocent [;)]. Their only argument can be " a summer vacation full of shopping extravaganza has not tired you? Well it has, the some of us are really tired :P " The only person who has not come shopping with me has to be Varun. Or come to think of it, i did get a huge present from him recently [:)]. The best presents that i do receive from him are books and novels. At least now he gets me the books i want to read unlike in my 8th standard when he got me books like 'Mein Kampf' and 'On the Line of Fire' thinking that i needed to switch from Hailey and Archer to non-fiction. </div><div>During my summer holidays, half of which was spent in Hyderabad, I had a blast. It is a great city and conveniently situated was my dad's house. Every afternoon my main job was to call appa and ask him to send the car so that me and amma could just roam around. Since i live in hostel and apparently deprived of a lot of things, i put on my charming self and got amma to buy a lot of things for me. Appa usually gets me anything that i say but amma is more of the miserly types, as i always tell her. I was surprised that i did not have to do a lot of coaxing and pleading and that she was much too eager to get me all that i wanted. Well this is what i say as one of the perks of living in a hostel [;)].</div><div>Food- Come back home and you are bestowed with all your favourite dishes. Umm.. My mouth is watering now. Every day i get to decide the menu, but the longer holidays prove to be a problem because then food apparently gets repetitive for the family (not for me, as those are my favourites). Even yesterday i had one of my preferred dinner and i had to keep on running between my laptop and kitchen so that i could have spoonfuls of it in between. That is another perk.</div><div>Of all things, the comfort that i would be most thankful for is SLEEP. I mean, no more getting up in the morning to attend class at 8 and that to everyone in my family is my height of laziness! Well you cant blame me or the scores of thousands of other students who share the same opinion as mine. At home all that i have to worry about is getting up in the morning to say bye to amma and then lock the door and then again back to bed till amma calls me from office in one of her vain attempts at trying to wake me. I should point out that i do not throw a tantrum. It is just that i don't like to get up from bed unless and until my emergency services are required somewhere immediately. Though it must be said that whenever I have some work of importance i do make sure that i am up and about completing that work, much to the surprise of everyone. At home though, there is nothing worthwhile to be done rather than just lazing around and so i pretty much stay in bed, though amma does get really angry when she catches me reading a book right after i wake up (thank God that I always leave the book that i was reading the previous night on my bedside table) without even brushing my teeth! </div><div>I could go on like this forever but above all these there is something that i enjoy the most when i am at home and that is spending quality time with family. Recently i saw my all-time classic list of movies- Manichitratazhu, Punjabi House, Kakakuyil.. and how i missed my entire family at that time [:(] . All those Sunday evenings when the entire family sat glued to the television sets watching nice malayalam movies, those jokes we all had a hearty laugh about and all those mimicking of mallu comedians that appa tried to do but ended up failing pathetically (though i will give him credit for the Chief Minister's mimic). All the virtual football i played with Varun which ended up in wrestling, all the couple dance with appa which almost ended up in me breaking my bones and all the disastrous cooking experiences with amma. All that was fun. I miss all that *sob sob* [:(]. I guess this is all the baggage that you will have to carry when growing up, or that is what amma says.People say that you cant always be a kid and have all the fun you want. But isn't life supposed to be what you want to make of it and i don't think that there will even be one person who would not want a dash of fun in it. Just a nice pleasant chat with important people in your life, a word of comfort to the elderly (which i keep on doing to amma and i make sure that i add that she is a senior citizen [;P]) and as far as i am concerned just goofing around here and there and doing some mischief around the house just to see that smile of 'OMG..This kid' in amma's and appa's face and that face of 'GROW UP' on Varun's face...That will do. Here is to having great times with family....</div><div><br /></div>Diary of An Angelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15285038146993570425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1290146492012511520.post-79327580279471360152010-10-02T22:07:00.005+05:302010-10-02T23:36:07.299+05:30The Month that Wasn'tSo much for my wish of eating mess food at 7 in the night starting 26th of September! What was to happen was the least i could imagine, considering my weird dreams that is so famous within my friends circle [;)]. <div>It all started .....err..(I am extremely bad with dates,) one day when suddenly out of nowhere my friends call me up and ask me to come to the LH RC at 9 in the night for some audition and since i was pretty jobless at that time (as always) i went there to realize that it was the audition for the Western Dance team of our college. Finally after some gruelling sessions with the seniors and embarrassing myself (as auditions are always supposed to be) i came back to my room to notice that anju was missing. Well after searching the 5 rooms that she could possibly be in, i understood that the entire 911 was present in nidhash's room watching some movie. I enter the room and realized that i was the only one missing [:(] . Going by the antics my friends are famous for (only amongst us) i had to go through a recap of the entire audition once again though this time on a 25cm*25cm space!</div><div>So much for the auditions and finally practice started, or should i say practice continued. My friends started seeing less of me in the days to come. Well i cannot blame them. Then we finally made a pact that after i came back from practice at 11.30, i would go to Marilyn's room where everyone will assemble and we will talk and thus catch up on each other. I must say that we are a close group of friends who till today have had so much of fun just being in the company of each other and blabbering nonsense! While this talking and in some cases bickering was going on i tried munching my way through the chappathis that had been taken for me from the mess, to put in anju's words " Onakka chappathis". For sure, having taken them like 5 hours before, by the time i came back the chappathis had become as hard as stone. Well let me just say that it was a price to pay. And so by the time this talking and pulling of leg continues (mainly mine) self-realization strikes me " Oh no...Water, I need to take a bath guys". And i rush to the shower while my friends continue the chit chat, later to be spoilt by the entrance of the one and only me! This continues till 2 when Marilyn realizes how late it had become and kicks us out of her room asking us all to go and get some sleep. So after a good night and some more leg-pulling we retreat to our respective rooms. Then after that till both of us fall asleep, me and anju would be talking of the day's things that we had missed and more chances of leg pulling. It appears that 911's favourite pastime was pulling each other's legs and sometimes one's own. Weird, i know.