Sorowitsch sits down at the bed and looks at Burger who is fast asleep. He can not understand what this man believes in. But he does believe in standing by his mates. Even if that threatens his very existence. The Nazis want them and the other Jews in their camp to print counterfeit dollar bills, so that they could use them to buy whatever they need, and weaken the Allies. Burger believes in thwarting their attempts. He knows that although printing these bills will keep them alive temporarily, it will be used in killing Jews all over Germany. He wants to stand up against them, he wants this to be a sign for others to revolt. Sorowitsch does not believe in this. He believes in staying alive, even it is for just another day. So he swallows his pride and works for the Nazi cause. He does it even when an officer pisses on his face, while he is scrubbing the toilets. He does it even when the officers beat him, although he is valuable to their cause. He wants them to respect him, but not lose face while doing so. He carries himself quite dignified, but he does submit himself to authority when he needs to. He cares for his companions and tells the soldiers that each one of his men are valuable and irreplaceable.
It is due to this compassion that he wants to save Kolya and the others. Kolya is suffering from Tuberculosis but he can't be treated as they do not have the right medicines. The Nazis would kill him if they found out as they do not want the infection to spread. Sorowitsch tries his best to save the man. When the Nazis arrange for a "carnival" and Kolya can't stop his coughing, Sorowitsch cuts his finger and smears some blood on Kolya's face. "You have always wanted some colour, didn't you ?", he says while trying to cover up Kolya's pale face. He strikes a deal with Herzog who is in charge of this camp, and gets some medicines. He checks with the doctor before rushing to give them to Kolya, who is missing! He searches for him in vain, and catches a glimpse of him through the window. Kolya is offered a smoke by a soldier, who shoots him after making small talk. Sorowitsch is furious and quite shaken up. He cannot understand what he can do. He believes he is genuinely trying to help out his fellow prisoners, keeping them alive a day at a time. He wants them all to be alive by the time the war is over. His craft is the only thing that is valued by the Nazis, and he wants to deliver at any cost.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Sunday, June 21, 2009
When the wife is right...
It seemed like a bad idea. It had taken us a lot of effort and quite a few months of labour to get our lawn in shape. The idea of ripping out a piece of it felt just wrong. U tried to explain to me that it wasn't that bad. You see, we did not have a clear path from our front door to our mail box. We usually walked on the lawn and I did not mind. I did not mind when the Pizza delivery guy walked on the lawn to get to our door either. So, I had my reservations against clearing out a part in front of our door to get the stepping stones. I resisted the idea because it involved more work, something that I have gotten used to not doing :) But you know how the wife is right on most things. Yes, it is true. For most part, she knows exactly what to do, where we should be investing, when we should be spending and when we should be saving. She convinced me that it was a good idea to invest in landscaping. It would look great and would increase our curb appeal (another word I hated due to HGTV). So anyway, the wife is right on most accounts and I know it. I look for stupid things like maths, science fiction and "art" movies to convince myself that I can appreciate certain things better than her. But in things that *actually* matter, I had to hand it to her.
"Well, I think its about 20 feet, right ? So ten sounds about right"
I was about to argue back when she looked at a man who seemed to be working at the store and asked him
"We are trying to fill a 20 feet distance with these stones. We might want to place them about 6 inches away. How many stones do you think we would need ?"
The man asked questions to which she had already given him the answers
"What kind of stones do you want ? How far apart do you want to place them ? How much distance do you want to cover ?"
After checking that we were interested enough to survive his stupidity, he turned his back on us and pulled out his cell phone. He called up someone and repeated our question to him! The mathematical wizard that he called, told him that we would need ten or eleven stones. I wanted to tell my wife how this was too many and that we might not have a distance of 20 feet to cover, when she turned to me and said
"So shall we buy 10 then ? "
I had to agree. No point arguing in front of the shop owner. Later that eveni
We drove to this nursery that she found about and walked around the shrubs and trees they had there. She suggested that we plant a tree in our lawn as we could enjoy the shade later. I shot it down (another thing that I would probably regret in years to come). When we came to the stepping stones, I actually liked them. They were shaped like rounds of a pine tree and were named "Pine round stepping stones". They were also painted to look like they were actually cut from a pine tree. I was sold on the idea but they cost around 7.5$ a piece. A little on the higher end, I thought. They seemed to be about a feet or feet and a half in diameter. So I asked U, how many she thought we needed. I had already calculated in my head that we would not need more than five. She gave me the thinking sound "umm...." and said ten.
