Scrambled

The white car got scraped.

The leaves got wet in the rain.

The kathi roll had too much onion.

He lost yet another game of cards.

She bought her first non-leather bag in more than a decade.

The squirrel jumped over.

This time she cooked for her son.

We expected him to design it better.

It might explode within the next 10 years.

That's not the purple she likes.

The Peanut Butter Weekend

This weekend came and went by in a snap. After ages I felt like my social self again. And it was great because unfortunately, like I've been telling everyone I know, in spite of an entire lifetime in this city, I hardly have any friends left here. So it was great meeting some of my people again.

On Saturday morning, my brother was kind enough to actually ask me to accompany him for some shopping. In the process I got myself the most beautiful pair of earrings I have ever bought. They beat the second most beautiful pair of earrings I own which I had bought just last week. :-)

I met Megha as well, and pleased her by showing interest in shiny clothes because according to her I wear extremely boring clothes.

The evening was spent in shopping with mom at another location. Even though mom paid for herself (obviously! I'm a student. What do you expect?), she was happy that one of her kids was nice to her for a change. Especially because we only shopped for her.

I came back with a brilliantly annoying headache, but Avan tried to meet my demand of wanting to talk to her for two hours on the phone. We didn't meet the two-hour goal, but we came close. We did a lot of pending 'catching up'. Only I know how much I miss our long phone conversations ever since she went to a B school!

Sunday afternoon was something I was looking forward to. I was meeting school friends after a really long gap. So much so that I saw my closest friend from school after about a year today. I was damn excited. Most of the people in that chain mail did turn up. Basketball kept the boys away for longer than expected, but it was still nice to meet the old gang! The old commerce gang (I used to hang out more with the science students in 11th and 12th)! We had a lot more to talk about, but other commitments kept it slightly shorter than we would have liked. Incidentally, we also ran into one of the most dedicated students of our batch from school. The conviction with which he used to say that he wants to be a doctor totally reflected in the fact that today he's at the Safdarjung Hospital. Highly impressive!

Among other fun things, I had a fruit salad sundae from Nirula's after really long. As in many other places, the quality is nothing like it used to be. Nonetheless, it remains one of my most favourite things ever!
This reminds me - last week when I had gone to Chandni Chowk, we'd gone to the parathe wali gali and to my disappointment, the size of the parathas has now been halved. Moreover, there was absolutely no difference between a khurchan and a rabdi paratha. Yes, I have progressed from the apprehensive days of aloo parathas, but let's not digress from the point. So much for a slowdown! :-/

Back to today: From CP I headed to Khan Market with Kulsum's truck driver skills. She turned out to be better than what I was told about her. She left, and I met Udit. We spent some time at Cafe Oz. A place where pasta was not well-cooked, none of the desserts were (thankfully) appealing, and the iced tea was just about ok. I also went through some of his photographs' prints. Quite liked a few!

He was nice enough to drop me home. Post dinner I sat with my family, and we talked for a good two hours. It hardly ever happens. I loved every single moment of it!

My tickets for going back to Pune are booked. A train that takes more than a day, and I don't have a window seat. I know how much sulking these facts involve!

And oh, I got to talk to the 'love of my life' Sahil properly after more than three weeks today. It was nice. :-)

Why peanut butter? Because back in the hostel I developed a liking for untimely slices of bread with peanut butter - something I never really had at home. So to add to my already excessive weight, I got a jar recently and have been having untimely slices of bread with peanut butter again! Who would have thought I would bring stupid habits from hostel to my home! But stupid things are the easiest and quickest to travel, aren't they?

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I could not make a post about the recently-discovered engineer hidden in me. For your reference, I am working with one of the engineering giants right now. Last week I was disappointed because a stupid reason led to me missing a photoshoot of our technology at a substation. On Friday, I highly enjoyed reading about all the physics I missed out on after 10th standard. I also visited our instrumentations factory. It did take all these weeks for me to begin enjoying it, but really, if it wasn't for nauseating chemistry, I would have been in a completely different world today!!

So this is it about my weekend. Now I'll go decide what I have to wear to work tomorrow. Tada!!

Head Girl and Vice Head Girl - Batch 2004

Best buds

Trained at Delhi School of Social Work and National Institute of Fashion Technology respectively - talking about and agreeing upon how to handle rishtedars with shaadi ka rishtas

Kulsum has a 'thing' for getting people's invisible feet in all pictures she clicks

And Parul ka dil! :D

Not So Dull

Why should dull be a bad word?

# When everyone is hyper, somebody dull can actually be someone sane.

# When the light is blinding, something dull can bring relief to the eyes.

# Things that are dull can contrast well with most things pretty.


Help me add to this, please. I am working on a defence for my friend Dull.

*...*

Not for a reason, not in any order...






































Two of the pictures here are not clicked by me. Priyam, a friend, has the copyright.

On Guru Nanak's Birthday...

I...


went to...


with...


to capture some absolutely typical stuff like...


and had lots of fun! :-)

A Sunday Well Spent

First thing in the morning was the Delhi Half Marathon! I cannot claim to have run through the entire distance, but I did complete it. Without much struggle. I didn't expect myself to even do this much, so I am very happy.

