Calibrations...

SVCE held its first years' cultural, "Calibrations", today and most of us freshers had lots of fun; even the ones that didn't really take part in any of the events. Let's face it, if you had an option not to put yourself under any sort of pressure and just had to sit in the audience and pass judgment on others, which one of us wouldn't choose it?? I did take part in quite a few events, though less than the number I had originally planned on taking part in... Quiz was by far the most important event for me because it was a sort of defining thing- proving to me that even if I wasn't the best quizzer in that auditorium I would stand a chance; that I could compete without falling flat on my face... I came second and I knew I couldn’t have done better than that- the three years of QFI (Quizzing Foundation of India) experience that my opponent had over me was impossible to overcome. Looking at the bright side of things, I found a decent quizzing partner in Krishnan- interested and pretty fun to have around…
Ironically, the event that I practiced hardest for, the ‘light music-vocal’, I didn’t even get to take part in because it clashed with the finals of the quiz. Hard as it was for my friends to believe, I did sincerely regret not having had a chance to sing on stage. SVCEians bad luck I suppose – didn’t get a chance to regale in my musical brilliance... J Hell practicing was a whole load of fun. I’m expecting to be sued by my neighbors anytime soon for physical and emotional damages. I screwed up ADZAP because I was so upset after the quiz prelims which I was sure I had bungled up which was sad for my friend, Stutie, as ADZAP to her was what quiz was to me… But this is getting ridiculous- I’m taking a few stupid cultural events far too seriously! My friends Sukriti (JAM), Priyanka (Antakshri) and Ramkumar (ADZAP NOT QUIZ AND NOT JAM!) all made the finals of some event or the other so as one of my friends correctly observed, great day for PSBB!! Still a PSBBian at heart… Will learn to be an SVCEian as well….

May the chorus be with you....

I’m dreading going up on stage in college cultural on Friday because I can’t imagine singing in front of all those people… I’ve been told I sing decently but I can’t confirm any of that because I’ve only heard myself sing in my head and in my head Lata Mangeshkar comes a distant second… Plus I don’t get to sing in English which I’m most comfortable with and if my singing in Tamil is as bad as my speaking in Tamil, I’ve really got something to worry about…. So I’ve decided to try and imagine the worst case scenario so that maybe I’ll realize it can’t be that bad…

Scene: Friday morning say 1030ish, imagine a stage foggy around the corners (this is a day dream after all) with SVCEians bustling around the place setting things up and getting ready for the least anticipated event of the day (NO I am NOT referring to quiz! This is not about reality… It’s a geeky little teenage girl’s dream), the Light Music vocals. And in the corner is a fabulously attractive yet unbelievably intelligent looking girl about eighteen years old… And next to her is me…Wait I’m going to look at it as a third person. Sort of living outside the box or something… So standing in the corner looking nervous yet confident is our heroine, about to embark on a fabulous adventure, a noble mission even and she steps up... Moving closer to mike, she smiles nervously thinking this can’t be that bad; most people aren’t even paying attention… I’m going to be fine… And then in a breath-taking maneuver that got every eye in the hall looking toward her, she tripped (very gracefully mind!). She shuffled into a standing position smiling sheepishly. Well obviously now everyone’s paying attention…
She decides to do it, to get it over with, to end the hell… “Kannamooochi yenada….enna kanna…..”

Ah hell I can’t think about it any longer. Just going to go ahead with the practicing. Barred everyone at home from coming to the ground floor, where I’ve temporarily moved my headquarters to. A copy of ‘Lord of the Rings’ and my cell phone move downstairs and (voila!) I have a new home…I can only sing when alone… How will I sing on Friday you ask???... Well that’s no one else’s business!!
Nervous about the quiz though… Ramkumar will definitely win but will yours truly make the final? Please please please dear lord!

A Suitable boy....

