Weekend Reading

  Thanks to Mayilraj Kalimuthu Velocity of Money...!!! It is August. In a small town on the South Coast of France ,the holiday season is in full swing, but it is raining so hard that there is not too much business happening. Everyone is heavily in debt. Luckily, a rich Russian tourist arrives in the foyer of the small local hotel. He asks for a room and puts a 100 Euro note on the reception counter, takes the key and goes to inspect the room located up the stairs on the third floor. The hotel owner takes the banknote in hurry and rushes to his meat supplier to whom he owes E100. The butcher takes the money and races to his supplier to pay his debt. The wholesaler rushes to the farmer to pay E100 for the pigs he had bought some time ago. The farmer triumphantly gives the E100 note to a local hair dresser who had provided him his services on credit. The hair dresser quickly goes to the hotel, as he owed the hotel for using a room a month back. At that moment, the rich Russia...

Thanks to Subramaniam Chidambaram Pearls Necklace Jenny was a bright-eyed, pretty five-year-old girl.  One day when she and her mother were checking out at the grocery store, Jenny saw a plastic pearl necklace priced at $2.50. How she wanted that necklace! When she asked her mother if she would buy it for her, her mother said, "Well, it is a pretty necklace, but it costs an awful lot of money. I'll tell you what. I'll buy you the necklace, and when we get home we can make up a list of chores that you can do to pay for the necklace. And don't forget that for your birthday Grandma just might give you a whole dollar bill, too. Okay?" Jenny agreed, and her mother bought the pearl necklace for her. Jenny worked on her chores very hard every day, and sure enough, her grandma gave her a brand new dollar bill for her birthday. Soon Jenny had paid off the pearls. How Jenny loved those pearls. She wore them everywhere to kindergarten, to bed and when she went out ...

Thanks to Senthil Kumaran It’s an empty vessel   A young farmer was covered with sweat as he paddled his boat up the river. He was going upstream to deliver his produce to the village and he was in a hurry. It was a hot day and he wanted to make his delivery and get home before dark. As he looked ahead, he spotted another vessel, heading rapidly downstream towards his boat. It was coming at a good pace too. This farmer rowed furiously to get out of the way, but it did not seem to help.   He yelled at the other vessel, “Change direction, you idiot! You are going to hit me. The river is wide. Change your course". His screaming was of no use. The other vessel hit his boat with a big loud thud. He was enraged as he stood up and cried out to the other vessel. “Stupid! How could you manage to hit my boat in the middle of this wide river? What is wrong with you? "   And as he looked at the other vessel he realized that there was no ...

Thanks to Srinivasan Rajagopal Embracing Imperfection A story by a girl. "When I was a little girl, my mom liked to make breakfast food for dinner every now and then. And I remember one night in particular when she had made breakfast after a long, hard day at work. On that evening so long ago, my mom placed a plate of eggs, sausage, and extremely burnt toast in front of my dad. I remember waiting to see if anyone noticed! Yet all my dad did was reach for his toast, smile at my mom, and ask me how my day at school was. I don't remember what I told him that night, but I do remember watching him smear butter and jelly on that toast and eat every bite! When I got up from the table that evening, I remember hearing my mom apologize to my dad for burning the toast. And I'll never forget what he said: 'Baby, I love burnt toast.' Later that night, I went to kiss Daddy good night and I asked him if he really liked his toast burned. He wrapped me in his arms an...

  Thanks to Pragati Garg You are a Masterpiece   A plum once said, just because a banana lover came by, I converted myself into a banana. Unfortunately, his taste changed after a few months and so I became an orange. When he said I was bitter I became an apple, but he went in search of grapes. Yielding to the opinions  of so many people, I have changed so many times that I no more know  who I am. How I wish I had remained a plum and waited for a plum lover. Just because a group of people do not accept you as you are, there  is  no necessity for you to strip yourself of your originality. You  need to think good of yourself, for the world takes you at your own  estimate.  Never stoop down in order to gain recognition. Never let  go of your true self to win a relationship. In the long run, you  will regret that you traded your greatest glory - your uniqueness,  for momentary...

