LIZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARD!!

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!"

If you hear a scream like that at 2am in the girls hostel, the three things which any normal and sane person would think are

1.There's a boy in the hostel

   (The truth: Hardly a reason to yell)

2.There's a MURDERER 

    (Truth: Yeah right, no murders here, on the sleepy little highway)

3.There's a DRAGON/TIGER/think on those lines

    (Truth:It's desert remember? They would probably have died in the heat, even if they did not they would have never gotten past the 'security' here. Our guards would have never let them in without them signing in the visitor's book!)

So, 2am when I hear Princess Z call out my name in those Psycho movie "shower stabbing" tones, I drag my fat ass off the bed and run down the corridor, to hear more yells, the reason? 

"Snehaaaaaaaaaa there's a LIZARD in my room".

I reach there to find Aditi already standing there with a broom in her hand, looking like one of those macho mafia killers. Then it begins, the pursuit, the hunt. It is usually accompanied by people yelling, standing on chairs, or generally waking up the whole hostel! After what seem like hours of chasing, yelling, swearing, moving everything in their rooms and the lizard going into call nooks and corners it can in that room, it finally decides to leave.

To get the views of an average NGHite on the existence of Lizards, one must NEVER EVER EVER ask to Zara. It's like asking Hitler about Jews, or Tennis players about streakers!

Here's what she had to say "I HATE LIZARDS! THEY ARE THE WORST THINGS TO HAVE HAPPENED TO THE EARTH. THEY DESERVE TO DIE, EVERYONE OF THEM!" Here's another snippet about our li'l princess, she happens to be in the ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE!

I think after exams, moots and Intras, lizards are the reason why most people lose sleep. I swear by what I said. It's not only the person in whose room the lizard is that is irritated, IT IS THE GODDARN WHOLE FLOOR! 

People have tried anything and everything from Peacock feathers, to Lizard killers, but no, those little bastards keep coming back! One fine day we were in the Bushy haired girls room, she saw a lizard on the other side of her mesh and yelled! OMG!She ran to a nearby broom and starts hitting and yelling at the lizard, and Pop! The lizards falls!

Saumya- Where did it go?

Sneha - Into the cooler it went, now you can euthanize it!!

Here's what Z has to say on the mentality of lizards during on of those tedious shooieng away sessions, " These Lizards, they will not leave till they have been shooed away. They know we are shooing them!"

The other day after classes I was on my way back to my room. I saw a triumphant looking Zara standing in the corridor! "Sneha I got a bhaiyya ji to shoo away the lizard in my room"! Yeah! Go Z!

Later on gtalk,

Z- I hit a lizard with a broom!

Me-Yay!

Z-I dont think it died!

Me- How big was it?

Z-I think it was about 5cms

Me- Zara, if you hit a 5 cm Lizard with a 2 footlong broomstick,

              IT HAS TO DIE!

Today I learnt that 'people' have chased a lizard 360 degrees around a room, and the lizard went on to the ceiling and gave them a mocking look!

So here's a little request to all the lizards out there :

   BACK OFF! WE HERE IN NGH HATE YOU, WILL DO ANYTHING TO SHOO YOU AWAY!

She sat on the little rock close to the sea. The sun was slowly disappearing into the clam waters of the Pacific. As she looked at the sun, her mind wandered onto those unforgettable days. The water always seemed to calm her down. The little rock was far away from the crowds. It was her refuge. It was where she always came to think. 

It was here that she met him. It had been a particularly bad day at work. She needed to clear her head, she needed to be with herself. He was there too. At first she did not like the idea of a strange man stealing her refuge. She was taken aback, when he smiled and said, "I thought no one comes here".

She felt at home with him. She could tell him things that she could tell no one. She told him her fears, her dreams, her feelings, her inhibitions, her deepest and her darkest secrets. She loved him. She loved him more than she had loved anything before. She trusted him, she respected him. It was with him that she was herself. It was with him that she could be anyone she wanted, but for some strange reason, she always wanted to be herself.

