Life Lessons from New York

Working in New York has taught me a lot of lessons. I assume living in New York would teach me many more lessons. But assuming that is unlikely to happen in the near future, or ever, for that matter, I will take whatever I get. 

First and foremost, there will always be someone better dressed than you. It is New York after all. There is an entire avenue dedicated to fashion. Every morning I spend 10 minutes thinking about what I want to wear. Futile. Because whatever I wear, as soon as I start walking to the office, I will cross someone wearing something nicer and be like, damn why can't I dress like that. I do not attribute that to my lack of fashion sense, only to my lack of patience to find nice pretty clothes.

Oh yes, most importantly, how to weave in and out of crowds to try and get to work on time and not to bump into people staring at the Empire State building from a really weird place on 7th Ave (You can't even see the building properly!) or standing outside Macy's trying for omg forever looking at the windows.

More of a commuting lesson but NJ transit will always be late. Always always always always. And it will always be cold. NJ Transit makes me think of Rutgers, where the buses were too hot and the classes too cold. Temperature control lessons anyone?

Thanksgiving was just here so there were a million deals. MFW I saw all the deals. Hot Topic tshirts for $10 zomg.

But when I realised that I didn't save in advance to shop all those Thanksgiving deals :(

But I on the other hand, no useless shopping! Because I would've seen the deals, since no self control when going shopping, bought stuff and then severe buyers remorse would have followed every single purchase. Vicious circle. But I pretty much saved myself from all the misery, which however would not have motivated me to return any of it. So I guess being broke = good sometimes? 

Here, this will make you cry. And I can't believe I still haven't seen Mockingjay

Journalism WHAT?

What an interesting couple of weeks! First the garbage that is online Times of India (Entertainment) makes a really disrespectful video about Deepika Padukone, and then she says this and TOI goes down in history with the worst comeback ever.  Seriously though, whoever is in charge of their social media, needs to be fired. I have extremely strong feelings about the the online edition of TOI. Extremely strong feelings .

All through my school life in India, I have read the print version of Times of India. I would for its Sunday edition and supplements. That was how much I loved TOI. Then four years ago, I came to New Jersey to study and thought why not read the online paper. That way, I could keep in touch with whatever was happening back home. I was so wrong. In very simple words, the online version of TOI is shit. What is so surprising is that the print version is still as fabulous. But what would I know, the last time I read the print version of TOI was 396 days ago.

This whole cleavage controversy was a new low. But then again, they haven't set the bar high ever. Just like this other article suggested, Deepika Padukone could have not said anything about it, but she did, which makes her awesome. Her choice of profession should not affect how and what journalists write about her. A lot of people have been going on and on about item numbers in bollywood movies, but what are you complaining about? You don't skip the item songs or close your eyes in defiance to not watch them. So really, stop complaining about how she's an actress so, you know, its ok. It is not. It is never ok to circle anyone's cleavage and point a red arrow towards it.

All this freedom of speech is meant to be used to write informed opinions on important issues, and there is no lack of important issues in India. It is downright ridiculous how people who write garbage and call it news get to hide behind "Journalism" and "Freedom of Speech". So yes, there are lots of conversations we can have instead of drawing a huge ass red circle on someone's cleavage.

#Fabulous

All the hyper linking because I realized I COULD! And also because source for all my strong feelings. 

Fundamentals, Women Empowerment and RTI

These are Rahul Gandhi's three favorite words of all time. I just finished watching his interview on Times Now with Arnab Goswami. I have no idea why I sat through an hour and 20 minutes of completely pointless bullshit, but I did. Never have I heard a politician throw around the phrase "women empowerment" as loosely as Rahul Gandhi did in this interview.

The entire interview felt like Rahul Gandhi was given a sheet with phrases he needed to incorporate into every single answer. His favorite phrases/words, hands down, were fundamental, women empowerment, and RTI, change the system. Good job using every single word you were asked to use in the interview multiple times by your PR team.

He also mentioned Congress believes in the Panchayat Raj. Someone should ask him if its the same Panchayat Raj that girls shouldn't wear jeans and carry cell phones and that Chinese food sends your hormones on a roller coaster ride. Or even better, is it the same Panchayat Raj that sentenced a girl to be gang raped by 8 Panchayat members on a raised platform while the rest of the village watched.

