Sir Richard Parker...alias RP...pretty awesome for a cat.

my kitty...

...and i can't believe how silly i look...i blame you mom and dad! :D

noella: a close up...hey mom, your daughter sure is pretty!!

sunday morning blues...

its Sunday morning and my life seems to be stuck in a dimensional wrap. it’s suspended in space with sudden moments or surges of activity and then it goes back to a morbid state. couldn't get my ass out of bed before 10:45 despite being awake since 7:00 and once i was up, i couldn't stand the mess that the house was in. seems as if i can't stand most things about my life at this moment. i still have to work on the Econometrics assignment that i have to submit tomorrow and after that i still have the Mauritian Economy and Accounting assignments to do before Wednesday. and my exams are looming just around the corner.

my dissertation supervisor is Prof. Nath, one of the senior most staff member of our faculty and also an Indian with a very heavy accent (is it just me, or do i see something in common). and to my greatest advantage (note the sarcasm and grief) he knows my dad personally and he believes in self-motivation and is away most of the time on seminars and conferences. so it seems like i shall have to work on my dissertation all by myself in the next semester and can't even take the risk of goofing up, cause my dad's sure to get a call reporting him of my misdeeds if i do so. couldn't ask for anything more, could i? but it could have been worse; i could have had some incompetent Mauritian tutor as my supervisor (all right, i have to admit that not all Mauritian lecturers are bad. Dr Sobhee and Dr Anchraz are a much welcome break, but then there are some terrible teachers also. and no one can deny that). :D

so today i cleaned the entire house. cleaning includes dusting, sweeping, mopping, cleaning the rooms, folding the laundry, picking up the cat litter and making my father and sister work. phew, now that was tiring. but you have to know that I JUST CAN'T STAND A DIRTY HOUSE... it drives me nuts. guess that i get this from my mother's share of my genes. the X chromosome in me is a cleanliness freak. thank god that it surfaces only once in a week. the rest of the days i am simply too tired to complain. anyways, the house is clean and i am satisfied.

i can't but help noticing that living with my father and sister is like having 3 kids in the house (the third one being myself). we are all moody and like having things our way. we all argue a lot and we all throw tantrums. last night dad got mad at Noella for not heating up the chapattis before dinner (i have to mention that i did point out a few other things that Noella had not done during the day to help him get super mad at her). now the funny thing was that no one wanted to eat chapattis last night!! then today i was the yeller in the house telling everyone to stay away from me while i cleaned and even ended up grounding dad in his room for walking around the house while i mopped. Noella's wild and unpredictable in her own manner and no one can beat her at being a slouch. Jesus, we area a crazy lot. no wonder you packed that bag and left mom. the only decent fellow in the house is the cat and that too only while he's asleep. otherwise he is the devil's master plan for chaos and destruction.

so its been raining since morning and the sun just came out (its like 3:30 pm right now) though i guess that even this is going to last for only a few minutes. but i kindda like this weather as it is a welcome break from the heat wave that has lasted for the last couple of days. hurricane season is here and they are expecting one around the end of this month. at least that's what i heard, but then we all know how much to trust the weather man. (where are you Eike??)

as for the last couple of weeks...they haven't been really special. the usual University and studies have taken up much of the day. but i did manage to watch 7 seasons of Friends on DVD and 1 season of Joey. still have 2 more DVD's of Friends, but am trying to resist watching them before my exams.
i really don't have much to say at the moment and so i am going to stop here. i have been missing you folks real bad ....wonder what's up with my dearest kitten, Heather?? where are you and what are you doing? and Nafiz dada, get well soon.

take care you all...

shrimp bait and Uma's night out... :D

it’s always a good time when you are with friends and yesterday only proved this statement 100 % authentic. for starters, i know that i still owe you folks the post on the hiking trip. it's been 2 weeks overdue but let us push it back further, shall we?

so Gordon landed his ass on the island this weekend. its nice to have him back. don't want to say it, but i did miss the 'donkey on the rocks' and 'beer chugging' bru of mine. and yes, Degremont needs a plumber to fix the mess that Gordon calls his plant. so they flew him out of deep dark Africa to sunny tropical Africa.

