The Queen Bee v/s Me

I think it was exactly eleven days back. As per routine, I got up at five thirty in the morning. Around twenty minutes after both my roomies had just gone to sleep. I walked out of my room and to my surprise, or horror rather, there was this huge bee hive that sprung out of nowhere. I'm pretty sure it wasn't there the night before.

This is what I saw



A closer look



It disgusted me. I was once stung by a bee when I was four and the sting lasted for around a week. I immediately ran down to the warden and complained about the bee hive. He gave me the most obscure but irrefutable reason. He told me in chaste Hindi that if he calls the pest control guys, all the bees will die. And that since I don't have the right to give life, I shouldn't have the right to take life as well. He also gave me a lecture on karma and how paap lagega if I kill the bees.

Little did he know that he was speaking to a guy who has had 21 non vegetarian meals a week for most of his life. And so I finally decided to take matters in my own hands. These were my weapons



So for the next few days, with the help of my rolled up newspaper and Chinese fly electricutor, I was smashing and frying bees all day. I used to average around 20 bees a day. My life had got a new purpose. I felt good. It was the queen bee against me and this was one battle I was determined to win.

Until one day when I read that the queen bee lays 3,000 eggs a day.

Alaskan Trivia - Things you may not have known about the Land of the Midnight Sun

~ In Barrow, Alaska, the longest day starts May 10th and lasts 3 months. The longest night starts on November 18th and continues for 2 months.

~ Alaska offers 0.93 square mile for each resident. In comparison with 0.003 sqaure mile offered by New York!

~ Alaska has more than 33,000 miles of coastline. It is more than all of the combined coastline of the entire continental United States of America.

~ Totaling over 3 million lakes, Alaska houses over 40% of USA's fresh water.

~ Very surprisingly, Alaska's state sport isn't snow skiing, ice skating or even fishing. It is dog mushing!

~ Juneau is the capital of Alaska. Not Anchorage or Fairbanks!

~ Alaska's flag was designed in 1926 by a 13-year-old Native American boy, Bennie Benson, from the village of Chignik. Bennie received a 1,000-dollar scholarship and a watch for his winning entry in the flag design contest.

~ The name Alaska is derived from the Aleut word "Alyeska", meaning great land.

~ On March 30, 1867, the United States agreed to purchase Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million dollars, about two cents an acre; "Seward's Folly" many called it, after Secretary of State William H. Seward. A check for $7,200,000.00 was issued on August 1, 1868 and made payable to Edouard de Stoeckl, the Russian Minister to the United States.

~ At their closest Alaska and Russia are 2.5 miles apart – the distance between Little Diomede Island, Alaska, and Big Diomede Island, Russia.

And that's me!

My Reading List

Mumbai - Delhi
Delhi - Toronto
Toronto - Vancouver

My companions

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows
Aunts aren't Gentlemen - P G Wodehouse
Liar's Poker - Michael Lewis
Only Time Will Tell - Jeffrey Archer
The Thing Around Your Neck - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Till we meet again. Adios

Goodbyes are Difficult

Lavale, Pune.
March 30, 2012.


Today marks the end of two great years of my student life. I don't think I have the ambition or the talent to pursue a doctorate and so my student life has all but ended. Today. I said my final goodbyes to 12 of my closest friends, who were more like family.

Each one of them said the same thing.

"Bye Shawn. Please keep in touch."

And my response was the same.

"Even if I tried, I'd find it difficult, not to"

Today marks the end of two great years of my student life. Today, I crossed my fingers 11 times.

Finally!

I've been playing Housie for years now. But it was on the 20th of May that for the first time I managed to win something. We played it as part of a team building exercise. The fact that three others also won the 'Jaldi 5' is of little significance. So also the fact that only 11 people played.

The Girl Ahead

The exam was scheduled to begin at nine in the morning. At eight thirty, I was already in my seat. Mentally flipping through every page of the five books that I had been studying from, on and off, for the past three months. I was, as usual, one of the first candidates in the examination hall. That’s the way it’s been all my life. I’d rather be half an hour early, than half a minute late.

My digital watch told me that there were still seven minutes to go when I saw her walk in. There were two vacant seats in the hall. One ahead of me and the other, right in the corner of the room. Under normal circumstances I would hope that she takes the nearest seat. But today did not quite qualify as 'normal'.

As luck would have it, she sat in front of me. I closed my eyes momentarily and tried to focus on the job at hand. With three minutes remaining for the start of the exam, she took out two HB pencils from her pocket and rather nonchalantly, began sharpening them.

No matter how inconsequential the exam or how well prepared I am for it, three minutes before an exam, you wouldn’t find me sharpening my pencils. I wouldn’t be able to do that for dear life. And that’s when I realized, that she may or may not win the war against finance, but she sure did win the battle against her nerves. The girl ahead.

Vacation Blues

After a really long time I am staring at a vacation in which I have nothing to do. No places to visit. No friends to catch up with. No exams to prepare for. No movies to watch. My internship ends on the 10th of June and college doesn't start till the 22nd. 11 long days that I am dreading.

I've managed to lay my hands on a book called 'The Ultimate Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy'. It has all the 5 books of the hitch hikers series rolled into one massive paperback. I am not really a fan of science fiction, but then again I have limited choices. I plan to blog a bit too. I like writing. Though it doesn't come naturally to me. And I always feel that my sentences are too short and abrupt. And that I start too many sentences with and. But writing has a cathartic feeling that I can't explain or reason. And that is why I write.

In case you are wondering about the picture, that is the view from my house. I clicked it because I liked the cloud formation. I can stare at clouds for hours. Watching them form weird shapes.

"More than just yearly rituals in which we connect with friends and family, vacations are also exercises in self-definition. In affording time away from the demands of everyday life, vacations disclose what people choose to do rather than are required to do." - Cindy Aron