Cyanide&Coffee's Blog

This was my first trip on a ship! I was 3 or 4 and my dad was the Chief Officer. My sister to my right (your left) was 7. We went to Japan and Australia on this trip. I don't remember much save once when we went to a store and mum said we could get one toy each. We clearly misunderstood it cause we took a cart each and filled them with toys and walked to the counter. My mum was well shocked and everyone laughed! We ended up with just 1 toy each. I bought a goodluck troll. Those things are adorbz.

This was milk-drinking time in the evening. I hated it. (As is obvious from the face I'm making.) That's my little sister, Shanice. She's almost 2 years younger than me. This was taken in Goa. All 4 of us would sit and drink our milk at the table. We had to drink it whether we liked it or not.

No I'm sadz cause I miss the family. :(

Ok.bye.

So it said we could put up some 'artwork' too. I'm going to put up 2 cause the first may not qualify as 'mine'. Here it is:

So this was one of the areas I had to decorate for my college festival. I was on the Organising Committee and was in charge of the decor through out the college and we went a little crazy. I conceptualised the area, and everything you see, the tree, the imps are all bio degradeable and made of scrap. It was made by my team. Our initiative that year was to make everything beautiful, but out of garbage (except the paint over it. :P) The only thing I personally worked on was the face on the tree and one of the imps. Not sure which one.

(Those are backdrops on the ceiling and behind the tree too)

Ok, next one.

This is a self portrait that I actually like because of the shading. I've never drawn another self-portrait that I have liked.

Ok now I will go be awkward in a corner.

I cut my hair really short last August. I should have known that I would regret it sooner or later. Now that time has come and I really wish I could tie my hair up. So here's some wishful thinking and 5 things I would have loved to do had I not chopped my hair.

Dreads

I was not allowed to go near people with dreads as a child because unlike in Western countries, people in India had natural or 'neglect-induced' dreads. That means they neither combed their hair nor washed it. When what we call the 'hippies' came to Goa, they sometimes had clean, neglect dreads. Now everyone either has backcomb or twist and rip ones. Which is what I recently tried, and I can't tell the difference between my regular and dreaded hair - think I need a professional. WHOOPS! I think these are gorgeous.

Top knots

Classic and extremely convenient. You don't even need anything else to hold your hair up. You literally just spin it around and create a knot with your hair and hope it doesn't come undone. Most of the time, it won't. Unless you have extra silky hair. In that case, a few tack clips would do the trick.

Pssst: after you get cornrows, you could twist it up like this too, and it won't slip off easily!

Cornrows

I tried this once when my hair was long. Ok, not this long, but it reached my tummy. It felt so good because my scalp had some breeze delivered to it, and it retained a little water after a shower, so it felt cool. The best part about cornrows is that when you take them off, your hair frizzes up so much, and it looks awesome. If you're someone with regular, boring hair, that frizz can be very exciting.

Buns

I've noticed how people have elaborate bun dos. I was on the train once, and this girl whipped out this ribbon and started rolling her hair up into it, when she got to her scalp, she held the sides of the ribbon and tied them up. It not only formed a pretty bow, but also a bun. Neat!

Plaits

Where would I be without these? These are the most convenient, and it doesn't matter what it looks like, in the end, it's going to be comfortable. Don't even get me started on the kinds of plaits one can make! This is just a basic one. In fact, in most schools in India, plaiting your hair is compulsory if it reaches your shoulders.

What have you got planned for your hair when it gets too hot?

There are chances this post may hurt people's sentiments, should that be the case, I apologise - that is not my intention.

I hate babies and I think I was the ugliest baby ever. So here are some older pictures of me when I was probably 2 or 3.

This is a picture of my mum with her first 3 daughters (she has 1 more who is her 6th child). I'm the one sitting beside her. On her lap is my littler sister, Shanice. My sister in pink is Siobhan. I love that this is Polaroid, so it gets to be first, even though I'd put them chronologically otherwise.

This is Siobhan and I. The rollie-pollie dumpling child to the right is me! I must have been 1 and a half here.

This was my first day of school. I was 4. LOOK OUTSIDE THE WINDOW! That whole area has buildings now. :(

Old photos make me grumpy, so I will sit quiet now. 

