The point being?

“Whatever you say about this new principal”, mom told me, “he’s the only one, and there have been three since I joined the Centre, to actually greet, shake hands with, and hug the children”
Ok sir, I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. You’re a good guy, I see…

I took advantage of an impromptu sleepover at Sneh’s on Thursday to enjoy their dishTV connection. NDTV was on that day, with a debate about the IPL cheerleaders, whether they should be banned.
“Their obscene costumes appeal to the viler base instincts of the Indian male!” spluttered one of the participants, “And they take attention away from the game! I mean, we want to watch cricket, someone hits a four, but instead of a replay there’s these girls in skimpy skirts!”
Yet another participant said maybe the costumes were a bit…on the invisible side, but cheerleading as such is not a bad thing and not really distracting.
Hmm, I don’t think the guy holding up the “I’m here to watch the girls NOT THE CRICKET” poster shares that opinion.
And besides, said the more sympathetic participant, what about the costumes worn by dancers in Bollywood movies? Isn’t it almost the same? All right, maybe some of the cheerleading costumes are a bit low in the neck and high in the leg….maybe whoever hired them should respect Indian sensibilities a little and get costumes that cover the midriff…..But cheerleading as such, not bad. They do their job well, these girls.
Almost as if to prove a point, a song-teaser of Tashan shows up, with Kareena in hot pants and a tiny sport bikini top thing, grooving away.

“So what’s IPL all about really?” I ask Sneh. Having no cable TV, no Pehla, no jingalala, no dishTV, it kinda blocks me out a bit.
“Nothing man,” she replies tetchily. “Players ke boli lagate hain. They auction off players to all these industrialists and people who have too much money who want to form a team. It’s all about money.”
“So it’s nothing to do with place really?” I ask.
“No” her sis says, “The senior players, they play for their region, like Sachin’s playing for Mumbai, but the other players are sold to the highest bidder.”
Yesterday morning, on NDTV at Sneh’s, I saw something about “Will IPL get better ratings than Primetime television”
So what, really, is the point of having this tournament? Because the whole thing seemed to me like an irrational video game thing. Are we having the tournament just for the ratings? Or for the money? Or what? Once again we see this fragile world built on a shaky foundation of money, cash, moolah, prosperity, that makes this world go round, it seems.
The class (my friends, those I talk to now) disagree. When IPL discussion started I was greeted with a barrage of conflicting opinions… “promotes harmony among the team players, Brett Lee and Sreesanth get along so well now, didn’t you see that” … “Regionality promoted!!” (This was Sneh again)… etc.
Today after tuts a friend got a text, Kolkata night riders had won today. She hadn’t wanted them to win, she said “Shah Rukh Khan overdoes things.”
The mind boggles. SRK now owns a cricket team? O_o

Also seen yesterday morning at Sneh’s, making me think at first “Hey, I wanna audition!” but later giving me thoughts alomg the lines of soul-selling : MTV Roadies 5.0. Now I like Roadies, kinda. I watched a bit of Roadies 4 when I was in Delhi-Bombay year before last, and I kinda liked it. Sneh’s sis later informed me that Roadies was a copy of some other show. I guessed Fear Factor. Which I greatly enjoy. Much more than Roadies, now. The difference between the two? Politics, politics, politics. Who goes ahead on Fear Factor is solely determined by how well they do the tasks. No vote-outs, no conspiracies. On the Roadies episode I watched, their ‘money task’ was to eat various Thai ‘delicacies’. Worms, frogs, locusts, squid, sea snakes. Ugh. For phenomenal amounts. I’d rather not have the money. Really. I mean…(yeah, even on Fear Factor I don’t like the tasks involving eating gross).
The ‘advantage task’ was a Muay Thai boxing match (now that I’d enjoy. Really.). It was only after 6 hours training that the Roadies found out they’d be fighting each other.
“Think about what’s more important here,” said Vijay, the MC, “Your survival on this show, or your ‘dosti’” God, I hated that. The way he said it. Because here it doesn’t matter who you hurt, you just need to get ahead. Roadies seems cool on the surface, all those daredevil tasks, the bikes, but what I couldn’t ever do is the metaphorical grasping hands just to pull the other down, I couldn’t befriend someone knowing I might have to betray her sometime in the near future.
Nihal was the one most expected to get voted out, but in the end, it was Varun who got unlucky.
Nihal grinned triumphantly into the camera. “You might have beaten me up today bacchu, but I did the politics.”

“People say such great things about the youth of India”, Sneh mutters “what to do if the youth is only like this??”
Sigh. Whatever happened to honour?
Money talks. I wish it’d shut up.

Yeah, this is new.

Being house captain. Finally. Very new to me.
True, I am lucky, very. True, it's a very coveted post.....
The full implication of it hasn't hit me properly yet....
Yeah, it does mean bunking like crazy to get people to enlist for various teams.....
It means taking responsibility....For the performance of your house....
Welcome to Yellow House.
We've been coming fourth (We have four houses, Red, blue, green, yellow) for.......well, as many years as I've been in school.
And now, this girl who does no other sport than her athletics must get the demoralised demotivated students to actually work for it.
At the same time keeping her studies up.
Mission not-so-impossible. This one lasts a full year. Ooh babe we gonna have fun.

