"Kathak Kronikles"

A song playing vociferously,no one else at home other than me,I could be a sight.Irrespective of the genre of the song playing,I'll losen my hair and start dancing like I got possessed or something.I make sure the volume is adjusted to the maximum,and sometimes the song is so loud it could probably even wake the dead.There's no pattern to the steps I dance.I just waltz,and I can keep on dancing,until my ribcage starts hurting.

My relation with dance has been entertaining forever.I remember the first time I danced on stage,I was in my 3rd grade.I felt on top of the world.On stage,I feel impregnable.I acquire this"no-one-can-stop-me,I-have-the-whole-stage-to-dance-on" kind of attitude.

I can hustle and whirl with the tune being played,but I have always wanted to learn a classical form of dance.I did my schooling in the U.A.E so finding suitable teachers to teach me was a little bothersome for us.But I did end up joining kathak classes when I was 6,though it went on only for a year.I did not have time to get back to kathak again until  December 9th,2007.That was when I joined Kathak classes in Hyderabad along with my best friend.Since then there has been no looking back.

Kathak is a beautiful form of classical dance.The grace and sensuality it has is second to none.It is characterized by fast foot work,and spins which is most captivating.I remember our first lesson and how my friend and I were awed,and scared at the same time wondering how we were going to learn such a difficult cavort.But guess what?Ten days ago,we gave our first stage performance!:D:DAnd woah!what fun we had!we did screw up a little here and there while dancing,and we looked like two women possessed by Hindu godessess,but who cares!We gave our first performance,thats what matters the most.And know what?we are performing again next month!And know what?we'll keep performing until our muscles fatigue one day.No,I think we'll dance even then.Anyways,why am I even thinking about what I can or will do fifty years later?For now,all we are going to do is,dance like we will never dance again!

The C-Section

Iam doing my 2nd year in Bachelor of Physiotherapy,and have a wide variety of subjects to study this year,starting from human pathology to microbiology to pharmacology to general medicine,surgery,gynaecology and obstetrics etc,etc,etc(phew!).So now and then I make sure that Iam in touch with my subjects because,you tend to find every subject obscure if not read on time.I have always wanted to be a doctor,and love my subjects,particularly surgery.

I remember this one special day of my life,where I got to witness a surgery in the first semester of my course,when even MBBS students themselves are not allowed to enter the hospital.Fortunately we had a very good friend who was a house surgeon in our college.I had once told him how enthusiastic I was about watching a surgery,live,and how I had never got the chance to.Keeping this in mind,he messaged me on my cell one day, when me and my friend were having our lunch as fast as possible as we had to attend a lecture the next hour.His message said:"Iam assisting a surgery,come to the hospital NOW!".Me and my friend got so excited that we shut our lunch boxes,grabbed our aprons and fled!We ran as if we had to win a race or something!

We entered the hospital and were absolutely blank.We didnt know where to go,what to do,whom to ask.As we were gasping and holding our breaths,a security guard came up to us and asked "are you physiotherapy students?",I said "yes".He asked us to go to the 1st floor,and into the operation theatre where our friend was expecting us.

Outside the OT,man...we were nervous!We left our footwear outside,and stepped in.We saw a marble floored corridor with stark white walls,and two doors to the left and right each.The corridor led to a circular amphi-theatre like room which I guessed was the main operating room.I saw all green robed people walking around fast,with a mask on their head,and face,screaming out to the nurses.We just stood there not knowing what to do,when we spotted our friend.He came to us and spoke fast,"go into the second room there,the nurses will give you their gowns".We didnt understand what he was talkin about!Finally he took us to the dressing room,and asked two nurses to help us change.They gave us what looked like pink gowns,made of plastic.We changed immediately,put on our masks,and got out.It then hit me that we were going to watch the operation dressed as nurses!

Outside the room our friend was on the phone,everyone around was walkin briskly,and quickly,but we just stood there staring at nothin.It seemed like one of the head surgeons there noticed that we were new to the strange place,he came and asked us who we were.Damn!what do we tell him?..our friend hadn't told us what to say when asked who we were!After all,students were not allowed to the OT so soon!Me and my friend were tongue tied!We didn't speak a word,we were just stunned.He asked again"who are you people?".Silence."Are you people deaf?Or are you dumb?!!".Again silence."You don't have mouths to speak?!Iam asking you who you are,can't you tell me?how do you suppose you can watch the surgery withou telling me who you are?Are you donkeys?No wait!you two are making me feel like a donkey here not answerin my questions!!"From behind came a voice which sounded so angelic at that moment "Sir,they are second year MBBS students".It was our friend!He saved our lives!We were almost shivering with fear.

