SlishaCrazy

Over the last few years, I have struggled to write, and to keep up my blog. I kept blaming how life took over and that I find no time for myself. And then I had a few weeks to myself and I most certainly had a lot of time on my hands and yet I chose to do origami than write. That is when I realised, it was because I had forgotten the joy of writing. I saw a snapshot of a publication of someone I know, who like me fancied oneself as a writer. That snapshot seemed to be snippet of terrible writing, in my opinion, and it felt like it was a reflection of my own view of myself where I am probably propped up by a select few creating an echo-bubble that praised my writing, but in reality, I am probably a terrible writer. (Update: I feel I should explain a little here. That piece of writing from someone I know isn't objectively terrible. It's obviously good enough to be published. But the style is very different from what that writer projected it to be, which has been endorsed by a ...

In love with airports I must be. But not usually. They are not destinations and they are not places where you want to spend time, unless I hear of it's the Dubai airport. Killing time doesn't put me off, but people watching is certainly boring at airports unlike railway stations. Railway stations, I love! Heathrow airport is a beauty and I didn't know it till today. Till today I thought it was a chaotic mass of people and flights. Today I witnessed the Heathrow Minute! While an aeroplane is evidence of amazing engineering, Heathrow is evidence of incredible logistics. And today I think I witnessed it. My flight was in queue and I could see flights in front of it, and flights cutting the queue from other fringes of the fishbone sort of network this was, and the flights in front of us were cutting others in other fringes. They all went one by one on to this long long runway. And when one flight starts moving very quickly on the runway, another already takes its place so...

What I started out as a review for the book Such a Long Journey by Rohinton Mistry became a comparative study on stories included in the English text books in school, say class 5. Such a long journey indeed! We had three, Main-course, Workbook and Reader. Later we called them Textbook, Workbook and Non-detail. As I started reading the book, I thought this and other short stories and novels by Rohinton Mistry and Amitav Ghosh should be included in English readers or non-detail. This book particularly, even teaches you a few words like it should. I guess I thought that because the author wanted me to, being suggestive with his tiny bits of mockery of the English reader that we normally use when little Roshan starts thinking of the objects from an English lifestyle that she learnt in her convent school. It reminded me of my earliest memory of such an experience. Banana split. That's what a 12 year old girl wanted when her mother meets a man who tries to sell her an umbrella in T...

State.com is an opinion sharing network. It's interesting. Especially after my blog post on the difficulty of stating your opinion on facebook and facing the wrath of 500 people who may or may not have read your complete post or found a completely different angle or pulled your own comments on a different topic completely out of context and screaming at you to accept their point of view and worse, getting personal. There is a need for a network for stating your opinion and discussing it with others who are indeed willing to discuss it rather than deciding what is right. I think this forum has a good future.  Having said that I don't think I know enough of it to write a review. I received a neat little presentation from BlogAdda on what I must do to get access to this network and review it. On second thought, I could do without it. I needed to login everyday for 5 days and review it in a week of getting access. They were flexible around my holiday but I also work about 11...

(It isn't about the book. I haven't read it. I am sorry to those who were chaperoned here by Google for the book) Indians love to argue. Whether we are young or old, happy or sad, illiterate or educated, we all love to argue and we have seen people arguing all our life. Occasionally some of us grow up to become pacifiers, mostly because at some point it can get boring or pointless and somebody would like it stopped. But most of us don't. We end up arguing all the time and loving it. It is admirable that in a country with many different hues, arguments are encouraged and stand as proof for the freedom of speech. Most arguments are healthy. Because we all love it so much we need to have one once in a while and it's not too often that they lead to any repercussions. And well some are not. But even a healthy argument can go sour if it lasts too long in our heads. Media in the recent past, has become very 'responsible' and it tries to tell you everything that ha...

I only read fiction. It's not a policy or something. I have tried reading non-fiction but I wasn't able to and I am not proud of it. But I am happy with reading fiction and I read it for a million reasons. Just talking about one for now, teleportation. Transporting yourself into a different world, at a different time, using a good story and the power of your mind, except there is no transfer of matter involved here. I am sitting right here in a bus and yet I am in the middle of a crowded Tokyo slum or in the bush in Africa or on a lonely shore in cold British Columbia or on the streets of London during the colonial times.  You get a similar surreal feeling when you walk around on a foggy day. The very streets you knew so well are suddenly transformed one morning into a different dreamland. You may wonder when you wake up and look outside your window, if you are still asleep and in a dream. Reading on a foggy day can be even more surreal. Like you are floating around on a c...

