Arbit post

Hmmm, A long time since i wrote anything (that is apart from my exam). Actually i haven't written anything since i left my job (that should give you some idea on what i was doing at work :) ).

As I told in the last post, i am now in Kolkata, the erstwhile British capital of India. Initially it took time to get adjusted to the rigors of an MBA course. Especially to a lazy ass like me, who has literally slept through 3 yrs of his life in the name of work, it is like hell. But once you do get adjusted, it just becomes the routine.

OK, now lemme try to recap the last 8 weeks of my life. Joining formalities were pretty simple, almost next to nothing. Just fill in a form and there u r into the pre alloted hostel room. You get registered to the course a few verifications and you are all ready to go. Actually as i said, the few days, it is like all systems on the limit.

Parties...yes we do have parties (with unlimited booze, which goes on till the day break). Already attended 4 parties in the past 8 weeks, so on an average 2 parties every month.

Then there are tutorials, conducted by the seniors. Actually these are our saviors in the exams.They cover all the important stuffs in a way that goes into a dumbo brain like mine too.

Amidst all the partying, studies, tutorials comes the mid-term exam. Well 5 weeks into it and there it is...even before u can blink mid-terms come up. Thanks to the batchmates who take up crashers, a 2-3 hr synopsis of the entire course. Actually there are ppl who just attended these crashers and have got A-Pos in the paper.

Regarding the weather....least said the better. After coming from a city like Bangalore, known for its weather, this is a virtual hell for me. The weather is soooooo humid that u take the bath and come out and with 1 minute, u'll be sweating.

And then u do have ur best friends visiting you (especially those in the ground floor like me). Well, the best friends i am talking about are frogs, all sorts of reptiles (and may be sometimes the snakes too). Snails are pretty common over here (what with the 7 lakes in the campus). It is a sad sight to see soo many snails crashed by the cabs and the bikes.

Coming to the campus. It is beautiful campus, with 7 lakes in the campus. Our hostel is blessed with the view of a lake as soon as we come out of it. This lake a jetty too. So it is pretty common to find ppl chatting with others on this jetty.

With Kolkata being on the eastern side of India, it becomes very bright at around 5:30 or 6. I remember the first day when i got up and saw out of my window, it was so bright that i thought it must be 10 or 11 in the morning. Only after checking the watch a couple of times and crosschecking with the time on my mobile, i confirmed that the time is actually just 6 in the morning. Well it is another thing that this has made me miss a couple of classes, when i overslept thinking it is just 6 only to wake up after half an hour and see the time is actually 11.


Coming back to the early sunrise, i think it is apt to mention the existense of a mini Howrah Bridge in our campus. It is just a bridge across one of the lakes. The view of the sunrise from this bridge is just too good and some people (not me...i go to sleep then) do go over there at 5 am to watch the sunrise. As can be seen from the pic below, the view is just ...awesome....






The rains here are even more wierd. One minute there is no sign of the rain and for the next half an hour, it rains cats and dogs. Once it rained the entire night and then the situation was something like this.




Well, the seniors do tell that it might get worse if it rains continuously for a day, as it does every year. So am waiting for that, it will be fun...though drying the shoes is a major problem. Oh well, not to forget, there were a few dead fishes on the road after the water dried out :D

I think i can go on and on writing about this, but right now i have to stop and start on preparing for a case presentation which we have to do on monday. So long, till the next post...which hopefully is pretty soon.

Off to Joka

OK. No posts for a long time. So thought that i will go ahead and post the update from my side.

on 24th of May, my manager announced to my team that i will be going to IIM Lucknow. After all the congratulations and adulations, i came back to my seat and logged in to check for any new mails and what do i see???!!!!

I get to see a mail from pgpadmissions and thanks to the way gmail displays the to address all i can see is that much. Now all the iims have the same email id (pgpadmission@....). So i thought this to be a communication from IIM Lucknow . I didn't bother to read the from address and was mystified when the body told that i am offered admission and was supposed to send a DD of 50k before 4th of June. !!!!

It was then that i see the from address and what do i see..... the letter is from iim Calcutta !!!!!!
The sanctum sanctorum of finance!!! offering me admission.

Well my manager had told once that there are 4 stages of reaction to any startling news.
Shock, Denial, Frustration and Acceptance. Well for good news i am sure the third level will not be present. This was my condition on that day

For the first five minutes, i was dumbstruck. I didn't know how to react. I just stared blankly at the screen. Read and re-read the mail a couple of times. The second stage set in...denial. I thought it must be some prank now. Well, this institute is known for not giving out a wait list and usually give out exact number of calls, and it is now giving admission to me, almost a month after the first list was announced !!!!!

I sent back a mail asking for the attachment which was non-existent, and only after seeing that did i realise, that yes.... i am offered the seat !!!!

Well the ecstasy was overwhelming!!! (I dunno if that sentence makes any sense.... but i was in such a state). I rushed home, almost banging into a couple of vehicles on the way. I told my father and my brother, but was shocked at their response. Then i realised, that they didn't know the enormity of the news. So i waited till my mom came back and told her. It was when she told the enormity of the situation, that the other 2 got it.

Well there it is... the best 2 hrs of my life in a 50 line post.... :). So here i am ... off to Joka.

Oh yeah, for those who don't know, Joka is kinda suburb in Kolkata where IIMC is situated

Speed ( huh???) Post experience

Well for starters, Dictionary.com defines speed as

Speed : –noun

1.	rapidity in moving, going, traveling, proceeding, or performing; swiftness; celerity:

So applying this meaning, i thought speed post == a post which reaches earlier than all other posts. Moreover, it is supposedly a priority delivery service, according to Indian postal service at least.

No wonder, i decided to send my acceptance letter + the DD to the B-School using speed post as i had just one week time. So on 7th of May 2007, i went to my local post office and after confirmation from the concerned person, that the mail will reach Lucknow in 2 days, i sent it through the speed post.

After 5 days (on 11th of May 2007)

I see a post in the famous forum for B-school aspirants that some person who had sent his acceptance letter through speed post had found out that his letter hasn't reached Lucknow yet. I felt a bit concerned about my letter and decided to call up the office and inquire the status. well, yes i was right. My letter hadn't reached the institute yet. Well I had time till 14th of May for the letter to reach, failing which my candidature will be annulled. I sent a mail and a fax to the concerned person, telling him that i have accepted the offer and the letter is lost in the post. But i was informed that if the letter along with the DD doesn't reach the institute by 5:00 PM on 14th of May, they can't do anything.

