Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Exams In Wonderland

My second semester exams was given at a center which was almost 16 kms from the city premises. The mere thought of the hectic journey was enough to make me drool but compared to the exams which I had to give, it was almost negligible. The center was a college named, Thakur Hari Prasad Institute for Mentally Retarded.

Spread with lots of canopy and well-maintained cool ambience, this organisation was established by a social activist, Dr. Thakur Hari Prasad in 1968. And it had won lots of national and international awards too. What was heartening to see were the teachers and volunteers who were present there and taking care of the gifted children. Some of these children were as jovial and lively as anyone else could be. Some were quiet and were enjoying themselves in their own world.

I remember one instance when we were strolling along, one of the little cuties called us from behind saying, "Bhaiya!!!". We turned and saw that she was smiling at us and waving her hand with utmost care and affection. For a moment, honestly, my heart skipped a pound. We waved back at her and made sure that she in-turn received our attention and affection which she truly deserved.

One thing which really made me feel good was that these gifted people were given special treatments and teaching which made them atleast come at par with the rest of the crowd. This is an honest attempt to make them come to their own terms and to make them live the life, which like all of us, truly deserve to live with

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Rabindranath Tagore Blew The Candle

Rabindranath, one of the greatest poets of this country, was living on a small houseboat. He used to live for months together on that houseboat; he loved living on the houseboat. It was a full-moon night and he was reading in his room, a small cabin, just by a small candlelight, and he was reading about aesthetics — what is beauty?

And the full moon outside, and the cuckoo calling from the distant shore, and the moon reflecting all over the lake, and the whole lake was silver…! It was a tremendously silent night, nobody around, except that cuckoo calling. Once in a while a bird would fly over the boat, or a fish would jump in the lake — and those sounds would deepen the silence even more. And he pondered over great books on aesthetics in search of the definition of what beauty is.

Tired, exhausted, in the middle of the night, he blew out the candle…and he was shocked, surprised. As he blew out the candle, the moonrays entered through the window, through the door, inside the cabin. That pale light of the candle had been keeping the moon out. Suddenly, he heard the cuckoo calling from the distant shore.

Suddenly, he became aware of the tremendous silence, the depth of the silence surrounding the boat. A fish jumped, and he came out…. He had never seen such a
beautiful night. A few white clouds floating in the sky, and the moon and the lake and the cuckoo calling…he was transported into another world.

He wrote in his diary, “I am foolish! I have been searching in books for what beauty is, and beauty was standing outside my door, knocking on my door! I was looking for beauty, searching for beauty, with a small candle, and the small candlelight was keeping the moonlight outside.” He wrote in his diary, ”

It seems my small ego is keeping God out — the small ego, like a pale small candlelight, keeping the light of God outside. And he is waiting outside. All that I need to do is to close the books, blow out the candle of the ego and go out — AND SEE!”

Well, a small addition from my side. Unfortunately, we are blinded multifold in the realms of this unknowingly known world. The only thing which we can do is to do the right thing at the right time so that your vision is crystal clear and you atleast know where the candle is present, before blowing it out as Rabindranath Tagore did.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Equilibrium

This is an excerpt/story taken from Osho's teachings, which I thought does brings to light something about being in a state of equilibrium when there are crests and troughs under the seasons of the Sun...Read on....

When I was a small child at school there was a wrestling competition for the whole district; I have never been able to forget that incident. There was a wrestler, the most famous wrestler in those parts, who was defeated. He was going to be the champion, the district champion or something, and he was defeated by a totally unknown man!

The whole crowd laughed in ridicule, people enjoyed it like anything! And I was surprised, everybody was surprised; in a second everybody fell silent, because he also clapped and laughed… the man who had been defeated! He laughed so uproariously that the whole crowd fell silent in embarrassment; what was the matter with this man? And when they fell silent he laughed even more!

Later on I went to him; he was staying just in front of my house in a temple. And I said, ’This is strange – and I loved it! It was very unexpected!’. He said, ’It was so unexpected, that’s why I also laughed! It was really unexpected. I had never expected that I would be defeated by an ordinary man of whom nobody has ever heard! The whole thing was ridiculous, that’s why I laughed!’

But I have never been able to forget his face, the way he laughed and the way he clapped and the way the whole crowd fell silent. This man defeated the whole crowd and their ridicule… he participated! But great courage is needed! A great courage is needed in life to be yourself, in failure, in success, in appreciation, in condemnation, when you are going very high and when you are going very low

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Love Unconditionally

During my growing up days, I used to think what is there to stop us to love each other, unconditionally. Scores of reason would come as a flash in front of my mind. None was clear nevertheless. But as I am navigating through my days of life, I am finding one thing that is common to everything - and that is we love because we want to love. We always want some return to our friendship, to our hand-shakes, to our love.

As far as I could decipher the DNA of life, if you like someone, if you really care for someone, if you really want something good for someone, just be good to that person and never in your iota of thoughts, think about the return. This way, you already set the rules and you play the game. But in the end, everyone comes out to be a winner. Remember there is always much more to Winning than winning in real terms.

I have always dreamed of making this world happy....of making people around me happy....of making things easy for my friends and for people who I even do not know directly. Its that feeling of non-attaching ourselves with our action, which perhaps sets to the real upliftment of ourselves in our own eyes. This would never be easy and would never be a piece of cake but if we want contentment and the correctness in our life, this approach is worth a try. We never know what happens tommorrow. So let each today be a stepping stone for each tomorrow so that day-after tomorrow is happy for us and everyone around us.

