Looking Back

There has so much happening these days and I wish I could maintain a scrap book to note down every tiny detail. It feels as if I am watching an eventful movie such that I do not have time to think between scenes. Looking back at my almost 6-month new phase of life, I have lived some good moments and some terrible ones. It is the part of the package called life. I will try to start from the latest and track myself down to August'09.


24th Dec-Christmas eve (Houston)



How do you celebrate Christmas back in India? I have been asked this question several times now in the last week. My answer was, well, schools and colleges are closed during Christmas. I have never looked forward to Christmas as it is not very popular in India. When we were kids , we were sent to Christmas parties organized by hotels and as we grew older, the excitement was all about vacation. In the last two years of my stay in US, I took vacations to meet my Indian friends but never made an attempt to attend a traditional Christmas evening.This year I was fortunate to be invited for Christmas lunch and Christmas dinner by my kind friends (Cindy Schaefer and Nick Lance)! Working in Houston, I have had the opportunity to meet some very nice people I can without doubt put down here that this was the best Christmas ever in my 24 years. I had eggnog and wassail, watched Christmas story and played dominoes. I lived the Christmas this year- lights, beautifully decorated Christmas trees, candies, ornaments, gifts, cookies and the list goes on. I am going to look forward to next year's Christmas.

I am so glad I did not run away to Florida to spend time with my Indian friends. One of my friends made such an appropriate comment on how we confine ourselves to Indian ghettos everywhere possible. I am spending time with Brownie tomorrow. Hope that goes well.





19th Dec- Indian Dinner (Austin)



I am well known for last minute decisions and spontaneous plans. I decided in the last minute to go to Austin to attend my friend' party. Traveling is a major pain with zero means of public transportation in Houston, however, after taking major pains and by Cindy's help, I managed myself to drag to Austin. The party was good, meeting up new people was better, but the best part was lazing around with an old friend and conversing on nonsensical topics on a wintry night in a beautiful cafe . After a long time, it felt like Sunday.

12th Dec-Graduation walk (Atlanta)



Unable to take my walk right after my graduation from Georgia Tech, I went this December to Atlanta for my graduation walk. Meeting up friends and being given the undeserved royal treatment was extremely good. ho ho ho to Georgia Tech.




More on thanksgiving trip next time.

Tere honthon ke kisi kone mein Hansi ke tarah main mehfuz hoon

Zindagi Hai dhuan to kya

Bujh gayi har subah to kya

Rootha mujhse khuda to kya

Ho gaye hum juda to kya

Faasle they hazaaron darmiyan,

Waqt ke they hazaaron imtehaan

Fir bhi ban ke nishaan,

Tere honthon ke kisi kone mein Hansi ki tarah

main mehfuz hoon

Teri aankhon ke chipe dard mein Aansoo ki tarah

main mehfuz hoon

Bewajah har wajah to kya

Begunahii hai gunaah to kya

Beasar hai dua to kya

Ho gaye hum juda to kya

Raaz gehre hazaron bepanah

Lafz thehare hazaaron bejubaan

Fir bhi ban ke nishaan Tere honthe ke kisi kone mein Hansi ki tarah

main mehfuz hoon

Tere kesu ke mude pannon meinYaadon ki tarah

main mehfuz hoon

Mehfuz hoon Teri aankhon mein

Mehfuz hoonTeri yaadon mein

Mehfuz hoonTeri baaton mein

Mehfuz hoonTere baalon mein

Mehfuz hoon

Faasle the hazaron darmiyaan

Waqt ki thi hazaron aandhiyan

Fir bhi ban ke nishaan

Tere honthon ke kisi kone mein Hansi ke tarah

main mehfuz hoon

Tere kaandhe ke chipe til meinVaadon ki tarah

main mehfuz hoon

There is a lot of fish in the sea.

This song is so realistic. I have not been able to stop myself from listening to the same song track repeatedly.

"Love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love.
There's nothing you can do that can't be done.
Nothing you can sing that can't be sung.
Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game
It's easy.
There's nothing you can make that can't be made.
No one you can save that can't be saved.
Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be you
in time - It's easy.

