It’s striking how music and movies can reflect phases and emotions in our lives. Songs specifically are such beautiful pieces of art and it amazes me how well I can connect with every lyric of a certain song.
My summer so far has been eye opening and there is only one song that can simply reflect upon it: Khaabon Ke Parinday from the Hindi movie: Zindagi Milege Na Dobara. The Bollywood film is a coming-of-age story about three friends who decide to live every moment to the fullest and to appreciate the simplest pleasures in life. The film title literally translates to “ We Won’t Get Life Back Again.” As the years go by, my undergraduate education is winding down. I’ve experienced many ups and many downs and so far have just been bogged down by exams, college drama and the very notorious + draining pre-med curriculum. This is the first summer where I’ve just realized how important it is to just to “sieze the day” and indulge in experiences that will shape your character, influence your views and impact the rest of your life.
Here is the song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cscdqZUdgCk&playnext=1&list=PL7BF46599033C201A
Hindi Lyrics to Khaabon Ke Parinday:
Roshni mili, ab raah mein hai ek dilkashi si barsi
Har khushi mili , ab zindagi pe hai zindagi si barsi
Ab jeena hum ne seekha hai, yaad hai kal, aaya tha wo pal
Jisme jaadoo aisa tha, hum ho gaye jaise naye
Woh kal jaane kaisa tha, kahe yeh dil ki jaa udhar hi tu
Jahan bhi leke jaaye aarzoo, oho, ab toh...
Jo bhi ho so ho..
English Translation:
(I) got light and a realization…
now such a opportunity has rained in my path,
got every happiness, now a life (liveliness) has rained upon life,
now I have learnt to live,
I remember yesterday, when that moment came,
which had such magic,
I became like-new,
how was that yesterday,
heart says go that way only
wherever your wish takes you,
now,whatever happens..
I’ve been absorbing every moment of this summer, every ray of sunshine, appreciating every laugh and finally after a whole year of waiting… I get to participate in an experience that will truly “teach me how to live.”
Accra and Tamale, Ghana. Summer 2011. The day has finally come. Today, I’m sitting in the Detroit airport as I write this entry. I will finally am leaving the U.S. to go to Africa. For the past year, I’ve been working with a non-profit organization: Unite for Sight. Unite for Sight, is a global eye organization that helps remove barriers to eye care locally and in third world countries abroad. So, after spending time with the Saint Louis University Unite for Sight Chapter, I decided that I just had to get involved directly and help eliminate blindness. I will be in Ghana for twenty days and in the next few days, I will not only blog about the beautiful country of Ghana, but also the work and research that I will be doing with the Crystal Eye Clinic in Accra and the Tamale Eye Teaching Hospital in the Northern Region of Ghana. I will also tell you more about the generous work that Unite for Sight does!
So, stayed tuned and just always remember: Carpe Diem – “Sieze the Day.”
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Amsterdam Airport – Lesson Learned: “You Can’t Judge A Book By Its Cover.”
** Disclaimer: I will not have access to internet everyday on this trip so I will be writing my blog entries in a journal and then typing them out wherever there is Wi-Fi. This means there may be multiple entries per day, but they are about several days of my adventure and experience. **
We are all guilty of stereotyping; some people more than others, but I’ll admit for the first time today I was pleasantly surprised when a person proved how wrong stereotypes can be. I just got off the plane and am sitting in the Amsterdam Schipol Airport while I write this entry. I must say, I had one heck of an interesting plane ride from Detroit to Amsterdam because of one guy: Anthony. He awkwardly introduced himself to me while the air hostesses were doing the repetitive safety training at the beginning of the flight and said “Hey, so is this your first long voyage?” And that one line was enough of a spark to start a conversation that would last almost 8 hours – the entire length of the plane ride. When I first glanced at him – the first thing I looked at was his tattoo covered arm and his three lip piercings. He was a scrawny guy, about 5’8 and probably weighed 120 pounds. He had Norse Mythology tattoos from the top of his right shoulder all the way to his wrist. My mind was beginning to form thoughts of “oh this guy looks tough, much like a punk or a troublemaker.” And just as I was thinking that he continued to tell me his three eclectic occupations: Student, future film maker, ex-convict. He said them so casually, and started conversing on while my brain was doing somersaults thinking: “Great. I’m on a plane and out of all the seats, I’m stuck sitting next to an ex-convict?!” He noticed that my face was frozen and puzzled when he uttered the word “convict,” so he began to explain his crazy experience with the law.
Anthony was locked up for 15 months because he was sitting in the car when his cousin robbed a convenient store without telling him. To make matters worse, his cousin told the police that Anthony was an accomplice, thinking he would get less jail time. I asked him immediately if he was angry at his cousin for what he did and for the unnecessary punishment he received. He replied very simply: “ This is life. Unexpected things happen. You just have to deal with them, forgive, but not forget and learn so that the mistake doesn’t happen.” That’s when I just started to realize that this guy may not be the punk that my brain first thought he was. He had much more depth and a very sharp intellect. Anthony continued to tell me about his life in prison – about how he really realized his love for film. He would spend days just thinking about the movies he watched and analyze the characteristics that made each movie special.
