Weekend Reading

Thanks to Udhaya Janani Rajkumar Secret Ears   “Can I see my baby?” the happy new mother asked. When the bundle was nestled in her arms and she moved the fold of cloth to look upon his tiny face, she gasped. The doctor turned quickly and looked out the tall hospital window. The baby had been born without ears. Time proved that the baby’s hearing was perfect. It was only his appearance that was marred. When he rushed home from school one day and flung himself into his mother’s arms, she sighed, knowing that his life was to be a succession of heartbreaks. He blurted out the tragedy. “A boy, a big boy… called me a freak.” He grew up, handsome for his misfortune. A favorite with his fellow students, he might have been class president, but for that. He developed a gift, a talent for literature and music. “But, you might mingle with other young people,” his mother reproved him, but felt a kindness i...

Thanks to Vidya Nair Power of Money By Adam Khoo, Singapore's youngest millionaire at 26 yrs   Some of you may already know that I travel around the region pretty frequently, having to visit and conduct seminars at my offices in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Suzhou (China). I am in the airport almost every other week so I get to bump into many people who have attended my seminars or have read my books.                                         Recently, someone came up to me on a plane to Kuala Lumpur and looked rather shocked. He asked, 'How come a millionaire like you is traveling economy?'  My reply was, 'That's why I am a millionaire’. He still looked pretty confused. This again confirms that greatest lie ever told about wealth (which I wrote about in my latest book 'Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires'). Many people have been brainwashed to think that m...

Thanks to Rostow Ravanan Non-Violence in Parenting   Dr. Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and founder of the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Non-violence, in his June 9 lecture at the University of Puerto Rico, shared the following story as an example of "non-violence in parenting": "I was 16 years old and living with my parents at the institute my grandfather had founded 18 miles outside of Durban, South Africa , in the middle of the sugar plantations. We were deep in the country and had no neighbors, so my two sisters and I would always look forward to going to town to visit friends or go to the movies. One day, my father asked me to drive him to town for an all-day conference, and I jumped at the chance. Since I was going to town, my mother gave me a list of groceries she needed and, since I had all day in town, my father ask me to take care of several pending chores, such as getting the car serviced. When I dropped my father off that morning, he said...

Thanks to Vidya Nair A Brother’s Song   Like any good mother, when Karen finds out that another baby was on the way, she does what she can to help her 3-year-old son, Michael, prepare for a new sibling. They find out that the new baby is going to be a girl, and day after day, night after night, Michael sings to his sister in Mommy's tummy.   The pregnancy progresses normally for Karen. Then the labor pains come. Every five minutes, every minute. But complications arise during delivery. Hours of labor. A C-section is required. Finally, Michael's little sister is born but she is in serious condition. With sirens howling in the night, the ambulance rushes the infant to the neonatal intensive care unit. The days inch by. The little girl gets worse. The pediatric specialist tells the parents, "There is very little hope. Be prepared for the worst."   Karen and her husband contact a local cemetery about a burial plot. They have fixed up a special ...

Weekend Reading and Monthly Alarm   The Idea: Originally, it was a way of keeping in touch with my friends once in week through meaningful forwards. But it reached beyond my expectation. Now, the distribution list has grown to thousands over five years.   Many unknown people fell in love with Weekend Reading. It inspired me to send it even on my Wedding Day J . For those of you who do not have time for my Weekend reading, I wanted to give them a monthly message. Hence, the Monthly Alarm was kicked off J .  Ultimately, I set up a platform to share my ideas of life with the likeminded. Starting 2010, I am going to present my own write up on certain topics one of the weeks in Weekend Reading every month and also on Quarterly basis in Monthly Alarm.   Now I have started 2 new Google groups to facilitate universal subscription to these. From Jan 2010, you will receive these mails only thro’ Google groups from my personal email id.  You can ...

Thanks to Balaji Paulraj Holding Hands!!!   I was sitting on a beach one summer day, watching two children, a boy and a girl, playing in the sand. They were hard at work building an elaborate sandcastle by the water's edge with gates and towers and moats and internal passages. Just when they had nearly finished their project, a big wave came along and knocked it down, reducing it to a heap of wet sand. I expected the children to burst into tears, devastated by what had happened to all their hard work. But they surprised me. Instead, they ran up the shore away from the water, laughing and holding hands, and sat down to build another castle. I realized that they had taught me an important lesson. All the things in our lives, all the complicated structures we spend so much time and energy creating, are built on sand. Only our relationships endure. Sooner or later, the wave will come along and knock down what we have worked so hard to build up. When that happens, only...

