Still Looking For A Dream.

So ladies and gentlemen, 


Here ends this blog! Yup, I've been thinking about ending this blog for a while because... well, because of various reasons but I'm still blogging. Just not here.


You may continue, if you please, following me at "Free To Be Me" It's brand new and may change drastically in the near future... or not...


See you there! :)


Toodles.


p.s. I've just discovered today that apparently Blogger has made some much-needed changes but has been very quiet about it. Go to Settings --> Basic --> Select  'Updated Editor' under "Global Settings"

Blah!

I'm kind of happy right now. "What's next?" isn't a complete black void at least for the rest of this year! But I'm not ready to go "blog-public" about it so I'll tell you later :P And plus, you never really know what's going to happen until it actually starts happening...

So what's going on with me? Well, the studying is coming along. The heat is not suiting me at all. My stomach took up arms against me yesterday. It's really not a pretty story, so I won't tell it. But it's strange. I mean, I always knew I wasn't a hot weather person but this is ridiculous. And it's only March. How on earth am I going to survive through April? And May? Yikes!

I decided to take a break from Facebook. I always wanted to do that but never had the courage or the willpower but now seems like a good time for it. It's not easy, granted. I mean it's only been like three days and I feel at a loss when I come online. Which is good I guess, cause that means I now spend less time online. Ergo, less stress about the blasted internet bill at the end of the month! I hate being addicted to things. Really hate it. So I'm glad to be getting de-addicted from Facebook.

I'm working on increasing the size of my handwriting. Yeah, apparently my handwriting is too small and the examiners who mark our final papers will not pay attention to my answer unless I make it look big. Stupid. I know. But apparently I'm a helpless part of the system and I really want to pass these exams so I'm choosing not to be all "revolutionary" and am going to try and give them what they want. Nobody's ever told me my handwriting is too small before. I think it's become smaller actually. The thing is, I write a LOT. I could get through a whole journal in three months because I have to write stuff down. Not to remember them but to process them. That's how I process stuff... in writing. And even when I'm studying, I have to write everything down. And then, you know how I'm kind of nut-casey about the environment and stuff? So I feel guilty to use all this paper to write stuff down but I can't help it so that's why my handwriting has become small. I know, it's so silly but there you go, that's my theory :P

Wow, this is such a vague and blah post. Are you still reading?

Toodles.

All rise.

Sonu and I went to watch Alice In Wonderland in 3D today. It was good. I didn't think it was BRILLIANT but then that might have something to do with the fact that the theatre that we went to (Movietime Hub, Goregaon. Be warned!) was really bad! The sound was terrible and the picture was dark so in revenge, Sonu and I messed up the theatre really nicely by dropping our caramel popcorn all over the floor!!! No, I'm kidding that was totally an accident but that's also the theatre's fault. Dude, make proper holder-thingies for the drinks and popcorn otherwise everything is just a tricky balancing act and things will go wrong!

Anyway, so funny thing happened. In India (okay, not sure if this is in every city??) at the movies, we stand up for the national anthem before the film begins. It's a bizarro-cool custom and every theatre has a different video playing with the national anthem. So today, there was something wrong with the theatre and before the film started, the national anthem started playing and we promptly stood up and there was nothing but static on the screen. And then it stopped. So we all waited. And then it started again. And stopped... and then... everybody actually started singing!! Like they continued singing the national anthem because there was something wrong with the theatre's video. And it was so... strange! I mean, we're all there about to watch Alice In Wonderland with our 3D glasses and everybody randomly breaks into Jana Gana Mana...

Anyway, so that ended and some lady actually said, "Bharath Mata ki... Jai!" at the end! And we all sat down and then... it started again!! Like the theatre finally found the right tape or whatever and they played it and so we all stood... again. Such good patriotic people?

So you know... I don't know if we're good at ever bothering to stand up for anything else worthwhile in India, but we sure do know how to stand up for the National Anthem!

"Fire away!"

:)

:)

:)

I'm so tempted to just leave it at that and watch you freak out about why I'm holding a super-cool SLR camera in my hand.

But I won't.

So here's the story...

Last Sunday I had a surprise visit from some relatives who live in Australia. My granny was telling me about it the night before but I wasn't paying attention because we have sooooo many relatives and I never know who she's talking about. But then the next day, it struck me and I was like, "heyyyyyy, wait a minute I know them!!!" and then I was super excited because the visit included Shubroto da who is like my photography mentor/critique/guide/etc. I hadn't ever met him but some years ago when I told my dad that I was interested in photography, he told me to get in touch with Shubroto da and since then I've asked him many questions and he's continued to fan the flame of my enthusiasm for photography so like I said, I was SUPER excited to finally meet him!

