hate these tree cutting stories we do...i mean since when did mumbai get such a huge number tree lovers..you touch a branch and they are all up in arms..

so mohit's pretty happy that he has another chance at the IIMs.

so i had this 20 minute conversation with this BJP guy entirely in Marathi..i am pretty proud of my achievement..despite the lousy grammar..i finally did it..shibbs is extremely impressed.

in school..marathi was always the terror subject..but then there was Nayak Aunty..the building tuition teacher..where tuitions were never without a dose of tea and snacks as well...and loads of weird stories about people in the neighbourhood..tuitions at her place was like an outing we looked forward to.

i really need to study ahead..21 is no age to work...especially if it reduces you to a zombie... my thoughts range from arbid to anarchic...need to focus..

dunno if studying ahead will get me that focus.

so everybody was glad that i was back..(at least they appeared so... as i note, a lot has 'happened' at workplace..a lot of people want to move on, a lot of them have had fallouts with important others..

had a long meeting with the editor on the profile of my area..so to my bad luck, the area i cover is filled with yuppies and aspirational fimstars, who are more concerned about lifestyles, not really about their roads and water supplies or about crimes in their neighbourhood..

so now i have to change the way i think in order to get more work done for the paper. there is a slight wavelength problem with that.

so i have to refigure a lot of things out.

first day on the field was tiring...covered an interschool science exhibition...with an over enthu school staff..man i was treated like royalty..they just stopped short of a red carpet!

there were kids trying to sell defence strategies, "to be honest i got the idea in the loo!" (hello archimedes of the 21st century) and there were kids trying to use solar energy to propel hovercrafts..

i remember in school i was a loser when it came to science projects..never had anything original in my head..i don't think i am much of the physics type...more biology type..(glorified arts according to some!! hmph..grr)

MY claim to fame: If Farhan Akhtar's Lakshya ever becomes a hit, i packed the asst director's bags! haha.

so getting ready to go back to 'macabre land' after the week long holiday with good food, books and TV. today's my last day of stress free life for a long time to come.

bade bhaiyya has forgotten me after going to the land of Oz. has been writing only to mum.

going to beat up ranjit when i get back to office..hasnt got me the anand patwardhan cds.

pathetic match yesterday..i am too disappointed..sachin is becoming an increasingly selfish player..sorry cherian.

Where is erroguy? missing the nonsensical pointless conversations i used to have with him in xavier days.

so krishna ananth's in mumbai and i don't get to meet him, thanks to the house arrest that i am under.

shibbs was here yesterday, and we spent an hour in the evening by the sea...thinking about all kinds of weird career options to places to holiday...to ways to kill our cruel bosses..haha.

i want to get back to academics, but unsure if academics will get back to me. if that makes any sense..

had a long conversation with suhas on why it's important for me to get perspective..and why i should get back to studying...i think he is like the only person in this world who thinks i am intelligent!

errorguy is coming to mumbai...all the way from sitapore... that's another guy from college who thinks at any given point of time i will be doing ten times better than him in life..whyever?? this despite the fact that i am journo!! he must be outta his mind.

so falling ill has its benefits...watched makdee..it was a really nice film...i wish they would make more children's films.

Ranjit ( the kid at office) has promised to get me anand patwardhan's films to watch at home.

An entire tribe from Orissa is getting descheduled because the Orissa govt wants to meet the "required" MNC investment and their land can be given to tap the bauxite.
the thought of being able to survive only if you are on the scheduled list is scary.

there are too many forces in this country waiting to just eat you up, if you don't watch out. it's one big ocean where the big fish eat up the small ones. and vegetarianism is unheard of.

i think we belong to generation that may soon forget to live...we start studying way too early, start working too early..we are in this some kinda strange hurry to achieve God knows what...it's all so pointless.

anyways, i think i am talking crap..maybe it's the fever.

by the way, people from xavier's are doing hep things like a Phd in analysing time series data at LSE. also giving me interesting dope on how LSE sucks at adminsistration. apparently this german's admission was cancelled after 4 weeks of attendance coz the admin lost her file... i mean how incompetent could you get?

so blame it on the goras..after all they set up our administrative system.

anyways i think we would have killed sudha if our files had been lost at ACJ..haha. on second thoughts we didn't need our files to be lost for that. hehehehe.

mercury rising again...102 degrees. so this is the reply i get when i tell people in office about me being sick.." so when are u sending in the articles?" just realised no one is human anymore. "
It can't be The End so soon..or is it?

so yesterday had to be the most happening day of my life. i mean not everyday does medha patkar trip on your foot and say sorry! and then you bump into a gathering of journos shouting for press freedom outside churchgate station..."jayalalitha ..murdabad!" hehe.

so, mumbai isn't all that cut off as it seems. Ram still has that drolling accent. "the gujarrat pogrrrom..." vijfart made me repeat it so many times that i had started to talk like him at one point of time. haha.

so have to interview four kids on how much they know about nehru..i am now Mid-day aunty!! gulp! sob! (lump in my throat)

so am missing from the scene of action... N Ram and The Hindu..haha. shibbs and i had a good laugh...i mean life couldn't get more dramatic and entertaining could it? i am sure if we were still in ACJ, we would have been silently happy. no kidding.

sometimes all this hoo haa about press freedom and crap..doesent make any sense...especially when you are working for a paper that is targetting a particular SEC (socio economic class as the marketing guys would put it). then you just end up feeling guilty. that's all. coz all that matters to the big guys in office is the ad revenue.

so mercury rising. hit the 102 degrees F. so thrown completely out of action. i think i want to holiday in the north east. doc says i am too stressed for a 21 year old. i laughed and fell out of my chair.

anyways i am ready to quit. my sub editor is a moron. moron with a capital M and a rolling R. like Morrrrron. grr. "don't do dengue stories if only people in the slums are getting affected. do it only if people like us are getting affected."

so survived the illegal shrine attack...met this docu filmmaker from FTII who was taught by guess who?? Hariharan..yeah yeah, the dude who made cinema thoery sound interesting...Roopster thought he was a pseud..haha. love Kouyanisquatsi...
he thinks FTII brainwashes people into making incomprehensible films like Kumar Shahni...i kinda agreed with him..come on that shahni dude was boring. i mean i have never slept through so many classes at one stretch ever!! and the srilankan babe gets into an argument about structure and non structure..gimme a break.
my co reporter thinks i am philosophical(!) Why ever?? beats me!

have to go illegal shrine hunting now. am convinced that i am going to be slaughtered on my way back home.