The Reader Appreciation Award – Just Made My Day!

[The following was written last night, actually yesterday early morning. In the end, I was so unhappy with it that I couldn’t bring myself to publish it. But these are thoughts I want to put across…so, here goes!] 

So, I’ve been staring at this empty space for quite a while, now. And I thought I should be writing something… It’s 1:00am. I’m not sleepy. But my little sister (who loves staying up with me) is already dozing off near me. I tried keeping her busy by giving her some  funny stuff to watch but that doesn’t seem to be working.

I guess I should just blog and be done with this, so that Ann and I can go sleep. 🙂 When I wrote the post about how I was feeling down, I mentioned a blog that had inspired me to write it out – hastywords. I was catching up on her posts, today. And I found another post that I could relate to so amazingly – My Heart The Traitor. Basically, it’s about how she discovered the source to her negativity and the way to destroy it. Beautiful post. And there were so many parts in it which touched me beyond words!

I loved her thought about positivity being all around us, how looking up at the stars and the miracles all around us can give us a sense of it. ‘From darkness…there is light.’ So so so true! It’s something I believe in but when it turns dark, I forget to remember that I’ll find light at the other end.

Anyway, I think I’m getting there…finally seeing light. Trying to break through the layer of darkness and see beyond, into the enlivening light. And go sailing in a small boat on the vast ocean…

Photography by Martin Vincent

I think I should get to sleep…or I’ll sleep-blog! 😛 By the way, it’s just past 2am and Ann’s already gone off to bed. [ Luckily, I stopped right here, or you would have had to read some of the nonsense I write when I’m on the verge of sleeping off!] 

A new day. And guess what? When I logged in to my WP account, I was in for a wonderful surprise. It just made my day! 🙂 Matt (aka theotherwatson) at Wanton Creation nominated me for the Reader Appreciation Award!!!! 🙂 I can’t tell you how happy I was. Even though I know you love me so much, these awards are like an awesome extra-bit of appreciation! And it always feels great! But the best part, for me, is that these awards seem to come right when I need them. As in, when I’m going through a low-time or having writer’s block, I get nominated for an award and it completely changes my mood! 🙂 Thank you so so so much, Matt. You have no idea how happy I’m! 🙂

Like with every other award, this one comes with some rules. Apart from  linking back to the person who nominated me (check), including the image (check) and nominating 6 other bloggers, I’m supposed to say something about what I’ve been upto.

Well, I had been experiencing a down-time. But now, I’m almost out of it. I’ve been watching some movies, listening to a lot of music, reading some really lovely blogs, talking to and spending time with Ann and basically, just making most of my time here at the heaven I call ‘home’! Yesterday, Ann and I did some crazy stuff together. And yeah, I made her stay up while I was writing a post that I didn’t even publish! 😀 So, that’s what I’ve been upto!

Now, to pass on the award… Well, there are so many bloggers I like. And I’m going to choose 6 bloggers whom I haven’t nominated before. So, here goes:

emotional salad – Love her thoughts! 🙂

Live, Learn, Mature – My awesome blog-friend 🙂

kkeilly – I stumbled upon her blog one day. And it was love at first sight!

hastywords – She’s sort of an emotional soul-mate, as you might have understood by now!

Personal Concerns – Because I love the thought-provoking stuff he writes!

PIECES – Love his poems! 🙂

Check out their blogs, I’m sure you’ll find them super-awesome!

Love y’all! 🙂

Waiting To Get Home…

I have slept a lot during the past few days. Don’t know why. Even if I sleep for a while during the afternoons, I still feel so damn sleepy by the end of the day. I try to stay up and maybe, spend time talking or watching a movie, but it’s unusually hard for me. Maybe this is how the down-time takes its toll on me. 🙂

So, post-weekend, my situation hasn’t changed much. Maybe just a tiny little bit. I’m actually making an effort to not let myself be so bothered by problems that are out of my control. And I think I’ve kinda come up with some possible solutions. Just hope it works out. I’m just days away from leaving college. Tomorrow will be my last exam. And within two days, I’ll be vacating from hostel and going back home. I won’t be part of this hostel or college anymore, won’t have to come here often (or at all, in fact)… All those people whom I have seen and spoken to and been with for the past 3 years will be scattered in different places, they are going to be akin to strangers. I can’t even be sure if we will recognize each other if we happen to cross paths some 10 years from now.

Such a scary thought. Yet it’s inevitable. It evokes a lot of insecurity but there’s nothing I can do to pause it or avoid it. So, I’m trying to face it as it comes. Right now, I push away the saddening thoughts and think of the awesome time I’m going to have once I get back to RAK, to my family. That is one thought that helps me remain sane right now. 🙂 I was just googling through some photos of the city I call home. And I’m hit by this wave of nostalgia…of the times I’ve spent there, the random buildings I remember seeing while going from one place to another, the landmarks… For a moment, it felt almost like I was back there, actually seeing it all. Well, I may not be there there, right now. But within two weeks’ time, I’m going to be right there!!! 🙂 Now, for those of you who don’t know much about Ras-Al-Khaimah, here are a couple of  links you might like!

Ras Al Khaima in the past… (Note: See the RAK hospital? My home’s quite near to it. Seeing it made me feel kinda close to home!)

