An ode to year one....
Year one of college life is over for me (well, guess I could say so without getting the results :p). What a year it was! So much to learn, so much to enjoy and so much to experience!
July 17, 2004 was when I landed in Singapore, abroad for the first time, first time all alone, meeting and staying with "relatives" I had never really met or talked to before (who were lots of fun, though!) and well, having a totally different life ahead of me. I still remember the scene at the Chennai international airport, as mom looked quite glum (trying to conceal it, though), dad worried yet hopeful, an encouraging uncle, and grandparents very depressed and shedding silent tears. In my enthusiasm to start a new life, I forgot to be depressed. Yes, sad I was, but I did not shed a single tear. (Hard-hearted me again??)
As the flight soared across the skies and up above the great sea, I was suddenly skeptical. Had I made the right decision? I looked out of the window to look at that sea whose shore I had enjoyed many a day and this thought really left me sad. But it did not take long for me to look at brighter side of life, and I decided not to be depressed. After all I had not struggled so much to get into this university to just think of whether I made the right decision or not!
A few weeks of joyful (!) torture in the name of orientation (dignified name for ragging) and getting to know different people, making new friends, a Thai roommate, life started here.
This place has taught me so many things, starting from how to react for anything unexpected (bad marks in school papers were nothing, I tell you...), how to face people who tell you something right on your face in the name of healthy criticism, how to stand up straight and face rejection. What behaviour to accept and what not. And importantly, how to silently hold your breath when people next to you ate something whose smell you cannot stand. ;)
This place has made me a more matured person (so I hope...). This place has taught me never to give up easily. The computer I'm typing right now on is a perfect example. It took more than two months for it to work properly without giving any sort of trouble (touchwood!), testing my patience and tolerance all the while. It taught me how feeling tensed or upset about something is never going to work (how well this lesson is learnt though, I don't know!). I learnt whom I should give a damn to and whom I should never care about.
Hmm...that's the serious side of life. Looking at the fun side, I learnt to eat a great many things I would never have gone near if at home. Now I'm more adventurous and dare to experiment. I've experienced nice stuff and it has been a lot of fun. I've gone to a beach which I had seen only in movies. I've learnt how to speak to any guy :p, considering the fact that I'd been in a girls' school most of my life. I've learnt how to nicely snub people I do not like and how to sweetly avoid some people also. :) I know how to say "Thank you" in chinese and malay. I know names of a lot many chinese and malay dishes.
I've learnt how I should never feel ashamed to do something I truly believe in, how to be proud of what I've done, and how to stand my ground. I've learnt to be totally myself.
I've learnt how home is the nicest place, too! :)
I also learnt how to live with tubelights which shake to the wind and with cats that scare me! (That reminds me, click here to read That cat, part 2 !!)
Yup, this post will be long...there's so much of sentiment in it, and no I'm not crying! :p But it's quite long since I wrote such a long post!
I won't be posting in my blog from this *sweet, khewl n black!* computer of mine for another three months!
Chennai, here I come!
Ooooooooffffffff!!!!!!!
These words are threatening me even in my sleep! They are some terms associated with media and national values in Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. Yeah, right, I am studying about these....
I'm learning about how Malyasia's national ideology Rukunegara influences the programming in that country. And similarly for Indonesia's Pancasila (hey, that's like our Panchasheel) and Brunei's MIB (not to be confused with Men In Black). I'm looking around here and there for the relation, as though the relation is hiding somewhere in my closet in the room.
Now I hear that Brunei is the smallest member of ASEAN. I feel like laughing, oh no banging my head on some wall. Sevuthula poi muttikalam pola iruku. (Things sound better when they're said the way should be, right? )I always wonder which idiot thought of making Singapore a sepearate country, given that it is this small...and now Brunei!! Enna, is Brunei the size of our T.Nagar or Mylapore? :D
My desk is going to break down any moment with the weight of the things on it....my notes and powerpoint slides are so muddled up that no form of arranging seems to help and I end up searching things again and again...they are just a huge pile and without doubt, it is irritating!
My wall is adorned with photographs, things to do lists and finally, words of inspiration: Study Study, Wake Up, Study and one another nice saying about I Will; all in the hope that looking at these will spring me back into action! Yes, they are successful to a certain extent, but Wake Up, Study will be effecient only if it is on the ceiling! (No, I'm not taking the risk to put it up there..)
Whew...tired of trying to find a link between everything I read and Singapore, that is the way we are tested here! Audience Feedback determination methods....how will this be brought into a question that talks about Singapore? Hmm....need a break!
So watching Friends. It is one of the best serials I've ever watched (of course, considering the ones I used to peek at like Metti Oli or Kolangal). It makes me laugh so much that I wish I could go on watching forever! (Yeah, this is where the Study Study on the wall comes to my rescue and asks me to stop with this episode!)
Oooops....this is enough..I've blogged nonsense! Let me get back to AC Neilson and Taylor Nelson Sofres and how they get TRPs. Guess Ekta Kapoor or Thiruselvan will be more interested! :)
Need some prayers!
Let me see...the last time I blogged was April 02, 2005. Wow....that's 10 days!!! This is the longest break I've taken from blogging ever since I started! And in between, so many things have happened!

