Happy Diwali

Happy Diwali to one and all. May the new year bring you much cheer and joy.

More on this later.

The Weekend Roundup

Weeks are passing by way too fast. Here's what you should do, and should not do, one more time.

Things That you Should do

Read East of Eden, by Steinbeck. This is a seminal book. There are few novels that can convince me to sacrfice my sleep, my time and...other stuff. This was most definitely one of them. I stayed up till four at night to finish it off, and somehow managed to get myself out of bed at Seven thirty in the morning, to make it to my class. Without coffee. That's how good a book it is.
The book itself is a retelling of the story of Kane and Abel, but fatastically well done. It takes a 16 verse piece of the bible, and turns it into an epic. It's about family, and brothers, and most importantly about the freedom of choice. The defining theme of the book, "Timshel", or Thou Mayest makes the most brilliant of sense, that at the end of the day the choice of sin, the choice of your future, and the choice of happiness is yours and yours alone.

Read Cocaine, by Dominic Streatfeild. It's an amazing book. It's about Cocaine. Well, that's about it, really. But it gives a really incredible detailed account of the drug, and how it's shaped our world today, and the events that went into making it such a phenomenon in the states. For any of you college going chappies who're into experimentation, the brutality of the thing will also scare the crap out of you. This is the most addictive, scary and complex substance in the world. Read about it.

Switch to firefox, if you haven't already. Makes my life easier. Gets me a better grade too.

Things you should not do

Watch "Anchorman". A worse feat of cinema has yet to come out of hollywood. This is a terrible movie. If you thought "A night at the roxbury" was bad, you're in for a surprise. Will Farrel can be worse. If you thought Maid In Manhattan was cliched, you're in for a surprise, it can get worse. This movie is so bad, you actually want to watch it to the end, to see just how terribly bad it is. However, you are all busy and don't have time for this sort of thing. Therefore, this is definitely something you should not do.

Attempt Rock Climbing with Sandals. Just don't. It's a bad idea. You slip, cut yourself, and get blisters.

Attempt to win brownie points from your professor by calling her a hundred years old. Especially if the proffesor is female. Especially if you're telling her that she'll get nostalgic using a typewriter.

Horror and more

You know how it happens, when you read a lot of an author, and you go through like a graph of how much you like them. Its very sinusoidal in nature often...you'll really like some books, and your opinion will dip with others, and so on. Well, Stephen King just took a very abrupt downturn for me...He was, surprisingly enough, pretty mush rising with Carrie, and Dark Half accentuated that. Dreamcatcher got him crashing down.He was raised to god-all levels with Shawshank Redemption, and Plumbed with Apt Pupil(I mean, Eurggh).But you have No idea what disappointment feels like till you read The Shining.Youve heard a lot about the scariness, about the uber-cool Jack Nicholson movie and whatnot(and of course, that Joey is shit-scared of the book) and naturally expect there to be a good amount of thrills and chills. Well, in a line, it is the stupidest plot in a book I have ever read.There is a complete lack of anything close to sense in the book-and yeah, not much titillation, either:PHopefully the current book will deliver to expectations...

There Was a point to the above. Which was basically, to request All of you who are in the vicinity, or are in the mood for lots of fun event, take part in Legala.Advertising doesn't seem to be the norm in this blog, so I shall desist, but please do contact me if you wish to participate.

Decadance

Mid Term Breaks are wonderful things. They give you a chance to relax, take things easy for the shortest life and reorganise the priorities of your life. To put it simply, they let you eat, sleep and do not much else. "We see this as a good thing".

