Is it written in the stars?

The future is an untold and unwritten story but the tragedy is that the one who plays the storyteller or story-writer is usually oblivious of their role. Some storytellers/storywriters believe that their lives have been planned out and will be executed in accordance to that plan. People who possess these beliefs also possess an insatiable thirst for peeks into plan for the future. We try to decipher the codes written in the stars, scrawled on the lines of our palm thinking they'll tell us what the plan looks like.

Regarding all this I would like to pose a question to my readers: why do most future predicting methods give vague predictions? If the future is planned why can't precise events be predicted ? But there are occasions when the predictions(whether vague or precise) change their status to reality then I find myself questioning my initial skepticism about the whole thing. I have come up with certain theories as to why some predictions travel from the possibility realm to the reality realm. Firstly majority of the prevalent psychic practices give very vague predictions. And whether or not you are aware of it, when you hear predictions you always try to link it up to something that's going on in your life right now. Hence it's a matter of interpretation. Going on the fact that majority of predictions are never precise that means either our futures are not pre planned or the plan isn't encrypted in stars, our palms etc.

Personally I believe that our future is not pre planned, if it isn't pre planned that means our future is dependent on something else to occur. The fact that the future hasn't been planned in advance points out that we enter this equation somewhere. How do we enter this equation? By our actions, words, thoughts and ultimately beliefs. So another reason as to why predictions sometimes become realities is because of large amounts of belief invested in predictions.

I wouldn't denounce the psychic practices in the world because these predictions have manifested good things in the realities of believers by giving good predictions. So psychic practices of any kind have an irreplaceable place in the world's mentality and ultimately its future. Yet be careful when investing your belief because returns will be received when belief is invested in anything.

Basically I urge people to be cautious believers. I'd like to conclude by making a suggestion, let your mind sketch that desired future, let your creative juices make the sketch vibrant then finally let your open eyes see what they once saw when they were closed. You will soon come to realize that your dreams are nothing but your reality in the making.

A dash of Inspiration

Every once in a while I need a dash of inspiration to re-emerge from my mental lair of laziness and write a blogpost. This time that dash of inspiration came in the form of a good day. But sometimes a dash of inspiration isn't enough to keep me going like for instance now, as I write this I am listening to a song over and over again and thanks to which my fingers are still punching keys. As I think about all this I wonder what really is Inspiration? Does Inspiration take up an immortal form for each person or is our muse variable with time ? Inspiration comes in so many different forms, a song, a story etc so it can be said that a person's muse is generally variable, its not immortal for anyone because what inspires you today is not necessarily going to inspire you tomorrow. So far we can say that Inspiration is something which possesses no particular form that initiates or provokes an action of some sort. I believe Inspiration is responsible for the 'light bulb moments' of life but Inspiration just flicks the switch of the light bulb on, whether that light bulb flickers or gives a steady glow depends on something else. This has compelled me to believe that Inspiration doesn't work alone, I think it has a partner in crime , an accomplice that I call Motivation. For me the good day was the Inspiration to write this and the Motivation that keeps me going is the music I am listening to. Inspiration and Motivation work hand in hand. So is there a way that we can get inspired and motivated more often so that we are catapulted from our mental lairs of laziness in to doing some fun yet productive? The best answer I can give to that is be alert for things that inspire you Motivation will follow Inspiration so once your inspired you have got the ball rolling to do great things.

Indulging in the ultimate chocolate fantasy

It was a Sunday afternoon, I was hanging out at a mall with two friends of mine. A ritual always followed when we hang out - devouring every edible item within a close radius! Our previous picks were ice cream, pasta, magic corn but this time our pick was The Great Molten Chocolate Lava Cake. 'The Great' part was added by me to emphasize how great it was. The name lets your imagination run wild and you imagine a lip smacking desert. You'd be wrong if thats what you imagined because it was much more than that!

We took a seat at Chilli's. The ambience was incredible. There was music being played, soft but loud enough not to be drowned out by conversations. A basket ball match was being played on a t.v over head. The walls were adorned with pictures. We ordered the cake and an old fashioned chocolate shake. Later the cake arrived and our chatter was silenced. Mounted on a zig - zag pattern of chocolate sauce, there it stood, at the base was a chocolate cake with a core of steamy molten chocolate and on the cake, a scope of vanilla ice cream concealed by a layer of frozen chocolate over it! I am still debating in my head if it was a hallelujah moment or not.

