I'm the baffled king.

Greetings to my readers from India, Russia, France, Ukraine, United States, United Kingdom, Thailand, Malaysia, Spain, Mexico and Jordan! (Well, according to my Blogger Stats for the day anyway.)
And a big, frantic hand wave to everybody out there who's reading this up right now. =)

Life's been pretty darn hectic. 8:50 am classes everyday in the morning have coerced me to sleep every walking talking minute when I have the time, that is. I get free from college soonly, but then I have society practices which are making me run up the wall, too. In between all of that, add in hour long metro rides to and fro, chills with homies, some sulking and some thing or the other that crops up eventually.
OH, and let's not forget the DUSU elections which have resulted in mobs of angry (not so much), young college students yelling their lungs and throats out onto the road and into our ears (ew, too visual?) and shoving pamphlets with a zillion candidate names into our mouth (well almost anyway) with the most formal smiles. (If that's even possible?)

Mostly, I have pretty good days, and I'm spared the horror of days such as today which by all means and in all practicality sucked monkey balls. By the end of the day, I almost crawled back home on all of my fours. I can't remember, it's all blurry, that memory... (Okay, over doing it.)
One of the   The only high point of my day was the brown package from Flipkart that was waiting for me at home, nicely sitting on my bed. I had ordered Mitch Albom's latest; The Time Keeper.
Thus, we all know who's my date tonight.
Look at him, isn't he preeeeeeedy? =)

cool purple specs win win, eh?

In other news, I got my first two assignments for this semester. Which means I should really stop treating my books like pillows and get crackin'.  -,-

This week is going to be tragic and awesome. Don't ask me why. Long story. Not blog material. And muchings of drafts saved up to (hopefully) be published soon. 

On a completely unrelated note, I've been craving to go out for a photoshoot. I can't decide on a place/ theme. Any suggestions? 

So yes. I think I'm done ranting here about the trivialities of my immodestly significant life. I shall cut you lovelies some slack and catch you here next week, with some fiction, perhaps =)

Good night, my date and a bowl of cereals be waiting. 

Much loving and wishful sighs for Cheesecake,

Nil.

FullPower.

Greetings from a happy child, ladies and gentlemen!
It's precisely 3:59 am and might I add, I'm sleep deprived and absoluuuutely content. Read on (*nudges.)

Fact: The end of Boards, 2012.


So thus, this is to basically inform (shout and tear my lungs out, basically) you lovable peepol that the brutal drill of Boards are finally, finally over. You probably want to rip my head out and munch on it with coke for the Fiction overload and the mind numbing rants on the same sulk stories but... Pass it, bro. Happy days are here again. =P


April the 16th has been a legendary day, for reasons beyond academic priorities. I'm not much of a play by play person, so reciting every grain of a wonderful day at multiple levels will perhaps have to wait. Nevertheless, lets just say, April the 16th has been a pricey date for good reasons. =)

In other news, the culmination of Boards as a hard fact hasn't quite hit me just yet. I keep forgetting and gasp every time at the time, while try and calculate how many chapters might have to pull for the night.
And then this slyyyy grin makes its way through and the 32 all out are in action =D
(And I swear, Mojo Jojo's laugh hasn't been this loud in my head, ever. Ever. And then there's some of Mandark's too, occasionally.)

So this is a quick post telling you people that I have literally nothing to do for a while (except identify with the song 'These are a few of my favorite things'. Nyahaha)  and there's this mental scene of Bhangra going on in my head, all the time. =)
Oh and also, I'm off to the mountains. So I shall read books in the middle of apple farms and go diving without knowing the first letter of swimming. If I die, nobody gets my Tazo collection. They be buried with me. And now I'm just blabbering. (Oh, forgive me but I just happened to slog my 'ttub' spelled backward off the past few months and you'll just have to deal with every dime of blabber. Okay, no you don't but whatever. Please? )

And, just by the way... So I was just going to put this out there :

BOARDS OVER. BITCHES GO CRAZY, SAYS SHELDON (AND I). 
(*Family members reading this blog will kindly ignore the overemotional usage of vocabulary.)

And now I shall go pack my bag with shorts and tee shirts along with flip flops.

(how long have I waited to type just everything in this post.)