There I saw somebody who was a senior in school. I also saw someone who was a co-traveller in the Vasant Kunj U Special. Somebody from college saw me. Essentially, it seemed like Dilli truly daud rahi thi*. Of course, Shiela aunty and Shah Rukh Khan were there only to flag everybody off, and they did their job well.

Harry, an old friend, was also running the corporate challenge. The last time I had seen him was over three years ago. So it was a good day to catch up with him too. At lunch I tried red wine and I don't think I liked it. So, after lots of chit-chatting and chocolate pastry, I overpaid an auto guy to drop me back home.
On my way, I ran into Shweta Guha from the very old days of Orkut Delhi Meets that I used to attend. It was nice seeing her with her little baby.

Late afternoon got spent in watching Maine Pyaar Kiya on TV. And man! that movie was dramatic. I mean I have seen it before, but I have never rolled my eyes at every scene as much as I did today. It was almost hilarious.
Following that was Rock On! and bits of Border. This is what happens when you sit in front of the idiot box after a light year. But the winner is the Tata Docomo ad with that ugly boy in the train. His expressions are so annoying that I don't think I can look at the TV when he's on air, and the ad is so bad that I can't look at the TV when it's on air. Maybe the two were meant to be together, but it's one of the top 5 most painful things I have ever seen in the audio-visual medium. Ever.

Talking of bad ads, wtf is that juice ad from Parle Agro. Saint Juice or something? "Juice the way god meant it to be". Where the eff are your commas, and where the eff is 'good copy'?!


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Been a perfectly active+lazy day! I should get good sleep tonight.


*I know this is what Hutch used to say during the Hutch Delhi Half Marathon days. Somehow Airtel's 'joy of running' doesn't do it for me.
And I am a former disgruntled Hutch user now using Airtel. :D

Life's shockers still leave her breathless.

Excitement Varieties

So I was out of action for the past couple of days thanks to a bitch of a virus that has infected my body. I bow to the gods for at least I am able to look at a computer screen for more than five minutes today. I still curse the virus which shoots the temperature to insane levels even after all these days, but whatever! At least I am not singing, 'I feel it in my fingers, I feel it in my toes' (of course, pain, not love! :-|) anymore. So, Calpol rocks!

The pain had made me lose my mind to the extent that I was uttering stuff about cigarettes to my mom when she was talking to me about tea. At 4:00 a.m. This, when I do not smoke. And you thought I was exaggerating when I said I was sick!

I also shivered unto (almost) death in office today in spite of my sweater and shawl. No, the air-conditioning was just about fine. Only I was too sick and had to head home early. :-|

As of now I am using my Gmail for official work. There is obviously a new label in place. And how does it look? *raises right eyebrow with the tongue peeking from the right side* (and you thought I have standard expressions) It's a white background with red font. Wondering what's exciting about it? Those are our corporate colours, duh! You would know I am excited about this stuff if you're on my Gtalk. The Group logo has replaced my 'hot' display picture. Or you would also know I am excited about this stuff if you've known me for a bit. These things are always exciting, man!

I am not sure if I have mentioned this already, but I am coordinating the Delhi Half Marathon participation of my company. It's after really long that I am at the organising end of something. And for the first time for something as important as this (after all there is employee engagement and branding at stake :D). That too alone, because bosses are busy with other stuff. I am extremely excited about it. Hoping it goes smoothly.


So, there's work-related excitement, and there's recovery-related excitement. Happens.



I still remain a hypochondriac of sorts. Everybody still laughs about it for some reason. The doctors point to my lifestyle for all the diseases I have in my head. But I still remain a hypochondriac of sorts.

On This First Day

Day 1 at work today. I was unexpectedly anxious about it. So much so that I lost my digestion last night.

The day was slow but fair. The office smells really nice. Am I happy about it or what!

A drive just across the Badarpur border during so-called non-traffic hours took one hour both times. I am dreading leaving work around 7:00 p.m.

Few things feel as good as a crisp, white shirt.

We may talk of corporate communications, marketing communications, and brand communications as separate things in class; they may remain separate things too; but apparently at the end of the day we're all just communication specialists. I went expecting something because of what I was told. But what I got to know there was not what I was looking for. It might just play too big a role in my planned career graph. And therefore, this is why I have minimised on planning in life.
But technically I need not complain. And I really shouldn't. With this internship I get one of the biggest brands in the world on my resume. It doesn't happen everyday to everyone.

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Mansi is in town and I finally met her today! I still describe things like 'distorted graphic print' as 'bricks but not symmetric' to her. Some things never change. Some relationships never change. There are very very few that let the foundation be and just keep getting modified with time. She's one person with whom things are like that. Love her so so much!!

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A couple of minutes ago I heard that there is somebody called Naam Chakraborty in the Delhi region! Is it coincidence that today I also heard Rachel mention, 'kids will bully her in the school backyard then!'? Somebody please tell me that 'naam' means something else in Bengali or in another language because we have already scripted a gig on this 'topic'.

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Addictions are never nice! I think I will attain nirvana the day I manage to control my mind.

Blink!

I am not sure if there are many people like me out there, but I do not just have unbelievably short attention spans, I also have very short interest spans. Even the most interesting things (for me) cannot keep me interested for long.
It is an extremely worrisome thing. I don't know how far I will manage to go like this.