The plan was simple - start at the bottom and work your way up the heavenly structure. We seized our spoons ready to attack. The clashes between the metal spoons and the plate resulted in several clanks followed by a chorus "MMMMMmmmmmm". As we cut through the cake the molten chocolate began spewing out. When the cake was in my mouth, my eyes closed, it felt like I was cut off from all my senses except taste for I was completely lost in the pleasure. I can literally taste the cake in my mouth as I describe it. They say looks maybe deceptive but not in this case. More clanks and more mmmmmmm's. Soon we had successfully dismantled and devoured the cake from its heavenly structure. There stood the scope of ice cream , solitary with its armor - the layer of frozen chocolate. It almost seemed as if the scope of ice cream had surrendered for its defeat was inevitable.

With my mighty spoon in hand, I cut through the layer of hard and frozen chocolate then more clanks and mmm's and we were done. Next on our list to devour was the old fashioned chocolate shake. That too was a truely chocolaty delight but the Molten Chocolate Lava Cake was a tough act to follow. It was the ultimate chocolate fantasy. I do hope this made my readers mouth watering-ly envious!

10 things that don't have a price tag

1. Nature's tears of joy: As the first few drops fall downwards, the smiles that spread across many faces as the pitter - patter gets more audible, the change in the colour of everything open to nature's tears of joy. If the water from the heavenly abode had a price tag then I am sure all of us from Dubai would pay anything to have it to sprinkle down more often here.

2. Time : Don't we all know this one. Even if you turn the hour glass upside down just as the last grains of sand are about to trickle down, you will not get time back. Blank cheques are completely useless to purchase time too.

3. True friendship : It may be hard to find, it may take time to realize you have it but when you have it, you know you're lucky. Such friends leave an everlasting impression on you.

4. Encouragement: Encouragement is something I value greatly and I know encouragement is something that comes from within and does wonders.

5. Enjoying music: It may or may not cost you to listen to it but to enjoy and feel it on every level of your being and attach some good memories to it, you don't need a dime.

6. A good day: Getting up in the morning feeling energized and refreshed is all you need to have a good day. It's something everyone wants but vicious beliefs have lead people to believe that it visits as rarely as when tooth fairies visit children.

7. Talent: It can't be bought or sold, from interest its cultivated like a seedling and one day blooms into a beautiful flower and unveils itself to the world.

8. Praise that comes from the heart: It makes you feel good, it makes you feel special and most of the times its impossible to forget. You wish you could re-live such moments but for all you know there are many more to come.

9. Feeling good about yourself : It doesn't matter if you're wearing Gucci, Armani or just your old pajamas because ultimately theres no price to like the person you see in the mirror.

10. Inspiration : Everyone gets inspired by different things. Different things inspire us at different times, most of us have a new muse everyday.Inspiration is like the spark that ignites a fire.

Fourteen Candles

Fancy wrapping paper, gifts, cake ,candles and guilt free shopping ,I am talking about that time of year - my birthday. So how did I spend that glorious day? That's what I am going blabber about in the next billion words!

In my previous blog posts I have mentioned my obsessions such as chocolate and shopping now I am going briefly introduce another one of my obsessions :- The Twilight Saga. After reading all four novels cover to cover, plus a supplementary book and watching 3 of its movies , I still can't seem to get enough. The third installment i.e. The Twilight Saga : Eclipse released a few days before my birthday. I decided to go for the movie with a best friend of mine on the day of my birthday. At the theatre there was some chitter chatter between me and my friend but after the lights went down I transformed into a Twilight zombie who watched, stuffed nachos in her mouth and passed comments all in a mechanical flow. That's when it happened - the fashion disaster of 2010! Most disasters have warning but this one was completely unexpected ,it was the so called 'innocent' movement of my friend's elbow that tipped over the tray of nachos on my lap.This disaster hasn't been recorded anywhere (besides this blog) as the only witnesses besides my friend was a theatre hall full of wannabe vampires and werewolves who preferred vampire - werewolf feuds than a human girl's war against nachos and a nacho cheese stain. My friend kept muttering apologies followed by my "it's okay" though her first apology wasn't followed by my forgiveness rather a death threat. To my luck the saviors of the day were present in my bag - tissues! I cleaned up my dress with my attention on the screen rather than my dress. As soon as the credits started rolling we left. I went home to the pleasant surprise of a cake on the dining table surrounded by candles and potpourri. After the birthday song I cut the cake. My mother then left the cake cutting station for a minute while we cut slices of cake for ourselves ready to dig in. Then my mother returned, her expression declaring that she had something on her mind "Aishwarya you didn't blow the candles!" and then I stared at the 14 candles lit and eagerly waiting for a huff and a puff. I blew 13 candles and paused before I had to blow the last one. I made a wish and the last one was out. So that was my fourteenth birthday which was concluded with the nail biting FIFA finals. So all in all it was different then my usual birthday celebrations but never the less one of the best.

