Wo Hai

वो है

वो जो बारिश का पहला

मेरे चेहरे पर, गिरता है छींटा

वो ही तो है

धूर्त है बड़ा

छिप के चोरों की तरह

बादलों के पीछे से घात लगाये रहता है

की कब मैं निकलूँ

और वो गिरे

और वो जो सुबह सुबह

मेरे बालों में, उलझता है उजाला

वो ही तो है

उसको भी मेरी तरह

सुबह अच्छी लगती है

खिड़की की दरारों से झांकता रहता है

की कब मैं जागूँ

और वो उलझे

और वो जो बाहर हवा है

वो हँस रहा है ज़ोर से, ताक लगाये है मेरी

वो ही तो है

सोचता है

मुझे मालूम नहीं

वो मौसम बन के बिखरा है पूरे आसमान में

की कब मैं देखूँ

और वो छू ले

Don't you Quit

The poem was pasted in my school's second floor corridor while I studied there. It was printed in bold text, without any graphics, on a shining white paper and framed in a simple wooden frame.

During those days, I used the little authority I had as the Literary Secretary / Astt Literary Secretary, and chose to oversee students climbing the second floor corridor so that I could read this poem. So that I could read it ten times and draw strength to go through another day. So that, I could read it a hundred times if that was not enough. It always worked. And it taught me, time and again, that sometimes, all you need is the courage it takes to walk one more mile, to work one more day, to hang on ... for one more minute.

It was years later when that I learnt that this poem is quite famous and is just two clicks away from the main page of any quotation's site.

When 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.

Life is queer with its twists and turns
As every one of us sometimes learns
And many a fellow turns about
When he might have won, had he stuck it out.
Don't give up though the pace seems slow
You may succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than
It seems to a faint and faltering man;
Often the struggler has given up
When he might have captured the victor's cup;
And he learned too late when the night came down
How close he was to the golden crown.

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 afar;
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit
It's when things seem worst that you mustn't quit.

Two years back, I visited my school again. This poem is still pasted on the same spot, on the same paper, in the same frame. Columns of girls still pass it everday in the same second floor corridor and in my heart, I know, there is at least one girl, who reads it ten times aloud and finds the strength to get through one more day. I wish her a future at least as bright as mine, and I leave her a message ...

Hey Girl!
Stick to the fight.
It's worth it.
What you are looking for, is just one turn away.
I can vouch...

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 impostors 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 worn-out 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 breathe 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!

One way to find

A thousand easy ways to meadows green and plain
A thousand easy ways to submit and not stand by
Only one promises fire, only one promises pain
Only one promises victory, only one is hot and dry
... One way to live, and a thousand to die


A thousand easy ways - with trees, grass and light
A thousand easy ways - to castles strong and high
A single hard and rocky - unlit but burning bright
A single far and twisted - to fall into the sky
... One way to the truth, and a thousand to a lie


There lie a thousand ways, chosen by the slaves
There lie a thousand ways, to surrender and live by
And there lies a single way, calling to the braves
There lies a single way, to win but may be die
... One way for the hero, and a thousand for the spy


One way to find, and a thousand to pass by
One way to find, and a thousand to pass by

The city of gold (Eldorado I)

The city of gold

Yellow, and shining
Golden, and promising
Charming, alluring, inviting

The mythical city
Of Eldorado

Playing God

If I write a program that fills “agents” with behaviors, and then introduce a lot of agents in the system, I know the agents wouldn’t have any purpose. Now think of these agents as drivers. I program them to be able to drive. Their purpose is not “not to hit others”; their purpose is to reach a destination without getting hit themselves. Let's say I assign destinations randomly every some-time-period. I also program them to maneuver left and right, give them a rear view mirror and so on.

Then I fill the system with too many agents to avoid hits altogether. As a last resort, agents don’t become motionless; they hit each other and die. In this program, I can be sure of all the factors that come in play when an agent near misses another agent – after all, I coded it!

Now,

• Can I be sure that the factor of the agent’s purpose of reaching a destination played or not a role in the near miss? In the short term, apparently not; in the long term, definitely yes.
• Can I be sure that any pattern that arises out of such near misses isn't the manifestation of collective activity of some benign bug that I left in the agents' code?
• Can I be sure that the pattern in the collective activity itself is not a manifestation of a bigger universal truth like pi?
  

I am sure, if there is a God, he is one very confused guy.

'How to debate on the Internet' by Scott Adams

After yesterday's post, I seriously wondered to what length one can go to find reasoning, once he finds the conclusions beautiful.

I sent the link to some of my friends as well, and few of their responses, while they sit in my Inbox, remind me of an old post by Scott Adams.

- Portion of Scott's post begins -

If you are new to the Internet, allow me to explain how to debate in this medium. When one person makes any kind of statement, all you need to do is apply one of these methods to make it sound stupid. Then go on the offensive.

1. Turn someone’s generality into an absolute. For example, if someone makes a general statement that Americans celebrate Christmas, point out that some people are Jewish and so anyone who thinks that ALL Americans celebrate Christmas is stupid. (Bonus points for accusing the person of being anti-Semitic.)

2. Turn someone’s factual statements into implied preferences. For example, if someone mentions that not all Catholic priests are pedophiles, accuse the person who said it of siding with pedophiles.

