(Getting back into) Reading

Song of the post: Moon, 12:04 AM by offonoff

I need to write this before I get sucked into the 3rd book of the trilogy.

The past two years were the worst reading years ever. It wasn’t just that I couldn’t pick up a book. I did; I read in between classes, I read in boring classes, I made it a point to read something but it didn’t stick for too long. I went months without reading and I didn’t feel a thing. It’s not just the reading I missed. I missed feeling the words. I missed the excitement I felt when I picked up a new book. I missed the book community. I missed adding on to my TBR pile. I missed crying and laughing and gasping as the story went on. I missed looking up from a book and getting pulled back into reality and groaning. I missed living in written words and fantasy worlds.

I thought, maybe I’ll let this slump wash over me. Sometimes the best thing to do in slumps is to let it get to you. I have learned that the hard way. The more you push, the stronger it gets until you have to give in with a much heavier heart. Instead of that, why not give in and take a break in the beginning where you don’t have to feel guilty for it? So I let it, even though I tried to read because without no word input, there would be no word output and that scared me the most. A huge part of me was not worried much, though. I knew I would get back into it eventually but it was a matter of when. I was tired of waiting for the day when I picked up a book and did not want to put it back down.

For my birthday in March, Akka got me books, like she usually does. I had specifically asked for fantasy books because it had been a good, long while since I read a good one (or anything, for that matter) so she had gotten me a couple of Brandon Sanderson books and A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab. I was pretty excited about this one because back when it was released, it was really popular and I’d heard nothing but good things about it. After I had submitted my dissertation, I decided to pick it up one fine day, thinking, maybe I’m ready.

I was not, clearly. A couple of pages in, I paused and picked it at the oddest times. This was somewhere in the middle of April and I remember speaking to Indu about it when we realized we were both reading the same book and we were both struggling to get back into it. At that point I had reached the part where it was just getting interesting so I decided to keep reading. It took me till the end of May to actually become completely involved and overtaken by it. And I have loved every minute of it.

I have always loved V.E. Schwab’s writing, although I’m not very fond of her book This Savage Song. There was something very unsettling about it. But A Darker Shade of Magic was different. It took some time for me to understand the world, for the book itself to build the world and get the plot going. But once it began, I decided it was going to be worth it and I was right.

I was almost towards the end of the book when I decided I needed the other two parts but I didn’t want to order from Amazon during these trying times. That day at noon, I called one of the bookshops that I had heard was doing home deliveries and I had the books in my hand within the next hour. When I went to fetch my book from the delivery person, I was jumping. The road outside my house had been (still is) dug up so there were piles of mud and parts of road all around but I went dodging it and jumping over barricades and some of my neighbours told me to be careful and I could only smile at them in my excitement. When I had the books finally, I hugged them close and felt a sort of peace. I think the peace came from finally feeling excitement at the thought of reading. And I have been relishing it every minute. All of my other art projects are on pause for the moment and I can’t remember the last time I dropped everything just so I could read.

I don’t know how long this will last. I’m not going to bank on the fact that it’ll be with me forever and such. But I will take what I can get, even if it is only for this trilogy.

Book shopping and city admiring

Since I live on the outskirts of the city of Mumbai, I’m closer to the smaller, prettier, better-planned city of Navi Mumbai than Mumbai itself. It is only two train stops away and after little researching, I learned from my bookstagram friend Tejasvi, that there’s a a year-round book fair happening there, which is really close to the station in Vashi. There was no way I was missing the opportunity to go.

The previous weekend was pretty drab. I just spent most of my time in my room, watching Brooklyn Nine-Nine on my phone. I only stopped when I realized I’ve had to charge my phone thrice and it had heated up so badly that I was afraid it was going to burst. I realized that I needed to go out and see the city, as soon as possible because if I push it further, I may be so deep into my coursework that I wouldn’t want to step out. Which is why, I decided that would go out once during the weekday.

