Last minute measures to make me run better.

It's like the Goodyear tyre logo, like the messenger of the Gods, was it Hermes or Mercury?

When the twain meet and other updates.

SAT scores out this morning, I'm 2240. :)

In the true spirit of diwali, the lights in the elevator have now started to flicker. oh joy. My dad responded to this by making a different ghastly face each time the lights went on.

And yesterday my two best friends met each other. Rushi meets Kay, at the souq. It was all pretty good, actually, I blew a lot of money on crystal beads(citrine, smoky quartz, aquamarine, all chunky. and silver beads too.), he blew money on a gift, she blew money on a pretty shell locket.
And Rushi darling has a disproportionately overlarge mouth. Kay was still reeling from the shockers he told her about me half an hour later. Shaking her head in bemusement and going "Seriously, Myst, I cannot believe you.....what the heck is wrong with you..." etc.

If you can't get the skeletons outa your closet, at least teach them to dance.
with beads on.

Elevator to Hell.

Every so often the lift in my building goes defunct and for days on end, we have to troop up and down three ffloors of stairs. Most of the time, it's just that the thing refuses to heed our call, being stuck in the shaft, i suppose.
But this is worse. The lift in moving in perfect condition with a contented hum. there's just one problem.
The lights have gone off.
The firt time those doors slid open to reveal the lightless, creepy chamber, I just went "O-kaaaaaay............." This did not bode well for me. I do not really have a Fear of the Dark, but i'm not too fond of it. And I do have a VERY fertile imagination indeed.
The doors close in upon me, only a miniscule slit of light remains...I'm in a void, a little black pod travelling slowly downwards, who knows to where.....my heart clenches, my muscles tense...
Maybe i'll fall into a blazing inferno...Maybe the shadows will suck me in and shrivel away my essence and feast on my bones....
Twenty tiny interminable seconds later, a shuddering stop.
The little light-slit widens.
I fly out onto the ground floor without a backward glance.

Oh how i hate when this happens.

I had some pretty good thoughts in school. all very good. i remember thinking i'd write them down when i got home.

but somewhere on my way back home, the thoughts lost their way. and now i can't find them.

i hate this.

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meanwhile. athletics season is back, the meet's on thursday.

shudder.

back to blah-ish

After two crazy weekends, it's back to blah.

of course, the plus-point being that the best friend 1 or something like it is back....

back to the beach, coffee and convo as usual.....
:)
circles closed and convo made good.
:)

and 2ndly, Kay's coming back. the day after tomorrow.

sigh.
:)

the athletics is back, and it's not been going well so far. i ache all over.
:(
something always has to screw up the :) na?

WOot. Yet again, I woot.
Possibly the best (or the worst, depends on how you see it) way to prepare for the SAT is to go for a rock concert.
And so, four months after the idea was concieved, we present Fulfilling Dreams, featuring.........

PARIKRAMA!!!

Woot. So yeah, I was volunteer, so i got there REAL early, early enough to watch (and hear, obv) the band do sound checks...

And of course, plaster myself against the ginormous speakers, spread-eagled, and the drums boomed in my heart and my veins....
The music.....it's alive.....

I went off into the mosh pit, which was actually pathetically empty in the beginning, sat around as we waited for the comperes to finish and to introduce........PARIKRAMA!!!

Imagine....
A press of bodies, hands upraised, animal screams...
the sound, it lives, it moves...
the mosh pit throbs...
Best place ever, right against the stage, thump with the bass, the beats in your head, your heart, your soul....it's gonna getcha...
Guitars scream with pleasure as loving fingers by no means gentle tickle them, caress them, hit all the right spots till the instrument moans and finally reaches a beautiful screaming orgasmic peak....
And we out there live the climax.

They started with a fun Rhythm n Blues...which was good, and then they announced Iron Maiden's greatest....
And with the opening chords of Fear of the Dark the crowd went wild.
Right in the front, the crowd pulsates....I clambered onto the shoulders of the unfortunate D.M (thanks buddy....Anyway, i was the first to do that, i actually wanted to crowd-surf but looked like that wasn't happening......some press photographer out there has a photo of an elevated Myst goin wild, I suspect) and started my not-so-good version of headbanging, while trying hard to maintain balance....I swear it felt like I was riding an elephant....
The crowd continued to go ballistic, heads bouncing, sweat dripping, hair flying, all the way through Purple Haze, But it Rained and Another Brick in the Wall, and suddenly a long forgotten tune is struck up and the crowd starts singin Saare Jahaan se Accha...Hindustan Hamara Hamara....

