Poorvoices’s Blog

“Cherie Blair is visiting next week.”

“Oh! Really?” (She is confused about who the person is.)

(Looking at her confused face) “Hey! She is Tony Blair’s wife.”

“Oh! Okay.” (Smiling and talking in her head “Gosh! I am familiar with the name but who actually is Tony Blair”)

(Still smiling) “Hehe! Sounds great!” (Sarcastically) Will she donate us money? (Both laugh)

“We are going to perform a dance when she will arrive.”

“Really! But why?”

“Every time we have guests or any BIG personality (here by big I mean not literally big but somebody with either big heart or big wallet), we get chance to dance.”

“In real, the chance to dance is not fun. It really is not. For past 16 months, we had been dancing, studying and dancing again. We dance in the name of our culture, We dance in the name of having fun, in other words, taking break from mundane academic routine, and We dance in the name of talent.”

“But aren’t we talented in other fields?”

“Yes, we are. See we had so much fun during the H1N1 debate in our science class. I did not get bored though it was a part of our assignment.”

“And yea, we had fun while performing drama on Matisse’s painting. I must say, some dramas were very creative, though it was a tough part.”

“Seems like we have other talents besides dancing, isn’t it?”

“Yea, I must say.”

“Then why are you dancing again?”

“Because this is the rule.”

(With sad face and heavy heart and wishing others could listen to her voice and thoughts.), she accepts the bitter truth though she knew that things could have been much better.)

Last few days were full of hustles and bustles. We had DONOR$, who give us DOLLAR$, visiting our university and everybody was busy trying to prove that everything here works well (though it doesn’t…most of the times), decorating every nook and corner of the university, putting framed pictures all over, even on the notice board, (I guess notice boards are used for some other purpose) and preparing for academic showcase, which was the only thing I liked the most. It was as if we were mending every old clothes and trying to turn it into something GORGEOUS because we have a party to attend in few hours.

 And gorgeous it turned, with Chinese restaurant like dining hall, with forest like corridors because there were plants–plants everywhere, with sleek clean new tables and floors because the cleaner ladies rushed up-down-left-right in every few minutes to mop the footsteps and dirt, with big white curtain placed between two building to hide the real truth (construction workers working in the building beside), and with beautifully decorated, not colorfully though (THANK GOD!!!), three-days-coffee-shop and it was wonderful because we got free coffee for three days. Not to forget, we had a big mural as well on the first floor, but personally I did not like it for some I-don’t-know-reasons. May be I have not been well exposed to all the aspects of arts or maybe I just simply do not like the idea of it. Whatever!!! BUT by saying all this I did not mean, that everything here is a fake, but I did not like the idea of hiding reality except the ACADEMIC SHOWCASE.

What Did I do?

So, for the first day, we welcomed our Donor$, and fortunately, I must say, I was a host intern, which basically meant, I had to sit with some guests and eat lunch and talk. You must be thinking it is very easy talking, but it was the toughest job ever.  There were talks of our countries, our study, our future plans, their life, and their kids. Questions after questions were fired and at one point I felt like I was participating in some quiz show and it was the rapid fire round LOL but one questions just got right into my mind. She asked,

“Will your education/empowerment be enough to change your society?”

I think there is nothing that is ENOUGH to get something satisfyingly and sufficiently ENOUGH. But if I can use my education, add it to someone else’s, then again multiply it with the other people around me and then work together in creating awareness among people, I believe we will be at least able to make a difference, and the differences we make will help to bring about a change in our society. OBVIOUSLY, changing something is not an easy feat but we all know nothing is IMPOSSIBLE. So, I say yes, my education and my empowerment with yours will be enough to change our society.

P.S.

Overall, it was a nice experience of meeting successful women working for welfare of societies and some on their way (a girl who sat next to me, worked in South Africa and is heading for Europe soon), but it was annoying to be circled around by cameras and listening to those flashing of lights every time I try to gobble up a spoon of food. Also, after the nice chit chat for about an hour, a nice lady praised telling me that my English is very good. I am happy she said so, but then I felt like I sat for some kind of English SPEAKING Test.   HECK!

Have you ever felt like this???

Just a puzzled thought

I wish I could do all those things

But I feel so bound these days

I don’t even know how to put my feelings

That I am feeling right now into words

I am not perfect; I am not the best

But I try to be good

I know it’s hard to hide

Always inside this hood

 But I can’t help myself

Now, I don’t even know

What makes me happy?

What excites me?

Sometimes, I lose myself

And sometimes I don’t even know

What do I want exactly

And I don’t even know

 Why am I telling you

All these things?

I know I suck but

 It’s the reality that sucks me the most

I just don’t know why I keep fooling myself

Which helps others to fool me so easily

I am just totally out of my mind

I believe I am happy

More than satisfied

More than anyone in this world

BUT

Maybe I am wrong

 if yes.. then i sleep with a happier note  that I am not the one who feels like a crazy

Aa aa aaa aaa aaa aaa aaa

Don’t get confused, I was just trying to form a tune into words. If you have watched the movie “Enchanted” then you must know this tone, the one that attracts all the animals and insects. Fortunately, I had a memorable experience when singing this tone. One night, I was singing the tune while cleaning the floor when a cockroach came flying by. We screamed out loud and afterwards my roommate could not stop laughing.

