Maybe I'm Weird.

I'm tired. Gloriously tired.

The teachers' strike that went on in colleges in Maharashtra for more than a month got called off the night I got back from Bangalore! I am so grateful :D

So things are back to normal. Things are very abnormal but I'm loving it! Abnormal because to make up for all the classes that the teachers have missed out, we now have to put in extra hours and maybe I'm weird but I am actually pretty happy about this. We usually have classes till around 1pm but now we'll have to stay back in college till 4pm on some days to have "extra" classes so that we can finish the syllabus before the exams roll in...

Tomorrow we start at 7am! Not really jumping for joy on this one because my commute takes me an hour which means I'd have to wake up around 5am to make it to college on time. Eeks! Waking up early morning is so not my forte. But anyhow at least it's for a class that I enjoy and I actually need to use my brain! :P

Seriously, I am SO HAPPY our teacher is back. She's wonderful... and so funny :) The strike was terrible and took a toll on the students and all that but it's unfortunate that this is what they had to do to get heard!! Their demands were not unreasonable and it's high time that the govt. in India paid more attention to the Education system and everyone in it.

I guess at some point somebody has to make the sacrifice to fight for not only their benefit but also the generations to come. Of course, I can only say this in retrospect. I whined enough when the strike was on but I guess that's the beauty of retrospect. Everything DOES happen for a reason.

Anyhoo, now to writing notes and reading my big fat library book which I have to return next week.

Signing off,
Happy Tina :)

God is sheer beauty,
All generous in love,
Loyal always and ever.
-- Psalm 100:5 (The Message)

BIAL = super cool.

I like airports. Bangalore airport has always been pretty cool but now...

Bangalore airport is officially super super cool. You should know in my booksv any place that provides FREE INTERNET is super super cool ;)

They have this place called NetCafe where they have a bunch of laptops connected to WiFi internet and all you have to do is send an sms to this number and they send you a password and ta-da! Free Internet! :) I'm such a loser.

Anyway, before I get too carried away and miss my flight, I think I'll sign off and go sit in the waiting area and munch on my ritual Bangalore-airport-Subway-sandwich!

Toodles.

"You play the hand you're dealt, I think the game's worthwhile." -- C.S. Lewis


P.s. HAPPY BIRTHDAY BESTEST CHADDI-BUDDY!!

P.p.s. My flight just got delayed :)

The Hand You're Dealt.

Funny how you get so used to some things that you completely miss the point.

I have this quote by C.S. Lewis everywhere - on my blog, as my email signature, etc.

"You play the hand
you're dealt, I think
the game is worthwhile."

We've been "dealt" a not so nice hand at college this year. The strike continues but I must go back to Bombay because I'm missing the other classes (and I also miss my friends!).

Still, this is the hand we've been dealt and it can only get better, right? So I'm determined to play along...

See you in Bombay! :D

Another way to waste time?

Facebook.


Yeah, I suppose you could say it's just another way to waste time online but there are rare occassions when it can actually be useful.

Number 44, Nambala Close. The house we lived in in Lusaka.

Like just now, I chatted with this girl who used to live in my neighbourhood in Lusaka like more than a decade ago (gosh, it just hit me that I've already been on earth enough decadeS to even be able to say that! eeks!)... Anyway, so this girl and I went to nursery school together, which was called Little Big Horn (no kidding!) and we were as good friends as a couple of little kids could be but then she moved and I don't really remember much after that... And now it turns out she moved back to India around the same time I started at Hebron and she's been in Goa all these years AND next week she's moving to Bombay (and yes, I WILL soon go back to Bombay too...)! How crazy is that? Blast from the past! And what's freakier is that she'll practically be like my neighbour again because she's supposed to moving into the same area that I live in!

Now how would I have known that without the magic of Facebook? :P

My classmates in nursery school. I think this was our last day of school? I don't really remember! I may not have managed to grow a lot taller than that now, but it was a looong time ago! :P

Dhan Te Naaan!

Ah-ha! Finally something quality from Bollywood and a director who lived up to expectations unlike Imtiaz Ali with Love Aaj Kal. Oh dear. Okay, so it wasn't THAT bad but I'm in the mood for exaggeration today so there :P

Ahem.

Getting back to Kaminey. It's actually been a while since I watched it but here's my lowdown.

Brilliant. Just like Maqbool. Just like Omkara. Vishal Bhardwaj shows us once again that he knows his stuff.

