Youth is wasted on the young?

It is an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who have lost it. - Maugham

Update:

Complete text here, taken from 'Of Human bondage'

"He did not know how wide a country, arid and precipitous, must be crossed before the traveller through life comes to an acceptance of reality. It is an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who have lost it; but the young know they are wretched, for they are full of the truthless ideals which have been instilled into them, and each time they come in contact with the real they are bruised and wounded. It looks as if they were victims of a conspiracy; for the books they read, ideal by the necessity of selection, and the conversation of their elders, who lookback upon the past through a rosy haze of forgetfulness, prepare them for an unreal life. They must discover for themselves that all they have read and all they have been told are lies, lies, lies; and each discovery is another nail driven into the body on the cross of life. The strange thing is that each one who has gone through that bitter
disillusionment adds to it in his turn, unconsciously, by the power within him which is stronger than himself."

not beating around the Bush

President Bush making fun of himself. The google video is here.

Bombay Dreams

Bombay dreams - Cover story by Time magazine. Good article, except the goof-up where it says the former name of the Bombay was Mumbai. :)

Update :
The multi-media show by Time

'bear'ly a cat

I am sure satodias from the Dalal street would love this cat.

About quarter life crisis

Just wrote my first post on vichaar-manthan about Quarter life crisis. You can read it here.

In the end

* I am following 3rd ODI between England and India on Cricinfo. The two ends of the stadium are named as - Church end and Swimming pool end. How very Goan!

* Interesting stuff by Mid-day about how to be a page 3 regular.

* Sunil More, a cop from Mumbai, who raped a 17-year old girl in police station is finally found guilty and has been sentenced to 12 years' rigorous imprisonment (plus fined Rs 26,500 to be paid as compensation to the victim for the agony suffered by her. Am I reading it correctly? Few years ago, the government gave away Rs. 1 lakh each to family members of those who died due to drinking poisonous arak).

But to borrow words from NDTV's report - But the image of India's most liberal city, its most famous promenade and its police force, had been deeply scarred.

Three parties, identities and the biggest problem India is facing.

This was the week-end of parties and events. Started with St. Patrick's Day party at my friend Danielle's house where she and her frieds baked yummy cup-cakes after the assorted appetizers and other Irish food. Then on Saturday to all guys desi party to celebrate a friend's birthday in La Jolla brew house. And on Sunday, Rang-Panchami (holi) celebrations at Lake Poway organized by San Diego Maharashtra Mandal. Three different events, three different identities - each subset of the previous one. Interesting.:-)

On a totally different note, everything about Tendulkar gets magnified - good, bad or ugly. After the Endulkar debate, now it seems the biggest quandary we are facing is why the Wankhede crowd booed the little master. Amongst all this brouhaha in newspapers, sites and blogs; this article in Hindu stands out in its clear analysis.

Sports (in)activities and some ethical questions

Ricky Ponting has removed all doubts, if any, as to who is currently the best batsman with his inning of 164 in just 105 balls, which propelled Australia to the highest ODI total of 434 for 4. What makes it extra special is the timing of the inning. With Australia managing to come from behind to make it 2-2 after losing the first two games (and 20-20 match before that), Ponting has virtually sealed the fate of the series with his sensational inning. (and though Gibbs has just scored a wonderful century, South Africa still has a mountain to climb.) Three years ago, he did the same in the World cup final scoring 140 not out against India which helped Australia to 356 - the highest total in World cup final history. This man has an amazing sense for the occasion - who can forget his twin centuries in his 100th Test match, which gave Aussies 2-0 victory over South Africa.

Needless to say, he is in the purplest of the patches in his career and threatens to break the record for most no. of runs and centuries in Test matches in few years; if his amazing run over the last few years is considered. This article is just another statistical indication to it.

The loss of Ashes to England is perhaps the lowest point in his recent career. It may sound like a cliché; however it was the game which came out as the winner in the end. See some of these links - The comprehensive video clip with some quintessentially British comments, the Super slow motion musical video and the short video of the Ashes.