3. Turn factual statements into implied equivalents. For example, if someone says that Ghandi didn’t eat cows, accuse the person of stupidly implying that cows deserve equal billing with Gandhi.

4. Omit key words. For example, if someone says that people can’t eat rocks, accuse the person of being stupid for suggesting that people can’t eat. Bonus points for arguing that some people CAN eat pebbles if they try hard enough.

5. Assume the dumbest interpretation. For example, if someone says that he can run a mile in 12 minutes, assume he means it happens underwater and argue that no one can hold his breath that long.

6. Hallucinate entirely different points. For example, if someone says apples grow on trees, accuse him of saying snakes have arms and then point out how stupid that is.

7. Use the intellectual laziness card. For example, if someone says that ice is cold, recommend that he take graduate courses in chemistry and meteorology before jumping to stupid conclusions that display a complete ignorance of the complexity of ice.

Those are the basic tools that come to mind.

- Portion of Scott's post ends -

I am quite a fan of Scott Adams, regular reader of his blog, like him despite occasional disagreements, and do a good job of recommending God's Debris to my friends. Hence, I think he wouldn't have a problem with my stealing from his blog entry and posting here. I am also counting on the fact that I lack the talent to write anything that'll make people laugh out loud and that deserves some sympathy from the best professional humorist around.

The original post, by the way, is titled Results of Why I'm Stupid, but you need to know the context of past few posts by Scott in order to appreciate this one fully. I have pasted only the part that can be understood without context. You can find the original post here.

Rest Energy and Kinetic

1. Rest energy of a body - m c^2
2. Kinetic energy of a body - 0.5 m v^2

Leaving aside the formal definitions of these energies, I am linking the formulae to some philosophy:

• The energy in you defines who you are.
• Your mass is something you were born with.
  
  
• When you are at rest 'who-you-are' is defined by the universe
  
• By the mass it gave you, and
• By the speed at which it moves
  
  
• When you are moving, who-you-are is defined by two things
• By the mass the universe assigned to you, and
  
• By the speed and the direction in which you are moving
  
  
• Independent of the magnitudes of these values, when you're moving, you're more defined by the speed and direction you choose than the mass assigned to you.
  

When will you call it quits?

Yesterday was the first day of year 2 of my salary-less survival. Not that this is the first time, I've gone through such a time. In fact, it is the fourth time. What makes this time special is that the last times my struggle periods (if-i-may-call-them-that) lasted for 3 months, 2 months and 2 months respectively. This time I've broken my record. I've just begun the 13th month. And I am hoping 13 proves to be my lucky number!

I often wonder how each of these times were different. And few of my friends who look at such a pathetic (their opinion) state, do find it intriguing that every time I got myself into the situation knowing fully well the repercussions - It never happened, I always did it! Let's see.

The first time, I came to Delhi without a job, without a house to live in, and without a relative in town. Mistake, mistake and mistake. It was through sheer luck that I could find decent and secure dwelling on my day one. The first time, I spent money on my bike and went hungry so I could find a job. I was someone who made mistakes.

The second time, I lost two well positioned jobs due to my simple yet profound dumbness. I hated marketing / sales, I hated doing business, and I depended too much upon god-knows-what. Dumb, dumb, and dumb. The second time I spent money on keeping myself alive in Delhi winters and went hungry so I could find a better job. I was someone who had shown an aptitude for dumbness.

The third time, I left the job gotten above with much hardship at 04:30 in the morning cuz I couldn't take in the environment. I underestimated the chill of January in Delhi, I underestimated the fact that zero means no more than zero, and I underestimated the past hardships. Ego, ego, and ego. This was probably the worst of all times. There were no jobs in the market, the few that were, were those I wouldn't take (ego), and the ones I would, were not open to undergraduates. The third time, I spent money on nothing cuz I had none, and went hungry while looking for my kind of job. I was someone who had shown traits of arrogance and stubbornness.

The fourth time, which hasn't ended yet, I started a business. The question that one of my far sighted friends keeps asking me is "when will you think it's time to call quits". What a rhetoric question! It is never a time to call quits. Anyway, the point I want to highlight here is, this time I am not going hungry. This time, I am spending money on my car, on the right dresses, on making international calls etc. Yes, borrowed money. Yes, borrowed as personal loan - the kind with the highest interest rates. Yes, since a year. I intend to go as long as banks would let me. Then, I'll sell the car. Then, I'll borrow from my friends. Then, I'll borrow from my family whatever little they can afford. Then, we'll see. Of course, I know it'll never come to all this; we'll make money long before then, but if it does, I'm not setting a limit to how far I'll go.

So, I've proven myself as someone prone to make mistakes, dumb, arrogant, egoist and stubborn. After writing the last paragraph, I'm also certified mad and crazy. Oh yeah, irrational too.

I feel quite at home in this world.

Lesson for an Entrepreneur Part 0

When the Gods are done

Though the fires rage,
And though the gods roar,
And waves mighty big
Prevail upon my shore,
And though the grounds howl,
And though the quakes come ..

.. The most beautiful flowers,
After the snow, .. blossom.

And when the Gods are done,
And when the lands lay bare,
When beasts stay hidden -
It's the Humans who dare.
And when the earth needs help
And the burden is "to create" ..

.. The Great only Human
Can lift the mighty weight.