Heroes and Villains

We are so obsessed with watching, reading about movies/stories where good triumphs over evil. Since tender age we have been used to watching gargantuan, abominable looking demons being slayed by beautiful, brave humans/gods symbolizing victory of good over bad.

In my case, I was very fond of watching many mythological television programs. Well, those guys used to show good and bad in such a transparent way that even though being a kid I was able to comprehend almost everything that was going on. I was able to appreciate that a gargantuan, demon crying "Ha Ha Ha" deserves to be teared apart with use of a super powerful arrow or deserves to be beheaded by a Chakra.

Even besides mythological programs, life used to be so simple on TV. Villains were like Gabbar Singh who deserved no sympathy for amputating hands of poor Thakur.

Anyways, the point is that it was so easy to differentiate between good and evil.

Is life really so simple? Can we easily distinguish between good and bad? Can't a good person be bad or a good person be bad? Truth is, we can never really say that a person is absolutely good or completely bad. If we believe in theory of God residing in everyone, it becomes easier to comprehend that everybody can be good and everybody can be bad.

In real life, we can never find pure villains and pure heroes. The fact is, it is circumstances which make someone hero or villain. Movies have shown this very nicely in recent Hollywood flicks like MegaMind, Despicable me. I happened to like both. Even now, days of monsters are far from over. They live on in forms like Voldermort.

When I think of a villains who has touched my life real deeply one name stands apart. That’s Andrei Taganov. That man had (or has?) been my role model in so many things. The man was initially portrayed as Villain by Ayn Rand in her novel We the Living; as we keep on reading novel he turns into the hero and hero ends up turning into villain. The transformation spanned across the novel was really touching. A hardcore communist; who is supposed to be antagonist of objectivist Ayn Rand turns out to be hero by the end of novel. That’s something which is really mind boggling. So what did this guy really do which affected me so deeply that I used to have a note stuck on monitor of my computer saying “Be Andrei Taganov”. Well, let’s go to a nice webpage to understand this.

http://therationalfool.blogspot.in/2006/03/conversation-with-kira-argounova.html

Let’s take some part of this page if you don’t want to read it or it disappears by when you read it.

Fool: At Andrei's grave you had wondered if you had killed Andrei Taganov. Did you kill Andrei, Kira?
Kira: Yes, I think I killed Andrei…I was definitely an accomplice to his murder.
Fool:What was Andrei Taganov to you?
Kira: Just a friend.
Fool: And you were just Andrei's friend, too?
Kira: No, I was Andrei's love, his life, his only one, and his highest reverence.
Fool: Kira, you killed your friend, who held you in his highest reverence and to whom you were his life? Why?

Fool: But he was not your life, and you didn't hold him in your highest reverence?
Kira: No, I wonder why I did not.

Fool: Kira, the last time you saw Andrei, when you ran after him in the snow, without a coat, without a care about what Leo might think, you were going to tell Andrei something that you couldn't tell him in Leo's presence. What did you want to tell him?
Kira: I was afraid of losing Andrei…for ever. I was afraid that I would never see him alive again. I couldn't bear the thought of losing him. Andrei was everything I thought Leo was, Leo could have been. I didn't see it so clearly until then, what might have been between Andrei and me, but it was too late. I wanted Andrei to know that.
Fool: Is that what Andrei meant, when he said, "If we don't say anything - and just leave it to… to our silence, knowing that we both understand, and that we still have that much in common?

I think it would be really difficult for me to find words which explain what I liked in Andrei with perspicuity. I can just say that I think (used to think?) that if I ever love a girl, it has to be unshakable, perpetual, and most importantly absolutely unconditional as Andrei’s love for Kira did. He held Kira in highest reverence till he was alive. He helped her in any possible way he thought he could; even though she failed to return the same. Well, to get real feeling of all this you got to read the novel.

The sad part of the story was, the destiny Miss Rand chose for Andrei and off course Kira as well. That’s why I decided to think of an alternative ending for the story when I think of this novel. In my version of story, when Leo runs away, Kira ultimately realizes that Andrei is really what she thought Leo ever was and they decide to live happily ever after.

It’s just a pity that Kira failed to see Leo and Andrei both for what they were rather than living in her own fantastical world. But well, that’s how delusional people become in some cases. More on that delusion later someday.

