bakwaas...

Mausam kuchh aashiqaana sa hua jaata hai
Mizaaj kuchh shaayaraana sa hua jaata hai

Sochte hain ki likh dein do chaar nazm hum
Par kalam humaara kuchh begaana sa hua jaata hai

Aaj ka gyaan..

When giving judgment about the fact that someone has changed, we often forget how much we have changed in the meanwhile and that the change we see is only relative to ourselves. We kind of assume ourselves to be an inertial frame of reference. What is especially noteworthy is that you have changed for the other person *exactly* as much as he for you..

Life

How things change..

I was just looking at the archives of Amit's blog and found the following comment written by me on this post...

"Yun chaand ko chhute sapnon ko,
duniya ka shikaar na banne do

Sapne se tumhaare duniya ka,
kad chhota hai ye yaad rakho

Chita aarzoo ki jalaane se pehle
Nishaan uske mitaane se pehle

Jo wo aarzoo chehre par laayi thi,
Ek baar us muskaan ko yaad karo :)"

It is just a bunch of random lines which will perhaps qualify as crap according to many but I love the optimism in what I wrote..

It was not so long ago and things haven't changed much since then in any evident way.. especially for an external observer.. yet, I don't see myself writing something like this today.. it will not come so naturally at least. It takes an effort to even be optimistic now.

...

Bas kuchh taqalluf hi baaqi lagta hai
Zindagi to jaise kab ki ji chuke hain

Bachpan kaash thoda thoda karke mila hota mujhko

PS: I know I seem to be getting repetitive.. but can't help..

Of internet/email and their absense..

"I have been a happy man ever since January 1, 1990, when I no longer had an email address. I'd used email since about 1975, and it seems to me that 15 years of email is plenty for one lifetime.

Email is a wonderful thing for people whose role in life is to be on top of things. But not for me; my role is to be on the bottom of things. What I do takes long hours of studying and uninterruptible concentration." - says Donald Knuth.

I admire you, Sir for that along with all the work you have done. It will take an effort but I think I do want to give such a life (sans internet/phone) a try, at least for a year or so. I so have a feeling it will be worth it... lets see when/if I manage to give myself an opportunity...

Chaos vs Order

Blowing horns loudly, shouting on the streets, jamming the traffic and thereby stopping all traffic - this is how these people celebrate winning of a football match. And this is a place where while watching a match in a public place all you get to see (see, not hear mind you) if their national heroes are doing well is just silent clapping of the hands.

Why this pretense of order all around when what you want is chaos, too, just like me?

There is too much order in this place. I want more (regular) chaos.

Aaj ka gyaan...

Have a desire either to enjoy the journey or to enjoy the destination. Wanting to enjoy them both is so so damn greedy..

...

The qualities that you like to advertise as your biggest strengths are more often than not your biggest weaknesses.
-Tolerance is a weakness
-Honesty is a weakness
-Patience, too, is a weakness.

...

I wrote the following about a year ago..

"I want

Longing to go
Memories to stay

Hope to go
Love to stay"

It might be a little premature to say this, but it seems I am succeeding..

Do these sets ever meet?

{Childhood, love, heart, innocence, observation without judgment, etc}

{Adulthood, logic, mind, experience, judgment without observation, etc}

Life/Zindagi

It is amazing how very frequently this word is uttered by almost everyone. In every day conversations, in songs, in poetry, in status messages, in blogs, .. just about everywhere. Kind of explains the duel between the human desire to be able to understand everything there is and that too in just one shot versus the helplessness felt in not having any damn clue of what it is all about. Such is life..

Detachment

Kuchh afsos un lafzon ke liye hai jo keh na sake
Kuchh shiqwa un lafzon se hai jo keh diye
Apni nasamjhi se hi itne gile hain humko
Kisi aur se shiqaayat ab karein kaise

Kabhi kabhi tujh pe bhi pyaar aaya hai khuda
Jab kabhi khud mein kahin tujh ko dekha hai
Khud se mohabbat mein yun mashroof ho chuke hain
Kisi aur se mohabbat ab karein kaise

I love nonsense conversations

Conversation with friends F1 and F2.. not exactly verbatim

F1 and me (singing) : Kya kare zindagi, isko hum jo mile... iski jaan kha gaye raat din ke gile
F1: Ye gaana kitni saari situations mein itna fit hota hai..
F2: Kya matlab hai is gaane ka
F1: Our life has to suffer as a consequence of our doings.
me: Galti hum karte hain, bhugatna bechaari zindagi ko padta hai..
F2: I can't relate to it.. I can't separate me and my life..
me: Iska matlab tum aur tumhaari zindagi do jism ek jaan hain (followed by lots of laughter)

Waqt rehta nahi kahin tik kar, iski aadat bhi aadmi si hai..