Well, I did exactly that in my break. I relaxed, I didn't wake up to smell the coffee, I tried not to wake up at all, in fact, but failed miserably. (No, I didn't try to commit suicide, you silly rabbits). There is a word to describe this lifestyle. It's called decadence. During the holidays, I found the Prophet of the Religion Of Decadence. The Decadent Cupcake.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, once priorities have been reorganised, this blog will now shift back to it's usual and primary purpose. The Description of Food.
For Two Dollars, from the College Seven Eleven Store, you get this monstrosity of a cupcake. Female Figures have declined politely, and impolitely to try it, citing reasons of acute calorie abusage. I can't fault them with that. The cupcake is largish, rich chocolate, and covered both inside and out with chocolate goo. The goo is thick, fattening molten chocolate. This is decadence if I ever saw it. The sad/happy part is that I am addicited to it.
This means, money I would earlier spend on such piffling concerns as meals and Ice Apple Tea will now go to the decadence fund. That's because I've reorganised my priorities, and boy is chocolate important.

Aller et Venir

My vacation time fast approaches its end.To sound nice and cliched, time flew-only yesterday, I was cribbing about having nothing to do and losing a Lot of balance messaging useless bums in the next compartment in my train because we crossed the ****ing state border and the network went into roaming.And after about two week of pretty much nothing but sloth(and meeting people. And How.)-I have-despite other peoples attempt to snatch the title from my rightful hands-perfected and mastered the Art of Sloth-its time to go back to the ol' rut.

A big fat furry friend of mine and I were discussing this once, the subtle but crucial difference between Coming Home and Going Home. Pretty much all of school life was about coming home after school, after coaching, after (extended) lunches, after vacations-home was the bedrock. And now, life has turned to going Back home, which involves planning and boasting for a week in advance, endless packing and repacking and the essentially tragic and shattering realisation that you'll be living out of a suitcase and your hold over your home has been weakened ever so much.You mighn't be Alpha when you get back...

Such questions are futile, of course. Hence, I gear up for the drudgery of US Budget deficits(SIGH) and endless classes-though perked up by the fact that Hutch-Hutch rates are cheaper:) and hope to reconcile the question topmost in my head. The name of the song/movie haunting me, of which the Only part I distinctly remember, is "Jhonka something somethng something, baarish bulata hoga na...". Its damn pretty and damn obscure. Ah well, such is life.

Dussehra

Hullo to all. I'm not dead, contrary to popular demand. I have been resting. The hell I have. I've had midterms, and then a very busy midterm break is in progress, where I sit around, procrastinate about project work, and watch movies. Lots of movies. This is I believe, a good thing and what college should be all about. Sadly, this is simply not true for the better part of my college existence.

Happy Dussehra to one and all. I miss home today, I miss home a lot. Dussehra is a time of togetherness, of family and most definitely of Poori Halwa, Poori Aalu, and Poori Chana. With all these things absent, a great gaping hole exists where once a heart flourished. Or in other words, I was willing to fork out five dollars to have pooris with aalu.

Time is of the essesnce, so once again a quick run down of things you should or should not do.

Things you should do

First, watch Hazaaron Khwahishein Aisi. It's a brilliant, brilliant film, and definitely deserved an oscar nod above Paheli, and Swades. It's beautifully done, set in 70's India, has gripping characters and performances, and an ending that leaves a lump in your throat.
Next, watch Snatch. It's a good fun rollicking british movie, about a diamond heist. It's wonderfully crafted and for the lady folk, it has a topless Brad Pitt with a funny accent.
Do read Blink, by Malcomm Gladwell. It's a fun and interesting book about subconcious desicion making and will most definitely pique your interest, o discerning reader.
After you're done with this, thank whichever god you pray to that you are back home, and are capable of eating home food. If you are not back home, and eating home food, pray to god that some day you shall be.

Things you should not do

Do not, under any circumstances try to coherently write an email at three in the morning. It's "Not a good idea"
Do not, in expectation of a midterm, have 3 cans of red bull, and two cups of coffee.
Do not buy "Neuticles", for gods sake. What is wrong with people? Why is there a market for these things?
Do not assume I have done any or all of these things.

October The First

It's midterm week for me, at college. Starting monday, I have some hassle or the other all the way up to saturday, my last midterm. Following this, I have a week long break, where I intend to try to do little aside from catch up on movies, computer games, and other normal things you're supposed to bloody be doing in college.

That gripe dealt with, it's The First Of October. Let's all celebrate the start of another month, a new beggining. Well, I hope it will be a new beggining, but only time will tell.

