Symbification

Dear reader,

Let me warn you... This is gonna be a VERY long post.. i had it saved on my laptop since the 2nd of October, but i haven't been able to post it till now, the 2nd of November.. Gees, i'm hoping having the internet on my laptop NOW doesn't lemme slow down easily... Plz leave any comments if u think something needs a change.. I'm a little rusty... Welcome back to my world!

It’s been more than two whole months since I last wrote here (properly) and now, I’m FINALLY doing this from my very own Laptop!!! It’s FINALLY HERE!!! And of course, before it reached, a LOT had happened here...

Life has been Symbi-fied and these two months already seem like 2 years that have passed by. So much has happened in such little time – it’s astonishing! I tried writing down what I’d want to blog in a notebook and then try typing it off in a cyber cafe but the pace of things here was too much to let that become a possibilty... so basically, the things I would have jotted down in excruciating detail will now just be lines instead of chapters as most of them have become ‘just another day’s and would just seem repetitive and boring, unlike how they felt in reality... This way, they’ll help me live with my new found laziness and help you get to know this place better, faster.

I’m kind of lost and I just don’t know where to begin... so much has happened and so much more has already changed around here, I don’t know if it makes sense to tell you certain stories... but anyhow, I’ll get you started with my first official day in college, I mean, that was one of the main reasons I had to start blogging in the first place!

17^th July 2008 (The Journey Begins):

I walked into the college for our orientation session. The day before, I had set the stuff in my room, most of it at least, and gotten to really speak to my room-mate and former school-mate Joash, who funny enough, I had never really known or spoken to in school! Anyway, when we reached the reception area of Symbiosis Institute of Design (SID), we were asked to head to the auditorium where the faculty would welcome us... Meanwhile, at the desk, Jo bumped into a friend from back home, Sneha. These two were in the same tuition classes back in Delhi and they said they’re hellos and exchanged phone numbers. After the session, which had its own shares of boredom and fun, we went down to the mess area for lunch after which both our mom’s left us in our new room and left. I was finally set out in the world, alone, without the constant watch of my parents. Jo and I caught up, being from the same school helped a lot because we understood most of our jokes and had a lot to talk about too. While we were talking, Jo got a call from Sneha. She asked the two of us if we would want to join her and a few other friends of hers – Tanvi, Shrishti, Priyata and Vasundhara – from her hostel at Shisha (a hang out spot here, serves hookah and drinks and all that, great ambience) and since we didn’t have anything to do, and wanted to meet new people and make new friends, we agreed to tag along... I’ve got to be honest, both of us, were slightly apprehensive and thought that there was something fishy and even considered not going. It felt a little weird the way things were at the time but being Columbans, we decided to go anyway. And it was indeed a good decision that we took. Even though we ended up each spending 200 bucks on our very first days, after all the lectures our parents gave us about spending wisely, it didn’t really pinch. All 7 of us agreed we had a great time and knew we made good friends. Despite all that fun, we all being hostellers, did have deadlines to follow. So we caught rickshaws (which are so much more expensive than those back home!!!) and headed back to our respective hostels, JUST in time and JUST before the guards shut the gates! WHAT A FIRST DAY!!! We all hoped this journey wouldn’t slow down and every day could be this awesome... Once we were back, Jo and I just sat up and talked in general, got to know each other better and dozed off looking forward to the next day...

As the days went on, the fun just multiplied and life seemed to get better and bigger by the minute... I had a good bunch of friends with whom I’d regularly storm the Cafe Coffee Day a couple hundred metres from the college premises and every other day, if not EVERY day, we would figure out something or the other to do. Everything was so new, the places and people... there was so much in store for us to explore... it felt like an endless ride of magnifying fun and joy! Every one of us felt a tight bond being formed and loved every minute of life here... Whether it was sitting on the couches at CCD not ordering anything for hours or our first visit to High Spirits (and by god was that memorable!!!) or the first time we played football here and killed ourselves... I remember us limping around like wounded soldiers after some huge war – pretty funny sight! All of these moments... hanging out after college hours at Faaso’s (this tiny roll store just outside college) or eating Smoked Chicken and Cheese rolls with “Meow” (inside joke : The owner couldn’t pronounce MAYO too well... :P) at Wrap-a-Round or even loitering around aimlessly and ending up at the college campus – whether at the Slabs outside the Gym/Audi or the Amphitheatre or the Canteen... It was the kind of stuff we had started looking forward to after a long day of college.

Of course, one can’t deny that SID is no ordinary college... We hardly have the clichéd systems most colleges around the country follow... Just the comparison between the Symbiosis Centre for Management Studies (SCMS) or Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication, which are in the same CAMPUS as SID is so immense, one might not think we study in college at all. It’s a different tradition that we design students can follow and we do so gladly.

We don’t have uniforms. We don’t have to stay glued to our seats in our classrooms. Our classrooms aren’t stepped. We don’t have benches and tables. We have chairs and inclined boards. We don’t need to stay in class once we get our attendance (we have quite a bit of freedom when it comes to working in college during college hours – really, all they want of us is to submit our work, and good work, on time). We don’t have lectures. We don’t have any course books. WE DONT HAVE TESTS! Our teachers explain our daily tasks and head back to the faculty room, where we are free to go ask them any questions we want to, any time during college! We don’t have to WRITE stuff, we have to DRAW, COLOR and PLAY AROUND!!! Most classes we have are like extra-curricular for most others. And most of all, we have the FREEDOM to have FUN! ITS A VERY DIFFERENT CULTURE THAN MOST PEOPLE ARE USED TO (plus the guys to girls ratio is 1:2 or more. You think I would mind?)

For us, college isn’t too much of a burden, in fact, it hardly ever is. It’s fun and it’s something a lot, if not all or most of us look forward to each day. And there’s almost always something to do in or around college every now and then. The classes remind me of the happy times or junior and middle school when I used to carry stationery to the art room and feast on colour. All this is so exciting and so much fun it’s hard to get over it! It’s how I used to imagine my time-table to be like back in school, the only difference is that list also had a few P.T. periods in it. But it’s the next best I could ask for, so I’m not complaining.

Now, I wrote all of the above the day before so i have some catching up to do. Pardon the abruptness if it arises...

Anyway, so my point thus far was how much different our college is from most others around and how we had a totally different culture in this place. There was this amazing connection we people had – Jo was like a long lost friend, a complete stranger, so to say, but so familiar. Being from the same school, even though we never knew each other back then, had a lot of up’s! There was so much we had to talk about and there was so much we said that no other soul but one of a Columban would understand! Mehr (who we met on our second day of college), was from Carmel Convent and both our schools have quite a history together. In fact, we didn’t remember until later that both Jo and I had met Mehr during our class 10 social! Sneha... i don’t know what it was that we had, but we just clicked! A couple of days of talking made us feel as if we knew each other since forever! Tanvi (pronounced T-aaaaaaaaaaaa-nvi) became the butt of most jokes in just a weeks time and it was hard to spend time in a group without her. She added that fun element in the group. Vasundhara left college after a few days. Shrishti and Priyata were always friends but we weren’t too close probably because we still spent most of our days apart and our timings were different (them being from SIMC). And around this time, more and more people kept adding to the group – Antariksh (or Antarix/Anthrax/Anti etc etc), Madhav (6’4 tall – one of the reasons we bonded well... it was and is more fun to crack tall-short jokes in a twosome!), Littil (yes, that is his real name – and just like Malayalam, it can be spelt backwards. And he has a huge bush of hair on his head – kinda like the guy from Wolfmother) was a hit too and Saurabh (our very own fl-ABS – the ‘fl’ is silent) was the guy cracking all the jokes. The seniors John and Ehrli were popular amongst the group too. Later additions were Keegan and Brendon and the group still gets bigger... So basically, there are a lot of varied elements in the group that add their own to make every moment fun and special and in general, awesome!

