Well, well, well... Hi to all you ppl out there.. Yesterday was my 19th birthday... yes, Thank You very much. But it was one of those awful days of my life. Now you'l say, "Why? It can't be that bad! It's your birthday!!" Honestly, it wasn't that bad at all, it was worse!
When I opened my eyes, the first thing I saw was Light.. The sun had risen and I was already late for my NCC Parade! I woke up with an "Aiyyo!" and rushed for my bath. But my uniform was not pressed and my new clothes needed ironing too.. All that was done in a hurry and I rushed to College on my scooter, had a near-miss ( I wonder what it is between birthdays and near-misses... Had one last year too!) but I managed to be on time for Parade. Parade was just the usual.
Then I was late for class and lost an hour's attendance and so half a day's attendance too (!). In class, I had a test paper in Biochem, which was lik, just OK.. not too good or too bad... Math class was more boring than usual. And finally it was 4... I was really happy that I could go home, eat and then go meet Gannu Dada.. I happily started my Kine and went woooshhh!!!
I'd crossed Subramaniypalayam when Kine stuttered... Then it hit me that in the early morning hurry I'd forgot to refill.. Kine was running dry!! In a last attempt to somehow reach the Main Road, I tried to turn around... Luck wasn't a fellow traveller.. Kine was completely dry. Now comes the best part...
Some very practical guy once said,"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a flat tyre and a broken chain." In my case, it was a journey of 2kms that began with a dry petrol tank! :( On the brighter side, it probably helped my weight reduction plan... (!)
I came home really tired and thought I'd check my mail and scraps... Quite a lot of people had messaged to wish me "Happy Birthday!" and this lifted my spirits (which was in the gutter by then). Just when I thought my misadventures for the day had come to an end, the internet connection buckled. I kept trying to get connected, but to no avail. I just wanted to thank people who'd wished me well... but that was not to be.
This is what Life gave me on my birthday... This is also the most important lesson Life has taught me.. No matter how well you plan, something will definetly happen.. somethig that tests your preparation, and checks if you turn up your sleeve and face it or turn away your face and leave. And your performance in these small tests will determine your position in the mad rat-race called Life.
Thanks for listening, Adios.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Nilgiri Trekking Expedition 2009
Hi guys! I'm back from the Nilgiris after two weeks of plain fun and a lil' bit of pain.. Being a part of the NCC All India Nilgiri Trek for Girls 2009 has been very exciting, in fact, far more exciting than I thought it could ever be!
The adventure began on 19th May. We boarded a bus with some 30 cadets from Maharashtra and left for the base camp at Cordite Factory High School, Aravankadu. As we were just reporting our arrival, it began to rain. Nice reception, I thought. We were then alotted classrooms for dorms, and the best part was that we (Coimbatore) were to share with Maharashtra! The Culturals in that evening was fun, what with the Maharashtrians screaming away to glory.. and the Tamilians giving them tough competition. What masti we had that night... Our girls didn't understand what they were saying and they didn't get what we were saying! All homophones were assumed... only I could understand what both parties were saying and that was probably why I had the most fun...! The discussions started off pleasantly and the next night, it took a wrong turn and became a full fledged argument... These girls created so much noise that the resident monkeys of that area woke from their sleep and started jumping around on the roof of our room! Thank God for Vaishali.. she did help stop the racket.
We had a medical check-up on 20th and a mini-trek on 21st.. We had loads of fun with the Marathas during the trek and Abi Senior even found a boyfriend! ;) On our way back, it began raining heavily and we entered a school's corridor for shelter. We kept waiting but the rain showed no signs of stopping. It finally came down to a drizzle, and so we started. We'd barely walked a few metres when it started raining heavily again.. We again took shleter on the roadside, waiting for the rain to stop. God bless the rain, it never stopped.. and Gulzar Sir too, he made us walk in the rain..! Hey I forgot.. the rain did stop. And that was when we walked through the gates of the base camp! I was roaming around in my semi-wet uniform for the best part of the day, until Minnu gave me a looonnnggg lecture over the phone. That night was pretty peaceful as everyone was tired and we all had D-Day upon us..!