Octopus Porn

In the very distinguished society of debators that I belong to, we bring up several topics of discussion and debate in our sessions, and argue them out in parlimentary style. We are polite, formal and I'm pretty much done lying now. The fact is, every so often we get bored, and need to find a really strange topic to debate on. For Thursday Training, The Motion Before The House was that Animated Child Pornography should be legalised. Suffice to say, it made for interesting argumentation; not often do the words hentai when senior members who shall not be mentioned at this point brought up the matter of Octopus Porn, much to general public's surprise, shock and well...disgust.
Surprise: Why in god's name do you know about octopus porn?
Shock: You KNOW what octopus porn is? What in gods name is that?
Disgust: THAT is octopus porn! My god man, what have you been doing?

This is of course a very sober and family oriented blog, so under no circumstances shall I be elaborating on what the mentioned act entails, although I will say that the Japanese are a bunch of filthy perverts. Certain other writers on this journal might point out to you that there are 233000 google entries for Octopus Porn, but then you'd have to take their word for it. Since they're now on vacation, and have free time on their hands, they might even be as kind as to answer your queries.

Hopefully, regular psychology will work at this point, and you shall all immediately be googling for the same. Suffice to say you're all filthy perverts.
Go away. It's october the first. I think I shall go to Pearl's Hill City Park and step on some frogs.

Culture Shock: Negotiating In Singapore

Singapore has no concept of MRP, that much I think I have mentioned. You can bargain to your hearts content over here, especially if you're in an area like Chinatown, or some of the other less westernised areas of town. However, bargaining comes with it's own set of protocols and local customs, as I discovered about a month ago, when I bought my cellphone. Allow me to elaborate.
If you are bargaining in India, or Thailand (the only other place I've haggled), it's a pretty straightfoward procedure(Unless of course it's with an Autowallah in which case you must abuse him soundly). You bid, keep taking the price down, and ask him for his best price. If it finally pleases you, you purchase, and if it doesn't, or you want to look around you walk off, possibly with a promise to return.
Herein lies the key difference in Singapore, as I found out when I put the question to my entirely singaporean Leadership & Teambuilding class. For this is what happened. I bargained. I brought the price down. I asked the man for the best price he would give, I said I would check around, and the proceeded to attempt to assault me for not purchasing the phone.
Here is why. If you ask for best price in Singapore, you are by honour obliged to purchase the item. Bargain all you like, but once you say those magic words, YOU MUST BUY. This is indeed a strange custom, because one is used to it being an open market, where one is king. One does not, under any circumstances, expect to have a lamp raised to one's head, and be threatened with quick and sudden retaliation.
Luckily, I managed to placate the man, and walked off. I also managed to get a better deal on the phone somewhere else, however I pretty much purchased it immediately, for fear of life. This is not a good way to attract customers.
But local customs differ, and thus I have learnt and will continue to practice the art of negotiating without ever mentioning the words "Best Price". As for the not so nice cellphone salesman, in the words of a wiser man, May Barbarians Invade His Personal Space.

