Life of a Short Indian Girl

A few of weekends ago I celebrated one of the biggest Indian festivals of the year. I won't go into the specifics because I wrote about it last year   but it was fabulous as expected- 2 and a half days of colour, culture and a LOT of food. Hence I'm writing about Indian sweets, because in my opinion they are not very well known, and totally underrated. These are by no means the only sweets; different parts of India emphasise different ones, but these are the ones we particularly eat: Barfi- the basic Barfi is a very creamy, milky and sweet. There are a lot of different variations- my personal favourites are the coconut ones (branded 'the pink ones' by me when I was little) and the chocolate covered ones.  Kalakand- these are definitely up there at the top. They are like barfi but less dense, therefore are lighter and more crumbly, but equally creamy! Gulab Jamun- my absolute favourites. Cream of the crop. They are like little balls of heaven soaked in

The Apprentice is back for yet another wonderful year, and I think it's about time I did a breakdown on the candidates! This year has been radical- no Nick (already missing his fabulous facial expression), a mix of girls and boys in the first task (???) and the longest speech EVER from Jenny after being fired . I say this every year, but it really is becoming more of a character based selection that those who actually have the entrepreneurial spark, which is really sad but very entertaining. Anyway, here goes... Mergim Butaja- 'Why am I a worthy business partner for Lord Sugar? I'd be a challenge to him. Everyone he's met probably sucks up to him. I won't, I'll tell him like it is.' I admire his courage but I'm not sure it will go down as courage with Lord Sugar... more like cockiness. He seems to be doing alright so far, although I've not been a massive fan of him since the frirst thing we heard him say was that he would've preferred the first

Apologies for not posting anything interesting in a while but, as the post suggests, year 13 is to blame. It's hard to balance A2 work, personal statements, UCAS application, house music rehearsals, EPQ writing, interview prep, entrance exams and extra curriculars - welcome to year 13. But enough whinging... here are the exciting things about year 13 which are nice to focus on when work is piling up and you're in a state of exhaustion (all the time). 1) It's pretty cool being the top of the school. There is a certain authority and sense of power that comes with wearing a gown. Younger years can't be rude to you and are obliged to part as you walk through the corridor ... not that this really happens, but in theory it should. That's definitely how it worked when we were in year 7. 2) There are more aspects of school life you can get involved in, like organising the Sixth Form Lecture and Yearbook. Might not be your cup of tea but I think it's good that y

Nando's??? For breakfast??? That's right. Gatwick Airport has the only Nando's in the country that serves breakfast, and seeing as I was there last month I couldn't pass up the opportunity- I mean, how often are you in Gatwick Airport? I thought I would share my experience with you, because currently there is nothing interesting happening in my life. The breakfast menu was less chicken orientated than I expected- although I don't know what I was expecting, how are you supposed to incorporate chicken into breakfast food? Nevertheless, I tried the breakfast mango and lime chicken sausage roll. I'd just like to clarify that I don't normally have mango and lime (come on, I'm Indian), but extra hot chicken at 10 in the morning didn't seem very appealing.  They also had normal breakfast food like pancakes (with loooads of honey) a nd french toast. Nothing too special about them- just standard pancakes really. They also had 'Corn

During the summer holidays I decided to rejoin the gym, because otherwise I would do zero exercise for a month and a half. But, alas, rejoining the gym gives plenty of opportunities for even more awkward and embarrassing situations. You'd think after having been to the gym last summer I wouldn't experience anymore, but nope,  seeing as embarrassment is my middle name it took no time at all to regain my position of idiot at the gym. After a pretty heavy workout (a.k.a 20 minutes of cardio) I decided to go for a swim to cool down. There was an aqua zumba class in the lane I normally swim in, so I had to go in the designated fast lane. Despite being the slowest swimmer ever, I managed to keep up with the swimmers on my first length. But on the way back there was a man standing right in front of me, completely obstructing my way. I remember thinking 'ummm there's the entire lane free and you've decided to stand right in front of me?' but nevertheless, I swam aroun

So I've just got back from a 9 day trip to the land of Maple Syrup, or more specially, Toronto. If I were to describe Toronto, it would say it is pretty much New York but with fewer people. Canada as a whole, on the other hand, like a greener England, but with friendlier and happier people (I don't know whether it was because we were tourists or what). We did pretty much everything Toronto had to offer, but I'm not going to talk about the zoo, beach, museum etc. because they are what it says on the tin - I'm sure you don't want an account of every animal I saw (although I did see a polar bear doing backstroke which was cool). Niagra Falls was absolutely incredible, as expected. It was a bit too hot on the day we went- walking 15km in 27 degrees was not the one... but at least we had a constant spray from the waterfall to keep us cool. We were lucky enough to go on a boat trip called 'Made of the mist' in which we managed to get just metres away from the w

