Iam down with cold and fever for more than a week now. It has now advanced to an ear infection. Have had the cold since two weeks before but I kinda ignored it. As usual. I hate taking tablets..especially antibiotics. But I should have taken the warning signs seriously.....
Now hating it....Most of my holiday is ruined...planned to do some revision over the holidays but I am unable to do anything.....*Sigh*..all gloomy atm!

Merry Christmas To All

Christmas Eve!..was evidenced well on the way back from Soton to home. Whatta traffic. Reached London almost around 2pm but it took an hour to get around to home. Phew! Everyone is out...and looking forward to tomorrow...excitingly. You can see people busy with their shopping..with smiling faces everywhere :) This year's Christmas is better than I expected...I was thinking the Credit Crunch may play a huge role this Christmas, making people to down-budget their Christmas but it doesn't seem so. The decorations of the streets are no less than previous years either. Nice.
Wishing you all a Merry Christmas
&
Have fun :)
x

Attractive or Was it?

This was a fast-food place in the middle of the path shopping centre, that they do temporarily on certain days of the week, not quite but like pavement shops. Clicked this away just before I entered the shopping mall. (Some other people started to take a picture of it, so I also went a ahead). It was spinning around, seemed like it had been hung there to attract people. I think I must have had spent about more than 4-5 hours inside the mall, and when I came out, only the skeleton of this thing (pig?!?) was left. I was scared so didn't stop there to take a picture. But was amazing to see the entire skeleton without a piece of flesh left. All must have gone into people' stomach. Don't mistake me, but I thought it was disgusting.

Homosexual and HIV in India

was the title of an article in one of the recent BMJ magazines (British Medicial Journal). I was shocked reading it, the way the government and doctors take homosexualism in India. In fact, the doctors are refusing to treat those patients who are homosexual and HIV positive, according to the article. And it is believed that homosexual is the most cause of the HIV spread in India.
Having been holding hundreds of campaigns for Aids awareness and India being one of the countries with high prevalence of AIDS, it is ridiculous that the health professionals are judging the patients on their sexuality in order to be treated. The doctors claim that the patients don't declare their sexual practice to the physicians. But according to the article, homosexuals can be sentenced of life imprisonment in India. In that case, how a patient will declare his/her sexuality? This discrimination is what resulting in many cases, not coming out to get tested because of the fear of getting arrested, which can explain India's inability to fight HIV.

It has also been mentioned that some psychiatric believe that homosexuality is a mental disorder. Approximately 2.5 million of men identified in India as being homosexual but there are many more who are not open about their sexuality. What can you do about it? There are many more in this world who are like this. So what if they choose to live their lives like that. I think this discrimination should be eliminated from the country, which could help in diagnosing and treating as many as possible.

They are treated as the social outcasts and are facing so much social ostracism. WHO (World Health Organisation) has stated homosexual is not a disease but Indian government is calling it so. The Police have also been said to be involved in harassment and rapes. Isn't here the society has been sullied more than, what they think, by the selection of sexuality does.

After all, I personally think, as a health professional, a patient should not be discriminated for being any different. Every single person has the right to live in this earth as every other human. And so do they. Doctors are there to save life. Refusing to give medical treatment to a patient because of the sexuality is extremely cruel!

Student BMJ 2008;16:425468-ISSN 0966-6494 December

Scrubs Poo Song :D

I'm Lovin' it

Holidays are sooo much relaxing :)..Say waking up late, without the alarm going off or the need to set it in snooze a couple of times before getting up...and as you wake up, a hot cup of coffee/tea comes to you to compromise the cold of winter. And then get ready. Eat. Drive around the shopping centres, have some fun at home, watch movies...sounds awesome? ;) Don't hate me guys, this chilling is not going to be for so long as I have exams coming up in January :)

As on holiday, I get to drive around a lot. The driving mode of me had been in idle for sometime after passing driving exams and getting a car. In this few days of driving on my own, the cover of one of my car's side mirrors has already been complimented with a long line of scratch by a wonderful cyclist, who was over-enthusiastic to squeeze in fast between the cars while waiting at the signal lights :(

Have been watching random movies as well as those that I missed. Every time I go home, I see several DVDs of films which I missed out. And then it rings a bell that I am so behind.The movie I looked forward to see in cinemas on the 12th, The Day the Earth Stood Still, turned out a waste of time. I wonder why they sometimes put an effort to remake a 50's sci-fi movie and it doesn't add anything better to the predecessor. I must say it was an underwhelming popcorn-flick.
Taare Zameen Par. Hands down! Happened to watch it by chance...just found the DVD at home and thought to give it try though I did not know the genre or the synopsis. But it was awesome. The end was really emotional and I simply loved it.

And, I am under the impression that this year's Christmas is much quieter...reason being the latest credit crunch. I guess. Remains to be seen how further the effects of it are going to be.

Anyways, wish you all have a leisurely weekend :)
Take Care.

At home on holidays. Having a great time....so much fun with my nieces, driving around a lot and watching a lot of films that were in my missed list. I am watching Tare Zameen Par at the moment...well, its in pause while I am typing this cos I had to come up to do a photocopy. So now going back to the movie... I ll be back soon :) Ciao :)

Bumble Bee on the Rose

Happened to click this away while I was roaming around our garden with my camera sometime ago. :) It's not the best shot but I still like it :D

Annoyed after cancellation

Of today's lectures. Due to the very eventful weekend, I could get back from home to Uni. house only this morning. Still had to miss two one (just heard one of them was also cancelled ;)) lectures in the morning cos of the late arrival. Rushed to the hospital as soon as I got back. And thence only I got to know that all the other lectures were cancelled. Didn't even receive any emails about it. Duhhhh...I could have had more sleep as I am lacking of it since friday! Feeling very annoyed at the moment!

Happy 21st

A semi-self-explanatory title there. Many more happy returns of this wonderful day to dear friend Kumiththa!

This day last year, we were celebrating your birthday at our shirley house :)...and this year, today, at your home. I am sure you are going to have an awesome day with lots of fun and presents. So no complaints about not cutting birthday cake with family this time :) You definitely deserve this 21st celebrations cos you are such a great friend...always jumping here are there... murmuring oh sorry singing (in your terms)at times..being serious but funny most of the times :)..So let me remind you that this is time for you to grow up though you should have already started thinking about maturing after turning 18. But don't worry, its not too late..We ll have a discussion lately, after your celebrations on this. (note: cos this is ur birthday and because am wonderful, you are not allowed to have a go at me on any truths I am writing here ;)

Okay serious part...I must admit that you have been a great person, who also understands me well. Thanks for those times when you assimilated me and my unexplained silences or angers.
No matter if we are going to be apart after Uni. life, our friendship will not be apart...and Iam hoping to make lots more memories in the future phases of our lives.

Have a fantastic and unforgettable birthday!

Holding on all that can't be left behind...

Its really weird how you lose contact with people who had always been around you for a significant length of time in your life. They would sometimes flash in mind when coming across a place or situation that was shared or spent with them at one point of time. Be your best friends, family friends or neighbours...etc. are almost.. the constantly changing elements of life, whether you like it or not.

