Things I'm Looking Forward to Most

When I return, I get to:

1. Shift to new room.

2. Therefore, declutter, arrange everything in a new way, add new things, throw out (yes, this time, I promise to throw out old stuff that I don't need anymore but keep hoarding thinking "what if I need it some day...?"), use all my new bedsheets and pillow cases (esctatic) and do up my wardrobe again.

3. Meet and catch up with Purple, Fish, Woogs, Aats and everyone else. So much fun! I haven't really been in touch with most of them and vaguely been updated on the others, but going back and listening to their stories first hand should be great as always.

4. Take notes in class in my new pretty notebook (yes, this is why #4 excites me).

5. Make Secret Thing with Fish happen! *evil grin*

6. Borrow that book from Pengy and get to hear her screech happily!

7. Look at (and analyse) people's new clothes and haircuts with Fish and pay compliments.

8. Get a haircut at Groovy or Mystique and a pedi at Fee Chu.

9. Watch Love Aaj Kal when it releases and Ice Age 3!!!!! (Which reminds me, I have a girl crush on Deepika Padukone and celeb crush on Imtiaz Ali)

10. Give Fish her Sambalpuri kurta and Secret Gift and watch her scream in joy (hopefully).

Wow, three posts in an hour is good.

Declutter

I am not one who has all her things organised all the time. I do have a sense of organisation, though, because I like my things in order (not in a crazyvirgo way though) and I keep putting them back in that order from time to time. But there are times of... disarray. I have noticed that when the folders on my laptop, my table, my wardrobe (my side of the steel almirah which I like to call "my wardrobe") and my room in general are in a mess, my work and work related areas in my life seem to be in a messy state as well. By messy, I only mean disorganised and therefore not producing optimal results.

So far, I have successfully re-organised the folders on my laptop and CCleaned it! CCleaner is my new favourite software. It really makes a difference. :)

When I get back to Bangalore, I shall clear out all clutter and this should be easy because Fish and I are moving into a new room. Woogs and Aats are also moving into the same hostel and we're neighbours! Fun times ahead!

Yes, this was a pointless post.

Exam Time Joy

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 5^th 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.

Peace!

Now you know I have made it a point to do all the fun things that I like doing and doing new things, etc and all that jazz which makes people happy and which makes you want to run around singing ‘aaj main upar, aasman neeche’ type songs. You must know, dear intelligent and in-touch-with-your-soul reader, that we must not let what other people think is good or desirable affect what we want for ourselves. This becomes especially important if you’re marooned, somewhat, in a place full of 500 people who were very, very bright, interesting and had crazy different unique dreams in their heads before they landed up here. Now what happens to most people in my place of study, o discerning reader, is this. Some of them get ultra enthu to ‘kill the system’ and become all ‘studly’ and ‘awesome’ and worshippable by doing the things that most such worshippable people have done before. Follow precedent, basically, regardless of whether this is in unison with their crazy unique dream. Some think the system ‘sucks’, that it’s absolutely unfair and they don’t need to give a damn because that’s cool and they any way don’t care about their grades. They’re assured of a good job when they graduate from this place. Then there are some who’re just… there. They study, do their thing. Work when it’s time to work, chill when it’s time to chill. Form the bulk, basically. So there are the studs (including the almost-there studs) the theres and the this-place-sucks-so-I’m-going-to-dope-my-way-out-of-its. Now, there are also some people who’re in touch with their subconscious and so happily live happy lives dreaming about wonderful things and making them happen and do make them happen, etc.. Now, the best part is that these are some people who could’ve easily been a part of the theres but because they truly love their life, they vibrate at such a high frequency that people stop and take note of them. Well, most people do, barring some perhaps who’re so obsessed with doing the right stuff that they just forget to live their life.

So. Now, I’m not passing any value judgment or saying one is better than the other. All I’m saying is this. Why should we let other people’s dreams become our dreams? Why should A’s dreams be better than my dreams? Why should I care about whether people think I’m doing a better job of my life? Think about the enlightened ones I mentioned in the previous paragraph. We do take note and salute them in our minds and hope we could be as happy as them.