Well, I've done a few posts about how I have been working excessively lately, so I could not even access Buzznet if I wanted to because I was swamped with SO MUCH work. Coincidentally, when Buzznet was better, I started getting more free time and my work panned out properly, so I now have a list of tasks I can take on systematically. I thought I'd put up a post of the actual working process which I needed to put in place these past 3 months, and since I'm Home now, I can take pictures. I'm finally on a sort of break this week. I'm back home and with my family (only my youngest 2 siblings and my parents and gran) but I need to work anyway. I have a whole bunch of tasks that I need to complete, and if I take time off, I will never finish them.

Anyway, I've set up a mini workstation in my room, on the floor. We have tables, yes, but I feel so comfortable doing my work on the floor. I've put down a new rug and  mat that my aunt bought for me from a handicraft exhibition and laid out my material.

I usually need to have data physically in front of me to analyse it, so in cases where the data seems to tell me a story that I cannot make sense of while on the computer, I need to put it down on sheets of paper. I have to look at the data for trends and write reports on it.

My laptop - my uncle bought me a new Vaio with windows 8 on it! It is so pretty, and it's made like one of those Apple laptops, but I'm not an apple fan. :P

It took some time to get used to since the settings are here and there, and I was initially frustrated with it because I could not make changes as easily as I could, but now that I have a hang of it, I like it and even feel uncomfortable on other versions. I've been doing a lot of work on it, so I'm glad I've got it.

He also bought me a Michel Foucault finger puppet cum magnet from the "Unemployed Philosopher's Guild". It's from the US. I had asked him to check whether he could get a certain book by Foucault, but it was really expensive, so I think I will just buy it here in India. I did download the e-book, and started reading Discipline and Punish.

I've also read a number of other articles and journals for all the research references I need to make. Those have been exceptionally thrilling since I have the 'field' story of it all and can criticise what the newspapers print. So that's really nice.

Now that I'm home, I'm reading Bertrand Russell's "Unarmed Victory" which is his take on the Cuban crisis and the Sino-Indian war (China vs. India) and he comments on the use of Nuclear Power and his correspondence with relevant government figures. That's how I know that my holiday is going well - when I read a good book.

In other news, I've been getting mixed signals from the ex about how he's made a mistake. A friend of mine went through a break up too. Apparently mine is following the same pattern as hers, and in the end she learned that it was not worth it. I don't know what to make of all this. :/ So that's been a personal issue that also kept me off the internet for a while.

ANYWAY! HOLIDAYS! YEAY!

It isn't cold in my part of the world, so I'm just going to imagine, which is what I've been doing for a while. I try to layer up everyday and end up boiling! So to help me feel better, I browse through everyone's pictures of the snow and generally on the internet for winter clothing. Finally decided to put up a gallery in which I've been particularly biased towards navy blue, ochre and grey. Rust almost made the cut, but that's done enough. Enjoy!

Wow. I cannot remember the last time I participated in a BSTA, but the excitement has just come back to me. Well, I will talk about the regular Christmas-New Year's Celebrations and my progress over the years. The only thing being consistant is decorating the house!

One of the things that impact my celebrations is my belief system. For example, prior to turning 14, I preferred to sit at home because I thought that parties were only for pretty people and all that rubbish. At 14, I liked hanging out with my older sister, and remember going for a Christmas dance with her and her then boyfriend. It was pretty nice because they have this mini Beauty competition, and I always liked answering their stupid questions. For some reason, I always get to be politically incorrect. I remember that the question was "Do you think college boys who try to impress girls by speeding around is something that flatters you? What advice would you give these boys?" To which I replied along the lines of "Other than putting people's lives at danger, they also seem very stupid when tdoing such things. I would much prefer they actually spent more time in class, studying, than acting like a bunch of idiots on the road." Needless to say, I did not win.

Anyway! Every year on Christmas eve, my family and I attend the midnight Christmas mass at our parish church. We go to church to usher in the new day together. After the mass, we wish everyone we know and sit around for coffee and cake, and also play a bit of 'housie'/'bingo'. Then we go home to open PRESENTS. And every year I grumble at my parents for wasting their money on the stupid occasion when they could have just saved it to go on a nice holiday. 

After this, my sister and I would usually go for a formal dance. I shall now proceed to share pictures of my various dresses over the years that my sister has stitched for me! She always designs something for me.

That was the last we went out together. The next year I had malaria, and the year after that, I refused to go out since I my levels of disgust had increased. This year I will not be spending Christmas with my Parents and Siblings. For those of you who do not know, I come from a huge family. My mother is one of 6 children, and I am too. We all usually meet up in my state and have barbequeue, so that is something I will particularly miss this year. Here's a picture of mum and my sister and the next is of my dad's awesome lunch!

