A REAL B'DAY BLAST!!!

b'days are percieved diffrently by different people. some consider them as days which remind you of your age while others consider them as a special day where you get all the attention possible in the world.
i belong to the latter category. i still remember the days back in school when i couldn't even sleep the night before my b'day due to the excitment. but then as time passed i realised that my b'day was also the day i was off mood the most. maybe this was because i expected way too much on this day. as i grew older, i learnt not to be excited about my b'day and so i started enjoying this day better.
one more b'day just passed by. it was yesterday, the 25th of october. well this time i knew the celebrations would be more than usual. ofcouse during PG days, people tend to celebrate more.

the celebrations started two weeks prior to my b'day. my friends bought me a chocalate cake(knowing my love for it) and they threw a suprise party. this was in kodaikanal where we went for our excurtion. they smearged cream all over my face and hair. and this took more than two days to go!
then came the BIG DAY! all my hostel mates were missing frm 10 p.m the previous night. all except one, who shares my b'day. we were shut out from the room and we wandered like forsaken kids. when the clock struck 12, dey dragged us into a dark room, suddenly switched on the lights and there we saw a wonderful cake, handmade cards and b'day hats, balloon filled room and a cute snow white teddy!
when i reached home, mom redesigned the entire room for my b'day. she made a colour theme of red and yellow- curtains, flowers, bags were all of that theme. and i also got a bunch of gifts like bag, top, wallet, chain....

the day came to an end. i was contend about everything. many unexpected people wished me, my friends send me their greetings, it was all a great day!

the next day,ie. today i came to college to see a set of friends wishing me. when i thought that it was all over, my best friends gifted me with a funky fast track watch. i was so so suprised with their generosity.
then my whole class cut a cake for my friend and me. yet another delicious chocalate cake....yuummmm!!!!we cut it and then we saw an emty plate. jone in a blink of an eye!
that is when the next thunder hit me. my best friend gifted me with something no friend would ever give. it was a MOBILE!

i could no longer take it. i burst into tears. this was truely the most memorable b'day ive had in my 21 years!(oops!did i just reveal my age?:O)
i loved it not because of the gifts i was showered upon, but the effort and love all my dear ones put into this to make my b'day so special.
this blog is dedicated to my dearest of dear ones. thankyou so much for all you have done for me. luv ya loads!muaah!!!

going veg.?

is it right to eat animals? aren't they also living beings? this is an ongoing debate since- god knows when! the animal lovers comes up with a wide array of reasons suggesting the cruelty in eating an animal. if you listen to them, no doubt, you will hate yourself for being so ruthless.

but let me talk about the other side of the coin. i strongly believe that there is nothing wrong in being a non- vegetarian.
here are a few reasons which would support my point.

reason 1:
aren't plants too living beings? they too have feelings. they too have pain. if you are so considerate, then stop eating plants too.

reason 2:
some creatures are herbivores(eg. deer)
some creatures are carnivores(eg. lion)
while some others are omnivores. and the typical example is man. now that is the cycle of nature. a perfect combination has to be there in this world to strike a balance.
if nature wants us to eat both plants and animals, why should we create such a hungamma?

reason 3:
in the Bible there is a story where Peter sees a vision in which all animals of the earth are brought down and then God tells Peter "Peter, kill and eat. for none of God's creation is unclean"

now if God himself does not have a problem, who does?

learn to strike a balance. eating to fill your stomach is not a sin. but killing for sport until the point where it gets extinct, well, that is something which need to be controlled!

inspire yourself

how much time is needed to change a man?one hour? one day? a year?
well, i would say, its not the time but the motivation we get from within.
and when this motivation is given by one of the best trainers in India, its even better.
the past 3 days has changed the lives of 75 students in some way or the other.
we had a very very inspirational speaker. he is a faculty of IIM, chief mentor there and also trains IAS, IPS and IFS officers. he is MR. Vijay Menon.
one thing i was truly impressed was with his public speaking skills. the way he conveys his ideas, the power and confidence with which he says things and of course his vocabulary. well in many instances, i really wished i had i a dictionary with me.

