Back to the House!

Got back to Nana-Nani’s and took some pictures (people must really love me, all of them are taking pictures – including me :P) Although, Papa wanted to leave right away (it was after 10) I asked him to stay a while coz I wanted to ask Nana a couple of questions about Math (I'll do some problems and see whether I get his way or not. He explained it pretty well though).

We headed home after that and gave Hansag a call when I could see Atlanta on my left hand side. It was 11:40 then in the microwave watch. Papa said it would take us 20mins to reach home, I said 30, and Hansag's prediction was of 40mins. We reached home at exactly 12:10 (I won!) even when, Papa drove at 65mi/hr (remember the morning? 55mi/hr!), once took the speed a lot higher to overtake a car and see the TV screen they had in the car, and didn't even check the mail (which is like his 2nd favorite thing in the world besides talking on the cell).

Hansag had Pizza and Pepsi, I shared his Pep and had a small slice of pizza myself and watched "Starsky and Hutch." Went to bed around 3, woke up after 1 in the afternoon.

Am gonna do some HW now, adios!

Kavi Goshti

Event: Kavi Goshti
Venue: Shiv Mandir at Global Mall
Date: September 25, 2004
Time: 7:00pm

We were 15 minutes late (surprising because Nana is very punctual). Not a big deal though, because we were one of the first one’s there. In the car I told Nana and Nani that I won’t recite anything just because I did not find anything good enough (when in actuality I was afraid how the older generation will react to my being so romantic at such a tender age – hehe!). I even told the lady that I wasn’t going to sit on the manch (stage) and I was only a shrota (listener) this time.

I was worried for no reason at all, because even the one’s up there were reciting some love poems (of course of a different level than my own). After listening to a few of theirs I decided to take the microphone in my own hands. I didn’t take anything with me, so I was looking at the audience while saying the words and not at a sheet of a paper or a notebook. I got everybody’s attention when I started and people were looking right at me (waah! waah!). I was trying to remember a few other poems of my own but couldn’t (which is sad, coz I was really in the spirit). Anyways, I recited a total of 3 poems (two four-liners, and one a little longer one) – khubsoorat si hawa chal jaati hai..., Adhoore Hain Hum!, and Ishq Cheez Hi Aisi Hai.

After everything was over and we started getting food a couple of people came up to me and said things like….
“It’s nice to see that the new generation shows intersect in such things (Hindi literature). Very well done!”
“Beta, I heard you last time also and I must say you are really good. If you write this well at this age, you are really going to do something when you get older. Don’t stop writing.”

A really old lady was also there who has met and worked with Shri Hariwansh Rai Bachhan and two other really well known Hindi poets. She called me up to her and told me that I was good and that I should keep on writing. It felt really good when she talked to me.

It always feels good when somebody says that I write well and that I should keep on writing. Yeah! Maybe I should.

At Nana-Nani’s House

While on the way, I gave Nana-Nani a call, but no one answered. Found out they were shopping at Bombay Bazaar when tried on the cell. To pass time papa dropped by somebody’s store to talk to him while I sat in the car, bored.

To cut time, first I took some pictures of myself (which turned out pretty good, keeping in mind I was my own photographer), then talked to Hansag and Mom on the phone a little, and finally had the sandwich from the vegetarian box that I did not have before (it was pretty good).

Once we got to the house, Nani asked us to eat but I wasn’t hungry. While, Nana-Nani, and Papa had lunch I started watching “Mujhse Shaadi Karogi.” It’s a time pass movie, and has some cheap jokes. Every now and then Nana was criticizing it. After a while I was left home alone when the three adults went to see an apartment. I finished watching the movie and then got onto watching the news. They came back around 6:15pm and we left for the Kavi Goshti at Shiv Mandir after everybody (except myself) had tea.

PS: Nani was pretty impressed with the suit I was wearing. Reason being I do not wear such things often and of course that I don’t own any!

