You can cease to be a Death Eater (and that takes inhuman effort), but you can’t erase the Dark Mark.

For the uninitiated, that’s my attempt at doodling on my hand.

Feedback forms are everywhere these days. Go to any restaurant, departmental store, even some roadside health checkup stalls, and they greet you in the end with those forms. I actually like filling those forms! If you are made of such stuff that pranks come naturally to you, you won’t miss such occasions. The ritual of writing phone number and address of your friends in feedback forms pays, when everytime those friends receive some message and bang on your door – the pleasure cannot be described.

I thought it was a great idea, and then it happened.

Moments ago, I got a message from TM-Naturals: Dear Deepa Thanks for visiting saligramam naturals, for suggestions contact 9884900160.

@Deepa: Whoever you are, you are warned. I will find out your number. I will use it. And I will be mean to you.

I want to tell a story. Some story. I am looking for one, to tell. Through video. If you have something original, do tell me. The enthusiasm may not last long.

Saw this on a book cover in Gurunath.

Sis: Time?

Me: 8:16.

Sis: One-six?

Me: I am putting it on my blog.

Classes have begun, after what seemed to be long long time. When April exams were over, I knew it won’t be just another summer break, but I had no clue that it would seem to be so long either. Life since has been, to quote Evanna Lynch, “exceptionally ordinary” with random exciting peaks dotting the regular affairs. I will relive some moments of the past few months here; call it updates or whatever.

MP get-together

This was undoubtedly the best part of summer internship. Bhondu’s didi was getting married and most of us decided to be there. For parents, it does feel special when two guys from Delhi, one from Haryana, two from Chennai, one from Pune, one from Bangalore, one from Ujjain and three from Bhopal come together to celebrate their daughter’s big day. And we had fun!

Some high points of the 4-day trip:

• Playing a prank on Neta when he came to receive me and Ghalib at Bhopal station.
• Lazily spent morning at FKD’s weird house; omlette-maggi.
• Beer at Bhopal Lake.
• Cold coffee at Neta’s house at night, made by me and styled by Ghalib.
• Dhamki’s incessant fart.
• Preparing and performing a song for didi’s birthday (which happened a day before her wedding); Ghalib wrote the lyrics and Neta and FKD prepared the music, everything on the way to Indore, in a Tavera.
• The handmade birthday card – crayons on paper.
• Red and yellow roses that we were supposed to present to any girl in the wedding.
• Bhondu’s cousin Shruti.
• Bowling.
• Bhasmaarti at Ujjain’s Mahakaleshwar temple; Moli’s unexpected recital of some aarti (no pun intended).
• Tattu’s family eying me suspiciously after they saw a video of what we do here in insti.
• ‘At last we managed to have coffee’ at Bhopal station.

Hisar

This time it was the ring ceremony of Ghalib’s sister, and it marked my first visit to Haryana. Had nice time there, though only a few hours. And those few hours were filled with beer, thanks to several uncles who wouldn’t let me leave their table!

Convocation

It was a big day. A variety of emotions was on the loose. It was one of those times when friends were ecstatic for one moment and sad for the next. Some friends had a hard time being at ease with the haunting hollow feeling. Some friends left soon after with a final good bye. And there I stood, not knowing what to do and how to bring smiles to everyone around. It’s not impossible to achieve two things at a time, but I failed in both!

Bheed!

Few days later, our campus was swarmed with freshies. You could see them everywhere, each with a dozen guardians. The one word that came to me in those days was: Bheed. Tifanys had a queue running till the entrance, the departmental store at Gurunath had three layers of people inside, Himalaya lawns were so full you could hardly see the grass. They were everywhere! You could hear them cribbing about triple occupancy, about poor cellphone signal, about every damn thing. As if we seniors were some species whose existence they need not consider/fear at all!

5^th Year

It is different. Very different from the past four years. I longed to see familiar faces in the initial days of the semester. From mess to Guru, every place was filled with strangers. It was a strange out-of-the-place feeling!

We shifted from 9^th wing to 10^th wing, but here it’s like everyday wears off one at a time. It’s as if no one wants to think of this wing or this year on a broad level.

My department has changed significantly. What used to be the big examination hall on 3^rd floor has now been divided into two classrooms. Two smaller classrooms on the 2^nd floor have been joined together to form a bigger one. Some professors’ rooms are also being worked upon. The seminar hall is complete now, but it hardly sports the grandeur that it once did, before burning down. Only things that remain the  same are the benches and tables in the classes, bearing all our graffiti of past years. All those “Upar dekh, kutte ke lund” and “Nehaluv” are still there, to remind us of the batch mates who are not there.

People who do bad seldom realize that the effect is always worse than they intended.

PS: The line occured to me in a half-asleep state last night. I am totally at a loss when I try to recall the context.

Tagged by Shruti.

I couldn’t follow all the rules of this tag. The task was to list 15 books that you have read and that will always stick to you. I could write 9. And I definitely took more than 15 minutes to recall. The books mentioned below are in no particular order, except may be the first one.

Harry Potter series: You may be bored of memorizing facts from the series (every other person claims to be an expert, I agree). Look for the values thrown in. Look at the character portrayals. Look at the evolution as the books progress. I can write countless good things about this work by Joan Joanne Kathleen Rowling, but let me just tell you to shake off all prejudices against it just because of its fame and the widespread scholars, and give it a read. People admire Eoin Colfer for Artemis Fowl, but that is way way way behind the HP universe (I actually hated the Fowl book I read). Undoubtedly, my favourite books, which I have read, re-read, will read and re-read.

To Kill a Mockingbird: Like as many books you can, if you can read them, but remember it’s a sin not to like Mockingbird. Probably this is the only book that has given me some serious direction in life and thanks to Atticus Finch, I realized my place and course. A must read.

Helen of Troy: If you like history, you will love this book. I picked this one because I wanted to read about the Trojan War but didn’t have patience to read the verses of Homer’s Odyssey or Illiad. And I fell in love with it. So much that when the book developed few lines on the spine and the cover got smudged at the corners, I wanted to buy a new copy. It doesn’t require the patience that few other historical works demand, so read it if you like ancient Greek and Trojan history.

Chandrakanta: This was my first brush with magic. This book was rightly regarded as an epic for quite some time after the publication. The beautiful Hindi narrative and the twists and turns in the story line get you hooked on to it. I know most people have not read the book and have watched the televised serialization. Let me tell you about the latter: it’s bad. It has characters not mentioned at all in the book. I read it during school days, but fondly remember its characters: Tejsingh, Jeetsingh, Shivdutt… Read it, you will thoroughly enjoy it.

Who Moved My Cheese: I am not much into motivational/self-help books, but I liked this one. A friend and his mom had told me about it (“best book”). I can recall liking it then. It’s a thin book, can be finished in one go.

Jurassic Park: I loved the movie. Then I read the book. And I liked it equally, if not better. Goosebumps, adrenaline rushes, mathematics etc can be associated with it. I had found it lying with a friend (who has still not read it), took it and completed it. It was thrilling. A good sci-fi book.

The Kiterunner: I liked the way Hosseini paints the picture of Afghanistan’s transition from a place where people could have lunch sitting beside rivers to one where people ended up selling their limbs to get some money. That, coupled with the protagonist’s own story makes a nice read.

Black Beauty: Now when I think of the book, it serves as a lesson in life: Move on. The emotions and the learnings are beautifully described through a horse. A must read.

The Da Vinci Code: I liked it.

May be I will edit the post if I recall other books. The tag is open to everyone who wishes to take up, just remember that the original rules said 15 books.