Oh, the Places You'll Go!

Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You're off to Great Places!
You're off and away!

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.
You're on your own. And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy who'll decide where to go.

You'll look up and down streets. Look 'em over with care.
About some you will say, "I don't choose to go there."
With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet,
you're too smart to go down any not-so-good street.

And you may not find any
you'll want to go down.
In that case, of course,
you'll head straight out of town.

It's opener there
in the wide open air.

Out there things can happen
and frequently do
to people as brainy
and footsy as you.

And when things start to happen,
don't worry. Don't stew.
Just go right along.
You'll start happening too.

OH!
THE PLACES YOU'LL GO!

You'll be on your way up!
You'll be seeing great sights!
You'll join the high fliers
who soar to high heights.

You won't lag behind, because you'll have the speed.
You'll pass the whole gang and you'll soon take the lead.
Wherever you fly, you'll be the best of the best.
Wherever you go, you will top all the rest.

Except when you don' t
Because, sometimes, you won't.

I'm sorry to say so
but, sadly, it's true
and Hang-ups
can happen to you.

You can get all hung up
in a prickle-ly perch.
And your gang will fly on.
You'll be left in a Lurch.

You'll come down from the Lurch
with an unpleasant bump.
And the chances are, then,
that you'll be in a Slump.

And when you're in a Slump,
you're not in for much fun.
Un-slumping yourself
is not easily done.

You will come to a place where the streets are not marked.
Some windows are lighted. But mostly they're darked.
A place you could sprain both you elbow and chin!
Do you dare to stay out? Do you dare to go in?
How much can you lose? How much can you win?

And IF you go in, should you turn left or right...
or right-and-three-quarters? Or, maybe, not quite?
Or go around back and sneak in from behind?
Simple it's not, I'm afraid you will find,
for a mind-maker-upper to make up his mind.

You can get so confused
that you'll start in to race
down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace
and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space,
headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.
The Waiting Place...

...for people just waiting.
Waiting for a train to go
or a bus to come, or a plane to go
or the mail to come, or the rain to go
or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow
or waiting around for a Yes or a No
or waiting for their hair to grow.
Everyone is just waiting.

Waiting for the fish to bite
or waiting for wind to fly a kite
or waiting around for Friday night
or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake
or a pot to boil, or a Better Break
or a sting of pearls, or a pair of pants
or a wig with curls, or Another Chance.
Everyone is just waiting.

NO!
That's not for you!

Somehow you'll escape
all that waiting and staying.
You'll find the bright places
where Boom Bands are playing.

With banner flip-flapping,
once more you'll ride high!
Ready for anything under the sky.
Ready because you're that kind of a guy!

Oh, the places you'll go! There is fun to be done!
There are points to be scored. there are games to be won.
And the magical things you can do with that ball
will make you the winning-est winner of all.
Fame! You'll be famous as famous can be,
with the whole wide world watching you win on TV.

Except when they don't.
Because, sometimes, they won't.

I'm afraid that some times
you'll play lonely games too.
Games you can't win
'cause you'll play against you.

All Alone!
Whether you like it or not,
Alone will be something
you'll be quite a lot.

And when you're alone, there's a very good chance
you'll meet things that scare you right out of your pants.
There are some, down the road between hither and yon,
that can scare you so much you won't want to go on.

But on you will go
though the weather be foul
On you will go
though your enemies prowl
On you will go
though the Hakken-Kraks howl
Onward up many
a frightening creek,
though your arms may get sore
and your sneakers may leak.

On and on you will hike
and I know you'll hike far
and face up to your problems
whatever they are.

You'll get mixed up, of course,
as you already know.
You'll get mixed up
with many strange birds as you go.
So be sure when you step.
Step with care and great tact
and remember that Life's
a Great Balancing Act.
Just never forget to be dexterous and deft.
And never mix up your right foot with your left.

And will you succeed?
Yes! You will, indeed!
(98 and 3 / 4 percent guaranteed.)

