Fond

it wasn't perfect
it was a broken mess
a rubble of jealous fires
and stolen glances
angry kisses and
endless chances

I was quite fond of him.

Still am.



It wasn't great, but it was!

.:ayda:.

Awesomeness!

It was going to be graduation time round the bend. Many of us were going to get an ominous looking fancy piece of paper soon. If your college is awesome it will say “Level up: Life Skill AWESOME acquired.” 

But for most of us it will just say our name and some words and a two digit summary of our  worth in the past 4 years staring us shamelessly on the face.

When I was an undergrad I remember looking forward to graduation so much. I thought to myself on a regular basis, “Just get through this. When it’s all done you’ll be able to make money and start your life.” By the time that day actually came, I was so underwhelmed with the whole "college experience" that I stopped regretting why we don't have a convocation 'cause most probably I wouldn’t have even bothered to

show up.

At least real life had started. And I was off to the races… not really. In the last six years I’ve met people who are in their late teens who I consider peers and equals; people who organize groups, throw giant successful events and still have time to kick college’s ass; people who make these crazy life altering decisions and go through so much for the sake of upholding a benevolent idea. I’ve learned a little bit from every single one of you. And I need you to know something else: You’ve changed my life. 

Just watching you do what you do has given me so much excitement about the world. You taught me the value of college outside of class when we were hanging out in the canteen, dancing, fighting over choreography, calling dibs over better rooms and bigger chunks of chicken, when we were royally ignoring people (or each other :p), or making up over a pan (yeah not bowl ;)) of hot or cold maggi, watching movies in the theatre or singing together. You taught when we were sharing a million stuff knowingly or unknowingly, when you were silent or grumbling or shouting or just texting "dinner?", "Canteen. step up 4 trailer. Awesome" "dup?" "chotto meye" (lil girl, in bengali) and so on and so forth.

Each one of us has some shortcomings and some redeeming qualities about us while some are kind or creative or funny or headstrong or whatever (the list of adjectives goes on and on..), some among these multitudes are good at BEING AWESOME.

What is BEING AWESOME, you ask? Well, there no 1

way to answer that but you can always try reading on:

And so I give you the 7 commandments of Being Awesome:

1. Be a dork. (or in another way Embrace who you are.)

A person who confidently accepts that he/she likes to read is always cooler than a person who wears a gothic Tee and gets hammered for the sake of trying to look cool.

2. Say YES to new things.

They take challenges head on.

3. Don’t take criticism personally.

They don't crib or whine about it on Facebook or twitter (in short the social media). They Listen. Process. Learn. Improve. Thank. <like I'm doing now  :p lol>

4. Embrace failure.

For every 1 good idea there are 10 bad ones to pull it back but these people say "F*ck the haters" and go on.

5. Persevere

They never give up without a fight. And they are amaaaaazing fighters (better than the spartans!)

6. Give everyone a chance.

I noticed something interesting about the people I consider to be excellent — they hang out with everyone. They have the oddest friends and they love them all. This gives them access to all sorts of strange worlds and social circles. Best friends come from strange and unexpected places so try not to judge anyone before you get to know them. This has a cool side effect too — when you try to see the positives in other people instead of judging them harshly, the voice that thinks other people are judging YOU harshly tends to shut up.

7. Life starts today.

Above all else, they realize that they’re already the person they hope to become more or less. They stopped waiting ages ago. Waiting for some day to come when someone else gives you a permission slip to live or validate your existence is a sure-fire one-way ticket to S*cksville.

This stuff is easy. Being awesome doesn’t depend on your parents, or the amount of money you have, or what you’re good at. All you need to do is make the decision to behave in a manner that is more awesome. Saying yes is only a little different than saying no.If you can figure out how to stop listening to the voice in your head that is afraid of the unknown and instead say, “F*ck it, from now I’m gonna be awesome,” then you’ll be on your way to kicking ass in no time.

I can actually guarantee that.

So yeah you guys Thanks!

#LiveItUp \m/

Those Were The Days!!

It’s that time of the year again, when you cannot help but feel good. It’s neither too hot nor too cold. Fall has almost come to an end and new leaves are already on their way. All around, there are fresh happy colours of flowers, trees, fruits and what not. In the daytime the sun is warm and bright while the evenings are cool and breezy.

