Stunts One Shouldn’t Try On The First Day Of College

First off, hearty congratulations to everyone who has finally gotten out the school grind and made it to the big “C” – College! However with the euphoria of securing admission in favorite college dying down, the dreaded day is finally here – “FIRST DAY OF COLLEGE”. This day is a lot more important than your first day of school, where you are not as harshly judged or the concept of cliques is minimalistic. Worried about doing something grossly wrong? Worry not! Why fear when CTF is here to help you avoid making those unforgivable mistakes.

Do Not Go Unwaxed Or With Your Eyebrows Bushy (for girls)

Girls please remember we are all really shallow!! No one wants to be friends with the Yeti. Take the effort to go to a parlour and look less hairy or be known as “Karisma kapoor of the early 90’s” for the rest of your college years.

Do Not Wear A Chain Which Reads C.O.O.L

For all you guys out there, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai was 12 years ago! Get over it. Just to be on the safer side don’t wear chains at all. Lest you be known as the “roadside shopping aficionado”.

Eat Mint

Please do eat mint or better yet brush your teeth! Do not with garlic breath. That is guaranteed to keep people running away for the next three years.

Do Not Wear A Vest (for skinny guys)

Guys I hate to break it to you, but if you don’t have the Salman Khan Muscles please stay away from the skin tight sleeveless vests. Unless you want to be known as “string bean”.

Do Not Oil Your Hair And Wear Two Plaits (girls)

While there is nothing particularly “criminal” about it; this aint the first day of kindergarten. You do not want to look like the location of an oil spill.

First days are tough enough without making terrible faux pas so make sure you think twice before selecting your wardrobe. Make sure you don’t carry a Hello Kitty bag or you will be the official “blonde” of your class.

For those who are going to start college, send us your queries and we will try to solve them in true CTF style.

For college veterans; Share your first day stories with the rest. Who knows you might help a poor confused soul out there.

Interesting Ways To Make Your Workout Regular

How To Cut The Fuss And Master A Foreign Language

We live in a society of instant gratification. 2 minutes doesn’t just apply to Maggi anymore. We want everything instantly. Trust me if there was a way to have a baby in 9 days instead of 9 months we would grab it. The same rules and demands apply to learning a language. None of us are ready to invest 2 years to master a language. So here are some quick-fix CTF ways to learn a new language:

Download a Language:

With the boom of torrents one can easily download an entire language course such as linguaphone. Listening to this course material can help you learn a language as fast as you want it to. P.S: For the record, I am NOT advocating illegal download. Please buy the course material from Amazon if you are offended by my Torrent suggestion. [If any cops reading this, I don’t use torrents. It’s all hearsay.]

Watch Kites:

Want to learn instant Spanish? Then you are exactly the kind of audience for a movie like Kites. After all one half of the lead pair is constantly speaking in Spanish! No wonder most of the audience was confused. But as a wannabe multilingual you may actually end up enduring the movie.

Marry a Foreigner:

Yes you read it correctly! Marrying a foreigner who does not speak any language except his/her own can be quite an asset. Eventually out of sheer desperation to understand your spouse you are going to pick up the language. P.S: Do not judge foreign speaking people based on Barbara Mori in Kites. Not everyone is annoying enough to make you want to kill them.

Translator Dictionary:

Buy a dictionary that helps you translate from the language of your choice to English or vice versa. Walk around with it and keep saying things in that language, be it a love quote to your girlfriend or abuses for a friend. P.S: I will not take responsibility if all your friends kill you for being a complete pain in the ass.

3G Connection:

Get a 3G phone and a connection. Why? Well then you can easily use the internet to use Google Translate whenever you need to know something to say in a foreign country. Although you may look a little foolish staring at your phone before saying something. Not appropriate to impress chics.

Intensive Courses:

Most Embassies have intensive language courses that hold classes for 5 – 6 hours every day for a month, after which you have mastered the basics and conversational part of that language. These courses are basically “Language on steroids” and quite useful if you have the time (and money) to spare. 3 – 4 Months down, you are fluent in the language (or so they say) and quite a few 1000’s poorer.