I guess that's how God would be looking after each one of us. He does not want us to go to him and pray...he just stays there on top and takes care of each one of us, in his own way. We may understand some of his actions, some may not carry any meaning or not-as-desired but everything good or bad is for Us...believe or not believe...But if you ask me, I do believe in Him and pray that my belief should be intact every moment of my life.

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Now that's called Confidence

John Carpenter reached the last final question of the episode and the question was "Which of these U.S. Presidents appeared on the television series Laugh-In?", with the choices being A) Lyndon Johnson, B) Richard Nixon, C) Jimmy Carter, and D) Gerald Ford.

Carpenter used his Phone-A-Friend lifeline to call his father, and had the following conversation:

Host: ...John you've got thirty seconds, starts right now.
John: Uh...Hi, Dad.

Tom: Hi!

John: Um...I don't really need your help, I just wanted to let you know that I'm gonna win the million dollars...

Well, the confidence level at that point of time for this man was simply authentic and genuinely take-a-bow one. For here he was with all his controlled composure saying that he wants to call his parents just to let them know that he is going to win the first edition of "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" in 1999

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

If At First We Dont Succeed

First time success may not happen, always. Or rather referring to the times when we say life is not a bed of roses. But being in such stance does gives, if taken, of course, us the will to carry on and see the correct side of things, as they are and not what they seem, at the first instance. It makes us what we ought to be, ideally.

A nice poem to remember and carry on despite hiccups, we may find every now and then :

Failure doesn't mean - "We are a failure,"
It means - We have not succeeded.

Failure doesn't mean - "We accomplished nothing,"
It means - We have learned something.

Failure doesn't mean - "We have been a fool,"
It means - We had a lot of faith.

Failure doesn't mean - "We don't have it,"
It means - We were willing to try.

Failure doesn't mean - "We are inferior,"
It means - We are not perfect.

Failure doesn't mean - "We've wasted our life,"
It means - We have a reason to start afresh.

Failure doesn't mean - "We should give up,"
It means - "We must try harder.

Failure doesn't mean - "We'll never make it,"
It means - It will take a little longer.

Failure doesn't mean - "God has abandoned us,"
It means - God has a better way for us.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Hats Off To Friendship

I wonder what this world would be if we dont have friends. What it would look like when we wont have someone to share our feelings, when we wont have someone to whom we would share our joys and sorrows alike, to whom we can trust to the core of our heart, to whom we can believe to the extent of belief, to whom we dont think twice about helping in need or so, to whom we are Us and not Me alone.

Wonder what had gone into my mind this time. Just now saw the movie Cars and was quite surprised at the sheer simplicity in which the story tells about the basic necessity of friendship in life.

Life is not always about winning the race. Its about enjoying every bit of the race, make things simple for ourselves and for others. And to make friends, live and give the moments for others and share the joyful nature of friendship

Hats off to friendship!!!!

Monday, October 11, 2010

Whether We Think We Can, Or Think We Can't, We're Probably Right

If you think you are beaten, you are;
If you think that you dare not, you don't;
If you'd like to win, but you think you can’t,
It’s almost certain you wont.

If you think you'll lose, you've lost;
For out in the world you'll find
Success begins with a fellow’s will.
It’s all in the state of mind.

If you think you are outclassed, you are;
You've got to think high to rise;
You've got to be sure of yourself before
you can ever win a prize.

Life's battles don’t always go
to the stronger or faster man;
but sooner or later the man who wins
is the man who thinks he can.


Simply awesome, strightforward, revelling and awesome poem

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Attitude Does Matter Sometimes

Its somewhat quite different to feel the same always. Sometimes you feel quite ecstatic, sometimes we feel quite less energetic. Why so ? God knows.

But what I do know is that we can let the ecstatic attitude be our USP for as long as we wish it to be. Pray to God that you are always given the power to do the right thing, to behave in the right way, to make things right everytime, when given a chance and most importantly, when not given a chance.

If you really want to maintain ego or have attitude on something, keep the attitude or ego of being correct, no matter what happens or what the situation delves you, suddenly, into.

Pray, if you are feeling weak. Pray, if you are not able to be strong enough to adjust being right. Pray, to listen to your inner voice, wherein we, as God, recides. For He will and Can never be wrong.

Listen to your inner voice always, no matter what the mind and the body says. Therein Attitude matters

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Stay With What You Believe

A Classroom had Aerodynamics as the topic of study. Teacher told the students that each of them have to choose a partner and all individuals have to make a paper plane. The team whose combined individual planes fly the most distance than the other teams, would win the contest.

Tom and Jeff became the partners. Jeff was considered by teachers and the students a low-grader, as his marks were usually poor. But Jeff would always think winning.

All the teams came one by one to present their inheritance of paper airplane skills. Tom and Jeff's were the last team to present their gadgets. Tom had prepared a simple paper plane , with lots of curves but he was not sure that his team could win, as Jeff was still holding a blank sheet of paper.

All the teams fared too good. Each one was surpassing the other in the distance relation. Last team was that of Tom and Jeff. Tom sent his plane off and it travelled a comfortable distance. All eyes were set on Jeff.

Jeff slowly took his masterpiece from behind. It was still in a non-deformed state. He rolled the paper into a ball and threw it into the air, surpassing all the other team records. Everyone, including teachers were dumbstruck

Sunday, September 5, 2010

How Perception To Things Matters A Lot

One day a father and his rich family took their young son on a trip to the country with the firm purpose to show him how poor people can be. They spent a day and a night in the farm of a very poor family. When they got back from their trip the father asked his son, "How was the trip?"

Very good, Dad!"

"Did you see how poor people can be?" the father asked.

"Yeah!"

"And what did you learn?"

