my first trad dayyyy

well as i said, at Xaviers, you'll just never know!!!! just one random glance at the notice board on a random monday morning just set the coin rolling! St.Francis Feast on Friday along with a socials accompanied by a DJ. Dress code: traditional! and for the rest of the week that was about all anyone spoke about!

i myself was in a big dilemma: saree or chudidaar. Saree, because i really wanted to get out my farewell one, and chudidaar because it is more convenient. so at the nick of the time, acting on gut instinct i selected....

....chudidaar! that's me and michelle, flaunting her bold printed silk saree! she never had the dilemma! :)


bonanzaaa: colourful's the word! thats from left to right: Ashleen, Priya,Ericka, me, Kruti, Manali and Shalmali; posing for great group pic!

So after all these pics we had our lunch, then after some fortune telling,


(shiksha was sooooo flattered by the diplo man telling her how rich she's gna be!)

handwriting analysis,

(interesting!)

...mehendis and all, the socials began! the DJ was playing all our favourites back to back, and we all were dancing like there's no tomorrow! so halfway through th whole tiring dance we came out to a refreshing sugarcane juice ( and kept telling the bhaiyya to put more and more ice!!)

and of course, we had to pose there as well! me, sheetal and michelle, posing with our jumbo sized sugarcane drink!!!!!!!!!

Then we even met some exchange students at the college, Michelle and Bryan. it was fun to see how even they had mixed their wardrobe up with the bright colours of Indian traditional clothing!

that is sheetal with the two lovely michelles <3

and then some more pics!

sheetal and michelle...


michelle, sheetal, dhwani, manali,shiksha and natasha...


...meryl...

..Arya n Kruti...

...and lots and lots, and lots of fun! so thus, a beautiful day ended with all of us craving for water, back aches, headaches, leg pains...but wonderful memories!!! cheers!

3 months, 90 days and 2160 minutes....

when i was rotting away with boredom at home for 5 whole months, i always thought that once college starts off, i'll have plenty to write about.... little did i know, that i'll never have the time to do that!!!!

life is awesome! schedule's running as it should, daily routine is ow part of my life, but at xavier's, you just never know how the day would end up being! you would'nt know wher you'd be in the next hour! monotony is a word that no longer exists!!!

travelling is a bliss, no better word for it. and i'm serious. after being gray all day long for 150 days, its great being suddenly exposed to bright colors; the blur of colorful scenery, the bright and vibrant compartment, full of life and laughter, the little walk to college, under the shady green trees ( sometimes buzzing around khakhi clad police and black-an-white attorneys; seeing as my college is right next to the magistrate court) and then entering the campus, where there is always something going on! this world is entirely different, but i guess i'm getting used to it...

my days are beautiful, with lots of friends, lot of fun; the foyer, terry's office, canteen, arches, woods; words which meant nothing to me suddenly have become my life! projects, assignments,homework are all in full flow; there's hardly a moment to breathe! but you no what, i can never ask for more!

wondering why i'm writing this all of a sudden? after all this is nothing new; i've been writing this all the while. but my blog is about the little wonders of my life, and all these little things matter to me so much, i cant get enough! i'm not going to get bored easily...

walkin' in the rains.........

if you had seen my state in the very morning of the fateful day.. you would definitely have sung a different tune.... it was hot, not warm, literally hot! the sun was shining mercilessly and all of us in the class clamoured for that seat under the fan,and ca la va sans dire that all were disgusted with the relentless perspiration......no one in their right mind would have predicted this wonderful weather!

the beautiful rains avoided prediction throughout the college day, and even as we walked through the heated, crowdy and noisy CST subway, we had no clue of the weather that awaited us... it was only when we were on the crowded thane local and had crossed ghatkopar did my friend get a call from home that it was raining with thunderstorms at thane. but even from where we were, rains seemed to us the slightest possible thing, it was sunny al right!

but as we crossed Nahur, we got what her father meant, for we c ould definitely see dark clouds down by the horizon. we ran to the doors of the compartment immediately and sure enough, we felt the cool little drops of rain on our faces.and of course i knew what that was going to mean; a beautiful walk in the rains!

it was'nt too long; just from the station to the private bus stop in the east. but nevertheless, it was great! i could see people standing in the safely shaded railway station to avoid getting wet, i could see people running around as fast as they could to get where they were headed to, and me? i was enjoying the walk, slower than usual, taking in the cool refreshing raindrops and enjoying the opportunity of getting drenched with a valid reason!!!

you might think, who in their right mind would want to get all wet and soggy, but look at it my way, and you'll see... i just love the rains! and even if it means traffic, inconvenience, wetness and mush, i can never be negative about rains! whatever be the consequence, i would never turn my back on any chance of getting drenched in the rains!

so well, that was my lovely evening, and i returned home to a hot cup of chai and steaming hot maggi, and to top it all, the Simpsons! the evening could definitely not get any better! he he

wo pehli baar.....

wondering? well, nothing 2 worry, im talking about the eternal, universal, official, special day of everyone's college life: the first BUNK!!!!!!

i know that the last word's gonna take all you readers back in a spectrum of nostalgia, but hold on, let me narrate mine first(he he)! what a day that was! well, to start with, i really need to make a point of how really a big deal it was... first of all, come on, i'm in college; its a big deal in itself! secondly, in xavier's, attendance is a big issue, its the black monster. nevertheless, it makes my bunk all the more fun!

