SOCH'08!!!

Today is 29^th December 2008…a nice Monday morning…nice because I’m sitting at home, courtesy Christmas Vacations….but something nicer than these 2 week long vacations happened exactly 24 days back…on 5^th and 6^th….SoCh’08!!

I’d term SOCH as the pride of the students of the commerce department….our love for it made us probably work as hard as we have worked for it this year…

Coming into Loyola Academy last year, none of us had any idea of SOCH…we never expected anything of this sort. As far as last year’s SOCH goes[SOCH’07], since we were the 1^st year students, we din’t really have much of a role. The reason for that is the amazing group of super seniors we had…a group who handled each and every thing and saw to it that we won’t really be burdened with any work as such. I only remember moving around chairs and tables last year and believe me, it made me really happy...it made us all very happy to be a part of something as huge as it, even if we made negligible contribution!!

Entering into 2^nd year, the first thing we were looking at was SOCH’08, yes SOCH this

Year would mean more involvement from us, and we were looking forward to it.

But things din’t seem to be going our way as the happening of SOCH’08 looked bleak.

We were really desperate to have it and evidently we pushed hard against it, and eventually it was decided that , SOCH’08 will be on!!!!

Now that SOCH was on, we had to get things started, 1^st things 1^st, conducting SOCH aint no child’s play and the sooner we realize that , the sooner we’ll start working.

Realization came in as soon as it could, and we started working for it. The dates for the fest was decided as Dec 5^th and 6^th…so that meant we had the whole of October and November to work for it.

But, how could things be so easy for us, even though the whole of October was holidays, it came with a prefix “Preperation”…

Yes, these month long holidays were followed by the most dreadful exams, the semester end!

That meant we had to work during the first half of the month and cram during the rest.

So, October was probably the “make or break” for SOCH…and I can now say proudly, we MADE it!!

Going back to October, we decided to start working from day 1 of the vacation, and we did just that.

Going around for sponsorship could be very painful. Specially when the Sun is beating down and people don’t seem interested.

Anyways, we worked till the 23^rd of October, collected as much money as we could, and noted down on the people we need to get back to.

The semester end exams came by and were seriously very dreadful. At one point of time, we just waited for it to end and it eventually did.

With just a 2 day break, the next semester started and it was November 12^th already.

Time literally flew. .and probably flew in a Concorde!!!

4 weeks to go for THE day! And we were still short of the sufficient cash we’d need to set up the event.

Just when I thought things were going on track, controversies came by. But we managed to put them off for the time being. All in the interest of SOCH!!!

Since we were tight budgeted this time, the Rock Concert got scrapped and none of us were really happy with that. But then we had to move on and get other things on track.

The last two weeks before SOCH, went for publicity. We went around inviting colleges and sticking posters in hang outs.

Most importantly, during all this while when we were out for sponsorship, another group of students, worked on Street plays.

Days till December 4^th just raced by and sitting in college on the eve of the big event, we could smile and say with enough conviction.. WE DID IT!!

And after 48 hours of us saying that, we feel happier….infact happiest…because …WE REALLY DID IT..!!!

SOCH’08 was indeed a hit, an enormous one and being absolutely frank, 2 months prior to this event, we did not anticipate it...We knew we’d manage to make it happen..but thought we’d just sail through..But eventually we managed to cruise through and that makes each and every individual, who gave in his and her best for SOCH, really very happy and content…Thanks to this event, Life at Loyola seems rocking!! :) :)

***P.S :::

According to me, this fest would surely not have been possible if it wasn’t for that amazing group of juniors…Those juniors who came in and responded so well to what exactly we were expecting from them.

I remember this conversation I had with Ankur, where we spoke about how a lot would depend on the juniors who come in and take up the responsibility.

I think, on behalf of my batch, I can happily say, We are proud of them…

And most importantly, the amazing group that constituted the Street Plays, headed by Mary, was probably the Soul of SOCH'08....they carried off something they had never before...and surprisingly did it with style and panache and dealt with ultra sensitive topics with the utmost ease.....Good Job People...Great going!!