I was wondering did really the cockroach came hearing my song. Well, living with cockroaches all around, life here has been an experience of tears, fears and cheers. As the cockroaches walk, I have walked so many paths of struggles here. And as they have flown, I have flown in sky during many blissful moments. Though I HATE cockroaches in Capital letters, I am now acclimated to see them walk and fly, walking down the stairs some pass by, on the floors some dead ones lie, and seeing all these, I miss my home and I cry.

As she put her Kajal, she asked, “Can I go outside with wet hair?”

I thought it was so silly of her to even ask it. I said “Of course you can. Why did you ask?” And the reason was so strange.

In some African countries, people believe that only prostitutes walk publicly with wet hair. Imagine yourself walking down the street with your wet hair dripping drops of water and the fragrance of your shampoo or whatever you used for bath permeating through the air. (I just love the feeling of walking with wet hair.) And all of a sudden, men stare at you or yell something or some might even come near to ask your price or whatever. Just because you are walking with wet hair in public.

I did not see any point there. But then I thought there are so many pointless things that we do and follow, for just being a GIRL. There exist so many connotations for every act GIRLS do while BOYS, they are just so free, free like a bird.

I still remember how at times I had wished I were a boy. But deep inside I am proud to be a girl because being girl is more than a life.

P.S: Everyone who visits my blog for the first time and matches the “About my blog” part with my recent post must think, how do her purpose for the blog matches with her recent posts? For all of them, I just want to inform, since I don’t go out so much, I have nothing to share except what I have experienced and felt. So until I get across something interesting, you will have to listen to MY poor voice.

I shared my dreams with one of my sweet friends, whom i got to know recently. Then I realized “Gosh! I have so many dreams. Will I be able to conquer them? Will this life be enough?”

I have so many question rollercoastering in my head right now. Hope, I will get the answers and will live all my dreams soon. Till then i sleep with those pictures in my head.

I can’t wait to live by this 2 weeks soon and be back home.

So did I think about any solutions?

Yes, of course I did. But I don’t know whether it will solve the problem or not.

Once I borrowed ear bud from one of my pal (I need to clean my ear so much that sometimes I am short of ear buds) It had wood instead of what we have plastic pipes in ear buds. Now, you might ask how can we get woods then? Simple answer! Cut trees. Now you might argue that this has the same effect on the environment as the plastics. But remember at least we can plant trees.

Eye drop bottles…I guess it’s hard for this one. But in today’s tech world nothing seems impossible. May be researchers can create the medicine that won’t expire soon. Also, creating medicines in big bottles can help reduce more use of plastics. Now about shampoo and face wash bottles… I can’t help myself from buying those. So, no any comments on that. But maybe we can reduce the use of small sachets.

Fancy stationary things? I think both consumer and producer should be aware about it. I think awareness campaigns should importantly be held in industrial areas, so that people will be aware about consumption of plastic while producing goods. On the other hand, we customers should avoid buying stuffs that looks super cute but is not environment friendly.

“Green –It’s a way of life for us not just a slogan.”

On top of that, if you can get some cloth or wool bag, buy it because they are more environment friendly and durable. Now, you must be thinking me as just another person rambling about protecting environment. But I think we humans are needed to be reminded about things time and again.

It has been few months; I have been suffering from different kind of infections. I am suffering from ear infection. Few nights ago, I was cleaning my ears with an ear bud. The ear bud was nothing but just a small green pipe wrapped with little amount of cottons at the both ends.
Few days ago, one of my friends was putting eye drops in my eyes. Yes, I am suffering from eye infection too. The eye drop bottle was nothing but a small cute plastic bottle. A while ago, I was cleaning my closet and threw almost 4 and 5 plastic bottles of face wash and shampoo. Nothing but just fancy colored and attractive sized bottles.
Few weeks ago, I saw one of my teachers and friends using a pencil that has a small plastic cover. (Do we even need cover for pencil?)Now you must be thinking, why I am telling all these, almost personal things to you? Here’s the reason.
There are many discussions, articles and books that I have read about environment conservation and climate change. There are many times when I myself have become so aware and encouraged to participate in activities to protect our mother earth. But there are many things in our life we simply don’t realize which act as the main causes of global warming.
The ear bud contains just small plastic pipe. Can you imagine how many people all across the world might use an ear bud in a day? Just a small piece of plastic pipe but adds large amount of plastic garbage. Similar is the case for eye drop bottles. A normal eye drop medicine expires in 4 weeks once it is used. The eye drop bottles are small yet, at the end of each months there are many eye drop bottles half filled with the liquid that go unused, again adding to plastic rubbish. Likewise, there are many fancy cosmetic products in different shapes and sizes that not only add to bucks that we pay for them but also to plastic garbage. And to add more, we carry all those in plastic bags.
So do we have any solutions for them then? I would love to know your ideas.