"This world is not perfect." (Dalai Lama)

Pic Src: Hope

“The fact that there is always a positive side to life is the one thing that gives me a lot of happiness. This world is not perfect. There are problems. But things like happiness and unhappiness are relative. Realizing this gives you hope.”

HIS HOLINESS, THE 14^th DALAI LAMA

A short message that can do wonders in making you a better human being! Essentially this world is not at all perfect as we see it and feel it. With all the flaws so glaringly visible (as is shouting from the rooftops) we can hardly call it something perfect. I have frequently heard from my mother that ‘this world needs to be constructed all over again’. As a young one, who is exuberant and enthusiastic, I could not fully grasp the import of these words. Now that I myself have to suffer because of the maladies of this world, I can very well comprehend the psychological implications of these words.

A few years ago I had written a poem, entitled ‘What if’:

What if I can’t cry

when heart is heavy,

I still can wipe a tear

with my laughing eyes.

What if I can’t fly

even if heart wishes to,

I still can soar high

with daring dreams.

What if words fail me

when it is most important,

I still can surely make

my silence expressive.

What if I can’t have

what I wish to,

I still can achieve

what I aspire to.

© Amritbir Kaur

It just depends on your attitude when you see the glassful or as half empty. The fact of the matter is that it contains liquid equal to half the capacity of the glass. The key to success and individual happiness lies in the point of view that you carry. It is often said: ‘It is better to cover your feet than to carpet the whole world’. And then you have a bagful of hopes and aspirations to be fulfilled…

What Abraham Lincoln said...

Pic Src: Lesson on Patience

Abraham Lincoln said, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” Now this is another of those fully loaded statements, which has many times stuff than it seems to point out apparently. May be it is the way we would like to interpret it for our convenience! Often it is just a play of words that is needed for success to succeed. This success required for us to be successful comes through successful attempts that lead to success.

What Lincoln says can be taken as a lesson of patience. Just give it a thought – Would you have the patience to sharpen the axe for four hours? I’m already having second thoughts!!!

Sharpening of axe is the preparatory period – a time when we need to plan for our later actions. It is this planning if done carefully, patiently and with precision, devotion, earnest intentions and concentration, can help us reap us fruits of success.

Patience and planning are the perfect ingredients of a success story. Many of us would be familiar with a story we heard or read in our childhood – ‘The Hen that Laid Golden Eggs’. The farmer didn’t have the patience; he was blinded by his extreme greed. Apart from that what added to his misery was his poor planning. He could have enjoyed the luxury of having an egg of gold daily. But he failed miserably and ended up being empty-handed.

In the twenty first century, man has made his life so rapid paced that he wants everything he wants at his disposal in no time, that is, within the time taken for batting of an eyelid. They adopt shortcuts for achieving their dreams. The X-generation doesn’t want to ‘waste’ time on paving way to their dream goals.

Here what comes to my mind is the incident that happened in the life of two college-going friends, X and Y. There was a basic difference in their attitude towards life. X believed in planning for whatever he had to do. It was ingrained in his habits that he prepared a ‘to-do list’ for each day. Y would often mock at this habit of his friend. He termed it as something very kiddish. He was of the view that we can remember what we are to do according to our needs and that we can decide on the spur of the moment. Within two years of his leaving college, he established himself as a successful architect. But Y was still on the lookout for a job and was almost frustrated at not being able to carve out a niche for himself in the professional field. What I wanted to convey by quoting this anecdote was that it was the variation of their outlook and approach towards life that led to totally contrasting results for both of them. It is very important to mention here that both had similar intellectual capacities. They possessed a good knowledge about their subject and also had the skills to apply that knowledge practically. In other words, they had all that it takes to be successful in one’s respective field.

I wonder if I lost track of what Lincoln’s quote conveys. But anyway it was just a stream of thoughts that brought me to the point where I am going to end my post. Now I myself am guilty of not having planned before writing this post and look where it has brought me!

Now I should better hold my tongue, rather restrict my hands from typing or I’ll have to chew my words! And that is the toughest thing to digest!!!

A Genius says Goodbye! (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)

Gabriel García Marquez, the great Latin American writer, said goodbye to the public life in 2008 due to complications in his health: lymphatic cancer. He sent a letter to his friends.
Here are the wonderful thoughts:

“If for an instant God forgot that

I am just a puppet, and He gave me one more piece of life,

I would take advantage of that time, the best I could.”

I would probably not say everything I think,

but definitely think all I say.

I would value things not for what they are worth,

but for what they represent.

I would sleep less and dream more.

For every minute we close our eyes we lose sixty seconds of light.

