11.07.09
Center Stage
There’s nothing I love more than the feeling of a succesful performance. And while my singing might not have been amazing at our event last week (They had dinner first- and I was already nervous to begin with), the audience LOVED it! I tried to give a twist to the usual singing performance with a few dance movies, a red saree, red lipstick, and a flower in my hair. I also borrowed my friends Sax, and got another friend to fake-play it for me. Let’s just say Kaisi Paheli Zindagani was a TOTAL audience pleaser! It was also my first time EVER singing a Hindi movie song on the mike for an audience (Hence the stage fright). Totally more fun than the usual classical deal!
I actually only have only ONE picture of me and my fake-sax-player. And luckily for you, it’s SO blurry that you would never know it was us! Here’s a picture from an AWESOME time!
There’s something about being on stage that makes that feel-good feeling last for a really long time. I had SO much fun on stage! It was also a bonus that my mom and dad thought it was awesome (I got it on video to show the family). It was also kindof rewarding, because it was the first ‘performance’ that I kindof did on my own (My other ‘performances’ have been highly critiqued by either my music teacher, my dance teacher, Or my parents, who didn’t know I was performing until the morning of the event!). I am feelin’ good!
10.26.09
Debate Topic- Mixed Marriages
I’m curious about something.
In today’s society, what are your views on mixed marriages? Not just inter-religion, but inter-culture? (For example- Indian and Guyanese/ Sri Lankan, or North and South Indian)
Do you think mixed marriages are worth the stress inflicted by parents and the community? Do you think they don’t work because of the two people involved, or because of what everyone else views?
The idea of “love”, “happiness” and most emotions, philosophically speaking, comes from within us, and technically doesn’t have too much to do with the outside world. Just how we view it. If this is true, is it possible to really “love” another person who isn’t family? Is this “love” beyond cultures? Can you “love” anyone, if you wanted to? What does it really mean?
I’m at a cross-roads in my life guys. And I need your help.
Is it worth telling my parents? Do I really care about him enough to cause family tension? Am I being caught up in the emotions, because he’s not South Indian and it’s not worth it?
10.23.09
Kaisi Paheli Zindagani
Hey! I have been gone for SO long, and what a crazy time it has been! I have had midterms & club events coming out of my ears! Overall, it has been going well academically. My marks (except for Econ- why is it that I always ruin my electives) have been exactly where I want them to be, which makes me happy. Of course with all the extra curriculars, I have a great excuse for being so infrequent in updating all of you.
I hope all of you had a lovely Diwali. I know I did! I spend most of the day slacking off and enjoying time with my family. I attended our usual Diwali Pooja (I guess our weekly vishnu sahasranamam gets called a “diwali” one on diwali weekend, and all of us make an effort to look nice.). I also did some sparklers with the family, and my little cousin (Who is now TWO years old) LOVED it. My paati got me this AMAZING saree for my arangetram, which I saved for Diwali, and it looked AWESOME. I was also having a good hair day. You all know from my previous posts that this is a very rare occurence in my life.
On campus, we are having a huge diwali event coming soon, and this is what I’m going to sing for my audition. My look will be complete when I put on my red saree, red lipstick, and stick a flower in my hair. Let me know what you guys think
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Depending on the feedback on the voice recording I will provide you with more! I have a very um… “different” voice (aka not really girly) so if you have any songs that you think my voice would suit, let me know!
Speaking of being dramatic, for halloween I am going to be super-pi. I have a belt, blue tights/ blue long shirt, and I am making a super-pi sign tomorrow. Hilarious? Definitely. I was going to be a ‘commutative operator’. I was going to create a bus, and hang it on my shoulders, and stick commutative operators like +/ – etc. inside the bus. I was going to dress up like the bus operator, and be a ‘commuting’ operator. Get it? Yeah, my friends did, and thought it was WAY too dorky. You know a costume is dorky, when your friends, who are going as a calculator, a ruler, a least squares estimator, a kernel, a finite simple group of order two, a transpose of themselves, and an abelian grape tell you it’s dorky. *Sigh*
As you can see, the Math Halloween Party is going to be wild. I know you are all jealous, maybe one day you will be as cool as me.
I am signing off for now, to study for another set of midterms/assignments. I could use some luck for the challenging midterms ahead!
Bye for now, I promise I will try to be more frequent with the posts. I hope you enjoyed the music!
10.07.09
Tonight’s going to be a good night!
There are some songs that just make me HAPPY. This song just happens to be one of my current favourites.
