LADY OLIVER TWIST- Satisfied :D

Lady Oliver proudly declares that God miraculously opened his ear-wax clogged ear and ACTUALLY heard me! ( he he.. hope his short-sighted eyes don’t read THIS! Kidding sweet heart, you mean the world to me.. er, yes, I AM addressing God!)

LOT(Lady Oliver Twist, duh!) got amazing second semester results. Two- she got a copy of ‘Gitanjali’ by Rabindranath Tagore as a participation gift!!! Three- She got a surprise gift- a most flattering letter from C 17. God, thanks for helping me fly. Thanks to C 17 and his friend… :)

Now as promised, Lady Oliver Twist- Part two… ;)

*LOT urgently wants to change her XP name from ‘Disk Boot Failure’ to something romantic/ creative/ intellectual. (Sample these- ‘The persistence of memory’. I know XP doesn’t allow such a long name. But it happens to be my favourite painting by eccentric Salvador Dali. ‘Moonstruck!’- That happens to be my cat’s name. Um… I don’t have one. But if I had, it would have been that! Yes… Moonstruck with an exclamation! ‘pehla nashaa’ for I love ..…. the song! He he… ;) ‘I believe I can fly’ ‘If only there were no deadlines’ ‘My wish is your command’ etc… But she can’t cos she promised God she would retain the name till the end of the year! Venduthal-la ennakku vyavasthai illai! :)

*LOT wants to go on a trip to some foreign country.

*LOT wants to give a big hug to her amma for being the support for every decision, every success of my life! Amma... I LOVE you! :*

*She wants to travel by her college bus, sitting alone on that lone seat right in front, looking out at the cold morning and hug her bag close, dream and read verses on nature…

* She wants to overcome the tears that well up her eyes every morning when she has to drag herself to her college bus stop! Sigh sigh! If not for my friend, saviour and senior in my stop who sometimes picks me up and drops me back EVERYDAY, I wouldn’t live!

* Wants to see the college cows race each other in front of the gate as it happened today! HILARIOUS!!!

*Revamp her wardrobe in red cos she’s supposed to look pretty in red! Ahem! My friend said so! I’m far from modest, if you guys haven’t realized and I’m unashamed of it!

* Spread joy into lives by my presence.

* Meet Rahul Dravid again and tell him that this is the Sandhya who’s started to message him before every tour!

* Sing a song for Rahman’s music ( chorus kooda ok Thala! ) Enakku rumba nenaps thaan ponga!

*Act in the Harry Potter movie as Parvati Patil and waltz with Daniel Radcliffe and er… if possible Tom felton(ah… malfoy!!!!) or if all this is too much, then atleast as a ‘kuppa perukkarava’(sweeper) in Diagonal Alley! :D

* Get the first copy of Harry Potter and the final-book-to-be from the ‘witchy’ hands of J.K.Rowling herself in her castle.

* Meet Nirmal Shekar

* Own Swades, Life is Beautiful, Kuch Kuch Hota Hain, Papa Kehta Hain, Azhagiya Theeye, Dil Se, Kannathil Muthamittal(Vans, anti-copyrighting cd-ya vaangu inume. Loosu! Loosu! *shakes head in disbelief*), Anniyan(for Remo’s sake… Ah!!! Drool drool!), Harry Potter series, LOTR series, Hum Hain Raahi Pyarke, Hungama, RULES(oh… it’s de COOLEST movie, I’ve seen! And the rules are simply great and well-devised. After all Dadi ka medicine kab work nahi kiya yaar? :) etc

* Join a library. Read at least a book a week!

*Own Music World, Landmark (both outlets! ;D), Higginbothams, Raghavendra Musicals (neighboring shop, vasadiya irukkum! :D)

* Try to write sarcastic poetry!

*Slap someone with anger. I want to know if I can…

*Cook up for all at home!

*Blog my dream post-‘ gabbar Singh’

*Breathe life into my Kindred Spirits’ Promotion Club. It EXISTS. Want to group in more people who’ve read and are as passionate about Anne Shirley-Blythe of ‘Anne of Green Gables’ and the subsequent book.

