Riding 'round

Today's blog post is brought to you by studies - "We won't let you reach your stress busters".

I do love irony in it's many and continuously morphing forms. Though it is a tad bit annoying when you become the subject of said irony.

Such a case is the fact that I've never really used Dubai's Metro system until a month (or so) back. [While we're on this topic, I'm quite oblivious to some facts about the city that most enthusiastic tourists would happily let you know about. I also fare poorly in directions. By a whole new level.]

Back to the topic at hand, this wasn't my first experience on a metro/monorail system.
Flashback to '02. Singapore.
This was my first experience. My bro took me around and showed me how it worked. And I was left enthralled in fascination. Who could blame me? I was a kid on a rail system - that wasn't anything close to a train in India [Chooka-chooka-wooh-wooh]. 
The days that followed had me indulging in Singapore's cuisine and it's McDonald's variation. Watching 'Hi5' and playing Beyblade with my cousins...those were the days.

Next:'06. London.
My next experience was getting LOST in the London Underground. If it wasn't for two locals who happily handed us a map of the place, we would probably have ended up in some remote area hopelessly and utterly confused. 
[This, again, was caused because nobody wants to listen to the logic of the kid. Why not? Let's ignore the fact that it makes sense.]
We did however reach our destination - in the rain - and enjoyed a warm mushroom pastry.


On a side note, if you ever do go to London, the Bagels are AMAZING. I kid you not. Especially the ones at the airport. 


Next: '08. Japan.
Took a trip from Tokyo to Kyoto via the Shinkansen. Wow. Nothing's quite beaten that ride. You don't hear anything, nor do you feel anything. It's akin to walking into a room and taking a seat on a set of sofas/seats. It's like you're stationary - until you look out of the window and see the landscape whizzing by at a startling speed. A blurry Mt. Fuji also looks interesting one might say.
The timing is impeccable. Down to the very second.


On another side note: We indulged in a few local Bento boxes during the ~2 hour ride. These are picked up from the station and are quite delectable - at least for me - including the 'sticky rice'. Fair warning: Only for those with an adventurous palate.
For those who want to start of slow and mellow, there's always the wonderful dishes made found near - even at - temples. The 'Dango' and 'Udon noodle soup' with that lovely fried tofu on top is heaven :) [And for Vegetarians, the two dishes I mentioned are suited to your dietary restrictions. Bento boxes are offered in Veggie options - but I haven't tried that.] These are always served with a side of green tchai.
McDonald's [Macadonardo in Japan] also have interesting variants in the menu.


So, after much digression, let me get to Dubai's metro. 
It's quite crowded, 'aint it? But it's quite nice. Convenient, and the timing 'aint half bad either. The layouts of the stations (interior wise) seem well thought out.
So, yes, it does go well with the bars that previous metro's and stations have set.


Where's my NOL card?

Desensitisation

First off, Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year!

As we all know, the winter break is, or was, upon us. So, the day before yesterday my Dad called me to come and watch a movie with him.

Why not? It's not like I'd choose sitting with the same subject that I was with for the past two hours over that.

So I joined Dad and watched "Saving Private Ryan".
Fair warning, for those of you only acclimatised to 'chick flicks' and such, this movie is not for you.
I however, do enjoy movies of the action / thriller genres and such and since the title didn't quite betray much [Here, I thought it might be one on PTSD] I presumed quite a lot.

As usual, presumption pulled a rug from under my feet for this one too.
"Saving Private Ryan" is a war movie. And it takes gore to a level way above a bare minimum. 
But it wasn't all this that evoked a blog post. It was the fact that I didn't seem the least bit horrified by people getting shot, massacred or even being blown apart. Even places where my own parents would've cringed, I kept a straight, maybe even slightly amused, expression - to my own disbelief.

It would seem that years of watching movies with such scenes [I remember watching "Die Another Day" when I was in 2nd grade] I have become desensitised to violence of the projectile weapon persuasion. In this day and age, even acknowledging the amount of violence in video games, I couldn't be the only one in this unnatural predicament.