</div><div>But as time progressed and work load increased, i came back to see that the bed next to mine would be occupied with somebody already dreaming of being in AUH with family or at least that is the subtlest version that i come up with [;)]. Being a EEE student was taking a toll on anju and i did not want to disturb her slumber but she always assigns me with the job of waking her up when i come back so that she can stay up the entire night doing class work. But after an hour or so i just give up. After all how can i wake up anyone? Known to be ' The Sleeping Queen' of our floor last year and having received comments like ' eternally on the bed even a day before exams' , how could i possibly awaken somebody?! It all depended on much work anju had to do and considering the branch she was in , everything was just hypothetical. But in the final week there was a change in fortune with all my friends swarming to my room at 12 and sympathizing with my troubles (according to them) and telling me that i would be able to live a normal life after the 26th. Come to think of it, it was a hectic schedule! Getting up in the morning, rushing to college, sitting in class and making four liners (which i was supposed to do the previous night according to my deadline) and messaging all the IPF girls and ya how could i even miss, messaging Marilyn all funny coded things that only both of us could comprehend ( for the safety of both of us), waiting outside ELHC for Marilyn and then walking back talking crap as usual, changing and leaving for practice which continued till 11 in the night, coming back to 312 and getting sympathized. But after all this me and anju used to sit and talk about the Mock GD of IPF and what all i had missed out on. The funniest thing was that though the GD was only for 3 hours each day we ended up talking and commenting about it for hours together! Life was fun. [:)] </div><div>Life had been going on like this till the 23rd when some things happened in college, to put it in Arthur Hailey's words, i felt as if history was being made in front of my eyes. Though i must confess that i had rather not have such history being made! Anyway the repercussions of that resonated into something least expected. So much so that i had to call up anju from train and ask her to pack my bag and send it with Varun so that i could pick it up from IIM on my way back. The weekend i spent at NIT trichy was enjoyable though i missed 911 really badly and i kept on messaging them because of which in two days i spent around 50 bucks courtesy roaming! Well now that i ended up at home all that i am sad about is not having been there to see off my friends but now thanks to gtalk's call i have been talking to anju almost every other day for around 5 hours! The funniest thing is that i am still indecisive on whether i had ever want such a month back in my life....well all that i can say is not at the cost of having fun with friends and just having to listen to the fun everyone has! </div>Diary of An Angelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15285038146993570425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1290146492012511520.post-14163992560708576572010-07-02T22:36:00.006+05:302010-10-02T23:26:06.587+05:30Pit stop 1- MaduraiLeaving for Madurai my main worry had to be getting up at 5 in the morning as the train reaches my destination at that time. But the Gods helped me here and delayed the train for almost 2 hours and so i was not sleep deprived. After reaching the hotel, i banged on the door to awaken my bro who was comfortably dreaming away to glory. After having beaten him (and kicked him) to my mind's fill we started pulling each other's legs, the best job for us! Lets see, the entire fight was for his brand new mobile gifted to him by two of his college friends and that too Nokia E-series. I kept on bugging my brother telling him that his friends should know better than to buy him a pure white E-series, and i quote " Kurangide kyil poomala" ( for people who don't know malayalam, go and learn some :P). After mom and dad tried to referee the entire match we were told to freshen up and be ready by 9 but not before i was promised a new mobile, no not any series but something i will like! And then we proceeded towards the famous Madurai Meenakshi Temple.<div>All through the way appa quizzed me on the temple and the city. I was not spared even inside the temple. The lotus inside the temple proved to be the butt of all jokes. Appa tried to fool me saying that the lotus floated on water and i ended up checking the construction of the lotus! Stupid me, I must say. Then after a tour of the temple, which was smaller than i thought it was, we headed back to the hotel. As usual i had my siesta while everyone around me packed to leave for somewhere. On waking up i realized that our next stop was going to be Rameshwaram. That was the height of everything. All throughout my life i had been branded by my family as an atheist but i have always tried to maintain a no-temple-visit strategy. I believe that one need not visit places of worship to seek God and that my friend is an atheist according to my mom. Innumerable times have i showed the dictionary meaning of an atheist to my mom but with no avail. Only on my birthday do i enter a temple that too because mom blackmails me of something or the other. So my routine of one-temple-one-year was just a far cry out from what i experienced this summer and in one particular occasion monsoon too as i was drenched in rain when we decided to walk home from a nearby temple. And above all this my mom was whining about the fact that a trip to Pazhani was not possible! Duh. All i had to say was " Just because there were 2 senior citizens (mom & dad) travelling with us i decided that a trip to Madurai wont hurt and now you are stretching that luck. Wait till next time. I am definitely going to look for places without any temples!" And as if that was the joke of the millenium the entire family just burst out laughing. It did not end with Rameshwaram. Every place had its share of temples and i was taken to pretty much all of them. Now in Hyderabad it has come down to the fact that we go to one temple every time we go out, which comes down to one-temple-a-day! Now i keep on saying that our driver uncle himself knows how much of a temple freak my mom is, so much so that every day when me and mom go shopping he takes us to a new temple!!!Somehow i used to like the one-temple-a-year idea, at least the fascination for temples was kept alive. But now times have changed and amma has come to the conclusion that i have become more of a christian, though she considers that it to be for a secular common good!</div>Diary of An Angelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15285038146993570425noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1290146492012511520.post-9019957147277155862010-07-02T19:04:00.006+05:302010-07-02T22:35:57.120+05:30The PlanNo, it is not a movie review...It is actually the extensive plans i had made for my vacations. Started of with plans to West Bengal. I must say that the place holds a very special place in my heart. After all i am a bengali by birth...ahem i meant place of birth. Having heard a lot about the place from mom and dad which include their childhood stories, how golguppas and jaalmoodi were the staple food when young and after having seen my baby photos there, it was like an all-time wish for me to visit my birth land again. I have always told that i would want to go see our house there and roam around all those places of which only stories i remember. I wanted to enjoy the real <i>sandes</i> and wanted to enjoy shopping in the Great Market which amma so lovingly describes as street-shopping is like heaven with her for i just need to chose what i want and she gets it for me in the price she wants. What do i have to complain about at the end of the day- i propose and mom disposes. So when we were looking for a place to go, it was just an obvious choice for me to suggest WB, or rather i suggested Kolkata along with a tour of the north-east. Then comes the real problem that the tour is on just for a week because Varun had only a weeks time before leaving. So that idea was dropped. <div>Then my cousin came up with this idea of going abroad with Varun seconding the idea. But here again there was a problem. Since i had turned 18 my passport had expired and i had to renew them, something i had put off for the end of my vacations. Never thought that me becoming an adult was going to be such a big problem! After a lot of discussions we decided to drop that idea and decided to settle for a small trip this year with the promise of an awesome tour abroad to a place (or places ;)) of my choice next year. </div><div>So after a lot of planning, deciding and vetoing we finally decided on Madurai- Kodaikanal -Pondicherry. Well in the end all that i can say was that did not prove to be the final destinations.