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!)

More (Flower) Power to us.

Looking to for the future...

These are sad days because they're the last few days of classes. As in, after Thursday I'm never going to sit through another class at Sophia's! :( SAD!

Anyway, so to cushion the blow, one fine day in the canteen Astrid and I thought, "let's have a dress code for each day of the last week. It'll be fun!!" And of course I was totally excited because I remember doing this in school too! The next day Astrid (who is our class rep) announced it to the rest of the class and so the Socio single major students and even our teachers (!!) are having a lot of fun this week ;)

Today was Flower Power/Hippy/Bohemian day...On Thursday we're going on a field trip (apparently) and then maybe lunch (?) with the class. Friday's a public holiday for some reason.. Never been so sad about a public holiday - this means one less day of college!! Tragic.

Today on the train ride back home, one of our teachers was on the same train and she asked us how we were coping up with "the end of college" and I said, "it comes and goes" and well, it hadn't come all day and then it came with an added realisation.. So far, I've been sad about leaving and saying goodbye to friends and going to college everyday and then it hit me that I'm going to miss the teachers too! And it's been such a blessing that we actually have a pretty awesome rapport with our teachers! And I am going to miss them! Ack!

Also I've been thinking about how I've made it through three years of being in an all-girls institute for the first time in my life. And let me tell you, it's been AWESOME. To be honest when I started off, I was a little like "ummmmmmm" just because I've always been in co-ed... but I haven't had a single day of thinking "I wish Sophia was co-ed." Not that I don't like boys, it's just that people often have this notion (like I did!) about all-girls being "boring" but trust me, I've had the most fun three years ever. And being in India, it's even more special because let's face it, we still have this socially backward notion that "boys are better than girls". Families still rejoice when a BOY is born. No fire crackers are burst on the birth of a GIRL, in fact sometimes we do everything we can to get rid of the girl! It's sad but it's true (don't argue with me, I studied 'Gender and Society' :P). So to be in a girls college like Sophia which is one of the best colleges in Bombay and especially being a part of one of Bombay's biggest college festivals (Kaleidoscope)... it's been an honour. And I am glad that Sophia has not and hopefully will not (ever) give in to the pressure of going co-ed. And one day girls will be celebrated as much as boys are in our country!

More power to us! :)

KGF 2010! :)

February rocks.

Did I hear you ask why?

• The weather is pleasant. Well, in Bombay at least!

• It's the only month that can change it's number of days every four years! ;) And doesn't have the usual 30 or 31. You gotta admit, that is really unique! :P

• A lot of cool people are born in February. For example - Sonu, Grace (tomorrow!), Pipi, Doris, ME (:P) and so on…

• Valentine’s Day. Ummm, okay not really. But it’s just generally a happy day, right? And an excuse to be silly and watch cheesy romantic comedies!

• Sales! I’m not a shopaholic by any stretch of the word but my gran gave me some money to spend and I was thus delighted to find that there are a lot of places that have sales going on right now!

• KALA GHODA FESTIVAL! You know how the Standard Chartered Marathon in January is one of my favourite things? This is another one of my favourite things in Bombay and it’s always even more of a treat for me because it generally happens around my birthday!

Today was Day One (it goes on for 8 days) and so Antu, Sharan and I went and Sonu joined us later with her dad. Basically Kala Ghoda Festival (a.k.a KGF) is a platform to display your artistic gifts; be it photography, fine art, music, dance, theatre or film… It’s organized by the Times of India every February and basically one whole street in South Bombay where most of the art galleries are is blocked off for one week and there’s art on display throughout the day, stalls where you can buy stuff generally made by NGOs, and the evenings are packed with performing arts events at the outdoor amphitheatre. And get this… it’s all FREE.

This is my third KGF and I’m so going to miss it when I leave! In my first year, I had brought Niru with me when she'd come for a visit. She was only here for a few days and we managed to pack in a trip to Pune and Kedgaon so we were exhausted but we still managed to catch the last day of the festival and well, ask her and I'm sure she too will tell you that it really is something! In fact, if you ever come to Bombay you should try to schedule your visit around this time so you can catch KGF! It’s really worth it!

Secretly, I’m hoping that one day when I have a good camera and manage to polish up my amateurish photography skills; I’ll have a display of my own work at the KGF! I'm just waiting for that! Impossible is nothing, right?

A painting of a "Kala Ghoda" (black horse) on the ground...There were still putting together the entrance but isn't that cool? It's made of steel wardrobes welded together!!A random pair of eyes sticking out of a tree!Lots of Global Warming awareness art.

Me and Antu. Waiting for a table at Samovar - one of our favourite little restaurants in South Bombay!

Nothing like a good ol' cup of Chaii!A lamp made of x-rays!There was this huge bell-like thing hanging from a tree...More installment art.This guy was writing some kind of messages on white t-shirts.An amazing photography display...

More installment art.