The Wordsmith

1. So while the rest of the journalist community has been capturing the unveiling of the statue of Sarvajna yours truly and a friend have had the unique distinction of covering the unveiling (Sheeesh!! That’s such an oxymoron. As journalists we "cover" the unveiling :P) of Sarvajna's bum. Yeahh!! You read it right. We have extremely aesthetic shots of his bum and the skimpily clad dhoti covering it. Why? Well because there were so many other "propah" journalists covering it that we students were pushed to a corner and when you are a student with an assignment deadline to submit a story the next day even Sarvajna's backside makes an interesting story. :P

2. I LOVE ALL the lectures at college (with the exception of a series of lectures by the 'N' brothers - N.Ram, N.Ravi and N.Murali of Hindu. It’s amazing how they can be soooo like their newspapers. BORING and INSIPID!! Bah!!). We are supposed to listen to all the lectures and make an "informed" choice about what subjects we want to take as an elective. My problem is I want to take ALL the electives, which is surprising given that when I was doing my engineering I had trouble picking one coz all sounded equally uninteresting. I am not sure if I should take gender issues or environment issues or arts and culture or cinema or urban studies or sooooo many other electives being offered.

3. For the first time ever I cried during a lecture. I mean yeah lectures during engineering made me cry but in a totally different sense. The lecture on environment issues moved me so much that I just sat there on the second row silently shedding tears listening to the havoc which we humans have unleashed on the planet

4. I am perpetually busy, perennially rushed, always on the run and always breathless finishing some assignment or the other or covering some inane activity in some corner of the city and this long weekend (Yeah. we got both Saturday and Sunday off which is like a blessing) comes as a breath of fresh. Two days of laziness - here I come :)

5. Quite surprisingly I don't miss my life in "IT" AT ALL. I thought I would miss my former employer a teeny weensy bit but I don't. I dunno if it’s the lack of time or what but I don't miss one single aspect of that life. A part of me is glad coz I had heard horror stories about how people cannot go back to studies after two years of work but the transition in my case has been pretty smooth and I am extremely happy here but strangely I CAN'T believe that having spent two complete years in a place and having made so many memories I don't miss a single thing. I mean I SORELY miss college (all said and done I liked engineering for the four years I spent in hostel and the friends I made), I still wish I could go back to college but I just don’t miss the last two years. It’s as if they didn’t happen at all. And the best part - I don't even miss receiving a salary at the end of the month coz quite honestly I never knew what to do with all that money and now I am kind of glad I am again living a life of penury :P

6. I am glad that propah Tam-Brahm boys have enough sense nowadays to say No to journalists as wives :P. I am ecstatic because two prospective "alliances" got "rejected" when they learnt that I was going to be a journalist. "Journalist na yengalukku vendaam". In times of recession most boys apparently prefer a working woman drawing a five figure salary and not someone who is studying ughhh journalism. Yayyyy!! I love you guys and thank god I chose to study journalism now :).

7. When I told a not-so-near-but-still-forced-to-keep-in-touch relative that I was doing journalism she said "Journalism??" in pretty much the same tone that someone would say "Syphilis???", "Gonorrhea". :P. It was quite funny when she came to me and asked in a conspiratorial whisper "Have you lost your job?" and probably meant "Have you lost your mind". :D.

The more the number of people who look at me like I have some contagious disease just because I quit a decently paying job to join "Journalism" the surer I am that I have made the right decision! :)


8. Two good friends of mine broke up last week and it makes me question the fickleness of human relationships once again. I don't think I will ever understand relationships. I don't think I will ever understand why people would want to be in a relationship just to get hurt and come out saying "I am hurt but I am at least a wiser, better person". I don't think I ever will. Sighhhh!! H and M - *HUGS*

So the other day two of my friends and I were trudging along carrying a heavy camera rushing to catch the metro at light house after spending a capital time interviewing some hawkers on Marina beach about inconsequential things just to get a decent "story" (That's what journalism is all about by the way!! :P)

Carrying a huge camera bag in one hand and a tripod in the other I agree we were an uncommon sight on a busy road but the following comments by the kids on the street playing cricket were uncalled for :P

Kid 1(pointing to my tripod): Deiii paaruda, AK-47 (heyyy look, an AK-47)

Kid 2: Paatha Pakistani madri irrukanga!! Pakistani a irrupanga da (They look like Pakistanis. I am sure they are pakistanis)

Kid 1 (addressing me): Ayyayo neenga Pakistani a? Please yengla konnudadhanga. Andha bag la yenna bomb vechirukengla? (OMG!! Are you pakistanis? Please dont kill us!! What do u have in that bag? Bombs??)