NTU BP IV's

Or How I Fared in My First College Tournament

Getting to NTU:
Getting to NTU is a bit of a process, which kind of reveals how incredibly spoilt I have gotten to the fact that everything is really close by in Singapore. NTU is, pretty much as far as you're going to get in terms of transit in Singapore, it's right out at the eastern edge and takes, yes ladies and gentlemen, an Entire Hour to get to, by public transit. There involves a change of two metro lines, and the taking of one bus, and costs an incredible 2 dollars each way. That's almost Rs 60. In retrospect, that's not that bad at all, but lets face it, 2 dollars a trip is a bit pricy. Enough rants about expeditures.
The campus itself is large, florid and quite pritty. It unfortunately bears resemblance to IIT Kanpur, both in structure and in spirit. The lecture theatres are quite the same, albiet airconditioned, and the building style is well, engineery. I'm glad, very glad I didn't chose to spend my college years doing engineering, it would not have suited me at all.
Enough rants about my college choices.
The tournanment was to start bright and early at nine in the morning, with registration at 8 30. We arrived, a mere five minutes late, to find out most people didn't share our ideals of punctuality. The tournament eventually started at about ten thirty, with the first round of debating, and I did pretty well for myself. As a whip speaker, and with a teammate who started his extension in his sixth minute, I came in 2nd, and earned myself two points.
Diversion: I enjoy doing Opp. Whip, it's got a horribly perverse tone to it, and suits me well.
The next three debates were awful, for completely different reasons. I shall not delve too much into them, and instead get to the meaty bits. The Semifinals, and Finals.
Two SMU Teams broke into the Semifinals, SMU A and SMU B (surprise surprise). SMU A, consisting of Shuvam and Priyam henceforth referred to as The Power Couple, scraped through from what I heard into the Finals, from their draw. SMU B, from what I witnessed and cheered on with, had a pretty clear cut victory through the finals. Things were generally set up for a fun time. Two SMU Teams, two NTU teams, opening house NTU, closing house SMU, it was a recepie for disaster. The motion before the house was "Nations are Rouge only when Confronted", and the opening government, NTU A, decides to squirrel.
A squirrel is when you completely change the spirit of the motion, to suit your needs, because you are a bastard of the first order.
Thus, the entire debate, for some reason, got centered in Myanmar, and discussed how the government side wished to propose sanctions on the country, so as to force them into dialogue, or something which was far far more confusing than that. This effectively made it...a terrible debate, and killed any chance Closing Government had of making sense, as they had a flimsy case to support. Joey and Amira,(SMU B) thus lost out. Big time. But all was well and good, for SMU A Saved The Day(forgive me for rhyming) and came out with a brilliantly done extension to win the house. Adjudication took only five minutes, before results were announced. SMUDS had just won it's first local BP IV. Not bad for a club that's three years old. Not bad at all.

Hopefully, by next year, I'll be breaking and competing in the finals for similiar guts and glory, it's good to be on a winning team, a winning institution, years at RKP have got me really used to it.

..For I Have Sinned...

I seem to be incorporating a number of the deadly sins in my daily life these days. Sloth,sigh, I have given up trying to fight. I am a lazy arse, and Proud of it. But Good God, the depths I sunk to today, its not even funny.

The Sunday dawned bright, and a wallet full of cash. Since certain specimens of the male populace didnt get up on time, I had a day free, and the plan was made to go to NSS. NSS is a whole culture at National Law School. Its where Everyone goes for lunches. Its this nice, quiet, traditional diga restaraunt, good food, its the best place to 'positively interact' with someone, and it gives a discount to lawschoolites.So three of us land up there. We have a LOT of food- but then, that is by My standards, not my company's- and then there was dessert.

Well, to call it dessert would be a misstatement. More like..little drops of heaven.Theres a hot plate, on which is this sexy chocolate brownie. On which there is an incongruously placed slab of vanilla icecream. You start giggling when you see the icecream falling off and making sizzling noises. Then, the guy comes and adds nuts, which get all nice and roasted. And Then, he comes with this lil soup-tureen-type-thingummy and Pours out hot chocolate, till the brownie is Swamped. Theres Chocolate Everywhere! And its Brilliant!it beats Barista's Chocolate excess to bits-the sizzling plate actually burns you. I prefer it to DBC, because DBC kinda overdoes the chocolate(no, it is Not a contradiction in terms, taste it and see). Critics say the Sizzling Brownie is not sweet enough. I have just one word to say to them. Dumbasses!Mmmm....Perfect Meal.Its the 18th today...which would mean,among other things, very little time for preparation. But I shall spend a bit more, contemplating on how Good the SB actually was....

Cultural Mongrels

I live in a hostel with people from all over India, and Asia. I'm in a college with pretty much the same. I interact with people from all over the place, and while I may lay claims to being used to this, coming from DPS R.K Puram, this just takes it to a whole new level. Languages, thus, have become a major major melting pot, especially when one tries their hardest to stick to english, so as to let everyone have some allowance in understanding what is being said.

