tsewangtamchos....ladakspa:)

Invictus by William Ernest Henley

2011-05-09T08:46:00.000-07:00

At the age of 12, Henley fell victim to tuberculosis of the bone. A few years later, the disease progressed to his foot, and physicians announced that the only way to save his life was to amputate directly below the knee. It was amputated when he was 25. In 1875, he wrote the "Invictus" poem from a hospital bed. Despite his disability, he survived with one foot intact and led an active life until his death at the age of 53.

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

source : wiki

long time!!

2011-03-12T01:08:00.001-08:00

was just browsing some profiles of my friends and came across a blog nicely written and MAINTAINED.well i am oblivious about my blog falling in the first category but i sure know that it does not fall in the second.well there are reasons for that as well. i like to write but typing is bit of a hectic thing.

if there is any alien following my super dormant blog i would like to tell them/him/it/her/gygyi about myself.i am a confused impatient person.lately i quit my job thinking i will prepare for UPSC but from past 2 months i am following something steve jobs tells in his speech at stanford."you got to find what you love"..to be frank i like to be vella ,play football ,be with frenz,and sorts.but i do not see these qualities getting me anywhere..sometimes i think i should leave everything and be the real life protagonist of the indian version of the movie "into the wild".i do not know ???? why i am blogging right now.i have taken my lunch and there is another two hours before my frenz show up for football.oh!! yah from football i remember liverpool has lost again.:(.ever since i have stated to support liverpool it has started to loose .i hope it has nothing to do with me>

i have purchased some GS books for my preparation but all are still anew.coaching will start in june but till that time i do not know what to do???

if there is some coaching i can focus.well i think so..by the way is there any guy looking for an impatient friend to prepare for upsc??well nobody answered i will take it as a no.lol!!

i doubt how everybody is so clear about their goals and why not even one body is as confused abt life as i am.

MY TAKE ON UPSC.

"i do not fear journey the less but destination the more" .

MOVIES

movies have watched a couple of them .i would recommend social network for sure if you have not watched it as yet.the first ten minutes of the movie is freaking awesome.i am listening to it as i am writing this blog ..the first ten minutes of conversation....

due date is good .black swan i have watched because i liked portman in the star wars.but this portman was a different women .did not enjoy the movie as much as SN but yeah the acting is good.but who goes to a movie to admire the acting except for the critics.we go there to have some fun??do't wE?

i am tired already mr alien.thank you for bearing with me..

may all the souls in japan be at peace.!!!!

long time!!

2011-03-12T01:08:00.000-08:00

hmmmm...hell ya!

2010-02-20T07:49:00.000-08:00

thank god i am not a broiler......:-by some hen

2010-02-13T07:21:00.000-08:00

if i were a chicken ,one of the following two things was possible

1.if i were a broiler(chickens farmed for meat) .it is possible that i would not be able to take a single step my entire.... short life, spending it in a stenched cage.i would be given the food that is cheap,that would help me survive the abysmal conditions of the cage with antibiotics in it , make me bulkier and ,ironically at the end ,after 7-8 months when i reach the slaughter size,i would be killed and would taste awesome to them ..the humans.

2.if fortunately i am an egg-laying hen .then ,unfortunately every single day one of my progeny would be chemically killed ,by injecting some chemical in the egg that i lay. and the day my productivity starts to decline(after 1 year which is 1/12 of my natural life ) i would meet the fate of a broiler.but i would be happy thinking maybe "thank god i am not a broiler for many simple reasons".

............luckily i am a human and can do my bit for the chickens by limiting the intake .i am asking every one not to turn vegetarian(if you are it's awesome if you could i bow to you!!) but,at least, limit your intake.don't be an extreme non vegetarian.

to get a first hand feel of their lives visit the place surrounding jama masjid or any poultry farm.

thank you god for the gift!!!

2010-01-19T15:15:00.000-08:00

who ,jumps in a river to save you ,when he does not even know how to swim(and then drags you underwater to the shore)?,
takes a fight with six people(read "assholes") because they have already instigated the fight with you (and shares their landed kicks and punches with you?),
calls you every year, exactly before 12 am ,to wish you on your birthday and asks "i am the first right?",
fights with you the most on the triflest of things? ,
who sits beside you , when you are suffering from tuberculosis and reasons "waa,i have a strong immunity" later being scolded by the doc for spending time with you.....

a friend does.and not just any friend but your best friend!!.
thank you jiggi for being my friend for life!
may god bless you!

