Saturday, June 28, 2008

Bill Gates ~ Mind and heart in the right place!

Bill Gates, the Microsoft Chairman calls it a day. I have deep reverence to this legend. The dreamer, the altruist! I have grown up believing the world of computers belongs to him. Before I could hear of Charles Babbage, I heard of Bill Gates. As a dropout, as a dreamer, as an achiever, as a philanthropist. Been in the Forbes list for a long time, now at the age of 52 he is all set to devote the rest of his life to full-fledged charity work. Hats Off Sir!

The Wall Street Journal had presented the 'Bill Gates Speech To Harvard Graduates'. Thanks to Sony Mammu who had send me the link few months back. Any Google search will lead you to the YouTube or to the article. I find it a pleasure to have that speech posted in my blog.

Bill Gates Speech At Harvard :

President Bok, former President Rudenstine, incoming President Faust, members of the Harvard Corporation and the Board of Overseers, members of the faculty, parents, and especially, the graduates:

I’ve been waiting more than 30 years to say this: “Dad, I always told you I’d come back and get my degree.”

I want to thank Harvard for this timely honor. I’ll be changing my job next year … and it will be nice to finally have a college degree on my resume.

I applaud the graduates today for taking a much more direct route to your degrees. For my part, I’m just happy that the Crimson has called me “Harvard’s most successful dropout.” I guess that makes me valedictorian of my own special class … I did the best of everyone who failed.

But I also want to be recognized as the guy who got Steve Ballmer to drop out of business school. I’m a bad influence. That’s why I was invited to speak at your graduation. If I had spoken at your orientation, fewer of you might be here today.

Harvard was just a phenomenal experience for me. Academic life was fascinating. I used to sit in on lots of classes I hadn’t even signed up for. And dorm life was terrific. I lived up at Radcliffe, in Currier House. There were always lots of people in my dorm room late at night discussing things, because everyone knew I didn’t worry about getting up in the morning. That’s how I came to be the leader of the anti-social group. We clung to each other as a way of validating our rejection of all those social people.

Radcliffe was a great place to live. There were more women up there, and most of the guys were science-math types. That combination offered me the best odds, if you know what I mean. This is where I learned the sad lesson that improving your odds doesn’t guarantee success.

One of my biggest memories of Harvard came in January 1975, when I made a call from Currier House to a company in Albuquerque that had begun making the world’s first personal computers. I offered to sell them software.

I worried that they would realize I was just a student in a dorm and hang up on me. Instead they said: “We’re not quite ready, come see us in a month,” which was a good thing, because we hadn’t written the software yet. From that moment, I worked day and night on this little extra credit project that marked the end of my college education and the beginning of a remarkable journey with Microsoft.

What I remember above all about Harvard was being in the midst of so much energy and intelligence. It could be exhilarating, intimidating, sometimes even discouraging, but always challenging. It was an amazing privilege – and though I left early, I was transformed by my years at Harvard, the friendships I made, and the ideas I worked on.

But taking a serious look back … I do have one big regret.

I left Harvard with no real awareness of the awful inequities in the world – the appalling disparities of health, and wealth, and opportunity that condemn millions of people to lives of despair.

I learned a lot here at Harvard about new ideas in economics and politics. I got great exposure to the advances being made in the sciences.

But humanity’s greatest advances are not in its discoveries – but in how those discoveries are applied to reduce inequity. Whether through democracy, strong public education, quality health care, or broad economic opportunity – reducing inequity is the highest human achievement.

I left campus knowing little about the millions of young people cheated out of educational opportunities here in this country. And I knew nothing about the millions of people living in unspeakable poverty and disease in developing countries.

It took me decades to find out.

You graduates came to Harvard at a different time. You know more about the world’s inequities than the classes that came before. In your years here, I hope you’ve had a chance to think about how – in this age of accelerating technology – we can finally take on these inequities, and we can solve them.

Imagine, just for the sake of discussion, that you had a few hours a week and a few dollars a month to donate to a cause – and you wanted to spend that time and money where it would have the greatest impact in saving and improving lives. Where would you spend it?

For Melinda and for me, the challenge is the same: how can we do the most good for the greatest number with the resources we have.

During our discussions on this question, Melinda and I read an article about the millions of children who were dying every year in poor countries from diseases that we had long ago made harmless in this country. Measles, malaria, pneumonia, hepatitis B, yellow fever. One disease I had never even heard of, rotavirus, was killing half a million kids each year – none of them in the United States.

We were shocked. We had just assumed that if millions of children were dying and they could be saved, the world would make it a priority to discover and deliver the medicines to save them. But it did not. For under a dollar, there were interventions that could save lives that just weren’t being delivered.

