Through and...through!

One's innocent finger tips fall prey to the unruly mixture of bromophenol blue, and coomassie brilliant blue. Finger tips, stained BLUE. One of those stubborn stains that refuse to leave one's skin even after near-bleeding attempts are made by rubbing it onto the damaged surface of rough stone! Of course, one should use destaining solution. Unfortunately, domestic homes do not store methanol and acetic acid in their refrigerators! And one has to eat before going back to the lab the next morning. So one eats. Looking at the rasam on the plate, more often than usual, to make sure it's not turning blue. One could use a spoon. But hell, no fun in eating rasam saadham with a spoon! Sheesh! The most one can do, is refrain from licking one's rasam filled fingers for one day. What deprivation!

And so, life goes on. Through melting petri plates, and boiling autoclaves. Through stolen media, and mistaken alcohol (Isopropyl!). Through unrooted craziness, and umbridge-like bossy-ness! Through dreams of making a difference to oneself. Through working sundays. Through insginificant conversations over glassware-sterilization throwing stressed out minds into fits of laughter. Through the hunts for the silver lining. Through the greetings from a french-bearded, joyous,blue-shirt-wearing, cupric-chloride-blue-bike-riding unassuming scientist. Through thoughts about the fates of Chappu and Pappu under experimentation in the animal house. Through staring at fish in a recently cleaned fish pond. Through contemplations on nose-piercing and hair styling. Through chola poori and chappathi kuruma. Through corridors and staircases, freedom and non-freedom, through power and its nonexistence, through piercing looks and teary eyes, through realisation and...speculation. Life goes on.

Yours "Center for B, AU" ly
Signing off...

20/01/08

I'm going to let the photos do the talking this time :) Not like they'll tell you exactly what happened, or how i felt, or how amazing it all was...still, there was definitely more to this birthday than growing old ;)

After successfully accomplishing the task of waking me up and getting me out of bed (And trust me, its a very difficult task! You should ask my cousin(s) and my brother!), my friend very sweetly chauffered me...



Through the beautiful roads...sunlight filtering through branches...



...and to our destination...where she did one of the sweetest things ever...



Spent a moment reminiscing...



And some time acting like a scarecrow ;)(i'm not dancing for sure!)



and that, was the morning. Afternoon? Guess who sang for me! :)Couldn't get better!



But apparently, it could... :) Back to the beach in the evening. Another cake. Some more great company. Craziness.



My beautiful new door happened...



And so now i say...



Definitely, there couldn't have been a better way to turn 21! :D thankyou all for everything :)

Yours "Dear God, thank you"ly
Signing off...

Sparks of felicity!

A bike ride is like nothing on this planet. Its one of those things that dances to your tunes. You could be flying, or gliding, or simply just riding. A solitary ride on a breezy night, on an empty road, beneath a starry sky, guided more by the silver moon light than by the yellow head light, is a reprieve of sorts...but riding as a pillion rider behind somoene whose skills in riding you trust, is a different kind of bliss. You have nothing to control. You just let go...allow your soul to fly with the wind, as the wind. On a routine short ride with my cousin today, i looked up at the sky, more out of habit than anything else. The wholesome circular moon lit up the partly clouded purple space above me, a sky of scattered stars. And then, there was an aeroplane, flying right above us, and seemed to keep pace with us. It was some sort of fleeting feeling i cant describe. Like the inner core of my heart was struggling for expression, expression that would do justice, even though i was pretty sure nothing would. The only word that popped into my brain when i thought about it later was harmony. Weird, how I'm not able to relate that word to alot of other things i'd like to relate it to!

