SINGAPORE - DAY 1

THE DAY WE GO TO A DIFFERENT TIME ZONE 

My family and I recently went on a trip to Singapore and Malaysia. It all started on December 19, 2015. Our flight from Nedumbassery Airport was at 23.35. We called an Uber and that day was the worst in terms of traffic. After almost an hour of going through random places, we reached Hotel Marriott. This was where the travel agency had told all the families to meet. At 21.30, we entered the airport and went straight to the boarding pass counter. After getting all the necessary procedures done like security check and immigration clearance, we waited for our flight call.

Now, I'm not that good with flights. I thought I'd tell you straight away before all the gory details come. The air hostesses of Malindo Air were dressed so beautifully! I loved their outfit and when I complimented one air hostess, she was so happy. The flight was mostly uneventful. My parents slept while I watched Queen. Take-off and cruising were the easy parts for me. But the minute the pilot announced that we were descending, my tummy started doing flips and I felt like my head was going to break. There was a piercing, unpleasant pain in my forehead. This was not a surprise as it happened for every single flight! 

We landed at Kuala Lumpur Airport at 6.00 their time. We were pretty exhausted. We freshened up and again went through immigration clearance and security check as we had to catch a connection flight to Singapore from there. Let me just tell you, the airport was close to perfection. It was so huge and wonderfully maintained. The most appealing thing about airports is the fact that they provide free WiFi. But we didn't spend much time there as our next flight was at 7.15. 

I vomited while landing and my head was throbbing. I was sleep-deprived too. So you can imagine my irritation when they didn't let us go to the hotel and freshen up. Instead, we were taken on a city tour and to the famous Orchid Garden after lunch. Seeing the pretty orchids made me feel a bit better. 

The hotel we were staying in was called Chancellor @ Orchard. I loved the room but the only thing I didn't like about it was that they only provided 50 MB free WiFi per room. Imagine our annoyance. We couldn't even keep in touch with our family back home for the first three days of the trip because of the stupid WiFi problem. 

Anyway, in the evening, we were taken to The Gardens By The Bay. Since we went during Christmas week, every building was brightly lit and there were decorations all over the place. This garden is artificially created inside an enormous air-conditioned dome. There was also a man-made waterfall. At about this point, Appa made a comment on how many beautiful natural waterfalls we had back home. 

 We saw a beautiful light and music show there, after which we were taken for dinner. And that was the perfect end to an almost perfect day. The food was delicious. We got back to the hotel and had a soothing sleep. 

THE TIME I HAVE FUN AT LULU!!-DAY 1

Hey, everyone! You can see in the tittle, Day 1. Well, I’m a big YouTube addict. I absolutely love watching videos of YouTubers, especially their vlogs. Yes VLOGS! Vlogs are everyday videos that they take of themselves daily and tell the world how their day went. Well, since I look totally unflattering in videos, I thought I’ll blog about my days. It’s kind of like a personal diary, but with no details about my latest crushes, my enemies, my arguments etc. So let’s start.

Today, I had a pretty fun, busy day. I woke up at around 8.30. I did the usual stuff in the morning and had Idli-Sambar for breakfast. Yum! I had to go to college for a senate (a student body that represents the students of the college that mainly discusses the problems of the college) meeting today which was at 12.30. For that, I needed to get out at 11.10, and so I started getting ready at 10. I put on my uniform, applied my eyeliner, took a good look at the mirror for my own confidence and got out. I got in the bus, paid 13 bucks, texted Archana (my college friend who is also in the senate) the bus details so that she could get in from Kaloor and listened to songs on my iPod until then.

The senate meeting went okay, I guess. The seniors just discussed a lot of complaints about the college given by the students. That took about an hour. After, we go to the nearby bakery and just hang for a while.

Ashline, Archana, Ajith, Navaneeth (all of them are senate members) and I decide to go to Lulu just to eat food and chill. That was pretty awesome. I met the boys only today but they turned out to be so much fun!! We talked for a few hours, took embarrassing photos and just roamed around. It was a pretty fun day. I came home, went to the treadmill for a little bit, read Agatha Christie’s ‘Hercule Poirot’s Christmas’ (wow, too many apostrophes!!) and watched TV. Today is also the day I fell in love with Sam Smith’s ‘Writing’s On The Wall’. Oh my God, best song ever!!

Anyway, thank you for reading this. Hopefully, I continue doing this so that you can read about my day tomorrow. Until then, good night! (or good evening or good afternoon or good morning depending on where you’re from).

POEM BY A BORED TEENAGE GIRL

I sit in my room, feeling aloof

Thoughts swivelling in my mind

I look around and up at the roof

Wondering what to do with my time.

