Dilbert codes in Java

To the delight of Java programmers, Scott Adams confirmed that Dilbert codes in Java in yesterday's strip ...


It is the second strip of a two-strip story and the first strip ...

... is arguably funnier.

Lesson for an Entrepreneur Part III

Love all you may, friends and fellow comrades;
And share all you may - songs, blood and blades;
But remember the lesson from defeat in wars -
Is all there is that's yours -
At the end, every battle is fought alone.

And laugh all you may, be joyous while you can;
And enjoy the sweet company - of wine, dance and clan;
But remember the lesson from victory in wars -
Is all there is that's yours -
At the end, every victor stands alone.

Lesson for an Entrepreneur Part II

What I learn

What I seek
Is the Perch
And the Flight

What I ask
Is the Entirety
Un-applied

What I learn
Is the Grey
And the White

And that what matters
Is not the Dog
But his Fight.

Bewildered of this -
Ever blackening darkness
Whenever I cried

What I found
Was morning
By my side.

What fate plays
Is the Seek
And the Hide

What results
Is the Man
And his Might.

Lesson for an Entrepreneur Part I

From success, from progress, from duress -
There is only one thing to learn.
There is only one thing to learn
From loss, from profit, from no, from yes :

Even worlds below the sea follow Jungle Rule -
The big fish will eat the small one,
The small fish will eat the little one,
And the littlest - Will die a fool.

Blue Canvas

Pigeons!
Ships!
Tigers!
Trees!!
Hearts!
Cupids!
Hills!
And seas!!
Flowing,
Blowing,
Glowing,
Such pomp and show!
Orange,
Yellow,
Purple,
Even Indigo!
...
The clouds are out playing today:
FANCY DRESS COMPETITION

While Girls Dance

While girls dance
And boys repair toys
While boys play
And girls play boys
While pigeons laugh
And stars fall rolling
While moms smile
And buddies come calling
While moons rise
While friends win
While trees grow
While dads sing ..
Oh yes, you can live those
And find on your own
That God doesn't like prose
And whenever he is all alone
He takes these times
(The recipe is a mystery -
May be just adds rhymes)
And (wow!) creates poetry

I introduced a lawn in a short Hindi poem earlier, and later translated it into English. The same lawn is the inspiration behind this work. For the record, I am a non believer. Still, I wonder if the creator takes a break every evening at 6pm just to watch kids play in that small lawn.

Love

The worst it does
Is it gives you dreams
And kills them all.

It lets you paint
An imagination,
It gives you colors you never knew were
It lits all shades of desire afire;
And then it reveals reality
- The only color ashen,
And laughs at the look on your shocked face
Slowly stealing away the desire to desire.

The best it does
Is it breaks your heart
And takes away hope.

It holds your hands
And whispers it's OK
No happy no sad, no life no death
A simple solution to a complex problem.
Between tears and sighs
For you - it finds a way
It gives you a shoulder to cry and cries
And leaves you wise, though a lot more lonesome.

Love, like all other illusions
Begins and lives
As that which it is not
As that which it never was.

Love, like all other illusions
Begins and lives
As that which it is not
As that which it never was.

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!