Love and French Revolution

La mamma morta
m'hanno a la porta
della stanza mia;
moriva e mi salvava!...
Poi a notte alta io cor.Bersi errava,
quando,ad un tratto,un livido
bagliore
guizza e rischiara innanzi a'passi
miei
la cupa via!
Guardo!...Bruciava il loco di mia
culla!
Così fui sola!...E intorno il nulla!
Fame e miseria!...
Il bisogno,il periglio!...
Caddi malata!...
E Bersi,buona e pura,
di sua bellezza ha fatto
un mercato,un contratto per me!
Porto sventura a chi bene mi vuole!

(A un tratto nelle pupille larghe di Ma

dalena si effonde una luce di suprema
gioia, una gran luce profonda come

riflesso di splendore misterioso)
Fu in quel dolore
che a me venne l'amor!
Voce piena d'armonia
E dice: "Vivi ancora! Io son la vita!
Nè miei occhi è il tuo cielo!
Tu non sei sola! Le lagrime tue
io le raccolgo!...io sto sul tuo
Cammino
e ti sorreggo!
Sorridi e spera! Io son l'amore!...
Tutto intorno è sangue e fango?...
Io son divino!...
Io son l'oblio!...
Io sono il dio
che sovra il mondo scende da
l'empireo.
Fa della terra un ciel....
Ah! Io son l'amor!...
E l'angelo si accosta,bacia,e vi
bacia la morte!...
Corpo di moribonda è il corpo
mio!
Prendilo,dunque!..Io son già
Morta cosa!....


Here is the (English translation of the) text to “La Mamma Morta”
It is about the famous and unique romance of “Madeleine” in the ultimate work of Umberto Giordano. It is the dramatic retelling by the Countess of Coigny, who had lost her mother and all things precious with the French Revolution to Gerard, already a butler in his palace and now boss in the tribunal of the people. So that the poet Andrea Chènier could be saved, with whom she is in love, Madeleine was disposed to offer herself to Gerard.

They killed my mother
Close by the doorway leading to
my chamber.
In dying,she saved my life.
Then,at dead of night.
I left the house with Bersi,
And in the distance,
The flames leapt up behind us;
Fierce tongues of fire set all the
sky aglow,
Lighting our path.
My home,my well-loved home,
Was burnt to ashes.
I was alone.
I had no shelter.
Hungry and needy,danger
haunted my footsteps.
Then I fell ill,and Bersi,poor
faitful creature,
She would not leave me:
She bartered her beauty to kee me alive.
I bring misfortune even to those.
who love me.
In all this sorrow,
My poor heart woke to love.
In a voice of soft compassion he
murmured: "Heard him who
calls thee.Life itseid enfolds thee!
In my arms,no harm can befall
thee,
I am here beside thee.
Thy tears of despair,I will banist
Tho guide thy faltering footsteps,
I shall be near thee!
Let joy fill thy being,
For Love itseld am I!
Though thy path be dark with
terror,
I shall bring solace.
Take heart again!
Raise your eyes and behold me;
I come to thee from out the vault
of heavem above,
Making earth a paradise.
The god of Love am I!
The angel hovered near me
And kissed me with the cold kiss
of death.
So take this worthless body,here
before you.
"This as you wish...for I am dead already"

If you want to hear the song.

Osho

Osho is one of the philosopher who have always fascinated me from my childhood days. His writings about Zen are exemplary, I always had a thirst for him. There were days when I used to read it very deeply.

Today I just went thru the list of books which he actually liked.

* TAO TE CHING
* SERMON ON THE MOUNT
* BROTHERS KARAMAZOV
* Thus spoke Zarathustra (he is a great fan of Nietzsche)
* The book of Mirdad
* Jonathan Livingston Seagull (I've read this)
* The parables of Chuang Tzu
* Bhagavad Geeta
* Gitanjali
* The book of sufis
* The Prophet
* The book of Lieh Tzu
* Dialogues of Socrates
* THE NOTES OF THE DISCIPLES OF BODHIDHARMA
* RUBAIYAT
* MASNAVI
* ISA UPANISHAD
* ALL AND EVERYTHING
* IN SEARCH OF THE MIRACULOUS
* LEAVES OF GRASS by Walt Whitman
* HSIN HSIN MING
* TERTIUM ORGANUM
* THE SECOND ORGANUM
* ORGANUM written by Aristotle
* GEET GOVIND
* SAMAYASAR
* THE FIRST AND LAST FREEDOM by J. Krishnamurti

I will write the next list in my upcoming Blogs.... uhhh...

