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Wartime Diaries ..History Speaks

Posted by Vikramsinh at Friday, June 19, 2009

Last friday, on 12th June, Anne would have celebrated her 80th Birth day, if she did survive the horror of holocaust in second world war.

Anne Frank will live forever in our hearts.....
"I want to go on living even after my death! And therefore I am grateful to God for this gift, this possibility of developing myself and of writing, of expressing all that is in me. I can shake off everything if I write; my sorrows disappear; my courage is reborn. But, and that is the great question, will I ever be able to write anything great, will I ever become a journalist or a writer?" - Anne Frank
She is the most famous victim of Hitler. Her diary is one of the most widely read book. She wondered if her voice will echo across the centuries? Will people remember her? And her words come true as her spirit will never die and she will go on living even after her death for thousands of years.
She had amazing power to express her thoughts, she wrote her favorite diary in the darkest time of her life. Kitty, her diary, never betraying, faithful friend which she got as a gift from her father on her 13th Birth day, 12th June 1942. Even though she was too young to write something like she wrote in her diary, she worte excellent. Her thoughts were so mature and brilliantly put in words. It always stuns me like anything.
Her hope to experience all the things that anyone desires in teenage, sadly, got crushed as she took her last breath at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in March 1945 just few days before British soldiers liberated the camp (15th April 1945). At last fate betrayed her.
Her father Otto Frank survived the war and published her diary 'The Diary of a Young Girl'. When Nazi forces invaded Netherland, Otto Frank took his family to a secret place. Anne and her family go on hiding in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Miep Gies and her husband were amongst the few who knew about the hiding. Earlier Miep was working with Otto Frank. She along with her husband took care of primary needs of food, cloths, medicines etc of Frank family and help them in their difficult times. She never cared about risk involved and tried to spread some light of hope. Currently she is 100 years old and live in the Dutch province Noored-Holland. Find more about Miep.
While in hiding Anne wrote her diary. She called their secret attic place as secret annex.
She was a very vivacious girl who loves to express everything in her mind. Her passion for story telling was miraculous; she talked a lot that often got her into trouble. Many times she wrote 100 times that "I am not going to talk so much" as a punishment for her talks in classroom, but she never changed. And how can we forget her story of three ducklings which gifted her new name ‘Ms. quack quack‘. She dreamed to becoming actress. She also had interest in Greek Mythology and family trees of various well-known ancestries. She hoped that war will end someday and she would be free to follow her dreams, but her lifeline ended in unfortunate way.
The Diary reflects the spectrum of emotions of a adolescent girl. It sheds light on how human spirit can break into pieces in difficult times like war, how people fought against the boredom that comes from loneliness in the hiding. How a little girl’s world gets upside down. How her dreams, her desires get crushed under the tremendous pressure of ruthlessness and cruelty, when she wanted to fly in boundless sky.
If you still did not read her diary, then its time to get a new brand copy of the diary. It will strike your mind, really awe inspiring. Hats off to eternal angel.....

Have you heard this name...Rutka laskier?
As we moved on, time can transcend but history has always new secrets to reveal in her heart, deeply buried. Time have power to open these secrets. Some times these secrets vanish somewhere and some times they come up with amazing discoveries.
Many of us know Anne Frank but how many knows the name Rutka Laskier?Her story is almost same as Anne; she was born in Poland and became the prey of the deathtraps in Nazi concentration camp. It is believed that she died in Auschwitz concentration camp. Rutka wrote her diary for 3 months, which describes her life in the time of holocaust in 1943 at the age of 14. Her friend Stanislawa Sapinska hides the diary in her house. This diary's existence remained unknown until 2004, when Stanislawa Sapinska came forward with the diary.
Rutks's father survived the war and relocated in Israel, remarried and had another daughter Zahava Sherz. He died in 1986. Zahava Sherz never knew about the diary until she surprisingly came to know about the diary and her half-sister (Rutka).
"If only I could say, it's over, you die only once... But I can't, because despite all these atrocities I want to live, and wait for the following day." Rutka wrote in one of her last entries in the diary.
Here are some interesting links.
1. Related Snaps.
2. News Entry in Washington Post.

As years pass, men rise and fall but their stories will remain forever, reflecting boundless human spirit. And people from future generations will wonder about these stories. As History speaks....... and story goes on….
Thanks.

Yours,
Eternal Soul.

Gear up..Fasten your belts..Speed Machines are ready...!!!

Posted by Vikramsinh at Sunday, June 7, 2009

Time to gear up..sports events calendar is already full, feast for fans and passionate followers of sports. Many events back to back brings never ending excitement. Made people mad, creating one of the most tense, joyful, overwhelming moments. We already seen the T-20 IPL, Champion's league in the last month and now ongoing French open (shocking results for Rafa and sharapova), T-20 world cup keep us engaged, but can we look at something unexplored.

Let’s check out the racing events, mainly Bicycle and motor car racing.
Before starting I will shed some light on the history and background of bicycle racing. It consists of many types but long distance stage races are favorites among enthusiasts. Three major races of this type are Giro d'Italia, Tour de France and Vuelta a Espana. All the 3 grand tours (major annual racing events) were originated from the same need; need to increase the circulation of sports newspaper.
First started Tour de France in 1903 then comes Giro d’Italia in 1909 which is inspired by the success of tour de France. Third one, Vuelta a Espana, started bit late in 1935. As the names suggested, all tours traces a circuit around most areas of respective countries. The Giro d'Italia, Tour de France, and World Cycling Championship constitute the Triple Crown of Cycling. Tours are stage races (around 21 stages, each covering some predefined distance) running for 22-25 days, covering around 3500 Km long distance, making them most difficult to survive.