All you need is love, all you need is love,
All you need is love, love, love is all you need.
Love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love.
All you need is love, all you need is love,
All you need is love, love, love is all you need.
There's nothing you can know that isn't known.
Nothing you can see that isn't shown.
Nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be.
It's easy.
All you need is love, all you need is love,
All you need is love, love, love is all you need.
All you need is love
All you need is love
All you need is love, love, love is all you need."

On 'The Road'

I recently finished reading the book 'The Road' by Cormac Mccarthy. This book won the Pulitzer prize in 2007. Cormac Mccarthy happens to be the author of the book,directed into a popular movie, namely "No Country for Old Men".

The book is about a father and a son who are trying to survive in a world hit by an unnamed apocalypse. In the post-apocalyptic setting the entire civilization has been wiped out with a very few survivors. We are introduced to a father and a son, without being provided any details on their names,location,age, appearance etc. I really liked the idea behind it which I think was to make this story generic, for any father and a son with the overriding theme being faith which is universal. The father and the son are trying to survive in a post apocalyptic world by continuously being on the road and watching their guard from people introduced as 'bad people' and over and again in this book, the father assures his son that they are the good people who are carrying the light. They pass through all kinds of hardships like running out of food, being caught up in rain and snow , having no foot-wears in winter, and being in perennial danger of being found by the 'bad ones'.

I think the author's theme of keeping faith in oneself came out really well while holding on to a frightening and a dismal story. I would totally recommend reading this unusual refreshing piece of fiction.

"A life-time had to be crafted,just like anything else, she thought, it had to be moulded and beaten and burnished in order to get the most out of it."

Mira Dalal
Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry

I read these lines last night, and convinced that everyone is fated to a hard life, specially so in the books,I went to sleep happily accepting tragedies as inevitable integral parts of life.

Last month

Last month has been one roller-coaster ride. It has been the best one-month- vacation-ever starting with finishing up my masters defense, meeting up close undergraduate friends, visiting grandparents after what 4 years ? , lounging around in the house, growing fat and listening to my new cadbury-ipod-nano. In the last one month, i have experienced varied lifestyles ranging from partying in clubs to being totally off-technology for a while. From the busy life of a big city to a simple living in a village. From flying in airlines to sitting on the wooden planks in rickshaws and to standing in jam-packed best buses. The one thing that strikes me through this translation from a big city-small city-village is that as the size of the city goes down, no doubt the conveniences that come with it go down too, but at the same time the hospitality of people goes up to make up for the inconveniences..

My stay in India perceived a lot of changes in terms of the prices, facilities, infrastructure , conveniences , political scenario etc, and yes, there was not any reverse culture shock. i guess i am too indian for that. The place is thronging with malls. Not a day has passed in bombay without visiting the ubiquitous malls. Then the best buses have television sets playing dhinchak songs which made the cumbersome travel less dreary. Traffic could not get any worse.Bribing and jugaad still work in India.Ads of i-pill with the tag line, no abortion, prop up everywhere. Supreme court has given its sanction to Delhi court's verdict of decriminalizing homosexuality. UPA Congress has done a good job forming its panel. There is Nandan Nilekani's unique id project coming forth and then there is Mr.Kapil Sibal as the HRD minister who is adamnant on bringing in some reforms in the educational sector. There is Shashi Tharoor whose tweets update everyone on the red tape in the parliament's proceeding. But at the same time there are politicians who spend two crores on immortalizing themselves by implanting their statues. And 400 crores are spent on building a bridge. Even though Bandra-Worli sea link is a class apart, infrastructral achievement but it has an investment of 400 crores and a delay of some 4-6 years in its construction which is a big sham.

Amidst so many changes,it felt nice to be in the familiar comfort zone of friends who had not changed much...

Restless and sleepless, thereby seeking comfort here.

I suck at holding on to my resolutions. I once resolved to become a vegetarian for a month and shamelessly broke it the very same evening.Thereafter, in one last effort I gathered vestiges of my dying will power and resolved to never resolve. My will power seems to grow leaner as I grow older.

