Feeling

If I had to pick one, I would choose to be deliriously tired. Nothing compares to the sense of accomplishment and exhaustion after a day of hard work. Of course, somnolence often accompanies this state as well. So a good night's sleep is just what the doctor ordered...

All you need is, All you want is...

Love. And DMB, friends and the night sky

Perfect :)

Summer's end

Sigh. It went by too quickly. Contrary to an earlier post (was it that long ago?), it was less about reading and more about doing. In fact that was the biggest achievement this summer -realizing that I prefer practical applications to theoretical principles.

All in all, I had a fabulous time.It felt nice to have the weekends and evenings. I enjoyed having enough time to things I liked and have some more time on top of that to waste :)

Okay, back to school now...

pH level

Warning: This may sound really corny to everyone out there but I don't know how else to put it.

My brother got placed in a company that he was very keen on today and I was feeling so happy that I started thinking about how happy I felt. Since the last book I read was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (now you know where I am heading...) , I felt I was happy enough to produce a Patronus. My pH level i.e. patronus Happiness level was very high (you can stop cringing now, that was the corniest part)

I was trying to recall the other times when I was this happy. They include the time when I was on a college trip with people who would later become my closest friends, when I was back home after two years and just relaxing lying on the rooftop and staring at the starry night with my closest friend, midnight ice cream walks with the "Delhi cousins" amongst others

Anyway, the point of this post to express how happy I am right now, sitting on the couch, listening to music and drinking tea. What a great, GREAT summer :)

Spine Chilling

They cannot scare me with their empty spaces
Between stars--on stars where no human race is.
I have it in me so much nearer home
To scare myself with my own desert places

--Desert Places by Robert Frost

For some reason, these lines kept popping into my head today evening. Strange, given the absolutely wonderful weekend I had...

Sated

My quarter is over and I just performed my end of quarter ritual. I went to the library and borrowed books for the next three months. Spent a couple of hours just walking and browsing amongst the 3rd floor of Green Library. This for me is the ultimate luxury in life- to have both time and books at your disposal.

I had completed my online research before going and had a list of four books but came back with nine! They are all lying in a crooked pile on my study table and just looking at their spines is sending shivers of pleasure down mine.

Here's to a summer full of Blue mangoes ,Wilt, Shopgirls,and ironically enough, being Bookless.

Baby Talk

Ahhhh, what a difference food and a nap can make :)

Filler

Since the last post and the promise of more ( Now you know never to take me at my word again!), many interesting developments have taken place

• Travel to Myanmar
  
• Transit through Tokyo and Bangkok
  
• Brief stay in India
• End of the Internship Hunt !
• Sudden decision to graduate early
• Having a crazy quarter with four simultaneous projects (i.e. a LOT of cycling)
• Donning a striped protective suit,complete with shoe protector and safety goggles
  
• De-weeding the farm
• Building a bamboo fence around the farm
• TIG Welding!
• Pancakes for breakfast
• A LOT of Whoopie Pie
  
• Spring barbecues
• Conversations with extremely interesting people

Like I said, it has been a really busy quarter but i am enjoying every minute of it. i should hopefully have som more updates soon...

Here comes the sun...

I got no deeds to do
No promises to keep
I'm dappled and drowsy and ready to sleep
Let the morning time drop all its petals on me
Life I love you, all is groovy

Nothing else describes the end of quarter feeling ...

PS:Expect updates soon

The Name- Part II

The tragedy of being a voracious reader with minimal retention capacity is that I tend to forget most of the lines that I have read. When I read a book, I literally live it-in the sense that I get very involved with the plot, the characters. My whole mood, attitude and tone are set by the words penned down by the author

That is all very good, but the trouble is that the words magically fade away within a couple of hours of me putting the book down. After that I have "Total Unrecall" I remember the name of the book (most of the time), the general plot outline but try as I might I can never remember any line that I read. Words that had transported me different parts of the earth or the human psyche, words that made me stifle a giggle or a sigh and words that made me actually put the book down for some time and ponder about the meaning of life are all automatically deleted from my memory. Try as I might, I am unable to recall a single coherent quote.

