Celebration Called Life !!

2007-08-15T18:03:00.061+05:30

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Let"s do something now...
Be happy, respect happiness and help people to understand that happiness is the goal of life। We have to learn a totally new language, only then this old rotten humanity can be changed। We have to learn the language of health, wholeness and happiness.
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How can i manage

Celebration Called Life...!!

Be a fool, but be easy !!

Miracles all around

Poem by a kid to ponder

Thirty years॥

Everything is well

We are all in grave

Lets fight like a dog

Be Selfish॥

Its not about running...

The most unfair thing about life..

2007-08-15T17:59:00.009+05:30

The most unfair thing about life is the way it ends. I mean, life is tough. It takes up a lot of your time. What do you get at the end of it? A death! What's that, a bonus? I think the life cycle is all backwards. You should die first, get it out of the way. Then you go live in an old age home. You get kicked out for being too healthy, go collect your pension, then, when you start work, you get a gold watch on your first day. You work forty years until you're young enough to enjoy your retirement. You drink alcohol, you party, and you get ready for High School. You go to primary school, you become a kid, you play, you have no responsibilities, you become a little boy(girl), you go back, you spend your last 9 months floating with luxuries like central heating, spa, room service on tap, then you finish off as an orgasm!!

America is young, India is old..

2007-08-14T19:41:00.000+05:30

A child always thinks good days are to come; the old man always thinks good days, golden days are past. The child is future-oriented, the old man is past-oriented, and the young man, many of them either are still in their childhood psychologically, and many of them have already passed into old age psychologically.

If somebody is really young he lives in the present. Now is the only time for him and here is the only place for him. He does not waver between past and future, because both are non-existential;that which exists is the present. The young person lives in the present, and the same is true about countries.

Any race that remains clinging with the past remains clinging with corpses. One has to live in the present because the future is born out of the present. And India is living in the past. Out of past nothing is born; clinging to the past is wasting your time.

Everything in India is past-oriented. People are reading the story of Rama, and these are the days all over the country they will be playing the drama of Rama. Every year they go on playing the same drama; for thousands of years they have been doing it. They are not even bored by it! It seems they have lost all intelligence. They go on seeing the same thing, repeating the same thing, as if there is nothing else to do. And they go on talking about the golden age – in the past, it is always in the past.

India lives in the past; it is getting old, shrinking. It has lost the joy of life, the youthfulness, the freshness. Countries like India live in the past; the golden age has passed long before. Man is falling down. There is great enthusiasm in China because the future seems to be very alluring; there is no enthusiasm in India. India became free before China, but China has been able to solve many problems which are of a vaster dimension than Indian problems because China has the greatest population in the world. But it has been able to solve those problems, it has been able to become a strong country.

America is young, lives in the moment, hence there is great exploration going on about everything:science, religion, philosophy, art, new forms of art, new methods, new ways to reach to the moon, to the Mars and finally to the stars. In every dimension America is interested to explore; the young man’s adventurous spirit is there. They are going to the farthest corners of the world to explore all possibilities.

India is old, China is just born, just now growing towards a future, America is young.

East and the West..

2007-08-11T18:32:00.000+05:30

The East has lived with meditation alone and the West has lived with action alone. The West lives in a kind of blindness, but the East lives in a deeper darkness, in a deeper blindness.

The western mind is superficial, but it at least has contributed much – technology, industry, scientific farming. It has given people a better standard of life; it may not have given them a better quality of life but at least it has given them a better standard of life. It has given them better houses, better roads, better cars, better airplanes. It may not have given them a better consciousness, but it has contributed, it has been creative – of course superficially.

But the East which became escapist in the name of meditation, became basically a drop-out, has not contributed even that much.

What your so-called saints in the East have contributed? We are poor because of those saints, and it is going to remain poor unless those saints are no more respected. But people go on respecting the same old rotten traditions; they cannot see. Deeper is their blindness, darker is their darkness. They cannot even see who is the cause of all this misery.

Twenty-two centuries of slavery in India. Who is the cause of all this? Our saints, our mahatmas, so-called sages who escape to the monasteries, who escape to the Himalayan caves, to the forests, to the jungles – and we have worshipped them, we have respected them.

