when will we ever learn o when will we ever learn :(

another bleak black day for the child rights activists who doggedly pursued duncan grant n company to a lower court conviction, extradition n imprisonment...only to find the high court acquitting them. makes me angry makes me sad makes me despondent. how do we ever allow notorious previously-charged pedophiles to get away...even as their native country awaits their arrival to start child-abuse hearings against them.
what will we tell the kids who stuck to their statements?...how do we encourage so many more to speak up in future? by the time the appeal to the supreme court gets thru, those vile ol men will be laughing their asses off at us...twenty years later, we still hark back to freddy peats...sheila tai where are you??

navel gazing!

it's been some time now that i've been mulling a "belly-button" exhibit...a culmination of my unabashed obsession devotion passion for belly buttons. you can now be part of it...embellish it, keep it stark, it is yours...anonymously, if you so desire. email pics of your glorious centre to bellybutton69@gmail.com.
meanwhile, here's the first entry!

i have seen the light!

"No!" interrupted Owl,
who was wise. "I have good eye-sight, insight, and foresight. How could an
intelligent hare make such a silly mistake?" But all this time, Owl had been
sitting on the fence, scowling!..."
i'm kinda slow...very slow...sometimes when you divide 4 by 2 you don't necessarily get half...cheers to the next one fourth ;)

dark knight indeed!

what a performance!...may his soul rest in peace :)
ps: i don't think chris nolan is going to be making another film in a hurry

back to class!

so i finally heaved myself out of bed n out of the house yesterday...for my first class this year at scm. 3weeks late, i was anxious to catch up. 44 bright-eyed young uns lay in wait...mostly from bombay, mostly immediately after graduation...all having computer and digital camera which is a historic first...got me thinking about new ways of learning and sharing work. need to figure an efficient way they can submit text, images, video n audio clips, me to be able to review n comment on them n everyone able to see each other's work. a blog? any ideas?
while on the trip to harvard, heard stories of how mark zuckerberg hacked into the college computers n accessed students' data n started the local social network which went on to become the biggest rage - facebook! imagine, they expelled him :) ...walking around in harvard you cannot help but be overwhelmed...the place feels very special...

early morning blues!

each morning i wake up around 4am unable to fall back to sleep...one crazy koyal keep me company as night turns to light in the deepest hues of blue...i have returned but am still not all here. i wake up in time for line-up only to find a messy room around me. i'm back at camp - dialogue at the dl hut, swimming in the lake, volleyball, long chats on the bus, turkish coffee n the fireplace!...but the best part about camp, is that i have come back really fired up with some broader ideas for my space in goa.

meanwhile, who's taken the rain away? n now that singh is king, can we get on with some real, more pressing issues that bog our nation down?

dc

my first trip to the capital. we stayed at the liaison hotel 2blocks away from capitol hill!!...a far cry from the quiet woods of pleasant lake in otisfield, maine. but like most capital cities - gentrified and antiseptic. the same ol story plays out- blacks n hispanics as cleaners, drivers, waiters and america's growing poor out on the streets. my aunt cautions me n i'm happy to be back without losing anything this time round ;)
a brilliant full moon greeted us into dc that night
the jefferson memorial peeks over all the govt buildings n other landmarks...remember seeing something similar in buenos aires the seeds at the us state dept waiting to be interviewed by the media n meet with deputy secy negroponte
the national museum of modern art, where we breezed thru some matisse, picasso, giacometti, warhol, mondrain, miro, etc 'twas hot...very hot, close to 40! so was most happy to slip out into the night to meet george n sush one night in georgetown, then with a friend's friend in his beamer(beemer?) to dupont circle n on the last night with abi n hussain...after being moslty clean for over 3weeks, the beer sure tasted bloody good!

back in bombay :(

got in not so late last night...after a mind-numbing 16hr flight which was after a 5hr bus ride from dc to newark which was after half day at the pakistan consulate...back to the long lines at immigration, back to the chaotic airport makeover, back to the mosquito-infested stinky fiat taxis, back to the crotch-scratching bleary-eyed bhaiya driver, back to the pot-holed roads, back to traffic-jams...but right back to my c!, to my bed, to familiar tasty food n a stiff rum n cola ;)

i'm so sad i'm so sad

...camp ends tomorrow :(

no pics :(

damn!...been trying to post pics of all the wonderful things i've been up to at camp but for some reason haven't been able to do so :( let me see...we've gone kayaking, did zipline, went sailing on this beautiful wooden boat at bath, followed by a bbq dinner with the local community of sailors. then, we spent a day in boston day before. after being in camp amidst tall pines n a lake, the big city certainly looked bigger ;) just the kind of day i was looking fwd to....loitering around, watching street performers, live music, microbrewery beers, decent indian food, a visit to the state house, walking down what they call the freedom trail. the birth of the country happened here..so!...n of course, we went to harvard where i learnt that harvard is the second biggest non-profit org with endowments running into billions of dollars.
this trip, my second to the states, has been so so different from the first - when i worked on board a cruise ship in the caribbean. then i was like a second-class cheap third world labour...fear lurkink around...always...but this time round about 13years later, i feel special...v special. have met some really nice americans ;) bush-haters n antiwar...who worry about the govt policies n their country's future. they've embraced us whole-heartedly, taken us home, fed us n generally been so nice!...i must sound like a weirdo :)
of course, the dialogue sessions (what we are here primarily here for) are tough, real tough - not so much betw us pakistanis n indian, but the scene betw israelis n palestinians is explosive...some of their stories is totally gut-wrenching...everyday, day in n day out...i cannot even imagine what it must be like to live in those parts. i've been to kashmir n i thought that was real bad :(
got to go now...another new day some more dialogue some group physical challenge some swimming some singing but such a packed day i just drop off each night in seconds...but then what's new about that ;)

4th of july @ camp

tap tap tap! these americans are crazy!...now otisfield is this real small quiet town in the middle of nowhere...but today they ALL come out with the flags cheering an independence declaration thomas jefferson made way back in 1776...freedom, something and the pursuit of happiness...that they surely do unabashedly ;)
we @seedsofpeace joined the parade n made a lot of noise n got a lot of cheers!this is zoe, i think, one of the cousellors

day at camp

in case you've ben wondering the hell i been doing here...i wake up around 7am and join "line-up" at 7.30m, which simply means ALL at camp gather at one place before breakfast. so we're about 160 kids, 18 counsellors, facilitators n us delegation leaders. the kids have their own program n we have ours. we "dialogue" from 9 to 12.30 ...in small groups or all of us together, discussing the nature of conflict betw respective countries - india pakistan, israel palestine, etc. can be quite explosive sometimes.
afternoons, usually are free...we sleep, play volleyball, swim, or go out to portland or freeport. dinner is at 5.30 which is the hardest part:(
evenings, there's usually some activity, like last evening we the DL's did a treasure hunt for the kids n had a song n dance by the bonfire. the weather here is totally fickle! you can wake up to a nice bright sunny warm day n then an hour later the fog rolls in n it begins to rain making it all cold n wet.