After years of wondering, I finally realised that I'm not weird, after all.... many people do sneeze when they go out into the sun or at bright light. And guess what it's called? ADCHOO!
How I got to know this is silly, too. Long, long ago, I had written something about sneezing, and some random blog had a link to it that I saw in my statcounter recently. I visited that site to see that many people suffered from ADCHOO. Oh by the way, ADCHOO stands for Autosomal Dominant Compelling Helio-Ophthalmic Outburst.

I also learnt that some guys in my batch are such good cooks! We had an awesome dinner complete with dessert, entirely cooked by us. Well, yeah, there were moments when I couldn't control those pangs of guilt tugging at me because I had no idea what they were up to. But of course, the tasty sabzi and hot biryani, and the oh-I-could-faint-kind-awesome bread halwa just managed to keep other guilty feelings down.

But most importantly, I came across the revelation that anything, anything, could suddenly come to an end. And when it's time for that, nothing can stop it. I lost a dearest aunt, uncle, cousin and a delightful 4-year-old nephew to a road accident, news that came as a bolt out of the blue. I love you all, I'll miss you, my darling Siddhu kutti. Who'll scream "V-A-N-I Vani Vani" now, or tell me the name of every car that passes by? I'll miss you Sugi, who will silently wear my black watch now? And atthai, how will you make fun of my nose?

May they rest in peace. I thank God so much for making us strong enough to bear this calamity. Thank you so much God, that I'm such a stone-hearted, unfeeling girl.

Updated within 2 minutes of publishing: Just came to know I got the division of my choice that I will pursue in my third year. Thank you, dear God, very very much!!!

Accounting class for two days a week at 8 30 A.M.
Before:
Yours truly wakes up at 7.50 and rushes about. Manages to get ready by 8.10, and sees through her window that the shuttle bus has gone. Another one will take at least 20 minutes to come, and so waiting in the room is the best option.
Alas! Another one comes along in just ten minutes…and there, she is late. By the time she reaches class, she is around 25 minutes late and doesn’t have a place to sit.

Today:
Gets up at 7 30 at the first ring of the alarm. Smiles (she has a conviction that if smiling is the first thing you do as soon as you wake up, your day’s going to be great), gets ready by 7.50 too. As is the procedure, sees a shuttle bus leave at 8. She thinks quick and decides to leave in five minutes to take the next one. All ready.
Goes out of the room. Picks up her sandals and is about to wear them. Realises floaters will be much better than the stupid sandals.

Alas, again, the bus is there. The devil of the bus is already there. She runs across the road, bag, baggage, jacket et al., exhibiting her clumsiness that she has struggled to hide in vain in front of a hundred eyes she feels are staring at her. The pure white jacket trails the road and develops a black patch in the sleeve before she notices what is happening.
For all the running, thankfully, while people from the bus stare at her too, the bus driver is kind enough to wait. She runs into the bus and murmurs thanks and gets an approving nod from the driver. She sits, the many pair of eyes still staring at the unique creature which had been running for a long time.
Looks at the clock in the bus when she is still 2 stops away from her destination. 8.29. Damn, she thinks. Late again. It would be atleast 8.40 by the time she reaches class considering the walking she has to do from the stop.
Gets down dejectedly, thinking of all the effort she had wasted in running. Walks gloomily along the lonely corridors of the building till she reaches the level where her classes go on.

Voila! The digital clock in the corridor flashed 8.29. The stupid clock in the bus was ten minutes fast. She walks briskly, to reach class at the magical stroke of 8.30. She reaches the handle of the door of the classroom and peeps out to see the time.
8.30.
She grins, and opens the door.
She goes in, and raises both her hands in a flourish typical of an athlete who’d just won a race.
Sleepy heads looked up. Of course, there is no one who would acknowledge her victory. Her race. Her race against time and clocks.

The endless sky, the innumerable stars, the moon, and the clouds remain…that life could go on forever, that time comes to a standstill, that the only movement in time is for the moon to set and the sun to rise…that everything is calm, with no worries….
Is that asking for too much? :P

Whoa, what a week it has been! Classes have begun, they’re terrible, and I’ve gone out with such a frequency I’m surprised. And found a little funny job for myself too.
This prof is crazy. I mean, really crazy. Crazier than the ones who’ve taught me before, that he keeps laughing in class while others yawn and doze off so obviously, that he must either be blind, or so strong at heart that he continues to teach when every student is nodding off in sleep.
‘4 principles in accounting’ (or something else, I do not know) and he laughs. Now which sane person on earth finds ‘4 principles’ funny?? And the ‘4’ seems to be giving him some thrills that he breaks into spells of laughter till we glare at him asking him to continue.

An early morning class that it is, yours truly has no incentive to stay awake. I doze off in class, wake up startled when something vaguely similar to my name in said in class : ‘morning’, ‘warning’, ‘money’ or ‘funny’ (don’t get me started on how funny could be vani, in Singapore, it can). Or when my pen tore a line across my neat (and empty) printed lecture slides (never doze off with a pen in your hand). Better still, a prod from my neighbour. We do this as a mutual help, you see. So much for accounting. If not for all the fun I’ve been having here, I’d have wanted to slap myself for choosing to stay back.

