Ahem... I'd really like to thank every single person out there who was praying for me or rooting for me! I would especially like to thank my Sensei - Ramesh-sensei and Shimizu-sensei. Both of them had such immense trust in my abilities and thanks to the gentle motivation I received from them, I felt loved and truly inspired to give it my all! 有難うご座いました、清水先生、ラメシュ先生！お蔭様で合格しました！
And I'm really really happy that I've finally managed to be good at something! Oh so happy! So very very happy!
皆、合格しましたよ！万歳！
Oooo... and there's a wee little puppy near my institute! I've decided to call him Pochi!
Everyday, I go there early in the morning. I'm greeted by her dazzling smile and her crinkling eyes that make her the most beautiful person in the world. And then, she guides me to my work. There's never a harsh word and never a stern glare. All mistakes are so gently explained and taken care of. She treats everybody like they mean something and in turn, she is immensely respected! Ah... if only there were more people like her!
And then there is her... so fragile and yet so very strong. I wonder if she realizes her own fortitude as she sits there, worrying about appeasing her mother-in-law. After miseries that would have left me broken for life, she moves on - she shows me that nothing is permanent. Her eyes are sad at times when she thinks of those days. But there still lingers that deep note of silent strength that makes her elegant beyond words!
She walks in with her eyes straight ahead and her heart with a purpose. No question is silly. And no answer is accepted without some insight from her end. And in those little insights, she shows us all just how intelligent she is. She is witty. She is assiduous. She has the kindest things to say and she tires not. She makes those around her happy just by being there!
She's seen my darkest secrets and still smiles when she lays her eyes on me. She makes fun of me and yet has gentle reprimand for me when I go wrong. She knows our days together are numbered and yet puts on a cheerful smile. She is innocent enough to let a cricket match get to her and has wisdom that could solve disputes between nations!
These women... they are truly worth loving. And on this valentine's day, I would like to tell them - forget romance! Forget all that weird connotations that plague this day! I love every one of you and it's in no way any less important than what romantic folks could feel!
Today, we had fish. Extremely potent and spicy fish! And if anyone is interested, I almost fainted eating it.
This had mom tell me how fish is supposed to be spicy and how I can't keep telling my husband that I can't cook spicy fish when he could love rolling around in chilies. This had me thinking. What is it that makes everyone just automatically assume that I will change my habits once I have a guy in my life? Sure, adjustments have to be there. Like getting the bowel movements organized and the extra laundry and all those things. But to actually tell someone that they should change everything about them and take up things that could give me extreme discomfort is not what I would call adjustment. And in the society where I come from, it's always the girl who adjusts. It's always the girl who takes care of all that her husband needs. The girl intuitively knows what her guy wants and needs and follows his uttered and silent commands to the T. In other words, she automatically becomes docile and obedient.
Now, if the guy likes it hot, I'll most probably divide my portions from his before I dump the chillies by the cartload and serve him his dish from hell! But apparently that just goes on to show I'm not adjusting with his tastes. Come on now! They can't be serious!! I've been called "spoilt" by people who have hardly known me and it amuses me even now. But to hear such backward a thought process from my own mother, that was an eyeopener!
It makes me wonder. If peanuts make me swell up like the Mardi Gras float and my husband happens to love peanuts, will they tell me that I should "learn to accept" peanuts even if I end up in the emergency room with a face swollen beyond recognition?
I know I haven't been the most judicious with updates as far as this blog is concerned but pray forgive! I have a valid reason for not posting for so long!
Get this!
I've finally managed to get a job that's just tailor-made for me! I'm officially a Translator! And I've never felt surer about what I am good at! This job, it's made for me, baby!
This must also explain my inability to contribute as much as I'd like in my blog! And not to mention that the classes for N3 have started and believe me, now I see why they call this language difficult! But it's all so interesting! It feels like I'm discovering a part of myself that was lost long ago... in some other lifetime! It feels like homecoming to me.
Advertisements have become an inherent part of our lives. Ever so slowly, we've acclimatized ourselves to the fact that sometime in between the really interesting movie we're watching, there's bound to be a commercial break and we need to be prepared to suspend our thought process for as long as the ads are running and learn to pick up from where we left when the movie does the same.
But once in a while, we stop and think. And thank God we do that! Because when we do, we realize just how banal these advertisements are in reality. Okay... there are a few good ones here and there. But in general the majority out there seem to cater for the fact that the person watching the advertisements doesn't actually watch them. They merely see them and the people behind the advertisements hope that with sufficient repetition, their message will get through to the deeper parts of our brain. And in a way, they probably don't want us to think while we see their claims of being the best because if we did, they no longer would be!
The other day, I happened to see an advertisement for a chocolate bar. And the tagline was how one had to earn that particular chocolate and one can't buy it. Here's what I'd like to tell the people behind that tagline -
"Okay, hotshot! If that's what you really believe I don't think you're aiming on kids with no income of their own to try your product. Okay... maybe you want to be considered the crème de la crème of the chocolate industry. Good for you."
