Of Jumping Blogs.

I started a new blog with the same name! Can anyone believe it!?! Call me crazy. Call me weird. I needed a change of some sort. Let's just say that a change was in the offing and this was the best I could came up with! So, I moved here sometime back. It's no different from here, but it feels a lot tidier, and most importantly, it feels new, that's all mattered. I enjoy rambling there just as much. Let me say this before you assume otherwise, I am not abandoning this blog. I just want an alternative address for some more blabbering, that's all.

Hope to see you at both places.

Love and warmth,
The Solitary Dreamer.

Notes Of A Bride-To-Be. #1

Meetu gave her way-to-go-about-looking-for-a-mate mantra.

“Judge how much you’d have to change for this person.”

Following had been my selection criteria and it can be different for different people, but I have a feeling that the more intellectually inclined people will understand what I'm saying here (or so I would like to think). :D

I was looking for "THE GUY", not the "The Right Guy" because there IS no such thing. This was my marking system, a system where you will never get a full 100%... (let me stress again) because there is not such a thing as the "The Right Guy":

a) Talk it out and see if and how the guy fits into what you want for your future. If he wants the same/similar things... 10 points scored!

b) Try and see if you can identify where the guy is coming from. Let me explain; I strongly believe that where, how, and what of a person's background affect who the person is today. If you can do some digging and find the origin... 10 more points scored!

c) See if both of you "like" (not necessarily love) to do the same things in your free time (coz you'll be spending most of your free-time with your significant other). If you can find atleast 2-3 things that match... 10 points again!

d) See what the guy likes and you completely dislike. If it's not more than 2 things... 10 more points!
(thats where Meetu's mantra comes in, coz this is prolly how much you will have to change)

e) Meet him under different conditions, for example, meet him where he is in his comfort zone, meet him outside his comfort zone and again in a neutral zone. This will give you a fair idea if the guy is really what he says he is. If he is almost the same under all those different situations, he most likely isn't faking it. 10 more points!

f) Meet his family. If you like the family, 10 points!

g) If you can have long conversations with him without "much" effort. 10 points again!

After all is said and done, 70% is a good enough score for you to jump into marriage. And I use the word "jump" because you will never be ready for marriage until you actually jump into it. At least I am unaware of any person who was "ready"!

I intend to continue this with more of my notes... because life continues after the JUMP and brings with a lot of surprises! Trust me! :D

To New Beginnings.

Like always, something I read sums up pretty much all that I want to say right now.

We wait for the perfect thing to happen. To meet the perfect person. To land the
perfect job. To wake up one day to that perfect figure.

But maybe perfect things don’t exist. All we get is a chance to choose, what imperfections we live with.

:)
:D
:)

My Morrie.

The story said that the heavens cry with you when a loved soul departs this world.

Nice story.

"Right, then hardly any African or for that matter Indian souls were ever loved! Bloody the countries live in continuous state of droughts."

I take back my words.

The 13th day of mourning my Morrie. The day the soul departs the realms of this world and enters heaven. The day you say your final goodbyes...

... it rained!

No-thing.

Yesterday was the 2nd death anniversary of a seemingly beautiful relationship. It was the last day of misunderstood affections. The last day of those (happy(?)) times. "Ah! Those were the days..."




I don't know why I've been thinking about it. It's not like it's a big thing. It's just a thing with me, I reckon.

Of That Day, I Remember Every Single Detail.