It had been a while since I blogged. I had many drafts in the making (6 to be precise, so you can expect more soon). But I was lacking that little nudge. You know, the usual reasons: busy work life, busier personal life (for the first time probably), cold weather, holiday season, and most importantly procrastination. Then I got this email the other day  that our dear old Slisha Crazy had been shortlisted for BlogAdda Awards under the category of Creative Writing. Honestly I'm flattered. It's no big deal. And I probably stood a better chance, if it had been 3 years ago when I was contributing to the blog on a daily basis; when you write 10  posts in a week, something is bound to be good. But nevertheless, I'm really excited about this.  There is 80%weight to the content and 20%weight to the social media aspect of it where I publicise the shortlist and try to get likes and tweets for it. As I said I haven't been giving enough time to it to produce creative conten...

Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans. Made popular by John Lennon. But for your life to happen you need to make plans too. Too much planning right now that I haven't written in such a while. But the good thing is I haven't stopped reading. While I still need to review the Krishna key, I am currently reading Half a Life. I also have in tow Sputnik Sweetheart and The Tale for the  Timebeing. Krishna key, Christmas and Kochi trip coming up.

Recently I noticed this picture doing the rounds on Facebook. I must say I was surprised. I assumed it was hoax. I tried to look up the Parliament archives. But before that I saw a lot of articles about this issue. It's an old forward, very very old. Obviously given it is claimed to be some 1835 archive. The forward is clearly fake. For the following reasons given by many people (who claim this is purely faked by Hindu Nationalists): 1. Lord Macaulay was in India on this date and stayed in India a few years staring 1834, that includes 2nd Feb 1835 so he could not have addressed the British Parliament. 2. Lord Macaulay would not have been addressed as Lord then because he was not a lord yet. 3. And most importantly, that this was not his exact quotation. and many more reasons I do not want to give benefit to, but basically surrounding other fringe points as above. Also many claim that it could have possibly been mis-linked to a report he produced called the "mi...

A friend of mine, non-Indian, was telling me how to pronounce my name correctly! He claimed a certain letter was silent. I told him that in my language you read and write and pronounce in the same way and there is no difference, unlike English. He asked me what my language is. I said Telugu. He asked me what my tribe is. I asked him what he meant by it. He said Telugu is my clan. So what's my tribe, what town. I said I come from a city and it's well mixed up because it's a port town. He said if India did not exist what would I call myself. It took me a couple of seconds to recover and the conversation then continued separately in my head and in my words. In my words I said may be probably "Andhrite".I never say I m an Andhrite. I always tell people I m Indian. He then asked me what caste I am from. I told him that I refuse to answer. He said so that it meant I do not subscribe to it. If I did, would I be here? I just said no I don'...

(A first meeting conversation) Where are you from? India . Yes yes, where in India? I doubt you'd know. It's a beach town on the east coast. Visakhapatnam. Oh. I've actually been to India. Oh you did? Where about? Mostly north.  ... I don't like what they did to Mumbai. What do you mean? I don't like how the government threw everyone out. All the other cities in the world throw people out organically. London becomes expensive and people leave. But mumbai was built by throwing people out. It could have been more organised. *** (Not the first time. The rest of the discussion did indeed result in fair understanding of each other's point of view) I would most definitely support a woman. Over a man. Yes, if they are equally qualified. I believe a woman worked harder than a man to get to this equal position. Now that is discrimination. *** (A first meeting conversation) Calcutta is safe. As a woman I feel it's a safe place. People come to help yo...

A tune, made of three notes in a sequence lasting roughly 6 seconds. I don't know who played it, where I heard it from or if it was really played at all. But I heard it, crystal clear.  I was walking down the road, against the tide of people pouring in into the train station in the evening rush. People everywhere,shouting, talking, screaming, laughing, and the wind in my ears making it harder to hear. Yet, through all the loudness, I heard it distinctly. With the sweetness of little bells on a little girl's dress. With the sharpness of a mind-numbing glass-shattering opera singer. With the calmness of still water rippling to music. The tune reached my ears and I stiffened. For a couple of seconds I stood still. I knew that tune but I could not place it. I turned towards the music, but that wasn't the direction it came from. And suddenly it stopped. I turned to walk away and then it began. And I was transfixed. It repeated in a loop on and on. And I knew it would ha...

I need to tag in the title that it's my 600th post. Else I lose track. So once every now and then I feel that need to turn around and look back at all the blogging I have done. Usually, it's a milestone or a birthday or simply new year . This year, I forgot my blog's birthday, like I did my sisters, like I did my parents, like my parents did mine, and like I nearly did mine! So apologises to all my friends whose birthday I forgot and congratulations to all those who wished (facebook is very dutiful). Hence, I look back at my last hundred posts (and even older). But when I do look back, it was meant to be a soul-searching sentimental feeling. So as I sat to write this post down I was struck by writers block for hours. I have indeed changed. I haven't lost the capacity to write, just to be overly sentimental. And just like that I could write again. When I look back, I often feel sad that I have changed so much, even though change is the in thing. Looking back to wh...

I find the sounds of moving trains soothing. A journey exciting. Of many different people and many different ideas and many different reasons. Moving through the platforms. Moving, walking, running. No luggage. No baggage. Some baggage. Heavy baggage. Take a train. Take the wrong one. Go to new places. Once in a while go back to an old place. Write memoirs. Write books. Travel. Watch people. Watch them play music.