Every night when I go to sleep, I think of infinite things that I want to do. It is a virtual world that I inhabit when I go to sleep and I am this awesome person who sticks to her decisions, resolutions, and goes without mentioning, is extremely disciplined in life. In one of those sleep-time-rambling-sessions I laid out a plan for my life. The plan was to work and earn money crazily till I am 30 and then quit the job, travel for a while. However, cliched it may sound, the plan was to ultimately come back to India and in some way contribute or work towards the upliftment of poor people.

And then the day breaks and the reality bites.

Men like whisky refine with time - S
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Labels are for filing, Labels are for clothing
Labels are not for people - Martina Navratilova

I totally agree!
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Bandra-Worli Sea link marked its culmination and was opened to public. It looked spectacular in papers.
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Read about gay debate and Section 377 of IPC which mandates that gay sex is criminal and anyone booked under such an offence can face up to 10 years in jail. It felt nice to learn that this ruling is at least being ‘considered’ for amends by law minister. I also read up about the gay parades spanning several cities across India, last Sunday, expressing discontent over the Section 377. At this particular point of time when homosexuality is still considered a taboo in several parts of US, these new developments in India advocating homosexuality are commendable.
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I also read up about Nandan Nilekani being on cabinet ministers’ panel. The changing façade of Indian politics gives me a ‘hope’ to look forward to a better India.


06/30/2009

YAY! Thesis done, thats the only repite after yesterday's disaster!

Now its time for making presentation , sighies.

FML

I have an entry for FML.com.

I took a driving session (Read 80$ for 2 hours) two days back. I had kept my bag in the backseat which had my cell phone, wallet etc. While driving , because of applying brakes suddenly, my cell phone and wallet fell down in the car which I realized only after reaching home. I am cell phone and wallet- less for two days now and they want me to pay 25$ to collect my own things. FML.

Lazy weekend

Life has reached a comma on my master's thesis. I have been stuck on my master's thesis with minor irritating never-ending changes. I seem to get time for everything else but my thesis. French classes, French Open 2009, GT fitness classes, and of lately swimming classes.

1) First swimming lesson in the scorching summer of Atlanta and that too by a hot swimming instructor. Can anything can get better than it ?

2) Watching French open 2009 with Federer's historic win. Can anything get better than it ?

3) Fresh homemade pancakes on sunday evening with an extra dollop of chocolate syrup. Now again, can anything beat that ?

Love is when you offer to see through when you can't even see properly ?

Jhumpa Lahiri's writing

I had picked up "Unaccustomed Earth" by Jhumpa Lahiri a couple of weeks back. It is a collection of eight short stories, of lifes transitioning between America and India. She has the ability to write on delicate nuances of relationships, and portray characters so well that one can often see a sharp resemblance. I am amazed by her compelling plots, one of those writers who can write about mundane things in life, which one would normally not think disregard as background noise, only to reconnect and reminisce them after reading her short stories.

I finished reading " Hell-Heaven", "Once in a lifetime " (this is great!), "Unaccustomed Earth" and came across things that we normally ignore in our lives nevertheless all of which is a stark reality in everyone's lives.

To Lahiri's writing.

Of send offs, french , swimming, working out, thesis writing,  job search. Of last few days in schools. The more I think about it , more I get inclined towards a job. Well, whatever, go ahead with it. If it does not work out , I can get back to school. hmmm. perhaps.

je parles francais.

je ne travallier pas beaucoup.

je ne parles allemand pas.

je voyager souvent.

I am loving learning French. That will be the highlight of my last semester at Georgia Tech.

Francis William Bourdillon (1852 – 1921)

The Night Has a Thousand Eyes

The night has a thousand eyes,
And the day but one;
Yet the light of the bright world dies
With the dying sun.

The mind has a thousand eyes,
And the heart but one:
Yet the light of a whole life dies
When love is done.

25 days to go

The countdown of my stay in the US begins. The fleeting decision that has been evading me now needs to be plastered, cemented and honored. My days are numbered for my advisor has been coercing me to write theis and defend soon for I cost him dear money. 