The Japanese Fish Story

The Japanese have always loved fresh fish. But the waters close to Japan have not held many fish for decades. So to feed the Japanese population,fishing boats got bigger and went farther than ever. The farther the fishermen went, the longer it took to bring in the fish. If the return trip took more than a few days, the fish were not fresh. The Japanese did not like the taste of stale fish.

To solve this problem, fishing companies installed freezers on their boats.

They would catch the fish and freeze them at sea. Freezers allowed the boats to go farther and stay longer. However, the Japanese could taste the difference between fresh and frozen and they did not like frozen fish. The frozen fish brought a lower price. So fishing companies installed fish tanks. They would catch the fish and stuff them in the tanks, fin to fin.

After a little thrashing around, the fish stopped moving. They were tired and dull, but alive.

Unfortunately, the Japanese could still taste the difference. Because the fish did not move for days, they lost their fresh-fish taste. The Japanese preferred the lively taste of fresh fish, not sluggish fish.

So how did Japanese fishing companies solve this problem?

Here's what they did:
The Japanese fishing companies still put the fish in the tanks. But now they added a small shark to each tank. The shark eats a few fish, but most of the fish arrive in a very lively state. The fish are active and challenged.

Have you realized that some of us are also living in a pond but most of the time tired & dull, so we need a Shark in our life to keep us awake and moving? Basically in our lives Sharks are new challenges to keep us active and taste better...

The more intelligent, persistent and competent you are, the more you enjoy a challenge just be patient and courageous!!!!

Circle or Line

Circle or Line.... Finite or Infinite...

I'm not a student of Mathematics. This is just my contemplation.

There was one old poem by a Tenali Raman (I think so, or some Telugu Poet). In that poem he says about a situation where there is a large queue of goats standing. Each goat is eating the tail of the goat in front of it. It just came to my mind when I was reading GEB yesterday, which talks about Strange Loops in Godel, Escher and Bach.

The arrangement of the goats can be a Circle or it can be a Line. An line of infinite length is a Circle.

So here is the question, Is there anything infinite. We say that universe is infinite, my thought is when you reach the end of it(you can have a coffee:HGTG), it cycles and you come to beginning of the universe.

Just like mod counters.... once you reach n, the next is zero...

Maybe I will patent this idea... :-)

Courage

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear.
- Mark Twain

Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.
- Ambrose Redmoon

Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.
- John Wayne

I've recently read an article about Courage. Look at the definition of Courage given by John Wayne. Have you experienced it, you will be scared to death, but you will have no other option. You need to move into it, and at last you turn back to yourself and LOL..."Hey Man... if I knew it ..."

There way a poem which comes to my mind... I couldn't get the exact words... but the essence is...

Come here Kid, Come here...
No Mom, You will push me, I will fall

Come here Kid, Come here...
No Mom, You will push me, I will die

Come here Kid, Come here...
The kid came and the Mom pushed...
The Kid flew high...

This is a poem about the first flight of a Cuckoo...

Gödel, Escher, Bach

Recently I've started reading Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter. It is one of the great books in the array of "Alice in the Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll.

"Alice in the Wonderland" is one of my all-time-favorite books. It is not only a book for children, it is a good for intellectuals. You will come to understand when you read it very deeply and contemplate over it again and again.

You will come across many Paradoxes.

Books of Deep Understanding:
* Alice in the Wonderland (& other works by Lewis Carrol)
* How the Mind Works (& other works by Steven Pinker)
* Gödel, Escher, Bach

Zeno Paradox:

It says Achilles (one of fastest runner in the world) cannot overrun a slow tortoise.

The reason is something like this... say tortoise has already started the race and crossed over distance DT, now Achilles is started running. When Achilles comes to DT, let us say the time taken by Achilles to cover the distance DT is TA.

At this point, the tortoise has a time of TA, so covers a distance DT1. Now, Achilles who has already covered DT, takes TA1 interval of time to reach DT1.

At this point, the tortoise has a time of TA1, so covers a distance DT2, Now, Achilles who has already covered DT1, takes TA1 interval of time to reach DT2.


In C++ ...

for(i=1;i!=i;i++) {

At this point, the tortoise has a time of TA(i), so covers a distance DT(i+1), Now, Achilles who has already covered DT(i), takes TA1 interval of time to reach DT(i+1).

}

OPHH.... God Save it. Did you UNDERSTAND.... ?

Golden Car Photos

Night View of the Golden Car

A Close View of the Golden Car

Day View of the Golden Car


Thanks a Prasanna, my schoolmate. Actually speaking, I have stolen it from him.

Life . . .

What is life ... Got is from Orkut...

The adventure of life is to learn.
The purpose of life is to grow.
The nature of life is to change.
The challenge of life is to overcome.
The essence of life is to care.
The opportunity of life is to serve.
The secret of life is to dare.
The spice of life is to befriend.
The beauty of life is to give.
The joy of life is to love.