We entered the operation theatre.It was a circular room,with all sorts of electrical instruments arranged symmetrically.The room smelled strongly of medicines which could have made anyone sick.There was a stretcher in the middle,with a glucose bottle hanging to its left,and an ECG screen to the right.Here and there around it were small trays filled with scissors,scalpels,forceps,cotton,etc.On the stretcher was a person lying to the side.An anaesthetist,injected the patient on the spinal cord,and was then made to lie down ventrally.The first thing I noticedwas the huge tummy the patient had.I gasped with excitement.We were about to wintess child birth!A caesarean!

Surgeons surrounded the stretcher and faced the patient who was now oblivious of what was happening to her,all thanks to the anaethesia.The head surgeon,an aged woman,took lead,and began the process.Our friend was assisting her standing next to her.He rubbed the pregnant woman's abdomen with some violet liquid which we later got to know was iodide solution.The female surgeon,took a scalpel,and made a neat vertical incision on the abdomen.I was amazed.I just kept sayin "wow!" in my mind all the time.The abdomen was cut,scissors were used to tear the internal attachments to the uterus,to seperate the muscles.We could not see what was happenin inside the abdomen as we were made to stand at a distance.All we could hear were the sounds of scissors and scalpels clattering.The surgeons,kept cleaning the blood with sterilized cotton.

After what seemed like a few minutes,I saw my friend put his right hand inside the patient's abdomen,and pull a tiny little baby head out first,and then pulled out the entire infant's body.It was an amazing sight!I was left gaping at it!It was a cute baby girl!I wanted to start clapping!The surgeon held her upside down on her legs,an gave her a small slap on the butt.She instantly started crying.She was handed over to the nurse to carry on the post-delivery jobs.It then suddenly struck me that we had to attend a lecture.We thanked our friend,changed and ran outside.

On our way back to our class,I had so many thoughts running in my mind.How mothers gave birth,how they carried another life in their tummies for nine whole months,how they cared for their babies,pampered them.Imagine a world without mothers!To put it bluntly,there is no world without mothers,they are creating it.And not to forget the surgeons!man,hats off to them!They are facing the biggest challenges in life.The entire life of the patient they are operating is in their hands!What must be going on in their minds while operating is incomprehensible.I started respecting them like never before after watching the surgery.I suddenly was so proud to be a woman,and a part of the medical field.I walked back to the class beaming.The whole experience was wonderful,and most memorable.We were probably the youngest students in the campus to have witnessed a caesarean,"the C-Section!":D

Dreams Unlimited;)

Everybody dreams,and Iam not any different.Dreams have always remained a mystery to me,and I think will remain so.Few people say dreams are what you have thought or had in mind all day,few others say,dreams are real life instances,and well even can predict your future(now..i don't really want to get into all that and Iam not talkin of day dreaming here!).I have read that you think even while sleeping,so obviously you cannot think right when your snoring your night away!So dreams to me are certain images that are nothing but cinematic scenes that run in your mind when your adrenalin secretion is absolutely low,and all you can do is sleep your emotions away and your brain is just not very energized to run "right".Most people don't remember what they saw in their shut eyes the previous night,but they do realise that something had been going on in their heads.That dreams come true,predict your future,or depict something,I have no clue,and wouldn't even mind ignoring all those issues.

People get funny dreams,sick dreams,scary dreams,depressing dreams,etc,etc,etc.I don't know how to categorise my dreams,because most of them are basically and simply "senseless".Some are so senseless and funny,that I have a good laugh thinking about them,as I remember almost all my dreams.I wanted to share with you some of the most hilarious dreams I have had the opportunity to view or visualise or create or whatever all in my cabbage sized brain!!:)

Its extremely weird and funny,because I once saw myself hitting saurav ganguly with my slippers on the cricket field!!He starts running to get away from me,and iam running behind him with my slipper in hand!!and guess what?Irfan pathan is watchin all this and laughing!hehe..In one dream,Harry potter,Ron weasley and Hermione granger,are fightin voldemort in my bedroom!and my paternal aunt comes over an wishes them luck!!!In one particular dream,I was standing outside this legendary Rajput palace,when Hrithik Roshan comes on a horse,gets down,comes over and asks me to marry him!:D.hehe..Just the other day,I dreamt that Kangana Ranaut invited me to her house to cheer her little daughter,whose name is also Kangana ranaut!!:..wtf was that??I mean who dreams about kangana ranaut and her unexisting daughter!??!!And know what?Ranbir kapoor turns out to be my first cousin in one dream!..yeah.I know I see too many celebs in my dreams.

