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Monday, October 11
Yesterday was one of those days. Everything happened at once.
Among other things, I went for a quiz (and was thulped in embarrassing fashion after making the finals with inordinate ease), ate again at Komala Vilas and was involved in an accident.
The accident (or rather taxi-dent) occurred thusly: we were in a taxi. The driver, in the usual manic style of drivers in this city, was zipping suicidally round corners and overtaking in a manner calculated to attract undertakers. What it did attract was the unwelcome attention of a traffic policeman. After an unpleasant altercation (of which I understood perhaps one word in five, it being in highly vernacular and uncomplimentary Bengali) he started to drive slowly off. Across a busy intersection. Still looking at the cop and muttering what I presume were foul imprecations. It was only when his five passengers screamed at him simultaneously that he deigned to notice the large truck ponderously bearing down on us. A judicious application of brakes saw us survive, shaken and stirred, but the taxi's front fender will never be the same again.
On an unrelated note, the labours of the previous week bore fruit; the online game I mentioned in a previous post went fabulously, resulting in our team being chosen as one of the two official teams representing the college. Also, the case analysis I was groaning about was well-received and I am among the elect half-dozen invited to make a final presentation and take a shot at some not inconsiderable moolah.
But the pleasure and elation is short-lived. Tomorrow, mid-terms start.....:((
~lakesidey
Posted at 10/11/2004 7:22:47 am by lakesidey
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Sunday, October 10
On this beautiful day
Let me spirit you away
To a sky so pure and so free
Where pleasures abound
No tears may be found
Only love everywhere you will see
The rays of the morn
Seem to herald the dawn
Of another wonderful day
The beautiful night
In liquid moonlight
Has washed the shadows away
In warmth or in shade
Walk with me, sweet maid
On this road to eternity
Where pleasures abound
No tears may be found
Only love everywhere you will see
Let your gaze now wander
To the forests yonder
Hear the whispering of the breeze
Whilst colourful birds
Sing songs without words
And frolic amidst the trees
Sweet flower that seems
To haunt all my dreams
Will you share such a life with me
Where pleasures abound
No tears may be found
Only love everywhere you will see......?
~lakesidey
Posted at 10/10/2004 5:41:11 am by lakesidey
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Saturday, October 9
Pandora's box opened, and horror leaped out;
Famine and pestilence to ravage the world
Greed, envy, hatred, spread all about
Indeed, the Gods' thunderbolt, vengefully hurled.
Yet it opened again, and out sprang Hope
The shining beacon, the bane of despair!
The surest way for men to cope
With the horrors lurking everywhere.
When all is lost, and contention futile
Hope springs eternal in the breast.
No chance for the weary to rest awhile -
Truly, it was the Gods' cruelest jest!
Opening the box caused terrible pain
But the real mistake was opening it again.
This was something I wrote over two years back (29th Jan '02 to be precise) in a mood of bleak depression (one of the worst periods of my life). Things have changed very much since then, but I still believe that hope, while significantly better than the alternatives, has done its best to make my life miserable in the past. It continues to do so now and again......and no doubt will keep doing so while life pulses in my veins.
~lakesidey
Posted at 10/9/2004 9:18:57 pm by lakesidey
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Friday, October 8
To all my bestest friends.....
This one goes out to all my best friends.....you know who you are :) And special thanks to Shash for this piece - and also for being there.
I love you,
Not only for what you are,
But for what I am
When I am with you.
I love you,
Not only for what
You have made of yourself,
But for what
You are making of me.
I love you
For the part of me
That you bring out;
I love you
For putting your hand
Into my heaped-up heart
And passing over
All the foolish, weak things
That you can't help
Dimly seeing there,
And for drawing out
Into the light
All the beautiful belongings
That no one else had looked
Quite far enough to find.
I love you because you
Are helping me to make
Of the lumber of my life
Not a tavern
But a temple;
Out of the works
Of my every day
Not a reproach
But a song.
I love you
Because you have done
More than any creed
Could have done
To make me good,
And more than any fate
Could have done
To make me happy.
You have done it
Without a touch,
Without a word,
Without a sign.
But now your touch,
Your word,
And all the signs
Sing of the joy
That is you.
You have done it
By being yourself.
Perhaps that is what
Being a friend means
After all. ~lakesidey
Posted at 10/8/2004 8:36:49 pm by lakesidey
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Thursday, October 7
The monsoons took their leisurely time getting here. They stopped off at Goa for a prolonged holiday (I have it on reliable authority) and doubtless the pulchritudinous women of Bombay also arrested their attention for a not inconsiderable period. Whatever be the reasons, they sorely neglected their duties in the North-East till quite recently.....
Having finally arrived here, though, they are making up for lost time with a vengeance. Three days of incessant rain have sufficed to make my immediate universe a cheerless body of none-too-clean water with the occasional soggy archipelago sticking out. At least I have a warm(?) room, this bedraggled crow looked too thoroughly miserable and cold to even fly away....
My favourite spot, the jetty was declared temporarily out of bounds by the authorities a while ago. As this ban had no effect, three days back they took the sterner measures of dropping a huge heap of vegetation on the entrance, presumably to prevent people going there. Wasted effort; in the current state of the area one would need an Ark to get to the place....
I just hope this doesn't go on for forty days and nights......I have midterms next week!!
~lakesidey
Posted at 10/7/2004 10:19:46 pm by lakesidey
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Wednesday, October 6
Abraham Lincoln's letter to his son's teacher
"He will have to learn I know,
That all men are not just, all men are not true;
But teach him also that
For every scoundrel there is a hero,
For every selfish politician, there is a dedicated leader...
Teach him that for every enemy there is a friend.
It will take time I know; but teach him if you can,
That a dollar earned is of far more value than five found,
Teach him to lose and also to enjoy winning.
