And I quote...

from this reeeeaallly awesome episode of One Tree Hill. I swear, I love these lines. I know I've sent this to everyone I know already, but they are just so meaningful. It's what they say in the background when Jimmy shoots himself and Dan shoots Keith.

Does this darkness have a name?

this cruelty, this hatred?

How did it find us?

Did it steal into our lives?

Or did we seek it out and embrace it?

What happened to us?

That we now send children into the world like we send young men to war,

hoping for their safe return,but knowing that some will be lost along the way.

When did we lose our way?

Consumed by the shadows, swallowed whole by the darkness.

Does this darkness have a name?

Is it your name?

Human Greatness

Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Beethoven...these are names that inspire. When you hear their stories; their pain, their suffering, and how in the face of so much adversity, they overcame, you cannot help but bow to their greatness. But these names, and so many others, are but names in a book of history. In this world of rage and apathy, are there still those to whom we can look up in awe? Is there someone who can inspire a people ruled by the gods of marijuana and alcohol?

Human greatness is supposed to be a reason for us to believe again. A tiny light in a in a sea of futility and despair. It is now, however, simply a product of commercialism.

Today, you are what the media makes you. You are as great as the products you endorse. Wanna feel as great as Scholes? Wear Nike. Yeah dude, like..just do it and stuff. Yeah, Lance Armstrong's my idol, man. I wear a Livestrong band.

That's our tribute to human greatness. Creating and propogating a lifestyle.

Successfully Spliced

The chains that bound me to my chair were stronger than iron, my very essence throbbed with the futility of escape, and try as I may to ignore them, the horrid faux eyebrows caught my eyes and held them in a vice-like grip. I was stuck in the physics lab for another hour....

But let's not waste time on mere details. I have been advised by many to learn the art of separating the essentials from the irrelevant. Indeed, my mother tells me often enough that everything I claim to need is irrelevant...but again, I digress. This is a summary of the most significant of today's events in chronological order.

(none)

OK. That was relatively easy. My life expressed in a word. But more on that later. Now, I would like to make a few additions to my must listen to music list. They are as follows...

Love is only a feeling - The Darkness
Jesus of Suburbia - Green Day
Africa - Toto

And for those of you who may be interested, which I am guessing is no one, a new OTH episode will be showing today. The entire town reverberates with the deaths of Keith and Jimmy.
That was the episode summarized in a sentence...I am improving!

until next time...

Picture Perfect

and aren't they just? Just looking at this pic puts a smile on my face.

The Day the Music Died

Music...real music is an abstract projection of human life. Alot of people think that the kind of music I like is crap. But I think GOOD music, is something that brings out your most primitive emotions. Just listening to it will make you smile, or make you feel empty, or make you ache. Sure, Linkin Park and Guns and Roses and similar bands make COOL music. But those songs never make me suddenly feel free carefree, like The Remedy..or make my hair stand on end like Unwell...or make my throat clench and fill me with an inexplicable sadness like Yesterday.

Dunno why I'm writing this really...I guess I just really want to share that feeling. The feeling you get when you fall in love with music. When it becomes more than a tune and some lyrics. When it becomes a sort of concentrated emotion. I was just listening to Norah Jones..and well, you will probably laugh, but I just got that feeling again and I felt like I had to write about it...
I really hope you find it.

Here's the song I was listening to. It's called Nightingale by Norah Jones.

Nightingale
Sing us a song
Of a love that once belonged
Nightingale
Tell me your tale
Was your journey far too long?

Does it seem like I'm looking for an answer
To a question I can't ask
I don't know which way the feather falls
Or if I should blow it to the left

All the voices that are spinnin' around me
Trying to tell me what to say
Can I fly right behind you
And you can take me away

A Five-sided Farce

I don't really have a good picture of all of us to put up here (don't think the stupid thing would work even if I did). But I think I can safely say that most of you that read this would have seen us and know reasonably well what we look like.

So..let's go in alphabetical order(which I think is soo much better that what the Von Trappe family did, I mean, numbering children? There is something seriously wrong with that sort of psyche...so does that mean that roll numbers are proof that the educational establishment is deranged?).