New Sarcasm Punctuation Mark...coool!!!

2010-01-17T11:58:00.000-08:00

New Sarcasm Punctuation Mark.

so next time you want to be sarcastic in your complain letter make sure you use this puntuation mark.:)

please god ,buzz me less in 2010!!!

2009-12-31T04:31:00.000-08:00

'health is wealth'...i tell you is the most important maxim.by the time you realize that it is the most important maxim , it's late or too late(i would not elaborate on this).

2009 was the year in which i was re-reminded of the importance of this cliched maxim(do not ask when was the first time).i was sick for the major part of the year with diseases i did not even know of until i got them.it started with a stone in my right kidney followed by one in left and then started the series of unfortunate evens.of them all migraine was the worst.

today is the last day of the year and i am still taking medicines for some respiratory infection.oh god!!!

there is a saying in ladakhi that you get sick because god wants you to realize that you are still a human being.still, part of the life cycle which includes birth,ageing and finally death.life cycle in which nothing is permanent but your soul.so the implication is pretty clear.when god buzzes you with diseases,he just wants you to know that you are a human being.

god my doubt is.why are you buzzing me so much? i got the message.i realize that i am a human being and god i swear i always try to do the right things.i never kill the mosquitoes of my room physically(though i use an allout . but if i let them live in my room that will jeopardize my existence...i am always in a dilemma about these mosquitoes.).

please god make this new year less hard for me.

om mani padme hoon.

REAL LIFE DEPICTED IN REEL LIFE....i hate you ranbir.

2009-12-21T05:13:00.000-08:00

last night i watched the movie"WAKE UP SID".it was excruciatingly bad.it was my second movie starring ranbir kapoor,first one being "AJAB PREM KI GAJAB KAHANI".had it not been for konkana sen(hope i am spelling her right),i would have never watched the movie.

the reel life story:-

the story is about this rich(this adjective because of his father) guy who flunks in college,keeps altercating with his mother but at the end , like any other hindi movie, learns what he really wants in his life, proves himself to his father and there is a happy ending.i swear i am not gonna watch any other movie starring him ,unless of course my life is at stake.even then i Will 'THINK'.thinking i will do twice.

i hate you ranbir.i hate you as an actor.

the real life story:-

ranbir kapoor you still do not know what you want to do with your life.acting ,am cent percent sure ,is not your cup of tea.learn something from your own movie.....WAKE UP SID!!!.have you really woken up after that movie of yours.just because you come from kapoor family(a family that has given the bestest of actors to the industry) does not mean you have to be an actor.try something you are good at.for start, try your hand at photography(as you do in your movie wake up sid!!..i hate you).your abysmal acting in both the movies must have made you realise by now that its high time you do something you are 'so so' at.

i hate myself for watching the full movie :(.

FAV FIV

2009-12-17T10:32:00.000-08:00

well i live in a hostel that has a LAN connection.so ,each one is connected to every other . i get all the time in the world to waste watching all the movies, series etc.over a period of four years(that is the number of years for b tech course)i have watched almost all the Hollywood movies available on hostel LAN.i think i have become quite a connoisseur of movies.

so i thought of coming up with my favourite 5 movies.

caution:watch these at your own risk.i do not guarantee you complete satisfaction ;)(wink!).

well at the top the list i would put

1).sin city:well it is such an awesome movie that i did not have to think twice to post it as the best movie i have ever seen.
it is a gory movie ,which is the comics adaptation with the same name ,in black and white.its in black and white not because it is a movie of the 60's or 70's.it is a movie that was released in 2005.the director wanted ,maybe i surmise,the viewers to unleash their wild imagination.the setup.exe ,narration , way things unfold and way things meet at the end is super awesome.the characters put life to the movie.

if you have not watched this movie then you surely are missing something very good in life.

it contains scores of explicit contents.so make a choice!!!
cannot wait for the sequel that is due next year.

2)life is beautiful:it's a movie at the end of which you would be filled with tears and think"does people like the protagonist of the movie exists in real world".it is a super feel good movie underscoring the good human nature and Father-son love.

have you watched it??
no ??
if so go hire a DVD and watch it.i assure you it would be the best movie you have done in ages.

