Thursday, December 25
SOWMYA HAS FOUND AN INTERNET CONNECTION
Hi Everyone! I'm in India! However, I do not have much time or battery life left to make a decent post, so I will just let you all know that we've been here for a few days now and it's all very, very exciting. I have LOTS to tell you, I promise, but right now I'm inside my tour car which is parked on the road in the middle of downtown Delhi bumming off someone's wifi. Bye for now!
Friday, December 19
Why sleep is so underrated
There was once a time in my life when "severely procrastinating" on a project or assignment meant staying up until 2:00 AM to finish it and then bragging about getting only 5 hours of sleep to awestruck classmates. This was in the 6th grade.
And then came high school, where all-nighters became the thing to do when I decided that I would skip sleeping altogether so that I could study/work at a leisurely pace throughout the night. The added benefit to this was that I could be wide awake when the alarm went off at 6:30 and completely avoid the whole annoying "waking up" part. Usually, a dose of caffeine in the form of Bru coffee (or just spoons of instant coffee powder) would sustain me through the night when I showed signs of nodding off.
And here we are now, in college. Our bedtimes are...wait...what bedtimes? We are so experienced at staying up that sometimes, it feels as if we don't even sleep anymore. We are so good at all-nighting that we don't even use caffeine. The training wheels have come off. We are PROS.
Here, now, is the greatest irony. I actually did NOT procrastinate in studying for my Physics 211 and Chemistry 112 test. I didn't. In fact, I was completely done studying at about 1:30 (a very decent bedtime) though I was in a room with Moksha, Ramya, Arthi, and Shivam. Tension levels were peaking at about 2:00 as the girls crammed formulas into their caffeine wired brains and poured information into their short-term memories, only to have it leak out 5 to 6 seconds later. Moksha was having several mental breakdowns about the physics exam (and talked in her sleep while taking a nap), while Arthi had basically just given up on life itself, knowing that she had 4 hours to study for 3 separate exams. Ramya and Shivam were just being themselves: loser and loserer respectively.
The irony is that while the others fought off sleep to continue studying, I actually tried to go to sleep and couldn't do it. Okay, maybe my sleep schedule was a little off at 2:00. I tried sleeping again at about 3:00. Nope. At 4:15, I shut off all the lights, made everyone in the room shut up, and sincerely tried to descend into slumber. Didn't happen. I was so desperate by 5:00 that I went upstairs to Arthi and Moksha's empty dorm room to try and sleep...to no avail!
As pathetic as it sounds, that's what happened. After trying to fall asleep several times, I ended up all-nighting (against my wishes) before taking my last two final exams. Fearing that I'd fall asleep during the Physics, I gulped down a double-shot espresso and had jitters throughout the entire exam, as if the tough problems weren't already making things difficult. So for the rest of the day, I suffered for that unnecessary caffeine with an upset stomach.
Moral of the story: Don't use caffeine. SLEEP WHILE YOU CAN.
You are probably wondering what I am doing making a blog post when I said that I probably wouldn't get a chance to make one before leaving the country. Well, my bus to Boston got postponed due to crappy weather until 10:00 AM tomorrow, so I am choosing this as an opportunity to rest and to give you all an update of my life.
On a much, much lighter note: my first real semester at Penn State has successfully come to a close. :D
And then came high school, where all-nighters became the thing to do when I decided that I would skip sleeping altogether so that I could study/work at a leisurely pace throughout the night. The added benefit to this was that I could be wide awake when the alarm went off at 6:30 and completely avoid the whole annoying "waking up" part. Usually, a dose of caffeine in the form of Bru coffee (or just spoons of instant coffee powder) would sustain me through the night when I showed signs of nodding off.
And here we are now, in college. Our bedtimes are...wait...what bedtimes? We are so experienced at staying up that sometimes, it feels as if we don't even sleep anymore. We are so good at all-nighting that we don't even use caffeine. The training wheels have come off. We are PROS.
Here, now, is the greatest irony. I actually did NOT procrastinate in studying for my Physics 211 and Chemistry 112 test. I didn't. In fact, I was completely done studying at about 1:30 (a very decent bedtime) though I was in a room with Moksha, Ramya, Arthi, and Shivam. Tension levels were peaking at about 2:00 as the girls crammed formulas into their caffeine wired brains and poured information into their short-term memories, only to have it leak out 5 to 6 seconds later. Moksha was having several mental breakdowns about the physics exam (and talked in her sleep while taking a nap), while Arthi had basically just given up on life itself, knowing that she had 4 hours to study for 3 separate exams. Ramya and Shivam were just being themselves: loser and loserer respectively.
The irony is that while the others fought off sleep to continue studying, I actually tried to go to sleep and couldn't do it. Okay, maybe my sleep schedule was a little off at 2:00. I tried sleeping again at about 3:00. Nope. At 4:15, I shut off all the lights, made everyone in the room shut up, and sincerely tried to descend into slumber. Didn't happen. I was so desperate by 5:00 that I went upstairs to Arthi and Moksha's empty dorm room to try and sleep...to no avail!
As pathetic as it sounds, that's what happened. After trying to fall asleep several times, I ended up all-nighting (against my wishes) before taking my last two final exams. Fearing that I'd fall asleep during the Physics, I gulped down a double-shot espresso and had jitters throughout the entire exam, as if the tough problems weren't already making things difficult. So for the rest of the day, I suffered for that unnecessary caffeine with an upset stomach.
Moral of the story: Don't use caffeine. SLEEP WHILE YOU CAN.
You are probably wondering what I am doing making a blog post when I said that I probably wouldn't get a chance to make one before leaving the country. Well, my bus to Boston got postponed due to crappy weather until 10:00 AM tomorrow, so I am choosing this as an opportunity to rest and to give you all an update of my life.
On a much, much lighter note: my first real semester at Penn State has successfully come to a close. :D
Tuesday, December 16
Fasten your lungis.
^How cool would that be?In case I am caught up in the fervor of studying for Mechanics and Gen Chem,. I might not make another blog post before I take off to India. I will be going home on Friday, and I think we are leaving the country on Sunday, so the chances are also very slim that I'll be able to see my favorite Bedfordians/Westfordians. Therefore, I would like to:
1. Wish you all a fabulous Christmas, New Years, and winter break!
2. Laugh in your faces because I will be in a warm country
3. Let Sanjana know that her digital homemade birthday card will be ready soon
4. Wish Praneetha an early "heppy burthaday"
5. Inform everybody about the new transliteration feature that blogger provides. Observe:
"Namaste" becomes:
नमस्ते (hindi)
ನಮಸ್ತೆ (kannada)
നമസ്തെ (malayalam)
நமஸ்தே (tamil)
నమస్తే (telugu...duh)
EDIT: I completely forgot...I recently went to the HUB, took a survey, entered a raffle, and within 10 minutes, won a nice Penn State Rosebowl sweatshirt! And I was cold, too! I really like it when things work in my favor.
Another important update: I have decided to stay in India a week longer than was previously planned! Yes! I will therefore be missing another first week at Penn State (this has started to become a habit, hasn't it?)! What this means: more eating of fatty foods, more shopping, more seeing of beautiful sights, and less being at school.
And definitely keep checking back, because I will be blogging as much as possible (whenever I have computer access) during my trip. I know you all have nothing better to do. jkjkjkjkjk. I love you all! I'll miss you!!
Tata!
Tuesday, December 9
Sa Ri Ga Ma...
The below post lacks coherence because of the state of my brain at the moment. I apologize.
Music makes life beautiful.
Yes, it does.
Before I continue on that thought, I should highlight the past few days: the fruit and vegetable diet went remarkably well (but ended today after I started experiencing Nutella withdrawal symptoms) and I started working out again. I will even go practice dance tonight. And yesterday, I earned ten bucks participating in a Psychology study, where I was hooked up to a polygraph machine! Very cool stuff. Back to what I saying earlier:
Music.
Other things make life awesome, such as fruit (mainly pineapples), xkcd, and the Firefox addon which lets me write in Telugu all over my blog. But music? It's a constant. It's fundamental. It's essential (what would you dance to?).
Therefore, I am looking forward to Music Season in Chennai this December. I am also looking forward to shopping and sightseeing when it's NOT over a hundred degrees Fahrenheit.
Small anecdote: there was this one horrible summer day when I felt like buying shoes so my cousin took me to a mall in T. Nagar. Then, the air conditioner stopped working. There was an Aadi sale, so it was so crowded that it was impossible to see more than 1 feet in front me (I am not exaggerating even a LITTLE bit). It was packed, shoulder to shoulder, and everyone sweating like it had rained indoors. We were on the 7th floor when we found out that we had lost both my mom and aunt, and we didn't have a cellphone. Trying to use an elevator was impossible, so we had to use the stairs to search every floor multiple times for our moms. It was the most disgusting experience of my life. It felt so good to finally step out of the building into the pleasant 98 degree outdoors. Next time, I don't care if I don't have shoes; I will walk barefoot if necessary. I am looking forward to not doing that ever again in my life. This time will be much better.
Anyways, as I was saying, music is awesome and life would suck without it.
Again, sorry about the fragmentedness of that post. I'll make a better post after my Ochem and Psych finals.
Music makes life beautiful.
Yes, it does.
Before I continue on that thought, I should highlight the past few days: the fruit and vegetable diet went remarkably well (but ended today after I started experiencing Nutella withdrawal symptoms) and I started working out again. I will even go practice dance tonight. And yesterday, I earned ten bucks participating in a Psychology study, where I was hooked up to a polygraph machine! Very cool stuff. Back to what I saying earlier:
Music.
Other things make life awesome, such as fruit (mainly pineapples), xkcd, and the Firefox addon which lets me write in Telugu all over my blog. But music? It's a constant. It's fundamental. It's essential (what would you dance to?).
