January is over!

Can you believe that? And we have just 13 more days… Actually, less than that if you don’t count the Sundays… 11 days! Ohmyword! We have just 11 days more of classes and then we’re off for two excruciatingly looong study leave months – during which period, I am going to go mad btw. Be warned. I don’t deal so well with staying cooped up in the house with nothing to do. Yes, I know… I do in fact have to STUDY during the study leave but come on… two months!? And now there’s talk going around that our exams will be in the middle of April as opposed to 4^th of April (remember? This is why I don’t take the University’s word for it!) Ew. That’s all I have to say on this matter… for now.

Anyway, today we were at a friend, Monisha’s place working on a presentation that we have to do next Thursday and well, between all the hard work (:P) we were just sharing stories from our first days of college and how we became friends and it’s just so crazy! Where did the three years go? I mean, I think we’ve done a good job of milking our college life. We’ve done a lot of crazy things but it’s hard to believe that it’s all almost… over :(

I never quite understood why people used to say, “Oh college life is so great, you’ll never forget your college days…” I mean, yeah… but I think when I came here I had the arrogant presumption that nothing could beat my years of school. I went to an awesome school and those years were just so fantabulous. But now I GET IT!! School was great – no doubt about that (and I’m super excited about the prospect of maybe going back there one day!) - but you can’t really compare college life to that. It’s been the best on a completely different level and I’ve changed… Honestly. Sometimes, I don’t even recognize myself! It’s hard to describe but I have changed and I don’t mean to be cocky, but I’ve changed for the better and that’s not at all to my credit. I know… maybe this kind of sounds like an Oscar speech but I’ve just been thinking a lot about these things as college has started winding down… Bombay has changed me. My friends have changed me. And it's all because I didn’t get what I wanted… I got what my parents wanted and I got what God wanted!

You know what I wanted? I wanted to go the US. Or Canada. Or Australia. I basically wanted to be anywhere in the world except for India. That’s what I wanted. I wanted to live in a clean, cool and organized city… I had dreams of traveling to all these exotic places… being closer to all my friends from school… ad infinitum…

BUT I got Bombay. And if you’ve been here you’ll know that Bombay is FAR from clean, cool and organized. It’s exactly the opposite. But I am actually grateful for it beyond what words can express... now! And I am so glad that I have finally reached the point where I understand this. This is why I can get on a train-full of vicious and grumpy “first-class ladies” every morning and still be smiling away to glory... for no apparent reason! Trust me it’s taken me a looong time to get here. I was pretty grumpy myself when all this began!

The point is, that even though it's been a long journey and it's not what I initially wanted for myself, I think it's been the best possible thing. I like where I am now but I'm not so presumptuous to think that I've gotten where I need to get. I'm still a work in progress! ;)

So there are some random “deep” thoughts from the recesses of my brain for you!

Now here’s a random picture… or two!

Firstly, this is my "Mama-Dadu" and me!
He's my grand-uncle and the closest thing I've ever had to a grandfather. Sweetest old man ever!

This is Gauri! She and Jo performed in a dance-drama last weekend and I was planning not to take any photos because when I'm taking photos I get so involved in that that I miss the whole performance itself but I just couldn't resist! These are just a few of the colour pics. I took most of them in B/W but I'll upload those another day...

Joyee!
She did a role that she hasn't quite done before and pulled it off with absolute grace! So proud of you girlie!

Antu, Sonu and yours truly at the performance!
We're all into sarees now! And we actually draped them ourselves for the first time! :)

Happy Weekend All! :D

The year that was... 2009!

**Right, I've been thinking about this post for like a month now. I think this might turn out to be one of my favourite posts to do on the blog every year! Anyway, so I started making little mental notes around the time my exams were going on last month and have been putting it together for the past couple of days, trying very hard to stop myself from posting it before the 31st because that was the plan but now if I keep letting it stew in my "drafts" I'll keep adding stuff and then it'll get intolerably long so I think I'll just publish it now! :P**

Another year gone by! It hasn't been all good. I mean, this year was a year of crazy things - the strike, swine flu, etc... but you know, even though some things seem terrible while you're actually going through it, when you look back, in retrospect, it's amazing... like all these threads just come together into a beautiful tapestry. It may not even come together just yet but I know that one day I will look back at some things that just didn't make much sense at the time and think, "ohhhh, that's why that happened!!"