Coming to the weirder dreams.In this dream,I see that people all over the world have started to look like colourful building blocks!The body is a block,and the block has tiny four legs below it.And in another dream,we are all stamps!!the people are ruled by a "head stamp" and we are all workers working under him.When he says go "here" and "there" we move like a"collection of stamps"Weird!My best friend shot her crush dead when he made a pass at her in one dream!!now..what will you say to that?;)

One dream that repeats very often is that Iam falling from a certain height.Just falling,and most of the times I dont reach a destination.I'm just falling,falling...and falling.I used to wonder why that dream was so repetitive,but I just decided to care a damn!In one dream,I'm running away from something,in the woods,in the dark night.Its raining heavily,and I run away from something.Iam tryin to figure out what is happening,but all I remember is a bearded man's face.That dream scared me!I have even seen people dying,close ones most of the times in a few dreams.It would get me worried initially,but later I decided I was being very stupid.After all scientifically speaking,dreams are "ishtylish" thoughts of your own central nervous system;)

Finally I can say that my dreams are funny,scary,weird and a bunch of absolute non-sense images,but yeah most of them make me laugh really loud after I wake up from them:D.So its a good way to start a funny and happy day!Somebody said,"want to see your dreams come true?Go back to sleep!!"hehe,and I couldn't agree more!

Dealing with the Dead (Part II)

Okay,continuing from where i had stopped.The next haunting was experienced by my school friend while she was doing her 11th grade.
3) So as it goes,my friend lived along with her mother and elder brother in hyderabad,and her dad worked in Banglore.She and her mom never really faced any problems in the flat they were living in,until one day,a 12 year old girl,committed suicide in exactly the flat opposite to theirs.She hanged herself to death,in her bedroom's balcony,which was clearly visible from my friend's bedroom window.She was a little depressed hearin about that little girl's death,but chose to stop bothering about it.But ever since her death,my friend would hear,strange sounds in her room.Rasping sounds on her door,she heard faint crying sounds,etc,etc,etc.Initially she thought it was just part of her wild imagination,but later she started fearing that maybe she was hallucinating things which made her feel insane.

One night,out of fear,she decided to sleep next to her mother,in her bedroom.When she woke up in the morning,the first thing her mother did,was give her a tight slap an said "dare u scare me like that again!!".Puzzled,my friend asked her what had happened.Her mother in sheer bewilderment,told her daughter that,the previous night,she had woken up and started laughing all of a sudden.When her mom got up to see what was happening,my friend looked at her mom,widened her eyes,an just smiled back at her.Scared,and worried,her mother slapped her,and thats when she went back to bed.My friend never understood who must have made her smile like that at her mother,because she didn't remember a thing!i lost touch with her,but im sure they shifted their house!

4) This happened recently.My cousin and his wife got transferred to Vizag.They found a beautiful duplex house there,for themselves and their son who iz just one year old.My cousin started his work there in his comapany,whereas,his wife decided to stay home for a few days with her son,until he got acquainted with the surroundings.

But as they lived in that house,they realised that it was strange.Every night,they would hear,children laughing,playin on the staircase,throwing toys,fighting an all that.My cousin's wife,once, was searchin for her son in the house.She searched the whole house,and finally cought him sitting in the middle of a dark room and it seemed like he was talking to someone.She just picked him up from there,and took him away(what scared her more was the fact that,her son was petrified of the dark!!).She realised that her beautiful house was haunted.

She spoke to my mother a few days back and told her that,such things keep happening in vizag,and she was used to it,as she was born and brought up there.Most dead people remain as spirits beacause of unfullfilled wishes,an they might be of no harm too.But apparently,she did't want her son to get affected by this,and they have started hunting for another house.Now thats what I call bravery!:O

So these were some true haunting episodes that I wished to share with you all.At the end of it,I would like to say that,yes,I believe that evil spirits do exist.But are they of harm or no harm,that i don't know,and would never..NEVER like to experience something like my relatives and friends did.Iam just not that brave to experience any sort of haunting!

I'll sign off now,because typing all this itself has scared me,an more over I started writing this after watching a fresh episode of "haunting" on discovery channel.To people who don't know about that series,try wathcin it sometime.They show true ghost experiences an hauntings in it.Its pretty good,but not all that scary.Horror movies scare me more!:D,anyways,chao..till i write my next post!
Happy Haunting!:P

Dealing with the Dead

To be frank,i have always believed that something called "ghosts" existed,and in a way was fascinated by them,not that iam not scared..oh yes iam shit scared!But ever since i was a kid,i would always sit and search for more and more "real" stories about ghosts,and their hauntings,though i feared them.I would read scary novels(R.L.Stine was my favourite author then),surf the net about true ghost stories,check out ghastly images of "true ghosts",and at the end of the day,get freaked out,not sleep for nights,but would still sit and read about them next day!(I still do that:D).So after all this,i decided that i shouldn't be the only one getting scared,you people have all the rights to get scared too!:P..and who knows,maybe all the non-believers might start believing in evil spirits and ghosts after readin this post!well,let me share with you,some scary experiences that my relatives and friends had,and also some partially scary experiences I had.