The goddamn website of India post does have a tracking mechanism, but it just showed that my letter has been bagged from Bangalore. After a few more hours of frantic calling, I finally had to fly to Lucknow and deposit a fresh DD and come back. And even now, the DD hasn't reached yet.

Well, what i wanted to tell was.... if this is the case of the priority based service, then what abt the other one which are not prioritized. And this was not a one off case. Nearly 50 odd students suffered the tension and distress. This is the worst possible service provided by them.

I am actually planning to ask those ppl for compensation. Because of them, I had to shell out another 30k for DD and 50K for flying.

But I HATE SPEED POST

Update: Well it has been more than 3 weeks since the draft was sent in speed post and it hasn't reached the recipient yet. God knows where on the holy earth is that letter of mine. There is no action taken on the complaint filed with the post office in this regard. Looks like consumer court is the only option

The land of Nawabs beckons me

Hey ppl, long time no see ( as if i could actually see the ppl who are reading this, if anybody does that is). Was sorta busy, tensed, uncertain of future all these days. Thus was in no position to post.

Now all that is sorted out, here i am back to bug ya all. And in the outset lemme give out the good news. Yes, shehar-e-Nawab (???), the land of Nawabs is beckoning me and i am going out there. Well, it is a sort of long term shift in the sense that i will need to be there for 2 yrs at the least.

Yes, I am joining a B-School there. Yes, I am going to get one of the most coveted tags associated with my name. But YES, and a more happy one at that, i will no longer be forced for a marriage.

With lots of stuffs to do before i bid farewell to my favorite city, I am sure to be busier by the day. But i would try and make it a point to post something more frequently.

So for now, bye

A fanatic called The Indian Cricket Fan

Well... Another world cup, another series and the Indian team is on its way back, right after the group stage after posting a world cup record score of 413 against the a set of over weight players aka Bermuda and losing to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. The way they played against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka emphasised the fact that we are not worthy enough team to be in the Super Eights.

If u look at the team which have qualified to the Super Eights they are there based on the way they played their cricket. And yes that does include Ireland and Bangladesh.

Ireland played really superb cricket against Zimbabwe to tie that match and well what can u say abt their match against Pakistan. Their fielding was actually equivalent of a top notch team that day and if India had fielded that way, then we would have been on the way to the Super Eights. Not everyday will you find a match where there are 10 catches in a match and some of those catches were breath-taking (esp. the one that Johnston took to remove Kamran Akmal)

Now coming back to the Indian team and their fans. We have to look into the fanaticism of the Indian fan's. We Indians are known to react in extremes always. When everything goes right, we place these cricketers at the top of the world and worship them as if they are the incarnation of God. Lose one match and we start baying for the blood of these very own Gods of ours. Now I am not justifying the way we lost the matches. It was the most pathetic performance I had seen in the recent times. In the same vein, I am not justifying the knee jerk reactions by the fans.

I can't understand what we gain by having a funeral procession of the cricketers or stoning their houses and burning the effigies or hitting the cricketers posters with slippers and burning them.
Well guys they are there cause u placed them there. You are the one who adulated them and raised them to the status of a demi-god. Now if they have lost the professionalism, shouldn't you also own a bit of the responsibility?? Isn't your reaction a lot like that of the US of America. Create a demon and fight against it. Why do you need to create a demon in the first case?

And the fans are not just the ones who are giving knee-jerk reactions. It includes the people from the richest cricket board in the world too. The honourable (???) president of the board gave a statement telling that there will be wholesale changes and old people in the team has to go and make way for new blood. There is nothing wrong in the statement...yes that is what all of us wanna see. But shouldn't these be the decisions taken after some thought.

More over, if u need to blood an youngster, are there any one with the required quality?? In Australia the cricketing process is so robust, that anyone from the county side (or whatever it is called there) can go ahead and play confidently for the national side. But over here, we see that a player excelling in the domestic circuit, fail miserably in the national side. So who do you want to see in the national side?? Lets see some options

Raina?? - Yes he is an exceptional fielder, but fielding is just one aspect. He has failed with his bat in all the opportunities given to him

Kaif?? - Come on ...he is struggling to make runs even in the domestic circuit

Gambhir?? - Yes a pretty good opener, but sort of slightly inconsistent. He can either score a hundred or go out for a single digit score. It leaves the top order as wobbly as it is.

Jaffer??? - Man, this guy is a tiger in the domestic circuit, hitting 180-190 in the domestic circuit, but in the international scenario (at least in ODIs) he turns out to be a lamb ready for sacrifice.

From these examples, i just wanna drive home the fact that it is the entire system which is rotting up.Well how much ever i hate those aussie blokes for their attitudes, i need to take up their example for a well run system. If Hayden retires today, there is a Phil Jacques ready to get into his shoes. There is Haddin waiting for Gilchrist to vacate the gloves for him. No two words about their fast bowling options. And these are not pretty ordinary guys waiting in the wing. They are pretty capable guys who are ready to fill in the gap. Need another example?? Take Hodge. He showed he is capable batsman by posting a score of 100+. Next match Symonds comes in and Hodge is dropped.

Do we have players like that? If not, isn't it the responsibility of the board to develop players like that? For sure there is no dearth of talents in our country, but all it needs is the nurturing part.

Another aspect which needs look into is the fielding. Yes, it is the coach's job. But are the players ready to the rigors of tough training. Well, for his part, Chappell did try to improve the physical fitness of the team, but that was when the trouble started and there were many ex-cricketers aka cricket pundits (sic) who said that the Indian players are not built for rigorous training and it should be stopped. If so, my question is , why isn't fitness a part of the youth and the domestic set up?? We have heard of a certain Munaf Patel for the past 5 years and he was groomed as the fast bowler. Yes, finally he had to sacrifice his pace for the accuracy and he did bowl pretty well in the world cup. But it is a known fact, that his fitness level is pretty much bad. What was the board/regional board doing in these 5 years??

The next point is providing proper pitches for the domestic matches and I think the board is working on it. How many times have we seen our team performing really well at home but struggling away from home on a pacey and bouncy wicket. Why can't we groom our batsmen from the lower leagues to bat on a pacey and bouncy wicket. If not anything, it will teach them how to leave good deliveries.Yes, our country is traditionally known for spinners, but keep in mind, pitches in not all countries support spinners and to be world beaters u need to know how to bowl/bat in those type of pitches.

