My dear little one,
How much you have grown! You will still remain my little one even then… the little girl I pampered, many a time secretly, the one I used to pat to sleep, take to school and run around with too.
At this time, I cannot help thinking of the time I held you in my hands for the first time – you were a tiny, sleeping baby, but fresh and beautiful, and I remember how my eyes filled with tears of joy as you opened your tiny mouth and yawned, then slowly opened your eyes and blinked. And as though you already knew me, smiled too!

And oh, the joy when you held my hands and showed me you could walk! And chuckled as I looked astonished, speechless, that the dear girl has already made her first steps.
Remember how you held my hand as we proudly walked out of the Principal’s office after getting your LKG admission? These memories are still etched in my heart.
As you grew, and asked your parents for the chocolate or mint they would refuse to buy, remember how I would take you out and secretly buy you 5 Star? Or perppermint? I can never forget the little hand that would hurriedly reach for mine as we neared that main road we had to wade across with difficulty.

Time flies fast. I grew old, and when we walked, now I had to hold your hand if we had to cross the road! You became the confident one, leading me across, taking charge of things. I knew you noticed every time I left your hand immediately after I knew we were safe, but pardon me, child, my little ego refused to acknowledge that I needed help.
Even those days are gone now – I lie in bed all day, waiting for you to come back from work, safe and sound. And to hold my hand and reassure me, encourage me, talk to me. Come, Mithu, the old man needs your warm hand.

Grandfather.

P.S: Our lovely babe's been celebrating her birthday. Join me in wishing dearest ol' Chennai a very Happy Birthday!!! Miss you loads, far away here!!

Technically, I'm supposed to be studying now. Nobody asked me to, nor am I required to. But looking at my room mate vigorously taking one book after another, highlighting and making notes really makes me want to study. Of course, that this want drops dead as soon as she leaves the room is another thing.
I woke up half an hour back (early, according to university standards), telling myself I have to study. And what did I do after the routine checking of mails in the handful of mail accounts - reading blogs! I kept reading every blog in my list until IE suddenly decided to play moral police, gave an error, and shut IE down.
I took this as a cue to start studying, and opened the book, and with all earnestness, another notebook to write down. Two minutes into the book, and I decided to switch on Media Player to listen to music. And the first few songs that come up? U2's 'Trip through your wires' and Eagles, all one after another, and I'm reminded of my 70s post because of the songs. Bah, here I am, in Blogger.
Do you think I should study when I don't have to? :P
(I'm in for it if my parents chance across this post! : )

Wow, you know what Eagles are telling me now? 'Take it easy!!' :) Guess you could call this a cue. Close 'Management of Electronic Media.' Open Kazuo Ishiguro's 'Never Let Me Go.' I can get back to CS301 later, innit?

Context: Waiting outside classroom for class to begin. Author walks in and finds a group of friends - mostly Singaporeans.

F: Hey, Vani!
A: Hey, hi!
F What have you done to your hair?
A: Erm, cut it short?
F: No, no, have you permed it? It looks really nice!
A(gently smiling): No, it's natural, and it's wet - I washed it, that's why.
F: Wow, it looks really pretty. So nice!

Author hides a grin.
Silently confesses that as much as she hates it, it feels nice to act girlie at times too.

Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna - well, that was all what the movie was about - people breaking their marriage vows. And I broke another vow, and I feel like banging my head in the nearest wall for doing so - I really shouldn't waste my money on such Hindi movies, desperately hoping these kind of directors will get more mature. Though this movie was a whiff of fresh air from the usual crap Johar churns out (you know I'm not a big fan!), it ultimately succumbs to be one of them too.
Now, if this contains spoilers, don't curse me for giving it away - after all, I'd rather you don't watch the movie.Why I agreed to watch this movie was plainly because my friends said it'd be fun, which well, it was in a way - we did have good fun passing random comments. Now, I just feel sad I should have saved this $11 for a second viewing of JoK to hear the songs in Dolby sound, probably.

SRK's bitterness in the whole movie, though again, a refreshing change from his usual ( I mean in Johar and Chopra movies) flirting with girls, the happy-go-lucky dude was so irritating that I should say he quite succeeded in portraying his character. Wonder how (and why the HELL!) Rani falls for this chap instead of her husband Rishi (Abhishek, nicely done!). Preity's character was great too, for a change she wasn't a woman who wept and crumbled when she learnt of her husband's affair, but instead asked him to get out. Whew, seriously.

Another thing I was desperately praying for was they shouldn't set Preity and Abhishek together, I would definitely have hunted down Karan if he had done that. Instead, both move on with their lives with ease (though the complications towards the end of the movie were unwarranted for).
As usual, the movie had its dose of 'comedy' and some relief in the name of Amitabh, Kirron Kher and the cute little kid who played SRK's son.

At the end of the whole 3 1/2 hours (without an interval, dammit, I hate these cinemas!), it left a bitter taste in my mouth. I'd probably have even accepted it if they had stopped the movie a few minutes before the actual climax (I'd been sure it was ending then, and really believed Karan Johar had grown up!!), but no, it goes on for another half hour and killed any good opinion left I had of the director and the movie.

I'd say : Don't pay more than Rs 60 if you want to watch the movie. Seriously. I'd rather say you watch the movie only if you love to watch Rani's right eye (only!!) filling and shedding tears. Even the glycerine doesn't know how to work. Gosh, what do I say, it's Johar afterall.

It's a surprise how quickly my mood changes. Oh, from bad to good only, though. I'm so proud to realise it's extremely easy to get me back to normal after disappointments or anger (maybe it has a lot to do with that I laugh for the stupidest things on earth!).
Anyways, all this talk has to do with how my computer conked out when I desperately needed it this afternoon after I came back from my first class of 3rd year, depressed, for no reason I could clearly identify. I was listening to Jillunu Oru Kaadhal (Hail Rahman for churning out this brilliant album!!) to cheer me up and sat down to blog, and right then, it happened. The network card stopped working for some reason, and after frantic uninstallations and reinstallations and a call to a senior (thanks to him!), it started working again around 45 minutes back. And the best part was, this time I didn't fret around as much as I used to before (the one week without internet at home was a huge help!), and kept going with a firm belief that things weren't bad at all, that I could conquer it all, I can!!
This is just the second most important year for me, one which lays a foundation for almost everything I hope to be, at least for a few years to come.
Entering a whole new year with high hopes, fervent prayers and confidence.
Will be back very soon with another post!