He always knew what to say to her. He could calm her down, something very few people could do. He knew that she liked her salad with dressing at the side, he knew that she liked to watch old movies. He always held the door open for her, he always knew what songs to play, and he always got her white lilies, her favorite. More than all of this he was always there for her.

The news hit her like a sudden wave. She had not expected it. He was so dear to her. She felt angry. She felt betrayed. Oh, how she loved him. Suddenly she felt lonely. Lonely in the midst of all the well wishers who had gathered in their house. Alone, more alone than she ever was in her entire life. For the first time in many years she felt scared. She did not have his strong arm to lean onto. 

As she sat on the little rock, she remembered how she was before she met him. Then slowly she felt calm. She felt like she was with him. Her loneliness reduced and she felt a little less scared. She was no longer angry at him. As the water touched her toes, she realized that he would always stay with her.

Been there Seen that : Aisha

The movie is skin deep

The designer clothes, the uber cool locations could not make up for the lack of acting and emotion.

The Story was supposed to be an Indian adaptation of Emma. Well, it looked more like the Indian adaptation of the Alicia Silverstone starrer Clueless. Yes, there's a confused daddy's little girl who traipses around Delhi in her bright yellow Volkswagen Beetle, she tries to be a match maker, and calls everyone 'Bechara'. There is the 'oh so hot' and 'oh so angry' neighbor who tries to be distant to Aisha, but has always always been madly and deeply in love with her. Yawn. It has all the touchings of a Mills and Boons or even a Yash Chopra classic.

The clothes, the bags, the shoes, the labels, the wine, the vodka, the parties were fab, totally loved them, but there remains the almost never answerable question? Who in India dresses like that?? Did the producers think that the India public is mad? A girl who shops for three people in shops like Dior and Luis Vuitton gets a credit card bill of 53 thousand and some odd change? Really? Did Dior open a charity shop in India? Or am I in running for the next President of the United States?

Sonam Kapoor cannot act. Emma Wodehouse was a simple girl, what so we have here? A spoilt, arrogant brat! Ira Dubey for some reason always reminds me of the shrewd film critic she is in "Chicks on Flicks", in the movie she played Pinky, Aisha's best friend. Who names their kid Pinky? Abhay Deol, I did not get what his job was in the big picture? The girl who played Shefali was good. Lisa Haydon as Aarti as the NYC returned yuppie was HOT!!

In the recent years we have seen the westernization of many Indian films, whether it is the clothes or the parties. This movie just showed us how painful the over chickflickization of a hindi movie can be. A few examples
1. 6 mins into the movie, there's an engagement party. Aisha's pregnant sister is shown eating Dahi-Puri from a Martini glass!

2. Sometime later Arjun goes to Aisha's house, and she makes him a peanut butter sandwich, come on..

3. Aisha is always seen cooking things like Baked Fish or making Pot roasts, I am sorry, do we live in the same India?

4. The family eats salad for lunch, that was just the last straw.

There was not a shread of emotion, as Zara put it, not even when Aisha's sister's baby girl is born. The clothes may have been designer at the beginning of the movie, but as the movie progresses, the clothes of the other characters like Pinky and Shefali start to look wannabe. Infact, there's this one outfit of Pinky's the one that she wears when Aisha comes to make up with her, after their little tiff, when they are sitting on the hybrid of the treehouse and sandpit thing, which looks like the ones you get on Janpath. I hope you get what I am getting at. For the slow ones here's a hint- budget, cuts, movie.

Also it was like a lesson on surrogate advertising. L'oreal was everywhere. Aisha only used
l'oreal makeup, lip gloss, nail paint, lip stick. There was scenes where Sonam's make up was a tad too much, like the scene where she first meets Shefali. Her face looks an unnatural white with all the make up. There's another scene, where she's talking to her aunt, sitting in her house, where her add on eye lashes make her look scary! So much for make up.

There is nothing new about the movie, Emma or no Emma. Maybe we have seen too many of these kind of movies. Maybe for a serial chick flick watcher like me, it's cliched. Watch it if you want. Watch it for the clothes, the shoes, the wine and the locations. Watch it for Dior, Luis Vuitton and L'oreal and nothing else.