"What ?? Ten ?? I thing thats too many. Our lawn is not that long."
"Well, I think its about 20 feet, right ? So ten sounds about right"
I was about to argue back when she looked at a man who seemed to be working at the store and asked him
"We are trying to fill a 20 feet distance with these stones. We might want to place them about 6 inches away. How many stones do you think we would need ?"
The man asked questions to which she had already given him the answers
"What kind of stones do you want ? How far apart do you want to place them ? How much distance do you want to cover ?"
After checking that we were interested enough to survive his stupidity, he turned his back on us and pulled out his cell phone. He called up someone and repeated our question to him! The mathematical wizard that he called, told him that we would need ten or eleven stones. I wanted to tell my wife how this was too many and that we might not have a distance of 20 feet to cover, when she turned to me and said
"So shall we buy 10 then ? "
I had to agree. No point arguing in front of the shop owner. Later that evening, we got to work laying out the stones. The sun was shining brightly even thought it was past fi
ve. I was exhausted having spent some time on the treadmill. As I began digging, U walked
out with two glasses of lemonade with ice in them. It was perfect because I had to end up taking a break every 10 mins to sip the lemonade. By the time I was done with the lemonade, I looked back to see our stepping stones all laid out perfectly. All ten of them. I was dying to find out. So I swallowed my ego and asked
"How did you know ? How did you know we would need exactly ten ?"
I was hoping she would say she got lucky, or that she had manipulated the layout in to fitting exactly ten of them. She picked up the lemonade glasses and walked back in to the house. Not before saying
"Isn't it simple math ?"
"How did you know ? How did you know we would need exactly ten ?"
I was hoping she would say she got lucky, or that she had manipulated the layout in to fitting exactly ten of them. She picked up the lemonade glasses and walked back in to the house. Not before saying
"Isn't it simple math ?"
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
St Mary's Glacier
The last big hike I did in Colorado in 2007 before I moved to Indiana. This deserves a blog entry because this hike is memorable for many reasons. Like I already said, its my last big hike at Colorado and I doubt I am ever going to go back and do anything close to this anyway. Steve Best when at Tensorcomm, called me up one day and suggested this hike. He said his friends were going to do it and asked me if I cared to join. My initial reaction was to not go because the hike sounded rather sissy and I was in the mood for 14ers really. My last summer at Colorado and I wanted to make sure I got a couple under my belt. But then again, I wasnt in my best shape and I had turned him down too many times earlier so I agreed.
The thing with Steve is, he is grossly unprepared but has a lot of mental and physical toughness to overcome his lack of preparation. I asked him about the hike to find out how much water and food I should get and he said it wasnt going to be much and that he wouldnt be bringing much. True to his word, he bought very little water and almost no food. I, on the other hand bought significant water and food as I thought we might end up sharing it with his other friends. The plan was for Steve to pick me up from my place at 7 in the morning and reach the place by around 9 to start hiking.
At about 7, Steve did arrive but without friends. He told me casually that others had dropped out. What a bummer! Anyway, the two of us were charged up and we decided to do it anyway. The excellent preparation that he did, he didnt know the route to the place. He had this lousy book with him which mentioned the hike. Like I said, Steve is underprepared but that shouldnt fool you, he took us to the location in time although he wasnt sure it was the right one. Anyway, it said 3/4 of a mile hike to the glacier and I was already mighty disappointed for the sissy hike it was going to be. Still, seeing a glacier was going to be something and it really looked pretty in thepictures. I was still looking forward to it and the weather was really good. There were some other hikers around, people with bouncy kids who couldnt wait to see it too. So we did this 3/4 mile "hike" and there was the glacier. The pictures do no justice to it, its a thing of beauty to be seen. We didnt wear too much warm clothing (in fact Steve came in his shorts!) as we didnt think we were going to hike much and the weather was pretty good. Anyway, we walked till the glacier and we were talking about this new project that I was working on. Steve got really interested in it and kept asking questions and I did my best to try answer them.
