Ranting after a long time!
Priya
Hey guys!! Look at me, I'm such a lazy pig! I haven't updated my blog for quite some time!!! Sigh... Well, hope after this entry I'll start updating regularly. 

It's been a great semester so far. Things are all falling in place slowly. Now it's finally time for exams and then back to Singapore for the holidays! :) I simply can't wait to get back home! Living away from family and friends is no easy thing. At the same time it has made me realise a lot of things.

Living by myself has also given me the confidence to be able to survive on my own. The only difference will be that I will be surviving on my own hard-earned money than my dad's hard-earned money. I still feel a little guilty on that.

I just want to talk of the things that annoy me the most these days. Starting with the first thing, I want to say that I finally realise why some people I know always lie when asked if they had done well for the exam. They feign incompetence, and then they will get an A. Not only that. Even during the middle of the semester, when asked how they are doing in terms of studying for the upcoming tests, they would again feign their lack of interest or their lack of understanding in the subjects concerned.

Up till today, I've never really understood why they do this. Today I realise it because I wish I had lied to my friends and told them that I can't understand all the subjects either! Because I just hate the constant buggings!! 

I hate the fact that people expect me to feed them with answers, while they don't take the effort to study!! Why do they do this? I don't know. But I think the best way to avoid them is to either tell them off early on itself, or to just feign incompetence :)

The next thing that is annoying me is the people who behave inconsiderately. Seriously man, what's wrong with people these days? I don't know if it is me who is being impatient and irritated easily, or is it that the people are purely inconsiderate? Simple things like apologising if they are late for lecture, a simple thank you when help is given, just simple polite behaviours. All these is too much to ask these days.

The next one. (I know! I have a whole list of things that have been bugging my heart). My Financial Accounting (FA) lecturers are simply too boring! Seriously, where do they find these people from? FA is supposed to be a very interesting subject!! It's supposed to be taught to us, in a way that it instills enthusiasm in our hearts. But what do they do? 

For a university that is claimed to be the top university for Accounting in Australia, why are the lecturers for an important subject like FA really boring? Not only are they boring, they have absolutely no good presentation skills. They just read off from the presentation slides! Don't mistake me guys! I have had absolutely brilliant lecturers in Macquarie Uni! 

Well, I'm going to write out to the department heavily criticising the lecturers. They have played absolutely no role in my learning. I have learned myself. I have studied myself. I could easily survive without their lectures. I saw no point in attending their lectures, except merely for the reason of attendance. This isn't how lecturers should be like.

The most annoying thing within an university is the state of the toilets in the campus! Don't even get me started on it! I'm really worried about the future because even the basic hygiene is being disregarded in the public toilets. Can they be any cleaner??

I think this is enough rambling for today. I promise that my next post will not be a rambling like this. I think I'll stick with once or twice a year with all such ramblings :) 

Alright guys! An early disclaimer. I guess I won't be updating my blog for another month or so, what with the exams coming and preparations that need to be done to clear out my room and pack my stuff. Have a great June holidays to my fellow teacher friends!! :) Stay happy and healthy always!! :) Kudos!
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Living for my mum...
Priya
Education. Is it performing its function properly? I sometimes wonder if the education system today really educates us and makes us a good human being. It doesn't seem to be doing its job. 

Today we celebrate Mother's Day. We respect the mothers and celebrate motherhood because of their caring and nurturing qualities! We can forget any person in our lives, but we can never forget motherliness. But is it enough to just respect the mothers? On one hand we respect the mothers. But on the other hand, we have become victims or advocates of the various stereotypes and discrimination against females in the society. 

Respecting motherhood is akin to respecting the female gender. Until the day we have rectified the illnesses existing in the society and restore gender equality, there is no point in celebrating Mother's Day or Father's Day. A recent episode of Satyameva Jayate regarding female foeticide has left me baffled by what humans are capable of! It is indeed really disheartening to know that female foeticide is largely practiced by educated people! (So now you know why I started this post talking about education).