The clock is ticking faster and faster

I just sit idle and reflect

Should I engage in friendly banter?

Or just think and regret?

I have come a long away

And I know I have no shame

This is so silly of me

But who can I blame?

This is boredom, pure and simple

I know I have a life

If only I got a nickel

For every time I was in this plight.

This is me, signing off

I have nothing else to add

You might think I’m a bit odd

And to that, I say,’ That’s just sad.’

WHAT DO YOU DO AFTER FINISHING A BOOK?

So this is the dilemma I’m faced with right now. I just read one of the most interesting books, The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella, and it is absolutely a wonderful book. It’s funny, cute, romantic, serious and a page-turner. I finished within a couple of days from borrowing it from the library and now I’m thinking, ‘What do I do with my life?’, because that’s what all avid readers like me feel after reading a book. We just get so immersed in the story that we can’t think of anything else until we read the book completely. A good book is like a very addictive drug. Once you’re hooked, there’s no turning back.

I recall those times when I was young and I was reading the Harry Potter books. At that time, I was very scared I wouldn’t be able to finish reading them in the allotted time, so I borrowed one at a time. And after every book, I would rush to the library to get the next one. By the time I got to the last book, I was praying J K Rowling would write another one. But she didn’t. And I had to move on. Wow I’m making this sound like a relationship!

But honestly, a world without books is something I cannot imagine. So what DO you do after finishing a book? Get another one and start reading!! 

DAD

Let’s rewind 61 years and a few months to January 20, 1954. It was a momentous day since my grandmother was having her second baby – my father. Like all babies, my dad probably would have come out crying but since I wasn’t there (obviously), let’s skip all of that and come to the present day, 2015. My dad has grown, and over the years, he has attained so much in life. From a small boy playing cricket in the streets of Alleppey to the successful man that he is today, he truly has come a long way to get where he is now. This is not about my dad’s journey but more like anecdotes of his everyday life – some incidents of significance, other incidents of humour.

As I was growing up, my dad introduced me to books. And boy was I in love. He told me to start reading Enid Blyton. And my love for short stories and novels grew as my dad took me frequently to the library. I quickly grew out of Enid Blyton and started reading classics. I remember my dad telling me to keep a list of all the classics I read and to give it a score on a scale of 1 to 5. In the end, I read about 33 classics and my favourite was Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Then he introduced me to Agatha Christie and the book he told me to read first was The Labours of Hercules. I still remember how fat the book was and thinking that I won’t be able to finish it. When I told my sister this, she said that dad had picked out that book for her to read first too. Some things never change.

I remember another incident when it was my sister’s birthday and she was gifted an iPod. I told my dad I wanted one but never thought it would actually happen. The next day, he bought me a purple-coloured Apple iPod. I was so surprised and just so happy. I hadn’t even meant it and before thinking it over, he went to the store and bought it. What can I say? He really is amazing.

Now my dad is a man who loves his poetry. When he was small, he used to buy poetry books with his pocket money. In one book, he had written “Poetry is life.” And in another one, “Poetry is distilled prose.” He used to come to my room and read poems to me. And by ‘read’, I mean recite it through memory and refer the book only when he forgets a word or two. Yes, he used to by-heart the poems. ‘Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard’ is his favourite poem till date and it astounds me that even after 40 odd years, he still manages to remember the words, verse for verse. I sometimes can’t remember what I did the day before and here is my dad, reciting a poem he learnt when he was my age.  He also used to read a threnody written by PG Wodehouse, called ‘Darkling’. And the way he recited, it was hilarious. Words like ‘worms’ and ‘dyspepsia’ were said so comically that it resulted in incessant laughter.

The world’s best planner may be someone in the USA or Africa or China. But to me, it is my dad. He is so organised that he plans our holidays to the minute. He prints up an itinerary and writes down the approximate time of arrival and departure at every airport and every railway station. He also books tickets for most of his relatives and to make it easier, he has three calendars in his room, one showing the present month and the other two showing the successive ones. Some might think he is a bit queer but to that, pat comes the reply, “There is a method to my madness.” Yes, indeed, I would hope so.

So yes, this is how my dad operates. And even though there are a thousand other things about him which are unique, these are the incidents that came to me instantly. So if anyone asks me who the greatest man alive today is, I would say my dad, because he really is something. 

LIGHT CURES CANCER?!

