In honour of Navratri

An awesome bhajan Aayi Navratri - Maiya Ka Jagrata - sung by Anuradha Paudwal. And do switch off the music player first.

Nine Holy Nights

This morning I hardly knew how to write it, let alone pronounce it, but all that changed after receiving a text message from a very special friend in Surinam, South America. Her words: Subh Navratri.

Ah, you decided to stick around. Well, good for you, because this short post is all it takes to quickly brief you about the Nine Holy Nights. For that is what Navratri literally means in Sanskrit, Nava meaning Nine and Ratri meaning nights.

These nine nights are filled with worship and a vegetarian diet. Some even forego on food and drink as well, or abstain from using salt. That is sofar as the stomach is concerned. Back to the worship itself. During these nine nights the nine manifestations of Durga are worshipped. Durga is considered to be an embodiment of the creative feminine force (Shakti) and the fiercer, demon-fighting form of Lord Shiva's wife, Goddess Parvati.

Now why worship Durga during those nine nights? What did she do to deserve these nights of worship in honour of her? Well, my dears, she saved the world, by slaying an asura, a demon, called Mahishasura. He had unleashed a reign of terror on earth, heaven and the worlds below. None of the gods could defeat him, so Durga was created instead. Thus, she has come to represent the motherhood of God. Durga is the warrior aspect of the Divine Mother.

It is said that when Mahishasura met her, he seriously underestimated her, thinking "How can a woman kill me - Mahishasura the one who has defeated the god trinity". However, Durga gave a roar of laughter which caused earthquake on the earth and this woke Mahishasura up to her powers.

The terrible Mahishasura rampaged against her, changing forms many times, from buffalo to elephant, lion, man and so on. When at one point Mahishasura had half emerged into his buffalo form again, he got paralyzed by the extreme light emitting from the goddess's body. The goddess then resounded with laughter before cutting Mahishasura's head down with her Khorgo. Thus Durga slayed Mahishasura.

As for Shiva-dear, in mainstream Hindu religion, Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva represent the three primary aspects of the divine, and are collectively known as the Trimurti. Brahma is the creator, Vishnu is the maintainer or preserver, and Shiva is the destroyer or transformer.

Subh Navratri.

Ray Neiman. Ray who?

Call it pidgin. Call it Patois. Call Ray a new-born star

Once you've figured out the main features of the Xperia for which I heavily advertised one blog entry ago - and should really be getting paid for - do you get yourself a Bose headphone, plug it in the cell phone, surf to youtube and look for music by Ray Neiman.

Ray who? Ray Neiman, a rising star in the French music scene. His music, a perfect blend of reggae, dancehall, pop, rock, r&b and zoukh, all jazzed up with local spices, is bound to turn every wall flower into a too-hot-to-trot dance miracle.

I bet you did not know, however, that Neiman's history started some 25 years ago in Surinam, in a settlement very near to the Marowijne river. He comes from a big family (ten children and a father who was hardly in sight). Remarkably enough, he considers his first family to be the Amer Indians and regrets never having learned their language.

Soon Surinam proved too small for his ambitions, so he decided to move to the Netherland. Yet after a while he became restless again and moved on to France and the UK.

At the same time slowly but surely his musical identity has begun to take shape. He features on a remix of Shy' m's super hit Femme de Couleur and is doing gigs in France, Belgium, the UK and Switzerland, winning many awards on the way.

And don't you for one moment think Neiman has forgotten about his Surinamese heritage, as his songs breathe the spirit of the Aucan language. Okay, teacher Sharida delves into Wikipedia: Aucans are descendents of Maroons, runaway slaves in the West Indies, Central America, South Ameria and North America who formed independent settlements together.