Lots of violence and some of the shots are a little overwhelming with the crazy lighting and camera movements but that's kind of the point. You know? And honestly, my being able to appreciate this film is purely thanks to my Mass Media class last year and getting to tag along to the Literature department's film screenings for the last couple of weeks... This is a film that demands your attention or you'll totally miss the point and the technical brilliance.

I like how this reviewer for BollywoodHungama.com puts it:

Sure, it's a well-made film, but there's no spoon feeding here. One has to be attentive, very attentive to grasp the goings-on and also the twists in the tale. It's not one of those lock-your-brains-at-home types, for sure. And that might not be too appealing a thought for those who swear by candyfloss or meaningless ha-ha-thons. -- Taran Adarsh, August 12th, 2009

Add to all that Shahid Kapoor's best performance ever and of course, the music (!!) and you have one Dhan Te Naaan film that you should not miss!

Go Crazy.

Can you imagine what could happen if we spend just a fraction of the amount of energy, hype and time that goes into ridiculous things on REALLY pressing issues like... ohh… I don’t know… Child trafficking? Global warming? Farmer suicide? Bad governance? Negligence?

I can think of about three ridiculous things off the top of my head that have happened in the last two weeks that the entire nation has totally blown out of proportion:

a) Swine Flu! Yes, I know people are dying. But the same amount of people die of normal flu every year and living in India, you’re much more likely to die of a million other things anyway.


I saw this video on Just A Girl's blog a while back. It's so funny!

b) Shah Rukh Khan being screened at the Newark Liberty International Airport. *Shock. Horror. How DARE they treat him like a normal person!*??!?! Honestly. People. Get a LIFE!

c) Jaswant Singh’s book, Jinnah: India-Partition-Independence, being BANNED in Gujarat and him being EXPELLED from the BJP. What ever happened to freedom of expression? That still IS a basic human right, right?

What is with the world?

Time for change!

Totally excited about the new banner! What thinkest thou?!
Shake it like a polaroid picture!? :P

A Lee Wedding!

I'm at home! The journey was pretty uneventful, except that I had to wake up and leave the house by 4:45am on Friday morning and it was strange being out so early! The airport was pretty chaotic. I actually flew OUT of Bombay for the first time in a long time so I was a little clueless about how it worked so I had to run around a little to get my bag x-rayed and also get myself to the right gate to get on my plane!

It is really good to be home though. I love this house (so much light and I don't feel like I'm stuck in a time-machine about fifty years ago...) and being with my parents!

Yesterday was pretty eventful. Independence Day for India (and S. Korea!) and I also went for a wedding in the evening! AJ's brother, Phillip got married to a wonderful Indian girl, Grace. AJ was my classmate at Hebron and still is a good friend so his mom kindly sent me an invitation to the wedding! I was not at all expecting to be able to make it because I am technically supposed to be in the middle of term in Bombay but thanks to the recent and unexpected turn of events I happen to be in Bangalore so I went! My lovely sister-in-law, D and another close friend from Hebron, Grace accompanied me and I am so grateful to them for coming!

I think you know Dinah, Grace and Me! The girl in the blue saree is Hanalee - AJ's big sister who lives a rather adventurous life in Iowa! She's a fellow-blogger too and a friend of another blogger friend - Kari in France.

I thought it would take us a long time to get to the venue cause it was pretty far out but by the time we started making our way there after I picked D up from her apartment it was around 3:20pm and we reached half-an-hour early (4:00pm) at the venue! But that was actually a good thing cause we got nice seats near the front.

L: Ruthie, Grace and Hannah
R:The newly-weds - Grace and Phillip who, as you can see, is a LOT taller than his bride! :D

The wedding ceremony was really beautiful. The couple was so incredibly happy it was heart warming! AJ's dad conducted the ceremony and spoke about love and significance of marriage and the 'Lee-ladies' were looking really pretty in ethnic Indian clothes!

AJ was the best-man and did a good job being of service to his brother so he was pretty busy throughout the evening and we didn't really get to talk to him much. He also gave a little speech about Phillip which was really funny and sweet!

Grace, D and I with the bride and bridegroom and AJ.

We enjoyed a yummy dinner and met with the Phil and Grace and the rest of AJ's family and then made our way back home around 8:30pm. I am really glad I got to experience this wedding. It was a long-shot for me to be in Bangalore this weekend but somehow things fell into place... :)

Both Grace and AJ are leaving early Wednesday morning. Grace will be going back to Korea after her long summer-break and AJ will be going back to Iowa but hopefully I'll be able to catch up with them once more before they leave.

