Detour tales

In the past week, something really silly happened with me. The reasonable "me" (R) and stubborn kid "me" (S) got themselves involved in a real tough duel.

R (half an hour before an evening class): Get up and move. 

S (as usual): But do we really have to go ? I read the chapter with you, its not rocket science. Lets skip it and watch some crazy movie.

R (as usual, trying to put reason everywhere): But its our (MY) new semester resolution, not to miss classes!! Now don't be so loose with yourself.

S: I did not forget your stupid resolution. That's why I studied with you!

R (not even pretending to listen): I am checking the weather. Damn! It's going to be windy. You better take that extra pair of gloves. And if you don't, then don't complain about your freezing knuckles later!!

S (puppy face at its best): But do you really think its worth it ? I mean we will be all alone while coming back, late in the night. Dude please, let's skip it.

R: Bah!!! Get a life you girl!! Don't act stupid. Just move it. (in a manipulating tone) And I will give you 2 Kellogg's crunchy bars, one before and one after the class. Plus 2 movies this weekend and Chinese food too!!

S (is really a kid): Wow !! (already planning what to order in the Chinese menu). Let's do it!!

R: You are so adorable. I love you!! (Planning how to dodge the Chinese deal)

And so we set off. Cursing the wind. R will not admit it, but she hates the bone chilling (literally) windy walk too!! 

We were 1 block away from school, when a car zoomed past us, playing 'Aye mere hamsafar' loudly. Ya the one from QSQT on a street in Chicago!!!! 

R travelled back in time, to hostel life, to countless renditions of these songs, to fun, to friends, to hopeless fantasies. She had that silly smile pasted on her not so silly face.

Well the detour was pretty obvious. We landed up at a friends' place instead. 

As for S, she forgot all the deals and just went bonkers!! 

~nightflier :)

The Slumdog Academy of Excellence

Read this for more.

After all the hype, criticism and accolades it has received, it's time for some action. Not only from the makers but "us" the civilized and 'happy in their own cocoon and reality' ones. If films are a mirror to our society, culture and sensitivities, then we as a society can do far better than just romanticizing the film for its fairytailish portrayal of poverty or criticizing the same depiction. 

P.S. Not giving into the 'so hot' debate about the movie was something very difficult to resist..at least after reading the above article.

P.P.S. Thanks pushkar for the link :P Post was looking good without this :P

Am I traditional ?

I guess so.. geez..

I mean every time I am offered beef/pork to eat, I remember all those stories of Mangal Pandey and the struggle for our independence and I tell people, 'It's not allowed in my religion' !!!!

This coming out from a person who is not religious in the conventional terms (except for during exams..It may sound lame but I do pray before going for an exam!!) and eats chicken and eggs without any hiccups. I simply can not imagine myself eating those delicacies  (with due respect to all the cultures and food). Don't mind please!

I also ask for forgiveness if my feet touch any books or people by mistake. I have got strange looks from people for this one. 

I also like wearing traditional clothes on special days or festivals (sometimes just for the heck of it). I also like cooking traditional sweets and food on special days. I also like doing stuff like lighting diyas, candles, drawing rangoli, making torans during festivals. 

I still remove my shoes or chappals before entering anyone's house.

If I am meeting an elderly after a long time then I touch their feet and ask for blessings. (Stop sneering please!!!) 

I love eating home made food (Its more of a compulsion these days :D)

hmm..So even if I keep on trying weird and new things once in a while, deep down I am as traditional as my great great grandmother. :-/

I think I will settle on being happy with this strange realization. 

ye kya cheeze hai ??

We (me and my room-mate) were in a catch 22 situation a few days back. 

The premise :

We were looking for a room mate to share the apartment with. We wanted a single female who could take the bed room to herself (and give half the rent, the actual 'catch'!!), so that the place would be less crowded. Plus we have high quality compliance in terms of cleanliness of the place, so we wanted as less people sharing it as possible (that would be 3). Plus we could not move out as it would mean breaking the lease and hence losing money!

Now every female who checked out the apartment thought the rent was too much considering our apartment is a convertible (they thought it would affect their privacy! what about our privacy dear ? An invalid point!). Plus other factors like, it is off campus and the walk would be too much during winters (females I tell you!!). 

So this problem of single-person-taking-room-to-herself-and-paying-half-rent had no practical solution. And 15 days of the month were already over.