Continuing with Ashes series - just came across these lines from a song in The Lord of the Rings mentioned on Ajit's blog and thought they would very well apply to the resurgent English team.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.

Some may claim that India-Pakistan series is now greater than the Ashes, but comparing the high-scoring and high-snoring draws with the exciting cricket played in Ashes is just absurd.

Anyway, almost everyone was happy seeing the rude and swaggering Australians losing for a change, which makes me wonder - why do we mix two separate virtues of winning ability and being modest? I am no exception to this tendency, but somehow it always strikes me as bit odd. To stretch this point bit further, I think it is not unfair that someone who is unscrupulous or immoral to be rich. This is something contradictory to our typical middle-class upbringing/ethos, but being ethical and being rich are two different things. It is pointless to wail that I have remained poor/middle-class despite being ethical all my life. Apart from the argument that goodness is its own reward, just being kind and lawful need not mean you will be successful. It is, of course possible to be successful and yet remain down to earth and moral, but the converse need not be true and those who are successful but not modest deserve the success no less.

Back to sports after bit of digression. The last month or so has been watching-the-sports-on-TV-for-hours month for me. With the (American) football season play-offs, India - Pakistan series, Australian Open and then the Winter Olympics, meant many sleepless nights and showing up next day on job red eyed. I distinctly remember one week-end when I watched a football game followed by a tennis match followed by live cricket. Total time spent? Only 12 hours - just the time someone in his mid-twenties is advised to spend in sports-related activities per month. (Reference: A pamphlet given at the gym that I joined few months back with high hopes, but things just don’t seem to 'work out'.):-(

Republic Day wishes

Happy Republic Day!

Couple of videos for the day - Jana Gana Mana and Vande Mataram.

I read somewhere that Netaji Subhashchandra Bose had this very day in his mind as our Independence day. Azad Hind Sena celebrated 26 January 1943 thus in Germany.

Indibloggies contest and Internet in Indian languages

My blog on Marathi Literature was selected as the best Marathi blog in a contest organized by Indibloggies. I would like to thank all the readers and bloggers for visiting my blog and their comments.

When I started this blog, there were very few Marathi blogs and I was bit skeptical about the response my blog would muster. Another challenge was trying to avoid the monotony; which was bit difficult as the blog revolved around one subject. However, the response so far has taken me by surprise. It does not necessarily reflect on the quality of the blog, but I am glad that there are over 3600 pageloads now since I started keeping the track of visitors from Sept 2005. The major reason, I guess, is the exponential rise in the number of people writing in Marathi - from the handful of them few months back; the figure now stands around 200.

It augurs well for the digital revolution in regional languages. So far, English has been the lingua franca for Indian netizens; but slowly and surely there is rising a class which prefers to communicate in their respective mothertongues. It is bit cumbersome to type in Indian languages, as the fonts and/or keypads are not uniform; but despite that many are attempting to express themselves through the language they are most comfortable with. It is too early to say that the regional languages have made their presence felt online; but the progress is certainly in the right direction. When I was in Seoul few years back while coming to San Diego, I noticed that most of the computers in the airport terminal had Korean keyboards and people used them very comfortably. While it is difficult to envisage a Tamil or a Bengali keyboard in near future; it should not be very tough to have entire OS/softwares in them. Microsoft has come up with BhashaIndia project, but I think a lot more could be done in this regard.

I need not explain how knowledge will play the most important role in the future economic development. English, though it is rightfully considered as the window to knowledge, won't open very easily for a huge section of our populace that is first-generation school-goers. What better way to combine the most effective tool of information to deliver knowledge to them in their own language?

Goongy Gudiya and Ibsen

After the demise of Pt. Nehru, when Indira Gandhi took over the Congress Party; she was nick-named Goongy Gudiya (a dumb doll) by the party veterans; who thought that she would be just a puppet in their hands. It is a different story that the ensuing events proved their predictions miserably incorrect; but the analogy of Gudiya meaning a doll in Hindi was quite apt.

