Disappointment

Which hurts more?

The mistake? Or the criticism for the mistake?

Where has my heart gone

An uneven trade for the real world

Oh I want to go back to 

Believing in Everything and

Knowing nothing at all?

- Evanescence - Fields of Innocence -

Aye Captain! My Captain!

Captain James Cook. Well, who doesn't know him right. He discovered Australia, almost figured out the cure for scurvy. Yeah, he actually was one of the first of many sailors to have not lost a single crew during the entire voyage. 

Now what was interesting about him was that, unlike many famous explorers, he was not a Captain before he sailed for his journey. He was a Lieutenant. One among the 900 Lieutenants of Britain. He wanted to prove himself and hence was given one of the difficult tasks of that time. He was to travel south to discover land, that may or may not existed otherwise. Another thing that set him apart from his predecessors was his interest in Astronomy. He was so keen with the Planets, the distance between them and so on. He would draw charts to keep himself updated about the universe beyond the seas. He was the only sailor (or perhaps the only man) to have calculated the distance between the earth and sun with much accuracy.

He also took in this Botanist on his voyage. This botany would then go on to draw the many species of flowers and plants that were previously left undiscovered. This was one of the reasons, how they came to realise that vitamin C in citrus fruits prevents scurvy. Although, the Sauerkraut that Captain Cook insisted to be in the meals proved worthy as well. But he was not aware that sauerkraut contained the antidote for scurvy as well.

He was hailed as a Father figure by his crew members for his unconventional ways of getting things done. For instance, when the crew refused to eat Sauerkraut. He removed it from their list and placed it as a compulsory item on the main crew list. Now that made the crew of the lesser positions wonder, and soon enough the entire ship's crew were into Sauerkraut. It saved their lives when some came down with scurvy. He was humane even when his quest required him to take over territories. Before he got off the ship on Australia, he instructed him crew members to interact with the natives as they would with one another. Tell them that they were there to visit, to look around, and not suppress them in any way. No mis-understanding was caused between the Captain Cook's crew and the natives. Unlike, Ferdinand Magellan who got himself slaughtered for wanting the Lapu Lapu (Phillippines) natives to succumb to Christianity and belong to Spain. It was all war, sadly. 

Now the funny bit about their entire voyage was, the entire crew of the Endeavour were incapable of swimming. Surprising init? I always thought, if you were a sailor, you better be good at swimming. Sadly, Captain Cook was handed with a bunch of people who had no idea how to save themselves if Endeavor crashes. Which by the way, almost ocurred. 

As the Endeavor approached The Great Barrier Reef, the large wooden ship hit the rocks that surfaced. It created a hole in the ship causing water to flow through. The tides were low, and there was no way they could get back at sailing unless, the ship decides to unhook itself from the rocks.

The ship has to be saved. Lest, my crew will drown.

Those were the Captain's thoughts. According to his Great-Great-Great-Nephew, he managed to throw out some of the heavier items off the ship to lighten the weight. He then, used straws, cloth and dung to secure the hole for the time being. And they waited. 

When the high tide arrived, the ship was back on its way to England. Lieutenant James Cook became Captain James Cook, who discovered Australia. 

He was truly a Hero. 

An Irredeemble Mistake

One of the hospitals, here in China, resorted to purchasing blood from illegal dealers. The blood was then transfused into 14 patients.

The 14 individuals are now 14 HIV positive individuals.

And I thought we were working towards saving lives.

Life is short, and Art Long
The Crisis Fleeting; Experience Perilous
And Decision Difficult.

The Physician must not only be prepared
to do what is Right Himself

But also to make the patients
the attendants, and externals
Cooperate.

- Hippocrates -

In Conversation - Fate

Sam: Do you believe in Fate?
Usha: I believe I can change Fate.
Sam: You may never know, maybe Fate is causing you to believe that you can change Fate.
Usha: What?! That doesn't make sense. Why would Fate cause me to change Fate itself?
Sam: Cos you were Fated.

Some Serious Reflection

Jordan Ramero of California, USA, is about to scale Mount Everest on Sunday. He is 13 years old.
I do not climb the 11 floors to my apartment. I'm 23.

