On why I'm down with a cold....

green frozen boogers in pitt

decided to melt

just when i bes at the bay

<sniff>

The journey Home.............is never too long. (Episode II)

December 22nd
The last 2-3 days I haven't done much except for wake up at absurd hours and eat tasty food (thank you leena+ravi).

Events of the day:
And I really think I should've written this on December 22nd because its the 27th today and I don't remember shit.

The journey Home.............is never too long. (Episode I)

December 18th
Excuse me while I...ah...borrow the title from a not-so-famous song, but I have waited two months for this day to arrive. I booked my flight tickets on October 21st. 6 million lies, a couple of pinkies* from people and a JFK-BOM-JFK ticket have facilitated this trip. Vinay thinks I'm on my way to New Jersey. Mom thinks I'm on my way to meet Nee in Boston. Nee has given up on trying to figure out what I'm trying to do. Actually, I am on my way to NJ. So that I can spend a couple of days with Leena + Ravi and then fly with them to desh. Another one week and I'll be waking my parents from their sleep at 5am to yell "surprise!" at them with a camera in one hand to capture the moment, or rather the looks.

Events of day:
I left the lab to go to office, picked up some stuff and left at 6.40 am hoping the catch the shuttle home.

No shuttle.

No bus.

Great! Just the day I'm carrying the heaviest backpack, the heaviest bag of clothes (why I had clothes in office will be the subject of discussion for an entirely seperate post in the future) and the heaviest book of all time. <frust> Couldn't be yesterday, could it?. Anyways, walking home was inevitable. <brrr> Reached home at 7.10. The time-table I'd chalked out mentally allowed me 15 minutes of sleep, before I had to do two loads of laundry, then pack, get my travel papers in order and leave home at 11.

Mind you, this was the time-table I chalked out.

Woke up at 8. Cursed. Fell asleep again. Woke up again at 8.15. Cursed some more. Dragged two loads of laundry from the third floor to the basement. A task in itself. Swore to myself that I will never wait 3 weeks before doing laundry ever again, which, for the record, I've done five times already. Dumped the clothes in and came back upstairs to organise my travel documents. Fell asleep again (damn!). Gagan woke me up at 9. I vaguely remember saying "Whaa.....yeah.... 5 more minutes".

Mansi woke me up at 9.45 next. Five minutes my foot. Ran down to switch clothes from the washer to the dryer. The laundry card needed recharging. Eeek. Ran over to the realtor's office to recharge the card. Made the fastest switch from washer to dryer. 9.55 and I was eyes-popping-out-of-head awake. Rushed upstairs. Realised that I couldn't remember where I had kept my I-20 last.

Frantically searched for it. Found I-20.

/* geek, that I am */
repeat (above 2 sentences)
{
/* document to be checked on entry into India */
document = some_immigration_document;
}

Went for a shower at 10.45, realising that I was still in good time. I could just call for a cab and go <smile>. Out at 11.10. Went down to the dryers to get the clothes.

Dryer 1: Happily transfer clothes to the laundry bag.
Dryer 2: WHAT!!!! THE CLOTHES ARE STILL FUCKING WET!!!! <world come crashing down, heart-rate escalate, entire life flash before eyes and what not>

11.12: Curse. Swear. Curse. Swear
11.13: Make a quick decision to transfer clothes to the "working" dryer. Can still make it to the station in time. Not to worry. <pray>

Went upstairs back to the apartment. Packed bag with whatever I required from Dryer 1. Then went to Swaroop's place. Called Mom and lied some more and gave her Nee's "fake" number (thanks nee, love you). Went back and stopped dryer with 10 min still remaining. Packed bag some more with clothes from second lot.

12.30 - called cab.
12.35 - sat in cab.
12.50 - was at station.
01.00 - boarded the train.
01.20 - train left station.

<peace of mind>

* For the LS people, if you don't know what pinky is, don't bother. Just remind yourself to step out from under the rock once in a while.

Errata : Due to the author's ignorance of the time of arrival of her flight, she thought she would be waking people at 5 am. 8 am would be more like it.

imitation of life?

That's sugarcane that tasted good,
That's freezing rain thats what you could,
C'mon c'mon noone can see you cry

This sugarcane,
This lemonade,
This Hurricane, I'm not afraid
C'mon c'mon noone can see me cry

This lightning storm,
This tidal wave,
This avalanche, I'm not afraid
C'mon c'mon noone can see me cry

That's sugarcane that tasted good
That's who you are, that's what you could
C'mon c'mon noone can see you cry



courtesy: REM

What not to do before an exam...

So, I was hungry around 4 in the afternoon (can you call it that? felt like 9pm) today and walked in the kitchen to discover no chips (whoa!).

Yay! Can life get any better?