I was scared shitless and I was looking around my strange surroundings with more anxiety than curiosity. Being geographically challenged, I was desperately hunting for maps to guide me to the Great Hall (and then to make matters worse, the maps said, "you are here", and I did not know how to get there from here, I mean where do you go from here when here is a circular dot!). I had earlier called him at his residence only to find that he wasn't available. The guy at the front-desk had taken a message for him. Then, he had called while I was collecting my money. I was thrilled to hear him talk in Marathi. It was quite sometime before that had happened. We had fixed a date to meet up at the Great Hall. And the challenge of getting there was boggling the wits out of me. I was looking around for a familiar face amongst the stiff-upper-lipped population of disinterested strangers. I felt lonely. A friendly Black-American saw me, I think I looked obviously lost. It took me close to a few seconds to answer in the affirmative. I felt so racist! (I am not like that usually, I blame the hostility I felt on those empty streets). He asked me this-and-that and before I could ask his name, we were already at the Great Hall. I thanked him with gratitude that's unparalleled till date. I walked into the iron gate, and into the ornate wooden doors that led me up to the grand, red-carpeted staircase, huge portraits of ex-Chancellors and such hanging on the enormous golden walls that seemed to stretch out to the sky. Awe-struck, I suddenly felt under-dressed and awkward in my shoes. I saw the signs directing me to the right room. I wasn't interested in anything I saw in the room. My eyes were searching for him. The only thing we knew about each other at that point in time was the clothes we were supposed to have on on that day; him, a UMM red pullover and me my worn-out Benetton pullover. And yet I was looking for a face. Weird, right? We saw each other almost simultaneously, and to noone's surprise we identified the pullovers! I almost wanted to give him a huge hug just because he was there. I felt immensely happy to see him. We looked around the exhibition. Conversation flowed as if we were old friends catching up. We came out of the Great Hall and I realized for the very first time what a beautiful day it was! Spring flowers all around with clear weather and warm sun, we were already making lunch plans at 11am. Eating out was not even an option. We walked all over discovering and re-discovering the place, finding new ways to get to the same place (the place that was later to be my favourite place to have all my lone lunches). Thankfully, at least he was geographically sound and we came out of the place eventually. We headed back to his place to get our lunch sorted. I instantly fell in love with the apartment complex. (I loved it so much, I later exchanged my far better accomodation for that place! Plus, the fact that everyone I knew was living there helped too). He lived in the basement. It looked dingy. He took me to his room. It was a mess. It looked like what it was supposed to be, a straight man's bachelor pad. Strangely, I always thought bachelor pads had pictures of naked girls on the walls. I was disappointed there, but what a relief that was! There was a Ferrari model (red) lying on his table, CDs and books strewn around. Clothes adorned all the empty spaces. He piled them elsewhere and made place for me to sit. And if you know how spring beds are, you will fully appreciate how difficult it was to sit on the very springy edge of the one I was sitting on. I was glad when we headed to the kitchen to cook ourselves some Maggie. Before entering the kitchen, we found a note addressed to him. It said, "Call back. Ewooja." The front-desk person had just dropped the note four and half hours after I had left the message, with my name all messed-up! (He still calls me that). While he was making Maggie, he told me he was a brilliant cook, apparently he had taken cooking classes! He could make Butter Chicken, Roasted chicken, Biryani, Makhanwala, Fish Curry, Rotis and what-not. I was floored. We had a quick lunch and headed to the City-Centre. On our way we met some more of our kind and we shopped for food. We came back from the City-Centre, had similar dinner. We wanted to experience the wild night life people had promised this place would have, we went back to the city. Within a couple of minutes we had already gotten ourselves nicely lost. We were two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl. Walking on strange streets we came to the theatre. We had no identification on us to prove that we were students. I had a mere 5 quid in my pocket and he had 3. The ticket for one non-student was that much! It was late and there weren't too many people around wanting to catch "The Longest Yard" at a theatre near them. He was short and I looked right out-of-school. They figured we were students after all and let us in for 3.50 a head. We came out to streets complete with flashy, half-inebriated, pub-hopping under-grads. It looked like any University city looks at that time of the night. We walked back to his place. Chit-chatted for a couple of hours. I was scared to go home alone so he walked me home. It had just rained and the streets, washed clean seemed different. I was weary. I was looking forward to the warmth and coziness of my bed. I reached home and cried myself to sleep.
(I now know (almost!) what James Joyce was feeling when he wrote 'Ulysees'!)
I met a million strangers that day, some of them I became best-friends with. And him, we hung out together for a week. I moved into the same apartment complex as him on the top-most floor. And then we went our own ways, cordially meeting once in a while to talk about this-and-that. He grew into a different set of people and I into a completely different set. Through it all and a thousand days later, I still remember every single detail of that day.
Every detail is etched in my memory. Every detail as if it happened yesterday. Every detail as if that day was all that would ever matter. Every detail as if it was the best day of my life. Every detail as if it was the beginning of the rest of my life.

Of Things I Left Behind. #1

Anytime is a good time for nostalgia and all this application work keeps transporting me to a time when I handled and manhandled quite a few "matters"! ... "Ah! those were the days..."

Running around doing errands, requesting Profs for references, collecting, photocopying a million and a half documents, short-listing Universities, the actual applications and then wondering if the ones that have managed to make the list are really worth something in the long run. Then there were other issues that I had to figure; funding. I did not want to be one of those(read pampered and spoilt) kids whose only qualification for getting admits to the British Universities is parents with good-looking bank accounts! Thankfully, luckily, I did not have to be one of 'them'...
I've since left all the worries of funding far behind. My theory (and I hope as hell it works for me) is that: If I did not pay for my Masters why on this Earth would I pay for a PhD?! Besides NO ONE sane enough would consider coughing up $30,000/year for 4-5 years!?! So, most Universities give stipends which help cover for most of the costs.
(Anyhoo, the funding worries have now been replaced by other worries; if I have enough research experience, etc. But I'm not going to talk about it here, because I still have to leave it behind. When I do leave it behind, I will delve further on the "matter".)

Arrrgh! How did I start about my applications?!
I had initially decided I will write a post about my life in UK and generally reminisce about the good ol' days, but main yahan kahan aa gayi?! khair thik hai...this *was* how it ALL began!

I'll blog about it later.

The Beginning...

'Tis tough to begin at the beginning; what came first, the egg or the hen?

Yeah, I don't know the answer, but I'm sure Mr Darwin would've been able to answer it. 'The Origin of Species' is what it all boils down to isn't it? (Disclaimer: I don't conform to this in totality, but mostly, I do!) Since this post isn't about the evolution of mankind/womankind (don't want the feminists to come knocking at my door wanting to give me a piece of their mind :P), I don't mind letting out a little more... this post isn't about the 'Big Bang Theory' either! (Aren't ya just happy to know that?!)
Well, without further a-do, without testing my lovely reader's patience, I will reveal the true intentions of my re-entry into the blogging world, well, it's not really a re-entry, it's more like a re-start (Coz I have officially deleted all the previous blogs!)...so, basically, the point I'm trying to get at is that, this is a new beginning of a hopefully longer affair with the blogging world!

Here's to uninterrupted blogging!
Cheers!