When 'Thanks' doesn't seem enough..

I have had a rough couple of months. Academically, emotionally, and even health-wise. I had just one week to get back to Hyderabad and most of it was going to be dedicated to my TOEFL. I did not get a chance to meet most of my friends here, back home, and worse, GRE got screwed up as expected because you see, I wasn't well.

Just when nothing seemed to work well for me, My 21st birthday arrived and set everything straight :)

Birthdays for me have always been a huge celebration. Well, till the 19th one. 20th birthday saw me stepping out of teenage and also out of home to pursue my Master's in University of Hyderabad. So, it was a mixed box of feelings. 21st one was my official entry to adulthood and I wasn't quite sure how grand I wanted to make it. But, my awesome friends and super-mom made sure they made it the best birthday ever!

I got 4 birthday Cakes; and 2 more are pending in Hyd..
I was gifted lots of stuff and all of it is something I needed.
Read 2 most awesome birthday cards that made me cry :')
Met some new people and visited some pending eat-outs in Mumbai.
Literally, shopped till I dropped.
Slept for only 3 n 1/2 hours of the 24 :)
went 1/2 hour late to my own birthday party coz I was busy on the phone
Met most of my favorite people on the planet.
Spoke to everyone for whom my heart reaches out.

My phone got jammed at 00:00 am on 18th because of the number of messages that were delivered at the same time :P

I was so overwhelmed with all the love being showered that I had a wide smile on my face when I knocked off at the night after all the celebration. I really needed this high and my friends made sure they made the best out of it :)

I just LOVE my birthdays :)

:-(

The celebrations of the arrival of lord in our world are very thanda this year. We can see people skipping the midnight mass and staying put, which is both good and bad as I see. Good, coz they are spending much time with family and valuing each others company. Bad, coz somehow it gives a feeling of surrendering to fear. Anyway, the events that happened in the country lately have had an effect on every celebration.

My annual college fest almost got called off. We had to plead to the princi so much for not losing out on it in our last year. Plus, we organized a peace concert instead of the usual gig; which was just what it should be, peaceful :-)

St. Paul’s cathedral, kolkata, had its usual mass yes, but they distributed black wrist bands to all devotees as a mark of protest against terrorism.

My own city has probably been worst hit, Christmas parties canceled, carols not sung, churches empty :-( city after 8pm empty, suspicion in everyone’s eyes, no Santa on the road, no massive list of Christmas shopping, no eating vodka cake coz Joe uncle called off his party :-(

We canceled our New Year party, coz it didn’t feel like celebrating and dancing all night.

Country mourning, we protesting, attending rallies, skipping parties, all our lives definitely affected.

And yet,

A software engineer was beaten to death because he refused to financially contribute in Mayawati’s birthday celebrations.

My question
Why do politicians exist in any state?
To introduce, reform, direct, re-direct, to voice ‘our’ opinions in the parliament, to represent us.

Very sad that it has reduced to birthday celebrations and election rallying with some disoriented young volunteers.

Almighty,
May peace be conferred upon this land
And
Please give sadh-buddhi to my country-men.

Praise the lord!

X-chromosomes, Sex-chromosomes..

Loving
Caring
Angelic
Passionate
Reasonable
Kind
Chained

yet

Wild
Self-obsessed
Abusive
Laid-back
Absurd
Agressive
Free!

All these and there are many more shades of Us that are even beyond your frame of imagination.
And now these shades shall be let loose. For Ourselves.

No need to explain to any-one what we might be upto,
No 'moral policing'
No fake masks worn to
hide the scars that life makes onto our faces..

No use of asterisks to hide our cuss words,
No theme, its random!
No signs for you to map, the way our brain works..
No rhythm, no tandem.

We are the Satanic-bitches
On our genes we believe.
No fate, no god, no asumption-presumption buisiness
We carve the path we ought to lead.

Nuff said, there is nothing else you need to know,
Watch-out for us,
or
you shall sure miss something.

The place where all the action shall happen is contributed by,
Trinaa : The love of my life! :-P
Anindita : My Siamese Twin :-D
Aayushi : The Golden girl :-)

Ladies n [gentle] men,
Presenting to you, Our baby;

Festival of...

Diwali is festivals of lights, of life, of togetherness, of celebration, of shopping, of forgiving, of holidays, of meeting friends, of making friends, of victory of the good over the bad, of crackers and what not....

I would say, Diwali = Festival of FOOD! [snacks majorly]

and heres the reason why...

I am eating so much that I am surprized on my own eating capabilities :-D But who the hell looks at all this unlimited sexy food being at home!

I made a rangoli-alpana for my neighbour for my neighbour's entrance door [Photo on Facebook] and she gave me 10 Karanjies!!! I mean, Thank-you aunty, do you have a backdoor? :-P

I have had a brilliant Diwali and even-better Kali puja this season..

How is your's going?

Some more pictures,

Some of my self-made diya collection :-)

So, make the most of it.

And for people who are working, Skip work man, we do it all round the goddamn year!

Wishing you all, heartfelt,

HAPPY DIWALI!!!!

