In loving memory of “reasonandpassion.blogspot.com”

Once upon a time, a little girl discovered "The Atlas Shrugged" and then "The Fountainhead" and soon there opened to her a world of objectivism. She was drawn towards it, and often wondered about the people who thought like her, or so she believed. Amongst those people, there was one blog that she was drawn to, a blog so well written and so transparent that its thoughts were clearly visible. The little girl admired even the images that were placed on that blog. It was her favorite. As she grew up, she lost touch with the blog.

However the name remained in her mind. And whenever she thought of the name, a wild sort of happiness rose in her… happiness of seeking the unknown, of living an exciting and dangerous life, sound of laughter of someone who had bold joy, of dying a glorious death. A few years later, when she could summon the courage to open the blog again, she realized the blog was no more! Nippun Goel had removed it, and along with the blog went away the thoughts the blog carried. She searched using Google, but in vain! All hopes of the blog having been shifted to another location were dissolved as neither Google nor Bing could find out any information.

If anyone has backup of that blog, please post a comment here.

Thank you.

An Anthem – ‘If’ by Rudyard Kipling

This poem was printed and pinned on my cubicle wall when I was an intern at Microsoft. The paper went into the garbage bin, but the poem stuck around. And whenever I remembered it, I used to Google it and read it from some other's blog. I wonder why I dint paste it on my blog itself. So here goes -

        'If' – by Rudyard Kipling

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

The Hunting Game

The (internship) hunting season is full on-resumes being updated as even a word can cause a difference, sites being scourged, any email notifications that comes bring about anticipation, disappointment and then frustration.

The companies are least bothered about whoever they recruit i the best or not - they just want someone who fits the bill. Unfortunately, majority here is made from the same mold. So I may not be very different from someone else. Indian Education system is way ahead in one technology - cloning. They have successfully not created clones but morphed a set of humans to one clone. Should I blame the education system ? Who asked those humans to go with the flow, and not dare something different.

Among many of us there is a fight internally - cash or interest. Because many times the internship offered is not in the field of interest. What to do, big companies cant trust interns to do great work...Neither can I ;)
So as I see someone get an internship while I failed the lat rounds, I just tell myself that my chances of getting something in my area of interest are still there, maybe low, but they exist.

I just compare this period of waiting for an internship to a course in an ashram. IT is like a real life game - there s misery and frustration around, cash is limited, a lot of low qualities are seen, people around are seen in their worst forms. And in that, if I observe what is around me, and be the "lion" among the sheep. If I try to understand everyone around me, to forgive, forget,  be happy and spread happiness, do I win the game? I atleast will go to the higher level in the meaning of my existence.

A few months back I used to have this thought many times in my head. It is as though totally people from different walks of life have been picked and made to stay together. And they are not given ALL that they wish for. And its like hell, as everyone is fighting to survive, and so the virtues of man have disappeared, people have descended to lowest form of living.
And I am thankful I see it as a game. Guess it shows the change in my head.


Looks like agnostic and atheistic "belief" is out of my system.
Back to my undergrad self...

How does it feel?
Feels like a young 17 year old, her thoughts and her beliefs her own...

-Minehaha
[laughing water]