Cogitations of Vishwas Jain

Before you start reading the book review, my favourite lines from the book: " Our best intentions are often thwarted by external forces-forces that we ourselves set in motion long ago. Decisions especially bad ones, create their own kind of momentum, and momentum can be a bitch to stop. Momentum says: Hold on, not so fast, I'm still running things here. As a friend likes to say, quoting an old Greek poem: The minds of ever-lasting gods are not changed suddenly ." " I think, that tennis uses the language of life. Points becomes games becomes sets becomes tournaments, and it's all so tightly connected that any point can become the turning point. It reminds of me the way seconds becomes minutes becomes hours, and any hour can be our finest. Or darkest. It's your choice. " I still remember the my first match of tennis that I watched on Television. The only thing that I remember from that match was the magic chant 'An-dre An-dre'. Andre Agass

Our cab got cancelled. This left us dependent on the vagaries of local taxi dealers. It became a trade off between peace and money as they were charging higher rates but in the end peace prevailed which rarely does these days. However, for us it was not a zero-sum game as the final objective was peace at whatever cost. So, we decided to hire the taxi. But the peace plan got dismantled when taxi driver warned us that there is huge traffic jam on the road to Dhanaulti. Also, it is impossible to reach Dhanaulti and return on the same day. After seeing the brooding expression on our face he told us that we can at best go to Mussoorie and return the same day. He also added that he can't guarantee that we will be able to return on time and catch the overnight train to Delhi as the road is severely jammed. He had several stories of getting stuck in the traffic jam for 6 hours while returning from Mussoorie in the past. As some of my friends had to join the qualitative work force that d

I am on  my way from my temporary shelter in Delhi to the nearby park to find 'peace' in the smog covered environment. It is  a fresh afternoon of cold December. The 'cold' is nowhere compared to what we witnessed 5-6 years ago, thanks to the climate change and rise in temperature. This is the same me who shouted 'looser-looser' for Sri-lankan cricket team in Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium when SriLankan players showed up on ground after wearing pollution masks.To be honest, I never wanted to project myself as 'anti-national' in the heated environment of the iconic stadium which witnessed nationalist activities like Anil Kumble taking 10 wickets in an innings against Pakistan. People even went to the extent of calling spectators wearing pollution masks as 'anti-national' while they were just trying to save themselves from reduction in their lung capacity. Anyways, on my route to the park what I am testimony to is, me leaving behind caravan of cars,