Year 2007 and me...

Ok. I was writing this post on 31st December 2007 at around 11pm. So now it should be 1st January 2008 when I posted it:) Therefore, this is my first post for the year 2008!

Last year has been really an enlightening year for me. I am not the same person now as I was at the start of last year. I have undergone a lot of changes. Although I am at a loss of whether they are good changes or bad ones. It depends on how my changes affect those around me I guess.

I've learnt a number of lessons last year, and I will share them here in my blog so that I will remember 2007 forever! I can never forget my dear 2007! This was the year, in which I worked an earned money first time in my life! Took a step in getting a driver's license! (Passed the theory tests but not started with practicals yet!) Got into NUS!! Went through a semester of fun and studying! Got my results! Yey, I'm happy that the last year is finally over and I am stepping into another year of more fun and adventures!!!

As I have said, I've learnt a few lessons for life in this year. Particularly important as I am growing up, and will soon be 21 this year. I've learned who to trust and who not to trust. I've learned that giving help and love only to those who deserve them, is better than giving it to all. I have been hurt by people who have misunderstood me and who have not shown thanks to me for the help I gave them. This molded me into a person who doesn't always trust a friend immediately and as someone who hates dishonesty to the core.

I've learned to give up and go with the flow. I used to hold onto things like as if they were dear life! Last year, I've learned to let go of them and just go with the flow. I've learned to keep on moving. Whenever I encountered a problem, I used to mull over it and keep thinking about it. But now I understand that mulling over and brooding over the past doesn't help solve the problem. One needs to move on and act fast, thinking of "what can be done next?".

I've been enlightened in a lot of issues the past year, and hope to learn more in 2008! Especially in the area of friendships and relationships. I'm clear and well-defined about what I want and where I stand in this matter. Hopefully there are no changes in my decision in the coming future. I've been enlightened about my viewpoints in certain matters. I became sceptical about the existence of God in the past year. My scepticism still holds on, but I strongly sense that there is a higher power above ourselves an beyond our control. I learned and I'm still learning more about myself when it comes to this issue. I hope studying and researching more on hinduism (or more accurately, Sanathana Dharma) helps me to find the Absolute Truth!

I've made a number of friends in the past year. Especially in the past year, I should say! Well, to list them out, they are: Jia Ying, Jeremy, Farah, Dominic, Mahi, Choon Peng, Jaya, Safiah, Jian Liang, Keerti Vasan (my nephew, but still a good friend to me!), Saravana Kumar, Susantharan, Vikneswari, Mathura, Subathra, Dave, Chanchal, Sandhya, Viknesh, Praveen Shamini, Priyadarsani, Arun and a few more. So many friends to name!! Most of my university friends are Indians. Kasturi and Kalpana are my best friends! But I woud say Kasturi is more than a best friend to me now. I would say a stage four friend!! Haha. I still need time to understand Kalpana better.

Last year, in 2007 that is, I met a vey unique person (one of the friends I've named in the paragraph above and some will know who I'm referring to). He is unique in the sense that I'll never meet another person like him again anywhere! Haha. I hope we become good friends in the future. I want to add on "or probably more than friends", but people always tend to mistake it for relationship, so I will not add that. I just wish we both will become great friends like what Kasturi and I are now. Well, what's the harm of naming him? Haha. I am speaking about none other than Susanth!

Remember the surprising I promised of telling you all in this post?? Well, it is just that I'm going to write a book! I'm not going to write it alone. But this is going to be a joint effort by me and Susanth! I wish we could achieve a lot by writing this book. Personally, I want to see the youths taking up this book and by the time they finish reading the book, their mindsets about our culture, basically hinduism, should be changed for good! They should feel proud and inspired to be born in our culture and follow it righteously. This is not a religious book. Rather it is going to be a book about hinduism, the kind we have never seen before. Hopefully, we get to publish the book and also our aims are achieved!

It seems I've already touched on some of the upcoming events for 2008 for me! Haha. Thinking, bainstorming and writing this book is one of the items in a long list of agenda definitely! Hmm... What more? Oh, there's a lot more! For 2008, my priority is going to be my education! Next will be Hindu Society! But my highest priority will always be my dearest family and dear friends! My focus this year will be to grow more on the inside and to hopefully achieve the goals I've set for myself. In my studies, I want to get a CAP closer to 4.0, compared to what I've got for this semester (3.4). The Bhagavad Gita. This is another goal I've set for myself. To read the the world's highly esteemed scripture and learn more about myself in the process. I hope one year is enough for this. Hehe.