Therefore, I am looking forward to Music Season in Chennai this December. I am also looking forward to shopping and sightseeing when it's NOT over a hundred degrees Fahrenheit.
Small anecdote: there was this one horrible summer day when I felt like buying shoes so my cousin took me to a mall in T. Nagar. Then, the air conditioner stopped working. There was an Aadi sale, so it was so crowded that it was impossible to see more than 1 feet in front me (I am not exaggerating even a LITTLE bit). It was packed, shoulder to shoulder, and everyone sweating like it had rained indoors. We were on the 7th floor when we found out that we had lost both my mom and aunt, and we didn't have a cellphone. Trying to use an elevator was impossible, so we had to use the stairs to search every floor multiple times for our moms. It was the most disgusting experience of my life. It felt so good to finally step out of the building into the pleasant 98 degree outdoors. Next time, I don't care if I don't have shoes; I will walk barefoot if necessary. I am looking forward to not doing that ever again in my life. This time will be much better.
Anyways, as I was saying, music is awesome and life would suck without it.
Again, sorry about the fragmentedness of that post. I'll make a better post after my Ochem and Psych finals.
Sunday, December 7
Blecchhh
What's disgusting, gets stuck in your teeth, and has fewer calories than water?
Yes.
Celery.
It's what I'm (literally) gritting my teeth for this week. I am on a mission to eat only fresh, plant derived foods this entire week. The worse it tastes, the better. Why am I going through this self-induced torture, you ask? To build enough character before the end of this semester. I'm hoping that this new and temporary diet, along with a healthy dose of stressful cramming for finals, will reestablish my self worth. I will feel truly great about myself again before I leave for India. Ok, fine. I'm trying to make up for all the crap I ate and the studying that I didn't do over Thanksgiving break.
This is why I ask that if anyone sees me slacking: watching YouTube videos, eyeing a piece of candy, or gambling with cards again, please reprimand me. If you are really my friend, you will do this. If you live too far away to do this, you should call and talk to me...for moral support of course ;D.
In other news, today was my first Sangeetham class in State College! It was terrific.
In more other news, I've been hunting down really old Telugu albums. By really old, I mean like in the past 20 years. I found Gentleman, Roja, and Narasimha, all of which are by AR Rahman, and it turns, out, they're ALL originally Tamil songs! What the hell! What happened to the good, original Telugu music? I will find it.
One more thing: I have decided that it is best for my studies and focus if I do not visit 109 Stephens for the rest of the semester. 109 Stephens is Ramya and Malinda's room, though now it is more like Ramya, Malinda, Moksha, Arthi, and Shivam's room. Every time I go there to "study physics", I am forced to play cards. After playing cards, if I ever express the desire to leave, I am pinned to the bed by multiple people and tickled. This happened yesterday as well, and I only managed to escape by slipping into the crack between the two beds and crawling out underneath. When I finally managed to escape the room with a cunning trick, I think someone started to chase me, so I didn't stop running until I got ot Porter Hall. The situation is getting to be very dangerous and I think I will confine myself to my own room and lock the door from now on.
Yes.
Celery.
It's what I'm (literally) gritting my teeth for this week. I am on a mission to eat only fresh, plant derived foods this entire week. The worse it tastes, the better. Why am I going through this self-induced torture, you ask? To build enough character before the end of this semester. I'm hoping that this new and temporary diet, along with a healthy dose of stressful cramming for finals, will reestablish my self worth. I will feel truly great about myself again before I leave for India. Ok, fine. I'm trying to make up for all the crap I ate and the studying that I didn't do over Thanksgiving break.
This is why I ask that if anyone sees me slacking: watching YouTube videos, eyeing a piece of candy, or gambling with cards again, please reprimand me. If you are really my friend, you will do this. If you live too far away to do this, you should call and talk to me...for moral support of course ;D.
In other news, today was my first Sangeetham class in State College! It was terrific.
In more other news, I've been hunting down really old Telugu albums. By really old, I mean like in the past 20 years. I found Gentleman, Roja, and Narasimha, all of which are by AR Rahman, and it turns, out, they're ALL originally Tamil songs! What the hell! What happened to the good, original Telugu music? I will find it.
One more thing: I have decided that it is best for my studies and focus if I do not visit 109 Stephens for the rest of the semester. 109 Stephens is Ramya and Malinda's room, though now it is more like Ramya, Malinda, Moksha, Arthi, and Shivam's room. Every time I go there to "study physics", I am forced to play cards. After playing cards, if I ever express the desire to leave, I am pinned to the bed by multiple people and tickled. This happened yesterday as well, and I only managed to escape by slipping into the crack between the two beds and crawling out underneath. When I finally managed to escape the room with a cunning trick, I think someone started to chase me, so I didn't stop running until I got ot Porter Hall. The situation is getting to be very dangerous and I think I will confine myself to my own room and lock the door from now on.
Thursday, December 4
Slavery
Penn State again. Homework again. Studying again.
YEAH RIGHT. As if that's possible here. Slave day started on Tuesday (Remember when I gambled away my freedom during that Hearts game before Thanksgiving Break?) so Shivam and I were forced to shift over to Ramya and Malinda's room. Moksha and Arthi also came, just to complicate things further. We thought we would be made to do chores, but instead were forced to play card games for four or five hours. This was very cruel because I wanted to study for Organic Chem but I was forced to gamble with cards instead. Later, I did manage to finish an entire chapter of the textbook when people went to eat dinner and I chose to stay inside and eat carrots.
Later, we thought it would be fun to subject Shivam to all sorts of embarassments, like making him wear a sari and heels. I'm not sure if I want to put up pictures of this. He might murder me. I did not have to do any of these horrible things though I was also a slave because I am strong willed and nobody dares boss me around. The two masters (Ramya and Malinda) did however make us eat spoons of hot pickle to see if we would burn our tongues. The pickle was very mild and even tasted good, so that was an utter failure.
Soon it was time to sleep. Shivam slept on the hard floor using a newspaper as a pillow. I, however, squeezed onto the double beds with four other girls. Ramya and Malinda slept on one bed, Moksha and I slept in the other, and Arthi slept in the crack between the beds. We only slept, of course, after forcibly spilling our deepest and darkest secrets.
The next morning, I tried to get some work done. I really did. Ramya told me to go to OChem lecture because it was really funny. Indeed it was: Maslak, to boost his ratings on the SRTEs, talked about antioxidants. He donned a chef's hat, fried some beef and liver, and stuck them in hydrogen peroxide to demonstrate what happens. Have a look:
(Oh! I found an old digital camera at home that was supposed to be broken but it actually wasn't. So it's mine now)
Slavery ended up being awesomer than expectecd because Ramya and Malinda were not able to take full advantage of me. I am a natural master.
YEAH RIGHT. As if that's possible here. Slave day started on Tuesday (Remember when I gambled away my freedom during that Hearts game before Thanksgiving Break?) so Shivam and I were forced to shift over to Ramya and Malinda's room. Moksha and Arthi also came, just to complicate things further. We thought we would be made to do chores, but instead were forced to play card games for four or five hours. This was very cruel because I wanted to study for Organic Chem but I was forced to gamble with cards instead. Later, I did manage to finish an entire chapter of the textbook when people went to eat dinner and I chose to stay inside and eat carrots.
Later, we thought it would be fun to subject Shivam to all sorts of embarassments, like making him wear a sari and heels. I'm not sure if I want to put up pictures of this. He might murder me. I did not have to do any of these horrible things though I was also a slave because I am strong willed and nobody dares boss me around. The two masters (Ramya and Malinda) did however make us eat spoons of hot pickle to see if we would burn our tongues. The pickle was very mild and even tasted good, so that was an utter failure.
Soon it was time to sleep. Shivam slept on the hard floor using a newspaper as a pillow. I, however, squeezed onto the double beds with four other girls. Ramya and Malinda slept on one bed, Moksha and I slept in the other, and Arthi slept in the crack between the beds. We only slept, of course, after forcibly spilling our deepest and darkest secrets.
The next morning, I tried to get some work done. I really did. Ramya told me to go to OChem lecture because it was really funny. Indeed it was: Maslak, to boost his ratings on the SRTEs, talked about antioxidants. He donned a chef's hat, fried some beef and liver, and stuck them in hydrogen peroxide to demonstrate what happens. Have a look:
(Oh! I found an old digital camera at home that was supposed to be broken but it actually wasn't. So it's mine now)
Slavery ended up being awesomer than expectecd because Ramya and Malinda were not able to take full advantage of me. I am a natural master.
Saturday, November 29
Thanksgiving Break: Part 3
After that mall adventure, we watched DOSTANA! Yes! It was very cool and very very funny. John Abraham was delectable. Then, I went home and finally showered, and the fam and I went to see The Nutcracker Ballet by the Commonwealth Ballet Company. It was sooo good. Forget B-nat. I have decided to become a ballerina.
We chilled at the Praneetha's after that (my brother was staying for a sleepover) and watched Paresh Rawal say "Heppy Burth-a-day" around 7 or 8 times in the movie Hungama. It is EPIC, I tell you. This epicness can be experienced at 2:20 in this YouTube clip.
Then, we went home, and even though I was INCREDIBLY POOPED, my mother tempted me with a Telugu movie and I stayed up until I finished watching it. I was completely out until 11:00 this morning.
Aaaand...I have just returned from an AP Physics C class reunion that occurred at Brueggers! For those of you who are unaware, I was a part of the greatest class ever last year. It was AP Physics C, taught by Mr. Rose and consisting of 9 students. It was so great that we all feel incomplete without it and needed to see each other again. Liz, Sam, Shreyas, Christie, Melody, and I met up today for lunch/chai and it was fabulous.