Few years ago, I happened to read a translated version of Ibsen's ground-breaking play called 'A doll's house' (written some 125 years ago). The protagonist, Nora, leaves her husband who treats her like a doll rather than a person with emotions and begins her quest for her true self.

If you are following the recent news of sad demise of Gudiya; you will get the connection. Much has been written about state of women in India, the panchayat (village counsel) system of justice and lately the media hype surrounding the whole incident; so it will be mere repetition if I write more about that here. However, couple of points are worth pondering. First of all, you can clearly see the print media denouncing the electronic media for cheap journalism. Though the allegations are substantially correct; to me the apparent divide between the two and the effort to try claiming the high ground appears as a form of survival attempt. The other thing is all media provides fodder to any minor controversy/small event, makes every attempt to make an Everest out of mole-hill and in the end blames the outcome such as in this case on the hype without the slightest hint of acknowledging the apparent hypocrisy.

A year that was

Let us spare a moment for these people and many such around the world while we are getting ready to welcome 2006. Wish you all a very happy new year. (It is almost pointless / mechanical to wish thus, but what the heck.) Hoping to read good posts in 2006 as well.

Being narrow-minded

Universe is huge beyond our imagination, and mankind not even a droplet in this ocean. (Read more here.) It is a humbling feeling when we consider how insignificant we are. However in everyday life we cannot afford to have this viewpoint. Life is a struggle at each step and you have to be 'narrow-minded' in a sense. (This again is a bit of extension of previous post. My argument for not doing anything simply because I am not the one who has choices will do me no good.)

While thinking this, it struck me that it is somewhat analogous to the case of arguably two of the greatest scientists ever - Newton and Einstein. Einstein might have revolutionized our perceptions about the universe, time, dimensions et al and might have proved Newton's laws wrong (inadequate would be a better word, perhaps); but the activities that usually take place around us are still governed by Newton's laws. [Newton dealt with 'world'ly things, Einstein with universal ones. :)] Newton's laws might be outdated and 'narrow', but they are the ones which rule our lives mostly.

Chores, Illusions, Probability and some thoughts

I hate to do small chores. Usually, when a ‘to-do’ thing props up its ugly head it is not urgent. As I trust explicitly in not doing any work today which could be postponed till tomorrow, my list of to-dos keeps on growing. It might be as big as taking care of my car or as small as adding some features to my blogs, if it can wait then wait it must. But one fine day, I realize that things are getting out of my hand and everything around me is un-organized. Very diligently, I plan out my entire day (usually Saturday) as I did this time. At the end of the day, I was exhausted after driving for couple of hours, lifting heavy furniture, spending three-four hours assembling it, cooking, cleaning and doing laundry; but satisfied that at least a major part of my to-do list has been taken care of. The next day, Sudhamshu asks me why I don’t have links to my other blogs on Viprashna. Actually, this is something which was back of my mind for a long time, but for some reasons it was at this particular time when it was to materialize.

Does that mean it was never really my choice? From the moment this universe came into existence, I was supposed to do these things at a particular time in a particular manner. You were supposed to read these words precisely at this time. If someone rolls back the clock of the universe completely, then all the major or minor events that shaped the universe will take place the same way and everything that you and I did today will be repeated exactly in the same manner. We might appear to change some things, but even that is a small part we were supposed to play. This factor of inevitability reminds me of a story of a small bird, who is scared to death seeing Yama, the God of death staring at him intently. A kind Garuda (Eagle) takes pity on him and escorts him faraway to the Himalayas. After returning back he asks Yama, “Why were you bothering that poor kid?” Yama answers, “I knew his imminent death was written in the Himalayas in an accident. I was just wondering how in a matter of few minutes, this poor bird will make it there. But you solved my dilemma.”