How did I come about blogging this? The present few months can be tagged for birthdays in my calender. So many birthdays!! All of them are of my closest friends. And thinking about my birthday, it feels very strange that every year, at my birthday, either there would be some new comers or missing ones. I give a huge importance to friends in my life and I continuously realise that at several points. Whether they keep in touch or not, whether they forget to wish me a special greeting or not, I will do what I have to do as a friend. I also keep a lot of things that had been gifted to me for as long as I can, be it a book or a keyring. And there are times when I get scolded by mum and friends that I keep a collection of lots of rubbish. I always see them as treasures. I go through them when I feel like to, and remember all my friends, and its nice to do that once in a while when you are in a fast and hectic life. Trust me or not I still have contacts with my friends from primary school. I still receive birthday cards by post every year from some friends from primary. Also I am very lucky that my friends from my secondary schools and Sixth form are with me in the same Uni now.

However, if you are in touch with one there would be ten who you have lost contact with. I wonder how we lose touch. Without realising really. They were around you all the time, and then suddenly, you lose contact. New faces come in. And then you move on to the next phase of life, and it goes on like that. I suppose there is a time in everyone's life when certain things have to be moved or replaced ..... without choices.
Pondering on this, I have my friend in her final year of Uni., graduating in 2009. She will go back to home, which is 2 streets away from mine. But I will be stuck in where I am for uncertain number of years. She has been around for more than 6 years now..and I wonder if this number will grow even longer or what. But definitely, as who I am, I will always keep my dearest ones in my mind. No one will be replaced or forgotten. Even my blogger friends. Whoever you are reading this, here is wishing you that you may not get a situation where you/your friends have to leave you, and may you have lots of friends who would always be there with you at every special moments of yours. All your life.

Back to base

I have just submitted my assignment. Managed to finish it on friday and did some polishing up yesterday and submitted today. Though I was not in any rush, felt a bit nervous when I clicked the 'submit' button. Hmm...wondering whether I should have waited to submit on the day of the deadline, monday 12.30pm. Anyway, Thanks to sarves who has helped me with finding some neuro books.

Waiting to watch the remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still, which is releasing on the 12th. I haven't seen the original version. But hope it turns out to be time worthy.

Wish you all have a great week ahead :)

Below are some of the pictures from the diwali ball. Sorry about the copyright symbols guys..it was the photography people! And sorry...I can't add other pictures as all of them are group ones. Here you go hemanth!

Life as Placebo

I have been writing very little these days. Neglected my blog once again and to explain why, it is the obvious reason that could possibly stop most of us from not posting enough. Time. Am preoccupied with other things. Which are keeping me away from the blogging world. This is usually the period of a year when we get busier like in May/June. Assignments, SSU...etc. I am not getting anywhere on essays. really. So stressed out. It is getting busier ans busier as time passes by. I guess it will be the case until you reach a point at which you decide to turn back to see how have you lived all the years and sometimes you will feel that you have not achieved enough to be proud of ...though you have reached your main goal. Or sometimes you might be thinking that whatever you have worked hard to reach was pointless. Sounds confusing? I am typing this as my mind races on. And speeding up. And this post may have no uni-direction at all.
As you grow up, you tend to have too many expectations in life. A child looks at something, decides whether it is attractive to the eyes; the colours, shape, action and that is what important there. You gradually grow up, start to look into things and analyse whether something is worth paying off. With whatever. It may feel like you have the control of the way you live. How you dress, how you eat, what you do, where you go, etc. But you really aren't the holder of the control. But we hardly realise that we are living a life which is uncertain every next second. And, we can no nothing about it. But to live! Thats the reality but a status of contingency?!?.
We can never be vacuum of thoughts and feelings. The inner mind will always try to bend and lean for things. Subconsciously. I don't know if the word metaphysical will fit here. But when you think about putting an effort to realise what life is really about, you will be already half way through. The preconceived ideas and superstitions take over and make life an illusion. A dream but with intellectual manipulations. These lines that I have been typing may make no sense to me tomorrow but may do the day after. Thats the definition of life, I guess. At this point of time.
Signing off right now with this thought...without proofreading.
Take Care!

I wish...

Just got back home a couple of hours ago from Paksoc event The Eastern Touch plus a birthday party. Both went okay. Strangely, while at both venues, I felt, or rather wished, that I was in Sri Lanka!! Or India even. I miss you my mother land!

Another day...

Weather has been unbelievably bad today. Windy and...rain and....fog...! Got stuck in a flood near Uni. which was about 50 foot or so (I am so bad at predicting miles and yards of smaller distances). Uni is just 10 mins walk from my house so though it was pouring off madly, I decided to walk. Giving my umbrella a day out :) And I was damn shocked by the flood on the way just 2 mins from Uni...and I think the water must have been up to half way of shin. I just stood there, trying to work out how to get to the other side without getting wet. Wished I had my car with me at that point of time. But then, I would rather not get my car dirty though ;) So, seeing me standing there, no one else wanted to get wet and they were all standing. And I had this idea of getting into the portico of the houses in the street and then somehow across the other side. I definitely did not want to get wet, so I didn't mind walking through other people's portico. Though it is not very nice. Hmmm... But the house owner was very nice and helped us (me and there was some other girl who was waiting to get to the other side with me) to jump over the short wall and to the street. Lol it was good fun :) He he...but I was so glad there was a choice. And I could manage to get to the place where my transport to go to Basingstoke was waiting, just on time. Yeah, I had my GP session today. It went well. Better than I expected.

It was a great pleasure to watch the fall colours along the highways on the way to Basingstoke, which gave me the feel of approaching the real winter. The leaves have been turned into their gold colour. Some still in their yellow, maroon and rusty red. It has been so much spectacular to see even around the city. I wish I had taken a picture of the beautiful foliage to put up here, but I never thought I was going to be blogging about it :)

It also gets dark by 3pm before even we finish Uni, typical symptom of Winter. The rest of this season is going to be very dark...literally. Waking up seeing dark, leaving house to Uni or wherever when it is dark, returning home from uni when it is dark.......going to be hardly seeing any day light for months till next summer. And say waking up in freezing cold of Winter.................god! Thats when I miss the smell of heat and warm mornings you see when you wake up during summer. The capitulating sensation of summer.

Have you seen this before? :D

Twinkle Twinkle in different language styles....

Thought it was so funny but still very clever :) lolz.

The Ladder

There has been a lot of things going on simultaneously these days. Happened to go to the Diwali Ball and Yo Machan. I am not feeling very well also. It looks like an on/off system that the fever is playing on me. Gotta catchup the lecture notes, clinical etc. Additionally....I have an assignment to do as well.

I came across this image in my pharmacology lecture.. I thought the description given about the image was interesting. Besides any kind of my personal views. Thought to share it here. Just a short piece of simple explanation.

According to what I had heard, the person who is standing in the left of the image wearing coat belongs to the upper class, the one who is upstairs to the middle class and the third one belongs to the working class. It is concluded so because the upper class is giving the instructions, the middle class is actually doing the work and the working class is just holding the ladder.

NB: To those of you who are confusing as to what has it got to do with Pharmacology, you may be right. But its just the term "ladder" that was concerned as in analgesic-ladder. And the description about the picture was given just to add a little spice to the hot pharmacology lecture ;)
I had to google for the picture to bring here so hope it was worth it...and not disappointing to you for any reasons.

Take Care!!

These cute pictures are from Hemanth. They are so sweet :) thanks hemanth!

