A Happy Yappy New year Indeed :)

Well well,well if it isn't the December 31st already..........

It's that time of the year again when Mother Dearest drags our poor servant woman around the house and bosses her around to mop here,sweep there while she herself vacuums,dusts,polishes mercilessly, whacking away at the cushions,changing sheets and drapes and giving those good ol rugs a severe spanking for being so dusty(and dirrrrrrrrrrty) and then afterwards,goes in search of new clay pots to boil milk at 12 midnight and make milk rice the following morning.And me as always float about the place getting in everybody's way as usual while Daddy Dearest paces up and down impatiently with his hands on his hips while he waits for the fervent cleaners to liberate his favorite place in the rocking chair in front of the TV set.

Lovely atmosphere I must say.The whole place is bustling with activity.

And I'm thinking....I would feel very much lonely without any of these frantic activities taking place.And the baking smells wafting around the place is just wonderful.I practically bullied Mother Dearest in to making her signature pineapple upside down cake yesterday which will be filling the house with mouth watering aroma in a couple of hours.

I just think an occasion such as the approach of a New year,Christmas or anything else is the ideal occasion to do the things that you usually don't have time to do.Like cleaning for example.In today's hectic world,cleaning would mean a general sweep of the floor when you're expecting visitors(or when you find the place absolutely impossible to live in),a monthly dusting of cobwebs and the like and then sweeping all the dirt and dust under the rugs.Well,there should be a time of the year to actually clean the dirt from under the rugs,don't you think?

And according to my grand mother(who passed away a couple of years ago),a woman called Shriya won't visit your house if you had dirt in the nooks and corners of your house.I personally do not care for this Shriya or her visits(unless she brings presents of course), but then the prospects of a clean house,clean,nice smelling sheets,the newness of it all sort of appeals to me,which drives me to pitch in with my share of the cleaning as well(which includes cleaning my own room which is mostly untidy during rest of the year)

So what better time to sweep under the rugs,go on dust busting expeditions to nooks and corners of the house that haven't seen a duster in quite a while and to hear the whirring sound of the vacuum cleaner resounding through the house again? Plus it sort of drills in to your mind that a year has passed away and another one is about to begin which sort of pounds in to you the gravity of the situation(As in "what have you got to show for a whole friggin' year you good-for-nothing nincompoop?!?!) which ultimately drives you to forge a list of brand new New year resolutions which you completely forget about half way through the year.

Looking back at the past year,it had been good.It had been a life changing year for me,an year of personal growth,a year of shocking revelations,a year which proved to me that I'm still quite capable of surprising myself with my own idiosyncrasies,an year which was filled with quite a lot of surprises that I hadn't bargained for but which turned out to be quite positive anyway.It had been an year which proved to me that everything happens for a reason coz at the end of the day,even the downright shitty,monumental calamities which came my way only made way for the better,made me disillusioned and made me stronger than ever before.I have always believed that what ever happened during the year,if on the 31st of December you are still alive and looking back at all the stupid,idiotic and unimaginably moronic things that you have done within the year and you are still smiling,the year must have been pretty good.Well,I'm pretty much alive right now and positively glowing,beaming from ear to ear in retrospect.The year must have been pretty darn awesome :)

No New year celebrations tonight sadly.Parents! What can I say,life's not fair! :(

Tonight will be the traditional milk boiling preceded by Mommy Dearest at 12 Midnight.Tomorrow early morning(yes,around 5am) we shall all visit the Kelaniya temple and have a breakfast of milk rice prepared in a brand new pot when we get home.So you see,occasions like the New year provides the perfect opportunity for people like me who are not really the temple-going type to visit a temple at least a several times a year.And I'm not particularly fond of milk rice either,but the stuff prepared in new clay pots are actually pretty good coz it retrieves from the pot a certain earthy flavor which really appeals to me.

I absolutely adore the Kelaniya temple at dawn.I'm not exactly the sort of person who has by-hearted all the Gathas and chant them with glazed eyes and go bathe the Bodhiya in the pouring rain.I just love the calm and quiet which prevails the temple premises at dawn when the day light has barely broken and theres not much of people about.I used to go there with Mommy Dearest in the good old days and wander around the place while she worshiped.It has this wonderful serenity about it which paves the way to absolute peace of mind and ultimate lightness of the soul.Which in turn,brings me this immense and overwhelming sense of respect and gratitude(which no amount of Gatha chanting in a language which feels totally and completely alien to me can bring) for The Great Lord Buddha who sacrificed such a lot to bring about this great philosophy according to which we lead our lives even to this day.Thus I take my own spiritual journey in to my own spiritual realm that resides within my mind.Inspiring indeed.

My New year resolutions? Well,I don't really need the dawning of a new year to make resolutions.Every day for me is a new beginning.Therefore,I shall make the necessary resolutions to make my life and the life of all those around me better at each dawning of a day.Because change is inevitable.And when those changes occur,we must be ready to change our resolutions according to them.Secret to any man's(or a woman's) success? Ultimate versatility.

