Beauty at its best

I'm back blogging after a looong loong time !! I just returned from the most amazing vacation ever, and I thought I just had to write about it. After a semester of what seemed like endless slogging, I was left thinking that this was not the kind of life a teenager would want to settle for. I needed adventure. And i got more than i asked for. My family booked a trip to Yercaud right on the day my exams got over, and I was off !! No books, no tests, this was gonna be a freak-out fest !!

Well, the trip got a kickstart indeed, with a drunken hooligan ramming a trolley into me at the Chennai Central station and tearing half of our luggage, but I refused to let that dampen my spirits. The train was a roller coaster ! Literally.

We reached Salem at about 4 30 am. As we climbed up the hills, I could feel the freshness in the air. The more the height, more the monkeys !! If there's one creature i could make extinct, its a monkey. I yelled at my dad to keep the windows closed. You never know what those monsters are capable of doing. We reached the sterling resort dot at 6. My eyes raked the entire place, and they fell upon a big bright signboard saying "Due to the monkey menace, visitors are advised to keep their doors closed". Oh, boy .

Here'a a picture i took of the monkey that made regular attempts to enter my room every morning !

They didn’t really bother me much, except try to grab my backpack! It could have been much worse. Phew.

We visited many interesting places, but there was one in particular that got my attention. The School of Montfort, a school built by the British. The entire school was built of grey stone. I was so impressed by the way the Management had kept it spotless all these years. The Head was an English lady, and she greeted me as I passed by. The place had just about everything. A huge library, an athletics field, basketball courts and tennis courts ( I spent quite some time here ) , a cricket field which served as a grazing pasture for cows in the off-season, and to cap it all, stables for horses !! They had named each horse. One was called Vikram, named after our favourite Kollywood hero who studied there. What a life a student would have here! Royalty, really.

The school had a church at the back of the building. The churchyard provided the most amazing view in the whole of Yercaud. There was a huge hill, shaped like a sleeping elephant. You could even make out the elephant’s ears distinctly. See for yourself!



If you aren’t so much of a nature lover, then the thing that would interest you most in the school would be ‘the sundial’. Let me show you what it is!

The sundial is the fork shaped thing you can see in the picture. It’s an instrument that shows the exact time, and it doesn’t use any batteries or electricity. It’s just a simple piece of architecture. The shadow of the middle fork falls on the first or the third fork, depending on the position of the sun. There was a time scale drawn at each fork, and the point where the shadow fell showed the exact time. The instrument works throughout the year, never failing to show the correct time. You could just stand there the whole day admiring the brilliance and the beauty of it.

There was one thing which still remained unfulfilled!! Where was the adventure here?? The very next day, I was woken up at the crack of dawn to go trekking, and I jumped with joy! I love rock climbing, trekking and all such sporty hill activities.
All geared up, we walked about 2 kilometers to the trekking spot. My mouth fell open! How in the world were we supposed to climb this thing? The whole place was just….rocks. No steps, no hold, nothing. You had to be a sure footed mountain deer, which sadly, I was not.

I made my steps with utmost caution, barely listening to my guide telling us not to look down (We were climbing down, for god’s sake.) and that there were bisons on this hill (Excuse me ?!) I was getting nightmares as I held all the branches that came my way, imagining them snapping as I grabbed them.

Finally, after an hour of sweat-fest, we finally reached our destination- the Kiliyur waterfalls, with not a drop of water in it. Aw, crap!

Oh well, at least we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, and it really felt like we had accomplished something! The holiday, overall, was a pleasant change from the blistering Chennai heat and a welcome break from our daily routines. I hope for a bigger, better holiday next year! That’s all for now, I ll just leave you with a picture of the successful mountaineers! Yay us!

Fate is iron strong !