Educated people are the ones who do all the stupidest things that we don't expect them to do. Some tell their daughter-in-law to abort the child because its a female, some are violent abusers of their wives, some are sexual child abusers. These are all educated people. Heck, they can't even flush the toilets in the university!!! When they don't even know how to keep a public toilet reasonably clean, how would they keep themselves, heart and body, clean??

It seems that education and character has nothing in correlation.. We say that respect should be given to age and education. But if a person's character has nothing to do with their education, then why respect them for their educational status. Doesn't character matter? Isn't that why we celebrate Mother's Day and Father's Day? We don't celebrate our mothers and fathers because they are educated and our elders... We respect and love them because of the care and affection they show us..

I feel that the world we live in has changed so much! There is a need for a change in the education system and a change in the attitudes of people, including myself! Everyday I look into expanding my horizons, exploring new things, contemplating my life. I keep questioning why people are this way. I don't want to live the life of a sexual abuser to find out why he does it! But I want to understand why some people behave this way. I want to know what makes us into a good human being and what makes us into a bad human being. 

Source: http://zillionarts.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Mothers-day1.jpg
Meanwhile, I just want to appreciate motherhood. The closest I know of is my own mother. No words can describe my love for my mother. It's a special bond. She is there for me no matter what. Even if everybody forsakes me, she will not! I only wish that one day I would be a good mum too...I just can't imagine a world without her in it!

There might not be many things in this world left to live for. But I can live for my mum! :)
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Priya
It's been an unbelievably a long time since I blogged and I feel so out of touch from writing. Every time I make a promise to myself to blog regularly, I keep breaking that promise. I really love blogging because I feel good when I look back and see how much I have changed. It's been an amazing journey, especially the past 9 months in Australia!

I never thought that I would find myself living alone in a foreign country. It's the kind of opportunity that everyone should get at least once in their life time, just to prove to themselves the worth of family, friends and the familiar home environment that they have taken for granted all these years.

A year ago about this time, I was sitting at home and wondering what step I am going to take next in life. I am very glad that I decided to study overseas. Taking a break from studies and then deciding to change career was a bold thing to do. I did it because I don't want to be sitting at home doing nothing other than taking care of my family. I want to be of some use to the society. I want to work, grow and be successful in my career. 

Taking the next step in life now. I will soon be finishing my postgraduation. I will soon be joining the workforce. My singlehood days are numbered. It's a scary yet exciting prospect. I seem to be going blank when I think about the future. Right now matters. Right now I am having fun. Although there are some medical problems I am facing, I am doing great now!


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It's official! I hate smokers!
Priya
Source: http://www.whathappenswhenyouquitsmoking.net/tag/smoking-statistics

I know... It's too harsh a comment. But it's much needed! I need to get it out of my mind and let everyone know that I utterly hate people who smoke!! 

I seriously feel that smoking is a very bad habit, obviously, but at the same time it says a lot about a person and his/her attitude towards life. Even drinking doesn't seem that bad because it only affects you. But smoking not only affects you, but it also harms those around you, especially those who are close to you and probably mean the life to you! Why does it seem so hard to quit smoking when you know it is slowly killing the person you love the most in this world? When a smoker, imagine if he is my husband, looks at me and tells me he loves me very much, I would never believe him because if he really cares about me and loves me, he wouldn't smoke at all! It just doesn't make sense!

I am done with the excuses!! I am done with all the petty reasons given for getting hooked on smoking. It is an addiction to nicotine! That's all it is. I know it's hard to get over it. But when you have your health, your loved ones and your life on one end of the scales, you better quit to make it all balance! 

Smoking is wrong! And there can be no excuse to carry on with that habit! That is why I hate smokers... Does that mean I hate my friends who smoke? I hate my uncles who smoke? Yes!! I don't hate my friend, but I hate my friend who smokes! He/She has to know that I hate it! I don't want to be quiet and allow them to ruin their lives! Letting them know that I hate their habit is one way of making them feel that they should quit. It is called tough love and sometimes they deserve it! If more people come out openly and tell them how much they hate to see them being slowly killed/poisoned, then the quitting process might not be as hard as they think it would be!
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Just an update
Priya
Travelling to a foreign country to pursue your futher studies, while leaving behind your loved ones, is a daunting experience. But I realised this only in the first few weeks after my dad left Sydney after he settled me here. Before that I was excited to be going to a new place, as I know it would be the first time I would have to live by myself and depend on no one. Later it became very difficult to the point I was badly depressed and wanted to go back to Singapore. 

