Rabindranath Tagore

Quotes:

To enjoy something, it's essential to guard it with the fence of leisure.

It's difficult to know a person until he turns twenty-five---difficult to say what would happen to him ... but it is easy to recognise a twenty seven years old--- it can be said he's become what he's supposed to be, and from now on this is how his life would be guided, there isn't left anything in his life to get astonished.

I believe in the true meeting of the East and the West.
It hurts me deeply when the cry of rejection rings loud against the West in my country with the clamour that the Western education can only injure us.

I say again and again that I am a poet, that I am not a fighter by nature. I would give everything to be one with my surroundings. I love my fellow beings and I prize their love.

If you shut the door to all errors, truth will be shut out.

I have become my own version of optimist. If I can't make it through one door, I'll go through another door - or I'll make a door. Something terrific will come no matter how dark the present.

The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.

Be not forgetful to entertain strangers
For thereby some have entertained angels unawares
(Like)

Time, don't let it slip away
Raise your drinking glass
Here's to yesterday
(Like)

Merry met and merry part
I drink to thee with all my heart
(Hmmm..)

Work is the curse of the drinking class
(Funny)

.. some 'writings on the wall' at Social, 48th and 8th Ave, NYC

At Starbucks, Ridgewood, New Jersey. Waiting to start our drive back to Chicago. And I love the randomness of my life.
I like these pretty towns of NJ but most of all I love New York. This was after a long time, a sudden trip for no reason other than entertainment.
New York is vibrant; the city gives me so much energy. I think I'll always love it. The craziness, the pace, all that's happening around you, the subways, randomly walking down the streets - all of it simply fascinates me. I feel living in the city is awesome too - the hassles of the everyday life can keep one's days happening. The place gives me energy.
I was also in the bay area last week, saw an amazingly pretty part of the city this time - the beach at the pacific ocean (err.. I forget the name of the place). Bay area, though, was all about catching up with friends, in general it has a very settled feeling, very unlike New York. Maybe the settled feeling is good to have in the place you live in but I love the NY madness. What New York lacks when compared to Chicago is the sophistication (in the everyday regular stuff at least). But you can't have everything.
Okay, that's as much of the analysis as I can do... I'm hoping I'll post a set of pictures sometime soon.

Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
- Pink Floyd :)

Floyd always does a great job of reminding what life is all about. This time it points to Heraclitus' - "Nothing endures but change"
Interestingly, he also said: "Much learning does not teach understanding"

And just because I am talking about understanding, a code for life should be Arjun's story, when he said: "Sir, at this point of time only the eye of the bird is visible to me"

Peepli Live

"Rajneeti mein matbhed ho sakta hai lekin dushmani nahi"... quite an insight from Naseeruddin Shah in Peepli Live.
That's just rajneeti, this movie takes on the media more than politics. A very intelligently made movie that not only points to the right issues but also does it in an entirely entertaining way. I would heartily welcome this kind of cinema, but only if it can be quality work.

The irony is such that as long as you stay strong, people around pull you down but the day you turn weak, the same people offer to help.

Salinger

People should write a will about how they wish their intellectual property to be treated. I do not like the fact that someone who protected the story of his life and a number of his works from the world is now going to be made public.

http://www.newsweek.com/2010/07/29/salinger-like-you-ve-never-seen-him.html.html

Man the maker of his destiny

Everything happens for a reason cannot be true. But it's best to find a reason for everything that happens.

And here's my recent favorite read:
Man the maker of his destiny

It is absolutely fine to not be something, but it is horrible to not be something you want to be.

Amar Prem

Kuch reet jagat ki aisi hai
Har ek subah ki shaam hui
Tu kaun hai tera naam ha kya
Sita bhi yahan badnam hui
Phir kyon sansar ki baaton se
Bheeg gaye tere naina

Love these lines from the Amar Prem song.

B-school comes to an end!!

I graduate in less than three weeks now and I am ready to embrace my freedom. Yes, that is what it feels like for now.
I don't mean it in a bad way, I am only stating what is a fact. I had brilliant experiences, learnt a lot, sat in classes taught by the best professors in the world, partied like hell, met some amazing people and met a great variety of people, learnt how the business world works, started liking business suits, failed many times and kept my calm, lost my sanity and got it back, un-learnt many lessons of life and learnt them again. I saw some vices of life as closely as I had never seen. I delved into them, got perplexed, panicked and came out strong. There is absolutely no doubt that these rushed couple of years taught me a lot, I can't even count all my learnings right now. I am sure new things will keep occurring to me.
And all this learning came at the cost of losing some of my freedom. To embrace this learning I had to fit into this mold that was acceptable in this environment. Sometimes I thought Business school had turned the 8 hours a day part of my life into 24 hours a day. And if I ever thought I was alone for a while, I really wasn't. I always had the company of assignments and deadlines. It was a whirlwind. I did not have the time to feel myself. At times, it suffocated me; but it was impossible to step out. I wasn't there to step out, I was there to hang in and take in all that I could.
I am celebrating the 12th of June 2010 with my family and friends. It will be the day I'll step out of business school. I will no more share a tight space with so many people, I will no longer be diplomatic to keep access to the air I breathe in. I will no more be under observation when I pause to think or get perplexed. But I am sure I will take with me a large part of this way of life.
I am sure these two years must have been some of the most important years of my life but I am excited to step out because only then will I be able to digest what I learnt. It was not just a party!!

The worst thing that one can do to oneself is believe in: "I am always right"

Quotes

The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best - Epictetus

Education begins the gentleman, but reading, good company and reflection must finish him - John Locke

When we are young, what differentiates us the most from our later life, is hope. Everything that we hope to see, do and be. And when I listen to music from old days, I connect to my dreams from those days. Sometimes even if I do not remember my dreams, I sense an excitement and a boundless hope. Those days even lacked fear.. the real fear.

On a different note, it's the season of catching up with the best friends ever. Thought I would but really don't know what to write about it. Always treasure such times.

It's always fascinating to see the bridge from the train. I always long to be there. But when I go to the bridge, I can never see myself on the bridge from the train.

Jim Morrison

Awake, shake dreams from you hair
My pretty child, my sweet one.
- Jim Morrison

The human mind, I believe, is capable of anything. Absolutely anything - the bizzarest of the bizzare. It can weave dreams.. out of fascinating pieces of beauty. And the woven dreams turn out so marvelous that nothing real is a close match.

The Paradox of Choice

Getting tired of my expectations from myself. But youtube is awesome. I found this favorite bhajan..

Legend has it that when someone remarked to Voltaire, "life is hard", he retorted, "compared to what?"

Swades