"You're not the only one"*

SM keeps telling me I have a bad habit (actually one of many, according to her ;) ) of drifting off when she's talking to me, and asking questions which she'd have just answered. Like, she'd be telling me what she'd brought for lunch, and next moment, I'd ask her, "so, did you bring lunch?"

Something of this nature happened this morning, but for once, I was at the receiving end... I'd called my mother in the morning, and was telling her I was going to take a bath. Next moment, she asked me, "So, are you in the lab?" :| (I've always wanted to use this ;) ). I pointed out to her that I don't usually take a bath in the lab :P

Anyway, I was glad I wasn't the only one who asks questions this way...

On an unrelated note, I met ASJ in the morning, and I asked her when she'd woken up... She said "8 o'clock". & for some reason, I heard it as, "Yesterday". I pondered for a couple of moments before asking her, "This morning?", and she said, "I just told you... I woke up at 8". And then things made sense...

And so I drift off again...

(*- Whenever I encounter the line, "you're not the only one", or even think it, my mind starts singing the "you're not the only one" from November rain, and the one from Answer lies within, in a loop playing over and over again till I some other (& usually weirder) phrase takes it place and another song starts playing in a loop. Sigh! Oh, to have a mind without the constant background music... )

"Who is he?"

That's what my friends asked me when I sent them a childhood photo of mine... Sigh!

Senorita B was the only one who asked "is that you?"

Well, V did say I was cute and innocent... well, even he had been about to ask, "who is he?", but I forestalled it by asking, "Do you recognize me?"

The drastic measures I have to take... Sigh!

INFP

I took an MBTI test online. And my results revealed that I'm INFP.

I then googled 'INFP'. It made for interesting (and addictive) reading.

So, that's my latest excuse. For everything.

Don't blame me. I'm INFP :P

The Ex(am)perience*

I had to take a Spanish exam last week.

Being who I am, my preparation consisted of a Spanish novel to be read on the train. (I wanted to take my dictionary along, to flip through on the 20-minute ride to the exam centre, but unfortunately, I couldn't locate it when I looked for it a couple of hours before leaving to catch my train.) And like the best-laid plans of mice and men, mine went down the drain, too. The things I did end up doing on the train were :

- chat with senorita B.

- join AR in ragging senorita B.

- join senorita B in ragging AR

- listen to them speaking in Spanish

- think to myself, "Oh, they know so much!"

- admire their vocabularies (;) )

- ask what all they had studied

- EAT

- eat

- eat some more

- realize that a cough syrup bottle was leaking in my bag, rendering pink my novel and the papers I was carrying (to STUDY ;) Yes, I know... Konjam over than, but whattodo)

- climb on to the berth

- try sleeping

- go freshen up thinking it was 05:15, only to be told it was 04:15!

- wake senorita B. (who was in deep sleep) to tell her, "I'll be getting down in 10 minutes, see you, bye"

- spend the next 1&1/2 hours waiting for my station to arrive :P

I finally got down and reached MK's place. 

The next day, the D-day (or call it E-day, Exam-Day :P ) dawned. Thanks to our good planning and MK's driving skills, I got a good breakfast packed. (That AR ended up eating my breakfast, and me his, is a different story. Yes, I know I'm very accommodating that way - I ate idlies instead of pongal!!!). 

At last, we were in our seats, with the exam about to begin.

Part 1 - written comprehension. Duration : 70 minutes.

Who wants to write for 7-0 minutes?! I finished in 40 minutes (the exam level was fairly high, and that had to be respected, no? ;) ). I didn't want to revise my answers - I have this unfortunate tendency of wrongly correcting my right answers. For the next half an hour, my mind played 'Dulce nina' on a loop, with random snatches of conversations and other songs in between.

No break.

Part 2 - listening comprehension.

Always a nightmare. Even at the best of times. Which that day clearly was not.

Exercise 1 ended, and I resorted to my usual method of choosing the right option (he mentioned this, and this is in option C, so C it is. No, I didn't get what she said, so let me choose B. Ah, that's too many B's, so let me choose an A...)

Exercise 2 ended and I marked my answers.

Exercise 3 started. My mind decided it was the time to start playing "Con te partiro", and I kept hearing "su navi per mari" throughout the recording. (Damn mind. Why did you have to play an Italian song in a Spanish exam? Don't you have any sense?)

Time to mark my answers. And I suddenly discovered that there was no space to mark my answers. It was only then that I realized that I'd done exercise 2 in the space provided for exercise 3...

Exercise 4 - the first part was spent writing the answers for exercises 2 & 3... 

Finally, it was over.

I handed over my papers, including the blank sheet they'd provided for taking notes :P (Like a sincere student, I'd clarified with the invigilator that the blank paper was for taking notes, and ended up not making notes at all, not even one word.)

Post a short (err, half an hour, actually) break, Part 3 - Writing (essay-type!) began. After some confusion during which we changed classrooms and listened to another recording, we started writing.

For some odd reason, my mind started playing yet another song, this time in Spanish. Now, this song (La madre de Jose (check it out on YouTube at your own risk) ) always makes me laugh, though I have no idea why. 

The result - I wanted to say "however...", and the moment my pen started writing it, my mind sang "Por cierto! tan-tan-tan-TAN! (music :P ) ", which is what I ended up writing. Twice.

