A Cinderella Story

The intervals between two exams have never been so boring. Everyone has left for home, I am the only one in my group to be stuck in this town, the only who hasn’t been home for six long months. Not that I am susceptible to homesickness, but now I really am and can’t wait to get home. Meanwhile the jobless me has nothing but two, umm no three… hmmm no four things to do every day. First, watch movies and more movies by staying up the nights. Second, sleep for long hours during the day. Third, occasionally eat and fourth remove unwanted facial hair. It is as if I have jet lag but minus the travelling. And for the past few days I didn’t feel like writing, so devoted all my time to Poker - my new obsession. I made a lot of money and then lost it all. Apart from that, during today’s sleep-deprived session, I saw the movie ‘A Cinderella Story’ starring Hilary Duff and Chad Michael Murray. It is another of my favourite romantic movies with a “and they lived happily ever after” end. While watching the movie, I underwent several realisations which I thought were necessary to be penned down (or keyed down in this case).

This is a story about a guy Austin Ames whose secret ambition is to go to Princeton and become a writer but is unable to express his feelings under the pressure of keeping up to his father’s dreams and everyone else’s expectations of him. He is in love with his ‘cyber girlfriend’ from his school. They have not revealed their true identities to each other but are deep in love. 

The ‘cyber girlfriend’ is none other than Sam Montgomery who works at her stepmother’s diner (which 

had earlier belonged to her father) and also wishes to join Princeton. Both of them, as in Austin and Sam, were afraid to reveal their secret identities to the whole world. They carried on their ‘cyber relationship’ till the Halloween Dance. But as fate would have it (and also to suit the title of the movie), ‘the costumed Cinderella’ Sam had to leave before 12 midnight and dropped her phone instead of the shoe. After finding out that her ‘Prince Charming’ is actually Austin Ames – the school hunk – she gives up hopes for them being together, thinking he would never accept her. But Austin meanwhile has been searching extensively for her. Sam’s true identity is revealed just before the game in a not-very-attractive-way due to the evil plot of her step-sisters. And after this incident and a message from her father left on the diner walls, she musters up the courage to rebel against her step mother and announce to the whole world who she is and what she is made up, giving inspiration to her Prince to follow her lines. Sam found that the house and diner actually belonged to her and also that her abominable step mother had thrown away her acceptance letter from Princeton. Retrieving her authority, she made Fiona and her step-sisters work at the diner and restored the diner its original form. The movie ends with both of them leaving for Princeton together and living happily ever after.

(For a more elaborate summary of the story please refer to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Cinderella_Story).

It was indeed a pleasant story but as always, I started deliberating. One point that caught my notice that each of the lead pair portrayed a different self from what they originally were. It is not true in the case of every person on earth? Are we not continuously trying to change ourselves to match up the expectations of people other than ourselves? When have we really paid attention to what we want ourselves to be, what do we need to be happy? In today’s fast world, everything is about pleasing others- our bosses, our colleagues, our family, and the list is never ending. Even dogs, who are described as ‘eager to please everyone’, do things which makes them happy. “It is better late than never “holds true in the driving world, not in our lives. Imagine getting enlightenment at the age of say 65 and the time to put it to execution is a few more years. It’s true that it is better than never getting that knowledge but would life not be much simpler and better if the knowledge was attained at the age of 30? According to some great philosopher (me), “life is meant to be lived absolutely not relatively”, meaning being content with your own life will get you the ultimate happiness. Comparing your position, you condition won’t.

Also another thing that I realized was how badly I need a guy who is romantic, who believes in himself and also in me( as opposed to someone who doesn't) and is not afraid to show. Well it applies to me too. And also to my host of friends. It is very very important to have people around you have faith in you and will stand by you (as in the case of Sam, it was Carter).