This time of the year always reminds me of my childhood years with my little brother. As kids, I and my brother would be beyond elation and excitement when spring set in. This was that time of the year when we had tons of stuff to keep us busy. Gorging on cornflakes, dancing to Scooby-Doo tunes, taking rounds on our sparkly purple Hero Cadet (our beloved bicycle), playing gully cricket with the neighbourhood boys, watching WWE, Pokémon, Aladdin and what not! Downing glasses of milk, fighting over bigger omelettes or fluffier pillows, bickering over who cheated and who actually won bouts of Carom or Chinese checkers!!

It’s actually sad that as time is passing by sibling relationships are becoming more and more impersonal. Talk about generation gaps, everything from technology to trends to youth slangs is changing so fast that kids born even three years apart do not feel the warmth of being siblings. I’ve seen friends that have certain professionalism around their kid brothers and sister. They greet each other as if greeting a minion in office. There is just the emotionless acknowledgement that goes like; “Raj” (with a cursory head nod) and “Nikhil” (with a similar bob of the head). There’s no friendly punch or a heart-warming bear hug or sly name-calling. I mean the fun, warmth, love, possessive-ness, protective-ness, mock rivalry is somehow lost!

There’s no sharing or inside jokes to make memories and look back on when you are all grown up. I don’t know what the world is coming to but all this seems very robotic. Maybe the camaraderie is the sacrifice you make while you are trying to win the rat-race and your own brother/sister is just another competitor.

The next generation will never care about the joys of sipping on Pepsi cola or fighting over the remote control of the TV or sharing school gossip. What a sad sad notion!!

The days of hide n seek, scrabble and crazy fun playing outdoor games on summer holidays are really over with the advent of Play stations, Tabs and Smartphones but man those were the days!

LOVE J

Making faces and blackmailing on secrets.

ADITI

WOMANIYA

Ever since I first heard the song ‘Womaniya’ from the infamous and critically-acclaimed movie ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’ I have been entranced by it and I think it will be safe to say that it is not the case with me alone, just the other day I saw this video of 7 Korean girls looking all chic and sexy dancing away to the same number! So yes it has spread to the international stage (who would have imagined a rusty monotone of a song to spread thus) and what’s more is that the word is catching on slowly but surely!

Some of the leading newspapers did an article on it which I did read to quench my curiosity (I’ve always had a thing for the unconventional) but I was easily disappointed, the writer strictly stuck to fashion and how the word is relevant to the industry. “But of course not!! That just could not be all”, I thought to myself and in a whirlwind of thoughts Womaniya was instantly linked to The Modern Multi-faceted Female who has grown ever-more complicated than before and I know I know the guys are thinking “could it get anymore tangled than this?”, but who doesn’t love a good puzzle? I know the ladies do and wouldn’t it be a shameful waste of their mettle if there were no one to give them a run for their money ;)

Ummm yeah!! So coming back to the task of finding the depth of the word that is ‘Womaniya’, she only could be a perfect cocktail of rare talents. A girl who is demure yet dares to follow her dreams, someone who is fanciful yet fearless, she is the one whom the world would now and then label as bizarre but that won’t shake her beliefs. She’s the one to sing out loud while cooking on peachy mornings and follow her heart wherever it takes to. She’s the girl with a book at the cafe round the corner sitting all by herself enjoying her space. She is passionate, headstrong and quirky with a taste for adventure.

She walks bare-feet on wet grass, dances through the night, she has a secret checklist of ‘things-to-do before I die’ and while she’s out there looking so carefree, that’s the only constant thing on the top of her mind. She knows her responsibilities and totally rocks them; she’s a liberal (not a feminist) but always knows where to draw the line. She is easily awed by an odd piece of jewelery at a thrift store or the sight of the season’s first showers. She cries while watching a movie and laughs in between tears of sadness. Crazy, adorable and crafty she knows exactly what she wants but sometimes even she eludes herself. She switches from being hot to cool to sassy when she pleases! And though she has fallen countless times she has always gotten back up and survived, never giving up on Hope. She loves a little romance, maybe even a walk by the beach but her life doesn’t depend on it. She is unchained and unique, never the one to shy away from a challenge. She is content with her fallacies and won’t let anyone tell her otherwise. Perfect in her imperfections, undaunted, uninhibited- she’s a Womaniya.

Two-three years from now when the notion would have caught on everyone would be looking for her but it won’t be that easy because she’s one in a million. With a heart of gold and a character so bold (it’s more than what you all are actually thinking!) not everyone can keep up with her. She isn’t exemplary of anything neither does she tries to, she is just SHE.

RESPECT J

Smoky eyes and cowboy boots!

ADITI