Great escape

Interesting and funny events occur during all the trips, no matter ,the nature of trip. Our honeymoon trip also did not fail on the account. The beginning was true to the Indian standards , train to Madurai arriving casually late by 2 hours, making us stand on the platform at 11 o clock , only to look amazingly at so many people who had caught their sleeps on the platforms. The travel was good as it was second AC, in which we were travelling . We had no chance to meet strangers ( co passengers ) with strange actions,as it was late night and most were in their slumber. I too tried to sleep o the upper birth, envying all those sleeping blissfully on a rocker. I was also afraid of going beyond Madurai, if at all I slept well . I never got more than a few winks and was totally alert from six in the morning , only for the train to reach our destination by 7.30. There we had the driver arranged by the resort, ready to pick us.

It was a nice Indica with a good driver, conversant in Tamil. I kept asking about the places I wanted to know, without distracting him from his primary job. we had our breakfast at a hotel on the highway. We kept passing the highway , looking at nothing but hills on either side. My wife was good at sleeping in a moving car , so she had no trouble, as the car seat made a good bed and i made a good human pillow. She was well till we negotiated the first few of the 17 hair pin bends we had to encounter, after which she started retching as i she had a germ laden roadside chicken biryani. Then she felt a little OK after we got down and took a breath of fresh air. we proceeded uphill to the resort thinking her ordeal was over. No sooner than we got down , my wife puked everything she had for breakfast, before rushing towards the restroom. Luckily for us and also the resort she vomited close to the lawn rather than the middle of the lobby( if that had happened , we would have been unforgettable guest in the most unpleasant way.

We got a nice room , changed and we thought we will try some local food. We got down from our room to find only a few shops and a north Indian Jain restaurant and a mixed menu Malayali hotel ( I mean including beef). Then we heard that there was a Saravana Bhavan in the town. We had even decided to go there; then we came to know that we had to travel 20 kms on a jeep on the hill roads taking one hour to get there. So we thought we would try out the vegetarian Jain hotel. We went in as we had no options

There was one north Indian family loading themselves all wheatish things. There was no one else other than them and a thin bespectacled guy serving them. The surprise was that there was no cashier . My surprise was gone later , when it became clear that the thin guy was doubling ,rather tripling as the waiter, server and cashier / manager. Further surprise was that the guy was not willing to take orders fro us till he finished billing the north Indian family. I wanted the most rapidly available item on their menu, but he was in no hurry , serving me only a good 30 minutes after we entered the place. I gobbled whatever was on my plate and my wife nibbled whatever was on hers and pushed the rest to me. And for the night we bought whatever was needed so the my wife would churn out a simple and nice meal.

And the biggest escape came to the front only the next day when we went for sightseeing. We had to have our lunch in the small town square before going the other way for further sightseeing. we were taken to the Saravana Bhavan , which was nothing more than the namesake of the famous , overcharging hotel chain HSB. And my goodness, the crowd there was maddening than at the real HSB. The driver had to use his local influence to get us in to the hotel for a meal;without which we would have had to stand in the queue for at least good part of an hour. The food was eatable and not complainable( which is always the case when you are hungry and have missed home food for a couple of days - but retrospectively , not a place where you would pay and eat ).We were just thanking our stars that we didn't venture out to eat at this place the day before and for escaping the ordeal.

FACE IS THE MIRROR OF THE MIND

This is a old proverb that , i came to hear during the primary school years. There have been moments when i have experienced the same , unable to hide my feelings to the people around me. My parents can obviously sense my moments of anguish/ frustration , so easily , even before, I thought I was showing them. The same held true for me with my parents.

Yesterday afternoon , I learnt the face could reveal a lot about the mind of even the strangers, while watching Arnaab Goswami's interview( screwing) of HONOURABLE Minister Suresh Kalmadi. The way he talked and gestured , even a kid could be sure that , our Hon'ble minister was trying to hide a couple of huge pumpkins under the plate. The face of our dishonorable minister revealed more than it could hide. The mild stammer and irritability to fend of the questions gave away the fact that he had a hand / leg or what not , in the CWG scam. I just wonder whether it's commonwealth games or Corrupt Wealth Gobbling!!

However one thing is sure; the TV channels will get new fodder,sooner than later and our Kalmadi can go relax and frolic with his heist . Just as the Pawars did or the king (is that what he is) Raja did. We can't do anything other than fret about the amount of tax we paid duly by 31st July as honorable citizens

Cute short stories

Fear

There was a lion who feared nothing except the crowing of cocks. A chill would go down his spine whenever he heard a cock crowing. One day he confessed his fear to the elephant, who was greatly amused. “How can the crowing of a cock hurt you?” he asked the lion. “Think about it!” Just then a mosquito began circling the elephant’s head, frightening him out of his wits. “If it gets into my ear I’m doomed!” he shrieked, flailing at the insect with his trunk. Now it was the lion’s turn to feel amused. Moral: If we could see our fears as others see them we would realise that most of our fears make no sense!

