The Grammar Nazi In You

Yes and that elementary punctuation mark I am talking about is none other than our dear friend- apostrophe!

What made my day today was an exchange that three of us friends were having on FB (yes, as much as I diss it, I cannot help but thank its ability to entertain) to a friend's status msg, which read : "Looking forward to a girls' night out."

A friend, 'A', responded, extremely delighted by the correctly placed apostrophe, to which L responded with a missing apostrophe on 'its' and that's how it all began. Lol! We decided we had spoken too soon about her grammar prowess. ;)

How many of us really know where to place our apostrophes? Or have we all left it where we learnt it- in elementary school?

The various errors we see these days-

1. Apostrophes for plural usages- People use the apostrophe to denote the possessive even when that is not what was intended to be conveyed. When I see sentences like - " The book's were cheap.", I'm sorry, I cannot help but cringe. Plurals don't need apostrophes.

When you want to denote the possessive of a plural word, place the apostrophe after the s. The girls' school and the boys' school.

2. When people forget to use apostrophes to denote possessive: e.g. As bag, Bs book. It should be A's bag and B's book.

3. When people don't know the difference between your and you're: You + are= you're and your is possessive. You're an idiot if you think that your grammar sacrileges are going unnoticed.

4. Apostrophe for the word it: Now this was what got our conversation hilarious, when my friend L said : FYI "it's" with the apostrophe is possesive, meaning 'of something'. it + is = its without the apostrophe...so HA!

Her response made us laugh at how vehemently she defended her mistake when in reality, it's exactly the opposite when it comes to an apostrophe for the word 'it'. It+is= it's and when you use it to denote possessive, you use it without the apostrophe-s. For e.g. It's a rainy day. Never judge a book by its cover.

So, the next time you are wondering where to place your apostrophe, think, or you will get stuck in the kind of conversations which made my friend say- "Okay people, whopping meekly accepted!" Haha!

For those who are still curious, there are websites that have dedicated their lives to apostrophe abuse (how cool, huh?) - http://www.apostropheabuse.com/

Pic courtesy: http://www.cgl.uwaterloo.ca/~csk/

A job unlike other jobs

Hey! What are you doing these days?

I'm working as a Research Fellow.

Oh, research? What are you researching on?

Umm, Public International Law.

Okay, good good. Something like -when are laws needed or what new laws might be required?

[puzzled] Not really, it's more theory than systemic [being purposely esoteric].

Ah sounds good. So what are your work hours like?

I don't really have specific hours actually.. [and before I could finish]..

Whaaaat? You're soooo lucky, man. You can walk in and walk out whenever you want? I would LOVE to have your job.

[quite tired already, by now] Err, right :) I am a researcher- I work when I feel most productive- middle of the night, early morning, whenever. I might soon eat, drink and sleep my research.

Oh ok ok! One more thing- why this particular city, btw?

Well, there is a Professor here, under whom it was almost my dream to work and so yeah, an opportunity came up and I used it. :)

Oooooohhh, all the way for a Prof huh? Is he cute?

[Holy Christ!] Haha, yes, very :P

Oh! Sorry for sounding so ignorant man :) We'll catch up soon and I want to hear more.

[There is a God! :) But more? :O Nooo. Nooo. :P ]

Yeah, that was a conversation I had with someone after years, who out of genuine curiosity asked me the above questions. I would have loved to explain my research, but why kill a happy person? :P

It's interesting how my job sounds to many- except, for me, the more I research, the less I seem to know and the more I drown into my pile of papers and it's awesome. It's more about sustaining oneself in the project, having the tenacity to see it through and being thorough. My journey has just begun and it's a long way to go. But this institute inspires me everyday to do more, to go that extra mile and to take up research as a career option. :)

Voyeurism is good, huh?

No one has the time, but yet they all want to try and catch a glimpse of the other person's life. This human mentality is being cashed in on, like never before. Voyeurism is fun, right?

4 years ago, we had to call each other if we ever wanted to hear about the graduation, the relationship statuses, engagement, wedding, first child, second, third.. etc. Today, it's a click away. People are going nuts with the desire and the urge to tell the world about every little thing that's happening in their otherwise mundane lives. How else do I let my friends know I am having a good time here in Helsinki? I have to tell them about the late night parties, the hangovers, the travels, oh and Indian food products I laid my hands on, the people I miss, my travails, my joy- the works! Yes, we all do it, I will shamelessly admit to jumping on that bandwagon enough and more times. I don't find anything particularly wrong with it either. In the same breath, I also have to admit being hypocritically amused once in a while, when I take a step back and realize what is going on. The larger picture, as they say, is about you and the world. Full stop.

