Shocked, and saddened.

Though miles away, I am on this roller coaster ride from Wednesday afternoon. I was just about to take my lunch break and before that I decided to read some blogs for 5 minutes. I came across this new tool called twitter and the first news bit I read there was shocking. I thought it must be a joke for a second, only slowly I saw the breaking news on CNN and other news sites, and indeed it was true, Mumbai was being attacked. I have been hooked to the net since then. I did not switch on the TV for news since I did not want my daughter to be terrified. I kept reading the news sites and watched live streaming on CNN-IBN all throughout. I kept praying and hoping that by Thursday morning it would all end but my prayers never made it :( The ordeal took so many long hours and so many innocent lives. I still can't sleep properly. I can still hear the firing, see the fire, blood everywhere, the images of people dead and people who survived, the images of the brave officers who laid their lives to protect us, and the image of the terrorist captured on film. It won't go away. I was fortunate to drift off to sleep when I could take it no more, but I can't imagine what the hostages went through until they were rescued. How did the terrorists stay awake for so many hours ? So many lives lost, their families will suffer forever now. Kids lost their moms and dads, parents lost their children possibly the only earning members, so much pain, don't know what to think of all this. My heart just bleeds. The riots that this might cause scares me. The hit to the economy, the time and money to rebuild this all, what a shame, what did those few people achieve ?

I salute all the brave men and women who fought to protect the rest of us !

Fall Leaf Fabric Art Project

This Sunday was a pleasant day outside, the weather warm for a November day but I was not complaining. The daughter and me went and watched "Madagascar Return to Africa" in the afternoon after a lazy late lunch. It was alright, nothing great to write about but was quite entertaining. Ofcourse the daughter enjoyed it. Once we got home, she did some math homework and then we were off to working on this project I had seen here :
http://onegirldesignwrks.blogspot.com/2006/10/leaf-printing-tutorial.html

It was fun to collect the leaves you want to use, and then apply the fabric colors on the back of the leaves, and then press them onto the fabric. The fun part is when you pull the leaf out and you see the magic of nature and colors on the fabric. Every time you do it, the outcome is unique. I had got these inexpensive linen kitchen towels from IKEA to use in some kids projects and they came in handy yesterday. Time well spent !

Daughter's hand at poetry

The school sent out a flier home, asking kids to participate in a program called "Reflections". Kids could draw, paint, send in photographs taken by them, write articles, poems, based on a theme every year. This year the theme is "WOW". The fourth graders were given old copies of the National Geographic and were asked to find a picture that wowed them and then write a poem about it. The daughter loved a picture of an orange sunset in Africa, with some animals running in the background. She then went on to make a draft of her poem. Later she made a fair copy with her depiction of the sunset. Not sure if she will be selected to compete or if she will win anything, but in my eyes she is the winner already !

BEAUTIFUL SUNSET

The light is so bright, memories of you stay,
Please don't go away !
I know you won't last for long,
But this is what I want to say,
You are such a sight to see
Won't you come home with me ?
Your blazing heat is so much to take,
I don't care you're just as sweet as a cake
Your warm sunny rays touch me,
Oh beautiful sunset come down to me.
With red,orange,yellow,you are a pretty sight to see,
So please come home with me.

Hope reigns

Today I feel proud and happy for my daughter, the citizen of United States of America, one of the greatest democratic countries in the world. I am envious of her, I wish we would have such a leader for India. I am not a very political person, but this election in America was a big event and I got sucked into it a little. Watching the polls, the SNL digs at Sarah Palin, the great speeches by Barack Obama and now with him elected, I see how people have stepped forward for their country and made a choice. I feel ashamed that I have only voted twice in my country.

I had goose bumps all over me when I listened to the victory speech made by Obama. This line makes me warm and fuzzy and proud and all that........"If there is anyone out there who still .... questions the power of ... democracy, tonight is your answer ... It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled - Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been a collection of ... States: we are, and always will be, the United States of America."

I really hope and pray that this man brings about a positive change to USA and the other parts of the world.

Acknowledging

After the Bok Fu class for the daughter, I was in no mood to go home and cook, so we stopped by this Subway place on Park St to get a sandwhich. I ordered a footlong veggie sandwhich. The lady/student making the sandwhich asked me if I did not eat meat. I said I did not, and she immediately went and washed the knives used to cut the sandwhich, and also wore fresh gloves before she started making the sandwhich. I was very thrilled to see someone do this. I thanked her profusely and did tell her that she was the first person who offered to wash the knives. It feels nice not to insist on them changing the gloves. I wish this kind of service will be provided in other places too. I have eaten so many times earlier when I know that my food has been in contact with meat and may not seem like a big deal. But this one time I felt quite touched by her gesture and I had to blog about this. So thankyou Subway lady!