short silent conversations

at the bus stop 2day, it was sitting on a bench beside the stop. it was scared to jump down. it sniffed a little, peeped down and finally landed on the ground. it wasn't very healthy i wud say, looked thinner than healthy. though m not an expert at it, i could make out i was scared and looking for help. i was sitting under the shade at the stop. it approached me and tried to tell me something in its language. it said, "meeeyaaaw" i looked at it. i was shiverring a little. it was only the two of us at the stop. i knew i had to do something. i lent out my hand. it sniffed and licked it. i smiled. it felt secured. i gently rubbed by its neck and back. it liked to be pampered. i took my hand back and it instantly said a mew, and i continued pampering. we both were happy. i dont remember myself touching a cat on the road before. it was nice. after a while, i sat back. it settled near me. i was looking at the end of the road for trace of the bus. as i glanced back, the kitten was on the road trying to cross it. my heart sank. few vehicles gathered around. i ran to bring it back. got it on the side and guided it near a fence. a car driver said, leave her on the other side of the fence. but i was too scared to pick it up. i have never picked up kittens or puppies (i had once picked a lil rabbit and cudnt handle it well). but i had to make sure the kitten was safe. the fence were crossed wires and i thought the kitten can make it across through the gap. by that time my bus arrived and i got on it. till two next stops i felt the guilt to not have been able to lift it and put it in a secured place. i prayed it must have crossed the fence. i hope it did. life finds survival.

..

i slept too early last night, around 9pm i guess! so i was up at 5. but i was lazying in the bed till 6.30 when the alarm started shouting. i got up with a back pain. i think the driving did the thing. i drove almost 300 kms to and fro. yes, i was super tired. m feeling fresh now. since its too sunny, i dont want to go to college 2day. i'll just sit and paint at home. some visuals from yesterday are still hovering in my head. the blackness, the drive... i also saw three road hit dogs on the way.

what the heck!

i was in a good mood 2day. and actually normal unlike the times i come home and hide in my room.
but the happiness dint last for long.

isaac was home. me, him and mum were talking about college and the crowd. now, its quite an established fact that my college sucks. we talked about ghasu and all the other hopeless creatures who only know to sit and warm up their seats. then we got into the whole partiality thing. like some students get all the privileges and special treatment and ofcourse good marks. somehow, i have totally given up on college. like officially officially given up! i dont bother to participate in any college activities like i did for the last 2 years.

m not an enthu in college anymore. the subjects i am interested in dont have good faculties, and 3d is not my cup of tea. m more into print media. thats probably why isaac is doing my 3d asgnt. its like a returning favour kinda thing. i did his flash and dreamweaver asgnts in 2nd year. i think we settled for a good barter :)

november rain

..hm..lovely song - guns and roses.
as the title suggests, it rained 2day. i was working late. it was 7.30 and finally we packed up. and in the darkest blues of the evening as we walked out, we heard lightnings and thunders! wow! in no time the rain showers hit us. obviously, i wasn't carrying a raincoat. so i had this chance of getting wet and biking in that climate. it was windy....and very cool. on the bike, all i thot of was , what if i was on a hill at this time or at a sea shore.. or how about the lovely times me and mohini wud go out in the rain, or how yash wud take me out and be glued to the camera to take pictures of the lightning instead of actually being with me.. :)

i was all drenched by the time i reached home. i was super hungry. hadnt had anything after lunch and a cutting chai at 3.30. dad got this new stove that works on coal and 2day had to be the day to experiment! sadly, after letting the dal cook in that twice, it hadnt! mum had to put it in the cooker and make it the usual way. dad bhi na! he just gets creative and excited about eco-friendly living. like how hes used solar energy at manavli..thats awesome! sometimes it works, but sometimes(like the coal stove-like thingy)..!

keep up the spirit dad! i mean we are already facing nature, getting back at us after all that mankind has done to it mercilessly. the unseasonal rain, the sudden changes of climate is all a proof of it. so i always appreciate eco-friendly approach. i hope more ppl take it seriously.
go green dah-lings!!! oh that reminds me of some wall paintings in pune that read- see green, see life. in a city that breathes in pollution, its like a 'must read' and a 'must think about it' situation.

blissful climate

i am reluctant to get out from under my blanket early morning... how wish the whole day was like one winter dawn! and guess what....today was! not exactly dawn..but there was no sun!
i reached college a lil late 2day, all wrapped in sweater, socks, and scraf. lecture had already begun. we had texturing class 2day..it was fine..the prof has actually got better after the vacs. hm..looks like he did some homework! at the end, he declared he wanted the submission on Wednesday, YES!!! 2 more days :)
left college and came home for lunch. cudnt believe i was wearing a sweater at noon! it was breezy too.. and the best part...it began drizzling! mild water drops on cold skin feel so wow!
walked to the studio after lunch. worked till 5.30 and coming back home was a good brisk walk since mum called up on the way and i had to rush. so burnt a lot of calories 2day! ah, feels good.

max is max enough!

ok. so m working really hard on the book illustrations. things are going good. eating more fruits than eating out or junk. walking everyday for about an hour. so reducing weight is going the right way. patiently working at a slim fit. isaac teases i shud be size 0 like kareena did! i only give him the 'shut up and let me be' look. dad is home for 2 days. we talk! also me n sidd have found out yet another common interest- table tennis! so, we play tt when m back from work.

and in the middle of all this gaga going...comes 3d max! duh, submission on monday... i havent started on my assignment. i know, sucks! m affraid i'd fail if i dont start working on it. aur sir ke saath toh apni jamti nahi. hes anyways asking me sarcastically- so, have u started? and i only smile.

no, serioulsy, i dont feel like turning to 3d now. i love 2d. but i 'have to' slog for 3d max, i cant be picky, its the syllabus! rest other lectures are toh totally cool...teachers dont turn up! mohini is in her ' i dont care a damn what u guys are upto, i only wanna focus on my work' phase. m more with sumit and onkar these days. and ofcourse, mr.newton! hes gonna learn 3d from smone and teach me. hope it goes well and hope i end up with something worthy to submit till monday.
days are going so fast..its mid november! i mean, its like close to year end! once i want to just sit and think about how the year has passed.. days, events, phases, changes, lessons, experiences....wow..aww..year end!?

take a chill pill

me n onkar caught up yesterday, and made plans for sketching at swargate. just the 2 of us in pune, rest all are vacationing in their home towns.
as decided we met there at 8. it was a good change for me. i traveled by pmt after a long time! it was fun. after all the eating and chilling for 4 days of diwali, i needed to get active.
we sketched for a good 2 hours.. i was supposed to get to the studio by 11. so got another pmt to raja ram bridge and walked from there. returned the vcd first and then went ahead to the studio. lot of corrections to be done before the next time sir decides to turn up. but 2day, i was sneezing more than working..! yes, one day in cold talegaon and my nose is running. but i managed to work as much as i cud. we had lunch 2gether 2day and ma'm had some garnishing tips for me! hehe.. garnishing comes easier to artists than adding taste to food!
i wanted the next weekend off, so i cud finally go to bombay. that was approved when i said i wud work 2moro-thats sunday! duty calls baby! but i have fun..sometimes it gets too much but chalta hai..! i was sleepy by 3. thankfully, the chai wala came on time. had a refreshing chai and back to sneezing...or working...or what ever...duh! i was so not into one thing 2day. ma'm left at 4. i was working till 5. anything is better than getting bored at home.
finally left for home..i was so hungry.....but i am determined not to eat out now. cant believe i had all those sweets and oily things... forcibly ofcourse! :) sab itne pyar se khilaenge toh koi kaise mana kare! :(( loook at my cheeks... gotten circular by atleast 2-3 mm!
a long walk home was accompanied by light breezes, green trees and nice nice thoughts..and i think i was also talking to myself in between..silly girl..! ..it feels good to talk to oneself...very relaxing! " feeling blue, feeling blue..my heart says cant be, cant be true......

harmony

it was 12 pm. i came home after attending a surprisingly interactive 3d lecture. i changed and left for work. had lunch on the way at gypsy. reached studio by 12.30. the curtains were closed 2day unlike everyday.
i stepped in to find one of the two dogs sleeping inside on the floor on a doormat stretching her legs upwards..wow! ma'm informed me that she'd spoken to a community that works for street dogs and they were coming to take the two dogs that we' had almost tamed. hence she'd managed to get blacky inside so that she doesn't not turn up when they come.. creamy(the white one, as the kids in the building have named) was missing tho. so when i came in, ma'm asked me to keep an eye on blacky so she'd try n rescue creamy. but as she walked out, blacky followed ...so she cudnt go. she asked another colleague from the neighbouring office to go look out.
we continued working... the maid came by then so we had to take a break. 2day she'd come with her 'three' daughters! they had lovely names which i dont remember. one of them was 'savera'.. yes. really nice and bright. so ma'm was chatting with the kids as blacky lay on her lap for some pampering.. it was cute. i shud have had the cam!
after the maid had cleaned the floor, we went back in. within 10 minutes, the girl who was supposed to look out for creamy came back all sweating and full of worry. she was panting..she said she'd found the pup lil ahead on the same lane. it was lying down..it wasnt moving...and it was not sleeping... it was 'dead'. our pup was dead. ma'm got off the chair and ran to see him. sir joined her. i was only keeping my fingers crossed. but they came back with a bad news. blacky was still inside. our landlord's daughter whos also fond of the pups, came down to hug blacky. the atmosphere was like we'd lost a family member. all were quiet.
we got back to work. i was thinking about this lovely bond between two very different forms of life. how our studio is full of harmony and love for nature. we work with pups in and around, kids playing in the compound visit us to catch up, we are surrounded by dense trees and fruit and flower plants... and we'r working on a project for children books...it feels great to be a part of it, all of it. i feel blessed. m learning so much about how every minutest of things is filled with life, its only up to us to realize and celebrate it. keep your eyes open, life is indeed beautiful..!

i hate afternoons!!!

its way too sunny to go out and land up with a head ache. cant even keep the eyes open. m bored at home. dint go to college either coz its as good as not functioning! continued working on the comic book. but then the room is so bright. theres light in every corner showing me a hell lot of things around me, distracting and confusing me as to what do to next..? my room in itself has become a heap of things complete and half done, nice and ugly, needful and useless...just occupying space in and out.
every afternoon draws my attention to all those lil things and its difficult to not feel restless and helpless. may it be a piece of incomplete art work or something that reminds me of things i dislike, or just the mess around. no wonder i prefer to keep the room dark at night. its very relaxing and peaceful and much better with only one light focusing on what u r doing at that moment and u get to choose and highlight what is prior or important over the other stuff. that makes it systematic and things start falling in place. may it be working on the drawings, or computer, or sleeping or listening to music...i can create just the required atmosphere at night , the most important asset being absence of extra light.
bright light is essential for only certain activities like photography or sketching and of course getting sun burns and red spots on the face..!

