It has hardly been a month and it feels like the corporate life has been sucking me in already! Balance i thought cannot be a problem for me since, well, I am me!! But turns out it is not as easy as that.
Life has been good. Life has been a party. Weekdays are full with training(read fun, in my class at least). Time just flies by after you return home on weekdays. And weekends have been one huge party. Every weekend I've been going out. Movies, treks, trips, dinners, lunches, hanging out and catching up with friends, visiting relatives, using my first salary very effectively by shopping. Life can't be more perfect than this, can it?
Well, here is the problem. Where has my time for ME gone? I hardly seem to be finding time for me, for me to do what i love to do, what i want to do and sometimes what i need to do! More than anything, i wonder if my passion has weaned down, if all that was once part of my life then seems a thing of the past now!
The problem with this work cycle is that weekends are not drab either. They are fun. What we used to do all week long has now been shifted out on weekends and weekends are no longer relaxation. No longer getting up at 10 in the morn, read the newspaper leisurely and then watch an old flick on tv or maybe wash the car. No more just staying at home, doing nothing, wanting to do nothing. Because even if you want to do nothing, others want to do something and you get dragged along. Just ends up getting tiring. Oh, hope next weekend is not as packed as this one with lunches and dinners and i can just sleep at home!

soooooooper bored :((((((

Republic Day

From all the kids, the ones i vividly remembered were Seetha and Krishna[Kisna];maybe because these little angels were the tiniest of the lot. My second visit to Indira Gandhi International Academy was just as memorable as the first. I was on the lookout for familiar faces,and many a familiar faces did I find! It was only the names that i could not recollect, but i remembered each kid i had interacted with earlier when i saw their faces...Deborah, Richard, Kokila to name a few.

It is this personal interaction with the kids and the warmth you feel with the unadulterated affection these kids shower on you that makes your day. It is the smile on their faces, the twinkle in their eyes, the excitement in their voice that urges you to go back, that makes you feel what you are doing is worthwhile. It is a beautiful experience where you learn each moment you teach. And this republic day, we tried to experience just that!

Conducting games for the kids such as passing the parcel and running race and competitions like drawing and singing were no easy feat by themselves. Kids are by far the same everywhere, you see some leaders, you see some retractors. You find many shy kids, some who cease to be shy when they find company, very few bold ones! You see naughty kids, you see moody kids...you see happiness in their faces when they win, you see resentment and disappointment when they lose. To coax and urge and provide confidence and console and be a kid with them once again gives immense pleasure.

What touched me the most was that so many of the kids remembered me and quite a few of us and also the way the small kids told us to study well and do well at our workplaces! They see we are lot more privileged than them, and just their heartfelt selfless wish for us to succeed makes me want to reach out to them all the more in all ways i can!

Also memorable was the candle light vigil held in the IGIA campus in order to salute the unsung heroes of our nation, the jawans. The candle light pervading in the darkness, like light always does,brought hope to the darkened minds again, bringing the evening to a perfect ending!

UgLy

Now after 3 years in college without particularly caring, i have been wondering for the past one week where Ugly is! I heard that he has gotten fatter etc, but though i have been in college for long hours this entire last week, i never did spot him, and how i will miss him too after college. He has attended classes when we have all mass bunked them. he has disrupted classes too when we were too bored. He has learned theater along with us, he has kept us going during Udbhav preparations, he has just been there...all the time! Now I wonder why i have been so scared of him all through, though he has done nothing once to bug us, he has not even barked at us once. Not that me pondering about it will change reality, i still will be scared , hopefully lesser! Hmmm i defenitely must take a picture of him before leaving college, before i leave i mean, i don't think he ever will!! :)

It's Just Love...

It was one of those jobless evenings, book in hand, music streaming in through the radio. The time when i still didn't own a comp. And then.....it was love at first note! Fell in love with the beautiful melody that was more vocal and acoustic than any of the music oft played on the radio just the instant i heard it. The name of the band was unfamiliar and rather amusing. The very next time i got hold of my bro's comp, i searched his itunes for the song. My bro gave me a look that said is-this-your-"ooooohhhhhhh-u-Must-listen-to-it"-song ?? But dunno what it is about some music and me; the appeal is so immediate and lasting, so brilliant and compelling, so exhilarating and completing! Music is just the Magic that Moves my World!

