My Childhood Dreams

I have been reading about Randy Pausch and listening to videos of his lecture since the past couple of weeks. I even read the initial pages of his book during my last visit to Crossword. (I am considering buying the book!) Dad just showed me a ppt version of his lecture with pictures; saw the strong emphasis on achieving your childhood dreams! I was actually transported to my childhood, when I suddenly thought, “What were my childhood dreams? Why don’t I put them down”… As I have often said in my blog, have put down whatever I could think of, will keep adding to it…

- To be a Doctor to help poor people and to find medicines or cures for incurable diseases (maybe then to me being a doctor was the most noble profession)

- To keep improving my general knowledge and to win GK quizzes

- To participate in science exhibitions in school and to represent my school

- To become a scientist - to do experiments! (I even bought this Experiment Kit, and my Mom used to get irritated as I dirtied the house with iron filings and tried testing the litmus paper on any thing that I could get hold of)

- To be excellent in hurdles/high jump and to improve my sports skills in general ( I wanted to be good at races and wanted to learn basket ball) I wished I could participate in the Olympics!!!

- To be a part of the Secret Seven or Famous Five – (to set up a club like Secret Seven that solves mysteries) well I did set up a club called Secret Six, though it defintely did not turn out to be as fun as the real one...

- To travel around the world (I was so inspired by Travel around the world in 80 days!!!) (I have managed to travel to the UK, to London, Scotland, Stratford upon Avon and Oxford)

- To read as many story books as possible (especially all the classics)

- To have a personal library with the world’s largest collection of books (and yes of course all my favourite books) (the library should be made in wood – wooden shelves and flooring, a fireplace, a huge cosy arm armchair, thick soft carpets, heavy curtains that keep out all the disturbances away while I am reading my book on my armchair with my cup of hot chocolate!!!

- To have a magical fridge always full of different flavours and varieties of choloates and icecreams

- To go to Disneyland

- To eat all the yummy goodies that the witch feeds kids in Hansel and Gretel (including her house!!!!)

- To watch all my favourite cartoons and to have a collection of them

- To design affordable, yet safe and good homes for the poor

- To create employment opportunities for the poor

- To offer free basic clothing to all poor people, especially kids and women

- To play in snow

- To be transported to a magical world of friendly elves and fairies

- Wished that Pandora had never opened that box...

- To visit Salsburg and Captain Von Trapp's Palatial House and all the places that Maria has travelled to with the kids!!

- To meet Kiran Bedi! - Well that's the one dream that I can say for sure that I have fulfilled! I was invited to attend a conference where she was the key speaker! I must hav been around 18 then...

- To learn classical dance (love Kathak for its swift movements and Bharatnatyam for the expressions and hand/finger movements)

- To learn the play casio and sitar

- To work for United Nations

- To be able to study at any of the world's leading institutes like World Schools or Oxford (and yes to get a scholarship to study at these places)

- to have the entire Barie doll collections

- to have the entire World Book series

- to have a bicycle of my own (This was an other dream that I fulfilled, Dad promised me that he would get a biycycle if I came 1st in class and that was exactly what I did and Dad kept up his promise)

India struck Gold at Olympics!!!

Hey India has won its FIRST INDIVIDUAL OLYMPIC GOLD!!!

I know that it is a pity that we could not win a Gold till now... but now that we have it makes me so happy and proud!

I hope this is beginnin of many more Golds to come!!!

Congrats Abhinav Bindra!!! May you be an inspiration to all Indian sportspeople!!!

When the Indian flag was being raised and our National Anthem was played - oh that moment was so touchin and inspiring!!! Oh how proud you must have felt!! I am really envious of you!

Congrats to Saina too for proceeding to the Quarterfinals and defeating the fourth ranker! You are playing well... keep improving!!

I hope the government takes note of this feat and makes best use of this opportunity to promote sports in India!

Low Cost Housing - Homes for a Better Life!

This is something that I have thought of but fill in soon...

Freedom Writers

I saw a beautiful movie today 'Freedom Writers'. It's a brilliant film , so inspiring and touching! This film should be shown to all teachers. As teachers they should realise that no student is inherently a bad student or 'unteachable', its just that students are different and need to dealt with differently. It is the teachers job to identify what will motivate the student and use the right method to get the student to discover himself and to get him to appreciate the importance of learning and thereby to get him to learn.

The movie reinforces the belief that nothing is impossible if we have the determination and motivation to go on. And that teachers can make such a big difference in the lives of students and play an important role in moulding them into responsible and caring citizens of the world!

