Before leaving 4 The TRIP!

About to embark on a journey - probably my last excursion as a student. Havent done my packing n i hav tonnes of things to get done before leaving tomorrow but somehow ended up here.Guess the last minute packer in me is compeling me to willingly postpone all the zillion things i am supposed to do before i leave.Wil be posting a detailed account of the trip once i get back.Rite now just want to record that all the universe seems conspired to block this trip from happening.Meeting with hurdles at each n every step....Hope everything goes well..

Kerala Manga's/Monkey's day out

Nov 1st - Kerala day...once again marred by a hartal called by the BJP... Kerala day celebrations at college postponed to Nov 2nd - a more convenient day for everyone. Am not here to express my anguish about the intermittent hartals in the state. Ashamed to admit, but i guess i am one among those shameful mallus who enjoys a hartal. Any day without classes is welcome especially when there is a test due on that day...

So on Nov 2nd our 'self-made-day-for-Kerala-day-celebrations' it is unanimously decided that all of us turn up as Kerala mangas/monkeys(depending on what you wanna call it)...

The preparation....

I hunt the cupboard for my kerala saree which has been dumped somewhere inside the huge pile of clothing after last years kerala day celebration...finally find it crumpled in a corner in the bottom rack...get it dry cleaned...hunt for some matching traditional accessories...don’t find any...decide to do sum mix n match n take out my favorite huge beige chandelier earring that goes with anything n everything...

Raw materials found n ready- Kerala saree with a violet border, ear ring n sandals....

The D'Day

Wake up earlier than usual coz wearing a saree is as complicated as those innumerable pleats on a saree. Am 22 n still haven’t mastered the art of draping it.

I make a big hue n cry n force my mom to help me in wrapping the 6 meter stretch of cloth...even though am not exactly happy with the way my mom wrapped it for me i make do with it, coz i myself don’t know how to accomplish that perfect pleat for my pallu...

Now time for another tantrum show...this time to force my dad to drop me in college coz obviously i cant go in bus wearing a saree...

1st of all there is the constant threat of tripping
2nd of all there is the possibility of hearing lewd remarks frm psychos on the road
n 3rdly i am plain lazy n i badly need a free ride to college...

dad falls for the 2nd threat n agrees to drop me...

In class...

A big majority is dressed up in saree n have come exclusively to show off their saree look.So when the lecturer asks us to take down some notes nobody has either a pen or a piece of parchment coz clearly "m'am we thought there wasn't goin to be any classes today!" If anything our bags are full of lipstick, gloss, mascara n all those necessary ‘lil somethings’ which might come in handy for the photo session we had planned right after the lecturer walked out. Pen n paper were probably the last things we thought of stuffing into our bags before we came to college. Atleast that was the case with me...

As soon as we are free we pounce upon Asha who usually brings her digi cam n as usual this time too her battery is low so we quickly click away to glory in all possible angles before the battery dies out...

The college has organized some special kerala day competitions but we decided to give it a miss n have our own special celebration in a gud restro with gud food...obviously eating as if we have never seen food is one of our specialty.Our usual haunt Cylon Bake House is full on K Day with gals from our college.Guess majority in college prefer spending their K day eating out rather than watching the droll programs in the 'science block gym plaza open air auditorium'...

"Cylon housefull so where next??" Someone comes up with Sanjoe n we decide to head there for lunch.Minu who has brought her car is our official chauffer for the day. 7 females squeeze into her Maruti 800 defying the laws of physics n head for Sanjoe. All the while Minu doubtful whether we would make it to Sanjoe before the car breaks down. But finally we do n the car is still in one piece. Minu heaves a sigh of relief n probably mentally swears never to bring her car to college when there is a function goin on and even if she does bring it for some freakin reason NEVA EVA to offer her class mates a ride..

@ Sanjoe....

