Ooooh, and what might this be??!

Sticky thoughts.

I didn't realise that i was going to celebrate my last 20s birthday this year till my friend told me. And now i can't seem to stop thinking about it. Dammit.

For some reason, any time anybody mentions a kiss, i only remember the one Jude Law and Juliette Binoche share in Breaking and Entering. It gets me every time.

It bothers me endlessly that i don't have carte blanche. So much for free will and the Constitution.

"I'm sexy and i know it..." is playing on loop in my head. It is accompanied by an image of the LMFAO man jiggling in his tightie non-whities. *Help*

If Oscar Wilde was an advertising professional, he would've won an internal award for almost every line he wrote.

I'm possibly a Pasta convert for life.

Barbosa's only the second dog in my life that i have loved with all my heart, and it scares me.

The week that was.

An interesting week's gone by, packed with things i did. Some impromptu and some planned.

1. I learned to eat with chop sticks!
2. Did an impromptu movie with the Boy i Liked Long Ago. It was a 5:30 p.m show, so there was only a sprinkling of couples around us, up to no good. While they made out in their respective seats, we guffawed and giggled like two teenagers catching people with their pants down.
3. Met up with friends over leisurely teas and dinners.
4. Played a charged game of Taboo.
5. Discovered that i can shop for 7600 bucks on my credit card and not get charged for it! (I'm saving this money for a rainy day. Or when i'm in desperate need of retail therapy which, the way i see it, will arrive soon.)
6. Went over to A's place for movie night on his OMGHuge Samsung 3D TV. What an experience!
7. Cooked for a dozen members of the family all day yesterday - Cheese Omelette, toast, chicken sausages and caramelized onions for breakfast, followed by Pasta in Red Sauce, chicken strips and Tomato Rice for lunch. I was exhausted. In a nice way.
8. Another week without exercise. Ugh feeling.
9. I also smiled a lot this week. That's good news.

I wonder what it must be like to be the wife of a successful person.

Revenge is sweet.

What do you do when your boyfriend cheats on you and breaks your heart?

Spend sleepless nights reliving the heartache?

Give in to the tears?

Go out on a trip with your girlfriends?

Binge drink or binge eat?

Go on a rebound?

Jazmine Sullivan has a better idea. A very satisfying one, and unconventional too.

*Urp*

I got back from lunch an hour ago and i'm still reeling from all the food i consumed.

I over-ordered. And then i over-ate. Now i'm over.

Went to Phobidden Fruit - a Vietnamese restaurant - and gobbled up Iceberg Wraps (juicy chicken mince with bean sprouts served in Iceberg lettuce cups; totally yummy!), Red River Riot (Squid), Fish Curry with a (more than) healthy serving of Rice. Oh, and ice cold, potent Java coffee.

Somebody arrange for a stretcher. And please don't forget to tie me down to it - the caffeine should be kicking in sometime soon.

Somebody please tell me why i keep doing this to myself.

It's a Cuckoo Day.

I woke up with a screw missing from the thing that holds the contents of my head in place. Every time i tossed and turned in the night, the contents inside my skull must have swung from side to side, like in a bad bus ride, and toppled upside down and frontside back. That's possibly why i woke up feeling listless and whacko. (I typed lubrigous and lubigrous until i found on Google search that the word i was looking for was lugubrious. Yeah. It's that kind of day.)

I've been giving grief to my Achilles' Heel (poor thing!) and having crazed-out conversations with the Cow Mother (God save her!) all day.

And now i'm blogging and surfing the Web and there are so many things i want to do and so many places i want to see! I'm not sure if i'll be able to travel to even half the places i want to go to!

I was with P last evening and we chatted for a while about this and that. She's quit her job and unwinding and unlearning, trying to figure out the one thing she wants to do.

Suddenly, she asked me what i wanted to do this year.

"Umm, i don't make new year resolutions. They don't work for me."

"No, i mean what do you want this year to be like?"

"Oh. Umm, i want this new year to be full of travel, new experiences and happiness." (Not necessarily in that order.) And then i launched into this (mostly) monologue about how my purpose in life was to have many stories to tell so that when i grow old and i have younglings sitting around me, i can tell them the things i did. That's provided i have children, and they have children...

Let's not go there.

