The year that was - Part II

It's only the 3rd month of the new year and I miss good-ol' 2009 already. And that does not mean I'm a pessismist. (And even if it does - "The good thing about being a pessimist is that you're constantly either proven right or pleasantly surprised") I think it's finally time to quit-being-lazy-to-type,and puke part 2 all over the blogpost,before it fades out of grandma's memory(I'm going to be old(-er than this person in Ahmedabad,like she very smartly phrased it,when she was here in Pune) in 3 days from today). Now this is going to probably be a very messy sequence of events and also, a very confusing way to put it, but I think I'm going to write a little about Jan 2010 and Feb 2010 and most of March 2010,before I flash back into July-December '09. A very wise man once said - There's no present. There's only the immediate future and the recent past. And because I detest Divination,I'm not even going to attempt to crystal ball into the future....I'll just start with the recent past, and then move over to the less recent,yet past. Also,there's going to be some considerable amount of quoting.


January 2010 has not been so good. I don't remember interacting with my friends as much as I used to. None of them. Not because I was into work and had no time and all that...it was just because definitions had been shattered/proven null...void. I'm not here to force myself on anyone.I'll just be where people want me to be. I would not want to be around some place where I can actually sense my presence not being appreciated for whatever reason. Why would I want to be someplace where I know I'm going to get bored because people are uncomfortable being whoever they are. Basically, I didn't enjoy January 2010.So there, nothing much to write about....'coz it was just an extension of Dec 2009,mostly. Except for the SKNCOE Alumni Meet in college(23rd) and yea,(31st)Absinthe! (Eerie slytherin green/kryptonite coloured liquid saunf). Feb 2010 has just been like a super-extension of Jan 2010 with the 2 good days being the 13th (thanks to RC and SB) and the 14th (Gudiya & Bhaiyya - The most adorable kyooties I've ever had the pleasure to meet...muaah!). Hey,wait...Feb beats Jan. It has another day I can mention - 26th - Holi at work. Never done that before :D.


And yet,predominantly,I've never hated any word in English as much as I hated the word - 'Change' - starting sometime around Dec 2009(when I happened to be at the receiving end of gyaan like being apathetic and indifferent and being more cold = becoming older and wiser!! nonsense! what about staying 'young at heart',dude?!). Change isn't always good,but then again,it isn't always bad either. How ever that's supposed to work,I've only just learnt to accept it, 'coz fighting it,is probably not worth all the trouble....specially when you don't know what you're taking all the trouble for in the first place! [ WARNING: CONFUSION LEVEL INDICATOR:RED ...level rising...* beeping getting louder *.....writing and trying to actually explain any further is not advisable.]
(I'd like to mention a line from my School(fyi: anything to do with my school calms me down a great deal) song here - As times may change,we'll be the same..and never forget it's honoured name. :).) ...which is probably why I detest the change word so much, especially when it's affecting me in a very un-express-able way :-. Correction: I'm the one letting it affect me. I've got to learn to help myself! uff!


Moving on to March 2010, a great start to the month (Holi with a b(h)ang! - http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/notes/meenakshi-sridhar/the-festival-of-colours-1st-march-2010/363097405934). And then 6th of March was a blah-but-worth-a-mention-day. Just the evening. And then.....just when I start thinking...chalo,I think March is going to be good...at least better than the January and the February of 2010...poof!..the reverie just bursts into a cloud of (in slightly exaggerated terminology)the-universe-totally-adjusting-itself-to-conspire-against-me cloud of smoke! Courtesy: That weird ridiculous situation when parents tell you that they "would like to talk to you" in a very evidently-not-very-well-rehearsed fashion,in chorus and trying to complete each other's sentences before the other finishes their own and trying to sound extremely unnaturally casual,all at the same time! Super-duper-ultra-insanely-ridiculous! And all this was last week. I'd like to give a bada sa hug and a thank you to this friend of mine whom I bakofied the finer details to(and broke down a little,even). I had a terrible headache the next day,but I still manged to pull myself together. I owe you. Also, a prediction he made way back in October...or was it September 09, has actually come true - Manchester United rule! It's the end of March and they're right on top of the EPL! This Sunday(yesterday) I ended up having coffee with a total stranger who has come down from Manchester, dislikes people who litter the road and public places, who also happens to be big time ManU fan, who has watched 2-3 games at Old Trafford, who is a Harry Potter Fan,annnnd who also thinks that the McD's situation last Sunday was as awkward as I thought it was! And so March....my birthday month...(it's supposed to be a happy month OKAY! x-( ) happens to unfold in this...why-am-I-at-a-total-loss-of-the-right-words manner...