And that...was one of the lighter moments of the past 2 days which have been a myriad of unpleasant happenings and thoughts! The other light moment, which i classify as light only now, and didn't at all during its occurence, was my 15 minutes of 'fame'. Not literally, but within the family. A considerable amount of the attention that was focussed solely on my grandfather stole its way to my recklessly careless being for a while when i accidentally locked my uncle's car with the keys safely placed on the back seat, thanks to the thirupathi laddu that i had to free from the ants first, and then free from the car! I'm not going to explain how the hell i ended up doing that, but it happened! More disastrous was the fact that he was willing to carry out the task himself, but i insisted on doing it for him, and actually got the keys from him by saying "naan unga car ah onnum pannida maaten, saaviya thaango!" (I'm not going to do anything to your car, give me the keys). So much for trying to help! Me and my big mouth! Its a good thing they didn't have to break the door, considering there was no spare key...some sort of wire meddling worked. Whew! After all the cribbing and brooding i did before i mustered up the courage to break the news to my uncle! So,an hour back, when my uncle gave me the keys again, and told me to leave them at home, we had to grin at each other! And I, for all my carelessness, allowed myself some warm smiles for the renewal of his trust in me! Childish, yes, but it was the high point of the unfavourable circumstances! Or so I'd like to call it ;)

Lastly, i would never have updated in the present circumstances, but i was asked to...so i dedicate this post to that reader of this blog who hardly ever comments. Thanks for making me do this :)

Yours "with the wind, as the wind"ly
Signing off...

Trysts with the wild

Happy 100th post dear blog!!!!!! Wow, some journey that ;-) I didn't know what special stuff to do for the 100th post. Didn't get any ideas like what i did for the 50th. So you'll just have to put up with a normal post! But well, its been acknowledged. This blog is an integral part of my boring life! and i love it, and all its readers! Thankyou!


Wondering what the pic is about? Read on!

The mobile creations of mother nature are best admired when they remain where they are supposed to be. In the past few months, i have come to realise that what one considers beautiful on a tree can become a nuisance when its somewhere you don't want it to be, and something you thought was cute, can get onto your nerves when it affects something dear to you. Lets get to the point.

The balcony is one of my favourites laze-zones at home. It became an even more comfy area once my grand-dad brought in this very normal plastic chair with a great cushion. I could sit there for hours doing nothing. The first thing about my balcony which was destined to be doomed was apparently the back side of the air conditioner, which juts out right at the top, slightly below the ceiling. None of the members who inhabit this abode ever paid much interest to that metal box, probably because it was way over head, and ofcourse, there's no necessity to strain one's neck and look up at it once in a while! Looks like the ac suffered from 'attention-deficit' disorder and decided it was high time it came into the lime light. It was sometime in March last year, when i woke up one morning and opened the balcony door, just to see two birds flutter out into the open in great hurry! Ofcourse they left back a feather or two as a souvinier, for me to look at till they came back after a few hours. The incident called for constant vigilance. I sat at my table with what in chennai is called an 'ottara kucchi', a loooong stick with a brush at the end used to remove cobwebs stuck to the ceiling. One had to tap the side of the ac as soon as
the birds (which we confirmed were infact pigeons!) flew into the balcony. But human as i am, i got tired of the irritating practice, and called it quits. Miraculously, the birds seemed to have stopped coming in! Or so we thought. The calender turned to october, and i started hearing sounds at night. Bird sounds. Pigeon sounds. I hit the ac with the stick, and they didn't budge! The activity of these birds then varied from dropping their dirty sticks and leaves all over the white floor, to blessing us with their feathers now and then, to (the most important of them all) colouring our white walls with their excreta! Or should i say they perhaps thought our walls looked so dull, and wanted to add some life to it, and maybe they also found the smell in the air too bland, and wanted the pleasant aroma of their SHIT to fill in! And then they advanced to dropping their matter on the floor, on my cushiony chair, on everything except, luckily, us! These acts of indecency called for a check on what they were doing up there, and how many members the family had! Our long-moustached watchman climbed a ladder up and informed us that there was a meticulously built nest, and 2 FAT pigeons! A cry from me to remove the nest was immediately opposed by my grand-dad's belief from yester-year that if a pigeon's nest was disposed off, it would bring rifts in the family! And believe me, he was so staunch with the belief that we put up with the stench and the dirt for a few more days. As everything has limits, so did my patience, and after he saw the art work of the birds on our table once fine morning, he called for the disposal! "whew!". The nest was indeed a piece of art. Very meticulously built. But the point was that this house we live in was also very meticulously built, and we dont have problem with birds building their nests meticuously on trees! As for the pigeons, they both went inside a plastic bag which our servent maid took home. Whether she ate them, or let them free is still a mystery, though she does claim she let them go! Our floor and walls successfully stank for over a day, inspite of the phenyl wash and my attempt with the room freshner! The gap between the ac and the ceiling was skillfully covered with cardboard boxes which were hibernating peacefully till that moment! No more pigeon trouble.