*Publish my story ‘The Land of Moonbeams’ after completing it!

*Learn to sweep and wash the floor properly cos if Arch doesn’t pay, I can always have a fall-back options. And I’M NOT JOKING!!!

*Take a print out of all my posts, poetry and prose!

*Update all my creative writing books!

*dance in the rain in a grove to the tune of the pattering raindrops with a group of birds as audience.

*make my movie ‘joy ride’ with Arvind! Producers pl contact me!!!

*Make that movie I’ve wanted to make from my 4th. I devised the story also then only. It’s called ‘The Bulbul Birds’. Very Hansel and Gretel-ish. But still want to make it for retaining the child in me.

* Retain the child in me. To not let the perversion, distraction and pollution of the big bad world spoil the unadulterated mind, heart and soul that the creator created in me in that “infinitesimal second that bore me into the world”, to quote myself!

*Learn to play the keyboard professionally! Rahman will do! If not, connect me to Yanni please…

*Learn to love purely, trust faithfully and wait patiently. The firsttwo I’ve already mastered. The last seems difficult!

*Watch a rainbow spanning the sky from atop a mountain.
*Touch the clouds and feel their sponginess
*Para-glide
*Hot air ballooning
*BUNGEE JUMP!!!!!!!!
*Roller coaster ride again!
*Have a room of my own.
*Live in a castle with the love of my life! ;)
*Get a perfect nose! I’m generally not jealous AT ALL!!! Except on three accounts. I’m jealous f Aishwarya Rai’s nose, ShahRukh Khan’s wife and Moron’s sense of humour penned the way he only can! And I BADLY WANT A PERFECT NOSE. Offtrack.. My nose ACTUALLY seemed quite near perfection today. It looked all slender and ‘chiseled’. I was wondering if noses change their shape or become thin. Pl Pl tell me… My mom said they do. But I know by that smile that she was only humouring me! :(
*Step-cut my hair(er… did I already mention that???)
* Ride a bike on Gemini fly over, letting my hair lose, wearing a leather jacket and leather pants, with a bandanna tied across my head, sporting a cooling glass, chewing gum and listening to music!
*Buy an Apple i-pod!
*Buy a Discman!
* Take a lonely walk on the beach
*Steal time for myself to spend with myself!
*Write letters to myself, seal them p and read them later (ala Anne Shirley,Calvin and a few others.)
*Inspire people.
*Be remembered
*Be loved
*Be a good Human Being
*Be pampered
*Be gifted all of the above!!!

:D



Well, that’s about it now!

LADY OLIVER TWIST

Yeah, that’s me! I always want more. Dissatisfaction is what runs my life. So if anyone out there is very keen on playing god fairy to me, then hey, you’re always welcome to get me the following!(in no particular order but for the one that it popped in my mind..)

