I'm bookmarking this!

So like I mentioned before, I have been reading like never before. Recently, some friends were clearing out their house as they are moving abroad. Apart from the household stuff which we might take from them, I found my best junkyard sale yet: 3 new books given by them!

Yes!

This is better than anything I could have asked for! Looks like the job hunt will be on pause mode for a while. This holds true, especially for a reader like me.

A bit about my reading habits: 

I hate being interrupted in the middle of reading a book,

I hate keeping down a book to eat, drink or sleep,

I love to fall asleep while reading,

I love the smell of new books,

And I read to finish a book as soon as I can, preferably overnight

I usually order my books from Flipkart. And Flipkart sends these really cute and silly, yet extremely funny bookmarks with the books. These days I am in the habit of collecting them as and when I order a new book. 

This one is already my favorite titled Important reasons to use silly bookmarks 

What is the important reason ? 

(Click on the pic to read the text)

(even my long forgotten camera was put to use)

And on flipping, I get a pair of cool glasses to appear nerdy and keep the buggers away

Of course I don't mind one bit. 

Looks like for a change, these silly marks are going to keep me hooked on to the books ! 

Will keep posting more of these as and when I discover a new one.

Till then, its my book and me.

No roar in this one

A 55 minute queue for check in is not cool. Especially on an empty stomach and sore muscles from a hectic gym class.

After the long wait for the check in, there is a mad rush for the security check as the boarding stops in ten minutes. 

Huffing and puffing, we now brace ourselves for the next queue. Crossed. Jubilant, you wait for the boarding, expectantly. Not so expectantly , an announcement -- "the ladies and the gentlemans, sorry for the inconvenience (or something that sounded like that) , but the gate has shifted to f36"

Cursing, and a lil more for the bad English, I, along with my two mates, make a dash for the new gate. Another queue for security check and 25 minutes later, we finally get our seats which have been assigned wrongly.

One of the worst experiences ever. I demand some dollars back. Somehow, most of my trips in SE Asia have been doomed one way or the other. This one is clearly no exception. 

The one thing that mildly saved the day were fellow passengers; a guy straight.out of hollow man, a dude who seemed to be from sets of cast away oh, and this extremely cute kid with the cutest giggly laugh ever!

And then when you atleast expect an apology for the massive delay of 3 hours, all you get in a website to check our more deals with the damned airlines.

This Tiger is definitely crouching today ! 

Movie Duff(er)

I missed out on catching up this movie sometime back, which is India's entry to Oscar's for this year. And somehow, all my friends had either seen it or were planning to see it with other people. Having no one to go with, I thought to myself - why not do a new thing then? - watch a movie alone.

Though I should mention that my flatmate did offer to watch it with me again. But then I couldn't have forced the movie on her again, especially after the facial expression when asked to give her review.

I had always wanted to watch a movie by myself and had thought of going for the mostly empty morning show, you know as a safe first-time-watching-a-movie-alone experience. But here in Singapore, you obviously don't get zillions of shows for a Hindi movie which you do in India. So not having much choice in the show timing, I had to book one for the peak afternoon show. It was almost full by the time I booked it (we Indians are everywhere!).

As for the seats, I wanted to book the center most seats as opposed to the center aisle seats I usually book. This change happened after someone mentioned to me how the center seats are well distanced from the four corners and more importantly, people will never bug you by crossing left and right.  

So, the fourth row which I was booking initially had two seats available right in the center. It would have made sense to book one of them, right?

But no. What if people around me think that I got stood up by my date? 

So, errr, let me not book this row. 

I booked the center seat in the third row. Tolerate a little more strain, but don't let people think what they can think. 

With that done, I set off the next do-a-new-thing-today day. Movie was to follow the Harry Potter & Andy Warhol exhibition. Yes, the same exhibition.

I have already mentioned about the goodies I bought from the exhibition. Looks like those people trust us to spend tons of money on the shop. Guess that is why I was handed over an XXL sized bag for my meager purchases.   

Whoa! I was running late. Reaching the mall which housed the hall, I stepped into the lift and pressed level 7. Cursing under my breath for the hall to be at the topmost floor and at all those people who had to get off at levels 2,3,4,5 AND 6, I finally collected my tickets. Not to mention, a popcorn bucket and coke!

Once inside the hall, I realized that the movie was on and the hall, full. Armed with my handbag, popocorn, coke and my extra large HP bag, I made my way to my seat. And there, Standing at the aisle, I was dreading the trek to the centre seat.

I prayed.

Banging my HP bag on the guy in the front row, spilling some popcorn on the guy ahead, stumbling over someone's foot and somehow controlling my swinging handbag, I finally crash landed into my seat. Squirming in my seat and wishing I could disappear in it, I waited for the movie to take care of the numerous stares.

