The True Meaning of Christmas !

So after all these years of pseudo-celebrating Christmas - beginning with the annual Christmas party my elocution class would have when I was Std. 3 and I'd go to play games to the tune of Jingle bells and stuff my face with chocolate cake and wafers to the last one in 2007 spent in someone's NJ home with an actual Christmas tree, some presents, lots of Coconut Malibu - this year is when I realized the true meaning of Christmas. I was sitting in my basement lab on the 25th of December and decided to go through my favorite time-pass activity : Going through Rants and Raves on the local Craigslist. I came across the following series of posts - copied below from CL :

Christmas, and money, and such (SC)
It's dark and grey here, either freezing cold or pouring rain. I would like to go to a coffee shop, sit and read and be warm. Or I could imagine being one of the laughing girls buying presents.

They ask "are you going home for Christmas?" and I want to ask, "how in the hell could I?" How do all my fellow grad students fly home for Christmas? Do their stipends include funds for that?

Because yesterday I had $3.00 to my name, and I was deciding between laundry, gas money, and groceries. Tomorrow is just another day - dark, grey, only everything is closed.

You're supposed to work your way up. Start from the bottom of the socio-economic ladder and diligently pursue a better future. And I try desperately to have a good attitude. But sometimes I hate that it has to be this hard, and even more so, I hate that so many around me - who should be financially in the same place - seem to live a life of relative financial ease.

I usually have a good attitude, but perhaps because it's so miserable and cold and dark, because the people I love are far away - I really hate Christmas. I would have cancelled it this year if I could. At the very least, it would mean those of us who don't have wouldn't be constantly reminded of the fact.

Heartfelt - written in a moment of despair / frustration. The typical response to such a post on CL would be ridicule , insults and replies containing the word DOUCHEBAG atleast 7 times. So when I opened the next reply in the series, I was pleasantly surprised !

Re: Christmas, and such (SC)


A very nice gentleman replied with an offer of help, and I want him to know I'm grateful. I can't reply with my regular e-mail b/c it has my name on it, and this is a small town, so I could easily end up with my previous posting in the hands of someone in my department.

But thank you - your offer surprised me, to say the least. If it matters, my grandma is from Oklahoma, grew up during the depression and the dust bowl. And they all passed down this "poor but proud" attitude (which also equates to a sometimes overly stubborn refusal to accept charity/help).

Anyway, thank you. Sleep well.

RE:Christmas, and money, and such - (SC)

It's dark and grey here, either freezing cold or pouring rain. I would like to go to a coffee shop, sit and read and be warm. Or I could imagine being one of the laughing girls buying presents.

My fondest Christmas memories are not of Christmases of wealth, but of Christmases of poverty. That may sound silly, but you'll find as you grow older and people talk about good times, they always are talk of when they had little. Things like the tiny apartment they had when they first got married or the junk car they had when they first started driving and couldn't afford anything new. They'll tell such stories with laughter and go on to say those were the good old days.


My most memorable Christmas was many years ago when I found myself alone Christmas Eve doing laundry at a laundromat. That was a pretty depressing thing to do on Christmas Eve, but as I stood there feeling sorry for myself, I started to look around and I realized I was in what used to be an old train station (people familiar with Clearfield know which laundromat I am talking about). It was snowing outside with those giant feathery flakes and it was just so beautiful. I was staring out the window and I started to think about the people who used the train station in the past, they probably stood in the very spot I was in, looking out the window and watching for the train to arrive with their loved ones. I could imagine the excitement they were probably feeling and it brought a smile to my face. I didn't feel so lonely anymore even though there didn't seem to be a soul around the entire downtown area.

After many, many Christmases in my life, that Christmas Eve in the laundromat stands out the most, looking at the snow falling against the backdrop of the streetlights during a time when I had little money and no company.

I hope that somehow today you find your own little piece of Christmas joy, it's out there somewhere, you just have to go look for it.












It did bring out a smile and some cheer to me - and I somehow felt included in the holiday cheer !

So...Merry Christmas !!

whodasanta ? ;)

Slumdog !

Finished watching Slumdog Millionaire: what a fantastic movie - in both senses of the word "fantastic". Its always a good feeling to see Bombay on the silver screen - especially in a global context because you know that you are able to see way more than other people can. When you see a VT, they see trains and people - you know what it means to have traveled through there, waited there - the sweat the stink the urgency of people while you wait, the laxity of people while you rush. A person from Bombay can realize that while the scenes in which the kid goes through shit to see the Big B and that entire households come to a standstill for the final question are entirely plausible, the whole idea of the slum kid getting breaks like he did in the movie is almost impossible. But then - its Bombay and stuff always works out! Another thought that ran through my mind was everyone around saw him winning 2 crores - he only knew what he had gone through to win it and how it was an accessory compared to what he really wanted - and got. Which is another lesson in luck favours the brave , there are no free lunches etc etc.