Starting with the earliest knowledge i gained about true ghost hauntings...

1) My maternal uncle had newly rented a huge duplex flat in chennai,and moved in with his family(himself,his wife,their daughter and son).The house was beautiful,and my uncle and his family were totally proud of it.That night,after my cousins fell asleep,my uncle and his wife decided to check out the terrace of the apartments,there being a power cut too,they wanted to breathe in some fresh air.so,they went up,and my uncle was casually taking a glance at the surroundings,and the view from the terrace,when he felt a ball of wind give him a blow from behind.He looked behind,just to find absolutely nothing.he called out to his wife,and reported to her what he had felt,and after a while he just realised that he was being stupid panicking about it.both of them stood there for a while,and when they were just about to leave,both uncle and his wife heard a pleadin voice call out "amma" right behind them.this time they really panicked because,they were the only ones on the terrace,and somebody calling out to them like that,freaked them out.They just ran downstairs,and locked themselves up in their new house,which had already started gettin scary.



A few days later,my aunt got to know through the watch man that a maid who worked in their flat for a family who lived there before,had committed suicide by jumping from that very terrace they had visited the day before.Apparently,she took the extreme step as she could not stand the imprudent torture her mistress was giving her.She jumped from the terrace an died exactly outside my cousins' bedroom window..and their bed lay just against that very window!To my misfortune,i had gone to their house for a couple of days,and i was asked to sleep right next to that window all the nights I stayed there!!!:O.I almost died of fear,but thankfully,nothing unusual had happened.



But unusual things were happening with the watchman and his wife.One day,my uncle went out shopping with his family and came back really late in the night.It must have been around 1am in the morning,my cousin opened da entrance gate,and my uncle was just about to park his car when,he saw the watchman's wife,lyin exactly next to the car parking space,with her hair all let loose,staring right up as if she saw something there,and was humming songs!!naturally the whole family freaked out lookin at her ghastly expression and behaviour.The thing that worried my aunt the most was that,that woman worked as a maid in their house.



Nothing really preposterous happened after that,until one night when when my uncle heard someone furiously poundin on their main door.He woke up frightened,and opened the door,to find the maid(watchman's wife)standing there,looking scared,helpless,with her hair all let loose.Before my uncle could say anything,she just ran inside to one of their two bathrooms,sat on the floor,and just stared at them!her husband came in with some goblet like thing in his hand,sprinkled some kind of water on her,and took her away.Next day,the watchman apologised to my uncle,and confessed that his wife was being possessed by an "evil spirit",and the thing he had sprinkled on her last night was holy water.My uncle and his family didn't live in that house very long.

2) Another story that freaks me out the most is,the house next to my maternal grandparents house.Its haunted.
Only two people lived there apparently,an old lady,with her only son.The son got into bad company an joined the local naxalites(terrorist troop of andhra pradesh),and ran away from home,leaving his mother with no money for food,or clothes.She starved and starved,and died one day.She had died a very lonely death.The day she died,there was a puja being performed at my grandparents' place.That night,my aunt woke up somewhere around 2am,to go to the freshroom.At that time,the bathrooms were situated at the backyard of the house,where my uncles,an grandfather parked their vehicles.My aunt,opened the backyard door,and stepped out.Before she could walk further,she saw the most unusual thing happen.My grandfather's scooter started ferociously shaking!And it was a cloudless and windless night.You can't even blame such behaviour of the scooter on the wind!My aunt panicked and went inside.

Two days later,my grandfather thought he smelled something really bad,and realised it was coming from the house next door.He went into the house,to find the old lady sprawled dead,and a black cat sittin next to her.Then he realised what the fetidness was all about.Her only son heard the news,and only came to burn her pyre.After thet,my grandparents would always warn me and my cousins not to go on to the terrace after sunset.But we curious kids did go one morning.I went,and the only thing I did was peep into that haunted house's backyard,and thats it!that was more than enough to scare me to go onto any other terrace again!The backyard was the shabbiest backyard I had seen.Barren trees all over the place,trash,weeds,dust,broken twigs and what not!the house looked like a shack from behind,and had broken windows.Anyone could conclude that it was haunted having a superficial glance at the house.

And the most weirdest thing was,the front part of the house had two windows directed towards the morning sun,but the house would never let in even a single ray of light inside.The house always looked dark and spooky.There was a barren mango tree right next to that house,which started reproducing fresh leaves,flowers and fruits,after the old lady's death.Sources said her spirit sat under the tree everyday.After a few years,the government officials,got the house broken down.i hav a few more stories to write,but i guess this one post will become unusually long;) so will stop here.I'll write the rest of the stories sometime later as a continuation of this post.
chao!
have a scary day!:P