Do Not Eat!

Thursday,...(I guess) I finally gave in and bought two books from the sale at the 'animation and illustration road show' at the connection. One is 50 fantasy vehicles to draw and paint by Keith Thompson, and the other one is called 'Start your engines' by Scott Robertson. I have idolized him ever since I saw his dvds on drawing cars and aeroplanes and hovercrafts. I saw his book there on day one, and immediately fell in love with it! But when I brought those home, and saw that the same books were much cheaper on chapters.ca, I started feeling really dumb. Even ripped off. So I decided to try and return that book which I could buy from chapters, and I ended up getting David Coleman's autographed book "The art of animal character design" I did have to pay the difference, because this was an autographed book and more expensive, but its totally worth it!

Friday was my life drawing and digital media lab classes, and for the first time since this sem, I felt really satisfied with what I came up with in the life drawing class. You see, the thing is, Kerry kim is an illustration teacher. He expects us to do drawings with shading whereas for animation, what is more important is that I understand the structure and have good line quality. I just get frustrated trying to battle with the way we're supposed to draw at the workshop, and seeing everybody around me make pretty shaded drawings. But that day, I guess I was just really focussed or in-tune for some reason. I guess being successful at all those exercises we did earlier gave me some confidence. I can't wait to see what mark I get on that. The digital media lab was boring as usual. I know most of the things they are teaching there. So I got to help some other students out. And I hope people know how much I love helping others out!

Yesterday was really eventful...even though I didn't end up spending the whole night in toronto at Nuit Blanche, I was actually happy that I got all the rest that I did. The whole day at the workshop, we had mike because vince and gerard both were out at some event. I showed him my character designs and it was nice to have his input too. The idea that mike had, gave a totally new direction to the character design. I showed them to many people, but different people find diferent ones more appealing and that is making it even more difficult to decide on one character design for my portfolio. I'm just thinking I should get around to making rotation sheets for all the designs and then just close my eyes and pick one. Nah, too much work! :P LOL

And finally, tonight, I ended up making chicken curry! I didn't have a tomato, so I used tomato puree, and I also kinda burnt it, because my ingredients weren't ready. Those included, chicken that had gone bad, and yoghurt that had mould inside its container wall. But I didn't see the mould until I had poured the thing in, and I didn't realize the chicken was gone bad until I actually tasted it. Then basically, I had to throw the whole thing out. But before I did that, I was watching back to back episodes of CSI and I had to put up a note warning people, "Do Not Eat" next to the pot....just in case someone decided to come into the kitchen and taste what I was cooking. And I believe I also managed to stink up the kitchen in the mean time. I didn't even end up cleaning it. But There's a lesson to be learnt here. Something that I have come to realize earlier on several different occasions too.

I must not get too much food, or get food that I won't be cooking/finishing up anytime soon, because even stuff in the fridge goes bad! Yeah, it sucks! I've had mould in the yoghurt, tomato puree, garlic, bread(obviously) But I am really gonna make this stop now! When I go shopping, I'll first make a menu of the food I'm gonna prepare and consume in the next 7 days and get only that! Yeah right! (sarcasm) I wish I could just live off of snacks. they never go bad. Why can't they make everything like Lays chips? That I can keep them in my cupboard or under my bed and forget about it until I want to eat it? 'Super long lasting chicken' is that too much to ask for?

Note to self

Whoa! This morning my alarm rang at almost 8 and woke me up, but I figured I could sleep in, so I went back to dreamland. And that's where one of the weirdest things happened! I was in a HUGE building, running around, trying to find some good clothes to wear. In the beginning, it was like a shopping complex. Then later, it turned into maybe a bhavan, or a huge house. All my family was there, and were preparing for a wedding(I guess because only wedding ceremonies are so elaborate!) Perhaps that's why I was trying to find a good kurta to wear... From one window, I could see the whole town! Brightly lit up, looking like the most beautiful thing I've ever seen before. Even better than the city lights I saw from my flight when I came to canada. I think it was more like a patio or verandah... I was sitting down, with my feet dangling off the ledge. I felt like we were in an aeroplane, flying. Then something happened, and the whole town's lights went off. and there was a burst or wave of wind that shook all the trees in its path as it blew towards me! It was turning into a nightmare I figured...