Oh and by the way, New year predictions had already begun I think.I just happened to have a bath in the evening and I had intended not to leave the room until my hair had completely dried off (coz Mommy Dearest positively goes ape and bananas every time she finds out that I've been bathing at night) But then she happens to peek in to my room and see me in all my dripping wet glory,taping away on the keyboard with the fan on full blast and instantly flips her lid.She predicts pneumonia in my future.And I'm not surprised :)

So happy New year everyone.May it be one where all your dreams and fantasies become a reality and one at each dawning of a day shall bring you peace and harmony of the greatest sort withing yourselves,your minds,your bodies and souls.May it be a year which will resound with laughter and be lighted with smiles all the way.And may you all be happy above everything else :)

Galle Lit Fest!! Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeey!!! :)))

Galle Literary Festival is on! And we are all geared up for it this time too!!

The place is all packed up as I heard.But thanks to Daddy Dearest,we managed to secure our lodgings this time around too which is a relief.Ah...Can't wait for the ultimate girl's outing of the year and this time,its going to be double the fun as I heard.Yeeey!

Now,now, we are not exactly aiming for the long and boring sessions surrounded by books,books and more books,the colorfully(and barely) clad hoity toities who have no interest what-so-ever in literature but are there for exhibitionist purposes only.In addition to the fact that we get to see our favorite authors walking around in rubber slippers among us,get to interact with them,talk to them,bug them with earth shattering questions and all,The GLF is actually an excuse for us gals to unwind and spend some quality time with each other,let our hair down and be our totally wild,crazy,impulsive and demented selves for a change without any inhibitions.

I still remember all the fond memories from Galle like it happened yesterday.The never ending sea baths,nights spent starring at the sea,singing,laughing,telling stories,sighing,wishing that there was someone to cuddle up to and then being thankful that there was none coz there's no knowing where that will end because of the heightened amount of romance in the air what with the sea,the salty and somewhat chilly sea breeze,the starry heavens above and the overwhelming sense of something else which is quite out of our ability to explain.The early morning walks on the beach with a magnificent view of the sparkling blue green sea,the late night walks on the beach with the stars winking above,the nights spent ranting on the ramparts,swaggering like drunkards hand in hand swearing life long sorority to each other,swinging legs from the Fort walls,counting crabs,feeding the friendly jovial looking doggies in fluffy fur coats,evenings of dance and music,intellectually enriching conversations with  people who do not notice your cup size at a first glance(or pretend not to notice at least).....Sigh.....Beautiful memories....

Actually,I find intellectual stimulation extremely seductive.It's nice to come across people with whom you could actually hold a meaningful conversation with,dig deep in to their minds,find out what makes them tick because it enriches you,providing you with amazing breeding grounds for thoughts and ideas.It is indeed a refreshing change from the  buffoons of everyday life who stare at your cleavage and make instant passes at you,no preliminaries,no introductions what-so-ever.Advice to dudes-RESPECT the woman guys.Even if you don't respect them at least SHOW that you do for God's sake.Take time to get to know her,give her time to get to know you.What's the rush anyway?Any self-respecting lady would open up more to a friend rather than to a bloke who she knows is trying to get in to her pants.It's absolutely disappointing when you know that a certain someone possesses a beautiful mind and yet choose to approach you with moronic insensitivity,thus giving you the impression that the bloke took you for being,what would you say,easy? Disappointing and rather insulting really. Impress her with your intriguing mind if you have one,who knows,she might even have surprising revelations of her own and you may be in for a series of pleasant surprises.If you don't have an intriguing mind and you're solely on the look out for a booty call, well,there are plenty of gals out there who would respond to more direct and blunt approaches as well :)

Ok,going back to the last Galle Lit Fest,my favorite and the most cherished memory of all time which I still recall with sighs and swoons is the Ravibandu Vidyapathi drum performance.It was not just the performance,it was the whole ambiance, the whole atmosphere that elevated us beyond the seventh heaven of delight.It was a whole body,mind and soul sort of experience which appealed to all the senses.It was an afternoon of incredible music,sprawled out on fluffy,comfy cushions under a whispering tree,lit up with oil lamps and lulled by the sea breeze,feeling light,carefree and happier than any of us had ever felt before.The smell was absolutely divine as well(think there was perfumed oil in the lamps)mingled with the mystic smell of the sea.Then there were the drums that pattered out their enchantments that spoke to the heart beat,making the blood in our veins pulsate.throb,palpitate and ultimately ripple with a joyfulness to it that we have never experienced before.The whole evening was one  enchantingly beautiful experience where even the music seemed amplified and just so mesmerizing that it had us almost in a frenzy.We floated on clouds for the rest of that evening(I guess we expected the same kind of whole body experience from the drum ensemble every time coz when they performed at the Fête de la Musique at Galle Face hotel this June,we felt that they didn't do so great)Consequence of great expectations I suppose.