The son answered, "I saw that we have a dog at home, and they have four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of the garden, they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lamps in the garden, they have the stars. Our patio reaches to the front yard, they have a whole horizon."

When the little boy was finishing, his father was speechless.

His son added, "Thanks, Dad, for showing me how poor we are!"

Isn't it true that it all depends on the way you look at things? If you have love, friends, family, health, good humor and a positive attitude toward life, you've got everything!

You can't buy any of these things. You can have all the material possessions you can imagine, provisions for the future, etc., but if you are poor of spirit, you have nothing!

Monday, August 30, 2010

Making Sandcastles In Life

Hot sun. Salty air. Rhythmic waves.

A little boy is on his knees scooping and packing the sand with plastic shovels into a bright blue bucket. Then he upends the bucket on the surface and lifts it. And, to the delight of the little architect, a castle tower is created.

All afternoon he will work. Spooning out the moat. Packing the walls. Bottle tops will be sentries. Popsicle sticks will be bridges. A sandcastle will be built.

Big city. Busy streets. Rumbling traffic.

A man is in his office. At his desk he shuffles papers into stacks and delegates assignments. He cradles the phone on his shoulder and punches the keyboard with his fingers. Numbers are juggled and contracts are signed and much to the delight of the man, a profit is made.

All his life he will work. Formulating the plans. Forecasting the future. Annuities will be sentries. Capital gains will be bridges. An empire will be built.

Two builders of two castles. They have much in common. They shape granules into grandeurs. They see nothing and make something. They are diligent and determined. And for both the tide will rise and the end will come.

Yet that is where the similarities cease. For the boy sees the end while the man ignores it. Watch the boy as the dusk approaches.

As the waves near, the wise child jumps to his feet and begins to clap. There is no sorrow. No fear. No regret. He knew this would happen. He is not surprised. And when the great breaker crashes into his castle and his masterpiece is sucked into the sea, he smiles. He smiles, picks up his tools, takes his father's hand, and goes home.

The grownup, however, is not so wise. As the wave of years collapses on his castle he is terrified. He hovers over the sandy monument to protect it. He blocks the waves from the walls he has made. Salt-water soaked and shivering he snarls at the incoming tide.

"It's my castle," he defies.

The ocean need not respond. Both know to whom the sand belongs...

I don't know much about sandcastles. But children do. Watch them and learn. Go ahead and build, but build with a child's heart. When the sun sets and the tides take away your sand castles- applaud the sheer natureness. Salute the process of life and go home.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Jerry - The Ever Positive Guy

Jerry was the kind of guy who was always in a good mood and always had something positive to say. When some one would ask him how is he doing, he would reply, “If I were any better, I would be twins!”.

He was a unique manager because he had several waiters who had followed him around from restaurant to restaurant. The reason the waiters followed Jerry was because of his attitude. He was a natural motivator.

If an employee was having a bad day, Jerry was telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation. Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went upto Jerry and asked him, “ I don’t get it! You can’t be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?”

Jerry replied, “Each morning I wake up and say to myself, ‘Jerry, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or you can choose to be in a bad mood.’ I choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it.

Every time some one comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaint or I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life.” “yeah, right, its not that easy,” I protested.

“Yes, it is” Jerry said. Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people will affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

If By Rudyard Kipling

Check this poem out by Rudyard Kipling...quite an inspirational one and good one to have a look at when in doubt or dilemma...almost a breathtaking one for me...read for letting loose the right rhythm of maintaining the state of bliss and balance...


If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master,
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

Friday, August 6, 2010

Seeing Is Believing - Courtesy Polar Express

After a long time had a great feeling on seeing a movie,named Polar Express. The story is about a boy who happened to believe that Santa Claus does not exist. And at the end of the movie, he does believe that the Santa Claus do exist. Now there was nothing new to the theme, what mattered most was the sequence of incidents that he encounters which makes him believe the so called myth.

There had been times aplenty in everybody's life, I guess, that we do not believe in something to happen. We go on thinking that our thinking would never materialize or see the daylight. There are a couple of dialogues which I would like to mention here. One was "Seeing is believing" i.e.what we see is what we believe. And the other was "No matter what train you get into, what matters is that you go on".

Quite simple and sweet. It doesn't matter what or how life makes us to ride itself, what matters is we move on..we move on to see the end of the road, we move on to see the end of our destined journey. And if we can see or believe that something will happen, chances are that we would see our belief happening in front of our eyes. Well, its just requires a small firm stance inside our core, to say that "I BELIEVE IN MY BELIEF"

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Knowing The Knowings

I was learning when i fumbled
I was fumbling when i learned
i was laughing when i cried
i was crying when i laughed
I was judging when i was in doubt
I was in doubt when i judged

I was flying when i crashed
I crashed when i tried to fly
I remembered what i thought
I thought what i remembered
I forgot what i thought
I thought what i forgot

I dreamed when i slept
I slept when i dreamed
I did not know what i knew
I knew when i did not know
I hoped when i was lost
I was lost when i hoped

I look back and see
I see and look back
I still donno whether things were difficult,
Or Difficult were things,
But what I feel I think I know,
That what I know I think I feel,
Everything had a meaning
All meaning had everything

We may not the know the knowings,
Knowings may not be known to us,
We have only one option then,
Let the option take care of Us,
And We do our best,
Let the best come out of We.

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Subroto's favourite shirt

This story is about the Sahara Chairman, Subroto Chatterjee. He, once during a delegation, gave a short snapshot of an incident that happened in his life.

