Though I didn’t get to go for hiking as I had wanted to, I did however have a really great weekend. Just to be on the safe side, I went shopping after I left office and bought myself Richard Nixon’s book ‘In the arena’ and a ‘Gone with the Wind’ DVD. On my way home, I asked Sana to meet me for a walk as we have not gone for one in a while now. The weather was simply beautiful. It had rained a little earlier and the light wind was just what was needed. We started our walk and right in the middle of the track, it started pouring again. Sana and I took shelter under a canopy and enjoyed the rain till it stopped and out came a beautiful rainbow.

I started reading In the Arena in the evening and found the book better written than Bill Clinton’s. I am not finished with the book but I found some very stimulating lines. Here’s one passage I particularly liked.

‘Defeats are poison to some men. Great men have become mediocre because of inability to accept a defeat. Many men have become great because they were able to rise above defeat. If you should achieve any kind of success and develop superior qualities as a man, the chances are it will be because of the manner in which you meet the defeats that will come to you as they come to all men’.

I watched first half of Gone with the Wind on Saturday night. It’s a long movie alright! I have not read Margaret Mitchell’s book but from what I had read and heard of Scarlett O’ Hara’s character as someone to be simply ‘hated’. While I was watching the movie, for some reason, I saw her as someone who though consumed of love for another man, was more in control of herself and adaptable to her circumstances than anyone else around. True she didn’t have Melanie Wilkes’ gentleness but if she had, she would not have survived the series of blows she and her family received. Her character to me seemed like it was a lil’ ahead of it’s time. Though, I do think she was rather foolish in one way. While she realized the importance of money as a necessity to ensure a comfortable life, she totally overlooked the importance of her family and Rhett.

I absolutely love the character of Rhett Butler. Formulated on the adage that ‘reformed rakes make the best husbands’ Rhett was certainly a good husband and a great father. He was interesting and charming and though his character was given to making money in anyway possible, I think he was more honest than any other character in the movie.

I’ve been a fan of Errol Flynn, Jimmy Cagney, Humphrey Bogart and Clarke Gable since I started watching old Hollywood movies on TNT. I only wish I had watched ‘Gone with the Wind’ a long time back. It is certainly a masterpiece!.