lectures were quite good that day; maths, english, a free economics, break, psychology, french and pol.science. so after tolerating our eagerness for the first two hours, we left the college after english to watch STEP UP 3D in the Metro cinema. we knew that we won't return till french; but it didn't matter much, as sitting in that psycho prof's psycho lecture is one big pain! however we thought that we may, just may, attend the french lecture if we arrived on time. anyhow, we returned 10 minutes late, so we decided that we might as well pass our time in the canteen and return for political science; it was important because 1 of my friends had really low attendance in it.so we did, and came for the lecture, only to find that we were in for a surprise...

so what do we call it when in this situation the pol.science lecture gets cancelled? pure LUCK! seemed it was on our side that day! so that having done, we left the college early. result? only 2 lectures, a super cool movie, a beautiful hour in the canteen, missing out on the drama in the psycho lecture (which we came to know about eventually and thanked heavens for that!)and an early train home!

so now you know how special it was! now you can drift off in your spectrum of nostalgia and tell me about your first college bunk!he he...

finaly.... I AM IN COLLEGE!!!!!!!!!!

picutre that! my college St.Xavier's

my classroom: beautiful, isnt it! we are totally 140 people but it still seems very spacious! and moreover, the benches and all are totally authentic; there are spaces for ink bottles and the quill too! cool,eh!

thats one of the many famous archways! its really beautiful, you can see students sitting around at almost any point of time! guess theres more to a college than just classes! he he

thats not much, just the staircase that lead to my class, but they are just so ornate and classy, that i just had to take a pic!

thats the view of a side of the huge college from the foyer where you can always be loitering around! damn cool!


ya.. enfin! actually, i was in col since 27th, but m getting time to blog just now, so you can imagine how much i'm enjoying it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

well, i'm kidding, thats an understatement... i'm enjoying every SECOND of college life. true, i'm a new entree so probably all u guys are thinking,' ruk ja bachu! aage aage dekh kya hota he!' but seriously! all the other things set aside... just the feeling that i'm no longer the uniform-clad, buck toothed school-kid....i'm in college, for crying out loud! u know what i mean!

my college is great. i guess i've already told you all enough about my college, but the news is, i am in love........ with the college of course! its seriously like going to hogwarts! you just don't know which stairs come out where; you just keep walking and you end up in mars! seriously if there was a hogwarts anywhere on earth, its definitely at xavier's!

its fun at college... lots of free lectures, a huge campus to roam about, and really good lectures; the teachers hold debates, show documentries, general discussions and all... and for a girl from ses, this is seriously heaven on earth! its everything i ever expected college to be....!

life's great, travelling is tiring, but fun all the same, i got lots of friends out there... what else do you need!!!!!!!!!! he he....

i've got loads more to tell, i could go on and on about college; but i gotta go, get ready for ( i still can't believe that this is fact) COLLEGE!!!!!!! lol!

finally.....I AM GOING TO COLLEGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I mean, what could be more exciting? COLLEGE!!!!! The thing I’ve been waiting for as long as 5 months! And not just any college, its St.Xavier’s! No doubt, a dream come true!

After weeks and weeks full of wishes and dreams, with a tiny bit boredom ( yeah, right!) months full of doubts whether I’m ever gonna get into college, I finally got what I wanted- admission into st.xavier’s college in CST! after dreaming on and on about what college’s really going to be like, I’m finally going to a real one! So last Monday was the lovely day, when the internet FINALLY told me that I’m going to xavier’s after all!

So a visit to xaviers was imminent. I went there on the early hours of Wednesday, and lo! It was EVERYTHING I had expected and heard about… well not everything… because xavier’s is rumored to be a very flashy college, with flashy people and flashy campus; but it seemed fairly modest to me! It’s an old , very old grey brick building with ancient architecture ( its 140 year old, what else would you expect!) which gave it the look of a typical catholic church…but never mind, that is the beauty of it! As you enter the gates, you see lots of trees and plants… and then you enter the entrance hall, followed by a very beautiful, well-known and sunny basketball court, and then there is this huge auditorium, followed by a volleyball court and a very hep cafeteria….but that’s not all, cuz I had very little time to take in more than that of the place, but from what the prospectus says, it also has a small woods, 2 huge libraries and hostels, and lots more! Guess I’ll have to wait for the 1st day to really get to know the campus….

My first reaction into xavier’s was, woah! This place is cool! But I can’t say I was’nt a tiny bit scared, maybe caught off-guard, to see that there wasn’t a face I recognized… but then that’s the whole point of college isn’t it? So anyways I did make some acquaintances, which included a girl who came to my tuitions and I knew only by face ( which came as more of a relief than a surprise, seeing as that was immediately after the ‘caught off-guard’ sequence),my tutorial teacher’s daughter (which was obviously a surprise!) and the daughter of an old friend of my father’s (which was not a surprise.. our dads kept discussing how we both would end up I the same college after all!)…. and by the looks of it, we were incidentally all from the same town, and also in the same class! Fancy bumpin’ into ur bff! But that’s how things build up and make a friendship, isn’t it?