'TRUE LOVE'

It is 4.15 in the morning and I haven't caught any sleep as usual. I tried sleeping by reading- didn't work. Then I proceeded to watch a movie -It's a Boy Girl Thing, a movie which I have watched umpteen times just because of my total love for the movie. It stars Samaire Armstrong and Kevin Zegers - both of whom I love dearly. Well this movie features in the list of my absolute favourites. It is the story about the protagonists Nell Bedworth and Woody Deane and how they embark upon a journey which starts with them hating each other and ending with them finding love in each other. The ending is actually the beginning of their relationship. It is a story involving a body swap, which in fact is the main reason for the hero and the heroine of the movie coming together.

I am an absolute sucker for romantic movies and novels. And be it any book or film, I see my reflection in the heroine of the story. Same goes with this movie(minus the body swap though!). I love the way Woody confesses his love to Nell and love the way they fall in love. Any story which has the hero and heroine madly falling in love enthrals my interest. All the romantic movies and novels end up inciting a mixture of feelings in me. For one, I feel very happy thinking about it but on the other hand, it just makes me feel how drained and empty my life is. My mind knows that there is no 'perfect' person for anyone but my heart yearns for one.

This has been the case since a very long time. And everytime I watch such movies, it makes me go crazy. Of late, this craziness has gone to such levels that I have convinced myself that my 'true' love is not in India but abroad!!!

It was a long night. I have been up since 10 hours and been doing nothing but downloading songs, randomly. And between checking the songs and downloading pictures of Paris at night, I have been through a lot of thoughts, which like the songs were random. I opened Wikipedia and read about London, thereby leading to the following links one by one(I do not remember perfectly well though):-

• The London Eye
• A few other ferris wheels all over the world
• The tallest buildings on Earth
• The Eiffel Tower
• Paris
  

And it was at Paris that I was stuck. Of late I seem to have been reading/seeing about Paris a lot. First, I read "Dancing on a Rainbow" by Barbara Cartland in which the protagonist escapes to Paris to 'check out' the guy arranged by her father for her marriage. An

d I am a die-hard romantic.

 The description of Paris totally blew me off. Secondly, I satiated myself with the sights of Paris in the movie 'The Devil wears Prada'. Thirdly, my best friend Tulika told me about her grandfather's life as as student in Paris. And many more such instances where Paris keeps coming into the picture. 

The word Paris keeps playing in my sub-conscious mind. And now I have become really desperate to go to Paris, which totally seems impossible to me in the near future. 

But Paris is not really what this post is about. I want to write down about many 'weird' changes I am going through. As a kid and a teenager, I have never shied away from attention. In fact, I believe I suffer from an insane Attention Seeking problem. But I have noticed since a few days I like retreating to my room in the hostel( which was one of the places I hated being at before a month back). I like sitting all by myself, reading a book or surfing the internet, avoiding human contact and conversations as much as possible. In fact, I hesitate to go out even when my close friends here call me. Its as if I am turning into an oyster or something, just trapping myself in a shell, except it is intentional. I am at the threshold of the 21st year of my life(I will be completing 20 years of my existence in May)...*Sob sob*... I have been through a lot of ups and downs in life, but never had I been so bent upon alienating myself from the entire world. My friends think I am crazy(which I agree I am). But the fact that they look down upon rather than appreciating it is what is making me this way I guess...

Well I am just waiting for the next 10 days after which I will enjoy my blissful reunion with my Bruno. This is a photo of my baby Bruno:-

I have been up all night, HAVEN'T had coffee, watched 5(oh my God, I realised it now) movies through the night... Just Like Heaven, Sweet Home Alabama, Legally Blonde-1, Madagascar -2 and Harold and Kumar escape from Guantanemo Bay - all of which I love... I downloaded a couple of songs which I had never heard earlier!! It was quite an aimless night and this quite an aimless piece of writing. I was actually supposed to complete my English journal for my practical exam later today. But guess what, I finished watching 5 movies but haven't even completed even 1 piece of writing... I have been sleeping alone since a month(my room-mate Sachi has shifted to her home) and I have the liberty of messing up my room to any extent I want( which is pretty much what I have done all these days).

