New header for my blog.....

I seriously think its time i changed my blog template a bit. And since i needed something to keep me occupied during my hols, I have tried to design a header for my blog. Please suggest which one shud i use.

(the templates have been arranged here in the order that i made them in starting from the first one made)


This one is too kiddish i think though ive tried to express different moods here.




This one is too lovy-dovy i think :P (might put it up somewhere near valentine's day :P)



Hmm... dunno bout this one. Will put it near holi i guess :P



Wat bout this?




Or this???












Um still trying to design another one. wen um done with it, i'll put up dat too.

Art...

Yeah... iam feeling very creative these days. I agree iam totally out of practise. Your criticisms (constructive if u please...) are most welcome.



i painted this one for my bro. It was given as a school project. I am yet to find gud enuf justification to giving such ridiculous assignments.

Photoshop-1

Yeah yeah.... i dont deny the fact that I am not moody. In fact people who have known me for a decent period of time are pretty aware of my mood swings. But really, I swear these days my mood swings (uh! okay... tantrums) have reduced significantly. My posts stand privy to this fact as it has been really really *stresses on the word with all her heart* long since I ve used the word "mood swing" and "me" together :P
And like I have tried to justify numerous times before, I still stress on how constructive these mood swings and "weird phases " (Ah! there.... it feels so heavenly to use these words after so long) are. Its because of these sudden natural emotional outbursts and behavioral patterns and characteristic traits, which are not so characteristic and habitual these days, that I have managed to create some really innovative and inspirational pieces of art (or so i like to believe :P). Though many would like to disagree to the above statement, so righteously made by a die-hard believer of spontaneous expression and genuine emotions emoted during phases of intense creative outburst, I still stand stubbornly next to this very phenomenon that has made me a proud creator of some fine handiwork.

Today, a hapless victim of yet another similar phase, my latest passion seems to be Adobe Photoshop. Though I had a miniature tryst with this software in my last semester at college, I have fully absorbed the significance and method of use of this unique creation of the human brain, in these last few days. Here’s presenting two of my creations during my first-ever proper rendezvous with this application.

(who said writing rubbish was difficult??? :P :P)

11 to 1

11:00 pm (room)[ have just come back after spending the whole (almost whole) day at the library (aka ISH)]

I can’t sleep. No way! *nods her head* It’s too early. I have loads of do. According to my plan this chapter has to be finished today. Actually I am pretty feeling happy and quite satisfied with my work. So far I have managed to stick to my schedule. Well, that may also be because I do not make unrealistic schedules (or plans) in the first place. *smug look* Just this one chapter and I am off to bed.

11:15 pm

Still feeling restless. I know I have to study. No other way out o it. Exam starts day after tomorrow. Get up and rearrange my desk. Take out the notes. Just then roomie remembers something that she had to tell me. Talk to her for 5-10 mins. Just then another friend comes into the room. Realizing I wont be able to study in my room any longer (and hence wont be able to sleep sooner) I pick up my notes, a rough copy, a pencil, my mp3 player, my cell, wear my slippers and go out hoping to study in the balcony (silently praying that its pleasant and windy there and also peaceful).

11:30 pm

Walk into the balcony. See another girl sitting on “my” chair (my=chair that I like sitting on). Sit on the other empty chair. (The compromising self that I am). Plug the ear phones to my ears. Comfortably put my leg up on the railing and open the page to be studied. “my” chair gets emptied. Almost jump and grab it before anyone else can. Make myself comfortable again and actually, finally start studying.

11:35pm

I realize that I have been the reading the same lines over and over again. Give myself a shake and get back to get some actual effective studying done. Study 4-5 pages, actually understanding every word. Feel happy with myself. Count the number of pages left to be read. Heart sinks as the count gets incremented by 1 with each page that I turn. 13 pages left. Involuntarily thoughts drift into how poor “13” is considered to be unlucky. Feel a wave of sympathy towards it. Just then a couple of junies pass by. A series of “hi ma’am” follows. I smile. It felt good to be a senior.

12:10 am

*panic* OMG! It’s past midnight! I am jolted back to reality. Again start studying. An utterly nasal voise breaks my concentration. There was this junie complaining and cribbing to her dad because her branch got upgraded. *roll my eyes* Talk about being satisfied!!

12:45 am

Almost done with the chapter! Gleefully look around. The corridor is almost deserted. Just then a friend comes up. Sit and chat with her for 5-10 minutes. Then I start reading the chapter again, while she talks to her boyfriend on the phone. Just then, another junie, comes to the balcony and starts talking to her boyfriend aswell. That chick was extremely annoying. Shoot angry and annoyed looks at her each time she raises her voice beyond human tolerance level.

