11.20.09
Weekends never change!
If you guys used to read me over the summer when I was working, you would’ve probably remembered jam-packed weekends filled with parties, family events, and performances.
School may have started. I may have written 5 midterms, submitted dozens of assingments. My exams might be right around the corner (Where did the time goo), but even when things are so busy, it makes me really happy (and slightly overwhelmed) to see that my weekends haven’t changed at all!
My Weekend (Which now start on Thursday Nights- Friday’s off!)
Thursday:
9:30-5:30 PM- All my classes, a midterm, 2 assignments due, two hours of tutoring first-year calculus, 1 hour of ‘office hours’ for a club (It was a long studious Thursday)
6:00 PM- Rush to my friends house for a surprise for another friends birthday
6:30 PM- Head over to an amazing japanese restaurant in my University City to continue those Birthday celebrations
10:00 PM- Get a ride to my home-city with a friend
Friday
9:30-10:30 Do club work
10:30-11:30 Sort through a LOT of grade 11/12 problem sheets
11:30-12: Lunch
12-4: Volunteering at old high school (Hence the grade 11/12 problems- I work with the students who are having difficulty in math. We go to a separate mini classroom and they get some intense personalized attention once a week)
4-6: I have to do homework sometime!
6-9: Long (and fun) dance practice (We basically had to rechoreograph today, and we’re performing tomorrow- good times)
9-9:30: Dinner (So late, I know it’s unhealthy)
Now: Straighten my hair& Practice singing
Saturday
8:00 – 9:00 Vocal class on Skype
9:00-10:30 Dance Practice
10:30-Noon Go to family friends house and do mehendi for their family
12-1: Lunch & pack
1-3: Get ready & Maybe some HW
3-6: Family friends house again for seemantham / valaikaapu (Hence the mehendi party- they really wanted henna)
7-9: Dancing at event in Toronto ( I’m still confused about when I’m supposed to get ready for this- I think I’m going to go 1/2 dressed to the valaikaapu)
10PM: Head ALL the way back to University City for my friends 22nd birthday & party all night (so excited 
– Getting ready for this has also NOT been scheduled into this day. I will go in full dance gear. )
Sunday
After being awake for like 24 hours- I can return to normal schedule. I think I’m tutoring for two hours. Probably studying for a bit. Maybe sleeping in until noon
Of course my “fun weekends” from before are really “fun weekends” + studying. As long as the amount of fun doesn’t reduce, I’m good 
AHH exam crunch time!
11.15.09
When the roller coaster goes underwater
I have seen this roller coaster going under water many times in my dreams. It’s one of those scenes that come over and over again that leave a distinct image in your mind. In the dream I was walking right next t o it, watching the yellow coaster go into the ground. When I was volunteering last week and my supervisor showed me this amazing picture, my jaw dropped to the ground, and when I said “this is a dream come true”, my supervisor gave me a WEIRD look and moved slowly away.
“Life is like a roller coaster”- one of famous quotes that you’ve probably heard many times. When you’re up for a long time, you KNOW that fall is coming, or maybe a loop. But crashing right into the water? You don’t expect that kind of thing. And it hurts. Hurts more so because in the water, the tears are hard to see. But when you’re sitting at home with your entire family around you- family who doesn’t know that you chose this roller coaster and is enjoying their gentle ups and downs, it’s hard to suppress. Really hard.
“Life is like a roller coaster”. Or is it? Maybe life is like an amusement park. If one coaster is crashing down, you just have to focus your energy on all the other fun stuff at the park. The clown walking around, the merry-go-round, or the smiles on the kids faces.
Anyone want to ditch this roller coaster with me and get some cotton candy?
I know where it is, it’s just around the corner.
It was in my dream.
P.S. Watch this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0IHQBBNMog
P.S.S. One of the top dance companies around here heard that I was one of the top arangetrams, from one of the top dancers in GTA who attended my arangetram last summer (That was hard to say without using any names). They want me to be introduced to a crowd at a very prestigious event in the spring with the ‘cream of the crowd’, as they call it (150ish of the top dancers in Canada, US, and a few from India), so next year I can take an entire 30-50 minute segment. A segment that my dance teacher got when she first came to Canada 15 years ago. I was pleasantly surprised.
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.
