picking my favorites!

"Raindrops on Roses..."
My earliest and favorite memory of watching a movie has a certain smell, a certain atmosphere and a certain feeling attached to it. I was sitting on a nurse's lap, aware of the familiar smell of the mud walls and the bamboo sticks holding up the roof of the chapel, my eyes taking in every detail of Maria's wedding day. The Sound of Music has always occupied a special place in my heart. While I knew the entire film by heart, my favorite part was the one in which the nurses always promised I would have a veil as long as Maria's on my wedding day, and then burst out in a fit of giggles. I've wondered why they giggled so much whenever they talked about marriage. The tiny television that was placed on a stool that was usually used to hold the tabla every Sunday morning was the only television in the entire campus. The children were allowed to pick a movie to watch every Saturday, and our favorite was always the Sound of Music. I must have watched the movie 20 times a year! When we werent watching the movie, our parents would find us singing '"these are a few of my favorite things" or "le ode le" over and over again in our tuneless voices. Sometimes we would weave plays revolving around the characters of Sound of Music. I always wanted to be Maria or Gretel. The carefree lives that we led did not expose us to the context in which the film was made, the struggles the Von Trapp family would have faced, however, to us, it was a mere form of entertainment. The Sound of Music influenced me, not in any significant way but in that it helped create my world. A world that consisted of perfect, innocent bliss.

"I... AM... EGYPT"
My fascination with the ancient world of Egypt began when I was fourteen. My parents often told me it was a school girl craze that would end as soon as I finished school if not earlier. While my obsession with Egypt has decreased since school, the world of the ancient Egyptians has not ceased to amaze me. My host family in Melbourne gave me an Eyewitness Guide to Egypt as a going away present, I carried the book with me everywhere. The ancient ruins, the political systems, the culture, the mix of intellect and creativity revealed the uniqueness of the Egyptian civilization. However, the gods and goddess of Egypt were the most interesting. I knew the list of the gods and goddess from the 'Prince of Egypt' and began 'blessing' or 'cursing' my friends and classmates using my new chant. I gave all my classmates names based on the different gods and goddesses. Most of them thought I was weird, but were willing to play along. I read about each goddess and decided that Isis, the sister of Set, Nephthys and Osiris, the daughter of Ra and the lover of Osiris. was my favorite. Also called the Queen of the Gods, it was her bravery when Set killed Osiris and scattered his body all over the world that makes her stand out. It was because of her that good was able to triumph over evil, she collected the different parts of Osiris' body and put them together. He came back to life and with him she had a son- Horus. Her story is one that makes me, a female, proud. The ancient Egyptian society valued women, in that their own godesses were portrayed as women who were able to save the day, women to whom Egypt was indebted to. My love for Egypt has matured into one that realizes that the Egypt of today is very different, and that each culture has its pros and cons, however, my respect for the entire civilization has only heightened.

"Duck....Duck...Duck...Goose!"
Milshake.Bungalis.Milgh Nauua. My favorite pink ducklings. Over my years in school I was privileged enough to make friends who have remained best friends even after we left. We've played card games, got into trouble for making animal noises late at night, made the spiciest noodles I've ever tasted in my entire life, laughed together, cried together, eaten vegetable cheeze momos together, gone to prom together, playing 'duck duck duck goose' together and dressed up to take pictures together. The memories we've shared together do not end there. For us, as 8 girls living together, under the same roof, going to the same school, eating breakfast, lunch and dinner on the same table, parting was something very emotional. For me, leaving my pink ducklings meant the end of one life. They were my best friends and I was going to have to move on, meet new people and try and fit in. At first, I spent my first few days in my new college brooding over them, and their combined aura that dissappeared all of a sudden. I wondered how I was going to make friends like the ones I had, however, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I would never have friends like the pink ducklings. I would make friends of a different kind. My friendship with the pink ducklings went beyond them being there, and the memories that we moulded together would always remain. With this realization, I started looking at the friends I did have and looked forward to the memories we would share, never forgetting the ones of my darling pink ducklings! I have found that this outlook has helped me become a new person, with new friends and lovely experiences stored up for new memories.