The Mystical Unicorn

Growing up, my personal experience with environment conservation efforts, coupled with acute egocentrism, led me to believe that everyone else had had my eco-conscious upbringing, that everyone had a biogas unit, a compost pit, saplings and a home garden, solar heating, rainwater harvesting, a waste segregation system, a laundry timetable and a reduce-reuse-recycle habit in their homes. Imagine my culture shock when I moved to C.L. Layout in Bangalore for my B.A. degree. Solar heating is a rarity, waste restriction and segregation were unheard of, and eating out daily is the norm. It is not as much a matter of negligence as it is of convenience. I took no time to develop these errant habits, and it showed – my room began to exist as a mess, my skin broke out in pimples, and my already delicate constitution was further endangered by takeaway McDonald’s and parcelled paneer rolls. I saved time. I saved money. I was always instantly gratified. I spent my days in a haze of environmentally...

They say you need to love yourself before you can love another My Warrior Princess of Badassery Two similar pieces of a jigsaw puzzle never fit just right with each other And if you and I are similarly odd similarly flat similarly skinny little pieces of a puzzle in hobo pants, war paint and Samurai hair At least I know that we are two ill-fated, slightly banged up irregular pieces of the same puzzle. And I love you regardless - I am almost glad I can't not. ~ "It is hard to stop loving the ocean" ~ I've washed you out of the clothes I took back from your apartment But the smell still lingers In the air You still linger In the breeze in my hair In that canvas still bare In the colors I do not wear Anymore. ~ Your love is a sweet vortex and I'm free falling out of reality I speak my honest lies As long as we can keep up the pretense your glitter laugh is my momentary truth sweet pirate...

Heyy everybody! Yesterday a government official put me in a box (which I didn't even notice until my brother pointed out the giant ribbon on my head) and I'm still somewhat disturbed, so let me address this unruly tenant of the bed and breakfast that is my brain and get closure so I can focus on more important things to stress about, like not going to prison this academic year. #optimismingthru Let us begin. We had some work in the passport department so my brother can enter and inhabit his CalTech mothership without any trouble, and the cop lady asked us some smart alecky questions about our citizenship and residence, and then the procedural questions about our age and where we're educating ourselves and my sister is a 23-year-old engineer and my brother is an 18-year-old future scientist and she asks me what I do and my mother, my brother and I answer at the same time saying "Bangalore madhye BA kartiye" ( doing BA in Bangalore ) and "English Literatur...

Ingredients: 1.  Chilled Dabur Hommade Coconut Milk (200ml carton) 2.  3 teaspoons of Hershey's Chocolate Syrup 3.  1 teaspoon Magic Powder™ (instant coffee, cinnamon and nutmeg) Mix well: Look at that consistency! Drizzle chocolate syrup for effect: And enjoy! P.S. It's really very thick - one 200ml smoothie will legitimately suffice as breakfast. I couldn't finish even half - it's in the fridge now. But it's beautiful so I've kept it for when I run out of will to live as I try to keep up with  Literary Theory

The irony in an independent, educated young woman asserting her freedom and right to wear what she pleases and sing along and dance to whichever item song she wants, cannot be missed. In this post, I will outline the objectification of women in Bollywood dance numbers as analyzed and discussed by Ms. Deebanjana Pal, at the "Gender in Cinema: Gendering Film Screens" workshop I attended this semester. Ms. Pal presented her talk with the help of 4 clips from Indian movies from different time periods. Using these, she criticized notions about women even as they evolved. She also explored the sexuality of leading ladies in these films, in terms of overtly sexy behavior. The first clip she showed us was Dimple Kapadia's infamous sarong scene in Bobby. Ms Kapadia's striptease there was a demonstration of the constant scrutiny femalekind are subject to: The heroine in that clip is shown to be unaware of being watched. She has no idea about the creepy man in the backgroun...

Some characteristics in potential dating partners are very grey areas - physical appearance, dating history, matching interests, and age, for instance. For the longest time, I firmly held the belief that I should only date someone older than me. I held the view that since boys (in general) are dumber than girls their age, it would be safe to assume that I'd never gain anything out of a relationship with a younger boy. My stance can be debunked on many counts. Firstly, many boys older than me are still dumber than me - case in point: Dumbshit. Also, Anant is both smarter and wiser than me, and he's two years younger than me. Secondly, what if I were to date a girl? Would I want her to be older or younger than me? Thirdly, what if I had never known about his/her age? I'd probably fall for him/her. The personality would (and should) suffice. Lastly, I'd linked age with maturity, which is perhaps a fail approach. There is at least one conscientious, hel...

For the uninitiated, Hobo Saturday is every Saturday that you are forced to attend class on, and to pretend to care about getting an education, and when you wear your most drab clothes and no makeup or accessories and go through those few hours of class purely out of obligation. Here's a jingle about the same: Hobo Saturday Doesn't matter day Don't bother with your hair Doesn't matter what you wear  Roll out of bed Shake your sleepy head And walk into class on Hobo Saturday Hobo Saturday is less a state of mind, more a welcome break from the urge to dress well and look on point every single day of the week. It's an opportunity for 15 more minutes of sleep in the morning; a day when you can just relax and focus on more important things like enduring class, and let your true colors (or lack thereof) shine through. It is a day when you are encouraged to not let your dark circles or muted clothing affect your valuation of yourself, and a blessed day of liberat...