Let Us Suppose

Adaab! My friend, Aftab, is being very patient with me as I struggle to learn a few urdu phrases. In this process, I have discovered that there are many wonderful urdu poets that I have never known...begging me to discover them. Lucky for me, I did find a site that has translated some of the poetry for me. Below is just one example:

Let Us Suppose

by Amjad Islam Amjad

translated byTariq Masoud Qasmi

Suppose we were

Two lonely stars,

Twinkling at distance,

Glancing at each other,

Now and then.

And then one day,

Would break and fall,

In the Abyss of oblivion.

What if we were

Two separate currents

Of the same river,

Rushing towards the

Merciless hands of ocean.

Under separate magic

Spell of blind, over savage

and intolerable land,

Together, yet far apart.

What if we were

Birds of early morning,

Flying together,

Touching each other

For a brief moment

And vanish beyond

The far Horizon.

And what if we were

Gusts of spring breeze,

Melting into vague dreams

Of seasons, and turn away

To separate directions,

Carve green lines deep

In the palm of dry and barren

Land, plant our dreams unseen.

Shed our tears in solitude,

And fall into eternal sleep.

Suppose we were not,

What we really are today.

LISA - Opening a New Window on the Universe

Have you ever wished that someone would just tell you your reason for being? What is your mission in life? What does it mean to be you? How exactly do you work? Well NASA has the answer for me and all of my Lisa sisters in the world. We are your tool to study the universe.

This is LISA aka "Laser Interferometer Space Antenna":




LISA works well with others:




This is the for what that LISA searches:




Images Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech.

Rosebank Farms

Yesterday Mom & I dropped the kids off at tennis practice. We were on John's Island with 2 hours to kill, so we set off towards Kiawah & Seabrook Islands in search of Rosebank Farms. I knew about where it was, bit I had never taken the time to stop. I am so glad I did. Unlucky for you, I did not have a camera on me. I will remedy that next weekend as I want to make it a regular weekend jaunt.

Where do I start first? The one room school house from 1836 was interesting. There was also old farm equipment and cannonballs. There is a little artist shack where you can buy local artwork. There are sweet grass baskets made by a lady down the street. There are goats, pigs, a Macaw that says hello, ducks, a cow, a miniature horse and my goodness there are chickens roaming around. There was a room in the main building where three boxes were kept for the laying of the eggs. One of the boxes near the window was occupied with another hen making a heap of noise nearby. It seems she wanted to lay an egg in that particular box and was tired of waiting around. One of the roosters kept crowing...I guess no one told him that the sun had risen quite high by this time.

The produce was beautiful. The tomatoes are from Florida...it's still a little early for local ones to be out yet.....but they are real tomatoes if ya know what I mean. I was wary initially and only selected two tomatoes along with cucumber, mixed salad greens & vidalia onions. Obviously, I made a salad for lunch. It was heaven! Papa Bear liked the tomato so much that he talked Mom out of one of hers.

Oh, before I forget, the flowers at Rosebank Farms are absolutely BEAUTIFUL and grown onsite. This will be a definite must buy for Mother's Day.

Mr. Bell's Magnificent Ringing Machine

Harbor View Elementary presented their annual 5th grade play this week. It was a musical comedy called Mr. Bell's Magnificent Ringing Machine starring the one, the only....our own angelic - MARY!! . The story line takes place in heaven where eight angels guide Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Watson from the early days of invention through to today's cell phone crazed world.

The play was great, my photos don't do it justice. For some reason Papa Bear only took just a few pictures of our Angel near the end of the play when he realized it was almost over and he was about to go home empty handed.




I tried to take a video from my camera of the finale, but as you can see...I was too far back and found myself playing games with a four year old girl who was trying to get in the picture too.




After the show, Miles got up on the stage for an impromptu dance and comedy show.

White Point Gardens & the Battery

I took Mom, Mary & Miles to White Point Gardens for a picnic today. I snuck off with Papa Bear's new Nikon D40 to document our excursion. After lunch, we took a walk through the park, along the Battery and down just a few nearby streets. Then we topped off the day with a sweet treat. Below is a visual tour of our afternoon. Enjoy!

This is our view from the picnic.

This was the picnic fare, compliments of Publix. A cubano sandwich, turkey cobb salad, chips and watermelon (missing from plate). My family thinks it very weird that I occasionally take pictures of my food.

Another view from our picnic.

This is me sporting a new hairdo. Mary wanted me to post the one where I made a silly cross-eyed, tongue sticking out face. I won't put ya'll through all that.

Now it is time to go for a walk! Our first stop will be that Gazebo over there. Mary imagines that she would like to skate in the gazebo.

