And I reach the city ...

Never ever I imagine or dream of where I will stay. Yes, I do dream of visiting different cities or places but of the ones where I will settle for long or for a shorter while, I never think of it. 

When anyone asks me where do I stay, I tell the city's name and if the conversation goes on for a little longer , I have this habit of being precise and telling that I live on the Highway.

It has almost been an year living on the Highway. It takes around 40 minutes to reach the city. How does one reach city? So, there are Rajasthan Roadways regular buses that start from Shahpura and go till the city. There are other Roadways buses too which come from Delhi to Jaipur, only these buses often do not stop if you want to go towards Jaipur. Then, mini buses can be an option too. And the most interesting means of transport is the "Jhonga" as they call it here. I have asked so many times to my friends to specify which one is the Jhonga but what they tell, and what I have in mind might be two different means. For me the Jhonga is the prolonged version of a Jeep. Yes, there are Jeeps too.

So many ways to reach city. 

Today I needed to go to the city. I started at 7 30. Let me rephrase it. I reached outside campus at 7 30. I was not sure if I would get a bus or not. I waited on the Highway for about 5 to 10 minutes and there it was, my means of transport for today: a Mini Bus. Generally, if I were not in a hurry, I would have waited for the Roadways bus to come. Why? Because the Roadways bus doesn't stop wherever it finds passengers. It most often stops on the designated places. But I could not have been a chooser. I had no option. So I boarded the bus. As opposed to my previous experience of travelling in a Mini Bus, today I felt the speed was much improved. The last time I had sit in the Mini bus was when my sister had come to visit me. I made her and my niece travel by the mini bus whose speed was as slow as a snail. Anyhow, I was pretty much impressed with the speed today and thought it might not stop everywhere. Well, I was not completely right neither completely wrong. After a while began playing the long lost music of 80s and 90s of Bollywood , which you(only those who grew up around taht time) might have heard while growing up and later on would have locked them in a box and would have never wanted to open it by choice, or maybe they would have, who knows?

While the music was on, everybody was getting into the bus with their wares as they had to be there in the city for business. A milkman boarded the bus and along with him came seven to eight heavy milk cans. They seemed to be so heavy. I sat wondering how he must have been carrying them. There were people who helped keep the cans inside the bus. While the bus moved ahead, on another stop a young boy, a teenager it seemed jumped in the bus with a heavy bundle. The bundle was wrapped in a colourful cloth so I could not see what was inside. But the way he put it down from his head, it surely felt gravely heavy. Then joined the wagon, another lady with a different coloured bundle, but it had some plants or a sort of bush. I really got curious when she entered with her green companions, but I did not get to ask what it was. And with getting in and descending from the bus of the passengers, we arrived in the city. I imagine every morning they get up early and go about their grueling businesses.

So, this is how I reach the city. And to add a little flavour of what it is really like, here goes one of the songs...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvS7hj6FE24

PS : I never knew what was the video like until I looked for the link to post it here .:)

I am going to keep this post very short. I feel a little feverish so i won't get into the description which i would have otherwise expressed. So coming straight to the point. I am attending BELC regionale which is a training and workshop program for teachers of French. In the training the second module that I have chosen is using literary texts for teaching French language. I must say my formateur M. Pierre Yves Roux is enriching us in every session. During today' session he asked to write our own quatrain a la Paul Eluard.  And here it goes , le mien :

Sur les vagues de mer,
sur les etoiles du ciel,
sur les perles chers,
j'ecris ton nom.

May be i should add more stanzas and make my own poem.

well, i will do it some other time. I just came back from the Opera concert organized at Alliance francaise by Neemrana Music foundation. It was my first Opera and it was wonderful even though it is not the genre of music I would listen to.

okay, it seems i shouldnt fatigue myself more. I hope i get better by tomorrow. I really hope. 

On an ornate chariot,
visits the Sun.

Widely opened wings
of the Wind, flutter.

The Earth disgorges fire,
a furnace it has become.

Brings a little respite
the Night, when it creeps in,
and we enter the Caliphate of the Moon.

Apprendre !!

" To speak another language is to have another soul." - Charlemagne

So I came across this beautiful french song by Yves Duteuil which I used in my French class as well. I used it with the beginners. Though the problem here with the majority of students is that they are least bothered. Since French is a 2 credit value added course, who cares? But that doesn't deter me to not introduce them to the marvels of learning a foreign language.

Learning a foreign language is not only about the language and its various manifestations in the form of literature, cinema, songs, etc . In fact, language is an indispensable part of our being. All these words that we know in any language float around freely until we feel the need to express ourselves and then we weave them into phrases. Some are endowed with innate ability to make use of the language as beautifully as possible. However, one can cultivate the language by reading, listening to songs, watching movies, in short practicing the language.

When I had registered myself as a student of French, in the very first classes, our teachers would tell us to think in this language that we had begun to learn. They would also ask us to dream in the same language. I remember once, when I was so obsessed with this idea of dreaming in French that I actually in my sleep was uttering words in French. As I was in 1st year that time, I must have used some of the very initial words or expressions like Bonjour, je m'appelle..., je viens de ...