Anyway, this is how things started out here... that was 2 months back. A lot more has happened and there’s a lot more to write. But I’m tired. This was a long post so probably you are too. I’ll write back soon, i promise. Next time around, ill tell you the story of our Freshers party.

Till then,

\m/.rock.in.peace.\m/

Life Symbi-fied

Dear reader,

Its almost been two whole months since I've shifted base from Delhi to Pune for college and a lot has been going on... College is a whole new world all together, and just like any other journey, it has its own share of ups and downs, good times and boring ones... But two months away from home have already felt like a couple of years!!! So many new people, new places to see and new things to do can get really hectic and really mind-boggling! Its also added up to one LONG (though amazing) story which you'll have to wait for a little longer...

And my apologies for posting after all this time... i myself felt like a little part of me vanished for awhile... But honestly, its a bit hard to manage the blog and check the mails and od everything on the internet without a laptop. If you dont have one, it just doesnt help to have a wi-fi enabled campus and room :( But hey, my parents have already ordered my laptop and it'll be waiting for me in Delhi till i can pick it up... what could be more amazing is if some of you could travel upto Pune and hand it over to me... Imagine the good the world will get out of that! You get to travel, you get to meet ME, I could show you around a little bit, AND i'll get my laptop (and have the power to CHANGE THE WORLD WITH A CLICK OF A BUTTON!!) and get back to blogging, chatting and living life to the fullest! :D THINK ABOUT IT!!!

But anyway, till i do get access to a pc, all i got is this cyber cafe to check my mails and it pinches to pay this guy so much everytime so this is when i buzz off...

Till next time...

\m/rock.in.peace\m/

The Epic Finale

Dear reader,

Now is the time i tell you about the best football watching experience i have personally had.

The Event : The EURO 2008 FINALS (Spain v/s Germany)
Date : 29th July 2008
Time : 11.3 pm onwards
Venue : My drawing room

The day had started out with Daksh, Neelesh and Marshel, all reaching my place in time for lunch after which we headed to play a football match in the locality. Once that was done and we were drained out of most of our energy, we headed home, looking for something to cool us down but instead, ended up drinking cold drinks at Bonny's place (again). Once that was done, i took money that Bonny had collected from the people who said they would watch the match @ my place and handed it over to me along with 3 Domino's Pizza Coupons, each of which said "Buy ANY large/medium pizza and get the other of the same or lesser value absolutely free!"

I was told who all were watching the match : Daksh, Neelesh, Marshel, Bonny, Tin Tin, Niloy, Dushu, Adarsh, Subir, Kushagra, Sandy and Me! THAT'S 12 PEOPLE, incase you wanna recount! And 12 people would obviously need to eat and if they eat, they would need something to drink, right?

THIS was the menu :
6, yes SIX LARGE pizzas from Domino's.. SIX!!! I've never seen so many boxes of pizza stacked over one another, atleast never at someone's house, let alone mine! They were:
2 non-veg extravaganzas!
1 veg extravaganza
1 meatzaa
1 mexican red wave and
1 golden delight!!!

IT WAS A TREAT TO THE EYES.. and later to the belly :P

Apart from this, we had 3x2l bottles of Coke, Fanta and Sprite plus one bottle of Catch soda.

-D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S-

Once everyone digested the fact that we did indeed have so much to chew on that night, we let our eyes watch a bit of the football action too. The room was filled by a fair share of support for either side... The couches were all filled, the rocking chair was occupied and the bean bags rested their reserved occupants (myself included) and it was kick-off time. A brilliant match, made only better thanks to the presence of not one friend or 2, but 11! Though the real match became only 2nd most important as the night progressed, the pizzas and the coke all made for one EPIC experience.. The result was great too... It felt good that Spain triumphed... They played good football and deserved to win it. Plus, they were my no.1 team in the tournament and the german side was third (the Netherlands held 2nd place, not that all this matters anymore anyhow) :P

All the mayhem was followed by a cool stay over by some of the guys. The day was fun. The night was awesome. Damn, I'm gonna miss times like this when I'm gone.

:(

Anyway, until next time

\m/.rock.in.peace.\m/

Triple Sundae

Dear reader,

Like i told you last time, i was doing my best to have as much fun as i possibly can with as many people as is possible.. I had gone bowling and played football, both on the comp and on the street, with a few friends... i had a crazy football watching experience, most of which involved more vegetables and air conditioners than actual football and a funny visit to a mall with another group of buddies and promised you I'd let you in on more at a later time.

That time is now.

The day after the escapade to the mall (which was incidentally most of our first ride on the new low-floor buses running in Delhi), I had plans to meet up with my friends from DPS VK. I was lured into meeting up with these people, most of whom were really just acquaintances, and a couple of new faces, by a set-up plan between my friends Surabhi and Neelesh, who very cleverly, asked me to reach Essex farms, a place we'd hung out a few times prior (and had a couple of the best days of my life) and a game of bowling was on the cards. However, when i did reach after an hour in an auto, thanks to the ever increasing and ever-slowing Delhi traffic, i was told by Neelesh (who was waiting with a dipsite, Poorak, at essex) that the plan had changed and that we were now headed to somewhere we never heard of in Vasant Kunj (which was familiar territory for the dipsites since well, it was where they went for school... And they went FOR school but landed up elsewhere... ask any kid now and the story stays the same!)

As we sat in the auto, making conversation out of nothingness, Neelesh finally called up Nandini (the other person i hadn't met prior to this day) to ask her where we guys were supposed to land up. In the most hilarious third person witness to a phone call I've had in recent times, all three of us were left almost clueless about whether the restaurant we had to meet the ladies in was called something bastard, killing mustard, stealing mustard and what not. Eventually, despite ignoring my very bright suggestion of messaging us the name of the place, nandini ended up spelling the name and we realised we were looking for a place by the name of Flaming Mustard!

