Kats is finally lazy and Chulbuli too..

Oh God! Has been such a long time since I spoke to you all. I hope you are not very angry at me.

So many things one after the other, first there was the cultural festival. You won't believe it when I say but, even after completing three years of college life she never participated in it. This time she did, and I made her participate in ever possible event. She kept on complaining that she wouldn't have time to study. In a leamon finding seeds that are buried is so difficult, but if you look around and poke around here and there you'll find it,isn't it? I felt that free time was like that seed; most lemons have seeds, so I think everyone can find free time. She found free time to study,but I wasn't given the time to write to you all.

Then after that she had exams,exams,exams and exams. It was a long time of exams and when its exam time is Barney duty for me. Dance around being Barney the dino,to cheer her up when she is confused or worried or tensed; I did a lot of dancing around. There is this teacher of Kats -she has told me strictly not to tell his name,so I can't and won't and if you know,please be shush about it- he is a taller and bearded version of Winne the Pooh,maybe I think he has a larger tummy and dances around the classroom like Barney the dino without music. Rekha has told me how difficult she find its to hide her laugh; even I would find ti difficult if  I was sitting with them in the class watching a Winne the Pooh with a beard dancing around. It was his exam that everyone was really scared about. They say everything is known,taught, and the questions he asks are from that and still they don't know how to get full marks. Rekha and Kats struggled in remembering the names and the shapes of the compounds(thats is what they call many atoms stuck together to form shapes). So before his exam I had to be Barney ALL day long. More than Kats, I think I have worked for her exams.

Then came holidays. I thought,just thought it would be about getting up a little late, licking the nutella in the fridge and watching Doraemon on TV. But on day two of vacation itself it was ruined. Kats decided to go for early morning walks,everyday. Yes, everyday!! She pulls me out of bed at 5:15 am every day for a walk. Sacred of sleeping one minute beyond she has three alarms one after the other, all with very irritating music. Like one wasn't enough. If she had to go for walk so badly, she would have got up on her own..why alarm ?

I don't like the waking up part of the morning walk but it is fun. Its not very sunny at that time,sometimes the sun is still hiding behind the clouds. There are many people walking too. There are so many birdies around, the mynah, the wood pecker, a black bird with a long black feather, and a big ball like furry light brown bird. And the trees look so different early morning. There is a tree, which has both dark and light green leaves at the same time. And there is a tree on which another tree has spread its roots and is growing. To even see good things, we need make an effort.

Another good thing that we are doing together is learning Hindustani music. There is one harmonium and one teacher, but the two of us, so there is some fight some times. Kats wants to sing exactly what teacher teaches us, I want to try everything. She says, "We must learn properly what is taught.. " "But where is the fun! Doing the same thing again and again. We must do something different" I reply to her. Then Kats tells what Amma has told, that unless we learn out ABCs correctly we won't find making new sentences fun. 

Today, we got up early but didn't go out for a walk. No we are not any yoga either. Its Chulbuli's day! Kats a swollen face because we didn't. It rained last night when we were fast asleep. The weather outside is very nice, you can't tell whether its morning or evening, there is wind blowing. Its a perfect rainy day to be lazy, and -Amma gave her certificate- sometimes its okay to be lazy!

Agni's watermelon brithday! :)

The whole of last week has been fun. Real fun. Agni's brithday made it fun all the more.

Last tuesday was Agni's brithday like for everyone among Kats's friends he was made to cut cake at the stoke of midnight.(I learnt to use 'at the stroke of midnight' from Cinderella's story you see.) Every brithday is celebrated ina different way. The cake is made differently for different people, like Agni likes watermelon, so for him a cake in the shape of watermelon, with a red top made from jam with chocolate droplets as seeds was made. For Shanti and Kats the first time they celebrated their birthday it was a litchi cake, with Happy Brithday future chemists written on it.(They were born on the same day, just a year apart and many many miles apart.)

Celebrating birthdays togehter by invitng the whole class started with Agni's brithday a year back. Agni and Kats were not good friends back then you see. But Kats decided to attend his birthday-I was pushing her too, I wanted to see what could happen-cause she believed that if by being there it might make him happy she'd do it. I remember her helping her friends and giving crazy ideas for his 'fake' gift. Some which are my favourites are stuffing empty cookie packets with paper and sticking them with cellotape so that it looked like it had cookies in it, wrapping chilli flakes packet in layers of newspapers and putting it inside another cover for a chocolate, a stuffed surgical glove that poped out the moment you opened the box and guess what, the glove also has a mystery gift,more chilly flakes packets. :p After Agni was let to open this 'mystery box' he was later chased with eggs. Yes it was holi, but in March at mid night with yellow greasy eggs. Poor Agni he was soaked in smelly yellow egg. I guess by the times all the eggs were over he might have been stuck to one place, or rather frozen like a statue.