When we respect somebody it means deep down you would also like to be like him – that’s what respect means. The word ”respect” is beautiful; it means seeing again and again – ”re-spect”. When you pass a beautiful woman, if she is really beautiful you will have to look again and again. That is respect:seeing again and again. You will walk slowly you will find excuses to go back, you will enter into the same shop the woman has entered, you will start asking for the same commodities she is purchasing so that you can be on the same counter. You will not be looking at things, you will be looking at her. This is respect – literal meaning of the word!

When you respect a person it means you are fascinated, infatuated. You would like to be like him. And the East still goes on respecting the same fools who are the cause of its misery, its starvation, its whole ugly state.

People are dying; thirty percent people in India are starving, and by the end of this century India will be the biggest country as far as population is concerned. It is going to surpass China; by the end of this century it will be the most populated country. Right now its problems are immense – what is going to happen by the end of this century? By God’s grace something is bound to happen!

Who is responsible for all this? – the people who have insisted at least for three thousand years continuously that the real is inner and the outer is maya (illusion), why bother about it? What is your problem?

In the whole world things have changed, except in this unfortunate country. India is not yet part of twentieth century; it lags behind at least 500 years. And we have found explanations and rationalizations for it – that it is because of our past karmas that we are suffering. That means all the sinners are born only in India and all the saints are born in the western countries – which are materialist! They should not go there at all! But these are ways to avoid seeing the truth. The truth is that we have praised the inner too much and destroyed the outer.

10 Tips for Working Towards Happiness

2007-07-24T22:15:00.000+05:30

Everyone wants to be Happy. A new understanding of becoming Happy seems to be taking place. There seems to be a growing awareness that Happiness is a skill, and like any other skill requires work and effort to master. Below are a few methods that utilize daily life activities to help cultivate Happiness:-

1. When taking a bite into a piece of fresh fruit, recognize the small moments of delight and joy.

2. After washing the dishes, or completing a report, notice your happiness after finishing a small task

3. Wish someone well, and feel it in your body

4. Allow someone to take your place in queue

5. Notice when your not suffering. When you’re not encumbered by sickness or injuries, notice your health

6. After showering, check in and notice what it’s like to be clean and refreshed

7. After eating, feel what’s it like being nicely full

8,9,10...what you think?

Many small steps and tools are used to enable Happiness. By following these practical tips, your residual level of happiness will rise, your satisfaction will rise and you’ll look back realizing you’ve become a happy person.

Question Everything..

2007-07-19T03:28:00.000+05:30

14 things that took me over 50 years to learn

2007-07-12T02:19:00.000+05:30

1. Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.

2. If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be "meetings."

3. There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness."

4. People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them.

5. You should not confuse your career with your life.

6. Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.

7. Never lick a steak knife.

8. The most destructive force in the universe is gossip.

9. You will never find anybody who can give you a clear and compelling reason why we observe daylight savings time.

10. You should never say anything to a woman that even remotely suggests that you think she's pregnant unless you can see an actual baby emerging from her at that moment.

11. There comes a time when you should stop expecting other people to make a big deal about your birthday. That time is age eleven.

12. The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status or ethnic background, is that, deep down inside, we ALL believe that we are above-average drivers.

13. A person who is nice to you, but rude to the waiter, is not a nice person. (This is very important. Pay attention. It never fails.)

14. Your friends love you anyway.

Thought for the day: Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark. A large group of professionals built the Titanic.

- Dave Barry

Feel Good Factors..

2007-07-11T04:30:00.000+05:30

At least two people in this world love you so much they would die for you.

At least fifteen people in this world love you in some way.

The only reason anyone would ever hate you is because they want to be just like you.

A smile from you can bring happiness to anyone, even if they don't like you.

Every night, SOMEONE thinks about you before they go to sleep.

You mean the world to someone.

If not for you, someone may not be living.

You are special and unique.

There is someone that you don't even know exists, who loves you.

When you make the biggest mistake ever, something good comes from it.

When you think the world has turned its back on you, take a look: you most likely

turned your back on the world.

