To exes, everywhere

You seem distant to me now. I don’t even remember your face clearly. I know that if I see you face-to-face, everything will come rushing back, but then again maybe it won’t.

Sometimes it helps to think that it isn’t you that I miss but the feelings that you caused me to have. That’s convenient, isn’t it? I miss being in love, I don’t miss being in love with you.

The other option that I have considered is that if we did meet and you said or did something really crappy, I’d be angry and hate you. The catch however, is that we would have to meet and talk about something volatile. 

I loved you once. And it was special and it was important.You made me happy. I made you happy. Obviously that wasn’t enough. Something was not going right, could have been anything but it was definitely not nothing.

Bye bye love. Go find someone you will love again and I will too.

A Fat Perspective

I'll admit it, I am not thin. Not from any angle. It all depends on perspective, right. A fat girl calls me thin; the thin ones call me fat! In India though its considered a good thing- I believe the technical term is child-bearing hips ( yess, to have nice fat healthy babies, God bless 'em)

Anyway, I decided to join a gym and handle to fattie angle very professionally. It’s always easier to say 'I'll go for a jog everyday or I'll start swimming' but who are we kidding, right? After about three days, all is forgotten until the next time a hot outfit doesn’t fit or the mirror in a store's trial room makes you cringe.

So after weeks of intentionally forgetting, I joined this really jazzy gym with all sorts of exercise machines and a sauna and personal trainers who would give me a lot of attention and so on.

I hate fitness trainers. They are all thin, and always jumping around the place.

My trainer (let’s call her Pinky, coz she wears this hot pink tee which only she looks good in) is one of those chirpy non-sweaty kinds whom I detest! Here I am, trying to twist my body in all ways of impossible ways after a 45 min cardio session, and she s all chirpy and jumping around and saying 'Cmon Arunaaaa, you can do it-- only 30 more crunches'! I give her my most 'die bitch die' look and she just keeps grinning at me! Grrrr!

What was the point anyway? Torture your body, don’t eat this, eat only that! And then look at skinny girls and feel even worse.

I called TiTo that night and she put things in perspective. A fat perspective. 'Be happy with your body, Roonz. Skinny is out, voluptuous is in.' I did not feel better.

Mum says it's about being fit and healthy and all that jazz , but she's a mother right? Typical.

It’s been about two weeks now. Pinky, the evil trainer continues to be chirpy and make my life miserable. I feel thinner, and I have been complimented( ok fine, that one time when I cried in front of Dad and said 'Waaaah, dont I look thin?' and he nodded his head.)

I figured even if I do become thin, some size zero anorexic is still going to think me fat. And I'll never be happy then if I am not happy now with how I look! It’s all about perspective, I tell you.

 Now, where on earth did I keep those chocolate cookies?

Today's Special: SIMSite Surprise(Serves 2)

What a day!

With the mindset of a CEO and no money, we headed out to prove our capabilities, earn some cash and also conquer Pune in the bargain.

The task given to us was to try and use as many resources as we could to find employment for a day, earn some money and not spend a single rupee . I was partnered with Vivek and both of us, utterly clueless about Pune, set out on our mission.

The first task was of course,finding a method of transportation. Our first Good Samaritan was a Mr Lalit, a civil engineer with a construction development firm in Pune. He was extremely excited when he heard of our task and gave us dozens of suggestions of how to go about it.

I’m amazed at the friendliness of the Pune citizens. So many people stopped their cars to give us a ride. Most likely they were curious about what these young formally dressed professionals were upto asking for a lift. SIMS Hitchhikers United ki jai ho!

We were allotted the Deccan area and we focused on two major hotspots, Fergusson College Road and JM Road. Unfortunately for us, Pune’s popular hangouts turned out to be far too snazzy and one-day employees just did not fit into their ‘company policy’ or agendas. The excuses were predictable and very discouraging. We tried all options ranging from hotels to educational training institutes to retailers to book exhibitions.