Subroto was 10 years old. He was very fond of a shirt which was a birthday present. The shirt carried such a importance in his life that he would die and give anything for the sake of it. Once, what happened, was that his shirt accidentally fell to fireplace. He was quick to react and he was able to take his shirt out, just in time. He was happy.

But when he carefully examined, he found a small hole in it. And that was enough to break his soul, let alone his heart. He was disheartened and saddened to the extent that he stopped eating food. When his father came to know of it, he came to his son’s room and enquired about the reason.

On knowing the reason, he simply asked his son to bring the shirt which was his heartthrob. The boy obliged and brought the shirt. The fireplace was still burning at its exteme. He simply threw the shirt inside, in front of his son, and then ensured that it had burned even the last charred remains of the cloth.

Subroto’s left most important organ, popularly known as Heart, skipped a beat or two. Because, what happened, was something he had not imagined in the wildest of his dreams. He was awe-struck, shocked. Now it was the turn of the father, to tell the reason for doing the same.

He began like this – ‘Son, Never, ever in life attach yourself to any material or immaterial thing in this world. You should not give yourself as a scapegoat to anyone and to anything. Enjoy the worldly pleasures as it is but never attach or be a slave to it. And only then can you move forward in life, with ease. “

True in every sense, I think….Well, have you ever heard about the phrase “Aids With Strings”….it’s mostly used when big organizations like WHO or World Bank alikes give monetary aids to countries but these aids comes with its added strings attached to it…these countries are made to offer something else in return….that’s political aspect though.

What I intend to say is let us all enjoy all the beautiful, fun frolic things that life offers but there should always be strings attached to each of them so that we don’t cross our limits and indulge in overdoing a thing, than needed.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Live Life Baby Size !!!

Have you seen seen a small baby smiling to the apex of his/her capacity. How do you feel at that moment. Frankly speaking for me, it would be the moment when I just forget everything and observe the sheer simplicity in the smile. I feel good by myself for having seen this simple gesture from a life form so small.

Why, in fact, just the other day, I was brushing my teeth and opposite to my flat was a scene which was quite hilarious. The terrace of the other building had 4 small kittens who were playing with themselves. All were running after each other, mauling and biting over each other, stopping every now and then, and starting all over again. And in between if they happen to discover some noise or a living form, they would jump at that instance and try to figure out the meaning of it. There was this empty Coca-Cola bottle which moved by itself owing to suddent gish of wind and all our 4 detectives were circling around it to discover what it is.

After seeing them, I was wondering that if we happen to see clearly all around nature, we would have ample proof and solutions to our problems. Everything seems to be saying to us as to what is right and how it all should be, how we should be always active, how we should be just inquisitive about everything, and see the bright side of everything, and the dark sides which will always be there, should be forgotten as fast as possible and learn the lessons that come with them....the thing is we should have our ears and eyes open to engulf the real meaning.

Keep your eyes and ears open for there may be countless such instances for us to make us learn the chapters of life. Happy viewing !!!!

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Chhuck Chhuck Kartee Railgadee

"All the passengers pay attention. Train No. 3210 is due to arrive at Platform No. 2 at 10:10 AM"....Sounds familiar, right. This is the usual bhavishyavani which reverberates in railway platforms when we are about to travel to distances in chug-chug railways. Of course, nowadays due to the ever-increasing lack of time, we are presented with other alternative, thanks to the Oliver and Wright brother's invention.

For me, travelling in a train, always carried that oomph factor. The excitement and fingers-crossed environment which it carries had been second to none, till date. Right from the time I leave my home, following events consistently unravels itself --- searching for an auto, letting him fly his three-wheeler, coming to the platform, first thing to notice whether the train is on time by seeing on the display board, checking the platform no., going to the destined place where my bogie should ideally come.

And then, when everything is settled comes the great commentary --- "Train No. 3210 is running late by 2 hrs. It is expected to arrive at ...." We take a huge sigh, not sure though whether of relief or no-idea-what-to-do-all-this-time. Youngsters pick up their best friend (mobile) and then call their supposed-to-be-better-half and would be stuck to them. Families would get time to discuss about their hierarchical structure taking each family member's context one by one. Loners would be left with a couple of choices -- either stroll around as if to measure the length and width of the station or take a magazine/book to read.

But after 2 hours and of course, if everything goes well planned, we abode our vahana. First there would be a sudden hue and cry to sit in the alotted seat. And then after that, we would all be settled. Some take the avatars of kumbhakarana....some take the avatars of sorry-limited-stop talkers....some would be the audience, smiling every now and then....of course not to miss the little angels for whom its the play-time.

And not to forget the chai-chai's, bread-omelette's, samosa's, pakoda's, bisleri's, biscuit's, ice-cream's all coming in regular intervals to let us deviate from our avatars. And of course, the Ticket Collector entry to verify our ticket's identity. And then finally, we reach our destination....if we are going for a vacation, we would be full of energy but if we are coming back, we would be thinking "alas...Back to pavilion...".

Somehow this travel machine always carries with it the spontaneity and excitement of life with itself, which never ends and goes on and on and on.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Stay Connected

An old farmer lived on a farm in the mountains with his young grandson. Each morning Grandpa was up early sitting at the kitchen table reading his Bhagavad-gita. His grandson wanted to be just like him and tried to imitate him in every way he could.

One day the grandson asked, “Grandpa! I try to read the Bhagavad-gita just like you but I don’t understand it, and what I do understand I forget as soon as I close the book. What good does reading the Bhagavad-gita do?”

The grandfather quietly turned from putting coal in the stove and replied, “Take this coal basket down to the river and bring me back a basket of water.”