This year I will be working through Christmas and new years(will talk about that in a different post). The last time I met my family was in July, so this is quite upsetting for me. Now that I look back on my BSTAs, I never seem to have a happy ending! BUT WAIT! I could possibly go out with a few friends here. I have a pretty dress that ought to go well with my short hair. Perhaps I could even get a new haircut. :)

Happy Holidays, people!

P.S: Did I mention that it doesn't snow here, so I have NEVER seen snow in my life?

Hullo! I was going to post this as a photo post, but didn't because I want to introduce you to Sasha! This is Sasha. i don't know what to say about her, bu she's a classy little doll who could as well be porcelain with all the care she takes of her self. She cooks the yummiest dol(lentil curry). She's one of the strongest people I know. I have only ever heard her break down over the phone once or twice, and she is the only person who has heard me cry. She's got me through so much this past month, including talking some sense into me when I almost gave up on applying to study further. I had quite the crush on her for a while, bt ended up picking the ex over her because she was dating some dumbarse. But I guess that's what really good friends are for. Over the last 2 years, people have claimed to be "disgusted and creeped out" by how close we got. It so happened that we realised things about each other that we had in common, and others could not understand. We were comfortable talking to each other, and still are. 

At this point, we are studying for our English Proficiency Test together and working on our applications to get out of the country. Since it is hushed up when it comes to family with the two of us (we believe in people being able to 'jinx' our efforts/ bad luck.) On the day that these pictures were taken, she was answering her French Competitive Test.

Anway, I should probably get to my Holiday BSTA soon! But thought I'd share this too. :)

I hope everyone has a lovely weekend!

Hi Everyone! I thought I'd share my World AIDS day. As a few may be aware, I doucment events for the City-based AIDS Control Society. The city is known to have the most members belonging to High Risk Groups in India. This includes Migrants (from over the country), Truckers, Sex Workers and Men who have Sex with Men. I need to clarify that the last does not imply homosexual males. They are heterosexual males who are married to females, but like themselves a bit of sodomy here and there. (Yes.) They are vulnerable because they do not take appropriate caution when indulging in the act, resulting in the rupturing of the inner walls and thus, allowing for the sperm to have direct contact with blood. The same goes with all other sexual modes of contraction.

The event was at a Government Building, the Mumbai Port Trust. The Government organisation my joblady is a consultant for is supposed to organise the event. Anyway, we have been critical about the use and outcome of such a program. They have organised competitions including essay-writing, question and answer sets and a drawing competition.

I wonder what will come of it. One can never expect too much from government bodies. And I say this because I work with an NGO too. Anyway! Here are a few nice pictures I took. (look at me, blowing my own trumpet!)

*No faces to maintain confidentiality. Also, I don't want their heads on my posts.

I'm sure all of you are aware that Human Rights are violated all over the world. We like to believe that some are more than others, but can we really just accept whatever degree at which this occurs? Some regions are brilliant at hiding it, while others aren't so much.

In an open letter dated 29th November, 2012, Human Rights Activist, Maryam Alkhawaja requests Kim Kardashian to schedule a meeting with the board to further the movement against Human Rights Violation. She explains that while the world has the opinion of Bahrain being "well known for its Grand Prix and the Bahrain International Air Show", "the government of Bahrain wants you to believe that the country is merely the home of exciting business opportunities and a modern, new Middle East." Since Kardashian had publically declared that she wants to understand the situation in the Middle East, Alkhawaja believes this would be advantageous in both ways.

In a reactionary post, The Huffington Post provides a brief overwview of the situation not just in Bahrain, but also Kardashian's previous political bloopers. Alternatively, "Feminist", Naomi Wolf urges people to tweet to Kardashian to accept the offer.

The US is a superpower that pretty much controlls the 'celebrity' avenue, so it would not be difficult for so popular a figure to have a (hopefully) positive impact on the situation. I do not believe that celebrities have the qualifications to comment, however, the imact that they have should they take such causes up can be tremendous in a good way. I do not post this in support of Kim Kardashian, because I honestly believe that it can be a disaster. However, if a Human Rights Activist thinks it will help after briefing the reality star, the chances of Kim messing this up may be lowered!

What say you?

A presumably perplexed Kardashian at the launch of Millions of Milkshakes in Kuwait.