Whatsup this summer?

Ok , lets get down to the business. I have been trying to write one line for the past 3 hours and now only realized that opening a tab doesn't finish the job. Well it usually almost does , but no work can be done when there is a FACEBOOK tab also opened. Now I could ramble on about how it spoils our lives and a) lose some readers
b) not get the work done.
For even mocking Facebook is a waste of time.  ( don't mistake me I  use facebook daily on an average of 9.6 hours #respect) 

So whatsup with me? 

Summer holidays are ending in a couple of days , although the summer will remain for a month more at least. It is so hot here that the second you stop pouring water on yourself , you start sweating. Then why would a person with a sound mind stay here? Simple , the heat made me mad. However, madder are those who travel all the way to chennai for their summer. Yeah, sue me tourism board of Chennai! (if there is one) 

I simply cannot continue talking about this heat 

a) it makes the room feel hotter

b) I may really be sued? 

P.S  - Even the cold water taps offer hot water because of the irritatingly powerful solar energy :/  

To make matters worse we have the price hikes. Now travelling in buses makes you spend twice the amount of money (still beats auto though) , switching on an AC makes your electricity bill infinitely worse - One more thing your grandmom can blame you for. And of course Rs.7.5 per litre increase in petrol. I thank all the status updates and troll pages for coming up with this :- Now a litre of petrol costs as much as a bottle of beer. So Don't drink and Don't drive. Talk about peaceful co existence!  

You are all wrong. Ipl is about the FANS!!! :D 

Talking about peaceful co existence , amidst all the scrutinies and controversies the Indian Premier League came to an end. And in the process , killing the evenings of just too many people. The finals between kolkata knight riders and chennai super kings saw the latter dominate almost 60% of the game and the former walking with cup after a brilliant knock from the previously almost unknown Manvinder Bisla. Sadly for the kkr players , their over jubilant owner upstaged them with his remarkably monkey like tantrums. Again I can't be commenting on this as I am one of the 'sore losers' of csk. 2 time winners , two time finalists and one time semi finalists - loser's indeed xD 

To brighten matters - I just had a very happy realization! There must be more music on earth than all the petty problems put together - at least if you aren't Indian lower caste woman working as a toilet keeper in the 18th century  you must be in too - and I am in the process of finding very hilarious tamil ones which aren't actually in tamil after all ! you check out too xD  (bless the youtube :O) )- 

                      

Also I happened to read some very offbeat books which can stop your heart's beat :D  

First among them is the no.1 ladies detective agency  which is about this lady detective called Mma Ramotswe , who uses her heart more than her brains to solve cases and whose love for Africa leaves you wanting to know more about the colorful country and its own distinct culture. 

Talking about cultures I read my first proper 'history book' these holidays in a not so bad 4 days. It is called Tibet: A political history  and surprisingly not boring at all. I happened to pick this up in the Tibetan monastery hidden in coorg  and don't know if it is in circulation much. But OMG! you get to pick up so much knowledge about the distinct territory , which is a part of china now. By the end of the  book , you will know your famous dalai lamas and panchen lamas and even fall in love with the valiant mongols and powerful chinese :D not to mention the peace loving tibetans! 

I was given the 'Last lecture by Randy Pausch ' by mom as a surprise with the promise that it would change the way I would view life. While it wasn't exactly that radical to do that , it certainly will makes us question how we live life. This is a true story and literally a lecture given by a professor who was battling cancer. I happened to see the video of the lecture too and it was truly heart touching. 

I got many one liners and awesome pieces of wisdom from that book. Eg. 

 “We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.”

“Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted. And experience is often the most valuable thing you have to offer.”  

“The key question to keep asking is, Are you spending your time on the right things? Because time is all you have. ”  

“No matter how bad things are, you can always make things worse.” 

“A good apology is like antibiotic, a bad apology is like rubbing salt in the wound.”  

P.S - R.I.P Randy Pausch.

Randy pausch =') 

I could keep mentioning MORE. But then you would get overloaded with information and not decide to read any. Trust me , these books are worth your time. 

While the 'king khan' is busy trying to make a fool of himself and basking in his team's victory the 'aamir khan' has been dealing with real issues and making the television media more useful and informative. Yes , I am talking about Satyameva Jayate. It is on similar lines with the tamil show 'kadai alla nijam' by star vijay done a while back. However , this show is on a much bigger scale and is seeking to  reform in real time. It can be a good thing only. The first four shows have already dealt with some major issues in amicable ways : 

• Female Foeticide shocking many with its hard hitting facts 
• Child sexual abuse being covered in a very mature way and even hosting a very informative workshop for children.
• Dowry being covered with a positive outlook
• The most shocking one being on generic medicines. The pharmaceutical crisis of india.  