The boy did as he was told, but all the water leaked out before he got back to the house. The grandfather laughed and said, “You’ll have to move a little faster next time,” and sent him back to the river with the basket to try again. This time the boy ran faster, but again the basket was empty before he returned home. Out of breath, he told his grandfather that it was impossible to carry water in a basket, and he went to get a bucket instead. The old man said, “I don’t want a bucket of water; I want a basket of water. You’re just not trying hard enough,” and he went outside to watch the boy try again.

At this point, the boy knew it was impossible, but he wanted to show his grandfather that even if he ran as fast as he could, the water would leak out before he got back to the house.

The boy again dipped the basket into the river and ran hard, but when he reached his grandfather the basket was again empty. Out of breath, he said, “See Grandpa, it’s useless!”

“So you think it is useless?” The old man said, “Look at the basket.” The boy looked at the basket and for the first time realized that the basket was different. It had been transformed from a dirty old coal basket and was now clean, inside and out.

“Son, that’s what happens when you read the Bhagavad-gita. You might not understand or remember everything, but when you read it, you will be changed, inside and out.”

This story really heightens the necessity of keeping ourselves surrounded by layers of good vibes and sources. What I mean to say here is there may not seem any necessity to persist doing the right thing every time but you know what, one day we would realize that all of the righteous things which we did, had made us shine in our endeavours and at that point of time we would be endearing the fruits of our toil and hardship. Stay positive and stay connected to the right things for our own good.

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Letting Others Decide Our Reactions

I walked with a friend to the news-stand the other night, and he bought a paper, thanking the owner politely. The owner, however, did not even acknowledge it.

"A sullen fellow, isn't he?" I commented as we walked away.

"Oh, he's that way every night," shrugged my friend.

"Then why do you continue being so polite to him?" I asked.

And my friend replied, "Why should I let him determine how I'm going to act?"

Simple, yet meaningful theory...isn't it? It doesn't matter how others behave to you....what matters is how you behave to others and how you react to them...stay on ground when you are up and when you are down.....and dont let others decide as to how you should react to a situation.....

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Playing Music With Bare Minimums

On Nov. 18, 1995, Itzhak Perlman, the violinist, came on stage to give a concert at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center in New York City.

If you have ever been to a Perlman concert, you know that getting on stage is no small achievement for him. He was stricken with polio as a child, and so he has braces on both legs and walks with the aid of two crutches. To see him walk across the stage one step at a time, painfully and slowly, is an awesome sight.

Then he bends down and picks up the violin, puts it under his chin, nods to the conductor and proceeds to play.

But this time, something went wrong. Just as he finished the first few bars, one of the strings on his violin broke. You could hear it snap - it went off like gunfire across the room. There was no mistaking what that sound meant. There was no mistaking what he had to do.

We figured that he would have to get up, put on the clasps again, pick up the crutches and limp his way off stage - to either find another violin or else find another string for this one. But he didn't. Instead, he waited a moment, closed his eyes and then signaled the conductor to begin again.

The orchestra began, and he played from where he had left off. And he played with such passion and such power and such purity as they had never heard before.

Of course, anyone knows that it is impossible to play a symphonic work with just three strings. I know that, and you know that, but that night Itzhak Perlman refused to know that.

You could see him modulating, changing, re-composing the piece in his head. At one point, it sounded like he was de-tuning the strings to get new sounds from them that they had never made before. When he finished, there was an awesome silence in the room. And then people rose and cheered. There was an extraordinary outburst of applause from every corner of the auditorium.

He smiled, wiped the sweat from this brow, raised his bow to quiet us, and then he said - in a quiet, pensive, reverent tone - "You know, sometimes it is the artist's task to find out how much music you can still make with what you have left."

Here is a man who has prepared all his life to make music on a violin of four strings, who, all of a sudden, in the middle of a concert, finds himself with only three strings; so he makes music with three strings, and the music he made that night with just three strings was more beautiful, more sacred, more memorable, than any that he had ever made before, when he had four strings.

In this fast changing world, there might be situations when we have to play our music with bare minimum chords, even though the other side may get all available chords. Let us refuse to accept the minimum as the contraint to get the maximum. Play your music the best you can.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Warrior Of Light

A beautiful poem depicting the characteristics of real life heroes...some known and some unknown...and the way we all should never lose hope to be the warrior of light

Every Warrior of the Light
has felt afraid of going into battle.

Every Warrior of the Light
has, at some time in the past, lied or betrayed someone.

Every Warrior of the Light
has trodden a path that was not his.

Every Warrior of the Light
has suffered for the most trivial of reasons.

Every Warrior of the Light
has, at least once, believed he was not a Warrior of the Light.

Every Warrior of the Light
has failed in his spiritual duties.

Every Warrior of the Light
has said 'yes' when he wanted to say 'no.'

Every Warrior of the Light
has hurt someone he loved.

That is why he is a Warrior of the Light,
Because he has been through all this
and yet has never lost hope of being better than he is.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Best Peace Picture

There once was a king who offered a prize to the artist who would paint the best picture of peace. Many artists tried. The king looked at all the pictures. But there were only two he really liked, and he had to choose between them.

One picture was of a calm lake. The lake was a perfect mirror for peaceful towering mountains all around it. Overhead was a blue sky with fluffy white clouds. All who saw this picture thought that it was a perfect picture of peace.

The other picture had mountains, too. But these were rugged and bare. Above was an angry sky, from which rain fell and in which lightning played. Down the side of the mountain tumbled a foaming waterfall. This did not look peaceful at all.

But when the king looked closely, he saw behind the waterfall a tiny bush growing in a crack in the rock. In the bush a mother bird had built her nest. There, in the midst of the rush of angry water, sat the mother bird on her nest - in perfect peace.

