Best people off to one of the best travel destinations ;)

We had planned this once in 2008…but, like all Plan As, it didn’t work. And we didn’t have a Plan B then 😀  So, in 2010, we directly named it Plan B. And it’s working! 😀

Started off when one person just took the initiative and sent mails to everyone saying “We need to meet!” 😀 Guess time’s not just a healer, it also makes people sensible 😉 Because, this time, we quickly invested money and made bookings: so, now, no one plans to opt out.

On the 12th and 13th of June, 10 of us are going to be at Munnar 🙂 At the Elysium Garden Resort. And we’ve already set the mood through a Facebook page we created for this. It’s brought a lot of memories and forgotten pics back to life!!!

This is our Facebook Page’s description: Before the group began we mapped out three primary goals: 1) to see and meet every year 2) to make our bonds and relationships stronger and 3) to love each other more every year. Brilliant words, Lee!

The mail has already run into threads that crossed 100. A couple from Dufaai Dubai, a couple from Bangalore, a couple from Kochi. A girl from Bangalore, a guy from Aluva, another from Kochi and yet another from Dufaai Dubai again—we’re all discussing this, making fun of one another, making back up plans, deciding colour combos for the photo-shoot 😀 😀 😀 (so that a few years later, we won’t look like a bunch of something the cat brought in!)

We’ve arranged a tempo traveler. We’ve booked the rooms. We’ve asked for campfire and music. And we’ve planned to have a night out…to relive our college days…to refresh those memories.

People say it might rain there. So, we even have back up plans:

1. A big umbrella and one adoring husband to hold it for his ‘paavam merlin’ and all her friends who’ll huddle beneath it ;))
2. Uno Cards
3. Pictionary
4. Ludo 😀 [we used to hold championships at college; it’s part of our team’s existence ;)]
5. Photo shoots (the gang’s favourite past time; guess we did more of that than any studying at college ;))

It’s amazing how friends always catch up like there hasn’t been a day of gap. None of us ever call each other every day (or week, even!), most of us don’t mail to/chat with each other…and yet, when the trip plan popped up, we’re all in, high on enthusiasm and spirit…and memories come flooding 🙂

The last time we all had a trip was when we were in college. 16 of us went off to Thekkady-Kodaikanal. We still have very good memories of it. Thankfully, time has erased the not-so-good ones, which were few! 😉

This time, we’re hoping it’ll be a brilliant one…and that time won’t have to linger around with the eraser 😀

Just 10 more days to gooooooo. Yippeeeeee 😀

Munnar…here we come 🙂

Sophistication starts with an ‘S’. So does Stupidity :P

I am what I am! 😀

A statement like that’s the only way I can establish that if you need to like me, you just need to do it without getting judgmental or advisory 😀  Just assume that I’m a composed, sophisticated and so-full-of-attitude person. Because, sophistication does not come to me naturally. But I am trying my best 😀

I have (rather had) a habit of keeping a daily diary. And now that I’ve given it up (gave up after marriage…lest the husband gets to know the ‘real’ me ;)), I miss going back on years and reading about those days of stupidity. So, I thought, what better place than my blog to keep my secrets stupid…uh oh…keep my stupidities a secret, i meant! 😀

Anyways, here goes my favourite ones 😀 (Long-post-ahead Alert!!)

I was like 3 or 4, I used to spend the entire day in the company (or the lack of it) of my grandmother. She used to make me nap alongside her for 3 hours compulsorily (to keep me away from mischief while she slept). One day, devoid of any sleep, I was pressing her ruby locket into my arm and making impressions when she looked at me lovingly and said, “When I die, this locket will be yours.” I nodded my head and continued with the impressions; then suddenly, I woke her up from sleep and said, “marakkalle ammumma...” (Please don’t forget, Grandma). And she didn’t! It wasn’t forgotten like one for those “innocent comments” kids make. Sigh!