Today's little crib is about parents, a very small part of the universe but still a very influential part of ur life... It's just that once you turn eighteen, your parents turn paranoid. Suddenly the innocent phone conversation turns into a discussion about one's love life. Every boy calling home is a "bad" boy who somehow just gets on the wrong side of mum. Every mail signed love arouses suspicion. Life is a prolonged lecture on what a girl can and cannot do and how it's ok to fall in love but not before you're twenty five, settled in a job and attracted to only tamil brahmins that the family already knows....It's no use telling ur mom ur not out in the market for TRUE LOVE; that every boy in college isnt making a play for u and that you're rather too lazy to go looking for the quite impossible to find man of your dreams. And just when u think u've gotten her to trust u; got her convinced that her children's activities were still within the boundaries of decent soceital norms, your brother calls... Here's how he prolonged the hell...

Bro: Hey ma.. sorry i didn't pick up the call..Had gone out..
Amma: What?! At this hour? It must be eleven in the night there...
Bro: Yeah it is..I can see u freaking out now.. Ha ha! See I'm totally out of control now.. You can't tell me what to do at all.. Have fun doing it to Ranju- will last only four years anyway....

(Mom's thoughts: Rama! what's he saying?! I never know what he does these days... ! What if its a girl...? If its a respectable brahmin girl he would've told me wouldn't he? What about Ranju?! She doesn't seem to be listening to me even NOW!! What can she be upto?)
Amma: Whom did u go with?

Bro:Can't tell you..

Amma: Why..???
Bro: Chumma...
And so the late night lectures and dinner time advice began again.... The victim is not the idiot in NYC but his poor suffering teenage sister... God, I can't wait till I'm twenty five. Here's hoping i fall in love with a Tamil Brahmin who reads Tolkien, listens to Floyd, loves Sachin Tendulkar and Liverpool (asking for him to love Michael Owen may be a bit much), loves Math and Physics and of course loves to take care of all the responsibilities around the household...

The first law of nature....

I've never blogged before because nothing interesting ever happens to me and because i'm just too darned lazy... But today i had an insight into how the Universe works and i just had to share...I'm doing my Btech in Sri Venkateshwara College of Engineering which is in Sriperumbudur a boring, tiring, life- sucking one and a half hour journey away from my home. When the rays of sunshine struck my droopy eyes this morning, i knew today was different; a day on which i was going to do something useful, noteworthy, different- none of which could be acheived by going to Engg. College and so I tried talking myself out of going. "Nothing important will happen in college today.. I can tell u now, exactly how the day'll go. You'll learn nothing in Physics class, you'll sleep through Engg. Graphics and you'll be asked to redo your assignment in Fundamentals of Computing AGAIN..!" said that part of me which dreams every night of a world with no Engg courses and of mothers who tell you that its ok for u not to do your homework and that she doesn't mind it when you make hour- long STD phone calls to talk to your best friend.. "Don't be a fool... You'll lose attendance.." said the geek in me reminding of me that evil that engg. colleges use to force hapless students into coming to college everyday- ATTENDANCE! In dreary submission i pulled the covers off and went for a bath. I dragged my body forcibly through the bath and through breakfast... Finally ready, i was lugging my bag onto my back when i saw through the window- THE BUS WAS GOING PAST MY HOUSE at that typical breakneck speed that only bus drivers can acheive...

HALLELUJAH! cried I, silently of course.( I wouldn't want mother dear to know...) I pretended to rush down at top speed and cried in a panic stricken voice.." MA! the bus' gone.. looks like i cant go today..." I was thanking my stars. 'Things had a wonderful way of working out, didn't they?' Congratulating myself thus, i forgot to take one critical factor into account..Our wonderful, devoted, affectionate, selfless mothers can never bear to see their children in distress...

She worked fast- a General putting her battle plan into action. She hailed down an auto... Ordered him into submission, stuffed her beloved and unlucky daughter into the auto.."You can catch up to the bus at Anna Arch. You'll pay him forty rupees. Call me when u get on the bus..."
As i looked on bewildered, the "auto-man" zoomed through the traffic- catching upto my bus with every stop and eventually overtaking it... I rushed onto a running bus during a traffic jam, forcing my limbs to do things that were totally against my wishes and as i had believed until then, completely beyond my ability.... When i finally sat down in the bus with college mates staring at me in surprise and awe, a desperate gloom enveloped me and in that profound moment, it hit me-'When you really really want something, ALL the Universe conspires to deny you your one true wish.... '