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

पथ की पहचान -हरिवंश राय बच्चन

पूर्व चलने के बटोही
बाट की पहचान कर ले।

पुस्तकों में है नहीं
छापी गई इसकी कहानी
हाल इसका ज्ञात होता
है न औरों की जबानी

अनगिनत राही गए
इस राह से उनका पता क्या
पर गए कुछ लोग इस पर
छोड़ पैरों की निशानी

यह निशानी मूक होकर
भी बहुत कुछ बोलती है
खोल इसका अर्थ पंथी
पंथ का अनुमान कर ले।

पूर्व चलने के बटोही बाट की पहचान कर ले।

यह बुरा है या कि अच्छा
व्यर्थ दिन इस पर बिताना
अब असंभव छोड़ यह पथ
दूसरे पर पग बढ़ाना

तू इसे अच्छा समझ
यात्रा सरल इससे बनेगी
सोच मत केवल तुझे ही
यह पड़ा मन में बिठाना

हर सफल पंथी यही
विश्वास ले इस पर बढ़ा है
तू इसी पर आज अपने
चित्त का अवधान कर ले।
पूर्व चलने के बटोही बाट की पहचान कर ले।

है अनिश्चित किस जगह पर
सरित गिरि गह्वर मिलेंगे
है अनिश्चित किस जगह पर
बाग वन सुंदर मिलेंगे

किस जगह यात्रा खतम हो
जाएगी यह भी अनिश्चित
है अनिश्चित कब सुमन कब
कंटकों के शर मिलेंगे

कौन सहसा छू जाएँगे
मिलेंगे कौन सहसा
आ पड़े कुछ भी रुकेगा
तू न ऐसी आन कर ले।

पूर्व चलने के बटोही
बाट की पहचान कर ले।

रास्ते का एक काँटा
पाँव का दिल चीर देता
रक्त की दो बूँद गिरती
एक दुनिया डूब जाती

आँख में हो स्वर्ग लेकिन
पाँव धरती पर टिके हों
कँटकों की इस अनोखी
सीख का अभिमान कर ले

पूर्व चलने के बटोही
बाट की पहचान कर ले.

Random !!

In life there comes a time when we realize that our lives are supposed to be meaningful, then again there comes times when we realize that its not worth living to just make our lives meaningful rather we are supposed to live to enjoy the life for what it is. Then there comes times when we realize that by just enjoying life we manage to make it utter meaningless. So you know its a vicious cycle. It's difficult to say what life has to be all about. For some it might be living for their family, making them happy. For some making the world a better place. For some it might be doing new discoveries. For some it might be self-actualization and making oneself perfect in everything.
Unfortunately no doubt what religious texts say, for most of us in the world life practically has no meaning. It would hardly matter if we never existed.
What path do we choose to make our lives worth living in this world? Can we actually choose such a way? Does something like that really exist? Is our lives better than insects?

Agneepath

वृक्ष हों भले खड़े
हों घने, हों बड़े
एक पत्र छाँह भी
मांग मत! मांग मत! मांग मत!
अग्निपथ! अग्निपथ! अग्निपथ!

तू न थकेगा कभी
तू न थमेगा कभी
तू न मुड़ेगा कभी
कर शपथ! कर शपथ! कर शपथ!
अग्निपथ! अग्निपथ! अग्निपथ!

यह महान दृश्य है
चल रहा मनुष्य है
अश्रु-स्वेद-रक्त से
लथ-पथ! लथ-पथ! लथ-पथ!
अग्निपथ! अग्निपथ! अग्निपथ!

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not 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.

01:50 AM Saturday, September 15 , 2012

26 !!

Each year 8th September does bring a change to my life. As each time this date passes I have to add +1 to the number I write down at IRCTC or any other place where age is required. So this time that number changes to 26. 
Well, lets just hope number 26 proves a bit luckier than 25 was.

Ek Tha Tiger Review

I have not been the best fan of Salman Khan. I did not like Wanted, Dabangg that much. After a while I realized that I even watched these movies only because a lot of friends suggested how awesome there were. I ended up watching these with high expectations and in result disappointing myself. Sure they are fun to  watch but only if you like that kind of fun. Otherwise many things might just appear stupid to you.

I went to wish my younger brother his birthday, which incidentally coincided with the release date of Ek Tha Tiger. And well, he was excited about this movie, so we ended up purchasing ticket for the movie. Before I entered the hall I had set my expectations from the movie. I had seen few of Salman Khan's movies and I was aware what I could expect.

I did not set too much expectations from the movie myself and entered the screen. As expected movie kept on progressing on predictable lines but hey these days this happens with me with almost all movies. May be I have got secret powers of predicting future ;-). At almost all points I was able to guess what is going to happen in next 10-15 minutes. So well, not many surprises in story line.

Now lets move to acting, Salman Khan has his style and well, this time I liked it, may be because I had prepared myself for that before watching the movie. Now about Katrina, she is easily one of the prettiest girls ever to have Bollywood films. It's always a treat to watch her. Then watching her jumping and kicking the guys was a very pleasant surprise to me. I think this has been one of the best action scenes ever to have been performed by an Indian actress. Although my little brother said that in all the scenes it is so evident that stunts are being done by stunt doubles, but due to my limited ability to notice things I could not notice that.

About music, well cant comment on that as I am not a major fan of modern era music and in this movie I ended up answering my phone calls during songs.

