Goodbye, 2009. Hello, 2010.

(*sung to the tune of Goodbye Sam, Hello Samantha by Cliff Richard.)

Aaaand we're here again. New Year's eve. Whee & all that.

Things I've learnt in 2009:

--> I learnt how to survive when you're fighting with your bestest friends in the world.

--> I learnt HOW to fight with your bestest friends in the world.

--> Boys will NEVER get what you're mad about unless you spell it out for them. Sometimes, not even then.

--> FACEBOOK ISN'T YOUR SOCIAL LIFE.

--> Facebook is a part of your social life.

--> www.emp3world.com

-->Marathi profanities.

--> What I want to do with my life. Well, sort of.

--> How to be happy.

--> At end of the day (fine, year), having great hair is what matters. (Vain, but true)

--> How to be diplomatic.

--> Trigonometry. (BIG achievement. BIG.)

--> I've learnt how to love Thai food! (Only from Polka Dots. Hate Thai food from anywhere else.)

--> How to express myself better.

--> How to be down but still be moderately happy.

--> How to not talk about things you want to talk about around people who don't want to hear it. (BIG BIG BIG achievement)

--> How to say the Marathi "l".

--> How to survive without new books. (read the old ones a gazillion more times.)

That is all. I think.

Let's see. January was a happy month. Just got back from a Bangalore trip, spent New Year with my friend Saee. It was all good on the social life front. Academically, it was a hard month. Some time away from the Finals but close enough to get you nervous.

February was all about the exams. Nothing else. Nil. Exams, exams, exams. OH, and in Feb? Magazine in school got published! All because of a couple of my friends and me. We started a student-run mag. WAY cool. Also, February 7th was the first time I wore a saree. For school farewell thing. It was a fairly big thing at that time. (I tripped only twice)

March was baaad baaaad baaaad. Results of Finals out and duuude, it was baaaad. That's about it in March. It was baaaaad.

April! Birthday month! Birthday in Bombay was fun. Didn't do anything huge. But turning 15 was definitely an achievement. April was hot hot HOT and it was happy. Summer holidays started and I started miss Bangalore reeeeaal bad.

And then May= guhh. Had to study, but no inspiration. And the missing Bangalore part increased. A LOT. I remember writing a lot of morbid poems and compositions in May. They must be littered around me desk somewhere.

School opened in June and I realised the enormity of Tenth Grade. I mean, we were rushing with stuff in school. I found myself studying at home instead of wasting time on Facebook. Pox and Debbie happened.

July and August. I can never remember these months clearly. They're always a big mush. Namrata and me made a lot of our chapters. We did some craaazy stuff in school. The whole Swine Flu thing happened. Everyone LOST. IT. During the SF holidays, I wanted rip the world of men and start a band.

September, oh September. You were quite horrible. It was the month for heartbreaks and fights. Saee had her breakdown. Aishwaryah had hers. Everything was so wake-me-up-when-September-ends. It makes me sad to even think about September.

And October was wicked. It was holidays? YEah. Diwali stuff. It was an eerie kinda month. Like the pause before the explosion. End of October, Halloween! Dressed as a vamp (yeah, I'm a cliche) and ate lots of candy.

November was kaBOOM. Like, seriously. It was war. It was fighting. It was DEATH. Okay, no. That's exaggerating. I fought with a lot of people in November. It was a hard month. With all the fighting, I lost a friend in November. Oddly, I don't regret much. And also, preboards. Whee, we started our wonderful exams and it shook everyone up. Properly.

December was bittersweet. It was HAPPY but Sad. Happy coz we were generally in a very Christmassy mood and singing carols and all that. Sad because the fighting didn't stop and two of my friends had their breakdowns. But the the 2nd Preboards came and shook everyone up again. Then the Christmas party happened, I met a friend from Shanghai, everything was good.

So here I am. That's what my year has been like. It's been super eventful. Very colourful and even with all the sad stuff, it's been the best ever. Epic year kinda thing.

Things I hope for in 2010:

--> I do well in my Board exams.

--> NO MORE DRAMA. Or at least a little less drama.

--> Not having my breakdown. I'm the only one left in my gang and that scares me. I will be happy.

--> That January doesn't go by quickly. (I'm passing out of school so I want every minute to be slow.)

--> Happiness.

--> BANGALORE.

New Year Resolutions:

--> To write more.

--> Learn a new language.

--> Learn to drive a two wheeler. (It'll be legal for me in April!)

--> To join a library instead of buying books.

That is all.
Now Happy New Year, all! Be good & don't die.

Brown girl in the rain, tralalalala.

Ahh the rain. In November. Cyclone alert. KaBOOM.

Nice things about The Rain:

> School closed. W00t.
> I can wear sweaters and nobody can stop me. I lurve snuggling into my sweaters, really. Well not mine. My dad's. Same difference.
> Oh-so-pretty.
> Cleanwetmud smell. I heart.
> Going chakdumdum chakdumdum in the rain with Aishwaryah.
> Yayy I can get out the big blankets at night!
> Good food will come. I just know it.
> Sadistic pleasure of pushing people into puddles and going "Whoops. So sorry. NOT. HAHAHA" Wow, I'm sucha kid.
> Umbrellas! I got out my Winnie the Pooh and Tigger umbrella which I've had for A Long Time. I deeply heart it.