Just when we were convinced that the trysts between our balcony and wild had come to an end, another incident made us realise that our balcony was probably meant to be George of the jungle or Mowgli of jungle book! One of the gifts i got for my birthday was this very nice rope swing. It stayed on the floor for about a month, until we finally got the hooks ('S' kokkis!) and hung it a few days back. Now the balcony was paradise! Listening to radio at night, watching
the stars and swinging...aah! The swing was given so much attention. There was a whole photo shoot with it! Each member of our family took turns to sit on it and smile, while others stood at the back and smiled wider. And i must say, it was a very photogenic swing. The photos were promptly sent to all the NRI members of the family and the happy comments were passed. And then, mysteriously, the swing started developing HOLES in the corners. At first, we thought the
poor structure could not withstand the bulky weight of our bodies, and i must say that none of us burdened the swing less than the other! More of the rope started to disappear. It was very very creepy. Yesterday, as i walked in from college, i heard my mother shouting "pudichaachu! there's the culprit!". I ran out to the balcony to see a squirrel happily nibbling away to glory, and in the process, getting a free ride on the swing! Ha! How happy and comfortable it looked! It ran away when it realised it had an audience, but promptly came back when we hid and waited.That was it! My mother took the swing (or what was remaining of the swing) off the hook and placed it on the floor of the room. Turns out the squirrel got angry. The mats in the balcony, which haven't been attacked till date, were all bitten, and their fragments lay on the floor, lifeless! What's more, the little creature had the guts to enter the house and nibble at the swing that was sitting on the floor! Oh God save! And i apparently find squirrels very cute. *sigh* Thus ended the short life of my beloved swing!

Pigeons and squirrels are nice to watch when they're on trees. Now, after some not-so-nice experiences, my mind refuses to forget the bitterness of the stench and dirt and nibbled fragments and the early death of a gift. And so my balcony stands swing-less, awaiting the next encounter with the wild! Lets see how long this break lasts!

PS: The picture depicts what i'd be doing if the swing were still alive. And that pic, is among the numerous ones we took.

Yours "looks like i'm not the only one who loves the balcony'ly

Signing off...

GONE?

This post is very very sudden. I'm supposed to be either sleeping right now, or studying! Though the former seems inviting, and the latter seems a necessity, i find myself compelled to sit and type out this post because (a) My Blog hasn't seen an update in way too many days for my standards and (b) Some incidents in life have to be recorded as soon as possible! I don't know how many of you noticed the 17th of feb hype a few posts back. 17th of feb just passed, and looks like it was a day meant to make a mark on every year's calender henceforth, for me! And so it did, despite my strong belief that it wouldn't! Need i rattle on further?

My smile in a matter of seconds, turned from METALLIC to NON-METALLIC! My braces came offfffff!!!!! : D :D Aww the freedom! Actually, it feels very weird to feels one teeth again and use a normal brush and have a mouth devoid of rubberbands! I couldn't believe my ears when the golden words were spoken, though they were a little technical, i felt like slapping my dentist... "So, shall we de-bind them today?" and instead of jumping up and screaming, i said "yeah sure" without even smiling! Ofcourse all the jumping happened at home!

