Frustrating sem I

I soooo need to get out of here. Which I will very soon.. but I almost cannot wait. If luck is on my side (a big IF, that), I will visit Mumbai and Mysore before hitting Delhi. It's an exciting thought, because EVERYthing is frustrating right now. Goa anyway got planned and cancelled. HMPH!

20 days and a few hours away from home...

Mood Enhancement

Crazy mood, do not feel like studying. Feel mad but do not have anyone to share it with right now. So here is post number 250 about some new people I met this year.

Amrah - Loud and pretty rebel. Says she likes me, so I like her too. :)
I met her on the train to Pune for the first time, and did not really think then that I would hang out with her in college. But I do, and it is fun.

Ridhima - I met her at the time of interview and almost decided to share a room with her. But it was not at our discretion. Nonetheless, we are on the same floor and anyway live together. Neetu Singh is what many people call her, and super pretty she is! She gives me lotsa food on Thursday mornings too. :D

Swetha - Poor bijli, her hair always seem to be charged and people always take her case but she is toooo sweet, man! Patience is also another one of her virtues. And it is fun laughing with her. :-)

Priyam - Earlier introduced as Booty on the blog, she likes to believe that she and I are twins because we ARE quite similar, and yet quite different. She's got looong and pretty hair and she is the one who made everybody believe at the freshers' party that I was drunk. She even made me believe that I was drunk because the floor seemed to be moving. :P
The few chats that I have had on the terrace at night have also been with her.

Nidhi - She is the spoilt brat. Too nice to be labeled a brat though. She is kinda bent on giving me a drastic makeover, and she also believes that my boyfriend is too cute even though she has never seen him or talked to him.
She will give you a piece of her mind if you mess with her, and she is probably more Dilli than I am - but that only because she visits home a little too often.

Sahil - This boy is a little strange. He was almost like a best friend in this unknown land, but he becomes so aloof at times that I feel that I do not know him at all. He is a kid, and I don't like hearing anything bad about him. Although, nowadays I am also rude to him. Not nice.

Vrinda - She is this super duper mad woman whose room is like a magnet. I go there for five minutes and spend 2 hours at a stretch. Her roomie, Ruhi is equally crazy. I have a good time there. Oh oh, Vindy is just as crazy about green as I am. She even has a green phone!!! :D I feel happy looking at it only.

Ranjan - He is one of those who tried real hard to make me smile when I was super bummed on my birthday. That was too sweet. This guy's chilled about everything that bothers the rest, and it's a big WOW everytime he goes down to make a presentation. He calls me Dilli and that always brings that goofy grin to my face. :D

Akshay - He is too busy nowadays. Some project or the other takes up his time and then he feels all sad that he does not get time to spend with friends. He is also pretty fascinated by snakes. He knows them all. And looking at him you would say that he will be the first one to run away from a snake. :P

Venky - Hardly get to talk to him, but he is just too cute. A goofy smile is what goes with that french beard all the time, but sutta is what blinds the bloody face too. :-/

And there are some more too. Ritesh, Shahvan and Debby are always on their own trip. They have the sutta bond and that makes them another mad trio. But Shahvan asks me to do small favours in return for a chocolate, so me always happy happy. :)

Fun fun!!

Sahil and Vindy on the right :)

Swetha, Nidhi, Akshay and Ridhima

Ranjan, Debanjana and Priyam

Vrinda and Ruhi

This was a party in the corridor outside my room. :)

Amrah and Venky. Old photu - Venky now has the beard. :)

Akshay and Swetha

People I don't like

There are the hypocrites,
and there are the shrewd manipulative type.
There are the tall talks ONLY type,
and those with NO self respect!

And we share "time and space" with them. Assholes should bury themselves somewhere if they can.


Also, I do not understand why this city's businesses have no sense of CUSTOMER. None of them do!!

I love you too

I SO enjoy having lotsa work on me!
And I SO suck at completing any of it with the same kind of enthusiasm that I start it with!

Sucks! sucks!!

This Sunday and beyond

Seniors organised the National Radio Meet today for the first time. It will be an annual affair from now on. Quite liked what happened through the day. The panels? CEOs of Red, Radio One, Worldspace, and Indigo in Bangalore. Then programming heads of S FM & Big FM and Mr Ameen Sayani. Man, his bhaiyon aur behenon itself is too good! I enjoyed the session, almost slept for a couple of minutes in between too (it's normal), and the cherry this time were two good meals - cheese omellete for breakfast and north Indian for lunch. Ah! Although, my life's biggest irony is in process right now - I am spending more on food than on clothes. In fact, spending on clothes is next to zilch. And food is beyond calculation. Not so nice!
The undergrad batch was a little too amused to see rows full of PG students taking power naps through the session. It was funny to watch them watch us. Who would explain senseless long hours of classes to them?!