4th Annual International Fashion Show/Luncheon

Event: 4th Annual International Fashion Show/Luncheon
Venue: 40 Courtland Street
Atlanta, Georgia 30303
Date: September 25, 2004
Time: 11:30am

Although Mrs. Brew asked me to dress casually and change into my outfit once I got to the hall, I reached there wearing the suit, but with a long jacket to cover everything. For the first time ever I wore mom’s earrings and a necklace. I don’t own anything of my own when it comes to jewelry or even Indian outfits.

Papa drove me there at the speed of 55mi/hr (even when we were already late) because he was talking on his cell (something that he loves to do). I was looking at the speedometer again and again, trying to hint him to go a little faster. We reached around 12pm (sounds late, but really wasn’t). I went straight to the dressing room, talked to other models, took a few pictures, had pasta from the vegetarian box specially ordered for this Indian gal who doesn’t eat meat. While eating I remembered how that is what I ate everyday while at Valdosta (GHP). That was also because of Brew (she’s the one who nominated me, and I’m glad she did!).

There were a total of 5 International models, representing Africa, India, Philippines, Scotland, and Vietnam. I went out barefoot, because I did not have matching sandals. Mom did give me a pair that weren’t my size. They would have been fine if I had to wear them for a little while, only they were too high heels for me. I’m not used to wearing heels, I was afraid I’d fall down, plus, I’ve decided not to wear heels at all, reason being my Jahan :)

The description that I provided for what I was wearing wasn’t that long, but the Mistress of Ceremony was saying it real slow and adding her comments in the middle. So, I not only walked slow and turned around a couple of times, I also walked almost all across the room with taking long pauses. It was muy fun! After my walk I had a seat where Papa and other people known to Brew were sitting.

Took more pictures after everything was over and then left to go to Nana’s place.

Saturday's a busy day!

I've finally decided to go to that "kavi goshthi" after all. It's this Saturday (Sept 25) at Shiv Mandir. The last time I attended, I was the youngest one there, and the only one with poems of my kind (that's love-shove). I'm not sure whether I'll recite one this time or not (although I'm pretty sure Nana will make me). Will see which one sounds appropriate for the audience that are way older than I am.

Also, there's the Fashion Show that Mrs. Brew's Church organizes on the same day. Starts at 12pm. Last time I wore Himali's Ghaghra Choli, but when I was looking at the pictures today, I didn't like the way I looked in that. So, this time I'm wearing Mom's suit (which I wore for the first time last Diwali, and the pic looks jhakkas!).

Next week is our Homecoming. Hall decorations are this Saturday and the theme for our class is "Survivor" (we are doing reality TV this year). I won't be able to help out though, got other things taking place (as mentioned above). The days for next week goes as follows...
Monday - PJ Day
Tuesday - Twin Day
Wednesday - Tacky Day
Thursday - College Day
Friday - Spirit Day (Senior Toka Day)
Dunno, I'm not really excited this year (could be coz I wouldn't be helping out much). I'm sure our class will do a fabulous job on the hall. Era Langford is the Spirit Coordinator for the class, and she's very artistic with tons of good ideas.

Anyways, got a Physics Quiz tomorrow.

fall break

Although this week should have gone by real fast, it didn't seem like that to me. For those of you who don't know, we had our fall break this week. I did a bit of work on Friday and Saturday, after that I did bits and bytes of work, but most of the time I was in my lazy mode. Watched a couple of movies!

Went to Nana-Nani's place on Wednesday and had the usual - gol gappe - there (umm.. yummy!). Did a bit of math with NanaJi (wrote about that in my last blog). Wednesday night I watched Lakshya and I did not think it was a bad movie; I actually liked it (but the songs were all very, very, very crappy!!)

