Schneeflöckchen, Weißröckchen,

wann kommst du geschneit?

Du wohnst in den Wolken,

dein Weg ist so weit.

Komm, setz dich ans Fenster,

du lieblicher Stern!

Malst Blumen und Blätter,

wir haben dich gern.

Schneeflöckchen, du deckst uns

die Blümelein zu.

Dann schlafen sie sicher

In himmlischer Ruh.

words

Sophie's world

Jostein Gaarder

Translated by Paulette Møller(1994)

London: Phoenix, 1995

an excerpt:

"...Hello again! As you see, this short course in philosophy will come in handy-sized portions. Here are a few more introductory remarks:

Did i say that the only thing we require to be good philosophers is the faculty of wonder? If i did not, I say it now: the only thing we require to be good philosophers is the faculty of wonder.

Babies have this faculty. That is not surprising. After a few short months in the womb they slip out into a brand-new reality. But as they grow up the faculty of wonder seems to diminish. Why is this? Do you know?

If a newborn baby could talk, it would probably say something about what an extraordinary world it had come into. We see how it looks around and reaches out in curiosity to everything it sees.

As words are gradually acquired, the child looks up and says 'Bow-wow' every time it sees a dog. It jumps up and down in it´s stroller waving its arms: 'Bow-wow! Bow-wow!' We who are older and wiser may feel somewhat exhausted by the child´s enthusiasm. 'All right, all right, it´s a bow-wow,' we say, unimpressed. 'Please sit still.' We are not enthralled. We have seen a dog before.

This rapturous perfomance may repeat itself hundreds of times before the child learns to pass a dog without going crazy. Or an elephant, or a hippopotamus. But long before the child learns to talk properly - and long before it learns to think philosophically - the world will have become a habit.

A pity, if you ask me..."

words

in this section, "words", i want to share some of my favourite books with you. perhaps a quote, a paragraph, a book review or just some thoughts.

the world of literature is so enormous that one can easily get lost in it. i hope more people get lost in it because it not only teaches you a lot of new things, offers you a new world, a new vision of the world but also helps you reflect

the best thing about literature for me is that it´s universal.

this is my way of sharing my few readings with you and helping you live more completely. as Gustave Flaubert says in Letter, June 1857, " Read in order to live."

must see

yesterday, teresa and i went to watch this movie, 'Hotel Rwanda'. almost ended up crying. if you haven´t seen it, please do watch it. i am posting below a sumary and some comments on the movie (source: www.imdb.com, www.labutaca.net)

The official website is:

http://www.hotelrwanda.com/intro.html












Hotel Rwanda

Ten years ago some of the worst atrocities in the history of mankind took place in the country of Rwanda--and in an era of high-speed communication and round the clock news, the events went almost unnoticed by the rest of the world. In only three months, one million people were brutally murdered. In the face of these unspeakable actions, inspired by his love for his family, an ordinary man summons extraordinary courage to save the lives of over a thousand helpless refugees, by granting them shelter in the hotel he manages.
Summary written by Sujit R. Varma

Dirección: Terry George.Países: Reino Unido, Sudáfrica, USA e Italia.
Año: 2004.
Duración: 121 min.

Género: Drama.

Interpretación: Don Cheadle (Paul Rusesabagina), Sophie Okonedo (Tatiana), Nick Nolte (Coronel Oliver), Joaquin Phoenix (Jack), Desmond Dube (Dube), David O'Hara (David), Cara Seymour (Pat Archer), Fana Mokoena (General Augustin Bizimungo), Hakeem Kae-Kazim (George), Tony Kgoroge (Gregoire), Ofentse Modiselle (Roger).

Guión: Keir Pearson y Terry George.

Producción: A. Kitman Ho y Terry George.

Música: Andrea Guerra, Rupert Gregson-Williams y Afro Celt Sound System.

Fotografía: Robert Fraisse.

Montaje: Naomi Geraghty.

Diseño de producción: Tony Burrough y Johnny Breedt.

Dirección artística: Emma MacDevitt.

Vestuario: Ruy Filipe.


For more info on the rwanda genocide:

http://www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/genocide/rwanda.htm

http://www.gendercide.org/case_rwanda.html

la spagetada

we celebrated francy´s birthday with a spagetada, a sicilian spaghetti dinner...