After having survived 3 ½ hours of accounting yesterday, I went to try for this research data collection job. Basically, calling up people and asking them questions, if at all they were willing to answer. My luck, every person I called wouldn’t answer, despite my pleas. At least four people couldn’t speak English, they were grandmothers. Two people refused to answer because they would miss their show they were watching on TV. ‘No, I can’t spend 3 minutes, my show will be gone,’ he said. The only one yesterday who was kind enough to answer me was a housewife, which again, gave me a great deal of embarrassment. She said ‘no’ for every answer related to the research. As I mindlessly read out the questions the computer flashed, I saw ‘Gender: male/female?’ I stopped right on time from asking her that question. The funniest part was whether she was married. She had a bewildered tone as she said ‘Yeah lor!’

Wondering if I should even continue this. It’s fun, and I have the time at my disposal, and it’s flexible. Giving it a second try today. If it’s boring, it’s out, and I’ll get back to lazing around.
Life seems adventurous.

And now for the big P.S.: The previous post was made up, a story; I didn’t put up a disclaimer because I had a bet with my friend. And we both won the bet. :D If that seemed to be deceiving, I’m sorry!!

I have never considered myself an attractive girl; I am no head-turner….but yes, things changed when I met him.
It was no love at first sight – in fact, it wasn’t even love! He was not drop-dead gorgeous or anything, but everything about him makes me wonder how God actually made for me the perfect person…and snatched him right away.

I had met him at my University Cultural – he was one of the two in the quiz show, the show whose committee I was heading. I am a great quizzer, but this guy just stunned me – not only for his brilliance – but his subtlety, humility and oh, that slight smile that sends shivers down my spine even now, as I think of it.

I watched spellbound for the entire one hour of the quiz show, as he silently discussed every question with his friend, who was obviously not as smart. I watched as he let his friend answer, and gently smiled and noted down the points their team had scored for every correct answer – so different from his friend who made a ‘Whooo!’ for every correct answer. I was full of admiration for him.

It turned into the pleasantest thing in the world when he looked up and looked me in the eye, the beginnings of a smile evident on his lips. One look, and he made me feel like a princess. I was a princess. His princess. We both knew it. Though it’s more than a year since I met him, I am his princess. I will be, even if I never meet him again.

To the most lovable woman I’ve ever met in life.
To the cuddly yet disciplining one.
To the one whom everyone loves.
To the best teacher in the world.
To the most patient and caring lady I’ve ever seen.
To the confident, inspiring woman.
To the one who makes the world’s best rasam.
To my biggest influence.
To my first love.
To my dearest amma, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SWEETHEART!! May God give you a happy, healthy and joyous life. Miss you loads!! Promise ya I’ll become everything you wanted to, be the lady you wanted me to grow into. And no, I won’t bring a Chinese boyfriend home ;)
Happy Birthday again, dearest!

Everything was dry, no life stirred. Everything was dried to the yellowness of the oppressive heat. Yellow and brown, no blue, no green. The sky was a tainted yellow with a huge, roaring ball of fire spewing out what seemed like abuses on every little object on the earth. Nothing which could move wanted to, for fear it’ll sweat itself out and crumble away like a dry leaf that was stepped on. Everything seemed lifeless; the sun had sucked life out of every one of them.

And then it happened. A drop of a magic potion fell on the earth. Everything sprung to life. The drooping plant shook off its brown-ness and woke up, stood tall and proud. The bird decided to clear its throat and sing, and others woke up to its music and applauded. The sun took off his fiery glance and instead gave a benign smile, present for warm comfort. A calm blue took over the sky, as the gentle sun looked on at all His subjects on earth coming back to life. Everything which could move now stretched itself and got ready to rejoice. The colours changed from brown and yellow to green, blue and red, purple blooms dotting around too. Everything became a celebration.
The magic potion of life, the potion called rain.

......they're over.
HURRRAAAAHHHH!!!
Life seems to be totally delightful now, and I'm busy thinking of what all I did when I was supposed to be studying. And here's a rough list (now that I've gone back to being jobless, such things are expected!!) :

** Grown so used to my glasses that I went to wash my face with them on.
**Watched some Chinese mythological serial for ten minutes (didn’t I say anything other than studies?).
**Cleaned my room and arranged my clothes cabinet.
**Wanted something to eat at 11 in the night. Couldn’t find anything. Went back to loyally eating spoonfuls of milk powder.
**Wondered why Surya sings to Trisha in Mounam Pesiyadhe ‘pengaL uLLavarai aaNgaL jeyippadhillai’ when he was crazy enough to think she loves him when she didn’t. ;) **Watched more movies than I have in free/normal time.
**Found a sudden fascination for writing with a pencil (in part because almost all my pens stopped writing at one point).
**Left a bottle of ice-cold water near my new, freshly taken notes highlighted with blue (yeah, not purple!) only to see after fifteen minutes a mess of blue highlighter ink on my for-a-change neatly done notes.
**Listened to every bit of music in my computer and CDs at least twice.
**Played online Poker and managed to win about $10 from some unknown guy (until I decided to quit because I didn't know what was going on and how I had won it :P).
**Won minesweeper more number of times than I ever have!

Another month and a half before I can think of going home. But who cares, now exams are over! Celebrations!!!