Bounce push heave all the way through Sweet Child of Mine, Paradise City, Trooper, Whiskey blues, Smoke on the Water and finally back on D.M's shoulders for Highway to Hell.....
And then it was over....

(wild screaming here)

My shirts (the purple one and the Parikrama volunteer shirt on top) and my scribbled-on jeans and my hair, all drenched with sweat....

My throat is still sore, and my head feels like a ball on a stick...

But by all the Gods of Rock and everything else.....................it was worth it.

A night of many miracles

Dussera, the night of ten miracles...
well, actually two. and a few pretty amazing hours after that.
So we were in the toilets in the Amphi building, near the new hall yesterday evening, getting ready for interhouse drama competition and suddenly, a commotion. A call for a plastic bag. And then Bush says "I'm just gonna do it, okay?" I thought she was going to be sick, but then someone said "There's a cat stuck in there."
My mind loomed with a comical pic of my fatcat Maheen scrabbling to get out of the commode, but when i looked in, i gave an involuntary squeal, two foetal hind legs in the water, the body no doubt wedged in the pipe.
So Bush puts her hand in a bag, plunges it in and pulls out a struggling pink kitten, hardly a day old. We spent the next half hour wrapping it up, cleaning it, feeding it, till it seemed content. By GOd, that one's a fighter, and a healthy baby. If she survived near drowning I think she'll survive the rest of it.
Ladies and gentlemen, Miracle. We named her that.

wrapped in my handkerchief. She fits into my palm like a round furry cell phone.
The rescuer and the rescued.
And she fell asleep in my hand.
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And then we were onstage. Our play: The Ghost of Jerry Bundler. I don't know what happened there, I think I was in limbo, though we did overdo the climax, a lot of things broke....
We were the first on schedule, so I had a lot of time after that, most of which I spent checking on the cat.

And, so many hours later, it was time for results.....
I got best supporting actress for my waitress role, dunno why and how, but :D !!
And then, time for the final positions....
In the fourth place: Blue
third place: Green
Second place...................
(interminable pause. please please let it not be us......)
In second place: Red house!!

At thism we jump up and start screaming too, and don't bother to hear first position (us!!!!) we storm the stage amid cheers (us) take our trophies, pose, and go singing to class, where we pose some more, dance a bit, scream, etc.

And when I see mom, I pull puppy dog faces and the I-Wanna-Celebrate card, and that's how I ended up at Marlboro Grounds a half-hour later, for the 2nd half of the last day of dandiya.
I reached the place at 11.30, perfect timing, there was a break going on, so i went off to find out who was there, recieved namy congratulations and one sore loser commenting about my lack of acting talent. they never change.
At midnight we burst into racuous song in honour of Chikki's birthday, and I partnered her when the dancing finally started. They started off with Gujju songs and then switched to filmi, and that's when we threw down the sticks and started the crazy circke dancing, hands against the sky, bangles jingling, skirts swishing.
All too soon and an eternity later, it was over, and the place was emptying and it was just us left, sitting on the ground in various poses of fatigue, waiting for our ride home. A ride who doesn't seem to believe in speed limits or traffic lights and took all the wrong turnings with the nidows down and our hair streaming.

Woot. Legendary night.

:)

In the name of God.

It came up in a conversation with a Wise One in an extremely good Chinese restaurant....

What people do in the name of faith....or, what faith and devotion moves people to do.

Some take the oath of Diksha and renounce the world, at a very young age, or at the zenith of their career. Some drop a diamond studded cell-phone into a donation box.

Faith and an urgency to take darshan has resulted in stampedes at temples. Faith drives people to wake up before dawn so that they can be the first to get Darshan at Lalbaugcha Raja (the most popular Ganpati pandal in Mumbai)

Faith moves people to heal.

Faith moves people to strap bombs to themselves and explode in public.

All in the name of God.