MARSHA'S MEMOIRS : WHEN THE ORIGINAL HOME BECKONED...

Following write-up is about my visit to India also my experience as a swimmer in India, which was originally published in www.daijiworld.com
Introduction by: www.daijiworld.com Editor-in-chief: Our young contributor Marsha occasionally finds time to write for us, amidst her extremely busy school and extra-curicular schedule. Since her last write-up in Daijiworld, she has had more feathers in her cap. In March 2006, her essay about her hobbies got published in Duke University TIPS newsletter. On April 22, 2006 she won the first place in cross country race at the Tulip Time Scholarship Games held by the Children's Better Health Institute, Indianapolis, Indiana. Besides, she won the first place in a Golf competition too, helping her win a $5000 college scholarship award. She missed the 1st place in swimming by just a three-fourth of a second. Unfortunately, there was no award for 2nd place winner.

August 3, 2006
Last time when I visited India, I was five years old but I remember most of my trip. I remember staying at my grandmother's house spending time with cousins.
Whenever I played with cats and dogs, my grandmother saying: "Chi, chi, Marsha… Don't touch the animals", Watching the way hens cluck, cluck and the peacocks flying around my grandma's coconut farm in the twilight hours of monsoon season and playing with the calves and a baby monkey at the house of one of my relatives who owned a huge farm in a place called Bilyadi... Also, I remember so vividly our taking a boat ride in a flooded river bank at a place called Udyavara.

Sometime in March this year, when my parents announced we were going to India I was really excited. Once again, I was eager to experience the sight, sound, scent and the taste of India and I had a goal to achieve in mind. I wanted to win a national medal in a swim meet in India. Finally, with the help of dual citizenship, which has been introduced by Indian government, I was able to compete. In order to be eligible for the competition, I became a member of the Swimming Federation of India and a member of Young challengers Swim Club, Bangalore.

The last few days before our trip were awfully hectic. Since we were leaving 10 days before our school closed for summer, my brother and I had to finish all our school work. But shopping for gifts for my cousins in India and helping my mom to pack suitcases the night before we left USA was pleasurable.

Oh, Bangalore !:Our journey was way too long to bear. We had 8 hours of layover in Detroit, 7 hours in Amsterdam, and three hours in Mumbai before we reached Bangalore Club guest house. My parents chose this guest house to be closer to the practice pool at the Bishop Cotton's Girls' School. Bangalore Club is one of the oldest, English-style clubs around India. Even though it had problems with the hot water and the menu, overall we had a fine experience at the club.

The next day, when I went to Bishop Cotton Girls' School pool for my much-awaited practice under a well-known coach Mohite, my enthusiasm quickly faded after swimming just a few laps. Even though my father, who had represented Karnataka state in athletics, had warned me about the challenges I might face with the environment and the method of coaching, I had not realized I had to swim in almost subzero water temperature and go through gruelling practice of almost 3 – 4 hours a day.

In the U.S., I had gotten spoiled with a heated pool with controlled temperature of 80 - 81°F (swimmers complain even if the temperature went down by just 3-5 degrees Fahrenheit). Since the school had a brand new indoor pool, it had no water heater installed as yet and I was frozen, my lips turned blue. I couldn't even feel my skin 2 hours after I got out of the pool.

Swimming against the current Though I was swimming along with high school swimmers in the U.S., I had practised just an hour-and-a-half a day with very friendly coaching method. Tears were rolling down while swimming, after swimming for 15 – 20 minutes. Coach Mohite said to me, "Marsha, I have so much of water in the pool, I don't need any tears!" I could not imagine how other swimmers at the pool were swimming in freezing water!

