Teaching at Mithibai College

I came back home from the party at 1 last night. After which I spent an hour reading the course work for my teaching class today. It’s at a time like this I wonder why I take up something more than I can handle - sure my 24 years and some days old bones are getting lazier ! It is one thing to know what you do – and excel at it day after day, but teaching that to a whole bunch of 60 students ( who are sleepy ) x 2 classes Export/ import is another ball game .

Honestly – I do remember very well , nodding profusely in a 7 a.m. lecture – back in the day when I was a student of Mithibai College, BMS – but not understanding a word of what is being taught. Especially on a fine wintery morning, where it’s just cosy enough to drift into outer space till everything around me turns dark pink and purple – and then.... then... a whole other world – which definitely looked more interesting than the OHP projector reflecting the transparency and its contents. The flutter of pages every now and then. The slightest irk caused by the chalk. The teacher hmming and ahhhing in between. The low hummmm of the A/c working – and then suddenly the entire class becomes silent !

I was woken up by a teacher – much to my embarrassment ! Today, being on the other side – and trying to snooze at a student felt so weird. Strangely it made me feel way older than 24. I said a silent thank you for not letting that guy buy me a drink last night – imagine this with the alcohol residue in my body – would have been disastrous. For the very first time I thought I needed to refuse the drink and behave older and more mature and get back into bed.

Being funny comes easy to me – but sometimes as a teacher – I feel awkwardly conscious cracking into a joke – will i be over stepping the friendliness border ? I added the first few of my students over Facebook today.. !! Will they accept the friendship request ? only time will tell ! But one thing is for sure – I am a lot more relaxed than I was when I had first walked into the class. I only hope i do not lose my drive to wake up morning after morning and come to the class. Especially saying goodbye to Friday night parties 2 hours before I would have actually come back is the hardest thing to do !! I hope in the end it is worth it. I hope in the end I make a difference !

Say Cheese...!

Year 2000 : the one and only cheese that I knew of was AMUL CHEESE. Brought on special occasions when we made pizza at home. This day the entire house would gather to eat the melting cheese put on a flat pizza base above the vegetables.





Year 2001 : Dominoes was first introduced to my taste buds. I could hardly get myself into liking the chewy mozerella cheese. To be very honest – I was not a big fan of it then.





Year 2002 : I go on a student exchange program to Belgium. It was one of those moments that define you for the rest of your life. I walked into a table full of an assortment of bread and a whole bunch of other butter and cheese look alikes. It was a welcome to Belgium party my host mother had thrown me. She had invited the guests @ 4 on a Sunday evening – which is basically the Indian equivalent for Chai Nashta. Only here it was Wine and Cheese.

I reluctantly took a plate with many hollow dents – where we were to lay the different sorts of cheese. So she meant – make your own cheese sandwich party – I thought to myself. I took the least smelly and amul cheese imposter from the tray and a big piece of bread. I saw the others cutting through the different cheese and savouring it one by one.

The day was also a first of the many things – including the first time I came to know that Cheese like Butter had its own knife with a twisted end. It was the very first time I got introduced to white wine – something I liked instantly…
Since then… year 2010 – I can tell atleast 5 different variety of cheese. I have been to 1 cheese farm in the united stated of America and another one in France. I have also acquired the taste for many a cheese – my favourite one being BRIE – and a FONDUE in a Brule form – I could kill to have it @ Indigo Deli. Since then I have been tracking the various packagings of my favourite cheese. It has only increased my love for cheese. Or the VACHE QUI RIT… which is basically a brilliant cheese spread for wheat and multigrain bread. Or the Garlic and Onion cheese of BOURSIN

No prises for guessing why I am called healthy, plump and every other word in thesaurus which means FAT. But my heart still goes out to apna AMUL Cheese each time it melts slowly in the Pav Bhaji @ Amar Juice Center or when it is put in the Schzewaan, Onion, Cheese Capsicum Dosa… whats your favourite Cheese ??

Sugar and Spice

Until yesterday, I picked my phone up, dialed a few handy numbers on my speed dial to give latest updates about my life and a bunch of other people's lives who I just happened to have bumped into at a club/bar/swimming pool/beach or hiding behind the last rack in the departmental store. GOSSIPPING ! But today the internet has a whole new direction. From the comfort of my bed, I can surf and find out which friend is doing what in any corner of the world. Such is the power of one tool called FACEBOOK ! I am stuck in my bed, im Down with a 3rd round of Chicken Pox. It gives me enough time on hand to check every friends wall, pictures, comments on other's walls, their blogs, their friends to infinity.

I am now 1/2 and hour into Facebook and already bored !The obsessiveness of some people is beyond my understanding. A few 1000 pictures, in every good looking location around the city, some even next to the Dosa Wala of Mithibai College. A few 1000 friends, whom they just happened to have met once or twice for a brief moment in time. Guys have found an easior way, give drinks to girls which are actually free but technically making us girls happy. Girls are now going virtual shopping, earning some points and buying Jimmy Choo or Blahniks (pictures)obviously. What I find even more amusing is the fact that people actually discuss these things over coffee/ bar. So now, even before a guy asks me for my phone number, he asks, Are you on Facebook ?? When did all the romance be diminished to this web-check ups.