So anyway, the Cuckoo Day. I have so many things to do and i'm just unable to focus and concentrate and get them done.

And i'm feeling very teary. I'm very, very, very close to tears and i have no idea why. Man, the things one sleepless night can do. Or PMS. Hmm... maybe it is PMS...

Anyway. The point is, i just want this day to be over. And i want to sleep. Without tossing or turning or feeling restless.

Maybe i'd better find that screw.

What i've done in the first week of January.

- Travelled. Spent the first of the month in the city of Nizams.
- Fell prey to weather change and was sick for a couple of days.
- Freelanced. Hopefully that part of life will take off well this year.
- Exploring photography a little more. There's so much to learn!
- Built up enough determination to do certain things.
- Had misunderstandings with close, soulmatest friends. Setting things right is such hard work.
- Trying to find my footing in love and life.
- Spent time with family.

Connecting with my Agricultural side.

I'm essentially a fields kind of girl. And the holiday in Aurangabad was even more fun because i got to run amock in endless rows of fields.

From a Musambi orchard to turmeric, cotton and various pulses' plantations to 20 acres of farmland owned by an MP, tucked away behind the resort where we stayed, i realised just how much of an earthling i am. It's absolutely fascinating to watch months of hard work and labour transform into these amazing fruits and vegetables and grains ripe with the goodness of the earth and sun! Ever since the visit to the fields behind the resort, i've been thinking that if i ever take a break from life, i'd want to do some hard labour working in a field. Perhaps i'll even return to the same place.

But that's for when something of the sort actually happens. Meanwhile, i've got pictures to share!

In order of appearance: Cotton (on the way to Ellora Caves), Turmeric (on the way to Lonar Lake), Sugarcane (from the fields behind the resort), Ginger (on the way back from Ajanta Caves), Onion (from the fields behind the resort), Toor Dal (on the way to Ellora Caves), Chillies (from the fields behind the resort), Musambi and Almond (on the way back from Lonar Lake).

A tourist's guide to Aurangabad.

For the last couple of years, i've been trying to make family vacations a yearly affair. Two years ago, we went for an extremely chilled-out and relaxing holiday to Kodaikanal. Last year, i missed taking my parents anywhere for various reasons. This year, though, i had to take them somewhere to make up for sitting at home last year.

I decided on Goa or Kerala and then told them of my plans. Immediately, both Mom and Dad protested saying that they didn't want to see either. "So what then?", i asked and they both racked their brains and came up with "Let's go to Aurangabad!" It was my turn to protest - Why Aurangabad? What's there to see, i asked. They came up with several places, so i gracefully gave in and started planning the vacation.

But, because i belong to the Wiki generation, i HAD to go and look up Aurangabad. And what i saw fascinated me, getting me really enthusiastic about the holiday. Normally, i hate planning trips but this time, given that there was nobody else to do it, i went ahead and planned the whole thing. (Well, the resort we stayed at planned our itinerary, but still!) So i researched online and found Meadows, Aurangabad. It's a 4-star resort a handful of kilometres out of the city, but very peaceful. The service was superb, the staff was impeccably courteous, helpful and friendly and the place was tranquil. The selling point was that it was situated right next to stretches of agricultural land dotted with fields of colourful pulses, vegetables and spices.

My only dissatisfaction was with the rooms - i thought they could have been much better for the price i was paying for them, but that will apparently be taken care of with the renovation that's due to start next month.

We flew out to Mumbai on Christmas morning, with my Dad glued to the window overlooking plump white clouds cast with the rosy glow of a magnificent sunrise. Our train to Aurangabad was from CST (the erstwhile Victoria Terminal) late in the night, but i was panicking because our tickets weren't confirmed. Since we had the whole day to ourselves, we hired a cab and went around the city. My mother bought half of Linking Road, after which we lunched at The Great Punjab (excellent Bheja Fry!), after which the cabbie showed us the homes of fillum ishtaars - Mannat and Jannat and what-have-you.

Feeling a little silly about it, we then asked him to take us to Juhu beach. The first things that struck me were the ice gola shops with a multitude of flavours, each popping out in bright colours. The place was teeming with people, but rather than seem crowded, it was just full of life. My senses were thoroughly stimulated.

