Today I read a really disappointing and horrific report on a fellow Trini's blog. I credit her for posting the blog first. The news depressed me and tears came to my eyes when I read the article. I have posted the link to the Trinidad Express where the article was published (click on the title). This is horrendous! The article was published in yesterday's newspapers about a thirteen year old boy who was tortured, beaten, soddomized and mutilated in such a way that not even his own parents could recognize his body. It broke my heart and in today's newspapers, like typical Trinis, the villagers were blaming the parents. These fu*king people should at least sympathize with the parents and thank their lucky stars that it was not their kid. No, it is not the parents fault that they wanted to see a better life for their kid. Maybe it's a failing government and a cabinet filled with jacka**es who are incompetent and incapable of doing their jobs. What the fu*k is wrong with these people?
Okay so now to put the cream on the cake......a clueless son of a gun in parliament, Social Development minister, Anthony Roberts, comes out and says that the government is going to fix child protection laws while he "expresses his distress and horror" about the murder of the boy. Am I the only one seeing something wrong with this statement? Is this the first such incident? Surely the newspapers were reporting or the murder/kidnapping,etc. all along. Which makes me wonder to myself, "where the fu*k was this a**hole all along?" He now realizes that he has to fix the laws! Maybe he took a trip in Wonderland and he just came back!
Where else in the world will a government release a known terrorist and allow such high class sh*t to happen right under their noses? Do these people have any access to televisions and newspapers? Are they clueless? Anyone who has ever sat in on a parlimentary debate or watched it on the television will know what I am speaking about. Trinidad's government and the opposition is made up of a bunch of bullshitters! With the amount of shit that is spoken in the Red House, i am suprised that they just didn't change the name to the Out House. It would suit them just fine!
Trinidad's problem starts at the highest level. There is no strict enforcement of the law, no accountability and every fu*king thing has to do with a bribe and who you know and how much fu*king money you have! There is no punishment for crimes like these and I have already stated my position on these fu*king no good bastards. All child molestors/predators/assaulters should be thrown in prison and be prosecuted to the highest extent of the law. But wait, what the fu*k kind of law is there anyway to enforce?
Now, yesterday was not the first time news like this was reported. Trinis like us who live abroad miss Trinidad so much because when we lived there, these atrocities were unheard of! I know of times when we were little when we left our doors open at night and we would stay out late at night "limin'" with friends. What is the government waiting for? Maybe their children are protected and hence they do not have to frigging worry about them being kidnapped and raped or soddomized! Trinidad is such a small country with such a big crime rate that it is just shameful. I feel ashamed to say that this is what such a beautiful country has been reduced to. The country is beautiful, the minds that are in power are destroying it.....let me not get started on their smelters......(fumin')
And about Permanand Persad, I hope his soul escapes the bounds of Earth for good....I pray for his family so that they will find some way to cope.
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Monday, October 30, 2006
Chocolate lovers
Today I decided that I had waited too long for Nan to bake me my cake. I went to WalMart during the week, bought the cake mix and the chocolate chips and left it in a rather conspicuous place in the kitchen, hoping that Nan would see it but she never baked it. I guess she went on strike with me and my demands for chocolate anything. She always tells me about how I must be really stupid to read the instructions on the box and still not do it right. Well, my problem is that the instructions on the box do not follow with our recipe and after a brownie accident, i gave up baking for a while. Well 7 years actually. That's how long i havent baked a cake.
Tonight, nan told me that i needed to put a little more flour in the mix to substitute for the eggs and just add the oil and water to the mix. I did that and I also added my chocolate chips. It's dark chocolate chips and a dark chocolate cake...Does that make it healthy? More importantly, do i care when it comes to chocolate? Well yes, but for the taste. It's about the only thing i really like to have a good taste. Dark chocolate tastes like real chocolate. I like the cocoa flavor. The milk ones are too sweet and completely lacking in the cocoa flavor. So according to Nan, the first taster of my cake, "it taste arite." That means it was really good. While it was baking, Nan came, looked at it and said, "Lawd, look at dat ting!" I didn't smooth over the top fully and it was a little bumpy but otherwise, it smelled really delicious. And for some reason, after it was done, i didn't want any of it. It's part of the reason i refuse to cook--It takes the fun out of eating.
I also baked a store bought pizza and put my own pineapples on it. It was really good but i missed the mustard. We ran out of mustard. yes, i am one of those freaks who put mustard on their pizza (I would have put ketchup and pepper sauce too if i liked ketchup as much as i like mustard and if the pepper wasnt so hot). Nan told me a long time ago that mustard helps to digest cheese better. For an almost lactose intolerant person, it's a great thing to know.
Okay, for the brownie story now. I was in high school and i had to make a molecular model so i decided to make a brownie and draw on it. At the time, I used to eat eggs but that day we had none because we were fasting. So I decided that i would make the brownie without any eggs. Well when it was done, i put it in the freezer to cool so i could ice it quickly and i went over to my cousin's (she lived next door). An hour later, i came back and the brownie was hard like a rock! I had to thaw it out. While it was thawing out, Vin went in the kitchen and saw the brownie. Now Vin can eat chocolate! He cannot resist seeing anything chocolatey. So he decided to have a piece of the brownie. Vin takes a knife and he attempts to cut the brownie but it wouldn't cut. He gets desperate now and he gets a bright idea to take the rolling pin and start chiseling at the brownie. The knife breaks and sails across the living room onto the couch. We searched and searched and couldnt find the blade of the knife and no one wanted to sit on the couch. Finally, after a few hours, we find the complete blade sticking out of the couch and life goes back to normal.
There were two good things about this brownie. It was hard like a rock but it was chocolate and therefore it could not waste. I was prepared to dip it in my tea! It turned out to taste very very good, actually and the second thing, I got the full marks for the project.
Tonight, nan told me that i needed to put a little more flour in the mix to substitute for the eggs and just add the oil and water to the mix. I did that and I also added my chocolate chips. It's dark chocolate chips and a dark chocolate cake...Does that make it healthy? More importantly, do i care when it comes to chocolate? Well yes, but for the taste. It's about the only thing i really like to have a good taste. Dark chocolate tastes like real chocolate. I like the cocoa flavor. The milk ones are too sweet and completely lacking in the cocoa flavor. So according to Nan, the first taster of my cake, "it taste arite." That means it was really good. While it was baking, Nan came, looked at it and said, "Lawd, look at dat ting!" I didn't smooth over the top fully and it was a little bumpy but otherwise, it smelled really delicious. And for some reason, after it was done, i didn't want any of it. It's part of the reason i refuse to cook--It takes the fun out of eating.
I also baked a store bought pizza and put my own pineapples on it. It was really good but i missed the mustard. We ran out of mustard. yes, i am one of those freaks who put mustard on their pizza (I would have put ketchup and pepper sauce too if i liked ketchup as much as i like mustard and if the pepper wasnt so hot). Nan told me a long time ago that mustard helps to digest cheese better. For an almost lactose intolerant person, it's a great thing to know.
Okay, for the brownie story now. I was in high school and i had to make a molecular model so i decided to make a brownie and draw on it. At the time, I used to eat eggs but that day we had none because we were fasting. So I decided that i would make the brownie without any eggs. Well when it was done, i put it in the freezer to cool so i could ice it quickly and i went over to my cousin's (she lived next door). An hour later, i came back and the brownie was hard like a rock! I had to thaw it out. While it was thawing out, Vin went in the kitchen and saw the brownie. Now Vin can eat chocolate! He cannot resist seeing anything chocolatey. So he decided to have a piece of the brownie. Vin takes a knife and he attempts to cut the brownie but it wouldn't cut. He gets desperate now and he gets a bright idea to take the rolling pin and start chiseling at the brownie. The knife breaks and sails across the living room onto the couch. We searched and searched and couldnt find the blade of the knife and no one wanted to sit on the couch. Finally, after a few hours, we find the complete blade sticking out of the couch and life goes back to normal.
There were two good things about this brownie. It was hard like a rock but it was chocolate and therefore it could not waste. I was prepared to dip it in my tea! It turned out to taste very very good, actually and the second thing, I got the full marks for the project.