</div>Diary of An Angelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15285038146993570425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1290146492012511520.post-68925114291322584142010-05-31T12:56:00.010+05:302010-06-03T22:50:49.759+05:3018th BirthdayI must say that i don't remember much of what happened during that time but I am just penning it down so that i never forget what my friends did for me and a lot of firsts that happened. It was the time of 'Tathva' in college and i ended up being on the dance team. It was just after test 2 in s1 when i was down with high fever. Incidentally that was the first time, and now surely the last time, i ever visited our Health Centre. The doc on seeing my condition advised me to skip the exams and do makeup exams but the thought of staying in college even for a day after my endsem exams was quite revolting. So she prescribed some very strong antibiotics and told me not to stress myself. So i did do as was told to me. By the end of the exams i was back to my normal self and the next week started a hectic schedule ( now come to think of it, it was nothing compared to Ragam) with classes and dance practice.<div>Now a new problem arose. My fever was long gone but i felt tired like anything even by just walking and i had those gut-wrenching pains. Initially i had those only when i danced during practice but the more i strained the more painful it was. I called it quits then and went to bed just to awaken the next day with the pain three-fold. I got dressed and decided to ignore it and get on with my life. But it did not seem that easy. Even walking proved difficult and returning back from college i was glad that my friend was there with me and she literally put me to bed on reaching hostel. I decided to contact my usual escape-route and told him to book my tickets home that weekend and told him specifically to not tell our parents and worry them. Instead of getting some soothing words he literally blew away and told me to talk to mom first before booking anything. I talked to mom and dad and after a lot of persuasion from me they finally allowed me to be in college till the weekend. </div><div>This indeed was a twist to my friends who were planning a birthday bash for me. Since i would not be available to give a treat on my birthday i gave everyone an ice cream each two days before my birthday on the 13th.I packed and was ready to leave on the eve of my birthday on the 14th. So i had to celebrate my birthday with my friends around six hours earlier than they would have expected. There was my entire close friends set in my room- people i already knew from home and my new friends there. The cake was spared of any damage it would have suffered on my face or any other's. After all i had a train to catch. I was also spared of the famous, or should i say the infamous, GPL. That was purely a consideration on my health. After a blast with everyone and getting a sweet present of which i had no idea i left for home. On my way home at exactly midnight i get flooded by calls from family and friends. It was kind of an embarrassing situation since i was travelling by train and my phone kept on ringing but there is always a solution. I put my mobile on vibrate mode and continued answering them. After all i do disturb people at midnight with phone calls and it was revenge time and i did not want to be the spoilsport! </div><div>I reached home thinking i could just sleep off the entire weekend but my family had other plans for me. I could not get forty winks before my mom pulled me to a place i am terrified of- HOSPITALS. It just sends the creeps down my spine. I knew what their answer would be. First on the list was a blood test. The old and the young (in my family) alike know how terrified i am of needles. I have had just 2 blood tests in my entire 18 years of life and both times they were not event-less needless to say. And finally hugging my mom, closing my eyes and clenching my teeth i went through the ordeal. The tests were normal. Well what did they expect? Anyway in spite of it being my birthday i was not spared any medical procedure. A first of many sorts were in store for me. A girl who was petrified of preliminary tests was asked to take a scan, x-ray and what not. Seriously, it was high time that the doctors accepted that they had no clue as to what exactly they were looking for. Not only was my birthday spoilt but also Diwali (17th). With 3 days of hospital life, i had had enough for a lifetime. All this while my friends were worried about me that they flooded me with get-well-soon messages and i called one of my roomies on Diwali night. After all it was her birthday the next day and my mom was definitely not going to allow me to stay up till 12 thanks to my health. So i called her up earlier and wished her and in turn she was telling me what all was happening in college, how much fun they were having and how worried they were of me. After a long phone call of jokes and facts and truths i hung up and decided to go to bed not wanting to think about anything in my life.</div><div>And finally on the 18th the doctor finally admitted that he had no clue as to what was wrong. And then came the highlight of the day, the doctor had the nerve to suggest a surgery to know the reason behind my fatigue. I must say that my tongue just got stuck in my throat but i was able to utter that i would be leaving that night for college and that i would not be back for another two months. The doctor's disappointment was evident on his face and so was my joy on release from the hospital. Going under the knife was the last thing in my wish-list for my birthday. All the plans i had when i was coming home was shattered. I was so disappointed in my weekend that i ended up going home the next weekend too missing my first ever Tathva in college. When my mom asked me to come home i never knew that she had other schemings. In fact that week she had been to other doctors for second opinions and God knows how many other opinions. The first time i spoke to her itself i made it very clear to her that i would go only to our family doctor for i trusted him and he very well knew my phobia of needles and always diagnosed me correctly with almost a 100% record of not sending me for any tests whatsoever. But only after a harrowing weekend with me in the hospital that my family remembered my favourite doctor. And as always he was very sweet and told my mom that all the tests were not necessary and that it was just an overdose of antibiotics that i had taken from our dear HC and that it was not supplemented with vitamins... Well so much for the surgery i guess. </div><div>The second weekend holiday went without much events with mom just revealing to me the doctors she had met in spite of me telling her that i was not going to spoil my weekend again and that i was not coming within a seven-mile radius of any hospital. Anyway in spite of all the mental and physical fatigue i must say that the birthday will remain close to my heart. After all it was proposed to be my first one away from home but it turned out to be something else. So enjoying an awesome cake from my friends and my favourite kheer at home, the birthday was two-fold happier for me. Setting aside all the unpleasant moments i will look back to 15th Oct,2009 as a special day and that would be due to my family and mainly my friends