But anyway, last year I made a list of some of the best moments of 2008 on the blog and I loved doing that because it was so great to just look back and remember! And so here are some of the best moments of 2009. Obviously this list is not at all comprehensive - that would go on for pages and pages!

Grace's visit to Bombay! (Jan)

Two beautiful weddings (Jan and August)

Chrissy and Anna (and friends) stopping through Bombay (Feb) Getting my glasses. I actually dislike wearing them, but they do help me to see clearly so I guess should be thankful for that! (Feb)

Turning 21, Kala Ghoda Festival 2009, meeting Coco! (Feb)

Antu and Coco (her cousin's daughter) at the Kala Ghoda festival 2009

Finishing off my second year of college and the after-party at Sharan's! (March)

At Sharan's place right after we finished our 2nd Year final exams! Vini and I went in the pool and made the rest jealous and they all promptly signed up for classes that summer! :P

My first Earth Hour (March)

Exercising my right to vote for the first time!! (April)
Taking D up to Ooty, Easter in Ooty, bumping into some wonderful Hebronites in Ooty... just OOTY! (April)

Club Mahindra Holiday in Thekkady with the parentals! Especially the elephant-ride! (April)

The elephant called "Chandramukhi" who kindly let us take a ride on her back! This is her "blessing" me! Sweet! April. Thekkady, Kerala.

Learning cross stitching :) (May)

Georgia and Gina - my first completed project of cross-stitching! ;)

Re-union with Taryn and Grace! And Skypeing with Tashu in the wee hours of the morning... (June)

Another reunion with Taz, Jonny and Chandni! (June)

At Coffee World, Brigade Road, Bangalore.

Random and amazing conversation with the Librarian lady who was cross-stitching on an Andheri local train (June)

Becoming a member of the American Center Library. One of the 'happy places' I love to escape to in Mumbai! (June)

Watching two plays by Naseerudhin Shah's theatre group - Waiting for Godot and Ismat Apaa Ke Naam (II). (July and September)

The infamous "Teachers' Strike". Yeah, I'm actually being thankful for this... now. In itself it was terrible and at the time, I was fuming and whining. It taught me a lot and lead to a lot of amazing things. (August)

Meg's visit to Bombay and the unplanned rendezvous with Orville! (August)

Being "photographer" at Jo's performance in Chitrangada at the Nehru Centre ;) (September)
Planning and executing Surprise Birthday Parties. We're the best at it ;) (September, November, December)

Sharan's birthday at her place, Antu's birthday cake - the one where they wrote her name as "Anutu"!, Jo's birthday at her place!

Lunch on Antu's birthday at 'Something Fishy', Andheri, Mumbai. 30th Nov, 2009

Going for Arundhati Roy's book launch of "Listening to Grasshoppers" at the Townhall. She is one amazing woman and made me think about a lot of things... (October)

Carrying out our Research Project on Foreigners' Perspective on Hospitality in Mumbai! (November)

Tabulating the data we collected at Monisha's place, Nariman Point, Mumbai.

Kaleidoscope 2009!! Best ever! (November)

The final day of K'scope

Late night, drinking wine and fabulous conversation with my favourite girls in Bombay at Cafe Ivy. (November)

Me at Cafe Ivy. We ordered a bottle of wine, two plates of french fries and made excited conversation!

Christmas Breakfast with Radiance (December)

Christmas Breakfast at Danny's place, Banaswadi, Bangalore. 25th Dec, 2009!

Lambu (Arjun Durr), another friend from Hebron came to visit in Bangalore (December)

Being Home. Because of the strike and other various circumstances, coming home for holidays all of this year has been so unpredictable but thank God, I got my holidays! And even extra days sometimes! :) (Summer, August, Diwali, Christmas)

Our beautiful house in Bangalore one summery sunset... :)

...Phew! See what I mean? It's been a gooooooood year! :) And next year will be even better, I know it! It will be a year of BIG changes and it will be kind of scary because, hey let's face it, change is NOT easy. But it can be exciting and I can't wait to see what God has been planning all along! He never fails to surprise!

Here's hoping that He makes all things new for you this coming year!