Thanks to Balaji Paulraj Holding Hands!!!   I was sitting on a beach one summer day, watching two children, a boy and a girl, playing in the sand. They were hard at work building an elaborate sandcastle by the water's edge with gates and towers and moats and internal passages. Just when they had nearly finished their project, a big wave came along and knocked it down, reducing it to a heap of wet sand. I expected the children to burst into tears, devastated by what had happened to all their hard work. But they surprised me. Instead, they ran up the shore away from the water, laughing and holding hands, and sat down to build another castle. I realized that they had taught me an important lesson. All the things in our lives, all the complicated structures we spend so much time and energy creating, are built on sand. Only our relationships endure. Sooner or later, the wave will come along and knock down what we have worked so hard to build up. When that happens, only...

Thanks to Balaji Paulraj Holding Hands!!!   I was sitting on a beach one summer day, watching two children, a boy and a girl, playing in the sand. They were hard at work building an elaborate sandcastle by the water's edge with gates and towers and moats and internal passages. Just when they had nearly finished their project, a big wave came along and knocked it down, reducing it to a heap of wet sand. I expected the children to burst into tears, devastated by what had happened to all their hard work. But they surprised me. Instead, they ran up the shore away from the water, laughing and holding hands, and sat down to build another castle. I realized that they had taught me an important lesson. All the things in our lives, all the complicated structures we spend so much time and energy creating, are built on sand. Only our relationships endure. Sooner or later, the wave will come along and knock down what we have worked so hard to build up. When that happens, only...

Thanks to Pramothkumar Chinnathambu One Year To Live   Anthony Burgess was 40 when he learned that he had only one year to live. He had a brain tumor that would kill him within a year. He knew he had a battle on his hands. He was completely broke at the time, and he didn't have anything to leave behind for his wife, Lynne, soon to be a widow.   Burgess had never been a professional novelist in the past, but he always knew the potential was inside him to be a writer. So, for the sole purpose of leaving royalties behind for his wife, he put a piece of paper into a typewriter and began writing. He had no certainty that he would even be published, but he couldn't think of anything else to do.   "It was January of 1960," he said, "and according to the prognosis, I had a winter and spring and summer to live through, and would die with the fall of the leaf."   In that time Burgess wrote energetically, finishing five and a half novel...

Once I was asked by my Friend, "What is the secret behind your happy married life?" I said, "You should share responsibilities with due love and Respect each other. Then absolutely there will be no problems." He asked, "Can you explain?" I said, "In my house, I take decisions on bigger issues where as my wife decides on smaller issues. We do not interfere in each other's decisions." Still not convinced, Friend asked me "Give me some examples" I said," Smaller issues like, which car we should buy, how much amount to save, when to visit home town, which Sofa, air conditioner, refrigerator , monthly expenses, whether to keep a maid or not etc are decided by my wife. I just agree to it" He asked, "Then what is your role?" I said," My decisions are only for very big issues. Like whether America should attack Iran, whether Britain ...

  Thanks to Geetha Partha Blame   Few days back, I was talking to my friend who was a bit upset. He had a strained relationship with his dear friend. Obviously he was disturbed. I called him to talk to him and if possible share few good words with him just to make him feel better. We had a long conversation. Something unusual about the conversation was; I noticed, never, not even once did my friend speak a word against his dear friend. He never blamed her for what went wrong. In turn he told me “she is not to be blamed. I wanted things to go my way. But it didn’t. Why should I blame her? "   Though those were very simple words, I shall never forget them.   Don’t we all find ourselves getting angry and worked up? Don’t we all immediately start casting about in our mind to identify someone to blame for the problem?   Don’t we all blame others just because things didn’t go our way???   Like, bl...

Thanks to Aruna Narayana Murthy Eagle's Egg   An eagle’s egg was placed in nest of a hen. The egg hatched and the eagle grew thinking  that he was a chicken.  The eagle did what the chicken did. It scratched the dirt for seeds. It did not fly more than a few feet because this is what chicken did.   One day he saw an eagle flying gracefully and majestically in the open sky. He asked the chicken “Which is that beautiful bird?” .   The chicken said “That is an eagle.. He is an outstanding bird, but yo u can’t fly like him as y ou are just a chicken” . So the eagle never gave a second thought to it and lived and died as a chicken, depriving himself of his heritage because of his lack of vision.   We are born to win but conditioned to lose.  This is true of most people. We don’t achieve excellence because we think we can’t achieve it.  