Another instance that I remember very vividly is one of my professors introducing us to the pleasure of using the language. He taught us Oral Expressions in First year. He dared us to talk in French for 5 minutes in the beginning on any random topic. As any beginner would feel, we also assumed that it was almost an impossible task. But with sheer practice at the end of the whole year we could speak on any topic for 15 minutes of course a little time to prepare we needed. Our professor would ask us to let our imagination run as far as it could. And his topics did require a little bit of imagination. One of the topics he had asked in the very first classes was  "Un rat dans mot ventre" (A rat in my stomach). No wonder at the end of the year we had started feeling confident about speaking.

Well, it is a beautiful journey when you learn a new language or for that matter anything novel. So let us just hit the link below and listen to the song whose title is "Apprendre" - To learn. Below the link is also the lyrics of the song in French. Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWdQkWvzrYM


Sous le soleil la terre se fend 
Pour cet homme et pour son enfant, 
Après le puits qu'il faut creuser 
Il reste un sillon à tracer... 
Sans attendre... 

Apprendre ... 
À lire, à écrire, à compter 
Ouvrir les portes encore fermées 
Sur ce savoir accumulé 
Qu'on lui en donne un jour la clé 
Il a le monde à sa portée... 

Lire... Apprendre à lire entre les lignes 
Découvrir la magie des signes 
Et les trésors inépuisables 
Qu'on emporte dans son cartable 

Comprendre... 
C'est comme un mur que l'on traverse 
C'est la brume qui se disperse 
Une promesse encore plus belle 
La connaissance universelle 

Compter... 

Apprendre à compter sur soi-même

À compter pour ceux qui vous aiment 
Pour faire aussi partie du nombre 
Pouvoir enfin sortir de l'ombre 

Comprendre... 
Combien la vie peut être belle 
Et se mettre à compter pour elle 
Faire la somme de sa différence 
Et se soustraire à l'ignorance 

Ècrire... 
Apprendre à écrire son histoire 
À la plume et au crayon noir 
En appliquant son écriture 
Raconter sa propre aventure... 

Surprendre... 
Cueillir ses mots comme des fleurs 
Semer des graines au long des cœurs 
Confier son âme et sa mémoire 
A celui qui viendra plus tard 

Pour cet enfant à son pupitre 
Tirer la langue sur le titre 
Ècrire son nom sur son cahier 
C'est plonger vers sa liberté.

The voice chimes,
a melody divine
seeps the sphere,
of a conscience clear...

The Optimist within

In the dark confines, where dwells the pessimist that I am, a small ray of light finds its way too, scattered here and there. That is where remains a little bit of optimism. It is a game of power everywhere. Sometimes the pessimist overpowers and bashes the optimist. On some other occasions, the optimist is in its full glory giving very few inches to the pessimist to stay. 

 We all will go away one day to some place we do not even have an iota of inkling. We do not take with ourselves the world that we have created. We will be all alone in our journey. In fact, even while we are living our lives, we have undertaken our own single journey. 

To make this journey pleasant, we have created a world around. There are our families, friends, acquaintances, and others who form a part of this world. But while we remain around, we foster some relations, while some relations get soured due to reasons which appear important only for some time. If we look back in retrospect, these reasons lose some ground, I feel. But the grudges continue to remain intact and get even hardened in some cases. 

We know we have limited time, though a little uncertain about how much do we have, why don't we make it a pleasant experience with as many people as possible.

(Well, it is better said than done, however, there is no harm in taking small steps towards a more enjoyable and meaningful life) 

The pessimist that I am...

I wake up early today. Not at 5 a.m. or 6. I wake up a bit early than I usually do. I am upbeat about the day, I cook my lunch, pack my tiffin for office. Generally, I am a bit lazy in this regard. I am bubbling with some ideas. The day has a great start. Isn't it. The time to leave for office approaches. I get a knock on the door. It is my neighbour who stays right in front of me. We go to office together. Ten minutes are still left to leave, but I feel that it is a casual knock . I open the door and she announces that some Professor in our University is no more. The name doesn't ring a bell in the beginning. But after a while, the mails in my office inbox flash in front of my eyes. I have received mails from him but have never met  him.

There is also another event in the University today. Tiger Shroff and Shraddha Kapoor are going to come today to promote their upcoming film. I am wondering if it will still be on. A member of the University has left all of us. But the fact remains, nothing stops even if someone leaves.

While on my way to department, I keep on thinking. And what is it that goes on in my head? We are born into family. We get associated with our family members. We make friends. They also become an integral part of our lives. We comes across so many others and create bonds. And one day, someone or the other leaves your world. A vacuum appears. The pain is unbearable for some. For others, life comes to a standstill. Some brave ones come to terms and make grave efforts to move on. The fact again remains : one has to move on.

My head comes to the conclusion : Why to make associations, why to create bonds, why to get into chains of affection, love. why to be burdened at all ? 

But again, if we are born humans, we are cursed in every single moment of happiness, sorrow, anxiety ...And we remain cursed until the day when an angel comes to take us away to some other world to experiences of that other cursed life.