Happy New Year! :D

6th of October

-- Today is my mom's birthday. And I forgot. I know, shame on me right?! Now, I'm not making excuses here but in trying to figure out how I did this I came up with the following reasons:

1. I'm actually generally really bad with remembering birthdays and also names. Names of anything - places, movies, songs, bands, people. Just don't ask me.
2. All the associations are wrong this year. Everything is wrong this year in terms of schedule. I went home in August for two weeks. K'scope should've been over. I'm supposed to be having exams now but I'm not... Etc, etc.
3. Facebook didn't remind me. Neither did my phone. Or any other technical double-edged sword for that matter. If you think about it, thanks to phones and the internet - if you use them a lot (and I do) - you don't actually have to remember anything for yourself nowadays. I remember before the world of cellphones, I knew all my friends' phonenumbers off by heart. Ask me today and I'll be frantically looking for my phone and searching through my contacts! Heck, ask me for my own number and I'll probably stumble and give you a missed call instead so it gets directly saved on your phone :P And the same goes for birthdays, I usually rely on Facebook to tell me when somebody's birthday is which doesn't work when that person doesn't have a Facebook presence. Like my mother.

-- Anyway, thankfully my dad reminded me and my mom forgave me ;)

-- While I was out forgetting my mom's birthday, Antu, Jo and I went to watch Wake Up Sid! which is the movie that got caught up in the "controversy" mentioned in my previous post. And I figured that maybe the reason they had to pick a fight on this film (because I'm pretty sure that MOST characters in most films based in Bombay still call it Bombay) is because it's a HAPPY movie and they don't really come off as a happy bunch of people. They're more into violence and havoc. Because I mean, they didn't make a big deal out of Kaminey and in that, they're actually portrayed negatively but then again, maybe they weren't intelligent enough to figure that out. Just my twopence.

-- The movie was great. I enjoyed it to the core. It's one of the those sit-back-and-relax stories told clean and simple. Fun fun! Some really good photography in the film and Ranbir carries around this awesome camera which had me going "I WANT!!" Konkona is gorgeous and brilliant as usual. Ranbir was impressive. And the other guy - so cute! :P Also, we spotted a couple (two) girls from our college acting as extras in the film!

-- Going home again in 8 days! :D

Everything and More.

Yesterday was absolute brilliance! Like I mentioned in my last post, it was Jo's birthday and her performance in the evening... What I didn't mention is that we had planned to turn up at her house at 7am to surprise her!

L-R: Sonu, Antu, Sharan, Vini, Gauri, Jo, Tina, Madhuri

Initially the plan was to do it a day before her birthday because it was supposed to be a public holiday and so we could go over to her place early morning but then it turned out that we had classes on Thursday morning so we had to shift it to Friday morning. "Okay, all the better to have it on her birthday anyway," we thought to ourselves. So we'd wake up really early and aim to reach her place at 7am and THEN go to college. (haha! we can be pretty ambitious sometimes :P)

So Thursday came, we went to college, pretending like we didn't really have any plans for Jo's birthday and as far as she knew we'd all just meet at college in the morning... and then it rained. It poured. In fact it was probably in the top 5 wettest days of this "monsoon". We woke up in the morning and it was raining, we went to sleep at night and it was raining and we woke up on Friday morning and it was STILL raining. So we conference called each other and had to rearrange our plan again to accommodate for the rain because Bombay is a mess when it rains - trains get delayed, everything is unpredictable... the works. This was at around 6am. We decided to wait and see if the rain subsides and then leave after that. Anyway thankfully, the rain did subside enough for us to be able to make a decision to leave and we finally all got there by around 7:45am and waited below Jo's building while Gauri tried to stall her and prevent her from leaving her apartment to catch a bus to college!

We went up, rang the bell. Jo's mom opened the door and let us in. We all sat in the living room and we can hear Jo getting ready in the bedroom and looking for things and then she steps out...

SURPRISE!!

Gosh, it was awesome! She didn't have a clue and it all went off so well! Obviously we didn't end up going to college after all. Jo's mom made us breakfast (she was our co-conspirator of the entire plan), we ordered Chinese food for lunch and we just hung around at her place pretty much the whole day (we even had a much needed nap in the afternoon! :D)! And then in the evening we went to watch Jo perform!

Jo's chaddi-buddy, Madhuri was also there which was really great! We got to interact with her quite a bit over the last few weeks as we planned and coordinated the whole thing. She put together this really great scrapbook for Jo with little messages from all of us and lots of photos and we got a gorgeous little dress made for her.

