Christmas !!!

Its December... Yipeeee...
My favorite month of the year. Come December and I walk around humming Christmas carols. Just hearing the word 'December' invokes such a lot of colorful and happy memories. Christmas trees, Santa Claus, green,red and silver color combination, gifts, chocolates, cakes, Christmas carols, Christmas feasts, oh my god, I can go on and on and on..

The best part of Christmas is that I get to see all my scattered family members-uncles, aunts, cousins, grandma. Its a milieu of celebration and chaos at my ancestral home as everyone comes home to celebrate.

During my school days, Christmas celebration was something that everyone looked forward to, though during the last few days of my schooling they took away the tradition of a whole day celebration and shrunk it to a few hours,it was fun. In school, every celebration was like a tradition. No one had to be given an itinerary. Everyone knew the programs, it would be the same every year - carol singing, bible reading, play on the birth of Jesus, speech by the chief guest and the arrival of Santa Claus.I loved carols and it was a dream of mine to sing in one of those. But sadly, teachers always chose me for the job of reading verses from the bible. It was a boring job considering the fact that you had to read the same part year after year. I would have happily joined the carol singers. So a few days back,when my sister made the declaration that she is going to sing carol at school, I couldn't help feeling jealous. Alas, she got to live my dream!
One of my fond memories of Christmas celebration at school is that of my friend, Arjun who dressed up as Santa Claus one year. Unlike the usual clumsy Santa Clauses before him, he dint settle for waving a hand or shaking a leg. He went on to do a full fledged break dance accompanied by rigorous shaking of his artificial tummy. It was hilarious and even our normally cross Principal couldn't help laughing. A miracle in our words! :)

Christmas celebration at college is a different affair. After all the speeches from Chief Guests, Principal, Chairman, Vice-Chairman, Secretary and all other dignitaries, its show time for the freshers. Christmas programs are done by the first years who put up dance, skit and various other programs amidst deafening howls, whistles and catcalls from seniors.
I could fill a book with my memories on Christmas. How we slept off when the Carol people came home to sing and how funny it was when we all got out of home puffy eyed to open the gate for them. How we had a girl's day out during Christmas and the guys of the family made the Christmas feast.

I'm all excited as the countdown for Christmas begins. I hope even you guys will have an amazing time.
Wishing you all a very happy and memorable Christmas!!
Have Fun.. :)

Reading-My passion

I’ve been a voracious reader right from my childhood. As a child I used to love reading storybooks. I’ve often heard my mom recollecting how I used to cry for storybooks when other children wanted chocolates and toys. The world of books has always fascinated me. As they said in ‘Namesake’, “Books let you travel without moving an inch”. They take you across unseen lands and give you a treasure trove of knowledge on any topic. I’ve often wondered how much those people who don’t read are missing out.

One of the best things that could have happened to me was a life long membership in EMS Co-operative library at the age of 10. When I first got a membership there it was just a one-roomed library in the second floor of EMS Co-operative bank and now it has grown into a full-fledged library with all modern facilities. I still remember the first set of books I took from there- ‘The tale of twin cities’,’ Black Beauty’ and ‘Jane Eyre’. I used to love the time spend there among rows and rows of books. And I think it was from that time that I started of dreaming about a library of my own. With ceiling high shelves filled with books on all topics. Those days I used to be a great admirer of English classics (I still love them! My all time favorite books are, ‘Heidi’, ‘Black Beauty’ and ‘Anne of Green Gables’. I never get tired of reading them!) And so my dream library had the English touch with Victorian style furnishings. I even dreamed about having a secret room hidden behind one of the shelves where I would retire for a peaceful reading, far from all disturbances (I think I got that idea from Famous Five).

My school also provided me with an excellent collection of books. My library teacher, Jayashree miss was a good reader and a lady of a strong and impressive personality. She was very strict that we should not confine ourselves to reading just one genre of books.

She encouraged us to read more of classics than Enid Blyton. She also made us write summaries of the books we read and the difficult words in the book and its meaning. It helped us a lot in improving our vocabulary and writing skill. I still have this habit of writing summaries of the books I read. I owe a lot to my wonderful teacher who guided us through the world of books. Thank you Jayashree miss for molding my reading habits and nurturing my love for English language. (If I weren’t into engineering, I would have definitely become an English teacher!)

My friend circle has always been one of book lovers. Discussions on books have always thrived in my gang. Though initially very supportive, the attitude of my parents towards my reading habits changed as I grew up. Can’t blame them! If I get into a book, I forget everything else. I used to smuggle book into bathroom and spend hours reading them (my parents never really figured out why I was taking so much time for bathing!) I’ve even spend the entire night reading Harry Potter, cleaverly hidden under my textbooks. But the net effect was that my father banned all books except the texts in my room! But rules are to be broken and I manage to get hold of a book or two once in a blue moon, courtesy to my very benevolent friends!

A cup of coffee, whiff of fresh air and an interesting book is all I need to be happy in this world!!