Gave the order. And am not disclosing what we ordered coz that might surprise the general assumptions of female eating capacity...trust me when really hungry females can get scary...a long wait for the food to arrive. We pass time by the all - time favorite female activity - gossiping...Eventually the food arrives n ‘operation attack’ is launched...15 mins of silence until we have satisfied our growling tummies and then again another round of gossip till we finally decide t pay the bill n head back to our homes...

Get-together @ Bay 'Pride' Mall

Last Saturday i finally made it to my degree-gang get together! I usually miss these meetings either by chance or on purpose. Most of the time i give my friends the excuse of some unavoidable meeting with some XYZ or one of my imaginary incurable weekend flues.Well, its not because i don't enjoy hanging out with my old pals... its just that am way too lazy to move out of my home on a cozy Saturday.The prospect of lazing around at home seems much more alluring to me than running around the city on a hot afternoon.Call me a lazy bum and i wont complain because i am one!

So what made me change my mind this time around?Hmm...nothing in particular.I finally got bored of lazing around at home every weekend and decided to catch up with the girls and have some fun.So a long delayed get together was finally taking shape under my friend Babinu's initiative.We called up each other and fixed to meet up at our college convent at 10am sharp and then workout the plan of action for the rest of the day.

I reach at the convent entrance 30 mins late expecting to find the rest of my gang waiting to pounce on me for being the last one to reach.But guess what 2 years is a long time and people change...am no longer the only one who never makes it on time... It turns out am the 1st person to arrive. What ensues is a long tiring wait for the rest of the girls... i start doubting if they had cancelled the plans for the outing and forgot to inform me...the constant stare of the watchman with a slight tinge of suspicion upsets me and am at the point of leaving when Sara makes her appearance. Finally someone to prove to him that i was not lying about our supposed get together! Thank heavens!

"OH MY GOD u cut your hair! U look different! Your face has so totally changed!"

"What took u so long you %^#$@?! I have been waiting for ages! U have lost weight!!"

"Did you bring the notes i told you to bring?"

"Where is Mridula? Is she coming? I bet she will come in complaining about the humongous task of walking 5 mins from her home to the convent like always!"

"Why on earth did it have to rain exactly on the day when we decide to have our get together?"

The sudden excitement of meeting close friends after a long gap often results in pointless hyper excited conversation. Both of us keep talking nonstop without answering the queries of the other. Then we gradually get a grip and start talking sense..In the meantime Mridula and Babinu come in...Mridu as usual irritated with the rain for pouring down with the hidden agenda to drench her brand new "Jootis"(footwear) and Babz ,the fashion designer, popping up in a self made exquisite zardosi embroidered top n jholla(bag)....

"Where is Helga n Michelle?"

"Michelle is the one who usually gets late. But what happened to Helga?"

"They both are coming together..."

"No wonder!"

"So we cant catch a movie...the show must have started by now..."

The two VIP's eventually come in 45 mins later with a puppy dog face apologetic for upsetting the whole schedule and giving dumb excuses for being late. The moment the duo come in madness sets in. There is a pathetic outpouring of PJ's (poor jokes) and even more pathetic laughter at the dumb PJ's...Like i mentioned before...The sudden excitement of meeting close friends after a long gap often results in pointless hyper excited conversation.

Now that everyone has come ...what do we do??

"lets go somewhere"

"where??"

"ya where?"

"Hey Helga is giving a treat at Bay Pride Mall coz she has been elected the Vice chairperson of her college!"

"yippeeeeeee!!!"

"who told am giving a treat?"

"Yes u are!How could u not give a treat u 'pishiki'!"

"Alrite alrite..whats the cheapest thing at Bay Pride Mall?"

"lol! nothing is cheap there..he he...u have to pay for even the Air conditioning!!"

We cleverly trap Helga into agreeing for sponsoring the treat at Bay Pride Mall...and the poor gullible sweetheart agrees to pay for 'Black Desire' at Abad Foodcourt @ BPM...

BPM-A great place to hangout with friends:-

1)If u have cash in ur pocket
2)If u have a sponsor
3)If u just wanna ogle at the posh dudes and dudettes dating,flirting,chatting,hogging,or simply walking aimlessly around the place...