When I complained to him about the temperature of the water, he told me, "Why don't you swim fast? If you swim fast, you will not feel the water. OK, get into the pool and swim fast". If I complained about the cramps, after swimming backstrokes, he said. "Okay Marsha, let's work on breaststroke now. To be the better swimmer, you have to work on all the strokes". Also on different occasions, coach Mohite said to me, "To be the best, you need to tolerate the pain and dream about the medal! Do you realize you will be swimming against the best of the best swimmers of India in Karnataka state meet? Do you want to just participate in a state meet or win a medal in it? Are you ready to win a medal in a national level?" After a couple of days of my training, my mom couldn't handle my tears anymore. She gave me the option of either sticking to the training and swim up to the expectations of coach Mohite, or quit swimming and go back to my grand mother's house. After all, Coach Mohite was doing a favour by giving his valuable time to coach me. I had never been a quitter and I didn't want to quit that easily now. I wanted to go through all way to national level. I opted for my mom's first option. After 3-4 days, I stopped crying because I started dreaming about the medal. Also, I kind of got used to the temperature (not totally). Mangalore break
Karnataka state swim meet in Mangalore was a different and pleasurable experience. In contrast to the US, where outdoor swim meets are cancelled when it thundered or rained heavily, I had to practise and compete in a meet held under a pouring rain. Recently, southeastern states swim meet in the US was was cancelled and postponed for a day due to electricity outage, but in Mangalore… organizers were equipped with back-up electricity power generator. Unlike in the US, where I am known as the "Indian girl" in swim meets, I was delighted to see a whole lot of them in a competition. In a state competition, I bagged a silver medal in 50 metres backstroke and bronze medal in 100 metres backstroke. I got selected for 50 metres backstroke event to represent Karnataka state in a national level competition.

Hard work paid off: After the state meet, Coach Mohite continued to motivate me for the national competition. I went through a gruelling 3 – 4 hours' practice a day, sometimes just getting a half an hour break in between. National Competition was held at the Jain International residential school swimming pool. State-of-the-art, Olympic-size JIS swimming pool was one of the best I have swam in thus far. Swimmers had flocked from all over India to take part in this huge annual event. Wearing a Karnataka state uniform, taking part in a march-past at the opening and closing ceremony was the highlight of the swim meet. Most of all, making it all the way through the finals and winning a bronze medal was the paramount event of my trip. It was a payback after going through the toughest training under a dedicated coach Mohite. After the meet, I went through two more weeks of training. Before I left, I promised my coach to work harder and dream for the gold.

Sweet memories: Visiting the office of Daijiworld crew in Mangalore was one of the memorable experiences of my trip to India. At last, I was able to see how the office looks like and the how the crew functions! I was overwhelmed by the warm welcome I got from each and everyone at the office. After corresponding through emails with the editor for so long, I was able to meet him personally. They gave me a beautiful present too. I have carried it safely and placed it on my dresser table.

Since I had to swim at the southeastern swim meet in the U.S., I had to get back to the US early. I have come back to Johnson City with packed with pleasant memories visiting the Daijiworld office. I have learned from coach Mohite how to be the better swimmer.

Marsha and her brother Vivek with Daijiworld's Mangalore teamMost of all, I have been cherishing the fond memories of eating juicy, ripe mallika mangoes (much tastier than the mangos we get here. I hope, the US government will allow them to be imported soon) and alluringly tasteful jackfruit, making new friends, playing cricket with my grandma's neighbourhood kids, playing with a month-old kittens, a new stray puppy that I made my aunt adopt and whatever limited time I spent with my grandma, cousins and the rest of my relatives.

Orphan Train "Tracking the Trains "Article about my research project in Johnson City Press news paper"

Tracking the trains
2005-07-24
http://johnsoncitypress.com/Detail.php?Cat=LOCALNEWS&ID=49292
Simply reading a few books and quickly searching the Internet just wouldn’t do when 11 years old Marsha set out to conduct her class history project at her School. Article by: Local Journalist, Mr. Sam Watson

Garden of the Gods! not a garden full of flowers!!! Instead a natural rock formation