I have been trying to figure out , figure out what I want to do, for a long long time now. I have been hiding in that cozy cocooned corner facing away from the long pending decision. I might be kicked out of this country or I might stay back for a PhD at Tech or I might take up the job with Yokogawa Corp. 

Mind over heart or heart over mind? 

Long term security or acting on whims or rather what you "think" you will enjoy doing ?

I don't know nor am I scared of my uncertain future.

All I know is that I am waiting upon my future to unravel and live it with vengeance!

A Dream Within A Dream by Edgar Allan Poe

Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow--
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand--
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep--while I weep!
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?

Tampa, FL, 26th April-30th April

While I am aboard on my flight to Atlanta , floating amongst the clouds casting an illusion of islands, looking down upon the fleeting turquoise waters flirting with sunny sandy shorelines, where I longed to go, the images of past four days scurry through my head………

Of serenity by the Tampa bay boulevard dotted by palm trees , lit by antique lamp posts, lined by cute white boats (Sea- cilia’s),with bridges connecting past and present, hovered by greedy white sea gulls and grooming pink flamingoes, rushed by breezes teasing my tassels, flanked by quiet cafes playing soothing music and busy bistro’s twinkling in the night, dominated by tall skyscrapers, the quaint neighborhood of Ybor(ee-bor) city, the bustling Tampa convention center.…. Of a song in heart and loneliness by my side...

Two things made my day except for the eyebrow disaster  :|. I am frantically waiting for the next week or may be the week after the next week. This is the first time ever in life I have had an eyebrow disaster and I made such a big drama in front of everyone. Anyways, going back to the main topic,

The first one being this, an article which has enlightened me on what times in the month  I should dress up (actually does not matter according to the article) and strut around in the campus. Copulins. Its amazing to learn how evolution is inherently programmed  in nature. If I get a chance I am going to read more about evolution!

The second one being this , a video about Rakhi Sawant's Swayamvar. A HILARIOUS video. 

This reality show is going to soar up TRP's for a while ?  Or may be for a good time from now. I can trust Rakhi S to be bold enough to get divorce the very other day after honeymoon. So, the show may run for a mighty good time, ha ha :-D

Tangential offshoots

It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well have not lived at all-in which case, you fail by default.

-J K Rowling

I came across this in this month's reader digest. All, I read in reader's digests these days are humour@work, word power , life and quotes. I am too lazy to read up long stories on courage, human will power, life improvements and such and thereby safely make the assumption that articles in RD have deteriorated enough to be skipped, which is mostly true.

I learnt something very interesting this week, about the city , Istanbul located in Turkey. Did you know that this is the only city spanning the two continents, Europe and Asia. The Bosphorous bridge is the link between these two great continents. This city when founded was known as Byzantium. It later turned into Constantipole under the reign of Roman Empire and stayed as Constantipole until captured by Ottoman turkish armies. Having ruled by different people at different times, this place is a melt pot of christians, muslims, and jews.

Would it not be wonderful to witness the union of two continents by the Bosphorous bridge, and experience the amalgating synagogues, churches and mosques.

A watched pot never boils ????!

Wish me butterflies

This week was the international festival week at Georgia Tech and an international film series was organised as a part of it. So, Today they played a french movie namely," The Diving Bell and the Butterfly". Iheard about this movie from one of my friends whose recommendations about movies (except the anime movies!) are turning out worthwatching.

This is a movie based on a true story of how a person who suffering from locked-in-syndrome, the entire body parlayzed, except for his left eye, hearing and brain functionality , fights back all the adversaries and lives on to publish a book called "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" by blinking his left eye to dictate the story to the translator. The entire movie is shown through the window of his left eye and alternates  between before and after of the locked-in-syndrome phases of his life. One of those movies which makes you realize that there is more to life than the petty mundane quibbles of coccooned up lives. The real problems are unconjurable and one has not even the slightest idea.

An inspirational movie, wished me a lot of butterflies and made my day!

A detailed review, btw.

