Sands and Stones

A story tells that two friends were walking through the desert. During some point of the journey they had an argument, and one friend slapped the other one in the face. The one who got slapped was hurt, but without saying anything, wrote in the sand: "TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SLAPPED ME IN THE FACE."

They kept on walking until they found an oasis, where they decided to take a bath. The one, who had been slapped, got stuck in the mire and started drowning, but the friend saved him. After the friend recovered from the near drowning, he wrote on a stone: "TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SAVED MY LIFE."

The friend who had slapped and saved his best friend asked him, "After I hurt you, you wrote in the sand and now, you write on a stone, why?" The other friend replied: "When someone hurts us, we should write it down in sand where winds of forgiveness can erase it away. But, when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone where no wind can ever erase it."

That's how life is all about. Goodness should be kept close to our heart and badness, in any form, should be kept out of our heart's periphery.

Nature returns everything with Interest

A farmer in Scotland, by the name of Fleming, heard a voice calling for help. He immediately ran towards the call for help, and there he saw a boy neck-deep in quicksand. Fleming struggled to pull the boy up; he affectionaltely patted him and told him to go home. Then he returned to his farming job again.

Next day, a well dressed gentleman visited the farmer and thanked him for saving his son. He wished to reward the farmer but he declined saying that it was his duty. Looking at a little boy, the gentleman asked Fleming if that was his son. Fleming nodded and was told:"This boy, one day will make you proud!"

Then on, the gentleman took full responsibility for the upbringing and education of that boy. He grew up to become a world-renowned scientist. He was Alexander Fleming - inventer of Penicillin. A few months after his invention, the son of that gentleman was hit by a severe attack of pneumonia! His life was saved (the second time) with penicillin! He was Winston Churchill.

Nature has a wonderful and marvellous way of returning our goodness in mysterious ways....sometimes evident and logically fitting in our thinking and sometimes not. What goes around, comes around. Nature doesn't retain anything. It returns everything with interest.

He Gave Me Everything I Needed

This poem, by Swami Vivekananda, is so simple and beautiful in its content and context that the reader almost connects himself at one point or the other to it. And at last, quite amicably or rather surprisingly, you find everything that went before in this poem or in your life, falling in its place nicely.

WHEN I ASKED GOD FOR STRENGTH ,

HE GAVE ME DIFFICULT SITUATIONS TO FACE .

WHEN I ASKED GOD FOR BRAIN & BROWN ,

HE GAVE ME PUZZLES IN LIFE TO SOLVE .

WHEN I ASKED GOD FOR HAPPINESS ,

HE SHOWED ME SOME UNHAPPY PEOPLE .

WHEN I ASKED GOD FOR WEALTH ,

HE SHOWED ME HOW TO WORK HARD .

WHEN I ASKED GOD FOR FAVORS,

HE SHOWED ME OPPORTUNITIES TO WORK HARD.

WHEN I ASKED GOD FOR PEACE ,

HE SHOWED ME HOW TO HELP OTHERS.

GOD GAVE ME NOTHING I WANTED ,

HE GAVE ME EVERYTHING I NEEDED

Hachiko : The World's most loyal dog

This real life story stands as an epitome of loyalty, whose measures are beyond the limits of any scales. The story is about a dog named, Hachiko (an Akita breed), who is remembered for his loyality to his owner even many years after his owner's death.

In 1924, Hachiko was brought to Tokyo by his owner, Hidesaburo Ueno, a professor at University of Tokyo. During his owner's life, Hachikō saw him off from the front door and greeted him at the end of the day, at the nearby Shibuya Station. Within a short span of time, the owner and his pet had developed quite an amicable bondage.

One evening, the professor didn't return on the usual train. He had suffered a stroke at the university on that day. His friend waited for the master thinking that he may come one day or the other. But as days passed, he could not find his master's face among the commuters. Efforts to bring him into a new home went in vain.

Commuters who knew Hachikō brought treats and food to nourish him during his wait. This continued for 10 years with Hachikō appearing only in the evening time, precisely when the train was due at the station. He died on 1935.

In Japan, Hachiko's faithfulness is regarded as a national symbol of loyalty. A bronze statue has been erected in his likeness at Shibuya station and guess who was the guest of honour at the time of unveiling --- Hachiko himself.

Life is an echo

There was this young boy who had a terrible quarrel with his mother(as is usual during our childhood days). He went out running and went to a hill. He shouted at the helm of his angst -- "I hate you". Almost pat came the reply --- "I hate you". The boy was startled and afraid. He ran back home and told his mother about the strange voice.

Mother, so she is, understood the context and told the boy to go back immediately and yell "I love you". The boy did the same and heard the reply as "I love you".

