If

One good thing that I came across today was the poem by Rudyard Kipling.. "IF" .. Here is the one ... Have bolded and underlined a few lines that I felt was good ... maybe I would come back again to this entry ... whenever I want to feel good .

IF
By Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

Paul Graham

I was reading Paul Graham's site that talks about (almost ) everything to do with programming intelligent softwares or .. intelligent programming languages ..while I randomly came across when I was searching for some instructions on some pet project Iam into these days . If you didnt know ... All programming languages have an underlying philosophy behind them and the creators are more or less philosophers themselves.

Paul is one .. his essays are good read ... and hmm pretty well makes us accustomed to his philosohy . ... more all less its all about computers !( http://www.paulgraham.com/articles.html )

He also says why teenagers do almost anything : because of their boundless confidence in anything coming out of ignorance . !!

Larry Wall ( creator of perl ) is another one ! "Theory is good, in moderation ... and Moderation is good, in theory" ;-)

Angels and Demons

I simply cant conceive the fact that angels are good looking and devil is not good looking !!! Why should it be like that everywhere .. in all religions ??

Usually we* like to imagine that demons are ugly,dark and scary and angels are beautiful young and good looking with glowing skin and youthful clarity !

Imagine this ...

Angels - old rusty folks with beard, are over-weight, can hardly move around, donot have any teeth and hardly any good at anything other than giving advices. ( And yeah they have a bad breath too .. ) Hmm the wings and halo doesnt serve any purpose .

I generally had an idea of devil to be a male !! Devil should really have been a female !!! ...that too extremely beautiful and tempting too ! Too good to resist, too smart to outwit, too prominent to ignore.. charming young and sexy !! That justifies why people are easily lured to evil . ( and then again .. why should evil be always bad ?? )

Why should it be that God is male too ?? He is always referred to as He not She !! This way I see justification of God getting jealous and being irrational ..

Past Perfect , Future Tense !

Spent most of the time in useless thoughts about my future ... only to realise that "worrying about it is as effective as trying to solve an algebra problem by chewing bubble gum."

Accompanied my parents ( rather uncomfortably ) to go to one of our relative's place ( branched from the family tree 3 generations ago ) who stay pretty away in the country-side leading very normal lives. The place was so silent and still ... the only moving thing was the pendulum of the old grandfather clock prominently hanging on the otherwise dull looking wall. Everything was silent ... the tick-tock of the clock was thankfully breaking the monotony. I slept there for a good 3 hours.

Once I was back, I settled down with a book. Rushdie was luring me again.

"One may read and like or admire or respect a book and yet remain entirely unchanged by its contents, but love gets under one's guard and shakes things up, for such is its sneaky nature.

When a reader falls in love with a book it leaves its essence inside him, like radioactive fallout in an arable field, and after that there are certain crops that will no longer grow in him, while other, stranger, more fantastic growths may occasionally be produced. We love relatively few books in our lives and those books become parts of the way we see our lives, we read our lives through them, and their descriptions of the inner and outer worlds become mixed up with ours, they become ours. "

-Salman Rushdie

In the name of the son ...

My parents were here at my place, staying with me for a couple of weeks ! And they were "taking care" of me ! Making food, arranging my clothes and things ..doing chores ... etc etc .. I told them ... probably these would be the last few days I would get to spend with them before my marriage ! ( I dont plan to get married any soon now anyways ! )

My father has this rather unusual habit of writing MY name on everything thats mine ... He writes my name on my books ( atleast in 3 places ), on my scissors , my pen , my clothes , my pillow , my bed sheet , my keyholder , my iron box , my TT racket .. phew ... you name it ... I have my name on it ! And Iam pretty annoyed of that !!! Sometimes I think its rather his fear of me loosing things, or maybe .. his fear of forgetting what his son's name is ! ( the name bears a constant reminder of who's who ! hah ! ) . And I told him to get over his unusual hobby ! but it was a little too late ... There are only a few things of mine that has escaped the torture of having to have my name inscribed on them !