1:05 am

Finally finish the chapter. Sit just staring out towards the road. Can’t help but feel philosophical. Make up my mind to blog and then immediately give up the idea recalling the recent few events where I took out my lappy, starting working on word to put up a post and then gave up. Decide not to waste time. Listen to what was going on around me. (No. this is not called eavesdropping. Not when the volume of the conversation is high enough for anybody within a km to hear :P ). Feel amazed at how different people look at the same things. For example, the area I call balcony was called connector by my friend and corridor by the other girl. While one of them spoke so nicely and softly with her boyfriend, the other used all possible swear-words on him, simultaneously demanding imported chocolates and the 4^th season of “how I met your mother”

1:20am

I collect my notes, pick up my pencil, unplug the earphones from my ear, slip my cell into the pocket of my nite-suite, wear my slippers and humming the song "kuch kam" from dostana (luv the music of the movieand the movie), come back to the room, smiling :)

p.s. examz from tomorrow...!!!!! :O :O !!!!

.

WEIRD

Iam at this weird new turn in my life (and I say that not because my horoscope for today says “you are at the edge of MAGIC” :P . It’ s really funny how sometimes what is written in my horoscope kinda puts my feelings into words.) Everything seems so distant yet so near. One second I am exhilarated , and in the next, I am slumped in a corner trying to get away from myself. Like always, I have millions (no actually trillions) of weird thoughts running through my now-partly-non-functional brain. I am so dazed that when I go to collect food from the hostel delivery guy, and meet an old dance-group mate at the gate, I take her to be someone else and blabber something utterly incoherent until she gives me a weird look, shakes me and asks me if I am all alright. I am not going to waste much space writing about the hours spent per day on sleeping (which actually goes above 10) because it seems to be a regular feature during the months of Nov, Dec and Jan (partly in Jan, i.e till my bday )

Jeez!! I will no longer be in my teens in two months *horrified. Mortified. Stunned into silenced by shock and disbelief* Can you believe it?? I don’t. I can’t!! I don’t feel like one. Actually I really dunno how one should feel once they cross their teens. Should they feel all big and mature, ready to take care of any damn situation in their life?? And feel all nice and content at all that they have got and done so far?? (the obvious things obviously pre assumed ;) ) But what if you enter into it without feeling any of the above?? I think I can take care of myself. I have already done that for 20 freaking years of my life. (no actually I’ll change that to 2 freaking years of my life. Coz my mom use to take care of me when I was at home.) But I dunno bout the rest of it. There is a lot more I should have done in the past 20 years. (iam not gonna mention it here, coz well… ahem…I have learnt that my blog is accessible to a lot more people than I can actually imagine :P ) Anyways…guess time cant be stopped and in any case, my roomie (who is already 20) told me it feels just the same even when you enter the new league of 20 something, So I guess it will be fine. I will just have to wait and watch till then.

Yeah, if you have been wondering whats with this weird new turn in my life that I mentioned right in the beginning, I really cant answer that one guys. Like I said its weird. I can feel it. I can sense its presence and know that its fast approaching, but what exactly it is, will be revealed only when it reaches me. No, I am not drunk. (I don’t drink). I guess I ve just been sleeping too much.

p.s. Can anyone please please define satisfaction for me?? I would seriously like to know when exactly one feels satisfied. (coz I truly think all of us have become SO damn greedy that we are never really satisfied with anything.)

p.p.s I just finished reading Bridget Jones’s Diary. It left me feeling even more weird. (now u know why my post is titled weird, don't you?? )

The COORG TRIP (an organiser's point of view ;) )

PHEW!! Today, after almost a month and a half, I have finally taken out time to do nothing! If I was asked to sum up the past one a half months, I would probably not know from where to start and what all to say, because there was SO much happening, that I barely got time to sit and ponder over it (and that’s saying something). But yes, the most significant thing that happened during this time is that I have finally been able to tick off something from my list of to-do’s, which can also be called my dream or my ardent wish.

As a school girl, I had these vivid imaginations where I would see myself in this nice college, doing a lot of “important” “official” work like organizing stuff, or working for an organization. I would inevitable imagine myself running around, getting things done. I had no idea which college I would land up in or how my dreams would metamorphosis into reality. But that’s why I say law of attraction works.