We changed the premise by offering the same room to 2 persons instead of 1. The response to this offer was not tremendous either. We were particularly interested in desi females, considering ease of communication and similar food habits. So even though we had open proposals from 2-3 females, who looked more like frauds, because they would call up and ask what we were doing on the weekends (creepy!!), we had no fixed roommates. Time was really running out. So much that I had myself called for extreme measure of moving out and take out my roommate as well. 

Then one fine day a Chinese guy called up and asked if the place was still available. His 2 female friends were looking for an apartment. We thoughtfully said yes, thinking even if they take up this room, they will have each other and will not be left out. And as the almighty wanted it, they loved the place (we have amazing track record in this category. Everyone who has checked out the place for living has loved it, till date). These girls had just landed from China and were really excited about being on their own. This was serious decision making. Because it was not just sharing rooms, it was sharing cultures and being (or at least learn to be) comfortable about it. It was a 2 way deal. And since we had no bright alternative, we bravely took this decision of sharing the apartment with 2 really cute and wonderful Chinese girls. It has been a good experience. Our house is a multi cultural pot pourri now!

As for the title of the post, thank my filmy brain. 

Now whenever I enter the kitchen and see something unusual and different, I ask myself 

Ye kya cheeze hai ?

My filmy brain answers 

Ye cheeze nahi stupid, Chinese hai !! :D :D

Courtesy - Kal ho na ho!

~nightflier

school chalein hum !!!

Another semester has started..I feel fresh and geared up to enter the grind :D

Few weird things I noted on my first few days of school..

Starting of school feels like a new year!! I mean all the jazz about 31st December just fades away.

New session of school marks new shopping. Earlier it used to be new books, bags, water bottles, uniforms, raincoats, notebooks, pencils, pens, lunch boxes and what not. This time I have 2 new teachers and some books only. I hope this makes me the most happening person amongst the school going junta.

I felt so good to sit in my old classrooms. Important discovery sitting in a classroom gives me a totally different high!

I remember every year in school our classrooms would change. And the sitting arrangement too. Till my 4th standard we had the rotation system and one-boy-one-girl on a bench system. Co-ed truly!! Well as I grew up the rules became flexible and I used to hop to grab the last bench. My teachers from high school still remember me as the one from the naughty back benchers' gang! 

The tape is on rewind now. In grad school, I religiously grab the front seats, to understand heavy accents and to make an impression of my sincerity too! (though I quite don't understand the connection :-/)

Another high is meeting old classmates. 

A funny thing I noticed this time, some guys (one of them was my project mate last semester, who talked with us only through mails!!) who were very shy of talking to me last semester (not my fault :P) came up, smiled and said hello. And even asked how my break was. How sweet!! That is a welcome change I must say. 

Back in actual school days, I was more of a family person. The vacations were spent with family and relatives. So meeting school friends was oh-so-exciting! All the talk about classroom gossips - who has got the coolest stickers (I had the habit of making my own till standard 6, so I was a loser in this category), who is the new transfer student and whether she/he is likable or not, who had the most amazing vacation, who studied what (in later years :-/), who has joined tuition, who is the new teacher, which teacher got married, which 'fast-friends' (well, we used to address the inseparable buddies as Fast Friends!!) broke up (:D), who is the new head boy/girl, who is going to be the class monitor (yours truly has an unbeaten record in this category!), was an intimate part of school life.

Well, now new term means new subjects, new projects and new project partners! But meeting friends who have become a family for me now, is the best thing about school life. I mean learning should be first on my priority, but the thought that, there are innumerable helpless souls suffering the pains of a Master's, like me, is very comforting! It's peaceful to know that there are others too.

All this school talk has made me very emotional. If given a thought, I have spent almost one forth (I actually did the calculations, so don't you dare challenge me) of my life in schools/colleges. When I refect back on what I have learnt and what I have gained and what kind of a person I have turned out to be,

I think schools are the best place to grow up and actually not grow up! 

What do you think ?

~nightflier !

Of bedtime stories and fairytales !!

I just finished reading 'The tales of beedle the bard' !!

Rowling is right when she emphasizes the importance of bed time stories in the raising of children. It's a good attempt to revive the old genre. Actually she did it with the Potter series. 

Well my sole aim behind this read was to gather as much wisdom as possible from the great Albus Dumbledore! I was not disappointed but it was not quite up to my expectations. May be I was expecting a lot from what is supposed to be a book of bedtime stories :D 

The grown up in me can be greedy I tell you !!