Another part I really love about GLF is the many curious observations that we have the opportunity of making.Oh interesting and rather fascinating people indeed.It's a joy to just sit and watch the people passing by.It is also the high place to observe fashion trends,ladies laden with heavy make up wiping their brows in the sweltering sun wiping off chunks of gooey stuff off their faces in the process.Its the place to get fashion tips and occasionally the invaluable opportunity to overhear the kind of skin supplements that you should take,the best anti-wrinkle creams,the secrets of losing baby weight,stretch marks,so on and so forth.People call this a "literary" event.I would say its an event that is universally enlightening not to mention acutely entertaining as well ;)

All in all,I'm looking forward to Galle.The Galle Fort is one of my favorite places on earth with its old Dutch buildings and its beautiful ambiance that transport you to a whole new era .It's absolutely gorgeous in the afternoon bathed in the golden glow of the setting sun.Come to think of it,its absolutely mesmerizing during any time of the day with no exceptions.I'm looking forward to the sea, the walks on the Ramparts,bumping in to writers,quality time with the gals and of course,how can I forget the yummy food at the Indian Hut??? Ah,Galle is going to get another dose of us girls this time around too.I just hope that all of us in the gang would be able to make it somehow coz Galle just wouldn't be Galle with any one of us missing.AND this time,there's going to be partying on the beach EVERY single night! Can't wait! :)))

Christmas shopping

So I shall try to keep this post solely on what the topic clearly states.But true to the inherent randomness of my nature,I'm pretty sure I will end up writing about the birds and the bees,bitching,blaming,blaspheming and everything else in between the teeny tiny random bits of life from this side of the wall and more as well.

I had not intended to go shopping at all that day.I have pretty much made up my mind not to participate in this yearly stampede of Christmas shopping this year and was very much happy and proud of my decision after seeing all those women jostling each other,trampling,pushing and shoving their way in to shops as if the sign on the shop said that they were giving away free coconuts(yup,a coconut is fifty something rupees now,so it would seem fair enough if people indeed killed each other for a freebie coconut bonanza) I would breeze past all these shops,the queues,the women,children,men,teenagers,toddlers,infants(even foetuses in mummy tummies) and everything else and smile smugly to myself,thinking of the patheticness of it all,contemplating on the superiority of myself in rejecting all these frivolities.Christmas shopping indeed!

Well,I shouldn't have.

It just so happened that I worked all night one night on this very important document and just when I switched on the printer to get the printouts,I realize that I'm out of ink.So begins my expedition in search of a place within the town to refill my ink cartridges.

Wriggling my way through a frenzied mess of arms legs and an occasional head,I finally managed to find a place and get myself a refill after which I was determined to head straight home.Only to find myself walking behind this renowned(and well loved...ahem) influential figure in the political arena of the area who had decided to come out of his abode and do some shopping himself that day.And so he waddles along with his many body guards,his henchmen and all and I,in a desperate attempt to get past him and his troop fail to do so and instead of taking the risk of brushing past him and getting arrested and then being tied to a tree,I duck in to the nearest shop in an attempt to avoid the hullabaloo.The story starts there.

It wasn't as crowded as I thought,but somehow,it was busy.I began to relax when I got in there and wandered around quite aimlessly,fingering a blouse here,twirling a skirt there,trying on hats everywhere when suddenly,lo and behold! The most gorgeous top that I had ever seen in my life just hung there,glistening in all its glory! (The story from there onwards continues in slow motion) I float away towards the top with my arms outstretched(it just seems like a long way off in slow motion) my fingers longing to feel that silk,longing to run my hand through its folds and finally,just as my finger tips barely brush against the fabric,another bejeweled,cruel looking hand quickly snatched it away from my grasp.(slow motion ends here) frantically I searched around for a shop assistant and managed to drag a poor dude who was busy stacking shoes at a far corner of the shop over to the place only to hear from him that the above said piece was the last of the lot.I felt utterly deflated and walked away with my head hung low.

Only to spot another gorgeous blouse! This time I manage to grab it for myself and made my way towards a fit on room which I found after some effort.I put it on(perfect fit) twirl around to face the mirror.....only there WAS no mirror! There was no absofrigginlutely way that I was going to walk out of the dressing room and out in to the middle of the room to have a peek at myself in one of those mirrors outside(honestly,the place was swathed in mirrors hung high and low.Why in the God almighty's name couldn't they fix one measly mirror in the fit on room??? Really!)So then with a heavy heart I hung that gorgeous top back on its hanger and walked away,head bowed and came out of the place(personal vow to never buy anything unless I can try it on and see for myself what it looks like.Which is why I don't set foot in House of Fashions anymore unless somebody drags me there out of my will)

Only to find myself walking behind the VIPs,IPs and the not-so VIPs again.It just so happens that they had decided to check out the neighboring shop and we all had decided to come out at exactly the same time.So I  duck in to another shop.From the moment I entered,I had this rather nasty feeling of being followed around.This rather disgruntled female employee was close at my heels,yapping away,never missing a step and asking me what I wanted every few seconds.It was rather annoying really.I mean for God's sake,can't a girl walk in to a shop and wander around,looking for nothing in particular??She kept rehanging,rearranging,refolding the cloths that I had flipped through although there was absolutely no need to do so.And then I spot a piece of garment that I might actually like and I ask for a smaller size and she,without even bothering to look through the pile tells me that there are no small sizes there.The nerve!