My dreams kind of turned into reality! Yes! I got a chance to be one of the organizers for the REDX trip to Coorg, for the first years. The amount I have learnt during the course of this trip, is seriously not a joke. For those of you unaware of what exactly the job of an organizer is, let me clear your doubts. As far as my understanding of this post goes, an organizer (there are four of them) is responsible for almost everything that happens or is going to happen on the trip. Though whatever they do does require a nod of the head from the executive committee people, still, right from planning the trip to the execution of it, it’s the organizers who are grinded in the mill. Given below are some pre-requisites that an organizer must possess:

(in no particular order)

1. Patience (abundance of it): without this the organizer is sure to go bald with the n number of “ready to tear ur hair out” situations that arise.
2. Self-control- A must for all those people who don’t wanna go sore shouting at all the other people who should be working but are not, and don’t wanna land up with a sever headache at the end of the day, after shouting ,abusing and swearing along with their fellow organizers (and sometimes at their fellow organizers) :P
3. Sense of humor- this is your lifeline. To let the steam off your head, go in for some witty one-liners (which might just turn into pjs if u r not careful) or better still, make music your best companion.
4. Stamina- Yes! A couple of packets of glucose ought to become a part of your daily diet. (unless of course you are use to such a stressful and tiring routine (read- doing bhangra :P))
5. Quick thinking- Ah! This one is needed to dodge your teachers and their suspicious stares when you sit in the last bench, sms-ing your fellow organizers and discussing important stuff like “setting up of info desks, putting up posters, getting the man-com to work” and the likes. And I am not exaggerating when I say that we would be so engrossed in doing all this that by the time we finally looked up from the screen of the cell, the class would be almost over.
6. Insomnia- If you are already an insomniac, it is going to be a cake-walk for you. If you are not one, well… then dude… tough times ahead! Stealing 4-5 hours of sleep per day is an achievement!
7. self-confidence- This is needed when you have people come and take out their anger on you, for no rhyme or reason, and you have no other option but to give them a patient hearing, calm them down and pacify them. In such a situation, you have to be sure of your actions and know that you are not wrong.

I dunno if I possessed any of the above mentioned “qualities”, but I do know that I have matured quite a bit in the past few weeks. My understanding of a lot of things has increased significantly. I have had to deal with SO many different kinds of people that now iam pretty confident of facing any situation that may arise. On a more serious note, this trip has been a totally enriching experience for me. I have discovered lots of things about myself which I probably wouldn’t have otherwise. There are so many responsibilities of an organizer. Before the trip and during it, it’s like you are representing the club before everyone else. You are totally responsible for your actions and your words.

The event is like your own baby. You see is grow before you. And finally, when you see the event being concluded successfully, and have people praising you for your efforts, it feels divine. All the hard feelings, anger and frustration simply melts. All the effort seems worth it.

I dunno when next such an opportunity is gonna come to me again, but I sure am already looking forward to it J Life is weird… u never know when and what its gonna haul at u next. Yes, I use the word haul coz for me, nothing seems to slowly and steadily come in… it’s always….with a boom and a bang!

The Manipal Our Parents Dreamt Of ! !

Yes people! I have some very bad news for the all the future “wannabe”-MITians. (where MIT stands for Manipal Institute Of Technology :P ). This place, under the influence of our esteem director, has metamorphosed from the ultimately cool and chilled out Manipal, to something thats well… not so cool and chilled out. The badnaam galli is no longer so badnaam. The freshies have to pay Rs. 50 as fine, for each class that they bunk. (yes, I know you r shocked. So were we. Not tto he forget the plight of the freshies!! ). The anti-ragging sqaud is functioning quite effectively. The various clubs and dance groups (and all the seniors in general) are forbidden from having any kind of interaction with the freshies. The freshies with whom one manages to interact, try and act so ultra-cool and wanna-be smart, that you end up following the director’s orders. (a freshie who had come into my room to take some last year books, sits on my bed, happily narrates an incident when she shouted “fuck you” in the presence of our chief warden (unintentionally), asks me the city I come from and then has the gall to say “oh! So you are one of those smart chicks from a small city eh??? * with proper hand movement and facial expressions et al* :I )

The latest and the funniest thing to be started on campus is the anti-couples squad. As the name suggests, this particular group of people move in jeeps after 10:30 pm and their main aim is to part couples and groups consisting of both boys and girls. So folks, don’t blame me if iam not able to post something on “manipal couples” from now on. ( if u don’t know what iam talking about, read this.)