Not-so-nice things about The Rain:

> Eeek. Everything's wet.
> Sky looks so-o-o gloooomy.
> Everyone around me is pissed with the rain. Oh well, not EVERYone. Just some freaks.
> Aich. It's oh-so-pretty until you look at the ground. Ugliness personified.
> Holidays= studying. Coz them fab preboads start from Monday. (CRAP, I need to studyy.)
> Ehh everyone's talking about the rain. (FINE, I'm talking about it too. Not my fault though. Just goin' with tha flow. Heh.)
> SOME people pushed me into a puddle, without even going "Whoops. So sorry. NOT. HAHAHA.". They just pushed me in a puddle and grinned away, very satisfied with self. Hmph.
> The good food hasn't arrived yet.
> Can't open windows for fear of being blown away by STRONGMADCRAZY winds.
> Teachers, maaan. GIVE it a break, let us dance in ze raaain.
> The huge trees in school which were climbed by me are now no more coz the wind broke the trunk in half. Now the tree is lying on the ground and I don't want to climb it no more.

Okay let's kick thees rain out from my blog. It's getting wet.

In other news:

> I QUIT FACEBOOK. I MISS I WANT I NEED THERAPY.
> Preboards from Monday, ohmigosh I need to study study studyyy.

Thassit for noww.
Kay, be good, don't let The Rain get ya down.
Over n out.

Dear Online Diary,

This past week has been kinda cool.

I mean, not that it's weird or anything. I always have cool weeks with wonderfully interesting things happening in each one.



My Diwali Holidays have started, except they're THEE worst ones in my entire life because of Those Exams (I refuse to say It. Let me give you a hint: It sounds exactly like 'bored exams.) But it's not as bad as I thought. Yeah, I have to study. And for the first time ever, I'm actually doing it kindasorta sincerely. (I can't say totally sincerely, coz that would mean I'm becoming a nerd, which we know is not true.)



But.. it's the small things that happen throughOUT the week that make it cool. E.g: Random girlfraaaand drops in, grabs your arm, takes you to a superr awesome place (see picture below and feel jealous) for exactly two minutes and then leaves you to go home.



Or, a shopping trip with another girlfraaaaand who is a supreme shopper. Or a call from a friend, not talked to in a real long time. Or getting completely high and making phonecalls which you know aren't very necessary. Or smart.



Or reading a book which you dug out from a shelf and almost forgot about. Or listening to this really old song which you used to love when you were a kid. Or going through old pictures and drowning in nostalgia, Or maybe just sitting back one evening and blog about moments which you feel are intensely cool.



This has been my week, apart from vigorous studies.
Well, more later Online Diary.

What's been going DOWN?

Lots. Lots has been going on. And I'm filled with the urge to fill in My Online Journal. So here goes.

Wake Up Did? NOT happening any time soon. (Inside joke. You could replace DID with NID, if you want.

So. I saw Wake Up Sid last night. Cute Happily Ever After. Could've been made better, but whatev. 'Twas a happy happy movie with a simple story- A dude who has no motivation in life, meets a young writer and his life changes. Ka- ching!

High point of the movie:
When Aisha (Konkana Sen) gets her books delivered home, the first thing she does is open the box and she smells the books. And here I thought that I was the only freak who was obsessed with the book smell.

Low point of the movie:
(TMI alert!Don't say I didn't warn you) I don't get out of the movie theatre during the interval coz the intervals over here are really short and I hate missing even one tiny bit of the movie. So by end of the movie, I really had to pee. And it was like the movie was mocking. In the end, all they showed was oceans and seas and waters and Bombay rains and pouring and OH, it was a long wait. Right. I'm done now.

General advice:
It's a nice movie to see if you're free on a Saturday night, but really, don't go out of you're way just to watch a good looking conceited brat getting a life. (For girls, SO good looking.)

Ratings: 6 Golden Nidhies out of 10.

The Book Scene
Guh. Bleh. Pfoo. And everything in between. Been reading fully depressing stuff.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak? Well written. Intense. Good story. But, OH, so depressing. It's a story told by Death and the name of the first chapter was the only reason I read the book. It was 'Death and Chocolate'. You can see what I mean.


A Walk to Remember and True Believer by Nicholas Sparks. Both pretty okay books. But now I'm sick of romance. It gets tiring after a while. Now I need some bloodshed and war and some killing. Yeah, I'm weird like that.


Other than that, I'm going through a whole lot of Calvin and Hobbes. Much fun.

Wake me up when September ends.
This has probably become the most clichéd song of all tim es. The number of status messages and blog posts I've read with this title..are a LOT. But September has been a sucky kinda month. First, the weather. It was all indicative of the bad things happening in the month. My Truck (It's this old camera which I used to use like a mad woman) died. It was most sad, but some of myfriends were verily happy about it. Hmph. (The picture below is a of my Truck and me. Sigh)

Also, a month of fights. Romance? Guh. Friendship? Guh. Lots of fights and a general aura of depressing-ness. Hence, the sad books, I think.


Other stuff:
(This calls for bullet points, methinks.)


* There was a false alarm of a Bangalore trip this month. But now I'm not going and am most depressed. It should be against the law to raise a person's hopes and shoot them down. I hope the desired people have GOT THE MESSAGE. (Your cue, parents)

*Girl politics. I've not had it for SO long. And now, it's like BAM I'm back in the game with backstabbing and gossiping and bitching and all the girls stuff. It hurts, but I couldn't love it more.

