An award, an interview and a wedding

Published
by
Rinchen
on December 11, 2008
in Good things
. 10 Comments

Two things happened to me today. First one - I became the runner up in the Avant Garde Bloggies award for two categories, About Me and Interesting Tag Post. Yay! Thanks to all my readers who voted for me as well as others who didnt vote for me but that didnt matter cause I got second place anyways.

Second one is that Ms Ghazala Khan of pakspectator printed my interview today. I first thought she made a mistake in asking me for an interview. Its only when she printed it, that I realized it was for real! My first interview. I tried to answer as best as I could without goofing around too much. Do take a look.

Oh yeah, and I attended a wedding in the evening today. Drank a glass of red wine after ages. Didnt know anyone else present except for the groom and maybe five other people there. Discovered the bride to be such a sweetheart even though it was the groom who was the friend and that I was meeting her for the first time. Witnessed a lot of noisy kids playing ball right outside on the balcony. Honestly, I was tempted to inform them that it was a wedding not a picnic (even though those kids probably knew more people than me)

And here comes the interesting part. Met my best friend’s ex boyfriend at the wedding. Didnt nearly recognize him cause the last time I saw him, he had these strange dreadlocks where his hair was supposed to be and more importantly, he didnt seem to recognize me then. The moment I saw him today, I was determined to pretend not to recognize him and give him one of my famous cold shoulders (you should try it sometimes) The plan completely backfired when he waved at me first and gave me a smile which made me nod back at him in return and acknowledge his presence there, damn it!

Just got back home and am in the process of calling up my best friend and telling her all about her ex and how he was sitting there with a girl; I’m pretty much sure I saw one.

I think I’ve finally begun to appreciate the art of gossiping.

Social

Published
by
Rinchen
on December 8, 2008
in Good things and Life as it happens
. 7 Comments

I may not be social in real life but I sure hope to be online:

http://ringchen.com/social

Dont know, dont care

Published
by
Rinchen
on December 2, 2008
in Life as it happens and No good
. 10 Comments

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I hate family gatherings. The last time I was in the midst of one, at least six people commented on the way I looked, talked or even breathed for all I knew. They had a gala time being boisterous and smart mouthing about most things which they’d never be able to say out loud in the real world, at least thats what I inferred.

Almost every person beckoned me over and asked - Did you recognize me? Heck, I dont even recognize the same person I met six months back and we’re talking about years and years of reunion here. The only option was to bare my teeth and nod furiously saying - Of course I do! How can I forget.

For instance, I was summoned by someone who’s my great aunt, when in truth I couldnt tell the nature of our relationship to save my life. I walked up to her and a couple of her friends sitting inside, assumed what I felt was a respectable position and then started getting grilled about my life since I was born to 30 years hence.

Then suddenly, this lady at her right snorts out of the blue - Hah, now she doesnt recognize me! Do you know who I am? DO YOU!?!

I assured her that I didnt.

(I didnt want to start knowing her anyway since she seemed to get real angry by this point)

She kept scowling at me while saying - You people dont even know who I am. Huh! You dont know anything at all!

By this time, she’s twisted her body so much trying to face away from me in anger while I apologise - Erm, I’m sorry… for not knowing… who you are… I really am.

And suddenly this one lady to the left of my great aunt exclaims - Well at least, you know who I am, dont you???

I took pity on her overtly eager face and decided not to ruin her happiness so I agreed that I did, while in fact I didnt; and in the end, she had a big smile on her face while I exited from them all in a hurry.

And just when I thought all was lost, I got to know that an old childhood friend was also present there. So I went in search of her excitedly, hoping to revisit the past and walk down memory lane. When I finally met her, she gaped at me, gave me an awkward laugh and announced that she couldnt believe it was really me. After a short silence (and several awkward laughs later), I lunged for the door and excused myself from the affair saying I’ve got a long way to travel back home.

These things are just not my cup of tea. And I doubt I would be returning to another one for a long time to come. I figure, if I want to be talked about, ogled at and be at the receiving end of smart comments, I’ve already got an Orkut profile for that. I believe that real life’s meant for something more substantial. Like blogging. So here’s the post.

Have you voted yet?

Published
by
Rinchen
on November 29, 2008
in Good things
. 8 Comments

Now I dont believe in excessive propagation of thine own blog. But if I could nominate my own posts for these popular blogging awards, I can ask my faithful readers to vote for me as well.

Avant Garde Bloggies Awards is this really fun thing wherein you get to vote for your favourite posts in various categories. I had a lot of fun going through the posts that made it to the finals and believe you me, there are some seriously interesting bloggers flaunting their stuff.

I got nominated for two categories, Best “About Me” and Most Interesting Tag Post.

Did I tell you to vote for me already?

The prize for the best posts are these nice badges that one can put up in their blog. Which is why I for one cannot understand why this guy’s ranting about a judge being nominated over 20 times and all that jazz.

Its all in good fun and one should participate in good spirit, knowing that winning isnt everything.

Or is it? ;)

If you’re wondering which posts are nominated but are shy to ask, here’s my post for Best “About Me” - 28 things about me. This one is for Most Interesting Tag Post - The A to Z’s of me.

I should have asked you to vote a long time ago since the contest closes on 6th of December and the results will be out by the 11th of December. If I dont win, I’m blaming it all on my preference for procastination.

I had a great time reading some very cool posts. And I hope so will you.