The train station at Govandi.

Tuesdays are quite chill. We have class from 9 in the morning till lunch-time, after which we’re free. I thought it would be great to go then because it’s a half an hour journey one-way (which includes the trip to the station). My first friend here in Mumbai, Chai(ttanya), who’s a local to the state told me he’d take me there. I was thrilled. This is the first time I’ll ever be travelling by local trains (fondly, officially, everythingly called just “local”) and it was everything that I had expected it to be like. Perhaps my excitement was the only unexpected thing. The train ride was definitely the highlight of the whole trip (yes, even more than the books). The train ride, 8 minutes long, passes over a huge creek/estuary, where the river joins the sea. All around us are mangroves and this smallish-big-ish body of water was just a feast to look at. The trains themselves were just so fascinating. There’s one pole in the middle of the doorway and handles to cling on to on the inside. But I suppose when the trains are full, you wouldn’t need them anyway. Chai waited till we got a nice and empty train and the both of us, plus one of Chai’s friends, Ruth, went. Ruth is a local to the city and she told me all the best places to visit. Apparently, there’s a huge paper mart in the famous Crawford Market, where you get every single type of paper that’s ever been made. She gave me names of restaurants (including a Parsee one!) and also told me, specifically, to go the stationery street. She had a pen with a magnetic cap and I just died seeing that. I made Chai promise to take me there within this month (when I have enough money to shop all the stationery that I want). Just thinking of all the stationery that’s out there, waiting to be explored by me, makes me drool and makes my eyes go dreamy and lose myself in a day dream in the middle of class. I’m so excited for it.

After a while, Ruth parted ways with us. We watched her go in a shared auto, while she called “It was nice meeting you!” to me. We walked to the book fair, which was a ten minute walk from the station. The city of Navi Mumbai is a very carefully planned and executed city. Anyone can see that. The roads are wide and the pavements wider; traffic signals are evenly spaced and there are three malls just in sight. I don’t know why anyone would need three malls but Chai said “We’ll go some other day.” I agreed because, well, I’m not really a “mall” person.

The air was fresher here; and there was no haze that you see in Mumbai. In Mumbai, there’s so much pollution that you seem to be looking at the city through a really thin veil. Or fogged up glasses. The sight is hardly ever sharp. Sometimes vivid, but never sharp. But Navi Mumbai is sharp and vivid and it knows it. Walking around it, I know that if I lived here, I’d be a proud resident.

Vashi, Navi Mumbai

The book-fair was nice. Nothing new but it had been months since I’d been to a bookstore so we spent about two hours looking for books and hidden gems. It’s amazing how a little bit of patience and perseverance can help you find some amazing stuff. I went through the whole store three times before deciding what I wanted to buy for sure. It was a books-by-weight sort of thing so we found books with a red label on them, which were 300 Rs per KG. We bought them and the walked back to the station. It was evening and the weather had cooled down a bit so it was a nice walk. The train we took back to college was even more emptier and we actually got seats! We sat for most of the way and when we got back to college, I took the “Vashi return” tickets from him to stick in my bullet journal.

What I learned so far in Mumbai (ed.2):

1. DO NOT do any stunts on a moving train, even if it tempts you. You will die, I’m telling you.
2. Now that I’ve actually travelled in one, I can write better and from experience.
3. Two phrases in Marathi!
4. My desire to go to Crawford market surpasses my desire to sit in and read or watch Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

My 2-hour outing

Yesterday, I went for a small outing that involved the post office. I was supposed to speed post something to a friend, and my parents, who insisted on doing it, forgot. So, I went walking yesterday afternoon, with m big white headphones on, music playing, and walked the one-point-something kilometer to the closest post office.

Halfway to the post office, I felt someone say, “Hey!” Startled, I turned around to see this guy I know, who owns a juice shop, right opposite to where we were standing. His shop opened up a little while after we moved to the area, and because our salon was right opposite to it, Akka and I almost always went there. And when I go walking, long roads away from home, I end up taking a break at the place, drinking some sort of chocolate milkshake.

