......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!!!

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. It can be added almost anywhere and to anything. Used most commonly with can and no. Has other variants like lor, leh and meh. I do not know where these can be used. I use them whenever they ‘sound’ appropriate.
Can – Short for anything affirmative. Can substitute yes, we/I can do it, it’s possible, etc. e.g., ‘Wanna go can (canteen) 1 now?’
‘Can, lah…’
Can be very confusing, if not accompanied by you or I. I got confused when somebody messaged me asking ‘If the time is ok wid u, can msg ----?’ I didn’t know whether she or I had to message -----.
wif – that’s how with is pronounced and written in chat/SMS language. Many Singaporeans have trouble pronouncing the ‘th’ (personal observation) and hence the ‘f’ substitutes in many such places.
How – it’s not the normal how. It could mean ‘so how should we proceed’, or ‘how someone else managed something’, etc. Changes according to context. This especially has the capacity to throw me off guard, as I don’t know what how they mean.
Tomolo – tomorrow. I still don’t know why it’s molo.
e’ – this is the in SMS language.
Oredi – already. When spoken fast, already sounds like ‘oredi’, but that’s how they write it too.
Chope – reserving seats. Someone could ‘chope’ a canteen seat for me.
Makan – food. Or eat. We go canteen and makan.
Blur – not the one we usually know. If someone doesn’t know or is confused about something, she is ‘blur’.
Paiseh – getting embarrassed or ashamed about something. So every time I forget the name of a Singaporean friend I know very well, it’s paiseh.
Kiasu – used and studied in my course very often. Almost every communication course has something to add about the ‘kiasu-ness’ of Singapore. Basically means taking extra care not to lose out on something. So kiasu Singaporeans will go borrow a book out of the library as soon as the prof announces we need it. ;)
Shiok – something that’s really good. Food can be shiok.
**Updated, important word forgotten**
Die-die - extremely bad state, something that you must do even if you die in the process. :)
Now let’s try to put these into use.
‘She come so early so she get front seat, so kiasu lor’
‘Exam was terrible. Confirm fail oredi.’
‘Let’s go can A makan.
Will be crowded, lor…
Jasmine choped seats oredi lah.’
‘We gotta submit report tomolo. You do e' introduction can?
Can, lah.’
‘She doesn’t want e' report lik this. So how?’

Author updates: I got exam tomolo. Die-die muz finish today.

Check this for a proper Wiki definition. Will help!

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 thoughts on what were the foodstuff I had – noodles, Milo…… the list went down to salt and sugar. Momentarily, my starvation was overridden by anger. Anger that I was so ill-planned for such an event.
My body gave me another warning. ‘You are going to faint soon,’ it said. I nodded, as if I was replying to that invisible voice that was warning me. My stomach flipped and squirmed, growling and complaining.
And just that moment, there was a flash. Of people. Of starving people. The gypsies who used to live in the platform near my apartment. The pot-bellied kids who came running when they saw someone ‘rich’, bringing their left-over food for them.
And the next moment, I thanked God I had had dinner. That I could afford it. I got up, murmured a prayer to the little picture of God I had on my desk, drank water, and went back to sleep.

It’s a story. Inspired.

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 I tell them I didn't even attempt the JEE being a Science student, that too from CBSE and from apparently one of the prestigious schools in Chennai. Wonder why!
Now I wish I could go there to see what it's all about. I've definitely lost what it needs to get into an IIT, out of touch with Science or Maths for almost two years now. My university has exchange programmes with IITs, but yeah, IIT has nothing to offer for students from my course :(
Why, is technology only connected to engineering? Engineers need communication, and we communication scholars need technology! And yeah, IIT will need an (about-to-be!) advertising or PR professional like me! :P