Then there are some cliquish people who think that the ‘best thing is do is ____’. Excuse me? Please add a ‘for me’ in there somewhere. You can’t decide what the best thing for XYZ to do is. And even if you think activity A is better than activity B, it’s only what you think and that perception is based on what your experience has been with activities A and B. Right? Right. So you don’t go around crowing one thing the most ‘studly’ thing to do, because honestly, it’s not that tough and doesn’t take an Einstein. And would only Einstein-ish things be worthwhile? Everything one does requires a certain kind of Einstein. Why should one type of Einstein be better than the other? Those who know what I’m talking about also know that when you portray yourself to others, you shouldn’t come across as a someone obsessed with one kind of Einstein. Einstein himself was not obsessed with one thing! Nor was Leo, nor was Newton, nor was or is anybody at all who is worth knowing and learning things from. If everyone just let themselves be and did everything for the kicks of it, without really thinking about how awesome it makes them in others’ eyes, then everyone would be studly. So status quo is this. Everyone here is still very very bright, except, some have progressed to being tube lights who’re in series resistance and glow very brightly when the voltage is high and because the voltage is high; and there are some very few who’re in parallel connection who glow brightly regardless of whether the others in the connection glow brightly or not. They really don’t care. And they’re the happiest of them all.

It’s just that you learn about the best and the worst in people only in certain circumstances, and the happy enlightened ones don’t really care about how well others are doing. You can’t keep measuring yourself against this scale which consists of the achievements/failures of others. It’s incredibly difficult for us to do that here, but I think that’s why we’ve all come to this place. I guess most of us are in the ‘temperance’ phase of our tarot-story-lives. You’ve got to keep going through it, till you learn the lesson :)

So just do your thing and don’t measure yourself against any such scale, alright? Please. Because you’re a lovely, beautiful, intelligent, creative and happy person. And X’s doing cool things doesn’t make you uncool. You’re cool yourself if you just do your thing. And I’m telling myself all of this more than anyone else, so PEACE! And yes, some of it is directed towards the general universe at large. Thank you very much, and PEACE, again!

Shiny New Life and Pigeon Magnetism

BlogOwner(BO) is not exaggerating when she says she’s been having the time of her life *ahem* since the past three weeks. No, seriously. Okay so she’s been working like she’s never worked before but she’s also enjoying it all.

She’s also bringing you some pictures of her shiny, new life. Of course, she misses Abhu’s, TC’s and the gang’s antics. Those were the good old days when she’d bring you funny tales about these characters, innit? Aww, she misses them too! And she loves this blog more than ever NOW that she can go back to all those delightful light blue links and relive the hilarious moments one again. This is much needed at times, especially when she’s in the library (lib, henceforth) at 11.45 pm, struggling to find SOME relevant info for her term paper. Talking about the lib, she must let you most intelligent people (like, of course! You’re reading this scholarly blog. BO loves you. Honestly.) know that it happens to be her favourite place on campus. No, really. It’s not that she’s nerdy- which, by the way, she most certainly isn’t- it’s just that the lib is nice and crowded most of the time and BO loves it.

Now, now, there’s a lot to be told. Three weeks seem like forever, in a good way. Oh, it has been ascertained that BO is a pigeon magnet. Window Sill, Bathroom, BO’s room is where another branch of that good old Maternity Home has been set up. It’s doing really well. A couple has already built a nest and the eggs are on the way! BO can’t wait. No really.

Okay, take a look at some pictures.

The upper berth is BO's resting place.

Football match in action. The clouds were more interesting, though.

Most of the batch.

New pigeon! Woo Hoo! His/her mate was around but BO couldn't get both of them AND the nest in the frame.


I know I know, this post isn’t as exciting, fun-filled and oh-I’m-so-happy-I-could-just-fly as BO's usual posts (What did you say? No, come again..?), but please bear with her. Thank you very much.

BO is a huge fan of these. All of them make sense to her but this one makes a LOT of sense. Change the ‘lab’ to ‘lib’.

Oh, by the way, BO’s shiny new friends (the kinds that come in dazzling pink and blue wrappers) (with a red ribbon) include a fish (Piscean for the uninitiated)(Crack, henceforth), a ram (Aries, who, by the way, happens to be fish’s roomie and calls fish ‘her crack’(Ram, henceforth). BO loves Ram. And her crack. Heh.) her own roomies both of whom happen to be librans (imagine a room filled with 3 librans!) and many many others. Okay this paragraph was inserted to somehow mention the ‘crack’ bit.

This has been BO's super favourite song since quite some time. *sigh*. If someone would play and/or sing THAT for her, she'd like, fly or something. Or drift away. Or something in that line. You get the picture, dont' you?