I spoke too soon...
I must have
jinxed it! Winter ain't gone yet!!!
WTF?, indeed!
Firstly, I still have the heater on and running in my apartment! Heat in April?! Man! I thought I'd be able to cut down on my electricity bill once spring rolls in! So much for my financial plans! By the time winter is done, it's going to be time to turn on the air conditioner! Summers in Baltimore are intense!!!
Secondly, since I thought I wouldn't be needing my winter clothes anymore, I put them "away", someplace I didn't think I'd see in a long time... and frankly, I don't feel like digging them out... that's what I'm supposed to be doing in October/November! No one does this twice in one year!!! (You northerners know what I'm talking about!) Shoving away winter clothes (after a good dry cleaning) into old suitcases or heavy trunks all the way up in the attic, or underneath the bed, or somewhere deep in the closet! Who wants to go there again?!
Thirdly, ever since November, I haven't been out jogging in the fresh air, and since I am too poor to sign up with Bally's, I haven't really been exercising! :S
You can well imagine how much I really need to now that we're in April!
Lastly, I'm just tired of shivering and bundling my poor body with tons of layers of clothing. My skin needs to breath! My feet need to breath!!!
Yo Spring!!! Where you at?!
Labels: angry, cold, spring?
After Winter must come Spring
As I lay on my couch on a Monday afternoon, sipping on some hot chocolate and staring out of my window, out at the barren trees, I was wondering when they would bloom like the other trees I see on the roadsides of streets and highways while I am driving to wherever my destination may be. Or like the cherry blossoms I saw lined along the north bank of the Tidal Basin in West Potomac Park in Washington DC.
After winter, must come spring…Lauryn Hill’s aphorism from
Everything is Everything, wouldn’t stop recurring in my head. After a bitter and gloomy winter, it was fantastic to finally see color again. Green luscious grass, splashes of color thanks to the blossoming flowers, both domestic and wild, the glare of the sun mixed with gentle breeze. “This is perfect”, I kept thinking to myself!
The weather was cooperating with my emotions for a change. And so was Mother Nature. A few friends and I were down in DC yesterday to entertain our sights and sounds at the annual Cherry Blossom festival.
Since words wouldn't quite do justice in describing the Cherry Blossoms, I'm going to let the pictures speak for themselves.
A little HistoryAccording to Wikipedia, "The National Cherry Blossom Festival is an annual celebration in Washington, D.C., from March 31st through April 15th, commemorating the March 27, 1912, gift to the city of Japanese cherry trees from Mayor Yukio Ozaki of Tokyo. Mayor Ozaki donated the trees in an effort to enhance the growing friendship between the United States and Japan and also celebrate the continued close relationship between the two peoples."
The famous trees signal the coming of spring with an explosion of life and color surrounding the Tidal Basin portion of the West Potomac Park in a sea of pale pink and white. The two-week festival is kicked off with an opening ceremony, followed by a dizzying array of activities and cultural events. Every day there is a sushi/sake celebration, classes about cherry blossoms, and a bike tour of the Tidal Basin. Art exhibits figure heavily during this time, such as photography (both local and Asian), sculpture, animation, and various cultural performances throughout Washington, D.C. Rakugo, kimono fashion shows, art exhibits, dance, singing, martial arts, merchant-sponsored events, and much more can be seen during this time.
The Cherry Blossom 10-Mile Run is held as part of the festival on the first Sunday in April. Because the festival must be planned long in advance, it sometimes fails to be celebrated during the peak of the cherry blooms. On the last Saturday of the festival, there is the Parade of the National Cherry Blossom Festival, followed by the Sakura Matsuri-Japanese Street Festival, a celebration of Japan presented by the Japan-America Society of Washington, D.C.
You Go Girls!
OK! So I've been away. And I didn't quite live up to my promise that made it sound like the blog was going to be bombarded with new interesting posts... and I apologize; didn't think grad school was going to be this demanding!
Excuses?! Maybe, but I'm here now.. . to share an article I just read on BBC News Online. I wasn't aware of an all-female unit of peacekeeping insurgents with the UN! I was even more shocked in a positive light that those deployed in Liberia are from India! And all this time I thought women were being shunned and ridiculed for thinking they could make a difference in India! Well, don't get it twisted... for that still happens in small towns and villages. Women today are still forced into child marriage or even just marriage, and some parents still think of their daughters as burden to their shoulders! Many poor families would rather send their sons to schools and home school their daughters to learn the oh-so-challenging art of housekeeping! Furthermore, some families that can afford to get their daughters educated do so only because it credits the girl’s bio-data (very similar to that of a Curriculum Vitae). No, seriously! In arranged-marriages, the primary step is for both families to exchange bio-datas enlisting everything from DOB to complexion to length of hair… to hobbies, career and degrees earned, oh yeah, and a picture or pictures of the girl and guy! I don’t know why that even matters because it is common for the woman to quit work after marriage! I suppose with the tremendous and unstoppable intervention of the western culture through media, cultural barriers are being fractured little by little.