Which picture do you think won the prize? The king chose the second picture. Do you know why?

"Because," explained the king, "peace does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble, or hard work. Peace means to be in the midst of all those things and still be calm in your heart. That is the real meaning of peace."

Let us all be in peace at all the roughs and troughs times of our lives. Because that's how it should be ideally.

Monday, March 22, 2010

A 'Yes' Face

Our face do show what we would be upto in the next moment, if looked clearly, of course. If we are in a good mood, our face lits up like a halogen lamp. Vice-versa, its of course #000000(Hexadecimal notation for Black).

A beautiful story which narrates how much it means to stay litten up not only for our own good but in the lives of expected and unexpected visitors in our life.

During Thomas Jefferson's presidency he and a group of travelers were crossing a river that had overflowed its banks. Each man crossed on horseback fighting for his life. A lone traveler watched the group traverse the treacherous river and then asked President Jefferson to take him across.

The president agreed without hesitation, the man climbed on, and the two made it safely to the other side of the river where somebody asked him: "Why did you select the President to ask this favor?"

The man was shocked, admitting he had no idea it was the President of the United States who had carried him safely across. "All I know," he said, "is that on some of your faces was written the answer 'No' and on some of them was the answer 'Yes.' His was a 'Yes' face."


It does matter to stay 'Yes' in our lives for many lives that revolve around us.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Credit We Win Debit We Lose

Have you ever wondered as to why some people gets all good things in life and some, alas, gets only a meagre amount of their due share. The permutations and combinations which our God follows with us is almost impossible to understand. But let me guess his formula. Of course, this axiom may not be provable but it is worth giving a try.

Our whole universe is the total sum of positive and negative energies. All living beings are free to chose which energy they want to let-in inside them. So, if its a positive one, we will be in our best form of our life. Else, if its a negative one, we would be running through a lean patch of our life. The best part here is its always in our hands to filter the energies before they are inherited.

Now after the above phase, considering which energy type we take, comes the next phase. Just a small information in here i.e. we all are having one life account to the Universal Bank, owned by God. So, when we do a good thing or a good deed or the best-in-this-situation kind of action, we accumulate credit points to our account. On the other track if we do a mess of all things in front of us, we accumulate the debit points. Now, as we all know, the net formula would come out to be :

Total Net Points Earned(TNPE) = Total Credit Points Accumulated + Total Debit Points Accumulated

If TNPE = positive value, you are in for a big wonderful surprise in store later in life
If TNPE = negative value, time to reevaluate and change ourselves and do something good to someone and ourself, and being the best we can be

So, let us all try to always keep our net worth as positive, so that we don't have to rush at the last moment to do something good. Of course, there would be some could-not-escape debits but be the best you can be in any situation. That itself would carry some grace or bonus points.

Some Points which I could not assume are :

1) Points Table -- How much is the credit or debit equivalent for each accumulated point
2) Rewards Table -- What are the rewards we get on accumulation of points. And when do we get the prize, what would be the prize and so on.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

It Will Pass For Sure

A student went to his meditation teacher and said, "My meditation is horrible! I feel so distracted, or my legs ache, or I'm constantly falling asleep. It's just horrible!"

"It will pass," the teacher said matter-of-factly.

A week later, the student came back to his teacher. "My meditation is wonderful! I feel so aware, so peaceful, so alive! It's just wonderful!'

"It will pass," the teacher replied matter-of-factly.

If we have good times now, there would be a time when it would end. On the other side, if we have bad times now, there has to be a time when it would end too. Hence we say that Change is the most consistently-constant thing in this universe. So, let us do our best and let the universe do the rest.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Sweep Your Floors...Its Never Too Late

A well known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a $20 bill. In the room of 200, he asked, "Who would like this $20 bill?" Hands started going up.

He said, "I am going to give this $20 to one of you but first, let me do this." He proceeded to crumple the dollar bill up. He then asked, "Who still wants it?"Still the hands were up in the air.

"Well," he replied, "What if I do this?" And he dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe. He picked it up, now all crumpled and dirty. "Now who still wants it?" Still the hands went into the air.

"My friends, I wanted to tell you a simple thing. No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth $20. Similarly, many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way. We feel as though we are worthless. But no matter what has happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value. You are special - Don't ever forget it!"

In the movie "Bruce Almighty", GOD says to Bruce...."Son, no matter how filthy the floor is, there would always be time to clean off the dust and that's the best part of it"...

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Sleep Dilemma In Our Worklife

What is the most important phase of human life ? Any guesses. Well, perceptions differing, believe it or not, in one way or the other you have to believe that it is none other than the "Sleeping Phase". Seldom, have I found someone, who if given a chance to sleep would not do so, especially after churning themselves in all the hues and cries of this world. And when you sleep, you are in eternal bliss, completely forgetting what is going around in our solar planet.

There had been instances for me and I am sure, to you too, that we have found ourselves in a tough situation as to whether to stay awake or give in to the modest sleep. Sometimes, we win but most of the times, we lose....It all depends on the environment, frankly speaking. Here's enactment of such dilemma we face in schools, in offices etc...through a video in which the baby prairie dog family member wants to stay awake and fights the dreaded sleep with all his/her(....not sure)might....and the fighting continues...watch it and feel the intensity of.....SLEEP

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Listen to the whisper ... or wait for the brick!

Good Morning...Good Afternoon and Good Night...In between all the 3 phases, we most often find ourselves in a near robotic persona doing the same things again and again and seldom paying heed to the small, little and simple things that go pass in front of our eyes. This poignant story illustrates the significance of keeping the body, mind and soul in sync with each other for that is when we give our best to our self and the universe.

