On Maya

Now that I have mastered the art of blissfully ignoring the necessity of being continuously worried about too much work/ too little time to enjoy, i feel a lot better (The fact that i actually have less work now certainly helps ;) , as does my acceptance in the HR course in MDI.. but.. whatever :) )..

I finished this book "Speak" by Laurie Halse Anderson just a couple of days ago.. Its about a teen outcast Melinda Sordino, who has just started high school.... The book is narrated by this tormented girl who is going through the anguish of not being able to tell the tale of what really happened to her. She chooses to be selectively mute, and transforms from a bubbly and intelligent student to a below average one.... really good. I wonder why it isnt in the Oprah book club.
The book talks about an african american woman "Maya Angelou". Now Maya, as i learnt, had to go through a lot in her childhood too. I went through some of her quotes, and she strikes me as a wonderfully strong woman. have a look at some of them :

"You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise. "

"People will forget what you said
People will forget what you did
But people will never forget how you made them feel. "

"My life has been one great big joke
A dance that's walked
A song that's spoke,
I laugh so hard I almost choke
When I think about myself"

"The white American man makes the white American woman maybe not superfluous but just a little kind of decoration. Not really important to turning around the wheels of the state. Well the black American woman has never been able to feel that way. No black American man at any time in our history in the United States has been able to feel that he didn't need that black woman right against him, shoulder to shoulder— in that cotton field, on the auction block, in the ghetto, wherever."

It wouldnt hurt to have her pic in my closet too :)