Best Taxi in the world is..the Yellow Zebra!

I read something in the newspaper the other day that caught my interest. It went something like this: The Indian Ambassador has now been given the status of the best taxi in the world.

I dug in further and read the rest of the article. It just didn't sound right. The preposterous Indian taxi at the top? Did they mean the one which takes a thousand million seconds to start? What happened to Japan's Toyota? Or even the American taxi?
(In my opinion, the way they ranked the taxis had less to do with the taxis and a bit more with the racers.) Taxis from all over the world were brought to one place. Each racer was assigned one car. The rules were pretty simple, less complicated. In simpler words, they were allowed to play dirty. After the countdown (if there was one that is...it just felt right while writing!) all hell broke lose! Cars crashed and toppled over one another, trying to squeez through every inch of space and win. In all this pandemonium, the yellow zebra sailed pass and was hence declared the best :)

I'm neither pro nor anti India. I try and argue from either side since I tend to meet people with extreme opinions..But I didn't fail to notice everyone's reaction when I told this story to them. They were around the lines of "You're kidding me right?" Or "Haha, that must owe to the fact that no one could bash it up!" People were surprised but not convinced. That's pretty sad - the fact that many Indians aren't ready to accept the already established fact that India is the best in a particular category.

Whichever way (I would say 'anyways' but was enlightened that the word doesn't exist. That doesn't mean I'll stop using it completely though!) This story reminded me of how my English teacher had asked the class to write 100 reasons why India is better than the whole world in my sixth grade. I had come up with around 69 if I'm not mistaken...so I guess this will be the 70th! :P

Kanksha :)

Unprepared.

Being completely unprepared is feeling I get only once in a blue moon. I guess that blue moon was today. It's scary how lost and frightened you feel when you have no idea what to do. Before my test today, I was drowned in nervousness, my hands flipping through the pages of every book I could find. Formulas I knew suddenly became distant, easy questions seemed to be nerve racking and the outcome of the test suddenly became feared. Till today, I was never quite so unprepared for a test my whole life. Going through only five out of ten chapters isn't a feat I am proud of. But what can I say? I didn't have enough time.

Again, when the answer key came out, my hand began quivering whenever I saw a question I had attempted was wrong. Turns out I got only a bit more than one third of the total marks.

When you are unprepared, I guess everything seems to go wrong. You feel unsatisfied. The outcome becomes a mood kill.

Just like today.

But let's pray,
Never repeat that may.

Always follow the guide motto. It is to 'Be Prepared.'

Kanksha :)

Gosh. This whole thing sounds like a gigantic lecture. It even sounds a bit exaggerated, but hey! That's what I'm supposed to do! Play around with words and make boring stuff interesting :P Hmmm..what I was thinking is what people actually talk about on their blogs. I mean there are travel blogs, some of them are rants about fashion and others are well written essays and stories on a platter. On the other hand, a few people just voice their thoughts and opinions about what is going on in the world..and in their life.
I've always wondered why we find the lives of famous people interesting. From rockstars to billionaires, most people want to know what's cooking...why so?

Stereotyping - An unintended...habit?

While coming back to India, in my flight from Hong Kong, I sat patiently in my seat. Well, not quite so patiently. Being one of the first few people to get on the flight, I was really anxious as to who my ‘partner’ would be. People kept crawling in, one by one, taking their own sweet time. Some looked completely weird, a few potentially scary and others were (dull looking) business men/women. When a fat nosy woman stopped near me, I almost said "Not here!", only to realize she kept moving along…A gruffy old man paid me a visit as well making me flinch. As more and more people passed by, my anxiety had doubled when finally a pretty jolly girl (Note the pun!!) came and claimed the spot next to me. I was relieved. For the next six hours, we had quite an interesting conversation I will remember all my life! 

A person who wears glasses and is smart is not always a nerd. [A hair cut (talking from experience) and contacts can work wonders!] A tribal act doesn't always mean leaves, branches and a campfire. A person sporting tattoos isn't always 'bad-ass' and learning classical dance doesn't mean you are uncool.

Looking back, it was probably rude of me to wince at the old man. He might have had his own story to tell as well. The fat lady may have been the sweetest soul ever! I realized that I should stop judging people, though it will be difficult for me as my mind is programmed to do so. 

Hmmmmm...I guess, it's all about keeping your mind open. Open about everything. Obviously when it comes to stereotypes, but about other stuff as well. Like not being afraid of doing stuff. That could mean going biking to different places, working in NGOs and joining a sewing class. (I know of a university student - boy to be specific - who wanted to buy a sewing machine!) Even something as simple as spending an afternoon trying to perfect the cup song. Most of us don't spend time productively and wallow ourselves in lethargy....we just keep on procrastinating and do nothing..but I digress. 

