The World Around Me...: September 2010

September 15, 2010

Its N-zine time again.

It's 15th of the month and the time when the online magazine 'N-zine' goes on stands. Its out this time too. The theme is 'Food and Beverages' this month and its at this link.

Yeah, you know what I'm gonna say now. "I wrote too" ;). This month, it was time for poetry. Wrote a poem called 'A Gourmet for you'. Poetry was how I had started writing. I had a poetry blog at 'My works of Rhyme'. Only after that did 'The World Around Me' get concieved. Writing poetry has always been a pleasure. Winning competitions at college-day always felt good, but no prize felt better than the one won for poetry. With a given topic and a time limit of one hour or so, to get my creative brain cells into play, that was one competition I thoroughly enjoyed.

Anyways, this time it so happened that I was caught up in a lot of things and didn't get time to write for n-zine within the last date for entry submissions. To top it, I hadn't written poetry since long and I thought I wouldn't be able to do it justice. But then, a dear friend reminding me about it and me giving it another try, it just happened ! And I'm glad about it. Wait a sec, maybe I should stop cribbing that studying is getting tough, and maybe give it another try. Maybe I can pull it off with a bit more push. Wow, another lesson learnt. ;). I'll get to work. You guys enjoy reading N-zine.

Cheers to N-zine,
Chandana C. Shekar

September 13, 2010

Nostalgia Revisited

"Nostalgia". Have been living with this word for quite a few months now. It started just before my Internship got over. College life of five and a half years came to end and everybody parted ways, with promises of keeping in touch in one way or the other. Thanks to facebook and free sms packages, few friends still do keep in touch. However, no means of communication matches the company spent in person.

One of my friend D left Mysore last week. Again, it was going away of a friend for six years. She, and two more friends - S and S shared a room in the Hostel. Me and another friend who were localites were found at that room very often. There were n number of times when Mom called asking, "Where are you?" and the answer was invariably "Hostel"; even though I was elsewhere at times, because I knew saying 'hostel' would be safe! We discussed crushes and gossips there, slept in the afternoon and missed classes, had those late night combined study sessions during exams, prepared Maggi which took ages to cook on that electric stove, slept the night over when we got late roaming outside and it was past the curfew at home and so on. We've shared laughter and tears, success and failure in that very room. Six years of all that, and now its all over. I can never go to that Hostel again, and never can I answer my Mom's question about where I am as 'hostel'.

Just the day before D left, we friends had gone out on a drive. A friend A got a call from home and he went, "Shh!! Call from home." And everybody went silent. We've done so much of that all this while and now, that's over too. One reason is that we are getting older (??), more responsible and hence parents won't bother. One more is that everybody is getting busy with their lives, trying to make a career or getting married. Nobody has time to loaf around and hence, this situation won't arise in the first place!!

Yesterday I and a friend S were chatting. The topic of conversation shifted to Marriages. He said, "There is still time. Look for a guy who can get you a Management quota Post Graduation seat and get married. Enjoy life till June 2011 and then start your Pg life". No surprises, Me the rebel, started talking about 'Compatibility' and how funny a few arranged marriages are and the business proposals that go with it. My friend thought it looked like I would get into a Love marriage and said so. The conversation continued and I said, "Arre yaar, If I want to get into a Love marriage and my parents don't agree, aur main bhaagke registered marriage karoon, tum please witness banke sign karna." And He said,"Tu chinta math kar yaar.Main tumhaara Bhai banke tumhaari shaadi karvaaonga". And then both of us burst into a laughter. The Dulhan is here. Dulhan ka Bhai is ready. Now where on earth is the Dulha?? One fine day when I get married, such thoughts and comments and conversations will also cease and turn into nostalgia. What would we talk about then? The gifts to get at baby-shower??

Life's been just books and books nowadays. Whether I 'actually' study or not, top most priority now is books. Everybody's got busy studying and hardly anybody calls or messages, forget meet anybody. I have two friends -T and S. We message each other at night so that we have some company to keep us awake, which is very difficult with those fatso books in front of us. The sms conversations we have everyday are very typical. Its always like - "Hey, sup?" .."Studying ya. You?" .. "Same da. How's it going?" .. "Bad. Yours?" .. "Pathetic. how many questions?" .. "60. You?" .. "Arre don't ask. Im sick n tired. What bakwass is this..." and on and on. But thinking in the sense of nostalgia, maybe one fine when we all get our Post Graduation admissions done and shall be pursuing our courses, maybe we shall miss this part too. Maybe not the frustration we have now, but maybe the pleasure of waking up at our own time, not worrying to dress up, mom making coffee for us more than a couple of times a day, ghar ka khaana and maybe these conversations. Pre-PG life is the worst phase of a Medico's life. With all the frustrations and insecurities, the friends who give us company through this journey sure make the tiring journey easier, even though its a wee bit.

Well anyways, I want this Pre-PG life to get over soon. And like all other souls who are sailing in the same boat as I am, I too want a happy ending to this.

Until next time,
Chandana C. Shekar