Spectacular

Just a few hours from now, we get to witness a spectacular event, 2007's second total lunar eclipse. Unfortunately, this would not be visible in India. The blood moon eclipse is going to be quite a phenomena!!
http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/lunar.html
http://www.hermit.org/Eclipse/2007-08-28/

निशा

आधा चांद , भीनी चांदनी

तारों की हसीं दमक
निशा की सांवली चमक
हलकी सी रौशनी
गहरीं सी छाओं
गहरी चादर
अनसुनी सी आहट

डगमगाता अम्बर
चमकता सितारा
खूबसूरत नज़ारा

और
आधा चांद

Que Sera Sera

It was my uncle's retirement party today. I was thinking how does the word 'retire' feel. Everybody plans for the future, short term plans.....long term plans.....each one of us has a vision for his/her future.....the one scary thought that I usually have.....is will I be what I have promised myself to be?? As the clock ticks on......the reality strikes.....time is less and there is so much to do...
Okay....so you have planned this and that for yourself, you think a lot about it, charter a program for yourself, talk about it daily to your own very self, take a few steps in that direction...... and then suddenly a wave comes in, a wave of calmness, serenity......you tend to go with that, take some rest, your plans could wait for sometime, you think this tide may not be there tomorrow.......let me relish the moment...and then again.........lightening strikes, you get up from your sweet slumber, prepared to fight...prepared to win.......one little achievement in the direction of your dreams, one little accomplishment.....tells you that you are going the right way..........but again......time is less and there is so much to do and loads to learn..........in the words of Robert Frost 'The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep'
Talking of my Uncle's party, the satisfaction that I saw on his face, the family love that surrounded him, the entire ambience was teething with joy, contentment and the most important ingredient in life, love. When his son surprised him with a bouquet, he was so elated, his eyes were beeming with happiness, and I do not remember seeing him as happy as he was today.
I guess, fulfilling your dreams and aspirations, seeing your children act like as if they were your parents, your spouse standing by your side, saying adieu could be a wonderful feeling. This is what my uncle taught me today. All I can think, at this moment is.... zindagi rocks!

Francais

Apart from my usual city trips on weekends, I have found a new hobby to keep myself busy....started learning a new language..French. It's been a month now and the three hour sessions on Sats and Sundays are turning out to be great.....it's something I look forward to during my weekdays. It's not that I loathed weekends.. like every other person, I love the holidays. Anyways, talking of my French classes.....the first day appeared like my first day in the Univ....new faces and intro. I was amazed to see this lady who was making an effort to come from Barnala every weekend and she had no relatives with whom she could put up in Chandigarh. So, she stays in some PG for two days. Wow! then there were many teenagers..infact there are about ten of them in my batch.....so eager to prove themselves and hilariously naughty. Thankfully, there are some like me...20 somethings, working..... and trying to learn something new.....and I bet French is an interesting language.
It's been quite sometime now and I can understand a bit...mind you..a bit of French ...although there is this problem with the 'ecoutez'...its difficult to understand when French people talk..so when we hear the original French tapes....sometimes you feel lost....I think can't they speak slowly? but then why would that French monsieur and madame listen to me..at home with the French CD's that I have, I have to hear them atleast four to five times to make out their conversation...phew...but I guess...am improving:)
We also had a test...I got 35/40....not tooo bad.....again lost marks in the ecoutez.....that madame in the tape was calling herself 25 and what I heard in that entire conversation was something like 60....she would kill me for that!
When I am in the class, I feel as if I am in my fifth standard again......btw...when we were giving the test..our teacher made it a point to space out everybody in a manner so that nobody could cheat...this teenager adjacent to me asked me to show him a few answers...before the test he had asked everybody around him if they had prepared well for the test.....kinda funny....like an examination hall situation, acting like a student, I showed him a few pages. I wonder if he could see the answers from the distance that he was at....and my madame saw me doing that...
All the people are really cute....and the first day when I told that I was a scientist...I could see a few raised eyebrows...one of the girls said you don't look like a scientist.....I wonder what these kids think of people who study Science....she was quick to add..you look like a college student....a compliment...I guess...compliments like these make you happy. Then as the days are passing by, we are all trying to converse in French...it's all in tatters...we all speak very bad French....accent is pathetic....but there is this one person who has learnt French earlier and this class is a kinda refresher course for him.....he speaks mast French...and we all are in awe of him. The day of our test, we requested our teacher to make him sit in the centre of the class!! but she DID NOT agree....poor us!
Anyways, I saw a movie which had a few French dialogues in it.....and I could understand them.....me happy.....atleast all these days have paid off...
So, Tchao for now.

one a penny

Today, as I was browsing through the city markets, I saw a small kid, a 5 year old child sitting alongside a weighing machine. I thought 'let me get my weight checked' . There was a lady, with her daughter in tow, who was standing on the weighing machine. Both the mother and daughter had a view of their mass into gravity values. and......when the kid asked for two bucks, the lady said that the weighing machine was incorrect, the scales were wrong. The little child, I was amazed to see, tried to adjust the needle of this instrument, brought it to the zero mark and asked the lady to try the machine again. Her daughter pleaded her mother to pay the child. But that female refused to pay the money....two rupees to be precise and just trotted off.
I stood on the machine.....I think the weight was accurate....its been the same for years. Hope to gain some weight someday! Anyways before I digress from the story, I paid the child two bucks, he wanted to pay me back 'one penny'. When I said, never mind, the smile that I saw on his face was incomparable to anything else. I thought what would that little child do with one extra rupree,,,,,but more important what would that affluent looking lady do with that 'one penny'. It is difficult fo me to understand.I suppose it's quite an ardent task to understand or justify this kind of ridiculous and obnoxious behaviour.
I'm sure this lady wouldn't mind paying 50 bucks for a coffee in a coffee shop. Maybe she was saving for the same!

an old aquaintance

This weekend I was on my usual city darshan spree. Walking with the evening breeze is a soothing experience in the North Indian summer courtesy proximity of Chandigarh to the hills. My favourite is the city lake where I tend to go again and again, am never tired of the waters. People walking, jogging, just rushing past you...somehow all this kind of fascinates me. I saw a very old couple there, must be in their late 70's walking hand in hand. They looked beautiful and I could not get my eyes off them. The old gentleman just like any other teenager bought something to eat for his lady. I thought that I had seen them somewhere before.... kept thinking about them. While driving my way back home, their charming faces kept coming back to me. Thankfully, my neurons didn't let me down! I had spotted them about ten years back, when I was a school going kid and had gone for a haircut to a salon. This septuagenarian had accompanied the lady to the parlour. She also had a haircut (much better than mine!), her husband looked at her admiringly and said that she looked good with the new hairstyle. At that time, I thought what a hep couple....this time i said.....what a blessed couple. May God bless them! Amen.

Life in a.....Metro

Metro is a nice movie....a reflection of todays times. Its been a week since I watched Metro and the one person that straightaway comes to my mind is Irrfan Khan. He manages to make you laugh, smile and you are forced to fall in love with him! Kay Kay Menon also leaves an impact in his own way. He belongs to the detest him types....the personality I suppose you would never like to meet in your 'one life' but then you keep on bumping into such characters. If you haven't seen this movie, watch it for Konkona-Irrfan. They are in simple words...sweet! And yes, I'm sure by now, everyone must have relished Metro's soulful music.