merry christmas!!
Merry Christmas
I know im a bit late here.. but who cares.. its still Christmas season!!
Not quite Christmas for those on the coastal regions of south India… really really sad… to think a morning walk could go so wrong….
On the western coast though Christmas was great. Had relatives coming over…. Was in pune… Spent time doing nothing really… watched the others eat rum fruit cake and marzipan and date rolls and kalkals and karanjis (or as the pau’s wud say.. newries!!) and…. Yummm….. please remind me why did I plan to abstain from Christmas sweets? ;o)
Went for midnight mass in biting cold, forgot to carry a shawl along as can be expected of me. And after freezing in our seats for 2 hrs, way past our (my) bedtime, at the end of mass they serve coffee and cake.. duh… if u want people to be attentive the coffee should be served before mass!
Didn’t really have a tree this time coz we reached only on the 24th.. no crib either…honestly its not like we didn’t have the time… just that ive become really lazy and now I feel stupid for not having made it …. In fact my earliest and best memories of Christmas are those of building the crib. I remember very clearly this crib we used to make when we were in our old house… carefully selected round pebbles were arranged in this quarter of a sphere shape…. It was quite a job coz it was rather intricate work… ofcourse I wasn’t allowed to touch it… at that time we had a lot of arbit people around the house with a talent for craft... my responsibility was putting the baby Jesus in the crib when we came back from mass… that was a time when plastic christmas trees weren’t really even there…. Atleast not that I knew of.. but plants were aplenty and so a random potted plant- one that had grown healthily through the year and was relatively taller was placed near the crib and adorned with tinsel and the star.. santa too was an integral part of Christmas (until we discovered a bit too early that he didn’t exist…) the fireplace was substituted by window grilles (easy access for santa) and stockings were substituted by large plastic bags (our santa lists were pretty long!) I even remember writing my letter to santa claus on stationery with a picture of mother mary printed on it... you know so that santa would be extra impressed! ;o)
Being in a convent school… Christmas also meant the nativity play. I started off as a shepherd in class 1. by class 10 I had graduated to santa claus myself!! (Stop laughing.. I wasn’t even all that fat then for that matter.. just that no one in class was willing to be santa … I mean…which 15 yr old girl will want to be santa claus? Especially when the alternative is to either be an angel or sing in the choir wearing a pretty plaid skirt)… though I should mention that (ahem!) my santa act was quite a hit and won us first prize! (bribed the judges and the audience with ‘real’ chocolates….. unlike the newspapers bundled into a red sack made to look like its full of presents…. For that matter even the 3 kings came to see the Christ child with empty boxes, though they were wrapped in colourful paper!!)
Things are not the same anymore…. Adult life has squeezed the enthusiasm out of me (cant believe I called myself an adult!) but christmas is still christmas and it will always hold that special magic!
I don’t really intend to get senti and all that but I honestly feel fortunate for having had a rather wonderful childhood filled with so many wonderful memories. In fact I think the very reason for having so much tradition surrounding such occasions is to create memories that will last a long long time. I used to find it strange that our family celebrates diwali and the rest with equal enthusiasm. Now I know its coz this is the stuff memories are made of. Makes no difference where you come from or wut faith you belong to.. ultimately its all about sharing joy and wishing others well.. its about brother hood and love and a celebration of our differences!!
p.s. on a very different note... CAT didnt turn out so bad (though maths was a disaster!!) even managed one call... ;o) indore
bye
spitting fire!
yesterday was the mumbai university convocation. there are places in the world where graduation is a big day not just for the graduates but for the entire family. perhaps thats the case in countries where college education is rare and graduates are few. not in india, definitely not in mumbai, where graduates are being churned out at an almost frenzied pace. 'graduation day? tell me something new'. i guess thats an ok enough reaction to greet any of us mere graduates, i mean it wasnt all that difficult to get a distinction and all that. but yes it is a big thing to top the entire university and score the highest ever in 20 years with 92.75%. i dont think it is wrong to expect some kind of honour or atleast recognition for someone who managed this...well... feat, from the university. but no. this is mumbai univeristy. the person in concern here (for those of u who dont know its a certain romit jain) was NOT EVEN INVITED for the convocation ceremony. no gold medal, no special mention, nothing. in fact i think he wasnt even allowed to attend the ceremony. why, u may ask... i really dont know. but yes, the topper in marathi was invited and given a gold medal, so also toppers in sanskrit and philosophy, then why not the science topper?... well there isnt a medal for the science topper... but for subject toppers in arts there is?... of course. now not that i think any particular subject is better or worse than another, nor do i think any course of study to be of more importance than another... just that its unfair that an extraordinary achievement is not being given the recognition it deserves.