Trivia:

Relationships
Fever
Energy
Fights
Temper
Chocolates
Stress
Exams
Adventure
Thoughts
Organising
Dell
Trains
Cabs
Plans
Delhi
FOOD FOOD FOOD

It was good to talk about radio. My connect with the medium is something I cannot explain. I love it... that's all I know. :-)

*all the sounds that I made in the last one minute*

The world of presentations is so much better than that of shitty classes and books. And I know how badly I needed a feel-good factor in life. Had three presentations to make today (thanks to which I could not work on a contest that I reeeaaaallly wanted to work on)... all three being very different from each other, and each one interesting enough for me. But to be appreciated by a faculty you like and to hear the words 'best presentation in the college in a long long time' is a crazy boost! Of course, it does help to have somebody on your team who speaks VERY well, and does so even better when he is less prepared. :P
And then it was not meant to end there. The hard-to-please (academically) faculty decides to wholeheartedly applaud for you and your team (a different one this time). And that is a different kind of a kick you get because he is never happy.
A shameful thing to find out at EOD is the attendance figure going up when no weightage is given to the numbers except for qualifying for semester exams. I sooo want to get out of this city. But with such a lot of evaluation work going on, that just closes at a crazy thought. Hmph!

Reality is a little too hard to accept sometimes. That sometimes happens to happen very often to me. But things become so strange after a point that they completely stop making sense. And then you wonder how it started and how the fuck can the same thing in life keep chewing your brain at intervals and constantly working on creating a hollow somewhere inside.

Compromised quality

I keep wondering till when the world will function this way. Till when will people keep compromising and expect others to do it too. Why, if quality is such an important word, do people not respect its existence? Or realise the non-existence of it? It is frustrating to see myself getting sucked into such a system. There was not even a germ of rebel in me all these years. I don't think I can say that in my present. But I do not know how to "channelise it positively". This is going to be an excruciatingly long and painful process. Heck, it is not even a process! If only it was one. I have been seeking a system, a process in which I could fit well for a long long time now. I have not come across any so far. And I do not even see anything in the near future. I need to make a start. In a direction that is my way all the way. I so badly need to.

And this.. and that

Photoshop is so not what I thought it was! I still don't know more than 10% of what it has to offer, but it's pretty crazy. It is fun when I realise I still am fairly good at it, but the whole deal is that I barely ever sit down to do it. In all these months, not once have I used it to process a picture. It's always something new that I am taught and expected to create on it. Quite a fascinating thing.

Something else that is really cool is the fact that my room is like a complete home now that I have joined the beds and there is this warmth about it. I am getting too comfortable like this. Wonder what I will do when my roomie comes back next semester.

Recently did something that is probably not a nice thing to do for a sane person, but it was a big boost because it was kinda like an assurance that I really do not take shit from random people and do have the capability of giving them a piece of my mind. Yea, I did need some reassurance on that front. I felt unbelievably happy blasting this guy I cannot tolerate. :D

Another thing that is really annoying is the virus brigage that has taken over this campus. Every frikkin pen drive and system is infected, and now my cursor is jumping to whichever spot it likes whenever it wants to. And my anti-virus is not detecting it. Somebody help!! :-/

A proud but not-so-proud record that I set recently was of stepping out of bed and reaching the hostel lobby in nine minutes flat (bath included!). :D

Not having a roommate has its disadvantages also.

Doggies on campus have started doing what some of them near my house did. Nap around 8-9 pm, and bark away to glory 1:00 am onwards.

The Ganesh Utsav on campus saw a cultural night a couple of days back. I was supposed to sit and watch for 30 minutes, and I ended up spending 3 hours and 30 minutes enjoying it. Next day was full of guilt, but it was LOADS of fun. This campus has never been more entertaining.

A new visiting faculty has come to teach us electronic media for a while. I have never seen a bigger, more entertaining freak in my life! The man is kinda old but his energy is unbeatable. Has been a student and also a director of FTII, and his world is extremely fascinating. Awesome classes!

Social change classes are still a little hazy. I understand that their purpose is to give us a different perspective on things we tend to ignore. But some of the people who come and talk about issues have such an extreme leftward bent that they cannot even give a balanced view. I wonder if it is a good idea to shove opinions down people's throats.

Today I slept while standing. In class. As in, not slept slept, but eyes were shut for long enough to wake with a jerk. New feat achieved.

I think I should go sleep. See you in a while.

Innaiku ennaku porandha naal

The schedule for the semester said that September 3^rd and 4^th will be holidays. Several weeks in advance I started talking about moving out of Pune for the two days. After much contemplation, we decided that it won’t be too good an idea to go because it is festive time here in Maharashtra and the streets are a little crazy with celebrations and frenzy.