And nowww...back to where I'd left off in "The Year that was - Part I" :


A quick recap: The 1st half of 2009 was superb,right from the Mumbai trip to the birthday surprise to the bevda-panti to the month of June,where I happened to bump into a college pal at the lounge by my place. I'd like to highlight the end of the first half,just because that was the time I rememeber being happy...like...every synonym happy has - happy :). Quoting Barney Stintson (of HIMYM fame): It was AWESOME. And LEGENDARY even. Probably the craziest thing I've ever done :D


July 2009 - 5th: The day the-friends-from-surat moved from an apartment on the the first floor to the apartment on the ground floor in the same building(They were supposed to invite us over for lunch(that they were supposed to cook) and a party that they were supposed to host in their cool backyard...but that never actually materialized :p) It was the day I just sat around doing nothing significant,while they moved the heavier stuff around ,but I do remember helping with the curtains and chota-mota stuff...so I wasn't completely useless.They let me keep a sheep/some animal stuffed toy that they were going to throw away anyway :).We even hung out at Apache later that evening....I think that's when Apache became THE place to go,when we had no where else or better we could go. 9th: The day My first nephew was born :). Again, a good month.


August 2009 - Friendship day (2nd),the day we went to Little Italy. Jiggy's I'm-off-to-the-UK party :). And the bong's birthday at Bavdhan...with someone(I think it was the 'use-my-name-as-a-synonym-for-'fair' friend) wondering out loud ,what it would have been like if the 6 of us lived together - Jiggy(Ross),Fair guy(Chandler),Paaji(Joey),Bong(Phoebe),Chotu(Monica) and me(Rachel). The 2nd half of August had Ganpati celebrations...a time when I always get to meet up with the bachcha-log gang with whom I used to play hide-n-seek and seven-stones and baida and Dumb Charades...especially the airforce station kids :)


September 2009 - The bevda-ful month. Should i just go right ahead and call it the best month of the year for Apache,Mirchi Kola,Apache and Apache Nxt every weekend of the month? :D
As of 15th September 2009, 3 of us DELL people (A,A and M),were officialy Project Engineers,for WIPRO technologies :). I'd like to mention PDA as well,for reasons best known only to me,'cozI'm not sure the other concerned person would remember. Awesome month,September! :)


October 2009 - The month when I realised that I'm so wrong about people and defending them for who I think they are. I'm bad at psychology. A shocking revelation about Ms.Marathi ('coz I can't think of a better pronoun abhi...and I don't want to call her 'pinks'). That was the day we walked down from Bavdhan to garden Court and back....aise hi...in darkness. Then,there was a day when Ms. Marathi and I went to buy Mr.Tide-safedi a gift for his birthday,wearing the exact same colour combination of clothes like cartoons! Blue jeans+pink top. Her dad even clicked a pic. of us looking like clowns! Also the month we went to Mumbai,the 3 of us,played fooz-ball,bowling,that-table-hockey and Dance dance revolution. I had to limp all the way to the railway station from the mall,with my stupid broken chappal and I had the rudest thing anyone has ever said to me - "Your birth is a mistake,you'll spend the rest of your life correcting! :D" All in good humour though...well said!


