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.

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

The Shadow Proves The Sunshine

It's kinda quiet around here. Finally.

(1) Could it be true?

Could life be new?

It's been loud and frenzied for the last couple of weeks with college and then Kscope and while I love loud and frenzied, quiet is good. I'm grateful for quiet.

(2) All that's in my head,

Is in your hands.

I'm in the middle of exams. Two down, four more to go. The first two were pretty OK. Next one's not till Thursday so I'm relaxing a little and enjoying the stillness because it's going to get loud again from Thursday. The rest of the exams and then after the exams we have a bunch of looming deadlines with projects to meet so – madness!

(3) I'm finding that you,

And you alone can break my fall.

I'm listening to music and writing (like mad!) and reading (Pride & Prejudice, finally!) in between the studying. The studying is kind of a pain-in-me-arse but you know, if we didn't sometimes have to do things that we don't particularly like doing, everything else would also be kind of meaningless. I mean, I love listening to music more because for those moments I can NOT think about studying and that makes it sweeter.

(4) You push until you're shoving,

You bend until you break.

I think this is why I don't like being addicted to anything. Addictions always let you down and it's kind of boring. Diversity is sweet. Do things that you don't always do. Break the patterns.

(5) Let me know that you love me,

Let that be enough.

Hmm, this is turning out to be a post of random rambling/ not making much sense. That's not really new, is it? :P I did have a point, though. I wanted to say something...

(6) There's so much more than empty conversations

Filled with empty words.

Oh yes, last night (or the night before, I forget) I was thinking about how I haven't made one of those “I am thankful for...” lists on my blog for a while. And man, I am thankful for a lot of things. Anyway, so I began writing stuff down in my journal and I realised I can't just make lists because once I write down a point I feel like elaborating on the things about that thing or person that I am most thankful about. Lol. So I didn't get very far but the point is that I realised that when I think of things that I am most thankful about, they're all people.

So I want to tell you that I am thankful for you, dear blogreader. Silent or not-so-silent as you may be. Thank you for reading!

(7) Maybe forgiveness is right where you fell.

Where can you run to escape from yourself?

I started this blog about 3 years ago and got a lot more from it than I ever bargained for! I don't even completely remember what the motive for starting this blog was initially but now, now I hope that when you come to read this blog you wouldn't see me. You would see something that is much much bigger than me :)

(8) In the currency of grace;

Is where my song begins.

Have a joyful week!

And if you're wondering what's with the little numbered quotes. I'm listening to Switchfoot (and falling in love with them all over again!) and the lines may or may not have anything to do with the rest of the post :P And I've numbered them for any of you fellow Switchfoot fans who might want to take a dig at guessing the songs from which I've picked up the lines! (For the record, I would not be able to do it myself. So go ahead, impress me! :D)

Why I love Ubuntu!

*click to enlarge*

And now, if somebody would just tell me how to make stupid Tata Indicom internet software Ubuntu-friendly, I'll be the happiest person on the planet!! :)

A funny one!

I was looking through some old notes/tags I'd posted on Facebook and found this one from 2007. So funny, had to post it on the blog!!

Feel free to tag yourself!

"Go to google and type in quotation marks your name and then likes to (ex. "Cathy likes to") Type in the first ten thing that come up and repost in your own note."

1. Tina likes to socialize and will use any excuse to celebrate with friends. [hmmm, i dunno abt the socializing bit but the celebrating; yeah definitely!!]
2. Tina likes to be admired and she has a tendency to force admiration by ... [muahahahahaha!]
3. Tina likes to dress up. [yeah..... right]
4. Tina likes to have a ton of spotlights. [what the heck!!]
5. Tina likes to put in a good 11 hours of sleep in one fell swoop. [OH YES!]
6. Tina likes to eat beautiful fishes. [Well I dunno about the beautful fishes, but fish; absolutely! I'm a bong, man!]
7. Tina likes to say she is "just a country girl from Nutbush who had a dream." [HA HA HA]
8. Tina likes to blog about... [about what?! anything really!]
9. Tina likes to ask me why I love her. [ask who!?]
10. Tina likes to enjoy life in the moment. [well that's good!]

Mollycoddle.

Tina:

• Watched Away We Go last night. So honest. So funny. So brilliant. Sam Mendes does it again (remember Revolutionary Road?), ladies and gentlemen!
• Joined Twitter recently and hasn't yet figured out what the hype is all about.
  
• Installed Ubuntu on her laptop last night (I lie, I mean yesterday morning...) and is wondering why is there not more hype about the brilliance of it! It's simple, it's FREE, it's so much less fussy and buggy than Windows... Try it!
• Has been cycling for the last three days and re-realising how much she loves it! The wind in your face, the control... awesome!
  
