Who Moved by Cheese?

It's time to move on...to a new blog...I'm now on Blurty. Visit me now at http://www.blurty.com/users/scholar.

Colour me!

Anita’s is a darkish-yellowish-orange—warm and smooth.

Nidhi’s is a bright yellow- bubbly and cheerful.

Shahrukh Khan’s is a deep red- very passionate (at least in his movies).

My favourite RJ’s is a mixture of sky blue, black, and bright green- sometimes light, sometimes serious, and sometimes funny.

That’s the colour of their voices. Every voice has a colour, depending on the personality and image of the individual. I can almost instantly identify a person’s voice with a colour. Call it weird, but it’s true. So when I see a colour, I remember the person I associate with it.

I wonder what’s the colour of my voice.

Very Funny

I can never be funny. No matter how much I try, I can never make people laugh. I don’t think I have the funny bone.

On the other hand, I laugh easily. I love laughing. It usually begins with a slight giggle, and then graduates to a laugh. Even remotely funny things can make me smile.

You can imagine my condition during my history lesson in school, where the teacher was always unintentionally funny.

She was known for getting angry fast, and being hilarious when in that state. Her usual remarks on being angry with a particular student were:

“You junglee child! I’ll throw you like a football into the Chowpatty waters!”

OR

“Bogus behaviour!”

These statements were accompanied by elaborate hand-gestures towards the window, door, the student, or no one in particular.
Once, in a fit of rage, she threw her spectacles on the floor. Luckily, they didn’t break. But we got a ten-minute lecture on how expensive spectacle frames were and how she’d have to pay for them from her salary.

I could never control myself in her class. But to camouflage my laughter, I’d cover my mouth with a handkerchief and pretend to cough. If that didn’t work, I’d pinch my arm really hard.

Another unintentionally-funny teacher was the Biology teacher. She never knew what she was talking about, and her, “Come on now! I’ll throw you out now!”, spoken very gruffly, made me burst into giggles.

Unfortunately, when I moved onto college, funny didn’t exist in the teachers’ dictionary. Their attempts to be funny are met with smirks and artificial laughter.

Ah! Those were the days of true laughter. And trust me, it was therapeutic, because I hardly fell ill in my schooldays. And now, I fall sick almost every week.

On the basis of the above observation, I have a suggestion for the education board:

Make humour a part of our teachers’ training. That’s the only way they can keep the class alive while talking about long-dead kings and glacial formations.

So Dirty!

I always wonder why our roads are never clean, inspite of the sweepers doing their job thoroughly. Of course, it's the citizens' fault. But why do the citizens dirty the roads in the first place? Here's a possible (historical) answer for the citizens' apathy:

"A daily bath has always been an essential feature of a Hindu's life, including most of the depressed classes. It was from India that this habit spread to England and elsewhere. The average Hindu, and even the poorest peasant, takes some pride in his shining pots and pans. This sense of cleanliness is not scientific and the man who bathes twice a day will unhesitantingly drink water that is unclean and full of germs...... The individual will keep his hut fairly clean but throw all the rubbish in the village street in front of his neighbour's house....It is also noticeable that cleanliness is not thought of as such but as a consequence of some religious sanction. When that religious sanction goes, there is marked deterioration in the standards of cleanliness."

--Quoted from The Discovery of India, by Jawaharlal Nehru. (p. 254)

Now we know why.

Take your Pick

If you had to rename Baby's Day Out, what would you call it, and why?
Here are a few options, with reasons. Take your pick, or if you don't like any of these leave your suggestion in the Comments box (with reason).
Great prizes to be won! ;-) (kidding!)

• Little Scholar (because I sound like one).
  
• Sands of Time (because my blog is like the sand on a beach, moves on with time).
  
• Prodigy (need I explain?)
  
• Iced Tea (because it's refreshing, and my favourite beverage)
  
• The Ro Less Travelled (note the obvious pun on my name)
  
• Baby's Day Out (because it's the original one)
  
• None of these (because none of them sound good enough)

PS- If you are suggesting a new title, please try not to include the words 'diary', 'blog', 'journal', 'thoughts', in it.