Mission hopefully possible : Clean up Cupboard

An inside look of my cupboard revealed clothes of various hues scattered and toppled one over the other. My cupboard has been called a black hole by my mother with given proof that small items of clothing that found its way into my cupboard usually never made it out. Closing the doors of my cupboard was an impossible task because unhappy shirt sleeves, legs of pants would jut out the bottom hence preventing the doors from being closed and in process giving more than a peek into the shameful plight of my cupboard. Last week I reached a decision regarding my cupboard which was clearing out and organising it. It was a full day job only interrupted for emergencies such as a hungry stomach or coming down with what I call bored-itus. Besides my breakfast and lunch, music was my fuel. And then it began , pulling out clothes, folding most of them, putting the rest on hangers and repeating. The new clothes were put on hangers and the rest was folded and put in piles. The foundation of these piles was made of clothes I would never wear even if I was brainwashed and the clothes I would wear made the rest of the pile. I let out a sigh of satisfaction when I was finally able to close the doors. Then a few days later the greatest natural disaster unknown to human kind occurred - a cloth avalanche! I stood there traumatised as clothes from the top of the piles came crashing down. Further investigation or just common sense revealed the cause of the avalanche to be poor foundation. Someday in the near or distant future I will once again venture out on mission : Clean up Cupboard.

Wrestling with tigers

I glanced at the clock , 5:40 pm as I remember it , that was when I reluctantly chose to face death. I was prepared to wrestle with the tigers. It was just a few days ago when my mother enquired when I planned to wrestle with the tigers , my reply had 'teamwork' carefully hidden in it but my mother heard the teamwork bit crystal clear. "You are in high school and you can't cover your textbooks by yourself?" Clearly I had to go solo on this mission. I came out of my reverie and saw my textbooks stacked in a pile on the table and the roll of brown paper lay on the floor standing tall. The referee in my head announced "On this chair , weighing who knows how many pounds, we have - Aishwarya!" The audience cheered. "On the table, also weighing who knows how many pounds, we have - the books and brown paper also known as the tigers!" The audience booed. TING TING TING - Round 1. Snipping, Sticking, folding and of course my occasional sighs of frustration. It was 9 textbooks and 1 roll of brown paper versus one human girl. Talk about being outnumbered but luckily I did have help from a pair of scissors and sticky tape. The tigers were very stubborn but somehow I managed to take care of a few. TING TING TING - Round 2! The tigers unleashed their latest trick to the audience - the deadly air bubbles! Whats worse ? I realized that my poor 'wrestling'(covering books) skills contributed to the air bubbles. But I somehow tackled a few more 'tigers'(books) despite their new trick. 6 down 3 to go. TING TING TING - Round 3! As our wrestling match continued the tigers kept producing air bubbles. Finally it was down to one tiger and as expected it produced an air bubble. I pinned the tiger down to deal with the air bubble. " One ..…Two….Three! And we have a winner!" The clock said 7:40 pm by the time I was done wrestling with the tigers. I walked away from the table content with my performance. Another day , Another accomplishment!