Being down with chicken pox gave me enough time to open up a 134 mails that I hadn't bothered to group check and delete from my inbox.

Mail 1 : Entertainment company proudly brings Hard Kaur to Mumbai.
-Don't they have enough of her swearing already ?

Mail 2 : Do you want to Franship ?
-Who told him I would want to Do Franship. And even if i wanted to, what gives him the idea it would be Franship with him ?

Mail 3 : Bonjour Disha.... !
- My my host siblings in Belgium, the weather of cold, I miss you .... I miss them too. It was a year that makes me, ME !

Mail 4 : Beautiful Smaile !
- This one if from Chandigarh, this gentleman's biceps look like those hand floats little children wear when they first dip themselves in the Pool.

Mail 5 : I am 35 year old Male, Living in Middle East. Looking for friends.
- Why dont you go find yourself a 35 year old friend then !! Agreed I look older than most girls my age, but I surely dont look 35. Mails like these make me wonder how guys would be looking at me ? I speed dial my best friend."Do I look 35 to you ?"

Mail 6 : Hey gorgeous, this is my 14th mail. I wonder if you are ever going to reply to me?
- 14th ? Are you kidding. I checked my inbox for No 13, No 12, No 11. He was right ! This was indeed the 14th One.

I block checked every one of those useless mails from the 134 mails in my Inbox to find myself a list of 47 odd mails from cousins, friends, ex-boyfriends and wanting to be be boy-friend - Mr Spicy as I want to call him for the sake of this blog. Priority family first. Half way into the letter from my cousin in the US, I found myself thinking what would Mail 1, 2, 3 .... etc have to say to me ? Sorry cousin Rupali, I will get back to your mail. For as much as I want to hear how you spent your Valentine's Day of 2009, I want to hear What Spicy has to say.

I quickly opened Mail 1.
"am very certain of the fact that I would miss you if I knew u better...ur ...beautiful..gorgeous with a wit to match(i hope) if not outshine ur look. There's an old term that fits..and I hope u dont find it offensive..its meant as a compliment..."U'd be the best mind-fuc"!

I was furious. Just by stating It's meant as a compliment doesnt mean he can say whatever he wants and I'd be okay with it. I Dont care What Mail 2,3,4 etc have to say to me... I wanted to reply back quickly. And ofcourse it had to be something Witty. Anything less witty would just be a big slap on my ego.
So here is what I wrote : "by saying that i hope you dont find it offensive , doesnt make the statement any less offensive ! but I dont want to read between the lines ... thanks for the compliment !"

It was hardly anything witty, but in my rage I couldnt come up with anything witty. I sent it. World will stop rotating and revolving the day I find someone half as nice as my dream man - which will be NEVER. I refresh the page to get back to cousin Rupali's email when I see I have a mail from Spicy ! So offically he is a looser. Because he spends his time on Facebook !

Spicy : "Ah well its not supposed to be offensive and ur welocme ......so how u doing wat u up2?"

Spicy surely caught me on the right day, I had all the free time in the world to Gossip to this complete virtual Spicy stranger. I could have bored him to the end of time with I have chicken pox so dont mess with me... But who wants to hear the sad story behind the so called beautiful face Mr spicy has been writing to.

Me: " Nothing much. Just hanging by the moment. Summers setting in, it's groggy ! Feel like sleeping. What you upto?"

Spicy : "I'm waiting for the kind of love
That is strong enough
To walk through anything
So don't waste my time
So don't waste my time
I only wanna play for keeps
Wanna fall in deep
If you don't just say goodbye
Don't waste my time"

Spicy was poetic - a modern poet, who doesnt actually write things himself, just googles the right lyrics to fit into the right conversation. Not bad ! My Spicy finally added me as a friend. Till now, thanks to Facebook privacy measures didnt allow him to see my picture, friends notes etc and neither could I

A quick check into his profile revealed his actual profile. A real friend for old times sake was taking my case : ( Spicy went down the drain.

Spicy was this bespectacled genuis of my school. Aced all exams and participated in every other debate and science quiz competitions. Got home the trophy of the maths olympiad three times in a row, a record which still remains unbroken to this date. But Spicy was = sugary in school. How did Sugary turn Spicy !! What is wrong with the world. Perspectives change ! People change ! But sugary is a matter of character - how can that change.

Sugar and spice added me to msn then ! A bried what are you doing ? How is life revealed the following information.

Junior College = Mithibai
Degree College = Some Chef top school in Switzerland
Work stats = Hospitality manager for a chain of hotels in switzerland
Facial features is now = HOT n SPICY
Character still remains sugary towards me

Well, he had to go then. He was starting his shift ! But Mr sugar and spice did make me forget any grudge I held against Facebook ! It helped me find my old friend back !!!! But he promised to catch up tomorrow same time. Well, I was going to be in my bed, so now i was looking forward to a sugary and spicy afternoon chat date with my long lost school friend !!!!