Pen pals and postcards.

For the first time in the last seven years did I skip an end-of-the-year post. Perhaps it's one of the first changes that 2015 decided to bring along, but hey, for those who are still listening- the happiest new year, my wonderful humans.
My old readers wouldn't be surprised to hear about my perpetual incapability of recalling the year that went by, but like each year- it left behind a feeling. 2014 was a year where I really brought my game on as far as competing with myself is concerned, it burned me out emotionally and physically but I feel like it straightened me out in ways that wouldn't have been possible in any other way. I had never realized the kind of distress love could bring, so there, that's one more thing I've seen- the realization that love has a side that could be immensely futile was perhaps the scariest realization of mine in the last 20 years, but I think I'm alright knowing that now.

2015 is going to be a year of aggressive amounts of getting work done. Yes, it's the year to be ridiculously productive. It's the year where I'm going to push myself to start laughing my ass off on nonsense again, of going on multiple breakfasts to my favorite cafe and read or doodle for hours. I think I sort of lost that 'spunk' somewhere. I think I lost it in trying to find it in other people, or even some times believing that others will induce that magic in me at some point. Mistakes. A whole lot of Berlin-Artparasites and long nights of Bukowski did me well, for they reminded me of the importance of being ridiculous. So basically this winter has too many solo escapades around the city as soon as my Uni applications are done (if I survive them, that is).

From the 2015 Letter Project :)

I've started this new project of sort for 2015. I've been typing letters on my typewriter and sending them out to people, just because. I feel like the lost art of letter writing is a horrible loss, and if sending out a letter to someone nudges them to start writing them once again- it's definitely worth the shot. So I have a long list of recipients and I'm terribly excited about this! If everything works out alright, I may even extend this project to you fantastic readers. I thrive for wonderful things like pen pals and postcards, so this year is about reviving those old habits.

How have you all been? Tell me about your year and plans that drive you. I wish you all the most wonderful year, go badshit crazy and make this the most memorable 12 months that change you, that make you grow and make you thrive. It's a wonderful life, and that's a cliche for a reason.

To those of you who emailed me wondering if I'm still alive- you guys are the best. I'll get back to you all real soon. Go make wonderful things happen for yourself, keep the happy vibes alright? :)

All my love,
Nil.

(P.s- fiction coming up, realy sooooooon.)

I don't know where I'm going, but I like the directiiiiion.

It's already been two weeks into college and I haven't had the time to breathe, no sirree! Which brings me to the heartiest apologies for abandoning this cyber rant machine for so long, but honestly, I feel like a ninja- what, with so many things going in and around college. I feel like a ninja to have actually coped up with it, after 3 months of literally doing nothing.

So yes, for most of you who are curious to know (or so I'd like to think, anyway), college is GOOD. It's intense, I absolutely love my papers and the profs are notches higher than brilliant. The (literally) beautiful part about my class is, I can be as politically incorrect as I wish, and nobody minds! Every class is like an open debate with no rules as such and it's a breather from how school used to be. Kids in my class are pretty smart. I've made quite a few friends, yes. I'm hoping few of them go a long way, they're chiller people =) Classes get cancelled often, and "perks of North Campus" is an understatement in that context. The kind of unadulterated joy you feel when the professor cancels out on class is just... happiness!
Classes/No classes followed by chills at the cafes only make life better, not to mention the student considered prices in the restaurants only make you want to run around wearing a cape reading "I ♥ NorthCampus".


The past week has been mostly auditions for various societies. And might I mention, I made it to Aria, the 
Western Music Society of my college =) Next up, trials for the much talked-about DramSoc, Ibtida. 
Next week's going to be slightly crazy, again. But I'm hoping by the end of it, I'm going to be settled on the societies I want to join. 


The highlight of the week has been a visit to my favoritestestest bakery with college friends when a class got cancelled. Now see, the place was built so people like us could taste love. I exaggerate not, two of my bros and I can take a blood oath on Elma's Red Velvet Cake. (Vanta, Guina.. if you're reading this) :*

Photo Credits: Tara :)

Oh sure, I dint mention right? Yep, got some color to jazz up ze hair a litttuul bit, and crazy specs were only a necessity. =D  (Stop judging me, okay? You can't do this shit when you're 80.)
SO YES. 
College has well begun, and it's been good to me, so far. Life only promises to get crazier, so hey we'll take it as it comes and yabba dabba doo into the sunset in your pink rickety mustang!