Saturday, October 28, 2006
In the Spirit of Halloween
This year, for the first time since we moved here, I decided to do something for Halloween besides give out sweets to trick or treaters. I went to WalMart and bought a pumpkin on Thursday night and carved it all by myself. I'm pretty proud of my artistic skills. It took a little time to get all the seeds and strings out of the pumpkin and to make some triangular eyes and scary teeth without stabbing myself with the knife but in the end, my pumpkin looked so awesome! My dad went outside after I put it out with the little tea light in it and he came back inside and said in a very clueless Trini manner, "who puh da punkin outside dey wit ah candle inside? wha da punkin doin' dey?"
It's actually 12:38 on Monday morning now. I started this blog on Saturday 28th after work in BCC's library. I went over there some time ago and looked at Darsh's memorial. There were flowers placed around the name stone and little blades of grass were growing out in places. I pulled the grass out. Today, on my walk, I was telling Nan about how much BCC feels like home. I feel as if so many memories are there that I could well be a building there. At times, I forget that BCC's library is also a public library. I fell asleep on an armchair in there once...I mean like real sleep and awoke to find a guy standing with his face really really close to me. I jumped back on the chair and then he apologized for "startling" me. He said that he saw me and he wanted to be sure i was alive and alright. Well I ain't exactly Snow White now! While on our walk, we saw an armadillo and Nan wanted a picture of it because she had never seen one up close. It was directly in front of us.
Nan says, "Ent dat does carry leprosy?"
I say, "yeah, so why you still walking up to it for?"
nan, "I wah ah picture"
Me, "you go cant see nuttin on the phone, it too dark."
Nan, "let me try still."
takes the picture and only darkness so she deletes it.
Me, "you know in trinidad they woulda curry that and eat it?"
Nan, "oh geed!"
On Saturday night, we went to Orlando for Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios. We left our house at 6pm and got there at 9pm. It was so much fun! I loved it.
There is a really good candy shop there. Couldn't resist having the sugar so Nan went in for chocolate and i got fudge. The place closed at 2am and the walk to get out took 45 minutes. One guy, on the way out said that the crowd "looked like f--king china!" Well with all the drinking and everything going on, there were accidents on the roads leading out of the place and on the I-4. We had to get on the I-4 to get back out on the Turnpike. Ami drove all the way back and I really don't know how he did it. The Turnpike is a very dark road outside of South Florida and to me, it makes for a good sleep. Well for me at least. I also forgot my glasses at home and everything on the road looked like a complete blur to me. all the lights had fuzzy halos around them and it seemed as if the car lights and the street lamps were touching each other. Note to self: start wearing glasses! I tried to stay awake to keep Ami company but I did doze off. Vin was snoring and Nan was sleeping on Ami's jacket after we turned on the heat in the car. I guess if we did not turn on the heat, Nan wouldn't have slept. Ami's jacket and the heat were conducive to a favorable sleeping environment to Nan. It seemed as if the only noise in the car for the entire trip back was Vin's snoring. It was very cold and even with jackets on, we were still freezing. I guess it's because it's the first bit of cold weather we had after a very hot summer and we weren't acclimatized as yet.
We got home at 5:30am and I went to sleep about 6. I figured that I should say my morning prayers before I went to sleep since I knew that I was not going to wake up until i had at least 7 hours of sleep. I had worked the early shift on Saturday morning at the store and really, I slept as if i was dead. No dream, no nothing until I woke up all of a sudden at 1pm and realized the entire morning had gone by. Nan later told me that she felt the same way. Like if she were having a hangover.
This evening, we watched the new "Exorcist" movie with my dad. We have HBO for three months and i am loving it! We all started speaking about ghost stories and ghostly encounters in Trinidad. It ended up sounding more like a comedy session than a frightening talk. Trinidadians are comedians by nature. I was asking my dad about something my uncle (my puwa's husband) had said.
I said, "Lail, but ent Sankar did get good lix for playing lagahoo?" I was already cracking myself up.
My dad said, "nah, doh listen to him, he does make up a lot ah stories, that one wasn't true. Sankar didn't get no lix for that." '
Sankar is my aaja's chacha....my granfather's paternal uncle. This made it even funnier because everyone always has a story to tell about sankar and I actually remember him.
Lix is trini for a good cuta**....which is trini for a good beating.
I had a good laugh with my uncle about it though. Sankar, according to my puppa, was tying a chain to himself and walking along the streets of the village late at night and scaring the villagers until some of the men teamed up, caught him and beat him with the same chain he was walking around it. A lagahoo is a spirit in Trinidad folklore who is recognized by the noise the chain makes as he moves. It comes from the french word "loupgarou." After the talk took a little religious turn as my dad was telling us about the rituals people used to do for all different purposes and how it backfired some way or the other. It's all these sacrifices and the people back then called it a part of hinduism.
Then Vin busted out the classic, "Aye but Uncle L de tell we about dis time he went to Salibea and dese Baptist people de dey on the beach and dey did kill ah chicken and throw de head in the sea and de head keep coming back to shore and uncle L de get frighten!"
I couldnt help laughing. I thought that naturally, everything gets washed back up to shore. Maybe it would have been something if the head didn't come back. Then i started to think about the lack of consideration for the environment and i got angry. By the way, the Baptists in Trinidad are different from the baptists in the rest of the world and Salibea is a beach that is a popular with the obeahmen/ women(witchdoctors).
It's actually 12:38 on Monday morning now. I started this blog on Saturday 28th after work in BCC's library. I went over there some time ago and looked at Darsh's memorial. There were flowers placed around the name stone and little blades of grass were growing out in places. I pulled the grass out. Today, on my walk, I was telling Nan about how much BCC feels like home. I feel as if so many memories are there that I could well be a building there. At times, I forget that BCC's library is also a public library. I fell asleep on an armchair in there once...I mean like real sleep and awoke to find a guy standing with his face really really close to me. I jumped back on the chair and then he apologized for "startling" me. He said that he saw me and he wanted to be sure i was alive and alright. Well I ain't exactly Snow White now! While on our walk, we saw an armadillo and Nan wanted a picture of it because she had never seen one up close. It was directly in front of us.
Nan says, "Ent dat does carry leprosy?"
I say, "yeah, so why you still walking up to it for?"
nan, "I wah ah picture"
Me, "you go cant see nuttin on the phone, it too dark."
Nan, "let me try still."
takes the picture and only darkness so she deletes it.
Me, "you know in trinidad they woulda curry that and eat it?"
Nan, "oh geed!"
On Saturday night, we went to Orlando for Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios. We left our house at 6pm and got there at 9pm. It was so much fun! I loved it.
There is a really good candy shop there. Couldn't resist having the sugar so Nan went in for chocolate and i got fudge. The place closed at 2am and the walk to get out took 45 minutes. One guy, on the way out said that the crowd "looked like f--king china!" Well with all the drinking and everything going on, there were accidents on the roads leading out of the place and on the I-4. We had to get on the I-4 to get back out on the Turnpike. Ami drove all the way back and I really don't know how he did it. The Turnpike is a very dark road outside of South Florida and to me, it makes for a good sleep. Well for me at least. I also forgot my glasses at home and everything on the road looked like a complete blur to me. all the lights had fuzzy halos around them and it seemed as if the car lights and the street lamps were touching each other. Note to self: start wearing glasses! I tried to stay awake to keep Ami company but I did doze off. Vin was snoring and Nan was sleeping on Ami's jacket after we turned on the heat in the car. I guess if we did not turn on the heat, Nan wouldn't have slept. Ami's jacket and the heat were conducive to a favorable sleeping environment to Nan. It seemed as if the only noise in the car for the entire trip back was Vin's snoring. It was very cold and even with jackets on, we were still freezing. I guess it's because it's the first bit of cold weather we had after a very hot summer and we weren't acclimatized as yet.
We got home at 5:30am and I went to sleep about 6. I figured that I should say my morning prayers before I went to sleep since I knew that I was not going to wake up until i had at least 7 hours of sleep. I had worked the early shift on Saturday morning at the store and really, I slept as if i was dead. No dream, no nothing until I woke up all of a sudden at 1pm and realized the entire morning had gone by. Nan later told me that she felt the same way. Like if she were having a hangover.
