Skip to main content

Quips & Quotes Courtesy Probal

Its one of those quiet uncluttered Saturdays,
When I 'indulge' myself amidst the office space
Leaisurely browsing through the whos-who
And purposefully ticking off the to-dos.
Interspersed with illuminating thoughts to dote
And googling distantly smiled quotes - to rote...

Thats kind of summarisies the mood today - which started off with dutifullyclearing the mails, but then took off with one of Probal's mail sent in the very early hours of the day. [Probal is a bright young man straight - almost - out of campus.....certainly more classy and driven than what I was at his age] . That sparked off the race to the ole ole memory lane...the verse which eugolised which the both the boon and the bane of IT professionals [also all engg and b-school students in the country] - 'the night outs' to touch the finishing line just in time..

The search...with the wrong cluing, thankfully - took me through some delicious twists and turns into English literature and my own memory lanes. Stylish couplets from Tennyson stole the show...like..


"In the spring a livelier iris changes on the burnished dove;
In the spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love." [from Locksley Hall]

Or an eternally true pithy one liners lie...."Here at the quiet limit of the world.".[from Tithonus]....which retierate that...Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers. [from Locksley Hall] ....and which often take the cake.

Ofcourse there were numerous more - equally compelling and contextual...Tennyson fans - would am sure be counting a good list of those...many of them have been have shone through the ages despite [or should be - because] of overuse. But unfortunately I was far from the one I was looking for. [People who have played 'Whats the good word' or 'ID quest' know well the rigmalore one wrong clue can do]....till I change tack..and reached the ole I was looking for.....here it goes...dear ones!!....an inspirational four liner..

The heights by great men reached and kept
Were not attained by sudden flight,
But they, while their companions slept,/
Were toiling upward in the night. ~ .......[
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow]

WAGs and HABs - as the case maybe -of colleagues..would want to kill me for having so much eagerness to unearth from the internet a verse like that. So would near and dear ones....but sach bolo...doesnt this 4 liner...hv a zing of its own....

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Foreign Universities in India: Boon or Bane?

    Dr. Partha S Mohapatra (Originally written in March, 2010)   The cabinet yesterday gave its nod to the “Foreign Universities Bill”. I first read the report on Wall Street Journal about the Indian Governments’ intention to open up the higher education sector to foreign universities [Delhi Seeks to Admit Foreign Universities,  Wall Street Journal June 11, 2009 ].  Subsequently, I read similar reports in other newspapers.  Most of the se reports make a compelling story to allow foreign universities to operate in India. The main argument that is made is on following premises: i)      It will save India about $4 billion in foreign exchange [“Leading foreign institutes may soon be here” Economic Times , 11 Sep 2006”]. ii)    India loses because of brain drain when brilliant people go abroad and study and stay there. iii)   We need foreign investments because the government does not ...

Dura Pahada Sundara [Far-away Mountains are Beautiful]

I realize how seriously we take a place we visit specifically to see it – an event in itself, and how much taken for granted are those places that we can hop in an out with regularity and ease. Interestingly I had never wrote or thought of writing about Puri or Konark or Cuttack. Places for which reams have been and can be written. The history, the culture, the cuisine and the local chutzpah [espl. Puri / Cuttack]. Even more interestingly, I have never pondered enough on these places and their unique niceties to have them simmering in my cerebral consciousness. They are somewhere deep there sedimented at best; and at [likely] worst, I do not have the desired ammunition to do justice to write anything substantial. Probably, I will have to resort to the frivolous flourish of the might of the language as a cover. A point to note - I have never seen the Bali Yatra [Cuttackis don’t faint please]. The Puri beach and temple I have always felt is my backyard [so had the taken for granted attit...

For a religion or a product, an open door policy will work best

In the recent past, we have been witness to catchy rhetoric with regards to religious conversion. Strident calls to banning conversion, Ghar Wapsi, Love Jihad et al. I would like to stick my neck out and say almost everyone, right (‘bhakts’), left (‘liberals’), centre (government), has missed out on the most balanced perspective. A person has a right to choose a city and country different from his parents, he or she can also change his or her name given by the parents, what is wrong with the person choosing a religion different from he or she was born with. Religion is an experiential product. Products thrive when they are responsive to customer feedback. We go to five-star hotel to get pampered, if we are unhappy with the service we may not return. If the hotel has a problem with service quality, then over a period of time it will lose substantial business; then either it will buckle up based on customer feedback or will go out of business. That is exactly relevant for a re...