Students on
rollerskates
skateboards
foot
bikes (cycles)
bikes (as we understand them)
and in cars.
Students with
tattoos - on ankles, around ankles, hands, arms, shoulders, back, hips, legs, chest
piercings - on eyebrows, forehead, space between the eyebrows, lips, tongues, ears, cartilage, chin, nose
dreadlocks – in monochrome, multichrome, well-textured, rough, long, short
hair – black, yellow, brown, white, blue, orange, red, pink, hot pink, green, multicolored, curly, wavy, permed, straightened, tied, bunned, left open, dull, shiny, abundant, none.
Students in
classrooms, gym, library, women’s center, international programs office, writing center, food court, laboratories, washrooms, lawns, tennis courts, fraternities and sororities, offices, cafes, downtown, university residences and off campus housing.
Students wearing
blue jeans, skirts, blue jeans, shoes, blue jeans, sandals, blue jeans, shorts, blue jeans, ribbons, blue jeans, t-shirts, blue jeans, rings, blue jeans, shirts, blue jeans, trousers, blue jeans, pajamas, blue jeans, kurtas, blue jeans, torn jeans, blue jeans, ragged jeans, blue jeans, beaded jeans, blue jeans, colored jeans, blue jeans, cargoes, blue jeans, capris, blue jeans, wrap-arounds, blue jeans, dresses, blue jeans, sweatshirts, blue jeans, sweaters, blue jeans, hats, blue jeans, caps, blue jeans, bandanas, blue jeans, watches, blue jeans, hairbands, blue jeans, bracelets, blue jeans, spectacles, blue jeans, bags, blue jeans, earrings, blue jeans, ponytails, blue jeans, headphones, blue jeans, armbands, blue jeans, jackets, blue jeans, pendants, blue jeans.
Students
studying, reading, writing, lecturing, surfing, walking, running, biking, making out, emailing, climbing, chatting, photographing, singing, daydreaming, dancing, praying, playing, catching up, working, teaching, lounging, exercising, yelling, talking, arguing, fighting, eating, drinking, dunking, sleeping, meditating, protesting, Blogging.
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Monday, September 18, 2006
More America
“The Grizzly Bear, sometimes called the Silvertip Bear, is a powerful brownish-yellow bear that lives in the uplands of western North America. They reach weights of 180–680 kg (400–1,500 lb); the male is on average 1.8 times as heavy as the female.
The Grizzly has a large hump over the shoulders which is a muscle mass used to power the forelimbs in digging. The head is large and round with a concave facial profile. In spite of their massive size, these bears can run at speeds of up to 55 km/h (35 mph).
They usually inhabit Alaska, parts of Canada, and states of northwestern United States including Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. Being omnivores, grizzlies feed on a variety of plants and berries, insects, large mammals such as moose, sheep, and caribou, and fish like salmon, trout, and bass. The year 2005 was a notably bad year for fatal bear attacks in Canada with 5 in span of only a few months, generating increased media attention on the subject. Wildlife conservation officials issued public warnings in certain areas known to have large bear populations in close proximity to humans.”
-- Edited text; source: www.wikipedia.com
My friend Leslie took me grizzly bear watching last Thursday. Something that I had so far seen on television and read about in books and magazines, stood right in front of me, barely 3 feet away, separated from me by two wire meshes. Thick, steel wire meshes. In spite of that, when the tallest and biggest of the group decided to check the two of us out -- and therefore stood up -- I backed away a couple of steps. He must have been at least 6 feet 3 inches or so tall. In other words, 6 feet plus of pure muscle, fur and grizzlie-ness. Leslie and I had gone to the Washington State University, to see the grizzlies on campus bred by their veterinary science department. Grizzlies of all ages, sizes, and gender indulging in all kinds of activities. So while there was a “toddler” grizzly frolicking in the water and taking occasional sips of the same, there was another who decided to walk the entire length with us and even stood up and rubbed his back against the wire mesh as part of his “check me out, girls” plan. A few, and these were huge, were safely tucked into sprawling cages…they chose to pace the cages continuously and occasionally looked in our direction to grunt and acknowledge our presence.
Not only did I not have my camera that evening, photographing them would have been particularly difficult. The wire between them and me (not that I am complaining!) would have rendered it nearly impossible to find a big enough spot through which to focus on them. However, Leslie has loaned me a picture to put up here. It shows her with a baby grizzly. Leslie’s friend works at the Washington State University, and has the onerous responsibility of taking care of baby grizzlies. Here, at her house, Leslie can be seen doing the same. Hopefully, before my return to Delhi I would have had a similar opportunity. As long as they are this size, picking one up and posing will not kill me with fright, it’s the 6 feet tall adults that I am not that enthusiastic about.