‘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 all you’ll say is at least you don’t spend so much time checking stuff in a shop out. What rubbish! I have seen cousin brothers and uncles getting lost in a shop filled with electronic gadgets. And talking for hours on the latest computer monitor, car or cell phone model. We all have things to talk about. So next time, if you happen to make such a comment, I just wish the woman around you knows enough to counter. We’re not thinking of starting a fight here, but just to teach you how different genders are made differently, and you better recognize it and respond better or just shut up.
And oh, about how women cry. Ugh. Like men don’t. Men just have a huge complex around them to express their emotions, it’s like ‘being a woman’ if he cries. And that every woman is extremely sensitive and is weak-hearted. I agree, there are many women who are like that, crying for every other thing every other day, for even I would get so irritated as to slap them, asking them to shut up and be strong. But what’s with the thing that all women cry and everyone who cries is a woman? Just chauvinistic attitude! I would say such men are just weak enough to admit they want to cry or cried.
For all the talk most of the Indian men make, I must say they are some of the most disrespectful of the limited lot I have seen. Guys in Singapore have so much chivalry, it leaves me surprised. They treat girls so well, you know, like opening doors before girls get to them, let you go in the queue before them, basically extremely well-behaved. And Indian guys? They run out even before you could get to the door. I’m sure I can expect talk from them saying they have respect within and so on. Gibberish. I don’t want to be pampered like a 17th century lady, but just expect some basic courtesy. Indian men could be totally disrespectful when they talk of women, they could even lack the basic courtesy they should extend to another person who lives on the same ground as them. This is what I mean, which is there to some extent in Singaporean men, and hard to find in Indian guys (not that I’ve done an entire case study of men around the world; it’s just a general observation). The basic respect to women.
So why am I saying all this? Not because I’m jobless; I’ve wanted to write this for long, but just found the time. Not because I’m a feminist, don’t get me started on that. I just wish I could see and hear lesser of such talk from men, more so on my blog. There was this one guy who read my story on a little boy who cried, and goes on to tell me in my comment box: ‘You were learning to be a woman’ and gave a whole list of how the ‘I’ in the story was learning to be a woman. That ‘she’ cried, that ‘she’ screamed, tried to fight someone off, and so on. If it weren’t for social courtesy I have to maintain, I would have torn the guy apart with words. Not only has he read the story without any care, not only hasn’t he realised it’s about a boy and not a girl, he has the cheek to tell me all that in the comment box. Of a girl. Fine, of course he has the right to tell me his interpretation, but it’s the way it has been presented that can be so irritating.
Please don’t give any male chauvinistic comments anywhere, not only my blog, but anyone’s. Show some basic courtesy to the women who do so much in life to keep you happy, to please you. And don’t expect me to be nice if I find any such comment in my blog.

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).

“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 like help?’ Yeah, like he could write out the letter for me to Osama. I hide the wizened old Office Assistant.

Dark clouds loom over the once bright sky and threaten to bring in rain. God, the last thing I need right now, as I stretch myself wearily to complete the readings of Osama’s interviews to various media. God, that guy is one huge fanatic I’ve ever read about. His interpretations of the holy Koran, and how he has cleverly managed to find justifications for everything he has done and plans to do – how every other country in the world is infidel, and how US is ‘disgusting’. Wow, he gets me stunned.

And talking of Islamic laws, I really wonder if they are that strict as ObL portrays them to be. ‘Strike the disbeliever in the neck’, I read in shock, wondering if it is some metaphorical order, or literal, as ObL chooses to interpret it. No religion can promote or glorify violence, I believe, and it’s difficult for me to believe my eyes as I read of ObL reeling out phrases after phrases of Koran and telling the world how he is just protecting the world and upholding his religion. Apparently (according to ObL) the holy book says that the whole world should come under the Islamic law and he goes about asking the US to follow Islamic law. I don’t know if that is true, but I am just spellbound by ObL’s demands and how he can coolly ask a country to follow something just like that! And he hates the UN because it follows man-made laws instead of the already-present holy law from the holy book. Whoa!!

And I read about how China, Russia and Pakistan are deliberately slowing down UN intervention in Darfur, Sudan where hundreds of thousands are getting killed (with the aid of the Govt of Sudan) and more millions displaced. Apparently, China has good stakes in Sudan’s oil, and Russia is afraid to endorse a particular move just because it is afraid it’ll be setting a precedent because of the way it dealt with the Chechnya issue. And the US, God only knows why it takes so much time to take any action, it being the only country to have called the Sudanese killings genocide. I am surprised at how countries can be this selfish when thousands are getting killed. Of course, politics is no simple issue, I’m just frustrated.

Effects of exam time. : ) I should be fine by Friday. And I hope the UN decides to do something concrete in Darfur soon!