Beautiful Paragraphs from Love Story by Erich Segal

I love "Love Story" by Erich Segal. This is usually the sentiment when I start reading the book. But, by the time I reach the end, I get dehydrated with swollen eyes. And before sleeping I decide that I won't read the book again. Ah well, every now and then I find it in my hands. I love almost all the conversations between the couple, Oliver and Jenny. Here are a few that are the best:

"What makes you so sure that I went to prep school?"

"You look stupid and rich," she said, removing her glasses.

"You're wrong," I protested. "I'm actually smart and poor."

"Oh, no, Preppie. I'm smart and poor."

She was staring straight at me. Her eyes were brown. Okay, may be I look rich, but I wouldn't let some 'Cliffie-even one with pretty eyes - call me dumb.

"What the hell makes you so smart?" I asked.

"I wouldn't go for coffee with you," she answered.

"Listen - I wouldn't ask you."

"That," she replied, "is what makes you stupid."

"Hey, Oliver, did I tell you that I love you?" she said.

"No, Jen."

"Why didn't you ask me?"

"I was afraid to, frankly."

"Ask me now."

"Do you love me, Jenny?"

She looked at me and wasn't being evasive when she answered: "What do you think?"

"Yeah. I guess. Maybe."

I kissed her neck.

"Oliver?"

"Yes?"

"I don't just love you..."

Oh, Christ, what was this?

"I love you very much, Oliver."

"Then don't leave me, Jenny. Please."

"What about my scholarship? What about Paris, which I've never seen in my whole goddamn life?"

"What about our marriage?"

It was I who spoke those words, although for a split second I wasn't sure I really had.

"Who said anything about marriage?"

"Me. I'm saying it now."

"You want to marry me?"

"Yes."

She tilted her head, did not smile, but merely inquired: "Why?"

I looked her straight in the eye.

"Because," I said.

"Oh," she said. "That's a very good reason."

"I can't pass judgment, Ollie. I just think it's part of it. I mean, I know I love not only you yourself. I love your name. And your numeral."

She looked away, and I thought maybe she was going to cry. But she didn't; she finished her thought:

"After all, it's part of what you are."

[When they rent a ghetto place in the city, and move in just after getting married]

"Carry me over the threshold," she said.

"You don't believe in that nonsense, do you?"

"Carry me, and I'll decide later."

Okay. I scooped her in my arms and hauled her up five steps onto the porch.

"Why'd you stop?" she asked.

"Isn't this the threshold?"

"I see our name by the bell."

"This is the not the official goddamn threshold. Upstairs, you turkey!"

It was twenty-four steps to our "official" homestead, and I had to pause about halfway to catch up the breath.

"Why are you so heavy?" I asked her.

"Did you ever think I might be pregnant?" she answered.

This didn't make it easier for me to catch my breath.

"Are you?" I could finally say.

"Hah! Scared you, didn't I?"

"Nah."

"Don't bullshit me, Preppie."

"Yeah. For a second there, I clutched."

I carried her the rest of the way.

This is among the precious few moments I can recall in which the verb "scrounge" has no relevance.

"Hey, listen you bitch," I said.

"What, you bastard?" she said.

"I owe you a helluva lot," I said sincerely.

"Not true, you bastard, not true," she answered.

"Not true?," I inquired, somewhat surprised.

"You owe me everything," she said.

"Screw Paris and music and all that crap you think you stole from me. I don't care, you sonovabitch. Can't you believe that?"

"No," I answered truthfully.

"Then get the hell out of here," she said. "I don't want you at my goddamn deathbed."

She meant it. I could tell when Jenny really meant something. So I bought permission to stay by telling a lie: "I believe you," I said.