Someone also explain to him that decreasing gas cylinder prices is not the sole path to women empowerment. Actually that is absolutely not the path to women empowerment. He probably didn't realize he contradicted himself by using women empowerment and Panchayat Raj in the same conversation. Shouldn't the Vice President of one of India's most powerful political parties be slightly more intelligent than this?

Neither could he agree to a debate with Narendra Modi nor could he give a direct response to Modi taunting him by calling him shehzada. Either he's incredibly stupid or so apathetic he's stopped giving a shit. I'd go with the second, considering his interview, the first in 10 years, was an absolute failure. Maybe he should have stuck to "concentrating my energy inside the party" or whatever excuse he gave.

I have never wanted to face palm so hard in my life. You'd think his first interview in 10 years, and he'd at least make an effort to sound intelligent, having gone to Trinity and all. But nope, he made a complete and utter fool of himself.

But what really bothered me was that  he kept on saying "Gujarat happened, people died". The emphasis on this statement isn't going to change anything. And if you're giving an interview on national television, shouldn't you be armed with facts if you insist on saying the Gujarat Riots of 2002 and the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 were different. If repeatedly saying the 1984 riots were different than Gujarat riots would change anything, wouldn't we all be repeatedly chanting about things we wanted? You'd think a grown man, who's been involved in politics for 10 years, would understand the power of facts. Clearly, he is like a child who thinks repeating things will make them come true.

Any intelligent person might have taken this opportunity to dispel any doubt there is of him being an incapable leader, by giving clear, to-the-point answers which make sense and not answers that seem excessively vague. So is he just incredibly stupid or dodging every single question on purpose?

All Rahul Gandhi managed to accomplish in this interview was to give more reasons for BJP to mock him at every turn. He's definitely not going to be allowed to forget this disaster of an interview for a long long time to come. 

The club is ready to handle you right nowww!

First year of college, our song was Club can't even handle me right now. It still is. When the song comes on, we both think of our first year at college and how we became friends. To celebrate these 3.5 years of friendship and my amazing roommate's 21st birthday, here's a post entirely for her!

Happy Birthday Baby Kumarrr! (The curious name comes from her being the baby among all of us and a little khichdi reference which is out favourite tv show of all time).
Very often we say to each other that if people saw us in our natural environment, they would be horrified by the kind of jokes we crack, the songs we sing and oh god the hysterical fits of irrational laughter we have at 2 am. More often than not, a lit of friends have caught is in one of those moments and wondered, why do we know them? Good question. Because we are awesome. Duhhh!

We are both in denial that it is our last semester at college, and yet I keep writing about it. Smh. But I have lived with her for 2.5 years, known her for 3.5 years and there is no one else I'd rather have dormed with at Rutgers. We both share a mutual love for everything gujju, Bollywood cuties, watching Aiyya and Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham any number of times, clothes jewelry, shoes and bags and anything pretty. No wonder we work together so well.

My greatest achievement by far is transferring my cleanliness OCD to her, bit by bit, day by day, through the last semester. She knows I like the counters to be so shiny I can see my own face and doesn't think I am completely crazy for doing that, just a little bit crazy.

Congratulations on finally turning 21! and welcome to the old people club :D Paro and I have been waiting forever and ever. Like I keep saying, we are all turning 21 again with you.

Time to go flash that ID (specially to that bouncer in Stuff Yer Face!! ) and tell the club that it has no choice but to handle you tonight ;)

Happy Birthdayyyyy!

Hello old friend

Hello Polar Vortex, old friend. How absolutely delightful of you to celebrate the beginning of my last semester at school with me in such manner. So marvelous!

I scream internally every time I leave the apartment as the cold, brutal wind smacks me right in my face, hands and legs. I'd scream externally if half my teeth wouldn't ache because of the cold, nasty wind. Nevertheless, I scream enough internally to more than make up for it. In the past couple of days, I have come to realize that none of my clothes, no matter how many layers I wear, are effective against this cold. Maybe I should blanket myself in fleece and step out. My phone takes great pleasure in telling me when the temperature is a single digit. The font somehow becomes bigger. Smh.

My philosophy for this last semester is to treat it like any other semester so as to panic a little less than if I would if I kept reminding myself it was my last semester.

Just lost all my inspiration for writing this post since panic has set in.

On a side note, my roommate and I began the new semester by having a hysterical nervous breakdown at 12 am the night before. #SeniorProblems

Obsessions and Christmas and Over-priced Textbooks.