I hadn’t seen him for a long time. When I told him that, he said a new branch of his shop opened at Banneghatta road. When he asked me why I haven’t come around, I fumbled with my words, saying some shit about how I had exams and stuff.

Well, I couldn’t exactly tell him that I had no clue what I was going to do with life, that I just spent time reading and contemplating and day-dreaming impossible dreams (they were impossible because I was day-dreaming them) and thinking how much time I had on my hands and how I was just doing practically nothing. Better to fumble on lies to a near-stranger.

His shop came by and we parted ways, with me promising to stop by his shop for a drink. I trudged further, until I saw a mobile library.

I have seen them around in random places before. They are fascinating. They look like old, normal buses from the outside, but on the inside, they have shelves lining the two long walls. Filled with books. And it was such a cute little place. One wall was full on Kannada books, all thin and worn out. The other wall had shelves with English, Hindi and Tamil and Telugu books. The books themselves weren’t fascinating, but the idea of it, the idea to deliver a library to areas was fascinating.

It might sound weird, but I’d never had a library subscription in my life. Wherever I lived, I never lived close to a library, and my family bought me books that I wanted now and then, so I didn’t think I wanted to. And so, I didn’t make myself a member for this library. I would’ve liked to, but the thought of giving up books that I loved is too much to bear.

I went to the JP Nagar post office, saw that it was crowded, saw no one working at the speed post centre/stamp counter, I just turned on my heel and left. I hated that post office. The people were arrogant and horrible. I hailed an auto to go to the post office in Jayanagar. I could’ve taken a bus; would’ve saved my 30 rupees, but oh well. I hadn’t walked so far in a long time, so I treated myself. I took a bus back, though. Then I walked back the one-point-two kilometer home.

I had to stop by an ATM for cash, so I decided to stop at the one near my own bank. There’s a cross road just before it, and I paused to take off my head phones and pause my music. When I looked up, a school van whizzed by, and the boy sitting in front curiously looked at me. I smiled at him; he smiled back. I waved; he waved so happily that my heart hurt. The boy had some sort of a mental disability, but I was so happy to see him happy.

This was probably the highlight of my week.

And I went back to his shop for a milkshake. He didn’t have plain chocolate; he never does, so I tried the black forest. It was cake. But it was okay. We chatted for sometime, about my head phones and how I’m always wearing it. He even tried it on himself. I took the parcel of Mango juice from him; it looked like it was about to rain. It always does these day. Ashaada jadi, is what we call it.  He said, “Run off home, okay?” And I just grinned and walked off.

Like I was going to run.

 

First June

This is the first June that I’ve not spent groaning to get up early to get to classes on time. It is the first June where I’m not worried about the evening rain and walking back in that horrendous road to the bus stop. This is the first June where I’m sitting at home and enjoying myself, reading and helping out in my family.

And this period will probably end this week.

This was the first June where I’ve been so emotional. I was just reading things that made me feel overwhelmed and inconsolable and I just sobbed through the night. My new refuge? Colleen Hoover. Even though her books aren’t any happier or on the more positive side, I feel safe reading them, because I know they got a happy ending.

This is the first June that I have written so less. I’ve blogged so less and my poetry has almost come to halt. I should get back up to writing poetry before I completely lose hang of it. I miss it so much.

This is the first June where I run out to the balcony every time I hear rain and smell the fresh tar and petrichor.

This is the first June where I’ll be travelling in the Metro Train from my house! It opens tomorrow and I am so excited for it!

This is the first June where I’ve started painting on canvas. They’re not the greatest masterpieces, but I’ve loved every moment of them. I should get to ordering more canvas.

This is the first June where I’ve struggled to fit all my books in the shelves I can accommodate in my room. Such a sad reality.