in hostel and all i want to say to them would be ' Thank you guys for making the day so special'. </div>Diary of An Angelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15285038146993570425noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1290146492012511520.post-91935825914756338292010-05-02T19:15:00.004+05:302010-05-05T14:20:18.220+05:30Cooking ExpeditionsIt all started way back- the year, day and time i exactly don't remember. The entire family was all gung ho about me trying to do something in the kitchen. But the only relationship me and the kitchen ever had was me entering it once in a while to fix a snack for myself or mainly to get chocolates from the refrigerator. The earliest memory of me making anything was a lemonade for my dad and uncle. It turned out to be a fabulous lemonade that my uncle finally had to tell me not to show my anger on the lemon and that i had to squeeze the lemon pretty softly to prevent the lemonade from tasting sour. :-) <div>The next one had to be with Varun. Whenever grandparents were not staying with us, then mom left it on us to make our own evening tea. Age was definitely not a barrier in making tea as far as he was concerned! I took up the responsibility of making tea for both of us. When one day we had our usual fights i challenged him to make his own tea and thus my sweet bro tried his hand at cooking. He stood in front of the gas staring very hard at it. Come to think of it now, whether he thought himself to be the X Men or the Fantastic Four fire guy only God knows but it was as if he was waiting for the fire to just come from somewhere. All this while i was sitting there and laughing my stomach out. Finally after what seemed to be like an eternity of staring and laughing matches he had the presence of mind to ask me. After i helped him light the stove he managed to do things on his own...</div><div>Now after so many years the entire family which includes me, papa & varun decided that we will make life easier for mom and that was by making me enter the maidan-e-jung of kitchen! It all started by me helping her cut some vegetables. And guess what the first vegetable was...onions! I had read before that it is the odour of onions that is responsible for all the tears that one sheds while cutting it. I hinted that to mom and all that she could come up with was to stuff some cotton in my nose...PJ i know. Anyway, i cut 2 onions without much of any accidents (as i am generally prone to) i did finally end up with one. Cutting the third onion i was just checking how sharp the knife was and i soon got the answer to my question in return for some blood and skin. After cleaning my wound and having properly attended to it i continued with the cutting process and i realized that it was not such a good idea after all. The stinging sensation in my wound was so evident on my face that mom took the knife and continued with the rest.</div><div>So much for helping in cutting vegetables. But mom did say that i cut the vegetables so small and cute that it reminded her of her mom! So one medal! I decided to give myself the degree and graduated to the next level.</div><div>The next day i saw mom preparing dough for chapathi and it was my all-time wish to make round chapathis. So finally with everything settled with mom i settled into making gol gol chapathis. With flour all over me and almost 3 or 4 retries i finally managed to make one. That is when mom noticed that there were traces of flour in vessels kept at least a metre away from me! But i continued to make chapathis and finally ended up making perfect good-looking chapathis and i let my imagination run wild with that. I kept on commenting that one chapathi looked like an old man's face, the other like Varun's face and all. Well in short, me and mom had a blast making chapathis so much so that i ended up giving her demo of how messy a work could be done. Thus finally i made gol gol chapathis and aloo masala, though the masala was mainly done by my mom except me cutting and putting garam masala in it.</div><div>The next day i tried making dosa and i realized that eating dosas are much easier than making them.Finally i ended up making small cute ones that were of the size of my fist while my mom made huge ones. Such cooking expeditions continue till date and my mom is pretty worried with the sudden change in my attitude towards kitchen and she just has this weird doubt whether i will stop studying. All that i have to tell her is 'When did i ever start studying for me to stop? ;-)'</div>Diary of An Angelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15285038146993570425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1290146492012511520.post-72294541231471912002010-01-02T14:17:00.002+05:302010-01-02T14:24:10.195+05:30The beginning....<p class="MsoNormal">Never thought that I would become one of those people who finally end up living out of the suitcase in one’s own house! Yet that has what it has all come down to. Four months of hostel life with frequent visits home has allowed me to stay somehow glued to my home and its surroundings. Well I better say that this butterfly never dreamt of coming out of the cocoon of her home. Though my brother gets quite irritated with the fact that I’ve not become one of his disciples to find a haven away from home in my college but I can safely say that I would sooner or later be ‘his sister’. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">After what seemed like a lifetime of college life in s1(of 4 months duration) it does sink in now that I have just got 7 more semesters left!!!</p> <p class="MsoNormal">I still remember the first day I came to my hostel- july 21. The previous days were spent in trying to coax my father to take leave earlier because I did not want to end up in my college on the last day of registration. But fate had it otherwise and I was here just on the nick of time. After completing all my registration details (once more after the 1<sup>st</sup> allotment) and having ‘puttu’ for the first time in my life I found myself standing on the doorstep of LH Block IV waiting to be assigned a room. When I was asked to sign the entry register, I noticed for the first time who my roommates would be. I saw Akhila(aki), Angelline( anju) and Asura( asu) entered under room 209. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">From my fifth grade onwards I lost the ability to befriend anyone within a few minutes as dad came to stay with us and I never really had a deficit of friends in <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Trivandrum</st1:place></st1:City>. Till then I was quite capable of initiating a conversation with anybody, yet on having forgotten that gift I was a little apprehensive of meeting my roomies. I still remember entering the place with dad and mom and I see that two of my roomies had already settled in and all that dad could think of was, ‘nice setup. Much better than BHU’ and I as usual, ‘Obviously, that was Varun’s college’. My mom settled into arranging my cupboard, as always, I got busy chatting with my friends from <st1:place st="on"><st1:city st="on">Trivandrum</st1:City></st1:place>. Then I talked to Aki for the first time. Then our parents started talking. Suddenly out of nowhere a girl in a Capri and t-shirt enters the room, clearly an indication of how well-settled she already felt and that was when I realized that it was anju and all the while I thought it was asha( anju’s sister), who was perched on anju’s bed all the while, <span style=""> </span>who was my roomie. Then asu entered with her sister, a senior in our college, and found herself amidst three crazy people( as she was to realize later). She keeps on saying now that kuthiravattam ( a mental asylum) is near and that she would have the privilege of admitting some soon-to-be mad people.