A memorable quote

I have many sweet memories attached to this quotation, from my later school days (it was this quote that was largely responsible- apart from my undoubtedly sheer and sincere hard work- for my stupendous ranks and scores in all of the engineering entrance exams that I gave). Even today it energizes me as much as it used to back then. I hope it continues to serve as my source of energy forever.

"Life's battles do not always go
to the stronger or the faster man,

but sooner or later the man who wins,
is the man who thinks he can."

-- Vince Lombardi

I'm aware that the above quote is slightly different from what was actually quoted by Vince Lombardi, but it's the above words which are close to me, and hence I always sing only them.

obsessed with blood & war

ever since USA's george w bush waged wars with afghanistan and iraq, i have felt sad about it. i feel so much sympathy for hunderds of thousands perfectly innocent people of afghanistan and iraq who lost their life in american bombings. i feel sympathy for the children who got decapitated or were rendered handicap by american bombs. and i feel sympathy for those men and women who suffered burnt bodies and irreversible devastation of their far happier lives.

i know this war that george w bush is continuing to push is not only illegal, its inhuman. insane actually. i do not have adjectives of higher degree to express my level of angst, sadness and fury over the ongoing malice manslaughter.

over these years, my curiosity about these wars has made me read a lot of news stories about USA's wars with these countries, particularly those with statements from george w bush. after these so many years [about 6] of reading his statements, he seems to me like a person obsessed with war. with blood of non-americans. his continuous opposition to ending the war sometimes makes me wonder as to how can one be so insane. i sometimes feel that it is because he himself does not know how it feels when a red hot splinter pierces through your flesh and burns your skin that he continues to wage these wars. sitting in an air conditioned air force one, with unvanquishable protection of american commandos, wearing a luxury coat suit and giving public speeches, how can he possibly know what feeling it is when you are unsafe in your own home, praying to god to not let any tomahawk missile fall on your home, praying for your children's lives.

i consider him the hitler of 21st century. a glorified despot.

i feel sad that while george w bush never forgets to express his sadness about dead american soldiers, he has never made even a mention of hundreds of thousands of people from general public who got killed by american military, or who have lost their eyes or limbs or speech or hands. this makes me feel that even his expressing sadness about death of american soldiers is made up and fake, to win support of american public- and to continue pushing with more wars- for to me, its hard to imagine being a human such that you feel so sad for deaths of your people while you are indifferent to the many times more ( and more inhuman) deaths taking place elsewhere.

i feel sad about it. quite sad. may god punish the one who He thinks is a tyrant.

My favorite poem - Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening (by Robert Frost)

Out of all the poems I like, I love this one the most. It's special to me - as a child, I sometimes used to cry on reading it. Even now, it gives me chills whenever I read it. I've memorized each word of it by heart. I have an issue of TIME magazine, which has an image that very closely matches the theme of this poem. I've kept that issue carefully ever since 1995 (the image below is not that image).

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He won't see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

-- Robert Frost

I'm aware that the actual poem written by Robert Frost has one word different from what is written above, but it's the above words that I've memorized (for many years now)

a spiderweb that ensures me peaceful sleep

a few days back i felt like cleaning up my room due to presence of some junk on the floor. i looked around and noticed many spiderwebs at the corners of the ceiling. naturally, i decided to clean them too. just as i had brought the broom and was about to clean them off, i noticed something that felt pleasant. there were many dead mosquitoes hanging here and there in them. i felt wickedly happy. then i looked carefully at all of them (the spiderwebs) and was surprised to see all of them chock full of dead mosquitoes. i grinned wickedly again. its been hot here in delhi since about 2 weeks, and mosquito numbers have been spiraling out of control. no matter how many hours i keep the mosquito repellent on, mosquito growth has consistently outpaced efforts to control them.

and then i thought about it and realised that if i remove those spiderwebs, it harms me more than it helps me. it does me no harm if there are some spiderwebs hanging off my room's ceiling. and if i remove them, the number of alive mosquitoes in my room will increase, and that certainly will be unpleasant.

thinking more about this, to find out the reason of this unbalance of mosquitoes, i realised that the 'food chain' and 'ecosystem' concepts i studies back at school many years back are in play here. i remember reading that if any level of a food chain goes out of balance, it disrupts the number of organisms in other levels. i felt that my room is a small ecosystem, where killing/removing spiders will increase number of insects [on whom spiders feed]. so true. i left them as it is, and i enjoy more peaceful sleeps now, i assume, than i would have had i cleaned them up.

