Vampires Suck!

Well its been a loooooooooong time since I've been active on this space, and right now my pet peeve is...u guessed it...VAMPIRES! Okay, so my tryst wid vampires started around this time last year when I (finally!) watched Twilight. Now I'd never even heard of the movie for a long time after it released...I was so busy with work, it just came and went without attracting even the slightest bit of my interest. A friend of mine just mentioned it in passing when he was trying to make me 'get' who Robert Pattinson was. Of course, at first I drew a complete blank, and he just went like, 'dude, haven't u seen/heard of Twilight, all the girls love it, it is THE MOVIE, blah blah blah...'. Well, of course, he then had to tell me that RPatz was the guy who played Cedric Diggory in the Harry Potter movies, which I 'got' immediately coz I love the li'l wizard and his stories! Anywayz, that glowing recommendation of Twilight piqued my curiosity, and I watched it the first chance I got...and I've been hooked to vampires since then!

Now I've seen all the Twilight movies (3 of 'em) and read all the Stephanie Meyer books (all 4 of 'em) and I do not disagree that I completely love them all, especially book/movie #3 & book #4 (movie eagerly awaited!). I've read the book a million times, and after having read the books when I watched the movies, it felt like there was sooooooooooo much overacting in it...not denying I still like the movies, just stating the obvious!

At some point, I moved from Twilight to True Blood...for all the uninitiated folks, its a vampire TV series. Its much darker, kinda dingy, with a lot of blood-fest. It portrays vampires from a completely different perspective. Now, of course, I got hooked to this one as well, I love the way some of the characters have been played, they're so annoying yet lovable! Anywayz, cutting a long story short, I ended up reading the books by Charlaine Harris on which the series is based, and loved those too. Bottom line, I'm hooked on vampires now! I even searched wikipedia for 'Vampire Diaries', another series of books I came across.

Recently, a spoof was released on Twilight, called Vampires Suck (from where I drew the inspiration to the title of my blog!), and I watched about the first 5 minutes of it...having the sense of humour that I do, I couldn't stop laughing, it was really hilarious! Of course, any hard-core Twilight fan will take major offense to it!

Anywayz, comin back on track, Twilight and True Blood are widely different from each other, but the basics of humans being caught amongst vampires and werewolves (and then some in case of True Blood!) remain the same. Briefly let me highlight the difference in vampire basics in these two mega-features:

1. Most basic, according to Twilight, vampires can come out in the sun, just that they'd twinkle like crazy, hence stand out; according to True Blood, of course, they go with the traditional horror story line where vampires are purely creatures of the dark, and if they come out in the sun, they'll burn and die a true death (their words, not mine!)

2. Vampires in Twilight are not supposed to be detected by humans, whereas True Blood vampires live openly amongst humans (only at night, of course!)

3. Food-wise, the good vampires of Twilight have only animal blood, whereas True Blood vampires have True Blood!!! PS: True Blood is a synthetic blood, not actual human blood. Of course all the baddies kill humans to have their blood!

4. According to True Blood, a teensy-weensy vampire bite will not convert u, so all vampires love having a sip of human blood every now and then. Twilight says different, surprise surprise! According to them, a single bite will turn a human, so if u wanna drink human blood, u gotta kill the human, no choice there.

5. Oh and Twilight male vampires can lead to a population increase, True Blood vampires cant!

6. True Blood vampires have to invited to a human house, and if the invite is rescinded, the vampire goes flying out backwards! Twilight vampires, on the other hand, can go anywhere anytime, no restrictions there!

7. Twilight villains don't even know about werewolves, True Blood villains use werewolves more than the good guys do!

8. In Twilight, the male lead Edward (vampire) is the mind reader who is attracted to the heroine Bella (human) coz for some funny reason he cant read her mind! In True Blood. the female lead Sookie (absolutely, completely and 100% human) can read minds and is attracted to vampires and other supernatural creatures (believe me, according to them , there are many!) coz she cant read their minds, phew!

9. In Twilight, the heroine finally becomes a vampire herself, she wants to become one; whereas in True Blood, the heroine firmly refuses to be converted!