Namesake

"And the Academy Award for best actress goes to…… Aishwarya Nair!" I hear loud applause and I blush in mild embarrassment. I walk towards the stage then I hear my friend's voice echo "Which Aishwarya Nair ?", and thats when my alarm clock interrupts my red carpet fantasy. I took a surgical knife to my dream and came to the realization that I was in a similar situation. It's kind of like Borne Identity minus the bloodshed and violence. A friend of mine has the same first and last name as I do. But she has a middle name ,which is represented by it's initial and I don't have a middle name. We had been in the same class since kindergarten upto 8th grade. Unfortunately the spotlight only shone on the first and last name and the middle name lay in the shadow. Result : Utter confusion. So somewhere along the line a teacher put my last name before my first name. And I had to live with that for over 5 years! Can you imagine 007's catch phrase becoming "The name is James , Bond James."? It was not an imagination but a reality in my case. Well my 'new name' still didn't manage to cease the confusion. I was quite upset by the whole thing. My parents tried to get my name put correctly but their efforts in vain. It may not seem like the problem that requires a serious debate by world leaders but it wasn't just the problem that my name was wrong ,teachers and students got mixed up between me and my like named friend. When we participated for competitions confusion followed. I had given up the battle to get my identity back. When we were in the 8th grade , we were put in different classes and my class teacher changed my name to what it should be. That is something I am very thankful for. No mistaken identities ever since. The name is Nair , Aishwarya Nair.

Chocolaty Obsession

Chocolate , chocolate, chocolate, need I say more? Sensory perception is the way we enjoy chocolate. We hear the crackle of the wrapper , we see the chocolate and admire the physical properties like shape and color, we feel its texture with our finger tips , the smell of chocolate may not be that strong in one bar of chocolate but I am sure if you visited Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory the smell would be a lot stronger and last but not the least the taste that is something the words of the English language could never describe. Well I may not be a shopaholic but I think I am a chocoholic. Its crunchy sometimes, creamy sometimes all I can say is the diversity of chocolates is like the diversity in human personalities. The color of chocolates sometimes white or different shades of brown depending on the chocolate. Very much like the color of human skin isn't it? Whether its dark chocolate , milk chocolate , white chocolate , chocolate with nuts and raisins we all like a different type of chocolate that's just like the way human interests are diverse. Chocolate in many ways replicates human beings. Wouldn't you agree?Well I have no plans to put a bar of chocolate below a microscope and later run tests to unveil the great secrecy behind the pleasure it brings to one and all instead I plan to enjoy it and let you enjoy it. Pop a piece of chocolate in your mouth whether you slice it with your teeth or let in melt away in your mouth there are no words to describe what you feel on your tongue and in your mind.

Predators

As I had mentioned earlier ,one of my favorite paring of words is buy one get one free. Recently , well it wasn't that recent , it was 2 months ago , I visited a 'buy one get one free' sale with my sister. The shop was huge and consisted of various brands. The first sight of the shop unleashed a strong desire in me - the desire to shop! I wouldn't call myself a shopaholic but I can't deny the fact that I take pride in bringing shopping bags home. There was plenty of variety in color and style but unfortunately not in size. Within some time , the shop began to resemble a cyclone struck area. Clothes of various hues hid the beautiful sheen of the wooden floor. And us merciless predators were reluctant to spare anything that catches our eye. I marched up and down in utter disappointment for whatever 'prey' I targeted wasn't a part of the offer. With my sister's help I found other 'preys' that eventually had to submit to me. Our basket full , we headed towards the trial rooms. It was quite a brilliant idea to only have 6 trial rooms in a shop so large. Many predators like me were lined up with their 'preys' in their baskets. All us predators ready to pounce when we heard a door unlock. The wait was worth it. We left the shop content with what we purchased. The predator inside me was satisfied and looks forward to the next hunt.

Being Lola

Standing in the centre spot on stage , clad in my mother's saree , the spotlight on me and an audience of about 700 people before of me. This is the story of how an ordinary teenage girl transformed into Lola Kutty. She had to change her attire, her accent all in hopes of being Lola. Our talent contest (for grades 7 and 8) was coming up , it's an annual event. I auditioned for mad ads , which is basically team effort to create a humorous advertisement. I was selected and had a group of very dedicated , crazy and creative students like myself. In the ad we created I played one of the very famous Channel V (India) VJ'S Lola Kutty. I had reluctantly imitated her before ,in front of an audience of about 7 people , all family. This time the audience would be about 700 people. So this called for a large scale transformation into the saree clad ,heavy Malayali accented Lola. It's was much easier than I am making it seem like. The talent contest is a day I will never forget , my very first time wearing a saree( I did a rehearsal at home ), trotting in my school where only few teachers wore sarees. That was a major reason some people mistook me to be a teacher , they were sarcastic of course. The expressions on the faces of my teachers and friends was unforgettable. Me and my group practiced a lot that day before our final performance. Then the time came for us to perform and our performance made the audience burst into peals of laughter. We were overjoyed that people were laughing at us. My performance in particular got an amazing response which I didn't expect in my wildest dreams. One of the judges, my music teacher was giving a speech after the contest ,she stood at the podium making her speech and then looked towards me ,what happened next took me by surprise "And Lola kutty you took my heart away" embarrassed by the compliment but overjoyed by the recognition I mouthed a thank you. That is something I will remember for the rest of my life. My group won second place. I celebrated at home over a large tiramisu cake with my family and friends. Life wasn't the same for that girl she was there after known as Lola Kutty.