Now, you should know that slaves frequently escaped within the first generation of their arrival from Africa and often preserved their African languages and much of their culture and religion. The jungles offered food, shelter, and isolation for the escaped slaves. Maroons survived by growing vegetables and hunting. Individual groups of Maroons often allied themselves with the local indigenous tribes and occasionally assimilated into these populations.Maroon/Marokon settlements often possessed a clannish, outsider identity. The language that they spoke has various names, but one such Maroon Creole language, in Surinam, is the Aucan language, Neiman's language.

In the years to follow, many of the vernacular forms of English, and Dutch for that matter, spoken in the Caribbean changed into different, broken languages, also referred to as pidgin languages or Patois. Jamaican Patois for instance is comprised words from the native languages of the many races within the Caribbean including Latin, Spanish, Hindi, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Amerindian, and English along with several African dialects. Some islands have creole dialects influenced by their linguistic diversity; French, Spanish, Latin, Hindi, Arabic, Hebrew, German, Dutch, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, and others. Often these Patois are popularly considered "bastardizations" of English, "broken English", or slang.

Of course, you are now dying to listening to a few of his songs. Check out the songs Viens, Fais Moi Danser and Shake it. And try and discover how many different languages are incorporated in the songs. Neiman has a hyves page and can be found on MySpace.

Mister Ray Neiman's songs are a classic example of the cultural and linguistic richness of his background. Call it Patois. Call it Creole. Call it anything you like. I prefer to call it musical magic.

Photo credits
- First two photos from Neiman's Hyves and MySpace, as is most of the textual info on Neiman.
- Maroon photo from Ted Hill, Suriname River in 1955. Wikipedia

The Xperia Experiment

Surprise. Surprise. No matter how many sheep I tried to count, it is now half past three in the morning and the fact of the matter is that yours truly can't sleep. Insomnia. So, why toss and turn, while you could have a go at the brand new Sony Ericsson Xperia X1. It is such a sleek and sophisticated device with amazing features. It is equipped with a gigantic 3.0-inch LCD Touchscreen and comes preloaded with Microsoft Applications including Words, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Internet Explorer, and Mobile Media Player Mobile, allowing insomniacs like me to work and relax at anywhere anytime.




And it's ultra fast because of its 3G data connectivity support. There is also this built-in 3.2-megapixel digital camera, and a GPS navigation system (so no Tom Tom for me).

Yet in IMHO, one of the most alluring features is undoubtedly the QWERTY keyboard, having an arc slider design. Eat your heart out.

That said, you practically need a Ph.D to get them all to work for you instead of against you. I finally managed to access the Internet without much ado. All's well that ends well, as the Great Bard once said. ;-)

Existential pain

For those who think the following is going to be completely beyond them, stop reading right now. For all others who can do without no brainers, do continue. Checked my email and Facebook inboxes an hour ago and was surprised to see two messages about scorned love. The email had grief written all over it. The Facebook comment was cynical to the bone.

This only goes to show that pain has many faces and is just as much part of life, as is for instance, breathing. Therefore, some call this pain existential in nature. And we all deal with it in our own ways, whether you are a famous Dutch playwrite or a student about to enter university.

My dear student, you are the one who studied Greek or Latin, I forgot which one. So, know your classics, for languages considered dead might not prove so dead after all . . . Try not to be afraid of the future, because the future might actually bring wisdom and renewed happiness.

"And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God." - Aeschylus

So who the hell are you?

You can be a William Shakespeare. Or perhaps you are a Wolfgang Mozart. Oh you may prefer to model yourself after Rembrandt van Rijn.

Perhaps you are none of the above, but rather a disoverer and admirer of all those beautiful treasures called art.

According to a silly Facebook test I did recently, I was a Christobal Columbus, because of a daring and adventurous streak I seemingly possess. Columbus wanted to explore the corners of the world. Or did he, as there is a 'slight' difference between discovering and taking over, and not just in maritime or military terms for that matter ... How about the field of love? Are you the Disoverer or the Conquerer?

