Life, Dreams and Reality -- Sohel's Blog

Matt Richtel is a terrific writer. His book on immune system is titled: An Elegant Defense: The Extraordinary New Science of the Immune System: A Tale in Four Lives.  In my childhood, my parents taught me the very basics of our immune system, like I have a large number of tiny soldiers inside my body that fight with many viruses, bacteria and other pathogens to protect me. They told me that when I get injured, like a small cut on finger, it is these tiny soldiers come and repair the wounded area. I passed the similar knowledge to my son when he was younger.  That's about it. That's what I knew as I played soccer in the mushy mud, cricket under the scorching sun, kabadi in monsoon rain, while hopping from tree to rooftop back to another tree with hand made slingshot, jumping on reddish brick or slippery grass.  In subsequent years, schooling taught me a bit more, like the B and T Cells, antigens, antibody, how vaccine works, etc. Also, I learnt how having good eating habit...

Do You Believe in Magic? By Mahbubul Karim (Sohel) February 10, 2007 Do you believe in magic? I don't. But many do. People believe in all sorts of things. Like ghosts in the closet waiting to scare the life out of you. Guardian angels standing by to protect from danger. Living God or Goddesses materializing from antiquated scriptures. Whatever. Do you believe in immortality? Maybe you do. Maybe not. To me, this question is losing its relevancy. What is the point of being immortal if pain and sufferings follow you from this life to "another"? For most mortal beings, life is a battlefield. From the early childhood in the midst of bullies, muscular competitors in the soccer field, to mathematics tutor who had grumpy face, life throws so many obstacles to overcome, so many "wars" to win, that in the end, reaching certain age and wisdom, all the tidbits and pleasantries that may surface time to time, seem so mundane, useless. I know there is beauty to be observed...

Three articles published recently, two in The Washington Post, one in The Guardian. One article is on January 1st by Anne Applebaum, and another one today on January 2nd, by Eugene Robinson. Mr. Tariq Ali's article, Conveniently Forgotten ", published on January 1st. Ms. Applebaum who correctly observes the following , " Write that Hussein really was an evil man, and you'll be thought an apologist for George W. Bush. Write that his regime resembled Stalin's, and you'll be called a right-wing ideologue. " It's a dilemma indeed. Overall, there is not much dispute regarding Saddam's brutal regime. Ms. Applebaum eloquently writes Saddam's Iraq was, " a country in which the families of political victims received their body parts in the mail; in which tens of thousands of Kurds could be murdered with chemical weapons; and in which, as Hussein's truncated trial demonstrated, the dictator could sign a document randomly condemning 148 people ...