The next evening, that is Friday, was an adventure of a wholly different kind. The Latah County Fair, which I assume is an annual event in this Moscow, was held this weekend. On my insistence, my dear friend Parul trudged along with me to check it out. Even a small local fair, has so much on display that it’s mind-boggling. Food, animals for buy and sell, toys and games, and rides. Scary rides. We chose to be brave and hence tried out the two scariest rides that were available.
The first step of Ride 1 is to take its passengers-—seated in individual seats within a cage—-to a height of 250 feet (I checked the height with the operator) and leave them suspended there facing the solid ground below. Yes, you are facing the ground below, and not the world straight ahead. And then you are released from that height at a breakneck speed. From 250 feet up in the air, you rush down to meet the earth in a crazy marriage of fear and excitement. When you are absolutely at the top, the feeling is one of absolute paranoia. And then the cage waits for a tantalizing five seconds or so before its heady rush towards the ground. You can see the ground, oh so far, below you. There is nothing between you and certain death except this one layer of steel wire. In case that breaks, that’s it. It’s akin to bungee jumping, except that when you bungee jump, the actual jump happens only once, whereas in this crazy ride, it happens again and again and again.
Ride 2 looked like child’s play compared to this. That is, until we sat in it. The objective of this one is to go round and round in a whirr of speed, crazily oscillating height, and topsy turvy seats. The seats are such that your legs dangle in the air to create the feeling of you holding on to a bar of steel that's in front of your waist, while being thrown out of an aeroplane in midair. Again, if the bar breaks while you are in flight, you would actually “fly” a certain distance thanks to the momentum, before hitting the earth way below you.
Our reactions? Parul shut her eyes within the first fifteen seconds of each ride and then chose to keep them shut throughout. She also stayed absolutely quiet, probably in meditation or in conversation with God. I kept my eyes open but screamed my lungs out, as did several others around me. No wonder, our hearing seemed affected after that. Additionally I did think of the exact process in which I might die in case anything significant were to break in midair.
And oh yeah, American rides go on forever. So in that sense, they are worth every penny you spend on them.
The Grizzly has a large hump over the shoulders which is a muscle mass used to power the forelimbs in digging. The head is large and round with a concave facial profile. In spite of their massive size, these bears can run at speeds of up to 55 km/h (35 mph).
They usually inhabit Alaska, parts of Canada, and states of northwestern United States including Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. Being omnivores, grizzlies feed on a variety of plants and berries, insects, large mammals such as moose, sheep, and caribou, and fish like salmon, trout, and bass. The year 2005 was a notably bad year for fatal bear attacks in Canada with 5 in span of only a few months, generating increased media attention on the subject. Wildlife conservation officials issued public warnings in certain areas known to have large bear populations in close proximity to humans.”
-- Edited text; source: www.wikipedia.com
My friend Leslie took me grizzly bear watching last Thursday. Something that I had so far seen on television and read about in books and magazines, stood right in front of me, barely 3 feet away, separated from me by two wire meshes. Thick, steel wire meshes. In spite of that, when the tallest and biggest of the group decided to check the two of us out -- and therefore stood up -- I backed away a couple of steps. He must have been at least 6 feet 3 inches or so tall. In other words, 6 feet plus of pure muscle, fur and grizzlie-ness. Leslie and I had gone to the Washington State University, to see the grizzlies on campus bred by their veterinary science department. Grizzlies of all ages, sizes, and gender indulging in all kinds of activities. So while there was a “toddler” grizzly frolicking in the water and taking occasional sips of the same, there was another who decided to walk the entire length with us and even stood up and rubbed his back against the wire mesh as part of his “check me out, girls” plan. A few, and these were huge, were safely tucked into sprawling cages…they chose to pace the cages continuously and occasionally looked in our direction to grunt and acknowledge our presence.
Not only did I not have my camera that evening, photographing them would have been particularly difficult. The wire between them and me (not that I am complaining!) would have rendered it nearly impossible to find a big enough spot through which to focus on them. However, Leslie has loaned me a picture to put up here. It shows her with a baby grizzly. Leslie’s friend works at the Washington State University, and has the onerous responsibility of taking care of baby grizzlies. Here, at her house, Leslie can be seen doing the same. Hopefully, before my return to Delhi I would have had a similar opportunity. As long as they are this size, picking one up and posing will not kill me with fright, it’s the 6 feet tall adults that I am not that enthusiastic about.