Out of the three of us who went, two say TRASH IT. And one says CATCH IT!
Talk about giving Ira Dubey a taste of her own medicine. :P

Mid-(College) Life Crisis and THE RAT!

 The above term was coined by Sandeep Chaitanya aka Eccentric Highness aka Weirdo aka a fat load of other things.  Yeah, I am not kidding. The year started, I am not exactly the oldest , nor the youngest in the University. I am bang! right in the middle. When I got back to college after that amazing Summer break, I felt alone. Yes, there were no faces I could recognize! It was like I joined a new College. I missed the old faces, the seniors who had an aura about them, I missed the people who walked around the College and you know you respected them, nope no such faces this time around. Maybe I am too 'old' to look upto the current bunch of the fifithies, or maybe for me they will always be the 'third years' I met back in the first semester.

Geez, did I just say that? I mean back in the first sememster! Whao!

The fact that everyone's turning 20 and the knowledge that I am turning twenty in a little more that a month is also affecting my daily activities! Ahh, the unavoidable journey from being a teen to a tween!

Once classes started, everything seemed soo monotonous. The same people, the same faces, and infact the same jokes! Yes Pritha, you can get boring too, but that does not mean I love you any less. We tease the same people with the same old things, and the same places to go out to. I am sure you get what I mean. It's painful.

When I think of the first semester when tests meant getting scared, and presentations meant rehearsing in your room the night before, or moots mean working the whole week, and getting all nervous before a moot, just makes me laugh at myself, and how naive I was back then. Well, the best moot marks I got till now, in this semester was on a memo I made in about 3 hours! I think I am getting old.

I think this semester has gotten onto everyones nerves, how else do you expect so many intra withdrawals? We lounge classes and listen to Sastas the whole day. Somehow, our class comes up with new ones.

Everyday at dinner I see the same things listed on the DMD white board, I stare and stare and stare at it for atleast five minutes before I make a choice, and poor Dilip ji does not understand my dilemma.

THE RAT

The most exciting thing that happened in my class till now is THE RAT. Yes, ladies and gents an old dying rat made an appearence in my class earlier today. It went from inside the podium to the High Chair of our class. It sat there for about a little more than an hour, during which time attempts were made to make sure it stayed in its place. My class people were seen taking photos and videos of it, and Rao even got a photo with it, one of those Taj Mahal tip touching photos, only here its a big,fat, ugly, old rat!

People were seen getting all excited about the fact that it peed on itself! I heard someone say, this can be the reason for free attendance. There was also a lot of yelling, and running away from class!
However in the third hour, just after breakfast, a certain teacher shooed it away causing all the drama to end!

If this continues, this crisis, soon I'll withdraw to my room and will not come out, like Miss Havisham!

Here's one a few sastas to finish the post:

Sneha- I want to work in a place that rains everyday.

Pritha- GO work in the amazon!

Sneha- But I want Singapore....

Pritha- Amazon.com, silly!

(I know what this joke must have done to your brain!)


Ok, here's one from last semester

Surya- The barbers of India protested again, the name Billu Barbar, so they changed it!

Sneha- To what? Billu the Hairdresser?

(LAMENESS EXPOSED!)

Ciao!

HIGH!

I don't exactly know what I am going to put up in this post. No idea. Maybe I'll think of something as the post progresses. So, first of all I'd like to wish all of you out there a happy friendship day!

Moving on, the rain Gods seem to have taken a sudden liking to Jodhpur, which for a rain freak like me is a good thing. The college looks amazingly pretty (Sorry Aditi, I know you are not supposed to use two adjectives in a sentence, but still I can't resist), there are little mushrooms growing on the sides of the football field. Well, yeah I actually walked on the footie field on the way to the brand new library! Yes, bigger but not necessarily better. It's funny for once, I get to use my umbrella in the rain and not the sun, yes my pretty blue umbrella.

On to some VSFC news now: A recent bid for takeover by a certain group of people from NLU, was not carried out, thanks to the fact that the AFU is apparently bringing in a new team! NAICE! The team has a new owner now, Virendra Kumar, more about him will be revealed in my next week's post which deals exclusively with VSFC 1.1 (copyright Thara).