With the success of SOCH’08…we are now seasoned fest organizers..hehe... and SOCH’09 is going to be the biggest ever fest and we are already under way :) :)***

I am the Reason!!!

I am an Indian…An Indian who lives in every nook and corner of India and I’m the reason….the reason for so much neglected devastation.

I term it as neglected devastation because of the chain of reasons that is related to “I”

I am the one who is caught up…caught up in my own life…too busy to recognize my responsibilities towards my society…I am the one cribbing about the lack of taste in my salad every morning…complaining about the condition of our wonderful roads...trying hard to prove that “my life sucks”…

I am also the one busy celebrating the tiniest of my joys with a blast and not really worrying about anything in life….

I am the one renovating my house every month.

I am the one who is busy trying to achieve in life…which according to me ..or at least my teachers can be done only by mugging up the likes of giffens paradox and so many things on the same line.

I am that same one, who is waiting to finish my schooling and fly to an alien land to carry on my journey to achievement.

I am the one who is busy following the stock market and looking for my gains.

I am also the “patriotic” one….going to school on every Aug 15^th and Jan 26^th…pinning in the tri colour on my breast pocket….listening to the monotonous speeches about our freedom struggling…applauding even more monotonously each and every year and waiting to get wafers!!

I am the one who has been leading a very busy life, in every part of India.

But for the past one month, there has been a change in my life

A dastardly event that happened affected me....’me’ in every part of India.

Its aftermath leaves me devastated as well…

Devastated because I lost my loved ones in this horrendous happening..

Devastated because it seems unreal to me…

Devastated because I am really helpless and the fact that such a negative power taking over me is rebelling with my system to sink in and I am fighting it hard!

In this moment of devastation, what all would I do….

I am an Indian and roots of empathy runs in my blood for centuries now.

I watch the series of events unfold on T.V. where news reporters run haphazard to bring out the best coverage of the whole saga.

I would curse the inhuman people who carried it out…

I would even shed tears for the people who lost their lives and their loved ones…

I would also voice my anger against the “system”…

But but but this angered voice comes when something of this enormity just occurred..

Where was I when losers were elected and placed at respectable positions in our country…

Well I probably was caught up in my busy life...shopping for footwear with my girlfriend….

Or I was in my board meeting trying hard to pin down my colleague just for a lil higher moolah…

But I had no voice of anger then…I dint care who owned my country…All I knew was the person sitting in the middle of that round table was my boss and impressing him would mean I could get my new 25 inch LCD TV in my new apartment…

But coming back to my condition post the unfortunate incident, my blood began to boil when further news broke in about the level of destruction to human life..

I silently sob for those who lost their lives…

I pray to the almighty to save the innocent from such horror in the future…

I get back to myself and start cursing the system…

I go on a candle march…to show my solidarity against those who intend to destroy us…

But then I am an Indian which implies I m fickleminded...once the news channels stop airing live coverages, I will go back to my life…of course I will…

Coming back to the original me...this rambling of mine leads to just one difficult thing…responsibility…. responsibility is something that every “I” cannot see…

The best quality that I possess is the blame game…I can blame anyone for anything that happens the way it shouldn’t have…so that’s how my ranting about the system comes along….According to me, since something of this nature has happened, those sitting in the political chairs aren’t efficient....they should be immediately overthrown and new people should fill in…how would that help me and my nation?..well I don’t know…it would depict how we can react to such a situation…

But But I have another habbit…a habbit that exists in sync with every form of me…I will not vote…once I’m into my 18^th year of life..I will celebrate..throw a party...let the world know about it through an Orkut status message…but ..I won’t vote…why should I?...how is that going to help me?..how does it matter who runs our country…as long as I m safe..my family is safe..my job is safe and my incomes are safe…why would I give a damn?...I would continue to eat wafers on Aug 15^th and Jan 26^th and continue to be a hypocrite…a hypocrite by saying I care after all the damage is caused..a hypocrite by participating in online forums titled “war against terrorism”…I am under an assumption that by doing something like that I would make a “change”…

But as ironic as it can get, I AM THE REASON !!!