This evening, we watched the new "Exorcist" movie with my dad. We have HBO for three months and i am loving it! We all started speaking about ghost stories and ghostly encounters in Trinidad. It ended up sounding more like a comedy session than a frightening talk. Trinidadians are comedians by nature. I was asking my dad about something my uncle (my puwa's husband) had said.
I said, "Lail, but ent Sankar did get good lix for playing lagahoo?" I was already cracking myself up.
My dad said, "nah, doh listen to him, he does make up a lot ah stories, that one wasn't true. Sankar didn't get no lix for that." '
Sankar is my aaja's chacha....my granfather's paternal uncle. This made it even funnier because everyone always has a story to tell about sankar and I actually remember him.
Lix is trini for a good cuta**....which is trini for a good beating.
I had a good laugh with my uncle about it though. Sankar, according to my puppa, was tying a chain to himself and walking along the streets of the village late at night and scaring the villagers until some of the men teamed up, caught him and beat him with the same chain he was walking around it. A lagahoo is a spirit in Trinidad folklore who is recognized by the noise the chain makes as he moves. It comes from the french word "loupgarou." After the talk took a little religious turn as my dad was telling us about the rituals people used to do for all different purposes and how it backfired some way or the other. It's all these sacrifices and the people back then called it a part of hinduism.
Then Vin busted out the classic, "Aye but Uncle L de tell we about dis time he went to Salibea and dese Baptist people de dey on the beach and dey did kill ah chicken and throw de head in the sea and de head keep coming back to shore and uncle L de get frighten!"
I couldnt help laughing. I thought that naturally, everything gets washed back up to shore. Maybe it would have been something if the head didn't come back. Then i started to think about the lack of consideration for the environment and i got angry. By the way, the Baptists in Trinidad are different from the baptists in the rest of the world and Salibea is a beach that is a popular with the obeahmen/ women(witchdoctors).
Friday, October 27, 2006
Cricket at the store
Wednesday, while at work, a guy told me that i get a lot of attention from the guys who come in the store. He said that such was the case for "attractive girls." I guess it was his shot at a compliment. I'd much rather be known for having brains than looking a certain way. The guys who were ahead of him were talking to me about the cricket games that are on now. They were making fun of me because I did not pay attention to baseball world series that was going on but i knew about the cricket world cup for next year. One of them asked me, "how much to the cricket guys make in their world cup?" I replied, "not as much as the baseballers!" Then i added, "maybe if they (referring to the baseballers) werent paid as much, then they wouldn't be able to afford planes that fly into buildings." They walked out the store laughing and I knew they were talking about me in the parking lot. One of them calls me "Smiley."
For many Americans the easiest thing is saying that it is just like baseball when there is really nothing at all like baseball except that you call the 'tools of the trade' a bat and a ball. I was happy to note that due to the Trini presence in S. Florida, a few of the people did know of what i was speaking.
Today, I saw an almost heart-attack providing match between India and the West Indies. As usual, i skipped all of the first innings and tuned in in the last 6 overs of the match. I told my boss that the WI would win this one but then I began to doubt it. It became almost excruciating to watch them struggle to make the runs. Really, it was a poor performance by the WI coming up to the ending and i thought that the Indian team gave away runs by bowling wide balls. I did not get the name of the guy who finally did it for the WI but he did it! He made the four! I felt almost as excited as i was earlier in this year when the FIFA world cup was on. Almost. nevertheless I did scream when i saw the last ball hit the boundary. Whoo hoo!
I thought of it after. Whether I should support the Indian team or the WI team and came upon the conclusion that it will go as West Indies, Sri Lanka and then India. Apart from my West Indies bias, I really like the Sri Lankan team. Haven't watched cricket in a while but it appears that a few players did change.
For many Americans the easiest thing is saying that it is just like baseball when there is really nothing at all like baseball except that you call the 'tools of the trade' a bat and a ball. I was happy to note that due to the Trini presence in S. Florida, a few of the people did know of what i was speaking.
Today, I saw an almost heart-attack providing match between India and the West Indies. As usual, i skipped all of the first innings and tuned in in the last 6 overs of the match. I told my boss that the WI would win this one but then I began to doubt it. It became almost excruciating to watch them struggle to make the runs. Really, it was a poor performance by the WI coming up to the ending and i thought that the Indian team gave away runs by bowling wide balls. I did not get the name of the guy who finally did it for the WI but he did it! He made the four! I felt almost as excited as i was earlier in this year when the FIFA world cup was on. Almost. nevertheless I did scream when i saw the last ball hit the boundary. Whoo hoo!
I thought of it after. Whether I should support the Indian team or the WI team and came upon the conclusion that it will go as West Indies, Sri Lanka and then India. Apart from my West Indies bias, I really like the Sri Lankan team. Haven't watched cricket in a while but it appears that a few players did change.
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Days at Blue Thunder
When I entered Secondary School we were a "guinea pig" sort of class that was the first set of Form 1s that our school had ever seen. It was a very big school located at the foothills of Trinidad's Northern Range. Our school, El Dorado Secondary Comprehensive (ElDo for short) was known for it's strong football (soccer) team, Blue Thunder. For those who know Trinidad, our school was the one you see from the hills on the way to Caura River (given fame in the chutney " A Maxi and a Motor Car"). Originally, it was a school for form 4 and form 5 students. I made one very very close friend in that school. A guy. We were 11 when we entered secondary school and we stayed in the same class group until he chose to pursue Business in form four and I went into the science group. By then however, we had already laid the foundations of an enduring friendship. Now i see that.
Sometimes, I wonder how we really did that when we used to fight and insult each other but there were times in between when we would talk. I mean really talk and it was there we began to realize that we were pretty much had the same personalities. It is rare to find a friend with whom one relates to so well. Him and I, we had grown distant for a little and then we started talking again. We were able to climb over the obstacles and step around them in order to preserve the friendship. Now, we are closer than we ever were. He is a confidant. See, Ann, my other best friend, is different. we accepted each other's friendships knowing that we were different people. It's like how Tolstoy described childhood friendships in Anna Karenina. It lasts because it was formed during the innocence of childhood.
For the past few days, I have been talking to my friend. We chat online and we can call each other in the nights to utilize free night minutes on our cell phones. Otherwise, neither one of us will ever use a phone! He knows that about me and I know the same about him. We were remembering times at school when we were being "experimented" on to see if our group (the school's first Direct Pass students) would do better than the transfer students in the CXC exams. Our teachers somehow thought that we would do better seeing that we were not transferring from a Junior Secondary School. CXC is the Caribbean equivalent of the London O Level exams. The exams were Math, English and Spanish. We were in form 4 and the transfers were form 5 students. Most of my friends were chosen to do English and Spanish. I did all three.
It was during this time that our friendship grew. In order to finish the syllabus a year ahead of time, we needed to get outside tutoring. I took math classes three times a week, spanish during my lunch break with my friends and english lessons at a teacher's house.
The English Lessons were the funniest memories of my time in school. Our teacher, a very skinny,"dry" lady offered to teach us at her house on Tuesday or Wednesday evenings for two hours at $50TT/month. In Trinidad, it was a steep price for tutoring. I was being tutored in math for 24 hours a month at $40TT/month. Our teacher's name was Kuntie. Now it's a beautiful name...outside of the English speaking world. Maybe it is a name that is only fit to be in the scriptures and should not really be toyed with outside of the Hindi meaning. Many of the students referred to her with the "ie" suffix left out of her name. Of course she was never called that name to her face. Thank goodness! we would have gotten a notebook full of lines to write for that one and probably reported to the Ministry of Education as well! Kuntie was a bit dramatic. Well not a bit, very. Kuntie really convinced us that she was doing us a huge favor on top of her exorbitant fee and many of her students were determined to get their money's worth.
