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August 25, 2006

Many, many years ago...

Today, for some reason, I was reminded of my Bits ragging incidents. I didn't realize how much fun they were until later, but then I was a first-yearite, no longer a "freshie".

One of my favorite ragging sessions was when I was caught with another DAVia, S~. We were discussing Calculus and he was about to start explaining a particularly complicated problem when I noticed a bunch of "seniors" staring at us.

"Freshie?"

"Yes, sir"

"Nee DAV (pronounced Daaav) thaane?"

"Yes, sir"

"Come along. S~, neeyum vaa pa."

We followed them meekly, all thoughts of caluclus left far behind.

"Unakku eppadi ivana teriyum?" They apparently already knew S~.

"He was the school captai..."

Nooo, S~ whispered to me but it was too late. As soon as I said "captain", a flurry of comments surrounded us.

"School cabtaina? S~, sollave illa? Nee vaa ma."

I realized a bit too late why it was not prudent then to let them know that he was the school captain. The poor kid just got ragged more for that.

Anyway, it turned out to be a pretty pleasant session, I got my shikanji and S~ proposed to me (well, it was either me or a buffalo) with a blade of grass (my seniors asked me to imagine it was a rose, I tried, believe me :) and then S~ had to recite a poem for me.

Just to be on the safe side, S~ and I never discussed calculus after that.
*** ~ *** ~ ***

Then, there was the time when Radha caught me, she was a final year student and we discussed books for a couple of hours! I totally enjoyed the discussion. She did make me fill up her water-bottle which was cool with me (like I had a choice) as long as she didn't make me cry (I'll come to that soon). She had these thick glasses on, hair tied up in a bun and she was dressed in casuals, a capri and a tshirt. The next day, this pretty girl in a salwar kameez called me, "Freshie, come here!" I took my dinner plate and walked towards her table. A few of her friends snickered.

"Yes, ma'am?"

"Adi paavi, you don't recognize me?"

"No, ma'am"

"You spent three hours talking to me yesterday and now you say you don't know me?"

The salwaar kameez, the pretty flowing hair, lack of glasses and nice bindi totally threw me off! Anyway, I thought she was cool!

*** ~ *** ~ ***

"What are your hobbies?"

"I like to read..." (I know...lame but hey, I am no singer or dancer!)

"How is it that all freshies like to read?"

*dumb*

"Tell me some books you like, authors you usually read..."

*decent-sized-list*

"Did you rehearse that to tell your seniors?"

"No, sir."

"Ok, tell me the story of Shall we tell the President."

I started telling him...five minutes later, he stopped me, convinced that I wasn't lying.

We talked for some more time and then he asked me if I would meet him again.

"No, sir."

"Why? Didn't you have fun talking to me today?"

"Yes sir but I would rather be at my bhavan studying." (I can't believe I said that but I vaguely remember that I was very intent on making a transfer to the Computer Science group then and it required a 9.0 GPA!)

He was quiet for sometime and then he said, "Ok, then go."

I wondered if I had hurt him by saying that but I really blurted out what I had been thinking all that time...

*** ~ *** ~ ***

Then, there was the time when a second-yearite caught me and asked me to name all the states in India with capitals. After a traumatic half-an-hour, I burst out crying and then she spread out a map in front of me and we went over it together. Whew! I never was that good in Geography at school...

The other time I burst out crying was when a couple of DAV seniors (again!) started teasing me. As soon as I started crying, they were kind of taken aback, they took me to C'not and treated me to a milkshake and tried to cheer me up (one guy even sang a song). I laughed a lot that day, after the initial crying session :)

*** ~ *** ~ ***


There was this guy who became well-known around campus for "catching freshies" multiple times. People wondered if he attended any classes at all. My count was 3, there was this girl who got caught 9 times, by this guy! Each time, he would talk, buy her shikanji and drop her back at the bhavan. Such a chivalrous dude!
*** ~ *** ~ ***


Other sessions included collecting different colored tooth paste blobs on a brush, fashion parade with broom sticks, explaining why more guys got into IIT, was it because girls were duh..."DUMB"?!