I don’t know if it’s the dancer in me, but seeing a lot of people dancing together, and having an amazing time, just makes me want to join in on the festivities, even if it is just from the sidelines. I think you’ll enjoy this little clip from Oprah’s 24th season Kick-off Party. I often don’t just do video posts, but this is one that I can’t HELP but to share with everyone I know.
I’ve got a feeling, that tonight’s goign to be a good night 
10.04.09
I am not scary
I realized that I might have scared people away with this picture on my previous post
I would like to say, that with the combination of Giovanni & Black People Hair product (elasta QP), my hair usually looks a little bit more like this
Nothing to be afraid about,
I hope.
In other news, I went to Nuit Blanche in downtown Toronto, an extremely INTERESTING experience, but overall an awesome night. My parents had to pick us up at 1:10 (after almost an hour of driving), because the busses to my home-city was full and my dad didn’t want us to take a later bus. They had no complaints at ALL, and my mom even tagged along to see the Toronto night life. Infact they met my “friend”, and totally loved him! This morning we all went to a local South Indian Restaurant for lunch where I had onion rava masala dosa, deelishious! Also, I finished SO much homework on Friday and Saturday, so I could enjoy my weekend to the fullest! I’m dead tired now, and I have a massive headache, which might be related to the fact that EVERYONE in Ontario is sick . I also got a winter jacket today. Long, black, and painfully boring looking, but its AWESOMELY warm and durable enough to last for life. So worth the 200 dollars, for the warmth. My past 3 winter jackets have all been under $40.00. They last a long time, but just don’t cut it for Canadian winters. Minus 20 degrees and bitingly cold northernly winds requires slightly more protection than a $30.00 jacket. With my winter boots, my warm jacket, and my eskimo hat, I might almost ENJOY winter. Or atleast not complain about every 3 minutes.
I hope all of you had a weekend as AMAZING as mine! Next weekend is my amazingly cool cousin’s 2nd birthday bash. It’s also a long weekend for thanksgiving (Monday off means FOUR days off for me!). It’s also my first day volunteering. Kindof nervous, but excited as well. Should be awesome times, and should make a lot of great stories (which in turn results in some interesting blog posts, I hope!)
10.02.09
Thats.. Chill?
Okay so the weather is cooling down, but this post is on something SLIGHTLY different.
I don’t know if its my sister also being in university, or the fact that I’m 20. Maybe it’s just all the ‘trust-drama’ that I finally talked to my dad about over the past 8 months, but my parents have been SOOOOOOOO relaxed this year, it’s almost scary.
A little background… When I was in first year, moving out for the first time, my mom made it a habit to call about 5 or 6 times a day. She read my email once when I wasn’t looking, and realized that I had hid something from her (about another friend… why would I tell my mom?), and she pretty much had NO trust in me. Every weekend was a big dramatic cry-fest. In second and third year, that became 3 times a day. The first year drama was a lot to get over for both of us. She would call once in the morning, once during the school day, and once in the evening to make sure I was home. Now if she called during the school day and I didn’t pick up (because I was in class), she would leave a couple of messages. If she called at NIGHT and I didn’t pick up, my mom would put my dad in a car, and he’d start driving towards my university to make sure I was home. He would keep calling (to avoid the drive), until I picked up and told him it was okay for him to go back home.
This is usually followed by a series of
“I pay for your phone you might as well use it” (So I can answer 900 unwanted questions?)
“Atleast text us and tell us if you’re out late” (So I can get 900 phone calls?)
Of course because of this pattern, I tend to call my parents by 9PM (even if I AM going out with friends) to tell them I am home (even if I am not home). This way I don’t have to waste my entire party on the phone with my mom (been there, done that), or I don’t have to start crying because they’re yelling at me when others are there (been there, done that), and I think most importantly, my parents remain calm, and get a good sleep (which they usually don’t if I haven’t picked up my phone).
This year its a little different. My mom calls once a day… usually in the mornings. There have been times that i’ve been out late, in cities that aren’t even my university City, in ‘dangerous’ places like downtown Toronto, and she won’t even call. Sometimes I’ll remember to text my dad to tell him that I’ll home, sometimes I forget, and they don’t really worry. If I say “I’m going out with friends”, they don’t ask where. If I say “Don’t worry ma, the ‘guy friend’ that you suspect, and don’t really like, is going to walk me to the bus stop and wait for an hour alone with me at 11PM until the bus comes” gets a reply like “oh good, nice of him to wait, call me when you’re home.” I would never DREAM of being that honest with them if I knew I was going to get an interrogation.