This is where Ethics enters the scene and why reinvent a brilliant train of thought if some chap already said it before? So here goes:

'Ethics, too, are nothing but reverence for life. This is what gives me the fundamental principle of morality, namely, that good consists in maintaining, promoting, and enhancing life, and that destroying, injuring, and limiting life are evil.' - Albert Schweitzer

There is no particular need to immediately sail out and discover the world. Start by exploring and expanding the corners of your own mind. Academic studies will broaden your mind only so far. But poetry, or poetic prose or prosaic verse ... aahh my dears, poetry will allow your soul to switch back and forth from being a hedonistic pleasure dome to a temple of grief and sensing, breathing, living all the motions in between.

'We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.' - from the 1989 motion picture Dead Poets' Society

And on this brilliant bombshell, I bid thee farewell. Or to rephrase this: later mate.


picture credits
London: Anthony Blond, 1968 (English translation), Warminster, England: Aris & Phillips, Ltd., 1990 (Spanish version)

What came first:

human beings or human rights?

And a very good morning to you, too. Were you there yesterday, in the pretty Dutch town of Middelburg in Zeeland, to commemorate the abolishment of slavery (1st July 1863)? While listening to all the stories and watching all the visible reminders of this past, another story came to mind, the story told in a poem by Kenneth Patchen (1911 – 1972).


‘Nice Day for a Lynching’

The bloodhounds look like sad old judges
In a strange court. They point their noses
At the Negro jerking in the tight noose;
His feet spread crow-like above these
Honorable men who laugh as he chokes.

I don’t know this black man.

I don’t know these white men.

But I know that one of my hands
Is black, and one white. I know that
One part of me is being strangled,
While another part horribly laughs.

Until it changes,
I shall be forever killing; and be killed.

Photo credit: NAACP announcement that a man was lynched yesterday

Monday morning . The sunlight forced itself through my curtains, melting away the dreams I did not wish to dream, making way for a new day of doing things I might never have done before, making way for ... new dreams.

John Frederick Nims' Love Poem

Came a across this 'forgotten' extraordinary love poem from the American poet John Frederick Nims (1913 - 1999). Usually such poems mention the good qualities of your other half, your better self. Not with Nims who starts off this poem by telling the reader that the woman he loves is no good at all. The second stanza explains why: she is an expert in much more important things in life. She helps people that are not helped by others. Nims is not trying to change her. In fact, he is willing to change himself.

'Love Poem'

My clumsiest dear, whose hands shipwreck vases,
At whose quick touch all glasses chip and ring,
Whose palms are bulls in china, burs in linen,
And have no cunning with any soft thing

Except all ill-at-ease fidgeting people:
The refugee uncertain at the door
You make at home; deftly you steady
The drunk clambering on his undulant floor.

Unpredictable dear, the taxi drivers' terror,
Shrinking from far headlights pale as a dime
Yet leaping before apopleptic streetcars—
Misfit in any space. And never on time.

A wrench in clocks and the solar system. Only
With words and people and love you move at ease;
In traffic of wit expertly manoeuver
And keep us, all devotion, at your knees.

Forgetting your coffee spreading on our flannel,
Your lipstick grinning on our coat,
So gaily in love's unbreakable heaven
Our souls on glory of spilt bourbon float.

Be with me, darling, early and late. Smash glasses
I will study wry music for your sake.
For should your hands drop white and empty
All the toys of the world would break.

The days after ....

July 2 has gently eased into July 3. It is still stifling hot outside and The Famous Unknowns are again giving a brilliant performance in my living room. Me is once more burning the midnight oil, until I am so tired that all I can do fall in a dreamless sleep, with no risk of being haunted by that nagging anguish of the last ten days.

The good part about July 2 was that I saw so many of my former students at Het Baken this afternoon, from the geniuses of Hugo, Dominique, Laura and Judith to golden boy Jesper a.k.a. Mr Hystorectomy, to Bollywood Sana, to DJ Joa, to funny Wesley, to so many other lovelies, all receiving their A-level diplomas. Well done and a very deep bow from thy former teacher! A whole new world is about to unfold for you, taking you wonder by wonder. Explore, my adventurers. Be inquisitive. But most of all, be you.