November 2009 - This particular month seems to have blanked out of my mind. Strange. All I can remember is work at WIPRO-Phase1-MSB. New colleagues. New manager. New job role -Network Administration. As cool as that may sound,it isn't really....not so much anyway. Annnnd...was this the month I interacted(met her before) with Baiju's friend PriyanCa with a 'C' ? More like, she jabbered away and I listened :)


Dec 2009 - There was this sudden ,not gradual, SUDDEN "CHANGE" factor that happened to take over...as I watched helplessly...so probably I let it take over or whatever. The point being,it felt like I was starting to lose touch with my friends(however cheesy that might sound)...it was creepy! A couple of them faded out ...around August I suppose,and the ones that were left...they seemed to become distant too. Or was I the one starting to drift away? I dunno...but that's how the entire month of December turned out to be. It upset me so bad,it made me write shitty-senti stuff(and address it to a friend)...yuck! * hypothetical puking *. But I'm glad that I got that off my chest,'coz just NOT saying anything about something that semed to be bothering me(I don't know what :-| ) was finally starting to irritate the hell out of me.
I even had THIS said to me,well not all of it,just the part in quotes - "Haven't you done anything in the past to cement a place for yourself" anywhere...I guess I haven't.But hey, I'm not here to force myself on anyone,thank you. (see what I've written for Jan 2010) I was starting, to be percieved, as a person who is bent on proving how superior I am,and how I'm above all the mere mortals...but,if I were to ask myself...then that's who I've always been....haven't I? And I haven't,don't and never will make choices based on what other people are saying...no matter what.I mean,too bad people can't see my part of the reasoning involved. It's not my problem that they want to believe that I depend on other people's judgement. And too bad,that they don't understand,that sometimes,banking on a friend's opinion,is NOT the same thing. But then,that last line makes no sense at all...because I can't define 'friend' anymore. Turns out, I had a very childish,'too specific',definition. (In my head I hear - "Mira,you silly silly girl!" in Chota saarukh-as-saif-ali-khan voice. :) )
And then New year's eve arrived (I dare not say) like any other last day of any other year,except (yeah... except and but, two awesome conjunctions that allow you to play with the meaning of the entire sentence!) for the fact that,this time had one person I'd spent one new year's eve with and 2 people I hadn't spent any new year's eve with. Naah! Who am I kidding? It was different,in a very strange way that I can't express...in words,expressions,sign language - nothing. All in my head but can't express.Period.


It's been a nice year...2009 :)


Oh, when I look back now,
That summer seemed to last forever.
And if I had the choice,
Yeah, I'd always wanna be there.
Those were the best days of my life...


Ohhh, yeah, the summer of 2009.

Man we were killin' time,
((We were young and reckless.))
((We needed to unwind.))
I guess nothin' can last forever, forever, no...

Yay!

And now the times are changin',
((Look at everything that's come and gone.))
Sometimes when I play that old six-string,
((I think about you, wonder what went wrong.)...


Those were the best days of my life.

Oh, yeah.
Back in the summer of 2009.
It was the summer, the summer of 2009.




(wow...that's a lot of blogging in just 2 months....) So there I have it, the year 2009. A wild crazy year.....most of it I liked,some of it I didn't :)

The year that was - Part I

* STATUTORY WARNING * : This post is solely for the writer(me),by the writer(me),and to the writer(me,again) and contains more nonsense than the writer's(my) other posts. My sentences are going to be ridiculuosly long, with several bracket-i-sized mini-sentences within them because of this obsessive-compulsive explanation disorder that I have. (Hint: The trick is to make the sentence make sense,even when read(past tense) by skipping the contents in the brackets.)Brevity is NOT one of my talents. So unless you want to read it because you have nothing better to do,I request you to kindly refrain from wasting your time by 1. Reading all of it ;and 2. Posting a nasty comment against it

This post is probably going to be the perfect example of what my Humdinger friend would call "Forced Blogging" :-) . ( http://united-states-of-humdinger.blogspot.com/2008/03/just-for-reads.html ).Anyway, it's been a really long time since i posted something....so it's about time I do something about my "new hobby"! (At least that's what I thought it'd be, when I started in the year 2007)*embarrased*

The question now is....what am I supposed to blog about?! I mean,EVERYthing so far has been so uneventful (or already written about) that my creative side has gone into hibernation mode. Seriously. *grimaces* .I just dont want it to become extinct.So here goes...

