Happy new year

My New Year's resolutions are as follows

(Before you ask the question anonymous, this is my blog and i kinda like it and it will have 'my' new year's resolutions no matter how hackneyed they are, you dont like it, go get your own blog!!!!)

1. Lose weight. (Something i have always resolved to do as long as i have known what is it like to be able to resolve something, so in this case we are not taking this resolution very seriously.)
2. Make one pack of (10) cigarettes last fro two days.
3. To not spend more than 500/- a week.
4. To study for two hours everyday. (Well, its a beginning)
5. To crack the NET in 2006.
6. Make concrete plans for Ph. D.
6A. Therefore write the GRE.
7. Stop taking money from home or H. i.e. earn money

And Happy New Year's resolutions to you too.
Medusa howvever is ecstatic to announce that she doesn't look like medusa anymore, coz her hair has been shorn off. We are proud of our new look.

If you feel attacked by feminism, it is probably a counter attack.

Take a look at what we found at www.goodquotes.com today.

Here's a look at what caught our fancy (the caption is also a part of the booty)

My mind works like lightening. One brilliant flash and its gone.
Before giving someone a piece of your mind, be sure you have enough to spare.
All generalizations are false.
Age is a high price to pay for maturity.
All I want is less to do, more time to do it and higher pay for not getting it done.
Eat right, exercise, die anyway.
Man made beer. God made pot. You make the choice.
Plagiarism is copying from one source, research is copying from two or more.

With such words of consolation, medusa signs off. There goes another brilliant mind ruined by higher education.

kumbh ke mele mein

okay, here it goes.
kumbh Kay mela is this 12 yearly gathering of people that happens at Allahabad and therefore mucho chaos (as is natural with everything religious) ensues. So often in Hindi films, twins and brothers and sisters and families get separated and go on to live their individual lives, that often turn out to be in opposition with one another.
at the end of the film they reunite and live happily ever after.
among other things:
I ALWAYS FALL ILL WHEN I HAVE TO START WORKING.
after procastinating for 28 days, the moment medusa made up her mind to sit down and study, her wheezings and asthma came back, with severe sleepfulness, which has reduced (or elevated ) medusa to the state of a vegetable which occasionally spreads its roots in search of nutrition, that being done goes back to its vegetable life .
the internet has not done anything to help her recovery.
jgbvurafjdsvuwrtopw eiruiefhknc;lgveugh746574ydjfvbjsavuty786 jfeihgurwdjvjsakllk

MERRY CHRISTMAS

had the funnest christmas ever. the gals in the hostel decided to have a christmas party and invited the boys over. as the designated santa i had to make the surprise gifts*, and all of us ransacked the campus for something that resembled a christmas tree, put one girl on the terrace to cut the branches, planted it, decorated it, brought cake and wine and chips and lit a bonfire and raised toasts and generally freaked out.
but the freakier part came later, at around 1 in the morning when my army- friends M** and G came in the campus at 80kmph, picked up me n tootsie and dashed off into the night.
i was wearing a cut t shirt n jeans, tootsie had slippers on, and apparently we were going to this place called Runwy 9(passes to which gala christmas ball had been given to us on tds on wednesday) which is at the back of beyond, somewhere beyond jungles and fields in a far far away place which was also extremely cold. obviously neither me nor tootsie knew where were we going, or what was this place (i still dont know) and were shivering in the cold. obviously by the time we reached there (2 a.m.) the party was long over, only underdressed women and bulky men could be seen walking towards their cars.
so our two defencemen had another brainwave, and we went to another god forsaken place (trust me i am not taking god's name in vain, this place was definitely in the middle of nowhere) and we could not even turn the lights of the car on, for fear of regimental patrol who might not be pleased to see two jawans*** with two women .....they however took it upon themselves to scare the shit out of me by telling me stories of a woman who had been raped in this same place and killed, and how she still runs screaming for help and etc...
that dark night, that crescent moon, that deserted place and those creepy trees, did nothing to reduce my scaredness. sigh!!!!
thankfully the men were hungry and we left for pickles (fave expensive restaurant where i have never eateb with my own money, with an excellent midnight buffet) after freezing our butts off. it was 3:30 in the morning and every shapes and sizes of the male of the species inhabiting the city of hyderabad were there, and they were basically greeting each other like kumbh ke mele mein bichhren bhai ****
came back at four thirty, (the less said about M's drunk driving the better), after having spent by far the best christmas of my life.


