Tottochan!

I found a link to Totto-chan's story! We had an excerpt from here in our English text in school. I remember I loved it then. I am looking forward to reading it now! Posting the link here for the benefit of others who remember little Totto-chan!

http://www.arvindguptatoys.com/arvindgupta/Tottochan.pdf

Life's little pleasures are often the best... You might find Arvind Gupta's site very interesting too.

Limerick (sorta) of a kid

There was a kid
Who fibbed all day,
Simply every single day
And then some more;

But that's just because
he thought his problems,
Would all be solved
Just by running away;

The older he grew,
Increased his problems anew,
Till run no longer
could he bear to.

So he turned around
Fought'em all he did,
Quickly saw them all,
Vanish into smoke grey!

San Fransisco in 1906, Before and After the earthquake

I have been fascinated by the history of a city. San Fransisco was the great frontier to the west - the land of opportunities, long before the tech boom that we see now. The bustling city, had an unfortunate moment in 1906 when it experienced the worst earthquake in its history. Over  3000 people died and over 80% of the city was destroyed in the subsequent fires. Here is the wikipedia article on the earthquake and its aftermath. The damage in the earthquake is estimated to be $8.2 billion in 2009 dollars! That's larger than most other disasters including 9/11 and Katrina.

But we go off on a tangent. The reason for this post if s a couple of videos I found on Quora which show life in the bustling city, just before the earthquake - from a cable car going along Market Street. The second video compares this with another footage taken after the earthquake. Its eerie.

Its amazing how quickly the city was back on its feet. The 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition was held here - and there were almost no visible signs of the earthquake by then. That exposition gave us the beautiful Palace of Fine Arts building near the Presidio.

I am dumbfounded by the resilience of the people here - and it makes me wonder whether it should really take us so long to change the face of Indian cities..