NLU has not gotten over its obsession with Superman Tshirts! Come on guys, they are soo class 10th! Everyday you see at least two people wearing that shirt, and the only saving grace, is that it comes in different colors...well saving us from monotony and from ripping their heads off their shoulders!

My favorite Tshirt of the semester (till now)- Ketki's Benetton wala ROMA tee. Elegant, graceful, simply AWESOME.

I got all crazy yesterday and realized that I needed to bust some stress, since I could not go swimming just then, and the urge to let it all out was killing me, I finally took the dust off my music books. Yeah, maybe that was the effect of my whole summer 'review' music classes, more like remedial ones or Laxmi teachers "You sound like an OX now", I dunno, but I sang for a little more than an hour. My voice did not shake, nope it did not let me down, was not very awesome or anything, but it STOOD THE STRAIN. Maybe there will come a day when I'll be able to sing for five or six hours without really getting tired, just like the old times.

Effect of that, well I needed cheering up but but it acted as a drug, got me all fired up! and also got me some comp'lie'ments and invitations or rather threats to sing in birthday parties. First times are free, but I'll charge from the second time around, no jokes here. My facebook status message got a lot of likes, but I am still high!

Well, what can you say, had a fabulous Friendship day, Taj Breakfast, slept the whole day, CCD in the evening, and Zara and Aditi's Aloo curry! Today was a fairytale. :)

Well, I guess that's all for today, folks..cya later!

Here's a little joke to end things

Thara- Hey, I came up with something..

Sneha- What?

Thara- See if you fail or have low attendance, there's a nice excuse to tell the VC..

Sneha- Which is....

Thara- Well , sir I was getting 'high on life' just like the posters said! "GET HIGH ON LIFE NOT ALCHOHOL".

Yeah.Yeah. The dust, the sand and the killing classes. No prizes for guessing where I am. What makes it all worthwhile are obviously a bunch of boneheads whom I call my friends. :). They crack 'em.I post 'em. Enjoy.


While I was chatting with a certain Sandeep Chaitanya on my way back to college,
Sandeep- "I'll open a sand museum, depending on how ancient the sand in my room is.."


I met Azal on the train and I narrated the above to her and she says, "Let's all gather sand from our rooms and make a sand dune.."


And I come back, and classes start, and the boring like..
So After a long day I decided to unwind in SN Halls, and I was sitting with Nidhi, Nandini, Pritha, Divya, in Nikita's room. When the following happened. True Story.


Nidhi- I went behind the bar in Geoffrey's too, to make a cocktail for my friend from France.


Nandini- FFF!


Giggles.Giggles.


Nidhi - I can make you one too.


Nandini- I don't drink alchohol.


Nidhi- I ll make it without alchohol.


Pritha- Then it ceases to be a cock!


Pritha Chatterjee is well and truly back!


I guess, that's it for now..Things are still warming up..will keep you posted! Ciao.

Mumma.

I miss the steaming hot coffee when I study

I miss watching English movies in Skyline

I miss the 'Brett Lee' Chicken and Coconut rice

I miss all the gossip about Beckham and Posh Spice

I miss going for drives in the rain

I miss the Chocolate Icecream I ate again and again.

I miss talking about Brett Lee

I miss being taken care of like a baby

I miss those lovely Chicken noodles

I miss the shopping

I miss staying up the whole night watching football with you

I miss having those who's the better Club 'Real/ Manu' or 'Arsenal/Barca' debates with you

I miss trying to help you cook, but ending up tasting everything

I miss those times spent trying to pull daddy's leg but ending up pulling yours

I miss all the intellectual talk about arbitration, law and terrorists

I miss the smell of jasmine on your hair

I miss having someone to yell at me when I don't clean my room

Most of all what I miss the most is 

               YOU.

It's rainin' Kasab, Hallelujah!

It’s raining all things Kasab, hallelujah!