amu (a.k.a. gundi) is flying back tomorrow :( ...guess that she had enough of trying to compete against me for the Mauritian underworld...and so i reclaim my turf. :D
all right, the truth is that she has been sick ever since she got here and by now she's had enough of being dressed up in 3 layers of clothing and a woolen hat while everyone else hung out at the beach. well, so Uma's decided that its time to say "I'm back" to Florida!! gonna miss you amu...

so last night we had the usual let's-all-go-to-Domaine Anna plan. Plan B (i.e. Buddha Beach was scheduled for later). so anyways, this time around it was a curious mix of people. Uma, Gordon and myself (the old timers), Joel (surprise come back), the Germans (Lars, Jorn, Wolfy, Kev & Kestrin) and Jake (the new Fulbrighter in town. he lives in QB - the guava avenue, 'avenue de giuveres'). a great evening with great people and the usual banter. good food. weird conversation. silly games and crazy acts (damn, it makes me nostalgic)...just like the god ol' days.

the evening saw us all witness Gordon's "i am a bisexual" statement. oh yeah, he is gotten a lot weirder since he's been in Tanzania. and of course we all had to play 'spin-the-bottle' or 'truth-or-dare' on the revolving table (lazy-Suzanne) with a half burnt toothpick. that was fun. Lars ended up doing a semi-strip on the bridge over the pond and Kevin asked the waiter out on a date (only to be turned down) while Lars tried to woo him at the same time (try 'give it to me baby' for a pickup the next time you want to ask your waiter out like Lars did. sure to fail). i had to bark and howl at the moon out on the bridge again while Jorn did a sexy look-I’m-rubbing ice cubes all over my body dance. poor Kevin had a rough night with his dares and he had to go back out in public and do a pole dance on the lamp that lit the garden & also ask Kestrin to marry him, only to be turned down a second time around. Joel narrated the 'harigen arsh' story and man it was disgusting. oh yeah, Gordon did a sega dance and chicken hop around the table and Jake asked me to marry him (wonder why i said no to the "the last four months were great & i want to spend the next few months with you. so will you marry me" proposal??)

i tell ya, these guys have no idea of how to ask THE QUESTION!!

well finally we decided that it was time to head out (actually they shut down the place and almost everyone including the waiters had left). so on the way out, on the bridge, Kev and Kestrin both asked me to marry them. well, poor Kev had to face rejection for the third time in the evening. after all who would say no to a hot German chick...definitely not me (is it just me, or did 3 different people ask to marry me in 3 hours...2 of them guys and one hot lady??) :D

so after the eventful evening of trying to figure out why Smurfet is the only female Smurf we all were set to hit Buddha (by the way, the conclusion that we all came to is that Smurfet is a slut and that explains Gordon's title for last evenings post). well WE DON'T KNOW WHY but Buddha was closed for the night. so we all headed back to the German's place. Uma went back to grab her precious sleep and Wolf got upset over the fact that MBC was not showing the Man Utd v/s Chelsea game and he sulked off to bed as well. the rest of us just hung around and talked with beer and rum to keep us company. my new fiancée, Kestrin, finally decided that she was also tired and needed to sleep. so that left us 7 guys out of the porch. don't know how but the conversation soon turned to globalization, racism, cultural segmentation, capitalism, communism, democracy, apartheid, national interests, population, money, free trade and all that is wrong with the world today. we had our very own UN debate on everything. kindda turned heated at times but it was fun. just a 7 guys, from 4 different countries and 4 different fields that included history, philosophy, economics, banking & engineering, discussing on their perspective of the world today over a few drinks at like 4 am, Monday morning. it really makes one appreciate a lot of things once you see things from other's perspective. we all had our differences and our own ideas on what is the best way to deal with them. but the bottom line that i see is that there were 7 guys that night that fought over the same thing. we each wanted the world to be a better place, but we each had our own idea of how to make it so. if only we could all think alike, maybe we would have come to an answer to all the problems. but that's the irony of life. no two people think alike and everyone thinks that his/her belief is the correct one. so as long as human beings continue to think differently the world shall have all these problems, and the day we stop thinking different progress will come to a halt. ironic? i say life...

