"One of the good things about living alone is that you can throw stuff around whenever you are frustrated, and nobody would say anything....but the irony is, you yourself gotta pick it all up later and set it right. "
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Would have loved to put a lovely title
Mmwah. Love and peace, people. :)
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
Nailpaint, OJ, and Hiatus


(BestFriend said blood would have been better instead of juice, and I threw a marble vase at him. Hypothetically, of course. :P
Like I happened to enlighten somebody who asked about him, he’s actually a very nice guy who sometimes says wise stuff after…like…getting hit on the head with a football during a game, or something like that. But that is less often and so he’s usually at the receiving end of all my hypothetical violence. :D )
(Oh and by the way, the pictures are mine.)
Anyways,
I had a full-blown nostalgia trip a few days back. Went to school for some work and it was like- Whoa. They’re going on just the same even with all of us not in it anymore. But that was a fleeting weird thought. So I came back home and decided to bring some order to the chaos in the universe. Now I’m the kind of person who can’t stand clutter AT ALL. Even if the clutter consists of precious objects. And sorting / organizing stuff is almost therapeutic, next only to shopping (which translates to bringing in more stuff to be organized. : | Uh. Ain’t life so paradoxical? ).
So I
Yeah, I’m emotional like that. But it felt better. Like, now my future biographers would have no difficulty at all in reconstructing in total detail the story of my life even if I happen to grow into an 85 year old amnesiac eccentric old woman. :( That’s a morbid thought I know.
Oh. What in sweet hell is the point of this post? It is this. I’m going on a break from blogging till some of the entrance examinations I gotta give get over. And that’s gonna take two months at least. Might be blogging intermittently and replying to comments.
Funny part is, people go on hiatuses between blogging. And I, apparently, blog between hiatuses. : / Yeah whatever.
However, I’ll be Twitter-ing and updating upon the general state of the world around me and so I put its widget right here on the sidebar *points* . So keep checking back. Or follow me on twitter. (You could comment on the twitters in this post's comment page, if you would like to.)
There’s no point probably even in informing about this since nobody is like dying to read what I write anyways. But if somebody actually is, *pauses to blow delicately at her fingernails* I have some other alternatives for ‘em:
- Go check out Tumblr and Plurk. Pretty cool, both of them. Miniblogging services, with Tumbler being the more advanced cousin. Plurk is almost like twitter but has a really delightful interface and an actual timeline that’s totally worth checking out. Tell me if you join so I could add you to my network. (As of now, Plurk appears to be open only to invites. This was not so the time I joined that. So if you can't wait to join that, drop me a line and I'll send you an invite.)
- De-clutter your own life.
- Write eulogies and sorrowful poetry dedicated to remembrances of me :P (Okay, that was a farji random suggestion. )
- Add goodness to somebody’s life. In any way.
- Spend more time OUT THERE than in virtual reality.
- Make a to-do list and complete it.
- Then repeat the above process until you finish all your pending/overdue work. :D
(Do any of all this above, then blog about it and let me know. I’ll give you a special handwritten certificate of commendation. :D Except for point#1 of course. :P)
By the time you do this, I’ll already be back, promise. :) Hopeully with the extra pounds lost and a place in a med college. Wish me luck.
Till then, keep on rocking.
Love and peace, universe!
:)
PS: How's the new header pic I created? Was the previous one better?
Friday, March 28, 2008
Her Princess Dreams
But will the girls really be ‘looked after’ as such? I wonder. From all that I know of Beena, she’s a very serious, very somber girl, already apparently weighed down by life. I haven’t seen her smile often. And she’s probably gone to just another small town and will have to keep on doing all that she did here, with the added cares of a household that she would be supposed to manage. And her husband will perhaps, a few years down the line, hang out with the village prostitutes, come back drunk and possibly walk out on their relation just like her father did.