It reminds me of another incident where my little brother was gaming. He bounded up to me in all happiness to show me "how cool" shooting people was. I'd expect as much from a guy in the late teens...but a kid who just finished primary?! This evoked a stern lecture from me on why he shouldn't find that the least bit amusing. Consider it a pre-requisite for passing a level - but nothing more. Contemplating the number of kids that might come to the same conclusion, we really DON'T need a generation full of trigger happy morons that glorify violence and run around with the idea that they suddenly wield power over life and death.
 [Here, I imagine a person running through a mall shooting people and abruptly shouting "Where's my unlocked achievement?!" - But I digress]

All in all, while I think it's great that people should understand that life has it's thorns along with the roses, I think there should be a common understanding that there is an age for it all. I can comprehend that all the violence going on is nothing but wrong - but what about the people who can't?


Also, I want to say that "Saving Private Ryan" is quite a wonderful movie because of its characters and storyline. With 5 Academy Awards, a director like Steven Spielberg and actors such as Tom Hanks and Matt Damon, it definitely is one for movie buffs.

Where's That Cheese?

This week was definitely one to remember, my school mates would understand why ;)
But all the excitement and 'events' aside, I feel that it's time I commented on a topic that's blatantly taken for granted....

:)

Yes, the smile.
Throughout yesterday and today, I've been in several snaps taken at school...
And damn it, some of those those smiles couldn't get ANY faker -_-
Take the typical scenario - End of the year class photograph.
One of the things I used to do in class after receiving my copy was to sit down and point out how many of those 100 watt bulbs were just glass casings with a coat of white.

Rewind to 7th grade, 
For some "genius" reason our teacher decided to give us our answer scripts right before the photo was taken. 
Now, for anyone who isn't familiar with the mindset of my batch, if you didn't score in the 90th percentile...you were just a personal failure. Quite simple, no?
So we walked towards the props for the photo, dreary, teary-eyed faces et all. I was still trying to console the girl next to me.
We stand in our spots, face the camera...and we each let out this huge fake smile.
That's like mild mental torture. I'm pretty sure all our collective sadness turned to critical anger and was unleashed upon the one creature in our field of vision.
The photographer.
 
Photographers have been the primary target for curse and ridicule alike, at least for us.
9th grade brought us one that set the flash off 15 times before discovering that he forgot to include his roll of film / memory card.
Being rendered temporarily blind is no joke. Even more so if you're standing in the back row. 
By back row, I mean a row of rickety tables, of course.

Now, I really do despise being forced to smile. So, I rely heavily on the class clown or a comedian to lighten the mood. Unfortunately, I also equally despise lame jokes, a speciality of the comedian at that point of time.
I think that they should consider trying -at the very least- to get us to laugh at something.
Not that they would drag a random person in front of us and smash a pie into their face.
[That would warrant laughs though...*gets hit with stray projectile*]

Now, I have come to terms with the fact that I smile too much.
Too often I have landed up in hot water because of my proclivity to crack a wide, dimpled grin...at the wrong moment.

But queue the moment of the forced photograph?
Meh, that thing NEVER comes out.
No, instead I face a backfire. My smile comes out completely weird.
Seeing a weird smile on my face in the photo is as good as a slap on my face.
By weird, I mean I hold a sarcastic, unentertained or critical look on my face, accompanied by an elevation in my left eyebrow.
That's usually attributed to the fact that the photographer said something particularly odd at that point of time. Not odd enough to make my crack a grin, but enough to make me look the way I did.
Yes, I also include the 'i-smile pleaz', 'first, second, thehd' and 'okaiii'. As much as misspelling those words makes me cringe, I do it to give you an idea of the why I might look the way I do.


So next time you find yourself the focus of a camera lens, and feel stoic, I suggest you try your level best to get out that smile...because quite honestly, fake ones just plain suck.


:D

This Thursday :)

6 a.m's lazily growing sunlight accompanied the din that was created when my father tried (and eventually succeeded) at waking me up.
Needless to say, I was disoriented and remained in that mental frame until we got into the car.
My mother then handed over the Navigator. "Set this to Al Ain Zoo."
Al Ain Zoo?

....?!

