Recent Read, Movie and Music

Recent Read
I have read books on female suffering and endurance; the ones forced on me in school and the ones I read voluntarily. Not even from Chimamanda's The Purple Hibiscus did I get such a vivid portrait of this menace. Khaled Hosseini took me to the world of the Afghan woman's survival in the war-ravaged country. A must read for all book lovers.

Synopsis

A Thousand Splendid Suns is a breathtaking story set against the volatile events of Afghanistan’s last thirty years—from the Soviet invasion to the reign of the Taliban to the post-Taliban rebuilding—that puts the violence, fear, hope, and faith of this country in intimate, human terms. It is a tale of two generations of characters brought jarringly together by the tragic sweep of war, where personal lives—the struggle to survive, raise a family, find happiness—are inextricable from the history playing out around them.

Recent Movie
I grew up watching the Indian Movies, but I lost interest in them mainly because of the length, really 3hours of my time, watching some lovers sing, fight and all the normal scenes they portray was a waste of time for me. Last weekend, I finally decided to follow my flatmates to the cinema to watch Delhi Belly only because they said it was all the in English.


Delhi Belly: I have never laughed this hard watching any Indian movie. This is one non-pretentious movie which portrayed the present day India. 

Recent Music
Kate Voegele is out with another album, Gravity Happens... I love love her and favorite so far is Heart in chains and the album title itself, Gravity happens.

Thanks to Shonavixen, she introduced me to VV Brown, I love her voice

♥ Lara  from Incredible India

The Sunshine Award and The Language Challenge

I had so much fun recording this, laughing so hard at myself. I have never listened to myself speak and some of my friends used to say I sound razz speaking Yoruba but who cares,I love speaking my language.  I miss speaking Yoruba daily, I only get to speak Yoruba when I am with my few Yoruba speaking Nigerian friends here... enjoy.

In addition to the goat meat, I am tired of eating chicken and egg too...The egg, always comes with the chicken meal.

Lara by larrahromire

Transcript

Hello, I greet you all, I am Ijebu (Ijebu Yoruba)

The Ijebu blood runs in my vein, my mother is from Ijebu ode but my father is a Lagosian.

I was born in Lagos and lived till the year 2010. My university, secondary and primary education were all in Lagos. Daughter of Abomire of Lagos from Isale Eko.

I would like to say thank you to Pet Projects for the Sunshine Award. I have been busy which is why I have not said thank you all these while, thank you very much.

My friends and I in secondary school were called Ngbati ngbati girls because I was always speaking Yoruba. I don't see why I would speak English with someone I knows understands Yoruba. English is neither my father or mother's language. I am a Yoruba girl to the core, I love myself.

I love eating amala and pounded yam, I cannot pound yam, neither can I make amala but these are my best foods with vegetable soup with different types of meat that we eat home.

Like you already know, I am in India.Yesterday made it 7months since I have been away from home, leaving behind family and friends. I love my job and my new friends but I miss home. I miss my friends, my mum and siblings and I want to eat meat. I do not get to eat meat (cow meat) here. I never knew I would ever get tired of goat meat, I am tired of eating goat meat . I want to eat Panla (don't know the english name jor), beef, ponmo, all these I do not get to eat here, which is why I miss home so much.

I want to thank you all for taking your time to read my blog, thank you very much and thanks to Sugabelly for the opportunity.

♥ Lara  from Incredible India

Mumbai Explosions.

Yesterday in the space of 10minutes, 3 different bombs at 3 different strategic ends of Mumbai exploded...Mumbai has been in chaos since yesterday. I was at work and just got out of our popular war-room when I saw my friend's update on Facebook in Mumbai to get in touch with another friend as she could not reach him and find out if he is alright. I did not understand the message and was about to ask what the issue was when I saw another update from someone else talking about the bomb explosions...I got in touch with all my friends and was relieved to find out they are all alive and safe.

Mumbai seems to be an easy target for the terrorist groups, the 26th November 2008 Taj Hotel Mayhem and 11 July 2006 Train bomb explosions are Mumbai's dark days. One of the points my father raised when I insisted on coming to India was the 2008 Taj Killings which I pretended to know nothing about. I am surprised none of them has called to talk about the explosions. 

Away from India, to the recent bomb explosions going off daily in the Northern cities of Nigeria. Our beloved Nation is slowing becoming a terrorist heaven with bombs going off every now and then and our President sits and says nothing. While the body goes up in pieces, Dr. Goodluck is busy appointing Ministers and minding business which is not his. I would not be surprised to hear the Nigerian President sends his Condolence to the Government and People of India when his own country is also on fire.