Meanwhile, we have a new principal. We had morning assembly today, and our Vice principal asked us to welcome him in "true ISM tradition", ie applause. Not really a tradition, no.
True ISM tradition was after a speech lasting 20 minutes, most of which we did not listen to, we applauded in the hope that he'd stop. Yep, THAT'S our tradition.
The only line of his speech which actually stuck in our heads: "I will be briefing you like this every assembly"
God Forbid.

School spirit. follows you everywhere na?

So that was fun....

I met Lia again after a whole year...

We got dropped off at Starbucks by mom. Did I mention I was in a GREAT mood? I mean. really happy and all. And I babble when I'm happy.

Anyway, I order my usual mocha and the guys behind the counter just fall about laughing. I do not see what they find so funny....."stop laughing!" I tell them, they laugh some more.sigh.

I ask Lia if she wants to eat, she says not really, but we both have our eye on this very rich, dark looking brownie........the last one in the place...

"lets order it" she says......

"Excuse me..." says a guy next to us. "I was just gonna order that"

"well, so were we."

"so, you want a fight?"

"Nah, do you? So I'm just gonna order. okay?" I say.

"marble brownie!" we scream in unison at the perplexed barista. I'm thoroughly enjoying this. So is Lia, so are the baristas.

"Oh come on," says the guy. "I'm a tourist, is this how you treat visitors?"

"Where're you from?"

"Bombay"

"So am I...."

"But you LIVE here!" he whines...

"Aww, but we're girls...."Lia says, batting her eyelashes.

The man just wants the brownie.

sigh.

"You study here, which school?"

"why?....." I ask suspiciously, one should never immediately give out the name of one's school....

"well, there are lots of them..."

"ok, ISM" I tell him. Lia's technically an ex-student now.

"well," he points to a friend," he's ex-ISM too...."

The friend mutters something about not talking to strangers.....

Many snide comments follow, but after he makes the ultimate deal "okay, you have it, but then you pay for whatever I eat...", we decide it's not worth it, and let him have it... nice people that we are....

"hope you have indigestion," mutters Lia. Actually, I hope he enjoyed it...it would be a crime not to enjoy that brownie....

Funny-guy's a counselor in Dubai, his job description is "telling people what they already know and then charging them money for it. Kinda like tuitions. you go to PK or Abraham in school, and then you go to them for tuitions to learn something you alredy know...."

"you're ex-ISM too?" Lia asks...

"yeah," he proceeds to do a spot on imitation of Lia's ex chem teacher.

By this time, they've totally forgotten my drink....I jog the barista's memory and get it. We sit, we can finally talk.

Lia's yet another close friend who left.....Now in Trichur, boarding school, PC thomas' entrance coaching....so disconnected from mail and phone, since PC lives in the middle ages.....

But she's found herself now...she can just go up and talk to strangers....she's lost 17 kgs (we checked out before and after pics of us....me with the overgrowing eyebrows, her with the weight....dear lord we were an unlikely pair..)..And she actually danced for her annual day programme.....she's so...happy.

We sat on the beach at my fave spot....watching the waves...so beautiful how they curled and crashed over the steps at the Shatti...talking about how most of her old friends had changed so much...talking about everything that'd happened since she'd been gone...

She had a lot to say bout how I say I don't care about what people say, then why do I blog?

Well, I kinda like blogging. In some weird way, it helps. And I don't want to care, most of me doesn't....but there's a bit at the core which does. Sigh. Mostly I ignore that bit. And the blog.....helps.....in some way, it's really important...

Anyway, we caught a cab (Li's first time without a parent) and went off to OBC..bowling....It was fun, I haven't bowled in a while. I bowled 72, which is crap for others, but for me it's pretty good.

Yeah, It was fun. I Re-found an old friend....one that I'll never lose.....Love ya...

School spirit. follows you everywhere na?

Rut.

Yeah, the boredom's back.
So big a rut am I in, I feel like literally screaming. In fact, I do. Screaming "I'mboredI'mboredI'mbored" and checking out people's reactions is good.
Freaking out those friends of mine who are on the slightly straight-laced side works too. These friends are not great advocates of the hugs that I so need. Hmph, they know not what they miss

12th grade? Is slow. One week feels like a bloody eternity, I tell ya. I just want to get this year over and done with, and I'm pretty sure the last few months will feel like being pushed through a cheese grater. Grrrh....

Causes for boredom and irritation and basic dissatisfaction are varied.....
First, the very much identified flying objects. Every single class. Pen-tops. Bits of chalk. Broken pencils, rulers, erasers, and all manner of stationery. Water bottles and their contents......all escalate in to a year-long projectile war.....Yeah, it's fun sometimes, but it tends to get on your nerves soon.
Recess is danger. Tennis balls flying around the class at a VERY high speed. Out we go. Canteen provides no chocolate whatsoever. Why me, Lord?