As for my other goals, they are simply too elaborate to be put up here on my blog. They mostly relate to the book we're going to write, to hinduism, to Hindu Society (from here onwards, I shall refer to this as HS) and so on. So yeah, this is my first post for 2008. 2007 is gone, and 2008, here I come!!! ;P

Wishing you all a VERY PROSPEROUS HAPPY NEW YEAR FOR 2008. MAY ALL YOUR DREAMS AND GOALS COME TRUE IN THIS NEW YEAR!!

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Ingenious music copy!

If it is one thing I hate the most when it comes to music, it is music copied out of somewhere. When I first viewed the Billa trailer and heard the Billa theme music, I thought well, it was a genuine attempt by Yuvan in composing such a stylish music... Well. I don't agree with this anymore. Just compare the following two music.The first one is the Billa trailer music video... The second one is a similar music video of Martin Mystery...

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Do we need friends?

Recently a friend of mine asked me a question regarding friends. "Why do you think we need friends? Do we need friends?" Well it is essentially one question and simply put, "Why do we need friends?" A tricky question, I feel. We all have friends, or should I say "friends"? But we do not depend on them entirely during difficult times.

I think to answer this question, we need to define what friendship is and who is a friend? Most of you out there might think, "What question is this? Of course everyone needs friends!" But think again. How many of your friends would you rely on and spill all of your secrets, which you are dying to share with someone? None, when it comes to me. I'm sure it is also none when it comes to you out there. Be a sceptic and answer the questions before you come to a decision.

Friendship, in my opinion, is a relationship between any two person that grows and develops gradually. There are stages in a friendship. I'm lucky enough to have cultivated a 7-years worth of friendship to tell you what these stages are. Most of you out there might not have experienced all of these stages yet. I myself am still in the process of experiencing these stages with other friends. Another point to take note of is that I am speaking from a female's point of view. Female friendships are different from male friendships. Maybe it is also different for a friendship between a male and a female. I don't know. But let me make it clear that I am talking about friendship between ANY two persons in general. It might not be true in all the cases, but generally speaking, it is.

The first stage is when you get to know each other superficially. This is why many "friends", who are actually just acquaintances, are said to behave superficially. In this stage, you only get to know who they are, what they are doing, which schools they have gone to, what their hobbies are,why they have come here, what are they working as and so forth. All these details are made known to each other. Next time they meet, they say 'hi' and talk more on details like these. This is the first stage of a beginning of a friendship and in most cases this is also the end. Most of the times, the two of them are not stuck with each other, so they loose touch. Or better still, they loose interest. Haha.

The transition from first stage to second stage is very important and this is influenced by many factors. Body language, character, attitude, personality, compatibility and so on. The friendship takes off very well at this stage if the two persons have matching wavelengths. Meaning both have some things in common. Friendship can still develop between two persons, even if they have opposing views. But only if they find a way to compromise these opposing views. However, an important criteria for a friendship to develop further is that the two people should have something in common. This will make them connect. So at this second stage, as the two persons spend more time together, learn more about the other. When they find some common ground, the friendship starts growing roots.

Until this stage, all you have for the person is respect. You treat that person with some respect during all situations. In the third stage however, informality kicks in. This is in my opinion. Some people might start being informal the instant they meet. They start using "da" or "di" or "dear" very much in the first stage itself. But in most cases, I feel that informality only kicks in when the two friends (from the 3rd stage onwards I shall refer to these two persons as two friends, because this is when they truly become friends, I will explain why later) enter the third stage. Notice that until now, I didn't mention anything about the time frame. The stages happen in any time length, there is no fixed time length. It might take a year or just a month to reach the third stage.

In the third stage, when informality kicks in, the two friends get to know each other's family and circle of friends. This is also the stage when the two friends share some of the things that happen in their lives. But this is not the stage when the two are ready to spill even their darkest secrets to each other. Hehe. No, not yet. This stage is more like settling in stage. Lots of sharing of feelings, problems and achievements in this stage of friendship. Real understanding of each other occurs in this stage. Each might learn new things about his/her friend each day and both come to predict each other's behaviours in particular situations. They do not depend on each other at this stage, not yet. But they feel that they can share anything with this particular friend. In my opinion, this stage of friendship takes a long time to grow and develop. This is like the puberty part of our lives, where real change takes place, hehe. When I say long time, I mean a few years.