Ok, i'm running short of time! So one last time... YAAAYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!! :D

Yours "the alloy stopped hugging my teeth"ly

signing offff....

20 on 20th!

Through the times of insignificance rose a moment of significance. A moment that turned into an hour, and eventually, a day never to forget. Like i'd already mentioned in the comments section of my previous post, i have these amazing people around me who never let my birthday pass by like just any other day... This post is a tribute to each one of them, whose wishes i'll carry along with me for life, and whose doings are never to be forgotten. I don't think things get better! One of my friends very correctly stated that the 20th of january will tell me how non-insignificant life actually is! I agree. Its some great feeling, and one never gets tired of sayin thanks. So once again, to each one of you, who made my day what it was, Thanks a million! God bless you all!

Right from my 12 o' clock wishes, and the before 12 wishes (people who said, am very sure i wont be able to catch you at 12, so am wishing you before hand even if its technically not yet 20th!), the sms', the day calls, the ISD calls, and std calls, the mails, the cards, the gifts, the visits...each of those...made me feel so... significant! And ofcourse, all those were all the better with the first round of chocolate pastries, which were dutifully squashed onto every member's face, thereby giving the photo a title "cake faces", and the 2nd HUGE, yummy, chocolate, full, round cake with 20 freaking candles on it, in a dark room... *sigh* surprises make the heart overwhelm with...i don't know what! I'm finding it difficult to put to words what i felt... but if there's one thing thats for sure, it was a postitive feeling...it was something euphoric! It was one of those rare days when i had no problem whatsoever in displaying my braced teeth, and not artficially, in genuine smiles, and surprisingly, my mouth didn't want to stop doing it! It didn't hurt...from the minute i woke up to a number of msgs on my cell, to 11.00pm when the last guests left...to much later, when i finally drifted into slumber. The whole day seemed too good to be true... like it happened to someone else, or to some part of me that didn't exist till that minute, and then suddenly became a part of the different parts that make me.

The day was probably the ONLY good thing my college has ever done to me. We were taken aback, and very very happy when saturday was declared a holiday... it was all perfect! There wasn't a single moment which came close to being sad...except this realisation of the number 20! 20 somehow feels BIG. Really BIG! Like all your young and sweet days are gone forever...like its defining a whole new phase in life. Like hell, my mom got married when she was around 20!! That should say something now! Any comments on that? ;-)

I don't want to list out the names of people who i'd like to thank, for the fear of missing out anyone. So... to ALL of you out there, who made 20/01/2007 my best birthday ever, who kept me smiling the whole day, who made me nostalgic to the point of tears, who spread warmth with the first sound of voice, who left my palms stuck to my mouth in awe, who made me chuckle with the teasing tones, who said it all in one look, one deed, one word... THANKYOU! Love you all! You know there's this song...in which someone's being asked the most she's said with just one word... For this moment, i'd say my word 'thanks' means a million things, but still, if not the most, its the least i can say! God bless!

PS: I paid my dentist a visit too on my b'day. Looks like he wanted to see me too! But well, he didn't give me the gift i was waiting for.... :( he didn't take my braces off! But he promised me that 17/2/07 is goin to be the day! :D

Yours "days to be remembered, perfect...they're all perfect..."ly
Signing off....

Li'l angel...

Have you ever seen an angel? Or atleast, felt like u have...? Well... i have. But this one, didn't have wings...this one, wasnt dressed in white...But angel she was, so pure and sweet...imparting a feeling of a happiness so complete, so ethereal. And there i was... drowned in the echo of her voice...in the way she pronounced those two words and smiled at me to respond...smiling, showing the few teeth that she had... the words... "divya chitti"!!
The words still ring in my ears...:D Such a divine feeling...

