In the blink of an eye

Power cut suddenly, at 8 p.m. All went black. Gosh, was it only in our house? I pull the curtains and look out, and it is all darkness in our little part of town. Sigh of relief, then sheer terror. How do I now this is only a power cut? Maybe it is all a part of some dastardly society, a la al-Quaida. AFter all, we never ever (almost never, that is) have them here in NZ, it being part of the wonderful circle of developed countries!!

I ring the city council and they haven't even heard of the power cut.

I am tense and almost alone (Nandita is with me). Called a friend, and found out there was power at their place. Hmm, I wonder.....it's been half-an-hour.

Shiv and Nandana are back, the power is not. I call the Council again and they know all about the power cut now, but call Genesis, they say (that's our power company). So I do, and Genesis tells me that a sub-station on the corner of Damian/Mission Sts has blown up. Heck, that's outside our house...I try to peer into the darkness outside our window to see if there is any activity going on near the sub-station, when in a sudden, brilliant moment, the lights come back on.

Big sigh of relief. It's just a technical fault, not a terrorist act. Gosh, I am getting paranoid............. just like the rest of the world.... we live in the modern dark ages, I am sure of that!

G'nite everyone!

Te reo Maori

Tena koe, nau mai haere mai (translates to roughly hello and welcome)

The last week of July being Maori language week in NZ, I went along to a training session at work on te reo Maori, which promised to teach me the basics of the language, especially regarding pronounciation.

It was a good opportunity for me to find out what was the right way to say many words, especially place/river/mountain names, for many are still in Maori here. And they sound like totally different each time, depending on who is doing the talking.

I thought with my limited experience of NZ, I would find it hardest. But if you know other languages (apart from English that is), it isn't too bad at all. The pronounciation is very similar to Tamil or any other Indian language. And the class was fun. And what's more, everyone was maha impressed with my multi-lingual skills. After all, four launguages and bits of a couple of others is quite good to people who can speak just one!

Anyways, I came away, much heartened and a little more knowledgeable.

Some interesting facts about Maori.
The language and the people are both called Maori (same for plural).
All words end in vowels.
It is now fashionable to use Maori in workplaces as well, so we go 'Kia ora' or 'Morena'
The NZ or Aotearoa national anthem has two parts, first in Maori and second in English.
Maori is one of the official languages of NZ.

Kaki te anou, for now.

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Funny people, these Brits!! Decades ago, children in school were caned by them for speaking in Maori and told to speak only in English. And now, they spend millions of dollars each year to revive the language which was dying. After having very nearly killed it in the first place.

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Reminds me of what my grandfather used to tell us about his school days (apart from quoting Milton). When he was young, in India, you would be rapped on your knuckles if you spoke any language other than English in school. Ho hum, the colonial mind wasn't very imaginative, for sure.

Point of Return

Reading `Point of return' by Siddarth Deb. Quite nice, although he is, as is to be expected from an Indian writing in English, catering to a Western audience by talking about the depressing side of life in India. But I'll push on for now at least he isn't yet talking about nubile young goddesses bathing in asses' milk and mango juice............ or about Kama Sutra poses. Aaaaaaaaaargh, those bloody stereotypes make me mad!!

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Reading is back in my life again, thanks to the train commute to and from work. Finished `Bridget Jones: The edge of reason'. Quite funny, although a bit hard to read after having seen the movie. Loved the interview with Colin Firth, though, a real scream!

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Have got a movie to watch tonight _ `The Terminal' - Hanks and Zeta-Jones. I liked the story, hope the movie will be nice as well.

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And finally,
Life is...
worrying about your (almost non-existent) moustache (to pluck or not to pluck) and then having that worry resolved by noticing that the lady in front of you in the train has one that is far more luxuriant, a black upper lip, so to say. I think I will wait patiently to reach that level.