My life 17 oct to 26th oct!!!!

I stand at the window, and there is this nice cold breeze blowing! Winter’s here! It may not be cold during the day, but the nighttime coolness is something we should be happy about, or sad? Sad because with this coolness comes in laziness, the wish to stay cuddled up in a nice blanket and never wake up. This laziness is already starting to creep onto me, and I’ve been showing symptoms of the laziness a bit before the winter. Or maybe it’s just the “it’s my vacations” syndrome due to which I’m unable to wake up in the morning. Yes I accept I’ve been waking up in afternoons since almost a week now. And due to this “LAZINESS” I’ve been unable to bring in a good report on what I did in the “10 days camp” of The NSS Unit of my college.

Now I’m just trying to put together in a very brief manner the events of my camp. We’d been to Kolad Village; Taluka Roha; District Raigad. We were staying at the “Grampanchayat’s Headquarter”. This was my third camp and very different from the previous two. First reason since it was for 10 days long. Secondly I’d to do all the daily chores independently. Thirdly we did some social work.

The daily chores were just a bit of the camp days. The major feature was the work we did. We did some grass cutting [here grass refers to some big plants with loads of thorn]. It hurt but also was a great experience. A cleanliness campaign was run by some of the students, every morning they went upon the streets and collected all plastic garbage, and dumped into the “garbage van” which came later in the morning.

The part of work I liked the most was the work on the “adivasi-pada” of the village. The development in this region is very poor. The life there is really very disheartening. We tried to talk to the people, listen to their problems. We carried out an educational survey, by this we’ve selected upon a few children who’ll get financial help. We showed some documentaries. Clothes were also donated in these houses. Books were donated in the school.

The next best thing of the camp was the street plays. There were four performing groups on four different topics 1) Health Awareness [my group],

2) Literacy, 3) Negative effects of Alcoholism, 4) Village free from quarrels and fights. The practice, the last minute practice, the improvisation by every other character while performing, everything still brings a smile on my face. The plays were performed thrice and two of them were performed 4 times. Talking about my play I had two roles in two different scenes. In one an old woman dying of cancer, due to the use of tobacco, and in other I was a doctor, giving away some advice on the need for balanced diet. I enjoyed every bit of it, every moment of it, even when I’d gone completely blank during one of our rehearsal. And of course how can I forget the songs. Each street play had songs in it sang in chorus, the tune was a rip-off and lyrics modified which made it fun while singing it!

Apart from all this some group discussions were also held almost every evening on current issues. This camp has helped me a lot, most probably even changed me a lot for the better of course. And how can I forget to mention the new friends I made. I made a whole lot of new friends.

All in all, it was a great camp, lot to learn from it! All the social work we did was just an attempt in trying to improve the village. Last year camp had been in the same place, with similar or more work done. The improvements were seen this year, not up to the mark though. Hope this little effort taken by us helps us in brining at least a noticeable change next year, when we’ll be there yet again! Let us hope for the best! Fingers Crossed!

HAPPY DIWALI!!!!

Hi, wishing you all a very Happy Diwali. Hoping that atleast one person out of 50 decides not to burn firecrackers. Personally I seriously haven’t recognized the fun in burning firecrackers especially those in the category of bombs which just make NOISE. But many people enjoy it, I am against it, I beg you to stop doing it, but it’s a personal decision and I do not force you. People, who care even a bit, prefer those crackers which go high in the sky and burst into something beautiful, but going cracker-free is the best option.

Spread joy, light, sweets this Diwali not NOISE AND AIR POLLUTION

TA....[zzzzzzz]......DA.......I'M....[YAWN].....back.....

I’m back after a long time. I am online after more than a month, and I’m also back from a 10days camp at Kolad, in Roha Taluka, District Raigad. The stay was wonderful, a lot better than expected. The details of the work done in our camp will be discussed in the upcoming posts. I still need to compile it.

As I mentioned before the stay was great. But from the time I’m back, all I want to do is sleep, never felt this tired at the camp, but now that I’m back, I sleep all the time. Yes, I am suffering from a bit of cold and cough, but the rest I am taking is in excess. I just don’t take rest, I sleep deeply.

I really need a solution to fix this problem, because I’m sick of sleeping for no reason. If anyone out there has a solution, please HELP!!!

TREE PLANTATION 31-08-08

Sunday, the 31^st was the very first productive Sunday. I’d been on our college’s NSS event of tree plantation. Though it hadn’t all begun with the ease I’d expected, with me missing the decided train, then being late, realizing I was still before the expected time.