So it was decided that 2^nd night will be a party. The only condition I laid down was that there has to be dance. The onus of deciding and planning everything else was on friends. Poor things brainstormed on minute details like mad for days. Surprises were also being planned, and I was being made to eat alone at the mess while the secret stuff was on.

What was also happening (of things I knew about) was a wardrobe makeover for yours truly. First she bought a fancy top for which she thought a Mr Chopra will be decent company in helping to decide. But turned out he didn’t know how to help women shop. So the coordinators of the event – Ridhima HI! Mehra and Swetha Bijli came to my rescue and we bought something pretty.

Then a couple of days later Ashraf and Nidhi helped me shop for a skirt which was ‘very-unlike-Richa’. But “cute” (as everything I will ever own or do in this lifetime) it was, and a 40% discount it had, so we merrily bought it.

Here comes the afternoon of 2^nd September and the notice board says that Aarbee along with three other party members were required to report in the office at 8:00 pm for an interview. So the cab will come later and we will have lesser time to funjoy. Nonetheless, finally after a LOT of continuous planning we left campus at 9:45 pm. Two cars loaded with 14 people headed to the city which was apparently choked due to rain and traffic. It took us about a very eventful one hour to reach an area called Kalyani Nagar and there we figured that things are going to be shut within minutes and we have no place to eat, drink or DANCE. Happy to me! Not even Comesum at the railway station was an option because there were drunken men all over the place anyway. And there were thullas too who would not have allowed 10 of us to be in one Tavera. Only one place had lights on at 11:30 - McDonald’s. We go and loot all that their kitchen had left in it. Not enough for all of us, but we make do. I started feeling better because I felt I was turning 13 or something, not 22. A yummm chocolate truffle cake arrived and also began a flood of phone calls. There went the routine followed by a wise decision of just coming back to campus because there was NO place to go to in this students’ city. :-/

You know who was torn between feelings of being happy that there are 14 other people trying to make her day exciting and of being sad because of the fact that one of the gods decided to steal her thunder.

So we just played blaring music in the car, sang out loud, stopped over at a dhaba to get some proper food, and were back on campus at 2:00 am. The dance HAD to be there and we were lucky to have Bappi da with us on Ranjan’s phone. So we walk-danced from the academic block to the hostels on the tunes of Yaar bina chein kahan re and so on. Akash, our techie cameraboy was playing Shashi Kapoor for the night and made sure we laughed like crazy.

After further madness and realisation that we did not have alcohol for the girls on one of the floors (automatic, natural dry day for MY floor), we just called it a day and five of us came to my room while the others went to their respective hostels and rooms. My birthday had just begun, so the surprise was waiting for me to change into pyjamas. It was a video full of wishes and love that all these guys had recorded and edited for me. Now that was something I had never been at the receiving end of. So I smiled through the 20 minutes of footage and as usual was left with no words at the end of it. And so I smiled further. =)

At 4:00 am we NEEDED sleep, so everyone went off. I don’t know when I got sleep because I started answering phones again at 7:00 am. The number of embarrassing calls was the highest this time because most people called on my Reliance phone and that phone has no numbers saved apart from those of the Pune people. So a friend calls and plays the guitar, and I am compelled to ask who it is because I had absolutely no clue about who I was talking to. Some sent some profanities free with the wishes, others just didn’t say anything.

For lunch I wanted pizza and my friends wanted embarrassment for me. So they told the Pizza Hut people that it is my happy to you and they made me stand in the centre (thankfully, not on a chair) and sang a strange happy budday song. The cutest thing there though was a small girl coming up to wish me and giving me her FiveStar. And she genuinely wanted me to have it because she barely took a bite of it when I offered it to her. Darn sweet!

Spent the entire day eating, walking and shopping in the city and came back by the 9:00 pm bus. Also, received and bought flowers. One of the bouquets that I received became a little extra special though. It had travelled a couple of kms less than 2,000 if I am not wrong. It was from a Bong in Calcutta. The one who took note of a mad request I had made on the blog last week. Super-duper happy!!!

By the time I reached my room I was too dead! Still sat and organized all the photographs that were clicked over the past 24 hours. And now writing this too.

But before ending I really need to thank the gang here without whom this day would not have been so special.

Please make way…

Aakash

Akshay

Amrah

Bijli

Booty

Debby

KD

Maria

Nidhi

Ranjan

Reitesh

Ridhima

Robin

Ruhi

Sahil

Shagun

Shahwan

Venky

Vrinda

- All sweethearts!! It doesn’t feel like I have known them for only two months. And they don’t behave as if they’ve known me for only two months. Love ‘em all!! =)

Thanking you. :P

All of us, with Priyam behind the camera

On the way back to campus.

On campus :)

During the day

Home was quiet and missed me. Even though I am having a lot of fun here, I hope to go back soon and spend more birthdays there. Love you, Ma, Pa and Bhaiya. Mmuaaah!!