God forbid, but if something like that happens, what about her princess dreams- you know, the kind where everybody gets to live happily ever after? It’s hard to believe that, but maybe her circumstances never allowed her to have any. Who knows.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Every darn post does not need a title
All I have is consolation that I aced just two of the five exams.
And I'm shamelessly blogging about it. Can't help it. I have to let it out somehow.
I need not be so bitter, I know...but what else are you supposed to feel when something crucial that you had been meaning to do for so long does not come to pass, and all you have to blame is you? It's like, I have this endlessly repeating loop of causes and effects and could-have-beens and should-have-dones that has been running over in my head ever since February 29th and I'm sick of it. Bloody sick.
And I don't know what to do.
Anyways. There's a limit to pointless rants. I'll shut up.
And before I go back to making another fresh new study schedule for myself, hoping against hope it gets completed, I'll just post this tag that Nids wanted me to do.
Here goes:
- Describe your perfect Sunday morning?
Wake up sinfully late, indulge un-guiltily all day and not have an exam the entire week. (Yeah. I'm obsessed with exams and stuff these days.)
(AND I'm not specifying all the indulgence. :P )
- Favorite song of all time?
- How tall are you?
- If you could be successful at any job in the world, what would that job be?
- If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be?
- If you could be someone else for a day, who would it be?
- If you have friends coming for supper what would you cook?
- What is your favorite word?
- What makes you cry?
- If you were an animal in the wild, what would you be?
- If you could time travel to the past to correct any mistakes you feel you’ve made, would you?
- Do you believe that the cup is half empty or half full?
- What do you do for fun?
- Are you an outdoor or an indoor person?
- Where do you see yourself in five years?
- What are you most proud of in your life?
- When do you plan on getting married?
- Get the number or give the number?
- Romance or Kinky Sex?
- How do you feel?
- What size shoe do you wear?
- What is your favorite clothing brand?
- Water or 100% Juice?
- T-Mobile, U.S. Cellular, Cingular/AT&T, or Sprint/Nextel?
- Would you rather be hot or cold?
- Would you rather lose an arm or a leg?
- Favorite Place to Eat?
- Opera, Musical, Concert, Play, Performance, or Other?
- Most Memorable Past?
- Most embarrassing moment?
- If you had to pick one car, which would it be?
:)
- Your favorite Disney Films?
- Why did the chicken cross the road?
- Do you support Paris?
- Where is Waldo?
- Favorite element?
- What was your last thought?
- Firefox, Internet Explorer, Netscape, or other?
- Who are you going to vote for ?
- Juice and crackers or milk and cookies?
- Which is worse? A bad laugh or a bad cough?
- Are you a cat or a dog person?
- Would you rather be blind or deaf?
- Define yourself in
threefour words…
(That's an artificial language. Google it up and decipher. Haha, I know how to waste people's time. The meaning in English might be an anticlimax. Maybe you expect something tantalizing. :P)
Awrite. I'll be gracious and tell you what to google up. The language is called Loxian.
- Do you eat cold cereal at night?
- What is your favorite TV show?
- Do you shower every single day?
- Boat or bus?
- What would you do if Michael Jackson asked you out?
- What is your favorite food?
- Do you read Harry potter books?
- If you could have one super human power what would you choose?
- Have you had a beer in the last week?
- Vitamin Water or Gatorade?
- Favorite body part?
- Flip flops or sandals?
- What do you do on Fridays?
- Do you like bananas?
I decide to tag Sparkles, Arti di, Lemonade, Abhi, and Birdy. And you.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
A Polynesian Rhapsody
I was experimenting with a style I hadn't tried in poetry: experience projection. Describing through somebody else's eyes, not your own. Writing as how they would have felt in a given situation. And I came up with this, inspired by "Pioneers of the Pacific" a recent article in the National Geographic Magazine (Roff Smith and Stephen Alvarez, March 2008) about an ancient race of Native Pacific explorers who discovered and colonized almost all of the hundreds of then uninhabited, scattered Pacific islands east of Australia, including Fiji, Tahiti, Easter Island, Polynesia, starting 3000 years back. Their daring voyages in those ancient times have been equated to lunar landings of 1900s in terms of their relative boldness at the time they were undertaken.