Other good things on July 2? Well, how about having dinner with friends at Gandhi, a fabulous newly opened Indian restaurant in Hilversum. The owners are the Indian couple Mr and Mrs Gupta who have several restaurants and take aways in the Netherlands. As an extra advantage: eating out proves an effective remedy to forcefully drive out unpleasant thoughts and memories, especially if you choose extremely spicy.

And then the early hours of July 3 arrived. Should have been in bed a long time ago and in a few hours the hot eye of heaven will replace the crescent moon, meaning it's time for me to get up again and prepare for another day at the office. Well, I have to anyway, since July 3rd will be all about the preparation for next Tuesday's radio broadcast, this time not at the public library in Amsterdam (OBA), but at Desmet Studio (near Artis Zoo).

That last broadcast from OBA led to some nice pics taken from the video stream. BTW, Tuesday's broadcast will feature a very special main guest: Khadija Arib. So stay tuned to that radio (5) and join some 20.000 other listeners.

Yes, those glasses conceal more than simply lack of sleep, but who would know... Only the observing reader and/or viewer? Or the ocassional passer-by who actually dares to fathom the dark corners of my soul...?

p.s. Laura, you honoured me greatly with your entry in the year book. Thank you so much, although I really do not deserve this.

Djamal


Wesley


Sana


Djamila


Jesper

Linking words

There are roughly speaking five categories of linking words. I have given examples of each category.


Giving examples
For example /For instance /Namely

Adding information
And /In addition / As well as /Also/ Too /Furthermore / Moreover / Apart from /
In addition to / Besides

Summarising
In short / In brief / In summary / To summarise / In a nutshell / To conclude
In conclusion

Sequencing ideas
The former, … /the latter /Firstly, / secondly, / finally /The first point is
Lastly/ The following

Giving a reason
Due to / due to the fact that /Owing to / owing to the fact that /Because /Because of Since /As

Giving a result
Therefore /So /Consequently/ This means that/ As a result

Contrasting ideas
But/ However /Although / even though /Despite / despite the fact that /In spite of / in spite of the fact that /Nevertheless/ Nonetheless /While/ Whereas /Unlike /In theory… /in practice…

A thousand humble apologies . . .

. . . for those random readers who actually bother to visit this blog. Got some complaints lately regarding the radio silence. No particular reason, just been very busy. Anyway, new post, new picture. This new profile photo of yours truly was taken by Dutch senator Anja Meulenbelt who actually came by to check out Oba Live herself. She was pleasantly surprised and came back a second time and wrote two detailed reports. To go to one of them, click here. And it's thumbs up for Oba Live, even though I am as inexperienced as can be.

For those of you interested in India and living in the Netherlands, Oba Live will be doing an India special on Tuesday 9 June. The first reason being the parliamentary elections in India and how the results will affect the position of India's 140 million Muslims.

The second reason is the commemoration of the 136th anniversary of the Indian arrival in Surinam. In the 19th and early part of the 20th centuries over one and a half million Indians went overseas, to exotic places like Burma, Malaya, Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific islands. They went to earn a living as indentured workers on the many sugar cane plantations. Over 34.000 ended up in Surinam, including my great grandfather.

Hope to go back to Surinam this August to find out more about my Indian lineage. I know my great grandfather came from Kamanpur, some village or small city in the Indian state of Andra Pradesh. That in itself is quite remarkable, because most Indian immigrants came from Northern India. Not my ancestors, so it seems.

But how about my great grandmother? The good news is that I actually met her in 1971. That said, I was only six years old and hardly remember anything about this meet and greet. It was my first time ever in Surinam. I even have a picture of her taken by one of my uncles (oom Henk). Her name: Subhagia Ramzan.

I have her DNA, but what do I know about her? Where did she come from? From the north, the middle, the south? What is her story? Did she come of her own free will or was she tricked into boarding that ship? How old was she when she left India? On which plantation did she work? More answers than questions, hence my second trip to the Caribbean, to Surinam.

