Exam Time Joy

Sunday, May 31, 2009

It’s exam time. It’s fun!



Things I like about exam time:



1. I get to buy and stock up on interesting looking and highly functional (and some not) stationery goodies. I love it all- purple, pink and orange post-it prompts, multi-coloured plastic flags, highlighters, highlighter refills, different coloured pens for underlining and making margin notes, special marker for plastic flags, yellow legal pads filled with notes, exercises and ASP notes, stapling sheets of freshly photocopied notes and articles, lots of spiral bound bundles of articles which have that distinct new-paper smell. All of it.



2. I like studying in what is called the ‘new mess’ in my hostel. It was meant to be an extension of our mess, but it turns into this study hall when exams are close. There are approximately 12-13 tables. Each one is rectangular slab of granite or something of the sort surrounded by 6 chairs. One such table is usually occupied by a single person. When there are too many people, 2 share a table. The table is usually covered with prep material- heaps and heaps of photocopied stuff and notes- and accompanied by stationery *slurp*. (I tend to get like that around stationery- lustfully long for stationery and admire new and rare stationery.) I love the mess in this state. It reminds me of the Gryffindor common room under similar circumstances. I often compare life around me with life in Harry Potter and it’s soooooooooo much fun. It really makes the dullest of things seem so much more fun. I only wish I had a cushiony armchair like the one in the Gryffindor common room. It would then be perfect. Well, I do have a soft cushion which is often dressed in a silk cover. I just pretend that it’s my own cushiony armchair *giggles* The new mess is comfortable, people are silent and look like they’re engrossed in their prep, there’s a cooler around so water is not a problem, there’s also a loo nearby so that’s taken care of, and of course, no wifi signal. Perfect study conditions. When you feel you’re slacking off, you look at the others around and draw inspiration from them and buck up. In case you’re turning into crazy human and are studying excessively, there will be people to calm you down.



3. I enjoy making schedules and to-do lists. So I make these lists on the last page of my yellow legal pad and strike things off as and when I’m done with them! It almost reminds me of Hermione making a colour coded study schedule for Ron and Harry (which they did not follow). And when there’s too much to do and I don’t have the requisite material to study for one course, I tell myself that “On the brighter side, you can study for Course II!” This reminds me of the time when Harry and Ron couldn’t write their essay for some professor when Hermione brightly pointed out that “On the brighter side, you can work on your essay for Snape (or someone else!)!” and they pondered on the thought whether that really was the “brighter side”. *sigh* I love the series.



4. At times, I enjoy the anticipation before exams. Everybody is curious to know how much other people have done, whether they’re doing as much as them, etc. While it can get quite vile in the real world, I try to think of the time Harry and gang took their OWL. When you think about it, it’s more or less the same, except it tends to get to us in real world. So the 5th book is like a note to self at such moments.



5. I feel productive during exams because this when we really learn our courses. Sadly, there usually isn’t enough time during the term to read for class on a regular basis. In a way this makes us fast learners- or that’s what we tell ourselves.

Now I shall whiz off and get back to studying.

BlogOwner and Friends

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Updates:
1. I was in Dhaka for a week a few days ago where my passport and camera (and Fish's wallet with a lot of money and all her cards) got stolen. HOWEVER I came back to India nice and safe thanks to awesome contact that Fish had at the Indian Embassy there who were uber sweet to us. We were there for a debate, Asians Universities Debating Championship. The organizers were really nice to us and gave us free transport and even sent a competent person along with us wherever we went (local language would've been a problem otherwise). Any way, when I reached

2. As a result of this passport thing and the hassles that ensued, I couldn't shop much at this really cool sarojini-type place from where everybody else bought like 10 tops each. However, Fish shopped for me and got me one really cute top and one bangladesh tshirt so I'm not sad :) PLUS I got to come back unscathed, so that's a positive (hee).

3. Fish, Purple, Another Person and I did go souvenir shopping on the last day however. Was fun.

4. I notice how everything ultimately boiled down to shopping and I mustn't be so unidimensional, SO let me also tell you that the debate was reasonably fun. Too many Indians all over the place though.

5. Post AUDC, when we got back to law school, we did this dance thing for EMD. Danced to bollywood songs :) much fun. Won.

6. I think my planets are awesomely positioned right now because my last two meals (dinner last night and lunch today) (both of which were at a nice place) were not paid for by me.

7. I had parted with my laptop for a greater cause for a whole period of 3.5 days. Now I'm back with it. Yeay! Life without a laptop was strange.