I had to make a decision. Two options. Confused. What to do? I tossed a coin. Heads or tails. I needed heads. I wanted heads. Nothing  else seemed right. I prayed for it. The coin was in the air. The heart was beating. Fast. It came down heads. Joyous me. Couldn't believe my luck. I tossed two more times. Best of three. Let's see. One more heads. I still win. Hurrah! The decision was made. In my favour. But wait! The story had another dimension. Time. It ruled out one option. How? In the meanwhile. When the coin game was being played. The decision was easy now. In fact it had already been made. Tails, it was. I haven't tossed a coin since then.

PS: Don't worry if you don't get it. I don't get it, either.

Arrogance

Zara sa tadpaaya to wo khafa ho baithe

Humein aaya kuchh alag sa maza us mein

Tumko hi har baar haq sataane ka kyun ho?

Qismat ne aata dekh humein band kiye darwaaze

Zara hichke par phir khidki se ghar mein ja dhamke

Kab milenge ye faisla har baar tumhaara kyun ho?

Khushi ko nazar lagaane ki koshish kar rahe the zamaane waale

Be-asar hoti dekh koshish hum itraane lage

Khuda mera bhala tum pe meherbaan kyun ho?

Rootha khuda humko aawaargi mein jhoomta dekh ke

Zara be-adbi thi, par ho ke bekhauf hum bhi poochh baithe

Duniya mein bas ek tum hi khuda kyun ho?

Aaj ka gyaan..

If you did not forget, but you forgot that you did not forget, then it is no better than having forgotten in the beginning.

Dil to pagal hai.. maanta hi nahi

Even though

- I have almost not been following cricket since the 2003 world cup and shouldn't really care now after so many years
- India has played pathetically in the tournament so far inspite of having a real solid team (at least the batting line-up)
- It feels ridiculous to have your chances depend on how the matches that you aren't even a part of, go
- The possibility that the whole tournament is fixed cannot be ruled out..

phir bhi mann kar raha hai that india defeats sri lanka with a big enough margin, australia defeats west indies, india qualifies for the semis and goes on to win the cup..

Dil to pagal hai, maanta hi nahi.

Waiting for some magic to happen in life..

M-A-G-I-C ... Nothing short of that will do..

"Dekhiye paate hain ushshaaq buton se kya faiz,
Ik baraahman ne kaha hai ki ye saal achchha hai" - Ghalib

Acquaintances..

Anjaane raaston ki tanhaaiyon mein aisa ajab sa sukoon milta hai kabhi kabhi
Ki koi jaana pehchaana aata dikhe door se to ek darr sa lagta hai

Ki wo phir se haal poochh lega, aur phir se jhooth boloonga main..

Dil to bachcha hai ji :D

http://in.news.yahoo.com/139/20100501/882/twl-granny-72-having-a-baby-with-her-gra.html

I would perhaps have been disgusted at such a news at a certain point of time, but today I find it funny. Such are the kind of effects of starting to not take things seriously :D

Reminds me of the Bashir Badr's couplet:
"Mujhe ishtehaar si lagti hain ye mohabbaton ki kahaaniyaan
Jo kaha nahi wo suna karo, jo suna nahi wo kaha karo"


Maybe, another line should be added to it, .. "Jo hua nahi, wo kiya karo"

I wonder whether..

once you stop taking anything seriously, things really start coming your way automatically, or is it that you end up lowering your expectations so much that whatever little comes your way seems like the world...

Mujhe Colonel Julius Nagendra Nath Wilfred Singh ki zaroorat hai.

Optimism vs I-don't-know-what

"Kaun kehta hai aasmaan mein suraakh nahi ho sakta,
Ek patthar ko zara tabiyat se uchhaalo yaaron" - Dushyant

"Tabiyat zara kharaab hai, aur patthar kuchh kamzor
Koi aasmaan ko zara sa neeche bula do yaaron" - yours truly

Humein kya bura tha marna, agar ek baar hota

 My office-mate kills me everyday with the number of questions he asks me. Even ignoring doesn't make him stop pestering me. I almost feel like an irritated parent, except that I don't quite love this adopted 30 year old "kid" of mine. 

