No such philosophy to console her

From Rabindranath Tagore's 'The Postmaster' (English translation as in 'Selected short stories' by Rabindranath Tagore):

When he was on the boat and it had set sail, when the swollen flood-waters of the river started to heave like the Earth's brimming tears, the postmaster felt a huge anguish: the image of a simple young village-girl's grief-stricken face seemed to speak a great inarticulate universal sorrow. He felt sharp desire to go back: should he not fetch that orphaned girl, whom the world had abandoned? But the wind was filling the sails by then, the swollen river was flowing fiercely, the village had been left behind, the riverside burning-ground was in view. Detached by the current of the river, he reflected philosophically that in life there are many separations, many deaths. What point was there in going back? Who belonged to whom in this world?

But Ratan had no such philosophy to console her. All she could do was wander near the post office, weeping copiously. Maybe a faint hope lingered in her mind that Dadababu might return; and this was enough to tie her to the spot, prevent her from going far. O poor, unthinking human heart! Error will not go away, logic and reason are slow to penetrate. We cling with both arms to false hope, refusing to believe the weightiest proofs against it, embracing it with all our strength. In the end it escapes, ripping our veins and draining our heart's blood; until, regaining consciousness, we rush to fall into snares of delusion all over again.

Fall Term

My reason for writing this blog was 'that five years from now if I am complaining about grad life I can look at this and remember that I have had some fun too.' I had not realised that I would be so busy having fun that there would be no time to write about it!

Fall term was full of activities - yoga (happy to have Amy back after summer break), bharatanatyam, modern jazz dance, DDR, tennis, wall climbing, and Sundays with Kshipra at cafe del doge :)

Kshipra and Onkar joined Stanford - obviously a big reason for all the fun I am having :)

Pleasant surprises: I managed to convince some friends to play DDR and try yoga! I remember having a really hard time trying to convince anyone to play on the trampoline or to join me in any other such 'childish' activities, back in my freshman year. And now, in my second year of grad school I have company to play DDR and 'leg-leg' (a game that involves kicking each other) and to have pillow fights :)

Finally, the most pleasant change is that I have started working on 'discrete math' :D So much olympiadish fun lies ahead!