I think I'm kinda done here, cant think of any more! Well I guess now u shudn't be surprised that I 've found another reason to love bright sunny days, and completely freak out as soon as its dark coz I expect some vampire to be lurking round the corner about to feast on me! Ok, that was a joke...but having seen all these TV shows, it sometimes makes me question our assumptions about the world, and I really do wonder if such supernatural creatures do exist. If yes, why don't we know about them. If not, where did all these myths originate from in the first place? We think its okay to believe in ghosts, but are there other supernatural creatures as well?!

Oh in case u were wondering when I'm going to start  raving and ranting bout vampires, given the name of my blog, lemme tell u I'm wondering the same too! At some point while writing this blog, I realized that I really have no issues with vampires! I should actually be thanking their creators for all the entertainment! I like the portrayal of Edward Cullen (Twilight) as a lost soul who is really trying to be nice. I love Eric Northman (True Blood), his wicked sense of humour, and his mixed feelings for the leading lady...she really needs a flower on which she can go 'He loves me, he loves me not'!!! Now I'm gonna get started on Vampire Diaries pretty soon...lets see how that one turns out! Meanwhile, be careful when u're out in the dark...apparently there are a lot of really fast vampires out there ;)

Much Ado About Nothing

Well, ok, so I have been inactive on this space for a li'l while now...actually, for just about 3 weeks, but it does feel like an eternity...like a whole different lifetime ago! Let me explain myself here...the last blog I wrote was just after what was hopefully my last ever examination...truth be told, I don't believe it even as I write it, there always seems to be another one lurking right around the corner...but moving back to track, that was then. Now my marks are out, I have cleared all my exams...thank you very much...and yesterday was my last official day at college, which is something that hit me with really brutal force just now, I mean right this minute, ouch!!! So now I can say with full authority that at this point I am over-educated and officially unemployed...and I hate this feeling.

So anywayz, I really didn't mean to use this blog to wallow in self pity...like I always like to remind myself 'U make ur own destiny', a quote courtesy of the character Max (Jason Behr) from my one of my fave shows Roswell...I say one of my fave shows, since these days that list seems to be extending faster than I thought it would...I will go into details in some other post on some other day, but I think it would be safe to say that unemployment, official or otherwise, doesn't seem to be doin me any good. To take u on a flashback of all that I have achieved these past 3 weeks...oh well, brace urselves, here starts the pity party all over again, sorry 'bout that!

I have applied to a million jobs, and been rejected pretty much everywhere, even if not everyone has been kind enough to actually let me know that my application has been rejected! At a lot of places, it is 'coz I don't have a work permit, and at a few others, it is simply 'coz I do not  have relevant experience, which is funny, 'coz I'll never have any, till somebody lets me have some...vicious circle! Other than that, I've stepped out of the house on exactly 4 days. I've pretty much put myself under house arrest, to be more specific, I've put myself under room-arrest! I step out to eat, do my laundry and use the bathroom, nothin more, nothin less!!! I've not had any meaningful conversation...sorry, make that any conversation, meaningful or not...that lasts for over 5 minutes with the other people in the house. Which brings me to the whole point that got me to start blogging again!

Today when I went down to see if any cooking needed to be done, I met one of my housemates...I guess that's the best description I can think of....and he started talking to me. Now when I say he started talking to me, I mean that literally, he started talking to me. If u haven't figured it out yet...which I have a strong feeling is the case...let me clarify - he did all the talking. I just stood there waiting for him to finish talking/yapping/bragging so that I could come back up and lock myself up in my room again! Well, in his defense (can't believe I'm actually defending him!) he's a 70 year old gentleman who can't help but talk about his young days, which is pretty much the only conversation the two of us can have...atleast, that's what he thinks! He likes to lecture me a bit, and I'm too polite to rudely interrupt him, so I just keep smiling, nodding, and rolling my eyes, looking away and digging my nails into my hand to vent out my frustration, while I mentally keep telling him to shut up!

Well, so after another 20 minute conversation, if u can call it that, I came back up to my room, and got back to my lappy. Fortunately, one of my friends was online, so I bitched about uncle to him for a few minutes, we reminisced about good 'ole days for a few minutes, and u know, generally chatted away for a little while. After we had both gone quiet for sometime, and after I had finished watching the show that I was watching at that time, I just generally sat down, and started thinking about this whole incident...and it made me realize what an anti-social person I had become! Back home, I was one of the most chatty people. I loved talking (notice the use of past tense here!), I could talk to a wall, and I think I've even done that on a couple of occasions! I would be out the whole day, hanging out with friends, and if by any stroke of misfortune I was stuck indoors, I would yak with a couple of my closest friends over the phone for hours together on a regular basis. And believe me, we could discuss absolutely anything over the phone...starting from last nite's dream to work, mutual friends, even the outfit that a complete stranger could have been wearing 2 days ago...anything!