It's Been a Hard Day's Night

Saturday, May 09, 2009

We are doing this debate this weekend. The first round was fun. It was on this geo-pol motion and THANKFULLY we ended up debating a motion which I'd done a political science project on so I knew what it was about reasonably well. But we just couldn't get our point across well enough. Fair. We were up against Purple and team and they're just awesome awesome. We lost. That was okay because the feedback made sense and we knew we'd lost before they gave their decision. HOWEVER, our second round was atrocious. The judging, that is. We got a single chair and we were all thinking we'd win by clear (margin). BUT. Not, apparently. Well, it's happened before, horrid judging that is, but this was just taking it to a whole new level. Any way, I love debating and shouldn't get SO ticked off by arbit bad decisions (even though they seem to happen with alarming regularity). Later had conversations with multiple people and felt better because said judge is said to spaz out on a regular basis (but he's supposed to be a decent judge because he has pretty rounds where he gives lucid feedback quite often. But I guess we all have our crazy-bad days). Heh. Horrid that we should be at the receiving end in this tournament, but well, sigh, we're not the only ones! Hopefully we'll improve and become so kickass that we can convince even the slowest of judges even on their worst day :)

Then ended up realising that should IOM much, much more. Have totally stopped visiting HappyLand.

Among other updates, I'm extremely sleepy right now so I should get done with work and then go get some sleep, expecially since we need to wake up at 8 tomorrow morning to debate some more. Not really an "update" but well. Whatever.

Also, I love The Beatles and this album especially. Sigh.

When I'm home everything seems to be right
When I'm home feeling you holding me tight, tight

However, my favourite-est* song on the album is And I Love Her


And I Love Her - The Beatles


I give her all my love
That's all I do
And if you saw my love
You'd love her too
I love her

She gives me everything
And tenderly
The kiss my lover brings
She brings to me
And I love her

A love like ours
Could never die
As long as I
Have you near me

Bright are the stars that shine
Dark is the sky
I know this love of mine
Will never die
And I love her

Bright are the stars that shine
Dark is the sky
I know this love of mine
Will never die
And I love her



Wouldn't you just die if someone sang this for you?


*Look, I just CANNOT decide between the title song, I Should Have Known Better, Happy Just to Dance With You and Can't Buy Me Love. They're all my favs. I love this album.

















Making Someone's Day

Wednesday, May 06, 2009


The fact that someone's day was made because I emailed them, makes my day :) And getting an email from them makes my day any day :)

Kate Winslet and Places to Eat

Sunday, May 03, 2009

I adore Kate Winslet.

1. She's multi-talented and is awesome at everything she does.
2. She doesn't live on a piece of lettuce a day.
3. She is normal and just SEEMS so happy (obviously, nobody but her knows whether she really is. But at least she LOOKS more than content.)
4. She's a libran. Hee.
5. She's almost never on gofugyourself.com and when she is, it's under the "Well Played" tag (of course gofugyourself matters *sniggers*).
6. I love this song of hers.

What if



Here I stand alone
With this weight upon my heart
And it will not go away
In my head I keep on looking back
Right back to the start
Wondering what it was that made you change

Well I tried
But I had to draw the line
And still this question keeps on spinning in my mind

What if I had never let you go
Would you be the man I used to know
If I'd stayed
If you'd tried
If we could only turn back time
But I guess we'll never know

Many roads to take
Some to joy
Some to heart-ache
Anyone can lose their way
And if I said that we could turn it back
Right back to the start
Would you take the chance and make the change

Do you think how it would have been sometimes
Do you pray that I'd never left your side

What if I had never let you go
Would you be the man I used to know
If I'd stayed
If you'd tried
If we could only turn back time
But I guess we'll never know

If only we could turn the hands of time
If I could take you back would you still be mine

'Cos I tried
But I had to draw the line
And still this question keep on spinning in my mind

What if I had never let you go
Would you be the man I used to know
What if I had never walked away
'Cos I still love you more than I can say
If I'd stayed
If you'd tried
If we could only turn back time
But I guess we'll never know
We'll never know


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Among other things, I have tons of work to do (as usual) but have gone out to town twice in three days (not so usual). I think I should review restaurants that I've been to. I have a mental checklist and every time I go somewhere new, I tick it off my list!

Places I've been to in Bangalore (in no particular order):

1. Casa Picola (Residency Road)- I've been here 3 times and it's AWESOME. I absolutely love the cuisine. Mediterranean (obviously Indianised). It's not too expensive and the portions are great. Fish and I have always ordered this thing called "Chicken Parmigiana" (Sorry, I'm TERRIBLE and uncultured etc wrt exotic names) and Chicken Tettrazini or some such thing and split. They're both amazing and now they're our standard order at Casa. There's this creamy mango drink which is superb.

2. Casa Del Sol (Residency Road)- It's right above Casa Picola and is this classy, jazzy place with an open air part too. Decent food but not great. QUITE expensive, but amazing ambience. You can there with the girls and relax and talk and just unwind.