*It's raining in October. Pune's ALWAYS been a weird sort of place.

*Went to Lonavla yesterday and was RIGHT in middle of the clouds. So beautiful. And I love the tunnels on the way. I was all 'Wheee!' while we went through them.

* The Dad took two weeks off and was at home specifically to annoy the hell out of me. But he's off to work tomorrow. Say it with me: YAYYYY! He's going going going! Two weeks with him, and gaaah, I neeeed my alone time at home.

Contemplations
I'm five months away from THEE most important exam that will decide the rest of my future. And I'm addicted to Facebook. I'm thinking of leaving it for a few months but I lack the will power. Maybe I'll delete it before my Diwali vacations. And then get down and study. (That is the most nerdish sentance I've EVER said and you cannot use it against me in any way.)





That's about it, I guess.

Apwush

It is a word. Apwush, I mean. Did I say apwush? Yes I did. A word? Absolutely. Used frequently? Oh yeah. By me, at least. It is a word that is embedded in the soft tissue of every human's mind, but few wish to express their apwush-ness.

Apwush can mean anything you like. It can be whatever YOU want it to mean.
For example,
"Dude, wuzzgoinon?"
"Apwush, nothing much. Same apwushofying shit. You?"
"Same here, man. I've been so freaking apwushed lately"

Apwush. Wondrous word. Nice meaning. Rolls on the tongue so well. Using the word 'apwush' can make you so happy. It warms the cockles of your heart, it does.
Anyhoo, I'm too apwushed right now to write more. So later, then.

Keep apwush-ing :)

Book Talk

The Story Girl
By Lucy Maud Montgomery

I'm not a big fan of classics. Actually, I have a love/hate relationship with them. But The Story Girl by LM Montgomery is my favourite book of all times. It's simple, sweet and leaves you very content with yourself after you're done reading it.

The story is simple: Eight kids, The Story Girl, Felicity, Cecily, Sara Ray, Felix, Dan, Peter and Beverly, and their summer. The Story Girl is the only book I've read which does not have a story line, no plot whatsoever and yet, it keeps you hooked. It's a charming kind of book which portrays the innocence of children exceedingly well.

The best part of the book is not the setting, the simplicity or the summer. The best part is The Story Girl. Sara Stanley, otherwise known as 'The Story Girl', tells magnificent tales with her enthralling voice. The way the book is written, Montgomery leaves The Story Girl's voice to the reader's imagination. Her voice can be whatever you like, whatever you want. Whatever captures you. And THAT is the beauty of the book.

Ratings: Nine Golden Nidhies out of ten.
Best time to read: A lazy afternoon.

PS:
As much as I hate E-books, Here is a link to The Story Girl for people who can't find it in a book shop. However, let me warn those people that reading it online will take away some of the charm and rob you of the glorious smell of the book. So read at your own risk.

The Aliminium Foiled My Plans*

(*Sorry, couldn't resist a food pun in The Bad Pun Department. But it is a good one, isn't it? *wagging eyebrows*)

Since the world has fantastically succumbed to the swine flu, I'm left at home all day with absolutely nothing to do. IT'S DRIVING ME INSANE. At least I know I'm not the only one. All teenagers are losing it. I mean, we want to take over the world, start a band and eat jalapenos. Crazy stuff like that.

Anyhoo, my dad and me were extremely bored yesterday. Extremely bored. So we started going through websites of fancy hotels. Oh, not just fancy hotels. Fancy British hotels. And it's not that the hotels didn't look inviting or anything, but that's not what we were interested in. We were interested in the Menus. The Menus of fine British restaurants. We stumbled across this lovely website and went through all their menus. The afternoon teas, lunch, dinner and dessert menus and OH, I want some Devonshire Clotted Cream. I don't even know what it is. But I want it. I wouldn't mind some Wild Scottish Smoked Salmon. Or some Eggs Benedict with a Sash Of Bacon. (Btw, I don't even like bacon. It just sounds so nice and fancy and British)



Yeah, and then we went over the menus of this hotel. Lovely hotel, really. Excellent menus. (Here are the links.) And then we skimmed over the the menus of Burj Al Arab menu and this restaurant called Le Bernardin in New York. We tried to go over some restaurants in Paris but it was too French and complicated. So yeah.

THIS is what I have stooped to. I'm looking up E-menus of unattainable places. Time to grow up, yeah?

Happy Blorgthday to me :)

It's my Blorgthday! Exactly a year since I started blogging. Kinda cool. I could be very cliched and say, "It feels like just yesterday when I opened up my blog. And, oh, now it's a year!" but that's not true. It actually feels like I've been blogging forever.

Advantages of blogging:
1) It keeps you writing regularly. I mean, without the obligation of having to write/type every now and then to keep my blog alive, my writing would have gone for a toss.

2) It's FUN.

3) Them good ol' blog days. (Tagging: Namrata, Tapan, Anish and Vaishnav + The Common Blog)

4) Even if you don't blog a lot, having a blog always gives you the feeling that you've got a place to put stuff out to the outside world.

5) It keeps you connected to the outside world.

6) It keeps the outside world connected to you.

7) It's FUN. Oh wait, I mentioned that.

