CURRENT MISSION

Listen, Learn, Live, Laugh, Love, then Leave.

ABOUT ME

My good buddy Bob said in a Friendster testimonial,"Jeanne makes good drinks and great conversation, both from quality stuff. Of all the globe trotters and edge dwellers I've known, none have pursued life's experiences as purposefully, or drawn so much to share from them, as Jeanne. To fellow travellers, all her tough talk is just a front. But no, you definitely do not want Jeanne around if, instead, you are a moron. And legend tells of a basement stash of vintage first wave punk rock vinyl. No wonder I'm in a swoon."

Pretty much sums me up. Except, well, the vinyl had a tough time surviving the Kolkata monsoon last year...

PHILOSOPHY

Okay, here's a bunch of statements made by other people that I completely and totally believe in. Enjoy:

Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.
-- George Bernard Shaw

We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.
-- E. M. Forster (1879 - 1970)

All war is a symptom of man's failure as a thinking animal.
-- John Steinbeck

The world is moving so fast these days that the man who says it can't be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it.
-- Harry Emerson Fosdick

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.
-- Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862), Walden, Conclusion, 1854

Ever notice that "what the hell" is always the right decision?
-- Marilyn Monroe (1926 - 1962)

An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
-- Mahatma Gandhi

I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be stuffed. I want the cultures of all the lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any.
-- Mahatma Gandhi

The only tyrant I accept in this world is the still voice within.
-- Mahatma Gandhi

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
-- Martin Luther King Jr.

The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four Americans is suffering from some form of mental illness. Think of your three best friends. If they're okay, then it's you.
-- Rita Mae Brown

Lead me not into temptation; I can find the way myself.
-- Rita Mae Brown

If the world were a logical place, men would ride sidesaddle.
-- Rita Mae Brown

If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to.
-- Dorothy Parker

Great spirits have always encountered opposition from mediocre minds. The mediocre mind is incapable of understanding the man who refuses to bow blindly to conventional prejudices and chooses instead to express his opinions courageously and honestly.
-- Albert Einstein

Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value.
-- Albert Einstein

I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.
-- Albert Einstein

Art is never finished, only abandoned.
-- Leonardo DaVinci

There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun.
-- Pablo Picasso

It is your work in life that is the ultimate seduction.
-- Pablo Picasso

It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
-- Voltaire

It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.
-- Voltaire

For most of history, Anonymous was a woman.
-- Virginia Woolf

There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.
-- Edith Wharton

The trouble with being poor is that it takes up all of your time.
-- Willem de Kooning

Dreams
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.
-- Langston Hughes

When the artist is alive in any person, whatever his kind of work may be, he becomes an attentive, searching, daring, self-expressive creature. He becomes interesting to other people. He disturbs, upsets, enlightens, and opens ways for a better understanding. Where those who are trying to close the book, he opens it and shows there are still more pages possible.
-- Robert Henri

To transform the world, we must begin with ourselves; and what is important in beginning with ourselves is the intention. The intention must be to understand ourselves and not leave it to others to transform themselves… This is our responsibility, yours and mine; because however small may be the world we live in, if we can bring about a radically different point of view in our daily existence, then perhaps we shall affect the world at large.
-- Krishnamurti

When the rich wage war it's the poor who die.
-- Jean-Paul Sartre

So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence.
-- Bertrand Russell

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.
-- Bertrand Russell

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
-- Margaret Mead

In heaven all the interesting people are missing.
-- Friedrich Nietzsche

One must have chaos within oneself to give birth to a rising star.
-- Friedrich Nietzsche

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Brand new here. Be gentle with me.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

In 1976, at the age of 15, I completed an exchange student program at Sir J. J. College of Architecture in Mumbai.

After my visa expired, I spent the next six months as a courier for an import/export company in Mauritius. That opportunity took me all over Africa, Middle East, tiny islands in the Indian Ocean, Near East and Asia. Sadly, this kind of opportunity doesn't exist anymore. (Thanks, Fedex.)

In 1977, I traveled the land route from Mumbai to Amsterdam with a French Mauritian, an Iranian and another American. It took us forever, forced us into many unusual conveyances, visa mishaps, and showed us that there are kind and generous people willing to lend a hand to fellow travelers, even when they have little for themselves.

All three of these experiences profoundly changed me.

Interests

Art, Web Design, Interior Design, Architecture, Green Construction, Tiny Houses, Rescuing Greyhounds, Reading, Computers, Travel, Writing, PFLAG,

• animals
• arts
• writing
• books
• architecture
• design
• interior design
• drinking
• flying
• reading
• traveling
• drawing
• music
• scuba diving
• history
• statistics

Music, Movies, and Books

Favorite Movies
"The Station Agent", "American Splendor", "Pulp Fiction", "Reservoir Dogs", "Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels, "Snatch", "The Jacket", "Requiem for a Dream", "Permanent Midnight", every Coen Brothers and Scorcese movie, Robert Deniro, Johnny Depp, Ewan MacGregor, Paul Giamatti - JUST SAY NO TO CHICK FLICKS.

Favorite Music
Industrial, Ethno-Techno, 70's Classic Rock, 80's Punk, New Wave, Hip Hop, Chicks, Feminist, R&B, Opera, Samba, Classical, World, Johnny Cash, Jem, Zero 7, Otis Redding, M.I.A., Poe, Dido, Cheb Mami, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Natalie Walker, Frou Frou, Timbaland, Timberlake (a little), Eminem, Pretenders, Liz Phair, Phranc, Traditional Folk and Classical Indian, I could go on forever... (Is that eclectic enough for you?

Favorite Books:
"War and Peace", "Confederacy of Dunces", "Them", "Grapes of Wrath", "The Good Earth", "Hungry Tide", "God of Small Things", "Kite Runner", "Love in the Time of Cholera", "The Glass Palace" and so many more. I love to read. No actually, I live to read.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

1) Frozen multicoloured waterfalls near Banff, British Columbia, Canada in February as the last car allowed before they finally closed the road for the remainder of the winter.

2) One word: Himalayas.

3) Scuba in the Bahamas.

4) Hyenas attacking a big male lion.

5) Cheetah and cubs just hanging around the lodge.

6) Dodging cows on the highway while searching for the F.R.R.O. in Gurgaon, India.

7) Ask me about the drunken evening among the zebras. :-)

I could seriously keep writing for days. Every day is amazing.

Countries I’ve Visited

Brazil, Canada, Finland, India, Kenya, Mauritius, Myanmar, Nigeria, Qatar, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Virgin Islands, British, Virgin Islands, U.S.

Countries I’ve Lived In

India, United States

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