I walk out of the shop fuming and by now,the shopping fever has kicked in,so I walk in to another shop only to find myself surrounded by a swarm of male shop assistants,extremely enthusiastic to be of any help at all.It only has male shop assistants and I remember going there with one of my friends to the undergarments section and my friend being the brave one,had a million questions to ask the underwear dude about the cup sizes,straps,etc to all of which he answered very skilfully indeed(We were very impressed and decided on the spot that all men should be well aware of these things specially boyfriends so that we could send them to a shop and expect them not to make a monumental mess of what we wanted them to bring)Anyways,I walk around like the queen bee for a while and get tired of all the attention soon enough.It was rather irritating how one would comment on how good a certain piece of clothing would look on me and another would comment on how the outfit would compliment my skin tone,my eyes,hair,figure,etc thus being analysed and dissected like a bug at the school science lab.Honestly,is it too much to ask to be able to shop without being smothered by the overenthusiastic,nosy and sometimes rather angry shop assistants?Cant a girl just walk around having some quality shopping time with only herself and the refreshing smell of new cloths around her?

Anyways,I returned home after buying only a couple of chunky bangles(Yes! I have an incurable fetish for bangles,antique rings and stuff of that sort if you really must know) and I swore not to return to the shops again until the shopping frenzy has cleared out and everything is in order as they should be.

Just returned after a dinner party after watching people get drunk,dance,yell,swagger around and make complete fools of themselves.Funny how people behave after they are drunk isn't it? I guess every person on earth suffers from multiple personality disorder.Everybody has two or more personalities in them which emerge during different times and conditions.As for me,I have more than eight,most of which take me by surprise occasionally.Fascinating creatures human beings are.Including myself I suppose.

Got a short story of five or more pages to write and I'm completely dry.Me being dry due to the fact that it has to be written in French.Yeah I know,bummer.Although I'm supposed to be lawfully wedded to the French language,English shall always be my one true love,the unrequited,the one with whom I shall always identify myself with,the one to whom I can relate to completely and totally,the one that will always bring out the best in me and with whom I shall be able to share all my feelings with.French shall always be the outsider,the intruder,the one who stole me away and espoused me by force thus keeping me a prisoner( Tad bit dramatic,aren't we?) To top that off,got to figure out my dissertation soon too and I'm thinking of a comparative study of French and Sri Lankan women poets.AND I got a translation at hand too which I'm hoping that I will be able to do in English.Well,that's how my life rolls at the moment.

True to myself,I had wandered off topic and had typed away to my heart's content.Anyways,its already well past 12 and I got some stuff to do before I hit the bed.Good night everyone! Sleep tight! :)

Tinsel town

Christmas is in the air!!! And I just CANNOT believe that some of us cannot feel it :(

It all starts at the beginning of December when you walk in to a super market and find it adorned from the ceiling to the floor with tinsel, Christmas offers and the like.Fake snow fashioned out of cotton wool and what-not rests on windowsills and counters,red and white glistens everywhere.Bowls of cherries,cashews,plums and all the essential ingredients that make up a Christmas cake sit smugly on tables,covered in cling film.This for me,is Christmas in multicolored bowls.

There's just something about tinsel that travels way back in to my childhood.There's just something more to it than a mere fascination of a child towards everything that glistens.Tinsel has always fascinated me,it still continues to do so.It never fails to drag me back to a childhood of Christmas trees waiting to get decorated,cardboard boxes full of Christmas decorations,yards and yards of colorful tinsel,Christmas cakes,mince pies and other Christmas delicacies.

Cannot escape from commenting about those cardboard boxes full of cherished Christmas decorations.These boxes were considered to be treasure troves,only to be taken out once a year.It's contents never failed to fascinate us,no matter how many Christmases we have seen them,felt them and hung them on trees.And there was a particular smell that wafted up the nose once you opened up that box too.This smell,I had identified as one of the first smells of Christmas as a child.

Every year(it became almost a tradition)we were allowed to add one new decoration to the tree.Mother only lets us buy one each year,so the choosing of this particular object has to be done carefully.It has always been very difficult for me to choose between the many shiny balls,tinsel,colorful angels and the like.I remember getting lost among all the shiny things, completely taken in and bedazzled by it all.I always went for angels every year where as my brother always chose bells and balls.If it was up to me alone,the whole tree would be swathed with angels and nothing else.