Nice short stories from the net

Growing Good Corn

There was a Nebraska farmer who grew award-winning corn. Each year he entered his corn in the state fair where it won a blue ribbon...

One year a newspaper reporter interviewed him and learned something interesting about how he grew it. The reporter discovered that the farmer shared his seed corn with his neighbors.

"How can you afford to share your best seed corn with your neighbors when they are entering corn in competition with yours each year?" the reporter asked.

"Why sir," said the farmer, "didn't you know? The wind picks up pollen from the ripening corn and swirls it from field to field. If my neighbors grow inferior corn, cross-pollination will steadily degrade the quality of my corn. If I am to grow good corn, I must help my neighbors grow good corn."

He is very much aware of the connectedness of life. His corn cannot improve unless his neighbor's corn also improves.

So it is in other dimensions. Those who choose to be at peace must help their neighbors to be at peace. Those who choose to live well must help others to live well, for the value of a life is measured by the lives it touches. And those who choose to be happy must help others to find happiness for the welfare of each is bound up with the welfare of all.

The lesson for each of us is this: if we are to grow good corn, we must help our neighbors grow good corn.

This is for a lot of us

Where are we heading ?

The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings, but shorter tempers; wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints; we spend more, but have less; we buy more but enjoy it less.

We have bigger houses and smaller families; more conveniences, but less time; we have more degrees, but less sense; more knowledge, but less judgement; more experts, but more problems; more medicine, but less wellness.

We drink too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry too quickly, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.

We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often. We've learned how to make a living, but not a life; We've added years to life, not life to years.

We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbor. We've conquered outer space, but not inner space; We've done larger things, but not better things.

We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul; we've split the atom, but not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less; we plan more, but accomplish less.

We've learned to rush, but not to wait; we have higher incomes, but, lower morals.

We build more computers to hold more information to produce more copies than ever, but have less communication; We've become long on quantity, but short on quality.

These are the days of two incomes, but more divorce; of fancier houses, but broken homes.

These are the days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throw away morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill. Where are we heading ....?

If we die tomorrow, the company that we are working for could easily replace us in a matter of days. But the family we left behind will feel the loss for the rest of their lives.

And come to think of it, we pour ourselves more into work than to our family -- an unwise investment indeed.

So what is the morale of the story????

Don't work too hard... and you know what's the full word of family?

FAMILY = (F)ATHER (A)ND (M)OTHER, (I) (L)OVE (Y)OU

Nice short stories from the net

Bad Temper

There once was a little boy who had a bad temper. His father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the back of the fence.

The first day, the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next few weeks, as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.

Finally the day came when the boy didn't lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper. The days passed and the boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone.

The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said, "You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. It won't matter how many times you say I'm sorry the wound is still there. A verbal wound is as bad as a physical one."

Nice little stories from the net

Sand and Stone

A story tells that two friends were walking through the desert. During some point of the journey they had an argument, and one friend slapped the other one in the face. The one who got slapped was hurt, but without saying anything, wrote in the sand: "TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SLAPPED ME IN THE FACE."

They kept on walking until they found an oasis, where they decided to take a bath. The one, who had been slapped, got stuck in the mire and started drowning, but the friend saved him. After the friend recovered from the near drowning, he wrote on a stone: "TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SAVED MY LIFE."

The friend who had slapped and saved his best friend asked him, "After I hurt you, you wrote in the sand and now, you write on a stone, why?"

The other friend replied: "When someone hurts us, we should write it down in sand where winds of forgiveness can erase it away. But, when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone where no wind can ever erase it."

LEARN TO WRITE YOUR HURTS IN THE SAND, AND TO CARVE YOUR BENEFITS IN STONE

Nice short stories from the net

Value

A well known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a $20 bill. In the room of 200, he asked, "Who would like this $20 bill?"

Hands started going up.

He said, "I am going to give this $20 to one of you but first, let me do this." He proceeded to crumple the dollar bill up.

He then asked, "Who still wants it?"

Still the hands were up in the air.

"Well," he replied, "What if I do this?" And he dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe.

He picked it up, now all crumpled and dirty. "Now who still wants it?" Still the hands went into the air.

"My friends, you have all learned a very valuable lesson. No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth $20.

Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way.

We feel as though we are worthless. But no matter what has happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value. You are special - Don't ever forget it!

NO ORIGINAL THOUGHTS NOW , SO JUST A GOOD THING THAT I READ

The Best Things in Life are Nearest

The best things in life are nearest:
Breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes,
flowers at your feet, duties at your hand,
the path is just before you.

Then do not grasp at the stars,
but do life's plain, common work as it comes,
certain that daily duties and daily bread
are the sweetest things in life.

Robert Louis Stevenson

FUNNY REQUESTS AND PRESCRIPTIONS

Due to the dearth of motivation to write as well as lack of ideas (not sure which factor is more responsible), I go back to the easier way of commenting on funny things that found my eyes or rather the things that my eyes caught. Below are some of the funny prescriptions that snatched my attention, enough to click a snap!