Saturday, August 28, 2010

So I Got Through!



I just wanted to let everyone know that I got through the preliminary exam. I am very relieved. Thank you all for your wishes and prayers.

The mains are going to start from end October. And since I was so sure I wouldn’t qualify for them, I whiled away the last three months, and didn't so much as peep into the textbooks. I have two months to cover an obscenely humongous syllabus, and am in weird state of constant panic right now. But I have a chance, and I am grateful for that, and mean to make the most of it in the next two months.

Don’t leave me out of your prayers yet!

Thursday, August 12, 2010

The One with all the Self-Pity

Linda Goodman says Pisceans have an infinite capacity for love and pity. That’s very true. In my case, it is an infinite capacity for self – love and self – pity.

So I’m now wallowing in self – pity, and feeling very sorry for myself indeed. It’s at times like this that I wish I had a car, so I could drive myself to the nearest ice-cream parlour and gobble down a huge tub of ice-cream to cheer myself up. Of course, since the cause of my current woes is The Monster, I can’t obviously ask The Monster to take me in his car to eat ice-cream.

I wish I had a girlfriend, who lived close enough to drive me out for ice-cream now, and to whom I could whine and bitch about The Monster, but alas, that is not meant to be. Since the Big Man in the Sky is a man himself, he makes all these evil plans to keep The Sisterhood apart as much as possible. How else do you explain the fact that my closest girlfriends from school are all in the yoo-yes-yay? Or the fact that my girlfriends in this city live in a tiny village called HSR which isn’t really in Bangalore, as much as they like to fool themselves; or stay at home with parents (which means they can’t really get out at midnight for an ice-cream, or anything else).

As you can see, my cup of woes runneth over. To make things worse, my results are out on Friday the 13th. And my shouted-from-the-rooftops till I’m hoarse discreet vacation to Kovalam starts on the same day. Which means my vacation is effectively ruined. Excuse me while I go break something.

Okay, I’m back. So. The only ray of light in my dark and dismal life right now is to plan petty revenge against The Monster. Which I would love to share with you but can’t right now, because if The Monster reads this post, he will know about the revenge plans, and then they will be a failure. Can’t let that happen.

But I did have some luck. The Monster lost his keys in the morning, so I was the only one with the house keys. He came back home in the evening before me - and made the mistake of calling me to tell me that he was waiting for me to come home. It was then that I decided that walking was good for my health, and decided to walk all the way from KH Road to my house, which is a good 6kms away. It would take time, but the longer I walked the better – for my health, that is. Of course, I can’t actually walk 6kms, so after dilly-dallying a bit, I took an auto and came home, and felt very pleased with myself for keeping The Monster waiting.

Update: The Monster Nike has just come and apologised (actually he said it’s ridiculous to fight about such silly things, but I’ve generously decided to treat it as an apology). He also offered to make me hot chocolate since it’s too late for an ice-cream right now. Life isn’t so bad, eh?

Have a good weekend everybody. Oh, and pray for me!

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Things You REALLY Don't Want to Know

The last two weeks have been fantastic in terms of all the things I’ve got to do. So I’m going to put it all down here to read the next time I moan about how I’m so bored, or how I want a change. Then I can be reminded of how full my life is in Bangalore.

Two weeks ago, went home for Ma’s 50th. The day I came back to Bangalore, I fell ill. Nike very sweetly worked from home the whole week, so I would have someone to moan to about how sick I was and how I was going to just die. Of course, my impending death did not stop me from devouring the Millennium Trilogy that week.

Just as I got better, Nike’s mother was admitted to the hospital and we had to rush to Hyderabad. In a hospital, all my hitherto deeply buried masochistic tendencies come out in full force – I look at every suffering patient and try to imagine how I would feel in their position – and since I am a total wuss, the vision that emerges is far from pretty. Anyway, since this isn’t all about me (ahem!)  - Nike’s mother responded well to the medicines and was discharged.

Once back in Bangalore, we saw Udaan, a beautiful movie, with very interesting characterisation (with the exception of the Dad, who was painted all black). It is a ‘follow your dreams’ story but told with its sense of humour and light-heartedness very much intact so it never gets preachy. The movie was at PVR so we had dinner at Bombay Blues at Transit after that, and the food was AWFUL.

