Je parle Francais

Oui...

I mean it! I shouldn't say I am learning French, I am rather trying to learn French. I do believe that if you want to learn something, you can. There's no age as "too old" to learn something. I had to choose from French, German and Spanish when I thought of learning a new language. Spanish was discarded for reasons I should not openly disclose. German got cancelled because it is too difficult to pronounce. That left me with French. Also, my end goal is to converse in French and read French literature as is, so my grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation all need to reach a certain standard. Bon jour and merci are ok, but those would only take me till a certain level.

Why have I started learning French now? Well, a few things have contributed to it:

legende

1. At work, we are learning to use two horribly difficult tools. One is just all over the place with its gazillion UI bits and pieces. I do want to meet the team that created the requirements of it to figure out what went on inside their heads to come up with such a convoluted thing. The other one doesn't even have a UI. It thinks that we are all Linux geeks so we would be fine with just a command prompt-ish little black thing. Well, as I have to suck those up and be quiet, I thought why not try my hand (read brain) at learning another new thing as well. I mean, if I can manage these, I'll probably be able to manage French as well.

2. There was a man named Surja Roy (from Syed Mujtaba Ali's famous Chacha Kahini). He spoke German so well that on the phone that even a linguist could not understand that he was not a native German speaker. Roy did not learn German from when he was a boy, for sure. But he still could master it to that level. Which means age is not a bar...with YouTube and free online resources that are available to me, Roy could have learned the language in weeks I guess. So there's no reason for me not to try.

3. I learned to knit and crochet on my own. I learned to cook some tricky dishes too without any human help...so why not a language?

4. Yes, there's this thing about another stressor. I know that. In my already overflowing life, why am I adding another thing in my to-do list? But you know what? People of Type A personality perform well under stress. I want to see if this keeps me more disciplined and focused.

5. Finally, I don't remember when I learned English, how I gradually conquered the Rat, Mat and Bat to write simple sentences, translating paragraphs to becoming a bilingual person. Now if I learn a language, I can go through the dark passages of my mind and see how we learn things. That's also something wonderful to know about!!

Au revoir. A tout a l'heure. :-)

Test nightmares

I think it was Dennis the menace who once said that all good dreams are actually bad and all bad dreams are good. Sounds like a riddle, doesn't it? But, hey! He is right. The moment you realize that it was "just a dream" you will either feel relieved or will be sad. Depends on the situation. That's when the true identity of the dream will strike.

Even before I wake up from dreams, I pass through a phase where I try to figure things out like - where am I, what I am currently. Well, might  not be as philosophical as it sounds. A general answer like if I'm still in school, or work now answers the questions pretty well. Sometimes I have to think twice to figure out what the orange-ish/brown-ish warm cuddly furry thing is that is curled up right next to me...Anyway, coming to the point, today was one of those days, when the first thought was - oh wait, but I don't go to school any more! And what a relief that was!!! I was dreaming, or rather having nightmare about a Chemistry test for which I was not prepared (obviously!). (Note: I hate chemistry.) Sometimes I see the same thing with Maths tests. The problem arises because unlike History or English, I can't prepare for Maths (or Chemistry) tests overnight.

Sleep like a cat

This is a common nightmare all around the world!! I know my mom still gets nightmares that she is late for he M.A. finals. Arnab also said he sees similar ones. I was talking about this at work and one guy promptly asked me the formula for sodium chloride (yes!) and another was amazed because he had an idea that he was the only one who has this kind of dreams! Funny how exams still haunt us. I mean in adult life, there are so many stuff to worry us, right? Finances, jobs, issues at work, health related problems, kids, etc... but why do people go back to their school day frights when it comes to nightmares? Just a thought...

