Here's to trying new things! :)

3 Years, and running

I should start giving more credit to "meant-to-be" stories and "conspiracy of universe" cases, because despite me cribbing about my lack of friends, and inability to get along with people, which according to a close friend is because I do not give people chances, the few friends that I do have are absolute jewels.

I love writing about people more than anything else. In fact, sometimes I wonder whether that's all I am actually capable of writing. Needless to say, I have dedicated many a posts in this blog to the amazing people in my life.

This post is about this awesome girl whom I have yet to meet. You can get a glimpse of her awesomeness here.

And since I have no way to send her material gifts, this is my version of a Christmas Gift!

Sunaina, I have had this idea of writing about you for quite some time now. And while researching- that's right, I "researched". I am an Economics Master's student and all I am capable of is research- I realized I have technically known you for far longer than I originally thought I did.
And I am hoping this will come as a surprise to you too!

This, my friend, is Exhibit #1 of the "meant-to-be" case.

I don't know anyone else from that list, which is a very normal thing in online internships. And, the probability that we would sign up for a second internship, at the same time, and pick up the same work is, well, I would suggest, based on bogus research, to be about 0.00000000000000342. Symbolically, really slim.
It's probably not too far fetched for us to assume that the Universe said, "Well, you won't talk in the first internship? Fine, let's put you two together for another one and see how that goes." Am I right or what? :)

This brings me to my Exhibit #2.

We tried really hard to stay formal, and talk about work- related stuff. As can be seen by the emoticons, it was a very difficult job! :)

And from there, we proceeded on to talk about things that really matter! We bonded over books and blogs. I present to you Exhibit #3

Thus, our 'virtual' friendship grew. And the more I spoke to you, the more I realized how much I like and admire you!

Which brings us to December, 2014. And my first Christmas present of the season!

Turns out, we have mutual friends who doesn't know your address. :)

So, umm, after those beautiful words, I don't know what else to write except to promise that I will see you next year!

Oh, and the exhibits mentioned above hopefully prove the "meant-to-be" case. I get that it's not surprising to find strangers chat over the internet, but I sure know that they generally don't do that for months and years, and they definitely do not send over gifts and personalized messages.

What I am trying to say here is that you don't have to be in the same class or office, or even the same state to become fast friends with someone. In friendship, if it's meant-to-be, then the universe does conspire to make it work. Cheesy much? Well, this deserves for some cheesiness, don't you thing? :)

2014- The First Eleven Months

Delhi has been good to me. 2014 so far has been good to me too. I have met new people, been to new places, experienced new things and hopefully gained some knowledge and wisdom along the way.

This is an amateur attempt to document the last eleven months with pictures and words.

JANUARY

COMMENCEMENT OF SECOND SEMESTER- 7 January, 2014

January was too long ago. This picture is taken outside Dilli Haat, sometime during the first week of January, after beading my hair. The next and the only other time I have been to Dilli Haat was during Diwali this year on 23rd October.

Though it was chilly, January was perfect for outdoorsy activity when the sun was shining. So, one fine day, when we had an afternoon class, Riddhima and I went to Hauz Khas Village to chill out, and by chill out I mean copy notes overlooking the lake. We did gorge on some amazing nachos at OTB later on though.

We also had a mini class get-together cum Poulomi's farewell at Shivani's place in Gurgaon. It was a wonderful day, with loads of fun and amazing homemade food.

FEBRUARY

February had a lot of cultural and co-curricular activities on schedule. The Convocation ceremony was held on 5th Feb, 2014 in which we all decked up in different shades of blue sarees and I sang a welcome song. 

  

I had also volunteered as a rapporteur for Delhi Sustainable Development Summit, 2014  held from February 6-8, 2014. I had a lot of fun, eating and working, in that order, and realizing these two are the absolute best people I could meet, but more on them later.

The event was held at Taj Palace, and one crucial bit of table manner that I learnt was that it is wrong to slurp on your coffee no matter how hot it is. This was my first encounter with Deepan, who was my fellow rapporteur at the event.

