Bala took her tray of food and looked for a table. Most of the dinner crowd had already left the cafeteria. There were still two tables occupied. But they were full with the girls talking about, of all things, sports. Bala took this as a sign that she should read her assignment after eating and, after chatting for a minute with the girls and begging out of the "who's the best" whatever argument, made her way to another table.

She put down her tray. Set her backpack on the next chair. And sat down to eat. After seperating the chicken from her meal and placing it on her napkin, she reaches in her bag for her textbook. The first thing she touches is her portable DVD player. She takes that as another sign and puts it and the dvd wallet on the table next to her. <I'll put something in after I slake my hunger a bit>, she thinks and starts on her dinner.

Lunch time, MY FAVORITE! Food of all sorts, friends to talk to, and one big time of freedom away from teachers and those awful creatures, well not all of them are so awful but still! I giggled to myself and eagerly took my tray and the last chocolate chip muffin and looked for a spot. Every table seemed crowded and my friends were still in class so I decided to scout out somewhere else to sit.

That's when I spot her. I saw over in the corner of the room was a girl from my class, but she was eating alone. No one should eat alone, and it seemed like a good chance to get to know her. I quickly moved my feet and headed toward where she sat.

I walk up behind her and whisper in her ear, Nice to see you here, hop you don't mind if I join you. I giggle a bit then walk around the table and sit across from her. I offer my hand to her and introduce myself. I'm Kairi, we have a class together. Pleasure to meet you!

Bala smiles at Kairi's whisper. She hasn't had someone sneak up on her and whisper in her ear since her cousin Sunita when they were kids. Bala didn't recognize the voice though. She turned in time to see the giggling Kairi make her way to the other side of the table. Bala motions for her to sit.

Bala takes her hand and gives Kairi a firm handshake. "Yes! Creative Writing, right?" Bala then puts her hands together so her fingertips and thumbtips touch, forming a loose triangle. "I'm Bala." She puts her hands down. "I come from Pittsburgh. Where are you from?"

I graciously take Bala's hand smiling all the while. Boston, Ma, originally done some traveling though in my time, which.... rele isn't long ... Yeah... I giggle to myself after my little tangent there. I then take a bite of my food then look back up at her again. So what do you think of Creative Writing? I'm thinking of doing my next paper over an imaginative world of real life working together with mystical creatures such as vampires, in disguise.

I then shovel another moutful of food in my mouth.

Bala smiled at Kairi's giggle. So many girls at the school were so somber. Understandable given we were thousands of miles from home. It was nice to meet someone who was so... bubbly. "Lot of travelling, eh?", Bala said. "I guess that's why I don't notice a Boston accent. I've done alot of travelling too. But we always came back to Pittsburgh."

Bala starts to scoop up some rice, then stops. "Vampires in disguise? That's very, very creative", she says with a nod. "I just started the class too and I'm struggling already. I want to be a journalist. And a reporter at the Pittsburgh Post Gazette told me the best class she took was creative writing. It helped keep her stories from reading like encyclopedia entries. I'm trying, but I don't seem to be very creative."

Bala sighs and turns back to her rice. She remembers her chicken and offers it to Kairi. "Would like my chicken? I'm a vegitarian. But my aversion to wasting food outweighs my being a vegitarian. Still, I'd rather not eat it."

I giggle then shake my head with a no. My aversion to disliking most meats keeps me from eating chicken too. But! You could leave it back by the door, I'm sure a hungry monster will find it later! I giggled then took another bite of my food. Journalist, that's what I wanted to be. It was pretty interesting that I should meet someone else as interested in it as I was.

So a journalist, have you done any writing yet? I would love to read it sometime. I smile at her and wipe my hands off on my napkin.

<What an odd way to put it>, Bala thinks. "That's a good idea. I can come back in a couple hours to make sure someone ate it. Thank you." Bala smiles at the solution to the chicken dilema. "I don't know why they have to give it to me in the first place", she says.

Bala sneaks another bite before saying, "Yes. I've done alot of writing, especially for someone so young", she says as she gives her a wink. "I wrote for my high school paper. I was also the editor my senior year. I had a column for the monthly newsletter of the high rise where we live. And I was one of twenty interns to get a story in the Gazette in a Young Writers insert. I wrote about the need for pet owners to get their pets rabies vaccines." Bala stops, realizing she had been rattling on. "Anyway, I have the clippings in my room. Your welcome to look at them sometime. I warn you, the high school stuff especially isn't that good."

"But enough about me. What got you into creative writing?"

A few different things, my aunt said I had an over active imagination, and teachers seemed to admire the works I wrote for class. I guess I decided to take all the things I thought about frequently and put them into a story. I'm currently writing a book! I giggled then eyed my cupcake. It looked really good, but I decided to wait on it. At the same moment I noticed her DVD player sitting on the table.

Anything good playing?I smiled at her giggling.

"A book how wonderful. I hope it's going well." Bala eyed her own cupcake as well. <A dessert shared is the start of a happy journey>, popped in her head. She decided to save hers till later too.

"Oh, I have alot of Bollywood movies", she said. Bala picked up her DVD wallet and continued. "Most Americans seem to think that they're silly. I love them. They're like American musicals, only better, blended with Indian cultures. I could play one for you to see if you like it", she says. She opens the wallet and looks hopefully at Kairi.