They used to undertake long voyages on their hand-built and hand-rigged canoes (no fossil fuel power 3000 years ago :) ), searching for new islands to settle upon. It wasn't like they were forced to move, or that there was pressure on the land. They numbered only a few thousands and the islands were way too many, nearly 300 in Fiji alone. They did it all just for the sake of exploring new frontiers. Researchers now say that one of the reasons why they were able to undertake such long and daring voyages was that they went against the direction of generally prevailing wind currents, so that even if they did not discover any new land, they could just turn around and the wind would take them back where they started from.
Eventually, in a 1000 next years or so, their descendants perhaps reached South America also, eastward from Australia.
So I kind of got inspired from the concept and the wonderful photography in the article and wrote something. It captures a particular moment in the life of two of these people---a couple. The man is setting out on an indefinite voyage to the sea, not knowing when he will be able to return, and even if he will return or not---because after all it's going to be him against the ocean. Here is what his beloved says to him before he sets out.
The blue stretches to infinity
Discover a new paradise
For the two of us...
May the gods guide your way,
The heavens steer you right
And when your spot new land
Marked by towering banks of cloud
Beyond the dusky horizon
And billowing fumes from boiling lava
Oozing into the ocean,
May the guardian spirits
Protect your canoe from the heat..
But if you do not find it
Ride the trade winds back home soon
I'll be waiting
In our moss-hung cave beneath the cliff
Obsidian will shimmer
Vivid tropical blossoms will sparkle
In my soul
Getting a whiff of
Your intoxicating scent of the sea
Paradise wherever you will be.
*Obsidian is a kind of beautiful natural volcanic glass used in that culture for making ornaments and stuff.
This collage was complied by me for the poem.
The text of the NGM article can be found here.
Pics courtesy Google Image Search, Corbis and Stephen Alvarez for NGM.
Poem (c) Sanyukta, March 2008.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Picture abhi baaki hai mere dost !
Our school days ended officially on Saturday with our farewell. I'll give you some of the pics and the nostalgia stuff later. Right now, here is the talk I gave to the gathering :
There was so much more I could have said...wish I had. But well.
"Good afternoon Reverend Father Principal, honorable staff...hi XIthies, and the ladies and not-so-gentlemen of the class of 2008,
stating the obvious, I feel nostalgic. Yeah, it's a strange moment, saying goodbye to a place you've been in for so much time...14 years in my case. This place has given me so much I can't possible ever explain. And now to think that I am going to go away..no more an active part of this...feels so empty. The very thought ki ab roz subah school nahi jaana hai...that school's ended, khatamm, officially, is very strange, believe me.
Teachers, aapse bass yehi kehna hai ki...
Hum aapko bhool jaayein aise ho nahi sakta,
Aur aap humein bhool jaayein aisa hum hone nahi denge. :)
Really, you all have been the cornerstones of life...thanks a lot, humein jhelne ke liye, humein guide karne ke liye. And hum log itne buray bhi nahi hain jitna lagta hai, trust me. We all love you, adore you, respect you, forever. Jaate jaate appse haath jod ke maafi maangti hoon agar kabhi bhi koi bhi galti huyi ho toh. Bhool-chook maaf keejiyega. :)
My dear juniors. First of all, thanks. Thanks for making this day memorable for us. Pehle lag raha thaa ki yeh hamari farewell party nahi, hamari kick-out party hogi...but no, this day has been so cherishable. Thanks again. Aap logo ne after all prove kar hi diya ki aap hamare juniors hain. :D
And yeah, aap sab 11thies ke liye kuchh bahut hi interesting lines hain....sunaakar toh jaaoongi, naaraz mat hona please....it goes like this :
Aapse bichhadne ki khabar milte hi hamare dil ki perfume bottle se sab kuchh bhaap bann kar ud gaya...khuda kare aap jaise dhakkan sabko mile. :D
Wish you all a great life ahead.
