#2010Memories

I suppose it has to be done, yes? And if I must do it, I might as well do it full justice, with photos. Instead of 140 character updates on Twitter.

So we begin at the beginning. What my feeble memory discloses to me.

January begins with play rehearsals, walking around chor bazaar looking for props, and then finally, The Night of January 16th, by Ayn Rand, staged in college, on, well, the night of January....15th. Too bad. But wonderful it was.

Then there was the after-party, and all the debauchery that went with it. And then there was the re-telling of the stories, by the girl who sat curled up in a chair all night, watching everyone. 

February went by in a flash, studying...er...trying to study. After the Kala Ghoda Art Festival, that is. My first. :)

February, I believe, was also when Nam and I started the writing threads. Some very awesome, creepy, and awesomely creepy things have come out of those threads. Feb was also the month of the slash. Sigh. Feb had one 70's party to its name, courtesy M, and a bboy battle event the day after, where MuSick debuts. The beginning of something big. 

Exams were in March. After which I rushed home to see Chikki off...a two-night send-off, as it were. Lots of laughter. LOTS of fun. Much love for Chikki and all the boys. 

Call them the LMAO nights, yes. March was also when I started the internship at The Week, in Muscat.

April blurs into the beginning of May. The internship made sure I actually woke up in the morning, as opposed to 1pm. Good fun, good work. A few movie reviews, with byline. Invictus with Sruti, Date Night, with Nam as company, and of course, Clash of the Titans. Nam, Liz, Vee. The brus. Slushkaz!! 

Camping on the beach with the parents. Calm, serene. Lazing with the cats at home. Hanging out with Aarushi. 

May was, well, Singapore! Kay, Bhai, tiny shorts, MANY malls, rollerblading, Bailey's, the metro, Universal studios, HRC, yada de yada. Forgetting the camera memory card at Jurong bird park, and being caught in the rain for an hour, with pretty owls to stare at. Spectacular walks at Singapore zoo. And a final flight back home.

June and July, traipsing around college. And all the wonderful Twitter people I met. E, Piu. Ladies' Nights, Azbaz. June was a green-streaked fauxhawk and a week in Pune, July was Burger & Beer at Woodside and the fun that followed and the people I met. 

July and August, I assist Annie with her MA project on Dharavi. I did more photography than assistance, really. But it was wonderful. Profoundity, opinions, a new outlook, and the best chai ever. And, of course, seeing Annie, after SO long. 

August, later, was the EA bake sale, where we positively raked in the bucks. And WONDERFUL brownies!

August, also, Olio and all the fun and stress that came with it. Likla was a nice dragon. 

September was when I was introduced to fire theater, with Nikhil. Mesmerising. Absolutely brilliant stuff. 

Sept was also the month I got sick. Food poisoning, I say. I was down and out for two weeks. Sigh.

It's all downhill from here...October was mad study, exam mornings at CBTL with Ankiet, exams, a birthday post-exam lunch with Ankiet (his birthday, not mine), exams, and then Muscat. Lazing with the cats and dad. Chilling alone on the beach. And of course, the Canon EOS 50D and what I did with it. 

Then back to Bombay with the parents. November would have been a trek in Nepal, but that got cancelled, which meant I was 'on vacation' in Bombay. Which I haven't really been since I moved here, so it was quite nice. Much roaming about the city, talking to the mother, TTS launch, and Garudmachi. Dad and I escape to the hills for two days, where I am in absolute bliss. 

Also, I hit the beautiful rock-climbing wall there, attacked each face of it, and was left with beautifully sore muscles for the next two days. Such utter bliss.

November was also my first Diwali in India, Irish coffee, getting DRENCHED in the rain with Nikhil, cursing all the way from Dadar station to wherever we found the cab. 

Also, Elephanta. 

November was the beginning of another play, (Two plays, actually, The Boor, and The Proposal, by Anton Chekov) 8-hour rehearsals, and the month ended with my 19th birthday. Bringing it in with another birthday girl at Krish's, then lunch, then rehearsals, then E & Nam, and then Janata, and the wonderful fire-spin night (where I did eventually fall asleep), fire wielding, and Marine Drive at 6 am on a Sunday, with Nikhil and Bidi. Dosas at the lovely Ram Ashray at 8. UnderDog Kombat Anniversary battles in Andheri, in the evening, me with the camera, happy.

