Those awesome things..

Everyday, I tread my way to campus, around it as I make my way to class, lunch, job, library or just hanging about at my favorite hideouts. Walking is faster but on windy cold days like these, I prefer not reaching class with a partially frozen face and hair all over the place, and instead take the buses which are called Stingers - Georgia Tech's mascot is a bee -->

Most of the times, I notice these smallest of things, almost hit-n-miss, or the kinds that needs one to be really contemplative to notice. I happen to be one of those who can find amusement and happiness in the smallest of observations and the other times, not be satisfied even with the biggest of happenings. Well..each one has their kinks :D So here goes..

The rains are still lovely

Yeah, yeah I know I know that rains are a pain-in-the-neck when you gotta get to places and like to be dry et al. But no matter what and no matter how old I get, the rains bring the child outta me. I just like to look at the raindrops touching the plants around me, making them seem fresher than ever. And darn it, it IS really romantic to be with that special person out on a rainy day, watching the rainbow as you shudder slightly under any temporary shelter you can find and feel the aroma of wet earth putting a spell on you...

Birds chirping beats the MP3 player pounding in your ears...anyday!

I usually never used to up and about early enough to be able to hear any birds. But these days I have to get up really early to make it to my weekend activities. And when I heard that chirping one morning, I found myself transported to my room back home in India when I used to wake up as my mom switched off the fan..... (another one of those music-triggers-memory moments.. read about it more in my previous article on music)

It just rocks when you have a camera on you at the exact moment you needed it!

As I was walking, I just happened to look up and see this awesome reflection of another building in the windows of this one. Next thing I know, I'm juggling coffee + notebook + gloves in one hand, and whipping out my camera phone with the other hand! I also enjoy rounding up on cute, secluded walkways around campus which I hadn't noticed before and finding out if this can be my new shortcut. Below is one of them immediately as I turn around. (the building is the same one in the reflection and it happens to be my awesome semicircularly architectured Klaus Advanced Computing department)

Eminem in your ears when you're working out

This may not be everyone's favorite but I found it enthusing me with a strange drive. If you look at me at a place like the gym and sports arena, you'd probably conclude that I've lost my way and arrived there by mistake (well for those who don't know me, i'm really skinny). But these days, I like doing some lightweight Yoga and playing racquetball etc there. Adding to the wonderful things in life is the feel of the heated water in the swimming pool. A slight dampener there would be having to share your lane with a weird flabby guy smiling at you through those fogged-up glasses after each lap :P

More interesting stuff to come.. In the meanwhile, check out this nice CGI video for the song 'Blurry' by 'Puddle of Mud'

The Magic of Music

Music.. not just a bunch of words arranged melodiously, but an entertainment experience that is unique to each person. Some songs that appeal strongly to one's thoughts and persona, can grow on you to mean much more. Eventually, songs get associated with sparking innumerable memories and emotions. I'd been reading about human memory and different senses can serve as stimuli to memory - hearing, smell and of course, sight. I remember my friend stating in class, that the whiff of hot tea immediately reminds her of one time she and her mom were having this tea on the porch. But for me, hearing is the strongest one.

So, here is a list of some of my favorite songs back then, which when I come across, take me down memory lane...

1. Viva Forever - Spice Girls
Strong melody which rips through 10+ years to when I heard it first as a kid. strangely painful lyrics.

2. I don't wanna miss a thing - Aerosmith (Soundtrack of movie-Armageddon)
My phase in childhood where I was star-struck by movies involving NASA outer-space missions and idolized astronauts for their bravery.

3. Going under - Evanescence

Rebelling against the person you expected to be your strength, but who instead, breaks you with his patronizing, making you lonelier than before...

I was into goth rock briefly when I was cajoled into being a member of 'Bombay Rockers Association' back in Mumbai. They promoted decent gigs around town but seriously, the guys seemed to sneak a chuckle out of the acronym it formed :-/

4. Chandni Raatein - Bally Sagoo
The sweet bliss of new love..

5. Bailamos - Enrique Iglesias

The days of auditions for VJTI fests and this song used to be eternally on my 'wishlist' to do some smoldering salsa on ;) those auditions used to be much fun!
Recent addition to my wishlist dance songs - 'Telephone' - Lady Gaga, Beyonce. Catch the 'So you think you can dance' performance by Lauren on this song if you haven't already!

