Realisation

Just realised that the last four blog entries are all verses or literature received from others.

Am I the romantic-coming-out-of-the-closet? Gosh!! Worse still, a plagiarising-romantic-coming-out-of-the-closet!!

Nah, but there's so much to read out there, so much to digest, so much to do. A quiet week in a Buddhist monaestry reading would be the best anti-dote.

But then the thought of the woods being lovely, dark and deep and miles to go before I sleep, a legacy to leave before I retire and pounds to lose before I holiday, all bring me back to reality!!

Go work, Makhija!!

O Me, O Life?

O me! O life!... of the questions of these recurring;
Of the endless trains of the faithless--of cities fill'd with the foolish;
Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)
Of eyes that vainly crave the light--of the objects mean--of the struggle ever renew'd;
Of the poor results of all--of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me;
Of the empty and useless years of the rest--with the rest me intertwined;
The question, O me! so sad, recurring--What good amid these, O me, O life?

Answer.

That you are here--that life exists, and identity;
That the powerful play goes on, and you will contribute a verse.

-Walt Whitman

----
How pessimistic it sounds right in the beginning. And then till one gets to the answer and suddenly the thought changes.

So the verse and so life. It keeps getting tough, weary, frustrating and what not. But persistence and self-belief are the keys.

Not the One to Forward Emails or Use them...

...but here's one that I really liked.

1. Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully.
2. Marry a man/woman you love to talk to. As you get older, their conversational skills will be as important as any other.
3. Don't believe all you hear, spend all you have or sleep all you want.
4. When you say, 'I love you,' mean it.
5. When you say, 'I'm sorry,' look the person in the eye.
6. Be engaged at least six months before you get married.
7. Believe in love at first sight.
8. Never laugh at anyone's dreams. People who don't have dreams don't have much.
9. Love deeply and passionately. You might get hurt but it's the only way to live life completely.
10. In disagreements, fight fairly. No name calling.
11. Don't judge people by their relatives.
12. Talk slowly but think quickly.
13. When someone asks you a question you don't want to answer, smile and ask, 'Why do you want to know?'
14. Remember that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
15. Say 'bless you' when you hear someone sneeze.
16. When you lose, don't lose the lesson.
17. Remember the three R's: Respect for self; Respect for others; and Responsibility for all your actions.
18. Don't let a little dispute injure a great friendship.
19. When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
20. Smile when picking up the phone. The caller will hear it in your voice
21. Spend some time alone.

Good luck!!

After a Long Long Time....

On blogger, after ages. Here's one from Nash.

Some people shave before bathing.
And about people who bathe before shaving they are scathing.
While those who bathe before shaving,
Well, they imply that those who shave before bathing are misbehaving.
Suppose you shave before bathing,
well the advantage is that you don't have to make a special job of washing the lather afterwards,
it just floats off with the rest of your accumulations in the tub.
But the disadvantage is that before bathing you skin is hard
and dry and your beard confronts the razor like a grizzly bear defending its cub.
Well then, suppose you bathe before shaving,
well the advantage is that after bathing your skin is soft
and moist and your beard positively begs for the blade.
But the disadvantage is that to get the lather off you have to wash your face all over again at the basin almost immediately after washing in the tub,
which is a duplication of effort that leaves me spotless but dismayed.
The referee reports, gentlemen, that Fate has loaded the dice,
Since your only choice is between walking around all day with a sore chin
or washing your face twice.
So I will now go and get a shave from a smug man in a crisp white coat,
And I will disrupt his smugness by asking him about his private life,
does he bathe before shaving or shave before bathing,
and then I will die either of laughing or of a clean cut throat.

Selected Poems of Ogden Nash - I Wouldn't Have Missed It

Jiyo, 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!