I always used to envision myself as one of those erudite scholars who pepper their conversations with bon mots impressing everyone around them with their wit and wisdom. I fail miserably at this. During conversations, I am always vaguely trying to recall the appropriate quote. Trying to multitask, I keep thinking while trying to continue the conversation and quit after a few minutes due to mental exhaustion. I am one of those people who blurt out 'Aha!' 2 weeks later, in the middle of an ardent discussion about Social Entrepreneurship, because I finally remembered the line I was furiously trying to recall about sleep and nature's restorer which was so appropriate to the sleep deprived conversation I was having with my classmate.

The entire point of this post is to tell you why I am called Echo. One quote that has stayed with me through the years through innumerable books, thoughts and geographies is this “For echo is the soul of voice exciting itself in hollow places..." from "The English Patient" by Michael Ondaatje. My writing journey begins with the one line that has had the tenacity to hold on to a corner of my mind.

Hindi hain hum,vatan hain...

Happy Republic Day everyone! I attended the Republic Day celebrations in campus. It was just a bunch of students, with samosas and chai, singing songs and the national anthem. Enough to transport me back to my childhood days of sitting on the durries on the side of the road, watching the endless procession of troops, arms and the state floats. The best part of the whole event was the helicopters who distributed flower petals and the shiny tricolor bits of paper, which we all used to scramble to collect.

I am hoping that Delhi residents would have seen the parade in person . It is a spectacle worth watching atleast once. But I am not sure how many people know about "Beating Retreat"(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beating_Retreat) This event, held in the Rashtrapati grounds, signifies the official end to the celebrations. It consists of the bands of the Army, Navy and Airforce playing the old army favorites like Colonel Bogey March and also songs like Vande Mataram. Sitting there, in the magnificent Raisina Hill pavilion, watching these guardians of our nation impeccably march and play these songs fills you with the absolute joy and pride of being an Indian.

This year, the event will be held on January 29th. Do ask that neighbourhood uncle or aunty for the passes and try to watch it...

Just want to end with a quote from President Kalam's speech,his message of courage

COURAGE TO GIVE

• Courage to think different,
• Courage to invent,
• Courage to discover the impossible,
• Courage to travel into an unexplored path,
• Courage to share the knowledge
• Courage to remove the pain
• Courage to reach the unreached
• Courage to combat the problem And Succeed

Are the unique qualities of the youth.

Home...*

where my thoughts escaping,

where my music’s playing,

where my love lies waiting, silently for me…

Where

• I can put my feet up on the table and sink into the sofa with the remote in my hand
• I don’t have to worry about who’s going to buy vegetables next
• tea appears, unasked,at the exact moment when I want it
• I can wear old rags that would not even make the cut as dishwashers…
• I can take a book and be lost in it endlessly,without giving it a single thought
• I am queen!
• My favorite snack is always available at any time of day or night
• All my precious photos are
• I keep my 8^th class slam book
• I can browse through the book collection and have a flashback of the book’s contents even before I have opened it
• I can go through the “Best of…” issues of mags as back as 1993
• everyone calls me Hita
• I want to be whenever I am ill
• My computer is
• I know where EVERYTHING is
• My family is
• I am most comfortable
• I don’t give a second thought to what I am saying (I am not saying that is necessarily a good thing)
• I argue the most
• The only place where I could have written this piece
• I am never lost
• I have every possible resource available to me
• I am safest
• Most loved
• I wish I could stay forever but know I never can
• All the pajama parties are held
• 2 AM philosophical discussions happen
• I sing at the top of my voice
• I am not embarrassed to sing out of tune
• Where a guitar picks up the song in my head even before I start singing
• I join in an impromptu duet after ten seconds into the first chord
• Anything I cook is complimented and appreciated
• I am myself, always…

* I wrote this on my long 3 month vacation before leaving for Stanford

Food for thought

Today, I truly understood what intellectual stimulation is all about. I sat in a room full of people and heard them discuss everything from how people think,how emotions and feelings are interlinked to how wilderness changes the way people react to situations. The cerebrations were coherent, incisive and most of all thought provoking.

I sat there rendered speechless by the workout my brain was getting by simply listening to great minds at work. I did not notice how time flew and head was buzzing with ideas as I cycled back, thinking how lucky I am to be in a place where you can be humbled and inspired everyday by people around you...

The name...

Anyone who knows me knows about my music. This is a line from one of my all time favourites pieces of music: Little wing by Jimi Hendrix(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Wing). It has everything I wanted to look for in a title, most of all randomness- which is how I categorize most of my thoughts. So, here's hoping the posts keep on rolling.

Cheers