Aditi...wow, I really admire this girl. She's just so dedicated to what she does. She knows exactly who she is and what she is about. She would never change for anyone or anything. There's something very stable, constant about Aditi (this obviously excludes the times when her mind unhinges and she proceeds to have apopoleptic seizures over the simplest of rhyming words..let me give you an example...dum and bum..). Unfortunately she also seems to obtain a particular pleasure in projecting liquids from various parts of her face onto innocent bystanders ; milk through her nose, water through her mouth, there was even an instance of tomato soup.

Hema...you know, I have always nurtured a very small feeling of jealousy for Hema. She's got it all. Brains, and alot at that, looks (please don't take this the wrong way), talent, and she is inspite of all this, in contradiction to popular stereotype, an extremely nice person. She's a romantic at heart, like me. She also has astonishing emotional volatility. She will be laughing her head off one minute and be crying the next (this is FYI, mostly in theatres, don't get the wrong idea..). Seriously, they should do a research project on it or something on it..

Tara...she's the glue that holds this dysfunctional group together. She's the one you go to when your feeling down. I think three-fourth of the time we spend together goes into laughing at her jokes. She just has this natural affinity towards people. Wherever she goes, she unconciously draws a crowd. It's like she just has to look at people and they're her best friends. I don't know what it is she uses, but she should bottle it and sell it.

Vasudha...she and I go back a long way. A long, rather emabarrassing way, that would best be forgotten, but none the less. We've sat together in the bus for 6 years. And the best part about that is, there is never any need for forced conversations or uncomfortable silences. I'm not a very conversational person at the best of times and she understands that, and accepts it without judgement. She's the one I make up silly stories with, and bitch about, certain people I would rather not name, with. Our latest venture has been "The adventures of Pretty Girl and Dream Boy" and its sequel, "The further adventures of Pretty Girl and Dream Boy".

We all hate each other, which is I think, the reason why we love each other so much (no I'm not crazy). Some of my best memories in the school have been with these four. So I guess, this is for you guys...don't know what I would do without you. I love you all so much.

Kumarans sucks?

Kumar recently posted an article on the general worthlessness of Kumarans. The long and short of it was this - we are paying the school to kick us out of classes and threaten us with expulsion.We shouldn't take all that crap. We should emulate rang de basanti and rebel.

With all due respect, I beg to differ. Our school's management is based on the principle of profit and loss. Their system, when broken down into black and white, is simple. We pay them for quality education, and we expect to see results. Now, if students refuse to co-operate in class, they won't learn. If they don't learn, they won't get results. If they don't get results, they would lose their customers, namely, our parents. Consumers aren't interested in the reason for the school's failure to teach their children. What they are interested in, is whether or not their child is finally performing or not. And if Kumarans cannot meet their demands, they will find another school that can.

No one who has been in one of our classes can honestly say that there is no need to threaten us to make us settle down and listen. At the end of the day, the school is just trying to do what they are paid to do. Make us learn.

As to the reason why we pay them...it's simple. As long as they're giving us what we want, we will continue to pay them. As soon as they stop, we will too.

It's nothing personal KR. This is just the way I see it.

Humour, ripped and burned

Here are some funny quotes. Aditi, you'll love this..

I will not eat oysters. I want my food dead. Not sick -- not wounded -- dead."
Woody Allen

"I love children, especially when they cry, for then someone takes them away."
Nancy Mitford

"Never raise your hands to your kids. It leaves your groin unprotected."
Red Buttons

"A child of five would understand this. Send someone to fetch a child of five."
Groucho Marx

"If only God would give me some clear sign! Like making a large deposit in my name in a Swiss bank."
Woody Allen

"I tended to place my wife under a pedestal."
Woody Allen

"Whenever I see an old lady slip and fall on a wet sidewalk, my first instinct is to laugh. But then I think, what if I was an ant, and she fell on me. Then it wouldn't seem quite so funny."
Jack Handey

"I think a good novel would be where a bunch of men on a ship are looking for a whale. They look and look, but you know what? They never find him. And you know why they never find him? It doesn't say. The book leaves it up to you, the reader, to decide. Then, at the very end, there's a page you can lick and it tastes like Kool-Aid."
Jack Handey