There was also the book fair at Pragati Maidan, which is "the" place to be for people like me. I had so much fun that day!

From the bookworm to the party animal, February was a month of extremes. I spent a weekend with Ria di and painted the town red with her (and her friends). It was the most fun I have had in a long time. We ate at this awesome Chinese restaurant, did girly beauty stuff, and went out dancing. We also shopped and watched movies.

Before proceeding to March, which was spent mostly meeting old friends and family, let me talk a bit about these two new girls in my life, who are called the-

RAJASTHANI ROCKSTAR DUO

 ROCKSTAR#1
This one had her birthday in February, which is what we are celebrating in this pic. She just had this amazing vibe about her that prevents you from being gloomy or sad, no matter what shit you are going through. And let me tell you , that is one hell of a talent to have!

ROCKSTAR#2

This other fella is amazing in her own way. She has this 'no-nonsense' attitude and 'gets' me. It also helps that we have quite a handful of things in common.

I think that is enough for a public forum! :)

MARCH

This was again a great month because I went home. We had gotten this new flat at the banks of Ganges, and we had the inaugural ceremony only after I went home. I enjoyed the journey home, visiting friends, visiting Calcutta, and the journey back to Delhi. It was all amazing.

In Calcutta, I met Nabanit and Abhinav, one my Nursery friend, and the other a significant part of my +2. We went all over the city, and hit all the memorable spots from Mocambo to Oxford Bookstore at Park Street, to the new and upcoming food joints.

APRIL

April was another travel month! This time with my classmates and one senior from college. We went to a quiet resort near Shimla, and spent three amazing days there.

I also met up with Shubham at his college, and played some pool, which obviously made me miss my Calcutta friends, but it was a fun day nonetheless.

SUMMER (May- July)

The summer was kind of a bore. I did go to a lot of places in South Delhi, nooks and cranny to be exact, to conduct primary survey for my summer internship at DSE, but I also kept falling sick, because it was too freaking hot. I had a dengue scare, which I accept was 70% paranoia, but still you get why it wasn't such a great time for me. Also, my friends were all away, and the exams hadn't gone too well, so I was stressing out about marks too. I think the main reason why the summer was a bust was because of Brazil's really disappointing performance in the FIFA world cup which broke, nay shattered my heart.

 I did get to hang out with a couple of friends though.

One was Maitreyi, finishing her Masters from JNU, and the other was Jayasudha, studying MBA from my college, who was luckily in Delhi during the summers. I also went and stayed with my aunt and cousin at Dwarka, and that turned out to be ample fun!

AUGUST

August was another great month. The Third Semester started on 21 July, 2014, and by the first week of August I realized that this semester was going to be a good one. The profs were great, and I loved most of the subjects that I had taken up. I also fell in love with Bailey's Irish Cream. It is the best!

I also had a great day, with my roomie, and then ate at this really swanky place, Indigo Deli.

We also made this one helluva instant plan to go watch Papon's show at the opening ceremony of the North Eastern Film Festival at Siri Fort Auditorium. It was an awesome experience. The songs were amazing, the ambiance perfect and we had great north eastern food afterwards.

I also went to Hauz Khas Village, and ate at this cute little restaurant, after probably visiting 4 eateries; that was a lot of fun.

So, all in all, August was a pretty sweet month.

SEPTEMBER

More travel in sight. This time to Dehradun. And even though there were a few minor glitches, and I couldn't travel as much as I had wanted to, I did learn some amazing things about wildlife conservation and protection, and spent some quality time with friends, watching pretentious movie reviews and bitching about people I had hardly ever spoken to.

After the trip, I went home for pujas. I went to Calcutta and met with a few friends, and then went to Bokaro and met with more friends, and spent some quality time with my parents, knowing I won't be home in the winters. A decision, which I now, sorely regret.