I would continue where others have stopped

and I would rise when others sleep.

If God allowed me one more piece of life, I would dress simpler,

would wallow in the sunlight, leaving uncovered,

not only my body but also my soul.

I would prove to men how wrong they are to think that

they stop falling in love as they get older,

since they actually start getting older as soon as they stop falling in love.

I would give wings to the children,

but I would leave the child alone

so that he could learn how to fly on his own.

To the old, I would show them

how death comes not with the ageing process but with forgetting.

So many things I have learned from you….

I have learned that everybody wants to live at the top of the mountain,

forgetting that is how we climb is all that matters.

I have learned that when a newborn grabs his father’s thumb,

he takes a hold on him forever.

I have learned that a man has the right to look down on somebody,

only when he is helping him to get up.

So many things I have learned from all of you.

Always tell, what you feel and do what you think.

If I knew that today it would be the last time that I will see you,

I will embrace you strongly to be the guardian of your soul.

If I would know that these would be the last minutes

that I will see you, I would say to you

“I love you” and wouldn´t assume that you would know it.

There is always morning where life gives us

another opportunity to make things good.

Keep always close to you, your dear ones, and tell them

how much you need them and love and take care of them.

Take time to say, “I am sorry”, “forgive me”, “please,”

“ thank you” and all the nice and lovely words you know.

Nobody would remember you if you keep your thoughts secret.

Force yourself to express them.

Show your friends and dear ones how much you care about them.

P.S. Most of you must have already read this inpiring piece but I couldn't control myself from sharing it here..the inspiration that we can get from these wonderful lines is soemthing we cannot ignore no matter how hard we try. The lines seem to carry the essence of human life. The lines also reminded me of the famous poem 'If' by Rudyard Kipling.
I do hope that you enjoyed the presentation just as a short journey of life....good luck

"Life goes on..."

“I can sum up in the three words what I have learnt in life – Life goes on.” – This is what Robert Frost had to say about life. Although we sometimes refer to time as standing still yet that is only a fleeting feeling. It moves on and helps to colour our life in varied new hues. Life changes each day. A day or more precisely 24 hours or 1440 minutes is not only a numeric figure but it connotes these many lessons learnt. The application of these lessons is carried over to the next day. And life goes on…

I once read a board in a hospital that said, “This too will pass.” What a wonderful way of inspiring the ones, who had been bogged down by one or the other ailment. Moreover, the essence of life lies in seeing the glass half full and not half empty. It’s all in our mind, the way we look at the things life will seem to be wrapped in those colours only. A person, who is happy will see the bliss of spring all around him; and when we feel sad, dejected and lonely, the whole of the environment seems to be engulfed in the aura of solitude.

Keep in mind the next time, you see a flower laden tree, carry the happiness in your mind and you will see the nature herself spread cheer around you. Life goes on … true! But we have to make it run on our own terms. Be the controller, director and writer of your life. Adapt yourself to changing moods of the life. And not even for a moment you will feel the pinch of the extremities of life.

Going back...

pic source: www.designtym.com

The SMS have revolutionized the field of communication. While some are just the one time read type, there are others, which are nothing short of being literary jewels in themselves. I would like to share a message here with my readers:

I want to go back to the time

when ‘Dad’s  shoulder was the ‘highest place on Earth’

when your ‘worst enemies’ were ‘your siblings’

when ‘dad’ was the only ‘hero’

when ‘love’ was ‘Mom’s hug’

when the only thing that could ‘hurt’ were ‘skinned knees’

when the only thing ‘broken’ were ‘your toys’

when ‘goodbyes’ only meant ‘till tomorrow’.

The Most Cherishable Freedom

Rousseau has rightly remarked ‘Man is born free but everywhere he is in chains’. We all love our freedom and this can very well be called the most treasured thing. Imagine being a slave, and then only can we judge the extent of significance of this precious freedom. It was on August 15, 1947 that India won its freedom from the British empire. India was declared a Sovereign State when the Constitution was enforced on January 26, 1950. Today we celebrate the 60^th Republic Day of our country, with its magnificent and unparalleled parade on the Rajpath in New Delhi.

Here I present for my readers some most cherished quotes of the Indian leaders about freedom:

“Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom.”                                                   

– Jawahar Lal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India.