I was probably labelled dangerous to be left alone with Grandma any more. She feared for her life, I suppose. It was decided I was to attend kindergarten 😀

On my first day at Kindergarten, I was screaming away at full-throttle at the prospect of getting abandoned by my mom…that the teacher there made me sit on her lap to pacify me and make me feel safe. I decided that was going to be my seat everyday (and it definitely helped that she was quite plump; such comfortable seating, I say!). The next day onwards, I’d walk in, keep my bag and lunch pack on the desk allocated for me, and go climb on to her lap. 😀 It was like our family kindergarten: all my elder cousins, and my brother, had been to the same one; so, I did enjoy a level of freedom and partiality there 😉 Anyways, like most women, she also loved to gossip…and she did that religiously with the ayah there, discussing every parent that comes to drop off their kids. She once told the ayah that my mom literally throws me in and rushes off (in her defense, my poor mom had a punching system for attendance at her office and couldn’t afford to be late even by a minute!). I promptly went home and told my mom that…and she stayed a lil longer the next day to explain herself. I never retrieved my ‘comfortable’ seat after that! Sigh!

I suppose she kept tabs on me forever after that. “Teachers” were my greatest enemies ever since 😀 And especially so, if they taught either Hindi or Malayalam!

I was double promoted and put into UKG almost a month after I joined LKG. Guess she wanted me out of there asap! And then I joined an ICSE school. Since my dad had a transferable job, he decided that I should opt for Hindi as my second language, since he was sure his next transfer would be to some place in the north. And I was put into the Hindi gang there. Being an ICSE school, we had only two languages to learn. English, of course, was compulsory. And my optional was Hindi, and not Malayalam. By the time I reached my 3rd grade, Dad got his transfer to the “north”; only, it was to North Kerala, and not North India!! 😀 We packed off to Guruvayur. I was put into a CBSE school: and voila! two languages became three. English, Hindi and Malayalam. All compulsory. Damn! I was in big trouble. Our Malayalam teacher turned out to be a Sanskrit professor as well; in fact, that was her primary subject. So, one can imagine her depth of knowledge of the Malayalam language as well. I immediately got into her black list 😀 Mom became my self-proclaimed Malayalam tutor and started teaching me the alphabets. While the rest of the class raced each other in reading page-long lessons, I was trying to write “a aa e ee u uu” without mistakes 😀 Soon, it was time for the mid-term exams. I blinked. I knew the answer to just one question! I was elated too: at least, I won’t take home a zero! The question was to list two synonyms of Bhoomi (earth). I knew the answers — Kshoni and Paaru. But alas, Mom had taught me the older script, while the school was teaching the new script; in all that tension of getting spanked by the teacher again, I muddled up everything and wrote the answers in my own script. Apparently, I was destined to take home a zero! After paper valuation, my answer was read in front of the entire class. “Priya’s synonyms for Bhoomi are Keshani (gossip/jealousy) and Paara (backstabbing and the like, born out of jealousy or anger). Was a small school, and I became infamous! Sigh!

Anyways, after scraping through high school without much trouble, I got into a mad gang of friends in the 11th and 12th grades. We had an ever-irate classmate whom we all loved to fool. Once, during a free hour, we were all having fun when I saw this girl remove her shoes and stretch her toes. I slowly pulled one from under the bench and threw it out the window. Bad timing; for our Physics teacher walked by just then, looking for me! She marched in and ordered me out of the class (this had become an everyday affair, o there was no embarrassment). She’d been on her way to penalise me for writing a friend’s fair record (I loved Physics and was always more than willing to be where Physics was :D; and yes, he told me I had the best handwriting in school ;)). Anyway, she started screaming at me for being irresponsible, indisciplined and all that. And to top it all she had seen a 11th grader throw a fellow ‘studious’ 11th graders shoe out the window! And while the screaming went on, I stood there, head bent as much as it would bend, laughing my guts out and almost succeeding in keeping her unaware…till she almost went down on her knees to see my face. Though she did smile, she had a super report to give my parents! Sigh!