D-Day: Flag-off, the trek & Staging Camp-I, Chamraj... I'm feeling lazy now.. so I'll talk about all that and more in the next post, probably tomorrow.
So long, Adios.
Edit: Looks like I'll never get into the mood of finishing off this topic... so.. that's all I'm gonna tell you ppl about the trekking camp (I must have finished it off in one post when everything was fresh in my memory.. If I feel like it, I'll edit this post again (hopefully, sometime in near future) to tell everything I can in one single post).
The adventure began on 19th May. We boarded a bus with some 30 cadets from Maharashtra and left for the base camp at Cordite Factory High School, Aravankadu. As we were just reporting our arrival, it began to rain. Nice reception, I thought. We were then alotted classrooms for dorms, and the best part was that we (Coimbatore) were to share with Maharashtra! The Culturals in that evening was fun, what with the Maharashtrians screaming away to glory.. and the Tamilians giving them tough competition. What masti we had that night... Our girls didn't understand what they were saying and they didn't get what we were saying! All homophones were assumed... only I could understand what both parties were saying and that was probably why I had the most fun...! The discussions started off pleasantly and the next night, it took a wrong turn and became a full fledged argument... These girls created so much noise that the resident monkeys of that area woke from their sleep and started jumping around on the roof of our room! Thank God for Vaishali.. she did help stop the racket.
We had a medical check-up on 20th and a mini-trek on 21st.. We had loads of fun with the Marathas during the trek and Abi Senior even found a boyfriend! ;) On our way back, it began raining heavily and we entered a school's corridor for shelter. We kept waiting but the rain showed no signs of stopping. It finally came down to a drizzle, and so we started. We'd barely walked a few metres when it started raining heavily again.. We again took shleter on the roadside, waiting for the rain to stop. God bless the rain, it never stopped.. and Gulzar Sir too, he made us walk in the rain..! Hey I forgot.. the rain did stop. And that was when we walked through the gates of the base camp! I was roaming around in my semi-wet uniform for the best part of the day, until Minnu gave me a looonnnggg lecture over the phone. That night was pretty peaceful as everyone was tired and we all had D-Day upon us..!
D-Day: Flag-off, the trek & Staging Camp-I, Chamraj... I'm feeling lazy now.. so I'll talk about all that and more in the next post, probably tomorrow.
So long, Adios.
Edit: Looks like I'll never get into the mood of finishing off this topic... so.. that's all I'm gonna tell you ppl about the trekking camp (I must have finished it off in one post when everything was fresh in my memory.. If I feel like it, I'll edit this post again (hopefully, sometime in near future) to tell everything I can in one single post).
Friday, May 15, 2009
Life..
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Shoe-Off
Image courtesy: The HinduWe now have another shoe-thrower in the country, and the target... The hon'ble Prime Minister of India! Such an action by a fellow Youngistaani is shameful. Is this an act of anger or an act for cheap publicity??? Guys, if you want to make your view or present a suggestion, go to the media.. they'll help you (and even give you some free publicity!) When most parties are looking to empower the youth, why do something like this and make things worse for yourself?
Wanna throw stuff at the politicians, or anyone else for that matter? Try questions. Nothing beats a discussion to have things sorted out. Throwing stuff is violence. Practice Gandhigiri!
P.S: For prospective shoe-throwers: people are getting bored! Try something new, don't copy.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
First experience of Theatre
My first post to my blog has been long due..! Well.. my excuse is that I never thought anything happening in my life was worth sharing with the whole wide world. Finally, I've got something to share..my first experience of Theatre.
On the 11th, 12th and 14th, I saw three plays. Each was quite comical with a socially relevant message at the end.
CHOCOLATE KRISHNA
The first proffessional play I've been to. I wasn't expecting anything, so it was pretty interesting. It's the story of a chocolate salesman (Madhu) who launches a new chocolate in the market.. and being a great devotee of Lord Krishna(LK), offers it to Him first. Well, LK is bored of His life (!) and so comes to stay with Madhu for a month, visible only to him. What happens in Madhu's life with LK on his side forms the rest of the story.
