GET SET, GO!

So here we stand at the brink of another 12 months full of opportunities to learn, to grow, and to enjoy… Isn’t it a nice thought? Sounds like we’re being given a whole new life. Everyday should be like that, though because God’s mercies are new every morning. Lamentations 3:22-23 “Because of the Lord’s great love, we are not consumed, for his compassions are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” And still there are days when I wake up, not really wanting to wake up and face the day… So I guess it’s a good thing that there is one special day when we can remember (if we’re not “hammered”!) to remember that after every sunset there will be another sunrise, another day full of choices, laughs, tears, joy, experiences and chances… and that we are never alone.
We're two hours away from 2007 here in India... Isn't it cool that pretty much every minute now, somebody in some part of the world will be celebrating to dawn of the New Year!! AWESOME!!!
CHEERS!

HAPPY NEW YEAR my dearest ones…
Lots of Love,

“Happy Feet” makes a happy day!!

I had wanted to watch that movie ever since I saw the trailers before I watched a movie in the theatre in Zambia! And that was a long time ago!! I finally did yesterday, just barely! I still can’t believe my “luck” After spending at least twenty minutes in the morning trying futilely to book tickets on the phone, I finally gave up after they put me on hold for about two minutes and made me listen to two songs and annoying recorded messages and decided I’d just have to try and get them at the theatre itself.

I landed at Garuda mall with some hopes as the ground floor at least looked a little scanty but lo and behold the theatre is jam packed! So I must stand in a long queue, tapping my feet, praying that the tickets would be available and by the time I get to the counter, bling, bling, the monitor shows that Happy Feet is sold out! GAH! So I get out of the queue, cause you really don’t want to be standing at the counter taking too long with a long line behind you, I call up Grace, who is on the way, and we decide we’ll get tickets for Monday. So get into the queue again… My turn comes and the guy says I can’t book three days in advance! DOUBLE GAH!

“PLEASE!!!”
Can it get worse!?!
But NO it gets good!! It gets very good!!!
“Why don’t you go for the current show? It starts in 25 minutes”
“Really? But I thought its sold out!! The thing shows its sold out…”
“Somebody cancelled.”
“I need two tickets, though!”
“Yup, I have two…”
“Good seats?”
“Right at the back…”
“I’ll have them!!!!!!!!!!”

Isn’t that nice!? I did my little dance of joy with the tickets in my hand and then waited for Grace to come up the escalator, told her the good news and then we did our little dance together and then she continued dancing cause she is ecstatic about finally getting her uni applications done!!!
To top it all off the movie was great! We both really enjoyed it and came out dancing from that two. Tap dancing at that! Its a Must watch. It’s wonderful.

We also bumped into Aeisha and Avantika on the street, who are getting ready to go to Goa for a big New Year’s blast with a bunch of other Hebronites… that’s gotta be crazy!

My New Year’s Eve will be the same as other New Year Eves… At home. Not that I mind.

We’re going for some Dinner Ball tomorrow. Sounds all Cinderella-ish. “Dinner Ball…” Thought those only happened in fairy tales. He he he…But there’s no handsome prince wishing to choose his bride. Thank Goodness. I have no idea what it’s like actually, but should be fun… I hope. My fam, D’s fam, some of my brother’s friends and Grace, all in our pumpkin turned carriage! Yes, I know, I am dry but I still crack myself up!! ;) And then Grace is coming to spend the night at home. PJ party, YAY!

Oh yeah, and a while ago I though I’d have a go at some freelancing and I wrote this article and submitted it to this online magazine, didn’t think they’d publish it but they did, couple of days ago. I read it again, and I thought it was pretty rubbish, should have let it sit for a while but whatever… you can have a look it you want…
http://www.hackwriters.com/nandi.htm
More later,

The setting sun above the slums...

Didn't ever think I'd get a good sunset picture around here. Not that the sun doesn't set here, its just that it has to do it behind all the high rise buildings... But I barely managed to catch it from the terrace today, sinking above the slums and into the trees...

Jeremiah 31:35

"This is what the LORD says, he who appoints the sun to shine by day, who decrees the moon and stars to shine by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar - the Lord Almighty is His name..."

The jittery travel bug...

Right its time to move again… I’ve been in one place for too long. But un/fortunately I am stuck here for an indefinite period of time.