And that was my amazing week. It was so good to be home. Three more weeks, and then I get to come back, though only for a day before I fly to India.
We chilled at the Praneetha's after that (my brother was staying for a sleepover) and watched Paresh Rawal say "Heppy Burth-a-day" around 7 or 8 times in the movie Hungama. It is EPIC, I tell you. This epicness can be experienced at 2:20 in this YouTube clip.
Then, we went home, and even though I was INCREDIBLY POOPED, my mother tempted me with a Telugu movie and I stayed up until I finished watching it. I was completely out until 11:00 this morning.
Aaaand...I have just returned from an AP Physics C class reunion that occurred at Brueggers! For those of you who are unaware, I was a part of the greatest class ever last year. It was AP Physics C, taught by Mr. Rose and consisting of 9 students. It was so great that we all feel incomplete without it and needed to see each other again. Liz, Sam, Shreyas, Christie, Melody, and I met up today for lunch/chai and it was fabulous.
And that was my amazing week. It was so good to be home. Three more weeks, and then I get to come back, though only for a day before I fly to India.
Thanksgiving Break: Part 2
Pictures of my week are currently in other people's cameras, so I will wait for them to upload pics. Keep checking back. A LOT HAPPENED! THIS WILL BE A LONG POST!
Thursday was an incredible Thanksgiving. I woke up super late after the adventures of the previous day and bummed around for a bit, refusing to do any housework. At around 2:30, we left for Praneetha's house in Westford. Since it was only 3:00 when we got there, there was still a lot of cooking to do. Praneetha, Sammy (Sameera), and I decided to make gravy, except every recipe we found online involved soy sauce. There was no soy sauce in the house. First of all, isn't soy sauce an Asian thing? The pilgrims obviously made gravy without it, so why does there NEED to be soy sauce? Anyway. So after hunting around for little packets of soy sauce that you get from Chinese restaurants (we found, like, one) we walked over to Shruti and Sushmita's house to borrow some.
The gravy turned out excellent, though we might have put in too much soy sauce. :D
Next, we made mashed potatoes by taking potatoes and mashing them. We (rather generously) added oregano and basil and stuff to the point that you could smell the mashed potatoes from a mile away. But it also turned out excellent and our cooking skills were praised by one and all. There was lots of other awesome food and I ate a lot.
We watched Golmaal Returns and then played Rummy (what else?) with everyone. For some reason, in every single round, everyone's cards sucked. Praneetha and I indulged in a little under the table sharing of cards but were cuaght. We also tried texting each other but Laxmi aunty caught that too. I slept over at Praneetha's and we got up at 4:45 to take advantage of Black Friday at Rockingham Mall. I was incredibly tired (who would have thought? I thought I had mastered the art of functioning while sleep deprived...guess not) but perked up after a "small" Coke from Burger King. Here is a picture of Shruti and Praneetha hiding from the rain under a free tote bag from Aerie.
Thursday was an incredible Thanksgiving. I woke up super late after the adventures of the previous day and bummed around for a bit, refusing to do any housework. At around 2:30, we left for Praneetha's house in Westford. Since it was only 3:00 when we got there, there was still a lot of cooking to do. Praneetha, Sammy (Sameera), and I decided to make gravy, except every recipe we found online involved soy sauce. There was no soy sauce in the house. First of all, isn't soy sauce an Asian thing? The pilgrims obviously made gravy without it, so why does there NEED to be soy sauce? Anyway. So after hunting around for little packets of soy sauce that you get from Chinese restaurants (we found, like, one) we walked over to Shruti and Sushmita's house to borrow some.
The gravy turned out excellent, though we might have put in too much soy sauce. :D
Next, we made mashed potatoes by taking potatoes and mashing them. We (rather generously) added oregano and basil and stuff to the point that you could smell the mashed potatoes from a mile away. But it also turned out excellent and our cooking skills were praised by one and all. There was lots of other awesome food and I ate a lot.
We watched Golmaal Returns and then played Rummy (what else?) with everyone. For some reason, in every single round, everyone's cards sucked. Praneetha and I indulged in a little under the table sharing of cards but were cuaght. We also tried texting each other but Laxmi aunty caught that too. I slept over at Praneetha's and we got up at 4:45 to take advantage of Black Friday at Rockingham Mall. I was incredibly tired (who would have thought? I thought I had mastered the art of functioning while sleep deprived...guess not) but perked up after a "small" Coke from Burger King. Here is a picture of Shruti and Praneetha hiding from the rain under a free tote bag from Aerie.
Wednesday, November 26
Thanksgiving Break: Part 1
PSU gives us the entire thanksgiving week off, so my parents came to State College last Thursday and invited me to spend the night at the hotel. We left on Friday morning (no, I did not attend classes) and it was snowing a lot. We got to Pittsburgh that evening and after some scariness that involved our van not being able to get over a hill due to the iciness, we got to Carnegie Mellon where Nipunn and Katherine go to school. We grabbed them and went to a Filipino/Thai restaurant which we later found out did NOT have fried ice cream, but it was already too late. I ate something pretty good that involved cooked jackfruit.
After dinner, I absconded with Nipunn and Katherine to Nipunn's dorm room where we played video games and got visited by sketchy guys. I guess that's CMU. We also visited Katherine's incredibly messy dorm room and got some hot chocolate. I was actually tired by the time I got back to the hotel room.
The next morning, we visited the Sri Venkateshwara Temple in Pittsburgh after following the most retarded set of directions. Even the GPS couldn't help because it told us to go up a street that didn't exist. But it was a large, austere, and rather cool place.
After that was a really really long car ride to Groton, Connecticut where we spent the night and then finally to Bedford the next morning (Sunday). Monday afternoon was spent at BHS talking to teachers, which took much longer than I had anticipated. Therefore I went to school during classes on Tuesday to talk to more teachers. It was very nice.
Right now, I am at Nipunn's house with some high school pals. Nipunn and I made a list of reminiscent things to do. Here it is:
Rubiks Cubing
Playing Rock Band
Watching my Arangetram DVD
Running to Bedford Farms for some Pumpkin Ice Cream
Watching our History Fair Video
Playing Carroms
Making Mango Pie or Mango Lassi
Watching Hungama (a Hindi movie)
I've beeing doing my best documenting all of this on Soreen's camera and I will upload the pictures ASAP.
After dinner, I absconded with Nipunn and Katherine to Nipunn's dorm room where we played video games and got visited by sketchy guys. I guess that's CMU. We also visited Katherine's incredibly messy dorm room and got some hot chocolate. I was actually tired by the time I got back to the hotel room.
The next morning, we visited the Sri Venkateshwara Temple in Pittsburgh after following the most retarded set of directions. Even the GPS couldn't help because it told us to go up a street that didn't exist. But it was a large, austere, and rather cool place.
After that was a really really long car ride to Groton, Connecticut where we spent the night and then finally to Bedford the next morning (Sunday). Monday afternoon was spent at BHS talking to teachers, which took much longer than I had anticipated. Therefore I went to school during classes on Tuesday to talk to more teachers. It was very nice.
Right now, I am at Nipunn's house with some high school pals. Nipunn and I made a list of reminiscent things to do. Here it is:
Rubiks Cubing
Playing Rock Band
Watching my Arangetram DVD
Running to Bedford Farms for some Pumpkin Ice Cream
Watching our History Fair Video
Playing Carroms
Making Mango Pie or Mango Lassi
Watching Hungama (a Hindi movie)
I've beeing doing my best documenting all of this on Soreen's camera and I will upload the pictures ASAP.
Wednesday, November 19
Why gambling is bad.
Firstly, I redid my desktop and made it look awesome. Now I have the dock at the bottom, like all the macs do. Here are a few screenshots (click on them to see full size...its worth it):
So yesterday was do-whatever-Shivam-wants-day. This was Ramya's idea because she decided that we (by "we", she meant "Sowmya") boss Shivam around too much and we should have one day where he can pick what to do and we have to do it uncomplainingly. The day really only got started late in the evening when Shivam finally finished his webassign and after being really indecisive, decided that we play hearts. So we played hearts for four or five rounds and then Ramya got a phone call and left for a bit. Shivam thought it would be awesome to start a new game involving some stakes: whoever loses the game, i.e. reaches 100 points first, would have to commit a little dare (which I will not describe online). You can see the scoresheet for yourself. Ramya started out with some really sucky cards, but managed to prolong her defeat until 12 rounds later. Malinda also took pity on her at round 6 and started helping her. Shivam shot the moon at round 5. I ended up winning, but that was probably only because I was not being targeted.
(Wait till I upload it...)
After that amazing game, we decided to play another, with even higher stakes. The loser would have to be the winner's personal slave for 24 hours! We decided it would be even better if the person who came in 3rd place would have to be slave to the person who came in 2nd place too, for some added excitement.
Yes, you guessed it, I LOST. I am not even going to put up the score sheet; it was that bad. I got the queen of spades almost every round. But in the end, I was proud of myself for helping give 11 hearts to Shivam and making him a slave to Ramya, who came in 2nd place. We still have to pick the day, but I am going to be Malinda's slave for 24 hours. I'm scared, because she might make me go to classes or something. Eeek. But don't worry, because I won't be going down without a fight.
All in all, a very intense day. We are never letting Shivam pick what to do again.
*Headsmack* I keep forgetting! I got an addon for Firefox that allows me to type in Telugu. నా }msLRPv ఆవకాయ. PPretty awesome, కద ?
