Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Diwali in Canada -Diwali what?

Happy Diwali. Its Tuesday in this part of the world. And by now, the celebrations are over in almost all parts of the world. But for me, there were no celebrations. I have to be home and finish painting. Rajat has a test tomorrow so he isn't up for a party. And my digital painting class ends at 10 pm as it is.

Today I talked to most of my family in India. I also tried calling up Sam and Rahul but couldn't get through. Stupid reliance India calling card! I called up Abhinav and he was pretty surprised to get a phone call. Well, what can I say, I aim to not disappoint. haha. After all that was done, at around noon, I got ready to go to the college. I was going to play some squash today.

I don't know how or why, but today, I had a very nice grip on the racquet. I could control the ball better and hit it pretty much the way I wanted to. I started by doing some solo practice. Hoping some other player would come along so I can play a match. I listened to a podcast called 'squash cast' and followed along with their suggested regime. First, practicing servicing from both the fore(front?)hand and backhand. I tried to get the ball exactly in the service box on the other side 10 times continuously. After that, I stood close to the front wall, and hit the ball on the wall and returned the volley a little stronger, so that I am now moving away from the wall. Then slowly hitting it softer to come closer to the wall. Helps to get good control over the ball.

A little while later, another guy came in and asked me how long I was going to be. You see, the other squash court had some mats placed on the floor so couldn't be used for squash. So I suggested to him that we rotate playing between him, his friend and me, but I guess they decided not to. I practiced for some more time, just playing against myself. Then it was time to head off to the caf. I needed some food now haha.

At the cafeteria, I ran into Rajat again. Franzi was also with him. We had lunch together. Even after having hoped I wouldn't eat any meat, I ended up eating chicken stir fry with noodles. I can't even keep feeling sorry for that. I hope you understand. I couldn't finish my food so I saved it up for later. Rajat told me about the fight they had with atif over the heating in the house. I am so glad I am warm enough to sleep in my underwear in my room. LOL. I told rajat I'd catch up with him later and headed off to the international center.

They had little tealights (small candles) lit up on the front desk so obviously they knew it was Diwali. But a little email to wish the students a happy diwali wouldn't hurt. huh. I picked up my letter for the work permit application and was about to leave. But how could I leave without eating some sweets? I had a slice of white chocolate and almond cake. Which, even after eating half the slice, I thought was vanilla. WTF is wrong with me? That lady must think I'm so dumb!

Anyways, I went to the learning commons, spent some time on the computer and then went to the library, picked up the october issue of the Animation Magazine. And drew IGOR. If you don't know what I'm talking about, check out their website. After a while, I lost patience and decided to head to my digital painting classroom. On my way there, I stopped at the 'sizzler' at the connexion where Abhishek works. But he wasn't there today. Damn! there goes my chance of a free burger or drink. LOL.

I was in the classroom about an hour early, so I downloaded the latest episode of Heroes and watched it. Digital painting class today was not at all interesting for me because we were working with the pen tool. I already know how to use the pen tool and have done some pretty cool stuff in vectors. Still, I stuck around and followed through. It was a pretty long and convoluted process in photoshop for doing what could have been done very simply in Illustrator. Meh.

I came back home, made some maggi noodles for myself. Nicole, mandy and bradley were awake and we all got talking. It was fun. Nicole said I could invite my friends to the halloween party she's having in our appartment. Oh, hell yeah I will. It's going to be really fun. Sachin is going to bring the house down! Anyways, I did 3 no wait.. two only...paintings before I got distracted and eventually went to bed.

First Lifecast

Let's see how this works.

I can't find the send or post button. Oh I see, I hadn't enabled posting of blog entries. Thats dumb because it should have been on all along. By default.

Geolocate this post

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Thursday, October 16, 2008

Grandfather's Mansion

Its been so long since my last blog post that I myself have forgotten what I last talked about. So I'm just going to start with last night's dream.

I dreamt that I was standing in a room that had a lot of its original furnishings removed. I could tell by looking at the size and cleanliness of the room that it was an old style mansion of a rich person. I was talking to an elder lady who could have been my aunt. I was curious about something I saw...On the floor where a bed used to be, there was a trap door.