His hair I remember was stuck in one place like the hair of the clay dolls that you get in the mela. And he smelled real bad. He must have been upset, becuase he was never given his actual gifts then at the time he was made to cut the cake. It was hidden under the huge mess in his room and he was made to find it. Becuase girls and boys live in different hostels we are not allowed to go there. They were supposed to use skype to show us how he searched for them. But they couldn't connect and we were angry. Becuase after all the egg holi Agni was too tried to even thank his friends and class mates who had come. Kats was very angry, I was angry too; but Kats was very angry. The next day he did give a chocolate to make up for his not saying thank you and it worked for me, but didn't work completely for Kats.

This year Agni's brithday was differnt. Himadrija and Indigo's room was like a far off uncle's house on a cousin's wedding. Fullf of activity, full of people laughing, talking. Like in all the weddings and functions where the whole family the far off and the direct ones meet, Agni's brithday this time was like the entire family of friends meeting after a year.(Their hostels had been split in July last year you see.) Everyone had a new story to share, a new song to sing and still it didn't seem like there was a year between that day when they had all, together, last met and that day. Every one was doing something for Agni, Vidya and Himadrija were working on the wrapping and decoration of Agni's gift, Kats and Indigo on the brithday card.. when it was 11:30 pm all ran down stairs togther.

I don't know wether Kats and her friends are lucky or wether Agni's lucky, but it is on his brithday both last year and this year everyone came togehter. Happy Birthday Agni! Grow older and never forget to give the chocolate you gave the last year again for your next birthday. Yes, you read it right, he didn't give a chocolate for this year's birthday.

Chulbuli finds a new word meaning(?)

I know its a bad habit what I did, but the conversation which Kats and Clio was getting so loud that I couldn't control my ears. I know it sounds stupid, you can control your legs, your hands, but ears? If you don't wanna listen to stuff, sometimes when you don't want to you can. But I just didn't not.

Here is what they were talking,

Kats: Did you see the news? Adele won the oscar for Skyfall? Amazing isn't it?

Clio : I know. Its amazing, every year she keeps getting awards, and her songs get better..

Kats: She won three Grammys at the age of 19, two world famous platinum record winning albums by 21..Look at all that she has achieved, with each day she writes a more meaningful song; she fought her throat problem and sings even better now.

Both of them were silent for sometime and what Kats spoke next was typically Kats.

Kats: I'm going to be 21 soon, and look what I have achieved..nothing.

Clio: You can't compare yourself to Adele, you are in a course studying a certain subject. You have lectures to go to, assignments to write, exams to give..

Achieve, again a very diffcult word for me to understand. When a friend of Kats got 100 on 100 in an exam everyone was complementing her that she achieved something great. Her photo was in the paper, her name on a board in the school. I don't remember where the board was placed also; but whenever I read the names on it I never felt anything speical about them, like I do about Barney or Doraemon and Nobita. I just knew the names, very few teachers told about the people whose names were on the baord, that too only about the ones who were lower on the list.

The people who helped our country become free teachers and elders say have achieved a lot; even players when they win medals for the country at the olympics or some big game everyone says that he/she has achieved somethign great. Getting 100 on 100 in an exam and getting an entire country free, both are achievements? Confusing..

I asked Kats what it meant, and her reaply was, “The meaning is different for differrent people Chulbuli. For some getting a job in a big company where travel in a long expensive car is an achievement. For some growing a crop is. For Clio it is finding what she REALLY wants to do and do it. For me, it is to do something nice for many many people that never forget me.” How can one word mean so many things! There has to be an end to the number of meanings a word has.

Kats wants to be remebered by many many people; maybe their grand children and great grand children and all the generations to come. And when that is done she says she feels like she has achieved something. But what if after she dies people forget her, all those many many people who remembered her, will she still feel that she has achieved something? What if sometime in the middle a dark hole eats up earth, there would be no humans to remeber her, would her achievement be an achievement?

I think, if we do stuff that we like, and if it makes us happy and others happier, that can also be a new meaning for achievement?

Finish and forever, are they real words??

Kats finished reading this novel about twin sister who are joined in their head last night, its titled 'The girls'. When she was younger, that is when I was in compelte control of her, the thought of having a sister never came. Maybe becasue I never liked the thought of sharing Mummy and daddy with someone else. Also no one amonst my friends then had baby brothers or sisters. The thought of how it would be to have someone younger than you, almost like you, with you all day long never came to me. Then I got older, and Stacey moved into our colony with a little sister. Then sometimes, I used to wish for a little sister who was with me to play with me all day long, so that I didn't have to look for friends out side.

