School Times #2 - Snapshots

The general scene when us gang of girls raids Anandha Bhavan which is our staple "treat" place be it buddays, end of eggjams or just a very boring day!! :)

Niranjan a.k.a Ninju and Rushi a.k.a Paddyman a.k.a The Giant Koala Bear.
Fellow Last Benchers, Perpetual Troublemakers, Partners in Crime and fully responsible for all entertainment in 12 A!!!

Sou, Ram n Me - Last Day at school. Freakish!! :D

Outside 12C classroom on the last day. Result of vetti roaming in corridors!! :)

Some of 12A with our much-adored vice-principal LS!!

The very same "fussiest english teacher on the planet"!! :)

Our awesome, "state-of-the-art" Chem Lab.

Holds a lot more than lab equipment and chemicals - more memories than I can remember reside here!! :) Esp. for me and vara.

Aaaand....Presenting, Class Teacher of 12A 2005-2006, KVKK a.k.a The Student Union Secretary of Pachaiyappa's College during his time!! (Reminding us every day of which, he takes immense pride and pleasure!!)
/*Read - "Ina da?? Ni porukki na, naa onnoda periya porukki!! Don't mess with me!! Onnoda theory paper liye kaiya vechiduven!!" :)) */
Attendance each morning - a pain and a necessary evil!! :D

Top Up, Topped Up, Topping Up!!!

Following is an e-mail my friend sent to Hutch in the aftermath of "gross negligence" in their part!! Read on!!

-----Original Message-----
From: Shravan Srinivas
Sent: Wednesday, April 19, 2006 12:30 AM
To: ALEX MENDES
Cc: G.Dhananjayan
Subject: My Miserable Experience!

It started out when I headed back home from Manipal, Karnataka to
Coimbatore. I have a number from Manipal, 9886480614. Upon calling
customer care there in Manipal, they said I can topup in Coimbatore as
Hutch is now in Tamil Nadu. So, upon coming here, I bought topups worth
Rs. 60/- ( rs 30 + rs 30) and tried topping up! But the codes didn't
work here. I came to the Hutch office and they told me it was not
possible to topup from Tamil Nadu while Karnataka Customer Care told me
exactly the opposite. So, later, I called up Karnataka Customer care
from my landline ( num: 9886098860 ) and asked them what the problem of
topping up from Tamil Nadu was. They still said there wasn't any problem
and I should try a 'validity recharge' as topping up may have 'server
problems', he also added that I could call Karnataka Customer care FREE
of cost from my Hutch Karnataka number even though it was on roaming,
which i did later and lost the last rs. 3/- of my balance! My balance
being zero on the Manipal number and me having no option ( as all my
friends in Manipal too, have left for their study leave ), I bought a
new SIM card. Upon asking the shop keeper, he told me that is was the
'College Scheme'. I went ahead and bought the number 9843971347 and
topped it up, while submitting the required documents at the BPL / HUTCH
office, I did ask them to activate me as the 'College Plan'.


So now using the previous topup I had bought from you to recharge my
Manipal number, I topped the new number up happily assuming it was
anyway valid by default for 10 days as it was in the college special
scheme. When I rang up your customer care, to my rude shock, they told
me that the validity by default on the sim wasn't 10 days, but seven
days! They said I was in a Basic Plan and I could change to the "campus
plan" if I wished now. Upon arguing (that I asked the shop keeper for
the "college plan"), the customer care promptly told me that it was the
"Campus Plan" and not college plan. He furthur went on to tell me that
I should've looked for 'specially marked' packs which said "CAMPUS
PLAN". Im here for 10 days, and now after all this HUNGAMA, I only get
the TN sim for 7 days! Even then, I kept my cool and asked them if I
could exchange balance for validity, to which they replied the offer
wasn't there in Tamil Nadu! So, now if I've got to make the card work
for the remaining 3 days, I've got to recharge for rs.150/- as thats the
least denomination that gives any validity!

I have been cheated, exploited and mentally harassed by your staff,
retailers and customer cares lack of knowledge and plain INDIFFERENCE!.
I was cheated when:

- Karnataka Customer care told me I could top up using cards pruchased
in TN and later tell me to buy 'validity cards' because they 'think'
that the later might work! - what do they 'think', that I grow money on
trees!!! And if I did, you'd probably be in court by now!