Let's start with....errr.....uhmmm....*thinking real hard*....I dunno....how's 'My Visit to the Supermarket' ? * yawwn *
Okay that sounds like an essay topic....class 3...no 1 !!! Also, lame.
(But I have to....just have to write something....so i'm going to start with this crappy topic and then see where it goes...)
Grocery,vegetables,fruits,spices,junk(chips,biscuits,etc. etc.),cosmetic products - soap,shampoo,deo...billing counter. Not so much fun, unless you count the incident where I (out of sheer 'clumsiness') toppled almost half a shelf of shampoo bottles,causing the 'help' to curse under her breath and give me dirty looks...(glad she didn't ask me to pay for the stack of biscuits I'd dropped earlier,causing a packet to tear open... :-).

I don't think I've ever written something so excrutiatingly dull (for the reader,even me) in my life.Maybe I should write about the visit to a book store or something - CROSSWORD and LANDMARK. Man! I wish I owned those stores. I did buy a bunch of books last year. Read one. Aah,yes! Reading is another thing I must get back to be 'into' and all that.

So far ,so crappy. One reeaally (with as many syllables as Dr. Perry Cox would like) should not even attempt to write when one doesn't have anything in mind. Sheeesh!

Okay, refresh - refresh -refresh! (I'm not going to proof-read or delete any of the nonsense I write,so I know what exactly happens when I don't put pen to paper (metaphorically) in a long long time. Maybe that'll remind me how lousy my writing can get,and push me to write more often.) The super market incident,I don't know why that was even worth a mention. Insignificant, like most other events-related-to-me in the year 2009. I pride myself on having a good memory, but that doesn't mean I remember stupid-routine-daily stuff. It's just stuff that 'matters' and then again, I'm the one who decides what does/should or doesn't/shouldn't. So it's not that big a deal - If I remember it,then it's important stuff. If I don't, then it obviously isn't. Some theory,that! :p

It's weird how the human brain works...or let me just say MY brain (no generalising,please). It could be like a common phenomenon with all other human brains, but let me just talk about mine. Also, it's easier to write in the first person,'coz I wouldn't want to complicate my already complicated long (but sensible,if you-read-slowly-&-carefully)sentences by trying to use the third person pronoun - 'One'.

Like I was saying,I start writing about let's say the alphabet 'A' and then move to 'B', because hey, that's the letter after 'A' and then invaribly that'll lead to 'C' and then maybe suddenly it jumps to the number '3' 'coz, come on, 'C' is the 3rd letter of the Alphabet and the number 3, well ..you know- 1,2,3. I mention this because I did start writing about a grocery store, and then decided I like the book store better (store being the link)...and that'd probably lead to a book review ( a Series review,rather) of the Twilight Saga. Like there aren't already enough of those online! But, since I've mentioned Twilight('coz I read it recently), lemme also say what I can't say enough - I'm in love with Edward Cullen. *blushes*

Okay, moving on - the huma..no...MY brain. I hope it has tried to retain at least one incident per month,it thought was important enough for its multicoloured-matter (Yes.I'd like to think of my brain with multicoloured matter...not the usual dull grey and white but then I'll leave that explanation for later.)

January 2009 - * takes a break from writing,to check if she has any pictures she might have clicked(they always have the date against 'em :) )* Yes! Mumbai. It was just the one weekend,(10th-11th Jan) but an unforgettable trip. Just the 3 of us wandering around Mumbai City.We trudged all the way from (earlier Victoria Terminus, now) Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus to the GateWay Of India(which for some reason looks like the Golden Temple ,in a beautiful picture captured in the perfect amount of sunlight at the perfect angle by the *ahem* perfectionist photgrapher (you can stop gushing now,btw, if you've managed to get this far,reading.) ) . Like every other fascinated tourist, we stood by the Taj(both old and new) Hotel and the Arabian Sea. Then paid a visit to Cafe Leopold. And The Marine Drive. [There's something that I really want to say at this point, but I'm not sure it'll come out right,so I'd rather not.] The next day was spent mostly junk-shopping in Bandra :). We travelled by every possible mode of transport available - Bus, Autorickshaw,THE Local Train,Car,even foot. All in all a good trip. This was also the month when my friends had come over,we'd cooked lunch without blowing up the kitchen,and had Salted-Tea! Okay,January 2009 is off the uneventful month list now.

February 2009 - Now February is always a fun month, every single year. That's 'coz my brother's and my Mom's birthdays are on the same day of that month - the 23rd :) So, that month is a helping and listening to mom (more than the usual amount) & being a nicer elder sister to my li'l brother month.