• Does not know what she's going to do after college next year. Surprise surprise!
  
• Made flash cards to make studying more fun today. It works!
• Loves reading the dictionary! It's so enlightening. She learnt some new words such as mollycoddle and many other funny words which she really should have written down because she can't remember or find them now :/
• Is enjoying Bangalore weather but hating the dryness which is doing horrible things to her skin! Hello moisturizer!
  
• Has run out of things to say... :)
  

Little Joys.

I was re-reading Taryn's post on my blog this summer and was reminded of this note that I'd sent out on Facebook asking people to write down 5 of their favourite things:

Little things that make me happy:

1. Walking on grass/sand/mud barefeet
2. Watching the stars
3. Dancing (salsa!)
4. Wedding photos
5. Afternoon naps (especially during exam-time ;))

What about you?

List five things that make you happy and pass it on.

I went back to read it and it's so uplifting! Here are some of my favourites from what people wrote:

• Looking at pictures of my childhood (Ribhu)
• Letters from friends - I re-read them (Sushi)
• Coloured straws. They're so bright and colourful how can you not be happy when drinking with them? Or... at the thought of drinking with them... YAY pink straws! :P (Alisha)
• Movies like Breakfast at Tiffany's (Sharan)
• Eating pani puri (Siddharth)
• Finding old photographs in the most unexpected places (Adrian)
• Babies/baby pictures (Sonu)
• The way my hair smells after the shower (Alva)
• Fresh laundry (Abi)
• Long car rides with good company and familiar music playing (Taryn)
• The weather before a HEAVY downpour - crazy winds (Dinah)

So what about you?

Do tell! (If you answered on Facebook, I'm sure you can still think of another five!)

I'm adding one more: Converse Shoes.

Photo credits:
1. summer: my barefeet in the grass, 2. Toesies 2, 3. Untitled, 4. Up Where They Play, 5. Would you like to dance salsa?, 6. Day One Hundred, 7. Pani Puri Lunch! (365-126), 8. Omaggio a Audrey Hepburn semplicemente divina!, 9. Wash Day, 10. Guitar, 11. Baby C in the Teacup, 12. - Mail Day!! -, 13. Candy straws, 14. Congratulations Missy and Charlie!, 15. Day 90/365

The Good and the Bad.

:) I enjoyed another awesome theatre experience yesterday. Jo and I went to the NCPA to watch Ismat Apaa Ke Naam (II); another production by Naseerudin Shah’s theatre group – Motley. It was brilliant, albeit a little difficult to understand because it was in Urdu which is quite similar to hindi but not the same. The play is basically three short stories written by Ismat Chugtai which has been converted into a play form by Shah.

:( I have a 7am class tomorrow and we had almost four hours of non-stop classes this afternoon. so. tiring

:) Thanks to all the extra classes there seems to be some hope of a short break in October after all. Nothing is confirmed yet, but there is hope…

:) I came home and found a surprise! My darling friend Niru who lives in Melbourne sent me flowers and a box of chocolates… just like that. Because she loves me. Isn’t that sweet? Totally made my day.

:( My laptop is acting funny again… more signs of its imminent death... :(

:) Tomorrow is the last day of my internet bill cycle.

:) I actually had time to go to the American Centre Library this week and return my book. It was a few days late but the nice librarian didn't penalize me for it and I got two new books to read: the curious incident of the dog in the night-time by Mark Haddon and Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier. This library is actually one of my favourite places in the city and I can't believe I only got to take advantage of it in my last (hopefully? maybe? who knows?) year in Bombay. The paranoid security on the outside can be a turn-off but once you get inside, it's just wonderful. I can spend hours at this place...

:( I need to be off and write notes on Talcott Parsons and Robert Merton...

Toodles!

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?

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!

A Warning to Cat.

Ever had to make up wild stories about why you didn't bring your homework ("My dog ate it") or were late to class? Well, I was late to my one and only class (thanks to ongoing strike) this morning and I wish the story behind my delay was made up...

There's this cat. Let's call her... Cat. (Holly Golightly style!) Cat has some sort of affinity towards me. She lives on the street and I'm pretty sure that I have never sent her "love-vibes". Never. Her love for me is totally unrequited. Last night, or rather EARLY this morning - 3am to be precise - Cat decides to pay me a visit. She climbs in through the window which was only slightly open to let some air in and sits on my bed, at my feet. Obviously, I am asleep because that's what normal people do at 3am and I like to think I'm relatively "normal" so she decides she needs to wake me up to get my attention and thus she proceeds to whine in her screechy and loud MEOOOOWWWWWW.