Of course there are cons, like the 1 and a half hour travel up and another 1 ½ hour down, which is why many people from Thane do not fancy going to xavier’s even though life’s great there, but its okay… I guess you have to give up something to get something! Believe me, xavier’s worth all the effort! Or so it seems, anyways! It is the best college for fyjc arts in Mumbai, and it is also in the most happening place, CST! and plus I don’t mind all the traveling as long as I’ve got friends on me, or a good book… or else there’s always the radio! ;)

So, 2 weeks after today, I’ll be in college! ( love the feeling!)
The countdown, begins…..

Sapla!!!!!!!!

everyone has one of these kinds in their life... chubby, bubbly, carefree, bindass, friendly, lovable, sweet; someone who has a certain positive powerful aura around them that makes you swear to god that you will never ever be away from such a character... and for me, this character is none other than my friend Sanchita Sapla!

Sapla and i met a year ago at our tutorial classes, and ever since we said hi for the first time, we have been such buddies that one won't believe we've been friends only for a year! such is the quality of Sanchi, who, like a spider, weaves a friendship web all around her and sticks tight to it, with all earnestness and truthfulness.She is the ideal friend, who's the one who enjoys the most when you are happy, and the one who's all ears whenever you have somethings to share! she has this kinda magnetic field all around her that draws people towards her and like her.

she's a person who's got all her extremes on her: when she laughs, she makes sure everyone around her is sharing in hr mirth; when she cries, she cries like a baby; and when she stands up against something, she'll make sure to do what's needful and rightful to get what she wants. and the best thing about her is her honesty, which is as innocent as a child.....!

wondering why i'm getting so senti today all of a sudden? of course because its her birthday today! so, sapla, here's a small note from me:

on ur 15th bday, i wish you many happy returns and a wonderful year ahead.....! be as you are, ALWAYS, because you are the best when you are yourself! always remain the adorable, chirpy and sweet person that you are because that is what defines Sanchita! there's hardly any more to say because i feel really lucky to have a friend so enigmatic, that words are failing me!

So now, just enjoy the day, have fun and remember that the next time is just 365 days away! lol!

the latest buzz....zzzzzzz!

nope, thats not a mistake!!!!!!!! its reality, coz on the latest buzz magazine of my life, all you can read is zzzzzzzz!!!

so this is a stuck up time... i'm bored because everyone else goes to classes/school, while i sit home counting hours for night! at this time, i can't go away for a while, because my admissions are going to be done for college by next week, and mom and dad are too busy to take me anywhere, but i cant stand sitting idle doing absolutely nothing! in fact every other minute i feel like, there are just too many minutes in a day to while away! the boredom has reached levels unprecedented and unexplored by humanity! it is at a level where my sanity is at stake... i'm going crazy!!!!

anyway, my day also has 24 hours, so here's what i do all day: go swimming, come back, sit in front of my computer, stare at my Facebook home page, turn to blogger, then decide there's just nothing to blog about right now, turn back to facebook, see if there's anyone to chat with, if not, i turn back to blogger and try to change my template, then get bored, turn the pc off, and go on, call a friend , get bored, take up a book, doze off, wake up, see if there's anything on tv ( mostly, bullshit! cuz tout le monde knows that television is the most hopeless thing to when you are bored, it'll simply increase your agony!) and then wait till its night and go off to sleep! these days though i took up some work to do, lik drwing, sketching and that kind of thing... i even got the mathematics book of my college so i could do some constructive time-pass! just imagine how jobless i have become!!!!

okay, i know that i'm exaggerating a bit, but seriously i need change...! i wanna do something worth my time, because i know that a few days later my life will be hell from the lack of time... but i feel totally helpless now!

anyways, life's too low profile right now...but i just can't wait for my college to start! believe me, once it starts, my blogs will start flooding! because there will be so much to write about, so much to talk about!

i just hope that college turns out the way i hope! as for now... bored, bored, bored! zzzzzzzzzzz

AFAE.....!

One of the best things about being in Mahesh Tutorials is getting good marks and being invited to AFAE, and believe me, it is worth getting 92.91% just because you get to attend this function! Exaggerating? Not in the least!

First of all, let me brief u up on this; AFAE (Award For Academic Excellence) is the felicitation programme of MT Educare, the tutorials where I went for my STD 10th, and from what I had heard from my experienced seniors, it ROCKS!!! So, well, I was naturally excited when I was called on to collect my pass… I was invited to AFAE!

So, on the fateful day of July 14th, we all left our homes, dressed in our best, headed for the Thane Vikas branch of Mahesh Tutorials, as there was a bus arrangement to take us to the Renaissance Hotel, Powai, and after a jolly ride to the same, we entered the Renaissance Hotel , and we just couldn’t help but awe at the crowd! Students from over 4 cities, which is about 12 branches, had come over there. Then we were welcomed with some tea and coffee and ushered into a part of the huge ballroom, which was separated from the whole part by blinds. There we had the felicitation programme, with the blaring music of the DJs, and the usual demeanor of the teachers, which gave us the proud feeling of being there, in that hotel, receiving trophies from our professors, the proud feeling of being in the AFAE! Believe me, my feeling, when I got that trophy, with my name printed on it from one of my favourite teachers……..well it was mind blowing!