After hanging about for a bit, we went back to collect our luggage from Sister K's place and headed to CST way before time so we could do jugaad for our tickets. We were still RAC.

The sunset as we drove through the sea link was breathtaking. Especially when the ball of fiery orange played hide and seek through the cables holding up the bridge. It was momentary respite from my stressing about the train tickets.

We reached CST at 6:45 p.m. Our train was at 9:00 p.m. It was going to be a long, and very painful, wait for the train. Nevertheless, we hurried in, trying to get a coolie to take our luggage because Mom and Dad couldn't have walked the distance to our platform with extra load, checking to see if the final charts were put up, and catching the eye of TTs to figure out if something could be done.

My parents were absolute rockstars about the whole thing. They came up with hundred and one plans to get berths on the train, all the time trying to calm me down by saying that it was okay, we could adjust and travel. Dad was super-thrilled. Travelling without a confirmed ticket was like an adventure straight out of his younger days!

The final charts got prepared an hour before our train was scheduled to leave. We were still RAC, but we had two RAC berths allotted between us. It was the first time in five hours that i breathed normally. When it was time to board, we got in and Dad occupied one berth while Mom and i shared another.

I was up most of the night, and to entertain myself i took pictures of stations, people, tried bokeh shots, challenged myself to keep my hands still at Shutter speeds of 1.3 seconds, shot my multicoloured socks and finally, like a class contortionist, curled up into a tiny ball of fat (as much as i could) and tried to get some sleep.

At 4 in the morning, you'd expect any place to be cold. But the air in Aurangabad when we landed at half-past was crisp, with the fresh smells of morning wafting around. The resort had sent us a cab, with the sweetest, most easy-going Vishnu as our driver. He was with us for all the time that we were in Aurangabad.

The city itself is dry. And scorching hot. People there do not know what the chill of December means. To them, the heat in December was pleasant as compared to that of the rest of the year. Because the soil of the region is black, ginger, garlic, turmeric, chillies, sweet corn, tomatoes, grapes, musambis, guavas and figs, Toor Dal, wheat, maize, and cotton grow in abundance. Needless to say, i freaked out in every one of the fields growing all of them.

On our first day in Aurangabad, we visited Ellora Caves. It's amazing how over hundreds of thousands of years ago, people were able to carve these caves out of stone with just a hammer and chisel. The detailing in each one of these caves defies words, and makes one wonder about the determination and dedication the artisans must have had to create such masterpieces.

Ellora caves are home to three different religions, with caves built during the reign of different kings. There are Jain, Hindu and Buddhist caves carved against the backdrop of a hillock.

This is a Jain temple; you can see Mahaveer sitting cross-legged in the inner chamber of the temple. His sculpture is flanked by two smaller ones, one on either side. Apparently, these sculptures are of Mahaveer's helpers/servants who were always with him. The doorways are carved with motifs and Yakshas - angels.

The second set of caves were made by Hindus, the most remarkable of which is the Kailash Temple. It's a massive monolith full of intricate carvings detailing various mythological stories of Hindu gods. The walls of the central structure speak of the stories of Ramayana and Mahabharatha.

Apparently, all structures carved out of stone follow a pattern - the sculptor starts from the top of the rock to the bottom, and then moves from the front facet of the structure to the back. That should give you an idea of what a mammoth task the artisans and sculptors undertook with this temple! How did they measure the structure? How are the lines so straight? How are the motifs mirror images of each other? It's just mind-boggling.

If you climb on to the hillock right next to the temple, you get a fabulous view of the entire structure, but i was exhausted with all the walking by the time we reached here, so i skipped climbing up.

After Kailash temple, we moved on to the Buddhist caves of Ellora. I found them to be the best of the lot in terms of craftsmanship. Maybe it has something to do with the style of the carvings - a sense of serenity descends upon you when you walk into the caves.

In this picture, the entranceway is flanked by angels in flight, with window space in the centre for sunlight to come through to the inner chambers of the temple. Motifs range from stupas to elephants, chariots, mandalas and episodes from Buddha's mortal life.

In this picture, you'll see the seven avatars of Buddha (i think they're called Satvas, if i'm not mistaken), his transformation from mortal to monk and the future avatars he will don when he returns. This was the only temple in which i found the transformation to be so clearly carved and portrayed.

