Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Who am I? Poem by Bulleh Shah (1680-1757)

One of my favorites. Was sent the link to the page below by my better half. It has a very good translation!

Have copy-pasted the entire text of the original post on arbitmax because pages have a habit of disappearing on the web :-)

Original Post: ArbitMAX!: August 2008

Copy paste -->


Original poem:

Who am I?
Bulleh Shah (1680-1757)

Na maen momin vich maseet aan
Na maen vich kufar diyan reet aan
Na maen paakaan vich paleet aan
Na maen moosa na pharaun.
Bulleh! Ki jaana maen kaun?

Na maen andar ved kitaab aan,
Na vich bhangaan na sharaab aan
Na maen rindaan masat kharaab aan
Na maen jaagan na vich saun.
Bulleh! Ki jaana maen kaun?

Na maen shaadi na ghamnaaki
Na maen vich paleeti paaki
Na maen aabi na maen khaki
Na maen aatish na maen paun
Bulleh! Ki jaana maen kaun?

Na maen arabi na lahori
Na maen hindi shehar nagauri
Na hindu na turak peshawri
Na maen rehnda vich nadaun
Bulleh! Ki jaana maen kaun?

Na maen bheth mazhab da paaya
Ne maen aadam havva jaaya
Na maen apna naam dharaaya
Na maen baitthan na vich bhaun
Bulleh! Ki jaana maen kaun?

Avval aakhir aap nu jaana
Na koi dooja hor pehchaana
Maethon hor na koi siyaana
Bulleh Shah khadda hai kaun?
Bulleh! Ki jaana maen kaun?



Translation:

I am not a believer inside the mosque
nor a pagan disciple of false rites.
I am not the pure amongst the impure
neither Moses nor the Pharaoh.
Bulleh! Who am I?

I am not in the Vedas
neither in opium nor in wine.
I am not in the drunkard's daze
neither asleep, nor awake.
Bulleh! Who am I?

I am neither in happiness nor in sorrow
neither clean, nor filthy.
I am not from water or the earth
neither fire, nor from air, is my birth.
Bulleh! Who am I?

I am not an Arab, I am not from Lahore,
neither am I from the city of Nagaur.
I am not a Hindu, or a Turk from Peshawar
nor do I stay in Nadaun.
Bulleh! Who am I?

I have never understood the point of religion,
I am not born from Adam and Eve,
I am not just the name,
Neither in stillness, nor in motion.
Bulleh! Who am I?

I am the first, I am the last
None other, have I ever known
I am the wisest of them all
Bulleh Shah - who is this standing here?
Bulleh! Who am I?

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Pink Panther (2006) - I would like to buy a hamburger

Steve Martin is a riot in this movie - one of my all time favorites!!

A sample:
Ponton: He was just found dead in a training facility locker room. Shot in the head.
Clouseau: Was it fatal?
Ponton: Yes.
Clouseau: How fatal?
Ponton: Um, completely.
Clouseau: I want to talk to him now!




Thursday, November 26, 2009

Zen stories


A few of my favorites. Taken from various emails and zen story websites such as
http://www.101zenstories.com and
http://spiritualinquiry.com/zen-stories/


The Nature of Things

Two monks were washing their bowls in the river when they noticed a scorpion that was drowning. One monk immediately scooped it up and set it upon the bank. In the process he was stung. He went back to washing his bowl and again the scorpion fell in. The monk saved the scorpion and was again stung.

The other monk asked him, "Friend, why do you continue to save the scorpion when you know it's nature is to sting?"

"Because," the monk replied, "to save it is my nature."

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Transient

A famous spiritual teacher came to the front door of the King's palace. None of the guards tried to stop him as he entered and made his way to where the King himself was sitting on his throne.

"What do you want?" asked the King, immediately recognizing the visitor.

"I would like a place to sleep in this inn,"
replied the teacher.

"But this is not an inn," said the King,
"It is my palace."

"May I ask who owned this palace before you?"

"My father. He is dead."

"And who owned it before him?"

"My grandfather. He too is dead."

"And this place where people live for a short time and then move on - did I hear you say that it is NOT an inn?"



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Without Fear

During the civil wars in feudal Japan, an invading army would quickly sweep into a town and take control. In one particular village, everyone fled just before the army arrived - everyone except the Zen master.

Curious about this old fellow, the general went to the temple to see for himself what kind of man this master was.

When he wasn't treated with the deference and submissiveness to which he was accustomed, the general burst into anger.