Vivek and I alternated on the introductory speech. However, we realized (also in case of prospective supporters of SIMS Hitchhikers United), a feminine touch with a bit of fluttering of eyelashes and a sweet smile goes a long way. I say if you have skills, you better use it!!

Our toughest job interview was with Pizza Hut, where we were grilled by a)the shift manager who reverted us to b) admin guy, who finally asked us to call c) marketing guy who mainly spewed excuses galore. Another one bites the dust!

Finally, we received a positive response from a restaurant named ‘Savera’. We were greeted by the owner, a Mr. Chetan Shetty who was very encouraging and introduced to Mr.Shyam, who is his right hand man.

Shyam turned out to be a wonderful educator! We had an excellent discussion on supply-distribution and also the shifts and working hours of the employees. He gave us a detailed tour of the kitchen and its workings, explained the menu card clearly and topped it off with great gyaan about the restaurant business.

For the entire day, we walked around the restaurant ensuring each customer had a menu card, picking up and sending it to the kitchen and also, payment of bills. One interesting experience I had was with two foreign tourists who asked me to recommend my favourite food and which would obviously be non-spicy. I suggested dosas but the accompanying sambhar turned out to be much too spicy for our guests. Also, in their halting English, a cheese sandwich= paneer paratha! Well, consider me educated! We also chatted a lot about cuisine and Pune and me!!

I have a newfound respect for people in the service industry, especially servers and captains in restaurants. Their energy and enthusiasm is unbelievable. They are probably the most the thankless and unappreciated workers in an industry where customers are only interested in ‘paisa vasooli’.

Yes, there exists such a thing as a free lunch! I had one today and it tasted good! Yummy! Mostly, when you are in extreme hunger and danger of brain damage, any food just tastes so fantastic!

By around 4, my feet were aching. Desperately. Vivek and I took turns at working because that hour hardly sees any customers. By 5, we were ready to push off. After gleefully collecting our cash, we walked on, tired yet extremely satisfied. On our way back, we got lost. And to add to the confusion, it started to rain. Luckily enough, Good Samaritan II in the form of a tourist cab took us to our destination. Good Samaritans III, IV and V helped us get back to campus.

To call today interesting would be an understatement, it was unforgettable!

Sometimes You Cant make It On Your Own

One of my fav U2 songs goes like,

"you think you got the stuff,
you re telling me and anyone you're hard enough.
you dont have to put up a fight,
you dont have to always be right...
let me take some of the punches for you tonight.......
..sometimes you cant make it on your own.


Sometimes you dont need a gyaan session, or sympathy or advice, maybe you just need someone to listen. And maybe understand.

How To Avoid 'Idiot Buddy'

posted on july 17,2006

So as it turns out, I met a very old friend recently. This is a friend who I knew as a kid, who I had totally lost touch with because his family relocated.

One fine day, I get a message from him(lets call him ‘idiot buddy’. Why, you ask? The reasons will soon be clear) on this web community. Of course, I’m excited. Its been such a long time. We exchange messages on this community and generally find out about each other. Idiot buddy’s first irritating quality is revealed. He addresses me as ‘chick’, ‘baby’ etc.Excuse me, but does anyone use such endearing terms(!!) on meeting someone the first time? Never mind, minor issue.
Soon, we are chatting online. Just once or twice. Sure whatever, I say.He’s an old friend.And we are anyway just talking about random stuff. Then idiot buddy asked for my number. About four million times. I was very hesitant but relented finally. Within half a second,he sms-es, 'lets meet up.lets organise a big party!!’ I ignore the message totally. You would think the guy gets the idea.But hey, he aint idiot buddy for nothing. After another day,smsing begins again. ‘lets meet up!’.I come up with a brilliant excuse.'Oh,I fractured my foot,sorry'.He,of course sounds very concerned and promises that we will meet up AFTER i get better...eesh!!!!
I was bugged. So what if he's an old friend. I dont want to meet him,even if its with a big group of people.These days,I'm anti-social.End of story.
The next day,an old friend called.'What happened? I heard about the accident!!'
I was confused.'What accident? I'm superly fine'
'But Idiot Buddy was telling me.....'
And there he was again. I underestimated him,really. If he was back in Bombay,it was obvious he would be in touch with some others from those days.
Damn it all!!
I quickly made up another excuse about how it was a mild sprain,really! My friend didnt buy it,I'm sure. It must have sounded 'lame'...hahaha!!
See, the reason it went so far as it did was because I was too polite about it. Dr L suggests that I be direct about it. As if it were that simple really!!! I mean, if someone ignores me that way and refuses to answer my messages or calls..I'D GET IT!! This guy just doesnt.. I mean, why do you want to be in touch and talk and meet when I'm not interested? Go find someone else.
The next person who messages me saying 'hi,remember me...we were together in...'
will get a reply saying, 'sorry,must be some other Aruna'.