But she was a real sport the day I rushed in late for my 12th Boards final practical exam! I rushed into the dark coolness of the huge school building from a scorching sun, which made my eyes watery; and the running made me pant. When she hissed at me for my late arrival, all I could manage to say was, “Teacher, my grandmother…” and she just assumed my grandmother must’ve passed away! She immediately made amends, apologised (!!!) and directed me to my seat. When the external invigilator called me over to question my knowledge of the project I’d submitted, she interrupted her and told her, “Her grandmother…psst…psst…psst.” And, to my surprise, am excused from the Q&A session. AND. I passed the exam with a 29 on 30! 😉

Anyway, that marked the end of my tryst with the sciences. I was, any day, better off with Arts and the languages.

I gave up my love of Physics (my extraordinary talent in Mathematics made sure I never fared well in Physics) and chose to graduate in Literature. The college I did my graduation in, was set a little off from the main road: which meant all of us had half a kilometre to walk to and from the bus stop to college. Every evening, there would be about 100-150 girls (it was a women’s college) crowding at the highway bus stop 😉 Which meant, there’d be a good share of guys too 😀 On a certain day, a group of us girls were waiting for the bus, chatting animatedly when I noticed a guy giving our gang repeated looks and occasional smiles. And so, I told the rest of the gang “There’s a guy yonder, sending looks this way…he’s even smiling, as if we’re basking in his attention. Vrithikettavan. Vaainokki. Mazhuvan!” And then, one among the group became highly interested in the word “mazhuvan“, the meaning of which I started explaining most happily. I told her it means anything in the range of  ‘geek’, ‘useless’, ‘nerd’, ‘drip’, ‘bore’… And then, she wanted to know how I could make out so much about him. Like a wise ass, I told her, “It’s quite evident…look at his hairstyle…his stupid dressing…n that ready-made smile…and just about everything. Ivaneyokke kettunnavalde kashtakaalam (pity the girl who’ll marry him). I’d love to warn her!” “Yes. You just did,” she said, and walked off in his direction! Turned out he’d come to pick her up and was waiting for the rest of us to leave. Sigh!

Jesus! I wished I could sink through the ground then! That was the LAST time I made any comment about random people!

In spite of years of such incidents, I wonder why I took up Advertising and Public Relations for my PG! Hehe…any brand which’d trust their name in my hands would be doing so at their own risk 😉 OK! Am kidding. Am actually quite good at my work! 😀

Anyways, it was an autonomous college that focused on MBA and PGDM courses. I think the PR&Ad course was only because they liked the extra income 😉 We were a small group of 15 Malayalees in a college that hyped on MBA and PGDM, which had a high North-Indian population. And, we were the trouble makers ;); least popular of all batches 😀 They hated us, we hated them. Once, there was a National-level seminar held for the sake of the PGDMs, and since the professors didn’t trust us to behave ourselves if left alone, we were (like a punishment), asked to attend it too. And the moment the seminar got over, we sprang up from our seats and rushed out, making fun of the ‘panna’ PGDMs. I lead the rushing out, got my heel caught under the carpet and feel headlong onto the portico—in front of the entire college. I could hear gasps and murmurs. But all I could think of was the way I fell, and how hilarious it might have been to see. And, lying right there, I burst out laughing in front of some 200 odd students. Well, that was the only time some good came out of my ‘situations’. Our gang was not perceived as ‘stuck-up’ anymore! 😉

The icing on the cream cake was after my engagement. Suraj and I had created chaos in both families by falling in love: a Christian and a Hindu. After much refusal, esp. from his family, we’d gotten everyone to agree. Finally, the dates were fixed, and cards were printed. There was a formality of the bride’s parents “inviting” the bridegroom’s parents. We were on our way back to Trivandrum from Guruvayur, and dropped in at his place in Kochi. According to Hindu traditions, the bride does NOT step into the groom’s house before marriage! I was only too happy to stay back in the car. But his dad was a sport and welcomed me also in, saying, “We Christians don’t have such beliefs. Come on in.” I give a shy smile (pretending to be the polite daughter-in-law of their dreams), remove my shoe and (as is considered auspicious) keep my right foot on the first step. Boom! The transformer nearby burns off with a terrifying boom and vibrations, causing a bike to fall off its stand against the neighbour’s gate and crash. And obviously, the power goes off! Just like in the movies 😀 His dad managed to hold on to that smile, and (a little falteringly this time) repeats, “Come right in.” How I managed to sit through 20 minutes without bursting out laughing, I alone know! Damn, what an impression that must’ve made. Sigh!