After a nice travel in the train, from Dadar to Borivali, we finally reached our destination, SANJAY GANDHI NATIONAL PARK! We were put into different groups, so that we increase our networks. It helped quite a bit. People were friendly, never gave me a feeling that this is the first time, I’m seeing them.

Apart from networking and people, we did quite a good amount of work too. We started up with uprooting weeds, near previously planted trees. Then we also planted some more trees. Loads of hard work done that day. And also some chats and fun!

It was a memorable day, rather the most memorable SUNDAY in my recent memories. I’m eagerly waiting for the next upcoming event; I hope it’s as good, or even better. Hoping for the best!

THE SCARLET RIDER!

As I’d told, that, I’ll give you a review of the book, The Scarlet Rider, by Lucy Sussex,is a very interesting detective story. The story revolves around a woman protagonist, and the book takes you through three phases, one the writer writing the autobiography, of how she had to research on a detective novel, published during the Victorian times by an anonymous writer, who was then realized to be a woman, of course!

The research over the characters, and how every plot gets unfold, is the most interesting part of the novel. Apart from it being a detective story, it also has a ghostly, scary touch to it, which makes the book an absolute page turner! The narration is brilliant too.

People, who love to read detective stories, shouldn’t miss it! One warning I would like to give, the start is pretty boring, but once it catches up, it catches you!

Yes! I am happy, that my schedule has kept me busy. But still I don’t long for a holiday, not as of now! I still love spending my time attending practical session, boring lectures, interesting lectures, important lectures, spending time in the canteen, reading hall- here am I supposed to use studying, instead of spending time?, does it make a difference :P.

In the last few weeks I had a nice time, at least worth writing. I am an ardent fan of Johnny Depp and have always tried my best to watch most of his movies, and how can I lose a chance of watching CHOCOLAT which was aired on WORLD MOVIES. It’s a beautiful movie, something what women would love. Here the protagonist being a woman, it revolves around how she starts with a very unconventional shop, a shop of chocolates. She’s considered as a satan’s helper. The priest in the church forces people to stay away from chocolate, from her and from Johnny Depp the ranger. It’s about how they come together finally convincing people of their town. It’s quite a normal story but brilliant performances by both, Juliette Binoche and of course Johnny Depp. Though, the best part of the movie was the last statement, I don’t remember it exactly, but all it meant was to gain goodwill, instead of looking at things which u can avoid, people you can stop being with, look at the things good for you, and people you include.

No significant movie after that, till Kung-fu Panda. Animated movies can never be boring! This is a wonderful movie pointing at the fact that we should never underestimate anyone, never lose hope, and trust ourselves. It shows a panda accidentally becoming the dragon warrior and how he’s entrusted upon a difficult task, and how the flabby, chubby, cute little panda becomes actually fights the baddie. The voice-over done by Black Jack does justice to the role. Emotions drawn on their faces are amazing, voice over of all the characters is good, but I found the movie very small, I would’ve loved to have a laugh for some more time. But all in all it was a good movie! Absolutely amazing!

Apart from movies, I am reading a novel to give my mind a break. I am reading The Scarlet Rider by Lucy Susex. It’s a book which absorbs you totally; I’m almost coming to its end. Will surely write a review! Now that I am talking about it all I want to do is to go and finish it! :D. Till the next time, have a nice time folks and the two movies are not worth missing, do watch them!

HORRIBLE HOLIDAYS!!

I was walking along the road, to the rickshaw stand I called up Shraddha to inform I was not going to attend the first lecture, since I was a bit late, and on top of that there was an auto-rickshaw strike. In that case where was I going? Well, I was so tired of sitting home all these days, since after a long weekend; we had another holiday, due to the Parsi New Year, and all our trekking plans [we made two, second, after the failure of the first] were cancelled. :( I was determined to go to college, even though I would have to walk up to the station. I wish I was so determined as far my studies were concerned.

So as on the way, I decided to call Shraddha, I called her up, in a sleepy tone she answered and broke the bad news on me, that lectures are cancelled :( I was really sad when I heard this, whatever the strike was for; I hope the teachers got whatever they’d been demanding for, because I don’t want the holiday to go waste. Anyways, as I said Shraddha broke the news to me, and still determined not to go home and do nothing, I kept on walking, calling people, asking, expecting that someone would tell me that lectures are not cancelled, then I tried to call some old friends [old i.e. friends from my school. And Jr. College], but in vain, all had their lectures, college, lucky chaps!

I just don’t want any more of holidays, not in the coming 4 weeks for sure. Maybe a hectic week, early morning practical will just do the thing for maybe, and maybe I’ll long for a long holiday then! Maybe!

But for now, I would like to call them THE HORRIBLE HOLIDAYS!!!