Korea in Pictures - II

Seoul is surrounded by many mountains. One of those is

Kwanaksan

Kwanaksan is located in the south of Seoul. As I found out, it's a beautiful trek to the peak, which is about 600m above sea level. At the top there are beautiful Buddhist shrines more than thousand years old. Here are some of the pictures of the shrines.

    
(Click to enlarge)

Korea in Pictures - I

Here's the first in the series "Korea in Pictures". As they say, "a picture is worth a thousand words." It is much better for me to post pictures rather than just tell you about Korea. Although this first post is about one of the most important tourist destinations in Korea, my idea is not just to tell you about tourist places in Korea, but rather to show you everything that I have found interesting in my stay here - even the most ordinary things of day-to-day life. But first let me begin with one of the oldest and most important landmarks in Seoul.

Namdaemun

(pronounced as nAm-de-mun) or the "Great South Gate" is Korea's Treasure number 1. This wooden structure was constructed in 1398 and as the name suggests was the southern gate to the city of Seoul. Today it is in the heart of Downtown Seoul and you can see it is surrounded by skyscrapers.

      

The earth's best and finest and freshest flowers should be laid upon the altar. The strong, the young, with sound intellect and sound body ---- they must struggle for the truth.
- Swami Vivekanand

This does not forebode good for our country

"Its [Maharashtra government's] five-year record in office was, by universal reckoning, pathetic. Short of communal riots, everything that could go wrong went wrong for it. For the Opposition, the anti-incumbency cocktail was heady and perfect. There was drought, farmer suicides, financial profligacy, indifferent development and high-profile corruption involving important Ministers".
Read more in BJP must retreat, introspect on samachar.com

"I am worried that a trend is setting in India where ability to govern and ability to get elected are getting disconnected. There is a mis-match between governance and electability. Good governance is not yielding you votes or poor governance is not influencing the other way", Arun Jaitley in Defeat stuns BJP's Delhi HQ on rediff.com

I bought a new toy!
A Sony DSC W1 digital camera. So all those who have been complaining that I haven't written much about Korea, can now see it here in pictures.

Quote for the day
When I despair, I remember that all through history, the way of truth and love has always won. There have been murderers and tyrants, and for a time they can seem invincible. But in the end they always fall. Think of it, always!
- Mahatma Gandhi

It's almost midnight, Sunday night. But I don't feel like sleeping. Because if I do then it'll be Monday morning when I wake up. :-(

Talking about elections, Maharashtra goes to polls next week, and I am going to miss voting. I think there are two factors that would determine the results of the elections:
1. Infighting within the Congress-NCP
2. Bal Thakarey not campainging because of his ill health

Bal Thakarey is not getting any younger and it is time that the tenth rung of the party (there are no eight rungs in between) rises to the occasion. This election will be their first test.

Another important factor is whether non-Congress "secular" parties informally withdraw from the fray at the last moment and ask their voters to vote for a "secular" party. This has happened frequently in the past and I wonder whether it will happen this time.

gir gayaa to kyaa huaa, pair to upar hai!!

The CIA report released a couple of days back on the investigation of weapons of mass destruction allegedly possesed by Iraq concludes that Iraq did not posses any such weapons when the US invasion began nor did it have any programme to produce such weapons. This is a big smack on the face of those who advocated the war in Iraq. The reaction to the report from those supporting the war including Tony Blair has been that Saddam had "intentions" of making WMD and therefore the war was justified. In Mumbai slang this is termed as, "gir gayaa to kyaa huaa, pair to upar hai!" In plain English, it means stubbornly refusing to accept the plain and simple facts.

I hate war mongers. And I would love to see Bush and Blair defeated in their respective elections.

ganNapati visarjan in mumbai 

Of quotes and quotations

Quotation
Definition: A phrase or a sentence from a book or a speech that reflects the author's profound thoughts. Quotations can be amusing, interesting, thought provoking, sad, inspiring or emotional.

Quote
Definition: To quote means to repeat the exact words of another with the acknowledgement of the source.

Often the word quote is used as a substitute for the word quotation. Strictly speaking, this is incorrect. Quote is a verb and Quotation is a noun. So, in effect, you quote a quotation.

Found the above on http://quotations.about.com. Good one, right? I have found about.com as one of the most informative sites on the internet, on a diverse range of subjects.

Coming back to the title of this blog - today, I read a beautiful quote, oops, quotation:
"Never begin the day until it is finished on paper."

I think it's a quote to be followed religiously everyday, especially in professional life. Lack of careful and elaborate planning is biggest cause of wasting invaluable time at workplace. Everyday has to be spent in execution of a meticulously worked out plan.

So it's a wonderful quotation. The only bad thing about it is that it's made by a "motivational speaker" Jim Rohn. I don't have have anything personal against Jim Rohn. I just hate this concept of "motivational speakers". Imagine someone just going round giving speeches "motivating" people (and earning money).

That brings me to a couple of debates I have with myself about quotations:
If a quotation is good, does it matter who has said it? If yes, why? Secondly, is the value of a quotation only in following it suitably to change life for the better? In other words, is it worthless to speak about a quotation if we don't follow it?

Let me take the first one: I think it matters to me who has said it as much as what is being said. The concept of "motivational speakers" seems like hypocracy. Every good quotation should be backed up by character of the person saying it. And I ask why? If someone has said something good, some words that make a positive change in me, why should it matter how great the person is? I don't know. For e.g. let's the take the quotation:
"When I despair, I remember that all through history, the way of truth and love has always won. There have been murderers and tyrants, and for a time they can seem invincible. But in the end they always fall. Think of it, always!"
It's a good thought. But it seems even greater when we know that the quotation is by Gandhi. How would we view it if the words were Jinnah's? Why would they seem wothless in the latter case?

I think when we know that the the quotation is by some great man (or woman), we know that it really is true. When we don't know the origin of the quotation, we only have our own experience to judge it's validity. When we know that the words are spoken by a person of distinguished character we know that they have also been validated by someone else, someone wise and trustworthy, hence are more likely to be the truth. That gives it more credibility.

(to be continued tomorrow)