My favorites

A simple list of things I like:

Color - Orange

Flower - Red rose

Fruit - Mango

Food - Rice and Ilish

Cookie - Chocolate chip

Ice cream - Chocolate

Chocolate - Cadbury's Dairy Milk

Story book - Rebecca and the Hound of the Baskervilles (sorry, that's a tie)

Movie - Roman Holiday

Browser - Chrome 

Phone - BlackBerry Z10

Car - Honda Fit (to physically drive) and Mercedes SLK GTR on NFS tracks ;-)

Animal (type)- Canis familiaris

Constellation - Orion

Vegetable - Onion :-)

Gadget - laptop

Writer - Daphne du Maurier, Saradindu Bandopadhyay and Carl Sagan (each in their own fields)

Subject - physics

Programming language - Java

Website - Google :-)

Flooring - hardwood

Towel - Turkish (white with three red borders)

Clothes - Denim and tee

Animal (I know of) - Mota :-)

Drink - Chocolate milk

Actor - Uttam Kumar, Aamir Khan, Tom Hanks

Actress - Audrey Hepburn

Fictional character -  Sherlock Holmes

Cartoon character - Winnie the Pooh

Mountain range - Himalayas

Mountain peak - Mt. Rainier

Ocean - Pacific

Tree - Coconut

... there are many more, but this is it for now :-)

Guardian angels

On the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, when people are remembering the fallen heroes - the fire-fighters, NYPD members, the passengers of the flight that crashed at Shanksville who overtook the hijackers, I would write about something slightly different. Well, they are heroes too...really brave and selfless souls. They are the hero dogs, the rescue dogs of 9/11.

A couple of years back I was waiting to catch a bus back from Seattle when I saw a yellow Lab at the bus stop wearing a jacket. My first thought was - how funny! That man is making his dog wear a jacket? But after a second look, I found he was wearing a "service jacket". Then, as I was standing next to where that man was sitting in the bus, the dog, very gently came and sniffed me - to make sure that I was not a threat to his charge by any means. I don't know if I have seen any soul more responsible than a guide dog.

Last week we saw another of the tribe guiding his charge while crossing a street. We first saw the dog in the harness leading the way and then noticed the lady's white cane.

Guardian angels

So coming back to the hero dogs, first one to mention is Roselle. She was a "pixielike" yellow Labrador, as her parent Michael Hingson said. She loved stealing socks and playing tug-of-war with the other dog at home. On the fateful day of 9/11 when she was napping under Mike's desk at office in the North Tower, the AA flight hit the building. Following what they had learned during fire drills, with Mike acting as a pack leader, Roselle led the way to the exit and calmly descended from the 78th floor to safety. Covered in dust and ashes and finding their way through the sweltering heat, the yellow Lab gave love and kisses! She even helped a lady who was temporarily blinded by the dust and debris. As Caesar's Way magazine reported, on 9/11, 2001 Roselle worked. The great soul passed away last year in June.

Sky was a black Lab who went for search and rescue in the Pentagon after the plane hit that building. As Sky's human partner Bob Sessions reflects -  "Certainly, there's nothing that can replace precision of a dog's nose - and absolutely nothing that can replace a dog's heart."

Sirius is a fallen hero of the 9/11 attacks. Specialized in explosive detection, he used to work at the WTC scanning vehicles that came there. Sirius' trainer and partner Dave was trapped and he could not reach Sirius who was in his kennel at a different place. Dave was not allowed to go there as it was very dangerous. Months later, rescuers found Sirius' jacket and later some of his remains. He was the only canine martyr. Sad, real sad...but the good thing is that he was taken with full honors like the other heroes. The bag in which his body was, was covered with a flag and carrying him away was completed with prayers and salutes.

I don't have enough words to express my gratitude and respect to the guide dogs and to the brave service animals. The only thing I can say is - they are the guardian angels. I also firmly believe that when 10,000 kind, compassionate and selfless people die, one service dog is born.

References:
http://www.cesarsway.com/news/dognews/Rescue-Dogs-of-911-Roselle
http://www.ronburns.com/
http://www.vetstreet.com/learn/the-many-faces-of-9-11-hero-dogs

Note:
As for the attacks, it's not just against specific countries, like the one in Mumbai in November, 2008 or the 07/07 in London. It's against humans by an insane gang of criminals. Let's do our bit to wipe off terrorism from the only place we can call home - the Earth.  