And now... the article!
Female peacekeepers reach Liberia
Pic: The unit are experienced in battling insurgency
The first all-female unit of United Nations peacekeepers has arrived in Liberia's capital, Monrovia.
The group of more than 100 police women from India will stay in Liberia for six months, helping to train the local police force.
They will also carry out security duties in forthcoming local elections.
The UN currently has 15,000 peacekeepers deployed in Liberia, which is struggling to recover after a 14-year civil war.
The unit is made up volunteers drawn from across India and are experienced in battling insurgencies in Kashmir and the north-east.
UN police advisor Mark Kroeker, who has served with the Los Angeles Police Department for more than 30 years, says the presence of women in UN missions enhances their access to vulnerable populations.
"It also sends a message to the post-conflict societies where we work that women officers can have any position and play any role in a police organisation," he said.
I'M BAAAACKKK!!!
Jay-Z can be so inspiring,
If he can come back from retiring,
I can come back to blogging!
And guess what?
I'M BAAAAAACCKK!!!
When Kingdom Come, You ready?
The Queen will Come, I'm ready
I'm ready
Now everywhere I go they like sur-B back
Up out the corner office of cul-de-sac
Where's K-Dawg he was the coldest cat
Get your swag back daddy where your focus at?
Got to admit a lil' bit I was sick of the blog world
But despite that the girl has returned…
I’M BAAAACKK!!!
Yeah! Okay… I’m not tryin’ to be whack,
With my introduction,
But to tell you the truth,
I’m so excited.. I’m full of passion!
Enthusiasm… to share my views,
My feelings, my truth, my deals,
Share some info… show off my skills.
Let my business be known…
This queen’s on her thrown…
Forget that biscuit, that scone,
Those jokers, $ … O Kingdom hear me out…
I’m gonna be typin’ away… until my fingers crack… NO DOUBT!
Remix by Jay-Z feat. Sur-B
Nigeria and a long overdue Sestina
So Italy went home victorious from the World Cup! However, it seemed like Zidane's little episode was more the talk of the town than Italy's win.
Anyways, I haven't updated this blog in a while, and that's because I'm currently in Nigeria... home of the Super Eagles, one of the OPEC nations, the land that holds all my childhood memories. Yeah, I'm back in Africa for a couple of weeks and I've decided to give back to the community during my short stay. So I have started volunteering at this NGO called Hope for AIDS Outreach. It's a relatively new NGO and apart from spreading awareness, it focuses on working with the already affected and tries to improve the lives of those who've lost their loved ones to AIDS. Of course, the NGO has a few financial set-backs, but this doesn't stop it from maximizing its resources like human power to spread awareness. In other words, the NGO relies on volunteers and a very low monetary fund to push the word of AIDS prevention throughout Lagos.
On my first day, the head of the NGO set up a tour, where a couple of people from South Africa and I were to learn about various health related issues being faced by the poor in some of the areas. I took some pictures, but I won't be able to post them any time soon. I visited a Malaria infested site, some really filthy slums, a tiny but well facilitated hospital for the poor owned by two brothers who are trying to make a difference in these people's lives, a couple of churches that are trying to break through some conventional barriers and start addressing the problem of AIDS, despite how stigmatized the topic might be and a brothel, yes... a brothel... a major breeding ground for sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS!
So according to the plan, by next week I will be teaming up with a fund-raising expert from Canada who will be volunteering with the org. for 3 weeks to put the NGO on a financially sound platform. Once we see signs of progress, a 6 month plan and a budget strategy will be formulated keeping in mind the organization’s goals. I'll keep y'all posted on that.
Anyways... here is a 180 degree change of events... Brian, who taught me about Sestinas, a French poetry writing style, extracted a couple of poems out of me. But first, here is a little introduction of what a Sestina is by Brian:
"One of the most difficult and complex of the various French forms, the sestina is a poem consisting of six six-line stanzas and a three-line envoy. It makes no use of the refrain. This form is usually unrhymed, the effect of rhyme being taken over by a fixed pattern of end-words which demands that these end-words in each stanza be the same, though arranged in a different sequence each time.
Now, I wanted to include that not to discourage, but to challenge. Ok, each of the six stanzas will follow a specific pattern. The only words that matter in the poem, for the style’s sake of course, are the last words of each line. The first stanza will start the trend and the last words of each line will be enumerated 1-2-3-4-5-6. The lines of the next stanza must then proceed to be 6-1-5-2-4-3. 3rd: 3-6-4-1-2-5. 4th: 5-3-2-6-1-4. 5th: 4-5-1-3-6-2. 6th: 2-4-6-5-3-1. Now, the final stanza, the envoy, is three lines long and each line will end with 5-3-1, with 2, 4 and 6 being buried in the lines."
