Quote Unquote - V

• He who does not understand your silence will probably not understand your words -- Sadia Sarfaraz
• Marxism is not a substitute for Intelligence -- DD Koshambi
• Idealism is little more than a form of prejudice -- Patrick French
• How many deaths will it take till he knows that too many people have died? The answer my friend, is blowing in the wind. The answer is blowing in the wind -- Bob Dylan
• Pay attention to advice from people who have a stake in your happiness, and not a stake in your success -- Sidin Vadukut
• Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body -- Elizabeth Stone
• Sacred cows make the best hamburger -- Mark Twain
• When a man wants to murder a tiger, he calls it sport; when the tiger wants to murder him, he calls it ferocity. The distinction between crime and justice is no greater -- George Bernard Shaw
• What is true of Families and Communities, is true of Nations. There is no reason to believe that there is one law for Family and another for Nations -- Mahatma Gandhi
• If a chance that comes up only once in a century is wasted, it takes another century to make up for that loss -- Hamid Dalwai
  

Quote Unquote - IV

• The more populous the category, the less it tells you about any individual within it -- James Fallows
• The world is a beautiful place, and worth fighting for -- Ernest Hemmingway
• You often meet your fate on the road you take to avoid it -- Master Oogway (Kung-Fu Panda)
• The first law of decency is to preserve the liberty of others -- Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller
• The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page -- Saint Augustine
• Democracy and Freedom have little to do with majorities, and everything to do with individual rights -- Girish Shahane
• Bura Jo Dekhan Main Chala, Bura Na Milya Koye, Jo Mann Khoja Apna, To Mujhse Bura Naa Koye (I sought the wicked ones, but found none, And when I looked within myself, I found none more evil than me) -- Kabir
• Utopias kill; radical universalist utopias, kill radically and universally -- Yehuda Bauer
• The hardest thing in life is to know which bridge to cross and which to burn -- Anand Jadhav
• Every revolution begins with noble intentions and ends up by devouring its own children -- B Raman
  

Eli Eli Lama Sabachthani

कुछ तो कमि रखी होती उसके ईमान में,
थोड़ा तो सब्र होता, रुख-ए-आसमाँ में |
होंगे कई मसीहा ऐ खुदा तुम्हारे पास,
एक छोड़ दिया होता हमको, इस जहां में |
ईमान है आधा खुला, आधा ढका पडा,
एक पूरा कोई इंसान नही आता ध्यान में |
सुनता नही है कोई यहाँ सच्चाई की सदा,
यकीन कौन करेगा, अब इन बद-गुमानों में |
यह सोच नहीं बाकी, क्या अच्छा है, क्या बुरा,
तकसीम करते है कुछ तो, है वो इंसानों में |
करते रहेंगे वो ही, जो हुआ है उनसे पहले,
तोलेंगे नहीं किसी को, वक़्त की ढलान से |
जहालत कहे इसे हम, या किस्म संग-दिली की,
रोया नहीं है कोई, अब तक तेरे बयान से |
दिखला दिया है नीचा, बुलाके हम को काफ़िर,
एक बार पूछा होता उन्हने मेरे इमान से |
एक दूजो को देते है, तोहमतो के नज़राने,
गढ़ती नहीं है नज़रें, खुद अपने गिरेहबान में |
मानता है हर एक आदमी को खलील तुम्हारा,
क्यूँ छोड़ दिया हमको फिर युहीं दरमियाँ में |

- खलील सावंत (~2004)

Harry Potter, The Defense Against Dark Arts and the Seven Unwanted Vices

For those who have been following the "Harry Potter" series (books/movie) religiously, would be well versed with the fact that Harry and friends had a subject called "Defense Against Dark Arts" all along their education. Also the fact that the job of the "Defense Against Dark Arts" teacher was jinxed , and hence no Professor remained in the position for more than one year. This meant that each year we had a new Professor for the position and consequentially the scope of introduction of a new charachter each year/book.

I realised a small observation regarding the people who took up the post each year. Apparently each of the seven people, were charachteristically different from each other, and exhibit some charachteristic unwanted vices (unwanted in the sense that we wouldnt want it in ourselves) .

• Quirrell, in the first year, is some-one who is cowardly and spine-less
• Lockhart, in the second year, is some-one who is boastfull and fraudulent.
• Lupin, in the third year, is some-one who is miserable.
• Moody, in the fourth year, is some-one who is cranky, Vichitr and actually deceitfull(no more spoilers)
• Umbridge, in the fifth year, is some-one who is corrupt and un-just.
• Snape, in the sixth year, is some-one who is vengeful and un-courteous.
• Slughorn, in the seventh year, is some-one who is lazy and nepotistic.

Just an observation, although some vices apply to others also.

Quote Unquote - III

• The 20s are designed for failure, so fail all your can. Because in 30s there is no room for making mistakes -- Dustin Hoffman
• Animals do smart things with their pea-sized brains, and humans do animal things with their smart-sized brain -- Gaurav Patil
• Jumping off of a 200-foot cliff is a lot of fun for 199 feet, That final 12 inches is a bitch -- Sam Davidson
• Flowers are the sweetest things God ever made, and forgot to put a soul into -- Henry Beecher
• Chocolate is cheaper than therapy and you do not need an appointment -- Catherine Aitken
• There is always room at the top, but there is no lift -- Jaswant Singh
• Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness -- Mark Twain
• I believe that parents also want their kids to chase their dreams, but they know from their own life experiences how hard it is know which dream to chase. -- Amit Singh
• The disposition to admire, and almost to worship, the rich and the powerful, and to despise, or, at least, to neglect persons of poor and mean condition is the great and most universal cause of the corruption of our moral sentiments. -- Adam Smith
• The road to positivity is strewn with the abandoned vehicles of the faint-hearted. -- Anand Jadhav
  

My Invented Proverbs - Part V

• People are too lazy to specialize, hence they generalize. They hence do not work on facts, obtained through specialization, but rather on perceptions, obtained through generalization.
• Xenophobia is selective Mis-Anthropy.
• Your popularity is directly proportional to the ratio of your twitter-followers-count to your twitter-followings-count.
• GOD is a placebo for Human fallibility.
• 90% of people within any group, resent the fact that they are not 100%
• History may be written by victors, but Archaelogy is not.
• I am not an atheist, I am just GOD with retrograde amnesia.
• I am not on bench, I am suffering from a "Programmers block".
• There is a whole range of gray shades between pride and shame.
• If we cannot have consensus on current affairs, why do we expect different people to have a consistent view of history, for today's current affairs are tomorrow's history.
  

Logical Grouping of Devanaagari Baaraakhadi

Came across this interesting realisation about the arrangements of the Baaraakhadi in Devanaagari.

This is about how you use your tongue and mouth cavity to articulate a particular sound.
There is a sort of logical grouping and progression about the arrangements.

क, ख, ग, घ, and ङ sounds are all articulated by the tounge against the back of the ceiling of the mouth cavity
For च, छ, ज, झ, and ञ sounds, we move forward and use tounge against the centre of the mouth cavity's ceiling
ट, ठ, ड, ढ, and ण are produced more forward behind the gums of incisors
त, थ, द, ध, and न are produced with the tounge against the teeth
and प, फ, ब, भ, and म are produced by the lips alone.

Considering the expertise on grammar that stands 2.5 millenia, this phonetic formalism is not a surprise.