So then, after the felicitation, we had this snack session, where I had the best chocolate brownie I have ever tasted! Anyways, so after having our fill, and taking lots of pictures with our teachers, we were ushered again into the ballroom (the blinds now removed) which was HUGE! It was the largest ballroom in all of Asia! (seriously)

And then, we had some speeches from Mahesh Shetty sir himself! It was a really inspiring one too….the sort that you have to listen to at least once in your life. And then, after calling on all the directors, and all the technical people, we had this singer with a band, who sung on and on for what seemed lie ages! And to which we danced on and on for what seemed like ages!! All the professors, all the students, irrespective of whatever branch they may belong, just danced together…..it really seemed like it was our day! And then, after celebrating the whole evening, the function ended, and we returned home in the buses.

You know, its times like these that you feel really lucky that you worked hard enough, and believe me, the professors did not let us forget that even for a moment! They appreciated us so damn much, that the euphoria built up at the starting of the day, continued till night! But of course, it was all because of them! AFAE was a day, which was completely to celebrate our success, it was a rightful reward for everything we had put in all of our STD 10th, and the award, the trophy, stands high, a momento, bearing evidence that I did belong to this institution. The gratitude that I have towards this place, which I was in only for 2 years is equal to that I have for my school, where I was for 12 whole years! Now you can imagine the magnitude, can’t you?
So, at the end, the AFAE was a grand success!!!!!!!!!!

Wacky-Cracky Week.....!

A few days ago, I was cribbing........cribbing that I have wasted every bit of the longest vacation of my life by doing absolutely nothing productive, cribbing that I have been on leave since 17th of March, and all I do everyday of my ever extending holidays is eat, sleep, watch TV, and eat again! Cribbing that I’m going to repent a lot later on….cribbing that this damn time is so bad, that its pushing my dreams and hopes for college beyond the duration that I can wait...........and cribbing some more!!!! Well, guess what, this time, I had the wackiest week I have had throughout the last 3 months! So here, I present to you the reason why I’m on the seventh heaven!

SATURDAY: So finally, I did have a birthday party! All my close friends had come over to chez-moi, and we had a BLAST!!!!!!!! The whole day!!! Not to mention, all the really good gifts, including a football, a really good top, a set of lipstick n lip-gloss (in an attempt to make me more girly, huh!), a really good chain, a sweet little purse, and lots, and lots of chocolate!!!!!!!!!!! How’s that for a wacky week, huh!

SUNDAY: I started the day with my usual workout routine; swimming for an hour from 7-8 in the morning. Now Sundays, are like, fun-days, right! So my mom and dad were at home, and so we all went to visit my uncle in Worli, strolling down the Worli sea-face and then coming home to the best home-made palak paneer and daal!!!!!!!! And then, we came back to our place to have ice-cream! So all in al, it was a fun-day!

MONDAY: Started the day with swimming……That day was a “Bharat Bandh”, in the sense, a strike which had brought about a full-stop to the annoying, ever-honking auto rikshaws, and the space consuming, traffic-producing buses……….the result, I enjoyed a fully traffic free bike ride to my friend’s place, in peace! Now, I know that is not such a great thing, but guys, I’m in MUMBAI!!!!!!!!!! So that means, it is absolutely brilliant!

TUESDAY: The usual swimming, and then I spent a whole day back at my school, for a registration procedure. Now, spending all the time from 11 in the a.m. to 5 in the p.m. doing some stupid thing which should have taken not more than half an hour may not seem very appealing to many, and to ad to it, it did end with a lot of irritation, frustration and whatever comes next, but hey, I was doing SOMETHING! I was keeping myself occupied. Moreover I was hanging out with my friends, at my school, which brought on a lot of nostalgia! And plus, I was doing some very serious business, outside home, with an indefinite time limit…..made me feel so……grown up!

WEDNESDAY: Swimming again! But then, the most important part of it, was my afternoon at my best friend’s, watching THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE! It had just released, about a week ago, in the U.S., and had not even announced a release date in India, but I had seen it at her place as she had downloaded it from the internet! And then, I enjoyed a big part of the evening, calling up another friend who was another twilight fan, just for the sake of making her jealous!(BTW, it was just a gig, we keep doing that to each other)

THURSDAY :I guess you already know that I went swimming again!( wow! Surprise, isn’t it?), but that day, I started an actual training in swimming..( now that’s something different!) Then, that day was also my friend’s birthday, which meant I got to travel all the way to Mulund, spend a whole afternoon with friends, watch a romantic-comedy (in which the main fun was commenting on each and every dumb scene, which was in plenty, no doubt; and picturing my friend, who kept on crying , even in the happy scenes….now THAT’S interesting!) And to end it all, I walked a lot, talked a lot………so now you know why I really love it so much!