A young and successful executive was traveling down a neighborhood street, going a bit too fast in his new Jaguar. He was watching for kids darting out from between parked cars and slowed down when he thought he saw something.

As his car passed, no children appeared. Instead, a brick smashed into the Jag's side door! He slammed on the brakes and drove the Jag back to the spot where the brick had been thrown. The angry driver then jumped out of the car, grabbed the nearest kid and pushed him up against a parked car, shouting, "What was that all about and who are you? Just what the heck are you doing? That's a new car and that brick you threw is going to cost a lot of money. Why did you do it?"

The young boy was apologetic. "Please mister ... please, I'm sorry... I didn't know what else to do," he pleaded. "I threw the brick because no one else would stop...". With tears dripping down his face and off his chin, the youth pointed to a spot just around a parked car.

"It's my brother," he said.

"He rolled off the curb and fell out of his wheelchair and I can't lift him up." Now sobbing, the boy asked the stunned executive, "Would you please help me get him back into his wheelchair? He's hurt and he's too heavy for me.". Moved beyond words, the driver tried to swallow the rapidly swelling lump in his throat. He hurriedly lifted the handicapped boy back into the wheelchair, then took out his fancy handkerchief and dabbed at the fresh scrapes and cuts. A quick look told him everything was going to be okay.

"Thank you and may God bless you," the grateful child told the stranger. Too shook up for words, the man simply watched the little boy push his wheelchair-bound brother down the sidewalk towards their home. It was a long, slow walk back to the Jaguar. The damage was very noticeable, but the driver never bothered to repair the dented side door.

He kept the dent there to remind him of this message : Don't go through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at you to get your attention!

God whispers in our souls and speaks to our hearts. Sometimes when we don't have time to listen, He has to throw a brick at us. It's our choice: Listen to the whisper ... or wait for the brick!

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Innocence Personified By A Kid

Place : Mayuri Marg Hanuman Temple, Hyderabad

Day and Time : Saturday, 9:00 AM

Directed By : Has To Be God

Scene : I had gone to nearby temple to pay homage to all Gods and to have one-to-one conversation with them. I had completed the darshana of Hanumanjee and Shiva Bhagwaan. Then we have Navagrahangal where all nine devatas reside. And as is the custom, I had to make 9 rounds of the place. In front of me was a father-son duo. It was hard to contemplate as to who was leading whom but mostly I felt it was the son who leaded the brigade. Now this kid, let me tell you, if my calculation are right, happened to be of 2 feet height and of say, 3 years,I guess. Anywayz, my speed was naturally slowed and I had to continue my steps based on the front duo.

Now, the main climax of the whole scene is yet to come. This small kid, while doing the rounds, was talking to his father and asking some questions in Telugu and his father was promptly answering them. Just then, there was an Arti and sounds of bells from the Hanuman Temple. This kid suddenly took off his father's hands, turned around, closed his eyes and started praying in the direction of Hanumanjee. That came so instantly that even his father took a jiffy of a second to really understand this act of this supposedly-yet-to-mature kid. And I being the spectator from behind saw something which was innocence personified at its best. I had no other choice but to smile and respect this little guy's devotion.

Hence, we say that "Bachhe Bhagwaan Ke Roop Hote Hain" and another example got added to this universal theorem.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Which Wolf do we feed

An interesting conversation was going on between the grandfather and his grandson. The small child asks as to how do we become a good person in life. His mentor replied "My son, the battle is constantly between two wolves. One is Evil. It is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.
The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith."

And then the master-question been asked by the little kid "Which wolf wins, grandpa?"

His grandpa simply replied, "The one you feed."

Let us all make an honest attempt to feed the good wolf in us and let the other being starve to death. Stay connected to what is right and the right will pave to more rights in our world.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Sneezing Baby Panda Scares Her Mom

When your batteries are done and you tend to look for alternatives to rejuvenate yourself, what else could be the best option than to look after for something which would make you laugh to the core and let you fall from the bed/sofa/chair.

From hereon, I would be adding some real natural hilarios videos under the category called "Laughing Stocks".

This is a short instant video wherein a baby panda sneeze scares her mother so much that her body shakes due to the impact. She stops munching the leaves and is awe-stuck for some duration as to whether the sound was from her baby..really. Have a look at it and enjoy :


What I see from this video is that no matter how small you look yourself in the midst of a situation, you always have the ability to surprise even the biggest of the matter...so just believe in the power of sneezing out all your inherent hurdles and let others be in awe

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Keep The Faith With You Always

Sometimes life is pretty hard to understand. Things sometimes work well for you and sometimes it doesn't. But the most heartening fact is that despite giving your best when you don’t get the due, you feel bad and you feel why to continue the same.

Life's games are hard to solve, no doubt. I had my own ups and downs and would comprehend most of the time wrongly as to what was the intention of life to be as it is. And after years when I look back, it becomes clearer as to what was the real fact of that happening to happen.

My take is let life unravel itself one by one all its chapters and pages to us in its own time but we should have faith in life that things would be fine enough one day for sure. And keep that faith for all the time, i.e. 24x7x365xNo. of Years We Live.

Even if things get better or not, but you would be sure of one thing: You would live more in every aspect of your life throughout. And that is how it should be. Let Good Will prevail on all of us.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Agneepath

The Bollywood superstar of the century --- Amitabh Bachhaan. Every one knows a thing or two about his struggles and his endearing sheer intensity of putting life to all the characters he played. Indeed, a living legend he is.