What is the latest obsession in India, apart from the perpetual 2Cs? A lanky Pakistani teenager named Ajmal Kasab. I know not what he was called fondly at home, but India (read millions of daily new channels, and newspapers) has decided to call him Kasab.

So the Trial Court decided to hand him a death sentence. As soon as the Judge finished the judgment, well, the whole of India rejoiced. We had news channels carrying out interviews of people, eminent and otherwise. A true jackpot for the channels! Come to think of it, when did we get like this?

Given a Gandhian past are we a country who celebrates when a person gets the death penalty? The channels here have a BIG role to play in the framing of public opinion in our country. I am sorry to say that they have not yet realized what a big responsibility that is. So, that day what do we get that day? We get images of Kasab, accompanied by some trance type music with drums. I guess they thought the music will drive the point home (point- Kasab deserves to die). A legal expert (a lawyer who is out of business), a Politician (anything to be on TV), a socialite (too desperate), and a common man (well, no idea why really, nothing this one says ever makes a difference) are given a chance to voice out their views on the latest development in the 26/11 case. (More like a chance to appear on national TV).

The whole day was spent in showing people bursting crackers, and giving each other sweets, and abusing the “TERRORIST”. Well, on Facebook groups were made to honor Kasab’s punishment, to celebrate India’s vengeance, Sweet victory against the war against terror, and so on and so forth. I was kinda irritated to find that I had gotten an invitation to join these communities. I was flabbergasted at the depravation that has crept into the society. Really? Is this the same India who once upon a time believed in peace? Are we as bad as the terrorists who were pleased to bomb Mumbai? I think we have crossed the uncrossable line which separates us from the terrorists.

Days followed, we had everyone give their opinion on Kasab’s plight. From school children to old people, every single person felt that he deserves to die. I refuse to buy this, come on in a country of more than a billion people; won’t a single soul have a contrary opinion? Where is the ‘so called diversity’ we are so proud of?

As all melodramas in India are documented in the form of a movie, this is no different. There have been rumors of a well known bollywood bigshot wanting to make a movie based on the 26/11 attacks.

Two weeks after the judgment day, I was beginning to think that the ‘Kasab fever’, had finally began to die, then I saw the most ridiculous thing ever!

Some random loser in Hyderabad (ashamed to say that it’s my city) comes up with a game in which you can hang Kasab!! Yes. I was at home, having lunch; thatha was watching a Telugu news channel, when the news reader says, “DO U WANT TO HANG KASAB?” And goes on to explain how now everyone can hang him in this brilliant game. Then we are subjected to visuals of an animated and a cartoonised Kasab, walking around a toon Mumbai killing people. The object of the game: Catch him and Hang him! Whoa, some revenge!

When have we become a society which makes money out of a terrorist attack? Oh congratulations I guess we are the first in History to achieve this one! At least we are the first to do SOMETHING!

Thanks again to the wonderful media teaching people what to do, what to think, and mostly thanks soo much for making us a society who takes pleasure in listening to someone’s death sentence! KUDOS! As for Kasab don’t worry you have successfully been elevated to the status of a Sachin, or an Amitabh. I’d say enjoy it while it lasts.

P.S.- There are girls who think you are CUTE.

P.P.S- Maybe we’ll see fansites forming on the internet...Www/ilovekasab.org

CLICK>REVIEW>DELETE/UPLOAD>LIKE>COMMENT

They say a picture is equal to a thousand words. Maybe this is what Kodak had in mind when he came up with the idea for a camera. In the good old days taking a photo was a task in itself, setting up the camera, getting the photos ready..you could simply not afford to spoil it. I remember the tough times my parents had trying to make me smile, make me look at the camera, and most importantly, sit in one place. God Bless them for achieving all the cute little baby pics of mine!

Enter the digital age. Gone are the old cameras in which you have to change the reel. Welcome a miracle called the memory card, which has to be inserted into a little slot (yes, Sunshine it's slot, not anything else) in the camera. Kaboom! It's a miracle gone are the troubles of shaken photos, blurred photos, negative malfunctioning, no more photographer screwing up the cleaning, nothing!

Now's the time of, CLICK! REVIEW and then approve or DELETE! God bless the soul who thought of digital cameras. Think again, you really think so??