So I finished off a sandwich in the car (courtesy of a convenience store on the route) as breakfast. It was decided that we were wasting daylight if I ate at home :P

After a wild goose chase, mostly due to the combination of the Navigator and my mother, we finally reached the Zoo.

So, how did I spend my Thursday?

With the animals.

Now I could rattle on about the animals I saw...actually I'll do just that. But to spare you excruciating details, here's a condensed list:

-Nubian Ibex
-Barbary Sheep

-Wild Dogs
-Meerkats

-Sacred Baboon

-White Tiger

-African Lion

-Chimpanzee

-Spotted Hyena

-Puma

-Saltwater Crocodile
-Leopard

-African Spurred Tortoise

-Jaguar

-Bengal Tiger

-Cheetah

-Western Lowland Gorilla

-Macaque

-Brown Capuchin

-Steppe Eagle

-Imperial Eagle
-Fennec Fox

-Emu

-Peacocks

-Penguins

On retrospection, that isn't a condensed list, is it?
Anywho, it was intriguing to observe, interact with and just spend time with the animals.
Noting that a couple of them were even in the endangered spectrum was even a bit worrisome.
Though this Zoo did provide a good, comfortable habitat for the animals, I did see one thing common to them all - Boredom.
Boredom in its most basic form - sheer and pure.
With the exception of the macaques and meerkats, the rest of the animals seemed to be lacking serious mental stimulation.
I really can't blame them, they have to put up with the same crowds of humans pointing, clicking and banging on the glass day after day. It's akin to being forced to watch a never-ending and redundant infomercial.

It was interesting at first, but then....*crash*. It goes downhill.
I felt the worst for the felines and primates of the Zoo, the Gorilla reminded me of depressed people I see in school...that should never happen.

Also, I noticed that people threw plastic litter into some of the open-air enclosures.
How stupid are you people? Would you like someone dumping their non-degradable plastic waste in your favourite chair?
Go sit in the dumpster you pathetic person -_-
It isn't bad enough that you litter. It's even worse that you do it at a Zoo, and stark raving mad that you throw it into an enclosure.

Now on to the other surprise of the day: Lunch at Hilton, Al Ain.
Wow. That was some decent food.
What gave that edge to dining there was the ambiance. We sat facing the pool with occasional breeze blowing by. That kind of stuff does wonders for the mind :)
I decided a salad and some kung-pao fried rice was quite enough for lunch.
After all, I was more interested in the desserts :D
A creamy mango tart, a petite eclair pastry, a blueberry crumble with vanilla and cocoa sauce. And of course, a shot glass of creamy chocolate mousse.

The whole meal was concluded with a cup of green tchai :)
Gastronomic heaven...for that moment.

I must also mention that I was eating this with an electric-blue tongue, courtesy of the blue raspberry slush that I had an hour earlier. Yes, I was warned not to have it.
What did you expect would happen? :P

We returned to the Zoo for the Bird Show, something that was mentioned by my mum's colleagues. After a walk through the Bird area, we settled down to the 30 minute show that included wonderful performances by birds such as Peregrine Falcons, Eagle Owls, Steppe Eagles, the Egyptian Vulture, Ibis and the Lappet-faced Vulture.

With the show over, the Navigator set to 'Home' and the LED display of the clock at 1900 hours, we began our drive back home.
I was, however, out cold in the back seat with Norah Jones's album playing though my earphones.

That's what I call a day well spent.
Now on to some studies.

 ♪- The Nearness of You [Norah Jones]

The Soul's Windows

As the title must've let on, this post is on our perception centers - the eyes.

Being a student of Biology, I spent a good deal of last evening learning about the structure of the eye, with terms such as rhodopsin, macula lutea, fovea centralis and scotopic floating about my head.
But there's always more to something, isn't there?

Something one of my close friends said to me comes to mind.
It was a year or so back, we were in class and I was engaged in a conversation with her.
It was then that she randomly said, "Your eyes are like those of a polar bear."
Fascinating part to me was that she knew what a polar bear's eyes looked like.Upon further inquisition, I found out she said it because even though I was smiling, my eyes showed 'a deep sadness'.
Given the height of global warming, though, the polar bears must be sad.