But neither me nor Kats ever imagined to have a sister so close that she is with you all the time, joined at head with you. We both are good company to each toher, but we don't always stay together; we are not sisters too, we are...us. And thats why Kats thought to read that book, to know how it is to have your sister by your side all the time. In school eveyrone believed that girls can never be good friends for long. Kats told me once that grown-up sisters also fight, and don't talk to each other, sometimes forever. So because of all these other stories we read, we wanted to know how do they stay forever togehter.

Forever and finish these two words have confused me a lot. Especially after Kats read portions of the book out to me.

The two sisters about whom the book is are joined together in the head, they share an important vein,no doctor can separate them. They are together forever and ever. But it says in the book that if one died the other won't die immidiately but would die in sometime for sure. That isn't togehter forever right? But when one dies the other would die too but only with a difference of time of a few months, maybe days, maybe hours, maybe just a few seconds. But there is a difference and that difference in time of their death doesn't make it forever. I told this to Kats and she diasagreed saying, “A few mintues of separation against years of bein together doesn't cancel out their togehter-forever status.” But..I suddenly feel forever is fake. Its a word that is not real.

Life on earth isn't forever. The dinosauras lived, but a metor hit earth and they call died. Some species that lived before on earth just died. And I remember Kats telling me once that some day a bi g black hole might come and eat up sun like pacman eats rasberries in the pacman game. It might also fall into the sun with a great explosion some day. That some day is really really far away, but when it comes all the history that we have studied and saved, all the science we have learnt and discoveres, all the languages and thins we have invented, all the memories that we have preserved would vanish. There would be no forever for us, human beings or earthlings. But changes keep happening, maybe that is forever. Change is forever but being same is not forever; so maybe forever is a speical word that is used only with change; like orangy for orange?

Coming to the word finish, it always reminds me of something that Uncle Stash, the uncle of 'The girls' said to Rose, “People don't finish, Rose. People stop. To finish is to say okay, now it's right, never I'm going to change it. To stop is to say okay, it's not perfect but I have to go to do something else.” I felt that the novel Kats read didn't finish, it just stopped. It happens all the time. Last summer, we both saw a plait on the internet that was like the one princesses wear, we read the instcutions on the internet and tried to make it, but it didn't turn out the way we wanted it. We tried for three hours, but it just wasn't perfect and we had to stop.

The pages of the story book/novel end, but both myself and Kats keep wondering what would have happened next in the life of the characters had they been real or that things could have been better had something else that we liked had happened. Maybe stories also never finish, they just stop.

Guess you can never finish things like paintings, plaits, stories, songs; but you surely can finish a fresh hot plate of poha by mummy.

To finish something forever, can that happen?

Did the cloud move, or did I move away?

When travelling in the auto I have seen the clouds move away from me. But sometimes, when I am standing still I can see them move. When in auto I see the other things also move away, this Kats says is because we are going ahead and everything else remains stand still so to us it seems like everything else is going away. But I asked her, that what if while I was going ahead in the auto, the cloud actually did move away because of wind, how would I know? Kats had a solution for this too! She said, “Ask another friend who is not moving at all to watch both your auto and the cloud. She would know who is moving and in which direction.”

Smart idea, isn't it? But is it really possible for one person to see both the auto and the cloud at once? What if while she was observing the auto for a few tiny-winy minutes the cloud moved, and she didn't notice how much and in which direction it moved. Then even she wouldn't be able to tell what actually happened isn't it?

I guess Kats would say then, “Have two friends then. One who carefully observes the auto, and the other the cloud. And after sometime let them discuss.” But what she does forget is that when two friends have to do a job togehter it is simply not possible for them to do it wihtout talking. And then they would deifnitely make a mistake about the auto and the cloud's movements.

The clouds as I told you before reminds me friends; sometimes you don't know wether you moved away or the cloud. If you ask a friend or two friends to tell you when the cloud has moved away from you, by the time they tell you the cloud would be too far. Not that they will always be wrong, but the chances that they can manage to tell you on time is very less.

How does one solve a problem like this! I saw somewhere on the internet, where by controlling the temperature and moisture of a room someone made a cloud inside the room! Amazing isn't it? The cloud stands still, right where you want, it is of the shape you want. But it won't thunder or rain, it can move, but has nothing to cover or sheild away from. But who would want a cloud like that, that doesn't thunder, that doens't cause rain; that just stands in one place like a showpiece. So the make the cloud in the room solution goes. There should be a way right?

Maybe if you walk back from where you started and you see that the cloud is still there in the sky above you, you'll know that you moved away. But what if the cloud had moved too, but came back when you did? How would you know that?

I can't think of a way to find out who moved away exactly at all times, me or the cloud. You can't pin a cloud on the sky like on the display board, but you sure can keeping looking up and smiling for it to come your way again, or at least hope the winds to push it your way.

Kats let luppy out of the bag!