...and ofcourse sangrilla.

dreams and nostalgia

last night i dreamt of school, Vidyaranya. Venkatesh, Nikhil, Chaitanya, Nandini and me were playing volleyball. we had all forgotten how to play and were struggling to hit the ball in the right direction. funny dream coz i don´t really remember if there was a concrete plot at all.

and the other day i was longing to go to the lab in down campus. i was remembering how swati and i used to go on the bike whether summer or winter. and the 'chais' there. and of course minu bakshi ma´am. i miss it all.

60 days and still going strong

i would like to send my heartiest greetings and wishes to appa!

60 days in the u.s and still going strong inspite of everything...

keep it up! just another 240 days to go!

exhaustion

yes, that´s what i´ve been feeling the past few days. don´t know why. we´re up to our necks with work. morning, classes; afternoon, we go all the way to madrid to observe classes; evening, night, we come back to alcalá dead.

yesterday i had my session of micro-teaching. each one of us has to give a half an hour session and later during macro-teaching, one hour sessions. my micro-teaching was disastrous. ofcourse the egoist that i am, i don´t blame myself. yesterday out of 22 students only 10 decided to show up. i had to replan both the activities that i wanted to do. therefore i got all nervous. in the end the professor and my classmate thought it was fine but i´ve had better days.

the days we don´t have to go to madrid for the observation we stay back at the institute to plan our micro and macro sessions. i´m fed up. i have absolutely no energy left.

and i´m so sick of the food here that i made some spicy chole and rice yesterday. realized i´m not such a bad cook after all.

enamorada...in love

my new love...segovia...preciosa.

the roman aquaduct against the blue sky is a feeling i just can´t describe.
the entire city, the jewish quarter, the palace, the churches... (sigh)

i need to go back... atleast to take photos.
only a fool like me could have forgotten to take batteries for the camera.
so until my friend sends me the photos you won´t be able to experience segovia.

getafe

on saturday i finally met the editor of la sombra del membrillo and ofcourse they presented me with a copy of their magazine. you see, since i am from india and speak spanish, i am exquisite for them. it doesn´t bother me at all since it comes with many advantages. i even got the opportunity to present the programme.

the musical poetry recital went off well. i was surprised to see such a young poet...he´s only 19 years old.

but his poems are all sad and negative. there isn´t a glimpse of hope in them. infact after the recital instead of thinking, "wow! what poetry!" i was thinking, "the poor boy. he´s going through hell." he seems to me a romantic poet. the whole thing was dramatic with him standing up all of a sudden, cringing in pain and to top it all jumping off the stage. the singer has a marvellous voice. i guess she represents the hope. on the whole an enriching experience.

this weekend is a long weekend because monday and tuesday are holidays. yippee!

tomorrow we are going to madrid to do some shopping. and if it doesn´t rain on sunday we are going to segovia. i can´t wait to see the roman aqueducts.

i also have other plans for monday and tuesday. i´ll let you know soon.

an update

now that i´m more or less comfortable with my life here in spain... my classes, my friends, my room, my roommates and me... i was wondering if i should delete that very negative entry. but i have decided not to. mainly to remind me that things are not always rosy and to be honest to my readers ( isn´t it presumptious of me, to address you all as readers and thereby call myself a writer!).

the latest news from here is that i was studying this entire weekend. sounds boring but that´s what you end up doing if you go out the previous weekend `de copas´, that is, party the entire night till 6 in the morning. we were so tired and groggy that even the photos are all blurred ( salieron todas movidas, tan borrachas como nosotros).

this weekend i may visit a bookfair in Getafe, a town near madrid. la sombra del membrillo, a magazine dedicated mainly to poetry, is organizing a musical poetry recital there.

will keep you updated, with photos ofcourse.

the medieval market

wow!

on saturday i went to a medieval market in the plaza de cervantes here in Alcalá de Henares. it was simply amazing.

there were shops selling swords, bread, birds, sun dials, spices, instruments,

quills to write, handwritten books...there was even a shop for witches!

for children they hand a special corner with a merry-go-round where a girl was sitting pedalling so that it goes round, rides on donkeys,

trapeze artists, a snake charmer ...