The fourth stage is when the two of the friends become really best friends. By now, atleast a few years or so would have passed and all these years they have, by some fortunate event, been always together. Most would be stuck at the third stage. But the transition to fourth stage happens when the two friends have really had an extraordinary moment together. This is something which can't be explained by words, I feel. I have been through this, but I myself cannot explain. I think if my friend, who had asked me this question, had been through this stage of friendship with anyone in his life, then he would have never even asked that question in the first place. Haha. Having said that, this is the last stage of a friendship.

From here onwards, the friendship manifests in different forms, grows and develops further. Both start depending on each other. Respect is still there, but love and affection is also there. When I say depending, it doesn't mean that one can't live without the other. This only means that both of them feel that the other person should be near them during important events of their lives. For example, something small as their birthday or something big as their wedding! This is the stage when true friendship as seen between Karna and Dhuryodhana, Krishna and Draupadi, manifests. I regard this kind of friendship greater than the likes of BGR we see today.

Friendship is something special, especially this kind of true friendship, because it happens between two complete strangers who later discover that they form good partnership or friendship. Whereas the relationship of that between offspring and parents or siblings or any other relatives is because of a known reason. We have been seeing them and knowing them since we were born and so it is natural that such relationships are very strong. But a strong friendship developing between two initially complete strangers is strange indeed!! Haha.

We don't need friends in life, especially those "friends" who do not mean anything to us. But when we do meet someone who we think would make a good friend to us, then we should not let them go. Keep good friends who you think deserve your friendship and let others off from your mind. That is my policy. Emotional attachment only develops at the middle of stage three and all the way through stage four. This kind of emotional attachment is something good and not something that distracts us or disturbs us. I believe that friends can be or inspirations, especially good friends. There are, you may find, lots of good things to learn from each other. There are also opportunities for friends to get rid of their bad habits because of good friendships.

If you do find a good friend in your life, and the friendship ends up in stage four, then I'm sure that person is God's gift to you. In some way or other, your life will surely be influenced by that best friend, and that too in a good way.

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Sketch of the week! 2

Krishna is Meera's thoughts...

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Retreat camp: FUN!!

The hinduism camp we attended was really fun! Well, I know what most of us thought about the camp before attending it. That it would be one of those camps which contain lots of talks and quizes, very religious in short. But it turned out to be otherwise. It was really fun with a good balance of games and talks.

We learned a lot about hinduism. For me personally, I feel very ashamed of myself after attending the camp. Being a hindu, a product of the very old vedic culture, I am really ignorant of the many gems hidden in our culture. I do not want to stay that way anymore. From now on in my life, I'm going to make it a point to learn as much as I can about Sanatana Dharma. Being in Hindu Society in NUS has really helped me realise a lot about hinduism.

I was really impressed to meet so many youths interested in making a difference to the people by getting involved in community activities. After seeing all this, I feel I have wasted my whole life. I met a fellow NUSian, Ambika. She was actively involved in hindu centre activities and also has her own group of non-profit, volunteer-based organisation called "Karangal". They bring Indian children who have serious illnesses like cancer and leukaemia outside to spend time with them, having fun. They also raise funds to help these children to get some treatment. This has really opened up my eyes to today's youths. They are very good and active nowadays. Better than the youths in the past I guess.

This whole camp experience was an eye-opener for me in a lot of issues. Thanks to the facilitators who organised this camp: Devanand, Sugumaran and Susantharan. Thanks guys!:)

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Ninaithu Ninaithu

Hi everyone! This is another song I sang (it is without music). I sang it just on impulse, although I wanted to do this song for a long time now. Exam stress really pushes one to do unusual stuff!

Movie Name: 7G Rainbow Colony
Song Title: Ninaithu Ninaithu
Original Singer: The wonderful Shreya Goshal!!


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You can download it here too.

Hey stay tuned to a surprise news!! It's not confirmed yet, but I will let you all know soon;P

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Sketch of the week! 1

Hi, this is me with a sketch of Kannan!! Imitation sketch. Meaning this sketch was done by copying a drawing. Nothing special about doing that. But here it is. I'll try to post a sketch every week, or once a fortnight;P

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Metamorphosis

Reading back the previous entries in my blog, I realise that I have changed a lot. My previous entries that I wrote in the start of this blog, they look really ridiculous now to me. It makes me wonder who this girl is? Haha. I've had that many changes within myself. Events that happened and that are happening in my life are changing me, hopefully into a better person.