If you believe that every life has equal value, it’s revolting to learn that some lives are seen as worth saving and others are not. We said to ourselves: “This can’t be true. But if it is true, it deserves to be the priority of our giving.”

So we began our work in the same way anyone here would begin it. We asked: “How could the world let these children die?”

The answer is simple, and harsh. The market did not reward saving the lives of these children, and governments did not subsidize it. So the children died because their mothers and their fathers had no power in the market and no voice in the system.

But you and I have both.

We can make market forces work better for the poor if we can develop a more creative capitalism – if we can stretch the reach of market forces so that more people can make a profit, or at least make a living, serving people who are suffering from the worst inequities. We also can press governments around the world to spend taxpayer money in ways that better reflect the values of the people who pay the taxes.

If we can find approaches that meet the needs of the poor in ways that generate profits for business and votes for politicians, we will have found a sustainable way to reduce inequity in the world. This task is open-ended. It can never be finished. But a conscious effort to answer this challenge will change the world.

I am optimistic that we can do this, but I talk to skeptics who claim there is no hope. They say: “Inequity has been with us since the beginning, and will be with us till the end – because people just … don’t … care.” I completely disagree.

I believe we have more caring than we know what to do with.

All of us here in this Yard, at one time or another, have seen human tragedies that broke our hearts, and yet we did nothing – not because we didn’t care, but because we didn’t know what to do. If we had known how to help, we would have acted.

The barrier to change is not too little caring; it is too much complexity.

To turn caring into action, we need to see a problem, see a solution, and see the impact. But complexity blocks all three steps.

Even with the advent of the Internet and 24-hour news, it is still a complex enterprise to get people to truly see the problems. When an airplane crashes, officials immediately call a press conference. They promise to investigate, determine the cause, and prevent similar crashes in the future.

But if the officials were brutally honest, they would say: “Of all the people in the world who died today from preventable causes, one half of one percent of them were on this plane. We’re determined to do everything possible to solve the problem that took the lives of the one half of one percent.”

The bigger problem is not the plane crash, but the millions of preventable deaths.

We don’t read much about these deaths. The media covers what’s new – and millions of people dying is nothing new. So it stays in the background, where it’s easier to ignore. But even when we do see it or read about it, it’s difficult to keep our eyes on the problem. It’s hard to look at suffering if the situation is so complex that we don’t know how to help. And so we look away.

If we can really see a problem, which is the first step, we come to the second step: cutting through the complexity to find a solution.

Finding solutions is essential if we want to make the most of our caring. If we have clear and proven answers anytime an organization or individual asks “How can I help?,” then we can get action – and we can make sure that none of the caring in the world is wasted. But complexity makes it hard to mark a path of action for everyone who cares — and that makes it hard for their caring to matter.

Cutting through complexity to find a solution runs through four predictable stages: determine a goal, find the highest-leverage approach, discover the ideal technology for that approach, and in the meantime, make the smartest application of the technology that you already have — whether it’s something sophisticated, like a drug, or something simpler, like a bednet.

The AIDS epidemic offers an example. The broad goal, of course, is to end the disease. The highest-leverage approach is prevention. The ideal technology would be a vaccine that gives lifetime immunity with a single dose. So governments, drug companies, and foundations fund vaccine research. But their work is likely to take more than a decade, so in the meantime, we have to work with what we have in hand – and the best prevention approach we have now is getting people to avoid risky behavior.

Pursuing that goal starts the four-step cycle again. This is the pattern. The crucial thing is to never stop thinking and working – and never do what we did with malaria and tuberculosis in the 20th century – which is to surrender to complexity and quit.

The final step – after seeing the problem and finding an approach – is to measure the impact of your work and share your successes and failures so that others learn from your efforts.

You have to have the statistics, of course. You have to be able to show that a program is vaccinating millions more children. You have to be able to show a decline in the number of children dying from these diseases. This is essential not just to improve the program, but also to help draw more investment from business and government.

But if you want to inspire people to participate, you have to show more than numbers; you have to convey the human impact of the work – so people can feel what saving a life means to the families affected.

I remember going to Davos some years back and sitting on a global health panel that was discussing ways to save millions of lives. Millions! Think of the thrill of saving just one person’s life – then multiply that by millions. … Yet this was the most boring panel I’ve ever been on – ever. So boring even I couldn’t bear it.

What made that experience especially striking was that I had just come from an event where we were introducing version 13 of some piece of software, and we had people jumping and shouting with excitement. I love getting people excited about software – but why can’t we generate even more excitement for saving lives?

You can’t get people excited unless you can help them see and feel the impact. And how you do that – is a complex question.

