Under The Sun

Its 10 degrees in Surat and such chilled Saturdays in hostel can mean laze and lethargy. After a bread-butter breakfast and tasteless tea, I made Priya to come and sit with me on the swing in our hostel garden.



She was being pestered by some silly guy in her department and her inbox was getting littered with his pain-in-head messages as we sat on the swing. Newspaper had nothing new to offer as it had same old stories of elections, scams, Maldives and cricket. Of course there was this little snippet about Yuvraj Singh and his recovery .

News scanning was over soon . Then there was this BTS teacher of Priya's sitting on the nearby swing and my ears caught a few phrases of her phone call: "Shaadi k baad--I'm educated enough--Who says so--What is life without job----" . My ears rejected rest of it. My brain didn't want any more of it. Poor head is full of everything else, my day dreams, Vikram Seth's An Equal Music, our college fest, Priya's funky dresses for the Fashion Nite, who my co-anchor would be in the fest, MPI class test and PC quiz. That's more clutter in my head than in my room.

She starts clicking pictures . Her mobile camera is so good. Of course she would like a digi cam or a professional camera, HD and all. Sun has been warming me for an hour now. In-fact I remove my F1 jacket and enjoy the warmth. I join her in photographing our shadows. We laugh and we pose. I'm at peace now. 

surat no locho

After around an year and a half in Surat , finally ate locho. 


Its yellow, like most Gujarati snacks, was sprinkled with sev, again like many delicacies. Add to it raw chopped onions and green papaya chutney.
I really liked it, like all other Gujju dishes(apologies for being redundant , though).
Locho House is located just outside my college gate, though Riddhima (my Surti classmate) says the best locho is served near the Railway Station.  


The best thing about the Locho just outside our college gate is that they serve on paper plates and provide steel spoons. (Reminds me of family picnics on India Gate lawns where mom and aunts would bring casseroles full of yummy food and paper plates and plastic glasses and steel spoons and various service spoons and thermos filled with tea and 2 litre bottles of soft drinks) . Also,they have placed a dustbin nearby to avoid littering. Plus its just fifteen rupees and stomach full!  

this happens only (in india) with me!

...after kal ki dukh bhari daastaan ..... today seems to be like am back on track. Anchoring auditions made me happy. Every one who knows me.. that's a very few people ... knew i am capable of full on bakwaas.... and bad --bad (chatter). Those who don't know me were really impressed....or that's what i would like to believe. Abhinav too was really praises . I love that guy. I mean like he's complete LR (ladies representative) .... a guy who goes to saloon when baaki boys hostel goes to naai. Hahhaa... always makes fun of me.... that's why Priya  approves of him. Shaitaan she is. Mast she was in her yellow top yesterday, by the way. LR is apna shaayar, but aaj wo and CR (class rep) both found my audition like wow! WOW!! : D:D:D

And yeah... my strange title above is coz i'm capable of non-sensical chatter.....so please !

bereft of something

Being bereft of something, since last few days. Started a short story writing, it turned out to be cool . Really! It was satisfying till some point, then it felt like dragged. No, I didn't drag it any further, just that story didn't last long. Priya by the way was generous in comments and never hesitated to laugh. Gearing up for Anchoring auditions tomorrow. Really wanna make a mark. Anchoring is anyday my cup of tea and just don't wanna miss my chance to be on stage all the time. Priya says I will get selected easily. Abhinav didn't think so. Shashikant ke views  toh I just don't wanna know. My sem results aren't out as yet and mid sem exams of new sem are nearing too. Priya says I should try to be indiferent, though she knows its a tough job. Plus everyone else has already scored handsomely. HMC is irritating these days. Getting hungry all the time. Tears downpour more than often. Don't know what's really missing.

Plus Bombay visit is no where in near future though I'm dying to see my family. And yeah, have decided to shop to my heart's content so as to lighten my mood. And wanna score big time in this PC test. 

Lauki ka Kofta

Surely the Star of the Day is Mr. Bottle gourd.
When we enter a hostel, its a common notion : " Gone are the days of yummy home food".
When we are over fed with this fad  , and if you are as lucky as me, the delightful mess food of Kasturba Bhavan makes you wag your tongue!
This was semester one.

