Monday 28 July 2008

Monday Morning Inspiration #39

For as long as I can remember, my aunt had stained glass hanging in her window. She had pieces from all over the world, each one hand crafted by a stained glass artist.

She loved them all, but there was one piece that hung in her kitchen window and she often referred to it as her "motivational stained glass". She told me that she hung this particular piece in her kitchen window where she would see it every day.

The stained glass piece, which she was referring to, was a rainbow. And on the rainbow someone had written the saying:
"Remember, to make rainbows you need sun and rain."

The motivational stained glass piece was one of the smaller pieces of her wonderful collection, and was not particularly well done. I asked her why she kept it there. She said it gave her motivation on days when life presented challenges. It reminded her that we need to have some bad times to appreciate the good times. And, on the days when life was good, it always reminded her that life doesn't get any better than this.

I was at our local farmers market and found a stained glass rainbow similar to the one my aunt had hanging in her window. The one I bought did not have the saying on it, but every time I look at it I can remember my aunts words and the saying ….

"To make rainbows you need sun and rain".
-By Catherine Pulsifer
To read other Monday morning Inspirations click here

Monday 21 July 2008

Monday Morning Inspiration # 38

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 young 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."

The little boy then understood how powerful his words were. He looked up at his father and said "I hope you can forgive me father for the holes I put in you."

"Of course I can," said the father.

To read other Monday Morning Inspirations click here.

Wednesday 16 July 2008

Back to the daily grind

Im back to my daily routine after a month of vacation. Thou' I have not really been looking forward to get back to college and move into the hostel, the move hasn't been all that bad.

Its been fun in college for the last few days, met my friends after a long holiday. This semester is one of those fun semesters I would say. As we will be having our national level tech fest sometime around next month and after that will follow our so called Industrial visit, which is more like a fun trip.. Looking forward to all of these and ofcourse its the festival time again.

On the other hand a bad news is that I met with an accident last week in my college, when a bike hit me while crossing the road. I'm perfectly fine, it wasn't a major one thou'. I'm surprised that I had jus' a few bruises after my fall as a few of my friends who were there around commented saying they thought they should take me in a strecher, looks like I fell off badly and scared them all ;)

When I had my vacations starting I had posted my to do list for the vacation, now lets see how much of it I've actually taken up.

These are the things I have planned to do in my vacation

1. Clean my room
2. Meet up with my school friends
3. Attend the Chennai bloggers meet,get to know a few fellow bloggers (I'm excited!)
4. Start with my internship
5. Learn a new language
6. Try out some new restaurants that have come up recently
7. Catch up with all the good movies thats been released and also download the list of movies which I have always wanted to see.
8. start with my travel blog and start posting regularly in my other blogs as well.
9. Finish reading the books that i shopped in the last few months
10. Shop for clothes for my next semester
11. Go for an eye check-up ( ya, I did this today)
12. Get in touch with a few of my school pals
13. Watch lots of Travel and Living
14. Plan for a short trip somewhere to close by destination with my family
15. Prepare for CAT/GMAT
16. Prepare for business quiz contests.

Not bad, guess I ve managed to complete most of them :).

My heartfelt apologies to all my readers who had been here to read my Monday morning inspiration for the week and found none. I had to move to my hostel and had no proper internet for the last few days.. I'm so sorry. Looking forward to the coming moday where I can inspire you all :)

Sunday 13 July 2008

Buying guide for Blenders

I was out with my friend when we decided to check out this new restaurant that has recently come up near our place. And yea we did have some yummy desserts there. The place is more like a cafe where you get those delicious pastries, smoothies, milkshakes.. hmm, my mouth is already watering. But, the place was a little over priced. What if we could get those smoothies and shakes at home. For that, here is your guide to select the best blenders in town. This site here offers a lot of reviews which might help you select your perfect one depending on the usage type, price, design, technical specification and all other things you might consider.