Overall when I came back home, I felt nice. I always feel nice when movies have happy ending and don't bore me. This one satisfied both my needs.

India of my dreams

Once former President of India Abdul Kalam asked some school children "What is India of their dream". One little girl raised her hand and said very simple words "India should be more developed". Kalam was very impressed with this answer. India should be more developed, but developed in all areas be it social, economic, cultural, science, technology, defense, infrastructure, intelligence, education. Holistic development of nation is dream for my nation.

In this context I am going to write here an essay written by a class V child, which impressed me a lot. In simplest language he visualized a great India. Here it goes

My father stays in a town in Germany. Every summer vacation I go there. It is a very neat and clean place and people there are wonderful.
The best thing about the people is that they keep their home as well as their surroundings neat.

My Dream India is also a very neat and clean place with not even a small piece of paper on roads and the people of my Dream India take the responsibility of cleaning their homes as well as their surroundings and thus keeping their country clean.

In my Dream India, I don't want to see small children with their small hands out begging for a small coin. Why can't everybody go to school and study like me?

In my Dream India everybody has enough food to eat, and there is no scarcity of food.

In my Dream India I don't want to see people dying on roads through bullets from guns of cruel terrorists. I want all of us to live in peace. 

I wish my dream comes true and my country India becomes a good place to live in.

In short and sweet essay the child has  visualized a great empowered nation

Well, I could write my own thoughts in a bit more detail but may be that will be for some other day. In the this context following words written over 100 years from the greatest poet of modern world are still applicable

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection:
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is lead forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action —
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

Dream in your eyes !!

 Last weekend got a chance to visit IIT Delhi campus with little brother. I was feeling nostaliga while walking around the campus. It reminded me of my first days in IIT Bombay.

I could see kids who just cracked the toughest exam in India, feeling on top of their world, having dreams in their eyes, having desire to conquer the world.

Surprisingly many kids when they just join IIT they don't realize that IIT is way more than a place where you can get a degree and get a tag written over your head. IITs offer tremendous opportunities to students to learn a lot of things and develop their personality. Many of the students, in fact I won't mind saying that most of the kids while in college lock themselves in a room with a box. I am sure that's not how you would want to spend your next 4 or 5 years while you are in college.

Tuesday, 10 July 2012, 17:35:00IST

Has food quality always been on decline?

We have seen so many husbands cribbing that the food their wives make is not as good as their moms used to cook. Now lets go one generation above, again the father of husband used to crib same thing about food cooked by the mother of the present generation husband. And so on and so forth, so just a thought how good food would have been say 10 generations before today's ;-)

Sunday, 1 Jul 2012, 05:00:00 IST

Why can some people never be happy?

I remember when I was in secondary school I used to get very nice marks in school. That was the time when losing even 1 mark was unacceptable to me. I used to always feel pressured to get first rank in class. That was the time I thought how lucky I would have been had I been just an average student getting may be 15 or 16 rank in class, then it would hardly matter if I lose a few more marks.
   As we say God listens to everybody's prayers, sometime sooner, sometime later. So my time came, I went to Kota. There came a reality check for me. I was studying with best minds of the country, that also in English medium which made things more difficult for me. Anyways I came from top of the class to bottom. That was the time I just wanted to again be an average student at least if not in the top. So I wanted the same thing "being an average student" though for a very different reason this time.

Then I went to college, again I was an average student in Computer Science. I did good in few things, I was good at few things but that was the time I learned to be satisfied with what I got. All I cared about was that I have to learn what I want to learn and I need to pass the courses and get the degree. Trust me I have been way happier with being satisfied with what I have got than keep on chasing excellence in everything.

Again, I see some people around me expecting everything perfect in life, working hard to achieve it, feeling bad when things don't work out exactly the way they wanted. I wish those people understand the importance of being satisfied and more importantly are able to implement it in their own lives.


 Sunday, 24 June 2012, 00:20:00 IST

Avengers Review

Its gonna be short a sweet. Here are few prerequisites for watching The Avengers

1. Watch Iron Man
2. Watch Captain America
3. Watch Hulk Movies
4. Watch Thor
You can probably change order of above movies though.

Now next step will be

Watch Avengers in 3D  :-)

You will feel awesome !!