P.S. I did find out though that Kamanpur is about 200 kilometers from Hyderabad, the very beautiful capital of Andra Pradesh. Hope Hyderabad has a decent night life... ;-)

Phir wohi Raaste

Just a very meagre post this time and it is about the first track of my present playlist: Phir Wohi Raastey. It is from the film Ramchand Pakistani (see an earlier post on my blog), starring one of my favourite actresses Nandita Das.

It so happens that as part of the Amnesty International Film Festival 2009 they are screening two of her films: Ramchand Pakistani and Firaaq. That's the good news. The bad news: it is already sold out.

From India to Surinam to Holland

Some hundred years ago a tiny Indian man of only 19 years old left his village Kamanpur in the Indian state of Andra Pradesh. He was almost certainly recruited by the Dutch colonial government to work on one of the plantations in some far away country in South America.

Ramran Ali Mohamed Jousief boarded the SS Indus III in Calcutta on 27th October 1908, heading for a new future in a new country. On 5th December of that same year he set foot on Surinamese soil.

He started working on the plantation Meerzorg. Somehow Surinam did not work for him, even though he married and got one son. So, one morning on 5th March 1920 – he was in his early thirties by then - he called it quits and returned to the Motherland India, leaving behind his wife and child.













That’s where most of the information as found in the Historical Database Suriname, stops and where Ramran’s family left behind in Surinam, takes over. As said, Ramran had only one son: Rafiek Mohamedjoesoef, the very man who would later become my grandfather from my mum’s side of the family.

I was in Surinam recently when I decided to visit my mum’s birthplace. First, we drove through Pad van Wanica. Then we took a left entering the Tout Lui Fautweg. After about 15 minutes or so, we hit a sandy road full of potholes. We had finally arrived at Bergers Hoop, an out of the way place that was once the heartland of many British Indian immigrants. That’s where mum was born, nearly seventy years ago.

To be continued...

De Nederlands-Arabische Kring (NAK) Amsterdam presenteert

zondag 29 maart om 14.00 uur in de levante, Amsterdam

Marokko vandaag en morgen

Een lezing door Paolo de Mas

Marokko. De samenleving gist, bruist en uiteenlopende opvattingen en sociale categorieën schuren of botsen tegen elkaar. Hoewel er onmiskenbaar veranderingen ten goede plaatsvinden, zorgen toenemende tegenstellingen in leefstijl, welvaart en gekoesterde normen en waarden voor sociale spanningen.

Paolo de Mas, voorzitter van de Nederlands-Arabische Kring, is terug in Nederland, na bijna drie jaar leiding te hebben gegeven aan het Nederlands Instituut in Marokko (NIMAR). Dit is zijn derde langduriger verblijf sinds hij in 1974 voor de eerste keer in dat land kwam om de effecten te onderzoeken van wat toen nog gastarbeid werd genoemd. Zijn onderzoekservaring en bemoeienis strekt zich uit over meer dan drie decennia, en zijn bevindingen zijn vastgelegd in een groot aantal publicaties over het land.

In de lezing zal vooral aandacht worden geschonken aan de huidige situatie in Marokko, die zich kenmerkt door buitengewoon contrasterende en boeiende ontwikkelingen en contrasten van politieke en sociale aard.

Locatie
De Levante, Hobbemastraat 28, 1071 ZC Amsterdam

Datum / tijd
zondagmiddag 29 maart 2009 / van 14.00 tot 16.00 uur.
Entree EUR 2.50, NAK-leden gratis op vertoon van lidmaatschapkaart

Bereikbaarheid
De Levante is te bereiken via trams 2 en 5, halte Hobbemastraat, langs het Rijksmuseum tot het water (Hobbemakade), op de hoek rechts naast het Zuiderbad.
Reserveren verplicht i.v.m. de beperkte ruimte.