Love and everything with a lot of free time,
-Nil. (Imagine the Scooby Doo smile okay? There!) :D

Ways to live life forever

I've been ill from the past few days. It's been very boring, and hardly anybody was home. Studying was not an option-- for the simple reason that I didn't want to, and going out wasen't one aswell-- cause my mum would have disowned me:)

Anyway,

so I've been doing alot of reading lately... Finished quite few books.. The last one was called "Ways to live forever" by Sally Nicholls.

It's about a book that a kid writes who has lukeamia.

I cried, I laughed, I frowned, I ridiculed, I scowled, I made every possible expression while reading that book. . Because the ridiculously beautiful way it has been written really shook me up.

I thought it was pretty kidish, at first. . but then the way the author has explained how the Kid {Sam} aquires and lives certain wishes that he only dreamt of doing, but never thought of it as "do-able" with the help of his friend {Felix} is amazing. . It's funny how visualy dynamic the book was, because I could see everything, right infront of my eyes.

I realized once again, that all these worries we take of not being able to study hard anough/ fidgiting over what to do over the next 90 minutes so it's *utilized* well/ how to act infront of the guests coming home/ how to get the XYZ scholarship are trivial issues at the end of the day if all you care about is being happy after all.

Even if you're dying.

Sure enough, all of that is very important, I couldn't agree more that a future/money/job/home/etc everything is important... But... what I think is... I think I'm an okay human being, i don't like being mean, and I don't like being a bitch to anyone .

I trust myself enough that w/o unfair ways, and with my hardwork, I'll reach the top...

But that'll never stop me, from sitting on an apple tree during a power cut, and feel like I'm in space.

;)

Read the book guys :)

Cheers!

Scholastic Book Launch.

Yesterday, was a beggining to what my life is going to be.
The first Book Launch ever, that I was a part of.

Let me give you all a lil rewind of whatever happend, so you guys don't find yourself utterly lost !
;)

Well, every year, there is this National Scholastic Writing Awards Competetion by Scholastic, in which kids all over India send their entries, their stories, and their thinking.
In that comepetition, I came 5th position all over India.

So,
recently I was informed in school that my entry had also been selected for getting published in a book called "For Kids, By Kids" which was a compiplation of stories by children who've got a national level recognition in the field of writing.. I was invited to the book launch, as I was one of the authors.

Yesterday was the Book Launch.
I went... And the first thing I saw were more than thousand copies of the book being sold in the counter. Excited little kids, and smiling parents,and interviewers, and everybody else, everybody was just running around, buying copies of the book.
It still hadn't sunk in.

I went to the counter and picked up a copy, my parents were waiting for me to get the book.
I went through the content, I couldn't spot my name. Despair covered me like a tight black blanket, I felt complete dissapointment for whole 10 senconds. I came back in form, and gave it another try...
anishk, rhea, blah blah.. xyz.. abc... . blah....... Nilanjana Bhattacharjee- Breaking Free.
THERE IT WAS!!!!!!
My heart skipped atleast 3 beats! {Okay, maybe just one }
But.. I saw my name. My story, right there..I took a copy, and took it to my parents..
My mum and dad was talkin to someone else, dad introduced me to that person, saying "Yea, my daughter is one of the writers.." and this person leaped over me sayin "Congratulations dear!!!! Doesn't it feel great!?! Keep it up darl!!!" and went off.

Then, this lady came to me, and said "Hi, I'm the organisor of this event, your name ?"
I said " Nilanjana Bhattacharjee"
"Oh! You must be one of the authors then!! Welcome in! Please have a seat in the Author's seats, yea, right over there" she said, pointing towards a direction.
I stared at her blankly, "You must be one of the authors".
I was thinking to myself,
This lady said I was an author. I. Yes, I!!
What?!!!!
"No wait, Nilanjana, don't freak. Be a good girl, go sit."

I went, and sat. Trying to look through these people who were looking at me intently.
Finaly, the program began.
We were asked to read out little extracts from our stories.. i read my favourite part..
At the end of it, someone asked me
"What inspired you to write something on Breaking Rules , and Chandni Chawk together?"
I said
"I just wanted to send this msg accross, that today Breaking rules is considered a wrong thing to do.. but what people don't get is, breaking rules is a part of discovering yourself, who you really are, what are your limits, and where you start and stop... and as far as Chandni Chawk is concerened, people really need to discover where our real Delhi started from, from where New Delhi began.... "
And then there was this hugeee roar of applause for me!
FOR ME?!!
It sunk in. Finally. It did.
"Today, I am an author. "
It sunk in.