More later,

Toodles!

Beauty from Ashes.

This term has been pretty crappy. Things seem to be going wrong one after the other. There’s been plenty of fun but very little of work (I know, you're thinking why is she complaining about that!?! But you try not having classes for a month - it's not so fun!) On Tuesday, the teachers’ strike completed a month. A month. Even though only one of the teachers from the Sociology department is on strike, she covers 50% of our syllabus so we haven’t had 50% of our classes for a whole month. This is not at all a good thing because the syllabus is pretty vast and third year flies anyways and so whenever this strike ends (probably next week) we’re going to have to start cramming a whole lot of stuff in very little time.

On top of that; the whole H1N1 scare from Pune has overflowed into Bombay too. The mortality rate of this virus is only something like 1% but everybody is still scared; understandably - given the freaking population density of this city (19 million!?), appalling sense of hygiene of Indians generally and Mumbaikers specifically and the very contagious nature of the flu. Starting today, the government has ordered all institutions to shut down for a week…

The Domino-effect of all of this is that we’re about 90% not going to get a Diwali-break or a Christmas break this year. Our mid-year exams will be postponed and yesterday our Principal met the K’Scope workforce to tell us that our college festival also has been postponed to November.

Those are the ashes.

The beauty is that I’m going home tomorrow! Home Sweet Home! I’m tired of non-classes and the thought of sitting around not going to college at all for a week is beyond what I can take at this point. So things have been pretty bad – but if it weren’t for the strike I wouldn’t have been able to think about going home even though there are a couple of public holidays coming up.

Also, since I will be in Bangalore I get to go for a wedding this weekend and meet another friend from Hebron after 3 years and also Grace was supposed to leave for Korea today but she postponed her flight so I can see her again before she leaves!

So yeah. Beauty from Ashes. And it’s pretty cool when you can actually SEE how things do work out for the good sometimes…

I go to sleep in Mumbai tonight and blog from home in Bangalore tomorrow.

Toodles!

Movies Aaj Kal...

This is my new favourite photo. Marine Drive a.k.a. "The Queen's Necklace" as viewed from a horse carriage! Thursday night, we went to watch perform at the NCPA and then went for dinner at a Chinese restaurant. None of the taxis would take us because the distance was too short so we finally managed to convince this man to take us on his horse carriage! So sweet and it was so exciting! And gosh, Marine Drive is gorgeous by night!

L: Jo, all dressed up and ready to dance.
R: Meg, Sonu and Vini waiting in the audience for the program at the NCPA to start.

Yesterday Orvi, Meg and I went to watch Love Aaj Kal with some of my college buddies. After Jab We Met which was Imtiaz Ali’s last film, expectations were high but it was quite disappointing. We went with the “fun-mindset” but even that sort of began fizzling out for me by the interval. Deepika Padukone cannot act and neither can the Brazilian girl who plays the Punjabi-kuddi. You can’t really blame her though, she’s not supposed to be an actress and she looked so out of place in the film! Anyway, we ate lots of popcorn and the songs were enjoyable…

It was also fun watching the trailers of some of the other Bolly films in pipeline. Most of them look like utter rubbish – as usual. Sigh.

Some of the places we ate at while Meg was here...

The teacher’s strike is still going on. Still no idea when it will end and nobody’s even talking about it now. The news is full of H1N1 statistics, advice, etc, etc… Gosh, I hope that blows over soon.

Last night, after dropping Meg off at VT for her train back to Hyderabad, Orvi and I headed to Churchgate to catch a local train back home. We got second class tickets cause it was late on a Saturday night so the trains weren’t overtly crowded albeit STILL pretty crowded. It was actually so much better traveling in the general compartment rather than in the women’s compartment. We got on at the first station so we got seats and generally four people squeeze onto a three-seater but the advantages of being a girl on the general compartment is that the men are very careful to give you space so even though the train was pretty crowded nobody squeezed in next to us! Also the general compartment is so quiet compared to the ladies’! The ladies don’t just talk a lot, they talk LOUDLY and constantly. Bombay is pretty awesome that way; the number of creepy men is significantly less than in other cities (this was Meg’s observation too!). I love how I can feel pretty safe out on the streets whether its 5am or 11pm here. There are always people on the streets and everyone is too busy doing their own thing to bother you.

L: Orvi and Meg munching on McDonald's fries at VT station before Meg caught her train to Hyderabad.
R: Meg on a local train.