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">The usual confusion scenarios that haunt me in tvm did not intend to leave me even in <st1:place st="on"><st1:city st="on">calicut</st1:City></st1:place> and infact it seems to have boarded the same train I did ( I know PJ). Inspite of dad wanting me to take south Indian mess I was forced to reconcile with north veg mess. And I was given clear instructions to switch to south Indian mess in august and nothing turned out like that as the food in my mess turned out to be much better than anybody could expect. And to date I have kept up the tradition of not changing my mess! Though I did go to south mess for a day, I ended up feigning sickness to switch back to north veg mess the very next morning. Even people who cannot live without non-veg gave thumbs-up to my mess with chole bhatura being the highlight of our mess. Being a vegetarian, I never had problems with eating just ‘veggies’, as my friends in tvm call it<b>. <span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Meeting 211: Sudhina (sudi), who was one of the very few people I already knew, was in room 211 and it was she who introduced me to her roomies namely Nidhasha( nids), Marilyn( called anything that sounds plausibly close to Marilyn!) and Divya( divs). It was then that I realized that nids and anju where fiends from <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Abu Dhabi</st1:place></st1:City>. There was this natural bonding between these two rooms mainly because marilyn, divs and me ended up in C-batch, nids, anju and asu in J-batch and sudi & aki in M-batch. Unfortunately there was the staircase and the Resident Tutor’s (RT) room in between our rooms but that never stopped us from having all the fun that 10 minds could come up with. It was only later that Garima(garims) <span style=""> </span>and Monica( monics) entered rooms 209 & 211 and then there was no looking back for us from there!</p> <p class="MsoNormal">July 22: I got up early in the morning; just my very sincere effort to try to start a new beginning which always ends up getting flopped and this certainly was not going to get any better in the near future. I had spent my first night in the hostel without much of any accidents or making myself a fool. Well at least that gave me a slight hope that life would not be so bad after all. The day was spent in orientation, a word I have come to dread every time I hear it now. Infact we were even telling that our college should conduct an orientation for us to attend an orientation (again a PJ)! That very afternoon mom and dad left me to fend for myself (so unlike the meaning of the words) and I never even thought in my wildest of dreams that I would spend a few tears at this occasion. I never thought that I would miss mom the way I miss her now. Since dad always used to be away from home it never was a big issue for me as far as both of us heard each other’s voice atleast once a day. The way I missed Varun was nowhere near to anything. Though we fought worse than cats and dogs both of us knew that our separation would be really difficult for both of us, crying and cringing yet letting each other in on other’s secrets! Dad and mom left to see Varun’s friend in IIM-K. From then on I knew that I would not have mom or dad the way I had and Varun on whom I could put all the blame of my mistakes, though in vain, though I still do it in spurts.<span style=""> </span>The day progressed without any surprises.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">From then on hostel has gone on without me missing any part of it but college still eludes me of the fun that it promises to provide. </p>Diary of An Angelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15285038146993570425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1290146492012511520.post-15034060421641720812009-04-28T19:16:00.003+05:302009-04-28T19:30:26.522+05:30The Lucrative LeagueWell, what do I say about it that has not been written or talked about?! In its opening year it had created so much of frenzy that anybody and everybody got so hooked to it that their social lives took a deep plummeting. It has created a confluence of the two big industries of this nation- the gentleman’s game and the big bad world of entertainment. Infact this has redefined what entertainment really is. Of course I am talking about the mantra that is on everybody’s lips- the big fat IPL.<br /> The inaugural season, last year, was a runaway hit. It threw open to the world a novel system which though was criticized initially. India has always been fanatical when it came to cricket or bollywood. So as a matter of fact the venue for this one of a kind event had to be invariantly India! But this year has so far been a roller coaster ride for Modi &Co. It all started with the security concerns after the Lahore attack. But the real issue that they faced was the elections. When this entire matter was being looked into I remember telling myself as to how I would crave for the IPL rather than the elections! Well what is the issue-one bad government will be replaced by yet another if not even worse so why not have something productive in the mean time.<br /> As an individual I really feel that this IPL has lacked the luster of last year. Well maybe because of the absence of the fanatic crowd that India is so famous of. Now when I watch the IPL I feel as if I am watching some county cricket (maybe that would have been even more interesting)! Well EPL was better. At least there was some competition and finally Manchester United were being given a run for their money by Liverpool. But this is indeed not the case with this year’s teams in the IPL. Certainly there have been some shockers but it has pretty much been predictable. The very reason for that is South Africa. The pitches have so far favored the spinners and it is likely to continue so. Last year IPL was a batsman’s game- a six and the scoreboard would suddenly tell a new story altogether.<br /> The inaugural match of the last season was a brilliant curtain raiser with Brendon McCullum hitting the highest score ever in T20 history. It was a treat to the eyes. But this year there has not been a single match that has reached the level achieved last year. The only thing that could have been fascinating was to see teams that had underperformed trying to reach the golden crown. This IPL has not created those nail-biting finishes or those high scoring matches. The only time it looks interesting is when the top teams compete or the bottom two! Yet there are certain things that make all the teams different though it just feels all mixed up.<br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">RR</span></strong>- The victors of last year have had a terrible season so far and I feel it is going to continue. Only good thing this year has been Kamran Khan. This youngster who in his first over first ball tripped on the pitch went off to a flying start and is a bowler to look forward to. Apart from that Yusuf Pathan has been trying to relive his last year’s form but has not succeeded. Graeme Smith has not lived up to the expectations. Being a South African has not helped him or his team so far. Dmitri Mascarenhas has been another surprise package. He seems to be another Shoaib Akhtar having immense pace and line but has not produced enough wickets so far. Shane Warne has been an excellent captain to this young Indian side but he just seems unable to spin his magic this time around. This is because this potential team has not got its act right. There are glances of great individual performances but it has not been enough for a win. My bet is that they would be languishing as one of the bottom three this time around.