When you think you have no chance of getting what you want, you probably won't get it, but if you believe in yourself, probably, sooner or later, you will get it.

Always remember the compliments you received. Forget about the rude remarks.

Always tell someone how you feel about them; you will feel much better when they know.

If you have a great friend, take the time to let them know that they are great.

Difference of Love

2007-07-11T04:13:00.000+05:30

Even animals can fulfill their needs but man cannot..

2007-07-04T21:16:00.001+05:30

Needs can be fulfilled, but desires cannot be. Desire is a need gone mad. Needs are simple, they come from nature; desires are very complex they don’t come from nature. They are created by the mind.

Needs are moment to moment, they are created out of life itself. Desires are not moment to moment, they are always for the future.

If you are thirsty, you are thirsty here and now, you have to seek water. It should be fulfilled – so it is a life need. But desires are not like that. You desire to be the president of a country. It is not a need, it is an ambition, And desires are never here and now, they are just mental, in the mind. And they cannot be fulfilled because their very nature is to move into the future. The distance between you and your desire always remains the same. How can you fulfill it? Even animals can fulfill their needs but man cannot fulfill his needs.

Why is man poor? Not because the earth is poor but because man is mad, he puts more energy into desires. Reaching the moon seems to be more important than feeding the poor. What is the use of reaching the moon? What will you do?

With the money America has wasted in reaching the moon the whole of Asia could have been fed, all the backward countries could have been developed. And what have you gained by reaching the moon? The American flag is now on the moon -- this is the gain. And there is nobody to even see it! And now other planets are the target. The moon has been conquered -- now other planets have to be conquered.

We are frustrated, but not because of needs. We are frustrated because of desires. Needs are simple. They can be fulfilled. You feel hungry and you eat; you feel thirsty and you drink; you feel sleepy, you go to bed.

Look at our saints and sages: they always condemn our needs and always help our desires to be projected. They say: What are you doing? Just eating? Sleeping? Wasting your life? Try to reach heaven!

Heaven is the ultimate desire. Paradise is waiting for you, and you are wasting your life in these ordinary things. They always condemn your needs and they always help your desires.

Eat when you feel hungry, and in that moment make eating a celebration. Celebrate! Because who knows, next time you may not be there. The hunger may not be there, nor this beautiful bread. Thirst may not be there -- nor may this river be there. Drink it! Let yourself be here so concentrated that time stops; because time is not moving -- your mind moves.

An one old man was dying, somebody asked him: If you were given life again, how will you start it? He said: I will pay more attention to my needs and less attention to my desires.

And this realisation will come to us also. But it always comes very late and then life is no more in our hands. If we were given life again....

Can you make this world a happier place?

2007-07-04T01:35:00.000+05:30

First of all, I would like to thank Prayas for letting me write my thoughts on this wonderful blog. Hi! I'm Mayank and I own a blog ReviewSaurus (Computer problem, then you can visit that site!). Now, I'm not the biggest philosopher or thinker but I do think and with my simple thinking I keep my self happy and try to keep others happy.

I've got one habit or you can say that one motto and i.e. I want to see everyone happy, who are around me. I tend to do what ever I can, to keep them happy and to make sure that they are away from all evil things. Now, I'm doing this post to find out that if this is a good practice or not.

I've met many people who really don't care that what they say or their actions can actually hurt someone's feeling. Neither, I'm a saint and nor I can claim that I've not hurt any one in this world but at least, I try!

I think that, if everyone will try a little bit then we can keep others happy and in turn someone else will keep us happy and like wise we'll be able to share those evil moments and we'll see a much happy and better relations.

Now, my question for you is.... Do you really think that one can selflessly do any such act, which will keep their friends and relatives happy or do you think that some day expectations will ruin things ?

Be a fool, but be easy !!

2007-06-29T03:12:00.000+05:30

We always choose the difficult because the difficult gives us a challenge and challenge gives us the ego. Difficult is right for us; easy is never right. Because with the easy there is no conquering, the ego cannot feel fulfilled. The more difficult a task, the more the ego feels exhilarated, ecstatic. It has to be done – Everest has to be conquered, the moon has to be conquered.