KID, YOU'LL MOVE MOUNTAINS!

So...
be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray
or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O'Shea,
you're off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So...get on your way!

---Dr. Seuss

Which brings me back to the No.1 city in the world I would like to live in!!!

Not for a New Yorker the white picket fence and a two-car garage home on a sprawling suburban acre of land, where the closest place to get milk and bread is over a mile away. This is a city where if you can't go down the stairs and get what you need, you're likely to move residence; where 7 out of 10 of your neighbours look nothing like you, and nothing like each other either.

While on the topc of neighbours ..can you imagine my surprise the day I moved to my new apartment complex FYI .., it’s in the city , and not the desi preferred neighborhoods of Alpharetta, Dunwoody etc..and my next door neighbors have rangoli at the entrance and those gold welcome leafs with gods pictures and swastiks and what not that typically decorate doors of a lot of homes in India …

A New York Diary
________________________________________
Maya Mirchandani

Senior Special Correspondent

Thursday, December 7, 2006:New York

For the last five years, the entire occidental world has debated and discussed the new global order through the lens of Samuel Huntington's paradigm of a clash among civilisations, whether in the context of the war on terror, the war in Iraq, tensions with Iran, the cartoon controversy, or the galloping tensions over the wearing of the veil by Muslim women in Europe.

So much so that this week's CNN's coverage of the Pope's visit to Turkey is headlined "When Faiths Collide".

But in a country that has produced both Samuel Huntington and the most vocal followers of his ideology, also exists a city like New York.

With its own cultural dynamic, sense of community and style - no matter where you come from, how you talk or what you look like, New York manages to find space for you.

How else can you explain a Pakistani kabab diner in the heart of predominantly desi Jackson Heights pulling out of the oven a huge roast turkey, covered in tandoori masala?

As I was ordering a plate of kababs for a visiting friend and myself, I asked him whether that was a special order of some kind. The all in one chef/manager/proprietor of Roti Boti told me, with an ever so subtle smile, "Bibi aaj Thanksgiving hai, na!" Can we carve you a slice, Professor Huntington?
________________________________________
Two and a half years ago, a piece in the Metro section of the New York Times advised other Americans visiting the city for the Republican Convention on city etiquette.

Having been a resident here for just a short while myself, I brushed it off as Democrat disdain for hillbilly Republicans thronging New York to endorse a man New Yorkers can't stand, as President for a second term.

Now, having lived here a couple of years since then, things are clearer. True New York is Democrat, and true its citizens don't have much patience for President Bush, but the etiquette advice all that while ago was right on the money!

The speed at which to swipe your subway card through the turnstile so that you don't hold others up, walking at a pace that other pedestrians - local new Yorkers in a constant rush to get somewhere - find acceptable (that's the easiest way to spot an outsider), wearing black-always at night, but also advisable during the day, crossing the street anywhere and anytime that traffic is clear instead of waiting for the light, and so on and so forth.

This is a city which is willing to make any outsider one of its own; provided you follow its simple set of rules. Newcomers to New York, refer to the NYT archives of August 2004 for a full list of dos and don'ts.
________________________________________
New York City might as well be the Independent Republic of New York. It's a complete antithesis to Americana in a way that most other Americans find hard to believe.

Not for a New Yorker the white picket fence and a two-car garage home on a sprawling suburban acre of land, where the closest place to get milk and bread is over a mile away. This is a city where if you can't go down the stairs and get what you need, you're likely to move residence; where 7 out of 10 of your neighbours look nothing like you, and nothing like each other either.

A ride on the subway could be a virtual tour around the world in a couple of hours. The 7 train is even called "the international express". It starts in Times Square, comes through Greek Astoria, goes through South Asian Jackson Heights and ends up in Chinese Flushing.

The F train travels through the city from Forest Hills, an old white American neighbourhood in Queens, through International territory Roosevelt Island (many, many UN officials live there) to Korea town in Manhattan, to Arab Coney Island Avenue to Russian Brighton Beach.