<br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">CSK</span></strong>- The runners up last year have begun pulling up their socks though the points table has not yet become bright for them. The opening pair of Parthiv Patel and Mathew Hayden have shown that their blistering knocks can turn the table around for them. Even Suresh Raina followed by M.S.Dhoni can join in the party. This year’s new pick Flintoff has not yet proved his worth and has just been a burden. Though this guy has a lot of potential for T20 it has not come to the forefront this IPL season. Manpreet Gony had been the pick of the bowlers for CSK last year and has quite lived up to his name. But unfortunately for him, Muralitharan has proved better with his spin and doosra. L.Balaji is yet another good bowler who has been in excellent form recently. The only all-rounder who has or can do well for this team is Albie Morkel. But having said that there are no other all-rounders from whom expectations can be kept and hence the playing 11 has a tough task of doing their job to the maximum possible which they have not done so far. But I still feel that they would reach the top four. <br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">MI</span></strong>- What to say about this team that has the most deadly combination of right and left handed opening pair who can become every bowler’s worst nightmare. Sachin Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuria are the biggest hurdles to be crossed by any opposition because once they settle down it is sure that the opposition has to get out of the park to catch the ball! But then follows the young Indian blood of Abhishek Nayar and Shikar Dhawan who also have the potential but have not exploited it to the team’s advantage. Lasith Malinga proves to be a dangerous force to reckon with and with the likes of Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan their bowling also seems formidable. This is one team that is not going to have a problem with all-rounders because the entire team is in the best form it could have asked for and hence have an excellent chance to reach the final.<br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">DD</span></strong>- This team can boast of having the opening pair of India’s test team. But in spite of their test caliber they have what it takes to be a bombastic pair that can reach any total possible. Apart from Sehwag and Gambhir there is also Dinesh Karthik and de Villers who can put up a good show. When it comes to the bowling department who better than Glenn McGrath to lead from the front. Even Vettori provides good options. Among the Indian guns Amit Mishra and Nehra are also excellent though they may struggle with their form. Even Manoj Tiwary has been useful under trying circumstances. The problem that this team can face is lack of form. They have such high quality players that just two of them firing on a day can bring victory but on a bad day they may find themselves staring at an empty scoreboard sooner than they expected. But in spite of all these I still feel that they may reach the top four.<br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">DC</span></strong>- Under the leadership of Adam Gilchrist this team has gone in for a total revamp from its last year’s dismal show and now they lead the points table. Gilchrist has led his team from the front and has provided the much needed winning streak that had so far evaded this team. With Herschelle Gibbs playing in his homeland it has become a one-sided game when Gilchrist and Gibbs just hit the ball to the spectators leaving no scope for the opponents. V.V.S. Laxman who had come in for a lot of criticism has finally regained his form and has given a firm reply to his detractors and has let his willow do the talking for him. Even Rohit Sharma has proved time and again that he can do wonders for his team not only with his batting but also with his excellent fielding. Even in the bowling department they seem to have the seats full with Vaas, Styris and Ojha. But the pick so far has been R.P.Singh. He has bowled exceptionally well until now and that seems to have given him the confidence. Though they have won all the matches till now there still seems to be an issue with a quality spin bowler. But apart from that this seems to be a brilliant team that has gathered its wits to perform this year. They will be certainly in the top four but what remains to be seen is whether they have what it takes to be the champions.<br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">KXIP</span></strong>- This team which almost reached the finals last year is still groping in the dark trying to figure out what is going wrong. With formidable Sri Lankan players like Sangakkara and Jayawardane in their batting line up along with skipper Yuvraj Singh they have not reached the podium they ought to have. The problem they are facing is with form. It has been quite sometime that Jayawardane has been struggling with his form but it seems as if the entire batting line up is looking at its tail-enders to provide a respectable score! Even Goel and Bopara are not putting up the much needed runs. The bowlers are at least doing a better job than the batsmen. With Piyush Chawla, V.R.V.Singh and Ramesh Powar taking control it has at least been respectable for the team so far though they have not provided any exceptional victory so far. Moreover the way they are heading they might just miss the top four slots even if they play good cricket in the following games.<br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">RCB</span></strong>- This team would now be praying for a change of fortune. It seems as if history is just repeating for them. With the change in leadership they had hoped for a change in their points tally but sadly for them it has not happened. This team was highly criticized for the importance it gave to old timers but it is just them who have been doing a decent job till now. Dravid has proved that he can throw of his test coat and like any young cricketer he can bat the T20 style. Even Anil Kumble has proved in the initial game that there is still a lot of cricket left in him. Apart from these two giant stalwarts even Virat Kohli seems impressive with the bat and knows how to take the game forward on his own. With Kallis, Boucher and the newly included Ryder this team seemed to have the best batting line up though they are yet to fire. But apart from Kumble , Praveen Kumar and Kallis there does not seem to be any other bowler! Well maybe this is where their calculations went wrong and Pieterson maybe just hoping against hope for a miracle in its bowling area. In spite of having such a blessing in its batting it still has no bowling options because of which they may continue to remain at the bottom.<br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">KKR</span></strong>- A team that is never devoid of any controversies has found itself handling just that and not its cricket. It started with the multiple captaincy theory which went in for a lot of criticism. Finally having made McCullum the captain, success has still evaded it. Any fool would have understood by now that this theory was just to get the world or should I say Kolkata read for the sacking of Ganguly! This is one team that is happy that it is in SA or else it would have led to a huge ruckus in Kolkata. But shame on its management that they made McCullum the captain as he barely played 4 matches last season and does not even know his team well for he was busy playing for NZ till the previous week of the IPL. Apart from that his scores in the matches show how much he is pressurized and how he is incompetent to cope with it. This is not the McCullum who is well known for his huge shots. Chris Gayle has provided some consistency with the bat which looks like a toothpick in his hand! Shukla has not lived up to the standard he set last year and even Hodge is struggling. Mendis has not fired till now and Agarkar is proving too expensive. Ishant Sharma is still not at his best. Though I feel that Murali Karthik would prove to be a good bargain this time around. Well in short I can say that the team is revolving only around Ganguly who has proved time and again that how much ever he is criticized he will always fight. This is a team that looks good neither on paper nor on the field. If they continue to depend on Ganguly then they will find themselves among