35

My own little Singlish dictionary

posted on , by Vani Viswanathan

Singlish – the English spoken by Singaporeans. Extremely hard to understand when spoken to for the first time. Doesn’t have grammar rules. Just take off all your articles, prepositions and similar things out of your speech. For e.g., you don’t “go to the canteen”, you “go canteen”. Got the drift?Now, let me introduce you to some of the Singlish words commonly used that I have picked up to some extent. Woman, help me out here if there are any mistakes, ok? :)Lah – the mother of all Singlish words. ...

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23

One night without food...

posted on , by Vani Viswanathan

After long hours of work, I went to sleep. Seven hours since I had had dinner, I was starting to get hungry. I went to bed nevertheless, convincing myself that I would not feel the hunger once I slept.I lay on the bed, unable to sleep, my stomach growling. I tossed from side to side and pressed the pillow hard on my stomach, as if that would magically solve the problem. ‘Sleep, girl, sleep,’ I told myself.There was nothing I had in my room that I could eat right away. I lay on bed, straining my ...

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19

So what's it with IIT?

posted on , by Vani Viswanathan

No, this is not about the recent reservation of admissions into IIT. I'm really wondering.IIT has been a magic word for everyone around all the while I was in school. Everyone went for IIT classes, but I didn't bother, mostly because I wasn't interested. It held no fascination for me.But now I want to know.Most of the engineers in my university here who're from India came here only because they didn't get the course they wanted in IIT or in the IIT they wanted. I feel like the odd one out when ...

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36

Men, MCPs and me.

posted on , by Vani Viswanathan

‘I hate shopping’, I tell someone, and he is clearly surprised. Well, I had expected him to be happy, too, but it seems to be more like a deflation of his ego. Oh yeah, after all, he has just lost one of his points he can rant against girls, to me: girls love and spend helluva lot of time shopping.So what’s with all these generalisations, anyway? Women cry easily, want to be pampered, love shopping, blah blah. Come off it, men, there is an equally long list I can give about what you could do. And ...

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11

posted on , by Vani Viswanathan

Vidiyadha iravendru edhuvum illai....Yeah, exams are over!!!! Whhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!(Ok, well, not over, got an open-book-don't-need-a-book exam on May 3rd, which hopefully I should crack well ...

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18

Things that keep flashing across my mind....

posted on , by Vani Viswanathan

“La li laa li laa lo…” croons Rahman. That’s just what I need to listen to when I’m trying hard to keep awake and think of strategies to suggest to Bush telling him when to intervene to stop mass killings. And tell Osama bin Laden how wrongly he has interpreted the Koran.“Dear Osama,”I begin the letter, like how I think it’s going to be in the exam.I’m trying to get my answers organised in Microsoft Word. And immediately the wizard assistant says ‘It looks like you’re writing a letter. Would you ...

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33

The lost moment

posted on , by Vani Viswanathan

‘Appa.,….’, Rajini screamed.‘Shhhh….’ he replied.He was on the phone, making animated gestures as he spoke. He seemed to be really agitated, why, Rajini couldn’t understand.She then ran to her grandmother and tugged at her sari.‘Ei, madi!!’ Her grandmother winced. ‘How many times do I tell you not to touch me when you haven’t had a bath?’Rajini glared back in anger and ran off to find her grandfather.‘Thatha!!’Her grandfather didn’t respond. His eyes were closed, and he was reciting something. ...

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31

Kitchen-o-phobia

posted on , by Vani Viswanathan

I hate cooking. Given a chance, I'd never cook my entire life, but will hog on food someone else cooks. But this stupid place I'm in forces me to try my hand at cooking pretty often, as I resolutely stick to being vegetarian. It's also better I cook at times to leave some people free of my curses and swearing. This evening, for instance, the Chinese food stall guy in one of the canteens was the poor object of my cursing (when I returned, of course!) as I realised that the dumb idiot had added egg ...

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29

Pink, blue and purple

posted on , by Vani Viswanathan

“Amma, you have not given me an eraser,” said Poornima.Her mother came sighing from the kitchen.“Poorni, is this the time for you to remind me of that? What were you doing last night?” asked Divya.“You have told me not to ask you anything on a Sunday night,” Poorni said, an apologetic expression slowly creeping into her face.Divya screamed. In her head, of course. She wondered how Poorni had chosen to completely torment her with these little things. Especially on a Monday morning. On the first ...

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15

Music, ah!!!

posted on , by Vani Viswanathan

Music, the love of life… the elixir which makes me survive!It has the power to transport me to times long ago…something that I have discovered even photographs cannot do. Magical, absolutely. My pretty much bored state has now moved to one of frenzied activity, and I find myself busily searching for music that can chill me off…Rahman, the brilliant, definitely…some others before Rahman came up in full swing that I can’t really find but just remember. Rahman’s stuff themselves – I don’t know if ...

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