Each area bears the cultural and culinary flavours of its inhabitants. With food as the eternal elixir and dining out a tradition in this city rather than a treat, a scientist friend of mine summed it up quite succinctly.

"Where else can you find American customers, Mexican cooks in an Indian restaurant in Chinatown," he asked!
________________________________________
There is certainly something to be said about the social fabric of this city. I often wonder why the controversy over wearing the veil hasn't taken on the same contours here in New York, in the way that it has across many European cities.

It's a city that has seen one of the worst acts of terrorism committed in history, and felt the closest thing to communal tension in the days immediately after 9/11.

I know first hand how tough those days were. Five years ago, everyone who looked "Muslim" was suspect. I decided to wear a salwar kameez for a dinner party and found it difficult to hail a cab. Subway riders would rather leave the seat next to me empty than come sit next to someone they weren't sure of. But around the rest of America, things were far worse - we all told ourselves - and braved another day.

Today, a group of friends can get together at a local pub and spend an evening singing Farsi and Urdu ghazals, reading Korean poetry and send out an email inviting people to an evening of "Poetry from the Axis of Evil" without a care in the world.

It's hard to say whether it is because of its overwhelming liberal democrat population, or because of the fact that people of every colour and creed live in such close proximity to each other, that "live and let live" becomes the only way to live here.

It is true that cases of discrimination still flood immigrant lawyers and activist groups on a daily basis, but it's also equally true that for every case that does, there's inevitably a New Yorker raising a voice and fighting against such discrimination.

They may win their cases, they may not - but taking on the challenge is what makes New York resilient.

I don’t know why I feel nostalgic for B-grade Hindi Film songs….maybe it’s because I miss the weekends spent watching film trailers in practically every channel ( music or non music ) in India . I know I can get a whole B4u/Sony/Zee and all the new stuff package for 50 bucks a pop give or take. but I guess I don’t miss the channels that much…plus I don’t have a tv right now… don’t plan on buying one soon either ( unless I get back my old one) which is a whole other story… any way I heard this song on Musicindia online…I guess the singer is a relative of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan..sounds a lot like him…I guess Akshay Kumars character is abroad and misses home or something…talking about being abroad…. In a few days it’ll be three years since India stopped being my country of residence…… I left home ( i.e. the house my parents live in ) the night of my 23rd birthday ..left India a day later…. Oh to be 23 again!!!!!! But then again…age ain’t nothing but a number :)

Main Jahaan Rahoon ( Lyrics )
Movie : Namaste London - 2007
Music Director : Himesh Reshamiya
Singer(s) :Rahat Fateh Ali Khan & Krishna
Lyricists :Javed Akhtar

Mood/Type : Sad
Mein jahan raho
Mein kahin bhi hoo
Teri yaad saaath hai

Kisi se kahun
Ke Nahi kahun
Yeh jo dil
Ki Baat hai

Kehne Ko saath
Appne Ek duniya chalti hai
Per chupke is dil mein tanhai Palti hai
Bas yaad Saath hai
Teri yaad saaath hai


Mein jahan raho
Mein kahin bhi hoo
Teri yaad saaath hai


Kahin to Dil mein yaadon ki
Ek suli gad jaati hai
Kahin har ek Tasveer bhahut hi dhondhali pad jati hai
Koi nai duniya ke naye rango mein khush rehta hai
Koi sab kuch paake bhi yeh maan hi maan kehta hai


Kehne Ko saath
Appne Ek duniya chalti hai
Per chupke is dil mein tanhai Palti hai
Bas yaad Saath hai
Teri yaad saaath hai

Kahin to bete kal ki jade
Dil mein hi utar jaati hai
kahin jo dhage tute to
Malayen bhikar jaati
Koi dil mein jagah nai baaton ke liye rakhta hai
Koi apni palko per
Yadon ke diye rakhta hai

Kehne Ko saath
Appne Ek duniya chalti hai
Per chupke is dil mein tanhai Palti hai
Bas yaad Saath hai
Teri yaad saaath hai