- I asked for the College Plan - Am I god to know the difference between
College and Campus. If you've done your marketting right I think you
will read that "Customer is GOD". It wasnt my fault that I asked for it,
you bloody retailer should've had the courtesy to tell me that the SIM
didnt come with the CAMPUS plan and it was the tariff that I could
change later! As far as I'm concerened, all colleges have campuses! And
the plan too bloody well!

I would like you to at any cost give me the three extra days of
validity i.e. till the 28 of April.

And Hutch's Reply:

Dear Mr.Shravan Srinivas,

This has reference to your email dated 19/04/06 and the subsequent
discussion you had with our Executive, Mr.Movin regarding the extension
of your talk time validity.


We thank you for your valuable feedback and deeply regret the
inconvenience caused to you. Based on your feedback, we have extended
the validity by 3days - from 25-April06 to 28-April06 for mobile number
9843971347.


Trust this meets your requirement. We appreciate this chance to be of
service to you. In case you need further assistance, please do call or
email us. We'll do our best to assist you in any way possible.

Warm regards,
Usha Nandhini
Customer Service

:)

Ars Poetica - Updated

I've updated my poetry blog. Those interested can read it here!!!

School Times #1 - English Essays

*Click To Enlarge Images*

1. Half-Yearly Exam - Speech by "Vikas" on Economically Backward Children - 9/10. Result of which were several euphoric minutes after receiving paper.


2. Revision Exam - Essay on Globalisation: 5/6 and a good from LS. Who btw is the fussiest english teacher on the planet. Good from her is beyond Cloud Nine.


Unforgettable, these!!

Warm Days, Then And Now

It is a warm and sultry day. You know. One of those days, on which you just want to curl up with some book and some cold juice. Or maybe invite some friends over and watch a movie. Today, it was déjà vu.

She remembered the warm days then. Days when paati* used to have big bottles of rasna in the fridge. When papa soaked her with cold water from the garden hosepipe. When her mom made her drink elaneer** everyday!

She remembered the hot, dusty terrace where paati and she would put out the vadam*** to dry. And mangoes! There would mangoes or mango milk shake for desert everyday at lunch. She remembered thinking that her mom made “the bestest mango shake in the universe”!!

And today was just like so many of those days in the past. There was rasna and mangoes in the fridge, vadam on the terrace and elaneer in the kitchen. She’s smiling to herself now, realizing how much these small things mean to her. :)

________________________
*paati - granmom!! :)
**elaneer - coconut water
***vadam - home-made crispies that you fry and eat

Happy Birthday Freakspace!!

Exactly one year and three days ago, Freakspace was born with the sole intention of torturing the daylights out of both the author and readers alike!! :)


A Very Belated First Birthday to Freakspace!! It's been a great place to vent, to share and to FREAK!!

P.S: I really wish that cake was real! :P

Church Bells

In an expanse of bare land, there stood a beautiful chapel. On entering it, one could feel that every pew and aisle was full of prayer. It was here that a kind priest served. His faith in God and in his fellow beings afforded him that rare kindness, a little of which he had for everyone.

One fine day, there came at his doorstep a little orphan boy, poor and hungry. The priest fed and watered him and told him that he could stay and work at the church if he liked. And so the boy did. He would ring the church bell after every mass and at every fourth hour. Many such happy years passed. The once little boy was now a young man who knew nothing else but to ring the church bell as he had done in days of yore.

The priest, now old and weary, retired from his services to the lord. His successor, on finding an uneducated young man in residence ordered him to leave the church at once. He had no place for people who couldn’t read and write. Giving the young man a small sum to live off, he bid him farewell.

Having been turned out of the only job he knew, he wandered in search of something to do. Soon, he felt pangs of hunger. Looking around, he saw miles and miles of dusty, brown land but not a place he could rest his tired self and have a spot of lunch. And so he walked until he came to a wayward village bakery. While eating, he mused that it was indeed a tiresome task for churchgoers to walk this enormous distance and back without refreshment.

It struck him that he might buy some stuff from the bakery and start shop at a reasonable distance from the church. This enterprise of his turned into a flourishing business. Soon he expanded his little shop and in time he was a prosperous restaurateur and owner of a chain of eateries. Being somewhat a noteworthy public figure, banks soon flocked to him in search of prospective patronage.