There was more fabulosity in the Buddhist caves, each with a dominating sculpture of Buddha in the inner-most sanctum. All of them depict him either teaching, preaching or meditating.

Out next stop was Daulatabad Fort. But before we went there, we made a little stopover at Aurangzeb's tomb. On one hand is the cruelty of Aurangzeb in mistreating his ageing father Shah Jahan; on the other, we hear the story of a man who didn't use a cent from the city's treasury but rather, sold prayer caps which he stitched himself and asked that only his earnings from the caps be used for his burial. He also asked that he be buried next to his mentor - a saint of sorts and also a very clever man (he was the mastermind behind Panchakki - a hydraulic system that helped pump water from 6 kilometres away by employing the kinetic energy of water). The facade is pure marble that has withstood the test of time.

Over Aurangzeb's mentor's grave, there are strings of threads and metal plates that hold a series of oval, stone-like objects. Apparently, those are ostrich eggs that Aurangzeb got all the way from Africa to hang here. The eggs have been emptied out, of course, but the shells have been retained and are matted with the patina of passing years. I still cannot figure out what the significance of the Ostrich eggs is.

A murshad of some sort stood outside the mentor's grave, delivering blessings in the form of gentle knocks on people's heads with a bunch of peacock feathers. Once i had mine (i wore Skinny jeans and glasses above my head, with my camera slung around my neck and spoke Urdu. No surprise that they were stupefied), it was time to head to Daulatabad Fort.

The name Daulatabad was given by Tughlaq (popularly known as The Mad King) because he found Aurangabad to be full of innumerable riches. That fact holds true even today - there are over 220 Mercedes owners in the city and more than half the population is very well-to-do.

Daulatabad Fort was built on a mountain. While the fort is essentially at the base and winds up to about halfway up the mountain, the rest of it is a series of passages leading to a hall on its pinnacle.

The picture on the left shows the Chand Minar, the second highest structure after Qutb Minar. The fort is worthy of every praise it can get because it has been designed to throw off the invading armies of enemies at every step. There's a deep moat surrounding the fort, with only a narrow passageway leading to it. Window-like openings in the walls of the fort housed the King's army who shot down the enemy with arrows, sending them to their death in the moat full of crocodiles and snakes. Now, only green algae and plastic garbage thrive in the water.

Upon entering the fort, there are two pathways ahead of you to the left and the right. In fact, the paths always divide at every juncture inside the fort. The only way of knowing which way you should go is to look on the wall of the fort to find elephants pointing in certain directions. The way they face is the way to go. For instance, at the entrance of the fort, there were three elephants facing three different directions, showing that one had to walk straight first, take a right and then a left.

But that's not the most brilliant part of the fort. I have total respect for the genius behind the creator of the Dark Passage: Once the enemy enters the fort, they must pass through more than a kilometre-long, pitch dark passage. There's no wind, no light, and absolutely no idea of where one is headed. You may think you're walking straight, but actually, you're going around in a semi-circle. At some places, you'll find a duct wide enough to let you pass through. Stay away from it. It will lead you straight into the hungry mouths of waiting crocodiles.

****

If you think the Ellora Caves are beautiful, then you're in for a surprise. Ajanta Caves, a two-hour drive from Aurangabad, are the most stunning examples of Buddhist art i have seen.

The story goes that John Smith, a British gentleman from the days of the Raj, was out in the mountains hunting for tigers. He didn't find any striped cats, but his eye did catch something white glinting in the distance. Curious about what it could be, he walked over (it's a good five kilometre walk at least, by the way; you have to do a LOT of walking to see Ajanta caves) and noticed that it was a door of some kind. And so started the excavation work of the caves that were hidden for more than 800 years. The place has been declared a World Heritage Site, and when one sees the beauty that's been preserved inside each of these caves, one can understand why.

The walls and ceilings are full of paintings - elaborate, colourful, impressive and massive. Each painting depicts a story from Buddha's life and the people associated with him. In this cave, the painting on the walls is the story of a poor boy and a rich girl. The father of the girl is the best chess player in the world, and when he hears of the poor boy wanting to marry his daughter, he challenges the boy to a game of chess. Distraught because he knows he won't win, the boy seeks the help of divine powers. Meanwhile, the mother of the girl talks to her husband and says that if he doesn't lose the game, his daughter will never marry. And so the father loses the game, and the couple get married.