If you are a middle class mallu with no sense of latest fashion trends get out of the place before you feel ill at ease or horribly inferior to the hip young English speaking crowd thronging the mall...This is one place that will make u regret for being just an average mallu...These are not my conclusions....these were the rumours i heard about the place from those who have visited the place before...And my first visit to the place with my girl friends confirmed the report...Sad to admit, but its not a place i would wannna visit unless am looking my best and having loads of cash to burn...

Warning for those who havn't been there :Bay Pride Mall might give ur 'Pride' a jolt!

Provoking...isnt it??

This is what i call PRETENDING to have an attitude!

MG University Youth/beastly Festival !!

A couple of weeks back i got an opportunity to go to Pathanamthita. The occasion for the visit- The MG university Youth Festival..

Its been quite some time since we had a university youth festival. Last time the university organised one was in 2003 at Sri Sankara University Campus, Kalady. Back then i was a 1st year degree student..innocent,inexperienced,ready to jump into anything and everything that came my way.. So when Ms.Jessy was desperately hunting for students for mime i quickly volunteered even though i barely had any clue as to what mime was all about. It was just for the sheer experience of being a part of the youth festival team that i had joined in.

For me it was an opportunity to meet and make friends with a lot of my collegemates/seniors,to get close with some of the teachers in charge,to experience hostel life for the 1st time,late night practise sessions,mastering the art of mime, ending up with sprained ankles, enjoying the massage offered by the sports dept students to ease the muscle pain,homesickness tantrums(not mine my friend's) ...Those two months of 'no class and only practise' was an experience in itself which i relished being a part of in spite of all the bitterness associated with it.

This time around it was a different story altogether. I was a part of the quiz team. So no hostel stays and late night practise sessions since we were brushing up our Gk on our own.Before you form an impression of an intelligent quizzer about me let me clarify...Am not what you call a 'quiz fanatic'.In fact my Gk is just a bare 'average'...limited to watching the news channels and skipping through the newspapers.This time too i was a part of the team for the sheer experience of quizzing. I wonder if am being uncompetitive but it didn't matter much whether we won or lost. "Do your best if success comes your way time to party, if it doesn't better luck next time" that was my motto...

But this time my experience was rather unpleasant. I was definitely disturbed by some of the things i saw at the youth festival venues.No its not the usual complaint about unorganised event management,delayed schdules and foul play. What disturbed me the most was the attitude of the participants and the audience- The attitude of the "youths" of youth festival.

On one side there were the bunch of students carrying around placards urging everyone to "Celebrate a Plastic free youth festival" and on the other there is the savage audience who rebelliously made an effort to litter the venue. I genuinely felt pathetic about the plight of St.Stephens auditorium were the crowd went berserk and expressed both their appreciation and disapproval by tearing up piles and piles of evening news bulletins and throwing it up in absolute mockery of the cleanliness squads efforts to ensure a minimum litter zone.What i witnessed at some of the venues was a generation of young hot blooded hooligans with no respect for private property.

In the venue for dramatics competition the situation was absolutely chaotic.I can understand if the audience claps or hoots after a performance. But hooting and clapping throughout the entire length of a performance non stop seems incomprehensible. The poor performers were shouting their heart out to make themselves audible to the judges and the so called audience made it double sure that the dialogues were muffled in their constant senseless clapping,shouting and hooting.Either it was deliberately done to mislead the judges or it is the best proof of pure untamed aimless insanity!

Then there is the ugly turn that a youth festival takes on when a rival college bags the prize.A big hullabaloo erupts the moment a college is declared the winner for an event.Every one thinks they deserve the first prize and everyone thinks that their performance was better than the others. Sighs of contempt, angry abuses, protest march and even open warfare is a common sight in these venues. I tried consoling one such lost soul, who was sulking as if a birth right has been denied, with my philosophy of 'enjoying the experience' and pat came the reply "Screw sportsman spirit and damn the biased judges!". At times it seemed as if it was all about crushing the other college rather than winning the trophy. "Even if we don't get the prize XYZ shouldn't get the prize!"
Hmm...If only some one had bothered to instill some basic lessons on losing with grace and respecting the winners...It would have at least seemed civilized.

