My Grandparents are the best :)

I leave for my IV(Industrial Visit) this weekend. I completely forgot to tell my grandfather about it though. He's a very outdoorsy person but he obviously can't travel much. So when he gets to hear that any of us are traveling, he gets pretty excited. He also insists on giving us money, though mum and dad do that anyway.

So the two of us are sitting in his room discussing the trip when my Grandmum walks in. he asks her to go fetch his wallet. When she does, he removes the money and hands it over to me.

(The entire conversation is in Sindhi)

Granddad: Pesa ghat thee vaya ta makhe phone kajey, dad khe na.
                (If you run out of cash call me. Don't call your dad)

 Me: Chinta na kayo. (Dont worry about it.)

Granddad: Ghat thee venda ta ma tojhe tadi jo tade e-mail kare chandindam.
               (If the need be, I'll 'e-mail you the money that minute itself.)

Grandmum: (Laughing hysterically): Paisa e-mail kanda? E-mail mein ta nyapo vendo aa!
                      (You're planning to e-mail money? Don't you know, you can only send messages through
                      e-mails.)

Granddad: (Looks like he is in a fix.)

Grandmum: (After thinking for a very long time) Money order patheta sago.
                     (We can send her a money order.)

Grandad: Ho suthi idea aye. (That is a good idea.)

Grandmum: (As if hit by sudden realisation) Par money order pathe natha sago choki jestai peso vendo, ho huto hali vendi.
    (Money order is not a good idea. By the time you send her the money, she will have left the place.)

Grandad: Hane? (Now?)

Grandmum: Heeya kayo. Hunke khe hane hi double de chadyo. Problem theendo hi na.
      (Just give her double of what you just did. Problem solved!)

Then she just smiles feeling pretty smug about her superior intelligence and the fact that she knows the difference between an e-mail and a money order. My granddad in the meanwhile forces me to accept more money and won't take no for an answer.

Grandmum, Granddad, you guys are the sweetest :)
I can't I wont see them for an entire week. =(

I'm healing.

There are times you feel like you've never cried this much before.
Like no one could have possible come close to seeing this much pain.
And that the wounds inflicted upon your heart are so deep that no medicine in the world could possible heal them.

Well, guess what? You're wrong.
May be the marks will stay forever.
But the pain eventually fades and recedes into a deep, dark corner of your conciousness, never to bother you again until you want it to.
That's right.
It is in your hands.
You can hold on to it forever and mope about it.
Or you can choose to look at life with a different perspective.

My new perspective says, I don't regret anything that happened.
Every experience makes you stronger.
When you find yourself caught in the middle of the Hailstorm, you gain more than you can imagine.
You learn to be immune and you learn to be armed.
You learn to fight and survive through every hailstorm that comes your way.

And most importantly it teaches you a lot of things about life.
It taught me that my self-worth is solely in my hands.
No one deserves the right to make my self-esteem suffer.
I don't need to vie for anybody's love or affection.
I don't need anybody's approval to feel worthwhile.
Because I know I am.

Having acquired this new philosophy, I'm proud to say that I'm definitely walking on the Path of Healing.
I wake up everyday to a new me, I love and accept more than ever before.

Things I like the most about College Fests

• Lots and lots of Eye candy. You know how shady the guys in KC are? You know how deprived our eyes are of the good stuff? Don't just sit there in front of your computer screens and nod because you'll never know!
 

• No lectures!Yea that's right! No lectures. They get cancelled so as to encourage full participation.
 

• How everyone tries to look their best and dresses exceptionally well. I love all the fashion statements (and some disasters) I get to see.
 

• Unlimited Gossip. You know how BMM is filled with girls? And how most of the guys act like girls anyway? And you know what happens when people who despise each other have to work together for days? You get the point right? 

• Catfights! Need I explain why? :)

• Well lots of fab events to particpate in.
 

• Lots of Fabulous Prices as well.
 

• And freebies while the events are going on! Oh, how I love getting things I don't have to pay for!\
•  
• Such a great way to socialise with other colleges.

• Such a great way to watch creatures from other college in a habitat other than their own. Then make fun of them and remind yourself how much better the people from your college actually are. Believe me, everytime I see people from colleges whose names I don't want to mention here, I fall in love with every living creature from KC.