this blog is not to describe his merits. i would like to share a few of his great thoughts which really had an impact on me.

one very important thing he said was- BE ORIGINAL. you might want to please the world, be popular and accepted. the more you try to fake, the more you will be dissatisfied with your life.

always remember this phrase, "life is a echo, you get back what you give". never expect the world to do something for you. you do your part and the rest will follow.

here is a really inspiring example. if you try to catch your shadow, you will always chase and never catch. but if you face the light, the shadow will come behind you.
this is true in all aspects of life.

and finally one the last day came the cream of all sayings and examples. it goes like this
"for the world you are somebody, but for somebody you are everybody"
this is the basic purpose of life. the reason we live and want to live.

now thats what you call a day!

there is an old saying....."every dog has a day"....

well,some of these days can be good...while...some others can be a disaster.....

today was one such day!

i had lost my hostel keys and fearing the warden,i decided to make a duplicate. one very sweet friend of mine,offered to get it done- and he did. this morning i tried it on my door....and doom....its not working!

then i went to class....nothing eventful happened there.so i dint bother too much about the key.

in class i heard that my mark list had come.my friend and i decided to go collect it from college as we would get time only today(just to add:there are two exams a day happening for the next full week)

what a bad choice it was......

before the end of the fist session, the class prefect came to announce that we would be having some personality development session in the evening. now that would ruin our entire plan. my ex college being in the city and my new college being in the outskirts, travel alone would take us nearly an hour and a half or so and we had in front of us just two hours.

being management students, the college teaches us to utilise our time to the fullest.thus we decided to go and get the mark list.we went....reached college and there they say:

"where is the hall ticket?'

us:"hall ticket?but ma'am....we are coming from the hostel.we cannot come again.please give us"

we bowed so low that we were scared if the dust on the floor would enter our noses. but NO CHANCE!

they were as adamant as one could be. finally i had to call home. my dad and cousin came to give me the hall ticket(without even having their lunch)...and when they reached....the staff had gone for their mid day meal.wow!

remember....we have a session starting in college simultaneously. we skipped that session, waited there for an hour and finally got the mark list from them!whew!

but that's not it....we hadn't informed at the hostel,dint go for class and was totally unaware of what was happening there(well,not totally.we were receiving messages from people inside class regarding the class progress)

anyways, with all uncertainties in mind, we went to the hostel. my friend entered hers and called it a day. but for me......my key was gone for repairing, my roommates hadn't come back from class and i was stuck outside for more than 15 minutes.

but God is not ruthless.the first person to come back to the hostel was my roommate.so now I'm in.....its nearly an hour and still the others aren't back.

hoping that my room key will work now.signing off for now.....gosh!I'm tired!!!!!!

a miserable chicken state!

oberon mall- the first full fledged mall in kochi. its actually quite good. its big, it has almost all the good brands in india, a fun filled game station and a multiplex and scary house are on its way.

today my two good friends and i went there. well,ofcourse we have to be loyal to the student community which we belong to. thus we went into the mall with bare minimum money and with absolutely no intention to buy anything! however this dint stop us from entering every single shop and enquiring about the price. we talked with such confidence that seemed like we would buy the entire showroom!the salesmen were all very excited. but ofcourse in the end we would smile at them and say "thankyou" and just walk out. oh!how their expression would change...lol

and then we went into the gaming station and looked at all the games. for some time we watched other playing. but soon we were also tempted by then. though we had decided not to open our wallets, we changed our minds(or was about to). that's when my friend said "wait,let me see if i can get a card for free". we were like "ya, right!". but soon he did come with a demo card from a friend of his and we had a jolly time! just before we would be literally thrown out, we came out ourselves!

ok, by this time,after nearly 2 hours of walking around the mall and exerting a lot of energy on window shopping- we were TIRED! and thus we entered the food court. ok, well, here we had no chance of window shopping. and so we decided to buy something to fill our stomachs. after around half an hour of hot debate on what to buy, we finally decided on half a grilled chicken for the three of us.