Hello friends. I am afraid that I have now hijacked this blog in the most aggressive way possible (Sumona lent me her laptop). Thus, I thought it would be appropriate to write a blog post based on the lifelong question - 'how can I be cool?' SUMONA STYLE. Here are a few tips and tricks that I have learnt during my close observation and study of this mysterious creature's behaviour and mannerisms: - Poker face . ALL the time. Never give away the fact that when someone's talking you're actually plotting to kill them; that would be totally uncool and very not Sumona. Maintain the game face. Hate inwardly. It will all reveal itself eventually.  - HATE cats . Don't follow the trend of the 'Crazy Cat Lady' - it's totally Un-Sumstar. She hates them. Abhors them. You want to really be cool? Abolish the kitties.  - Have all the latest Bollywood tracks on your iPod. It's SO important to keep up to date on the latest singles to hit the taxi cabs

I cannot believe I'm saying this, but I'm half way through sixth form! Year 12 has been the quickest year of my life. It's crazy to think we only have one year of school left before uni and, arguably, real life starts. At the beginning of the year I wrote a post about my expectations vs. the realities of sixth form, but considering I wrote that after a week of being in year 12, it's safe to say I was more naive then and the post definitely needs an update. Although most of what I wrote still stands true, I've thought about and learnt a lot more than just that sixth form get cake days (which I only had about 5 of anyway, the downfall of taking subjects taught in labs)... You begin to wonder how on earth you ever fathomed  queuing  for the canteen, where you actually spent lunch times and break times without the common room to go to and how you managed lessons and exams for 12 whole subjects with zero frees. You don't feel like you should be in sixth form.

For someone who doesn't particularly like London, I do spend an awful amount of time there. Last weekend was a super early start, as I was going to the British Summertime concert at Hyde Park (which was incredible, but more of that another time). Whilst in Archway, I stumbled across a cozy little cafe called The Bread and Bean, and I thought I'd do a review type thing of it, seeing as I've never really reviewed anything. I will start by talking about the drinks. I ordered English Breakfast Tea, AND LOOK HOW IT CAME. I can't be the only one excited about the mini milk bottle, can I? So cute. The glass jar itself had a built-in tea strainer, and had enough for two cups of tea; however, the second cup was so bitter because of the tea leaves that I couldn't drink it. A flaw in the otherwise trendy invention. I also tried the hot chocolate, which tasted almost as good as it looked. Enough said. I admit, I wasn't very adventurous with my food choice, opting

Apologies for not posting in weeks (revision took over my life), but exams are finally over so I am back! To celebrate the end of exams, I spent last weekend in London, where I did The Color Run at Wembley Park. I've wanted to do a colour run for aaaages, and this year I finally made to effort to actually sort it out. Looking at many colour run photos gave me high hopes for the actual thing, and I was not disappointed- it was SO much fun (and the weather was perfect). Here are some things you should expect/tips if you do ever do a colour run: 1) WEAR WHITE !!!!!  2) Get there early- there are 20,000 people doing the Wembley run and they let groups of runners start at a time. If you're late and at the back you will end up having to wait AGES to actually start running. 2) Wear sunglasses- it keeps the colour out of your eyes (and the sun). Failing that, keep your eyes closed every time the colour is thrown at you. Also, keep your mouth shut every time you run past the st

Today I thought I would write about what is, in my opinion, the best series on TV. Suits, if you haven't heard of it, is a legal drama about a law firm in New York. I could write pages on what I love about the show, but I've narrowed it down to my top few reasons because I'm sure you don't want to read pages of me fangirling.  - The characters are incredible. Every character in the show has such a distinct character, and you just fall in love with some of them (I want my very own Louis Litt). Seeing how powerful Harvey Specter and Jessica Pearson are provides so much motivation to be successful in life. That seems really weird (I do know the story is made up) but there are people like that in the world and it would be amazing to be like them. - It's not just about corporate men in suits, feminism is a strong theme in the show. Jessica Pearson symbolises how powerful women can be. There is this idea that for certain ages, races and genders there is a 'gla

Neil Gibbons guest writer: "The Drunk in the queue" Upon arrival in Belgium, I was conscripted by Mrs Willis to aid in the acquisition of travel cards (I can string a sentence together in French). She and I thus proceeded to the Information centre. This is itself was quite the ordeal as we had to battle our way through a crowd of confused English tourists walking in all directions in search of the same information centre. We made it through, where it so happened that I was not needed as the man in the booth spoke perfect English. As he and Mrs Willis spoke, I watched as a drunk man stumbled over, bumping into everyone in the queue, finally pushing in front of Mrs Willis as she continued to speak to the guide. The drunk, whilst eating and dropping oatcakes from a large bag he had, took a single earring from his pocket and offered it to the guide. The guide calmly refused the earring and waited a moment until the drunk reliased he was not welcome. We then found out where