*** 01:45 A.M. My mom would be freaked if she knows I am up at this "unearthly" hour. Oofff...studies!!! Oh my God!! So now it is 12th April, and that means tomorrow I have my exams!!! Lord....Take care of this lovely angel (ahem, don't wonder who, it's me!) you sent to earth...She needs your help! :)

***Some marathon studying and doubt clarifying sessions: On 10th April, four of us got together to study. And for the very first time in my life I studied for almost nine (ya, NINE!!) hours at a stretch. (Of course, none of the study mates were Indian! ;) ). Not just that, we also tortured two professors yesterday for two hours each with doubts, all the while trying to get some hint about questions which may come up in the exam! Hm....they were really cautious professors, though!

***Wow...one break from blogging and I see some silly spam comment! And I'm trying hard to see how to delete it but my mind is refusing to work right now. Yeah, I surely need to hone up my html skills and related stuff! What's that three month long vacation for????

***Amazing news. Home in 16 more days!!!! Every time I eat, my mind wanders to "this time, -- days later...." and I start fantasizing about home food and HOME!!!!! Yiipppppeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!

***First year in college drawing to an end. Isn't life too quick!!! Boy, I am going to second year.... "Vani, year two!" Hehe, I'm beaming...and am proud of myself! GrEaTtt!!!!!

***I've spent a year abroad. I've learnt to manage life successfully (ulp, ok, to some extent!). Life abroad surely teaches you so many things...and the responsibility I now handle makes me happy and contented, and not to mention, proud!

***Two of us managed to cook some good stuff. Actually, I didn't do much cooking, the other girl did it, all I did was to pass on the ingredients when she asked for them..but still, WE(!) cooked!!!!! Some mashed tomatoes and capsicum, beans curry thalicchufied with groundnuts, sundal with groundnuts and sprouts (umm, this didn't turn out the way it wanted, it was more like the masala kadalai we get in our Marina beach, but nevertheless..) and so life was fun in between.

***My maggi skills are getting amazing. Now I make maggi in three minutes compared to the 7 to 8 I used to take before. And, it tastes good! :)

Hmm..cannot think of more. So happy to start blogging again.
Eyes are shutting themselves down. Shut down the computer and sleep, they say. Ya, let me obey them (ha, it's nice to talk this way, as though once in a while I oblige my eyes' requests..the truth is if they give a petition to close, even hint at it, I'm there, sleeping blissfully!!! )
Ya, enough.....
Another of those days when maggi is lunch. Today I went to the pantry as usual to make Maggi, but got lost in thought in between only to realize that most of the water in the tawa had disappeared. Well, that's ok, that is how I like it. So off I came back to the room, only to realize again, that the little bit of water (without which you just cannot eat maggi) was gone too.
Hm....too lazy to go down to the pantry again. Chalo, appdiye saapdu. I started digging the maggi out with great vigour. No, it was getting difficult. I just couldn't pull it out to eat. What do I do?
I sat thinking for 2 minutes. That was my last maggi packet so I didn't have another "can-be-made-soon" thing to eat. So I sat, scratching my chin in thought.
Viola!
The bright bulb lit above my head!
(the idea bulb, silly....romba yosikkadheenga!)
Namma gettiyaana thayir saadam technique irukke!!!
So down I went, opened the hot water dispenser and poured some hot water into my tawa with the maggi inside and gave it a stir.
Lo!!!
Maggi became as good as ever! :)
Bravo for thayir saadam (my favourite anytime!! ) and its lessons to human life!!!