the bottom three unless and until Ganguly fires totally!Diary of An Angelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15285038146993570425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1290146492012511520.post-71191991877932424292009-04-27T19:15:00.001+05:302009-04-27T19:15:48.308+05:30Vijay Mallya Of UKThat is what my father referred to him as when I was watching an interview of this person. Incidentally I was also reading his autobiography which had been presented to me by my brother as a sweet revenge to stop my habit of reading just suspense thrillers (for he knew very well that Arthur Hailey, Archer, Sheldon and so on were always the most preferred by me and hence he wanted me to get addicted to non-fiction, the way he is now). So after having a brief brawl with my brother over this issue, I had started reading it. To tell the truth, I got hooked up with this book so much so that when my father made a clichéd statement like this I was totally taken aback!!! Soon he added,’ this person is one-of-a-kind’!!! Yup, quite contradictory. Well, this is exactly what he is. Though I would not go to the extent of comparing him with anybody but I certainly do admire his risky ventures and adventurous life.<br /> I had been introduced to this person through newspapers and business magazines (which I had to read because my dad always bought these and wished that I had an eye for this line but unfortunately I could never go beyond the Bombay Times! But I have always read these magazines and tried to understand them but to no avail) but I was opened to a wider perspective after reading his autobiography-‘Losing My Virginity’. Yes, it is Sir RICHARD BRANSON, the owner of the Virgin group of companies, known for his flamboyant nature and competitive spirit, but best known for his business ideals. Ask him to define his ‘business philosophy’ and he says that business cannot be taught like a recipe as one has to change his idea with changing times.<br /> This autobiography of his clearly defines how he was crafted to be a businessman all his life. Starting a business venture at the age of 15 without any proper financial support is no child’s play and that too for a child suffering from dyslexia but he proved everybody wrong. He started his career with ‘Student’ magazine with the help of his closest friends which soon gained popularity among the student community at that time. He also started his first charitable institution (The Student Advisory Committee) at the age of 17. His dreams started growing too wild. He started a Virgin records store whose first signing topped the UK charts with his first album (thanks to Mike Oldfield’s ‘Tubular Bells”). But luck did not favour him the way he had wanted for later he had to sell this first ever Virgin enterprise, the beginning of the Virgin empire, in order to keep another one of his novel ideas The Virgin Atlantic Airways afloat! The intention of starting such an airline company was to bring to bay the cut-throat price of the British Airways, the then supremo in the airline business.<br /> But what intrigued me the most was this man’s vision of his life! In spite of being the proud owner of the Virgin brand name, he never cared a bit for his life. His world record attempts aboard the Virgin Atlantic Challenger I & II was quite surprising. One can’t say that it was because of an adrenaline rush for the first mistakes are always forgivable but not a repetition. Well this repetition somehow proved profitable for he was successful in breaking the world record for the fastest Atlantic Ocean crossing. His hot air balloon expedition was given much impetus by the media when this was the first ever attempt to cross the Atlantic in a hot air balloon.<br /> Well, not that I admire him for all this acrobatics but for the fact that such a well settled person with inimitable business visions had such weird and crazy (if I may say so) ideas! If his appearances are anything to go by then he would have gone by as a passing joke. But this baron has proved to the world that his bizarre business ethics can conquer unventured lands!Diary of An Angelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15285038146993570425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1290146492012511520.post-25963953247101099832007-09-09T22:53:00.000+05:302007-09-10T20:42:45.028+05:30Back to School...I<p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>One long board exam leave and that was enough to rejuvenate (in fact bored to death) all of us. After the board exam saga we were all happy to have two months just for ourselves without anymore ‘go and study’, ’stop watching TV’, ‘no more fun’ and even more nagging by our parents to do a whole lot of other things for we had already made our parents promise us that our holidays will be our private affair which included getting up in the afternoon, lots and lots of movies and even more TV. Well we must appreciate the fact that our parents did keep up their promises and we being the ‘best of children’ used it to the best of our advantage. But hardly a month had passed by before we started dreading the days to come. This was partly because of the results that just loomed overhead but it was mainly because we really missed school, our fabulous teachers and our dear friends whom we could not meet for another one month. We felt so alien to holidays that our prayers were mainly that our school should reopen fast (rather than us getting good marks for our board exams). Life became so boring until the results came out after a lot of suspense but even then all that was in our mind was when would our school reopen and after what seemed like an eternal wait and after so much preparation to start a new future, the D-day did arrive……</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>That was one of those days when we got up early in the morning without our alarms waking us or our mothers screaming by our bedside and adopting ‘vile’ methods to wake us up. Even our parents were so amazed at our transformation but little did they know that we would never change for the better. Anyway we got up and dressed up to attend school but our minds were already at school just imagining as to how our friends would look as after all we had not seen each other for two months. That day we all reached school very early as we could not wait any longer. It was not a simple wish like good morning or just a regular hand-shake that met the rest of us but it was a social drama that prevailed as we could not resist hugging and kissing and there were some occasional shedding of tears. But what surprised us all (in fact annoyed us) was that we were not allowed to go upstairs and all of were so sick and tired waiting downstairs without meeting any of our teachers that we wanted to break the instructions given to us and just barge in. But that would mean breaking the rules on the very first day and we could never ever imagine doing that. So we waited and waited and at last we were called upstairs. We were totally surprised (stunned) to see that the entire stage was decorated with all our seniors standing there just to welcome us. Just the thought of all the students looking at us sent creeps down our spines. We were asked to stand under the shade of our ‘big tree’ (as we fondly call it). From there we were asked to walk towards the stage in pairs. We had already known of the change of power that had taken place in school and 11<sup>th</sup> being the standard when fun and celebrations are at its peak we were a little nervous as to what was awaiting us. But little had we to think about it than we noticed small mementos kept on a table on the stage. The students who had received 90+ % in their board exams were asked to stand apart as they were called one by one and presented with the memento by none other than our former Principal. We ourselves lost track of the number of students who got above 90+ but we were very sure that the number did exceed thirty. But even students who missed out on 90 were not left behind and they were given due mention in the motivational and inspirational speech by our new Principal. Next we went to our room that was to be our home for the next one year. No sooner had we settled down than our respective class teachers came to class and made us even more comfortable. They started off advising us as to how to proceed on with studies and our life for the next two years and the years to come. We listened very attentively because they were life-lessons that were being given to us. All the teachers who came to class also entertained us with jokes and experiences that they had had. