Light From One Lamp!

I remember once when me and Modita were discussing (over twitter :P) about how unexpected this jeevan is! And how great it feels to experience something nice when you are least expecting it!
My fifth semester had started with 'An Unexpected Sojourn' and interestingly it is now ending with another surprise.
The story starts thus:
It was a foggy day in December. And sitting somewhere inside the mighty campus of my college, as I was mustering all the broken pieces of courage to study for the LAST exam of the semester, somebody asked me to come over. While I was walking over, I had this turmoil of winter-plus-headache-plus-eye irritation-plus-exam-hatred going on, and I was trying to sort them one at a time.
This is what I saw upon going there, after which all this turmoil momentarily gave way:



















Okay. So I saw a beautifully made paper lamp. And by the time I'm done with admiring it, I notice a scroll (tied by jugaad :P) kept on it. I observed it from every angle like a child who sees something new for the very first time and then I hear, "It is for you, you can read it!"

"Here is a lamp with one light. Consider it as my symbolic wishes to light up your upcoming year with joy and happiness."

(This is in relation to a book we are trying to read a little at the moment, "Light From Many Lamps")
 So after reading all of the letter I realized it was my birthday gift.
I have had many surprises on my birthday already. This one took it to the next level.
The lamp was made so nicely, that I don't think I have the right words to express my gratitude. I mean why would someone make such a nice thing for me when tomorrow is a very dangerous exam! :O
Deadly mode apart, this is  how I got my lovely first lamp.
Moral of the story:
With this, the person has given a good reason that justifies the closing note in the letter. I don't simply go into raptures about everyone. I do have a bunch of really nice people around me to make me do that all the time.
Baaki baat baad mein
Happy Exams! I have to start a fight with five deadly units now. Meat. Lovely to eat. Nasty to study.

P.S. My birthday was 11 days ago. :D

Yet Another :D

My laziness can be explained by the fact that I still have 3 incomplete posts in drafts, which will probably never see the light of the dawn :P

But today I'll write only this one.

There are scores of people and things I want to be grateful to today. Let me see if I can do this or not.. Let me start

*Everything is mentioned in chronological order*

Few times in a year I feel so fortunate and blessed that I'm moved beyond words. (And since a picture is worth thousand words, I've used more of those this time rather than writing long stories like last year.. 14.25 wishes :D ) God has been very kind on me to give me so many good people around me all the time, and always showering me with things more than I deserve.

Here I've tried to include all the "Arre waah" moments of the day.

• 

  You people were fortunate
  enough to find something
  my size :P

  How fortunate I am to have my birthday celebrations started a day earlier :D 
  Kavya didi and Harpreet Mam .. The intricately done, immaculately designed card made me very emotional. I am really out of words and don't know how to thank you people for all the love. And thanks Arpit, Amarendra, Arun bhaiya, Praveer and Himanshu sir for your lovely wishes. 
  What you people did was plain unexpected! Not to mention the cake being cut in a hurry at midnight on a stone platform under a tree :P

• "O teri" waali party... more lovely time full of dance and masti :D 
  Corridor mates Huddi, Anantaa, Sharma jih, Nikita, Reesa Roomie :* Sonakshi, Deepti, Priyanka, Shaista, Vidushi, Naema, Sera, :D 
  Special mention for Hari and Harpreet di's dance :D
  
  

BLINGGG!

• My midnight postman Aarushi, bringing me Vedangi di's gift was completely out of the blue. Lovely bangles and rings, and anklet and bling. :') I am seriously waiting for you all to come back and have more great time together.
• Skype (LATE) wishers Adarsh, Atmajith and Pulkit and their Chanda mama wala song  :')  :P The Skype call was very entertaining :P

  

  LATE WISHERS :P

• Joshi ke suspense ki koshish flop due to her whatsapp DP (laughing more than I should here)
  Also the unexplained circumstances under which she called me over where everyone was waiting with yet another cake, and also her excitement, "Hua ki nahi?" :P 
  
  
• This day will be permanently engraved in the books of history as it is today that I got the tightest bone-crushing hug in my life.It took me so much time to straighten my bones again.
  
  
• And now for the biggest surprise of my life - rather shock! 
  There's a girl who has been my friend since the time I started talking. Unfortunately we had not been able to meet and talk properly since 2 years. To get a call from her saying "I've reached your college gate" gave me a minor HEART ATTACK. Crazy girl drove for 3 hours to come and hug me and went back in 5 minutes because she had important college work to do. 
  My dear Ashna, you more than made up for missing all those birthdays after your 10th grade :')
  After you drove away I cried. :'(
  Thanks Ashna and Kunal
  
  

• 

  Peacock surprise

  A lovely purple  Kurti, which I saw in Joshi's DP - Packed. :P ... Jisko cake se kharab karne mein Pulkit ne koi kasar nahi chhodi -_-
  I'm not even finished admiring this lovely gift and out of nowhere.. a LOVELY peacock pendant appears in my neck. Thanks a lot Adhithiyan for this horcrux! 
  Thanks to my batchmates for coming and making my evening memorable..
  Joshi, Sharma, Dhingra, Hrudya, Urvashi, Tiwari, Ishita, Adhithiyan, Atma, Anurag Golu, Adarsh
  And of course, Pulkit was there to click nice pictures with his new HAIRCUT WALA CAMERA. Also clicking another picture similar to our first photo together taken a year back :D