The little tricks (real magic) that LK did on stage was fun and the kids just loved it. The play of words and the puns made sure that it las a laugh riot. The acting was good since 'Crazy' Mohan and his brother 'Crazy' Balaji are pretty experienced and the supporting cast was good too.
The final message is that God is always around to help you if you mess things up, provided you believe in Him and that you need to work without expectations.
NENACHADHU ONNU
This was the first play of the 'Drama Festival' organized by the KRS Troupe at the Bhavan Auditorium. I was surprised to know that week-long 'drama fesivals' were being conducted in Coimbatore by KRS every year. I'd never heard of them until Mom had pointed it out in the MetroPlus.. I guess I was plain uninterested until then.
Simply put, Nenachadhu Onnu is about the power a writer has over the characters he creates on paper. He can make or break his characters with just a few words.. and this probably makes him superior to even the Creator.
The story is that of a family in which the only son is very chaste and unspoilable (I'm not sure if such a word exists. If it doesn't, I'll get it copyrighted..!) The father believes in living for the moment, spending everything he earns on his family. As the story unfolds, he loses his job and the family is under pressure to move out of their rented house. This forces the son (who actually wants to pursue an MBA course for himself and for his father) to take up a job in a BPO. Meanwhile, the father's best friend's son in the States (again, working in a BPO), dies because of drug overdose. Hearing this, the father gets second thoughts about having sent his son to a BPO.
The story moves on and the son actually gets spoilt (gets drunk and stuff). Then the writer tells the father that he's been dreaming (!) thinking of his friend's son and that his son is still just as chaste as he was before the job.
Excellent acting by the seasoned stage artiste 'Kaththadi' Ramamoorthy (or some name like that!) as the father. His timing in the comic scenes was just phenomenal. Nothing much to say about the other actors except "Nice!" The moral of the story: Everything has a good side and a flip side... take only the good stuff to heart. Don't worry too much!
KRISHNA LEELAI
By far, this is my favourite one. This one was actually written and enacted by an organization from Chennai. The writer-director said that it was an adaptation of an old play by the same name... Anyway, it was nicely tuned for the present day audience.
The story is basically of a part-time stage actor called Krishna who lies to his family to act in plays. He agrees to stand-in for his friend as Lord Krishna in a play in Pondicherry (he actually lives in Chennai). Meanwhile they go looking for a bride for the same friend. The girl, Meera, turns out to be partly mentally unstable and is a huge, huge devotee of Lord Krishna and will marry none but Him. She assumes Krishna the actor to be Lord Krishna. Finally both the men run away from the place. Krishna's wife smells something fishy and goes to Pondy looking for him. With help from his crew he manages to get away from there. Unfortunately he somehow goes to Meera's house to escape from a police constable in the middle of the night. Meera is alone and he says that he'll do anything for her if she saves him from the police. She fools the constable and asks Krishna to marry her. Unwillingly, Krishna gives her his brand new gold ring signifying their mariage and then flees. His wife notices the missing ring and there is a HUGE confusion. Finally Meera's father coms to return the ring and a very emotional scene later, Krishna's friend decides to marry Meera and help her heal.
Well, this is what I've been waiting to tell the whole world: The acting for Meera was just too awesome.. I was completely blown over... Unfortunately I can't remember the actor's name! She was just too, too, too good. A young, good-looking girl with excellent acting skills and a great comic timing makes a fantabulous stage actor. The lead actor (Krishna) was good too but he was over-shadowed by Meera. At the end, when the writer-director introduced the cast, Meera got the longest and the loudest applause, a standing ovation at that. This is one act I won't forget for a long, long time. Sorry, I can't think of anything else now... Adios..
On the 11th, 12th and 14th, I saw three plays. Each was quite comical with a socially relevant message at the end.
