You're Catch-22!
by Joseph Heller

Incredibly witty and funny, you have a taste for irony in all that you see. It seems that life has put you in perpetually untenable situations, and your sense of humor is all that gets you through them. These experiences have also made you an ardent pacifist, though you present your message with tongue sewn into cheek. You could coin a phrase that replaces the word "paradox" for millions of people.

Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Love Is Such A Beautiful Thing

Listen! :)

Liar Meme :P

This time, tagged by Hamsini. Verrrrrry weird tag, though. *perplexed*

Once you've been tagged, you have to write a blog entry with five complete lies about yourself. That is, five things about you that are completely not true. Not even slightly. THEN hide in the entry a 6th line, something that is absolutely TRUE and the first person to guess which one is true wins :) then tag up to five people you want to turn into compulsive liars too.

1. Love crowds, bustle and noise.
2. Have always spoken the truth.
3. Hate to get drenched in the rain.
4. Love Craig.
5. Have never bunked classes.
6. Go to the temple every single week.

Was NOT easy to do this!! :) :)

I tag Abhi, V , Vara, Gapp and Ajit !

Oh, and my 100th post! *applause* :P

Update: Talking about milestones, I just realized i've crossed my 1000 comment mark too!! Yay!! :) It's currently at 1019 for Koyaanisqatsi and 42 for Poetic License!! :D

Happy Happy Friendship Day! :)

The most important people in my life. I'd be lost without them. :)

To write about them would take me a lot of time and a lot of words. And still, I wouldn't be saying everything that I want to.

Here's to all of you. I love you guys!! :) :) :)

Rakhi Time!! :)

Well.....almost! :)

Rakshabandhan a.k.a Rakhi is just around the corner - Aug. 9th!!

In my family, rakhi usually means:

1. LOADS of work - buy gazillion rakhis, sort rakhis into sets for each of our brothers and our mom's brothers, put them in nice packs, address them, mail them. (Lot of them live in other parts of the world.)
2. Lists - we've to make lists for everything. Upto and including, pins to put up the decorations. :O
3. Delicious, delicious mithai - usually around 8 different kinds!! yay!! :D :D :D
4. New clothes!
5. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand - a lot of presents (yay for being sisters!!) and lots of cash!! :D Nothing can really beat last year's net though!!

This year's rakhis: (haven't finished yet! :P)

Carbuncle @ Fruit Shop - Pffft!!

That's the drink called Carbuncle. Looks very nice and all that.

My dad's expression after he took a sip of it. So now you know how it tastes. :P

We're Here!!!! :)

Blog Ban's been lifted. Yippppeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!! :D :D :D :D :D

No more pkblogs, no more inblogs and no more anonymouse!!!!! Yay!!!!! :D :D :D

Wikimapia - Whoa!

That's where I live. *looks bewildered*

And that's Wikimapia!! :D Powered by Google, so naturally it's really, really, really AMAZING!! Hell, I could zoom into my goddamn STREET!!

And best part, it has collective editing - add place, edit info about place, find place, find directions!! Whoa!! :D

Oh, it still doesn't beat Google Earth though!! Hee!!! :D

Hello? Where did we go?

That's probably what blogs are saying right now.

A lot of major ISPs in India, in an attempt "to block communication between terrorists", have ended up blocking major blogging platforms like Blogger, Typepad, Geocities and more! *cringes* Apparently, the Government wanted to block a few sites but the ISPs took the easy way out and blocked the platforms themselves!! :O

But hey, as it is every dark cloud has its silver lining! You can access blocked blogs through these methods! To quote Kiruba - Using one of these methods, you can show your middle finger to the ban and continue to read your favorite blogs. :D

Few more important links - Check 'em Out! And make sure you SPEAK UP!! In the end, that's what it's all about. :)

Blogger's Collective
Bloggers Against Censorship Wiki
Bypassing The Ban :)

Blog On!!

No More...

It was cold. She let an involuntary shiver pass through her body and went to the windows to close them shut. Leaning against the windowsill, she felt the blast of chillness sting her colourless, gaunt cheeks. The cheeks that once flushed pink with pleasure and health at the touch of that one hand.

She looked at the clothes that carelessly lay on her bed – her expensive zardosi sari, the intricately embroidered blouse – and wondered at the futility of the beauty that they offered. Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. How true, she thought.

