This and That

Read this and That .

Finally this.

Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Robert Frost

Gyan time

Fitzgerald again

I finally read , the great gatsby by Scott F Fitzgerald.

In a way it was boring and a letdown for me, but for this super last paragraph, which I quote here.

I wanted to read this ever since I read a few letters to his daughter, which his daughter had published and found their way into some American literature book, which was selling at a footpath for peanuts, say 5 years back.

Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter- to-morrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther.... And one fine morning-

So we beat on, boats against the currents, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

To juxtapose, something from clerks 2.

Dante Hicks: Why *do* the Go-Karts help?
Randal Graves: I don't know. They just remind me of a better time in my life.
Dante Hicks: Like when?
Randal Graves: Like when we were young and the world was still in front of us.
Dante Hicks: We're not that old.
Randal Graves: Yeah. But, sometimes I get the feeling the world kinda left us behind a long time ago.
Dante Hicks: You know, you can do something about that.

Touché.

The push

I never really thought I would learn swimming.

The only reason I use to avoid a shower, when a kid, was because I use to grasp for breath and had to come in and out of a shower. And more over I knew I was lazy enough, not to bother hitting the waters, expecting a eureka moment, before I actually start swimming.

So When Sudi invited me to learn swimming in my, 9th or 10th standard vacation, I analysed my downside risk, 100 bucks and 1 month effort, my upside, 100 bucks and a world swimmer, I decided to take the bet.

They took three days to teach me how to swim, quite an accomplishment, because I was promised a minimum 1 week. I also picked up cycling on the way. Then, a month or so transpired.

The next bug to hit me was Jumping from a 2-3 meter stage, I forget what they call this feat in Olympics. I had my eyes set right on the gold. I had seen sudi jump from there and admired his courage. So one day, he asked me why don't you try it. I said why not.

Now, at my height, you usually double up the distance between the mean water level and my eyes, so let's say it was 4.5 meters. And yes, at that age I was also afraid of heights. Needless to say you could pick a random word from the dictionary with a suffix of phobia, and there was a 90% chance that I would have it.

So, I climbed the stairs, Sudi leading me. He stood on the edge and jumped. He had told me what to do. You need to pierce the water, so keep your toes pointing down. You can go and touch the pool floor, or just after getting into water, free your hands, which had to cling to your body during the jump, and push the water down.

I stood on the edge for five minutes. Sudi, encouraging, requesting, pleading, giving up on me. He also said, look everybody from the road can see you and you are almost bare, why don't you just jump.

After five minutes, I turned back and climbed down the ladder.

I repeated this the next day. On the third day, again I and Sudi went on the stage, I asked him to show me how does he jump. He jumped. Then While I was standing on the edge, unbeknownst (You may blame, Hardy for my using that word. Thomas Hardy) to me Sudi came from behind and pushed me. In a sec I was in water and celebrating. Yes, I had did it.

I jumped a few more times, without any push; once or twice I even touched the pool floor, at 15 feet depth. For reasons I forget now, I stopped going to the pool from the next day.

I have remained a swimming pool swimmer since then.

Sometimes, all we need is a little push. Sometimes Sudis are around, sometimes they are not. It becomes difficult, when they are not.