8) Blogging lets you put out your opinion without ANYone forcing you to shut up or forcing their opinion on you.

Disadvantages of blogging:

1) Blogging never allows you to enjoy a moment fully. You (that is, me) are always thinking if you can convert a moment into a blog post. It's kinda annoying.

2) It worries me that others might read my blog and not like it. But I guess that's the point of having your blog open to the world.

.......that's about it. Clearly the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. My case rests, your honour.

HP6

As usual, it was a major disappointment. Why do I watch HP movies? Who knows. I end up ranting about them for days after. Everyone HATES it when I get into the details of what they missed/screwed up, so I'm going to vent on this blog! Brilliance, I know.



SPOILER ALERT. STOP READING FROM HERE.



Good stuff in the movie:

1) Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton?) Pure hotness. (HAWTNESS!)

2) Ginny turned out to be quite pretty.

3) Harry remained short. Heh. Didn't make me feel inadequate about my height. Though others made up for him. Hmph.

4) The humour. Whole Harry imitating Slughorn thing.

5) The Brit accents ( I also want)

6) Bellatrix Lestrange. Brilliant actress, really.

7) Last time the pony-tailed Dumbledore appears on screen. YES.

8) Cormac McLaggen. *faints*

9) Luna is PERFECT.

10) Fenrir Greyback suited his role.

11) Draco Malfoy! Oh wait, I already mentioned him. Damn.



Erm...that's about all the good things. NOW. For the rant :-



*Where. were. the. Dursleys? Dumbledore. was. supposed. to. pick. Harry. up. from. the. Dursleys. NOT a random train station with attractive girls.



*They invented a random attack! In The Burrow! WTF. They can't INVENT stuff. How about putting in REAL stuff that you didn't have time to put in, freaks?



* Harry-Ginny get together in the WEIRDEST way possible. They're supposed to get together after a quidditch match. But, NO. They have a random make-out session in the Room Of Requirement. And, wait for it, this part doesn't even EXIST in the book. It wasn't even a proper make out. It was one kiss and they're together. Hello? Reality check.



*Waaaayyy too much on Ron and Hermione, baby, waayyy too much. WHEN, in the book, does Hermione confess her true luurrrve for Won-won? Really now. Take your own creative liberty, but Jesus, don't take it too far.



*Em, The Snape dude put on a li'l weight. But that didn't annoy me too much, whatev.


*Action in the movie was minimal. Like dude, the romance was high.


*They didn't show Rufus Scrimgeour! They didn't show the part in The Burrow where Perce and Scrimgeour come!


*Horace Slughorn didn't look like a walrus. Hmph.


*Horace Slughorn had more of a role than Harry.


*Fluer! Bill! Where WERE they?


*No apparitation lessons, either.


*Fred and George weren't wearing magenta robes in their store! Gaaah.


* Where. were. Kreacher. and. Dobby. WHERE, I ask you?


*Didn't show Voldemort (Btw, HATE it when people say "Voldy") asking for the DADA job! THAT was important!


*The House Of Gaunts was missing! M-I-S-S-I-N-G!


*The Funeral. A-hem? It was missing, too.


*Ok, lots was missing so I'm going to stop with that.


*The movie wasn't too intense, was it?


*In fact, it kinda got boring.


*Dumbledore's death wasn't so spectacular.


*The stuff in the cave? IT WASN'T GREEN. Where the hell did all the crystal stuff come from?


*Last of all, it disappointed me. I'm done venting now.

Ok, so final ratings:
Compare the movie to the book: Zero golden Nidhies out of five.
Look at it as a just a movie: Two and a half golden Nidhies out of five.

Wokay, I'm done. Watch the movie and tell me what you thought :)
xoxo

Gotta lurve tradition

With most of my friends, especially the Bangalore ones, I've always had traditions. When we meet up we ALWAYS do a specific set of things. Mostly sleepover traditions with tha girlfriends.

So here I am, making another list. Of ALL the traditions. I mean, it would kinda suck if I forgot a tradition, no? So here goes.

1. Ramila and me have like gazzili-milli-trilli-god-knows-what-eth traditions. When we were kids and she came over to my place, we had this game where we had obstacles on my bunk bed. We jumped through holes, hoola hoops, pillow forts and what not. And in the end, we always drank Litchi squash. We used to do this for HOURS together. OMG, and Neopets!!! We had a combined Neopets account and we used to feed and play with our pets so, so religiously. We even went for Faerie quests, fun stuff.

2. When I went to Ramila's place, we had a whole lotta new traditions to cover. She had this World book which was like a suitcase and you opened it, it had dozens of tiny hard bound booklet thingamajigs shaped in the world map. We used read out ALL because they had adorable pictures and cute descriptions of each place. I ALWAYS read out Italy, North America, Australia and India and she always read out The British Isles, Scandinavia and Spain. I love, love, LOVE the World book. Oh, and at her place, it was always tradition to fight with each other. EVERY SINGLE TIME. She never ever believed I kicked in my sleep without knowing. She always thought it was a plot to give her bruises. She STILL says so. Some things just never change. And of course, she sings this song called Walk On Water which is the most beautiful version of that song. Ramila and me have some gazillion traditions and I can't possibly list all out all.