CHOCOLATE KRISHNA
The first proffessional play I've been to. I wasn't expecting anything, so it was pretty interesting. It's the story of a chocolate salesman (Madhu) who launches a new chocolate in the market.. and being a great devotee of Lord Krishna(LK), offers it to Him first. Well, LK is bored of His life (!) and so comes to stay with Madhu for a month, visible only to him. What happens in Madhu's life with LK on his side forms the rest of the story.
The little tricks (real magic) that LK did on stage was fun and the kids just loved it. The play of words and the puns made sure that it las a laugh riot. The acting was good since 'Crazy' Mohan and his brother 'Crazy' Balaji are pretty experienced and the supporting cast was good too.
The final message is that God is always around to help you if you mess things up, provided you believe in Him and that you need to work without expectations.
NENACHADHU ONNU
This was the first play of the 'Drama Festival' organized by the KRS Troupe at the Bhavan Auditorium. I was surprised to know that week-long 'drama fesivals' were being conducted in Coimbatore by KRS every year. I'd never heard of them until Mom had pointed it out in the MetroPlus.. I guess I was plain uninterested until then.
Simply put, Nenachadhu Onnu is about the power a writer has over the characters he creates on paper. He can make or break his characters with just a few words.. and this probably makes him superior to even the Creator.
The story is that of a family in which the only son is very chaste and unspoilable (I'm not sure if such a word exists. If it doesn't, I'll get it copyrighted..!) The father believes in living for the moment, spending everything he earns on his family. As the story unfolds, he loses his job and the family is under pressure to move out of their rented house. This forces the son (who actually wants to pursue an MBA course for himself and for his father) to take up a job in a BPO. Meanwhile, the father's best friend's son in the States (again, working in a BPO), dies because of drug overdose. Hearing this, the father gets second thoughts about having sent his son to a BPO.
The story moves on and the son actually gets spoilt (gets drunk and stuff). Then the writer tells the father that he's been dreaming (!) thinking of his friend's son and that his son is still just as chaste as he was before the job.
Excellent acting by the seasoned stage artiste 'Kaththadi' Ramamoorthy (or some name like that!) as the father. His timing in the comic scenes was just phenomenal. Nothing much to say about the other actors except "Nice!" The moral of the story: Everything has a good side and a flip side... take only the good stuff to heart. Don't worry too much!
KRISHNA LEELAI
By far, this is my favourite one. This one was actually written and enacted by an organization from Chennai. The writer-director said that it was an adaptation of an old play by the same name... Anyway, it was nicely tuned for the present day audience.
The story is basically of a part-time stage actor called Krishna who lies to his family to act in plays. He agrees to stand-in for his friend as Lord Krishna in a play in Pondicherry (he actually lives in Chennai). Meanwhile they go looking for a bride for the same friend. The girl, Meera, turns out to be partly mentally unstable and is a huge, huge devotee of Lord Krishna and will marry none but Him. She assumes Krishna the actor to be Lord Krishna. Finally both the men run away from the place. Krishna's wife smells something fishy and goes to Pondy looking for him. With help from his crew he manages to get away from there. Unfortunately he somehow goes to Meera's house to escape from a police constable in the middle of the night. Meera is alone and he says that he'll do anything for her if she saves him from the police. She fools the constable and asks Krishna to marry her. Unwillingly, Krishna gives her his brand new gold ring signifying their mariage and then flees. His wife notices the missing ring and there is a HUGE confusion. Finally Meera's father coms to return the ring and a very emotional scene later, Krishna's friend decides to marry Meera and help her heal.
Well, this is what I've been waiting to tell the whole world: The acting for Meera was just too awesome.. I was completely blown over... Unfortunately I can't remember the actor's name! She was just too, too, too good. A young, good-looking girl with excellent acting skills and a great comic timing makes a fantabulous stage actor. The lead actor (Krishna) was good too but he was over-shadowed by Meera. At the end, when the writer-director introduced the cast, Meera got the longest and the loudest applause, a standing ovation at that. This is one act I won't forget for a long, long time. Sorry, I can't think of anything else now... Adios..
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