Tiny relics of the past.

I was just going through some stuff and came across this:

This is the first toolkit (if I can call it that) that I bought. Coming back from Mayo, it was purchased at Midway circa 1990. Imagine how long it has been with me. What other things do people have that they are carrying around? Probably went to their drawer when leaving home and those little things are still tucked away in a drawer somewhere?

-AJ

Happy 60th birthday, father!

Wishing Pa a very very happy 60th birthday. Wish I was there to celebrate along.

--GG

Diwali poem

Here’s a thoughtful Diwali poem from our niece, her very first poem that we got to read!

Diwali comes year after year.

It’s on October 28th this year.

It’s a time to be happy.

You musn’t look shabby.

It’s a time to look your very best.

You don’t have time to rest.

We gather to pray

Everyone has something nice to say.

Diwali brings celebrations

And decorations In all the nations.

The candles glow

Please don’t blow.

For if you do

They won’t glow.

It’s a time to feast,

on some of the tastiest treats.

My favourite sweets

The candle heat.

Firecrackers we light

Oh! what a sight.

Diwali is my favourite holiday.

Oh how I wish it would come everyday.

By: Anshika Jain Age 10

--R 

Post election musings

On your point of why I prefer McCain to Obama—I compare their economic agenda and policies; definitely McCain has my vote. I’d prefer right wing economic policies to the left wing any day (health care, free trade, taxes, labor unions: I definitely prefer McCain over Obama) ! On Iraq war, U.S. is going to reduce its presence in Iraq irrespective of whether it is going to be a republican or democrat in white house so it does not matter to me.

I’d rather ask on why all of the rest prefer Obama. Is it primarily Obama’s policies that we like, or is it more due to disgust with the outgoing president Bush? My view is that republicans have badly lost due to their unpopular president (most voters don’t trust them any more); not because of McCain’s projected policies.

Yes, I’d love to hear from you all what you want to see happen under Obama; and Pri will really like it if you post those comments on this blog :)

--R

Happy Diwali

So proud that Yahoo! is celebrating Diwali on their home page.

No wishes from google though. Why doesn’t Diwali make their list? Next time they mark an occasion I will be sure to compare its significance to Diwali 

Happy Diwali

Happy Diwali to all. Hope the festival of lights brings joy, health and success to all.

--GG

Chandrayaan

Oh, I am so chuffed. Our very own moon mission!!! Finally!

Nanu is already wondering if he should broaden his horizons and include ISRO along with NASA in his list. Who knows…...

BARC na sahi, koi ISRO mein hi naam kama le…

--GG

Harriet Who ?

So.. I was watching this movie Atonement. (A good movie), and I went to IMDB to look into something and there was this name: Harriet Walter. Immediately, some bulb went off in my head, and I remembered Harriet Vane - Harriet Walter. Here is a link to do the same to your memories : http://www.geocities.com/gregorym101/bbcwimsey_tv_peth.html

Enjoy your trip down memory lane.

Cricketing joy

Yoohoo, Indian cricket is having its moment of glory. Hopefully we will actually win today.

--GG

Movies and music

You knew this was coming if you saw my facebook status. I mean, if something can move me enough to make it worthy of a facebook update, I owe it at least a blog entry. Here’s the background—Da and I are taking this evening course on International Films, where we are learning about Cinematic Storytelling techniques (based on a book of the same name by Jennifer Van Sijll). Interesting course and you’ll soon see a couple of our movie analyses up on this site.

These movies obviously have excellent soundtracks and one such movie we saw was “All About My Mother” (Originally Todo sobre mi madre) by Pedro Almod?var. You know, one of those, where the music constantly gives you goosebumps then continues to play in your head a couple days later.

So, I finally looked up the soundtrack for the movie and discovered the music of, appararently, a very famous African musician, Ismael Lo. Yea, a few months from now I might wonder how he was so obscure to me. Have a listen to one of the songs from the movie and see if it casts a spell on you too: http://www.last.fm/music/Ismael+Lo/_/Tajabone?autostart.

The Romani connection

Another movie we watched recently was “Time of the Gypsies”. This one’s a Yugoslavian movie based on the gypsies or romanis as they are also called. What amazed me was how much some of their words sounded like Hindi. It was hard to identify most of the words within the sentences but every now and then there’d be a distinct one between long enough pauses and the subtitle confirmed the meaning to be the same as my mind expected. For example, their counting went yek, dui, trin, something, pansh…and then their was a time where a girl said something very similar to “aank, muh, naak, sab” and the subtitle read “eyes, mouth, nose, everything”. There were also other words that I no longer remember.

At first, I thought the connection might be through Urdu. But my interest was piqued, so I searched and learned of their connection to the Indian people; relearned actually, since I now remember having discovered this earlier in relation to some genealogy reading I was doing at the time when I participated in the National Geographic Genographic project. Only this time it made more of an impression on me because I just wasn’t expecting a Hindi connection in a Yugoslavian movie. And Romani didn’t sound anything like a Latin derivative which we’ve long known to have connections with Sanskrit.

Here’s an interesting link about the language connection: http://www.journeyfolki.org.uk/HistoryCulture/HistoryLanguage/tabid/681/Default.aspx?PageContentMode=1 and another about the genealogical one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romani_people