1. Stunning rock garden 2. Gateway rocks 3. Kissing Camels

Our young contributor, eleven-year-old Marsha lives with her in the USA. Her extra-curricular activities are mainly swimming and playing piano. She plays piano for talent shows and local charitable dinners and concerts. Her hobbies are reading, competing in essay-writing contests, dancing to the tunes of Hindi Movie songs, biking and hiking.
She is a competitive swimmer and a team-member of a swim club. She bagged the runner-up award in Southeastern Summer League Championship Meet of 2004. Throughout the league, in 7 different meets, she competed in 24 events and stood first in 22 of them. She has won a gold, silver and bronze medal in photography competitions, silver medal in essay-writing competition, and gold medal in visual arts competition, which is held by the City school system for the city wide schools. In January 2004, she did a solo lamp dance for “Devdas” song “Silsila hai chahat ka”, for her school’s talent show. She got a thunderous applause. Sadly, there is no prize for talents shows in their school, although people are still talking about Indian dance performance!
She also did a solo dance with fusion outfit for “Chale Jaise and It’s the time to disco" for her school’s talent show. Again she got a thunderous applause. People have been asking about what she will do after her studies !
Marsha has received the President's Award for Education Excellence, accompanied by a letter from President Bush and a President Physical Fitness award, Accelerated reader award (that's for reading highest average book level in the fifth Grade), Best Altar Server (for performing the best job at the altar), Achievement award at her school. Her classmates voted her the most trustworthy person.
She got a second place championship trophy in summer swim league and 3rd place championship trophy in summer open swimming competition. Later she won 2nd place Individual Championship medal at the 2005 annual IRON-KIDS trianthlon (swim, bike and run) competition. Also recently she played piano at a local fund-raising event.
Marsha occasionally finds time off her busy study schedule to write a travelogue. Her earlier write-ups have received rave reviews from our readers of www.daijiworld.com - Editor-in-chief
October 28, 2005
The name of the park is Garden of the Gods! And indeed, it is!But, guess what! It’s not a garden with flowers! Instead it’s a garden full of capricious rock formations!
This park is nestled at the base of Pike Peak Mountains (14,110 ft elevation), where the great plains of Colorado spring meet the majestic Rocky mountains!
If you visit this park, make sure to watch the 12 minutes multi-media presentation on big screen projector screen, where you will learn all about the history and geology of the park, especially about how those towering red-rock formations got there!
For me, it was just fascinating to learn about how these rock formations began about 300 million years ago with erosion, volcanoes, forces of wind and rain gradually stripping away the softer layers of sedimentary rocks and sculpturing in o different shapes of rocks around the park of the “Garden of the Gods”. One cannot describe enough about the breath-taking natural beauty of this park. Many books have been written about this park. Some claim that these rock formations around the park site were the sacred ground for Native Americans. Many researchers have studied these rocks for years.
Some of the rocks around the park have been given fanciful names. Rocks like Gateway Rocks, Balanced Rock, Kissing Camels, and Siamese Twins are most popular among the many. It is one of the stunning natural wonders on earth and it is one of the most unique parks that I have visited in the United States of America.

Visit to the US Airforce Academy cadet chapel, Colorado Spring, CO

1. At the enterance of the academy 2. Airforce plane display at the terrazzo
3. Inside the protestant chapel 4. Inside the jewish chapel 5. 200 years old Torah scroll 6. Inside the catholic chapel

August 4, 2005
A Protestant chapel, a Catholic chapel and a Jewish Chapel under one roof!
That's not all. This building has interfaith rooms for other religions too. That's what I saw during my visit to the US Airforce Academy cadet chapel, Colorado Spring, Colorado.

It is a huge "A" frame metal building. The actual sanctuary has 90 ft ceiling. The building houses three different religious worship places. The Upper level is a Protestant chapel which has a 1,200 seating capacity. Chapel has beautiful stain glass work on the wall. The pipe organ on upper level of the church is simply humongous. Haven't seen anything like this!

The Catholic chapel is located at the lower level with a capacity of 500 seats. It has two beautiful mosaic angels, which is a highlight of this chapel. The side-walls have carved Stations of the Cross images surrounded by coloured glass work.

The 100-seat Jewish chapel is located behind the Catholic chapel, which one can miss out easily. The walls of this chapel are made out of vertical shape glass. There is a Torah scroll that is 200 years old. The scroll has survived the horror of the Nazi-occupied Europe.

The scroll was found in 1989 in an abandoned factory building in Czestochowa, Poland. It was given to the US air force academy on April 29, 1990, as a memorial to the 6,000,000 Jews who were killed by the Nazis and in memory of a world, who placed their love and their faith in their children and in their grand children. Even more interesting part of this chapel is that floor that is made out of stone blocks were brought from the Holy land.