Kid 3 (the smart kid): Ada chiii. Padam pidika vandhurkanga da! (They have just come to shoot a movie)

Do i look like a terrorist? Do i look like a Pakistani?

No!! wait. don't answer that question!! :-\

1. Wandering all over Chennai, carrying a 6 kg camera bag in search of "news", making and doctoring news when you dont find one, forcing and literally threatening the slum dwellers to lament about their woes is what the whole of last week has been about!!

Me: ungalukku yedhavdhu problems irruka? (Do u have any problems)

Slum Dwellers: Ilenga. yellam nalla dhaan irruku (No. Everything is fine)

Me: Ila. Yedhavdhu prachanai irrukum. yosichu sollunga (No!! You must have some problem. Please think and let me know)

SD: Moonu naala thanni varala!! (Oh well!! We havent had water for the past 3 days)

Me: Super. Adha pathi pesunga (Good. Talk about that)

And then make a story on how the slum dwellers struggle to get water and take their interviews and make it seem like an issue as important as terrorism/global warming and end it as "Along with S and P this is Wordsmith reporting for ACJ news"!! :D:D
I don't know if i am actually doing anything worthwhile but I sure am having fun in the process :-)

2. After class 6th this is the first time in life I am actually listening to class. I mean when you have classes on subjects like "The world of Cinema", "Srilankan issues", "Critical International issues", "Bay of Bengal communities", "Gender Issues" etc. you do tend to listen because for the first time in life i feel like i am actually studying something which is relevant to me and which will be of use to me later in life and I know that this is stuff which i NEED to know.
I have never felt this during engineering when i would study subjects like "Semi conductor physics and opto electronics" or "Probability and Queuing Theory" and wonder why the hell was I studying totally irrelevant and inconsequential things.

3. I feel horrendously stupid and painfully inadequate when I look at HOW much some people have read and how they can hold an intelligent conversation without staring stupidly into space after 10 mins like yours truly. I just realized there is so much out there to read, to know and that reading fiction DOES NOT help. But i can't read non fiction. Sighhhh. we have been given a mile long reading list and none of the books even remotely interest me but I am going to try.

4. I started off my reading "The Age of Kali" by William Dalrymple and I LOVE THE BOOK!! one of the best books i have read it is to india what maximum city by suketu mehta is to bombay. Lovely bit of writing and its amazing how a foreigner can write such an extensively researched book about india. Wow!!! I love the language and the simple style of writing. none of the lah-di-dah stuff for me Thank you very much
Do suggest some good non fiction books!! :)

5. For a campus which is supposed to be "Smoke free", "Alcohol Free" and "Drug Free" I have seen more alcohol and smoke and people in compromising positions in the past 3 weeks than I have in the past 23 years.
I am trying to be broad minded about it :)
Its a new experience and I am meeting all sorts of people and I realise that with age does come maturity. I look at the l'il 20 year olds all excited about being in a hostel one instant, then crying because they are homesick the next instant, jumping up and down in class to answer the questions or to ask questions or vying to be in the professor's good books and i feel like going "Awwwwwwwwwww" :D
But seriously for the first time in life i feel "Whoaaaa!! I AM mature" when I look at the crowd around me.

6. It feels great to be a student again in my favorite city. Not that i was unhappy when i was employed and heyy the money at the end of the month did feel good but it feels great to be irresponsible, be a student, be perenially broke, attend classes, cry about mess food, sit up till 3 in the morning chatting, running around finishing assignments etc..

7. Now that I am not earning I think its a huge advantage that I have friends who earn coz whenever we go out and I have eaten to my hearts fill and take my wallet out to pay they say "Nooo. You arent earning we will pay" and I just pretend to protest and pretend to pay. :P
Ahhh!! Unemployment is bliss if you leave hostel with 200 bucks and come back with the same amount :P
Shameless you think? Oh well sue me :P


8. My last post seems to have triggered quite a furore and would result in the partition of India into north and south india, I think. :P
I have had quite a number of friends calling me and advising me not to fly off the handle and asking me not to generalise and caling me "Racist" and "Really Racist". So much so that I was almost inclined to pull down the post and would have done so, if not for the supporter(s) (one) i had. Thanks Goofy :D
I agree that I have generalised quite a bit and have been irrational at times and have stereotyped northies quite a bit (though not without reason i personally feel :P - Here I go again :P) but i just had to get it off my chest.