Kats has been doing a lot of things unexpectantly. I suspect that it has got to do with either Doraemon or Barney, not sure which one of the two have been guiding her; it doesn't matter who it is out of the two of them, I like them both! :P

Luppy, our puppy has been our combined secret from Kats's class XII. We found him in our back yard, shivering in the morning sun. Covered him with an old rice bag made of jute and hid him away from Mummy and Daddy. Mummy doesn’t like dogs you see. Their fur all around, their language of talking or barking as we call it and they don't know how to use the human-made toilets. Being on four legs all day long and then trying to use a human invention which needs you to be on two legs is quite tough.

No one except the two of us knew about Luppy till yesterday. It was out promise to each other and we had kept it to ourselves that we wouldn't let anyone know about Luppy till we felt Luppy was strong enough to shake her hand with a person. Doggy's found on the street are not liked by all because they live amidst all, dirty plastic bags, dirty cats, dirty water, colourful wild flowers and strong trees that grow without being planted; street doggy's are strong, always cheerful and happy, ones that listen to the melody of the wind and that are not exactly very good with instructions. So we thought that if Luppy grows enough to be able to shake hands well with a person we would tell everyone about her.

After spending an entire day in her room with books, me and luppy forced Kats to take us out. Being rapunzel is not exactly fun, especially when you have a big wide door and big window that has a wonderful view of all the green trees outside. It was strange, just the three of us walking. We usually have something to talk about, a game to play, but being rapunzel all day long does bring some serious starting problem. And when ever we have a problem or any exciting news, we first share it with mummy. Though we did manage to keep the exciting story of Luppy in our tummy, and we also managed to smuggle her from Here to the hostel. Kats called up mummy and Mummy shared all the news from Here, from all the tasty food that she cooked for dinner to the cats in the colony that make mischief. Luppy hates them you see, and at their mention Luppy expressed her anger in doggy language and Mummy caught the sound.

Usually Luppy listens to us when we ask him to be silent, but this time he didn't. He has some serious problems with the cats you see. Mummy laughed when Luppy barked again and asked, “Your dog is quite impatient.” We were quite shocked, how did mummy know? Who told her? Kats was suspicious about me, and I was suspicious about her sleep talking. And then Kats told Luppy's story to mummy. We thought Mummy would be really angry at us. We did all the things we could to keep lice, and germs away from Luppy. Kats at the end of the story told mummy, “We wanted to surprise you on mother's day with Luppy when she masters the handshake. But we are still not happy with her handshake..” And mummy's reply simply made our day, “It doesn't have to be perfect, it is the spirit behind it that matters more..”

And so, since Kats has told Mummy about Luppy,I wrote about our cute one-little-now-little larger-doggy Luppy. Guess Mummys are difficult to impress, but it gets easier when you don't forget that they love you the way you are.

Surprizes at the Saloon

Kats is becoming better as the days go by,no she is not yet not-thinking about numbers like marks in exams and her weight on the scales. She cut her hair short! I know its not exactly nice, long hair looks very fairy tale princessy, but for long I used to have short hair for which I would put colourful clips,hair bands and tiny beads. You can't do all of that easily with long hair; but don't be under the impression that she got it is for those wonderful things that she can't use.

Her reasons are pretty serious. One morning when she applied coconut oil and combed her hair she lost some hair, she took head bath and combed she lost more. I must confess, even I felt if she combed once again it won't be too soon before she wouldn't have anything left to comb. Because as she said that day, “Its better to have short hair than have no hair at all.” And so she decided to get her hair cut.

She spent the whole day thinking of a hair style, different movies, different actresses, pop-stars, friends, neighbours. Mentally, it was like flipping through a thousand photographs over and over again looking for some hair style to whipser into her ears to choose it. I gave her a suggestion, to get a hairstyle like Rihanna (she is one of Kats's favouraite pop star), and she does have a funny hair style. One side of her head is a clean shave and the other side has almost shoulder lenght hair which has been cut in a manner that the top ones are short and as you go down the hair gets longer. Kats says it called a step cut, but I wonder for whom/what are those steps for? Lice can crawl on hair easily na?

It was almost at lunch time when she declared, “Chulbuli, I'm getting my hair cut, just like it used to be long back. ” At first i wasn't sure how long was her long back, but later she drew line in the air above her shoulder.

Rekha and I gave her company to the salon, being in a bigger city it was all like the ones on TV, not like the tiny ones in Here. Everyone was wearing black tee shirts and jeans at the salon, but they didn't look like the people in the salons on TV, they looked like people who travel with us in the bus.

The lady who was supposed to cut her hair was suggesting haristyles for her, another reapeat of the thousand photorpahs that she had gone through. I was scared that she might choose one of them. Why was I scared? I don't know...

But she told the lady “No cut it short, upto my shoulder. Just like i used to have, long back..” Later I asked her why she choose it, she said “Cause I am my favourite model, and there can be no better inspiration for me than me myself.”