Thursday, April 28, 2011

Just a Girl Crush baby! ;)


Movie star
Model
Or just another older person you’re acquainted with.
          Throughout our childhood,we girls[or atleast I did and presume for the rest] have phases where we half revere half idolize girls older than us who seem to have it all and are the person we think we want to be.Pretty-always pretty and cool as hell.
All of them coming under the completely platonic term girl crush.
          A few years ago,I’d watch this show called Remix on TV where this character named Tia absolutely epitomized the word floozy wearing itsy bitsy dresses and with her blond behavior. But somehow I liked all of those pretty dresses and dainty mannerisms that everyone else found exasperating. 
*girl crush alert*
           Once when I was 12 and my extended family came to visit, I took an instant liking to one of the girls who was probably 5-7 years older than me. She was thin, pretty and wore glasses like Blair Waldorf[my current girl crush :P] does headbands. That day while going back after lunch when everyone was deciding how best to fit the people in the car on the way back,she suggested that the 2 of us sit together in the front. I went and sat next to her nonchalantly but I was grinning on the inside. To a bookish, rather nerdy 12 year old it meant,"She knows I exist. That is so awesome.Maybe I’m a teensy bit cool on the inside :P". Yes it made me feel awesome. Yes it made my day :D
          I’ve been thinking about this because I’ve noticed that a girl who goes to my dance class has a girl crush on me
  • Over 5 years younger than me
  • Always smiles at me
  • Comes up to say hi to me at the beginning of every class
  • Chatters about stuff that’s “cool”
  • Says bye to me before leaving,sometimes even ignoring my friends

          My friends tease me incessantly about her having eyes just for me, but I encourage it anyway, perhaps because I remember times when id want my girl crushes to stop and note my existence.
And so the cycle goes on……
*giggleblush*


-Nirmitee Mehta

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Secrets Beyond The Shells...


Have you ever wondered how much this Universe we’re a part of contains? Is it a measurable quantity, definite and quantized… Or does it go up to infinity and beyond? How often, during the everyday routine of our somewhat predictable and uniform life, do we think of, or go on a quest to discover, the secrets that lie beyond the shells we’ve created for ourselves?



The first time I acknowledged the vastness of our world was when I came across the existence of the secret society of the Illuminati. For those of you Dan Brown readers, I’m pretty sure “Angels and Demons” rings a bell. To fill the others in with a brief idea, The Illuminati is an Enlightenment-era secret society founded during the late 18th century. Dan Brown’s renowned novel involves one of the protagonist’s attempts to retrace the steps of the "Path of Illumination", a process once used by the Illuminati as a means of inducting new members; as aspirants were required to follow a series of subtle clues left in various landmarks in and around Rome. Having found the Illuminati a rather gripping notion, I felt but compelled to research more in the field.


The basic concept of The Illuminati is to "enlighten people", or to infiltrate enlightened individuals into their secret society. They have been rumored to aim towards being the most superior in their era. Their objective is to be treated like Royalty – a modern society of Kings and Queens, to be worshipped by the common “non-enlightened” people of the world.

The Illuminati Diamond



The prevalence of the secret society, believed by many to be a form of modern Satan, in today’s era remains ambiguous, but conspiracy theorists have provided a handful of cryptic evidences that suggest their existence even now. It has been proposed that a number of famous people, the most influential in their field of work, have come together and joined forces towards the Illuminati. This has been decoded by the fact that they are known to leave esoteric Illuminati symbols and messages in the work they perform. For example, the famous hip-hop star Kanye West’s “All of the Lights” music video has a still in which a stripper is seen making a “V” formation with her legs while dancing on a pole, framing the image of an inverted triangle, which is considered one of the most profound symbols of the Illuminati. It is also very interesting and obscure to note that the Illuminati has even left its mark on the dollar bill, as is shown below.



A more undaunted testament of their entity was seen during 1995, when The Denver Airport (earlier called Stapleton International Airport) in Denver, Colorado, was reconstructed. There are several conspiracy theories relating to the airport's design and construction. A brave display of Illuminati symbols and paintings depicting one-world government raised the potential of the then-flickering subsistence of secret Satanic societies.




Theorists have also furnished answers for the 2012 prophecy. It is believed that 2012 is more the beginning of the New World Order than the End Of The World. 2012 is when the Illuminati will finally rise from secrecy, and using their mass-destruction tools (swine flu rumored to have been one of them), will remain the only humans on Planet Earth, to enable the perpetuation of a smarter (in their opinion) human race.


But then, of course, these are only theories, the truth could possibly be far from what has been adduced. It's viewpoints and ideas like these that make me want to discover and learn more, to get out of my comfortable space and swim in the river of endless perceptions that lie beyond my little world. It confuses me now, but perhaps, some day when I feel the most determined to do so, I will. :)

- By Chahita Lalchandani

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Behind the Quill


               “Rita Skeeter reached into her crocodile bag and drew out a long acid green quill and a roll of parchment…”.That quill, known as the quick quotes quill, transformed a normal sentence like “Testing...my name is Rita Skeeter, Daily Prophet reporter” into “Attractive, blond Rita Skeeter, forty three, whose savage quill has punctured many inflated reputations”. This rather self obsessed quill that had a knack for spouting out eloquent sentences fascinated me ever since I first encountered it in ‘Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire’.
          Getting one, albeit a non magical one, was a rather serendipitious moment for me. Here I’d like to share it with all you quill dreams readers.
          During the course of my exchange program I went on a lot of tours. At this time last year I was on a Eurotour with over 50 other exchange students. It was on the Italian leg of the tour when we visited the beautiful city of Siena that I first encountered the quill. I was browsing through the shops for souvenirs and when in a stationary store I stopped in my tracks when I spotted it…the most beautiful pen I had ever seen. I stood admiring it for a few minutes and then rushed to share this find with my friend Volimte.We ooh-ed and aah-ed over the simple beauty of the quill before deciding that we could not go without having it for ourselves. She bought a green one and I a lovely deep pink one. For the rest of the day I was bursting with joy[no exaggeration] reveling in the bliss of having bought the most beautiful pen in the world.
          The next morning when I was looking through my things in my bag, I couldn’t find it but quickly put it down to the fact that I’d perhaps forgotten it in the bus the previous night and figured it would turn up when we got back on the bus for the day’s journey. It did not despite my searching long and hard and I spent the entire day distraught and worried about having lost it so soon.
          Later at night one of my friends came to my room. He’d heard me talk about losing it and immediately thought back to the stuff he had found while on bus cleaning duty. He’d gone back to look through the stuff and having found the quill, came looking for me right after. I squealed and couldn’t thank him enough. It was so gratifying to get it back.
          I thought back to this memory the other day when I wrote with it for the very first time[yes a year after buying it].you see, I couldn’t find a cartridge that would fit in so I chose the old fashioned route and dipped it into an inkpot, writing the way it was meant to be written with.
          And sometimes, that’s all you need to start writing………..
By Nirmitee Mehta