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A new phenomenon has swept my hometown of Chennai. A strange phenomenon whose origins are unknown and illogical. A phenomenon nobody has managed to explain to me. Curious yet?
There are several others, but I still can't help but to wonder why these comments are passed. What do they expect to achieve? I hate it when men stand and stare at us women while we're walking around on the street shamelessly. But in a way, the unapologetic gaping is more understandable than these comments. They are not flattering, alluring or anything positive. It won't make me walk up to them, thank them and give them my number. It won't make me want to dress better next time and give them my most dazzling smile for a better 'compliment'. It just makes me want to throw up, and then walk around wearing an invisibility cloak; or better yet, walk around wrapped in a blanket.
Since every Tom, Dick and Harry has a mobile phone these days, a new wave of 'eve-teasing' has begun. It started with one desperate guy thinking "Let me call up every random number I can think of until a female picks up the phone!" Brilliant! Once they find a female voice, they sometimes pass the number on to their friends, etc. This further reduces the criteria, you're judging by just a voice. I once got a call, I answered the phone and asked who it was. The guy introduced himself and asked for my name. I told him he'd gotten the wrong number and I didn't know him. This was his response: "No madam! Correct number only! Who are you? What are you do? You ate dinner?"
Wait... WHAT?!
So I told him that I hadn't eaten dinner yet and we both met up that very night. We had a lovely dinner at a nearby restaurant and now we're married. NO! I hung up, and saved his number as 'Do Not Answer' so I never answer his calls.
I'm so fed up of going through all of this. I suggest that we turn the tables a little bit. I propose [drum roll] 'Adam Teasing'!! Adam Teasers will be a group of girls who sit on ledges or bikes, stand on the street or outside little stores and wolf-whistle, cat-call, wink and pass derogatory comments at every male that passes by. These comments can be regarding their clothes, physique, appearance, or how you want to rape them. I think this is the only thing that can get me even a little bit close to understanding the cheap adrenaline rush derived by men while doing the same to girls. Anyone interested, please leave a note. I promise to give it a try and photo-document my efforts. I'll post a picture up, even! Give me a week.
The list goes on but I will stop here. There is an option not to publish all the random things you do on facebook. I suggest generous use of the 'skip' button when facebook asks you whether you want to publish things or not. There are also several people who take the quizzes seriously. I have come across a person who told me that she was good at math cause a facebook quiz told her so. If I had functioned according to facebook, I would've been following the profession of my destiny according to one of the quiz-makers which is to be a nanny. [Nannies are awesome, and I respect what they do, simply because I cannot do the same.]
The communities are even more confusing. I joined one of them just to see what it's about and it's called "I Chase And Roar At Squirrels And Sometimes Get Caught And It's Awkward". It currently has 2,279 members, I promise. And in that community, people either just talk about arbit and unconnected things, or actually describe their Squirrel chasing encounters. At least it's remotely entertaining. Don't judge me for joining.
What's even worse is the "If 94859345 People Join, My Girlfriend Will Marry Me And We Will Make Babies" communities. Firstly, what kind of whack-job is that girlfriend? Secondly, what would you DO in such a community? Alright it's sweet. Awwwww! Mr Stranger McQuackGirlfriend gets babies. But I don't care. You know why? It's because I don't care, really.
Fortunately though, facebook has been kind enough to offer me the option to block posts from certain applications and people if you choose to. For this, I thank facebook. And those of you who spam us, Shame On You!
And such like. These are completely unoriginal and in all probability, one professor said something along those lines about two decades ago and updated versions of the same [trust me, I've heard them in different permutations and combinations], constantly crop up to my utter displeasure.
Fortunately, university life brings with it a putting to rest of those jokes. But unfortunately for me, it also brought with it an extremely awkward, incorrect and misinformed professor. I fear that I might imbibe some of his so called values. He believes that we must get a well rounded education due to which he must give us life lessons rather than teach us the law. "Forget about the law!", is his trademark line. Sounded to me like he'd forgotten it a long time ago and couldn't bother reminding himself in order to teach a class. Here are some of his invaluable teachings.
1. ON MARRIAGE
Our first class with this man began with him telling us that handsome boys were always "mamas boys" and they had only one thing on their minds. Once they marry you, they'd do te deed and never take any more responsibility ever! Pretty girls, on the other hand, had "silly brains". If boys marry them, they'll mother them and make them wish they were never born. Therefore, we should never get married.
One day, I loudly and vehemently agreed with him when he said the following thing: "You know, students; All the ideas I get for your class, I get when I'm in the toilet. Can you believe that thing?". I mean, what did you expect me to do? Obviously, this ended up in a retaliation with him telling me that I would not get married and that was a hypocrit because at 19, I couldn't come up with a reason for getting married. Don't ask! I'm still trying to make the connection.
2. ON LOVE
Our resident love pundit professor told us that we could never be in love. This is because 20 and 21 year olds are only capable of "puppy love" and not commitment. Also, he told us to steer clear of actors and actresses like Salman Khan and Priyanka Chopra because they'd always think they can do better than us and then leave us high and dry. Listen to the man. Don't date famous people.
3. ON LAW
So we're in a law school. Mr. Studly McProfessor here is supposed to teach us law. A student proposed a hypothetical case and asked him about the point of law which could be used. Here was the prompt reply "You see, in the coutroom, it's about the emotion. We have to bring in the emotions to convince the people. The law, you can even forget!"
