Monday, August 25, 2008

Visit To Alcatraz and San Francisco

















Fremont(California)


Today I went to visit San Francisco and Alcatraz with Anu and Vickie.Yesterday we had a party in our house, so we got up late in the morning. We were ready at 11a:m and left for San Francisco.San Francisco is the 4th most populated city of California and the largest city of West Coast. It is densely populated and is at the tip of San Francisco peninsula. The Bay of San Francisco is at the east, Pacific Ocean at the west and the most famous landmark Golden Gate Bridge is at the north. It was devastated by the earthquake and fire in 1906 but quickly rebuilt.


San Francisco is about 30miles from Fremont. We had a plan to visit San Francisco first and then Alcatraz, but we could not do that. Since we had our cruise for Alcatraz at 3:55, so we could see only Pier39 before going there. We board our cruise at 3:30pm from pier33 and it took about 15minutes to reach the Alcatraz.


Alcatraz is a cell house in an island near San Francisco, where some of the most notorious criminals of America were kept. It was the federal penitentiary since 1934-1963.The main prison block has iron rod gates in its 9x5 foot cells. The prison has its mess hall,library and isolation rooms.The disruptive and violent inmates were kept in the isolation rooms.Every thing is structurally intact.


Now it has got the status of National Park. It has rare flowers, plants, marine wildlife and sea birds.


After getting down from the cruise, we went straight to the information center. After taking informations went to see the Alcatraz prison, now a national park. First we went and took the set for audio tour, after taking we started our tour of Alcatraz.

It was a very nice experience to take a tour with help of audio. You have an audio set with you, so you get to know every thing, no need to ask.


Every thing was nicely preserved in all the rooms. Even the keys were also kept in its place. One time most sensitive and secured place where people never wanted to go has become San Francisco's most prominent landmark and tourist attraction.

Now we were about to finish our tour, Vickie told us
to hurry because the last cruise was at 6:30, so we
went straight to give the audio set. While returning we saw beautiful sea birds. We again board the cruise and reached pier 33.


Now we went to see the city. The city it self is very beautiful but the most beautiful and attractive street is the famous Lombard Crooked Street. One of the most crooked street of United States. It is a red-bricked road having eight curves with 27 degree slopes.







It was really very steep and long too, while going to the Lombard road. Then we went to the Crooked street. It has beautiful houses and in front of the houses beautiful flowers,and the road is in between. What a landscaping, what an architect.


While going through that road by car I was scared very much, so was Anu but it looked amazing when we got down and saw from there.


From Crooked Street we went to the Golden gate Bridge. The gateway ,here the bay meets the ocean. It was very windy even then we walked on the bridge. Now it was 9:00pm,so we returned back to Fremont.









Thursday, August 21, 2008

20th August Vickie's joining Day

Fremont



Today is 20th of August, this day Vickie joined Google. Today is his 1st Google Birthday, this they call in Google.


Kya bhooloon kya yaad karoon. Whenever I am depressed I just try to forget the present and go in the past and I am recharged.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

My Visit To University Of California, Berkley





Fremont(California)


Yesterday was our Independence Day and I missed my country. Today again I am missing India, today is Raksha Bandhan but this time I couldn't send rakhi to my brothers. In the morning we went to meet Anu's uncle and aunt. They had invited us for lunch.


After lunch we went to visit the most prestigious university that is University of California, Berkley. Berkley is in the south of San Francisco, in the Golden State, California. Berkley was the first full- curriculum public university in the state, so it was called University of California. My daughter-in-law Anu is doing her Masters of Information Management And System (MS) here. Berkley was founded in 1868 with just 10 faculty members and 38 students.Now it has 220,000 students and 170,000 faculty and staff members.It is the pioneer university of the world and has produced 20 Nobel Laureates till date, this is the place where vitamin E was found.The atomic bomb in world war2 was also developed by the scientists, those who were working on Manhattan projects.


University Of California has ten campuses. It has world class labs and classrooms, besides that three of the US Department of Energy national laboratories are managed by the university.


We started from Fremont at about 4 o'clock in the evening and it took about 30 minutes to reach there. I was very excited because I had heard a lot about Berkley. First we went to the south hall, the first building of the university built in 1873, the only original building left in the campus. Anu has her classes in this building.

We went inside and saw its students center and the lab. Anu showed us where she generally sits in the lab and I was very proud to witness it. From there we went to the see the Memorial Glade.