Finally, what abt the selection process??There are atleast a couple of players who are selected on the past records rather than their present performance. And if u do drop some one from the team for not performing well, then u do have the fans burning the effigies of the captain, coach and selection board. You will have the ex-cricketers questioning, how a man who has scored more than 10,000 runs is left from the team? Yes, he has scored 10000 runs, but how much of it did he score in the past year?? 100-200?? Well, at least we now know that if the batsman is a capable one, he can come back into the team by playing well. Shouldn't that be the criteria for selection instead of past records, regional favours etc?? And again as a fan of Indian cricket, are we doing any good to the Indian cricket, by burning effigies, if someone you supported was not selected into the team coz of his poor performance??

Well, these are some of the thoughts in my mind to improve the brand of cricket in India. Though it might have some short term ramifications, I believe the long term advantages will over shadow these short term disadvantages

PS: Just came to know of the news that Sachin is being considered for captaincy. Guys, this is a step in the backward direction. I don't believe that Dravid performed bad as a captain. His personal record as a Captain is also good. And there is no one else in the present team who can make a good captain. Just make sure that he takes his decision without getting too personal to the player. Instead of this,why do you want to make someone who is struggling to make runs without the burden of captaincy as a captain? Will it help the team in anyways. In my humble personal opinion, they need to retain Dravid as Captain and groom someone young, like Yuvraj, for captaincy by making him the vice-captain. Dravid, will anyway retire in another 2 or 3 yrs, but by that time, Yuvraj will be ready for captaincy, which he is not now. You need an example for this??? Mahela Jayawardene. He was groomed as the future captain under Jayasuriya and Attapattu and now you can see the output

Doomsday comes near

I saw a question in some magazines which i have started reading regularly now. Are development and Ecological responsibility mutually exclusive?

My answer No.

Reason : With development comes the extra responsibility of looking after the environmental and the ecological health of the world. But what we are seeing now is completely the opposite. The most developed nation are the one who are destroying the ecological balance of the world we live in. How do they do it?? Well, they need to burn more fuels and spew out more wastes to maintain their economy and it is these wastes which are responsible for the ecological imbalance.

One example to support this would be the US of A. Now, there were hurricanes in USA and there were tornadoes in USA earlier too. But the amount of destruction caused by the hurricanes in the recent past are far more than the collective destructions till now. An entire island in US is now completely submerged under water. There has been a wide spread debate on the ecological imbalance in the area which affects the environment. The scientists and environmentalists in US are already warning about the disastrous effects the environment will have on US if they don't control the pollution right now. They are also experiencing the global warming phenomenon more than anyone else and there have been warnings that due to the melting of the icecaps in the Arctic region much more land area will be submerged under water. Well, what America did in response is something hilarious. Instead of curbing on the emissions, they are thinking of ways to prevent the suns rays from reaching the earth. I had read somewhere that they are thinking of sending up mirrors into sky, so that some of the sun's rays are reflected off and they won't reach the earth.

But it is not just America which will be affected by this global warming. It has been recorded that there has been a 0.3 to 0.6% raise in temperature since 1860 and by 2100 there will be raise of around 5- 6 degree rise in the temperature. This will eventually raise of sea level and submergence of land area. For a country like India which has a vast coast line this can be even more dangerous, coz : 1 - We will be losing large stretches of land rendering thousands of people homeless and 2 - We will be losing the natural habitat of the flora and the fauna which exists in the coastal regions ( Case in point : The Sunderbans).

Now that we know the dangerous effects of not maintaining the ecological balance, what can we do to set it right. Well, seriously I think we are past the time to think about what to do to set it right. Right now, we need to think about what we can do to preserve whatever is left and more seriously on what to do to prevent us from damaging the environment more.

The straight forward answer - stop using fossil fuels and other things which pollute the environment ( Oh yeah, every problem has a simple, direct and completely illogical answer :-) ). But that is asking to do something which is really impossible. Yes, we need to stop using these stuffs, but before that we need to find alternate sources of fuels and to be more specific, we need to find alternate sources of energy which doesn't pollute the environment. Yes Nuclear energy is one of alternatives, but we need to find safer ways of disposing off the waste. Solar energy is one safest options, but i think there is a need to research more on using this on a large scale.

Oh yeah almost forgot, for the first time in five years, the minute hand of the doomsday clock has been moved closer to the dreaded midnight hour. The clock - a symbol of the perils facing the human race - shifted two minutes, from the current seven minutes to midnight to five. For more info on this read this

Playing with words

Hmm.. Dunno what is wrong with me nowadays. But i am finding it extremely difficult to write anything. Just couldn't focus my thoughts any more. Actually I am finding it difficult to concentrate on anything for more than 5 minutes at a stretch.

But since it was a long time since i updated my blog, I thought let me go ahead and write something. My apologies in advance, if there is no flow or if i am writing some crap.

Lemme see what i'll write about. Yeah...the title says playing with words. So lemme stick to it. People who are on my GTalk list would have seen some wierd status messages below my name. Oh and i had lots of enquiries about it. Thanks to all who enquired and a bigger thanks to those who didn't.

Now why did i get this GTalk status message here?? Coz the message which i set was a play with words. For the ppl who are not on my GTalk or those who haven't seen that status, it was just a simple sentence. All it said was "I am afraid to fall in love, coz everytime I fall, I hurt myself".

From the moment i put this status up, I think most of the ppl on my GTalk list pinged me to ask whats the matter. Did i have any bad experience. I know that is how the sentence will mean the first time u read it. But I am sorry to tell everyone, i didn't have any such experiences. Just have a look at the sentence for the second time. Lets divide the sentence into parts and take them in exclusion. The first part says "I am afraid to fall in love". Now this is self explanatory. I don't think i need to explain this. The second part says "Because everytime I fall, I hurt myself". Now this is the basic knowledge. Even a kid knows whenever it falls , it will hurt itself.

The two independent sentences seems to be innocuous in their meanings. But if u take them together it supposedly takes up a new meaning. Even if u take the entire sentence, i never said that everytime I fall in love, I hurt myself. I just said, everytime I fall, I hurt myself.

Anywayz lemme stop this blabber now. And for the record, I have written this piece of small post in 3 stretches. Just couldn't concentrate on it for more than 5 minutes at a stretch. Looks like, my mind has gone into a round robin scheduling of things.

Apologies for the blabbering and yes lemme stop this now and spare ur head and mind, which might be still working fine. I don't want to be termed the slayer of innocent minds.

And now I need to stop. Somebody just take this keyboard away from mee......

A retrospection at the year gone by

Finally found some time to actually try and do some retrospect on the year gone by. So better late than never, here I go.