But their recent ad seriously got me mad. And I'm sure many would know of the one I allude to. It has this man who seems to be some connoisseur in cocoa beans and how he takes up one cocoa bean after another and examines them like he's examining diamonds. The local farmers wait expectantly to hear his verdict on their produce when the man removes his monocle and proclaims that the cocoa bean he had been studying was perfect and that it would be that particular brand of chocolate some day. And the locals are really happy. And then, the man examines another cocoa bean and just gives up calling that bean "a nothing". And in predictable advertisement fashion, that bean starts crying and the man asks the local elder to tell the bean that he is sorry. And the banality just gets bigger with one of the locals throwing the bean away.
Now, for those of you who're wondering what's gotten me so mad, it's the fact that this ad has such undertones of discrimination and contempt for the 'imperfect ones' that it just makes me see red. The cocoa bean was not good enough to be a part of the company's overpriced hookum that I can personally say isn't anything out of the ordinary (Just a little more chocolatey!). Fine, they have standards. But to call it 'a nothing' is little uncalled for! What do they know? The bean wasn't perfect in size and aroma, big deal! Maybe sowing it would yield them more cocoa beans without which there wouldn't be a chocolate company that utterly discriminates even cocoa beans!
Am I being too paranoid? Well... I guess I can't help but notice that the connoisseur was white while the ones who probably know the best about cocoa are the people who grow them - the African farmers. And isn't it a little too racist to expect them to come to the "white man" to get their products assessed?
I call that company discriminatory and racist. What about you?
How often is it that we realize that what really matters in life isn't something that can be bought with money. And yet... it can be? Confused? Well, I'm talking of those instances when we lost ourselves as children in the frolics of Tom and Jerry, cheered Popeye when he gave Bluto a beating and laughed merrily when Charlie Chaplin tripped the bad guy non-chalantly! Those moments are stuff that cannot be bought no matter how much money you brandish. But one can get close! And if you're like me, you can get asymptotically close! You can get the DVDs or the Blue Rays of these cartoon series and atleast for a while, lose all inhibitions and become the child you once were.
I had the wonderful opportunity of doing just that a few days ago. I'd gone over to my cousin's place and she has the cutest and the naughtiest boy on the face of the planet! And he has one weakness - a weakness he shares with me! He loves watching "Tonari no Totoro". If this name means nothing to you and you were born in the eighties or later, I pity you... Your childhood has been depraved! But if you know what I'm alluding to, good for you!
I watched the DVD version of the movie and for the amount of time that it ran, everything was perfect with the world. I envy Satsuki and Mei from the movie! Their innocence is something that children these days seem to lose so fast! And Totoro... my darling Totoro! How I'd love to cuddle up to that huge mountain spirit and sleep like a baby!
And then there's the Catbus! That's hands down the best way to travel wherever one wants to go! And to think that Appa from Avatar was inspired by the Catbus! Excuse me while I have a moment of pride here! :P Seriously though, if we really did have something like the Catbus, wouldn't it be the AWESOMEST thing EVER?!!!!! Why can't it exist, god?! WHYYYYYYYYYY????!!!!!!
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? It's Catbus!!!!
As expected from Hayao Miyazaki, Tonari no Totoro is such an enjoyable watch! The lessons one takes home from the movie are simple but to the heart. And in an age where fairy tales are misconstrued left right and center, one needs to go back to movies like these to remember what fairy tales were really like! This movie literally put Miyazaki into the spot light and he in turn shared that attention with the Japanese animation industry. And the rest... as they say... is history!
And speaking of Anime, I have another source of inspiration to share with you, my darling readers! If you've heard of Kenji Kawai and the kind of music he makes for Japanese animation series and films and numerous other movies and video games, you'll know what's coming up next! If not, don't worry... you don't know what's coming up next but you'll enjoy it none the less!
Kenji Kawai is the maestro who composed music for the Ghost in the Shell series and he infused traditional Japanese Shinto music to Western musical arrangements and the result is spellbinding! I find that the more I listen to his music, the more I am at peace with the world and the more I mourn for those around me... the more selfless I become!
Do give it a listen and you'll know what I mean!
Life's more or less like a see-saw right about now. But hope, I have! Bucketful of Hope! Do you want some? :D
Yes.... I've done my JLPT N4 exams to the very best of my abilities and as though the gods were happy with my earnestness, I was the first number in the hall, I got to sit close to the tape recorder and there were no graph related questions in the listening section! But still... I'm feeling really tired!
All in all, it was a moderately easy exam. I keep hearing my friends go on that they found it difficult and this is beginning to scare me! Have I really done well or am I missing something here?! And furthermore... are they being honest when they say they found it hard? I know quite a lot of people who just downplay their well written exams because they fear the "evil eye"! That's ridiculously stupid!