I finished writing, and was just checking my watch to see how long it would be before I could leave. The invigilator in this room suddenly told me,"Why don't you go through the paper? You might find some mistakes. Of course the people who correct your paper will find more, but still..." And so, I had to go through my paper. And I espanolized a French word, which I'd unwittingly written... The moment we could hand over our papers, I did so and got out of the place.

Lunch was fun. (Andhra meals. Rice. Ghee, lots of it! Cabbage (something I eat :P). Dal. Rasam. (Sambar had radish :( ). Appalam.) Senorita B then started teasing AR about his sense of direction. She even did it with a straight face!)

Back, and finally, it was my turn to go take Part -4, the Oral exam :) 

Let's just say that I mixed up a few nouns. And genders. And adjectives. I used a French word conjugated the Spanish way. I won them over (euphemism for making them scratch their heads) with my wonderful logic and reasoning.

AR & I waited until senorita B finished her exam. 

We then walked out and took an auto to Shivajinagar bus stand. Senorita B was the one who had to go there. AR went along to book his returen ticket. And me, well, I just tagged along because I was pretty much jobless. 

Anyway, the day ended well. (Senorita B accuses me of trying to hit on her, but what to do? She knows my preferences well enough. Maybe one day I'll just call her bluff :P )

I've rambled on for long enough now. Pointlessly, as usual. So let me now take a break. And ponder over why my mind is trying to wreck my life :P

Adios, folks

(* - I'm temporarily out of reach, please don't beat the daylights out of me)

People... sigh!

Sigh!

Why do people not get it that when I ask them to recommend a song like this,

I'm looking for something like

And when I ask you for something like

I mean something more like

or

Or even :

Sigh!

Well, I know that when I say I like some random Macedonian rock song and want to listen to something like it, what I'm actually looking for is a Bengali slow song :P Isn't that perfectly logical? No???!! Really?!

People, I tell you...

Smell a rat? Of course you don't :P

There's this general belief that prolonged exposure to our dear beloved Sun messes the head, maybe that's what has happened to me. No, I don't think I was dropped on the head as a baby, in case you're wondering, Bertie ;)

Anyway, to the actual post :

I seem to have grown "braver" ;) 

First things first - there have been a few rats running about in our lab, and we've been trying to get rid of them. We've been using a trap, and releasing the rats far away from our labs (though sometimes they end up being eaten by the cats around). 

And so, yesterday, I found a rat scuttling around the lab, and was talking to JJ about it. He then showed me the rat trap and we brought it into it. Later, JES came by and set it up properly, with a piece of carrot as bait. And when we came back from lunch, NW & I found a big fat inside the trap. She wanted to put the trap outside, while I was trying to see if the latch was secure enough, to prevent the rat from escaping on the way. I finally took some paper and rolled it to make an impromptu lock, and each time I tried to check if it was thick enough to secure the latch, I could see the rat moving about inside. But being the brave girl that I am ( ;) ), I managed to secure the lock, and NW dragged it outside (I was giving her moral support :P ). I don't know what happened to the rat, but a little while later, I found another little one scuttling around - why, it even kept darting up to my table and back! 

With neither JES nor JJ around, yours (brave) truly decided (!!!) that the time had come for her to set the trap. And so, I put in another piece of carrot as bait, the way I'd seen JES do. And after a few minutes of examining the "contraption/apparatus" (yes, I studied science ;) ), I figured out what had to be done, and then proceeded to wait for the rat to be trapped. (All the while marveling at how I'd learnt yet another 'mechanical' task and was willing to get down and do things, even if they involved getting my hands dirty!)

When NW left, I went along with her, and the rest of the evening just passed by. In the morning, I reached the lab (early, after ages!), and what do I find? The bait gone, but the trap still open :P

So much for my rat-trapping abilities... Maybe I should just try going the Pied Piper route :P

Sigh! Such bravery, to no avail... Such is life...

P.S.: I didn't really have much to write about, but reading BK's blog suddenly made me feel that I should be writing as well, and this is the result.

P.P.S. : I hope there is at least one soul in this extremely populated planet who finds the title funny/amusing, at least half as much as I do.

Attention, please *

It just occurred to me that I might have selective attention after all... But I guess it depends on who you ask... For instance, if you ask SM, she'll deny it. (She knows believes I lack attention almost completely, not just selectively :P ). If you ask the Senor, you might get the mistaken impression that I pay attention in class. (Senorita B. & I know how much attention we paid in class (a lot, I assure you ;) )

The other day, my prof told me, "Take a break and work on this", and like a good girl, I happily took a break. It was only later that I remembered that there was a second part to the sentence, which was actually what was necessary... But still...

I'm not sure if it's an instance of the cocktail party effect (wow, jargon?!), or if there are only certain things that catch my attention. Once, I was taking a walk with my friend, when a girl crossed us while talking on her phone. I was just about to continue talking to my friend, when I suddenly heard, "Barcelona, Madrid". I'll leave you to imagine what effect it had on me.

I think I'll stop writing now, as I suddenly remembered (thanks to SM!) that my selective attention is not restricted to things, but also extends to people... And washing dirty laundry in public isn't good, no? ;)

 (Err, truth be told, I can't think of anything more to say right now...)

So, goodnight... 

(And Gai-jin, my attention is all yours now :P)

(* - apologies for the pathetic title)