Veena

Kripya Prateeksha Karein Aap Kataar mein hain....Please wait you are in Queue....Were the words that arouse the DEVIL in me while I was reading my cousin's blog and I stumbled upon those last profound words by none other than the literature GOD - William Shakespeare. Here it is:
“How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank.
Here will we sit, and let the sounds of music
Creep in our ears; soft stillness, and the night
Become the touches of sweet harmony.”
- William Shakespeare (Very Romantic and Deep indeed)
For some reason I was constantly smiling while reading this and something in me kept instigating me to translate it into Hindi just to see how Ridonkulous this could sound. Most, if not all the Hi-Tech Hollywood movies get dubbed in hindi because they can't be re-filmed with the Bollywood actors (Thank God for the little mercies) for a valid and a sensible reason that re-filming the very same movie with the Sean Connery likes in Bollywood or the Pierce Brosnan likes in Indian film industry would be nothing less than plain simple ATROCIOUS!!!Having lived in New Delhi for 23years of my life, the very same Bollywood effect (sounds like the El-Nino phenomena right?) forced me so to say to translate this beautiful piece of literature to Hindi. For those who can understand Hindi read it and enjoy it and the Hindi Illiterates just Believe when I say that the translated version is Perfect!!
"Kitni meethi hai yeh chand ki roshni sothey huey is kinaare
Yahaan hum baithenge aur is sangeet ki dhwani ko
Raingne dein in kaanon mein; komal pavanrahittha, aur yeh raat
Banne dein is meethi taalmail ka sparsh"
-Veeliyam Shakespeare
This was the closest I could get to try and break the Writers/Thinkers/Lazy Ass goers/ Blah Blah block that I have been having for over 4 months now!! Alas...not too successful...Until the next time Adios Amigos. :)
Veena

Heard of Telekinetic pinches?? Well I heard this term for the first time but I experienced one before terming my experience as one!! Its all in the dreams…you dream funny things, scary things, weird things, dreams within dreams but dreaming that something is happening for real is freaky!!!
The dream from last night was one of its own kind…The basis behind my dream was not only a recent conversation with a friend but also the sense of longing for a break….a getaway from the rigmaroles of day to day life for as long as I can remember now (Time is relative when you yearn for something!!). So....I have a night out at my friend’s place and the next day he rents a car from I-Go car sharing on MY name….hah…One, my friend doesn’t have a license and definitely doesn’t have my username or password for the car sharing site…but of course it’s a dream and dreams are like Bollywood movies where a single bullet can be torn apart into 6 to kill 7 targets!!! Oh well….moving ahead….So we start driving and while driving towards Milwaukee to pick up my friend’s bro , the road I visualize is the Nelson Mandela Road in New Delhi where I have lived 23 years of my life. The fact that I love Delhi a lot can account for seeing the road but, my friend who doesn’t have a license, books a car on my name with God Knows what username and password is driving to Milwaukee on a New Delhi road????? I sense something which can be spelled as W E I R D!!!! Anyways….we reach Milwaukee and my friend goes into his bro’s office and forces him to take a leave by telling a lie that there is a family emergency! We then head to Michigan….YAYYYYYYY!!! Something in me on the way to Michigan shouts out loud that it is a dream and it is not happening for real as a plan as sudden and drastic as this cannot materialize so easily!!! So I tell my friend’s bro to pinch me to make sure I am alive and in a real world and definitely in the car that is headed to a GETAWAY!! My friends start teasing me coz they feel I am being histrionic (like any typical male would call a typical Woman!) but I fight my way out and make my friend pinch me. Well…..GUESS WHAT???????? I feel that pinch in the dream (that’s the telekinetic pinch from my friend living in Milwaukee in my dream) and then feeling elated that I felt the pinch I realize that the trip to Michigan indeed is a reality and not a MERE dream. In that ecstatic moment, I raise my hand extend it forward to grab something in the car and BAM….my fingers hit the wall in front of me HARDDDD…..and this wakes me up to the SAD “REAL” reality that I was indeed dreaming!!! That just proved one thing : That my instincts are DEFINITELY not dead when I am sleeping and that even within a dream my brain can think of ways to convince me that I am in a real world, doing real things, with real people who apparently can pinch me and call me HISTRIONIC and not being just a mere fictional entity. Now the Question is....Do I actually get a REAL GETAWAY????
Veena
A Dozen New Year Resolutions to Break at the Advent of the New Year!!1.Speak less so that the other person doesn’t zone out while I am talking
2.Speak less British words so as to receive less Bewildered looks from the Americans
3.Learn to say Oh my Gaad rather than Oh my GOD or just say OMG for I can save the energy lost in reiterating
4.Speak Slowly for I am not missing a flight
5.Work more to get reproducible negative results
6.Write my lab notebook everyday to keep a track of my progress
7.Read one paper a day on my research topic
8.Take less walks in Snow for a longer face time in the lab
9.Remember not to throw Snowballs on one’s face during a snowball fight for someone might get offended
10.Drink less to have a respectable reputation until I graduate
11.Learn to play and be a Pro at Trivia Pursuit so that atleast 1/10th of me feels like a Pseudo-American
12.Last but not the least…BE NICE to people New Year Resolution to keep :
NEVER TO MAKE ANY RESOLUTIONS!!
Veena