And my dear classmates. You people are some of the most wonderful, most amazing, most bindass people I have ever met. Vishwaas nahi ho raha na? :D I mean lag nahi raha hoga ki aap sab log itne achchhe hain, but trust me, I'm right. School has been great, and hopefully the days ahead are so also.
To the boys: Guys, listen here, this is for you......bhailog, college mein bird-watching ke siwaa padhai bhi karna....and prove to the world that you all have the worth that you have. You can so do it....wish you a great life. You guys are wonderful. ;)
To the girls: two tips-- first, Keep wearing sunscreen, and second, let's avoid jealousy. :D Wish you a wonderful life too.
So thank you all for your time, yeh maante huye ki aap sunn rahe thay....be good, be responsible, be happy, keep smiling, enjoy your work, all the best with all that you do, have a wonderful life...this is Sanyukta sending her love and best wishes your way, forever."
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Aaaand the award goes to...
*blows delicately at her fingernails*
Thank you if you just said Congrats. :D
the two little beauties
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
Happy 2oo8
Okay, that was totally random.
No resolutions really for me this year. I've always been unable to really stick to any...so I decided to give it a break this time. The last year was pretty good, so much more than all I dared to hope for, though towards the end it brought me the deep forever loss of no less than three people very dear to me.
Maybe I should just try to sum up all that I learnt this year. In no particular order:
- It's good to stand up for something you believe in, and the world (or the part of it that you are trying to convince) will eventually see your point if it is right.
- "Getting lost doesn't always happen by accident."
- Always remember to back up your data before getting a hard-disk formatted. :/
- People forget your talents/traits unless you keep reminding them. By acts, not just words.
- When mom tells you to do something about some hideous pimples, better do it.
- Falling into reveries before an important exam isn't a very smart thing to do.
- It might be just a little seemingly casual thing/ word that might erode your trust in somebody, or somebody's in you.
- "Each day is the first day of the rest of your life." But you just can't keep starting afresh each day...u gotta begin, then proceed. You get nowhere by just beginning.
- It's easier to not make/ not keep promises. But in the long run, it's better to know in your heart that you made, and kept.
- Nothing is absolute. It's all relative.
- "Be anything but obvious", if you like. But then don't blame people if they interpret you some other way. :)
- However you keep claiming that "The sky is under my feet...", most of the people would still say you are upside down.
- Calling a person's demise "their birthday in heaven" lessens the poignance, but only just a tiny little bit.
- No matter how much you keep saying you don't want any; it's always a great feeling to have somebody genuinely care for you. :)
I have so much to do, prove in this year. To myself, to parents, to other people who matter...And this year I'll be turning 18, like BestFriend reminded me during our conversation last night. Finally, being an adult officially. (He would be 18 too, this month. Though, for him, "getting entry in clubs" is the most looked-forward-to part of the deal :D )
Anyways, I have tremendous expectations and apprehension-mixed hopefulness this year. May The Great Being Up There grant all of us peace, love, happiness, prosperity, strength to pursue our goals. Shalom Aleichem. Have a great new year and thereafter.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some of the best moments in life...
Lying in bed listening to the rain outside...
Thinking about the person you love...
A long drive on a calm road...
Finding money in your old jeans just when you need it...
Holding hands with a friend...
Getting a hug from someone who loves you...
The moment you are breathless after a hearty laugh..
Wishing you all these moments plentifully in the New Year and forever...
(feel free to add to the list :D)
Monday, July 02, 2007
About a man, his daughter, and a nonexistent son.
Sometimes I think Dad misses a son in his life. Of course, my parents don't believe in all that super crap about the son being the pride of the family and the parents' "ladder to heaven" like so many people in this majorly sick and prejudiced society of ours do. Me and lil sis are the very cornerstones of their life....they would do anything to see us happy.