The thought that we really do not have any choice, somehow does not scare me as much now as it did few years back when as an idle teenager, I first pondered over this. I don’t know if it is a state of resignation or convenient ignorance. Einstein famously said God does not play dice with the universe. Different people interpret it in a different manner. The view that appeals me the most is, that sub-consciously even his mind could not accept the fact that there is randomness in the world. It was his yearning to make sense out of the chaos termed as universe that appeared in that great mind’s eye. (By the way, I am not exactly sure, but I feel probability and randomness are not exactly synonyms. Probability is not random. Taking the example of dice, for a small set of plays the rolling of a die might appear random but at some point the probability of all possible options must be the same. So even playing dice is not entirely random, isn’t it?)

I do not claim that these are my original thoughts. The question of ‘Koham (Who am I?)’ echoes through most of the religious literature. The desire to know the past, the future and the purpose of our existence, not just as an individual, but as a mankind are quite old and much has been written about the quest. In fact, our cultures and civilizations are just a part of that bigger quest. Sadly, there are no answers and all religions seem to have reached the conclusion that the answers, if at all they exist, are beyond the realms of human knowledge and understanding. This realization must have hurt our ego as a mankind initially; but over the years we seemed to have either learnt to live with it or have ignored the fact – knowingly and unknowingly – and continued to have lived in an illusion. (This reminds me again of a story of Yudhishthira and the Yaksha in Mahabharata. When four of his younger brothers were dead by drinking the water against the Yaksha’s wishes; he posed four questions to Yudhishthira. One of the questions was, ‘What is the most surprising thing in the world?’ The answer was people continue to live as if they are immortal despite witnessing numerous deaths around them everyday.)

So, everyone lives in an illusion. But no religion seems to ask them to lose it; in stead all the religions demand complete surrender and no questions. Even Bhagavad-Geeta claims that God looks after well-being of those people who completely surrender themselves to him without thinking anything else (ananyaschintayanta mam ye janah paryupasate, tesham nityabhiyuktanam yogakshemam vahamyaham). The dominant reason behind this might be a somewhat justifiable fear that the ‘Doubting Thomases’ might take over and there will be anarchy. The other reason could be the realization that who we are to distinguish between the truth and the illusion. What we consider truth now could just be another illusion.

India: a nation or a country?

Few events occurring in India in the last month or so are enough to indicate that we still have a long way to go to have an identity as a nation, even after over 58 years of independence. It may be or may not be right to drop our ex-captain from Cricket team so unceremoniously, but the fact that the whole controversy has taken Bengali versus non-Bengali turn is very disturbing. Some of the comments published on open forums like Indiatimes blogs or Rediff are extremely caustic and parochial. This is not a single such incident. I was appalled to read in the news that contestants in various game-shows or talent hunt appealed openly to people from their respective home-states to vote for them. If I am not mistaken, even the Chief Minister of a state asked people to vote for a finalist in the Indian Idol contest.

This feeling of regional identity seems to be pan-Indian (quite ironic, isn’t it?). Interestingly, some sections of people from every community feel that they are not being as ‘provincial’ as other communities, and this is what is hampering their progress. Some of them go as far as in stating that there is a nation-wide conspiracy against their community ‘to keep them down’.

Maharashtrians feel that the so-called ‘outsiders’ have taken over Mumbai and they are left behind in all sectors. Goans feel that if they allow Marathi to be the state-language then people from Maharashtra will take away all their jobs. Bengalis resent the fact that most of the trade in their capital is controlled by the non-Bengalis, whereas ULFA or AGP in neighboring state of Assam claims the same against them. Tamils and Kannadigas fight over the water. The list is endless.

Though by and large the Indian identity is more dominant than the regional one outside India, few of the incidents still show how deeply rooted these boundaries are. To give an example, three new students arrive from India. Seniors duly pick them up from airport and arrange for their temporary accommodation at their home. Imagine their dismay, when these new kids refuse to stay with them only because they belong to ‘different half’ of India and demand to stay with seniors from their state.