Let me take up my hostel, first, and particularly the Indian crowd. It's from all over. This is a problem. We're all starting to sound horrible, because we can't seem to stick to one vernacular at all. The guys from Calcutta, (Kolkotta, you bengali supremists, damn you) do not seem to understand the concept of First Person Singular. "Main" (I, in Hindi) seems to have been forcefully removed from their vocabulary, and thus they refer to themselves in plural. Thus, "Humne Nahin Keeya"doesn't mean the whole lot of em didn't do the work, it just means that Vivek's a lazy dog.

Next, there is of course, the Delhi influence. Thus, the Calcutta, and various other crowds have started using the words Banda and Bandi to refer to males and females, aside from many other typical delhi words, some of which shall simply not be mentioned at all. Along with this is my inherent Punjabi influence, which has added such wonderful cultural additions, as the previously mentioned "Swaah", the ever useful "Had Hundi Hai", and the seldom used "Gwaachi di Gaawan"(Lost Cows) to refer to the nefarious dissapearances of the girls of the hostel, at critical cake cutting moments.

Not to be left out is the influnce from the west. From Mumbai and Baroda, we get the ever prevelant "Lukha", to describe pretty much anyone. If you wish to be particularly abusive, the Marathas will use the word "Ghaat" or Ghaati to a remarkable extent. Baju, again, is dropped here and there in regular conversation.

Now, if the remarkable amount of Indian vernacular was not confusing enough, wait orredy. The Singlish is about to start. Orredy, we have started concluding sentences with "lah", for no apparent reason. The verb "Can" makes sense to us all, and it's only a matter of time before we drop all other verb and sentence formations for the single "Can" or the very expressive "Can Can". Expeltives, of course, no good language training can do without. As a general expression, Wah Lao, and Wah Lei Li are quite common. The rest...one should again not mention in the kind spaces of this blog.

But it doesn't end. One encounters Filipinos, and their associated "Parrang"s, things over here are too ex, and one spends to much as a result, and for some reason, thanks to the Tamil Influence down here, even the Chinese people use "Aiyyo".
Something needs to be done, but I for one cannot.

Airborne Time

Weeks fly by here. It's now been three weeks of college, five weeks of being here, and I can hardly tell. Time just buzzes by, because at all times you have something or the other to do. The weekdays race by, in a flurry. They go by in a mess of classes, group meetings, project work, homework, assignment work, debating practice, and...home chores(In the interests of politeness, and the tact I am desperately trying to inculcate, however failing desperately in doing, I shall not further elaborate on the phrase "Home Chores").
Not to sound trite and overdone, but college really opens up a whole new world for you. Everything kinda has to be done on your own, sure there's a lot of people to help you out, but they're not going to offer to until you reach out. There's a whole lot I've learned, and it's sort of been rammed down my throat. Most of it is well, too complex or too boring to share with you mere mortals, hence I'll brief you on the more interesting things I've learnt in an easy to understand, bullet point format.

• Signposting is important. Always signpost. It builds up matter, makes you look important.
• RIN Bar is bad for your hands, don't use too much of it.
• If you turn "Baby One More Time" into a hard rock song, you can actually headbang to it. Serious!
  
• There is no greater incentive to hostel and college life than the word "Free Dinner". There may be no such thing as a free lunch, but free dinners are all over the place
• Do not ever eat Wasabi. Do not ever eat anything with Fish Flakes. Do not even go near "Durian"
• Everything is exchangable in hostel, and everyone needs something. Don't ever throw anything away.
• Chinese people cannot pronounce the syllable "Bh". A B or a P has to suffice. Welcome to the world of Pav/Bav "Rhymes with Love" Kahna.
  
• Signposting is important, you can repeat what you say and make up time doing that.
  
• There are few things as fun as jumping off your seat during a debate and yelling out "Fallacy Sir! Shame!"
  
• College life is a breeze, where work is optional, and you spend most of your time partying.
  
• Fallacy Sir! Shame!

