From 'Lonely' to "Home"(ly)!

I came to Texas to pursue a master’s degree and spent two and half years achieving it! In December 2008, 2 + years of my hard work will be summed up in two letters at the end of my name =>

Poorva Narsapur M.S.!

I wonder what I will feel walking down the “United Spirits Arena” wearing the black robe and cap (that symbolize a judge...God forbid... I am the most biased human being ever who can be emotionally blackmailed easily.... that will end the concept of “aandha kannon”....giggles)!

Ironically the “hindi movies” (that almost never show anything remotely “real”) too depict the graduation ceremony in a similar fashion which predictably has always caught my fancy। Hence ever since I enrolled in the graduate school I have been awaiting the graduation day! To walk the walk and throw the cap high up in the air.... watch it as it swivels and jump up to catch it in mid air!

Sadly after my graduate date was extended by 6 months... I had almost lost interest in the commencement ceremony. Thankfully a surprise visit to the Spirits Arena reminded me of what I had been waiting for.... to get photographed in the over sized gown!!

Neither had I thought that I would be sad about leaving Lubbock! I had always imagined relief to be etched on my mind when I said my final goodbyes to flat, sunny, dusty, “hard watered” and lonely Lubbock!

On Monday the 17^th of November I visited all my professors and said goodbyes! Then I spent an hour touring Texas Tech trying to fix all the wonderful images of the campus on my mind! I have grown insanely proud of Texas Tech in these 2 years. It has a wonderful campus which is almost as large as a miniature city! The Tech football team too made us Red Raiders proud and we can actually mock longhorns (after 4 long years!)। The first American football game I saw was on campus. Our band was stunning and our players well prepared! I think my proudest moment was when the “masked raider” galloped across the stadium on her horse (yep it was a “she” this time... for those who are unfamiliar with this concept... a masked raider is another mascot of Tech who wears black and rides a horse at the beginning of each home game and some others as well... they alternately chose a girl and a boy to ride the horse!)

After spending 2 and half years in Lubbock..............I now call Lubbock home! Initially when I came here, I could not wrap my head around the deserted place which was seen as a group of circular farmlands from the airplane! I was afraid of walking on the desolate streets which were the opposite of the streets in Mumbai.

Not too different was the scorching heat that tanned all of us black (IT was August!)। To make matters worse, the dry weather peeled away our skin, the hard water messed with our hair and the cuisine made my life difficult as a vegetarian। But as time passed I started appreciating the peace and quiet and the wide expanse of nothingness! The hard water began to taste like bottled water and the heat toned down as winter approached! I began cooking better and discovered restaurants serving decent vegetarian food comprising of something other than fries and salad! All these things made Lubbock tolerable but I still called Bombay home. As the year passed I began to get used to the arid Lubbock and things started getting very familiar! I knew people and the shop keepers and made more friends! I learnt to optimize on the limited resources I had and the quality of living improved. This is where I learnt to be completely independent, learnt to trust no one while being amiable to all... this is where got my first job!

I started identifying with the slow paced life of Lubbock which was very different from where I grew up ! And then one day when it was time for me to move away.... I found there were tears in my eyes... just like when I was leaving Bombay! Bombay will always remain extremely special to me and no other place can take its place.... however I have now started calling Lubbock home because this is where I learnt some of the most difficult lessons in my life... thus this too is a place where I grew up!

FESTIVAL OF RED

Once there was a festival of Red,

To which there came

The reds of all the earth and skies..........

The perfumed redness of a soft rosebud,

The mystic redness of a funeral flame,

And the sad redness of the rabbit’s eye,

The redness of a sunset colored peak,

The live sweet redness of a baby’s cheek,

The hard rich redness of a parrot’s beak,

The redness of a warm fruit within a wood,

The redness in the eyeballs of a dove,

The lonely redness of a heart in love.

But when the festival of red began,

Outside a raving outcast, redness stood.

It was the redness of the rage of man!

-UNKNOWN!