The consequences…and my learnings:

• I hate gold (and valuable jewellery) and did NOT inherit my grandmother’s locket even after she passed away 9 months back.
• I’ve realised that gossiping (and even being a mute audience to it) does one no good; and try and abstain from it as much as is possible.
• I have learnt to read and write Malayalam, in whichever script and font size it may be!
• I do not throw shoes out the window anymore (but I still haven’t learnt to control my urge to laugh when I’m being scolded!)
• I’ve never, since, started any sentence with “my grandmother”, esp right after running!
• I do not make comments about random people anymore.
• I do not wear heels anymore.
• I swear never to step into the bridegroom’s house before my wedding, anymore. [I lead a very happily married life, and have proved that such incidents do not spell disasters (for marriages)!]

Carrot-top marries Brinjal-head ;)

Quite a shocker, though!

I always thought blondes were just picturised as dumb — seems they are pretty unlucky too! 😀 Poor thing…after a 67-year-long wait, she gets ditched!

Guess some guys love being strung from the little finger of the girl. 😉 Or maybe it was the money…it being recession and all. US being the worst hit, am sure he was actually being sensible for once. Why else would Archie marry Veronica? Betty was always the better one — sugar and spice and all things nice.

Now, wonder if it’s just a teaser…to bring people back into the lives of Archie and his gang.

I remember how crazy I was about the whole Archie business. I remember telling my mom that someday I’ll make lots of money, babysitting someone’s kid. I loved ‘chocolate sundaes’ just because the gang always had them at Pops’. But I never had them for real until years later 😀

I used to compare most girls between Veronica and Betty: and always ended up having more veronicas–because none of my friends/acquaintances knitted sweaters or cooked surprise dinners or baby-sat for a couple in the next street 😀

‘You’re worse than Reggie” or “Moose is more intelligent” were oft quoted phrases to male classmates. Some of them wondered if these were new abuses 😀 (Like the guy who thought toching a girl makes him pregnant 😉 )

...but looks like he finally did decide! 😀

I longed to eat hamburgers the way Jughead did. Finally, when the first pizza-hamburger shop opened in Trivandrum, I rushed to get one for myself. Sadly, I realised it didn’t fit into my mouth! Well, after all these years, I still can’t manage to eat one without messing up my face, dress and my immediate surroundings! 😀

I always thought Midge was a beauty! The way Moose hovers around her like this protective shield was one of the sweetest things. The one funniest thing I remember about Archie n Moose is when Moose decided to punch Archie and he says “Count till 10 before you hit me, Moose.” At the count of monte cristo 7, Moose gets stuck — and Archie escapes 😉

And of course, Big Ethel! I always thought a certain friend of my best friend looked exactly like Big Ethel. And we both used to laugh our guts out whenever we see either Big Ethel or Lekha. 😀

What will Reggie do now? He always had a thing for the brunette. Mr Lodge must have had a siezure when he heard the news! Or maybe he’s dead — he was quite old then itself 😀 Or, maybe he died when he heard the news! He despised the ‘boy’ so much!

And am sure Jughead must be pissed: he never quite liked Veronica. Well, he never quite liked any female other than female-hamburgers, if there were any…but between these two, am sure he’d have preferred his best friend kneeling down in front of Betty. 😉

Waiting to grab the first issue of the latest season in August! 😀

Life was like that! Fun, not obnoxious!

The only part of work-life that I enjoy these days are the 2 hours that I spend in the bus — one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening at night 😀

The instances of ‘life’ that pass one by — a couple in front of small juice-shops, the crowd around a pani-puri wala, the more affluent groups in a Cafe Coffee Day, a smokers’ group under a tree’s umbrella, a daily chat-point in the middle of a busy footpath — are priceless and has a nostalgic value that transports one to their own such days.

Invariably, every single day, when such instances pass by me, I re-visit my school and college days (though we never belonged to the affluent CCD types or the smokers 😉 ). I think of the friend groups that I belonged to — which would fall into at least two of the above mentioned categories…and I long to go back to those days. Only, I’m not quite sure which group/period I’d love going back to the most. All of those are unique in their own ways.