This might be a very bizarre title but it’s true! A few cases have been mentioned where the person suffering from cancer gets cured if they are hit by lightning. Around thirty years ago, there was a farmer who had cancerous cells in his mouth and chin. He had been suffering from it for a long time and had finally agreed to do the procedure to get it removed. On the day before the procedure, he had gone out to the field when it was heavily raining and he got hit by lightning. In the events that followed, the doctors called it a miracle but for almost ten years, the farmer was cancer free. No one could explain it but marvel at the fact that the lightning had somehow made the cancer vanish. But unfortunately for him, after those ten years, the cancer came back which proved to be fatal. Although getting hit by lightning is not such a pleasant thing for anyone, its powers to rid people of cancer should be taken into consideration before ruling it out as something physically impossible to do. A lot of people suffer cancer and every time someone dies because of it, it’s all the more sad because it’s one of those diseases which does not have a simple cure. And even though chemotherapy is an option, it does not always work and the treatment is also exhausting. Lightning as a cure does seem pretty drastic but in a world where technology is soaring and people are coming up with new stuff every day, why is it hard to find out some way to create electrical charges that have the properties of a lightning beam?

New studies by renowned doctors have also shown that lightning bugs, or fireflies which is more commonly known, also have the ability to cure cancer. Miniscule amounts of radiation are emitted by lightning bugs every time they flash their hind quarters. Researchers from London inserted the firefly gene that activates the bioluminescent light into modified cancer cells hoping to set off a chain of events that has a proven track record of fighting the disease. This light source, known as Luciferin, caused the modified cancer cells to glow much like it does with the firefly. When a photosensitizing agent was added, the combination proved lethal for the cancer cells. This firefly technique may add a further layer of depth to photodynamic therapy, an effective treatment that uses bursts of light to attack tumours that sit near the skin’s surface or along the lining of the internal organs. The light triggers production of active oxygen species that can destroy cancer cells.

Light is such an important resource but who would have thought that it can cure one of the scariest diseases existing today? But the reason why chemotherapy is the main treatment option is that it is a cancer treatment which uses chemical substances which are readily available such as anti-cancer drugs which are part of the chemotherapy regimen. But although affordable enough, chemotherapy does have painful side effects like fatigue, headache, muscle pain, stomach pain, pain from nerve damage such as burning, numbness or shooting pains usually in the fingers and toes etc. it can also cause other severe problems like mouth and throat sores, constipation, diarrhoea, nausea, vomiting and blood disorders. Because of all these reasons, it is high time that doctors and researchers started working on light and how it can be used in a patient having cancer as a cure. And if there is a definite science behind it, the chances of curing people are high and assuring them of lesser side effects.  

BIOLOGY NIGHTMARE

Why the hell am I made to write this crappy, idiotic, stupid paper in which I don’t know anything? Urghh…so damn frustrating. Why the heck did I come today? Oh yeah, to sign the hall ticket! That is such a pathetic, devious excuse to make us come to school today. I hate this so much. It’s like silent torture, not being able to even cry properly. Why is this happening? And how can they ask me to write what I know? I know nothing in Biology! It’s really not my subject at all.

I am angry, crying and mucous is all over my face. What the heck have I done to deserve this? I mean, if they correct this paper (which I’m sure they won’t), they’ll make me write a fourth model because of the stupid marks I get for this one. I was so damn happy sitting at home and studying all on my own and now, all of a sudden, I have to come to school?? It’s such a huge waste of time. Now, I just have Thursday, Friday and Saturday to study for the exam on Sunday (which I’m studying because I’m more scared of my sister than my teachers)…all thanks to this wonderful Biology exam.

Well guess what? I DON’T CARE! This is so damn annoying. I’m going mad on the inside, but on the outside, the teacher must be thinking I’m writing an essay…pfft little does she know that I’m writing all of this on this stupid question paper, which seems to be easy, but I know squat!

I’m running out of space to write and what am I going to do once this page is over? It’s just 9.45 now. Two more hours of pure torture to go! I’m going mad!! I’m seeing everyone ask for extra paper and I’m just sitting here thinking, ‘Am I the only one getting so exasperated? Everyone is writing so furiously.’

And now my eyes hurt and my head is paining. I feel so alone write now. Please save me, God! I just don’t know what to do at all! But I have to finish studying for entrance…I have to! My board marks don’t even count for most of the entrances I’m writing. This just sucks.

One and half hours to go and all I’m thinking about is how I’m going to sit the full time like this. I see other people sitting idle like me…maybe I’m not the only one.

You know how I’m going to take revenge? I won’t write the Physics exam! Mwahaha…that’ll show who they’re messing with. There’s absolutely nothing in my head right now…it’s literally blank…and I can feel my eyes almost close.