March 2009 - My birthday is on the 25th of this month and the year 2009 was a special one. A lot of firsts this month. It was the first time that a lot of us got to see a hail-storm,actual ice cubes raining down on Pune.It was the first time I had a pre-birthday surprise! Met up with a puraana college ka yaar.It was the first time I was by myself at home (Parents and bro were in mumbai) when the clock struck 12. It was a wednesday, the middle of the week, which meant I had to go to work because there was no one home anyway. But at work,I got to have my favourite people around,cut 3 cakes,and no birthday bumps :). Friends who I don't believe I was in touch with called,my li'l brother's friends (who think I'm a terror) called,a college pal from Singapore called to wish me. (That was the first time I had a birthday wish all the way from Singapore! :)) It's awesome to have the unexpected happen in a good way...it was the best wednesday-birthday anyone could have had! I don't have the right words to describe March 2009. Overwhelming happiness-ful month! =D

April 2009 - 18th April = The day I learnt (by self-experience) how un-wise it is to mix drinks (and drink 'em yourself) when you have no previous bartending experience or knowledge what-so-ever! My parents would have probably disowned me, had it not been for the chivalrous friend who likes to call himself "Usually a nice guy;usually" (i.e. The Perfectionist-Photographer I've mentioned in Jan 2009) and the Gujju - Jiggy. Thankoo,Suratis/Suratiyas! And this was the month I made the strangest deal with a friend,I never thought we'd actually keep :).

May 2009 - There was this one day,one ENTIRE day my stupid old laptop (which still works ,btw) made us spend with it. Correction: This incredibly patient friend of mine,spent more time with it than I did, working on a birthday gift for another friend. We were working on a collage and the system was S L O W. Itna slow ki hum NIBM se FC road tak chakkar maarkar aaye, phir jaakar file save hua.Also,30th May - The day a friend happened to keep her bike keys in her bag and then auto-lock her bag safely in her bike compartment - at Pune University. She had to go back all the way home to get her spare set of keys to unlock her bike,after we couldn't get some random bike keys to unlock it. Eventful alright!

June 2009 - 6th June: A kinda mini DELL 63-Versant-Floor gang union happened,at wadia College and then Burger King at MG road.:) .14th June: A grand re-union of my cousins and uncles and aunts and the entire family tree happened at Khadki.20th-21st June: Original plan toh mere ghar pe rukne ka tha, par because three guys is one more than two guys staying over at a girl's place (blah blah - god damned soceity! x-( ),humein doosre friend ke ghar jaana pada. So my friends come over from the west end of Pune city(Chandni Chowk/Bavdhan) to hang out at a restaurant in the south end of the city(NIBM) and then we go back to the west end of the city,inspite of one of them having to have to travel to the east end of the city(Hadapsar) the next morning,which was why the original plan was to stay at my place! pheww! STILL, it was one hell of an evening. It ended very well is all I'll say...we kept the deal,see! ;-)

[And we're through half of the year already! I don't know why I called it an uneventful year!]

July 2009 - August 2009 - September 2009 - October 2009 - November 2009 - December 2009

....to be continued in "The year that was - Part II"

W.H.A.T.E.V.E.R.

At almost every turn on the web or every little software that we are trying to install(not necessarily from the internet,but even from a CD/DVD)/upgrade/(or sometimes even) download,we are asked to say 'YES'.....'Yes' to registration,'yes' to membership,'yes' to personal recommendations,'yes' to licence agreements,'yes' to 'Autocomplete' and security warnings....and it goes on and on.In fact,'yes' is said for us with pre-filled check boxes that read 'I agree','Keep me informed' and saying 'no' wold make navigating through the Web or installing stuff nearly impossible.More generally,however,it is a matter of clicking through the various formsin order to get what we want and to get it faster.A matter of saying 'Whatever'.And,when that happens,one might wonder to what extent 'yes' is our own default setting than that of the machine!

The aim with the 'Whatever' button,then,is to pause and ask why we give away personal information so easily.The point is to make our exchanges more honest i.e. re-labelling the buttons we press - whether they say 'search','send',,'i agree','yes','okay' or 'allow' - with a more accurate description,"Whatever".

