"I can accept anything, except what seems to be the easiest for most people: the half-way, the almost, the just-about, the in-between."

This is one of Ayn Rand's quotes from "The Fountainhead".

It is a very interesting quote. Why you may ask, why does it interest me? I aim to follow this rule in any work that I do. Anything that we do, should be done with complete honesty and effort. What is the use of a half-hearted attempt at a particular job? Does it not reflect on our capability? Does it not reflect on our character? Our work ethic?

At times, it feels like I'm being naive. But then, I wonder... What gives us the right to say some jobs are worthless and some aren't? Nothing. Whatever a person does, is his choice or necessity. But he has the choice to do it well. And if he doesn't want to do it all, then why continue in that job? If it is a necessity, then why do we complain about it? One might say, if we can't complain to our friends and close ones, who else do we talk to... but just ranting about something doesn't necessarily make it better. Maybe, instead of that, we need to take charge of our own lives and do something. The definition of that something might be different for different people. Does this mean something good? Or something right? By whose standards?

This reminds me of another one of her quotes from "Atlas Shrugged" ... "For centuries, the battle of morality was fought between those who claimed that your life belongs to God and those who claimed that it belongs to your neighbors - between those who preached that the good is self-sacrifice for the sake of ghosts in heaven and those who preached that the good is self-sacrifice for the sake of incompetents on earth. And no one came to say that your life belongs to you and that the good is to live it."

How true.

Chemistry...

I have always wondered what draws a person to another. We make friends so easily with some people... Its instinctual... Chemistry, its termed. You have a good chemistry, people say. But I have always wondered how it works. Haven't you?

It is defined as a force acting between two people that tends to draw them together and resist their separation. Causes are stated as similarity (Birds of a feather flock together) , more exposure to a person, complementarity (Opposites attract) and so on and so forth. But it still doesn't explain it completely. It is easier to just presume it to be another one of the mysterious workings of our mind and let it be. But the question still stands...

Words of Kahlil Gibran

Some of the verses of Kahlil Gibran that I found absolutely beautiful and inspiring. Here they are...

"My house says to me, 'Do not leave me, for here dwells your past.'
And the road says to me, 'Come and follow me, for I am your future.'
And I say to both my house and the road,
'I have no past, nor have I a future.
If I stay here, there is a going in my staying;
And if I go there, there is a staying in my going.
Only love and death change all things.' "

"Give me an ear and I will give you a voice... "

"My loneliness was born when men praised my talkative faults and blamed my silent virtues."

"Poetry is not an opinion expressed. It is a song that rises from a bleeding wound or a smiling mouth."

"You see but your shadow, when you turn your back on the sun."

"Should we all confess our sins to one another, we would all laugh at one another for our lack of originality. Should we reveal our virtues, we would also laugh for the same cause."

"If it were not for our conception of weights and measures, we would stand in awe of the firefly as we do before the sun."

"The truly great man is he who would master no one and he who would be mastered by none."

"If you reveal your secrets to the wind, you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees."

"Behold here is a paradox: the deep and the high are nearer to one another than the mid level to either."

Every waking moment he spends,
Thinking... Talking... Worrying,
About his victories, about his loss.
Guilt, hangs around his neck,
Just like an albatross...
'Is it me?' he wonders,
'Is it me causing this mess?
What is it that I'm doing wrong?
Or is it all just, in my head?'
It eats away at his soul,
Every waking moment of day.
Till there's nothing left of him,
Only emptiness where his heart lay...

The webs people weave,
About their lives, about their death,
About their hopes and their dreams.
No matter who they are or where they're from,
There's always something they fear.
Something they love, something they hate,
Something that's much too dear.
We fear the loss, we fear the change,
But question it? We wouldn't dare...
What if something goes wrong, we say.
But what really matters is the love we share.
What is it that escapes us?
Why are things the way they are?
Is there something that we aren't doing?
Or are we just trying too hard...?

Upon the lonely road, one wanders,
Knowing not what lies ahead.
What is it that you're looking for?
What is it that you dread?
What is this that engulfs one's soul?
Is it loneliness or emptiness or something more.
This void that fills you up,
You know not what to do anymore...

Tormented by past demons,
The future is held in sway.
Is it right, is it wrong, one wonders,
For the present is swept away.
Reflections of the past,
Color the hues of today...

Tenjewberrymuds!

This is one of the funniest links ever!!!
One of my friends sent this to me, and it had me in fits of laughter!!

http://jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/16076.htm

Read aloud for the right effect!

Goa.

Another post today!
I'm on a roll!! :)

Well, actually this is more of photographs than anything more.. A couple of weekends back, I went to Goa. Beautiful place. Last time I went there was on a school trip, where we went to mostly the popular places. This time, was more of secluded beaches, road trips and the like. Here are some of the beautiful places, captured on the lens.