What about Artificial Life ? Can Life exist inside a computer like what we have seen in Matrix ... Are we living the real life or is it just a computer generated dream world.

Purpose of Life

Some more Quotes...

Happy Independence Day !!!

Some Quotes ....

"Time is a created thing. To say 'I don't have time,' is like saying, 'I don't want to."
-- Lao-Tzu

Whether you be man or woman you will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.

-- James Lane Allen (1849-1925) American Author

"Where you are headed is more important than how fast you are going. Rather than always focusing on what's urgent, learn to focus on what is really important."
-- Stephen Covey

Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.

-- Mother Teresa (1910-1997) Albanian Missionary

"Something almost magical happens when people break through the obstacles that hold them back and discover what is truly inside them."
-- Brian Biro

"Obstacles cannot crush me. Every obstacle yields to stern resolve."
-- Leonardo da Vinci

The Warrior

For the Warrior.....

Will is ...
Will is something very clear and powerful which can direct our acts.
Will is something a Warrior uses, for instance, to win a battle which he, by all calculations, should lose.

Death is ...
... Warrior live with death at their
side, and from the knowledge that
death is with them they draw the
courage to face anything ...

Freedom is ...
Warrior prepare themselves to be aware, and full consciousness
comes to them only when there is no more self-importance let in them.
Only when they are nothing do they become everything


I found it in some pictures, it makes me to remember a Paulo Coelho (Manual of the Light Warrior)

New Genesis

New Genesis:

God created Man, he was lonely(happy). God thought it was not good for Man to be happy so he create Woman.

(It is just a JOKE...)

All that begins well, ends well. The Golden Car Festival went fine. This time I'm able to touch the car. I enjoyed festival, with mouth-watering Biryani and Chicken-65 by my mother-in-law. We are preparing for Baptism of my son, Julius Rohan. We have already given invitation to most of them.

Today, I did some changes in the blog. I have added 2 Page elements. One is the image of Marvin, the next thing is I added the chainreading link to track my readings.

Today's Quote
=============
"When I'm having trouble with someone, it's a sure sign that person is exactly the gift I am needing in my life. Sometimes it takes me years to write the thank you note, though."

-- Unknown


[Private Stuff for me]
On 04-Aug, I attended my grandpa's 16th day remembrance. He is one of the strongest guy I have ever seen. My Grandpa comes from a very poor background. He was a diver, he used to take diving lessons for British officers. He had 6 children, 2-M + 4-W. My mother was the 3rd child. In his last days, none of his children/grandchildren took care of him, except those who he had neglected in his life. He realized it just before his death. If my mother would've stayed alive, she would've taken care of her.

I dedicate this song to my grandpa
===================================
There's a hero,
If you look inside your heart,
You don't have to be afraid of what you are,
There's an answer,
If you reach into your soul,
And the sorrow that you know will melt away.

[chorus]
And then a hero comes along,
With the strenght to carry on,
And you cast your fears aside and you know you can survive,
So when you feel like hope is gone,
Look inside you and be strong,
And you'll finally see the truth that a hero lies in you.

It's a long road,
When you face the world alone,
No one reaches out a hand for you to hold,
You can find love,
If you search within yourself,
And the emptiness you felt will disappear.

[chorus]
Lord knows,
Dreams are hard to follow,
But don't let anyone tear them away,
Hold on,
There will be tomorrow,
In time you'll find the way.

[chorus]
That a hero lies in.....you.......
Ooohh that a hero lies in.....you.....

Science Fiction

Out of all science fiction books I've read, I like Dune Chronicles the most. The Story is set on a Planet named Dune(a waterless planet). It is story about a boy named Paul and how is comes back to power after his father's assassination.

The fictional characters are too good. I once saw the 3 part series in AXN, which I couldn't remember now. It gives us a clear picture of a future society(would-be).

Other than Dune Chronicles, I like HHGG (Hitchhikers Guide to Galaxy). But HHGG is total comedy, it is an old classic. HHGG is as comical as P.G.Wodehouse. I like the Marvin, the Paranoid Android Character in it very much.

Today, I'm leaving to Tuticorin to attend Golden-car festival of Lady of Snows Church. It is conducted after 7 years, it happened in 2000 when I did my First Year MCA in MKU. I invited over 10+ of my classmates, we had a really good time. The picture of PVK eating Crab is still making me to LOL.

Haskel VOD Part-I
Haskel VOD Part-II

Today's Quote
=============
Always laugh when you can. It is cheap medicine.
-- Lord Byron (1788-1824) English Poet