Language Exchange:

There are lot of language exchange programs whereby you can teach your language to someone who in turn teaches you his. These programs are quite useful and free (favorite word of all Indians). Google “language exchange” and you will find many such willing people who would help you out. P.S: Might I warn you that internet is not a safe place so don’t go around asking people to share their language with you.

Study all Salman Khan’s Movies:

Mainly because Salman’s accent sounds like an entirely different language. Maybe you will be the second person in the world to be fluent in Salmanish !

On a serious note: A language is meant to be learnt over time as that is only way by which you will become fluent and the language will have a high retention value. Go to a proper certified instructor and learn over time with ample practice. [I’m kidding! Please follow my cooler suggestions]

Interesting Career Choices You (Probably) Never Knew You Had

If you love animals and wanna spend time around them, but your day job doesn’t let you do so, hey! How about making them your job? The Pet Industry is already a big and booming industry. For something you love doing, you wouldn’t mind a share of this large tasty pie now, would you? And chicks dig cute animals –especially furry ones. So surround yourself with dogs, cats, hamsters or even mice and watch the ladies go, ‘Aww…’

Wedding planner

Do you get teary-eyed at every wedding? Do you fuss over the bride or groom, preparing them for that special day? Does this exuberance border on over-zealous interference? Do you pen in wedding dates over personal engagements in your diary? Then this is your métier! Now you could get teary eyed at weddings of even strangers, and no one will mind your presence. And you could personally make it special for people who’ll even pay you for all the fussing and planning.

Work on a cruise

Ever wanted to go on a cruise? Never had the dough for it? How about getting the cruise-guys to pay for your trip? Join a cruise crew and enjoy a paid vacation. Of course you might not get to travel the first class, but a little adjustment and temperament will make it a very pleasurable experience. Traveling to distant lands over high seas, who knows what adventures may await you.

Professional wrestler

Walking around in near birthday suit, with perfectly sculpted muscles on display, and spewing venom on opponents, oozing confidence and basking in primeval instincts of brawn, violence and victory, you could be a hero overnight and Hollywood / Bollywood wouldn’t be too far away.

Fortune cookie writer

You could write sweet-nothings into sweet some things, or even salty some things and put smiles on faces that you might never see. But if you have a writer inside you, straining to get free and a day job that doesn’t let you write too much, too often, this could be the perfect outlet for your creative side. The pay would be good pocket money, too. Scale the business up and it might even become a full time profession.

Couch tester

Want a job but can’t seem to get out of bed? Well, now you don’t need to! Sleep away on the job and get paid, too. Be a refined connoisseur in the art of sleeping, and be the envy of all at your next social party!

Ways To Deal With Homesickness

With the current competitive environment, all of us at some point go abroad to pursue a better degree or an added qualification. The entire process of admission, visa application is so daunting that we fail to realize the impact of homesickness till we actually get to the country. There are a lot of ways in which you can combat or reduce the effect of homesickness.

Keep in touch with family/friends back home:

Skype is one of the saving graces of people living away from home. This helps not only to have a video chat with your family; but its also free! So now you can see your parents like they are in front of you.

Carry the taste of India:

Carry some Indian food with you. At GITS we have instant meals which have been made keeping in mind the true taste and quality of Indian Food. So carry generous of amounts of these packets. Whenever you get a craving for your mother’s Chana Masala, open a pack and experience the flavour of India.

Take comfort items:

Take your favourite pillow, book, blanket etc with you. It helps to have a familiar object that will give you comfort.

Develop an interest in cricket:

With cricket becoming almost a religion, cricket is easily available to view in most countries. Tons of pubs all over the world screen Indian matches. Even though you may not be a cricket fan (or hate it altogether) it helps to go for these screenings to meet other Indians and get into the patriotic spirit. One thing is for sure, you will certainly make some friends from your homeland.

Listen to Indian Music:

If you are a music fan, listen to Indian music when you are feeling low. User generated websites like YouTube have pretty much all the Indian songs right from Kishore Kumar to Sonu Nigam.

Explore your new surroundings:

Unless you make an attempt to get over your homesickness and explore, you are never going to accept the new place. You just have to remember that you are not alone. Your entire class is in the same boat as you. So find a buddy to do your exploring with and share home stories.

