Back in the days when I was getting a full time education and also going through the whole ‘I’m fifteen and fabulous’ stage, I managed to decide to settle down for a while at no-mans land [literally NO MAN].
And as would have been expected from someone who grew up climbing trees and choosing to play cricket with her neighbours brothers over playing doll house and watching wrestling and finding it cool, I managed to not only hate the place but absolutely despise it and all those hormonally challenged, PMS-ing ,extra giggly, 5 tons of make up applying, self obsessed dames. It was like stepping into a parallel universe where everyone had perfect hair cuts and shiny nails and pretty outfits and somehow no matter what day of the year it was; they all managed to look gorgeous “all the time”!
I started to feel emotionally connected and sympathetic towards the ugly duckling from the fairytale. All of a sudden I was being judged not just on how my academic scores were but also on how I dressed [“Neha you always wear that silly top. It’s not in fashion even!”], how I walked [“god girl! You drag your feet so noisily, you have never worn heels have you? ] etc.etc. And the fact that I couldn’t sing or dance [the two things apparently all girls can do!] didn’t help much either. So, I spent a good part of the first half of my stay there feeling out of place and missing the world that I had left behind, I also managed to break the record in moving from one set of people to another in search of the right clique` .
And then, it happened! My prejudiced opinions dropped and I started to see this bizarre world in a very different light………….
No mans land wasn’t a place full of superficial people. Rather I realized that girls had a tendency to be, well you know, ”girly” and that I had never paid any attention to that part of me so I found the rest of the worlds efforts pointless. No mans land was in fact this divine place full of people who were probably normal with ambitions and this very weird way of thinking exactly like I did! And then, the process of self realisation and personal discoveries started.
It’s surprising how different the world becomes if you just choose to change your perspective. So, the rest of my stay was probably one of the best experiences of my life. The pleasure and knowledge that no mans land had to offer were endless. Wear whatever you want [not like anyone you need to impress is around], do not think before you speak! Talk about all your girl problems as loudly as your heart desires without having to find a secluded corner, bitch to no end about the boy who dumped you and have at least a hundred people sympathize and join in on the abusing, don’t ever worry about certain parts of your wardrobe playing peek-a-boo with you, and then there was my favourite one- eat all you want and like a pig if your heart fancies it cause everyone does the same!
I found things I was good at, managed to shine in a few. Learned things I never would have bothered to do normally. This new perspective not only made me a better individual, and helped me realise this very girly side of me but also let me grow to this new level of profound intellect that I so proudly wear on my sleeve today!
It was like a vacation with benefits, of a higher education; of making friends I’ll know forever; of meeting people who have changed my life in the most bizarre yet wonderful ways; of learning, the true meaning of sister-hood. And also, of realising, that a ‘Y chromosome’ carrying individual is someone a girl doesn’t necessarily need to make a part of every sphere in her life. It was a journey that I’ll carry in my heart forever, probably more exotic and worth narrating than any vacation to Greece or Paris would be.
My stay, at No mans land…………
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
It's Voodoo!! It's Magic!! and you'll probably need magical powers, or the third eye etc. to understand this one :P
On a boring Saturday afternoon, I came across this article that got me smiling :) :) :)
Now, it was all about mystical stones and cryptic messages and in other words sort of like ‘voodoo magic!’
And then, the usual followed, I went in a frantic search for my cell phone, tried calling; realized it was on silent, cursed loudly, made my brother drop his home work and help me search for it instead, blamed him for losing it, and then…….”FOUND IT!!!”, on my study table where I always keep it :|
I called my best friend while obviously ignoring my brothers loud complaints and irritating banter, and also forgiving him for calling me “a blind mental freak”.
So, like I mentioned…….. I called my best friend. I got into narration mode and immediately got an “OMG! hahahaha”; in reaction and after a few minutes of girly giggling and silly story spinning we both fell silent, and I’m guessing she too was probably visiting the same far away wonderland that I was; where this sort of magical craziness would work!
We both as usual broke the silence together with a “So?”
“Should we do it?”, “Yes! Let us do it!”, “But, err, Will it work?”, “Who cares? It would still be fun!”, “Yeah, but how on earth are you okay with it?”, “Huh?”, “Well, you never believe in such things. The typical Aquarian that you are”, “Yeah, I know. But I also did not want to turn 20 and even then last week I did. So let’s just say that I’m open to silly things now”, “Yeah, but you don’t need this to get on with it! hehe”, “Yes I do. Cause, jerks aren’t my type!”, “Really? Are you sure?”, “Oh, Shut up!”, “Alright! Let’s do it!”, “Tomorrow?”, “Done!”…………………
So, we got down to business and wrote our messages and Configuration requirements [our cryptic way of referring to it ;)] and flushed it into the world……….
And, from the looks of it after certain unmistakable; super obvious; situational circumstances in the last few days, her message has not only reached its destination in all its glory but is also being replied to by the dozen. What about me? Well, my enquiry of the existence of a certain species is apparently still submerged in the worlds shit. ’Literally’
Now, it was all about mystical stones and cryptic messages and in other words sort of like ‘voodoo magic!’
And then, the usual followed, I went in a frantic search for my cell phone, tried calling; realized it was on silent, cursed loudly, made my brother drop his home work and help me search for it instead, blamed him for losing it, and then…….”FOUND IT!!!”, on my study table where I always keep it :|
I called my best friend while obviously ignoring my brothers loud complaints and irritating banter, and also forgiving him for calling me “a blind mental freak”.
So, like I mentioned…….. I called my best friend. I got into narration mode and immediately got an “OMG! hahahaha”; in reaction and after a few minutes of girly giggling and silly story spinning we both fell silent, and I’m guessing she too was probably visiting the same far away wonderland that I was; where this sort of magical craziness would work!