Shubh Diwali

Happy Diwali to everyone!

I will be in Uni. on Diwali! So no celebrations for me :( No fireworks or nothing. So sad, I know! I was home for this weekend, well since thursday evening. And leaving to Soton today and Diwali is tomorrow. Couldn't miss this monday for diwali as I have my GP (clinics) session, which is compulsory to attend. But I haven't had a diwali celebration for years and years since there is no National holiday for Diwali in Britain and I never dared to miss school. I can't remember when I had last celebrated diwali in my life. Hmmmm.
They are holding a diwali special at the local mandir in So'ton tomorrow but I am not sure if I will be able to make it as it depends on how early I will be heading back to uni from the great Basingstoke, where the GP Surgery is located. Last time it was almost 7pm.
However, I am looking forward to attend the Diwali Ball conducted at our Uni. on 4th Nov. Have never been to one yet so I guess it will be very exciting to me.

Anyhow, as this beautiful festival of lights is here filled with love and mirth, here's wishing that may this one be the harbinger of peace that fills every corner of this planet; and bring sparkles of joy that illuminate all your days ahead with goodwill :)

Have a wonderful and bright Diwali :)

Couldn't think of anything to write on but thought to leave some words as it has been a week since I last posted. I wish, as many others that I had more than 24 hrs a day. This weekend was a blink. Didn't do much other than trying out some cooking, which I am majorly not into. Usually. And nope, I can't cook. Well, things like sandwich and boiling rice in the rice cooker are exceptional here ;) I didn't even know how to make tea when I came to Uni. and until my friend taught me how to. Yesterday passed by with shopping and cooking with friends. Mum wouldn't believe that we cooked. When I occasionally say that I am gonna try and cook something when I am at Uni. house, she ignores me as if I am talking impossible and carries on with whatever she is doing. Or otherwise just smiles. But after the cooking experience this weekend, I really don't think cooking is a hard job. It's just about mixing and boiling of things in right amounts. I believe.

So tomorrow is Monday. Grr! Waking up early, 9-5 lectures.... still gotta prepare for my hosp. session tomorrow and a lot of work to finish up. Studies are becoming very arduous and I have already given myself enough time thinking on how to manage my time well. But still haven't got a clear plan, like, eat times, sleeping and waking times, study time and all. Luv to wake up early like 5am and I tried to do that a few times. But then that the window opens after a couple of days and I am back to my usual. Hehe. Anyway, am signing off now....
Take care!!

Moving on...

Today was the first day of my GP (General Practitioner) session. The only fact that I am not happy about it is that the distance I have to travel to the surgery in Basingstoke, which is almost an hour drive. On motorway. They were supposed to pick us up at 1pm from the Uni. according to the printed info in the handbook, and we were waiting and waiting until one of us had to ring the office to find out what was happening. And then only we came to know that the pick up time is infact 1.40pm.

The session went okay. It took some time to recall the stuff we did last year. Well, it did for me. My GP teacher and the group are nice, verrryy enthusiastic ....but again, why did they have to send us to Basingstoke!! The first day actually made me go grrr! On the way back, there was a long long traffic jam caused by an accident. So we had to wait still for about half an hour and as the traffic finally reached the junction where we had to take the lane to Southampton, the traffic police stood there diverting.....and yea, that was where the accident happened. And there was an option for us to take the exit just before the blocked lane but we weren't allowed to reverse back so had no choice other than going around the opposite way to come back to the same lane. But as you can imagine on the motorways, it takes ages to get back to a missed lane and adding to that delay was the same traffic again! It was almost 7pm when I got back to Uni. from GP practice. Gosh...tiring. I returned from home to Soton last night and was damn tired so I couldn't really make myself comfortable or enthusiastic to take part in the discussion. Noticing this, the GP was keep picking on me.....and I was blank!!

Last year's GP surgery was just down the road where I lived last year. About 5 mins walk. But this time in B-a-s-i-n-g-s-t-o-k-e!?!! My god! Hmmm....
While our group was talking on the way back, though I didn't talk much, we asked each other qs like where else did you apply for, where is your home etc. I guess these kinda qs never die because I think even after going in to my final year, I will not know the every single of 240 students in my year. I will recognise the faces seen in the lecture theatres but would not be able to know by names. And ye, so each of us shared where we would have gone into if not medicine....and most of them replied of careers like midwifery, nursing, actor, etc and I said Engineering. Didn't think this was going to be a shock for them. When I said that everyone was like 'wwwaaahhhaat... and whyyyyy'.
I like Maths!
Huhhh....my gosh...get out of here...!/Didn't expect this!
These were what I heard. Hehehe. All of them were maths-phobics. Well, Engineering was the second choice in my list of only two after Medicine since my childhood. And there used to be a continuous a drift of choice between Med and Eng until I came to A/Levels when I decided to take over Med. I knew that once I stepped into Medical School there would be so little maths in my life therefore, to make the most use of the time I had, I did Accounting as a part time course in the evenings when I was in Year 12. But my first preference was to Science than Maths so I ended up in doing Medicine. And I do not regret not pursuing any other career paths.
And why did I like science and medical career -while pondering on this since my preparation for med school Interview, I realised its not a simple task to answer this. And still seems a tough qs. I might write a post on this at some point for those who are with very short attention spans.
As of now, its going pretty well. I guess. But very hectic. Stressful. Time consuming. Still enjoying it.
Every doctor goes through a hard time, dedicating themselves to reach their goal, and its definitely not a job for someone who is only money orientated according to what it is like here, in this country. It needs sincere dedication and determination. And not many understand that fact.
I wish and pray that the love I have with my career should only grow and grow each day and not begin to dwindle at any point.
Wish you all a good week ahead!

Dandiya night

Had been to the Navratri evening last night at the local Mandhir in Soton and we, the Uni Students had been invited to the Garba.
To those of you who don't know, Garbha is a Gujarati traditional way of dancing around the deity in a circle. The Dandiya dance. The event started around 6.30pm but I could not get there on time as I was stuck in traffic on the way back to Soton from home. I reached soton at only 8pm, dressed up quickly and managed to get to the Mandhir at 9. I had to go to Wembly in the morning with family and got back home very late, again due to the traffic jam. It was a day of travelling. As soon as I got home, grabbed my stuff which I had already packed before leaving to wembly and made my way straight back to Soton. And trust me, all I had that day was a cup of tea. Mum was not happy about it. Yet, I left and rushed to Soton to be on time for the festival. But no luck, I was late.
The garbha was too great. I had a fabulous time. It was funny too. Some of us had no idea of how to dance as we were dragged to join them in the circle. I was just running, clapping this and that way for the first few mins but managed to get into the flow soon to clap rhythmically. However, later for the dandiya, it took me some time to learn the style to dance with the sticks. There was a lady who was nice to teach us how to dance for dandiya. The steps were a little complicated in a way that you have to whirl, with your feet and arms moving in tune and each movement ends in a clap or clattering the sticks with the person opposite you.

It was full of fun and enjoyed so much. I loved their way of celebrating the Navratri evening. Think I should try exploring different cultures and take part in. It will be exciting to join the celebrations and learn different things. Hmmm..
At the end the uni students were asked to take part in Arathi, so each of us got the chance get our hands on it. It was almost 1am when all came to an end and we made our way out.
This was the first hand experience for me to be at such a mesmerizing event and I am glad I didn't miss it. A good day to remember!