Convince my close friend to not take a plunge into spirituality! Sigh!
BUY SWADES cd. Vani are you listening? :)
a hard disk with 120 GB capacity
A bigger house with a separate room for myself
A PROPER computer table
A new bag, pouch, wallet, better photo in my ID cod(he he!)
BROADBAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *Scream scream*
Finish my climatology book by Monday
Do well in my design review
Do well in II semester. Results still not out! :”( hopefully I should have passed in Drawing!
Paint my desk and give it a whacky look!
Finish Lord of the rings. I seem to find no time for the amazing book!
Help my sister with her project
LEARN DRIVING!
Buy a Scooty Pep/ A cycle, at least!
Publish a book
Celebrate an year of blogging by riding a horse on the empty beach
Take more walks on the terrace
Write more and more and more
Meet Sarojini Naidu and have a discussion about what inspiring visions make her write poetry (oh… I’m in love with her at present!). Sadly she’s dead! Boo Hoo!
Watch Mangal Pandey with friends-all 27 of us!
Win LOTS in Zonal NASA(National Association for the students of Architecture)
Learn Kathak and Bharathanatyam
Learn Hindustani Music
Sing Ra ra song on stage
Dance for Dola re again
Act in a play. It’s AGES since the last one!
Prizes in 3 competitions I’ve participated in
Bunk college, sit at home with a steaming cup of Milo, and look out at rain lashing the world outside with a lovely book in hand, dreaming some, reading some and penning the occasional poem…
Write in my diary more often!
Writethe5stoiries brimming in my head but REFUSING to be written!
Somehow keep getting 500 bucks and 24 free hours in a day!
Join the United Nations on some peace mission
Educate someone later
Spread environmental consciousness
Start a club for kids
Step-cut my hair
Shape my eyebrow every other week (I do it once in 1.5months now. Yuck!)
Revamp my wardrobe and the sucking education system
Make one PERSISTNG dream come true…
Travel… preferably alone or with some kindred spirit… Pratyusha, my sister, cousin, Vani would be great options!
Watch a cricket match with Lakshmi
Watch a live A.R.Rahman concert up-close with Lakshmi, Vani and Harish with Kartik and Sonu featuring in the singers list.
Become a real witch for a day!!!
Buy a monkey and call it Mischief(Enid Blyton, hats off!)
Build my dream library and call my old school’s librarian and all my English teachers and my 10th History teacher for the inaugural. It should have all my favourite books……
Buy gold bangles for my mom’s wonderful hands that conjure up the world’s best tea!


Oh well… I could go on… Part two will come soon!
:)

MY VAGUEST POST!!!

Dreams there you blow towards me again and again… So much so that I believe you’ll come true. You should… cos you’ve come so often, that I can see you blooming true.

There are other dreams I dream, yes. Some more important than this, some less. But this is too close to heart for me to stop dreaming.

In many ways have the omens indicated that it’ll come true. MANY ways. Yet at times, events and people emerge to discourage me, to make me feel insecure and beaten. And then, I see yet another omen to tell me, “Dream on…” You’ll see the light!

I believe in destiny.MAKTUB, as Paulo Coelho says in his Alchemist. If it’s destined for things to happen, they will. But sometimes, unforeseen by God himself, man challenges destiny, changes it and there’s born a miracle!

I don’t know if it’s destined but it looks like it. I don’t know if I’ve to fight destiny. But, I’ll, if I have to…

The other dreams- I KNOW they’ll come true. But this one… there sometimes lingers a doubt. Sometimes, I have the KNOWLEDGE that it will! Actually this dream began with a pre-knowledge. I KNEW stuff before they were seen. Uncanny!

Vague… you must be murmuring. It is- to you. But not to me! Maybe one day all of you’ll come to know of it coming true. Maybe it’ll die… NO NO it won’t! It WILL come true!

EIGHTEEN GOING ON EIGHTY

In life, there always occurs a transformation. From the cocoon comes the butterfly. Life moves on; staging its various acts one after another. Sometimes it is a slow and long-drawn process. And sometimes, as is in my case, it’s an abrupt jump or rather a metamorphosis.

From eighteen, I’ve jumped to eighty- or so says the world around!!!

Sigh!
Ah… there is the first indication of the weakness in my bones and mind.

Ok… enough of the over build-up. This post has been due for almost a month and just now did I have time to actually sit down and type.

In recent times, poor eighteen year old me has been the favourite punch-bag of lots of dear ones. Tracing the origin, it all started with moron Curses telling me my voice sounded like a ‘kezhavi’s’ over the phone! The voice, that has been called ‘amazing over the mike’, ‘very expressive’, ‘emotional’ now got this ‘compliment’. I swear da, I could have slit your throat! Well, knowing it was only Harish who always makes it a point to irritate me every day, I just gave up the matter. Sadly he till has not given it up and refers to it quite often!(I’ve a good mind to put up an audio blog and ask for votes to support me!)

But Sandhya did not sense that it was just the beginning… close friend, classmate and bus mate Nanditha after patiently listening to one tiny advice session of mine staunchly declared,” Sandhya, you’re one Mother Hen, me a list of dos and don’ts!”