Now we all know what the context was - of course that was an echo. But if you read it carefully, the source of the echo was nature, which is the other name of Life. The message is crystal clear. If you love life, life would love you back. But the other way round, you dont leave any other choice for life to give you back.

Anyway

People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered;
Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never never be enough;
Give the world the best, you've got anyway.

You see in the final analysis, it is between you and God;
It was never between you and them....anyway

Arthur Ashe's Why me ?

Tennis enthusiasts know him well or at the most heard the name. 

Arthur Ashe - the legendary player, had won 3 Grand Slams, when he was diagnosed with AIDS (due to accidental blood transfusion for a heart surgery).

From world over, he received letters from his fans, one of which said :

"Why does GOD have to select you for such a bad disease ?"

To this Arthur Ashe replied :

The World over ------------------

5 crore children start playing tennis,

50 lakh learn to play tennis,

5 lakh learn professional tennis,

50000 comes to the circuit,

5000 reach Wimbledon,

4 to semi-final,

2 to the finals.

When I was holding a cup, I never asked GOD, "Why me?". 

And today in pain, I should not be asking GOD, "Why me ?"

It's interesting that during bad times, we question fate for choosing us the victim. We forget the same point when fate smiles and blesses us with happiness and joy. 

Life's fair or unfair is an understanding which varies depending on our maturity levels. 

We may not know the whole story, yet to be unfold, but we can always trust the story writer - The Creator.

Ways of thinking

A Man is going on a road,
Rain is the season, mates are toads,
Has to walk, default ‘coz of his mode,
No one else, to help reach his Abode

What is his mindset, let us see,
And compare ourselves to his Thee,
How the two sides of the same coin,
Makes a person, Abide from his toil

If He thinks as per cons,
He will end up with more horns,
Cursing, all the way, to his luck,
Hinders his ever decreasing buck,
Yes, he will exude greed and anger,
Emotions which he, ever linger,
Making the path more difficult as It is,
Taking him farther, than He is.

If He thinks as per prons,
No thing in the world can deter his way,
He don’t curse the stars or luck,
Instead, finds a way in every clutch,
Yes, he exudes cheerful & ‘come what may’
Taking into stride, whatever The say,
He attains the End without any gasps,
Without any reverie, long and big laps

Of the above, which is yours,
‘Prons’ than ‘cons’, would be the lure,
But it is the other way round,
Believe me, most of us are bound,
Bounded by the situations we in,
Bounded by the forces which make us in,
Bounded by physical and geographical demarche,
But not bounded for the efforts we can take,
To have the courage & heart to move on,
And not bounded to lose, when we can win

Forget To Give Up

People always apply brakes to their vehicles when they should not. Sounds quite strange, isn't it. But it is the most common universal truth which becomes the separating factor of the great and the ordinary.

The great Thomas Alva Edison, the guy who defied all limits of endurance, stands testimony to the persevering factor. This man will engross himself into experiments so much that he used to quit only when he got an amicable solution to the problem When he invented the electric bulb, he said that I have found 10000 ways that won't work. The mere number of the experiments done by him for something, which was quite unknown at that time, was in itself a marvel, to ponder upon.

Not to forget, his other famous quotation, which read "Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration". It truly captures the essence of what we should do when things are down---that is to forget Giving Up.

Read these lines, which had always inspired me:
"When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stone cutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow, it will split in two and I know it was not that blow that did it - but all that had gone before"

So, let us push our limits and let limits know how much they can and are allowed to go, by pushing themselves.

A Rendezvous with a noble Auto driver

I have always been mesmerised by a split second (even Ben Johnson would have to admit) taken by some of the auto drivers to charge a fee which makes us feel that we are the descendants of , let us say -- Vijay Mallya. They would be charging an amount which would not have dared to appear even in the deepest of our thoughts-in-pipeline list...still they somehow have this inherent power to persist....

I would like to narrate this incident, wherein I was the audience to appreciate the act. As usual, I was on my way to office and comfortably boarded an auto...somewhere in the middle of our traverse, we saw a young guy asking for a lift from the by-passers...and yes, of course,no one was paying heed to him...his face and body gave enough evidence for us to believe that he was in a hurry and he had to get to some place pretty fast....

My driver slowed his pace and asked him, after confirming me, as to where he had to go and that does he want a lift....he was surprised....as he was not expecting a loaded auto to be his savior...nevertheless he was very pleased....and readily accepted driver's reception of sharing his seat.

After reaching his destination, which was on my way, he thanked the driverand was about to open his purse.....But the driver said, "I didn't stop for you because I needed more money. I stopped because I felt that you were in a hurry and you should be helped." and then he smiled.The guy smiled back and said thank you. He was still staring in disbelief to the driver.

And I had one more reason to believe that we are not short of people who care for helping even strangers......who dont think twice to help others in distress....and who are the real saviors of our souls