3. Sanju, Swathi, Smrithi and me have spent hours and hours of lazy afternoons with our traditions. We skate. We play with the hoola hoops. We talk about boys for hours. Hah, and we always, always have lunch at Beijing Bites. Though Sanju never eats. But, yes, lunch at BB is a must.

4. All Tanya and me EVER do is talk. If I need to get something outta my system, she's the first one I call. And even when I go to Bangalore, we spend hours talking about stupid nothings. That's our thing, I guess. OH, and to obsess about Star Wars.

5. Namrata and me used to have lotsa traditions. Now we're all for spontaneity, I think. We used to have this Scrap book in which we randomly scribbled lotsa stuff. It was kinda cute but now if we look back, so 8th grade. Hah. Oh, and Namrata and me used to do Neopets too. Damn, I think our pets are, like, dead. Hmm. (The red dragon below was our Shoyru called Thorn.)

6. This is not much of a tradition or maybe it was, I'm not sure. But when I was a kid, one of my friends Sneha who is now, like, 25 (?) and me used to have our Lazy Walk. We used to walk around real slow around the buildings and , this is embarassing to admit, sing our "walking" rhyme. I even remember parts of it. It started out like "dum dum day, dum dum olay olay.. dissee day, dissee olay olay..." ok, I don't remember the rest. But now, it sounds so stupid. I bet we looked like a couple of drunkards stumbling around the society. Exept I was 7 and she was 17. But why quibble?

7. Namrata, Saee, Mihika and me have only one set tradition. We sit on The Protractor. Okay, no we're not crazy. Our school has these jungle gym things set in shaped of math things like protractors, set squares and stuff. So, The Protractor is our place. Our Adda. We sit there all the time and we don't even have to talk. It's our kinda thinking place.

8. Namrata, Vaishnav and me have one tradition, too. We're ALWAYS stuck together. Just the Natural Order Of Things. Somehow, The Three of us are always stuck together and we look at each other and go, "Shit. All of us here. Again?"

9. Aakash, Akash and me. We had loads of things to do. Akash's house was RIGHT next to mine and Aakash's house was one floor below. We were The Terrible Three. Our tradition was simple- Meet. Make trouble. Laugh.

10. This tradition, I almost forgot. Good thing I'm making this list. Ramila, Leila, Aditi and me in the bus. Leila and me used to sit in one seat and Aditi and Ramila used to sit in the one exactly in front of us. This still makes me laugh and Ramila still admits it's cute, Aditi and Ramila used to play "dino". The curled up their finger and claimed it was a dinosaur and made weird crooning noises. Leila and me used to make endless fun of this. We still do, whenever we meet up.

11. Sanju and me. Summer (duh). Locked in my room for hours. No, we weren't doing anything bad, you perverted people. We were just 10. We did our hair so, so colourful. All you have to do is look at this picture.

Yes, we did this stuff ALL summer. Tradition.

So I think those are all of them.Now I'm all happy and nostalgic. :)

PS- My blogging is going to reduce in a short while. You see, I'm a busy and important person, but you can always catch me on twitter.

From the diaries of Her Wickedness, Debby.

[Debby was in an excellent mood on 12th June 2009 so she decided to write her diary entry too. Here it is.]

Pox was quite delish. Especially his insides. Yum yum.

[That is all. I wouldn't let her write more of the atrocities she committed. Comments open for this one too. So if anyone would like to say "DEBBY, You SUCK", go ahead.]

From the diaries of His Late Awesomeness, Pox.

[ Pollux or more commonly known as "Pox" was this awesome worm that Namrata found crawling on her chemistry classwork with his said-to-be best friend Debby. I took Pox and Debby home for one day and when Pox was bored, he took some paper from my table and wrote this diary entry on 11th June 2009. Here it is.]

Mmm... these leaves Biggie No. 2 gave me are quite delish. I will prove it to her by pooing all over the place. That will make her happy.

Today has been fun. Biggie No. 1 cleaned out my world and gave me new leaves. So sweet of her. Debs has been in a bad mood all day. I fought with her a little and that warmed the cockles of my heart. Heart...hmm...do I have one? Must explore.

Anyway, Biggie No. 1 took me to this place where objects with Biggies zoomed about in shiny things. Ro-ad she called it. Next to this place where objects with Biggies zoomed about, Biggie No. 1 handed me over to Biggie No. 2.

DEWD. BIGGIE NO. 2 TALKS SO MUCH.
She seemed quite upset about this Adam Lambert being gay. I tried to comfort her but she was all screaming and teary and upset. And then, I had a brilliant idea. Debs was upset too! These two could have a girl-to-girl talk. So when I told Biggie No. 2, she said OK and poured her heart out to Debby. Then I was all like- WTF, Stop ignoring ME. So she said OK and played Peek-a-boo with both of us.

Then, in this big zooming shiny thing, we reached this place where everyone looked fully mournful. But then they saw me and got all happy. Ha ha.

Then this BIGGIE FROM A DIFFERENT SPECIES WHO HAD HAIR SHORTER THAN THE OTHER BIGGIES took me on his finger. After I got back to the bottle, aka, my world, Debby was mad. She was pissed because I got all the attention. Serves her right for being a Drama Queen. Bhaav khao.

Then Biggie No. 2 took Debs and me to this new place after Biggie No. 1 said goodbye to us. Tearfully, might I add.

