My dad watches action movies on mute. Which is an excellent idea of course. It’s an altogether different matter that he has watched some action movies fifteen times over (with the exception of True Lies which he has seen 73 times thus far).
What disturbs me somewhat is that, these days, he has taken to watching the NEWS on mute. Does that say something about my father or about the state of the world?

Not that there has been much action on the local News channels in the past few days. On Christmas day those poor dear TV channels were reduced to reporting how people had spent their holiday visiting
a) Victoria Memorial,
b) the Zoo and
c) Dharamtala.
Apparently the star of the Dharmatala show threw a bit of a tantrum and drew her curtains and refused to let little children oggle at her while sucking on their ice-lollys. The reporters seemed duly perturbed at this uncooperative attitude of the leading lady of the Opposition and they expressed their distress by devoting the next seven minutes of the News show interviewing the ice-lolly-sucking/unfortunately-unable-to-be-oggling children on the advisability of sucking said ice-lollys in December.

hmm...you know what, i think my dad's got it right this time.

"he made me roses and icebergs and frost and never understood..."

Sometimes love is about not understanding. Which isn't such a terrible thing really. All stories have happy endings, some just take a little longer.

I have an exam in less than two hours. And as the least observant reader has probably figured out by now, I am
a) not studying
b) blogging

Somewhere in the background the parents are getting progressively more nervous. To be precise they're biting their nails and occasionally letting out strange noises, which could be snorts but which sound a lot like hysterical giggles.
After almost eighteen years of watching me prepare for exams they still haven't come up with survival strategies on what-to-do-if-the-daughter-shows-no-signs-of-swotting-before-an-exam. Amazing really. It makes me wonder how parents survive at all. The number of times I've had to tell them to breathe/watch a movie/go do prem by the lakeside, is not funny. But instead of listening to me what do they do? Yep, they sit right there biting on their nails and laughing nervously.

I mean, it's simple really, the entire point of an exam is not to panic. At least not to panic before the exam actually starts. Which is my justification for going out and getting sloshed the night before the exam actually.
My rule for these exams is basically not panicking and not studying till the last minute. In ther words, I'm saving on the hysteria. It's all going to burst out in fifteen minutes of non-stop laughter *after* I see the question paper. Which will be my way of spreading sweetness and light in the classroom. After that of course I might have a heart-attack or be throttled by forty-eight irate and decidedly nervous examinees. But at least I shall have laughed. Which is what makes life worth living. And if we're getting philosophical, here's the phishy definition of happiness for today.

Happiness is laughter and hugs. It's also studying till dawn and dozing off for a little bit, only to be woken by the phone ringing and an equally sleepy voice wishing you luck against the backdrop of one solitary myna chirping brightly and one river flowing its own way. On that cryptic note, Oh World go out and be happy!