 

 

Weekend Coffee Share #15

I thought I published this on Sunday night! Oh gosh.

Oh God. It’s been more than two months since I wrote one! I actually was supposed to write one last week, but I was so exhausted and excited that my exams got over and I’d have a week’s solitude (after which I need to prepare for an exam) for doing absolutely everything that I want to.

Or just do nothing at all.

Anyway, I have had a blast, these two weeks. I will start from the 28th April. That was the day that I wrote my last exam of my last semester at St Joseph’s college. After which we decided we cant to go out for lunch, as usual. At first, we planned to chill our for a bit at DJ’s house and then later go to Food Street in VV Puram, near Samudyatha’s house.

Then, of course, we had a long, long debate/discussion as to where else to go, because all of us were really hungry. We thought of Onesta, but Salka vetoed it. Nairika suggested The Chocolate Room, on Brigade Road, and we all agreed to go there, pulling Passang along with us.

The place was small but comfy and the food was mediocre. What mattered to me was how much time we’d spend there together. Which is why, we got together the next day also, at Smriti’s house. More on that later.

The waiter was such an annoying man. At first, only four of us were sitting at the only long, big table. We ordered food for four of us and little more snacks. While we were rattling off our items, the guy just stood staring at us. Normally, no matter who it is, waiters write down orders. This guy didn’t even blink an eye. We straight out asked him, “Don’t you want to write it down?” Because honestly, each of us had a food item and a drink, along with snacks until the rest of them came. And who did he think he is, Arul Mani?!

He said, “No, I can remember,” So we told him everything, going a little slow this time. He went away and came back after the rest of our peeps came. After taking their orders, he came back and brought a drink that none of us ordered. He just huffed and rolled his eyes and took it back.

This happened a second time. He didn’t stay quiet. “This is too much!” And we all burst into shouts and cries of “You should’ve written it down!” in various versions. HE went away without another word.

After this lunch, we planned to meet at Smriti’s house for lunch the next day, to compensate for the Holi we missed. We watched Suicide Squad partway on Amazon Prime while waiting for the rest of them, and after everyone came, we had lunch. Like last time, Smriti’s mother had cooked us a delicious, elaborate lunch, not including those starter snacks that Smriti and her mother had made for a pre-lunch snack. Smriti’s plan was to go boating in the Madiwala lake near her house after lunch, and then swimming in the pool of her building.

When we went to the lake, it started raining. The officials at the boating centre said that until it stopped raining, there wasn’t much they could do. As we thought the rain slowed to a drizzle, it became heavier. In the end, we couldn’t go boating but we spent a good 30 minutes or so just staring at the lake and birds and skipping (or trying to) stones across the water, and talking about everything and nothing all at once. In the rain. It was so nice that I didn’t want to leave the lake.

Picture Credits: Nairika

Picture credits: Nairika

After we got back to Smriti’s house, the boys went to pool and changed soon. I don’t swim. I don’t know how and I have that common fear of depths. So, I hadn’t planned on swimming at all. But Indu and Nairika pleaded and Smriti got me clothes to wear and I reluctantly agreed to get into the water only; I hadn’t agreed to swim yet.

I got into the kiddie pool first; standing and holding tightly to Nairika’s hand. We waded through that pool, which only came up to my knees. The I sat on the wall between the kiddie pool and the adults pool, lowering one leg at a time. The finally, Nairika coaxed me into standing in the shallow side of the pool. Then I eventually graduated to holding the length of rope between the pool dividing the shallow and deep ends. I also Submerged in the water and took a dip!

We were in the water in the rain for a good 45 minutes. Again, it was really nice. I did not want to leave.

After that the most eventful day was Wednesday 3 May. I went book shopping! Akka told me to meet her Higginbotham’s a little later in the evening. I had a 300 rupee voucher for books at The Bookworm. I went to MG Road, catching a bus from 4th Block Jayanagar, and walked all the way to Church street, where I found the old building of Bookworm. Just behind that complex is Church Street, and I went there, only to find out that Blossoms, Gangarams and The Bookworm were all in the same line. All of them are bookstores and old ones but in new buildings.