update 21-4-07
i told about this to mummy, and she told me that one should keep surroundings clean as clean surroundings keep one's spirits high, and one's mind fresh and energetic. mummy is so right. i cleaned up the spiderwebs today as per mummy's suggestions, and i actually realise that it works as she said. so no more spiderwebs in room now. the mosquitoes still remain at bay, since i run the mosquito repellent for longer time per day now.

version 2
21-4-07

3 cheers for the wise pilot

a digest of honesty of hostel guys

yesterday the 2nd year guys who live in the next room were partying. daru, sutta were all there. its fun to watch them party every other day, and this happens on those days when they have played less. then someone's phone rang. it was from his home. his parents talked about various things, the upcoming exams and result of previous semester included. i listened to his talking. and smiled wickedly. for i had listened to my classmate talking to his parents the very same day, at noon.

what did i conclude? 2 things

1) some college guys staying in hostels lie to their parents most times
2) most college guys staying in hostels lie to their parents some times :-)

today i came out of a week long vicious cycle- and i feel good about it

today was a good day for me. today i realised that for last 1 week, i had been in a special vicious circle. i dont know exactly what to call it- a catch 22 situation or a deadlock [a haven't thought deeply about it, but am sure if i think ill be able to tell] or simply a vicious cycle. out of the previous 7 days, on the 1st and 2nd day, i skipped many meals- i probably took just 2 meals in those 2 days, and that too in hurry. the result? lack of energy, sleepiness, lethargy etc. i would be able to work less, and hence whenever time for meal came, i would skip it in favor of working. the lack of energy, made me work still less, and made me feel more sleepy and made me sleep more, and this further worsened situation. in last 7 days, i took just 5 or 6 meals, out of which i ordered 3 from outside because i did not want to waste time going to mess. and since yesterday, the situation was such that i was continuously lying on bed. when it was breakfast time, i did not take it because i was too sleepy, weak and felt better lying in bed in my quilt. when lunch time came, i again skipped it because i was too weak to get up. this was the vicious cycle- to get energy, i needed food, and to get to food, i needed energy. neither was with me. finally, today noon i started introspection. i thought about what all is happening and why it has happened. i realised that none else is going to help me out, or do anything about it- its me alone who has to get myself out of this bad schedule and food cycle. with this realisation, i jumped out of bed, brushed my teeth, took a heavy lunch with extra butter, and later took bath, went out and drank juice, got my hair and beard trimmed, then ate curd, bananas and gol gappas. and now i am going to eat tasty gobhi ke paranthe.

finally, i am out of the vicious cycle, and i dont wanna go into this again. i will make sure that i dont skip meals, since food is indispensable for humans. its like our fuel.

later today, i was also thinking more about this vicious cycle phenomenon. some examples came to my mind.

- a person stranded in jungle, who is hungry and getting weak. he knows that a few kilometers away there is food, but falls down due to weakness in middle of path. to get to food he needs energy, and to get energy he needs food. the situation will keep getting worse with passing time, because his falling energy will decrease the probability of him being able to get to food. i think there can come a time when his energy is below some threshold level so that probability of him being able to reach to food drops to approximately 0

- a patient suffering from severe digestive disorder and malnutrition. unless he eats food, his system wont get repaired, and his current situation ensures that if he takes food, the disorder worsens. such a person, if alone, can hardly do anything unless an external agent provides support. this somewhat shows that a person left alone in situations like these will continue to remain in this state, unless an external agent intervenes. newton's 1st law of motion?

no more avatar changes on orkut now

i've got sick of the frequent avatar and name changes i have been doing on orkut over past few days. i had been dissatisfied with each one of them. and finally, i have decided today that no more name changes no more avatar changes. simplicity is the best. so i'm going to where i started from- my name and a simple elegant avatar.

Perils of being a Punjabi in Delhi

The other day I was coming back from my cousin's place, and in the way I saw a sweets shop. I happily entered and asked for lassi. But they didn't have it. The owner said, "we dont keep lassi". I was quite disappointed, since I had asked with high hopes. And he's not the only one - most halwais in Delhi don't keep lassi. The youth of Delhi drinks less of lassi (and other traditional Indian drinks) and more of Coke/Pepsi/liquor (and also cigarettes and vehicular smoke).

For a lassi-loving Punjabi, this isn't less than punishment.

really good and unique escape

amazing. i like it.