Adrenaline rushes…..is something that comes naturally during winter:
The first snow: Four winters have passed and the first snow of the season always makes me want a snowball fight, take a stroll, look up into the sky and see where the snowflakes are falling from, stretch out my hand to hold some snowflakes in my palm ….. a valiant and yet an unsuccessful effort to appreciate the beautiful architecture of the flakes, take pictures, make footprints on untouched snow laden grounds and then get snow all over my clothes, make snow angels…..least did I know that this adrenaline rush comes with a price (after all nothing in this era is for free???!!!) ….white lines of salt on my trousers and shoes marking my actions in snow, with every new act in snow a new line right above the old one like the annual growth rings on a tree trunk!!!
Ice skating: Looks amazingly simple when you see a “Pro” skating, but the moment you set foot on the ice rink you know how grossly misled you were, similar to the advertisements that give a rosy picture to their viewers!! The first time was painful in multiple respects: I couldn’t get my feet into the mulish skates-third time into skating and the person renting out the skates mentions that I need to be wearing a Men’s 8 size [guess I am a Big Girl ;)]; spent an era contemplating whether the skates are taut enough to secure my feet and not be able to swivel my ankle; difficulty balancing and walking on blades; and then the worst of them all was getting on the Ice laden rink. The first step and BOOM….i crashed…..right on my Bum!! Try getting up yourself…..BAD IDEA…tried that and fell again. Finally my friend came to my rescue and I was back on my feet but this time I was hugging the rails so that I could try and maintain my balance (REALLY????) The first round was interesting for I was trying to understand the rules of skating – You are supposed to skate with your knees bent as if you are about to sit …..man does that sound painful??? Weeeeeeeeeeeeee………Wooooooooo were the gibberish expressions that everyone in the rink heard whenever I was even close to losing my balance. I think that was the reason my friend decided to leave me alone as she felt that she doesn’t want to be associated with a crazy person like me. The second round I was trying to realize my center of balance. The third round and a five year old comes up to me and says “ Hey….do you wanna play with me??” Sweet….Yea…but I barely know how to balance leave alone playing while skating....HAH!! Finally by the fifth round I was trying to skate without support….guess there was an iota of confidence a.k.a “OVER”confidence seeping into me! For about one tenth of a mile my feet were supporting my weight ….. a fraction of a second later and KABOOM….back on ice again! A dozen times my butt was on ice and I was done for the day!! The two other subsequent times that I went, were a year apart, so one could imagine how efficient I would have been on the skating rink! However, mishaps in the rink have still not despirited me....instead have boosted in more energy than ever to rein over ice with mere blades on my feet!!!
A sense of excitement fills my heart
For my eyes get clouded by the snow laden grounds
A strong gush of epinephrine excites every neuron in my body
For my mind plays games as snow falls from far above
A challenge to conquer the impossible inspires me
For I see myself in absolute hegemony of the ice
An awakening of the child in me overshadows my age
For I sense a feeling of Bliss engulfing every part of me
As the snow swathes every speck of the naked ground!!!