So today was my last day at Cognizant. I went to the main office, submitted my id cards, got my relieving letter and experience certificate. Whoever named it relieving letter named it rightly i think. I felt strangely relieved, like a weight off my shoulders but felt suddenly vulnerable and alone at the same time. Mixed emotions actually. Maybe I got into such a comfort zone in Cognizant because honestly getting decently paid every month for moderately challenging work is everyone's dream. So i had gotten into a nice comfortable groove, doing little work, chatting, blogging, trekking and had become resistant to any of kind of change. though realising frequently that my heart wasnt in what i was doing. A strange case of Stockholm syndrome. Hmmm.

So today for the first time I came home at 1 on a weekday had a nice heavy lunch, went home, put on the AC (ok!! all ye proponents of global warming I dont do this often but if you are a software engineer you will know how precious it is to be able to sleep on a weekday afternoon and you want the moment to be perfect) and slept like nobody's business without a care in the world, without worrying about errant java code, about pending work and the faces of anally retentive bosses. I slept as an unemployed person but felt strangely remorseless about it :P:P

Went and saw the college/hostel in the evening and came back with my apprehensions multiplied by hundred times. I know I shouldnt judge people by the clothes they wear and their apperances but as I looked at the girls who looked like they took fashion tips from Kareena Kapoor and Paris Hilton and boys who who showed liberal amounts of skin(???) and undergarments, with loads of gel on their hair and attitude that would put Raghu of Roadies fame to shame I gulped twice and asked myself what i was getting myself into. With my jeans and dirty black shirt I looked like an alien from Mars.

I know I am being unnecessarily paranoid about inconsequential things but heyy this is my blog
:P

Anyway tomorrow my first day at college begins. Orientation. Wish me luck :-)

I love to crib

I am a woman after all. I love to crib at long about the food in the cafeteria, about my boss who cant comumunicate, about my on site co-ord who cant talk, about my life which is taking a course which i soooooooo dont want it to take, about the weather, about too few books to read, about having too many books to read. basically crib about anything that deserves to be spoken about

So maybe someone up there got super tired of my cribbing and decided to make a day in life sooooo perfect that even me, l'il old complain box, unsaisfied with everything except the keyboard - honestly if there is one thing which i truly like about my daily life its my keyboard. its beautiful. nahi sachi. lovely smooth keys, easy to type and in a perfect shape. I mean most people would get turned on by some member of the oppsoite sex (or rather some member of the same sex in cases. it is a free world after all) but i can get turned on every morning just by looking at my keyboard.

Anyway this post isnt about my keyboard. Its about how someone decided to please someone as unsatisfied like me by giving me a day - a complete day which was so perfect from the minute it started to the minute it ended that I was like "If i died right now it would be the best time to die because I would just die happy and contented without a care in the world, a worry in my head"


it was my 23rd birthday (finishing 23 actually. gosh i feel old!!) a couple of days back. Now I love birthdays. I dont know why but given that almost quarter my life is over i am still a sucker for a cake with candles on top a few people singing happy birthday and me blowing the candle and making a wish. It might seem childish to some but I know that the day I dont feel thrilled to see a cake with my name written on top of it that is the day I would probably really age in the true sense of the word

Anyway where was I? Yeah. 23rd birthday.

On the eve of my birthday a docile, l'il unsuspecting me went to bed early with a cold in my head, expecting the usual people to call at 12 to wish me and then crash again to face a looooong day in office attending them KTs

So I slept off at 10.30 after making three futile attempts to read a book and stay awake till 12. When you are holding a book by your favorite writer and yet the words swim before you, you are either drunk or goddamned sleepy. Obviously I was the latter (duh-huh!!) and so went to bed.

I was woken up at around 11.45 by a missed call from a friend followed by a message from her saying "Just wanted to check if your this was the number you were still using. Will call in 15 mins"

Arghhhh I swore and went back to bed.

In another 5 minutes my cousin woke me saying "Come to the hall and close your eyes".

"Whaa" i replied groggily

"Come" she said and dragged me out of bed putting blindfolding my eyes

"Huh" i said as i trudged along with her

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY" approximately 70 voices (or so it seemed) screamed and I first saw J's face lit only by a candle (If you have seen J you will know that his face ummm..looks rather scary when lit by just a candle) holding a camera. HONESTLY i dont think I have ever seen him without his camera. I think he has seen and experienced most events in life only through his camera thereby missing out on the actual event. And the sad part is that unlike Sam who is an excellent photographer J is a rather errrr..ummm (what can i say without hurting l'il J's feelings :P) abstract photographer and it will take you some time to figure out exactly what it is that he has captured using his camera and most times you will be stumped till he actually mentions what he has taken himself. Aw le le le J, aw le le le le :D

Anyway I am digressing

So as I looked around I saw moti, F and H holding the yummiest cake ever with a candle on top
My hair kept bothering me and as i bruhsed it i realized it was Sam standing behind pulling it.