During one such rendezvous, a banker expressed his absolute shock at the fact that such a vastly successful man was uneducated. He said, “Sir! If you are this successful without any education, imagine what you would’ve be doing if you were learned!”

The man said nothing. At the sound of distant church bells ringing, he just smiled and said, “I would’ve been ringing church bells.”

A Transition

It feels different. Sort of weird – like I’ve somehow suspended the reality of a few weeks before. Like these next couple of months are just a “phase” and I’ll revert back to the comfort of that reality. It just dawned that it wasn’t to be.

Doesn’t seem like I’ve left school. As if I’ll go back to it again someday in June. Reopening day. :) Half-day, new timetable, new class teacher, new benches, new windows to look out of, new books to mug up. It’ll still be all those things. Just in a very, very different scenario. College. Someplace in the middle of nowhere or someplace right here at home. The word of the day is uncertainty.

I’m just thinking out loud. A week since the boards ended and I haven’t called a single friend. To chat, to reminisce together, to groan about impending CETs, to tell them I’ll miss them so and that we should keep in touch no matter what and “be friends forever”.

I feel bad about that. Nights this last week, have been filled with conversations, good and bad times, free periods (read gossip sessions) and mostly, thoughts of my friends. Even though I miss them sorely, I don’t know why I can’t bring myself to call them up. May be it’s the feeling that the conversation won’t go beyond bitsat, tnpcee, aieee etc. I don’t know. Don’t know if it’s just me, but things are getting really strange.

That I might have lost my best friend doesn’t help. I’m not feeling really great. For all that talk of leaving school, growing up, and moving on into college, responsibility and adulthood, I’m not feeling great.

Oh, Joy!!!!

IT'S OVER!!! IT'S OVER!!! IT'S OVER!!! IT'S OVER!!! IT'S OVER!!! IT'S OVER!!! IT'S OVER!!! IT'S OVER!!! IT'S OVER!!! IT'S OVER!!!

That just feels sooooooooooo much better!!! Impending Entrance Exam Doom does not seem to have any significance. Don't see it piercing my Euphoria, do you?!! Ha!!

I have a WHOLE one and a half days to FREEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAK!!! :D (sad thing...AIEEE torture starts saturday....dammit!!)

Itinerary - April & May 2006:

April -
Gazillion Entrance Exams interspersed with Gazillion hours of mind-blasting classes and STUDY!! :((

May -
Couple more Eggjams.
A proposed trip to Milan, tickets of which are already booked, lodgings already arranged, sight-seeing plans already made and cousin and I all euphoric.

Slight a, hitch is the bloody #$@#% TNPCEE might land bang in the middle of my holiday. And if that happens, Milan and euphoric cousin can jump out of the window. Hmpf!!

Why they had to go thru this HUGE rigmarole is beyond me!! :O

Anyway....will NOT brood about atrocities now!! Time for a movie, coffee and a nice hard-back!

I'm gonna have some fun....and make sure you all do too!! (Not that I need to say it twice!! :D )

Cheers!!

Edit:

Bloody hell!!! The bloody TNPCEE is BANG in the middle, scratch, BEGINNING of my holiday!!! May 13 n 14......Damn!! This sucks BIG TIME!!! :O :((

Um...Excuse Me?

“Give reason why glycerol is used in cosmetics.”

Don’t wonder where that came from. That’s a question from the CBSE chemistry board paper. Class XII.

Don’t laugh, you! When I first looked at the question, I went – “What?!”. And so did a LOT of my peers.

I don’t know about you but I was under the distinct impression that the board exams are a means of testing functional knowledge on what we actually learn in school. What is relevant?

I have no clue why we’re supposed to know “why glycerol…blah”. But that’s just it! We needn’t know. Reason? Not printed in the NCERT textbook.

About glycerol in textbook:

1. Constituent of oils and fats.


2. By product of soap industry.


3. Colourless, viscous, hygro-something…yes hygroscopic liquid


4. Used in manufacture of dynamite, explosive…etc.

About cosmetics? Zilch.

Now, you might say, “Hey…grow up! You aren’t 8 year olds to be spoon-fed!!” Well, I agree. But when you’ve got eighteen painful chapters to mug and five days to do so, you can hardly go referencing…and even if you do, not for aforementioned insanity!

