Reading Weekly 2.0

I told you about the MATRIX reading club in my post Reading Weekly. I had mentioned that Art of War, Zahir and Bourne Series would be discussed next week. Sarthak has done a nice writeup of that meeting. You can check it out at his blog, The Difference.

Solid Words

People are unreasonable, illogical and self-centred.
Love them anyway.
If you do good, people may accuse you of selfish motives.
Do good anyway.
If you are successful, you may win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
Honesty and transparency make you vulnerable.
Be honest and transparent anyway.
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.
People who really want help may attack you if you help them.
Help them anyway.
Give the world the best you have and you may get hurt.
Give the world your best anyway.

Taken from "Meditations from a Simple Path" by Mother Teresa

Reading Weekly

A new activity got added to this semester besides 8 courses, GRE classes and Wall Street Club – MATRIX Reading Club. The club is an attempt to bring together people who are passionate about reading. It seeks to broaden horizons and light sparks of interest. A meeting could be loosely structured around a few books, the talk could veer around to an interesting article in the newspaper or to the world of books and authors galore. I got the idea last sem but was too busy to implement. So, this sem delving into it.

Yesterday's meeting went as follows:

In the last meeting, we had decided to discuss Bourne series by Robert Ludlum, The White Tiger by Arvind Adiga and India After Gandhi by Ramachandra Guha. We started with a talk between Ankit and Neha about the historian. When Ankit mentioned Jayprakash Narayan, Syam took over with an analysis of Indira Gandhi and her rule. That was followed by feudalism and communism in Kerala. I came to know Kerala has 140 Vidhan Sabha and 19 Lok Sabha seats. Somewhere in between there was Ayn Rand and not believing in her philosophy thrown in. Syam was talking about objectivism, the philosophy that she propagated. I've never read her and took it as objectivism i.e. sticking to truth. Talked about how every author, unless they are a historian writing in black and white, is unobjective. The authors views do seep in. Gave an example of Gone With The Wind, where Margaret Mitchell paints blacks as an integral part of the family in South America. That led to the etymology of the word lynching, traced to Willie Lynch's methods by Achal. There was another digression on objectivism as Achal tried to reason that unless reader believes in the work, it can't be objectified. These three meanings make me appreciate why people mug up word lists for GRE :D

Science fiction also found a way in with Neha talking about The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin and The Foundation by Issac Asimov. While I was getting cold coffees, there was a discussion on Ghost In The Shell series. Benefit of organising meetings in night canteen, we get to talk over coffee and bournvita. We didn't much get to Arvind Adiga except that the book begins with a village in Gaya.

To participate in a stimulating discussion like this wasn't just nice, it was fun. Next week, we have on the table, Zahir by Paulo Coelho, Art of War by Sun Tzu and Bourne series again. A classic e.g. Wuthering Heights is also in queue.

Sunrise

Image by Thai Jasmine via Flickr

I was lucky to be up at dawn today. My window gives me an amazing view of the central lawns, hostel buildings, the river Zuari and the bank beyond. I noticed a diffusion of orange in the sky when I woke up signaling sunrise. My window does not face the east, so I went to the other side of the building and stood hanging out of a window to watch the colours in the sky. The window is before a terrace, the door to which is sadly, always kept locked. The hues of the horizon change every second. First there were streaks of bright orange in the middle of the sky. Near to the land, the orange diffused to a misty grey. And above, hung the clouds in shades of white and grey. As the sun rises somewhere beyond my vision, the orange lightens. At one moment, there is a glow to the whole sky like a golden light has overtaken the orange and the grey. The orange gently lightens to herald the appearance of the sun. The sun is hidden beyond the hills but the light has spread.

This is Christmas morning and I want to sing Joy to the world, the Lord has come.

Merry Christmas to all of you!!

सू करू छे

पिछला आधा हफ्ता ट्रेन में ही गुजरा । पहले वास्को से जबलपुर, फिर जबलपुर से सोमनाथ और वापिस – ९६ घंटे का सफर । गुजरात मैं पहली बार गई थी, खमण- ढोकले तो नज़र नही आए पर अमूल की दुकान हर स्टेशन पर थी । गुजराती नमकीन लज़ीज़ होते हैं पर ट्रेन में तो दाने-पानी को तरस गए । वो तो घरवालों के साथ थी तो खाने का एक थैला साथ था, वरना, गए थे । हाँ राजकोट और जैतलसर अच्छे शहर थे । राजकोट में अमूल श्रीखण्ड खाया तो अणुशक्तिनगर का श्रीखण्ड याद आ गया । { अणुशक्तिनगर -> देखें I love Mumbai } । ऐसे ही जैतलसर के भजिये याद रहेंगे ।

पेट पूजा से आगे चलते हैं उसके एक स्त्रोत पर। सोमनाथ में गाय-बैल थोक में हैं । गुजरात में 'दूधो नहाओ' ज़रूर होता होगा अगर अमूल और वाडीलाल सब बेच न डालते हों । एक ही शहर में हर तरह का पशु पालन दिख गया - गाय-बैल, बकरियाँ, भेड़ें, मुर्गे और गधे ।

सोमनाथ मन्दिर परिसर में बहुत सारे कबूतर रहते हैं । दाना चुगाते लोग और दौड़-दौड़कर कबूतर उड़ाते बच्चे दोंनों ही सुंदर छवि बनाते हैं । मंदिरवाले शायद साम्यवादी हैं इसलिए कुत्ते और शूकर भी मौजूद होते हैं ।