This is not it. Each day, something new keeps cropping up. Now, even the hostel timings have to be strictly adhered to. If the present trend continues, Manipal will no longer remain every student’s dream. *sob sob*. In fact, it’s soon transforming into the manipal our parents dreamt of :(

“The girl who got stuck in the lift”

My 3^rd sem here, has suddenly become SO eventful, that I simply cant believe that a few weeks back (i.e a few days after I returned to manipal) I was all set to pack my bags, and run (or rather fly :P) back home. Agreed that the initial couple of days in each semester are quite slow and it takes time to get into the mould of things, but I really did not know that things would transform so soon. It is not possible to elaborate on everything but I have to tell you guys about the latest episode in my life.

I got stuck in the lift in my hostel !!!

Yes people! I finally got stuck in my hostel lift *100 Mwatt smile :D*. Before you start giving me is-she-crazy-or-what kinda looks, lemme clarify the reason of my delight. The two lifts in my hostel have always been popular for getting stuck and we have, very often, heard girls scream and bang the lift door, calling for help. Each time, I saw something like this happen to someone, after the initial feeling of sympathy washed over my being, I would inevitably find myself wondering how it felt like, to be in a situation like this. And Boy! Law of attraction does work! Yesterday, when I was least expecting it, the lift gave a sudden jerk and stopped a lil above the 4^th floor. I was all alone in the lift. After a few nanoseconds of panicking, a finally realized that my dream had come true! It was time to see how I handled such a situation :D

I got to work. I tried all the buttons on the life panel. None seemed to function. Next I banged on the lift door. Since the lift had been elevated just a foot above the 4^th floor, I was hoping someone passing by would hear me. After 5 minutes, I finally decided to pry open the inner door and I succeeded. I could see outside, through a small crack between the outer sliding doors. I continued banging and soon a couple of freshies, who realized what had happened, stood outside.

Freshie 1- Please don’t panic.

Me- No! No! I am not panicking. Just go and tell the matron about it.

(They try to open the outside door, but in vain.)

Freshie 2- (to freshie 1)- Is she alone??

Me- (overhearing the convo) Yes iam alone. Now will u please go and call the matron?

I dunno if one of them went to call the matron, but soon they started their chitter-chatter again. Now, I was getting a little restless coz I had to study for my COA exam the next day, and I had wasted enough time already.

Me- (in a bored and slightly irritated way): listen. Will you please go and tell the matron bout the lift?

Freshie 3 (who had just joined the group and was being enlightened with the reason for such a commotion)(in a very very sweet and sympathetic, almost childish way) - Please don’t cry, we are all here.

Me: (I cudnt control laughing:P) : No dear, iam not crying. Its fine. Just get the lift started.

I assumed that the few seconds of silence that followed my response, had something o do with freshies finding it to be quite unexpected ;) But what the hell??? Was i supposed to cry in there or what?? :O

After another another 5-7 minutes of boredom (yes, being stuck in the lift alone, can be very boring :I), during which I tried to inspect the gear-kinda things that were attached on the inner side of the outer door, the lift finally started working and I got down on the 5^th floor. I came down to thank all the freshies who had provided me with a decent amount of entertainment while I was stuck in the lift, and I became popular as the “girl who got stuck in the lift” :P, with all of them asking each other- “oh! She got stuck?”, “Was it her??” and the likes. On the whole, it was a different experience: D

p.s. my mom definitely disagrees with me on this one. She was positively freaked out when I narrated the incident to her, which had less to do with the fact that I got stuck, and more to do with my enjoying the experience.;) But the only thing she’s glad of, is the fact that I have been er.... kind of avoiding using the lift the whole day today and have hence been, exercising my leg muscles quite a bit :P

A Trip To heaven....