3. Oye Amritsar (Churchstreet)- Very popular place. Very good Punjabi food (not excellent, though). The lassi which they serve in horribly HUGE glasses are to die for. The place is designed to look like this typical roadside dhaba in Punjab. Fun. But there's no air conditioning (or there was none the 2/3 times I've been there). Portions are quite big, so it's good for like a huge bunch of people going out for lunch.

4. Saigon (Churchstreet)- Right under Oye Amritsar. Good food, nice ambience. I don't really have many comments about this place. It's a nice place to have dinner. Quite expensive though.

5. Shezan (somewhere in town!)- Good, semi-cheap Chinese food. I liked. If you don't want to spend a fortune but hang out at a nice, comfortable place, this is a good pick.

6. Bamboo Shoots (town!)- NICE lunch buffet for 150 bucks. Really good. The dessert is yum. ambience isn't to die for but hey, it's good enough for a 150 bucks!

7. Three Quarter Chinese (a.k.a. 3QC) (Churchstreet)- Really Indian and Chinese food. I was there for the "Christmas buffet" and it was great, though buffets are wasted on me because I can't eat that much in one go. It's a charming place with great food. I'd recommend!

8. The Only Place (Museum Road)- Stunning Cheese Fries. You give me fries and cheese and I'm happy. I loved the food. The Chicken Burger is also quite good. I loved the service because those guys are really prompt and they have special order-takers who know the menu well. So, that's a plus. It's this quaint little place with good Mediterranean food (even though I've only tried their chicken schnitzel and it was good, but I hear most other things are good as well) and happy people all around so it scored with me.

9. Oye Shaava (Churchstreet)- The food is just like Oye Amritsar's, except, it's got this classy ambience thing going on. So I like this more. Really really good lunch buffet.

10. Hotel Empire (Churchstreet, I think)- I've heard the lunch buffet is GREAT with lots of chicken stuff and it's only for 99 bucks. I have had this thali thing for dinner for a 100 bucks and that was great as well. So I'd recommend this place for when you're really hungry, want chicken, are short of cash and still want good food (obv the ambience isn't to die for, but it doesn't really matter).

11. Boca Grande (Koramangala)- NICE place. Neat. Good Mediterranean food. Excellent portions (I couldn't finish my maincourse thingy). You MUST try the Cake Shake that they serve. Happy place, nice decor, they also have games that you can play alongwith tv screens etc. I also hear their mud-pie is really good though I haven't tried it.

12. Gelato place (I don't remember the exact name!) (somewhere in town!)- NICE dessert. Cozy interiors. Nice dessert, again.

13. Corner House!- Everyone knows about Corner House. Dessert place! Confession: I've been to one only ONCE.

14. Cafe Fresco's (Cunningham Road)- REALLY REALLY nice dessert. Honestly. LOVELY place. Sigh. I could LIVE there.

15. Chungs (Cunningham Road)- Nice, cheap Chinese food! It's really close to Fresco's so doing both is a good idea.

16. Reliance Cafe place in Forum (Koramangala)- Nice granitas! At least the one I had was nice. It was yellow on top and green towards the bottom. Charming! If you're in Forum and are bored, you can go there for a break.

17. Donut Baker (Brigade Road)- Cute. Awesome donuts.

18. Couch (MG Road)- Really nice place to hang out. Expensive, though. They have this mango drink which is SINFUL. So is the oreo cheesecake. Really nice. I like lots. There are racks of books, couches (obv), nice loud music, and decent food.

19. Pecos (town!)- Law school fav. It's a pub where they play EXCELLENT music. MUST MUST go there. I like the dosa+chicken curry combo. Yum. I pilfer popcorn which comes with the beer which my friends order. Nice place. However, it's quite dingy so if you don't drink AND you don't like the music there, then you're doomed (I LOVE the music there so I like the place). I hear the pork ghee roast there is amazing (I don't eat pork so I don't know).

20. Mojos (town!)- Owned by the same people who own Pecos. Similar place with similar food. I LOVE the chilly chicken there. However, this is much less dingy, with better circulation, space and places to sit. TV screens all over so it's quite nice. But the music isn't as great as Pecos'.

21. Koshy's (town!)- I went there with a bunch of friends for breakfast. Nice food, cute place. Nothing exceptional though. Good, nonetheless.

22. Indi Joe's Sizzlers (MG Brigade Churchstreet)- Nice nice. I like much much. Awesome portions. Good place to hang out with friends, though it's quite expensive.

23. French Loaf (Churchstreet)- Nice bakery type place with yummy desserts. Not very expensive. I'd strongly recommend for their desserts. I obviously had this chocolate thing which was SINFUL. Very cute little place and it's right across Blossoms so a book-shopping trip + dessert at French Loaf sounds good!

I can't remember any more of the places I've been to, though there are definitely more. 2 years in Bangalore, have got to have gone out to more than 23 places! But 22 is not bad by my standards. I rarely go to town! I am obviously not going to write about the McDonalds, KFCs, Coffee Days and Baristas of the world.