***P.S :: The tears of the people who lost their loved ones in this tragic incident will never dry up and I pray to GOD to give them the strength to stay composed and not break down…easy for me to type in but I really pray for it..I pray for peace…

I also pray to GOD to enlighten each and every version of “I” existing in India….

But as I go into my prayer I’m pretty sure that “I” will continue to be the same unless something like this happens to us personally…and that is really SAD…

And for those I’s who do not vote they have no right whatsoever to talk about the failing system because ‘I’ am the sole reason for their malfunction…I think its high time I really

Wake up!!!

--Disclaimer: I donot intend to hurt or offend anyone..the above views are solely mine and will continue to be that way!!*****

GoD....WhY??

From Fantasy to frustration…

From toys to tensions…

From sugarcandy to scrutiny…

God…Why did we grow up????

From long sleeping hours to being an insomniac…

From being pampered to being pressurized…

From being put in a cradle, to under the scanner…

God…Why did we grow up????

From being preoccupied to ever existing boredom..

From random doodling to heaps of homework…

From meaningless blabbers to serious seminars..

God…Why did we grow up????

From play school to college…

From A,B,C,D.. to Environmental studies…

From colourful clay to lab apparatus…

God…Why did we grow up???

From small wounds that ripped our knees..

To those within our strained hearts…

From shedding tears to complaining to Mom…

To self pride and big fat ego…

God…Why did we grow up????

From plastic bat-n-ball to net practice…

From baby food to pizzas…

From lullaby to loud music…

God….Good that we grew up!!!

MST!!!!

MST stands for Mom/Mum/Mummy Standard Time and we teenagers have been used to it for over a couple of years now…lets see what exactly it means…

First a little bit of general info [so that this post appears long..hehe]

We all probably know/learnt that the Earth is split up into a number of time zones. Most time zones are exactly one hour apart, and by convention every country compute their local time as an offset from UTC or Greenwich Mean Time and INDIAN STANDARD TIME(IST) is the time observed throughout in India with a time offset of UTC+5:30.

So that was how the time is calculated in our country…but then MST is what rules our lives now a days and it is totally independent of anything and is itself a ‘parent’ calculation.

So what exactly does MST mean??...let me give you an example…

You are a teen…a college going teen…a teen who goes to bed early/late/very late and refuses to rise early and so mom’s [who according to me are the smartest living species in this whole wide world] come up with some smart strategies to get us out from under the sheets and get ready…eat…and leave for college!.. so MST is the end product of such smart strategies…!

Its really funny because we nice innocent little college going kids fall for it each and every time!!!

Since it has been strategized and devised by the most intelligent species , it has to be fool proof and cannot be manipulated in any possible manner…it kind of works on the ATM principles…You can rob a bank but you can’t break open an ATM machine!!

So this MST is a sort of ATM machine which we fail to break each and every time and we do crib a little but then when I spoke about it to a friend and as I type it in right now I have a smile on my face. A smile inspite of being outsmarted each and every time…and the best part is…from the inside…we LOVE it!

Without dragging it further…I’ll explain how this concept of MST working on the ATM princilples work….

When you are deep in your sleep, dreaming about something and suddenly there is a voice you hear…that says “wake uppppp…its 8:30”…it takes you time to realize that your mom just told you the time…and when that sets in you wake up in a jiffy....because if its 8:30 already you are late…you rub your eyes…which are half closed ..dragging you back to your wonderful dream…and in the next second you will have a feeling of pity for yourself…and say “not again”…because your watch shows 7:30 a.m. only!!!

That’s MST for you…

*************P.S.::: Okay….credits to my mom….who has probably been using this wonderful ploy against me for over 4 years now and I fall for it each and every time….the idea of writing this struck me when I woke up at 7:00 a.m. today after hearing “wake up…its 8:30..” …**************

NeWs On ThE lOoSe!!!

NEWS ON THE LOOSE???

