Just the other day I was telling a friend how I adored 3 things about America -
So today, as I was going to office (yes thats my life) around 1:40pm, I started up my car and was backing up out of my the garage and switched on the radio - its by default tuned into the local NPR station and I heard -
Chaahe jiyenge, marenge, Hum naa kisee se darenge
Hum ko naa roke jamaanaa, Jo chaahenge hum karenge
If it was possible to fall out of a seatbelted car seat, I would have done that.
I double checked to see that it was indeed NPR and not some old CD of mine, looked up to see that another second too late and I would have backed up bang into the tree behind me. Braked hard, put the car in neutral and heard out the rest of the song. Apparently they were into discussing various types of movies on 'Weekend America' and I had just caught the last of the segment on Bollywood. Whew, how a song can almost cause an accident.
So, NPR totally rocks. In a land where it is almost impossible to get anything other than the local news, NPR gives me the god of news - the BBC. It gives me humourous observations on life, controversial car repair talk shows, and heated arguments on world politics. It gives me the latest on science and medicine as well as its social repurcussions. On NPR I can listen to slow jazz and classical concerts in session and learn about the 'Powers of 10 Day'. To sum it up, NPR is the only radio station that makes me want to stay in the car and listen to it till the end of the current program. Thats something isn't it?
Posted by anya at October 8, 2005 02:27 PMOk lets backtrack a bit... Going to office at 1:40 PM!!!! Dude... I wish I cud do that :P... btw.. since when did u start listening to slow jazz?
Posted by: Prashant at October 9, 2005 11:05 PMDude it's a saturday!! I went to office on a saturday at 1:40pm.
And I used to like Jazz, you guys just never used to let me listen to NPR.
So like, whose this friend who has no name :P
Also, NPR sunday jazz is quite good.
Posted by: har at October 10, 2005 09:20 PMpersonally i liked http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autobahn. Autobahn
i remember vieweing a documentory on this , and i was quite impressed. otoh interstate highways are more massive and complex, due to size of US.
of course, i haven't visited any of those, so my opinions may not be accurate.
Posted by: key at October 11, 2005 12:09 AMThe US interstates were designed after studying the autobahns. However, unlike many other highways .. the Interstates run straight through the heart of many of the cities they connect. Elsewhere you have to exit the highway to approach the city as the highway bypasses any city.
Posted by: anya at October 11, 2005 12:29 AMAh yes.. Car Talk, Fool Radio, All Things Considered... makes me wish I'd need to commute ;)
I suppose I could listen to the radio at home, but I'm either watching the tele, or on the net and end up missing all the great stuff on NPR...
Fortunately my clock radio is set to NPR too, and I get ~15-30 minutes of early morning news on NPR while I will myself out of the bed :D
Posted by: Chinmay at October 14, 2005 01:34 PMWho do you like in Jazz...or is it just general jazz smooth?
Posted by: pseudofreud at October 15, 2005 12:24 AMI don't really know (or care) who I am listening to as long as it feels good.
Posted by: anya at October 15, 2005 12:27 PMAnya
You have been tagged ! Check this link out - http://www.ideamani.com/2005/10/i-got-tagged.html
exactly the same!!!!
i don't really care as long as i feel good when listening to some music. i dunno lyrics of most of the songs i have heard/listen.
i have collection of songs from different laguages, marathi,hindi,tamil, spanish,german,urdu,english,arabic the list will soon be longer.
Posted by: key at October 19, 2005 03:42 AMNPR rocks. I like the fact that they discuss topics that the regular media "hates".
And about the Interstate, yes the Americans copied the idea from the Germans, but a couple of intersting facts:
1) There is a stretch of straight road for every x miles, this was for planes to land, in case the runways were destroyed by the russians. X coz I do not remember the exact length.
2) The Americans decided to make the roads as straight as possible. It was later discovered that it was less tiring to drive on the autobahn, coz they had amazing sights, which the Americans forgot about.
Posted by: The Desi Nole at October 23, 2005 05:14 PM