The week ended somewhat like this-
Pack an entire apartment-Friday all day
Movers move our stuff to new place-Sat 8AM to almost noon
(bear in mind-no food was chowed down during these hours)
Quick burrito at Qdoba
Leave for old house- pick up camera bag and something else (already forgotten what it was- never mind!)
Leave for airport in the hope to catch the 2:30 flight to BWI, that will remain a hope for the next 6 hours (there have been huge delays for unexplained reasons)
Reach BWI around 9PM-eat and sleep
Wake up 6:30AM
Leave for rockville- attend the சீமந்தம் , eat all day
Leave for Greenbelt at 9:45PM
Sleep and leave for airport at 4:30AM
The adventure did not stop there- our flight at 6:30AM, left on time but in mid-air the pilot found a minor technical anomaly and brought us back to BWI. We finally landed at 11AM
Yeah BWI to Boston- almost 5 hours!!!
BOO HOO to the airline industry...
Tuesday, June 30
Tuesday, June 16
Go back in time
I have this fantasy- I guarantee that it is an absurd one indeed. So I want to go back in time and live the Victorian life (may be pre-victorian, oh only about 300 years or so. Well if I can go back in time, I sure can live for 300 yrs). Well not just Victorian but the period between 17th and early 20th centuries right until after the second world war. Come on have you not read Austen, Dostoyevsky (both technically pre-victorian!), Dickens, Bronte sisters, Lewis Caroll, Virginia Woolf, Hemingway and many more great writers (by no means have I read all these authors). What strikes me most when I read these authors- gaiety and expanse of that era, the sheer etiquette and quiet strength adorned by the women (not to mention the beautiful gowns and the oh-so-horrendous corsets underneath), constantly pensive social reformers and great thinkers, poverty and wars of that era. This is the idea I have of the centuries that predates ours. It will be so much fun to be dancing around in ballrooms, so much fun when the sole purpose of a woman or a man's life is to find a suitable spouse (I am not sad at all that, that is not true anymore folks!), not so much fun when wars were waged and the upper class seemed completely ignorant of it, not so much fun when people were deposed of their lands and had to settle in places that did not belong to them.
Anyway it is not like it is going to happen....my only solace- there are millions of books of which I could become the characters.
Ciao..off to la-la land!
Anyway it is not like it is going to happen....my only solace- there are millions of books of which I could become the characters.
Ciao..off to la-la land!
Friday, June 12
Nine years later
It had happened unexpectedly. Of course one does not expect such things to happen, do they? The night of June 10th 2000, after a hearty dinner at my mum's cousin's place- we left for home by different modes, since there were so many of us. My sister and I on her TVS, with me driving it- pretty mundane isn't it? Except it was not and am sure since I am writing this and not my sister you all can guess what might have happened. She had just turned 18 that April and we were just getting closer putting behind our sibling rivalries, yeah it had indeed taken me 20 odd years to accept that she is a part of my being, that she is me only a few a few years younger. I loved and hated her fiercely as a teen, took a long time to resolve my emotions (well what do you expect, I was a child and apparently not a smart one at that). I normally don't talk about it- but we (the family) talk about her as though she still exists and we all converse with her in the depths of darkness. Me for instance, I strongly believe that she is my guardian angel.
In retrospect, I do wish I had some sense back then to go through some sort of trauma therapy as a family. It is quite interesting psychologically that it is not just me with an intense survivor's guilt (which unarguably affects my everyday life) but my parents and my grandma all have their own reasons for why they could not see it coming....and why her and not them!
Nine years now and my biggest fear- I might not remember her as I grow old, I might not remember her laugh after a good joke, the twinkle in her eyes after a successful prank or her tears after a not-so-well-done exam.
We love you and we miss you sweetheart!
In retrospect, I do wish I had some sense back then to go through some sort of trauma therapy as a family. It is quite interesting psychologically that it is not just me with an intense survivor's guilt (which unarguably affects my everyday life) but my parents and my grandma all have their own reasons for why they could not see it coming....and why her and not them!
Nine years now and my biggest fear- I might not remember her as I grow old, I might not remember her laugh after a good joke, the twinkle in her eyes after a successful prank or her tears after a not-so-well-done exam.
We love you and we miss you sweetheart!
Friday, June 5
Check this headlines
This is what comes up under the "India" tab in TOI
"oh my god, I am coming down with WTF-where-is-my-daily-movie syndrome" (LOL)
It has been ages since I even bothered to check TOI but somehow today I am feeling sappy (I remember TOI from BITS!). Anyway nothing much has changed with the paper- if this is the headline news...
"oh my god, I am coming down with WTF-where-is-my-daily-movie syndrome" (LOL)
It has been ages since I even bothered to check TOI but somehow today I am feeling sappy (I remember TOI from BITS!). Anyway nothing much has changed with the paper- if this is the headline news...
Thursday, June 4
Imminent
This article is on the latest Outlook India about how water crisis in drier parts of the Indian subcontinent has led to violence. I am quoting the excerpt below directly from this article.
"What is the Centre planning to do about the crisis? T. Ramaswami, secretary, science and technology, says the August deadline is unrealistic. "This problem can't be solved in months," he says. "For the past three weeks, the science and technology ministry, with 15 partner ministries, has been holding meetings. One solution can't be applied countrywide. It has to be a national effort and everyone has to contribute."
No offence Mr. Ramaswami but for as long as I can remember this issue has not gotten past the meeting stage (just like most other issues, so I am not sure why this would be any more important than the other important issues that the government refuses to deal with or deals with by way of organizing periodic meetings!). Shame on us sir!
At least we had one great visionary among us who (yes Mahakavi Bharatiyar) talked about water distribution systems when the country was still struggling to be free from British reins.
வங்கத்தில் ஓடி வரும் நீரின் மிகையால், வையத்து நாடுகளில் பயிர் செய்யுவோம்
We can keep arguing about technicalities of better ways of ensuring single person receives that he or she needs but at some point the thing called action needs to be taken too (hell I don't even think there are arguments at such so-called meetings). It is a pity that while states like Andhra and Orissa drown in excess water every year, the regions of Rajasthan and Tamilnadu drown in their own dried, caked lands due to lack of just that- Water!
"What is the Centre planning to do about the crisis? T. Ramaswami, secretary, science and technology, says the August deadline is unrealistic. "This problem can't be solved in months," he says. "For the past three weeks, the science and technology ministry, with 15 partner ministries, has been holding meetings. One solution can't be applied countrywide. It has to be a national effort and everyone has to contribute."
No offence Mr. Ramaswami but for as long as I can remember this issue has not gotten past the meeting stage (just like most other issues, so I am not sure why this would be any more important than the other important issues that the government refuses to deal with or deals with by way of organizing periodic meetings!). Shame on us sir!
At least we had one great visionary among us who (yes Mahakavi Bharatiyar) talked about water distribution systems when the country was still struggling to be free from British reins.
வங்கத்தில் ஓடி வரும் நீரின் மிகையால், வையத்து நாடுகளில் பயிர் செய்யுவோம்
We can keep arguing about technicalities of better ways of ensuring single person receives that he or she needs but at some point the thing called action needs to be taken too (hell I don't even think there are arguments at such so-called meetings). It is a pity that while states like Andhra and Orissa drown in excess water every year, the regions of Rajasthan and Tamilnadu drown in their own dried, caked lands due to lack of just that- Water!
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