At the party, her otiose grace and perfect socializing would show no indication of the despondency that plagued her – She would go looking like a million dollars. But what was the use of a million dollars if there was no one to spend it. And no one to spend it on.

Of course, there would be men. Many of them – handsome, smooth and gallant. They would flirt with her and shower her with a deluge of compliments. But for all their attention, not one of them would see the coldness and contempt in her eyes. Or rather would refuse to see it. They would rather prefer to humour their egos and appease their insufferable male pride.

He was like that too. Brash, egoistic, self-righteous and passionate. She recalled the first time he touched her. How can the touch of a man do so much, she remembered musing. She’d had no idea. With that one touch, he’d made her feel loved, desired, cared for, protected, levitated, intoxicated. Intoxicated. She remembered telling him, that she felt incredibly drunk and incredibly happy.

Then, a sudden gust of wind took away the warmth of those memories even as it took away the warmth of her body. She was back in the present. It was cold. She let an involuntary shiver pass through her body and went to the windows to close them shut. Leaning against the windowsill, she felt the blast of chillness sting her colourless, gaunt cheeks. The cheeks that once flushed pink with pleasure and health at the touch of that one hand. The hand that would touch her no more…

An Unfortunate Moment Of Rage...

The Man And The Trophy - A moment of rage, a moment of impulse, a heavy
price to pay...

The WC 2006 final - France vs Italy - has to be one of the most interesting finals i've ever seen! It managed to bring out a whole gamut of emotions - awe, magic, nerves, bewilderment and finally a longing.

7' - A penalty for the French. Zidane prevailed. I whooped!

19' - Corner by Pirlo. Magnificent header by Materazzi. I cursed.



110' - Zidane is shown the red card. Sent off the field for butting Materazzi in the chest. I stared, bewildered. Insane!! (Catch the video here)

And Italy won on penalties. Well done and well deserved to the Azzurri. I couldn't help grinning at the Italian juggernaut's euphoria. :)

Is it just me or does Horacio Elizondo have a thing for sending off the most integral player of a team? *WTH* First Rooney - which was spectacularly unfair! Bloody Ronaldo! And now Zidane - much as I hate to say it, it was the thing to be done.

All we can do is wonder why Zizou did what he did.

Zinedine Zidane had it all - greatness, magic, class, grace, genius - and none of that is going to be undermined because of one red card. It was a glittering career - and it will remain just that.

Zidane Lives On!

Happy Budday H!!! :)

And some photos from her birthday bash - June 30th @ the Ascendas Food Court - jubilantly watching Argentina getting their ass kicked! :D
(Her budday is a day later though - but that we celebrated at Pondicherry, agonizing over Rooney getting red-carded. Hmpf! Another story. :P)

My sis and her BIG gumbal of friends at our home!
Trust me, these kids are SO tall!! *gets inferiority complex*

My mum and the brats @ Ascendas!
Orey the excited about extra-cheese pizza prospect!! :P

La Mia Famiglia!! :)

My sis: "Huh?! What the hell's going on?? *astonished*"
The cake that we got for her as a surprise!!

The Pizza Hut peeps bellowing "Happy Budday" so that the whole of Ascendas could hear it!! Mind you, they did it twice more coz we had two more buddays there that day!!! :D

Brat on the chair - orey the fussed over!!! :)
And pretty embarrassed about it too!!

The cutting of the cake - of which i got a teeny-weeny piece!!
Oh, the unfairness of it all!! :O

*Aghast* Appa!! You do remember you're diabetic??!!
And that's chocolate you hear me??!!!

Orey the family bondings - sans dad!!! :P

To my partner-in-crime and my pillar of support. To someone whose judgement I trust more than mine. To someone whom I admire, adore and love. To someone who says "It's gonna be okay" to me no matter how the deep the trouble. To my little sister. Happy Birthday! :)

Weekend Highlight - THE Bloggers Meet :)

The bloggers meet at the Ascendas Food Court can pride itself on achieving a lot of distinctions - most number of girls that turned up, the 35(?) counts of silence(!) and two major major bloggers adding sheen to the whole evening!! Who wouldn't deem this meet an absolute smasher with stud King Kribs - the celeb factor - and Jammy in it along with 23 other Chennai Bloggers - NOT from annanagar of course! :) Annanagar is a village - big village, that's all! What do you mean it's part of chennai, asks a disbeliever?? :O :P