Current situation: i am happy to report that idiot buddy finally got the hint.

Hometown:Confused

"so where are you from?"
"oh, i am a mumbai-ite, totally...lived here my entire life"
"aren't u like south indian?"(read alien from idli-sambar land)..
"yeah,telugu"
"oh ok,so ur hometown is hyderabad"
"uhh..no, i'm telugu but actually from chennai"
"uh huh"(listener bored)
i however take 'uh huh' as an invitation to explain.."well, my parents were born and brought up there...all our relatives etc"
"okkkk so u are chennai telugu born-n-brought up in b'bay"
"actually i was born in pune.."
"and my brother in tirunelveli"
(listener's eyes glaze over).."well at least u r indian,right?"
"you know,my ancestors were from burma..migrated to india..in fact my mom's family is from kerala..."
(listener wondering what the original question was..why can't this girl give direct answers)

and so it went on..i always feel it necessary to explain clearly and in great detail about where i am from..but don't ask me why!
i get irritated by the pre-conceived notions that people have about south indians...i get stunned looks when i say that i don't like idlis.."buutt u r south indian, na??!!
and then why i don't have a surname blah blah, and that just because i am a s.i. doesnt mean i understand alll southern languages,"..buut u r...?"

Dedicated to Jagtap

posted on april 4,2006

Ask anyone in kjsieit,mumbai..I mean any random person," yaar..who's tis jagtap guy?"
Even the most calm/shy/sweet will use wonderfully colourful unprintable language to describe him. This blog is solely dedicated to a phenomenon called nitin jagtap who in his own unique,irritating and borderline-schizo way has pissed off so many gentle souls.
He walks around with this sneer on his face,always..its as if his face is frozen that way. If he opens his mouth, it is only to say something cheap,crude or plain stupid. His favorite past-time is to attack his "favourite" students and make them feel really really special!
Ladies and gentlemen,our favourite professor in the whole wide gigantic universe..jagtap. It is universal knowledge that he hates this batch and is very keen to show it! In fact, all of this would have been ok if he was a decent teacher..But hey...this is our jagtap..what do u expect??!! His favourite phrase is "end mein dekh loonga"...the students' favourite response is.."f^*.. ok ok never mind. Right... so the picture is very clear,i hope. He hates us,we hate him and not-so-luckily enough, he happens to take maximum number of subjects..so if he says "dekh loonga" it means he bloody well will.
Have I mentioned before that this class consists only of cool dudes and cooler dudes. They don't take such shit..so HOD is informed of his sick attitude. She,of course, loves the class and promises to take action. Yes,Ma'am we believe you.
However, certain sections believe that he should be given the benefit-of-doubt!!! Maybe he's a sad,lonely,frustrated person who's misunderstood. Maybe he isn't that bad after all. Maybe he's just lashing out this way because of some other unconnected reason... Weeellllll,maybe...just maybe..Naaa, I think we just prefer to not like him!??!!!
Anyway,as it stands the "end" has come. Its time to see what he's going to do and what the class is going to give him in return. Be assured, it will better than expected.