And now, when I think of friends, I think of the number of leaves I must apply for. The early parts of 2009 (and the later parts of 2008 ) seems to be a marriage season for my friend groups. Since August 2008, already 7 friends of mine have got married — 2 of them are on queue, and will be married soon!

The most fun, I’d say happened during Post Graduation Days. I did my PG in a college that had (still has) a dictator for a director…and the most unbelievable rules. Our batch, the only all-Malayalee batch till then (among the different streams of courses, and among the different batches in our own stream), re-wrote a few lines in the college’s proud ‘disciplinary’ history.

We bunked our mid-semester exams. Something no one till then hadn’t (and wouldn’t) even dreamt of!

We were 15 of us, from various parts of Kerala. When chicken pox broke out in the college and the hostels were vacated for quarantine, I  declared that exams’d been postponed (I and Merlin were the only hostelites) — and all of us happily went home! In fact, when the class rep called us all up the next day morning to inform us that the exams were not called off, we were all in various parts of the state and simply refused to return! 😀 For the same reason, ours became the only batch which got a mass suspension! 😉

The icing on the cake was when, during one of our film production classes, we were asked to write a small 5-minute script — any plot, any idea, any genre. We presented a spoof on an issue that’d popped up between the Director and one of our classmates.

There was a bus strike on a particular day, and this classmate of ours, who comes to college in her own car everyday, took a leave and cited the bus strike as an excuse. The Director was furious! What followed was a major blasting session in his room — she was asked never to enter the college campus in her car! 😀

With this incident in mind, we scripted the following story:

A few points: The college’s name is SCMS; the Director’s name is Mr Pramod Thevannoor (who is a renowned smoker 😉 ); our roll numbers were ‘FP – xxx’. I and Manju (another of my classmates) actually went up to the front of the class room and enacted the whole thing! 😀 And so went the ‘script’ :

This is a real life story…a short one…just two days old…the story of Candida Joseph! Candy was shocked when the faculty assistant barged into the class and announced that HP-176 was to meet Mr Priyesh Perumbavur, with immediate effect! From her very first day at MCSS College, she had realised the mistake of her lifetime — joining there!! Now with this added headache, reluctantly she walked to the Corporate Office. The issue was simple: why was she absent the previous day! That too, when there was a bus strike going on..!! Waving her rejected leave application on her face, the Director was demanding for a reason. Fighting the clouds of cigarette smoke in the cabin, she racked her brain for an apt explanation. Was it her fault that everyone on campus knew she drove to college in her own car?? Obviously not!!  And the Director was not at all amused by the bus strike story. His decision was rather quick…she was expected never to take a leave again. And not just that…she was banned entry into campus if she came in any vehicle owned by her or her family!! The watchmen were told not to let her enter the college if she did so…and they jumped with joy!! Candy was flustered…depressly oppressed. What the **** is his problem? Candy set her mind on revenge!! REVENNNNNNNGE (BG Music:tatata tatataaa…Sethuramaiyer CBI tune) Money was never a problem for Candy. In a couple of days, MCSS had a new neighbour! Whozzat??? Candy! She bought a plot, right next to the college premises!! Not only did Candy come to college everyday, she came in her own car…and where did she park it?? In her new plot, her very own parking area…right where the Director could see it through his window!
A new beginning…… and……. Thank You…!

Yes, obviously, the Director had his own sources; he got to know and was furious! The funniest part was that the classmate who depicted ‘Candida’ was on leave the day we did this scripting exercise. But the next day when she came to college, she was called again by the Director and asked to stay away from college until she brought her parents and apologised to the Director! 😀

Well, we had a lot of explaining to do to the poor girl who was at a total loss! 😀

Those were the days! Miss all you guys and gals! Sigh!