She set up two tables in her dining room and the better table was given to her "angels." The other table was a piece of ply board sitting on four legs and it shook everytime we wrote. Kuntie would yell at us for making noise with the table too. It was many a time I had to hide below the table while i laughed at the happenings in her house. Our table seated the "terrors." Actually, Kuntie liked me a lot...initially. She liked the way I wrote short stories and she even told me that she could not write a short story the way i did. She graded very hard and no one got beyond a 20/25 on her stories. One day, she gave me a 23 and she entered my story in a contest. I never really told her that I used to write my stories during the lunch hour on the same day of the lessons and on the way to her home. In fact, many of her "terrors" did the same thing and their grades were always better than her "angels." Maybe we just had some vivid imaginations. For a short time, Nan came to these classes with me so she was a part of many of the jokes as well.
Kuntie had a tangerine tree in her back yard and it was laden with ripe fruits. In trinidad, we call them portugals but in the dialect it is pronounced as "pootigals." For some reason, that particular day, some of her tuesday students were joining us (they were alltogether bad) and they saw the fruits. While Kuntie was upstairs in her house, we were downstairs picking her pootigals and stuffing them in our pockets. two of the girls with us stuffed their blouses-front and back. I have no idea how Kuntie remained as clueless as she did but she never noticed all through the two hours that day. She even stopped to say at one time during the class, "it smells like portugals in here, doesn't it class." There was a collective "no" from the terror desk. Now we sat closer to the window and while she had her back turned, we were throwing the seeds and the peel outside the window. At the end of that class, Kuntie was trying to teach us what we say when people enquire about us.
"You do not say you are good. Good is one of the most hackneyed words in the entire english language. Write that word down. Hackneyed. it means overused. When someone asks, 'how are you?' You answer, ' I am well.' You do not say 'the food tasted good.' you say, 'the food tasted well.'" I don't know who asked if there is no past tense for well but all of a sudden one of the terrors at the head of the table busted out in a British accent, "the portugals tasted welded." There was an uproar in the terror table. Kuntie still did not notice. She was laughing and saying that it was stupid to say that and it was not a part of English. My friends and I were in fits! The next week though, she was upset. She told us that we had "stolen her young fruit." Another fit of laughter and someone even said that it was not young but ripe fruit.
Then there is the incident with my two best friends. Ann and S. we used to sit in kuntie's tv room while we waited for her to come downstairs to begin her class. While in the tv room, someone discovered Kuntie had cable tv so we used to watch tv as well. I have yet to figure out what Ann did, but on that particular day, she was about to get up when somehow she got tangled in the curtains and she pulled Kuntie's elaborate drapery display down, rod and all. Now Ann's reaction called for a videocam. It was totally dramatic but she was genuinely terrified. Ann stood holding the rod in her hand and she was jumping and begging at the same time for someone to come help her put the curtain back up. She was too short to reach the top and if she climbed, she would have to move the furniture and risk scratching it. We laughed first. All of us. S and I were enjoying it until we noticed Kuntie coming down the stairs. i was worried. there was a guy standing next to me who i asked to help her and he said he was not going into kuntie's tv room "before she say i mess up she carpet wit meh shoes!" S was the tallest amongst us (well over 6 feet tall) and he went in quickly and took the rod from Ann and put it back up where it belonged while Ann tried to fix everything back in place. If Kuntie had only seen us, she would have acted in her normal, anal way and caused a scene. We desperately tried to avoid that.
Now the classic one. Kuntie's bathroom door used to get locked and then not be able to open. One day, it got locked and Kuntie couldn't find the key to open the door..... and a girl had to pee. She really yelled at us for this one. She came back and her face was red, "okay, who locked the restroom door?" She looked over at our table. Really, we were innocent but she accused us anyway. Now, Kuntie wasted a lot of time cross-examining us about which one of us locked the door and looking for the key. All the while we were wondering why she didn't just let the girl go to the other restroom in her house. Well needless to say, Jeez and ages! there was a disaster right on Kuntie's dining room floor. We would have laughed if Kuntie was not so angry that day with us. That day, we had to wait until we came out of her class to laugh. We laughed all the way to the taxi hub.
Not long after, most of her "terrors" quit her class. Our exams were in June and we left in January. She had tutored us for three months. She refused to speak with us even up to the day of the exams. It turned out that the form 4s did do better than the form 5s. The "terrors" had passed all their subjects while the "angels" scored poorly or failed altogether. Maybe we did learn something after all! And even though Kuntie was the way she was, she really was an excellent english teacher.
Sometimes, I wonder how we really did that when we used to fight and insult each other but there were times in between when we would talk. I mean really talk and it was there we began to realize that we were pretty much had the same personalities. It is rare to find a friend with whom one relates to so well. Him and I, we had grown distant for a little and then we started talking again. We were able to climb over the obstacles and step around them in order to preserve the friendship. Now, we are closer than we ever were. He is a confidant. See, Ann, my other best friend, is different. we accepted each other's friendships knowing that we were different people. It's like how Tolstoy described childhood friendships in Anna Karenina. It lasts because it was formed during the innocence of childhood.
For the past few days, I have been talking to my friend. We chat online and we can call each other in the nights to utilize free night minutes on our cell phones. Otherwise, neither one of us will ever use a phone! He knows that about me and I know the same about him. We were remembering times at school when we were being "experimented" on to see if our group (the school's first Direct Pass students) would do better than the transfer students in the CXC exams. Our teachers somehow thought that we would do better seeing that we were not transferring from a Junior Secondary School. CXC is the Caribbean equivalent of the London O Level exams. The exams were Math, English and Spanish. We were in form 4 and the transfers were form 5 students. Most of my friends were chosen to do English and Spanish. I did all three.
It was during this time that our friendship grew. In order to finish the syllabus a year ahead of time, we needed to get outside tutoring. I took math classes three times a week, spanish during my lunch break with my friends and english lessons at a teacher's house.
The English Lessons were the funniest memories of my time in school. Our teacher, a very skinny,"dry" lady offered to teach us at her house on Tuesday or Wednesday evenings for two hours at $50TT/month. In Trinidad, it was a steep price for tutoring. I was being tutored in math for 24 hours a month at $40TT/month. Our teacher's name was Kuntie. Now it's a beautiful name...outside of the English speaking world. Maybe it is a name that is only fit to be in the scriptures and should not really be toyed with outside of the Hindi meaning. Many of the students referred to her with the "ie" suffix left out of her name. Of course she was never called that name to her face. Thank goodness! we would have gotten a notebook full of lines to write for that one and probably reported to the Ministry of Education as well! Kuntie was a bit dramatic. Well not a bit, very. Kuntie really convinced us that she was doing us a huge favor on top of her exorbitant fee and many of her students were determined to get their money's worth.
She set up two tables in her dining room and the better table was given to her "angels." The other table was a piece of ply board sitting on four legs and it shook everytime we wrote. Kuntie would yell at us for making noise with the table too. It was many a time I had to hide below the table while i laughed at the happenings in her house. Our table seated the "terrors." Actually, Kuntie liked me a lot...initially. She liked the way I wrote short stories and she even told me that she could not write a short story the way i did. She graded very hard and no one got beyond a 20/25 on her stories. One day, she gave me a 23 and she entered my story in a contest. I never really told her that I used to write my stories during the lunch hour on the same day of the lessons and on the way to her home. In fact, many of her "terrors" did the same thing and their grades were always better than her "angels." Maybe we just had some vivid imaginations. For a short time, Nan came to these classes with me so she was a part of many of the jokes as well.
Kuntie had a tangerine tree in her back yard and it was laden with ripe fruits. In trinidad, we call them portugals but in the dialect it is pronounced as "pootigals." For some reason, that particular day, some of her tuesday students were joining us (they were alltogether bad) and they saw the fruits. While Kuntie was upstairs in her house, we were downstairs picking her pootigals and stuffing them in our pockets. two of the girls with us stuffed their blouses-front and back. I have no idea how Kuntie remained as clueless as she did but she never noticed all through the two hours that day. She even stopped to say at one time during the class, "it smells like portugals in here, doesn't it class." There was a collective "no" from the terror desk. Now we sat closer to the window and while she had her back turned, we were throwing the seeds and the peel outside the window. At the end of that class, Kuntie was trying to teach us what we say when people enquire about us.