• The unlimited oppurtunitity to scream your lungs out. (Read: Cheer!)

• Actually win brownie points for that! (Can you believe the PR event depends solely on how much you can cheer for your contingent?)

• Act like ghaatis. Ever gone to shady cinemas to watch third grade Bollywood flicks? Seen the way people hoot and scream? Well fests make us behave a little bit like that. So everytime that shady guy from lets call it We-are-the-Losers College would come on stage to strut his stuff ( Mind you the guy was short. round and chose to wear sunglasses inside the audi) , E and I would start screaming things like - Abey Itam and  Hot stuff take that shirt off.
 

• And the fact that we're the best Contigent and we ALWAYS win :D Go Chacha Chaudhary!

P.S. Chacha Chaudhary was the name they gave our contigent. So don't you dare judge me for writing that!

Expectations and Lies.

When it comes to Giving, one should be able to give all that one can without expecting anything in return.
I was under the impression that I was capable of the same.
When I care about people I can go out of the way to make them happy.
It makes me happy to see the smile on their faces.
A while ago I did something for someone I care about deeply, that brought immense joy to him.
It gave me a sort of high.
I felt worthwhile because I was capable of making so much of a difference.

However, when I thought over what I had done the next day, it made me feel a little bit stupid.
Would he have done the same for me?
As if.
Would he do anything at all for me?
Once in a Blue Moon.
Would he atleast be grateful?
For a day. After that he wouldn't even remember.
So I set out to do something that was supposed to make me happy and ended up hurting myself instead.
All I wanted to say was, I want to be able to take and give back as much as I can.
I want to be able to give with my whole heart and hope for nothing in return.

Remanika's new Ad campaign

Don't you just love it?

Everything that I want from life.

The Future holds within itself many secrets that the Present will never know. But dreaming about it is just one of those things I can't help. I know that not all of it is in my hands, but that shouldn't stop me from hoping for the best.

From all the things I want from the Future, happiness tops my list. I want to be able to find happiness wherever I am, doing whatever it is that I am doing with my life.

Librans are characteristically people's persons. I want to be surrounded by positive people all the time. I want to be able to keep all the people I love very close to me and end up with the one I love the most.

There are so many things I want to do professionally. I want life to give me a chance to do all of them.

I want to be able to travel to all the places I have ever wanted to, no matter how close or how far they are, see the world for what it is, and may be even live there for a while.

I want to be able to change the world in my own way. Fight for causes that I believe in. Give a voice to the ones who have been suppressed for the longest time.

Well, I as much as I hate to admit it, I can be materialistic a lot of times. I never want to give a second thought to what I buy. I want to be able to own all the things in the world I have ever wanted to.

And I want to have a house of my own. A house that I have designed myself, combining British and Indian styles of Architecture. Contemporary is nice, but it lacks the charm and drama of the old, classic structures, which I want my house to possess.

I'm not sure how may children I want, but I want atleast one daughter and I want her to be just like me.

And I never want to retire, because I bloody love working. So I want to be able to do something I love till the very end and die knowing that I have achieved everything that I ever wanted to, fame, success, money and the title of the most stylish grandmother.

Things I learned in the Recent Past

Most girls are so insecure. No matter how pretty, intelligent or popular they are, they'll continue to be threatened by other girls.
When it comes attention, they won't want to share it with anyone. Infact they don't even want to be in the same room as a girl who commands more attention than they do.

College drama never ends. Never.

Very few people can really be happy for you. Most people are too busy thinking about themselves or how they deserve your share of happiness and success, more than you do.

There are very few people who do good without expecting anything in return.

Sometimes you chase something only to realise it isn't worth it at all. And then you want to turn back. Your head and heart are in conflict. Your head tells not to give it up. You've fought too hard for it. Your heart tells you that if it doesn't make you happy, it isn't worth it at all. Listen to your heart. At the end of the day it is happiness that matters the most.