So if any of you know stories of people who turned out to be completely different from what you thought they were...go on, comment! You could also talk about some interesting person you met! :P

Kanksha :) 

P.S. I had first written a sentence with the word aeroplane in it. I got a bit confused with it's spelling as Blogger put a red wiggly line underneath it. Left with no option (Yeah, yeah, I could have taken the dictionary's opinion but...), I 'googled' and found out that it is spelt both ways - airplane and aeroplane. So Ha! Blogger. For once, your spell check is wrong! :P

Ginza

Day Sixteen, Seventeen and Eighteen

Compared to all my other days, these three days were not that eventful. Blossom and Jelly were busy packing their bags for summer school...and I was into studying as much as I could. Apart from all that, we took a tour to Ginza - one of the most expensive shopping street in the world.

"One square meter of land in the district's center is worth over ten million yen, making it one of the most expensive real estate in Japan. It is where you can find the infamous $10 cups of coffee and where virtually every leading brand name in fashion and cosmetics has a presence." - www.japanguide.com

There isn't much I can say about it. Ginza is a place which manages to lift up your mood, something like Shibuya. It looks alive and bustling! On the downside, it is completely unshoppable....but then why dos window shopping exist? 


The Apple store out there is overrated though :/ But it's interior is really nice. The lift is automatic with an apple logo, the system to pay is unique with the employees having a simple swiper on their phone for transactions and the teaching place has a big projector making learning interesting (not that any of us need lessons here!)

On the way back, we took a stop at Tameikesanno station. The walls out there have amazing designs for unknown reasons!





The next two days days are going to be boring as well. I doubt I'll have anything to talk about. So Sayonara for now! I'll keep you posted! *Note the pun!!!*

Kanksha :)

P.S. Did I mention we took pictures of the playlist in the Apple store? It was pretty funny! I actually downloaded a few of them already :P

Hiroshima - The city of peace.

All of us have heard stories about the second world war, how Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed, how they bounced back with resilience and are in the world race again. We are all aware that Nuclear bombs are perhaps the cruelest and most hazardous things (to put it mildly) man has ever discovered. But only on visiting the Peace Memorial museum at Hiroshima did I realise the seriousness of the situation.

6th August, 1945, 8:15 am.

The bomb detonates. A blinding flash. Buildings crushed. People evaporated leaving shadows behind. Heat waves swipe over the city. Confusion among those who are alive. Pain, grief and agony hanging in the atmosphere.

When I went to the memorial, I saw relics from the aftermath. And they have struck a chord. In the first half of the building, it was pretty light, with how and why the war started along with a simple background of what all was going on. But in the second half, it got deeper. They talked of how different people had suffered. How one person's family found a lunch box and another only a slipper. The stories of kids who just survived the attack but died within a few days were even more heartbreaking! The neighbours of one child found him badly injured with burns all over his body - it was as if multiple layers of his skin was peeled off. He cried for his mother for two days before passing away. 

We saw smashed up tin, broken brick walls and burnt metal. They even had black deformed pieces of nails, lumps of skin and a school uniform put together. The school uniform that was put together was actually three peices from three different people. Simply put, it was emotionally scarring.

Apart from all the sadness that hits you like a brick, when you hear stories of survivors who are alive even currently, you feel amazed. One story goes like this. A boy (who is a man now!) was playing in the park when this blast occured. The park was far away from his house and he saw that all his friends were sprawled on the floor. Somehow, he managed to stand up and started walking home. On his way he found a friend who stayed nearby (and was hurt on the underside of his foot) and tried to help him walk. His relief at seeing his great uncle and great aunt later was unimaginable!

It's pretty sad that even after this tragedy, we have not stopped the manufacture of nuclear weapons. USA, Russia, U.K., France, China, India, Pakistan and Israel are in the top. North Korea is a mystery. This has to come to an end. It already is a wonder how Hiroshima has come up. If you step inside it, looking at the greenery, the transport systems and houses, you may once forget it's past. And I salute it for the same!

Kanksha :)

The  pictures I had were pretty gruesome and saddening - not that the post isn't...but I pictures just make it feel more real :( 

Tobu World Square

Day Fourteen and Fifteen.

This plays music every twenty minutes! A nice welcome song!

On Thursday, my aunt and I set off for Tobu World Square. Tobu World Square is a kind of museum where there are different monuments, scaled to 1/25th it's size. There are 102 structures from 21 countries including 45 inscribed as World Heritages by UNESCO. We changed trains and then transferred to a bus to reach there where we were greeted by a colourful range of lanterns and a variety of music.