The Best tattoo

What is the best tattoo you can get on your character? here are some clues for that answer, it's painless , and its part of an offer. One of my favorite paring of words is 'buy one get one free'. Don't we all love to hear that. In similar words tattoo gratitude on your character get a humility tattoo free. Humility is another quality I admire and try to inculcate in myself. I believe that for one to be humble one must be thankful first. So in the amazing spirit of gratitude I want to thank a lot of people. Thank you God for everything , thanks for creating this beautiful world for me to blog about and thanks for the other infinite great blessings you have showered upon me. Thank you dad for everything, you taught me to write , you gave me those very useful key points of writing in the 4th grade and you have inspired me by your writing .Thank you mom and sis for your support and encouragement in everything I do. Thank you all my readers because honestly if it weren't for you reading I wouldn't blog. I believe there's a teacher in all of us , so thank you to everyone who has taught me anything new and good. When I am dead in my tracks of writing , music you have inspired me , thank you. The secret to having more in life is to be grateful for what you have at present. Something fun I have done recently was making a gratitude list - I listed all the things I was grateful for and I read it every now and then to instill that feeling of gratitude further. I suggest this fun experiment because as the saying goes 'Count your blessings'. Living a day in this spirit of gratitude is amazing because happiness , humility and every other good emotion you know follows. Imagine living your life with those feelings running through you every single moment. Be thankful for the littlest things in life , then life will give you bigger things to be thankful for. For example I am very thankful for the 'check spelling' tool on blogger otherwise I would have to go to my room and get my dictionary surf through the pages for the word I seek ,now that's pretty tiring ! That's a little thing I am really thankful for. So by now you should have understood what I meant by the best tattoo to get on your character its none other than gratitude.

Super girl or something like that!

When I was a kid I imagined myself to be a super heroine , who fought evil , looked pretty for the cameras and had a cool name. Keeping that in mind, I am going to narrate some heroic activities I have done recently. It was 3 'o' clock , just during lunch as I remember ,I heard some impatient cries for desert. Even my stomach cried for desert. So since superheroes always save the day and never say no to helping out during a crisis , I took up the challenge. The mission was to satisfy the cries of impatient stomachs and tongues ,including mine of course. Superheroes are said to fly at supersonic speeds but in reality the law of gravity isn't very kind to us. It treats us like everyone else. For that reason my dad drove me to the destination of all that is sweet. He waited in the car and I ran into the place where the most sweetest mouth watering things on earth dwell , there was no battle as the ones in charge of that place were kind yet they also weren't willing to cut me a discount. Honestly aren't there any advantages to this super heroine thing! I gave the 'green stuff' as its called , then he agreed to release some of the ' sweet stuff' and packed it neatly and handed it over. But my job wasn't done yet ,I had to retrieve something else and only then I could scream mission accomplished in victory and later enjoy my reward that awaited me in a plastic cup. Then I went to retrieve the next goody bag , the place I had to go to had lot of hungry people but there was no battle since there was no scarcity in these goody bags. I obtained the goody bag with less effort than my previous attainment of a goody bag and dashed into the car. I returned home yelling "Amma I have come victorious with ice cream and apple pie". I distributed the goody bags the first one contained two ice creams and my reward , all three from Baskin Robins. The second one had an apple pie from McDonald's. Another day another problem taken care of. Then I opened the goody bag for my reward , a thick shake topped with whipped cream but unfortunately the time spent to retrieve the goody bags and the journey back home made the whipped cream sub merge into the thick shake like the Atlantis island into the sea.