Reservering verplicht
sharida mohamedjoesoef / s.mohamedjoesoef@planet.nl -
de levante info@delevante.org / 020 - 671 5485 – http://www.delevante.org/

'Slumdog' bags 8 Oscars

Slumdog Millionaire has turned out to be the big winner at the 81st Academy Awards, with the Mozart of Madras, AR Rahman, bringing home two awards with his Jai Ho... composition. The film won in the following categories

- Best Adapted Screenplay

- Best cinematography

- Best Sound mixing

- Best Film Editing

- Best Original Score

- Best Original Song

- Best Direction

- Best Motion Picture.

The best part is that the little ones were also there to share in the fame, including my absolute favourite: adorable Ayush. Now that's a far cry from that squat toilet scene. The boy is such a sweet sight for sore eyes.

I say Mr Bachan, eat your heart out.

Photo credits: AP

Real 'Slumdog' heroes off to Hollywood

As two children from the Indian slums of Mumbai - Rubina Ali and Azharuddin Ismail - who shot to fame in the film Slumdog Millionaire are on their way to the Oscars ceremony in the US, controvery surrounding their pay grows stronger.

Living legend Amitabh Bachan criticised the film on his blog, but now claims the remarks were only meant to stir a debate. Right ... Fortunately, another Bollywood legend Shah Rukh Khan lashed out at his fellow countrymen and feels 'Slumdog' does portray India in an appealing way.

And then there is the controversy regarding the wages. Azaharuddin's parents feel their son - who plays the youngest version of Salim - was exploited and claim they know nothing about any trust fund. Azaruddin's father said he has already all the money. Reports about what these kids earned vary. In the BBC video Azhar's dad says that all the money they were given has already been used up. And they want more.

Rubina Ali, who plays the youngest version of Latika, and her family seem more content. The two kids are said to visit Disneyland after rubbing shoulders on the red carpet with the posh and pampered of Tinseltown.

Oh well, probably a story to be continued.

Do see the BBC videoclip which shows where these two gorgeous kids live.

Photo credits
Azaruddin Ismail, from movies.indiatimes.com
Rubina Ali, by Gautam Singh, AP

And the winner is ...

Ayush Mahesh Khedekar, the adorable eight-year-old boy who plays the youngest version of Jamal Malik in Slumdog Millionaire and who jumps into a latrine - filled with shit - just to get an autograph of his idol Indian actor Amitabh Bachan. Of course, it was chocolate they made Ayush jump into ;-)

Rewind. Just got back from Rotterdam where I saw the film Slumdog Millionaire. For what it's worth, this film rocks from beginning to end. The fabulous musical score. The story line which in itself is practically a fairy tale. The vibrant colours - whether from the awesome Taj Mahal or the unspeakable squalor of the slums - bringing to life the magic of India.

Much of Slumdog's sparkle must be credited to Ayush Mahesh Khedekar (youngest Jamal), Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail (youngest Salim) and Rubina Ali (yougest Latika). And they are good!!! No acting experience whatsoever. The latter two are simply two kids from the slums of Mumbai. No worries. These lovelies have now been put into schools and a trust fund was set up for them so that when they finish school they can pursue their studies and hopefully thus ensure a better life. In my humble opinion, a far better investment than simply giving the parents a lump sum of money.

True, not everyone is happy with Slumdog. For one thing, legendary superstar Amitabh Bachchan has criticised Slumdog Millionaire for portraying India as a “Third World dirty underbelly developing nation”.

If you are really desperate for some Bollywood song and dance... well, then you had better wait until the closing credits, for the best is saved for last.

Photo credits

courtesy Imdb.com and Goldderby LA Times

Update back and forth

14 February 1989: fatwa for Salman Rushdie due to the Satanic Verses
14 February 2005: the killing of former Lebanese PM Rafiq Hariri
14 February 2009: Valentine's Day

So sorry for the radio silence, the reason being that Sharida got tricked into presenting a two hour LIVE radio talk show called Oba Live (major gulp)!