Take part in clubs and societies:

Foreign Universities have endless number of clubs and societies. Join the clubs that you find interesting. These are not only a way to pass the time and learn something new, but also a great way to meet like-minded people. IF you are going abroad on work, join local Indian societies. They are generally some of the most helpful people you will ever meet.

Travel:

During your entire stay in a foreign country, take the opportunity to travel and explore the country. Learn about the culture and visit famous landmarks.

Start creating a photo album of the new place:

Take pictures of the university, new friends, professors, classroom, colleagues etc and share it with your family back in your home town. Over the course of the year you will learn to grow just as fond of the new country.

Show your foreigner friends what India is all about:

Introduce them to Indian food (remember the packets you carried?), music, customs and even Bollywood! In return, learn about the countries where they hail from. It’s important to remember that such a diverse group of friends can only be made at this stage so utilize the opportunity.

Whether for work or study, moving away from home can be scary. But you also must remember that it’s once in a lifetime experience and you have to make the most of it while you are there.

Take All the Fuss Out of the Week: Try These Theme Parties

Are you single with nothing to do on weekends? Not to worry when you still have good friends like us. We are back to help you make your weekends memorable. Here are some ideas:

Movie theatre party:

Yup, get together at a friend’s/your place, hire a movie DVD (which will not cost more than Rs 200) and watch a movie. While this might seem the most obvious, you can be lot more creative here without spending too much. Like once a large group of my friends got together and held a horror movie marathon watching 8 films over a weekend! We pulled the curtains, borrowed a projector and speakers to connect to the laptop, bought a large stock of two-minute pop corn sachets with coke and enjoyed the most scary and wholesome movie-going experience sitting at home. If horror is not your cup of tea, go for trilogies, Sci-Fi’s, comedies, thrillers or heist movie-marathons to make the party enjoyable. Alternately, you could look out for a film festival in town and get student passes which are really cheap.

Treasure hunt:

If you are game for something totally wacky, here what you should do. Wear the craziest Halloween costume you can think of with all the teeth, blood and mad looks and make sure your friends do the same. Divide yourselves in groups and play treasure hunt around your friend’s house! Hide clues for the hunt with different people/places like paanwala or chaiwala and make the other team find it well within time! This way you could entertain yourself as well as others on the street. Make sure you finish your act before someone calls the police! 

Travel:

If you are left all by yourself over a weekend, all is not lost. Pack your bags and head to a calm, serene, beautiful beach/mountainous spot which does not take too long to reach. Use the cheapest transport and don’t forget to carry your digicam or a mobile phone with high megapixel camera. Look around the place by yourself, observe people and make a note of all the things that you felt on the trip. Click pictures of bizarre, touching, simple and/or interesting things that you see there. When back, you could write the stuff on a blog and post the pictures and write about why you clicked them! This way you could write travelogues and become an excellent travel writer over time!

Bowling/Go-karting/Paintball games:

Bowling/Go-karting/Paintball parties are not atrociously expensive and can be lot of fun if you have a large group of friends. It will make your weekend quite memorable, unless you are headed to a paintball game wearing your best clothes. Statutory Warning: They will be ruined!

Try these and post us your comments while we keep looking for more wacky ideas to ensure you have fun weekends!

Cut The Fuss on Exam Stress

A great man once said that examinations are formidable even to the best prepared, for the greatest fool may ask more than the wisest man can answer! Well, if you are unable to comprehend this quote, never mind, because exam stress can make the supreme confidents into nervous wrecks. But we are here to cut the fuss on exam stress by suggesting some simple, innovative and great ideas. So here you go:

1) Study well in time:

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy but no work and all play will ensure that the Play Station that you were expecting from Dad will continue to taunt you from the store window. So make sure that you have a focused approach and you maintain a balance between other activities and study. An organized study schedule always helps even the ones who are really slow at grasping things.

2) Organize your studies if it’s too late:

If you were determined to find the answer to ‘who came first, the egg or the chicken?’ all through the year and did not find enough time to prepare for the exams before hand; chances are that the examiner may not understand your creative pursuits. But we definitely do! Remember as they say, its daybreak whenever you wake up. So even if you decide to study just two days before the exam, don’t panic; shake yourself up and get started. Don’t expect to finish studying the entire course then. Just be selective in focus on what is important and will be expected most likely in the exams.