So yesterday was do-whatever-Shivam-wants-day. This was Ramya's idea because she decided that we (by "we", she meant "Sowmya") boss Shivam around too much and we should have one day where he can pick what to do and we have to do it uncomplainingly. The day really only got started late in the evening when Shivam finally finished his webassign and after being really indecisive, decided that we play hearts. So we played hearts for four or five rounds and then Ramya got a phone call and left for a bit. Shivam thought it would be awesome to start a new game involving some stakes: whoever loses the game, i.e. reaches 100 points first, would have to commit a little dare (which I will not describe online). You can see the scoresheet for yourself. Ramya started out with some really sucky cards, but managed to prolong her defeat until 12 rounds later. Malinda also took pity on her at round 6 and started helping her. Shivam shot the moon at round 5. I ended up winning, but that was probably only because I was not being targeted.
(Wait till I upload it...)
After that amazing game, we decided to play another, with even higher stakes. The loser would have to be the winner's personal slave for 24 hours! We decided it would be even better if the person who came in 3rd place would have to be slave to the person who came in 2nd place too, for some added excitement.
Yes, you guessed it, I LOST. I am not even going to put up the score sheet; it was that bad. I got the queen of spades almost every round. But in the end, I was proud of myself for helping give 11 hearts to Shivam and making him a slave to Ramya, who came in 2nd place. We still have to pick the day, but I am going to be Malinda's slave for 24 hours. I'm scared, because she might make me go to classes or something. Eeek. But don't worry, because I won't be going down without a fight.
All in all, a very intense day. We are never letting Shivam pick what to do again.
*Headsmack* I keep forgetting! I got an addon for Firefox that allows me to type in Telugu. నా }msLRPv ఆవకాయ. PPretty awesome, కద ?
Wednesday, November 12
Freedom, awesomeness, and...neck spasms.
I was writing this blog post yesterday when I was rudely interrupted by a sharp pain in my neck that was so dizzying that I found myself on the ground. It was freaky enough that an ambulance was called for and I was forced to spend the rest of my Wednesday in a hospital where a few bottles of blood, CAT scans, and an enjoyable day were taken from me. The EKG and blood were to make sure I had no heart problem, which I already knew I didn't. In the end, of course, it was nothing serious, just a sprained neck. Turns out I had injured it while I was stretching improperly, but I hadn't thought much of it until that sudden spasm. All in all, it was a completely unnecessary hospital visit, nothing that a bit of Ibuprofen couldn't have solved. And now I can't even donate blood! Yippee. On the bright side, now I know why I fainted a few years ago in CVS and got a concussion--I must have gotten the same type of pain-triggered dizziness while trying on a brace for my sprained wrist. Mystery solved! I would have figured this out earlier except that concussions have the inconvenient tendency to erase memory.
ANYWAY
As I was saying before that rude and painful interruption, MY EXAMS ARE OVER. I have no more tests until finals week and fortunately, I don't have to bring my grade up for any class, so there is no added stres. However. If you had seen the state of us right before the OChem exam this weekend, you might have suggested that we be shipped us off to an asylum. "We" meaning: me, Ramya, Moksha (studying for Chem 110), Malinda, and Shivam. Of course Brent had finished studying for this exam weeks ago and went off to do non-ochem related stuff. But the rest of us were, quite literally, in hysterics. I have never cursed more in my entire life that I did that weekend. I screamed several times, threw carbon atoms at people, and broke things. In return, was physically attacked by Moksha and cussed at in Telugu. Here is an illustration:
Malinda, who was sick and delirious, kept asking questions like, "What is an aldehyde? What is a reaction? Who is organic chemistry?" and Shivam had his free will stripped of him yet again as three girls forced him to explain things. Eventually, we took the exam on Monday and ended up doing WAY better than we expected and regretting having stressed so much. In celebration, we watched Rang De Basanti, even though I had a Chemistry test the next day. Now that's over too, and as I had previously predicted, I have lost all motivation to study.
Tuesday evening was awesomely spent eating Indian food and listening to Indian tunes. We bought plain white rice from Uncle Chen's, plain yogurt from McLanahan's, and ate it with pickle that Ramya had in the fridge. We were joined later by Swetha and Arthi, who must have been attracted by the loud music and the spicy smells.
We plucked eyebrows, thought of names for our children, and watched people slap each other on YouTube until about 2 in the morning.
Now, I am off to Vedic Society and then The Dark Knight at the HUB. Nice, neck-free activities.
ANYWAY
As I was saying before that rude and painful interruption, MY EXAMS ARE OVER. I have no more tests until finals week and fortunately, I don't have to bring my grade up for any class, so there is no added stres. However. If you had seen the state of us right before the OChem exam this weekend, you might have suggested that we be shipped us off to an asylum. "We" meaning: me, Ramya, Moksha (studying for Chem 110), Malinda, and Shivam. Of course Brent had finished studying for this exam weeks ago and went off to do non-ochem related stuff. But the rest of us were, quite literally, in hysterics. I have never cursed more in my entire life that I did that weekend. I screamed several times, threw carbon atoms at people, and broke things. In return, was physically attacked by Moksha and cussed at in Telugu. Here is an illustration:
Malinda, who was sick and delirious, kept asking questions like, "What is an aldehyde? What is a reaction? Who is organic chemistry?" and Shivam had his free will stripped of him yet again as three girls forced him to explain things. Eventually, we took the exam on Monday and ended up doing WAY better than we expected and regretting having stressed so much. In celebration, we watched Rang De Basanti, even though I had a Chemistry test the next day. Now that's over too, and as I had previously predicted, I have lost all motivation to study.
Tuesday evening was awesomely spent eating Indian food and listening to Indian tunes. We bought plain white rice from Uncle Chen's, plain yogurt from McLanahan's, and ate it with pickle that Ramya had in the fridge. We were joined later by Swetha and Arthi, who must have been attracted by the loud music and the spicy smells.
We plucked eyebrows, thought of names for our children, and watched people slap each other on YouTube until about 2 in the morning.
Now, I am off to Vedic Society and then The Dark Knight at the HUB. Nice, neck-free activities.
Friday, November 7
The joys of music, fridays, physics, language, and fruit.
I realize that my blog entries have been crappy lately, and many of you are desperate for news about my oh-so-interesting life (I know you read this, Ma), so I will try to write as much as possible. This is also so I can postpone studying for OChem for as long as possible.
First off, I would like to say that I officially love the Hindi album Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, by Salim and Sulaiman. The movie stars Shahrukh Khan and some other random person. Have a look at the movie poster; he looks hilarious. Go get the album if you haven't already. I will now consider listening to Salim and Sulaiman's other album, Fashion, and will report on its quality in my next post.
First piece of amazing news: today was my last Chem 113 lab. This means that I get 5 HOURS back on Fridays, as well as some of my sanity. You are probably asking what I was thinking when I first signed up for it. Yeah, me too. Never again.
Second piece of amazing news: I got a 106 on my physics midterm. Yep. However, this may actually be bad news in disguise. Why? Because I had recently decided to start attending Physics class again, now that we have started to cover the topics I hate (and am therefore bad at), such as rotation and oscillation. That motivation is now gone. This can only spell disaster for the final exam.
Third piece of amazing news: I am relearning how to read and write Telugu. I thought it was going to be hard to pick it up again after teaching myself at the end of senior year, but it's only taken me a day or two and I'm actually loads better than I was before. The reasons why I resumed: 1.) I'm bored. 2.) I'm going to India in December. 3.) I stumbled upon a website containing a bunch of clips of Amrutham, my favorite Telugu comedy serial (sitcom, basically) and I want to know what the credits say.
Fourth piece of news which is amazing and yet also awful: It's 70 degrees outside. Why, oh why does it have to be so nice this weekend when I have to be stuck indoors, cramming for two tests? This was also the case three or four weeks ago right before the 2nd OChem test (remember those pictures of me frolicking in the sun rather than studying?) Life is very unfair in this aspect.
And finally:
I have made the resolution to blog more frequently because it's pretty embarrassing how Marissa, who goes to Caltech, can blog everyday whereas I only make a pathetic 5 or 6 posts per month. You will see more, I promise. However, I probably won't post again until Tuesday or Wednesday, when I resurface from my next two exams (Ochem and Gen Chem). So long.
In the meantime, check out the contents of me and Sharon's fridge! We are such healthy people! Too bad it's not actually true. The ones on the top rack are all the apples I stole from the dining commons, and the ones on the bottom rack are those Sharon got when she went apple picking in Jersey. Those are Sharon's oranges in the bottom bin.
Bye!
First off, I would like to say that I officially love the Hindi album Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, by Salim and Sulaiman. The movie stars Shahrukh Khan and some other random person. Have a look at the movie poster; he looks hilarious. Go get the album if you haven't already. I will now consider listening to Salim and Sulaiman's other album, Fashion, and will report on its quality in my next post.
First piece of amazing news: today was my last Chem 113 lab. This means that I get 5 HOURS back on Fridays, as well as some of my sanity. You are probably asking what I was thinking when I first signed up for it. Yeah, me too. Never again.
Second piece of amazing news: I got a 106 on my physics midterm. Yep. However, this may actually be bad news in disguise. Why? Because I had recently decided to start attending Physics class again, now that we have started to cover the topics I hate (and am therefore bad at), such as rotation and oscillation. That motivation is now gone. This can only spell disaster for the final exam.
Third piece of amazing news: I am relearning how to read and write Telugu. I thought it was going to be hard to pick it up again after teaching myself at the end of senior year, but it's only taken me a day or two and I'm actually loads better than I was before. The reasons why I resumed: 1.) I'm bored. 2.) I'm going to India in December. 3.) I stumbled upon a website containing a bunch of clips of Amrutham, my favorite Telugu comedy serial (sitcom, basically) and I want to know what the credits say.
Fourth piece of news which is amazing and yet also awful: It's 70 degrees outside. Why, oh why does it have to be so nice this weekend when I have to be stuck indoors, cramming for two tests? This was also the case three or four weeks ago right before the 2nd OChem test (remember those pictures of me frolicking in the sun rather than studying?) Life is very unfair in this aspect.