*bookmarks with ribbons attached to them, which people like and disliked on equal measures....but hey, if it weren't for me, u wdnt even have a gift huh?
**M happens to be the sweetheart whose car i filled with puke coupla weeks ago....
***Hindi word for young man or youth, but in this case an officer serving in the Indian Army, or so i think
****serious aplogies to my non indian readers, but this term requires an entire blog posting of its own....and will be taken care of in some time

pubbin' days

wednesday was meant to be great. what with the chance encounter with the perfect vcd/dvd parlour that has all the films that i need to write my paper, and the cool* film viewing with a grumbling boomshak, the stage was all set for a great ladies' night at our favourite joint.
and what a night did it turn out to be?
four of us, and no men and all four of us determined to enjoy at whatever cost.
so we drank (i drank only a beer and a blue lagoon and a gin n lime n four screw drivers) and then we played truth n dare n then we went n started talking to random cute guys**, something that we had never done ever before in our lives.
to top it all, we were the first ones at the dance floor, which resulted in free passes to some random fuckin expensive place, some place that we will never be able to afford.
but what the hell.
and then there was the all time favourite midnight train ride to sec bad, the grumbling autowalahs and a snack at the hostel steps.
long live hyderabad and its ladies' nights.
* the film was "bluffmaster" with hot hot hot hot hot......Abhishek Bacchan, and even though not great by itself, was completely paisa vasool thanks to the impeccable charm and virility of Junior B. and to top it all, he could act!!!!!!
**cute guy vinay, this one is for you, what with giving us the mail id and ph no. that we shall never use, and the cutest smile in a long long time.
p.s. only bad thing about the evening: the cool guy that hot neighbour has been trying to hit on for the past two months, finally hit the dance floor, with a girl friend in tow. bummer.....

muh life

tootsie and fly on the wall (random close frends whose random adventures are a huge part of muh life) are sleeping happily on my bed, while i tiptoe around the room wondering how can two grown human beings fit into such a tiny bed. but then again, they are not as fussy as sleepers as i am i suppose, but on second thought, i am not fussy at all. i can sleep with the light on, with people holding regular conversations all around me, with blaring music and/or loud tv, basically everything. but i can't sleep with someone right next to me, touching skin to skin. don't get me wrong, i can stay awake in such situations, and be fairly active etc, but sleep always eludes me.
among other things, phdcomics (as the accompanying comic will testify) has hit the nal on the head again. i dont want to work, i think there is something like two weeks left before any of the term papers are due, anyway the place is too quiet and too chilly to get any work done. (no one else shares my sentiments though, least of all hot neighbour who is on the verge of finishing her work). but i do have really important work to do, i make lemon tea thrice a day and worry about money. actually that is the only luxury that i can still afford, i dont even have money to buy food, and am obsessing about it so much that all kinds of people are willing to lend me some. but i will not take money from em coz i know i can never pay em back, the speed with which all my moeny gets spent whenever i have any.
so basically am learning how to save (slightly late in the day though coz i dont have any to save).
what else, had great pubbing wedensday. left a trail of puke from the pub to the campus and such similar marks on other people's cars and clothes (dint spend moeny though, it was a free ladies' night), and my frends are ecstatic. they gahtered around me and cheered, saying finally u r drunk.....yipee do.
seriously, from now on my guzzler reputation is going to be a diff one to live up to.

After watching Sin City!

This is about my relationships with scary movies.I might be culturally deprived, but I really can not see the point in making or watching a scary film. As far as I am concerned, I can not, have never, and never intend to watch a scary film ever in my entire life. Okay, the statement seems slightly hyperbolic, and it is. The question one might as well as ask me, is, if you have never watched a scary film, then how you know that you do not want to watch one.
That is because, my dear readers, I have tried to sit through films that have scary sequences, I have sat in the next room while my sister was on an endless horror serial watching trip, and I have felt myself shut my eyes tight and stuff my ears with cotton just to ward off the sound that comes from the next room.
So, I actually am not half as inexperienced as I would like people to believe, but that does not take away from the fact that I am really scared. It is not because I think that the stuff on tv will happen to me one day, or because I empathize with the grief and horror stricken characters on the screen, but because, I think, it is in me that the scary film gets its ideal viewer, the spectator who is absent.
I mean, what exactly is it that you are trying to achieve by making or in this case screening a scary film? To scare people right? So when a person is scared it can safely be assumed that the purpose has been served. And therefore, since I get scared in a movie hall with the first hint of anything remotely scary, or violent, or bloody, or gory, or reptile-y, then am I not the implied consumer? And if I am, and if horror films are too scary for me to ever go and try and watch another one of them, then why produce more horror films?
(And yes Mr. Tarantino, this applies to you too.)

about my work now....

Thought would write something about my project, and expect the small yet regular readers' to comment on it. so don't disappoint me you guys.
My research aims to look at women's work. But this is where it also hits a block. Almost all the feminist analysis of women's work and working women has concentrated on the working class women, their participation in economic production and the possiblities of more equal rights for women and consequently the possiblity of emancipation.
But i do not want to look at the working class women. for entirely selfish reasons (being brought up by a working mother and working father who took their work very seriously, mother being part of a worker's union and always knowing that when i grow up, i can not think about getting married and letting the man take care of my needs, not because that is impossible, but because that is simply not done.) When i looked to feminism for some engagement with the work done by women like my mother and the kind of woman i grew up to be, i had to face a void.
Middle class women, those who do not have to be a part of the workforce by economic necessity, especially in India, have not found any analysis of their situation in mainstream feminist discourse.
Even abroad, the discussions have mostly been restricted to the analysis of housework and etc.
that is where women's fiction, especially romantic fiction comes in. it is my proposal that unlike feminist theory, popular romantic fiction read and written by women, exhibit a different level of engagement with the middle class woman's work. they concentrate on exploring the meaning of work for women who do not have to earn their livings but choose to do so, women who derive pleasure from the work that they do, and women for whom work is a question of choice.
The formation of subjectivity in a patriarchy like India, for middle class women, i believe is determined greatly by their ability to go and work outside of the home, in the public domain.
Examples? MIlls and Boon would be nice. these straight forward romantice stories have seen a lot of change in their shape and conetent of the last 60 years or so. the chaste kiss has been replaced by some heavy duty sexual acitivity, but the women heroines are also no longer subordinate nurses or receptionists. they have carved out a niche for themselves in the public sphere, and by their own right. what are the implications of such an important move? how does the narrative reconcile with the two distinct traces of movement in the fiction, one in which the hero is the be-all-and-end-all of the heroine's life, and the other in which she refuses to compromise about the importance of her work in her life?
Also, what is the necessity of asking questions about middle class wokring women?
and so on and so forth.....