As weeks went by, as classes started and my schedule began to look filled with activities (some of which I purposefully filled up even though I didn't need them), I got over the depression and I started to normalize things and experiences around me. I think it is natural and everyone goes through this. Frankly speaking, this experience is way better than the prospect of getting married and leaving my house to live with some stranger!!! I prefer this because I can still retain some form of independence, which I don't intend to loose anyway, even if I get married! 

The past week has been really horrible, cramming for exams in the last minute. I hope it doesn't happen again and I will make sure I don't go through cramming again! People may think I'm really studious! But I just don't care. I want to be prepared early on! So in the coming weeks, I am going to gradually start studying for the finals, which is like around 6-7 weeks away... 

The only thing I really miss is doing my daily prayers and chanting. I try to do, but I can't keep up. This week I am taking the resolution to do chanting and manasa puja (doing a puja through meditation, mentally, by chanting shiva manasa puja). Chanting is really beneficial and I don't want my mind to rot without the rejuvenation I get from chanting! I think it was because of my chanting daily for the past 2 years that has helped me improve my clarity in thinking and organising my thoughts. Not to mention, my improved eyesight!! :) 

P.S. If you want to improve your eyesight, do chant Aditya Hrdayam, which is a really powerful hymn praising the Sun Lord. Sun is the presiding deity for the sense of sight. Chant it everyday to see the results, but it will take time. Chant with devotion and faith (pending discovery) :)
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(I would) Love to be in Love...
Priya
All of us have our dreams of our future life partner. We have many expectations. 

He should be a degree holder.
He should be an engineer.
He should be above 170cm in height.
He should be a Hindu.
He should be a ........

So many expectations....

But when we meet the right person and fall in love, all those expectations just go to the bin. 

Such a love is unconditional.

Will I be lucky enough to experience it? :)
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I Miss Paper!
Priya
You might be wondering what the post title actually means. Yes, I miss paper! I miss the feel of having a paper in my hands while I read it. It has been ages since I read news from a newspaper. I feel that in my life for the past few years, I have stopped using paper altogether. I have been doing my assignments in word documents as I have to submit softcopies only. I have been reading news from online websites. My social life is extensive mainly because of social networking sites. Otherwise, I would not have as many friends as I have right now on Facebook!

Where is this leading us? What is going to happen in the future if this continues? Are we really progressing towards success or failure? We seem to be moving too fast, we have lost track of whether we are moving in the right direction. I feel that our development is not sustainable. 

It is predicted that every year the power of computers keeps doubling. That is an exponential growth, unimaginable! Not only that, the price of that computer will also keep decreasing. Four years ago I bought a dual core Intel processor laptop for $2,500 (it was an amazing laptop that is still working, never once got spoiled!), and 2 months back I bought an Intel core i5 processor laptop for $1,600. Power is greater, but price has decreased. Soon, we will have a computer with the power of the human brain, but only a $1,000 worth! What will happen after that? Will humans become obsolete? 

I read an article, 'How the internet makes us stupid'. An excerpt from the article reads,

