Say Cheers !!

While on a Friday evening outing with few colleagues, I got to know the history behind saying "Cheers" before you taste your drink.

One theory says the clinking of glasses was to ward off the evil spirits. The more popular belief is that when you crash glasses together, it causes the drinks to spill over in the other glasses, hence establishing the faith among the drinkers that none of the drinks is poisoned.

Interesting stuff, isn't it?

Today vs Tomorrow

One today is worth two tomorrows.
- Benjamin Franklin

Where the mind is without fear....

Heard this on radio today, while driving to work. Not sure in what context the RJ was mentioning this poem, I had just switched on the radio.

This poem used to be one of my favorites, when I was in school. This is actually a prayer from Tagore's "Gitanjali". It embodies his vision of the kind of country and life...which he dreamt of.

Only when one reads this, realisation dawns on how far we are from where he wanted us to be....

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high

Where knowledge is free

Where the world has not been broken up into fragments

By narrow domestic walls

Where words come out from the depth of truth

Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way

Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit

Where the mind is led forward by thee

Into ever-widening thought and action

Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

- Rabindranath Tagore