I went to Gangaram’s first, bought myself my very first Ruskin Bond book (because it is a very pretty 60th anniversary edition) and then to Bookworm. I stayed in Bookworm for a long time and then I didn’t know what to buy. SO I just bought a 150 rupee worth book, the second of the Eragon series, Eldest. The spine of the book is so so pretty!

Then I went to Higginbothams with Akka. It was a beautiful sight at first but after scouting the whole store, I was not sure I liked it. I prefered the smell and love of old books to new ones, I guess and Higginbothams only sold new ones. We spent more than two hours deciding what to buy, before i finally bought Anansi Boys and A thousand Nights, which was another total cover buy.

And then this weekend I did work. I got my results on Saturday and I passed with first class! I  am officially a graduate!

Then my dad made me clean up my shelves and today, we had a ton more work.

And, tonight I will be leaving to Chikmagalur! It is a hill station with coffee estates and a beautiful climate. i will write about once I come back on Tuesday.

Tell about your two weeks! Or more!

Weekend Coffee Share #14

Instead of playing catch up on my poetry prompts, here I am, rehashing the last two, most exciting weeks of my life so far.

After that horrible week of tests, I thought I could use some good news and good vibes, so like I said on last Weekend Coffee Share, a few of us got together and decided to keep a stall at Meta.

Let’s start with the 10th of February. This was the day Meta was inaugurated.

It was a Friday and Friday is a dreadful day for my class because of Biochemistry lab. I so nicely asked the teachers if I could leave early because I had a competition but both the teachers flat out refused. It was blacked out poetry, and I’d never done it in my life so i really, really wanted to do it. Maybe it was the fury that both the teachers didn’t appreciate the finer things in life than chemistry, or simply the urge to participate in such an amazing contest, I finished my experiment quickly and left. I took part in the competition and it was really hard but so, so much fun! I’m planning on trying it again soon!

Saturday was Japan Habba prep day. I didn’t do much, but one thing I got to know was making those hexagonal paper balls. I loved doing them and I’m so glad I learnt to do it!

Sunday was Japan Habba. Honestly saying, I had more fun last year. This year, all I did was loiter around, showing Samudyatha around, then my sister, then DJ and Prince and then my parents. And then I spent time with the Graphic.Inc people who were having their “Mangafication” and gaming stall in one of the small rooms in the Auditorium. I didn’t even get to see any of the programmes, unfortunately. And for some reason I can’t really put my finger on, I didn’t even talk to most of the volunteers. Even if I did, I don’t know most of their names. It was, indeed, tiring, but I got so much stuff! I also got to wear a yukata with Sam!

A few of the things that I bought from Japan Habba!

Samudyatha and Me!

The mandatory volunteering team photograph!

And then, Monday came. Our stall was for three days, and we’d originally planned on keeping it on 13th, 14th and 18th February. Monday, the 13th, was our stall day. I was so excited for it! Our stall was originally called as A-SPIN, but now we don’t have a proper name. Moving on.

At our stall, on the 13th and 14th, most of the things were Valentine’s day stuff. I’m not bragging but we have some pretty awesome stuff. From deep thoughts to cutesy lovey-dovey stuff, we had everything. We had cards (greeting cards, postcards, gift cards), painted bulbs, fridge magnets, earrings, stickers and paperclips. The first day, because we didn’t have a table, we put it on the stage and for first timers, we sold them really well. The sale was the best on the first day, unfortunately, but we’re hoping it will be good tomorrow. Monday’s the charm!