Phew! Whattay start.

But hey, the movie is on. And I have my bucket of salted popcorn. I laugh loudly at this extremely funny scene. The guy next to me is staring at me.

The expression on his face? - Totally makes up for coming for a movie, alone !

(Till the time we do a new thing again)

*Photo Credits Google

Are you two a number?

This post was supposed to come sometime during my MBA. Posting it now.

I thought I had met all types of professors. Some who were funny, some who were witty, some who could never be forgotten, some who were best forgotten.

And then came along TLo. Walking with the Staying Alive rhythm, dressed in his floral shirts, he bore an uncanny resemblance to the Laughing Buddha. To say that he had the naughtiest face ever would be an understatement.

Running into me and one of my male friends standing on the staircase talking, he looked at me and then at my friend and then back at me again. Looked with eyes as innocent as a baby's. We both looked at each other and then at him, questioningly. And he asked:

"Are you two a number?"

"Err ... No sir ... Aheem, excuse me sir .... What sir ??!!", stumbling and falling over words.

Since then, he has passed winks whenever he crosses us and words like girlfriend, boyfriend feature during intellectual discussions with him.

Oh, that's a devil smile on that monk face.

Well, he definitely gave me something to write about after all these months!

goodbye, muscles

After an initial burst of positivity , i have started to find the gym so boring. I go alone and that adds to the boredom. Also, i have realized that i need to be distracted from my workout to be able to finish it successfully. Either the dance class across my gym or my workout playlist does that for me, mostly.

Until I discovered that the cycle I workout on has a games section! it has been fun cycling since then except yesterday.

Hitting the gym after a month's lull, I was raring to go.

Too raring.

Too tired after two hours, I gave myself ten minutes for cycling.

But wait, this Sudoku puzzle is too interesting. Lets cycle till I finish it. After all how tough can a medium level be. ( I have this obsessive fetish for puzzles and brain teasers)

Wrong! after struggling with it for an eternity, I had to admit defeat. But not before I checked the time.

25 minutes on the damn cycle.

Nice try, gym waalon. Your tricks work.

Good morning, sore muscles !!

image source: clipartof.com

Its getting rainy, Singapore!

Its has happened twice now !

For lunch I have to step out and go across to the building across my office. It is a good 5-7 minute walk, like all places in Singapore.

Twice now, just when I have finished my lunch and am about to step into the open, it has started to rain; no showers, no drizzles mind you - its torrential rains. The best part is both times I have been caught without an umbrella and a few cents in my pocket, definitely not enough to call for a cab!

The funny thing is that the other times when I have had company, it has been bright and sunny enough for flowers to bloom.

My facebook and twitter accounts saw tons of activity during that time. Thank humans for the smartphones they have created. What can I say it is to be stuck in a building for two hours straight and watch grey clouds pour down mercilessly.

I carry an umbrella everyday by the way. Just that I promptly forget to carry it with me out in the open !

No worries rain gods, I will be prepared the next time you wanna play this game :P Else, facebook will let you know about my misery, again.   

The Classroom

I know MBA in a certain way; it is what I have done every single day for the last ten months.

Today, as I wake up (or rather unable to sleep) to my last official In-the-Classroom day, I can't help but think of how the many firsts in Nitin Patwa's Basics of Excel class are going to be the lasts in Nirmal Gupta's Strategic Marketing class. I have a come a long way since the time I apprehensively put my namecard in front of me for the first time.

They say that in an MBA, the best learning takes place inside the four walls of a classroom. I couldn't agree more. Here's how the learning experience has been so far:

loading ourselves with assignments from every professor with every prof thinking his assignment to be the most important;

taking Very Important notes (read playing hangman and doodling); texting mindlessly during lectures;

abusing those oh-so-wonderful creations of Mark Zuckerberg and Larry Page & Sergey Brin in the best possible way;

drawing caricatures of peers sitting across the classroom;

laughing shamelessly at professors;

giving supposedly Nobel prize winning answers only to be snubbed by the ever supportive peers;

stealing winks across the room;

reading your presentation slides ten minutes before the lecture or better still, while giving the presentation;