Slowly the monotony steals away the charm and repetitive trips to the same restaurants all over the place makes you look up to home visits , where there's a mom , eagerly waiting for you, with her haven of good food.
That's sem 2.

Your room mate is selected as the Mess auditor. Great! You dream of five star menu for the hostel mess , forgetting the cooks remain the same ones as those in earlier sem! You are selected the Joint Hostel Secretary. Now you have already dreamt of revolutionizing the mess .  Alas! Dreams don't always come true. Potato crisis         takes a toll as every dish owes itself to potato and people don't hesitate once to complain. Yes, those with crown have a crown of thorns. Then comes inflation and lets just forget about eating in the mess. Queen Canteen welcomes with wide-spread arms and latent smirk. Lovers' paradise and cricket fan's hub- our canteen.
Sem 3, that was.

You finally take a risk of including lauki to the menu as an experiment, fully aware 90% of junta hates lauki ( although you love it, screw yourself!)
Lauki kofta makes its way and surprisingly people didn't even know what kofta is! Even more surprisingly it is finished even before half of the girls have come to eat. YES!! That's success.
No! Success is when next week kofta is prepared, every one floods the mess in order not to miss the kofta this time round (those who came late last time) and those who had feasted last time knew this time even 4 chapatis would be less! (Remember, we are girls and eat limited, normally) . Personally, it tasted to me as yum as meat and yeah, no exaggeration.
Sem4 , still going strong!! :)

Priya laments when food wasn't good, complaints were never ending, but now no one comes up to praise. As the JHS, sentiment shared , roomie!
As an in-mate and a foodie.... forget about praise and lets feast!! :D

SURPRISE :)

Jan 5' 12


I returned to my home for four years... my college hostel. Was real glad to see my whole "family" after a while. A Happy New Year to all. After all this socializing, I had a job to do. Jan 6 is my room-mate's birthday!! My first obvious thought was to get a cake... so I instantly smsed our dearest friend Shiksha, a sweet and ever so excited person. About an hour later, with a "just woke up" look on her face... she asked my roomie for me. Shiksha insisted I talk to her privately... fueling suspicions in roomie's mind. We talked in hushed tones and decided after Shiksha is done with her "meeting" with the first years, we two will go together to the bakery.
Roomie asked what "private" talks we had, to which I replied of some  Robocon competition and debugging stuff that I had heard Shiksha discuss earlier with Leena, our Miss Super Intelligent.(Thank God I overhear, :D)
In the mess , during evening milk time, we met Leena... as roomie too was there , I pretended that I had received a msg from Shiksha for Leena (its a known fact Leena never carries her cellphone along) and passed on my phone to her. Ah! Ms Super Intelligent read out aloud: "Hey,secret ..kal Priya ka bday hai... cake lane jana hai..."


Alas! Priya the roomie couldn't resist smirking.... but as they say party must go on. Shiksha insisted for the cake; we got a black forest, a few cupcakes, Five Star and Mars bar..... :)

Thanks to Mayuri for this lovely little candle :D
And to Shiksha who insisted for the cake in spite of Priya knowing  about it.

But Ms. Roomie.... surprise isn't over yet.... I had secretly messaged all to surprise her by invading our room @ 12 in the night!! And even asked Roohi-- who had left our college to pursue her dreams of being a doc-- and was a close friend of Priya-- to surprise call her . Well, all these things may be a regular affair for everyone's birthday, but for Priya, there's never any surprise, and she never expects! 
 Our friend from Bhutan, Meenam, who was discharged from the hospital only yesterday, too dropped in (unexpectedly,  given her health) to wish!


 So, it was indeed a surprise party and we rocked it all right. Now, its her turn to treat us :D

they say the way your first day is.... the whole year will be like that.....this time the first day is a Sunday !!

Your neighbors are your first family...... then I bid adieu to 2011 and welcomed 2012 with my whole family!!
And kids in my family rocked it alright! Desi Gals and Desi Boyz!!

It was chilling night.... something of a surprise to Ahmedabad.

And yeah.... they say the way your first day is.... the whole year will be like that.....this time the first day is a Sunday !!