Story of a Cycle Rickshaw puller

I have been staying in Delhi/NCR for some time now. This is a place where you can actually see cycle rickshaws which have long disappeared from Mumbai (did they ever really exist?).
Off course I have used them for my traveling a few times. Traveling in these rickshaws does make me remind a story told by an old teacher of mine. Gokul ji was explaining how can we judge a person's character.
As per story once a cycle rickshaw puller was asked, what kind of persons he has seen in the world? He mentioned said "Saab, I am not a person who can judge someone as such but I do remember few persons who have traveled in my rickshaw. The route on which I generally operate there is a big upwards slope. It does take quite an effort to climb that. I do remember once carrying a heavy man who was traveling, I was having difficulty in climbing the slope, I was exhausted and was sweating terribly, I offered to take rest for a minute but that person refused and asked me to carry on.
Then I remember another incidence in similar case in which a person let me stop for a while and offered me some water to drink.
The one incidence which does give me a nice feeling was one in which a person himself offered to get down and walk from rickshaw so that its easier for me to climb that slope, after a minute he offered if I needed a push on rickshaw even though I was just pulling an empty rickshaw."
Well, this simple story does tell us something about people. Definitely rickshaw puller by simple examples managed to give us an insight into people's behaviors.

Remembering this story, I do ensure to always be a kind of third person when I am traveling by a cycle rickshaw.

Again titleless post

Have you ever wondered a green dot can bring a smile to your face? Have you wondered a small sound can make your mind go haywire in hope or disappointment? Have you wondered how in life some things which probably should never matter to you impact your life in a radical way?

Off course we all have. More later !!

May be some day !!!

Titleless thoughts

I recently watched this movie "The Vow".  That has inspired me to write this post.

 Life's all about moments of impact and how they changes our lives forever. There are some moments you never forget, you wish to live them over and over and over. There are others which you cherish and want to remember then always. There can be others which you just want to forget as if they never happened.

Ayn Rand says contractions don't exist. If you see your are having a contradiction check your premises, you will find one of them is wrong. Is she right? She is smart enough to ask us to check our premises, if we try to prove existence of a contradiction she can always come back and say that we missed a certain premise. How many moments come up in our life when we face contradictory behavior from people. We end up hurting the very people we for the most, we end up doing exactly something which we don't want to do. We do something very nice which we wanted and still feel bad wondering why we did that. What drives our behavior in such moments? We are not programmed human beings. We can't choose what we want always. Sometimes I wish we could, life would have been so simpler then.

Moments of impact define who we are. It is those moments which judge our character. In life we make so many promises, how many of them we are able to fulfill? What if we can no longer hold ourselves to the vows we have made?

The vow shows a wonderful situation where a guy and girl promise to each other as below

Paige:  I vow to help you love life, to always hold you with tenderness and to have the patience that love demands, to speak when words are needed and to share the silence when they are not and to live within the warmth of your heart and always call it home.

Leo: I vow to fiercely love you in all your forms, now and forever. I promise to never forget that this is a once in a lifetime love.

Later then guy says
Leo: How do you look at the woman you love, and tell yourself that its time to walk away?

Girl who has no fault of her own says.
Pagie:  I hope that one day I can love you the way you love me.

I don't know why but this movie touched my heart. With these thoughts in my mind, I can say "May be some day"

How to disable Dell touchpad?

There is a utility that should produce an icon in the system tray to set the function of the touchpad, but if you don't see it there, you can find it here:

C:\Program Files\DellTPad\DellTPad.exe

This will allow you to disable either the pointing stick or the touchpad and their associated buttons. They function independently so you can have the pointing stick active and use the touchpad buttons if you desire.
If you don't find this utility, you may need to download it from the Dell support site.

3.5 !!!

It has been three and half years since I joined my current job. Things have changed a lot in last three and half years. When you join a firm right after your college, you are generally the youngest person in the team. People treat you generally nice, people try to help you learn things quickly, but yes you are treated like a kid at most of the occasions but I am sure most of us won't complain it. When you make mistakes generally people are considerate as you are the most junior person in the team.

This way 1-1.5 year just passes away,  then finally you get people in team who are younger than you and now they become the most junior members in the team. As far as you are concerned, well you still are considerably younger than other members in the team and people still keep that in mind yet you are expected to show maturity which you have gained over last 1 year.

Things keep on going this way, you keep on working on generally whatever you are asked by your boss. Off course you are not expected to make mistakes which you might have made sometime in recent past.

This way working you complete your second year in the firm, by this time you are pretty much on your own in most of the things, you become expert at what you do, you are expected to mentor/train new joiners in the team. In some cases new joiners might be assigned to work with you and you become responsible for managing their work along with yours. You are expected to show much more maturity in your work, behaviour. You have to start being involved in all stages of project, you need to interact with all stakeholders in the project.  You are expected to put firm's interests on top priority than your own, you are expected to think like an owner and show leadership skills. You are expected to take initiatives on your own.

This way you complete your 3-3.5 years with the firm that is pretty much same time as one spends in graduation and in many ways both 3.5 years resemble.
After 3.5-4 years of learning your ways in a firm a road lies ahead of you which might seem blurry, you might not know what lies ahead of you, you might not know what is going to be your next step which takes your forward, up to this point generally every step can be predetermined but now whatever you do can not be straight from textbooks (or at least that's what I feel as of now).
Anyway, lets see what lies ahead.