so we all finally realized that we had been up all night and that we were tired like hell at like 5:30 am. Joel and Jake crashed in the German's spare bedroom, while Gordon, Kev, Jorn and myself we stayed up and watched the Bourne Supremacy cause Gordon had to go to work at 7:00 and i had to get my butt to the Uni to work on my assignment. well, after last night there was no way that i was gonna make it to the Uni and get any work done. so i took the bus home instead. there's nothing like your bed after a long night and 2 hours on the Mauritian buses. i turned off my cell phone and crashed. the next thing i remember it was 4:00 pm.

well guys, i gotta get working on my assignment now. since i didn't make it to the group work, i will have to make up for it by finishing the entire presentation tonight. have a test on Wednesday and then the Presentation is on Friday. have to work on the written part of the assignment as well, but that is in league with the other guys in my group...so that shall be tackled later.

have a great time folks. being able to spend some good times with Gordon, Joel, Uma & the others just reminds me of all the great times we had. wish that you all were here. but thinking of it, i figure out that thanks to globalization and all its discontents the one good thing that has happened is that the world is a much smaller place. so i'll definitely see you all sooner or later.

;D

and (ouch) i was a gentleman (ouch)...

well guys, we went out hiking this Saturday. yep, the entire class of Eco & Finanace and Economics, year 3... who would have expected my class mates to be so cool...but now the official verdict is out.

these guys sure know how to have a good time, only that they don't do it all the time.

will tell ya a more about it later...right now i gotta go to crash...have to be at the Uni tomorrow and have to get up at 6:00 am to feed the cat (the spoilt bastard). just know that we went to down the Maccahbee trail and that i ended up carrying over 5o kgs in my backpack during the entire 3 n 1/2 hour trek...why?? a long story saved for later...let's just say i did what a true gentleman would, and now my entire body hurts (especially my legs).

so screw being nice to others. but i can't help it. ;)

more for later.

ps: tomorrow's the Diwali Show at the University and we guys are having a small Sambuka & Green Island party...so you all know what i am really looking forward to...cheers

&

thanks to the makers of ibuporfen (alkem laboratories ltd)... :D

a normal day unlike any other (part 2)...

My bad luck has continued late into the night. i guess, the setting sun didn't take away all the miseries that have been plaguing me since morning. the blogging Gods seem to be the latest to join the vendetta against me. an entire hour of working on yesterday's post all disappeared in a minute as i tried to publish it last night. fuck. anyways, here i am at it again and hope that this time around a new day brings with it new luck and that the Gods are kind to me.

yesterday was one of those days when nothing seems to go your way and when everything is out of control and heading in the wrong direction…pretty ‘unmemorable’ and ‘wish-that-this-never-happens-again’ sort of a day. so don’t get your hope set to high on this post.

i managed to set a new record yesterday. i don’t know when last had i managed to get ready so quick. but yesterday certainly saw me scrambling and racing through the usually hour long routine. so this is how my day began…

normally i set an alarm for an hour before the time that I am supposed to get up (some people who have had first hand experience of being disturbed early in the morning due to this have confirmed the fact that this drives them nuts) so that i don’t miss out on any of my precious ‘only 5 minutes more’ of sleep and can snooze the alarm and snore extra. so for the 9:00 am Public Finance class, i have to leave the house by 7:20 (to catch the express on my 1 hour & 45 minute long journey to the Uni) and hence get up at 6:30 and therefore set an alarm for 5:30...but (this i am assuming) i accidentally hit the shut button instead of snooze yesterday, and this is when all the troubles started. it resulted in a weird conversation with dad early in the morning. this is how it went (English translation to the Bengali dialogues are in brackets)...have fun Nafiz dada and not a word from you.

dad: "aajge school jawar aache ke na? (do you have to go to school today or not?)"

