Yahoo.....Hmmm....there is a famous Bollywood song and I ‘almost’ am ready to sing that one! It goes like this: Hero appears on the screen all energetic, with ‘wild’ fervor dancing and sings (as it would read in English) “yahoo!....yahoo!...let people call me that I am from jungles....yahoo!..”
And I am here ‘yahoo-ing’ and feeling all ‘junglee’. I will explain in a bit....
Things are looking all gorgeous around me and I am all pepped up and in high spirits. This indeed is good news after a ‘flat’ spell (hmm...thinking about a graphical representation!). Year 2009 brought a lot of changes in my life. I changed track in terms of profession..umm...came to academics to teach public health in an Indian institute (btw, this is my first appointment with an Indian Organization in the capital). I have a new address now, living on my own in my own apartment and cooking food on my own in my kitchen (it feels pretty powerful, you know!). And after all these months in new settings, new neighborhood and new colleagues, I am kinda getting a good feeling.
Hmm....now I don’t really fret and fume because going to work means doing a mean 62 miles a day. How wonderfully I came to realize everything is possible and I ‘actually’ can do a lot of stuff, pretty much a lot more than I ever have envisaged myself ( this indeed is a big realization).
Things are falling in place. I am able to forge my position in the institute, in the classroom and more importantly in my own head that I can contribute well enough with what I know. Now I have a door to door commute available, making my ‘cross-country’ a smooth affair. And the icing on the cake: I am all set for a vacation. Finally! This is my very first (and last) vacation in 2009.
And there are reasons why I chose to hum that particular song....
I am all set to face the biggest cats (oops! second largest according to WWF) on the earth this winter. I will have a vacation in the jungles. And to set everything all-so-perfect, the whole thing is on a cruise and I am ready to sail! Yahoo!
With cruise booked, tickets nicely tucked in a beautiful folder, road map in hand and visa papers on my desk, I am a happy picture. And I am looking forward to December (now you know why also said this is gonna be the last one in 2009!)
I am all excited, and also emotional (read: very) for this vacation. This also means tracing my roots, going to a village by a river which is etched in my memory from a very delicate age. And it means a lot to my own identity, my own being and my own existence. And for some reasons year 2009 has been a very defining year in my life so far.
I am all glad, humbled. I am all excited, wild. I am feeling an itch under my feet. And those mustard seeds under my feet are in action again for me....yahoo!
Friday, October 30, 2009
Friday, October 16, 2009
a wee bit of.....
It is celebration time here. And I am looking for...ummm...a wee bit of ...
Celebration time should be splendid, with loads of fun, friends,food, love, joy, life full of happiness..
And here I am looking for a wee bit of this and that and all of these. Its sad and yet this is real. I am looking for wee bit of company, wee bit of love, wee bit of joy, happiness, laughter and I wish to enjoy my life a wee bit more.
Hmm...its true, more you become independent life gets lonely and the path becomes dark even when everyone else is celebrating festival of light.
Life sometimes is really full of contradictions!
Celebration time should be splendid, with loads of fun, friends,food, love, joy, life full of happiness..
And here I am looking for a wee bit of this and that and all of these. Its sad and yet this is real. I am looking for wee bit of company, wee bit of love, wee bit of joy, happiness, laughter and I wish to enjoy my life a wee bit more.
Hmm...its true, more you become independent life gets lonely and the path becomes dark even when everyone else is celebrating festival of light.
Life sometimes is really full of contradictions!
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Tale of Two Cities
“Riding in a taxi one afternoon between very tall buildings under a mauve and rosy sky; I began to bawl because I had everything I wanted and knew I would never be so happy again.” - F. Scott Fitzgerald
This morning this was how I felt, well, almost. Only differences were- it was morning and I was not riding a taxi. But feelings were same and I did not know how to hide my tears when it was just perfect to feel happy and giggly and a smile was just the apt thing on my face.
