Thursday 28 February 2013

TheFirstSixMonths: English Vinglish- Learning a new language

I've been wanting to write this post a while since I saw this movie. I had once (in 2005 or so) taught a bunch of young kids in the summer. The idea was that they're from disadvantaged backgrounds and sometimes lose 'touch' with the school life, because they're probably busier in either helping parents, or just playing. The summer school reminded them of school. I am not sure what persuaded them to attend these classes. However, I do remember one of them saying how important learning English was to become Sachin Tendulkar. How else would you give interviews at the end of those winning matches. I saw the same aspirational view in Seoul. People wanted to be like Americans, and talk like them, including Starbucks names, and accents.

These days I often see how important German is. For my health and just getting by. If everyone in the world could speak one language the world would be brilliant. Because I want easy a lot of times. I don't always enjoy the struggles of having to spend hours learning new words and their derivatives and genders, especially sometimes when I see no end to them. [Even though I understand how languages make you grow, the more the better in the Ludwig Wittgentstein way: "Die Grenzen meiner Sprache bedeuten die Grenzen meiner Welt" ]. Speaking is a bigger horror. Because as an adult I am too aware of making mistakes. I was sensitive even as a child. Makes me feel pseudo Japanese at times, with the whole thing about not wanting to make mistakes. When there is no perfection. Recently I said un-big for small. In English. I thought for several moments on why English wrote ceiling not as cieling [ Give it to a Deutsch person]. And laughed then at myself. That perhaps is also the charm of a new language. The liberation that eventually we all start with errors.


The movie made me aware of these weighted struggles, and watch them curiously and be able to empathise. I've had that coffee episode happen to me a thousand times over, and not just with coffee [see trailer]. The movie manages to do this even with a few scattered stereotypical notions, which didn't bother me really, because the interpretation through the actors was so refreshing [I love Sridevi in it]. I even liked the sound track. The no-nonsense goal based learning approach. And the learning intent to feel equal - as a self-image enhancer. Even though falling in love in French or Hindi didn't quite necessitate a mediation in English oder Deutsch.


Wednesday 27 February 2013

TheFirstSixMonths: Mumford And Sons, Laura Marling & Dharohar project

People go to India for many reasons. Some to find the music of their souls. Some iTunes. Most don't know what to expect. Mumford and Sons, Laura Marling collaborated with Rajasthani folk musicians (Dharohar project) to come up with these contemporary folk fusion sounds. For an iTunes concert in 2010. Make me feel exhilarated and chaotic. Makes me want to jump onto that train to Jaisalmer.

Collaboration has an awesome ability to move. I'm just shocked Indian popular music doesn't use more of these earthy sounds. Even if, folk isn't the most popular sort of music anyway. And having said that, the Anglo-Indian sounds make these tracks special too.

We need more people holding onto their Dharohars, we need even more to make them boundaries blend.


Tuesday 26 February 2013

TheFirstSixMonths: Inspired Art !

I'm in love with retro prints. And kultur showcase details. I love when people make extensions of where to place the art. What could be on the wall as a quiet painting, talks to us everywhere now. Who said, fine art wouldn't pay. Just need to stretch the canvass a bit, oder?

This one is from a shop that has been *preserved* in the old 70s style- while they do sell modern stuff too, but there's a lot eerily retro about it. They stock old posters, old cashier machines, artsy kitchen ware and the general 'you realise how useful it is only when you see it' ideas. And it is amazing how some shops are able to retain the oldness while keeping the experience fresh.

I particularly liked this Victorian inspired hard-bookish Jane Austen cover. Finely made, and I love the details. Even on the umbrella.


 It also made an out of box experience plausible.

Tuesday 19 February 2013

TheFirstSixMonths: Ein Pariser Inspiration!

Ash was talking one day, and we often talk mit images. The ones that inspire us. Coffee shops, alleys, classic leather bags, Paris, amidst others. One of our long standing plans is to discover new places together. We would often dream travel in office, and enlist these new places.

We do believe that one time, we will get there. Didn't the White Queen say, she likes to believe in 10 (oder 15?) impossible things before breakfast? I'd really like to believe this one doesn't quite fall in the impossibles, just the one that needs to be listed and planned.