Lost

                                      Image courtesy of imageshack

Pitter pat, the angel on my shoulder

Is haunting me tonight.
Tick Tock, the clock is getting louder
Ready for me to decide.

- Pitterpat - Erin McCarley -

Kyrgyztani is an Asian too.

We were in the midst of our "teach-usha-table-tennis" moment when this couple entered the student's lounge. After a few smiles and nods between the unknown couple and the four of us who were playing, they decided to wait and watch us play. From far, any light skinned, small eyes individual would be assumed for a Chinese or Korean. Well more so Chinese because we are in China remember. But wait, this was the International Student's Lounge. Yeah we are special. The local students rarely enter the lounge or you can I say I've never noticed them in the Lounge. Since he was watching us, we asked him if he wanted to join in the game. The girlfriend replied with a "Go ahead, play. I gotta go get some books".

Now wait a minute, Chinese do not break into English that easily. No, I am not stereotyping but unless they have left the country for a long period of time; they hardly speak in English. Even for the most simplest of reasons. The guy went off to play against another of my friend and the girl remained instead of getting her supposed books. I'm friendly so I approached her for a conversation. The lounge was located opposite the Student Dormitory which also provided me with something to start the talk:

Usha: You stay at the Dorms?
Mystery Girl: Only me.
Usha: Oh Ok. What programme do you do here?
Mystery Girl: PhD in Medicine
Usha: Oh..8 years huh. (she nodded in acceptance) So, you are from...(I like to leave questions unfinished :-)
Mystery Girl: Japan
Usha: [Oh Wow! You speak such good English!] Nice..Where is he from? (pointing to the boyfriend).
Mystery Girl: He's from Kyrgyzstan.
Jan: What is that?
Usha: You've never heard of that place, have you?
Jan: No..hehe
Usha: Interesting.. What language does he speak?
Mystery Girl: Russian.
Usha: Oh wow! (I have a thing for Russian, the language. It sounds hoarse, serious even if the content involved is far from dangerous. I bet Hello Kitty in Russian sounds like a death threat.)

I have met the first Kyrgyzstan resident. When you have a mother whose past time is poring over world maps you are bound to have heard of even the most remote-st of places on Earth. I am not saying K-stan is remote but it rarely appears in the news. Thanks to my being a little ignorant, I assumed K-stan to be near Mongolia with the Kazakhstan, and other non-middle east but ending-with-stan states. As it turns out, and the Kyrgyz himself explained, it was bordered with China so technically in Asia. But it does border with other non-middle east but ending-with-stan states like Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Thanks to my mom again, I was not entirely wrong. Ha!

Back to Mystery girl's Kyrgyz boyfriend, he was far from the image of a Kyrgyz I had in my head. Mine resembled that of the Xinjiang natives of China. Slightly tanned with middle-eastern features. Even the Kazakstani girl I met back in 2008 resembled a little of my mental image. This guy, I think, is an exception. I couldn't enquire more as they took off after a game and...I forgot to ask for his name. I should have. The chance for me to attempt enunciating a Kyrgyz name was gone.

And I'm bad at remembering faces. :s

I don't Know...But I Like it :-)

Thank You For (not) Smoking

Back in 2008, adjacent to my previous apartment, were two big malls. Between the malls was this huge stretch of space for commuters. Somewhere in the middle of this stretch were four long benches arranged to border a smaller space the size of a 10m by 10m square. In the middle hung a sign board reading "Non-smoking Area".

With the World Expo - Shanghai starting in about a month, I see 'No Smoking' Signs everywhere. From apartment lobbies, the streets, the elevators,etc. This was never the case before or years before that. People smoked in the elevators, air conditioned restaurants, you name it; they stood there with a cigarette in hand. Things are changing now and I really hope it lasts. Chain smokers can reduce their smoking with a reason and passive smokers like myself will be able to once again breath in fresh air. :D

After the Expo ends, things may or may not return to how they were. There is a possibility of smoking anywhere and everywhere going into action again. If that happens, I'm betting on the British Research Team who have 24 billion pounds invested in their research of discovering the safe cigarette.