Life at Stanford

I have decided to blog frequently about my life at Stanford, after all I am going to be here for at least four to five years! I got the inspiration from http://www.geocities.com/raymondrjs/stanfordmemories.html. So keep checking back! Let me sum up what has happened till now :)

I arrived at the university on Sept 15th 2009. I was miserable. I had fun for at least a month and now I was stuck at this place where I don't know anyone! But things got better as days passed by. I loved the campus. It is so bike friendly and beautiful! I bought a bike, set up my room and started the daily routine. To my surprise, I am capable of waking up at 6 am and going to sleep by 11 pm. There is the pressure of passing the comps exams and finding an advisor by the end of December. Lets see how that goes :)

My Life at Austin

Okay.. I'm back again :)

Today I thought to write about my two years at Austin. May be its gonna be a long post, may be short.. lets see. Lets divide it into the four semesters

The Journey

I left India on August 6th 2007. I never chalk out my life and somehow just keep doing stuff. Sometimes it feels like I do things like a machine. They know what they have to do and they do it. May be everyone feels that way :) Leaving India brought up a mix of emotions. I was going oversees for the first time, that too alone and had no one in the US! My family members thought I am strong.. may be I was, may be not. I didn't cry a single time in India but did so during the flight! All those moments I spent in my home and Roorkee came flashing in front of my eyes. I remembered the love of my mother, the care of my father, the fights with my sister, big-sister-younger-brother relationship with my brother, fun with my friends... and there they were .. far far away. Well, after fighting my emotions, I landed in NJ airport. I didn't like US at the first sight. People were rude and were looking at me suspiciously!! (later realized its just NY culture;)) But Austin was a lot better. The people were very friendly, though the city looked deserted. The roads were barren and all you can see were the cars. It was a major cultural shock. I recovered.

First Semester

I didn't have funding and mailed like 100 professors asking if they have any TA/RA positions open. One professor offered me RA position but warned that though the law is maximum 20hr/week, I will probably have to work 40hrs/week! In one hand, I get the position and money and the high probability of not performing well in acads. On the other hand, spend money but get its worth. I chose the second one. And fortunately I got funding from the department. I worked really hard during the semester.. didn't take a day off.. and I guess that paid off. I started working with an amazing professor from the next semester. I am very happy that things worked out so well. Though in the process I lost touch of the world. As I started living in my own house, I had to clean, cook etc. And I made sure that I do things the right way. For some reason I hate when people don't think about others and do things at their own leisure (if they eventually do). Due to the pressure I became less bubbly, stopped smiling all the time and a bit introvert (Yes, at some point of time I was very bubbly). I had fewer friends and didn't go out much (can you believe it?).

Second Semester

It was almost the same as the first one. I had an RA so I was very happy. I started working on projects I liked. I got one paper published. Went to two conferences in Europe. In all a very satisfying semester acads wise. My personal front was still barren. Sometimes I used to go to Pittsburgh and used to live life fully. Apart from that, I was pretty much in my office. I tried making good friends but somehow timings never matched. I wanted to go out and have fun.. don't know why didn't do much of that. Though I did make some friends. In between, my sister got married. Never thought we have grown so big to get married!!

Summer

The summer was fun!! I had the most amazing internship with really great mentors. Seattle was beautiful beyond words. Sometimes I used to feel lonely at home as I didn't know anyone in Seattle but the time I used to spend in office was great. The project was interesting and kept me busy. I started watching Frasier and realized that there are TV shows that can give competition to Friends. Belgium and Finland were great too. It was my first Europe trip and I liked it.


Third Semester

I moved in with Pooja. She was an amazing flat mate. She has a heart of gold. I started enjoying my stay at home. Acads wise it was fine too. For first two months, I used to reach office at 8 am! Went to India in December and my sister gave birth to the cutest nephew. I didn't wanna leave him at all .. but had to come back :( What else... nothing much actually!

Forth Semester

Well, my last full semester at UT. I started liking Austin. I liked the fact that the roads are broad enough to drive a car peacefully or it doesn't snow in winter. I bought a car - 2004 Nissan Sentra. Before that, I faced a very hard question of where to go for PhD - UW, UT or Stanford. After a looonnngg time, I flipped a coin and decided to go to Stanford. Lets see how things work out in that front. I will miss working with Ray and will definitely miss Austin. You must be thinking that the paras are getting shorter :)


In all, I liked staying in Austin. It could have been better.. but I guess its okay. Somehow I think I murdered my personal life for getting some better in professional life. Cycles come and go... I don't think apart from Pooja, any one in Austin knows me that well. Its not that I am mysterious :) I think people used to like me more at Roorkee :D I really miss Roorkee many times in Austin. I used to miss school life at Roorkee. We keep looking back and realize how great the previous life was. May be after going to Stanford, I will look back and realize how great Austin was...

