Little things in life

What Happiness means to the bizarre scientist

·         Getting a call from Mom, Dad or Sister when I feel lonely

·         After writing my last exam

·         Teasing my friends with their crushes!

·         Laughing till my stomach aches

·         To see my parents smile because of something I did

·         Playing pranks on friends; especially doing something they hate

·         Munching on something when a class is in progress

·         When my friends are scolded for talking in class, when it was really me!

·         To get a last minute call that says class is cancelled

·         Going on vacation with family

·         To empty my bladder after having to hold it for a long time

·         Taking a walk at 5.30 in the morning

·         Watching the sunset in silence from the university terrace with friends

·         Getting wet in the overflowing water from hostel overhead tank

·         Laughing hard when a friend embarrasses herself in front of her crush

·         Walking slowly in the rain with a friend back to hostel after a busy day

·         When a baby holds my finger tightly and refuses to let go

·         Waking up at night and seeing I have more time to sleep

·         A movie with a perfect happy end

·         When my crush smiles at me

·         When I and my dad successfully fix a broken gadget or faulty circuit

·         Adding numbers to the number of countries I have travelled to.

·         Riding from the dept to language block in scooty through the green jungle with the wind blowing through my hair

·         Dancing to loud music and disco lights at home with my mom

·         Laughing and Crying out loud while reading an engaging novel

·         Listening to soft music in earphone during a long bus ride

·         Exploring a new patch of jungle inside my university with a friend

·         Eating a chocolate when lots of people are watching me with jealousy

·         Taking selfies!!!

·         Teasing my friend till she’s on the verge of a nervous breakdown

·         Hanging out with the construction worker’s kids at university

·         Staying in bed till 11’ am and my mom is okay with it

·         Finish reading a new novel

·         Reading Harry Potter over and over again till I become old and lose my eyesight

·         Realising the love of God when looking at the crucifix

·         Finishing a new ‘Craplog’

·         When someone says I’m proud of you

·         Reading Calvin and Hobbes comics and laughing so loud that others think I’m nuts

·         When I get perfect results in my research project

·         Discovering inspirational people like Martin Luther King Jr.

·         Finding  the right words that explain my present situation in the bible

·         Working out in the morning

·         Biting into fresh bread, jam and butter

·         Anticipating dinner at 7 in the evening

·         Thinking about happy nostalgic memories

·         Watching someone being pooped on or puked on by a baby

·         When nobody is watching when I fall down

·         Singing aloud when nobody’s around

·         Being too lazy to get up and pick up something that’s just out of reach

·         When a random guess in exam turns out right

·         When a cute puppy keeps running around me and refuses to go away

·         Eating a bar of chocolate little by little and savouring every bite

·         Watching funny videos

·         When friends watch horror movies at night and I can easily scare them for the next few days

·         When teachers send me out of class along with a group of friends

·         Looking at the amazing work of God under a microscope

·         Editing photographs ;)

·         Collecting funny photos of friends in folders to embarrass them later

·         Building cosy nests with my blanket and surrounded by all bare necessities(junk food) when I read a book

·         Cooking something that actually tastes good

·         Chatting with your bestie all night and suddenly realise its already morning

·         Girls Night Sleepovers <3 <3

These are little things in life that all of us enjoy. But we don’t take any conscious effort to actually acknowledge it. Life would be so much more fun if we can take things slow and cherish every second of it!

Dodging death, like a boss!

           Death is a very scary thing that almost everybody dreads. But how many have been alive to tell their story after looking death right between the eyes?? 

I have! 

I have not defied death once or twice but a number of times! 

Yeman (Hindu Tamil version of the Grim reaper) must be heads over heels in love with me cos he’s been trying to get to me since the day I was born! My guardian angel has had a very tough job keeping me safe and till now he’s been doing wonderful and certainly deserves a medal. 

Good job Dude!

The most horrifying near-death experience I’ve ever had was when I was about 3. My dad wanted to get me to pee before my bed time so that I didn’t wake him up in the middle of the night. He devised a plan and challenged me to race to the loo. I being very competitive, even when it comes to peeing, raced fast towards the toilet and turned back to see if my dad was gaining momentum. When I turned back again, I hit the wall headlong in my face and the projection in the wall cut in between my eyes, just where my nose starts. I was rushed to the hospital and had stitches. The most gruelling part I remember is how the cruel doctor focused a light into my face and forbid me to squint my eyes, while he stitched into my skin with a huge needle. I’m glad I survived that day or my dad would have had to live with the guilt all his life. Or maybe he’d have been saved of all the trouble he’s had to endeavour because I lived. I still have a tiny scar there that reminds me of that fateful day!