The next evening, that is Friday, was an adventure of a wholly different kind. The Latah County Fair, which I assume is an annual event in this Moscow, was held this weekend. On my insistence, my dear friend Parul trudged along with me to check it out. Even a small local fair, has so much on display that it’s mind-boggling. Food, animals for buy and sell, toys and games, and rides. Scary rides. We chose to be brave and hence tried out the two scariest rides that were available.
The first step of Ride 1 is to take its passengers-—seated in individual seats within a cage—-to a height of 250 feet (I checked the height with the operator) and leave them suspended there facing the solid ground below. Yes, you are facing the ground below, and not the world straight ahead. And then you are released from that height at a breakneck speed. From 250 feet up in the air, you rush down to meet the earth in a crazy marriage of fear and excitement. When you are absolutely at the top, the feeling is one of absolute paranoia. And then the cage waits for a tantalizing five seconds or so before its heady rush towards the ground. You can see the ground, oh so far, below you. There is nothing between you and certain death except this one layer of steel wire. In case that breaks, that’s it. It’s akin to bungee jumping, except that when you bungee jump, the actual jump happens only once, whereas in this crazy ride, it happens again and again and again.
Ride 2 looked like child’s play compared to this. That is, until we sat in it. The objective of this one is to go round and round in a whirr of speed, crazily oscillating height, and topsy turvy seats. The seats are such that your legs dangle in the air to create the feeling of you holding on to a bar of steel that's in front of your waist, while being thrown out of an aeroplane in midair. Again, if the bar breaks while you are in flight, you would actually “fly” a certain distance thanks to the momentum, before hitting the earth way below you.
Our reactions? Parul shut her eyes within the first fifteen seconds of each ride and then chose to keep them shut throughout. She also stayed absolutely quiet, probably in meditation or in conversation with God. I kept my eyes open but screamed my lungs out, as did several others around me. No wonder, our hearing seemed affected after that. Additionally I did think of the exact process in which I might die in case anything significant were to break in midair.
And oh yeah, American rides go on forever. So in that sense, they are worth every penny you spend on them.
Saturday, September 09, 2006
A Bit of This & A Bit of That
Homesickness hits you at the oddest of times:
# When you have just woken up and are still in bed, and you can hear the neighbours talking to each other outside. And it's not in Hindi.
# When it's a loved one's birthday...a close friend's or your sibling's. And this is the first time that you cannot yell "Happy Birthday" to them several times in a day. Or generally make a huge ruckus at their expense.
# When you desperately want to recreate a flavor from your mother's kitchen, and in your heart of hearts you know that even if you spend five times the number of hours as her slaving in the kitchen, your product will not come any close to her level of perfection.
# When your eyes have drank in enough of the sunshine and mountains of Idaho for the day, and they long for the madness, hysteria, chaos, dirt, and disorganized orderliness of Delhi...simply because it's home, and where you truly belong.
# When a stray ringtone from your classmate's phone reminds you of your own not so long ago dependence and complete devotion towards your phone and through it towards Hutch.
# When you are crossing the road, and an Indian student is coming from the opposite side with his ipod on full volume playing Mitwa, probably Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna's only saving grace. You are reminded of the last time you heard the song, perhaps someone sang it to you.
# When you go pubbing and you are achingly reminded of the fact that Moscow is a small, university town. The biggest pub here is not even half the size of the addictive places you frequented in Delhi. Oh...anything for a Turquoise Cottage, or a Geoffrey's or a DV8 or at the most even a Blue's.
# When you overhear a stray sentence or a voice and it sounds familiar for a second, only for you to realise in the next that it is your foolish imagination playing tricks once again...and that it is just your struggle within yourself to remember a particular voice because you haven't heard it for so long, and that you want to hold on to its memory.
But it all works out alright, when
# You get a call from Prashant. If I am asked to recount the conversation as such I don't think I will be able to share it, suffice it to say that we laughed throughout...and that made my day.
# You manage a technologically brilliant conference call with Richa and Rohit. Richa called Rohit's cellphone, he put her on speakerphone, brought the phone close to the computer-attached microphone, and then called me using GoogleTalk. And the three of us talked for nearly two hours. Just like the old times.
# You have as perfect a room-mate like Manasi who goes out of her way to cheer you up. Thank you M, I really mean it.
# When you have just woken up and are still in bed, and you can hear the neighbours talking to each other outside. And it's not in Hindi.