Top 5 Ways to make Headlines
5. Celebrate your 60th birthday with a bang.
4. Drive without a licence and get caught.
3. Install cameras in your pre-school.
2. Annouce your engagement to a very famous actor's son or daughter.
1. Declare a war on terrorists- whoever they are, wherever they are.

'I Hate E-mail!'

That's what I heard someone saying yesterday. I wouldn't say I was surprised. I was shocked. ,br>
How can anyone hate e-mail and the Internet? Since the day I got my computer, I've been addicted to it. Have used it for anything and everything.

And here there are people, with access to the WWW, and they say, they hate it. It's like hating the telephone.

What do you do with such people?

Behave yourself, you're on Camera!

About a week ago, a kindergarten school in Mumbai installed cameras in its premises, so the principal of the school could keep a close watch on all the eight classrooms, plus the reception and the terrace simultaneously. The principal can watch it from her office or home PC. And the capital for it? From the students' fees, of course! A cousin whose daughter goes to the school said that the fees are about Rs.5000 per month, or about $100. And why not? The school calls itself a multi-activity workshop for pre-schoolers.

But the poor students, they barely know what a camera can do, and there they are, being watched by their much-feared principal. A question I have is: do the kids even know they are being watched? And if they do, do they know how closely, and what it implies?

Of course not. But the point here is: isn't this a violation of the child's privacy? Of course, they don't even know what it means, but their parents do, and I doubt if they were consulted about this. They might have just been informed by the management. (I will ask my cousin to confirm this).

And if the cutesy kids do understand what's happening in their classroom, their movements and behaviour will be subconsciously curbed. Their spontaneity will go for a fling in the playground. You don't need a child therapist to tell you that.

Wouldn't that make excellent viewing for other kids- a reality show for kids, featuring kids, and kiddie activities? Imagine this: instead of watching Cartoon Network, the kid watched the kids in the classroom, learning ABC and Mary had a little lamb, all the while darting glances in various directions around for the lens. But all over the world, reality TV shows take the prior permission of those being viewed, usually written.

Here's what a concerned parent has to say about it. Read it. It makes sense.

Surprises!

I absolutely love surprises. But then, I have a friend who hates them.
I'm quiet in a crowd. He can go on blabbering like there's no tomorrow.
I don't usually tease people or pulling others' legs. He does it all the time. And oh boy, does he love rubbing it in!
He freaks out on English music, I hardly know anything music at all.
He writes poetry. I can't. :-(
He loves kids. I can stand them only as long as they are quiet.
We still get along.........I don't know how!

Late!

Late is the worst thing to be when you have exams. My exams are at the unearthly time of 7.30 am, and I'm not used to sleeping before midnight, so to sleep and then wake up is a difficult task for me.

The first day (Thursday) was fine- woke up at 6.20 am (woah!), and reached college on time. But today (only the second day), was just the opposite. My mom and I both overslept, and woke up suddenly when newspaper boy rang the doorbell at 7.15!!!! Horrified, I just dressed hurriedly, and managed to reach college at 7.35. It took me a couple more minutes to climb up the three floors, and I was writing the paper by 7.39 sharp (I checked my watch for the time so that I could put it on my blog! My mind works overtime, doesn't it?).

Of course, I'm sure I'll hear plenty of sugggestions to get an alarm clock, and I think I will, but methinks Mom believes it's against her principles to get an alarm clock. ;-)

What are you doing Online?

Did I hear you say, "What are you doing online in the middle of your exams?"

Well, tomorrow I have a paper called Effective Communication Skills, which has minimum studying. And well, going through my e-mails and writing on my blog, I'm communicating with a lot of people, right? Communication at its best! Need I say more?

Hot News!

I met Tarun Tejpal yesterday! He was so friendly, and I took his autograph. :-) So what if he's not a filmstar, he's a budding journalist's idol!
Gotta hit the books now.

Stop Press!

Hopefully, I’m creating history by being the first blogger to blog about the first Mumbai Bloggers’ Meet. (Though that’s not the reason I left early.)