So it was a fabulous day! All of us just being together has been a rare occurrence this year so it was just great to hang out and relax!

There are plenty of photos but for some stupid reason I took my camera cable to Antu's place on Thursday and I left it there and haven't been able to get it back yet! I got some awesome shots at the programme last evening on Jo's camera but I haven't got those yet either! :( So it'll have to wait till Monday...

The above photos were taken by Jo's dad and Sharan respectively. The first one is a group pic of all us including Madhuri and the second is from the scrapbook!

Here I go again...

So here I am, back in Mumbai on the brink of my last and final year of college! After that I will be a college-graduate! Doesn't that have a nice ring to it!? I am excited to be getting started with third year of college. Hopefully there will be lots to do...

Leaving home doesn't get much easier apparently but I'm trying to be positive. This is life and I am just so grateful for an awesome summer holiday. Here are some of the highlights:

- Trip to Kerala (esp. the elephant ride in Kerala!)
- Trip to Ooty with D
- Catching up with Hebronites in Ooty
- Salsa classes (although I never did get around to going to a salsa party!!)
- Spending time with Doris
- Catching up with Tripti
- Going through old stuff and photos
- Time and access to broadband to post stuff that I can't easily do in Mumbai
- Movies (and I've brought many more on my laptop to keep me occupied till October!)
- Trying out new recipes
- Earth Hour India 2009 (so glad my parents were enthusiastic about this as well...)
- Free summer afternoons...
- Voting and then watching the drama unfold in the news with my parents...
- Discovering that cross-stitching is a lot of fun!
- Grocery-shopping with my parents at Spar (I don't know why I love doing this so much, but I just do.)
- Sleeping over at my brother's place
- Discovering new artists (Brooke Fraser is my current favourite!)
- Bangalore weather (heaven, compared to Mumbai!)
- The "micro-mini Hebron Class of 2006 reunions"
- Cubbies* with Taryn and Grace
- My "fun-aunt" visiting from Calcutta (she always has hilarious stories to tell!)

See what I mean? It's been a fabulous holiday and I'm glad that I did most of what I planned to do at the beginning of the holiday... Except I kind of lost all my gusto with the Hindi and German half-way through. Oops! Oh well, I'm sure Vini will get me going with my hindi again once college starts and I brought some German resources as well but I'm not going to get too ambitious with that right now... There's a time for everything under the sun!

*Cubbies is what we used to call Sleepovers at Hebron. I have no idea why!

Time is a funny thing...

See the resemblance? :) One year old --> 7 or 8 yrs old --> 16.

I like going through old photos, especially when they're in albums - REAL photos and not just a bunch of pixels on the monitor. So I try to get my digital photos printed even now because I like to imagine my own kids/grand-kids sitting down and flipping through a pile of photo albums and asking me questions about the people in them. Anyway, I'm getting a little ahead of myself there!

I've been a sort of "quasi-nomad" for the past 8 years. Living at home for a few months and then going back to school/college in another city/town so I only get to look through these albums when I'm on holiday at home so I decided to convert a couple of them into soft-copies so that I can look through them (thanks to the internet) even when I'm not at home. At first I took digital photos of the old photos but not all of them came out clear. So last night I used the scanner at Dada and D's place and added a whole bunch more... Ah! Technology, that double edged sword!

Scanning is a lot of fun actually! After I finished scanning the 20-odd photos that I took with me to my bro's place, I started scanning stuff from my wallet! He he :D Here's some from my wallet...

Taryn, Me and Grace, Bangalore:. This one is actually a TINY little sticker stuck on the back of the photo below. We took this in one of Korean(?) photo-sticker machine thingys outside a bowling alley in Bangalore. Anyone know what I'm talking about? I have no idea what those machines are called... Don't remember exactly when it was taken...

Freesia and Me, Ooty, 2004 (i think): This one was taken in one of those passport photo-booths in Ooty. I love this machine! Sadly, the people at the photo shop saw how much we enjoyed this and stopped allowing more than one person going into the booth at a time! Thankfully we got to it before that happened!

And now for some fun with Photoshop! That's the three of us vegetating on the couch, watching the first innings of the IPL finals (while D Facebook-ed on the laptop!) just before we got down to eating some of that Lasagne my sis-in-law is famous for! ;)

Tina VOTES!