"You fool," he shouted as he reached for his sword, "don't you realize you are standing before a man who could run you through without blinking an eye!"

But despite the threat, the master seemed unmoved.

"And do you realize," the master replied calmly, "that you are standing before a man who can be run through without blinking an eye?"





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Obsessed

Two traveling monks reached a river where they met a young woman. Wary of the current, she asked if they could carry her across. One of the monks hesitated, but the other quickly picked her up onto his shoulders, transported her across the water, and put her down on the other bank. She thanked him and departed.

As the monks continued on their way, the one was brooding and preoccupied. Unable to hold his silence, he spoke out.

"Brother, our spiritual training teaches us to avoid any contact with women, but you picked that one up on your shoulders and carried her!"

"Brother," the second monk replied,
"I set her down on the other side long ago. Why are you still carrying her?"





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Going with the Flow

A Taoist story tells of an old man who accidentally fell into the river rapids leading to a high and dangerous waterfall. Onlookers feared for his life. Miraculously, he came out alive and unharmed downstream at the bottom of the falls. People asked him how he managed to survive.

"I accommodated myself to the water, not the water to me. Without thinking, I allowed myself to be shaped by it. Plunging into the swirl, I came out with the swirl. This is how I survived.”



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Wanting God

A hermit was meditating by a river when a young man interrupted him. "Master, I wish to become your disciple," said the man. "Why?" replied the hermit. The young man thought for a moment. "Because I want to find God."

The master jumped up, grabbed him by the scruff of his neck, dragged him into the river, and plunged his head under water. After holding him there for a minute, with him kicking and struggling to free himself, the master finally pulled him up out of the river. The young man coughed up water and gasped to get his breath.

When he eventually quieted down, the master spoke. "Tell me, what did you want most of all when you were under water."

"Air!" answered the man.

"Very well," said the master. "Go home and come back to me when you want God as much as you just wanted air."



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Publishing the Sutras

Tetsugen, a devotee of Zen in Japan, decided to publish the sutras, which at that time were available only in Chinese. The books were to be printed with wood blocks in an edition of seven thousand copies, a tremendous undertaking.



Tetsugen began by traveling and collecting donations for this purpose. A few sympathizers would give him a hundred pieces of gold, but most of the time he received only small coins. He thanked each donor with equal gratitude. After ten years Tetsugen had enough money to begin his task.



It happened that at that time the Uji River overflowed. Famine followed. Tetsugen took the funds he had collected for the books and spent them to save others from starvation. Then he began again his work of collecting.



Several years afterwards an epidemic spread over the country. Tetsugen again gave away what he had collected, to help his people.



For a third time he started his work, and after twenty years his wish was fulfilled. The printing blocks which produced the first edition of sutras can be seen today in the Obaku monastery in Kyoto.



The Japanese tell their children that Tetsugen made three sets of sutras, and that the first two invisible sets surpass even the last.





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Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Song - Tanhayee (Dil Chahta Hai)



One of my favorites - beautiful song!! Lyrics that touch your heart, and Sonu Nigam singing ... 'nuff said.




YouTube - Tanhayee-Dil Chatha Hai

Wednesday, October 07, 2009

The barcode has turned 57!! In celebration of this event, Google has come up with a logo on their home page.

Article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/07/AR2009100700130.html

Image taken from Google site:



Sunday, September 13, 2009

The flight of swines and the plight of humans

My city, Pune, has been the center of attention in the recent past. Reason: Swine Flu!!

Many cases of the H1N1 virus have been detected in my fine city. Sadly, we lost a number of citizens to this disease ( less than 100, AFAIK, but even 1 death is a death too many).

This post is not about the disease or its technical aspects, or even how to combat the disease. You can Google this and there are a lot of sites that will give you this information.

My post is about the human reactions to the Swine Flu outbreak, and my observations regarding the same.


What I have noticed during the swine flu outbreak is:
  1. People panic easily.
    I know that this disease can kill, but that is no reason to lose your head and run around like headless chickens just because there is such an outbreak. I have seen literally hordes of people looking like extras in a dacoit movie, with masks of all kinds & colors on their faces. Basanti, in suwaron ke saamne mat nacho!!

    People refused to come to offices and work. Those that did stared at everyone else for any signs of discomfort. A slight cough would act as the firing gun for a 100 meter race!! Run for your lives!! She sneezed!! He coughed!! Bhago, bhago!!