ofcourse there was also an arab quarter. the arabs ruled spain for more than 7 centuries.

also since we are celebrating the 400th anniversary of the Don Quijote, there were many don quijotes and sancho panzas made of wood, metal, leather, glass. curiously enough there was also one don quijote a la india! instead of a spear don quijote holds an agarbati!

what i liked most was that characters of the don quijote were walking around the market. it´s so good to know that don quijote is still alive.

amazing experience. will remember it for the rest of my life.

escritora de El Quijote

since it´s the 400th anniversary of the Don Quijote and Alcalá de Henares is the birthplace of Cervantes loads of activities have been organized for the entire year. the plaza de cervantes (the city square) is buzzing with activity. on saturday we are all going to see a medieval market. will take and post photos whenever possible.

yesterday i went to the plaza de cervantes and i´m proud to say that i have written the last part of the Quijote. yes, one person dictates from the book and you can write a part of the book. the book will be kept in the Cervantes museum of the city. i got to write the saddest part of the book, the part where Don Quijote ( because i believe he was less Alonso Quijano el Bueno and more Don Quijote) dies. Dice el cura: Verdaderamente, se muere...

those of you who would like to see the book, it will be accessible at the website www.losjardineros.com within a months time. my page number is 823.

from spain

hmmm...am in spain. sad to say that it hasn´t lived up to my expectations as yet. i know most of you will be surprised and even wonder if this is really me writing this... but it´s true.

i don´t know how much of it has to do with landing in spain and being terribly ill for three days...infact i decided not to write earlier just because i didn´t want to say that i´m dying to get back to India!

my course keeps me busy and leaves me tired at the end of the day. i´m thankful for that.

ofcourse please keep in mind that i´ve been here only about 5 days and most of you know that once i judge something that´s it, it´s final(not really a good thing but that´s me). anyway i guess i´ve had too much of a perfect life and need to go through my share of troubles and depressions too... i´ll live through it all...as usual.

recipe for INSTANT SMILE

Ask a person what she/he sees in the picture!

p.s i wonder how many of you get it.

the autorikshaw ride

it had been a while since i had gone on an autorikshaw ride or shall i say since the autorikshaw driver took me for a ride!

the other day i had no choice...

by the time i stepped out i was a wreck.

it felt as though someone had put me in a tiny little box and thrown the box in the roulette wheel.

i'm glad to be alive.

What is this?

an update

i'm so happy. in three days appa will be back. i like staying alone but only in a new place. here it's home so i need more people around me.

yesterday i gave my class their first test, it was my first test too. and they were so obedient and quiet. i mean i scared them saying no going outside during the test, nothing on your tables except a pen, a pencil and an eraser, no talking, if you need the teacher raise your hand. and it all worked!

the diploma students had organized a small cake cutting ceremony for the teacher's of the centre. each of us also got a rose. really thoughtful of them.

only three more days of work left so i'm going to teach my students 'La bamba' next class.

lot of stuff left to do. all the packing.

guess the blog will be more interesting once i reach spain. oooh! i can't wait.

now govind, i knew i could count on you. this is what i call solidarity...jnu solidarity. we'll stand by each other come what may.

and the rest of you, what are you up to?
i'm waiting.

Hey!

i hope you all like my page. i love it. it has bubbles all over. you could also say it is polka dotted but i like bubbles better. though i don't know how to change the colours of the bubbles...

well, atleast it has bubbles!

what a special day

today is a very special day...it's teacher's day.

i believe that in each of us there is a teacher. haven't you learnt a lot from your friends and even more from your enemies?

well, i have.

so... HAPPY TEACHER'S DAY TO YOU ALL...

and to me too.

vote of thanks

though this is usually done at the end of events i'd like to start with a vote of thanks.

i'd first and foremost like to thank govind for having introduced to this world of blogs, you're my inspiration!

then i'd like to thank my family and friends for always supporting me with this blog and reading the stuff i write, ofcourse that is, in advance.

this blog will be about everything i want to say or do. it may be about me and my life but i may also encroach on others lives.

please do give me a feedback. though, as close friends know , i most probably won't accept the criticism and may even delete any irrelevant and offensive comments after subjectively reacting to them.

thanks again.

love you all.