When we finally got there, we took our seats at the table, all seven of us, and made random conversation. There was obviously a lot of catching up to do cuz it had been really long since i last met most of these people but from the corner of my eye, i noticed the waiter had walked to our table, stood there and gone, four times over. On his next visit to the table, we finally said "Could we have a bottle of water please?" The dumbstruck expression on his face was, to say the least, priceless! But soon after that, everyone ordered real food, cracked a few jokes that would be useless to write about here cuz i doubt ANYONE getting ANY of them, paid the bill and walked to the Nirula's near-by. As we browsed to the colorful ice-creams on display, i got caught up in a dilemma. 3 flavours - Delhi Delite, Black Currant and Butter-scotch. HOW THE HELL WAS I TO CHOOSE ONE!? I tried everything... Inky-pinky-ponky, choosing random fingers, etc.. NOTHING WORKED! I needed to buy a 3-in-1 create your own sundae! Nothing else would do... As i bit into one of the few Hot Chocolate Fudge's on the table, i begged people to pitch in with just a LITTLE bit more money so i could go ahead an buy that thing. It took me almost till the end of the HCF to convince Neelesh to spare some money before i could finally feast on the only thing in the world that was on my mind at the time! By the end of the boat, when the ice-cream became more cream than ice and floated about with its chocolate topping, i was way more than full to the stomach and wanted out. With a last gasp of energy, i finished the sundae and rushed out of there. What was in store next was nothing i expected. We were now supposed to go to Monica's house to play. But since we guys couldn't enter her home, "we" decided it would be a great idea to play cricket and football at her lawns. The bigger challenge was fitting 7 people into one Santro! But we were determined to get in there, plus, we were all so full no one had the energy to walk! We had to adjust a lot, and people sat in awkward positions (except the tall guys :P ) but it wasn't a very long drive and it was over pretty soon. Getting out of the car, however, felt really good. Honestly. I'd much rather walk sometimes!!!

Anyway, we took out a set of cricket stuff and headed to the park, split into two teams: Poorak, Surabhi and Me v/s Neelesh, Nandini, Monica and Shruti. We altered the rules for us guys and relaxed some for the ladies but the match was one of the most entertaining games I've ever seen or played in! Soon, our team had kicked ass and overcome the opponents and everyone jumped, almost literally, to get a sip of water. And as awkwardly as I'm gonna put this, everyone "suddenly" realised it was getting late and that they all had to go back home!

And that's what we ended up doing... After shouting "AUTO!! AUTO!!" for about 15 minutes, we reached an un-interesting part of this story and eventually made our way back home.

I invited Neelesh to join Daksh, Marshel and a few of my friends to watch the EURO finals at my place the next day (which he confirmed later that he would) and headed home in a bus.

More on that EPIC day of the finals in my next blog entry.

Till then,

\m/.rock.in.peace.\m/

Coming Home

Dear reader,

I apologise for not being a consistent blogger in the past few weeks but then again, i have been really busy first with admission and not having internet access and now, trying to spend as much time as i possibly can with my friends, near and dear, before i part ways and head to college. Just the thought of it burns up a hole inside of me and meeting all these people is so far the best remedy to it... And i have had to fight a sudden outburst of tiredness so its all really just uphill right now.

And ever since I've returned from an unusually dull trip to Maharashtra, I've had quite a few eventful days in the home state - Ah! GOOD OL' DELHI! And for those of you less familiar with my friends, you should know that i have a few groups of friends.. not all fond of each other, but still meaning the same to me.. most of 'em atleast.

See, there are a few of groups from school. The ones i would hang out with a lot and spend most of my time with, and my closer(est) friends - Daksh, Marshel, Tejesh, etc - the guys who study way too much for my liking and hence, find me absent from any conversations that are remotely linked to any text books - Akaash, Angad, Arjun, etc - and there are the other friends, people I've known for most of my school years, now much more than acquaintances but still not the closest to me - Too many people to name here. Then, there are the Bash Brothers, a gang of friends from Mayur Vihar, the ones I've hung out most with in the last dozen months - Bonny, Prasid, Niloy, TinTin, Adarsh, Dushu, etc. There are people from other schools that I've grown really close to as well - Surabhi, Mansha, Shweta, Mriganka, Apeksha, etc. I have people from various tuitions and classes I've attended and so on.. So basically, there are quite a few groups, and not all the people are ok being around people from other groups but they all mean just as much to me as friends.

And basically, i have a lot of people i would want to meet before going away from this city, and i dont have all the time in the world to do that. And of course, something or the other comes up and screws some plan of mine every now and then.

(left upto this point as a draft last time i was blogging. CONTINUING...)

So anyway, like i was saying, i have to fight this tiredness of mine and go meet as many people as i can, as many times as i can 'cause the futures of everyone at present is pretty uncertain and i might not get a chance to meet quite a few of these people, perhaps, ever in my lifetime (DAMN! The thought of it sucks too!)

And from the day after i came, i got straight to it. Now, I've been so occupied meetin all my friends, hanging out all day, stretching it till the evenings that i cant recall most meetings in details and have almost forgotten how each day passed!

The highlights, however, have stuck to my head... This is the stuff i CAN recall well (sorry for having a loose memory of the other stuff.. but its all been fun!):

I came back on the 22nd.. The first real time i went out wid frnsd was with Akaash, Angad, Arjun Masters and Vansh... Met @ KFC, ate a chicken bucket @ 11 AM :P went bowling (2 awesome games), had a couple of cold drinks, went to angad's place.. played one on one FIFA for a while.. then went downstairs and played football (i made angad's hand numb from my kicks, which were weirdly powerful) and went back home.. That was t be the last time i saw Arjun, who has already left for his Law college in Raipur. Everyone else will follow outwards soon..

The next big outing was the stupidest and one of the most fun times off late...This one is with Bonny, Tintin, Adarsh and Akash. We guys (excluding adarsh and incl. Dushu) had decided to watch the Spain vs Russia EURO 2008 semi-final together and akash volunteered to host it. We reached his place at 11.30.. loaded up bowls of ice-cream and sat to watch the match. Almost halfway through the game, the score being 0-0, everyone felt too hot for comfort (the room was non a.c. and the fan was just NOT enough) and we had started looking for alternatives (p.s. it didn't even take 5 minutes for the ice cream to melt!!!). Now, the same day, my mom had gone back to pune 'cuz a couple of my documents still had to be submitted (by hand) and she wanted to take some rest from all the berserk traveling and decided to extend her stay there so she could rest at her cousins place. So, i called my dad (at almost 1 am) and asked him if it was ok if the guys and i came home 2 watch the match and that all of us would leave (supposedly for a movie) the morning after and half asleep alright, he agreed. And so, we all boarded tintin's car and headed to a place i call home and were just in time for the 2nd half's kick off.. By this time, everyone had a few thousand rats in their stomachs as a result of which, most of us ended up brishing up on our cooking skills in the kitchen, preparing some really good pasta and omelette's :P We'd peep into the TV everytime some scored or came close to doing so and at about the 80th minute, took our seats with the food in our plates and watched the game out. Soon after, all us tired boys took refuge under blankets and prepared to wake up early next morning so as not to miss out on the first day first show of HANCOCK (or so we thought we'd get to see).

When we did wake up next morning, most of us at 9 am (we had thought we'd go see the 10am morning show :P ), we opened the newspapers only to then realise we were a week early for hancock and there was really just a choice of Hulk and another movie we later decided not to watch at all. We did go to the mall, but ended up each eating 2.5 burgers, spending grand money at Amoeba and its video games, and drinking the best fruit beer and WORST soda pop's (bought from the dollar store) EVER! I mean, a couple of flavors were really just plain pathetic but we gulped em down anyway. Oh yea, funny story... We had to go into archies to buy something (bonny wanted this cool beer mug with a cycle bell on its handle :P) and were asked to enter without the drinks and decided to leave em at the gate. Now, this store had 2 exits. We entered from the one far from the mall's exit and obviously, since we had to leave after getting out of the store, headed out from other gate. Tittu and I realised we had to get the cans from the guard and took em, and not realising it, walked back through the store and while taking a long sip from my can, i realised and said, "Oye tiittu, you realise you're not supposed to bring eatables inside, let alone DRINK em here!" after which he laughed and his soda went up his nose :P

But yea, we left the mall and stood at the bus stop hoping the next bus home would be one of the beautiful new low-floors we went to the mall in. It wasn't. And getting to sit in a seat where someone must've thrown up at the window, with nowhere else to go, for about 30 mins was nothing short of horrible and just plain horrific!