OCTOBER

October was another good month. I met Ved after a really long time in Bokaro and then returned back to Delhi by the first week of October.

There was also a lot of festivities going on in this month, from Diwali to Halloween. And I finally did attend a Halloween theme party, for the first time, this year; doesn't matter that I had to leave before the party actually started. It was fun nonetheless, and I got to wear a witch's hat for a bit!

NOVEMBER

Though I didn't get to travel much, and had to say goodbye to my supervisor, November still couldn't be sad. Not only did I attend great lectures but also interacting with some incredible people.

One such speaker, who came for the closing lecture of the Wildlife course was Dr Sejal Wohra from WWF-India. 

We also finally got done with out thesis proposal presentation and submission, and a large portion of the class went to the mall to chill out.

We also had a lot of non-academic events happening this month, be it REtopia or the Combined Farewell.

And November came to a grand finish, when on the last day of the month (in the middle of the final exams) I went to attend the Food Festival, where I ate food from the Turkish and the Spanish Embassy food stalls, making it a really amazing Sunday.

And that is how awesome my first eleven months of the year were. 

The reason why I didn't wait for another month, so that I could document the entire year together is because I am secretly hoping that I will have enough fun in this month to be able to break my adventures into separate posts.

THE LOST ONES

In the big frame of things, break-ups seem to become almost inconsequential. Because, even though you burn all the pictures and delete all the chats and forget his contact details, somewhere at the back of your mind, you know that if the dire need arises, some friend of a friend (of a friend?) will provide you with the phone number and you could connect. And despite you acting like your life is over after a break-up, the only thing that should truly bum you out is literally just that; the end of a life.

Last evening I was having the usual hectic day, with the plans for a not-so-usual good night. Everything was running as smooth as it does, when this guest lecturer arrived to teach us about the petroleum sector in India. He was this distinguished old man, with that grandfatherly aura around him. And all of a sudden, amidst a discussion of oil bonds and the recent deregulation of diesel, I started missing my grandfather. My maternal grandfather, to be precise, since I didn’t have the fortune to remember much of my paternal one; he died when I was 2. And I prayed it was a case of some dramatic fight or estrangement, or some generation gap issues which made us not talk to each other, so that I could just call him or travel to see him. But all I am left with are old photographs, and memories that are slowly fading away. My grandfather died on 2^nd August, 2012, two and a half years after my paternal grandmother died on January 16, 2010. And I miss them terribly. I don’t like discussing them with my parents, because I don’t want to make them sad. I understand that their pain is so much more than what mine is, because compared to my parents, I knew them for a short span of time, visiting them only during vacations.

Yesterday, this one incident was playing over and over in my mind. I don’t remember in which class I was back then. My grandfather had come to visit us in Bokaro, and we used to live in our old quarters. It was a school day and I had to get some Xeroxes done for class next day, so he and I went to the Sector 6 market to get it done. Once there, the photocopied papers didn’t come out that well. It was dark and not clear, and dadu told the photocopy guy to Xerox it all again. The guy was reluctant, but dadu was firm. He said that had it been some office document, he wouldn’t have minded, but this was his granddaughter’s school work, so the prints must be perfect. And honestly, I was embarrassed to see him fight with the photocopy guy like that, in his broken Hindi. But now, when I have more sense that I did when I was a kid, I realise that gesture for what it truly was. A proclamation that nothing but the best for his granddaughter, even if he has to speak in broken Hindi for it, even if he has to argue with the photocopy guy for it.

Another instance comes to mind, when being the kid that I was, I decided I wanted to become a doctor, and my dadu was to play the part of a patient. He went out and bought a genuine stethoscope for me. I wonder where that is now, but I remember hours of playing “doctor-doctor” with him, where he would lie patiently, and I would “diagnose and treat” him.

He used to say we were like “q and u”. I was the “u” and him the “q”, because in the English vocabulary, a lot of independent words start with “u”, but “q” is almost always succeeded by a “u”- quick, quiet, quilt, question, you get the drift. So, that was how important “u (me)” was for his “q”.