Now, I have changed so much that even I find it hard to believe myself. I've become completely self-absorbed...which I think is obvious from this blog! I don't meet people, talk to anyone, chat with anyone...I'm pretty much off everyone's radar these days. Who knew living alone could do this to you. The point I've been trying to make all along boils down simply to this...u make ur own destiny! I have nobody to blame for my current self-imposed misery...what goes around, comes around, right?! I haven't stayed in touch with a lot of my friends, and they in turn, haven't stayed in touch with me...so in these dying moments of August 1, 2010, here's wishing all my friends over all these years a very Happy Friendship Day! Stay in touch...I wanna go back to being the chatterbox!

The sound of music

Well, I did promise a blog on my love for music...now that I have so much time on hand, I think its time to get started on one.

To begin with, as a kid I was never really into music much, just a few bollywood numbers on TV or one of the million chart shows once a week. I remember the cassette collection that my dad had...I think he had well over a 100 cassettes...this was around the mid 90's, CD's were not in yet! I wud listen to a few of his cassettes once in a way, but again it never interested me much.

Then came a new school and new friends, and all they ever did was discuss MTV and Channel V, music channels that I cudn't care less about! Seriously, all the way upto my teens, Cartoon Network was my channel of dreams!!! But to fit in wid this new group, the 'cool' group, I had to change a bit, and change I did! Well, admittedly having an elder brother really helped the transition...he was already watching MTV, and I started catching a few shows wid him, and listening to a few songs when no one else was at home!

One day, my bro got a cassette of a few songs that he'd taped off from someone else's collection. I remember a few of the songs on that cassette till date. Backstreet Boys-As Long As You Love Me, No Mercy-Where Do You Go, Ricky Martin-Maria, Wes-Alane etc. were a few of the songs on there. I remember I fell completely in love with that cassette. The first time in my life I had a fave song...Where Do You Go by No Mercy...I used to feel so cool listening to that stuff and watching MTV, I was finally in the happening gang at school!

Then came Boyzone...I'm not sure how it started wid me and my crazy love for Boyzone, but it was true love!!! This was around the time they had come out with their album By Request, a collection of all their greatest hits. I saved every penny of my pocket money to buy the cassette, and oh I loved it so much! Every moment that I had I would be listening to it...that cassette was permanently in our deck, nobody in my family dared to remove it from its place!!! I had a new fave song...No Matter What...I loved that song, and all the other songs on that cassette! Of course, Boyzone also gave me one of my biggest crushes to date, Stephen Gately...that voice like velvet, that smile, that look...I was head over heels in love wid Stephen, same as a million other girls in the world!

A few months into my obsession wid Boyzone, my friend Shruti suggested that I keep an eye out for this new band called Westlife. I distinctly remember that conversation of ours...we were on the school bus back home, and Shruti asks me if I've heard this new song called Swear It Again by Westlife? Well, I hadn't, so she told me I should watch out for it on MTV, that they were playing it a lot these days. I asked her how I wud be able to identify that song, and she said that the video of the song was very simple, a bunch of guys dressed in black, singing in an empty auditorium with a green backdrop, and red seats. Black, green and red, those were the only colours I needed to look out for!!! Funnily, that very day, as I was having lunch I heard that song on MTV. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to listen to it properly, 'coz my mom was talking to me at that exact same time, but I got a feel for that song, and I knew I liked it.

Over time, I got a million other chances to listen to that song, and a few others as well. Boyzone was breaking up, but my sorrow was completely enveloped by my new found love - Westlife!!! The transition was so simple and complete, that I never realized when Westlife took Boyzone's place in my life. I'm proud to say, that affair, that started in 1999 lasts to date! Once again, I was in love, and when Westlife released their third single, Flying Without Wings, it kind of changed my world! To this day it remains my fave song, the only one that can calm me down especially when I'm really anxious like before an exam etc. I can play it at full volume, and that's enough for me to forget that a world exists beyond that song...it completely fills up my mind, and my thoughts...that's the power of that song for me! I guess that shud explain why I've named my blog Flying Without Wings better than my first ever blog did!!!