Oh, giving those never ending ten minute quizzes!!;

trying your best to stay awake in class; failing to do so and hence sleeping in class;

making weird and funny looking namecards;

smuggling food inside the classroom;

pointing the camera to your friend who is happily dozing;

forgetting your laptop/phone charger in the hostel room and realizing with a sinking feeling that your one and only source of survival is no longer with you;

passing a piece of paper to make a chain poem;

sitting apprehensively next to unknown people and ending up making friends for life;

pretending to be immersed in the world's toughest math problem while chattering away to glory on the SPJCM sleeping club;

awwwwinngggggg;

chanting to RD hymns;

celebrating twins day,secret santa day;

playing the guitar and singing in class;

pulling down your neighbor's chair at the moment prof is staring in your direction;

playing music on youtube on the projector;

clicking pictures of people sleeping to make a How-to-Sleep-in-class portfolio;

recording videos during lectures and making funny faces into it;
DCPing!;

photoshop-ing yourself and the girls of your class during QT lectures;

engaging in important debates like Apple is best, Apple is best, Apple is best;

trying desperately to upload last minute submissions on the not-so-loyal blackboard;

FAFFing;

admitting to drinking coffee at Irish village;

watching live streaming cricket matches on the projector .......

I could go on but I have to get ready to attend my last peer learning experience .. =)

.. Today, MBA in The Classroom as I know it, ends

.

Team Dynamics

So, the day I had unknowingly been waiting for finally arrived. That is another story that it took my room mate four-five attempts to wake me up on this particular day.

I was finally going to get to play ! And that too a team game, something I have rarely done. FYI, I am no sports person. I don't have medals to speak of. But, I love Sports. And yes, like loads of other professions that I could have excelled in, I have often dreamed about winning the Wimbeldon or an Olympics medal.

Move on to the day. There was going to be a throwball and a volleyball match. Throwball for the ladies and Volleyball for the men. All geared up to play for my team, Team Blue Monks ( Yaah, I knowwWWWW, its silly! ), I came to know that there was going to be some shuffling because of some missing team members. One of my team had to go to the other.

Numbers were assigned to every person. Whoever's number was called out had to play for the other team. I was assigned five. I went away to practice not expecting a five to be called out when there were Eight numbers to be chosen from. I mean what are the odds!

"FIVE", I heard a voice shout. NO !! This can't be. They call Not three ... Not seven .... FIVE !

With a funny feeling, I went to play for the other team. It was a sudden shift from what I was mentally prepared for. My solace? I was going to be playing with one of the best sportswomen I have come across, my room pal, Al Arab Ballafi.

Game 1 begins. Instead of going into the details, Ill make it easy. We were Royally screwed.

And then it happened.

God sent us an angel. An angel who was dressed in pink, truly representative of something called as 'Victorious Secret'. Yes, it was Vinnensota, our very own Mir Ranjan Negi.

Innundating us with his wisdom-ous wisdom, he pumped us up to play as a team, to shuffle players and to attack the other team on its Achilles' Heel. No later, tables turned. From being down to a very shameful score, we went ahead and took a lead in the score. There was a definite shift in the momentum and the team was visibly gelling together. There were hi-fi's all around and an urgency to defeat the other team.

And me? Well, Not for a split second did the thought come into my mind that I was actually playing against my own team. All that mattered during those few minutes was that I give it my best and get the team I was playing for, home.

We lost eventually, but not before putting up a big fight. The team (under the able guidance of our coach, Of Course) stuck together and fought well. As for me, I did not know exactly what to feel. I wanted to be happy for my actual team, but it was not that easy!

It was a Team Win, but a Personal Loss.

I got a good taste of team dynamics that day. Like I said, I have never played official team games. Except for the time when my two bodyguards ably defended me during PaintBall. That actually makes for another interesting story.

Anyhow, my team stands at position 2. The "Monks" are meditating ( Bah! ). Looking forward to more team games.

Till then, Adios !

A Thursday Night in International City

This is probably my seventh or eighth attempt at writing something after leaving home. Most were sorry attempts at writing something about the new world I was in. A few were for the heck of posting Anything on my almost-defunct blog.

This is another lame attempt. Actually, I just got done with revamping the look of my blog. Its a little too pink for my comfort but I guess I will make do with it for the time being!

Sooooo, its a Thursday night in Dubai; my only free evening in the entire week. Yes, its my weekend which will probably end in less than twenty-four hours. And in these twenty-hours am usually supposed to be partying, finishing assignments for the next week, catching up with family back home, doing the household chores and if some minutes permit, relaxing.

But then, its a choice I made. To leave my perfectly comfortable life and live this madness.

The madness of getting up every darn morning fully cognizant of the day that awaits me. The madness of meeting deadlines and making space for new deadlines in my already cluttered planner. The madness was at its peak in the first couple of months.

Has it reduced? ... I don't think so. I guess I have just become used to it! And what has become of the person?

Well, the person is definitely facing new challenges. The challenges of, say, living without proper meals! This slightly spoilt kid was fed proper breakfast every morning at home and special care was taken to customize food to suit my taste buds. Other stuff would gag me.