This is the view from the gazebo. Mary found she could not skate up here. Time has warped it. The middle of it has somehow bubbled up and the remaining area slants off from it. Definitely not a flat stable area conducive for skating.

Mary posing on the steps leading up to the Gazebo.

Here is one of the monuments in the gardens. It is dedicated to the men who fought here during the American Revolution. The back of the monument has an etching that reads: "DON'T LET US FIGHT WITHOUT A FLAG -Seargeant Wm. Jasper". The etchings on the front read: "NO MEN EVER DID, AND IT IS IMPOSSIBLE THAT ANY CAN BEHAVE BETTER - Gen Charles Lee" "ERECTED UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE PALMETTO GUARD, Jun 23 1876."

There are also two plaques on this monument. One reads: "SECOND SOUTH CAROLINA REGIMENT, ARMY OF THE REVOLUTION, ORGANIZED JUNE 17, 1775." The second plaque reads: "TO THE DEFENDERS OF FORT MOULTRIE, JUNE THE 28TH, 1776."

Here is another monument that is dedicated to our confederate defenders during the Civil War (1861-1865). I did not read all that was written here as Miles was eager to climb some cannons.

And there he is crawling on them.

Oh, here is one of the ways tourists get around Charleston. It is a trolley...or rather a small bus designed to look like a trolley. I have never ridden on one.

Mary posing again.

I think you can read this plaque. I'll retype JIC. "This mortar and its three mates were first used by Federal Troops for the bombardment of Fort Sumter in October 1863. They may well form the world's largest collection of this type of weapon."



Now for a walk along the Battery. It is difficult to walk here without stopping. This is where the Ashley and Cooper Rivers meet at the peninsula of Charleston. There is much maritime activity and there is generally a nice, refreshing breeze blowing as you look out over the railings.

Let's walk up those steps over there.

Climbing the steps.

We made it to the top!

Stopping to enjoy a new view.

A view down South Battery.

I really like this plaque. Not only does it give me a time line, but it also orients me so that I know what I see when I look in a particular direction.

This is direction of James Island where my home is.

Here is another tourist conveyance. A mule drawn carriage.

There are many grand mansions along the Battery. My walk does not begin to explain it. You just have to ride or walk along the full length to really take it in.

A few of the houses offer historical tours.



We are going to move off the Battery at these steps and walk down Atlantic.

Many Charleston residences are lined with wrought iron fences and gates. Behind many of these gates are beautiful views of gardens and walkways.



The houses downtown are very colorful - just make certain YOUR color passes the Hysterical....um I mean the Historical Preservation Society's strict set of codes.

I really like this camera. I didn't use to be able to get so close to roses climbing up a gate.

This was also hiding behind wrought iron...and I am back along White Point Gardens.

This is the beautiful Two Meeting Street Inn



We are almost to our car now. This is a view down Meeting Street as we are crossing the street.

After our walk we went to Ye Ole Fashioned Ice Cream Parlor.

Miles got the Bubble Gum flavor and decided the ice cream was good, but the gum was yucky. That color alone is repulsive to me....though I do recall getting that flavor when I was much younger. Mary decided to get the Double Fudge and the adults opted for Espresso Chip. We were very fortunate that the day turned out so beautifully. OK, now it is time for a little cat nap!

Say Hallo to My Little Friend (HI AFTAB!)

I haven't been blogging much because there is much potential change going on with me. I am absolutely dying to just blurt it out, but as the issues involved are not 100%....I also do not want to start any rumors....so everyone will just have to wait until the end of the Summer.

As I mentioned previously, I do have a new friend in Mumbai. He is a colleague from work that has to work the graveyard shift to make my life easier. In one of our conversations, he asked about what touristy things there were to do in Charleston. I know there are gazillions of things to do, but I'm not sure I can be a tourist in my own town -at least not until next January and then enjoying everything during a cold month just is not the same!

I do believe that Charleston is meant to be leisurely enjoyed. I intend to do just that in the coming weeks & months with photos so that Aftab can see what a typical Charlestonian might do on the weekends with her family. I think my new friend is just what I needed to get over my writer's block and refocus on what I can write about instead of brooding over what I can't write about.

Changing Things Up a Bit

Recently a new friend of mine in India asked me to join his group of friends at orkut. As pleased as I was, I realized I did not have an icon picture that I wanted to post. So I created one. Itwas taken at Folly last Fall and is a of a bird walking by a tide pool. Cropping it and adding a little color helped it immensely. I liked it so much that I updatedthis site with it. Alas, the color did not quite Match my previous color scheme....so I had to change that too. As long as I am happy....everyone else will just have to deal with it :).