White Sand

See you next year! I'm off to Ratnagiri. :-)

Personality Bites

This past year brought with it a new revelation. Something that has a strange paradox in the centre.
About eight years ago, somebody told me that I am a little too approachable. That people find it easy to come to me and speak their mind, and that isn't always a good thing because at times I end up getting hurt/offended in the process. I agreed, but did not know what to do to change things.
After all these years, I am standing at the other extreme end of approachability. My cynicism, insecurities, arrogance, and emotional baggage coupled with this thought at the back of my mind made me what I am today.
There were innumerable instances where directly or indirectly I was informed that people are 'scared' of me. And not in a very positive way. I like it if I think of it as something that makes people think twice before saying something to me. But then, if that's something that makes so many people have a negative perception of me, I am not too sure if it's such a great thing.
From where I stand today, my 23 years tell me that it's ok if this is the case. I've seen my mom be all that I am not anymore. It's sure brought her a lot of appreciation and love from people outside of her immediate circle, but then it has brought more hurt too. I like to believe that people who know me see the person that I am beyond this outer crust. If I need a life-changing, attitude-changing humbling experience to get out of this mode, I can't say. Or if this post becomes redundant by the time I am 30 or something, only time will tell.

The Parle G Boy!

There is a traditional, little, old-school boy in my college here. He's one of the papas of the batch - disciplined, wakes up early, high on values, takes care of drunk friends, and so on.
His maternal grandparents live in Delhi, so right from the beginning he seems to find it easy to relate to a few of us Punju girls from Delhi. What with mamaji taking him around west Delhi's best chaat stalls on his scooter, and us Dilli girls always on the lookout for good chaat in this land!
He is also sweet enough to follow my blog such that he opens the page in the same breath as his gmail, ibnlive, and afaqs.

It's his birthday today. Last year I forgot to wish him. Today too, I saw him in the morning and didn't wish again. However, I am hoping this might make up for the mistake made.

Oh, I forgot to mention the most important thing - if you want to see somebody obsess about snakes and take care of them too - meet our boy! The birthday boy! Akshay Brijkrishan. Mind you, that's a Kashmiri Brijkrishan. Not a south Indian Brijkrishnan that I mistakenly made him during the first couple of weeks of college.

'Pool of Watery Images'

The previous post made me realise that most of my outings this year were water-related. The almost-rough monsoon waves of the Arabian Sea, the mighty Ganga, the only reservoir meeting normal capacity levels this year - Khadakvasla Dam, cold water at Tamhini Ghat, and the incredibly serene Mulshi Lake. The one thing that links all these trips for me is rain. While the trip to Rishikesh in May saw random summer rain, all other trips were made in the Western Ghats and around the Konkan belt during the monsoons between June and August. The drawback is the unexciting sky in pictures that I managed between any given two spells of rain.

I am still to see a white sand beach. If things work out fine, I might visit one before the end of this year. Keeping fingers crossed!

It took time learning how to handle an approaching wave

Srivardhan was a clay soil beach

It stopped raining towards the end of day and all of us went almost crazy with our cameras

A group of fisherman passed by in the evening

This was Khadakvasla. Rains were at their heaviest worst. And so was the traffic. I only managed to click from inside our moving car.

The cloud cover which was more of a carpet at the Sinhagarh Fort that I visited the same day

Mulshi Lake was the most spontaneous and fun drive ever. Planned and executed in a snap, this was a perfect little trip I managed to be part of!

And did I have fun or what!

My first petrified dip in the ice-cold water at Rishikesh, and the water went up my nose. :|

And the 23rd birthday at Tamhini Ghat with friends!

I hope I manage to continue this new beginning over the coming years as well.

You've Seen This Before

While there is still close to a week left for the year to end, I want to write about the year that has almost gone by because I have started making my new year eve plans. So let's get to the custom of listing it all out.