# When it's a loved one's birthday...a close friend's or your sibling's. And this is the first time that you cannot yell "Happy Birthday" to them several times in a day. Or generally make a huge ruckus at their expense.
# When you desperately want to recreate a flavor from your mother's kitchen, and in your heart of hearts you know that even if you spend five times the number of hours as her slaving in the kitchen, your product will not come any close to her level of perfection.
# When your eyes have drank in enough of the sunshine and mountains of Idaho for the day, and they long for the madness, hysteria, chaos, dirt, and disorganized orderliness of Delhi...simply because it's home, and where you truly belong.
# When a stray ringtone from your classmate's phone reminds you of your own not so long ago dependence and complete devotion towards your phone and through it towards Hutch.
# When you are crossing the road, and an Indian student is coming from the opposite side with his ipod on full volume playing Mitwa, probably Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna's only saving grace. You are reminded of the last time you heard the song, perhaps someone sang it to you.
# When you go pubbing and you are achingly reminded of the fact that Moscow is a small, university town. The biggest pub here is not even half the size of the addictive places you frequented in Delhi. Oh...anything for a Turquoise Cottage, or a Geoffrey's or a DV8 or at the most even a Blue's.
# When you overhear a stray sentence or a voice and it sounds familiar for a second, only for you to realise in the next that it is your foolish imagination playing tricks once again...and that it is just your struggle within yourself to remember a particular voice because you haven't heard it for so long, and that you want to hold on to its memory.
But it all works out alright, when
# You get a call from Prashant. If I am asked to recount the conversation as such I don't think I will be able to share it, suffice it to say that we laughed throughout...and that made my day.
# You manage a technologically brilliant conference call with Richa and Rohit. Richa called Rohit's cellphone, he put her on speakerphone, brought the phone close to the computer-attached microphone, and then called me using GoogleTalk. And the three of us talked for nearly two hours. Just like the old times.
# You have as perfect a room-mate like Manasi who goes out of her way to cheer you up. Thank you M, I really mean it.
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
Your Story
Yesterday evening, during class we were dissecting a story where the main character was afflicted with a fatal disease. The story was as much about him as his best friend. In the midst of the discussion, the teacher asked us -- as a means of getting into the skin of the character -- , "If you knew that you had only one month to live, what would be your story? What story of your life would you like people to remember?"
I know what my story will be. Do you know yours? Care to share it?
I know what my story will be. Do you know yours? Care to share it?
Monday, September 04, 2006
Me Firsts!
Insomnia strikes again. It’s 3:30 am on Monday September 4, and I am up doing the second best thing I do when I can’t sleep. Blog. At the same time I am listening to Yahoo’s online radio, checking Orkut and pacifying Sas on YM every now and then that all is well with my life and nothing is not the way it’s not supposed to be. We are also testing each other’s knowledge of Anand’s dialogues.
This is a long weekend. September 4 is a holiday in the US. Labor day, not very sure what all that entails but I know the bit that affects me the most...no classes. I was supposed to go to Seattle this weekend to meet a friend, but that didn’t work out, and fortunately so because I managed a few achievements here in Moscow itself.
1. On Friday, I attended my first potluck here. At my teacher’s house where everyone from the creative writing department was invited. Their house is situated atop a hill and the view from the living room is to die for. Valleys and rolling hills, and huge old trees all around the house. Picture perfect. My contribution to the potluck was keema (with ground beef though in the absence of ground lamb). Drank the combination of bourbon and tonic for the first time in my life.
2. Had breakfast at an utterly odd time in an all night café. After the party on Friday evening I had gone to my friend Parul’s house, she lives in the same neighborhood so that makes impromptu drop-ins possible. We sat up and chatted till 2 then decided we were hungry enough for breakfast so drove 20 minutes to an all night eatery situated in the campus of Washington State University, where keeping in mind American quantities we ordered one plate of all kinds of sin, split that and devoured it to our satisfaction. There is something incredibly liberating about doing this sort of a thing with another girl in the middle of the night. (Chill Ma, it was perfectly safe.)
3. Managed to activate all the voice chat facilities on Yahoo Messenger and Google Talk. End result? Conversations--with voices, sounds, laughter, and life-—and with some of the people who matter the most. It was incredible...I was actually talking and not merely typing into a clinical chat window. I could talk and hear words in Hindi and Bangla...oh nothing has ever sounded better. No wonder so many revolutions have centered around languages. If you spend days talking and digesting foreign language(s) nothing sounds sweeter than your mother tongue. And if it is a nearly free service it is saccharine.