The button is for fun,of course,but should,in effect,highlight rather than hide the significance of our various 'Whatever moments'.Buttons can be serious enough;consider the implications of the many license agreements we click through so quickly.Or the economic importance of websites requiring one's credit card information.Given this,perhaps the Whatever Button can be used as an experiment for reflection.Are u careful with your data,avoiding ugly Third-party clauses,eaves dropping adware or monstrous spyware? Or do u throw caution to the wind,opening up the personal information floodgates? What button fits u best?

In conclusion;

"Some people - make things happen,

Some people - watch things happen,and

Some people wonder 'What the hell happened?!' "

Me,i belong to category number one,n i personally am FOR the Whatever button! n m a pretty good programmer myself so i'd probably be coming up with somethin sooner or later.....

Meanwhile, if u belong to category one then u could vouch for me n pool in so v have funds to start 'Project Whatever'....n if u belong to category two,u could just wait n watch and if u belong to category three,then well...

(closing credits: Me,google.com)

"M" and Me...

This particular post may not interst u (or anyone else who reads it)....but i seriously dont care 'coz "I write what (i.e. WHAT-SO-EVER) I want to write and not what others want to read."

So,anyway....back to business..here goes...[My first ever blogpost...(",)]...
i dont know whether to term it plain coincidence or to term it "paranoid me"...but there's this strange connection that i have with the alphabet "M"...now you mite say - "Ya,rite...her name begins with the letter 'M'..." but that is not (i repeat: NOT) all.

I'll of course state THAT fact as point number

1->MEENAKSHI (FYI: My grandmom named me that.). N the list that follows is something like this:

2->MIRA (FYI: my pet name,it's what my dad named me.)
(n now u mite say - "big deal...probably her entire family chose the letter "M" to christen her and now she's gonna list all of 'em!" - but i promise,there aren't any more 'family named her'names in the list!)

3->MARCH (i was born in that month.)

4->MONDAY (i was born on that day of the week.)

5->MORNING (is the time of the day i was born at.)

6->MADRAS (that's my native place..ie..ancestral home or whatever.)

7->St. MARY'S school (that's the school i went to....n just another FYI b4 i proceed-At school,v had houses named after saints.)

8->St. MARTIN'S house (that's the house i belonged to in junior high(the others were:St. David,St. Thomas & St. Christopher),n believe me,i did not choose to be in it.)

9->St. MICHAEL'S house (that's the house i belonged to in high school(the others were:St. Peter,St. Francis & St. Patrick),n believe me,i did not choose to be in it again.)

10->MATHEMATICS (is my favourite subject).

11->MUNAZZA (The name of my 1st 'masti' pal at school...v always got punished for giggling for absolutely no reason during class...v were like...the "MISCHIEF MAKERS!")

12->MUGGLE (is what i am/what non-magic people are called.(Think:Harry Potter))

13->MUDBLOOD (is what i wish i was.(Think:Harry Potter,again!))

14->MENTAL/MAD/MANIAC (though they all mean the same,it's what my friends think i am.)

15->MONSTER (is probably what my li'l bro thinks i am.)

16->MISUNDERSTOOD (is what i am,most of the time.)

17->MISCHIEF (is something i am always upto!)

18->MEAN (it's part of my name("meen"akshi)...so i can't leave it out!)

19->MODEST(that's me...seriously.)

20->MAHARASHTRA(is where i was born...(how could i have missed THAT out!))

It's nearly dawn now(4.15 am)...n i cant think of ne more "M" words related to me....unless it's MIRACLE or MARVELLOUS n all of those 'M' words which in a nutshell state how MESMERISING (ok...it probably doesnt fit here...so how about u gimme a gud word to put in place of it?!) a person i am...and since all of that is pretty obvious about me...i'll jus sign off---MUUUUUAH!

MAGICAL ME - MEENAKSHI.

P.S.: I would also like to mention the MARAUDER'S MAP(Harry Potter jargon,again!).....which is another' M' term but i dint know where,when n how to throw it in the pile of the other 'M' terms.....point is,it's an awsome magical object that fascinates ME...created/invented by 3 MASTERMINDS...!