I don't remember much after that, but it does show that you can walk about with a smile as big as a Cheshire cat's, but your eyes will eventually sell you out. Unintentionally, I suppose.

Doing my fair share of reading, I found out that emotions are truly expressed by these little orbs. Happiness dilates our pupils and our sub-consciousness actually picks that up in other people. Seems like just looking at a person's smile isn't the only thing that makes it unbearably infectious.
The eyes betray our innermost thoughts, even liars have a hard time hiding things.

So the next time you think someone may be hiding something from you, try concentrating on their eyes.
I wouldn't recommend trying that on me, though. Staring contest, anyone?

This post was inspired by a painting I had the immense pleasure of viewing the day before.
Whoever said that a good painting couldn't capture the intensity of the eye must've been a Philistine.

♪ - Passion of the Dance [David Lowe's Dreamcatcher]

KSV Elocution

Last week, Wednesday to be more precise, I attended the K.S Varkey Elocution Competition as a volunteer.
Best Decision Ever.
The pieces rendered at the Elocution were well picked, my favourites including a piece by Bikram Vohra, a piece on Mahatma Gandhi, one on a mother and one narrated by a little girl of 6.
All the pieces were equally thought provoking. Some pulled on the 'heart strings' while others brought a wide grin to my face. I even laughed while listening to Bikram Vohra's piece.
[I must admit, I do enjoy his articles in the Friday magazine.]

But quite honestly, the greatest take away from the evening was a short speech by Dr. Anand Menon, one of our judges. The speech as well as the witty anecdote was so brilliantly presented that even the students responded with an unexpected enthusiasm.
[Trust me, when you're a student, speeches are the last thing you want to hear]

Speaking of which, our judges were people who were most experienced in the field of eloquence and literature.

Lastly, driving back home from the campus at 9:45, I have to say that the skyline was exceptionally beautiful at the time. Lit up and picturesque as if taken from a picture postcard :)

Lost

I just finished my weekly guitar session, today I practiced 'Science & Faith' by The Script.
The song may or may not be familiar to some, but what I am sure about is that it is one beautiful song.
The chorus is probably one of the best I've heard, pulling in a topic that is of age old debate - A man of science and one of faith.

Talking about that, however, instantly brings up something to mind - The TV series 'Lost'.
I love the series, not just for its entertainment value, but for the voluminous amount of thought processes that have culminated not into just one but six seasons of a gripping, addictive and intriguing storyline. The science references are nothing that seems too far fetched to be possible.
Most people zone out while watching television. Unfortunately, that won't do you any good when it comes to Lost. You either pay attention or just switch off the television and walk away, because nothing will make sense in that case.
Coming down to the topic of science and faith, the whole series challenges your perception of the two. Where the characters need to be analytical but still believe in miracles.
The characters that epitomise these are Dr. Jack Shephard and John Locke.
But then again, what's a good series without its twists?

I am on season six as of now.
And the twists, turns and confusion just keep growing.
There have been full afternoons where my Father and I have sat and discussed the logic and possibilities of the series.

If you have any free time - 42 minutes to be precise - then I suggest you give the series a shot :)

Personal Failure

Well, personally this week has been a tumultuous emotional roller coaster.
As many of you may or may not know, my Semester 1 results weren't the best and they certainly weren't what I'd expected.
I felt so strongly on the subject that I wrote a poem:

"I've tumbled down the proverbial rabbit hole
Rife with confusion, unable to see any more
The darkness and panic eats into my soul
I feel it seep into every pore.
I taste the unpredicted bitter of personal failure
My mind cringes with fear
My expression turns to one that is demure
As my cheek feels the roll of a tear.
The tepid waters of shock subside from me
Only to return as fierce waves of misery
Submerging me into the depths where I rather not be
Cold, confused, full of regret and angry.
Realisation swiftly rides its steed in
Pulls me out of the deep recesses of my mind
I cough, gasp and take the cold air in
My consciousness making sense of what it could find.
The clouds slowly part, the sun is seen again
I feel its impeccable warmth upon my skin
It readily evaporates my pain
And instills happiness and strength within."