No sculpture in the Ajanta caves is less than six feet tall. Add to it the sculpting itself, and you're bound to be left feeling small and insignificant. Even your most remarkable achievement will fade into nothing when you behold the marvels hidden within the caves.

Like Mahaveer, Buddha's sculpture also is flanked by two smaller sculptures on either side - his helper and wife who were with him throughout his life.

Some of the caves are lit because Ajanta was created in the shape of a horse shoe facing West. So sunlight only comes in fully when the sun's setting. The cave in which this picture was taken was not a finished one. The creation of caves depended solely on the stone, and so, if the stone was not good, then the sculptors and artisans abandoned their efforts and moved on further. Opposite the sculpture pictured here was an unfinished sculpture missing its lower body. I obviously haven't shared the picture because it has more people than the sculpture.

Be warned, when you go to Ajanta or Ellora - and this is regardless of the time of year you go in - there will always be hordes of people. Some foreigners, but mostly locals and Indians from other cities. In Aurangabad, it is compulsory for schools to take kids on a historical trip once a year. So you'll find lots of school kids too.

Also, flash photography isn't allowed in most caves. I never use Flash, but for those of you who do, make sure you enquire - if you're not with a tourist guide.

This is a picture of Cave No.26, the most beautiful cave at Ajanta. Every aspect of this temple is detailed and finished to perfection. Unlike all other Buddhist caves, this one has a special something to offer its visitors:

A 7-feet long sculpture of a Reclining Buddha. All other caves show him sitting in one of his three Aasans - teacher, protector or meditator. This is the only one that shows him resting. (Don't miss the tassled bolster under his head.) Just below his sculpture, you'll find carvings of people. They're all crying or weeping or in misery because they think that Buddha is not looking over them any more.

This was the last of the Ajanta caves we saw. I was tempted to go to the lookout point from where John Smith had discovered the caves, but after all the walking around, i just didn't have the energy.

****

The part of the holiday i was looking forward to the most was the trip to Lonar Lake.

Over 50,000 years ago, a meteor hit Earth, forming a crater and displacing the land mass around it. As the years passed, fresh water sources from around it started trickling in, and soon a lake was formed. The water is rich in minerals - some that aren't even discovered yet - but with a pH level of 10.5 which makes the water unfit to drink, bathe in or use for any purpose. The rim of the crater is almost two kilometres in diameter, and the base of the crater has rich biodiversity, with migratory birds (none of which we saw, except for ducks) often flocking to it.

The climb down is 170-odd metres, with no defined path to take one down to the base. It is said that the meteor is still buried 50-60 metres under the lake. But whether this is true or not, it is true that the magnetic fields at the base are pretty active.

This is a picture of the Raam temple that people built a little after the 10th century. When the tourist guide and i entered and sat down, the guide took out his compass and asked me to observe the four directions carefully. South was to my left, North to my right and so on. He then moved the compass four inches away, and the directions immediately changed to East to my left and West to my right. I was awestruck. As if to make sure that i didn't think it was a trick of sorts, he moved the magnet around a few more inches every 30 seconds, and the direction of the poles changed immediately! It was absolutely fascinating.

There are at least 20 more temple ruins at the base, of which i saw three that seemed eerie and straight out of horror movies. The lake water itself is ripple-free and green because of all the algae living in it. It's a very quiet place to be in and i loved every minute there.

We spent an entire day at Lonar, leaving the Bibi ka Maqbara, Panchakki and Aurangabad Caves for the last day of our holiday.

This here is the Taj Mahal. Not. Hehe. This is Bibi ka Maqbara, nicknamed the Mini Taj Mahal. It looks exactly like the Taj, except that the Taj is bigger, the smaller domes adjacent to the central dome are absent in it, and the entire structure is made of marble. In this rendition of the Taj, the base and up to two feet above the base is made of marble; everything else is limestone.

Aurangabad Caves are a stone's throw away from Bibi ka Maqbara. These are Buddhist caves as well, with one cave holding carvings of Buddha and Ganesha side by side, implying that sculpting could have happened at two different points in time by two different religions. Had the caves been completed, they would've been almost as remarkable as Ajanta-Ellora, but the work was abandoned because the stone wasn't good. There are plenty of unfinished stone carvings that are testimony to this.