  Thanks to Shalabh Gupta Presence of Mind   Once, a dog lost his way deep into the jungle.   He almost fainted to see a lion coming straight to him at a very near distant. "I will be dead today" , thought he. There were some bones lying over there. He turned his back towards lion and started pretending as if he is eating those bones. When lion was very close to him he cried out loudly "Wow, what a fun eating a lion, by chance if I can get another one, it will be a treat ".   Lion thought "What a dangerous dog!!!!! He kills lions and eats it. Let me run away from here and save my life ".   Now, there was a Monkey hiding on the tree there watching the entire show. He thought "It's a good chance to tell the truth to the lion. Lion will become my friend and I will not have to run saving my life from him ". He just ran away to inform the entire episode to Lion.   The dog had seen him going and qu...

  Thanks to Manikandan Subramanian A Software Engineer’s Mind   It was raining heavily outside. Dark clouds gathered in the sky and nature was in its ominous best. I took a break from my work and went to the pantry to grab a cup of coffee. I had a sip and went near the window to see the rain pouring down heavily outside the glass structure. I was inside our huge office building, unruffled by even the fierceness of the nature.   Through the heavy transparent glass, I could see a small girl trying to hold on to her umbrella which the wind was snatching away from her. I felt sorry for the girl, and was happy that I was not in a similar pathetic situation. Yes. I take pride for the fact that I am a software engineer.   I have everything which a common man would envy; money, status, respect, you name it I have it. I always wanted to be software professional and here I am, working for one of the best firms in the world. But then, am I really happy? ...

Thanks to Sandhya T. Chengappa Resource utilization    Buddha, one day, was in deep thought about the worldly activities and the ways of instilling goodness in human beings. One of his disciples approached him and said humbly " Oh my teacher ! While you are so much concerned about the world and others, why don't you look in to the welfare and needs of your own disciples also."   Buddha : "OK.. Tell me how I can help you"   Disciple : "Master! My attire is worn out and is beyond the decency to wear the same. Can I get a new one, please?"   Buddha found the robe indeed was in a bad condition and needed replacement. He asked the store keeper to give the disciple  a new robe to wear on. The disciple thanked Buddha and retired to his room. A while later, he went to his disciple's place and asked him "Is your new attire comfortable? Do  you need anything more ?"   Disciple : "Thank you...

  Thanks to Aakriti Rana   A letter from a father to his little son   Dear Loving Son, It's been 20 months since you set foot in the world. When I held you for the first time in my arms at the hospital, your tiny hands were twitching and your eyes were shut tight.  Your clenched fist reminded me of a science lesson that said to get an idea about the size of your heart, you should clench your fist. I could imagine the little heart throbbing inside you. The eternal miracle of birth. When it was my turn to witness it, I cried.  Before I married your mother, I used to debate one question endlessly with my friend. Which is, "Is it really worth bringing another life into this world?" Especially when terror has become an ugly leitmotif in the canvas of our lives?  When I switched on the TV that Wednesday night, the question of whether I was right in bringing you into this world haunted me again.  This i...

Thanks to Geetha Partha Speech is Silver, Silence is Golden   Once upon a time an old man spread rumors that his neighbor was a thief. As a result, the young man was arrested. Days later the young man was proven innocent. After been released he sued the old man for wrongly accusing him.   In court the old man told the Judge: 'They were just comments, didn't harm anyone..'   The judge, before passing sentence on the case, told the old man: 'Write all the things you said about him on a piece of paper. Cut them up and on the way home; throw the pieces of paper out. Tomorrow, come back to hear the sentence.'   The next day, the judge told the old man: 'Before receiving the sentence, you will have to go out and gather all the pieces of paper that you threw out yesterday.'                               Th...

Thanks to Aakriti Rana Perseverance     Soichiro Honda was a simple person.  He attempted to design a new type of piston to improve the performance of cars.  He was sure his attempt would yield path breaking results.  He offered his designs to Toyota. The engineers turned his offer down, without even meeting him.  But he did not lose heart.   His repeated attempts at meeting Toyota engineers finally succeeded; but only to see that his product was ridiculed by them.  Not losing heart, he went into great details to convince them.  At last he obtained an order to supply pistons to Toyota.   Honda invested all his resources – money, materials, knowledge, hard work – as capital and constructed a plant for producing pistons. Suddenly, there was an earthquake in Japan that destroyed his factory. Yet, Honda reposed faith in his own ability.  Once again, he started construction afresh.  When it wa...