FRIDAY: F or a change (and you guys really need it) I did not go for swimming! Well the community pool’s closed on Fridays, for cleaning and stuff, and so I slept peacefully, woke up late, lazed around in the bed for 15 minutes, kept on saying “ 2 minutes later!” whenever my grandmom called to me ( in short everything I had’nt done since swimming………….!) . Then, in the evening, my friend came over to my place to watch a movie….and chat, etc. So then, that day is included in the wacky week……

So thus, this was my wacky-cracky week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

not just another day....

sweet sixteen......! you would expect a girl to be excited, run around, cry out loud, have a grand party and look forward to enjoy the feeling of being the center of attention. well, like every other time, i was an exception. my sweet sixteen, which was supposed to be the dashing, bashing, energy packed special day, turned out to be JUST ANOTHER DAY! great!

i woke up, and as expected my cell phone inbox was filed with 'happy birthday's and 'enjoy the day's.my facebook profile wall was also filled with my friends wishing me. but that day was anything but enjoyable.....

first, there was, as usual the morning sickness. people in hurry, getting late for work, usually tend to have a hassle. i understand...then, like any other day, my mom, dad and my brother left for their respective offices, and i was left at home with my grandmom. like any other day, i went inside the bedroom and stayed there for the rest of the morning.of course,i did lots of things inside...listened to music,chatted with friends etc, trying to soothe my boredom, and constantly kept reminding myself to cheer up..it was my birthday, for God's sakes! but that day hardly felt like a birthday....!

it is said that if the morning is bad, the rest of the day would also be so. that was exactly what i had feared...a bad birthday.but time was playing tricks on me...the morning boredom wore off by afternoon, when my friends and my cousin tried to make my special day at least seem like one!my cousin did something which lifted my mood immediately... a blog all for me! well i had always dreamed of being written about, and my cousin did it for me!pujakka, if you are reading this,you have absolutely no idea how you made my day!another cousin of mine, currently in London, called down to wish me and even video phoned me later that evening.my friends, upon knowing of my drearily dreadful day, came down to my place to cheer me up.other friends helped me get through the disastrous day by chatting, sending sweet messages...etc.my brother had already won me over by taking me for shopping which was also when i discovered his skills at the ancient art of shopping *lol*

later on my mom and grandmom made me some good food.sabudana wadas and bhel, along with payasam....yummy! now anyone who knows me, knows that satisfying my taste-buds means satisfying me!not a sad ending, after all!

to all these people, i would say, that you all made my day.you saved my birthday from being just another day.......! i know i am exaggerating, that birthday is after all just another day, and by labeling it as 'birthday' won't make the nature turn around!but seriously, when little things like these come together, well an ordinary day could become extraordinary! i didn't need a party to proclaim that the day was perfect,it was when the love of my dear ones turned up that i decided that the day was the best!thank you all, a lot.....after all,great things come in small packages!

so that is how my 'just another day' turned into a 'sweet sixteen'!!!!!!!!!!

The Ol' Birdie on wheels....

the sun had just started shining, after a long day of downpour. and the weather was just perfect for a ride. And anyways, I was fed up of being home, staring at my monitor, wondering what I can blog about......

For some unknown reason, I never mentioned my bicycle in any of my blogs, and its even surprising because it is one of the many things that my world revolves around (ironic, isn't it?) My pink ladybird bike was gifted to me by my parents when I was 9. It was quite a surprise for me, and so I didn't have a chance to customize it myself (I wouldn't have chosen PINK, for god's sakes!) And my life confined to the walls of my house and my school ended right then and there, and I began to explore the world outside.....

Coming back to today, I was feeling upto a bike ride. I always believed that my bike had a sense of its own but it was always overshadowed by my sense of purpose, like going to class, getting something, repairing…etc. so today, when the sun started shining, I decided to let my bike take me out for a ride,wherever it could with its own sense ( as long as I knew the way back home, that is!) , while I used mine to brood about things that I could never think about in my shoebox flat.

So I stepped out, fuelled my wheels with a lot of air, and then set out. I thought while I rode; I rode while I thought. I thought about my friends, my family, my cousins. I thought and thought, as I rode through the crowded market, and through the quiet, deserted roads. I thought as I rode through the busy traffic, and even as I rode through lonely construction sites. Kids were cycling by too, going to their classes, or coming back; or simply racing for the fun of it. Ladies were going by in clusters, some muttering about their chores, some about their kids, and some, just gossiping in what sounded like gibberish. People rode by in their cars. As I rode by a school, I saw kids being whisked off to their homes for the day, in their buses, excited as the school day had come to an end , and a fit of nostalgia hit me right then. There were the workers at the construction sites, still working tirelessly, even though the sun had set. I kept riding, till I thought that my thoughts had been done for he day, and then I concentrated on my bicycling.

I thought about how my bicycle had taught me a lot. It had taught me that if I work hard enough, I will eventually reach home. That every time an uphill problem faces you, you must believe that there’ll always be a downhill solution for it, because only then can life be even. That when life meets a dead end, you don’t need to stop there; you can always turn back and have a new start. That one-ways are traveled upon only by people who are confident about where it leads to, just like life. That accidents and mistakes often happen because the person at wheels is not confident that he can do it properly. My bicycle taught me, that here is learning other that the one inside classrooms; and that it is called realization. That people who think that education gets over when the school day ends, are seriously mistaken. My bicycle taught me that you can learn from the littlest things in life, if only you have the will and curiosity.( and last, but not the least, my bicycle also taught me that expectations are not meant for Indian roads! Practical, isn’t it?)

My reverie ended when my cell phone beeped in my pocket to show me a message and I glanced at the time. It was time to go back home now!

