I, for the first time in my life, had realized what it means to fight inch by inch and achieve one's goals. How mean I have been to discredit war heroes and generals--now I felt as one myself!

This is the winter of my contentment. The winter has come so gloriously that thoughts of spring seem sadistic. If I could pray, perhaps I would say, "Oh, Lady, let spring be far behind."

I made my biggest snowball of the day in the famed Harvard Yard, and approached the black metal statue of John Harvard. Snow adoration, I thought, would be an appropriate tribute to a man who started all that is Harvard.

As I was about to throw the snowball, I found a snow-lady carved beautifully in every detail in the arms of John Harvard, with her bottom resting partly on Harvard's lap and partly on the open book that appears on the statue.

It did not take too much guessing to know that the freshmen in the dormitories were behind this great scene of serene comfort.

Frozen as hell?!? If hell were winter wonderful I know I would like hell.

Mangalam Srinivasan is a Fellow at the Center for International Affairs. She is a consultant to international organizations on international development planning, and a freelance journalist.