And then I see Anne Frank’s diary sitting next to me and think, well these people stayed in one place for years. And that’s not just one town, or city or country but one enclosure, in hiding. Indoors all day, all week, all month, all year… Ahhhhh, that’s crazy! I would die of claustrophobia. Well, probably not, but I would think I was dying of claustrophobia. But I guess every situation is just so different when you’re actually there. You can’t really envision exactly what something could be like unless and until you’re actually there…

Anyhow, coming back to the point. I’ve got the jittery travel bug and I want to go somewhere. So if it were financially and practically possible for me to do so, where would I go?

Firstly, I would go to college. To Grinnell because that’s the college I know the most about. I’ve been corresponding with a student there through email and she paints a pretty picture so obviously I’d like to be there studying German and meeting new people…

Second choice: I’d like to be on a Safari in Africa… Actually I change my mind, I’d like to be in that village in Orrissa where we worked in the summer of 2004. I’d like to go back and see how much the trees we planted with the kids have grown. I’d like to see that school that we built with our own hands in its finished state. I’d like to sleep out under the starry skies and the fireflies. Most of all I’d like to see this one beautiful young girl whose constantly smiling face is still so clear in my memory. I’d like to see if she still has that friendship band I made for her, no doubt she still has that smile…

Third choice: I’d like to visit some of those anonymous beaches we went to on the Tsunami trip in the Summer of 2005. Absolutely beautiful. The best beaches I’ve been to in India and no wonder cause they were completely empty and not clad with thousands of tourists and thus not junked up!

I guess that’s saying something… Orissa and Tsunami Relief are the two of my best memories out of all the places I’ve been to in India and also out of the five years I spent at Hebron. Orissa for the no-frills-simplistic life in the village and the Tsunami relief for the sounds of the waves and the company. And both of them, for all the lessons learnt too…

And Grinnell... well that’s just a shimmering possibility of the future.

Later,

An unexpected call and a Christmas prayer.

I’ve gotten into a bad habit of falling asleep in the afternoons. And as much as people talk about the benefits of napping, I think its terrible for me! Cause once I fall asleep its practically impossible to wake up and so I end up over sleeping. And the more I sleep, the more tired I feel.

Anyway, I fell asleep this afternoon after reading for a while (Anne Frank’s Diary) and then at about 5:30 the phone rings and I ignore the calls cause I’m completely dazed and am under the impression that it’s the alarm and I’m so used to pressing the snooze button… That happened three times and by that time I’m a little more awake and then it occurs to me that it may actually have been a call because I never did put the alarm on! Sure enough, it was but I couldn’t recognize the number and didn’t call back.

Luckily, she called back herself. Catherine Chandran!! What a surprise. It was good to talk, took me a while to realize who actually was on the line, because I thought it was Grace at first and I was still half asleep!!

So that was the unexpected call!

It’s Christmas Eve. Yup, it’s a pretty normal day at home. No big difference. D and I planned on putting up a Christmas tree but as we are all procrastinators, we never actually got down to it. Next year.

So I hope y’all have a really really good Christmas wherever you are. May Christ be born in your hearts and homes this Christmas - This is the prayer I pray for myself.

Just wanted to leave with some lyrics from my newest Nicole Nordeman find that have been relevant to me…

Is it fair to say I was lured away?
By endless distractions and lovelier attractions then
Or fairer still, my own free will
Is the better one to blame for this familiar mess
I've made again

So I would understand if You were out of patience
And I would understand if I was out of chances

Your mercies are new every morning
So let me wake with the dawn
When the music is through or so it seems to be
Let me sing a new song, old things gone
Every day it's true, You make all Your mercies new

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Godless existence

I have no words.
I have realised that I have completely lost my compellation to write and I've also realised that my inspiration comes from God and I have been very bad with God recently. Gah.
I really have no words.
I need prayer. I can't live without Christ and I know that, but I am such a coward and afraid to live the way that I know I should. So many things worry me. So many things frustrate me. I hate not being able to talk to God and know that He is listening. I hate not being able to explain what I believe to others and I hate being thought of as a fool for believing what I do and I hate the fact that when it comes to explaining and expressing things, more often than not I am just left with tears and speechless and I hate being thought as a coward for that. Although, I really am a coward. I hate being such a hypocrite. I am beginning to care about all the things that really don't need my care and becoming a person that I am okay with now but just know that I will soon enough begin to hate.
I'm groping for inspiration but I just can't seem to find it.
The words of Christ come to mind: In this world you will experience hardships but be encouraged I have overcome the world. But do I really believe it?
Where is my faith!?

Three makes a re-union!

Woke up at 10:00 this morning thinking, "Oh crap! I'm going to be late!!"

