The world as I see it - Albert Einstein

"How strange is the lot of us mortals! Each of us is here for a brief sojourn; for what purpose he knows not, though he sometimes thinks he senses it. But without deeper reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people -- first of all for those upon whose smiles and well-being our own happiness is wholly dependent, and then for the many, unknown to us, to whose destinies we are bound by the ties of sympathy. A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving...

"I have never looked upon ease and happiness as ends in themselves -- this critical basis I call the ideal of a pigsty. The ideals that have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth. Without the sense of kinship with men of like mind, without the occupation with the objective world, the eternally unattainable in the field of art and scientific endeavors, life would have seemed empty to me. The trite objects of human efforts -- possessions, outward success, luxury -- have always seemed to me contemptible.

"My passionate sense of social justice and social responsibility has always contrasted oddly with my pronounced lack of need for direct contact with other human beings and human communities. I am truly a 'lone traveler' and have never belonged to my country, my home, my friends, or even my immediate family, with my whole heart; in the face of all these ties, I have never lost a sense of distance and a need for solitude..."

"My political ideal is democracy. Let every man be respected as an individual and no man idolized. It is an irony of fate that I myself have been the recipient of excessive admiration and reverence from my fellow-beings, through no fault, and no merit, of my own. The cause of this may well be the desire, unattainable for many, to understand the few ideas to which I have with my feeble powers attained through ceaseless struggle. I am quite aware that for any organization to reach its goals, one man must do the thinking and directing and generally bear the responsibility. But the led must not be coerced, they must be able to choose their leader. In my opinion, an autocratic system of coercion soon degenerates; force attracts men of low morality... The really valuable thing in the pageant of human life seems to me not the political state, but the creative, sentient individual, the personality; it alone creates the noble and the sublime, while the herd as such remains dull in thought and dull in feeling.

"This topic brings me to that worst outcrop of herd life, the military system, which I abhor... This plague-spot of civilization ought to be abolished with all possible speed. Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them!

"The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed. It was the experience of mystery -- even if mixed with fear -- that engendered religion. A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, our perceptions of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which only in their most primitive forms are accessible to our minds: it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute true religiosity. In this sense, and only this sense, I am a deeply religious man... I am satisfied with the mystery of life's eternity and with a knowledge, a sense, of the marvelous structure of existence -- as well as the humble attempt to understand even a tiny portion of the Reason that manifests itself in nature."

Some pics i felt like sharing

Its the journey that matters ...... If only we could see through corners If only we could cut our way through the bushes ..... The road of life is full of blind corners and fork roads ..... Its the choices that we make that differnciates us from the others .... if you think to your self without these Life is just an excercise to exaust your body

The shades of life ... some dark some light .... It was'nt for the darker shades of life how difficult would it be to appreciate the joys of light ...... Niether can darkness last forever nor can light ..... Enenthough the sun works relentlesly to bring light dark patches still remain amidst a dazzling sight

Lonliness always prevails ..... There is a famous hindi saying you came to this world empty handed and you will depart this world empty handed all you wil leave behind are your foot prints on the sands of time ...... Lonliness is the ever present feeling in every human , it does'nt matter in a party full of people you know or some place unheard of .... lonliness is the way you are forced to realize you are not going be forever and every begining has an end

The only way to arrive in this materiaalistic world is by being materialistic .... by working harder to expand the list of good you own only to realize you can't own everything you need, You can't achieve pleasure through moeny ....... pleasure is the nectar one must learn to extract from every moment of life.

Listening to philosophy from monkeys like me is not good for you

The 4 Hour story

STATUATORY WARNING: All the characters in this story don’t exist and the story is based on no real life incident

There is this guy 21 odd just out of graduate college, on the look out for a good PG institute. The guy is about to board a bus bound to Mumbai (Via the expressway), He is going to Mumbai to appear for an interview (in fact his life depends on this interview). Tensed about the interview the guy is all nerves. The guy boards a bus from the nearest bus stop with nothing for luggage except his file the guy seats himself near the window. Fighting it out to get his mind away from the concern for the interview he tries to push himself into snooze mode; but to no avail and settles down to alternating his sight between the window and the TV in the bus.

The tormented soul wants to get the damn interview over with but then again the larger question. What will happen in the interview room takes over? Bathing in self pity and remorse for not preparing adequately, he shuts his eyes as the bus inches away from the stop. The bus goes about doing its daily ritual of picking us people from the pick-up points. As the bus is about to enter the E-way it comes to a grinding halt. As the doors open a feminine figure seems to get on the bus and makes her way to the seat (right beside the nervous guy). As the girl seats herself she breaths a sigh of relief and utters “Finally”. After the initial few minutes of silence the bus comes to life as a movie starts “Munna bhai MBBS”. The guy realizes that’s the best thing to happen since morning now can have a hearty laugh and reduce the tension he’s under. So he as the movie proceed the guy starts laughing and enjoying the movie (kind of forgets about the interview for the time being). After thinking that he has had enough of self indulgence he decides to make the first move and initiate a conversation with the girl sitting beside him. He asks her “How long would it be before we reach Mumbai” (though he knows the answer), The girl politely replies “4 hours” then comes the next question “Are you from Mumbai?” to this the girl replies “No I’m from Pune and I Work as a CA in Mumbai”, And so the talks begin the two of them start off talking about Mumbai and the why they were going there. Slowly with every passing milestone they start to open-up (I mean getting acquainted, Shame on you!!).They talk about their backgrounds their schooling etc (after all 4 hours is a long time). As the Bus stops at the food plaza they get off together, go to have a cuppa a coffee (obviously the girl pays ;)) it seems like they are on a date (an unarranged one I must say where the guy does not have to beg).

As the bus is about to leave the food plaza both of them get on back in (by now no-one cud have guessed that they never knew each other before 1.5 hours). The guy goes on and starts talking about his personal life (love …..) and the girl adds in her experiences. Both of them can see some form of chemistry between them but abstain from talking about it .Another hour passes and the guy decides to hold her hand, the poor thing panics and pulls away her hand with a jerk, the guy ever so conscious feels like shooting himself, He pretends that it happened unknowingly and apologizes, the girl buys his bluff (at least he thinks so). As the bus arrives at Mumbai the guy asks the girl her name (he did not do that earlier) And she asks the guy his name, they exchange phone numbers vowing they will keep in touch now that they are friends and finally get-off with an handshake (the guys always succeed). The guy soon realizes why he’s in Mumbai? (His interview) and returns back to his initial state. He gets over with his interview in another 2-3 hours and plans on calling up the girl he meet on the bus, but as they say castles in air don’t last for long he realizes that he misplaced the paper which carried the girls number (the interview form basically , Jab kismat hi jhaandu toh kya karega Pandu) . All disillusioned he returns to the bus depot thinking that at least she will call some day, but the call never comes. Every time the guy gets a call from an unidentified number there is a spark of hope which always dies down with the sound of the phone.