I Have Carved You on the Palm of my Hand. . .

Hey Phantoms,

Today I ve decided to tell you in detail about Prakriti-2010, our Inter batch culturals. You must be wondering whats with the topic of this post. Don't worry by the time you finish reading this post (If you are reading it at all) you'll understand!

Prakriti 2010 was a two day event held on the 9th and 10th of this month. On the 9th morning was the English Debate, it was supposed to begin at 8 o clock and there I was at 9 o clock prancing the auditorium waiting for one other team mate who had failed to show up - frantically making phone calls to trace her whereabouts. Finally Aishu showed up! We ran up to pick our lot and get the topic for the preliminary round and divide our own team into two and debate on the given topic. Our topic was ," Should same sex marriages be legalised? " I almost fainted! But still we sat down and prepared and with Rats and me on opposite sides we cleared it easily as it was going on just like how we fight in class - it was so much fun.

Then came the finals, we had to debate with Divya Swathi akka and team, the topic -" Borderless Worlds - Dream or Reality?" We were given Reality. Again we sat and prepared and did it. Although our inner feeling was we didn't give it our best, my personal feeling was Rats, Varna, Aishu had done very well. As soon as it was over I ran away from the place as I couldn't take the tension of waiting for the results -as I was walking to the canteen I heard a huge scream from behind and I knew we had won! But I didn't go back, I went to the canteen with Amrita, who had come and got ourselves something and then I slowly returned!

The next was Mockpress. My topic - Ketan Desai- I withdrew- Our class guys won all the top three prizes!

Our batch folks won almost all the off stage events.

One competition in which I was really impressed with our guys' performance was big bore - Sanjoo, Ramya Devi , Arivoli and Bhanu had me rolling on the floor laughing my ass off with their paatu class!!!

Solo Singing went off well and Raj won it as expected!

Then came Tamil poetry, I was initially scared if I could still write at all in Tamil as I had never written anything in the past one year but I was glad I could and finished both my Haiku and long poem in fifteen minutes!

JAM in the afternoon was my ultimate trial - I sat as a mere spectator to the event on stage!

Then Keena, Keerthi and I went on-stage for the Tamil Dumb-C and what awesome fun we had. We had gone up there to have fun and thats exactly what we had! We walked down with the third prize!

Then evening came and I geared up for my first Western performance - It was a debacle as we couldn't even achieve co-ordination as the music was started without intimating us. But since only two teams participated we got the second place. 2k7 had hired choreographers for a handsome sum of money and we stood no chance against them with just a day of practice but still everyone praised us for our attempt and we were the proud runners up!

Orchestra followed I compered for it, with a lot of glitches and lack of spontaneity I came off ok! But the performance by the guys was mind-blowing and rightly they got the first prize! Raj, Rashmi , Suganth, Pranesh, Rajeev and Jerin were in their elements. I thoroughly enjoyed it all!That brought the day to a close!

The next day dawned and I was super-excited as we were having Tamil debate as the first thing in the morning! Our team had Shaikh, Keena and Sanjoo along with me. We were definitely stronger and were sure to win it but the topic spoiled it for us - we had to talk against making Tamil compulsory in primary education! The Stupid Judges had come with a pre-written judgement that we would take the second prize! Felt totally pissed and wanted to go and question the judges but Shanta ma'am called and consoled saying that the topic was the problem and next year onwards they'd try and give non-political topics!

Was totally upset the entire day! But I performed well in the Adzap for which our team got second. I didn't want to write the English poetry but still attempted it and finished in ten minutes! Our guys had started cooking for the Cooking Competition and I had a fun time tasting all the dishes and then devouring them after the judges had gone - personally loved Changa's Sur puttu, Ratna's Biriyani, Yogi's prawns and Sharni's Cashew chicken was ok!!!! Our batch swept the prizes!

I still felt totally off from the debate debacle and refused Navin Raja's persuason to get me to participate in ship wreck. Then got news that I won the Third place in both Tamil poetry(haiku) and english poetry!

The evening was much more fun! I enjoyed doing the role of Kaataamai a spoof on Naataamai for the variety show for which we won the first place!

The Fashion Show was good inspite of a lot of technical problems but we had to settle for the second place!

The Ultimate event was the Indian Dance which we did extremely well and I was literally screaming and yelling on stage when it was over. It had gone on very well and People we won the first prize. As my friend pointed out I was involved in winning the first and the last event of Prakriti - 2010 and I was proud of that fact!

But still I was upset over the Debate and was constantly quarreling with God that ha had forgotten me and that he did not care for me and all that! I was feeling totally worthless. That was when Sathish sir announced that there was a prize for the person who was involved in winning the most number of competitions and I was numbed when he read out " Selva Saravanan". The prize was titled " Most Valuable Performer" - where did all that feeling of worthlessness disappear at that instant???

Standing on the stage that night, with the entire college applauding and my friends all chanting my name I just remembered the following words from the Bible which my sister had once quoted to me :

"See!

I have not forgotten you!

I have carved you on the palm of my hand!" - Isiah 49:15

Felt so ashamed for questioning the wisdom of my Father, my Creator, the One who takes all the trouble to keep telling me in his own unique ways that he is always there by my side and that he always cares!

Now, why did I share all that with you? Definitely not to boast about my spirituality. It is because I know that in Life all of us are bound to go through the phase of loneliness where we feel that no one cares about us. In those times, dear Phantoms, please remember the above lines and you'll feel much better in no time! Thats the reason why I kept the topic of this post as " I have carved you on the palm of my hands..."

Ta dear phantoms till I meet you again with another interesting but shorter post!

Take Care till then!

May the good Lord be with all of you, always!!!!