MystiqueSpeak

Yesterday...

"That doesn't make sense!" S said as he looked up from my farewell invitation card during board-prac-week. "I mean, what the hell??"
No, we told him, it's like, Farewell *cheers* to a new beginning!! Like a toast.
Aah.

After two-or-more-weeks of roaming around with the Farewell on the brain, it was finally here. Yay and all that. Saris were draped, hair was combed, fingers were crossed, I even went very out of character and bought blue eyeliner! And we just prayed that the 11th graders would give us a better farewell than what we gave our seniors.

So I get to school to find that out of our girl-gang, only Snoopy's turned up, looking all 80's style diva fab in a black sheer sari with big hair. Then I find Vagi (short for Vagina, that's my nickname for her, how it started is another -entirely clean- story*) in pale blue chiffon, and she's actually listened to us and let her hair down. And Jan, in pink. With a haircut. After the usual eye-sweep pver the crowd, who's wearing what, etc, we made our way into the hall and found our seats. Sneh etc finally turn up and we proceed to enjoy the great show the 11ths put on for us.
There were the usual songs, dances, and a special dance by two of the council guys to an 'emotional song'....tu cheez badi hai mast mast.....which has us, well, me, rolling in laughter.
We were uncharacteristically effervescent, excited, obviously, at being together again after so long......Basically we went mad, cracking bad jokes, passing comments, screaming our throats out.....

I didn't tear up. I didn't get nostalgic. I didn't get all emo. And now, I really wonder why. I mean, I've been in the same school for 12 years, and it's made me who I am now.......I guess it hasn't really sunk in yet...

Then the school awards........pretty cool, really, Snoopy won Miss Genius, I won Miss talented, so all happy-happy.
Unfortunately the pic they flashed on screen for the nominations, that was the passport photo i took two years ago. Where I looked like a guy. Not even androgynous. Shit. I got a lot of ribbing about that.

All too soon, it was over and it was picture time, clickclick!!!
And then we split, sneh snoopy anki subin went bowling, I went to the Farewell after-party woth Jan, Vagi, S and Rak.
And then when we get there I found out that two of the girls I went with are suddenly part of a couple. And plan to spend the night cozying up the the other half of their respective couples. And Jan wasn't in a dancy mood. And I was.
So I danced. Under the neon lights (which made anyone wearing bright colours look like a traffic signal) and the psychedelic-y posters, I danced. I danced alone, then I danced with the girls from 12 A, I danced with RK, and then when my feet hurt, I watched the couples on the floor, not bothering with the music or the beat, just happy to be with each other. Got a bit lonely (so what's new...), went and sat with Jan, had a little heart to heart about her situation and all, laughed at the glo-in-the-dark-couple (Vagi was wearing white, so was the other.) then did the wise thing and spent credit international messaging a friend in Bombay. Who was mercifully awake at that time. Thanks luv, you made my night. Well, a quarter of it anyway.
And then I danced again, alone, with my eyes closed, clowing, fluorescent, letting the music and the lights wash over me, I danced like no one was watching.

And now it's all over. Now there is truly nothing left for me this year. Except for those pesky exams. And the study study.
So as usual I say, My presence here will be erratic.

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* the Vagina story, you say? well, she addresses me as 'Bum', so one day I went one step further and nicknamed her Vagina. So now she's my Vagina. See, even my vagina has a vagina!
ok that was a little too much.

I'm doing the grind.

No, not the one you do in nightclubs, all sweaty and ecstatic with the press of bodies.....though i wouldn't mind that grind.
No, not the one with the mixer.

I'm doing the grind that you do in 12th grade. Where grind stands for nose to the grindstone and shoulders to the wheel. Where the only thing you're supposed to come in contact with is the books. Not the good ones (though I'm rereading Shantaram at night). Phy-chem-math.

Surprisingly, it feels good. It kinda drives off the nervousness. And it's great doing differentiation, where everything just falls into place.

(contented sigh)

so i'll try and keep coming back here as and when i can, but i don't guarantee i'll have much to say........

WOot. Yet again, I woot.
Possibly the best (or the worst, depends on how you see it) way to prepare for the SAT is to go for a rock concert.
And so, four months after the idea was concieved, we present Fulfilling Dreams, featuring.........

PARIKRAMA!!!

Woot. So yeah, I was volunteer, so i got there REAL early, early enough to watch (and hear, obv) the band do sound checks...

And of course, plaster myself against the ginormous speakers, spread-eagled, and the drums boomed in my heart and my veins....
The music.....it's alive.....

I went off into the mosh pit, which was actually pathetically empty in the beginning, sat around as we waited for the comperes to finish and to introduce........PARIKRAMA!!!

Imagine....
A press of bodies, hands upraised, animal screams...
the sound, it lives, it moves...
the mosh pit throbs...
Best place ever, right against the stage, thump with the bass, the beats in your head, your heart, your soul....it's gonna getcha...
Guitars scream with pleasure as loving fingers by no means gentle tickle them, caress them, hit all the right spots till the instrument moans and finally reaches a beautiful screaming orgasmic peak....
And we out there live the climax.