Four years later, the second time, I met death inside a sewage canal. That wasn’t a very nice place to meet someone, covered in sewage sludge from head to toe. Okay anyways, I’ll tell you how it happened. I was in my 2^nd grade and had just learnt to ride a bicycle. I no longer let my dad hold onto the back seat of the bicycle as I rode, because I felt it was belittling in front of other kids in the neighbourhood. So I got into my bicycle and rode away feeling rather proud and superior to those who were still learning to ride. Since I still hadn’t learnt how to stop and get down from the cycle, I always jumped from the cycle before stopping and picked up the cycle after it fell down by itself. It so happened that I went too close to an open drainage which was about 2 blocks from my house. I lost my balance and had to jump down to keep from falling down along with my cycle. But I jumped down, slipped and fell into the sewer. Can you believe that!!! Into a drainage sewer, out of all places to fall into! To add to the agony, the cycle fell on top of me. I was covered in all the grossest things you can imagine. One kind elderly neighbour, who saw me fall, pulled me out of the drain and helped me to my feet. I was covered from head to toe in black sewage. I ran home leaving my cycle behind calling to my mom. My mom then scrubbed me clean with Dettol and other disinfectants and dabbed my bruises with medicine. I still smelled bad even after a couple of washing bouts. That incident is unforgettable and I’m sure you’ll not forget it either! It makes me laugh every time I go past that spot. In the future, after I get enough money, I’m hoping to build a monument there to mark my nostalgic fall.

The coolest was when my car almost toppled over. My mom was driving and so it’s not a big surprise. She is a terrific driver and the finest in the whole world. That is meant to be a compliment because incidentally, I happen to be on top of her fan base. Anyways, on that fateful day, all of us, I, my dad, my mom and sister were travelling on the highway from Vailankanni to Madurai. I was explaining the Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix story plot to my sister, who was interested more in the cashews she was eating than my excited chatter. It so happened, one lorry coming on the opposite side tried to overtake another lorry going in front of it. You know how these retarded drivers are, they almost ignore the fact that there are vehicles coming from the opposite side. And so when this happened, my mom had to sever sharply to the left to avoid a headlong collision with the stupid lorry and we went off the road and straight into a ditch. Since the road was quite high than the surrounding eucalyptus plantations, the car stood almost vertical sideways. And we sat there unmoving so that we don’t topple over. For the first time in my life, my sister didn’t mind the fact that I had tumbled over and lay on top of her crushing her to death. Then my dad opened the 2 left doors and balanced the car on it. We got down and waited for help. Soon a bus full of men stopped and kind of lifted the car and drove it out of the ditch. It was super cool and it was a good thing we were travelling in a tiny little car, which was easy for the dozen men to pull out of the ditch. Nobody was hurt and no property was damaged in this accident. The only exception being the cashews that we were munching on before the incident, which almost got thrown outside, only to be saved by my mom! So finally the day is saved (also the cashews); thanks to my mom!!

And finally coming to the most embarrassing near-death experience, I was trying to ride my dad’s Hero Honda Splendour bike in circles inside my garden. I am only in my 8^th grade, and I wasn’t very brilliant back then. When I tried to do a sharp right turn, the wheel got caught in the garden mud and I went crashing down to my right. In the strain of falling down, I couldn’t think straight and kept raising the accelerator of the bike which made me slide across the garden sideways, scratching my right leg on which my bike had fallen on. My sister rushed to my side and turned off and took out the ignition key and saved my life!! I lay down there on the garden floor screaming till everyone came running from my house to see what had happened….. AAarrgghhh who cares about the pride when it comes to being in pain!! I cry at the slightest provocation or at the smallest bruise. That’s how I am and I have no regrets about it! Anyways, I’m alive, hale and healthy now and that’s what matters, right?

The latest episode of my historic clash with death was in my final year of undergrad. I had this strange habit of waking up at 5.30 every morning and going for a jog. I usually pull along two other sleepy unwilling friends to give me company. On that particular day, we went over to the university playground and spotted some monkey bars, which naturally I wanted to try! I went over and tried hanging on it upside down. But it so happened that the fabric of my track pants along with the morning dew on the bars, made my grip slip and brought me crashing down, with me hitting the ground headlong! Thank God no other boy saw my embarrassing fall because it was the exam season and the playground was quite deserted! But my friends with their generosity made sure everyone else in the university heard about it and thus my popularity rose! I am grateful for that :P On top of that, they still think I’m a bit crazy bcos of the way I hit my head on the ground that day!

                I probably should but I’m NOT going to talk in detail about the ice skating falls I suffered this week. I can’t decide which was more embarrassing: the number of spectators who watched me fall, my best friends rolling on the floor laughing at my funny fall, the fact that a number of rescuers had to put me back on my feet or the way I looked hideous flailing my hands about trying to steady myself when I lost balance, after which I fell anyway! Maybe I should just be proud that I atleast tried to defy gravity like a good soldier, instead of falling flat on my face!!

As you can see I’ve had a lot of scary experiences and tricked death many times (C’mon gimme some respect, no one else would have braved these incidents like I did) which has made me immune to the fear of facing it, when my time comes. And, I’m really looking forward to greet death like an old friend and then……. shock HIM to death!! So that’s the plan. 

Bring it on Man! Let’s see what ya hav got!!