Steer him away from envy if you can.
Teach him the secret of quiet laughter.
Teach him if you can, the wonder of books...
But also give him quiet time
To ponder the eternal mystery
Of birds in the sky, bees in the sun
And flowers on a green hillside.
In school teach him,
Its far more honourable to fail, than to cheat.
Teach him to have faith in his own ideas,
Even if everyone tells him they are wrong.
Teach him to be gentle with the gentle people,
And tough with the tough.
Try to give my son
The strength not to follow the crowd,
When everyone is getting on the bandwagon.
Teach him to listen to all men;
But teach him to filter all that he hears on a screen of truth,
And take only the good that comes through.
Teach him, if you can
How to laugh when he is sad.
Teach him, there is no shame in tears.
Teach him to scoff at cynics
And to beware of too much sweetness
Teach him to sell all his brawn and brain to the highest bidder;
But never put a price tag on his heart and soul.
Teach him to close his ears to a howling mob;
And to stand and fight.
Treat him gently, but do not cuddle him;
Because only the test of fire makes fine steel.
Let him have the courage to be impatient,
Let him have the patience to be brave.
Teach him always to have sublime faith in himself,
Because then he will have sublime faith in humankind.
This is a big order, but see what you can do.
He is such a fine young fellow....
My son.
Reproduced here with much thanks to my philosopher-friend Natarajan from whose blog (http://nitid.blogdrive.com/) I have lifted this....
~lakesidey
Posted at 10/6/2004 4:24:50 am by lakesidey
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Tuesday, October 5
X-prize, but no surprise....
In a departure from my usual dreamy posts, here's something real and contemporary (I hope you like it, Aritro;)
On Monday, the anniversary of the launch of Sputnik (the first artificial satellite) a weird looking craft called SpaceShipOne managed to win the coveted Ansari X-prize by taking a second trip into space within a span of two weeks. The conditions for the prize required a privately built craft to top the 100-km barrier twice in a fortnight (SpaceShipOne did it in a week). En passant, as it were, the craft also broke the altitude record for an airplane set by the X-15.
It is no accident that the craft was designed by Burt Rutan, one of the most famous Aerospace Engineers alive. Rutan is no stranger to weird looking craft; he was the chief designer for Voyager, the delicate, spidery-looking aircraft that in 1986 made the first round-the-world non-stop flight without refuelling. That odyssey, carried to a triumphant conclusion by Burt Rutan's brother Dick along with Jeanna Yeager, was chronicled in the Reader's Digest and was certainly one of the inspirations for me to try out Aerospace Engineering myself :)
This latest exploit, of course, appeals to the science-fiction addict in me far more than to the aerospace engineer.......and of course there is the pleasant thought that perhaps someday even a distinctly overweight guy like me might get to experience weightlessness....even if only for a few minutes! :)
~lakesidey
Posted at 10/5/2004 5:44:53 am by lakesidey
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Monday, October 4
Another week draws to a close.
It's been a packed week. There was, of course, the zoo trip last Sunday. Then some grades came out (better than I had expected, so no cause for complaint there :) The usual complement of classes and assignments rolled along to make life miserable. But the main load came from elsewhere. I finally made up my mind to take part in a business fest (something I normally consider anathema) and joined a team for Confluence (the IIM-A fest, a little over a fortnight hence). Little did I know that it would mean loads of hard work, right here, right now! I've already analysed a 30-page case and spent several hours on an online game which just keeps getting more complicated every day. Add to that a disinclination to sleep which has seen me welcoming the sunrise for ten days in a row. Sometimes I think I operate on US standard time......
On Saturday, in sheer frustration, I ran away from it all for a few short hours and jaunted off to Banana Leaf (a.k.a. Komala Vilas, a nice veggie restaurant in the city) for a taste of heaven. A heaped South Indian thali with puris and ghee and buttermilk and rasam and papad and..…..anyway you get the idea :) And yes, awesome coffee *sigh*
……Today, it was back to the grind.
Thank God for places like the jetty, where I can get away from it all, even if only for half an hour......
~lakesidey
Posted at 10/4/2004 6:58:29 am by lakesidey
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Sunday, October 3
This started out as an attempt at translating "Chalo ek baar phir se ajnabi ban jaaye hum dono" and ended as a kind of experiment in iambic pentameter. The things I get up to when sleep evades me.....:)
Let us go back, a little while before
Beloved friend, let’s be strangers once more
I shall not hope for what I cannot reach
You need not suspect every word I say
My love will not reflect in all my speech
And no more will your eyes your hurt betray
Let us go back, a little while before
Beloved friend, let’s be strangers once more
I know my love is unrequited, yet
Your eyes tell me I’ve also lost a friend
Let’s go back to the time before we met
Let’s change this tale before the bitter end
Let us go back, a little while before
Beloved friend, let’s be strangers once more
If love should hurt, ‘tis best we should forget
If friendship be a burden, let it go
The bond we shared can only cause regret –
If strangers we must be, then be it so!
Posted at 10/3/2004 2:58:16 am by lakesidey
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Saturday, October 2
I first came across this poem in school. At that time didn't think much about it, but later on I came to appreciate it better. People tend to judge you by their own criteria, and if you achieve something they themselves would like to, they assume you must be extremely chuffed about it. Never mind that your aims, your goals, your very reasons for living might be different.....
Richard Cory
- Edwin Arlington Robinson
Whenever Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean favored, and imperially slim.
And he was always quietly arrayed,
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
"Good-morning," and he glittered when he walked.
And he was rich - yes, richer than a king -
And admirably schooled in every grace;
In fine we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.
So on we worked, and waited for the light,
And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet through his head.
Posted at 10/2/2004 7:30:02 am by lakesidey
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