The rest is as crazy as crazy can get. Maybe science fiction or fantasy... I dunno. But I don't want to relive that. So I'll move ahead to when I actually got around to doing something productive - Breakfast! I decided to make an omlet (or is it spelled omelet?). I was more confident about it today, than the last time I made an omlet - which was quite a while ago - because now, I was very comfortable breaking an egg, and I knew what I was gonna put in the omlet, and I knew it was gonna taste amazing.... a little too amazing. Because I chopped up one whole chilli pepper for only two eggs. I also chopped up about 1/5th of an onion, and if I knew I had tomatoes, I'd have added that too.

And as I was watching diggnation while eating it between two whole grain breads, (the kind that has all those granules in it...) I ate one unusually large piece of green chilly with the bite. And after about 4 glasses of ice cold water, I left a note to self - "cut the damn chilli into smaller pieces next time!) That was something so HOT, nick would have loved it!

Time management problems

And I finally left the college, and started walking back home. Oh, the moon was just beautiful. really big and orange! The temperature was just right. Not too cold, not too hot. And I wasn't even wearing a sweater or jacket. I did have a really heavy backpack, but that didn't bother me too much. I could keep staring at the beautiful view for ever! But I had to get back and get some sleep too.

The next day, I got up early, I felt pretty well rested and ready to have a wonderfully productive day. Well, we did everything except typography in the typography class... I was talking to mark and jeremy and making jokes and discussing stand up comedians and stuff... It was amazing....amazingly fun for mike mccarthy's class...LOL. Anyways, I've added them to my facebook as of now, and I think we'll get along well. Jeremy is really philosophical, and also interested in meditation and martial arts. His interests remind me of arjun bhaiya. Mark actually asked me "who's the coolest guy in class?" and answered "me who else?" hehe... he's cool tho. Looking forward to spending more time with those guys. But first, FOOD.

I had gotten really hungry by the end of the class. I didn't have a very good breakfast. I ended up burning my bacon, but I still had two eggs and a banana. I guess all the heavy lifting just made me hungry. So I walk back home, and eat some samosas that vironica had bought for me. Then I had to go shopping because I wanted to make some mint chutney before the corriander goes completely useless. I hate it when that happens. Last week was really bad for me that way. A lot of my food got fungus on it and I had to throw away a whole loaf of bread. So we went shopping. But all of a sudden, I was soooo sleepy, that I could hardly stand on my own. I wonder what came over me, but I was just ready to call off the shopping and just crawl into my bed.

But we went ahead with the shopping anyways, and ended up with everything BUT the ingredients for the chutney! DAMN! The mint there was really expensive and they didn't have the right kind of chillies! So I decided to let vironica get some mint for me and then I'll make some chutney. So now there's only one thing left to do - go to sleep! (and complete the self portrait, and the photo retouching and the portfolio drawings!) Guess I'd better start managing my time better!

seXXXXXXXXXXXXXXual orientation

Oh boy! Tragedy averted! I know I was scared to death when I realized I couldn't put the x key back in the keyboard! Also, I was late for the painting class. I guess I shouldn't have decided to try and clean my keyboard about 10 minutes before the class was supposed to start. Infact, I should have just left the cleaning/fixing for the professionals at the apple store. But the improper functioning of the x key on my macbook pro keyboard was too much for me to handle. I was twitching to fix it asap. Well, I couldn't miss the painting class, so I went in, but I walked out on the pretext of meeting someone at the international center. I went to the IT department, but they said I'd have to go to the mac help place but they were out for a meeting so I would have to wait till after lunch time. I went there at 2.05, but they were still out. And then I had to run for my next class. And since I was supposed to meet oliver and Taruna at the pit at 6, I ran there instead of going to the mac help room. I happened to show Oliver my laptop, and I just asked Oliver to try and fix it.... you know... as a challenge... I thought he'd drive himself nuts trying to fix it. And then give up... But he actually fixed it! Oh boy, He's a GENIUS! HAH!

Then we went to the res, they had a taco night there, so we thought we'd get some good cheap food... But the tacos were not really that great, and both of us were still hungry! So it was decided we'd go to macdonalds! Great idea.... not exactly! first we ended up with 6 people who wanted to go. Then two dropped out. Then one lost his key and spent an awful long time trying to find it... All three of us were super hungry, Me Oliver and Nick. Jeremy didn't find his key, and in the end, just decided not to come. So after all that, we finally got to macdonalds quite late, and the hunger was satisfied! After dropping off Nick at his house, we came back to the pit.

What happened next, I never thought would happen. It was just really weird and awkward. For some reason, I kept thinking, brendan was gay, and I had to verify that. I was just curious. And all of a sudden, out of nowhere, I gave in and just popped the question. I sure caught brendan off guard. And that was a funny situation! Oh, even I am laughing now that I look back on it.