I could say 2005 was a very turbulent year for me. It had started really bad, with lots of work, had the best part of my life for the next 3 months, changed companies, made a lot of friends. Then had a really bad phase, with my personal life going awry, a friend of mine got really upset with me and didn't even want to see my face. Had a slightly better end to the year with a promotion.

So 2006 started on a good note, what with getting a promotion at the end of the year. To add to the happiness, i had also cleared my B-School entrance exam and was called for an interview. It is a different fact that i couldn't clear the interview, my nemesis from time immemorial. But the main item on the agenda for the year was to get my friend back. Although i can't say that I succeeded in that effort, I can say that we got back on to talking terms at the least.

The month of May was a fun time for me. First of all, there was a marriage at home. No, it wasn't mine. I still have some luck left, though am not sure when i will run out of it. The excitement and the anxiety (to some extent) of a new member coming to your house has to be experienced to understand it.

Then came my Birthday. I was amazed with the number of calls i received on that day. Never in my life (till then that is), had so many ppl wished me on my birthday and i know who should be thanked for that, Mr. Orkut.

But with my birthday came the signs that my luck might be running out. That was when my mom started giving me ultimatum, "either u get into a B-school or I will get u married next year". I tried all tricks in book, including telling her that i will find my own bride. Her reply, "sure get her". Now i dunno who leaked this secret that I will never get a GF in my life. The confidence with which she told that was amazing.

So, with these warning signs in the offing, I thought it is high time, i whip my lazy ass into action. Thats when i started preparing for my B-School exams. Yes, all over again and it can become boring too. But thank God, I found two more ppl sharing the same passion. So actually it was a gr8 fun preparing for it. I could say I have done sort of better than last time round. So have to see what is there in the offing for me. Not that one is better than the other anyway.

Also had a gr8 time of the year when my parents went on a trip, leaving me alone for 25 days. What a peace. No more boring serials for 25 days, can come back from work early, can watch tv late into the night ..... The cons : have to get up early, clean up the house and have to cook. Yes, I learnt cooking. Necessity is the mother of all inventions.

The fun part of 2006 was the marriages. Lemme count....yes, 6 of my friends got married. Now that is more from my standards. So i could say it was 6 times the fun. And looking into 2007, the number of marriages are not going to come down. No wonder, my mom is so adamant on me getting married. Oh Boy...the problem just keep getting more in number.

Politics of Execution

First of all a “HAPPY NEW YEAR” to anyone who actually visits my blog. (Now dunno if there is anyone who belongs to that category. Looks more like I am writing for myself.

What a way to end the year 2006. Saddam Hussein is hanged to death in Iraq. I am more concerned about the haste in the execution and the way the trial was conducted than the sentence given. I think it was a foregone conclusion as soon as the Americans captured Saddam that he will be hanged. But the way they went about it stinks really.

Yes, Saddam was a dictator, a barbaric one as Americans may tell. But, shouldn’t he be given a proper and a fair trial when you call yourself as a free and fair state??. Let me try to recollect what happened in his so called free and fair trial. First he was given a set of lawyers who tried to implicit him rather than work for his cause. Then when he asked for a change of lawyers he was given a set of new lawyers who went about the duty properly. But they were killed by the Iraqis, this according to the American soldiers. Then the judge who was present was changed. After all this he was given a death sentence for the atrocities he had conducted. Yes, I do agree that it was a barbaric act what he had done. Killing 148 people just because a few people had tried to assassinate him is an inhuman act. Yes, it does require a death sentence. But what I am not convinced is the way in which the entire operation was carried on.

If we rewind just a bit more, was there actually a reason for US allied forces?? The reason given at that time was that Iraq was having the “Weapons of Mass Destruction” (WMD as it became famous as). So the allied forces attacked Iraq, telling it is a war against terrorism. After searching for almost a year did they find the WMD?? No. Finally the allied forces had to concede that there are no Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq.

So was the main war on Iraq fought just because of WMD or was there a personal vendetta in it?? It is a known fact that Dubya had said that he wants to punish the person who tried to assassinate his father. So was this war fought for this cause and is the end of Saddam Hussein the victory that Dubya was looking after? If it is, then what is the difference between Saddam and Dubya?? Both of them killed so many innocent people just because some one tried to assassinate them.

Moreover will this help in the war against terrorism??? The answer is no. Even a child can tell what the effect of this is. The haste in the execution and the timing chosen for it can actually intimidate some of the people. There are already war cries being heard against Americans and the allied forces. So, I think this won’t in anyway help in the war against terrorism, but will rather act against it.

What is more concerning is the way the Bush administration is turning a blind eye towards Pakistan, even after it is proved that they are encouraging terrorism in India and many of the terrorists are trained here. It is also been told that Laden is in Pakistan, but Bush was more concerned in getting Saddam to the guillotine.

All in all, this execution right or wrong has asked more questions than it has answered. And yes, the allied countries are in an even more precarious situation now than ever. The final defiance of Saddam in rejecting the hood on his face may portray him more as a warrior rather than as a barbarian which the Americans wanted to portray him as.

Cricket: Sreesanth Swinging His Bat..... Dhoom Machale?!

Cricket: This is the # 10 batsman Sreesanth, of India, responding to the South African Andre Nel's comment "Man, just don't swing your bat, have a heart to hit the ball", by hitting the very next ball for the maximum six runs and by showing his "heart" in front of Nel's face..... I hope this has made my clip more clear to the non-cricketing public!

Pseudo Secularism

Hi. I am back and am back ranting about my favorite subject. I am talking about the double standards of the government and their pseudo-secularist attitude.

Yes, I am talking about the statement which our honorable prime minister made in the meeting of the National Development Council yesterday. To quote him "We should devise innovative plans to ensure that minorities, particularly the muslim minority are empowered to share equitably in the fruits of development". Anything wrong here?? Nope, till here it was fine. The controversial statement comes next. "Muslims must have the first claim on resources". Now I am no anti-muslim or anti any other religion. One of my best friend is a Muslim.

Now Mr. Prime Minister, do u believe that all poor people are muslims??Poverty doesn't come by religion. Hunger doesn't attack people based on religion. Diseases doesn't come based on religion. What about the poor people who are non-muslim, non-OBC ??? and let me tell you, there are scores of thousands of people in the country in this category.

