Men and Women.. aha! ;)

Disclaimer right away - The title can be(read "is") misleading. This post is not about men AND women but rather the differences between the two. Sorry about the sudden testosterone or estrogen rush the title might have led to! It was my trick to "grab attention within first minute of your presentation" which my mentors have been trying to teach me. I could've named it men VS women, but then I'm trying not to sound feminist (an  internal joke) Anyway I digress.. coming back.

Now having been living with female roommates (and a LOT of them due to sky-high rents) for about 2 years, I have sorta been through all the stupid idiosyncrasies there are. Some of my guy friends find my stories highly amusing and I sometimes don't mind narrating some funny catfights at my expense. Its never easy when 5-6 girls are living under one roof for more than 20 days (avg "honeymoon" period before we are prone to pick petty fights or leave "angry notes" on the refrigerator). My conception about roomies was like having an extended sleepover and pajama party, but its a different game altogether. However whenever I observed similar living arrangement among the guys, it seemed like "No Problemo... more beer dude??" Aal is well :) They know to keep it simple, sort their priorities and have fun as a small family.

We all know the familiar phrase called "Men are from Mars and Women, from Venus". I'd beg to differ slightly and comment that its more like "Women are from Mercury (bitchy, irritable) and Men, from Neptune (cool or nonchalant). (and sorry Pluto, but not you coz you aint a planet anymore). Guy roomies have a capability to overlook petty issues and at the same time, show adequate consideration towards a "bro-code" of sorts. One particular example that jumps to mind is a friend who continues working uninterrupted in his room, when his roomie and his gf in the adjoining room..well..are not particularly "silent". Perfect "live-n-let-live" attitude but which doesn't necessarily slip into indifference.

Us girls, on the other hand, have a very low threshold for adjusting. In my defense, my threshold is pretty adequate but exhausted when one sits besides me and hums incessantly when I'm studying! Good friends, once upon a time, can be doomed to become arch enemies if they are roomies past that honeymoon phase. This can be manifested in myriad ways, for e.g.

• Stealing food from "her" fridge shelf. 
• Making abysmal food on one's cooking turn
• Complaining about "loudly chewing chips" that is apparently disturbing your sleep!
• Trying to make a cock-n-bull story about a burglar breaking in to "eat cereal", to avoid admitting that it was you. Developed ahead to explain how burglars here are more keen on food (cereal..yes ofc..its so tough to get!!) over other things like laptops, phones lying in plain view.

The girls that do stick through this and come out victorious (i.e. stay friends) are few and commendable. Hats off to you but you are an outlier (doh!) and I feel sorrow for the ones that don't (me included). Nevertheless, let me conclude with the cliche that it was one helluva learning experience and part of finding one's identity and compatibility :)

cheers to student life!

The 'Jhankaar' Legacy

With India winning the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 yesterday, it signified another thing in addition to an attestation of our skilled players. It signified bringing the groups of Indians, spread across all corners of the world, together in celebration. This included the small although-not-that-small Indian students community at Georgia Tech that I'm a proud part of. Thats the magic of cricket! But let me talk about one more equally magical phenomenon that manages a similar feat to a good extent - Indian Culture+Bollywood!!

Which "naujawaan" Indian  true to his/her salt does not feel like breaking a leg at our Bollywood dance songs?! Or any hip-hop songs for that matter? Add to it the cultural annual event - Holi - in all its vibrancy of colors and juvenile mischief, and we've got the perfect occasion to make it into a full-blown show! This is exactly what I was lucky to be part of last Spring (2010). Its called the GT Holi Show, coined "Sapne Rangeen" last time, (this year's event is named "Rang De") and is organized by the India Club at Georgia Tech (ICGT).  It is a Georgia wide event where Indian dance teams from multiple universities e.g. GT, Georgia State, Emory, UGA and even private academies participate - e.g. Kruti Dance Academy (who were also featured in America's Got Talent!)

You can also catch a glimpse of one of the performances by a group called "Paheli" below:

Me and my friends were team 'Jhankaar'- the sole graduate student group among primarily undergraduate groups, who came VERY close to professional-level perfection! (In my defense, unlike us, they've got all the time in the world to rehearse! :P) After our seniors floating the idea of keeping this tradition live this year, we juniors were on. We decided to perform on some Bollywood masala hits as a variety from the classical - Bharatnatyam, Kathhak and folk dances - Bhangra(USA and no Bhangra? Impossible!) and Garba by the other groups.

Squeezing rehearsals in between tight workloads consisting of project submissions and exams was painful; and with vastly differing schedules among us, co-ordination became the no.1 task above actual dance choreography. But rehearsing in the studios available on campus with those wall-high mirrors used to be an absolute delight! Yes it gave us sore thighs and calves the next morning but heck, the fun was much more. I made some really good friends through our team and got a lot closer to the existing ones; so if the previous sem was academically great, this semester was more kickass in terms of friendships and college participation.

This post is dedicated to all my Jhankaar friends - Anuja, Amruta, Madhura, Shreyas, Chinmay, Kunal, Anushree, Vinesh, Nilesh and Reema - you made that time at Gatech very special \m/

I regret that a maddening workload this semester prohibited me from participating again this Spring since most of our group members graduated and the juniors are too nerdy to bother :P I hope the tradition survives next year and that some grad students are able to take a little time out of work to step up and...shake a leg bro!

P.S. this experience also revived old memories from VJTI days - Annie, Ashwin, Gul, Nik, Rahul, Binu, Pranay... hope u guys miss those days as much as I do :)