KAHANI GHAR GHAR KI 

Peacock

• And if all of this was not enough, I got handmade THEKUA along with a magical mysterious powder to sprinkle on it, jiska composition unhone clearly nahi bataya. Now what's very interesting about this is that this consignment has been transferred by him illegally to me so I cannot reveal his name at the moment :P And I cannot imagine this gentleman entering the kitchen to boil water. To understand that this man made thekuas himself painstakingly took few seconds.. and that he saved some of it for me despite its demand made it a very prized possession of mine.
  
  
• My lovely family :'(  Celebrating my birthday akele akele and sending me pictures :'(
  Chandigarh friends : Divya, Smriti, Kanupriya, Aur tum dono ke saath conference call pe national importance ke issues discuss kiye jaana.
  School friends: Manal, Aanchal, Heena, Prerna, Vidisha, Modita, SWATIKA DEVI JEE :P (Jinhone mujhe wish karne se pehle kisi korean TV show ke English subtitles mail karne ko kaha :P)
  A really LONG and lovely wish by an old friend movie man :P 
  Juniors, Seniors, friends, romans, countrymen!
• 
  

  

• Anshul Agarwal... Aapko maafi punishment ke baad milegi 
• And Anurag. Sab khoon maaf. Tumhare kandho pe bahot badi responsibilities aa gayi hain ab. Tumhe bahot important kaam ki zimmedari di hai ab.

All this makes me wonder what I have EVER done to get all this - love and kindness and such nice friendships!

Many beautiful moments were experienced. Hard to explain.

And after all this love.. some sad things.. I have turned 21 today. I'm getting old... but have not grown up yet :P

As this semester and subsequently, college is coming to an end, I am only realizing that I am not ready for the real world yet.

Oh I'm just a girl.. Trying to find a place in this world!

PS- I'm currently writing a letter to 30-year old Apoorva Tikku: COMING SOON, Stay tuned for more :D
Sorry for this uninteresting piece of information :P

Filhaal I have semester exams coming up. I'll see you all after December 10. YO! :D

 Signing off, with more pictures

ANGRY FACES :P

 

Yeh photo ulti hai, ghoom nahi rahi 

Mental Note: Never get clicked with Pulkit again 

An Unexpected Sojourn: Check!

The reason I am so fond of surprises is that they give you happiness when you are least expecting it.
Same goes for the bad ones. Just one blow and it's all over. No anticipations, no maatha-pacchi
Speaking of surprises, I had always wished for at least one such day in my life when someone would just pop out and say, "Hurry, pack your bags, we're going somewhere".

So my story starts thus:
One fine day I was waiting for a kick start to this semester, any clever or stupid thing, any kind of inspiration, but all in vain.
Just about when I was sure that seasons will change, but my life will stay the same; and confident that nothing interesting can happen this semester, I got a call from my brother, "Me and Maa-Papa will be with you in some time".
"Ha ha sure! What else?"
"Also pack up your things, we're taking you somewhere"
At that moment, it was easier for me to believe that my brother was getting a blue whale for me this Rakshabandhan than this.
And the mind wandered for the two hours, as I packed my things. Where would we go? Are they really coming, just like that? The heart started pumping.

Fast forward, and we were en route to a destination where I had the loveliest two days I had spent in a long time.
It was even more special because in between the love and laughter and togetherness, I realized that my whole family went out together after SIX LONG YEARS.
Of course we have been going to places in between also, but there was always a time when either my brother had his exams, or I couldn't come from college. So it has been either the three of them, Papa and my brother, and most of the times, it has been just me!
This very fact made the trip all the more special.

And here I am now. Back to college, with good memories to cherish, a war scar from another sibling war, and few happy pictures.
But there's a flaw that goes hand in hand with every good experience. It sometimes makes you feel  hollow when you remember it later on. Too bad! Now  it feels like this never happened. The sojourn now appears to be a distant dream...

So, this is how I checked another wish off my list. It was not much of a 'thrill and excitement' type experience, as I had expected it to be when I wrote it on my list, but doesn't matter. It was much better than that because it was family. Now who can beat THAT! :D
Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one. :D

Take a break!

I'm really grateful to being lazy. Not very commonly, but in cases you do miss out on stuff when you are NOT lazy.
I would have felt like a minion who just slipped a banana in a gorge had I missed the most beautiful rain I had seen this season.
It was like recalling all the splatter, splash and boat races in the childhood with my brother.
And even better because I had great company too :D
Together we crossed Nile, and [accidentally] slipped down while walking through one of its tributaries :P
Together we lost my chappals in the river :'D
Together we witnessed bhootiya things. Sparks flying in the rain.
Together we sang a rainy Kishore Kumar song, while we splashed through the water like bigfoot. :D
I don't remember laughing this much in a long time! Had been waiting to kick back and relax for a little while.