Note: This was my favorite peom as a child! Finally found it and would like to share it with ‘yall’!

Something about dancing

I like dancing and think it’s a wonderful form of art...be it salsa or bharatnatyam.

I have learnt classical dancing for more than four years and have to thank my dad for that. He forced me to go to dance classes when I was in school. I have had 3 teachers in all of which the first one was my favourite one. She had the kindest and sweetest soul of all. I used to love learning from her because I think she guessed I was there only because papa wanted me to and did not judge me for it....she accounted for my mixture of lack of earnest interest in dancing and my not wanting disappoint to papa. So she taught me when I was in the mood and the rest of the times she let me sit and watch. Gradually I begin to join the dance sessions more and more with budding interest! I was all of seven then and adored her। Then the worst happened, she died of cancer. That was the first time I dealt with the idea of death but surprisingly it was not frightening. I think I was stronger as a child!

After her death, I lost whatever little interest I had for dancing। To make matters worse the new teacher who replaced her was not so understanding and did not like my apparent lack of interest in dancing. She did not agree with my attempts to learn dancing for my father’s sake and was pretty harsh. She even enforced a dress code in my least favorite color which did not help with her popularity (in my views)!

Thankfully we moved in a couple of years and I was relived as our new place was far away from the dance school. I thought that it would bring an end to my dancing sessions! But papa did not give up, he found me a new dance teacher. This new one was very much like my first teacher and I starting enjoying our lessons. We developed a rapport and my interest in dancing returned! That’s when I realized I had the sense of rhythm and dancing was not half bad!

Unfortunately she got married and moved to another state which brought another end to my dancing lessons! Afterwards, I was buried in 12^th grade examinations and engineering years which left little time for anything else.

Now that I look back, I am really glad I took classes. I think it was my rebellious trait (as I was forced to learn it) that prevented me from enjoying dancing in my earlier years! For the record my dad is the sweetest soul on earth and he seldom asks me to do anything. So when he does.... there is no other way about it for me!

From what I learn from my new roommate, dancing is frowned upon by some groups but in our society, dancing (bharatnatyam) is considered a form of pooja (worship). And I am really glad I had a chance to learn it!

Every year the Maharashtra Board of Tourism organizes the Elephanta festival of dance and music. I visited one such festival with papa. Elephanta island is a 30 minute boat ride from The Gateway of India. The program was on a full moon night which made the whole thing even more wonderful. The ambience was that of some stage set in the 16^th century. The Shiva idol forming the center of the stage was beautifully illuminated and almost stole the entire show! We were seated on the ground on “gaddis” and round cushions and the whole place was decorated with lanterns, rangolis and diyas. It had the grandeur of the "महल" of the olden days! This trip was probably the most memorable of all my excursions and I will always cherish it. For more information visit:

http://www.mumbai.org.uk/elephanta-festival.html

The only negative thing about the place is that it has to be approached via sea which mandates a boat ride. Ordinarily I adore the sea, however I am prone to sea sickness and can become a tad bit uneasy!

I plan to pursue dancing again someday and perform the “arrangetram”! That sure will bring a smile to my dad’s face which will be reward enough! Till then what I do is watch and admire Madhuri’s performances and also some parts of nach baliye!

The week that was!!!

Last week was a very important one for all Americans. A new commander in chief was elected who will have to hold answers to challenging problems of the war and the current financial predicament. So the whole country voted and watched as they counted the votes. Many of them prayed for an able leader who will take the reins of government and be the messiah for today’s America.

Not being a citizen I have little say in who should have won the post of the potentially most powerful man in the world, but I do hope that he is effective and finds a way to make peace with the Middle East and end the war without jeopardizing the safety and position of this country. I am a little ashamed to say that I am not too well informed about the middle east situation as it does not directly affect my life....but the way I see it... .at the end of the day people are dying both Americans and those in the Middle East. So if there was a magical way to fix this colossal problem I pray that the new president finds it.