The body art that Nithya painted <#

Our products! PC: Naveen

Some of my washed watercolour bookmarks

Sam’s painted bulbs in progress

All through the week, I’ve had competitions. Last Monday, I had fan fiction competition and even though mine wasn’t the most original of stories, I’m glad I wrote what I wrote. Wednesday was Headliners, and even though Parvathi and I didn’t win, we had an amazing time! And then on Thursday, a friend of ours from a senior class was having a house-warming ceremony. Sam, Prince, DJ and I went. And I’d missed Rajitha. It was amazing to meet her after so long.

Then the most awaited day, Friday, came.

Friday was poetry Slam. On Wednesday night, I’d found out the theme for it: Losing it. It was something so generalized that I decided to play around with it, until I came to a conclusion that this will be about my childhood. It is definitely inspired by this post that I wrote a long time ago, I for Imagination. And I was polishing it a bit, here and there, and I was so excited for it. It was the most me thing that I’d ever written (surprise, surprise XD). But then, Fridays are a bane. Because the contest started at 4, I thought I could finish off the experiment by 4 and leave soon. But, we did this stupid, and I quote Smriti, “pointless experiment” which got over by 4:20. I hurried downstairs (the lab was in the third floor of the science block, and the poetry slam was in the other block) calling this girl I knew who was a major mart of Meta. To my devastation, I learned that the competition was over. I also saw the judge walking out of the gate, and it was none other than the amazing Joshua (who’d taken one lecture/workshop for Sam and me during Culture Journalism course and it was, hands down, the best workshop on writing that I’d ever been to). And I had dressed up for the performance!

I bought myself and Sam tea in the PG canteen with the money that I was supposed to pay for the Poetry Slam. I whined about it all the way home in my head, cursing my teacher for the experiment, cursing my other teacher for even keeping this pointless experiment in the syllabus. And my day was not done yet.

I had applied for the Teach For India Fellowship Programme 2017 and the awaited day was 18th February. But I got a mail a day early saying that I was not selected. It hurt.

That evening, I decided to order books to get rid of my sorrow. I ordered Red Queen, It Ends With Us and two other random books from BookChor. And I slept on the sorrow and it dampened quite a bit the next day.

Saturday, I had Children’s fiction contest. The starter was really good! If I had more time, I’d have written something good. Something worth reading. Sigh.

This was my two weeks. Most of it brushed under the carpet. Thank you for sticking around and reading my long, ranty post.

Weekend Coffee Share #13

First Weekend Coffee Share of the year!

Even though it is a Monday, I’d still like to put things down here. They make it seem very believable.

This week was spectacularly hectic. After the weak New Year’s day, I dreaded to go back to college because I had loads of unfinished assignments. And at one point, I didn’t know where I should start, so I sat and painted buttons, made a few postcards, to send and for our bookmarks/postcards stall at Nirvaan.

Nirvaan is St. Joseph’s annual fest, and guess what the theme is time?

NAMMA OORU BENGALURU!!

(My city, Bengaluru).

I could not have been more thrilled. Here’s the poster for it.

Samudyatha, I and Shravan, with the help of DJ and Archana, thought of having a stall during the fest. But with the fest happening this Thursday and Friday, our products are no where near ready. So, we’re ditching the idea. Instead, I’m heading Funk From Junk and Creative Writing. Also, we’re getting t-shirts!!

On 5th Jan, Thursday, we all went to Truffles. After hearing “Truffles this”, “Truffles that,” the restaurant really kept up its name. I had Mexican Chicken with Rice. And I tasted shit loads of stuff, and practically had to lumber along the footpath to catch my bus. Every single thing that I ate was so, so delicious.

Picture credits: Smriti

Then, 6th Jan was Hayao Miyazaki’s birthday. In that honor, I wanted to watch one Ghibli movie, but unfortunately, I kept pushing it to the next day and the next, and ended up not watching it at all.

Saturday, I had plans.

I had two things in my list: Conference. And Kirik Party.

And one hell of an adventure it was.