“We end today a period of ill fortune and India discovers herself again. The achievement we celebrate today is but a step, an opening of opportunity, to the greater triumphs and achievements that await us. Are we brave enough and wise enough to grasp this opportunity and accept the challenge of the future?”                                             - Jawahar Lal Nehru

“We must re-dedicate ourselves on this day to the peaceful but sure realisation of the dream that had inspired the Father of our Nation and the other captains and soldiers of our freedom struggle, the dream of establishing a classless, co-operative, free and happy society in "his country," "We must remember that this is more a day of dedications than of rejoicing - dedication to the glorious task of making the peasants and workers the toilers and the thinkers fully free, happy and cultured”           -Dr. Rajendra Prasad, the first President of India

We must learn to cherish our freedom and also make it a point that we help others in doing so. We have to respect others’ freedom too. What needs to be kept in mind always is that our freedom is not absolute. The limit of our freedom ends where the boundary of the other’s freedom begins. So respect others. And as Mahatma Gandhi said, “We must become the change we want to see.” 

Literary Jewels from Obama's Inaugural Speech

The winds of change have swept across America. The precursor is the man “whose father less than 60 years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.” This    year old, Barack Obama with a towering and commanding personality chose to be sworn in with his full name Barack Hossein Obama.

The reason why a political event has made it to a literary blog is his well-worded and literary speech. I share with you some of his meaningful quotes from his inaugural speech:

“Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things — some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.”

“…our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.”

“Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends — hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism — these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history.”

He also quoted the following lines: "Let it be told to the future world ... that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive...that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet (it)."

Obama finished his speech with the following brilliant, very meaningful words; giving his speech a perfect finishing touch – ending on a hopeful and promising note:

“With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.”

Reflection - a viewpoint

The word ‘reflection’ according to dictionary means different things – it is ‘a calm lengthy intent consideration’ (that is, contemplation) and ‘a remark expressing careful consideration’ (that is, observation) to quote only two of the various meanings of the word ‘reflection’.
If we take the word in terms of our life and our personality, we will find that what kind of life we are leading is nothing but a reflection of the type of personality we have. The fact that the scene of life changes the moment we change our outlook and attitude towards it, stand testimony to the declaration made in the previous sentence (to quote myself: “life is but a reflection of our personality”). Just as the image in the mirror reflects what we present before it, similarly our life is what we make of it.
We, as humans, are often apprehensive of the ‘self-assumed’ oncoming problems of our future life, so much so that sometimes the problem itself does not exist or is very negligible, and it is only our thinking that makes it all the more profound and so ensnaring. Charles Dickens has rightly remarked, “Reflect upon your present blessings - of which every man has many - no on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.”
To save ourselves of this trap of unhappiness or misfortune we should reflect upon the moments of joy that we have experienced in the past times. And we would find a sudden transformation. There would be miraculous escape from most of the problems and tensions of our life. This is possible because of that ‘inward glance’ because basically the answer lies within us; as it is said ‘It is all in mind’.
Trying knowing yourself and you’ll know the world in a much better way!

Jane Austen on Pride and Vanity

Jane Austen has been my one of my all time favourites ever since I was in school. Although we might say all of her novels have a limited area that they cover (as a critic has said 'she worked on six inches of ivory) but even in this restricted field she has given such valuable insights about human personality. It is not that we need a very wide canvas to convey our feelings and messages.
For instance, in her very famous novel 'Pride and Prejudice' she has remarked:
"Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us."
Now we can't have so clear a distinction between the meaning of the two words - Pride and Vanity - even from the dictionary itself.
So the next time you read a book by Jane Austen, locate the statements wherein lies the essence of reading the book. It is not whole book that we cherish later on after having read it. it is only for such meaningful statements that keeps it close to our heart.

'Brevity is Soul of Wit'

Shakespeare in his famous drama ‘Hamlet’ writes:

…brevity is the soul of wit,

And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,

I will be brief…

The phrase ‘brevity is the soul of wit’ owes its origin to this celebrated play of the ‘Bard of Avon’. But the phrase gained currency and now it has become a part and parcel of the host of standard English proverbs. But due to this generalization being applied to this phrase, the original context has been somewhat distorted. While the character of Polonius (in the play ‘Hamlet’), who utters these words is of very high opinion about his ‘wit’ yet he is the least witty and the least brief of all the characters. Sigmund Freud even went on to call him “the old chatterbox”, in his essay ‘With and its Relation to the Unconscious’.
For understanding the essence of the phrase ‘brevity is the soul of wit’ let us first try to comprehend what wit really means. The meaning of wit has undergone periodic change. In the Renaissance the word ‘wit’ meant wisdom or ‘intelligence’. Coming to the seventeenth century, it came to mean ‘fancy’, implying the kind of thought and language used in the metaphysical poetry, composed by the likes of John Donne.
Sometimes the word ‘wit is now used synonymously with ‘humour’ but this is only partially true. In the modern times the word ‘wit’ connotes intellectually amusing utterances. So we can safely say that with is human with a tinge of intellectual element, that is, a mixture of humour and wisdom.
Alexander Pope, while defining a true wit, has remarked “What oft was thought, but ne’er so well expressed”. This brings us to the association of the element of brevity with the concept of wit. Even in our daily life we often stand witness to the situations like – sometimes a person cracks a joke but nobody laughs, while at other times only a statement consisting only of a few words clicks and is able to evoke roars of laughter. This is where the role of brevity in wit comes in. Pithy and precise statements can exercise the desired influence. As opposed to this, humour gets lost in the downpour of words. Verbosity can never be the basis and soul of wit.
So be careful, next time you say something to make someone smile, make it brief!