Still, I’m optimistic. Yes, inequity has been with us forever, but the new tools we have to cut through complexity have not been with us forever. They are new – they can help us make the most of our caring – and that’s why the future can be different from the past.

The defining and ongoing innovations of this age – biotechnology, the computer, the Internet – give us a chance we’ve never had before to end extreme poverty and end death from preventable disease.

Sixty years ago, George Marshall came to this commencement and announced a plan to assist the nations of post-war Europe. He said: “I think one difficulty is that the problem is one of such enormous complexity that the very mass of facts presented to the public by press and radio make it exceedingly difficult for the man in the street to reach a clear appraisement of the situation. It is virtually impossible at this distance to grasp at all the real significance of the situation.”

Thirty years after Marshall made his address, as my class graduated without me, technology was emerging that would make the world smaller, more open, more visible, less distant.

The emergence of low-cost personal computers gave rise to a powerful network that has transformed opportunities for learning and communicating.

The magical thing about this network is not just that it collapses distance and makes everyone your neighbor. It also dramatically increases the number of brilliant minds we can have working together on the same problem – and that scales up the rate of innovation to a staggering degree.

At the same time, for every person in the world who has access to this technology, five people don’t. That means many creative minds are left out of this discussion -- smart people with practical intelligence and relevant experience who don’t have the technology to hone their talents or contribute their ideas to the world.

We need as many people as possible to have access to this technology, because these advances are triggering a revolution in what human beings can do for one another. They are making it possible not just for national governments, but for universities, corporations, smaller organizations, and even individuals to see problems, see approaches, and measure the impact of their efforts to address the hunger, poverty, and desperation George Marshall spoke of 60 years ago.

Members of the Harvard Family: Here in the Yard is one of the great collections of intellectual talent in the world.

What for?

There is no question that the faculty, the alumni, the students, and the benefactors of Harvard have used their power to improve the lives of people here and around the world. But can we do more? Can Harvard dedicate its intellect to improving the lives of people who will never even hear its name?

Let me make a request of the deans and the professors – the intellectual leaders here at Harvard: As you hire new faculty, award tenure, review curriculum, and determine degree requirements, please ask yourselves:

Should our best minds be dedicated to solving our biggest problems?

Should Harvard encourage its faculty to take on the world’s worst inequities? Should Harvard students learn about the depth of global poverty … the prevalence of world hunger … the scarcity of clean water …the girls kept out of school … the children who die from diseases we can cure?

Should the world’s most privileged people learn about the lives of the world’s least privileged?

These are not rhetorical questions – you will answer with your policies.

My mother, who was filled with pride the day I was admitted here – never stopped pressing me to do more for others. A few days before my wedding, she hosted a bridal event, at which she read aloud a letter about marriage that she had written to Melinda. My mother was very ill with cancer at the time, but she saw one more opportunity to deliver her message, and at the close of the letter she said: “From those to whom much is given, much is expected.”

When you consider what those of us here in this Yard have been given – in talent, privilege, and opportunity – there is almost no limit to what the world has a right to expect from us.

In line with the promise of this age, I want to exhort each of the graduates here to take on an issue – a complex problem, a deep inequity, and become a specialist on it. If you make it the focus of your career, that would be phenomenal. But you don’t have to do that to make an impact. For a few hours every week, you can use the growing power of the Internet to get informed, find others with the same interests, see the barriers, and find ways to cut through them.

Don’t let complexity stop you. Be activists. Take on the big inequities. It will be one of the great experiences of your lives.

You graduates are coming of age in an amazing time. As you leave Harvard, you have technology that members of my class never had. You have awareness of global inequity, which we did not have. And with that awareness, you likely also have an informed conscience that will torment you if you abandon these people whose lives you could change with very little effort. You have more than we had; you must start sooner, and carry on longer.

Knowing what you know, how could you not?

And I hope you will come back here to Harvard 30 years from now and reflect on what you have done with your talent and your energy. I hope you will judge yourselves not on your professional accomplishments alone, but also on how well you have addressed the world’s deepest inequities … on how well you treated people a world away who have nothing in common with you but their humanity.

Good luck.


P.S
We like to add degrees to our names, the real identity is to identify ourselves with the aam aadmi and to see that the informed conscience doesn't prick us at the end. And dat will not happen by earning dollars, but in using those degrees to do some thing for the needy. Changing care into action dats the call, thn wat stops today's youngsters? At 21 now I feel the reasons might be that we still are confined to the environment whr we are in. We would like to come out, but thr is a fear of future n yaa can I alone make a change. Wat is imperative is to find people, something like data mining wherein one finds relevant data and retrieves them from the database. People of similar interests should come together, and move forward with confidence. Surely most of these inequities will disappear. But " Well Done Is Better Than Well Said". Hmm....I m tongue-tied:(


Sunday, June 22, 2008

Ambulance Services!