Imagine you are in a mall/party and there is a bunch of teenager next to you "Hey photo! photo! photo!" and off they go clicking like a bunch of japanese tourists at the Eiffel tower. And it does not end there, everyone has to get a photo with the other, then in groups of three or four in different combinations and poses! And the photo has to be taken till its absolutely perfect, and flawless!

If what Pep once told me was true, then there are girls who go to malls, try on clothes, take pictures, and upload them on Facebook, and yeah the next logical step in the 'photo cycle' is uploading them onto the plethora of social networking sites. After all what are digital cameras for, this makes me think. Have the sales of cameras gone up by millions since facebook/orkut came into being? that can be a yes!

All that people take pictures for these days is keeping in mind how amazing it would look as their display picture! I swear by this statement! If there is an event in college, you wake up the next day morning and you automatically find yourself 'tagged' in random photos, half of which were taken when you were not even aware of it. Another irritating habit of people is tagging every single person in the photo. Like for example you are just standing innocently, and you happen to be in a photo, next thing you know, there is a notification on facebook, xte has tagged you in the a photo. You open the album distinctly remebering that you NEVER had a photo with that individual, and BAM! there you are in the corner, caught in that oh so embarassing, moment, when you thought no one was looking and were digging your nose. Now its for the world to see, oh and COMMENT!

Gone are those lovely days when photos were put in albums and were treasured, now all you have a PICASA, you don't like a photo edit it, cut it, photoshop it, add effects, make it look much better! Maybe there will come a day when, photos will again come in hard copies, and there will not be chances to alter your lovely smile in the photos! And there will natural KODAK moments and not carefully planned, edited and altered ones! :)

And the award for the lamest class in the university goes to........................

Well in this post the queen or may I say the Goddess decides to share some of teh most recent gems which I have had the oppurtunity to witness in class. Haffun! (This post is all real names and real people).

Before an early morning CPC class, people are just filling in...
Yum-Sasti!
Pritha- Aaj ka mehengayi mein thoda sastaap zaroori hain!
Speechless!

During a serious Family law presentation
Nimesh - "The husband gets a year to (im)prove his potency....."
The class erupts
Abhilasha- What? He can take treatment
More giggles....
Well, it was supposed to be prove potency..

In the library...
Sandeep- random nonsense
Sneha-Live life Sneha size!!!!

Sneha - He thinks he a cool dude!
Sandeep- No man no....
Pritha - No he's a thanda doodh!

During a heated game of Hangman
Aditi- Krypton? Thats not even word!
Sneha- It is a noble gas!
Aditi- Saumi is krypton a noble gas?
Saumya- Neon Radon Krypton blah blah blah
Sneha- Hahahahhahhaa!
Well I guess the English dictionary is losing  touch..

Sneha- Don't say Moksh! It's a nice place back home...
Thara- Moksh! Moksh! Moksh!
(Well, that's the level of brains we have in our class)

Sneha- Hey what do you want for your birthday?
Sandeep-Kohinoor Diamond!
(Great expectations......)

Prapti- Kisne Kata?
Animesh- Res judicata..

Oneday Surya and I were eating chicken sitting on the mess arc, there was a little dog eyeing my food,
Surya- Chal Bhaag ja yahasey, Kutte!
(Who tries to scare a dog by calling it "DOG"?)

Well, that's my beloved class!! I 'll be back with more :D After all it's my class ain't it? Ciao.

Of getting mugged and jokes in moots

Facing NLU are a few hills. In popular NLU culture they are called 'The Rocks'. This Friday Chripy, Bushy Haired Girl, and me decided to go on an adventue. While on our way ( well, way is basically crossing the road, and crossing the railway track) we met NB. Then the four of us picked up two packets of Lays, and a bottle of water and began our hike. We decided to scale the nearest mountain, and with a little effort, we were on the peak.

On the peak we were admiring the beauty of our college, when a few kids from the nearby village, well, came to us for money. We tries shooing htem away, yelling, sweet talking, nothing worked. Then we finally settled on a deal. We give them a buck each, and they leave. Well, the offer was accpeted and there was some consideration involved. Yeah, I am a lawyer!