And the irony of the fact is that, this statement has come from a so called "Secular" party in the country. Can somebody please help me in understanding the meaning of the word secular?? According to the dictionary it means "not pertaining to or connected with religion". But in this country, Secular means anti-hindu/ pro-muslim. If a particular party, talks about the upliftment of hindus, they are communal forces. Now, if someone talks about the upliftment of Muslims, they are secular. This is what i call as pseudo-secularism.

The thing which hurts the most is that this statement comes from a prime minister who is respected everywhere for his economic knowledge and who is regarded as the one responsible for the economic development of India. Now it is can be easily guessed that this statement is given keeping in mind the impending elections in Uttar Pradesh. It is a known fact, that Congress is trying hard to come to power in UP and to come to power it needs to defeat a party which gets the majority of the muslim communities vote. Obviously, the congress is trying to swing this communities vote to itself.

Do these parties really care about these people after the elections. No, if they had cared, this statement wouldn't have come. We keep hearing that the dalits and the OBCs are to be uplifted. Now the muslims have to be uplifted. I really wonder what these people were doing for the last 60 years, in which they were in rule for 50 years. And to top the fact, these as****e politicians need the creamy layer to be included in any of the reservations given. How will u uplift the people in need if the creamy layer keeps getting all the benefits??? Do these people care?? No.In fact, they would actually work against these people, just to make sure the same issues are there for the next elections and a number of elections to come in the future.

PS: To reiterate, I am not against any religion or community, but am against the double standards of the government and the Politicians

Mamata's Day Out

Huh. Finally i am writing something after a long break. Just got a tad busy with some personal stuffs and office work.

So what got me out of the lull was the beautiful images of Mamata Banerjee and her supporters creating a ruckus in the West Bengal Assembly. Man it was so good that even the local hooligans would be proud of what they saw.

On a serious note, what i saw on the TV made me pinch myself, just to be sure that i am not dreaming. The destruction caused by these people, the so called elected representatives of the common man,was enormous. Yes I had seen the absolute mayhem in the UP assembly a few years ago. But what happened in the WB assembly overtook that by a mile. MLAs of a particular party damaged property, shredded business papers and official documents, overturned and broke furniture, yanked microphones off their holders and vandalised the Assembly chamber and the hall outside it.


Reason : The police disallowed their loud mouthed party leader, Ms Mamata Banerjee, to proceed to Singur, where she wanted to join the protesting farmers. Yes, she was going for a "noble cause", at the least that's what they claim.

Now I don't want to dwell upon whether she was going to support the farmers, who were protesting for the rightful cause, to gain a political mileage in the coming elections or not. But I am sure, the situation in Singur would have heated up had Ms Banerjee visited it. So, I feel, the police were right in stopping her from visiting Singur. Now now, that is a major loss for the party. They had hoped to go there and create a ruckus, thus identifying themselves with the farmers and hoped to gain political mileage. So what does she do now?? She storms to the West Bengal Assembly, when it was in session and create a ruckus there.

From the picture, we can see the amount of damage caused. Now who is going to pay for the repair work?? Ofcourse, it is the common man again, whose pockets will be pinched to make sure these sonofaguns get to rest on a soft seat. No need to worry. Even if that common man has no clothes to wear or has just lost his only means of livelyhood to accomodate one more industry, he will understand. After all, they were fighting for his cause only.

Now I am not against industry, but am against creating industries on fertile lands. If the same was done on a barren piece of land, there should not have been any reason to fret. But whatever be the reason, there was no need for the act of vandalism which was unleashed on the assembly floor. Last heard, the "pro-people" communist government in power, had decided to take political mileage of the situation, by opening up the assembly to public to view the destruction caused. And the ever crazy people of Bengal had queued up for more than a kilometer and a half to view this "spectacle of a life time". These people really have time to watch something which is a condemnable act. I am not sure if so many people will line up in front of Eden Garden to buy tickets to a India-Pakistan test match.

Funny one

This is some funny article which i found on the net, while browsing. I think many guys will be in one or the other of these situation. So do read and enjoy and comment on this :)

I am a nice guy. Or so my female friends tell me. I'm a nice, helpful,
generally likeable guy. So nice in fact that once a year, during that
wonderful festival called Raksha Bandhan when we Indians celebrate that
bond between a brother and sister, you will find me hiding under a table,
or if that's not safe enough, under a chair, whimpering in fear, and
blithering like an idiot. (A lot of people feel that is exactly what I am,
but let's not get into that now.)

A close friend of mine once said to me (and this was a girl who I had been
contemplating proposing marriage to), "I wish I had a younger brother like
you." I mean, how is a man supposed to react to a statement like that? I
think women use such statements to see how men respond to situations of
extreme stress. It's probably some kind of experiment in psychology. And we
men go along with it simply because, you know, they are women.

Talking about the strange things women have said to me, this is one of my
favorites: "You remind me of my dog." Meaning, I assume, that I walk on all
fours, have long flappy ears, and prefer to relieve myself in front of a
water hydrant. I wonder if anyone would want that kind of person as his or
her younger brother.

So, as you would have guessed by now, I am single. I am a single, nice,
helpful, generally likeable guy. Who reminds women of their dog.

And I've come to the conclusion that there is no such thing as a single
woman. A single woman is like Schrödinger's cat. (For the
not-so-technically-inclined, Schrödinger was a physicist. The sadist that
he was, he used a poor little cat to teach quantum physics. He hypothesized
a cat in a box, with an arrangement such that as long as the box was
closed, the cat could be either dead or alive. But the moment you opened
the box to check, a poisonous gas would be released killing the cat
instantly -- if it had been alive in the first place. For more details,
type "Schrödinger's cat" in Google.)

Women are like that. Until you bother to find out whether they are single
or not, they could be either. But the moment you get curious... bang,
they're single no longer. It is normally between the first and third week
of my acquaintance with a girl that I'm given this glorious piece of
information.

"Hey, I have something to tell you. I'm getting engaged next week, and I
want you to come to the party." Ahem.

"Guess what? I'm getting married next month! Aren't you overjoyed?" Yes, of
course. I'm so happy I have tears in my eyes.

Once, I was talking to a girl on the phone, and we were interrupted when
she got a call on the other line. She came back on line a couple of minutes
later with the words "Oh, I'm sorry about that. That was my boyfriend."
Your what?

And you know another thing? Somehow, I inspire this unprecedented amount of
trust in women. I'm considered completely harmless! Not only by the women,
but even their boyfriends, fiancés and husbands!

"Oh, you're with him? Fine. Have a nice time."

"You want to take a walk on the beach? I'm a little busy. Why don't you
take him along?"

