LMG in the top 10!

I'm sure your wont be surprised to read that our school continues to be considered amongst the best in the country. 250 schools were selected from the very many more that exist in India and in the survey based on several parameters, our school was listed amongst the top 10. You can read more about it on TOI, here. If anyone gets hold of the magazine, do scan and upload the article to this blog.

Source: link circulated by w.sutton of the martiniansworldwide group.

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.

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.

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?

Godfather of Soul - James Brown

James Brown, a great musician, known as the Godfather of Soul, passed away yesterday at the age of 73. Ramesh introduced me to his songs soon after we met and I thought that I'd put one up here as a remembrance.

Paint a Mural

During my recent visit to Bangalore, Tea at Sangita Ohri's was very exciting as along with the fabulous chaat I got to see her art. One of these was a beautiful Trompe L'Oiel she'd painted into a niche in her dining room. I looked it up :P they are murals that create an illusion of a three dimensional space and I think translated it means Fool the Eye. If you ask I'm sure she'll put up a photograph :D When I saw this article over a month ago, on my current favourite site, Lifehacker, I immediately thought of her. I dont think she needs this article she's already an expert but it's for all those of you who might want to be adventurous.

About 10 days ago Sangeeta Bukshi wrote me about her daughter painting a wall in her room and how a while later she was sorely tempted and followed suit. I got all excited about it and remembered this post that I'd saved up as a draft :D I need to get my head fixed, I keep forgeting things! Putting it on record so that I'm forgiven for all the things that I might forget henceforth :D

Both Sangita and Sangeeta do share photographs. I for one am mighty interested. I sounded out Ramesh who said that it would be my responsibility to get it cleared by the landlady :D I'm already thinking of painting the wall in the balcony. People on the lake will get to see and enjoy it and me of course :D Now I have to come up with the idea :D I like being a copy cat :D Maybe I'll do cats :D

Anybody want to join me? Remember, we now have 3 experts to consult :D

13 December : A Reader

Penguin India is organizing an event to launch the book 13 December: A Reader, to which Sonia Jabbar has contributed. The event will be held at Gulmohar in the India Habitat Centre New Delhi, at 4 pm on 12th December. Read Hang The Truth by Sonia which appeared first in the Hindustan Times on October 17, 2006. And here's the introduction to the book by Arundhati Roy. Those who are in Delhi might be able to make it for the book launch. And don't forget to go out and buy a few copies for yourselves and friends.

Did some surfing on the Net and here is a write-up on a film that she had made earlier
Read a review by Beena Sarwar on Chowk on Sonia's film Autumn's Final Country on the suffering of 4 displaced women living in Kashmir.

This post is about a much more serious side of Sonia. Dont be disappointed thinking that she's changed completely because the Mad Hatter still exists. To catch up here's a bit of background on what she's been up to in these past two decades. I've shamelessly copied the write-up from a review on this very film on Asia Source

Sonia Jabbar has been politically active since the early 1990s and has worked on Kashmir issues as a rights activist, journalist, photographer and filmmaker since 1995. She has founded several Indian movements for nuclear disarmament, and after the 2002 Gujarat riots she co-founded Aman Ekta Manch, a citizens' group in New Delhi that worked for peace between the communities. She has initiated Indian-Pakistan peoples' conferences at the grassroots level and in 2000 she received a research grant from WISCOMP (Women in Security, Conflict Management and Peace), founded by Nobel Peace Prize winner HH The Dalai Lama.

Keep a track at Traineo

You guys have heard me complain about the excess weight that I'm carrying around. I've signed up at Traineo to keep a track of my weight loss goal. I want to lose 15kgs in a year. I've signed up Ramesh as my motivator and he'll get weekly progress reports on how I'm faring. Hope to have fun along with losing weight! Anyone joining me at Traineo? We could have a LMOG group :D

Million memories tease my heart!

Credit goes to Kshitija, a friend of mine, for finding this gem. She sent it out a few months ago and it has been enjoyed by many. Hope it makes you smile and if you catch yourself humming.... eeef you come today... dont blame me, blame Kshiti!!

Kya haal hai?

Hi Everyone,
Have not heard from you all in a while. Life has been going at full speed here (is there any other way for us working women/moms?)!! We are going to Vegas next week for the Thanksgiving break. Hubby feels that I may not want to come back home!! Very tempting... Will keep you posted and try to get some good photos! Take Care Gang!!

Chinese and Indians

Friends of ours introduced us to Russell Peters sometime last year. The guy is ridiculously funny. I hope most of you havent seen this excerpt already. And if you like it you can find many more on Youtube.

Online Safety Measures for Children

This article has a bunch of steps that you can take to increase the safety of your children online. One of them was to be there when they are online and I think that this would be the best way - to be in the same room when they choose to go online. Schools have their own filters in place, you need to have some at home. Feeling technically challenged is not going to help :P Have a look and take some steps if you havent already.

Source: Cool Cat Teacher's site has this and many other interesting articles. Found the link on Lifehacker.


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Esther Roshni Chandy

Dont know how I missed posting this one. It got left as a draft in my attempts at spacing out the posts.

Esther as always spoiled me silly with dinner at her place after she'd had a hard day at work. I was keenest on meeting up with her as she'll soon be moving out of Bangalore. Here are a bunch of photos of Esther, Rebecca, Philip and Gertrude or was it Griselda?? Esther help me out here I've forgotten your doggie's name.

