Saturday, April 23, 2011

Spring break

In no time my vacation is almost over. I planned to clean, organize the house, shop and do some school work. I ended up watching old movies, reading and sleeping. Now that it is time to get back to reality, loads of work is staring at me from around the house. Only way to escape from the demands is just to ignore them. So here I am at 6 in the morning of Saturday trying to recollect my lost holidays.

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The pixar story was a documentary about the animation studio. It is an incredible story of an American success- an idea being nurtured which lead to innovation on computer animation which in turn churned out a series of highly successful movies like toy story, monsters inc, bugs life, finding nemo, walle E etc. My personal favorite is finding nemo.

Steve martin movie " father of the bride" is funny like any other steve martin movie. The father can not accept his daughter all grown up and is too much worried about whether she has chosen the right guy. This will lead into a series of belly tickling laughs through out.

Gods must be crazy2 is another movie that will bring you down to floor- laughing loud. The tribal father set out to find his missing kids, kids themselves were driven in a van while they were exploring the parked van near their house, there is a man and woman lost in the jungle, and two soldiers fighting with each other. The two kids are adorable to watch and so is the wild beauty of Africa

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ABC(A Better Chance) is an organization that helps recruit talented children in US who are otherwise on a disadvantage due to their economic background to high quality education. The children thus recruited are placed in highly prestigious private schools around the country or some good public school districts. Winchester, the town we live in is hosting an ABC chapter. Five such students(from different parts of the country) stay with their ABC family where they have a couple who are paid as ABC parents to take care of these five students. They attend Winchester high school. When I came to know about this organization and the noble work it does, I was curios to find out the future of such students who came out of ABC and my Google search brought me to a list of people who are working in different fields- scientists, politicians, teachers, professors and engineers who have made an impact in their respective field. And the notable one was the Massachusetts governor DAVAL PATRICK. Mr. Patrick is the first black governor in the history of Massachusetts.

I remember few years back while he was the first year governor. When severe snow storm broke, with out much preparation for the snow emergency, the traffic got stagnant, many people had to stay on the road for hours together to reach the house. For a fifteen minutes drive I was stuck about two hours in the road. Many criticized the governor for not preparing enough for the storm. But that was the first and only time he got such criticism. Every storm afterward, he has made sure that his state is well equipped and snow is removed promptly. I am really impressed how he handled and continues to handle the snow emergency after that incident. For me, this is an example of a highly effective office.

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This week, I read the book: A reason to believe- lessons from an improbable life- The auto biography of Daval Patrick. As improbable as it may seem- his journey from the south side of Chicago to the state house of Massachusetts, it is a story of how programs like ABC can make a difference in the society. Most of his life story is some what similar to that of his friend and ally Mr. Obama. With an absent father, his mother moved with his grand parents to bring her children. When he was in sixth grade, his teacher applied for this program at ABC which in turn led him to Milton Academy, a private school in Boston, and then to Harvard.

I am deeply inspired and impressed by the social programs such as ABC. "It starts with the premise that talent resides in every American community - and then puts that talent in the way of opportunity. Its as simple and powerful as that." told Patrick at one of the ABC alumni conferences at Milton.

2 comments:

Surya Nair said...

You write so well, aunty!
Your pieces are full of heart and wit, reading them is heartening all the same.

Do write more!

Asha said...

Thanks Surya for stopping by, :) Appreciate your feed back.