And finally:
I have made the resolution to blog more frequently because it's pretty embarrassing how Marissa, who goes to Caltech, can blog everyday whereas I only make a pathetic 5 or 6 posts per month. You will see more, I promise. However, I probably won't post again until Tuesday or Wednesday, when I resurface from my next two exams (Ochem and Gen Chem). So long.
In the meantime, check out the contents of me and Sharon's fridge! We are such healthy people! Too bad it's not actually true. The ones on the top rack are all the apples I stole from the dining commons, and the ones on the bottom rack are those Sharon got when she went apple picking in Jersey. Those are Sharon's oranges in the bottom bin.
Bye!
Saturday, November 1
2nd encounter with Kal Penn: SUCCESS
EDIT: I'm adding on to my previous blog post because I really don't want to make a new one.
I don't think I could have picked a better time to come to college. Why? Because Presidential elections means famous people come to Penn State. In the past week, we saw Sarah Palin, Bill Clinton, and Kal Penn.
Yesterday was the 2nd garba, and though there were actually less people at this one, it turned out to be more fun than the first. But more importantly, there was KAL PENN. Yes, he was there, campaigning for Barack Obama, and let me tell you, this guy is a total G. I can't believe he came to State College a second time to speak with us, but he seems really passionate about the Obama campaign and definitely garnered a lot of support from the Gujarati crowd that was present at the garba. I got to shake his hand and tell him how I really liked The Namesake. I should have said "Where's the party, yaar" again but I forgot and he was being mobbed. I didn't get an individual picture with him :( but...
There he is, second from the left.
After he left, there was the usual garba dancing, then raas, and then at the end...BHANGRA. I was in my element. I had borrowed a fish-cut dress from Swetha (from Vedic Society) and it was really nice but incredibly hard to dance in. Next time I am SO wearing a churidhar.
...
And for my previous post about Halloween and stuff:
You couldn't have asked for better Halloween conditions. Warm, cloudless skies, Friday night...it would have been ideal for something innocent, like trick-or-treating. Unfortunately, these were also ideal conditions for the many thousands of college students to take over the streets of State College until 5:00 AM while wearing incredibly skimpy costumes (or none at all). But I can't say it wasn't fun.
Before the celebrations started, I went over to Karthik's apartment where we had homecooked Indian food, complete with bean and potato fry, mango (avakaya) pickle, dal (kandi pappu), ghee, and yogurt made from whole milk. My hand still smells like avakaya (of course we ate with our hands). I should go get some from the Indian store at the next available opportunity.
After that we went to a costume party at Naveen and Vinay's place. It was really awesome to see all the people I hadn't seen since the summer, and also second year progs I had never met before. There were FOBs, frat boys, people dressed as other people, people dressed as people without a lot of clothes on...etc. It was really fun until someone vomited on my leg. After a while, the fun decreased as there was much less dancing and much more passing out.
I'll get some pics up soon once my photographer uploads them.
It was a fun night, but I will admit, I couldn't help but feel a pang for wasting such wonderful Halloween conditions inside instead of going door to door and emptying peoples candy bowls, and scaring little kids.
I don't think I could have picked a better time to come to college. Why? Because Presidential elections means famous people come to Penn State. In the past week, we saw Sarah Palin, Bill Clinton, and Kal Penn.
There he is, second from the left.
After he left, there was the usual garba dancing, then raas, and then at the end...BHANGRA. I was in my element. I had borrowed a fish-cut dress from Swetha (from Vedic Society) and it was really nice but incredibly hard to dance in. Next time I am SO wearing a churidhar.
...
And for my previous post about Halloween and stuff:
You couldn't have asked for better Halloween conditions. Warm, cloudless skies, Friday night...it would have been ideal for something innocent, like trick-or-treating. Unfortunately, these were also ideal conditions for the many thousands of college students to take over the streets of State College until 5:00 AM while wearing incredibly skimpy costumes (or none at all). But I can't say it wasn't fun.
Before the celebrations started, I went over to Karthik's apartment where we had homecooked Indian food, complete with bean and potato fry, mango (avakaya) pickle, dal (kandi pappu), ghee, and yogurt made from whole milk. My hand still smells like avakaya (of course we ate with our hands). I should go get some from the Indian store at the next available opportunity.
After that we went to a costume party at Naveen and Vinay's place. It was really awesome to see all the people I hadn't seen since the summer, and also second year progs I had never met before. There were FOBs, frat boys, people dressed as other people, people dressed as people without a lot of clothes on...etc. It was really fun until someone vomited on my leg. After a while, the fun decreased as there was much less dancing and much more passing out.
I'll get some pics up soon once my photographer uploads them.
It was a fun night, but I will admit, I couldn't help but feel a pang for wasting such wonderful Halloween conditions inside instead of going door to door and emptying peoples candy bowls, and scaring little kids.
Wednesday, October 22
Why I fail at life.
- I went to bed at 7:30 in the morning and woke up at 1:00.
- I stole two potatoes and a quesadilla from the dining commons.
- I choked on a bubble from my orange Thai bubble tea.
- I painstaking rewrote my Chem 113 lab and then realized that it was actually not going to be collected (for the first time).
- I lost my ID card and went to the ID office to get a new one for $15. Later that afternoon, someone found my old one.
- I dropped my phone several times (you know, the one that's only a month old)
- I wore bells without padded socks during dance practice and now I have large, ugly bruises on the tops of my feet.
- I bought a new pair of crocs.
But other than this, the last few days have been pretty good mainly because I haven't been studying or doing any work (except for that stupid lab...). I bought a new carpet, which is awesome, and already getting dirty because I keep walking on it with my shoes on (the crocs, actually). My DIY Rubik's cube came in the mail the other day. DIY means "Do It Yourself", so it's spring loaded and you can adjust the tension to make it turn faster. It wasn't worth what I paid for it, but still fun.
I also decided to move into an apartment next year. I and four others are looking to rent a townhouse over at Nittany Apartments. It's going to be fantastic because we'll each get our own bedroom plus a living room, dining, and lots and lots of closet space. We'll have 1.5 bathrooms and a kitchen too. And 2 floors! It's so exciting.
- I stole two potatoes and a quesadilla from the dining commons.
- I choked on a bubble from my orange Thai bubble tea.
- I painstaking rewrote my Chem 113 lab and then realized that it was actually not going to be collected (for the first time).
- I lost my ID card and went to the ID office to get a new one for $15. Later that afternoon, someone found my old one.
- I dropped my phone several times (you know, the one that's only a month old)
- I wore bells without padded socks during dance practice and now I have large, ugly bruises on the tops of my feet.
- I bought a new pair of crocs.
But other than this, the last few days have been pretty good mainly because I haven't been studying or doing any work (except for that stupid lab...). I bought a new carpet, which is awesome, and already getting dirty because I keep walking on it with my shoes on (the crocs, actually). My DIY Rubik's cube came in the mail the other day. DIY means "Do It Yourself", so it's spring loaded and you can adjust the tension to make it turn faster. It wasn't worth what I paid for it, but still fun.
I also decided to move into an apartment next year. I and four others are looking to rent a townhouse over at Nittany Apartments. It's going to be fantastic because we'll each get our own bedroom plus a living room, dining, and lots and lots of closet space. We'll have 1.5 bathrooms and a kitchen too. And 2 floors! It's so exciting.
Friday, October 17
The peak of madness.
I've successfully weaned myself off caffeine during all-nighters. Back in high school, I drank coffee and that made me feel like complete crap come morning time. Then I drank soda though I hate carbonation. But I don't need it anymore! I'm getting better and better at this all-night procrastinating staying up thing.
Well anyway, I've been writing my Chemistry 113 Lab Report which is now about 14 pages long. And it's not even double spaced! But as usual, I have no right to complain because I should have started it 2 and a half weeks ago. And it's not like I've been working on it all night. Most of this night was spent on youtube, actually, watching Telugu movies and listening to Rahman's new album Yuvvraj, which is not spectacular, but worth a listen.
Here are some exciting things that happened last weekend during the ochem studying.
I really ought to take a nap right now, but I'm just scared I won't wake up.
So, the dreaded Wednesday finally passed. I had both a Chem 112 exam and a Chem 210 exam, both of which actually didn't end catastrophically. If you have time, you should definitely read through the comments on the Chem 210 website here (click on Feedback). people at Penn State are incredibly mature. Check back regularly for the exam results...which should be pretty epic considering that the last exam's average was a record low in the history of the class (56.7%). Chem 210 is organic by the way. My ultimate goal is to get an A in that class WITHOUT the curve, which doesn't seem like much of a challenge anymore. Oh, I love Penn State :D.
I'm going to stop typing because I really ought to go back and proofread my lab. But have some more pictures.
Well anyway, I've been writing my Chemistry 113 Lab Report which is now about 14 pages long. And it's not even double spaced! But as usual, I have no right to complain because I should have started it 2 and a half weeks ago. And it's not like I've been working on it all night. Most of this night was spent on youtube, actually, watching Telugu movies and listening to Rahman's new album Yuvvraj, which is not spectacular, but worth a listen.
Here are some exciting things that happened last weekend during the ochem studying.
I really ought to take a nap right now, but I'm just scared I won't wake up.
So, the dreaded Wednesday finally passed. I had both a Chem 112 exam and a Chem 210 exam, both of which actually didn't end catastrophically. If you have time, you should definitely read through the comments on the Chem 210 website here (click on Feedback). people at Penn State are incredibly mature. Check back regularly for the exam results...which should be pretty epic considering that the last exam's average was a record low in the history of the class (56.7%). Chem 210 is organic by the way. My ultimate goal is to get an A in that class WITHOUT the curve, which doesn't seem like much of a challenge anymore. Oh, I love Penn State :D.
