Monday, November 27, 2006

Paint me RED

Paint me Red


Paint me RED ... because All things being equal, They are not
Paint me RED ... because I have the power to make history
Paint me RED ... so I can help a human being get anti-retrovial drugs
Paint me (RED) ... so I can embrace this world

My friends get RED christmas presents...whether they like it or not :P

-Amrita

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

The one who danced

N, The Painted One, Noreen, Painted Dancer, Ms.Bling...so many names. But all the names and adjectives combined cant encompass the amount of energy, positivity and generosity that Noreen had.

We'd met each other on Zootopia and became really good friends....she was a great source of encouragement and support. She loved dancing...and I was obsessed with dancing. The greatest uniting factor of course was...our love for U2. We eventually met for the first time in May 2005 after months of being online friends. That night we danced away for the joy of friendship. In the ensuing months, we shared tons of memorable experiences....not all U2 related. Though that was of course what we talked about all the time ;-) She was (is) so special to me. She bought me my first GA ticket...up close and personal with U2. Together, we celebrated birthdays, fixed computer issues :P, attended U2 and UF concerts, hosted gatherings....so many memories.

If it werent for U2, I wouldnt have met you Noreen. I thank them for you. They were the soundtrack to our friendship.





















Her usual dancing self

2 margaritas down...2 to go...
Sharing the joy of meeting The Edge

Me and Noreen
Me and Noreen

And now for her favorite song - "Gone" by U2.
You get to feel so guilty, got so much for so little
Then you find that feeling just won't go away
You're holding on to every little thing so tightly
'Til there's nothing left for you anyway

Goodbye...
You can keep this suit of lights
I'll be up with the sun
I'm not coming down
I'm not coming down
I'm not coming down

You wanted to get somewhere so badly
You had to lose yourself along the way
You change your name, well that's okay, it's necessary
And what you leave behind you don't miss anyway

Goodbye...
You can keep this suit of lights
I'll be up with the sun
I'm not coming down
I'm not coming down
I'm not coming down

'Cause I'm already gone
Felt that way all along
Closer to you every day
I didn't want it that much anyway

You're taking steps that make you feel dizzy / (Gone)
Then you learn to like the way it feels / (Gone)
You hurt yourself you hurt your lover / (Gone)
Then you discover
What you thought was freedom is just greed / (Gone)

Goodbye...
And it's emotional
Good night...
I'll be up with the sun
You're still holding on
I'm not coming down
I'm not coming down
I'm not coming down

Gone... sun... time... sun...
Gone... sun.... gone... sun...

I love you Noreen. I miss you. You will always be in my heart. I'm glad the pain has ended and you're in peace.

"I'm wide awake, I'm not sleeping "
-Amri

Monday, November 20, 2006

Doused

Little anecdote to share with you...

It had been raining in NYC for the most of last week...with Thursday night turning into a full fledged storm! The rain is beautiful and nice and all that....but the charm is lost in the wind tunnels of New York. All you care about at that time is to hang on to your already tattered umbrella. You're soaking wet, but still that umbrella is like your ray of hope.

I was really happy to wake up to a dry, bright and sunny morning on Friday. I got ready to go to work and made my way to the subway station as usual. I was walking happily down a street when I'm suddenly blinded by a shower of some liquid. My first reaction was fear...cos it wasnt raining, I wasnt close to a puddle that a car might have run through...this was some alien source. I couldnt even open my eyes for a good 10 seconds cos the 'liquid' was spraying into my eyes. I ran to the other side of the road in order to figure out what the hell was going on. Everyone else was walking along as normal...and I had a secondary universe feeling.


....Then around the corner comes a guy holding a freaking huge hose pipe...cleaning the sidewalk!!! The wind had caught the water jet and sprayed me with it!!! I was mad at the guy for 0.1 second...but it really wasnt his fault. And I was really just releived that it was only water! :)

All I could think of after that was Murphy.....
"If anything simply cannot go wrong, it will anyway."
...seriously the bastard ruins my life everytime! Jeez.

Stay dry,
-Amrita

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Inspi(red)

No, this is not another commercial for the RED campaign. Though I should probably have a post about that soon. This post is about a normal human being like you and me being inspired enough to run 26.2 miles on a chilly New York City day.

On Sunday, Nov 5th...37000+ people from all over the world ran the ING New York City marathon. Excluding the professional and elite runners, you still have at least 30000 regular people. This is just astounding to me. The sheer level of commitment and determination it takes for a non-runner to train and run 26.2 miles at a stretch is just mind boggling.

Coming back to the marathon story. I volunteered this year and was assigned to the Family Reunion unit. So I was part of the team that received the runners as they exited Central Park and helped them find transportation and their families. It was a great experience. The high fives and the exhausted smiles...I'll never forget it. I must have chanted "Congratulations, Great job done!" and "Felicitations" at least a 1000 times. In turn, a lot of the runners gave me hugs and said "no, no...thank you!". Such happiness!! My cheeks hurt from smiling all day. :-)

A lot of runners ran for causes like cancer research etc (like one of my good friends). So it made the hard work totally worth it for them.

Now i'm Inspired to pound some asphalt baby!