Ramblings...

I met a lady on the road the other day, while out with my dog for her evening walk. This lady obviously has some kind of puja that she does on a regular basis. As I passed her, she emptied a whole packet of vegetable peels in front of a cow, took a round of the cow muttering some chant under her breath, threw the empty packet on the side of the road, and walked off.

On the other hand, I met two very nice strangers today. I had only a 500 hundred rupees note in my wallet today, and needed change for my bus ride home. My usual source of change - the Xerox guy - let me down, so I stopped at the market near campus to try my luck there. The first shop I went to turned me down, but as I was leaving, one of the girls sitting there asked if 100 rupees notes would do. I said "sure!" and she handed them over. Not too many people part with their smaller notes so willingly.

I have so far very carefully resisted complaining about my issues with the public transport system on this blog. Suffice it to say, I don't like it. It is a complete pain, and getting home everyday takes me far longer than it should. Moving on. So today, classes got over early and the bus which brings me closer home wasn't due till two. Unwilling to wait two hours, I took the bus which brings me to just short of the border. From there, I took a cab to my usual bus stop, a ride that typically costs five bucks. There were three of us in the cab, and on the way to our regular bus stop, the driver asked us if we're students. All of us nodded. When we got to our destination, we held out the money but he actually refused to take it.

I've noticed the fact that I'm a student seems to get me some extra benefits from time to time. A couple of weeks back, I was late for class as usual, and there was no auto in sight. One finally showed up, and I hailed it with relief. Unfortunately, I didn't notice that there was an old army-type gentleman right behind me who had also hailed the same auto, and who therefore claimed he should get it. After growing increasingly belligerent for about five minutes, he finally asked me where I had to go. I said I have to go to college, and his entire demeanor changed. He made me get into the auto, and was practically blessing me by the time I left.

The point of this entry, you ask? You meet all sorts of people on the road. Plus I am fed up with my dissertation, and refuse to work on it tonight. And there's the fact that I wanted to cross last February's record of seven entries. Ooh, and today's the 29th of February. For another half an hour. Awfully apt title today, innit?

Wotchoo lookin' for?

My blog's become extremely popular in the Google searches over the last two-three months, the most popular searches being "beautiful in my eyes", "empirical proof", and "haldi milk", in that order. Sundry searches for cures for hypochodriasis, a place to stay in San Francisco, the OotP movie (including one for "injuries in the harry potter and the order of the phoenix movie"!) and Uncle Chipps have also brought a lot of visitors to my blog. The funniest so far, in my opinion, have been "my friends call me a feminist", "cars for family of five", and "one quality to pass on ur kid." I mean, seriously, my blog giving advice on child-rearing?

These searches have also helped me correct a lot of spellings on my blog too. Had you noticed, for example, that for the first year of its existence, the word 'idiosyncrasies' was spelled incorrectly in the 'About Me' section?

I am particularly intrigued, however, by this morning's visitor's search: "explain how to open a email". Most people I know figure out the email bit before they learn to search for things online. This person obviously did it the other way round. Good for him/her!

Awake at 3 AM...

I love maths, I do. Not the overly complicated stuff, but statistics and trigonometry and algebra... it always gave me a rush in school when I could solve any particularly tricky problem.

I left maths as a subject after school, and my association with it has been limited to statistics. I'd almost forgotten how I used to love the subject till tonight. I put off the statistics part of my dissertation till tonight, and while working on my literature review invariably made me sleepy by midnight tops, here I am, at 3.15 AM, wide awake and alert.

I've missed this.

Meme #1: The GHM

Google Reader's blog search function helped me come across two posts with Georgette Heyer mentioned in them, and with a nice little meme.

Anyone who has ever fallen in love with her version of the GHM, I tag you. Write a post, it doesn't have to be very big, about that person – literary character, comic book hero, some guy in a movie, a random person you'll never meet – we’ll start a list that will probably never end.

The meme's interesting, but I honestly can't think of any one GHM who made me go weak at the knees. Books just never did that for me. I love Heyer's romances, yes, and I've been reading Mills & Boons for year now, but my issue with all the men in all these books has always been that they are just too... overbearing. And omniscient. Especially the Heyer-oes. Beaumaris, Alverstoke, Sylvester, Avon - you pick any of them, you'll see it. They just know everything. And I don't quite like that. By that logic though, my favourite Heyero would probably be Freddy Standen, who just stumbles through the whole book, finding unexpected depths to himself by sheer luck, and is just about the most endearing guy from any book. But know, he's not the GHM for me either.

But anyway, whoever you are, if you have or have had a GHM in your life, you are hereby tagged.

PS: After some more thought, I have realised that Jonathan Trager from Serendipity, followed very closely by Aditya Kashyap of Jab We Met, come extremely close to being my GHM. And Oliver Barrett IV from the only book which has ever made me cry (while every other movie makes me howl invariably) comes a very close third.

PS2: Dissertation due in just about a week; stress levels running high; no time whatsoever. You can therefore safely assume there will be frequent updates in the days to come.

The greatest love of all...

...to quote Whitney Houston (well, not her exactly, but she sang the version of the song I have, so we'll just go with that) is learning to love yourself.

I've never been particularly fond of myself, but I have now decided I must take baby steps towards being more positively inclined towards myself. And valentine's Day having ended less than two hours ago, it seemed like the appropriate time to blog about it.

The first step was achieved some weeks back, when I finally accepted that almost everyone I know is right: I do have gorgeous hair. It's black, straight, and has grown to a very nice length, thank you. (I could also tell you what I don't like about it, but we'll not go there; we're being positive here.)

I insert too many side comments during my posts.

Less self-criticism should probably be the next baby step no?

Brrr...

It's like the Weather Man just can't keep track of what the weather's supposed to be like in February.

What I don't like about winter: Washing my hands in that cold water.

What I really really don't like about winter: The wind!!! :(

What I do like about winter: Wearing a jacket after a few days' break and finding money in the pocket!!! :)

Job satisfaction?!?

Oh dear dear... HR really does need to get its act together here.

glumbert - Bad Day at the Office

Brilliant, ain't it?

Saturation point anyone?

Did you know I am fed up with hearing about what the Bachchan family is up to every time I happen to put on the news? And that I really don't care what Kareena and Saif are up to? Yet, this is the stuff the news channels keep harping about these days. Not much I can do about it, except stay away from Aaj Tak as much as possible.

There's a gentleman who happens to have reached his saturation point as far as reading about farmer suicides goes. Are we really to stop "harping" about things that are sad realities just because some people are fed up with these issues? Yet carry on with the intimate details of the lives of random people who just happen to be in the business of entertainment?

What's a 'poorist', by the bye? The Free Dictionary doesn't seem to know the word.