A R RAHMAN'S MIRACLE CONCERT AT DAYTON-OHIO

1st published in http://www.daijiworld.com.ashe This article is about Indian Music Director/Singer A R Rahman's unique show in Dayton, Ohio. Here she describes her experience at his Cross Over theme concert. Being a keen photographer also, she was sad that no photography or videography was allowed. - Editor-in-chief)
May 4, 2006
Close your eyes and imagine yourself as a music conductor.
Now imagine about 150 White, Afro-American Chinese, and, Indian American college students as performers for your show.
Also, imagine many of these students know nothing about Indian film music and you are teaching all these kids how to sing A R Rahman hits.
Well, Mr. Rahman and the music conductor DrEthan Sperry from Miami University, Ohio did exactly that for a great cause.
I was lucky enough to experience the mesmerizing show of Rahman benefit concert called "Wake up" at the Trent Arena, Kettering, Ohio on April 22, 2006
Along with Eastern Michigan University, MI and from Miami University, Ohio students, Rahman and well known Cellist from Chennai V R Sekar, singer/actor Kailash Kher and Vasundhara Das and many others performed to raise funds for students to travel to India and experience the culture of India.
Major performers didn't charge a penny for the show. Instead they put the money in to the fund set by the organizers.When I heard about this show from Ms Das, I thought it was impossible.
I was doubtful about American students' accents. Even though, at times the songs sounded a bit different from the original, for my surprise, it was just a miracle. All of them did a pretty good job. There were great dancers too.
Some of the songs were from Taal, Takshak, Yuva, Dil Se, Nayak and recent popular movie, Rang de Basanti too. As an Indian American, I feel I have been connected to my Indian roots through music and especially through A R Rahman's. Hopefully there will be more of these kinds of shows in the future.

My Rendezvous with Singer/Actress Vasundhara Das

1st web news by Marsha-published by www.daijiworld.com
News -- USA: Nine-year-old Marsha Narrates Her Meeting with Vasundhara Das
My Rendezvous with Vasundhara Das
Recently, I had an opportunity to meet with Vasundhara Das ("It's time to Disco" and "Monsoon Wedding" fame) in a hotel where my parents, 5-year-old brother Vivek and I stayed in Florida. It turned out to be a pleasant experience for me. I bumped into Ms Das several times over a period of three days, and ended up strolling around and having informal and memorable conversations with her. She made me feel comfortable enough to discuss from a Bollywood movie 'Monsoon Wedding' to a cartoon movie 'Ice Age'. She never made me feel that I was just another nagging 9-year-old kid asking her silly questions; instead, she answered each and every one of them very politely and patiently.
I had heard about how 'Monsoon Wedding' was shot with the help of a small camcorder. So I asked my first curious question about it. She answered, "Yes, it was really made out of one those small camcorders that we hang it on our shoulder. Once the movie was shot, it was transferred to a chip and then to a computer to make the movie look bigger on screen".
I asked if acting was like really, really hard. She said it depended on how hard one wants to work. I asked her if being an actress was fun thing to do in life. She said it depended on how he or she wants to make it as fun. Then I asked her questions about her multilingual talent. When I requested her to sing in French and Spanish for me, she gladly accepted my request and sang a few lines in both languages. We discussed 'Ice Age' (cartoon movie) and Harry Potter books. Ms Das told that she had read J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series books and she liked them.
Vasundhara Das asked questions about my school, exams and my extra-curricular activities. When I mentioned her my extra curricular activities such as swimming, piano classes, she said to me that she fervently wished she had time to do such activities. I told her all about my hometown in the midst of beautiful Smokey mountains in Tennessee. I told her if she ever wanted to feel closer to nature or would like to join me for activities, she was most welcome to visit me anytime and she just smiled (maybe, in agreement!)
I asked her for her e-mail ID and telephone number. She gave me her autographed business card. Seeing it, I asked her why her business card looked so plain and simple. She said she liked simple things. She also autographed my brother's T-shirt and mine. The time that I spent with her flew too quickly. I drew a heart on her arm and signed my name on an envelope that she was carrying in her hand. Then we hugged and said goodbye to each other. Since then I have been in touch with her through emails.