All right, so I chose the following words:
Prince, Sweet, Well, Pour, Coin and Wine... for no good reason and drafted a little Sestina, without the last stanza! Here goes:
In my dream I see a prince
He looks not just sweet
But, charming as well
Seconds later it starts to pour
Rain as rich as a hundred gold coins
As thick as tremendously aged wine
His lips are now thirsty and he's searching for wine
Meanwhile, I'm searching for this charming prince
Hoping for this dream to be real like my silver coins
I can't afford much, not even a fancy sweet
His wine is now served as the servants pour
Into a deep goblet, a mini-well
Sigh, about to be drunk! Oh, well
It is the pleasure of wine
And the rich have sorrows that they'd like to pour
Even a young and charming prince
Who now enjoys the taste of the red sweet
And indulges in pleasant thoughts, happiness he coins
Meanwhile, there lay on the floor are my 2 silver coins
One of which I had reserved for the wishing-well
The wish I want to make, so pure, so sweet
I wish the prince would not have to depend on that wine
For he is to be a role-model for many men, he's a prince
If he doesn't fulfill his righteous duties, the streets will witness an outrageous pour
At the castle however, the servants continue to pour
Expensive wine, a barrel worth 500 gold coins
Affordable only by the dynasty of the prince
Who peacefully lies on his divan, perhaps he is un-well
Oh no! What is a bitter outcome has this wine
For it is poison disguised as a liquid red sweet
Pale has the look on his skin, but the pink lips still taste sweet
From my eyes, tears pour
Disastrous is the product of this fine wine
That originates from 500 gold coins
Yet, my dreams have a charming prince, who keeps himself well
He shall forever be remembered in my heart, my prince
Brian then came up with 6 words and reasons as to why he selected those words:
"Love- it is my one true emotion
Smile-happy when smiling
Hot-like hot weather, hot water
Song-listen to music soothes me
Book-read over 10,000
Curious-never stop learning"
Out of which I pulled out another Sestina... Got to love a smile,a mile long smile;
who can ignore a smile bursting with love?
While there are some like the Mona Lisa, drives us all curious
For artists after artists, researchers after researchers have written many a book
And some even a song
Illustrating the effervescence of a smile, short or long, cold or hot!
Often hear guys say, "Oh, she's hot!"
probably coz of her sweet smile
that leads those very guys to sing her a song
Is it love?
Only in a fairy-tale book
that get us down to Earth women curious.
Now I am the one who is curious
When the weather is all hot
And I'm laying on the beach reading a book
I send this cute hunk a cute smile
and we both fall in love
or that's how goes that song
that song
that gets everyone curious
is it lust or love
lust for that body so hot
or love for that beautiful smile
So I decided to write a book
And in my book
there ain't no song
I keep it real about what I think of the smile
and for all those out there who are curious
I am not short of a hot
lustful loveI am indeed in love
not with a guy from a fairy-tale like book
and no he isn't exactly hot
and no I don't sing him no song
Oh! Aren't you just curious
But, all I shall reveal is a silent smile
There is more to love than a love song,
Love isn't written in a book, it is felt by the soul so curious
a feeling not warm, but hot like from an explosion, that doesn't bring sadness, but instead, a smile!
Come up with your own Sestinas, they're a great way to get over boredom!
Okay, Over and Out!
Loving Soccer
Yeah! Soccer/Football definitely brings us (people of various ethnic backgrounds, races, sexual orientations, and so on) together... It's all
love (unless you're some fanatic, of course, in which case, it's not just love)!!! Praise be to
FIFA World Cup 2006! Look at 'em boys! Aww... Group Hug Everyone!!!!!!=)
Bewilderment
From slow to fast, from liquid to solid,
soft to harsh…like gentle waves forming a tsunami;
like the soft breeze developing into a hurricane;
That's the manner thoughts have been rushing my brain.
The little noises in my head creating confusion,
as they artfully muffle the sounds with mystification;
or they scatter around and nauseatingly yell in incomprehension.
And when those noises get rowdy,
it pushes my mind to a state of perplexity,
raising cause for uncertainty;
questions arise, "Why me?", "Why me?" Why such stupefaction,
followed by such hesitation,
My mind is about to explode due to such puzzlement,
Watch out! For it is about to create a sweltering dent!
I need answers,
I need your honesty;
I need your faith,
I need your integrity.
I need your love,
I need our happiness;
yes, there will always be pain,
but with you by my side, I'm ready to confront that ugly crane.
Only with you by my side though, only with you by my side,
for if that's not the case, this body shall lose that face in which you reside.
