Every time I write something about songs, an IAS stops talking to me. Hope this time is different. Remember
that phase of your life when you actually like listening to those tacky, cheesy,
“Aashiqui 2” type senti songs? Then comes the R&B songs and if
no-one helps you out and you are in the final grips of depression, the heavy death
metal blasts (You agree PINTS?).
Though,
there are some songs that stay with you forever … The Classics !! The "Summers
of 69s" and the "We will Rock Yous".
Two such
songs that I’m writing about are:
-“You’re Beautiful” by James Blunt
and
-“So Beautiful” by Pete Murray
Before you make any pre-emptive
judgements, know, that except the names, none other aspect of these two songs are
similar, in any way.
You’re Beautiful, by our very own James
Blunt, is an old El Classico which I guess everyone must have listened to, in their
adolescent life.
You know she’s beautiful, she’s an angel
and your love for her is pure. (All that crap)
On the other hand, you have “So Beautiful”,
by Pete Murray.
This guy may be no legend, but this song sure would've earned him a rapport with his ex’s friends, the way he feels about her in
this song.
Everyone knows how Taylor Swift &
Adele rip off their ex after they’re dumped. They’ll actually seem like little
girls in middle school after you hear how this guy blasted her ex to pieces, in all its subtlety.
While James Blunt reminds you of that
first girlfriend you broke up with or that one girl that got away whom you definitely
know, IS THE ONE,
Pete Murray reminds you of that one
irritating ex-girlfriend whom you wish, had actually gotten away.
(Ironically, I might have both of those
girls in my life reading this blog post)
To write this post further, I am actually
listening to these songs and while James Blunt strikes a chord deep down,
waking up that long buried nostalgia, Pete Murray makes my fingers roll up into
fists thinking of those crazy anger and frustration filled days.
In both of the songs, the guy is thinking
about a girl but while one has his girl portrayed as an angel on a heavenly
pedestal, the other one ridicules her dressing sense, how that fool thinks
so high of herself, her hair color and how he wishes he could bring her down and
plant her feet back on the ground.
You do feel pity for both of the guys
though.
James Blunt loves his girl so very much
and wants nothing but to be at her side but can’t and Pete Murray spent those awful
moments with his Ex and how his fingers actually seem to burn when he even as
much as thinks of touching her hair.
Is it just me, the boring, all the time in
front of my laptop/book geek with a non-existent social life (You
termed that, BAGAI) or do you think this is normal and you actually like Murray’s version of Beautiful over Blunt’s?
The recent
discovery of the NSA program collecting telecom recordings has yet again
sparked the debate on the validity of the US Patriot Act which allows the
national agencies to tap into private data of the masses.
A recent
leaked NSA document shows that on April 25, the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Court (FISA) granted an order to the FBI, giving them unlimited
access to obtain telecom recordings (within the country as well as between US
and other countries) for a three-month period ending in July.
Following
up on such spying activities that were carried out in the Bush administration,
this document shows evidence that for the first time under Obama’s presidency, such
measures are being taken, regardless of whether the citizens are suspected of
any wrongdoing.
As per the FISA
order, phone numbers of both parties on the call are handed over, along with location
data, call duration, unique identifiers and the time and duration of all calls
on the networks operated by Verizon, one of the biggest telecom operators in
the country.
To add to
the blows, it was also revealed that the court order had expressly barred
Verizon from disclosing any existence of such activity or the court order
itself.
It is still
unknown if Verizon is the only provider to be targeted with such an order while
previous reports have suggested such collections from all major mobile
networks. It is also unclear whether the three-month order is for a one-off
activity or the latest in a series of similar orders.
Privacy
advocates have stated their concern that such breach of privacy and storage of
unlimited "metadata" (also termed as business records) is a highly
invasive form of surveillance and is in no way, a constituent of the US Patriot
Act of 2001. Under the cover of “security concerns”, such activities fall into
a grey area where these records enable the government to know the identity of
every person with whom an individual has an electronic relationship, either via
phone calls, texts or e-mails sent via phone.
The US authorities
have tried for a long time to get their hands on such data to discover an
individual's communication patterns and network of associations. This data
collection request indicates that the agency is continuing some version of the
data-mining program that began in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.
Apart from
the hostility from the masses, other repercussions have also started surfacing.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is the first of the many to come, to
file a lawsuit against the NSA for breach of privacy.
Working on
mitigating the damage, Barack Obama, said in an interview with journalist
Charlie Rose that all NSA has access to, is “call pairs”. The identity
information is kept under wraps and the only revealed data is number pairs, the
time and duration of the calls.
According
to the President (also known as “Big Brother” post this leak), the database
would be available to the national security agencies only to cross reference
and match information in times of suspected terrorist activities. Also, this
database would be a property of the FISA court and would require a warrant for
access.
The security concerns and the measures taken by
the state to “counter-acting terrorism” have always been a controversial topic.
With certain revelations like WikiLeaks and now the NSA leaks, have grabbed a
lot of media attention and portrayed the authorities in the bad light, giving
rise to conspiracy theories and hostility towards the state.
After more than a year of biting dust in the
top shelf of my cupboard, my squash racquet has once again seen the light of
day.
I developed a knack for this sport in school
but it took a back seat after I left Chandigarh. I haven’t been able to play
regularly, mostly due to unavailability of time, a second player and most of
all, a good squash court (Gurgaon's public sports infra is almost non-existent
and one can get a squash court constructed and recover the cost sooner than get benefits of the unreasonably expensive private clubs here).
I still remember the first time I set foot
inside a squash court. Post dinner, clad in white kurta pyjamas and floaters, a
friend had showed me the squash racquets the school had so generously issued to
us hostelers (which I thought were thinner varieties of a tennis racquet).