“ This much from a simple hour-long bike ride?”, I know. But it is the truth. I’m still trying to find out how I could write this big a blog on my ol’ birdie! I think its because it was always there for me, whenever I wanted to brood over, it was always there to take me to places, to explore….it never left me! (though its certainly had intentions to, the kind of repairs it has had!)

In the end, all I can say is, that this little bike ride was a really good one indeed!

blogging, for a blogger....

here i am! here, in this site, typing as much as have never, but should'nt there be a story how i got here? ok, lets go into the flashback (filmy, i know!)

well, once upon a time(6 months ago) i was a plain girl, studying for her SSC exams, having no time at all for most of my interests, for i had to get into a good college!but yeah, there was something with me and languages...i simply adored them! whenever maths or geography bugged me to the heck of bugging, i would simply draw my composition book and the composition notes of my class, then choose randomly, a subject to write upon, and voila! that was my way of giving a break to my geography-filled brain! and another advantage was that i could convince myself, my family and my conscience, saying this was study too!good times...

my other friends from school, though, were completely opposite. they always said that they would give up a language for anything in the world! i often disagreed (though my verdict for marathi was quite the same many-a-times!).their judgement of language was of a subject which reduced their percentage and denied them admission in the college of their choice.but i disagreed yet; i did not care much about percentages anymore,when it came to languages, because i could connect to them better than my other friends.besides, i would never give up on my languages (second thoughts on marathi, of course!)

so as soon as my hectic schedule came to an end,i turned to blogging ( which was suggested to me by my cousin Puja, on a lonely holiday, when i had told her all of this), and found that it was a brilliant substitute to my stolen (not quite) hours of break-time!article writing had always appealed to me,and expanding on a subject was my favorite.apart from all the technicalities, i had found a time-pass, an outlet and that too on the world wide web!and besides, blogging also helped me to stay in touch with writing, which is good for my future plans of pursuing mass media. so everyone's happy!

blogging has revolutionised my style of writing,given me a chance to write on the internet. and im surprised why i never thought of writing this before; maybe because it was only after i started blogging that i realized what it was! and now i will live happily, ever after.....

moral: keep blogging, everyone,everywhere!

A heartfelt farewell....

hey this is another poem from my collection, dedicated to all my school mates.....

To love, that comes by only once...
To friendship, the bond that between us runs...
To sweet memories that will live, always,
Though we go our separate ways...

To the heart that,I know, will always love me,
To the tears that, I know, will leak out for me,
To the ears that, I know, will die to hear me,
To the eyes that, I know, will cringe to see me...

A Heartfelt Farewell I give to you,
Knowing I have got one in return too;
I close my eyes and feel the pain,
Of losing a friend, I'll never have again....

-Shruti

il pleut, et je suis heureuse!

this evening i was, as usual, sitting online and chattin relentlessely, when suddenly the electricity went off,and on came my irritation. but just as i went out to my balcolny, i knew why.the sky was no more the pale blue it had been this afternoon, actually hardly any of the sky could be seen, because a thick bunch of dark gray clouds obstructed my view; a storm was on its way!

now i may seem excited, because it was now time for a prototype rainy day , which includes cool rains, hot chai and piping bhajjiyas ( an irresistible indian combination perfect for the rains), but it was also overshadowed with worry, for we mumbaikars have experienced 26th of july, 2006,and have become prone to identify the other side of the seemingly innocent rains! the traffic, the floods, and the relentless honking, coupled with fog, and clogging drains....in short its a nightmare for those out of their safe homes, but obviously not for those who enjoy it inside!

well i am quite positive about the rains, so for me, this calls for a treat!anyways, right now, i am going to enjoy the lightning and thunder, with my hot chai and piping bhajjiyas, in my balcolny!

cheers!

Result?????????mmmmmmmmmmmwa!

Have you ever been so happy that you could climb up to the highest tower on earth and shout like george of the jungle? well, i did, on the day my results showed up. though not literally!

2 days ago, when i was chatting with one of my friends, i got the news that the end of part 1 was near........in two days the decision was to be made, the results, to be declared! the end of my long and tiresome journey through std 10 was here!well, im actually exaggerating. but yeah, results are a fright, like a nightmare for everyone!that day went by...now there was only 1 day to go!

but results also have another side, other than the incarnation of devil himself; that of anxiety, of excitement, of relief.finally they are here...finally our prayers are going to be answered, finally we are going to know the truth, finally we are going to know our worth......

the d-day dawned up. it was like any other day, the sun still rose from the east, the sunlight still came in strands through my window and curtains,and an individual beam came and illuminated my room exactly the same way it always did, but today was different, today was special.i woke up, ran all errands and at sharp 10:57 am, i went and sat beside my brother to check my fate as it appeared online. and then the golden word to be typed, the key.... the seat number! and then my eyes, ignoring all other details, settled on the angelic number...92.91!

my heart skipped a beat....and then there was a deafening noise which irritated me; till i realised that the source was moi!i was screaming, i was happy, because i got what i had expected, what i had worked relentlessly hard for. my dream had after all come true!