international bread day

8th October is the day. prasad, my cousin, pursuing a catering technology course called up to invite me for an exhibition of 'international bread day' at his college. amazed by the concept, i was looking forward to it.

i was home by 5. called up mohini for company. she agreed. prasad rang up again to inform harsha and raj wud also be there, so i asked mum to come along too. me and mum set out at 6. as i was half way thru, prasad msgd to bring the cam but it was too late and the traffic was horrible. at that time, i dint realize what i was gonna miss later! anyways, picked up mohini at corporation and headed to the college. i was driving and mum was sitting beside me. it was the worst of her experiences 2day.
the traffic was booming as time passed and i was trying my best to tackle the 'pune bikers'. at one point, there was a interlocked circle of vehicles and no driver was ready to back up. and idiots were only honking horns! mohini got so bugged.., she got out of the car, onto the road and trying to resolve the traffic! wow girl! in the mean while, the passengers from an auto rickshaw got off, shouting at the driver and accusing him of being a bad driver bla bla bla.. it was so funny!!!! the middle aged couple were yelling in there typical punekari lingo and thaska! the driver and some others surrounding the rickshaw (including us) began laughing..!!!!! haste haste, traffic clear hone laga...mohini directed me to reverse a lil and a did my fave acute turning thing! hehe.. as i turned in relief...boom! a huge bus in the front! but it cleared way soon and we reached college finally.

prasad guided us to the amphi theatre where the exhibition was displayed. the way to their was decorated with a theme of 'hansel and gretel'. there was a huge arch at the entranced with lots of biscuits and sweets studded in it just like the witch had to lure the two kids. i also noticed pieces of bread on the way...and that explained! there was a witch at the gate! the entry was a nice lil experience, i was smiling already...and ofcourse the tempting sweets had attempted to kill mohini..lol..!!
moved ahead to the bread display. i must say, i had never seen such a variety of breads at one time. there were breads from round the world. to my witness, culinary art was at its best. there were designs of deer, a chef, a harvest..all made out of bread! like we artists wud make from pop or clay or any sculpting material. it was beautiful!!!!!! thats where i missed my cybershot the most!!!! unable to resist myself from taking pictures, prasad arranged a friend's cam. but it was a canon and i wasnt very familiar with it, tho i took a few snaps.
next was a range of cakes! cakes ! cakes! awwww, mohini was dying...!! they had taken up a theme of a life span, from birth to retirement. so designs and flavours of the cakes were according to the stages. the icing on the first cake was the best. the cake was the bed of a baby with a quilt, and the delicate folds of that quilt were made in icing! so cool...!!!
and finally we turned to the desert section, mousse, gateau, and all sorts of sweety creamy colorful stuff (of which i cant remember the names)... this is pure art! we were spell bounded! yeah, theres a whole lot of difference between seeing photos of such food stuff and then seeing them in real so close! mohini was dead, completely!
and even tho i know all these things are a poison to me, i was totally into it. damn! it was so damn creative! i was amazed the way the colors of fruits and creams or whatever stuffs complimented each other to make a wonderful composition on the dish. theres so much to learn about colors from food!

the return of ghasu!

the 3d lecture was really good 2day. for a change, we actually followed what he taught, coz a. he was loud and b. we had a projector! tho a few ppl went to sleep, it was much better than what it used to be. it ended at 10.30 unlike the usual 9! which was like a milestone. he made a spaceship 2day..and completed it. and tho m not into 3d, i must say this is interesting.

feeling quite happy about it, as we were about to walk out, mr. ghasu came in. made us sit again. and made the most ridiculous announcement. he said he wont take class until at least half the class has submitted the comic book! now, is making a comic book like drawing circles and squares!! plus he shouted at us coz he thinks just coz no one has submitted it, no ones working on it. damn! i am. i showed him the story board. but ghasu is ghasu- a copy master. he tells me go search for good character references and copy them directly instead of making such scribbles on the story board...WTF! my characters are ready! i just need to incorporate them in the story board and finish the frames. every word he spoke was nothing but demoralising.
i thot i was stupid to show him the story board. going to college is like ruining the rest of your day, since the beginging of this semester, i dont remember a single day in college when i dint have an arguement with anyone. have i become hot headed and more straight forward or is it just a result of the politics (that we are supposed to digest)?

meeting the clients

i dint go to college 2day. was working on the story board at home. going good so far.
i called up anagha ma'm to inform her i'll be at the studio by 3. 2day i made up my mind to go walking. i realized, sitting at the studio in one place for like 6 hours isnt good for my body. so from now on, m gonna walk down. it took me 25 minutes to reach there. i was tired. as i walked in, i saw nilesh sir and archana ma'm already there. i dint know about that. we greeted each other and they asked me to take a seat.
they were viewing the book 2 draft (that i prepared). it was my first time to be there, but i wasnt really nervous. both of them are so funny. they keep joking about things and resolve issues if any with casual peppy discussions. i was comfortable with that approach by now. so it was one good experience. they left by 5 and i had a list of corrections to do. i was happy they liked my drawings and also that we cud understand each others' perspective. i had to redraw a few things but it was cool.

as i was drawing, amod sir walked in asking, 'whos shoe is this?' that was mine. the doggies were biting on it and had almost taken it away but amod sir scared them and got it back! i hurriedly got the shoes inside and continued working. it was 6.30 and time to go... i turned off the machine and piled up the papers and as i was about to wear my left shoe...i noticed that the doggies had broken the lace! nnnnnaaaaahhh...i was upset for an instant and imagined myself walking home in socks within that instant (that was quick!) but then i thot i cud make it work. they had chopped off a small piece. i removed that and adjusted the lace from the other end so i cud atleast tie it...and yay! it worked!

while i was walking back home, i met mum on the way. she was going to aaji's to see mama, whos back after an year. so i too joined her. met mama, hes still the same! he bought an apple ipod classic, 80 gb! cool. also had yummy misal there. had to walk back home. so overall, i walked a lil too much today and now i only dream of lying down!

the trip

as they say in marathi, 'naktichya lagnala 1760 karana' meaning, 1760 reasons for a bad looking girl's marriage.. same was our situation i wud say. pankaj was supposed to pick me up at prithvi at 5. we had booked a tavera. it was 5.15..he hadnt called. in a while, mohini called up saying, "ek problem zalay. the driver's mother expired last nite. pankaj is trying to get another driver...we'll be late' i thot of taking a quick nap that i needed. but no! she called up again at 5.45 and said, rush to swargate, we'r going by bus! ok. but another addition. now i had to pick up pankaj from paud phata.
i reached there at 6, he wasnt there yet and mohini was on flames. after some time he called me, 'arrey, rickshaw cha petrol samplay. dusri rickshaw milat nahiye. wel lagel.' great! he reached there by 6.15. we drifted to swargate, parked the bike at shruti's and walked to the bus stand. everyone met and the 'good morning, kya ho raha hai..bla bla..' session happened. the bus was at 6.30 but wasnt on time. it was 7 now. i needed some tea. so me and sahana went to a tapri to have it.
we joined back into the group to find out that abhijeet was making arrangements to rent another car! the car vendor said he'd get the car to swargate in 45 minutes. so we had a new plan! everone was hungry by now so we went to 'jijau upahar gruha' to have breakfast. had pohe and chai there. also read the newspaper. ashwathy was telling me stories of the two rats at their place and how bharti is a rat killer! ..and time flew...it was 8.30. the car arrived. we got ourselves on it quickly and started off. we drove to tilak road and the driver stopped there to fill his water bottles and have tea. we had began to lose patience now. if the plan 1 was taking place, we wud have been in alibaug by 9. and we were still at tilak road. lol.
anyways, cutting the story short, we reached alibaug at 12 and went straight to have lunch. done with that, we were at nagaon at 1.30. everyone was sleepy. so we lied down for a while and then played cards till 4.
time to go to the beach!! all were ready. nagaon beach as i thot was not too crowded, infact there were hardly 3-4 timepass groups like us, thats all. anyways, we went into the water and no one was left dry! shruti was scared of getting wet(dont know how why what??) she wasnt affraid of water but of getting wet. so she was standing away from us, but then we dragged her. played some babyish games in the water till it was time to come out. not to forget, lot of shell collecting and 'wow, see this, see that' thingys on the way. i was super bored. coz these things have become such a routine to me, i have grown up playing in water on the beaches. i dont want to go on writing about the day, coz i dint really enjoy but hated most of it.
what i learnt 2day!?
-sahana and ashwathy are sweet.
-mohini gels very well with pankaj.
-pankaj and abhijeet are wanna bes and i'd never hang out with them. (now that we know each other, m gonna have to smile everytime i see them at college. duh!)
-shruti is 'all time trying to drag attention' kid and will always be.
-i felt out of place. i realized i can not be with them for long.
-i have never missed my friends so much ever!
m not making any stupid compromises that involve the ppl i dont like, just for mohini's sake and i'll let her know that.

good and/or bad

mums b'day 2day. so i obviously woke up to the phone rings! i walked out of the room, made my coffee, walked back to the room and waited for the next 15 mins for mum to finish the call so i cud wish her! finally i did. but throughout the morning, she was so busy attending the calls that i joked saying, "leave that to me, i'll take msgs from everyone. u get to cooking." and we laughed!
2day's deal was, i cook veg. kolhapuri. i know, big joke! but, i thot, chalo, mum ke liye.. so i bunked the 1st lecture and sat cutting vegetables in the balcony. it was 9 by then. shreya kaku dropped by to wish mum. i got cake and pattices for breakfast from lucky bakery. after that, i continued chopping carrots. shreya was laughing... anyways, finished the carrots, then the french beans and then took the cauliflower. its was dirty, lot of brown thingys needed to be cleaned..and it was starting to get boring..and finally, just as anyone wud expect- i gave up. i shouted, "mum, m not doing this!!! "cooking is just ot my thing! and there goes the super flop!