The plane exactly in front of you was actually moving!!

    

They actually made the whole station - this is just a bit though!

                   

We then proceeded to the Japan Zone where we saw the Sky Tree, Tokyo Tower, Tokyo International Airport (Terminal 2) and Tokyo Station. The intricacy and detailing, the way every place is made; each and every seven centimeter person was unique!

We then moved on to the Egypt Zone. The pyramids of Menkaure, Khafre and Khufu were all lined up, one against another with an aura of mystery. The Egyptian music just added to the atmosphere! We even saw the great Sphinx and Great Temple of Abu Simbel! <<<The four sitting figures in the front, about 20m tall, are said to be those of Ramesses ||.








That day being the 4th of July, we took a detour to America(n Zone). Figures I saw the Statue of Liberty, (the ghost of) Twin Towers and Empire State building all within the radius of fifty meters.

Giants exist! Look at this one cleaning it's toys!

The parade!

In the Europe Zone, we visited the Parthenon, Colosseum, Leaning Tower of Pisa, Versailles Palace, Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace to name a few. Trust me people, you would think that making the real thing was a pain, I guess making the miniature must have    been even harder. There must be at least a thousand mini-statues not to mention hundreds of stain glass paintings!

Dragon and Tiger Pagoda in Kaohsiung (Taiwan)

Oh! And also the Asia Zone and Ancient Japan Zone which of full of shrines, how people lead their life and even a replica of the railway! It was pretty amazing!





It was around seven when I reached my uncles office from where (after taking a sneek peek into the mall) we went to a Japanese restaurent! The best part about this was you get to cook the meal yourself. There is this hot plate in front of you and you can switch it off and on as you wish. We started off with asparagus and corn, moved on to oko-nomiaki (a Japanese styled 'uthhapa ' :P) and soba (spagetti in a sense).

*Sorry about the lack of pictures here. I don't know why but they won't get transferred from the phone!*

AND I ATE ALL MY FOOD WITH CHOPSTICKS! WOOOOOHOOOOOOOOO! :D When I think about it, it's not really that difficult to eat with chopsticks. It's all about getting the right grip. When I was small, no one had told me how I was supposed to hold a pencil. So I have a peculiar grip at present. I guess holding chopsticks the normal way doesn't work for me! ;)

Different as always!
Kanksha :)

I'll be talking about what I did today tomorrow as it is pretty late at present. Plus, as I went to Hiroshima, I have loads to talk about!  Btw, how many of you think sleep is just a waste of time and only sleep because you need to? 

Sky - Fall...Actually, Sky Tree.

Day eleven, twelve and thirteen.

To finish off the boring stuff, I slept till late on day 11, lazed around, ate lunch at three, went to a park, did forty sit-ups for fun, listened to music, watched a couple of movies...and slept.

Today being day thirteen was unlucky. I don't believe in all this but these days the number thirteen keeps popping up everywhere - a question my Blossom didn't get was number thirteen, there will be about 13 chapters of organic chemistry to study...you get the point. Basically, today went in studying for a pretty long time, skyping my friend and eating. Fullstop.

Now comes the 'happening' day. At least more than the others!
Day Twelve.

We woke up comparitively early and set off for Sky Tree - The tallest tower in the world and tallest structure only after Burj Khalifa! We went up till 350m.

Actually, you can go upto 451m. We didn't though.

But the glass flooring which let you see straight through at 340m, right below was simply awesome! From there you can see the whole of Tokyo. It is a spectacular view!

From there we had proceeded to the Asakusa temple as we had missed the inside. Honestly, it was nothing great. But yeah, I finally did see the inside :)

After buying curd to eat with paratha, we set off for Abab, a shopping place and finally reached home. When I come to think of it, nothing exciting except pictures happened that day either...I slept and ate and slept the rest of the time :P

Interesting Fact :)

There are four kinds of elevators in Sky Tree - Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn. We travelled in the Spring and Summer one! The spring one was decorated with sakura - cherry blossoms and the summer one with fireworks!

I feel so bad I didn't get a chance to see sakura!

From which angle do these look like fireworks? 70ˆ?
Whatever it is, It looked pretty! :P

Kanksha :)

Kyo No (Today's) Atarashi (New) Kotoba (Words)!

Tomo-daachi  - Friend

Tano - shi - Fun

Tabe-mono - Food

Hana - bee - Firework

Tenjin or Jinja - Temple

Eri - Beta - Elevator ;)

Sayonara!!!!