Just when I think I am ignoring too much and being rude and start being polite, he comes at me with another chain of questions.

Here is a small sample set: The questions I was asked in the last hour or so. Only those that I recollect now..



How were the seats in your night train to Barcelona?
Could you sleep?
Was there no place to lie down on the floor?
Was anyone lying down on the floor?
When you took the train, was there a power outlet in the train?
Did you carry your laptop?

When does the next semester begin?
Where can I find the exact dates?
How do you spell rektorat?

When is the InfSec exam?
Why do they not announce the date now?

Have you prepared the solutions for the exercise?
When will you do them?

What do you play with that racquet?
Where do you play?

When did you arrive today?
When will you leave?
Do you have any plans for the weekend?
Do you want to go to Vienna for the weekend?

What are you writing?
What are you working on?
Are these your results or the summary of what you read?
What is this webpage?
Do you write a blog?
A math blog?
Oh, a casual blog?

Until when will you stay here today?

Do you have the key to the office?
 Till when are you here?
Are you here for another half an hour?

Do you travel in Switzerland?




As the famous line from Ghalib goes: "Humein kya bura tha marna, agar ek baar hota"

...

"Wo dil mein sochna, kar ke kuchh dikha dein
Wo karna planning roz nayi yaar" :)

Pata nahi bachpana kab jaayega :D

Rendezvous with Gulzar: 3

 Knots

Dear weaver,
teach me the skill
of weaving.

I have often
seen you
busy with warp and weft,
tying up broken yarns,
joining loose ends
and continuing to weave.
No one can detect
the knots
in the woven fabric.

Once, I too had woven
a relationship.
But sadly, dear weaver,
all the knots in the fabric
stick out,
for all to see.

Translation:


Gaanthen

Aye julaahe,
Mujhko bhi
kapde bunne ka saleeka sikha de

Maine aksar tumhe dekha hai
Oon aur silaayi ke saath,
Toote dhaagon ko jodte hue
Dheele kinaaron ko kaste hue
Tum kapda bunte jaate ho.
Bune hue kapde mein
Gaanthen
Kahin dikhaayi nahi deti.



Ek baar maine bhi ek rishta buna tha.
Par aye julaahe,
Afsos
Us mein se
Saari gaanthen bahar nikal aayi hain
Aur sab ko dikhaayi deti hain




Rating: 5/10 (it ain't getting better as of now)

Wah Gulzar wah... this poem is absolutely beautiful.. if only i could word it better :(

Aa Gulzar hum bhi aaj khila ke dekhen chaand
Ki mere saawan mein tere patjhad sa nasha hai ki nahi

Rendezvous with Gulzar: 2

Landscape

On a distant
desolate shore
close to a young palm tree,
stands another aged one,
wrapped in rags
of dusty times.
Breaking the silence
of centuries,
the old palm tree
bends and whispers
to the young one:
It is cold and lonesome.
Why don't you say something?

Translation:

Ek nazaara..

Door kahin
Ek veeraane se kinaare par
Ek taaze taad ke ped ke paas,
Ek boodha ped khada hai,
cheethdon mein lipta
Jo guzre dhool mein sane palon ki
Yaad dilaate hain.

Sadiyon ki khaamoshi todte hue,
Boodhe taad ke ped ne
Jhuk kar
Taaze ped ke kaan mein kaha
"Yahaan bahut sardi aur tanhaayi hai,
Tum kuchh kehte kyun nahi?"


Rating: 5/10



(the translation is not good but i still give it 5 because the last line sounds much better in Hindi and that is in itself enough to win a 5.. )

A wanderer


A homeless wanderer
roams the city
straying from door to door.


He carries a few twigs,
an ear of corn,
a few drops of tears,
some silent sighs
and a lump of earth
for his own grave --
all with a vain hope
of a destination.


If only
I had your shoulders
to lean on.

Translation:

Ek raahi..

Ek raahi
Sheher mein ghoomta hai
Darwaaze-dar-darwaaze bhatakta hua.


Ikatthe kar raha hai,
Kuchh tinke,
Kuchh daane makai ke,
Kuchh boonden aansuon ki
Kuchh shaant aahen
Aur ek tukda mitti ka
Apni kabra ka saamaan --
Sab bas ek anjaani manzil
Ki chaah mein..

