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 ...