now, guys, this was my experience, to each his own! my experience did teach me this though, that if you work hard enough in the right direction and with the right force, thn the goal won't be too far away, because hardwork never goes wasted.what we must do though is believe that nature and God are just, and that you'll always get your worth, some or the other time.i got my worth, the value of all the hardwork i had put in, and i did also get what i'd value above everything, my life itself; the pride and happiness in my family's eyes.

enough of being senti now, lets party!

career? omg!

career is something which creates a lot of controversy and doubt among people, especially freshman-going-to-junior college-16-years-old-and-still-in-dilemma people like moi!as far as boasting and gigs was concerned, kids like me like to claim ourselves as grown ups, but it is now i realise how very small i am! because i am at a point where i have to take the most important decision, one which concerns my life and one which is creating more problems for me than it is solving.

in my defense, i would say that i have always wanted to do something unique, away, risky. something which includes writing, reading, and cultural thingies! something which includes travelling, interacting with people, knowing about places and being known,being counted upon......and all of this brings me to journalism!but now this field so very vast and varied, that just coming upon it as a general profession does not solve the dilemma.

it all comes to this, that unless you have a very straightforward one way plan, you won't face this dilemma. as for undecided and unsure young ones like us, the battle continues.........

scuba divin' in the sri lankan seas..........

scuba diving, you have to be there to believe how very fascinating this adventure sport is! and the feather in the hat was that it was in sri lanka that my dad proposed we sign up for it! now that sure is something.........scuba divin' in the sri lankan seas!!!!!!!!

it was evening, around 6 o'clock when we , on the way from the famous Unawatuna beach to our hotel in Bentota, stopped by a scuba diving centre in Hikkaduwa to do some R&D , and made up an appointment for scuba diving the next morning. that was one restless night!

we arrived right on time, excited as we were. the instructor greeted us and showed us some videos,gave us some notes, and taught us the sign language. after that we had to fulfill certain formalities,wear our scuba diving costume and gear and then be off!!! now, we were taken into the shallow waters to do some exercises,clear our masks, control pressure difference and its effects and learn to breathe through the oxygen mask, but that was most of the fun part. it took us some time to learn those exercises, upon which we qualified to do scuba only upto a certain depth. as bad luck had it, we were short of time so we could not learn and improve much, so we could only do the scuba upto about 2 meters . but none the less fun!

the instructor took us one by one into the deeper water, and i was the last. when it was my turn, i braced myself, to go ahead and experience! the instructor took me to the coral reefs, the beautiful flower-like patterns formed by the corals were a sight!and the fishes! they very well complimented the dark blue background with their fancy colours.it was a completely different world, untouched and pure, giving you the feeling like you have entered the sets of Finding Nemo! the sea floor, sandy and off-white, the beautifully coloured corals, the blue ocean with the sunlight hardly penetrating its mysterious blue-yet-transparent sheen, and the wonderfully colored and shaped fishes..........you imagine the scene yourself!

i really hope and look forward to entering this world again, and this time i will be ready to explore this land of fantasy, dreams and marvel.

my 10th std experience...........

hiyo! well, let me start wid y i really thot of putting THIS as a blog...........it is because ive been brought up in an environment where exams are important, and the SSC, the most important of them all! u may think of me as a geek, but believe me, ive never thought any less of myself!so this 10th grade year was the most significant of all, and quite different too...........because this year i was everything, from a geek to the most mischevious, frm the quiet studious to the most talkative and funny, from the staying-out-of-trouble-mind-ur-business girl to the i-dont-give-a-damn-what-happens dude! dont get it? complicated..............

firstly, it was hectic, because i was burdened with the feat of studyin 10 whole textbooks, but i managed, with my classes et all! this was my last year at school, or probably so, and so i had made p my mind 2 do everything tht i cud 2 make it memorable.it was lyk any uder year i wud hav expected 2 be, but for all i knew, it was special.........

but then in the end it all comes to this, that separation was 2 come, it was always over the horizon, comin closer.........and now here we are, strugglin for some contact!all those memories, the fun, the studies, the parties, the hangin-outs...............they have to be kept in a preserved chamber of our minds.we are walkin away now, in different directions, our paths may never intersect, we may never know each other anymore, but one thing is certain, that this special year will always remain in the forefront of our mind.

all in all, from this year i may or may not have learnt a lot, when it comes to subjects, but its for certain that i have learnt one thing:that friends may come and go, but memories leave a mark on ur mind, which nothing can ever wipe out, which can never disappear and which will always remain so very close.........

education system: what d hell r u up to??????????