Five days suffice, you say. Certainly not!! A day to unwind from math debacle. Another to gear up, warm up and get going!! And you’ve got three days left. On one of which, it’s mandatory that you go visit the chem teacher. Doubts or not…immaterial!! Otherwise she’s just gonna cut you dead with words later and make you feel an inch tall….rather small!! :)

Anyway…without her, I’d have left the exam hall sobbing. Hail Sundari Ma’am!! To the best chem teacher I’ve known – cheers!! Just my way of saying “Thank You” to her!

P.S: For all those who’ve forgotten….we’re supposed to write her a review of her teaching before we leave school!! :)

Hoja Rangeela Re!!!

Happy Holi Everyone!!!

P.S: I feel I ought to apologise for my previous abysmally corny post. It was heights, really!! :P

Bugging You!!

This is CHWEET!!! :))

Completely!! :D

Oh God!!

This, devastatingly, is the current state-of-affairs!! :((

A Boy and A Girl

A boy and a girl
The best of friends
From elementary to high school
From beginning to end

Through all these years
Their friendship grew
They both felt the same
But neither knew

Each waking moment
Since the day that they met
They both loved each other
Sunrise to sunset

He was all she had
In her terrible life
He was the one
Who kept her from her knife

She was his angel
She made him smile
Though life threw him curves
She made it worth all the while

Then one day
Things went terribly wrong
The next few weeks
Were like a very sad song

He made her jealous
On purpose he tried
When the girl asked "do you love her?"
On purpose he lied

He played with jealousy
Like it was a game
Little did he know
Things would never be the same

His plan was working
But he had no clue
How wrong things would go
The damage he would do

One night she broke down
Feeling very alone
Just her and the blade
No one else home

She dialed his number
He answered "hello"
She told him she loved him
Then hung up the phone

He raced to her house
But came a minute too late
Found her lying in blood
And her heart had no rate

Beside her was a note
And in it her confession
Her love for this boy
Her only obsession

As he read the note
He knelt down and cried
Grabbed her knife
And that night they both died

She was found in his arms
Both of them dead
Under her note
His handwriting said

"I loved her so
She never knew
All this time
I loved her too"

Edit - Paddy's Request For A Happy Ending:

He raced to her house
Scared to the bone
He saw her shaking white
She and the blade alone

She looked up at him
And at once dropped the blade
They hugged and cried
And felt their agonies fade

They walked out to the beach
Both holding hands
Talking into the night
Their feet digging the sands

He told her he loved her
And she said she did too
Their smiles lit the dark night
Thence they were inseparable, the two!

Set Me Burning In Hades

Sixth Level of Hell - The City of Dis

---

You approach Satan's wretched city where you behold a wide plain surrounded by iron walls. Before you are fields full of distress and torment terrible. Burning tombs are littered about the landscape. Inside these flaming sepulchers suffer the heretics, failing to believe in God and the afterlife, who make themselves audible by doleful sighs. You will join the wicked that lie here, and will be offered no respite. The three infernal Furies stained with blood, with limbs of women and hair of serpents, dwell in this circle of Hell


The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Sixth Level of Hell - The City of Dis!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Very Low
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Low
Level 2 (Lustful)	Very Low
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Very High
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Very High
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	Moderate
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Very High
Level 7 (Violent)	High
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	High
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Low

Take the Dante's Inferno Hell Test


Evil ain't I ??? Muhahahaha...............*Satanic Look*

St.Valentine's Day

It’s Valentine’s Day tomorrow. I’ve never especially looked forward to it. Or made special plans. Or done anything out-of-the-ordinary at all!! But this year….I sat down and introspected. And then made this list. It’s the best of my life – best people, best things, best thoughts, best anythings!!! :)

Thoughts
That uninhibited feeling of craziness
That I can laugh and be happy no matter what
V – For being there for me to vent my insanities. And for accompanying me on endless, singularly pointless beach trips.
That very first “valentine” I got *blush*
Abhi – For just being there.
That I can be my worst critic
Those three passionate months
The one-friend-to-another convos with dad – Papa, You’re THE BEST!! :)
The yearly trips to kodai
That I find comfort in knowing that people think I care
All those people who’ve made life hell for me. If not for them, I wouldn’t have learnt how to control the self, how to tolerate supreme bullshit, how to get what I want without seeming to. Very valuable qualities, you must agree. :)
The rainy afternoons cuddled up in bed reading, thinking or just staring out
The “sister-bonding” talks with my kid sis – I love you, H!