Now the most impressive building, which I liked was the library. From there we went to the southern gate of the university. It was still vacation going on so we could not see the rush of the students there. I was very happy that I saw this university so closely, this was like a dream. Now all of us were tired so we left the land of learned people, scientists and Nobel Laureates.


We had a nice Ethiopian food and returned back to Fremont. We reached there at 11 p:m. This was my one of the memorable visit of USA.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

A Talent Whom I Miss





Fremont


My husband Lallan Prasad Thakur was a civil engineer by profession but he was an inborn artist. We generally don't see such type of talent in a person having technical background.He use to write drama scripts, act in a leading role, write it's lyrics and direct it. Acting was his passion and he acted in many plays since his childhood. He has written several Hindi and Maithli drama scripts which are now in form of books. Apart from that he use to write songs, poems, gazals, safety slogans, safety drama scripts, all in Hindi and Maithli. He has won several awards for his scripts, his directions, for his acting and even for his stage directions. Both my sons use to act in his plays and got several awards.


I have seen him writing, if he was in mood to write, he use to finish a full drama script in one stretch. I remember one or two of his dramas which he has written like that.Once he got an invitation for a play in a competition and after a meeting he decided to participate in that. The name of the play he announced in the meeting and date of the rehearsal was also fixed.Now he started thinking what drama to perform, he had a plot in his mind and he had a scene of it written.He use to have several plots for dramas in his mind and I had to listen his plots several times, not only plots, I had to listen all his dialogues several times also, during his script writing. So, the rehearsal also started on the schedule date with the first scene. I use to go with him everyday in all his rehearsals and both my sons were his child artist.


One day after his rehearsal he came and after tea he told me that today he was in a mood to write, secondly he had no options because he can't carry on the rehearsal with one scene, so after his dinner he is going to finish the script. He told me to make a flask of tea and go to sleep. After dinner children went to sleep, I made tea for him and kept it in the flask and went to sleep. At about 4:30 I woke up and went near him, he was still writing and told me to make tea for him. He said that the script was about to complete, so after making tea I also had tea with him, at 5:30 the script was complete. The play was very successfully played and got several prizes.


Once we went for a marriage of my cousin, there he met one of my mothers uncle, from his character he got a plot for his drama thus the script of his most popular play "Mister Nilo Kaka" was written. The main character of this play is an old man named "Nilo", who was very popular amongst his village people because of his humorous nature. The character Nilo never wanted to be said old man and he use to hate this word, as well as he had fear of snake. The youngsters use to tease him by saying old man. This play was staged twice in Mr. Thakur's direction, first in Jamshedpur which he organized himself, second time in the International Maithli Drama Festival. This was his first play outside Jamshedpur in Maithli and it was super hit and is still very popular. In a night he was the hero, after his play outside Jamshedpur.


Few days after" Mister Nilo Kaka" was staged in Jamshedpur he got an invitation for the international drama competition. Since the play was successfully staged in Jamshedpur and all the artist those who had acted in that play were available, he excepted the invitation. He had very less time for the competition but he was confident that this play would fetch several best awards. Again the rehearsal started, everything was going fine. I use to be with him in the rehearsal everyday and use to assist him. My younger son was also acting in that play so four of us use to go for the rehearsal. One day one of the artist named Lakshmikant who was doing the role of Sanichra came and said he had an unavoidable circumstances so he was going to his village but he will come within two three days and join. His role was not so big so Mr. Thakur was not worried about that but one day he got a message from one of the lady artist that she couldn't do the play because she was going out of the town. That day he was very upset, next day all of us went for the rehearsal but it was more like a meeting than a rehearsal. After rehearsal all the artist went home only four of us and Mr. Balmukund Choudhary Mr. Thakur's one of the closest friend stayed there back to decide what to do. Without lady artist the play was not possible, both Mr. Thakur and Mr. Choudhary were very worried and asked me what to do. Even I had no answer. Both of them went out of the room for few minutes and came back. Mr. Thakur came to me and said , how can we back out now, only few days are left for the drama festival. Now it has become our prestige, so you will have to do the role. I started laughing, I told them it's not possible, now my husband also started laughing but after few seconds he said," now I am not joking, you will have to do because we don't have any option, I know you can do it". I had no answer so it was decided that I will do the role of that lady artist.