The conference was held by Bangalore University, at the Jnana Jyothi Auditorium, the place where Japan Habba happened last year. I was so thrilled to go back because of all the memories that happened there.

But the conference ended so chaotically. The movie, Kirik Party, started at 6:45 PM. I thought, the conference would end at 5 PM, I would catch a bus to Majestic, then home, then go to the movie with Amma, Akka and Yoggy. But I left the auditorium at 6:30. Ran outside to catch an auto, and made it to the movie by 7:10 PM.

Thankfully, i didn’t decide to ditch the movie.

It. Was. Phenomenal.

I will be writing a post soon about the movie. Hopefully.

Sunday was even more hectic, and fun. I had a meeting with the Japan Habba committee, so Anita and I went. We had some Graphi.Inc business to with them 😀 and it was a pretty successful meeting.

After the meeting, I had a play to watch at Rangashankara, with Smriti and Arun. And it got late. Heartbroken, I sat down at the bookshop and read a whole Grapgic novel, The Tragical Comedy or the Comical Tragedy of Mr Punch. It is safe to say that this is one of the darkest and downright disturbing books that I’ve ever read, right alongside The Story of An eye. 

The lucky side of my day is, that I got to watch the last one-third of the play! It was called, Swaraajyadaata, based on the book by Gandhi, Hind Swaraj. More on this in another post too!

Then today, I only went to college to attend two meetings at the end of the day. Otherwise, I would’ve taken refuge in the warmth of bed.

Weekend Coffee Share #12

Merry Christmas, Everyone!!

I am forcing myself to sit down at the computer and type this post out. Otherwise, I will probably stop blogging.

And I can’t have that.

I have been busy. I have been busy making cards for Christmas, which somehow, even with my early start, ended up rushing a few of them. I’m pretty satisfied with them, but I could only give them out to all the teachers and none of my classmates and friends. Which made me a little sad.

BUT.

No matter. I have had other things to concentrate on. I will be back.

I am writing poetry, on my other blog, answering poetry prompts by PoetryHive on instagram, along with Parvathi. Do check them out! I haven’t been all that regular, though.

Last Sunday, I went to an event called Poetry On Elephants. It involved going from Sammy’s house to Rajitha’s house, catching a bus from Rajitha’s house and a wrong metro train to MG Road, but I reached anyway. I recited two poems that I wrote previously that week, which I thought were pretty good for my standard. And then we (we being Me, Yeshas, Ismail and Krishna sir, who’s a birder), went to Koshy’s and had coffee at 8:30 that night. Then Yeshas dropped me home and I went to college the next morning.

Monday was ethnic day. And it was pretty frustrating. We had two labs on the day, of which one of them was Inorganic chemistry. We wore our lab coats over our ethnic wear and did titration standing over wooden stools and almost slipping over. Which is pretty much the ultimate test that any of us could’ve gotten.

On Wednesday morning, as I was crossing the road to college, I tripped majorly on the road and fell majestically. I only hurt my left palm and right elbow, thankfully.

This week, after giving away the cards on Friday, I was hanging out some people from another class. It was refreshing, for a start, since I didn’t know about them a lot.

I got my package from the book swap! This time, the bookswap was so much fun! We had to send out books which matched our receiver’s name, either the title or the author. It was incredible fun packing it up for my receiver. Midnight, yesterday, we all opened it. I got Em and the Big Hoom, by Jerry Pinto. With tons of bookmarks and travel cards. And the big surprise was?

My book WAS SIGNED.

I had tears even before I realized my eyes were wet.

And, the pages are purple. It cannot get any better than this. Thank you, Tejasvi!

And, I bet you, you and your sister aren’t as awesome as we are. We got each other silver rings for Christmas! And when we went to shop for it, we went to our same standard store, Raikars, in Jayanagar. And we were both tempted to buy one for ourselves.

The one with two rings on the middle finger is my hand. 

This was my life so far, though I only brushed up on the important details. Who needs in-depth analysis of life when it changes every moment?