अगर आप कभी सोमनाथ जाएँ तो गुमने का कोई डर नहीं है । जिस जगह से समुद्र-मछलियों की तेज़ बदबू शुरू हो जाए, बस समझियेगा पहुँच गए। सोमनाथ से लेकर दीव तक एक भी मछली बाज़ार नहीं दिखा पर गंध 'आपके साथ सदा के लिए' । गोवा में तो यह धूप कभी नहीं महकी । पर गोवा जैसी ठंडी-तेज़ मस्त हवाएं भी हैं सोमनाथ में । स्टेशन पर ट्रेन की पटरियाँ खत्म कर दी गई हैं की कहीं ट्रेन समुद्र में न कूद जाए ।

सोमनाथ से दीव के रास्ते में एक नए तरह का रिक्शा देखने को मिला । आगे से मोटरसाईकिल, पीछे से ट्रॉली। फोटो में देख सकते हैं आप। बैठने का आनंद उठाने का मन था, पर सफर सिर्फ़ इन्डिका में कटा।

यहाँ पर स्टेशन से मन्दिर पहुँचने में ही इतनी गलियाँ हैं की होश फाख्ता हो जाएँ। बनारस घूमी हूँ, उसे मात देती हैं ये गलियाँ। पर इतनी गन्दगी होगी ये सोचा न था। सोमनाथ एक तीर्थस्थल है, पर ये मेरा देखा हुआ सबसे गन्दा क़स्बा है।

ये थे मेरे गुजरात भ्रमण के कुछ अनुभव। गुजराती लिपि देवनागरी से मिलती-जुलती है। कुछ अक्षर अलग हैं जैसे क -> ક । गुजराती में उसे डाँट कर सीधा खड़ा कर दिया गया है। बेचारा मुँह बाए खड़ा रहता है।
दीव और गोवा नाम पढ़कर एक सवाल उठा मन में । हिन्दी में गोआ गोवा और दियू दीव क्यों हो जाता है? अगर दिमाग की बत्ती जले तो अवश्य बताएं ।

हिन्दी में

थोडे दिनों पहले विकल्प का लेख पढ़ा पिलानी के हिन्दी प्रेस क्लब के ब्लॉग पर| बहुत दिनों बाद हिन्दी में कुछ पढ़ा| उसके बाद प्रतीक माहेश्वरी का ब्लॉग पढ़ा| बहुत अच्छा लिखते हैं| तब से हिन्दी में लिखने का मन कर रहा था, इसलिए अगली रचना हिन्दी में| अब से इस चिट्ठे में थोड़ी हिन्दी, थोड़ी अंग्रेज़ी|

!!!Two hours

In those two hours, the world went topsy-turvy. I received three CDC papers in two hours, one was good (surprisingly) and the other two left a lot to be done in T2 and compre. But these are not the two hours I am talking about. They are the ones that followed. I decided I was in no mood for snacks, instead went to the library and settled down with a book, only the fourth person inside. No network inside lib, switched off my phone. The clock showed six and I was completely immersed in All Things Bright and Beautiful by James Herriot. Another hour went by among sheep, horses and calves. {James Herriot is a vet and writes about his country practice.} By now, I was ravenously hungry. I proceeded to the Institute Cafeteria for samosa chaat (staple food at IC). Saw some crowd outside audi, couldn’t figure out why. Maybe there was something related to the visiting MIT delegates, but without prior intimation… Wondering, I reached IC where the guy asked me that what was happening in audi. I replied with a negative probably for the first time. Anyway, returned at a leisurely pace to hostel where the world exploded. And I came to know a lot had changed…

An Answer

An in-depth reply by a friend to my post Does Self-Improvement Improve? :

In my opinion, personal/relational influence is what matters. Books, movies,sports,music etc happen to be the channels through which the authors/actors/directors/singers(different persons) convey what they want to.What exactly matters, changes individually. At the same time whatever the person is trying to convey, has to be caught immediately by the person being conveyed. I call this ability to catch, "an innate spark".

I love Mumbai

Arrival on 25th May, Departure on 18th July. A lot has happened in between.
An application I made is up and running on supercomputer Anupam Ajeya.
I found some great friends here, as you have read and some about whom you haven't.
I've travelled in Mumbai in all modes of public transport. Sometimes alone also.
And I am in love with the city.

Reasons:

एक फुग्गा....दो दीवाने

दीवानों के नाम - Alan and Alibe. The story begins with Opal's balloon which brought the two together. On Sunday evening, we were coming back in a bus from Carter Road to Sion. It's the most moving-shaking bus ride I've ever had. Every time the driver hit the brakes, every person used to jump a metre ahead. And on Mumbai roads, brakes are a recurrent feature.

When the first time this happened, we were caught unaware. I was holding only with one hand which slipped on the rod, and got cut slightly. Opal was holding with both her hands and still did a mighty swing. Her precious balloon from Mad Over Doughnuts meanwhile, was being doctored by Alan and Alibe. The tiny hole in it needed immediate medical attention. So out came remedies from Alan's bag : first try -packs of Jaljira, second - sugar packets from Mocha, third - comb, finally a fevi quick. In this busy scene, the driver interrupted with brakes. Alan fell forward holding a rod with one hand. Then, in slow motion.. Alibe fell on his other arm, the balloon still clutched safely in his hands. Two guys and a balloon... The situation merited violins playing.. Alan says some did sound in his head :P