I wonder if the youth festivals are relevant any more.I suppose these festivals were initially organised to provide a platform for healthy competition among the youngsters to develop a sense of unity and an opportunity to meet and mingle with students from other colleges.But in the present scenario it appears as if these are occasions for rival colleges to express their disgusting disapproval for each other. The menacing ferocity of this years youth festival was at its zenith when the winners hired drum sets and took out a procession not just to exhibit their trophies but to thoughtfully gift a coffin to the runners up!

A good teacher from a students prespective...

When our criticism lecturer asked us casually about the qualities of a good teacher all 16 of us stared at her with a blank expression..it was not because we didn't know what made a good teacher...behind those 16 pairs of eyeballs that stared at her there was some thing more... each students attempt to capture and enumerate the essential qualities of an ideal teacher after around 17 years of being a student...

It isn't an easy task to pin point exactly what makes an ideal teacher. In fact the term 'Ideal' itself is ambiguous. I don't believe there is a perfect teacher who can be portrayed as ideal....every teacher has her strengths and weaknesses..Yet i remember there are some who stand out in my memory when i reflect upon teachers who have inspired me...I looked into them to find the answer for the question thrown at us so casually by Ms.Tessy - "What are the qualities of a good teacher?"

When you are in a profession that requires you to mould and direct young minds to aspire knowledge then it ceases to become a mere profession and has to turn into a passion. Only a teacher who enjoys teaching will succeed in making an impact on her students. As a student it made a huge impact on me when i was taught by teachers who genuinely enjoyed their subjects. They taught with an indelible mark of passion. It naturally led me to aspire to have the same passion for the subject. Simply put, it aroused my curiosity to find out what was it that made the teacher in front of me enjoy the subject she was teaching... I remember how i was inspired by some of my teachers fiery classes to go into the library and try to figure out what excited these teacher into such sheer passion.I believe that initial inspiration which a teacher instills in a student to try to understand the subject without any external force is undeniably an achievement...

Talking about passionate teachers i am also reminded of their major flaws...often they are so carried away in their lectures that they deviate from the subject matter and tend to flood us students with too much information.Ultimately we end up confused... I believe even if it is a tiny portion that a teacher deals with, if she succeeds in conveying the ideas with clarity and precision ,before the students loose their interest, the job is half done. The other half that a teacher needs to concentrate on is in presenting the subject matter in such a fashion that it makes an impact on the students so that they can recollect it with ease. Easier said than done i suppose....

Yet another quality that i have always admired in some teachers are their ability to gain the trust and confidence of their students so that they feel free to approach them not only for clearing their academic queries but also to seek guidance when faced with a personal crisis. But i feel these intimate student-teacher relationships are few and far between nowadays.Majority of the teachers i have come across don't encourage such intimate relationships anymore. I don't deny that the students themselves maintain a safe distance from the teachers ... Either they are too much in awe of the teachers or because they absolutely abhor their classes! But there is some thing special when a teacher shares a personal bond with the students.I guess it gives the students a sense of freedom and they can open up without fear of retribution or judgement.

Intellect, integrity and an aura of self composed confidence are also a true mark of an impressive teacher.Over and above everything else a good teacher should be able to TEACH! Even if the teacher cannot inspire the students at least they shouldn't drag their subject and make the students hate it eternally!!

I guess this adage captures the true essence of a good teacher...

The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.

A sincere wish....

Isnt she adorable??