mohini called and i rushed to college only to see the faces i hate and feel the feeling i dont want to. 2moros plan is almost fixed. we will go to alibaug. i hate it. but m going, coz no one knows the roads. i dont mingle with that bunch, but then i cant go around being like this, missing my friends who are not with me. so i thot why not give it a try! and m happy the famous and proudy trio of our class is not coming. god, hate to even look into their eyes!

came home for lunch. yes, gadgils were there! too much yaar, i finished my plate and locked myself into the room. all they keep talking about is yash this, yash that, his school, his food, his cute things bla bla bla... like theres no other topic in the family. i dont know why, i was feeling sick. i lied down for about an hour, woke up with a head ache. but i had to go to the studio. somehow, made up my mind, splashed water on my face, looked up and smiled into the mirror and off to work. what fun, no electricity there! wow, now i had to draw and draw till the load shedding was done. did some drawings for book 3. had tea.it was way toooo sweet 2day! how i hate sugar in hot beverages!!! finally, it was time for machines to work. finished the book 2 draft on page maker.

came home at 6. dad was home by then. said hi to him and back to my shell. conversations between me and him are absolute monosyllables! anyways, went shopping with him and mum, to by her a b'day gift, and as i expected, we landed in a jewellery shop. she was browsing through designs, dad was glued to his phone and i was chocked! i hate ornaments! they are only meant to be displayed and nothing more! as all this was happening, mohini called. i happily walked out of the shop. but, twist! she said shruti was upset coz her 1600 worth goggle was stolen from her bike and that she wont come to the trip coz of that! o boy! is this some reason?? m not going to work 2moro and missing a meeting with the content writer of our book, mohini postponed her appointment with someone and this silly reason of shruti's just made me go mad! i told mohini and myself to chill and thot shruti wud be normal by morning when the goggle effect wud fade!

ah! but it faded soon.got a call at 10 from mohini. its all set. we'll take off at 5 2moro! and i must sleep now. m no way used to getting up at 4. i will miss 'my' friends, i know already. why r all my friends away, jayu keeps calling me to bombay..isaac wud be here by 1oth....sumit is at latur..pranjali is at b'lore to visit her sister....mohini easily goes into anyone and suju is stuck here with the not-so-her-type bunch...wow!

i wish i cud fly, one day, early morning, i wud fly all the way to yash, wake him up, give him a tight hug and say, 'hun, how about a long drive?'

math book

its the project m working on with anagha ma'm. apart from the drawings, the way the mathematical concepts are introduced to the children is amazing. i get to know about a lot of new methods that are easy to teach and understand as compared to the ones we had. i wonder how i picked up math anyways!
ideas of shapes are so nicely explained. its wonderful. also its being published in marathi and english both. these books are aided by NGOs and are used for the rural and urban schools they have adopted. so these books never come up in the market. i'll be keeping a copy of each book for fun, my first book series! often when we see such illustrative books around, we can not imagine the amount of planning and brain storming that goes behind it. m learning the design process only, but from scratch. the layout, the elements, their orientation, then the drawing style, inking style and colouring style..its a beautiful thoughtful process and a blend of hand and digital work. even if the project occupies like 6 hours of my day, m happy m doing it for a good cause. getting to spend that much time with a dedicated creative person is also a great experience!

those lil things

i dint exactly do the things i shud have done 2day, but what i did was exciting enough to call it a sunday.

in the morning, i was not feeling like i shud work on the asgnts.. so i walked to the balcony for some fresh air. the floor was all dirty coz of the flower pots, disturbing the sight of the beautifully bloomed roses. so bad, that i decided to clean it. i got a bucket full of water and began scrubbing each tile to the best of my ability. it all took about and hour and a lil more but the balcony looked so clean after that. that made me happy, i know the plants too must have felt better. these lil things make such a big difference to our mind. all throughout the day, whenever i went there, i had a smile and a feeling of freshness. i think i shud do this every sunday!

anyways, in the late afternoon, i was still unwilling to work. also while having coffee, my mind drifted to a subject that was depressing and i started feeling helpless, rather restless. i dint want to talk or be with anyone, so i just locked myself in the room. put on some music. i was relaxing and suddenly i spotted the bandhani papers i had got from bombay. i got up. opened one of them and began imagining things i cud do with it. also dug my old portfolio where i store A1 size art papers i usually buy as i find so i can use them when i feel like. hm..it had been long time i did paper craft... the bandhani paper has a nice texture and is translucent. i thot i'll make a lamp shade. but then, i ended up making something like a lantern! not bad.
i am so bored of drawing 2day. i still havent held the pencil. but i did checkout the schedule for local treks in the next month. m looking forward to go to kalsubai in november, lets c!

fun working

things were going cool untill college left. we walked to our bikes..i tied the scarf around the face and was set to go.... but the most trusted pep+ wont start!
tried kick start..no luck. pranju tried, followed by shruti and mohini. no luck there too. finally i had to drag it to the nearest mechanic, who after examining told me that the carburator needed to be cleaned. it wud take an hr. i was hungry, there wasnt lunch at home so i had to eat out. pranju had to leave. me, mohini and shruti thot of going to 'kalyan bhel'. cool. but we were three againt one bike! shruti said triple seat shudnt be a problem. i was ready instantly. but it took us lot of time to convince mohini. and finally we got on to the bike. mohini rode, shruti in between and me at the back. merrily, our lil parade reached kalyan bhel. had food and they dropped me back at the mechanic. came home tired coz of the strong sun. refreshed myself and off to the studio.

i had to complete the book -2 drawings 2day. had tea there, also found out an 'amla' tree in the compound, so picked and enjoyed some amlas with ma'm. my 'so called' boss, whos more of a friend, whos actually my ex-professor is absolute fun to work with. presently there are 2 puppies living at the studio doorstep, so a lot of time goes into just looking at them play or observe their behavior, we have casual chats about a lot of things while working, we take breaks to munch and have some chai, she helps me with work, she encourages me to do crazy things and experiment... this will be my 3rd project with her. m so glad we met.
yogesh joined us in the evening with his sketches. after considerable amount of work, we left to have dinner. discussed some drama plans. hes writing a script and also has a role for me.. wow! came back home frozen on the bike.

time to sketch now. mandar's comic book asgnt is up. i think m close to finalise the character style i can work in. its basic but good enough to start off. i might modify it further if i feel confident and comfortable. since m week in characters, i want to focus on the layouts and bgs too.

just updates!

to start with, m totally on a high coz i have succeeded in re-losing the 1 kg that i had put on. i'll treat myself and make mum happy- i'll have a dinner 2day!

college is fine, too many assignments to do. the new 3d sir is a super flop! doesnt teach properly, cant answer our queries well and only exists to scare us! illustration and graphic design lectures are manageable, some asgnts are stupid, but cant help it. 2 days ago i broke into an arguement with vivek over such stupid asgnt and its uselessness. but it all got back at me and worse when mandar joined him. i literally stopped there coz i realized they are the last ppl on earth i wud want to waste time convincing logically. huff!!

also had a lil argument with sumit over colours 2day. i guess i have become stronger about myself. its not that i dont consider suggestions or dont ask for them, its just that if theres something i know is going the wrong way, i dont give a damn. i stick to myself more these days and that feels good.

have i few really interesting projects lined up. i have decided m not doing anything i dont want to do even if those projects come from my family friends. like m gonna refuse to do a presentation in flash. i'll only do static and print jobs for now. book covers, illustrations, drawings..
the other day, after class when almost everyone had left, dulange sir called me with my sketch book..looked through everypage closely and turned to me and said, "wud u like to be a part of my team for my new book?" me,"u think i can?" him," yes, keep practicing, your lines are getting ready..." that was a great compliment esp coming from such a reknowned cartoonist. i wasnt sure what i shud say, he continued talking about animation and stuff...

m not into character design yet, may be never will be. but who knows! i like graphics. i like to generate ideas and create a visual experience through graphics.

how we spend sundays

day breaks early for me , mum and dad. sidd is up by 8 to attend a class at 9. mum n dad are reading newspaper, sidd leaves for class, m in my room with a cup of coffee and glued to my desk. same kinda scene after bath. mum is in the kitchen, dad is reading newspaper, m in my room. lunch time, i get a knock on the door. i come out, arrange plates bla bla... we sit to have lunch. m hungry coz i never have breakfast when m home. so i obviously start off with the lunch as soon as 'theres nothing more to be brought from the kitchen'. sidd complaints i eat fast. by the time mum n dad start, m half way through. plus, i eat less. so m off the table soon, wash my plate and back to my room working, chatting, downloading.... dad is back to newspapers, mum is taking a nap and sidd shud be studying.

afternoon goes away... time for some tea and snacks. everyone is out of their own world to eat.
m back to work, dad sorting newspapers for raddi, mum is doing something to keep herself busy n sidd is out to play. i dont realize its evening now and that i shud get to my workout. all done. sidd comes up with the idea of playing cards, so we do that for a while. dinner is different for everyone. mum and dad have daliya, i dont eat n sidd just wants a reason to eat out.

by 10, all are in bed.

still not working!

i finally completed the calender. short cut marna pada- 2 months on 1 page! but its looking pretty good. so the next step was to take prints. me and mohini went to printo outlet on nibm road. the girl there, transferred the images from my pendrive to her computer. she imported them in corel, and that was it. all the dark graphics looked black! i had done the graphics in photoshop and i wanted her to print them as jpegs. her lcd and my colour scheme. i was still hoping the print to be bright. so i asked her for a trial. and it was so shitty, so shitty, i was dissappointed! i wasted 35 bucks for that!
so i came home. brightened the colours. but i was hesitant to get it printed outside. i preferred to print at home. but then i realize the ink level is very low. also i wud have to buy a higher gsm paper coz its a calender. so we set out to venus. since the original ink wud cost me around 1500 bucks i thot of getting it refilled. venus did not have the papers i wanted.
now 2day, i go to collect the refilled ink. come home, install the ink and switch on the printer. boom! the ink level indicator still shows the same old low levels. wtf!!! i restarted the pc and also the printer. but nope! no luck there! i was so upset. i thot i shud never refill again. this is so sad, i also found the papers i wanted and now the ink is giving me trouble. heck! m gonna take my refilling money back and go for an original ink i guess. hm.

artist's block

while chatting with sumit in the evening, he said he was frustrated coz of 'writer's block'. that happens when a writer has too much to write and pages are just not enough. hm! impressive concept. i cud somehow relate to that state. i have a lil too many ideas in my head right now that i cant settle down on one at a time. so i called it 'artist's block'..and he agreed..and we joked about it!
i have like 4 ideas for one calender! sir is going mad at me coz the date of submission has passed way way before n m still shuffling. i start with something in mind and end up with something totally new! m glued to the desk for last 9hrs, doing nothing but playing in flash(ps and corel arent available with me rt now). i was almost about to fix the layout, but again something happened and i deleted an elemet by mistake. the page looked better now. so i carried on adding and subtractin or replacing elements...and it went on... colours, worse! i started with dark contrast shades and ended up with grey scale theme! shucks!!! what the heck! now i have too many options..
and then there are times i go completely blank. but they are better than such "artist's blocks", i atleast get doing something else, like wandering around, taking pictures, troubling mum in the kitchen, arguing with sidd, or calling up people..basically things that are prefered to sitting at the table with eyes on the screen for hours together.
ok, enough of a break. suju, back to work..hm....uh...hm....mmm.. :-( ... NOW!!!
how about a fresh bath...or a walk..or may be ice-cream..!!! or just "sweet dreams" ...fantastic, thats it..!

satisfied?