Yet, sometimes I think Dad would have liked a son. He never ever hints/mentions anything of that sort, in fact, I don't even think this idea ever crossed his mind in its full realization. But perhaps it's always present in his sub-conscious.
When I was that little girl with short tomboy-ish hair, Dad used to rub them dry for me everytime I washed them. After a point, my hair grew too long for him to manage. That was the end of it. He once hinted at a set of toy cars when the same little girl wanted a new plaything. I made a face and chose a Barbie instead. And that was the end of it. When I was still that little girl, he used to buy denims from the garment store for me. After a point, I began to choose floral prints. That was the end of it too.
You see how it is...
- He won't ever get to hear another masculine voice at home that he can associate with a person in our family.
- Our family holiday album from last year doesn't contain a pic of him playing golf with his son at the Shillong Golf Course.
- We won't ever have an argument in the house about which latest bike to buy.
- I can't go on trekking trips with him all round the month anytime.
- He and mom can never imagine being cared for after retirement by a sweet daughter-in-law, like their siblings can.
- He still has to park both the cars inside the driveway himself every night. [*sigh*.....yeah, I'm still learning the safe parking part...the driveway-cum-parking area is pretty narrow :/]
- He still has to depend only on himself for calling / hassling / bargaining with usually grouchy car mechanics. [Yeah, I can manage the storekeeper / plumber / electrician / appliance servicing personnel...but mechanics are way too much! Plus I know like practically nothing about the anatomy of an automobile...let alone do even some minor fixing myself. Told you I'm learning. Don't label me the insensitive daughter.]
- He himself has to do all the putting-of-strings-of-lightbulbs-on-roof-and-walls at Diwali.
- He has only his voice to drawl along to sad oldie songs on the radio.
- Dad always has to rely on the judgement of the women in his life [mom and me, sis is way too small. :) ] besides his own judgement, in deciding everything from which t-shirts to buy to where to invest.
Like when I went to pay the phone and electricity bills for the first time, he gave me an extra 100 bucks for the mere fact of having successfully done so! And only yesterday when his car broke down and he called me to pick him up in mine, he said, "Thank God you can drive now..." And I was like "Sheesh, Dad, Don't make it so big...." . These are the times I think he thinks I'm going out of my way to help him, which is not the case. Yet, another day, when I hadn't cleaned up my car for long, he was like "If you drive, maintain the thing as well. See, Mr Y's son does that every weekend..." and I mentally said to him "How can I help it if you don't have a son?"
Now I guess that was wrong of me. I took his words in the wrong sense, he never meant to compare me to a son by his words, was only citing an example.
At 52, perhaps a 16-year-old daughter cannot help Dad as much as a guy could have. I might try to fill the gaps for Dad, but still, none of all the stuff that is the business of fathers and their sons will ever transpire between him and a younger guy. I see him looking fondly, almost-wistfully at my guy-friends, and I feel he misses a son in his life.
Don't worry, Dad. I'll make you proud one of these days. Just wait. And meanwhile, while you wait, just give me this month's bills to pay. And oh, the car mechanic's workshop number too.
I'll learn about automobile anatomy and money-matters eventually in time. But right now, I think we can go shopping for shirts at least.
:)
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Just a few words
"Be careful when you give your heart to someone, because when you are giving your heart, you are not only giving that person the right to love you, but also the power to hurt you."
Quote courtesy BestFriend. Hmm…the guy speaks utter truth these days...
Friday, June 01, 2007
Meet IVAN
Meet my IVAN– Inner Voice that Annoys and Nags.
Rather a loose description, but then, Ivan IS loose. Always present at the back of my mind, this being has a tendency to pop up at the most unexpected moments, and is powerful enough to ruin my mood completely.