Now, I thought we were going to walk across the lake and see the glacier up close and return but Steve had other ideas! He kept walking till we reached the glacier and suggested we hike it all the way up. I thought he was crazy! I had stupid sneakers on me and I wasnt really prepared. The last time I hiked on ice was at Mt Democrat and that experience sucked! I kept falling and I barely made it to the peak where it snowed like crazy! I had to run down fast to avoid the storm and even slide down at times. The experience had shaken me up so bad that I decided to never go hiking alone in the winters! Anyway, Steve was persisted since he thought we hadnt reached the glacier. So we set off and started to climb the glacier thinking better views awaited us. I must say, hiking this glacier was not easy at all. I kept slipping cos of my stupid shoes and Steve suggested I try walking sideways, cross-step on it, and even walk backwards at times. One other thing was he didnt stop talking. It almost seemed like he wanted to keep my mind occupied, he kept asking about the project. After a really difficult climb, we reached the top of the glacier and walked further, where the climb levelled off. All the time, I kept wondering how we were going to get down as I still remembered my Mt Democrat hike! I was pretty sure I was going to be squatting and sliding down on this huge glacier while Mr Steve fancy shoes laughed his head off and walked down royally!
The flat section helped us for a while as we caught our breath and walked along much faster. Steve kept pointing in random directions thinking we were going to see the glacier there and we must have walked a good 2-3 miles all around without seeing anything. We also saw a couple of people riding ATVs, motor bikes and jeeps around. I muttered my curses to myself but Steve made it a point to stop one of these people and give them a piece of his mind! I was almost sure some one was going to push us down the mountain at some point but I guess he did well to make himself heard. We eventually got tired of hiking around when Steve announced that he didnt bring any food along. Amused as I was, I shared my trail mix and apples with him and we felt much better having had them. We stopped at a spot to talk to these people next to a jeep and Steve once again made his opinions heard. The shameless jeepers just smiled back and said we could get a ride from them if we waited. It was getting a bit cold and cloudy and they thought they could guilt us into taking a ride from them. We chose the "high road" ":)
So, having convinced Steve that what we saw down the hike was the real glacier, we started on our way back...or so we thought. We forgot our way back in all this off-trail walking and searching around. We walked for a lot of distance, even considered asking people but in the end just strayed off too much from the trail to return. At some point we just decided that it was not worth trying to get to our trail and just decided to find some way of getting down. This proved to be tougher than we thought, what with the dark clouds and the rain and what not! The rain began slowly yet firmly and it began to get cooler. Now, I wouldnt usually worry myself about this but Steve began to get bothered too and when it started to hail, I was a bit bothered! Here we were, a couple of clueless hikers, with improper clothing, no food and a lot of way to go! We climbed down some valleys, found dead ends, walked across tough shrubs and what not and gave up and climbed back up again.
After doing that a couple of times, we finally settled on a trail that looked well paved. We knew we werent on our way back and it bothered me as to how we would see Steve's car again but we kept going. This trail slowly but surely was taking us downhill and we kept guessing as to where we might have started from. We could see some villages below and we were sure that once we headed down, we would be able to figure our way eventually. On the way down, this guy with a jeep passed us and asked us if were doing fine. It was still raining and we were completely drenched but doing much better mentally as we looked out of the reach of the clouds. We politely refused his help but asked him for directions and he wasnt able to help us much.