Collectively, all the caves have inspired textile arts that go by the name of Himroo and Paithani. Himroo mostly uses motif patterns from cave paintings, typically the swirls and curls and mandalas. Paithani is inspired by the Buddhist painting style and is full of animals, lotus flowers and birds. The colours are vibrant, and gold threads are sometimes used. These days, though, weavers use silver thread plated with gold because of gold rates. Himroo can mostly be found in shawls and stoles, while i've seen Paithani designs only in sarees. The former is possibly more affordable, while the latter is bound to leave a gaping hole in your pocket, with Paithani sarees starting at 6,000 rupees and going all the way up to 5,00,000.

So yes, i've pretty much covered everything. I'm done with my monologue, i've lived my adventure. It's your turn now, so go and experience Aurangabad as soon as you can. I assure you, you won't regret it.

Woo me, man.

Found: 'Date a girl who reads' by Rosemarie Urquico.

Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes. She has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve.

Find a girl who reads. You’ll know that she does because she will always have an unread book in her bag. She’s the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly cries out when she finds the book she wants. You see the weird chick sniffing the pages of an old book in a second hand book shop? That’s the reader. They can never resist smelling the pages, especially when they are yellow.

She’s the girl reading while waiting in that coffee shop down the street. If you take a peek at her mug, the non-dairy creamer is floating on top because she’s kind of engrossed already. Lost in a world of the author’s making. Sit down. She might give you a glare, as most girls who read do not like to be interrupted. Ask her if she likes the book.

Buy her another cup of coffee.Let her know what you really think of Murakami. See if she got through the first chapter of Fellowship. Understand that if she says she understood James Joyce’s Ulysses she’s just saying that to sound intelligent. Ask her if she loves Alice or she would like to be Alice.

It’s easy to date a girl who reads. Give her books for her birthday, for Christmas and for anniversaries. Give her the gift of words, in poetry, in song. Give her Neruda, Pound, Sexton, Cummings. Let her know that you understand that words are love. Understand that she knows the difference between books and reality but by god, she’s going to try to make her life a little like her favorite book. It will never be your fault if she does.

She has to give it a shot somehow.

Lie to her. If she understands syntax, she will understand your need to lie. Behind words are other things: motivation, value, nuance, dialogue. It will not be the end of the world.

Fail her. Because a girl who reads knows that failure always leads up to the climax. Because girls who read understand that all things will come to end. That you can always write a sequel. That you can begin again and again and still be the hero. That life is meant to have a villain or two.

Why be frightened of everything that you are not? Girls who read understand that people, like characters, develop. Except in the Twilight series.

If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. She’ll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always are.

You will propose on a hot air balloon. Or during a rock concert. Or very casually next time she’s sick. Over Skype.

You will smile so hard you will wonder why your heart hasn’t burst and bled out all over your chest yet. You will write the story of your lives, have kids with strange names and even stranger tastes. She will introduce your children to the Cat in the Hat and Aslan, maybe in the same day. You will walk the winters of your old age together and she will recite Keats under her breath while you shake the snow off your boots.

Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable. If you can only give her monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals, then you’re better off alone. If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads.

Or better yet, date a girl who writes.

Thoughts at ________.

I think. A lot. I think of this, that and the other. I think of what if, why, but, so what, why isn't and what for. I think of actions, consequences, results, behaviours, assumptions, patterns, comebacks and responses. So yes, i think a lot. Sometimes, all this thinking leaves me with a conclusion of sorts on people and life. And for almost a year now, i've been saving these personal gems of wisdom on my phone as and when they occur, complete with the time at which they come into my head.

Many, many times i have been tempted to post those thoughts here. But every time, this urge is followed by a stronger urge - the one that does not want me to reveal so much about myself, because those thoughts are sure giveaways of who and what i am. You read them, and you pretty much don't need anything else on this blog to tell you about the person behind it.

But today, i feel the urge to post those thoughts again. And today, i'm putting it up for vote.

So, should i do it? Should i post those thoughts here?

Yellolo!

I'm back in town after a week of travelling, and can i say that i'm physically and emotionally exhausted? Physically tired in a good way - although i DO desperately need three days of uninterrupted sleep.