4. Introduced the virginal and winding mountain roads of Idaho to some kickass Punjabi music. Moscow and its roundabouts—-where Parul and I went for a drive today—-has probably never heard Tenu kala chasma jachta ve, jachta ve tere mukhde pe. Wah wah wah! Kya lyrics hain! This song and several others like it were introduced to me in my days in Chandigarh, and since then, I, who never thought could end up tolerating Punjabi pop, has actually gone ahead and invested time, money and resources into procuring more of the same.
5. Saw my first movie in an American hall. What leg-space! Not that I ever complained in Indian cinema halls, leg space was always more than adequate for me! But I remember how Prashant grumbled, and grumbled and then grumbled some more when we went to see Rang De Basanti. Poor man, he did look thoroughly scrunched by the time the movie ended. So what movie did I see? Snakes on a Plane. Why? Because I love unrealistic special effects, and this movie is currently very much in the news not just because of its creepy crawly subject but also because this is the only movie so far in the history of cinema to have generated massive publicity in blogosphere. It’s a stroke of marketing genius that the film is a hit thanks to the pre-release publicity done by bloggers.
Ok my eyelids are beginning to feel droopy now, so I guess I will tend to them. As Rohit would say, “Jeez man! It so sucks! Sleep is such a waste of time.” I agree.
This is a long weekend. September 4 is a holiday in the US. Labor day, not very sure what all that entails but I know the bit that affects me the most...no classes. I was supposed to go to Seattle this weekend to meet a friend, but that didn’t work out, and fortunately so because I managed a few achievements here in Moscow itself.
1. On Friday, I attended my first potluck here. At my teacher’s house where everyone from the creative writing department was invited. Their house is situated atop a hill and the view from the living room is to die for. Valleys and rolling hills, and huge old trees all around the house. Picture perfect. My contribution to the potluck was keema (with ground beef though in the absence of ground lamb). Drank the combination of bourbon and tonic for the first time in my life.
2. Had breakfast at an utterly odd time in an all night café. After the party on Friday evening I had gone to my friend Parul’s house, she lives in the same neighborhood so that makes impromptu drop-ins possible. We sat up and chatted till 2 then decided we were hungry enough for breakfast so drove 20 minutes to an all night eatery situated in the campus of Washington State University, where keeping in mind American quantities we ordered one plate of all kinds of sin, split that and devoured it to our satisfaction. There is something incredibly liberating about doing this sort of a thing with another girl in the middle of the night. (Chill Ma, it was perfectly safe.)
3. Managed to activate all the voice chat facilities on Yahoo Messenger and Google Talk. End result? Conversations--with voices, sounds, laughter, and life-—and with some of the people who matter the most. It was incredible...I was actually talking and not merely typing into a clinical chat window. I could talk and hear words in Hindi and Bangla...oh nothing has ever sounded better. No wonder so many revolutions have centered around languages. If you spend days talking and digesting foreign language(s) nothing sounds sweeter than your mother tongue. And if it is a nearly free service it is saccharine.
4. Introduced the virginal and winding mountain roads of Idaho to some kickass Punjabi music. Moscow and its roundabouts—-where Parul and I went for a drive today—-has probably never heard Tenu kala chasma jachta ve, jachta ve tere mukhde pe. Wah wah wah! Kya lyrics hain! This song and several others like it were introduced to me in my days in Chandigarh, and since then, I, who never thought could end up tolerating Punjabi pop, has actually gone ahead and invested time, money and resources into procuring more of the same.
5. Saw my first movie in an American hall. What leg-space! Not that I ever complained in Indian cinema halls, leg space was always more than adequate for me! But I remember how Prashant grumbled, and grumbled and then grumbled some more when we went to see Rang De Basanti. Poor man, he did look thoroughly scrunched by the time the movie ended. So what movie did I see? Snakes on a Plane. Why? Because I love unrealistic special effects, and this movie is currently very much in the news not just because of its creepy crawly subject but also because this is the only movie so far in the history of cinema to have generated massive publicity in blogosphere. It’s a stroke of marketing genius that the film is a hit thanks to the pre-release publicity done by bloggers.
Ok my eyelids are beginning to feel droopy now, so I guess I will tend to them. As Rohit would say, “Jeez man! It so sucks! Sleep is such a waste of time.” I agree.
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