Yet another year

and another birthday in my life Today. But this can be counted as one of those special fascinating number birthday. A key bday.. and one that hopefully leaves some good memories. Well, I feel no difference and to be honest I kinda have the feeling of having a usual day. Since the end of school days birthdays became less exciting especially if its on a week day and then it has to be that weekend when we can have the celebrations. Like last year, this is a travelling day. I am missing my lectures and going home. To go to temple, be with my family and stuff like that. And most surprisingly, I am very glad that this day happens to be the Saraswathi Pooja of Navaratri.

Just started my Yr 2 this week. And the first day back to uni, yesterday, was unbelievably tiring. Had only 30 mins lunch time after the lectures, before the hospital session. And I ate only a bar of chocolate for the whole day and walking around the wards all the time was much tiring than exciting.

Okay, I don't want to keep on cribbing about things now.

Thinking back on the goods and bads of the year that has been just passed by, it was more or less an unflavoured one. I mean, there were almost as equal goods as the bads which counterbalanced it to an okay one overall. And what I wanna do and change this year,...one could be not letting things to the last minute. And I wanna learn a lot of different things but time has become a pinch. There are some courses/skills that I started, finished Level 1 and then had not been able to continue cos of the time I had to dedicate to my med studies. So I let the dust to settle a bit. The path seems to be narrowing down as days and years pass by. I think its the same with everyone.

Also, I had a surprising cake cutting at 12 midnight from my friends. It was kind of a kick off event for the day to bring some birthday mood forgetting the tiredness and stress. Thanks to my friends who were very sweet to arrange such thing.

NB: My apologies to you guys for not replying your comments on some of my latest posts. I thought I'd rather try and make use of that time to read yours and leave comments. I know I am a bit behind in that as well. Sorry pps..I will do soon :)

Take care lots!

Saranya needs

...this is another tag. Thanks Priya.
I have to type in "my name needs" in Google and bring here what comes up there.

The first page from google had given me only one result with the 'saranya needs' phrase. And I don't know how many I had to put here so I had to explore some a lot more pages..and could find only a few!

1. Saranya needs to learn to act freely
   No comments.. :)
   
   
2. ..and Saranya need a special mention. They have lived the role of struggling parents who pour unconditional ...
   This made me laugh... about some movie stars..
   
   
3. Saranya needs some redressing in the second half. ...
   huh? whatcha sayin..!
   
   
4. Sharanya needs a service provider that gives free unlimited messages!
   Hehe, no thanks. I am already wasting most of the text allowance I've got.
   
   
5. Saranya need more inf regarding difference in oracle and ...
   and...?

I initially thought this was going to be an easy peasy tag, but it isn't :) It depends on how common the name is. I guess. I am not gonna tag anyone for this one...Hearing some silent thanks'? :)

Hmmm...

I guess my internet and I have come to a temporary truce. I ve rarely had any probs with computer and internet connection except a couple of times when I had to replace the graphics cards. Okay, coming to the point...internet on my second home system that is connected wirelessly to the main Pc is giving troubles for a couple of days now. I have to go through the connect-disconnect-connect-disconnect... process for at least five times until it gets connected properly. Or otherwise the status says "Connected with limited access" and I have no access to the net. Btw, there is no probs with the main PC's Internet connection. Hmmm..dunno what's wrong.
And I had to pay off a fine today. For the 2 books I borrowed from the local library and forgot to renew. I hardly borrow story books but prefer to buy. But those books I borrowed were Tamil ones..It has been many years since I last read a Tamil book so I decided to read over the holidays but it took me forever. I think I got them sometime in June and the due date was a week back. However I gave up on them almost a month ago as they were extremely boring with complex vocabularies which, Ive never come across before (cos I think the book was written in the 19th century) ..so thought I should return them....but was a little late in doing it ;) and ended up paying.
Will try and look for a better one in Tamil after this, probably on next summer holidays.
I love to read a lot but don't get much time like I did when years back.....Hmm...
By the way, any suggestions on good titles to read? I don't mind any; science, fiction, non-fiction, horror...;) or even philosophy.

I have been tagged...

by Aneesh. To be honest, specially with movies I don't remember them for a long time after seeing. When I was a kid it was the opposite. I remember narrating the whole movie that I would have seen in the weekend to friends at school with all the actions and different tones. And there was a friend, she used to wait for free periods to listen to film stories from me. But nowadays I don't enjoy movies that much unless otherwise am forced to sit and watch one if I am so bored. I would say that sometimes I kinda find it boring to watch movies. And I prefer it to be a comedy movie if I wanna watch. Well, not that I am very choosy. I don't mind as long as it has a good, meaningful story and fun! Oh by the way I always used to like ghost movies :)
Anyways, let me do the tag now...

Name five of your all time favourite movies?
Beauty and the beast
Junior
Sleepy hollow
Ghost Ship
Matilda
Ice age
Mein Prem Ki Diwani Hoon
Dasavadharam
....oops sorry I have exceeded the number asked ;)..but there are lots more!

Name one movie which you recommend as a "must see"?
Terminator 2
Junior :)

The one and only one movie that you've seen the most number of times [watching on TV won't count].
There is no way I watch a movie more than once in cinema..well, I haven't yet!

which movie comes to your mind first, when you think about the funniest movie?
Finding Nemo
Hulchul
Pancha thandhiram

which movie made you really emotional?
Titanic
Kuch kuch hota hai

Which movie series, do you think, was as interesting as the first part in the series?
Harry Potter :)

Which movie, according to you, didn't live up to your expectations, after all the hype you've heard?
Can't think of any.

which movie, really surprised you?
Don't know :)

Driving Test

I am finally a qualified driver! Yep, managed to pass my driving practical today :) Atleast this time!
Happy Happy!! Take care lots!

Saranya finds it hard to muddle along with those who have no idea of what they call kindness or courtesy. Perhaps, they hold a wrong mode of perception of being good -well, this piques the interest of my way. Wish I had the ability to move on, taking those as the complete pipsqueaks of life...who are taxing my emotions and patience. Unfortunately. *Sigh* God Help!!

In the Apple store atm. Came to get my iPod a new headphone. The old one was a little pain to my ears. Liking the new one Ive just got. And, Iam eyeing on this Mac Notebook (tht im on atm here) for a while now and I never forget to give myself sometime to have a go on it whenever I come here. Lolz. My friends know abt my craze on the newcomings, but Not that I always run to the store and grab one as soon as it hits the market or something. Though, as of now, I am waiting to get hold of the N96.

Anyways, I am gonna make my way out soon, and have a great weekend :)


update 15.35pm: the shopaholic person in me didnt let me out of here..and the result is am still around John Lewis shopping mall. But its not gonna be as long as my usual shopping cos it seems to be a little boring to be all alone around here..and getting hungryyyy!!

Organ donation -Informed to Presumed

I was leafing through this week's NewScientist magazine today and the first news of This Week section has drawn my attention. You might have already guessed what it is gonna be about from the title.

The current law on Organ Donation in UK works on the basis of informed-consent -that is registering someone's name to the Organ donor register only if they came forward to make such positive decision in their lifetime.

