It's becoming an annual event

Looks like meeting at Flurys is becoming an annual event :D 8 of us met yesterday afternoon. Rahat, Archana, Sonea, Nina, Piew, Ruplekha and Trina arrived at various times through the afternoon and we managed to catch up on a bit. One thing that is settled is that we will be organizing a get together in 2008. Do plan ahead to make sure that you do make it. In the meantime, enjoy the photos.

Tujhse Naraaz Nahin Zindagi

Found a link to this clip while surfing today and it's of an old favourite song of mine. This guy has done a fabulous job of singing it. Dont know how many of you saw it when it was first aired. Yesterday was Indrani's b'day and today Rubayat Kadir dropped in. A week back I met up with Amna and Asma. LMC has been top of mind for a while now. To tell you the truth, December is coming up and I'm a bit sad that plans for the Reunion did not work out for this year. And btw on Nov 27th our blog completed 2 years.

That's what friends are for!

Listen to Vinita Nayar wonderful rendition of the song "That's what friends are for". Be sure to leave her a comment or write to her. I'll update the post with a recent photo soon. Until then enjoy the song!

Click to listen

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Somebody gonna get hurt real bad!

The first time I heard of Russell Peters was a couple of years ago when we were visiting some friends. They insisted that we watch it with them right away and we did. It had us rolling on the floor laughing our heads off. Later I found a clip of his on Youtube and put it up on this blog. It was about how Indians and Chinese cant do business together. When I went to visit Sangeeta, earlier this year, she said that she hadnt seen it yet. We discovered then that her son Arjun was a fan of Russel Peters too and he soon downloaded the whole episode for us. I think we watched it several times during those 2 weeks and this second clip became a favourite too. It is from the same show and came to me earlier today from Esther (Roshini) on Facebook. I had a good laugh once more. If you haven't already, you have to see this and the earlier one. Thanks Es for the clip.

Couple more q's
1. btw any of you on facebook?
2. want to contribute to this blog?
leave me a comment.

Write that novel in November

The one you always wanted to write?? Join thousands online to write your book. All that is wanted from you is quantity - 50,000 words at least. About 1700 words per day. Quality is not a requirement here. There is a time limit though. You've got the month of November to do it in. And if you miss it this year, well, there's always next year or the daunting prospect of doing it on your own! This is to get you jump started. I signed up last year too but never ended up writing :D I dont give up easy and so I've signed up again this year. Want to join me?

Website : National Novel Writing Month

If I'm just writing 50,000 words of crap, why bother? Why not just write a real novel later, when I have more time?

There are three reasons.

1) If you don't do it now, you probably never will. Novel writing is mostly a "one day" event. As in "One day, I'd like to write a novel." Here's the truth: 99% of us, if left to our own devices, would never make the time to write a novel. It's just so far outside our normal lives that it constantly slips down to the bottom of our to-do lists. The structure of NaNoWriMo forces you to put away all those self-defeating worries and START. Once you have the first five chapters under your belt, the rest will come easily. Or painfully. But it will come. And you'll have friends to help you see it through to 50k.

2) Aiming low is the best way to succeed. With entry-level novel writing, shooting for the moon is the surest way to get nowhere. With high expectations, everything you write will sound cheesy and awkward. Once you start evaluating your story in terms of word count, you take that pressure off yourself. And you'll start surprising yourself with a great bit of dialogue here and a ingenious plot twist there. Characters will start doing things you never expected, taking the story places you'd never imagined. There will be much execrable prose, yes. But amidst the crap, there will be beauty. A lot of it.

3) Art for art's sake does wonderful things to you. It makes you laugh. It makes you cry. It makes you want to take naps and go places wearing funny pants. Doing something just for the hell of it is a wonderful antidote to all the chores and "must-dos" of daily life. Writing a novel in a month is both exhilarating and stupid, and we would all do well to invite a little more spontaneous stupidity into our lives.

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Decent wine for 10 or less in the US

Read the NYT article on "Happiness for $10 or Less" for more details. While on the subject I wanted to mention that NYT has moved from subscription based access to the "register and read for free" mode. You can now read all their current articles as well as access their archives without having to pay. They've finally realised that they're losing much much more in ad revenues that their gains from subscription fees.


Casa Cadaval Portugal Ribatejano , $8.99, ***
Domaine de l'Ameillaud France , $9, ** ½
Viña Gormaz Spain Ribera del Duero , $9, **
Georges Duboeuf France , $9, **
Altas Cumbres Argentina Mendoza , $9, **
Wyatt California Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 , $10, **
J. Vidal-Fleury France , $10, **
Domaine Monte de Luz , $7, **
Ravenswood California Vintner's Blend , $10, **
Paringa , $9, * ½

Found on one of my regular reads - Lifehacker

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This post made my day!

A link to this post was made in one of the groups I subscribe to for the humour as well as the illustration. Its been a while since I laughed out loud to something I was reading online. I hope it does the same for you.

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Learn a language online

An amazing amount of information and tools are being made available for general access on the Net. It is meant to reach a wide audience but this is unlikely to happen till more people get net savvy. They are reaching out to people who'd be interested. I know I'm a candidate. I've been very keen on learning Mandarin and French. Unlikely to happen in the near future but I'm saving up the information. If any of you choose to try it out, do let me know how you fare.

If you like a conversational and situational type of teaching, download a bunch of audio files and get going. You'll be speaking Mandarin or Spanish in no time.
Chinese Pod
Spanish Sense

This site believes in repetition and rote and you need to have access to the net to use it but you have 8 or more languages to choose from.
Mango


BBC uses multimedia to teach you that basics of a few languages.
7+ by BBC

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ALMA - Association of La Martiniere Alumni

ALMA, Association of La Martiniere Alumni was inaugurated by the President of the Board of Governors of La Martiniere Schools & Bishop of Kolkata in the presence of the principals of La Martiniere for Boys and Girls at a glittering function at Taj Bengal, on 1st September, 2007.