Yes, these aren't the only photographs. Ofcourse not, people who know me, know that there must be atleast hundreds more...!!!! But these are a few which I think are beautiful.

Movies, movies and more movies...

This weekend has been spent in watching movies.
I have now seen:
Milk.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
Changeling.
Mamma Mia.
Pink Panther 2.
Raaz 2.
Luck by Chance.

Yes, that's a lot of movies for 2 days, make that 1 1/2 days.. But it was fun, to be a couch potato after a very long time..

The first three movies, brilliant acting. Sean Penn has outdone himself as Harvey Milk. Really. I've always considered him to be a really good actor, but this was an almost perfect performance. Brad Pitt as Benjamin button, very controlled acting. His portrayal of a child trapped in a much older body was touching. You could actually see the child-like innocence. Angelina Jolie, as a mother looking for her son, comes across as just that, a troubled mother looking for her lost son. Considering that I don't really like her for her acting skills, it was a pleasant surprise to see her in this role. One can almost feel her character's anguish, which says a lot about her work in this movie.

Pink Panther 2. The movie wasn't anything memorable. It just looked like the same ol' same ol'. I personally prefer the Peter Sellers' movies, but then, atleast the first movie was better than this sequel. Mamma Mia was a pleasant change from all the serious movies. A musical, through and through, it was a light-hearted comedy which was a lot of fun! Raaz 2, not a movie I would recommend to anyone! Nothing more to be said about it. Luck by Chance, was again an interesting surprise. I expected a normal hindi commercial movie - loads of over-acting and not much of a story. But to be truthful, it was a very pleasant movie to watch. Nothing earth shattering, but not a bad movie, either. Even though the performances weren't memorable, the acting was really good. I didn't once get bored in the movie (except that I forwarded all the Song sequences!) .

All in all, a great weekend! Should repeat it again.. Not too soon, though! :)

The Brilliance of Ogden Nash

The other day, in Crossword, I happened to walk in and see this book "Candy is Dandy"... it was a collection of Ogden Nash's verses.. I bought it after just browsing through the content, and what a great buy it was!

After reading the verses, I started looking into more of his work. Brilliant!
Here's something that Anthony Burgess said about his work as an introduction...

"I have never in my life said anything other than laudatory
Of the work of Ogden Nash, whose innovations were chiefly auditory,
Meaning that he brought a new kind of sound to our literary diversions
And didn't care so much about breaking the poetic laws of the Medes and the Persians. "

Some of his verses are so precocious that you just laugh! I'm going to put some down right here... :)


REFLECTION ON ICE-BREAKING
Candy
Is dandy
But liquor
Is quicker.

MORE ABOUT PEOPLE
When people aren't asking questions
They're making suggestions
And when they're not doing one of those
They're either looking over your shoulder or stepping on your toes
And then as if that weren't enough to annoy you
They employ you.
Anybody at leisure
Incurs everybody's displeasure.
It seems to be very irking
To people at work to see other people not working.
So they tell you that work is wonderful medicine,
Just look at Firestone and Ford and Edison,
And they lecture you till they're out of breath or something
And then if you don't succumb they starve you to death or something.
All of which results in a nasty quirk:
That if you don't want to work you have to work to earn enough money so that you won't have to work.

OLD MEN
People expect old men to die,
They do not really mourn old men.
Old men are different. People look
At them with eyes that wonder when...
People watch with unshocked eyes;
But the old men know when an old man dies.

TO A SMALL BOY STANDING ON MY SHOES WHILE I AM WEARING THEM
Let's straighten this out, my little man,
And reach an agreement if we can.
I entered your door as an honored guest.
My shoes are shined and my trousers are pressed,
And I won't stretch out and read you the funnies
And I won't pretend that we're Easter bunnies.
If you must get somebody down on the floor,
What in the hell are your parents for?
I do not like the things that you say
And I hate the games that you want to play.
No mater how frightfully hard you try,
We've little in common, you and I.
The interest I take in my neighbor's nursery
Would have to grow, to be even cursory.
And I would that performing sons and nephews
Were carted away with the daily refuse,
And I hold that frolicsome daughters and nieces
Are ample excuse for breaking leases.
You may take a sock at your daddy's tummy
Or climb all over your doting mummy,
But keep your attentions to me in check,
Or, sonny boy, I will wrong your neck.
A happier man today I'd be,
Had someone wrung it ahead of me.

REFLECTION ON THE FALLIBILITY OF NEMESIS
He who is ridden by a conscience
Worries about a lot of nonscience;
He without benefit of scruples
His fun and income soon quadruples.