The super thing was we all got to meet lots of new people - and really different people at that! The meet saw 'em all - potential lawyers who endeavoured to give satisssfaccshuunnnnn (I just HAD TO say that - irresistible!! :P), architects-in-the-making, graphic illustrators, effervescent dreamers, sparrow-obsessed brainiacs and acad studs frm IIT, incredibly funny engineers who truly believe driving autos is THE thing to do, an intersting couple - female half of which forms the censor board!!, namma ooru ash (who totally damaged gapp - yes!), the super sporty head of blog services at sulekha a.k.a spammer(!), a stud techie blogger who insists BotHack doesn't sound like Buttock :P, a to-be-infyite (treat! treat!) and of course, the two super organisers!!! And more! *No point going "shit, shit, I should've gone too" now!! it's over, it was super-cool - you missed it!* :P

Statutory Warning: Junta who didn't turn up at the meet are warned that after looking at following links, that feeling of hopelessness and oh-my-god-this-is-awesome! may get really difficult to handle. On the other hand - just go ahead and see how much fun it was and TURN UP the next time!! :D

1. Picture perfectness at Sagaro and Spammer's blogs!!
2. Some major kalai and hilarious damage at Ash's - rocks!
3. Blog links at the Dreamy Dryad's - she's one bubbly girl!!
4. Write-ups and more scoop at Janakiammal's blog, Ramanujam's space, Chaos Buddha, Jammy, Gapp, Sharique's diary and The Virtual Veeran!!
5. Synopsis and Statistics on TK's blog - another of the fundoo fellows!!

Cheers!! :D

Chennai Bloggers Meet

Sagaro has very kindly taken the trouble to post in detail about the meet and certain other FAQ's on his blog.
Since I'd hate all his efforts to go in vain, please do check it out!!
Banners Courtesy: Sagaro
Be There!! See You At The Meet!!! Cheers!!!

Let's All Strip - Underwear Spectacle

No. Seriously. Please don't go "Ewwwwwwwwww...."!!

I'm just back from a 20 day vacation - kodai, tirunelveli, kanyakumari, kuttralam et al. The whole South Indian Works.

Now, Kuttralam. All the while on the drive, I had this perfect vision of a thundering waterfall, cold and gushing onto the rocks. When I stepped out of the car and caught a glimpse of the main falls, to say I was deeply disappointed would be understating it. It was a thread, I repeat, a thread of water - gushing onto the rocks by no means. Trickling would be a more apt description.

Even as I was recovering from this cruel version of my perfect dream - I came. I saw. And kept seeing. Before me stretched a vast sea of people - men, women and kids - all in various stages of nakedness. NOT a pretty sight, I assure you. Especially when the men think it's alright to discuss World Cup favourites in their underwear. Soaking wet. And apparently relishing it. *puke*

And the women!! All I say is - "Yuuuuuucccccccckkkkkkkkkyyyyy!!!!!". It's too embarrassing to get into the details!!

It was as if everyone who came there just HAD to strip down to their barest, most minimal clothing and jump into that pile of human bodies in the water. *gets the jitters* And to make things worse - obviously enjoy every moment of it. Oblivious to other beings around. :O

The strange part is that no one else but me and my cousin found the sights even remotely disgusting. Perfectly natural, it seemed. Both of us had packed up stuff for kuttralam. But after this - we contented ourselves with eating maanga - fully clothed!!! - and splashing our legs in the water that flowed below. *sigh*

I'm Free - Hakuna Matata!!! :D

Hakuna Matata! What a wonderful phrase!!
Hakuna Matata! Ain't no passing craze!!! yahoo! :D
It means no worries for the rest of your days!!!
It's our problem-free philosophy!!
Hakuna Matata!!!

Even if not the rest of my days, the next two months are mine for the taking!!! Finally, long due, much awaited freedom is mine!!!!!!!! :D

"The sweet is never as sweet without the sour."

And how!!!! :) All those days of cramming mind-numbing ^@#&$@ - and now blissfully vetti!! :P
End of exams and beginning of hols never ever felt this good!!! A gang of us girls camped out at V's place for a movie (MI 3), some awesome swedish tosca and her mom's famous vadai!!! Not to forget coke n 7up!! (in the new curvy bottle!! :O)

Then of course, the beach beckoned!!! This huge gang of guys n girls from our school showed ourselves up there and played....FOOTBALL!!!! Even if we didn't actually play - it was super dooper jus running around in the sand, feeling the salty air!! Hell, it was great just to be outta the house!! Catch more detail of the fun @ V and DD's blogs!! :D

Then we all shamelessly raided Planet Yumm - predictable, i know!! :) Oh, and the biggest feat of the evening??!