Tell me about your Christmas! I’m so excited to hear it!

Weekend Coffee Share #9

This is more like Weekday Coffee Share, since it’s Monday already where I am.

What an eventful two weeks.

In the midst of five practical exams, my cousin’s wedding was smack in the middle, 1st and 2nd October. Weeks and days of preparation for the wedding finally paid off. And also my exams went pretty okay.

My written exams start from Thursday and I have slight period cramps and I hate that I’m unable to concentrate and study. I’m freaking out too much and I’m genuinely scared for the first time in my life for an exam.

October first marked the beginning of Dasara or Navaratri, a nine-day long festival to defeat the evil powers. There were plenty of offers online and I bought 6 books, the picture of which is below.

Terribly sorry for the bad photo. No time to take a pretty one.

But, I am so excited to read all of them! I flicked through the pages of each and every one of them, a new, weird habit, and I’m in love.

And I finished listening to It Ends With Us audiobook and…I love it. Best this that CoHo has ever written. Read about it here 😀

A happy news! I recently started writing for this website called My Trending Stories, and I’ve put up three articles already! You can read them here!

This was my two, eventful weeks. Very exhausted. Can’t wait for my exams to finish so that I can relax for a week and then my next semester to start again.

Weekend Coffee Share #8

Wow. It’s been…I don’t even know how long since I wrote under the banner of “Weekend Coffee Share”.

Today, I’m not going to rant. The world is too full depressing shit anyway. Why add to it? Why not make the world a better place with your smile and optimism? Why use the word “hate” at every opportunity available? Why curse the rain when you can enjoy the cold weather and play in it or snuggle up in blankets with a movie and popcorn? Why think there must be something new happening to you all the time? Why not make it happen yourself? Why blame others for your misfortune?

Your day was bad? Get up and run! Feed a dog. Feed a child. Make music. Make art. Spread your love and happiness. Maybe a small fraction of the world’s population might be a wee bit happier because of you.

If that doesn’t make you happy, then I don’t know what will.

I’ve learnt (a long time ago) complaining will never get you anywhere. People will start to despise you and the negative aura surrounding you. I know I do. So, when college and life in general (see also: This Not my Bengaluru), started to get really stressful, in the last few weeks or so, I’ve smiled maybe three times. I sort of went into a depression because I couldn’t find things happy anymore. So, what did do? I started complaining.

I frowned and got really irritated with every little thing. I just stood or sat in the bus, looking straight ahead, and not making eye contact with anyone; not even when I said “Thank you” a couple of times with a tight-lipped smile. I just did my work. I didn’t read in class; my lunch group started becoming smaller and smaller, diminishing the variety of talk; I didn’t create; I didn’t watch movies.

And I was absolutely miserable.

So I slapped myself a couple of times, really hard, and snapped out of it.

Then my face glowed and hasn’t stopped since.

A few opportunistic things have happened this week! I’ve had a trial membership from Audible for a while now and somehow, without me knowing it would bill up, it got billed to my sister’s friend, Yoggy’s credit card. I was able to buy four Audiobooks! I bought It Ends With US, Mr. Penumbra’s 24-hour Bookstore, Graffiti Moon and Where’d you Go, Bernadette? I started listening to It Ends With Us, and I’m so loving the audiobook experience! I’m yet to judge the book, but it’s Colleen Hoover. Even though I was on bad terms with her book November 9, i still love all her other works. So, I’m waiting to finish it before I jump to conclusions.

I made a couple of bookmarks for a friend’s birthday, and I’ve loved making it. They both came out really well (one better than the other), and I’m so please 🙂 I can’t wait for him to see it!

I finally, finally finished writing and almost packing up two packages waiting to be sent to France and USA.  I sent them an antique style idol of Ganesha and jewellery. I’ve tried decorating it as much as I could. I hope they like it!

This is my life so far. How is yours?