The Official Site of RAK

Related articles

• When Hostels Are Terrible (gadling.com)
• The Real Madrid Island Resort in Ras Al-Khaima (buzfairy.com)
• Banyan Tree Al Wadi – Ras Al Khaimah – Arabian Gulf (worldluxuryresorts.wordpress.com)

Where I Disappeared To… ;)

It has been a whirlwind week. Literally. I just got back to college after a week full of fun, activities and travelling. During the past 7 days, I went through parts of 4 different districts of the state, met a handful of amazing people and had some awesome time! And thought a great lot of stuff. Along with the crazy fun, there were so many instances when I was struck by profound thoughts. Every time I got a thought like that, I jotted it down so that I would remember it all to be posted here later, when I get back. 🙂

 

Well…to start from the beginning. On 22nd, all of my classmates from the hostel went out on a day out. It was more like trekking and I get easily tired by that. But we had a great time. We took a hell lot of photos (which isn’t really my thing, to be honest), chattered a lot, laughed so much and, basically, had a lot of fun! I’ll try putting up some pics in another post, coming up soon. Anyway, I loved the time we had. We checked out the stuff in the shops. I found this shop selling second-hand books and there were a handful of books that I have been longing to read. I bought ‘The Romanov Prophecy’ by Steve Berry. That was enough to make the rest of my day super-awesome! 🙂 I should mention that the lunch wasn’t satisfying enough but the fun parts outshine the disappointment. So, never mind!

 

One spot we went to, if my memory is right!

 

The day passed so fast, hours passing by in a blur of laughter, photos and the happiness of being with your friends. 🙂 We got to meet this cute guy who came to talk to us and even clicked some photos for us! I don’t know if I’ll ever see him again, but I really liked him. He was…ummm…fun in a mischievous way! 😉 We did meet a couple of other guys, too. Anyway, all of us were exhausted but super-happy by the time we got back to hostel. Next day, all of us went home. It kinda felt like we were leaving forever, but I was glad to know I’d be coming back! 🙂 I never thought I would actually feel that!!

At home, I spent time with Janet (that’s my sister). We spoke a lot, caught up with each other’s lives, laughed a lot, talked about childhood memories and fought a tiny little bit. 🙂 As usual. We also went out, one evening. Just to the town, roamed around a bit, chattering all the while. 🙂 There were some issues she was caught up in. So, that kinda dampened our moods, in between. I had a fight with dad and some other issues, too. Both of us were really depressed when we left home but since I was going to my friend’s place, I pushed everything out of my head. I could deal with it later, anyway…

At my friend’s place (Betsy is her name), we just spent some time, lazing around, watching some movies, sleeping, talking and loafing around. On 28th, I went to meet Kiran at her hometown. 🙂 It felt so good to see her after so long (more than a year). I was introduced to her friends from college. I found them to be a pack of really sweet, friendly, crazy and super-awesome girls who were absolute fun to be with. There were 6 of them. Yes, I did feel kinda weird, initially, since I was meeting them for the first time. But I slowly got over it. That night, we wanted to do something fun or mischievous. But most of them were sleepy and wanted some proper sleep. So, there were just 3 of us (plus me and Betsy) – Pranavi, Meghna and Disha – sitting on the bed, talking. We shared some ghost stories (with the lights off)! It was fun because all three were kinda scared yet wanted to listen to all the horror stuff. Pranavi was so scared and used to scream at the slightest of noises and stuff. She got super-scared and yelled when Meghna touched her by mistake! We spent the whole night talking! We were babbling till almost 4:45am!

After the horror story session, we spoke about random stuff like science, religion, God, so on. Then, we had a game of Truth (& Dare, but since we were not in a situation to do Dares, we stuck to playing just Truth!). It was SUPER-AWESOME! I loved it! We asked each other a lot of wayward questions, some insane, some perverted, some just stupid! We laughed so much at the bullshit we were saying, shared so many experiences and made most of those few hours we had with us! I know I might not be personally close to any of them, but I had enough fun that night to form a sort of bond with them. 🙂 Next day, we had to get up at 7 or so. We got ready and went for the wedding.

It was the first time I was attending a Hindu marriage. I was fascinated by their rituals and customs. Since the minute it began, I was paying close attention to what was happening and was so lost in it that I didn’t see anyone/anything else. I really loved it! Apart from the fact that it was short, sweet and simple, there was a lot of meaning in their rituals. And I should admit, I would love to have a Hindu marriage! 🙂 Seriously! After the marriage, we had lunch, spoke to Kiran for a while and then, had to leave. Betsy and I bid our farewells and went on our way home, after two great days with some really wonderful people! 🙂 I got back to hostel the next day (ie, yesterday). So, that’s what I’ve been upto during the past one week. It has been hectic, I admit. But I would do it all over again, any day! Without a doubt, or a moment’s hesitation! 🙂 I loved the experience…and all that came with it – the people, the good times, thoughts, everything. Yes, I know I haven’t mentioned the thoughts…more of that coming up. And I’ll try getting some pics for the upcoming posts! 🙂

One for now... 🙂 that's us, hostelers from my class, at Thekkady