Y: "what's your sexual orientation?"
B: "what?"
O: "He's basically asking are you gay!"
P: "why are you interested?" (laughing)
Y: "'DOH!" (in my head)
B: "don't you think that's too personal?" (in his typical very gay sounding voice)
Y: "umm... ohh... aaaaa....mmmm...... YEAH it is. sooooo if you don't want to answer, it, its okay... I just had to ask...(yeah right!)
B: "I'd better stay away from this guy" (in his head)
...
Awkward silence.

Then I go on and make myself look like an even bigger idiot by trying to crack some stupid jokes I remember...

Oh god, what have I done! My public image will never be the same again!

Gimme some peace and quiet!

I've been wanting to update you guys on a lot of things since my last post, but I need to find the right environment to blog from, and just the right time or else it won't come through. I was sitting in the pit few days ago, and it was really noisy. then my mom decides she wants to talk to me, and by the time she finished, I was very hungry. The other day, I was sitting in the hallway, but internet was really slow and my battery was dying. Well, now again, I'm sitting in the reading area, and instead of it being quiet and peaceful, they are doing some construction work, and the banging noise is REALLY disturbing. Like scary explosion disturbing. so I'll head to the computer lab, and get on with my 'communication skills' homework. until then....

The sixth sense

Yay! I finally got a haircut! But don't be disappointed ye who wanted me to keep it long, and those who wanted it short again, can stop celebrating because Its not too short. It'll grow back soon enough! Now I can finally go and get a new photo ID. But that's not until I get done with my boring typography class.

I had another weird dream last night. I dreamt that I was touring some 'water body' on a boat. Logically speaking, its got to be niagra falls because that's so close to here. But the dream didn't specify anything. So, I took about two trips, and saw 4 different spots or falls. Then I went back home. Home in India, sonu monu didi's house. The old ancestral house in akola where my grandfather and uncle lived. That house has been demolished as of ....a couple of years ago. But still, in my dream, there I was, and sonu didi and monu didi (my cousins) still lived there. (they're happily married and living with their husbands in reality) I still remember how much I loved spending time there. So it wasn't a big surprise I went back there to hang with them.

We were talking about my trip, I told them all about the places I've been to, and stuff... They showed me around the house. A lot has and was changing, they were renovating the place. Getting all fancy stuff and making the place look newer. Then I go to have a bath. This, in the jacuzzi which was never present in that house! The jacuzzi was the one which they have in their new house. Funny how the brain mixes reality with fantasy. If you don't get it, allow me to elaborate with this: Last night, I had a haircut for real, ok? But as I'm sitting in the jacuzzi in dreamland, I can see small hair floating around. Which makes the dream seem all the more real, because its connected to the reality which is that I'll see small hair when I shampoo/shower after I have had a haircut.

I think I'm getting a kind of sixth sense. Even last night, I was half asleep, when I thought I heard vironica standing beside my bed and saying "hey yash", trying to wake me up. And I suddenly wake up and hear the front door open up, and I realize, she's just got back home! It seemed totally supernatural to me! At the rate I'm going, I wouldn't be surprised if I can predict the future someday. Anyone want a free reading?

Substitute

Hey guys, sorry, no yash for you tonight. As yash hasn't been feeling quite upto the task these days, I have decided to intervene and write this blog on his behalf tonight. I'm just trying to make him feel threatened, so that he'd return to the blogosphere to defend his honor and territory.

Lets start right after his last blog post. Monday was the first day of the extra life drawing session, and his tutor/mentor Danny a.k.a. Dio, asked him to show up there by 5:30 pm. He was reluctant at first because he wasn't sure if he'd be able to make it there that early. But after dio suggested that he'd save his spot, there was no doubt yash was going to show up! Oh yeah, now that oliver was an intern too, they could go in and draw together and yash is pretty happy about that. So him and his buddy go get some food, and go over to yash's house, to pick up his stuff, but what that idiot realized just too late, is that he doesn't have a fresh pad of newsprint. Guess some things never change. So in life drawing, he's drawing over his gestures from the workshop, and drawing two to three poses on one sheet. He thinks he's had a kind of breakthrough or something, but he's still nowhere near a good portfolio piece! One would think that he would improving by the time portfolio's are due, but yash is pretty nervous about the whole thing.