Not anymore. The taste no longer bothers me. I guess the parallel mental calculations of making it through yet another day have made my taste buds immune. Where my mom would take special care in cooking low-cal fat-free food for me, here I am living on junk, floating-in-oil food every single day.

I have learnt to live without a full-length mirror, of rushing out of my room in dripping, imperfect hair. Back home, I couldn't even dream about it.

My mom would get the shock of her life if she knew that the bed I am sleeping in probably gets cleaned once a week. Somehow I cherish that one minute of extra sleep I get from avoiding the chore. Sometimes, I end up sleeping on my books and clothes that litter the bed. Thank God for my angel roommate who at least keeps my laptop in a safe place when I fall asleep on it.

Yesterday, I finally found my hairbrush beneath my blanket. I had been looking for it for a week. Talk about throwing everything on the floor to find that missing thing. Trust me, its the easiest way to find missing objects in piles and piles of rubbish.

(Ok, that was a little bit exaggerated. I ain't that messy! Infact, I am quite a cleanliness freak. These are just a few side effects of a packed day :D )

So, right now, I have a laundry to take care of, a snack stock to be refilled, a research project to be done and a dance performance to be practiced upon, when all I want to do is pick up a guitar and learn this song I reall...ly like.

Sighhhh ... unfortunately life ain't that sweet. But then, am I complaining?

Hell, no .

a prayer and a thought

My brains have been hibernating these days. With a major backlog of sleep from the previous week, I have almost resembled a walking zombie. Anyhow, I thought of catching up on a movie last evening. A better option would have been to turn on a rom-com, which I could have seen even with my eyes closed, but instead, I chose to go for this complex, use-your-head sci-fi. No wonder my zapped out brains turned my eyes off somewhere during the all important climax.

Morning arrives. The realization of missing out on the ending (I don't like leaving movies half-seen) and the craving to watch it, dawn. A quick prayer goes up "Dear God, please make my car pool guys late by 15 minutes". It was a HUGE shot in the dark, by the way, since these guys are punctual to the point of being painful, and I mean Real painful. That's another story, but. I get ready and wait for that godforsaken call, any second now. Temptation takes over and I start the movie. A minute of the climax if nothing else, maybe.

Five minutes go by. No call. Eight. Ten. Twelve. Could this Really be happening? Movie ends. Credits roll. The phone rings.

**Drumrolls** Prayer answered! Thank you Lord for making something that hasn't happened in months, happen!

I pick up my bag (I haven't changed it yet). A thought that usually enters my head at times like these, enters: "Kya yaar, kuch aur maang liya hota toh shaayad woh bhi mil jaata!!" Usual greediness at work, I know. I start thinking: Simple prayers like these sometimes get answered so instantaneously, they totally make your day. You just got to wait a we..e..ee bit longer for those paramount life-altering ones (admit, job, life-partner). Maybe, it takes that bit longer because what you want may not not always be what is right for you.

With that thought, I leave my home, smiling.

The Ways of cricket

The past couple of months and the coming up months have been and will be a blessing for sports lovers. With awesome action promised in a wide range of sports, people have another excuse for gluing to screens and downing gallons of beer.

By the way, the above statements aren't meant for the typical Indian sports lover. The typical Indian fan's love for sports ...err... sport is heliocentric. It revolves around that billion dollar baby called cricket.

I don't need to state what has been stated again and again. Cricket is religion; cricketers are revered, with a certain player amongst them achieving the status of the infallible. The craze is sometimes claustrophobic, so much so that it was actually refreshing to meet someone who neither looked once at the screen showing twenty two men in green battling it out to stay alive in a cup chase nor passed a single, mind you, a single cricket-related comment during the three hour battle. There was a bet though. It was quite interesting that with such cricket infested brains all around us, someone successfully resisted the escapist and usually less painful route of "Religion" conversion. But, I won the bet. :)

The morning papers had totally lost it. Apparently, the ominous clouds overcasting India's world cup hopes suddenly had a silver lining. That sliver of hope, I think, had made the cricketing world mental. From analysts to 'experts' to commentators to ex-captains, everyone was out there giving their valuable opinions to the one-time champions and proving how complex calculations, performance of other teams and application of laws of probability could make India scrape through. The stage suddenly looked so perfectly set for the betting fraternity to keep the cash registers ringing. Surprisingly, India's almost promised premature exit had felt relieving. Not so surprisingly, the sudden flutter almost inconsequential.

But the real show stealer turned out to be the newspaper editor! After dedicating pages and never-ending lines to the above-mentioned, he finally selected Page 4 of the sports edition to give the Indian hockey team some respect for defeating the world champions for the first time in seven years. The respect was succinctly contained within fifteen lines.

Such is the madness. But like I say, there is always a charm in madness.

:)