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!