    Folks started running away every time someone sneezed or coughed. The fastest way to empty a meeting in those days was to start coughing :-). Normally sane people would jump out of their skins on hearing anyone clearing their throat!! Even I have taken a homeopathic medicine that supposedly "ward off" the Swine Flu (for those interested, the medicine is called "Influenzium 200"). My better half refused to take part in this "swineful" activity (pardon the English).



    There were huuuuuuuuge queues in front of hospitals that were screening patients for Swine flu. IMO, the fastest way of getting this disease is to stand in a line for hours and hours with people who might have it...

    It would be funny if it weren't so tragic. In the past globally we have had SARS, bird flu, etc. This seems to be a trend that would continue in coming years (I would be glad to be proved wrong on this one). So the solution can't lie in panicking and losing one's head. We as citizens have to get together, think logically and act sensibly.


  2. The Government at the Centre worked reasonably well, the ones at the State level slept.
    The Central government actually took steps that were reasonably rapid. This is a big thing in India!! Governments do not work here!! They usually fiddle like that Nero chap while Delhi/Chennai/Pune etc. burn.

    But I will give the Devil his due. Our Central government did a reasonably good job of reacting to this crisis. Medicines were procured rapidly and dispatched. The Health Minister monitored the crisis personally.

    The reason the rating is still "reasonably good" is that no one came before the news media and gave a fast, rational respone to the crisis. No one at the higher level did a good job or reassuring the people of the country that this crisis was being dealt with. And the honorable Health minister made some statements that come under the irresponsible category (what's new?). Crisis management lessons, anyone?


    The State government failed miserably.
    Schools were not closed in time. Now anyone can tell you that any outbreak spreads the most rapidly in schools. In a school, children come in contact with hundreds of other children. They go home and play with other children from other schools. They also naturally come in contact with their own families. It is really a simple thing to deduce that the impact of not closing schools in time would be disastrous.
    But then, this is the Sarkar, yaar!!

    Another thing that the State government did not do was open more screening centers for checking those folks who had flu-like symptoms. The result was huge queues of hundreds or maybe even thousands of people at a handful of centers. This was totally unnecessary and avoidable.

    Public festivals like Dahi Handi and Ganeshotsav were not stopped by the government. It was the mandals who carried out a low-key affair in both cases.

    Also same thing as the Centre level - no one came forward to assuage the fears of the populace.


  3. Doctors and Nursing staff worked their hearts out.
    In India, it is always the "mango people" / aam janta / ordinary blokes who show courage under fire. Ministers push you into the fire.

    Anyway, a salute to the unsung heroes of the crisis! Doctors and nursing staff at the Naidu Hospital and Aundh Chest hospital in Pune (among others), worked their respective behinds off. A special thanks to the staff at NIV, Pune for testing thousands and thousands of samples that poured in from all over the country. I know that they must not have gotten any rewards for this - monetary or otherwise. But still kudos to all of you!!


  4. People's hygienic(?) habits remained unchanged.
    In spite of all the notices put up everywhere detailing how Swine flu spreads, the lack of hygiene continued. Spitting in public continued unabated. So did "clearing" your nose (for those who don't know, that entails removing the good stuff from the insides of the nostrils and depositing it on the roads). The more you think about it, there doesn't seem to be much difference between pigs and such people.

    People still do not wash their hands when they should. Nuff said.

    This kind of "swineful" behavior (I should get this word added to the dictionary) is not unique to Pune, and can be seen all over India. But one would think that the Swine Flu would improve folks, out of fear at least if nothing else. No such luck.


So what next? We wait for the next outbreak.
The next time it could be from donkeys. Why not? We have a lot of them anyway - not just the the four-legged but the two-legged kind as well. Hee Haw!!

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Funny Hindi Shayari

Found this on various sites on the net ....




Usne mehndi laga rakhi thi
Humne uski doli utha rakhi thi
Hum ko maloom tha ke woh bewafa niklegi
Issi liye humne pehle se uski behan pata ke rakhi thi!!

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Meri jindagi ek jua banke reh gayi
Meri jindagi ek jua banke reh gayi
Maine jise pyaar kiya
Woh mere baccho ki bua banke reh gayi

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Gum ho gayi make-up mein
Asli ki pehchan
Upar se Taj Mahal
Andar se kabristaan!!

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Dil ke armaan aasu me beh gaye
Ye aashique ka dard tha
Jo baat unse kehni thi
Light chali gayi aur unki mummy se keh gaye!!

