So we talked all night about the rest of our lives

Where we're gonna be when we turn 25

I keep thinking times will never change

Keep on thinking things will always be the same

But when we leave this year we won't be coming back

No more hanging out cause we're on a different track

And if you got something that you need to say You better say it right now

Cause you don't have another day

Cause we're moving on and can't slow it down

These memories are playing like a film without sound

I didn't know much of love but it came too soon And there was me and you when we got real blue

And this is how it feels...

As we go on, we remember

All the times we had together

And as our lives change

Come whatever,We will still be friends forever....???

-anonymous

This says it all;
me: they have made me look like a monkey...(tearfully)
twang: you?!!! never....pretty girl.

me: they have made me look like a monkey...(tearfully)
zing: oh!!! k.....

THE NIGHTMARE THAT MADE ME LOVE MYSELF

There is nothing more annoying than a cold.Or atleast thats what i thought until the first signs of an allergy manifested itself. From then, it was only downhill,from bad becoming worse and worse becoming worst....( i'm in want of more superlatives here!)
With a sinusitis problem thrown in for good measure,i became one of the sickest students in school,sneezing all the time. i always had an inkling that my classmates used to sigh whenever i went " a-tishu",while some of my closer friends amused themselves by counting the number of times i sneezed.
Sadly,i wasnt anywhere close to finding it funny.My irritation escalated as my condition kept deteriorating.With all the doctors exclaiming that dust was the sole perpetrator,my parents blamed Vidya Mandir. So,i kind of hoped that as i put my school life behind,i can bid a goodbye to these ailments too.
Fate however plays its own games..It decided that since i was to study pharmaceutical technology,the number of medicines i should take should proportionately increase.(practical education you see!!).so the allergies multiplied,the sneezing exacerbated and i was having a "lovely" time juggling between general physicians and ENT specialists,none of whom could help me permanantly. Somewhere down that line,i lost my sense of smell. I cannot point out the exact day,but it happened slowly. The downside was I coudnt smell anything delicious,the relief was that,as there isnt anything delicious to smell in chennai( esp,my coll) i wasnt very bothered. It actually worked out to my advantage many times,when others had to hold their noses,I could continue breathing normally. But fate didnt want me to do that little activity too. It blocked my nose,so that i was forced to breathe through the mouth.
So basically my respiratory system was in ruins. Down in the dumps.
Around this time,i got a little wild with myself for various reasons,foremost for neglecting myself.There began a series of ENT visits again.This time the doctor oohed and aahed looking into my nostrils. He came out with a clear cut " your in a very bad situation" dialogue. Ofcourse he wanted to confirm the verdict by all the different tests known to 'doctorkind',but for all purposes he had written me off as a surgery case. he said that my nose had gotten so inflamed that even the slightest touch would trigger it to go into extremes.
At this point ,it didnt matter. i would have gladly cut it off myself,instead of waiting for a surgical instrument.
The day of the surgery,i was numb.no feelings whatsoever. It was supossedly minor operation ,and i was pretty happy i could take off from college for a few weeks.
I was taken into the theatre and it seemed like just few minutes later that someone was murdering me,I coudnt breathe at all,something heavy was clamped down my nose. I heard some voices,....Angels ,thought my drugged brain. Five minutes later,with my eyesight coming back into focus,i tried to call out to the nurses. Something had happened to my voice. I could only whimper and hope that someone could hear me over the din. As my whimpering sounds and sniffles grew louder,someone came to my side. . it took me another half an hour to realise that the surgery was already over and that i was actually in the post op.Though i still felt as if i was being squashed by a big stone positioned ever so cleverly on my nose,I dozed off thinking that I could soon walk around happily.
Surprise,surprise, that was not to be. When the doctor came and removed my bandages,my nose felt huge and blood kept flowing out.The flow was stemmed by some cloth which was choking me,and all the blood was making me dizzy.
And still my nose felt huge.So i tottered to the mirror and ......,i saw someone.... someone,whose upper jaw was terribly swollen,lower jaw had disappeared under all that blood,thin slits for eyes,a dry mouth which coudnt open in any case,black,burnt lips(looked as if it had never had water) .and all these things i could see inspite of a big,engorged nose which had magically quadrupled in size. To add to the agony I still coudnt breathe,later I found I coudnt even swallow without causing spasms of pain to wrack my body.
That night,I coudnt sleep. I coudnt stop the blood flow,...The number of things I coudnt kept piling and soon, I was looking like a character from evil dead. The doc assured me that my neanderthal look was temporary. i wasnt ready to believe him. I was merely angry that he had made me look like the night of the living dead,and feel like one too.
The next day, when i saw myself in the mirror,and found the same horrifying semblance to a gorilla,i coudnt stop the tears.I had never really loved my face,but that day, i prayed that I should be restored with MY face with all its imperfections. I would never mind the rashes or occasional acne or facial hair if only i could get back MY own face.

