The High

Things would never be the same again
as i walk into our room, the editorial room, as me and Rims have named it.....i felt the terseness suddenly dispelled.
This was the room that i used to cringe walking into just acouple of weeks ago
i would use every excuse to stay out of it,
It felt cold, unwelcome and deary......more than that
i felt unwelcome, unwanted like a stranger.
The more i avoided the more it hurt, to the point that i couldnt take it anymore...this cannot be happening....

past three days filming for our documentry was all it took to change everything.
HIGH ON LIFE....
Me, Ree and Rich sure were!
was shot amidst the bustling MG road, yelahanka highway, christ college and popular local pubs.
3 days shooting round the clock left us exhausted and HIGH ON LIFE.
Now that the filming is more or less over, life feels like a constant image caught through the camera lense. Zooming out you get the bigger picture, and how the subject needs to be 'centered' and zoom in, perfection comes in view, you need to maintain a balance between these two to capture the perfect scene.

Even our vocabulary is mutated with techno jargons.
"Hey i saw this hot guy, my audio blanked out and video went on an overdrive".
"The lights just came back...wait a sec! need to white balance".

Cant wait to get back and hijack Rich's soft new mattress....and pester Tina to get something outta her bountyful larder to feed us hungry souls....
The cold, deary dungeon metamorphosed into a warm atmosphere, HIGH ON LIFE.
The title of our documentary.

Sporting phenomenon II

live sporting can turn into an addiction!
now that the season's over, life feels kinda empty.

here's how i covered my first assignment as a sports journalist for the
AFC youth championship at shree kanteerva stadium.

Not being on a regular (forget regular, not any) payroll of a media organisation is a pain, especially when you wanna get entry to such events.
But finding ways to work around it is fun too!
step 1
sneak into the media gallery (through the VIP entrance) unnoticed, if u happened to be perticularly attractive as moi, then this step is obsolete, then you move on to..
step 2
explain the hierarchy of officials you get referred to, what a 'student journalist' is... give up and finally retort to be invisible to the match officials (again futile as step 1)
if this doesnt work as well then,
step3
use your contacts ,if you're smart enough this would be your first step.
and if you're really lucky...
step 4
The media chairman one day walks up and says
(oh no, this is the end) "tomorrow you come and collect the media pass, dont forget your photograph!"
YAY
is this for real.... and find yourself...

sitting on the media gallery, and reporting live is something i could sure get used to!
we'd discuss the intricasies and nuances of the game (i'd mostly listen) swap juicy tid-bits on Dasmunshi's life (most journos hate him)
there was a regular supply of refreshments (cold samosa and soggy sandwiches), which the japanese seemed to love (including the mutated version of kaju barfi!)

The sports journos....wow, most of them were players themselves (even if it was at school level),or coaches and referees.
Personifed giant sports encyclopedia, rattling out statistics and profiles making me feel like a pathetic dumb school girl!

The best part were the post match press conferences, the battle of the journos began, the foriegn coaches and players would pretend not to understand the language to evade inconvenient questions.
In a matter of weeks i knew more about football then i had in all twenty one years of life

More then that, i found a career!
like the game of football, come rain, come sunshine, there aint a moment of dullness.
So much for hating something! now its a passion.
life's so unpredictable,you never know where it takes you.
Well, this time around it took me right to the football pitch.

Holy matrimony!

On a lazy Sunday afternoon, going insane with boredom, I flick through the newspaper supplement…hoping to catch something interesting….
And here’s what I came across.

CITIZEN of USA, 61 years (looks younger), athletic, good-hearted, and owner of successful Marketing Business in Boston seek Hindu Woman, 18-32 years old for marriage. Preferably vegetarian and pretty.

A matrimonial column...oh goody!
The gentleman above seemed to be on the wrong side of 60 having a fetish for girls young enough to be his daughter.

Some ads were short (each word costs)….
Alliance for prty, slm, elegant yng cultrd grl, educated wrg lecturer
Ok…I thought all lecturers were supposed to be educated!

On the other hand…. ......Remember that interview when you were asked about yourself, and you overdid it a tad bit too much….
SOWRASTRA, 39,CA, second son of retired Scientist, formerly working at Delhi with good salary, returned Chennai to look after aged parents, now under going Medical Transcription training, own a house at Perembur with properties financially self-sufficient and very shy type, seeks home loving & computer knowledge bride from same sect. Contact.Dr.R.Ambikanuja 688, Palikasanthji Street,Arrakonam -812 001. Ph.9935-2432265 (after 9pm)Cell:98882732101 (are you sure nothing’s left out?)
The dude sure seemed desperate!
Here are some commonly used jarons used in newspaper classified add(don’t bother taking your dictionary out!)