In unrelated news, I've had a great weekend, where I have actually gone shopping and bought myself a pair of brand new Sandals, the Nike ones which are supremely overpriced in India, but decent enough over here. They're exceedingly comfortable.
Oh, that's not all. I've spoilt myself silly, and got myself a haircut, after a period far too long not to have a haircut. I am, now of course broke and need to withdraw money from my account.
Am starting to realise that I can spend a little more, the college has given me a decent amount of money for this term. Accoring to my handy dandy calculator, I can spend 191.66666 dollars a week, with the remainder of my grant money. I am currently spending around 80-90.

However, I am the world's second most thrifty person (How can I ever take the honour away from Prateek Chadha), and will see how things go.

Time Travel, Grammar and The Postal Service

First of all, many thanks to Vrinda for giving the idea for this...babble.

The world today is connected. Exceedingly well. In Victorian times, or a little closer to home, messages would take weeks to get across, with the advent of faster telecommunications, days, and soon enough you could send a telegram, but only if you were packing a lot of wads in yer wallet. Basically, the cheapest, if not fastest, method of communication for a very long time was Postal Mail, hereby reffered to as "snail mail", not in any ways to be confused with the far more elaborate "Snail Mail".
After the internet revolution, the world changed. Whever the hell you were, it had suddenly become affordable (but only just) to send messages across instataneously. There was email, there was ISD that didn't involve booking calls on a trunk line, there was basically a whole lot of change. As we entered a new century, we got VOIP, net conferencing, Mobile Phones, and finally SMS. Prices plummeted, and suddenly, everyone could get the message, quite literally.

Charms of the old fashioned system, as it is with most old fashioned systems, fail to be lost. Thus, the postal system in most countries has not, in fact, become obsolete. They're enough people sending mail here and there to keep it going. In fact, Japan even plans to privatise it, if their Richard Gere-esque Prime Minister can manage to get himself re-elected. The problem is, most information you wish to convey by snail mail has, in all probability, already happened, and with even greater probability already been discussed amongst the parties involved in the whole mailing experience.

Douglas Adams, whom I'm sure you're all familiar with, covered the nasty world of punctuation over time gaps quite well in his book, The Restraunt At the End of the Universe. I offer here the link that covers his views, in the form of Dr. Streetmentioner's Time Travel Handbook Of 1001 Tense Formations. The fact is, that you need these to describe events in a snail mail that will happen in your future, but have already happened by the time the reader has read the mail, and he or she is already aware of the said event's occurance. Tense and Grammar, as certain Violent Panda's and Annoying Short Guy's have pointed out time and time again, are very important.

Seeing how this is the only real way you're going to attempt time travel, you might as well give it a shot. For now, I wioll haven be have cake.

Eighteen

It's been a long time coming, a good eighteen years to be exact. Today, I'm an adult, I'm finally and officially legal and accountable for my own actions. Ironically, I've never felt as young since...since I couldn't remember how young or old I felt. I've always thought myself to have this mature head on my shoulders, to be a bit aged for my years(don't I give myself airs) and after joining college I've really been feeling very young indeed. There's so much to learn, so much to experience and so much my seniors, and indeed my peers have to teach me.

Enough with the serious talk, I'm young, immature and I'm, to use a phrase, Going to Be Eighteen Till I Die.

Book Review: The Great Gatsby

By F Scott. Fitzgerald

Having nothing to do before college started, I used the great large Li Ka Shing Library(in which I am sitting right now) to issue some reading material. Little did I know that this was a college library, and was thus unsympathetic to the cause of light fiction. To be fair, it did contain a Jeeves omnibus, but little else. Oliver Twist isn't exactly my idea of an enjoyable evening's sit down, and the Philosophical fare looked very uninviting. Some day, I shall read Franz Kafka's metamorphosis, but that day's not for another month, at least.