They started with a fun Rhythm n Blues...which was good, and then they announced Iron Maiden's greatest....
And with the opening chords of Fear of the Dark the crowd went wild.
Right in the front, the crowd pulsates....I clambered onto the shoulders of the unfortunate D.M (thanks buddy....Anyway, i was the first to do that, i actually wanted to crowd-surf but looked like that wasn't happening......some press photographer out there has a photo of an elevated Myst goin wild, I suspect) and started my not-so-good version of headbanging, while trying hard to maintain balance....I swear it felt like I was riding an elephant....
The crowd continued to go ballistic, heads bouncing, sweat dripping, hair flying, all the way through Purple Haze, But it Rained and Another Brick in the Wall, and suddenly a long forgotten tune is struck up and the crowd starts singin Saare Jahaan se Accha...Hindustan Hamara Hamara....

Bounce push heave all the way through Sweet Child of Mine, Paradise City, Trooper, Whiskey blues, Smoke on the Water and finally back on D.M's shoulders for Highway to Hell.....
And then it was over....

(wild screaming here)

My shirts (the purple one and the Parikrama volunteer shirt on top) and my scribbled-on jeans and my hair, all drenched with sweat....

My throat is still sore, and my head feels like a ball on a stick...

But by all the Gods of Rock and everything else.....................it was worth it.

Dussera, the night of ten miracles...
well, actually two. and a few pretty amazing hours after that.
So we were in the toilets in the Amphi building, near the new hall yesterday evening, getting ready for interhouse drama competition and suddenly, a commotion. A call for a plastic bag. And then Bush says "I'm just gonna do it, okay?" I thought she was going to be sick, but then someone said "There's a cat stuck in there."
My mind loomed with a comical pic of my fatcat Maheen scrabbling to get out of the commode, but when i looked in, i gave an involuntary squeal, two foetal hind legs in the water, the body no doubt wedged in the pipe.
So Bush puts her hand in a bag, plunges it in and pulls out a struggling pink kitten, hardly a day old. We spent the next half hour wrapping it up, cleaning it, feeding it, till it seemed content. By GOd, that one's a fighter, and a healthy baby. If she survived near drowning I think she'll survive the rest of it.
Ladies and gentlemen, Miracle. We named her that.

wrapped in my handkerchief. She fits into my palm like a round furry cell phone.
The rescuer and the rescued.
And she fell asleep in my hand.
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And then we were onstage. Our play: The Ghost of Jerry Bundler. I don't know what happened there, I think I was in limbo, though we did overdo the climax, a lot of things broke....
We were the first on schedule, so I had a lot of time after that, most of which I spent checking on the cat.

And, so many hours later, it was time for results.....
I got best supporting actress for my waitress role, dunno why and how, but :D !!
And then, time for the final positions....
In the fourth place: Blue
third place: Green
Second place...................
(interminable pause. please please let it not be us......)
In second place: Red house!!

At thism we jump up and start screaming too, and don't bother to hear first position (us!!!!) we storm the stage amid cheers (us) take our trophies, pose, and go singing to class, where we pose some more, dance a bit, scream, etc.

And when I see mom, I pull puppy dog faces and the I-Wanna-Celebrate card, and that's how I ended up at Marlboro Grounds a half-hour later, for the 2nd half of the last day of dandiya.
I reached the place at 11.30, perfect timing, there was a break going on, so i went off to find out who was there, recieved namy congratulations and one sore loser commenting about my lack of acting talent. they never change.
At midnight we burst into racuous song in honour of Chikki's birthday, and I partnered her when the dancing finally started. They started off with Gujju songs and then switched to filmi, and that's when we threw down the sticks and started the crazy circke dancing, hands against the sky, bangles jingling, skirts swishing.
All too soon and an eternity later, it was over, and the place was emptying and it was just us left, sitting on the ground in various poses of fatigue, waiting for our ride home. A ride who doesn't seem to believe in speed limits or traffic lights and took all the wrong turnings with the nidows down and our hair streaming.

Woot. Legendary night.

:)

Afloat in my mind
Remniscence of songs long forgotten
Fragments of dreams not yet dreamt
Power of dance
Sinuous lines, a picture incomplete
Words thrown together to please me
Eternal, two souls locked together
Wild sexy gothic tango
Sheen of red silk and black hair
One quick motion
her dark blood, so red on her pale skin
mingles and melts into the rain
And so it ends.

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wha' the heck??
hmm.... I throw word together....because i like how they sound that way....
my mind's a blur, that half-forgotten tune in the background, red silk everywhere...
there's a dance.....in some forgotten place.....with roses...the kind with a lot of thorns, I remember....
And then there is the blood washed away with the rain (so fascinated by that line....by that image, really)
But I don't know whose blood it is.