When i finally got back my face three weeks later,i realised how much i loved it. .....above everyone else's.

WOMAN ON TOP
Not a celebrity in the conventional sense, nevertheless one who deserves a round of applause and accolades from all, young and old. She is none other than Bilkis Bano, one of the many women, whose lives took a dramatic turn for the worse, during the Godhra riots.
Her trauma commenced the day she was gang raped in Dahod district of Gujarat. To add to the atrocity, she was pregnant when the heinous crime was committed. She also lost 14 relatives including her 3-year-old child, mother and 2 sisters.
This act in itself doesn’t make her famed. God forbid should it.
What has earned her the appreciation and awe of onlookers is her immensely courageous decision to go to court. She is indeed Tamil Poet Bharathiyar’s “Pudhumai Penn” (New-Age woman).At a time when most women shy from publicity, especially in cases of rape, sexual molestation etc, a villager rising above all unsocial elements to fight for her cause is indeed an occasion to rejoice. Her stance that justice can be the only victor has helped her through these turbulent times.

What makes it even more commendable is the fact that she stood her ground even while the legal implications became steadily dangerous. She was forced to shift her residence several times. She received horrific murder threats. Her vulnerability was increased when her case was transferred from her hometown to an unfamiliar city. Any other woman, under these circumstances would have surely backed off. But with a heart of steel, Bano persisted, pursued and emerged victorious, if not completely, at least to an extent previously unheard of, in the history of such cases.

The sentence of life imprisonment to her tormentors is certainly not the end, but is a beginning of a new life for her. It is also the start of an era where women can believe in themselves and can stick to their decisions without fearing the perverse ways of the male dominated society.
Though her intention was not to be acknowledged as a celebrity, it our duty to place her at a pedestal…after all, she has succeeded single-handedly, in paving a path of justice and has bolstered the courage of many who still cringe to face adversity.

Distance is my enemy,
Age,the deterrent,
My prayers go unanswered,
As time fails to soften the dent.

மனிதர்கள் சிலநேரம் தடம் மாறலாம் ,மனங்களும் அவர் குணங்களும் நிறம் மாறலாம் , இலக்கனம் சில நேரம் தவறாகலாம், எழுதிய அன்பு இலக்கியம் பிழையாகலாம் ,விரல்களைத் தாண்டி வளர்ந்ததைக் கண்டு, நகங்களை நாமும் நறுக்குவதுண்டு
இதில் என்ன பாவம் எதற்கிந்த சோகம் கிளியே ...
-nalam vaazha,marupadiyum

THE SELFISH GENE

I do have several opinions about Dawkin's selfish gene, but thats not what this is about.This post is dedicated to all selfish people out there!!!

Recently,i read a book( a superb one,if u must know) about a family whose members have only one thing in common-selfishness.They live for money and they die for it. Correction:they are grotesquely killed for it.

This got me thinking. How can we define a boundary for our activities,when the slightest provocation can term it unaltruistic?is it really necessary for all our ways,methods and decisions to be governed by what others consider selfish? infact,arent we all motivated by OUR life,OUR food,OUR health,OUR fun? Even the social workers who rein in the title of altruists,work for their OWN satisfaction.

As, Joey says to Phoebe,there is no unselfish act. We are all selfish,we are ruthless,we aim to further OUR cause.And no,that doesnt make us monsters.But in my quest to understand certain glaringly obvious truths,i realised that there is a very thin line between mere selfishness and one single shove,(or maybe just a slight nudge) is all that it takes to send a person across ,to the other end-where the 'self' controls every single action,bordering on inhumanity.

The book focusses on this border,and it is amusing to see how people teeter and ultimately fall through.However to see it in real life( courtesy:Anna university) is not at all gratifying.

But,in all probabilities ,we have an immune system which can stomach such malignancies and which( horrifyingly) can push us over the brink.

GOD SAVE US.