Velankanni

Whenever we go for our annual vacation a trip to Velankanni is always on the cards. Call it my moms superstition or a family tradition visiting Mother Mary's shrine at Tamil Nadu is inevitable if we have to go on a vaccation. But ever since the tsunami struck Velankanni we haven't been there. Trips to velankanni were religiously planned but for some reason it always got cancelled. Something or the other came up and the Velankanni trip was always shelved. So this Onam vacation when my uncle suggested a family trip to Velankanni everybody at our home jumped at the opportunity to visit the shrine after a long gap...

I personally am not a very religious person but i do believe in mother Mary. So in spite of my initial inhibitions about going for an over crowded family trip i decided to finally give in and join the trip. And boy what a trip it turned out to be!!!From the beginning till the end this trip was an overwhelming experience....

My first jolt was when i saw the the 14 seater tempo traveller hired for a total of 17 people who were coming for the trip. I am not being a complaint box but for a journey that lasts over 12 hours (in the very least) at least adequate seating is a basic necessity! I knew from the start this was not going to be a pleasant experience...Obviously everybody was not very happy with the vehicle but tempers flared when one of my uncle made a last minute call informing his surprise decision to join us!! Before things went out of hand he had to be politely refused. THANK GOD!

Everybody was picked up...the journey began with the customary recital of the rosary seeking the blessings of mother Mary...everybody settled in...kids on the lap of their parents and adults squeezed into the few available seats...general chit chat started...then a break to have dinner...all the home made delicacies were laid out...umm...just one clinch... aren't we going for a pilgrimage? Aren't we supposed to fast?? Cant we give non veg a break at least when we go to Velankanni??? Who am i to raise my voice when there are so many elders in the group... anyways who cares as long as the food is yummy...

Another thing that surprised me was the decision to cook our own food instead of dropping by a wayside hotel. Seems like some people had an issue with hotel food so they came all geared up with cooking gas, stove, food supply that would last for a week!I don't understand who would volunteer to cook in between such a long journey! We even had trouble finding accommodation at Velankanni because most of the hotels didn't allow cooking in their premises....Besides its so embarrassing standing on the road with paper plates and having food...i didn't like the idea at all...

The bad roads delayed us ... our vehicle slows down and we are late by over 5 hours...as soon as we enter the scorching heat of Tamil Nadu our AC breaks down...As if this wasn't enough a couple of miles ahead our bus breaks down with a flat tyre! Talk about a messy journey..this by far tops the charts!

We finally reached Velankanni after a longg 18 hr bus ride which can aptly be summed up as - SAD, BAD, MAD! Back bones dismantled, knees aching i was cursing the moment when i decided to join this trip! i knew it was a bad decision from the start then why the hell did i join the group?! I should have relaxed at home and enjoyed a peace full Onam sadya...

But seems like there was a purpose behind this whole journey...something which wasn't very obvious at first but became clear when i saw the pilgrims visiting Mother Marys shrine...especially the tamilian peasant pilgrims...i saw their passion..i saw their devotion...i saw their sacrifice before seeking the blessings of mother Mary...i saw them scrawling on their knees on the burning beach sand for over 2 kilometers before entering the shrine...i saw them shouting "Mariye Vazhga" on top of their voices without any restraint.. i saw them walking for miles on the burning hot roads from their homes far away til they reached the shrine.....

It was such a humbling experience....Here i am complaining about an AC and a con jested bus when these people have been walking for the entire journey in the burning hot roads...Here i am guarding my complexion with an umbrella and they shave off their heads and walk around bald...not just men and kids even fully grown women! All my complaints seems so trivial now...

I don't know if my prayers would even reach mother Mary...

I don't even know if i deserve to pray...

I wonder if i will ever have the humility that is a prerequisite before praying...

2005-06 - Highlights!

This post contains parts of a letter that I wrote to a long lost friend...It pretty much sums up my 3rd year degree days, my last camp, my first job and joining back college for my post graduation.......

WARNING: This post is longggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg............

