Pessimist by policy, optimist by temperament -- it is possible to be both. How? By never taking an unnecessary chance and by minimizing risks you can't avoid. This permits you to play out the game happily, untroubled by the certainty of the outcome. --

From "The Notebooks of Lazarus Long" by Robert Heinlein

Love and caring at sometimes like the heavy cloud which appears on sunny noon and drifts away without a hint of rain....

Strange are the ways of life

In the dead of the night, apart from the snores, the ticking of the clock, u hear ur thots screaming louder than loudest noise around....questioning the whole idea of life...

Monday......came and went..............yet another week :)

Khalil Gibran's writing have always given me a high...i am mesmerised by the way he writes, all i can say is awesome. A sneak of his great work.

The Creation

The God separated a spirit from Himself and fashioned it into Beauty. He showered upon her all the blessings of gracefulness and kindness. He gave her the cup of happiness and said, "Drink not from this cup unless you forget the past and the future, for happiness is naught but the moment." And He also gave her a cup of sorrow and said, "Drink from this cup and you will understand the meaning of the fleeting instants of the joy of life, for sorrow ever abounds."

And the God bestowed upon her a love that would desert he forever upon her first sigh of earthly satisfaction, and a sweetness that would vanish with her first awareness of flattery.

And He gave her wisdom from heaven to lead to the all-righteous path, and placed in the depth of her heart and eye that sees the unseen, and created in he an affection and goodness toward all things. He dressed her with raiment of hopes spun by the angels of heaven from the sinews of the rainbow. And He cloaked her in the shadow of confusion, which is the dawn of life and light.

Then the God took consuming fire from the furnace of anger, and searing wind from the desert of ignorance, and sharp- cutting sands from the shore of selfishness, and coarse earth from under the feet of ages, and combined them all and fashioned Man. He gave to Man a blind power that rages and drives him into a madness which extinguishes only before gratification of desire, and placed life in him which is the specter of death.

And the god laughed and cried. He felt an overwhelming love and pity for Man, and sheltered him beneath His guidance.

Over the weekend, i went to my school...not that i made a special visit, i invariably pass through my school, when i get out of home...its been a decade that i stepped inside the compound of the place where my foundation was lid.

Each day holds its special place in my heart, from the first day, where i walked in as the frightened little girl to day i left the school as the confident teenager, they are brightly etched spots of memory.

Every activity at school would be on the lines of a world war, the hard work which would go in, even at a small competition had that "I need to win" Spirit...which was healthy few times and very unhealthy most of the times.

Competitions are school were both health and unhealthy, best friends would turn hard core rivals just for a simple competition like the lemon and spoon race or say the essay competition. they were wars declared when such events were happening...after the results were announced a perpetual gloom if u don't win, or a saintly glow when u win....the air of supremacy would last for quite sometime....

Well now we smile at the stupid behaviour of ours...but they were the lovely days...well spent.

A nice little story about friendship...me thinks how may of us really follow what we read or preach????
Anyways, read the story...

People often wonder why some people have such great friends and manage to keep them...If you manage to apply the following in your life, the same could work for you:

In ancient Greece, Socrates was reputed to hold knowledge in high esteem. One day an acquaintance met the great philosopher and said, "Do you know what I just heard about your friend?" "Hold on a minute," Socrates replied. "Before telling me anything I'd like you to pass a little test. It's called the Triple Filter test." "Triple filter?" That's right," Socrates continued. "Before you talk to me about my friend,it might be a good idea to take a moment and filter what you're going to say. That's why I call it the triple filter test. The first filter is Truth. Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?" "No," the man said, actually I just heard about it and..."

"All right," said Socrates. So you don't really know if it's true or not. Now let's try the second filter, the filter of Goodness. Is what you are about to tell me about my friend something good?"

No, on the contrary..."

"So," Socrates continued, You want to tell me something bad about him, but you're not certain it's true. You may still pass the test though, because there's one filter left: the filter of Usefulness.

Is what you want to tell me about my friend going to be useful to me?" "No, not really."

"Well," concluded Socrates, "if what you want to tell me is neither true nor good nor even useful, why tell it to me at all?" This is why Socrates was a great philosopher & was held in such high esteem. If we are able to protect our friends and those we love in this manner, we cannot be influenced by outsiders in having bad notions about them.

LET WHAT MAY COME, NEVER LOSE A FRIEND, ALWAYS MAINTAIN THE RELATIONSHIP!

My Breakfast: A bowl (soup bowl) full of curds with lots of sugar.

My lunch: A big bowl of Creme de la Caramel - combination of vanilla ice cream, cream, chocolate syrup, caramel syrup and roasted cashewnuts.......yummmmmmmmmm it was amazing, and absolutely irresistible

My dinner....maybe a nice big glass of hot chocolate :)

Dark clouds loom, the sun not in site for quite a distant, it looks like go and tug the clouds and it will pour....and it did, rained like no man's business...but the sight was by itself very very pleasant. Working in the 6th Floor of a high rise building sure has its own advantage...

Dark clouds loomed over my mind as well, but then there was a silver lining in one of the clouds and thanks to a dear friend who brought back the smiles to my sullen face.....I owe it to u...

I like this particular strip very much, but can never imagine cuddling up with a soft toy...eeeiikkksss not me.