Apart from helping you find the blender for your need you will also be provided with suggestions from where you can pick your blender. Doesn't this make the process a lot simpler?? There are blenders to make smoothies, margarita, soup, crushing ice and an all purpose blender as well. So choose the one for you and treat your friends and family to some yummilicous food :)

Monday 7 July 2008

Monday morning Inspiration # 37

At a fundraising dinner for a school that serves learning-disabled children, the father of one of the students delivered a speech that would never be forgotten by all who attended. After extolling the school and its dedicated staff, he offered a question: ‘When not interfered with by outside influences, everything nature does is done with perfection. Yet my son, Shay, cannot learn things as other children do. He cannot understand things as other children do. Where is the natural order of things in my son?’

The audience was stilled by the query.

The father continued. ‘I believe that when a child like Shay, physically and mentally handicapped comes into the world, an opportunity to realize true human nature presents itself, and it comes in the way other people treat that child.’

Then he told the following story:

Shay and his father had walked past a park where some boys were playing baseball. Shay asked, ‘Do you think they’ll let me play?’ Shay’s father knew that most of the boys would not want someone like Shay on their team, but the father also understood that if his son were allowed to play, it would give him a much-needed sense of belonging and some confidence to be accepted by others in spite of his handicaps.

Shay’s father approached one of the boys on the field and asked (not expecting much) if Shay could play. The boy looked around for guidance and said, ‘We’re losing by six runs and the game is in the eighth inning. I guess he can be on our team and we’ll try to put him in to bat in the ninth inning.’

Shay struggled over to the team’s bench and, with a broad smile, put on a team shirt . His father watched with a small tear in his eye and warmth in his heart. The boys saw the father’s joy at his son being accepted. In the bottom of the eighth inning, Shay’s team scored a few runs but was still behind by three. In the top of the ninth inning, Shay put on a glove and played in the right field. Even though no hits came his way, he was obviously ecstatic just to be in the game and on the field, grinning from ear to ear as his father waved to him from the stands. In the bottom of the ninth inning, Shay’s team scored again. Now, with two outs and the bases loaded, the potential winning run was on base and Shay was scheduled to be next at bat.

At this juncture, do they let Shay bat and give away their chance to win the game? Surprisingly, Shay was given the bat. Everyone knew that a hit was all but impossible because Shay didn’t even know how to hold the bat properly, much less connect with the ball.

However, as Shay stepped up to the plate, the pitcher, recognizing that the other team was putting winning aside for this moment in Shay’s life, moved in a few steps to lob the ball in softly so Shay could at least make contact. The first pitch came and Shay swung clumsily and missed. The pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly towards Shay. As the pitch came in, Shay swung at the ball and hit a slow ground ball right back to the pitcher.

The pitcher picked up the soft grounder and could have easily thrown the ball to the first baseman. Shay would have been out and that would have been the end of the game.

Instead, the pitcher threw the ball right over the first baseman’s head, out of reach of all team mates. Everyone from the stands and both teams started yelling, ‘Shay, run to first! Run to first!’ Never in his life had Shay ever run that far, but he made it to first base. He scampered down the baseline, wide-eyed and startled.

Everyone yelled, ‘Run to second, run to second!’ Catching his breath, Shay awkwardly ran towards second, gleaming and struggling to make it to the base. By the time Shay rounded towards second base, the right fielder had the ball. He could have thrown the ball to the second-baseman for the tag, but he understood the pitcher’s intentions so he, too, intentionally threw the ball high and far over the third-baseman’s head. Shay ran toward third base deliriously as the runners ahead of him circled the bases toward home.

All were screaming, ‘Shay, Shay, Shay, all the way Shay!’

Shay reached third base because the opposing shortstop ran to help him by turning him in the direction of third base, and shouted, ‘Run to third, Shay, run to third!’

As Shay rounded third, the boys from both teams, and the spectators, were on their feet screaming, ‘Shay, run home! Run home!’ Shay ran to home, stepped on the plate, and was cheered as the hero who hit the grand slam and won the game for his team.

‘That day’, said the father softly with tears now rolling down his face, ‘the boys from both teams helped bring a piece of true love and humanity into this world’.

Young Shay would never forget what it felt like to be a hero that day.