Dear _______,

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I was in and out of TVM attending a lot of camps. In fact in the final year of degree I hardly attended any classes in college. Most of the time I was in camps having a tuff time getting trained and living a hellish life…

Looking back at those days I wonder how I managed to survive the camps…The amount of physical and mental strain that they put you through is simply unbelievable…We (the girls) were put up in an old god-forsaken palace (nalukettu) somewhere in TVM.. I forgot the name of the place. But it was some where near the Padmanabha Swami Kshetram. We were told that this particular building was used to shoot ghost movies (as if that helps!) ..We had to stay in a dusty godown around this nallukettu with no fan and just a CFL bulb for lighting.. Have a peek outside through the broken window and it’s an overgrown jungle that can scare the living daylights out of anyone who dares to venture out in the dark considering all the ghost stories connected with the place.

The place itself is so depressing and add to it the tuff regimen we had to follow I felt as if it were much better to be dead…

Waking up at 3 in the morning…waiting in long queues to use the stinking loo and the moment I get in either the water supply stops or the banging starts forcing me to get out the very next moment (these were moments when I realized the comforts of my home and it hit me how much I take things for granted)…

We have to clean up our living area (meaning the dusty godown were we sleep on the floor), arrange the carpet and luggage in a certain style which we call ‘layout’ in NCC terminology and get ready to leave for parade training by around 5am. A bus or a truck usually comes to pick us up and we are all transported to the training area -The Police Training Academy or Military Cantt….

We collect the rifles and go to the the Ground for warm up…The term warm up is actually misleading… “Adapillakal” sounds more apt…The gruelling warm up session itself lasts for around 3 hours and the trainers have no ‘Kannichorra’ whatsoever…By the end of the warm up session everyone is bruised specially around the hands and arm area due to the rifle parade. We have to twist and turn the god damn rifle and bang our hands on it strong and stiff without showing the pain that shoots out through our bruised arms…Talk about delicate damsels in distress and the trainers would double up the parade timings to make us stronger!

They give us a half hour break for break fast and we have to run for our life back to the Police Academy canteen gobble up the steaming hot food and rush back to the ground again for parade training..By the time whatever little we have managed to stuff inside is digested and it doesn't make much of a difference in our having break fast or not having it….Then again parade training till noon and all my 'long hours of beauty care' goes down the drain under the scorching heat of the sun…

A short lunch break follows and afternoon sessions are spent studying or preparing for cultural competitions till late in the night around 11pm…By the time we get back to our sleeping area its way past midnight…hardly 3-4hours of sleep and we have to get ready for the next parade….and after 12 days of rigorous camping when I get back home my parents fail to recognize their chweet-chubby-cheeky-girl who left for the camp and quiver at the sight of a sleep-deprived-seriously–pi**ed-off-zombie that has returned home….

I can go on and on about the camps at TVM….But in spite of all the tuff times it was a great experience. It gave me a real chance to introspect and made me realize how much I can 'take in' and what is my 'breaking point'. Taught me to survive in the toughest circumstances with minimal resources and made me realize the value of simple things in life like a clean toilet and edible food!!! After what I have gone through I guess I can survive anything anywhere…Those camps were a huge confidence booster…I felt stronger both mentally and physically….In short the experience was worth every bit of pain and effort that went into it….

But then the only sad part is I couldn't go for RD even though I made it to the final list.. That was a blow ….but swallowed it with the hope that what has happened has happened for the best…

Came back to college only to find that almost all the portions are over and I have absolutely no clue of the syllabus. From that day onwards it was like a challenge to get back in form and cover up for all the missed classes…more than anything else it was my moms constant threat of getting me married off (in case I flung for the exams) that inspired me to make the extra effort at studies…Meanwhile I got an offer to fly to Andaman & Nicobar Islands for a 20 day national camp in compensation for the RD camp that I had missed out….But it was during my study hols and going for the camp meant ruining my degree results so had to refuse the offer…By God that was the most toughest decision I have ever made in my life….