It stopped raining completely by the time we got down and Steve had now gotten back his flair! :) He suggested which way we should be heading and I agreed, cluelessly. We walked down this town and realized we were heading the wrong way and asked people which way to go. Eventually, we were helped by Uma, who saw some maps and based on information from us, pointed us in the right direction. We were a good 1-2 miles away from our starting point and so we walked. I dont think the sight of Steve's car has ever made me this happy but when we got back we hi-fived and got into the car. The sun had come out brightly by now and was very symbolic of the return of the good times! WE didnt stop anywhere to grab a bite and I was glad I would be the first one to see my house! I took a long batch and relaxed the rest of the evening. Serves me right for being disappointed with a 1.5 mile round trip hike, we ended up walking for about 10-12 miles eventually!!
The thing with Steve is, he is grossly unprepared but has a lot of mental and physical toughness to overcome his lack of preparation. I asked him about the hike to find out how much water and food I should get and he said it wasnt going to be much and that he wouldnt be bringing much. True to his word, he bought very little water and almost no food. I, on the other hand bought significant water and food as I thought we might end up sharing it with his other friends. The plan was for Steve to pick me up from my place at 7 in the morning and reach the place by around 9 to start hiking.
At about 7, Steve did arrive but without friends. He told me casually that others had dropped out. What a bummer! Anyway, the two of us were charged up and we decided to do it anyway. The excellent preparation that he did, he didnt know the route to the place. He had this lousy book with him which mentioned the hike. Like I said, Steve is underprepared but that shouldnt fool you, he took us to the location in time although he wasnt sure it was the right one. Anyway, it said 3/4 of a mile hike to the glacier and I was already mighty disappointed for the sissy hike it was going to be. Still, seeing a glacier was going to be something and it really looked pretty in thepictures. I was still looking forward to it and the weather was really good. There were some other hikers around, people with bouncy kids who couldnt wait to see it too. So we did this 3/4 mile "hike" and there was the glacier. The pictures do no justice to it, its a thing of beauty to be seen. We didnt wear too much warm clothing (in fact Steve came in his shorts!) as we didnt think we were going to hike much and the weather was pretty good. Anyway, we walked till the glacier and we were talking about this new project that I was working on. Steve got really interested in it and kept asking questions and I did my best to try answer them.
Now, I thought we were going to walk across the lake and see the glacier up close and return but Steve had other ideas! He kept walking till we reached the glacier and suggested we hike it all the way up. I thought he was crazy! I had stupid sneakers on me and I wasnt really prepared. The last time I hiked on ice was at Mt Democrat and that experience sucked! I kept falling and I barely made it to the peak where it snowed like crazy! I had to run down fast to avoid the storm and even slide down at times. The experience had shaken me up so bad that I decided to never go hiking alone in the winters! Anyway, Steve was persisted since he thought we hadnt reached the glacier. So we set off and started to climb the glacier thinking better views awaited us. I must say, hiking this glacier was not easy at all. I kept slipping cos of my stupid shoes and Steve suggested I try walking sideways, cross-step on it, and even walk backwards at times. One other thing was he didnt stop talking. It almost seemed like he wanted to keep my mind occupied, he kept asking about the project. After a really difficult climb, we reached the top of the glacier and walked further, where the climb levelled off. All the time, I kept wondering how we were going to get down as I still remembered my Mt Democrat hike! I was pretty sure I was going to be squatting and sliding down on this huge glacier while Mr Steve fancy shoes laughed his head off and walked down royally!
The flat section helped us for a while as we caught our breath and walked along much faster. Steve kept pointing in random directions thinking we were going to see the glacier there and we must have walked a good 2-3 miles all around without seeing anything. We also saw a couple of people riding ATVs, motor bikes and jeeps around. I muttered my curses to myself but Steve made it a point to stop one of these people and give them a piece of his mind! I was almost sure some one was going to push us down the mountain at some point but I guess he did well to make himself heard. We eventually got tired of hiking around when Steve announced that he didnt bring any food along. Amused as I was, I shared my trail mix and apples with him and we felt much better having had them. We stopped at a spot to talk to these people next to a jeep and Steve once again made his opinions heard. The shameless jeepers just smiled back and said we could get a ride from them if we waited. It was getting a bit cold and cloudy and they thought they could guilt us into taking a ride from them. We chose the "high road" ":)
So, having convinced Steve that what we saw down the hike was the real glacier, we started on our way back...or so we thought. We forgot our way back in all this off-trail walking and searching around. We walked for a lot of distance, even considered asking people but in the end just strayed off too much from the trail to return. At some point we just decided that it was not worth trying to get to our trail and just decided to find some way of getting down. This proved to be tougher than we thought, what with the dark clouds and the rain and what not! The rain began slowly yet firmly and it began to get cooler. Now, I wouldnt usually worry myself about this but Steve began to get bothered too and when it started to hail, I was a bit bothered! Here we were, a couple of clueless hikers, with improper clothing, no food and a lot of way to go! We climbed down some valleys, found dead ends, walked across tough shrubs and what not and gave up and climbed back up again.