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>For lunch, all the friends regrouped and had what is commonly known as ‘round table conference’ lunch amongst all of us where we arranged a set of tables horizontally with chairs on either side so that it seemed to be a ‘family lunch’ together. That was the time we gossiped and had a huge lot of fun with solo performances like songs, dances, speeches and even comedy skits by our friends that it did seem like sitting in a restaurant. As usual we finished our lunch just as the bell rang and we started settling down in our own places. Just then there was an announcement for the entire 11<sup>th</sup> standard students to go down to the Hall. We went there thinking that our new Principal was about to talk to us but we soon found out that something the reverse of this was exactly going to happen. Our dear seniors had organized a Fresher’s Day just to welcome us. The Hall was beautifully decorated with blue and white drapes that we could not recognize our Hall for a moment. Chairs had been neatly organized and after we had occupied them, we were asked to tighten our seat belts as we were about to have a ‘roller-coaster ride’ to put it in the words of a senior. After the funniest welcome speech we have ever heard, we had the opportunity to see our seniors shake a leg and hum to a very melodious tune. We were overwhelmed to see such scintillating performances dedicated just for us. The time arrived and the seniors got on with their job- ‘ragging’ as they put it just to frighten us. Well it had been a sort of game in which we were asked to introduce ourselves and according to our talents we had to do anything. It was a choice that had been provided to us and we could choose as to what we wanted to do. After an hour’s fun without teachers overlooking as to what we were up to we decided to have even more fun. We put on the music to the maximum volume and all of us started dancing on what we called the ‘dance floor’. The teachers finally barged in and asked us to wind up the show as the music was disturbing the other classes and we like ‘obedient’ children listened to them and went quietly back to our classes but not before thanking our seniors for this party they threw up for us and also thanking our Principal for having thought of such a warm welcome for all of us.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>After a day’s fun and frolic it was time for us to leave for our homes and we despised doing that after having all the fun in the world. We also expressed our gratitude to our teachers who made sure that we fitted into the school perfectly even after being separated from it for so long. It was one of those very few days that will be perfectly inscribed in our hearts forever with even the minutest of things having so much meaning and warmth in it. It seemed as if the very pillars of our school shone with so much brightness and welcomed us to this all new beautiful world.</p><span style="font-size:78%;">Post published on behalf of all my friends<br /></span><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p>Diary of An Angelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15285038146993570425noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1290146492012511520.post-39690380174439123072007-06-01T20:22:00.001+05:302007-06-01T23:13:27.921+05:30Urban Sunset<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD9tD-kMNcvnT_hE-lSqmItKPdUqh2XEYy2F1bxOnHztPvaQe4mA_RWjCjY5QOJfvZ2d56mgBgFRLCdYTemQBQ_fGdjneccTxetLOX-og3tNWG4tEaYDcQTWfcA-Fhlxq-Cqt7F_NEshM/s1600-h/DSC00109.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD9tD-kMNcvnT_hE-lSqmItKPdUqh2XEYy2F1bxOnHztPvaQe4mA_RWjCjY5QOJfvZ2d56mgBgFRLCdYTemQBQ_fGdjneccTxetLOX-og3tNWG4tEaYDcQTWfcA-Fhlxq-Cqt7F_NEshM/s400/DSC00109.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5071109417068530066" border="0" /></a> Up close and personal with the sun anybody?<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsEl23eq-lA1nUrCRhltRKoe0h2B_HVztAF5Wg8niQSE9ZIV7u9G0RxTmOIiEmu9yaQUXvrqGA2Wsb3LIVK_XLQ7Jr2eQ59dDZtpDUfbQBYBY8fTQyS7QMhehh5mu3R2mNZggeh1gadzU/s1600-h/DSC00107.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsEl23eq-lA1nUrCRhltRKoe0h2B_HVztAF5Wg8niQSE9ZIV7u9G0RxTmOIiEmu9yaQUXvrqGA2Wsb3LIVK_XLQ7Jr2eQ59dDZtpDUfbQBYBY8fTQyS7QMhehh5mu3R2mNZggeh1gadzU/s400/DSC00107.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5071109880924998050" border="0" /></a> Isn't it beautiful?<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixCE35gHF0t-_bXCXqegm_CcOx5vL9KkGLNOKHGhR-SeWXUP3DSBOdY-1kjz681IJLtkhLC01441YFCWqK4ojHfh4o9Zh-UeM3W74l4u1sRlz5RURb7mXt0jIrvFNWeYoB9U1EeIoJkQE/s1600-h/DSC00111.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixCE35gHF0t-_bXCXqegm_CcOx5vL9KkGLNOKHGhR-SeWXUP3DSBOdY-1kjz681IJLtkhLC01441YFCWqK4ojHfh4o9Zh-UeM3W74l4u1sRlz5RURb7mXt0jIrvFNWeYoB9U1EeIoJkQE/s400/DSC00111.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5071147655162366386" border="0" /></a> This is what is known as the rays spreading far and wide<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiILz55Xv6VB04PZliRTVqs3My4jKyOW-g_85z1cMfilA7tcgpx-ykhJISUkbtb_EzTaBJ7GeYK7LuQReqBvQZw5IIMmJgsKC18qLKaD3XzOt6WYjmvb-J-MgtkBbC-oXrc5BDyLVy4JJk/s1600-h/DSC00115.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiILz55Xv6VB04PZliRTVqs3My4jKyOW-g_85z1cMfilA7tcgpx-ykhJISUkbtb_EzTaBJ7GeYK7LuQReqBvQZw5IIMmJgsKC18qLKaD3XzOt6WYjmvb-J-MgtkBbC-oXrc5BDyLVy4JJk/s400/DSC00115.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5071148956537457106" border="0" /></a> Stare at the sun and you will think that it is a lamp shade.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKnVcbQB-6G44Z0wJJL3TQAhKA6SgvZnhkQ7NZ8w1jYuufQcixDNVF1pEj0cY7-BuoTdv5ThOdSr0_fpWBzcrnT1-wokYrQ3ksESeife5hid_EtSYCIEBQClhV8ljOoICEogr1U2aZwVg/s1600-h/DSC00116.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKnVcbQB-6G44Z0wJJL3TQAhKA6SgvZnhkQ7NZ8w1jYuufQcixDNVF1pEj0cY7-BuoTdv5ThOdSr0_fpWBzcrnT1-wokYrQ3ksESeife5hid_EtSYCIEBQClhV8ljOoICEogr1U2aZwVg/s400/DSC00116.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5071149991624575458" border="0" /></a> On its way.....................<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2Ai1IZKaK-Sf5MDNZjoDfFzbfGImn16BqOLN97v861aBLJ2m8u0EOSKfZ8MOiTxsw1ce_zEKHDhH7ARaRKhUh1fXUmyUMsD6qiXmLC-9SjFjh6FmkkAF6XuLe2ADQ3ebBNeB2cI4nqpo/s1600-h/DSC00117.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2Ai1IZKaK-Sf5MDNZjoDfFzbfGImn16BqOLN97v861aBLJ2m8u0EOSKfZ8MOiTxsw1ce_zEKHDhH7ARaRKhUh1fXUmyUMsD6qiXmLC-9SjFjh6FmkkAF6XuLe2ADQ3ebBNeB2cI4nqpo/s400/DSC00117.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5071151490568161778" border="0" /></a> ..................to make way for the moon.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv5s22hprxLCgvRnLLM4AD6haO1PLK1E4GDfaXuWOqvYMWi13azCt-t9F9VDw2Mv0LmxM74_a8dMs65YHPwqLGz0Zbkoqo5Ow8iER1vLab17b-bAajl3Yrc1MaBl_wUOFVgBMh-9l90cE/s1600-h/DSC00118.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv5s22hprxLCgvRnLLM4AD6haO1PLK1E4GDfaXuWOqvYMWi13azCt-t9F9VDw2Mv0LmxM74_a8dMs65YHPwqLGz0Zbkoqo5Ow8iER1vLab17b-bAajl3Yrc1MaBl_wUOFVgBMh-9l90cE/s400/DSC00118.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5071152542835149314" border="0" /></a>Time for the NIGHT BIRDS to come out into the moonlight, i meant their sunshineDiary of An Angelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15285038146993570425noreply@blogger.com1