Of Principles and Trains

I've seen plenty of people do a semester-review thing, like Arnab here, but after a couple of tries, I figured my semester hasn't been exciting enough to warrant an entire post. When I had just entered college, I would look up to my seniors and see them having a great time, seemingly without any worries at all. But one year older and one year wiser, nothing has changed. I'm still the same person.

However, one of the definite highlights of a boring few months was a few interesting discussions I had with Dad on a multitude of issues. We talked at length about my life, his life, where we were both headed and the like. Sounds like heavy stuff, but it didn't feel like it at the time. Anyhow, I won't bore you with the details, but one line from those talks stands out.

'You're like I was at your age - very idealistic, maybe even a little leftist'

It set me thinking. If only leftists are idealists, then most of this world is living a compromised life. And this just reaffirmed my belief that life should be lived as you want to, not as you have to. A lot of people have questioned this philosophy, but I'm going to stick to it. I'm reminded of a line I read recently in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

'... it might amuse you to know that I also have principles comparable to your ethics committee's. I call them Salander's principles...'

If you've read the book, you'll know what I mean.

It snowed in England this weekend and my life was ruined in India. For the first time, I had made plans well in advance to watch the Man United - Chelsea game but a blast of snow halfway across the world and I'm reduced to griping about it.

I remember making a pact with one of my close friends in class 8 - we were adopting football as our first love for the rest of our lives. 7 years later, as I look back upon that day (and rue yet another fading friendship) I think I can proudly say that I lived up to that pact (with the possible exception of a year in the middle, but that's over now). My weekend seems strange if there's no club football, so don't ever get me started on the topic of international friendlies.

As I sat twiddling my thumbs yesterday and despairing over my Fantasy Football team, I chanced upon a rarity on television these days - a good movie! The Taking of Pelham 123 was the perfect movie for the situation - gripping, intense and (almost) mindless. I've been watching too many train movies recently.