My niece. Srinidhi. The thing about kids is that they're not only full of life, but also make you feel full of life when you are with them! Every minute of it...She's given me a reason to believe i had one of my best evenings...pampering, playing, dancing with her... forgetting anything else that may have been running through the front or back of my mind. And taking up enough space in the same mind, for days after she said tata and left this country. She made me laugh...and marvel at the intelligence such a small thing like her can have! So smart!You know, we always have a deep regard for people who make us forget what we're going through by making us laugh...atleast i do.:D

Kids...*sigh*

Yours "God bless her"ly,

Signing off...

PS: I hate my college and very sincerely wish those people rot in hell someday... they will.
Don't ask me what they did, you wouldn't believe it. :( ;( Chi...

"Now" is the word...

What happens when your home is like a venue for a fun party everyday, and you're having one hell of a time? Well, you dont have time to update. :D But, thats not a bad thing. Because such times don't occur too often in one's life! Well, to give everyone a clearer picture.... A whole lot of relatives have come down to stay at our humble abode from different parts of the world, and its one big carnival! There's something to do everyday, something different. And....it keeps you totally occupied! Which i believe is a very very good thing....:D But when you think of the unfortunate fact that such moments are shortlived, and that in a few days, the walls of the house will echo with their voices, and the floors will depict shadows without the people who are the source...and they'll stand infront of you in each part of the house, saying something they've already said, or doing something that made you laugh like you're mad....and that feels disheartening. And i don't want myself in a disheartened state when the fun's still on, so i refuse to think of it! Which brings me back to one line that i read a few years back, and have loved ever since.... "cross the bridge when you get to it".

So, i dedicate this post to everyone at home right now.... Amma, thatha, paati, chitti, chitappa, Karthik, Mama, aunty, sanjana and sandhya...and visu who'll be here shortly! Thanks for making the past month so coulourful! Looking forward to the remaning few days...
And to Kar, whoz leaving for the U.S on friday, Good luck in ALL your future 'experiments' ;-) You're definitely going to be missed.

Well... this post is turning out to be something i rather didn't expect... But thats not anything new! Now to some lighter things.... am going to watch pirates on saturday!!!!!!!! YAAAAY!!!!!!!! cant wait.... :D :D And there's this other line i remembered recently... it sort of came to me at a particular situation, and i was quite amused at myself...
"If fate doesn't make you laugh, you just don't get the joke!" --Shantaram

One last thing.... Happy Birthday to Padmaja!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D (2nd aug)

Yours "Make the best of the moment"ly
Signing off......

Dwell among the clouds

When you have too many things to post about, the post either becomes a blabberation, or becomes too long. I don't know which of the 2 this one is going to become, but i suggest you prepare yourself to face the consequences, whatever the genre ;-) Now... to Ooty, and Kerala.

When your eyes are being subjected to a feast, it feels like your mind is lost in a dream. A mid-day reverie that you don't want to snap out of. And i found that happening to me way too often in the land of mist and rain... of flowers and peaks...of never-ending greenery. Where you live among th clouds...and walk among them, and yet you cant see yourself within them, and thus find it difficult to believe so... but end up feeling it somewhere in your heart, that it becomes true, and makes you believe. Pine forests to arrest your attention, and make your eyes prisoner....In my opinion, not a single pair of eyes would mind an exile there. You just cant stop looking...The rows of softwood...like symmetry came naturally to them!The trees beckon you to them, but the slippery soils warn you of some unexpected fate you might meet if you succumb to the temptations of the pines whose trunks seem like a stairway to heaven... for the sole reason that their highest branches and tips are lost in the mist, and blend with the sky...giving you the feeling that if you manage to climb up and have a little peek, you'll be in a world far away from ours. So here finally, is the place where the land and the sky meet in total peaceful white-ness... unlike the sea and the sky that meet in rich blue, the colour of the world. Its like living in a dream.