3)for a fistful of dollar/for a few dollars more:

now i have started to get obfuscated as to what should be the next movie..

there is a close tie between 'for a fistful of dollars' and 'a few dollar more'.

the latter is the sequel of the former.so i would number them as a single movie.its a cow boy movie starring client Eastwood.with an exotic sound background.either you will like the movie real real bad or you would not like it at all.but i suggest you try this movie.its an altogether different genre

4).coach carter:it's a movie with lots of basketball matches.but its not a movie just on basketball.its a movie on human values,about hardships ,what means to be a part of the team and, more importantly, what it takes to be a team . coach carter is Samuel L Jackson and he has played his character very well.there are lot of quotable quotes in the dialogues.well i will say no more about the movie.as i mentioned earlier that i do not want to be a spoiler and reveal the story here on my blog.what i can do is urge you "PLEASE DON"T MISS THIS MOVIE".

5)rehna hai tere dil mein: is a movie that every one in love should have watched before being in love.the movie tells you how far can one can pursue his/her love(the person he/she likes) to make her/him his/him.[this, being politically correct ,sukz] .the movie has lot of funny scenes.i think every Indian has already watched it.:)

happy movie watching.!!!

OUT OF BLUE...

2009-12-16T11:04:00.000-08:00

out of blue i felt like posting something on my blog.there are two+1 reasons for the rekindling of this deep hid feeling.

1)i have a new pc.

my laptop that was compac presario v 3000 sucked big time and it was non functional only 2 and 1/2 years after its purchase.

my point here is NO MATTER WHAT DO NOT TRUST AMD TURION PROCESSOR ON A LAPTOP.it SUKZ.

now i have a desktop with inter processor,gigabyte motherboard .....cut the crap point is i can blog whenever and whereever(oops!! not this .i have a PC i forgot.hehe)

2)i am sitting alone in my room and was getting bored a bit extra today .the extra part is because today is LOSAR(one of the few festivals taht ladakhi people celebrate and trust me i do not remember,except for DOSMOCHE,the name of any other ladakhi festival{now you are thinking about ladakh festival right ?? jerk its not a traditional ladakhi festival.just a way to lure foreigneers to india by some people })because there are just a few festivals we(ladakhis) celebrate these few with extra pomp and extar show(i know thats wrong usage but could not help.).i was kicked out of ladakh to do my schooling from jammu.ever since then i have never witnessed a real losar.POOR MEAH :(.and thats why i am so boared right now)

two+1)this reason struck me when i was 5.234/11.2 of my passage.(can u prove where did i get this figure.)

well not that i am in the middle of my blog i am out of ideas and wonder what to write.

k let me write(type .my bad!!!) 1 to 10.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10.

still no great topics or ideas.

let me try a to z..no no no that will be ........too long and tooo much hard work.....

still not.

ok so i think that i should continue with my bland lexperiences and ideas.

lately i was involved in a lot of puzzles on various blogs and sites(may be thats why i came up with this number 5.235/11.1(dont match the them i know they are different)).

of all the puzzles the one i liked most was this.

Many years from now, two classmates met in a street.

The following is part of their discussion.

Student 1: Yes, I'm married and have three wounderful children.
Student 2: That's great! How old are they?
Student 1: Well, the product of their ages is 36.
Student 2: Hmm. That doesn't tell me enough. Give me another clue.
Student 1: OK. the sum of their ages is the number on that building
across the street.
Student 2: (After a few minutes of thinking with the aid of pencil and paper)
Ah ha! I've almost got it but I still need another clue.
Student 1: Very well. The oldest one has red hair.
Student 2: I've got it!

What were the ages of the children of student 1?