I'm going to stop typing because I really ought to go back and proofread my lab. But have some more pictures.
Thursday, October 9
Happy Columbus Day!
http://www.mediafire.com/?tqmnzntmymd
Enjoy this song from AR Rahman's 1998 album 'Jeans', which by the way, is my favorite album of all time.
Anyway, all of you bums who actually get today off: You suck. Penn State doesn't get these random holidays for some reason. But we do get the entire thanksgiving week off, so I guess it's alright.
The weekend that just happened, if you can call it a weekend, was saturated with studying for my second Organic Chemistry exam. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night was spent at Ramya and Malinda who were determined to set my sleep schedule straight (didn't happen).
However, the weekend didn't suck entirely because the weather was absolutely fabulous and we took it as an opportunity to bask outside in the HUB lawn while studying and playing with our molecular models. We also took pictures of shirtless frisbee players, some medievally armored fencers, creepy crawlies, and our airborne selves. Pictures will be up as soon as Ramya decides to upload them.
Pretty soon we got tired of the outdoors and went to this neat office area in the HUB where we continued to study OChem. But at around 5:00 in the afternoon, I snapped. I couldn't take it anymore. I went a bit hysterical and started cackling, zooming around the room in my wheely chair, getting yelled at, and chewing on the wood from a pair of chopsticks. But fortunately I calmed down in about 45 minutes and managed to finish the training set and practice exam A.
Currently, my jaws are aching from chewing through 4 packs of Spearmint Orbit and my fingers are aching from building molecular models.
I'll blog again if I come out alive from my exams.
Ta
Enjoy this song from AR Rahman's 1998 album 'Jeans', which by the way, is my favorite album of all time.
Anyway, all of you bums who actually get today off: You suck. Penn State doesn't get these random holidays for some reason. But we do get the entire thanksgiving week off, so I guess it's alright.
The weekend that just happened, if you can call it a weekend, was saturated with studying for my second Organic Chemistry exam. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night was spent at Ramya and Malinda who were determined to set my sleep schedule straight (didn't happen).
However, the weekend didn't suck entirely because the weather was absolutely fabulous and we took it as an opportunity to bask outside in the HUB lawn while studying and playing with our molecular models. We also took pictures of shirtless frisbee players, some medievally armored fencers, creepy crawlies, and our airborne selves. Pictures will be up as soon as Ramya decides to upload them.
Pretty soon we got tired of the outdoors and went to this neat office area in the HUB where we continued to study OChem. But at around 5:00 in the afternoon, I snapped. I couldn't take it anymore. I went a bit hysterical and started cackling, zooming around the room in my wheely chair, getting yelled at, and chewing on the wood from a pair of chopsticks. But fortunately I calmed down in about 45 minutes and managed to finish the training set and practice exam A.
Currently, my jaws are aching from chewing through 4 packs of Spearmint Orbit and my fingers are aching from building molecular models.
I'll blog again if I come out alive from my exams.
Ta
Tuesday, October 7
Why it isn't fun to argue with Creationists anymore.
Blogging so soon, you ask? Well an interesting thing happened this morning...er...yesterday.
I was hanging out at the HUB after my Physics recitation before the afternoon OChem lecture (I slept through the noon lecture...oops) and there was this really large group of Pro-Life Evangelical Christians protesting abortion with some pretty lame-ass arguments and generally getting pwned by the public. I went there to listen for a little bit before I walked over to Forum.
A guy approaches me. He was holding a Bible. I should have skedaddled, but I didn't.
Guy: Miss, are you Indian?
Sowmya: Yes.
G: Really! What part of India are you from?
S: South.
G: Have you heard of Kerala?
S: Yes. (Kerala is a state...he mentioned it because it has the largest Christian population in all of India)
G: Great. Now, have you been brought up with a Hindu background?
S: Yes.
G: Now, let me show you something. Pulls out a Bible and shows me a verse that says something along the lines of: "Any doctrines that tells its people to abstain from meat is the work of the Devil"
S: Ok.
G: Now, have you ever wondered why India has suffered from so much poverty?
S: It has a pretty large population.
G: Alright. Actually, the reason is because Hinduism forbids the consumption of meat.
S: ?
G: Yes indeed. The people in India would be much better off if they were allowed to eat meat!
S: How does that make sense? Meat is expensive. It requires a lot more energy to produce.
G: Where did you learn that? That's not true.
S:
G: Ok. Let's start from the beginning. Pulls out Bible again, and shows Ten Commandments from Exodus. The Bible says, "Do not have any other gods before me." Now, you must have grown up worshipping who-knows-how-many gods.
S:
G: Isn't that right?
S: Actually, that's not true. Hinduism isn't pagan. It is, in essence, as monotheistic as Christianity.
G: Well. (changes subject) Now, have you every taken a look at the other Commandments? Let me show them to you.
S: That's alright.
G: No, really!
S: Don't worry about it. I've actually converted recently!
G: Great!
S: Yeah!
G: Have you repented for your sins?
S: Actually, I've become agnostic.
G:
S: Thank you very much. I have to go class now. Science class.
G:
And that's why it's not fun to argue with such people anymore. It used to be very satisfying to pwn them, but then you realize that no matter how awesome your argument is, it can't compete with flawed logic.
I was hanging out at the HUB after my Physics recitation before the afternoon OChem lecture (I slept through the noon lecture...oops) and there was this really large group of Pro-Life Evangelical Christians protesting abortion with some pretty lame-ass arguments and generally getting pwned by the public. I went there to listen for a little bit before I walked over to Forum.
A guy approaches me. He was holding a Bible. I should have skedaddled, but I didn't.
Guy: Miss, are you Indian?
Sowmya: Yes.
G: Really! What part of India are you from?
S: South.
G: Have you heard of Kerala?
S: Yes. (Kerala is a state...he mentioned it because it has the largest Christian population in all of India)
G: Great. Now, have you been brought up with a Hindu background?
S: Yes.
G: Now, let me show you something. Pulls out a Bible and shows me a verse that says something along the lines of: "Any doctrines that tells its people to abstain from meat is the work of the Devil"
S: Ok.
G: Now, have you ever wondered why India has suffered from so much poverty?
S: It has a pretty large population.
G: Alright. Actually, the reason is because Hinduism forbids the consumption of meat.
S: ?
G: Yes indeed. The people in India would be much better off if they were allowed to eat meat!
S: How does that make sense? Meat is expensive. It requires a lot more energy to produce.
G: Where did you learn that? That's not true.
S:
G: Ok. Let's start from the beginning. Pulls out Bible again, and shows Ten Commandments from Exodus. The Bible says, "Do not have any other gods before me." Now, you must have grown up worshipping who-knows-how-many gods.
S:
G: Isn't that right?
S: Actually, that's not true. Hinduism isn't pagan. It is, in essence, as monotheistic as Christianity.
G: Well. (changes subject) Now, have you every taken a look at the other Commandments? Let me show them to you.
S: That's alright.
G: No, really!
S: Don't worry about it. I've actually converted recently!
G: Great!
S: Yeah!
G: Have you repented for your sins?
S: Actually, I've become agnostic.
G:
S: Thank you very much. I have to go class now. Science class.
G:
And that's why it's not fun to argue with such people anymore. It used to be very satisfying to pwn them, but then you realize that no matter how awesome your argument is, it can't compete with flawed logic.
Sunday, October 5
Gujju madness.
I meant to blog on Friday but I forgot. Wait, actually, I went to go see Wall-E (which was soo awesome!) at the HUB and then hung out somewhere until 2 AM. I can't remember.
Yesterday was pretty cool because I went to a garba. A garba is essentially a gathering of dancing people. Specifically, it contains Gujarati people (and people who pretend to be Gujarati like me and totally ruin the dancing for everyone by sucking) dancing to Gujarati music. There was also raas, which is the dancing with dandias (sticks that you smack together). I was better at this, but I think I still contributed to screwing up the lines. Oh well. Anyway, it was cool because it was the first time I got to wear a Chania Choli, which is a Gujarati dress that everyone wears to garba. Priya lent me hers, and it was very pretty. Everyone there had wrapped theirs over their right shoulders, but Ramya and I, being the wicked South Indians that we are, wrapped ours over the left shoulder. That, and our terrible garba skills (well, Ramya's alright), made us stick out like sore thumbs. But all in all, it was a pretty fun night. My feet were aching by 10:30 and I made our group walk all the way back to campus (at some point, someone picked us up and drove us, so it wasn't actually the WHOLE way).
Today was Shivam's birthday so we took him to India Pavilion for a lunch buffet. To my pleasant surprise, they had Sambar. That was officially the first South Indian food I've had in, what, 6 weeks? Oh boy It was awesome. And oh yeah, it was my idea that we spoon feed Shivam cake while people took pictures.
Yep. My idea.
In other news, this week contained three more exams: Psychology, Physics, and Nutrition. So now, my first round of exams is over. The sad part is that I'm still not attending my morning Chem lectures and I really really have to start studying for OChem because I've got a Chem and OChem exam on the same day next week. Blecch.
OH YEAH! I forgot: I got a new phone after my old one kept dying. I think it was because I kept dropping it. My new one is a Motorola W755 and it's pretty cool. I liked it much better after I figured out how to put on my favorite ringtones for free. Also, I finally have texting!! It's true, text me.