Thanks to Usha Shreedhar   This is actually a true story that happened to Sister Mrosola (the teacher) and Mark Eklund . Though some of the details are just to add flavor, most of it is true.   I carry this with me at all times   One day a teacher asked her students to list the names of the other students in the room on two sheets of paper, leaving a space between each name.  Then she told them to think of the nicest thing they could say about each of their classmates and write it down. It took the remainder of the class period to finish their assignment, and as the students left the room, each one handed in the papers. that Saturday, the teacher wrote down the name of each student on a separate sheet of paper, and listed what everyone else had said about that individual. On Monday she gave each student his or her list. Before long, the entire class was smiling. 'Really?' she heard whispered. 'I never knew that I meant anything to anyone!' and, 'I didn...

Thanks to Vidya Nair Heaven and Friends   A man and his dog were walking along a road. The man was enjoying the scenery, when it suddenly occurred to him that he was dead. He remembered dying, and that the dog walking beside him had been dead for years. He wondered where the road was leading them. After a while, they came to a high, white stone wall along one side of the road. It looked like fine marble. At the top of a long hill, it was broken by a tall arch that glowed in the sunlight. When he was standing before it he saw a magnificent gate in the arch that looked like mother-of-pearl, and the street that led to the gate looked like pure gold. He and the dog walked toward the gate, and as he got closer, he saw a man at a desk to one side.   When he was close enough, he called out, 'Excuse me, where are we?' 'This is Heaven, sir,' the man answered.. 'Wow! Would you happen to have some water?' the man asked. 'Of course, sir.  Come right in, and I...

Thanks to Janakiraman S Don't Change the World Once upon a time, there lived a king who ruled over a prosperous country. One day, he had to visit a distant part of his country. When he returned to his palace, he complained that his feet hurt very badly, as it was the first time that he had gone on such a long trip, and the path that he went through was very rough and stony. He then ordered his people to cover every road in the entire country with leather. Definitely, this would need thousands of cows' skin, and would cost a huge amount of money. Then one of his wiser servants dared to tell the king, "Why do you have to spend such a large sum to cover the roads ? Why don't you just cut a little piece of leather to cover your feet?" The king was surprised, but he agreed - to make a "shoe" for himself. There is actually a valuable lesson for life in this story: To make this world a happy place to live in, you better change yourself - your he...

Thanks to Indubala Sobhana Thanks for your time...   It had been some time since Jack had seen the old man. College, girls, career, and life itself got in the way. In fact, Jack moved clear across the country in pursuit of his dreams. There, in the rush of his busy life, Jack had little time to think about the past and often no time to spend with his wife and son. He was working on his future, and nothing could stop him.   Over the phone, his mother told him, "Mr. Belser died last night. The funeral is Wednesday." Memories flashed through his mind like an old newsreel as he sat quietly remembering his childhood days.   "Jack, did you hear me?"   "Oh, sorry, Mom. Yes, I heard you. It's been so long since I thought of him. I'm sorry, but I honestly thought he died years ago," Jack said ..   "Well, he didn't forget you. Every time I saw him he'd ask how you were doing. He'd reminisce about the many ...

Thanks to Rathnakar Raghunath Diamond Message   Once a king called upon all his wise men and asked them "Is there a mantra or suggestion which works in every situation, in every circumstance, in every place and in every time? Something which can help me when none of you is available to advise me. Tell me is there any mantra?" All the wise men were puzzled by the king’s question. One answer for all questions?  Something that works everywhere in every situation?  In every joy, every sorrow, every defeat and every victory? They thought and thought.   After a lengthy discussion, an old man suggested something which appealed to all of them. They went to the king and gave him a piece of paper. But the condition was that the king should not look at it out of curiosity. Only in extreme danger, when the King finds himself alone and there seems to be no way out, should he see it. The King put the paper under his diamond ring.   After a few ...

Thanks to Aakriti Rana Life Together   One fine day, an old couple around the age of 70, walks into a lawyer's office. Apparently, they are there to file a divorce.   Lawyer was very puzzled, after having a chat with them, he got their story....This couple had been quarreling all their 40 over yrs of marriage nothing ever seems to go right.   They hang on because of their children, afraid that it might affect their up-bringing. Now, all their children have already grown up, have their own family, there's nothing else the old couple have to worry about, all they wanted is to lead their own life free from all these years of unhappiness from their marriage, so both agree on a divorce....   Lawyer was having a hard time trying to get the papers done, because he felt that after 40 yrs of marriage at the age of 70, he couldn't understand why the old couple would still want a divorce..   While they were signing the papers, the wife told the husb...

Thanks to Rohit S Butterfly A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared. He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could, and it could go no further. So the man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily. But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time. Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly. What the man, in his kindness and haste, did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for...