.....try this puzzle its good.

try this will publish the best soln in a few days..

happy losar and puzzle solving.:)

for me i would solve(try to solve) some more puzszles.

nye ladakh(my ladakh)

2008-07-30T02:51:00.000-07:00

this is my first post on my blog ,so this post certainly is decisive for me as i will write more if am finished with this and if i find it worth writing.my english s**ks so if am grammatically wrong at many places don't mind . please overlook them.as far as facts are concerned i think they are good,the contents.

i think being a ladakhi is a good thing that has happened to me.i see people from all the other communities and i really feel how blessed i am.i am really not being ethnoclastic here.its just that how naive,how pristine ,how simple my people are. that's what ,is the most, i love about them.

to be frank leh is not a city though we call it one.maybe we call it relative to the villages surrounding it.not even leh has its own natural resources.the populace is dependent on the foreign tourists for its livelihood and the handful of government jobs.earning a livelihood in leh is not very hard . just take a loan,get a taxi,and you can have two luncheon a day.what i mean is that the foreigners are a good source of income .i feel maybe its because of the easy livelihood, that the ladakhis are too good and simple.had it been harsh to earn a livelihood,i do not know how would my people have been .and i must add ,there are no ladakhi beggars in leh. its just that mendicants,most of them handicapped ,come to leh during summers from many other parts of india and the magnanimous memes(grand fathers) and abilays (grand moms) don't mind giving them money only in multiples of five.they don't think less than five rupees will do any good to them.one thing for sure is that ladakhis are very religious people.they are not god fearing, but endearing.one time when i was a kid, hh(read "his holiness") the dalai lama was supposed to visit leh and to my amazement almost every ladakhi was present for him to arrive near the metallic road. people with khataks(a piece of silk cloth to show veneration towards someone) were eagerly awaiting for him to pass from their part of road, on both sides of the road and when he arrived some of them started crying considering them self very Lucky to have been able to see him in their life time.so,the are really very religious.

the super awesome landscapes that we have , i just feel like telling it to the world.any view ,any shot taken is a perfect shot(even without canon).you don't have to worry about the land to sky ratio and others.
now if you are a young person i say get a bike and get down on the roads of ladakh varying from" metallic" to "venturing your own path".so its really awesome if you visit leh.i am really not advertising here .we get so many foreign tourists during summers that i don't have to advertise it here and i can very well prove that. when i (and you also) see advertisements saying incredible india,most of the time they show the splendid,mesmerising picturesque of gompas(buddhist monastries) and the statues of our gods and that implies they show "ladakh" to attract foreign tourists to india.there are lot more things like the natural geysers on the way towards changthang(i don't remember the exact name of the place.).well to just get a hint how beautiful leh is follow my instruction(not instructions).
1.type pangong tso or tsomoriri on your Google toolbar and click image.haha dumbfounded???...now see how awesome it will be if you see it in real .just imagine!!

short of time
i think i love blogging.!!!

is it over yet?

2008-07-11T00:12:00.000-07:00

its not every day you see your name in nyt..thk you waldman

2008-03-05T00:15:00.001-08:00

	NYTimes: Home - Site Index - Archive - Help	Welcome, - Member Center - Log Out

Site Search:

	NYTimes.com > International > Asia Pacific

nytimes.com/politics

Where the candidates stand on Iraq

Also in Politics:

American Flamingo, Plate 431

Buy Now

LEH JOURNAL

Modernity Tips Balance in a Remote Corner of Kashmir

By AMY WALDMAN

Published: November 25, 2004

Tauseef Mustafa/Agence France-Presse-Getty Images

Worshipers in Western clothes pray at a statue of Buddha at the Shanti Stupa monastery north of Leh. For generations the area was almost cut off from the outside world. Now, even the monks want to be connected.


	ARTICLE TOOLS



	E-Mail This Article
	Printer-Friendly Format
	Most E-Mailed Articles
	Reprints & Permissions

MULTIMEDIA

Map: Leh and the Ladakh Region


	TIMES NEWS TRACKER

	Topics	Alerts

	Buddhism

	Education and Schools

	Dresses

	Track news that interests you.

EH, Kashmir - The young man wore Western clothes, but he paused as he passed the prayer wheel. Then, without self-consciousness, he mounted the steps and spun, circumambulating the wheel in search of good fortune.

"I feel great because I'm doing something for my God," he said afterward.

The young man, Tsewang Tamchos, 16, is a product of Ladakh, a remote repository of Tibetan Buddhism on a high-altitude Himalayan plateau in the northern areas of Kashmir, a disputed state. But he is a product of a wider world, too: his school in Delhi, the music of Eminem, the ambitions of an upwardly mobile family whose material fortunes improve with each generation.