Somebody asked Edmund Hillary who was the first to reach the top of Everest: Why? Why so much effort?

For a hundred years man has been trying and trying and many have died! they never came back. Why this desire to climb Everest? And what is there? There is nothing! For a hundred years many people simply died, lost their lives, never came back, but again, every year, a group would go and try. And this is beautiful: no Indian has ever bothered, and Everest is in India! No Tibetan has ever bothered, and Everest is on the boundary of Tibet! Why?

Groups come from the West every year. When Hillary climbed it, and came back, he was asked: Why? He said: Because Everest was there, and unless it is conquered, I cannot feel easy. It remains there, unconquered, a challenge to the ego. Just because it is there, it has to be conquered.

The difficult attracts. The more difficult it is, the more it attracts us. It becomes more valuable because through it, if we conquer, we will achieve a greater ego. Even if we fail, we will achieve a greater ego because we at least tried, while others have not tried at all.

If we achieve with the easy, nothing is achieved, because the ego cannot feel greater. And if we fail, much is lost, because everybody will say: Such an easy thing, and you couldn’t achieve it?

Ego is always attracted magnetically to the difficult, but EASY IS RIGHT. So ego is never attracted towards the right, it is always attracted towards the wrong.

A person becomes a criminal because crime is difficult, a person becomes a politician because politics is difficult, a person becomes mad about money because making money is difficult. For anything that is difficult, people will go mad. Not that anything is achieved, but just because it is there like an Everest, a challenge, it has to be conquered.

Look at our successful people, those who have succeeded. Look at them! What have they attained? They may have reached Everest, okay, but there is nothing there. One has to come back. Look at our presidents, prime ministers, what have they achieved? Nothing!

They know deep down that they have achieved nothing, they are still looking for more. Bill gates is still making windows every year, why?

Doing anything, if you feel easy doing it, it is right. If you feel uneasy doing it, something is wrong.

If you are tense, it means you are living an uneasy life. If you cannot sleep, cannot relax, cannot let go, it shows you are living an uneasy life – you are after difficult things, impossible things.

Always look at what happens when you do something: if you become peaceful, if you become restful, at home, relaxed, it is right. This is the criterion, nothing else is the criterion. What is right for you may not be right for somebody else, remember that too. Because what is easy for you may not be easy for somebody else, something else may be easy for him. So there can be no universal law about it.

Don’t listen to the world, because there are people who would like to impose their laws on you. Nobody who has understood life would like to impose anything on you. He will simply help you to be easy so that you can find what is right for you.

Live in such a way that we are always easy. Just like a small child, sleeping happily, eating happily, dancing happily, bubbling with energy – just easy. Remember, nobody will take any notice of you.

People may even think you are mad. Because if you are serious, they think you are valuable, if you go on laughing and you make your life fun they think you are a fool. Let them think.

Be a fool, but be easy.

How can I manage ?

2007-06-25T02:01:00.000+05:30

A centipede walks with a hundred legs. A frog, a philosopher, saw the centipede, he looked and watched and he became very troubled; it is so difficult to walk even with four legs, but this centipede was walking with one hundred legs. This was a miracle! How did the centipede decide which leg to move first, and then which one next and then which one after that? And one hundred legs! So the frog stopped the centipede and asked a question: I am a philosopher and I am puzzled by you. A problem has arisen which I cannot solve. How do you walk? How do you manage it at all? It seems impossible!

The centipede said: I have been walking all my life, but I have not thought about it. Now that you ask, I will think about it and then I will tell you.

For the first time thought entered the centipede's consciousness. Really, the frog was right -- which leg should be moved first? The centipede stood there for a few minutes, couldn't move, wobbled, and fell down. And he said to the frog: Please don't ask another centipede this question. I have been walking throughout my life and it was never a problem, and now you have killed me completely! I cannot move. And a hundred legs to move! How can I manage?

If we are not self-conscious our life moves automatically. We talk, the whole day we go on chattering with friends, and there is no problem. But if someone asks us to come here and talk from this chair to the friends who have gathered here, we will be in the same position as the centipede. And yet we have been talking our whole life and there was never a problem.