"You do not say you are good. Good is one of the most hackneyed words in the entire english language. Write that word down. Hackneyed. it means overused. When someone asks, 'how are you?' You answer, ' I am well.' You do not say 'the food tasted good.' you say, 'the food tasted well.'" I don't know who asked if there is no past tense for well but all of a sudden one of the terrors at the head of the table busted out in a British accent, "the portugals tasted welded." There was an uproar in the terror table. Kuntie still did not notice. She was laughing and saying that it was stupid to say that and it was not a part of English. My friends and I were in fits! The next week though, she was upset. She told us that we had "stolen her young fruit." Another fit of laughter and someone even said that it was not young but ripe fruit.
Then there is the incident with my two best friends. Ann and S. we used to sit in kuntie's tv room while we waited for her to come downstairs to begin her class. While in the tv room, someone discovered Kuntie had cable tv so we used to watch tv as well. I have yet to figure out what Ann did, but on that particular day, she was about to get up when somehow she got tangled in the curtains and she pulled Kuntie's elaborate drapery display down, rod and all. Now Ann's reaction called for a videocam. It was totally dramatic but she was genuinely terrified. Ann stood holding the rod in her hand and she was jumping and begging at the same time for someone to come help her put the curtain back up. She was too short to reach the top and if she climbed, she would have to move the furniture and risk scratching it. We laughed first. All of us. S and I were enjoying it until we noticed Kuntie coming down the stairs. i was worried. there was a guy standing next to me who i asked to help her and he said he was not going into kuntie's tv room "before she say i mess up she carpet wit meh shoes!" S was the tallest amongst us (well over 6 feet tall) and he went in quickly and took the rod from Ann and put it back up where it belonged while Ann tried to fix everything back in place. If Kuntie had only seen us, she would have acted in her normal, anal way and caused a scene. We desperately tried to avoid that.
Now the classic one. Kuntie's bathroom door used to get locked and then not be able to open. One day, it got locked and Kuntie couldn't find the key to open the door..... and a girl had to pee. She really yelled at us for this one. She came back and her face was red, "okay, who locked the restroom door?" She looked over at our table. Really, we were innocent but she accused us anyway. Now, Kuntie wasted a lot of time cross-examining us about which one of us locked the door and looking for the key. All the while we were wondering why she didn't just let the girl go to the other restroom in her house. Well needless to say, Jeez and ages! there was a disaster right on Kuntie's dining room floor. We would have laughed if Kuntie was not so angry that day with us. That day, we had to wait until we came out of her class to laugh. We laughed all the way to the taxi hub.
Not long after, most of her "terrors" quit her class. Our exams were in June and we left in January. She had tutored us for three months. She refused to speak with us even up to the day of the exams. It turned out that the form 4s did do better than the form 5s. The "terrors" had passed all their subjects while the "angels" scored poorly or failed altogether. Maybe we did learn something after all! And even though Kuntie was the way she was, she really was an excellent english teacher.
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
What's on TV
Ami called a minute ago to turn my TV on the news because they were going to execute some guy called the "gainesville ripper." That was at 11:15. The Gainesville Ripper killed 5 university students in Gainesville, Florida. Gainesville is where the University of Florida is located. Now, when asked if he was sorry, the guy said that he had regrets and lucifer made him do it. He kills five people and says lucifer made himdo it! maybe he IS lucifer! He not only killed them but he mutilated them. Ami just called to say that they postponed the execution 'til tomorrow at 6. According to Ami, he should be prosecuted to the highest extent of the law and Florida's law does include executions. My views on capital punishment is a bit differnent and varying. I will not say that I always support it but for child molestors/child killers and serial killers/mass murderers, I tend to take an extremely rightist side. Otherwise, I will consider. I do not really think about the psychological aspects when children and many people are involved.
There is a very very well made movie that kind of makes one consider capital punishment. Sean Penn is an excellent actor. Actually, he is one of my favorites. "Dead Man Walking" is the film. Actually, it is a novel that was made into a movie. In the film, Susan Sarandon plays a nun who is acting as Penn's spiritual advisor. Penn is on death row and he wants to live. The thing about the movie is that it makes you want to take Penn's side. It makes the viewer want Penn to live even though we find out that he is actually guilty of the crime he committed. Well, it made me want to see him living and for me, that in itself is excellent acting.
I really do not watch the news anyway and when i do, i get it from Jon Stewart on his "Daily Show" or Colbert. They actually report accurate news. Today I watched another movie that I thought was a good movie. "Sisterhood of the travelling pants." It is not one of those really senseless movies. I found that I could relate to the movie. It's amazing how much just believing in something can change one's view on things. The pair of blue jeans was supposed to bring luck to the wearer and these four friends (Lena, Tibby, Bridget, and Carmen) took turns wearing the jeans for a week out of the summer. Their summer was 8 weeks long so it meant that they each had the jeans twice during the summer. At first, they had seemingly bad luck but the second time, their luck changed. The best part of the movie is with Tibby and her friend. I will not say where in the movie but i think anyone who has seen the movie will know where i am speaking of. It's where the belief of the jeans bringing luck comes out.
Watching that movie made me remember a tape that my friends and I had made the week we were graduating from high school. I forgot I had the tape and after the movie, I decided to watch it. It was just a girl meeting and it was taped at one of the girls' house. There were 9 of us there and we still pretty much keep in touch. I don't think we changed very much after high school except that most of us gained weight, one girl moved back to Germany and we don't hear from her anymore(she was a foreign exchange student) then there is one who became a little distant, and one of us lost weight. In most parts, we all stayed close. One girl, I remained very close friends with and every time she is in town, I speak with her or I meet her for lunch or coffee and we talk for hours upon hours. This time, when we meet, there will definitely be a lot to talk about.
Okay...this is actually 2 days later and the Gainesville Ripper was executed. he is dead but i will not bring back those lives he took. Hopefully, the families will have some closure at least. I am not sure how but hopefully.
There is a very very well made movie that kind of makes one consider capital punishment. Sean Penn is an excellent actor. Actually, he is one of my favorites. "Dead Man Walking" is the film. Actually, it is a novel that was made into a movie. In the film, Susan Sarandon plays a nun who is acting as Penn's spiritual advisor. Penn is on death row and he wants to live. The thing about the movie is that it makes you want to take Penn's side. It makes the viewer want Penn to live even though we find out that he is actually guilty of the crime he committed. Well, it made me want to see him living and for me, that in itself is excellent acting.
I really do not watch the news anyway and when i do, i get it from Jon Stewart on his "Daily Show" or Colbert. They actually report accurate news. Today I watched another movie that I thought was a good movie. "Sisterhood of the travelling pants." It is not one of those really senseless movies. I found that I could relate to the movie. It's amazing how much just believing in something can change one's view on things. The pair of blue jeans was supposed to bring luck to the wearer and these four friends (Lena, Tibby, Bridget, and Carmen) took turns wearing the jeans for a week out of the summer. Their summer was 8 weeks long so it meant that they each had the jeans twice during the summer. At first, they had seemingly bad luck but the second time, their luck changed. The best part of the movie is with Tibby and her friend. I will not say where in the movie but i think anyone who has seen the movie will know where i am speaking of. It's where the belief of the jeans bringing luck comes out.
Watching that movie made me remember a tape that my friends and I had made the week we were graduating from high school. I forgot I had the tape and after the movie, I decided to watch it. It was just a girl meeting and it was taped at one of the girls' house. There were 9 of us there and we still pretty much keep in touch. I don't think we changed very much after high school except that most of us gained weight, one girl moved back to Germany and we don't hear from her anymore(she was a foreign exchange student) then there is one who became a little distant, and one of us lost weight. In most parts, we all stayed close. One girl, I remained very close friends with and every time she is in town, I speak with her or I meet her for lunch or coffee and we talk for hours upon hours. This time, when we meet, there will definitely be a lot to talk about.
Okay...this is actually 2 days later and the Gainesville Ripper was executed. he is dead but i will not bring back those lives he took. Hopefully, the families will have some closure at least. I am not sure how but hopefully.