Anywayz, back to flashback, I was in love again. This time Shruti pointed out the guy to me...Mark Feehily...the dark haired one from the band! I started listening out for his voice on the songs, and boy was I in love again or what! I have to admit, 10 years on, I still love him more than anything else in the world. Those of you who know me really well, must be having a hilarious time reading this, and those who don't know me so well, here's the joke u r missing: Stephen and Mark are both gay! In my defense, I didn't know that when I ended up having a crush on either of them, and by the time I found out 'bout Mark, it was too late...I was in love already!!! I mean, c'mon, I'd had a crush on that guy for 5 years at that point, and that was 5 years ago, and I still have a crush on him, knowing very well that he's gay and engaged to his boyfriend of 6 years! If that's not love, I don't know what is!!!

Moving on from my pathetic love life, I never felt that way about any other band or singer since then. I do listen to a variety of music, from rock to whatever other sounds are pleasing to the ear, and I've never felt that kind of pull since then...until recently. Now, back in March, my friend Lola played this really big hit called Everybody In Love by JLS one day at college. I listened to that song and some others a few times, and before I knew it, I was hooked, I mean like completely hooked! I haven't felt this way about any band since Westlife, and that was 10 years ago! Now I have something new to look forward to, including a new crush...Marvin Humes...not gay, for a change!!! JLS is a by product of X-Factor, and I actually watched their whole season online and I knew I was in love again! Of course, JLS is nowhere near Westlife's league, I mean Westlife have had a 10 year headstart, and they're still going strong, touch wood! I am still firmly in love wid Westlife's music, and they are and will remain my #1 for a long long time!

Bottomline, music is now an integral part of my life. I can't sing, but I love the way a song I love can lift my mood just like that, and how I wait for a few of the songs on my random playlist to come on next. I cant imagine a life without music anymore and I cant remember ever having been so happy before I discovered the power of music. Now, I'm Flying Without Wings!!!

10 out of 10

Ok, in my blogs so far, for some funny reason I never mentioned my salsa classes. I guess it just stems from the fact that even when I was learning to dance in India, I had to keep it a secret from a lot of people for fear of being teased by them. My interest in learning to dance was sparked by my friend Kuldeep, when at an office party he just casually said he could do salsa. Now Kuldeep and I had fallen out of touch for a long time before that, and I didnt know that he was learning to dance, so when I heard that, I was gobsmacked. But that very moment, I was like...if he can dance, I gotta start learning too! So I joined the same class as him, and pretty soon, I could shake a leg too. Well, I guess I could shake a leg since a long time, but I just didnt know that I could...but after I joined that class, I knew I could do it!

At first, it was more to make me feel that there was SOMETHING that I could do, that a lot of others cant. U see, I'm not exactly brilliant at studies, well I'm good, but not the best; I'm not good at any sport; I cant sing, nor play any musical instrument...basically, I had always been 'Jack of all trades, master of none'. So I sought to rectify that situation, and dance seemed like a good outlet back then (this was early 2008, by the way - its not like I've been dancing forever!). Anywayz, in a few weeks I realized that dance had become my single most important source of relaxation in the entire week. I would look forwards to Sundays just so I could rush off and have some fun at class. It was also my only source of exercise during the week!

Well, I danced for most of 2008, and picked up a bit of skill in different forms of dance such as rumba, cha cha cha, waltz, jive and salsa. But alas, the dream had to come to an end at some point, and it did. By end of 2008, my work and other commitments overtook my commitment to fun and learning, and my dance lessons came to end, leaving me kind of sad, because I had started to love it so much.

Of course, I moved to London in September 2009, and my lifestyle in Mumbai, including dance, soon became a thing of the past...life and priorities were different here, and I honestly never realized how much I missed dancing till I saw the e-mail in early January announcing the start of Salsa lessons thru the Cass Latin American Society. I jumped at the opportunity and haven't looked back since! We had 10 lessons during sem 2 and five in sem 3...and for the first time in my life, I did not miss even a single class. Mondays suddenly became my fave day of the week, and there was a pep in my step thanx to finding my one true love again!