I like to believe I inherited my love for English from both my grandfathers. My mom said my paternal grandfather would carry me in his lap while teaching students English in the evenings. I, of course, don’t remember any of it. But it feels nice to muse over such things, trying to find connections with your grandparents, despite not remembering them.  

I have a very fond memory of making my first even sandwich for my dadu. I was in class 6-7 maybe. We were in Uttarpara, and my mom and grandmom had left me and dadu at the house to go shopping somewhere. They were taking a lot of time to return, and I got hungry. I decided to cook something for us both, and I remember it took my almost 15 minutes to figure out that the cucumbers and tomatoes are kept in the fridge. It was a semi-decent sandwich, I guess. I hadn’t even toasted the bread. But I remember him praising it greatly, and then proudly saying that I fed him when my mom and grandmom returned, and to everyone else that came for the next few days.

So many wonderful memories, so many great moments, and it doesn’t matter where you are and how busy you have been keeping, some days you really can’t help but think about the important people in your life, who you will never see, whose voices you will never hear, whose hands you will never hold, and it makes you profoundly sad.

And whenever I think of my grandfather, I remember this one particular quote he used to always say. It was his favourite, by far, and written by famous Bengali poet Michael Madhusudhan Dutta, “Sey aajike holo koto kal, tobu jano mone hoy sedin sokal.”

Imperfect

She stood long in front of a stained imperfect mirror in a freezing bathroom. Her hair pulling up into an imperfect bun, with imperfect strands escaping out of the hairband. She was trying to remove the overly done imperfect make-up from her acne-ridden imperfect face, thinking of all the photos where her imperfect belly pouch were visible which even the blackness of her dress couldn't hide. Such an imperfect dress, unable to perform its solitary function of hiding the imperfection proportions of her body. She looked back into the evening, and remember that one moment of perfection. She had been successful in conjuring the perfect imitation of a smile when someone had comment on her stunted imperfect dancing skills. She had tried so hard to forget all her imperfections throughout the evening, wanted to have a good time. But even before she had decked up to go out, she had realized how imperfect she was, how inadequate, and found herself questioning her imperfect decision of ever thinking she would be a part of this world of perfect people.

She had thought maybe she would evolve from a bookworm to a social butterfly. Maybe stop feeling sorry and learn to appreciate herself. Maybe even have a couple of friends who didn't emphasize her imperfections. Such imperfect thoughts. Trust her imperfect heart to overlook all the facts and past evidences and hope for impossibilities.
Apparently she had learnt nothing from her past imperfect relations. The imperfect anticipation of being more than a friend for someone, when people who she thought were her close friends didn't even remember her birthday, and she forgave them because she knew they wouldn't care even if she stayed mad. So she pretended to be perfectly fine when in fact, it was killing her inside.
She remembered all the verbal abuse that had shaped her into her present imperfect self, and how it would probably remain her shadow for life.

And in that dingy imperfect bathroom, with her scarred and flabby imperfect body chilled to the bones, and silent tears clouding her imperfect eyes, she took an imperfect vow to return to the shell. Because she realized it wasn't a cocoon, and she wasn't a caterpillar to be metamorphosed into a pretty butterfly. She was a snail, slow and ugly, and would be unable to survive without the shell, not that she claimed that the imperfect shell would provide much protection against something even as feeble as a 5-year old's feet.  

Birthday Overboardness

I love birthdays. Not just mine. And, as a result, sometimes I go overboard. Last May I think I crossed all levels of overboardness. So, since I have to reset my phone and will be losing all my photos soon, I am going to save those memories here. For all I know, this might just be the only birthday of hers that I got to celebrate, which makes it extra special.

So, the idea was to keep it surprising. And gift as many random things as I could. We had a good laugh. The pics are pretty self explanatory, so I won't go into too much details. It just was a very fun time for me, and this is just me documenting it.

And Day #8 was the D-Day.