Today I read an article by an Indian asking the Indian PM needs to be resilient and strong and start governing. This needs to be directed to Dr. Goodluck, he has to realize that even though luck brought him there, our nation cannot be ruled on luck, we need him to start governing the people. He needs to assure the people who actually voted for him and those who supported him that they did not make a wrong choice. That the next 4years of our nation have not been left in the hands of a spineless individual who cannot guarantee the safety of people who went out and trust in his ability to lead the nation.

I love the way the Mumbaikar gathered round and saved the situation. In my eye, nothing in Mumbai can be right but yesterday, I was proved wrong. and twitter still remains one of the best innovation of our times. While people were crying foul, assuring the family member and lamenting of facebook, Twitterians created the hashtags  #here2help offering rides from one end of the city to another, places to stay, asking for which hospitals to donate blood for the injured, etc.

Despite the fast past of the city, where everyone is always in a hurry and everything is just crazy, I saw the spirit of togetherness in the Mumbaikars. People were willing and ready to help perfect strangers....Mumbai has got my heart on this one.

Poem for Mumbai's dead

For everyone who spent last night scouring the Internet, frantic for friends and family:

Is there no thread to bind us — I and he

Who is dying now, this instant as I write

And may be cold before this line’s complete?

And is there no power to link us — I and she

Across whose body the loud roof is falling?

Or the child, whose blackening skin

Blossoms with hideous roses in the smoke?

Is there no love to link us — I and they?

Only this hectic moment? This fierce instant

striking now

Its universal, its uneven blow?

There is no other link. Only this sliding

Second we share: this desperate edge of now.

— Mervyn Peake

No matter where we are, all we can always pray for is God's safety because no nation is immune to such happenings. We have all seen it happen in the US, the UK, Russia...no one can say, my country is the safest. We just all have to unite and fight this menace of our time. TERRORISM. 

♥ Lara  from Incredible India

and I got Sareelized

Yours truly got to wear a saree recently at the ACE Conference I attended in Mumbai. The Saree draping process is one long thing, the lady was just wrapping and wrapping the thing. Kudos to the Indian ladies who can wrap this round their body themselves. As for me, I would gladly wear our Iro and Buba than go through the wahala of this.

♥ Lara  from Incredible India

Farewell sucks

Life of an Intern: welcomes and farewells...farewells sucks...this is my Skype status, was my BBM and Gtalk status for a while

In between the welcome and goodbye, we have parties, travel, experience the joy of meeting beautiful people, the shocks, the always to be cherished beautiful moments....then it dawns on us, someone writes on the facebook group that they are leaving. We get to say our goodbyes and depending on how close you are to the leaving intern, the more the farewell sucks.

some of the beautiful people I met in this incredible country have left, some are leaving in the next few days, weeks...initially I was always sad, I grew too attached to all these friends. My life here revolves around them that I forget, they would all leave someday.

On Friday, my mum called to tell about the death of a family member...even though, I had the happy go luck face through out the conference. I hurt and burned inside. My friend said, my mum shouldn't have told me but within that minute, 2cousins had changed their BBM status. Crazy how such news cannot be hidden. My mum talked about how they had met at the wedding of a cousin two weeks back. The word, passed away after brief illness is now a crappy word to me. 

This morning, my friend pinged on BBM about how I was right, that farewell sucks...I woke up to the message, and don't know why I felt nothing...no sadness, it just seemed like a normal message to me.

Yeah, farewell still sucks, but at lease we get to say goodbye, we still get to keep in touch thanks to the social media. I would know what he is doing and vice versa.

Saying farewells to people no longer hurts, India is not our final destination...we would all meet back in the motherland or somewhere in the world someday God willing. Not getting the opportunity to say goodbye or saying goodbye knowing you would never wake up to the smiles, the shouts, the laughter; never look forward to the calls and you are left with only memories of a time that used to be, of a person that once existed in your life.

I feel like I have been sitting on an edge, not here nor there and viewing the world from a distance at a pace and  with eyes which belongs to another person.

I am having the time of my life here, memories I will forever cherish, mistakes I would never make again in life...I am experiencing the world, all I have to do now is to change the lens with which I have seen this County and the world and enjoy the remaining months I have here. Even getting absorbed in TCS no longer matters to me, I sort of gave up on that  some few months back. All I want to do is enjoy my time while here, develop more professionally and return back home to my family in good health and happiness.

The holy month of Ramadhan is just days away, I hope and pray to God to make it easy for me, I am so far away from home and on a different timezone to even ask anyone back home to wake me up at night...

Don't be dismayed at goodbyes.  A farewell is necessary before you can meet again.  And meeting again, after moments or lifetime, is certain for those who are friends.  ~Richard Bach

Yeah farewell sucks, especially if the goodbye is forever....Adieu mother of us, Iya Ibeji

♥ Lara  from Incredible India