Let's go to the Henry Doodle Zoo, Omaha, NE" Travelogue and Pictures"

Following article was originally published by www.daijiworld.com, "A well-known Coastal Karnataka web portal among mangloreans", later blogged by www,zoo-talk.com




Every time my parents say to me, “Let’s go to the zoo”, I get excited and say to myself, Wow! I am going to see… up close and personal of carnivores, I am going to visit all kinds of creatures from all around the world.

Once I enter the zoo, mixed feelings take over my excitement. I wonder about the plight of the captivated animals. I feel sorry for those tigers, lions, panthers lying around. I wonder how they must be feeling behind those fences. Are they happy because they never have to hunt food? Are they happy not having to look for water? I also wonder about the animals like the deer, zebra, and antelopes. Are they happy with limited, restricted natural habitat? Are they happy because they don’t have to be the prey of tigers, lions or are they bored just sitting around and not knowing how the real life scenario would be in a thick vast African jungle or in Asia?

This time, I was visiting one of the largest zoos of the world, Henry Doorly Zoo, Omaha, NE. Once I was inside the zoo, I had same old questions inside my mind, but slowly and steadily, I changed my mind about the facilities of this particular zoo.
The most interesting creatures of all that I saw were the Egyptian geese. First I thought that they had only one leg. I wrote to the bird expert, Bob Lastovika, who works at the Zoo; he replied to me that he gets lots of questions about Egyptian geese's legs. Actually they do have two legs. Depending on temperature of the surrounding, they have one tucked up. Later I found out that many birds stand on one leg while resting or roosting. Birds withdraw one leg into their warmth of the belly feathers to conserve heat loss. The joints in the legs are such that they are able to lock in without loosing balance while resting on one leg. I saw orangutans (Henry Doodle is famous for orangutans) chasing each other, eating and sleeping. A gorilla picking nose and eating it (may be in boredom).
I saw strikingly beautiful scarlet macaws. I couldn’t believe how big they were! I felt sad to learn they are one of the endangered species, since people capture them to keep them as their pets.
It was the perfect sight that I got see of an Indo-Chinese tiger and her cubs who were littered. Mr. Lastovika mentioned to me in his email that the mother cat was brought from Malaysia about year and a half ago. She is seven years old and she had littered for the second time.
I was pretty surprised to see the peacocks strolling around without any fear around, making themselves very much at home. I was lucky to see the stunning display of peacocks’ train of feathers. They never seem to be bothered by the visitors.
Henry Doorly Zoo is one of the most unusual zoos I have been in North America. I got a feeling of visiting different continents of the world, since the zoo contained indoor rainforest, largest indoor desert dome, pathway under shark tunnel, cat complex that . Also I enjoyed watching “Volcanoes of the deep sea and The mystery of the Nile” at their IMAX Theater.
The zoo is designed very well with many many features Animals were displayed lot more realistic environment and seem much more relaxed in comparison to many other zoo animals. I’m sure, no creature would be happy in any zoos around the world, but I was very happy to see the impressive facilities at the Henry Doorly Zoo, Omaha, NE.

Travelogue of my trip to Jamaica, West Indies

D A I J I W O R L D - By Marsha Girish. Johnson City, USA, January 9: I was always curious about the place where my parents lived, soon after they moved from India, ...www.daijiworld.com/news/news_disp.asp?n_id=9268&n_tit=Yeh+Mon!+Jamaica+-+No+Problem+-+a+Travelogue+by... - 22k

Marsha's memoirs "Summer 2006 vacation in India"

D A I J I W O R L D Marsha's Memoirs : When the Original Home Beckoned... ! ...www.daijiworld.com/chan/exclusive_archives.asp - 83k

Winning a bronze medal in Indian National Aquatic competition

The Hindu : Sport / Swimming : Four more records
Marsha Girish (Kar) 0:38.03. 200m individual medley: 1. Jyotsna Pansare (Mah) 2:44.84 (NMR); 2. Sanskruthi R. Chinya (Kar) 2:51.92; 3. ...www.thehindu.com/2006/06/20/stories/2006062004081900.htm

Final Results Tulip Time Scholarship Games Girish, Marsha, Cross Country - Girls, 11 & 12, 1st Place ... Girish, Marsha, Golf, 11 & 12, 1st Place. Cieza, Noah, Soccer, 6 & Under, 1st Place ...www.cbhi.org/content/737069.shtml