Facebook- 'What's on your mind?'- You! You! You! I want to know everything about what YOU are doing. And in return, you can take a peek into my exciting world ;).

Yes, that's the story in short.

Of the Baltic Sea, Saunas and copious amounts of Sparkling Wine ;)

The Finns are a peculiar, yet fascinating lot. I learnt so much about their culture and way of life when we had an office outing to a place called Kulosaari.

We did it in true Finnish style- sauna, champagne and lots of fish pies. I saw some of the most beautiful sights and indulged in the bucolic beauty of the countryside, summer houses and the calm soon-to-be-frozen Baltic sea.

When it comes to the Finns, they really have their distinct ways. You know someone is Finnish if
>> they consider Saunas an integral part of their lives. It is not a luxury for them, mind you. Every building here has one, almost. Even lil kids, the minute they can walk and sit still a little, are taken to the sow-na (as the pronounce it).

>> they are absolutely comfortable with their bodies. So we are all at the sauna, the Finns drop their clothes, and walk in naked, oh-so-nonchalantly and leave the Canadian, Australian and yours truly stunned :O Haha! They find nothing perverted about their bodies, which fascinated me a lot really. They don't relate nudity necessarily with sex, which was refreshing.

>> they own a summer house. It's a lil wooden house they live in when the weather is pleasant and they all have saunas in them and apple trees in their yards as you can see in the picture.

>> you see them walking on the streets with ski sticks, when there is absolutely NO snow. It's called Nordic Walking and it is the fastest growing fitness activity in Europe FYI. :O

>> when fish is something they devour. They even have a 'herring day' when people throng the markets to get the best catch.

>> are excited about winters not just because they can ski, but also because they want to go into the boiling hot sauna, run out and jump into a hole in the frozen lake. Yes, it's healthy apparently :P

>> when filtered coffee is almost religion for them. No one can believe I drink instant coffee. And it always has a Finnish bread/cake called pulla with it.

>> when they get claustrophobic if there are more than 10 people in the radar. It's that sparsely populated.

>> when beer means a strong black liquid for them. Anything light is for sissies a.k.a Non-Finns! :P And champagne is not a big deal- it's just sparkling wine, guys :P

That's them and they are a crazy fun lot. I love this country already :D

The Whys, Hows and Whens of Blogging

I have one word for those who speculate- PPFFTTTT! There are too many people out there who start a blog with the whole - So what should my blog be about? My thoughts? Your thoughts? Their thoughts? Events that rock the world? Stories that will make you cry? Pieces that will be chicken soup for your soul?

The word blogger has become a synechdoche, a kind of a trope, where it signifies an eloquent writer, a proud owner of a part of the cyber space that is so deep and meaningful. Those who cannot find a publisher, create a blog, spread the word, put your writing on the world map, let them stumble onto it and make you famous.

REALLY? To those of whom all of the above is applicable and true, good for you. But I blog about just anything- from rants to views to ideas, it's all in here and that's what makes it a space I want to keep coming back to. I don't want the pressure of writing only the kind that is award-worthy. When I think of something that good, I'll start looking for someone to publish it :P Until then, let us continue to write whatever we want. :)

Caught by the river

Apart from it being my new most favourite-on repeat on my ipod-song by the Doves, this post is about how everything is so easy these days; as I always called it- the go with the flow syndrome.

A lot of things I have ventured out to do in my life have that very infamous (?) tag with it, usually. But today when I saw someone else adopt it and be so goddamn casual about it, I lost all the respect I had for them, my composure and every little calmness about me. 

I wish everything in my life has a definite purpose (as I'd like to believe they do, actually). I don't want to burrow myself in the wake of something unexpected and then forget it with an impervious shrug. I want to be responsible for everything I bring upon myself and the ones I love. I am done being caught by the river.

So this is it, then.

At the Bangalore International Airport, waiting to board my flight to Helsinki and making full use of their free wifi. Ha :)

It's all very exciting and also a tad weird to imagine that I'm never going to 'live' in this city in the near future. 

It's weird when I think of that apartment of my sister's I'm going to miss so so much. The intensity of the madness that house has seen, thanks to the two of us and many times, three and four, is surely incomparable.

The second home, M & A's- another huge part of my life in Bangalore they were. It's going to feel so awful to not be able to land up at their's and party the night away, every frikkin weekend.

The joys of Indian food. Period. Full stop. 'Nuff said. Sigh :P

The constant non-ISD calls that I could make. 

I'll miss the rupee. :P

I'll miss my cottons. :(

I'll miss the time differences that I had gotten so used to. The changes are going to be weird.

Though I never went home too often, the fact that I 'could' makes the difference.

I'll miss everything and everybody.

A happy post about my life in Helsinki shall follow, soon! haha!