The lunch that wasnt

Published
by
Rinchen
on November 20, 2008
in Life as it happens
. 19 Comments

A friend called me for lunch yesterday. It was some holiday so it was also a wednesday off from work. I had no plans and was looking forward to a day of pleasant nothingness. Lunching at her place meant a two hour travel but I thought, what the heck - she’s called me early in the morning (at 7:30 am to be precise) and kept asking me to get there as early as possible AND that she’d make lunch. I’m game for free lunches as much as the next person so sure, I was in.

Reached her place by 12 noon and started chatting. Drank two cups of tea (in huge mugs) and was thinking - its nice to catch up after ages. Thats when two of her cousins arrived and she walked off to talk with them.

Leaving me alone, sitting and waiting for a long time AND feeling slightly neglected. Also start feeing hungry around the same time.

“What do you want to have for lunch? Noodles or roti?” asks my friend emerging from nowhere.

I am hoping either of them are already cooked since the last time I looked at the clock, it was already 1 pm.

“Noodles will be fine.” said I. “Its meat noodles, isnt it?”

“Oh you wanted meat, huh? Okay, I’ll tell the cook to chop up some”.

Again, the last time I checked, I was and still am a pure non vegetarian.

So while the cook gets busy, I start wondering whether my friend really mentioned about her making lunch previously or not. This is one of the reasons I do not like sleepy conversations.

The cook finishes his leisurely chopping but the actual cooking seems to have left his agenda way back.

After half an hour of sitting alone while my friend chats on with the cousin in the next room, I am finally fed up and tell her I’m leaving.

“What!! Why??? The cook has already chopped the meat and is about to cook lunch!”

“I dont know… its going to take a lot of time to finish cooking and all…”

“Well, its not as if you tell him to cook and he’ll produce an instant meal in 5 minutes. These things take time!”

***

Well, yeah. Lunch takes time. I know that. I’ve known it all along when I’ve had friends visiting and spent long hours of the morning cooking and cleaning and delivering magnificient five-course meals for them.

But when you travel quite a distance to meet a friend who DID SAY that she’d have lunch ready, you expect her to spend time with you rather than what just happened.

I then made a hurried excuse about visiting my sick aunt in a bid to leave the place without hurting any feelings. (Quick rewrite: Since we’re being honest here, I might as well admit that by this time, I’d made up my mind to catch Quantum of Solace, matinee show)

Its not about the stupid lunch.

Its just that I didnt feel wanted. Maybe she had a lot of things going on which had distracted her already. Maybe she wasnt in a mood to entertain people. Whatever be the case, I didnt write about it to blame her. Plus, I dont want my other friends reading this and me risking the chance of never being invited to any lunch cause I crib about the bad parts in my blog later.

Its just that if you dont want to talk to people, dont call them. If you do, then better treat them as though the Pope were visiting, only with more alcohol offered. Or else, it isnt really worth it in the end.

P.S. If that friend of mine’s reading this (which’s a long shot but you never know), please do remember that I love you and I care a lot for you to be thinking of skinning me alive the next time I visit with - yes, the same cook’s knife!

Why the 30 year old had a bad morning

Published
by
Rinchen
on November 10, 2008
in Musings et all
. 18 Comments

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One of my best friend turned 30 today. I gave her a wake up call and asked her how to feels to be THIRTY. She in turn called me mean and said something about not having a heart. I gloated about being 29 while she already turned 30, hahaha. How does it feel to be on the old side of the age and so on. 

She has promised to get back at me when my turn comes. Yeah, right! As if her old grey cells would live to tell the tale!

Happy birthday, Rikzing. You’re really and truly old now. I love you nevertheless and please dont kill me if you ever read this.

Dear Karuna

Published
by
Rinchen
on November 2, 2008
in Musings et all
. 14 Comments

You were my favourite senior in college. I thought you were the coolest girl ever who was so nice to everyone around you. I admired everything about you, be it your linguist skills or your absolutely gorgeous smile.

You know, I discovered the game of Word Challenge in Facebook couple of weeks back. When my friend, Priya had a high score of 9153, I personally thought she was a being of much higher dimension with equivalent intergalactic word powers. The reason being - the first time I played the game, I scored a measly 2000 something which left my ego hurting for days. I felt like a Word Retard; someone who couldnt even unscramble six alphabets to make as many words as humanly possible.

I played the game for days, weeks even - I dont remember. I neglected everything around me and concentrated on getting a better score even if that meant the dog sometimes having to eat her dinner at 12:00 midnight. Yes, I didnt give up at all.

Slowly, my scores improved. I started averaging around four to five thousand and once even made it all the way to eight thousand; a day that my spirits soared and I felt vindicated for all the countless wasted hours, not to mention eyeballs about to pop out of their sockets.

And then it finally happened! The day I had been waiting for a long time. Out of the blue, I managed to score 10112! Oh, you cannot imagine the over extended fist pumps that repeated itself long into the night. Little joys of my life.

That is when I made the mistake of inviting you to the game.

I thought we were friends but then you went and scored 28000. Yes, I did get the zeros right and incredibly so did you. A feat that I thought was Unbelievable. 

And as if that wasnt enough, you went on to score 38105. You know something else? The little girl host of the game occasionally pops in to give me this message - Do you know your friend Karuna has scored 38105? I didnt know she had the vocabulary of an Amazing Cyborg!!!

Well, neither did I. I accept defeat. If you’re thinking of scoring even higher than this, oh great Cyborg - our friendship is highly in danger please consider teaching me how you manage to score this high.

With love,

Your envious enemy junior

Rinchen :|