# Life's second moment of hysteria happened early this year. More emotional stress than I could handle.

# Travelled to Jamshedpur from Pune to meet Shady who used to be

# Met Subhadip in Kolkata

# Started playing badminton after many years

# Travel ventures began with Ajanta and Ellora. And I covered everything from rock sculptures and paintings to river rafting in the mountains to frolicking on a beach on a rainy day to playing under waterfalls in the hills to a quiet lakeside evening to a drive to a beautiful dam followed by an awesome fort as well. A tiny wildlife sanctuary is on my list too. :-)

- So it was a first view of the sea
- A first dip in a river
- A first lakeside moment
- A first waterfall experience
- A first of a dam during rains
- A first walk on clouds in a fort
- AND a first of the wildlife

# Travel to Chandigarh to meet grandparents is definitely a separate point

# Holi brought my first rain dance experience

# Break-up happened and I became my cynical worst after that

# Got the fourth piercings in the ears

# Experienced working with a chauvinist

# It was one of the most volatile years of friendships

# I bought my first dress

# Got drunk for the first time

# Ran a marathon

# Bhaiya got engaged!
# Bought the perfect red saree I had dreamt of for a decade, for bhaiya's wedding
# More of ultrasounds and related crap

# Siddhartha passed away

# Bought a new lens with my own money

# Invested in a photograph for a good cause

# Made a perfect wall

# Dev D's music was one the biggest forms of madness ever!

# And so was Delhi 6

# Missed a flight

# Lived the thrill of having a Costa Coffee in Pune for the longest time!

# I contested and lost elections in college

# Experienced guilt like never before

# My first plant died

# Did political PR

# Voted in general elections for the first time

# Watched somebody I loved fall in love with someone else. Twice over.

# Made a little trip on Delhi's local trains

# Watched way too many movies on my laptop

# Got associated with one of the biggest brands in the world

# Attended a santoor vadan concert of Rahul Sharma's

# Saw Shah Rukh Khan :P

# Started loving peanut butter

# Sinus pains went beyond tolerance levels

# Had a man tell me I'm perfect

# Fell out of love with Nike for Woman

# Watched theatre

# Became more rude, arrogant and intolerant

# Broke my laptop's keypad in anger

# Laughed through many days too.

I am sure I am forgetting more things. I'll come back and update this list. Until then, spend some time in writing out comments. :D

Dormancy and the Dhol

The activity (or the lack of it) on this page over the last two months is making me feel like I have aged a little too much for the kind of time span we are talking about. Things might change once I get back to Pune, I don't know. Let's wait for that - just another three days. Maybe it's just this overwhelming pace of life that has kept me away from updating.

As of now, the latest and most interesting update is that my brother is now engaged. I have waited for this occasion for the longest time. I think I was 14 years old ever since I have been planning to look pretty on his wedding. Of course, the marriage changes the family's dynamics too, but that is still a couple of months away.

So I did the whole mehandi, earrings, and pretty clothes jazz over the past few days. I was even forced to buy gold-coloured shoes and wear make-up. Well, what I did to my face apparently does not qualify as make-up, but I think it was just about fine. Especially because it does something to my stomach just the way sequins do. And I swear I have seen enough shiny wedding-y clothes, shoes and bags which look good minus any sequins. Yes, fancy things are made for me too. :D

Apart from all that, I think there is a general issue with some 'nice' men. They don't seem to know how to handle women-related issues in their head. I won't generalise about the type (of men or situations), but everyone has some issue or the other. It's pretty incredible. I think credit also goes to women like me who always seem to attract the wrong kind of men (wrong for us, nice in general - yes, the corporate training also taught me how to be more politically correct).

On a lot more serious note, now I am pretty clear about the kind of job and the kind of organisation I want to join once I finish college. The million dollar question, however, remains that who is willing to hire me!

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Trivia: Audioslave should feel happy to be owning my first ever cellphone ringtone in six years. That does not mean that I have stopped hating the concept of ringtones. Sometimes life's complusions are plain weird.

Trivia 2: 'Weird' and 'stuff' have been the two most controversial words - independently and together - of the past two months. The irony of it has also been factored in.

Trivia 3: Ranbir Kapoor in Rocket Singh is the hottest thing I have seen in the longest time! Totally reminds of the sardar I had a crush on in WWW! Completely adorable and handsome!!! :D

The Pink Ball

Getting to work on sustainability affairs for my present organisation.
Recently organised throwball matches for the girls of a government school adopted by us.

The experience was absolutely brilliant!

The 10th standard girls who won the first match