I saw Bangalore sunrise today. Usually, no matter how hard I try, holiday time I cannot wake up early because I invariably end up sleeping late but anyway today was different. Today is Voting Day!I voted for the first time in my life today. The very evening I reached Bangalore this holiday I went to the electoral office and registered. They told me I wouldn't be able to get my voter's ID but as long as my name came on the electoral list, I would be able to vote - I just had to show some identity. Okay. I took it with a pinch of salt, prayed that this would in fact happen and then life went on...My parents, who lived in Africa for almost twenty years also had to get theirs done and went through a lot of hell to make it happen. In fact, till yesterday my dad wasn't sure if his name was on the list even though he has a Voter's ID card! Anyway, you can read more about that over at his blog.
So this morning, we woke up bright and early to head to the polls. My dad and I wore our "Lead India '09" t-shirts which is a Times Of India initiative. He won a quiz over at their website and so they sent him a nifty t-shirt a few weeks ago and then yesterday for some odd reason they sent another one, a size smaller so I got it!I knew that voting was important for a long time but when it really kicked in was after 26/11 in Mumbai. That disaster of a terrorist attack that will remain etched in my mind forever. Suddenly the Big City was ebbing with anger, finger-pointing, protests, endless debates and discussions and then one of our professors put us all to shame one day. It went something like this...

Prof: "So let me ask you, how many of you are registered voters?"

A few scattered hands go up in class.

Prof: "Sorry to be blunt, but you shouldn't even be talking about this incident. You have no right to complain."

And then she gives you that look that makes you feel like the smallest thing on earth.

I'm not going to lie to you. Although I felt good about the fact that I actually got off my ass and took a little responsibility for my country and casted my vote today, I still don't feel completely optimistic about the fact that my vote actually counts for much. Why? Because it's a mess. Absolute mess. The whole freaking system is a mess. We have an age-old system of government given to us by the British that doesn't work for us anymore. And no, don't start pointing the finger at the British for this as well because come on, we've had more than sixty years of independence, can you really tell me that nobody has realised that we need a change yet!?!

Our polling station was at a govt. school about a 10 minute walk away from home. We reached there before much of the crowd but it still took us much more time than it really should have taken. Why? Because the booths are manned by illiterate fools. Sorry to be harsh, but it's the truth. I'm pretty sure that the man who was checking for our names on the list did not know how to read anything beyond numbers. He looked at me and asked me if the name written in my passport was in fact PRIYANKA NANDI! Room for rigging? Oh there's a-plenty!

Secondly, they had absolutely no IDEA what they were doing. You'd think that since now India is growing at 9%blahblahblah, and we have Electronic Voting Systemsblahblahblah, they'd atleast have LAPTOPS to deal with 700million eligible voters?! Oh nooooooooo, that's too much to ask. Instead they were writing things down on a million scrap pieces of paper. Okay, fine. How hard can it be to cross off numbers and keep a tally of the numbers of males and females coming to vote, right? You'd be surprised.

Thirdly, NOBODY there is willing to take responsibility for the obvious mistakes and nobody does anything to correct their mistakes either. They just smile, pretend that they're listening, tell you to keep calm, ask you if you were able to vote and then look at you like, "So what are you complaining about?? If you got your vote, move on!"

Fourthly, there are OBVIOUS dubious practices going on around the place, and the police (see picture below, need I say more?!?)... There was this one man outside the polling booth who kept stopping people, smiling at them and giving them instructions what to do inside. I stood there giving him the stink-eye for a while and made sure that he saw me doing that and then I shook my head in disgust and started walking away. Now, I was wearing my nifty "Lead India" t-shirt and so I think the guy got a little scared that I was from the press or some official or something as small as I may be so he came over to me to try and convince me that his intentions were not wrong and he blabbered some things like, "Madam, please don't misunderstand me, I am giving breakfast coupons to my workers..."

(Yeah sure, you corrupt idiot. I know exactly what that means!!)

He actually had a piece of paper on which he was showing people which button exactly to press when they went into to the polling booths. I'm telling you, DO NOT VOTE FOR PEOPLE WHO TRY TO BUY YOUR VOTE!!

ARRRGH.