It will be too naïve to expect that we will forget all our differences and will consider ourselves only as Indians (or for that matter, just human beings to take it up by one level). The only thing we can attempt is to keep the regional bias to the minimum. By nature, man tends to find someone like him (utpatsyate hi mam kopi samandharma...). Language is just one such criterion. Color of skin, religion, nationality, interests – vested or otherwise, culture, caste, class - so many other things divide us between different groups, and/or bring people sharing common things together.

It is not just a question of regional biases in India; on a bigger scale the question is whether the mankind is ready for globalization in its true sense – not just economically, but as imagined by Tagore (Yatra vishwam bhavatyekaneedam – where the whole world becomes a single nest). The leading cities of the world are not just cosmopolitan in intra-national sense – they are becoming a melting pot with people from all the nationalities. At this juncture of time, soon it will be passé to rue about the loss of regional identity of Mumbai or Bangalore (No, the name change is scheduled to take effect from Nov. 1, 2006 :-)) and the new dilemma would be to preserve their Indian identity. Perhaps, that would bring us tad closer to Indian-ness.

When a dog bites a man...

Journalism is going to dogs, literally! Please read this article published today in Mid-Day. The so called yellow-journalism seems to be taking over not just tabloids but the reputed newspapers as well and once respected papers like Times of India are going The New York Banner way (Fountainhead) with lots of scandals, gossip and melodramatically concocted headlines.

As a kid, I have heard people advising their children to read editorials from Times of India, if they want to improve their English vocabulary. While that might be still true to some extent, the only thing they might end up learning after reading the paper is what Bipasha Basu likes for her breakfast and how Sachin Tendulkar is the savior of Indian cricket or why he should quit playing altogether (depending on the mood of the writer). The extent of playing to the gallery seems to have gone so far, that it was no wonder the news of Amrita Preetam's death was pushed to some obscure corner and the coverage it received was way less than any other "newsworthy" story like Ms. Amrita Arora spraining her ankle or denying a relationship.

Electronic media is a step or two ahead and in a rat-race of becoming "Sabse Tej" (the fastest) will leave no stone unturned, even if that means barging into I.C.U. to interview the ailing superstar of yesteryears. Thankfully, the vernacular newspapers - at least the reputed ones like Loksatta (Marathi) and Mumbai Samachar (Gujarati), are not getting carried away and are still in touch with the local problems. I hope that's a sign that mentality of our society as a whole is not as crooked as it might appear if one reads the so called leaders of the fourth column.

Back to the front after "Summer of 2005"

Vacation ends and work begins from tomorrow. July 1st was the last day of my internship. After that, July was a month of interviews. I had to appear for two separate interviews, each around 5-6 hours in span of two days. I got accepted from one group towards the end of July. August was mostly spent resting and working on thesis. From Aug 31 to Sept 9, I explored the East Coast - rather North-East America. (and then South-West a month later.) Visited places like Philadelphia, Hershey, New York, Washington, Boston and Niagara Falls and yes, Canada for half an hour. Already, I have seen more places in US than in India - like been to Statue of Liberty but not yet to Taj Mahal, been to Washington DC but not to Delhi and so on.

While flying back from Boston to San Diego, I was scanning through Sky Magazine when I came across an article about the Indian (Native American) Reservations around Four Corner Monument. (It is called thus because four states - Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New mexico come together at one point; the only such place in USA.) I was quite impressed with the article and the photos and noted the names of the places and related information.

Again, after coming home it was resting and rusting for a while. Read some good books, watched some plays and tried some new restaurants. It was back to good old idyllic student life vacation. Getting up late, staying up late in Night either reading a book or surfing on net, having Lunch at 3 pm etc etc. Going to a nearby lake with coffee and a book to read was my favorite activity and the fact that I no longer needed to set alarm in my cellphone for the next day felt great.