So they came and he was surprised to see me because somehow along our correspondence, I must have forgotten to mention that I actually lived with Thamma (my granny) and anyway, I was ecstatic and he was ecstatic and we promptly got down to talking about photography and he got out his gear and handed me the camera and said, "you take the pictures today!" And it was awesome! I was a little nervous because I have so much to learn about SLRs and I haven't had much experience with them but it was really and truly so much fun! A feeling I could get used to! :)

I obviously didn't take anything amazing but I was just on a high feeling that *click*! The pics above are what Shubroto da took of me... being ecstatic! He put up a Picasa web album online a few days back with these pics and this is the description:

Tina Nandi, very pleased!

Azad Road,Andheri East, Mumbai, India -

Mar 7, 2010
by Shubroto

Tina came to grips with my Nikon D80+MB-D80, 18-105mm VR lens, and SB-800 flash. She looked a picture of happiness, though someone's credit card is about to be depleted seriously. First time I met this child; won't be the last, for sure. Congrats to Runu and Gautam for a job well done! Pix by Shubroto Bhattacharjee using his 2nd Nikon outfit [D70, 55-200mm VR lens, SB-800 flash], in the home of Tina's Grandma, Sabita "Sheba Mashi" Nandi, in Bombay.

"Tina" is really Priyanka Nandi, daughter of Gautam "Babu" and Tapati "Runu" Nandi of Bangalore out of Andheri East, Calcutta and Lusaka! She's the sister of Arjun "Gogo" Nandi.
Tina enjoys photography, as is obvious. A delightful child, alumnus of Hebron School [Ooty] and Sophia College [Bombay], she will go places [entirely the fault of her parents].
Enjoy the pictures.
Love,
Shubroto

Thank you so much! :)

Pseudo-graduates.

So what happens at a College Farewell Dinner?

--You all pile on at one of your friends' houses (Jo's place in our case), make the most of the rare occasion to dress up - makeup and all.
--Hail a cab, carefully maneuver yourself in without unraveling your saree and sit in the horrible traffic for 30-45mins in order to get to college.
--Once you get there. Take LOTS of pictures.
--Admire all the beautiful colours and fall in love with sarees all over again and be amazed by how much variety there is!!
--Dance a little - as much as your saree will allow.
--Eat! Go first or you'll have to stand in a long line! Take lots on the first serving because by the time you're ready for seconds there won't be much food left.
--Take some more pictures.
--Collect your gift.
--Make a plan to go somewhere else after this because the night is still young and you're pseudo-graduates so you're allowed to do such things :P
--Have FUN!

The Psycho-Socio-Lit gang

So if we don't end up doing anything with all the education, these pics will definitely get us good husbands the old-fashioned Indian arranged marriage way, right? :P

So our "after-plan" was to go to Cafe Ivy and order a bottle of wine just like we did after the last night of K'scope. We had Peach flavoured wine! Lol. We couldn't really taste any Peach in there but it was good nonetheless and much cheaper than the other wines. Works good for us poor college going kids :P Isn't this such an awesome picture? Love the colours and the effect on the glass and Sharan's expression. Love it love it love it all!Lol. Doesn't Sonu look so peaceful in this pic?

Bijli

Bijli

A snapshot from one of my favourite scenes from Swades.

Isn't it beautiful? I love it.

p.s. Read THIS review of the film. I pretty much agree with everything but would never be able to say it quite as eloquently as she has :)

One of those...

So it's that time of year again - OSCARS! Okay... I was never really that into it but then I met Sharan and her enthusiasm kind of rubs off on you! :P Anyway, the awesome thing about the Oscars is that you have a long list of movies to watch that are pretty much guaranteed to be good. Not always... sometimes you really wonder "what were they thinking?!" But anyway, so I hadn't watched a movie in a while and the mock exams ended yesterday - oh and have I mentioned that Mumbai University POSTPONED our final exams?! Yeah, way to go, MU. Way to go. So now my exams start on the 13th of April as opposed to the 8th and end on the 18th of May. How many exams do I have? SIX. Six exams for more than a month :/ Trust me if you saw my timetable, you'd be whining too.

Anyhoo, I guess it's a reminder that when you think you are in control of the universe - uh, think again.

Back to the Oscars! So yesterday Sharan gave me a couple of the Oscar films (I told her to give me the less depressing ones!) and I watched Up In The Air. Good movie! But then I watched The Blind Side. Awesome movie! It's not 'Best Movie of the Year' kind of good but it's just a leave you with a fuzzy-happy-feeling kind of movie. It's one of those movies like Amazing Grace that I know I will go back to again and again to watch my favourite bits when I feel down and out with the world.