Family oriented – Sati saavitri bahu!
Home loving girls- forget about your career
Convent educated – stuck up spoilt brat
No demand- we’re doing a huge favor
Issueless divorcee- Hmmmm…
Youthful/young at heart - geriatric
Simple- Dumb, doormat

So if you’re single and not ready to mingle, but want to find that special one, what better ways then words…. even abbreviations are enough

wrg- working
BHP- biodata,horro(r)-scope, picture
SWE- sweet? Umm that’s actually Software Engineer
But at some point of time, you look beyond words…and talk in numbers! Yes it’s all about money honey!

SWE wrg in honeymoon (no) solutions
35,000 pm to the highest bidder.

Well, they say marriages are made in heaven, looks like cupid strikes between the lines of ‘matrimonial columns’ ….till then happy matrimony!

PS: a highly edited(read much better) version of this article appears on forth coming issue of dateline bangalore...monthly magazine called 'spouse on sale:offer open till stock lasts'.

teething trouble

Hannibal lecter strikes…….Tottenham Hotspurs striker, Dofeo was allegedly caught ‘biting’ West Ham's midfielder Javier Mascherano !
According to Dofeo and his coach, “it was a comic nibble blown out of proportion, and is all a part of the game”!
Referee let Defeo get away with this outrageous act! Uncle Tyson must be happy to hear that.
Since when has cannibalism become a ‘part’ of the game?
looks like something outta the dark ages, with barbarians and trolls(classic warcraft scene)
And hey, even the world cup finals aint less action packed…. Zidane’s head butting of Italy's Marco Materazzi to the ground!
What a joke –ridiculously rich multimillionaires who don’t know how to behave, and to think these guys are role models…maybe they should be sent back to kindergarten first to learn some manners.
It would make a brilliant idea for one of those ludicrous games that are churned out like, Carrmageddon where you run over people to gain extra points, or GTA, where innocent bystanders are murdered.
If kids have such “role models” and where being violent is "cool",
I don’t think Osama would have any trouble getting recruitment for his next training camp.

an ode to my roomies

What a bunch of crazy girls, totally drive me nuts…lets begin in alphabetical order

Heads turn when she walks in, this gal is a total babe, from head to toe..
That’s prerna, mere nichewali, I mean we share our bunk beds. Thank god she’s as messy as me…typical delicate darling, and a total romantic if ever…everything she owns is pink…her bucket, her towel…whew its gonna take the whole day if I started listing out . Reminds me of a princess ….her sweet innocence is what you'll first notice about her, instantly making her a darling of everyone! Falls sick every second day, and her panju accent…kya bakwaaas yaar.
Update: with her stint at editorial-ship complete,the editoral legacy unveils!!!hurrah!


No one’s perfect, but Rims is an exception. Most annoyingly irritatingly perfect…her cupboard and bed is like one of those catalogue advertisement. looks as if she just walked out of a saloon, with every hair in place. Lord where is justice…gives everyone an inferiority complex when she opens her mouth…she talks and talks and talks and I hate to admit it, she does make sense….just too intelligent for her own good, but doesn’t let anyone know, but once you do….you are just frozen in awe and marvel! Love to irritate her by saying she’d be a very good politician…but then she’d be good at anything she does, has an amazing satirical sense of humor. Oh, she talks to almost anything from a mosquito to a dog and even a lamppost! But beneath that tough exterior is a person who really cares a lot which she tries really hard to hide. Hah, u don’t fool anyone Rims!
Update: has a really annoying habit of making baby sounds, when she doesnt get her way!

Tina bina bhi kay jeena….oh yeah I’ll never forget that sulky pout she had when she first came to the hostel! I thought was shifting her entire house, with the amount of luggage she had! Reminds me of a cartoon called daffy duck (oops..sorry teens) she and preru are chronically obsessed with pink! Her love of life is her cellphone, she’s with here cell everywhere, at dinner, in her bed….! …she hates it when achu (our prof) forgets to mention that she‘s from Chattisgarh every time he introduces her!
Update: Her Date churan thing...hmmm heaven!

There’s another unofficial roomie who deserves a mentions…..stumbles into our room bachaoon, kuch khane ko hai…..mujhe chocolate chahiye! Being fully aware that our larder was emptied weeks ago! Blog queen, we share an eternal woe of not having better halves! Come 11 pm, and all rest are huddled into their ‘copchas’ getting all mushy and romantic….we console each other! Terrific writer and a person who anyone can easily relate…with sadie, what you see is what you get! One day when she writes her own book, she promised to mention me in acknowledgements as her first editor in PG (I’ll hold u against that)
Update:Is high on Naarial Paani.

Lazy Sunday afternoon….preru is on the phone with her sweetheart, Rims is chatting away furiously to Avi…Teens is probably playing agony aunt to someone over da phone, and sadie is blogging away to glory!
Have 8 more months together hope we can tolerate each other better by then…you girls rock! and will go places..love u guys!
Update:6 more months to go...some still cant tolerate the other!