Gave my exams…prepared for MA entrance exams in various universities outside Kerala…gave those exams as well….then one day my friend dragged me into this campus recruitment happening in college...Got through the interview even though I was not serious about joining the company. But once I got the offer letter I changed my mind about higher studies and decided to give it a shot...I joined Sutherland Global Services as a business process executive..Got trained to be an underwriter (In case that doesn’t make any sense to you an underwriter is someone who checks and verifies loan documents and confirms or rejects the loan application)…It was a finance process..we served US based clients of reputed banks like Merryl Lynch, City Bank and Standard Charted…. Training period was lot of fun….Most of the crowd working in the company were young fresh hands like myself…ours was the pilot project of the company in cochin. It’s a Chennai based company which started off with our process. I got a feel of the corporate world, work pressure, night shifts and decided that it was not exactly my cup of tea….

So quit working and joined for MA in the same college where I did my degree…I got through the entrance exams in 3 universities outside Kerala but parents refused to let me go…So am back in college hoping whatever happens happens for the best…But college life is not the same any more…PG level studies are so heavy and serious...we hardly get time to fool around…But still manage to bunk a couple of classes and catch a movie sometimes….but generally life is a lot more uneventful compared to my degree days…
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With lotsa Luv,
Yours sincerely,
_______________


PS: You do have lots of patience to read all this crap!!!

Miss you amma...

In Malayalam there is a saying that pretty much translates as "You don't know the value of an eye when you have one. Its only when you lose it that you realize its importance." At this point in my life I fully understand what it really means...In my case though the eye that i ignored was my mom...

It was a week ago she got transfer to Kannur..A place that takes roughly half a days journey by train from Kochi, my home town...I have never thought myself too attached to my mom. I was never a pampered kid, I never shared my secrets with my mom like some of my friends do, I never bothered to hug her and thank her for everything she had done for me..If anything we used to have humongous fights for the stupidest reasons..literally disagreeing on every second topic. And to be honest there were times when i wished i could live my life without her advice!!

So initially i thought of her shifting to Kannur as a blessing in disguise...Now i could have all the freedom in the world...do whatever i want without being checked by her...Wow!!! This was my dream!!!

But as soon as i get what i wished for ages i regret it...

I laughed at my little sister who was crying when she heard about ammas plans to move out. The same me was crying like a baby the night before she actually moved to kannur..I couldn't sleep for an entire night...the thought of not having amma around me anymore was way too depressing...I thought i was all grown up and could deal without having amma to fuss over me...But that night i realized no matter how grown up i am, no matter how much i want to live my life on my own terms, no matter how much i fight with my mom....at the end of the day there is no one who can replace my mom and life without her really 'hurts'...I realized i had taken her for granted...

Random thoughts about my city Kochi

I belong to the so called "Gods own country"..Sometimes i wonder how realistic this tag is because honestly i cant think of any godliness or cleanliness around me that would qualify Kerala to be called Gods own country...

Of course one can argue about the lush green landscape and Serene backwaters...but is this the kerala an average Malayali experiences on a daily basis?? At least i don't! Maybe its because I reside in Kochi, the upcoming business hot spot of the state - A beautiful port city that bears the brunt of thoughtless town planning and a negligent corporation!!

The thing that disturbs me the most is the stinking pile of garbage thrown in every nook and corner..I wish we could have a cleaner city...I wish we could have a safer city...A safer city for girls in particular...Me being a girl have personally had lots of unpleasant experiences in this city- eve teasing in its worst forms.On second thoughts I don't agree with the term Eve-teasing. The issue is more serious and deserves a more serious coinage. Its an insult and needs a term that conveys that meaning. If you are a member of the female species step into any public place and you have a very good chance of being subjected to verbal or physical insults irrespective of your age group. And more often than not the people around you wont even budge to come to your rescue...

Finally i made it to the blogger world!!!

This is something i wanted to do for a very very longggg time...to become a blogger...to have a space to unravell all my thoughts and opinions uninhibited...to share the best and worst moments...to laugh out loud and to scream in frustration...to cut things short i wish to write about myself,the people around me and my experiences...