Here are some of the films that he named and recommended:
1. The Crow
2. The Nines, The Night of The White Pants
3. Weirdsville, Adam, Mozart & The whale
4. Definitely Maybe
5. Queen of the Damned
6. Garden state, (500) days of summer
7. Blow, One last day
8. Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
9. Sweeney Todd
10. Wirstcutters: A love story, Candy, Trainspotting
After he gave me the list of his wide ranging variety of movies – I asked him what he felt made a film special. He asked me if I had seen (500) Days of Summer. I nodded with a grin on my face. (For all of you people out there that have not seen the movie yet, I recommend it very highly. Go out and grab the DvD immediately!) He said that he loved how realistic the movie was – that the movie was a “story about love and not a love story.” He believes that love stories in real life are just like Tom’s and Summer’s from the movie – never perfect. In life you don’t always get who you want, but rather who you need in that moment of time or phase of your life and the film captured this perfectly. The more Anthony talked, the more philosophical he was and it helped me to see a whole new perspective.
He told me that he loved film so much that, as soon as he got out of prison he joined the New York Film Academy to channel his creativity. After a few months, he found the school to have too many rules and realized that he doesn’t need training or channeling for art. It is a form of expression and” all you need to do is release the inner energy.” That’s when Anthony decided to become an independent film-maker and right now is making a documentary about the “Negative Implications of Social Networking” and will be submitting the film to The Sundance Festival in about a few months.
Very unexpected right? I definitely was surprised about his background, knowledge and passion about films, his strong philosophical grasp on life, his strong sense of humor and his charismatic attitude. Definitely not what I expected, but it made an eight hour dreary airplane to Amsterdam ride very fascinating.
On a very different note, in another two hours, I finally board the plane to Ghana – only 8 hours to go till I reach Accra: the capital of Ghana!!
We are all guilty of stereotyping; some people more than others, but I’ll admit for the first time today I was pleasantly surprised when a person proved how wrong stereotypes can be. I just got off the plane and am sitting in the Amsterdam Schipol Airport while I write this entry. I must say, I had one heck of an interesting plane ride from Detroit to Amsterdam because of one guy: Anthony. He awkwardly introduced himself to me while the air hostesses were doing the repetitive safety training at the beginning of the flight and said “Hey, so is this your first long voyage?” And that one line was enough of a spark to start a conversation that would last almost 8 hours – the entire length of the plane ride. When I first glanced at him – the first thing I looked at was his tattoo covered arm and his three lip piercings. He was a scrawny guy, about 5’8 and probably weighed 120 pounds. He had Norse Mythology tattoos from the top of his right shoulder all the way to his wrist. My mind was beginning to form thoughts of “oh this guy looks tough, much like a punk or a troublemaker.” And just as I was thinking that he continued to tell me his three eclectic occupations: Student, future film maker, ex-convict. He said them so casually, and started conversing on while my brain was doing somersaults thinking: “Great. I’m on a plane and out of all the seats, I’m stuck sitting next to an ex-convict?!” He noticed that my face was frozen and puzzled when he uttered the word “convict,” so he began to explain his crazy experience with the law.
Anthony was locked up for 15 months because he was sitting in the car when his cousin robbed a convenient store without telling him. To make matters worse, his cousin told the police that Anthony was an accomplice, thinking he would get less jail time. I asked him immediately if he was angry at his cousin for what he did and for the unnecessary punishment he received. He replied very simply: “ This is life. Unexpected things happen. You just have to deal with them, forgive, but not forget and learn so that the mistake doesn’t happen.” That’s when I just started to realize that this guy may not be the punk that my brain first thought he was. He had much more depth and a very sharp intellect. Anthony continued to tell me about his life in prison – about how he really realized his love for film. He would spend days just thinking about the movies he watched and analyze the characteristics that made each movie special.
Here are some of the films that he named and recommended:
1. The Crow
2. The Nines, The Night of The White Pants
3. Weirdsville, Adam, Mozart & The whale
4. Definitely Maybe
5. Queen of the Damned
6. Garden state, (500) days of summer
7. Blow, One last day
8. Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
9. Sweeney Todd
10. Wirstcutters: A love story, Candy, Trainspotting
After he gave me the list of his wide ranging variety of movies – I asked him what he felt made a film special. He asked me if I had seen (500) Days of Summer. I nodded with a grin on my face. (For all of you people out there that have not seen the movie yet, I recommend it very highly. Go out and grab the DvD immediately!) He said that he loved how realistic the movie was – that the movie was a “story about love and not a love story.” He believes that love stories in real life are just like Tom’s and Summer’s from the movie – never perfect. In life you don’t always get who you want, but rather who you need in that moment of time or phase of your life and the film captured this perfectly. The more Anthony talked, the more philosophical he was and it helped me to see a whole new perspective.
He told me that he loved film so much that, as soon as he got out of prison he joined the New York Film Academy to channel his creativity. After a few months, he found the school to have too many rules and realized that he doesn’t need training or channeling for art. It is a form of expression and” all you need to do is release the inner energy.” That’s when Anthony decided to become an independent film-maker and right now is making a documentary about the “Negative Implications of Social Networking” and will be submitting the film to The Sundance Festival in about a few months.
Very unexpected right? I definitely was surprised about his background, knowledge and passion about films, his strong philosophical grasp on life, his strong sense of humor and his charismatic attitude. Definitely not what I expected, but it made an eight hour dreary airplane to Amsterdam ride very fascinating.
On a very different note, in another two hours, I finally board the plane to Ghana – only 8 hours to go till I reach Accra: the capital of Ghana!!
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