Fill me in with emails and everything on how goes it with y'all?
Are the 12th graders slogging it out? You work-o-holics still on double shifts? Mommies going crazy? Kids stomping on mud?
Do tell! 


-Red hair and Purple Spectacle-ed,
Nil =)

What you want to hear, what I want to say.

HELLO!

Just how have y'all readers been? Yes, it's been a while. The month of June has been an erratic sketch of ridges and troughs, but we shall ALL take a moment now and thank it for the perfect end, yes? 

After much ado, life is finally, finally good. I made it to one of the best colleges in Delhi University (!!!) and college starts in a month. Orientation Day is on 20th July, oh and might I mention I'm on my toes.

I'M SO EXCITED IT'S NOT EVEN FUNNY :D 

The professors are absolute sweethearts and the kids are different shades of fun and intellect. I absolutely LOVE the college campus! University Feeeeel at its BEST. The colleges is a typical old school, red bricked building (♥) with loooong corridors with ample sunshine and pretty green fields here and there. I'm yet to see the library, shall do on orientation day =)  

Travelling is going to be well, tiring. But it's worth it, so hey. What the hell. 

Anyhoo, in latest news- It was ze Beedles's birthday on 28th. So after screwing up her dress, ensuring she lost her pair of brand new contacts and hogging on a strange yummaayy mix of Chinese and South Indian we figured we'd push off for home when the sentimental Jack in us kicked. You see the education hungry was to run away to Bombay today to become a hot shot lawyer and jazz. So we figured one last sleepover was due, and thus sleepover we did. The night was spent lying around on the couch calling old stories at each other and munching on crackles with pickles (*keyboard stops working with all the drool on it.) 

Some fart jokes and a few heart-to-hearts pretty much sums up the night. 

I'm going to miss you, dipshit. AND THAT PHOTOGRAPH MUST BE PINNED TO YOUR PINBOARD AT ALL TIMES. Okay? OKAY? Yeah, okay. 

In other news, I be going for a trip! To the hills with 3 of my favoritestestest homez. Should be fun, but hey, I'm not saying nothing till it actually happens. So yes, shushh about the excitement. (*silently screams like a happy little girl)

Other than that, I'm figuring ways of ditching out of a dance show. I want some time off from absolutely everything and chill out some. These 20 days before college starts must be spent judiciously doing everything awesome. OH AND BIRTHDAY MONTH IS ALMOST HERE. :O I have no clue if I'm doing anything or not but ehh. Must figure out soon :|

And ofcourse, Piyushsterrr going on about some surprise he has in mind for ze birthday does not help my excitement levels ^.^  (If you're reading this Pickles, TELL ME ALREADY.) Oh, and don't go? Please? Thanks.

Moving on, fill me in with what's up with y'all? How's the weather at your end? (small talk. FAIL.) How's everything been? Who died? Who lives? Oh, and apologies to have not been around much and throwing in my comments. The college scene had the best of me the past month. But I shall stalk you guys right up and catch up. Mails to be answered by the weekend, promise :)

I'M GOING TO FRIKKIN COLLEGE YOU GUYS.

Oh, and random photo update-

Yes, my room happens to be very pretty.

retard picture 9384948. Pickes clicked!

Yeah, okay. I'll go now =) 

Muchings of lovin'

-Nil.

P.s- Fiction, soon enough. Yes, very very very soon!

Long Street's Orange Window

The night closed the bright orange window which had been passed by the cycle boy every single day since June, way back in '84. The window had been a loyal admirer of the umpteen tunes that the boy whistled to. He was a merry boy, and the window- a merry aged, unaltered element of the street. A landmark. A bellwether of its own kind, as the paints of yellow peeled open the red bricks, bit by bit, day by day, year by year.

Not a soul peeked from inside you know, yet it was the most lively detail in the whole of good ole Long Street, they said. Romeos would park their bikes next to it, and wait for them pretty pretty girls swinging their way in long evening dresses and high buns. Peddlers would string on their ukuleles and sing to Gene Autry and wink at the kind pedestals with pennies. Police men would eventually shoo them off and patrol around lazily, or join them and hum along when drunk.