Opening the Giant Tap

The skies grow dark and laden with dense and grey clouds ,the first few drops that fall from the heavenly abode , slowly slowly the pitter - patter of the rain drops becomes louder , its almost like someone forgot to close a giant tap in heaven. I love the rain , living in Dubai I have not been fortunate to see much of it but I know if rains were more frequent here I'd grow tired of it. Winter generally arrives in the months of November or December and makes a very depressing departure in the months of March or some times even April if we're lucky. Call me a pessimist if you may but I love dark and cold mornings because it gives me hope of rains but usually the sun comes out bright by 9 am and pops my bubble. In the month of January we had a few rains , well I can't call it rain it was more of a drizzle , and after that the tap was closed for quite a while so I sent a plea to God ,via my facebook status , for Him to open the giant tap above Dubai.

RAIN, RAIN PLZZ RAIN!!!I SICK OF COLD MORNINGS THT GETS MY HOPES HIGH UP AND THEN SUNNYY AFTERNOONS!! SERIOUSLY!!! RRRRAAAIIINNN!!

Well He did open the tap and I was pretty happy!Our most recent rain was in March , during my exams , it was a very heavy rain, many roads in Dubai were flooded. The bus parking area in my school, which is just sand and mud, began to resemble a paddy field. Regardless of all that I still enjoyed it which is good because I have a feeling the tap over Dubai isn't going to be opened till December 2010 but I'll be patient. I am going to put my sweaters and boots away and bring out my hat and a pair of sunglasses cause we expect the arrival of summer soon.

The Time Capsule

A time capsule refers to a sealed container in which articles of present culture is preserved for rediscovering and reminiscing in the future. I know something that serves as a time capsule. Our mood when we first hear it determines what we put in this time capsule. Still can't figure out what I am talking about? I am talking about music! One song can serve as a time capsule for infinite number of people because we all tend to attach certain memories ,whether good or bad ,to songs. Memories are the articles of present culture but the only difference in this kind of a time capsule is it can only be opened and understood by the one who buries it. Only you know what memory you attached to it. Try and think about it , why do you feel happy when you hear certain songs after a long time - because you are thinking of the memories that you embedded in it . So can you imagine the number of time capsules you have buried and are burring . Take a day aside to open up these capsules , open up only the ones you feel good about , and experience the joy that music brings to one and all. You don't have to know how to make music to enjoy it. You don't have to pay a ticket for the the memory that you put in it. It has so much variety that there is a type of music for every person on the planet. In a world where we keep hearing the words 'there isn't enough of' its great to know that there will always be more than enough of music for everyone. Music is pretty user - friendly , because the process of attaching a memory is easy and can be done by anyone young and old. You just need to sit back and put those head phones on!

The Power

My favourite book at present is 'The Secret' by Rhonda Byrne . If you haven't read it I suggest you do. Basically the book talks about the Law of Attraction which in simple words is you attract what you think of. Regarding this there is a very interesting life experience of mine I would like to share. Children have ever changing ambitions ,it's a known fact. And to be honest its quite fun to experience a liking towards many different things on short notice. When I was in the 6th grade I wanted to be a marine biologist. I had a fascination for the world of beautiful sea creatures. I used to research about fishes on wikipedia and one that caught my eye in particular was the lion fish. It was stripped white and brown simply beautiful! but also a dangerous predator. I saved its picture on my desktop and would stare at it in awe ,every single day. I thought I would only get a chance to see it when I go under water and pursue this wild dream. Eventually I lost interest in the world of marine biology and moved on with my life. 2 years later , it was announced that for our class excursion we would be going to the Atlantis Resort and theme park in Dubai and we would be going to the 'Lost Chambers' in the resort. That day I saw many fishes of various sizes and shapes and a brief introduction of each was made by our guide. As we moved on to the next wonder to admire, I couldn't believe it. Swimming behind the glass was none other than the white and brown stripped lion fish! I was shocked. It was the very same lion fish that I would admire all day when I was a kid and I finally got to see it. When I was a kid I thought the distance that separated me from this fish would take 2 decades to cover but there I stood 2 years later, just an inch away from the lion fish. I forgot to mention there were about 4 of them. It is experiences like this that truly taught me the power of the mind to summon our desires. The power can't be suppressed or denied. The power is equal in all and constant. How we choose to use that power is variable.