Gold

Yes, the golden post done and now is the time to talk about you,
Disoriented Neurons.

I love you.
You have been there, always.
Despite me being irregular,
you have provided me with so much that I am in no position to actually acknowledge all of it.


A concise of the till date expedition of my blog.

My first post - the best first post ever! :-P My introduction to the blogger-world.

The best comment - I HAD 2 return to blogosphere after Alok's comments. And the friendship that happened after that is an Epic!

The other side of me... - The post which is most close to my heart.

actually the whole month of feb and march. But the one post I am proud of is,
Comfort is the key.

Namesake express - For any-one who still thinks that I am faking my name OR my name is not 'Shatabdi'.

The best tag I have done till date! - The Bucket List . Anyone who wants to take it up , please do.

Yes, we know - First article ever. The one I worked hardest on.

My crush confession - Which got all you guys so excited that I was super-amused! :-D

Being curious - My most appreciated work till date.

And, The post on one of my favorite festivals. Peek into a bengali's love towards being bengali! Ma aisheche.


Actually, My blog is so awesome up to down that it is practically impossible to digest the whole of it into just one post :-D
So, what do you think?

Also, tell me your favorite posts or special write ups on Disoriented Neurons.


P.S. Happy diwali greetings to you, your family and friends. Have a safe diwali :-)

Ma aisheche!

Today is Maha-shashti, marks the instigation of this year's Durga Puja :-) This is the Ma I will be praying to this year and like every-year, shes the prettiest Ma I have ever seen!

Ma comes back to her baabul ka aangan from shiv-ji's house alongwith her children but, doesn't enter the house as the tale goes. Now, what-how-where, I have no idea; But, durga puja as such holds a lot of importance to us bengalies coz well, it is our *main* festival.

That watching mahalaya before the puja commences,

That endless shopping of authentic clothes

The hunt for mum's matching blouse :-P

The food

The colours

The feel

The togetherness

The pushpanjali on the 7th, 8th n 9th day

The phul-bel-pata diye montro confusion

The staying hungry till you get the phal-prasad after pushpanjali

The race for shanti-jal

The line for bhog

THE BHOG [:-P]

The aunties and their gossips

The uncles and their chada

The kids and their drawing competition

The roaming all over mumbai to see all thakur protimas

The balika gauri

The aparajitar phul-o-gach

The sindur utsav

mithaiyo ka mela

The visarjan!

Ah! God please, make me have birth as a bengali each life! I love being a bong!!! majorly coz of durga puja, plus, the food rocks :-D

Oh! I can already hear the dhak, kongsha, shonkho n ullu!
*nostalgia* :-)

Happy Durgotsav! Bolo Durga mai ki jai!

Being nine-TEEN

Yes, Its my happy happy birrddaaayyy!!!!!!

The last night of my teen-age. Yes, this is an over-hyped concept. Still, each of my birthdays have been very close to my heart :-)

18th of July is My DAY! I am 19 years old! Out of teen finally [even though a lot of people have other things 2 say :-P]

Celebrations still on, the day has been amazing!!

Ilove all my friends who spent some money to get in touch with me to pass on their good wishes!

All orkut friends who burnt those ATPs to pass their wishes to me!

All blogger mates who will be posting wishes here!

Its you guys who make my day so special! :-)

P.S. Yes Jiggs, you come in all 3 lists! :-P

Wild Wet Wacky

HOLI HAI!!!

Saluting the spirit of holi. The festivals of colors is here. Colorful holi. Red, Green, Pink, Blue, Yellow.....
Memories of this festival are too old. Getting drenched with colorful water as kids and sitting on the building terrace eating garam jalebies. I remember in 7th std, we had planned a "safe holi". Gone one step ahead and bought natural colors. Sadly, the safety of the colors never came back to us. I lost hope, gave up playing holi.

Ever since I have not played holi. Just offer gulal to god in the morning and munch on stuff made by mum on the auspicious festival. Parents continued to be cordial to neighbors and family-friends. This would be my 8th year of not playing holi. No regrets, none. I don't even look at people playing, no fascination. Most of the day is gone in hiding from people and giving explanations. The days prior to holi, I take notice of kids throwing balloons sitting in the comfort of their homes, avoid them; Travel mostly by the car. On the day of holi, just don't leave my room. For visitors, I am either studying, or not well, or just not home.

Honestly I am a more Diwali kind of person. I don't play holi. Not only coz of the safety sake anymore. I don't like powdery-liquidy stuff on my skin, hair, nails. Nor do I like being wet. The water bags were the worst things that happened ever. The festival has lost its authenticity. Grouping of women off-guard, dirty colored oil-paints that take 1 week to fade off, drenching unknown people from building tops etc. this is what has remained of this festival sadly. And then they say "Bura na mano, holi hai."

Prolly there are many aspects that I have failed to recognize. Prolly I need to check the current format of the festival out and participate in it. Prolly it is not correct on my part to not share joys with family friends and be aloof. But, I have shown indifference for long now.

Manao holi, khub manao, par sirf unn logo ke saath jo manana chahte hai.

Have a safe holi with your family and friends. Spread the joy, not perversion.