Another thing I liked about Christmas were the Christmas movies that are broadcast on the television during the Christmas days.I used to watch the same Christmas movies year after year over and over again but still look forward to watching them again the following year as well with the same enthusiasm that I had in watching it for the first time.I used to complain that we didn't have a chimney for Santa Claus to climb down from.To compromise that,I used to hang socks on our gas oven,wake up on the Christmas morning,overjoyed to find a few chocolates and toffees in them courtesy of Daddy Dearest of course.I knew it was him.But somehow,I wanted to believe that Santa Claus has not forgotten me that year.

I have been a very lucky child indeed to be able to enjoy a vast diversity of cultures from my very childhood.The fact that my parents are devout Buddhists did not stop them from letting us enjoy the joys of Christmas and the like,even festivals like Diwali,Thaipongal were celebrated to a certain extent at our household(probably due to the fact that we always had Tamil kitchen maids).But Christmas in particular is a memory that I have cherished so lovingly in my mind.Its a holiday that I've always looked forward to,with my mother cooking various goodies in the kitchen for me and my brother,the smells of cooking and baking wafting from the kitchen,Christmas carols,Christmas parties and the rest of the hullabaloo surrounding Christmas.

Christmas has changed from what I used to remember though.My mother no longer has the time to cook and bake for us anymore.And we no longer have a Christmas tree at home.Seems we have eventually grown out of the tree decorating rituals.It has been one of those many other things that I have lost in the sands of time.I no longer know where that treasure trove of Christmas decorations are.I miss the tinsel,the shiny balls and strings of bells.And despite the fact that we are Buddhists, we used to get invited to a lot of Christmas parties those days.And the real deal too,with carol singing,Christmas goodies and the like but not anymore.Most of those people have left the country now and we too do not have the time to go to the ones that we get invited to.A lot has changed but the Christmas spirit still remains the same.I can feel it in the air,that mesmerizing warmth,that festive feeling in the ambiance,the air charged with excitement and something else that I cannot quite explain.You can just feel it everywhere,it has a way of enveloping you in its incredible warmth and lifting you off the ground,intoxicating you in a way that renders you quite senseless and leaves you starry eyed(The Darling experienced one of my "Its Christmas!I can feel Christmas!!I need to dance now!!"moods just recently and was quite convinced that I had gone mad).That's how intoxicated I get when I feel it in the air.I miss the smell of baking wafting out of the kitchen this time though.Maybe I will bake a Christmas cake this year,just to get that good ol Christmas spirit back and to send that smell of Christmas baking spreading it's magic through out the household.

Sigh............Christmas.......It always has me grinning from ear to ear like an idiot :))))

Need I say more?

Nadeeka Guruge,one of the greatest music legends that never fails to inspire me has done it again with his absolutely orgasmic music.His music is so real,almost tangible,you see it,you feel it,you taste it,you smell it and ultimately it just leaves you feeling breathless and wanting more......... So I'm up all night listening.........and a night well spent too.See for your selves.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nUJvA871-4

I'm absolutely high on music right now.And that was just a teeny weeny lil bit of a taste of his phenomenal intoxicating music.Sigh...............Let the music speak for itself  :)

Dancing through the flu

Lady Grouchalot wants to dance!!!

There,I said it! I miss my dancing and my feet are just itching,just wrenching themselves to do so.Just realized that after unconsciously shaking it a bit and then breaking out in to a full dance routine to a random song in my play list. I might be coughing and sneezing like there's no tomorrow but I still have fun dancing! What more prof do ya need???

Dancing is in my bones,it runs in my bone marrow,urging,tempting and irresistible.I cannot escape it.No matter how deep I burrow my head in my studies,no matter how fast my fingers run up and down on the key board,typing out assignment after assignment,project after project,sorting through one mess after the other,my feet just keeps on keeping the rhythm.Be it Latin,contemporary,jazz,flamenco,belly,fusion,I just miss that click of the hip and that clack of the feet and that soft thud of feet when you fly through air and finally land on the ground.Nothing short of orgasmic.

Dancing comes to me naturally.Like eating and sleeping,its a way of life.Although there are a few things I've learnt along the way.Like attempting a pirouette on a flight of stairs can send you hurdling down.Or that chasséeing in to a wall can be quite painful.You also cannot dance your way out of lecture rooms,inside lecture rooms and in the corridors,without expecting anybody to stare at you.Such is life.Sigh....

It's a good ting that at least my home folk have quite gotten used to my eccentric dancing habits though.But the ever changing domestic aids never get enough of seeing me sail through the house in one of my dancing frenzies that I get from time to time.Which is sometimes embarrassing.

It's a pity how we are trapped inside our own bodies when our souls just want to break free and dance isn't it? It's a pity how we are bound by duty,bound to earth.bound to walk,slither and grovel when we are meant to fly.I was meant to fly.Not to dig my way out of piles and piles of books that keep smothering me each passing day.Its suffocating.I shall not be suffocated.