My grandfather's house, or 'haveli' as I like to call it, the house I was born into, had something similar. There was the staircase outside, that was used by everyone to get upstairs. And then there was the staircase that led from inside of the ground floor to the bedroom upstairs where my parents and I slept. It wasn't a hidden or trap door, it was a pretty well built flight of stairs. But it didn't have any source of light except the door that opened into my room. So as a kid, it was kinda adventurous or even scary to go through. Still, I used to love that route to sneak in and out of parents' sight.

So I believe that's where I was in my dream. Sure the dream doesn't render everything exactly as you remember it, it embellishes a few things. And my Grandfather's house was demolished a few years ago. So in the dream, I must have been there right before that house was about to be demolished. Talking about why the trap doors were made and why you don't see them in new houses... I would love to have trap doors like that or secret passages in my home. They provide a safe/secret exit in case of danger. Kinda like the Batman penthouse in 'The dark Knight'.

I never saw that old house being demolished. I was in pune when I heard from family that the old house is being brought down. Leaves me thinking about why, in my dream, I wanted to go there. I think the significance of this dream is that I am still looking for a way out. I can't let other people know, or I am afraid to admit it, but I want to sneak out. And in a way it's true. I have been wanting to somehow screw up so bad that my parents have no choice but to bring me back.

Addition:
In other relevant news, my grandfather passed away 26th october in his sleep. It was just 5 am IST when I got the news. I loved my grandfather. Much more than my grandma. I had so much fun with him when I was young. He brought me a lot of joy.

I had heard this somewhere, the Egyptians believe when one dies and goes to heaven, the gods ask the person two questions before they let him into heaven. "Did you find joy in your life? and Have you brought joy to others." And I would just like to tell my Grandpa that the answer to the second question is yes!

Friday, October 03, 2008

Finished the painting assignment.

I finally moved to my new place. And while I won't tell you one huge downer about my room, I would just like to go on record saying that I hate these stupid wooden walls! (any guesses on what the pet peeve is?)

Today, right after I showered and got ready to go to college, I felt really exhilarated. I felt I was now confident enough to call up Pranav. But that would have to wait. I was headed off to meet katie. Worse part was, my cellphone was low on battery. I think I figured out what's wrong with it. My phone constantly thinks I have plugged in some attachment to its pop port. And it keeps blinking 'Enhancement not supported'. The light and sound that the alert generates drains the battery much faster.

Anyways, I met up with katie, went and had a slice of pizza for lunch. Then, we played foosball! I'd never played foosball before. It was my first time. And I won the first game! At only 75c per game, we decided to give it another go. This time, Katie won. So the score will have to be settled next time. After that, we hung out in the learning commons for a little while before she had to run for class again. I took some time to rest because my arms were in no condition to paint after he heavy lifting I did moving my suitcases upstairs to my room.

For painting, I decided to just take a friend's photo, view it on my laptop and paint it. I went to the pit, hooked up my laptop and got to work. Montu bhaiya came online for a bit, I talked to him. He doesn't seem annoying anymore. I guess when you are lonely, any company will do.. ;) But even I feel he's much more composed now a days. Gladly, he kept it brief enough. I also took a little break between painting to go for life drawing. The girl next to me was really excellent at drawing. Probably a 3rd or 4th year student. I tried to copy what she was doing. But I failed miserably. How miserably? its upto you to decide.

After the homework piece, I had to work on the painting from last week, before I went home. I wasn't really in a mood to paint last week and was very disappointed with what I came up with. But today, after 'fixing it up' a little, I wasn't feeling too bad about it. Now I could get my much needed sleep and get to class in time tomorrow. I was up till 3 am that night and had missed the morning class. On the way back, I tried calling pranav but he wasn't answering. I was a little disappointed. And to think of it, I wasn't feeling like I'm up for the task anymore. Its hard to explain. I remember the last time I wanted to talk to him, I was on the verge of breaking down. But I couldn't get a hold of him. And I've been holding back ever since.

I made maggi noodles for dinner. Back in my room, I talked to mom and dad. They'll be sending me some money soon. yay! $ca-Ching!$