And the article was about the shift from this voluntary registration to a presumed consent. The government is considering to change the law so that everyone will be registered as Organ donors unless they decide to opt out. FYI, Spain is the world's leading country in donation rates and Japan being the least. And Spain has this 'presumed consent' system, which allowed them to crack the problem of having a big gap between the demand for organs transplant and the number available.
Would changing the law actually make a significant difference? cos the 'ethical problems' is always a matter of serious doubt and moreover, not all the organs are usable.
There will still be families in the population to veto this law and I wonder how the public is going to be OR have been reacting to this. And needless to say that the opinion of public is much crucial. There are people from all walks of life with different cultural attitudes. Will the majority vote for this change.. and if not, is it effective to change the law? and how many of you who are reading this would agree with this change from an Opt-In to Opt-Out system.
Sweden has a lower donation rate compared to UK despite the fact that it has the presumed-consent law but on the other hand, as I mentioned earlier Spain has the highest rate withholding the same law.
What's going to happen....remains to be seen as the debate is still going on.

Honest Blogger Award

Glad to have been honored with this award. Thanks so much Priya, appreciate it :)

A pre-booked reproach: On the way to India

This summer has been empty to me. Going pretty fast and it worries me that I haven't travelled anywhere abroad this year. All I had was a day out to Portsmouth beach :) It was still nice and I managed to click away the beauty of the city from the top floor of the Spinnaker tower.

Okay, coming back to the point... not that I travel every summer but I had been doing so, for the past 4 consecutive years. And I guess that's why I am sort of disappointed of this summer.
Spending hours and hours planning on where to travel, where to stay, who to take with et al is a usual thing for me and my friends. But it worked out only once! And that was To India. I wouldn't say it was that fun as we didn't have much sight-seeing but a great travelling cos it was the first time to travel abroad with friends and that was during sixthform. It was mainly planned to have a feel on how the health system is like in countries like India. So we landed in one of the private hospitals. But once we got there, some staff were telling us that it would have been better if we had gone to a government hospital cos that's the best place to see the reality than in private ones. I hope to do that if the future allows me.

Leaving all this behind, the highlight of the trip was the airlines!! I am sorry but that was the worse airlines I ve ever travelled and I seriously wonder why it seems like there were no complaints made about them! I don't wanna mention which airlines it was, for some good reasons. The price was no cheap or nothing, of £750.00 each. Obviously, food is one thing that should be beared during travelling but the food we were given was beyond our flexibility...and the most unfavourable thing was that the sheets we were provided with looked like as if they had never been washed cos I could see some dried rice grains on it! It was a transit ticket to Chennai via Bombay. And because they delayed the flight from London to Bombay, we missed the one from Bombay to Chennai as they didn't bother to wait for the transit passengers!

Okay, thinking that there must have been an alternative arrangements for the transit passengers as every other airline does if they couldn't wait, we went to the check-in counter to ask what was happening and the answer we got was shocking, unexpected and a total ridiculous.. "Sorry madam, I don't know. There hasn't been any arrangements made".
Whaaaaaattt...an irresponsible response!
And we questioned him what were they going to do with the passengers on transit and he replied that we just have no choice other than making our own way. To escalate my surprise, a girl we met on the flight didn't even bother to ask any of the staff about it and she said that it is stupid to stand and ask those staff as it will be of no use and she straight away made her way out. We stood there still, feeling lost.

We then decided to talk to the airlines manager and asked one of the guys for the direction to the manager's office. And he directed us to the 3rd floor. So we walked towards the lifts dragging our luggage. Guess what, the damn lifts didn't work -Out of Order! So we climbed up the stairs with our luggage....trust me it was painful. Once we got to the 3rd floor, somebody else said the airlines office is actually in the ground floor. I felt like burst out crying. We stood at the 3rd floor and decided to ask a few people, to find out if they actually say the same direction. If you don't know something that a person asks you about, you just simply say 'I don't know'! And there were a number of guys in the airport couldn't say that. They said something as if they would be punished if they said they didn't know and all of them said different floors. And to my amazement, there were no signs of directions displayed in an International Airport! Was a place of pure mayhem.

We went down to the ground floor and decided to search for the office as somebody said all the airlines offices are definitely located on the ground floor. Managed to find it after a long walk. We were really annoyed of the every single thing that we came across since we stepped out from the flight. And we talked to the manager in an almost-shouting tone while maintaining pleasant demeanor. Thankfully, he was in fact really nice to respond to us very calmly... asked us to leave the luggage in his office and arranged one of his staff to take us to their tickets office where they booked us on a local flight to Chennai. And thereafter everything went smoothly except the fact that we had to wait there for more than 3/4 hours, if I remember correctly.

And another thing was that when we got off from the bus that took us to the local airport there was a guy who seemed to be working on the bus started asking us money and he didn't even give us a chance to ask him why he wanted. The was another man who came along and he was speaking for the other guy and told us to give him some money.
The rest of the journey in the flight was uneventful compared to the time we were in the airport.The whole journey was much exciting, thrilling but with many troubles. Arguments that my friend had with one of the high hierarchy people, some weird unexpected experiences in the shopping mall etc....and it continues to be a long list.

I really learned a lot from this travelling! One is never to take that Airlines anymore. There was another unavoidable travel on the same airlines as BA was delayed due to some flooding in India. And that was not pleasant too. And this complaint is not a personal idiosyncrasy cos I ve heard from many individuals that the particular airlines has been a widespread-unpreferable. lolz. A holiday is to basically have a good time, to escape boredom etc. but it would all be only until when staying within the comfort zone.

I think some thoughts need to be given to the care and basic needs of the customers as equally as they do for their business needs and before proclaiming to be giving the ultimate experience of travelling!!
Anyway, I think I have ranted very long, and thanks for reading so far. This was one of the unforgettable travels of my life and you can well imagine how it would feel like to face such situations when you undertake a travel voluntarily without parents being beside you.

Desktop Tag

Yet another tag, courtesy Hemanth and as usual I am very late to do this tag too....and sorry about it.

So here is the screen shot of my desktop.

I initially had the default desktop picture (of the make of my PCs). I don't bother about having a fancy colourful desktop picture. Well, there was some time when I was crazy about this but now that am not much into it. Both of my homePCs had their default desktop and I have changed one of them just now. Of the one I am using at the moment . Cos I thought it would be boring to put up a picture of a desktop with the maker's logo. lolz. From now on, this is going to be my desktop picture of this PC. And that was the story of my desktop pic, the new desktop picture -which was chosen from the windows wallpapers gallery..hehehe.

Ok, moving on to the next part or qs of the tag,

what do I love about my desktop?.. there is nothing that I can think of, seriously. It looks fresh, that's all I would say :)

Tagging time...I shall now tag Kumiththa, Sarves, Vani.

Skipping down the memory lane

Yesterday I decided to take out some of the photo albums from the shelf. I used to do this once in a while when I feel like to see the faces of my long lost/distant friends. I can't remember when I went through my old albums last but surely long ago. So yesterday happened to be one of those days.

When I usually bring them out everyone in my family would give me a look as if I am on the useless mode. Well, it only lasts until when I say something funny or make a comment about a person on a photo and after that they just can't keep themselves away and join me.