Doom 2 was bad! But Doom 3 was worse…
Being the class rep of a bunch of 25 annoying yet sweet people can be a trial, especially when you have such whiny vice-reps like ex-blogger Arvind Caulagi! (Sorry, couldn’t resist Arvi!:D ) And during one of those times when I had to silence the class, as some external examiners had come, lots of my class people endorsed Nanditha’s opinion, much to my greatest displeasure and irritation.

Well that was the last straw. I yelled madly! But it wasn’t to be.

My friend Vikram had called me up for some help regarding a drama company he wanted to start. I was to read scripts and help him with some sponsorship letters (that I did neither in the end, is a different story!). I told him, “Don’t worry da. I’ll help you with any such work. Don’t hesitate.” “Ok granny!” came the reply from the other end! I was furious and at the same time, laughing like a jackass! From then till date, he’s calling me granny.

Ever heard of a story of an 18-yr old girl being called ‘sister’ by half the planet? Well, let me introduce to you, Sandhya Ramachandran- your fellow blogger at blogsville! I have enough number of cousin brothers and 5 adopted brothers ( Rahul, Murali, Immesh, Arvind and Shayileash) and well, THAT’S ALL!!! Sorry, the vacancy’s all filled. Moreover, everyone in this world can’t be your brother! One- the position of a brother is precious and reserved. Two- the position of a friend is pure too.

Hmmm..Not that I’m bitter. It’s very funny to hear all that. But at times, it does irk. And irks my heartstrings! :”(

Forget all this. After dancing for 4 hours continuously at a freshers’ party that our seniors threw, my leg’s been disobeying me. It pains when I walk. Bending my knee is torture! Now why won’t I call myself 18 going on 80?

So much for a girl who’s an outright romantic!

Am I girly or a granny?
Oh god wont you tell me which?

I feel confused and irritated too
And when I’m called mother, I go ‘Boo Hoo’.

What in the world do these people think?
How can I change from granny to girl in a wink?

It’s funny at times, but mostly hurting,
My tear glands are full, readily spurting

Sister, mother, granny dear,
“So early?” the girl in me fears.

Can’t I be just me- plain simple me?
Why can’t everyone just me, see?

God, bringing your power, intervene.
Make me a girl, a pretty queen!!!

:(

VIGIL

The night was slowly creeping its way into the world. Smriti looked around at the unfamiliar surround. It was a decent hotel room with white-washed walls and comfortable furniture. She looked out of the window. The town lay shrouded in darkness with the pale moon shining mistily across the distant skies beyond the mountains, with a star or two peeking between their cloudy covers, keeping vigil. The spooky stories she had heard about this sleepy town, in her childhood, played in her mind. For a second she shivered at the thought. She felt frightened, alone.

She looked up again and smiled. She took out her notepad and wrote,

“It might be very frightening to stay alone sometimes. But after a few seconds, things do seem comfortable and friendly. It’s nice and cosy here in this place. I guess it’s because there are things like night, stars, sky even here. For that matter, that is why sometimes, even if we are far far away from home, we feel a home-like atmosphere because nature always follows us… unfailingly and unfalteringly. True, nature never did betray the heart that loved her!”

*This is a story re-hashed from a personal experience. I thought I would post it as such. But just wanted to get a go at short story writing. :) *

FRIENDSHIP DAY

First things first- HAPPY FRIENDSHIP DAY to all you blog-friends out there! You have no clue how important you all are to me! It really feels nice to have you all aroundpassing on your encouragement and love. Really, when I started out to blog- in October(after Sudhish told me this was one good way to let the world see your writing), I never knew-
1) I would take blogging so seriously and generate quite a good number of readers.
2) Make so many friends, a best buddy and a brother too… :)

So this is basically just a thanksgiving post to all of you!
Be good. Keepsmiling. Take care and keep coming here. It makes helluva difference! :)

FOREVER FRIEND

(Dedicated to my dearest Pratyusha… Hey, I miss you di! Distances part us! But our thoughts are still with each other! Glad we’re always there for each other! Wish we stayed closer!)