December, rehearsals, rehearsals, falling asleep in rehearsals, bad music (HOW CAN SHE SLAP?), good guitar playing, inside jokes, McDonalds, Subway, pizza, all kinds of junk, all ordered in, and then, showtime. And quite seriously, after that, it's just been a countdown to the week off college (which is right now). Global Fusion lunch with Dad, who was here, one fun birthday/christmas party, bike ride on Marine drive, bringing in Kutt's 19th, all of that. It's a countdown to tomorrow and to the 1st of jan when I'll be on a plane, heading to the parental and feline abode. 

So yeah, it's been an interesting year. With much love to the Bombay people, R, Datta, Nikhil, Ankiet, Radhika, Kutt, E, who, well, make me feel loved. Goodnight, 2010. 

Light me up.

I eat light. It shines from within me.

They light up my room. And my heart. 

Festivities all around. 

The End.

No, not of this blog, though at the pace I'm blogging, I might as well.

The end of the year. 2009. The 'Noughties' are done with, I guess. Woo hoo and all.

It's been a good decade. We've gone...from the Backstreet Boys to Hannah Montana, and everything in between, and I don't know WHICH is worse.

The year...well, it was the end of an era. School. CBSE. All that. My hair went from ostentatious red-streaked (sadly, THAT'S the photo that's on my college ID card) to pink streaked to punk short. And now....it's a little shorter than that. Whee. I got a third piercing on my right ear (it STILL hurts. SO many months later.) I fell in love with Bombay and so much more. I went from being angry that I couldn't go to college because of rain, to waking up, hearing rain, rolling over and going back to sleep quite happily. I loathe heavy rain.

It's been...a good year.

Plans? Well...My parents are in town. Leaving tomorrow. So, we're watching 3 Idiots tonight. Whee. A sober New Year.

Resolutions? Absolutely none, as of now. Take life as it comes. Make the best of everything. Grab opportunities by the nuts. Crib less. Dance more.

So.....here's to Twenty Ten, I wish everyone a great new year! I Apologize for the highly boring post.

Twinkly lights all over

Aah, back to the buzz that is Bombay. I didn't get my big fat noisy Indian Diwali after all. I didn't even light a single firecracker. But my TV-addict cousin got his first bhaiduj from me, and I got a bit rich.

On my way home from my grandmom's, the sun had set and every window glittered with twinkly lights of every size and colour, beautiful paper lanterns swaying in the breeze. Even the slummier areas had something, a huge lantern over the highway, a haphazard sprinkling of bulbs. The chawls overlooking the highway were uniform, the same bright paper lantern in every balcony. Three chawls in a row, each lit in a different colour.

The last day of Diwali was rather quiet. Occasionally you'd hear a bang, and then a shiny green pustule would streak into the sky and explode in a shower of sparks.

Not so much after I got back to Matunga. My head throbbed as I unpacked and ate. Outside my window, down the lane, the noise was continuous. And hellishly irritating.

Furious, I fell asleep. Today morning as I walked down that same lane, so silent now, a thousand little bits of paper were the only evidence of last night's pyrotechnical play.

Epiphanies

Those who know me will know that I'm not the biggest fan of organised religion, or even religion as a whole. I'm not atheist, but God, to me, is kinda formless. I don't even give it a name....

I've almost always shied away from poojas. When I've gone, I've always been in another room, playing with the other kids around. I haven't attended a pooja or a satsang in more than two years.

So I wasn't too pleased when my aunt, who I currently live with in Bombay, decided to drag me to a neighbour's place for a Ganpati pooja thingy. I sat awkwardly for a good half hour, right in the front, as others around me chanted, some mantras known, some alien.

Even the 7 year old kid next to me knew exactly what to do.

All I did was admire the decoreations and the pure white orchids used. Yeah, I checked, they were real.

And in the middle of all the noise and the chaos, my mind throwing up random bull, I looked into the compassionate eyes of the idol...and I had a conversation with Lord Ganesha.

Naah, it was probably the deluded mental diarhhea.

'Enjoying this, are you?', I asked the object of worship.

'YES!', he replied.

'But seriously dude,' I say, 'Why do people go through so much trouble for you anyway when you'd be just as happy even if they didn't?'

'Because,' and I could almost see a grin very familiar to me from somewhere else, 'I'm AWESOME.'