chatting blues.....

This is what happened to my friend tootsie when she tried to chat with someone.

gauraveee: pic/cam?
tootsie: nope
gauravee: bye
tootsie: bye
gauravee: just a sec, asl?
tootsie: i just wanted to talk. i am not interested in stupid conversations.
gauravee: r u sita or what?
tootsie: no i am just an average girl.
gauraveee: so what's your surname?
tootsie: trust me i am not Sita RAmchandra Raghuvanshi
gauravee: date of birth place and time?
tootsie: what the hell!!!
gauravee: I am an engineer in Nigeria and i think you are perfetc fo rme to marry.
tootsie: are you nuts?
guravee: why do you talk like that? average girls don't say hell and nuts.
tootse: What the hell!!!!!!!!
gauraveee: again you are saying hell. Chat with me with a cam tomorrow.
tootsie: no, sorry am busy.
gauravee: you are missing the chance to marry me. i wont marry you now.

my student

This is what my student at the English Proficiency course wrote when he was given a homework of describing the physical appearance of his favourite person


Physical Appearance about my fiance
She is 19 year old. She is pretty good looking. She's weight 50kg and height 5.4 feet.
1) She has wavy burgundy coloured hair with step cut.
2)She has oval face, fair colour with pinkish complexion.
3) Her eyes are round in shape with long eye lashes and shaped eye brows.
4) A bit sharp nose.
5) She has slim personality with sexy attraction.


IS there a law anywhere preventing incompetent teachers from hitting on their students' fiances?

where are you going?

medusa: Auto!!!!
auto driver: where to?
medusa: vidyanagar.
auto driver (from now on ad): come.
medusa: (feeling really surprised, why is this guy speaking to me in English? for the uninitiated, all auto conversations are held in Hindi, because most drivers are not literate and definitely not conversant in English)
ad: (still in English) so what you study?
medusa: er....English....
ad: why? coz it international language?
medusa: (not knowing the answer to the question) er....yes....
ad: what foreign languages you know?
medusa: (now terribly embarrassed) none....
ad: no foreign language? how many langugage you know?
medusa: (more embarrassed) three...hindi, bengali, english.....
ad: bas? very bad
medusa: (desperately fidgeting with the cell phone, not looking at him in order to divert attention from herself)
ad: ok, it is 20/-
medusa: (smiling sheepishly, knowing fully well that she is being fooled) thank you
ad: why not go abroad?
medusa: (to herself.....abroad? abroad? he said the word abroad?)....er.... i dont know...maybe later
ad: go to Us or Switzerland
medusa: ok.......(please dont do this to me, i keep on asking myself this question everyday)
ad: I did German and French from your institute
medusa: (dumbfounded....then why are you driving an auto.....how very mean of me to be thinking that....aaaaaaaaa, this is what will happen to me also...help help help!)
ad: (starts speaking french, or so medusa thinks coz she doesnt know anything anyway)
medusa runs for her life........

lesson learnt.....never learn a foreign language coz u might just be in a position to bully poor research students.
lesson 2: learn a foreign language otherwise everyone will bully you.
lesson 3: where is your academics headed to?

coz it has been to long without them

i dont care what wanabe thinks, it has been so long without her in this blog that it almost hurts....

for ghb

Grasshopperboy can not always save the day...after all he is a grasshopper, and even if sidekick girl kicks him by mistake, he wouldn't be around to save us....
so that is when you feel the need of medusastoned (drumrolls ladies and gentlemen and my friends...).
medusastoned fights super villains by turning them into stones (ya sure as if you did not guess). bt what is interesting is that in her undying quest for justice she uses illegal substances like pot. she comes in the dark of the night under the disguise of a pedlar (your very own tambourine man, if you want that) supplying pot to her arch enemies....and the stuff is so good and so strong...the enemies smoke up and get stoned.
Thus in one gesture she subverts the law that bans marijuana by using it to punish those who are the enemies of superheros like her. she and her trusted sidekick potbelly (one who carries pot in her stomach...duh) roam the streets in search of grasshopperboy, poor insect that got lost in this wide wide world......