So much hasnt changed!

Got the link to this site from an old friend Subha. There are 60 odd photographs taken between 1946-47 by American Military Personnel based in Kolkata. These have been acquired recently by the University of Pennsylvania and uploaded to their library. Thought that you guys might also enjoy them too.

Looks like a lot hasn't changed - the photographer was complaining of traffic jams - people as well as buffaloes. :D Burrabazaar and the signages. Overloading of public transportation. Makes me want to rush back home to old familiar sights! There are others of the Hooghly without the bridge. A Chowringhee square that I did not recognize and other gems. Enjoy!


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Sell by, Use by, Best before

I have so far treated all 3 as expiration dates, this article explains why they're not. The other new thing that I learnt was that the temperature of the freezer within our refrigerators is not sufficient for long term storage of food. Read more in this Business Week article on The Truth About Food Expiration Dates.


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At the Baseball Game

At the baseball game, the Oakland Athletics beat the reigning champions, the Chicago White Sox. It was a great afternoon to be at the ballpark with the family. It reminds of the times I went with my father to watch a cricket match in Chepauk and Eden Gardens. I still remmeber, Eden gardenswith great fondness. One of the most awesome sights was when you came up the stairs and the whole stadium opened out in front of you! These are times when man made structures inspire great admiration.

Art, artists and inspiration

It is a known fact that artists are inspired by the work of others - past and present. "Good artists copy, great artists steal", a quote attributed to Picasso. And why am I talking about it? Because of the recent debate about the songs in Bob Dylan's new album Modern Times having words identical to another poet from the past, Henry Timrod. Two articles that I thought you might like to read regarding this subject

Translations - Creative Copying and Originality and
The Magpie Tendencies of Genius - read the comments that follow too.

Would love to hear how you feel about it?

Reading bit by bit

Technology and gadgets seem to be taking away our leisure time instead of giving us more. Catching up on reading for pleasure seems to have taken a back seat. Here's a novel way of getting some reading done. Reading Classics that you did not manage to do in college or since.

I recently read an article on LifeHacker where the blurb said " No time to read? Email service Daily Lit sends you a bite-sized chunk of a novel to your inbox every day". This site will email you a page or so of your favorite classic to you everyday, Monday to Friday. I signed up immediately :D

It's not as if I don't have the time to read. I have a lot of time but can't seem to get around to knocking off a few from my list that have been there for years. Ones that I keep there because I still want to read them. Instead I find that I read books that catch my eye in the shop or ones recommended to me recently or whose review I have liked. As you must've gathered from the header and the excerpt, Sons and Lovers is a book that I had wanted to read when I was in school (!) and I still have not got around to it.

This book will be sent to me in 218 installments. Each will take about 5 minutes to read. And if the experiment proves successful, I shall sign on for another. Today I got my first installment. Here is an excerpt from the book.
___________________________________
Sons and Lovers (1 of 218)

By D. H. LAWRENCE

PART ONE

CHAPTER I

THE EARLY MARRIED LIFE OF THE MORELS

"THE BOTTOMS" succeeded to "Hell Row". Hell Row was a block of thatched, bulging cottages that stood by the brookside on Greenhill Lane. There lived the colliers who worked in the little gin-pits two fields away. The brook ran under the alder trees, scarcely soiled by these small mines, whose coal was drawn to the surface by donkeys that plodded wearily in a circle round a gin. And all over the countryside were these same pits, some of which had been worked in the time of Charles II, the few colliers and the donkeys burrowing down like ants into the earth, making queer mounds and little black places among the corn-fields and the meadows. And the cottages of these coal-miners, in blocks and pairs here and there, together with odd farms and homes of the stockingers, straying over the parish, formed the village of Bestwood.
___________________________________

Daily Lit has a selection of 93 classics, from the public domain, available for you to choose from. So whether like me you have the time or like most others life's keeping you a bit too busy and you want to catch up on some reading here's a new way to have a go at it.

You'll find quite a range of reading material from Emma, Christmas Carol to Freud's Dream Psychology all sent to you in small installments. And if on a particular day you have the time to read more or you just have to know what comes next just ask for more and you'll get the next installment sent to you immediately. You wont have to wait! I'm sure you'll find something you'd like to try out. If it works for you do let me know.

4 Generations!

I've been in touch with Dipali right through the years and we meet up regularly. This time was no different.

I was meeting Diya for the first time though. She was shooting all over the place, a bundle of energy and absolutely adorable. Managed to grab her for a few seconds for a photograph but she wriggled right out. She has everyone wrapped around her little finger especially her mother. Aditya is much taller than when I saw him two years ago and is very gentle with his little sister. Rajeev is still the same, still spoiling Dipu silly. And her friends too :d Fellow Aquarian like me need I say more?? :D

Meera Aunty had come over for dinner. Meeting up with her was an added bonus :D She's still keeping busy. Has an exciting job that keeps her on her toes. Khana has always been superb at the Sikand's and the tradition continues at Dipu's.

Something that I discovered this visit. The Sikand's have almost taken over Oakwood. Meera Aunty's mother has recently moved in and lives there on her own as she's very independent. So is Meera Aunty who was the first to move in there and has maintained her own place. And Dipu has her own. 4 generations practically under the same roof. They have their independence but yet are close enough to run into each other homes and do dinner regularly. I think it's fabulous!