Quotes by Scientists

“Give us the knowledge of laws of nature, and both future and past will reveal their secrets.” – Sir Issac Newton

“Measure what is measurable, and make measurable what is not so.” – Galileo Galilei (the inventor of telescope)

“Thus the task is not so much to see what no one has yet seen; but to think what nobody has thought, about that which everybody sees.” – Erwin Schrodinger (great physicist who studied quantum physics and waves)

“False facts are highly injurious to the progress of science, for they often endure long; but false views, if supported by some evidence, do little harm, for every one takes a salutary pleasure in proving their falseness.” – Charles Darwin

“I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn’t learn something from him.” – Galileo Galilei

“Not only does God play dice, but… he sometimes throws them where they cannot be seen.” – Stephen Hawking (the British Physicist)

A Prayer

We often use Tennyson's line: "More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of. " But little attention do we pay to this fact that how less we pray. We actually don't God enough for the little things that we possess - those things are only assumed little by us because we never think of them that way.

Here I would like to share with my readers a nice little prayer I read on the internet:

O God, I thank You for this day of life

for eyes to see the skyfor ears to hear the birds

for feet to walk amidst the trees

for hands to pick the flowers from the earth

for a sense of smell to breathe in the sweet

perfumes of nature

for a mind to think about and appreciate

the magic of everyday miracles

for a spirit to swell in joy at Your mighty presence

everywhere.

A Prayer by: Marian Wright Edelman,

Founder of the Children's Defense Fund
Source of this prayer: Inspiration Peak

Honesty - Still the Best Policy

‘Honesty is the best policy’ – this is a statement that we have heard most often since as far back as we can remember. But its implications have been changing for us with the changing times. At the very onset we had learnt this statement only because we were told to do so by our society and the family. It had little meaning for us then. A little later, when we started school the import of this proverb was – not to steal others’ things and not to tell lies. By the time we reached middle or secondary stage the implications had been altered altogether. For our convenience we took it as a statement that excluded those lies that were spoken for someone’s good or those that did not cause harm to others. That is to say we could utter those lies. But as we reached college or university level, the statement began to seem more and more bookish and superficial to most of us. Here the question arises – Is this the correct approach? Certainly not. Honesty is still the best policy and will continue to stay so for all time to come.
Let us have a look at the concept of honesty. It is not an external quality. Being honest to ourselves comes first and then to those around us. Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, former President of India, had rightly remarked, “Only the man of serene mind can realize the spiritual meaning of life. Honesty with oneself is the condition of spiritual integrity.” The policy of honesty works on the principle of give and take. If we are honest to others, only then can we expect others to be honest to us. It’s not very rare when we read in the newspapers that a person returned someone’s lost bag even knowing that it contained lakhs of rupees or other valuable things. If we want to get back our lost bags safely, we will have to return others’ bags gracefully.
The virtue of honesty is not at all a bookish concept. It is this honesty only that assists in taking the world forward in times of widespread corruption and falsehood. We generally believe that poverty leads to crimes. But there are poor who are honest to the core inspite of their extreme poverty. So we cannot sweeping statements like saying that the policy has lost its value or importance in the present day context.
As far as being honest to oneself is concerned, it entails being true in one’s heart of hearts, accepting the reality and facing the facts squarely. Moreover, being dishonest to ourselves means widening the gap between the divine presence and ourselves. The famous English poet, Alexander Pope, has expressed that “an honest man is the noblest work of God”. God is not a being; it is a force that is present in all of us. We keep on moving away from the inner light due to a veil of dishonesty and lies. William Wordsworth in his famous Immortality Ode has stressed upon the fact that a child carries with himself a tinge of the heavenly presence with him in childhood. But as he gets more and more involved in materialistic chores, he keeps on moving away from the feeling of the presence of a Heavenly force.
Honesty is just like the lighthouse – it guides the people so that they can safely sail away on the sea of life to the shore that is our final destination. Therefore making the children capable of honesty is wherein the essence of education lies.

