Short post.. Big news..

I finally have my visa.. My tickets are booked and I fly to USA today :)

Image from here.

Look..

My favorite look of all time is what I like to call the sexy-yet-innocent-babe look. The first time I tried this look with a saree was during a college fest. I was one of the only two people from the Science stream on the organizing committee for that fest; all the rest were from the Commerce stream. Among the Commerce crowd was a guy who was one of those smart aleck, uber cool, 'popular' guys. He was nice to me but spoke only as much as was required during the days before the fest but on the day of the fest, when I reached the college in a saree and with this look in place, he appeared to be smitten.. Kept following me around and couldn't keep his eyes off me.. I wasn't interested in a relationship at that time and it didn't lead to anything but that was the day I realized the power of good make up :) Here are a few products from Revlon that can be used to achieve this look-

For sexy, smoldering, smoky eyes..

Revlon Luxurious Color Eyeliner

Let the Luxurious color eyeliner in Black Velvet glide on your lids and the built in smudger work its magic to give you gorgeous eyes.

For that hint of a blush..

Revlon Colorstay Mineral Blush






Let the Revlon Colorstay mineral blush in Petal kiss your cheeks to give you that oh-so-subtle blush.





For delicious lips..

Revlon Just Bitten Lipstain + Balm




Let the Revlon Just Bitten Lipstain in Passion stain your lips with that hint of a color and the balm make your lips soft and kiss-a-luscious ;)

.. And you're ready to play :)

My Idol

Elle Woods

Blond, beautiful and fabulous Elle Woods has been my idol ever since I watched Legally Blonde during my undergraduate days. I have always wanted to be like her, smart and stylish. Five reasons why I love her-

1. She wasn't scared to change gears completely and try to get into a school that was completely different from who she was for the sake of who she believed to be her true love.
2. Not only did she get into the school, she showed her smarts, studied hard and got to the top of her class looking fabulous all the while.
3. She was deaf to the comments of people who did not think she would do it.
4. In spite of being smart, sexy and stylish, she wasn't stuck up and helped those less fortunate.
5. It wasn't always her smarts that helped her, she used common sense too.. "Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. Happy people don't kill their husbands. They just don't." 

I may not kill anyone but I certainly am in the danger of killing myself soon. So, I've decided to join dance classes as soon as my hand gets better.. Me want Endorphins bigtime..

You know what they say..

Over the ages, hordes of mysterious people referred to as 'they' have uttered words of wisdom that eventually came to be known as proverbs. Being the weird kid who loved languages and English in particular, right from maybe first grade, I loved proverbs. I loved learning new ones, being able to think of the right ones and uttering them with a flourish at the appropriate time. Here are twelve most familiar to me and which I'm fond of..

1. Absence makes the heart grow fonder.
2. Empty vessels make the most noise.
3. Time and tide wait for no man.
4. Where there's a will there's a way.
5. Cleanliness is next to godliness.
6. A stitch in time saves nine.
7. As you sow so shall you reap.
8. A friend in need is a friend indeed.
9. Idle mind is a devil's workshop.
10. Make hay while the sun shines.
11. To err is human; to forgive divine.
12. Necessity is the mother of invention.

Image from here.

I ♥ F*****ck

for their amazing collection of bags. There are two collections actually, Core and Sport with truly hip bags for Guys, Girls and both (Unisex- reminds me of Joey's line in Friends.. U-N-I-sex.. Can't say no to that.. Tee hee). The following introductory commercial starring Genelia has been airing for about a week now.

Here are some of my favorites-

The perfect girly tote, in my favorite color- Red.

Another tote with removable laptop sleeves. Perfect for work, that is if you work in a place that's not too stuffy and formal. I loved the design of this tote but didn't like any of the color combinations. This one was the most decent looking among the lot to me as Orange is another favorite color of mine.

 The messenger bag or the ubiquitous (in India) 'college' bag. Wish I had this cool one while attending college. Love the subtle color combination.

Wouldn't have minded having this cute drawstring backpack while attending college either.

This one's actually meant for guys but what can I say? I'm a bit of a tomboy at heart ;)

Check out the entire collection here.

Chakkuli

Is the name of this tasty, crunchy snack in the colloquial language. The picture is from here and the recipe is given there too. However this post is not about about food. It's about a someone who visits us during the monsoons, someone who the kids in this region refer to as the Chakkuli because he looks like one, someone who is big, clay colored and said to have a thousand legs.. It's this guy..

The giant millipede

He was taking a stroll through my garden this morning and when I touched him, he curled up into this perfectly symmetrical spiral.. Isn't he beautiful?

The very first Zoology class of my B.Sc course, my Zoology Sir entered with an earthworm in his hands and asked us if anybody would like to touch it. I was the only one who actually took it in my hand. The reason Sir gave for this little exercise was that being Zoology students, we shouldn't be squeamish about handling creepy crawlies. I'm glad I passed his little test.

FM mania

The bus I was travelling to Mangalore in yesterday had FM playing in it and brought memories of my PG days back to me.. but thankfully, only the good ones. I guess a year gives time for your mind to forget bitter memories of a person, place or thing and lets you remember the sweet ones without the other kind tainting your reminiscences..

And it had been exactly one year since I'd listened to the mindless yet soothing chatter on the familiar FM stations. Although I loved listening to the radio as a kid and still do, I'm not exactly a willing participant in the FM mania. I can listen to that inane chatter and those sometimes tasteless songs for say an hour, tops.. Beyond that it gets on my nerves.. but there was a time when I used to listen to that drivel up to four or five hours at a time.

The fondest memories I have of this 'noble' pursuit are those of writing records. A bunch of us would sit in the common room, all of us armed with record sheets, required stationary and a personal music player of some sort. Since writing records was no-brains-required sort of a job where you just copied your observation book but in a neater form, everyone of us would have earphones stuffed in our ears. Sometimes all of us would tune in to the same channel and comment on the songs or each would go a separate way until a particularly ridiculous song came on upon which the 'lucky' person listening to that channel would be like, "Hey tune in to XYZ you guys.. This is damn funny.." and we would make fun of those lyrics or the actors to death.. Good times :D

The other time we would crave for some mind numbing chatter and music was during the practicals. The shortest of experiments would last half an hour and if you had to repeat, you would be stuck in the lab for half of the day or on not so rare occasions, the whole day. Since these practicals were unsupervised, anytime the faculty were not around, we got the music players out. That thrill of doing something that you are not supposed to do is something else isn't it? The proof- I can now listen to FM all I want but my player has been in hibernation for a year.. Oh, to be a student again :)

Loneliness and Teenage Crush!

For some reason, writing about the Convocation reminded me of my school days and the very first poems I remember writing.. way back in high school.. They were my very first contributions to the school magazine too and it was such a proud moment for me when they were published.. :)

Loneliness is a blessing in disguise

For it soothes the troubled and makes one wise

Just like a heady wine, too much is too bad

When the right dosage is taken, it isn't half as bad.

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Labelled as 'love' by the experienced

but named 'crush' by the wise,

This infatuation in high schools

is a fairly common sight,

They know not how it happens,

but it ends in despair;

For often it is a one-sided affair.

But the moments when these poems were conceived were dark moments for me then.. I had a crush on this guy- a really bad crush that lasted three years- who never cared for me.. Oh well, I did get over him eventually but now it feels like a waste of three really important years of my life.. But then it's always easier to see sense after the deed is done, right?