Have pasted below some of dialogues I liked from the movie.

Marcus: No, that don't fly Ma.
Erin Gruwell: First of all I'm not anybody's mother.
Andre: No, that's not what it means.
Eva: It's a sign of respect... for you.

Erin Gruwell: But to get respect you have to give it.
Andre: Bullshit.
Erin Gruwell: What?
Andre: Why should I give you my respect? Because you call your a teacher. How do I know that your not a bad person standing up there?
Eva: White people wanting their respect like its for free.

Erin Gruwell: Does anyone know Homer's the Odyssey?
Andre: I know Homer the Simpson.

Miep Gies: You are the heroes. You are heroes every day.
Miep Gies: But even an ordinary secretary or a housewife or a teenager can, within their own small ways, turn on a small light in a dark room.
Marcus: I've never had a hero before. But you are my hero.
Miep Gies: Oh, no. No, no, no, young man, no. I am not a hero. No. I did what I had to do, because it was the right thing to do. That is all.

Erin Gruwell: The evaluation assignment was to grade yourself on the work you're doing. You gave yourself an F. What's that about?
Andre: It's what I feel I deserve, that's all.
Erin Gruwell: Oh really? [pause]
Erin Gruwell: You know what this is? This is a Fuck You to me and everyone in this class. I don't want excuses. I know what you're up against. We're all of us up against something. So you better make up your mind, because until you have the balls to look me straight in the eye and tell me this is all you deserve, I am not letting you fail. Even if that means coming to your house every night until you finish the work. I see who you are. Do you understand me? I can see you. And you are not failing.
Erin Gruwell: Maybe we should talk about art. Tito's got real talent, don't you think? You know something? I saw a picture just like this once, in a museum. Only it wasn't a black man, it was a jewish man. And instead of the big lips he had a really big nose, like a rat's nose. But he wasn't just one particular jewish man. This was a drawing of all jews. And these drawings were put in the newspapers by the most famous gang in history. You think you know all about gangs? You're amateurs. This gang will put you all to shame. And they started out poor and angry and everybody looked down on them. Until one man decided to give them some pride, an identity... and somebody to blame. You take over neighborhoods? That's nothing compared to them. They took over countries. You want to know how? They just wiped out everybody else. Yeah, they wiped out everybody they didn't like and everybody they blamed for their life being hard. And one of the ways they did it was by doing this: see, they print pictures like this in the newspapers, jewish people with big, long noses... blacks with big, fat lips. They'd also published scientific evidence that proved that jews and blacks were the lowest form of human species. Jews and blacks were more like animals. And because they were just like animals it didn't matter if they lived or died. In fact, life would be a whole lot better if they were all dead. That's how a holocaust happens. And that's what you all think of each other.

Gloria: If you look in my eyes, you'll see a lonely girl. If you like at my smile, you'll see nothing wrong. If you pull up my shirt, you'll see the bruises. What did I do to make him so mad?

Eva: In America, a girl can be crowned a princess for her beauty, and her grace. But an Aztec princess is chosen for her blood. To fight for her people as Papi and his father fought, against those who say we are less than they are, against those who say that we are not equal in beauty or blessings.

[while playing the Line Game, in which Erin makes the class reveal that they have more in common than they care to admit] Erin Gruwell: Who has been to jail or a juvenile hall? Sindy: Does a refugee camp count?
Erin Gruwell: You decide. [Sindy stands on the line]

[following Erin's impassioned speech about the Nazi Holocaust]
Tito: [raises hand] What's a holocaust?
Erin Gruwell: Who here knows what the Holocaust is? [all keep their hands down except Ben, the only white kid, who sheepishly raises his]
Erin Gruwell: Who here has ever been shot at? [all raise their hands except Ben, who lowers his]

Hemingway on Luck...

"To hell with luck. I'll bring the luck with me." - The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway

In a valley of flowers where butterflies flutter their lovely wings around…
Sunshine peers at you through bright snow white clouds
Where the sunbeam bends down from the skies to kiss tender petals
The blushing flower radiates the light of happiness
Butterflies flutter from flower to flower sipping the nectar of love
The multitude of colours on their fluttering wings fills my eyes with twinkling stars
and lo the brightest of ‘em all, is a little fairy… with a golden wand in her hand
spreading the magic of spring and joy… come my fairy come…

Explore... Dream... Discover

Came across these few lines that I thought was really inspiring...
"Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."-Mark Twain