A number of schools were closed on Thursday, but not Mom's. Mom and Dad left together that morning and I woke up early. Mom was home on Friday though. It was a pretty laid back day, I did a bit of Stats hw, but not really.
Today, after taking a shower I got started on developing that website for the Henry Industrial Technology Education Association. It took a while; I'm not completely done yet because I do not have all the information needed. The site looks pretty all right; it's my first job on Dreamweaver, without anybody's help... I think I'm doing a decent job. I tried the tutorial, it kinda helps, but I don't like to read... so what I'm doing is completely hit and trial.

movies watched this week

English
13 Going On 30
50 First Dates
Ace Ventura
Brave New Girl
Big Bully
Drive Me Crazy
I Know What You Did Last Summer
Panic Room
Private Benjamin
Serendipity

Hindi
Lakshya

And probably more, but I don't remember :-?

Changed in one day!

Nana is not that bad after all. At first I was really mad that why in the world does he want me to come over to his place and get my "mathematical concepts" cleared. There was nothing that I needed help with; but after coming back I wouldn't say that I do not want to go back.

He is a Math Professor; he has taught at Delhi University and other institutions in the United States and Trinidad and Tobago. Of course, he knows what he's doing!

The first thing I thought right after he said his first word in getting started was - aah! He's pretty good. And this was way before we started talking about any of the things I'm doing or have done in the past two or three years.

I'm a changed person... and when it comes to Nana - it's a huge change!

What? No School? Again?!

Interestingly, there’s no school today either. I didn’t want my dream to be this long, but upar wala jab bhi deta, deta chhappar phaad ke! I woke up around 5:45am when my alarm went off, mom came in and said, “go back to sleep, Henry county schools are closed today as well.” I was surprised and couldn’t go back to my sweet, sweet dreams. So, I got up and watched TV for a while; asked whether any other school systems were closed or not.

After a while I dropped the idea of trying to find out why I had to sit at home for another day and decided on enjoying the moment instead.

Dreams do come true

I’ve always dreamed of not going to school. No, no, don’t get the wrong impression. I really like school and I would rather live at school than home but I’ve always dreamed of not going to school when every other school in the area is off. Like today, Atlanta area schools were declared closed due to the weather. Clayton County schools were closed as well, but not Henry County. I live in Henry and Clayton is right next-door.

Even when I was in India Xavier’s was never closed due to extreme weather conditions, when the other schools that were on the same road – Raj Niwas Marg – were often off. In US, Henry County schools have hardly ever been declared closed unexpectedly. Today was an exception.

Hansag and I got ready for school, but we both had been watching the news. Our eyes fixed on the bottom left hand corner of the screen where the names of schools and counties were being shown which had declared “no school” for September 7, 2004. As always we didn’t see Henry County Schools on the list. So, we got in the car and heard “Henry County” on the radio. Not sure what it was about we went to school and only there found out that finally my dream had come true.

Four day weekend, three-day week, and then an entire week off! Am thankful to god, because I still need to study for my Government test (which was today).

Kyun? Ho Gaya Na…

I saw a Hindi movie after a really long time and oh lord it was so worth it. “Kyun? Ho Gaya Na…” starring Aishwarya Rai and Vivek Oberoi is about two very different people – Diya and Arjun.

Diya (Aishwarya Rai) believes in love and does not want to marry somebody she does not know. She believes, “pyar ko waqt ki nahi, ek lamhe ki zarurat hoti hai (love does not require time, it requires just a moment).” On the other hand, Arjun (Vivek) does not have the words “love” or “defeat” in his dictionary (pyar and haar Arjun ki dictionary mein nahi hai). He is ready for an arranged marriage and has asked his mother to choose the right girl for him.

Diya falls in love with Arjun, and Arjun’s parents have chosen Diya to be Arjun’s bride. Neither Diya nor Arjun know about this. On Discovering that Diya loves him, Arjun panics because he never saw Diya that way. Diya, who had been living with Arjun’s parents in Mumbai and preparing for exams, decides to leave when she finds out that Arjun does not have feelings for her.

Arjun goes to Diya’s town to say sorry and he too starts liking her, but Ishaan asks Diya’s hand in marriage and Arjun is heartbroken. In the end all's well.

There are many funny parts in the movie, I often found myself rolling on the floor. There are many emotional parts as well. Aishwarya Rai is looking gorgeous; I love her hairstyle. Vivek is extremely handsome. They look really cute together!