We both as usual broke the silence together with a “So?”
“Should we do it?”, “Yes! Let us do it!”, “But, err, Will it work?”, “Who cares? It would still be fun!”, “Yeah, but how on earth are you okay with it?”, “Huh?”, “Well, you never believe in such things. The typical Aquarian that you are”, “Yeah, I know. But I also did not want to turn 20 and even then last week I did. So let’s just say that I’m open to silly things now”, “Yeah, but you don’t need this to get on with it! hehe”, “Yes I do. Cause, jerks aren’t my type!”, “Really? Are you sure?”, “Oh, Shut up!”, “Alright! Let’s do it!”, “Tomorrow?”, “Done!”…………………
So, we got down to business and wrote our messages and Configuration requirements [our cryptic way of referring to it ;)] and flushed it into the world……….
And, from the looks of it after certain unmistakable; super obvious; situational circumstances in the last few days, her message has not only reached its destination in all its glory but is also being replied to by the dozen. What about me? Well, my enquiry of the existence of a certain species is apparently still submerged in the worlds shit. ’Literally’
Saturday, April 3, 2010
It's all about the romance!!!!
No, I am not talking about a love affair or a love story, not even of the supposed atmosphere that surrounds this seven letter word………… I am talking about “ROMANCE”.
Rolling your eyes? Well, I would suggest you opened that dictionary [or used the Internet to access dictionary.com maybe]. I’m talking about the noun form of this word that we all use only in reference to the matters of the heart that make us blush……..The meaning that states the word romance to stand for an ‘imaginative story’, or maybe even the other meaning of this controversial word that implies ‘to present unrealistically’.
All these years, ever since I started writing my diary [in the seventh standard to be more precise] I have wondered; as to what it takes to be a good writer. About, what is it that one should learn maybe even practice to perfect this literary form of art. Go to writing school? Or how about summer camps on how to imagine?
What is it that gave birth to Harry Potter and made J.K.Rowling if nothing else, but an extremely rich woman. What is it that gives people like her or even Emily Bronte their own unique yet fascinatingly stunning styles of narration. How is it that writers manage to have this exceptional talent to bring to life the most unimaginable scenarios, to make us feel and relate the most intense emotions? It is a writer who gave birth to a vampire, a writer that got us to fear this blood sucking in human entity, and yet again a writer who made every girl crave to fall in love with a hazel eyed ‘vegetarian vampire’.
Romeo and Juliet are probably the most romantic of lovers ever to be talked about to such great extents, Mark Anthony [Julius Caesar] a crowd steering Orator who changed the fate of Rome and civilizations that followed, and Cinderella the most favourite of all princesses and the reason why every girl wishes for glass sandals to stack in her closet. But, in the end they are all products of a writer’s fantasy. Their speeches, their behavior, their stories which every reader delights in and the coups which become the basis of every daydreamers role plays are the results of a story tellers tale……………
Everyone of us has a story to narrate, a poem to recite and a verse to rhyme but while some can express it in black, blue and white on paper others can not even successfully decipher it into sentences inside their heads; leave alone penning it down.
It is not about how awesome your English or whatever language you choose to write in is, its not about how much you scored on your essays, nor is it about where you went and what you saw or what you did, and it definitely is not about what you learned or are learning…………..
It is about what you felt and how you wish to express it, it is about how profoundly you can relate to it and how enriching the whole experience of sharing a point of view is. It is just;
All about the romance
[and if you are a reader or writer of love stories and romance in it’s original and famously known sense…then pun intended ;)]
Rolling your eyes? Well, I would suggest you opened that dictionary [or used the Internet to access dictionary.com maybe]. I’m talking about the noun form of this word that we all use only in reference to the matters of the heart that make us blush……..The meaning that states the word romance to stand for an ‘imaginative story’, or maybe even the other meaning of this controversial word that implies ‘to present unrealistically’.
All these years, ever since I started writing my diary [in the seventh standard to be more precise] I have wondered; as to what it takes to be a good writer. About, what is it that one should learn maybe even practice to perfect this literary form of art. Go to writing school? Or how about summer camps on how to imagine?
What is it that gave birth to Harry Potter and made J.K.Rowling if nothing else, but an extremely rich woman. What is it that gives people like her or even Emily Bronte their own unique yet fascinatingly stunning styles of narration. How is it that writers manage to have this exceptional talent to bring to life the most unimaginable scenarios, to make us feel and relate the most intense emotions? It is a writer who gave birth to a vampire, a writer that got us to fear this blood sucking in human entity, and yet again a writer who made every girl crave to fall in love with a hazel eyed ‘vegetarian vampire’.
Romeo and Juliet are probably the most romantic of lovers ever to be talked about to such great extents, Mark Anthony [Julius Caesar] a crowd steering Orator who changed the fate of Rome and civilizations that followed, and Cinderella the most favourite of all princesses and the reason why every girl wishes for glass sandals to stack in her closet. But, in the end they are all products of a writer’s fantasy. Their speeches, their behavior, their stories which every reader delights in and the coups which become the basis of every daydreamers role plays are the results of a story tellers tale……………
Everyone of us has a story to narrate, a poem to recite and a verse to rhyme but while some can express it in black, blue and white on paper others can not even successfully decipher it into sentences inside their heads; leave alone penning it down.
It is not about how awesome your English or whatever language you choose to write in is, its not about how much you scored on your essays, nor is it about where you went and what you saw or what you did, and it definitely is not about what you learned or are learning…………..
It is about what you felt and how you wish to express it, it is about how profoundly you can relate to it and how enriching the whole experience of sharing a point of view is. It is just;
All about the romance
[and if you are a reader or writer of love stories and romance in it’s original and famously known sense…then pun intended ;)]
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