I was actually planning a short trip to Seattle and around, and started researching on net accordingly. After a while, I realized that tours to few of the places which I wanted to visit in the surrounding areas like Mount St. Helens were not available. With my paperwork (needed to start to work) expected to arrive in mail any time, and winter setting in I did not have much time.

I was in two minds when I did some initial planning about the Four corners trip. Money and Safety were the two most important considerations. Money because already my three-month stay at home without any job and the trip to East Coast had left my savings a mere shadow of its former self. On top of that, being under 25 does not help while renting a car. Rental companies charge 20 to 30 dollars extra per day. For my 9 day trip, that alone would mean equivalent to a return air ticket to New York or almost anywhere in mainland US. Also since I was travelling alone, gas and lodging expenses won't be shared. In terms of safety, it was bit risky to go the area where cell-phone reception is non-existent in most of the places due to its remoteness and also where temperature varies from 100F/40C during day to 40F/5C at night.

I continued planning and revising my plans for almost a week or so in this state of ambivalence. Planning for trip is fun. It fills me with a strange sort of excitement and pleasure. You have to consider many factors - cheapest hotels to stay, minimum amount of travel involved, avoiding weekends to go to popular destinations. Also, the order in which you visit the places is quite important. That's the reason I decided to visit Grand Canyon at the second-last day of my trip. Had I visited Grand Canyon first, everything else might have paled in comparison. This way, the trip had a nice crescendo throughout. Again, initially I was planning to drive from San Diego to Chinle, Arizona with stop-over at Phoenix and come back via a different route i.e. Grand Canyon - Las Vegas - Palm Springs, California - San Diego. But then comparing the expenses of gas and staying up an extra night at Phoenix amounted as much as air fare to Phoenix with 350 miles less to drive one way. Also thought that going to Las Vegas would be completely out of character with the nature of this trip, and hence dropped the idea.

The argument in favor of the trip (in my mind) was I won't get another chance like this once I start working - the vacation that I can muster will almost entirely be used for India trip (and even though I won't mind taking a vacation without pay and going for a road-trip, my boss most certainly would considering the workload). This was the right moment in terms of money, time and interest. I had to travel alone because those who could afford did not have time and vice versa. Apart from time and money, I don't think going to deserts and Native American Reservations would feature in top spots of spending vacation for many. The argument against it was money and somewhat a feeling that I have not done anything great to treat myself for two back-to-back long vacations.

But then heart won, all the arguments aside and I convinced myself with Mark Twain's words. "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

In the end, it was probably the most memorable vacation for me. I was alone for nine days but never lonely. As I said, it is not one of the most favorite tourist destinations (of course, except Grand Canyon) and since I was travelling during the normal weekdays, there were not many tourists around. The rock formations, the seemingly endless desert with no sign of any human life around- often I felt as if I were in the wrong Millenium or on the wrong planet. I will need to borrow words from a poem by Ravindranath Tagore to describe how I felt during the trip. I am quite aware that I cannot possibly imagine and use these lines the way Tagore experienced, but lesser mortals like us can only use the ability to quote which is said to be servicable substitute for wit/genius. (Again a quote :)) So with the risk of sounding pompous and preposterous, I would like to say in my own tiny way -

Jabar diney ei kawthati baley Jena jai- Ja dekhechi, ja peyechi tulana tar Nai

(When I leave let these be my parting words: What my eyes have seen, what my life has received, are incomparable.)

My new blog

Decided to start one more blog to publish my photos. You can check it out here

All the world's a stage

While in New York couple of weeks ago (This sounds like I am a frequent visitor, but it was my first visit), I watched The Phantom of the Opera. Though I missed few words in couple of songs from this musical, I liked the whole experience. This Sunday, I went to see another Broadway play The King and I at San Diego civic theatre.

What impressed me most in both these plays was the excellent use of technology and the vocal range of the actors. I was vaguely aware of terms like Bass, Baritone and Soprano; but not exactly sure about them. Found this article on Wikipedia which explains them in detail.

