May 16, 2008

Wow, 5 years passed since I last logged on to this website. Time flies when you're having fun. This is all for now, I don't think anyone reads this anyway.

April 6, 2003

on Pedals, the open Road, and Keys
Beautiful day today. And not just the weather. I drove today. Revisted the pedals. The keys. It was entralling to feel the open road, zooming down high ways at 50-60 mph. Shifting grears. Up. Down. Going in reverse. Starting and stopping. For about an hour, I was in total control; except for that time when I thought I was in first gear but I really was in third and I couldn't figure out why my car wasn't moving. But I had total control. I like my car keys. Well I like the key chain. It's my Staten Island Zoo key chain -the first one I ever got- and there's also a little rubber duck. The green and yellow goes well with the silver of the keys and the white car. Then I revisted my old pedals. and Keys. Of the piano.

March 1, 2003

Procrastination
Wow. It seems like its been years since I updated. But smile folks I have only been gone for a month! You could say I had been procrastinating and so I haven't updated the ramblings. Or you could say that I haven't been procrastinating and therefore I didn't update. Either way I am procrastinating now hence the long wordy sentences.
I feel as though I have changed in these last few weeks. I think the shock of turning 18 has finally hit me and so has all the responsibilites which are cemented with adulthood. I can vote. I can smoke. I can get a normal license. I have the power to do things I could not do as a 17 year old. But these things seem trivial to me. Instead, I am more concerned about acting like an adult, making intelligent decisions, etc etc. I've been trying hard not to procrastinate. I find that I usually end up cleaning when I do. I clean everthing from closets, to bookcases, to rooms, to even my desktop/ harddrive. I still have a long way to go but I do feel an improvement.

February 1, 2003

God Bless

I didn't want to write about this because there is a part of me in disbelief. How could a Shuttle Just Explode on reentry? I was doing my work at a little after 9am when my dad came up and turned on the tv. I, easily distracted, went to see what the commotion was about. It felt like a movie as I watched the white stream of gas draw 3 lines across the sky. I saw three distinct streams, for the parts of the shuttle that has broken up. The media kept informing us, each channel had newcasters recanting the same story. No one was ready to face the truth. The shuttle had gone through a series of explosions upon reentry. All seven crew members died. Two of them young middle aged women. One of them Indian. They spit out the same facts for the next two hours. My eyes glued to the tv trying to catch new developments. Not until noon did they mention any new details. They said that something had hit the carbon-carbon part of the wing during liftoff. It could have been ice from the liquid nitrogen. Or it could have been a tile from the shuttle's wing. There are small ceramic tiles allover the body of the shuttle which absorb the heat during takeoff and entry. It could have fallen and affected the wing or something. I'll post the actual news up here later. So I spent most of my day thinking about the seven people on the shuttle. How they must have beared the last few moments of their lives? What were they thinking? They were young--all in their 40s. And many dreams and aspirations were yet to be complete. I wanted to cry but I couldn't. Am I stupid to dwell on this? I didn't know what to do. So I've decided to pour my feelings here. Why did this happen?

My heart goes out to the families of the seven astronauts: David Brown, Rick Husband, Michael Anderson, Ilan Ramon, Kalpana Chawla, William McCool and Laurel Clark. Kalpana Chawla was the first Indian woman to orbit the Earth. As an Indian, I am proud of her accomplishments, her determination, and her courage. India will never forget her.

I know space expeditions are important to most Americans but I feel that we should slow down a little. There will always be things that can go wrong. Unfortunately they cost us innocent lives. I know there are a lot of benefits with going into space. But if we take the time to mature, we might be able to think of some things ahead of time. I can see both sides of the mirror. I understand all the pros and cons. But at this moment, I think we should take it slowly. God Bless their Souls. They were brave. God Bless the crews family and friends.

January 27, 2003

Thoughts on Fonts

I wish I could be a font. A font is unique with characteristics unlike any other. And perfect in its style. Fonts dont change their way for others. They are loyal. They dont judge or lie. No condescending tone, no teasing, and no spitefulness are just some characteristics they have which exhibit their unfaltering respect for others. They remain true to themselves disregarding their appearance and other fonts. Fonts are not afraid of making first impressions. You either like them or you dont. Nor do they care about size or thickness. They can be a size 8 regular or a size 14 bold. Fonts are forgiving. If you decide to choose another they dont go away; they just wait for their turn. Fonts can endure rejection. Fonts are fabulous. I wish I were a font.

January 18, 2003

Poets Come in this World and Leave Behind their Soul in Poetry

The life of Harivansh Rai Bachchan started in a Kayasth families living in the mohallas of Allahabad. Nevertheless, they kept up the tradition of hospitality inviting relations and friends to live with them for months on end. Harivansh Rai himself had to take up tuitions to see himself through school and college (he failed twice) before he could find a measly job. This period of his life remained etched in his mind. He has a vivid recollection of marriages, sickness and deaths that occurred periodically in his family and near and dear ones; also evenings and nights spent in the moonlit banks of the river Yamuna before it mingled its waters with those of the Ganga.

Although he was taught both Urdu and Hindi fairly early in life, he opted for Hindi as his first language and started composing lyrics. He was much taken up by Omar Khayyams Rubayyat which he translated into Hindi before going on to compose his most popular work Madhushala (The Tavern). His output was prolific and provided him with the little extra income the family badly needed.

Next to Hindi, Bachchan loved English; more poetry than prose. He was specially enamoured of W. B. Yeats and wrote a thesis on his works. He was able to get a grant to pursue his research in Cambridge University which awarded him a doctorate. Despite the doctorate from a prestigious university and his rising fame as a poet, Bachchan could not find a job which could keep him, his wife (whom he married not too long after the death of his first wife) and his growing sons in reasonable comfort.

During his years in Allahabad, he got to know Nehru and Indira Gandhi. It was Nehru who got him a job in his ministry in Delhi a measly job of the rank of an under-secretary to translate official documents from English into Hindi. He hung on to it till the age of retirement. He was nominated to the Rajya Sabha and awarded the Padma Bhushan. Read the Full Bio here