It's based on the true story of Michael Oher - an American Football player. Don't know anything about "Football" (:P) but after watching this film... interested! :P Okay, not really. I'll admit there were parts of the film where they showed the games and I was going, "what on earth!?! what kind of a strange sport is this??" But then I imagine a lot of people think that about Cricket. Or Hockey. It's all relative, really. But it is interesting, and I'd be really happy to let someone explain the game to me!

But yeah, haven't recommended a film on the blog in a while because I haven't watched a movie in ages so I'm recommending The Blind Side. And do you know what's ridiculous? I haven't watched a hindi movie in like four months or something. The last one I watched was Rocket Singh before Christmas. That's just... ridiculous. I mean, I live in Bollywood pretty much :P

Anyway, that's all for now! Tonight we have our farewell dinner at college which means dressing up (!!) and eating... and fun! So pictures to come soon! :)

Tea-Junkie.

I've become a tea-junkie. Can you see the crazed tea-junkie look in my eyes? Or maybe that's the caged-animal look? I'll be perfecting that one once the prelims are over and I'm stuck at home for one whole month before the final exams start! Yuck!

I've been actually secretly wishing that the prelims won't get over because of the long study leave after that. Ah, me and time. Sometimes I actually catch myself thinking things like, "I wish I could go to sleep and wake up in May!" I know. *Gasp* right? Thankfully, God's response to my sometimes ridiculous prayers is simply, "Uh, NO!"

If I have to look at the bright side though, I guess having all this time on my hands can be a good thing? (Besides the studying part, yes, I know :P)

I'm slowly getting back into the groove of reading the newspaper again. Otherwise it used to just go back into the pile - unread, its folds still perfectly intact... It's not that I didn't read due to lack of time; but a general disinterest in world issues that had somehow crept over me. I was just frustrated with what I found in the papers. Millions of ads (which is considerably less now since I switched to Hindustan Times), stories (badly written ones, at that!) about absolute non-issues, the usual political drama that plays out in day-to-day Rajya Sabha or Mantralaya life. What's the point? All it ever led to was pointless canteen discussion with my friends that got louder and louder as went round and round in circles. But I hate being a cynic. And ignorance may be bliss, but it's also dumb sometimes. So I'm reading the papers again, a little. Not sure what the next step is though?

After I posted the tiger post on my blog a few days ago and re-posted a short video clip on the same on Facebook, a guy asked me if I thought these awareness videos actually make a difference. I said, "I think so. At least we're more aware, right?" And then I think I may have proceeded to cover up my lame answer with a :) Because, really, I'm not entirely sure if it does make a difference.

As a Sociology student, last year in our media paper we did various theories of Mass Media. And one of them, I can't remember which, might have been Frankfurt School or Marxist Perspective?? It's killing me that I can't remember this. See, exams are pointless. If we had a big heated discussion or a debate on this, I'm sure I would still remember it!! But I digress.

So anyway... one of these theories talked about how the Mass Media can actually have a desensitizing or a numbing effect on us. We're bombarded with all this information from all sides and over and over again that we go into a sort of fake comfort. Now that we know everything, we've done something. We're fooled into thinking that knowing is enough and we don't end up actually doing anything to change the situation.

Is it just me or is there something freakishly scary and wrong about that? Are we being lullabied into inaction by the endless amounts of information that we have access to at the click of a button?

p.s. A song comes to mind. Brooke Fraser. Gotta love her.
Now that I have seen,
I am responsible.
Faith without deeds is dead.
-- Albertine

What Will We Leave Behind?

When this whole study leave thing began, I told Antu and Sonu that I would try not to blog until the prelims were over. To that Sonu said, "you'd probably spend more time agonizing over not blogging than the time it would take you to blog."

And so I had to test out this theory and... it's been ten days! I think that might be a record for Compelle Intrare and well honestly... I actually haven't "agonized" over not blogging. Sure, sometimes when my mind wanders, possible blog posts sort of float around in my brain and it would have been especially nice to have come over here last night and vent about the horrible feeling of coming home tired and sleepy after your second exam (a bad one at that!) in a row only to get ready for the third one in a row. Ugh. Horrible feeling.

Anyway, right now I can't remember a single one of those things that I wanted to blog about (and the prelims aren't over btw but I have five days off!) but there is one thing that I've been thinking about (and being kinda sad about...) and I figured I haven't had one of my "save the environment" blog posts in a while so bear with me while I roar a little...

Well basically, here's a fact that they're flashing around everywhere in, I guess, what is one last desperate measure to save our national animal. The tiger. There's only 1411 left in India.