Monday, October 23, 2006
A bit of good news and bad news
I am not sure if i want to say the good news first or if i should say the bad news first but either way, i will blog. There was an accident over the weekend and two of the kids who came in the store were badly injured. A lady ran a red light and plowed right into them. The boy, Donald, had just gotten his license and the girl, Cristina, is his sister. I feel for them. They are so young. Both of them are students at the high school close to where I work and the Cristina even came a few times to help me in the store. I watched them grow up I guess. Cristina is 16 and Donald is 17, i think. So anyway, Donald is not breathing on his own and he is worse off than his sister. Cristina is in a coma but according to a friend of the family (i am getting my updates from the neighborhood moms) they are doing better than they were on the night of the accident. The mom I talked to today said that they will recover, definitely, but they will not be the same as they were before the accident. My prayers are with them.
A little while ago, i blogged about a girl who was hit on her head with a sledge hammer by her ex-boyfriend. That was in august. She is in rehab now! She finally left the hospital. After two months, she woke up, she spoke and then she started moving a little. Miracles do happen. According to the paramedics who arrived on the scene, they had no idea how she was going to make it. Yes, she had reconstructive surgery and a little plastic surgery done but my source told me that the girl still looks very much like how she did before. I am happy for her. The prayers for her worked. She took a long time to heal and she is still recovering. Hopefully, she will not remember the incident.
I went walking around the neighborhood today. Initially, i was only going for 30 minutes but i ended up doing 10 minutes more. got carried away on the walk. I cannot say I was thinking about anything really while walking except Ami called and said that there was a WalMart that was closing down and he asked if i wanted to go and check out the sale. I happily agreed=0)
A little while ago, i blogged about a girl who was hit on her head with a sledge hammer by her ex-boyfriend. That was in august. She is in rehab now! She finally left the hospital. After two months, she woke up, she spoke and then she started moving a little. Miracles do happen. According to the paramedics who arrived on the scene, they had no idea how she was going to make it. Yes, she had reconstructive surgery and a little plastic surgery done but my source told me that the girl still looks very much like how she did before. I am happy for her. The prayers for her worked. She took a long time to heal and she is still recovering. Hopefully, she will not remember the incident.
I went walking around the neighborhood today. Initially, i was only going for 30 minutes but i ended up doing 10 minutes more. got carried away on the walk. I cannot say I was thinking about anything really while walking except Ami called and said that there was a WalMart that was closing down and he asked if i wanted to go and check out the sale. I happily agreed=0)
Sunday, October 22, 2006
teaching when student is "trippin'"
My cousin was just here a little while ago. She moved here when she was a baby and it's funny to hear the American accent trying to speak Trini. Yesterday, she got christened....well in the Hindu way though. Initiated sounds like a better word now that i think of it. But yes, she now has a guru. A little while after they left, Nan came and was telling me that my cousin is getting to be a bit rude. I asked her how so and she told me that for everything that she asked my cousin (lets call her D), D asked her if she had a problem with it. Yeah, it's a bit rude considering that we would have been whopped for back talking to our elders. I really like D though. D's little brother is also kinda rude and for that reason, I told my parents to keep him away from me. Children are cute and all but cuteness stops when they start being rude. But there was a joke in all this. Nan told me that D was into brand names already. We were figuring that it was from her friends at school because our family doesn't really look for brand names in anything unless it promises quality and durability. So this is what Nan said, "D was telling me about some bag called Rockefeller and....." I busted out laughing and cut her off. Not only did Nan not buy the brands but she had no clue about the name! Big difference between Rocawear and Rockefeller! I guess I would have been just as clueless if it was not for Ami. Ami would not buy a shirt unless the name of it is written somewhere on the outside. I mean, not slapped across the entire front or back but on the buttons or tucked away in the front corner. Somewhere in the middle I started to buy brand names and Ami began to shop at WalMart. I guess we learnt from each other.
I tutored today because I cancelled tutoring yesterday for Divali. When I walked up to my student, I knew i smelt alcohol but i really tried to dismiss it. Turned out that he was drunk and very happy. he was talking, very loud too and he talked more today than he ever did in the many months that I have tutored him so far! Boy, was he out of it! He told me that he would pay me for not teaching him because he was "trippin'" and could not focus. I asked him to explain "trippin'" to me because I was not following him. I knew what he meant to say but I wanted to hear it from him. When he was done, I told him that his mom worked too hard to waste her money and I was going to sit there for the hour and tutor him in something that he could understand. The kid is a good kid. he has respect and he really does love his mom a lot. he asked me not to call his mom and tell her that he could not focus today because she would be upset with him. I agreed on the condition that he would have to show me that he understood the things i showed him so far. So we reviewed today. I doubt that he could even see right but I made him sit up in his chair and work problems until the hour was up. We were on the last problem when he asked me if i don't feel sorry for him in his state. I told him no because it was not as if he had a cold or something. he did that to himself and he would have to learn his limits and responsibilities. Alcohol is NOT cool. It is irresponsible and it really does smell disgusting or maybe i just have a really really good sense of smell because i smell everything. I was not upset with my student though. he showed me that he could do the work although it took him a longer time to finish up.
At the end of the tutoring, I let him know that this was the first and last time that I would see him like that. he promised me that it would be. it's good to party and have fun. Everyone should have fun when they are young like that and there is no harm in that. you can only tell a person what not to do but you cannot really stop a person from doing what they want. yes, i drank at times. I was under 21 and it was no big deal because I knew my limit. after 21 the fun comes out of it. In Trini we say, "when rum start to taste sweet, look out!" i guess that's when you know you have a problem.
All the while i was talking to my student, he was telling me about how cool my phone was and how "it got chrome on the sides and a screen." I figured he really was out of it. Thank goodness the tutoring was over! At the end of it, I was paid for my time and I felt better knowing that he did do the work that I was being paid to teach to him.
I was leaving when a guy asked me for my phone number for tutoring in Math. I told him to email me instead. I didn't think he wanted to be tutored really and he just wanted my number. i told him i share my phone with my fiancee. I doubt i will hear from him again. I better go walk now. Feeling like getting some fresh air rather than using the treadmill today. Now to just find my sneakers.........
I tutored today because I cancelled tutoring yesterday for Divali. When I walked up to my student, I knew i smelt alcohol but i really tried to dismiss it. Turned out that he was drunk and very happy. he was talking, very loud too and he talked more today than he ever did in the many months that I have tutored him so far! Boy, was he out of it! He told me that he would pay me for not teaching him because he was "trippin'" and could not focus. I asked him to explain "trippin'" to me because I was not following him. I knew what he meant to say but I wanted to hear it from him. When he was done, I told him that his mom worked too hard to waste her money and I was going to sit there for the hour and tutor him in something that he could understand. The kid is a good kid. he has respect and he really does love his mom a lot. he asked me not to call his mom and tell her that he could not focus today because she would be upset with him. I agreed on the condition that he would have to show me that he understood the things i showed him so far. So we reviewed today. I doubt that he could even see right but I made him sit up in his chair and work problems until the hour was up. We were on the last problem when he asked me if i don't feel sorry for him in his state. I told him no because it was not as if he had a cold or something. he did that to himself and he would have to learn his limits and responsibilities. Alcohol is NOT cool. It is irresponsible and it really does smell disgusting or maybe i just have a really really good sense of smell because i smell everything. I was not upset with my student though. he showed me that he could do the work although it took him a longer time to finish up.
At the end of the tutoring, I let him know that this was the first and last time that I would see him like that. he promised me that it would be. it's good to party and have fun. Everyone should have fun when they are young like that and there is no harm in that. you can only tell a person what not to do but you cannot really stop a person from doing what they want. yes, i drank at times. I was under 21 and it was no big deal because I knew my limit. after 21 the fun comes out of it. In Trini we say, "when rum start to taste sweet, look out!" i guess that's when you know you have a problem.
All the while i was talking to my student, he was telling me about how cool my phone was and how "it got chrome on the sides and a screen." I figured he really was out of it. Thank goodness the tutoring was over! At the end of it, I was paid for my time and I felt better knowing that he did do the work that I was being paid to teach to him.