Aurangabad was full of sleeplessness from the word Go, with early morning flights and early morning trips to places one MUST visit in and around the city. I'm also as browned as a turkey just out of the oven. You'd think that there would be no hot places in India in December, but my God are you wrong! The heat in Aurangabad was sweltering and sharp and designed to char people. There was a lot of walking and trekking in the heat. More on that in a different post, with plenty of pictures.

Add to that a spur-of-the-moment decision (not my style when it comes to travelling, trust me) to fly out to Hyderabad for New Year's Eve, bringing with it two nights of near-sleeplessness because of sitting around talking till 5 in the morning and catching a 7:30 a.m flight from an airport that's halfway to Mars, and we have the poifect recipe for a sick puppy. I think i'm done with my quota of bloody early morning flights for the year.

The emotional strain is also fodder for another post in the future. Maybe.

But altogether, not a bad start to the year at all. The Aurangabad frenzy was followed by a very quiet New Year's Eve with a couple of close friends - no shoo-sha, shor sharaba or crowds. Just the way i wanted it to be.

No resolutions have come of it, but i have grand plans to kick the shite out of the dozen months ahead of me. I'm going to try and squeeze the most out of every day.

Wish me luck.

I know my bridal nerves (if i ever become a bride) will be nothing compared to my pre-travel jitters.

The emotions always follow a pattern. A week before i'm set to travel, i feel a sense of doom and gloom and a strong reluctance to go where i'm supposed to. Two days before i travel, my mood switches to anticipation with a sprinkling of optimism - that everything its going to go smoothly - thrown in. A day before/the day i'm travelling, i'm in a mad rush to pack, finish last minute stuff (read shopping and parlour visits, mostly) and getting so anxious that i'm unable to sleep/calm myself down. (This is the critical moment when i really, really feel the need for a boyfriend in my life; so he can shush me and take me to task and hug me and make the jitters go away!) Once i'm at the airport, i'm calm. My equilibrium is restored.

But i doubt it's going to happen on this trip of mine, because:
a) I'm travelling with my parents. A family holiday, one that got called off a handful of months ago, but that's happening now. The destination - Aurangabad - is one i'm looking forward to because it's someplace i would never have gone to on my own; the resort looks promising; the experience overall seems like it's going to be awesome, but...
b) My tickets from Mumbai tomorrow night to Aurangabad are not confirmed. IRCTC has had a lapse in Web memory and shows my printed tickets (which i took today) as waitlisted while the Web site shows them as RAC. So...
c) I've spent the better half of this evening panicking like crazy, trying to figure out alternatives, rebooking some of my tickets and still grappling with what i should do if we don't get to board the train tomorrow night. But before that, i have to deal with the fact that...
d) My parents are flying for the first time. Well, Mom's travelling a second time, her first time being when she was too young to understand turbulence and fear being suspended thousands of kilometres above air in a contraption carrying more people in a similar situation. (Can you tell that i'm rambling?) I can see a lot of hand-holding to be done and guidance to be given starting at 3 a.m in the morning. (I booked the first flight out because i wanted them to catch the sunrise from the airplane. Now i'm thinking that maybe it wasn't such a smart idea.)

And that reminds me that i need to get some sleep. I doubt if i will be able to get any, considering that while i'm not stressing about tomorrow night's travel too much, i'm still feeling the butterflies in the eestomach. Breathebreathebreathe...breathe...breathe...

And so my holiday begins.

Have a great Christmas y'all, and if i miss catching you on New Year's Eve, then have a great Last Year on Planet Earth!

(Enhehehe!)

So, i know we never grow up in the eyes of our parents and all that, but...

... this is a bit much, i think.

Apparently, my parents bought it for me. I'm wondering if they're sort of making up for the fact that i never had a Barbie during my childhood (not that i longed to own her or plait her hair or have her getting married to Ken) or just all of two soft toys. But really, my fear is that my Mom and Dad must be thinking that i'm regressing rather than getting older with every passing year.

Parents, i tell you.

Oil + Water = Art

For the last two rainy seasons, i've been attempting to get a good shot of a water droplet. A couple of months back, though, my roving eye caught something even more beautiful happening on the side. So i refocused my camera, changed my position and dove in to capture what was going on. I have no idea where the grease came from, but it formed a stunning marbling pattern on the surface.