And then there are the winds...whose main aim it would seem, is to push you off the nearest cliff, as quickly and forcefully as possible. The wind and the drops of rain get into a conspiracy to slap your cheeks, and every exposed part of your skin so hard that its like anasthesia...makes you numb with cold. And then the chill becomes painful...Like a thousand needles are piercing your skin from nowhere...and you feel white. You feel like if you try to open your mouth, your jaw might just break away from the rest of the skeletal structure and take a nice holiday... :D But, its a great feeling(only if it happens once in a while). Struggling against that wind very simply draws a similarity to life itself... And when you reach your destination against the wind, and the view from the top is breath taking, nothing else matters. And life too, follows a similar pattern...

And the tale that Ooty has to tell moves on... from deep valleys, that seem as bottomless as an abyss, to tea gardens, to flowers of paradise, to lakes and to home-made chocolate (that i regret not tasting!). But we move on... to kerala. You get so drunken with the greenery that you start seeing everything as green...ok, that maybe an exaggeration, but the place is really green...I don't really know about the cities, but the road to kerala was wow. My mother bought something called 'pazham pori' at some tea shop on the way, which was, i think, banana fried in bajji style! It was sweet...and had 'welcome to kerala' written all over it! And then there was guruvayur...with all the lamps and the elephants...the place humbles you so much. Was beautiful. Temples.... :) Nik, you live in a beautiful state.

Thanks to the trip, i had my first tryst with a fireplace ;-) was super cool... i just kept staring at the flame and lugging more wood... And looking at the reflection of the fire in someone's eyes gives you such an eerie feeling! My aunt's eyes literally looked like they were on fire... lol. And we also had this 5.5hour train journey climbing up to ooty... it was the cheapest travel we made i guess. 11 bucks a ticket for such a long journey in a cute little chuc chuc train that kept stopping and whistling and crying its chucchucs...and that is an antique piece that runs on coal! Some experience... :)

The trip cost my dad money...but cost me... some football matches that i very badly wanted to see... but well, now that am back, i can have it all :)

Yours 'Italy into the quarters' ly
Signing off....

When Jose makes your day...

Adidas just made my day... or rather, my brother just did, indirectly. I was supposed to buy something with the money he'd given me for my birthday...still remember his great piece of advice "Don't save it, please spend it, all of it!" And i did just that... spent it on something i've been considering ownership of for quite sometime :D A good pair of sneakers...SHOES! Branded. I don't know why i happened to pick adidas, but i do know now that it was the right decision! I
think it started because there's an 'upto 50% off' sale...and there's such football ambience in that place!!

I stepped in to find David Beckham staring right into my face! Woo hoo! A HUGE poster...2 actually. And rows of football jerseys and shoes and so much more... and the last shelf had... football studs! I stared at them for so long am sure the guy helping us around would have thought i was charmed or hypnotised or something! Well... it wasn't too tough to pick the shoes. Love them :D And my mom picked some t-shirt for my bro and me( and as usual, i ended up pickin my t from the men's section! Never like the ladies secn...i dont think things like this ever change!)... normal stuff. But the big surprise came later...

We were billing...and they had this stand filled with post cards... again, the 'big names' in football... Ballack, Beckham, Kaka, Raul, Riquelme...for free. GRABBED some! LOL! And the guy smiled and walked away... i was stuck in this 'slightly embarassed' state but hell, the quotient of excitement and joy exceeded that of embarassment by a huge margin! And just as we were about to leave... the guy came back, with a poster!!! A poster Goddamit! Of Jose's team! Anyone who's seen the latest 'impossible is nothing' adidas ad on tv with thefootballers would know jose's team... 36 footballers + Jose in the poster! I almost screamed! It felt GREAT! And he smiled again... and with my 'Oh damn am goin to scream' expression, i said 'thanks so much'! And once we got into the car, i DID scream!!!! Loudly... much to the annoyance of my dad who does not
approve of posters because they apparently contribute to peeling of paint from walls :D.... But hell!! We were just leaving... and i spotted the same poster that was in my bag, but a blown up version, as a hoarding outside the adidas showroom. *broad smile*

Thats it i guess... still feels great!

sandhya - You've already made me brand ambassador for odomos, mangoes and helmets.... hope you won't deny me te honour of being brand ambassador for adidas, or better, football itself!!!:D :D

Nil - put up the poster for u... :D its not too clear... but i really couldn do more at 2.00am...do see the full size! :D hope u get one too!