Neither would the other boys.

"The decency of any society can be measured by how it treats its most vulnerable citizens."

To read other Monday morning Inspirations click here.

Saturday 5 July 2008

A little more about me :)

After a long time I'm doing a tag here, this one I flicked it from Anoop's blog .

The rules are:
1. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
2. Using only the first page of results, and pick one image.
3. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into Big Huge Lab’s Mosaic Maker to create a mosaic of the picture answers.


The questions:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food? right now?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. What is your favorite drink?
7. What is your dream vacation?
8. What is your favorite dessert?
9. What do you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. What is one word that describes you?
12. What is your user name?


I would like to tag Navin, Shanthini Akka, Vasanthan, Krithika, Melanie, Lena, Drama Diva, Preeti lata and all others who would like to take up this tag. Drop in a comment so that I could visit your blogs.


P.S. : I'm off to my native place for the weekend , will be back on tuesday. I'm planning to carry my laptop with me but I'm not too sure if my data card would work there. But, my posts will be coming as usual as I've scheduled them all :). I will be back with a lot of stories to share and I also intend collecting some info. about my native place and its neighbouring towns so that I can share it with you all in my travelogue.

Friday 4 July 2008

Book Review - Go Kiss the world

"Go Kiss the World" is a book by Subroto Bagchi, co-founder of Mindtree . It was released on 17th June '08. His speech to the class of 2006 at IIM Bangalore where he spoke about this guiding principles of life had given him the idea to share it with with a much larger audience through this book. "Go Kiss the World" talks about Bagchi's journey of life starting from his modest childhood days to the successful leader as the world sees his today. Bagchi says" This book is not an autobiography, but my learnings and experiences in life .Thay are like a plain canvas ,it is the what you gain from the book and use them in life whenever necessary is the painting you make on the canvas"



It is a very interesting and an inspiring read. It is one of those books which you can never keep aside until you've completley read it. The book is aimed at young professionals from small-town India, but I would recommend this book to everyone in all age groups. Especially to those considering Entrepreneurship as their career option. the book is divided into three parts.

The first one talks about his early childhood days , the second part about his beginning phase of his career and the last one about his association with Wipro , the birth of Mindtree and his latest designation "The Gardener". It shows how from modest beginnings he has gone to co-found one of India's most admired software services company. All three parts are equally interesting, but I personally like the first and the third part better.

"Go Kiss the World" is Subroto Bagchi's blind mother's last words to him, which turned on to become his life's guiding principle.

Subroto Bagchi is also the author of "The High performance Entrepreneur", I haven't read the book as yet. If you've given it a read, I would like to hear your views about it.

P.S. I have started my Singapore series "Tales from Singapore", your virtual visa to the lion city at Shalini's travelogue. Have a look at it and let me know your views :)

A self help blog

We would have come across numerous books that talks on how to improve ones self and may contain lots of stories that might actually make people realise its moral, just like the Monday morning Inspirations in my blog during the start of every week. Self growth your way is a blog about self improvement. The blogger gives useful tips on self improvement and has a collection of resources, links and tips for personal growth of body, mind and soul. The blogger has been in the blogsville for over a year . The latest post on the blog is about the hazardous effects caused by junk foods like fizz drinks, potato chips etc. which cause obesity in people and more so in children who are exposed to these zero calore food very early in their life. The problems caused and how they can be avoided. It would be a very interesting and useful read to most of us here. Check out the blog and get benifited.

Wednesday 2 July 2008

Wordless Wednesday # 10







These are a few pics of my University (SRM University)

Weight master

Weight master is a blog written by a person from Georgia who talks about the various natural remedies as well as exercises for weight-loss. With the world turning towards junk food and with every other person you come across suffering from some sickness. This blog here will certainly help you stay healthy with the tips that it has to offer regarding one's eating habit, weight management, exercising and lots more. You can also browse this blog to find out some natural healthy food like green tea, organic food and the benifits one could gain from them . This blog has been around in the blogsville for more than a year and half and has more information than you could ask for on how to stay fit and fine. Give it a read and stay healthy :)