Chem/physics goes ok-ok. Math even better, except for my teacher's atrocious pronunciation of the word 'matrix', which we have been forced to listen to ever since school started, all through matrices and determinants.....

ED? Ha. Ha. Thanks to space shortage, our ED lab has been converted into a classroom for a few weeks, till the new auditorium+class building is ready to use. Huh.

And finally, you'd think in my final year I'd be taught English like it's supposed to be taught? I actually fell asleep in English today. My teacher is the Head of Department, you think he'd be good, but no such luck, the only words i have to describe his class......bone-dry. I actually produced a pretty cute drawing in his class today. I also read two of the lessons in the textbook (they were good stories) and yeah, I slept. huh. Right.

My internet connection is being a bitch, my facebook wall posts to Elaine refuse to post, and that's my only way of contacting the girl since she left.
Darn, I really wish I knew her better, she's so..........so much like me, and so different from all those I hang out with now.....
A pox on Facebook.
And my net connection.
This pretty good photo i took has been trying to load for over half an hour......

I wish I could see into the future.....

My mom flopped down in a chair today afternoon and said "You know what happened in my class today??"
I prepare myself for something unusual, mom's special ed class has the youngest students in the Centre for Special Education that's on my school campus, so there's almost always something going on there, and almost everyday someone has to clean up something......

So I asked her, "Nah, tell me...."

" J got her period today.........."
Ouch.
Shit.
J is 8 and a half years old. She's autistic.
" She's almost like a baby, she is a baby" Mom said, "She doesn't understand anything...."
I pondered.
A lot of people feel sad when they see the kids....it's no use feeling sad....because the kids aren't sad....they're happy, they're pure unadultrated joy like you can hardly find anywhere else.....
And there are so many things, so many little miracles that make mom's day, and that's what they work for, the little miracles....

J, who earlier never talked, crawls up to Mom with a bubble wand and says "Blow."
That's the one miracle I've heard about....but there are more....

And then there are the situations that always make you laugh....
like B, a 5 year old boy who can talk the hind leg off a donkey, very articulate in Hindi and English, And boy, the stuff he says....
Last month, he told Tina (his teacher) that he had promised to be bad for a whole week. And he lived up to his promise, running out of class at the least opportunity, struggling ("I will stuggle, I will stuggle") when they dragged him back, tantrums, etc etc etc.......

There's A, he's, I don't know, 7? He's beautiful. In 10 years, he'll be a total hottie. He's autistic too...but he's great, he talks, he works when worked with, and his mum, she's the most proactive mum I've ever seen....she's done so much for her son and all the other Mothers who come to the centre with their kids.....

Oh, it's a great place to work and all, you just need plenty of patience, muchas optimism, and Hope. Above all, hope. And you learn to see the joy in the little things. In the end that's what matters, innit?

Love

Ok, I found this in a book, "I loved a girl"...........It's a series of letters between an african couple who want to get married, and their pastor.
It made me wonder. Whether I was wrong.
This is what it says.....

It's true you can say to a girl "I love you", but what you really mean is something like this: "I want something. Not you, but something from you. I don't have time to wait. I want it immediately, without delay. It doesn't matter what happens afterwards. Whether we remain together, whether you become pregnant--that has nothing to do with me. For me, it's right now that counts. I will make use of you in order to satisfy my desire. You are for me only the means by which I can reach my goal. I want to have it--have it without any further ado, have it, immediately.
This is the opposite of love, for love wants to give. Love seeks to make the other one happy, and not himself. You acted like a pure egoist. Instead of saying: "I loved a girl" you should have said: " I loved myself and myself only. For this purpose I misused a girl"
Let me try to tell you what it really should mean if a fellow says to a girl, "I love you." It means: "you, you, you. You alone. You shall reign in my heart. You are the one whom I have longed for, without you, I am incomplete. I will give everything for you and I will give up everything for you, myself as well as all that I possess. I will live for you alone. And I will wait for you--it doesn't matter how long. I will always be patient with you. I will never force you, not even by words. I want to guard you, protect you, and keep you from all evil. I want to share with you my thoughts, my heart and my body--all that I possess. I want to listen to what you have to say. There is nothing I want to undertake without your blessing. I want to remain always by your side."
Only in marriage can love really unfold and mature, because only there can it find permanence and faithfulness. True love never can and never will end. That's why you should use the great words "I love you" very sparingly. You should save it for the girl whom you intend to marry.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Oui, that is indeed what it says.
The book is "I loved a girl" by a Walter Trobisch. It's a true story, and the letters are real. this is a bit from one of the first letters that is contained in this book. Walter's the Pastor who advises. Apparently this book became really famous. I'd reccommend it.

It made me think.........about all those motions I have about love and marriage. Maybe now I do believe in marriage......just not my marriage.

Anyway. Just something I felt like sharing.