How the world feels about "us"...

This blog is my outburst on several articles, books and movie reviews I have read in past few months. I am upset with only a few people and realize that there are many others who do not belong to the group of people I am going to talk about. I always think about: "What does the rest of the world feel about India?", and realized that its not about what they feel but what they read and want to read. First, I will tell you my review of the book 'White Tiger' written by 'an Indian brought up in Indonesia and studied in the UK'. The book is half rubbish. It talks about life of a "lower-caste" person from some village near Dhanbad, when is in the village, New Delhi and Bangalore. The book draws examples of about half of the things that according to me have been almost eradicated in India. Has the author actually gone to these under-developed areas and seen the reality? I am sure he has not. Now lets analyze why writers like him write these books, which btw win the Booker prize. I think many people in the developed countries want to read about poverty, casteism, life in slum, religious divide, untouchability, sati etc. in a book about India. This is how they have always thought about the country and they feel right if a book describes the things exactly as they have imagined before. They are not ready to believe that things change in developing countries!

My second comment is on a blog written by Matthew Harding (famous for 'Where is the hell is Matt?') on India. Man, can you believe this person's blog! I don't understand that if he hated India so much then why did he spend so much money on the airline tickets! People like this guy, who is BTW famous for his stupid dance, can only see poverty, slums and cheating in India. To them, outer beauty is everything and they live for that! They can't see how people are happy and how they draw happiness from small instances in life. And BTW, if you want to see beauty, please for god's sake don't go to a metropolitan city. I think there are many people who agree with me that there are better places to visit in the US than New York. Lets talk about cheating. They cry that people in India sell everything for 10 times more money to a Caucasian than to an Indian. You know what dude, you are happy to spend $100 in Europe/USA but spending $1 for the same thing in India makes you bankrupt?? I think there should officially be more tax for tourists in India. This is followed in many countries, for example according to my Bulgarian officemate, tourists are taxed more in Bulgaria.

My next target is the book 'Holy Cow', written by an Australian journalist, who lived in India for a few years. Well, you can see what the book is about from its front page. It has picture of the Hindu god 'Shiva' wearing goggles. I am sort of an atheist but this picture outraged me thinking how people can be so insensitive. Lets see if someone in US/Europe buys a book that has picture of Christ wearing goggles on the cover page. I am not delving into religion but the sole purpose of this Australian journalist seems to sell the book in developed countries and show this grim, religious and poor view of India.

Now, lets talk about the newly released movie 'Slumdog Millionaire', directed by an American director. Following is excerpt of a comment published on IMDB about the movie:

But the next hour and twenty minutes of the film were a disaster. Every clichéd and stereotype imaginable about India, Indian class struggle, Indian religious struggle was reinforced in the film in an even more exaggerated form. Every character in the film was either good or evil, black or white. Every system was either fair or unfair. There was no room for nuances and subtleties. The story telling was too much on the surface. For e.g. a scene from '92 riots, where a bunch of Hindu fanatics were attacking Muslims in their slums. That scene was a biggest turn off for me. I was in fact offended by the insensitivity and insensibility of the filmmaker who presented such a big historical tragedy in simplistic and stereotypical way. I have lived through those riots and I know exactly how it feels. It for sure wasn't as simplistic.

And the scene where the two brothers were pushed out of the train because they were stealing bread. Common! Give me a break! I have never seen such things happen in India in my entire lifetime. And I've lived in India for most of my life.

Also the kind Caucasian couple who graciously gives $100 to Jamal. I've never seen such kind tourists in India ever. I've seen Western tourists sometimes haggle for 10 cents. Forget India I've never seen such a gracious Caucasian exhibiting such kindness even in New York City.

And besides that Caucasian couple nobody from the higher economic strata of the society was kind and generous. Everyone was brutal, cruel, conniving...as if there were only two types of people in Mumbai.