And I chanced on this album in which I had all the pictures of my first high school friends, from St Mary's Convent. It was a great schooling, which had given me great many memories to cherish all my life. A teacher who I want to be remembered now was one of my science teachers. He passed away a couple of days after undergoing a surgery few years ago.. He was a very strict but great teacher ever. He always calls most students 'women'... like, "what are you doing women, why did you do this women..etc".
And I can remember, one day he said that he knew palmistry and I asked him what my palm lines say about my edu. So, he looked at my palm and said something about the education line, the single line that runs across the palm above the life and head line, according to him. And he said it should not fall off btw the index and middle finger but should run over the index finger or end on it to mean a good edu. lolz. I seriously don't know if he was just kidding as I was just a kid to make me happy or something. But the line wasn't even near the fingers at that time though. I trusted him and I always used to watch how it makes its way as the time goes. Even now. When I get a disappointing marks or something, I look at my palm to see if the line has fallen off btw the fingers. lolz.
Anyways, he is no more with us and is always missed and remembered. Unfortunately, I don't have any of his photos but his funeral notice. By the time I got the notice on my hands it was too late.

The happy moments were countless. I had an embarrassing time when we all guides (girl scouts) were camping during the holidays. It was the last day; we were sitting together in a circle with our Sister-Principal (headteacher) and celebrating the final moments. And at the end they decided to ask me a question. I wasn't too afraid of speaking in mike so I got up and went to the middle quite happily and was so proud of how special I was to be chosen for a special qs. All lasted until the question penetrated the membranes. I didn't even know I was going to react like that to them cos the question was very simple and if I was asked the same qs right now I would give a long lecture on it. Ok, they asked me 'You seem to be one who has more friends than most other in this school and whats the secret behind it'. Quite straightforward. All I did was crying. I feel really embarrassing when I think about it now and I still don't know why the hell I cried in front of my head teacher, class tutor and all others. Lolz. School moments are priceless and irreplaceable. I miss my school days, school friends and each and every second of my presence there.

And yesterday was a day for me to refresh all the memories when I had chanced upon my school photos. I wish I could go back to the age of a kid and go through the same colourful moments again. But I can't. After all I am an ordinary human.

Awards

So just came to know that Priya has given me a Brilliant Weblog award a week ago. Thanks a lot Priya, its very kind of you. I guess this is an award giving season after the tagging one. And the other one I mentioned about in my previous post -Blogger Friends Forever award from Hemanth.

After a while...

It has been a while since I sat in front of this same window to feed my blog some words. I always wanted to be a bit more regular in keeping up my blog but when other things in life overtake as the matter of importance, blogging becomes one of those to be dropped astern. I am still not out of that hectic mood and this seems to be a turbulent-ish phase to me. or Shall I say, gloomy?

Anyways, forgetting these for a moment here, hope all of you out there are well. I haven't been to many of your blogs for the past few weeks. I will do make my way soon...I guess I have missed so much and am waiting for a good relaxed time to go through all.

And not forgetting to mention and thank here is hemanth who had given me a bloggerfriends award :) which was really nice. With a picture and stuff. I think I should get that pic up here with this post.

Also, I haven't had time to catch up with my friends as well especially kumiz. and btw all these, I was glad to get in touch with a friend after 3 months or so. But still didn't have anything new from my side to share and neither that much from the other.

So basically it continues to be hectic each and everyday.... with my thoughts racing back and forth.

OK, Here is my Mosaic for the previous Tag Qs. Couldn't escape doing it as I was lately informed it is a must ;)

Another Tag

And this time from Hemanth. Thanks :)

1. What is your first name?
Saranya

2. What is your favorite food right now?
....gimme some spice :)
Veg-hot Pizza &
Dosa topped up with Coriander &Green chillies...had this once ages ago in one of the Indian Restaurants here and loved it! and have never found the same type of dosa anywhere else.

3. What high school did you go to?
Errm, I went to 3 different high schools. St Mary's, Bishopsford and Graveney!

4. What is your favorite color?
I got 3 favs. Black, Blue, Pink

5. Who is your celebrity crush?
..its a looong list! But at the moment "none". Seriously, trust me!!

6. What is your favorite drink?
Banana Milkshake, Cappuccino

7. What is your dream vacation?
Australia, Thailand, Egypt

8. What is your favorite dessert?
Chocolate fudge cake and the one&only Ice cream factory's Ice cream..mmm.. yummyyy!

9. What do you want to be when you grow up?
A responsible daughter and doctor.

10. What do you love most in life?
Everything!
Family, Travelling, Music, Career, Outings...yeah everything!

11. What is one word that describes you?
Sensitive

12. What is your user name?
of? ok, one of the many is Saranyas :)

Sorry for the long time I have taken to put this up. Haven't got much time on hands these days. And now I am done! :)

So who shall I tag now......let me go for,
Aneesh
Kumiththa
Sarves

Inherited Or...

Have you ever come across people who egotistically take all the possible advantages from you without even thinking whether it will affect you or not? People who suddenly change their behaviour just because they don't need you anymore? People who treat you as if you are their family member when you are needed and then ignore you when they go higher up?.

You don't have to love your enemy or to turn your other cheek but live so that you don't trouble others. Sometimes I get tired of some people around me who are so greedy to an extreme end. I do believe that healthy selfishness is important because if you want to live you have to love yourself but I am talking about the behaviour when people ask you to live in the way they prefer (may be cos they find a way in yours that helps them to live theirs as they want). Developing self-interest and doing what you want to do is not wrong but it isn't always benign.

Do people become selfish when they just follow whatever that strikes in their mind or after a thorough logical analysis and judgement on how something could benefit them..them only...no matter whether it has any bad impacts on the outer world? And they get the pleasure of ticking off their list of wishes by paying off with others' happiness and peace. Very obnoxious. Perhaps as a result of an inherited selfish-gene. Why do they yearn for the undeserved income.

It would be more meaningful to ask yourself; are you doing something that is a complete disregard to others rather than whether it benefits others or not. You don't have to primarily do something for the good of others but may be something that is not bad for others. Because whether your actions are egotistic or not is contingent not just depending on the action but on its impacts on others. Now how would you describe the term rational selfish? Is human nature inspired by making up reasons. Are humans evolved so that someone can drill down to any level to give their explanation as to how their action is different from selfishness and differentiate between altruism and selfishness based on their needs and views. Or if you wanna put it this way, does selfishness mean loving yourself more than you should?

My Quirks

I have been tagged by Priya and Aneesh.

So let me list my quirks...

1. I hate chatting with friends on the phone endlessly. I don't mind gossiping for hours when sitting together but not over the phone. I just hate it for some reason.
   
   
2. I don't mind re-writing something of any long if I had written a single word wrong/not neat--without realising the time I am wasting on it. I want no compensation! And I know its crazy!
   