I miss Biggie No. 1. She provided us with an amazing world and even let us help her with chemistry! ( Biggie No.1 knew nothing about her chemistry homework. Hah. ) Oh, and she also gave us totally delish leaves.

Anyway, Biggie No. 2 is still working on her chemistry homework. ( Biggie No. 2 on the other hand, knows everything about chemistry) I went to annoy Debby but she warned me that she'll bite my butt off if I come near. Chicks.Will never get how their mind works.

I am happy. I got many Biggies who love me. I got a Debby who loves me very deep inside. I got a leaf to chew on and oh, I got a place to poo. What more could a worm want?

xoxoxoxoxo
[This is the end of Pox's diary entry. Later we found out that Debs meant biting his butt off quite literally because the next day, we saw her chewing on his insides. Disgustment.
RIP Pox...]

Note from Blog Owner : I'm leaving comments open for this one. If anyone would like to say some last words for Pox, please do so in the Comments.

H-ear! H-ear!*

(* Fine, I stole that from Harry Potter.)

[Note: This story is about 99% true with a tad bit of exaggeration. Also note, this incident took place when I was about 9 years old.)

It was a hot summer afternoon. A very hot afternoon. Two girls locked up in a room with nothing to do. One girl is lying down on her bed and thinking about random things in her life, lost in her own world. The other said girl was digging vigorously through a drawer.

Let's call Girl No. 1 me and the other one Sanju.

Minutes passed by and the intense digging continued.

"Eeeeeeeeeeeek!" she squealed.
"What?" I asked, tiredly. When Sanju squealed, it meant something bad was was going to happen. Sigh.
" Are you going to tell me?"
" Look at these earrings! They're gorgeous! You never told me you had them! They're so pretty!"
" Hmm...Yeah. Got them a while ago but never really got around to wearing them. Now where did I get them? Maybe someone gave them to me... Or I think I got them last year...." I sunk into my own thoughts.
" But they're beautiful." she probed.
"Sanju, would you like to try them on?
She snorted, " And take off my earrings? Like I have no dignity. Mine are pretty enough, thank you very much."
"Yes, pretty." I picked a book and started reading.
She jumped on me, slammed the book out of my hands and looked at me with widened, shining eyes.
"I know! You should wear them. They're too pretty to be wasted."
"Haha. Sanj. I don't think so. My ear holes have closed, I think. And I don't wear artificial earrings, however gorgeous. I get infections."

Of course, this is Sanju. She ignored my somewhat weak protest and approached me with with one shiny earring.

"You worry too much. C'mon. I've done this a few million times. I'm practically a professional. Just a slight push. I once did it to my cousin. She said I was fabulous. And even my uncle said I was good at this...though God alone knows why he involves himself with jewelry.... just to embarrass himself, I suppose." she went on.

"Sanju. I really don't have a good feeling about this." I wrestled her approaching hand off me.
" Nonsense. Now stop fidgeting."
I stopped fidgeting.

She put one earring through a hole, very carefully. Well at least she started carefully. And then she pushed a little.

"Ow. Sanju, that hurt."
"Will you stop moving?"
Pushed a little harder.
"What are you trying to do, Sanju? Kill me? That really hurt!"
"Stop talking, will you? You're breaking my fantastic concentration."
"Fine" I sighed.
After a little more pushing....
"Owwwwwwwwwwww!"
"There! It's done. Now, the next one!"
"Are you crazy? I almost died! You stay away from me, woman."
" You overreact. I was fabulous. Fantafabulous, in fact."
"Shuduuuurp." I said, choking in pain.
"Now stay still. Just one more."
I sighed. She'd get her way. There was no point in fighting.

With shining eyes, she started putting the second one in.
"Let's see how fast I can do this one. One, Two, THREE."

"OOOOUUUUUUCHH!!!"
"Oops."
"What did you do? You idiot! You poked a separate hole through my ear! Not through the normal one, no. You made a new hole! Ouch! Oh my god. My mum's going to kill me! Sanjuuuu!"

She looked a little sheepish.
"Hey. They look good on you." she tried.
I glared.
"Fine, fine. Sorry. It won't happen again. Next time, I'll..."
"Next time?" I croaked.
" Okay, so there won't be a next time. But what are you yakking about? You look hot!"
I sighed. It did look kind of good.

One hour later
"Mom, look. Sanju put these earrings on me"
"Aren't the artificial? You get infections don't you?"
"Well, whatever. The look nice. That girl, Sanju. Always looking out for me." I said loyally.

2 months later

"Nidhi, what's that black stuff on your ears" My mom asked worriedly.
"I don't know but my ear's been burning for the last couple of days."
"Then why didn't you say anything?"
" I don't know." I shrugged, " Thought it would pass."

She inspected my ear carefully.
"This is not looking good. You've got an infection."
"Nooo! But I like these earrings!"
"I know but it's no good if it's going to hurt you in the end, is it? Now I'm going to take it off very slowly. It might hurt just a little but don't move, okay?"
Not okay. If a mom said it's going to hurt a little, It's going to hurt a lot.

She slowly started taking one out.
"Aaahhh! That hurt!" I screeched at the first sign of adversity.

She realised that I'm not going to listen to her so she called in the big guns. She called in my Dad. He did a full on inspection of my ears.
Very wisely he said, " I think it's an infection."
My mom banged her head on the table and my eyes started to tear up at the word 'infection'.