So, we were searching for cash, and

Bushy- Will they take mess coupons?
NB- Yes, Saumya teach them negotiable instruments act.

WEll, we execute our deal to perfection, and well they leave....umm almost.
Have you heard of the story where a king gets dogs so he can shoo away cats, and then the Dogs become a menace? Well, I felt exactly like that king!

When we were giving them the money there was a girl a lil older than those kids, she offerred to shoo them away. Later she perhes on a nearby rock and says, "It's ok..You guys can talk!" Some guts! She eyes the Lays in NB's hands, "Mujhe Kurkure CHahiye!" Well NB tries to strike a deal again.

Ultimately we had to shoo the girl off by pretending to call Police. So, I can say with conviction that I have been mugged! Yeah, we have been!

Keep pondering over this till the next time..Or maybe I ll leave you with a few moot jokes (courtesy Bikerboy and Sunshine)

Long time ago in a moot with a certain International Law teacher as a judge, this happens
Judge- to whom does the royalty go from Mulla's books?
Counsel- To my grandfather..
and goes onto explain how in explicit details about how his grandfather wrote the books and Mulla got them published.

In an another moot a counsel tries too hard to convince
"Your Lordship, the facts are crying out that...."
Innovative use of metaphors, aint' it?

Another of Sunshine's mooting diamonds
Judge- Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah, counsel?
Sunshine- Now the counsel requests the Judge to leave teh question and come back to the case at hand..
Icing on the cake!

Muksa's moot
A few seniors are sitting as counsels.
Muksa looks at the register and calls out a roll number,
Counsel- The counsel would like to inform the honorable court that the the counsels of hte parties have reached an out of court settlement, and would like the court to decree accordingly..
I can totally imagine his face!

That's all folks!!!!

Of Swaras, Ragas, and so much more

At first it was hard. I had come to hate and dread everytime Ammamma came home. Then I realised there was no escaping. I had to sit down. Say a prayer, and begin. She tells me I was a difficult student, I still believe I am. I wish I could remmeber those days...I was barely three..I knew the sapta swaras before I knew many of my cousins, before I knew how to read and write Telugu.

Ammamma yelling at me, and saying "Sruthi chudu, Sruthi chudu!" (watch the pitch), well that is my first ever memory of her. Then slowly as time passed, I started liking it. I remember the first time, I think I was in class 1 or so, oneday I randomly tell Ben, Hey I wanna sit and practise, what I learnt on Sunday. I could see she was positively elated.

My first ever formal music class, I already knew a lot of things they teach you at first. My new music teacher ( who thankfully is my  grans friend) asked me to sing all the saralis, the jantas and the alankaras. Well, I did it. From the next week began my formal training. Mondays and Wednesdays. Eight days a month. Practise everyday, without fail from 5 am to 6 am. No excuses.

Yes, I used to get up at five to sing. This was my undisturbed routine everyday for the next 11 years. Yes. There were times I used to hate it. No excuses, my grandmom used to make sure I used to sing. There were times when I used to pretend to be sick, because I used to be sick of singing. I remember that phase in class 7 . I had soo much work then with all the swimming, the school, and music. It was not as if I hated music, I loved it. I just needed some change. I used to think being able to sing what MS can sing is uncool, that was the phase when guitar was cool, and Veena was for losers. Avril was in and Bombay Sisters were out. I used to beat myself up for knowing Carnatic Music.

That's where Lin came into the picture, that's where dad came into the picture, and that's where singing the songs I listen to, and listening to the songs I sing also came into the picture. I used to take time off to listen to MS, yes I had heard her earlier, but now it was different. It was alomost as if I could understand what she was singing, it was as if the swaras were speaking to me, as if each of them had a new and different story to narrate.

I discovered a whole new world of Carnatic Music.And what a world that is! MS evidently became my idol..She was perfect in everyway, what a voice! What control, well my only wish is/was/will be is to be able to render Bhavaiyami Raghuramam the way she does. I started enjoying myself, I began to slowly fall in love with Carnatic music, the ragams ,the thalams, sruthi, laya, keerthanas, krithis, and just the whole devotion I see in my teacher, my grandmother.