After the extra life, he goes over to oliver's room to hang for a bit, he has a couple things to show oliver, and he needs to use the internet again. But oliver seems to be okay with that, even though he usually sleeps by 10:30 and he also has homework to do. Oliver made some tea, (tisane, technically) and asks yash to try it. (Oh boy! I can tell this is going to be fun! *wringing hands*) Damn! He didn't puke! Oh anyways, he left for home pretty late, hope oliver got enough sleep.

The next day, today actually, OK, let me specify, just in case, TUESDAY! On tuesday, yash actually slept in, and after waking up, he tried doing a few pushups (press ups) but found his muscles were still too worn out from yesterday. On the brighter side, his tongue finally felt better, now he can eat anything and everything he wants! So things were looking up, but they're not gonna stay the same for long; while in college, he just lost it! He was getting too much "negative vibe" from people around him so he went into a sad and isolated state of mind. Sat alone quietly through all of communication skills class. But by the end of it, he was looking full of energy! Probably because he finally realized why he was put into the basic communication skills class instead of the essential communication skills.(his essay was in first and second person instead of the third person that all academic essays conform to) And even though the course is mostly the things he's been told countless times in school, he's learning a few new things.

So he quickly runs back to his house, to get some food, and comes back JUST in time for life drawing again. Lets see what he gets done today. Now he's probably gonna be really tired and exhausted by the end, but all that matters is that he's satisfied with himself and what he did with his time today.There!
He's lived through one more day of his puny life and learnt numerous new things but has he learnt enough to survive the next one? Only time will tell!

NOOOOOOOO!

So sorry to disappoint you regular readers for not being able to blog the last few days, Actually, I had a few quality control issues to take care of. You see, on 7th (friday itself) Sujata tells me, she enjoys reading my blog just as much as she enjoys reading some chetan bhagat guy! What?! How dare she compare me to some noobie writer who's only written two bestseller books? I had to get my act together if I am to separate myself from him! And so, I have been contemplating more than I have been writing. I had even typed up another blog entry on my cellphone, which is at my house at the moment, so I can't post that. But I will quickly whip up another one just for you special people!

Lets see... I watched pulp fiction on friday, and next day was a really exciting day of the workshop after such a long break. And by the time I was back, deep had finally started living here, and vironica was having her family over for dinner. I also went and picked up my rakhi, blah blah blah...

Sorry, I just can't do this. I'm just not feeling very strongly about anything. So to make you guys go through a long winding boring story about 'nothing' would be a crime. Just would like to let you guys know the internet at my house has been disconnected, so I can't be online most of the times. Gotta get a new connection asap!

The big explosion

Oh boy, its that time of the year again! I get to blog about my experience of the first week/day/class. I remember the entry titled A107 that I posted on 11th which was like one of my first blogs about my classes here. I really look back and wish I had done a post about my first day in the creative I college, I regret not having given it much importance or not having thought about it much. Well, I guess its not too late, I still remember that day, so I will do it one of these days. Now lets overview what we did today

I was sitting at the second place from the door and I introduced myself to the other people around me, and got to know their names too. I already knew who the instructor was, so I wasn't too excited about that, and I also let others know he sucks! Actually, they would have figured that out themselves within two minutes of him being in the class. He spends a REALLY long time writing down his name and his email address on the board and C'est Moi!!!! in huge letters next to it. I guess he expected us to be excited about that(judging by the 4 exclamation marks) but that's not happening. Then, he gave us these cloth pins on which we had to do a self portrait, so that when its hung in front of the hallway, with 600 or so others, people can recognize us by the 'artwork'. Hmmmm...Interesting...

I was under the impression we had to do it in class.. so I decided to use the design of my 'shanti' t-shirt to denote me. And as I went on doing it, I wasn't particularly happy with the result... Maybe I'll do something OVER it... lets see... But this was reminiscent of the post it note thing he did in our class last semester... so I thought he wasn't doing that one this time, but he did ask us to write something down on a stupid post it note. Oh well... Then he gave that boring 'I don't have a humorous bone in my body' speech. God I want to kill somebody! I even had a bomb with me! Yes, a REAL bomb.

But it was just a stupid lil 'flashlight' cracker... someone left it in the class on the table. I was itching to burst it... I asked cory for his lighter, and was going to light it and throw it right there when sitting in the class, but I decided to wait till we stepped out for our break. And in the break, I just lit it and threw it in the hallway in the pit. Cory was really close to it, he was scared for sure. He was like "jeez gimme a warning before u do that!" And a lot of other kids in the pit were startled too. I also heard some swearing but it was pretty funny. I would definitely do that again!