Oh, I'm awake alright. I sit up straight in bed, slightly dazed and thinking OH CRAP, there's a cat in my room and it's sitting on my bed and MEOOOWWWING! I'm not very happy about this because I don't like cats, especially not dirty stray ones so I turn on the lamp so I can chase the darn thing out and I look at the clock - 3AM!!!! Okay, now I'm really mad! I have to go to college in the morning and I need my sleep! Get out you stupid cat!!

So there I was at 3am chasing Cat out of my room and she got all confused like she couldn't understand my reaction to her "friendly neighbourhood visit". She thought I was overreacting or something so it took some time to get her to exit where she entered from and she even stood one the window sill for a couple of seconds meowwwing one last time just in case I change my mind...

Well I didn't. I secured the window shut after she finally left and sat on my bed for a while cursing Cat and letting my heart rate come back to normal before I could try and get back to sleep...

...

It was funny the first time. (Yeah, this has happened before.) Cat was literally Meowwwing in my ear the first time before I chased her out. I laughed it off even though she woke me up in the early hours of the morning. The second time, I didn't even know she was in the room until she surreptitiously slipped out from under my bed and out the window giving me a fright!

This time I'm just having murderous thoughts about Cat!!!

In a nutshell.

*On my playlist:
Come Back To Me - David Cook ♥
Touch My Hand - David Archuleta ♥

*On my mind:
Cinnamon Rolls!

*On my desktop:

My granny, me, my brother and cousins in Kolkata, 1988!

*On my feet:
Salsa! (and a little Bachata!)

*On my tabs:
Hotmail, Facebook, Forming and Baking Cinnamon Rolls: All Recipes Tutorial!

*On my bedside table:
Embroidery threads and cross-stitch patterns

*On my currently-reading list:
Rumours of Another World by Phillip Yancey
The Breakdown Lane by Jacqueline Mitchard

*On my movie-list:
Well, I decided it's time I watched some of those "guy-movies"...
So far:
Full Metal Jacket: Can't say I loved it, but it is a good movie and led me to Google the Vietnam War. Gotta love a movie that leads me to expand my knowledge :P
Batman Begins: I declare Batman to be my favourite fictional super-hero! :D Loved it. But The Dark Knight wins thanks to Heath Ledger.
Ocean's Eleven: Loved it. Have to find the other... two(!?) {p.s. this is not really a guy-movie actually} Other movies:
Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist: Umm.. ok.

Come March.

So after a LOT of coaxing, my internet finally let me come online. What am I doing online when I have exams in 5 4 days, you ask? I'm taking a break (!!) and I need to vent about the stupid FC (Foundation Course - which is absolutely useless course that Mumbai University INSISTS we should take) textbook. I'm telling you it's the most crap I've ever read in one book and it's extremely frustrating when you have to STUDY from something like that! It's an insult to our intelligence, it's unethical, it's probably all plagiarism anyway. Seriously, I'm pretty sure they just googled or wikipedia-ed it and copy-paste-copy-paste and you have a textbook for BA students in a UNIVERSITY!

Argh.

That feels better although Social Psychology tells us that Catharsis Hypothesis (venting your frustration in relatively non-harmful ways - like blogging!) is only temporary and cognitive processes (like thinking about the textbook) will only bring back the frustration... But you didn't really want to know that, did you? :)

Well, at least I'm learning SOMETHING.

Things that keep me motivated:
- Breaks from studying (like this one!)
- Music
- Knowing that I'll never have to do another Economics exam after this (never say never - eeks!)
- The idea of a holiday in Kerala in April
- Lots of books to read after I get through these exams
- (Possibly) a sleepover with my girlfriends on the 18th (Yes?)
- I'm getting closer to going home
- Knowing that after all this studying, I will be a little smarter or at least a little more knowledgeable than when I started out...
- Knowing that God exists and that it all counts...

Single and Happy!

My cousin called me yesterday to wish my Happy Birthday and then asked if I was going to be single on Valentine’s Day this year TOO? And I said, “YES, I’m single and HAPPY!” To this she replied, “OK, if you insist.”

I insist :-)

So for Valentine’s Day, Jo, Sonu and I went to watch a happy romantic comedy. After classes Sonu and I rushed to the newspaper to see if He’s Just Not That Into You was playing yet and it was so we rushed to the theatre to catch the 10:30am show. We ordered a large caramel popcorn, put our feet up, got comfortable, awwwww-ed at all the appropriate times and basically had a lot of fun. That was our impromptu Valentine’s Day plan!

