अथातो आम्रजिज्ञासा ||

I simply love Mango ! Recently while eating mangoes, some thoughts and revelations crossed my entranced mind. These are few chosen ones:

1) If genesis had been written in India, Adam would have got tempted to eat Mango in the garden of Eden instead of Apple. Is apple a fruit to get tempted for?

2) There is another theory that Adam intentionally ate Apple so that God punished him and sent to the earth. He wanted to eat Mangoes on the earth. How clever of him to fool the god into "punishing" !

3) If Harry Potter would have got written in India, he would have remembered Mango eating sessions while casting a patronus to thwart dementors.

4) If Queen Mary Antoinette had known Mangoes, she would have said "Let them eat Mango" instead of "Let them eat cake".

5) If British had known Mangoes much before:
a) Alphabet would have started with "M for Mango".
b) The celebrated proverb would have been "A mango a day keeps the doctor away".
c) There would have been no color as "Orange". That color would have been named as "Mango".

6) But it looks like Italians and Spanish knew Mangoes. That is why Amerigo Vespucci was named Amerigo by his mother and Amerigo named America as America. Not many people know that Sanskrit name for Mango is "Amra". Thus Mango has been instrumental in founding the superpower. The Spanish and Italian knowledge of Mangoes also resulted into their names generally ending with the letter "o" to rhyme with mango. (Fernando, Fransisco, Alessandro, Figo etc).

अथातो आम्रजिज्ञासा ||

An Unforgettable Week

After a long time I am giving a non-fictional update with real names. The last week spent at IISc with my friends was one of the unforgettable ones. Perhaps it'd be one of the last things I'd forget if Alzheimer attacks me ever. This post is going to be an incoherent because I don't want to judge my thoughts but just go on writing them as they keep coming.

I had been to IISc, Bangalore from 25th April to 2nd May. I sorely needed a holiday to rejuvenate myself and I could have got nothing better. The idea was to be at IISc for a week in which three of us (25th-Prajakta, 1st-myself, 2nd-Mukta) celebrate birthdays and to grab this opportunity before junior batch graduates out. Once they graduate, there would be no scope for free stay, free food in IISc :). And of course there would be no one to chat with.

Highlights of my birthday:
1) Logically it began on 30th night with a treat from Pushkaraj and me for convocation. These people have extorted treats from me for all occasions - campus placements, farewell and now convocation. And no party in return ! I wonder whats more responsible for this - friendship or gangsterism. Anyway, I should check whether any insurance company could classify "partying" as natural calamity. This was the biggest treat I've given so far.
2) Some real birthday bums! All the past ones were mere caressing ! Madhumita wondered how I could be so silent during the brutality. I was actually lucky not to be silenced.
3) Most memorable gifts I ever received. To divulge it and to try to catch it in words would spoil it.
4) I taught all my friends some basic steps of jive after birthday celebrations at 2:00 a.m. in morning with cake in my hair. It was a real fun to give them orders after the ordeal of cake smearing and birthday bums.
5) In the following morning, I spotted a more than 5 feet long snake. I called up Vinay and meanwhile followed it for 20 min. Later some snaps and videos. It was such a terrific site with snake wiggling its tongue and slithering through the grass and trees. At times, we were as close as 5 feet. Later we came to know it was non-poisonous :(
6) It rained in the afternoon which reminded me of Mumbai rains. Kalpesh and I rode on bike almost all the IISc. The daring act was to bring down some tamarinds in faculty quarters and to eat while watching faculty pass by.
7) Evening movie in 9 rupees! Firaaq. The acoustics was so screwed up that I couldnt understand even 50% of dialogues.
8) It ended with Mukta's birthday at midnight, the theme for her being pink. It'd be better if Mukta uploads the snaps. I have never seen such an overdose of pink. They say on north/south poles your eyesight could get into trouble because of seeing white everywhere. Here it was replaced by Pink ! And yes, I avenged every morsel of cake she had smeared in my hair.

Some other things to mention:
1) I never imagined I could play Dumb-charades through the night till morning breakfast. This time it happened! Thanks to Pushkaraj, Mukta, Madhumita, Vinya, Vinya's-bro-Akshay and Swati.
2) We brought down some green mangoes one day and played catch-catch with it.
3) I managed to study for 30 minutes for 5 days even in this chaos. Its a feet well accomplished given that everyone had vowed not to let me open any book even for a moment.
4) I didn't buy a single book. Generally whenever I go to IISc, I make it a point to buy books as Tata Book House offers 20% concession on all books.
5) I wonder how my friends could keep aside so much time despite of their projects and research. It was mighty generous of them !
6) Darshan got into UIUC and its such a great news !
7) I didn't have to go to health center even once ! Generally the change in weather affects me quickly and the effect lasts for few days. My friends say it was their mistake that they didn't stretch me to limits.