"It's Valentine's day. The poor guy must be alone. Why not call him over
for lunch?"

I guess I've earned that reputation over a long period of time, but still,
you know. Sometimes you wish the guys would feel just a little bit
threatened.

And it's not like I look harmless either. The following incident is a
favorite example:

I was at an Archie's gallery. This was the time when they had that stuffed
monkey on sale. You know, the one that whistled every time you crossed its
path. The kind of whistle that a guy might make when a good-looking girl
walks by. So the monkey was on display in one of the aisles, and the first
five minutes that I was there, it must have been triggered about 15 times.
Gets quite irritating, really. After that, for a few minutes, there was no
one in the shop, and I had some peace. Then a girl walked in, and soon
crossed the path of the monkey. The monkey whistled dutifully. And out of
curiosity, with a big smile on my face for some reason, I turned to see who
the monkey had whistled at. At exactly the same moment, the girl turned
around, to see who had whistled. If looks could kill, she would have wiped
out an army. Fifteen seconds later she had left the shop. I must thank my
lucky stars she didn't slap me, or have me beaten up by the moral brigade.
But I think you understand what I'm trying to say. Which is, that I don't
look all that harmless. So, why the loads of trust?

They also tell me that I'm easy to talk to. That is probably why I'm one of
the first people a girl would tell her secret crushes to. None of which
ever include me, of course. But I think you must have guessed that. As you
can imagine, I attend most weddings as a friend of the girl.

But I take solace in the fact that I'm not the only one.
DISCLAIMER:NO offence intended to anyone.

Klueless2

At the very onset, i need to thank iimi klueless2 team for the great and most intriguing puzzle they have put up. For those who don't know about this, please do visit it here . It is extremely interesting and addictive. I would really like to appreciate the effort these ppl had undertaken to give us this excellent puzzle. I felt it was much better than Klueless of last year.

I took nearly 3 days to complete the entire puzzle. Some of the levels were so twisted that it had me literally pulling my hair out to think of the answer. But in the end, as i always tell, it was a learning experience. Of course, my dear friend Google was there with me all the while helping me out. I have learnt so many stuffs in the last two days, that i feel it was worth the late night i put into it.

PS: The text below has some spoilers. So if u r planning to go on with the puzzle, reading further on may hamper your enjoyment of the puzzle

The following are some of the key learnings i obtained from the past 3 days effort:

1. The name for the kind of pipe Sherlock Holmes smokes is calabash
2. That Hardy-Ramanujam number is the smallest number which can be expressed as the sum of 2 cubes in two different ways.
3. I found a new search engine which gives me the pleasure of both the yahoo and the google world.
4. Pink Floyd is not just David Gilmour, but Roger Waters too. (I know, i am poor here. I didn't know the history of this group).
5. The diameter of a common compact disk is 120mm
6. The property of a common playing dice is that the number on the opposite faces always add upto 7(OK, i knew this before too)
7. The possibility of solving the rubiks cube correctly is 1 in 43 quintillion (Thank god, i didn't try it)
8. Antartica is called Nankyoku Monogatari in Japanese (Some knowledge that is)
9. Learnt how the game of Teen Patti or flush is played.
10. And last but not the least, "Failure is not an option", especially when it comes in the last few levels.

All in all it was an amazing experience. Now i am looking forward to Klueless3 next year.

Horn NOT OK Please

This is one thing which i didn't want to write about, as I had already read a similar topic on someone else's blog and I didn't want to be "inspired" by it. But every time i hear the honk, i just couldn't resist my urge to write this. So here i am ranting away.

I believe, horn is one of the many inventions of man which is being misused, just like the nuclear energy. Nuclear energy, is useful when it is used in the production of Electricity. It was one of the main uses which was thought of after the discovery of nuclear energy. But the "destructive" mind of humans thought of a much better way to make use of it. Nuclear Bombs or warheads. Prepare it and u have the bargaining power in all international relations which u have.

But these horns are worse than nuclear energy. The main use of nuclear energy is still in production of electricity, but these horns i believe are not used for the main reason which they were designed for.

Horns are primarily designed to be used minimally, just to intimate a slower vehicle that you want to overtake them or just before a blind turn to make sure that any person/vehicle coming from there knows that some vehicle is approaching. But now, horn is the most used part in any vehicle. People have found more innovative/irritating ways to use the horn.

Some of the situations where i find no use in honking are :
1. You are standing in the traffic signal and assume u are at the front. Now, i can bet my right arm and leg. There will be vehicles behind you honking. Now for god sake what do they expect me to do?? Jump the signal to make sure they come and stop in the front of the queue.

2. Again, standing in a traffic signal, but stuck in the middle, right behind a huge bus. This guy in a new imported SUV comes up behind and he finds it amusing to just bang his horn down. OK dude, everyone noticed u have an imported SUV. Now take your hand off that damn Horn.

3. The traffic is slow moving. This guy in a bike comes up riding a triple( three people on that bike). Now he wants the right to way. He just goes on honking away to glory. Great, just because he has 3 people on his bike he needs the privilege of a fire engine or an ambulance. Where do want the guy ahead of u to move?

4. This is one of my personal experiences. I am standing, waiting for a right turn. I am right at the center of the road, with onward traffic whizzing past me just 2 centimeters to the right of me. This chap in a car comes up right behind me and starts honking. I turn back and ask what he wants. He wants to go straight ahead. Goddamn, then why did u have to come towards the center of the road. Haven't i left the 40 mts on my left for u to go on.

5. Then there are people who have this annoying habit of honking even when the traffic is smooth flowing. Most of the time they will be moving slower than the rest of the traffic, but they need to keep honking every 10 seconds. May be they are just honking to the beat of the music they are listening. I have seen this habit in people who are driving a four-wheeler or a lady two-wheeler driver. The guys on two-wheeler, usually will be honking continuously. So, there will be no 10 seconds gap there.

6. OK, this is the funny type and the most annoying one. They need to take the right turn 10 mts ahead and they are on the left side of the road. So what do they do??? 5 mts from the right turn, jam the horn in and just keep moving to the right. No indicator. Who wants an indicator, when u have a horn. Its ur fundamental right to be given way, coz u are honking and thus u have inherited the role of ambulance. You need to be given the way.

I have my own ways of dealing with this and this keeps changing. Earlier, i just used to give way to the person who is honking irritably. "Just get rid of the annoyance" was the motto.That was the first phase. But it didn't work, coz the person behind him now wanted to be given the equal treatment or else he'll start the honking.