Vijaykanth and Balakrishna 's glory

Got a hearty laugh out of these few videos :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHWbfJojnjk&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EKHebxZOJY&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHWbfJojnjk&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IttgvQ7mNkc&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSnIt51Ng-M

Could anything be more shocking than this :|

http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1237656


http://www.che.iitb.ac.in/online/careers-and-opportunities/research-project-positions-frontier-areas-chemical-engineering

Now that the five moses have passed judgment on me, TO HELL with it , I do not care!

" Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts, 

don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours "

I have lived possibly the best of the days in years this friday..

My work in lab was extremely efficient and I worked till 8 pm in the night , to be noted on a friday night, which gave me a high to begin with and then I spent the later part of the night playing Mafia game with random geeky  but fun americans. 

And thereafter, the icing on the cake was an intense one hour conversation with a very close friend  :-)

At this point in my life, I can not possibly ask for more. 

one justs so wants normalcy back in life....

I forced myself to fall asleep, but for the random thoughts that kept poking my neurons and hence all my body cells are wide awake :-<

Just when one thinks that she/he has it all figured out, there is an uncanny feeling of an impending explosion about to dislodge your steadily rested feet from the ground. Bum. Let me ramble and relieve myself of heavy thoughts. Shoot.

"Being Mad is not easy", so goes the tag line of " One Flew Over Cuckoo's Nest". I just randomly picked this book for reading tonight and loved it absolutely. I believe I have the reading deficit disorder, I tend to switch from one book to another book too often. I am reading quite a lot of books at the same time. Anyways , going back to the book, The setting is an institution for insane; And , the story is told in first person by one of the patients who is believed to be totally insane, deaf and dumb. It starts with how strictly the rules are imposed by authority on these "mental" patients just for the sake of it. And, how it curbs down the independent spirit. I am yet to read the later part. So, I will bask in the happiness of a glorious ending of a rebellious against the authority in a later post. The story I believe is going to end with a rhetoric, are so called "demented " people locked up in cellars in mental institutions insane than the ones outside it. hmpf.

after 23 years of my life,

I see this everywhere around my life and I will believe it henceforth,

" Perception is reality"

Often, one invests so much energy and effort in doing something  that one naturally harbours high expectations out of it. One is blind and oblivious to everything else but those hopes . The world is centered around those hopes and expectations and suddenly those long-lingered hopes are shattered. One is so shaken out of a dreamy trance and is left totally disoriented and questioning about the very existence, order in life and so many other things.

All of us play fools some or the other way in this worldly stage,

whoever said only fools rush in.

I love reading Shakespeare, prose well woven with allusions.

Have fond memories of time not so long before or was it really long before?

It seems so long and I feel terribly old, not to mention that these days my eyes swoop down in a plea to go to bed right at the stroke of 12 pm,

and a normal work out wears me down.

And then at such an old age, I have been extended a kind invitation to an event which involves making pretty cupcakes with rainbow sprinkles, and something else exotic, 

which my old memory refuses to recollect now,

all in an event to mark and celebrate being 'single'.

Old age, bah.

William Shakespeare - All the world's a stage

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

ha ha

http://www.ptinews.com/pti%5Cptisite.nsf/0/BDD770742A7A6A636525754E00558922?OpenDocument


Coming from an Indian Politician, I did not find it shocking.

Random materialstic wishes

Some day, I want to

See the majestic ' Sistine Chapel' painted by Michaelangelo
Trek Grand Canyon
Teach students in Africa
Do a long road trip in US and a bike trip in and around Goa
Sky dive
Ski ranges of Colorado
Attend Mardi Gras in New Orleans/Rio
Shark ride in Hawaii
Have icecream for dinner without feeling guilty about it
Sail by myself in Boston
Binge in Vegas again
Be mesmerised by Tibet/Ladakh

More later.

Just for the record, 2008-1!

Vejigante masks( Puerto Rico)

It is almost February, 2009 but today I am here to write down things that happened to me in 2008, not unforgettable memories, but just that I do not want to forget these memories.