Meg loved Bombay and I’m getting pretty good at this “tourist-guide” thing so who’s coming to visit me next?! :D

Two of the must-see places in Bombay: The Taj Hotel and The Gateway of India.

How Great Thou Art.

I’ve had an awesome weekend! Usually, my weekend would start on Saturday but this week, it kick-started on Thursday morning as I went to pick Meg up from the station. She came from Hyderabad to stay with me for two nights…

Meg, was my roomie in our last year of school at Hebron! She went off to study at the University of Waterloo in Canada after school and though she’s been back in India it never quite worked out for us to see each other until this year. So I saw her after three whole years and it was so very cool!

The other cool thing that happened was that Orville also happened to arrive in Bombay that same day! We had no idea about this and thankfully he called me right after he landed so Meg also got to catch up with him…

So I’ve had a very Hebron-filled weekend! Orvi, Meg and I reminisced and laughed about our drama filled Hebron days and caught up on our lives since then! We chatted with Niru in Australia for almost an hour on Thursday. And we also talked to AJ this morning which was awesome because it was his birthday today! He’s down in Bangalore for two weeks to be with family and be a part of his brother’s wedding next weekend!

I am thanking God all over again for Hebron and all the wonderful people I met there and also for friendship and how time may go by and there’s a LOT of distance and uncertainty of when we’ll ever see each other again but when we come together it seems like the most natural thing in the world… :)

And I am also so grateful for the friends I’ve made here. I love how excited they also get when my Hebby friends come to visit me and how gracious, welcoming and lovely they always are! I love showing you guys off to my other friends! ;)

More later...

Highlights!

Phew! It's Saturday! This week has been pretty hectic even though we're still not having 50% of our classes because of the ongoing teachers' strike...

Here are some of things that have been going on...

One of the things that I get to do being a photographer on K'scope is taking team-photos... The K'scope workforce is made up of 21 different teams who all help to put together our awesome college festival. These are just some of the teams that I've taken...

LOVE Converse shoes! :D This is my absolute favourite so far!

Last Saturday, some of my friends and I went to watch The Motley Theatre Group's rendition of Waiting For Godot by Samuel Beckett at Prithvi Theatre. It was... AWESOME!We finally got an excuse to "dress-up", the play was hilarious and ridiculous at the same time and just the whole ambience at Prithvi Theatre was so wonderful... Besides the famous actors in the play - Naseeruddin Shah, Benjamin Gilani, etc - we saw a whole lot of other celebrities too! And not poster guys n gals but the cream of the people in theatre and Bollywood who show passion for ACTING!! Divya Dutta (so pretty!), Om Puri, Ratna Pathak Shah, Purab Kohli (so cute! :D), etc...
Some blurry pictures to follow :)

Pallavi and Sonu

Gorgeous little Prithvi cafe... (honestly, the food was not great...)

And as if we didn't have enough celebrity-watch at Prithvi Theatre, Konkana Sen herself was on our campus! It's a terrible photo but I couldn't exactly go and stand right in front of her to take the picture!
(For those of you who don't know who Konkana Sen is, watch Mr. and Mrs. Iyer... PLEASE!)
On Tuesday, Standard Chartered Bank came on campus to conduct an AIDS-awareness program. It was really fantastic and so important... They did a fabulous job of dealing with a whole lot of myths about HIV and AIDS. It was a long session but very interactive and fun!

Yesterday was a special program in college called Glimpses, where basically all the new-comers to college are introduced to all the clubs and societies at Sophia. I just watched the latter part of the program because I was out taking team-photos but one of my friends, Gauri had to give a speech and I hear she was really good! :D So proud of her!

Gelato Day! On the first of every month, Gelato (an ice-cream shop) has one flavour going for just Rs. 9/= and we tend to flock the place on these days! The catch is that you never really know what flavour it's going to be and sometimes, it's not that great... Today was one of those "not-so-great" days as you can see from Madhuri's expression here! Sonu and I didn't even bother buying it ;) Rosy Almond just doesn't sound so appetizing!

We also got to meet Tilo today! Besides being a fellow Bong (!)/fellow Sociology student and friend of mine from my hostel days, Tilo was our Student Body President last year and is generally a very fun girl to know! She's all set to do her Masters in Sociology in Delhi and was just back in college this weekend for Prize Day...

L-R: Astrid, Madhuri, Shruti, Tilo, Vini, Gauri, Jo, Sonu, Tina

So yeah, these are a few of the things that have been happening! We also had our very first presentation for our research projects this week but hopefully I'll tell you more about that later! :D

Happy Weekend!