But it was all part of an experience, one that has taken quite a bit of time to pen down here and has now made me tired enough to choose to publish this for the time being and continue this story at a later time. There's more fun in store in the next few days so i gotta go live it up and soak it in.

Till next time,

\m/.rock.in.peace.\m/

My Manly Blue Umbrella

Dear reader,

Here I am, sitting in an air-conditioned room during the half-time break of two EURO matches, the first chance since its inaugration i have the chance to view in totalilty, at my cousins house in andheri. The journey to this chair and the keyboard of his laptop has been far FAR more complicated. To put it very simply, this has been my schedule since i left for Mumbai from Delhi:

• 8th June : Delhi -(flight)- Mumbai -(train)- Lonavala


• 9th June : Lonavala -(bus)- Pune -(train)- Lonavala


• 10th June : Lonavala -(train)- Pune -(train)- Lonavala


• 12th June : Lonavala -(bus)- Mumbai


• 14th June : Mumbai -(bus)- Lonavala


• 16th June : Lonavala -(train)- Pune -(train)- Lonavala


• 17th June : Lonavala -(bus)- Mumbai

And mind you, this is all excluding the number of local trains, cars, taxis, auto-rickshaws and buses I've had to travel in in each of the cities!!! My schedule here has been crazy and maddening (and its drained almost all my energy out!)

But anyhow, all this was part of an experience... and i've seen and experienced a LOT of things... I've eaten duck, turkey and almost emu soup and crab soup, I've ridden in an amazing, classic open army jeep at 80k's in the night :D, cooked chicken on a BBQ :D and seen the strangest mix of people in the strangest of places. And amidst a lot of chaos, I cleared and got into Symbiosis Institute of Design (SID) for the Product Design course :D

Oh yea, and the name of the topic, that's from one of the meaningless conversations i had to shoo away my sister.. for a whole day, whenever i was asked to carry the umbrella, i'd ask her to pass my manly blue umbrella :P


(sorry, i wrote all this a few days ago, when i was in Mumbai... couldn't complete it and post it... if i dont post it as it is, i probably never will..)

Rainy Days

Dear reader,
Like i told u earlier, i had to bail out of my admission into Raffles Design Institute, Mumbai, because no Indian Banks were giving a loan for it and the ones that did, expected me to repay the loan @ 50000 a month for 36 months after passing out of college. IN YOUR DREAMS!
The news had almost broken my heart. Everything was planned and final for my college life in bombay, except this loan and it killed it! I thought my world had come to an end and all options blurred in front of my eyes. I had missed two interviews that i had cleared the entrance tests for and I had only seen the score of the Symbiosis institute of design entrance test with no idea of getting selected for the Studio test. Little did i know that my name WAS on the list. I got to know only after my mom called SID and they told us to check the website. This was on Thursday. My Studio test was scheduled for Monday! I had 2 days to come up with a portfolio, collect all my certificates and pack my bags and head to Maharashtra. And thanks to my parents and a few friends of mine who helped me sort out stuff for my portfolio, i managed to do all that by Saturday night and was ready to depart from the airport early on Sunday morning.

A magnificent flight aboard the Kingfisher Airlines took us to Mumbai while I watched Friends, listened to some good music and watched the spectacular scenario outside my window wishing i had my camera handy. We were welcomed into the city by streets that had been cleaned by the rain gods and it being a Sunday, streets that remained clear thanks to the sleeping Mumbai-kars. Once we got to my masi's house in Andheri, we freshened up, ate quick lunch and headed to the railway station and another one after it to get onto a train to my mama's house in Lonavala, while we got our first rains in Bombay. I was going to put up at my Mama's house and travel to Pune by a local to give my studio test next morning. And through all the rain and chaos, we reached Lonavala and settled down by nightfall and after filling up on some vada-pav, retired to bed.

After waking up the next morning, i quickly got ready, took my portfolio and headed to the station to catch the next train to Pune. My studio test was scheduled at 2.30 but we wanted to get to Pune before hand so that the rain would mess things up. But for a minute, they did. The next train to Pune was delayed by an hour and twenty minutes. Waiting for that, at the risk of a further delay, was out of the question as it would become last minute and so, we boarded a bus and reached Pune well in time. We ate lunch at a restaurant near the Bus Depot and rushed to the campus. I was startled to see it too. It was almost as if i entered a Mall and this was where i would have to study for 4 years if i got in. My last chance at college this year seemed like a blessing. It left me awestruck at first site and i was now determined to get in. The test that awaited me, however, was another chapter. Out of the four topics i had to choose from, i chose to depict the feeling of MISERY through a 3-D model using the materials provided (ice-cream sticks, matchsticks, glue, ribbon, thread, needles, wire, etc etc..). I chose the topic cause i was sure not many would and that mine would be different. But contrary to the simplicity of my sketch of an ice-cream stick with matchstick hands was commiting suicide by stabbing himself with a board pin, was a lot harder than i could ever have thought it would be. Halfway into it, i almost gave up all hope but SOMEHOW, and i don't know HOW, but i completed it. I FELT MISERABLE once i was through and walked out of the hall with my head hanging low and all hopes almost shattered after i saw the great stuff people in just my room had made! But my mom and mama urged me to not lose hope and were confident that i'd get through. A couple of hours later when the results did come out, i DID! I was ecstatic and had a huge smile accross my face and felt lighter in the heart. And after all the tension, we headed back home by a train which eventually stalled a km or two from our destination station and we had to walk back to the car. Anyhow, i had to get some good sleep that night, since my interview the next day was scheduled for 7.20pm... i had plenty of time in my hand and my portfolio was all ready, so i didn't have to worry about anything. And the next day i went for my interview, this time minus the hassles in getting there. All interviews were, however, running late by an hour and i was told mine would be only after 8.30.. I wiled away time waiting for this one last chance i had to come. My roll no. was announced. 880760, please head to the second floor. And so i did. After seeing the files and folders of the people in my room, i felt a little under-prepared but this time, i didn't lose my confidence. I knew my work was worthy of a selection and i had thought of the questions and answers the panel would throw at me, and though i was a little worried they wouldn't give me much time, but they gave me sufficient. This time, i ran down the stairs with a smile on my face, a lot more confident than the day before. Tired, but relieved. I ran and told my mom, "lets get the pizzas you were talking about". We ate dinner, and climbed aboard a train that would take us home, and even that didn't screw up this night. After a good nights sleep, i woke up to an early wake up call and got ready to board a volvo back to mumbai and overslept in it while dosing on my stock of music. It hasn't really stopped raining here, all these days, it only seems to increase day in and day out. But still, life is moving on. I went to my sister's rented apartment, put bags there, went shopping with mom and headed to andheri to spend the night with my cousins. I'm writing this in a hurry and now, wrapping it up cause i need to rush back to my sisters apartment for the next two nights. Wish me luck for my result which comes out this saturday and take care.

Till next time,

\m/rock.in.peace\m/

Going away

hey reader..