11 am, we were chatting and working in the lab. i was pissed at vista premium, it wudnt let me activate photoshop cs2. jyoti came in then, to announce that vivek sir was distributing our 2nd year result. damn! mohini's stomach started paining. pranav waved to everyone in his dramatic ishtyle and said"chalo!" we all got up and directed to the class. everyone in there had mixed expressions. we took our seats. results were being given according to the roll nos.
'sujata bhagwat' -666/800. vivek sir- congrats, its a triple 6! thanks sir.
the percentage comes to 83.7 hm...i was waiting to hear someone score more than that. but, as the nos came to an end..jyoti and co. came to me to congratulate.. yes, i topped again.
but this time, m happy that the margin between the ranks in less. 2nd rank- 663, 3rd-662. now i feel some competitive vibes unlike last year. satisfied? 50% only. knowing what goes on in our college.
what hurts me the most is that, i have topped thirce in 4 sems, and not once have i celebrated it. my friends always end up with much less marks and are in no mood to celebrate. so m always consoling someone or just sitting with them quietly to give company like my rank is no big deal.. i remember i had cried very badly for mohini last year coz she got into some misunderstanding and stopped talking to me. but we got over it soon. now again shes got 567. thats a difference of 100. but she was peppy this time. sumit is always lost. i dont know what he thot of his 616, but he too wasnt very interactive after the result. mohini was pissed at sumit, coz according to her, sumit did not deserve that. so again, i wasnt in the state to celebrate. pranav kinda knew what his marks wud be like. i dont remember exactly, but it was arnd 63%.
isaac got 52% . i msgd him from class itself. we were happy he passed!
also msgd dad. he replied 'congratulations!'

i wasnt sure if i shud be happy abt it, frankly, m not! everyones kinda got used to me topping in class. all the profs have that look in their eyes, while looking at me. even my classmates have that look. cant explain. i try and escape out of the class as soon as possible once i get the result. sometimes, ppl expect so much, m afraid i wont be able to live up to that. m scared of that time.

at home 2day, i handed the result to mum. sidd was there too. hes like, '1st alis?' i nodded in affirmation. after some time mum said to me she was in the kinda situation where, one eye has tears of joy and the other, tears of worry. sidd got his result too and had 'just passed' in one subject. i dint know what to say. i just got back to work to avoid talking about both, i wasnt willing to talk about either that time.

21 atlast!

21 is the number associated with ganpati. so it is said that a modak with 21 pinches/petals(i dont know what to call it exactly) is like the best! someone mentioned that to me while we were sitting making modaks. and i decided to give it a shot. i started off with 9 and went progressing with each modak i made. the max anyone got was 12! i was at 14. after 15, it was difficult for me to make a bowl with the dough big enough to make those many pinches. so prachi mami helped me with that. she'd make the bowl and pass it on to me. i'd make it lil bigger with both my hands moving gently and gracefully making sure it doesnt tear. that was a task. i cud make 18. next one, also 18. so everyone was like, c'mon, its ok..try 21 for the next year!
but i am me. i was determined. i started again and everyone was cheering and counting as i made a pinch..19...20..breaking my own record in the family ....and 21! thats it! i made 21!! without tearing, without the coconut fillig coming out and without losing patience! yuhuuuuu!!!! it was amazing, the modak was big and it looked so cute! lata aji wud have been so glad to see me do that! but shes in mumbai. she'll be here this weekend..lets see if mum and she decided to make modaks then! cant wait... its all about art, artistic hands? yeah, artistic fingers! hehe..its a small thing, but m proud of myself! never thot i'd do something like that!

August Rush

'Amazing' is the word! The way this guy jams the guitar is very exciting.
The movie begins with his connection to music, the way he moves his fingers and feels the rhythm in the grass field. his only setback is that he cant play any instrument. and then the story evolves into a marvelous piece of music composing. its a must see for all the freaks who believe in themselves or who want to believe in themselves. It speaks volumes about how your destiny shapes up once u r determined to do something.

sometimes more than learning, all it takes is understanding. and that is rare. a person is born with such special senses that set him apart. then, once he ends up in the right places at the right time, life is an absolute bliss.

its been one week,

I haven’t attended college. I guess I like it that way. what i learnt?! its ok to bunk college if,

Ur college sucks.
U’re sick of having some ppl around u.
Its raining nuts, and u’d rather enjoy it at home with the perfect music than spoiling the fun at college.
u’ve been watching movies all night.
someone close needs to be cheered up.
Catch up with other projects that are much more exciting than asgnts.
U get used to bunking.
Now that u’ve already bunked 6 days, y not complete the week!

2day is the day! last Thursday to this Thursday. I haven’t missed much I guess! sorry to all the teachers i dissappointed :P, sorry mohini, i wasnt active in planning the freshers party and sorry nova for not riding u for a week. i know u'll get back at me now by not starting...i deserve it friend!

one rainy day

eyes opened to the sound of raindrops. it was 6 in the morning. i love these times when the sky has cracked apart pouring down showers with great force, its flooding, and it just refuses to stop. amidst such a season, in the early morning, all i want to do is either be in bed under the blanket and keep listening to the rain sound, or simply go out there and let the rain drench me completely. thats like the best time of me.

mohini called up at 8. rather early for her! she was excited too. we made plans and i met her at raj ram bridge at 9. and 2day, she wanted to ride! i asked her like 10 times to confirm i had heard that right, coz she hasnt rode after the finger injury. she was firm. so i was a pillion after a long long time. she tried her best to avoid the puddles on the way..but there was this one terrific time when i said, mohini, i have a back...dont make it two. and we continued laughing and chatting on our way to khadakwasla... there, we had the chicken puffs i had got in the morning. hot puffs in a cold rainy and windy place was awesome. the water level had raised considerably. there werent too many people around. but who cares! we had a blast. and any monsoon outdoor is incomplete without kanda bhaji. we had yummy bhaji at a place nearby. one plate fininshed off like it were butter. second plate, and we were full! clicked some pics too. came back home by noon.

had lunch, watched a movie, and went to sleep. it was about 5 i guess when we woke up. some exchanging of songs and dressing up took half an hour. we then left for camp. 'end of season' sale was quite luring. i liked two tops but sadly, no discount on those! anyways, i bought them, it has to be like a super fortunate time when i do like something! so i dint bother.

dropped her at her house and back home by 8. had to be, dad is here!

so what?!

mum and sidd left for alibaug at 6.30 pm. i called up mohini, she was unavailable. dit wanna call ketaki coz shed worsen my mood. anyways, the night movie marathon idea dint work out. a hell lot of calls between the 3 of us dint help, such a waste, somethings never change.

i was bored. i was alone. and i was hungry. so i tried peeking into the fridge and found some paneer masala...yummy..! also found some bread. dinner was great! but i was still bored. it was 9.15 by now. i was sitting in the balcony oiling my hair, suddenly i felt like watching movies. so i went to musica and got like 3 CDs. also got lays and maggi on the way.

checkmate, a fantastic marathi movie. the editting is superb! a few characters in the movie seemed familiar. like the vishal in the movie, was exactly like sumit. then there was sampat, whom i cud somehow relate to rini's dad. anyways, it ended by 1. for a few more hours i was listening to fuzon and water. i dint realise when i fell asleep. only when my neck hurt did i realise that i was sleeping on half of the mattress with my head on 2 pillows. other half was covered with my bag, sketchbook, cables and food. uh! i made some room and went back to sleep.

again, i dreamt of my house in mumbai. this time i also saw a few relatives roaming in the compound, but they dint come inside the house. like the house was locked or there was no one at hime or something. i cud see them from the windows tho. in the dream too i had just woken up and wandering in that house surprised to be there. i cud say that even tho its been 2 years i have shifted, i never saw that house in my dreams untill i moved in here with mum n sidd. hm..weird.

modifications!

since the blog i wrote last nite was pathetic and sulky, i thot i'd go back to what i had written b4 that and canceled to write the one that i published.
i dont wanna go into details, but point out some peaks of the evening, just to keep a memory.
a. stupid arguments over the place for food and movies with yash that spoilt my mood.
b. me getting pissed at pranav for holding me responsible for making yash eat all the time.
c. me saying that its either me and yash at a time or me and pranav, which was a reaction to what pranav keeps doing. and both their eyes were wet and red. i felt awful for having said that even as a joke.
d. yash thought i wanted the group to split, which actually is impossible after being so close. i hated he thought so.
e. yash wont come home saturday nite to watch movies coz he wants to stay at abhinav's. but i dont wanna sit wasting a whole day at home on sunday, so i prefer watching movies at night. anyways, i'll watch the movies alone and definitely not on his dvds.

psycho attack!

when i woke up i wasnt myself. it had already creeped into me- the psycho weed. my eyes opened- there was a bright light in the room. irritated, i shut my eyes. some time passed. i tried opening my eyes again..this time it wasnt as bright. i got up, by default i shud've walked to the bathroom to wash my face, but the psycho took me out of my room straight into the kitchen!

i went to the college to pay the fees 2day. i hate to see him and her too...there are many of them. and the sycho still can not overlook. i pray for peace! all of them wear masks, change often but never unmask. only a few do. i like them for their honesty.

i was pissed at a lot of things 2day, coz nothing went right. but it was bound to happen anyways. i was so damn low. no one helped me get rid of the psycho weed. i had to help myself. as they say- only a thorn removes a thorn... i had to create another psycho to beat the first.