Travel moves me intrinsically. It alters relationships, adding this amount of fragility to nervous beginnings, and if you're lucky, a strange calm in mutual moments of the ordinary. These days travel quietens me at times. Just as love does. With its gratefulness and grace.

A Parisian dream

Here's her picture inspiration for the today!


PS: Picture via Facebook's 10 places to see before you die. I'd like to make travel lust-lists like that. What on your together list? :-)

Monday 18 February 2013

The First Six Months: Fitness Monday!

I was recently reading a fitness post on the Internet and it said something very interesting. The best exercise, it said, was the one you were *not* doing. I find merit in this also because the same things bore me. And it's the DDT analogy from my biology class. The mosquitoes got used to DDT sprays and developed immunity. I am quite convinced my cells got used to walking as well. So well time to add spice!

I instantly YouTube-ed then, and came across this really cool 8 minute cardio routine. I have to admit, I *felt* the running man stretched me. Wait till I do this a week and see how it goes. Bis naechste Montag!

Here's the Pscychetruth video that I followed.


Sunday 10 February 2013

The First Six Months: of Essen

I just feel very food today. Have been for a winter while.



Since we're never too high on getting the waistlines too thick, Turkey is lean meat. Besides when served with Couscous makes it a good evening option. You could manage the day with rice even, if you so like. I like red capsicum embellishments. Just adds juice to it. I tried potatoes too, but prefer the peppers more.

How I made it: Marinated meat in yoghurt, spices (red chillies, coriander powder, turmeric) and olive oil,  kept away for a couple hours. Preparation was simply just the usual fry cumin, ginger, garlic (I had none, but adds flavour), onions, tomatoes, and add the meat. Add the capsicum in the end, to not lose the crunchiness (I like it so). Add salt and more spices if you'd like it hot-ter. Garam masala in the end once near ready. Let it steam itself to done before serving. I fancied myself by shaping the couscous/ rice so!

Makes for a good warm winter meal.

And, here's the recipe I worked backwards from. (Though I like the idea of Spinach too, maybe sometime else!)


Tuesday 5 February 2013

The First Six Months: Rediscovering love

Some people meet quick. Others take long winded paths, as if on purpose. I'm optimistic, even if unrealistically, that they do meet. Like Celine's grandmother fantasizing about the guy she was going to fall in love with, all her life. Who is to say, she wouldn't meet him. Of course it's not practical. But, then there's no practicality in why my heart beats faster when I climb down the stairs from platform 4 onto the other side of the city. Or the number of times I check my mobile to see if it's 17:43 yet. My heart out-thinks my head. Especially where trains are involved. Even if, mother had said it was adolescent-stupidity, she had already lost me to the romance trains generate (with or without Shahrukh Khan).

Some people don't go through half-hearted cruel relationships that make them lose belief. Some do. I'm not qualified to say what the merits of the former are. I'm only aware of the later. It grows like a vine. I expect it to be poisonous. In spite of unrealistic hopes, as a defense mechanism expectations start on a negative. Low expectations generate an aura of mediocrity. Double-guessing, not being able to communicate almost expecting things to start going off. And to be stuck in this rut isn't pretty. At this time, friends from the former lot, writing on how their lives feel inelastic with love and relationships seem distant, as they are. Everyone lives in their own bubbles. Perhaps they have so much of it, or maybe it is the times, that the incredible-ness of sharing real lives is lost on them. Or maybe they really are restricted.

I see the merits of struggles. I may not expect flowers everyday, but I'd value them. A heart with my name engraved, with ecologically sensitive iPad doodle apps, would appeal to me with all its restrictions. Like distinct triangles creatively made of three random squiggles. It makes me walk through the coffee shops in daze. Lost to the outside world. Focused solely on the buzz of this one moment, like the one just before you actually eat honey. I'm not sure what it is called either.

This demand for love, in the long term has become highly elastic. A small effort makes a huge difference. There's no reason why that happens. Just a mild feeling, that, love is, a verb. The more you indulge in, the easier it is to wash off vulnerabilities, the nicer it feels. The dos matter. Especially as you lie in bed, waiting, to turn around.


PS: Long notes for an email Y.



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