Kaash bas
Tere kaandhe ka sahara mil gaya hota..

rating: 5/10


Aa Gulzar hum bhi aaj khila ke dekhen chaand,
Ki mere saawan mein tere patjhad sa nasha hai ki nahi.

...

Read this quote long back, "Some people cause happiness wherever they go. Some, whenever they go."

It is kind of funny that I have been both kinds in a single life :D :D

Chalo dil ko kuchh roz ki chhutti de den...

Sometimes I wonder...

...if I would be happier if I had given myself the flexibility to break promises.

Thought of the day..

Dil chaahta hai ki dil kuchh na chaahe..

Rendezvous with Gulzar: 1

Poem:(yahi title hai book mein :))

The time draws close
for Bosky's marriage.

Something leaves my body,
something sinks in my soul.

Am I sad?
Am I serene?
I do not know.

Is it the dawn
before daybreak?
Is it the dusk
before the sunset?
I do not know.

As I go along
I keep thinking,
after the next bend
she will take a turn
and head towards
the rising sun.

I'll walk on,
all alone,
till I merge
into the setting sun.

 Translation:

Kavita:

Bosky ki shaadi ka din
Kareeb aa raha hai

Jaise kuchh chhoot raha hai
Kuchh bojh sa hai rooh par

Kya mann shaant hai?
Kya main dukhi hoon?
Main nahi jaanta

Ye din nikalne se pehle ka andhera hai?
Ya din dhalne se pehle ka ujaala?
Main nahi jaanta

Bas ek khayaal ke saath
Chala ja raha hoon
Ki agle mod par
Wo chali jaayegi
Ugte hue sooraj ki taraf

Aur main yun hi chalta rahoonga
Akela
Jab tak ki main kho nahi jaata
Dhalte sooraj ke andhere mein kahin.



Rating: 3.5/10  (it will get better I assure you :))


Aa Gulzar, hum bhi aaj khila ke dekhen  chaand,
Ki mere saawan mein tere patjhad sa nasha hai ki nahi

Autumn moon - Aa Gulzar, hum bhi aaj khila ke dekhen chaand...

This is the first of what will hopefully be a series of posts on this blog. I have on my desk currently a book of poems called Autumn Moon translated in English by J.P. Das and were originally written in Urdu by Complete (Sampooran) Singh Gulzar, as I sometimes fondly call him :D.

Here is the short introduction of the book from the writer himself -

"Autumn Moon is a reflection of Gulzar's penchant for the sublime. He is one of the most versatile Urdu poets on the scene today. The anthology presents some of Gulzar's most significant Urdu works in translation for the first time.

The poems in this seminal collection, Autumn Moon, are in deep exploration of love, longing, passion, ecstasy, absence and loss."

What I want to do in this series is to try to translate these poems back to Urdu. Sounds like a foolish idea? Well...

I have been wanting to do this exercise for quite some time now but everything starts only at the right time which for this is, I guess, now.

They say that one always loses a part of the soul of the original work in a translation. However if the translation is not entirely literal, sometimes the effect created can be much better than the original (the movies Chachi 420 and Hum Tum are examples). This perhaps hints at what my goal is with what I am trying to do. That can be seen as one of the goals but that is too ambitious.

So, the reasons I want to do this are the following.

• To understand poetry better - It has been only a couple of years since I began to appreciate poetry. But, to like something is far from understanding it well enough. It is often the case that you like some poetry and if someone asks you for the meaning of some part, you are lost.. this, at times, results in statements like, "These lines can only be felt. They cannot be explained" :D.. so translation is a fantastic exercise in this respect I guess. Even if we are not able to explain the emotion well, we should be able to express/phrase it in another language if we understand it. This can take a lot of effort and can take going back and forth to the original making you understand more each time.
• To improve at expressing the thoughts - I sometimes wonder what is it that makes the great writers actually great. Is it the thoughts that matter more or is it the ability to express? Where does someone like me lack? There are some lines that simply leave the reader in awe at how fantastic the lines are... here is an example of a few by Gulzar, "Jiska bhi chehra cheela, andar se aur nikla, masoom sa kabootar naacha to mor nikla, kabhi hum kameene nikle, kabhi doosre kameene". Simply awesome. Although not exactly the same, the idea is in a way similar to something I wrote a while ago.. so perhaps i don't lack as much in idea/observation/thoughts as in expression. Hence this exercise is definitely worth doing :)
  
• to challenge my language skills- having a very limited vocabulary in both English and Hindi/Urdu, this could be a good way to improve on that..
  