I'm sorry for not having blogged in the past two days.. was too busy making my portfolio.. I'm flying to Bombay in the morning.. have an interview @ Symbiosis Inst. of design in Pune on the 9th... i know i had said i got into raffles and all that but there were a lot of hiccups when it came to taking a loan... i NEEDED one but it isn't recognised by the I govt so no bank was willing to give the loan.

Symbi was my next choice so still lucky to get a chance.. ill be back home on the 17th.. gonna check results there and come, in case i get in and need to pay the fees..

WISH ME LUCK!

till then,

\m/rock.in.peace\m/

Stepping Forward

Dear reader,

Like i had told you earlier, i had just had the weirdest couple of weeks of my life... My grandmother passed away, the football club i supported lost two of the footballing world's biggest prizes and the girl of my dreams wanted to breakup for a reason i can never explain to myself. But that was not where these two weeks would get over. There was still one more day i had to get through.

23rd May 2008

This was the day my board results were scheduled to come out. The website said they would release the marksheets at 8am. Most of the people i spoke to the day before, whether online, on the phone or face to face, were a nervous wreck. This is what they spent 13 years in school for - this is what it would all come down to - one sheet of paper that could change their future.

I, on the contrary, was only really worried about passing my maths exam. I had realised a couple of weeks prior to this day that my practical marks would probably clear me in physics and chemistry but my maths was horrific (i had attempted 41 marks!!).. But i wasn't the wreck most of my friends were... i slept late the night before, wanting to play a whole night of the games on my desktop (FIFA, CS, etc etc) and so, woke up at 8.30.. A major reason behind this was my mom, who begged me to wake up and check my score so i could tell all my aunts calling up again and again my marks myself and that dad had already printed my marks (Guess who was the wreck at my place) :P

I had passed... i got a 65% overall, which was fine for me because all i needed was to clear all my exams and get at least 70 in english to apply to Raffles Design Institute (the college i had narrowed down upon), but would probably make most of my engineering aspirant friends want to kill themselves... A few calls later, i was ecstatic with not just my marks, but also cuz' i got to know that most of my friends had done well and were pretty happy.

After gulping down a portion of bread for breakfast, i freshened up and headed to CR Park (my grandma's house, where another of the post-cremation ceremonies was scheduled for the afternoon) in an auto-rickshaw with my mom. We bought sweets on the way and once we got there, i took that packet along with a couple of bags of stuff we needed for the puja and walked into the house. For about half an hour, i was congratulated by my aunts and uncles, then my cousins and in the process, got a hefty amount of money and a few gifts here and there. Then, i remembered that my friend Mansha had called me while i was outside the sweet shop and that i had told her i'd call her back when i'd get to my nani's house. I dug deep into my pocket to take my cell phone out. When i didn't, i searched the other pockets and when the phone was absent in all of them, i went on the hunt for it in all the rooms of the house, then an in-depth look into the furniture only to NOT find it. I traced my steps back to the point where i had gotten off the auto and still there was nothing. While i kept calling it from my dad's phone, all i could hear is the tring-tring of the call. Then it became not reachable, then rang again but no one was picking it up. No one switched off the phone. No one had any idea as to where it was. In all probability, i left it in the auto but thats one answer ill never be sure of. What i am sure of is that i lost my N91. It was the best phone i ever had and had stuff in it no new phone could replace. Not only were all my contacts and favourite messages in it, it had rough drafts of songs i had started to write that i hadn't written on my computer. It had photos i don't have anymore. All my music and all my playlists had gone. That phone was my survival, almost. And i LOST it. And trust me on this, i'd rather have it stolen. At least i wouldn't have to live with the guilt of just "DROPPING" it somewhere and would know some poor, yet greedy bastard had ripped it off of me! I was on a low, lower than i could ever imagine myself in.

That wasn't the end of the day. There was to be another high point in it... I called up Kelvin, the admissions officer of Raffles and told him i was in the vicinity (his office is at Nehru Place) and he asked me to reach there at 4. And so i did, with a completed form and a cheque that covered their application fees (I was supposed to have done that two days after my mom left for bombay but the death delayed it till this date). But when i did hand over all the documents to him, kelvin assured me that he had saved me a seat @ the college. That i wouldn't have to worry about waiting for an acceptance letter and that i was accepted already!

I had passed out of school and walked into college on the same day (now, without my phone but i walked thru nonetheless!). I didn't slog in class XII, i didn't stay up all day all night to study for it. I didn't even buy an IIT form. Didn't attend Brilliant Tutorials or Akaash or Narayana or any of those prep classes. I didn't try being a doctor or an engineer. And yet, at the end of the day, with just a 65% that i passed out of school with, i don't have any regrets. All i had was a smile on my face. And the transition from school to college wasn't the only reason for it, infact that was almost nullified by what was the biggure picture, the real reason. I saw my parents smile. I saw them happy, unlike the parents of kids around me, bugging their kids to walk on the safe path. My parents urged me to do what I wanted to and not have any regrets with it. I did. And they were happy. Life seemed to come full circle and i lived up to not my parents, but my own expectations and now set out to achieve my goals and ambitions!

\m/rock.in.peace\m/

The Beautiful Game

Dear reader(s),

Today was pretty boring... most of it anyway. I know that's a pretty awkward start to this post but i really didn't know how to start this time..

Anyway, the interesting part of my day, the time when i wasn't playing on my computer, or sitting online looking at people signing in for 5 seconds and appearing offline (SERIOUSLY PEOPLE!! STOP DOING THAT!!!), i was playing The Beautiful Game. For the less literati of my readers, that is just a translation to a game the world calls FOOTBALL (except the stupid Americans and Australians who'd rather call it "soccer" but whatever).

It was in the early evening, kick off at 5.30 p.m. (everyone was told it would start at 4.30, but come on! This Is INDIAN FOOTBALL!!). Now, there might be a little briefing about the teams and why they were like such before i tell u about this amazing match. The match was basically between Bonny's society against a mixed team comprising players from tintin's society and mine. But, Bonny, Tintin and I, along with Prasid, Niloy, my school friend Marshel (who was playing with us for the first time), Bala, Anant, Shitij, Dhruv, Udit and Noni. Some may ask why and well, simply cause' (a) I don't get along with anyone in my society, (b) We both like playing with our friends (c) Its not half as much fun playing with those bastards that reside in my colony, the same ones I've had my share of fist-fights with!

So anyhow, the game kicked off and well, i wont bore you with minor details cause' i know it cannot be close to being really interesting to have to read a description of each pass made and each wild shot, etc, etc... But ill tell u this. In a VERY, VERY long time (i think BONNY, of all people, has had at least 5 hair cuts since we've been playing together, and trust me, that is a very long time!!), this was one of the best games we've ever had.

P.s. A few of our girl friends (not GIRL FRIENDS, so to say, more like our female friends from Bose's society had come to watch the game... They were in the nearby market and when they got to know we were playing, dropped by to "cheer us along"...