A storm ranges in my heart
And I look out for you
Where have you gone my dear friend?
When I need you most?

I search and search and search in vain
I know you’re there for me now and again.
But come to me, my dear friend
Come to me when you hear my call
Maybe I never more would call again!

Our friendship is not of words or praises
It is a deep understanding of looks and smiles
Its nice, its weird, its good-bad- everyway!
Oh dear friend, I miss you
I wish you were here today.

My turmoil, my trepidation
My moments of pain, my vision.
You know them all
Even before I tell you.
I blink, I sneeze, I cough, I stutter
Whatever I do- you know what’s the matter!

Dear gal, my forever friend,
My shadow, my dream,
My endless joy.
I want you by my side,
To share my tears and smiles.
Always always, be there here
At a thought’s distance, very near!
May you be there always for me,
As I am always going to be!

(And all you wonderful people out there, who care enough for me/my writing and keep coming here to pass a word of encouragement- THANKS! Happy friendship day to you all! Great to know you!)

CHENNAI POETS’ CIRCLE

CHENNAI POETS’ CIRCLE

Okie people out there, you better sit up and listen, cos I’m now gonna tell you some important news.

The Chennai Poets’ Circle is a forum started in 1998 as ‘Poets Foundation’ and was renamed so in 2003. It’s this really cool forum of which I’m a member. We meet up every month and read and discuss our poetry. It’s fun, if you are interested in poetry. If not, you still will like it, because you get to listen to veterans in the field of poetry.

I joined last year and I’m proud to be a part of it. This year, we are releasing an anthology of our poems- ‘Efflorescence’, like last year, and also conducting our SECOND NATIONAL SEMINAR ON ‘THE FUTURE OF INDIAN POETRY IN ENGLISH’ on Sunday, 18 September 2005 at The Madras Kerala Samaj, no. 903, Poonamallee High Road, Chennai-600 084.

Eminent personalities from the literature field and otherwise are going to be present and papers will be presented by noted scholars. Newcomers will be given an opportunity to read out their poems on the stage.

Admission is free and it would just be great to have you guys there. One- I can get to meet the people who I’ve been reading. Two- you can have an enriching time there.

DO MAKE IT people!

We are looking out for sponsors too. So if any of you could suggest/ sponsor, do let me know. My e-mail:

violetvale@rediffmail.com

Now, cancel all appointments for the day and be there! :)

MIRAGE...

My dremas soar up,
I look up at the silver shine
All around me is beauty
My eyes fillme with wonder light

And as I shift gaze down
I fall, fall and fall below
Passing the star the moon,et al!
The wonder disappears in a flash of light

I fall on the ground
Hard on my face
I’m bruisd
I’m hurt
I’m mentally pained

I look above
See no shine
No beauty either
Nothing but a blazing firmament

Burning through my eyes
Burning every fibre
Burning a hole
Through my very soul

I walk and walk
But find no calm
The mind is still haunted
By those dizzying heights
Those heights I touched,oh
For a wee moment
But what a moment that was!

And now all I have to my hand’s graspis dull, bald and boring
Nothing to waken the senses
Nothing to interest the mind
Nothing to make the heart leap
Oh nothing save nothing, is mine!

I want, I want, I want many many things
I get few, I fly, I fall down hard
The skies are where my heart is,
The earth is where my feet!

And still the eyes look above,
Knowing that the end is defeat
My longings-so many
My dreams-countless
A few do bloom
A few fall down
I go to great heigts
And see great lows
My life-a see-saw, in disguise.

Oh dear, how long, how long, I ask?
This highs and joy and lows and naught?

The soul cringes,
The heart pains
The mind is numb
The body does ache

Oh dear oh dear
Grief struck her blow
I’m depressed, beyond words
I’m oh-so-low!
Oh, Life is forever,a Mirage!