A 3 digit no like 100 for police n 101 for fire station isn't available for emergency as of now in Chennai. Many a times we aren't able to help someone hit by a vehicle coz we aren't aware of the emergency numbers available in the place. The below are ambulance services in chennai with the location and number.Do make it a point you take the print out of this consolidated list and carry it with you. You will not know when it will come in use. God bless!

List:

1. A.C. Ambulance Service -24355942

2.Accident Relief Force -42077777

3.Apollo Hospital - Greams Rd / Teynampet / Tondiarpet - 1066

4.Aysha Hospital (91 A, Millers Road Kilpauk) - 26426930

5.Balaji Hospital (Guindy Industrial Estate
Lawyrjaganathan Street,) - 22345282

6.Bismi Ambulance Service(Vadapalani) - 9444280414

7.Chennai Kaliappa ( 2nd Main road R A PURAM
600028 ) -24936184

8.Child Trust Hospital (Nungambakam)- 42001800

9.Devaki Hospital(Luz Church Road, Mylapore)- 24993391

10.Govt. Royapettah Hospital - 28483051

11.Govt. Stanley Hospita(Royapettah)l --25282350

12.Hindu Mission Hospital(GST Road, West Tambaram)- 22262244

13.Helping Point (Nungambakkam) -28280257

14.Jayadev Ambulance Service(Kilpauk) -26412317

15.K J Hospital( Purasaiwalkam) -26411513

16.MV Hospital(West Mada Church Street,, Royapuram) -25954913

17.Madras Medical Mission(4a,Jj Nagar, Mugappair)- 26561801

18.Malar Hospitals Ltd. (Gandhi Nagar,1st Main Road, Adyar) -24914023

19.Mass & Co. (Choolaimedu, Chennai,) -22301890

20.Miot Hospital (Poonamallee High Road,Manapakkam)-22492288

21.National Hospital (Jaffer Sherin Street)-25240131

22.Nichani Health Centre( Royapuram)-25978777

23.Sampath Nursing Home(Natchiappa, Mylapore) -24980572

24.Sankara Nethralaya (College Road,Nungambakkam) -28271036

25.Sri Kumaran Ambulance Service (Choolaimedu) -23743348

26.Sri Ramachandra Hospital ( Porur) -24768027

27.St. Isabel Hospital ( Oliver Road,Mylapore) -24991081

28.St.John Ambulance Association( Kodambakkam) -9381001272

29.Voluntary Health Service(Anna Nagar ) -22541972

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Pgs From My Diary - Dated June 20th ' 08

It's 5 mins past 11. ' Oru aayiram paarvayile, un paarvayai naan ariven...' Hello fm. Past few days I have resumed listening to the radio between 10-1, esp Radio Mirchi; Mokkai Nights & Kadhala Kadhala. I was wondering What is it like to become an RJ esp during night time. Who would listen to you...ppl having night shifts, car/taxi/lorry drivers, the road corner pani puri shops, owls & yaa ppl like me who have slept most of the day time and now the eyelids are tired of resting anymore! Oh ya I remember during the reconstruction of my neighbour's house, the workers after a tired day would switch on the radio. It appeared to me like they forget their physical pain and have a peaceful sleep. Their meaning of music is different. Thanks to radio sets which come at affordable prices. ' Neer kulle muzhiginaalum needhi sagadha, nenju kule vaazhum engal jodi saagadha...' Kalai maatum kandaal kaduvul theriyadha from Dasavatharam. Rangarajan Nambi role, the first half an hour is a must watch. Kamal's acting, cinematography, art direction, song every piece of that first few mins in the movie is damn good.

In Kadhala Kadhala, Dr. Love has taken the topic of self love today...the last 2 days the topics were interesting ,office love, celebrity crushes! Today it's boring. ' Loving yourself' , I recall Suresh Punjabi's session in 3rd year. It was a soft skills training pgm for 2 days in collg to equip us for placement at the end of the year. At the close of the first day training, Suresh sir had asked us to write a Love letter to ourselves! To show how important self love is. Dat was the first and last love letter I have written. It's safe in my desk along with another precious letter given by Akhi on Friendship day 12th std. 'un punnagai naan semikindra selvam adi, nee illai endrral naanum inge ezhai adi...' kannukule unnai veithein. I like the lyrics and the innocence PrabhuDeva displays in the song. I prefer listening to the radio n switching channels to my saved Fav playlists in my comp. Vow! Another fav number from one of the worst movies I have seen ever. The song ' Ven megam pen agaa uruvaanadho...' music is by Yuvan from yaaradi nee mohini...' kanmudi orr orum naan saygirein, kanneril anandham naan kaangirein...' Hariharn is such a consummate singer, so much feel in the song...