The shot couldn't get clearer than this because there were shadows falling on it from all sides. Issopurty!

And then i just stood there and stared at it, going all google-eyed, completely oblivious to the fact that my camera lens was getting wet with all the splashes from the raindrops.

Yes, my camera's just fine.

I is now on Twitteru.

I've never understood the appeal of tweeting, and i don't think i will fully understand it either. I have decided to take the plunge anyway and get on it. Maybe i can learn as i go.

My area of specialty will be punning, of course. I will unleash my punning abilities on the unsuspecting crowds and kill them all with my sad, sad jokes. And then i'll rule the world!

Well, sort of.

I will be selfless here and tell you guys that if you value being normal and sane and all things good and proper, don't try looking for me and following me. It's for your own good. Really. I will, however, promise to post the better puns on this blog from time to time.

Let's just rechristen December 20 as Screw My Happiness Day.

How is it possible that being friends with one person can become such a problem for all other friends? It's amazing how many friends and relationships of mine have been affected because of my being close friends with one particular person. My bestest friend from college days slammed the phone in my face because of it. Another very close friend drifted apart. I didn't get invited for another friend's wedding because of it. I mean, really? Is there something i'm not seeing? It's not like i'm not paying them any attention or ignoring them or not socialising with them or am not even there when they want me to be! I am there! And still there's an issue with my being close to somebody else?

I don't get it. I really don't. It must most definitely be me. There has to be something wrong with me, or something wrong with the things i'm doing.

Damn this cold.

It's been over two years since i've experienced December in Bangalore - i was busy experiencing the chills of Delhi and Gujarat. Now that i'm here this month with no escape out of the city till the 25th, i feel like the city's putting on quite a show for the winter.

The couple of times i've been mad enough to stay out till the wee hours of the morning have been punishing, to say the least. My breath fogs up, my body can't muster enough heat to keep me warm, my teeth are chattering, and my head's a big mass of frozen skull and flesh. Every early morning flight taking off from Bangalore is delayed because of heavy fog. I'll know exactly how bad it is when i leave on Christmas morning to catch my early morning flight.

There isn't a bird chirping or a soul stirring. Sorry, make that a mouse! The temperature's pretty close to single digits, so the only thing missing now is snow. (Did anybody manage to catch the Google easter egg on snow? Turns out i was nine hours too late for it!)

I'm just going to go and focus on keeping myself warm now. My fingers are as good as falling off. I hope your winter's slightly less chillier, for your own sake.

Freaky Friday.

This Friday involved:
1. Taking great pains to button up a pair of jeans that were bought a couple of years ago when i was seeing The Boy and that had never been so tight. Never, ever.
2. Being fashionably late to an office party.
3. Pretending to be overjoyed at seeing a few Ugh people still present at the party.
4. Wearing new clothes to the office party with a jacket i hadn't touched in years.
5. Going for an after-party to A's, where everybody began:
a. Getting shitfaced.
b. Philosophising on life and other such stuff.
c. Climbing walls. Literally.
6. Partying till 5 a.m. Not really dancing, no. But just climbing walls, falling down, bonding and putting.
7. An early breakfast (5:30 a.m, to be precise) of Chicken Tikka on a Bun and Fish and chips at Windsor Manor.
8. Returning home at 6:30 a.m on Saturday morning, as my mother was getting ready to go to her school.

This Saturday involved:
1. Sleeping till 1 p.m and being unceremoniously woken up by Sister K because she:
a. Couldn't sleep any more.
b. Was hungry.
2. Lunch at Windsor. After finishing a plate of Brain and Onion Fry by myself - accompanied by four dosas and chicken curry - i began to understand why my body mass was multiplying at such great speeds.
3. Shopping at Commercial Street. I finally own a pair of skinny jeans and two Corduroy jeggings. Oh, and a couple more tops. I'm done shopping for a while!
4. Tagging along to an HSBC event at Karnataka Golf Association.
5. Kicking myself endlessly for not carrying my camera with me.
6. Going over to G's for dinner and getting back home by 1:30 a.m.
7. Sleeping till 2:00 p.m in the afternoon.

Hellooooo Sunday!