20 Mar 2012

IF


There is a poem that I read every night before I slept for three years while I was in NDA Khadakvasla (1966-69). It was framed and kept besides each bed of all cadets in NDA. With such frequent reading before I slept, the poem was bound to have an immense affect on my subconscious mind and my psyche. Though it was written a 140 years ago, it still has a profound significance to a youthful mind, ‘What is it that I want to be when I am grown up ?’ The poem helps to irrigate the mind so that it is fertile and productive.

This poem may come handy to you, I would like you to please read it as often as you can.

Cyclic




If
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn out tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!
...................Rudyard Kipling

8 comments:

  1. Nice, sir.

    Thank you for the heads up. Hope you are feeling well now.

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  2. Thanks Micky. Long time no hear and I thought I lost you in the wilderness !!! I am fine, as good as new, and back being a scoundrel, 'business as ususal' as the Yanks say. Thanks for asking. Heavy medication so the mind is not as productive and creative as it was earlier.
    Keep simmiling. God be with you.

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  3. Oh no sir. No matter what happens, I'm going to be a "regular" visitor on this blog. As far as 'cyclic' is concerned, 'Mickey' is never going to be lost in wilderness.

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  4. Sir , what happened to your last post , it is missing. will you please re-post it. I thoroughly enjoy reading your blog. Thank you.

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  5. Sir, any reason why you have deleted your last post 'Eternal Vigil POW'? A friend of mine wants to read it but it is no longer available.

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  6. This is an amazing poem...... I happened to read your post "the clash of the Titans on Mohan Guruswamy's Facebook. It was the most brilliant piece of article I have ever read. Respect to you sir. While I was completely filling my mind with awesome knowledege I was also in splits with your "rum n soda" ....... "MGM lion" etc.... I will follow your blog regularly from now on. Thank you once again.

    P.s: since you love poems, would recommend you to read "The guy in the Glass" I can read an umpteen number oftimes and never get bored.

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  7. Not any reading since March 2012. Is all well? Hope to read more, warmest regards Sundeep Desai

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  8. That's what oue ancient Indian texts tell us to be like

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