I (Reproduced from my notes on facebook)

1. I am doing this only because Priya asked me to. Priya, by the way is one of my oldest and bestest friends. She is the one and almost the only person who manages to inflate my very very large ego even further!
2. Wherever I go, I get identified as either the intimidating geek or the violent, tending to vegetarian, feminist...why is that?
3. I like spending time with myself. I like it even better when I spend that time doing nothing really!!
4. However, I still think that the best times of my life have been spent in hours and hours of aimless and often meaningless conversation with some of my (adda-loving and often Bengali) friends...
5. I like people who love themselves. And don’t pretend to be unselfish.
6. I love to eat…anything. But I prefer to be carnivorous. And I detest rajma-chawal. It was introduced to my palate by the LSR hostel and I hope that I don’t have to encounter it for a really long time…like a lifetime maybe?
7. I am a huge sucker for personal space. And I guard my territory aggressively.
8. I find it hard to NOT sermonize. And I justify my interference by saying that I care and hence butt-in…am working on it guys! I promise it will be gone someday!
9. I have to say though, that when I do sermonize, I usually am proven correct!
10. Given, 9 and 10, I am often mistaken as ‘mother-hen’. THAT is definitely a mistake because I have no maternal instinct at all…I am simply a very naturally overbearing older sister.
11. Over the 15 years of his life, my brother and I have finally come to an understanding that surprises us both. We don’t want to kill each other anymore and can even have meaningful conversations.
12. I am also particularly fond of my parents. I don’t think anybody other than them could have tolerated ‘me’ for so many years and still remained sane!
13. I talk too much.
14. I am still scared of dogs. All dogs. And it does not help when owners say, “Oh! he doesn’t bite.”
15. I hate uncertainty, I like to know what is happening next, at least in my life…and sadly I never do.
16. I can never be stoic…I let all good things get to my head and revel in it for really long. And when things go wrong I can be morose for months together.
17. I often believe that all emotions can be linked to hormone levels…maybe not...maybe…
18. I hate autumn…it depresses me beyond words.
19. I also am not a fan of durga puja (the time that all Bengalis go insane).
20. I am addicted to tea. Good people drink tea...I like people who like tea.
21. I miss my college roommate all the time. I can never have any other roommate because nobody will match up to her!
22. I hate it when people hang up the phone/go offline/leave the house without saying bye.
23. I am developing a love for Economics. I actually enjoy understanding it and questioning it.
24. I was once called a ‘bundle of contradictions’…am beginning to believe it!
25. I can’t believe I actually did this.

Tea Time

Good people drink tea. Good people drink good tea.

I've been a tea drinker from the age of four. Well...in some sense at least. So here are a few stylized facts about TEA and ME:

1. Tea is tea and chai is chai. They are not the same and while I love both, I have a romantic relationship with tea.

2. Shivangi's is the only chai I will drink.
3. Sugar at minimum please.
4. Tea is aspirin.
5. Tea is not poison.
6. Tea does not reduce sleep.
7. Or life span.
8. Good tea has more flavour than taste.
9. Tea helps people talk.
10. I can bond only over tea.
11. There is no upper limit on the number of cups a day.
12. I drink tea out of mugs not cups.
13. If you dont like my tea I don't like you.
14. I love my tea and my tea loves me.

My Monday Mornings

Yes, I hate them.

Perhaps not quite passionately as I have heard many claim. Perhaps not with the same rage that I feel when somebody snatches something I'm reading from my hand (what is with that by the way?) But I hate Monday mornings all the same.

In a quiet, stealthy way the Monday morning blue finds its way to the center of my being and I can sense that I am quieter, edgier and perhaps even more intimidating than usual. It starts with that strange sense of loss on Sunday evening actually. And the worst is the first moment of consciousness after waking up on the doomed day. I always feel, "If only it was any other day, even Tuesday!"

It probably has to do with the Monday tests I had all through school life, or that food at home on Sundays was always special, or that Monday means dealing with all that I have not done in weekend that went by.

Be as it may, I love a Monday such as this. After a three day weekend I have a Monday morning without class, without work, and without ma telling me that I should get out of bed!

After all, its still the weekend.

Here we go.

Once upon a time, in a land far far away, I used to talk a lot.

I still do.

I still wish I could talk some more.

Hoping to do so without the rolling of eyes at my constant babble.

See you then

Purna