I saw someone's face without who this feeling wouldn't have been complete.
I was living my dream.

after few more questions, we were made to conclude the gathering,
we spoke our last few words, and it officialy ended... But not unoficially!
There were little kids, guys, girls, ladies [!!] coming upto ME and asking for autographs!!
This lady made me sign a couply of copies
"This is for my daughter"
"this is for my grand son"
"this is for myself! please sign it!"..

Never in my life had I signed autographs for someone, and today, so many kids and adults were asking for my autograph!

I had lost count of how many books I signed.. i could see the excitement in the other fellow authors with me too, when they signed..
we were all under 16, and this was our frst time, ever...

I got my gift hamper., and when I went into the bookshop , there were MORE people wanting to talk to me!
I gave some of them my email, and I made a friend "Meghavarshini". She was a book fanatic like me, and we had similar tastes. Also met this interesting person named Anirudh. He seemed to be extremely well read, and very polite.

My parents and family were too proud. Mom said "there was this lady who said, who knows? your daughter might be the next jhumpa Lahiri!"
I could tell she was proud. My dad too.


My night ended with a high, with a high of happyness.

This was my first step towards ambition.. I can see many more now.. Coming to me, and I am decending forward.. right towards them..

My moment of truth.

"Nilanjana, tomorrow I want a box of sweets. I don't eat chocolates".



That's what my English teacher told me before cracking the news.



"You've come 5th all over India for the Scholastic Writing Awards Competition", She said with a smile, which soon turned into a hug.


I was holding on to my breath eversince I saw that naughty smile on Remya's face..
I knew something was up .. I could tell by the way she said "Suman Anand ma'am wants to see you".





From the past few months, it's been crazy hectic ; Finals of 9th, and beginning of Xth.
I had pretty much forgotten wbout this competition. I never thought of myself deserving enough to even come in the top 200..
Top 5 was simply out of question.

But somehow, Deep [Really deep!] down, I held on to something..

Just something; a thin strand of hope, that somehow, my nqame would come in the top 10 of winners.

Now, when I recall that moment, it was a very weird feeling after I got to know what I had achieved.

The feeling was definately ecstatic.. But.. Unbelievable.

Too good to be true.

After about 5 minutes of complete suprise, Remya came and congratulated me with a complimentary hug:)

I could see she was happy for me. She was as excited as I was.

Which made me feel really great, cause no offence to anybody.. But.. It's become really hard to find people who actually WANT to be happy for you. And who actually acknowledge that "Dude, You desrved it".

In today's world, it's become more of a phoney ; "OMG! Im like, Sooooo happy for you sugar! Mwah mwah! Hugz!!".

And then, the moment you turn around, they roll their eyes and say "Whatever".

Im sorry incase Im being a pessimist, but that's reality buddy. Atleast what I've seen. I hope I'm wrong, I'd be more glad to be wrong than anyone at all ! Very few people actually are happy when you achieve something.

****************************************************

Then, I went to the Comp Lab to check my name in the Scholastic website. I pulled Atreyi along.

Another close friend with who I wanted to share this moment with.

It was an exhilerating feeling to see my name, right there in the Top Five list.

A moment I can never forget. Even when I'm 60:)

Atreyi said she was really really proud of me.

It was nice learning such a good news in the presence of my 2 very close friends. Sharing it with them doubled my happiness.

I went back home, and I was the star.

Hugs. Kisses. Pats on my back.

I was on the 9000000000th cloud :D

I felt euphoric.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next day was pretty ironic ; In the good way!

Suman Anand ma'am asked Remya to announce my name in the school assembly.

There could be nothing better than having her announce my name. Nothing better than a friend smiling at you when you went to the podium to shake hands with the Director.

She smiled, and with pride took my name aloud and shared the news with the whole school.

It was crazy.

The 12thies clapping like mad even before she announced my name. It was great to walk till the podium; Realizing that every face was looking at you, thinking of you for that moment, and clapping for you.

Now, I felt that I really did achieve something.

~~*~~*~~~*~*~*~~*~*

Just as Twisted Elegance had one said ;

"You sure know how to make small things into big things!!".

And just as I replied ;

"Big things come and go. But small things are the ones that really matter, and should be celebrated to truly feel and see happiness And to live life Queen size" ;)

Gnite everybody:)

Sleep well,

Cause I will !

;)