The Great Eight

As my academic year comes to an end I reminisce on the good memories , I know this is one year that I will never forget - the best year of my life so far. So what was eight grade all about ? Well my answer may sound cliche because you probably would hear the same thing from any other teenager but the truth is the truth , 8th grade was about parties , hang outs , non stop 'facebooking' and more. 8th grade was also about making new friends and this year I have made some friends who have left a great impression on my life and inspired me to live life to the fullest. Our teachers well they are simply the best with great sense of humour! It was the same walls that surrounded me in 8th grade and the same when I was younger somehow it was all so different in 8th grade. Having so many days where I am happy and excited to go to school. Laughing at home about things that happened at school. The whole mix of absolutely dreading some classes and looking forward to a few others was another prominent feature of my year. Next month I am going to climb the stairs up to my new ninth grade classroom and not only carrying my bag along with me but also the great memories of 8th grade which unlike my bag is not a burden. But something that gives me plenty of hope that the next year will be as great or even better than this year is that the friends who made eight grade special are coming with me to ninth as well. So far this has been the best year of my life yet I know there will be many years ahead that will top this. I am going to lend a deaf ear to people complaining about particular grades ahead or stages of life because I live life on my terms not somebody else's. So the world better watch out because I am coming!

Cyber Age

Welcome to what I call the 'Cyber - Age' , when literally everything happens over the Internet.You can catch up with those friends you haven't seen in a long time. Over here you can download those songs that won't stop playing in your head. Please don't forget to fill in your Cyber Identity Cards(a.k.a Facebook profile , myspace page etc). Right now we are being ruled over by Facebook.com , I am sure you have heard about it. Your friends are waiting for you online . If you have any questions about anything in life ,don't ask me instead go to www.google.com. Facebook , Twitter , Orkut etc are our means of communication. Gone were the days when we called people using our telephones and cellphones now we summon them online! We have a lifestyle online! Though some people may not like the 'Cyber Revolution' or the reign of social networking websites, I love it! "Farewell my good friend I hope to see you online everyday!" , these days even if our friends move away to other countries thanks to the great social networking websites we can talk to them everyday , so its really not like they left. Sometimes we learn a lot about people from their 'Cyber Identity Card'(a.k.a their facebook profile). From personal experience I am more connected with my friends over facebook than on phone or in person , I don't feel that's a bad thing its pretty fun in fact. All this definitely makes me wonder what the next big thing is? What website is going to knock off facebook from its throne? Will Internet be extinct one day because a more fun and advanced alternative has been found? Only time can answer my questions.

Simplcity in Fashion?

Ancient man and woman's clothing was animal skin so there wasn't much variety in clothing and at that time clothing was more a necessity than a fashion statement. Over years we have got more and more variety in clothing , styles ,colours and so on. Many say that simplicity is the only rule that one must follow when they dress up. I disagree. I believe that fashion is an outlet to express one's individual style and not everyone likes to keep it simple that's not every one's style. Many times we watch some fashion shows and think why anyone would design things that look like they belong in a trash can , personally even I used to think the same but then I thought fashion is an outlet to express your style so if the designer's style is wild ,wacky and out of this world then designing clothes like that is not a crime. According to me what you wear should truly represent you , and then what you wear will automatically boost you self confidence. Never wear clothes that contradict you and your style. So if simplicity isn't your style don't try it.

Eating whipped cream with a straw

After getting my 'chocolate chip cream'(ice coffee) from the counter , I took a seat with my father at a table in Starbucks. I couldn't help but admire the beautiful and delicious liquid in a plastic cup that was in my hands. The ice coffee had a delicious topping - whipped cream! You could probably imagine my delight. I didn't want to suck the whipped cream through the straw instead i wanted to use my straw as 'the weapon to devour the unsuspecting whipped cream! . So basically I wanted to use my straw as a spoon and eat the whipped cream , yet I had to remind myself that I was in a classy coffee shop where proper etiquette should be my guide. I glanced at the whipped cream which tempted me even more. I am only 13 years old would people really expect me to exhibit lady - like manners. I thought ahead into the future for a little while , coming on a coffee break to Starbucks ,my 24 year old self buys an ice coffee and tries the 'straw for spoon' stunt. At that age it would definitely be awkward and people would surely expect me to follow lady - like manners. So after deliberating in my head I came to a verdict. I took the lid off , my 'weapon to devour' ready in my hand I then scooped a bit of the whipped cream and felt it melt in my mouth. The feeling of satisfaction I had , I didn't get the outcome I feared. I am pretty sure my 24 year old self would be proud of what I did cause if not now, when?