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Vo aaj bhi hume dekh kar muskurate hain
Vo aaj bhi hume dekh kar muskurate hain
Yeh to unke bachche hi kamine hain
Jo Mama Mama kehke bulaate hain

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Kadam kadam pe hawa ki aahat ka dhyan rakhna,
Mushkil samay mein bhi iss dost ko yaad rakhna,
Hamari yaadon ki khushboo zaroor aayegi,
Tum bus apni naak saaf rakhna!!

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Teri yaad mein humne kalam uthaayi
Liya paper aur tasveer aapki banayi
Socha tha ki usko dil se laga kar rakhenge
Magar vo to bacho ko daraane ke kaam aayi...

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Saturday, August 08, 2009

What’s the occasion?




I have a habit of periodically buying sweets/chocolates in bulk, and distributing them to colleagues and friends in my office. I do this most of the time for no rhyme or reason whatsoever.

I send a “Sweets at my desk” e-mail to inform people of the availability of the same.
What happens most of the time is that people read the mail, rush over, take a sweet and then ask – “What’s the occasion? Why are you distributing sweets?”

They expect some “logical” answer – e.g. buying something new, some achievement, some good news, or if nothing else, a birthday!!

I often wonder why we adults always try to look for a “logical” reason all the time. Have you ever given a sweet to a child? The child takes it without asking you the reason, eats it up as fast as he/she can, and then brings his hand forward and asks “Do you have some more?” He does not think of the reason why the sweet was purchased – just the pure enjoyment of eating it is the goal!!

It is sad that as we grow up, we lose the quality of living in the moment. Our worldly wisdom comes in the way of enjoying something wholeheartedly. The flight of a butterfly, warm sun rays in winter, the shimmering moonlight bouncing off the surface of a lake, the sound of the ocean, a babbling brook, a sunset or sunrise, the first rain showers of the season …
If nature stopped and thought “Why should these things happen? What’s the occasion?” Then we might not have any of these at all. Thank God that Nature does not wait for any ceremonial reason to do things!!


So next time someone asks me “What’s the occasion?”, I might reply “Life”. That is a great reason to celebrate, isn’t it?



© Amit Shirodkar, 2009. All rights reserved

Monday, July 06, 2009

Movie Review: Kambakkth Ishq


Short review: Utterly hopeless.

Long review:
1. No story.

2. Kareena tries to match/outdo Priyanka's "exposure" in Dostana. She is backed up by "Take Kareena, get me free" Amrita Arora.

3. Sleazy dialogues, toilet humor and scenes galore. Akshay Kumar breaking wind on a bride's face is one example. The fact that the bride was Amrita still does not justify it.

4. Talented actors like Boman Irani & Javed Jaffri totally wasted.

5. Lots of money spent and wasted on Sylvester Stallone & Denise Richards.
Without a story, even Hollywood superstars can't do anything.

6. Akshay Kumar's timing - comic or otherwise fails most of the time. The only good scene was his acceptance speech at the awards ceremony.


The movie is like a house where a tremendous amount of money has been spent
on the interior decoration, but while building it the foundation was left rotten. As expected, ultimately it collapses :-).

Tuesday, June 09, 2009

Adding Flickr gadget to Blogger

If you have both Flickr and Blogger accounts, then this might be useful for you..

You can add a small preview of your Flickr photos on your Blogger site. You can choose the layout, how many snaps to preview, etc. Just follow the link below for instructions ...

Link: Bill's Blog: Adding Flickr gadget to Blogger

Thursday, June 04, 2009

Gunmaster G-9!!


For those who don’t know, the great Mithunda played a James Bond-like character called “GunMaster G-9” in 2 movies (Suraksha followed by Wardat).

Here are a few fantastic scenes depicting the one and only Mithunda as Gunmaster G-9!!



  1. World-famous Kung-Fu (Suraksha):

Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan are nothing compared to the fists of fury of Mithunda!! Watch him execute some superb moves with his special battle cry (Aaaayeeeee!!)

Also check out the ferocious man-eating fish in the end – awesome!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRK-xLl_Des



  1. Asli Bengal Tiger (Wardat):

Who is the real Bengal Tiger? Mithunda – Koi Shaq??

If a tiger can jump fast, Mithunda can jump faster!! There is no one who can match his speed and talent!! Watch him fight with a tiger (and give him a dental checkup at the same time)!!