There's nothing like hearing that moment of silence right after a performance,an awestruck crowd gazing on and suddenly that huge explosion of applause,hoots and whistles,proof that you've danced well tonight.It's a wonderful feeling,actually,it is the best feeling in the world,to be admired for what you are,for what you are capable of doing on that stage.Yet,it is not for the glory that you dance.It is the music that moves you.Every fold of arm,every stretch of leg,of neck,every fluid like movement of the body,the way that your thigh muscles tense and release,the way that your bones seem to disappear and your torso moves with snake like fluidity,you become a whole new personality up there.Saucy,bold and graceful,like a swan.

I envy those who are bold enough to pursue their dreams.I respect the ones who sacrifice their professional lives,education,social status and all that is deemed as prestigious and accepted by the society,by our parents,by the relatives and the whole pretentious clan.I guess I'm just one of the cowards who just wasn't brave enough to choose my passion over the other more insignificantly significant stuff and decided to succumb.

Oh well,I shall keep dancing though.

Although my golden days of dance are done,I shall keep on dancing for myself like I do often now.That lightness of body and soul can never be achieved by anything else I suppose.Which is why I still manage to dance my way through a horrible flu,a very runny nose and a physical condition weakened by fever and a chest heavy with constant coughing.Dancing shall always be in my bones.No amount of purging with literary theories,constitutions,confusing philosophies,human rights, amendments to the constitution,history of France,the French bourgeoisie,water logged courts,high courts nor supreme courts can keep me away from my dancing shoes!

"Nuff said! Its 1am and its time to dance! Achooo! Excuse me :)

Damp,damp,damp!!

Lady Grouchalot is coldddddddddddddd.Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!! Damn this friggin' weather!

Everything is just so cold and clammy.Even my doggy poos who go out in the rain,roll all over the wet grass and what-not and cuddle up to me,smelling of wet grass,soggy fur and something else that I couldn't quite place.Even cloths that have not been taken out of the closet recently seem to have acquired a clamminess of their own which is quite disgusting really.Sigh.....I wonder when the sun would finally decide to come out.

Worst thing is,this cold,lethargic ambience seems to be growing in my system now.You snuggle in between the covers,wriggle your way in to the warmth of your miscellaneous bed things,cover yourself from head to foot(which managed to scare away Mother Dearest once when I was supposed to be out on an errand,but had fallen asleep on the job.Hehe...)hoping to get up once the chilly feeling in your bones has somewhat died down and get some work done.Which had never worked for me by the way.Like tonight.Jumped in to bed,followed the customary,ritualistic procedure of settling down cosy and warm and had drifted off to sleep(unintentionally of course) when I was "supposed to be" working on a particularly cumbersome project of my own.Only to be woken up by the Darling(who seemed to have developed my vampiric habits of staying up till the wee hours) who rang around 1.30am(bless his soul) and reminded me of the work to be done(You sleep kleptomaniac you!) And here I am,with my mug of steaming tea(of which the purpose was to warm me up) still awake at 4.15am,doing nothing productive in particular.Tea keeps me awake.Well,apparently.

The worst thing about work is that you will do absolutely anything to avoid it.My inbred procrastination habits do not help much either.I keep discovering new ways of avoiding work of which experimental cooking is my favorite.Which in turn is beneficial to all(as a result of which I turned out chocolate and cheese samosas today[ermmm....yeah] which turned out quite nicey-nice by the way :) ) Give me a buck load of assignments and I will turn in to the world's greatest cook overnight! Sigh.........

Uni has already started and tomorrow is supposed to be my first day as a fourth year(OMG,I'm in fourth year!! I'm in fourth year!! :O I feel so oldddddddd :( ) or rather today as it is already well past 4am right now.I guess I should get some sleep in order to show up in the morning,fresh and glowing,all geared up to face up to a phenomenally sucky,incredibly busy fourth year ahead.The worst part is,I would be missing all my buddies who passed out last semester.No more loitering around in the Gym canteen after lectures in swarms and wasting away over kottu,juicy gossip,complaints on life,assignments and everything in general,manic laughter that turns more than just a few heads and organising French club soirees till late :( Sometimes I wish I did a general degree so that I would be out there on the loose with the rest of the pack.Stupid special degree! I will miss them all so,so much! :(

But on the bright side,I still have my trusty bestie by my side without whom my life would be utterly insipid(Life would't be the same without your ponderings on life,men in general,blond moments,insightful views and wot-not girly.Mwaaaaaaaaaaah!) and a few other nutters who will be stuck with us on this special degree program for the rest of the year.So yes,hopefully it will be a good year ahead.Not counting the whole range of mountains of work to be done ofcourse.

