31st Dec.

Completed morning program. Visited RML Hospital and CGHS. In chamber from 1.30 pm to 4 pm. On the eve of the New year two batch mates have sent us two poems. Both depict life differently. Let me reproduce them.

When the traveler departs            The day that begins at rosy dawn                      The year is dying in the night; Ring out, wild bells, and let him die. Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow: The year is going, let him go; Ring out the false, ring in the true. Ring out the grief that saps the mind Ends in the gloom of dusk; The year that begins With bloom of flowers in Spring Ends in the cold and frosty Winter – The spirit sags, the clock unwinds, The dying year brings Thoughts of death to my mind.         A melancholy smile flickers on my face To think that one of these days This pad I call my home, the bed, My clothes in the wardrobe, Books I had loved, others yet unread, Neatly staked in the shelves, My work desk, the computer Containing articles and books I wrote and prided on, Others yet half written, The watches and pens I prized, Gifted by people who loved me, Money in the wallet and the bank, Things, all things I called mine (It’d rend my heart to lose them), Shall be left behind as they are, While I’d be gone, gone far Where these mean nothing to me. Why I fussed over them beats me! We act and behave As if we’d stay on for ever, And take our possessions to heart; We forget it’s but a brief sojourn, And possessions are as insubstantial As a dream, when the traveler departs. December 31, 2012  Ram Varma

Tennyson's poem Ring out, wild bells, to the wild  The flying cloud, the frosty light; The year is dying in the night; Ring out, wild bells, and let him die. Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow: The year is going, let him go; Ring out the false, ring in the true. Ring out the grief that saps the mind, For those that here we see no more, Ring out the feud of rich and poor, Ring in redress to all mankind. Ring out a slowly dying cause, And ancient forms of party strife; Ring in the nobler modes of life, With sweeter manners, purer laws. Ring out the want, the care, the sin, The faithless coldness of the times; Ring out, ring out thy mournful rhymes, But ring the fuller minstrel in. Ring out false pride in place and blood, The civic slander and the spite; Ring in the love of truth and right, Ring in the common love of good. Ring out old shapes of foul disease, Ring out the narrowing lust of gold; Ring out the thousand wars of old, Ring in the thousand years of peace. Ring in the valiant man and free, The larger heart the kindlier hand; Ring out the darkness of the land, Ring in the Christ that is to be. b n makhija

I don't know with whom I should agree. I would rather go with Tennyson.

 Retired to sleep at  005 hrs on 01.01.2013.