IF

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 all 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!


--Rudyard Kipling

Maine dil se kaha dhund lana khushi....

It is said that even if happiness forgets you a little bit, never completely forget about it. So I decided to put down 5 odd things which made me surprisingly glad in the last 5 days

1) A hindi radio station being played in the bus and me enjoying the same despite a rickety one hour ride simply because it is the first day I realize that there do exist people in the city who enjoy songs which are not in Kannada :P
2) Having roamed around practically the whole of Bangalore in 25 Rs…
3) Walking into a pub only to realize Knopfler being played making me reminiscent of times spent with a close friend
4) Picking up books from the roadside after a looong day at work
5) A looong lunch with a friend on a lazy sat afternoon

So as this week ends and a new one knocks on the door.. my quest continues….

Buttermilk at a bar!!!

Today was historical of sorts because I have never visited a bar in my life and here I was visiting the shadiest bars in the city. The only equally dingy place that I have ever been to is probably the railway platform but heck such bars contribute to huge volumes for the company so who cares how it is. Something by the name of Arun Bar if I am not mistaken, a nondescript place in the midst of South Bangalore. I walk in tying not to stare at the people yet absorb everything possible about the place. The ASM thinks we need to have visibility at such a place so I am a part of a discussion where in I don’t comprehend anything because it is in Kannada but still try to gather bits and pieces. The discussion progresses and I am offered a glass of buttermilk in a glass of 8 pm and as I stare at my drink ;-) I wonder whether things could be more ironical. As I ponder about the cleanliness of the glass yet start having the buttermilk, I realize probably the tastiest buttermilk I ever had .So while people ask me what I drank during my first field visit, pat comes my reply… BUTTERMILK !!!

Some old.. Some new....

With Yellow Ledbetter crooning in my ears, a fine reading light alleviating the darkness of the room, and my data card playing games, the atmosphere seems perfect to pen something down. It has been some days since I wrote something and though there was a constant urge to write, I could just not gather around ideas to put something down. A friend of mine tells me that ideas are those little bubbles which keep floating around and we need to chase them before they die, so after a gap of more than 6 months I decide to hunt a few of the bubbles down.

After the battering from ten days of trauma named examinations, I recoup by crashing and then rejuvenating myself with some new music. Good music I believe can stir your soul so I reserve this post for the songs I heard for the first time in the last few days and they hogged the limelight on my playlist.

Alive: - Tops my list of picks and one song I wouldn’t mind waking up to and listening to again and again any time of the day. Pleasurable strumming and Pearl Jam gets all brownie points for this one.

Silence and I: - Something that made me recollect all the times that I wanted to be left to let my silences converse with me. Orchestration being the highlights, one song which strangely reminds me of Mozart.

Vienna: - Billy Joel at his regular best and something one can relate to so may times. Soft slow and as mellifluous as it could get.

While the oldies by GnR, Floyd and Clapton envy the new entrants, I look forward to more numbers to give these new ones some competition.....