I was leaving when a guy asked me for my phone number for tutoring in Math. I told him to email me instead. I didn't think he wanted to be tutored really and he just wanted my number. i told him i share my phone with my fiancee. I doubt i will hear from him again. I better go walk now. Feeling like getting some fresh air rather than using the treadmill today. Now to just find my sneakers.........
Deepavali (Row of lights)
Today we celebrated Divali/Deepavali. It is our Hindu festival of lights. Yesterday, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel did an unusually good and commendable job of reporting the significance of the festival to a very multicultural community. I must say, it is one of their better reports. Anyway, at one point they did mention that the festival appeals to many because a lighted lamp is recognized in all cultures and religions as a dispeller of darkness/ignorance. It is a symbol and that little deeya has everything to do with our day.Sometimes, when we explain what Divali is to non-Hindus, i say that it is like our version of Thanksgiving. Actually it is a very watered down explanation but some people do not really understand the symbolic side of the festival. I have found that most people, who cannot talk about any thing, can talk about food for hours so if i keep the conversation centered around the dishes on Divali day, it's easier to understand that when there are so many different dishes prepared, it begins to resemble thanksgiving.
I worked for three hours in the morning because the boss was fasting for Ramadan also and sometimes, he looks really sickly, almost fragile, when he is fasting. I always thought that fasting energized people but then again, different people have different reactions to things.
This evening, before our havan, I asked Nan if she was ready to welcome L. Raama, Ma Sita and Lakshmanji back into Ayodhya. Divali for us is about welcoming L.Raama into our homes and Ma Lakshmi/Sita so that they can bring happiness just as they did when they returned to Ayodhya. Of course there is a lot more significance to this but I like to think that the row of diyas lead up to our front door and right into the house.
Our havan passed well. We offered prasad to Hanumanji and well as to Ma Lakshmi. My little cousin came over and we showed him how we were going to decorate our yard. At first he did not know what we were going to do but when we were finished, he was proudly showing off the yard to my parents and my uncle. Our food was awesome! Nan and my mom cooked. I was happy to keep out of the kitchen however they did get me to grind the mixture for the ladoos and all the last minute cleaning was left to me. I did not mind that one bit....just as long as I was not called to make anything. However, my mom did catch me to make a salad. Figured that i could do that since it did not call for any cooking time. When all the deeyas were lit, Nan and i came back inside, posed for some rather ridiculous pictures and then started dancing to upbeat songs and finally, "Inhi logo ne" from "Pakeezah." It was classic and hilarious!
In the morning, we will do Goberdhan puja at the mandir. It is a day of realizing the immense power of God when compared to ourselves. I like to think of it as a day when we learn to be humble and cast away our egos just as Indra Dev (the rain god) was humbled after L. Krsna lifted the Goberdhan mountain with his pinkie finger to provide shelter from the rain. It's already 2:10 am and i better get some sleep.
A few hours earlier, I set a spoon with some home-made cow ghee on it over a deeya to make kajar (really, the word is kajal--kohl but the language has been a little bit butchered). It's a tradition and something we do every Divali night. When the spoon becomes coated with the kajar, my mom adds a drop of the ghee and she mixes in a little and applies the kajar on the insides of our eyes. By the time she is done, we all look like raccoons but according to my parents, the kajar "cleans your eyes out." Really, i guess this one was waaaay strong because, not only did my eyes run tears for almost a half hour but my nose was runny too. My mom did not believe me until she put it on for my dad and for herself. According to them, that is the major difference between home-made ghee and store-bought ghee. The home made one does the job better. Vin was sleeping when my mom ambushed him and he woke up and tried to wash the kajar off with soap then tried taking it off with a whole bunch of tissues. He told my mom that she was trying to make him go blind. Furgie also took her's off right away and complained that she was temporarily blinded and bumped into my dad who was also trying to walk around with his eyes closed. It burns for about a half hour but I really do believe that in the end, the eyes shine brighter. However, i think my mom has lost her kajar-applying contract with my brother and Nan. Vin complained that kajar was everywhere on his face except in his eyes. My mom does that; she draws tikas on us and dots our faces. Poor Vin! This year, it was his turn to be picked on and we had a good laugh at his expense...and my mom, with her mischevious self, was enjoying it!
Friday, October 13, 2006
The days leading up to Divali
It seems as if I am bit lazy about blogging now. I noticed that the blogs I read are also in the same problems. All of a sudden, life has picked up and is whirling around. At the beginning of the year, i thought that time was moving so so slowly and now, i feel as if it is passing like lightning! I spent another entire day at work and i am just about ready to leave and all the deliveries are coming in now. Fuming!
Tomorrow Ami is performing in the Divali show at the mandir. Originally I wanted him to sing a ghazal but he ended up choosing the bhajan. I guess it will be more appropriate anyway. I feel happy for him. It has been a while since he performed for a big audience. I asked him last night if he doesn't get scared when he sees the crowd. He said in the beginning he did but he gets lost in what he is doing. Maybe that's the difference between good singers and not so good singers.
Yesterday, I met a Jamaican woman of Indian descent. She was telling me about her family's history in Jamaica. She told me of how her family name got changed from an Indian surname to a British name. She told me that when her great grandparents arrived in Jamaica, they did not know English and when they were asked for their names, the British soldiers could not spell their name so they told them that their new last name was Williams. I heard of how suppressed the culture was in Jamaica and how ashamed she felt when she was little because they used to be laughed at in school when she and her siblings took roti for lunch. Bread was too expensive for them and roti was fast and much cheaper to prepare. She spoke of how she used to try and hide while she ate her lunch at school. I remembered Vidia Naipaul's and Samuel Selvon's books. He captured the mixed feelings of the Indians in the West Indies. The indian community is very very small in Jamaica as compared to the community in Trinidad and Guyana so therefore, they were more oppressed. According to the lady, they were pretty much confined to only two areas of Jamaica and many of them (the Indians in Jamaica) have left.
While Ms. Williams was speaking to me, I found something that we had in common. We were been born in countries where we were considered minorities. Well this is true for Jamaica and Trinidad (up until recently). Now, Trinidad has a slightly larger Indian population than Afro-Trinidadian with them being almost 50% of the population. Mind you, the Trinidad-Afro population is a little more tolerant than in Guyana and Jamaica. Guyana is different. Guyana has a very large indian population but because of a dictatorship in the 70s, the country is now only coming out of that struggle that Forbes Burnham was responsible for. Guyana is more than 10 times the size of Trinidad (i may be exaggerating a little here) and the population is barely 1 million. Trinidad was over 1.3 million the last time i checked. In 1970s Guyana, my mom decided to move to Trinidad because for many Indians, Guyana was not the place one wanted to be. Many say that the problem with Guyana is that people hightailed it out of there. I don't blame people for running. My mom never really speaks of the times in Guyana as much but I learnt from my aunts and other Guyanese people that when Burnham ruled, everything that Indians ate was pretty much banned from the country. My mom once said that they used to make rotis with cassava flour and corn flour because regular wheat flour was banned. Sugar was scarce and so was butter and even curry powder.
In Trinidad, i think we had it easier. Maybe because the population was so condensed in Trinidad and the Indians were allowed more freedom. I am guessing that is why they were able to better preserve their culture than the Indians in Jamaica and to some extent, Guyana. My friend, Ms. Williams only knew how to count from 1-10 in Hindi. She was amazed to find out that we still say our prayers in Hindi and sometimes, Sanskrit.
One very positive thing though is Ms. Williams was able to carry on a very beautiful conversation. She did not feel sorry for herself but she did regret not knowing about her culture. She wants to learn and one is never too old to begin learning. i am guessing that she is more than 2 times my age but she left learning a few things that she did not know. I felt happy for her. She is a very eloquent lady and i found that she never faltered in explaining herself. I liked that. We were able to converse for a while before i realized that it was time for me to go home and for her to get back to her job.
It is a little bit after the Divali show. Ami sang the ghazal and it was beautiful.
I recorded some of it on my digicam. The show was nice and the kids enacted Ramlila. It was a very good effort considering that they had to work with two hours and 7 major chapters of the Ramcharitmanasa. Really, it was a splendid job. I like watching Ramlila.