Half an hour later.

My mom was holding my, thrashing, arms and legs. My dad had two sterilized tweezers in his hand, trying to yank off the earrings. And me. Me, wailing at the top of my voice. My lungs at their highest and my voice reaching altogether new decibels.

One hour later

They were off. It hurt. My ears were now clean, without a trace of fungus and slightly red. Sanju. She was going to pay.

I went over to her house, to scream at her.
"Hey. You're earrings are off! Dang. They were pretty. Guess what? I know what we're going to do this afternoon! My cousin's over and she has lots of pretty earrings. We can try them on.

I fumed.

" Should I help you with yours?"


~xoxo~


Epilogue

If you must know, I took months to recover from this particularly traumatic experience. Much to Sanju's shock, those earring had to be thrown away. After that, I have never, ever trusted Sanju with jewelry. I still get horrid nightmares. And if you're wondering, Sanju's real name is 'Sanjana'.

But in then end, we all lived happily ever after. Snort.

Go Shorty, It's your Burday. We Gonna Partay like it's your Burday.

Sooo....I'm fifteen.
Running on my sixteenth year. Whoa.
A friend told me that 'Growing old is mandatory but growing up is optional'. That is SO freaking true. At least in my case because I don't think the kid in me is ever going to grow up.

Somehow I don't get why growing older means not screaming out loud when you are excited, or not to hyperventilate when you're stressed. Why does growing up have to mean having complete control over your emotions? It's super annoying to have people say, "Act your age."
Another thing I have a HUGE problem is with people saying, " Hey. You're fifteen. You should stop watching Barney." Aaaargh. Well, excuse me if watching Barney offended you in any way. I happen to like purple and green dinosaurs who sing adorable family songs.

ANYhoo, enough ranting. Now that I'm fifteen, I'm in the mood to make resolutions and oaths (which I know I'm going to break in time).
This year, I'm going to faithfully scoff at all people who say, "Act your age".(feeling the optimism?). I WILL try to act my own age (whatever that means). Oh, and I'm going to try not fighting with my own friends. I have to remember, they are the ones who love me. But, hey, mock fights are totally allowed. I'm not going to turn saint, like, boring.

Oh and duuuuuude. I'm gonna have to stop losing my compasses. Not just compasses, stationary in general. But compasses specifically.
Ooooh! and I need to grow taller! I'm just five foot and 3 and a half inches. Which kinda sucks. I'm tiny. When I was a kid, about seven or eight, fifteen year old girls used to look so tall. But now that I'm fifteen, sigh, I seem so short. All a matter of perspective. Snort.

Another resolution: Keep the sarcasm and eye rolling and the oh-so-witty comments to the minimal. But, oh, I love being sarcastic. It's so hard to keep the fabulously smart comments to myself. Fine, cancel that. Deal with it, people.

Hmm...so I got everything? Yeah. Well thank you, gentle readers. Your listening skills never waver.

Over and out. :)

How to deal with Boredom

Sigh. Boredom. One of the worst diseases to catch. Very contagious and horribly tough to recover from. ANYhoo, here's a list of things to do when you've reached rock bottom and are utterly bored.

> Read books with Happily Ever Afters. When you're bored, you happen to be very cynical. So after you read a Happily Ever After, you have something to roll your eyes at.

>Make weird food combos. Coke and cake icing? Honey and cheeslings (tastes awesome, just so you know)? Be creative.

>Watch a movie that you've never seen before. If the electricity goes before you're done with it (Been there, Done that), imagine you're own ending.

>Call up people. If no one's at home and if everyone's abandoned in your time of need when you're sick with Boredom, make up your own imaginary friends and have fabulous conversations with them.

> Have a tea party with those imaginary friends and be all very British. ("Pass me those scones, will you? Simply splendid tea. Absolutely spiffing, I tell you. Marvelous day, isn't it? Yes, quite lovely.")

>Real friends still not at home? No worries. Count the number of black things present in the room you're in.

> Done with black? That was fast. Now....white.

> Hmm...colours boring you, aren't they? No worries. Hakuna Matata. Have a pillow fight with yourself. Yes. Fun, isn't it?

> Ugh. Still bored. Pour glue on your hand, let it dry and slowly peel it off. Intensely fun, trust me.

>Rock bottom? Still bored? That's it. There's no cure. Oh, fine. Since you insist, one last attempt : Write/blog about 'How to deal with Boredom'.

BLEEEEEEEEEEAAAAARGH!
I'm STILL bored. Sigh.
Over and out.

Dad on a mission

I'm sitting in my room tackling some homework and my dad comes up to me.


"Let's make some chicken. And I want to do something different. Not the same old curry."

"Um, ok. What do you want to make?" I ask.

" I dunno. Any suggestions?"

"Hmmm..... how about making some rolls?"

"No, not rolls. Lets make some chicken pulao"

"Sure" I nodded away. What was the point of asking?

"When do you want to make it?" I asked.

"I dunno. Maybe over the weekend"


3 weeks later.


I'm sitting in my room tackling some homework and my dad comes up to me.

"Let's make some chicken. And I want to do something different. Not the same old curry."

"Um, ok. What do you want to make?" I ask.

" I dunno. Any suggestions?"

"Hmmm..... how about making some rolls?"

