first day at ..YAAAWnnnn

first day at work...

think i yawned about 300 times..

it couldve been 500 ......

or 10,000......

i wouldn't know

i was too sleepy to count

of birthdays, weddings and first jobs

happy birthday to meee... mee mee ..meeee :)

The dramatic countdown to my birthday is here!

this year is significant ... cuz im of legal marriageable and liquor drinking age in this country...
coincidence? i think not
not that the legalities matter to me.. marriage is far away and the liquor's been around for a while now..

anyhoo... moving on.. to the important things.. like my birthday wishlist..

this wishlist is not merely a virtual fancy.. its meant to function somewhat like the wedding registry concept of western weddings..
preventing clueless friends and acquaintances from buying that hideous wall clock or a pointless porcelain girl figurine or an ugly stuffed animal for INR 99

Yep.. the wedding registry ranks right up there among the Few Useful Things Americans Thought Of along with KFC, deep dish pizzas, sports cars and bourbon whiskey ..

It seems strange how much wedding references keep cropping up these days..
ok actually not that strange .. considering my entirely-too-young roommate just got married yesterday.. MARRIED..

and while her life changes dramatically and irreversibly ... I lounge around my room idly contemplating the relative merits/necessity of getting a layer trim..
SO weird and unhinging … right?? Well I’m dealing with it in the best way i can ... by pretending that nothing happened …

Abject denial works most of the time… somewhat..

So do sparkly distractions … like birthday presents :)

here's my slightly over-ambitious wishlist...


• ipod nano – its an excess.. a brilliant beautiful unavoidable one

• e71/blackberry – Need. Desperately.

• Amazon Kindle – Books in a gadget ?? bring it On!

• Sparkly gold bikini – interesting yes??

• Vintage or leatherbound editions of my fav books – do I need a reason?

• Overpriced oversized designer handbag – the nomadic turtle in me needs this.

• Ray Ban Aviators – one that doesn’t make me look like a space insect or Cyclops ( the x-men one ) or Rajnikant’s village cousin trying to look cool.

• Decadent silk-satin sheets – so that the poverty stops where the dreams begin :)

• M.A.C gift vouchers – if its gonna be a gift vouchers.. it better be this.. or Landmark’s :)

• Jimmy Choos – okay who am I kidding… I’m never getting out of my ACGs

• A puppy! - cuz potted plants and goldfish just Dont cut it..


And since the title mentions it.. let me quickly mention the first job..

I got a new job. In bangalore. its better than the other job i got.. i think..
I start in two weeks.
And these facts apart.. i'm So excited/freaked that i can't begin to talk about it.. yet..

so until then.. Jai Ho!

(hee hee.. i just wanted to say that Sometime in real life.. the Jai Ho pussycat dolls remix is really the limit :D )

PresenTing the Past of the Future

from the Pragyan Diaries.

10th february 2009

2 days to D-Day

I’m not gonna lie about this.

Pragyan’s not really my scene.

Has never been.

I know that it is probably the most tactically idiotic thing for the publicity head to say and I can see the rest of the Core Team giving me the evil eye and not-so-secretly plotting a diabolical scheme for my accidental death…. After Pragyan’s over of course… I’m needed till then.

The story of being Core team member, handling three very unwieldy teams over the past 6 months has run the standard course organizing of every other fest…

Camping in Octa.. sleepless nights .. missed classes.. caffeine abuse.. liberal verbal abuse.. a zillion deadlines whooshing by.. the dreaded final countdown..

Yeah yeah .. we’ve heard it all…

By the time you see four editions of a techfest, things look pretty jaded.

So why do it at all?

Some strange primeval schoolkid-like desire for tacky-looking certificates that do nothing but collect dust in a forgotten folder in a carton on the loft?

A pathological yearning to be verbally abused by random seniors on a power trip?

cuz that guy and that guy ..aaand that guy are doing it ??

sheer unadulterated boredom???

I don’t know the answers to this. But I do know that no matter what my twisted, half formed motivations were to begin with.. they’ve led me somewhere I did not expect to land.

Through the million curses and doubts and the bone-numbing exhaustion I can proudly say that I survived.

We survived.

That’s all I need to say. I don’t need to talk about what an unprecedented success this year’s Pragyan was… I don’t need to talk about the precious precious team that made this happen by working through every painful obstacle and miles of tangled red tape. Because it doesnt need to be said.

For in the end I realised… The question was never about capability. It was about choice. And once we made that choice… there was just no stopping us.

Pragyan's HardCORE Truths

The following piece was written for the techfest magazine that i edit..
The content will be largely unintelligible to anyone who isn't privy to the inside jokes of the pragyan organisation team

I'm adding it here for the sole reason that i'm insanely kicked about the fact that i wrote Something..Anything .. after months and months of trying to do so and failing miserably.. so cheers to me :)

---------------------------------------------------------------



As someone who has been deeply involved in three years of organizing Pragyan, I can confidently say that I’ve seen it all. Been there, done that and regretted it for days after ..the whole gig..
And the years of dealing with the truly stupid, stupidly annoying, annoyingly sincere, sincerely intense, intensely dangerous and very rarely the absolutely trustworthy would’ve taught Anyone not to go digging into the behind-the-scenes stories of Pragyan. But one very insistent Mr.Reportuh McSkeeter repeatedly nagged us till we (my unnamed uncredited minions and I) compiled a report of the ‘Real People’ behind Pragyan 09.

So we set about compiling a report about the Pragyan Fellowship
You’ve all heard of The Fellowship? The nine who set out on a noble task blah blah? No? well you just did.

The first of the nine is...
Presiman Chairman – The boromir equivalent in temperament. Widly passionate- to the extent of maniacal devotion. Known for his heroic organizational, bartering and cow-chasing skills

then, Opiatus Asapus Max – The do-er of the group. Survives without food, water, sleep and social contact for days on end going purely on nicotine, verbal venting and pragyan-work.

his friend VeryTall ‘treasure’ Tangdi – volatile, organized and stubbornly passionate. Mortals tiptoe around in terror of his righteous wrath but he's indispensable for his solid good taste.

Techgeekus nearEvilus- who’s the technical backbone of the whole operation. Give him a computer and he can do anything you want him to do ( and don’t want him to do)

Qaotic Genie-us - the Nice guy of the group..our very own Pragyan fairy godfather with more than a few magic tricks up his sleeve. The only one who does all his work and still has time to do others' too.

Dev D'Money - deceptively docile-looking, this dedicated dude, whose puppy-dog eyes and convincing skills have blackmailed many of us into doing things we wouldnt do normally.

PRimus Abscondix - the description will be a lot like one of those rare bird docus on national geographic - the much-heard-of but rarely seen.. and so on ..

Biatchus Awesomus - Not much is known about this person except through hearsay. And even there we only heard muttered words like.. &^% ... *^&%$ ... absolutely nuts .. gives me too much work.. her?where?! let's run!

and for those who bother to count and are wondering where the ninth fellowship member is.. well..we asked too.. all we got was a vague,official statement about an unfortunate accident involving an ill-timed pragyan meeting, the clc zoo animals and loads of tomato ketchup..

by

The Reluctant publicist a.ka. SayShoe