This was yet another stereotypical Western view of a "third world country" gone wrong. I think this film is made purely for the Western audience, so that they feel good about themselves. The film does nothing else but reinforces the stereotypes. And after looking at all these favorable reviews I feel that there is a great divide between the way the West sees the world (or wants to see the world) and the way the world really is. One of the roles of media, in my opinion, is to challenge these stereotypes, whereas this film, to become popular, simply reinforces them. The film in my opinion is shallow, lame and absolutely insensible.

I haven't seen the movie but I can relate to what this person is talking about, though I don't totally agree with him. This comment has been labeled as "*** This comment may contain spoilers ***" on the website!!

Here is one more comment:
It has so many things going against it here in the States, the usage of south Asian characters, and... well I'll stop there.

Well, to be true, there are other comments, which say that this movie truly deserves Oscar. As already said, I haven't seen the movie but I hope I don't get disappointed watching only some "aspects" of Mumbai/India shown in the movie.

While writing this blog, I was afraid that my non-Indian friends might misunderstand me. I am not against or for any particular country. I just feel that people should shed the stereotypical views they have about India and treat things with broad mind. Majority of the blame goes to writers and directors who only show biased view of India.. why do they have to write about only slums in Mumbai/Delhi and not about the beautiful Himalayas!

Terrorism and Corruption

Even sitting thousands of miles away from my country, I get goosebumps thinking of its future given the recent terror strikes. Thousands of people get killed because of handful of extreme-minded terrorists. Just read a nice article in HT to how to fight terrorism. If the politicians stop taking just 1% of the bribe, then also the steps are not impossible. One day I was thinking if this will ever end.. if the people will ever live in peace. And I thought that it is almost impossible. Modern day terrorism is another form of old days wars fought among kings. The lust for more will never be gone and one country will always try to conquer another. Just that now we call provinces to be countries and the whole situation is also affected by 'globalization'. No longer people(conquerers) think to conquer areas within like hundred of miles. Everything has to be at a larger scale. But one thing is same - plight of common people. How does it matter to people of Kashmir if they are in Pakistan or India or their own country if their life is peaceful?

Though, it is almost impossible to eradicate terrorism, we can definitely fight it. There are just a few steps to make people more aware and build the infrastructure to find bad people. Why can't India have something like SSN (Social Security Number) such that one can have all information about a person through a single ID number. You need to have a SSN to open a bank account, take a loan, get employed, get cell phone, get driver's license, fill tax forms or to do mostly everything. If the govt. has this information for all the citizens, can't it easily find an abrupt activity? I agree its difficult to introduce this in a nation of more than 1 billion people but what are we lacking infrastructure wise to introduce this? Computers - no we have enough, people - no we have too many, Money - yes somewhat, Motivation - yes.. I think the politicians do not want to introduce this as most of the times they are corrupt and do not want all their information available through one ID number.

Most of the answers boil down to the fact that we have corruption in the very roots. Why don't we install security cameras all around? Because, people will steal them in less than a day with the help of local policemen! Until and unless, the corruption in police is not gone.. almost everything is impossible. You shd see this video on youtube - story of a 100 rupees note. Its hilarious and brings out the amount of corruption in everyone's life. Yesterday, one of my friends was saying that they have to bribe people in the administration to get no-dues required for graduation within a day, which otherwise takes at least a week. And do you know the institute? IIT Roorkee... can you believe this? And I guess all profs know about this (his dad is a really good prof). Why can't they do anything? They are the govt. of the Institute. But I guess some of them might as well be involved in the whole cycle of corruption - corruption in our technical fest, fun fest, no-dues and etc. etc. (I am sorry if this hurts any prof of IITR but this is the 'truth' we all students know. Some of them might as well be rumors but I am sure that there is corruption for getting no-dues- at least among the non-teaching staff). May be the profs don't even know about the bribe taking for giving no-dues. Why don't the students tell the authorities? Why can't they come ahead and complain against the spoilers? Because the students are just interested in getting their work done. Right now they are taking money to give no-dues, next day you know they need money to do any damn thing. I am just so sorry to know that one of the top institutes of India has corruption among the staff. I never paid anything to anyone in my four years at IITR. Guess things just change within a yr!

I hope one day everything will be okay... and I am waiting for that day.