It’s a little weird, but I can’t say I don’t like it. I’m a good girl (mostly), but its just nice to know that I don’t have to give a second-by-second-account for everything I do. And when they do call, it’s a nice reminder that they care. Definitely a lot nicer than the “over protective ness” that it was a few years ago.
Did anyone else SUDDENLY get this freedom when they turned 20?
In other news- what do you think of my rock-star hairstyle for my potential halloween costume?
And the hairstyle that I invariably do when I’m doing work around the house 
09.20.09
That’s hot…
So the weather is still holding out pretty strong. For almost being the end of September, we are finally having some nice above average temperatures. It’s cool (10 degrees celcius) or so in the morning, but the nice 22 degrees afternoons with a cool not-quite-wintery breeze is awesome! Seriously! I can still wear T-shirts! I LOVE hot weather.
Speaking of weather, I soon need to get a new winter jacket. I got thing fall one last week… it’s not thick enough to be a winter jacket, but it’s REALLY nice.Don’t you guys love the plaid jackets? And the hint of purple in this one? Dark purple has to be the hottest colour for the fall/winter seasons.
Speaking of HOT. I splurged and got myself a Guess Wallet. Of all the Guess products (none of which I own… except this wallet), I love their wallets the most. I could always go and buy my usual 20 dollar wallet from Bentleys, but Guess? Guess lasts FOREVER. And Guess looks good. SOOO good. Check out my purple wallet. And drool.
This term I have Friday’s off. 3 day weekends, EVERY weekend! I have pretty intense weekdays, but it’s sooooo worth it. I think I’m going to use my amazing Friday’s off to volunteer at a school. My new life-update is that I am planning on keeping teachers college option open, even if my parents are pretty against it. I don’t want to regret not trying! But that means I have two years to get 200+ hours of volunteer hours teaching the high school age group without my parents figuring out that it really isn’t for the Math Club at school. We’ll see how all of this plays out. I’m still keeping actuarial and financial mathematics open. I digress. THREE DAY WEEKENDS ARE HOT!
And guess what’s NOT hot? You guessed it! My beautiful new Lenovo Laptop does not have HP’s internal heating problems
What else is hot?? Oh right, me. But you know that already
Kidding
Anyways I am going to go, anticipate the 25 degree celcius weather we have on Wednesday, and hope I don’t catch this round of cold that’s going around (everyone in my house, and my program, is sick, and I literally have 12 hour days every day this week. I need my health.)
P.S: My new school-time hobby is jewelry making. I’ve made so much cool stuff. One day, I will share. Even if you are all guys and really don’t care if my jewelry matches my new wallet.
09.13.09
When you know…
When you know someone is not going to be around the next time you visit. When you know that they only have a few more days to live. When you see close family and friends crying, and trying to get away. It’s not easy.
Even though we all have that time, to really let him know that he was loved, the extra time doesn’t help much. It’s still just as hard, maybe even harder, because we know exactly what he’s gone through.
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I know you only have a few weeks buddy, but I want to thank you. Thanks for letting me win all those badminton games, and for teaching me how to play ping pong. Thanks for making us laugh a LOT with your hilarious sense of humour. Thanks for making me chuckle everytime you made that hilarious face when I called you your “nick name”. Thanks for being the only one not to laugh (tooo hard) about how I scream when I watch scary movies. Thanks for making all of those family parties over the summer holidays really fun. Thanks for reminding me that genuniely nice guys really do exist. Thanks for moving me with your amazing essays and short stories, and for seriously impressing everyone with your board exam scores. Thanks for always being optimistic, through the chemo and the hard times, and reminding all of us in Canada that everyone has the strength within them to do whatever they want to do. Thanks for showing us that having a positive attitude is the best thing in a person.
You’re only 18, but you’ve done more in your 18 years than people accomplish in a lifetime.
You’ll be missed a lot, and I hope you know that you have made a difference.
09.12.09
FD Decorates
I have been living in the same house off campus for 2 years. My room is quite simple, and most importantly, quite cheap! I am extremely picky about a few things, and wanted my room to be clean, matching, and functional. I think the best tips for a student house is….
1) Go cheap!
2) Match wood
3) Pick a colour theme and stick with it
4) Keep things simple. Less is usually better!
Here are some pictures
This is my bookshelf. I used Ikea boxes (10 for $10) to sort out some messy stuff like wires. The trunk was a gift, that I use to keep jewelry. The painting is an old painting that my mom painted. The picture frame was also a gift. These books are mostly school related. I have my textbooks, binders, and educational books (Act sci/ Excel) in this shelf. The shelf was only $30.00 from Walmart!