Temptation 2004

Event: Temptation 2004
Venue: Gwinett Civic Center, Duluth
Date/Time: Friday, September 03, 2004; 9:00pm

It was very crowded when we got there. The line to get in was neither a linear nor a short one. Inside individuals could be seen talking on their cell phones, looking for whomever they came with or conversating with each other. While standing outside, waiting for Dad to get tickets, I was running my eyeballs around and caught a glimpse of Kavita. Once we got in I also saw Iqra and her cousins. These are just a few people from school.

All right, the hall was packed. We had $55 tickets, so we were way up in the air. You all know how punctual we Indians are… the concert started at 9:45 (not as late as I expected). It started out with everybody coming out one by one, dancing on some song tracks from their individual movies. First came Priyanka Chopra, then Arjun Rampal, Priety Zinta was next followed by Saif Ali Khan, and Rani Mukherji came right before Shahrukh did. Cheering could be heard for each of these stars, but the hall was roaring louder than ever when we saw Shahrukh Khan, the King of Bollywood cinema, playing his violin with his back towards us. He turned around and once again the hall went wild.

A small musical was performed by them titled “Kal Ho Na Ho, Parso To Hoga Hi”. It was about two girls and two guys dreaming about getting married to somebody rich and spending the rest of their lives in luxury – a typical Hindi movie type play. It was really funny at times.

Priyanka Chopra sang a few songs and mashalllah her voice is so good. I do not think she’s that great an actress; in my opinion she should try her hands at singing. Saif played his guitar and asked for a few ladies and a few girls to come on the stage and just dance to his music. Arjun Rampal did some of his Karate (or whatever it was) and called a girl up on the stage to teach her the same in three minutes. Rani and Preity did a dance on a remix of “Jiya Jale” and “O Humdum Sunio Re”. I really liked their performance. SRK was simply fabulous. He called two people on stage (a male and a female). At first Radhika, the female that went up, was a bit nervous but after that she started flirting with Shahrukh. Her facial expressions were priceless! The guy, Bhawesh, had a dream seven days ago that we would dance with SRK, on this Shahrukh said, “shouldn’t you be dreaming of naked women.”

We got out around 2am and reached home around 3 (I think). In the morning I woke up after 1pm and just read my “Wuthering Heights” for the entire day, with working a bit on my trig.

Bits 'n' Bytes (a novella)

Introduction
I have not written a blog in ages. There just aren’t enough hours in the day! If I stay up late for a couple of days, then to catch up on my sleep I go to bed early some day during the week. Yesterday (September 1, 2004), I fell asleep around 5:30pm, got up at 9 when Pavan called and then went to sleep around 12-12:30am. So much has happened between my last entry and this one that I don’t even remember all of it.

Chapter 1
The college-planning meeting was Monday, August 30 at 6:30pm. It was a complete waste of time. All that admissions person from Gordon did was promote his school.

If you have an 800 SAT score, you can go to a 4yr college. If you have a 600 SAT score, you must go to a junior college. Come to Gordon, you only need a 1.8 GPA to get in.

I hate that guy! He was talking to the wrong crowd. That idiot wasted everybody’s time.

Anyways, to reach the school for this stupid meeting somebody had to drive. My job was to be ready and get everyone in the car on time. What came as a shock was mom asking, “who wants to drive?” Papa wasn’t there, Hansag’s only 14 (wow! He’s 14 already?!), and I am the one who’s always after both the adults to let me sit on the driver’s seat every now and then so that I can get rid of my learner’s license and get a permanent one. I didn’t know what to say when mom raised that question, neither did I take it seriously. After 15 minutes, when we reached the school, Andrea’ exclaimed, “Geetali, you drove!” Yup! I ended up driving a car after 2+ months, and not just any car. I drove Mom’s Camry, which I had never driven before. That, dear readers, was a moment of sweet success.