The next day, had lunch with the girls at Grill Room. The place is right opposite the Gurudwara on Ulsoor, and has a great lunch buffet. Do try it if you are around that area. The Friday before last we had a girl’s night out at Vids place. Lux, Eku, Vids and I. We had a blast, eating and drinking and singing and dancing and chatting.

Saturday was spent recovering from the excesses of the previous night. Girish was in Bangalore on Sunday, so went with Kat and Girish to the Chancery Pavillion for Sunday Brunch. 1200 bucks for unlimited food and drinks – fantastic spread – worth every single paisa. Go! All that eating and drinking business left us too exhausted to do anything for two days, after which we went to Inception. What. A. Movie. Stayed up all night discussing it; and started where we left off the next morning. It’s going to require some more viewings before I can decide on what I think happened.

So that was the week before last. This Friday, went to Kat’s place. We then met up with Hetro and Yola for drinks and dinner, and then went to Hetro place where we saw a marathon session of ‘Coupling’. On Saturday, we had Indu and Kumara over for lunch. But since we didn’t wake up when the cook came, rang the bell endlessly and left, Nike had to rush and buy the chicken and do the cooking himself, while I restored the house to some semblance of order. After they left, we saw ‘Body of Lies’ on television, went shopping at Lifestyle (my loots: maroon skirt, black waistcoat, blue and red checked top and two pairs of shoes), and finished with dinner at Chakum Chakum.

On Sunday, went for a haircut. Actually went in thinking of a trim, but I don’t know what got into me once I sat in the chair, but I made her chop it all off! I’m going to Hyderabad again next week, and am already dreading the reaction from the family. Anyway, Lux had invited the whole gang over for a traditional south Indian dinner at her place on Sunday night, so we all dressed up in Sarees (the women did; the men wore kurtas). Played some really weird games, laughed uproariously at Lux’s expense, thulped yummy food till I thought I would burst, and came home with gifts the girl had got us from Rajasthan.

The last  3 days have been super super busy at work. So all I’ve had the time for till now is Aisha with the girls. Maybe I went in with really low expectations, but the movie wasn’t so bad. It was actually fun watching it with the girls – oohhing over the outfits and shoes, rolling our eyes together at all the nonsense some of the characters do, aahhing over Abhay Deol – it’s great fun to watch a chick flick with your girlfriends.

Phew! That’s been the scene in my universe for the last two weeks. Tomorrow I’m off on a holiday. A girls needs time off from all this socialising. Tata.

Thursday, August 05, 2010

In Which We Go Shopping

While I was in Hyderabad last week, there was a flat 50% weekend sale happening at UCB. Just the week before, I’d seen a lovely black and grey balloon skirt at the UCB store on Commercial Street, but couldn’t afford it in my current penniless state. The sale was the perfect opportunity. And thus we chased the sale across Hyderabad – starting from Dilsukh Nagar, proceeding to Himayatnagar, Somajiguda, Banjara Hills all the way up to Jubilee Hills – but I was met with disappointment, as none of the stores had that skirt, or even anything else remotely interesting.

I did buy a pretty yellow summery top at the UCB sale though. And I bought a pair of pale pink denim shorts at Promod.

Gundu and Nike, who were dragged happily came shopping with me asked "But where are you going to wear them?"

“Kovalam” I said brightly (this is where, gentle and unassuming reader, I let slip in that I’m going to the Leela in Kovalam for the weekend after. I’m subtle like that.)

But boys being boys, they asked in unison “But what will you do with them after you’re back from Kovalam?”

“Oh, I will wear them in Goa. Also in Thailand, and Vietnam, and Rio, and other beach places” I say, with the air of one from whom jet-setting to glamorous beaches across the world in a pair of sexy pink shorts is a way of life.

“But....but...you aren’t going to Goa. Or any of those other beach places” stammers Nike, clearly seeing visions of me gallivanting around the world by blowing up his hard earned money.....well, his earned money, anyway.

“I know I'm not. But what if I win a contest for a one week beach holiday? I’m going to need something to wear when I go there, right?”

And thus I sashayed my way to the billing counter, pleased as peach (or is it plum?) with my foresight. Now bring on that free beach holiday dahlings!