The Silent Letters

27 January, 2008

Watched the Australian Open Men's Singles final betweer Novak Djokovic and Jo-Wilfred Tsonga. It was one of the more entertaining grand slam finals with the two players playing with aggresion for the ultimate glory. In the end the "Djoker" prevailed over the Frenchman Tsonga and became the first Serb to win a Grand Slam singles title. The result was good for tennis breaking the monotony of Federer winns.

However this post is not about tennis. Seeing the players' names on the screens, a thought crossed my mind. Why does Djokovic begin with a silent "D" and Tsonga with a silent "T". Why are there silent letters in the English dictionary at all. I mean if one does not pronounce these letters why have them in the spelling. I remember spelling knife as nif when I was small because I wrote it the way it sounded. And who was the persom who introduced this concept of silent letters. Must have been a real sadist to have deviced a way to torture generations of people with this crazy idea.

Then maybe this idiosyncracies give the language its appeal. After all, Amitabh Bachhan did once deliver the famous line "English is a very funny lamguage".

Alien on Mars

Maybe I have been watching too much X-Files lately (finsihed the second season now) but this news seems interesting. Mars explorer Spirit has supposedly taken picture of what looks like something resembling a human form on Mars.
Here's a look at the pictures

So is this real or just another hoax?

P.S. - The figure is claimed to be that of a woman but weren't men supposed to be from Mars and women from Venus?

The Kite Runner

Saw the movie today. One of the most moving films which I have seen in the recent times. It tells the story of Amir, a storyteller, and his kite runner and friend and half brother, Hassan. Its also the story of the rapid degenearation of Afghanistan through the eyes of Amir. Afghanistan, a beautiful and happy country in 1976 (when the film begins), is ruined by the Soviet invasion and Amir escapes to USA with his father. However, he comes back in 2000 and sees a strange land completely savaged by the Taliban rule.

The narrative is compelling. One feels for the protagonists and feels sad on seeing the vents which had happened. The move is mostly in the local languages Dari & Pashtu with English subtitles. However there are a few disturbing scenes in the film regarding child abuse.

It has the simple message "There is a way to be good again" and says not all is lost ever

HAPPY 2008

To anyone & everyone who reads this blog....

Wishing You A Very Happy & Prosperous 2008

The World of Status Messages

The following is a compilation of some random gtalk status messages of my friends

Some people use quotations

• What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail: Robert Schuller
• He who dances close to graves, always has to be careful he doesn't fall in: Samuel Zell
• That day she put our heads together, Fate had her imagination about her, Your head so much concerned with outer, Mine with inner, weather. - Robert Frost

Some quote witout any acknowledgement

• Ain't love the sweetest thing Blue-eyed boy meets a brown-eyed girl। (Oh, Oh the sweetest thing.) You can sew it up, but you still see the tear.Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
• ...Coz I must be travelling now, theres too many places I gotta see. I'm free as a bird now, and this bird you cannot change.... na na na na naaa naaa nananananana....
• Outside ideas of right doing and wrong doing, there is a field. I'll meet you there

Some put observations on life

• The fundamental things apply, as time goes by
• Behind every successful man...There's not one but scores of women
• Tomorrow never comes until its too late!
• Good intentions are not good enough...
• Dream is not that you See in Sleep; Dream is that, which doesn't Let you Sleep.
• Sharing is two-way street...when u share with another human being, u always get back more than u gave......Assuming that u r smart enough to share with somebody whose got more stuff than u had in the beginning...

Some put in their own present status

• BM के exam में क्या पढना है ?
• Too close to winning a bloody CAR!!!
• The tummy is back!!
• SEC C ROCKS!!
• Please DND----- If i dont start my studies very soon, i m surely gonna flunk in the exams to come.. OH GOD gimme the strength to pick up d books...

And then there are the random ones

• Can you see plus plus?
• Jab mein use dekhun my dil starts flying, Mujhse baat karle I keep trying, Jab duur jaaye I feel like crying, Arre itna tension mat le I was lying………..
• झुन्ज्हर वाली झेनू वाली झुन्नू का बाबा, किस्सों का कहानियोंका गीतों का चाबा, हे.. आया आया झेनू वाली झुन्नू का बाबा... पोटली में हरी भरी परियोंके पर मंदिरों की घंटी या कलेजओंका बा, हे.. आया आया झेनू वाली झुन्नू का बाबा...

And the one which I liked the most

Here is the test to find whether your mission on earth is finished. IF U ARE ALIVE, IT ISN'T

Random Thoughts & Expressions

Accessed my blog after a long time (nearly a month today). And decided that the blog's description did not look cool enough (whatever that means). Hence the new description which bascially says the same thing in condensed form.

Quite a few things have happened over the past 4 weeks. I have travelled (a lot); visited quite a few temples; played the role of an online quizmaster on a larger scale than before; answwered queies of more people than I can count; saw a few movies; started and completed a couple of television series; played online scrabble with a friend whom I have not seen for years....

So basically just kept a bit busy

And as of now I have been left a bit klueless

http://www.iimi-iris.com/iris-2007/irising/klueless3/default.asp

At present stuck at level 8...

IRIS

1. Natural World - Plants of genus Iris, plants with narrow sword shaped leaves and showy variously coloured flowers.

2. Medical World - The round, contractile membrane of the eye, suspended between the cornea and lens and perforated by the pupil. It regulates the amount of light entering the eye.

3. Physics - A rainbow or rainbow like display of colours.

4. Greek Mythology - Messenger of Gods and Goddess of Rainbow

5. For the residents of Planet I, the most awaited event of the campus life

IRIS ' 07

BE

http://www.iimi-iris.com

Footprints

Lives of great men all remind us

We can make our lives sublime,

And, departing, leave behind us

Footprints on the sands of time;
Footprints, that perhaps another,

Sailing o'er life's solemn main,

A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,

Seeing, shall take heart again.

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The above words came to my mind as the our annual alumni get-together "Footprints" took place. Footprints - a time when the alumni came back to a place where they spent two years, where new friendships were forged, a place of many memories and a place from where a new life started. It was an occasion when a lot of familiar faces were back on campus and some not so familiar ones too. It was an occasion to relive the memories of the days gone by. And for those of us still on campus, an occasion to learn from their experiences.

As for the event was concerned, everything went perfect, whether it was the play having a play within a play within a play (got confused in the end, but it was backed up by brilliant acting) or the party which ended sometime in the early morning (i had slept off by then).

Footprints is over and now for the next stop, IRIS

Till then.... maybe some other things might come up

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

One of the most inspiring pieces of poetry ever written. The occasion then was the Boer War of the 1890s. Have read lots about this poem a lot recently. So decided to post Kipling's words on my blog.

We Are The Champions

I do not have anything much to write anymore. The above pictures should be good enough.

September 24, 2007, Johannesburg, South Africa

India beat Pakistan by 5 runs in a thriller of a match to become the first Twenty20 World Champions.

चक दे इंडिया!