Earthly Lesson's

Inspired by a photograph taken of earth—which appears as a tiny “mote of dust”--by the space probe Voyager. Isaac Asimov wrote (in 1994):

Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there — on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.

It’s a sentiment worth thinking about.

A day with Autowala

Background:
Had to catch an auto to get back to office, after handing over my car to be serviced. Conversation with an autowala ...

Result: Sweet experience.

Champion: Autowala

Play:

I had hassled with the autowala for Rs.30 from Adyar to Nandam. Stroked up a conversation with him on his day today needs and whatz his thought abt storing up for the winter like the ANT does.
Let me describe this character first ... he was cherubic & looked similar to the 7G Rainbow colony hero in physical contour. But mark my words, the clarity in his thought stumped me and thatz what i'm goin' to pen it over here.

Man is a positive personality by birth and thatz the design of God ... reason ... Mankind always walks forward & not backward ;)

God is a great leveller ... reason ... story goes like this ... There was a Guruji who used to feed a monkey with two breads in the morning & four breads at nite. And this pattern was repeated for quite sometime that monkey was quite aware of the pattern. One fine day, the Guruji reversed the pattern, that is .. he gave four breads in the morning & two breads at nite to the same monkey. And, this monkey being clever (presumed) faulted the Guruji of stealing its quota of two breads at nite. Now, Monkey in this analogy is the Mankind and God the Guruji ... Man with his limited understanding always gruggies when things dont turn out the way he desires and faults the God ... but the fact remains that you get things in a randomised fashion so as to fit in with the magnificent design of God yet justice is served!

And to finally round off the conversation he says ... Mankind can accomplish anything he desires provided he/she gives the effort displayed by a drowning man's struggle to save his life :)

I thanked the autowala gleefully and handed him Rs.35 as a token of appreciation for his enlighting talk :)

kindred soul ...

may peace be with u
may the sun shine more in ur life
may the breeze caress u
may the winds tear away ur worries
may the lake of sorrow dry out in ur life
may the moments of joy pile up
may peace be urs !

Nostalgic ticklers ...

Just to remind you of our good old college days!!!!
and the fun we had.... Enjoy!!!!!

Jeppiar, the chairman of St Joseph's College Of Engineering
and some other colleges (in Chennai) was a police constable.
He was the right hand of our ernest MGR and due to his
political power started the engineering colleges.

Now, enjoy these English phrases quoted by Mr.Jeppiar

# About his family : ----------------
* I have two daughters. Both of them are girls...(?)

# At the ground : -------------
* All of you, stand in a straight circle.
* There is no wind in the balloon.
*The girl with the mirror please come her...{Meaning girl
with specs).

# To a boy, angrily : -----------------
* I talk, he talk, why you middle middle talk ?

# Giving a punishment : -------------------
* You, rotate the ground four times...
* You, go and under-stand the tree...
* You three of you, stand together separately.
* Why are you late - say YES or NO .....(?)

# Sir at his best : ---------------
Sir had once gone to a film with his wife. By chance,
he happened to see one of our boys at the theatre,
though the boy did not see them. So the next day at
college ... ( to that boy ) -
"Yesterday I saw you WITH MY WIFE at the Cinema Theatre"

#Inside the Class : ----------------
* Open the doors of the window. Let the atmosphere come in.
* Open the doors of the window. Let the Air Force come in.
* Cut an apple into two halves - ta ke the bigger half.
* Shhh...Quiet, boys...
the principal just passed away in the corridor
* You, meet me behind the class. (meaning AFTER the class .. )
* Both of u three, get out of the class.
* Close the doors of the windows please.
I have winter in my nose today ...
* Take Copper Wire of any metal especially of Silver.....
* Take 5 cm wire of any length....
********************
once jeppiar had come late to a college function,
by the time the function had started, so he went to the dais,
and said, sorry i am late, because on the way my car
hit 2 muttons (Meaning goats).

Lateral Thinking #

Many years ago, when a person who owed money could be thrown into jail, a
merchant in London had the misfortune to owe a huge sum to a money-lender.
The money-lender, who was old, ugly and wicked, fancied the merchant's
beautiful teenage daughter. He proposed a bargain. He said he would cancel
the merchant's debt if he could have the girl instead. Both the merchant
and his daughter were horrified at the proposal.

So the cunning money-lender proposed that they let Providence decide the
matter. He told them that he would put a black pebble and a white pebble
into an empty money-bag and then the girl would have to pick out one of
the
pebbles. If she chose the black pebble, she would become his wife and her
father's debt would be cancelled. If she chose the white pebble she would
stay with her father and the debt would still be cancelled. But if she
refused to pick out a pebble,her father would be thrown into jail and she
would starve. Reluctantly, the merchant agreed. They were standing on a
pebble-strewn path in the merchant's garden as they talked and the
money-lender stooped down to pick up the two pebbles. As he picked up the
pebbles, the girl, sharp-eyed with fright, noticed that he picked up two
black pebbles and put them into the money-bag. He then asked the girl to
pick out the pebble that was to decide her fate and that of her father.

Imagine that you are standing on the path in the merchant's garden. What
would you have done if you had been the unfortunate girl?

Refuse to take a pebble?
Point out that there are two black pebbles in the bag and expose the
money-lender as a cheat ?
Take a black pebble and sacrifice yourself in order to save your father
from prison?

None of the suggestions in this situation is very helpful, for if the girl
does not take a pebble her father goes to prison, and if she does take a
pebble, then she has to marry the money- lender.

NOW, THINK LATERALLY! What do you think the girl did??
The girl in the pebble story put her hand into the money-bag and drew out
a
pebble. Without looking at it, she fumbled and let it fall to the path,
where it was immediately lost among all the others. "Oh, how clumsy of
me,"
she said, "but never mind - if you look into the bag you will be able to
tell which pebble I took by the Colour of the one that is left."

Since the remaining pebble is of course black, it must be assumed that she
had taken the white pebble, since the money-lender dare not admit his
dishonesty. In this way, using lateral thinking, the girl changes what
seems an impossible situation into an extremely advantageous one!

MORAL OF THE STORY: Most of the complex problems do have a solution its
only that we dont attempt to think.

SO START THINKING :)

Pray ...

Destiny beckons,
Is what my heart tells
Shouldering a mind,
With conflicting idea's
Permanence by virtue of power,
To baulk the daemons
Quest for elusive dreamz,
With lion heart
Is what i pray to thee !

my heart soars ...

The test of courage comes when we are in the minority; the test of
tolerance comes when we are in the majority.
--Ralph W. Stockton

Valor soars above What the world calls misfortune.
--Addison.