So what I did pick up and read was The Great Gatsby, a story primarily about a man named Gatsby(who'da thunk it) and...well...how he goes about attempting to get a girl. This of course is not blindingly obvious, wherein lies the beauty of the book. The second wonderful thing you will find is that, well, it doesn't really have a hunky dory ending. Unlike most love stories, this neither ends in Tragedy for the pair, nor a happily ever after. Gatsby dies, and well...no one really cares. It really makes you stop and think, about how you should lead your life, how you should prioritize people, and how you shouldn't wait too long.

This wasn't, as I had hoped, a fun read. It was, however, a very good one. One where you feel great sympathy in the end for the characters. One where you end up thinking about what went wrong. And ultimately, the clincher as far as I'm concerned, one where a lot of people die.
You can't really end a story without killing someone off.

College

College

College started last Monday, and classes started again for me, after a gap of over 8 months. Sitting in a classroom again, as a result, was almost a novel experience, though I am disappointed to report that a week on and I’m already jaded, and plan to fall asleep during my next Statistics Class. This is highly advisable, as staying awake and paying attention through three hours of statistics isn’t the best of ideas, you’ll lose your mind and never get any real work done. I also submitted homework to my Financial Accounts professor on Monday, the first time I think I have done and given homework on time in well over four years. Impressive. But how can you not do homework for a man who asks as the first question of his first multiple choice quiz (which counts towards 10% of my grade, the quizzes)
“In Accounts Class
A)Homework must be submitted
B)We don’t need to do homework
C)We have homework, but don’t have to submit it
D) There is no homework”

This, I assure you, is the least of the man’s stunts, and he has thus inspired me to study his course. This is again, a good thing, as accounts isn’t one of those loveable courses you can breeze through even with a bad Prof.

Classes over and done with, I joined up my first two CCA’s (Co Curricular Activities). Fencing classes (which I was made to pay for, the horrors) will start late September, and I have already started my training at SMUDS (or the SMU Debating Society).
SMUDS is full of people who have lost some part of their mind. This makes me feel quite at home. Additionally, the seniors in the society seem to think being evil and mean is a fun way to pass time. This is a skill I felt I had lost, but to meet people ready to inculcate me back into the fold, heartens my soul. Thus, I have taken up being randomly evil again, and I assure you, it’s as fun as ever. Just please look out, if you’ve got a webcam installed, and you’re trying to chat with your boyfriend. You don’t want an evil SoB (School of Business, you filthy minded lot) student coming up behind you to give you a big hug.

Or do you?

Finally!

Introducing Godi Lattu

Pronounced Goh-dee Lat tu

After what seems to have been the better part of enternity, my laptop, a spanking new T 42+1 Thinkpad(yes, it still says IBM on it) presented itself to me today. It's progress to it's ultimate destination was slow, marred by inumerable tragedies, and generally made my life annoying over the last three weeks.

But Godu is here now, and all is well again. With my own computer, I shall now return to regular, and boy do I mean regular, blogging. So, dear readers, or whatever is left of dear readers(one notices a major drop in hits since one left for Singapore) suggest a topic, and it shall be written about.

Alternatively, I'll just ramble on about whatever the hell I feel like.
Which sounds like a half decent idea as well.

Convocation

My college held its convocation today. It was a nice, hot -shot function, what with the CJI and other HC and Sc CJs there, along with various MPs, MLAs etc(dont you just love the acronymns in the last sentence?) There were various advantages. For one, all the departing batch was there. Which , to be frank, wasnt really affecting life in any major way. For two, there was great free food. It wasnt strictly for us, of course. To be fair, it wasnt for us, period. But if you Happened to be in the academic block, and Happened to not have work to do, and Happened to espy that all the seniors were busy unto themselves (as most of us did) it would be criminal to refuse hot GulabJamuns[ you discover the value of nice, good, Hot, GJs once you cross the North south divide. They dont believe in good dessert here. And no, Mysore Pak does not count). Also, we get tomorrow off, which is brilliant. One extra day to postpone the washing of the clothes....