Uma has said she would come home tomorrow, we girls are so much bored...the hols seem never-ending with no idea of when the company would call...I turn back few pgs , dated 1/6/08, I had prepared a check list of things I should do this summer...Haha..." I have 100% belief that I would do something tomorrow which I had totally ignored today". Am I stupid or optimistic..? I don't know but this much I am sure I love myself a lot. Eppayadhum urupuduvein..:) This belief keeps me going. I have been picking up some random blogs and reading these days. One was that of a gal who is so good in writing, her inditing style is so unique. But I haven't understood why does she take the nay side of things always. She seems to hate herself. From her old posts I could key out there was some love failure. She finds her blog to be her only solace, so I didn't want to comment anything. Really wish she finds love again in life. Ha, Oh ho sanam...Oh Ho, it's Dasa again. It's the Pop singer Kamal! The pairing between Kamal and Jaypradha was good, it would remind anyone of their Salangai Oli...Naadha Vinodhangal. It's 12.20...I am reminded of a friend who is kinda rough these days. I wish to give her a piece of my mind, but I feel she won't take it in the right sense and face-offs don't interest me. ' uravin perumai pirivil kandu, uyirin paadhi kuraindhein...' Azhage sugama un kobangal sugama. The violin piece is amazing. Divi and me had decided to learn guitar this hols, dunno whn..?

Dr. Love is telling something sensible finally. ' Do things that you love, for eg dressing up well & when ppl pass some good comments, you will feel good about yourself' dats quite true:-) Another beautiful thing to do is to openly tell ppl ' They look good/ beautiful/ handsome today ' you don't know, you might be unknowingly making someones day. Hello fm... 'Nilave ennidaam neringadhe, nee ninaikum edathil naan ilay...'dats a beautiful song. Old songs...day before I had chanced upon a tamil song review site. There was this post on " Polluted songs"...bloggers who are lyrics enthusiasts were ripping apart songs, entries of adulterated songs! The main target of one guy was Kannadasan, he was listing double meaning songs of the legend. Well, he got fitting replys from fellow bloggers. I was taken back when he sort of declared one of my fav songs to have vulgar lyrics. ' Senthazham poovil vanthadaum thendral...' from mullum malarum. The beauty of nature and subtle assumptions of nature as woman. I have loved the song so much. Another blogger commented ' Palam sillar ulam enna yen padaithaan andavan from the same song, must be Kannadasan knew there would be ppl like you who see everything in double meaning'...hehehe...I was so happy! Dr. Love signs off wishing the listeners a great weekend. The song is 'Alankuil, koovum reyil yavum isai agum ada kanna...'...Harini's classical touch. I remember Kirthi, in school days we used to sing together Harin's 'Manam Virumbuthe'... Kirthi knows each line by heart. The time is 1'o clock...Ha, his pic is the screensaver in my mob. My frnds call me crazy, but I don't bother...I still get glued to the chair when I see Vijay on screen nevertheless I have got tired of his humdrum roles in the past many flicks...Hmm...I have really liked this idea of writing my dairy listening to radio! Gudnite.

P.S. Net connection isn't stable in the night hours coz of low voltage otherwise I could have made a direct entry into the blog.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

THE ZAHIR: A NOVEL OF OBSESSION.