Yesterday was pretty cool because I went to a garba. A garba is essentially a gathering of dancing people. Specifically, it contains Gujarati people (and people who pretend to be Gujarati like me and totally ruin the dancing for everyone by sucking) dancing to Gujarati music. There was also raas, which is the dancing with dandias (sticks that you smack together). I was better at this, but I think I still contributed to screwing up the lines. Oh well. Anyway, it was cool because it was the first time I got to wear a Chania Choli, which is a Gujarati dress that everyone wears to garba. Priya lent me hers, and it was very pretty. Everyone there had wrapped theirs over their right shoulders, but Ramya and I, being the wicked South Indians that we are, wrapped ours over the left shoulder. That, and our terrible garba skills (well, Ramya's alright), made us stick out like sore thumbs. But all in all, it was a pretty fun night. My feet were aching by 10:30 and I made our group walk all the way back to campus (at some point, someone picked us up and drove us, so it wasn't actually the WHOLE way).
Today was Shivam's birthday so we took him to India Pavilion for a lunch buffet. To my pleasant surprise, they had Sambar. That was officially the first South Indian food I've had in, what, 6 weeks? Oh boy It was awesome. And oh yeah, it was my idea that we spoon feed Shivam cake while people took pictures.
Yep. My idea.
In other news, this week contained three more exams: Psychology, Physics, and Nutrition. So now, my first round of exams is over. The sad part is that I'm still not attending my morning Chem lectures and I really really have to start studying for OChem because I've got a Chem and OChem exam on the same day next week. Blecch.
OH YEAH! I forgot: I got a new phone after my old one kept dying. I think it was because I kept dropping it. My new one is a Motorola W755 and it's pretty cool. I liked it much better after I figured out how to put on my favorite ringtones for free. Also, I finally have texting!! It's true, text me.
Saturday, September 20
AAAGH CHEMISTRY.
Chemistry has taken over.
All of last weekend was spent devoted to Organic Chemistry in order to prepare for my first OChem midterm. My entire grade for Chemistry 210 is determined by four exams. Seriously. So these are a big deal. Fortunately, it went pretty well and we progs managed to completely beast the class average (a 56.7%). The exam was quite an experience. As you tried to concentrate on the problem, there would be the constant background sound of popping as people fiddled with their organic model kits, coughing, sneezing, groaning, and the occasional crash+bounce as someone dropped their model kit on the floor and atoms would bounce and roll in all directions. It's fun to watch, except when it's your atoms that are on the floor.
But after that midterm was done, I had to start studying for my Gen Chem midterm, which was on Wednesday. This one I actually had to take at a testing lab, which is srs business. It's this crazy lab with rows and rows of computers, security cameras, and all sorts of freaky stuff to make sure you don't cheat. The test was on a computer.
Oh! Also, I kept dropping my phone all last week, so now the battery is screwed up and the phone keeps turning off at random times. Plus, my 2 year contract is done, so I get to get a new phone. How exciting!
Aaand...that's the scoop for this week.
I don't think I'll be attending the next Chem lecture. *Sigh*
All of last weekend was spent devoted to Organic Chemistry in order to prepare for my first OChem midterm. My entire grade for Chemistry 210 is determined by four exams. Seriously. So these are a big deal. Fortunately, it went pretty well and we progs managed to completely beast the class average (a 56.7%). The exam was quite an experience. As you tried to concentrate on the problem, there would be the constant background sound of popping as people fiddled with their organic model kits, coughing, sneezing, groaning, and the occasional crash+bounce as someone dropped their model kit on the floor and atoms would bounce and roll in all directions. It's fun to watch, except when it's your atoms that are on the floor.
But after that midterm was done, I had to start studying for my Gen Chem midterm, which was on Wednesday. This one I actually had to take at a testing lab, which is srs business. It's this crazy lab with rows and rows of computers, security cameras, and all sorts of freaky stuff to make sure you don't cheat. The test was on a computer.
Oh! Also, I kept dropping my phone all last week, so now the battery is screwed up and the phone keeps turning off at random times. Plus, my 2 year contract is done, so I get to get a new phone. How exciting!
Aaand...that's the scoop for this week.
I don't think I'll be attending the next Chem lecture. *Sigh*
The best things in life are free.
It's been three weeks.
I've actually really wanted to make a new post, but I've been putting it off forever because I just didn't know where to start.
I will TRY to highlight all of the cool stuff that's been happening here at Penn State ever since I landed here. The first week was spent playing catch-up in all of my classes (remember, I skipped a week?) and for some reason, I decided to take Organic Chemistry. I don't regret it now, but I didn't know then that OChem was rumored to be one of the hardest classes offered by Penn State (a laughable claim, as you will learn in a future post). I'm also taking Gen Chem 2 (Chem 112) with lab, Psychology 100, Nutrition 100, and Mechanics (Physics 211) with lab, all of which are very manageable. And all are, regrettably, lecture classes...which means that attendance is not mandatory. Which doesn't give me much motivation to actually attend class, especially when the class is at 8 AM. This explains why I have attended 3 out of the 12 Chem lectures so far.
Anyway, when I'm not catching up by reading textbooks, I hunt down some nice dance-related YouTube videos. I found a telugu movie by K. Vishwanath called Swarnakamalam. It's excellent; you should watch it.
Speaking of dance...my obsession has not faded and I dragged some friends to watch The Gypsy and the Princess, a Bharatanatyam/Kuchipudi neo-classical ballet that took place at Mt. Nittany Middle School, a few miles from here. I was incredibly surprised that a dance troupe would come all the way over here, but apparently Indian Classical Dance is relatively popular in these areas. Though the dancing wasn't superb, the performance was very enjoyable--the costumes, arrangement, and choreography were fantastic. Of course, I'm biased--Jothi Aunty's productions always feature dance skill that is pretty much unsurpassed, so everything else looks mediocre to me. But I nevertheless enjoyed taking a break from all that reading and engrossing myself in dance all over again. Ramya came with me and we managed to drag along Shivam as well (I guilt tripped him into coming with, "how will we ever keep alive Hindu culture if you don't attend such performances? What kind of a human being are you?" so he came. He won't admit it, but he enjoyed it.
The rest of the next week was spent crashing the introductory meetings of various clubs in order to take advantage of the free pizza. We crashed Math Club, The College of Science Student Council, and some others. I actually joined the Vedic Society though, and indulged in a sumptuous home-cooked vegetarian meal after the first meeting. Apparently these super-Indian grad students home cook the food and bring it to every meeting. The yoga is the reason I attend. Really.
And the last rather interesting thing that happened last week was the Career Fair at the Bryce Jordan Center. Basically, a bunch of companies showcase themselves to us, the students, who are potential future employees. There is really no need for us progs (premed kids) to attend, because we aren't going to be getting jobs that quickly anyway. But that doesn't stop us from dressing real professional-like and mooching off all the free stuff. And you have to SEE exactly how much free stuff we got.
That's not even half of it. But anyway, we were still in the BJC hording all this free stuff and Ramya starts complaining that she's tired and she wants to go back to the dorm. Me and Shivam, are like, "just stop complaining, go sit down, we'll be done in another half hour". So we finally finish about an hour later and Ramya (who, by the way, thought it was an efficient use of space to put TWO ROLLS OF PAPER TOWELS in her backpack instead of other usefull stuff) decides to take the White Loop back to campus. So we get on the bus, and instead of taking us to campus, it brings us to the edge of town. When we're almost all the way back to the BJC, we decide to just get off and walk back. That was probably the best workout I've had in a long time. My arms were aching for three days after carrying all the loot. But definitely a very productive day, I'd say.
And in other news, some people saw Kal Penn on campus campaigning for Barack Obama. Of course they call me after he's already left.
So, theres some interesting happenings during my first three weeks at PSU. I'm still a little behind chronologically, so expect another post about past events before I catch up to real time. Thanks for reading.
I've actually really wanted to make a new post, but I've been putting it off forever because I just didn't know where to start.
I will TRY to highlight all of the cool stuff that's been happening here at Penn State ever since I landed here. The first week was spent playing catch-up in all of my classes (remember, I skipped a week?) and for some reason, I decided to take Organic Chemistry. I don't regret it now, but I didn't know then that OChem was rumored to be one of the hardest classes offered by Penn State (a laughable claim, as you will learn in a future post). I'm also taking Gen Chem 2 (Chem 112) with lab, Psychology 100, Nutrition 100, and Mechanics (Physics 211) with lab, all of which are very manageable. And all are, regrettably, lecture classes...which means that attendance is not mandatory. Which doesn't give me much motivation to actually attend class, especially when the class is at 8 AM. This explains why I have attended 3 out of the 12 Chem lectures so far.
Anyway, when I'm not catching up by reading textbooks, I hunt down some nice dance-related YouTube videos. I found a telugu movie by K. Vishwanath called Swarnakamalam. It's excellent; you should watch it.
Speaking of dance...my obsession has not faded and I dragged some friends to watch The Gypsy and the Princess, a Bharatanatyam/Kuchipudi neo-classical ballet that took place at Mt. Nittany Middle School, a few miles from here. I was incredibly surprised that a dance troupe would come all the way over here, but apparently Indian Classical Dance is relatively popular in these areas. Though the dancing wasn't superb, the performance was very enjoyable--the costumes, arrangement, and choreography were fantastic. Of course, I'm biased--Jothi Aunty's productions always feature dance skill that is pretty much unsurpassed, so everything else looks mediocre to me. But I nevertheless enjoyed taking a break from all that reading and engrossing myself in dance all over again. Ramya came with me and we managed to drag along Shivam as well (I guilt tripped him into coming with, "how will we ever keep alive Hindu culture if you don't attend such performances? What kind of a human being are you?" so he came. He won't admit it, but he enjoyed it.
The rest of the next week was spent crashing the introductory meetings of various clubs in order to take advantage of the free pizza. We crashed Math Club, The College of Science Student Council, and some others. I actually joined the Vedic Society though, and indulged in a sumptuous home-cooked vegetarian meal after the first meeting. Apparently these super-Indian grad students home cook the food and bring it to every meeting. The yoga is the reason I attend. Really.