Look forward to a one-hour bus journey tomorrow too…and look forward JUST to that! 😀

And yea, “Hi everyone. Just to let you now that I am alive!”

countdown to 21 June!

an exciting plan…a bunch of enthused friends…100+ excited mails…fixing of dates…fixing of venues…crosschecking availabilities and conveniences…and the countdown to June 21! 🙂

there were 15 of us in our PR&Ad class in college—5 guys and 11 gals…OK…wrong math…

there were 16 of us in our PR&Ad class in college—5 guys and 11 gals—and one year of togetherness: the joys, the suspension (!!), the unity, the rifts, the support, the quarrels, the fun-times, the bitching (fun again!), the backstabbing, the strong friendships, the new relations, the joys…well, life’s a full circle!

In a college predominant with north Indian students, ours had been the only class with an only-Keralites population! Though we were all 16 totally different people—in the true sense of the word ‘totally’—probably because of the ‘spirit-of-the-Malayali’, we had a strange unity which was lacking in all the other courses/classes taken together!! And so, even when we got suspended (for bunking our half term exams!), all 16 of us were in it together! (Actually, no…there was one guy who didn’t; but we managed to get him dismissed forever! The things people do in colleges!!)

It was a strange year…that one year at SCMS. Within a small group of just 15 (not wrong math…remember one went off forever?), we somehow managed to have the number of ‘issues’ and quarrels you’d actually expect from a group of 50! Within the class, most of us had problems with the other; but between us and the college management, we were one! Between one group of friends and the other, there were never-ending troubles; but between us and the rest of the students in that college, we were one! Even after college, rifts between individuals continued; but when it came to a meet-up after two loooong years, we were all game!

Of this 15, though only 13 were invited (along with their spouses/future-spouses) for The Meet (TM henceforth 😀 ). Of that 13, one was in Bahrain, one in Dubai, one in Chennai, one in Hyderabad, four in Kochi, and the remaining five in Bangalore. Since “majority wins” is a universally accepted slogan, we decided TM should happen at Bangalore…the dates 21 and 22 June were blocked in everyone’s calendar…and awww…the excitement that went into it…

Jaya started the mail-threads…telling everyone to gear up • Gulfu took charge of booking the venue • Leena and I contributed to the mails…doesn’t cost anything to motivate people, does it? • We fought with Manju—for saying she might not be able to come because of a company review (and gave her sound advices: there are a million other companies you can get into, but friends like us, there’s jus us!) • We implored Raju, who’d come from Dubai for a short stay with his folks, to extend his visa up to 25th • Biju, as always, was game—any day, any time, any place: just tell him and he’ll be there! • We told Poornima to make sure tickets from Bahrain are booked well in advance…and to even pre-pone her university viva if possible 😀 , so that she can make it to India! • We told Siji to make sure her 3-month old baby is all fine—and make it for TM • We told Rakhi to ditch her first film’s music launch (she’s a singer) and come over to Bangalore • We told Deepti to book flights from Hyderabad to and from Bangalore for at least one day (since her dad wasn’t too happy with the idea of sending her over for ‘a weekend’) • Breeze had her MBA exams going on…and was all teary-eyed (we’re sure) for missing out on the fun! • Merlin is always waiting for a chance to escape from the heat of Chennai…she doesn’t need any coaxing!

the thrilling plan…13 enthused friends…100+ excited mails…fixing 21 and 22 June…fixing venue—a jungle resort (!?)…crosschecking availabilities and conveniences…and the countdown to June 21…until it all boiled down to nothing!

It never happened…hehe…yes, you read it right, it never happened!!! We are still that same group of 16—well, 13 according to the new statistic—13 totally different individuals; though as a group we were all excited and united, guess within everyone (knowing each other as well as we do) there was a guarantee that it’d finally be all smoke and no fire! 😀

It’s always like this…when we do/plan something with all excitement, especially if it is well in advance, like a much-awaited film; a highly anticipated trip; a dress given at the tailor, which you are so looking forward to get back (this happens to me every single time, damn!); anything, anything at all that you are hopeful of—Murphy is sure to mark his attendance!!! But well, we are all still positive…we still hope…we still anticipate; and so I’m still hopeful we will have TM someday, won’t we, friends? Unless 13 is that bad a number!! 😉 (It’s good to always have a back-up excuse; let’s point fingers at 13!)

I dedicate this post to all members of the SCMS PR&A—2005-06 batch! 🙂