For example, a few days back I was kinda feeling glad about having assigned the color blue to love, in the series of haiku poems I’ve been writing in which I gave a color to each emotion. I started to think about a drink to associate love and the color blue with, like hope-yellow-lemonade-sweet, and happiness-pink-zinfandel-intoxicating. And suddenly Ivan shrieked happily : “Copper sulphate solution!”
So, right now, he’s doing an excited tribal dance, celebrating the beautiful (*rolls eyes*) way in which he has bonded together me, love, and—you guessed it—CuSO4.
Now you see why I hate this Ivan sometimes?
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Well...
Guess I'm having a writer's block right now. It's good, in a way, Now all those huge, thick, hit-on-your-head-see-stars chem and physics books don't gather layers of dust like they used to. Having nothing better to do, I apply my precious creative imaginative mind inside my pretty head to actually think about how infinitely large charged metal plates with a dielectric between them behave and how are the properties of diamminechloridomethylamine platinum chloride different from those of tetraamminechloridonitrito-N cobalt chloride. (Yeah, don't you just love scientific jargon? :D )
Four long hours, actually six from tomorrow, of coaching classes in our supposed-to-be-summer-holidays doesn't really make a good background for being able to write happy-happy, non-crabby blog posts.
Friend since the silly days of eighth, Ank, says one day : "Gawd...life has become so complicated ever since we passed class tenth.. I really wish I could enjoy my present..." (Yeah, she's the type who would much prefer that to all boring phy, chem and math.)
But then, looks like we only have two choices: chill marofy now and suffer later in some tedious boring underpaying job, or slog, slog, slog through the present and shape out a good life for ourselves.
I much prefer the latter.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
You just can't put a title to certain things.
I always feel there should be a place you can express yourself in without having to think how it would be interpreted in the light of non-context events...and I'm relieved none of all the people who know me personally , as in like everyday life, have the address to this blog. Except Best Friend, of course, and I don't generally put him in the same category as the other "all the people" . :)
Sometimes things strike you in full, complete realness just when you least expect them to. Drove past Best Friend's dad's office the other day and remembered him telling me they might have to move to another place. And suddenly I felt how really khaali-khaali it would be if that happened.
:(
Certain people are so much a part of your days, your life-- that you begin to wonder how you EVER lived without them, isn't it?
:)
Monday, November 13, 2006
Someday
I'm just darn freaked out about this sleepy town I live in. Always so dusty, so hot all around the year..and now it has simply REFUSED to let the winter enter. It's November 13th and still the day is so really hot..argh.
I don't like this place, the dust, the grime, the everything.
My dream-place-to-live-in would be some lovely riverside town, with a quaint and ancient look about it. Promenades along the river, maple-lined streets that turn yellow-orange in autumn, a large cobbled square, warmly lighted storefronts, and lovely weather. Oh, and I would like a suburban villa with lots and lots of trees around it.
And did I mention a red convertible?
Maybe someday I get to live my dream.
How would your dream place look like? Has anyone of you got to live the dreams you had at 16?
Friday, October 27, 2006
Sixteen
[Heck, there are important-er things than proper grammar, no? :D]
Anyways, you guess what-- Mom n Dad decided to gift me a new car.
Oh yes oh yes *bows graciously to your applause*
*glee*
Actually, here's a confession: I don't know how to drive a two-wheeler. AND I've never rode a bicycle since..um...like ..say..seven years. BUT I learnt to drive a car last year and of course, having no other choice, ahem, I take it along to coaching classes and stuff.
[Now if anyone of you reading this is a trafffic police officer, or the mother's aunt's son's cousin of the second cousin twice removed, or whatever, of a trafffic police officer, please don't come to get me about my drivers' license. Pleeaassse.]
So what I now need to decide is the color of the car, which is going to be delivered in about a week. Shortlisted colors are red and black. At times I have a vision in my mind's eye of myself driving a black car, and at other times a vision of myself driving a red one. These two images change and fluctuate so much that what I now see is myself driving a brown car.
Okay, that was plain silly, but what do u say? Red or Black?