Things to do when you're blue..!

Yeah, that's me feeling blue :(

I saw this movie The Social Network recently and then googled Mark Zuckerberg. And he says somewhere that you could do extraordinary things or get great inspiration when you work through the night! This must be true considering the example of my favourite musician A.R.Rahman who's known to compose all his music during wee hours.

That being the case, I think I’ve hit on some exciting new ways of spending time when you're feeling really low and I’m going to put them down right now, throwing the law of diminishing returns aside!

Perhaps you failed an exam, screwed an interview, you're jobless, your people hate you or your girlfriend/boyfriend broke up with you... it can be anything because things that can get you down are quite many in number.

1. Write a crazy blog.

Yeah, it works. And you're right! I’m not feeling very great as well. Screwed a life changing interview. But that doesn’t matter now because I’m writing and you guys are reading it! Or perhaps nobody would read it... it doesn’t matter either because I’m getting it out of my system.

2. Watch some videos from www.ted.com

You might feel lazy to log into this site and would rather waste away your time on facebook chatting with some drag-guy or shifting through profiles. But this is one awesome place with talks that might change the way you think.


3. Meet or read about strange people

Sometimes, voyeurism does well! Look up blogs. Type random search words and read what some individual in some remote corner of the world feels about life. Comment on the posts. Do a lot of commenting. The very grateful blogger is sure to get back to you or at least thank you for reading his crap.

4. Imagine.

Imagine yourself to be a completely different person with a totally different set of situations to deal with. Live your life in the shoes of the pseudo-person. Get into a voluntary-temporary multiple personality disorder.
I’m a hyper-active ex- college girl! I’m full of looking-forward-thing for my new job. And my house looks messy and mom goes around telling me to clean up my stuff. Now I imagine myself as a housewife!  I do it though I have no inclination whatsoever of becoming one in real time. But my pseudo-self cleans the house to please her mother-in-law :)

5. Paint. Draw. Sketch. Scribble.

It’d have been years since those primary school years when you actually used paints. But there's some little magic in different hues coming together! Call it a rainbow magic or whatever... take a white sheet and try copying some random object in front of you into the paper. Persist for a minimum of 10 minutes.
That doesn’t work?? Then get yourself a beautiful white sheet. And some paints. Green, red and blue are a must. Dip that bushy brush into the paint bottle and tenderly touch the paper with it.... ecstasy!!

6. Get yourself your own social cause

This might sound a little more serious than the frivolous few ideas mentioned above. But it helps! Identify an area that u think the society needs to be corrected in. Read about it and start preaching! To anybody who hears. Create an identity for yourself. A new one. 

7. Dont indulge. But do really cheap things.

I don't go with the notion that indulging yourself cures you of feeling low. That might give u a temporary satisfaction. But you're bound to regret later that you must've saved the money!
Instead, imagine yourself to be poor. Eat bread and sleep on the floor. Go to office by walk, or take the bus. That next day, when you're back to being your normal richer self, you're bound to feel better.

8. Blow bubbles

Yeah, you might be a workaholic 35 year old or some CEO of a very serious firm wearing suits. But do some handiwork of mixing water with detergent or soap and looking around for a straw. Blow nice little bubbles into the air, see them fly and burst them if you must :)

9. Play Neopets! Own a virtual pet, that is!

Visit www.neopets.com and sign up for a pet :) It's so much fun because there is a lot to explore in neo-world.Competitions, quests, fairies, haunted mansios, the underwater worlds, kings, frog princes etc etc...It's a little world in itself . Isn't HARRY POTTER interesting? The same way... Trust me, you'll love it!
Once you sign up, add me as a friend. My pet is a green elephante named 'yenuga'. (Username)


10. Watch Cartoons. Preferably, Phineas and Ferb.

I know it was funny when you were a kid. But believe me; it’s more funnier now because you can make out the dialogues. :P Disney channel cartoons are my favourites. Anyways, here are a few humorous ones- Phineas and Ferb, Timor and Pumba, Ben10, Scooby doo, Mr.Bean. and here is a link to my post as to why I like Phineas and Ferb. Yep, that’s an altogether different topic :)

So thats how it works. These are just a few of the many little pleasures you can get from life. You just gotta identify them and give them a try... So toodles for now... Catch ya!

My Red Flower..

.
A road.

A long road… the end of which is not visible...

I’m cycling… searching…

Wind blowing against my face, my hair flying, smell of damp mud..

Nobody around..



“Where is everybody?” I wonder.., taking in every detail of the town that was once mine, once lively..

I recognize the old buildings, notice the new creepers.. And for a moment, I’m pulled back into my old memories… I smile..