this is insane but musical vibes can do wonders to my mind. psycho attacked, i defended. music coupled with dance helped me get over the psycho weed. it vanished...not entirely. has some remains, shud be gone when i wake up next.

night painting?!

i was pretty excited about the night painting we planned to make 2day. salsa class too was fun. we've now started with the real moves, as in fast and stylized. practiced a lot..came home dancing...hehe...no, i was really happy!

packed my bag with paints, brushes.... all set to dirty the canvas. hadnt touched canvas for a long time! i thot i'll start off with a small piece 2day. i was waiting for yash to call, but finally i called him up at 7. he picked me up at 8 and we rode to parvati. finding a good location was a task but we landed up there. climbed up a lil and found a comfortable spot. i started off making a sketch while yash decided to go with the brush right away. as i began painting, we heard noises from behind us. there were police around and the situation looked messy. we realised they were driving all the couples away, who were sitting on the benches doing sweet nothings! poor them and thank god we were painting and not even sitting close to each other, or we too wud have been standing there with the other couples! bad, very bad...they reached for us, but only shouted and asked us to leave. shucks! i so damn wanted to paint! and we had planned for this since like a lifetime, and when it was actually happening, we were asked to stop and leave! great, wrong location i thot to myself, but then we dint have extra canvas to start on a new location.

duh! we went to have some schezwan noodles and later rode to karvenagar to have feast. it was 10 by now, but i really wanted to hang out. dint want to go home at all. but yash had to drive all the way to bibwe wadi so we dint go biking either...!

oh! this is funny, m here,typing this blog the first thing i come home and yash msgd "2day was a disaster..for the most part..better luck next time." well, apart from that most part, having feast was one thing i enjoyed.

happy sketching

College was fun! yes, i have written it right. We sketched on the terrace 2day till 11.30 and it was amazing! mr.ghasu is changing into mr. 'finally m on track'. we made around 5 sketches. i also posed 2day, reminded me of silica(art class in bombay). i was tempted to do more but no backing. sir said he liked the way i used my stokes to make suggestive drawings without going too much in detail. he also showed my sketches to a few students.
anyways, i left at 12 and called up pranav to make sure hes at his room, so i cud drop his stuff. i went there, to see yash waiting downstairs. he was looking nice and fresh, that cheered me up. then he told me he'd come to college at 11 and left a paper chit on my bike.. but i dint find it..! who cares, we met anyways!

at home, spoke to isaac 2day. hes sucked into life... but m happy hes doing what he believes in. in the afternoon, i took a good 2 hour nap. woke up at around 5.30. i was dead bored! i wanted to hangout but none of my frnz were really available...actually i wanted to go sketching or even painting...but i wanted company...i was sulking.. and then my second personality took over and i set out alone. i was singing on the bike. had to buy some material at venus and stuff. came back home at 8.30 .. spoke to yash for some time and now m scanning some of the sketches i did 2day. also i need to think about a story and make a story board for 2moro...lets c what my brain comes up with..as of now m totally blank..!

kay honar ya mulacha?!

3.30 pm. I was woken by the sound of aai n sidd talking to each other in their own sweet high pitches. I was lying down in the living room. They were going all around me. It was so annoying. I turned around and suddenly mum comes to me and asks, “kay karu ya mulacha?!” I just said keep me out of this.
What actually happened- Sidd forgot his project at the bus stop in the morning. It has to be submitted by 2moro and he has to do it all over again now. Mum scolded him badly and then out of tension, she began crying while sidd told the great news laughing. The fellow has his exam from Wednesday and does not study as per mum’s expectation i.e. least required to pass! Hes so not bothered. All he wants to do is play sports all day.

Anyways, I walked no, I dragged myself to the room in desperation to get out of there. Reached for the cell phone, 2 missed calls from yash and a msg too. I called him back. But, by that time pranav had made stories about me being mad at him etc..so he was worried. I wudnt say pranav was totally wrong. Last 2 days, when we were together ,yash was in his own world. i realise we have like 2 months together and i wanna make 2 good memorable months out of them. Anyways, but as we were talking on the phone, he says he thot of coming over to my place but with all the above story happening , I cudnt welcome him to see my upset face and listen to fights. I also forgot I was upset with him…he is like a change from home stuff. I feel relaxed when I talk to him. So I never really talk about myself but only listen to his voice, which I love!

Oh, have to go help sidd now! Shit! I don’t believe m gonna do this. That idiot is playing outdoors and mum wants me to find information for his project…and with her ‘full of emotions’ face, I cant say a NO!!! seriously, kay honar ya mulacha?!

baby sitting eshu n anu

12th july 08

Woke up at 8. me and aji were sitting on the swing as usual when manisha aatya called. She and rattan aji were to attend a marriage and the kids dint wanna go. So she asked if I cud baby sit eshaan and anusha for about 3 hours. I so wanted to say no but duty calls baby! They love their tai coz shes into arty stuff and keeps them busy. So there I was at ratan aji’s place making drawings with blow pens. Eshaan made an island with coconut trees and anusha made a butterfly. Then we had pasta for lunch and sat swinging talking about funny old movies. That led us to our plan for the evening- watch ‘dunston checks in’ . but we did not find that dvd!
So we thot we’ll make a glass painting, but we dint have the material so its planned for Sunday.
Caught up with jayu and dhaval in the evening. Dhaval looked fatter and jayu thinner! As usual they were eating when we met. We walked through vile parle..met some ptvians on the way who did their best to convince us to go to the reunion, but in vain! Actually, since we (me and jayu) were very low profile in school, we aren’t that keen on attending the reunion. Anyways, we came home and I showed them the pictures we took at alibaug and further on our trip. Me and jayu had a good time making dhaval jealous but it seems he was more worried about his tutions at 8.15pm. so him and jayu left soon. Jayu came back after dropping him at the station and we made plans for Sunday.
At night, Isaac called up to make sure I was in Mumbai when he came, so we cud meet. Its been almost a month we last met. Yes, I have been missing Isaac and mohini a lot for last 2 weeks especially. I missed them on the trip, at pune, at alibaug… we did keep in touch on the phone but hanging out with them has become like an all time thing. some frnz are so unique, no one can take their place! C u soon guys…

3rd Root canal

11th july 08
The 3rd root canal in the same mouth. I don’t recollect the one that happened when I was 14, but today’s was the worst for sure. The doc drilled into my nerve with that terrific sound making device and all I did was shut my eyes real deep, crumbled the plastic cloth in my left hand and tightly grabbed the handle on the right with all the power I cud, rubbed my toes over one another and prayed. M not very sure whats wrong with me, but it seems 2 shots of anaesthesia did not manage to do any wonders on my tooth.
After a while, half my mouth was all numb, which was great. Finally! But root canal is a complete horror. There are these tiny files that they insert into the root and clean it. It actually feels like carpentry work is being done on your tooth and u can not feel the pain but the movements and the noises create a super frightening experience. It took one hour for the cleaning. My month was stuck open. The corners of my lips were paining badly. Lastly, she (dentist) asked me to rinse off, which was a task coz I cudnt feel half my mouth. So most of the water spilt out and I managed to ‘rinse off’ with the little left. I was bad. Anyways, she then laid some fibre-like thingys into the root and filled it up. I cud see with one half eye, but the instruments dint look nice so I decided to keep that half eye closed too.
All done, I’ll get my tooth cap on Monday evening. And I’ll also get the bill that day! Earlier she used to send it to mum straight away, but now since she isn’t here, I’ll have to pay it from my account. Dentist’s bill always digs a big pit in pocket, and with teeth like mine… even the doc made fun of me saying- every year one root canal, by next 30 years, all ur teeth wud be fake! Duh!
Anyways, staying here with aji-ajoba is the most relaxing part of all this. Aji is the best cook and she is so happy that I am here! She says, now we can make bhel and pani puri at home, which otherwise she doesn’t coz its only the 2 of them. But aji loves such food. We also made ‘amba barfi’. it tastes awesome! The colour and sweetness is just perfect..yummy…

ashu's wedding....

...and i dont have anything nice to wear! i am fat, very fat. i surf through mum's sarees and pick one. its peacock blue coloured with some peacock motifs on it. mild saree but i love it. i try wrapping that 5 yard thing around me like 3-4 times, but i fail. i call mum to help me out...she quickly dresses me up. now i realize i do not have any jewellery. so i go hunting in my old drawer if i can find blue bangles or something...i spot them, red, orange, blue, some pink?! anyways i stretch my arm to get them and .............cuff cufff.... my eyes opened. i was lying in my bed. there wasnt any drawer in front and i was under my blanket. it was 7am.

how the hell did my mind drift to ashu's wedding??!! how? why? the dream was horrible. a. i was fat. b. i was wearing a saree. c. it was happening at my place in bombay. weird. by the time ashu gets married, that place wud be demolised. so theres no way the dream is coming true.

but something more funny happened after that. when i signed into gtalk late this morning, ashu was online! and we talked so much about her wedding, my wedding, our family.... it was very relaxing and fun... she told me about the saree colours a maharashtrian bride wears, yellow and green! to which i reacted i wud have a theme wedding- like an African dress code, or Hawaiian. she loved the idea..and we started fantacising my wedding...ah!

who... me?

It all started when gretta called in the middle of the evening, “ M coming in 5 mins, pacca!” she repeated my dialogue in that teaser tone. I had said that to her on 26th june when she'd called me to the office to sign a few papers. Obviously I dint turn up coz I completely forgot about it and she decided to haunt me today after 12 days! Well, I have now promised I’d be there on 11th july morning. She cooled down only when I assured I’d bring bakarwadi, kachoris and karanjis for all the staff!!! Yeah, that’s how they treat their boss’s daughter…like family…they’d wasool this everytime I forget to send my expenses or sign the vouchers.
While all this conversation was happening, mum was sitting right in the front. When I was done with gretta, she stared. “ that day, I told u to inform aji we’ll be home by 8pm and have waran bhat. U only told her we’ll be home by 8.30 and left hurriedly.” I was lost again. I am the last person u’d wanna rely on to transfer phone msgs… all this made me think of many a times that I have forgotten to give msgs to manda aji from her frnz when she’d be out of the house. And only when they appeared in front of me or called back wud I remember that they had called. They’d curse me for it!
The other day, jayu was in pune and I had promised pranju to meet up the day before. Jayu and I spent the whole day together and I completely forgot to call pranju, infact I remembered when she msgd me in the night.
Now, as I search thru the different types of amnesia, m unable to state my kind so I’ll just invent one for my sake- lets call it, sujuz amnesia. Yes, that’s the defect m living with…the ability to forget msgs.

what is happening ????

