Certified crazy

o Sometime last month, some of us decided to break the monotony of home to college and back, and went to Monaco for a day instead. Saw “The Casino” (from outside – to go inside, you need an evening dress and a passport, and ofcourse, lots of cash). Saw an amazing number of Porsche and Ferrari cars. There are gardens – trees even on top of terraces of buildings in Monaco. Some people there have awesome toys. Took a ride after years – it was a crazy machine, but hell, I enjoyed it!

o After that followed a month of serious college work – labs, reports, projects, presentations, homework.

o Until last week, when we went to the Weekend of Ski to les2alpes. Fell on my backside over and over again. No broken bones. Its interesting, the things people do when they get drunk. Finally got to taste real fondue and the famous La Raclette (with baked potatoes) and loved it.

o Heading today to Andorra for a few days of much needed vacation – away from projects / slides / presentations / notes.

o Did I mention I loved the Raclette? So much so, that I went in to the same restaurant again, the next day to have some more.

o I have about 20 hours of journeys to make – and no books to read this week. Sad. Travelling without books after a long, long time. Currently trying very hard to read Harry Potter et le prisonnier d’Azkaban.

And the dead leaves lie huddled and still,

No longer blown hither and thither;

The last lone aster is gone;

The flowers of the witch hazel wither;

The heart is still aching to seek,

But the feet question “Whither?”

Ah, when to the heart of man

Was it ever less than a treason

To go with the drift of things,

To yield with a grace to reason,

And bow and accept the end

Of a love or a season?

It all started one day when Akshay blogged about how he wanted to make a positive change in his life by starting to wake up early each day. I have tried a lot of different alarm clocks, and various ringtones (including a shrieking voice) and radio that goes off early at 6 am, but none seemed to work for me. Its not that this has been an issue since ages – I used to get up by 5:00 am and reach the station before 6 am a few years ago. But somehow, I got myself into the habit of sleeping at 2am/3am and waking up at 8/9/10 am.

So when he asked if anybody was game, I jumped in.

Akshay, his friend Anil and I took up the challenge of waking up at 5:30 every day for the one month that followed, in a very interesting way. It was decided to document the whole experiment on a wiki. Hence, was born 30each. One of the challenges that we decided upon was to capture 30 sunrises. I however, did not capture any. That needs a different post.

In the course of the days that followed, I realized I got up not because I had to, but because I wanted to beat the others at the proto-call. As days passed, not counting the days I slept late because I couldn’t help it, I realized reading before I hit the bed helped. I made sure I switched the laptop off by 11, and would be drowsy by the time it was midnight.

Although the month of May was a very hectic one with a lot of positive developments on the personal side (yes, this being one), I still managed to miss only 11 days, that too, because: one, no day was an exception, (as per my own rules set during the start of the experiment), two, a lot of days were spent on things which shall be blogged later, and three, a lot of Partying happened in this Month – especially night outs with cousins. So, all in all, it is a big Yay!!

During these days, my reading activity shot up. I completed reading A thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, Maximum City by Suketu Mehta and Why Men don’t listen and women can’t read maps by Barbara and Allan Pease. I am reading Chetan Bhagat’s 3 Mistakes of my Life these days.

It is June already, but last I checked, the wiki looks like it will keep getting updates from the three of us.

”How little the young know of living, I’d think. How foolish to think they have a monopoly on such a precious commodity. The old know what loving truly means; the young can only guess. ”

– Phyllis Volkens

Finally read `The kite runner’. Its a good book. I enjoyed the narration and the settings – war, kabul, Kebobs, Hazaras and the  simple beauty of little things in the life of the characters.

Two things that I won’t be forgetting anytime soon (from the book ofcourse) are the song – “Ahesta boro” and the quote – “For you, a thousand times over.”