Now I'm too tired to go on, I got to go back to sleep. so I'll update you on more stuff tomorrow then.

My Timelapse video

Remember Oliver from my post about caterpillars and butterflies? Well, if not, go and read it, there's a lil mention of him there, I also revealed the fact that he loves Indian food. Yeah, so he's a really awesome fun guy and I'm really glad we're friends. And he had been up to organizing lil fun events ever since the orientation! He said that he would make waffles at his room in res, and invited everybody for kind of a get together, but that plan had to be canceled due to unforeseen circumstances (how's drunk guys on the floor sound?) His roommate was having a party and people were getting hammered big time! And since we hadn't gotten an affirmative answer from a lot of guests, it was canceled (thanks spell checker, stupid me keeps typing cancelled over and over again!) for good!

So the next day, on the 2nd September, I felt I could invite ppl over for an Indian meal. I hadn't really thought the whole thing through, but because oliver was SO excited by the idea, we decided to invite people for dinner and see how many were ready. In the mean time, I realized I had better not screw this up or else I'd be in a really funny situation tonight when everyone's puking on the horrible food! I asked oliver what I should make, but he didn't give me anything specific, so I decided to read through the recipes on Quick Indian cooking blog and see what was the easiest, to make and I had most of the ingredients for. I picked paneer butter masala, because I would only need to buy coriander powder and kasoori methi. Then I called my mom on skype and asked if she could give me something else that was a really easy recipe and some pointers and help on this particular one.

One of my specific questions was whether she knew what exactly is Greek yogurt and how can I not screw up my recipe while using regular yogurt from the store. I had googled Greek yogurt, and found a page that explained how greek yogurt is a thicker and creamier yogurt as compared to regular yogurt, and that recipes that call for greek yogurt will fail miserably if u use regular yogurt. I had also read the comments on Mallika's blog post about straining the regular yogurt in a cheese cloth, and suggestion of whipping it up nicely, but this particular page had really scared me. So my mom started explaining how I could make good yogurt from scratch, and I had to stop and tell her I don't have that kind of time! After we put that aside, I asked her what her recipe was, and she went on and on about how she makes it. And I now start to admire and appreciate, for the first time, the time and effort she puts into these preparations. I write down the most of it, but I decide I want to mix and match the recipes and do what's convenient for me.

We (or rather she) also talked about making jeera rice, umm... that's Rice with Cumin seeds for you guys who don't speak Hindi. Even though I wasn't really sure I also wanted to make rice for tonight, it would really depend on the number of people that show up. We had serious issues here, because her method was for cooking in a pressure cooker, and I didn't have one, and couldn't really see how this was going to apply to the 'steamer' I had. So she said, you can just make the rice first, then throw it in a frying pan with some oil and cumin seeds. That sounds like something I can do! And I also wanted to ask her about making wadas, because I have some wada mix and sambar mix. I want to have that for breakfast some day. And what she told me was really helpful but that's for another day!

Oliver told me only rob was the one who's gonna come tonight and that he'd go pick him up right now and be at my place soon, which meant I had to get ready! So, right when I was in the middle of getting directions to the grocery store and writing down the method I'd use to cook paneer butter masala, Oliver showed up, so I just grabbed the print-out from Google maps and ran. Unfortunately, pooja grocers was closed! I didn't even have the name or directions of the other Indian grocery store that was around that place. I asked the lady who worked at subway about it, but she didn't know. I remembered that there was Organic Garden next to the Indian store, so I asked her about that. She pointed us in a direction, but it wasn't really clear. But I remembered that I had read kerr street on the forum where I found out about it, and on Google maps. So I asked oliver to just drive back down, till we see kerr street again. And as soon as we saw the big O sign of organic garden, we knew we WERE gonna have Indian food tonight!

After I got back, I first heated up the oven to reheat the samosas that we got, and after we were done munching on the samosas, I started cooking which can be seen in this timelapse video that I made.


Did I mention I'd never done this before? Not the timelapse, I have made a bunch of them, but I had never cooked any Indian food from scratch, all by myself before. Well, technically, I didn't do it all by myself, I had oliver helping out, but this time, I was not the one BEING supervised. I was the head chef! Everything was under my command. And the pressure was intense.

But thankfully both of them liked the food. Infact, even I thought it was pretty good! Vironica came home and even she tasted it, she liked it a lot too! I felt like it was all worth it. I hope I can say the same about this blog post, I noticed its gotten really long, and I haven't even touched the part AFTER the dinner which was just as great! Maybe some other time!