after 20 minutes: our grilled chicken arrived. it was not cut. we looked at it for some time. it had an expression of "are the three of you gonna eat me?". we started on our mission. initially we were very dignified and started on one corner- using a knife and fork.

slowly my other friend took a fork and started poking on it. we were like "what are you doing?" and she was like " I'm trying to get something into my mouth" . we saw her pitiful condition and gave up even our efforts with a knife and fork and worked our way with our fingers. we insisted her to do the same but she refused to touch the chicken with her fingers. thus the two of us tore the chicken part. one leg one side,the other leg somewhere else, the flesh all over the place. we had to eat in between this and also stuff food into our friends mouth(the one who suddenly refuses to use her fingers).

it took nearly half an hour to finish our task. i feel it took us more energy to eat the chicken than to window shop!whew! but our mission was accomplished. our stomachs were full.

however- the state of the chicken(i wouldn't call it a chicken now. its just a few bones here and there.) was quite miserable.we had just one prayer at that time - that no one whom we knew would pass by that way!and if the spirit of the real chicken was somewhere there, it would have tried committing suicide. that's for sure!

oh Chicky, please forgive us!we were really hungry.that's why!;)

earth day observed!

28th march 2009.the world observed earth day. an election to save mother earth. to cast your vote, you needn't take an id, no long queues, no boring speeches- nothing at all. just awareness to turn off your lights and all electrical equipments for one hour.
last year when this was observed, 6 crore people participated.this year the number is sure to go up. thanks to the media for that!

we have so many such days- mothers day, fathers day, friendship day, teachers day, valentines day...
we always ask ourselves, do we need these days to love our parents, teachers, friends or lovers?same is the case with earth day.let us save electricity not just on one day.
turn off unwanted lights and fans, switch off the refrigerator for an hour or so. do the tiny little things that can save electricity.

trust me, its not just going to reduce global warming, its also going to save you a hell lot of money!

elections!

the much awaited election day- april 16th is fast approaching. posters are all around the place. public meetings are in full swing. candidates are busy visiting prospective voters.

Ernakulam Left candidate Sindhu Joy had come to St. Teresa's college a few days back. she spotted the right crowd. the college being a famous womens college in the city, has a good bunch of young ladies who believe that women can do things independently even without a mans help.so she caught the right cord- women empowerment!

little did she realize that the youth of today dont even bother about politics. after all, there are so many things for us to worry about- fashion, movies, gossip...

well, this year i got my voters id. and i'm really excited about voting. i'm not a fan of any party nor any candidate. but i believe the expirience is worth enjoying . after all, every party has its pros and cons. right?

its nice to vote and feel a part of democracy. but it sometimes makes us think,whats the point?!
we vote believing the promises the parties offer.but once the election is done with, we feel like fools!
hope atleast this time we see a change:)

the ruthlessness of the bus staff

every day we hear of the ruthless attitude of bus drivers and conductors.reckless driving, unwillingness to allow students with student concession to travel, lack of decency in the bus etc are some of the complaints against them.
today i saw in front of my eyes the laidback attitude of these people. by gods grace, i was sitting. we were travelling through the city. the bus driver was very fast and it seemed like he wouldn't apply the brakes until the last moment. like usual this man saw a bus entering into our track but he dint bother to slow down. and when he was sure that there would be a collition, he slamed the brakes. all of us went forward. but an unfortunate lady who was about to get down at the next stop was standing. this jerk made her loose her grip and she fell backwards onto the engine.

the severity of the pain was very clearly seen on her face.one grace she had was that her husband was also there with her. she told him that she couldnt get down and so they sat in the bus itself. and when the bus reached the next stop, the conductor went upto them and said "ok now,please get down".

then all the other passengers shouted at the conductor.they said"it happened in your bus and so you have some accountability.you go with them to the hospital". when they said this i could see a very obvious anger rising on his face. probably because he feared the mob, he went along with them, but grumbling.
and when they were out, the driver and the new conductor were talking to each other as if it was the lady's fault that she fell.
such an attitude must change. i appreciate the service that they are giving us. but the element of human touch is very much necessary.