There is a lot of symbolism in the Ramayana and I find it very enjoyable to read a certain part whenever I want to and learn something new. My favorite part is when L. Hanuman goes to find Ma Sita in Lanka and Sri Raam gives him his signet ring to show Maa Sita as proof that he is really Raama's messenger. What better place to put the name of Sri Raam than on the tip of one's tongue! It is a book of emotions though. It relates to man and there is no doubt that the lila performed in this incarnation fits man's life. maybe that is why i really love this book so much. Another thing with the Ramayan is that one not only learns of Sri Raam but one also learns of Hanumanji and hears of his glories as well. It's like having chocolate cake with chocolate chips!!!! 
Tomorrow Ami is performing in the Divali show at the mandir. Originally I wanted him to sing a ghazal but he ended up choosing the bhajan. I guess it will be more appropriate anyway. I feel happy for him. It has been a while since he performed for a big audience. I asked him last night if he doesn't get scared when he sees the crowd. He said in the beginning he did but he gets lost in what he is doing. Maybe that's the difference between good singers and not so good singers.
Yesterday, I met a Jamaican woman of Indian descent. She was telling me about her family's history in Jamaica. She told me of how her family name got changed from an Indian surname to a British name. She told me that when her great grandparents arrived in Jamaica, they did not know English and when they were asked for their names, the British soldiers could not spell their name so they told them that their new last name was Williams. I heard of how suppressed the culture was in Jamaica and how ashamed she felt when she was little because they used to be laughed at in school when she and her siblings took roti for lunch. Bread was too expensive for them and roti was fast and much cheaper to prepare. She spoke of how she used to try and hide while she ate her lunch at school. I remembered Vidia Naipaul's and Samuel Selvon's books. He captured the mixed feelings of the Indians in the West Indies. The indian community is very very small in Jamaica as compared to the community in Trinidad and Guyana so therefore, they were more oppressed. According to the lady, they were pretty much confined to only two areas of Jamaica and many of them (the Indians in Jamaica) have left.
While Ms. Williams was speaking to me, I found something that we had in common. We were been born in countries where we were considered minorities. Well this is true for Jamaica and Trinidad (up until recently). Now, Trinidad has a slightly larger Indian population than Afro-Trinidadian with them being almost 50% of the population. Mind you, the Trinidad-Afro population is a little more tolerant than in Guyana and Jamaica. Guyana is different. Guyana has a very large indian population but because of a dictatorship in the 70s, the country is now only coming out of that struggle that Forbes Burnham was responsible for. Guyana is more than 10 times the size of Trinidad (i may be exaggerating a little here) and the population is barely 1 million. Trinidad was over 1.3 million the last time i checked. In 1970s Guyana, my mom decided to move to Trinidad because for many Indians, Guyana was not the place one wanted to be. Many say that the problem with Guyana is that people hightailed it out of there. I don't blame people for running. My mom never really speaks of the times in Guyana as much but I learnt from my aunts and other Guyanese people that when Burnham ruled, everything that Indians ate was pretty much banned from the country. My mom once said that they used to make rotis with cassava flour and corn flour because regular wheat flour was banned. Sugar was scarce and so was butter and even curry powder.
In Trinidad, i think we had it easier. Maybe because the population was so condensed in Trinidad and the Indians were allowed more freedom. I am guessing that is why they were able to better preserve their culture than the Indians in Jamaica and to some extent, Guyana. My friend, Ms. Williams only knew how to count from 1-10 in Hindi. She was amazed to find out that we still say our prayers in Hindi and sometimes, Sanskrit.
One very positive thing though is Ms. Williams was able to carry on a very beautiful conversation. She did not feel sorry for herself but she did regret not knowing about her culture. She wants to learn and one is never too old to begin learning. i am guessing that she is more than 2 times my age but she left learning a few things that she did not know. I felt happy for her. She is a very eloquent lady and i found that she never faltered in explaining herself. I liked that. We were able to converse for a while before i realized that it was time for me to go home and for her to get back to her job.
It is a little bit after the Divali show. Ami sang the ghazal and it was beautiful.
I recorded some of it on my digicam. The show was nice and the kids enacted Ramlila. It was a very good effort considering that they had to work with two hours and 7 major chapters of the Ramcharitmanasa. Really, it was a splendid job. I like watching Ramlila.
There is a lot of symbolism in the Ramayana and I find it very enjoyable to read a certain part whenever I want to and learn something new. My favorite part is when L. Hanuman goes to find Ma Sita in Lanka and Sri Raam gives him his signet ring to show Maa Sita as proof that he is really Raama's messenger. What better place to put the name of Sri Raam than on the tip of one's tongue! It is a book of emotions though. It relates to man and there is no doubt that the lila performed in this incarnation fits man's life. maybe that is why i really love this book so much. Another thing with the Ramayan is that one not only learns of Sri Raam but one also learns of Hanumanji and hears of his glories as well. It's like having chocolate cake with chocolate chips!!!! 
Friday, October 06, 2006
About the army
Two days ago, an army recruiter asked me if i ever considered joining the US army. I answered a simple "no." She seemed taken aback. She asked me if I had any reasons why. Boy oh freaking boy! Of course I have reasons why. Not one reason, mind you, but several reasons. I did not want to list all becasue I was at work and it was a little busy (i was working the evening shift) so i told her that joining was against my principles. Then she asked if I was religious. I replied "yes." Then she started to tell me her beliefs. Did i ask to hear? Nope. but that didnt stop her. She told me that she believed that everyone had a purpose in life and joining was just part of God's plan. I told her, "well i don't think it's my purpose in life." Really, I did not want to say, "have you taken a look at our Commander in Chief lately?" this guy will get all of us killed! No, and a war never solved any problem. Wars create more wars and the cycle goes on and the karmic burden is left for the earth to bear. I would rather not be known for killing in the name of "protection." I would rather be trained to save lives rather than trained to take lives. No one wins in war.
Today, my customer was talking about the glories of being a soldier. He said that Cindy Sheehan was a moron for staging protests against the war. I told him if I ever had a son, and he was killed in a place where we really did not need to be, I would protest as well. Afghanistan, i understand, not Iraq. That is as senseless as senseless gets. If anyone is sacrificed for greed it is wrong. Maybe we need to develop more energy efficient methods and depend less on oil from the mid east. how's about that?
Back to my army discussion. there was a poem written by a "trench" poet during WWI. Wilfred Owen i think, "dulce et decorem est." Beautiful poem about the "glories" of dying in a war. Owen died a week before the war was over and his poems were found and published. That is tragic. Not all the soldiers who fight think it is glorious. Some of them question whether it is really right. Maybe it's just me. I cannot take nor follow orders that are barked out to me. When that happens, we become like animals.
Or maybe, we can just join the Trinidad army. Goodness knows, it's one of the safest armies in the world. A soldier in the Trinidad army is pretty protected. The nation was under seige in 1990 and no one in the army could be found! Maybe as a trinbagonian, i do not feel threatened enough to fight. Maybe.
Today, my customer was talking about the glories of being a soldier. He said that Cindy Sheehan was a moron for staging protests against the war. I told him if I ever had a son, and he was killed in a place where we really did not need to be, I would protest as well. Afghanistan, i understand, not Iraq. That is as senseless as senseless gets. If anyone is sacrificed for greed it is wrong. Maybe we need to develop more energy efficient methods and depend less on oil from the mid east. how's about that?
Back to my army discussion. there was a poem written by a "trench" poet during WWI. Wilfred Owen i think, "dulce et decorem est." Beautiful poem about the "glories" of dying in a war. Owen died a week before the war was over and his poems were found and published. That is tragic. Not all the soldiers who fight think it is glorious. Some of them question whether it is really right. Maybe it's just me. I cannot take nor follow orders that are barked out to me. When that happens, we become like animals.
Or maybe, we can just join the Trinidad army. Goodness knows, it's one of the safest armies in the world. A soldier in the Trinidad army is pretty protected. The nation was under seige in 1990 and no one in the army could be found! Maybe as a trinbagonian, i do not feel threatened enough to fight. Maybe.
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