Then there was one moment when all the lights went out. and it was DARK. It was so amazing to feel the sound of the rain, it was like music to the ears, the gentle touch of the drops when you turn your face up as you swirl around the empty road. Not a worry, not a care. The moment couldn't have been any better :D
Everything looked so shiny and new

Sheh! In the excitement I forgot to mention what help did being lazy do in this case?
So I was waiting for NKC to mail me and remind me that "Your issued book will be overdue soon, kindly return."
Today I saw the mail in the spam folder and the book was overdue 2 days ago already! And it was when I went to return it after dinner that the skies started showering.
So, it's a stupid logic but nevertheless, had I returned the book on time, I would have been sitting in my room, probably sleeping and unaware of it all, and would have fallen prey to the college monotony.
Hoping not to get sick again!
Bye bye :D

P.S. Next mission. Turn Dhingra to pluviophile 

Reclusive- II

I had such a bad day today. But then I had the best day I've had in months today.

Since last week, I had been feeling a bit reclusive, cut off from everything else around me. I don’t get along well with people around me.  And I had been feeling pretty bad about it. Now I'm not saying that I need to be around a lot of people to be happy. What I'm saying is that I want at least a little bit of human interaction. At least one person who would raise an eyebrow if I use my shining silver again.  Because well, after all I'm a person! I can’t stay all by myself. I can’t always bear the burden of the things bothering me till it chokes me; I need to let it out at some point of time, and for THAT I need a person, I can’t talk to walls. And yesterday I had almost convinced myself that I have no purpose of living left. L I still remember all the things people told me before going to college. How different it will be, and how these years are going to make you, and how you will find ‘your people’ in college. Half of my college is done and I still haven’t found ‘my people’ yet. 

Maybe there aren't any of ‘my people' here.  The trouble is that after a certain amount of time, every person, EVERY person stops liking me any more. I haven’t yet figured out what’s wrong in my DNA to make that happen.

Today was February 14, by the way! (Happy Valentines’ Day  J ) I went out with few friends, had nice food and came back. All through the day I was feeling quit aloof.  I thought I would distract myself a little and go roam around a little, I might feel better. It was on the way that I met a friend. And I walked with her for some time. I can’t explain how happy I was to see her! When we got back to hostel we started talking. About our lives. About others’ lives. About everything on our minds. I got so emotional I cried also. (When I went back to room, I cried a lot again)

But the good thing is that after an hour, nearly, when our conversation ended, I felt so much lighter and so much happier. And then one good thing started happening after the other.  It was then that she took me to a restricted area (Secret place, don’t tell anyone :P ) It was dark so the stars were beautifully visible from there!! Generally you can't see so many stars here. (Why didn't I think of this way of going there? :O I'm too stupid!) I don’t know how much time we spent there. 20 minutes? Half an hour? But that was more than enough to completely deviate me from my sulky mode. We had a nice time (with the constant fear of someone spotting us, of course)

Now I don’t know what kind of coincidence you call it, but I saw another friend walking on the road outside my hostel from that place (!!!!!) And we talked like that for some time.. on our phones. It was like they show in movies. Him sitting on the side of the road, and us, erm… where we were :P . On our phones. Also, both explaining to each other how we’re both not supposed to be where we were at this time. (It was not too late but around 11:30 so, yes) It was so funny I finally laughed.  

I cannot thank these people enough for saving my day today. These two people actually bothered to give me their time when I needed it. Others just knew there was something wrong with me.Or maybe thought I was worrying without reason. 
(I agree with them too) I do NOT blame them. Everyone is busy with their lives and they should be. But it’s just that it felt good after a lot of time to talk my heart with someone. Otherwise I keep blabbering all day. It also felt good to cry a lot, till my eyes came out, after months. I will always remember the heart to heart I had with both of them today and they will never realize what it meant to me at this point of time. I love them a lot.

But you know what the moral of the story is? Such nice people won’t always be around me, to prevent me from using my shining silver and shed scores of millilitres of my blood.  So I need to come up with a solution for being so emotionally fragile, and letting small small things eat me away.

I hope to come up with a good plan A, B, C or something. And I hope to do it soon. 

Ummeed pe duniya qaayam hai.

P.S.  It’s not the case that everyone hates me. I do have a person I share the best friendship with here.  I don’t know how we became friends, and it doesn't matter. We have our brotherly-sisterly love (which I came to appreciate today only) and it’s such a relief to have him around. But the thing is that I don’t want him to hate me too like the other people after some time. So I don’t talk much with him these days so he would stay longer with me (Stupid, I know)

So the moral of the story: Not everyone hates me!!

P.P.S – Another reason of not talking to him is that, he is feeling too shy to tell me that he now has a girlfriend and poor guy has a misconception that I don’t know :P  I can’t imagine him being this much shy  :D But it’s okay. Your day will come soon. Get prepared for pitting. I know you like it …  but still!