Dil mein terii yaad liye phirtaa huun
Zakhmon ki baaraat liye phirtaa huun

Dekh ke zindaa mujhe hairaan kyuun ho
Ek dil-e-barbaad liye phirtaa huun

Un se mulaakaat abhii bhii hogii
Be-wajah ye aas liye phirtaa huun

Pyaar mein dil-o-jaan lutaa dete hain
Ye ajab se khayaalaat liye phirtaa huun

Meri haalat pe aansuu bahaate kyon ho
Aiye zamaane terii saugaat liye phirtaa huun

Ye sher mere aakhirii afsaane hain
In hii mein dil ki aawaaz liye phirtaa huun

Agale janam mein hogii mulaakaat Khalish
Is baat ka vishwaas liye phirtaa huun

-- MC Gupta `Khalish'

Translation

MEETING IN NEXT LIFE

With memories, I carry on
With wounds in heart, I carry on.

Why surprised on seeing me alive
With heart a wreck, I carry on.

I may one day yet meet my Love
With this hope distant carry on

In love one parts with heart and life,
With such odd thoughts I carry on

Why cry for me, my fate, O friends,
With these your gifts, I carry on

Last page of life are couplets these
With these heart's wails I carry on

I'll meet my Love in the life next
With faith, Khalish, I carry on.

Silent exteriors always have turbulent interiors.
Does the opposite hold true?
Not always i presume

Getting lost in thots is a regular state of mind with me. This has had both its pros and cons. Its one way where in I get to brood over what’s happening with me in life, and help me get out of any tangled situation. On the other hand, during these pensive moments, I tend to just forget the world around me; a total zombie is what I am.

The worst victims of these mood swings are my car keys. Talking about my car, its my only prized possession in this whole world is my dear little car, some people tend to call it a toy car, whose bothered about their comments anyways. Its my second home, my pal, who listens to my grunting without a frown, only time I hear it grumble is when I am in my fowl mood and drive like a maniac. Else we are those two good friends who fell in love at the first sight.

It’s a simple car, without any of the modern day gadgets, no automatic lock blah blah. Well that’s the biggest drawback is what I have begun to understand now. I have time and again left my car keys inside the car and locked the door. I realize this only when its time to go out. I dig into my purse my tables at office and as an after thought look inside the car to see them grinning back at me. For a few days I was advised to carry the duplicate keys with me, but the wonderful person that I am, left the bag containing the duplicate keys and the other one in the ignition and walked out, banging the door after locking it. Wow u may say. But that’s me.

Last week, I walked out of the car, keys in my hand, came to the lift and realized that I have my access card in the car, walk back, leave the keys in the key hole and happily walk back. In the afternoon when I was going elsewhere with a friend, one of our company’s drivers asked me “Madam, are u looking for keys?”, I said no, I have them, He said, “Are u sure, they are with u? We found a key around here”. Suspiciously I start digging in my bag and then the keys are missing, Holy Shit is what I scream, and voila, the car keys are with those drivers. Well since they know my habit now, they check for my car now and then. If not for them, guess I would have lost my car till now. Surprisingly, this has happened only at office, never elsewhere, May be I know that my car is safe around here. But I remind myself that this is not a good habit ;).

Open Access Movement

The Free Online Scholarship (FOS) Newsletter, is accessible at https://mx2.arl.org/Lists/SPARC-OANews/Message/95.html

A blog on OAM, called Open Access News is also a good read.

aahat si koi aaye to lagta hai ke tum ho
saaya koi lehraye to lagta hai ke tum ho

jab shaakh koi haath lagate hi chaman mein
sharmaye, lachak jaaye,to lagta hai ke tum ho

Sandal se mehakti hui purkaif hawa ka
jhonka koi takraye,to lagta hai ke tum ho

Sacred Space, is the column which i never miss reading in TOI. An interesting story from the same column

DIVINE DESIGN

When I was little, my mother used to sew a great deal. I would sit at her knee and look up from the floor and ask what she was doing. She informed me that she was embroidering. As from the underside I watched her work within the boundaries of the little hoop that she held in her hand, I complained to her that it sure looked messy from where I sat.

She’d smile at me, look down and gently say, ‘‘Son, you go about your playing and when I am finished with my embroidering, I will put you on my knee and let you see it from my side.’’ A few minutes would pass and then I would hear mother’s voice say, ‘‘Son come sit on my knee.’’ This I did only to be surprised and thrilled to see a beautiful flower or sunset. I could not believe it, because from underneath it looked so messy.

Then mother would say to me. ‘‘My son, from underneath it did look messy and jumbled, but you did not realise that there was a plan on the top. It was a design. I was only following it. Now look at it from my side and you will see what I was doing.’’ Many times through the years, I have looked up to heaven and said, ‘‘Father what are you doing?’’ He has answered, ‘‘I am embroidering your life.’’ I say, ‘‘But it looks like such a mess to me. It seems so jumbled. The threads seem so dark. Why can’t they all be bright?’’ The father seems to tell me, ‘‘My child, you go about your business of doing my business, and one day I will bring you to Heaven and put you on my knee and you will see the plan from my side.’’

Confusion

Could someone please tell the authorities at The Hindu whose who.

The news item, talks about the Security threat to PM and features the Prez's details first. If u had seen the same pre-noon, then u would not have seen any details about the PM.

Slip of the mind is not the fault of the fingers they say!

Funny how people make promises and forget to stick to them.

Any rule to penalise them?