--FIRST HALF--

Like i said, not gonna go into details... But mainly, the other team had scored a goal, well constructed and well finished. We got charged up and went all guns blazing. However, LUCK killed us. I alone had hit the post of the goal and not scored twice. Everyone did the same. If i were to sum up the no., i think there were at least 10 such shots... we were awestruck.. SO CLOSE yet so agonizingly far!! (DAMN I HATE THOSE POLES!!!) ... Imagine, a shot bonny hit, struck the inside of a post, hit the goalie square across the face, fell to Marshel's feet and his shot hit the upright and sailed away!!! DAMMIT!! We lost our steam soon enough, in the hot late-afternoon sun and went into half time a goal down. As we took monstrous sips off a small supply of water, the ladies joked about bonny's and my reduced clothing (we took off our t-shirts.. IT WAS HOT FOR CHRIST'S SAKE!!) and we talked about plans for the second half. Marshel, the star player of the first half, Marshaled the troops along, playing manager-manager (you know, like there's doctor-doctor and ghar-ghar!! :P).. we got a refill of water, re-hydrated our systems and marched back into the field...

--SECOND HALF--

We went a goal down and were pretty confident that a few positional changes would bring us back on level terms with the opposition. We were wrong... The game slipped out of our hands (it was a muddy pitch too!).. In went goals 2 and 3... Almost all hope of coming back and winning was lost. ALMOST.

Then, with a flash of inspiration, i stole the ball from just outside our box, ran like the wind to the other half, dribbling across 2 opponents, crossed the ball to Bonny, whose touch directed the ball to tintin and whose decisive touch guided the ball where it belonged... Into THEIR goal!!
Score: 1-3
Within 2 minutes of restart, another goal, almost identical, by Prasid made the score 2-3!
The Game was coming back into our hands (or more rightly, into our feet), the shots went on target, some still struck their posts, but they could hardly ever find a way into our half of the field... Soon enough another strike by tintin found its way into their goal and we were back into the game... 3-3!!!! FINALLY... As the game went on, everyone checked the time.. It was hot and no one really had much energy left in them... We decided to play till 5 minutes after the next team scored (just to give the others a chance to equalize)... and then, this happened. They were surging into our box, passing smoothly and finding their guys well.. one took a shot at goal and hit Udit's hand... Penalty time.. well taken to.. blasted into the goal and the score was 3-4 now.. with 5 minutes left, we poured men forward and gave it our best, hit the post once (AGAIN) and shot wide a couple of times before i bodies gave up and we called it quits.. shook hands with everyone for a game played well, changed, packed our bags and got going again...

That's just how football is i guess.. you can never really tell what could happen until the final whistle goes, till its all FINALLY over.. A team you could count out could come back from a 3 goal deficit and equalize and then, though the momentum is with them, against their luck, could concede a goal from an unforced penalty. That's why they call it The Beautiful Game...



The next part of my weirdest two weeks' story is about this beautiful game and i guess now is the best time to tell u this tale...

21st May 2008

Luzhniki Stadium in the heart of Russia's capital city Moscow was set to host the first ever all-English final in the history of the UEFA champions league... Manchester United prepared themselves to face Chelsea FC, who appeared in the competition finals for the first time. I was at Bonny's place, along with Prasid, Niloy, Tintin, Dushyant and Aparna. It was probably the biggest game of the season and Chelsea needed to give their fans (myself included) a reason to cheer and went in the more determined of the two teams. The match kicked off at 12.15 am here... The game went well, tensions were high and the events of the days prior to the game had multiplied them. Manchester Utd scored, Chelsea followed suit and leveled the scores. It would stay that way till the end of the 90 minutes of the game.. and nothing changed after 30 minutes of extra time, though Chelsea regularly looked to win it, being the better side in this prestigious tie... They hit the post a few times and surged into the Man U area more often than the reds would please..

However, a few drastic events, including the suspension of Chelsea's strike force, Didier Drogba, drove the game into penalties and everyone had their fingers and hearts crossed. We had together finished 4 large packets of chips and some namkeen apart from the 3 2l bottles of Pepsi, Fanta and coke... Then the shots weer struck. 5 shots later, the scores were tied at 4-4. Then, Chelsea's Anelka struck straight at Van Der Saar and it was all over. Chelsea had to climb the stairs to the podium, heads held as high as was possible, cheered on my their fans and clapped in respect by the oppositions' supporters, to receive their runners up medals. Then, the team in red climbed the same stairs to receive medals of gold and a trophy that meant a lot to not just the European footballers, but the millions who tuned into the game. Though the Man U players posed with their Cup, They knew just as well as the rest of the world that they were, in reality, just the second best team on the pitch. Chelsea deserved to win, but it just wasn't our night.

That's just how the Beautiful Game goes about. You win some, you lose some, but if you go down, u do so with heads held high. Lesson learnt. Match over. Good Night.

\m/rock.in.peace\m/

Indiana Bones

OK.. its been three days since my last post and obviously, i dented my promise to maintain this page like a diary and write in it everyday. But then, that's what happened to all the diaries i enthusiastically started pondering weird stuff in the diaries we were gifted on all those January's since almost when i could write words that made the smallest iota of sense!

Today was, well.. interesting...

I woke up at 8.30... The guys had planned to watch Indiana Jones today (actually wanted to go watch it yesterday but it didn't work out because of the gujjar riots!) Anyway... so the show was at PVR Spice in Noida. It was supposed to screen at 10 and everyone was informed and asked to be up and ready by 9 (MAX!!). BUT.. and that's a big BUT :P.. as usual, someone forgets. Prasid had exams for most of the month and stayed up late almost everyday.. i hardly heard of the guy sleeping. And regardless of how good/bad the guy must have done in the exams, he deserved some sleep. Agreed. BUT WHY TODAY DUDE!! :P And he wasn't the only one. When Bonny (a.k.a. BONES) called me up at 8.30 (yes, when i had JUST woken up), he said we were leaving in 10 minutes (which in the normal English language would translate to about 45 minutes, at least :P). I told him my dads office was 2 mins from spice and that he would drop us there and once he agreed, i went for a bath and got ready by 9. He then asked me to call Prasid up and ask him to reach Anandlok in 15 minutes so we could reach Spice on time. I called him 3-4 times only to get a NO ANSWER. Anyway, only later did we get to know that HE WAS SLEEPING. In the end, Bonny, Niloy and Shankul went with me in my dads car. We reached the hall at 10.15 cause of all the delays caused by the sleeping kids... Met Shardul and Jasmine there too.. and Adarsh.. DUDE!! Who cares if u didn't take a bath till then... THAT'S WHAT DEODORANTS ARE FOR U MORON!! The movie was totally worth it in the end. And well, we had our share of latecomers... Prasid did eventually make it to the hall.. He, along with Akash and Tintin in t2's car and enjoyed the movie just as much.. The movie was followed by a couple of snacks at the in-house haldirams after which i bought another t-shirt and we hit the road back home. Or so we thought. At a little T-point on the road home, i had a fantastic idea of everyone going to sector-18... Actually, we had a match scheduled for today but got a call from one of the guys in the morning informing us that kids have football coaching today in that field and it would be out of bounds! So we hit the gas and parked the ride in sec-18... got off, wondered where the hell to go, checked our total money and hit a few cold drinks, drove back in all safety, parked at anandlok and took to lift to bonny's house. Then, things became LEGEN...wait for it.. DARY!