   
3. I like listening to music while I study and it has never been a disturbance to me!
   
   
4. I take too long to decide on things. Sometimes its bad and sometimes good. But I won't come to a conclusion until am convinced. There are times when my family gets tired of this habit of mine esp with shopping. :)
   
   
5. I swirl my hair when I think, watch films, while reading... A reflex action I would say. ;)
   
   

Yayy...I am done! and I shall not tag anyone (am I hearing thanks's?) as there were no rules from Priya or Aneesh. Thanks for that guys :)

Hi5

The first post of this month accounts for some ranting on Hi5. My Hi5 profile has been in idle for a few months. I normally ignore friend-requests from unknown people hence I delete the request mails I get from Hi5 without even opening or reading them. Today I signed into my Hi5 and realised that there was a profile message sent to everyone in my contact list yesterday- from me. (Thanks to a friend who infromed me) But I didn't even go to my profile yesterday! Stupid Spams!
And there had been a few friends who hardly view my profile have checked it out after receiving that comment..drat! Then I had to send everyone a message saying that I didn't send it and resquesting them to delete. Plus a status message as well. Arrrgh! Hi5 maaaaaan......**Sigh** Thinking of removing it!

NB: If you are in my Hi5 and reading this, could you please delete those pictures that had been sent to your profile comments. Thanks a lot!

Just as I feel like to write something and the world is counting the days for the Olympics, I truly wish that Cricket was one of the games. Or the future Olympics adds a number :)

What Saranya means?

Does any of you believe in these kind of quizzes and answers? Stumbled on this site while googling for something else....Though I don't take these serious or believe them, just reading them is often fun :)

What Saranya Means

You are the total package - suave, sexy, smart, and strong. You have the whole world under your spell, and you can influence almost everyone you know. You don't always resist your urges to crush the weak. Just remember, they don't have as much going for them as you do. You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection. You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive. You have the classic "Type A" personality. You are wild, crazy, and a huge rebel. You're always up to something. You have a ton of energy, and most people can't handle you. You're very intense. You definitely are a handful, and you're likely to get in trouble. But your kind of trouble is a lot of fun. You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people. You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts. You are prone to a little paranoia and jealousy. You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals. You are a free spirit, and you resent anyone who tries to fence you in. You are unpredictable, adventurous, and always a little surprising. You may miss out by not settling down, but you're too busy having fun to care.

What's" Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

Rainbow

I always loved to take a photo of rainbow. But whenever the sky decides to show its colours, I am always in a situation where I can't even take my phone out. The last one I remember seeing was about a couple of months ago while I was driving. The pic below was taken by my dad few days ago on his phone.... And I sneaked it to bring here ;)...

Driving

Saranya is not happy! Her driving exam didn't go well :( Yep, she failed it yesterday... by forgetting to signal at one point! How annoying it could be to fail by not signalling!
Time to book another one but the next available date is in Sept only. :(
What to do! I blame on myself for making such a silly mistake...and my bank is continuing to credit to BSM!

Just as it goes

Almost at the end of this weekend. Today the time flies in slow motion for me. Believe me or not, I have been spending the whole day with my laptop, watching movies, checking out mails etc since this morning. I am stuck in our Soton house untill tuesday as I have my driving exam here. All alone. Sitting in my room with the absolute silence surround me, and all I can here is the tick-tock of the clock and the sound of the flights every so often. Looking out through the double-glazed in upstairs, the physiognomy of the sky doesn't seem very innocent as its changing its mood as it likes every min. Being by myself in this house doesn't scare me but bore me!
Hope you all are getting ready for another Monday with excited smiles ;) lolz.
Wish you an energetic week ahead..

When clouds precipitate

It's pouring off heavily since Sunday. Though its fun, I get irritated of the rain at times when I have to go out. I normally love to be home sleeping or reading something with a hot cup of coffee when the rain goes on outside. It has its own schedule, and as of now, it seems like the rainstorm is giving only a few minutes breaks a day to itself and as usual people don't care about it, getting on with their work. And hey, who would not go to work, stop their shopping, or miss their apnt just cos of the rain. Quite fair! I've got my driving exam next week and I hope the rain extends its break to at least a day long!

My friend has also, already felt the rain on her blog and now its me again...I guess its a downpour part of the summer season.
Looking through my windows while typing this on...still falls the rain......playing its rhythm ...and hitting on my windows at an alarming rate...
I'm lovin' it ;)

And its Sri Lanka

Yayy....finally its Sri Lanka, the champions of Asia Cup 2008! :) Well done to the team!

In Soton

Today was another gardening-day for me. Done some gardening today at our Soton house while on the stay here this weekend. Was not that fun like it was last year... might have been fun last yr cos it was the first time I experienced a proper gardening. I still had some good laughs and enjoyment though. :) I don't know when I ll be returning home but surely before mid next week.
Hearing some fireworks out there..wondering what's so special...Zzzzzz!

Couldn't think of anything to write on. Life is going blindly fast though boring at times. Can't believe it's July already. Wanna do something useful on this holiday. I have been mulling about starting a charity org with my friend for a while now. But have no idea where to begin and stuff. I am going to do some research on it while checking out the scores of today's match between SL and India each min ;)

I am off to Soton tomorrow for this weekend.
Wish you all have a nice & leisurely weekend. Ciao :)

Asia Cup 2008

Happy Birthday to Sanath! A birthday bash with a century of 130 for 88! SL has sauntered into the final brushing aside Bangladesh... High chances for SL to meet India in the final on 6th and if so, it will be a repeat of 2004. Fingers crossed!

Surveys and all...

Just finished a survey! Answering a terribly looonng survey is boring! I don't mind doing them on paper or Internet. But imagine two come in when you are about to go out ....and sit in your living room asking questions after questions, very time consumingly, though they had said that they'll only take a few mins!! Phew! The worst is asking things like 'what were your thoughts when you saw this ad on Tv' bla bla.
It was something about a marketing research, they said and I now realise why dad ignores these when they knock the door or call!..Hmmm... Time to leave now...

From our garden....

Decided to take the camera out as at last to try and get rid of the ennui...explored the roses in our garden and gave a shot....

Bored...

I am bored. On summer hols. I was looking for these days so badly during exam times and now that I miss all that stress! For how long could you sit and browse? I got bored of MSN few months ago, bored of radio, movies, facebook and reading is the only thing I am finding to be okay to spend my time these days. I don't really like gossiping over the phone with friends either. What shall I doooo! Could go out but need more enthusiasm from friends and on top of that, there are not many interesting places left in London to visit. Bored of all..

Anecdote

Had a quite an effortful day today. To begin with, I had driving lesson in the morning. Went okay..! I had to make my way to the bank praying for luck. I can imagine you all thinking why. I had my £250 kaivishesham notes in a bag, folded in Pan leaves for months. Kai Vishesham is the money we get from our elders, especially from parents on the Tamil New Year. And they give it in Pan leaves as a tradition.

Okay, coming back to the point, I had the notes and coins folded in the leaves for 3 months till last week since the Tamil new year in April. I usually deposit it into my account; the whole point (of mine) is not to spend it. And this time, as I was quite busy, did not get the time to deposit and kept it as it was given to me in a bag! And guess what happened over the 3 months, the leaves got dampen and sodden and also partly dried. The notes were sticking on to the leaves!! I finished my exams last week, and that was when I got the time to open the bag. It was really a hard time for me to separate the leaves and notes out as the notes turned really thin! Some of them got torn into pieces. I ended up with only £200 worth notes but again in 2/3 pieces. Left them for a couple of days to dry out, and they turned into a state like pure dry leaves, which you have to hold very cautiously. Cos otherwise, they will just easily be in pieces. Phew!!!