• Writing fiction is the best way to disguise your thoughts and still be able to express yourself... so lets get better at writing fiction in the meanwhile :)
  
• To give the world the next Gulzar - :D ... since the great person is already in his seventies, he might not have a lot of years left.. bitter truth of life, as they call it.. so we need someone to replace him 8-)  [I know bahut bahut zyaada ho gaya but ki farak painda hai .. apna blog hai :D :D]..
  
• To give the readers time to ponder over something interesting - poetry books gone through quickly make you lose charm and this will be a interesting exercise to anyone dropping by.. and thinking that maybe this could be phrased better, etc etc..
  

ok, lots of bullshitting.. basic baat hai ki apna mood hai.. of course this does not mean this will be the only thing appearing on this blog from now on. It will just come from time to time.


The reason for choosing this book is kind of obvious. Since it was originally written in Urdu, there HAS to be a way to get it back.. and so it is reasonable to hope that back translation might make it better than the English version and/or as good as the original.  I will give my rating from 1 to 10 for each one, 5 meaning that the English version, to me, sounds just as good as my translation and 10 meaning the Hindi/Urdu version is much better than the English version. The interchange between Hindi and Urdu in my version will be frequent. I will kind of treat them as one language in the spirit of what Ghalib used to say, "Hindi and Urdu are the same languages but with a different script." 

Will want to compare it with the original later sometime. So, lets begin this journey towards trying to find out what was lost in translation.


Ek couplet humaari taraf se shuru karne ke liye :D


Aa Gulzar, hum bhi aaj khila ke dekhen  chaand,
Ki mere saawan mein tere patjhad sa nasha hai ki nahi

...

Dreams, in their essence, are an extremely pure entity. It is the hope that is the adulteration we normally subject them to, to make them impure. If only we could learn to dream without hope.

Everything in life is a paradox

God has a really weird sense of humour.

aadat

Miss Lucy kehti hain .. "aadaten agar waqt par na badli jaayen to zarooraten ban jaati hain" .. if you don't remember the reference, get drowned in chullu bhar pani

Got reminded of these lines by Gulzar today due to a friend's status message .. "Aadaten bhi ajeeb hoti hain, saans lena bhi kaisi aadat hai, jiye jaana bhi kya ravaayat hai... jiye jaate hain, jiye jaate hain... aadaten bhi ajeeb hoti hain"

It is somehow interesting to put these together.... kuchh alfaaz is khayaal par :D :D


Karta kaunsa waqt muqarrar is aadat ko badalne ka
Jab se hosh sambhaala, ye aadat kam, zaroorat zyaada thi

Jo badal paata insaan bas is ek aadat ko
Kisi aur aadat ko badalne ki zaroorat nahi rehti

Saans lena bhi kaisi aadat hai...


PS: autobiographical nahi hai :)

Orkut is, for once, at its brilliant best...

Today's fortune: The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; the pessimist fears this is true.

Brilliantly put, I must say.. and oscillating between absolute optimism and absolute pessimism at the moment, I couldn't relate to this more at any other point of time..

I am stupid....

I normally take care not to fall into these situations but this time i didn't...

Result - Sitting in a restaurant at a table with 10 european group-mates and wanting to go to the toilet and wondering what is the right protocol that should be followed here to excuse oneself from the dining table. I didn't remember anyone doing so while people were eating. After about one hour of this struggle, to my relief, i find the guy sitting next to me get up saying, "i have to go to the toilet" and I wonder "Hmmm, so this is the protocol" and I said, "Actually, me too" and follow him...

Sach hai duniya waalon ki hum hain anari..

Religion is the root cause of almost all evil

As simple-minded as this may seem, is there anything good that religion brings to us that was not possible if there was no religion?

Yahi duniya hai to aisi ye duniya kyun hai...?

A conversation from a couple of days ago..

"Me (looking at a 3-4 yr old kid playing at a little distance): That kid is sooo cute!
P1: Good that you are not a catholic!
Me:Why?
P2: If you are a catholic and you say that, it will be interpreted as you might be interested in sexually abusing the kid.
Me: ?!?!?!
P1: You know, priests in churches are not allowed to have any sexual relations with a woman and so they have to find a way to fulfil their desires.
P3: In fact, in some countries like in UK, there is a law that if you do a job associated with children, for example if you are a school bus driver or so, you have to get yourself registered with some legal authority so that in case there is an offence, it is known who to be suspected. "


not much more to say, really!!!!

questions...