Lots of blogs have written about this and everyone seems to have two cents to spare. So here I go, two pennies. If the pen is mightier than the sword, and two pens are war, there is bound to be blotches all over. To put things in perspective. The Times of India came up with campaign directly hitting at The Hindu Wake up to the Times of India: And as a reply to that The Hindu came up with an ad campaign and lots of mudslinging. Stay ahead of the Times: To which yet again Times of India replied with the following print ad. The funny thing is that all the ads are telling you the same thing. The Times of India wants to position itself as a very fun newspaper with all its interesting news bites and attracts the young to stay young. The Hindu wants to position itself as a very serious newspaper that encourages the young to stay informed about current affairs. Living in the south, even as a schoolgirl I knew The Hindu's perspective was seriou...

I just read the last year's post and definitely it seems like I have done more last year even though technically I have done more this year ! Jan: I began the year with my from Joka friends at a beach resort in Bengal. And watched a bunch of stupid fun movies with friends while I directed my play. Feb: I directed a play , and truthfully proud of it. My wing, All the Jazz bought a cricket team in ICPL, the joka version of IPL. And I completed my education. Mar: I went for a family vacation to Singapore , Malaysia and Thailand . Apr: India won the World Cup and I attended by Convocation receiving my MBA. Jun: I was home reading books and watching movies . I also started   blogging about NGOs   as a part of Blog This! Jul: I was still at home doing the same thing but I also got involved with BlogAdda, by receiving free books to review . Aug: I moved to the UK and lived out of a suitcase from hostel to hostel. I wrote my FSA exams. Sep: I moved i...

So one fine that that India won the World Cup in cricket, yes, in cricket, I know it's hard to believe now when you look at them playing in England. Where was I ? Yes, so basically I got my degree diploma actually. And I flew back to Hyderabad. My joining was about 4.5 months later and I wondered what I would do for such a long time and tried a lot of avenues to find an internship. But I must say it turned out quite fine to just laze around at home and then laze some more watching movies from morning noon to night. But I did other things as well. I read a lot of books . I watched a few movies . I took a couple of trips . I wrote for an NGO called Samhita . I worked on a project with a professor in IIMCal. I received free books to review from BlogAdda . I took up BSR with the help of BlogAdda and Samhita. All in all fun and eventful enough for a vacation. And now I head out to start working for the first time in my life. Excitement! London! Here I come! Also, I shall...

image courtesy:  http://rockincakes.blogspot.com The last year I practically went underground for my birthday in spite of being around people. I removed it from Facebook LinkedIn Orkut Extranet and any other site. So only my family and a few (read 5 or 6) friends who remembered it from the good old days of no birthday reminders wished me. This year however, I was out of station with no internet or even a mobile phone.  I travelled by train with my family all night and woke up on my birthday in Tirupati. And we walked up the 9kms of the hill up to an extremely crowded temple and out. Ate lots of laddus, tired and beat I feel asleep. Another day later I came back home to god knows how many facebook wishes it made me remember a birthday in IIT days when I was so enthu to read wishes on my orkut account. It was nice to know so many ppl wished. I thank all of you. I also thank all those who sent me emails and fb msges :)

Last week was World Environment Day and India played global host. Read all about it here , here and here . The weekend before that was when a good friend of mine, Qurious Quester came over to Hyderabad to meet me, Dee another friend from IIT days and see the city! I picked her up from the airport and headed to my house and spent a while chilling out in air conditioned environment (yes, Hyd is hot). Then we headed out to Lumbini Park where we met Dee and went up to the statue in Hussain Sagar , spent some lazy time and returned home. On Saturday we saw Charminar , shopped for bangles, walked along Laad Bazar to Chowmahalla Palace . The palace was vast and beautiful. We admired it for a while, then settled down under a tree for a picnic lunch. After lunch we realized we actually did not complete our tour. It was much bigger than we imagined. We caught sight of a few vintage vehicles as well. By now we were tired. Though the sun was not beating down on us it was still dehydrating. So w...

This year has been very eventful for me. January: Had a boring new year's party and felt bad about not being able to vote . February: Err. I acted in a play and walked down the ramp at the culfest. March: I read a lot of books . I almost read like a book a day during my wait for my UK visa. April: I went to Mumbai, stayed in Colaba and worked in Nariman for about 25 days which is almost like a dream come true ! (I promised a post and never wrote it) May: I went to the City of London , stayed at Tower Hill and worked on Liverpool Street which was way beyond my dreams ! This was also my first trip abroad. June: I went to Scotland . I got a job ! Followed FIFA from start to end for the first time (London inspired me). July: Nothing happened, including my birthday. I got my US visa. August: I went to Boston, MA to stay for the next 3 months. I enrolled in an all girls college which I have never done ! I heard I failed a course back at IIMCal. September: I went to my sister...