Hmmmmm……News on the loose…hmmm…just a fancy/creative/plagiarized name for a Random Random Post…

~~~~~ A group young students just created history by writing a semester end exam on the day after Diwali…lets salute those brave kids~~~~

~~~~~Tip of the day::: All those people who think boredom is ruining their lives..I

have a task for you…count the number of words you speak

and raise a broomstick at every 100 words and

celebrate~~~~~~

~~~~’DARN’ of the day::: I lost this MS.Word Document titled 15 ways to keep your insanity high…not that I’ve got any lower but I WAANT that thing baaaaaaaaaaaack!!~~~~~

~~~~~~Question of the day::: Why are critics so obviously stupid?? Or is that why they are critics???~~~~~

~~~~~~Thank you Mr. Lalit Modi…thanks to your brain child The IPL, my mom now knows who Shane Watson Makhaya Ntini and Fervez Maharoof are~~~~~~

~~~~~~ The walls of my room is apparently upset with me coz I haven’t been able to give it a lot of time and stick up posters on it…Ive tried hard to negotiate…apologized in every possible form and given an explanation…doesn’t work…seems like its going to be tough to get things back to normal …suspect my wall’s a female???

P.S::: wise cracks of such hazardous nature can be life threateningly dangerous~~~~~

~~~~~Request of the day:::: Anyone out there who can take this nice lil kid out for trekking???...if you are looking for experience or past records of sorts.. my trekking resume would flaunt proudly “Climbed the moula ali hills in shorts and slippers”~~~~~~~

~~~~~ Ekta Kapoor…Kareena Kapoor…who sucks more??...toughie!!~~~~~

~~~~~~~Nostalgia of the day:::: 1st Crush…Neha…UKG-A …I remember she was the tallest student of our class then…wonder where and how tall she is now :D :D :D

~~~~~ Sidhuism Of The Day:::: Don’t feel happy about beating all odds.. the evens are stronger!!~~~~~~~

~~~~~5 reasons why My friends want to beat me up:::

1. I haven’t watched Sarfarosh

2. I still haven’t started watching friends

3. I never really watched swatcats

4. I can drive them crazy by irritating them

5Im not much into Angrezi music

~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~ My first salary [whenever I earn it] is going to be spent on a 15-20 mega pixel digital cam~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~I can touch my nose with my left toe [ha! Fooled you!]~~~~~

~~~~~Sign of a true cricket lover :::: He will shadow practice his bowling action while walking back home from the busstop!!~~~~~

~~~~~~~Prayer of the day/month/year/lifetime:::: dear god, please give me 2 more inches of height…I want to be taller than my best friend [who is busy playing tennis in new Orleans now]…just 2 inches….

Thanking You

Yours truly~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~ Trade Secret of the day :::: I don’t use T9~~~~

~~~~~~~Blooper Of the day:::: ‘NeW AnD ImPrOvEd’…I don’t know if this usage is grammatically incorrect but as far as I know it is not practically possible…Let me explain…anything that is new cannot be something that is improved because of the fact that a new thing would not have existed before and hence no previous versions would have been there and hence cannot be improved…And something that is improved cannot be something new because it is a better version of something that already exists!!! PHEW!!!!!~~~~~~~

~~~~~~Inspiration of the day/month/ year/ forever:::: Calvin and Hobbes [Undoubtedly]…It takes a lot of insanity…yellow hair…a sensible stuffed tiger and loads of imagination!!~~~~~~~

~~~~~~YaaaaaaaaY of the day :::: And the 44^th President is …..[with a bit of hype] …Barrack Obama….[that means that’s the end of Bush …Finally man!!!!]~~~~~~

~~~~~~Family Secret of the day :::: I was the ‘brat’ of the family for a very long period until a little cousin took over…I work undercover now!!~~~~~

~~~~~~~Food for thought:::: Can we trade Paneer Butter Masala for ‘A friend in need is a friend in deed’??~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~ The only time you will try to straighten out a mess is when you are looking for something in it~~~~~

~~~~OMG of the day:::: Barrack Obama is a lefty!!!!!~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~ The extent of being an extrovert Is directly proportional to the number of recharge cards!!!~~~~~~~