The 'whens' and the 'wheres' and the 'whats' and the 'whos' and the 'whichs' are normally quite easy to answer. On most occasions, 'hows' are not that difficult either. The questions that, if attempted to answer, have a potential to kill are the 'whys'!!

Aaj ka gyaan

Do not say you trust someone unless you believe their lies just with as much assurance as you believe their truths.

Technology is a big-time robber

Emails/chats ne chitthi ka maza loot liya.. Aur ab facebook/twitter ne dheere dheere blogging ka... all the people who used to blog regularly are happy posting one-liners on facebook/twitter these days.

I guess/hope blogging will/should still survive.

As a revolutionary step, lets not post stuff on facebook/twitter at least for a while :D

..And life goes on...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/20/books/20segal.html

Erich Segal ... a person who is and will always be fondly remembered .. and most for that so very powerful line... "love means you never have to say you are sorry"

Dekha hai zindagi ko, kuchh itna kareeb se....

We perhaps need to sit and revise our principles every once in a while to know whether our understanding of things is right... almost like we need a medical check-up every once in a while to know if our body is functioning right.. and this 'medical check-up' is needed more and more often as we grow up..

On a different, though related, note I sometimes feel like our current generation is growing older at a much faster rate than the previous generations. With no disrespect to anyone, I think today's generation of people in their twenties understand many aspects of life perhaps better than people twice their age.... and I am not talking about the technical know-how of things but the philosophical aspects. I so hope/wish/want that I am wrong in this conclusion because even though some might be proud of this, it seems to be against nature. I wonder what the reason is... is it because of staying more away from the home/family..is it because money comes by much easier and the day-to-day life is more comfortable so that you have time to think about other things... I am not sure. I am not sure. But this is not good. It is almost like, as one of my friend puts it, sublimation [:D] i.e. direct transition from bachpan to budhaapa. There are people in their twenties suffering from something the symptoms of which seem like mid-life crisis. And there are yet others who are even faster.. they are already done with this 'mid-life-crisis' while still in their twenties and now have come to terms with the dullness of life and are at peace with it. It is sad. No wonder so many people have started growing gray hair in their twenties. No wonder people are having heart-attacks in their twenties. Why do we want to stop running and start walking slowly and cautiously when physically we are still capable of running?

On another different (i don't know if related or not) note, I somehow am reminded of this song from a kid movie Rahul...

"Give me a song to sing
Give me a bell to ring
Give me a toy to play
Give me....a heart....to stay"

God, why do we want so much..

...triveni...

Aaj haath ki lakeeron se kuchh shikaayat si hai
Kuchh zyaada lambi hain, kuchh zyaada chhoti

Kaash cut-copy-paste ka option in mein bhi hua karta..

Weird dream last night...

I dreamt that I had, while traveling, left my bag somewhere and gone to the toilet and when I returned, my passport was not there in the bag. And the rest of the dream was just about the struggle of trying to find it until I got fed up and woke up :D

Any interpretations, anyone?

Chess in real life

There is an old story that goes like this.

"A chess amateur decided to play chess against two grandmasters. he challenged them that he would either win at least one of the games or draw both. And he won the challenge.

This is how he did it. He started playing simultaneously with black pieces with the first grandmaster and white pieces with the second grandmaster. Each time the first grandmaster played his move, he duplicated this move on the second chessboard and then waited for the response of the second grandmaster and duplicated it on the first chess-board . This way he was bound to win one or draw both."

Sometimes we try to apply the same strategy in real life. Of trying to face different fronts of life with 'black' and 'white' pieces and copy the moves of one to the other. But we 'fail' if we do so. At least, mostly so.

Do you know where the catch is? This is what I think. The catch is that there are no draws in real life and besides, it is very very difficult to distinguish between winning and losing. And even if we do manage to distinguish, we would never be able to find fully black or fully white pieces. They will all be grey... maybe different shades of grey.. but hard to distinguish again.

Quote of the day

"Extreme laughing and extreme crying are hard to distinguish mostly... it is like approaching the same point on a circle from opposite directions" - Divesh :D