On missing..

There's this plump and jolly female bus driver in RTS, she wins hands down as the most loved bus drivers. She greets you forever with a hello hello..and sometimes with a cheeky "lov lov". You travel in the bus dreary after a long day and she comes along, as enthusiastic as ever.
Today she declared that its her last trip..oh my god, I was so sad..while getting down I asked her if its her last trip for the day or she is retiring from RTS, with a huge sigh of relief when she smiled and said she'll be around.

It dawns to me that just a month from today, many of my friends will be graduating.

During Cummins sendoff, some of my friends were very upset; I was like..oh come on, wont we meet gain, they said, yeah we would, but after 5 yrs, not every 5 mins..
Keying this, being half a globe away from friends and family, their words are a constant reminder of what being together and in a carefree college environ means..

so, wont I be meeting some of my friends..like EVER? i guess that wont be the case....coz..
tu jahaan jahaan rahega..mera saaya saath hoga..

The Swan Lake

Each person has good and bad elements to his character, the incidents that bring out those mark the way the person is perceived by others. How a ballerina, Nina, who was the perfect embodiment of the white swan got swamped with the opposing personality of the black swan can thus be anyone's story. She was ambitious, but was just a tad bit dishonest to achieve the prima ballerina role. She knew that the drink was loaded, but drank it anyways, and so the other ballerina (Lily) cannot be held responsible for the onset of her hallucinations. She starts feeling insecure about losing her dream role to Lily, another feeling which, without exception, wells inside every one, how well we deal with it morphs into either jealousy or a further motivation. The movie ends tragically, as Nina tries to be too perfect.

The black swan's identity has sparked a debate too, ever since actress who portrayed Nina failed to acknowledge her ballerina body double. The body double, in turn, felt insecure by the elusive fame, which rightfully belonged to her too.

There are several Nina's in the world, who try to master the entrancing but taxing and physically unnatural art form. Some are wrongly ambitious, and start too early before their bones are ossified, and like Nina, their career ends prematurely too. Oh, not to forget, some are forced, either by over-zealous parents, or by so-called stereotypes created by society, to be swans even though they were destined to be someone else. We all are born with a unique talent, some just take longer than others to recognize their's; but once they do, there is no stopping the proverbial duckling turning to whatever it wants to be...

People's Princess

As Kate weds Willie next month, she has large shoes to fill in.

A naive teen who won the tiara, Diana was as susceptible to making mistakes as you and me. Right from her unlikely romance and a fairy tale wedding to the wronged wife, jealousy that followed, hunger pangs; everything about her struck a chord with people. The princess had enough wisdom to effectively use her charm and her enchanting wardrobe to aide the causes she supported, specially laudable is her taking up the cause of AIDS victims.

Media was obsessed with her, chased her, indirectly caused delay in getting medical help to her. Her death exemplified her wish to lead a "normal" life. She will always be remembered for the fairy tale that dint end with "they living happily ever after". Life is never a bed of roses, even for a princess, thank you for this eye-opener to dreamers.

Made in India

Few days back, I came across this documentary depicting a new source of income for Indian women, and this is based on the series of net searches made in a disturbed state of mind.

As I read about it, the major source of my anguish was that of the entire 25-35k $ charged, the surrogate mom receives only 7.5k to 10k $. In return, the poor woman, in some cases a widow or a divorcee, has to face the social trauma, and is expected to have no post-partum attachment or love for the kid simply because it is not genetically her own. Different religions have varying responses to this issue, most nations  have different legislative provisions.

The articles on net call this a business, and the reason India is favoured because Indian women are non-alcoholic, non-smokers and are housewives!!(by that they imply that housewives are under less stress). Perhaps they forgot to consider that poverty, the cause that led Indian women towards surrogacy, in itself is a stressful condition. None of the articles mention maternal death rates in India, nor do they have statistics of whether the money so earned was truly spent on the surrogate mom's kids education as expected, or on her hubby's drinks. Have the women been informed about the side effects of chemicals they were given to make their bodies accept foreign cells? On a positive note, a mother calls her surrogate peer her angel, and one checked the baby's progress every week over phone, and wishes that surrogate mom attend the baby's 1st birthday. 

I recall a case of a woman in Jaipur bearing a foetus for a Japanese couple, the couple split in course of gestation, and neither the mother nor the father was ready to accept the child. Ultimately, the surrogate mother decided to raise the child as her own. This reinforces my opinion that the love for the child is not just because of the biological consanguinity but because of the time that parents spend with the child. 

Running for a Mission

8 months ago, a few days before my flight to US, I convinced my Mom, that scaling Torana is THE adventure and if she allows me to do it, I will be a ideal "i-take-no-risks" person in USA..AS IF :P

Torana changed me, made me more in sync with self, instilled the confidence that if I can scale Torana, I can manage anything..

My temp host in UF started running with Team Asha since September, I kept postponing it till another friend chalked out bus route nitty-gritties n off I was to Kirkwood trail..since it was my 1st day, I decided to walk the track..the best thing about being a part of Team Asha is that you are never alone, whatever you do, you do it as a team. Our coach, Dana walked with me lest I lost my way..and thus started my tryst with Team Asha.

The next step was to get promoted to the longer and more "happening" Hawthorne trail, and I run-walked 4 miles..I expected that I would be bogged down by the exercise and would spend the rest of the day resting, but the run, coupled with being away from daily hum-drum, fresh air, and of course, Dana's pointing out birds and hitherto unknown flora energized me.

The ultimate goal of training with Team is to run the 15K Gate River Run in Jacksonville. I had 6 miles of consistent practice in my cape, but every experienced runner boosted my confidence. They cited example of another runner who ran the 9.3 mile race previous year with 6 miles practice. They told me that "Group Dynamics" is a wonderful phenomena..I wont even realize that I covered 8 miles till I reach the Green Monster, the last and most tiring leg of the run. And there, it would be the start of kid's race, and the mere fact that <5 age kids are outrunning me will make me run faster and I will cover the "longest last mile".

I left for Jax on 12th march thinking that I am putting my self-motivation to test. My project partner wished me luck on behalf of all friends and the kids I am running to raise funds for. My roomies stayed up all night, just to be around when I start. We were assigned cars by the team. We had intense discussions with assigned teammates in car, right from political reason why India sent Chandrayan to Microchip antenna used to record our race timings.

Traffic jam enroute race start, and our discussion about how we have shuttles from far apart for Delhi marathon. We reached just in time, and the enthusiasm started enveloping us. The whole city was on road to cheer, voluntarily give away cookies/ beer or just read out your name from the race bib and encourage you to run faster..feels great! As predicted by me, I got tired at 4th mile, with a voice chiding me..you've practised for 6 miles dee..but at the 6th mile caught up with Asha gals, and lo n behold..i completed the race :)
So now, my new motto is..if I could manage Torana n Jax run, I am capable of any challenge.

Oh by the way, what happens to the "i-take-no-risks" person? Yesterday I canoed in Lake Wauberg, knowing that there are alligators in the lake, and scaled a wall too..what next? surfing or sky-diving may be..