Monday, August 25, 2008

3 mistakes of my life

Just put down Chetan Bhagat's "3 mistakes of my life".I am not going to blog about what the books is all about and how it is coz I know there are already thousands of guys who have beat me on that earlier.
Though I would just say that it is a simple read, and nicely put issues faced by an average Indian youth, revovling around 3 Gujjus and their passions - Business,Cricket and Religion which incidentally are the passions of most Indians. And the power of Orkut!!

A famous quote from Churchill says “All men make mistakes, but only wise men learn from their mistakes.”. One learns from mistake only when one realizes it was a mistake and registers it, so that next time you can go back to the day you made the mistake and know how bad it felt and you can work your way out of it this time.

Well, with me thats the problem. I don't remember most of them, and owing to that I am sure I have couple of (read hundreds of) repeats too!! (Lord when will I learn). My inner voice is already screaming out asking me not get started with the list of my mistakes, well alright I wont. Instead, I jot down the mistakes that I have been regretting lately.

Long long back in time when Bangalore was not yet an IT capital, I used to ride my sister's bike. One supposedly small break from driving led to not touching the bike for years. Now, I am so scared out of my wits to get onto the road with the vehicle that I fear I might never drive a car all my life. My first recent regret - Giving up driving.

Everytime I see the leftover wooden stump of the tree, it pricks and I find myself mumbling "I am so sorry". I was just another coward who could not stand up to fight for the environment when I go around preaching about it. It was a tough for me to face my rude bulldog material typed neighbour who was solely responsible for chopping down the tree just because there were too many fallen leaves to clean( Its spring for God;s sake what do you expect.!!!) Well, my second recent regret - I let the tree down, I am so sorry.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

This Morning WFH..

This morning I woke up with a lousy feeling, don't even know what was wrong today. It was supposed to be a good day, I wasn't even getting up early to take the cab to office(Working From Home), and moreover there is a long weekend coming up and I am traveling to meet up my extended family for 3 days. What better reason to be glad about, but I wasn't glad instead had this uneasiness crept into me and I cant figure out what was bothering me.

Then it struck me, it was my sister. She had come down to stay with us for the week and she was going back to her in-laws today after work and not coming here to us. Its not actually that I get along with her perfectly well, we have our quarrels more than often, in fact that is how we communicate, we scream each other calling names, trying to hurt each others ego. As a matter of fact I had a quick fight with her at 6AM over my repeated snoozing of the alarm. But then, the wounded ego recovers quick enough for us to get back to normal. It was nice to have her home, it did feel like a full house. She is just about 15km from my place, its not like I cant give her a call anytime or meet her up anytime of the week but its just that the house looks a little empty and I am sitting alone here "WFH" and missing her already.
Damn you "Work From Home" option.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Much Ado...

How often have you seen a movie which starts off with the male lead and the female lead not being able to stand each other, squabbling over little things, each making the other's skin crawl, the witty duel of words they have once in a while trying to outdo one another and then it so happens that after you get back from the interval, they seem to be in love. (Way too often I am sure)

This pattern of a romantic comic love story should have seen its birth by some great creative writer, and my guess is William Shakespeare. The other day I was reading Shakespeare's play "Much Ado About Nothing",and I found that Beatrice(Female lead) and Benedick (Male lead) fit in perfectly as desc above, they can't seem to stop themselves from getting onto the other's nerve.

There are a some really funny yet intelligent exchanges and I quote a few:

Benedick : "What, my dear Lady Disdain! Are you yet living?"
Beatrice : "Is it possible Disdain should die while she hath such meet food to feed it as Signor Benedick? Courtesy itself must convert to Disdain if you come in her presence."

This is when Beatrice confesses that she will never marry,
Benedick: "God keep your ladyship still in that mind, so some gentleman or other shall scape a predestinate scratched face."
Beatrice: "Scratching could not make it worse, and 'twere such a face as yours were."
Benedick:"Well, you are a rare parrot-teacher".(monotonous speaker of nonsense)
Beatrice:"A bird of my tongue is better than a beast of yours."

Beatrice replies to Hero when she suggests that Bendick is a better match for Beatrice.
Beatrice : "He that hath a beard is more than a youth and he that hath no beard is less than a man;and he that is more than a youth is not for me; and he that is less than a man I am not for him. Therefore I will even take sixpence in earnest of the bear-ward and lead his apes into hell"
(As a matter of fact, post few sceens(Act 3 Sceen 2 to be exact) Benedick actually gets his beard shaved off to woo his lady love Beatrice!!)

When Beatrice is forced by her uncle to bid Benedick goodnight.
Benedick: "I thank you for the pains."
Beatrice: "I took no more pains for those thanks than you take pains to thank me, If it had been painful, I would not have come."

The comic continues and somewhere in Act 2 the Cupid in guise of their common friends strikes and brings them together. Well, "All is well that ends well"- wasn't this the famous quote from the man himself. But it is the war of words between B and B that one will enjoy through the play.

PS: Yet another rumbling of Beatrice I loved was,when Hero has been proposed, Beatrice burning inside herself charges with the rage against the whole concept of love and marriage.

"wooing, wedding, and repenting, is as a Scotch jig,a measure(discernible time sequence), and a cinque pace(lively dance): the first suit is hot and hasty, like a Scotch jig, and full as fantastical; the wedding, mannerly-modest, as a measure, full of state and ancientry; and then comes repentance and, with his bad legs, falls into the cinque pace faster and faster, till he sink into his grave."
So true:))

PPS: Much Ado About Nothing

Sunday, August 10, 2008

In Progress

This note has been highly inspired by Unfinished Posts .

Going through Shradz blog I sat down for my "Unfinished List of Business" and I was in for a surprise. A couple of blogs waiting for the final touch so that they can be put up formally where they belong,few miss the premise while few miss the conclusion. A couple of halfbaked ideas jumbled in my mind, wanting to be materialized into something more tangible. A bunch of halfread books - both the tech books and novels. I believe its a pardonable act when you ditch a tech book half way coz it gave you a headache but how can I justify abandoning Jeffery Archers "A Prisoner of Birth" half way.Grr..I have all of them dogeared , well the reason being clear - ran out of bookmarkers!!!.

Come to think of it,one needs keep the spark burning exactly the same way when one starts off with anything that matters. Easier said than done, but I am going to reignite the spark in me and have all these undone done.