To sign off, here is an excerpt from random conversation after chips, dips and love letters on the 5^th of Feb.

Love is…?
Sonu: …chocolate cake (!)
Vini: …forever
Jo: …sweet
Gauri: …cute
Antu: …sky blue cotton balls
Tina: …worth waiting for
Sharan: …love, love actually

Happy Valentine’s Day!

L:R - Tina, Gauri, Sonu, Jo, Antu, Sharan, Vini
At Kala Ghoda after our 'Dips and Desserts' birthday party at Moshes. (More pictures to come!)

The Big Two-One!

I was tagged on Facebook, I'm bending the rules! :P

1. The first time I traveled in a plane was when I was 3 months old. We were going to join my dad in Zambia. My poor ma, with my brother who was 8 years old and me - a newborn who apparently used to puke up on everyone!

2. I had braces for a year. It cost a lot of money, it was extremely painful, it made me look terrible and gave me protruding lips and I still have crooked teeth!!

3. I jumped off a waterfall once. It was the scariest thing I've ever done. Even though it wasn't a very high waterfall, I'm not a brilliant swimmer and I'm not a big fan of jumping off things so this was a very big deal for me.

That's not me jumping - it's Gail - but that's the waterfall.

4. I started this blog in July 2006 because I had a lot of time and I thought it would be fun... Well, it has been fun.

5. I've set foot on six different countries my entire life. (A record I intend to increase!)

6. Tina is my nickname. It is also my internet name. Piu is the nickname given to me by my college buddies. My official name is Priyanka. Most people call me Tina.

7. "I was born in Calcutta (in the days when it was called that), I grew up in Zambia, I studied for 5 years in a boarding school in Ooty, I now study in Mumbai but home is Bangalore." This is what I tell people when they ask me where I'm from!

8. My absolute favourite movie in the whole wide world is Sound of Music.

9. I was in Zambia during the total solar eclipse in 2001 (I think it was 2001). We saw the whole thing and it is the most beautiful natural phenomenon I have ever experienced.

10. I have a fantasy of traveling to Antartica to take photos of penguins. (I've never seen snow.)

11. I've had a driver's license for almost three years but I don't drive. Driving in India terrifies me.

12. I'm not a big fan of planes, but I love airports.

13. When it comes to favourite foods; it's a close competition between cheese dosas and pani poori!14. I get really annoyed when there's someone smoking close to me or in the same room as me and I usually make it pretty obvious! Passive smoking gives me headaches.

15. Almost half the clothes in my cupboard have been stitched by my mom :)

16. I played the role of Michael in our Std.13 class production of Peter Pan and I had the opening line. My line was "I won't go to bed. I won't! I won't!" I wore penguin print pajamas and carried around a teddy bear whose head had been cut-off and velcro-ed back on so that a pirate (Starkey, played by AJ) could slice his head off with a (fake) sword and the head would go flying into the audience after which Michael gets really mad and kills the pirate! Lol. Sounds a lot more gruesome than it actually was.Pic 1: Captain Hook (played by Peter P) and the other pirates (Raph, Pete, Adrian and AJ) and Wendy (Anna) on the ship listening for the 'tick-tock' of the crocodile.
Pic 2: Mrs. Darling (Natasha) hugging her children Wendy, Michael and John (Anna, Me and Sam) after they come back home from Neverland.

17. I lived out in a village - no electricity, no roads, no running water, poop in a hole in the ground and the works - in Orissa for a few days. We were building (literally) a school for the village kids.
18. On a safari in Botswana with my family and some friends we saw a pack of lions about 5 metres away from our truck. They were lethargic after feasting on a bull and resting under the shade. A little distance away, the lioness of the pack was guarding the rest of the dead bull while vultures hovered above. It seems women always do all the work! :P

19. I used to play field hockey for my school team. I wasn't brilliant at it, but I really enjoyed it.
20. German was my favourite subject in school.

21. I've been in the world 21 years today.

Take my dreams, come and give them wings. Lord with You, there's nothing I cannot do. Nothing I can't do.
(Words borrowed from Ginny Owen)

Seven Things...

You probably don't really want to know...

I am currently reading (and loving) Persuasion by Jane Austen.

I’m all “Oooooooh, I want to read more classics” right now. Which is a very very strange thing for me.

I’m addicted to reading blogs!

I got a letter from Meg today! Thankyouthankyouthankyouverymuch

I (hopefully) will be meeting with two other Hebronites on the 1^st of Feb. I told this to Grace yesterday on the phone (she called me from Ooty) and she said, “Tina attracts Hebronites.” Mmm, that made me happy :P

I’m so excited that it’s going to be February next week! Eeps!