This scene has other gems like a woman throwing knives gently at people and yet managing to kill them, unique time bomb (melting candles can kill you!!), etc. etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eq6KNgKfe3g



  1. Theme song (Suraksha):

Bond-like theme song sung by another great – Bappi Lahiri!! “Mausam hai gaane ka …

Since India is cheaper than the west, we seem to have gotten a lot of Bond girls (buy 1 get 4 free)!! See them dance around Mithunda like a merry go-round and also get stuffed into a car or boat. Also there is a lady in red who dances like she has been possessed!!

Plus a spectacular save of a child and some funky special effects in red/green background….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEH3qxNmlNg

Monday, May 25, 2009

Windows: OverDisk - Visualize Folder Size Allocatio

An utility that helps you find which folders on a drive are taking the maximum space. Easy to use. Has graphical visualization that helps you zero in on the folders that are taking maximum space on that drive.

Link: Elias Fotinis OverDisk :: Visualize Folder Size Allocation

Friday, May 22, 2009

Monday, April 27, 2009

Enabling Reply To All in Microsoft Outlook

Some companies disable the "Reply to All" feature in Microsoft Outlook. Now why they choose to do that is beyond me.

I know that a few users do abuse this feature - I think all of us have gotten annoying mails from someone or the other who chose to do a "Reply All" instead of using his/her common sense.
But having such a drastic solution for this problem creates more problems than it solves. It handicaps users who have to do a legitimate "Reply All" for work related mails. (Or even when you have to reply to say 5 out of the 7 people on the mail thread - doing a Reply to All and then removing the extra 2 folks is much easier than pasting everyone's email ID again).

But, fortunately, there is a workaround. You can't enable the "Reply To All" button. But you can create a new button that does exactly the same thing as that one.

Read the post below. I have tried it myself, and it works!!

Link: Neil Mitchell's Haskell Blog: Enabling Reply To All in Outlook

Monday, April 13, 2009

And the usability award goes to .... Microsoft Outlook Address book!!




Just thought of letting you know that Microsoft Outlook’s address book is the clear winner in the Usability awards section!!



Sample 1: --> If you want to remove a person from a list/group that you have created, then you have to double-click the list. Then the following UI shows up.

[clip_image001.jpg]





E.g. if I select “User 1” and then press the cross (X) or delete button, "User 1" should get deleted from the “List-Sample” list. Correct?



Wrong!! Guess what happens?



The list “List-Sample” itself gets deleted!! And that too without a confirmation dialog. So you have no way of knowing that you are about to delete a list. There is no Undo function here as well.




Sample 2: --> You can’t copy a list. You have to add the same members all over again in the new one.




Hats off to great innovation at Microsoft!! I guess the user group that they tested the address book with didn’t know any people and hence their address book must have been empty :-).

Wednesday, April 08, 2009

Earth Hour 2009

More than 1,000 cities in over 80 countries observed Earth Hour 2009 on Saturday March 28th. See the effect it had - just fantastic!! If we make this a regular event, it will go a long way in conserving resources on our planet ...

Link:
Earth Hour 2009 - The Big Picture - Boston.com

Friday, March 13, 2009

Why usability training is required for engineers

I am a software engineer myself. But sometimes I think that one of the subjects that should compulsorily be taught in Software Engineering is Usability and User Centric Design. Because this subject is not taught, engineers end up making the end user's life very difficult, thus defeating the very purpose of creating software for that user.


Latest reason: My extremely poor user experience with using Motorola Phone Tools (MPT).


Background: I have a Motorola Razr V3I phone, purchased 2-3 years ago. One day, it suddenly started giving me trouble. Whenever I tried to read my SMS Outbox, the phone would reboot!!


I thought I would try a software upgrade. So I went to the Motorola website and downloaded the latest software for the cell phone.

The upgrade went off well overall, except for the part that it wiped out all my contacts. The upgrade did not prompt me to save my personal data manually in another location (it only had a check box for automatic backup and restore). Otherwise I might have done that to save me further grief. But that is a separate story. At least it brought back a lot of my personal data.


The real fun started now. Fortunately I had taken a backup of my cell's Contacts folder a few months ago. So I had something to fall back on.

The backup was taken by Motorola Phone Tools (MPT). I started MPT, and asked it to restore the data.
Data restored, me happy, right? Wrong!! The software failed to restore a backup that it itself had taken!! Wow!!