I was not alone thankfully, I was not the only culturally confused girl in my class, who used to have a copy of THE MODERN ROCK ALBUM, and liked listening to Denver, and ABBA. Meet Pallavi, my best friend and my fellow tortured soul in my music class. Thankfully my teacher was not the kind who says "Ingliss sangs are baad", never, she believed that every music is divine in it's own way. I remember the many times Pallu and I used to sit in that room upstairs listening to our ipods, while waiting for our turn to sing infront of our teacher. Or the time when we introduced Laxmi teacher to Avril. She liked it. Infact, she even tried singing like her.Camplicated!

I took a few exams, sang at a few temples, gave a few concerts, won a few competitions, but none of those even compare to the satisfaction you get, when you sit down and cross your legs,and hum a nice alapana in NATA, or a keerthana in Malayamarutha ragam. Sadly, I had to leave home, leave classes afer 12th when I got into NLU. I did not miss it initially, I was actually kinda glad that no more practice, no more of Mondays and Wednesdays.

Time passed slowly, then came the cultural week in the college, I did not sing. No. I did not. That evening at the singing event I saw a few of my classmates sing. I burned inside. I did nt realise how much I loved to sing, or how much I missed it till then, until that pristine moment. Then I vowed to myself I'd sing.

A year later, in the culturals I sang. Ok, not Carnatic, but yes I sang. I had a whale of a time. Slowly came Republic day, and this time it was 'Vatapi Ganapathim Bhaje" infront of the whole college, in that golden saree which Ben gave Ammamma. I was even holding Ben's striped clutch! It was a momentous occasion, at least to me. It was a special feeling, an undecribable one, ot be able to share what has been so special to me throuought my life, with the whole college.

I just wanted to say I apologise for all the times I wanted to make myself hate it, and all the little times when I refused to practise, and all the times Pallu and I used to bunk classes and come up with lame reasons like test the next day, or run off to movies in the class times. I am so sorry ammamma. I never realised what you meant when you used to say, it will help you in the future, it will help you relax, I dint realise how true she was. Thank you. Thank you for always being there for me, helping me, showing me how I cannot keep myself away from it, after all it's in me, much like the genetic code in Heroes, this is embedded in my blood. Thank You for that. Most of all I know you will believe in me.

I have realised now, that listening to NATA, or Malayamarutham can lighten my mood instantly, and Kalyani can make me feel less homesick, and "Sudhamayi" makes me think of my friends and teh good times back home.So, it is true Carnatic music and beer have the same effect on me :). It is most definetly one of the best things that happened to me in my life.

10 Best things that happenned to me in NLU

This is in no particular order, I generally have a habit of saving the best for the last,

1. Rediscovering my blog.

2. Pushkar Trip

3. Srishti Gupta, the most amazing senior, I have ever met. It's amazing having someone you can look upto..

4. Bean Bags, yeah believe me, they are a comfort.Esp when you have to cram two huge books before the horrid managerial Economics exam.

5. BHUJIAAAAAAAAAAA- Yeah baby, have it with Rajma rice, have it with Soup, Have it with Pasta, it makes anything taste out of the world..

6. SC..nope its not the Supreme Court.. however it is Supremely HOT!

7. Victorious Secret Football Club- One of the most exciting things to have ever happened to NLU. I have joined the likes of Arsene Wenger, and have become a team owner/manager for 4 whole months. Made a lot of friends, and had loadsa FUN!

8. My Room- However dirty, or however cramped it is, it's still my room.So...Back off, bushy haired girl!

9. Geoffrey's- Smirnoff, Carlsberg, Foster's, Kingfisher's,  Blender's Pride, Royal Challenge,tonic water. Tequila Shots, dance floor, Lamb Piccata, American Corn Fritters, Fried Chicken Wings, I think you pretty much get the picture..

10. My friends, the old ones and new... I love you guys, and I can do anything for you...Believe me, I can.

Ciao!