Awesome awesome movie - I'll be looking to see it again for sure !

Aam Aadmi.

Notice the similarity between the "Common Man" ? R.K. Laxman's on the left, and the one from "A Wednesday" on the right.

Smart move, I'd say !!

Q - What is "aam aadmi" in English?
A - Mango Man.

US elections wishlist.

I wish I....

.. had a vote, I'd vote Obama.
.. could nail Palin (pun intended)- I'd debate her.
.. could betcha that I can keep her busy by writing P.T.O on both sides of the paper!!!

Mr. Bore !

Its silent learning. Only when you start interacting with undergrads, you realise how far beyond that stage you've come. It seems so much more than a year.

Not cocky, arrogant. Yet. Circumstances still allow steps to be taken that may lead to cocky, arrogant again but it seems to be too much work.

One spoilt evening over olives can get you thinking. More than you may want.

Its a little woozy, but it seems to be falling in place.This week's been pretty good so far. Hopefully by next week, there should be my set routine for the rest of the sem.

Its beyond the stage where you read "... only 21yrs ..." in a newspaper article abt some achievement and go like - whoaaa that guy is old, I can do the same - I'm still just 16/17/18.It hits that you're 23 - about to enter the Great Circle of Boring Life.

Hell, I don't crank a-PJ-a-minute anymore!!

Wanderlust....

I have been envying this friend of mine since the past few days. She travels the bloody globe, seeing so many new places, meeting so many new people, cuisines, cultures its the stuff of my dreams. Now I feel the urge to become part of a TV channel show that takes you around the world and does all that they do.

It began one evening two weeks ago, when I went to a local hookah place to listen to this band called Anatolian Fusion. Funky name, but it was essentially Turkish. Such amazing music....I went up to them and asked for a CD. I have to get it yet, but hell......it made me realize how much fun these nations would be to go to.

I've been doing my bit to satisfy the wanderlust in me, been to 5 different cities in an equal number of weekends, and felt the urge to blog from each of them but I have just been too lazy!! I had my 5th official trip to NYC and I continue my love-hate with it. DC is charming and tolerable, but just so. Pittsburgh was a surprise..it helped that they had summer bands and events going on and the day was pretty fine, but what with its cruises, and clubs and other fun stuff to do it just made me want to extend my trip. No I didn't go to the temple, but I would have wanted to go there coz I hear the Udipi next to it awesome :D :D Philadelphia was such a whirlwind trip, left at 5am back at 2 am but we did a crazy amount of things in that 22 hr period. Old city, parks, Rocky-style running, futuristic (and reallly expensive restaurant) we went through the whole gamut. Not to mention the riverfront bazaar and the bike parade and the fact that everyone remained a sport on the hot day. Capped by Montreal last weekend....ohh I loved that city (Haven't I said it for all of them?) US meets- Europe, and the purpose I was there for made it all the more special. Hordes o people from all over the globe had descended to watch Formula 1 and the festive atmosphere it gave to the place was absolutely amazing. Hot cars, hot chicks - a word about them - it wasn't only those who came for the race, regular, average Canadian girls were so strikingly pretty and beautiful - absolutely no comparison to the US. Ok, a lot of words happened, but yes, a random google search listed Montreal as the 8th global city with the most beautiful girls and Heaven knows I agree !! Back to the cars..and the clubbing.....and the street stuff....words don't do it justice so I will put up an album link up here, but the shivers you get from an F1 car passing 2 feet in front of you are so different yet equal in intensity to those you get when you hear David Guetta in a club or see an Audi R8 out on the streets or see a bunch of regular race-heads smoking their tires in stand-still traffic.

I still have to become that smart traveler that travels everywhere in minimum $$s, but I hope that's coming up next coz this is burning a hole in my pocket ! This weekend trip to DC shall hopefully be the last of my summer wanderings coz I need to start earning my pay now, but damnnnn, I want to travel to Florida and California.For me, the journey AND destination counts :( :( and its not either or.

Ms. Mehta, you have my respect and my envy !!!!

LateNight@ Penn State !!

Dated April 4th, 2008