The first few minutes at his place, we kept increasing the volume of a few special songs to wake up Surender bhaiyya, who had been lying on the couch in the computer room. Once that mission was successful, A lot of fun unfolded. After telling t2 how loud he was in the bathroom, he ravaged out the door only to be welcomed by a pillow aimed at the bridge of his nose by yours truly! Then, random people changed random music, randomly. And the same random people (i.e. Bonny, Niloy, Tintin and me.. Pokey caught up on his sleep through most of this EPIC episode) took random shots at other random people in random groups. The pillows flew across the room like huge bullets in slow-er motion and hit like little cotton filled rocks that left nothing but a puff of dust and a random moron (usually Niloy) in a randomly LOL situation!!! ( i said RANDOM nine times, BTW, plus this once)

The pillow fight lasted about half an hour (which included an AMAZING chain of gang bashes.. the best one on me :P).. Then, we got a little tired and a huge bowl of lemon rice was more than welcome to our empty stomachs. Once the cutlery was cleared away, ROUND 2... FIGHT. BUT.. that one couldn't last too long.. We were to full up. Another tiny break caused by a few phone calls was all it took. ROUND 3 time... THIS TIME.. NO PILLOWS, NO CUSHIONS! Let the bodies hit the floor (or the sofa, whatever makes you happy ;)... CRASH, BOOM, BANG and the bell rang. I don't remember who won. Don't know if there was a clear winner at all. But it was funny. Bonny had passed out by the end of it. His lights were out. Prasid started watching Robin Hood, Men In Tights (the spoof)... this was the movie these people were watching on the night of the champions league final and i had fallen asleep 10 minutes into i, but heard it was good. Saw glimpses of it as Pokey jumped to his favorite scenes and soon enough, i felt the need to get some shut-eye and went back home, listening to the some of the 300+ songs i had finally transferred into my phone last night. I ended up not sleeping at all and just yawning for most of the time that i was online once i did get back home.. Of course, i played a couple of games here and there but that was about it. Then, as people vanished from the Online list, i decided to follow suit and went to the the market for a while. Thought I'd stop by at anandlok and say a few hellos before heading back home and to this desk. Did not expect the event that followed. From out of the blue in the recreation room where the favorite TT table is located, a brawl between two of the guys whose names must remain undisclosed here. And the only good part of it I remember is the slap! Very reminiscent of the slap bet from HIMYM. It was AWESOME! Then it was about time for me to go, mom had ordered Chinese food and that was my call to get my ass back home. Since then, times passed by and the noodles became the most interesting part of the remainder of my day, till the time i started writing this post... Oh and yea, The INDIANA BONES wasn't a spelling error.. that's the IM name Bonny put for himself on MSN Messenger. WAT UP! :P

All in all, the day was.. LEGENDARY.. wait for it.. DARY!

(p.s. I HOPE u have SOME idea of HIMYM cause if u don't, you'll NEVER get my LEGEN-DARY joke :P)

\m/rock.in.peace\m/

The Rat

Dear reader,

I know I've been telling u the never ending story of the two weirdest weeks of my life but today, i wanna tell u a different story.. one that has nothing to do with the weeks that were.. its about today and the stuff that built up to this day. Its the story of "THE RAT"...

DAY1

About three days back, i was up late at night publishing another one of my posts while chatting with my IM friends online at the time.. It must have been around 3 am. I don't really see the time when I'm at the computer.. ESPECIALLY at night but i think it was around that time. And sitting for a long time at the desk obviously tired me and i went to the kitchen to get myself a bottle of water. Now, you must understand the layout of our kitchen to really understand this story... From the door, there's a fridge on the right, followed by the kitchen counter complete with a stove and a rack for some utensils near the window where the room ends just before which, we keep bottles of water at room temperature. On the left is a whole shelf where most of the groceries are placed after which there are some more utensils on a hanging rack and the basin.

I marched into the kitchen to get myself a PET bottle and just as i picked one up... BANG!
Now, i know that might sound very loud here but it wasn't an explosion. And no bottles hit the floor either. But.. IT WAS HORRIFIC. From out of the blue, and for the first time in the EIGHT years we've resided at this house, I SAW A MOUSE.. and not just any other mouse.. it was in all probability, A RAT! And after falling from somewhere around the water purifier (my best guess as to where it came from), and the moment it saw me, that thing ran back up from the shelves and into the cupboards over the counter (i.e. at the top of the ceiling!!) THAT THING CAN CLIMB.. Which made us believe that the only way it could have entered the house was though the kitchen window, and the cupboard was where he had set camp .

A rat wouldn't generally freak me out much but seeing once up THIS close after SO long was overwhelming. I know A LOT of people who would scream at the sight irrespective of the time of the day! What it did do however, was gave me a weird stare from its "campsite". That look was intimidating. So much so it was almost certain to me that it would pounce onto my shoulders if i took even a step to grab the bottle i had dropped to the floor on seeing him. To maintain the peace (and not cuz' i chickened out), i opened the fridge, which was in my half of the kitchen, took out a bottle which felt frozen and REALLY REALLY cold and walked out of the room, closing the door behind me.

DAY 2

The late hours of the night had crept in again. This time, at 2.30 am (yes, i saw the time), i wanted to get a bottle of water (again! i LOVE water, i guess) before i went off to sleep (I like having a bottle in the room in case i get up at night and need some). I walked into the room, this time with a torch in my hand, shining its bright, almost xenon-like lights in the direction i would flash it. And when i aimed it at the bottles in the corner or the room, i saw ITS eyes. Staring down the light as if it were staring at the sun. But it didn't move. This was no ordinary rat, it was a different, superbly intimidating kind. One i had never come across ever before. It scared the living daylights out of me. And i don't know why, i was the only one in the house to have seen him. It was like he PICKED me be his target! Anyway, i repeated the drill from the night before and went off to sleep after checking for rats in my room.

DAY 3

Now it was getting out of hand. I had put a bottle of normal water in my room at 8pm to avoid confronting that stupid THING at night and told my parents to KEEP THE KITCHEN DOOR SHUT! They did. Dad was up till about 1 watching the news and nothing went wrong till then. I thought to myself that perhaps, my little friend had called it a day and found a new CRIB for itself.

I was wrong.

I don't know what was up with this rodent and the 2.30 deadline. Ive heard of werewolves but what the hell was this!? Again, though i tried ignoring the watch, at the strike of 2.30 am, while i was playing a round of counter strike on my computer, in a moment of silence, I heard an unusual sound from the kitchen. Something, maybe a box or so, had fallen. There was not a wind blowing outside and the kitchen door was closed. My parents were both asleep too. I had to get up and check on this. And so i did. While standing at the door, i saw a container of garam masala had toppled from the shelf over the stove onto the floor. IT WAS BACK. As i went to pick the box up, the BEAST squeaked, looked at me and from the top of microwave and the extension of this shelf, ran back to its shed. Lightening had struck not once or twice, but three scary times.

TODAY

Finally, my parents were convinced about the inhibition of the rodent. Afraid it might destroy our kitchen supplies, my mom, dads helper and I set out on a mission. GET RID OF THE RODENT IN ANY WAY POSSIBLE! We shut all the doors to our rooms. And the helper started cleaning out the stuff from the shelf the rat had set camp in. A few sightings of him led to another discovery. This rat was purely non-vegetarian. The only food supply he kept upstairs were a few bones we had thrown into the bin after dinner a few days back. But nevertheless, we took the stuff out, one at a time... Once most of it was out and it started running around, i was handed a stick and the responsibility to beat it against the shelf's wall so as to scare it away to the adjacent door where the helper stood ready with an empty sack we had gotten rice in. A few hundred beats later, it jumped out from the opening, onto the helpers shoulder and to the ground, jumping over the sack successfully.