In the second phase, i used to give way to him, and then go right behind him and start honking, just the way he used to do. This is what i call "Reap what u sow". U honked irritably behind me, now u get it back. Letz see how u feel. After a few days i started feeling extremely irritable and my mood used to be bad, right in the morning. So i moved to the third phase.

This is the most difficult phase. I just ignore the fact that there is some one behind me honking away to glory. I just refuse to budge and won't give way. You can go on honking, i am not going to give you the way. This is extremely difficult in the beginning. How much ever, i tried to ignore, i used to get irritated from the incessant honking. I had the urges to move back to phase two and start it all over again. But some how i remain here.

When i bought a new mobile, lifeline came in the form of hands free and FM Radio. Now before starting the journey, i plug it in and switch on the radio. This doesn't remove the sound completely, but it minimises it. There are many advantages, i obtained of this.

1. Instead of the honking, i now listen to great music all the way.
2. My alertness increased. Coz i need to keep looking into my rear-view mirror to see, if someone is trying to overtake me or if i need to give way to anything else. This just increases ur awareness of the surrounding and my reflexes sort of increased.
3. I won't be in a bad mood, right at the start of the day. This helps me at work.

I usually keep experimenting sometimes to go the whole week, without honking. And i must say i am successful. Now that doesn't mean, i won't honk at all. You do need to honk. But i honk just at the required time. Like, if i am about to take a blind turn, or if i find an empty auto(now that is the only thing which i find going really slow. Sometimes at the speed of 10-15kmph when the whole traffic is moving at 30-40), to tell him that i am about to overtake him.

But the first thing is, we Indians don't have a traffic sense. We need to learn to move at the speed of the traffic. That means, if the whole traffic is moving at the speed of 40 kmph, move with that speed. Just because u have a 150 cc bike and u have ur girlfriend behind, it doesn't give u a right to move at 80 kmph and honk away to glory.

Follow lane system. I know there are no lanes here. But at the least, follow the minimum rules. That is if u have to take a left turn, move ur vehicle to the left and move there much before the left turn. Ditto for the right, if it is a one way road, move to the right much before ur right turn. Or if it is a 2 way road, move to the center of the road. And if u want to move on straight, please keep to the center of the road and leave the left and the right center to vehicles who need to learn.

But before all these, just learn to keep ur hands off that horn. It should be just used to warn others and not to irritate them.

A random saying

Just saw this saying on the back of a car.

"The best way to punish your enemy is to love him"

It has really got me thinking...what can he mean??? Any pointers???

The Art of Losing

"What a weird title for a post!!! " " Who wants to learn how to lose?? " "Has this guy gone mad?? "

These may be the responses of some of the people who read this. But, I have my own reasons for naming a post like this.

I believe, just like winning . losing is also an art. By that I am not talking about the way the Indian team has mastered the art of snatching defeat from the hands of victory. That is not what I want to discuss. What I want to discuss about is the attitude of some people who believe that losing is the most humiliating act. Of course, we all believe in winning and try our level best to win. But there are circumstances where there may be someone who is much better than us and we do lose. It is at times like these that the art of losing comes into picture.

By "Art of Losing", I mean how to behave properly and accept defeat gracefully if u lose. This is one thing which I believe the parents has to teach their young ones right from day one. But ironically, it is the same parents who are responsible in making them sore losers. (well most of the parents atleast). Right from day one they want their kids to perform well in school. Nothing bad in that. Some of them can perform well, while some can't. So what do the parents do?? The same thing all the parents in the past have done and most probably will continue to do in the future too, compare them with their peers.

Here comes the tricky part. I for one believe that comparison is good. It measures u with ur peers and most of the times it eggs u on to do something much better. But the tricky part in comparison is finding that thin line till where u can encourage your kid and being within it. You need to convey the message that while u appreciate what he/she has done, they can still do better. By comparing with someone, u need to set the target which u want the kid to achieve. If u do it the right way, it will be like, "Its good u have got this much marks, but I believe u can do much more better. See X, I think u can get similar marks like. Try to get somewhere around that". But if u do it wrong, it becomes like," Why can't u do well?? See X, he/she is so good. Why can't u be like him/her?. Next time I need you to get more marks from her ".

So what happens the next time if the kid gets more marks from what they had got last time, but still lesser marks from X ( remember less by 0.5 is also less). If the right technique was used, the kid doesn't feel like a loser, but in the other technique, it just hits the kids morale. He thinks that he is a loser, but will not want to accept it. So he starts finding mistakes in others, complaining that the teacher is partial to X and so on. This is where u need to know "The Art of Losing"

Now if u people are wondering what's wrong with this guy and why is he talking about kids, my apologies for that. Actually I never wanted to get into that part, but it just came about in the flow. What I wanted to talk was about the attitudes of some of teams and people when they lose.

Now if u want specific examples, Arsenal FC, Chelsea (Sometimes when they do lose) and Fernando Alonso comes to my mind. Arsenal are always known to be sore losers, but are now getting accustomed to losing coz of the last season, where they lost many times away from home. But I just can't understand the attitude of Alonso. First time he loses, he claims that the FIA has fixed the race and they want Schumacher to win. Next race he loses, he goes on to blame his team mate telling that he is no good and he is not giving adequate cover. Now he has gone on record to claim that his team doesn't want him to win. Now come on, can there be something more ridiculous than this?? Well wait there is. Next Alonso goes on to blame his team mate again. To quote him "The cars were side by side on the straight, he overtook me so there was no team play. Maybe even the opposite." He goes on to claim, that he felt he was left alone. Gimme a break. Can somebody tell him that they are supposed to be racing and it is not his team mates mistake that Alonso was driving slowly. Just because he is his team mate doesn't mean that he always have to be behind him, even though he has a better car. Reminds me of a kid throwing his playthings out of the pram.

Agreed u r paid to win races, but just because you don't win, you can't go around claiming that the whole world is against U. Accept defeat gracefully. Accept that on the given day someone else was better than U. Stop whinging about the whole world just because you lost.

Hope now I made it clear why Losing (gracefully) is an art too.

The year of Retirements - An ode to Schumi - the Regenmeister

Statutory warning : This post contains sports, sports and more sports. Those who hate sports or Schumi, better not continue further.

Yes, I know. I am pretty late to write about this. But better late than never.

