Reflections of a restless eccentric

25th was here and all the animals(as our gang is fondly christened by Vidya) were invited to Ramya's house.She hinted at some "news" and I think almost everyone guessed it was somewhere along the lines of this. :P I wanted some drama in life.So I pretended I wouldn't be coming and turned up at her doorstep to surprise her:D She made us wait till everyone was there.And then we video called Vidya and Gk and called Puni.All ten of us were there,in one way or the other:) She told us.The reactions varied from utterly excited to totally shocked.We begged for details.She told us a story that seemed almost magical.Like any other group of friends,we begged to see her clothes and accessories.But Ramya being Ramya wouldn't show us even a slipper:| Everything is to be a "surprise"! All we got were pictures of things she liked but didn't buy.One hair accessory was all we got to see.Thankfully,she showed us a few pictures of Arvind:P This girl,I tell you! T...

The day of looovve dawned bright and clear.And a basket of red roses found its way to someone:P But this isn't about that! Ramya gets a call from someone who speaks like a receptionist. Good morning,Ma'am.My name is Flora.Mr.Arvind has registered for blah-blah sporting event.So you guys have won couple tickets to Singapore,Ma'am.Are you interested? Ramya is nonplussed. I will have to get back to you on that.Give me a few minutes. No,Ma'am.It's imperative that you decide right now.So,tell me,would you like to go? Err...when is it? In March,Ma'am.Around 15th. This is when she had the inkling that it was a prank.Although she couldn't imagine who it could be.:P And then Sam burst out laughing and Ramya knew.Maybe if she didn't laugh,Ramya would have actually called up Arvind and asked about this:P Mischievous Sam.She assures me there's more of these to come during the engagement and the wedding:D

And so things went on.I heard about him everyday in our conversations. Then,one day,she told me that the date for the engagement was fixed.And since I can't do justice to this bit by writing,I'm putting up screenshots:P We were both that excited--which says something coz neither of us are the hyper type!   I happened to be in the library when she told me.I couldn't study for half a day after I heard this:P The worst part was I was dying to tell someone and I couldn't.Then,as soon as Sam heard about it,she called me.We spoke for ages:) Ramya wanted to tell everyone else in person.25th was the day it would be known,she said:) Let's stop here for now. 

Everything in this is being narrated exactly as it happened.I'm not sugar-coating or omitting anything.Coz the bride said I could write it up any which way I wanted:P Now that the phase of cynicism passed,I was trying to form the timeline in my head. She must have told me something about him.*Racking my brains*.And then I remember.She'd told me way back in December,when she first met him.The only annoying part was she made me promise to delete the messages once our conversation was done.And since my word is something I always keep up,I did delete them.Now,I can't remember anything she told me about him. Wait,I do.At least something. He seems to have an attitude.He's down-to-earth and sensible and his English is top-notch,but I'm scared he's too serious.I always liked Joey more among Joey and Chandler,but this guy seems more like Chandler.Also,he's traveled a lot and he's cool--too cool for me I think.I'm not sure. This is the part that sca...

The picture is a part of my duties as a close friend---to tease the bride about being in looovveee:P Okay,before Ramya kills me,let me finish writing this:)Since Whatsapp was the medium of communication for almost everything that happened,I'm using the messages as my sketch outline-- this will be a text-based story;something I haven't tried before. So,here's how it began.One normal evening,Ramya texts on this group we have: Ramya:Guys,I have news.  Ranji:Getting engaged? Ramya:Yes,this is confidential information.Don't tell people right now. Me:That's why you're announcing it on a group.*Laughing smileys*      You've lost credibility though.I don't believe you. *more laughing smileys* Ramya:Hey it's the truth.We've been talking for a week now.Why aren't you guys excited? Me:Do you believe Ranji? Ranji:I don't believe this. Sam:I shocked. I call you. N. O. W. Ramya:At least Sam is excited.No no n...

When I was a kid,I had a red-hot temper.The smallest things would suffice to infuriate me.Although my anger would melt away in a few minutes to an hour,I was still very short tempered.Or so my mother claims.She didn't like this quality of mine.She felt that one day anger would be my undoing. She used to try and pacify me during these bouts of anger,but nothing ever worked.I'd be fuming.She was at her wit's end as to what to do with me.During my childhood,the comment I'd hear most often was: Your name and your temperament are opposites.We should have named you Vishwamitri :D--if you didn't know that's a sage from Indian mythology who's famous(infamous rather) for his temper. One day,she magically stumbled upon this.I was really angry and she played some music.Immediately,I forgot everything else and was lost in the music.I sat there quietly with not a movement,till the song ended--this seldom happened with the hyperactive annoying demon I used to be:P An...

Jarvis, Rambo and I were working in the lab on some inane assignment the results of which were more unpredictable than the weather. It was late at night and we were alone in the lab. Building up to the scary part you know :p We were working on an extremely old machine with a turbo C compiler when we first started seeing these ghost printfs. By which I mean print statements that were never in our program in the first place. This happened for about ten minutes in which time we joked about how the computer was haunted, all the while knowing that it was perfectly reasonable for an old computer to behave this way. Soon,we were done. We turned off the lights, still laughing about something and since the door was locked Rambo typed in the username and password on the biometric device. "If you guys didn't know the password, I'd have played around pretending we were locked in here"  she laughs. A moment later she presses enter having typed in the password. The room is p...

So I've come across someone who has a fascination for the etymology of everything--which spans across multiple languages--Greek,French,Arabic,Urdu,Hindi,Latin,German to name a few.I find him fascinating--listening to him is a privilege.( Although most of what he says goes over my head:P) What he talks is distilled wisdom.Really rare to come across such people.Original.I don't think I can find what he says anywhere:P He's witty and his analogies are unique enough to bring out the quote fanatic in me:P So from today I'm going to be officially quoting him.I'll also be quoting some of the things he quotes:D "Hardware is software frozen too soon"-- I love this one.I don't know who said this but it's amazing. Let's move on to what he says in class: I never put bullet points in slides.The students understand everything in class.But,they go home and the bullets kill them. Don't worry about exams.They're just events in your life.Like...

I suck at sketching,but at one point I was fascinated by mehendi.When I started out most of my attempts were disastrous,with the added disadvantage that the damn thing would stay for a week at least:P--gradually,I got marginally better and it became a part of my life.In fact,at one point it was a good stress-buster.The moment some set of exams ended,I'd pick up a cone and be lost in the world of designs:) Sigh! That used to feel amazing.It's been more than a year since I've done that and sometimes I have the feeling that I never will again. So,here's to all those days of joy--what I'd get was definitely not perfect but I think it is worth preserving for the sake of it.And since organizing pictures is getting more impossible by the day,I guess I could put them up here.If you happen to like them,do let me know:) I'd be happy--more like convinced that I'm not putting up total crap:P Also,you can see the evolution of phone cameras in the pictures:D I apolog...