But I'm back from the deep, and I've learnt some lessons and taken some measures.
Hopefully the Semester 2 results will see the line taking a turn for the positive quadrant.

Yanni's Concert

As luck would have it, we - my parents and I - managed to book tickets for the Yanni concert, which took place yesterday, good buy indeed :D
The concert took place in Burj Park, in the 'shadow' of the Burj Khalifa and in full view of the fountains.

We got to the venue at 7:15 pm, to be greeted by an enormous queue. Not to mention a whole lot of people who tried to cut in line. The management of the queue, for me, was a big let down. The volunteers seemed to have disappeared elsewhere...this left the management of the lines to a few people who quite literally "Had enough" of the line cutters.
The gates eventually opened at 8 pm, and by 8:45, we were in. Decided to go get seats up front...in the Bronze section of course.

Personally, the Bronze section seemed better than the Gold and Silver sections but paled in comparison to the Platinum section - right in front of the stage.
We were all set with refreshments, waiting in anticipation for the show to begin.

At 10 pm, when the show was slated to begin, I noticed that musicians had begun to place themselves with their instruments.
Typing of which, there was a wide array of instruments: Pianos, a personalised drum kit, other percussion instruments, violins, a trombone, a french horn, a harp, cellos, a keyboard and a base guitar. The musicians themselves were diverse in culture - from Russia, to Cuba and Paraguay.
Yanni then appeared on stage and started off with a composition from his album - Live at the Acropolis. Second best selling album - of all time.
For all of you who aren't familiar with him: Yanni is a Greek musician, real name Yiannis Hrysomallis. A self-taught pianist. "Talented" would be putting it mildly.

Lighthearted, humorous but at the same time passionate about his work, everything showed in his performance. He also got the crowd participating in the songs, by clapping along or cheering for him to come back and perform again.

Amongst the songs performed were: Acroyali, Santorini, Keys to Imagination, One Man's Dream, Felitsa and Nightingale.

The fellow musicians themselves were some of the most talented individuals I have seen. The drummer - Charlie Adams - was energetic, lively and a comedian at heart, taunting the audience when we couldn't keep up with his drumming :P

Then was Alexander Zhiroff, on the cello. Very deep music indeed.

Victor Espinola was on the Harp. I've always associated harps with the more 'angelic' side of things. He blew all that away with an energetic and downright amazing performance.

Then of course, were the violinists, crown jewels of the performance. Armen Movsessian and Ann Marie Simpson. Armen showed pure mastership of the violin, even engaging Ann Marie in a duet-turned-to-duel on stage. Both of them just bought that depth into each composition.

And last but not least [Forgive the hackneyed phrase] was Yanni, who kept jumping around to the music and switching between pianos.

All in all, it was a memorable performance, one that I won't be forgetting for a long time.
Yanni closed the performance with "One Man's Dream", preceded by a short word on his belief in the human spirit. With words of encouragement, to follow dreams and be what you wish to be.

He also mentioned what a loud and receptive audience we had been, hinting that he'd be back next year.

Yanni, Dubai awaits you with open arms :)

Bangalore

The sound of firecrackers can be quite deafening :P

Yes folks, I'm in Bangalore at the moment. Getting here was an arduous feat in itself.
I had to bend over backwards to skip two papers.
Yes, SKIP. You read that right.

Now why would an 11th grader skip her papers?
Was she mad? Crazy? Inconsiderate of the risks involved?
The answer is yes - to the first two.
My wonderful south indian heritage makes weddings a top priority.
And all the uncles, aunties and etc. will unanimously agree on that point.
Hence it was decided that I would skip my chemistry and informatics papers in order to attend my uncle's wedding.
Not like that would affect my average.
Oh, no way.

So here I am, smack in the middle of Diwali - Festival of lights.
A wonderful wedding behind me. Complete with the customs and rituals - not to mention a few shenanigans along the way :D

The sky is alive with crackers, fireworks and thunderstorms.
No harm in nature celebrating the beautiful occasion with us :)
Seems like team India also brought it home for the festival.

See you on the other side,
There's a lot of food that needs 'hogging' :P