Dreams from the Lincon memorial to the walls of the White House - Barack Hussein Obama

The President elect Barack Hussein Obama has been sweared in as the 44th President of United States of America. Dreams from the Lincon Memorial that has finally reached the walls of the White House.. A truly historic moment :)

Monday morning inspiration # 58

Years ago, a farmer owned land along the Atlantic seacoast. He constantly advertised for hired hands. Most people were reluctant. They dreaded the awful storms that raged across the Atlantic, wreaking havoc on the buildings and crops. As the farmer interviewed applicants for the job, he received A steady stream of refusals.

Finally, a short, thin man, well past middle age, approached the farmer. "Are you a good farm hand?" the farmer asked him.
"Well, I can sleep when the wind blows," answered the little man.

Although puzzled by this answer, the farmer, desperate for help, Hired him. The little man worked well around the farm and the farmer felt satisfied with the man's work. Then one night the wind howled loudly in from offshore. Jumping out of bed, the farmer grabbed a lantern and rushed next door to the hired hand's sleeping quarters. He shook the little man and yelled, "Get up! A storm is coming! Tie things down before they blow away!"

The little man rolled over in bed and said firmly, "No sir. I told you, I can sleep when the wind blows."

Enraged by the response, the farmer was tempted to fire him on the spot. Instead, he hurried outside to prepare for the storm.
To his amazement, he discovered that all of the haystacks had been covered with tarpaulins. The cows were in the barn, the chickens were in the coops, and the doors were barred. The shutters were tightly secured. Everything was tied down.

Nothing could blow away. The farmer then understood what his hired hand meant, so he returned to his bed to also sleep while the wind blew.

Moral of this Story

When you're prepared, spiritually, mentally, and physically, you have nothing to fear. Can you sleep when the wind blows through your life?

To read other Monday Morning Inspirations click here.

Past perfect = present continuous

Looks like the past plays a considerable amount in the future too. It was as a shock to me while I was reading Economic Times a couple of days back. The secondary and higher secondary marks play a considerable role in gaining admission into the top IIMs.

Even for students who had a score 99.46 percentile didn't get a call from the top IIMs whereas one who had obtained 99.28 managed to get a call from all top IIMs including IIM A coz the laters secondary and higher secondary marks were better than the previous persons..

If the past isn't perfect does it really have to affect the present continuous?

Many Happy returns..

May this season of harvest bring in a lot of prosperity and goodness into all our lives :)

Yen Inniya pongal Nalvazthukal and Happy Shankranthi :)

Saarang is back and bigger...

It is that time of the year when all that you hear from the college going crowd of South India(majorly) and the other parts of India as well is band practices, dance practice, competitions, particpation ... Yup, its the galla time of Saarang, the yearly cutlural fest. of IIT, Madras.

From the time it has been called Mardi gras Saarang has carved a niche for itself and it has only gotten better from there on and this time being its 50th year, what more could you ask for.

They have listed out a whole range of competitions in their site, there is something for everyone and I'm already planning to take part in a handful of competitions this time over. Before I forget to mention Saarang nights have always drawn huge crowds, I believe its gonna be the same way this time too with Opeth playing on 25th Jan (The first time ever in India @ IIT, Madras) and the other might events include the sonu Nigam night on23rd Jan , Classical night on he 21st and ofcourse the ever popular Choreo night.

What are you planning to do at Saarang this time?

Monday morning Inspiration # 57

Feels good to be back to the blogging spirit after a week long of cold and cough. Thank you all for your concern. I'm doing great right now. I'm sorry for the delay of my MMI post , jus' thought it is better to be late than never.

Here it goes...
One windy spring day, I observed young people having fun using the wind to fly their kites. Multicolored creations of varying shapes and sizes filled the skies like beautiful birds darting and dancing in the heady atmosphere above the earth. As the strong winds gusted against the kites, a string kept them in check.

Instead of blowing away with the wind, they arose against it to achieve great heights. They shook and pulled, but the restraining string and the cumbersome tail kept them in tow, facing upward and against the wind. As the kites struggled and trembled against the string, they seemed to say, "Let me go! Let me go! I want to be free!" They soared beautifully even as they fought the imposed restriction of the string. Finally, one of the kites succeeded in breaking loose. "Free at last" it seemed to say. "Free to fly with the wind."

Yet freedom from restraint simply put it at the mercy of an unsympathetic breeze. It fluttered ungracefully to the ground and landed in a tangled mass of weeds and string against a dead bush. "Free at last" free to lie powerless in the dirt, to be blown helplessly along the ground, and to lodge lifeless against the first obstruction.

How much like kites we sometimes are. We face adversity and restrictions, rules to follow from which we can grow and gain strength. Restraint is a necessary counterpart to the winds of opposition. Some of us tug at the rules so hard that we never soar to reach the heights we might have obtained. We keep part of the commandment and never rise high enough to get our tails off the ground.

Let us each rise to the great heights, recognizing that some of the restraints that we may chafe under are actually the steadying force that helps us ascend and achieve.

To read other Monday Morning Inspiration click here.

I'm back home

Hey all , I'm finally back home after my Jaipur trip. We had some wonderful family time together about which I will shortly post in my travelogue. We were very skeptical if we should take this trip or not as we had started planning for this one even before the Mumbai terror attacks which was later on followed by the tension in the Indo-pak border.. Finally we made it, neverthless it was so much fun :) . Except that the weather was too too cold and it kinda got into me and now I'm down with some serious cold. I should be doin' fine in a couple of days. Will catch up with my blogging spree from Monday.. Have a great weekend, will drop by your blogs soon :)

I'm off to Jaipur...

Hey folks I will be leaving to Jaipur for about 5 days to visit the land of the royal Maharajas , splurge in luxury and enjoy their deleicious cuisine and ofcourse visit forts and palaces... I will also be visiting Ranthambore national park near Jaipur.

If you think there are any must visit places and must do things that I should not miss out on, I would be glad to experience it. Please drop by a comment .

I might not be around to drop by your blogs until then, might probably visit to check for the places to see from fellow blog friends. Until then, you take care.. Enjoy the first weekend of 2009 and a lovely week ahead . See ya all :)

Funny Friday # 3

A college student writes to his parents...'Dear Mom and Dad,'I feel miserable because I have to keep writing for money. I feel ashamed and unhappy. I have to ask for another hundred, but every cell in my body rebels. I beg on bended knee that you forgive me.'Your son,Marvin.'P.S. I felt so terrible, I ran after the mailman who picked this up in the box at the corner. I wanted to take this letter and burn it. I prayed that I could get it back. But it was too late.

'A few days later he received a letter from his father. It said,'Your prayers were answered. Your letter never arrived!'

My random places to see before I die

Wonder why i've been doing a lot of thinking about travel and new destinations , may be it's the hangover after reading a lot of travelogues and watching travel channel for hours together or may be jus' due to the excitement of my upcoming Jaipur trip :)

At Random Thoughts I've planned to come up with my random lists for various things - 2009 special ;)

First here is my list of random places too see

Jamshedpur
California
Los Angeles
Las Vegas
New York City
(The whole of USA)
Mumbai
Goa
Coorg
Jaipur ( will soon be striked off the list)
Chandigarh
Rio de Janerio
Spain
Singapore
Thailand
UK
Salzburg
Swizz
Canada
Maldives
Ibiza
Gran Canaria
Dubai
Coorg
Kumarakom
Munnar
Turkey
Disney Land
Delhi
Taj Mahal
Paris
Egypt
Venice
Shimla

I'm sure there will be a lot more places that will add to the list in coming times :). The striked ones are those that I've already been to.
What is your list of must visit places??