Without mercy, without remorse, without compassion

This is a dialogue from the TV series named 'Band of Brothers' based on the story of Easy company 101st Airborne division of the US army during world war II.
A 'Private Albert Blithe' confesses to a 'Lieutenant Ronald Spiers' that he hid in a ditch after making their first parachute jump in Normandy.

He tells the Lieutenant that he was scared and so he hid in the ditch.

The lieutenant tells private Blithe that, that was'nt the real reason why he hid in the ditch. The lieutenant adds that they were all scared when they made the first jump. Spiers follows it up by telling Private Blithe a very effective way of 'Overcoming his fears and fighting like a soldier'

This is what he tells Private Blithe,

'You hid because you think there is still hope. But Blithe...the only hope you have is to accept that you're already dead. The sooner you accept that, the sooner you'll function as you're supposed to. Without mercy, without remorse, without compassion. All war depends on it.' (from the TV series 'Band of Brothers')

I like this dialogue. And if you read it carefully and understand, you'll like it too.

No pain no gain

No gain without pain? Well, yeah. I remembered this proverb as my memories jogged back to yesteryears, when playing sports were a part of everyday life.

These days we do play sports, but of the mental sorts...and not the ones commonly known as 'games' like cricket, football, kho kho, catch-catch and all.

Falling and hurting yourself was very common and rarely did it result in anything more complicated than the murder of the person who committed the foul !! (if it was a game like football and if the 'fouled up' player was good enough to chase the fouler or was 'big' enough to commit his 'murder'!!!).

The small bruises, the annoying sprains, the huge cuts, the deep wounds, the small abrasions....all contributed to 'pain'. And no matter how bad the pain...it was temporarily forgotten in the frenzy of an exciting ongoing match!! In fact....everything else was forgotten once you got out onto the playground !! It was just a game, but it had to be won...it had to be treated like a war. Once the game was over, you came to terms with the pain which had been temporarily numbed. And then the pain used to hit you and water and medicine would seem to worsen it....Soframycin was great but tincure iodine and antiseptic solutions used to make them burn...so much so that you felt like yelling !! I've had lots of falls.....tripping over, toppling over, falling flat on my face and breaking my tooth, landing on my bums, scraping my knees, bruising my shins, hurting my elbows, spraining my ankles...on top of which I committed quite a few fouls in football myself !!! I have been battered, bruised and hurt. After sometime you get used to these falls, become tougher and grow stronger....its natural.

Its same with life isnt it? You fall, you rise, you fall again, rise again, this time a teensy bit more easily.

Vrunda

The reason I have not been writing any posts on my blog for quite a few ‘days’ is because I cannot think of anything apart from the person after whom the title of the post is named. Vrunda, the new person in my life. This post is dedicated to her. And I know that I won’t do any justice writing a descriptive post, because words cannot describe her. And ‘Wonderful’ seems to be too small a word for this purpose.
My fiancée’s out for a trip with her college friends. And so I turned back to writing a post on my blog, so that I could somewhat douse my longing for her company. I am, of course, unsuccessful.....my longing only increases, and no matter how much I try to involve myself in my routine, I cannot help but remember her every moment.
A poem for her.....written by me....

Nacheez tum ya zaaleem ek pari,
Is dil ko Tadapaa rahe kyon?,
Kyun yuh khayalon me aakar hamare,
Pathar ko pighala rahi ho?

Dil kehta hai, tumhare saath hi baithe rahe,
Zindagi bhar, zindagi you hi kat jaye,
Pyaar karte karte tumse,
Zindagi kaa sunhera geet gaye.