Since I'm on break, I'm on Imgur all the time. And I feel like I missed out on something, some tiny little detail. Selfies! And I was like waiittttt, when did Imgur become Facebook, or Instagram? All these pretty girls with pretty eyes and pretty hair and pretty makeup and I've just been sitting here in my PJs all day long. Merry Christmas? Heh.

My obsession with Hunger Games, Harry Potter, Divergent and Game of Thrones is getting slightly out of hand. No wait, make that a little more than slightly out of hand. I cried through Mockingjay, because I knew what was going to happen, since I have managed to read the entire series multiple times in the past year or so. I have also finished each season of Game of Thrones in a day each. Of course, that doesn't count the books. And agh I can't wait for the Divergent movie to come out! My obsession with books has increased tenfold since I got a new Kindle. I hunt for names of books and put them on my Kindle. I then proceed to read them like I have never read a book before.

Although I prefer to think that I took my obsession to a completely different level when I was gifted a $50 Amazon gift card! Imagine all the hunger games pins and deathly hallows charms and Ravenclaw Scarf and GoT mini-statues I could buy!! So I started shopping and I managed to find a ton of stuff I could get, including the second and the third Harry Potter hardcover with the American illustration. Then I go to my winter class. The textbook is a whopping $180. Me being me, I refuse to spend that kind of money to buy a textbook. I looked for it in the school library. Nope. I looked for it in the inter-library borrowing system thing. Nope. Internet. Nope. Amazon, yes. The Kindle edition cost 50 dollars and 33 cents, to be precise, to RENT, which makes buying the actual book a completely different matter. Clearly, Pearson is not aware of the concept that college students are supposed to be broke. Well neither are all those companies that make college apparel, since the cheapest Rutgers hoodie I can find is $35. But really though, I ended up spending all that money on the e-book rental. Such is my life.

All I wanted for Christmas was a mockingjay pin, a deathly hallows necklace, a mockingjay + deathly hallows decal, the second and the third Harry Potter books, a mini Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen, A Lord Voldemort tank top, a golden snitch necklace, a couple of boxes of Bertie Bott's every flavour jelly beans, a Ravenclaw scarf, a deathly hallows, snitch and owl leather bracelet, but nope, not you.

Also the Red Wedding episode was HORRIBLE. But I know what happens after that. Ehahahaha! But I am going to be nice and not spoil it! But I was on an ebook roll today and I found some amazing books. Although since the time I got the Kindle (Which is not even an entire month), I have managed to pick up the most depressing books ever, even if they were extremely well written and I loved them. I finished the books and felt sad! That's like every Game of Thrones Episode ever. Just putting it out there that Rains of Castamere is the best thing ever right now.

I am still accepting Christmas Gifts. Just saying.

My super late Thanksgiving appreciation post

I am not someone who appreciates people around her enough. I am as bad at giving out compliments as I am at dealing with compliments given to me. But it's Thanksgiving, and I currently reside in a country which celebrates this festival with food, family and an insane amount of shopping. You can't help but get into the holiday spirit.
Although this is super late, I am thankful for my parents. My parents are pretty darn awesome, sending me this far and letting me study what I want and sending me food all the time! If it wasn't for them , I wouldn't be here. Duh. Also my sister, I have been fighting with her some 22 years now, but only I get to do that and that doesn't make her any less awesome.
And I am thankful for sugar and caffeine. Two things that keep me going during finals week.Along with my roommate. We nag each other to study, which is a very effective study strategy. Also my friends, you know who you are, for being complete idiots, just like me.
I am thankful for being born a girl, in a family where I was never told I couldn't do it because I was a girl. I am thankful for having the culture and traditions I grew up with. Where do you think my awesome Kathiawadi accent comes from? Which has me pronouncing Africa in a real funny way, but I like it! It is a reminder of where I come from, who I am, and where will I go back to. Never ever forget where you come from.
I am also thankful for the amazing people I have met at Rutgers, the people I have worked with and am working with. My Rutgers experience wouldn't have been the same without all of you!
I am definitely not thankful I have to give a ton of finals in the next couple of weeks. But you gotta do what you gotta do, which unfortunately includes exams and papers.

I am also super super thankful for the new kindle! This should help me get started on the 100 or so books on my to-read list.