I have been doing this since January and believe you me, the first time I was so incredibly nervous, I hardly took in anything the guests were saying. The jitters are getting less, but still...

Oba Live is broadcast every Tuesday evening from 19.00 to 21.00 hrs by NMO/NIO (Radio 5). And if you thought this was radio, well think again mates, because you can actually watch this live on the net. What's worse, the internet streams remain available for eternity. So if you can't wait to see me stammering away through the programme, simply go to NMO.nl.

Anyway, back to my favourite topic: my teenage students at Het Baken. Saw most of my lovelies last Thursday and felt utterly happy afterwards.

And the happiness continues. First, I finished reading the Dutch translation of a wonderful book called Dewey - The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched The World. This is the story about Dewey, an abandoned kitten from Spencer, Iowa, who transforms a sleepy library, inspires a classic American town, and captures the hearts of animal lovers everywhere.

Unfortunately, Dewey died a couple of years ago, but he's got his own website if you want to know more about this cute ginger cat.

And from Dewey to Slumdog Millionaire, the film I am finally going to see tomorrow. Slumdog Millionaire is a 2008 British drama film directed by Danny Boyle, co-directed by Loveleen Tandan, and written by Simon Beaufoy. It is an adaptation of the Boeke Prize-winning novel Q & A (2005) by Indian author and diplomat Vikas Swarup.

Set and filmed in India, Slumdog Millionaire tells the story of a young man from the slums of Mumbai who appears on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (Kaun Banega Crorepati, mentioned in the Hindi version) and exceeds people's expectations, arousing the suspicions of the game show host and of law enforcement officials.

Slumdog Millionaire won five Critics' Choice Awards, four Golden Globes and seven BAFTA Awards, including Best Film, and has been nominated for ten Academy Awards. The film is also the subject of controversy concerning its portrayal of India and Hinduism as well as the treatment of its child actors.

Source: Wikipedia

Happy New Year . . .

. . . to all those faithful readers who kept track of my silly posts and thus know that Sharida's 2008 was mostly the year of job switches.

A recap. Let's see, after about one and a half year I decided to call it quits at Dagblad De Pers and take up a post as a teacher at a secondary school in Almere to teach the Queen's English. Did that for barely four months. Yet due to all kinds of question marks (read: my own uncertainties such as will I manage to do this fulltime?) I let my doubts get the better of me.

I went back to the employer that introduced me to journalism in the first place, the Dutch Muslim Broadcasting Corporation.

That's where I am now, physically that is, for mentally I never actually left those 240 lovelies a.k.a. students. They gave me the time of my life and eventually made me realise where my true calling lies. I owe them so much!

And let's not forget about my teacher colleagues at the English department, the ones who patiently put up with my love for the ultimate classic Clarks desert boots created in 1950 by Nathan Clark who got the idea from crepe-soled, rough suede boots which officers in the Eighth Army were in the habit of getting made in the Bazaar at Cairo.

Those very colleagues allowed me to go on about Paddington Bear, especially the gorgeous illustrations by R.W. Alley with Paddington wearing his famous blue duffle coat. A British institution if ever you saw one, as are the classic whodunnits such as Poirots, Inspector Morse, The Saint, Sherlock Holmes, Midsomer Murders, Miss Marple, Inspector Lynley, Silent Witness and so on and so forth.

Who knows what 2009 has in store for me, but if I might make a wild guess - pause whilst I locate my mug of steaming cocoa - my final destination could very well be related to - drum roll please - Teaching, perhaps even in combination with a touch of journalism. For all I know, India might also be in the cards for me...

2009 will also be the moment of truth for many of my A-level students who will have to take their final exams this year before embarking on new paths of education. You will succeed, my dears. You will. God speed.

P.S.
Who knows, with a bit of luck we shall be spending some last quality time in London right after your exams.


Picture credit: Nelson Figueredo