What u talking about?

Cell phones really disgust me, not that i dont appreciate its utility,
but the way its being (mis)used these days, is just gone too far.
I somehow dont get it how people can talk so much......go blah blah blah.....whats there so much to talk about! i just feel like withdrawing into a corner and just be!
I myself cant stand long coversations...coz 99.99% of times they are silly inane words which dont really have any value.....i go uh huh...yeah....gr8....thats nice....(hang up the phone u idiot, my ear's hurting!).
And i hate seeing what it does to people! i just wish there was some kind of apparatus which could permanently be surgically implanted, so that one would be saved of even that much trouble.
Dont even get me started on the medical and scientific reasons...but lettme give a little sneak peek anyway

Headache
Sleep disruption
Neuroepithelial (tissue in the brain) tumors
Alzheimer's Disease
Parkinson's Disease
Altered memory function, concentration and spatial awareness
Other forms of cancer.

to take a look at the real story:

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2001/4/30/121604.shtml


Think about it, dosent talking so much, leave you drained of every ounce of energy that you have.

As for me... when i walk on the road, i want hear the noise of the traffic (sound way better then some of those cheesy ringtone)...feel the wind on my face...... look at the sky which seems to be changing color every moment..... and just enjoy being me! There's just so much perfection around....
too bad some people just miss this altogather.

Sporting Phenomena

To tell u the truth, I am not that much into sports, the only reason that I do sometimes catch up with an odd match or two, is for its pure entertainment value! (Or maybe because it’s getting more and more difficult to watch anything else with the men folk gaining monopoly over the remote!) , anyway…….the sports news these days would give a run for all the sensationalist news!
There was a time when I used to completely skip the sport section of the paper…not anymore; I start my day reading paper backwards.
It’s absolutely insane how some of these pro sports… run a billion dollar industry based on it.
Take football for instance, its so completely ridiculous to have 22 men ( pretty hot, granted!) chasing after a ball, it looks quiet silly….and then the world cup……has to be the ultimate satire.
That’s so really sad… if that wasn’t enough these people who chase the silly ball are some kind of idols! - Beckham! Oh please, I think his hairdresser deserves more credit for his popularity than himself …
Now don’t even get me started with the namma Indian Cricket team , it really makes me nauseous when I see those giggly bimbos discussing Dhoni’s latest sported haircut….so, Sports has now become a medium to be sported.
I just don’t get it, maybe I am from another planet or from another century altogether, but what exactly is so intelligent about sports!
Okay, people who play, I can understand to some extent ….but people who watch….
Hey, I aint looking to incite any controversy here, but the point is, is the whole scene worth it!
People are spending billions on building stadiums and F1 tracks, where clean drinking water and basic hygiene is still not a human right….it amazes me, are people really so conscienceless these days.
Maybe watching all that sports till their eyeballs pop out from the socket really does render them brain dead!
Whole life turns into a game with a warped sense of pseudo reality, where everything’s based on winning or losing…..and slowly the whole meaning and purpose of life fades away.
Well mate, this time, the jokes on you!

Hostel vices, Socialogy crisis

Living in a hostel is quiet challenging....
Learning all those fundas on occupational psychology in sociology class hasnt really helped!
All those theories, models and conclusions drawn up by experts haven’t made much of Difference.
With all due respects to them, when it comes down to everyday nitty grities of life, when u are constantly at the grindstone, these theories just go outta da window .
Your whole social life depends on people around you!
True, but you choose the people around you.....before I start a theory of my own let me move on to my own hostel, where I share room with three others.
Apart from waking up every day, screaming my lungs out to get into the loo, missing the breakfast, scribbling my assignment while barely making it to the class, listening to the cheesy
bollywood music.. for the millionth time that I could almost sing it backwards , and finally if I do make it to my bunk, screaming for the lights to be turned off.......
in short there isn’t a dull moment. This can be a good or a bad thing.

Coming back to sociology, and my esteemed theorist, who spent all their lives studying the structure of some wired organization....havent quiet got it right.
Coz where people are concerned, the only principle which ever comes close to describing their behavior is 'the uncertainty principle'.
I just don’t get it, why does there always have to be a reason for every thing we do in life!
Get a life! ....there's sooooo much that we just can’t figure out, no matter what!
.. The higher you study the more confusing it gets! That way, PhD just describes the highest state of confusion!
There was a time when I would devour every book on human psychology that existed....it sure didn’t help....am right back to square one or maybe even worse, coz I just ended up having a lot of sophisticated concepts in my head.
Back at my hostel room, climbing on to the bunk, and pulling up my warm blanket, I realize, this is what it all boils down to....being in a place completely at peace, where u get the feeling of being taken care of.