Looking out of the window has never been more beautiful and enrapturing… Trust me! I may sound like a total dreamer (which I am, in a certain way) but the only way I can define Kerela is by saying- “Heavens all here!”
This trip to Kerela had been organized by RedX, the socio-adventure club of Manipal and for a nature-lover like me, this was a total not-to-be-missed opportunity. More so, because this time I went for the trip not as an outsider, but as a part of the RedX family.
We left Manipal on the 9th at around 11:30. After thoroughly enjoying ourselves in the bus, singing (in voices, sure to give any “bathroom singer” contestant, a complex :P) for almost 2 and a half hours, our vocal cords finally got a bit of respite when we had to stop at the check post on the Karnataka- Kerela state border. We were stuck there for almost 2 hours (due to some document problem, as I was told about, later on.). But no issues, because standing there on the highway, in no man’s land, in the dead of the night, was a totally ultimate experience. Due to the rain, it had become a lil chilly or may be I was shivering because of the strange amalgamation of feelings of excitement, anticipation and apprehension that had taken control of my being, in such an atypical situation.
Finally, at around quarter to 4, we received the much awaited green signal to proceed towards our destination. The next couple of hours were followed by deep slumber, to recharge our batteries for what lay ahead.
The advantage of sitting beside the window on such trips is that, the first sight that greets one’s eyes when one is woken up by a sudden jolt of the bus, is a misty window and beyond that, an array of rapidly passing, freshly bathed, green trees (and I mean totally GREEN trees), after which one does not curse the roads for spoiling one’s beauty sleep. After I had enough time to satiate my eyes with such a treat, we finally pulled over at a small place, on the way, to freshen up.
For the next leg of the journey, I sat in the last row of the bus, with my friends. We had a photograph session (yes, I lurv taking snaps :D ) and another round of India’s most favorite any-occasion-any-location game - Antakshari. After a quick breakfast at a "Mallu" hotel (where chutney was served in a big steel bucket, the kind used for bathing :P), our next stoppage was at Paithalmala.
I had the time of my life there. Mentioning how stunning the view was, will be stating the obvious and repeating a very clichéd line. As the four jeeps, overflowing with the previous occupants of the bus, climbed the hills further, all we could do was hold our breaths at the sight that greeted our eyes. Once on top, we got an astounding view of a miniature waterfall. Though I was initially quite reluctant to get my shoes and jeans wet in the icy cold waters (which I swear, had nothing to do with the leeches that were supposed to be present there *involuntarily shivers*) , the adventurous streak in me finally took over and I braved the fall (and the leeches :p).
We decided to walk back to the foot of the mountain instead of taking the jeep. I really wished I could have stood there longer and taken in the view, but as we were already running behind schedule, we all had to hurry up. On the way back, I also went leech hunting. (I couldn’t help it! I really wanted to see a real one, having heard SO much about them. Good or bad? Well, lets leave that out of the discussion :P). And yes! I finally did see a leech. Not on the way, under some rock, but on a friend’s hand, in the bus !! (see… I told u. The law of attraction never fails to work :D ). Traveling down the mountain, hanging on the bars behind the jeep, was an experience Iam gonna take long to forget :D
Our next stop was St Angelo’s Fort. On the way, I and my MP3 player gave each other company. You know, it’s really surprising how slow, romantic numbers sound so wonderful in such situations! ;) The multitude of random thoughts that keep romping about, all over one’s cerebrum, just adds to the feel.
Set by the sea, St’ Angelo’s Fort looked beautiful. Rains have this weird kind of magic. They can make everything look so serene and pure; even a century old fort that had mosses and algae growing all over it (and loos which had locks that looked as if they had been last used when the king was alive and nobody has bothered to open them ever since :P)
Since by then, the Rain-God had turned quite hostile towards us, we could stop for just half n hour at the next and also the last place on our itinerary- Payambalam Beach Garden (sheesh! The names of these places are tough!).
At 12:15, we finally reached home-sweet-home (I mean Manipal:P ), all wet and shivering.
After such an awesome time, the repercussions (read- sore throat and mild fever) seem very insignificant. Instead, such exhilarating display of nature’s bounty, leave one vying for more .

Happy friendship's day :)

Dated: 3rd August,2008

There are as many definitions to the word -“friendship”, as there are people in this world. Every one of us, have our own list of things we want in a friend; we have our own choices and preferences; our own lists of dos-and-don’ts in friendship and our unique ways of dealing with it. But the thing to be noted is, all of us have at least 1 friend in the whole wide world. Friendship is probably the first relationship that one consciously gets into, and it’s also the only relationship that can undergo the maximum amount of transformation with each passing day.

I have seen friends remain friends forever, friends become lovers, friends become lovers and then again good friends, friends become lovers and then the most bitter enemies, friends become “incompatible” after a year of friendship due to some technical fault ( read incompatibility between their wavelength of thoughts), friends become acquaintances due to the intrusion of another “fraaand” (generally of the opposite sex :P), friends become competitors (and then obviously no longer remain friends) and I have also seen friendship metamorphoses into hate.

But, the most important thing is that a friend always touches your heart the way no one else can, even if it is for a very brief period. Its funny, but this is the only “relationship” I’am scared of getting into, because when a friend breaks your heart, its hurts….. it hurts a lot. Probably that is why I have so many acquaintances but very, very few “friends” coz not all can break the barrier and get close to your heart : )

So, here it is, to all my friends, who have been with me whenever I have needed them, and also to those who had once been my "friends",and will always be a chapter of my life, no matter what.

Happy Friendship’s Day!!!