So if you're an Indian and you're above 18 and you live in India and you're registered. The experience is not great but YOU HAVE TO VOTE. Why? Because it sure as hell will make LESS of a difference if you DON'T! Atleast let these assholes know that you're smarter than them and that you CANNOT BE BOUGHT by their petty games. It's a whisper in the darkness I know, but why keep your mouth shut!?

Here are a few voter tips:

1. You CAN still VOTE even if you don't have your voter's ID. Just make sure your name is on the electoral list and take some photo identity (passport, driver's licence, PAN card, etc...) with you when you go to the polls.

2. BE PREPARED. You have to do all the work. Do not rely on the idiots at the polling centres. Go on the electoral websites/go to the electoral offices/check the papers/call them and find out ALL THE DETAILS like your "Part Number", "Serial Number", etc. It makes the whole process much faster.

3. Go EARLY. Booths opened here at 7am and I'm guessing it will be similar in all places. Like I keep saying, the people manning these booths are idiots, so the later you go, the more confused they will be and the slower the process will get so go early, get out early.

4. Stand your ground. If you've checked that your name is on the list but they can't find it, don't give up! They couldn't find mine the first time... Just take as much information with you and dig in and look through the papers with the guy behind the desk searching for your name. Also, decide who you're going to vote for before hand and don't let anyone sway your decision.

5. Don't get your mark on the hand that you eat with! :D

6. BLOG about it! :D

p.s. If you see DUBIOUS BUSINESS, give them the stink-eye :D and ask them what they're doing. Chances are they'll continue whatever they're doing but atleast give them a little run for their money.

Back from Kerala!

Back from our trip to Thekkady. About 2000ft above sea level in a Tiger Reserve on the border between Kerala and Tamil Nadu. It was a long journey by train to Madurai then by car for 3 hours to Tusker Trails, our hotel in Thekkady.
We went elephant- riding, we watched a riveting show of Kalaripayatu - a local form of martial art and ate - a LOT.
It was a relaxing trip and I got to splash around in the swimming pool and get out of the city - just what I wanted. The place was gorgeous and GREEN and the people were really nice and friendly and there were lots of tourists - mostly Europeans.
Here are some randoms... I'll think about posting more later! :)

little girl staring out the train window

my dad on the Tuticorin Express - our train to Madurai

night lightshaati mere saathi!on the way back to our room one night I noticed this little spider sitting like a King right in the middle of its masterpiece web...
the Periyar lake where we went for a boat ride... we saw a few animals - deer, wild pigs, blah blah... After many years in Africa and a good number of African safaris, we're a little hard to please! Wish we could've seen a Tiger!

banana chips galore!

The Best Of 2008

Remembering some of the good stuff of the year gone by:

Tag: The Photo Tag (July)

SMS: From Sharan "You're going to have a daughter, Tina." It was totally out of the blue and well, I hope so. (October)
Bloggers' Meet: With Nithya and Sharan(yan) in Coimbatore.

Movies: Amazing Grace and Mr. and Mrs. Iyer (October)
Shopping: MAX! In Bangalore, with Jo. (November)Event: The Jazz concert I went to at the NCPA. It was a treat from a junior from school - Neville. I will forever be grateful for that. It was magic. (January)

Blog Discovery: Confessions of a CF Husband

Dinner: At the Georges' with Sharan, Sonu, Jo and Antu (October)

Journey: To Ooty with some of best friends! (October)Eating Place: The American Express Bakery in Bandra - thanks to Jo! (July)

Book: Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier. Oh, it blew me away. (November)
Re-union: With Niru in Bombay! I'm SO glad you came! (February)Realisation: Ooty is BEAUTIFUL and I will never get enough of it! Holiday: With family in Nagpur (December)
Photo: The mischievous school boys at Coimbatore bus-stand... (October)

Activity: Taking photos during K'SCOPE 2008 (September)

Sunset: Nagpur Sunsets are just gorgeous! Maybe because you can actually see it cause there are no tall buildings all over the place. I've really enjoyed sitting on the balcony at my uncle's place and watching the sun go down leaving behind breathtaking twilight colours. (December)

There's so much more but that could take a while.

Your mercies are new every morning, Lord.
I thank you...
For the abundant joy.
For lessons learnt.
For friends.
Family
2008.
You.

You humble me.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!