So it is basically a collection of stories about virtue, valor,  good vs evil and all the routine. Perfect recipe for fairy tales. The stories have a lot to offer to us muggles. They take you to the lands of magic to tell us that many times magic alone, also cannot solve life's greatest mysteries. I liked the story of the fountain of fair fortune and the warlock's hairy heart particularly. Some more addition to the list of stories I will read to my kids !! 

And at this point I should also thank my parents who let me join a library when I was 8. I remember one summer I ended up reading their entire collection to the astonishment of the library caretaker. She actually told me that there was nothing left for me to read for next summer. In this library I was introduced to the magic of Graeme's' fairy tales, endless stories of Birbal's wisdom, the kid detective Faster Fene (most of the books are Marathi), Ramayana, Panchatantra. I also developed the habit of bartering books with friends. Teenage was spent in reading and re-reading Sherlock Holmes and treasure island. And also Sidney Sheldon and Agatha Christie!! Many times books have shown me other worlds, vicarious feelings, but they have been great teachers. Always!

Coming back to the book, every purchase of the book contributes to the Children's high level group, a foundation formed by Rowling. It works to make life better for vulnerable young people, something I totally believe in. So at least buy the book for improving lives :)

I sign off with a quote from Dumbledore : 

The truth is a beautiful and terrible thing and should therefore be treated with great caution.

Until we meet again,

nightlfier!

self discovery !!

Life is all about self discovery and stupid co-incidences. So they say!!

I just realized that my first and last name have only one alphabet in common. And co-incidentally it starts and ends with that "same" alphabet !!

And the Oscar for the most original and moving discovery goes to, of course ME !!

One glorious day..oops night !

Have a good one, you all :)

nightflier!

will you ....

Published on public demand.

For all that is good in us and for all that is not so bad,

For all that is open ended in us and for all that does not close,

For all that is grown up in us, and for all that is yet so small,
Will you give friendship another chance ?

For all that is innocent in us and for all that is not so naive,

For all that is genuine in us and for all that is not fake,

For all that is wise in us and for all that is yet so stupid
Will you give love another chance ?

For all that is precious and for all that is not so valuable,

For all that is harmonious and for all that is not chaotic,

For all that we pray for and for all that we take for granted,

Will you give peace another chance ?

P.S. Written in extra senti mode. But this all is the cosequence of playing word challenge and getting the title of a "poet". It's their fault they told me my vocabulary was in the league of Shakespeare and Keats. I got carried away..mebbe !! :D

P.P.S. sorry addu, the "poet" in me got too exausted for a forth stanza. 

Reflections.. one last time

An eventful year..from MS applications till March end to managing finances and then leaving a perfect life for a dream..

Sounds straight out of a fiction novel..

But I did it (and loads of other unknown faces here, cheers to you guys!!). And cannot stop myself from writing my learnings.

Life abroad (I mean away from homeland) can be stressful. But if you know not to make big deal out of small stuff, you will manage fine. You will also loose your grip once in a while, but don't forget the magic rule of keeping yourself busy and among people. That definitely helps to keep sanity levels.

Fall outs, fights, difference of opinions amongst friends are inevitable, specially if you are very close. They teach you to value small things. And patch ups afterwards are also inevitable, to preserve the precious :)

Pride of any form is the greatest sin. Don't let it enter your mind in any way. Try to respect the complexity of life. I bet you would be humbled.

Its very important to value the very small things which light up your day. Like those fireworks in the skies or the cute smile on that child's face :)

There is no substitute for hard work. But one more truth, hard work invites more hard work, normally :) But the satisfaction is so satisfying that, it makes it worth.

The things you fear the most for yourself have a possibility of coming true, if you constantly keep thinking about them. Darr ke aage badho mere dost. Jeet ka nahi pata, but many better things in life worth giving thought to hai. :)

If you truly believe in something, don't let anyone or yourself ruin it. Beliefs shape our thinking, and I tell you revamping the belief system at 25 years of age is a really hard thing to do :)

And if sometimes people don't understand you, that's fine. 'Hell with them' and move on :) Saves a lot of energy, especially if you weigh 42 kgs. Its a healthy way to look at life!

I think I should rest my case.

To all the unsavored fun out there, go get it !!

Cheers,

nightflier :)