'Perspectives' by an Unknown Author

I want to share with my readers a story I read on the Net a few years back. Yesterday I came across a printout of the same in my file of such treasures. The story was attributed to an Unknown Author. Here it goes:
One day a father and his rich family took his young son on a trip to the country with the firm purpose to show how poor people can be. They spent a day and a night in the farm of a very poor family. When they got back from their trip the father asked his son,
“How was the trip?”
“Very good, Dad!”
“Did you see how poor people can be?” the father asked.
“Yeah!”
“And what did you learn?”
The son answered, “I saw that we have a dog at home, and they have four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of the garden, they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lamps in the garden, they have the stars. Our patio reaches to the front yard, they have a whole horizon.”
When the little boy was finishing, his father was speechless.
His son added, “Thanks, Dad, for showing me how poor we are!” isn’t it true that it all depends on the way you look at things? If you have love, friends, family, health, good humour and a positive attitude toward life, you’ve got everything!
You can’t buy any of these things. You can have all the material possessions you can imagine, provisions etc. for the future but if you are poor of spirit, you have nothing!

Charlotte Bronte's Message of Peace

Charlotte Bronte’s quote:
“Life appears to me too short to be spent in nursing animosity or registering wrongs”,
taken from her famous novel ‘Jane Eyre’ gives us a message of being at peace with ourselves and with others. Animosity (meaning ‘bitter hostility’) is such a negative emotion that it should never become the cause of our actions, that is, the guiding factor of our deeds. The wrongs committed should not be recorded permanently but indeed they need to be forgotten as soon as possible with no ill-will against its source. Although it is said than done, yet for something to happen we at least should give it a try. If we don’t ever try nothing will happen. So start forgetting all the negative things happening to you.

Bill Gates's quotes

Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft and the more recently established Bill-Mesinda Foundation (in 2000), had stepped down as the CEO of Microsoft in January 2000. Recently he retired from Microsoft to spend more time for his foundation. Gates's last day at Microsoft was June 27, 2008. He remains a non-executive chairman of Microsoft. The reason why I write about him on my blog, even though mine is not a technology blog, is because of some of his words that can be used as quotations. To begin with something humorous:

“I actually thought that it would be a little confusing during the same period of your life to be in one meeting when you're trying to make money, and then go to another meeting where you're giving it away.”

“I really had a lot of dreams when I was a kid, and I think a great deal of that grew out of the fact that I had a chance to read a lot.”

“Life is not fair; get used to it.”

“We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten. Don't let yourself be lulled into inaction.”

“Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose.”

“Its fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.”

“If you think your teacher is tough, wait until you get a boss. He doesn't have tenure.”

Examinations

With my examinations approaching very near, I was reminded of the statement I once read in a magazine, ‘Oh! God, do not put me into examination.’ But we have to face the facts – let alone the academic examinations; we have to take a test every day, each moment of life. The examinations are a part and parcel of our lives, and we cannot run away from. So let’s face it.

Talking of the academic examinations, a student always fears the exams. That’s probably because of the system of education being examination oriented. Although a system of evaluation is claimed to be followed in educational institutions, still an undue stress is laid on the year-end examinations. But anyway we have to bear that. The key to success is being well-prepared and ready to face the ‘onslaught’.
To end it on a humorous note, there is a quotation of Charles Caleb Colton:

Examinations are formidable even to the best prepared,
for the greatest fool may ask more than the wisest man can answer.

Oh! the difference

                                                   © Amritbir Kaur

God, grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
the courage to change the things I can;
and the wisdom to know the difference.

This is a prayer given by Reinhold Niebuhr. The world would be a much better place to live in if we all would start following it wishing it for ourselves.

President's Quotes

Here are some the quotes of our respected President Abdul Kalam (courtesy the website of President-- http://www.presidentofindia.nic.in) :

"Thinking should become your capital asset, no matter whatever ups and downs you come across in your life."

"God has not promised Skies always blue, Flower-strewn pathways all our life through; God has not promised Sun without rain, Joy without sorrow, Peace without pain"

"What actions are most excellent? To gladden the heart of a human being, to feed the hungry, to help the afflicted to lighten the sorrow of the sorrowful and to remove the wrongs of injured?"

"When you speak, speak the truth; perform when you promise; discharge your trust. Withhold your hands from striking, and from taking that which is unlawful and bad."



Hope you relish these. This is food for your thought.