Anyways. This means that I have to do some cooking. So I picked out 2 eggs from the fridge (Yeah there were eggs at least). Here goes..

Step 1. Beat the eggs.

Step 2. Look around for salt.

Step 3. Almost put sugar (which my roomie will recount from her past experience, does taste good in dal and has nothing to do with her labelling our jars "sugar" and "salt").

Step 4a. Continue search for salt.
Step 4b. Find salt.
Step 4c. Put salt.

Step 5. Oooh. There's garlic. Chop some and throw it in.

Step 6a. Hmm..jeera does taste good in an omlette too.
Step 6b. (10 minutes later) Finally get the jeera out from a corner in a shelf, after encountering 3 empty jars.
Step 6c. Make a mental note of refilling the empty jars the next time you come across them.
Step 6d. Anyways, put the jeera.

Step 7. Open refrigerator for chilly powder. What!!? No chilli powder? (There's taco masala though)

Step 8. After correcting oneself that its taco seasoning and not masala, proceed to sprinkle over mixture.

Step 9. Beat the mixture once more. (Editor's note: You can do this frantically, just to add dramatic effect)

Step 10. Heat the oil on the frying pan

Step 11. Pour mixture onto frying pan. And only then remind oneself that you should always wait until the oil is hot enough.

Step 12. Look around and do nothing while omlette cooks itself.

Step 13. Spot a can containing sweet corn by the window.

Step 14. Wait till mixture is viscous. Sprinkle sweet corn (yes... sweet corn) and flip the omlette.

Step 15. Wait 2 more minutes.

Step 16. Burn the omlette. What else do you expect idiot!

Take it off the pan after Step 15. D-uh!
<Roll eyes into back of head expressing frustness>

You can eat the omlette with bread and ketchup.

P.S. I have not mentioned the measures of all the ingredients... I mean.. a cook doesn't give away all the secrets, you know...

P.P.S. And finally as my good friend has taught me, say "jalsa!". Its HS.

yay!

lappy comes!

2.13Ghz Pentium M

1 GB RAM

60GB HDD

<swoon>

P.S. <ok not as much swoon as i would for the sony VAIO>
P.P.S. <or the powerBook, but swoon nonetheless>

Found these in my folder

I was going through my folder looking for I-20 and passport photocopies when I found papers on which I'd written about the NSS camp. So I'm gonna type all that (added with stuff that I remember now as well) in installments. So here's day one.

Day I
Never in my life did I carry so much luggage as I did on January 21 (?). From Khartoli Bridge to Praful Mhatre's house (a kilometre?), Bamnoli, I was e-x-h-a-u-s-t-e-d after 2 rounds. The guys had gone to Alibaug to get food supplies along with Aarti.

Tired, all of us sat in the porch of Mhatre's house. There was a puppy tied to a tree barking (or at least trying to bark) and some really cute (or so i thought!!!) hens and chickens walking around. Simrita, Ira and I started naming the hens Blackie, Brownie, Snowy etc. After our breathing rate became closer to normal, we passed on our luggage to the first floor where we would be staying for the next eight days. After that we climbed down and sat waiting for the guys to come back.

Karishma made polite conversation with the guy she thought was Praful Mhatre.Shruti and Shivani screamed a million times because the chickens were "scaring them". People fretted about no network on their cell-phones.

Simrita and I then went for a walk up till what we came to know later as the end of Bamnoli village spotting a grocer, a PCO booth and the village school on the way. By the time we got back, some of the guys had returned with half the supplies and the tent equipment. Lunch came later with the remaining guys.The JSM college people came later and helped us set up our tent and pandal. Shamed us at our incompetency at such things. Should mention that the guys had to sleep in tents (ha! score...<evil grin>), while us girls got to sleep in the room.

Jayshree Patil and Mudita Dixit arrived in the evening. JP boasted about cooking since childhood and decided to cook dinner for us. Anyways, she
a. frustrated everyone in the kitchen,
b. cooked food (if you could call it that) for 6 million people (give or take a few)
c. and forced us to eat it too (ugh!).

After dinner, all of us just had to crash. We made our beds. Karishma and I then had this laughing fit for no reason and pretty much annoyed all those that were trying to sleep.

Today's lesson: Learn to set up tents!

P.S. Forgot to mention. Today's morning ride on the catamaran was H-E-A-V-E-N :)

i never told you...

that i love you.

that i didn't mind if you didnt want to hold my hand while walking.

that i wish i went for a walk every evening with you.

that i still have the handkerchief that you stiched for me 6 years ago.
and that its in my cupboard and i've never used it.
just so that i don't dirty it.

that along with the handkerchief, i've also kept the paper on which you taught me to write in sindhi.

that you are the strongest i've known.

that i wish we'd let you go sooner.

that i loved listening to your stories.

that i still miss you, heemummy.