3) Innovation:

They say that necessity is the mother of all innovation. Hence, if it is absolutely necessary for you to score good grades; be innovative. Find out interesting ways to study that will not bore the hell out of you. Some therapeutic techniques include: a) explaining complex concepts to yourself loudly until you get it, b) using drawing boards or sketches to learn construction and working of experiments, bodily function and systems or dates and events, c) think of practical ways in which a concept can be best explained. This way you can also come up with examples for questions which ask you to elaborate a concept, d) make a song out of difficult formulae and sing it as often as you can during free times etc. These methods will reduce exam stress.

4) Avoid procrastination:

A common effect of exam stress can be to postpone studying because you know you its too late now. But this is certainly not the time to answer all your emails, change status message on facebook or to play solitaire and minesweeper on your computer! Get real and utilize whatever time is left with a cool and composed mind.

5) Avoid nervousness:

Another effect could be nervousness as a result of excessive studies, when you try recalling all the answers you have studied and can’t recollect anything. Try not to think too much and do all the things stated above which procrastinators should not do. This will calm you down. Take a walk, go for a swim or do something that will not engage your mind intellectually. Remember relaxation will help retain all that you have studied.

Ultimately, like Rancho of 3 idiots would say, remind yourself that ‘aal izz well’ and you will do well in exams. A positive frame of mind can work wonders with your memory.

6 Ways to Adapt to a New City

Moving to a new place can be stressful and especially so if you’re moving out of the country. And with pointlessly stringent visa rules and flying diktats you’re not even allowed to carry enough sweet or at times pickle memories to your new home. Left alone in a big mighty and foreign country, one obviously has to find ways to adapt to it.

And trust me it’s a big fuss the moving to a new place thing..am sure those who have spent those initial weeks of distress would agree. So here are some toasted ideas for the n00bs to adapt to your new place quickly!

1. Get out of the house!

You would be amazed to find out how many students who go abroad and feel lonely or homesick, withdraw into a shell. But no one’s planning to coax you into adapting to the new city. So shed the laziness, put on your best shoes and get cracking. Go anywhere: to your university, the supermarket for shopping, a friend’s place to party, but keep yourself mobile!

Homesick? Then find Indian places in the city. Shop on Indian street, eat Indian food, visit a temple or a mosque or a gurudwara, basically try and make yourself at home. Just don’t sit at home.

2. Find More Newbies Like You

The best way to adapt to a new city is to get to know it with other friends who are new to the city as well. If you don’t know any Indians there, find other international students. A lot of American, British and Australian Universities have societies, groups or programs that target the international students, so join these groups and make new friends.  Of course as a group you have the extra license of doing stupid stuff and still being let go coz “all of ‘em are new”..and we all goofing around!

3. Speak the Local Language

A good way of breaking the ice, so to speak, would be to learn the local language (don’t learn the accent though..that makes you wannabe). Obviously you’d take a long time to get it proper but that’s hardly the idea. The initial few days of learning a new language is amongst those mirths that’s universally true. A friend of mine had a jolly good time with ‘merde’ though many french people weren’t amused, but he had fun though.

4. Grab a Coat and Head to a Local Festival

It could be the New York cultural festival, the New Year’s Eve in London or the Frankfurt Christmas fair in Birmingham, a local festival can go a long way in bringing you closer to the city. Also, visiting the local attractions will help you learn more about the history of the city.

5. Throw the Mother of all Parties

Why is P Diddy famous? Because he throws parties. So if you want to get some buzz on the popularity charts get a party done asap. And let it be no ordinary party..the mother of all parties has free food and some you know what to go with it, and if the food is Indian then you’ve hit the right nerve. Now where will you get Indian food – quick, cheap and tasty in London I wonder?

6. Stretch Those Inquisitive Muscles

Well, finally curiosity has been man’s weapon against the mystery that shrouds our existence. And with that line I should probably retire from writing.. nevertheless the point is to be inquisitive. Try to find as much as you can about the city, its people, new ways to go to the university, different paths to your workplace. You’ll find new places, local eateries and some great friends with stories to boot along the way..no pun intended.

What do you think are the best ways to adapt to a city..share your thoughts below.