Hmm...those were the times. (Really, am only 27 ;)

*** ~ *** ~ ***

August 11, 2006

Me, k, food, rakhi, this and that.

People (men) say they have difficulty understanding women. While they have their own reasons to say that, I am going to say, I have a lot of difficulty understanding men! Now, I am not saying this to do something juvenile like getting back at them (after all, I don't even know them, why should I care what they say? Except if the men I know say that and in that case...well, in any case, they should read this post :)

Here's why I can't understand men or why I find them curious, to say the least.
Disclaimer: This is based on my observations of the men I have come to know in my life. Hmm...actually, let me just narrow the target population, this is what I have observed in my interactions with k (there, no room for oppositions...I think). But, let me go ahead and substitute men for k 'cause it sounds cooler when I generalize like that...whew! All that talk for nothing, anyway, here goes:

1. Men can't multi-task. For instance, if k is cutting vegetables (which he does, like once in 8 and a 1/2 months) and I am asking him if he likes the song that's playing on TV, he can't answer while cutting. You know what I mean? He has to:
- finish cutting
- listen to the song
- express opinion on song
If he is browsing and I ask him to switch on the TV, they are discrete tasks for him, so:
- he will place his laptop down
- he will search for the remote
- he will then go, "Ramya, where is the remote?"
- he will then take the remote from me
- he will switch on the TV
- he will go back to browsing.

Girls take it to an extreme in the opposite direction, I guess :) I cook dal while cooking a curry and listening to a song, sometimes balancing a cell on my neck. k would have a nervous attack if he was asked to do any two of these tasks together.

2. Men can't remember movie names/scenes/actors/actresses. It's kind of like it is with directions for me. I remember the place, how it looked, what it sold but not how to get there. For example, a typical conversation between us goes like this:

k (while watching Kasthoorimaan)- "This Tam movie sucks."
rs - "Ok, I didn't expect it to be bad, I like Meera Jasmine..."
k - "uh uh"
rs - "Remember? She acted in the other movie that we liked? Sanda Kozhi?"
k - (expression-less)
rs - "Remember it had Raj Kiran? You said he acted well in Thavamai Thavamirundu?"
k - "Hmm..."

Sometimes he asks me questions like:
"Hey Ramya, remember that movie with that babe in it that I liked? What was the song that I liked in that movie?"

I usually manage to answer questions like that but still, it makes me wonder :)

3) Men can't search. Examples:

k - "Where are my car keys?"
rs - "In it's place."
k - "What is it's place? I kept it on the floor here! (He points to exact x,y coordinates)
After I hand him the keys, he goes, "Where are my spectacles?" and then followed by, "Did you see my coffee mug? It was here (another x,y coordinate on the floor)."

4) Men don't like grown-up parties (be it birthday parties, polite get-togethers, house-warming parties - anywhere, where it's necessary to be polite and mature). And if there's one thing they dislike even more it's buying gifts for these parties. I mean, we cannot go empty-handed to a birthday party, can we? (We can but not after we are 25+ ;)

5) Men don't like grocery shopping (see previous post :p)

6) Men don't like to be reminded of responsibilities:
k - "Am going swimming Sat morning"
rs - "Ok, but we have to call your parents Sat morn. We promised them."
k - "If it's such a big job, we shouldn't commit to it!"
rs - "??!" (A big job for you or for me?!) :)

6) Men like to have as few thoughts as possible in their heads at a time, women like to leave as few thoughts as possible out of their minds!

k - (reading investment book)
rs - "Hey heard about this?..." and I tell him something interesting that happened at work that day. We then each start thinking about it. I have a 100 thoughts running through my head about what happened that day.
Five minutes later, I see k carefully scrutinizing a point in space and I ask him,
rs - "So, what do you think?"
k - "About?"
rs - "About what I told you."
k - "Oh...nothing."
rs - "Ok, what were you thinking between then and now?"
k - "Nothing much."
rs - "Nothing at all?"
k - "Well I thought it would be fun if I could make my robot start my microwave oven for me."
rs - "Oh and?"
k - "That's what I thought."

So...anyway, that's a lengthy post about a whole lot of nothing, so, I'll conclude it with some random pics (my culinary experiments and k's rakhis)!
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