~~~~~~ According to me…the toughest thing about English “Grammar” is its spelling!! [I’ll end up writing grammer 3 out of 5 times I have to write it ]~~~~~~

~~~~~~ Make me an offer I can’t refuse :::: I’ll do anything[yeah..ANYTHING] for a chocolate/a couple of them/ a dozen/ lifetime unlimited supply~~~~~

~~~~~Remember the bunch of exam writing kids we saluted in the beginning??...yeah those ones…well for some of those kids…SOCH is probably the next big exciting thing that’s going to happen~~~~~

~~~~~ I’ve played in SNOW once!!! felt like I was on a rewind mode …back to when I was say around 3-4 years old…trying to experiment with mud when mom wasn’t around~~~~~~~

~~~~~My playlist still has 6 songs from ROCK ON!!! Playing…can’t get them off my head~~~~~~

~~~~~~ The font that I’m using is known as BRADLEY HAND ITC…A friend of mine told me about it…I just love it~~~~

~~~~~~ Intelligence Versus Improvisation.. What’s your thing??~~~~~

~~~~~ Dialogue of the day:::: The opening dialogue of this movie called “The Inside Man”…This is how it goes…

My name is Dalton Russell. Pay strict attention to what I say because I choose my words carefully and I never repeat myself. I’ve told you my name: that’s the Who. The Where could most readily be described as a prison cell. But there’s a vast difference between being stuck in a tiny cell and being in prison. The What is easy: recently I planned and set in motion events to execute the perfect bank robbery. That’s also the When. As for the Why: beyond the obvious financial motivation, it’s exceedingly simple… because I can. Which leaves us only with the How; and therein, as the Bard would tell us, lies the rub.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~ I’m running out of ideas~~~~~

I’LL END HERE…..Enough of randomness I’ve spread for now…

********** P.S :::: So that was my Random Rambling….Totally out of boredom and out of nowhere…and a few people to thank for it…

1) Ankur ..for ‘LOL’ ing at all that I told him and helping me with the “5 reasons why My friends want to beat me up” list..he seemed too keen to contribute to it…hehe

2) Keerthi ..the idea of a random post comes from her blog

3) Madhu…I flicked the dialogue of INSIDE MAN from his blog

4) Mary….The lady who urged me to put this up on my blog…I wasn’t too keen

5) Sushmita..the person who showed me this lovely font!!************

Yukon Ho!!...Go Cnh Go...!!!!!

Calvin and Hobbes ….1 cartoon strip I’ve been in immense love with, for a long time now…..I want to take this opportunity to probably kick myself really hard for not having written anything about this amazing cartoon strip before…

Anyways here comes my 1^st post on it…and I swear of Susie Derkins , at least a couple more of similar ones will follow sometime in the future..

YUKON HO!!

A little intro to Yukon Ho….

Calvin and his buddy tiger plan to move away from mom and dad and go to Yukon

That’s his idea of seceding from his family…

So lets check out the required list for their great journey [to nowhere]..….

Sled.Check. Tobaggan.check. Sandwiches.check. Dart gun.check.

Space helmet.Check. Comic books. Check!!

So…here’s a poem out of Mr.Bill Waterson’s book…..

My tiger friend has got the sled,

And I have packed a snack.

We're all set for the trip ahead.

We're never coming back!

We're abandoing this life we've led!

So long, Mom and Pop!

We're sick of doing what youve said,

And now it's going to stop!

We're going where it snows all year,

Where life can have real meaning.

A place where we wont have to hear,

"Your room could stand some cleaning."

The Yukon is the place for us!

That's where we want to live.

Up there we'll get to yell and cuss

And act real primitive.

We'll never have to go to school,

Forced into submission,

By monster, crabby teachers who'll

Make us learn addition.

We'll never have to clean a plate,

Of veggie glops and goos.

Messily we'll masticate,

Using any fork we choose!

The timber wolves will be our friends.

Well stay up late and howl,