NOTE : I have come to realise that no matter where you go eat in chennai, the best place for south indian dosai, vadai, idli, pongal etc... is Saravanabhavan! No matter how crowded, noisy, dirty...You go there to eat, and you eat among a thousand mamaas and maamis and their kids, and spend the least time you'd spend at a restaurant, and come out happy and full...the taste of sambar still lingering on some part of your tongue :D No wonder my thatha refuses to eat out
anywhere else!

NOTICE : This blog will lack the writer's participation for the next 5 days, as she will be out of town. But please do leave your valuable comments :D Will get back to you on the 27th! Will definitely miss my blog, and your comments ;-) But i'll hopefully come back with a story! And some nice pics i'm hoping...actually, i think am goin to miss the matches more than this!! Damn...nil, u better keep me updated man! Messages free within tamilnadu :)

Yours "I so hope I was Jose"ly
Signing off...

Heaven

HA...finally! Sometimes we get caught so miserably in what people call the 'web of life' that we're unable to do some things we really badly want to do. And in my case 2 things come under this category
a) UPDATE
b) READ

Well, its not like i'm overflowing with ideas for a post...but i'm obviously aware that we hardly have posts that make sense...And those 74 comments in the prev post...aah! Can't believe it touched so far!! Yooo hoooo! so, here's for updating!

First...3/4/06 - Nidhee's birthday! I know am late...but, better late than never. Nidhee, happppeeeeee birthdayyy!!!! We had great fun that evening di ;-) But next time, be prepared for a heavier bill!!! Best wishes for the coming year.

Right from the time i was a kid with two plaits, a handkerchief pinned to my dress, my eyes filled with 'kajal' that came out beyond the corner of my eye as an extended line, missing front teeth and a belted frock, or even before that, The idea of heaven and hell has been imposed onto me... the idea was planted into my brain, like it was into yours i presume, that heaven is haven for the Gods and hell, for the devil...I think its this kind of spell that's cast on us when we're kids, because things u learn when you're young, you remember for life. I always thought that heaven was up there...among the clouds...where angels float, and dance, and people just smile all the time. And hell, is down under...where you have this extra-large pot of steaming red liquid which people fall into (typical tom and jerry depiction!). But i guess thoughts do change! There was a time when my teacher in school said she believed that heaven's just a place on earth... just invisible to mortals...and i believed in that for a while. But you know, there are certain situations where you voluntarily end up saying 'heaven' without realising why...here are a few instances in my experience...

• Draining a glass of cold orange juice after walking for 1/2 hour on the roads of chennai during peak summer, after an exam!
• Walking into a room chilled by the AC after getting roasted in the sun.
• The feeling you get when you're drifting to slumber-land...
• The peaceful expression on a baby's face...as he/she falls asleep on your lap...
• Satisfaction
• The sound of a bell indicating the last hour of the day in college...
• Hunger satisfied by thair sadam and manga thokku!
• When someone understands what you've been trying to teach them...
• MARS chocolate...in the quasi-awake, puffy eyed, carbohydrate-craving state after an afternoon siesta!
• Old photographs...the laughs...the happiness...the whacki-ness
• A warm, furry blanket, a pair of socks on a cold bed...
• A hot cup of coffee and mild music as it drizzles...
• Drunken laughter...
• Team work, cheering, victory, the euphoria!
• Music that speaks your state of mind.
• A crowd cheering after a goal is scored...and the player being hugged by his team mates.
• A surprise...
• A smile through a crowd of strangers.
• FAMILY

I cant think of more at the moment...am very sure there are more. I would like you, dear readers, to add on to the list!!

Yours 'yippee i finally update'ly
Signing off...