After doing that a couple of times, we finally settled on a trail that looked well paved. We knew we werent on our way back and it bothered me as to how we would see Steve's car again but we kept going. This trail slowly but surely was taking us downhill and we kept guessing as to where we might have started from. We could see some villages below and we were sure that once we headed down, we would be able to figure our way eventually. On the way down, this guy with a jeep passed us and asked us if were doing fine. It was still raining and we were completely drenched but doing much better mentally as we looked out of the reach of the clouds. We politely refused his help but asked him for directions and he wasnt able to help us much.
It stopped raining completely by the time we got down and Steve had now gotten back his flair! :) He suggested which way we should be heading and I agreed, cluelessly. We walked down this town and realized we were heading the wrong way and asked people which way to go. Eventually, we were helped by Uma, who saw some maps and based on information from us, pointed us in the right direction. We were a good 1-2 miles away from our starting point and so we walked. I dont think the sight of Steve's car has ever made me this happy but when we got back we hi-fived and got into the car. The sun had come out brightly by now and was very symbolic of the return of the good times! WE didnt stop anywhere to grab a bite and I was glad I would be the first one to see my house! I took a long batch and relaxed the rest of the evening. Serves me right for being disappointed with a 1.5 mile round trip hike, we ended up walking for about 10-12 miles eventually!!
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Iqbal
Iqbal had been practicing without a coach all his life. And now, he had one. A player who had lost his touch. After arranging the three wooden sticks in the ground, Iqbal went back to his mark and ran in with all his strength. His aim was to know the sticks to the ground. Mohit stood at the crease not knowing what to expect while Iqbal's sister Khatija sat comfortably on top of a haystack behind the stumps. Iqbal raced in and aimed one for the "wickets". Mohit read the ball and knocked it off easily. Unfazed, Iqbal went back to his mark and raced in, determined to hit the stumps again. Mohit could not believe it. Shaking his head, he dismissed this one, just as easily and called Iqbal to him.
"Don't try to....hit....the wickets....with every" he said puffing and panting while trying to signal with his hands at the same time. Exasparated, he looked around and called out to Khatija who was following their game. If this had to work, he needed help talking to Iqbal, a deaf mute. Khatija translated in sign language, the exact ideas that Mohit wanted to convey. "Don't aim for the stumps with every ball. The batsmen can read you if you do that. Hold your decision on what you want to do with the ball, till the last minute. If you do not know what you wish to do with the ball, how would the batsmen have any clue ? At the last moment, ask your heart what you wish to do, and then make the batsmen hit the ball in the area where you want him to." Iqbal nodded along, not quite sure what to make out of this.