At the moon, till nightmare ends,

Before going on the prowl.

Oh, what a life! we cannot wait,

To be in that arctic land,

Where we'll be masters of our fate,

And lead a life that's grand!

No more of parental rules!

We're heading for some snow!

Good riddance to those grown-up-ghouls!

We're leaving! Yukon Ho!

LONG LIVE BILL WATTERSON AND ALL HIS COMING GENERATIONS…

*****[P.S. : I thank my friend sushmita for a part of this post..and..

RANDOM RANTING FOR THE DAY: Semester system

Sucks]*****

Why are Things easier said than done??

Why are there speed breakers on the road??

Why are Gut feelings always right??

Why are objects in a mirror close than they appear??

सोचा है येः तुम्ने क्या कभी ...सोचा है????

Why does important stuff get misplaced??

Why is P silent in Pneumonia??

Why doesn’t it rain when I want to miss classes??

Why do films release on Fridays??

सोचा है येः तुम्ने क्या कभी ...सोचा है????

Why do fans have 3 blades??

Why do tube lights flicker so much??

Why doesn’t coffee have a hindi name??

Why are weaker teams called underdogs??

सोचा है येः तुम्ने क्या कभी ...सोचा है????

Why are advises so easy to give??

Why are necessities so scarce??

Why do exams ruin weekends??

Why do we have to leave school after 10^th??

सोचा है येः तुम्ने क्या कभी ...सोचा है की है येः क्या सभी...सोचा है...
सोचा नहीं तोह, सोचो अभी!!!!!!

******[Okay...I OWE credits to Bharat for this...as he already did something like this on his blog...so man ..I aint no Plagiarist[i hate the spelling] and most importantly Mr.Javed Akhtar for writing such wonderful lyrics...and ...by any chance is there a vacancy for assistant lyricist???[:d][:d][:d]]******

I'm in a dilemma!

There is a landmine to the left...

A Barbed fence to the right....

A dead end up ahead...

I don't want to retract my steps...

I'm in a dilemma!

Confusion pushes me to all four ends...

And holds me back all of a sudden...

Am back to square one ....

And I feel motionless sometimes...

I'm in a dilemma!

I feel cramped belonging to nowhere...

I'm helplessly staring into the dark...

And closing my eyes every time it haunts me...

I'm desperate to get out of it...

I'm in a dilemma!

Damn the landmine and the fences...

I can stomp and break my way through it...

And nudge the confusions out of way...

But till then...

I'm in a dilemma!

At The Stroke Of Midnight.....

At the stroke of mid night, when the whole world was sleeping,India rose to freedom….

Yes…exactly 61 years back…India did just that….drove away the British who ruled for over 200 years….

I remember…every year on the 15^th of August in our school…we used to attend the flag hoisting…with paper flags pinned on the shirt…

The above sentence has always been the opening lines of an independence day speech in school[be it English hindi or telugu]

It was always a nice experience to be there when something like that is done and look up head held high and salute the flag when the instrumental version of the national anthem is played…

I really Love My Country!!!!

I LoVe My CoUnTry....

A couple of weeks ago….Thanks to my misplaced pen drive we got a chance to sing Our National Anthem after a particular program….

Its been over 2 years since I(we) actually sung it the last was probably in a school assembly….

Singing the National Anthem has always felt really very good…a sense of belonging arises from within which feels great…that’s what you call patriotic fervour I guess…..

So whether you are a nerd.. or a ‘last minute action’ believer…whether you believe in God….or you are an atheist or, Chetan Bhagat coined, an “Agnostic” …

Whether you sit at home cursing the system…or complain about pollution…whether you make plans of going away to some place abroad after graduation or you even before that….this one song is sure going to fill some sense of pride and a lot of emotions attached to it…

Im glad Im an Indian….

Yes…I Love My Country and Im not going to leave it….

Jai Hind!!!

****[Picture taken from Google …long live Larry page and Sergey Brin ]****