"Once had a rose named after me and I was very flattered. But I was not pleased to read the description in the catalogue: "No good in a bed, but fine up against a wall."
Eleanor Roosevelt

"By all means marry. If you get a good wife, you'll become happy; If you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher."
Socrates

"My luck is so bad that if I bought a cemetery, people would stop dying."
Ed Furgol

"What's the use of happiness? It can't buy you money."
Henny Youngman

"I never drink water because of the disgusting things that fish do in it."
W C Fields

"I had a terrible education. I attended a school for emotionally disturbed teachers."
Woody Allen

"I am thankful for laughter, except when milk comes out of my nose."
Woody Allen

"I can remember when the air was clean and sex was dirty."
George Burns

Normal Day

Today was your average run-of-the-mill day. Nothing out of the ordinary...Tara dissed a few people...the Bio teacher ground us under the Senior's pedestal...gt burned in the Chem lab...some of the guys narrowly escaped death by concussion a couple of times while playing cricket without helmets...Spent an hour trying desperately not to look at Chari's underwear...wasted an entire evening downloading One Tree Hill episodes worth a rat's ass at the speed with which Soughandhica sprints..

Hmmm...I wonder if tommorow will be as uneventful. Maybe a certain "Pura's" bottom will finally surrender to the forces of gravity and fall off?

But i suppose that's too much to hope for.

Apparently, this site has been forbidden to me and everyone else, so i'll take this opportunity to attempt another visual blog. This one however, I'm gonna dedicate to Kunal Kapoor...because, just looking at him gets my heart racing.

My List of Music that You Have to Listen to Before You Die or You Wouldn’t Have Lived a Full Life:

Warning: The kind of music that does it for me is the stuff with real melody. I like bluesy, jazzy rock, its derivatives and sources. So if you’re the kind of person who likes metal, punk rock, gangsta rap or any other kind of badass music, maybe you shouldn’t be reading this list.

No Such Thing, Why Georgia, I’m Never Speaking, 3x5, Love Song for No one, Neon, You Body is a Wonderland, 1983, Daughters – John Mayer
Chariot, I Don’t Wanna Be, Chemical Party, Overrated – Gavin DeGraw
Dare to Move – Switchfoot
Starcrossed – Ash
My Immortal – Evanescence
Hey Jude, Yesterday, I’m a Believer – The Beatles
Yellow, Swallowed in the Sea, Fix You – Coldplay
Wonderful World – Louis Armstrong
Hero, Shake it off, We Belong Together – Mariah Carey
All I Need, She Will Be Loved – Maroon 5
Heaven – Los Lonely Boys
La Tortura – Shakira
Everyday is a Winding Road, The First Cut is the Deepest – Sheryl Crow
The Remedy – Jason Mraz
All Star, And then the Morning Comes – Smashmouth
When I’m Gone – Eminem
Let's Get it Started - The Black Eyes Peas
And of course, the Rang De Basanti Soundtrack.

This is all that I can think of for now.

Clarifications

I just wanted to make it very clear that I am NOT an atheist. Not in the least. I just don't believe in some of the rituals that Hinduism deems necessary to do. I don't believe that its necessary to go to a temple to pray. I don't believe that one shouldn't eat meat because one belongs to a certain caste. I don't believe in, and can't help being a little grossed out, by the Hindu practice of sprinkling kumkum and flowers and stuff in rice and then eating it. I believe there is a God, or some higher power that controls what happens to us. And I think that one should pray to God. I just don't think that one should have to do it in a particular way. Its all about believing, right? Shouldn't one be able to worship the way he or she believes it should be done? Religious Freedom, that's what I believe in.

Another Attempt

Going to try this ONE more time...so wish me luck. Let's see if this site decides to post my pictures this time. .......AND SUCCESS!!!!! OK, the first guy is James Lafferty, best known for his role as Nathan on the tv show One Tree Hill. The second two are of course from Rang De Basanti...I don't think there is any need for an intro.

Just thought I'd give all my straight female and gay male readers a little treat for the eyes.

Celebration?

I'm sitting here wondering how relevent the word "celebration" is right now.