ABSOLUTELY EVERYBODY

Jusssssht an amaaazing song :) So simple in it's lyrics, yet so true! One of the songs that pep me up todally!!!




Absolutely everybody,

Everybody needs a little loving,
Everybody needs somebody thinking of them.
Everybody needs a little respect,
And whatever it takes,
I’m gonna get it.

Everybody needs a hand to hold,
Someone to cling to
When the nights are getting cold.
I’m no different,
I am just the same,
A player in the game.

Absolutely everybody,
Everybody, everybody.
Absolutely everybody
In the whole wide world.

Absolutely everybody,
Every boy and every girl,
Absolutely everybody.

Everybody needs a human touch.
I can’t live without it,
It means too much to me.
Everybody needs one true friend,
Someone who’ll be there ‘til the very end.


And absolutely everybody breathes,
And everybody, everybody bleeds.
We’re no different,
We’re all the same,
Players in the game.

Absolutely, everybody,
Everybody, everybody.
Absolutely everybody
In the whole wide world.
Everybody breathes,
And everybody needs.
Absolutely everybody.

Absolutely everybody.

Every boy and girl,
Every woman and child.
Every father and son.
I said now everyone,
Yes now everyone.

Everybody needs a human touch.
Everybody, everybody needs love.
I’m no different,
I am just the same,
A player in the game.

Absolutely everybody.

A Midsummer Night's Dream

A Shakespearean play. One that I have not read before. My attempt to read the synopsis of the play on the net didn't last more than 2 lines of text. All that I knew when I entered the Auditorium was that Midsummer is a romantic comedy, involving 2 couples!

When Tim Supple, the director explained that the play is performed in 6 languages, little did i know that he meant all the 6 languages were going to be used on the same stage, in the same performance! The play spanned English, Malayalam, Tamil[I cannot differentiate between the 2 languages, tho can attempt to follow a few words,them being Dravidian languages], Bengali[can only realize that the language being spoken presently is Bengali], Marathi[hmmm, not really sure if it was used in the play, or maybe I did not realize Marathi was being spoken], Hindi[aah, one language i could follow thankfully, but was used rather pitifully!] and a little bit of Sanskrit. When i first heard the Duke speak in Malayalam, I was spellbound!The next few minutes were painful trying to interpret which language was being spoken n what the character intended to say! Tim Supple's advice to us to relax and watch the play even if we do not understand many of these languages became clear now. And we did the same. And this, I must say, is the best example that art has no language barriers. We could follow the play without having to follow each dialogue . The dialogues themselves became rather trivial and the emphasis of the actors lay more on their voice modulation, dialogue delivery and their body language itself. But the dialogues in this play were by no means substandard as the English verses in the play were indeed beautiful!

This, by no means was the end of the creativity and abstractions by the Director. This in fact was the beginning! His interpretation of Midsummer is more crude than sensitive, more vibrant than mellow, more abstract than conventional. It does not deviate from the actual story, but his portrayal of the story is simply commendable. His fairies do not fit the general notion we have of fairies, with silvery wings, angelic faces, beautiful silken linen etcetera. His idea is a welcome change. They are naughty tree dwellers, adept in all sorts of acrobatics, so nimble and agile on stage. They actually climb up ropes on stage, jump on to the stage from heights of say 8 ft! There is simply a lot of energy in the entire play!! It also is very bold and explicit in showing the bond between the lovers in the play, but not in an embarrassing way.There is tremendous fire and passion in the play, the music adding to it with it's crescendo. The music, the stage settings, the dance sequence, the song sequence were all brilliant. Puck is simply the life of the play, with his naughty look, his omniprescence in such an unnoticeable way and his subtle ways of changing scenes on stage!

Overall a very very interesting interpretation of Shakespeare's play, one at the pinnacle of creativity, a brilliant change from the usual interpretations involving Shakespearean English.

Something seems to have changed..

I just feel a positive vibe, a vibe that says everything will be alright, you are beginning to do the right things now! All my old dreams are coming alive once again; beautiful dreams that i had given up on are resurfacing again. Everything seems abstract yet i know i will find clarity.

Something seems to have changed...