I decided to give myself 2 weeks of pure fun. but turns out destinity had its own plans for me! i set out on 23rd june and caught serious cold and cough on the 28th. followed by high fever for next 2 days and pathetic weakness for next 3 days. all of north india only saw me coughing... m still coughing. i dissapointed frnz i was travelling with and myself ofcourse!!! Cant sleep coz i cough, cant eat anything i want to coz of this throat....duh......
m back now.i dont wanna be home. i wanna go to out, out and away... my plans arent working well..m fed up of living here. m gonna run away...soon very soon....i hate to see mum's face everyday, hear her and sidd fight all day, look at dad and laugh at myself helplessly, hes like a total stranger. so back pack meri jaan..keep going... yeh college kab shuru hoga yaar, i swear i wudnt come home for anything more than a dinner and sleep. m sick , yes m sick, m out of my mind..i have officially lost myself now...hu lalalala....hmm hmm hmm....bla bla blah.... and the best part i hate sickness...!!!!!!!!

one more day of vacation..

It was 8, a usual day break until mum came in all panicked. She had to attend a meeting at 11 and the doc in mumbai hadnt sent the meeting details yet. he was suppose to email them on my id. so she shook me out of the bed and sent me to the cyber cafe. now this is pune, what kinda shop is open before 10?! after passing by closed shutters of about 4 cyber cafes, i found 1 open! thankfully, the speed was good. it was 8.45 by now. i hadnt received any email from him yet. i waited for half an hr, no email.. called up mum, she said hes already sent it, duh! i was so bugged! and mr.isaac had to call up...'hi, m at satara rd, how long will u take to get here?' i dint really have an answer but i said, 'go ahead, have breakfast and wait there.' 9.30, finally after killing 45 minutes, i got the email. printed it and rushed home.

By that time pranav had replied to my sms about the dehradun plan. so next one hour went into dicussions over phone calls- to pranav, to isaac, to jayu.. mum left at 11. she asked me to cook lunch. sidd was playing downstairs...isaac was waiting at the college. i managed to heat up the rice a lil and left for college. met isaac, he looked darker and sick. (bangalore return!) he had spoken to the princi, som and had got a green signal to go take up a 4 month course at bangalore. he was happy.

we then drifted to mg road to check out the hp tablet. called up pranav for directions to the showroom.. we parked the bike at pull gate and walked down. we dint find a tablet on display tho.. but we did some browsing.. came home at about 5. loose motions had killed my energy, i went straight to bed! isaac had food aka lunch at 5 at my place. when i woke up at something past 6, mum said he'd just gotten up from the dining table! hes a hogger!! and hes like the elder sibling at our house, he'll play with sidd, help mum in the kitchen, irritate me and chat all the time keeping everyone busy!

anyways, i wanted c yash, so i msgd him. i had to go to swargate to drop isaac, so i was half way in between kothrud and bibwe wadi. yash called me at saras baug. we met ,he was hungry (hadnt eaten anything since morning. reason- laziness to go out) so he had bhel, we walked for a while then went biking in the narrow lanes of sadashiv peth and navi peth..it was fun! we were back at saras baug at 9, it had started to rain..it felt amazing..
he called pranav and asked him to come over so they cud have dinner.. he turned up rather late. we had chinese at 'purva' and began our planning for dehradun. it all came down to pranav's gf! he had stories to tell, but i was getting late.. we walked out and got dressed to get wet. i got a good bye kiss from yash.....in front of pranav 2day! anyways, i dint wanna stretch it longer. wasnt embarassing, just awkward. c'mon, we were together throughout the evening and he had to find that moment! i only turned and waved out to pranav. reached home at 11. mum as usual "evdhya ratri yet jau nakos ekti...."

i love u guys!!!

i totally love my friends they way they are! may it be too sweet jayu or cranky mohini or sulky sumit or split-personality isaac or ziddi yash..! all have a special place in my heart and in turn, life! they are way different from one another but what brings them close to me are these 'symptoms' that i share with each one of them.

jayu and me: sweetness, kindness, care , love, the best time -walking thru lanes in parle. worst- when we dont get to talk for weeks.

mohini and me: passion for work, hanging out anytime anywhere, the best time -when we complete asgnts the night before submissions! worst- when her mood swings into a 'me nahi ja...' mode.

sumit and me: sms chatting, brain storming on subjects, the best time-travelling in pmt from college to swargate. worst- when he goes mute.

issac and me: out going, logical, thoughtful, openness in talking abt any damn thing! the best time- every time we hang out. worst- when he wants me to pick him up from station!

yash and me: the fact that theres nothing common in us! but it works! the best time- when we hold hands. worst- when we are not together.

p. s. these kinda surveys can actually help me count the no. of personalities inside me!

Mission accomplished!

Today, i woke up early than usual i.e. at 7. cleaned my room, washed the balcony, arranged the plants and after all the sweating, had a zakas bath in cold water. I had a mission 2day, so i finished the daily chores as early as possible. The mission: Hunt for my notebooks in my room at aji's place. the room is now only a storage place after i left. so searching for the notebooks meant serious scavenging! But i was too determined 2day, coz 2moro is the exam and i have to have the notes.

I reached there at 9. worked on the glow signs project for a while and then began the search. I went thru my junky table top first....no luck. i had packed some bags to move to my new room. there are around 8-9 bags. I took a deep breath and began opening them one by one. clothes, canvases, boards, colours, brushes, blankets, papers, papers and papers.....no trace of a simple note book. then with all possible hope i cud gather, i opened the last bag. after sliding out many a papers, there it was! oh, i cud have kissed it, but it was layered with dust. i wiped it off and carefully placed it on the table, opened it, browsed thru all the pages and what, the scripts that i wanted werent there!

i then remembered i had written them in another book. so began the part 2 of my hunt. Now there was only one option left- the drafting table top, burdened with more of my stuff. I gave it one look full of calmness and started gathering the papers. after collecting quite a pile, i found the jewel there, my flash notebook!!!!!! YES YES YES !!!!!!!!!!!! Ah, i heaved a sigh of relief! atalst, i cud study the scripts that i have completely forgotten after doing the assignments 3 months ago.

Almost 60% of my exam fever has come down now. its only serious study now, thats it, i have to work on a few game concepts, presentation ideas and web layouts....m not giving up...i have to score well this time..!!!

guest house?!

when a family moves from one city to another, guest pour in to stay at their new place. No asking, nothing...just one phone call, 'hey, we're coming to ur new place for bla bla days, c u!' thats it. and the poor family has no option but to get busy for preparations.

not a single day do i remember when we had no guests in house. They have been visiting us like ours were a guset house.. they come, they stay, have fun and ruin my study/work time! Not that i hate them..i love them all, but its just that the timing is sooo wrong! like yesterday, gadgils came over for dinner, i lost almost 4 hours from 6-10pm, which cud have been used to work on the glow signs project and also, i wud have taken an evening walk. and gadgils, arent guests, i have lived with them for 2 years, so they r like family to me. plus, m pissed with the way they all are all time baby-sitters for shamy. hes a pacca nautanki like many other over pampered kids, keeping the entire family on toes.

i have projects to do, study for the exam then go thru the exam, and mum the great had to invite her frnz from bombay with their families in the midst of my exam dates. cool. ok, its a week end, but its not the only weekend of a lifetime. on top of that she'd say, suju can shut herself in her room and work peacefully! ya rt! like the other kids are gonna let me do that..and my room doesnt have sound-proof walls and door. i have no idea whats gonna hapen to my temper that day...oh, how about running away to mohini's place, or aji's place or somewhere or anywhere... yes, i shud do that or m screwed. again, i pray, may all those ppl who want to study in life, dont stay with your family!!! ofcourse, if u want to study house keeping, thats the best!

this time its dreamweaver and flash scripting for the exam...they need a lot of practice, which ofcourse i havent done. no, the shifting thingy neednt be blamed, its actually my so called 'unwilling participation in it, to keep mum happy', that messed things up. not just my work, it also messed up my diet and work out schedule...which hurts me the most!

i hope things work out real soon!

Trying to fit in

19 may 08
I don’t know how to start with this. It’s tough to adapt to changes that are against ur will. Yest’day, I was out the whole day just b’coz I cudnt think of a reason to go out of the house again.

I was out at 9, went to mohini’s place to pick her up for college. just then sumit nsgd ‘no class’. I stayed back. We thot of watching narnia at 9.30 e-sq but we were too late. So we went to my place. Had lunch and went to city pride to catch the 12.5 show. Awesome movie! It ended at 2.30. yash was to call me after his class, so I thot me n mohini hang out a lil and then I’ll go with yash. So we went browsing thru big bazaar for half an hr. I found chetan bhagat’s 3rd book and picked it up! Then we sat out side big bazar on the katta. Had caramel popcorn and bingos while I read the book and mohini listened to her ipod. It was abt 3.30 when yash msgd he cant make it soon! So after a while we went to tathavde udyan and spent like an hr there, walking and talking. Then mum calls and assigns me some job. So we go to the plumber and the solar heater dealer. Done with them by 6 when yash again calls up to cancel the meeting, he got busy. Cool.

By that time me n mohi were too hungry and hogged on some bhel puri and veg puff. We planned to work at my place in the night. So from lucky bakery, we drifted to swargate to get her stuff and back home by 7. but we both were so tired that we went to sleep at 11! The driving hadn’t left its remains from me. I felt sick. I was showing a few symptoms of fever..but one dose of homoeopathy did the magic! M feeling better since this morning.

I talked to Isaac after a long time 2day, on the phone. Hes been good. Its just that I feel I don’t get to spend as much time with my frnz as I used to. Like yest’day was one day after weeks that I spent with mohini had we had fun. I haven’t met yash since last 3 days. I haven’t seen other college frnz for 2 days. Its like m turning into an indoor person, which I hate! M a complete outdoor material. I don’t recollect the last time I went out sketching at swargate, or going out biking at night with frnz, or just an evening walk in the company of trees in the narrow lanes of karve nagar, or climbed up parvati whenever I felt like…times r changing so much! All coz I’ve shifted with my family!? Coz earlier, I cud go out anywhere at anytime without worrying about what a 20 yr old wud say to mum or what sidd wud think about his tai. Now, there are other existences to me than just suju. Mum expects me to carry the home responsibilities and i cant avoid it. I know I have to. I cant give her a straight answer coz shes explosive, and also going thru menopause, which directly affects a woman’s emotional state. So I have to be very careful in choosing words when I talk to her and have to be polite and smile. While on the other hand I have to make sure sidd is disciplined as per dad’s conditions. And he being a compete brat, it’s a tough job!