Chapter 2
Failing a test means the student is not doing good. I knew I was not doing well in Statistics because every time Mr. Shirley got in front of the class and started talking, I just looked at him, comprehending nothing! Classmates asked questions and on getting the answer said, “oh! I get it now!” I, on the other hand, neither did my homework, nor did I read the chapter. The night before the test I ended up reading the entire 50 pages long chapter and saying, “this is really easy” to myself.

I failed the test by 2 points, but I felt alright because those students who said, “oh! I get it now” got an even lower score. I could have gotten a better grade, had I studied before and spent some more time actually working out the problems, but I chose the road less traveled by (less traveled by the other AP Statistics students at least) yet received a higher score. Hmm :-?

Chapter 3
No subject is difficult if you set your mind to it and study hard, but anyone who gets Lee for Chemistry or Physics is considered to be in big trouble because he makes these subjects difficult. This year Mr. Lee does not have a planning period, he’s teaching two Honors Chemistry, two AP Chemistry, and two AP Physics classes.

Right now we are covering Velocity and Acceleration in our (Physics) class. There are about three-five formulas used at least ten times in the solving process of a problem to get the final answer. I am briefly going to talk about one problem he gave us.

Osama Bin Laden is hiding in a tank. A US bomber plane is ###### feet above the ground, traveling at ### miles per hour in the direction of the tank. The horizontal between the tank and the plane is ## miles. The tank is moving in the direction of the plane at ## miles an hour. It it’s 12:00pm right now, at what time should the pilot push the button to release the bomb so that it hits the tank.

I knew how to do the problem and started working it out, but got stuck at one step. I just kept on looking at the paper, telling myself “I’ve done this before, I know who to do this, why can’t I work it out now.” I never got past that part, just sat there for the next 5 minutes and when Marcel worked out the problem on the board, I once again said, “I knew how to do this!”

Chapter 4
Okay, since I mentioned Marcel in the previous chapter, here’s what happened in AP Government today. We got to discussing (or rather arguing) about the most debated topics in United States politics – abortion, gay rights, drug use, and prayer in school. Although usually there are strong opinions from people supporting both sides of the debate, in our class not many talked about drug use or prayer in school, very little put their ideas forward about abortion and most of the time was spent talking about gay rights, more specifically gay marriages.

Mr. Dees asked, “What two groups are there when it comes to talking about abortion?” Everybody started yelling, “pro choice and pro life” but there was this one voice, which was louder than everybody else’s combined, and it said, “prohibition and anti-prohibition.” I have no idea what Marcel had in mind when he said those words, but it was something. We laughed, Dees walked out, and everybody just looked at Marcel.

About gay rights, I think our class was divided 50/50.

Peter: To me a marriage is between a man and a woman, and I do not agree with saying two men or two women are married.

Josh: Why should they be allowed to marry when it’s considered immoral.

Desoree’: You cannot help who you like and no body should be able to tell you whether you can marry the person or not.

Josh: What if I like more than one girl? I can’t go off marrying both of them, it’s immoral, and society doesn’t allow it!

Mr. Dees: No nation in the history of man kind has ever approved the marriage between the same sexes. Homosexuality was okay in the Greek world, but even they were never married. Then, how can America do something of such sort? We’ll be the first one’s do to so. How will the rest of the world react?

My response (which I did not share): 200yrs ago when United States became a
nation, it set up a type of government that no other nation had. They made three
branches of government, everything was on a trial basis, and it has worked perfectly fine till this point. Why can’t then United States be the first nation to approve gay marriages? I know it’s a whole lot bigger topic, but hey somebody has to take the first step and in my opinion more and more homosexuals are coming out of the closet. Now, it’s not something people are surprised to find out about, it’s becoming a very common thing. Ten-twenty years down the road, nobody will give a second thought to this topic.

About abortion, I’m pro-choice! I don’t believe in applying my beliefs on somebody else’s life. Everybody has the right to make decisions that best suits them. If abortion is the best thing for them, I say go for it!