The “friends” poster was also a gift. The circular thing over my desk was made out of card paper. It alternates between important quotes and pictures, that I printed for $0.19 each. It is my own little artistic attempt. My desk was also for pretty cheap. At only $50.00 the woods match (I feel like if the wood colours match, even cheap furniture can have a pretty cohesive look.
This is my desk. I have a cork board (Another 10 bucks) where I keep important things, like bills, phone #’s, and my schedule. I have a cheap ikea lamp, and a very cheap pen holder, that I painted myself, to match my baige and cream theme. Please meet my brand new beautiful Lenovo Laptop.
At the foot of my bed I have my “dressing table”. This primitive dressing table is actually an old stool. I added a $7.00 walmart mirror to the top, and some more Ikea storage at the bottom. On the right is my laundry hamper, which was $15.00 from Walmart. Isn’t it pretty? I LOVE that it’s square, because it fits so nicely into corners.
I think the most important part of a bedroom is a bed. And nothing makes a bed look “expensive” than a lot of cheap pillows I got a $15.99 cream throw from a house and home store, and a few pillows to match the theme of the room. To bring the bed area together, I painted an abstract painting with canvas and paint I picked up from the dollar store. A total of $2.00! For my side table, I got a $5.00 pot on clearance, and I picked up some free circle glass from the glass store (they usually have extra). The circular glass serves as a counter, and the pot makes it look VERY artistic.
This is the hidden corner of stuff. On the other side of my desk, I keep my little pooja area, my extra stationary, old notes, and papers. On the bottom, I have three wooden paper holders where I keep scrap paper. I use a LOT of scrap paper during school times!
You like?
09.09.09
Events all day, Parties all night!
So my first week back has been AWESOME.
Make that SUPER AWESOME.
SUPER DUPER AWESOME.
You get the idea.
This is going to be another gigantic summary post with a lot of useless facts about my life
I moved back in, and got my room all clean and sorted out as SOON as I got here. I like things clean, and knew I wouldn’t be able to comfortably enjoy life if it wasn’t clean . I’ve been meeting with club friends, math friends, Brown friends. I’ve been making new friends. It’s seriously been a party. Whether it’s club events, or just lunches/ coffee dates, or parties/ get together’s, I’ve pretty much have had a BOOKED social calender for the past couple of days. So booked, infact, that I have had to cancel events with certain people, to accomodate others. When I am at home, that only happens with Kacheri’s (“maybee we will go to that kacheri, leave after the RTP and still make it to this one?)
I LOVE my friends here, and I missed them all SOOOOO much when I was away. I get this rush (seriously) out of seeing everyone every day.
I skype chat with my sister once a day, and it’s almost like seeing her. Skype quality, + my new awesome video sound quality on my NEW LAPTOP THAT I GOT! (It’s a Lenovo, and I LOVE it. LOVE.) just makes the whole thing seem like she’s sitting in front of me. Today she even showed me this RIDICULOUS dance they learnt. Just like she would’ve done if we were sitting around in our den at home.
Tomorrow is my “littlest sister’s” birthday. SHe’s going to be THIRTEEN! One of my closest friends EVER also has a birthday tomorrow.I miss my littlest sister, and my baby cousin. How I miss my baby cousin!
Anyways speaking of this sudden burst of social life until I slip into REAL university life (AKA from class, to midterm, to library, to mood swinging at parents because of classes midterms or libraries), it doesn’t end here!!
This weekend, I not only have a shopping spree with the girls, a vegetarian fest in downtown toronto with the best friend, and teaching on Saturday morning in my home city (lots of travelling), but I have TWO birthday parties on Saturday night, and a lunch date with my buddies on Sunday afternoon (After my wild party on Saturday night, sleeping in might be necessary. You know how those hangovers are. I’m kidding, I am not going to have a hangover, but I will be sleeping MUCH past my bed time)
If that’s not a big wild party, I dont know WHAT is!!
Of course in between all that I’ve been sorting out errands. Lots of company/ club work to get through, bank work, as well as textbook buying, and all that kindof stuff. Unpacking itself has been a huge chore. Which would explain why, even without ANY classes yet (they start tomorrow), I still have been very horrible with my blog. And even MORE horrible with Twitter. My twitter died, folks.
Anyways, I have missed you all! I PROMISE on Sunday I will go through each and every one of your blogs and comment! I am almost afraid to open my google reader!