I want to open a bakery. And I want to make the best damn Blueberry Cheesecake you have ever eaten. :P

Book-Worm 2009. (Updated with Strikes!)

I don't make much of New Year Resolutions mainly because I'm pretty bad at keeping them... I don't think I had any last year, except that I wanted to read at least 30 books in 2008. Now, I have no idea if I achieved that because I never bothered to keep count. I could probably find out through Goodreads (which is a very cool networking site where you can record all the books that you've read, want to read and are currently-reading and get recommendations and read the general public's views on various books. If you love to read, do jump on the Goodreads bandwagon, its not like your usual social networking site and you'll find it useful.) Of course there's always the "Lose Weight" resolution which I make and break every year. Nothing new about that.

Anyway, this year I'm going to keep count and aim at 40 books for 2009. Here's a few for my list so far. I'd love to get some recommendations too.

1. The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom
2. Tramp For The Lord by Corrie Ten Boom
3. Persuasion by Jane Austen: Currently-reading.
4. The NIV Bible: Currently-reading.
5. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen: To-Read.
6. Five Quarters Of The Orange by Joanne Harris: Finish Reading.
7. Brida by Paulo Coelho: To-Read.
8. The Witch of Portobello by Paulo Coelho: To-Read.
9. The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis: To-Read.
10. Freedom at Midnight by Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins: To-Read.
11. Doctrines That Divide by Erwin Lutzer: Finish Reading.
12. The Inscrutable Americans by Anurag Mathur: To-Read.
13. The Famished Road by Ben Okri: To-Read.
14. Candide by Voltaire: Finish Reading.
15. Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri: To-Read.
16. What's So Amazing About Grace? by Phillip Yancey: To-Read.
17. The Chronicles of Narnia C.S. Lewis: Finish Reading.
18. The Swans Are Not Silent by John Piper: To-Read.
19. The Hidden Smile Of God by John Piper: Currently Reading.
20. Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni: To-Read.
21. Night by Elie Wiesel: To-Read.

Recommendations??

P.s. How do you strike words? You know like putting a line THROUGH the word??

Update: Thanks Kari, I took your suggestion and googled it and now I know how to strike out words! Yay! Here's the link to the online tutorial if you want to know how.

A Chance for Change?

Barack Obama - the 44th president of the USA.
I pray that you will do good.

Well he won! And everyone is talking about it:
Tint
An Idle Mind
Trick Mirror
Strange Times, My Dear
...and I'm sure there will be many many more posts on this issue on various blogs but I'm guessing they're all sleeping now.

That man sure can give a good speech. How do they do it? Millions of people watching and they don't seem to even have it written down anywhere. I freak out just thinking about it - I have the worst case of stage-fright the world has ever seen. I.kid.you.not.

Anyway, that's about all I'm going to say on it cause honestly, I don't KNOW enough actual facts to make any sweeping statements about how glad I am about Obama winning. Sure he says he'll do many things that the world is so desperate for - ending the war in the middle-east being the key issue here, I guess - and yes, the US has come a long way from when a black woman had to fight for a seat on a public bus to now. But hey, at the end of the day - he's still human. Human, raw, real, imperfect human like all of us. So, let's not idolize him. Let's not sit back and wait for him to change the world.

I have to say - of all the blog posts, articles, news channels, etc I've been following throughout the whole election drama this has got to be the most interesting:
Mark Riddle's Blog

Signing off:

With an uber-cool photo that Jo took of me while we were driving to a shopping mall in Bangalore a few days ago.

Today's The Big Day

...well, I'm guessing by the time we hear it'll already be tomorrow for us.

America is barely waking up now and today - 4th of November, 2008 - she will get her new president. Or to put it the other way round - the world will get its new American President.

Who's it gonna be?

In other news:

I was watching 'Bowling for Columbine' last night before the electricity went out - it's... chilling to say the least. Its scary to even think about what must be going through a teenager's mind to be able to KILL. Related to that, I'm reading Jodi Picoult's Nineteen Minutes at the moment which is based on a similar situation. She is a talented woman that woman. If you haven't read any of her books - you SHOULD! Here's a list of the one's I've read in order of preference:

Jodi Picoult

• My Sister's Keeper: So far, still the BEST. Niru recommended this one to me about two years ago; it was the first Jodi Picoult I read and obviously not the last.
• Salem Falls
• Nineteen Minutes (still reading it but it's already here on the list!)
• The Pact
• Perfect Match
• Change of Heart
• Vanishing Acts

And now I'm bored and they're showing Grey's Anatomy re-run on TV so I'm gonna go!