Chapter 5
After today I hate Mr. Washington more than ever!! We had our first test in programming today. Everybody would have done perfectly fine if he had actually used the book when teaching because the questions that he did ask on the test came directly from the book. He used the technical language and asked the most outrageous questions. It was all multiple choice and on one of the question he didn’t even give an option for the correct answer, that too on purpose. He’s the most idiotic fellow I’ve ever met! I so wish Mr. Smith was still at this school.

Chapter 6
Now, going back in time a little.

Raksha Bandhan was on Monday. This year, for some unknown reason, Hansag actually wanted me to tie a rakhi on his hand. Not only that, he agreed to wear to school as well. So, him and I got on Papa’s back to go to the market and get a Rakhi for him (another reason was I just wanted to go somewhere and not stay at home, I was bored). Papa said, “I have one somewhere, I’ll get it out.” I asked Hansag, “Do you want me to tie an old Rakhi? If not then talk to Papa.” :) hehe… so after we achieved in our task of getting on Dad’s nerves we finally went out and got a rakhi that had GaneshJi’s image on it.

In the morning the whole Raksha Bandhan thing slipped our mind, though. When we reached the school Papa asked, “Kishu, did you tie the Rakhi?” and I just sat there with my mouth popped open. Finally, Hansag replied, “We’ll do that in the evening.” Surprisingly, he actually gave me some money. Not a lot, but he doesn’t have a job you know. That was very kind of him, I must say.

Chapter 7
I do not know where Hansag’s getting his money from but today he gave me $5 so that I could eat subway. We had the first FBLA meeting and Papa picked us up around 4:15pm. In the car Hansag bhaijaan started yelling and crying to get domino’s. I refused to eat another slice of a pizza with so much cheese on it. I’m more of a salad person, I like subway (eat fresh!). So, I was arguing with both, Papa and Hansag, about getting pizza every other day and in turn helping Hansag’s belly grow more and more. Hansag said I could have my sub and handed me a $5 bill from his wallet :O

Chapter 8
Yup, first FBLA meeting was held today, after almost a month of the school’s reopening. More than 60 people came and I think that’s a record. We have never seen so many people in the first organizational meeting (at least not in the past three years). All the basic things were covered, officers introduced, talked about last years national conference, and a slide show of photographs was presented. It was pretty boring.

Oh yeah, the Motivational Rally is September 30th and our homecoming day is October 1st (the next day). It seems like not a lot of people will be able to attend, so there’s a chance that nobody from our school will show up there. Personally, I don’t really mind missing the parade and the pep rally; it’s not that big a deal to me anyways. I’ve seen better in India!

Chapter 9
I have not seen any Hindi movies in ages! I don’t even know what’s going on these days. Nirali and Janki sit their talking about the stories, actors, and songs; I’ve never even heard of any of the things they mention. I don’t think I’m missing out on a lot though, because this is how their conversations goes:

Day 1
Nirali: Oh! Really want to see Lakshya
Janki: Don’t watch it, it’s
really bad!

Day2
Nirali: I saw Lakshya. It was so bad, a
complete waste of time.
Janki: I told you so.
Nirali: Yeah, but Preity
Zinta and Hrithik were in it. I had to see it!

The same thing goes for every single Hindi movie. My dear GHP peeps, the movies we saw, the movies our Kwanza dear loves, and the songs I often hummed around you guys are a selected few that were (and will forever remain) extremely good. Love me guys! ;)

Chapter 10
Tomorrow is a Bollywood concert in Atlanta area somewhere – Temptation 2004, Starring… Shahrukh Khan, Rani Mujherji, Saif Ali Khan, Preity Zinta, Arjun Rampal, and Priyanka Chopra (Miss World 2000, I think). Well, it’s going to be bindas, and guess what? I’m going :O Yeah, yeah, with parents, and my brother, but didn’t you hear me – SHAHRUKH, RANI, SAIF, PREITY, RAMPAL, AND MISS WORLD CHOPRA and I’M GOING! Am excited!

Conclusion
I think I’ve covered pretty much everything in this novella (at least the main things have already been read by you). If I ever skip writing a blog for such a long time in the future, I’ll write a sequel to this one ;)