I am going to take off, thinking of completing the journal. Its just 7 hours( that is a lot of time) to my exam and I need to complete, get pictures, STICK them, etc. etc. , viz. A LOT OF HARD WORK :(

So that's it for now... Hope to return with some more serious, objective-oriented pieces.
Ciao!

You can decide the title!!!

Not long back, on second thoughts, actually long back in September 2008 we had our University Youth Festival. It is a regular affair every year. Last year, though I didn't participate(because I was in the Hand Ball Team), I had been made in charge of the events to be held at the Chemistry Auditorium. And it was during one of the competitions( read literary), that I wrote the following poem...

The contestants were given a few topics out of which one was Nature... Most of them came out with brilliant pieces of poetry. As for mine, it is no way near brilliant, but
1. it doesn't make sense
2. will surely make you laugh...

So here it goes:-
***************************************************

MOTHER NATURE !!!

I look up the sky and see the blue clouds,
A feeling which makes me sing aloud,
A feeling which lifts me to the air,
A feeling strange yet similar to my mother's care.

I look around and see the green trees,
Long for my mother's embrace which I miss,
But the soothing green make me calm,
And suddenly I feel alarmed-
A large spider falls on my shoulder,
Scared, I stumble upon a boulder.
I break my leg and crack my head,
Feeling that I would be better of dead.

But Mother Nature at once comes alive,
A little cute bird onto my side dives,
And suddenly I feel alive,
Never so in my entire life.

***************************************************

I know, I know... You must not have read as ridiculous a poem as this!

And the sand slips...

A trip to the Puri beach was what I yearned for in the Diwali vacations and what I got after long hours of persuasion. So the very next day, I left for Puri with my group of friends- Anjana, Soumya, Tanaya and Tulika. It was actually a short trip of one day as I was supposed to leave for Gujarat after two days.

After reaching, all of us quickly changed into our shorts and went to bathe in the frothy waters. The setting sun glorified all of us from top to bottom. After satiating myself wholly, I came out with my pockets feeling heavy, the reason being them filled with sands. The sand which I removed thereafter(after I dried myself a bit) and which filled my hands kept slipping. The slipping sands and the roaring waves reminded me of the quote "Time and tide wait for none". The sand slipping from my hands personified the time slipping by. It made me contemplate - contemplate about my survival, my life. WHAT REALLY WAS I DOING THERE?

This question was a little too heavy and needed proper thinking. But with the given atmosphere, I was not able to do much thinking.

Later that night, while sitting by the moonlit beach, I pondered about THE question - the unanswered questions that filled the corners of my brain( not that I have many!).

The purpose of life, I believe, is determined by the attitude and the priorities in one's life. It varies from person to person. But how often do people identify it and its importance.

The purpose of life is like the vision of any company(I am a management student, no other example came to my mind). At various stages of life, goals change, but the long-term goal-the purpose remains steady. And I think all that everyone ultimately needs in the end is happiness.

I, for one, have many things that I need to do. Simple things that will make my life and that of people, and animals of course, around me better. Time is limited and we should try to work within this constraint to harness happiness - out of the little things in life.

In this really competitive world, people are forgetting the importance of 'other things'. The only thing that matter these days is success and money, though that might ultimately lead to happiness. But in this journey, they overlook the importance of the aforementioned 'small things'.

Life is all about living it and getting the most out of it. So go ahead and LIVE! Enjoy! Don't let triffle matters disturb you. Instead pay attention to things that give and spread joy.

A start...

It has actually been a very long time since i wanted to start my own blog. There was a time when blogs were there everywhere. All my friends had their own 'fancy' blogs. And there was a period when all the celebrities also engaged themselves in 'writing blogs'. So I created an account at blog spot and left it like that. When I opened to check out a college mate's blogs, I actually actually wanted to start writing my own.

I do not know how people who read this(I am sure very few of 'em) will appreciate it or not, but I guess blogs are just a medium to express oneself.
So finally my brain and fingers have agreed to co-operate and I begin on this 'journey' of writing my own stories.
Hope you like what you read and if you don't(read: most likely), it's okay... Just leave me a comment!