I mean, are you serious man?
So as you might have all assessed by now, I don't know how I'd be getting on in the world without this professor. He has taught me all the important things in life, which are outside the law, yet extremely vital. If not for him, I would be dating Salman Khan and not thinking of marriage. But thanks to him, I am now married and have made my husband sign a piece of paper certifyng that our love isn't just "puppy love"
As far as roommates go, I haven't been very lucky. People who know me have probably put up with endless complaints from me about the exploits of my various strange and abnormal roommates who manage to creep out even me. That's a hard thing to do.
My second roommate gave me her pearls of wisdom about marriage and how I wasn't a good bridal candidate cause I'm not fair [PALE] enough. But in terms of being just. plain. creepy. my current roommate takes the cake. To address her obscurities, I'm going to systematically put down her traits.
1. MINNIE MOUSE:
There is a lot to be said about one who is unhealthily addicted to a disney character. I would be rather comfortable with her privately enjoying Minnie Mouse, but when a person posesses the following, it gets disturbing:
I walked into my room one day to find my roomie standing and staring at her giant stuffed Minnie Mouse laying on her bed. I said "Hi", in response to which she said "I love my Minnie!". "Good for you!" I said, trying not to worry. "I really love her in this position; when she's upside down, I like looking at her panties!" was her response, followed by a giggle.
I covered my head and went to sleep, fearing for my safety as I was rooming with a disney molesting stranger.
2. GARBAGE
Do you stick posters on your walls? On your wardrobes too, maybe? Cause I do! I have a large poster of Rorschach of the Watchmen on my wall. I also have one of Andy Warhol. On my wardrobe, there's one of Arctic Monkeys, Velvet Revolver, Goldspot, etc.
My roomie is too cool for posters. Her wardrobe has garbage stuck on it. Mostly candy wrappers, discounting the empty packet of chips. She sticks the wrappers of everything she eats, and persumably enjoys eating, on her wardrobe. This incudes the followng wrappers:
And I'm sure there were a few others. What am I to make of this? I know not.
3. THE WHISPERING
So most people love the phone and a lot of people compromise their sleep to have endless conversations. I, for one, put my phone on silent mode and sleep through the entire night. My roommate, on the other hand, talks on the phone till 3 am and sleeps whenever she gets time during the day.
Well, I'm sure a lot of you will say "What's your problem? That's how we nocturnal people function! Do you have an issue? Stop discriminating against us late sleepers!" I have nothing against nocturnal people. I think they should be embraced, in fact. But I DO have a problem with nocturnal people who interfere with my sleep, but think they don't.
My roomie, for example, is on the phone all night. But she refuses to step out of the room to take her call. She needs to talk all night, while I'm in here, trying to sleep. And what if I fuss and tell her I can't sleep? She starts whispering into the phone. And not just any whisper; the loudest whisper you'll ever hear. It can be more aptly defined as raspy yelling into the phone.
Can't a poor girl get some sleep around here?
4. THE WET BATHROOM CONCEPT
I noticed that there are a breed of people who believe that the bathroom floor should be completely wet. I understand that this comes from an old school Indian view that water means clean and if the floors wet, then it must've been cleaned recently. WRONG!
A wet bathroom floor, my friends causes the following problems:
Therefore, if any of you would be so kind as to contact my roommate and tell her that she needn't spray the whole bathroom everyday, I will be very grateful. I don't understand what happiness she derives from wetting the entire bathroom [including the mirror, walls, etc.] and stomping around in it.
Any ideas as to why such a thing could be enjoyable? Please leave them in the comments.
I should also take the time to mention that the biggest con for me when it comes to blogging is that I typo a lot. The most common of my typos being "borthday". But the pros of blogging enlisted above closed the deal for me and I am now, officially, a blogger.
Alright so right now, since my mind is drawing an epic blogging blank [FAIL], I am going to talk about youtube. I mean, what's better than blogging about vlogs, right? IN YOUR FACE!
I won't lie, I'd like to say that I'm busy all the time doing important things like saving the world, but I spend a lot of time on YouTube. I love vlogs. I am absolutely baffled though, that people can be so spontaneous, witty and interesting when they're alone with nothing but a camera [most of the time]. But then is strikes me that they're probably all those things BECAUSE they're alone with just their blinking camera. I really enjoy the vlogs of AmazingPhil and MattG124 to name a few.
My life is too boring for me to vlog. Especially after the decision to get into law school, especially MY law school, which I now fear was driven purely by a sense of self loathing. Vloggers have such interesting lives. Especially when they're successful vloggers, cause then they make their lives more interesting for their vlogs to be more interesting. The more obscure, strange and funny they are, the more famous they are. I'm sure if I actually saw a vlogger I liked on the street I'd yell, run at them and ask for an autograph before I remind myself that I'm acting like a 10 year old who just saw Joe Jonas. The point being, vloggers actually turn into celebrities. I bet they even have stalkers. And twitter and facebook make stalking oh so simple. But we don't like stalkers, do we?
And since stalkers are such an unpleasant subject, I'm going to leave you now with a public message very close to my heart. DON'T STALK PEOPLE. Think of all the people you will be traumatising and ask yourself "What would Oprah do?"