The meeting officially began at 5.30 pm at Just Around the Corner, Bandra. But Nidhi was the only punctual one. :) Others didn’t walk in until about 10 minutes later.

We changed tables twice, because we thought it would be better if we sat outside and when we settled outside, we realized it was too hot. ;-) So we went back in.

So there were nine of us- Anita, Nidhi, Mahesh, Vidya, Amrita, Veer, Anand, Ashish, and me. Not a bad number.

It was a mixed table of people, a couple of young people (me and Amrita), and the remaining, well, not-so-young people. (No offence, but from a kiddo’s point of view, almost everyone who is above 20 is not-so-young.)

Mahesh was constantly smiling, or half-smiling, just like the pic on his journal. Dunno why he was surprised to know that I was the Baby’s Day Out gal. And he chickened out from talking to my Mom when Nidhi handed him her phone.

Vidya preferred not to sit with him initially, saying she did it all the time, but after getting a snap clicked with him, she hung around. Was a pretty good excuse, huh? ;-)

It turned out that Amrita and I were in the same college earlier, and we have a lot of common friends, but I never saw her in college! Small world after all!

Nidhi was too sweet, and the self-description on her blog, matched to the T.

Anita was very warm, and has a lovely voice, and cute small-ish eyes. Easy to make out that she’s from Shillong.

Anand suddenly perked up at the mention of Stephen Hawking. (I’ll try to read the book ASAP). But he was interested in everything, and paid a good deal of attention to everyone, all at the same time. How do you do it, Anand?

Ashish was busy admiring the waiter’s tattoo, and going on and on with his jokes. Someday I’ll lose my temper with you, Ashish! ;-) BTW, I think that sip of ice tea actually made my throat better! Will attack the chocolate soon. Hope it helps even more.

Veer was handing out his visiting card and was very keen to know why everyone blogged. And another interesting question- Would they still do it if they didn’t have the time?

Much, much more must have happened after I left, and I’m dying to know more! I want to know everything!

Hope we do it again sometime.

Change Needed

Baby’s Day Out has almost completed a year. And I’ve almost completed 18 years of my life. Thought I’d make a few changes in my blog, like:

• The title, too kiddish, some say. (Though I think it’s something like what a marketing person would call ‘brand identity’.)


• The design. Again too kiddish.


• Ummm…is there anything else that should be changed?

Please, please, please leave your suggestions and constructive criticism or mail me!

Exams!

Exams, or egg-jams, as some like to call them, are just round the corner (literally). Thursday’s the day, and I’m hoping and praying that it doesn’t come soon. So much work, so little time!

I won’t be very regular with my blog for the next 10 days or so. Sorry for the inconvenience caused. :P

Top 5 Ways to Make Headlines

5. Get good-looking dudes and gals to wear some clothes, and call yourself the hottest fashion designer.
4. Make a new blog! ;-)
3. Call for a peacefulbandh(closing shops, offices, schools etc. to protest against something), and make sure it is anything other than peaceful.
2. Preach tolerance.
1. Knock over a couple of people while driving, get arrested, and then released on bail of Rs. 950 (less than $20).

Do you Love me?

Some scientists have located a love spot in the brain. If this area of the brain is very active when you’re around your boy/girlfriend, you know you’re in love.

So that means you now have scientific evidence to prove that your girlfriend is really in love with you and is not just after your money. (A pity that Anna Nicole Smith’s late hubby isn’t alive for this one- his lawyer would have surely recommended it.)

The evidence is simple- you just have an MRI scan done, and while the scan I being done, pictures of different people are flashed for a few seconds. Some pictures are of your special someone. The technician pays attention to the love spot. And if it shows lots of activity when the most important picture is flashed, bingo! The person’s in love.

So instead of getting married in a temple, church or any other place, go for the scanner. You’ll get a lifetime guarantee!


Rain, Rain Go Away!

Like every other Indian, I was praying for the rain to stop in Colombo. Ah well, some things are just not meant to happen.

Weird, though. In the last few months, our poor farmers and economists were praying for the rains to come, and when they did, we prayed for the heavens to stop showering.

Quite ironical.