5 friends at 12 in the night of my birthday at my grandmothers place with my cousin as a willing accomplice to the whole plan!! Wow!!!

I dont think words in any language could actually do justice to what i felt that moment.

I dunno how many of you have jumped inside freezing waters
I dunno how many of you have actually held a totally new born baby in ur hands
I dunno how many of you have been to this ride in MGM (the name eludes me. A or M can you please help?) where the ride swings you so high that at one point you are completely hanging upside down, your blood rushes to your head, your arms ache with the pressure of your entire body on them and you cant even scream. the most thrilling ride i have been to.

if you have done any of the above you will know how it is like to be totally out of breath when your breath just leaves your lungs with a whooooooosh and you strive for balance and the whole world kinda swims before you.
Yes! I think thats pretty much how i felt that day and i was quite incapable of saying anything except eeeeeee for quite some time.

I cut the cake in a dazed state, ate it and fed it to everyone (while J continued to take pictures and more pictures in different angles of the cake and us. What ultimately did come out in the pictures was a part of Sam's helmet, a part of F's dupatta, a part of H's face etc and many such equally errr aesthetically pleasing pictures :P)

And then came the gifts

First was my virus free laptop (This is a very profound statement. Right from the summer of 2006 since when I have been having my laptop there never has been a time w hen it has been free of viruses. from the deadliest trojans to brontok, to many harmless worms my laptop had seen it all. No anti viruses worked and 95% of the applications didt work. About a week back i decided that enough was enough and gave it to J to clean it up. Now J is also a geek whose idea of fun involves coding at 12 in the night and he did a thorough and complete job of killing and eating then bugs :P)

Then came THE book. THE book which I have been meaning to buy for ages. THE book whose price i had negotiated in a number of shops, THE book which I have been wanting to read ever since I read one part of it a couple of years back. The BAAP of all funny books.
OK thats enough build up. I got the complete hitchhikers guide the the galaxy - unabridged edition by Douglas Adams

If happiness were pink chaddis I would have been Pramod Muthalik that day
If happiness were silicon I would be errrr Silicon Valley today (hah!! you so expected me to say Pamela Anderson didnt you?:P)
If happiness were false promises I would have been the Indian politicians that day
If happiness were websites I would have been google that day (This geek analogy is for u J :P)
If happiness were food I would have been H that day
If happiness were tripod + camera lens + paneer pav bhaji in sangeetha I would have been sam that day
If happiness were chocolates and lazing around I would have been Moti that day
If happiness were nutty butter scotch with caramel sauce in baskin robbers I would have been F that day

And then we sat and talked for 2 solid hours most of which was spent making of J while he tried his best to a few decent pictures, while F tried her best to irritate J by repeatedly calling hiim baby names (All of us joined her soon. If you know J then 'plizz to send one baby msg to him' like "cooochie cooo", "abloo babloo" etc. He lovves it ya!! :P). just talking meaninglessly :)

After they left at 2.30 I couldnt sleep till 6.30 the next day when I had to get up to go to office. It was as if the molecules in my body were in such an excited state that it took them quite some time to get back to normal state and sleep seemed impossible now. I kept thinking about the cake, their faces, the gifts, the crazy banter for two hours in the middle of the night,aimlessly pulling J's leg while his only reaction was a nod of his head
and a smile.

It was so surreal, so magical, so exciting that it was almost too good to be true.

There are times when I wonder if I really did deserve such an excellent surprise or such amazing friends like these and the words of my favorite song "Edelweiss" from Sound of music ring in my ears
"In my youth or my childhood I must have done something gooooood" to actually deserve all that I got on my birthday

J, Moti, F,Sam and H - I LOVE YOU GUYS :)
You are the besteststststst!!! :-)

Psssst J, inspite of your pathetic photography skills, pathetic defense to most of our barbs, pathetic grasp of things I think you are THE nicest babloo that ever walked this planet. Thanks so much for the collage of my pajamas, H's stubble, S' hand, Moti's hair and F's dupatta and oh yeah the cake too!! LOVED IT :):)