Why does this problem come in? The problem comes in because now we are selfconscious. Now so many persons are looking at me, watching me, that now I cannot be at ease and spontaneous. Now its a project, now I want to plan, now I want the people to like me. Whatsoever I say, you would like them to be impressed.

Otherwise everybody is a talker, a born talker. People go on talking and there is never any problem. But once you put them in a pulpit and tell them to talk to an audience,something goes wrong. What goes wrong? Nothing has changed but self-consciousness has entered, and self consciousness is the problem.

The World As I See It..

2007-06-24T20:35:00.001+05:30

"How strange is the lot of us mortals! Each of us is here for a brief sojourn; for what purpose he knows not, though he sometimes thinks he senses it. But without deeper reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people -- first of all for those upon whose smiles and well-being our own happiness is wholly dependent, and then for the many, unknown to us, to whose destinies we are bound by the ties of sympathy. A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving...

"I have never looked upon ease and happiness as ends in themselves -- this critical basis I call the ideal of a pigsty. The ideals that have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth. Without the sense of kinship with men of like mind, without the occupation with the objective world, the eternally unattainable in the field of art and scientific endeavors, life would have seemed empty to me. The trite objects of human efforts -- possessions, outward success, luxury -- have always seemed to me contemptible.

"My passionate sense of social justice and social responsibility has always contrasted oddly with my pronounced lack of need for direct contact with other human beings and human communities. I am truly a 'lone traveler' and have never belonged to my country, my home, my friends, or even my immediate family, with my whole heart; in the face of all these ties, I have never lost a sense of distance and a need for solitude..."

"My political ideal is democracy. Let every man be respected as an individual and no man idolized. It is an irony of fate that I myself have been the recipient of excessive admiration and reverence from my fellow-beings, through no fault, and no merit, of my own. The cause of this may well be the desire, unattainable for many, to understand the few ideas to which I have with my feeble powers attained through ceaseless struggle. I am quite aware that for any organization to reach its goals, one man must do the thinking and directing and generally bear the responsibility. But the led must not be coerced, they must be able to choose their leader. In my opinion, an autocratic system of coercion soon degenerates; force attracts men of low morality... The really valuable thing in the pageant of human life seems to me not the political state, but the creative, sentient individual, the personality; it alone creates the noble and the sublime, while the herd as such remains dull in thought and dull in feeling.
"This topic brings me to that worst outcrop of herd life, the military system, which I abhor... This plague-spot of civilization ought to be abolished with all possible speed. Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them!

"The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed. It was the experience of mystery -- even if mixed with fear -- that engendered religion. A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, our perceptions of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which only in their most primitive forms are accessible to our minds: it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute true religiosity. In this sense, and only this sense, I am a deeply religious man... I am satisfied with the mystery of life's eternity and with a knowledge, a sense, of the marvelous structure of existence -- as well as the humble attempt to understand even a tiny portion of the Reason that manifests itself in nature."

The text of Albert Einstein's copyrighted essay, "The World As I See It," was shortened for our Web exhibit. The essay was originally published in "Forum and Century," vol. 84, pp. 193-194, the thirteenth in the Forum series, Living Philosophies. It is also included in Living Philosophies (pp. 3-7) New York: Simon Schuster, 1931. For a more recent source, you can also find a copy of it in A. Einstein, Ideas and Opinions, based on Mein Weltbild, edited by Carl Seelig, New York: Bonzana Books, 1954 (pp. 8-11).

a beautiful sketch..

2007-06-24T03:06:00.001+05:30

50 places to see before you die..

2007-06-22T14:56:00.000+05:30

BBC asked its viewers where would they like to visit before they die. Here are the top 50 places selected.

My count is 11/50, what about you?