6. Mama told me - Ek Ajnabee
The hat-and-stick act and some fun time coining the girl gang 'Death Angels' :P (courtesy Annie)

7. Love to see you cry - Enrique
The days of cassette players, secondary school and the joy of owning my first English mix songs cassette :D

8. Dooba dooba - Silk route
Running back home after school to sit in front of the tv, switching on MTv or Channel [V] (which replaced Cartoon Network) and lazily having lunch. This was one of the songs that always came up.

9. I want it that way - Backstreet boys
The Pop craze and also for boys with chocolaty-good looks :P

10. My heart will go on - Celine Dion
Again, the days of VCR and movie cassettes. Titanic being longer than an average English movie, it had 2 cassettes instead of the usual one. My dad loves to equip our home with state-of-the-art electronics so we also had a surround sound system (disadvantage - 2,3 remote controls. universal remotes were not around yet) and neighbors were invited for watching it along with us. Amazing experience... cried till my head hurt! yeah m a sucker for emotional endings :P

This is just a subset of the mannny more songs I like, that came to my mind today. I like to share collections with friends and try and adopt to various genres. My Italian friend was into Pearl Jam a lot.. but that one..erm..didnt catch on to me.


P.S. I know this may not be one of my best writings.. but just something as fodder for your thought and to get my creativity flowing..

Romance with Vacations :)

I have been pondering over a good topic to write about since a long time.. and it just struck me.. why DO I have all this time to ponder? Its because its vacation right now! (bless these sweet times..) And its such a great thing to write about. All of us have attachments and longing towards vacations and beautiful memories that go with it. Here are some of my thoughts on why it holds a special place in our hearts..

1. It brings life back on track

There is a reason why this is the No.1 on my list (or anyone else's if they think similarly). Non-vacation times is when usually I'm either attending a semester at university or working. For graduates students like myself, school is more stressful and busier than work life. It also hurts socializing. Let alone meeting new people, I usually fall back on keeping in touch with my existing friends. This doesn't end very prettily when I have to, later, wade among fights and misunderstandings to remind them that I DO care about them :) 

Absolutely no time to think about health, exercise or a balanced diet. Pizza becomes the savior on the days of deadlines and umpteen assignments. Hail Papa Johns!

And about the "busier than work" part, yes working for a company does seem a lot more streamlined than slogging day and night at school. But its got its own cons like, you have to get up on time each day to go to work whereas in school, the day can end at 5 am and begin at noon \m/ Working = constant work+sleep, Studying=highly variable work(increasing as the semester progresses) + sleep(decreasing) monotonically earlier and then exponentially during "dead week".

Bottomline is.. vacation gives us a chance to catch up on beauty sleep and quit the regime that makes us look like coding zombies fueled by coffee.

2. Family and Friends time

Most Indian students fly back home as soon the end of semester looms near - to be surrounded by the loving care and pampering of parents, siblings and friends. And of course, the thing that we crave for... delicacies like Cheese Pav Bhaaji with sinfully buttery pav, Roadside bhaiyya wali Chaat, Triple Schezwan Rice in a small shady hole-in-the-wall "indian-chinese" restaurant and the hot-roasted chana-mungfali in Rs.1 or Rs.2 paper cones! Okay I'm kinda drifting away from the sub-topic here :D

Nothing beats seeing your parents' proud faces when you arrive home from school in other parts of the nation or world. In my case, I was sweating like a pig and covered in soot-like dirt that stuck because of that sweat when I waded my way out of the Mumbai airport. My mom had specially worn a saree just to greet me :) and then my dad displayed some extraordinary driving skills to make our way out of the airport boundary in Andheri, which alone took us an hour. But I was home and I'd missed every bit of its liveliness that stays on even into the wee hours of the night.

This winter break, I stayed on campus itself and spent quality time with my room-mates and their sets of friends who kept replacing earlier sets in our apartment-cum-free-accommodation-for-others :)

Coming back home, we stayed up most of the night playing card games, poker or watching movies and sitcoms (just the feeling that I have 3 hours to spend simply staring at the screen lazily is  more awesome than the movie itself!)


The cherry on the icing was I had a car at my disposal to just whip out and hit the road even at the slightest craving to do something in the evenings.

3. Exploring Mother Nature and beautiful places

The remaining most obvious perk to vacations is getting to travel to exotic places or go hiking up mountain ranges or down river valleys. I visited Smoky Mountains during Fall break where the changing colors of the leaves and watching the sunset from the topmost altitude was a treat to the eyes!

I want to know what you guys value the most about vacations.. please comment and add to it :) A song to end the post..

I think I'll leave it 'til tomorrow to unpack
Try to forget for one more night that I'm back in my flat
On the road where the cars never stop going through the night
To a life where I can't watch the sunset
I don't have time, I don't have time