Today, I took them to the bank, and handed in those notes with sellotape patches, holes and which felt like dried leaves. I desperately wanted the bank to accept them because it was £200 and I already lost £50. Btw, I kept quiet about this to my parents. It really made me feel very bad luck for this year because the initial money I got on the new year turned into this mess! Very superstitious! So, I showed them to the bank, told them the notes got wet..lol, the cashier was surprised and, "where you got them from -"my mum gave them to me". And he goes, "Ok, how did you get them in this state"-"errrm, I had them in a bag for a while....". He wasn't convinced and still wanted to know how I managed to get the notes in that very bad condition and I couldn't help explaining him "I had them folded in leaves".
"In leaaaaavvessss ?!?".
I then had to tell him it was a tradition to give them with leaves bla bla and he asked me how long I had them in the bag etc. That was extremely embarrassing. He then took them, showed to some other staff, checked them under the machine to make sure they were real before came back to me. He asked me to go to the post office near the banks and ask them to exchange and if they don't want it, come back. **Sigh**

That Post office in the centre of the Uni, has never had a fast moving queue. There was only one position active of all 4. And afterall waiting there so long, the staff told me in seconds I got to the cashier point, No Sorry! Went back to the bank, and they decided to take them, Thanks to that particular staff who explained the other staff who was at the counter when I went back that they were real notes. The bank staff had to handle those dried-leaf like, thin, brown coloured notes carefully without making any further damage. It was really an effort to me to save that money and at the same time learned a great lesson! Not gonna save any money in my bag for months and months like that, and it's always good to put them in the bank soon. Money is worth only to the extent of its existence in that paper-form. It was a total stupidity and hope you'll all be pre-cautious from my experience!

Sevva Thosham and Science

At home! Had a good day today. Went to the Shiva Temple as it was Pradosha Viradham today. Apparently, it was yesterday in London and today in Sri Lanka. I had no idea why and when people fast for Pradosham. I only had a slightest idea that it is something like Ekadasi. I got a good opportunity to talk to the priest there about religion, which is quite rare and unusual! I always get questions of why, what and how. And it was a time for me to ask some of the Whys I had in my mind though not everything. It is really amazing how science overlaps religion (in general). There is always a strong scientific aspect behind every feature of Hinduism. It was a delight to sit and listen to the priest about the religion and its science.

One of the interesting things I got to know was about the Sevvai Thosham. I did not know much about Sevva Thosham before as there was never a talk about it in my family. As the priest explained, a girl with Sevvai Thosham should marry a man with the same thosham. And that is because of the RH factor in the blood group. RH stands for Rhesus factor.
Everybody is born with a specific blood group with an RH factor being either negative or positive.
Basically, those with RH Negative are said to be Sevva Thosham and they should marry someone who also possesses RH Negative. This is because if the mother is RH negative and the father is RH positive, during pregnancy the mother will be exposed to the child's RH positive. Exposure to the RH positive will cause the mother's body's immune system to make antibodies against it and this may lead to the antibodies destroying the child's red blood cells or may cause severe problems. But if both the mother and the father is RH negative, the offspring will only be RH negative and therefore no harm.
Therefore, those with RH-Negative (Sevva thosham) should marry someone who is also RH-Negative (Sevva Thosham).
Hope this was not confusing :)

Done! The exams are over. I am not happy! Note that Not. And before you think any further, let me say, I am not happy cos I didn't do well.. (and not because of there are no more exams..duhhh). I don't feel relaxed.. like how I usually do on the last day of exams. Oh well! Leaving to London in a few minutes.

Thanks to all my dear darling non-blogger and blogger friends who wished me luck for the exams.

Exams

Examssssss.....! Exams are stressful... Get me some anti-stress drug!!!!

IPL final and it's Rajasthan Royals!

The initial toss winner of the IPL cricket (Indian Premier League) mega final, The Rajasthan Royals, won the crown after cliffhanger! Chennai Super Kings deserved to be the champions, especially cos of the legend Muttaih Muralitharan's and the country's coolest player M S Dohni's contributions in chennai superkings team! They had been playing really well up to the end of the whole IPL and only luck was what needed at the end of the scene, I would say. Unfortunately, the luck favoured the Rajasthan royals' team. There is always a next time anyway :) ....and congrats to Rajasthan Royals!

Finally....

Wow....the broadband is finally active today.....and good-bye to dial-up!! It has had taken 26 days for the broadband providers to activate it. It was a little hassle to go through this time than when we moved house last year. I have no idea why though.

Their service is usually good but we got fed up this time. We were given a minimum of 20 days to get the broadband and 7 days period for the phone line after moving house. But they took more than two weeks to give the phone line and the reason given for the delay was that the time it had taken for them to get the line enabled from BT (British Telecom). And now, 26 days for the broadband and this is even after our few shouts only. Every time you call, they say "give us a call in 48 hours period of time as I am just going to pass this job into our dash department." Exactly the same words every time!! I don't know whether they were being ignorant or technical probs or what. Had to ring them almost every two days to give a shout and the last one was very harsh. Well, that was the way because we can't rely on dial-up all the time as exams are coming up. Oh, by the way, forgot to mention that this was all about AOL Broadband. Glad that it has finally been activated.

And coming to talk about exams, I got my SSU assessment tomorrow in which I have got to perform the poem that I have written. On depression. Kinda strange that a medical school wants to see us performing arts, even though it's just reading out in my case! Some people in my group are even singing! A good, relaxing element but it would have been so if it is not near the semester exams. I still enjoy it anyway!

To those who are doing exams this summer, wishing all the very best! Ciaoo!

Blossoms...

Some of the pictures that I had taken sometime around in mid-april....

People and Perception...

Wondering…… of the different ways in which individuals take things into their minds. When lots of people have the same kind of perception, say on a specific matter, it then becomes the 'right' and routine one! And everything else what others think about it is the 'odd'. Totality of socially transmitted behavioural patterns- the one I liked of all the definitions of culture Ive came across. This is the way every culture in this world is structured, I guess. Culture gives a great way to the humans to have a straight, right and controlled life by drawing lines on what should be done and whatnot. Nevertheless the mode of perceptions in everything is gradually changing in this era.

People have their skill of intellectuality well developed than the past to think and analyse. This may explain the reason for all the controversies happening on almost all the things nowadays. One urges, tests, analyses and decides whether it is right or wrong and sticks with it. Yet some people have weird thinking, not after their own intellectual analysis but just by comprehending something that is cultivated by others purely blindfolded!

I have had come across several incidences where people try to push their opinions into others.....I generally listen and respect others views, and feel great when I do so. But my opinions are mine, they may sound and seem very wrong to others and vice versa but one should have absolutely no problem as long as I don’t drive my opinions into others after realising the existing contradiction.

You can never change something that is present without a clear origin and strictly man-made. This is with regard to psychological and perhaps philosophical aspects. Coming to think about this, if you take a career, one should enjoy whatever they do. And it will be pretty laborious if not.

One should/would not be bored of their career….. Of course, he/she must have been mastered the skill...and most importantly loves the job! I love what I have taken as my career....it’s not a sleep walk, but about highly thinking, reasoning, acquiring and applying knowledge. There may be hundreds of dislikes that can be pulled out on something if really wanted but it is all about how you perceive the info and how positive you look at something....

And nothing personal is necessarily required to write this .....!

Picture from www.holisticeducator.com/neurosis.htm