I've been an atheist, and I still am. But I have come to understand how others understand God. I've also come to respect that. I can also define God in my own way. Also, learning more about Hinduism has made me interested in it! Now I've totally become a full-blown Hindu. I've also become a vegetarian recently, becoming aware of myself. People say I changed suddenly, but to be frank, these changes have been in me for a long long time. It's just that I've never really taken the effort to make a change! And a sudden jump into something alien to others, makes them think that I changed suddenly.

I've been like all other girls in life, in the past. I once had planned out my life with a loving husband, kids and a happy family. Haha. It seems ridiculous now, because now my views on these issues are also totally changed. Now my future only contains my career and ambitions for life. This transformation seems like a lot, but it was a gradual change of mind.

First, later in life, I decided not to have kids at all. I don't like them that much after all. But I kept it to myself, I didn't want to upset my parents and I didn't want my friends to know that too. But now I don't really care, I just voice out my opinions to them. Then the next step in this transformation happened when I started thinking "why marry at all in the first place". This was a year to half month ago. I can't remember exactly when.

I have always valued friendships much higher than BGR. When my friends, one by one, started going out with guys and having boy friends, I didn't really see the need for that in my case. I was happy by being just friends with one or two guys. I also truly believe that it is possible for a guy and girl to be just good friends forever. People will think I am crazy if I also add here "even after marriage". Haha. But that is my opinion, and I truly think it is practical. Why others think its not practical, I can understand why, but it is definitely possible. Maybe not for them because, they want to have more in a relationship than just friendship.

I am lucky to have been meeting some people who have similar views to mine, very few though. I thought I might be the only one thinking like that, but there are guys or gals out there having similar opinions. Haha. Who know? Maybe when I look back to this post in the future, I might be wondering who is this girl again!! My views might change, but for now it's almost settled and decided. Avoid marriage as much as possible, but if you are "forced" into it by parents to keep them happy or something, then marry a friend and live with them just as friends. That is my view and I do think it is practical.

Such transformations within myself!! I myself am surprised that I have changed this much. I don't know how or why it all happened. I don't want to dwell into that either. I am happy with the life I'm living right now. Really happy indeed, because I'm doing things that I am very much interested in. Life sciences, Hinduism, helping my friends, readind a lot, music!! I love all my friends and family... What more do I need in life?

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Exam Fever!!

Gosh!! Never in my life have I sat and studied for two whole weeks the amount of syllabus that should be studied over a month, and that too not for one but four modules!! Sigh! Last weeks were horrible. So much of anticipation, fear, frustration and impatience for the exams. I want them to be over soon and I want to get it over with. Sigh! Now has this explained my absence in the blogosphere for a few weeks?

The impatience is killing me and each day passes like a week!! I still can't believe that yesterday was my first exam I sat for. Good, one down, now three more to go:( After that, this blog is going to get a new look for the new year, and a new segment full of some songs I'll sing. I have created some karaoke for gals!! I'll upload them on esnips.com for you to download and sing!! I'll also upload for guys, songs with girl's voice only. After learning to do minus tracks, I now realise why not every songs can be made into a karaoke. Because for most of the songs, once the vocals are removed, the song doesn't have the original quality anymore. Making karaoke is time-consuming. But I enjoy doing it. I'll do more after exams. Now you see why I can't wait for the exams to be over.

A lot of activities and work is coming up for me during the holidays too. There is this retreat camp for 3D2N!! A hinduism camp for youths, with lots of fun and games. Those Hindu Society (HS) people staying in Singapore during the holidays are going for it, including me!! And so many work to be done by the Publicity, for which I am incharge!! We'll be coming up with a new logo for Hindu Society and with a new t-shirt for our main committee!! NUS HS rocks!! It is going to be 25 years old soon!! And we are the 25th Exco! Sigh! Silver Jubilee will be held next year, during which we'll be launching our new logo.

Until the next post, this is Priya signing off. Bubye!!

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Akkam Pakkam...

Hi. This recoring turned out so well for me. But unfortunately, the echo was really getting way out of hand and does not suit the song. But pls bear with while you listen. I don’t know how to correct the mistake and let it be that way. Thanks for listening:)

Song: Akkam Pakkam
Film: Kreedom
Original Singer: Sadhana Sargam


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