Love bollywood movies. Who doesn't like a good musical. Let's see what you got! I'm game for anything! I smiled at her hopefully, with real enjoyment on the situation. Bala was pretty much amazing, but I wasn't going to tell her that! I finally caved in and took the icing off my cupcake. I would of offered if Bala didn't have one, but she did so the icing was all mine. MUWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH.

"You love Bollywood movies? Really?" Bala practically squeals the question. Embarrassed, she blushes and says, "I'm sorry. It's just I never meet someone who likes Bollywood movies. Most Americans think that they're weird." She beams as she opens her DVD wallet.

Bala looks through her DVDs. The wallet holds 10 or so. Many of them have English titles. Others have titles in another language. And others still have titles written in some script-like lettering, nothing at all like latin letters. (OOC: devanagari writing of Hindi) Bala looks over the DVDs, finally settling on a recordable DVD with the hand-printed label "Bala's Favourites vol. 3". She pulls it out of its sleeve and says, "this is probably the best to start with. It's mostly dance scenes from movies. They're only four to six minutes long. We can save a full movie till we have a tv. The subtitles are kind of hard to read on this thing.

Bala puts the DVD it the player and brings up the menu. She finds a scene to play. Does some counting to other scenes and hits play. "I did't always remember to turn on English captions when I recorded these. But you'll probably be able to figure them out. This first one is from the movie 'Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam'. I love the colours and music." As the clip starts, Bala slices off some of her cupcake and takes a bite.

Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam - Nimbooda

After the clip ends, Bala goes back two or three chapters. "This one is from 'Lagaan'. It's a Krishna festival set in 1893. The guy villager is playing Krishna. The girl is playing Radha, one of his main consorts. And Gopis are women cow-herders who follow Krishna. Kind of Krishna groupies. And, yes, this is the same Krishna that gave Hare Krishnas their name."

Lagaan - Krishna's Birthday

--------------------------------
(OOC: If you let her, she'll play three or four more. If you want to stop her, go ahead and assume the following clips do not get played and words do not get said.)

"I really love the music in this clip. I think the horns and percussion great."

Devdas - Dola Re Dola

"Everyone tells me the girl in this next one and I look alike. I don't see it. She has lighter skin than me, is three inches taller, and three years older... Wait, she was eighteen when she did this three years ago. I guess we're the same age in this movie. It's in the Telugu language. So I don't know what they're singing without subtitles."

Subhash Chandra Bose (?) - ???

Subhash Chandra Bose (?) - ???

(OOC: I eventually based Bala on the girl in those movies. So, except for skin colour, a character will think that they're twins. Characters with keen eyes will notice some other key differences. (nose a little different, eyes set slightly farther apart, etc.))

I usually like more traditional music than this one has. But I like the beat, the lyrics are fun, and..." Bala grins wide and says, "the guy is really, really cute."

Unknown Film - Unknown Song

I watch in awe, strucken by the many things that come from different cultures. I love their use of color and how all bollywood movies use so much color. They never shy away from it. Her voice is amazing as well! But the last one, not so sure if I like American 70s meets India's culture I said with a giggle. I took another bite of my cupcake and and then stared at Bala. She DID resemble the girl quite well, maybe instead of twins SHE IS HER. Nah, silly thoughts in my head. I giggled again then smiled at Bala.

Bala laughs heartily at her remark. "I knew you'd enjoy that one", she says with a wide smile. "And the voice you find so amazing is by what they call a playback singer. She's one of the more popular ones. Playback singers get their names in the opening and closing credits, sometimes before the actors'. People will go to a movie just to hear their favourite singers."

Bala briefly frowns and says, "I wish you could see these films in a theatre. It's really amazing. A whole screen filled with colour and dance. It's breath taking!" Bala looks at Kairi and smiles. "When you graduate, you should stop in India on the way back home so you can see some of these films on the big screen. Just have to make sure the plane stops over at Delhi or something."

She looks sad for a moment. "I think I'm going to miss India as much as home the next few years. You know I've gone there every year since the year I was born." Bala looks at a piece of her cupcake and takes a bite. She looks at Kairi, smiles and says, "look at me! I shouldn't be homesick. I've got an exciting new life and am making new friends. If I hadn't come here, I wouldn't have made a new friend." With that, she goes back to the player's menu and looks for more clips to play.

I giggled at Bala. India.... never really thought much of traveling there, but their culture does seem intriguing. Silly Bala, you shouldn't miss home yet. Besides if you didn't come you wouldn't be with me now talking about beautiful Bollywood movies and who knows, maybe one day we can see one together. I giggled again then finished another bite of my cupcake. It was pretty good.

((OOC: Sorry my posts are short, don't know much to say really lol))

((That's ok. It's mostly my fault. I'm not giving you much to work with. I'll try to do better this post. ))
"I know. And I'm really happy that I met someone nice like you. I guess part of what bugs me is that my cousin also got accepted here. We were really excited to be going to school here together. But she got picked to be one of the dancers in a movie. And she wants to be a star in Bollywood someday. So she couldn't pass up the chance. It's good for her, bad for me."

Bala takes another bite of her cupcake too. She looks at Kairi and says, "here I am just talking about me. That's rude of me. You said you've done some travelling. If I may ask, where did you go and why?"