1. The Grand Canyon,USA
2. Great Barrier Reef, Australia
3. Florida, USA
4. South Island, New Zealand
5. Cape Town, South Africa
6. Golden Temple, India
7. Las Vegas, USA
8. Sydney, Australia
9. New York, USA
10. Taj Mahal, India
11. Canadian Rockies, Canada
12. Uluru, Australia
13. Chichen Itza, Mexico
14. Machu Picchu, Peru
15. Niagara Falls, Canada / USA
16. Petra, Jordan
17. Venice, Italy
18. The Maldives, Maldives
19. Great Wall, China
20. Victoria Falls, Zambia / Zimbabwe
21. Hong Kong, Hong Kong
22. Yosemite National Park, USA
23. Hawaii, USA
24. Auckland, New Zealand
25. Iguassu Falls, Argentina / Brazil
26. Paris, France
27. Alaska, USA
28. Angkor Wat, Cambodia
29. Himalayas, Nepal / Tibet
30. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
31. Masai Mara, Kenya
32. Galapagos Islands, Ecuador
33. Luxor, Egypt
34. Rome, Italy
35. San Francisco, USA
36. Barcelona, Spain
37. Dubai, United Arab Emirates
38. Singapore, Singapore
39. La Digue, Seychelles
40. Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka
41. Bangkok, Thailand
42. Barbados, Barbados
43. Iceland, Iceland
44. Terracotta Army, China
45. Zermatt, Switzerland
46. Angel Falls, Venezuela
47. Abu Simbel, Egypt
48. Bali, Indonesia
49. Bora Bora, French Polynesia
50. The Pyramids, Egypt

50 things to do before you die..

2007-06-22T14:49:00.000+05:30

BBC asked its viewers what would they like to do before they die. People responded from world over and here are their top 50 things to do.

My count 4/50 :(
whats your count?

1. Swim with dolphins
2. Scuba dive on Great Barrier Reef, Australia
3. Fly Concorde to New York, New York, USA
4. Go whale-watching
5. Dive with sharks
6. Skydiving
7. Fly in a hot air balloon
8. Fly in a fighter jet
9. Go on safari
10. See the Northern Lights
11. Walk the Inca trail to Machu Picchu, Peru
12. Climb Sydney Harbour Bridge, Sydney, Australia
13. Escape to a paradise island
14. Drive a Formula 1 car
15. Go white water rafting
16. Walk the Great Wall of China
17. Bungee jumping
18. Ride the Rocky Mountaineer train, Canada
19. Drive along Route 66, USA
20. Fly in a helicopter over the Grand Canyon, Colorado, USA
21. Take the Orient Express from Venice to London
22. See elephants in the wild
23. Explore Antarctica
24. Ride a motorbike on the open road
25. Have a go at cowboy ranching
26. Climb Mount Everest
27. Wonder at a waterfall
28. Travel into space
29. Explore the Galapagos Islands
30. Trek through a rainforest
31. Gallop a horse along a beach
32. Ride a camel to the Pyramids, Egypt
33. Take the Trans-Siberian Railway from Moscow to Vladivostok
34. Catch sunset over Uluru (Ayres Rock) , Northern Territories, Australia
35. Go wing-walking
36. Climb Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa
37. Fly over a volcano
38. Drive a husky sled
39. Hike up a glacier
40. Ride a rollercoaster
41. Fish for blue marlin
42. Go paragliding
43. Play a round of golf at Augusta, Georgia, USA
44. Watch mountain gorillas
45. See tigers in the wild
46. Do the Cresta Run, Switzerland
47. Visit Walt Disney World, Florida, USA
48. Visit Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
49. See orang-utans in Borneo
50. Go polar bear watching

50 things to eat before you die..

2007-06-21T21:25:00.000+05:30

The BBC has compiled a list of ‘50 things to eat before you die’. How many have you eaten? I scored 21/50.

Funny how some dishes are named specifically, but others are lumped together like Thai, Chinese, Greek and Mexican food.

What else should have been included on this list?

1. Fresh fish
2. Lobster
3. Steak
4. Thai food
5. Chinese food
6. Ice cream
7. Pizza
8. Crab
9. Curry
10. Prawns
11. Moreton Bay Bugs
12. Clam chowder
13. Barbecues
14. Pancakes
15. Pasta
16. Mussels
17. Cheesecake
18. Lamb
19. Cream tea
20. Alligator
21. Oysters
22. Kangaroo
23. Chocolate
24. Sandwiches
25. Greek food
26. Burgers
27. Mexican food
28. Squid
29. American diner breakfast
30. Salmon
31. Venison
32. Guinea pig
33. Shark
34. Sushi
35. Paella
36. Barramundi
37. Reindeer
38. Kebab
39. Scallops
40. Australian meat pie
41. Mango
42. Durian fruit
43. Octopus
44. Ribs
45. Roast beef
46. Tapas
47. Jerk chicken/pork
48. Haggis
49. (Any guess?)
50. (Any guess?)