On this most holiest of days, whose name I have temporarily forgotten(which doesn't even matter because I wouldn't have been able to spell it even if I remembered), I have been made to "celebrate" some religious event(which again I have either forgotten or never knew in the first place, not sure which) by touching a pathetically small flame and prostrating myself in front of the picture of a God. Then, a particularly vile - smelling flower was tied around my neck by means of a string of the most horrible shade of yellow. Apparently this is supposed to protect me and my future family from harm. Even after stretching my considerable imagination to the very limit, I am unable to accept that a flower that will wilt and die and probably induce an allergic reaction before the end of the day will be able to shield me and my hypothetical future family from death and poverty and similar misfortunes.

On the other hand, I will not be able to "celebrate" Holy tommorow, because the school and its management, tyrants that they are, have not declared it a holiday tommorow. And my parents, though the wisest of the wise in many aspects, refuse to understand the need to bunk school once in a while to have some good old-fashioned fun. For that matter, they never understand why I should be allowed to bunk school for any reason. I think it is a very sorry state of affairs when one as young as I is forced to prefix the word fun with an adjective like old-fashioned.

But of course, I am exaggerating, as I am always inclined to do when I plonk myself down on my backside in front of a computer screen. I think it has something to do with my complete lack of movement with the exeption of my fingers. My thoughts tend to get excessively magnified while being transfered into text. It's one of my better faults...but I'm working on it.

Sorry

i tried to make a wholly visual post, but this stupid site keeps claiming to have uploaded all my images when none of them are. i am utterly hopeless at figuring out stuff like this. So if anyone would care to help me out...let me know how to make this worthless site add my images. And also, all my posts have been displayed under the same date even though i have written them over the span of a week...so if you could let me know how to rectify that, i would be grateful.

I wanna make a visual post today instead of the usual boring text. i have do theme in particular, so im gonna add anything that i like (which will mostly include eyecandy and scenes from my fav tv show, one tree hill)

Lazy Hazy Days

Today was exactly what a Sunday should be. Woke up at the shameless hour of 11:30. Ate lunch and slept again. Woke up at 5 feeling faintly euphoric. It's rather sad really....it seems like days like this come my way so rarely. And when they do, I get to enjoy them for precisely as long as my brain remains static. As soon as I start thinking about why I'm not thinking, I start thinking about what I should be thinking and guilt sets in. Which triggers my most fundamental reflex which is to make my self stop thinking....which makes me think some more. And the upshot of this confusing mess of neurological synapses shooting around my head is a level 10 headache.......and that's the end of my perfect day.

Siiigh....but let's save that for later. Right now, my stomach is full and I am well-rested. My thought processes follow no logical pattern as they meander through my brain at an improbability level of 58769357384930 to 1 and falling. It all feels like a John Mayer song.....calm, mellow, never faster than a butterfly, always erratic.

Wow..I'm almost in a zen state of mind. Feeling nothing but bliss. Huuummmmm....huuummmm....breathe in.....breathe oouuuuttt....slowly...now childrens, we will be doing the shavasana.

Ok, ending on a spiritual note, this is another great song by Gavin Degraw called Chariot.


Chariot

Staring at a maple leaf
Leaning on the mother tree
I said to myself we all lost touch
Your favorite fruit is chocolate covered cherries
And seedless watermelon oh…
Nothing from the ground is good enough
Body rise
Look whats over me

[Chorus:]
Oh chariot your golden waves
are walking down upon this face
Oh chariot I'm singing out loud
To guide me
Give me your:
Strength

Remember seeing moons rebirth
Rains made mirrors of the earth
The sun was just yellow energy
There is a living promise land
Even over fields of sand
Seasons fill my mind and
Cover me…Bringing back
more than a memory

[Chorus]
Oh chariot your golden waves
are walking down upon this face
Oh chariot I'm singing out loud
to guide me

Give me your strength…
You'll be my vacation away from this place
you know what I want
Holding that cup,It's pouring over the sides…
Make me wanna spread my arms and fly

[Chorus]
Oh chariot your golden waves
are walking down upon this face
Oh chariot I'm singing out loud
To guide me
Give me your strength

Today, I saw something extraordinary. It left me stunned, speechless. Today, I caught a glimpse of Pura ma'am's abnormally large behind. Pura ma'am, I believe, must be atleast as old as Methuseleh. She has seen the rise and fall of civilisations. She was there when Egypt invented the orgy, when England made fornication legal, when Madonna was still a virgin. And it is widely believed among the Kumaran student community, that Pura ma'am's behind grew to its record biggest during the last years of the iceage causing an imbalance in the distribution of mass on the earth's surface. This, infact, tilted the earth about its axis of rotation by 22 1/2 degrees leading to a large scale climatic shift. Thus ended the iceage.