Fortunately I didn't need to wash my hair today and made it on time to meet Niru at KFC on Brigade road from whence we took off for our girly day out in the city. There are really not many options as to what one can do with very little planning but we had a wonderful time nevertheless. After some discussion and confusion as to the definition of what makes a re-union we decided that there must be at least three people, therefore thus this can be considered a mini std 13 re-union... Basically we hit the mall where we met up with Grace and another Korean girl from Ooty and then finally went into this Scary House thing that was more funny than scary!! So we came out laughing and screaming at the same time!! And then we bought a whole bunch of food and head off to Cubbon park for a "picnic" balloons, candy floss and all. What fun!

Girls doing girly things: looking at earrings...

Niru and me with our balloons and a whole DOLLY magazine full of the stupid quizzes that we used to search for during our procrastinating times at school!!

Some photos from a fantabulous weekend!!

The fun never ends when we have friends!!

Grace and Niru were the only two of my friends who could make it to the wedding and I was sooooo glad they could come. I thought of you all too. Sushi you would have absolutely had a blast at the reception with all the dancing! We kept saying, "man I wish Sushi was here!" Anyway, here are some pics with Niru and Grace...

dressing up at home... what deja vu! it seemed like grad all over again!

drama queening!
namaste!

so HAPPY!

Us with our wine, which tasted surprisingly nice!!!

at home being all desi the day D came home...

Niru standing by our pieces of "art"! We woke up at seven in the morning to paint the floor!

Vivaha

Vivaha means wedding by the way... and it also means something else which I have forgotten. Anyway my brother and D got married this weekend and they are now off on their honeymoon. It still seems a little surreal. They're married!!!!!! Wow. The ceremonies went off realllllllly well and the reception was a LOAD of fun. I danced my way through the night with my main partner - NIRU! And other people. I have loads of photos of course but blogger and lots of photos don't go too well so I will try and figure out a way of uploading them more conveniently and then will let you all know...
Later,
Love,

No words just pictures!

I have no energy to describe... so here are some pictures from home where the flurry begins at 6 in the morning and ends at 2 in the night!

More Madness

I didn't even bother with the alarm clock today, I needed to sleep! The Calcutta party arrived with a bang, and I mean that literally. First of all bengalis are naturally loud and then there was total confusion because one bag got left behind at the airport. So they were all standing outside trying to figure out where they left it, if they left it, what they should do now, etc, etc... Uff, what madness. Anyhow, they managed to retrieve the bag.

Me playing Nanny and feeding my niece... SHHHHHHH!
I am still sane, despite the madness around me for which I am thankful for. LOL. But it is great fun, its good to see all these relatives after so long, and there's a wonderful old couple too - my dad's uncle and aunt. They are so wonderful. And I got a call from Max Mueller Bhavan who had the results for my test, which I wrote last Friday. I did good and they want me to test for the next level! YAY!

2 DAYS TO GO!!!!
Much love,

Chatter, chatter, chatter…

So the first batch came in day before yesterday. My grandma, aunt and dad. Well, technically my dad doesn’t count, cause he owns the house! :) SO already the house is pretty packed but apparently there’s space for more and they will be arriving by the dozen tomorrow. So yesterday was supposed to be the day of calm before the storm but it was pretty stormy anyway!

The morning went by with me trying to get my dad’s attention for about half an hour so we could fill up a US financial aid form which was soooo annoying, because the questions are just so annoying and talking about money isn’t my favourite topic in the world. Anyhow, we got through that somehow between the thousand doorbell rings, and grandma chatter and then I practically ran out the door to get to D’s house where we sat and packed about 43 give away gifts! Tiring job (and we’re only half way through!), and kinda tricky till you get the hang of it but the end result is just so pretty!

And we also did some chatter and played with D’s babies; Sophie and Tyson and I have been commanded to display their pics so here they are…

They are overly hyper so its practically impossible to get a decent pic of them as they are in constant motion.

Let’s play ball!!
Sophie… she’s soooo small!
This is the only way we could get a pic of them both without it turning blurry!! So here we are, Tyson and Sophie; barely not in motion!
In the evening, D’s family came home and so there was more chatter! And there was me, letting my camera do the talking!
Abby, look up!
“I’m too handsome for the camera!”
D, me and Abby (D’s brother)
Meet the inlaws…
He really is too handsome for the camera, but I managed to get him to smile for me! YAY! What a smile, I’ve been trying to get this shot for a long while. Finally!