Anyway, I don't really know what we can do. Honestly. It's not like Global Warming where the problem is huge but there are still tiny steps (use public transport, switch off the lights when you're not using them, etc...) that you can take as an individual in your everyday life and somehow, it counts. But I guess it's just something to think about. 1411.

If we keep going at this rate, by the time I have grandkids the national animal of India will be the stray dog and the national bird - the black crow.

Just think about it.

Child

What will you live to do?

What have I left for you?

What will we leave behind?

-- Brooke Fraser (Seeds)

22... in pictures!

The day could not be complete without a Fluoresce picture! :)

Sharan's Speech.

What could it be that made me so happy? Rasberry flavoured lipbalm! :P

We're really getting comfortable in sarees. So pretty...

...and so much scope for dramaqueening! :P

The deeeeelicious cake! :)

This is me being mildly embarrassed while my friends sang!

"The Birthday Mafia" :)

So a friend tagged us that and well, it's so true. Birthdays have been serious business for us for the past three years. We've had a good run ;)

Outside Atria mall where we went for lunch. The wind was so awesome!

Haha! Okay, funny story. We had this brilliant idea to take a photo on the lift mirror but the lift was so super fast that by the time we got the camera out it had already reached the ground floor so we actually went up again just so we stay in the lift and take this photo. So worth it, right? ;)

"Saptakshaara" (?) in concert. They were basically drummers who play on the Ghatam (like clay pots). It was amazing!
By the time we reached dinner, the batteries on Jo's camera died so here's one shot from mine. This was at a restaurant called Sundance in Churchgate.

The night is still young...

...in Honululu, where it is still only 21:04 on the 13th of February and so it's technically still my birthday. I know, I'm like a child who doesn't want to go to bed. You'd think once I hit 22, I'd leave childish things behind me? Ha!

Anyway, the reason why I don't want it to be not-my-birthday is because I gave myself an ultimatum... After my birthday, it's down to serious business. Classes are over, I don't have to go to college anymore and the only thing left is to study study study. Firstly for these things called "preliminary exams" which happen to start on Thursday (eeks!) and well, ultimately for my board exams which (as of now) start on the 8th of April and go on for... oh it's too painful to say. I'm still unrealistically hoping that them university people will see reason and they'll end the exams sooner than what the timetable says right now...

But forget that, it's still my birthday!! :P And well, I had the most awesome-to-the-power-of-(almost)-infinity day. It started off with the usual midnight conference call with my girls in Bombay and then I went to bed and was woken by my parents calling at 7am! :) Wasn't planning to wake up that early but just as well; it was nice to be woken up by them rather than my alarm clock!

In the morning, we headed to college to watch Sharan give a speech at this EXAP (Excellence in Arts Programme) prize distribution ceremony. She was brilliant - as usual.

And then there was cake!! A chocolate rum cake which Sonu and I had on our birthday in the first year and I really wanted to have that again so that's what I got! It was deeeeelicious!

After that we had to go for this "Sending Forth" in the chapel. Basically it's a little thing the college does for the final year students. It was nice. The Dean addressed us and we got little souvenirs and refreshments...

In the evening we headed out to Kala Ghoda! We wanted to catch this concert of the Symphony Orchestra of India but of course we were late but that turned out to be a blessing in disguise because we stayed for the next concert instead which was just... beautiful!!

And of course there was dinner after that!

See.. pretty much perfect day! And I am grateful. So very grateful. That I was here in Bombay because really, it's a pretty awesome place to be. And for all of you!

22 looks promising! :)

p.s. more pictures to come later! the one posted here was from the morning (we had to wear saris) and right before my classmates spontaneously burst into song! that was nice! the pic is taken by Shruti!

Khotachiwadi...

Yesterday we went for a "field trip" to this urban village called Khotachiwadi. I'll admit I was less than enthusiastic about this because in my head it meant walking (on a hot day) through a dusty village but it was actually really cool and it's definitely something worth seeing in Bombay.

It was actually pretty bizarre. It's like this little alley somewhere amongst the chaos of Girgaum with a bunch of adorable little houses and lots of cool graffiti.

Anyway, it turned out that a girl from our college actually lives in one of those adorable houses and so we called her and then she took us to this man's house to have a peek into an antique Khotachiwadi home and ohmyword! The man happened to be some really famous designer - James Ferreira and apparently he let's people randomly walk through his drop-dead-gorgeous little house. It was filled with all this beautiful old furniture and stuff and he was actually there sitting in his kitchen making pickle or something as we actually walked through. See? Bizarre but so cool.

(So I just googled "Designer who lives in Khotachiwadi" and apparently this house is more than 200 years old!)