"No, not rolls. Lets make some chicken pulao"

"Sure" I nodded away. "Are you having an odd sense of deja` vu?"

"No, why?"

"Forget it" I must have dreamt it. I didn't want to sound stupid.

"Ok....So I'm going to make it right now!" he said with full enthusiasm.

"I'm just going to be a spectator and watch." It was best to make my intentions clear. I was NOT going to help.

With undaunted zeal my dad started checking out recipes online. Looked through a couple and came to back to the room.

"I'm going to make this my own way"

My mom just had to intervene. "Why? The recipes too complicated for you?" she asked innocently.

"No, they just have lots of ingredients which I don't think we have right now"

"Let me check it out"

My dad shows her the recipe.

"But we have everything on the list. What are you talking about?"

My dad, "I'm just saying that we don't have to follow the recipe word to word."

"Why? We have everything on the list!"

"Fiiiiine. We'll make it like the recipe."

At this point, I give up with my homework and join my dad in the kitchen. My mom started getting all the masalas together and poured hot oil in a vessel.

"So should I put the masalas in?" said my clueless dad.

"Not yet! Wait till it's hot!" said my mom while grinding the garlic and cutting the chili. Multitasking is one of the many things my mom is an expert at.


10 seconds later.


" How about now?"

"No!"

5 seconds later.

"Now?"

"It's called patience. You're getting on my nerves. Stop."

"Ok......Now?"

My mom gives one of her phenomenal glares and the atmosphere changes radically. Utter silence in the kitchen and then the oil starts spluttering.

"Now. Put all the spices in."

One by one he started putting the spices in the boiling oil and started frying it.

"Add the onions."

He added the onions.

"Should I add the tomatoes?" he asked, cluelessly, to my mom.

"Wait till the onions are golden brown."

"Fiiiine...."

After some random mixing of some more spices, my dad decides that he should add the tomatoes. And of course, he thinks he's an ultra cool chef so he starts sprinkling the tomatoes like oregano all over the masala. Suddenly there was a loud splutter and my mom runs towards the vessel.

"What did you do?"

An entire box of tomatatoes was in the gravy.

"All of it just fell! It's not my fault! The gravity! Blame the gravity!"

My mom rolled her eyes and tried to fix the red blob spluttering away.

"Great. Now your going to have tomato rice because your dad didn't listen to me. Have fun with it. I'm going to be having my sweet corn soup." she walked out.

Of course, I'm rolling all over the floor holding my sides and trying unsuccessfully to stop laughing.

"It's good that she's gone now. We don't have to follow the exact recipe. We can make it my way."



And wasn't that a great idea.

My dad decided that the recipe wasn't that important. He threw in some other random spices in the red blob and watched it splutter away.

15 minutes later

"I'm going to add the marinated chicken now." he announces.

"Why are you looking at me? I'm no better at this stuff than you are"

"I'm not looking at you. I just made a statement."

"Whatever you say" I roll my eyes.

I walked out of the kitchen to get back to my homework. 15 minutes later, I walk towards the kitchen to see the progress with our dinner. I lift the lid of the vessel and gasp.

"You added all the chicken??? That was, like, a whole packet of marinated chicken! You were only going to make half of it for dinner!"

My dad, rather sheepishly, "Well I though we could just finish the whole thing instead of leaving it over for next time."

That's it. We needed damage control. "MOM!!!!!!!!!!Come here! Now! Uh, please come here, I mean."

My mom walks into the kitchen regally.

"What now?"


"Look at the chicken."

She looked. She raised her eyebrows. She grinned.

"What did your dad do?"

My dad, at this moment, was at the other counter, oblivious to the situation.

"He added all the chicken. He ruined it. We're going to starve tonight. Blame him." It felt good to taddle on my dad.

"Well, it's obvious you can't make the pulao. There's too much chicken. No room for the rice. You're gonna have to make a curry out of it."

My dad suddenly comes closer. He pauses.

"A curry?"

"A curry." my mom confirmed.

She added some water and mixed a lot of other things together and then, finally, came up to my dad. My dad, whose expression, was still frozen.

"Leave it for 10 minutes. I put the rice on the other gas. It should be ready in sometime. And stop gawking."

She walked out. I shook my head and turned to my dad.

"We're just going to be eating a normal curry? I wanted to have something different!"

"Stop cribbing, dad" I said. "It's still gonna taste awesome. Mom cooked it."

"But it's just some normal curry! This is not fair! I wanted something different! See? This is what happens when your mom interferes...she always does this........." He went on ranting about it while I tuned it out. Suddenly, I could smell food. Good food. I turned towards it and started tasting it. It tasted Good.

I grabbed a bowl and put some "normal chicken curry" and rice in it and started hogging. I noticed that my dad was still in the corner mumbling about something. I grabbed a bowl and served him. He took it. Tasted it.

"It's good."

"Isn't it?" I said, while stuffing some more in my mouth.

"Don't tell your mom that."

"My lips are sealed." Technically not. I was still eating. But why quibble?

My dad returned to the living room. With the chicken rice. He started ranting about it only because my mom was there but then kept quiet when he knew that both of us were rolling our eyes.

And Zat, my dear readers, was the story of the "Normal chicken curry". Thank you, thank you very much.




PS- Due to excessive exaggeration, I'd say this is about 80% true. Over and out.