The end-of-the-month catch-up-with-me post.

Last night, I had an epiphany of sorts. It was like the time I discovered that many of the people who I lived with, studied with, hung around with 24x7 had very different fundamentalist/homophobic/communal tendencies from what I had come to expect. This time it was about prejudices and biases. As I've been feeling lately that writing my true feelings on this blog is only getting me into more trouble than the unburdening is worth, suffice to say - the scales fell from my eyes.
When I look at my friends, I would like to say, I choose them.. that I choose not to hang out with those people I dont hang out with because I am not comfortable with them and that therefore the people I hang out with are the ones I am most comfortable with. It is true, in a way. And in Manipal, for the first time in my life, I'd thought I'd fallen in with a like-minded set. But I think I judged too soon. Its not so much like-minded, as from similar backgrounds.. At the superficial level, our ideas, values and thoughts seem almost the same.. Dig a little deeper and the differences seem to widen into craters of dissonance.

Anyway the freaky part is, I slept last night with a resolution to make new friends and not depend so much on my existing ones - that way I'll have my own space. Now, I've subscribed to this free sms service which gives news/goodmorning msgs/bible quotes(to silence my guilty conscious when it raises its head)/horoscopes.
And Leo's horoscope says : 'New friends in life may be fun but not steady. Take them as they come and let them go when they want.'

Talk about divine intervention!! And also, a dear cousin calls up, reminding there's always family. :) So i'm slightly relieved that its not like my entire support system just crashed.
In other news, I've officially started sketching. Here's my first major project - all completed and looking incredibly nice.

Edit: I deleted part of this post because I thought it was unclear and dont think I can put it differently. So.

Valentine's Day Violence

This is an editorial I wrote for my college newspaper.
Not great, but then thats what my blog is for, isnt it? Publishing all kinds of shit I write?

On Valentine’s day this year, there were twenty one people who didn’t find the day of love, true to its name. In a repeat performance of last year’s Virginia Tech disaster, though not as bad, a former student at Illinois University opened fire in a lecture hall, killing five students and wounding 16 others. There have been three other major school shootings since Cho Seung-Hui fatally shot 32 people in a dorm and a classroom at Virginia Tech in the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history. Although the history of violence in schools and educational institutions in America dates back to 1927, only two occasions – the Virginia Tech Incident and another 1999 Colorado school episode have resulted in any significant change in the liberal gun laws. While policies haven’t been drastically changed, many experts say that the gun culture and the shootings are both direct impacts of the violence projected in American TV, movies and video games.

In India, for the most part, we seem to view these events as outsiders and hardly ever get ruffled by them. The USA has always been different; these things don’t happen here, we think. But we continue to expose our children to the same violent movies and video games that American children enjoy. Indeed, with the continued westernization of every aspect of the Indian way of life, it would not have been long before violence among children too, came into the limelight. On December 11, 2007, the country was shocked by Abhishek Tyagi’s violent death at the hands of his 14 year old classmate, Akash Yadav. The boy was shot with a gun that had been sneaked into the school by hiding it in a sock. The question that is most important here is not how the gun could so easily have been brought to school, but what made Akash think he can solve bully problems using violence.

Since December there have been several more cases of violence in schools with one student in Madhya Pradesh succumbing to injuries inflicted on him by a senior. The most recent attack occurred on Feb 12th, when an eighth-grader stabbed an 11th-grader in the shoulder and chest at a government school in New Delhi. While these incidents may have been the result of individual tensions and problems, this trend of resorting to violence cannot be overlooked.

Without waiting for more such acts to occur or any more to be killed, the government, in a landmark decision has decided to act. Disciplinary committees of Central government schools have been assigned a pro-active role to check instances of violence among students, the HRD ministry announced on 11th of this month. Whether like many other government decisions this will be implemented or not, is yet to be seen. However, the change needs to start at home. Most psychologists believe that the violence streaming through all the media we are exposed to, has an effect of desensitising all of us, more importantly children, to the horror of actual violent behaviour.

Most Bollywood and Hollywood action heroes don and use guns without thinking twice. Is this what we want our children to learn from? Although only three Indians (as compared to 83 Americans) out of ten thousand bear guns, we are slowly but steadily getting closer. Even though, the greatest perpetrator of non-violence, Mahatma Gandhi is the Father of our Nation, India has hardly been a non-violent country. We have a history of violence and bloodshed dating from even before Independence. Perhaps now, that history has begun to affect our children as well. And before it results in an Indian version of the Virginia Tech Shoot-out, we must ponder on how to set a better example to the next generation.

Old Monk and the Stars

Ok, so most guys think that they have the upper hand on drinking, smoking, smoking up and the rest. Well, maybe they do. But for fuck's sake, when a girl gets drunk, understand that its proabably because she wants to get drunk. Its not coincidence that she turned up for the party of the week after a fortnight of hibernaton. I swear, its not! And once she gets nice and wasted and something happens to get her on a bad trip, (like an idiot who calls at the wrong time) just sit and talk to her. Or let her talk. If she wants to cry, let her. Even if its about the stupidest thing in the world. And the last thing you should do is contradict her and make her feel like a fool. Cos she will cry more.

So yesterday was a mixed bag. I swear I just love the buzz of a cigarette. And since I smoke only when I am drunk, or getting there, I feel dizzy afterwards. But its all good. I learnt a lot about the people in my class yesterday. And did a lot of stupid things.
Drunken mistakes are so hard to come by in my lame life. I suppose I should make a note of this in my diary. Oh wait. that is exactly what this is.

On another note - the rest of the party thinks I am in loooove with someone else cos I spent a whole fifteen mins crying about 'why he doesnt like me?'. But the truth is - I just cant handle the fact that someone doesnt like me (when we have hardly interacted) and has no qualms about making it obvious.

Come on! Who can NOT like me? huh? I am just so adorable. Hmmpph.

Do you have a blog, yet? No? Get one for yourself!!! or NOT!

so.
I know I havent been writing. Not for the lack of time or internet access. Both I have, in plenty.
Its more like I use the time and the net to download and watch movies.
:-D
There's a week long cultural fest happening in college.
"YeLL" is a club in my college. An ISO certified club in my ISO certified college.
fancy schmancy, eh?
You'd think that. But it isnt really. Yesterday's event proved that beyond doubt. When I think of the standard of my college in Chennai, I used to think it was not great when compared to the likes of IIT(M) and the like. Well, suffice to say, right now, I'd rather not even think of my old college's standards, let alone IIT's!! I thought I'd post a detailed version of the event - with the trash and the crap along with the moments of happiness.. But I'd rather not. It doesnt seem like the best thing to do. The power of blogs is much more than we think it is.
There's a photography workshop happening in college. You would think I'd have gone for it. But it ain't compulsory(for me) and heard it's not that good, either. So why give up free movies and go bore myself?
Among other things, there was a creative writing competition, last evening, as part of the week's events. And yours truly took part in it, as is expected. Last time I won a second place for a horror story. This time, I dont think there's a rat's chance in hell, of me winning. I tried to pull off a very bad Danielle Steel+Sydney Sheldon combo that is worse than all the chicklit+murder mysteries in the world! You can make that out, just from the title - 'Bubbles' . .!!!

Blogging is in shtyle, now. That has a negative effect on my capacity/inclination to blog.
sigh.