Googling revealed that a later version of MPT might solve the problem. So I downloaded MPT ver 4.5 and tried with it.


MPT deleted my SIM card's contents. It deleted my phone's contacts. It restored my SIM's contents. And it .... DID NOT restore my phone's contacts!!

"Failed to restore data" was the extremely verbose and helpful error message given by MPT.


I am a Software Engineer, and we do not give up that easily!! I opened the file that had the contacts list (approx 500). It was a text file (delimited by semi-colons ";" for the tech-savvy people out there).


Instead of all the records, I took 50 at a time. The 1st 50 succeeded!! I had 50 contacts transferred to my phone. Then I took the next 50, and so on.

I had a failure for the 251-300th records case. I then narrowed it down to 1 record. Changing 1 field made that record pass!! Actually it was 1 number that I changed, and presto!! It worked.

To cut a long story short, only 2 records out of 500 had problems!! And for that I got absolutely no help from MPT itself!!

There were many reasonable options that MPT developers could have given:
  1. Say that "2 out of 500 records are bad".
  2. Pointed out which ones were bad.
  3. Pointed out which field in the bad records was causing a problem with the import.
  4. Given tips on how to fix it.
  5. Imported the remaining 498!! How difficult is it to ignore failures and move on with the rest of the data?


Seriously, the folks who worked on that piece need a crash course on thinking from the end user's point of view. If I had not been an engineer myself, I would have quit long back on trying to get anything to work.



I still am going to quit - on Motorola cell phones. My next one will definitely NOT be a Motorola.



I have great respect for the Motorola company. This is one company that has extremely high standards for their products. Their hardware products are one of the best.


But if they are taking no pains with the usability of their products, then there is no point in buying from them - especially if the product happens to be a consumer one.

I know that the engineering team that made MPT must be working hard. They probably did not think that in case an error occurs, they should take pains to make life easier for folks that are using the software. But this is no excuse.

God knows how many such engineers in different companies are writing software that is fundamentally good, but lacks in usability. According to me, User centric design is NOT optional. In today's world, it is a must.


Usability design training must be given to each and every engineer working on a software product. Making life easier for the end user must be one of the goals of any software project ...

Friday, February 13, 2009

La BoƮte noire (The Black Box)


Saw this on Star Movies yesterday - French movie with subtitles.


Story: Arthur is driving on a steep road. Suddenly his car skids, and he has a major accident. After he wakes up, he has trouble remembering details of his life.

But there is hope. While he was not conscious, he blurts out a lot of details which the hospital nurse picks up. She writes it all down in a black diary. These notes contain the keys to various parts of his subconscious memory - or the "black box" that is present in everyone's mind.


There is a lingering trauma in Arthur's life that had happened when he was young. He must solve this to have peace. Arthur desperately tries to solve this puzzle with the help of these snippets. The way he goes about doing that and what happens to him along the way forms the basis of the movie.

The movie cuts from reality to fantasy and back so quickly that one is kept guessing as to what is being currently shown - is it a dream or not?


The end was sadly below my expectations. Also after having watched Memento, I would rank this one as much lower than that.

See it for the visual effects (good old camera work, not animation) and slick direction.


Friday, January 23, 2009

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Glory in the flower - Wordsworth



Came across this and thought of sharing. From “Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood” by William Wordsworth.


What though the radiance which was once so bright

Be now for ever taken from my sight,

Though nothing can bring back the hour

Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;


We will grieve not, rather find

Strength in what remains behind;


In the primal sympathy

Which having been must ever be;

In the soothing thoughts that spring

Out of human suffering;

In the faith that looks through death,

In years that bring the philosophic mind.



Full ode at http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15926

Friday, January 09, 2009

The new Satyam nursery rhyme



Got 2 rhymes in my mail about the Satyam scandal. I got inspired to make a third one.

2 rhymes in the mail:


Raju Raju sat on a wall
Raju Raju had a great fall
Balance sheet died
Shareholders cried
Raju Raju made a fraud




Raju Raju
Yes baba
Cheating us
No baba
Telling Lies
No baba
Open the balance sheet
HA HA HA





My composition (original):

Rock a bye investor

On the Satyam stock top

When the Maytas deal breaks

The exchange will rock

When the fraud breaks

The Satyam will fall

Down will come investor

Raju and all


Thursday, January 01, 2009

Common Errors in English



Very nice site. Lists common mistakes that we make in English e.g. bullion vs bouillon.


Link: http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/errors.html