And the last rather interesting thing that happened last week was the Career Fair at the Bryce Jordan Center. Basically, a bunch of companies showcase themselves to us, the students, who are potential future employees. There is really no need for us progs (premed kids) to attend, because we aren't going to be getting jobs that quickly anyway. But that doesn't stop us from dressing real professional-like and mooching off all the free stuff. And you have to SEE exactly how much free stuff we got.
That's not even half of it. But anyway, we were still in the BJC hording all this free stuff and Ramya starts complaining that she's tired and she wants to go back to the dorm. Me and Shivam, are like, "just stop complaining, go sit down, we'll be done in another half hour". So we finally finish about an hour later and Ramya (who, by the way, thought it was an efficient use of space to put TWO ROLLS OF PAPER TOWELS in her backpack instead of other usefull stuff) decides to take the White Loop back to campus. So we get on the bus, and instead of taking us to campus, it brings us to the edge of town. When we're almost all the way back to the BJC, we decide to just get off and walk back. That was probably the best workout I've had in a long time. My arms were aching for three days after carrying all the loot. But definitely a very productive day, I'd say.
And in other news, some people saw Kal Penn on campus campaigning for Barack Obama. Of course they call me after he's already left.
So, theres some interesting happenings during my first three weeks at PSU. I'm still a little behind chronologically, so expect another post about past events before I catch up to real time. Thanks for reading.
Saturday, September 13
Arangetram Part 5 - The Aftermath.
Well, there was much rejoicing. I mean, other people probably rejoiced...like I said, I was in way too much of a daze to feel anything. I convinced myself not to be surprised if I went home, slept, and woke up to find that the whole thing had been a dream. It certainly felt like one.
People I knew well, people I didn't know that well, people I had never seen before in my life...they all came up to congratulate me. How nice!
I know these guys!
But I don't know these ones. jk.
I'm not sure when this happened, but Shruti got stuck to a vent?Anyway, while everyone else ate dinner, I mingled and took more pictures. I wasn't hungry for Indian food. What I really wanted was a Molten Lava Chocolate Cake from Chili's. I really wanted one. Someone checked online for Chili's number, ordered one, and brought it over for me. MAN, it was good.
Yum.
Oof. I was full. I couldn't even finish the stupid thing! My belt was too tight.I went and mingled some more, took some more pictures, and said my final goodbyes to everyone as I would be leaving for college the very next day. Then, I remembered something: thunderstorms had been predicted for that evening. I stepped outside. I gazed upwards and instead saw a clear, gorgeous night sky dotted with stars. The Big Dipper, which we commonly associate with the summer sky here in the Northern Hemisphere, was clearly visible, but almost on the horizon. Summer--possibly the best summer of my life--was about to end.
SO! That was it. That was my arangetram. I meant to write about it in just one post, but it ended up requiring five. Writing about it has helped me relive the experience. Thanks for reading! I really hope you enjoyed it too. By the way, I'd really like to thank Sanjana and Sindhu for taking pictures backstage where the other photographers were too scared to explore. Most of these pictures belong to them.
I wrote an article for Lokvani, so read it: http://www.lokvani.com/lokvani/article.php?article_id=5187
Now, I can start blogging about college. What fun.
Arangetram Part 4 - Where's the third page? Oops. I think I left it in the printer...
Finally, the dreaded dance of the evening: Thillana. Under normal circumstances, I could make it through Thillana without killing myself, but today was different. I was pooped! The lights were hot, my adrenaline was wearing out, and I was finally starting to feel the heaviness of the jewelry, hair, and bells. I signaled over to the musicians that I would need them to stall for a bit as I attempted to catch my breath and cool down by the fan. Venu Uncle and Durga Aunty had no problem in capturing the audience's attention with their elaborate flute and veena introduction until I was ready to enter.
I came on feeling okay, but the fatigue set in pretty quickly. I gritted my teeth (not literally...that would have looked odd) and pushed myself through until I had one more Jathi left, the hardest one. I thought I might faint on stage if I had to finish that one. Ack! Then, I realized that for the first time, I could actually skip the entire Jathi and as long as I did it confidently, nobody would know. And for the first time, Jothi Aunty would not be able to stop me! Bwahahahahaha. Well I tried to transition into the abhinaya as smoothly as possible, but being the moron I am, I forgot to take backward steps and finish the line of the song. So, like an idiot, I ended up repeating the first line of abhinaya twice (I didn't think to improvise) until Geetha Aunty finally caught on. To a dancer, the mess-up might have been apparent, but I was too close to the end to be worried.
And finally, after one more taxing bit of nritta, I practically bounded off stage, chest heaving, sweat dripping, head spinning, and grinning like crazy. I collapsed into the chair, ignoring the high fives from Nisha and Jyoti. One of them slapped me on the back instead. I rolled off the chair and was about to flatten myself on the ground. Whatever. I had never been so exhausted and so euphoric in my life.
And that's when I remembered (oh crap), I've still got another piece to do! Well, not a real piece, but the Mangalam: where I walk onto stage and thank the God, musicians, and audience. I dragged myself onto the stage one more time for Mangalam. This managed to happen without major issues even though the musicians did something funky at the end. My brain felt like it had detached itself from my body again. I went over to the deity, bowed, went to the musicians, bowed, finally stood before the audience and bowed.
I got the customary standing ovation, which made me sigh in relief (because I was half expecting everyone to have walked out by then). It was at this point that I thought it might look cool if I shed a few tears. I scrunched up my face as best as I could and tried to cry, but it just didn't happen. I guess I'm just not good at that sort of thing.
I gave up and started grinning again until the clapping stopped. I dipped my head one more time and exited the stage. Ah. It was over. Too bad I was in such a daze that I couldn't appreciate the moment. My mom ascended the stage to give her thank you speech and my brother accompanied me as I brought gifts to the musicians, touched their feet, and received their blessings. Durga Aunty had played Veena, Geetha Aunty had sung, Venu Uncle had played the flute, and Naranayaswamy (NS) Uncle had played the Mridangam.
My brother gave his own small speech and demolished the audience with his oh-so-creative borrowed jokes. Then, it was my turn.
You know, Indians really suck at RSVPing. I was expecting to speak before far fewer than 400 people. Usually when I am in front of a podium, my nerves are like live wires. But after dancing on stage for two and a half hours, my nerves were more like burnt wires. I actually took a Speech class this summer...my teacher would have taken off points for lack of eye contact, but I honestly was just planning to read off the paper. Except. It's difficult to read off the paper when IT'S NOT THERE. I realized that I was missing a page of my speech (did I leave it in the printer?). So I made it up on the spot. Surprisingly, I think I actually made more sense when I spoke straight from the heart (imagine that), so all was well.
Continued...in Part 5: The Aftermath
I came on feeling okay, but the fatigue set in pretty quickly. I gritted my teeth (not literally...that would have looked odd) and pushed myself through until I had one more Jathi left, the hardest one. I thought I might faint on stage if I had to finish that one. Ack! Then, I realized that for the first time, I could actually skip the entire Jathi and as long as I did it confidently, nobody would know. And for the first time, Jothi Aunty would not be able to stop me! Bwahahahahaha. Well I tried to transition into the abhinaya as smoothly as possible, but being the moron I am, I forgot to take backward steps and finish the line of the song. So, like an idiot, I ended up repeating the first line of abhinaya twice (I didn't think to improvise) until Geetha Aunty finally caught on. To a dancer, the mess-up might have been apparent, but I was too close to the end to be worried.
And finally, after one more taxing bit of nritta, I practically bounded off stage, chest heaving, sweat dripping, head spinning, and grinning like crazy. I collapsed into the chair, ignoring the high fives from Nisha and Jyoti. One of them slapped me on the back instead. I rolled off the chair and was about to flatten myself on the ground. Whatever. I had never been so exhausted and so euphoric in my life.
And that's when I remembered (oh crap), I've still got another piece to do! Well, not a real piece, but the Mangalam: where I walk onto stage and thank the God, musicians, and audience. I dragged myself onto the stage one more time for Mangalam. This managed to happen without major issues even though the musicians did something funky at the end. My brain felt like it had detached itself from my body again. I went over to the deity, bowed, went to the musicians, bowed, finally stood before the audience and bowed.
I got the customary standing ovation, which made me sigh in relief (because I was half expecting everyone to have walked out by then). It was at this point that I thought it might look cool if I shed a few tears. I scrunched up my face as best as I could and tried to cry, but it just didn't happen. I guess I'm just not good at that sort of thing.
I gave up and started grinning again until the clapping stopped. I dipped my head one more time and exited the stage. Ah. It was over. Too bad I was in such a daze that I couldn't appreciate the moment. My mom ascended the stage to give her thank you speech and my brother accompanied me as I brought gifts to the musicians, touched their feet, and received their blessings. Durga Aunty had played Veena, Geetha Aunty had sung, Venu Uncle had played the flute, and Naranayaswamy (NS) Uncle had played the Mridangam.
My brother gave his own small speech and demolished the audience with his oh-so-creative borrowed jokes. Then, it was my turn.
You know, Indians really suck at RSVPing. I was expecting to speak before far fewer than 400 people. Usually when I am in front of a podium, my nerves are like live wires. But after dancing on stage for two and a half hours, my nerves were more like burnt wires. I actually took a Speech class this summer...my teacher would have taken off points for lack of eye contact, but I honestly was just planning to read off the paper. Except. It's difficult to read off the paper when IT'S NOT THERE. I realized that I was missing a page of my speech (did I leave it in the printer?). So I made it up on the spot. Surprisingly, I think I actually made more sense when I spoke straight from the heart (imagine that), so all was well.
Continued...in Part 5: The Aftermath
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