Dammit, get real Shreya! Man up! This exam is the most annoying exam ever! And now my nose is itching! Great! Fantastic! Best day ever!! (With sarcasm). I’ve resigned to feel absolutely nothing. My cheeks feel hollow and I’m exhausted. There’s one more hour to go and I’m accepting defeat. 

Life as a 11th Grader

I remember how hard I found it to study for 9^th and 10^th standards. Besides, 10^th standard was the time I had to write my boards. On the day the result came out, everybody was calling and congratulating me on how well I had performed. So it was decided that, with my marks, I would be taking BioMaths as my subject in 11^th. Needless to say, I miss childhood, when the only problems we had were choosing which crayon to use or deciding who would be the catcher in hide-and-seek.

Being in 11^th standard is very hard. Although there are only five subjects, the content is very vast. It is hard to grasp the concepts in certain areas. Since many students at this time go for entrance coaching, including me, tuitions have been put to a stop. It’s hard to manage time with school and entrance coaching, as it is. As I was constantly on Facebook and WhatsApp, I found that my attention was elsewhere and I wasn’t doing well in my entrance classes. Due to a guilty conscience, I deactivated my facebook account and also gave my cell phone to my mum, who gives it back to me by the end of the day.

I see a big difference now in my schedule. I am studying more and I even keep timetables to study. I just hope this routine continues and that I score good marks at my entrance coaching centre. 

A Wasp’s Revenge

One day, I saw a couple of wasps hovering near the window of my room. Not that I have some sort of enmity towards wasps, I always think that wasps are closely related to bees. So I went to check what was going on. I saw that they were flying toward the top right corner of the windowpane. I slightly moved my curtain, only to discover a wasp’s nest with a few more wasps hanging around. I was utterly shocked. I called my dad, who came with a stick and knocked out the nest. I was relieved, but the relief lasted only for a short time.

When I went to check after many days, I saw that they were attempting to make a nest all over again. I got very annoyed at the tiny creatures. I shouted for my dad. Instead of using the stick he had used before, he used one of my rulers this time.

That night, as I was trying to get some shut-eye, I felt a small, fuzzy thing near my left arm. I thought it was the bed sheet and I tried to move it away. When I tried to clasp it in my hand with my fingers, I realized it was a wasp because, a second later, I felt a sharp sting in my right hand. I kind of screamed and got up. It felt as if the deadly poison was injected into my arm and my whole right hand was swelling up. It burned and then it went numb. Getting alarmed, I went to the bathroom and quickly washed it. I was happy to note that blood was not oozing out. My whole hand was intact. But it did take some time for my hand to stop paining. After splashing some water, I massaged it again and again. Not knowing what else to do, I went to sleep.

The next day when I woke up, I was happy to note that my hand was back to normal. But my delight was short-lived because when I moved my curtain that day, I saw wasps building their nest in the same place yet again!

Neighbours

In my short span of life, I have seen more types of neighbours than you know. Unlike most people, I have shifted quite a lot. Unsurprisingly, my family and I have stayed in many places here and there in Kerala. From my experience, I can safely say that no two neighbours are alike. Let me tell you something about the different categories of next-door neighbours.

Firstly, there are the annoying neighbours. They are people who have nothing to do at home and instead talk about everything under the sun, ranging from the price of rice in the market to some personal complaint they want to lodge against the flat’s association. I am being very specific because this is what my mother has to tolerate from a very irritating neighbour practically every night when the supply of electricity goes off for a particular amount of time. Since my mother suffers from arthritis, I have to massage her legs and feet because my mother and my neighbour stand continuously for half an hour while they talk and it begins to hurt for her almost instantly.

Secondly, there are the polite, friendly neighbours. They are the ones who are well-mannered and sociable, but they also keep their distance as a sign that they don’t want to get involved in any deep friendship. They just ask, ‘How do you do?’ but don’t really care about anything else. They are good enough to spend a Friday night with but not close enough to spend all day Saturday with, if you get my gist.

Thirdly, there are the gossip-seeking neighbours. In every building and in every locality, there will always be gossip-mongers. They are usually the female homemakers who get so bored at home that they need personal secrets of others to keep themselves busy because they probably will spread it faster than how a cold spreads! It becomes really hard to talk to these people as they might spread every single detail that is told to them.

Fourthly, there are the silent neighbours. Like the three monkeys, they see no evil, they hear no evil and they speak no evil. By this, I mean that it seems as if they live under a rock, not knowing what is going on outside. They don’t know anything and they don’t want to know either.

Finally, there are the borrowing neighbours. They are the neighbours who pretend to be nice and responsive as long as they get what they want from others. Sometimes, things that are borrowed are not even returned!

As I told you before, this is just from experience. I am not an expert on the variety of neighbours but I certainly do know them quite well!