Early mornings ... Painting...

After a long time, i woke up at 8ish. Just feels so good when you wakeup early in the morning. You steal few minutes from your busy monotonous life - some time just for you, some time when you can relax. The day also seems to be so long. You realise the day has so much potential.

My new found interest is painting, and i am amazed how different my paintings look when i paint in the class. I realised, its also because of the perspective my teacher, Virginia gives me. How she abstracts out what should be in a picture. She always tells - when you have a photo- you should find out what you like the most from the picture and just take that to your painting. You dont have to make a detailed painting, just paint what you like.. what you want to highlight...

Sorry for the bad picture quality.. I promise, ill charge my camera and post better pictures soon.

Rasgollas

There are somethings that remind you of home... One thing is the sweets that my mom used to make. Rasgolla was the only sweet i used to eat as a kid - i never liked gulab jamuns. i think i somehow knew that the effort put in to make gulab jamuns was much lesser.

More i feel homesick, more is the urge to recreate home. I cant get the environment here sitting in the US, but atleast i can cook something that reminds me of home.

We dont get the authetic rasgollas here, for that matter any sweets we get are horrible. I have been wanting to make rasgollas for a while. I had thought ill make them in the weekend, but as all of you know something or the other comes up.

Finally i decided to make them yesterday. I guess i would have called my mom 4-5 times to ask her what i should be doing. At each and evey step of making. My mom seemed to share the excitement i had.

She and I were so happy that the Rasgollas didnt spilt - this is the problem which most people have when making them.... she was just so happy that i was able to make them.

Man, after cooling them they taste "OK" according to me. They taste like the "worst" rasgollas my mom would have made but they still taste like something my mom made. They are round and remind me of home! As of now thats all matters to me ...

Demistyfying opening a medicine bottle...

For long i never knew how to open these bottles which are marked -"Press down and open". I either thought i didn't have the strength to keep holding it down or someone would help me doing it... I always thought it was something beyond me ...

Finally i opened one such bottle :). Everything in life is similar - unless you do it, you don't realise you are capable of it... Do things.. and never be scared of anything...

luv life...

Teacher's Day

Lots of fond memories associated with the teachers day. Back in school, this was a huge event. I always liked a subject only if i liked the teacher. I don't know why, but i always needed that motivation.

Every year during teachers day, i had this hard task of deciding which teachers i would give flowers to. Just like today, i would always be confused. I always knew the teachers i liked, but i would also not want to make any other teacher feel bad rather annoy them.

Some more things with my teachers day - 10th std, that was the first time i wore a Saree - a Pink colored cotton saree. I also took classes - 2nd and 3rd standard. I have always been very thorough in my preparations. So i spent days in deciding what i would teach them. It was one of the best experiences in my life.. the 2nd standard kids didn't know that i was not a teacher.. it was fun :)

Teachers day in my 12th std was scary - all these guys, who supposedly had a crush on me came to the class i was teaching... hmm.. fun it was.. how not to laugh, smile and take the class as if nothing is happening

I would love to mention Parvathi ma'am here - she is one person who believed in me and helped me realise my potential. Love u ma'am

London express

Looking forward to a really busy weekend. Its been long since i have been involved in something of this sort.. Enjoying every bit of the play.. Though i might just be playing a small role in the entire thing( not acting of course).. feels great to be part of it...

Shameless publicity again

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Guk-L0tW9k&fmt=18

Me Apni Favorite hoon

Its so easy to make this statement. what does it mean to be apni favorite. Is it doing what u want always? isnt that selfishness?

We always do what we want - what we desire to have is not the same as what we want .... what we want is determined by the numerous priority lists that we have... but when will what we desire for and what we want meet?

Tanhayee..

Kavitha loved being with people.. She was scared being left alone. She always did things to make people around her happy.

It was her 11th birthday. When she reached out to keep her bag in that old bench- she saw a gift and a card. She opened the card
A big red heart with "I love you" written in golden ink popped up. No one had signed the card. She loved the fact that someone was interested in her and was going through all this pain to get the card and gift. She knew that it was from Sudhir. She wondered how Sudhir would have saved so much money to buy the card and the gift. As usual Charu sat next to her. She told her it was from Sudhir. The guys in the class had been talking about it. She didn't know what to do. She knew lots of people were looking at her. She just tore the card and left the gift untouched. She wondered if she should have even opened the card. Did that make her look like she loved Sudhir?

Though she had matured a few months back , she was a kid in an adults body. She was really confused and her confusion showed. Sudhir followed her from school to home, from her tuition's to home. She really thought that Sudhir loved her - otherwise who would waste so much time? Sometimes when she came home late, she would be really scared. She wanted to tell all this to her parents, but was scared that mom would beat her. Mom would stop all her classes.

Since this was in 1990's people were really shocked that a kid could think about anything other than her Math/Science homework. Abisthu abishthu. Though she didn't go anywhere close to being in a relationship with the guy, suddenly the entire world was gossiping about her - her teachers, students around her. People called her immoral.

Chetna stood first in her class and Kavitha third. They hated each other and always tried to group against each other. This seemed a great opportunity for Chetna to mock Kavitha. It was the first day of school and everyone was trying to get a place. Radha and Kavitha fought for the second bench. Kavitha loved second bench- first bench needed too much attention and in any of the other benches she could not listen to the teacher well. As usual, all the girls came together and try to resolve the fight. Suddenly Chetna seemed to assume to role of the Judge - she said why should we believe you - You are a characterless girl. Kavitha was in tears. She decided to sit in the fourth bench. She was stuck there for a year.

Suddenly girls stopped talking to her. No one was ready to go to school with her. Most days she would cycle all alone to school with tears in her eyes looking at that beautiful bridge and the trees across the water.

Kavitha cried at home against that yellow wall for many nights . Even her parents didn't trust her.

Offlate she was not doing good in Maths. She decided to start attending some tutions. Ruchi Mam was cute. She said her satisfaction comes from helping people pass - not making people get centums. Kavitha just loved her teaching style. She started getting better and better in Maths, but her sadness and tension was always visible. One day Ruchi called her -It was the tenth test she had written in the tution and had got the tenth consecutive centum. Ruchi told her that its difficult to change perceptions, but not impossible. Believe in yourself and Work hard. The entire world will be behind you.

From that day onwards Kavitha became extremely focused on Math. She was the best student in Maths now. Everyone wanted her homework book, to copy answers now even Radha.

She was very lonely, she longed for company. The only way that seemed to be working was getting good marks. She worked hard and she was the topper of the class finally after 10 long years. Suddenly the entire world started considering her to be a role model. The person everyone wanted to be...

Life kept moving.. When she was 25, she got married to Ram. Her parents found Ram after extensive matching of horoscopes. They liked each other, both of them worked in Bangalore and so everyone felt it was a perfect match. They got engaged in Feb and got married in May. This time again she made her parents happy ...