*Drumroll*
Ninju was made to spend a whole 97 bucks for ice-cream!! Note usage: was made to!! :P Bravo! Bravo!! =))

Anyway, now that hols are finally here, I certainly don't intend frittering them away in wasteful pursuits!! Disclaimer: What gets classified under Wasteful pursuits is my discretion. Solely mine. :P

Plan of Action:

1. Go Italian classes at the Italian Consulate
2. Continue my paatu classes
3. Watch as many movies as I can
4. Devour the 40 or so new books i've bought (which, incidentally, have been lying under my bed - coz they're "distractions" and aren't "academic" :P)
5. Go beach everyday - or as many days as I can - V, you're booked!! :D
6. blah...

And if you have sensible suggestions, you may please leave a comment on them. Notice I said sensible!! :)

And once again.....I'm FREEEEEEEE!!!!!!!! Yipppeeeeee!!!!! :D :P

I'm It - Tagged!!

Shashi "chained" me, to quote him!! :) So here goes...

Five people on my shit list:
You know who you are. If you're reading this, you may please identify yourself and jump off a cliff for me!! :)

1. Burger Filling - Pinkish in the extremest of extremes!!
2. Wannabe dude who does weed coz it's "cool"
3. Punk across the road who thinks it's macho to rev his bike till the fuel runs out, thereby making himself sound like a you-know-what

Well...believe it or not, there aren't any more people I can't stand!! Either I'm too nice and accommodative or the world ain't all that bad!! I'm inclined to suppose the former! :P

Close brushes with death/danger:
It's around eight-ish in the night. We're driving up the hill to kodai. Suddenly, little things start falling from the sky. All of us are going - "What the...?!?!". It was a few minutes before we realized the little things were pellets of ice. We were driving up a hill - in the middle of a hailstorm - no lights, barely any vision, no signs of curves ahead - it was a bloody NIGHTMARE!!! *shudder*

Five preferable modes of suicide:
I'm generally considered an optimist. But after results come out, I might well be in need of one of these!! :(

1. Cyanide - Just like that.
2. Blow my brains out - ouch!! :O It's instantaneous though!
3. Jump off a cliff!! :P

Oh gosh! This is already giving me the creeps!! *gulp* Oh, if you want ideas, you could always read this and this.

Five guilty pleasures:
1. Chocolate and Coffee
2. Movies
3. Appa's almond-cognac cake and orange cheese cake *drool*
4. Books
5. Footwear collection! :P

Five things you never want to forget:
1. My passwords - If I do, I'm so dead!! :O
2. September, October, November 2005
3. The sweet is never as sweet without the sour.
4. The truth, at whatever cost, is the best you can do.
5. Do unto others before they do unto you.

Five loves of your life:
Not necessarily in the order mentioned!! :)

1. Books and Words
2. People
3. Chennai and Travel
4. Movies
5. Coffee

Strangest Dream:
I don't have dreams!! And if I ever do, can't remember a thing in the morning!! :P And no, it's NOT because of a hangover!! :O

Five most valued possessions:
1. iPods
2. Journals
3. Computer and Cell phone
4. Sanity
5. Love

Five favorite superheroes:
1. Superman - Dean Cain is hawt!!!! :P
2. Swat Kats - Dunno if they qualify as super-heroes!! :D
3. Suderman
4. Inu Yasha - yeah, he's a semi-demon!! so?!!
5. Samurai X - :D Blame it on kid sis n animax!! :D

People who follow may consider themselves TAGGED: (muhahaha!!)
V
Soumi
Paddy
Efreak
Vara
Sagaro

Do It!!!!! :D

Road Trip To Vellore

Sagaro and some friends are planning a cylce expedition to Vellore. You can check out the whole plan, itinerary etc at the Vellore Wiki.

The trip probably starts fourth week of June - short trip, around three days. They're inviting people interested to join them on the trip - a small group of 8 may be. So, if you're interested, put your name up in the wiki.

Also, they've got a list of essentials - check wiki. So even if you aren't going but can supply some of the things, please do so and indicate it on the wiki. If you've got any ideas - what they can do at vellore, places they can see on the way etc - feel free to edit the wiki and pitch them in. The password for login is 'c4mbt'.