Alrighty,off I go! Good morning everyone,hopefully it won't rain today :(

My Celtic obsession

Celtic music never lets me down.One minute you're downtrodden,absolutely disheartened,feeling sick and absolutely dreary but once the Celts wave their magic wands over my ears,its suddenly bare-chested buff men with swords and axes,impish long haired archers,young lases in long frocks with flowers in their hair,battle cries,clanking of swords,burials,burning villages, Robin hood,King Arthur and his knights,Lady of the Shallots,enchantresses,unicorns and sigh.......Its just so magical.Guess I've always had a thing for the middle ages where men went to war and came home,unwashed,unshaven and heroic and women awaited their men(or their corpses) with open arms.You fought battles,waded off enemy armies,ate,drank,had raw,wild,animal sex and went to sleep only to wake up the next day,go to war,eat,drink,have sex and go to sleep again.Life was so simple then,and people accepted the fact that it was uncertain too.Women did not have over expectations of their men coming back home.If they died in the battlefield,they died as heroes and glory shall be theirs.And then their sons would be encouraged to follow the father's footsteps and get killed oh-so-idiotically by some invading asshole.

Times have greatly changed now.Men go to work and women are fairly certain that they'l be coming home in the evening.If they did not come home and died on the way,one can be certain that they did not die from battle wounds.Either they had a traffic accident or they had a stroke of some sort.And so,they are not considered as heroes,but either as senseless buffoons and shameless gluttons who do not know how to watch their health and control their diet or unbelievable idiots who do not know how to drive/ride/travel safely.Or you just blame another person completely for knocking/running him over with his car/truck/van/bus, bulldozer/etc and regard it as a tragedy that could have been avoided.People from the middle ages must have been completely unaware of words such as "stroke" "heart attack" "diabetes","cholesterol",etc as chopping firewood,building their own houses,killing people,etc kept them well maintained and rock hard ab-ed.Four packs/six packs even eight packs were common household items those days as today,it is considered quite extraordinary for an individual to own a four pack to display.

As a result of which the modern male individual often likes to lose his shirt and flaunt whatever packs that he has whenever it is possible to do so.During the middle ages,the men were bare chested because their cloth rations were limited,its easier for physical labour to be without shirt,etc,but I clearly don't understand why the dudes go shirtless or they accidently "happen" to lose the shirt when all they do is strut around in air conditioned chambers,showing off their "stuff".I mean surely,there are plenty of cloths lying around these days,are there not?Sigh.....times have changed,but apparently,men have not.

I've always considered four packs/six packs/eight packs to be the guy version of the much coveted female breasts.But unlike the breasts for which the norm goes like "the bigger the better",for the packs it goes something like "the more the merrier"(My perverted mind runs wild with an inverted version of this theory[hee...heee.. :D] which is quite scary really :O :S )Anyways,the point is,it's totally ok to own a four/six/eight pack but is it considered socially acceptable for men to be flaunting their "boobs" around like that? Now that you actually think about it.......Hmmmmmmmmmmm.......(perverted grin)

People no longer fought with swords these days.Today,they have boring ol machine guns and bombs to point and shoot and blow each other to morsels(I personally believe that those giant old fashioned catapults are SO much more fun than bombs)which are not half as much fascinating as watching as when the swords and axes go clank clank and arrows go swishing through the air.Men do not have to walk for days and nights in order get to the next village.Our people hire tuk tuks just to get to their neighbour's house and threaten their loved ones that they are going to buy motorcycles(at which the loved ones go "are you nuts??? Are you trying to get yourself killed???,etc,etc which is fair enough btw,coz motorcycles are rather fickle creatures which in the hands of a callous and a shamefully careless rider can prove to be fatal)

Therefore,the question arises-Is the history repeating itself when women cannot be too sure if the man will come home in one piece or not at the end of the day because he has chosen a rather dubious form of transport as his partner in crime in his day to day chores? Will the women have to come to terms with death and all other consequences of reckless decisions at such a young age? Well,only time will tell.I think dying in the battlefield is a much more nobler way to go rather than going and knocking yourself silly against a truck and being sent to heaven on the spot.I mean,how the hell are you going to survive the God almighty's sarci looks and all those sexy angels who will cover their mouths with their wings and snicker at you up there???

Power cut!!!

No power the whole day. Apparently, there had been a power cut.Well,how was I supposed to know?People should be warned in large scale about these things,and I'm talking LARGE scale as in door to door warnings,HUGE billboards and cut outs,TV advertisements,loudspeakers booming all over the town and such.

Funny how life screws u over exactly when the last thing on ur mind is getting screwed.And that too by the electricity board.I had planned on so much of things today,just to wake up and see them all gloriously bust up like fragile soap bubbles right in front of my eyes.For starters,I really needed to finish off that crap load of a research today over which I had slaved till 4.30 am this morning,hoping to catch a couple of hours worth of winks towards the dawn,get up and finish this epic battle of an expedition that I had started.But what do you know,that little blue light in my laptop was not blinking when I switched it on this morning(My laptop,which I so fondly refer to as my 'portable PC' only stays alive for a meager five minutes after it has been unplugged from a power outlet.It badly needs a change of battery.But then the beautiul relationship between my portable PC and I,that's another story for another day)

And then there was also this very important phone call that I needed to make which I avoided making last night(which I shouldn't have) because(according to my mother) it was not considered to be a descent time for a descent gal to make a descent phone call to a descent dude at that time of the night. Anyways,the point is,his phone number was actually lying around somewhere in one of my mails in my cherished Hotmail account(as I hadn't the sense to save it in my phone which too was,at this point dying due to the lack of charging) Apparently, decency does not get you anywhere.I shall be callously indecent,improper and careless from today onwards and you only got the electricity board to blame! Hmpf!