We got all dressed up and were made to get up at the ridiculous hour of 6 on a beeyutiful Sunday morning. Chicks getting ready in saris in a common bathroom without their customary mothers around- it is a sight not to be seen! Thankfully, coupla them knew how to tie saris pretty decently. Even more thankfully, I decided to stick to the more conventional and plainer, but inifnitely more comfortable and better looking salwar kameez. of course, as things are wont to happen, the bus did not leave till 8(*cough*sodding arses*cough*)....

The function itself was rather drab and boring...the highlights being the silver sceptre(there was a silver sceptre! they insisted on calling it a mace, but i know a sceptre when i see one...), a random disruptment and general hungama when a striker entered the hall and started shouting some slogans and was chucked out, and the free food.And the guys looking absolutely adorable and utterly marry-able in formals. And having to correct fifty billion copies of the bleddy speech which had some typos in it, all the while making up ridiculous jokes and games.

All in all, a day well wasted.

First Impressions

I think I have made a point before, on how first impressions work in the world that I inhabit. They're godawful. I don't think I've made a single good one in my life, especially with the people now most important to me. Thus, it is heartening to know that I have continued this trend here at SMU. You see, the last three days, I've had a big grand ol' freshman orientation camp for international students, followed by our official convocation (congratulations, you're in college) ceremony. This has given me the opportunity to meet several new and interesting people, and create a whole variety of first impressions. Let me start with the most common.

I smile. A lot. Strangely. Pretty much all the time. People can't seem to figure this fact out. Added to this, I have a habit of randomly strolling about, and popping into different groups of people at different times. All the while smiling. This has prompted a first impression on several people, who now think I'm on drugs. As I may have mentioned before, I am not.

Well, if this wasn't enough, at the end of camp, one outdid himself. The last thing you should do before a crowd of international freshman at the end of a two day camp is go up with two other guys and sing Wonderwall. Hindsight, as they say is 20/20.

But of course, the cherry on the cake is never added till the very end. Today was convocation, as I have mentioned. Formal affair. White shirt, black pants. As I am a scholar, I was to recieve my Scholarship commendation this day as well, and thus had got myself a very nice Blue SMU Tie, provided to all scholars. Thus, dressed like a perfect gentleman, I marched up on stage and recieved the digs. The ceremony ended, and disaster struck.
They had a rock concert.
They played headbanging songs.
I had company, the same who sang wonderwall, who would headbang along with me.
There were three video cameras on us, broadcasting these images to the entire audience, as we were right up next to the stage.

That is called making a first impression, on the entire bleddy college.
Congratulations, Mr. Khanna, you've done it yet again.

Ties That Bind

The worst part about being in a God Forsaken Gaon, is that they don't celebrate any normal festivals, like the rest of the country. Rakhi is coming up, and the whole funda is missing from the general psyche. Having to remember to go and buy them, and send them, without someone prompting me, was whole new experience. And though I set off enthusiastically, I was greatly disappointed to learn that most shopkeepers had not heard of the concept itself. In one non-descript shop, I esoied a sad little sign saying "Raki. 19th Aug."The guy took out one box of the most garishly coloured monstrosities possible-and coming from me, thats a Strong Statement. There was one with a bright blue plastic bunny rabbit, one with a diameter of atleast 2 inches, and All had a base of bright, shiny Golden threads. Course, the Evil side of me wanted to buy and send -and tie- the most spectacular ones to each of my chaand se bhais.But better sense prevailed-I Do want monetary returns. I actually spotted some thread like rakhis, very sober, very tiny, and looking very pretty. I asked the guy for 4 with a thankful grin. He looked at me positively aghast, and in his Diga Hindi, said "But Madam, yeh to Friendship Band hain". The bugger positively refused to part with them. I mean, I know, friendship bands have special significances *cough* but still......

The sad part is, not only do we not get a day off for Rakhi(we have an examination, thank you very much), there is also the very sad fact that sending Rakhis is absolutely no guarantee of pecuniary recompensation. Gah. Being a girl sucks!

Long weekend soon, and just 2 exams to go. Dude Where's My Car, Top Gun, 9 hours of sleep a day, and iff i can manage it, Bill and Ted's.Woohoo!