i: "hmmm...ki? (hmmm...what?)" *pulling the sheets over my head and turning over to face the other side*

dad: "deeri hoy gele aamake bolbi na. (don't tell me if you get late)"

i: "oof baba, kota bajlo? (oof dad, what time is it?)" *stealing a quick glance at my alarm*

i: "whaaat?? 7:04?? iski to..." *cursing and jumping out of bed*

dad: "so aajge class miss hobe ki? aajge kota class cheelo school e? (so you are going to miss your class...how many classes do you have at school today?"

i: "nah, aaekhono time aache...aar aami University te podi, school e noi. (nah, i still have time...and i study at the Uni and not in a school)"

dad: "oitaiee. (it's the same)"

and in the next 10 minutes i some how managed to get ready and set a record in the process. actually it was a desperate attempt at rushing in and out of the shower and the WC and throwing a random T-shirt on top of my jeans and brushing my teeth simultaneously while packing my bag and wearing my shoes. i even managed to leave the toothpaste in my room in the hurry (this resulted in a very surly Noella since she had a hard time finding the toothpaste once she woke up). well i rushed out of the house and ran all the way to the bus stop. phew, at least this time i made it in perfect time for the express to PL.

if at that point in time i had thought that everything was going smooth, i couldn't have been more oblivious of what was in store for me. so i manage to get to Port Louis as per schedule and then after a brisk walk from the North Bus terminal to the South-Victoria terminal i see it, 141- Bord Cascade via Reduit, my ride to the University and economic salvation. well, the bus was almost full and all ready to leave and hence i had to rush in and try and find a seat. so i find an empty seat right at the end of the bus and curse my luck, it was directly in the glare of the blazing Mauritian sun (no wonder it was empty!) and Jesus, yesterday was hot. but better hot than standing. so i grudgingly took my place.

so by now i am sweating and also trying to prepare for the class ahead while trying to block out the sun from killing me with the help on a notebook held up against the window. and then the bus started to make funny noises. it seemed that the bus driver was having trouble taking the bus up the incline from Pailles to Moka. he would stop and then start again and ground his foot on the accelerator and race ahead and then stop again (can't even blame it on the weight of the students in the bus considering the fact that Mauritian hardly weigh any at all). so finally the conductor had enough and he made the driver stop his desperate attempts and got everyone off with the intention of flagging down another NTC bus that was sure to pass by. so down we all got. 10 minutes of standing along the motorway with no other bus in sight, the driver (who had been tinkering with the engine all this time) was able to convince the conductor that the bus would be fine. and so back we all marched into the bus (this time i stole someone else's seat that was no where near the sunny side). so the driver starts the bus. it sounded fine and we were moving forward, but then so very predictably there was this loud thudding sound and the bus finally broke down for good. man, you should have seen the look on the face of the conductor. malicious, that's all i'll say. by now i was laughing so hard thinking about how i'd have to recollect the entire incident in class when Dr. Sobhee would demand an explanation for my being late. it wasn't even funny. still i was laughing. so we all get off the bus once again. this time though there was another bus right behind and we didn't have to wait along the motorway. so we all boarded the other bus and finally made it safely to the University (albeit 10-15 minutes late for my class).
i rushed to my class only to find that the lecturer had not yet arrived. so very University of Mauritius!!

well anyways, it was Siven's birthday and he had brought a bag full of chocolates. so i sat in class having a breakfast that consisted of chocolates...mmm, mint and strawberry toffees...anyways, i finally handed in my membership form for the Economic Society to Rajeev (and yes, i am the president of that very society) and was going through the Constitution for the same. the Constitution had to be handed over to the Student Union and the task of making the necessary changes had been delegated to Jossy (the Vice President and a 2nd year student). but it seems that the bloody fuck face decided that he was the boss and put down articles and clauses as per his whims and fancies. the entire thing was a piece of shit. 2 auditors...imagine having 2 full time auditors. as if we were embezzling millions. anyways, so i have to redo the entire constitution by tomorrow. and now that dude is in my shit list and i really want to give him a good piece of my mind and tell him what i really think of him in the next executive committee meeting. internal organizational politics within the University of Mauritius!! sweet.