They lined up the buffaloes and Iqbal got ready with some paint. "So this one, is Kapil. This one is Kumble. This one is ...". Mohit tried to identify the buffaloes. They went around the "field" and stationed the buffaloes at crucial fielding positions. When the ran out of buffaloes, they took the posters of their favorite players and added some numbers on them. They had 11 fielders all around them now. Mohit explained through Khatija what he wanted Iqbal to do. Khatija was to hold up a number behind Mohit (so that Mohit could not see it). Iqbal had to force Mohit to hit the ball towards the fielder whom Khatija chose. After the shot, Mohit would check to see how accurate his bowling was. And so it started. Khatija was very excited. Her brother was the best player in the world. She had a confidence about him that no one ever did. With a smug grin, she held up a number. Iqbal saw the number and ran in, not sure where to bowl. Mohit hit it away and turned back to see if Iqbal had done his job. He had not. He turned to Iqbal and taunted him. "Where are you bowling ? No. 6 is this way, not over there!". Iqbal nodded and went back thinking he got he hang of this. Khatija held up another number. He ran in and bowled again. Mohit hit it towards one of the buffaloes and turned back and checked. Another misfire from Iqbal. He taunted him again. Iqbal realized what was happening. Khatija picked a number again, her spirits still high. She somehow thought her brother can get *this number* correctly. With a blind trust that surpassed all logic, she held up another number. Iqbal bowled just as he wanted to, and Mohit hit the target fielder. He turned back and checked to confirm this. He had done it. But, he needed to make sure the boy had understood it all. They continued this for a while. Khatija knew her brother had aced it. She picked numbers with a broad smile and unwavering enthusiasm - the lone cheerleader for this amateur. Iqbal got his spots with relative ease. With each shot, his concentration increased while Khatija kept getting excited. She could not hold it any longer when the session ended. She ran down shouting out loud towards her brother who might have just won the World Cup single-handedly. It was her belief that had won that evening. She knew her brother could master the game and he had begun to demonstrate just that. She ran towards him taking long strides and flung herself at him hugging him tightly. They were celebrating the first of their many victories!
"Don't try to....hit....the wickets....with every" he said puffing and panting while trying to signal with his hands at the same time. Exasparated, he looked around and called out to Khatija who was following their game. If this had to work, he needed help talking to Iqbal, a deaf mute. Khatija translated in sign language, the exact ideas that Mohit wanted to convey. "Don't aim for the stumps with every ball. The batsmen can read you if you do that. Hold your decision on what you want to do with the ball, till the last minute. If you do not know what you wish to do with the ball, how would the batsmen have any clue ? At the last moment, ask your heart what you wish to do, and then make the batsmen hit the ball in the area where you want him to." Iqbal nodded along, not quite sure what to make out of this.
They lined up the buffaloes and Iqbal got ready with some paint. "So this one, is Kapil. This one is Kumble. This one is ...". Mohit tried to identify the buffaloes. They went around the "field" and stationed the buffaloes at crucial fielding positions. When the ran out of buffaloes, they took the posters of their favorite players and added some numbers on them. They had 11 fielders all around them now. Mohit explained through Khatija what he wanted Iqbal to do. Khatija was to hold up a number behind Mohit (so that Mohit could not see it). Iqbal had to force Mohit to hit the ball towards the fielder whom Khatija chose. After the shot, Mohit would check to see how accurate his bowling was. And so it started. Khatija was very excited. Her brother was the best player in the world. She had a confidence about him that no one ever did. With a smug grin, she held up a number. Iqbal saw the number and ran in, not sure where to bowl. Mohit hit it away and turned back to see if Iqbal had done his job. He had not. He turned to Iqbal and taunted him. "Where are you bowling ? No. 6 is this way, not over there!". Iqbal nodded and went back thinking he got he hang of this. Khatija held up another number. He ran in and bowled again. Mohit hit it towards one of the buffaloes and turned back and checked. Another misfire from Iqbal. He taunted him again. Iqbal realized what was happening. Khatija picked a number again, her spirits still high. She somehow thought her brother can get *this number* correctly. With a blind trust that surpassed all logic, she held up another number. Iqbal bowled just as he wanted to, and Mohit hit the target fielder. He turned back and checked to confirm this. He had done it. But, he needed to make sure the boy had understood it all. They continued this for a while. Khatija knew her brother had aced it. She picked numbers with a broad smile and unwavering enthusiasm - the lone cheerleader for this amateur. Iqbal got his spots with relative ease. With each shot, his concentration increased while Khatija kept getting excited. She could not hold it any longer when the session ended. She ran down shouting out loud towards her brother who might have just won the World Cup single-handedly. It was her belief that had won that evening. She knew her brother could master the game and he had begun to demonstrate just that. She ran towards him taking long strides and flung herself at him hugging him tightly. They were celebrating the first of their many victories!
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