Having liked the idea of following one's dream in Alchemist, I choose to read another book of the same author, Paul Coelho. Zahir! It's about love, but it isn't a love story. It is about a famous writer's search of his wife Ester who goes missing. The writer's name is untold, it seems to me as Coelho's memoir of his love life with some fiction added . Zahir -the word in the novel means something or someone who fills every piece of your mind to an extent you are not able to think of anything else, sort of ruins your peace of mind. The writer is not able to lead a peaceful life as his missing wife Ester becomes the Zahir of his life. He is obsessed with her thoughts, he would take any step to find where she is. Just to know why did she leave him. Ester is a daring journalist who likes exploring places, people. She wants her husband to become what he is capable of. She underpins her husband in becoming a writer which until then was just a dream for him. Since they were sharing a fine rapport, the writer is confused and unhappy of why did Ester had to leave him without explaining a word. The people he then meets, Mikhail friend of Ester, Maria, the tribe everyone and everything around had something to tell him about the energy of love which till then he hadn't given a thought. He looks back to find out what actually went wrong in their relationship. He hadn't liked the idea of Ester becoming a war correspondent, he paid no heed to the stories that she had to say about people in war zones, their lives. When he asks her to quit the job of a war correspondent , Ester says...(I loved these lines) " I can’t. It’s like a drug. As long as I’m in a war zone, my life has meaning. I go for days without having a bath, I eat whatever the soldiers eat, I sleep three hours a night and wake up to the sound of gunfire. I know that at any moment someone could lob a grenade into the place where we’re sitting, and that makes me live, do you see? Really live, I mean, loving every minute, every second. There’s no room for sadness, doubts, nothing;there’s just a great love for life. They are capable of limitless love, because they no longer have anything to lose. A fatally wounded soldier never asks the medical team: ‘Please save me!’ His last words are usually: ‘Tell my wife and my son that I love them.’ At the last moment, they speak of love!”...but he isn't convinced, and Ester didn't want to explain anything more. She wanted him to understand her passion without words. Having understood what has made his love life abyss, the writer goes all the way from Paris to Kazhakstan to meet his wife. It is the journey which is most of the story. As he moves around he discovers new things, Esther was no longer the Zahir. Ester was just the destination, it's the learnings that he makes in the journey towards Ester which are significant. Ya it's the travel that matters not the terminus.The author has included so many terms and supernatural things from other books which at the end he has mentioned in the credits. To me the book didn't have much meaning, it was like the book had so much to say but very little to understand. Esp that to enjoy life thoroughly, you have to forget your personal history. I couldn't relate to that, the mistakes you make in the past are lessons that will help you in the future. N yaa some supernatural stories which didn't interest me much. But yes there were some fine lines about love, life, friendship, dream in the book which were worth noting down. A list of those I liked, or those I could relate to:

-> The most important thing in all human relationships is conversation, but people don’t talk anymore, they don’t sit down to talk and listen. They go to the theater, the cinema, watch television, listen to the radio, read books, but they almost never talk. If we want to change the world, we have to go back to a time when warriors would gather around a fire and tell stories.
->Everyone believes that the main aim in life is to follow a plan.They never ask if that plan is theirs or if it was created by another person. They accumulate experiences, memories,things, other people’s ideas, and it is more than they can possibly cope with. And that is why they forget their dreams.
->The acomodador or giving-up point: there is always an event in our lives that is responsible for us failing to progress: a trauma, a particularly bitter defeat, a disappointment in love, even a victory that we did not quite understand, can make cowards of us and prevent us from moving on. As part of the process of increasing his hidden powers, the shaman must first free himself from that giving-up point and, to do so,he must review his whole life and find out where it occurred.( I could relate to this)
->Love is an untamed force. When we try to control it, it destroys us. When we try to imprison it, it enslaves us. When we try to understand it, it leaves us feeling lost and confused.
->I learned something recently: our true friends are those who are with us when the good things happen. They cheer us on and are pleased by our triumphs. False friends only appear at difficult times, with their sad, supportive faces, when, in fact, our suffering is serving to console them for their miserable lives. When things were bad last year, various people I had never even seen before turned up to ‘console’ me. I hate that. ( Very true!!)
->The energy of hatred won’t get you anywhere; but the energy of forgiveness, which reveals itself through love, will transform your life in a positive way.
->In the words of a Persian sage: Love is a disease no one wants to get rid of. Those who catch it never try to get better, and those who suffer do not wish to be cured.
->Finally, he explained to me that suffering occurs when we want other people to love us in the way we imagine we want to be loved, and not in the way that love should manifest itself—free and untrammeled, guiding us with its force and driving us on.

N finally a poem on which the whole story is grounded:

ITHACA

When you set out on your journey to Ithaca,
pray that the road is long,
full of adventure, full of knowledge.
The Lestrygonians and the Cyclops,
the angry Poseidon—do not fear them:
You will never find such as these on your path
if your thoughts remain lofty, if a fine
emotion touches your spirit and your body.
The Lestrygonians and the Cyclops,
the fierce Poseidon you will never encounter,
if you do not carry them within your soul,
if your heart does not set them up before you.
Pray that the road is long.
That the summer mornings are many, when,
with such pleasure, with such joy
you will enter ports seen for the first time;
stop at Phoenician markets,
and purchase fine merchandise,
mother-of-pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
and sensual perfumes of all kinds,
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
visit many Egyptian cities,
to learn and learn from scholars.
Always keep Ithaca in your mind.
To arrive there is your ultimate goal.
But do not hurry the voyage at all.
It is better to let it last for many years;
and to anchor at the island when you are old,
rich with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting that Ithaca will offer you riches.
Ithaca has given you the beautiful voyage.
Without her you would never have set out on the road.
She has nothing more to give you.
And if you find her poor, Ithaca has not deceived you.
Wise as you have become, with so much experience,
you must already have understood what Ithacas mean.