so finally the lecturer makes it to the class and the reason that he gave for being late was that he was setting our test paper scheduled in 2 weeks time. guess, i would have believed him if he said that he was making out with Pam Anderson in his office, or at least that would have been creative and a laugh (we all think that he was smoking weed)...whatever, don't ask. and yes, he made us sing Happy Birthday for Siven in class. afterwards he proceeded to lecture us on Public Financed projects and their appraisal techniques and the difficulties in doing so (in short we revisited Leontief, Hurwicz, Bayersian, MiniMax and MaxiMin) and we had a short but interesting discussion on taxation and its macroeconomic and microeconomic effects on different markets and individuals (for the economics uninitiated, a lot of messy diagrams and equations).
so i guess that i would rather pay an income tax instead of a sales tax or VAT, or at least that's what theory tells us. let me know what you guys prefer (i.e. if you ever intend to pay any tax).

the day seemed to be getting better by now. i ran into Kevin (the German) right outside my class and then we both managed to catch hold of Alex (the Italian bitch) and the new Belgian Rasta guy. the Belgian dude is here doing research on lettuce growth in Mauritius for his paper back home (what's wrong with the world?? lettuce growth??). anyways, guess what? it seems that the Alex and the Belgian are big fans of the dholl puri like you all (yes, i know you don't like it Gordon. i am not counting you). and so we headed off towards James's and grabbed a couple of dholl puris each from our fav dholl puri guy. Kevin who has incredibly managed to remain unaware of the addictive potential of dholl puris 3 months into his stay in Mauritius finally had a dig at one. so there we were, 4 guys from 4 different countries, sitting on the grass eating dholl puris and discussing about the Kamasutra and the influence of eroticism on ancient Indian Sculpture and Temple Architecture. in other words, i told them about the temples and stone carvings of Khajurao and the Belgian (sorry i can't remember his name) told us of his experiences in Nepal. nice. Kevin wants the German church's to adopt similar architecture and sculptures, say's it would make attending Sunday mass more fun. but i don't think that our dear old Pope would agree, however benevolent and benedict he might be!! maybe you should move to India, Kev...

so after our healthy & filling lunch we boys all went our separate ways, Kev to the gym, Alex towards Flic n Flac, the Belgian to meet his lecturer and myself, i headed home. Dad's going to India today for 10 days (actually he just left 20 minutes ago. his flight’s at 5:00 pm today evening and he should be in Kolkata by 9:00 am tomorrow morning). this sudden trip's thanks to some family business (this is a regular feature of large Indian families with lots of relatives and lots of property. someone or the other is always creating problems for all and dad being the eldest has everything falling upon his shoulders. it gives me the jitters when i realize that i am going to inherit all that and more in due time). 

Dad's leaving and that means that Noella and i are going to be alone at home for the next few days. now then, don't get your minds racing folks (especially you, mom), that does not mean that it's going to be a 10 day long party. i have quite enough on my hands with 4 class tests and 3 assignments due in the coming 2 weeks. so i guess that i am going to have to study this time around. can't say the same for Noella, she just finished her exams today and her school doesn't re-open till the 17th of January. shit, that's a long break. but Gordon's coming on the 4th and Uma's leaving on the 8th. so there are bound to be some good times.

so cheers to that!!

anyways, guess that it is a real pain having to re-write the entire post again. i must really like you guys. and why not? you guys are all awesome. so keep up the good work in life and keep blogging and commenting.

miss you all...

~ the last guy left on the sunny isle of Mauritius, the land of Phoenix beer and Green Island rum. ;D

ps: hey mom, was nice to know that you had a good time in NY and got to see everyone in the family. guess that now thanks to you i shall have more regular readers (Sunil mama, Bihua mami, Pratima masi and the rest, welcome to my blog)...my regards to all, especially to Ba (my maternal grandmother).
and to Sahil (my cousin whom i have never met), a very Happy 5th Birthday (7th October). also birthday shout out’s to my dearest Shashrik (8th October) and Sachika (11th November)...

:D

Happy Birthday HEATHER!!

keep up the good work...miss ya... ;D