Yeah, Big happy birthday to my sister Divya! She turned 18 today!

The goat stole it!

Yes! Finally another 'dream' post. I was starting to get worried, because its been a while since I've had some dreams I remember when I wake up. I like dreaming and then being able to talk about it to others. And last night, my wish was finally granted. Now I know I've GOT to eat the pani puri now. This thing was the breaking point of my patience!

I dreamt that I was at some event/festival with my cousins, and my little sister divya. We little ones were sitting in a hall, and there was something going on at the stage, I think it would have been like a play or magic show or something. but it was really boring for us... So I decided to walk out, see what the grown ups were doing. I walked around, found my cousins, I think I remember ruchi didi and nitin bhaiya, and they wanted some privacy, LOL, I mean away from ME, so they shooed me off. Disappointed, I came back in the hall, and sat there for a little more time, then I couldn't take it any longer.

I think I kinda signaled divya and my cousins or they just decided to walk out after me, and we decided to go eat pani puri together! (now that I say why didn't I think of that earlier?) And while we were standing there, it started raining. Ah! Love rain! And now we were all happy and entertained and everything, and suddenly a goat or some other animal, caught 'dupatta' or scarf of one of them and ran away, and we chased it..... We probably did end up making a big fool of ourselves before we finally caught it, but I didn't dream that part, or atleast I don't remember. Maybe I just woke up then. And started typing.

And that my friend was another adventure of my subconscious mind.

Be the butterfly! ;)

This morning, Sujata surprises me by saying that she read my blog, and actually liked it. She said she was really happy I was giving my life the fullest and she wished the best for my days to come. I rarely have such stuff happen to me, and let's be honest, who doesn't like to be congratulated and complimented? So I assured HER I was gonna do the follow up of the 'pre-orientation' post. And here it is!

I was having this conversation with abhinav yesterday when he was telling me about how he felt when he talked to pranav. I have been always telling him to go and approach him, don't be so shy and quiet, go to a movie together or something. But he only, if at all, approached Pranav for telling him something I wanted to convey to him and even then, kept it really short and simple! But this time, when he actually talked to him, he said it was really nice and he'd like to hang out with him. I do have a doubt whether this was just a backlash of another bad experience he'd had, and if so, he needs to think about it harder. I mean everyone is different. Just because I'm good friends with pranav and abhinav doesn't mean both of them should get along well. (Yeah, I've learnt that from experience) And he needs to think about whether HE really likes him as a friend.

But at the time, those words of his actually stirred a different thought process in my mind... I was encouraging Abhinav to keep doing that more. I was telling him about what I'd just been through... and I must warn you, it DOES sound extremely cheesy. I told him that after the college ended, I was really lonely at home. (Untill mickey came over, then I couldn't get any personal space and 'ME' time! ) But no, I really wanted to go back to college and meet the people from my class. Even though I might not necessarily speak much, I enjoyed listening to their conversation and they were a very funny bunch. Made me laugh a lot. But now, I was in a cocoon for so long, isolated from the rest of the people. Then, when I realized the orientation is upon us, I was really excited to go out and meet new people and make more friends! So after the motivation and encouragement from yash himself, I was like a butterfly (for lack of a more cheesier sounding word) on the 30th. I got to the orientation, greeted everyone I faced, I sat down boldly (yeah that was like the boldest move for me in a LONG TIME!) in front of two other girls, Taruna-from bangalore, India and sisiry(or something I can't spell) from singapore; Introduced myself, started talking to them, believe it or not, I actually had a CONVERSATION!

I was not subdued and reserved, I made my presense felt. Spoke up loudly, answered questions, made a funny comment or two. And since this was not a class, no one would see me as trying to be a "teacher's pet" by trying to get all the right answers. I was not looking like an attention hog either, as there were soon speakers who were simply addressing the kids and not quizzing. And after the address was done, we were walking away to a different room, and I still stuck around, rather they still stuck around me, and didn't go "Now's the chance let's give him the slip!" And then as we were walking out, along came oliver and said
"so, you're from India eh?" -

I was noticed!-I'm not invisible!-This day couldn't possibly get any better!

- "I love Indian food!"

Then its like a blur... but we got talking about where he's from, what program he's in and stuff.... oh yeah, I also introduced him to the girls too... or did I?

"Anyways, so the moral of the story is, Abhinav, that you need to be a 'butterfly'...."

Yeah, yeah, Laugh it up!