Afternoon in School - The Last Lesson by DH Lawrence

I still seem to feel this way every time I work late into the night or over the weekend. Lovely poem.

When will the bell ring, and end this weariness?
How long have they tugged the leash, and strained apart
My pack of unruly hounds: I cannot start
Them again on a quarry of knowledge they hate to hunt,
I can haul them and urge them no more.
No more can I endure to bear the brunt
Of the books that lie out on the desks: a full three score
Of several insults of blotted pages and scrawl
Of slovenly work that they have offered me.
I am sick, and tired more than any thrall
Upon the woodstacks working weariedly.

And shall I take
The last dear fuel and heap it on my soul
Till I rouse my will like a fire to consume
Their dross of indifference, and burn the scroll
Of their insults in punishment? - I will not!
I will not waste myself to embers for them,
Not all for them shall the fires of my life be hot,
For myself a heap of ashes of weariness, till sleep
Shall have raked the embers clear: I will keep
Some of my strength for myself, for if I should sell
It all for them, I should hate them -
- I will sit and wait for the bell.

Careless Whispers

Ever played the game of Chinese whispers as a kid? Yea, that game where you form a circle. Now you are given a piece of paper and asked to carefully read out the smart-ass line given to you.You memorise it by heart and whisper it out in the ear of the person standing to the right of you. Continue this exercise till it reaches the one to the left of you. What the last kid says usually yields a hilarious outcome. By all appearances, this is a harmless game that families can indulge in during get-togethers.However, it's similarity to rumour mills is hard to miss. Here's a sample:

Siddhart and Deepika went out to get some ice-cream

Siddhart and Deepika went out some place where everyone screamed

Siddhart and Deepika went somewhere everytime she screamed

Siddhart and Deepika went out for sometime till that night she heard him scream

Siddhart went out with that Deepika woman who'd never stop screaming

You know how Siddhart dated Deepika until she screamed in a public place

You have to hear about Siddhart's ex, Deepika who'd always scream at a public place, like at a beach

Poor Siddhart. His ex, Deepika always screamed like a b#$@% at a public place.

Po da! Siddhart only went out with this girl who was next seen with Deepak in public
 
And finally - Breaking News. Or rather, Breaking-up News. Siddhart was seen at the beach, screaming at his ex, because she's now going around with Deepak. Join us in an exclusive coverage about this development as Arnab Goswami digs up all the facts.

( P.S. Play the game at your own risk.Nudge!Wink!)

A Mad Man's History Lesson - Introduction

History never really repeats itself. Only a bunch of historians do. And they do so for their own convenience. Just think about it. Try reading a history book prescribed by schools and universities in a country that shares its history with your own country. You’ll see that the so called “history” has been painted in a colour pallete that’s very different from what you’ve come to accept as the truth. It’s almost as if History differs from one country to another, just the same way different colours are used to distinguish countries in a political map. So what purpose does history serve apart creating a “mine is bigger than yours” argument on a global scale?  That’s not education. That’s indoctrination with a university certification.

So what can we do about it? Well, assuming all sources of history to be biased in favour of one party over the other, there is absolutely no way of figuring out what really happened. And since we can’t fight them, let’s just join them and share a few laughs. No seriously. There’s no better way to settle an argument than laughing it off. Which is what we’ll do every couple of weeks.  Every time we come across some significant chapters in world history that changed the course of mankind (Yea, right!).

Welcome to the History Class that come with no morals. No heroes. No villains. And absolutely nothing that will fetch you an A+ in your school report. What it will contain however, is a new look at History. So class, the next time we meet, let’s just not revisit history. Let’s rewrite it.