Greenfield concluded that ''every medium develops some cognitive skills at the expense of others''. Our growing use of screen-based media, she said, has strengthened visual-spatial intelligence, which can strengthen the ability to do jobs that involve keeping track of lots of rapidly changing signals, such as piloting a plane or monitoring a patient during surgery. But that has been accompanied by ''new weaknesses in higher-order cognitive processes'', including ''abstract vocabulary, mindfulness, reflection, inductive problem solving, critical thinking, and imagination''. We're becoming, in a word, shallower.
This article makes me wonder if I have become shallower as well! Because I am quite a heavy user of the internet. If you ask me to categorise my daily activities, the time I spend with internet in front of me would take the majority of the day. Not because I have nothing else better to do. But because my world has been superimposed upon the computer screen! My study materials are there, my friends and family are there, my music is there, my entertainment is there... Everything is here on the internet. I wonder sometimes if I can live without the internet, and I think I can, but not for long! Maybe I can go without internet and computer if there is something else in 'real life' that is taking away all my attention for a length of time. If that is the case, then yes, I can live without the internet. 
We have stopped watching TV, and we are instead watching it on the Net. We don't read newspapers, but we read it on the Net. We don't go out for movies these days, we watch it on the Net. It is scaring to think about the future, if this continues. Maybe in the future, we don't have to go to school for education, we can learn everything online! Maybe people might get married online! What else, I wonder?
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In Sydney!
Priya
My first post from Sydney. This post signifies that I have settled in well in Sydney and that is how I have the mood to blog! After more than a month's time, first time I feel at 'home' here. It is amazing that I went through this transformation from being excited to depressed and finally attaining normalcy, fairly quickly. Usually it would take people longer. But that doesn't mean that I don't miss home! I do miss all of them a lot! But now, they have become more of a pleasant memory than a longing to be with them.

What I would share to prospective students going to study abroad, away from their home country, would be to only go to a country, in which they know someone, be it a friend or relative, is residing. This has been a great help for me! Especially when this is my first time parting with my family for a long period of time. But the experience is worth it. It is good to be independent, and we have to learn it in a hard way. I feel I've underestimated my ability to leave my friends and family and live away from them, after coming here. But I thank God for having made me get over it soon. Also, thanks for Macquarie University! The workload itself was enough to keep me busy :)

The units I am taking this semester are: Economic Analysis, Quantitative Methods, Principles of Accounting and Business Law. All challenging subjects, but also pretty basic! Econs is interesting, especially for a beginner like me. Although my friends who have studied Econs have no interest in it. QM is basically stats, which I am very familiar with, so no problem there :) Accounting unit is interesting and I've started doing my debits and credits, haha... And finally the Biz Law! Toughest subject of all the units I am taking this Sem. Lots and lots of cases to remember and memorise! Not to mention the legal jargon, having to study about the Australian legal system... Its pretty similar to Singapore, but there are differences too. All in all, the units are interesting, which is what is keeping me go on...

I hope to blog regularly. I wish I can, let's see if time permits me to do so.
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My Last Night in Singapore for this year
Priya
The title might seem like as though it is some Last Supper thing. But it is nothing like that at all. It is just that, for the first time in my life, I am leaving my family for a long period of time and going overseas. It is a totally mixed experience of both sadness and the pending happiness and excitement. 


I expect to be coming back for vacation only next year, therefore, the title is as such. Because tomorrow night I will be flying aboard A380 somewhere over the Indian ocean. Sadness sets in when the feeling of a loss of physical presence of my loved ones sets in. Although I know that I will still be communicating with them over phone or skype, I feel sad because it is not the same as talking to my mum or dad or sis in person. 


However, this sadness will last only for a while, until I set foot in Australia. Home sickness will be there. But I hope the excitement will soon take over. 


Today was really memorable because the experience I had when I went to the Sithi Vinayagar Temple today was ecstatic. The moment I entered the Temple, I was so overwhelmed with feelings suddenly and tears were pouring out of my eyes non-stop! I don't know why I had such an experience. Maybe it was because I felt the presence of God and His assurance that He will be there for me always. I was very happy after that. It was The best prayer I ever had in a Temple environment! I will take it as a blessing offered to me by the God.


I will keep blogging, I hope. For friends who will be missing me, and who will also be missed a lot, I will always keep in touch online. My online presence will always be there no matter where I am in this world :)


Bye and Wish Me Luck Dear Friends!! :) Sydney... Here I come :)
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Saying goodbye is tough
Priya
Parting from family and friends is difficult. Its going to be a very tough two weeks for me as I say goodbyes to people near and dear to me. Granted that I will come back after six months, it still feels really hard to say goodbye. There is this gnawing feeling deep in my heart that things are changing and will never be the same again. 


Saying goodbye has also taught me how much I have taken my friends and family for granted. For the past 24 years they were with me, I never once longed for them. But now when I think of parting away from them, it really makes me realize this truth. It also makes me feel a little handicapped. I hope I can say a proper goodbye and after all, I'll be back in January... :)
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