So unintentionally, I have cut down on time spending with frnz and increased family time. I cudnt figure out how this happened but it is what it is and I have to face it coz I love my dad too much. And only coz he isn’t available for mum n sidd, hes put me into this. Daddy’s good girl has grown up.

long week end and longest blog!

saturday morning i woke up to the sound of mum yelling at sidd, trying to wake him up! right, i teer mein 2 nishan.. they had to leave early for manavli. and i was supposed to drive mama's esteem later, after my class. it was set, they left at 7 while i was bathing. I left at about 8 on my nova, went to aji's place, picked up the esteem and drove to college. Worked on some action scripts and css...and escaped from there at 10. Came to karve nagar to pick up gadgil family coz they werent sure they wud come, hence i took the car in the morning. anyways, we were at manavli for lunch. the drive was fine but the strong sun made me sick! but i had sahi 'thalipeeth' and 'taak' at datta snacks which was totally refreshing..

At manvli. we reached at about 2pm. sidd and mum were there by 11 am. And i discovered dad, jaideep mama and manisha mami too were there! That was a surprise..jaideep and manisha, they are buying a piece of land near by. But what caught my attention the most was the tree overflowing with mangoes! yes, its amazing to see mangoes clinging at a height of about 2 feet from the ground! there are 4 mango trees in all and all were loaded. i was so excited to take them down..

we had lunch, and soon heard a horn at the gate. It was the versa. Manik aji, dada, kalyani aatya, naresh kaka, komal and harsha aatya! the loud speakers had arrived and the fun multiplied! Chatting chattin and chatting...it was time for tea now. hey, wait a sec. Just after this bunch came in, dad sent kasim to pick up gretta and family! yes, they too were home at aronud 4, gretta, gpyson, grason and her 3 nephews ( dont remember their names!) so totally, it was 21 of us on the farm house! people from mumbai and pune. some from my paternal side, some maternal and then my dad's office staff and his frnd...it was a super get together! everyone mixed up instantly.

Evening time i set out for a short climb on a hill nearby. it was tiring but up there on the hill top the breeze was so cool..i enjoyed it. i was back home in an hour only to find out we were heading to the beach volley ball court! All of us, and i mean 'all' of us. from the 4 year old grason to 65+ dada, everyone was young on the court. the game does it! it was the best throw ball i ever played and with naresh kaka's commentary....sone pe suhaga! hes a pacca gujju, non-stop chatter box! We made our own rules and made the best of it with a dozen and a half of varied players on the court.

at sunset we ended our game and now came the mess...everyone was dirty with sand and rushed for a bath! around 15 ppl took bath one after the other in 3 bathrooms! that gave mum and aatyas a good time to cook the dinner. all fresh and set, we had dinner at 8, a mouth watering khichadi , tomato soup, papad, mirchi and salad. We were so full! everyone appreciated the food and also praised dad for building the weekend home! Jaideep mami and manisha mami, then left for mumbai. The rest of us spread out in the house and were lying around, chatting and laughing at the top of our voice! It was 10, time to sleep..we made arrangements in the living room and it accomodated all of us! in no time there was a pin drop silence, the throw ball and the dinner did it.

Sunday morning. Like never before, everyone was up by 7! the bird calls in villages are the best alarm..and not to forget the sun god penetrating into the house without the obstuction of tall biuldings! a bunch of us set out to trek in the sun. we enjoyed the view and the breeze from the hill top and i took lots of pitures. all tired yet excited we returned home. gretta and family were up by then. we were playing galli cricket while dad was busy studying the mangoes. he declared there were a few that can be picked! yay!!! soon he was up the tree with a lond stick and a pouch attached to it to pluck the mengoes. this was so adventurous!!! i followed him with the cam in my hand. managed to make my self comfy on a branch. sidd joined in soon. and one by one the cricket players wered diverted to the mango plucking. we collected about 20 mangoes. dad plucked them with that stick, passed them to sidd, he put them in a bucked and sent them down like a pulley. it was such fun!!! i was having a blast while taking pictures and going up and down when dad needed help.

huff huff....after the exhausting fun, breakfast was ready, garam pohe, bakarwadi and amba-naral wadi that hasrsha aatya had made. it was relishing! after a few of us had a bath..we realised - no more water in the tank! wah! so half us were left sticky and stinky. who cares! thats what they call a weekend! i helped to chop kairis and onions for lunch as kalyani and harsha aatya cooked the rassa, bhat and rotis. then we had lunch at 1 and as per aji's instructions, the gadgil family was set to leave. they had plans to stay back but yash fell sick so they wanted to go home. i was so pissed! they made me drive in the middle of the afternoon again! but responsibilities r inevitable. like the time a few hours ago when i tried to get a nap, dad called out for me and sent me to drop gretta and family at the mandwa jetty. the best part i got to drive marina after a long time! hehe...i love to drive but only for the back!

a super hit weekend that it was, i will never forget it.

relationships

totally into this nut case! God knows why?! If m asked why i like him, i'd probably have no answer. ok, i like his voice and i like when he holds my hand and love to cuddle up and ..... i can always keep adding to this 'thats so obvious' list! seriously, no solid reason. God, i never thot i'd fall for it. i mean i was the one making fun of ppl who spent hours talking to their lovers on the phone and crashing their phone balance and battery, or who wud die to get one glimpse of each other... ah, imagine if my nutcase had to go abroad again?! ... we wud go back and keep thanking skype!

when i think abt our past days when we kept in touch thru the internet, woah, internet is an absolute bliss! we were like next door neighbours- updating one another on our daily lives. and when u meet after 15 months, having known each other so well..u r bound to get hooked up! there was no stopping this time- no distance, no questions, no odds, nothing...

being the elder sibling

finally we moved in. dad was here too. this morning it was me, aai and baba. he began saying, 'suju, do u know why we have shifted here?' i say 'no' . he proceedes. he explained to me how the only priority in his personal life was to get sidd on track and how he wanted me to help him do this. he said after a progressive success in business, no man wud want his family to suffer coz they dint get enuf of him, while he has busy working...he felt bad he cudnt be there for sidd in his early ages, thats when he wanted to discipline sidd. but he is positive, and wants to rectify his mistake. he believes i am old enough to take care of sidd and aai. basically he wants to change the mumbaiya culture sidd has gotten into which freaks him out completely.
but sidd is way into it. so he got them to pune, so that sidd wud spend some time with aai and me and adapt to a simpler, easier culture and learn family values for god's sake!

i was shocked coz i had never heard baba's side of the story. and now that i have, i want to see it coming true . i totally love him for the person he is and i can seriously do anything to help him, even if it means- cleaning, cooking, sleeping and waking up early, daily! yes, baba says 'no maids' in the house. house will be cleaned, clothes will be washed and food will be cooked by ourselves! thats like a rocking life, isnt it?! no worries at all. m cool with it. actually, that will bring us close to our house, it will give us the satisfaction...and of course, sidd the 'rajkumar' will come down on earth.

a good start that it needed, i cooked paneer bhurji 2day. also helped mum with the grocery and washed the utensils. but then sidd comes in for dinner and declares- 'i wont eat this!'

thats it!
but m still cool. i will have to be and i will. this is for u baba! only u! its like u've given me a new direction, a new goal..a new life style..hehe!

m not alone..its just a phase that m going thru..

we were having fun last nite after the annual function, when isaac had to say that my mind is preoccupied with many things. i hated that coz i was having a good time and he reminded me of the whole shifting thing. i think i shudnt have told anyone untill the shifting had taken place! but i did. and isaac can read my face clearly. its impossible to hide things from him.

i feel sick the moment i thnk of living with sidd and mum. they make me uneasy in a day, what will i do for 5 years??? its not like my family is shifting, coz my family is incomplete without the presence of baba, aji and ajoba at home. so i wud say only sidd and aai r shifting. baba is never home, hes travelling all the time. aji ajoba want to continue staying in vile parle.. so who is left out to stick with sidd and aai, is me! naaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!

i had asked aai and baba to send me to a hostel when i went to 11th std. i dint want to continue living with non stop chaos and shoutings and what nots... but they dint let me. i stayed with them for 2 years. and those 2 years i only searched for good colleges way away from mumbai. I dint make it to NID, my fate! may be i dint try with the right intention! then i got to know abt VCIC and i took my chances. i knew it was a baby college, but i had to come out of the life i was living so i convinced baba somehow and escaped.

And finally, i was at peace! no bugging sidd...no aai nothing to bother me, just me! i was happy i got peace and sid was happy he got the entire room that we used to share. i dont remember, we calling up each other anytime, to say hi or enquire abt our health n stuff, reason- we were happy without each other! i spoke to aai every week and we updated each other. that was cool coz she wasnt in my everyday scene, eyeing me! but she missed being with me like hell. coz i used to share every lil thing with her and suddenly she realised that her daughter was independent enough to handle certain things by herself.

And now, she wants to come back in my everyday life, so that i share things with her the way i used to '2 years ago' and she likes that. i cant do that , coz i have moved on. i have grown up..infact i feel better now. i think she shud just worry abt sidd. i had also said that while leaving mumbai. i had said, 'aai. now u dont have to worry abt me, i will manage. just make sure u attend to sidd, he needs it more than me. he is a special child, a unique case, lets say. baba is never around, so its u alone and u can better focus on one child than two. m old enough now, i will always keep updating u and talk to u when i feel like or miss u.' n i meant that. i still do.

aai plz, dont make 'me' a reason of ur life. i wud not appreciate that! n it wud hurt u more when i have a separate home and family. sidd will also grow older and step into a college life. and u will be left alone. we wud only live together physically! u must start getting urself involved in some social activity, and dont stop ur practice, u r a great doc! i hate to say this, but u r sacrificing a lot. all this, is enough of an experience for me, to think of not gettin married or not having kids. i sense, i wud just 'live in' with someone or live alone.

Shoot!