Oh and if you can do spread the word about it! Thanks!! :)

Plans And Post-Its

A certain chem prof always said – Plan your work and Work your plan.

It’s very weird, you know. I seem to be able to do the first part of that maxim quite exceptionally. But the second part – I do mean to do that too, but determination and will just sort of frizzle away…

It just so happens that I’m a compulsive list maker, user of post-its and planner. Not a lot of people know that. Universal claim is that I’m a chaotic and disorganized individual in the extreme. :P

Sleepy eyed and tousle haired, I entered my room this morning. Something was amiss. I distinctly remembered my room being painted a calm, ice blue. This morning, though, it seemed to have assumed a sunshine-yellow with little sections of cool blue, hot pink and neon green! I reeled. You would too if you found your room morphing itself overnight into ghastly colours - which it had no business to do!!

When sleep very kindly released my senses and I was restored to functional mode, I saw that all the calm, ice blue had been covered inch upon inch by post-its – yellow, green, pink, blue, you name it!! Astonished, I realized that I never took off any of them from as long back as Feb. 24th!! I read one out loud – it said,

“1. Electrostatics Organic Solid State Matrices Alexander
2. Watch Alexander – educative purposes
3. Take the damn day off!!" - :P

Horrified at the prospect of parental units coming across such frivolous and flippant plans, I hurriedly ripped them all off. Wastepaper basket’s day out!

Note to self: Confine humour, however lame, to self/friends/blog.

You’re probably infinitely better organized than I am. But still, nothing like this ever happened to you??

That you make plans, stick post-its, religiously tick off finished agenda and somehow, just somehow that most important thing that you had to do got over-looked. Never had to scramble at record speed in the nick of time?

You’re intensely concentrating on integral calculus and the phone politely whirrs. But of course, it’s your bestest friend with the hottest gossip and so of course you just had to talk. And just let integral calculus be for the moment. And for the next two hours. Never happened? No?

Sigh…I guess it just happens to me.

Jottings

BIG UPDATE: We just got our awesome, new, super-sexy Ford Fiesta delivered today!!! Am typing this after going to the temple and the beach in it!! Woo!!! Go Fida!! :D

A lot of things have happened in recent times. I didn't seem to be able to sustain a whole post on any of them.... :P

1. First, a BIG welcome to Soumi who’s started her blog this week. She’s a terrific writer and I’m sure her blog is gonna be one of the more popular ones. Go Girl!! :)

2. One of the supposedly “major” exams, the AIEEE, made its exit out of the exam schedules this week, with students hoping that their answer scripts would somehow self-combust.

3. That done, student community is left with BITSAT and TNPCEE, both of which they hope will write themselves.

4. Pramod Mahajan, BJP General Secretary, shot thrice at point-blank range by his brother Pravin Mahajan, died today after battling against death for 12 days. For more scoop, catch this.

5. With Elections in Tamil Nadu a mere 5 days away, campaigns are going strong with all parties (except may be Lok Paritran) pulling out all stops – free rice, colour TV’s, free basic amenities…et al. For more scoop, catch this and this.

6. Freakspace achieves a record for itself. 63 comments on this post and 78 comments on this one – highest yet on this blog thanks mostly to FreakLord and Sagaro. :D

7. David Blaine, celebrated illusionist, lowers himself into a sphere of water and intends staying submerged for a week. Thereafter, he’ll try his hand at the World Record for holding breath underwater. The current record is 8 minutes 58 seconds. Blaine hopes to make that 9 minutes. His most famous stunt was the 44 days he spent in a glass box suspended above the river Thames.

8. Weather in Chennai seems to have confused itself. It, seemingly, has initiated an exchange program with Weather in Africa. Or may be it just discovered Thermal Equilibrium. Temperatures here seem to be raising the mercury and a lot of tempers beyond endurance.

9. Kaavya Viswanathan, episodical literary marvel and Harvard sophomore, was found appropriating passages from two authors – Megan McCafferty and Sophie Kinsella – in her book How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life. Her publishers have withdrawn her whopping $500,000 two-book contract and Dream Works have dropped the rights to an How Opal… movie. I’m sure she dreamt of her work flying off the shelves – but not like this!

10. Much awaited release of Gautam’s Vettaiyadu Vilayaadu is postponed once again from May 5 to May 12. Damn!! For more scoop, catch this.

A field day for cross-linking. Yay!! :)