He had come to a TV program as a guest judge and was asked to recite something in his remarkable voice. He recited a poem by his father, Harivansh Rai Bachhaan. His baritone voice was a perfect match to the poem, which was having a motivational quotient in it. Following was the poem and feel the aroma of feel-goodness:

वृक्ष हो भले घने,
हो घने हो बड़े,
एक पट छाव की मांग मत, मांग मत,
अग्निपथ, अग्निपथ, अग्निपथ.

तू न थकेगा कभी,
तू न थमेगा कभी,
तू न मुड़ेगा कभी,
कर शपथ , कर शपथ, कर शपथ,
अग्निपथ, अग्निपथ, अग्निपथ.

ये महान दृश्य है,
चल रहा मनुष्य है,
अश्रु स्वेद रक्त से लथपथ, लथपथ, लथपथ,
अग्निपथ, अग्निपथ, अग्निपथ

Sunday, January 31, 2010

Hope Keeps Us Alive

Good things never die,
Bad things never last,
Choosing between the two,
Is the goal of our Cast

Life is not a bed of roses,
Everywhere there are contrasting forces,
To live it is itself a big challenge,
Be simple and take It as it is

There are times when nothing goes right,
Whatever is done with head or might,
I would say, just remember the kite,
Rising against the wind and be lite

Giving up, at bad times, is the notion,
Which actually & truly hinders our motion,
Whatever be the result, just try,
No matter, at some time, you will fly

When the best does not come,
And the Worst is the only chance,
Don’t make the mistake of being sad,
Put on a smile, & trust, you will be glad

Thursday, January 28, 2010

An Essay On Courage --- 15 Marks

Courage - is defined as a human character shown in the times of adversity when the odds and evens are against the subject. Quite true, infact.

I read this wonderful story, somewhere in a magazine, about a student whose courage really taught me the definite definition of Courage.

Here's the story :
The classroom was having a pin-drop silence. All because there was this dreaded final exam going on. The English subject had a questionnaire which required the writer to ink an essay of about 400 words(15 Marks).

Students were almost writing like workers in a factory as if one-minute break would devoid them of their life. Ding-Ding rang the bell and there was this hue and cry everywhere to finish the papers as fast as possible.

All the answer sheets were collected and amply submitted to the invigilator. This was actually the exact time when students feel that air is the sole reason for humans to survive. But until those 3 hours, it was the successful completion of paper being the prominent reason to survive.

Coming back to the story, the essay was about a topic which read "What Is Courage" with the additional prerequisites of having atleast 400 words description. All the papers were communicated to the English professor. As he was correcting the papers and giving them their due marks, he saw one paper which outdid and outclassed all others in the essay section.

Every student had written a voila of words for describing the traits and exactness of Courage but one student had crossed the limits of brevity. Any guesses as to what this student had written for the essay. He wrote only 3 words and those words were :


"THIS IS COURAGE"

Monday, January 18, 2010

Remembering Dakiyawala

Indian Postal Department --- When was the last time you had heard about it, in its real sense. Yes, I am talking about the mails which we used to get in our homes during the days when Tim Berners Lee (The supposed inventor of the revolution called "World Wide Web) was not famous and we were not having flora and fauna of technological inventories like mobile phones and Electronic Mails around us.

I still have some vivid memories of the Khakhi clad - Postman, which we had back to my growing-up place in Dhanbad, Jharkhand. He would come in a cycle and his job was to bring us mail, money orders, telegrams, New Year greeting cards and you know what was the reason I remembered him the most. I remember him because he was my sister, for he used to tie Rakhis to all brothers who didn't had sisters(Of course "Bhaiya mere Rakhee ke bandhan ko Nibhana" wala song happened to be a mismatch in our case). Well, that seemed funny but was quite a remarkable thing to happen to me especially on that day. This continued until I had some real-sisters to tie Rakhis to me.

I wanted you all to just spend a few moments for the surprise element which our Postman used to carry in his baggage. The moment he opened our house-gates, there was this feeling of excitement as to whose mail it would be. We would then see the Sender's address and then quickly open the mail to read its contents. All of us would sit down and listen to the reader, either my Papa or Mummy, for most of the times, it was written in Malayalam. And it took some time for me to learn to read and write my language.

And probably the busiest traffic month for the Postman would be in December, when he would be bringing flurry of New Year Cards to our homes. He used to bring good news, sometimes bad, but nevertheless the stature, the spontaneity his legend("Legend" word came here 'cus I recently saw "I Am Legend" - Will Smith) carried in our lives would remain intact in my memories forever for reasons galore.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Rancholization -- Process of Living Lives

The talk of the town is 3 Idiots. How on earth can an idiotic film amass such revenues that such a big Bollywood archive of films were unable to reach.

Rancchoddas "Rancho" Shyamaldas Chanchad, the engineer who happens to live life simple before it even thinks to make it complex. His thinking was straightforward : to enjoy the moment. If you just happen to listen to this song carefully --- the "Behtee Hawa Sa Tha Woh" one, one could easily relate to the breeze in the song. If you really want to enjoy the song to the fullest and make your brains do some arithmetic and geometric calculations then in the song, wherever we have "Woh", replace the word with the picturization of ourselves (still on the laps of our Dad and Mom). Think as to how we used to marvel at the small things that used to slide in front of our eyes and how we used to feel the real meaning of "E-N-J-O-Y".

The one other USP about this Rancho was his way of making heart a fool by always making it understand, despite the dire situations inherent, that "ALL IZZ WELL". That, in turn, does makes things work less direly than expected. It was a very good gesture followed or in fact, to-be-followed to make things seem less complexualized.

A worth watch if we can capitalize on what Phunsukh Wangdu wants to convey to us.