For more info : 

http://satyamevjayate.in/

*yawn* Boring you already? -_-

"Happy summer!" to the ones with enviable no. of holidays left.

and BATTLE ON! To the satyamev jayate team and

my fellow twelfth standards who are beginning their final year of schooling soon!

editing - siddharth dinesh

writing - Semi 

Stupid Superstitions

That's what they should be.

Forgive that more than obvious alliteration of a title :P If the title is NOT obvious to you , well this particular post will try help you understand - hopefully. Well , every one of us has some sort of stupid superstition or the other to keep us going on during our bad days. However, a problem arises when they endanger others , when they are too irrational or tough to achieve and when they finally move away from their cause - to complete an activity and instead hinder the goal itself.
Some of the curious ones:

• 
  
• Wearing the right pad before the left  - Sachin Tendulkar and almost every player after him ( because of him of course B) ) 

voldy with a nose and a smile :P

• Holding paper clips in your palm while delivering a speech - 'the senator guy' aka Ralph Fiennes ( Mr.voldy for the HP fans) in the film maid in manahattan 

• 'Lucky bat' to score runs in . In fact , the 'magic bat' as if the bat contains the talent and not the player. It was the story of chain kulii ki main kulii

• The most hilarious one I have heard in my life. In this Indian authored book called 'where girls dare' a young women cadet feels worthless and doomed without her red undies and alas! all of the red ones have gone for wash. Her quirky friend asks her to wear purple ones over peach as it would give red :D ( idk if these are the exact colors although my genius brother swears that these are the exact ones. However when i googled it -'red' is a primary color and cannot be formed by other combinations. So either the girl was fooled or I am in the process of being trolled by my brother.) 

• I have an infuriating belief that I can study only if I highlight every word I read  AND I can study only if the ancient radio in my room is turned on . And one day the last highlighter I had for the day (the psychology book had usurped all  four :/ ) fell into the loo and I was left in a state of irrational panic that I was gonna fail this one. My genius friend chandy made me see sense and I ended up using my brother's permanent marker. And YES I love studying when I pee . 

All the above beliefs are cute at some levels if you ignore the weirdness aspects in the fourth and fifth points. At least they do not torture another person. That being said , we need to keep them in check. What sort of player would Tendulkar be if he progressed from point 1 to point 3 ? Getting riddled in self doubt is the last thing you need , the hindu crossword puzzles are easier in comparison. 

Having a lucky ring or a pen with you surely gives some sort of energy to perform. However the LACK of a 35 rs trimax pen or a 10,000 rs diamond ring shouldn't deter you from performing upto your potential. However reporting the loss of the latter to your mom asap is very important - i.e if you want to really live to perform , that too when the ring was HER anniversary gift :P 

Lets move on to darker waters. 

Everyone gets very passionate when they watch their favorite sport on TV. This could be a liverpool team desperately searching for a goal , a dhoni trying to accelerate his team's scoring rate or even a Randy orton trying to do a RKO. Here is where you draw a line between a fan and a fanatic. A fan accepts his team's loss and attributes it to their own performance while most often a fanatic would try to shift the blame on anything but the obvious - it could be the weather , the umpire/referee or worse the person sitting next to him . 

It is not very strange in my house to see people sitting in very particular postures for many hours as the team scores well when they do it :O I do accept that I am one of the persons who change their playlist and try to DJ their team to a victory but we aren't pinpointing anyone here. Recently , due to csk's dangerous position in the points table , my dad an I have become over reliant on luck. So , the 'bad omen' is my brother now :P 

It is our prediction that the team suffers when my brother is in the room. When we all went swimming yesterday chennai batted very well. Sadly in the last 2 overs when we entered they didn't hit runs. Again when 'he' was in the room sachin and rohit were milking runs of us. We getting desperate for SOME action , begged him to move outta the room. and blimey me!du plessis pulled a catch out of thin air!. My brother was thoroughly depressed by now and went into his twitter world. What a turn around wickets kept falling. When he came back , we begged him to go out as we couldn't bear to lose now. He obviously didn't share our feelings and so my dad ended up switching off the TV. 

Wouldn't you call this a bit extreme? Shunning away loved ones in the name of 'luck' . The above example was a light one , what if we start practicing this in life's more serious problems. Like marriage? (horoscopes are handy examples) 

So do believe in what you feel will help develop your confidence

 and not dwindle other people's confidence. 

P.S - Dwayne smith led mumbai to victory in the last over by smashing 6 4 4 in the last 3 balls. 

        And my brother was sitting next to me watching in the other TV . Can't blame anyone though. 

      After all you can never tell in cricket. 

written by
Semi

editing credits - Siddharth Dinesh