I was in Atlanta last last year for new year's eve , just back from my California trip in December , studying for my qualifiers in the first week of 2008. For new year's eve I went with a couple of my friends to watch the 'peach drop' something similar to the 'crystal drop' in New York , but missed it barely by a minute. Anyways, after the qualifiers, semester started , as usual with its rigor. The only interesting thing / something that I was looking forward in the spring semester was the trip to Puerto Rico, a hub of pharmaceutical industries, as a part of a course called ' Drug development, design, and delivery. Of course, the course was secondary. Though I should confess that in due time, I fell in love with this course and now 'think' that I will enjoy researching on drug delivery. Now lets get back to the main story, the Puerto Rico trip. PR is an exotic , warm place to be in, especially during winter. My stay was filled with pharmaceutical plant trips , Mofongos (a tropical mashed banana dish) and Mojitos. Oh, did I mention that we took a tour of the bacardi plant, which is another highlight of the trip besides biokayaking. We went bioluminescient kayaking , treaded on pebbled streets of the old city of San Juan where in every house is in a different shade and saw the majestic fort, mesmerised by green canopy of trails, misty cloudy sky of El Yunque tropical rainforest.

Tropical Rainforest: El Yunque

National Historic Site: Old fort of San JuanOld City of San Juan

I also went to Savannah, an old quiet, quaint historic city , in the South Georgia , as a part of another course. This city is by the waters and is really old which is beautiful in a different way. It also has some civil-war history attributed to it. Besides, a stroll by the waters in a busy street full of cute old shops, I saw lovely horse carriages, beautiful parks, old walls with graffiti. Apparently, the scene from the movie 'Forrest Gump' on 'Life is a box of chocolates, ..." was shot in Savannah. Savannah is also known as the ghost city or is well known for obbs. Unfortunately or fortunately I did not encounter any. Oh, I had gone to Savannah to visit a paper mill, by the way.

This marked the end of my happening spring semester and there comes summer which is filled with more travel accounts which I shall hopefully document tomorrow.

What does happiness mean to you

I finally finished watching this movie called "Into the Wild".
Loved every bit of it and cried my heart out at the end. Brilliant Direction, Picturisation, Acting, and Music. And that this movie is based on the true story of Christopher Johnson Mcandless,
left me overwhelmed and speechless.

So, the protagonist of the movie, Christopher grows weary of the materialistic world and selfish human beings that surround him and added to that , he has had an abusive childhood with his parents always bickering.

Out of weariness, HE shuns the society, wanders into the wild, sails down the Colorado river to Grand Canyon, kayaks to Mexico, stays with hippies in Arizona , and, finally braves the great Alaskan adventure, all in the pursuit of happiness by growing closer to nature. He hitch hikes in nature , lives like the ancient human beings without any modern conveniences and money. He loves it thoroughly and finds some happiness in it.

He rediscovers happiness during the course of stay in Alaska. While he is in Alaska, he reads an excerpt from Leo Tolstoy's Essay on Family Happiness:

“I have lived through much, and now I think I have found what is needed for happiness. A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to have it done to them; then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books, music, love for one’s neighbor — such is my idea of happiness. And then, on the top of all that, you for a mate, and children perhaps — what more can the heart of man desire?”

After reading the last lines Chris smiles and decides to go back. Having lived many experiences in his lifetime , after having gained the wordly wisdom , he finally intends to return . It is the spring time and the ice caps have melted , thereby the heavy flow of river makes it impossible for him to cross. He is trapped in the wild nature and dies of starvation/indigestion caused by consuming wild flowers. Before dying he etches onto the wood, "Happiness is only real when shared" and sheds a tear in his helplessness ?

A tragic unexpected ending.
I was hoping that someone finds him in ill-condition and rescue him.

Anyways, this movie got me into thinking about my idea of Happiness.

Some find happiness in family,
Some in their work,
Most in money and fame,
A very few in service of less fortunate people,
And extremely few, in nature.

I am yet to discover mine .

Life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating.---The Gift of the Magi

"Romance is the privilege of the rich, not the profession of the
unemployed. The poor should be practical and prosaic."-------The model millionaire