Marathi theatre started with musical plays sometimes around 1800. These plays and the songs in them were hugely popular. Apart from the entertainment, many plays like 'ekach pyala' and 'keechak-wadh' successfully sent out strong messages of social reforms to the masses and helped the independence movement. But I think, circa 1940 modern techniques like Brechtian plays and na-natya (could not find the English equivalent for this - when translated it literally means no play) became first more accepted in the intellectual circles and then more popular. I have read many articles by authors who in their childhood and youth, experienced the golden age of Bal-gandharva repenting the fact that not enough was done to strengthen Sangeet Nataks (musicals) while embracing new things. Broadway musicals and Kabuki survived and prospered, but not many local theatres (Yakshagan being an exception, thanks largely to Dr. Shivaram Karanth and to some extent Tiatr in Goa).

While watching these plays and listening to the songs, I dearly missed the good old Natya-sangeet. Though one could still listen to the old songs, it is almost impossible to regain the lost glory and experience.

Thankfully Broadway, San Diego has a number of good plays coming up within next few months like Wicked, Mamma mia and The Lion King. I was in two minds whether to purchase a season ticket which would be good for five upcoming plays except The Lion King having already spent a fortune on these two plays, but then decided to go for it after hesitating for half a minute.

While writing about the theatre and plays, I must tell about the Blue Man group. (I wonder, why it is blue man in stead of blue men). Again, I watched it sitting in the very first row in New York. Initially, I found it little bit weird but then liked it later on. These guys are absolutely terrific. The show itself is a combination of music (from rock to PVC pipes), some animated tricks and involving audience. First few rows are equipped with plastic hoods. At the end of the show, my hood was covered with blue paint and pulped bananas. Here is a link if you wish to watch some of their videos.

'Darkness at Noon' and 'For whom the bell tolls'

'I don't approve of mixing ideologies,' Ivanov continued. 'There are two conceptions of human ethics, and they are at opposite poles. One of them is Christian and humane, declares the individual to be sacrosanct, and asserts that the rules of arithmetic are not to be applied to human units. The other starts from the basic principle that a collective aim justifies all means, and not only allows, but demands, that the individual should in every way be subordinated and sacrificed to the community - which may dispose of it as an experimentation rabbit or a sacrificial lamb. The first conception could be called anti-vivisection morality, the second, vivisection morality. Humbugs and dilettantes have always tried to mix the two conceptions; in practice, it is impossible. Whoever is burdened with power and responsibility finds out on the first occasion that he has to choose; and he is fatally driven to the second alternative. Do you know, since the establishment of Christianity as a state religion, a single example of state which really followed a Christian policy? You can't point out one. In times of need- and politics are chronically in a time of need - the rulers were always able to evoke "exceptional circumstances", which demanded exceptional measures of defence. Since the existence of nations and classes, they live in a permanent state of mutual self-defence, which forces them to defer to another time the putting into practice of humanism....'

-- Taken from the chapter 'The Second Hearing' of 'Darkness at Noon' by Arthur Koestler.

I took two books with me to read while travelling to East Coast. (which proved to be a wise decision, as I missed my first flight and had to wait for 5 hours to catch the next.) The first one was 'For whom the bell tolls' by Hemingway and the other 'Darkness at noon.' I did not have any idea about the subjects of these books and did not imagine that they could be related to each other in a strange way.

Both the books were published in 1940. In 'For whom the bell tolls', Hemingway portrays the struggle of left-wing group against the fascist forces during the Spanish Civil war. The protagonist is an American fighting for the Republican army.

'Darkness at Noon' on the other hand is based on infamous Moscow trials in which Stalin 'purged' the party and the armed forces. This book has many paragraphs, like one given above, which could very well apply to what is happening now.

Rise and fall of Communism could be considered as the most important event of 20th century, barring perhaps the two World wars. I was thrilled to read two great books which revolved around its two opposite facets.