Indian Eccentricities

Things I will never understand about my family and Indian Population in general :

• How Ghee is supposedly the ultimate source of energy.
•  
• Why the best of way treating a guest is to feed him enough to give him diarrhea.
•  
• Sarees and short blouses are graceful, but cropped tops are looked down upon.
•  
• How possesion of gold is the best way of determining how successful a person is.
• 
  
• How marriage is supposedly the highlight of an individual's life.
•  
• The fact that arranged marriages are source of so much pride.
•  
• So is the boy from 'Amreeka'.
• 
  
• Their definition of 'Good Family', 'Khandani Log' and 'Khaata Peeta Ghar'.
•  
• Sympathies towards, families with no sons and only daughters. They fucking have every reason to celebrate.
•  
• The need to spend life savings on their children's wedding.
• 
  
• Why the most random people have to be invited, just because they're related to you, never mind that you haven't seen them in years! In a lot of cases, never!
•  
• Why the Bride's dress is costs more than everybody else's dresses combined. Oh wait, that I actually do understand.
•  
• How fairness defines value in the 'marriage market'.
•  
• Why it is acceptable for men to have lost their virginity before marriage but not women.
•  
• And why is virginity so overrated in the first place? How does it define anything about an individual's character.
  

 

This happens only in Mumbai

When We Graduate....

My best friend and I live in different cities. All our plans centre around the holidays. That is the only time we have some hope of seeing each other.

Sad truth of the matter is that we may not see each other for another year and a half. That is why all out current plans center around the summer we graduate.

Materialistic bitches that we both are, it's always about the malls in the cities we want to visit than the city itself. After a year of thinking over every fancy holiday resorts and shopping destination, and pestering our parents to let us go alone, our plans decided to take the alternate route.

We decided may be we don't want to go to a fancy place and splurge or sit in a spa, while indulging in some 'rejuvenation'. May be what we really need is a spiritual journey.

About a year back, a friend of mine packed her bags and left for Hrishikesh. She lived in a beautiful ashram among highly evolved spiritual gurus and ordinary people like her, who wished to reach the pinnacle of spirituality someday. And every evening she'd walk up the Himalayas to a solitary cottage that stood among the trees of the dense forest. In that cottage lived a guru who had taken to living alone in the forest, in order to make spirituality the sole focus of her life. Everyday they'd meditate together, while the guru would relay parts of my friends life before her. Through the various exercises she'd find herself healing and letting go off the emotional baggage she has been carrying around with herself for a long time. When she came back she felt like a new person.

I have never been overtly religious. My grandparents go to places like Hrishikesh every now and then. But I never accompany them because I assume the only thing they do is bathe in the holy waters, sing bhajans and pray all the day. But ever since I heard about my friend's experience, I can't wait to go there myself. It sounds something out a Paulo Coelho novel, doesn't it?

So Summer after graduation, Hrishikesh it is! But it doesn't end here. We want to go crazy and explore every spiritual destination in the country. The Himalayas, Kerala, Whitefield, The Osho Ashram, Art of Living, you name it. No proper plans, no time contraints, no count on the money we spend. God knows if we'll ever be that carefree, so I want to make the most of it.

I know most people of my age would want to go to Goa instead, get drunk in some bar while having shirtless phirangs hit on them. Technically speaking, that's what you'd expect 20-years-olds to do. But I guess I am just a little weird that way, and I'm so glad I am so glad I know someone else who possesses the same weirdness that  I do. :)

Thirst for knowledge never dies.

You know, everybody keeps grumbling about how having to study is such a pain in the backside, how they dread exams or how they'd much rather watch twenty episodes of "Kahani Ghar Ghar Kii" back to back than look at their text books.

If I was stuck in say a Medical college or a Banking and Insurance  course, I think I'd pretty much be grumbling about the same thing. I'll never forget the days in school when I had to drag myself through pointless subject like Physics and Chemistry or the days in Junior College when I had to study Accounts. It's not that I didn't have the aptitude for it. I just lacked the interest.

Had I taken Arts, I would have loved every bit of it. And I doubt I'd have anything to grumble about. In the the same way if everybody studied something they really liked, half the problem would be solved. As of now, I am quite content lapping up all the knowledge I am getting an opportunity to, but there are many things i still want to learn.

The truth is, we eternally seek knowledge. Why else would we read books, watch movies or go through the newspaper everyday? Intellectual stimulation provides a divine satisfaction. I know it does to me. And I know that I want to bathe in that divine sort of feeling for as long as I live. Bottomline, I never want to stop learning.