Next day four of us went for the rehearsal. Everyday I use to go for the rehearsal and give my comments later on in the house but that day it was different,I was going as an artist.In the play main character " Nilo" was Mr. Thakur and I was his wife. All the artist were told that now I will be doing kaki's role, that was the character(lady artist) called in the play. The rehearsal started, I was called for the rehearsal,so I went near the stage but I was not able to do the rehearsal.I started laughing instead of delivering the dialogues. All my dialogues were with Mr. Thakur and as I looked at him I couldn't resist my self and laughed and so Mr.Choudhary. So, Mr.Choudhary was told to go out of the hall but even in his absence I was not able to deliver the dialogues because of my laugh. Any how other artists did there parts and we went home. Next day I thought I will not laugh and do the rehearsal seriously but when my turn came for the dialogue I again started laughing. This went on till the last day of the rehearsal. I never did the rehearsal with my husband, only some times he use to listen my dialogues at home. I was not satisfied with my rehearsal but he use to say to the artist don't worry she will do it on the stage," I am confident about her". Now the artist who had gone for his village didn't turn up and sent a message that he will join at Patna, where we had to go for the competition. We were worried but Mr. Thakur said not to be worried about it, if he doesn't turns up my elder son Bhaskar will do his role. So, we left for International Maithli Drama Competition.


We left for Patna, the whole team was excited, my elder son Bhaskar( Puttu) was told to see the dialogue of Sanichra. We reached Patna a day before our show and we had our stage rehearsal that day but Lakshmikant didn't turn up. Now my son Bhaskar was told to do the role of Sanichra.Since morning he had to do the rehearsal and in the afternoon we had our stage rehearsal.


On the show day we had our rehearsal in the hotel once or twice. In the evening Mr. Thakur with his family and all the artist was ready for the show. The show was super hit and Mr. Lallan Prasad Thakur got several prizes including best directors award. I got best character actress award and my son got best child actors award. This was Mr. Thakur's talent, I am lucky enough that I am his his wife and was with him for twenty three years.

Monday, August 4, 2008

Innocent


Fremont

My mother in law was a simple nice and innocent lady.She had a nice smile, my husband was very fond of her smile. He was very attached to his mother and loved her very much. My children were also attached to her. My younger son Vickie use to hold her cheeks and say dadi maa(grandmother) you have nice cheeks, innocently she use to smile and say, its OK but don't do this in your school and all of us use to laugh.


Once she came to Jamshedpur to stay with us. When ever she use to come, my husband use to arrange for her complete medical check up. TISCO has a hospital(TMH) for its employees. Since he was in TISCO, he had the medical facility for his parents too. During her stay we had to take her to the hospital frequently for her investigations and tests, so I use to be busy with her.


Once during her stay, doctors advised her for some special investigation which has to be done in the operation theater, the test I don't remember, for that I had to take her to the new building of the hospital because the operation theater was in that building. At that time it was new, now it is old. It is a 5 story building, so obviously it has lift facility. I think that was the first building with lift in Jamshedpur except TISCO's general office building. My husband told me that he will join us in the hospital, so I took my mother in law to the hospital. The building where we had to go was little far, so from the gate till that building we had to walk.


As we entered the building , I took her straight to the lift, the gate of the lift was opened, so I told her to get inside and we came out of it on the first floor. I took her straight to the lounge and two of us sat there on the chair, after some time she got up from the chair and started moving around, she came to me and asked, "how we came here"? First I couldn't understand her, so showing the lift I pointed out "that way", but then she said no no, how we came on the first floor, then I could make it out. I explained her how we reached there, on the first floor. This was her first experience of the lift. Afterward she told me, she thought we entered the door for some tests and came out after the test was done, saying this she smiled and so I.


When my husband came he saw both of us smiling, he asked his mother why we were smiling. She innocently told the whole story. After this incident my husband use to tell all his family members how his mother got into the lift first time and she as usual use to give her beautiful smile. I miss her.

Naina Devi Disaster

Fremont


Naina Devi Stamped toll mounts to 145 , was today's headlines of Google news. Naina Devi is a temple in the state of Himachal Pradesh, India. People from various parts were on pilgrimage to this temple, when this occurred. Mostly children and women were the victim. Since it was the auspicious month of Shravan, so thousands of people were trekking through the hills.


Cause of the stampede is yet not confirmed. Some news say due to heavy rush the cliff of the railing fell down and panic started, it was due to that. But exactly what happened is yet to be known. Now the people are bothered about how it happened, the inquiry is being set for that.No one is bothered about the victims, their family members, those who are alive. Is not our responsibility to think about them, and appeal for them? Instead of that, the news can be seen that postmortem report says the death were caused by asphyxiation, the postmortem report was handed over to the families of the victims.


Are those not the responsibility of the administration, should they take credit by doing it? Should not they think how those cause can be avoided, so that it doesn't occurs again.