After this, we spent about an hour continuously tracking it down and then trying to shoo it out of the open door after we realised he was too fast to be caught in a sack. But it just wouldn't give up. I don't know but i reckon he was on some weird drug and his testosterone was sky-rocketing! It ran from point A to B to E and back to B before going to points X Y and Z!!! It went crazy!! And it went everywhere but outside the house!! UNTIL.. Yours truly used his brains.

See, this rat made us clean up most of the mess the house was in (blessing in disguise, truly) and in doing that, a lot of useless boxes had stacked up in the drawing room. Or so the other humans in the room thought. I stacked up the oxes and blocked every way the rat could and would have gone. With one last bang, we got it to sprint, only to find a box in his way. He turned to the other way and guess what... a BOX awaited. After a third such incident, it took the only way it could spot. About an hour and a half after we started the mission, i declared it SUCCESSFUL!

The work wasn't over there though. We had to make sure it wouldn't try finding a way back home. Now, i stay on the third floor. This thing ran down half a flight of stairs and climbed a pipe that's used as a guide-rail. After the helper dashed behind it to shoo it away, it jumped onto the wall and clung on! And surprisingly, started ascending upwards, almost like a Lil rock climber. expertly manoeuvring its way through. I dashed up to the next floor with a broom to knock it down and when i saw it, in a sudden blink of an eye, the helper took a ball of mud from the plant on the balcony and knocked it down all three floors!! I saw it plummet to the ground with a wry smile on my face. My nemesis had gone. I was victorious and the war was over. Finally tonight, i can grab myself a bottle of a desired temperature and not have to worry about a rat pouncing on me!!!

:D

\m/rock.in.peace\m/

Trust

Dear reader,

I'm sorry for last night. I was desperate to get some sleep in. Anyway, the next chapter is here... i've tried to find ways of ignoring this bit and moving on but i think its best if i get this confusing phase off my chest...

--TRUST--

It had been a couple of days since i had come back from Haridwar, with a lot changed in the way i thought and my perception of things. It was here.. I'm sorry ill have to edit most of the details here since all the people in this story are still very dear to me and i don't wanna mess things up with anyone.

-- INFORMATION REMOVED SINCE PEOPLE INVOLVED WERE NOT OK WITH IT --

That instance, when i got to know that HE got to know, i lost all my TRUST.. i didn't think anyone was really worthy of it and that in the end, everyone had a motive. I stayed up till the break of dawn pondering all possible thoughts about this.. the whole four months came running back into my head. I still won't let it get over. I don't think it is. I hope SHE is reading this.. All of these things made me stronger and made me realise that i shouldn't give up easily. She means too much to me to let it slip away.

And though a LOT of things killed me when i thought about em (, there were a lot of other things i learnt from those 24 hours. One of the guys who spilled it, my best friend from the gang, proved exactly why i thought of him as that. Every time i got another message from HER or something else got messed up, the first thing i tried to do was throwing my phone away (MY DEAR N91!!!) and trying to break all contact with the world and run away. Every time i did that. EACH of the 9-10 times i threw it (once into a garbage disposal), he made sure to pick it up and not let me run away (being faster than me when it came to running obviously helped him too). The trust that had been dented, though didn't get fully revived, but a lot of it sprung back up. That's when i realised what friends are for. and yes, it is true that a friend in need IS a friend indeed. Period.

I realised that i HAVE to learn not to give up on life and all these things that revolve around me so easily. I realised that no matter what i say to them, even if they aren't at fault, my friends are going to be there more often than not.

I learnt that my life had a reason. It had its worth and had a value. I meant something to some people at least. And i learnt that no matter what i post in this blog i chose to write, SOMEONE WILL READ IT!

The Next Chapter

So.. The last time i was writing stuff for this page, i told u the story of the cremation and how when i came back from Haridwar, i had changed the way i perceived things.

Thats when i thought things were getting alright again. Little did i know that all of this was a part of an ugly puzzle, and i wasn't looking at the whole picture, but just a piece of it. Like i said in the beginning, this was part of the 2 WEIRDEST weeks of my life thus far.

This is one chapter of this story i really REALLY wish i could ignore. But its too close to the heart to hold back... that would only kill me and i'm too young to die..

but well.. i hate to break this to you, but you're going to have to wait for this post a little longer.. a whole day of doing almost nothing, though my buddy Marshel was over and we saw some episodes of HIMYM (another bugger infected with the disease!!!), i feel tired and really sleepy right now... i promise o fill up this article asap.

till then,

\m/rock.in.peace\m/

The Saga Continues

My first whole day with my new phone.. i'm getting used to this already, and it sure feels good to finally have familiar names in my phonebook (PHEW!!)... I even got to use my new football shoes today.. had a match that we lost terribly but hey, every dog has his day, right?

But anyway, thats enough about my phone and most of my day... i wanted to urge all readers.. request you... PLEASE DONT MAKE UP YOUR MIND ABOUT THINGS AND FEELINGS IN MY LIFE.. CONSIDER THIS ONE CHAPTER OF A STORY, A FEW BAD DAYS.. I'M WRITING THIS AS WHAT I FELT AT THAT MOMENT, IVE MOVED ON NOW AND THINGS ARE GETTING BETTER BUT YOU'VE GOT TO LET IT UNFOLD.. PLEASE!! :)

And now that i've written a whole para in bold, italics and caps, i shall continue the story of the week that was...

--MOVING ON--

So, where was i? Right... i left you at the horrendous description of the burning body.

13th May 2008.. The day after the cremation, i had to travel with 3 of my mashi's (aunts), a mama (an uncle) and a mesho (another uncle.. damn ENGLISH LANGUAGE!!) representing my mother to "visarjit" my nani's ashes into the holy ganga up north... it was a long, tiring journey that drained most of us mentally too but once the ceremony was completed and my aunts, uncles and i sprinkled the water that now carried my nani's remains, we visited a temple on the banks of the river (just as most temples in haridwar are placed) after which we did what everyone in the car wanted to do and told me i should. We washed away our sins by taking a swim in the holy river. I dont know if that swim washed away my sins or not but it surely removed the muck from my eyes and opened them up... That one swim and all those dips made me realise that her death was the only way she could escape the pain that enveloped her. It was always a very disheartening picture to see her so very ill... It was really heartbreaking.. she was living like a leaf, honestly. I think that dip made us all realise that fact. and it WAS a fact. The ultimate truth...

And with this enlightenment, despite a few minutes of an awkward silence, we all felt lighter in our hearts.. the burden of this loss felt like more of a blessing now. Smiles returned to the faces that had thousands of lines running across them from the tears and frowns of the days that preceded. And we all drove back home, smiles intact, tears of joy flowing down our cheeks in slow motion, all to tell the tale of how we learnt the ultimate truth..

But like i said before, this was the beginning of the two weirdest weeks of my life... Ive been through the high and low this week.. its like trying to surf on rough waters, really.. but all that comes in the next chapter. Hope u turn the page and read.

Till then, take care my friend.

\m/rock.in.peace\m/