The day got off to a crippled start with my interpersonal relationships going down the drain(due to an unmade phone call)and I was feeling phenomenally crappy,drained and stranded in a world which suddenly seemed to have decided to very rudely ditch me behind and move on without me.I've been pacing up and down impatiently like a caged tigress,walking round and round in circles not really knowing what to do.My mind was,at this point,completely blank.And whats more,at the very peak of disappointment.Feeling abandoned,unloved,left out and alienated.Doesn't it feel like you've just swallowed a whole bottle of miserable pills when everyone and everything around you,even the ones that are supposed to make you feel good when times get rough,are making you feel infinitely worse?Somehow it hurts more when even your loved ones suddenly make you feel like a total stranger.

It's pathetic how dependent we have become on the necessary evils of the modern life, isn't it?But then,when you have an abnormally large mammoth of a research hanging over your head like a giant turd waiting to engulf you in its stinky goodness and you absolutely REQUIRE the necessary evils of the modern life to save yourself from all that pure evil gooeyness,who wouldn't panic?

I really should get a new battery for my laptop.

Rudely disturbed out of sleep :(

Lady Grouchalot does not appreciate being rudely awakened from her afternoon nap.In fact,she absolutely LOATHES it! :/

Its raining cats and dogs outside,its nice and dark inside and its the purrrrrrfect kind of weather for that ludicrous afternoon nap that not many of us are privileged to have nowadays.So an absolutely delighted Lady Grouchalot extremely psyched at this rare opportunity,jumps in to bed,snuggles in to her plethora of pillows and the like and closes her eyes against the rain which thumps sweet lullabys across rooftops and softly drifts off to the land of dreams.But then,a very rude,a very loud "Moo" from the streets drills across the sleepy eyelids and gets through to me and somehow manages to irritate me out of my blissfully sleepy state.Lady Grouchalot is very much peeved.To make matters worse,both my doggy poos start ruefully barking away at the cow mooing and grazing in the street outside the gate.Stupid cow! Muttering under my breath I turn over,block the noise from the street(and within)and try to fall asleep again.

Whoever invented the phone gets a generous lashing of Lady Grouchalot's wrath up next.The moment sleep over comes the "Moos" and the Bow wows and settles in at last,the phone decides to screech at the top of its mechanical lungs which she decides to completely ignore.Somehow sleep does not appreciate the shrill, rhythmic screams.As it threatens to leave me hanging,I convince sleep to give me another chance and finally settle in to have at least a two hour nap before I settle down to finishing that God awful research analysis again.

Which amounts to nothing,once again.Less than half an hour after I had (finally) settled in to that semi consciousness of impending sleep,I hear the honking of a horn at the gate and realize after a while(still in that half asleep state)that Mother Dearest has decided to come home early from work.Well,the gate obviously does not get opened by itself and there is nobody else to open it these days too,at which point I drag my wobbly reluctant self who was half way there at the land of nods out of bed,grab an umbrella and open the gates to let Mother Dearest in.

After that,no amount of counting sheep,cows,goats and ducks seemed to be able to drag me back to sleep.Sleep has left me it seems.Apparently it does not appreciate all these disturbances that always manage to wriggle in between us,some way or the other.After a while I drag my groggy,grouchy self out of bed,make myself and my mother who is happily chomping away on samosas that I had made in the afternoon(Yes,I have come to use cooking as a means of escape from assignments,projects and other insipid,unworthy stuff.ANYTHING to avoid that phenomenally crappy mammoth of a research that is plaguing my life!!!) some green tea with milk(another ingenious outcome of my experimental cooking and my piggish eating habits)and settle down in front of the computer once again.

Sigh......We live in one colossally rude planet :(

Unwind

Just realized that Lady Grouchalot hasn't grouched around in a while.Not that she didn't have things to grouch about really,but simply the fact that she hadn't the TIME to grouch around,being up to the eyebrows (and above)in this phenomenally shitty research that she is supposed to hand in when uni starts.Its nothing short of torture I tell you.

But right now I just prefer to unwind and relax on my own little balcony for a while,put down the weight of the world off my shoulders,swaying to the sounds of Evanescence and Celtic music(quite an odd combination I suppose),letting myself get transported to another time,another place,losing myself in the moment.Ah...this is bliss!

Somethings just struggling to break free within me.It's like this colossal butterfly that has been dormant in me for so long finally wants to break free.Break free,flap its beautiful wings and fly far away.It yearns to be lost in the murky skies right where it belongs.

I shall never tire of writing about the rain.
Rain shall never cease to inspire me.