Got yet another dose from mum 2day. she literally shoots her planning on me! i know shes really excited abt the shifting thing but she expects me to be excited too! now why is that so?! and no matter how much even the thot of it kills me, i have to listen to her plans and nod. the best part, as she explains is that shes been away from me for 2 years already and wants to live with me till i get married and shift like forever. thats her reason. now how m i supposed to react? tell her, that i too wanna live a life before getting into this thing called 'family'? or that i hate to live with her and sidd or what????? listening to their fiery conversations only deviates my mind from better things, n i never feel like going home. i have this gutt feeling that m gonna end up with aji-aba again within 2 months! thats like the least and max time mum wud want me to spend there for her to realise what i mean. ... aare yaar , this is not happening! i dont wanna think abt it! it only makes me feel 'helpless' and i hate that feeling. i hope time or times, play a good role here.

CAD B

It was the last day of our exhibition. Yash showed up at around 11.30. after lots of hugging, laughing, taking pics and talking abt the art work, we all decided to go have lunch at food arena, where mohi and shruti joined us. at abt 3, we went back to the exhi while yash n pranav went to pranav's place.

At the exhi.Finally we'd got our t-shirts and many of us were wearing them. i also got 10 more names for t-sirts.It felt fantastic. we clicked hundreds of pics 2day- at our stall, vcic t-shirt group... me and mohi also took some videos. she was the cameraman while i was the comentator! we had a gr8 time, we also interviewed some students from our class, abt their work etc. Then a bunch of us started playing stare or dare! ...i was made to run to the main gate and back 3 times, mohini was made to dance on a table top, omkar was asked to take pics and gather info abt a girl visitor , sumit was made to go up n down the stairs 5 times.....and so on.. we had a blast!

It was abt 6 pm now and we began packing up. It was done in half an hour. me, mohi, shruti and neha came home, dropped the stuff there and rode to 'ice-cream magic' to have CAD B! yes, we had planned a CAD B since the exhibition started. The heavy chocolate shake was much lighter 2day coz we were damn hungry and finished it off in like 10 mins! we then dispersed to our respective homes, all tired yet happy.

At night, i had a talk with isaac. we want to do the t-shirt thing seriously now, its time we do something, get earning and support ourselves . yeah, he needs to do a 2d animation course while i want a new cam and canvases and paints for the exhibition at 'kaladarshan'. hope this gets rolling..

full on!

d'zine '08 is totally chhaya hua this week! we r having a rockin time!!!! the fundoo ideas coming up, the over nites, the setting up, and and and the T shirt!!! yes, finally VCICians will have a t-shirt to flaunt their team spirit! the no. has gone to 25 as of now. we've restricted it to DA students only.

it all started with a discussion with 3rd yr students n kunal sir. so me, mohi and shruti were in..and so followed the others n the first yrs! great! but since no one came up with a design but me, i was appreciated..i have been wanting a VCIC t shirt since Cresendo'08. now finally its happening. all loved my design and gave a green signal..so we visited mr.bharat 2day, who happens to be omkar's(fyda) mama. n hence he agreed to give the tees by 2moro!! the cost it 150 per head which i have been collecting from the ones who want the tees. i believe, 26th morning wiil be a morning of all students wearing the VCIC tee. i wud be the happiest person then!

ofcourse there were downs. the guys who did the wall painting hated that everyone chose the graphic design print over the one with their wall painting pic. so i had to bare their disgusting expressions on seeing the new edited design n i sweared i wudn't want to see those 'we r the kings' kinda looks again. gosh! they r literally floating since the completion of the wall painting. (its a different issue that no one really liked it apart from them!, its not bad, but it cud have been better, it was like ,done in haste!)

but the ups are too fantastic! theres a whole gang of us- kejal, komal, kripa, rahul,sandeep from 3rd yr, me, mohi, shruti, isaac from 2nd yr and omkar, ishant, ratnesh,neha, tenzin, suhas...from 1st year. and with all the profs with us we r trying to make the best of life at VCIC!
wooohoooo.....m waiting to see the printed t shirts! this year, VCIC has progressed a lot, i mean, we have a new name, a painted wall, annual art exhibition in public, our own tees...

whats the point in studying at an already established institute, i'd rather say, try out new ventures! coz they r a baby and so r u, so u can grow together and form a pacca bond! and the fun u have is much more, coz u r learning things together and making them happen!

never back out

We had our group dance auditions 2day at 1 pm. All of us were in college in time. Just 10 mins left for the audition and we cant find Bharti! We searched for her and left msgs...and finally she turns up with a sweet smile. We say 'so, r u ready? lets do this..' She smiles and says, 'actually, i got selected for the 'may queen' contest and that programme is scheduled on 3rd of may. so i will be there for all days from now, they will give me a make over and tone my body in 10 days...., i cant do the dance! i dont have time!'

**$%^&**!!!!!!!!!!!!! we were too mad at her! before we cud react, she said 'ok. so can i leave now?' we say ' sure, bye!!!' F**** !! our dance was almost half done and she had to back off!! waise bhi we dint have much choice for the 5th dancer, we tried teaching surbhi but she was pathetic! We gave the auditions without a 5th dancer! rakhi mam liked the idea and also said it wud be a different performance than the usual bollywood stuff. and we also get to begin the show, coz our theme includes lights. yieppeee!!

one bad news and one good news about the same event, same day!
we bugged our brains over who cud replace bharti but all in vain. it is too late to train anyone. our show is on the 2nd of may. we were too determined not to give up on the dance. finally, we concluded, if we had to keep the show running, it was the 4 of us, thats it! and we'll make it worth a watch!

well bharti, m glad u got it the contest, great for u! hope u do well and make the best of this opportunity. no hard feelings.

the sleepover

After listening to Mandar's bhashan 2day in coll, the usual 'aap kuch karte nahi ho...', we decided to put up some display of self created products for the brands we'd campainged for. It was done- we wud meet at my place in the nite. Mohini, shruti, pranju and sumit were here by 9. We started conceptualising the display. Mohini thot of making a mall and having showrooms of all the brands..we liked it, but then it wud have looked more like an Interior Design project. So i came up with a fantasy mall idea. where there are no side walls only bases, like a stand. we cud design it in any form. Everyone agreed, but sumit and i had another blowing argument.. i said the bases should be same shape repeated at periodic heights so it luks like one unit, but he said it wud luk stupid. Fine! so what do u say? and it went on...
it was 10.30 now. I was bored coz we hadnt decided on anything net. me and shruti wanted to have ice-cream! but the others were too lazy to go out..so we both set out to get ice-cream for everyone. when we were back, we got to know, they hadnt decided on anything as yet.
duh! we ate chips, ice-cream and then no one was willing to do the model. so we watched Mtv Roadies 5.0! terrific show!! it was 1 by the time the show ended.
we turned off the lights and off to sleep! but mohini hote huye koi kaise so sakta hai. we were up again to play spin the bottle!! Spinning the bottle was fine, but when it came to questioning, all wud be muted! i guess the 'shruti is here' factor kept everyone silent unlike all the times that we throw questions at each other! since shes not really into us, we only talked about college...which was like a punishment. shes fine, just that she hasnt been at our sleepovers, we never open up and we rnt very comfortable with her. we stopped the game and went to sleep. yeah, that lukd like a better option.
I woke up at 6.30 and saw sumit packing his bag. i waved to him and i went back to sleep. hes always the first person to leave after sleepovers.
the sleeping beauties were woken up by the door bell at 9. it was my cousin mama! he left soon and by that time mohini, shruti and pranju went n slept inside my room like coiled caterpillars coz there was hardly any space! (we were in the living room thruout the nite) i too joined them. man, how did we fit in? anyways, we were too sleepy to bother whos sleeping on whom and how!

Opposites

I was in college by 11. sumit had asked me to come earlier coz he wanted to show me sm layouts and wanted my corrections. But when i reached college, he had nothing to show except his sulking face! Was he crying? or just too frustrated about the college?? he had decided not to do the newspaper... great! atlast, he'd realised the meaning of team work and also that he is not made for it. this guy is too much! i mean how far can u go by urself?! u need supplements, u need support, team spirit, willingness... man, have u been dreaming or what! knock knock..better open up those doors to see a wonderful college life in front of u... if u dont hangout or chat or party or do any kinda group activities..and only take ur work and urself seriously, thats not a college life, infact thats not a life at all. i have never seen him laugh with a bunch of frnz, acually i have never seen him with anyone....i hardly remember us having a light peppy talk. its always about 'discussing' smthin. anyways, who am i to decide for him?! but i hope he gets a lil social.

i dint wanna sit with him and get those sulky vibes, so me n isaac went to the canteen. the mumbaiya was so hungry that he finished 2 plates of 'poha' and a sandwitch! and there enters mr. jyoti. yes, the same guy who tries to act smart all the time. he walks to our table and orders '2 chai'. as he n isaac sip the chai having a 'not so important' conversation, i get to know that m being called "isaac's suzi' by everyone! WTF!! all i say is 'bas, itna hi baki reh gaya tha!' and we flirted our way out of the canteen. but mr. mumbaiya had to do yet another 'bindhas giri' by hugging me in front of aishwarya, jyoti and some other students from mass com, and he goes 'chalta hai yaar' and i pat his back really hard! i do agree, we flirt a lot in college, but hey, we r d best of buddies..infact he goes around treating me like a kid sister..like we wud be sitting somewhere and we wud go 'hey, check out that guy, i think hes cute for u!' or he wud buy me a snickers candy bar like 2day or just be there for me when i need a change from the college nonsense. yeah, thats one thing we naturally tend to do for each other, that is being together if we wanna stay away from the college stuff for a while. and we always have a good time!

one thing i realised 2day, knowing two totally different kinda ppl, and being equally close to both, is wierd!! but m cool with that. but m always in a fix coz those different types of ppl may not be liking each other and in the course also stop liking me! knowing ppl and dealing with each one on a respective level is challenging.

going good

the contemporary dance is turning out to be real fun! we r done with half the song i.e. 2:17 mins. and we r quite confident that it wud be selected amongst 40 other entries! we do need to work on the co-ordinaton tho..and our group is so enthu abt the dance that we also thot of doing another number if we finish this one by sunday!

tejasi is gonna sing too. she is searching for a guitarist to accompany her..and miss mohini and shruti had to open their big mouth, so i might have to give that a try too. the song she is plannin to sing is 'gunji si hai sari fiza' by sadhna sargam. its a sweet song. i need to get the chords rt. havent touched the guitar for a long time. n i dont wanna ruin her singing! if i cant manage it, i will probably have to blackmail isaac to do the chords.. that cool guitar playing idiot, itna bhav khata hai! after convincing me to dance with him, now hes gone into a low profile= we r not dancing! (good actually, we wud have looked funny together esp in the retro costumes)