Thursday, June 5, 2008

One of my favs of Guru!

Won't spoil the silence of Khamosh Raat with my translation. Courtesy: Bollywhat.com.

Khaamosh raat sahami hava A silent night, a fearsome wind;
tanha tanha dil apna... My heart is lonely...
aur dhoor kahii roshan hua ek chehara ek chehara ek chehara And then, somewhere far away, a light dawned: a face, a face, a face.
yeh sach hai ya sapna... Is this truth, or a dream?
jhuki jhuki palke jab utti When downcast eyelids rose,
nainon mai diye maddham maddham in those eyes were dim lamps.
aadh khule honthon se hansi On slightly parted lips was a smile,
jhank rahii maddham maddham just barely showing through.
kaise kahaan phir ho gayi How and where
uski chhavi maddham maddham did her image then become indistinct?
pal pal utti hasraten The longings stirred by each moment
hone lagi maddham maddham became indistinct.
aur duur kahi roshan hua ek chehara ek chehara ek chehara And then, somewhere far away, a light dawned: a face, a face, a face.
suuraj tha benuur sa The sun was lightless,
uskii damak maddham maddham its brilliance dimming.
chaand bhii tha bujha bujha The moon was also extinguished;
taare bhii the maddham maddham the stars faded.
jugnun dilaasa dene lage The fireflies tried to encourage them.
nanhii sii jaan maddham maddham Their tiny spirits grew dim.
shamaa bhii thak haarke The lamp, defeated, grew weary
hone lagii maddham maddham and began to flicker.
aur dhoor kahi roshan hua ek chehara ek chehara ek chehara And then, somewhere far away, a light dawned: a face, a face, a face.
jiine ka tha ham mai dham I had the courage to live,
par nahi tha koii humdum but I had no life companion.
khushiyon kii thi justujuu I searched for happiness,
mil rahe the bas gham hii gham but found only grief upon grief.
shor mai aise duniya ke bhi Amidst the clamor of the world,
khamoshii thii aur ek the hum there was silence, and I was alone.
raahen sabhii thii suuni suuni All the roads were empty.
utt rahe the qadam tham tham I walked down them slowly, slowly.


Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Born Vs Brought Up -> it's a tie!!!

This time when I went to kerala, I had to travel quite a bit, it takes approx 2 hrs from Mom's house to Dad's. Mom's is in Mallapuram district and Dad's in Palghat. In Kerala though it rains often there is no water logging anywhere; if it takes 1 hr to reach a particular place in Chennai , the same place can be reached in half an hr time if you choose kerala roads. I love both Chennai and Kerala equally. One day when I asked my cousin sis about the districts in Kerala, she named all of them in no time. Ya it's quite easy, there are not many. But if she had asked the same question back, I would have named only very few. So thought when I am back home, I will make a note of all the districts in TN. Just FMK and yaa it's fun.

I picked the pics n names directly from Google wiki:)

Birth place:
KERALA:

My mom's house is in a beautiful place
'Angadipuram' in mallapuram district. It's a well- off city.
The famous Bhagavathi temple, a beautiful railway station( movie shootings happen too), the Chengara Heritage hotel( my Bro gave us all a treat there on his first salary) It's a 'tharavadu' turned into a hotel. Thr is an upcoming amusement park in mallapuram(Kotakunnu amusement park). This time 8 of us, my cousins, their cousins, sm 8 of us had wonderful time there. On the way to Palakkad is a beautiful place called 'Thiruvazhiyode', my Dad's place, I become a 11 yr old gal when I go there. Only till that age I had the blessing of going there with my Dad. It's fields all the way, the flora and fauna, God's own place. Very near is Akhi's house Katampazhipuram.Then my Vellyamma's(Mom's big sis) house dats in Palakkad. On the way to Thrisur is the famous 'Guruvayor temple'. This time got lockets and chains of Krishna for Divi n Uma. Ernakulam, my fav place, one of Asia's well known theme park 'Veega Land', been there twice;once with my cousins and then during our final yr tour. Thiruvanthapuram is the capital, I haven't been there.