The first few games I played weren’t as peachy.
I couldn’t make proper contact with the ball, was too scared of being hit by it instead and it got so stuffy inside the court after a
while that I almost swore never to set foot inside one again, dismissing squash as a boring, indoor variation of tennis.
But soon enough, I happened to set foot inside
the court’s viewing area during school hours when the school squash team was
practicing (which included my classmate Abhay Sood, a hosteler 6 years my
junior, Rannvijay and Harinder Pal Sandhu, who is currently India’s 2nd
ranked squash player). Their games almost resembled an art form, quite like fencing
but without the armor. The way they hit the parallel shots, placed their drops,
never ever came in the path of the opponent’s shot and the most satisfying part,
never got hit by the ball.
That caught my eye and little by little, I started
playing the game in my free time. Being in the school cricket team, most of my
afternoons and evenings were reserved for net practices or matches but living inside a boarding school has its perks when it comes to playing sports, even at night.
I played, I played and I played. I could hit
some parallel shots, hit serves with 100% accuracy and defeat almost anyone in
the hostel, Rannvijay too (The other school squash team players were
day-boarders). I started loving the game and was used to be found, almost
always, in those courts which I earlier deemed as "stuffy".
At that point in time, the thought of
quitting cricket and taking up this sport never hit me. I was a good squash
player coz of a lot of practice and sans training, never learned the tricks of
the trade. Finally when that thought actually crossed my mind, it got sidelined by the board examinations and college admission forms.
A bachelor’s degree and 2 years into a
consulting career, here I am again, picking up where I left off.
I bought new non-marking court shoes, am thinking
of buying a new racquet, maybe also a kit bag and was completely content about where this was
going. Until yesterday.
Yesterday, after
playing squash at the Siri Fort Sports Complex for an hour, which is our weekly routine now, our court was
booked by ‘Gaurav Nandrajog’, a professional squash player. Seeing him play brought
back those memories when I fell in love with this sport, 10 years back. And those
memories also carried along the regret of not pursuing the sport back then.
I’m not saying I could’ve
become a pro or that I can’t take up some training and start playing like an amateur now but that missed
chance, that late realisation of how much more I preferred squash over cricket will
take me back to those days for a long time to come.
When you start learning a foreign language (French in my case), it is a bit tough getting a hang of it. But when you eventually reach a certain level of comfort, you start enjoying it, you want to explore mediums other than your text books, like comics, songs, movies (with subtitles off course) and at an advanced stage, novels and documentaries.
At this point, to work on your speaking skills, take up a French immersion trip and experience the French countryside at the same time.
Being one of the most taught languages worldwide, there are not only a hoard of language schools in the country, some of them have taken this learning to another level; THE FRENCH IMMERSION SCHOOLS
The ones I’m fascinated with are the schools that offer courses ranging from as short as 2 weeks to as long as 9 months.
You study throughout the weekdays and on the weekends, explore the city, the country or the neighbouring countries even.
Situated in the small city named Tours in the Touraine province, the place is accessible from Paris and other major cities via the TGV train.
Course Durations: 2 Weeks (€480) to 48 Weeks (€9,000)
Arrive in Tours on a Sunday, sit for an orientation test to get your French level assessed (if you are a fresher, join the fresher level straight away) and start your classes from Monday.
for 5 hours a day on the weekdays, immerse into the French texts in a classroom with only 10 - 15 students.
In the evenings, explore the beautiful city, the Loire valley and the immense chateau, val de Loire
On the weekends, explore the local cuisine and check out the Cafe and Boulangeries or better yet, hop on an overnight train to Paris/Nice/Lyon/Marseille or to an exotic land in any of the 20 nearby countries connected by Eurail.
Accommodation: Living with a host family is the cheapest mode where you pay €175/week. the family will pick you up from the train station, provide breakfast and dinner on weekdays, 3 meals on weekends along with laundry, room cleaning and free wi-fi access.
Other options include a twin shared room (€100/week, cheaper than the host family but scarcely available) to rented apartments (€175/week) but without the food and other amenities.
All the books, materials and learning equipment is courtesy the institute and you receive a certificate as you complete the course.
Check out this video for more:
Estimated cost for a 1 month course (Visa + Flights + Insurance + Tuition + Accommodation): Rs. 200,000
Course Durations: 2 Weeks (€1,400 in non-peak months – €1,700 in peak months) to 4 Weeks (€2,800 – €3,400)
Located in a small hilly fisherman town right on the serene French Riviera, this school will tell you what exactly an immersion trip means.
Drown yourself in French 8.5 hours every weekday where you sit inside a classroom for some of the time, spend time in a listening lab and have one-to-one lessons with the teacher every single day.
Coupled with outdoor teaching, meals and tea, this is one of the best places you’ll come across when you’re out on a learning plus exploration trip abroad.
On weekends, take a small ride to Nice, Marseille, Cannes or better yet, Monte Carlo and experience their cuisine and nightlife.
Accommodation: Live in a student community apartment (€380/month – €600/month) or a private studio apartment (€1,000 above) overseeing the ocean.
All the books, materials and learning equipment is courtesy the institute and you receive a certificate as you complete the course.
Estimated cost for a 2 week course (Visa + Flights + Insurance + Tuition + Accommodation): Rs. 1,80,000
Estimated cost for a 1 month course (Visa + Flights + Insurance + Tuition + Accommodation): Rs. 370,000
I will be off to one of these 2 schools next year and will surely update this post about it. Till then, you have info on a better school or have any further questions, reach out to me.