2de i read an article in the newspaper, which opened up my eyes wide to what i thought as rocket science being no more difficult than ABC. seriously, what r u up to?
when my parents wer little, as they recall, getting 65% meant tht the child is EXTREMELY brilliant. they say tht decimals in percentage never existed, and tht competition was not what was expected frm the students; kids loved to gain knowledge. and nowadays?
by implicaton, it means that 2de we students are dumbed down frm knowledge-gainers to mark-scorers. and yes, this is not a promotion, rather a negative change i wud say.though as a student of 10th grade i shud thank the sytem for making things easy ofr us, somehow im not able to bring myself upto it.why the hell shud i suffer?
the reason for my fury is tht we r spoonfed more often than not;like when a child falls, u're not blaming his carelessness, but the ground for being uneven. the reason as evry1 states freely, is the growing failure and suicide rates. i don't agree much.suicides have certainly not gone down by taking these steps.its like, wen a person is failing, it is not his fault tht he did not study, but its the fault of the toppers for topping n giving rise to competition. or so is it accepted.
all the measures taken, such as best 5, grading system, 70:30 quotas, leniency in college admissions, bringing down the cut of percentages, quotas for SC, ST; sports and other activities leave a lot of students on the unfair side, because thee are taken by keeping solely the poor- scoring students in mind,whereas meritorious students are being thrown largely out of perspective, and i say so as a neutral student.
the solution for this? to make people look at the self-proclaimed profanities such as pressure, stress and difficulties with a positive outlook; pressure is necessary to move things forward on their path, simple law of physics, and we must abide by it. taking pressure as challenge is the key, because SSC is not the end of the world and there will be more challenging exams .
so it is now upto us, whether we accept ourselves to be so handicapped with our studies that we need crutches like such to move forward, or we want to wholely , solely attack our exams with all our might and be happy to claim that we have done this with both our legs intact.

my trip 2 sri lanka

about a month ago, i made this trip 2 sri lanka with my family.but tht is not what im gna say.... m not gonna describe the places, though they are worth being described. no, im gonna tell u what was MY experience, what i felt about the place.
apart from the obvious fact tht it is beautiful, i also feel that sri lanka is like a hub for foreigners....a place where we can meet people of all countries without having 2 go there, n vice versa. im an indian, n though i was also, for all intents n purposes, a foreigner in that country, i dinot feel so, not for a minute,although this cud be because i was from a neighbor country, with identical skin colour, fashion, landscape etc.
for indians, as i can say by personal belief, this place is a boon as well as a curse. boon as in, we are accepted easily into the crowd, cuz we are like them. we r not prjudiced against, and not taken to be different unless we tell them tht we really are indians, which was an advantage for us, over our western counterparts who cud be easily distinguished among the crowd of wheatish and russet people. also, take it as a fact, that sri lankans are very fond of indians...so that makes up 4 the second point!
for the 1st curse of the place, is the high rate of inflation. when we indians plan a trip to a country who's currency value is lower thn ours, we take it for granted very easily, as der r , sadly, very few such countries. however for any traveller in an alien country, it is important not only to consider the currency value, but also the inflation status. and tht was sumthin we failed 2 do on our trip. Sri lanka is a tourist based country with hardly any factories or industries, and so all products are imported into the country, in return for exporting spices and gem. in simpler words, sri lanka is not very cheap, nor extremely costly!
also, considering the above point, we have another factor to add to it: the profiteering minds! in the remote areas, tht is sumthin to save oneself from!!!!!!!! else, v might end up getting tea for a 40 bucks, or water for 70!these are very basic, yet the inflation rate is sad, and yet v were foriegners, we cud manage. think about the people who actually live there!
to end up with my thoughts, i wud certainly accept tht every place has its own pros and cons.n sri lanka, well to each his own!!!!!!!!!

a troubled soul

Hitherto lies a troubled soul,
his mind is wandering, without a goal;
without any knowledge of his traits,
even the devil may pity;such a state;

Hell breaks loose at his feet
and at him the good has faced defeat;
flung into the darkness livid,
is his once-so-pure spirit;

he wasn't like that when he opened his eyes,
his pure little soul had not yet faced demise,
His heart craved love,but he got none,
and that turned him into such a dissatisfied one;

He changed his mind, he changed his way,
he made all divine to float away;
he made up his mind to avenge
himself upon all; he craved revenge;

his eyes know no love, his touch knows no care,
and he only into the unknown, blindly stares;
there is only one thing assured in his fate
that he'll hate to love and love to hate;

Hitherto lies a troubled soul,
his mind is wandering with one definite goal;
without any knowledge of his pain
in search of a satisfaction he'll never gain,

never ever gain...............
- Shruti

i am a harry potter fan.

Harry Potter- the brilliant saga which started off as an imaginative action and teenage based fiction, created a sensation all over the world.those of us who follow harry potter so very keenly can only know how its thoughts and messages are so very applicable to people of all ages n types. Even we HP fans have our own reasons for being fans-some of us maybe for the action, some for the wonder of the magic, n some simply because the actors are so cute. But i have a completely different reason, and that is the story which the genius J.K Rowling so meticulously penned down.

The story has a connection to every book in the series, like it is intertwined through those 7 books. at the end we feel satisfied, not yearning for more, like we've just solved some large jigsaw puzzle.The books, though may seem huge, and they definitely are, have a power t grip the reader. Once you have taken up a harry potter book, it is really hard to put down. That was the reason why the release of each book made it to the news channels, because people wanted to know whole story.Now we are waiting for the movie of last part to release.Though most HP fans often feel that the movies fail to do justice to the books,the movies are always awaited almost as eagerly as the books were, because we fans want to know if our imagination and our own direction of the story while we read is the same as for all the rest fans of the world or not. J.K.Rowling makes the readers believe in magic, in miracles because even though our world is far away from Harry's, we can still relate to the feelings, the emotions and the convictions of the characters.Now that is the recipe for a world-wide hit!

Yes, i am a harry potter fan, but not just because i really love reading books, but because i believe that a little magic and a hell lot of imagination is necessary to get away from all the monotony and strife of life.