As you might have guessed, i am talking about the number of people retiring from sports arena, and no i am not talking about cricket. I have somehow lost my interest in it. I am talking about other sports. First there was Zidane, who retired from all levels of football. Then a whole bunch of footballers like Totti, Roberto Carlos et al announced their international retirements. ( One retirement which amazed me the most is that of Riquelme. But i am not gonna talk about that here). Then we had Agassi and Navratilova who announced their retirements from tennis and finally a week ago Michael Schumacher announced his retirement from Formula1 at the end of the season( And it is about him that i wanna write).

Schumi, as he is popularly known around the world is one of the greatest racing drivers i have ever seen and i know not many people actually think so. He actually began kart racing in a wooden kart at the age of 4, in the karting track managed by his father. And by 12 he was racing competetively. Now lemme see, at the age of 12 i think i was learning how to ride a cycle and there is this guy who has obtained a licence and is racing competitively. Now that is amazing.

The story of how he gotta drive his first race is even more amazing. When Bertrand Gachot was imprisoned before the 1991 Belgian GrandPrix, Eddie Jordan was trying to find a replacement driver. It was then that Schumi approached Eddie Jordan and asked for the drive. To impress Jordan, Schumi also said that he knew the track like the back of his hand, but the fact was that he had just been round the track once that morning, that too on a borrowed bicycle. Jordan gave him the driver's seat and he impressed all by qualifying 7th. Actually he finished 1992 in third position ahead of Ayrton Senna.Now according to me, that is greatness.
What i find amazing is his capacity to get out fast laps at crucial moments in the race. His exploits in wet weather is well known. That is the reason he is known as "Regenkönig" ( Rain king or king of wet weather) or "Regenmeister" (Rain master).

After Ayrton Senna's death, Schumi is regarded as the fastest driver in F1 and the most dominant one. And like him he is having more than his share of controversies.

The first Controversy, which most people point out is the championship deciding collision of 1994. Schumi was leading Damon Hill with 1 point going into the last race. He was leading from the start, but when Hill started applying pressure, he made a mistake, ran wide and hit a wall. Nobody knows if his car was damaged as a result of that, but he lost momentum after the recovery. Hill tried to seize this opportunity, by going for the overtaking manouver and tried the inside line for the next corner. Schumi turned his car into Hill's car taking out both of them. He won the championship that year. He did try a similar thing on Jacques Villeneuve 2 years later, but it ended with him out of the race and Villeneuve finishing third and winning the championship. Schumacher's second place in the championship was stripped off him.

For the people who don't know about it, Aryton Senna had done something similar to his rival Alain Prost a couple of years ago. He had actually proclaimed before the race that he will take Prost out of the race and did take him out. Actually i find it amusing that people who blame Schumi for this controversy also praise Senna for what he had done.

His move to Ferrari was a fruitful one. He won 5 back to back driver's championship with them (and in the process of winning a 6th one this year). This had to do more with his driving skills combined with the strategy of Ferrari. Actually he is the first driver in F1 to win a race in the pit lane. In the British grandprix, he was given a "stop-go" penalty ( in which he has to come into the pit lane and stop for 10 seconds and then continue) with 3 laps to go. Once this penalty is given, the driver has 3 laps in which he has to come into the pits. Now since he had just 3 laps to go, he just picked up his speed and dived into the pitlane on the last lap. Ferrari pit garage was after the finish line and the chequered flag, shown to indicate the end of the race, can be shown in the pit lane too. Thus he became the first driver to win the race from pitlane. McLaren, their nearest rivals, complained about this, but it was found that what ferrari did was within the law of the race.

The number of records he has tumbled is amazing.

• Most championship titles: 7
• Most consecutive championship titles: 5
• Most race wins: 90
• Most consecutive race wins: 7 (in 2004 - European GP, Canadian GP, United States GP, French GP, British GP, German GP, Hungarian GP) This record is shared with Ascari, which won the last 6 races of 1952 and the first one of 1953. The following race was the Indianapolis 500, in which he did not participate. Afterwards he won other two races, but since the Indy 500 was officially part of the F1 World Championship, his winning streak was already over.
• Most race wins with one team: 71 with Ferrari
• Most race wins at the same GP: 8 at the French Grand Prix (Magny-Cours)
• Most time between first and last race wins: 14 years, and 12 days and counting
  
• Most second place finishes: 43
• Most podium finishes: 153
• Most consecutive podium finishes: 19 (from the 2001 United States Grand Prix, until the 2002 Japanese Grand Prix)
• Most points finishes: 188
• Most laps leading: 4726 (with a total of 22,072.693 km in 130 Grands Prix)
• Most pole positions: 68
• Most starts from first row: 108
• Most fastest laps: 75
• Most doubles (pole position and race win): 40
• Most hat-trick (pole position, race win and fastest lap): 22
• Most championship points: 1,354
• Most consecutive race finished without retirement: 24 (from the 2001 Hungarian Grand Prix, until the 2003 Malaysian Grand Prix)
• Most race wins in a season: 13 (out of 18 races)
• Most fastest laps in a season: 10 (out of 18 races; tied by Räikkönen in 2005)
• Most championship points in a season: 148 (out of a maximum of 180)
• Most podium finishes in a season: 17 (out of 17 races)

(Source : Wikipedia)

Schumi we'll miss u. Schumi Rulz

And Stier means...

I got a few queries as to what stier in my user name actually means. As it was a long time, since i had written anything, i thought i'll better create a new post to tell what it means.

The thing is when i was searchin for a funky name for my blog(Yes, i was tired of having a permutation and combination of arun ks), i thought i'll use my sunsign. I am a Taurean. But i didn't want my blogname to be something like taurus.blogspot.com. So in comes the good old Google with its great language tool option. Taurus in English, when converted to any language other than German, was pretty similar. Then i tried German and voila, here comes my blogname :)

Don't Quit

Just found this poem some place and it struck to me to be so valid. Many a times we try really very hard to achieve something. If the things aren't going our way, we try for sometime and just quit doing it when we really are the closest to achieving it. If we had not quit, we might have achieved it. This poem addresses the same thing.

What really struck me was the last 5-6 lines of the poem which starts with "And you never can tell how close.....". How many times have we stopped doing something coz we are hit reallybad at it?? It can be in anything thing right from sports, down to exams. Hope it can serve as an inspiration for some of us atleast. So here goes the poem.

When the things go wrong
as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging
seems all uphill;
When the funds are low
and the debts are high;
And you want to smile,
but you have to sigh;
When care is pressing you
down a bit ...
Rest if you must,
but don't you quit.
Success is failure turned inside out,
the silver tint
of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell
how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so afar,
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit...
It's when things go wrong,
that you must not quit.