Lyrics ,Riyaz and Gossip time

Today is easter and sunday and officially my day of work at Hunter College.

The day started at snail pace, typical of a sunday but picked up when we felt an irresistable urge to learn a song

it is a tamil song
"Sri Ranga Ranganathanin padam vandanam saiyadi "
O Dear , sing praise of the Lotus feet of Lord Ranganatha of Sri Rangam
from Kamal Hasan's movie mahanadi. It is a melodious song with meaningful lyrics and beautifully sung by S. P . Balasubramanian and Shobana.

We couldn't rest until we learnt the lyrics and learnt the meaning from nithya's father who patiently cleared all our "tamil literature" doubts!

So much so for lyrics .... then comes the riyaz ... the fun part was when i tried to sing it :D Fortunately donkeys are not found here or else they would have definitely had a party at my home!

well well .. it wasn't that bad either .. I am sure nithya can tesitfy to the fact !

And then began the gossip which went on for hours together. We got ready to leave for college and stopped to have coffee before leaving ..... and then we never left

I was reminded of the good ol days when i would spend the entire day gossiping with my mother about anything and everything we could think of

The gossip time with nithya began with coffee , continued with tea and will probably continue over dinner...

Thus ends the saga of Lyrics , Riyaz and Gossip time of a gloomy SUN day :)

Did i say spring's here?

Oh i spoke too quickly! spring seems to be taking its own sweet time to come to new york ..It snowed the day after i wrote Spring's here :D
New York Weather is an unpredictable and obstinate child. The moment we think it is getting bright and sunny , it becomes cloudy and rains

As of now its still snowing and freezing off and on!

So i take back my words...

Spring's Here!

Yesterday was a dull day . It had been drizzling all day on sunday and monday was cloudy and wet. I felt kind of feverish and thought its best to go home early.

Rarely do i see the sunset in manhattan when i get out of hunter college. I almost always go home after dark.
Well it gets dark early in winter so not that i had been working late :D


As usual i took the M66 bus through central park and lo behold!
I saw little green leaves stretching themselves like we do when we wake up from sleep! and little yellow tulips peeking out of the long cluster of leaves ! Creepers have come alive and a few lavender flowers here n there amidst the lawns which are already turning green. !
the poor conifers (the only ones which remained green throughout winter...thank god for that!)
must be overjoyed to see their friends coming back to life!

I was overjoyed too .... to see them around heralding the arrival of spring!

Reminds me of Kishore kumar's song in Baaton Baaton Mein

'Kabhi sukh kabhi dukh yehi zindagi hai
Yeh pathjhad ka mausam ghadi do ghadi hai
Naye phool kal phir chaman mein khilenge
Udasi bhare din kabhi to dhalenge'

The Psalm of Life

Talking to one of my friends yesterday reminded me of Miss Ambika at Kamalnayan Bajaj School.Im sure all my school friends remember her. She was one amazing geography teacher and also a great english teacher

I think it was she who taught us this poem explaining the figures of speech! i dont remember all the figures of speech ... but hyperbole (to exxagerate) was my favourite and synecdoche(part for whole)

(bcoz she insisted it should be pronounced as hyperbulee and synecdechee!!)

anyway ... i really liked this poem a lot even though i didnt feel the depth back in those days

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)

A PSALM OF LIFE

WHAT THE HEART OF THE YOUNG MAN
SAID TO THE PSALMIST

TELL me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream ! —
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.

Life is real ! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal ;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way ;
But to act, that each to-morrow
Find us farther than to-day.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world's broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle !
Be a hero in the strife !

Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant !
Let the dead Past bury its dead !
Act,— act in the living Present !
Heart within, and God o'erhead !

Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time ;

Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate ;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.

Where The Mind is Without Fear

Here's a beautiful song from Gitanjali ...
i remember my schoolmates singing it ...
but dont remember the tune...
it haunted me for years together and finally i found it here on the internet


Where The Mind is Without Fear
-Rabindranath Tagore

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake

Hence Proved!

Often it happens that we work for a period of time with all our energies and then become slack for a while before becoming active again

I was investigating the cause behind this when Debjani told me a bengali saying
(it reminded me of my mom's tamil vasanam's )

"Biram Kajer Anga Ek Sathe Gatha....Nayaner Mani Jeno Nayaner Patha"

it means: Just like the eyelashes are a part of the whole eye , so also relaxation is a part of work , they are not separated from each other!

well well.... that explains how my afternoon siesta is a part of my 'hard work' at Hunter College! and they cannot be separated from each other :P

Hence Proved!!

Kiran Bedi

On the ocassion of Woman's Day ,

one name instantly comes to my mind when i think of a woman i really admire

Kiran Bedi :)

http://www.kiranbedi.com/main.htm

today's blog is dedicated to kiran bedi ...do take a look at her website

Wish you very happy Woman's Day!

Romantic Interlude!

How can waiting for a train at the subway station be romantic?

I got to know how yesterday ... walking across the road at Lincoln center , i was toying with the idea of spending some time at Barnes and Nobles . but it was getting late and i had to get back home soon ...

So i rushed to the subway station at 66th street to take my usual 1 train ...

And the moment i entered ...what do i hear... ??

beautiful music from a saxophone ... !!
It sounded familiar ... with my limited knowledge of music , i could identify the song

it was
" Near , Far wherever you are .... you will be in my heart and my heart will go on ...and on!"
from Titanic.

There was a man playing the saxophone on the opposite platform and he was playing so well...
There was a couple standing beside him and they looked as if they would start dancing any moment ...... !

And here was Anuradha waiting for the train and enjoying the romantic interlude!

Identity Crisis?

Recently i have been hearing from many people that my roomie Nitya and I sound very similar on the phone

Her folks at home said it , some of my friends said it

Yesterday debjani , my friend and classmate from Hunter College said the same thing

We were wondering ... if two people stay together...

Do their voices sound similar over a period of time?

Do they start looking like each other over a period of time ?

Voice Modulation? Face off ?---- Identity Crisis ?

Banta Joke

Three salesmen were bragging who is the best.

The first said, that he is so good he sold a color television to a blind man.

The second bragged he sold a HI-FI stereo system to a deaf man.

The third said he sold a Cuckoo clock to Banta.The other two said, so what?

The third salesman added, "Along with the Cuckoo clock, I also sold him fifty kgs of bird seeds!!!!!"