Pleasant memories

I can connect my iPhone to my car (auxiliary port) and listen to songs that I got from iTunes. This feature, once again made me marvel at cloud computing (as a little note, I must mention my great grandmother, who on first seeing a nail clipper was so amused that she reflected - কী কল ই না বানিয়েছে সাহেবরা) Going by the same note, I downloaded a bunch of Debabrata Biswas's and Hemanta's songs to my iPhone (as an iPod) and felt very happy. Now I don't have to carry a bunch of old cd-s in my car, nor would I have to fumble through them while driving (disclaimer: I do not do that. I am a very cautious driver.) Anyway, so coming to the actual story, I was listening to that song "nilamwala chha ana" by Hemanta (play backed to Uttam Kumar) on my way back from work when I realized that just the song was making me feel so happy. Was it just the tune and Hemanta's melodious voice? Or was it the comfort zone that Uttam Kumar and the song transcended me to? Those weekend afternoons at home? The elders watching these movies with us pottering around and asking stupid questions...nice snacks made especially during the weekends and the general nice feeling of being with everyone in the family?

Oldies

I have heard and participated in debates on which is better - joint family or nuclear family. The only thing I have to say is - people who have not lived in joint families would *never* understand what they have missed. Also, living in joint families go hand in hand with living in the old ancestral house and that itself is an experience to be cherished through your entire life. I have loads and heaps of pleasant memories associated with The House and The Family. It's not for no reason that we (me, my uncles, cousin, etc.) are renowned for our homesickness. For people who'll ask how I can manage to live here if I am so homesick, my reply would be that it's not just my parents but my uncles, aunts, cousins and my newly added nieces all keep in touch via regular calls, emails and Google chat :-) It would have been too hard on me otherwise. Is there any doubt why I stay at my in-laws for 3 days and my own house for the rest 18 days on my 3 week trip to India? 

The best memory I have is of Saturday afternoons. That was the time when everyone would be at home. We would water the plants, play cricket on the terrace, watch movies and sometimes go to Safari Park (Lions' club park near Lake). Simple things, but those count for big chunks of pleasant memories now that I look back at those days.

Cricket

Another grand thing was watching cricket matches on TV with the entire family huddled in one room. The TV was an old 21" (or may have been smaller) black and white one with only two channels available. But the cheers when India hit boundaries and Sourav Ganguly would bat well, the yells of "BOWLED" when an opponent got dismissed are not possible for me to explain. I have learned cricket in this way the most! Going to watch cricket matches at Eden Gardens was also great. That was the time when players were clad in white and the leather ball was bright red. We would go in the morning, early enough to see the players practising on the pitches at the sides and a fog would hang low. The smell of that fog, with dew drops on the lush green ground, bundling up to stay warm, learning about "High court end" and "Maidan end", finding out the fielding positions, eating oranges out of paper bags and listening to the famous comments of Eden Garden spectators are all intertwined with my cricket memories. Winter in Calcutta and cricket went hand in hand before commercialization of the "noble game" began.

Kali Pujo was another big thing. It started from the day before by "choddo prodeep" or 14 candles lit in dark corners of the house. (Yes, you need an old house for that. A dainty apartment would serve no purpose.) Bhut would sing "himero raate oi gogoner deepguli re" (a famous Tagore song on autumn) as we would roam around the house finding our spotted dark places where ghosts might want to live. We also had to eat 14 leafy greens as a course for lunch. That has got something to do with the 14 ancestral generations, I am not very sure. On the big day, the entire morning would be spent in sunning the fireworks. Then after lunch, Bhut and I would start the "alpona" (rangoli/ floor paint). That would start with nice flowery traditional designs and end with random stuff, even stretching as far as Greek alphabets as we ran out of inspiration. In the evening, when candles were lit all across the front patio(and we do have long, really long patios), the house would be gleaming. More candles were lit on the floor decorations in front of Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth while the religious ceremony took place. Then was the time for fireworks! We would all go up to the top terrace and light the stuff. Cheering when the rockets would soar high, boo-ing the canisters that didn't do well and admiring the others that did. Baba, Kakun and Kakabhai would talk about their childhood memories, how they used to make fireworks and who was the subject matter expert of which  firework. After they were all lit, we'd have to wash our hands very well and go to sleep with the sound of crackers bursting in the neighborhood.

That's really a long post, but it did hardly cover a bit of the pleasant memories I have. From flying kites with Basanta-da on Vishwakarma Pujo, celebrating Christmas to Dadabhai's wedding, there's been a lot of things happening. People saying hilarious things, confusion created from no where (like losing our way back from Safari Park and almost being notified as missing children - that should come as another post) are all parts of the days spent in that solid three storied yellow building.