64 tips..

2007-06-21T21:11:00.000+05:30

Do you know that knowledge begins with acceptance of one's ignorance? This is just one of the 64 tips in How to be Successful & Happy! by Vimla Patil, from Rupa & Co.

"Manage your time well. It is not working long hours that take the toll of your health, but the attitude with which you work," reads the ninth tip. The author weaves into the well-written essays, many anecdotes and practical suggestions. You can save nuggets of time "by paying bills on time, doing routine or mundane work ahead of time, keeping records in an organised manner, meeting deadlines most of the time, investing in goodwill and encouragement for assistants to earn their support so that your time is saved."

Another tip exhorts, "Be creative in everything you do — add passion to your life." Passion... how? By giving your work "a larger perspective and purpose." Elsewhere, you'd learn to "jog your memory and develop the ability to remember names, places and events." However, Patil would counsel you to "leave the baggage of the past behind", rather than keep alive "all the hurts, insults, and deprivations" to make you a habitual cribber.

Tip 21 draws inspiration from Narayana Murthy's quote: "Progress is often equal to the difference between mind and mindset." Patil instructs women not to feel "incomplete", on the basis of social beliefs and customs. "Exercise the right to define yourself. Forget the `what will people say?' syndrome." Withholding approval is a game people play, she cautions.

Another syndrome to trash is that of `the missed bus', because deprivation is often more perceived than real, she points out. "Get to work now!" You are your own best friend, but if you give up and accept defeat, you become your own worst enemy, she adds, citing the Bhagvad Gita. Illustrations add charm to the book.

Tip number 50 says, "Cultivate peacefulness as a habit". Peace is worth acquiring because it is the foundation of your health, reasons Patil. Her final tip, the most essential, is: "Celebrate life - it's the only one you have!"

honeymoon comes from Iraq..

2007-06-20T03:10:00.000+05:30

It was the accepted practice in Babylon(in Iraq) 4,000 years ago that for a month after the wedding, in order to increase the virility and fertility of the newly-weds, the father of the bride would provide his son in law with all the mead (a honey-based drink) he could drink during the first month of the marriage. Mead is a honey beer and because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the honey month, which we know today as the honeymoon.

These terms are often used but I wonder why we people never bothered to know about the origin of these words and now that we know, we are so amazed by it.

Fight like a dog....

2007-06-15T16:45:00.000+05:30

Man is the only violent animal. Tigers kill, lions kill, but just to eat, never otherwise. Man kills not only to eat, but he enjoys killing.

Hunting is a game for him. He will simply kill to kill -- and no animal in the world kills his own brothers and sisters, no! A lion will not kill another lion, a monkey will not kill another monkey.

Man is the only animal which kills other men. There is nothing like war in the animal world, although individuals fight happen.

Animals have more understanding. If two dogs fight, sooner or later, within minutes, they come to an understanding. Man never comes to an understanding; unless he kills, there seems to he no solution.

Even dogs are more intelligent. If two dogs bark, show their teeth, jump at each other, that is just a show, who is the stronger. It is a mock-fight. Even before starting fight, one feels that he is not so strong then he knows it is futile to fight. He simply shows with his tail -- stop!

And then the thing is finished, they have come to an understanding. A mutual jusgdment is immidaitely established --the stronger will of course win, so why go through a fight unnecessarily?

Only man is foolish, the most foolish animal, because he will never believe' that the weaker will be defeated and that the stronger will be victorious.

It is so simple that the stronger will win, so why fight? There is no need. Bush could bark at Saddam, Saddam could bark at Bush and they both could call their mathematicians and count who has the most airplanes, the most bombs. Within minutes the things could be settled -- then they could just show by tails.

No need to go to war, because a war will only prove what can already be done on a table -- who the strongest is. Why such a wastage, such a wastage of human lives?

