A cold wintry evening aside The Fountainhead

With today declared a snow holiday I had literally nothing to do at home. So the entire day, I read The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. If you remember I have mentioned about the book in this post here. 

It was a balmy June evening when the earth was still damp from the early monsoon that I started reading this book. That was seven months ago and I am yet to finish it. There were too many distractions in between. I had to travel a lot the past year, had a hectic time at work and also had to shift my apartment in which I had to tuck the book away in some carton and could not locate it afterwards. To record, this is the only book I have taken this long to finish reading. Normally I would finish a book in a month at the most. I want to scream at myself for this slackness of mine. 

Anyways on a lighter note, few lines from the book had me awestruck this evening. It set out a food for thought in me;

"Look at everyone around us. You’ve wondered why they suffer, why they seek happiness and never find it. If any man stopped and asked himself whether he’s ever held a truly personal desire, he’d find the answer. He’d see that all his wishes, his efforts, his dreams, his ambitions are motivated by other men. He’s not really struggling even for material wealth, but for the secondhander delusion-prestige."

I re-read these lines over and over again and it straight away burnt into me. I think that all our wishes, efforts, dreams, ambitions etc are indeed driven by other men. What is this life if you do not have anybody to share your wishes, efforts, dreams and desires? Vanity and vanity it is!

Roark to Dominique (his love interest): “We never need to say anything to each other when we’re together.This is – for the time when we won’t be together. I love you Dominique…. To say ‘I love you’ one must first know how to say the ‘I’.”

“To sell your soul is the easiest thing in the world. That’s what everybody does every hour of his life. If I asked you to keep your soul – would you understand why that’s much harder?”

These are few of the excerpts from the book that burnt into me.

I found The Fountainhead, the much revered classic a powerful book and enjoyed it to a great extent. Through Roark (the protagonist), Rand propounds her theory of objectivism and the following of individualistic pursuits as against collectivism. Roark, a seemingly cold and emotionless figure fascinated me to great heights. I know I would not be able to do justice to the book if I review it here. Therefore, I would like to recommend you to read the book instead.

Happy reading ^_^

When it begins to snow...

The sky with the feathery clouds, Link

While on the way back home from office yesterday, the sky over Thimphu valley was unusually different. Light feathery clouds filled the blue sky and it was so warm with abundant clean air to breathe in.
My heart felt gay! I breathed in as much of air as i could and still with the radiator off in my car, I felt so sleepy to drive that 3 km road to home. It was unusual of me to feel that sleepy, I thought to myself and drove on.  

Later that night, towards the dawn, I heard soft pitter-patter sound on my window shields. It was the sound of the rain on my window. Again I thought it was unusual to rain at this time of the year. Little did I realize Mother Nature’s signs. For some unknown reasons, I have always loved the sound of the rain on the window shields. It brings in me immense tranquility and happiness. I feel at peace and my favorite activity on a rainy day is to read in bed and doze off. 

I have even recorded the sound of rainfall pelting on the window shields and whenever I have difficulty in sleeping I listen to that record and doze off. I know it’s such a weird habit: P. 

Link

Surprisingly I woke up to an ambiance of complete white flakes this morning. I drew over the curtains and rubbed my eyes not once but twice in complete disbelief. It was nature's white dressing. It was snowing! What a wonderful morning to wake up to a valley in white. I looked up and saw soft snow flakes landing softly on the ground. It looked like some awesome subtle dressing on a wedding cake. :).  My heart fluttered, it knew no bounds. This must be the most beautiful morning so far in 2013 for me. Otherwise my mornings would normally be the most gruesome hour of the day when I have to leave the warmth and comfort of my bed to get ready for office. 

To top it all, it’s a day off from work. Yay! This must be my heights of happiness! I need not worry about whether I should call friends or colleagues at work to check whether it really is a day off at work or not. Government offices remains closed on the day of the first snowfall in Bhutan. My brother who works in the hospital had to confirm his day off again and again and finally he had to go to work. Sad for him lol. 

It snowed for some 30 minutes only. How I wish it snowed the whole day.  After that there was bright sunshine marking the end of snowfall in Thimphu, I believe. 

A snowy day means spring is not far. In Bhutan it heralds fieldwork. Farmers believe a snowy winter means plenty to reap in autumn. It’s good news for our farmers. In Korean beliefs, if a couple goes on their first date on the first snowfall, they will be happy forever and if you make a wish on the first snowfall it will come true. So those of you who have planned for some time to go on the first date you should not miss today because it snowed today peeps. And those of you planning to stay home, you should make a wish :D. 

We expected snowfall for quite a while now. So it came, melted softly on the ground and left us disappointed since it didn’t remain for long. It’s a bright sunny day instead now: /. But I loved that it snowed today :).