Personalization

... I am a big fan of that. Where ever I am, I mean places like my home and work desk, bear a touch of me. It will be something that I like, it will have something that tells about myself. Plain white walls and bare desks are not of my type. It alienates me, makes me feel cold and unwanted.

So what's all this about? It says that people who are of type A personality love to have warm, inviting atmospheres. Their work cubes have extra chair(s), pictures and things that create a charming environment. As I am one of the copy-book examples of Type A personality, it is quite understandable that places I frequent would bear my impression.

The first thing I had in mind, days after we moved to our first house was that we need to paint the walls. Again, a type A trait is that we hate to delay things and we hate to delegate work as well. So I jumped right in the painting thing and pulled Arnab in as well. As a result, our house is now well painted - cool shades where that looks nice, warm shades in places well lit by our good old sun, accent walls (I *love* accent walls, they give a totally new meaning to the room) and the like are put in place. Decorating the house is my passion. I love to look at magazines for inspiration and then think and balance the look of our house to our own personalities and then get the furniture and other decorative items in. A huge Victorian four poster bed would not only look humongous in our master bedroom but it will also be absolutely out of shape with our lifestyle and our own personalities (and looks). A sleek model with straight edges would serve much better (and be easier to dust).

Same for the decorations. Big candle stands, decorative metallic or terracotta items would not match our simple house. Nor would a Persian carpet look good with the faux leather couches (not to mention that May uses the rug as her scratching corner). IKEA and Walmart serve much better in that respect :-)

My old desk at the famous Denman Hall (my dorm)

The other thing is my work desk. I spend a third of my day at the work desk so a gray, dull and uninviting place would not help much in lifting my spirit, especially when the sky turns overcast and the sun gets down at 4. So, I put nice looking stuff here. Apart from my desktop with two monitors that take up most of the space and a laptop on a dock, a BlackBerry, a PlayBook and an iPhone all fitted to their own charging pods, a desk phone and two (or sometimes three) headphones/ear buds (eternally entangled), whatever desk space I could glean, I have a bright yellow flowering plant, a tiny violet fake flowering plant, little tiny clay animals bought from a road side vendor in Calcutta, photo frames and a red floating sand clock that brings a little color. My coffee mug is dark blue and it says - everything tastes better with cat hair in it! (To which a colleague commented, "yes, as long as you don't start throwing up hair balls.") Another coffee mug with pictures of myself, family, friends (Arnab's first gift to me) is being used as a pen stand. The walls are filled with pictures of fuzzy animals and I have a WWF calendar with big bright colorful pictures too :-)

It's all about myself (once more) but that's the thing right? If I am the one who's going to spend time here, why not get the environment to something that I would like to look at and live in?

Q&A with my own self

(Probably twenty years back, the Sunday Telegraph magazine published interviews of celebrities on the last page. I am a fan of this from that time. Recently, our company has started this for employees as well!)

Elevator speech on what I do (at work) - I am a test automation developer, so I need to think of scenarios that can be used to test a software and then  crank out some Java code that would do the work. The more efficient the code, the better.

I love to do (other than cranking out automation) - Reading, roaming around the back country, creating something - yarn projects, paintings, creative writing, cooking.

Where I see myself five years from now - As the ideal modern woman - balancing family (humans, felines, piscine and hopefully a canine) and career (and excelling at both, well that's my target).

I like to eat most  - Steamed white rice and Ilish, the heavenly fish

I hate to eat most - Paneer and tofu

I am most comfortable in - Destroyed comfort fit jeans and layered t-shirts, tennis shoes and a sports watch

I don't want myself to be seen in - Skirts reaching to my calves.

The thing I like most in myself  - The way I speak up irrespective of whom I am questioning.

The thing I don't like in myself - Too much over-enthusiasm causes problems in other people.

Can't have enough of this guy!

A regret that I still have - I wanted to play at least club level cricket.

Best time of the day - Dusk

I am most productive when - I am under pressure (deadlines work well for this reason).

I believe in - Science

If I had super powers, I'd - (Seriously) take care of kids and animals all over the world. (Jokingly) I'd scare a lot of people whom I hate :-)

How would I like to be remembered - As someone who made you smile at times you didn't really want to :-)

My philosophy of life - I am proud to be a human being and I realize that with power comes a lot of responsibility. So I want to live up to the expectations of being a human (with an X-chromosome).

My motto - "Live free, or die"