Aargh - part 1

So many things to crib about.....I'm actually bored at the thought of typing it all out.
But of course, the blog must not be neglected for too long, and special requests to update must be considered.
So here goes!

Discovered an annoying bunch of threads on the tifr community on orkut that disappoint, both with regards to the opinions being posted as well as the people these opinions are coming from. I guess I expect too much.

And then of course, I must share my delightful experiences from the bangalore 'vacation' , if i may use that word.

Predictably, the trip was crazy hectic. The purpose of the entire trip was for me to attend a first cousin's thread ceremony, and of course, I was made to attend two random weddings - the justification being ' Since you are in the city, it would come across as extremely rude if you chose not to attend these functions'.

I understand. It would be rude if the bride/bridegroom had any idea who I was.

Got to Bangalore on saturday evening, and spent close to two hours getting to my uncle's house. When I finally got there, grubby and exhausted, I was greeted by loads of partly-recognisable faces (I was seeing a few people after over five years), and walked from the door to the bedroom saying Hi! about forty times. It was decided (by my mum) that I would change into something more presentable for the pre-function family get-together, but I ditched the idea considering everyone had already seen me in my true grubbiness...

Over the years i've noticed that my extended family is getting increasingly fond of getting together. And such events are a lot more fun when there's alcohol and dancing involved. On this particular occasion, however, despite the free-flowing alcohol (that I stayed away from), the mood was sombre - my future had to be decided!
Was marriage more important than investing the five prime years of my life (that could be spent in making beautiful, healthy babies) in a PhD? Would I get any of the 'good' boys if I opted to look at the mature age of 28?
The debate raged on, and as you would've guessed, I wasn't the one asking these questions- Two grand-uncles were close to muscling it out over this issue- one who is a PhD himself, agreed with me when I said i couldn't possibly get married while in grad school, another believed that marriage was top priority - over everything else.

I left the room when it occured to me that at no point were they going to ask for my inputs- no questions on whether i was already making plans with someone else. The debate continued after my exit..

All of this within two hours of stepping into my uncle's house. I was bracing myself for the rest of the trip- it was bound to get worse.

More in my next post!
Oh, the monsoon has descended upon Bombay, in all it's fury. Waded through mud to get home yesterday. Not fun.