Giro turns 100....
Last Sunday (31st May) seen the Denis Menchov's (Team Rabobank) victory in Giro d’Italia. This year Giro is celebrating 100th anniversary. It was 92nd race from its inception. Race was special as it brought back one of my most favorite sportsman, Lance Armstrong. Though he already broken his collarbone and undergone surgery. He not only recovered from injury but also participated in the race and secured 16th place in overall ranking. It’s really amazing; racing for such long distance can show there is no limit to what extremities human spirit can go. I love this sport because riders fight back all odds, no matter how difficult the journey is.

Be ready..the Tour is waiting
One of the most famous sports across the world, le Tour de France. Simply brilliant and extraordinary. See the statistics, 20 teams, 180 riders, 3500 km distance, 23 days, 21 stages, 40 km/hr average speed. These numbers are enough to explain everything. Here are some quotes to feel it‘s incredibility, "Tour de France is arguably the most physiologically demanding of athletic events." The effort was compared to "running a marathon several days a week for nearly three weeks", while the total elevation of the hill climbs was compared to "climbing three Everests."
This year tour is scheduled between 4-26 July, almost 1 month from now. All potential winners are dreaming the same, victory in tour. Along with 7 time winner Lance Armstrong, Alberto Contador (Team Astana, winner Tour de France - 2007 and Giro d’Italia - 2008) is a good bet. Defending champion, Australia’s Cadel Evans (Team Silence-Lotto) is also good contender. Apart from these other favorites are Damiano Cunego, Alejandro Valverde, Denis Menchov, Carlos Sastre and Danilo Di Luca. I can’t wait anymore to start the tour…

Turkish GP...Can we expect something unexpected?
Here we are, waiting for this weekend's Turkish grand prix (GP); if you have some idea of Formula 1 (F1) then probably you will not feel totally lost, for those who feel the same I will present some short introduction.
The F1 is motor car racing competition with 16-19 grand prix races annually. 11 teams each having 2 drivers, commpete in the races. At the end of the year, driver with highest points awarded as the winner of Individual driver's championship and the team with highest points (combined points of 2 drivers of same team) will be the winner of constructor’s (teams) championship. I will write in more details about F1 history, actual races and rules in future.

Right now we are looking forward for 7th GP of the season. Jenson Button of Brawn team seems unstoppable with 5 GP wins out of 6. He is the most speculated winner and will start from 2 position on the grid (1st row) in the Sunday‘s race; Ferrari's Felipe Massa is eyeing his 4th consecutive win on the same circuit. This is the first anticlockwise circuit out of two. Massa is good at this circuit, so can we expect some miraculous performance from him??Apart from these two, 23 year old German, Sebastian Vettel is starting from pole position (1st position in 1st row). The question is can Button remain invincible this time also? I want Massa to win but reality is pointing towards Button’s win. Let’s see how speed machines behave with respect to time and space..
Thanks.

Yours,
Speedo maniac mv4ce3krnb

Changing waves....Keep the Track

Posted by Vikramsinh at Wednesday, June 3, 2009

This is my first blog. Here I will try to discuss, explain, elaborate very interesting things that fascinate me and make me wonder for all of my life. You can ask anything related to the matter, if you are curious we can debate also. Things that attract my attention have deep impact on my thoughts. Many things hit my mind and change the direction of my thoughts. They are like giant waves in the deep sea, when they rise they take behemoth ships with them, no matter how strong and powerful ships are or how fiercely they are fighting against the water to get in the direction they are destined for.

As human beings we evolved over the period of time from Stone Age to current era of science and technology, making life extremely volatile and incredibly complex. You absolutely don't know what woe or joy next moment will bring to your life. So it’s very important to make most out of every moment gifted to you. I think Life is a continuous celebration and we can celebrate it only when we see life from that prospective. Life is a very complicated optimization problem with so many variables. We can not maximize each and every variable individually, but we have to consider all of them at the same time and optimize it within the constraints imposed by real world situations. It’s a bit mathematical, till this point you have got some vague idea what’s the first thing that impacts my thoughts deeply. Yes, you guessed it right, it’s MATHS. No it’s not frightening; some people just don't want to understand the simplicity and beauty of mathematics. As time will pass, you will come to know about the other areas of my interest. Don't make impression that I am going to discuss some boring and complicated math’s problems. Not at all..!!! Instead we will learn its simplicity and why it is called as the Queen of all sciences.

Many other things turn me on. To list down, some are, History (It includes many things, I am especially interested in WWI and WWII , post war situations, Middle East conflict, French and Russian revolutions..etc). Sports (with wide range ...special interests are Formula 1, Cycle racing, Cricket, Football, Chess, Baseball..etc).

To add more, Current affairs, Sketching, Painting (watercolours), Movies (generally Hollywood...even Bollywood people have some latent talent), Music related bands, Medicine (Its inspiration source lies in my family, Doctors have it in their blood...I am not a doctor so don't expect much deeper knowledge like medical professional ..but still enchanting world), TV soaps (Hindi soaps are strictly no no...) , Science and technology, Inspirational people, Engineering feats achieved by man, Greek mythology, Books and Novels...list is never ending.

If any of the above mentioned things grab your attention then keep the track...you can get here lot of amazing things and will come to know many things we see in the real world are merely illusions.
Thanks.

Yours,
MagicNumb3rs