Yes, I’ve come back after six years… things have changed…



I cycle harder, each second, getting closer to my destination- the end of the road, where those red flowers bloomed.. The flowers that I once admired, but dint dare to touch fearing the thorns; the flowers that I was just content looking at from a safe distance; and the flowers that have haunted me ever since for the past six years..



The winds now change direction, making it easy for me to drive… I wonder about the weather, the strong winds, and pray the changes of seasons haven’t taken away the flowers… my flowers!

I dream of their irresistible fragrance again; I yearn to touch their soft petals, take some of them back home with me, show my friends, and preserve them inside my dictionary forever..



I drive along... It starts to rain. But I can see the end of the road now. Only a few more meters..

Tall trees fill my view. I leave my cycle beside one of them and wade through the slush, searching for the little red wonders and thorny bushes. I look around helplessly… there seems to be no bushes here. I walk further in. still, no sign… “Have you taken them way?”, I cry to the winds! The rain drenches me completely… I feel numb cold and empty..



I return back to my cycle and sit down… “Why has god, who let this desire to see those flowers survive in me, not let those flowers survive..?”. a mild breeze blows across my face now; and I catch a faint whiff of a familiar scent… I turn back hurriedly and there, between two large trees, are a few thorny bushes… and a single large red flower.. The one flower that survived..!



I walk towards it. The flower is more beautiful than I’ve ever known. The dew drops on the petals, little yellow pollens in the middle, and everything reminds me of old times.. Memories come rushing back.

I reach out my hand to touch my flower.. pricking my hands in the process… a few drops of blood trickle down.. But I don’t care now.. I just can’t take my eyes off it..

I touch the flower again.. And again… But somehow, I’m unable to get myself pluck it..

The sight of it, happy, radiant and beautiful in its own place makes me smile…

I take back my hand.

“Live on, my red flower..”, I say… and walk back to my cycle.
..

CAT 2010- The experience

After all that I went through for my CAT exam, I thought it best to put my experiences here, so you can all have an idea of how it was. . If the exam weren’t so serious, it would have actually been funny!


So here goes….

The night before the exam, I got cold feet about my admit card which said I should bring a photo identification with a name that exactly matched the name on my admit card. The problem was that my driving-license and my college id had the name yeshwanti, while I’d entered yeshwanthi on my cat form. Fearing a possible disqualification, my dad and I went affidavit-hunting that night… and got it. If that was freaky, read on for more..

The most anticipated and the most dreaded day dawned on November 7th. I woke up early and put on my thickest jacket (for it was cold outside and I dint want that to disturb me during the exam). My dad thought mosquitoes could be a greater source of disturbance and bought me this Odomos cream. I packed stationary, voucher, photo ids, affidavit, etc and set out for THE EXAM centre (veltech engineering college)

I reached the centre at 8.00am along with Cyclone JAL, that was in its full form! We (test takers) were huddled under the entrance dome for half an hour before we were called inside, and I heard strange sounds from people next to me (which I later realized were from their chattering teeth). Thank god, I had my jacket!



After all the formalities of identity checking, pocket checking etc, we were seated in front of our respective terminals, given scratch papers and pencils and were instructed not to write anything on the paper until the exam started.

But I, being the bum that I was, wrote my time allocation strategy in one corner of the sheet.

2.15 – 1.35 – ps

1.35- 0.55- di

0.55-0.15—va/rc

(Being CAT prep students, I’m sure you understood the above jargon)

Then we were asked to click the START MY TEST tab, and my terminal was taking a long time to load! During this time, I kinda closed my eyes to pray and calm my nerves, and was asleep in no time!!!

The invigilator woke me up and pointed out that the computer had to be restarted as I’d slept through some of the processes to start the test.. During this, another irksome invigilator noticed the writing on my scratch sheet and threatened to report me for violation of rules!!

All this made me terribly tensed. I took up the exam in a state I’d never imagined I’d be… I could see all my self-talks and exercises to remain calm on D-Day, going up in smoke. Nothing was helping.

I realized then that if fate had preordained me to be tensed on the CAT day, that’d happen, no matter what!

But to my relief, the Quants section (the one I usually suck at) turned out to be easy… Most of the questions were from numbers and basic arithmetic. Despite my nerves, I attempted around 10 questions there. DI wasn’t bad either. The questions were long, but were pretty direct… I attempted 10 questions there too. Next came the English section, my strength (as I call it). There were three passages, of which I attempted two. The rest were the usual vocab questions, no surprises there!

On the whole, I think I attempted around 35 questions….

Once out of the hall, I explained to the invigilator that I’d written down the time strategy and nothing else. He was okay with it, I guess..

Well.. So that’s my story.. I just have to wait and watch or hope for the best or blah blah...

And thanks dad, mom, and friends who stayed by me all the time...



Tada!

And Good luck 

yesh