Finally, for everyone who has been with me, taken the cream and the bruises alike, thank you! I love you all! :D

P.S: Me no feeling…Feel Pannala!! ;)

The Cornflakes Saga

     It all began that one fine morning when this little girl refused to eat cornflakes. She blatantly, stubbornly put her tiny foot down. And brat that she was, her poor mommy could do nothing but sigh in exasperation. Don’t be too harsh on the kid though. We didn’t have chocolate flavoured cornflakes then. Just the boring, plain, old cornflakes. :)

     It so happened that this kid had a cousin. They were two kids who simply refused to stay civil and nice to each other. He would pull her pigtails and make her cry. She would smash his toy cars and gloat while he hurled childish vilifications at her. Thus went on their relationship never once showing the promise of improving. Their two mothers decided that there simply had to do something.

     Their master plan: bring the terrors together. Now you wouldn’t think it was such a great idea. Still, that was what happened. That summer vacation saw the cousins united at the little girl’s place. The scene every morning went something like this. Her mother would warn both of them to behave. The little girl would stare coldly at him and he would give her a look that would put the worst governess-glare to shame. They would then sit for breakfast. It would invariably be – cornflakes!! :D

     She discovered that he didn’t like cornflakes any better than she did. A lot less, if that was possible. And also that he liked hershey’s strawberry syrup as much as she did. She was disgusted. Absolutely and utterly disgusted that this boy, whom she hated so much could have tastes so similar to hers. She then decided. She would rebel. She would do everything that he did not like. That would show him, she thought.

     And so she jumped rope. Dressed up in pink. Sang in her loudest voice. Banged things together. And ate cornflakes. :) Lots of it. Whenever she could manage it. She didn’t realize it but she was beginning to LOVE cornflakes. She would look forward to the once yucky breakfast every morning.

Age 10: Repulsed by cornflakes. On the verge of puking every single time.  
Age 11: Sought vengeance. Made cornflakes a reluctant obsession.
Age 12: Loved cornflakes. Moved on to Frosties.
Age 14: Shifted affections to Chocos.
Age 15: Experimented with Fruit Loops. Concluded it was trash.
Age 16: Moved back to Chocos.
Age 17: Embraced cornflakes variant with Strawberry pulp. :D

     Though the two cousins are still brats and still hostile, at least one good thing came of it. Hail Cornflakes!! :)

Gawd...Can IT Get Any Worse?!

"DADDY! HOW WAS I BORN?" the Junior asked his dad.

His dad, who is a software engineer, sighed and replied:

Ah, my son, I guess one day you would have to find out anyway!...

Well, I saw your Mom and I first got together in a chat room on
YAHOO.

Then I set up a date via e-mail with your mom and we met at a
cyber-cafe.

We sneaked into a secluded room, where your mother agreed to a
download from my hard drive.

As soon as I was ready to upload, we discovered that neither one of
us had used a firewall, but it was too late to hit the delete button!

Six weeks later your mom sent me an instant message saying that her
operating system was showing signs of unauthorized program activity
from a self extracting file which had implanted itself in her BIOS.

Then nine months later a little Pop-Up appeared and said: "You've Got
Male"!

JEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESUS CHRIST!!!!!! 

Everyone Can Go To Hell

It's over.

I'm fed up. I'm sick of it.

It's getting on, in and around my nerves.

I'm stopping. I'm not talking.

And everyone on earth can go jump.

Edit:

Things don't seem the same anymore. They aren't. It's an unseen barrier that's in between that makes things so distant. There are lapses, seemingly significant pauses, thoughts that are best left aside. I didn't choose it to happen this way. It did. And I accept it. That doesn't make it or me feel any better.

Voila!!!

Lakme salon and a hundred n fifty bucks later........ta da!!!!!!! :))

and before u wonder....that is a self pic wit my awesome new phone!!! :D :D (k700i) muhahaha!!!




P.S: will gloat about phone when time permits!!!! :D