As in many cultures, the people of Ladakh, a sparsely populated region, live in the fold between tradition and modernity. But few places have provided as concentrated a laboratory for how modernization is tipping that balance.

In less than four decades, Ladakh has gone from being closed to the outside world to reflecting it. With each generation, the ties to the land, to the past, weaken, as options and opportunities widen. The culture and economy have moved from community-oriented to competitive, from living off the land to working for cash and spending it.

For generations, Ladakh, a barren, moonlike landscape punctuated by monasteries, was almost cut off from the outside world. No decent roads crossed the mountains. It took 16 days to get to Srinagar, the state's summer capital, across passes that soar above 13,000 feet. Its people developed a way of life attuned to the land, and in tune with one another. Nothing was wasted, wrote Helena Norberg-Hodge in her book, "Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh." Human waste fertilized fields; worn-out clothes patched irrigation channels.

But two milestones altered life here. In 1962, India and China, which Ladakh borders, fought a war. That brought in the Indian military - the first real outsiders - and infrastructure, merchants and more. Today, bases dot the land, and the army is the area's largest employer.

In 1974, Ladakh opened to foreign tourists for the first time, and they quickly became a pillar of the economy.

The influx of outsiders was not all bad, said Sonam Dawa, who runs the Ladakh Ecological Development Group. Ladakhis, with help from outsiders like Ms. Norberg-Hodge, a linguist, prevented Ladakh from becoming another Nepal, spoiled by an excess of hippies and drugs. At first ashamed by their backwardness, many Ladakhis came to believe that, if foreigners saw such value in their culture, language and dress, they should, too.

But the influence of outsiders has gradually leeched into Ladakh's way of life. Before, Mr. Dawa noted, the economy was not based on money. Rich and poor alike needed each other for the harvest. Now rich men can hire laborers from Nepal or poorer Indian states, and many do.

"There is a lot of competition now," he said. "Everyone is trying to have a car."

The notion, and the novelty, of competition surfaces in conversations in the car-choked streets of Leh or nearby villages.

At 35, Tashi Palzes is old enough to remember a time with no competition in her village, Phyang Puluhu, which sits on several steep terraces in the valley behind the Phyang monastery.

Today, she, like everyone, is racing against her neighbors, and sees herself as winning. She has not one, but two televisions - the second one in color - and a satellite dish on her roof. She wears not the handspun traditional dress of a Ladakhi woman but a secondhand Gap sweatshirt, bought at the Leh bazaar.

Earlier, she said, villagers did not have much and did not need much. Now they have more needs - better clothes, better education, more televisions - and thus more work. Life is simultaneously more comfortable and more difficult.

Even the Buddhist monasteries of Ladakh, which is known as Little Tibet, are grappling with modernity.

The Rizong - literally "mountain haven" - monastery, founded in 1833, sits in a narrow mountain fold with a view of the snowy Himalayas in the distance. The number of students has diminished as the economy has improved, said Chotak Lama, one of the monks, because fewer poor families need the monastery for their children. The monastic life was built around isolation, but even monks want to be connected these days. It was once a 90-minute walk from the main road to Rizong, and monks regularly made the journey with supplies on their backs. But last year, at the monks' behest, the government built a smooth road that climbs up through the mountains.

In the Leh home of Tsewang Tamchos, too, each generation brings substantial change. His grandparents live in the Nubra Valley, about 75 miles away.

They do not read or write; they farm. They grew up drinking unlimited quantities of butter tea, the salty staple of Ladakhi life.

His father, Tsering Tundup, 44, is a government forester. He says butter tea is bad for his blood pressure, and limits his intake to two cups a day. The house he has built his family in Leh has elements of tradition - the Buddhist prayer room, the wooden ceiling in the kitchen - but in most respects is modern.

His children study out of the state, Tsewang in Delhi and his 19-year-old sister, Tsering, in Chandigarh.

Their father cooks for them the lentils and rice of north India, rather than the traditional foods of Ladakh, because that is what they now prefer. They want to eat instant Maggi noodles, not the traditional thick soup, thapa.

Tsewang's parents want him to be an engineer, and he does as well, but Ladakh has few opportunities for engineers. He would like to live here, but does not know if he will.

He does plan to marry a Ladakhi woman. "I don't want to change my culture," he said. "That's the only thing I have."