I wake up pretty early (that’s a norm of sorts) and I start for work when many would be in their beds. Mornings are nice (I like mornings..umm and late evenings!), especially when it is this time of the year, when winter is just knocking at the gate. My route to work is a lovely stretch, especially from my side of the town. I cross the river, it’s a beautiful view, and I feel nice cold wind caressing my unruly locks. It feels so heavenly. I almost forget all the agonies of traveling in this city. And at that very moment I just got oh-so emotional and I could feel that awkward sensation when you get those lumps forming in your throat, just before your eyes start to get moist.
It was really a funny thing. On one hand I was happy, that I slept well, woke up on time, had a nice hot shower, and ate a wholesome breakfast before setting for work, cooked and packed a very nice satvik lunch. And that I also could manage to throw in a li’l bit of practice session with a 2 KM walk (hmm, I planned to run half marathon and I ‘was’ training for that. But I will have to give this run thingy a miss with a bad knee injury. Well, that’s another story!) and here I was in all tears.
Well, I just feel I am so grateful for what I am today, for where I am today and for what all I have today. I really felt so humbled at the sight of those four young girls singing for the passengers in that wee hours. I felt helpless as my giving them money would amount to giving them alms. And at the same time I was so overwhelmed and so overpowered with emotion that I failed to make an eye contact with them when they came to collect money. I just felt they should not see my tears. I just did not know what to say and before I could gather my wits I saw four of them disembarking at a major traffic junction.
I sure know these girls are told which all places to hover around so that they can make business. Bhajans always sell, especially, in a country where religion has a huge commercial (and sentimental) value. So, singing bhajans praising the goddess will always fetch moolah. It does not matter even when one can make out these girls do not follow what they singing; even when one can make out they are made to sing in a language which is very well not their mother tongue.I just wonder aloud here who are these people who train these young girls, who are these people who utilize someone’s poor economic status and lure young girls when you surely know its risky for four young girls to go about in this city in public transport?
May be its really complicated, here I remember what I heard eons ago (in Bengali) which roughly translates to “poverty does not know any distinction between prose and poem”. Hmmmm……….
This morning this was how I felt, well, almost. Only differences were- it was morning and I was not riding a taxi. But feelings were same and I did not know how to hide my tears when it was just perfect to feel happy and giggly and a smile was just the apt thing on my face.
I wake up pretty early (that’s a norm of sorts) and I start for work when many would be in their beds. Mornings are nice (I like mornings..umm and late evenings!), especially when it is this time of the year, when winter is just knocking at the gate. My route to work is a lovely stretch, especially from my side of the town. I cross the river, it’s a beautiful view, and I feel nice cold wind caressing my unruly locks. It feels so heavenly. I almost forget all the agonies of traveling in this city. And at that very moment I just got oh-so emotional and I could feel that awkward sensation when you get those lumps forming in your throat, just before your eyes start to get moist.
It was really a funny thing. On one hand I was happy, that I slept well, woke up on time, had a nice hot shower, and ate a wholesome breakfast before setting for work, cooked and packed a very nice satvik lunch. And that I also could manage to throw in a li’l bit of practice session with a 2 KM walk (hmm, I planned to run half marathon and I ‘was’ training for that. But I will have to give this run thingy a miss with a bad knee injury. Well, that’s another story!) and here I was in all tears.
Well, I just feel I am so grateful for what I am today, for where I am today and for what all I have today. I really felt so humbled at the sight of those four young girls singing for the passengers in that wee hours. I felt helpless as my giving them money would amount to giving them alms. And at the same time I was so overwhelmed and so overpowered with emotion that I failed to make an eye contact with them when they came to collect money. I just felt they should not see my tears. I just did not know what to say and before I could gather my wits I saw four of them disembarking at a major traffic junction.
I sure know these girls are told which all places to hover around so that they can make business. Bhajans always sell, especially, in a country where religion has a huge commercial (and sentimental) value. So, singing bhajans praising the goddess will always fetch moolah. It does not matter even when one can make out these girls do not follow what they singing; even when one can make out they are made to sing in a language which is very well not their mother tongue.I just wonder aloud here who are these people who train these young girls, who are these people who utilize someone’s poor economic status and lure young girls when you surely know its risky for four young girls to go about in this city in public transport?
May be its really complicated, here I remember what I heard eons ago (in Bengali) which roughly translates to “poverty does not know any distinction between prose and poem”. Hmmmm……….
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