Please head on over to the ALMA website and register.

Belated Happy Teachers Day!

September 5th was Teachers Day. I'm sure you'll join me in wishing the ones who taught us and teachers in general a belated Happy Teachers Day! It was a day that I recall we'd celebrate by putting up skits and other performances. It brings back fun memories. Found the film clip while surfing today on Cuckoo's call. Dont ask me why but just thinking about anything to with our time in school makes me senti :D And if you've forgotten the words click on the link above.

2 movies to watch

I dont usually recommend movies but these are two that I enjoyed. Read the reviews to see if our tastes match before committing the hours. Just click on the film title below to read a review. If you do watch them or have watched them already do leave a comment with your opinion.

Fracture


Chak de

Regrets : Hobbies

This short film is a part of a series called Regrets.

My all time favourite short clip

I'm sure many of you have seen it before. I hope you enjoy it once more. This guy did a fantastic job. I saw it first around the time it was made and I still enjoy watching it. It's been beautifully animated.

Contribution from some more of you would be nice. This blog is quite dead. You'll soon have to put up with me posting all my artwork here if you dont chip in! And then dont tell me I didnt warn you!

Abha on International Herald Tribune

"As political science teachers we have to be abreast of what's happening," she said. "This book won't let you sit still."

In a country where rote learning has prevailed even at the most elite schools, the new emphasis on critical thinking is a major shift in pedagogy. More revolutionary still is the substance of the new curriculum. Before, the emphasis in political science was political theory. "This is realpolitik," Malik said.

In the Indian politics textbook, for instance, which Malik will start teaching at the end of this month, are explicit mentions of several highly controversial political events of the recent past, from emergency rule under former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in the mid-1970s to the attacks on Muslims in Gujarat just five years ago.

Read more of "A new look at history as India turns 60" on the IHT website.

Happy Independence Day!

Vini bell n sango

hi everyone. this is toooo thrilling. bell has finally cracked my lame-duck computer and we've managed to post...even tho comments are still eluding us!

bell leaves in an hour. the update is that vini who was nowhere in the picture as far as the so called painting workshop is concerned has emerged the winner by not only doing the maximum no of paintings but also by showing the greatest enthusiasm!

apart from painting...we have eaten out...spent long hours chatting over many cups of chai paani wine whisky etc feeling dreadful that she is actually going...wish we could ALL stay and live together.love.s.

bella n me...holiday

hey ro bell n i r together ostensibly to paint...joke...because that seems to be the only thing we don't find time for! but it is absolutely wonderful to be together ...and staying together.takes me back to icse days when we used to shift in with each other ...ostensibly to study!! that was an even bigger joke! will be in the us next month. nyc,sfo, la...will call.haven't the foggiest who is organizing the dec get together. knowing how lazy we ALL are... it might just be a good idea to just land up and hope for the best!!

Niagara Falls

We were there last week for one day. It was completely stunning. I had to share this with you all.

Hello Everyone

Its been a while since anyone has posted here. How are you all doing?
My kitchen is complete. It has been an eon....or at least feels like it!
Life has been busy with children's school, activities etc.
Uj- no news from you?
Dipu- how are things going?
Geetanjali, Arti, Abha, Sango, and all the others, please do drop a line.
Who is planning the December festivities?

Janam Din Mubarak Ho Ujwala,

Tum Jiyo Hazaron saal,
saal ke din pachaas hazaar!
Happy B'day dear Ujwala.
Hope you have a wonderful year.

Different and yet the same!

I leave these meetings feeling that I haven't caught up enough. There's so much to talk about for each of the years that have passed. Met up with Archana soon after I got in to Kolkata and requested her to round up as many as she could for tea. Went on to Bangalore and met up with Dipu, Linda and Devika Nair. In the excitement of catching up no photos were taken :( Got back to Kolkata and tea at Flury's with Archana, Sangeeta, Munmun and Oni. Getting Oni's number was serendipitous. There was a lady at Indrakshi's party who looked at me as though she knew me and I thought she was Oni. It turned out she wasnt but she'd met Oni recently and was nice enough to give me her number! Amazing!

From what I hear the LH get together went off extremely well and so did the one the boys of the '82 batch had. Ours is tentatively scheduled for Dec 20 to Dec 23, 2007. What do you guys think? We need to find the others in the next few months so that we give them enough time to plan a trip to Kolkata in December. I hear off an on that some of you have bumped into someone or the other. Please email me whatever details that you might have, telephone number, mailing address, email id etc. We need to locate the others and soon.

Happy Birthday Geetanjali

Hi Geetanjali,
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday dear Miss G
Happy birthday to you!!
For Jan 27th!

Kitchen Remodel

We are in the process of redoing our kitchen. I am planning to replace the tile counter top with granite and add natural stone to the back splash. I also am changing all the appliances. I was going to do a before and after but chickened out. I will do an 'after' photo when it is completed. It is a ton of work because I am going solo on this one. The other half is too busy with work!
How are you all doing? Dipu, no news from you... Uj are you back in D or still in Cal?
Hi to all.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL OF YOU

Happy New Year everyone. This is a picture of a small plant growing out of the lava stream in the Volcanoes National Park in the Big Island of Hawaii. To me it symbolizes new life, new beginings and hope.
Have a wonderful and safe 2007.

Resolutions

I wish all of you a very Happy New Year! I brought mine in quietly with family and it felt good. I'm trying to get my resolutions down on paper so that I dont welch on them! Want to join me in sharing them so that you feel compelled to see them through?