My Brought Up:
TAMILNADU:

  1. Chennai District
  2. Coimbatore District
  3. Cuddalore District
  4. Dharmapuri District
  5. Dindigul District
  6. Erode District
  7. Kanchipuram District
  8. Kanyakumari District
  9. Karur District
  10. Krishnagiri District
  11. Madurai District
  12. Nagapattinam District
  13. Namakkal District
  14. Nilgiris District
  15. Perambalur District
  16. Pudukkottai District
  17. Ramanathapuram District
  18. Salem District
  19. Sivaganga District
  20. Thanjavur District
  21. Theni District
  22. Thoothukudi District
  23. Tiruchirapalli District
  24. Tirunelveli District
  25. Tiruvallur District
  26. Tiruvannamalai District
  27. Tiruvarur District
  28. Vellore District
  29. Viluppuram District
  30. Virudhunagar District
  31. Ariyalur District
  32. Tirupur District


I have never gone out of Chennai. A house bird most of the time. Even in Chennai haven't visited all places. Might be coz Chennai is a metropolis and also that I don't have any relatives out here. Oh but I have heard from friends about the beautiful locations in Villipuram,Theni etc. I have decided to tell Mom to avail for LFC next time and explore these places.

Sunday, June 1, 2008

First book this summer

Having decided to read more books this vacation, I looked at my book shelf. One row is full of Engg books, the next row has novels, short stories, Tenali Raman, Akbar Birbal stories. In another cupboard was a couple of books, the sight of which makes my Mom scold me. Yea last year jan when I went to bangalore , I visited the Iskco temple there. It's Lord Krishna temple. Beautiful place to be. Statues in marble, I still remember the Krishna-Radha sculpt. I don't know, all of a sudden how did I become so damn spiritual. No idea...I insisted my Mom to buy the Bhagavad Gita and some couple of books which came along with it as a package. I seemed to have promised I would surely read it all. It's untouched as of now. C now giving another assurance to my Mom that I will read it, is foolish. So I didn't say a word. K so back to the novel shelf, thr were Chetan Bhaghats 2 books(read), Robert Ludlum's 2 books, GodFather, A Tale Of Two Cities(all unread). I choose the last one, it's just 150 pgs:) A Tale Of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. The story revolves around the period (18th century) which leads to the French revolution. How much do I love history...? Not much...revolutions, prisons,bloodshed. I remembered reading Scarlet Pimpernal in school days. The bottomline of this story was the French nobel atrocity towards the social class and how finally the power comes to the people and they take revenge. The characters Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton(lookalikes). Darnay though belongs to the French nobel family is kind to the peasantry. Carton is a lawyer in England, someone who has not lived for himself. He feels life has been really harsh to him. Then there is Dr.Manette who has been a prisoner for many years in France for no fault of his own. Both Darnay and Carton are truly in love with Lucie, the beautiful daughter of Dr.Manette. The first few chapters is the reunion of Manette with his daughter in England, Darnay's marriage with Lucie, and few pages on the aristocrats atrocities in France. In the last half, when the people take power, they start mercilessly killing all the nobels and their families. Since Darnay is a nephew of a cruel French nobel, he is also put in prison. To save Darnay, and having the love for Lucie in his heart Carton takes the place of Darnay and help the family escape from France. The story orbs with two places England and France and hence the name. Revolution, Injustice, Sacrifice, Anguish, Love are the keywords. My favorite character would be that of Sydney Carton, who sacrificed his life for the happiness of a family.the concluding dialog of the novel 'It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known' says Carton before being beheaded by the guillotine. Some real facts like the prison 'Bastille', the revolution is subtly mixed with the right amount of fiction. Not a bad start at all, I liked it!!!

Strangled in thoughts

Huh...doesn't the mind hav any other job than significantly thinking of trivial and chapter-closed matters....I feel only seldom I have used my mind for the right purpose, it keeps wandering like a nomad most of the times....it's like this, you test your memory, lets c how powerful it is....in a minutes time the first thing that would strike is the worst thing that has happened, I seriously wonder why so....why does this brain has to filter the worst and send....??The answer is obvious, it's like a count...yaa exactly the brain keeps a count of the matters and the order in which you conceive them, it's like a stack LIFO(Last In First Out)....the matter that is the last in the order will soon get out of your mind and the ones which you keep imagining or thinking of finding a solution always would be the first in the order....thats why when u sit to think... the unsolved, the unhappy matters come first to your mind....it's not the minds fault, it's yours....you have given some matter so much importance and it has highest priority now....the easy way to escape from the strangle is to keep decrementing the count, yaa just skip the matter that comes first...then the next, thn the nxt....soon you will find the happy ones;they are the bottom dwellers...now don't decrement, stay there keep thinking until it gains priority....surely next time when you sit to think, the happier ones will find more space....the brain which controls the other systems, can also be controlled....let go off this stmt ' I m not able to let go this topic off my mind'.....u surely can!!! N hey if u find this post crap, do the same...let it go off your mind....hehehehe:)