So today was the last class, and this class was my most memorable experience at Cass. I think my fave part of this year and the whole Cass experience was reconnecting wid Salsa again. And for that I do owe a huge thanks to Paola, the lady who started the Latin American Society and put the whole thing together. Thanx to her efforts, I've learnt some more dancing, made so many new friends and I enjoyed my time here in London.

Going back to my blog's title, I had my last dance at Cass at the end of today's class with one of our teachers Saulo, and after we finished, he said '10 out of 10 for her, she's a very good dancer'. Now I'm sure I'm still just a 2 out of 10, but hell, atleast I'm making my way up that ladder. In any case, big thanx to Saulo for saying that. U just made me feel so worthy today, u made my day!!!

OMG! Did THAT just happen to me?!

Hmmm, well, I'm sooooooooooo excited right now that my hands are shaking!!! I know it's probably gonna sound really stupid to you, but something happened last nite, atleast I think it happened, and I really needed to blog it!!!

Ok, goin thru the basics first, it's about my twitter account...u can follow me on twitter at http://twitter.com/sneha1908 by the way! I'm following a whole bunch of people, including Nicky Byrne from Westlife...I did warn u in my introductory blog that my WL stories are gonna start sooner or later!

Anywayz, this has something to do with the world cup, so let me give u some basics of that too... Ireland did not qualify for the world cup because they lost to France in the qualifiers. The pain is magnified for all us Irish fans because the goal that France had scored was due to a handball by Thierry Henry, but the referee did not see it, so the goal was allowed. Now Mr. Byrne, being Irish, was completely outraged, along with most of the footballing world, but to no avail! FIFA ruled out any rematch, the goal stuck, France qualified, Ireland did not. And Nicky went on some kind of public crusade against Thierry Henry.

So much for the background...now for the real story. Last evening, Mexico beat France 2-0, so I tweeted Nicky Byrne this '@nickybyrneoffic mexico beat france 2-0...u must be over the moon!!! does this signal the beginning of another rant against thierry henry?!'

Two minutes later Nicky tweeted this 'F%#k off thierry ! Stick tht up yer Eiffel tower !!! Good nite god bless and oh close the door behind ya..' The second half, I believe, is in relation to the concert they just finished around that time last nite, but the first half stems directly from what I tweeted him!!! I checked twitter for all posts addressed to Nicky in the hour or so before mine, and there was absolutely nothing about France or Henry, and 2 minutes, literally 2 minutes after I tweet, he tweets wid that response!!! I instigated Nicky, wowie!!!

I mean, at that point, even at this point, I was over the moon...a celeb read my tweet, and tweeted in response to that!!! I mean, thats pretty much the most exciting thing that has ever happened to me! Actually, that really goes to show what a fuck-all life I've been leading so far, but who cares...NICKY TWEETED IN RESPONSE TO MY TWEET!!!

I'm FLYING WITHOUT WINGS!!!

The rant begins...

Why have I named my blog 'Flying Without Wings'?! Quite simple really, its my fave song! Its a Westlife track from their first album, and I have been in love with this song, and with them since then! Let this also serve as a statutory health warning to you that u will probably hear a lot about them in my blogs...so don't say I didn't warn u!

The main reason I have now decided to start blogging, other than because my cousins have recently started blogging as well and I feel inspired by them, is so that I can share a bit of my life and lifestyle with all u guys! So going into a bit of history...I moved to London on 9 September 2009 to do a M.Sc. in Investment Management from Cass Business School. It's a one year course, and I'm almost at the finishing line! Before that, I was working with Ernst & Young, Mumbai with the Financial Services team doing bank audits. Now I aspire to move to investment banking...what a leap!

What I intend to be blogging about, other than my interests, is basically my life here in London, and how different it is from what it used to be in Mumbai. That's where the 'Flying Without Wings' comes in again! I 'flew' here, away from my nest (pretty symbolic, huh?!) to learn to be independent...little did I realize that being independent requires a heavy price!

Well, that was just the basic intro to my life...I only covered the bare basics, and I'll keep updating the history as I keep blogging! Meanwhile, watch out for my next blog...hopefully, it'll be sometime soon!