The body of a mammoth was recovered recently in Greenland, frozen inside a block of ice. After extensive paleantological analysis, it has been concluded that its dying words were,"I will see you in the portals of Halifax, oh derriere grande!"

Rang De Basanti

OK...I know that this is a little played out, but MY blog HAS to have something on this movie because it is only THE BEST movie that I have ever seen.

It's epic, moving, powerful. It has the 3 essential components of a landmark production; good music, good script, good acting. Bonus points for the black and white parallels and the hot actors. ...Seriously, if for nothing else, watch it for the hot actors. And make sure you bring a couple of tissues because if you have an ounce of human emotion, you will be weeping by the end of this movie.

I know this review sucks, so for a really good review, go to http://theunforgivenme.blogspot.com Pranave's review really does the film justice. I can't begin to describe just how kickass AWESOME it is!!!

Dreams

All my life, I've dreamt of becoming a successful person. I dreamt that one day, when i grew up, I would know exactly what I wanted to be, and I would be the best at what i did. I would grab life by the horns and twist it to my will.
It all seemed so simple when success was just a shadow in the distant future. Blurry around the edges, filled with possibility.

But now, that future is no longer a shadow. It looms in front of me, no longer simple but infinitely confusing. I have so many decisions to make, so much to do, and so little time in which to do it. I feel like life is being thrust upon me before I am ready for it...

Unconquerable

This is my absolute favorite poem. I get all shivery everytime i read it. Its called "Invictus" by William Henley. Invictus is the latin word for unconquerable. Henley suffered from tuberculosis of the bone. He was hospitalised for most of his life. Infact this poem was written from his hospital bed.


Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud,
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

- William Ernest Henley

I Just Wanna Be Me

"you can be whatever, whoever you want to be...as long as you are what we think you should be."

it seems like the whole world lives by this principle. if you step outside that 3x5 image that the world makes for you, you're an outcast. sometimes i wonder if anyone knows me for what i really am. even my friends. because in my head, im so different from how the world sees me...or chooses to see me.

this song, "I Don't Wanna Be", by Gavin DeGraw, just about sums up how i feel. Its a great song, so if you get the opportunity, listen to it.



I DON'T WANNA BE

I don't need to be anything other than a prison guard's son
I don't need to be anything other than a specialist's son
I don't have to be anyone other than a birth of two souls in one
Part of where I'm going is knowing where I'm coming from

I don't want to be anything other than what I've been tryin to be lately
All I have to do is think of me and I've peace of mind
I'm tired of looking 'round rooms wondering what I gotta do
Or who I'm supposed to be
I don't want to be anything other than me

I'm surrounded by liars everywhere I turn
I'm surrounded by imposters everywhere I turn
I'm surrounded by identity crisis everywhere I turn
am i the only one to notice
I can't be the only one who's learned

I don't want to be anything other than what I've been trying to be lately
All I have to do think of me and I've peace of mind
I'm tired of looking 'round rooms wondering what I gotta do
Or who I'm supposed to be
I don't want to be anything other than me

Can I have everyone's attention please
if you're not like this and that
You're gonna have to leave

I came from the mountains
the crust of creation
My whole situation made from clay dust stone
and now I'm telling everybody

I don't want to be anything other than what I've been trying to be lately
All I have to do is think of me and I've peace of mind
I'm tired of looking 'round rooms wondering what I gotta to do
Or who I'm supposed to be
I don't want to be anything other than me
I DONT WANT TO BE...
I DONT WANT TO BE...
I DONT WANT TO BE.... ANYTHING OTHER THAN..

hi! i'm arundhati. i'm 16 yrs old and i just passed my 11th math final by the skin of my teeth.....and now i have a blog!!! so all you sorry readers, get ready for some serious teen angst....for you have just entered a parallel universe where the satire never ends. welcome to my world.