One week later, the situation is the same. The strike situation, that is. The theatre workshops in college? Those are over too. So now I'm praying even harder for college to start, and FAST.

I've been a bit lethargic and melancholy...I guess a fever-cum-cold-cum infected month-old peircing does that to you....

Mom dragged me to a doctor last week, who sternly told me I was 15 kgs underweight. Pumped me up with all kinda of supplement pills I'm supposed to be taking. This blows. Plus I LOST 4 kgs after I got to Bombay.

So now, I'm quite literally fed up.

C'est la vie, mais ce n'est pas bonne.

Nothing.

I'm tired, and I have nothing to say for now.

The stupid strike is still on, I think my classes SHOULD restart on Thursday though.....

Urgh.

I woke up yesterday morning on a blue mattress in the bedroom of Ani's flat. Turned to see Ani fast asleep next to me. How'd I get there? Last I remembered was the living room.....

Ani's surprise 21st birthday party was something we'd been planning for a while. It didn't end up exactly as we'd hoped it would...mainly because she had no idea and had invited everyone for a sleepover the next day. Silly girl.

But yeah, when she showed up, there were 7 of us there, and 21 gifts arranged in the middle of the room. And yeah, she was pretty surprised. And happy. And a wee bit sentimental.


More people showed up later....After she'd inspected all her gifts, and hugged everyone, and been sentimental. We had music, we had people, and we had champagne. And later, rum. And a LOT of biriyani.

It was a good party, yeah. We played 'I never'. And laughed a lot.

And I woke up yesterday morning with the worst headache ever. Staggered out into the living room to see the others who'd slept over....And I was told the stories of the night before.

Conclusion: Myst will stick to two drinks. No more. I don't think anyone who was there is ever gonna let me have ANY anyway.

Many hours later, most of which I slept through, I was relatively better. I will hopefully never be in that state again, because it does NOT feel nice. At all.
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Annie Sharma, I love you very very much indeed. Also, Jai, Nikhil, Aaku, thanks.

8 am rant about the rain

Yes, I know everyone's been on about late monsoons and all. I know people who're nauseating in their love for the rain.

Not me.

I can manage a drizzle, yes. Those ten minutes between drizzle and I-need-shelter-now rain, I can manage.
What I detest is the kind of rain that gets EVERYWHERE. In your shoes and in your clothes. Through windows and doors. Into your very being.

I do enjoy this rain, when I'm indoors. When I can cuddle up with a mocha and a blanket and rum. And a movie.

But that's when I genuinely have nothing to do.

This rain is crippling me. It's crippling everyone on the Western Line (I take the train from Dadar) It started the minute I woke up. I had to brush my teeth to the sounds of my aunt making frantic phone calls to see if trains were running.

"Won't be on till evening, you have to stay here"

My house, everyone has disaster mentality, I tell you.

So here I am, my first lecture starts in 5 minutes (didn't want to attend that one anyway) and I'm stuck in a home that is not my own. With no mocha and definitely no rum. And no good company (or a means of gathering good company).

Grumpiness abounds. I need out.

Finally. Finally

"They're decriminalising homosexuality!", I told mom a few days ago.

"What, it's illegal?" she asked.

Well, not anymore. The Delhi high court has finally legalised private consensual gay sex between adults. The gay community is rejoicing. And of course. Society is still slowly assimilating homosexuality, but at least gay people don't have to worry about breaking the law anymore.

It all boils down to this I suppose, our deep rooted distrust, suspicion, fear, of people who are in some way different. Why should gay people be treated any differently? In fact, you can almost say that their hearts are more open than others...We (at least I) don't discriminate between religion and race when it comes to love. They don't even discriminate against gender. And thus I say that Gay people, bi people, have large hearts. It's all about love. The sex, that comes with the love.

And, well, if it's just lust, you can't help who you're attracted to. You don't choose who you're attracted to, do you?

Religious groups all over India fail to see this (they're all about the sex, you see?)

Taken from the Hindustan TImes articles about the desicion, the following quotes. You can almost SEE the disapproving faces, hear the condemning tones. These people just DON'T see the love, do they? Can LOVE ever be unnatural? And when it comes to the sex, some things that people are into are very kinky indeed (bondage. Sado-masochism.) and THAT'S not illegal. (Ok I think I lost my point here.)

Swami Ramdev says that homosexuals need to be hospitalised.

Kamal Farooqui of the Muslim Personal law board says that no Muslim in the world, let alone India, can ever support it.

The president of the SGPC has said that homosexuality is disgraceful and takes you away from the path of God. Um, how exactly?

Look, people. Has GOD ever said anything against homosexuality? I'm sure MY God hasn't. He believes in being yourself. And gay, it's not something to become. It's not a CHOICE. Religion, mind you, is a product of man. And therefore, like ALL products of man, it is flawed in this case.

It all boils down to our refusal to accept anything that's different. Anything.

THEN there are the arguments that say that this is against our culture. But what use is a culture that is static? Society and culture are constantly fluctuating to accept new ideas and discard the putdated ones. Buhleeve you me, if 'culture' was static, girls wouldn't be allowed study. In THIS day and age. YEAH.

Chief Justice Ajit Prakash Shah of the Delhi high court ruled over the judgement. THAT is the kind of legal body we need. These are the people we need to run our country. We can absolutely NOT stick with old biases.

I'm gonna end with a question that I hope someone will answer. Delhi, Chennai and Bangalore held the Queer pride Parade, both last year and this year.

Why not Bombay?

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PS. : I know I'm probably too young to be writing about such issues. But this is one I feel very strongly about. There is nothing unnatural about being homosexual, bisexual, transgender, straight whatever. I feel that everyone should be allowed to express themselves freely, that they shouldn't have to be ashamed of who they are. Whatever it is that they are.

Jai Hind.

Damn I love this place.

LEctures start tomorrow.....here's to a new era of the life of Myst.