now this is not what really irritated me. thats yet to come.
i heard of this wednesday. it wasnt fair. i sent an email to the times of india correspondent who had recently written an article on the quantity of gold in the medals being reduced due to gold prices being high. figured if they were concernted enough to make that front page news they would be a bit interested in what i had to say. next day someone calls me from bombay times, says she wants to speak to romit.. its not fair the way theyre not giving him any recognition etc etc etc... that was thursday. i thought i would find something in fridays paper.. nothing.. all the paper wrote about was kareena kapoor being caught kissing her boyfriend and analysis by several 'experts' on the topic. well, maybe theyll write about it on saturday, the actual convocation day... nothing..... more analysis on the kapoor-kapur kiss. almost every article on the front page revolved around that. they even went so far as to describe the various types of kissing, but no mention of the topper... now is this really pathetic or what! i have always respected the times of india and all their supplementary papers. today im appalled at their priorities. maybe im irritated because i had taken up the issue and they didnt think it was good enough. but honestly, i really think they have no sense of priority (and as for the kissing issue: for all the talk theyre giving on respecting peoples privacy.. hello... u made it front page news for 3 whole days-and still counting)
as for the topper issue, i'm gonna pursue it with a vengeance. im gonna take it up with the univeristy DSW (director of student welfare) on monday itself. i am so irritated. i know most people.. make that all people... will probably think, whats with her, she has nothing to do with it.... but its just not fair and if i can do something about it, i should. i dont wanna be spineless like most others on the student council. all they care about is making themselves ID cards and giving themselves certificates saying they were council members, for 5 extra marks in some govt exams.. its so sickening..
think id better stop before i totally lose control and say more than i
something wrong
think somethings wrong with this page.. this is just a check
SOYA!!!
Yup, got my SOYA this week.. knew id be getting it so wasnt all that excited but yeah, it felt really good.. ironically, the award (btw, soya means student of the year award) was the first prize i was receiving in college ever... as in on stage... in all 5 yrs...
cant really believe i spent 5 yrs in college.. thats like from the time i was 15 up to 20 (that makes 1/4th of my total life!!!) ... and honestly thats made all the difference.. i remember the first time i ever went to xaviers, all of 15 yrs, fresh from 12 yrs at a girls school (which i might add were not all that very pleasant) and the huge shock i recieved at the gate when i saw these ultra glamourous people coming out... i picked up my form and literally ran out of the place!! i still cant believe how i managed to muster the courage to go ahead and apply.. i remember my first day... i was going past the reception desk and two glam girls (i really dont know if they were really that great.. think my memory has given them added glamour.. i mean compared to what i was used to (nuns in white habits) anyone was glamourous!!) anyway they were like.."the JCs are here, ewwww!!!!" (JCs translates as junior college students... apparently the most worthless life forms on the planet)... well after that warm welcome, things continued in a similar friendly fashion for a while after which we either got used to it or it stopped.. anyway i really couldnt care less, i was having perhaps the best time of my life and had made some really great friends... 2 yrs later we were in proper college, senior college, again had a really good time.... did lots, but also had a lot of fun... honestly, things were great... lots of bad stuff happened as well but in retrospect, it was all good coz thankfully i took it if not very well.. atleast somewhat positively... and at the end of it one fine day im asked to apply for the SOYA and i won!! i had kept a diary on and off all through college and the day i heard id won i came home and went through it... in it was everything, all the good, all the bad, all the silly and stupid, all the embarassing, the downright ridiculous, the success, the failure and i realized how important it all was towards what i think is the basic purpose of education- self discovery. i would never say i was the best student of st. xaviers in my batch... off the top of my head i can name atleast 30 people who were better than me at everything and more deserving of the honour but for some reason, i got it and im not complaining. maybe it was just to tell me at the end of it all, it was worth it!