I m glad i finally found time to write my first ever blog. A few years ago, I didn't even know what a blog was. I still remember that fine day when I visited the ATP tennis website and found a flashy and catchy icon that said "Nadal blogs from Roland Garros". Being a die hard fan of Rafa, I immediately clicked on it and began reading. Though all i found out was that he enjoys eating toast with marmalade jam for breakfast ( oooh what an interesting piece of information ) i thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

Okay Anjana, stop harping on him already, you ve just started your blog ! Honestly. You guys would ve probably noticed that i can't resist talking about things i like. Yeah, thats right !

Oh, I wanted to thank the soul who taught me how to blog. She happens to be a college classmate of mine whose sole objective in life is to annoy the living hell out of me !! She bugs me and i bug her back. Its a written and established equilibrium and no external or internal forces can ever change that !!

Talking about my life, it is really very normal. So far, exciting and special events have seldom come by, and i admit i m too lazy to even try and make my life exciting. I have a wonderful circle of friends and all that, but I feel my life has always lacked the dose of fun that it should have had. My friends call me a nerd, but the truth is that they are prejudiced. I admit I used to be a geeky 'mega nerd syndrome' struck girl in school, but how things changed ! I must say people are just too horse minded to notice it. I do always end up whining the day before an exam and literally knocking information into that abnormally thick and adamant head of mine.

I am also called a scatterbrain. I agree with that hundred percent. I still have this nagging feeling that I have some short term memory loss problem, since I often find myself straining every sinew of my brain, trying to remember something which happened ten minutes ago. Or maybe i m just too oblivious to what is happening around me. Perhaps i m too lazy to bother about things happening around. I once forgot to take my schoolbag to school. Its true.( Strangely, I didn't forget my lunch bag ) I ended up borrowing bits of paper from people and taking down notes on them. As if this were'nt enough, fate said it had to happen AGAIN. But not entirely. I was on my bicycle early in the morning and on my way to school, feeling very proud that I had started early for once. ( I was a regular latecomer in school, thanks to my laziness ) When I was cycling past Nageshwara park, I had this thought, "Why am i feeling so light today ??" Then I finally realized that my donkey load was missing, and I had to cycle all the way back home to take it. And hell as usual, I ended up standing outside class looking at my fuming class teacher with a stupid grin on my face. I should have realised. I am meant to be a latecomer. It is written in the leaves of my destiny !

Okay thats enough ! I can't wait an another minute. Lets come back to my favourite subject, Rafael Nadal. I have this massive crush on him and my friends say it has deluded me ! I actually got an opportunity to meet him, and I blew it. I still hit myself on the head for that. It happened last year. I forced my parents to take me to the Chennai Open. Giving in to my tantrums, they took me there before the tournament had started. All I wanted was to get a good glimpse of him, and I got more than I asked for.

Alright, let me narrate the whole story. I was scanning the centre court, trying to spot a long haired, muscly spaniard but all I could see was an assorted crowd of people and total confusion. Suddenly, my pesky little brother poked me sharply in the back. Annoyed, I turned around to tell him to get lost and he had this sly grin on his face.

"Looking for someone ?", he said, pointing towards his right.

My eyes flickered to the direction he was pointing. OH. MY. GOD. There he was ! The Raging Bull ! Rafa was not just standing there, he was looking at me..and...oh jesus...smiling !! I suddenly went all wobbly legged, and had no idea what to do. I don't even remember if i smiled back or not. The next second, he was whisked away by a group of journalisis. For the next few minutes, I was simply standing there with my mouth half open looking at the spot where my crush had stood, smiling at me !! My brother was giggling away to glory, commenting that Rafa must have smiled because i looked stupid. You know, he is the only person who is almost as annoying as my dear college classmate who taught me how to blog.

Then, as we were making our way out of the stadium, I saw Rafa walking towards us, smiling again. I could ve said a simple 'Hola !!' for crying out loud !! But NO, my head chooses to get jammed that very minute, and my brain switches off !! FATE ! Its despicable !! The Rafa walked away, towards the practise courts.

Hmm !! Life gets really unlucky sometimes ! I guess I ll have to wait till next year. Hopefully Rafa will be able to make it and I will muster some courage to talk in front of him.

Okay fellas. Thats all for now. Hope you enjoyed reading !! Will write more soon !