I wish someday it comes true and every body dies of old age after living a life full of celebrations and happiness !!

Three passions have governed my life..

2007-06-14T15:34:00.005+05:30

Three passions have governed my life:
The longings for love, the search for knowledge,
And unbearable pity for the suffering of [humankind].

Love brings ecstasy and relieves loneliness.
In the union of love I have seen
In a mystic miniature the prefiguring vision
Of the heavens that saints and poets have imagined.

With equal passion I have sought knowledge.
I have wished to understand the hearts of [people].
I have wished to know why the stars shine.

Love and knowledge led upwards to the heavens,
But always pity brought me back to earth;
Cries of pain reverberated in my heart
Of children in famine, of victims tortured
And of old people left helpless.
I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot,
And I too suffer.

This has been my life; I found it worth living.

the hygienic way,ancicent Indian system of taking meals

2007-06-14T15:34:00.004+05:30

The indian system of taking meals was sitting on the ground which is based on some scientific reasons. Sitting crossed legs digests the food better.

The meal was taken in the leaves joined together to form a round shape known as ‘Patal’ or the meal was taken in the banana leaves kept on the ground. The diner was seated on the wooden plank with silk ‘Dhoti’ and bear top.

Before taking the meal the diner took water in his hand and sprinkle it all around the served meal (Patal). This was done to keep the crawling worms away from the food as the water forms a barrier for the crawling worms.

The diner, than took out a small morsel in his hand and kept the same out side the water barrier to keep the worms engaged outside.

Small quantity of water was than taken by the diner in his hand and drank to wet his throat before eating the meal.

Silk produces static electricity by friction. The silk ‘Dhoti’ was worn by the diner to keep the environment germ free. The diner sat on the wooden plank to prevent the static electricity thus produced from earthing.

why Rangoli..?

2007-06-14T15:34:00.003+05:30

In India the custom of putting Rangoli at the entrance door of the house has a particular significance. In India it is customary to accept guests at any time. The ‘ATITHI’ meaning guest also means ‘ having no time’ thereby meaning that the coming of the guest is not fixed and the host has to be prepared to accept guests at any time.

All will agree that to receive guests at any time would be difficult, hence, some symbolic sign, for the society, was required for them to know that the guests can be received in the house or otherwise.

Rangoli got its significance for the purpose. The lady of the house, after completing cleaning of the house in the morning and after taking bath, herself puts the rangoli at the entrance of the house. The rangoli put at the entrance of the house is symbolic sign, that the inmates of the house are prepared to accept guests.

unconditional Love..

2007-06-14T15:34:00.002+05:30

A story is told about a soldier who was finally coming home after having fought in Vietnam. He called his parents from San Francisco.

"Mom and Dad, I'm coming home, but I've a favor to ask. I have a friend I'd like to bring home with me."

"Sure," they replied, "we'd love to meet him."

"There's something you should know the son continued, "he was hurt pretty badly in the fighting. He stepped on a land mind and lost an arm and a leg. He has nowhere else to go, and I want him to come live with us."

"I'm sorry to hear that, son. Maybe we can help him find somewhere to live."

"No, Mom and Dad, I want him to live with us."

"Son," said the father, "you don't know what you're asking. Someone with such a handicap would be a terrible burden on us. We have our own lives to live, and we can't let something like this interfere with our lives. I think you should just come home and forget about this guy. He'll find a way to live on his own."

At that point, the son hung up the phone. The parents heard nothing more from him. A few days later, however, they received a call from the San Francisco police. Their son had died after falling from a building, they were told. The police believed it was suicide. The grief-stricken parents flew to San Francisco and were taken to the city morgue to identify the body of their son. They recognized him, but to their horror they also discovered something they didn't know, their son had only one arm and one leg.

The parents in this story are like many of us. We find it easy to love those who are good-looking or fun to have around, but we don't like people who inconvenience us or make us feel uncomfortable. We would rather stay away from people who aren't as healthy, beautiful, or smart as we are. Thankfully, there's someone who won't treat us that way. Someone who loves us with an unconditional love that welcomes us into the forever family, regardless of how messed up we are.