Thanks to Maruti Peketi Life is all about living   Exactly 1 year back things were looking all rosy with us ... Kenny turning 1 and Nissi growing fast and I was leading a reasonably successful life  as you could say with property in Sydney, and in  India. You can't ask for more when you haven't even turned 30 and contracting in SAP without a break for 4 years.   Last June we visited India for Kenny's 1st birthday and before going there I was down with flu a few times but anti-biotics were doing their job reasonably well , but not getting to that 100% you would want to. After returning  to Brisbane I started again seeing my GP to dig deep on why I was constantly falling sick(in other words not feeling 100%) but still feeling quite normal and was able to do my day-to-day activities without any drama.   Prognosis went on for 2 months and after a series of tests it was revealed that there is a lump on the left side of my neck which...

  Thanks to M Beena Arjunan Is this Bird Alive?   The young man was at the end of his training, soon he would go on to be a teacher. Like all good pupils, he needed to challenge his teacher and to develop his own way of thinking. He caught a bird, placed it in one hand behind is back and went to see his teacher. 'Teacher, is this bird alive or dead?' His plan was the following: if his teacher said 'dead', he would open his hand and the bird would fly away. If the answer was 'alive', he would crush the bird between his fingers; that way the teacher would be wrong whichever answer he gave. ‘Teacher is the bird alive or dead?' he asked again. 'My dear student that depends on you' was the teacher's reply. We all have a 'bird' in our hand, a bird we call 'life'. Our teachers may teach us everythinkg but finally it depends on us to how well we use our learning.

Thanks to Shobha Shamanna Focus on Blessings   Joan and Natty were two young mothers who lived across the street from each other. From their living room windows, each woman was able to observe the activities of the other woman's family.   One day, Joan confessed that she'd been watching what went on in Natty's front garden and that she envied her." I don't know what you mean", said Natty with puzzled look on her face. "Well, I often see your husband out in the front mowing your lawn, and I wish my husband would do the same thing", said Joan.  "Your garden is beautiful!”.   Natty laughed and then made her confession." I have been doing the same thing, Joan", she said. "I watch your husband in your front garden - and I have envied you!" Joan shook her head with disbelief. "What on earth do you mean?" she asked.   Natty replied," I see your husband playing with your toddler so n...

Thanks to Harsha J. A Pair of Old Shoes A young man, a student in one of the universities, was on a walk with his professor one day , a man whom the students considered a  friend for his kindness to those who waited on his instructions. As they went along, they saw lying in the path a pair of old shoes, which were belonged  to a poor man who was working in a field close by, and who had nearly finished his day's work . . . The s tudent turned to the professor, saying: "Let us play a trick on the man. We will hide his shoes, and hide ourselves behind those bushes, and wait to see his perplexity when he cannot find them ..." . My young friend," answered the professor, "We should never amuse ourselves at the expense of the poor . . . But you are rich, and may give yourself a much greater pleasure by means of this poor man. Put a coin in each shoe, and then we will hide ourselves and watch how this affects him.." The student did so and...

Thanks to Kiran Shanmugam The Old Fisherman ~  Mary Bartels Bray   Our house was directly across the street from the clinic entrance of John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.  We lived downstairs and rented the upstairs rooms to out-patients at the clinic. One summer evening as I was fixing supper, there was a knock at the door.  I opened it to see a truly awful looking man.  "Why, he's hardly taller than my eight-year-old," I thought as I stared at the stooped, shriveled body.  But the appalling thing was his face - lopsided from swelling, red and raw. Yet his voice was pleasant as he said, "Good evening.  I've come to see if you've a room for just one night.  I came for a treatment this morning from the eastern shore, and there's no bus 'til morning. "He told me he'd been hunting for a room since noon but with no success, no one seemed to have a room.  "I guess it's my face...  I know it looks terrible, ...

  Thanks to Geetha Partha Taste of Life   One day a young girl went out to dinner with her parents. As usual she ordered her favorite Spaghetti and waited eagerly for it. Her dad ordered few other dishes which included Tofu and Cashew Fried Rice. The young girl hated this dish which her dad ordered. But her dad would always ask her to have it. The young girl watched as her dad completed placing the order. Now she knew her dad would again ask her to have the  Tofu and Cashew Fried Rice.   She contemplated in her mind that this time she will gobble up the fried rice without making much fuss before she touches her all time favorite spaghetti. She wanted to enjoy every bit of spaghetti and didn’t want to get back home with the bad taste of fried rice in her mouth. As her mind was engrossed in these thoughts, dishes arrived at the table.   Her dad quickly asked her, “Dear which dish would you like to taste first? The one you Love or the ...