The humor was in the gospel according to the neighbors around, that more the wall peeled, more the cracks peered, and more the pipes rusted...a strange sense of comfort manifested in the daily participants of Long Street. That old orange guy was a perpetual furniture on the abandoned wall that was a favorite, to all of them. It reassured them, it made aging easier, it calmed them, it was a part of their Christmas, Fête des lumières, Easter, and Hanukkah. It was a part of their wails when all the kitchens in the street would hear the fat maiden cry at her misfortune or yell at her goat who was bulled by her cat, again.


Either way, against all odds, the orange window was family to their secrets and hopes, to marital alliances or broken homes.. 
Either way, against all odds, the orange window would be there, tomorrow, the day after, and the day after that. 

- Nil. :)

Happiness is really such a simple thing.

It was the unofficial last day of school. It felt the same, but there were minutes of strangeness when I'd zone out somewhere in the middle of the corridor, or the classroom and realize that after today, the school that I knew would cease to be. I would only go for exams, and rare occasions of doubt classes. But school- the regular bus stand at 7:30am, the recurring morning blues, the often ignored yellow classroom doors and windows,the library, geography lab, the big field, oily Gupta Ji canteen food, mini shop, bur ride back home, the heat, the sweat- and in the middle of all this- those classmates who've become friends family in the past few years.
It was strange to even think that the routine will now be broken. That all of this won't happen, and the thought of a non-uniformed life seemed so alien and... unsettling?

I've lived in the heart of this school for fourteen years. Abused it unconditionally, kicked the bathroom doors a zillion times, scribbled rude drawings of teachers on the black board, solved sums on the tables, and gradually graduated to the Back Benchers Association by grade 12 :-)
I've walked in with pride holding prizes with a collar up, I've cried in the bathroom, I've hid behind the swimming pool, and I've bunked all around the place. And on graceful occasions, sat in class with my chin on both my hands and looked and heard out the (mostly) lovely teachers.

And I've made friends, oh yes. I have. I've made friends with bonds that can stretch further than chewing gums, the ones that used to be stuck under the tables and would inevitably find place in my skirt. (Trips to the Home Science lab for soap would follow.)

And then today once the last bell rang, I couldn't help but let out a nervous smile. And actually stood straight like an obedient child and repeated the prayer on the intercom, for maybe the first time in months. The last school-gives-over prayer.

And THEN. Daftuar's priceless nags began while exiting the gates of the school, yelping as if we were to die the next minute. Emosssanally charged students around were clicking photos as if the school was coming to an end in 2011. (Technically, yea yea.) But it was kind of overwhelming, and finally I cut through the melodrama and crashed Vant's place for a calculated half an hour to just chill and then go home and study like no body's business. And once I got there, the usual shitting around started and abuses to our favorite Mallu lady resumed with the sidelines of PJs and gayness. And just... chill.
And I was happy.
I was happy because although school is coming to an end... I kinda realized it's for the best. I've grasped in as much as I could and seeing those two lady retards, bullshitting racism all over the place with Rem, spending useless hours in the library with Rob,rolling eyes at Chatur for the chimp he is... they leave the epiphany that maybe, this is just the start. These people are going to stay. And that tiny moments through out the last fourteen years have made up a kick-frikkin-ass entourage of my hemisphere. And the other one, I'm on my way to figure.

So really. Happiness is really such a simple thing. And to a question that I've been dwelling on for a while after reading a fellow blogger's post is- Is it a choice? Hell yeah. It is. Shit happens. People walk in, they walk out, they mess your head, they make the best memories, they turn out to be complete pricks, and you regret a whole lot, but then you cherish a muuuch bigger lot.
So by the end of it, you've breathed in everything. Everything that you could. And you still are breathing, soaking in every flaw and creek that comes your way WITH those people/ memories/regrets/love.
That's the best part- you're still breathing :-)

Photos from today at Vanta's. Totally apt for the post, so :-)

Beedles, you're still a prick for not showing up today. But I had to add you to this one : )

So yes, shit happens. And if you can't fix it, spread it on the fields and enjoy the harvest ;)
It'll make you a much happier person!
(Also, shoot me for updating like a crazy frog but this one had to be posted!)
Love,
Nil.